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spell-cleaver · 3 years

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Astrophilia

This is my project for @star-wars-wlweek!

Leia and Qi'ra can fight others and each other with words and weapons easily enough, but trust in themselves is harder to come by, and may be what keeps them apart.

Or: five universes in which they almost, but not quite, find each other, and one universe where they do.

Read it on AO3 or FFN instead.

Day 1: Gay Awakening | Pirate AU

The gay awakening in this isn’t quite as clear as I wanted it to be, nor is the gay super clear; I’m not great at writing romance. I hope you enjoy it anyway :D

In one universe of many, Qi’ra boarded a covert attack ship named the Striker.

Bring me the little rich rat, Lady Proxima had told Qi’ra, her decadent jewellery glinting in the dim, murky light of her pool. If there were any rich rats around here, Qi’ra couldn’t help but think, it was her. She and her senator father want to ‘clean us up,’ drive out the gangs. She needs taking care of.

Not necessarily murder, she knew, though Qi’ra had certainly done worse in her years of servitude. Han, the big softie, never liked the dirtier jobs, but Qi’ra still had her eyes on the role of enforcer and she wouldn’t get that if she played nice. Whatever Proxima wanted done to this Princess of Alderaan, she would do it.

Better her than Qi’ra.

And the job came with some perks, as well. She’d been allowed into a ship off-planet for the first time ever. Corellia was putrid on the ground level, but seeing it from above was a different matter: seas of grey-green waste, textured tumbles of built-up civilisation that had been run down three centuries ago, the white-capped poles blemished with black and grey.

Everyone around her was oohing and aahing at the skies and the million stars that Corellia’s piss-coloured lights washed away. But Qi’ra kept her eyes on the planet below.

She had never seen another world but she knew her own was a shit hole. There was no point forgetting that—especially when she had a job to do.

Corellia’s junkyard that passed for rings was an ideal place to hide a scrappy pirate ship, bartered from the Hutts and fixed up with spit and miracles. Qi’ra fingered the small blaster she’d been trusted with for this mission, gripping the accompanying stun baton tightly.

Han shot her a grin from the co-pilot’s seat but she ignored it. The Worms’ primary pilot grunted at him to focus.

Qi’ra focused too. The Tantive IV, the diplomatic ship captained by Raymus Antilles, owned by Senator Bail Organa, used by Princess Leia Organa on her numerous sanctimonious relief missions. Corellia, as one of Alderaan’s nearest neighbours, was getting the brunt of some of her efforts first, and if she managed to get enough relief and policing there, she might even shut down the White Worms.

They couldn’t do that. Qi’ra had fought so hard, all these years, to be where she was now. She wouldn’t lose it.

The Tantive IV winked into realspace on the edge of Corellian airspace and Han hacked their comms with barely a thought.

“—Princess Leia Organa, here for the scheduled relief mission—”

Even her voice was pretentious and fake. She’d be easy to kidnap, then hopefully easy for Proxima to intimidate. Actually, killing a Core world princess might be problematic politically, but it was amazing what the Empire would turn a blind eye to if they didn’t like the politician.

Tank, the Aqualan leader of the mission, grunted his instructions. “Attack. Now.”

Han jammed the Tantive’s comms. Qi’ra finally replied to his grin with a grim smile as he patted her on the shoulder, then stood with the boarding team as the Striker careened towards the Tantive and opened fire.

The next few minutes were a blur. The ships jerked as they connected, the Striker seizing the Tantive’s airlock like a snake seized a rat between its jaws. Qi’ra rocked with the motion and was one of the first fighters on the ground when the doors hissed open.

They met fierce resistance from the bodyguards. Bolts flew, blew molten plasma across the metal walls, but there were more intruders than defenders and soon they were retreating back down the corridor, shooting haphazardly over their shoulders.

“Secure the escape pods!” came Tank’s shout. “Locate the target!”

Qi’ra sprinted down the corridor and took the first left where everyone else fanned out across the ship. A few men Qi’ra didn’t know followed her. She kept an eye on them as she went: one blue-skinned Twi’lek and one gruff human. She trusted neither of them not to try to steal glory for themselves, but she could take them if they did.

They came upon the first escape pod and shot the controls, disabling it. Then the next. Then the next. The engine room and other guts of the ship expanded on their right, and it took everything in her not to jump at shadows.

She did jump when the bolt came.

It struck the human man in the chest; he went down instantaneously. Qi’ra whipped her head around and returned fire, forcing the attacker to retreat to where their aim was less deadly.

The Twi’lek wasn’t so wise. He grunted and barged forwards, punching out shots in a rapid staccato, but in a few moments he was nailed in the lek, then the forehead. Qi’ra grimaced at the splatter of blood and brains.

That was a mistake. Her moment of distraction saw her attacker dive with range again; they shot right through her ponytail and left her hair a sticky mess. She did the only thing she could do: she brawled.

They weren’t expecting her to leap. Qi’ra’s fist landed right in a chest—where she’d thought the abdomen would be, but her attacker was smaller than expected. She used that: yanked them towards her, under the glaring lights, before they could shoot again.

She stared.

Her assailant—a young woman with intricate braids and a stony expression—pulled herself up to her full, diminutive height and glared.

She was, Qi’ra hated to admit, highly attractive.

She brought up her blaster. Qi’ra kicked it out of her grip and was backhanded for her troubles. Small hands gripped her own blaster fiercely and she twisted away, snarled—tossed the blaster aside rather than give it up. It scattered into the next escape pod.

The woman—Princess Organa, it had to be—dived for it. Qi’ra tackled her. They rolled across the floor, faces inches apart, and Qi’ra tried to fight the paralysis when they locked eyes.

She lifted her hands to punch again, but Organa gripped her wrists.

“Who are you people,” she hissed. “Why are you attacking!?”

“I just need another mission under my belt, Princess,” Qi’ra grunted, trying to free herself. Organa’s grip was strong. “’Else I’m back out on the streets.”

“That’s why we’re here, I’m here to help—”

“I can’t trust help from a stranger.”

“Then get out of my way.”

Organa struck Qi’ra across the face and she fell to the side, cursing. She scrambled for the escape pod.

“Oh no you don’t,” she hissed, but Organa already had the blaster. Qi’ra leapt in after her and rolled to duck the bolt that soared past her ear.

It struck the button to detach instead.

No.

Organa smiled grimly and pulled a lever. The airlock disengaged. They were floating in space, untethered.

“I have no interest in being captured by whoever you work for,” Organa spat.

“Captured? Pah. Lady Proxima just wants you and your relief efforts out of the way.” Qi’ra eyed the blaster but didn’t dive for it again. She glanced at the controls, the ship—the shots from the Striker just missing their pod. “We had orders to fire on any escape pods that were released.”

Organa went white. “You’re saying we’re going to die.”

“You’ve killed us both, yeah.”

Organa swore in a language Qi’ra didn’t know. “I hate you.”

“It’s mutual, trust me.”

“I don’t trust you.”

“Likewise.”

“But sit your sorry backside down there.” Organa grabbed her arm and frogmarched her to the only seat in the escape pod. “And steer.”

“Steer?”

“I’m going to escaped this. I want to live.” Organa eyed the Tantive and the Striker getting smaller with every spiralling moment. Bright shots shattered out from them and puckered their hull. “My question is: do you?”

When Qi’ra laid hands on the controls, they were hot and shaking under her touch.

#qi'ra #leia organa #leia x qi'ra #starwarswlweek2021 #my writing #random words on a page #astrophilia #flash fiction #flash fiction: star wars

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wearetakingthehobbitstogallifrey · 4 years

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Kdrama recs Part 2

Hello @camsthisky and anyone else who cares! I do apologize for the delay on this post--it has only been 84 years since Part I of my kdrama recs, I know, and I thought about going for a full century but this is me finding a way to de-stress after watching the first episode of I-Land alkdjfadlksj I’m gonna die of heartbreak but whatever

Speaking of heartbreak, there is a lot to be found in Korea’s wonderful historical dramas, so like, be warned—or, if you are an angst-loving monster like me, settle down for hot guys and good cries

Let us begin! (or, if you want romantic modern dramas see Part 1)

1. Scarlet Heart Ryeo/Moonlovers:

aha ahahahahahaha *weeps* You may have heard people talk about this show. You may have heard ME talk about this show. This thing was my first kdrama ever and it RUINED ME

Disclaimer: I have seen this show once and rewatched it twice and on the rewatches I can never quite make myself watch the last 4 or 5 episodes because things get tragic and messy and I get mad. HOWEVER there is a lot of good in the first part of the show and because this thing was all the rage in everywhere but Korea itself, there’s like over 300 fanfic for it and several good fix-its, including one by my good friend @thelonelybrilliance

Ok so anyway this show which could also be called An Abundance of Princes starts with a young woman from modern times getting thrown back into ancient Goryeo during an eclipse and finds herself in the body of Hae Soo, the cousin of the wife of one of the princes, and thus she gets embroiled in royal affairs which are, quite frankly, a mess. See, the evil eyeliner prince (whom I love even when he’s the worst) is plotting with his mom to get the Crown Prince out of the way aka dead BUT who should return to the Palace but the 4th Prince, Wang So, who has spent at least half his life living as hostage to a powerful family.

So has a scar that cuts across his eye and which in this society makes him a horror to look at or smthing idk he just looks extra hot to me but anyway he wears a mask and is known as the wolf dog (or as the MURDER ANGST CUPCAKE thanks @abadpoetwithdreams). He might seem a little rough around the edges at first because his life has been hell but he really just wants to love and be loved okay people need to be nice to him wtf

Other princes include:

1. the Crown Prince, Wang Mu, a good egg, not particularly charismatic but he tried to protect his lil bro when no one else would

2. the 8th prince, Wang Wook, who reminds me of a fellow named Shane and I don’t mean the cowboy

3. the 10th prince, Wang Eun, a dumb adorable spoiled bby (played by Baekhyun from EXO)

4. the 13th prince, Baek Ah, a tol soft boi, an artist, a BAE, a BRO, a SHIPPER ON DECK

5. the 14th prince, Wang Jung this son will fight everyone he’ll fight himself he just loves to fight! Not always wise but he’s a good boy and I like him a lot

6. just realized I skipped the 9th prince but nobody cares

One quick note is that IU plays Hae Soo, and I enjoy her a lot in the first half of the show where she is still spunky and rebellious...sadly her character kind of falls apart/gets too weak for my liking as the episodes progress

The MAIN reason why I feel it my duty to recommend this show to everyone despite the fact I have never met anyone who wasn’t traumatized by it is LEE JOON GI

Yes, this man:

I mentioned him in the previous rec post—he played Bong Sang Pil in Lawless Lawyer (AND IS NOW CURRENTLY STARRING IN FLOWER OF EVIL WHICH WILL BE ON ANOTHER POST AHDFOIASDHGALDSKJF FRIQ I AM IN LOVE WITH THAT MAN)

BUT SERIOUSLY LOOK AT HIS PHOENIX EYES!!! HIS RAZOR SHARP FEATURES! HIS BIG ADORABLE EARS! HIS BEAUTIFUL EXCESSIVE BANGS! 4TH PRINCE WANG SO LOVE OF MY LIFE

SOMEONE PROTECT THIS BBY

2. Hwarang: Ok so right off the bat I am going to smack down a disclaimer that I can’t stand the female lead. TRULY CANNOT. Thus, I don’t like the romance, and only care about the love triangle as far as it just shows how sad and lonely one of the guys is. (Also there are scenes of dumb old men plotting and I don’t like them either). At the end of the show, I am happy that the one guy is NOT stuck with the female lead as his wife. Good for you sir

Sounds like a show to steer clear of then, right? WRONG. This is a show that you skip through because the scenes that are good? Are GREAT

Picture this: It is the Silla era of Korea, and the queen is ruling as regent in place of her son, who has been hiding all his life because everyone wants to kill him. Well, son is now grown and must soon come into the light and take the throne. Queen who both wants her son as king but also really likes being queen decides to do everyone a favor and form an elite fighting squad out of all the prettiest and most talented sons of nobles in the land, with the idea that they will be loyal only to the throne, and thereby keep their dads from plotting to destroy everything.

Let me tell you something, these ARE the prettiest boys in the land. Good hair, good jawlines, beautiful smiles—the cast lineup includes Park Hyung Sik and his cute lil elf ear, Park Seo Joon, Taehyung (yes from BTS!), and Choi Minho from Shinee, plus two other actors who are lesser known but who are drop-dead gorgeous. Anyway. Sorry, but they really are all beautiful.

The fun thing is they don’t all get along right away, a few of them are VERY much opposed to the other for various reasons, but they all have to bond and become brothers in arms. And what they don’t know is that the real king snuck in and is one of them. 10/10 I would die for the boys! (also Tae has an older half-brother who is a lower rank than him but whom he looks up to and that makes for cuteness and pain) Once you skip the boring or annoying parts of the show, the rest has so much delight, laughter, and oops pain, lots of pain. I want to go re-watch.

Two other things I should mention about the show: a super soft side romance between secondary characters and a game of, as they call it in the show, HOT SOCCER

^pretty boy 1 (with the cute elf ear sadly on the other side of his head)

^pretty boy 2 (sad cheekbone bby) and pretty boy 3 (happy cheekbone bby)

^pretty boy 4 (the prettiest of them all, and he knows it!)

^pretty boy 5 (aka Taehyung danced around the set of a historical drama and made everyone adopt him as their bby)

3. Faith/The Great Doctor: This is a longer kdrama at 24 episodes and they didn’t have much of a budget so special effects aren’t the best or anything but I just got really attached to all the characters? This is another modern girl goes back in time but UNLIKE SHR it actually has a happy ending, so if you need a historical drama cleanse after that tearjerker/enrager, this could be it for you

Eun Soo has to navigate the ancient kingdom, keep people believing she is a heavenly doctor with special powers, and keep Choi Young alive so he can fulfill his promise of returning her to her own time. The problem with that is Choi Young does have kind of a death wish because of reasons—

Eun Soo is a plastic surgeon who would really like a rich handsome husband one day but them’s the breaks for you, aka she has had no luck in that department. Back in ancient Korea, Choi Young (played by Lee Minho in sadly the only role I really love him in) is a high-ranking beloved captain who can fall asleep anywhere. Oh he can also make electricity with his hands! :D

The story begins when the sleepy sad captain tries to escort the new king and queen to their palace. This was during the time period when ancient Korea was basically a puppet kingdom/tributary of ancient China (Yuan). The king (who is very smol and lacks confidence, but still has a good heart for his country) lived as a hostage in Yuan for many years, and his wise tol queen is a princess of that land, and someone needs to sit them down and make them talk because they actually love each other a lot. Anyway, when the queen gets injured by assassins, Choi Young goes searching for a legendary doctor, winds up in modern Korea, and steals both Eun Soo and a SWAT shield, because hey, it looked cool I guess

Lots of fun things in the show: Choi Young has a crew of soldiers who are BEYOND loyal to him, and while he doesn’t think much of the king at first because he’s been burned by kings before, they slowly become bros and shippers on deck for each other. Eun Soo does not lose her spunk or loyalty unlike other people I could mention *cough*HaeSoofromScarletHeartRyeo*, and it cracks me up when she curses people out. There are also a bunch of people (mostly bad guys) running around with special powers or gifts, including a flame lady and a flute boy, and the latter wears delightful anime wigs, keeps his sword in his flute, and plays his flute to kill—literally! I love flute boy very much

sorry it’s black and white but DO YOU SEE THE SWAT SHIELD

4. My Country: A New Age:

ANGST ANGST ANGST PAAAAAIN BUT ALSO BEST INTRO BEST FAVES BEST ACTORS

Picture this: two young men, who both hail from childhoods of trauma, who grew up together and are best friends, and who are tragically forced apart and end up on opposite sides of a conflict that threatens to upend the current rule of the kingdom. This IS the star-crossed brotp you’ve been waiting for!

