#human metas misc novels

[mxtxfanatic]

Just finished Mistakenly Saving the Villain, and I like the diversity of queer realization in this text:

You have Song Qingshi, the transmigrated main character, who—between having a progressive, fatal illness and an all-consuming love of medical knowledge—forewent any romantic attraction for any gender in the pursuit of learning all that he could with his waning energy and short lifespan. Then suddenly he is given a healthy body with all the time and (eventually) resources in the world, and he is finally able to slow down and think about his feelings. But he has no reference point except for other (straight) people’s courting rituals, he only knows of other queer male romances through secondhand stories (and only that they exist, no specifics), and the men who do like him don’t ever plainly tell him as he’s coming to his own realizations. So he’s essentially on his own to figure out his feelings, but he nonetheless still finds his way there.

You have An Long, a secondary character and best friend to the original (and now transmigrated) Song Qingshi, who has only ever seduced women but is now suddenly confronted with the fact that he loves his best friend who is also a man. Sure, An Long isn’t new to romance, per se, and he’s definitely not innocent to sex, but being with a man has to be different from being with a woman, right? While he, too, has no frame of reference for a queer relationship, his main struggle is not necessarily in being queer, but in whether to preserve his already hard-won friendship with the (supposedly) aroace Song Qingshi—the reason for his queer awakening—or to take the plunge and confess, putting said friendship on the line at the risk of losing everything.

You have Yue Wuhuan, the love interest. Putting aside all of his life trauma for the moment, Yue Wuhuan is a person who knew he was queer from childhood. He never has any doubts, no imaginings that he’d eventually end up with a woman, and even in his fantasy world, he sees himself pursuing the vague idea of a husband that eventually takes the shape of Song Qingshi. It is everyone else around him (pre-fucked up traumatic years) who imagined he’d eventually take a wife, but he, himself, was sure and steady in his queerness from the moment he could conceive of non-platonic relationships.

Then you have false protagonist Bai Zihao who came from a conservative community and into his queer “realization” through a traumatic circumstance. Because this realization was through coercion, he doesn’t consider it an actual realization and instead internalizes it as a thing he is capable of for survival. When he is no longer “gay for survival,” he struggles to accept that yes, he really does like men and no this isn’t a manifestation of trauma. He must grapple with the conservative nature of his upbringing and the trauma of his awakening in order to eventually have a functioning relationship with another man.

So despite the fact that all four characters are queer men, they each come into that realization through vastly different routes and experiences, and none of them are considered more valid than the other by the narrative. It’s pretty neat.

#mistakenly saving the villain #am i supposed to be finishing golden terrace? #mind your business 🤫 #human metas misc novels

[awfulwhumpsideblog]

Introduction post

Thought I should make one of these. I’m Chris and basically this is a blog to share prompts and writing and stuff, with a focus on angst and hurt/comfort.

I really like fantasy and medieval settings with knights and royalty and stuff. As for plots/characters I like trickery, morally gray shenanigans, and generally convoluted nonsense.

Ask box is always open for requests, questions about me/my writing/my characters, song recs, basically anything.

(Gonna put the rest under the cut so I don’t have a novel at the top of my blog)

General Original Content Tags:

#ramblings: for my silly little thoughts

#ask: for responding to the creatures that visit my ask box

#whump prompt: for my whump prompts

#writing prompt: for writing prompts that aren’t necessarily whumpy

#whump shitpost: for dumb whump jokes/drabbles

#whump community: for meta posts about whump as a genre and its community

#my ocs: posts about my ocs

#whump ocs: posts about ocs (some shared) from whump-focused stories in particular

Specific Original Content Tags:

#remrev: short for “Reminiscent Reveries”, an oc universe of mine that follows the stories of many characters who inhabit the fantasy continent of Eugaria. Humans can use magic, memories last beyond death, dreams are all connected, Earth itself is dying and its twin is already dead, ghosts poison people, and there are glowing mushroom forests. 

#your son darius: a collab story between me, J whump-mania, and S girlsjustwannadrawwhump, in which the main character Darius is abused by his boss, the noble Alastor. Things get more complicated when he catches feelings for his abuser’s son.

#cerovell stories: an oc story of mine about Marlais, a knight who has to take care of a mysterious dragon who was kept in horrid conditions by the noble Matthias who is now on the run. 

