Reviewer: RogueSlytherin Signed
Date: 11 Apr 2024 · Title: Chapter 2: in the heat of your electric touch

I really, really love this friend group. You make writing big groups of people seem so easy. Their banter and arguing is peak friendship. I'm also here for another wonderful TSweezy reference - those new vault tracks are SO GOOD :D New album is out soon and gonna ruin all my writing plans when I fall in love with a new song lol

Back to this chapter though. Like I mentioned, you've done a great job bringing in so many characters around Emma and Murphy in this chapter, building their world out more. I really like how you're able to bring a ton of lore and history with these guys without having to dump it all into exposition dumps, it's just sprinkled in as they banter and argue and *cough* lust after one another. 

Speaking of which *eyes emoji* These spicey scenes are fantastic. I said it in the first chapter and it's true here too, their chemistry is just right there. Even with them trying to act like everything's just chill and only physical, the way they pull each other is great. 

Roster, Schmoster. Girl is gonna need the Hercules Greek Chorus to come in and sing 'I Won't Say I'm In Love' before the end of this story :D

 

- Jacquelin

Reviewer: RogueSlytherin Signed
Date: 11 Apr 2024 · Title: Chapter 1: call it what you want

Ahhhh. Okay the TSwift references absolutely SLAYED ME :D Fucking loved those and they were so perfect for that moment. OMG Not 'The One' on repeat. That one took me out, seriously. Ugh. 

 

I am remembering this story a little more as I read through the chapter, or maybe I read a different story from this world? What I remember is something really sad happening later when they're older and that makes me really sad reading this knowing that is what's to come :( 


I'm rambling. I ramble. Sue me. (Please don't sue me). I loved this opening chapter. There's so much heat with Emma and Murphy right off the bat. This magnetic sort of attraction that you've written so naturally between them that the story just opens and it's like yeah, obviously. And I love Emma. She's so real. So freaking relateable. And also so fucking in love with John Murphy :P

 

- Jacquelin

Reviewer: RogueSlytherin Signed
Date: 10 May 2023 · Title: Chapter 1: It wasn't a plea for more time...

This story was so beautifully tragic <3 <3 <3 This pairing makes so much sense - just a couple of oddballs finding each other in a sea of normies. I really liked your choice to swap perspectives, it pays off really well. And your use of language is so fucking pretty. The way braiding the Challah bread makes him think of her, the way she feels like a burden that he'll clean up - brush away the dog hair - once she leaves, the way he says Svetlana absorbs the sun but doesn't reflect it back <3 <3 <3 

And I have to make a special shout out for this line, "his feelings settled around him like leaves, and he often raked them up into piles and burned them when he was ready to move on." I mean can we get a slow clap going?! This is so visual and emotive and spot on. The way Charlie can't just grasp hold of anything - but I feel like he wants to. He wants to he just is so stuck in his ways and routines and whatever he feels doesn't matter as much as his routine to just rake it all up. EXCEPT HE DIDN'T SHAVE THAT DAY! He broke his routine for her! 

But he tells himself it's all ok so that he can be ok with it. She might get swept up too. Ugh. That line just stabbed my heart. I love the humanity in this story. Two broken people, leaning on eachother when they need someone, but not crossing that line that could risk everything because it's scary to do that and they're broken enough as it is. BUT YOU COULD BE SO HAPPY TOGETHER. But that's what makes it a beautiful tragedy and I, for one, am a huge fan. <3 <3 <3 Very well done!

- Jacquelin

Author's Response:

Hi there!

 

Oh, this angsty thing... yeah. Can you tell that I took antihistamines? Lol

I did want to use pretty language throughout, but also to be brutally pointed with what they were going through. I have no idea how the whole 'raking up emotions like leaves' thing came about, only that when it happened, I knew it was something to hang onto. I love self-aware characters, and I wanted Charlie to be able to see what was going on, and also to know himself enough to recognize that maybe what he wanted from Luna wasn't what was best for her. It took a while for him to articulate it, but he finally got there, through a painful, yet necessary epiphany. Sometimes it's just like that, yeah?

 

Thanks so much for reading and reviewing!

 

Pix

Reviewer: RogueSlytherin Signed
Date: 19 Feb 2023 · Title: Chapter 14: [3 27 22] The swamplands raise among the elms a nymph

A little bit of myth and fairytale action in the mix. love it. How one would ever plan to use the word lymph in a non-medical way I have no idea, but you fucking did it and you fucking nailed it. I love this image, of the nymph rising up out of the swamplands, draped in these rain-soaked trees and on her quest. Everything about this story has that slow, sappy (like sticky, not like overly romantic) quality to it, like walking through a knee deep swap that just swallows each of your steps. So lovely that you can bring that out in your rhythm and cadence as much as in your words! 

