#this is just about portal fantasies

[spencecreates]

Oh to be swallowed by another world with people I might call family when it spits us out again, bonded by trauma and memories that no one else could understand

#spence nonsense #isekai #this is just about portal fantasies #narnia #legends arceus

[nellasbookplanet]

Book recs: vampires

Listen, vampires are a classic for a reason, but they have also been done to death (pardon the pun) to the point that finding books that are creative with the premise can be a bit of a slog through tired old tropes. Hopefully this rec list can be to a bit of help for all vampire fans out there wanting something fresh!

For details on the books, continue under the readmore

Previous rec posts:

Really cool fantasy worldbuilding

Really cool sci-fi worldbuilding

Dark sapphic romances

Mermaid books

Sci-fi vampires:

Fledgling by Octavia Butler

Octavia Butler my beloved, literally you cannot go wrong with one of her books. Fledgling follows what at first seems to be a ten-year-old amnesiac girl, who finds out she is in fact a decades old vampire on the run from others of her kind. The vampires here are a separate species from human, not supernatural, and are as a whole very fascinating and unsettling. Come in prepared for fucked up power dynamics.

Blindsight by Peter Watts

Vampires and aliens and questions of the nature of consciousnesses, oh my. Not a vampire novel so much as a scifi novel about aliens in which there also happens to be vampires (one of which is captain of a spaceship sent to explore an alien ship just entering the solar system). Another example of vampires as an entire separate species, but more horror focused than Fledgling. No, seriously, this book will fuck you up, highly recommend if you're okay with a lot of techno babble and existential horror.

Peeps (Peeps duology) by Scott Westerfeld

Young adult. Vampirism as a sexually transmitted parasite that turns most people into bloodthirsty monsters. Cal is an asymptomatic carrier working to find other infected before they hurt people, including his own former girlfriends. But there is something else lurking in the dark, an ancient enemy of the vampire parasite...

Post apocalypse vampires:

The Hallowed Ones (The Hallowed Ones duology) by Laura Bickle

Young adult. Katie is an Amish girl eagerly awaiting her rumspringa, when she gets to try out the outside world. But before she has the chance, something happens to the Outside; a nearby town is wiped out, and something evil stalks the night. To protect their community, the Amish elders decide that no one can leave and no one can enter the sacred ground that makes up their home. That is, until Katie finds an injured young man and decides to help him.

The Company of Death by Elisa Hansen

Wild mix of genres, where a zombie apocalypse has struck and vampires gather up humans to keep their food source from going extinct, a robot travels across America with a young man she's tasked to keep safe, and former-vampire-hunter-recent-zombie Emily teams up with Death himself to stop the apocalypse. Features bi and ace characters! Bonus rec: the author also runs the youtube channel Maven of the Eventide, where she talks about various vampire media. Check it out!

The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden trilogy) by Julie Kagawa

Young adult. Another zombie apocalypse (well; feral vampires) scenario in which vampires gather humans up to keep their food safe. Allison Sekemoto hates vampires, but when she ends up on the brink of death and is offered a way out, she has no choice but to take it. Hunted by a mad vampire and forced to flee the relative safety of her city, Allie must enter the post-apocalyptic outside world and team up with the free humans roaming there, seeking a cure for the undead plague that ravages the world.

Urban fantasy vampires:

Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Queen of fucked up gothic horror, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, comes for vampires in this gritty novel following Domingo, a garbage collecting street kid in a Mexico City where vampires walk the streets. His life gets turned upside down when he meets Atl, a vampire descendant of Aztec blood drinkers who’s on the run and needs all the help she can get.

Sunshine by Robin McKinnley

Urban fantasy on a level of its own, where dangerous magic exists alongside humans. It keeps you guessing and much is left unexplained; if you want clear answers and explanations to everything you might be disappointed, but if you want a world that feels mysterious and dangerous and lived in you'll probably like it. It follows a baker who, after getting kidnapped by vampires, gets embroiled in a dangerous struggle and has to team up with one of them to survive. The vampires here are really inhuman and unsettling.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

Young adult. After vampirism swept the land, special Coldtowns were built to quarantine anyone bitten, whether they have turned or not. After having survived a massacre at a party in which her ex-boyfriend got bit, Tana sets out with him and mysterious vampire to reach the nearest Coldtown, not knowing if she’ll ever be able to leave it again.

