In Our Bedroom After the War

Helena Lyndon (she/her)

Half-jaded quant in her gap year writing about Death Note Mello, Near, Halle Lidner and everything Wammy's. M/N/H are my writing muses ❤️, and I primarily ship Meronia & Mello/Halle.

This blog is half DN and half literary. I am very much in love with the craft of writing itself. Excerpts from books I'm reading live here too.

LANG: EN, CN, Kindergarten-Deutsch

"Hier stehe ich, ich kann nicht anders."

Has to be my favorite outfit of his.

Prose style experiment

After immersing myself in Josephine Hart's Damage (1991), I wrote a different version of this fanfic's opening. 🤔

V1 - Original. More old-school and Latinate. My default mode.

Before she was old enough to reach the dinner table, Takada Kiyomi already knew she was waiting for something. She could not have said what or when, except that it would eventually arrive, and it was going to be extraordinary.

This secret premonition Kiyomi had never confessed to anyone, although at times she came quite close to it. On those distant Tokyo summer evenings, her parents ate discount watermelon in front of the television, laughing at nothing in particular, red juice running down her father's wrist and dripping off his elbow onto the tatami. Through all of it, little Kiyomi sat very straight. Her own slice lay on the plate, untouched; along the rim the watermelon seeds were arranged in a neat row. Those words were just at her lips, but then she swallowed, not wanting to embarrass herself or her parents.

V2 - More contemporary and crisp. My (very poor) imitation of Hart.

It started before she was old enough to reach the dinner table. Takada Kiyomi could not have said what or when, but she knew something was to come eventually. And it was going to be extraordinary.

This premonition was strange, and she had never confessed to anybody. Not even her parents. Especially not her parents, who on those distant Tokyo summer evenings ate discount watermelon in front of the television, laughing at nothing in particular. Red juice ran down her father’s wrist, then dripped off his elbow onto the tatami. On those evenings little Kiyomi had sat very straight. Her own slice lay on the table, untouched; the watermelon seeds were a neat row along the plate rim. She could not have possibly confessed. No, she would not embarrass herself or her parents.

My thoughts:

V1 reads as a retrospective narrator — with enough distance to be ironic, but too much affection to be cruel. The prose is composed and withholding. (So is Takada)

V2 reads more young and modern, and has more of a genre fiction feel. It moves faster, but does not exactly match my characterization of Takada. The prose also makes Takada come off as more anxious than contained. The narrative distance too has significantly collapsed.

— julie (@ilawlieti) June 21, 2026

Baby Near and Mello! I did it! I still remember how to draw!!! *happy tears* 😭

It was a very quick 10-min thing. I still suck at profiles tho. The texture of leather is quite hard to reproduce with just a mechanical pencil so I opted for a simpler outfit for M: the one he wore while running away from Wammy's.

好开心我还记得...手一直没有忘记。

Matt Damon is pulling back the curtain on what he says is one of the biggest ways streaming has reshaped filmmaking, and it has less to do with cameras or budgets than it does with audience attention spans. According to Damon, the big difference is how people watch movies at home versus in theaters, and Netflix knows it. He explained that a movie theater forces audiences into a focused experience, while watching at home typically comes with distractions, including multitasking and scrolling. That shift, Damon said, has put pressure on streamers to hook audiences immediately and repeatedly remind them what's happening.

...on streaming, Damon said the priorities change fast.

"And now they're like, 'Can we get a big one in the first five minutes? We want people to stay,'" he continued. "And it wouldn't be terrible if you reiterated the plot three or four times in the dialogue because people are on their phones while they're watching.'" ...Damon's comments highlight what many filmmakers have quietly complained about for years: that streaming platforms increasingly lean into retention-based storytelling, prioritizing quick engagement over slow builds and more patient narrative structure.

(source)

The root canals. The cavities. The extractions. The whole wisdom of it. One could chronicle his entire life from the dental perspective — I mean, the body keeps the score!

Okay, maybe my yume fantasy is to be his dentist. I don't want a date. I want regularly scheduled dental appointments where he is tied to an armchair while I take my time probing his gum.

Helena: Say ah.

M: AHHHHHHHH

Helena: How often do you floss?

M: ...as much as I realistically can. I am a fugitive.

Helena: Ok, it's time for Netflix and drill.

M grips the armrest.

Helena: Something wrong, Sir?

M: You did not mention the drill.

Helena: You did not ask. Now get ready. It's my favorite toy.

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT.

last song: The Cure - Disintegration

currently watching: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979)

current obsession: Mello, Near, Women of DN project, and writing good parataxis sentences

currently reading: Damage by Josephine Hart. The conventional wiriting wisdom says "show don't tell" but Ms Hart told very well.

currently working on: Too many projects. I need to retrain for my 10K too. First half of 2026 was rough 🤒

currently wearing: White pajamas a la Nate River

last google search: Do not remember....

favorite flower: Tuberose and rose ❤️

I myself am also quite new to DN fandom on Tumblr so am always happy to talk to folks here. 🐼

@mellophiliac @neallo @dolce-farn1ente

*polite panda bow*