Seo Hwi is the son of a general who died a criminal, and all he wants is to live simply and earn enough rice take care of his younger sister, who has seizures and a sweet crush on Hwi’s bestie. Hwi is the best softest most loyal boy with a good and true heart, a great deal of courage, and a talent for wielding a sword, and just wait till you see the best one-shot fight scene ever of him in battle, it is INCREDIBLE! (He is played by Yang Se Jong, who I now want to see more of) Hwi has an abundance of charisma points in that he picks up a small band of loyal soldier friends and they become the best little found family, lots of brotp-ness in this crew—do not mess with any of them because they will all FIGHT you

Seon Ho meanwhile is the illegitimate despised son of a powerful nobleman, only tolerated because the legitimate son died. Seon Ho loves his friend and is very protective of his friend’s little sister who crushes on him but his dad is a high class grade A power-hungry jerk and that causes complications of course. Seon Ho also has a good heart, he’s a gentle soul really, but he always gets stuck in bad positions and unfortunately makes a couple of difficult/bad choices so he hardens himself as much as he can but the consequences always kill him and he just wants to save his friends and destroy his dad and the stupid hierarchy that treats bastards as lesser. WHY IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?

Seon Ho he is played by Woo Do Hwan who has so much talent I die so many times over in this show just because of the way he portrays Seon Ho like that sad sad boy is one of my favorite characters evER! Is he problematic? At times maybe but I am HERE for him he just needs LOVE AND AFFECTION AND AN ABUNDANCE OF GOOD FRIENDS BUT INSTEAD (SOMETIMES THRU HIS OWN FAULT BUT HE ADMITS THAT) HE JUST SUFFERS AND SO I SUFFERRRR

*grabs a towel and dries up my tears*

Hwi also falls in love with a woman named Hui Jae (or was it Hee Jae i can’t remember) and they are very cute together, she’s pretty cool but the show’s one failing is arguably that they kind of underuse her in the plot as the story goes on? But I still like her and she still has a good role, and she is both brave and kind and not afraid to step in or tell people off, also keep a weather eye open for patching up scenes!

Oh yeah, eVERYONE in this gets hurt/stabbed/shot/bloody, such a shame they have to take their shirts off to clean and bandage the wounds ;)

Last character I must mention is Bang Won, played by Jang Hyuk in his second interpretation of the historical figure. Bang Won is the fifth? son of the guy who becomes emperor/king, and he has his own plans for the country, so when Hwi catches his eye, he recruits him to his cause. What you need to know about him is that he has issues with his dad, is slightly unhinged, and cannot and should not be parted from the fan that he constantly carries around with him. Gotta say, Jang Hyuk is FANTASTIC (heheheheheheh) in the role, able to convey all kinds of emotion in the rise and fall of his voice, in the tilt of his head, the tears of his eyes, the flick of his fan. Give this actor all the awards!

To sum up: if you like to cry for days after watching a drama, if you like excellent heart-wrenching brotps, if you like conflicted characters, if you like amazing music and setting and plot, if you like guys with good hair and arm muscles (and

abs, thank you shirtless scenes what) this show is a Must Watch

DID I SAY STAR-CROSSED BROTP I MEANT SWORD-CROSSED BROTP ADKJFADLSKJFLKJDFALKDGKLJL </3

Ok I was going to leave the historical drama post at this for now but...I’m going to cheat a little and include the one historical C!drama I just finished.Yes folks I am talking about:

5. Nirvana in Fire:

Ok so maybe the switch from kdrama to cdrama makes you uncertain. Maybe the fact that this show has FIFTY-FOUR EPISODES makes you go hell no I don’t have enough time for that. Well if you overlook this show for those reasons, you are making, and I do not exaggerate, the greatest mistake of your show-watching life!

Look, first, this drama has one of the best, most intricate, most satisfying plots in history, with like 20 characters you would die for, and second, the episodes are only about 42 minutes each, which is shorter than most kdrama episodes, so you can deal.

Once upon a time there was a general/family who were just too good to exist in corrupt old China, so naturally they were framed for treason and there was a giant massacre and everybody died, including the eldest prince who was like um dad maybe this is all a horrible mistake and the king was like no u are the mistake. Sad times.

One of the many younger princes named Jing (A NOBLE HEART, if not always the cleverest) returns home from wherever he was, finds out that not only did his prince brother die, but so did his best friend/brother in the whole wide world, Lin Shu, son of the general. Because he insists on the innocence of said bros/family, Jing becomes an outcast prince and is shuffled off to fight in wars where he can’t cause any trouble. Meanwhile, Princess Nihuang, Lin Shu’s brave, awesome, amazing, wise, incredible girlfriend, refuses to marry anyone else, and because she is too cool to be messed with, nobody tries to banish her

Cut to I think eleven years later, when the two most powerful princes are vying to be the crown prince and heir to the throne. They both try to recruit the aid of a renowned clever and sassy strategist named Mei Changsu, to help them with plotting and PR and such.

Well little do they know that Mei Changsu is actually the not-dead Lin Shu, with a completely new face (for reasons), and that Mei Changsu is a chess master setting up a long con for the dual purpose of obtaining revenge/justice for the dead and of raising Prince Jing to the throne, since Prince Jing is the only man with a good enough heart and strong enough will to make China a better place for all the people. But just to make it hard on everybody, Mei Changsu is dead set on not telling anyone who he really is—again, for reasons. He is not always successful in keeping his secret.

I literally don’t know what else to say because there is so MUCH to say, so many characters to love, and I mean LOVE. How do you get a cast this good? How is everyone so different yet so important? How do you feel bad for the emperor even when he’s slimy? How do you have to stop yourself from rooting for the prince who would destroy some of your faves? I can’t praise the charisma and acting talent in this show enough! And the music! IS GORGEOUS!

1 strategist too sassy for his own good and too clever for everyone else’s good + 1 prince who loves his mom and his dead best friend and his dead older brother more than anything else in the world + 1 gentle wise mom + 1 eternally loyal princess who would defend her loved ones with the sword if necessary + 1 sassy Elrond healer man + 1 grumpy sulky baby who loves being a better fighter than almost everyone + 1 loyal to the death, brave badass general who is going to have a stress breakdown if the strategist doesn’t take better care of himself + not 1 but 2 good boys who deserve to be protected but who are willing to throw themselves into battle if necessary + 1 antagonist tiger prince who I love and am not ashamed to say it = THE BEST OF TIMES

^he hardly ever wears his hair down but when he does <33333333

*checks calendar* how soon is too soon rewatch something, asking for a friend

#kdrama recommendations #scarlet heart ryeo #hwarang #faith: the great doctor #my country: the new age #nirvana in fire #my kdrama recs #historical kdramas #plus one cdrama #i went overboard on gifs sorry not sorry

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optimisticsprinkles · 4 years

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Webcomics I Love

Eleceed - If you like cats and action and humor and need a wholesome smile, try this. Every new update leaves me feeling warm and happy. The main character is a cinnamon roll who brings home a “stray” cat that is actually the most powerful superpowered guy in the world (who is stuck in the body of a fat cat; though he can still talk). Cinnamon Roll loves cats and feeds the local strays, and he has super speed but didn’t know other powered people existed. And everyone ends up adoring him because he’s the most cinnamon rolly of cinnamon rolls.

Cursed Princess Club - Gwen's family and kingdom love her and unironically think she’s beautiful, even though her appearance is terrifying. (She is an amazing person.) The story is a comedy, mostly, but also follows Gwen’s plunging self-esteem when she finds out she’s ugly. When she bumps into the Cursed Princess Club, it welcomes her with open arms and helps her with advice and affection as she tries to navigate her new perception of herself. Her family remains loving and (mostly) oblivious that anything is wrong with their sweet Gwen.

Midnight Poppy Land - Poppy accidentally stumbles across an infamous missing notebook full of mob secrets without realizing it, and the only one who suspects this is the (sexy) big bad mob enforcer, Tora. Poppy is exactly Tora’s type, and he tries to investigate her without tipping his hand either to her or his boss that she might have the notebook. If she does have it, she’s not aware, but his affection for her grows as he continues to spend time with her, trying to find it. If his sadistic boss ever suspects the truth, though, Poppy will have a target on her back, and Tora will have to choose between his mob loyalty and the girl he’s falling for.

Lore Olympus - (Warning: Themes of Sexual Trauma) A Hades and Persephone retelling with distinctive art and a complex cast of characters in a setting where traditional myth is meshed with modern trappings. Persephone is away from her mother for the first time and trying her best to navigate this new world. She’s going to college on a scholarship from the Sisterhood of Eternal Maidens, sharing an apartment with Artemis, and is expected to remain a virgin. Though she is briefly preyed upon by a pushy young god, she finds herself gravitating toward Hades, who is kind and powerfully attracted to her. Hades, however, holds himself back because she’s so young and he’s already involved with someone else. Hades runs the underworld, but in a modernized context where his office building is in the midst of the more traditional underworld. Persephone works as an intern at the company, and office jealousies and corporate backstabbing make everything more complicated. Also, Hades has a bunch of dogs and is adorable with them. The comic is sometimes dark, sometimes amusing, and always heartfelt.

Punderworld - Another Hades and Persephone story, this time with our lovebirds dancing around each other for a few hundred years of mutual interest. Demeter is overprotective, Hades is shy, Persephone is pining, and Zeus is a meddling dumbass. This artist is one of my favorites, style-wise, and her sense of humor is exactly my kind of dorky.

Blood Stain - By the same artist as Punderworld, Blood Stain is about a young woman (Elly) who goes to work for a creeeepy chemist in a creeepy house who runs around with blood and/or ketchup stains on his lab coat at all times. Elly’s imagination runs away with her thanks to the power outages, creepiness, and murder vibe the whole situation gives off, but the reality is that everything is actually harmless. This comic is such a perfect blend of comedy, horror, and dorkiness that I own the physical comic book versions. We’ve been promised romance eventually, but honestly I’d be happy with or without.

#Punderworld #Blood Stain #Lore Olympus #Cursed Princess Club #Eleceed #Webcomics #Webcomic #love

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boukenboy · 4 years

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#7:鬼神降臨伝 ONI

I enjoy samurai stories. Like any good, proper weeb, the political intrigues of that particular era are rad as hell, but yet I haven’t played many games that explore that world. I discovered Kishin Kourinden ONI entirely by accident: I was browsing through ranked a list of Super Famicon RPGs on a random Japanese website. I read a bit of the blurb the author had written, and downloaded it to play later. Weeks passed. I was going through a second playthrough of Romancing Saga and feeling a bit burnt out, as I had failed to unlock any events I haven’t seen already, and the battles were becoming an absolute slog, so I decided to give ONI a go. Kishin is the 6th (!) game in a long-running series that debuted on the Gameboy, and is the first for the Super Famicom.

Our story takes place in the Kamakura era of Japan - the relatively peaceful era of the Heian is now over, and in its place the Kamakura bakufu now rule the lands of Yamato. You play as Hokutomaru, an orphan who has been essentially adopted into the ruling family. One day, you and the son of the shogun, Yoritou, are asked to extinguish a youkai that had been stalking about the princesses’ room. She gets kidnapped, as princesses tend to do, so you and Yoritou venture forth to rescue her.

Plot-wise, ONI isn’t anything original. The first quarter of the game is devoted to rescuing the princess. Each time you clear a dungeon, you’re essentially told “The princess is in another castle!”, - it is lazy writing. but while the main plot is rather formulaic, the individual stories you’ll experience throughout each location are what really makes the game shine. Similar to a Dragon Quest title, each village has its own issues dealing with youkai: and it is up to your scrappy band of samurai to solve them. Some of these stories are funny. Some are very dark. I remember one very clearly: a family begs you for assistance, as their newborn child has been cursed by a youkai and cannot be roused from slumber. The monster in question appears and taunts the party, gloating that the baby will die unless they can prove that the child that was stolen from the once-human youkai is now living a happy life.

When she was still alive, she gave birth to a child, but died soon after and turned into a demon. The baby was entrusted to a sleazeball, who sent the child to live in poverty. The woman this youkai cursed was her sister, jealous of the happy life that was denied to her. Soon after, the youkai’s long-lost daughter is revealed to be Akoya, one of our protagonists, and the story ends on a happy note once mother and daughter are briefly reunited. Thankfully!

For a Super Famicom game that was released when it was, the characterization of your party members is superb. There’s a great chemistry present throughout the story: they bicker, they tease each other, and everyone always has a strong opinion on whatever youkai-related shenanigans occurring at that particular moment, and it’s done in a way that doesn’t feel forced or tiresome to read through, especially compared to say, a Tales Of...title.

There’s a strong theme of “found family” in Kishin. Hokutomaru is adopted into the Minamoto family after being orphaned as a child; Akoya receives an offer to join the family she saves after it is revealed that she is their blood, but rejects them in favor of the children living in the slums of her home city who she feels a deep sense of responsibility for.. Hourin, a middle-aged monk who joins your team early in the game, gives up a life of drunken laziness in order to save a little girl who looks up to him. As someone who isn’t close with his blood family, I know how important a found one can be, so the game made me quite emotional at points, so while the main plot isn’t anything special, the characterization is incredibly strong.

The battle system is, again, fairly standard, but it does a few things worth noting: once you acquire certain weapons, each character is able to transform into an oni: giving up the ability to cast magic spells in exchange for increased physical damage. The design of each oni is wonderfully gaudy and colorful, and as there are monsters who are vulnerable to oni and not much else, you’ll have plenty of opportunity to use them. While switching between forms costs you a turn, you can choose to begin battle in either monster or human status by changing an option in the settings menu. Convenient!

Characters do not learn magic by leveling up, but instead learn abilities from various gods that you meet throughout Japan. They’re all based on traditional mythology, and you’ll need to complete side-quests to receive their aid. Some of them are entirely missable, so I strongly recommend using a guide. I accidentally locked myself out of a few just in this playthrough, which is a major bummer!