Modern vampires:

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Swedish literary novel set in the 1980s. Follows twelve-year-old Oskar, a troubled and bullied boy who befriends his new neighbor, Eli. But there’s something strange about Eli, such as her only coming out at night. Also available as two separate movie adaptations (I highly recommend the Swedish original; the American remake is perfectly adequate standard horror fare, the original is a masterpiece).

Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda

Literary novel following Lydia, who’s grown up as a vampire under the thumb of her mother, who’s been obsessed with self-hate over their existence as blood drinkers. Finally on her own for the first time in her life, Lydia moves to London hoping to make it as an artist. But surviving alone as a vampire is harder than expected. Slow and fairly light on plot, but utterly captivating.

Companions of the Night by Vivian Vande Velde

Young adult. After Kerry saves a young man from three attackers who claim he's a vampire, she's drawn into a dangerous game and forced to work with a manipulative vampire. Pre-cursor to the modern ya vampire genre, Companions of the Night utilizes many of the same tropes but in very different ways, making it a unique experience.

Historical and fantasy vampires:

A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson

Dracula inspired novella, following Constanta, who’s turned from a medieval peasant to an undead bride. As time passes the relationship between Dracula and Constanta grows all the more strained and potentially dangerous. Teaming up with his two other consorts, she seeks to unravel her husband's secrets. Sapphic and polyamorous.

The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez

Having escaped from slavery in the 1850s, young Gilda is taken in by a vampire, and eventually finds herself turned as well. Consists of a series of novellas following Gilda throughout the centuries, from the past to the present to the future. It’s also sapphic!

House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson

In a world where the rich drink blood to preserve their health, Marion applies to a position as bloodmaid in a notorious noble house far from home. Suddenly showered with luxuries and debauchery, Marion soon gains the interest and favor of Lisavet, countess of the house. A fresh take on the idea of vampires and deliciously dark sapphic romance.

Bonus AKA I haven't read these yet but they seem really cool

The Hunger by Whitley Strieber

Ancient vampire is on the hunt for a new partner, none of which tend to last long.

My Soul to Keep (African Immortals series) by Tananarive Due

I keep seeing this one described as a vampire book, and once stumbled on the description "almost a vampire book" and listen by now I'm simply curious to see what it's about.

Team Human by Justine Larbelestier & Sarah Rees Brennan

Young adult. As far as I can tell, a satire on typical ya vampire romances.

The Madness Season by C.S. Friedman

*chanting* vampires in space vampires iN SPACE

The Lost Girls by Sonia Hartl

Young adult, sapphic. Three vampire girls turned and abandoned by the same vampire get together to stop him from turning yet another girl.

The Balance of Fates by Raquel Raelynn

Young adult, sapphic. A girl enters a competition against vampires and werewolves, complicated by her feelings for one of her vampire competitors.

#hello new critrole followers! i sometimes write book recs! #vampires #book recs #nella talks books #portal fantasies next time! #might be longer than a week tho #there are a couple of books i want to check out first to see if they qualify #(just gave up about nora roberts the awakening; it does NOT qualify)

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

Hi, I was the anon that had brought up the high seas adventure!! I'm glad you took interest in it, and hearing your ramblings to add onto it just made me imagine so many fun things! (Poor Eddie, haha. With your description, I just imagine a dog trying to stand up in a moving car.) Ohh, now I imagine a case where the ship wrecks and their stranded for a few days until another rescue ship comes! Perhaps on an island?? I hope some of them know how to hunt!

the very first thing that came to mind was Eddie sobbing while pointing one of Howdy's guns at a crab. Sally just comes up & stabs it through the shell before taking it back to the fire for eating. Eddie collapses to his knees, wracked with guilt-

