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Read my thoughts on previous parts of the book.
Warnings for this section:
- Claudine: Manipulation.
- Aftermath: Depression, loss of a loved one, mental illness (general).
- Whispers of Autumn: Loss of a loved one.
- Lost and Found: Loss of a loved one, medication use, mental illness (general).
Beware of spoilers, all who enter here!
Livor Mortis (Loss).
Pixxy: Oh wow, there’s only four poems in this section.
Dancer: We should be able to breeze right through it then.
Pixxy: Let’s go! Let’s go on an adventure!
Claudine.
Cheung: bone-white moon.
Shadow: I like the creepy vibes already~.
Cheung: You surrendered into freefall and unfurled,
a black-winged star as you raged upwards.
(HFE looks at Icy Eyes, then Shadow).
Cheung: I was poisoned then, when your mouth curled in mine.
Rust-scented love promises petalled red on our tongues.
Shadow: What a wonderful way to describe bleeding!
Dancer: That wasn’t in the official content warnings for this section. Should we patch it in?
[HFE double-checks, and sure, it’s not in the official version. Sometimes, the mind, through no one’s fault, misremembers or misreads things].
HFE: Nah. If they got through part one, they’ll probably be fine.
Shadow: And it might not actually be bleeding. That’s just the first thing that came to mind.
Dancer: It seems pretty clearly to be describing bleeding though.
Pixxy: It could also just be a really fun kiss. And lipstick!
Shadow: It probably is bleeding, given the genre we’re reading, but it’s good to cover all our bases.
HFE: Some people use content warnings to avoid marginalized creators, so I wouldn’t get too hung up on it. Especially if we’re reading horror literature. We go in expecting horrible things.
Icy Eyes: Perhaps we could take a page from AO3’s book? If it has rape, underage sexual activity, death, extreme violence, suicide, or self-harm; make a note of it.
HFE: Wouldn’t suicide be covered under death?
Icy Eyes: Dying of despair is very different from dying of old age.
HFE: True. …Does anyone remember why I wrote these numbers in the notes?
Aftermath.
HFE: This is another poem y’all should buy the book for―in order to see the spacing and layout for yourselves.
Chueng: each breath sketching
the ghost of you
Shroud: Did anyone say “ghost”~?
Chueng: raw in the dark
I shivered
Shiver: Did someone say “shiver”!?
HFE: Hello, ‘sonas, I’ll play with you in Star Wars.
Shiver: Sweet!
Shroud: Don’t worry about it. We can wait. Have fun with the Elves.
Shimmer: I hear me, Shiver, and Shadow are gonna be jetpack troopers!
Shiver: Wait, what?
Shimmer: Yeah! Let’s get flying, Shiver! There’s nothing to it. And for the record, Magna Mater didn’t create angels, she created Gratitians! We were inspired by the Celestrians from Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies. You can have up to a party of four in that game. Maybe the Soda Pop Squad could take a crack at it―with Piko commentating.
HFE: That’s a great idea, Shimmer, thank you.
Shimmer: You’re welcome. Shiver, get back here! We’re going to be jetpack troopers whether you like it or not!
Kenken: You have a bunch of pages to make for toyhouse just for Lord of the Fairy Rings, never mind whatever you end up calling your Star Wars story.
Dancer: Would anyone like to discuss the poem passage? Anna Cheung worked hard on it, and I will not have it sidelined by plans that ought to remain mysterious.
Shadow: But some people like weather reports.
Dancer: That’s true, but at the―respectable―rate we’re going, it will be a year before we can even think of putting pen to paper about stellar warfare, never mind celestial gaming. You haven’t even finished Let’s Go Mírieliel. Not you have to complete it before playing another game, I suppose…
Cheung: I saw you
drifting
there
above my bed
smiling
as you reached into my chest
my charred heart palmed
in your hand
warm and beating.
Dancer: I like the winding path our eyes went on for this passage.
Pixxy: What’s it shaped like?
Dancer: A bit like like a camel if you set it on its side.
HFE: We started in the center of the page, then went to the right, did a sharp zip back to the left, took a gradual path to the right, back to the left, then finished on the right.
Pixxy: Ooh~.
Whispers of Autumn.
Cheung: Sunlight slotted between the trees.
HFE: Makes me think of curtain blinds.
Cheung: The dappled light showered amber,
ochre and gold over the woodland,
enriching the silent footpath ahead.
(HFE begins thinking once again about Mirkwood).
Cheung: A gust swept and twirled dead leaves
to dance amongst the gravestones.
(HFE thinks about the doomed second queen of Mirkwood).
Shadow: Why don’t we just declare everything before TA 2509 a fixed point? You may love Legolas, but you’re ultimately more loyal to Lady Galadriel. And yes, everyone in Reality may love her, but in the context of her story, she’s treated like every woman who accomplishes things: hated by the gods and feared by men.