Furthermore, side-quests seem to open up at random - the game provides very few hints as to what is out there, so unless you’re following a guide, you’ll have to visit each area multiples times after each major plot point in order to collect them all. Wack. That said, it is really fun once you discover something unexpected: you’re often given a choice or two, so make sure you save very often! The game has major issues with balance: at certain points of the game, you’re going to have to grind. A lot. Like, at least for 2 hours or so. Early on in the game, you’ll be locked into a dungeon with no save-point, so you’re utterly screwed if you don’t bother to level up. The game provides a recover point, but there was no warning that you wouldn’t be able to leave the area until you clear it. I wound up grinding for around an hour and a half, in one long session. Decidedly unfun.

On top of the unbalanced pacing, the encounter rate in this game is absolutely wretched, even for its time. I am a massive fan of RPGs from this era. I imagine I have way more love for them than most people. But Kishin really, really tries my patience at points. You’ll finish a battle, and get into another one three steps later. It’s BAD. This wouldn’t be so terrible if the combat system flowed a bit quicker, but they don’t. The game occasionally likes to throw you into successive dungeons with no stopping point, and these sections feel especially draining. Despite these complaints, I really am enjoying my time with Kishin. Judging from the guide I have been using, I am around 3/4ths of the way through the game, and I intend on clearing it. If you have a lot of patience and love of the genre, I strongly recommend it! There’s several more games that were released after this one, and I look forward to trying them all.

#jrpg #video games #game review #gaymer #this needs editing but im tired of looking at it #sorry lovs #samurai #historical games #oni series

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wizardessheart-sideb · 5 years

Video

youtube

The latest episode is here! Below the cut is a transcription

HEWWO!

Hello everyone, welcome to Royal Magic Academy Radio, a podcast about Wizardess Heart. I’m your host, Mari. So uh. YEAH, we had a lot of big stuff happen since the last episode, so let’s get on with the show.

GAMING NEWS

Event-wise, we got a joint Romance Point slot that brings back some of Elias and Luca’s past stories AND CGs. So it’s a combo of two guys AND stories and CGs. There’s a new star collection event, All Aboard the Mystery Express. I have to say I never expected to get a mystery train event, but I’ll take it. I think it’s a good theme and I like Hugo’s story. I haven’t read any of the other stories because I don’t care about them and I don’t have Klaus’ yet.

We got Joel’s sequel! His main route early bird is still running, so we’re getting like Double Joel. Or in my case, triple Joel since I’m transcribing his main route so. It’s Joel season y’all.

We also now have quite a few new features. After years of asking, we now have a greet all button. While I’m glad this is a thing since a lot of people are happy about it, I personally don’t use it because using greet all and then sending people messages for that extra 20 Lune is a nightmare. I did a time comparison using my personal account and then the one I use to screen record stuff for Ceragon Dubs, and if you use greet all and then go into your friend list to send messages it’s a lot longer. But it wasn’t as long as how much time I spent screen recording, logging in and out of facebook accounts, and video editing and breaking out my phone and screen recording that for a timer.

There’s also a new feature on consumable items. I mean, that’s the best way to describe it. So basically, there’s now a thing called limited time items. As the name suggests, they’re only available for about 15 days, and if you don’t use them in that time, they disappear. So far, we’ve seen this with Story Tickets and Muffins. I imagine it will probably go over to the other snack items, but I don’t know about the others consumables. Time will tell, I suppose.

FUTURE EVENTS/SPECULATION

Okay so since we’re now getting the next batch of sequels, if we’re going in the order of the poll, Hiro’s is next. That is all. Although I do think we're gonna get season 10 first. But yeah, Hiro's should be next. Sequel-wise, at least.

CALL AND RESPONSE

And now we have the long awaited response portion of call and response! Everyone’s favorite segment where I have no clue what I’m doing, I take shit from Love Live!, and I am met with the realization if I were an idol my call and response would be the worst because I can’t think of anything, which is why we make Love Live references. Ngl I feel like my call would be like “Who’s my favorite audience member?” and then the audience is like “me!” and I fake mishearing them and I’m like “memes?!” and then we all dab or some shit because that’s my brand. Dabbing at everything. Okay but yeah so. I asked you guys to rewrite character bios so. Let’s have some FUNNNNN.

Okay, and I sort have things in the correct places so I can just read them. I mean "sort of" because I have to go through DMs and stuff, but... Okay so our first one is from @nadia-the-wizardess. And hers is for Hugo which of course it is, I love you dude. So she submitted... And I'm not gonna try to be a complete ham. I'm gonna try and have some dignity while reading these. "Friend or foe? The masked man seemed to be at every turn, either helping us or using us to his advantage. He claims he has come from the future to help put us on the correct path and change our tragic destiny. We still don't know what Hugo is truly planning, but despite all this, I've decided to put my faith in him and join him in his journey through time and save his-- our future!" And then her sidenote, "(God I hope I did this right sbhdnsns)." You did! You are all good and I - you know I love Hugo, probably… well… probably just as much as you. Hugo is my best boy, so.

Okay, so. God, this segment is cursed. I… This is literally the fifth time I;ve tried recording this one little story because like my mic just keeps like cutting out. I need a brand new mic like this one is not cutting it anymore but anyway. So this call and response has a funny story behind it. So essentially like when I first get responses, I don't necessarily read them carefully at first, like I'm just kind of aware. Like “okay, like some.” So when I first did the call and response a while ago, um, I was vaguely aware that I had two and one was from Nadia and the other was from an anon. And so obviously like I push it back and then, uh, me and my friend have been chatting, who's not Nadia. That's the only identity clue I will give you cuz I'm not going to say who it is but um, *laughs* she's gonna be so mad though. So anyway, so me and my friend were talking and she was like, “Oh hey, I have a question so ‘theoretically’” in quotes, if she had sent a call and response answer to me like, would she have to make a new one or like whatever, like trying to figure out what's going on. And I said like honestly I’ll use whatever you give me because I do literally like whatever people spend in and I will use so it's a free-for-all, like I’ll use anything.

And then she told me that was good because she forgot what she, and I air quote this, “theoretically” sent. And I was like, “Well you”... This was before I checked my inbox cuz I was like, “Oh, I’ll just go in and like copy paste in and put in our chat. So I was just like “You could always ask me to send you things” like if you don't remember what you do - andthis goes for anyone. Like if you send a response by not DM by like inbox and you don't remember what you wrote like you can totally just message me and be like, “Hey I sent this, I don't remember how I worded it exactly I'm worried that I messed it up could you please tell me what it was” and like totally go ahead and do that like I don't mind. So then, you know, like I went into my inbox so I was like, “Okay let's see what she said” and um. This is what she said. “Call and response for Sigurd (Feat. Leslie) - Sigurd's the only student who can equally terrify the staff at Olive Garden along with Klaus. With his overbearing obsession and appetite for any sort of pasta, he's best known as Klaus' right-hand man when it comes to needing a bud for their 2 for $12 appetizer promotions.” Not sponsored by Olive Garden. “I hear even though he currently majors in Magical Creature Taming, rumor has it he'll be switching to Culinary Magic for... ‘Reasons.’ Personally, I'd rather not know,” Same. “but if you insist...*Shrug”

And anyway this is cursed and yeah, I can understand why my friend did not want to like, confront me about this. Oh God, RIP. We got through it, she's fine.

So our next one is from @uraminowaltz and she has two and they're both for Klaus because of course they are. I should just rename this segment to me roasting my friends. Okay, so her serious Klaus one is: “Likes: Tea, sweets, challenging games, cooking. Dislikes: Coffee, Zeus,” Girl me too. “Irresponsibility, abuse of authoritative power. Hobby: Cooking, inventing magical tools. Skills: Unintentional romantic gestures, endurance with magic, WORKAHOLIC.” Yeah I-I felt that. I felt that. So the joke one: “Likes: His giant personal ring of 500 different keys. Dislikes: Losing his keys.” Also same. “Hobby: Making copies of his keys. Skills: Losing his keys PLEASE HELP HIM FIND HIS KEYS HERE IS A CROWDFUNDING LINK TO FIND HIS KEYS IT'S FUNDED AT 60%.” Oh, Klaus. Klaus. Honestly though when they did the Klaus II profile and it was like, thing that worries him, uh, losing, uh, lost his keys I was like goddammit. Like it just… It was one of those things that I didn’t realize was on brand for him, but then once I read it and saw it, I was like “Oh God yeah yeah that's his brand that's his... poor baby, that's his brand.”

Okay so our second to- Actually, it might second-to-last I haven't checked the notes of that post so I guess I have to do that too. Okay so anyway, @sigurdcurtisholdsmegentle said… uh, did some, and you're going to be surprised who it was for. It was for Sigurd. So their joke one and they said… Their personal note for this was “Please actually kill me for this.” No I will not. You must atone for your sins. Uh... “Likes: Pasta. Dislikes: People who don't like pasta. Hobby: Naming spices in the pasta sauce. Skill: Cooking Pasta.” I'm very glad you did not put anything else because I would not want to read that out loud and that is NOT a challenge to anybody *laughs* So their serious one is: “Likes: Jazz music, Puns, The Rain, Make up.” Hell yeah. “Dislikes: His father, Himself, Ch… *laughs* CHICA,” I… We’re going for it. We’re going for the discourse and controvershy. The controversy. I can’t talk. Uh. Also dislikes “Blood. Hobby: Writing letters, Playing trumpet, Playing chess with Klaus. Skill: Decorating, Well timed exits, Running on little to no sleep.” Poor baby. But yeah I mean yeah. That's him. So the next one is... that they did was for Mel so it's “Likes: Apple cider, Plants, Perserving wildlife. Dislikes: Time Magic, Sol Felia,” It’s feh-lia not fee-lia, right? Like it’s not… I don’t feel like it’s fee-lia? I’m like pretty sure it’s feh-lia. Okay, it’s feh-lia now, I’m making the executive decision. It’s feh-lia now. Uh. “Oranges, Explaining.” God I felt that like whenever I reread Sigurd’s route, Mel's like “I don't want to explain” I’m like please shut up stop it like please, just explain. Good God. Like you're just making more trouble for yourself my dude. “Hobby: Sleeping in the greenhouse, Reading lore. Skill: Botany, Making wands, Flower” Oh my God, flower arrangements, that’s so cute. Oh my God, I love that actually. Like, I mean honestly like I liked all of them, but like that's so cute. That was super cute, I really like that one.

So, I don't think my call and response post had any notes. Except from people just liking it but I'm going to double-check cuz I'm not 100% sure.

Okay so it's time for our final call and response which will be my own. I literally have to bring up the my inspiration, my muse to *laughs* to do this. Okay so like, my whole inspiration for this prompt was the fact that like Azusa never got like an actual profile. Like it's all just question marks and um, we're going to fix that. And that's why I got the idea like, “oh that be really funny like everyone just rewrote things.” Let's go for the serious one first. That way I can do that and then I can goof. So my serious profile rewrite for Azusa and I did not write this beforehand, so… yeah! Let’s see… “Likes: his brother. Dislikes: hypocrites, himself.” Uh, that’s such a… *laughs*

That's such a mood. Every dude in this game is like self-loathing and some way. But I mean that's just how people are so I mean I guess it's not actually like that much of a stretch. But anyway. “Hobby… ………” Uh. You know, it's bad that I can't think of anything not just because like, I can't think of anything, but because he's one of my favorites and I'm like, “does he even have hobbies” like I'm not - I'm sure he does but I mean… “Hobby: telling Randy to shut up” I don't know. Uh, “Skill: onmyojutsu” just because we're basic and that was our serious one. And now for the fun one.

Um…. okay so, “Likes: his family. Dislikes: people. Hobby: ……….. you know. Skill: being a jackass” I don't know. I'm not even going to try and improv a description. Oh, poor Azusa. Although I do wonder if- when he gets a sequel, I wonder if that… I wonder if they’re gonna, like, continue making the, you know, kinda like additional info thing or if we’re gonna get like, a real profile for- Okay like, okay. I would be so fucking mad if like once he gets his sequel and they put like his like, um, like second profile thing and it's literally just all *laughs* it’s all question marks. I would be so fucking mad. I’d be like “come on PLEASE. PLEASE DON’T DO THIS TO US.” Okay anyways, so that was call and response. Thank you guys for coming on this journey with me. Um, that was fraught with recording problems and I'm not looking forward to transcribing this, but sometimes you just got to do what you got to do.

ROUTE REVIEW

All right, so it’s time to review Sigurd’s route. His route had come out a bit before I started playing, and I vaguely remember getting a notification about it, but honestly I don’t remember too much about it. I was playing Yukiya at the time and while I thought Sigurd was cute, I was too lost in the Yukiya sauce to do anything but Yukiya-related stuff.

It honestly took me a while to play Sigurd’s route, like i played it for the first time last year, and like. I just genuinely enjoy Sigurd so much. Like he’s such a funny guy and so sweet. Falling in love with a guy like that just feels natural. And the story handled it super well too. The story balances plot and romance very well and they feel very cohesive.

The plot was really solid, with enough ends left to get resolved in Mel’s route. But then again, I’m very partial to this mystery series and no, I’m not just saying that bc I cosplay sol maiden!Liz. It’s a good story idea, bront. Not to mention there’s like, a lot of fluff in Sigurd’s. I mean it absolutely has upsetting moments, but it’s just. Okay like I don’t mean to get on a soapbox or whatever, but it’s just. I feel like my culture gets inundated with these images of cishet relationships where men don’t treasure their partners. I acknowledge it’s toxic and it’s a serious problem and all, trust me this sort of thing is something I’ve taken enough classes on to consider it an unofficial minor, but like I’M SO TIRED OF SEEING THESE CISHET MEN BE JERKS TO THEIR CISHET GIRLFRIENDS. Like really, we’re gonna romanticize a dude being a jerk to his girlfriend and not show the repercussions of this sort of behavior and act like it’s normal? Really? That’s what we’re gonna do? So like any media that portrays a guy as being loving and smitten and affectionate with his partner is just. That’s so refreshing and so WONDERFUL like I eat that stuff UP. Like it’s so clear Sigurd is so taken with the MC and it’s just like hot chocolate on a cold day.

So yeah the plot’s good and Sigurd is just. Wonderful. But I also love how much lore we got in this route. We got country names, continent names, what sort of extra curriculars the academy has. Even some Goldstein lore. In my opinion, the best routes usually have some hella cool lore details and this route had a lot.

And this is a minor thing but. As someone who was raised with their cousins and stuff, they just nailed the cousin interactions between Klaus and Sigurd. I have a cousin who, as of now actually since birthdays, is the same age as me, although usually I’m older. My cousin and I mess with each other all the time and he bullies me constantly. I’m just kidding, I’m definitely the Sigurd to his Klaus. And like Sigurd and Klaus, we actually play a lot of games together, or play the same game at once. We’re both really into video games and his latest hobby is bullying my brand new Fire Emblem husband Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd. But in all seriousness, the game handled then well and the only way they could’ve made it more realistic is if they kept poking each other and making weird noises at each other. I mean, do you REALLY have a cousin if you don’t greet them by screeching like a pterodactyl?