#frank & sally arguing over how to build the S.O.S signal #frank wants to be tactical. sally wants to go full Elizabeth in potc - giant bonfire #frank wins the argument due to popular vote #hard cut to everyone standing in the water staring at the Very On Fire island #anyway eddie's 'i wouldnt hurt a fly' statement makes me think that he would not be able to kill anything on purpose #hunt? nah hes just gonna forage. crack open a coconut on a rock. try that weird mushroom #meanwhile wally & howdy are chatting about the weather while spearfishing #for some reason im imagining an almost entirely barren island #like theres five trees & a nice patch of vegetation #but the rest is barren sand w/ the shipwreck on a nearby sandbar #hm yes thats where their camp is. huddled under the half overturned ship <3 #the water between the bar & the island is shallow enough for the big neighbors to wade through #lots of fish for dinner! #rambles from the bog #wh fantasy au #lmao wait ok so wally has this ability where he can turn abandoned doors into portals #(it takes a lot of energy & power so its a last resort trick) #so im imagining that a week or so into this impromptu banishment #frank goes 'wait. wally you can do the door portal thing' #and they all go OHHHH SHIT and start building their own door out of the ship's wood #oh hey... what if that island becomes an emergency escape / stash for the neighborhood... #tight spot? no where else to go? they have a remote island camp!

[nekioe]

A bit of writing based on the prompts forest and winter (maybe safety?? Forgot about it but it could count?)

Takes place a few days before the disc finale, c!Dream's pov

---

The blanket of white glitter on the ground, the serene snowfall descending from the sky, the dark sky and the moonlight. You stand there, quiet, in the middle of it all. The trees around you whisper with the wind, secrets about the word, the moon and the stars – or whatever trees would care about. You're not sure. The bird who built a nest in its canopy, maybe it felt proud of the safety it ensured.

You stand there, and the world is quiet. Anything beyond this glade is meaningless, forgettable. The wars, the conflicts, the expectations, they don't exist here. You're nothing but another creature in the woods. Like the hare who left its district trail in the snow, like the blackbird staring down on you, like the birch sapling, bending over backwards, weighted down by a thick layer of snow.

You step up and brush the snow away, and so the sapling stands again. You think it thanks you. You think, as you turn around and head back to the more livelier parts of this world, that it wishes you luck. That it wishes you to feel kind of peace again, soon. Come back, it says. You leave the glade and continue your walk through the trees.

The snow continues to fall, covering your tracks, the moon still shines above you. But you're not part of this kind of peace. There will be no time for serenity for you, not in a long while. There is a dark fortress looming over you, it casts its shadow where you walk. It will decide your fate, and you will not fight back. After that, maybe you'll come here again. You wonder if the birch would have grown stronger when you do.

#c!dream #pandora’s vault #dreblr #nekioe writing #fighting the urge to point out things i dislike here #remindning myself it doesn't need to be perfect because its just experience #pretty much put stuff i like abt winter togheter in this one #a bit of symbolism but i didn't think about it too much #i love sapplings that are weighted down by snow tho #think that they would make great portals and doors to magic worlds in fantasy books #also its fun to shake down the snow to help them stand up again

[winepresswrath]

You know how Lord of the Rings portal self inserts are an enduring classic? I feel like transmigrated into Celebrian could be a whole genre. It has it all! Romance, tragedy, jewelry, a powerful mind reading witch-mom who is likely to notice her daughter being possessed. You're a Princess(ish) with all of the attendant outfit opportunities. You may or may not be hanging out with Celebrimbor trying to avert tragedy, invent some kind of trans dimensional portal or at least figure out what happened to you. It's got the juice. If transmigrated into Celebrian is in fact a whole genre and i just missed it please pass the links.

