One of our sloopy brethren made a heroic sacrifice of downloading this book and reading far enough to get to this passage so they could save the rest of us from their fate.
Let us raise a glass (of eye-bleach) in their honor.
If anyone needs me, I’m going to be making a RRBC nomination.
{Wolf Unseen by Lyra Mishon}
(Note: it is unknown if the FMC is actually a bunny. But I have a RH for that if desired.)
If y’all are anything like me, y’all obsessively keep lists of when exciting new books are going to come out.
Like, personally, I check why-choose’s calendar every weekend for upcoming releases that look interesting, but for ones that I am super, super excited about, I also put them in my phone’s calendar^(*) (which is basically filled only with reminders to pay my credit card bill each month and romance novel releases) to make sure I don’t forget about them. It’s a tool I started when struggling with intrusive suicidal thoughts, because it reminded me that I had things, even if they were just little things, to look forward to when everything seemed bleak.
These are the books I either buy outright, spend the day before release planning which of my KU current borrows I’m going to return for it the minute I wake up, or at the very least put on the top of my tbr.
Also included are ones that I might not be personally excited about, but I know that at least some people here are.
Super short list for October from me, and only one of the ones I’m including will be going on my TBR. (As a note--that doesn’t mean that I didn’t see titles and covers I’m interested in knowing more about when I was browsing the calendar, however; it just meant I didn’t have the time to look into books with authors that I don’t know much about). So if you have something you’re excited for, please help me out by adding it! I’d love to hear what people are looking forward to this month, to share the love and give us a place to be excited about them together.
15th October
16th October
20th October
So, now that I’ve shared, please let me know what you’re excited about!
Authors—I know you are excited about your own releases, but this post is not meant for self-promotion.
^(*)I’ve actually stopped putting them as obsessively in my phone because I started browsing why-choose for this post for the entire month in addition to doing it every week for a more detailed look, but I still do it sometimes.
Good jerkers borrow from other jerkers. Great jerkers steal outright.
So let it be with alignment charts.
Thanks to the amazing u/Camellia980, we have been graced with the knowledge of whom we felt fits a standard alignment chart.
But we’re not standard.
We’re sloopies.
Thus I have taken it upon myself to generate a more individualized alignment chart, with some helpful theft of a joke from u/RemingtonRivers. (Note: I also spent way too long finding the exact goddamn shades from the sub banner and matching them in the Updated Alignment Chart. The boxes for our winners are the color of Alchemized’s pages (and currently filled with about as much meaning and quality.)
Credit for the initial suggestions of the alignment definitions goes to u/itmustbeniiiiice, though I have pillaged and ransacked politely and lovingly edited to better fit my vision^(1).
For the rows, we have {Helpful, Sloopy, Chaos Gremlin}.
For the columns, we have {Literate, Sloopy, Stupid}.
Similar to before, nomination rounds will be open for at least two days. Different than before: there will be a Row Round, where I will put all of the nominations in at the same time, because I like removing interfering variables whenever possible.^(2)
“But SCF, what if someone gets nominated for a helpful category and I think they’re a chaos gremlin?” you might ask.
First, I would be grumpy that any of you would hypothetically think I wasn’t prepared for all circumstances.
Second, I would inform you that there will be one additional round to take care of that! The Row Round will just give us a ranking order for all nominated members of this illustrious subreddit, not the final assignment.
Once all Row Rounds are completed, there will be a User Round, where we get the chance to pick the best placement for any of our brethren who have been nominated for multiple alignments. They will then be removed from the ranking order for all but the winning alignment.^(3)
Who do we think are the members of RCJ to represent True Sloopy^(4)? Let’s have some fun!
Literate Sloopy is still open if you have a nomination for that
^(1)Still subject to change as I see fit, though the general concepts hopefully will stay the same and simply become better articulated. Feedback is still welcome, but is not guaranteed to be incorporated.
^(2)Example of the Row Round
^(3)Is this necessary? Perhaps not.
Is this extra as hell? Probably.
Will I be taking any feedback about what I have chosen to do? Absolutely not. I am a Fragile and Delicate Flower and would promptly cry, which would cause Reversible-Mail-K9 to get upset and bark, which would cause the other dogs to get upset and bark because Reversible has no sense of volume control, and then there would be unfun chaos.
^(4)No, I will not accept nominations like “all of us lol iykyk.”