Typing this all out makes me realize how weird my cousin and I are.

Okay but anyway. This route is very good and Sigurd is just an absolute doll. I highly recommend reading.

BYE BYE!

And that’s it for us today!! Thank you guys for tuning in this week. I’m sorry this episode is late. I was going to record it yesterday but something happened and basically made me give up on doing anything I wanted to do yesterday. But anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and hopefully next episode will be on time!! With that, have a great week! This is Mari, signing off.

#wizardess heart #shall we date wizardess heart #wizardess heart+#shall we date wizardess

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putrefactie · 5 years

Text

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT MEME repost. do not reblog.

FULL NAME: Hector

GENDER & SEXUALITY: Cis Male & bi

ETHNICITY & SPECIES: Greek, Romanian and romani human being

BIRTHPLACE & BIRTHDATE: Rhodes, he can’t remember the exact date of his birthday but he was born 1455

GUILTY PLEASURES: Disappearing without telling a soul and going on a walk into the wilderness, either to see the sunrise or the sunset.

PHOBIAS: Death, abandonmen, being stuck in a crowd of people & loud noises ( prior to curse of Darkness), Lonelyness, the fear of loosing one’s self, the darkness ( during and after the events of Curse Of Darkness )

WHAT THEY WOULD BE INFAMOUS FOR: Hector is one of the most talented necromancer and forgemaster of Romania ( and probably Europe ) - but his name isn’t famous within the supernatural world - nor the human one. Quite descreet, he might be better known in Greece as a strange Hermit, reknowned to bring beasts back from the dead.

He’s also an excellent alchemist, defeated Death, then Dracula, and also nullified the curse of his former Master.

WHAT HAVE THEY/WOULD THEY HAVE GOTTEN ARRESTED FOR: I guess bringing back dead people and animals was not favourably viewed druing the XVth century.

CHARACTER YOU SHIP THEM WITH: Rosaly. I mean, that’s basically canon so ( and I really love their dynamic ). I could have also shipped him with Julia if their romance in game wasn’t that badly written. Honestly. Also netflix Isaac as a crush, why not ?? Since he’s definitely chiller and less creepy than his game counterpart. Game Isaac is a big no tho

CHARACTER MOST LIKELY TO MURDER THEM: I think his mother could have honestly left him on a pyre if she had that chance. The church, I guess, is not super supportive of his craft. An angry mob could have taken him out, and Dracula and Isaac almost killed him too.

FAVOURITE BOOK GENRE: Alchemy & spell books, science essays, fairytales & mythology.

LEAST FAVOURITE BOOK CLICHÉ: He likes book clichés very much.

TALENTS OR POWERS: Necromancy, alchemy, forgemaster, summoner, can actually understand animals or at least their intents, and is a relatively good swordman. He’s also become a good shepard thanks to Rosaly.

WHY SOMEONE MIGHT LOVE THEM: Hector is honestly an interesting character background wise since he both has been a villain and a hero, and that his alignment doesn’t necessary match his way of thinking. He’s practical, but also an idealist, and at the same time a pessimist - so many contradictions that make his character feel more human and add some depth to his writing. His character development also changes a lot through the franchise ( not that we see him in other games lmao, but compared to the netflix show that tends to represent how he was pre-Curse of Darkness, you can see just how much he’s grown ) which allows you to follow his reflexion and understand him better through the long run. He’s also incredibly sweet and just make bad choices, which kinda make him relatable ?

WHY SOMEONE MIGHT HATE THEM: The fact that he can be quite gullible and also screams like a banshee through the whole COD game ??? And don’t get me started about his script during most cutscene because that’s a mess. But bad writting isn’t his only character weakness, he’s also kind of coward and hardly makes his own choice until it’s already too late. It can become quite frustrating to see him getting fooled by apparent shady characters and his lack of desire for action through the plot can be repeatitive. The fact that he’s careless from time to time and kinda had Rosaly killed because of that is also a bit unnerving, especially since it’s because of the same lack of better judgement that he always gets humself in some terrible situation. Selfishness is also something that defines him, and the fact that he’s ready to doom a whole population because of it before realising that it’s really gonna be a massacre makes u wanna scream.

HOW THEY CHANGE: He goes throught such a journey, from a child filled with fear and judgement, a loner, to a man who goes in the pursuit of powers and kinda sell his souls to Dracula, egoistic, to realising just how wrong he was from the beginning ? Through his ordeals, and thanks to Rosaly, he comes to realise that things are not just black and white, that rage is not worth anything if it”s turned into a weapon, and that you gotta forgive people for the wrongs they have done to you, or you’ll just be stuck in a cyrcle dstructive of hatred.

WHY YOU LOVE THEM: I mean look at all the above ! Lmao for real

Tagged by: @vernades ♥ u cutie Tagging: @notte-la-lagna @nightslain @axkrusnik @cheriiaki

#█ 🔥 . ＩＲＥＬＹＴＯＭＹＭＵＳＥＢＥＣＡＵＳＥＷＥＧＯＴＴＨＥＳＡＭＥＢＯＢＣＵＴ —— « ᵐᵘᶰ . ᵒᵒᶜ »#( thanks for this ???)#(those were wonderful and interesting questions yo )

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farklelucas · 5 years

Note

all about the lesbian sea pirate

ahsjdkflg okay im gonna do the first section above the cut and the rest under

send me an oc and some numbers pls!! | here are my ocs!

Section 1 - About:

1. Briefly Describe your OC: Appearance, personality, role in a story, etc..

okay so!! hana is half-japanese, half-german, she’s got short/spiky black hair and fucking Huge brown eyes. she’s the protagonist of a thus-unwritten pirate love story and i fucking love her. she’s superbly socially awkward (doesn’t get customs like politeness or like asking before doing things asdjkfl), she’s a Romantic romantic, she loves sword-fighting, she was raised by her father (alongside three older half-brothers, though she was chosen as the heir to his ship which hmm pissed two of them off), she’s very much butch/tomboy, she loves adventure and sailing so fucking much, uhhh yeah her.

2. Briefly describe their backstory/childhood

like i said, she was raised by her dad, who she idolizes, along with her three brothers on the sea; she never knew her mother, because her father told her that she died giving birth to hana (or did she….? hm. maybe hana’s dad is just shitty?). she was always super excited to play and go on adventures and fight, especially with her three older brothers (only one of whom actually like. liked her.), and by the time she was old enough to hold a sword, her dad taught her how to. eventually, her dad became ill, and named hana, who was only 16, his successor. her two eldest brothers planned a mutiny to overthrow her, killing the other brother who protested. hana fought them but they escaped with half her treasure, promising to come back and kill her, and she’s spent the past six years seeking them out to defeat them.

3. Describe their family life and friends.

i mean i pretty much nailed her family, but she’s very close to all the crew. i’ll give you a quick rundown: there’s caspian, her first mate/quartermaster (grew up on the ship with her, an orphan who was stolen in one of the raids, searching out his lost family but is also a big time goof), dover, her “advisor”/sailing master (wise, lazy, arrogant, bitchy, basically her pseudo-father because her father was usually off being captain), darya, her gunner (slutty bisexual aromantic queen, runs the artillery AND the under deck gambling ring, always drunk, loyal to a fault especially to hana), and zarya (we’ll get to her later ;)) and the other lower-ranking crew members.

4. What is the world they come from like?

hmmm very mystical and mysterious, very “pirates are bad and suck and we dont like them even though they’re not usually bad” but. you know. hana is still an outlaw of the land. there are mermaids and sirens and cracken and curses so it’s better to assume that if its magical it exists.

5. Are they original or exist in a certain fandom?

original!!

6. Are they an introvert or extrovert?

extroverted babey

7. Greatest fear?

being unable to sail but also, later on, (SPOILERS) being arrogant and greedy and malicious like her father

8. What’s their sense of humor like?

honestly just fucking. stupid. she probably likes puns and like dirty jokes.

9. Favorite pieces of fiction or genres they enjoy?

i dont think she can read???? but her third eldest brother bourne would usually tell her princess stories and she liked those

10. Favorite music genres?

folk ig

11. Describe their vision of a perfect spouse, if applicable.

a tall, beautiful, kindhearted woman, who sees past the pirate savagery and sees her heart beneath; a woman who can rule the sea alongside her and knows how to handle her and keep her in check. (looks at zarya meaningfully)

12. Largest regret?

not being able to save bourne

13. Something your OC would say?

my quote for her in her bio is “what am i without adventure?” but i also imagine her saying to zarya, “you are more celestial than the stars, my love, and twice as beautiful to behold.”

14. Whats their morality like?

technically lawful good but could be a roulette wheel depending on the day

15. Would they live in a city, rural area, or suburb?

oof none but if she had to probably rural

16. Which actor would you like to portray your OC? (Or a voice actor)

sjskdldldl my face claim is jen ruggirello

17. Sexuality? Gender Identity?

lesbian baby!!!!!

18. What inspired you to make this character?

honestly?? probably a lack of rep in romance and adventure novels. i just love her!!!

Section 2 - If…

1. If they existed in another decade, what would they wear? (Asker can choose what decade) (Bonus points if you draw them!)

hmmm ill pick… current day tbh, and i imagine lots of overalls and baggy sweaters!

2. If they were in a RPG, what would be their class?

i have to imagine somewhere between paladin and a fighter, im not sure which.

3. If they received a large amount of money no strings attached, what would they use it for?

i honestly think she would just. go into the nearest village and buy all the local hungry children bread. like she wouldn’t horde it or spend it on herself. she has everything she needs.

4. If they competed on a competitive TV show, how would they approach to winning? (the “mean” one, the one who makes friends, the one who’s there for fun)

hm… i honestly dont even think she would think about it like that dkdkflfl. probably the charming one, the leader, the adorkable one.

5. If they could change one thing about their past, what would it be?

i think she would choose to keep in contact with her mother. not necessarily live with her, because then she wouldnt have her first love which is the sea, but just like. talk to her. know her better. go see her every few months. write her from different ports about their adventures.

6. If you met them, what would they do?

i would honestly probably be so fucking charmed by her. shes got that way about her, a leadership quality you can’t shake, even if shes really incredibly awkward too.

7. If your character exists in another series’ world, what would they be doing/look like?

i kind of imagine her in harry potter as like. this half blood gryffindor who’s So Gryffindor it hurts. on the quidditch team, always screaming about house pride, everyone loves her. and then she goes and falls in love with this muggle born slytherin and shakes the whole school dkdkkrklr

Section 3 - Other:

1. What other OCs would they get along with?

oh… i think it’s kind of cheap to say jack, because they’re both pirates, but honestly i think they’d get on like a house on fire. other than that… definitely michael minkus, who would make an epic first mate, and lucy stilinksi-hale, who she would probably wanna smash.

2. What’s their singing voice like?

bad. comically bad. she tries to sing to zarya sometimes and zarya locks her out of their room.

3. Take a personality test as the character. Post results.

okay so ive already taken a couple for her in the past (ex: gryffindor, entj, the motivator, etc.) so im gonna take a completely benign one off buzzfeed and post the results. so if she were a song off of thank you next she would be “bad idea” skskkdkd

4. What would be their fighting style in a fighting game like Mortal Kombat, Super Smash Brothers, or Street Fighter?

to outsmart her opponent, think two moves ahead of theirs just like in real life. jokes on her no one else is ever thinking skdkkfkfl

5. What are some mannerisms/quirks?

putting her feet up on tables, walking into rooms without invitation, holing up in her cabin for days working, smirking instead of smiling, smoking, docking in random cities for the thrill of adventure, wearing her blouses nearly completely unbuttoned, just taking things and enforcing sharing bc. she’s always shared everything with everyone naturally and she doesnt know to ask djdkfkfk

6. Describe their favorite meal.

honestly she’ll eat anything but just like. a Nice leg of mutton and a glass of beer. that’s it. that’s the dream.

7. What do they do when they’re bored?

her favorite activity is to randomly attack caspian and have impromptu sword fights with him, but she also loves stargazing and telling stories to the town children.

8. How do they express love/affection for someone?

honestly she’s very. nuzzley. soft. like a little kitten. also waxes poetic. at least romantically. platonically, shes usually like a dad friend sjdkkrlr. like im talking “attaboy” and punches on the arm. pep talks. dad voice. the whole nine yards.

9. Most embarrassing thing that could/has happened to them?

honestly, she’s not easily embarrassed ever. i think she’s kind of just like meh over most things. the most embarrassing thing that could happen would be losing the respect of her crew. she would hate that so much.

10. Make a portrait sketch of them!

#nicole #hana #oc stuff #love her!!!! so much!!!!!!!#loveallthatjazz #what kind of woman doesnt have an ask #long post #go all the way to the bottom of this post to see a qt uwu #katie writes #wow i went off

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fangirlingtodeath513 · 7 years

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Could you recommend me some fics!? :)

Hello anon! I’m not sure what types of fics you’re looking for, so I’m gonna post a few that I have bookmarked on AO3 and if you’re looking for more specific fics, shoot me another ask :)

The Walk by PersephoneShadow (aka @ibelieveinthelittletreetopper)

Castiel tells himself it was a one time thing, even if his night with a hooker named Dean changed his whole world, but he can’t keep away from the man fate keeps throwing in his path. Castiel is married and he knows his sexuality is an affront to God and everything he’s ever been told is right.

Dean tells himself he doesn’t care about the weirdo with blue eyes, but every time they meet he gets a bit closer to something like hope. Dean’s nothing but a homeless waste of space with a brother in foster care a world away and a father in the wind.

As the connection between these two lost men deepens, it threatens the carefully maintained lies their lives are built on in a story of faith, mistakes, and the journey of love.

Warnings: There’s instances of homophobia throughout the fic, violence (toward Dean, mostly) and it’s obviously NSFW since, ya know, Dean’s a sex worker.

Let It Be by PersephoneShadow (aka @ibelieveinthelittletreetopper)

Dean Winchester’s life changed forever the night a demon appeared in his brother’s nursery and killed his father.

As a hunter Mary is determined to protect her sons from the evil she has run from her whole life - the same evil that took John. But Dean also trusts his protection to the angel in a trench coat he talks to in his dreams. Through years of tribulation and uncertainty, the Winchesters (plus a corgi that might be magic and an angel that may not be real) must fight monsters, demons, and even fate itself to survive as a family.

Or: The one where Mary lives, Cas is there, and nothing and everything changes.

Warnings: Violence, but nothing that’s atypical of Supernatural in general. Other than that, not much.

This is a behemoth of a fic (over 140,000 words) but honestly, if you have the time to read this, it’s beautifully written and was my favorite fic until The Walk beat it out of first place.

Under My Skin by @xylodemon

Dean wants to keep Cas close.

Warnings: None

This is sort of a coda fic, mostly inspired by the absolute flailing Jensen getting a tattoo caused. Honestly it’s just a really good fic and the whole idea of it is super heartwarming. (Also it has a happy ending in case you don’t like fics without happy endings. The above two also have happy endings.)