#ah the small but crucial differences between #oh no i tripped and fell into a fantasy world #and oh no! i tripped and fell into an already existing person's body #in a fantasy world #tbh the straight up portal version has historically just been more popular in english speaking fandoms more generally but like #and i get it but tolkien has so much potential for the body grab! #both because there are so many characters we know relatively little about who are still fun/important/cool #and because for elves at least presumably the og is just chilling in mandos blissfully unaware that someone else is running around in their #body/life

[aparticularbandit]

Bearial: Chapter One

for @inklings-challenge

next chapter

Albert Ross was twelve years old the first time he saw the shimmering in the air.  It rippled like the water on the lake from summer camp, sparkled in the light quite the same way, and he wanted to go check and see what it was.  But his cousin Tommy was out playing with him, and he didn’t want Tommy to see it.  He told himself he would go back for it and check it out later, just him by himself, but when he went back later, the shimmering was gone. Over the next several weeks, every chance he had to get out into the woods, Albert looked for that shimmering again, but he never found it.

He did, however, lose Tommy.

Tommy was never the brightest of kids.  He was younger than Albert by about five years, which didn’t help, as far as Albert was concerned, but he was always excited by everything.  He had the brightest of blue eyes and the biggest of grins, and he loved the woods more than almost anything else, the one exception being maybe Albert, who he took with him every chance he got.  In fact, it was often Albert’s job to make sure that Tommy came back from the woods, and he’d gotten pretty good at it over the years.

Except that last time.

The easiest way to get Tommy to come out was the promise of a story.  Sometimes, it was best to start the story, because wherever Tommy was, he would always hear it, like a lost dog finding the scent of its owner on an abandoned blanket and curling up on it (and getting found).  On this particular day, Albert called out, over and over, and when Tommy didn’t appear, he started the story.  It was one that he’d been telling for months at this point, a sequential sort of thing, following the adventures of a boy named Timmy and his best friend Colbert, which would seem a lot more like Tommy and Albert if Colbert wasn’t a bear.

Tommy. loved. bears.

But no matter how much Albert said, no matter how much he searched, he couldn’t find Tommy.  It was like when he tried to find the shimmering rippling in the air a few days ago, only that might have been him just seeing something, and this was Tommy actually gone.

Albert hadn’t panicked.  Not at first.  He’d thought he just needed to try a new story, so he’d switched to something else.  Something all about animals, because Tommy loved animals, and someone who could talk to them and understand them, who used their friendship with animals to help smooth things over with—

Well, he didn’t actually get that far because then his parents were calling for him, and then he did start to get a little anxious, and then he went and told them that he couldn’t find Tommy, and then they got anxious and he finally started to panic.

They never found Tommy.  Just like Albert never found the shimmering again.

Until he did.

~

Albert was twenty-seven the next time he saw the shimmering again.

It wasn’t like his life had gone downhill after Tommy disappeared.  No one really blamed him.  At least, no one told him they blamed him, but he knew that they did – knew that Tommy’s parents blamed him for not keeping a better eye on him, knew that his parents blamed him for not calling for them sooner because maybe they would have found him, knew that it was so much easier for them to blame him than to think—

It didn’t matter.  He was okay with being blamed.  He spent most of his life blaming himself.

At twenty-seven, Albert was primed to take over his late father’s business. It shouldn’t have been a shock, his father’s passing, especially after the last few years of battling an illness that the doctors couldn’t name (or perhaps wouldn’t), but it still was.  And so Albert found himself in the woods again, just like he had so many times since Tommy’s disappearance, walking amongst the trees, his hands shoved into his pockets.

For a long while after Tommy’s disappearance, Albert hadn’t been allowed into the woods.  His parents were reasonably afraid that he would disappear somehow in the same way that Tommy had, and in their protectiveness, they’d forbidden him from going.  Of course, he’d still gone in anyway, against their wishes, because some part of him thought that maybe, just maybe, this time he would find Tommy.  Or at least some clue as to what might have happened to him.

As he got older, Albert told himself that he was going into the woods to protect other kids like he’d been, like Tommy had been, but he knew that wasn’t the case.  He couldn’t lie to himself then, either; he wasn’t going into the woods to look for Tommy anymore either.  They’d simply become the place he went when he was upset or frustrated or confused or hurt or just…needed some place to be that wasn’t anywhere else.  Some place to be where he could be alone, where he didn’t have to think.

For all that they should have been traumatic for him, the woods were a place of escape.  Just like they always should have been.