I said good day, sweaty.
This is now a tradition I hope to carry on each month–a chance to give people the chance to talk about books that might not have been added to their all-time favorites, or they might not have enjoyed enough to write a full post for raving about them (or, honestly, may not have had the energy), but goddamnit they were enjoyable reads. And maybe they haven’t fit any specific rec requests well enough for you to add them, but you still want to get the word out about them. It also doesn’t have to be a new book—if you reread something and loved it, tell us about it!
I’m going to be shorter in my own description this month: PhD program has officially started, and I’m working constantly. But I still had some good reads!
I spent much of August finally reading things that I had put off because I wasn’t in the mood yet as well as enjoying some new series.
Rereading Liminal, and then reading the rest of the {Arcanaeum series Marie Mistry} was definitely a highlight of the beginning of the month. I know feelings were mixed, but I loved it; I joked a few places that I am now my own second-favorite RH-reading librarian.
I also enjoyed {Trouble with Monsters by Grace McGinty}, through I agree with a very good friend who felt the ending was kind of rushed.
My favorite of August was actually a MF, but I have been reading Ilona Andrews for almost two decades, so I feel this potentially shocking (to some) turn of events isn’t really a sign of the impending apocalypse, as has been suggested.
Now it’s y’all’s turn, so please. Tell us all about what book(s) brightened your August.
There is also a comment for people to add any books that they were particularly disappointed by June so people have a place to talk about it, but it doesn’t confuse others browsing for good book recs.
My understanding is that due to Weston missing planned release dates, {Savage Surrender by Livi Weston} had to be done as a live-release, so I wanted to alert anyone who doesn’t follow the author’s socials that the trilogy is now complete!
(Many thanks to u/Hoeuiz who let people know on the September Anticipated Releases post that it was out.)
I’m still going to be a wimp and a coward and wait until reviews come back about whether the ending makes up for the angst. But to everyone who is braver than me (or who has been suffering from lack of resolution until now)—happy reading!
Good jerkers borrow from other jerkers. Great jerkers steal outright.
So let it be with alignment charts.
Thanks to the amazing u/Camellia980, we have been graced with the knowledge of whom we felt fits a standard alignment chart.
But we’re not standard.
We’re sloopies.
Thus I have taken it upon myself to generate a more individualized alignment chart, with some helpful theft of a joke from u/RemingtonRivers. (Note: I also spent way too long finding the exact goddamn shades from the sub banner and matching them in the Updated Alignment Chart. The boxes for our winners are the color of Alchemized’s pages (and currently filled with about as much meaning and quality.)
For the rows, we have {Helpful, Sloopy, Chaos Gremlin^(1)}.
For the columns, we have {Literate, Sloopy, Stupid}.
Similar to before, nomination rounds will be open for approximately at least two days. Different than before: there will be a “row” round, where I will put all of the nominations in at the same time, because I like removing interfering variables whenever possible.^(2)
Other things, like how many winners we have, have yet to be decided.
So let’s have some fun! Who do we think are the members of RCJ to represent Sloopy Helpful?
Thought of someone for Literate Helpful? There’s still time, because Sloopy Science is fluid, just like the morals of our main characters.
Snarky Footnotes (as required by the Gods of Science)
^(1) Punk was not right. Troll was not right. Punk-ass-bitch was not right. But then the lamentation and accusation posts for our currently-AWOL and SWOL Numbers began, and I understood the true extremes of the spectrum.
^(2) Example of the "row" round.
/uj take two because my poor sloopy brain has been fried by writing up an explanation of why BookTok leads to crappy books having good ratings that I can turn in to my PhD seminar instructor. My apologies to the early nominators.
Good jerkers borrow from other jerkers. Great jerkers steal outright.
So let it be with alignment charts.
Thanks to the amazing u/Camellia980, we have been graced with the knowledge of whom we felt fits a standard alignment chart.
But we’re not standard.
We’re sloopies.
Thus I have taken it upon myself to generate a more individualized alignment chart, with some helpful theft of a joke from u/RemingtonRivers.
For the rows, we have {Helpful, Sloopy, Punk Troll}. (Graphic will be updated in all future documentation)
For the columns, we have {Literate, Sloopy, Stupid}.
