Nepenthe-of-the-nutcracker - Nutcracker

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Golden child, Lion boy; Tell me what it's like to conquer. Fearless child, Broken boy; Tell me what it's like to burn.

—oh darling, even Rome fell // p.s.

crowley: your majesty, there’s only so much i can do about redmont.

duncan: you said you knew what their plans were.

crowley: i know what their plans are just fine. halt’s are chaos, but with structure, and gilan’s are chaos, but with… more chaos.

duncan:

crowley: you really ought to listen to how i phrase things.

My friend recommended it to me as her favourite series after I told her I wanted to read more books with knights and the like. Read RoG and… didn’t vibe with it. Four years after that I received yet another recommendation (+ felt bad for not giving it more of a chance) so I tried again and now here we are. Whacking my high-school self with a sledgehammer for missing out on it all this time

fun fact i only got into rangers apprentice because the first like 5 books were in a free box from the library because they didn't want them for whatever reason and i took all 5 because the covers looked cool.

and some sketches

Lidia Yuknavitch, from Reading the Waves: A Memoir published in 2025

"I want to be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren."

This YouTube comment has been on my mind since I finished SOTR so this is what I came up with:

Lucy Gray was the mockingbird, living on the outskirts of district 12 and was there at the wrong time when they were forced to stay there after the Dark Days. They were subjected to the Capitol’s politics despite not being a part of Panem, technically speaking. Lucy Gray became part of the Games and, likewise, the mockingbird became affiliated with the Capitol through the jabberjay’s release into the woods, but it still continued to sing its own song.

Haymitch was the jabberjay, a Capitol tool that did what it had to in order to survive. The Capitol thought they could control them, but they retaliated in the form of rebellion. Haymitch refused to be a piece in their game and tried to end it, and the jabberjay, in the eyes of the Capitol, created a freak of nature that showed the Capitol’s lack of complete control.

Katniss was the mockingjay, a slap in the face of the Capitol, something that was never meant to exist. Together, the song of the mockingbird that lived on for generations and the stubbornness of the jabberjay that refused to die, the mockingjay had the best of both worlds. It was a symbol of rebellion and unity.

"i don't comment on ao3 because i don't wanna be annoying or weird" skill issue + you greatly underestimate the power dynamic here, writing multi paragraph comments is like feeding a bunch of deeply insane and possibly starved ducks at the park and watch them go completely mad over having received a piece of bread

Having just finished KoC, I didn’t expect Halt to take the throne, and I would’ve disliked the outcome had he. But. I absolutely need fanfic of King Halt, had things had gone differently. Call it morbid curiosity.