Now, it wasn’t that Albert didn’t want to take over his father’s business.  He’d basically been running it for the past few years, stepping in more and more as his father grew sicker and sicker.  In fact, he couldn’t even say that it was the recent, raw loss of his father that led to him walking through the woods at this particular time either.  Or maybe it was both of them, all of it combined together.  He couldn’t put words to it, which was why he was in the woods in the first place.  He didn’t need words in the woods.  Just himself, quietly walking.

Albert saw the shimmering before he noticed it, noticed it before he acknowledged it, just the slightest notice that something about the woods seemed off.  He found himself heading to it without even thinking about it, his feet crunching through freshly fallen leaves, and then looked up, noticed something in the air, and angled himself to it more properly.  It was only when he was a few feet from the shimmering that he realized it for what it was.

“Huh,” Albert said, and “Huh,” again.

The shimmering said nothing in reply, although whether that was because it could not was yet to be seen.

Albert stepped closer to the shimmering, and it rippled in the near moonlight.  Part of him wanted to think it had to do with fog or rain or mist, but for once in his life, none of those were happening.  Still, maybe it was just a trick of the light.  That could be the only explanation for why he was seeing it again here, now, when he hadn’t seen it in nearly fifteen years.  He stretched his hand out; his fingers just brushed the shimmering, but where they did, they disappeared as through a veil, only it didn’t feel like a veil.

He jumped back, pulling his hand towards him, and there his fingers were again, as though nothing had happened to them at all!  And, honestly, maybe nothing had happened to them.  They didn’t hurt or sting or quiver or anything.  It’s like....

Like nothing.

Albert stretches his hand out again, and this time, he pushes his whole arm through, leaves it there, and then walks to one side of the shimmering just to check.  But no, no, his arm is not coming through the other side.  It’s somewhere else.

And, now that he thinks about it, somewhere cold.

How odd.

When he pulls his arm back through, Albert sees something like snow and frost lifting the fine hairs on his skin before it melts entirely.  There’s never snow here, especially not at this time of year.  It’s too hot for that.  His brow furrows.  Well, if he can stick his arm in and bring it back out, then he should be fine going through it, shouldn’t he?  He should.

Albert glances back over his shoulder, sees no one in the woods, sees only shadows that seem to laugh at him.  He sets his jaw, turns, and walks through the shimmering.  He’d like to see snow at least once, after all.  His father never did.

#bandit fic #burial with albert ross #original fic #inklingschallenge #team lewis #genre: portal fantasy #theme: burial #story: incomplete #i'm sorry this is a little late #and i'm also sorry that it's incomplete #i think probably it just needs the next chapter and i'd rather it be read as one whole #i just #ended up not finishing it by posting time #and i'm truly sorry about that #><

[always-a-joyful-note]

may I also bring this contribution as you wander down the enstars rabbit hole (it's enstars characters and their supposed crimes)

OP I appreciate you so much, but I fear that you are trying to kill me? Just -

Just a few questions.....

- Why are Switch and the seniors of Ryuseitai and Wataru??? on kidnapping?? (wait, did he kidnap Hokuto is that it?) - Wait, what did Tetora and Sora DO? - Midori's in attempted murder?????? WHY??? - What's with forgery?? Why's that on there? Why am I questioning forgery when sexual harassment and murder are RIGHT there??? - Yeah, I still can't believe there's a literal idol duo who is also a mob group.... - "tried to break the windows with an iron pipe" what - of course Hokuto has the ultra specific one (I love him so much. Rich airhead princess to me, so far anyway). - Bullying for Subaru NO what have you DONE starshine boy??? - and at this point I've given up on getting mentally tortured by the others

I am eternally grateful for this list. Why did it have to exist? OP, come back here and let's just talk - actually. No, I desperately want to sit down with the writers and ask what they've experienced to do this.

