bright clothes for winter

BOOK. POETRY BOOK. IT IS TIME FOR BOOK.

tagged by @brightclothesforwinter to share the last line i wrote and hey, why not. no one ever reads my shit except og writing group and work writing group - i mean i don't post fic any more because i don't know if anyone's still around who would read it - anyway the last line i wrote was "oh shut up" and i can't post three words for a writing meme. so:

“Can I kill something? It’s been so long! I just want to kill something big and mean and ugly.” “We could go find Sevine’s ex.” “Oh shut up.”

Probably started by bringing her injured animals to doctor on as a kid. Later on, not necessarily a lot later, he started dragging in bullied disciples to patch up and hide from Wen Xu or somebody, and then probably he'd just kind of...fold a lot of them into his canonical personal retinue of loyal subordinates, however that worked exactly.

Wet kitten Wen Ning constantly dragging smaller wetter kittens back to his big sister to protect. She has tried all the arguments already. She knows there's no budging him.

Also lmaoooo hang on, Wen Ning had Wen Qing outnumbered a lot of the time, didn't he. She didn't have personal minions she could trust like that. These people just extracted a high-status prisoner from the custody of an erratic and violent superior pursuing a personal grudge without blinking, for their Wen-gongzi.

and i was like hmmn what did i say??

#they were supposed to watch his back! #and keep him busy! #and take a sword for him if the opportunity arose probably; wen ning wouldn't want that but wen qing would

#these unnamed subordinates with no lines are rapidly becoming my favorite mdzs supporting cast #like what did they think about the plot #wen ning got pressganged by jin zixun in the company of his subordinates #so some of them probably lasted all the way to the Siege

#there might have been a guy who personally carried jiang cheng out of the charnel house of lotus pier #or retrieved his parents' bodies from the corpse heap #and roughly four to ten years later#watched jiang cheng come to kill him #and had his corpse dumped in the blood pool #and knew for a fact that jiang wanyin did not even know he existed and wouldn't care if he did

#it all goes in circles and some of us get ground up in the gears

Wen Sect Leader Wen Ning lives rent free in my mind. Saves everyone from Wen Ruohan. Frees Wen Qing up to do her medical research to her little mad scientist heart's content. Makes Wen Yuan his heir. Depending on where it falls in the timeline, he can two-birds-one-stone reconciliation with the Jiang sect and getting rid of his own rivals by handing the likes of Wen Chao to them, or just prevent a bunch of tragedies altogether. Time traveling fix-it fic Wen Ning going hmm I wonder if I still have some corpse powers and then punching through his uncle's ribcage to test it.

like. you could not tell he was the kind of guy who would quietly and unapologetically rescue his sect's enemies out of moral conviction, but he was. people contain multitudes. so same way, in this scenario the political world is rocked by this mediocre, sweet-tempered, unassuming teenage Wen cousin purging the upper ranks of his family and usurping the sect by force.

Wen Qing's reputation before the war (at least the part Wei Wuxian bothered to recall) notably consisted of one part 'medical genius' and one part 'only normal person in the Wen leadership.' Wen Ning turning out to be the most insane murderer in his family would be accepted as narratively coherent, despite being a shocking twist.

bets would be on about whether he and Wen Qing would go on to kill each other off. i feel like they'd lose a lot of vassal sects and guest disciples on account of the sect doesn't seem as stable or powerful suddenly.

diplomatic relations would not normalize for a while, unless he managed to do this during the war so all the other sects felt it was a favor to them, because killing family members for power tends to be frowned upon. nie mingjue in particular i think would be of the opinion that Sect Leader Wen Qionglin was a mad dog.

it's still actually perfectly fine to do it

and you shouldn't stop yourself from starting just because it won't be a permanent change.

Like if starting a new daily planner gives you an amazing afternoon of planning and four days where you feel in charge of your life,

why not do it?

It doesn't matter that it won't be a permanent change - 4 good days is still worth it.