So Bitter and So Sweet by superhoney (aka pomegranatedaffodil)

Dean has known about the family curse ever since it claimed the life of his mother: anyone who dares to love a Winchester is fated to die. When he takes a chance on love and loses his husband Benny, his belief in its power only grows stronger.

Two years later, a late-night phone call from his brother Sam sends both of their lives spinning wildly out of control. Then Officer Cas Novak arrives in town, looking into the disappearance of Sam’s girlfriend Ruby, and starts asking questions Sam and Dean can’t answer. Complicating matters even further, Dean feels an immediate, overwhelming connection to the intense, blue-eyed source of their problems.

Dealing with all the secrets, the lies, and a brother slowly crumbling under the weight of his guilt doesn’t leave much time for romance, but as Cas gets closer to the truth, he also gets closer to Dean.

Inspired by the film Practical Magic.

Warnings: It’s NSFW and angsty, but has a happy ending.

For My Own by youaresunlight (aka @puppycastiel)

Five times Castiel regrets dating a movie star, and one time Dean proves him wrong.

Warnings: None

I love the idea of Dean being a movie star and this fic is super well written.

Typecast by @mnwood

Up-and-coming movie actor Castiel Novak knows he’ll never be taken seriously if all he ever plays is betas, and as an alpha he certainly doesn’t think it’s a wise career choice to play an omega. However, when he’s offered the omega role in a gay romance and learns that the much more famous (and his crush) Dean Winchester is playing the alpha, Cas decides maybe it’s time to take a risk. But when they meet on day one, Cas isn’t sure what to make of Dean’s scent.

Warnings: Very NSFW and has A/B/O dynamics. Also, Dean is aromantic and Cas is asexual, if either of those things are a nope for you.

Defiant by thestorygirl

Dean Winchester has devoted his career as a police officer to helping angel slaves in any way that he can. He even formed and heads the “Angel Welfare Task Force,” which involved him being called to consult on any case involving slaves. This passion stemmed from an incident that happened twenty years previously, when a thirteen year old Dean failed to help his friend Castiel escape being sold to a sadistic owner.

Dean had never really harbored any hope of finding his friend. He saw his work as something he did in memory of Castiel, to prevent others from suffering the same fate. But, when called out on a routine case one day, Dean was startled to find that he recognized the victim.

Warnings: Castiel is a victim of rape. Repeatedly (if I’m remembering correctly, it’s been a while since I read this). It wasn’t Dean. Angels are essentially slaves in this fic, humans have enslaved them and bound their grace with collars to keep them from accessing most of it. Very NSFW.

Literally anything by @ibelieveinthelittletreetopper is amazing. She’s a beautiful writer and her fics are so well put together and just… *gestures wildly to her AO3*

Also anything by @ozonecologne (her codas, specifically) are beautiful and should absolutely be on your to read list. Her AO3 can be found here. You do have to have an AO3 account to read her things, since she was having trouble with people uploading her fics on other sites without her permission. You can also browse her fic page on her tumblr here.

Also anything and everything by @ltleflrt should be devoured ASAP. AO3 here.

@grey2510 is also a phenomenal writer, whose AO3 is here

Anything by @elizabethrobertajones and @mittensmorgul whose AO3s can be found here and here, respectively.

Also I’m gonna throw this one on at the end. I’m reading it currently and I have absolutely no idea how it’ll end because I’m only two chapters in, so mind the tags.

The Path of Fireflies by museaway

After his humanity is restored, Dean wakes up in bed with Castiel, a wedding ring, and no memory of the past twelve years.

This is a recommendation from ibelieveinthelittletreetopper, I think… I’ve had it open on my laptop trying to read it between studying for my tests. The first two chapters are excellent.

(I just realized all of these are destiel fics which is basically all that I read aside from Cockles fics from specific authors so… sorry if you’re not looking for destiel fics? I’m also 100% sure I’m forgetting people so SORRY TO ANYONE I FORGOT)

If you’d like specific types of fics, feel free to send me another ask. You can also check out @deancasbigbang, a lot of those fics are posting/have posted recently, and DCBB fics are amazing.

#asks #fic rec #destiel fanfic #destiel #Anonymous

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bitofthisandthat · 6 years

Note

Do you have any RP wish-lists?

For Munday, anonymously ask the mun something you want to know about them, their portrayal, or what they will/won’t write.

I have a WISHLIST || PT2 link and a PLOTS link

Overall, I am very open to ALL KINDS of things!The beauty of having a deity muse is that they can fit anywhere into any timeline or fandom, and adjustments are super easy for me. I also have other entity verses like Vampire AU and Witch AUs, I’ve kept her a Goddess OR a Witch/corrupted Mystic for the LOTR/Hobbit verse, (depending on what is wanted) and I am not against making her mortal/human for the sake of a good story. She’s mortal in several verses like: Gotham/DC she’s just a “run-of-the-mill” criminally insane resident of Arkham. In her Harry Potter verse, she is a rogue/wanted dark witch known for using all 3 curses explicitly. (her origins in the schools showcase how she grew up this way) In the Star Wars verse she’s a high priestess/incarnate of the Goddess Ta’arak (Goddess of war and destruction to the SW canon). In the “Butterfield 8″ 50′s call girl-gangster moll verse, she’s just a plain ol’ human: no powers or physical strength, but personality wise, still Eris.

Timelines and Eras would be fun whether she was a Goddess, another kind of entity, or a mere mortal. I am a world history/cultural anthropology GEEK.

One gushy plot I’d love to do with a partner I trust, (preferably a ship)…is a long-time desired plot where Eris is stripped of her immortality and powers, and needs to learn “how to be human.” She’s got a lot of enemies among other Gods and Immortals, so she’d also need a hideaway/protection plot too, until she is reinstated again.

The list of NO-NO’s is easy:

NO Twin!Eris threads; not that I don’t want to explore a thread where she interacts with another Eris, but in the past she has been 100% UNWILLING to share the spotlight with another Eris. Diva.

NO Cafe AUs or similar cliche “cutesy” plots, I mean…this is ERIS. NO.

NO “Fake Dating™ AUs, this one pisses me off on a personal experienced level. (BTW it SUCKS irl) You can all do ‘em, I NEVER shame. Just don’t ask me for one.

NO smut/romance threads with underage muses or muns. Of course….

@creationsincarnate

#creationsincarnate #asks #Munday anons/asks!#ooc #{ONE MORE TIME WITH FEELING! UGH I had a huge thing typed out and then it vanished!!}#{And lazurus form recovery pooped off ;__; }#{TY FOR SENDING AND YOUR PAITENCE}

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aion-rsa · 5 years

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Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell Review & Discussion

https://ift.tt/2MhJtYI

In which two Rainbow Rowell fans discuss Wayward Son, the much-anticipated sequel to queer wizard romance Carry On ...

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This Wayward Son discussion includes major spoilers for both Carry On and Wayward Son.

Wayward Son, the sequel to Rainbow Rowell's queer wizard romance Carry On, hit shelves earlier this month. The book picks up roughly a year following the ending of Carry On, which saw Chosen One Simon Snow defeat the Insidious Humdrum and The Mage alongside best friend Penelope and vampire boyfriend Baz. It asks the worthy question: What happens after The Chosen One fulfills his prophecy?

Answer: Simon Snow is depressed, having not developed the coping skills to thrive in a post-Watford, post-Prophecy world. This prompts Penny into strong-arming Simon and Baz into a cross-country road trip adventure across America. What begins as Cheesecake Factory visits and Ren Faire detours escalates into another fight for Simon and his friends, as the gang is inadvertently pulled into a vampire conspiracy that already has Simon's ex Agatha in its clutches.

With a third book in the series, Any Way the Wind Blows, set to conclude the trilogy, Den of Geek Books Editor Kayti Burt and Den of Geek Contributor Natalie Zutter take the time to check in with the beloved series. How does Wayward Son expand on the cultural conversation begun in Carry On, and what do we hope for from the trilogy's final installment?

The First Question

Hot take! Generally, how did you feel about Wayward Son?

Kayti: I feel the need to preface this answer with some context: I was very hyped for this book. Carry On is one of my favorite books, and Rainbow Rowell is one of my favorite authors. To say this was one of the pop culture artifacts I was most looking forward to in 2019 would not be an understatement. Perhaps this kind of hype is untenable, but I am not in the habit of trying to talk myself out of positive emotions (anymore.. I hope), even for the worthy cause of not later being disappointed in part because of them.

That being said, I was disappointed. If Carry On was a nutritious and oh-so-delicious meal, then Wayward Son was a snack. There were elements of the narrative that I really loved and I think it had an amazing, ambitious premise—to explore what it can feel like after you’ve finished The Thing You’ve Always Been Working Towards (this is a particularly good allegory for graduating into the “real world,” a subject I don’t think is explored enough, honestly in our pop culture) but the book never quite fulfilled on its promise. I ended it with a feeling of Not Enoughness. Even though so much happened, plot-wise, it didn’t feel like the characters developed, either individually or collectively, in many noticeable ways.

read more: Best New Young Adult Books

Natalie: The Renaissance Faire was the shit… though I was surprised that it seemed so alien to these Brits, as I would have assumed they would have a much higher likelihood of running into reenactments of medieval life on that side of the pond. A quick google later, and it turns out that Ren Faires are a very post-World War II American pastime—who knew! So that was a keen choice of Rowell’s, to present a subculture that would feel incredibly foreign to these magicians even though it’s mundane for the Normals.

For all that I felt like the Penny/Micah scenes wasted valuable time, forcing our trio to road trip across the heartland (instead of starting out on the coast, which would have been much more convenient) felt very American. Earlier this year, I spent a month in Nebraska City, NE on a writing residency (with brief visits to Omaha and Lincoln), so those portions felt much more familiar than they would have if I hadn’t temporarily lived there.

Kayti, I share your love for the quirks and rules of American magic, from the dead zones to—my favorite aspect of this series’ magic system—the efficacy of using American language and phrases in spells.

Kayti: Thank you for bringing up the Ren Faire, Natalie, and for giving that American context for it. I did not know about its history and now need to read more about it.

Natalie: Always here for Ren Faire discourse.

Kayti: Sadly, I have not yet been to a Ren Faire in real life (it’s on my loose bucket list!), but that did not keep me from loving this part of the book, or from understanding (having been to other delightfully performative spaces like this one, including Harry Potter World and, you know, Comic Con) what it looks, feels, and even smells like. There’s something incredibly powerful about going to a space in which everyone, including adults, has agreed to pretend, to play to some degree. In general, the Ren Faire scene felt like the point in the book in which the plot jumpstarted. The narrative sped up and felt kinetic and full of potential in a way it hadn’t before.

read more: Frankenstein Adaptations Are Almost Never Frankenstein Adaptations

As for the other parts of the American road trip narrative, it struck me in reading your comments that I have not been to almost all of the places that they visit in Wayward Son, which is interesting given my earlier rant about the brand of escapism I enjoyed as a child Harry Potter fan who had never been to England. (Reading Rowell’s books have taught me a lot about Nebraska, which I would love to visit. I recently read her graphic novel Pumpkinheads, which is set at a Nebraskan pumpkin patch, and it made me realize how, as a native New Englander, I erroneously ascribed certain Traditional Fall Practices solely to New England.)

Natalie: To be fair, I think most Americans (or at least coastal ones, like you and California-bred me) are raised to regard fall as very much belonging to the East Coast what with the leaves and the apple picking and such. So I’ll have to check out Pumpkinheads to disabuse myself of that notion as well!

You’re so right about the plot jumpstarting at the faire, because it was a site of so much concentrated pretend and delight in play. Maybe our quartet will find that they need to locate a similar space in England in the next book?!

Supporting characters: How did Penelope and Agatha grow (or not) as characters?

Natalie: I’m not sure if either grew on her own within her own arc; with Penny, I was especially waiting for her to be shown the error of her ways in looking down on Normals, as it seemed like the book was building to that. Then again, that kind of deep-seated self-reliance (which occasionally manifests as know-it-all arrogance) wouldn’t necessarily go away from just one adventure; so I guess it’s more realistic for her to need to experience more of the world beyond Watford before she fully grasps that while magicians are special, they’re not the be-all, end-all. To that end, one of my favorite moments in the book was when Penny and Agatha realized they could command magic without speaking and by drawing on one another. I’m excited to see how this brings them closer together—and likely on a different magickal level than Baz or Simon can grasp—in the third book.

Kayti: Same. I loved the big fight scene that saw Penny and Agatha holding hands, walking out of the fire like some kind of dude witchhunter’s worst fear. I didn’t think it was particularly earned, character-wise, as we didn’t really get to see these two talk things out. The book began with Penny trying to insert herself into Agatha’s California life, against Agatha’s express wishes. Penny disrespects so many of the boundaries Agatha has communicated to her, and, even though Agatha obviously ends up needing Penny and co., it’s not really addressed.

read more: How Harry Potter Shaped Modern Internet Fandom

I liked Penny’s storyline in Wayward Son, even if I wish we had gotten more of it. I liked that we got to see more of her relationship with Baz, and that her “deep-seated self-reliance” (which is a great way of putting it) is challenged. I think she’s the character who gets the most development here; Micah’s words seem to get through to her and, by the end of the book, she is relying on people a bit more. On the Agatha front, I was disappointed to see Agatha fall back into a world of magic/rigid external structure after she chose a different life for herself at the end of Carry On.

Natalie: I’d say that aside from Simon, Agatha is surprisingly the character with the darkest and most nuanced outlook on the Chosen One narrative—especially since she spent her formative years believing she was the reward for Simon saving the world. Yet I wanted to see more of that anger/frustration from Agatha, who instead seemed rather apathetic (though she got in a few good snarky comebacks) about her limited prospects in California. I wanted her to lay into Penny for ignoring her boundaries!

Looking Forward to Book Three

Do you think Simon will get his magic back in the third book? Do you want him to?

Natalie: Simon seemed to do fine without being able to command magic in this book, thanks to the wings and tail and his general MO of acting like a bat out of hell in battle. I would be curious to see him develop his relationship to magic in what I assume will be the conclusion of this trilogy: having gone from being the manifestation of magic to having to rely on his friends for every little thing, hopefully there’s a way he can learn to exist parallel to it.

Kayti: Yeah, I like that. In some ways, the NowNext crew’s efforts to transplant magic into a non-magickal creature seem to foreshadow a potential choice for Simon: would he choose to get his magic back if he had the option? I’d like to see him develop an identity and broader skillset outside of magic. His inability to properly take care of himself in Wayward Son is not a result of his lack of magic, but rather his mental illness, which I think is a reality Rowell does a good job emphasizing, even if Simon himself can’t see it.

Natalie: Good point. I think that at times I failed to recognize that as a mental illness issue and instead regarded Simon entirely through the lens of magic—i.e., much the way his friends do.

What do you think has happened at Watford???