Reblog Tags:

#wretched tag: posts with wretched and evil auras

#girlboss tag: posts for/about cool and sinister women

#despair tag: posts that encapsulate the unbearable pain of continued existence

#kino trope: posts about writing/story stuff that inspires me

#kino: posts I really like in general, usually other people’s writing

Other blogs/accounts/pages:

@ceroscopies is my main. Likes/replies/follows come from there and I reblog misc funnies

@cero-reblog-spam is something I made two minutes ago for the sake of reblogging anything and everything as to not crowd my other blogs

My twitter is @ceroscopy

Here’s a giant list of all my Reminiscent Reveries OCs

#whump community

[accidentalspaceexplorer]

International Women’s Day Recs

For International Women’s Day, I wanted to put together a post celebrating books/series by some of my favorite female authors! I’m giving just the briefest of descriptions because otherwise this post would be massive, but if you’re curious I’d love to talk with you more! These recommendations are going to span several genres, but primarily fall under science fiction, fantasy, and romance, and I tried to get a good mix of backlist titles in addition to more recent ones.

Fantasy:

Howl’s Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones: meta conversations about fantasy + extremely dramatic wizard/angry shouty witch dynamic

The Vorkosigan Saga, Lois McMaster Bujold: complicated female characters + disabled genius main character who makes so many bad decisions but always talks/thinks his way out of them

Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton: Pride & Prejudice but with dragons

Sunshine, Robin McKinley: slow and atmospheric take on vampires

Kindred, Octavia Butler: extremely profound and powerful time travel slavery examination

The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin: amazing world-building of a world that constantly goes through apocalypses + powerful character arcs

In Other Lands, Sarah Rees Brennan: hilarious take on portal fantasies

Trail of Lightning, Rebecca Roanhorse: post-apocalypse Navajo setting +  monster hunter woman with a lot of baggage

Science Fiction:

Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie: gender examination + AI ships + space empire

To Be Taught, If Fortunate, Becky Chambers: novella about the future of space exploration, quiet and profound

Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir: snarky lesbian necromancers solve a locked house murder mystery

The Wanderers, Meg Howrey: character study about astronauts and the people they leave behind

The Murderbot Diaries, Martha Wells: Murderbot just wants to be left alone to watch their soap operas and anime but has to rescue their dumb humans

The Calculating Stars, Mary Robinette Kowal: alternate history where an asteroid hits Earth and we need to leave for the stars, anxious Jewish protagonist who is extremely relatable

Romance:

The Rogue Not Taken, Sarah MacLean: Regency road trip, extremely sexy

The Kiss Quotient, Helen Hoang: main female lead has autism and hires a sex worker to help her practice sex

The Flatshare, Beth O’Leary: two people agree to share an apartment by never occupying it at the same time and fall in love

The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics, Olivia Waite: f/f historical romance with so much detail about the period

Get a Life, Chloe Brown, Talia Hibbert: contemporary, main female lead has a near-death experience and decides to grab life with both hands by hanging out with hunky male lead

Soulless, Gail Carriger: steampunk romance, woman who turns supernatural creatures human again with skin-to-skin contact gets embroiled in a mystery and falls in love with a werewolf

Misc:

Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery: classic female friendship tale with an emphasis on the importance of imagination (books 2 & 3 are my favorites though)

The Dublin Murder Squad, Tana French: murder mystery novels set in Dublin, very character-focused

New Worlds: Year One, Marie Brennan: nonfiction worldbuilding help, discussing all sorts of aspects of societies and worlds

Honorable Mentions:

The previous lists in no way represent all of the amazing female authors out there, so I just wanted to shout out a few more authors who have written books I’ve loved that didn’t quite make it onto these lists:

Courtney Milan, Tamora Pierce, Charlie Jane Anders, Kameron Hurley, Megan Whalen Turner, Mary Roach, Susanna Clarke, Gretchen McCulloch, C.L. Polk, Alyssa Cole, Eva Ibbotson, Alison Croggon, S.A. Chakraborty, Kat Howard, Katherine Addison, and Ursula K. LeGuin

#book recs #listen there's still 18 minutes left in international women's day here #that means it's ok right?

[katieskarlette]

Tag Index - Warcraft Dragons

[Miscellaneous]  [General Warcraft]  [Dragons]  [Non-Dragon Characters]

Warcraft Dragons

#rambling about dragons again -- Kind of a catch-all tag for Warcraft dragon discussion, from short jokes to longer meta posts

#draconic aging and #draconic breeding -- These tags cover discussion of and speculation on these aspects of dragon lore.

#there’s absolutely nothing wrong with RPing as a dragon -- The (unnecessarily long) tag says it all.

The Black Dragonflight

The Black Dragonflight – In general / misc.