If you ever catch yourself thinking, "I wish I could pray/stretch/prep/plan/do the thing, but I always get started on that and it never lasts more than a couple of days,"

what this really means is, "hey, I can feel better for a couple of days."

if this post is making you think of things in your own life that you wish you could stick to because of how good they make you feel,

just be aware:

you're not thinking of a list of ways you've failed to commit

@brightclothesforwinter tagged me to share the last line I wrote; which, since i don't want to divulge the contents of the Shit Tier Draft of a thing, is:

Frost would have been too warm a word for the reception the Baptist minister's wife received from the Anglican widow.

“Promised he wouldn’t get a moped. Apparently it’s a… well I don’t know what make and model he said, but try to imagine the scorn with which he informed me that 'it is not a moped'.” She put her head in her hands “He's only sixteen.” “I know.”

The awning in front is two cotton throw blankets, sewn together by hand with an overlap of about 2", so there's a channel in the center that the guyline from the tent door can run through. I did replace the original guyline here with one that's roughly 8 ft longer, to accommodate the awning. I sewed eyelets into the corners of the blankets, and added tassels for fun. The center post for the awning is just a 2x2 furring strip, painted with random extra house paint and paint markers. It's 6'6" tall, and there's a groove in the top to keep the rope in place. The awning is not enough to totally block rain--I really just wanted a sunshade--but it does decrease amount of rain coming through. It does actually need two more posts on the front corners to make the space inside tall enough to stand, which I just did with sticks the next time I set this up.

An updated list by someone who clearly isn’t paying attention. Previous realizations include: 

Karl and Keith Urban (Karl Urban looks like he could sing country)

Jimmy and Warren Buffet (I just assumed Margaritaville did really well)

Weses Craven and Anderson (what a range on that guy!)

Today I discovered: 

Kates Winslet and Hudson (Listening to a Kate Hudson interview today I asked myself, “Isn’t she English?” and had to google her)

And one that I’ve never experienced but I know others have: 

So the good news is I should, eventually, carpentry skills permitting, be able to fit another twenty metres of books, properly shelved, into my living room.

Bad news is I have THIRTY metres of books that still need to be shelved.

I did think it was a little cluttered with stacks of books around here. I did notice that a few of the stacks seemed to be taller than me.

My flat mysteriously got very small last year when Jeff moved house and I had to bring all my clutter back here so he could pack his stuff.

So the good news is I should, eventually, carpentry skills permitting, be able to fit another twenty metres of books, properly shelved, into my living room.

Bad news is I have THIRTY metres of books that still need to be shelved.

I did think it was a little cluttered with stacks of books around here. I did notice that a few of the stacks seemed to be taller than me.

me: my dude we just woke up!! It’s time for wakefulness and doing things and Productivity

I suppose it might well be partly generational - there are definitely a lot more digital clocks around the average household than when we were kids. (The only thing I can think of which might've had a digital clock is the video recorder...)

Each of the lyrics comes from an old-time hickory song for fiddles, and is a lyric from that corresponding song.

"Fire on the Mountain" --> "Fire on the Mountain, run boys run"

Fire On The Mountain - Fiddle Player POV

"The House of the Rising Sun" --> "The Devil's in the house of the rising sun"

House of the Rising Sun

"Ida Red" --> "Chicken in the bread pan peckin' out dough"

Ida Red - Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys

"Granny Will Your Dog Bite" --> "Granny does your dog bite? 'No child, no'."

FTC #149 Granny Will Your Dog Bite

And for your furthered education, The Mountain Whipporwill.

in a time before things like radios and record players, every time you heard music was because there was somebody in the room with you playing an instrument. and many, many, many social events involved dancing, which requires music. so, if you're planning any kind of gathering in the american south or appalachia, you need to find a fiddler. and the fiddler's job is to play music that everybody knows and likes and can dance to.

the mistake The Devil makes in his bet with Johnny is that he misinterprets the contest as being about technical ability, so he has this big flashy song. he plays fast and impressively with a band of demons playing unfamiliar instruments in unfamiliar rhythms. he's definitely more skilled at playing than Johnny, and thinks he has it in the bag.