(Note: I am open to alternative categories to Stupid and Punk—just let me know! Troll was originally proposed over punk, but I felt it could be confused with the troll-fucking in some of the monster romance. And while I personally don't like calling people stupid, several people expressed an interest in being a stupid sloopy.)
Similar to before, nomination rounds will be open for approximately two days. Different than before: there will be a “row” round, where I will put all of the nominations in at the same time, because I like removing interfering variables whenever possible.
Other things, like how many winners we have, have yet to be decided.
And maybe I can pressure camellia980 or someone with skills in Making Pretty Things into making the graphic. Otherwise y’all are going to be stuck with canva templates.
So let’s begin! Who do we think are the members of RCJ to represent Helpful Literate?
Friends, Romantasians, Cunt-servers (in the best way), lend me your ears. I have come to bury a tired cliche, not to praise it. The rage reads that overused tropes contribute to lives after them, the good is oft interred with the non-sprayed-edge-editions. So let it be with repetitive storytelling.
~~~~~
Have you ever felt like romantasy feels very…cyclical? They have their ups and downs, their screaming orgasms and their messy breakups that are definitely not because the author wants more pages and ran out of other ideas.
It's more than a single sloopy can bear some days.
But there is a way out; as always, the truth involves maths.
Consider our beloved algebra. Normal people would just be considered a variable of a single degree (say, x*), and their ability to be interesting as their specialness/jaw-droppingness/muchness increases grows in a linear fashion. FMCs, however, are so Not Like Linear Variables that a linear relationship cannot contain them, nor could they ever be of negative interest levels**. Clearly, they are second order (x^(2)).
To keep up with them, MMCs must also be a second order (y^(2)); MMCs are the dependent variable because we all know they’re really only there for the FMC and are generally worthless on their own.
There are three types of functions which have both x^(2) and y^(2), though two of those are interrelated: circles/ellipses (….no, not that kind) and hyperbolas. Parabolas are right out, since they require the FMC to be with a lesser-powered MMC***.
1=Circle, 2=Ellipse, 3=Parabola, 4=Hyperbola
Circles are fun. Everyone loves a good circle. They’re simple and easy to understand (if nearly impossible to draw unless one is a FMC with Mad Art Skillz and watery bowels), just like the average sloopy.
But there is a third element, beyond our FMC and MMCs; romance. So now we enter into parametric functions, and consider our equally beloved trigonometry using circular maths (and logics).
For you sweatys who struggle with retention, fluid or otherwise, a quick reminder: FMC specialness/jaw-droppingness/muchness is equivalent to the horizontal value (and hereafter called FMC S/J/M), and MMC(s) specialness/jawdroppingness/muchness is equivalent to the vertical value (and hereafter called MMC(s) S/J/M)
FMC S/J/M= COS[Romance]
MMC(s) S/J/M=SIN[ROMANCE]****
As you stare in horror at the image above, you’ll notice the Major Issues—they both go on forever without doing anything interesting, they barely touch, and one is at 0 while the other is at a maximum or minimum. No matter how much romance we put in, we still get a limited magnitude of all romantic leads.
Now let us consider the inverse, where we see how much the muchness of our FMC and MMC(s) affect Romance.
Romance=ACOS[FMC S/J/M]
Romance=ASIN[MMC(s) S/J/M])
The issues become even worse (as you can see from the even more horrifying above) That is simply unacceptable, and perfectly explains the dull storytelling.
For years, the sloopies have been forced to contend with this, though, for we are a simple people and easily distracted by the shiny covers even if the books inside are terrible.
But the solution came to me in a vision, sent directly from the Most Enlightened SJM through subliminal messages in the title of the upcoming release.
A Court of Splintered Harmony
ACOSH
Hyperbolic functions are the answer!
Instead of SIN/ASIN and COS/ACOS, we have the following.
FMC S/J/M=COSH[Romance]
MMC(s) S/J/M=SINH[Romance]
Romance=ACOSH[FMC S/J/M]
Romance=ASINH[MMC(s) S/J/M]
As you can see from the Vastly Superior Graphs above, both Romance and S/J/M are aligned once non-negative values of Romance are reached (for S/J/M) and the S/J/M is at least 1 (for Romance). Not only is this much more aesthetically pleasing, but it better reflects reality, where if the FMC isn’t NLOG-enough, it doesn’t count as a romantasy.
Blessed be this day, where the maths gave us the answers.