Wrathion – The Black Prince is my favorite, so this is a huge tag full of discussion, screenshots, meta and general squeeing.  In addition to his main tag there are also:

Wrathion pictures -- Artwork featuring Wrathion

wrathywhelp -- Art or text focused on Wrathion as an adorable whelp

Aaron Phillips -- Wrathion's voice actor

BFF princes -- Posts focusing on Wrathion's friendship with Anduin

A boy and his whelp -- Anduin and dragon-form Wrathion

AWOL whelp -- Posts lamenting the scarcity of Wrathion between MoP and Dragonflight

Left and Right -- His faithful bodyguards

wrathidad -- Posts about the quest line with Wrathion and the time-lost whelps that was in Legion alpha but removed before launch

Game of Obsidian Thrones -- Posts about the Wrathion vs. Sabellian conflict in Dragonflight

Fahrad is another of my favorites, and in my headcanon he’s Wrathion’s biological father.  See also #number one dad Fahrad and #actual dad Fahrad.  (I have an alt named Fahradion who runs around Azeroth having #au fahrad adventures.)

Let’s not forget Wrathion’s mother, Nyxondra!  (See also the screenshots of #au nyxondra adventures.)

Or his Auntie Onyxia!  Her human guise is usually tagged as both Onyxia and Katrana Prestor.  (See also #au onyxia adventures.)

Everyone’s favorite draconic mad scientist, Nefarian, has his own tag.  (See also #au romathion adventures, the screenshot series featuring my uncorrupted version of him.  Oh, and I ship him with Rheastrasza.  I know it seems random, but read my fics.)

Obsidia – Another one of Deathwing’s daughters, who is sort of an original character and sort of canon.  Long story.

There is, of course, a tag for Deathwing, as well as a Neltharion tag for his pre-corruption self.  Ditto for Sintharia a.k.a. Sinestra.

The Ebonhorn tag should cover everything about the Highmountain Spiritwalker, while his dragon form is usually tagged as both Ebonhorn and Ebyssian.  (See also #au ebyssian adventures.)

Sabellian is back from Outland with a less tacky outfit, competing with his nephew for the Obsidian Throne.

The rest of the family:  Atramedes ~ Darkblaze ~ Emberstrife ~ Kalaran (a.k.a. Velarok) ~ Myzerian ~ Nalice ~ Sartharion ~ Searinox ~ Serinar ~ Teremus

Oh, and Zardeth is totally a black dragon and no one can convince me otherwise.

Wrath of Sabellian – Reblogs, commentary, and fanart related to the amazing, novel-length fanfic epic by Yulon about Sabellian and Wrathion.

The Blue Dragonflight

Blue Dragonflight (general/misc)

Malygos

Sindragosa

Kalecgos 

Senegos, Stellagosa, and Emmigosa

Tarecgosa

My original character Ceruleagosa

The Bronze Dragonflight

Bronze Dragonflight (general/misc)

Nozdormu

Soridormi

Chromie

Kairozdormu

The Infinite Dragonflight

Infinite Dragonflight (general/misc)

Murozond

The Green Dragonflight

Green Dragonflight (general/misc)

Ysera

Eranikus

Merithra

Nightmare Dragons

The Red Dragonflight

Red Dragonflight (general/misc)

Alexstrasza

Korialstrasz

Rheastrasza (see also my #AU Rheastrasza adventures)

Lillistrasza

Veritistrasz

My original character Cybelastrasza)

Other Dragonflights and Related Topics

The Chromatic Dragonflight (and my original character, Nith)

The Netherwing Dragonflight

The Twilight Dragonflight

Frost Wyrms  (see also Sindragosa)

Storm Dragons a.k.a. Thorignir

Void dragons

Elemental dragons

Protodragons and Galakrond

Primal Incarnates and Raszageth

Dracthyr

Cloud serpents (known in large numbers as a flock of rainbow noodles)

See also catchall tags like #multiple dragonflights, #many whelps, and the hypothetical violet dragonflight

#tag index

[mxtxfanatic]

Now that I’m official done with my Mist reread, let's discuss Song Qinglan's "homophobia" and why the idea of trying to force someone out of the closet via "turning" them is actually not comedy. This is a long one, so more under the cut.

One of the very first descriptions of Song Qinglan (and Team 7) that we get from the novel is this:

Chief Lin’s expression was strange but, as expected of a leader who had seen much of the world, he was able to quickly recover: “That’s just right. You don’t have to worry about this. The captain surnamed Song is.......deeply homophobic. The team he leads......they’re all homophobic.”