<3 Review Event <3 

Reviewer: RogueSlytherin Signed
Date: 19 Feb 2023 · Title: Chapter 13: [3 25 22] The aged humpback hosts

I mean, even if you purposely started with whale the fact that you got from there to the end is hella impressive! Oh I'm just loving these so so much. There's so much charm and wit and whimsy in them all <3 I just watched a drama where the lead is always seeing whales when she has a new idea so this really warmed my heart. They are such incredible animals aren't they? I also think of Alan Davies on QI always guessing 'blue whale' XD 

Anyways, I really love the way you always bring such a vivid picture to mind. This amazing creature of a whale, covered in barnacles, armored in them, speckled by them, something others might call useless, but to others they're a garden. <3 

<3 Review Event <3 

Reviewer: RogueSlytherin Signed
Date: 19 Feb 2023 · Title: Chapter 11: [3 20 22] Of all my suitors

Obsessed all over again. Personifying March as a suitor trying to win your heart. But he's indecisive, hot and then cold again. There's so so much to unpack here with the picture you've painted. The image of spring when the birds are chirping and bees buzzing and there's a nice breeze and new day, but it's also muggy and cold - the bud tanghulu on a skewer. The fruit of spring, but it's frozen and cold. So freaking clever. Also, isn't march just the worst? I'm not looking forward to it XD

 

<3 Review Event <3 

Reviewer: RogueSlytherin Signed
Date: 19 Feb 2023 · Title: Chapter 10: [3 16 22] The whisk clangs against the bowl

I had to look up what caret even meant because I wasn't convinced and in the end I was wrong XD So all the more impressed that you even got these words at all. Oh I love baking. There's so much fun and whimsy in it and you've captured that in this poem. The visuals of the recipe, as flat as it can after being folded and stuck between pages, stained from all the times its seen ingridients, the smudged caret (which I know what it means now), improving the recipe after having tried it so many times. 

oof this gives me so much nostalgia, like they're baking with a recipe that's been passed down to them, that's been altered and changed with generation. Oh I just love it <3 

<3 Review Event <3 

Reviewer: RogueSlytherin Signed
Date: 19 Feb 2023 · Title: Chapter 9: [3 4 22] Tough daybreak ahead

I think it's so awesome that limiting your word usage is what can break open creativity for you. I actually find that same thing with drabbles vs. novels. Something about the shortness of the piece helps me concentrate and really feel out the moment I'm trying to capture. 

And this was a brilliant haiku! Always so amazed that these are comigng out of random words you've guessed for that wordle. There's so much imagry and emotion in these short syllables. That the sun is being selfish, shedding his mane and keeping his warmth and sunshine from the rest of us. So wonderful.

 

<3 Review Event <3 

Reviewer: RogueSlytherin Signed
Date: 19 Feb 2023 · Title: Chapter 1: one (messy group chat)

Okay. This seriously had me laughing so hard. I'm vaugley familar with this drama, it's been on my list for a while - but that list just keeps growing and growing XD Anyways you've got me hooked on these characters because they are freaking chaos and I live for it. The bit about sending soup through the post XD And his answer is amazing because like...I bet you could but...like...just don't. How can that end well XD And Jiang Wanyin's bit about thinking the pining would ever stop or that he created the chat for anything other than bitching XD 

<3 Review Event <3 

 

 

Reviewer: RogueSlytherin Signed
Date: 19 Feb 2023 · Title: Chapter 1: one.

I saw this on the discord and immediately added it to my list for the review event! I'm so here for all the 100 feels! I really love this universe you and Jill have created. It's so fun and chaotic and messy in the best of ways! <3 Ugh it's been forever since I've watched the 100 and this makes me miss so many characters...but also it makes me excited to read more because you've captured their mischief so perfectly! I love Monty. I don't know why in this whole mess of a text thread he's the one that stands out but that dry humor of his shines through and is everything for the dynamics of this. So ready for the havoc to come!

 

<3 Review Event <3 

Reviewer: RogueSlytherin Signed
Date: 19 Feb 2023 · Title: Chapter 7: [3 2 22] In the neighboring town dwells an ill-mannered cat

Just saying, I'm always here for a story about a cat <3 Gonna be honest it took me a couple times to find the rhythm of this one because I'm an idiot, but I found it and love it because it absolutely sells the idea of being drunk and that's incredible. The hiccup in the middle of the intoxication?! So fucking clever. And I love that the line with the play on the word down, the repitition and double meaning there was so playful and added to the whimsical tone. 