Snarky Footnotes
*x and y were not assigned as a reference to genetics, but as non-gendered accepted terms for independent and dependent variables. All are welcome here at the altar of Mathematics.
**Despite what I have heard from those who read MAGA Elite
***On second thought, perhaps ACOTAR has examples of a parabolic, and thus lesser, decoy MMC/FMC relationship as well. Tamlin fans, maths embraces even you!
****Any readings of this phrasing resulting in the interpretation that the MMCs in a relationship are always the cause of the problems is purely coincidental, and should not be blamed on the author of this study
Graphical Notes
The picture of conic functions was lovingly stolen from Wikipedia.
Rainbow refused to show up in the legend, so I had to make do with fuchsia, which had the dual benefits of being obnoxiously bright and being able to be mispronounced as ‘fuck-yeah’ if one tries very hard. For those who are interested, the specific color for Regular Girls was ‘dimgrey’, and the color for MMCs was ‘rebeccapurple.’
I'm curious I've always read reverse harem 🤭 but I've been thinking about getting into books with MFFF+. But my main concern is how the FMCs are treated by the MMC. Are they any good and do you recommend them?
uj/ it is too hot for extra snark. So word for word.
Bitches, bros, and binary-eschewing brethren, we are gathered here today to correct a common misconception. Whilst the Millennial-Hating and Generally Curmudgeonly ways of /purplelicious just might have fooled many of us into thinking that they are the eldest amongst us, it is not so! There is another!
The Reverse Harem Romantasy Reading Grandmother.
Although she prefers mysteries, The Notorious RHRRG loves a good story with fantasy and romance. One of her favorites has been {Whisked Away by Enola M Douglas}. (Note—she told a family friend who happens to be both a lesbian and a CEO of a finance company about it, and I got the most out-of-nowhere text about it. This story is not to be confused with my mother—the one with the smut garden she doesn’t know is a smut garden—giving her copy of it to my cousin’s German Olympian roommate at thanksgiving last year.)
She also recently enjoyed {Warrior Princess Assassin by Brigid Kemmerer} which I feel makes her officially one of us.
Oh, and she knows all about the different mails.
As the [Neutral] Good Mods have said unto us: all are welcome who earnestly desire in their hearts to be a sloopy. So let this be an example that when it comes to a sloopy’s age, the limit does not exist!
uj/ maybe a little off-topic, yes, but I’m very happy. And she does love hearing about y’all and all the silliness that happens here.
I'm new, I'm 13 years old totally and completely an adult, and I'm looking for a book called Dark Romantasy. I hope you can help me, please.
This is now a tradition I hope to carry on each month–a chance to give people the chance to talk about books that might not have been added to their all-time favorites, or they might not have enjoyed enough to write a full post for raving about them (or, honestly, may not have had the energy), but goddamnit they were enjoyable reads. And maybe they haven’t fit any specific rec requests well enough for you to add them, but you still want to get the word out about them. It also doesn’t have to be a new book—if you reread something and loved it, tell us about it!
As I go through the month, I keep a running note of books that could possibly be contenders for my best read. Similar to June, throughout July I struggled with finding anything that I would unquestionably call a “best” read; this problem was likely due a few reasons. First, I was trying to wrap up several research projects--where something inevitably keeps happening and I have to constantly be running programs to get the updated and improved results (I sometimes would drive with my laptop open in the backseat running code)—before my PhD program starts in a few days. Second, I got hooked into an admittedly terrible series that I just couldn’t quit at first, and so would spend time doing other things than reading it (I finally remembered that there is no shame in a DNF even if the book wasn’t on KU). Third, none of the books I had borrowed on KU in the past months that have been waiting for me felt right in the moment. Finally, July was pretty damn abysmal for releases.
I had a few enjoyable reads, and I’ll talk about one of them as a honorable mention, but I was saved from having to make a half-hearted post by a release yesterday that I have been anticipating for almost 10 months.
BEST READ: Top Shelf by R.A. Smyth
I am a sucker for hockey romance. I have never watched a full game. The only reason I know anything about hockey is from romance novels. I know that finding hockey players like hockey romance MMCs in real life might be as difficult as finding a shapeshifting dragon with two dicks.
I choose to ignore all of that. Which often results in me trying books that I would have never bothered with if they didn’t involve hockey (and usually being whelmed at best, and severely disappointed and grumpy due to wasted potential at worst).