Kayti: I don’t know! Why didn’t I let you answer this question first?!

Natalie: I might have chosen to answer these questions in a certain order for this very reason…

Kayti: Very Slytherin of you.

Natalie: I keep wanting to be Ravenclaw, and then the Slytherin just takes over in moments like these...

Kayti: I am the opposite! I am a Ravenclaw who wants to be a Slytherin.

Anyway, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to expect that Penny, Simon, and Baz will face some consequences for their careless actions in Wayward Son, though that doesn’t seem to be what the emergency at Watford is alluding to. I wonder if it might have something to do with the vampire community, as they played such an important role in Wayward Son and are obviously tied to Baz, which would force him and Simon to face some realities they have thus far been able to avoid. Whatever it is, I am happy to be heading back to England.

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Natalie: I definitely think it’s some crisis that’s mostly been running parallel to the events of Wayward Son, though I wouldn’t be surprised if their actions in middle America (and the aforementioned outing via Ren Faire battle) had some impact.

Considering that the trio were all at least a year out of their time at Watford at the start of the book, it would be really interesting if the crisis at Watford is something about which they’re completely out of the loop—if going back to a place where they lived for years is nearly as foreign as stepping on American soil.

How did you feel about that ending?

Natalie: I read this entire book expecting it to be concluding a duology, so even when we got to the ostensible cliffhanger of an ending I initially thought maybe it was meant to be open-ended—that Simon and Baz would or wouldn’t resolve their individual issues, that there would always be an emergency to draw their attention away from fixing their relationship. That would have felt a bit too unsatisfying for me. Now that we know there’s a third book in the works, I’m more onboard with ending on a “to be continued…”

Kayti: As I got closer to the ending, I think I began to realize that this would not be the end of the series, but I still expected more from this ending: more of an emotional confrontation, of some kind, even if it ended in Simon and Baz breaking up. Simon’s intention to break up with Baz stated in the very beginning of the book felt a bit like a Chekhov’s gun that never went off.

Natalie: You’re right! The fact that they didn’t address anything about their relationship nagged at me—like, even if they’re as bad at being together as they each seem to think, it seemed truly surprising that after nearly dying a half-dozen times over they decided to stay in this weird cautious detente.

What do you want to see explored in the next book?

Kayti: I was expecting the question of Simon’s parentage to play more of a role in Wayward Son—if not in Agatha inadvertently giving Team Snow the information about Lucy that would probably allow Penny or Baz to put the pieces together, then in Simon wondering more about it himself. I’m still not clear how much he knows about The Mage’s machinations. Does he realize that the Mage was his biological father?

I’d also like to learn more about Baz’s family. We get hints of him in Carry On, most especially his Aunt Fiona, who is a force to be reckoned with in the fandom world. How has Baz’s relationship with Simon affecting his relationship with his family, if it has? Is he close with his siblings?

read more: Checking In On Harry Potter Canon

Natalie: I… completely forgot that Simon doesn’t know everything about the Mage’s plan, so yes I would like to see this resolution as well.

I’d like to see each of the characters struggle with fitting into a post-Watford world in adulthood: Agatha with some righteous anger, Penny examining her magickal privileges, and Simon and Baz comparing their relative support systems in the form of family.

I’d also like to see the magickal world change. Wayward Son proved that there are some cracks in how the magicians harnessed magic and built their identity around it; but it seems like in some ways they need to get with the times. Like, now that Simon is no longer the Chosen One, how does that affect an entire magickal world that was half-expecting to get wiped out at any time?

Kayti: Yes to Agatha’s righteous anger and Penny’s examination of her magickal privilege!

The Final Question

How do you think Wayward Son compares to Carry On?

Natalie: Carry On was so clearly in conversation with Harry Potter and Chosen One narratives—and subverted those story beats so brilliantly, from how spells are constructed to the Mage’s self-fulfilling prophecy—that it feels like a complete book.

Wayward Son felt like it didn’t know what kind of story it was: part culture-clash tour of magickal creatures of the U.S., part interrogation of its own established magic systems. And maybe that was by design! The characters are figuring out who they are now that they’ve broken the standard Chosen One narrative, so it stands to reason that the sequel would similarly be looking for itself. But it felt very much like a middle book; I will probably enjoy it more on a reread someday once I have the hindsight of knowing how the story ends.

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Kayti: Yeah, I am interested to see how I feel about this book after I read the third one in the trilogy, but I am also a big believer in all respective works of a larger series (whether it is in book, TV, or movie form) having to stand on their own, which I am not sure that Wayward Son does. It’s possible that Wayward Son was never going to be as revelatory a reading experience as Carry On, and the ways in which it used some of the best qualities of fanfiction culture to challenge, expand, and contextualize some of the problematic and/or unexplored aspects of the Harry Potter series, in particular when it comes to trauma.

That being said, I think Rowell’s ambitions with this one—to explore depression and what comes after The Chosen One wins—is just as brilliant an idea as what she was working with in Carry On, but one that wasn’t given the time or space to be adequately explored.

Natalie: Really well put. I think we were all expecting more drawing upon fanfiction culture (something that I will note that Tamsyn Muir’s Harrow the Ninth succeeds in doing as a follow-up to Gideon the Ninth) when instead this is an entirely different animal. If anything, I would love to see Any Way the Wind Blows build on Wayward Son’s conversation about mental health and moving on, so that the third book is closer to the second than the first.

Wayward Son is now available for purchase via Amazon, Macmillan, or your local independent bookstore.

Natalie Zutter is a playwright and pop culture critic who will talk about fanfiction until you spell her silent, and is very much due for a Fangirl reread. Read more of her work here.

Kayti Burt is a staff editor covering books, TV, movies, and fan culture at Den of Geek. Read more of her work here or follow her on Twitter @kaytiburt.

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

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Feature Natalie Zutter Kayti Burt

Oct 17, 2019

Young Adult Fiction

Fantasy Books

from Books https://ift.tt/2pzSHFB

#aion-rsa #Books

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zenxenophilia · 7 years

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(Posted anonymously via submitter request)

This is an amazing Knock Out/Breakdown yandere fic that my friend wrote for me via private message, and I just had to share with you all! :D :D :D (Put under the cut do to length.)

Summary: When Knock Out and Breakdown spot human reader walking in the woods late at night, they follow them hoping to discover the location of the Autobot base, but end up discovering something far more surprising instead...

You’re the only one who knows about this place. A very pretty, very secluded place off-road, far from the noise and bustle of the city. It's a beautiful, natural pond/spring, similar to a Japanese onsen, and surrounded by trees on every side. You enjoy bathing there at night when it's the perfect temperature after a hot day and the only insects around are fireflies. The moonshine illuminates it all and makes it look even more mysterious and magical than it already does.

You've been there many times over the years, and you've always been alone there. It's your secret, safe, relaxing spot. Sometimes you bring your phone or a music player to have it play on low volume in the background, but the complete silence is a nice change from the busy and noisy everyday life. Especially since you got acquainted with the Autobots.

Now it's been a while, but you were finally able to have time for yourself this night! And if you recall it should be a full moon tonight, perfect timing! You bring the necessary things. Bathing clothes, (or maybe you could try skinny-dipping this time?) music player, towels, warmer clothes, phone, and something simple to drink and eat afterwards. Thankfully you have a car that can take you pretty far off-road, and the last part you walk yourself, not wanting to lead tracks there.

On your way to the forest however, you stop at the outskirts of the town and walk out of your car to take in the beautiful night scenery. You're no hurry, and you've been so stressed, why not take it easy this one night? What you don’t know, is that this is the night Knock Out had some spare time and was driving around, looking for some street racing. He instead sees you, recognizing you as one of the Autobots "pets", or pests as he sees it. Seeing you leave the city he decides to trail behind, thinking that maybe this is his lucky day, and he would be led straight to the Autobots hidden base. He opens the comm link to Breakdown, figuring he'll need back-up but doesn’t want to risk the credit for finding the base to go to some vehicons or, Primus forbid, to Starscream. No, this would be their promotion, their treat!

They manage to trail you without you noticing them, and while they're confused as to why your car suddenly veers off the road and into the forest, they figure it would be wise to not keep a base exactly by the side of a road. However, this does make it harder for them to follow. Both because it’s difficult to be quiet among branches and leaves, and because Knock Out dreads the thought of getting mud on his paint. This allows you to get far ahead, not noticing them at all as you set up your little temporary "camp", and get into the water.

Something with this night seems off. You feel... uneasy about this. You assume it’s because it's been so long, and the fact that you've been hiding out in a secret base filled with aliens and monitors and.. yeah, that was it, your life had taken a sudden, big turn and you were still not used to it. In order to take your mind off it, you decide to put on some of your favorite music before slipping back into the water.

Knock Out and Breakdown find your car empty, with no clue as to which way you had gone. They’re predictably annoyed and turn to head back the way they had come, (after first adding the coordinates to their memory, because obviously there was SOMETHING here for the Autobot pet to go through all the trouble.)

But then they hear it. Very faint, but they can tell which direction it came from. It certainly doesn’t sound like something that would come from a secret base, (though they had already given up on the "Autobot base quest" for tonight, so this only sparked an almost child-like curiosity.)

Once they reach the opening, they stay behind the trees to keep themselves hidden. What they see is you, skin and hair wet, shiny in the moonlight. Stars in the sky and fireflies in the air. The music that led them there is barely noticeable but enough to affect the whole scenery.

Knock Out has seen mainly horror movies in those drive-in theaters but he’s also seen a few fantasy and romance movies as well, and he blames those human movies for making him able to see actual beauty on this planet. He glances at Breakdown, who is apparently also impressed by Earth at this moment, judging by the tint of red on his faceplate.

After some time of just watching you dive and surface, and comb through your hair with your fingers, they both feel that maybe... maybe they can see why the Autobots keep some of these humans around. Especially this one.

The low music, the calmness... They've never seen a human in this light before. They are always loud, always running around like vermin, or cowering in fear if they encounter the cons. As you start to get up you could almost swear you see something move among the trees. A deer, perhaps? It wouldn't be the first time they got close to you.

Later, back on board the Nemesis, Breakdown and Knock Out firmly deny that they liked what they saw and just try to forget the whole night. But they just can’t forget that beautiful huma- that is, they can't forget that beautiful scenery! Yes, that's it! They travel there next time they have spare time, telling each other that it was so beautiful and they want to be there, just the two of them. No stupid, revolting human to spoil it. But as they get there another night - another full moon night - what a coincidence. It's just not the same, and that's because the human isn't there. The human didn't spoil the scenery and magic, they were the very source of it. They knew this already, knew they were lying to themselves when they spoke of you as disgusting.

A small gasp catches their attention, and they turn around to see you - the very human that had so captivated their attention the last time. Curses fly through your mind. How did you not notice them until you got so close?! Your eyes widen with fear, as their widen with.. surprise? Awe?.. Excitement?? Knock Out and Breakdown exchange a quick look. Is this another coincidence? Not as much as they think. In truth, you had planned on bathing here this very night for a long time, because tonight was not only a full moon, but a full blood moon - a super moon. You had wanted to bathe in its eerie yet beautiful red light... But the only red light you're bathing in right now is the light of Knock Out's optics as he continues staring at you. Then, after what feels like an eternity, he smirks. Your instinct to run kicks in as he takes a step towards you, but you're not quick enough.

You yelp as he snatches you up off the ground, dropping your bag where you have your cellphone, among other things. The grip is... firm, but not as rough as you had expected it to be. There's no chance for you to wriggle out of it however. Knock Out walks back to Breakdown, his smug smirk never leaving his face, while Breakdown's smile is more excited than smug. You're scared, with all right to be. Your eyes turns teary, which only makes them reflect the moonlight even more. The white light surrounding you slowly begins to turn reddish, and Knock Out and Breakdown look up to see how the moon is now bright red. They are speechless, they had no idea that was a possible color for the Earth's moon. They lay their optics on you again. How is it that every time they see you, they discover something new and beautiful with this world? The fact that no a single word has been exchanged yet doesn't do anything to calm your beating heart. Yet, once they do speak, it helps even less.

Knock Out glances at your dropped bag and sees the phone, towels, extra clothes etc. and turns his head to Breakdown and shrugs, making the servo holding you move slightly. "Well, Breakdown. The human came here to bathe and we shouldn't get in their way. Right?" You can feel the blood drain from your face. You know the Decepticons hate humans, and can only imagine that they're gonna drown you, and have great fun with it. Breakdown lets out a low chuckle, and they start walking towards the pond.

They stop close to the water, and to your surprise put you down on the dry ground. You dare not move from the spot. You only turn your head to look up at them with your terrified eyes. And they swear they can feel sparks surge at that moment. Again, Knock Out is the one to comment on what you're here for. "Go on, don't mind us. Do like you always do here~" The shaking stops for a moment as you go stiff... They have seen you here before?! Seen you, WATCHED you, and for whatever reason stayed hidden?! You feel naked despite being fully clothed. Which reminds you, you dropped your bag with your bathing clothes, and Knock Out is standing in your way!

Knock Out raises an eyebrow and follows your gaze to your bag. "Oh, you needed something in that bag?" he looks back to you. Too afraid to speak, you simply nod even though you don't expect him to care. He does however go to grab your bag, but instead of handing it to you, he begins rummaging through it with two of his pointed digits. He finds your cellphone and holds it up. "Well, I'll be holding on to this for you." He opens a small compartment in his armor, and drops in your cellphone - your only chance at contacting someone for help.

The new look of hopelessness on your face is rather amusing to him and Breakdown, and he stands up again without taking anything else out of your bag, nor giving it back to you. You apparently look as confused as you feel, as Breakdown somewhat explains the situation to you with a wide smile. "What? We'll give it to you once you're done bathing. Wouldn't want to risk someone stealing it while you're in the water." By this point you imagine that they're mostly interested in humiliating you. That's what you tell yourself as you try to ignore the fact that they've been watching you before. You take off your shoes and enter the water, but only your feet get wet before you feel yourself get pulled back by Knock Out's claws.

"Ah-ah-ah~!" he says in a sing-song voice, waving a finger at you disapprovingly. "I may be a Cybertronian medic but I know enough about humans to know that having wet clothes will give you a cold." He carefully places a claw under your chin, tilting it slightly upwards to him, "It would be a shame to see such a pretty face in that kind of discomfort." You find yourself unable to speak. How should you react to any of this?? A con, one you have noticed is very disgusted by organics in general, called you pretty? This along with the fact that they apparently have been spying on you makes you feel great discomfort. You suddenly feel scared and naked under their gaze. And just when you thought you couldn't feel more scared and naked...

"Strip." It's not a suggestion. The tone of his voice goes from playful to harsh in a matter of seconds. The claw under your chin moves down to the collar of your shirt. "Or do you want me to do it for you~?" Now he sounds playful again, "Can't promise that there'd be anything left of your clothes, but..." His claw tugs at the fabric. It causes you to realize that he's serious and you'd better take it off yourself.