#look i know the idol industry is not sunshine and starlight #but whats with it becoming a literal conglomerate and yazuka series? #the more i learn about this game the more im convinced that the writers really just spun a crazy roulette of any genres tropes #you have urban fantasy portal fantasy rpglit steampunk victorians nonsense literature historical fiction drama poetry etc etc #also detective fiction and war fiction and thats just the roulette of genres #stars i want to write like them #you guys in the fandom arent okay are you....you guys are all so nice giving me all this #but to let this get to my head youre also doing this to torture me specifically arent you? #my mind is already lost i dont know how i can lose it further #enstars #ensemble stars #fandom spamdom #things i find funny #stuff i say #this reminds me of my bsd starting days #i was so in denial that i was into bsd because it was so insane and unreal #and somehow a slice-of-life idol media is equally as unhinged and deranged i hate and love it here #(but in all honesty thank you for the ask op! it's SO fun to see people engage with each other in this fandom) #coincidentally i am pretty sure ive also blocked the most tags in this fandom because youre all insane (affectionate...i think?)

[texeoghea]

when youve changed so much from your origins as to be nearly unrecognizable

#my art #doodles #fantasy noir #joaquin halison duarte-mendez #seifer #I STILL GET . KIND OF EMOTIONAL OVER THE ORIGINAL STORY OF DESTINATIONS SOMETIMES #ive repurposed it all. destinations is the name of my pokemon au now #all of the characters are adults with jobs living in a city #but sometimes i still think about it in terms of when i was 12 #and they were all kids who fell through a magical portal into another world and they got all these magic powers #and they lived in a big house in a forest where a time god was sleeping and when she woke up she would send them home #but for that summer they got to have amazing adventures that would only be dreams once they went back so they had to make the most of it #it was a messy story. but it meant a lot to me. i think about it still #i still need to come up with an actual name for this new version of them too it cant just be fantasy noir . i cant just call it that

[pyrriax]

i love realizing just how flexible the concept of "betrayal" is.

(also i realized just how good this song is)

#haunted ecosystem #this is what happens when i realize i can make a prompt about one of my favorite things to happen in s4 #LIKE. its so easy to just do one of the obvious betrayals. #but what about something framed as almost-love. that HONESTLY is so fucking horrible and i cannot believe people dont write about it #like i get that the casino is the catalyst and will forever be The Thing but cmonnn.... #also the wiki is so bad. i dont want to take over trying to update it because i do Not hae that kind of energy #i think there's a special kind of horror in the destruction of how minecraft worlds are supposed to be. bedrock out of place in survival an #broken end portals and just. all of those things. there's a line between acceptably impossible and repulsively impossible. #the kind of repulsion that draws players in with a sick fascination. how deep does that kind of rot run? #(players in the sense of the cubitos not the actual Players. i like thinking about minecraft physics and mechanics in the actual world sens #because i love fantasy way too much for my own good. i have so many headcanons for the way the world [server] that supports lifesteal works #haunted bookshelf #<- because of this tag rambling lol #Spotify

[fictionadventurer]

Beauty and the Beast is my least favorite fairy tale to retell because the vibes are always the same and it’s way too overdone and there’s no mystery to the plot, except for the times when it’s my favorite because that familiar vibe is exquisite and exactly what I want right now.

#adventures in writing #fairy tale retellings #beauty and the beast #looking at my drafts brought me to the batb comic #which so far is traditional but good #which made me reread 'a day late' and my sci-fi batb #and come up with a vibe-filled if incomplete idea for a portal fantasy take #which was just enough to provide a pleasant daydream and distract from writing time #the vibes are so good guys #and i'm thinking i could weave in some 'little way' thoughts about love #and keep it relatively short to keep the plot from getting in the way of the vibes #but i gotta keep it in the background because i *also* just got renewed inspiration for my real inklings idea #i always thought that my backup ideas would be space travel ideas because i like sci fi too #but it turns out that i just love portal fantasy too much

[icewindandboringhorror]

I hate the idea of “modernized” adaptations.. if anything we should do the opposite.. take a popular show from 2015 and remake it set in the 1850s or 1400s or something.. it’s about the COSTUMES, it’s about the settings...!! i see fucking iphones and skinny jeans and mcdonalds and automobiles every day of my life.. it’s boring!!!! WHERE are the people in long velvet cloaks.. the elaborate architecture.. the showcase of previously forgotten technology and culture relevant to the time period.... 