 

<3 Review Event <3 

Reviewer: RogueSlytherin Signed
Date: 16 Feb 2023 · Title: Chapter 6: [3 1 22] Rain-drops dash on a lily-pink nose

Rupee?! You had to use the word rupee and still made such a delightful fucking poem?! I don't know how I'm suprised every time I should know that you're going to blow my mind with each one of these. Can I just say that the moment I read lily-pink nose I thought of a kitten. That is just the most immediate and descriptive thing and it's so soft and so cute and the little queen is just so done with weather, sleeping on her bed of crumpled rupees. Marvelous. Just absolutely marvelous. a pithy complaint to a tone-deaf god. What a fucking line. 

<3 Review Event <3 

Reviewer: RogueSlytherin Signed
Date: 16 Feb 2023 · Title: Chapter 5: sixth year: january

Love that this shows us a bit more of the rest of their friends and the dynamic outside of them (which I'm sure is all over the full story this is based on). Also love that Gallagher is just a mopey boi for no reason at all. The line at the start that he was suprised more people don't fall in love with Vic is just :heart eyes: He's a hopeless romantic in the end and just hiding it under all the mope. I put that under 'toxic traits I shouldn't be attracted to but always am' category XD Read you damn messages Gallagher! Don't be so negative and expecting to be let down all the time dammit! 

<3 Review Event <3 

Reviewer: RogueSlytherin Signed
Date: 16 Feb 2023 · Title: Chapter 4: sixth year: december

How appropriate they're in a kitchen because now we're cooking with some gas XD Wowza they kicked it up a notch in this drabble! But they're still the same teasing pricks to each other and I just freaking love that. Something's different - how can it not be - but the whole world didn't flip over. I really love the dynamic of these two. I've already said it, but you really crush their chemistry I mean they are just magnetic together even in these short fics. I'm so freaking obsessed with how they taunt one another - I mean it's borderline abrasive and I'm kinda here for it. 

 

<3 Review Event <3 

Reviewer: RogueSlytherin Signed
Date: 16 Feb 2023 · Title: Chapter 4: [2 22 22] My dearest, here thou art in bed, so thorn’d

I will forever be impressed by your wordle skills <3 Ok this is so fucking adorable. The way that the whole thing is written in this old englishy kinda way but about something so silly and teasing just adds to the teasing of it and makes it even more freaking cute. A poem about socks from a wordle guess of argue, rosin, and thorn. I mean how does your creative mind spark? It's just incredible. And I really love the bit about how could I not tease you when teasing you makes you smile and that makes me so happy and reading that makes me so happy! <3 <3 <3 

<3 Review Event <3 

Reviewer: RogueSlytherin Signed
Date: 16 Feb 2023 · Title: Chapter 3: Purgatory

I am obsessed with the line he was dead and thinsg were about to get worse. That's such a fun play of our expectations! Oh Regulus, incredulous is the perfect word for him. That he's just so annoyed with what's happening XD I really do love the depth you've added here too. The regret of his choices. That he lost what he had with his brother, that he still has to live with the reminder of it all branded into his skin even now. That his choices followed him even after death. That hits.

 

<3 Review Event <3 

Reviewer: RogueSlytherin Signed
Date: 16 Feb 2023 · Title: Chapter 2: Confusion

Oh I am so in for this misadventure. The thought that Regulus would take fire and brimstone to doing homework like assignments is peak Black behavior and I support it. And I love how you've captured so much of his personality in these two short drabbles. He really comes across as someone determiend and impatient and direct and sincere. And why is the afterlife an office? That is the worst sort of fate one could meet at the end of all things XD So what's going to happen next!?!?! 

<3 Review Event <3 

Reviewer: RogueSlytherin Signed
Date: 16 Feb 2023 · Title: Chapter 1: Darkness

I see Regulus fic. I read Regulus fic. <3 
Really love the ending - so clever to upend expectations with not the end!!! This whole piece was truly so beautiful. I know it's dark and its so so sad, but the language you chose was so pretty and so graceful and so elegent. I really liked how you said the bowl was filled with pain in a cavern of death. You had a lot of really smooth and poetic lines in this. Oof. These stories always make my heart heavy, but I love this character so so much. The doomed nature of his fate and the inevitable fall that he plunges himself into. You've captured that really well. And I'm so curious as to what happens next if this end is not his end....