"No! No, I-I'll do it..!" You squeak and he removes the claw, looking very pleased. Breakdown, meanwhile, makes himself comfortable on the ground, watching the two of you intently. He lets out a short laugh.

"Hah, charismatic as always! You sure know how to use your charm to persuade them."

"Indeed, I'm a natural. Must be my dazzling good looks."

They enjoy themselves, pretending to be caught up in their little talk while you remove your clothes. But they are watching you, their gaze more intense than before, more piercing.

Once your last piece of clothing lies on the ground, they go silent and don't bother to pretend they aren’t watching. The moon is still red and beautiful, and to make this somewhat less uncomfortable for you, you decide to focus on the few things which are familiar here. The trees, the stars, the fireflies... though the lack of music makes it harder.

You dive down and though you would have preferred to stay underwater until those cons went away, you sadly need to resurface to get some air. Your eyes land on the other side of the pond, and for a moment you consider diving again to swim towards the opposite "beach". But then what? They'd see you - catch you. Even if you did get away you would be naked and cold. The phase of the blood moon passes and the normal white light returns.

You finally start moving out of the water, and you do so slowly. It feels like you're walking towards predators, towards a trap. But you have no choice, you need your bag with your towel, clothes and car keys. You're not sure if you dare to push your luck by asking for your phone back. Their optics never leave you. You make the mistake of looking up and straight into Knock Out's piercing gaze. You feel so small and vulnerable, like looking into the eye of a bird of prey, or the blood moon. You curse yourself once again, as you're now going to always think of him and Breakdown whenever you see a full moon.

You come to a stop, keeping some distance between them and you. You suddenly feel very angry and annoyed rather than scared. It's probably because of the cold creeping in on you. "There, I'm done bathing. Now please give me my stuff." You're not sure if your tone is gonna make things worse for you, but for now you're freezing and just want your towel. Your shaking doesn't go unnoticed, as pointed out by Knock Out.

"We did say we'd give it to you, didn't we?" He grins as he and Breakdown move closer.

"Yeah, and look at them shaking! Humans sure are fragile. Can't stand the temperature of their own planet." This time it's Breakdown who kneels down, the light from his yellow eyes making the fireflies seem nonexistent. "Or is the little human shaking because they're scared?" A teasing, almost cruel smirk spreads on his faceplate. Knock Out offers a similar expression. You on the other hand manages a surprisingly defiant glare.

"No, I'm not scared! I'm just cold, so please give me my stuff already!" You snap as you point towards your bag.

Their expressions remain the same and Knock Out let's out a 'hmph' as he mumbles "Charming." and miraculously they hand you your bag. All your things are still in it, except for the phone of course. You pull out your dry, soft towel and wrap yourself in it. You can't help but to let out a soft moan as the towel is actually warmed up from having been kept in the con's servo. But just after that moan you hear two engines revving.

Their smirks from before are gone. Knock Out and Breakdown are now looking at you with a red tint on their cheek plates, their closed lips nothing more than straight lines. It's deathly quiet for a few seconds. During those seconds the two cons share the same conflicting thoughts. They were sure that they had only been affected by the scenery. They had wanted to see you simply due to aesthetic attraction! Their engines at that moment revealed another kind of attraction though. They had wanted to play with you more, but now they were confused, conflicted and angry... at you and at themselves. Knock Out felt mostly angry while Breakdown felt mostly confused.

"Come on Breakdown, we've had our fun. Not much more for us to do here."

Breakdown looks at Knock Out as he turns around starts walking towards the trees, then looks back at you with strangely soft optics, before turning around to follow Knock Out. "Yeah, sure."

You stay there as you hear, and feel, their heavy footsteps get further away. Then it's finally as quiet and still as it should be at your pond. "My pond..." You sigh. It doesn't really feel like yours anymore, not yours alone. You doubt you'd want to spend any other night here, at least not for a good while. You start making your way towards the trees, picking up the car keys from your bag when you suddenly hear something beep and shine on the ground, close to the tree line. It's your phone! You run over to it and pick it up. It's a text message from a friend wondering why you haven't responded to them the past few hours. You sigh again, this time with relief. Knock Out must have dropped it somehow. It was a small device after all, especially when compared to the size of Cybertronians.

You take a deep breath and count yourself lucky, considering you just encountered two Decepticons in a secluded area with no weapon or means of requesting help. "Yeah... things could have gone worse," you say to yourself as you actively shove the more suspicious parts of the event to the back of your mind. Right now, you just want to change into your clothes, drive back home and eat something. Then go to sleep in your soft, warm bed.

Meanwhile, Knock Out and Breakdown drive further along the secluded forest as they get ready for a ground bridge back to the Nemesis.

"So Knock Out, did you manage to tamper with their phone?" Breakdown asks through their private com link.

"Breakdown, with my skilled and precise medic hands it wasn't much of a challenge. Not to mention that their technology is so primitive. Heh, never thought that would be to my personal advantage at some point."

On the monitor at the driver's seat a red dot slowly begins moving through the forest. It briefly comes to a stop, and then picks up in speed as you enter your car and start driving.

"Until next time, Autobot pet~. And I assure you that there will be a next time." And then they're gone without a trace as they disappear into the ground bridge.

#submissions #maccadam #tfp #yandere #Knock Out #Breakdown #suggestive #holy heck that was intense!#I love this so much!!!#Primus I love these two!#I can't wait for the sequel!!!#:D :D :D #<3 <3 <3 #good fic!#a very good fic!#fav!#^___^#the great correspondence #creepy robots

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terranempire · 7 years

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The Mummy SUCKS

So, Universal is trying to relaunch their classic movie monsters. For the third time in recent years. I get it. There has been success with them in the past, and even some of the more recent iterations did well and were good (which is not the same thing). Brendan Fraser’s films were good and made money (forgetting the abomination that was the third film). “Dracula Untold” was really good but made no money. But this version of “The Mummy” is a trainwreck. I’ll save the biggest and worst problem for the very end but let’s break it down a little, shall we? SPOILERS BELOW

The movie has really uneven pacing, and is very repetitive. It starts with a scene set in the 1100s in England, which really puts you in mind of Egypt and mummies, right? Some Knights Templar are burying one of their own with a shiny red gem. The gem will come in later. A lot. After that brief foray it jumps to the present, where that same location is being rediscovered when they are cutting a new line for the underground. Still no Egypt, still no mummies. Then we finally get the set up for our titular mummy, an Egyptian princess named Ahmanet. It’s the usual story - raised to rule until Daddy managed to get himself a son and now she’s out of a throne, so she turns to evil and kills them all, and gets “mummified alive” for her trouble (which really just means put in a sarcophagus and nothing else). This is all in the trailer. When she gets captured she is mid-ritual to bring the Egyptian god of death, Set, into the world via sacrificing her apparently quite willing boyfriend. Ahmanet is played by the excellent Sofia Boutella, who I love, but the movie really doesn’t let her do a lot. On to our “hero” Nick - Tom Cruise - who is a frontline recon soldier in modern day Iraq who uses his scouting position to steal artifacts and sell them on the black market before Daesh comes in and destroys all that stuff anyway, clearing up any evidence of his wrongdoing for him. It’s a good scam, until he and his wise-cracking, scaredy-pants parter Vail - Jake Johnson - wind up having to call in an airstrike to get away from some insurgents while 100 miles from where they are supposed to be. The airstrike unearths Ahmanet’s tomb/prison (also in the trailer). Tom has found this location by stealing a map sent to a one night stand archaeologist, Jenny - Annabelle Wallis - who shows up on the site at the same time as the military, or possibly with them. It’s not clear. Either way she browbeats them into retrieving the sarcophagus before the insurgents can return and break everything. She’s meant to be strong, I suppose, but she just comes across as a bit of a bitch, which isn’t unreasonable given the circumstances but makes it almost impossible to root for the inevitable “romance”. In the tomb Vail gets bitten by a spider (which is referred to as not being “poisonous” instead of venemous, and it clearly is since he has visible marks of some kind of toxin all over his face shortly thereafter which no one notices). Then comes the set-piece featured in the trailer of the plane disaster. Vail dies from the spider bite and is taken over by Ahmanet’s power. Plane crash follows, with Nick saving Jenny by getting her in a parachute and off the plane, and then dying with the rest of the passengers. The moment stays on him, stuck on the edge of the hole torn in the side of the plane, which the audience can see the ground rushing up through. It’s arguably the best moment of the film because you really feel the futility and sense of impending death and it goes on longer than you would think. Shortly thereafter he wakes up in the morgue, fully intact but seeing the rapidly decomposing ghost of Vail. It’s very “American Werewolf in Paris”, and Vail repeatedly pops up for the rest of the film, trying to convince Nick that they are cursed and filling him in on some of what Ahmanet has planned for him. The tone is very consistent with Jake Johnson’s other work (New Girl, “Let’s Be Cops”, “Jurassic World”) and it sticks out like a sore thumb in this film. It’s just a little too much to be an effective comedic balance to the horror/action elements. The plan is that since her original boyfriend died before she could complete the ritual and put Set in his body Ahmanet has now chosen Nick to be that vessel. Vail wants Nick to give in and take part in the ritual because it is not something he thinks they can fight, or even should. Nick is obviously less keen. Ahmanet is now out and about, sucking the life out of nearby cops and paramedics investigating the crash site, and returning to “life” in the process. It was done better in the Brendan Fraser version of “The Mummy” - Imhotep was scarier and felt far more powerful than Ahmanet does. The limitation of needing to suck down the life force from only the people who were there when his tomb was opened also gave him an oppressive momentum that Ahmanet’s opportunistic kills do not have. Her reanimated victims are also seriously shitty monsters - they flail and squelch and chase but they don’t feel dangerous or kill literally anyone. Again, the Fraser version is vastly superior here - the secondary mummies are dangerous and will fuck you up. Nick and Jenny are at a pub, and this is where some of the best Nick moments happen. She’s asking him how he survived without a scratch and he basically is just getting hammered and shrugging. He’s not a particularly heroic hero - he’s kind of a dick, in it for number one, doesn’t really know or care what’s going on. I liked that about him, but not enough for me to want him to win. Vail’s gross ass shows up again and does his ‘we’re cursed’ thing some more. Ahmanet and some CGI rats freak Nick out with a vision. Nick and Jenny go to the crash site, pulling off at the church where Ahmanet has set up shop. He’s drawn to her, and there is some interesting temptation going on there. Given that she is the only character in the whole movie with any draw, I was honestly well sold on her. Give in, Nick. Be her eternal boytoy. It’s an offer I’d take up. But Nick freaks out when she pulls her magic knife to shiv a god into his body, and she freaks out when she realises her magic knife is broken. The gem half got buried with the Knight Templar in the opening scene. She only has the blade and it doesn’t work without both. Nick and Jenny run away. Shitty CGI mummies try ineffectually to stop them. Nick drives right back to Ahmanet, because she’s in his head, drawing him to her. I liked that. Right as she’s about to fuck him up and kill Jenny, Jenny’s people show up and tranq dart everyone, bringing them all back to their super-secret lair. The dude who has been giving the voiceover background on Ahmanet the whole time is there - Henry Jeckyll (as played by Russell Crowe). His people investigate, contain, and eradicate evil, and Ahmanet is the oldest thing they’ve come up against. We see some nice bits and pieces indicating where Universal plans to go with future “Dark Universe” films - including a vampire skull. He goes over Ahmanet’s backstory again for Nick’s sake, showing the audience the scenes of her killing her family and getting stopped mid-boyfriend sacrifice again. As I said, weirdly repetitive. Jekyll wants to dissect her (for science!) and even Jenny is like, “That’s kind of fucked up.” He also wants to put the magic knife back together and sacrifice Nick to let Set in, and then somehow kill Set. It’s a bad plan, and both Nick and Jenny are like, “Um, pass.” Jekyll then Hyde’s the fuck out, and Hyde tries to talk Nick into becoming Set and evilling together like pals. Nick manages to get him his Jekyll-juice and knocks him out. He and Jenny escape. Ahmanet, using magic spiders for mind-control purposes, also escapes. The spider thing was weird to me. Why not just use scarabs? She’s a fucking mummy. Apparently scarabs are reserved for Arnold Vosloo. ANYWAYS, Jekyll’s people have unearthed the gem half of the magic knife, so Nick & Jenny (and sometimes Vail’s creepy ghost), and Ahmanet, and Jekyll’s people all go for it. Ahmanet reanimates the Knights Templar to kill the Jekyll-people at the crypt while she breaks every window in London (except those on the cars used by Jekyll’s people) to create a sandstorm with her face in it. It is in the trailer. Again, the Fraser films did it better. Ahmanet catches up to Nick & Jenny after she gets the gem and puts her knife together, dragging Jenny into the flooded part of the Knights’ tomb and drowning her. Some of this is also in the trailer. Seriously the whole fucking movie is in the trailer. Nick tries and fails to save her. So, it’s just him and Ahmanet. She’s offering immortality and the power of life over death AND herself as his queen. Like, bro, that’s a great fucking deal. If you don’t take it I WILL. Ahmanet and I can be immortal death goddesses and lovers and you can cry on that dead blonde girl you fucked that one time who believed “somewhere deep inside” that you’re not a douche, despite the ample evidence you personally provided her to the contrary. So Ahmanet kicks Nick around for a little while, trying to get him to say yes to the whole get-sacrificed-and-become-a-god thing even though at no point was it even implied that consent is required, so if you want him that much girl just stab him, and he’s like no, no, no, I don’t want to, it’s not me, it’s you. They tussle and Nick steals the magic knife, and Ahmanet’s like, wtf, thief! And Nick smashes the stone of the knife on the ground, cracking but not destroying it. She tries to convince him once more to join her instead of breaking it, so he just goes “fuck it” and stabs himself to become Set’s vessel. Ahmanet is freaked out and cautious when Set/Nick gets double irises like her (which btw is a stupid fucking design choice), but then he flashes back to blondie telling him she thinks he’s a good man deep inside, and then comes the oh-so-obvious fight against the darkness within bullshit and Nick single-irises again and sucks the life out of Ahmanet, leaving her a mummy once more. He then screams at Jenny’s dead ass not to be dead anymore, so she gets up and he’s all hiding in the shadows, “don’t look at me, I’m a monster, I wish we had more time together (even though neither of us actually likes the other all that much and we only knew each other for a couple of days)”, blah blah. Anyway, he dips and then Jenny and Jekyll talk about how maybe it’s better because sometimes you need monsters to fight monsters, but who know if the evil in him will prevail, etc., blah blah. It intercuts with Nick in the desert somewhere, with his hand pointlessly wrapped reminiscent of a mummy, and Vail is with him. Vail casually thanks him for making him not dead anymore (which did not happen on screen and sticks out like wtf are you talking about? Do you even know how to movie?). And that’s it. Tom Cruise is The fucking Mummy. Tom Cruise. Tom definitely-not-Egyptian, not-even-African-like-Sofia-Boutella-and-Arnold-Vosloo Cruise is The Mummy. That is how Universal decided to reboot their monster franchise. What the ever-loving fuck? What moron greenlit this shit, seriously? Did they honestly think people were going to say, you know who would make a great Mummy? Tom Cruise. You know: Maverick. Ethan Hunt. Jerry Maguire. Motherfucking Lestat. He’s The Mummy. And that is some bullshit.