#I can't think of a single show that I wouldn't like MORE if it were set in either a historical or a fantasy world #(so long as it had an actual budget and the 'historical fashion' wasn't like.. a prom dress from JC penny or something) #even reality tv shows #I would love a mockumentary style fake 'reality tv' (since it's actually actors doing improv not real people) version of like #bad girls club set in the 1600s or like in a fantasy setting ghvghvgfh #NOTHING.. NOTHING can not be improved by simply setting it in a time and place that is not our own #n o t h i n g #and EVERYTHING can be made worse by setting it in modern times #i have had ENOUGH of modern times.. i fucking LIVE here #let's see something else for a change PLEASE #I don't want to hear a character talk about TikTok... they should be talking about Telegram or Treacherous Magic Portal #Of Communication. #All characters are instantly made better with the knowledge that jeff bezos does not exist to them and none of them have #ever sent a text or rode in a car #(single exception is like 1890s-1910s automobiles that look funny and ONLY if they're a very minor part of the setting OR in a fantasy world #(like.. orcs that actually have cars but it's that type of car gjbjhhj... I like the idea of elevanting fantasy technology in a world #beyond the typical like weird medieval sort of vibes where some groups DO have tech similar to the real world but just older or worse #or weirder versions. elves have basic telegrams and are figuring out glass plate photography. vampires are trying to master #flight at the moment and they keep failing and just sending people off the edge of cliffs to explode. etc. etc. ghbhjb) #ANYWAY .. you get what i mean ghbhj #I'm still trying to go through every media I've ever watched and think if any of them would be worse set in a historical or fantasy #world and I can't think of any.. ultimate improvement tool (again. with the assumption that it's actually handled WELL with a thought out #researched world and decent budget. etc.) #*watching masterchef or something completely average* wow what if everyone was in baroque costumes instead.. this would be better #somehow.. surely the cooking would be improved

[marypsue]

I think maybe, in general terms, I just don’t really enjoy constructed-world fantasy unless it is also funny.

#was thinking about books I have picked up and enjoyed and books I have looked at and gone 'that does not appeal to me in the slightest' #and like. I like a good urban fantasy. I like a good portal fantasy. heck I like the Shannara series. #but as soon as the entire action takes place in an alternate world and all the characters are natives of that world I kinda. lose interest #if it doesn't SOMEhow ground itself in the reality I'm familiar with #*griffin mcelroy voice* UNLESS. #it is a discworld novel. or gideon the ninth which I really liked up until the end. or another satirical fantasy series I really liked as a #*teen the name of which escapes me #or TAZ balance which arguably is both funny *and* grounded in Our Reality #or LOTR or DoL which are special exceptions #and it's funny bc like up until now if asked I would say 'oh I love fantasy!' and it's true #i just. love it if it is somehow in conversation with my actual reality. #(beyond like the. ~emotional realism~ of it all.) #OR. it is very very funny. #idk maybe I'm just bored of Extruded Fantasy Product but I don't think that's it exactly #maybe I am just lazy and hate having to pay attention to worldbuilding

[kingsmedley]

@abstractreign asked: Are there any forms of creative media that Joshua prefers to consume more than others— such as reading novels or poetry over, say, watching shows? How often does he watch movies? How about playing video games, or reading manga? Is he the kind to listen to podcasts, or drama CDs? And so on.

Highness leans towards books and tv shows. He reads nonfiction and noir novels the most, though's he's by no means restrictive, and the shows he watch tend to be a bit lighter: children's shows (because he genuinely likes them) and reality/game shows (because he likes condescendingly laughing at the people on them). He doesn't watch movies very often, but he may cave for the purpose of understanding pop culture in Shibuya. Same with video games; he does play them occasionally and is a fan of Mario Kart, but he prefers physical games like chess and Tin Pin. He also listens to true crime podcasts.