<3 Review Event <3 

Reviewer: RogueSlytherin Signed
Date: 16 Feb 2023 · Title: Chapter 3: sixth year: october

YESSSSSS I was literally just thinking what I love about this pair is that they seem so comfortable around one another. This chemistry they have isn't forced or awkward or some intense passionate thing they can't avoid, they just fit. You've written that really well for only have a few drabbles to make it come across. The way they tease one another shows that off too. Love these two. Excited to read more <3 

<3 Review Event <3 

Reviewer: RogueSlytherin Signed
Date: 16 Feb 2023 · Title: Chapter 2: fifth year: june

As totally platonic friends do <3 What a bit lmao These two have insane chemistry for only being two drabbles into this story. And I love that they are fairly platonic. That they aren't all over eachother or being the opposite and like avoiding one another. It's a slow fall before the plummit <3 And it's cute as fucking hell. Teasing her for being the Ravenclaw. ahhh. I just love it. And Teddy being jealous af in the corner and Vic is just like...sorry not sorry. boi cute lmao <3 

 

<3 Review Event <3 

Reviewer: RogueSlytherin Signed
Date: 16 Feb 2023 · Title: Chapter 1: fifth year: april

Hey Hey <3 
I've read some of your shenanigans stories, but it's been a minute. Even so, this drabble stands on its own! It sets up such a fun dynamic for these characters and I can already tell why it's called Shenanigans - the mischief is palpable XD I  really love that he's talking himself out of his feelings for the first two paragraphs, that really is the sign of not having the feelings to begin with XD This was a really fun drabble - so much personality captured in only a few lines. Well done! Excited to read more.

 

<3 Review Event <3 

Reviewer: RogueSlytherin Signed
Date: 16 Feb 2023 · Title: Chapter 3: [2 20 22] Night after night his fingers bleed

Once again I'm blown away from your wordle effort before I've even read the poem. Who guesses the word tibia?! That's so clever. OK to the poem - excited to see how these words come together. 

I was reading through this wondering if it was a reference to an existing story or fairytale. For a minute I thought maybe like the prince climbing up the tower for Rapunzel, but the reveal of Sisyphus at the end is even better. Oof. This harrowing tale of so much effort and strain and trial just to fail and fail again but to get back up and push once more. You've done a wonderful jump of capturing that never-ending feeling of his fate while also keeping him determined and never quitting. Loved this so much! 

<3 Review Event <3 

Reviewer: RogueSlytherin Signed
Date: 16 Feb 2023 · Title: Chapter 1: bored, bored, bored

How fucking adorably. So many warm fuzzy feelings in this and I just want to wrap up with my own blanket and drink hot cocoa <3 <3 <3 I love this. I love that Sirius doesn't lose any of his edge or rotten temperment we know and love from him but he's still soft and sweet and endearing and it's just so freaking cute. I love that he's curled up in her lap and then purring like a cat - the freaking dog animagus XD So clever. Your writing is so smooth and so effortlessly falls one line into the next into dialouge and back again. Really enjoyed this.

<3 Review Event <3 

Author's Response:

Thank you so much!

Reviewer: RogueSlytherin Signed
Date: 16 Feb 2023 · Title: Chapter 2: [2 19 22] A chime on the breeze

Before I even comment on the poem I would just like to applaud your ability to have even solved this wordle. You started with only one letter right and got the word with a double l and a freaking w, that's amazing. Okay now for the poem part of this collection XD 

And you wrote it as a haiku?! This is really freaking impressive. So much syllable counting XD It's really amazing how you're able to tie these words togther by only adding a few additional words into the mix. That these random guesses can turn into something so pretty as petals dancing through the breeze. I literally pictured cherry blossoms when I read this. So so cool.

 

<3 Review Event <3 

Reviewer: RogueSlytherin Signed
Date: 16 Feb 2023 · Title: Chapter 2: Chapter 2

Ok this story seriously has me laughing out loud. You've really nailed the way they sit around and talk about nothing - how to turn something like eating popcorn into a whole debate <3 But then you toss in Jerry wanting to hook up with Rita and Voldemort showing up to ask Kramer about a nose job AND WANTING SEVEN OF THEM XD XD XD XD I love every second of this story. It's off the rails in the best of ways.


<3 Review Event <3 

Author's Response:

Thanks again for another great review! I was hoping to capture the sheer randomness of Seinfeld humor with things like serious takes about the most mundane stuff, and Kramer having unexpected knowledge out of nowhere. And of course, Jerry needs to have a GF that only lasts an episode. Thanks again!