Shimmer: Pretty much every picture you ever drew of you and Prince Aralas has you telling him to back off.
Shroud: And as you’ve discovered, he’s a puppy lover. An only child, aristocrat puppy lover at that. Neither of those demographics is particularly good at sharing. Plus, you need space to run around and play. Lothlórien’s got it all: wise rulers, non-toxic outdoors. Just take it one step at a time. Rescue Lady Celebrían, escort her to her parents, and voila! A home base for you and your fairies. Figure out the rest later.
Pixxy: In most Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games, you can do as many missions as there are floors in a dungeon, but you can only go to one dungeon per day. Redhorn Pass is the dungeon we’re going to that day.
Shimmer: The Fellowship got through there and to Lothlórien in the same day. You can do it too.
Shroud: See? It’ll be just like a rescue mission! You’ve done thousands of those. Piece of cake.
HFE: A Balrog is just a Moltres with extra steps. I’ve fought plenty of those.
Cheung: …roofed with crows.
Icy Eyes: roll-less loser loons.
Cheung: I heard whispers curl over whispers
over the graves in the churchyard,
each syllable unfurling like a leaf.
HFE: Leaves are pretty fragile. Did Tolkien think about that as he was naming his Elven prince? And the hero of Gondolin?
Pixxy: Yep, y’all heard that right. There’s two Legolases in that world, that’s how great at coming up with names Tolkien was.
HFE shrugs: Well, like creator, like Elves, I guess.
Shroud: It is pretty funny though how Tolkien complained about people making Legolas a pretty boy when 1) he never bothered to give that boy physical description until people came up with their own and 2) his name contains one of the most delicate things in all of nature. Leaves aren’t famous for being able to defend themselves, or being good archers, or their knowledge of sun color omens, or princely-ness, or anything that Legolas actually is.
HFE: Clearly, Legolas is his father-name… Do you think his mom gave him a mother-name when he got to Aman?
Shroud: All our research indicates that they were done with that tradition by the Third Age. Possibly by the Second Age, if Lady Celebrían’s lack of multiple names is any indication.
Pixxy: Yeah, but as we’ve discovered, Tolkien had to pull his teeth out just to give women one name, so I wouldn’t bet on that. Her father’s name means “silver-tree”, so maybe he named her Celeblas: “silver-leaf”. Lady Galadriel, observing her queenly qualities, named her “silver-queen”.
Icy Eyes: “Silver”, of course, refers to her hair color.
Pixxy: So what do you suppose her marriage name is? And what’s Lord Elrond’s marriage name?
HFE: Pixxy, those are supposed to be private!
Dancer: This is not discussing the text at hand.
Pixxy: Staying on topic? What’s that???
Lost and Found.
Cheung: Opaque alleyways roll out tongues,
devouring my footsteps whole
as I follow you into the shadows.
Shadow: That could be an interesting story: you following me into the woods.
Cheung: Your torso is shipwrecked; a ribcage
with the remains of a human heart,
a heart once familiar to me.
“HFE, thank you for creating and sharing so much art and writing for free. How can we help turn your passion and skills into a full-time gig?”
I’m glad you asked!
If you can give me a one-time tip, head over to ko-fi. I’ve also got emotes and icons you can buy.
If you can commit to a monthly tip, you can set that up via twitch or patreon. Twitch also lets you set up alternate payment schedules: every three months and every six months. Ko-fi lets you set up monthly payments now, too!
You can also buy some characters and critters I’ve designed on toyhouse.
And if you have no money to spare (understandable), one way you can help me out is by commenting and using as many share buttons as possible. Commenting gives me feedback on what works y’all are passionate about. Sharing helps expose my works to new people. The bigger my audience grows, the more audience members with money will encounter my works.
Thank you for taking time to read this. I hope you enjoy what you’ve found here.
“HFE, thank you for creating and sharing so much art and writing for free. How can we help turn your passion and skills into a full-time gig?”
I’m glad you asked!
If you can give me a one-time tip, head over to ko-fi. I’ve also got emotes and icons you can buy.
If you can commit to a monthly tip, you can set that up via twitch or patreon. Twitch also lets you set up alternate payment schedules: every three months and every six months. Ko-fi lets you set up monthly payments now, too!
You can also buy some characters and critters I’ve designed on toyhouse.
And if you have no money to spare (understandable), one way you can help me out is by commenting and using as many share buttons as possible. Commenting gives me feedback on what works y’all are passionate about. Sharing helps expose my works to new people. The bigger my audience grows, the more audience members with money will encounter my works.
Thank you for taking time to read this. I hope you enjoy what you’ve found here.
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