Leeky's taste is pretty different. He's open to anything and everything because he's so bored a lot of the time, but he loves fantasy novels, especially portal fantasy. His favorite book is In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan--which he read in English because he likes the extra challenge of reading books in English. He's more inclined to video games and manga, as well, but doesn't watch a lot of movies and shows because of his restricted internet access.

#let me see you show your fangs || asks #abstractreign #nothing more than an empty ghost || headcanons #'how do you know leeky's favorite book?' i fucked up in a thread and decided to make it canon 👍 #i could talk about why he likes that book in specific tho because it isn't even the one i accidentally referenced in a thread #it's just by the same author lmao #but it really seems like wish fulfillment for him and that's one of the big reasons why he's into portal fantasy

[mrtheinsatiable]

Me, excited to design a cool setting for writing fun: what if the planet has 2 suns and 3 moons

Me 3 hours later: okay so if the planet is orbiting one star in a binary system, how often and for how long would there be two separate suns on either side of the planet (taking into account the orbit of both the planet and the second star around the primary star) and how would that affect the climate/types of plants that would grow/how people would build and live? Also with three moons, how would the tides be affected and at what intervals? We'll have to calculate the orbits of all 3 moons and where they are in relation to each other around the planet at any given time, since when they're all on the same side we're getting apocalyptic tides but when they're all spread out there might barely be a tide at all and we need to know the tide schedule to know how people are going to interact with the ocean. Also how am I going to justify people being here because this is supposed to be a fantasy setting not sci-fi and I want more of a men/elves/other fantasy people situation than an alien situation but there's just no way a human like species would evolve on a planet that can't sustain tree like growth because it's being flavor blasted by 2 suns for roughly 107 days of the year (I did do the math. Very basic rough math but enough to get what I needed) and sure most readers will probably be willing to suspend disbelief in favor of a cool setting but also it will bother me if it doesn't all make sense

#maybe post space age apocalyptic fantasy? #maybe the original society developed their magic enough to be adapted to space travel #or maybe they figured out how to open a portal to another planet or smth #but they got a bit ahead of themselves with the planet they chose/the way they decided to develop and society got its shit rocked hard #not even a dramatic apocalypse because everything else on the planet is operating the way it's supposed to #just a collapse of humanoid civilization #in which case it would probably have to be the spacecraft option over the portal option so there's a reason they can't just pop on home #now I'm gonna have to read about the science of long distance space travel and adapt that to magical means #also a lot of other things #still not done with the math for the lunar cycles #i wish there was a calculator for that

[phantomrose96]

Extremely generic, typical isekai anime where the main character is a high school boy who's so good at video games in his day-to-day life, but people don't respect gamers :( so he's a loser :( ...until he ends up isekai'd into a fantasy world that RUNS on video game logic.

Except this main character is a speed runner.

World record holding speed runner.

Elf-woman in the introductory episode shares the long, sad history of her realm at odds with the Demon Lord and his reign. She looks up just as she's about to describe the moment the Demon Lord killed her husband, and main character is... gone.

Several many fields away.

Naked as the day god made him because equipping the intro clothes takes 3 seconds between menu opening and character re-rendering.

The Wall of the Unfathomable, which has sealed these villagers within their own walls for generations unknown, sees its first breach in a millennium as Main Character scales it ass-backwards clipping and ragdolling up its scaffolding by abusing the collision detection logic and its impact on speed reversal.

NPCs launch into speeches which bewilder and confuse even them because they should NOT be saying anything about the deep sacred mana that can defeat the Dark Demon Lord but the fucker standing in front of him in tighty-whiteys with a level 99 helmet and the Hero Sceptor (which he should NOT have yet but) is compelling the NPC for reasons they cannot begin to comprehend.

The Demon Lord is alerted by holographic message from his most trusted underling that some disturbance has just rippled through from Elf Realm and that some portal may have just opened from the human world, which warrants some caution as the prophesied hero is said to--cut off by the MC catapulting past all 18 floors of Demon Tower security using the infinite speed jump glitch and one-shotting the Demon Lord with a single rag-doll spastic thrust through his heart which launches the Demon Lord along with MC into a 500mph spiral into the stratosphere... And somewhere, the end credits play.

#chrissy speaks