But the gems are out there, and {Top Shelf by R.A. Smyth} is one of them.
I generally think of bully or enemies-to-lovers romance when it comes to Smyth, so having none of that (at least from the MMCs’ perspective) was a surprise. The story was one of the better examples of both trauma feeling realistic and a plot based around misunderstanding that didn’t seem forced. (TW—sexual assault of FMC (not by MMCS)
>!Wren, our FMC, was drugged and raped her freshman year of college; she remembers almost nothing, but a voice, the pair of eyes, and a tattoo. She saw the MMCs in the previous book, recognized them from that night, and assumed they were the rapists. They had actually found her and taken her to a hotel to keep her safe so she could make the decision about a rape kit on her own in the morning. They come to understand the assumption she must have made early on in the story, and decide the solution is to prove to her that they aren’t those people, but not discuss what happened until she actively wants to talk about it.!<
Trauma definitely plays a key role in this story, and all the main characters have experienced versions of it. But at its heart it’s a story of self-discovery and growth and identity and healing. It’s about the complexity behind being broken, and being subjected to other’s expectations, and fighting for what you want.
There were a few aspects that felt a little unrealistic; >!for example, once she learns the MMCs were protecting her that night, she stops having nightmares!<—trauma doesn’t work like that. But overall, one of the better representations I’ve seen lately.
At the end, >!she realizes who raped her, and reaches out to her father (who had spent the entire story distant and judgmental and even worried her with an immediate response of “are you sure?”) and he’s willing to do anything to help her get justice on her terms? I almost teared up. Same when she told the MMCs that he deserves worse than he got, but she deserves better than putting him through it, because she’s ready to move on (paraphrased)?!< I loved it. As someone who has been through trauma, both directly like this and in other ways, it felt empowering and real.
(I apologize both for all the spoilers and that the descriptions might seem a little disjointed; I did the best I could.)
Honorable Mention: Spoil Now for Sugar by Hayden Olivia
I am also a sucker for cozy OV. Unfortunately, it feels like in the last year it has exploded in popularity, and thus authors releasing them, and most of them look…unpromising. I probably only bother reading the blurb of less than a quarter of new OV releases each week, and I try reading far fewer than that. Even once I start reading, there are so many things that could cause me to DNF: poor writing/editing, bland/one-dimensional characters, dull storylines (cozy≠boring!), unlikeable characters, etc. One of the biggest icks I have, though, is when a FMC is presented as one thing, but everything about her changes as soon as she meets the MMCs; this happens in other romance subgenres as well, but it does feel like “Scent matches! Everything that was important to me is trivial now!” happens an awful lot here.
So {Spoil Now for Sugar by Hayden Olivia} was a breath of fresh air. The FMC does not want a relationship. She is unashamed of her lifestyle of being a sugar baby; she has a reason she does it, and she’s working toward goals, and no matter how much she likes the MMCs, they’ve started to threaten those goals, so she’s done.
The MMCs are well-meaning, but don’t think through some of the implications of their actions (one in particular is an overly-excited half-grown golden retriever puppy type—gets excited and breaks things because he doesn’t realize that they’re breakable). And the FMC stands up for herself when they screw up. The MMCs attempt to atone.
And when she learns they’re her scent matches? She doesn’t change her mind. That comes much, much later.
It was a very consent-heavy OV, which is also always a wonderful thing to read.
While I’d put it on the cozier end of OV, it’s still got some triggers. I’d put it in a similar category, perhaps a little darker (world, not romance) to Shear Instinct.
Now it’s y’all’s turn, so please. Tell us all about what book(s) brightened your June.
There is also a comment for people to add any books that they were particularly disappointed by June so people have a place to talk about it, but it doesn’t confuse others browsing for good book recs.
If y’all are anything like me, y’all obsessively keep lists of when exciting new books are going to come out.
Like, personally, I check why-choose’s calendar every weekend for upcoming releases that look interesting, but for ones that I am super, super excited about, I also put them in my phone’s calendar^(*) (which is basically filled only with reminders to pay my credit card bill each month and romance novel releases) to make sure I don’t forget about them. It’s a tool I started when struggling with intrusive suicidal thoughts, because it reminded me that I had things, even if they were just little things, to look forward to when everything seemed bleak.