—Chapt. 1: Beginning

Before we even meet the characters, this is a "known fact," and later, when we actually meet the characters, despite them all immediately being enamored with Ji Yushi and how intimate their interactions with each other are, they hold on to the "homophobic" label. Song Qinglan's "straightness to the point of homophobia" is even played for laughs by the narrative! It is only after the team bonds in the Ouroboros while facing death after death, together, does Li Chun say this:

“Hey, in fact our Cap Song is a pretty good person. That time when Old Yu’s accident happened, Cap Song did everything he could to carry him out of the desert and walked tens of kilometres with him on his back. Although a scout is considered a civilian job, they are sometimes required to be out in the field. After that accident, Cap Song had been blaming himself. He didn’t want you to come so he deliberately said those things. We are at most just a little straight but it’s not to the extent of being homopho——”

—Chapt. 19: Ouroboros

Song Qinglan only posited himself as "homophobic" in order to dissuade Ji Yushi from joining their team, in fear that he may be the next teammate injured. Sounds like a reasonable—if not dramatic— explanation for his actions. But why did others believe this? Again, avid gossiper Li Chun to the rescue:

“I heard he and Cap Song joined Tianqiong around the same time. When the two were students, they were both often put together as promising students and were known as the Double Lan Duo. Later, Lin Xinlan publicly pursued Cap Song and when he was ruthlessly turned down, he swore that he would definitely make him his. Cap Song was straight and had kept a distance from him since then, but Lin Xinlan continued to persistently chase after him. Not to mention giving him breakfast, he even waited for him after work and all that. There was one time when Cap Song wasn’t around, someone saw Lin Xinlan come out of Cap Song’s office with his clothes dishevelled. That pervert, who knows what he was secretly doing in Cap Song’s office for so long.....”

—Chapt. 32: Chaos

There we have it: Song Qinglan earned the label of "homophobic" after having a falling out with a gay ex-friend—a friend so close to him that their colleagues had dubbed them the "Double Lan Duo"—who seemingly crossed many boundaries in an attempt to pursue him romantically. What's strange about this, however, is that... everyone else seems to have a more negative reaction to the situation than Song Qinglan, himself. In fact, only Duan Wen would have been present when this situation happened, as the rest of the team are younger recruits and, thus, would have only learned of these events secondhand. When the situation is finally brought up to Song Qinglan, he is confused about how his dislike of his former friend had been progressed through the stories of others into "PTSD:"

He didn’t raise his head, “From the time he confessed to you which resulted in you developing PTSD?” PTSD? Who gave that mess a name like that? The timing and occasion wasn’t right. Song Qinglan didn’t know how to explain the matter, “.........”

—Chapt. 65: Rubik's Cube

So now we have established that Song Qinglan is not, in fact, homophobic and he does not, in fact, have a negative reaction to all gay men. The initial label came from his falling out with a former friend who confessed to him and then was purposefully exacerbated in order to dissuade Ji Yushi from joining Team 7 for their dangerous mission. Other than having some misconceptions (encouraged by petty Ji Yushi) about gay men, he is never violently or maliciously homophobic towards any gay character who appears in the novel, past or present.

Moving on, let's discuss my problems with how this "homophobia" arc is handled. The problem lies not in the fact that it exists but in 1) why the rumors start to begin with and 2) how the narrative treats it. And in order to break this down, we must address the character that serves as the locus for this entire conflict: Lin Xinlan. When we finally meet this character in person, this is how he is described:

Lin Xinlan was pretty good looking, and he gave of a rather refreshing vibe. In fact, he wasn’t the annoying type. No one would’ve thought that such a person would later become such a clingy spirit. What gave him the confidence that Song Qinglan would be bent?

—Chapt. 66: Rubik's Cube

Ji Yushi specifically notes that Lin Xinlan does not seem like the type to harass someone into liking them, not like someone to push boundaries at all. Then to add to that, we get these little tidbits from Lin Xinlan as he and Ji Yushi share a brief conversation:

Before Ji Yushi could speak, he added, “Sorry, I don’t know if you mind talking about sexual orientation.”

—Chapt. 69: Rubik's Cube

“Straight?” Lin Xinlan was a little surprised. He immediately commented, “That is indeed tricky. I would never touch a straight man.”

