cactus ⇢ something you’re currently learning (about)?

I'm learning French! All over again. I am haunted by the Duolingo owl and its reminder to keep my streak up and have so far done pretty well for someone who usually absolutely sucks at remembering to do things on a daily basis!

abelia ⇢ do you have a particular piece of jewelry you always wear or can’t part with?

I answered this here, but basically: I do not! I'm not much of a jewelry wearer, in truth. I tend to fidget, and in fidgeting, break things. I do wear jewelry often though, mostly when I need to look professional or if I'm going to an event — my mother's costume jewelry from India is... not an everyday thing though, for sure.

daffodil ⇢ do you have siblings? if yes, in what ways do you think you’re similar to or different from them?

I have a younger brother! He's the smarter one, the much more put-together one, and the definitely way better at his job one. He's in college now, about to graduate, and having all manner of adventures I was too scared to have at his age.

sage ⇢ what ‘medium’ of art (poetry, music, fiction, paintings, statues etc.) is the most touching to you? why do you think that is?

Music really gets to me. I grew up really immersed in religion and so many of our prayers are "sung" rather than said aloud, and so the way I learned the history of my faith is through music. I find myself closest to the Divine when I am listening to music, and growing up as part of an Abrahamic faith, I do resonate with Christian allegory because those are stories I remember being sung during majlis too. Every prayer I remember is because it was sung to me when I was learning it, and to this day, I keep those same tunes.

edelweiss ⇢ how’d you think of your url/username? what’s it associated with to you?

Puns. Oh lord, so many puns. My username was something handed to me, after I made so many puns I earned the name Puntessa (Pun + Contessa) and then the name Punemy (Pun + Enemy) as well as numerous jokes about them spotting me the moment they saw [Puntessa is typing...] on Discord.

jasmine ⇢ do you have a movie or book you loved but will never watch/read again?

There's this Bollywood film, Bajirao Mastani, that I absolutely adored. It was cinematic and beautiful, the costume and set design were sublime, the story was heartbreaking, the music still resonates with me... and then the ending happened and it was just so absolutely poorly done that I can never watch it again because I'm convinced the ending was when they ran out of money and just gave up. Awful awful awful CGI.

palm tree ⇢ do you have a fictional villain you shouldn’t like but love regardless?

I mean like... all of them? Listen. As a Captain America fan, as someone who considers Steve Rogers to be their comfort character, the fact that I am head over heels in love with Helmut Zemo is an actual problem and I should probably feel guilty but I don't. I'm gonna just... make it work, one day.

nutmeg ⇢ how’s your room/home decorated? do you have a specific theme or style going on?

Chaotically. I have books everywhere. Laundry that still needs folding. None of the posters I bought to put up in my room are actually put up. It feels a bit like a dorm room that I keep telling myself I'll decorate one day, but am often too busy/too tired to actually decorate. Maybe if I settle somewhere more permanent I'll hire someone to decorate my house in the dark mushroomcore aesthetic I desire.

papyrus ⇢ if you put your ‘on repeat’ playlist on shuffle, what’s the first song that comes up? what do you like about it / associate it with?

The first song that came up was Lay this Body Down by Sam Lee and I've had that one on repeat for days working on Sixteen Tons so I associate it with that fic, with exhaustion and giving just a bit too much of the self, with that nasty habit of people-pleasing that so many are afflicted with these days, and with becoming the monsters our parents make of us, baring our throats to the sky as we cry out for something more than the inevitable.

You know. Healthy thoughts.