These are the books I either buy outright, spend the day before release planning which of my KU current borrows I’m going to return for it the minute I wake up, or at the very least put on the top of my tbr.
Also included are ones that I might not be personally excited about, but I know that at least some people here are.
I’d love to hear what people are looking forward to this month, to share the love and give us a place to be excited about them together.
1st August
6th August
13th August
14th August
20th August
21st August
24th August
29th August
31st August
So, now that I’ve shared, please let me know what you’re excited about!
Authors—I know you are excited about your own releases, but this post is not meant for self-promotion.
^(*)I’ve actually stopped putting them as obsessively in my phone because I started browsing why-choose for this post for the entire month in addition to doing it every week for a more detailed look, but I still do it sometimes.
Only thing more appropriate for a reverse harem would be if they had triple ones.
My favorite is the last line.
Source: book two of {Boys of Willowbrook series by Steph Macca}
If I never read these phrases again, I will be very happy. Am I being picky? Do you have any to add?
Sit with it.
There she is.
There he is.
There you are.
Whoomp there it is.
Careful.
No, you don’t need more copies of the same book with different sprayed edges.
That’s not fair.
You—
Me—
And Bobby McGee.
I made a mistake.
You made a choice.
We made an unholy amalgamation.
You went through my \[phone, papers, desk, watery bowels]\. That’s private.
See Spot run.
Run Spot run.
Violence as a nickname for Violet (I have a RH for that!)
Would you like.
Green eggs and ham.
I would not like them.
Piss-slit.
Last summer, there was the Reverse Harem Tree.
Three months ago, there were the sugar baby watermelons.
Now these definitely-not-phallic vegetables.
My mother knows I read reverse harem (I’ve actually had her read a few and she enjoyed them).
Like, really, is it paranoid to think that my 68-year-old mother is taunting me with her totally-a-smut-garden whilst I am expected to keep a straight face?
In this subreddit they have “trials” for whether their actions were justified or not. And I constantly see them make fun of the IC…(/uj apparently that means the “Inner Circle”? Rhys, Az, Cassian, Mor, Feyre, & Amren? Can a sloopy who is more clever than me come up with a way we can turn that into ICC?)
Romantasycirclejerk seems to be a place full of miserable people I simply do not understand. I don’t even think they understand themselves. There’s a thing about mails who may or not be male, and a bunch of numbers? We’re readers; why the heck are there numbers? (/uj this is a joke! I don’t mean it!)
I understand it’s for jokes and whatnot but it’s really gross and inappropriate behavior from grown adults with fully developed frontal cortex’s. It’s definitely much more healthy to have attachment’s to fictional series’s thats so strong that no one is allowed to mock it, not just in your private echo chamber, but anywhere.
Yep they have dedicated threads especially for ACOTOR , guess what who is the most hated on those threads again ??? Of course it's IC except Nesta and Tamlin 😂. Because random shopkeeper number 836 is the true villain in all of this.
It’s very unfortunate how toxic book readers have become.
True word’s have never been spoken
Leila James feels like a staple in contemporary RH, in my mind. So I wanted to pass along some information that she shared in her Facebook group yesterday about her diagnosis of an aggressive form of brain cancer.
I can’t imagine the position her and her family are in, so for anyone who wants to send positive thoughts into the universe (or say something directly on the post), they would probably be appreciated.
ETA—“If you’re looking to support her in any way- she sells her own books on Etsy. She has special editions and will sign them for you :)” (credit to u/Comfortable-Card132)
I have RH for all of them.
In the a/b/o universe if there is a couple* made with an alpha female and an omega man who would be the one who gets pregnant? Like the man has the womb cause he’s an omega (even though the original purpose of male omegas was reportedly to have gay fanfic of tv shows without needing to buy lube every other minute for their anal shenanigans, so why we’re assuming that a secondary designation unrelated to biological sex in most works means that have male omegas means they have a uterus, I have no idea)
but wouldn’t the woman also still have one?(an excellent question—how do lesbians avoid both being pregnant at once???)
Also how would the man get pregnant by a woman (I need the Ms Rachel version of this, stat)?
I know that it’s up to the reader/writer but pls try and give me a honest answer.
But not too honest about how if I know it’s different in every author’s version than why the fuck am I asking, because then I’ll cry.
*I don’t think I know what this word “couple” means. Perhaps this is the key to understanding this all.