—Chapt. 70: Rubik's Cube

From these quotes, we learn three key things about Lin Xinlan: 1) he does not appear to be one to harass others into liking him, 2) he is respectful about others' sexualities, and 3) he does not pursue straight men. The real question is: are all of these things true? Well, yes and no:

“Fulfilled the bet?” Ji Yushi thought for a moment and then understood what he was referring to, “I thought you said you never touch straight men?” “It’s okay to give yourself a chance. At least I gave it a try.” Lin Xinlan shrugged, “Moreover, Cap Song....isn’t as straight as one would imagine.” Ji Yushi: “......How did you know?” Lin Xinlan thought he didn’t believe him. He leaned back against the railing and said slowly, “Just a feeling, I guess.” ... “Since Song Qinglan had that possibility and I also had a year to try, it didn’t hurt to give it a chance. How could there be fairness in matters like love?” Reaching this point, Lin Xinlan took out a dice from his pocket, “This was something he gave me when we were playing a game back when we were completing our training at training camp. After an argument, I wanted to give this back to him by putting it back on his desk but I accidentally knocked over his glass of water and this resulted in unpleasant rumours. I originally wanted to explain but from that encounter in Rubik’s Cube, it seems that he has already forgotten what this was.”

—Chapt. 79: Our Reality

Turns out, the first and last points are untrue, but not in the way that the story presents it. You see, while Lin Xinlan's actions were made out to be worse than he intended by their straight peers (a whole other topic), the harassment comes from the fact that Song Qinglan was not in a space to accept Lin Xinlan's advances, something Lin Xinlan did not take into account or respect because he had already substituted his own present-Song Qinglan who still considered himself "straight" with the future Song Qinglan who was in love with Ji Yushi. Thus, his use of his limited knowledge of the future to try to force Song Qinglan out the closet backfired on both him and Song Qinglan. If Lin Xinlan was that confident in his assessment that Song Qinglan was unknowingly queer and if he was truly genuine in caring for Song Qinglan as both a friend and a potential partner, then the right thing to do would have been for him to be a supportive pillar for his friend as Song Qinglan discovered his sexuality on his own, not try to force his realization by romantically pursuing him while he was nowhere near a space to be receptive. The relationship breakdown was not from Song Qinglan's "homophobia" but from Lin Xinlan's overconfidence eclipsing his respect for his friend.

All this to say, my problem lies not in the fact that the narrative ran with the "homophobia" misunderstanding, but that it labeled a unknowing queer character as "homophobic" for laughs while the reason behind the label actually makes him the victim in a way the story fails to explore. Song Qinglan is a fictional character so he can have as peaceful a coming out as the author wants him to have despite these circumstances, but for irl queer people, being forcefully outted or pressured into "accepting" your sexuality just because someone you trust wants to date you can be an unpleasant at best, traumatic at worst experience. It's a failure of the author to not have taken that into account when considering writing this particular plot choice.

#human reads mist #mist unlimited #human metas misc novels #this will probably be my only meta for this novel #so enjoy i guess lmao

[mxtxfanatic]

Something interesting within the drugging arc in Fu Shen and Yan Xiaohan’s relationship is the shame the latter feels at the beginning when the caregiver role is reversed. Since the two have known each other, it has always been Yan Xiaohan taking care of Fu Shen, even if Yan Xiaohan was suffering injury at the same time. This is exasperated with their marriage coming directly after Fu Shen is almost killed and loses feeling in his legs below the knees. Yan Xiaohan gratefully takes over his husband’s care, ensuring that he takes his medicine, eats in a timely fashion, and is never bothered by his wounds aching in cold or bad weather. There’s no doubt that he loves being able to care for Fu Shen in this way, to be his rock, a steady safe place in their volatile world.

However with the introduction of Yan Xiaohan’s drugging, suddenly their roles are switched: Fu Shen, conveniently showing off that he is both more healed than he led others to believe and has a mobility aid to give him full walking function back, has to step in as caregiver to Yan Xiaohan, who has been drugged with a highly addictive powder that’s fucked him up mentally and severely reduced his capacity to think on his feet. Yes it’s not a physical injury that keeps him immobile like Fu Shen’s, but it disrupts his ability to function, becoming a source of shame, especially as he sees himself as the steady pillar for which Fu Shen can lean on and derive strength from. If he can’t be that, then what use is he in the relationship?

I think this is a common but under-explored idea on disability in relationships, both the “what happens if one partner becomes disabled during the course of the relationship?” but also, specifically, “what happens when the person who has always comfortably given care to their disabled partner has to now be on the receiving end of that care from the partner who is still disabled?”

#human reads golden terrace #human metas misc novels #thinking about this too for irl situations #my granddad spent his whole life being ‘provider’ for his family #but the. he became disabled and had to quit his job and be taken care of #and he felt a lot of guilt and shame for that #like he had failed in his role as a father and grandfather for now needing the support of others #rather than *being* the support himself #and he found others ways to help out sure #but it wasn’t the same #idk if he was ever able to come to terms with that