#The Mummy #The Mummy 2017 #Tom Cruise #film review #spoilers

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comicteaparty · 5 years

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January 24th, 2019 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party chat that occurred on January 24th, 2019, from 5PM - 7PM PST. The chat focused on Pike’s Reach by Mabs.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- THURSDAY BOOK CLUB START!

Good evening, everyone~! This week’s Thursday Book Club is officially beginning! Today we are discussing Pike’s Reach by Mabs~! (https://tapas.io/series/pikesreach)

Remember that Thursday discussions are completely freeform! However, every 30 minutes I will drop in OPTIONAL discussion questions in case you’d like a bit of a prompt. If you miss out on one of these prompts, you can find them pinned for the chat’s duration. Additionally, remember that while constructive criticism is allowed, our focus is fun and respectfully appreciating the comic. All that said, let’s begin!

QUESTION 1. What is your favorite scene in the comic so far and why?

Superjustinbros

Hello!!

RebelVampire

hey super~!

my favorite scene is probably the fight with ezo and nefayn. largely because of https://tapas.io/episode/1179545 this page. i really just like the first few panels illustration wise cause even though theyre simplistic, i kind of feel like they convey this ominous sense of defeaning silence that is appropriate for conveying tension right after something climatic happens

Superjustinbros

https://tapas.io/episode/1234181

RebelVampire

yes there is also that scene. XD which was some good comic relief considering the comic was being very dramatic at the time.

also a good lesson about making sure someone gives permission

instead of just knocking and opening the door

Superjustinbros

yes

Because naked people

RebelVampire

another comical scene i enjoyed was the where they were showing off their drawings of pella's uncle. https://tapas.io/episode/962506 because man are those some not great drawings. especially that left one scares me

Superjustinbros

Oh my god

RebelVampire

another moment i liked, which isnt a scene but more a scene transition you could say, is when the comic switches from adelaide goofing around and then suddenly the warning bell rings.

https://tapas.io/episode/604008

in particular that page

i really love the shots and especially the ominous overtone the first panel has

cause it really helps visually convey the serious has come

Superjustinbros

I love the art style and general color scheme, lots of pinks and purples

mathtans

Made it, though I may not be mentally all here, today's been crazy.

Superjustinbros

hey Math

mathtans

One of my faves was actually to start Chapter 3, when we looked at the "villains" and the main guy was talking about how he didn't want them dead, more turned to his side. I liked the humanizing aspect of the antagonists.

Superjustinbros

Same

mathtans

Too often we just see things kind of one sided. This didn't go that way.

Superjustinbros

Villains that do more than just want the main character(s) dead are always good

mathtans

As far as comedy goes, I liked the brief scene where Adelaide "winked"... maybe... because she could have been blinking and her hair was in the way.

Though I also liked the "cold feet" bit where Nefayn was laughing and Nassar didn't know. In particular it was sort of called back later when he was thrilled that she liked his jokes.

RebelVampire

yeah i really enjoyed that moment with the antagonists. also partially cause i like it being explained why they dont just crush the army cause adelaide is already being silly meeting them on an open field and not using the fort's defenses as was intended

mathtans

Little one's fussing.(edited)

Superjustinbros

Rebel gets it

RebelVampire

but yeah i liked this humanizing affect too of course. because conflicts of territory are rarely straight forward evil guy wants to rule over all the things

Superjustinbros

RebelVampire

that and selfishly i really wanted to like pella and that scene proved to me that it was okay to like him cause hes just a goofy sparkly dude just trying to unite the lands.

Superjustinbros

heehee~

Mabs

Hi there! I'm Mabs and the creator of Pike's Reach! I can't stay for too long because sudden school stuff came up, but I wanted to say THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH for reading PR! Your comments are making me really happy ;w;

Superjustinbros

Hi!!!

RebelVampire

QUESTION 2. Unfortunately for Nefayn, she is cursed twice over both in body and magic. Who do you think cursed her with the first seal and for what reason? Could the culprit be Ezo considering she and Pella seemed to know Nefayn? Why was said culprit pursuing her? In other words, what are their long-term goals in using her? How powerful do you think Nefayn was before the first seal came to be? Now that Nefayn is sealed twice over to be all but human, how will this affect her helpfulness in a battle? Do you believe that Nefayn will be able to undo the seals eventually and return herself to her original form and power? If so, how might this affect her growing relationship with Adelaide?

glad you could stop by, mabs~!

im torn on the culprit issue. on the one hand ezo seems likely cause from her characterization that seems like something shed do. but on the other hand their army is kind of near the end of their campaign since pike's reach is the last one standing and they dont want to murder hobo them. so idk why theyd need nefayn. i kind of like to think theres something bigger gonna show up and pella and adelaide are gonna join forces to defeat it. and that whatever the it is is what's after nefayn. but that could be wishful thinking cause i always cheer for antagonist protagonist team ups when both are basically good dudes with different goals

mathtans

(I swear, my life after 8pm is running back and forth to my little daughter's room.)

RebelVampire

as for goals, maybe using her as a magic conduit. cause thats the only thing i can think of.

mathtans

I get what you were saying about the climactic magic fight scene earlier btw. Just I've never been huge on drama, you know me. ^.^

Superjustinbros

perhaps

also lol math

mathtans

Oh, hi Mabs! I ship everyone!

Superjustinbros

lol

Mabs

Hi there! Yes good, please ship all the characters.

Superjustinbros

Will do~

especially this page https://tapas.io/episode/1221349

mathtans

I wonder if Nefayn was originally that uncle that the General was talking about. Except that would destroy the best ship, so I'm not sure I like that possiblity.

RebelVampire

if were shipping all the ships i now accept https://tapas.io/episode/1077847 this page as canon

mathtans

Yeah, I don't know that it's Ezo. There was also that scene where Nefayn said she thought the big Pike's room seemed familiar, so I feel like she was a citizen of the place somehow.

A teamup would be pretty cool between the two groups. Maybe the West has been getting more organized than they realize, there was some mention of the latest attack being more of a ruse.

Hah. That was a funny one.

Part of me actually ships Ezo and Nefayn, in that sort of 'mortal enemies become friends' kind of deal. So I guess Adelaide ends up with the General's second in command? This was probably heresy to propose.

RebelVampire

idk. shooting someone in the chest seems like a romance deal breaker there XD

Superjustinbros

all ships set sail here

mathtans

It was an arrow of love and respect. Deep down. After all, it didn't kill her.

RebelVampire

but yeah the west could certainly become a threat. or even just one person in the west. like maybe one nation got themselves some guns and are bringing their guns to all the sword fights

mathtans

("It was worse than death, I was made human.")

RebelVampire

LOL

mathtans

As long as they don't bring the gunpowder, it's fine.

RebelVampire

Ezo wanted to make Nefayn human cause she too supports the adelaide/nefayn ship

it was the plan all along

mathtans

Actually, it's not a bad plan. Good way to make the enemy commander very distracted.

RebelVampire

and tbf it does probably take nefayn out of the battle a bit. cause being human has its mortal perils.

mathtans

Here's a possibly related question, who keeps sending the evil things to attack Adelaide? Which makes her sleep with a sword? I don't think it's the general, he seems honourable enough to keep his distance after losing, at least for a while. Maybe it's the same person who did the thing to Nefayn.

Flying is more of a problem for humans.

RebelVampire

i just assumed the magic things showed up of their own accord.

although

pella and ezo dont seem to be plagued by birds

so maybe someone is sending them

or adelaide is special and theyre super attracted to her

mathtans

Right.

Everyone's super attracted to the heroine.

RebelVampire

this is an interesting line of thought

cause i definitey doubt it's pella

cause the impression i got is that this has plagued adelaide for much longer than pike's reach has been under siege

since the sword thing is usually the sign of a long term habit

mathtans

I wonder if maybe the charm that was mentioned as something to keep her safe is actually attracting all the problems. Though it'd need to be something fairies can't pick up on.

Superjustinbros

@mathtans must be one really sexy heroine

RebelVampire

these are some good catches math. i really didnt pay much mind to any of these mentions. that could be though. and tbf nefayn's powers were already partly sealed from the get go so i wouldnt be surprised if shes missing out on some magic things

mathtans

Thanks. ^^ I guess it just struck me as interesting that she's got the sleep issues, and no one else seemed to.

I was wondering if one of Nefayn's powers was to grow big.

RebelVampire

maybe. although i keep thinking its gonna wind up shes a goddess or something O_O

not a fairy sized goddess mind you cause she does mention that fairy form is not her original size

although to the stuff b4 that brings up an interesting point about how much can the magic world interact with the non-magic. cause obviously adelaide being able to see magic and stuff makes her able to interact with it. but how aware does a non magic person have to be before magic stuff can affect them

mathtans

Goddess of sparkles.

RebelVampire

like obviously the others cant see nefayn

but can nefayn like punch them

and theyll be like "oww what a random pain"

mathtans

Well, since magic mines could influence people, I imagine if you make the effect large enough, it'd register.

What if Nefayn caresses?

(I mean, kinda moot now, but still.)

RebelVampire

yeah the magic mines worked. cause if the magic can affect the non magic regardless of their ability to see it, it adds evidence to the idea those birds are super out to get adelaide specifically

QUESTION 3. Magic seems to be at the center of several other mysteries that are presented in the comic. What is Pike’s Reach’s past with magic regarding the mention of a catastrophe involving it? Is Pella onto something about everyone being Adelaide’s age? What might this have to do with the previous lord of Pike’s Reach and Adelaide becoming its lord? How might any of this relate to the fact that Nefayn appears to recall being at Pike’s Reach for a brief moment? There is also the issue of Pella’s missing uncle. What do you think happened to his uncle? How might Pella’s uncle be related to past or present events that occurred in Pike’s Reach? Lastly, will Pella ever discover the truth about his uncle?(edited)

Superjustinbros

That's a cool skill imo

mathtans

Oh yeah, my memory had kind of glossed over that whole catastrophe thing. And the age thing too. Hm, really good points. Maybe they don't physically age in Pike's? Like, they're actually 60, but have the bodies of people much younger?

Again, suspected the uncle might be Nefayn, but that sinks the ship.

Superjustinbros

lol

RebelVampire

if the uncle isnt adelaide's father i will be so surprised

mathtans

Oh! Maybe the uncle is the one who cursed Nefayn.

I wondered about that. If the seeing magic lineage was a direct ancestry. But it might make sense for the uncle to be the one attacking Adelaide too.

RebelVampire

https://tapas.io/episode/970094

like legit look at that family resemblence

https://tapas.io/episode/822837 and pella and adelaide have the same eye color too

and theres no reason it cant be both

adelaide's father and the real antagonist

mathtans

Valid arguments. Maybe it's a red herring though. (Or a red pike! Hah!)

RebelVampire

id even peg him for the causer of this supposed catastrophe. not on purpose. but he vanished and hes after nefayn to try and fix his mistakes.

mathtans

Or maybe he's dead, and he left behind the ultimate weapon to use in case of dire magic circumstances, down in the catacombs.

Or maybe he's undead. He's a necromancer.

Superjustinbros

Could be that now that you mention it

mathtans

As Nassar would say, a very grave matter.

RebelVampire

the charm is the key and thats why the birds are after adelaide. they want that ultimate weapon

birds love ultimate weapons

alternatively he couldve been the one to stop the catastrophe from becoming worse too

mathtans

Adelaide's love is the ultimate weapon.

RebelVampire

cause the fact the catastrophe only took out the elderly or so is implied makes that a very targetted attack. and him being the savior makes sense for why everyone made adelaide the lord.

mathtans

Ah, right, I guess I was still on the "elderly look young" track not the "elderly died" track.

Maybe they were all turned into fairies instead.

Maybe the uncle was turned into a pike.

RebelVampire

or everyone was

theyre all pikes

in the nearby lake

the place was previously called nefayn's love nest, but they renamed it to pike's reach cause theyre always trying to reach those pike

mathtans

spit-take

Lovely vacation spot it is either way.

Mabs

You all are absolutely hilarious and I have really been enjoying reading this. Thank you so much for reading so thoroughly gosh. I have to go to a school thing but I'll be sure to check back later and read the logs! Thanks again

RebelVampire

np and good luck with school~!

Superjustinbros

Cya, Mabs!

And good luck from me as well~

mathtans

Thank you for the creation! Hope school goes well.

Mabs

Thanks again! Bye all~ Good luck with the rest of your discussion

Superjustinbros

Bye!

RebelVampire

ya know, since nefayn doesnt quite remember pike's reach outside of haziness, i wonder if theres some magical third seal that was meant to hide her own memories. a third seal set up by certain uncles.

mathtans

Speaking of school, if there's no older adults, who runs public institutions?

Maybe she set the third seal herself. Nefayn was the cause of the magical catastrophe, doesn't want to remember it.

Everyone fighting about the love nest.

RebelVampire

idk. hard to say without an exact timeline. also without exact knowledge of their system of governance. like for example, education could just be an at home by parents thing. so no actual public institution for it. but i also dont know the cut off date. and maybe no all the old ppl are dead. more its just heavily skewed to one age group

mathtans

"We're in favour of same sex marriage." "Oh, well, we're leaving then." "You realize the founder of this place was gay?" "We're definitely leaving."

I liked Nassar's story, incidentally.

Some good zingers too. "Reel", heh.

RebelVampire

i really hope we get to see more of adelaide's group. cause i feel there isnt enough nassar yet. we need more puns

mathtans

Yis. Looked like we were getting some focus on Berlin towards the end.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 4. Despite the romance and good feels in Pike’s Reach, they are the last fortress standing against the Eastern hordes. Do you believe Pella is genuine about his desire to unite the east to make the country a better place? Why do you think Pike’s Reach is so ardent about not uniting with the rest of the eastern lands? As time drags on, do you think Pella will give into his advisors and stop going so soft on Pike’s Reach? Will Ezo being injured drive them to it potentially? Alternatively, do you think Pike’s Reach and the Eastern hordes might join forces and put their differences aside for some reason? All in all, who do you think will emerge victorious?

mathtans

Ezo's injury could do that (escalate things), since Pella seems to have that thing for her. Honestly, I don't quite see why he's so keen on the uniting to this extent... is it all ego? I mean, why not just be glad you've got 95% of the continent?

It might be interesting if they join forces though.

I hope love emerges victorious.

RebelVampire

i do think ezo's injury is gonna make pella made. at least enough to challenge adelaide to another duel. but then he might also be mad at ezo and be like wtf ezo we were retreating

i dont think its all ego

just more its kind of awkward to not have pike's reach not united with the rest

cause according to that map pike's reach is basically surrounded on all sides

by pella's united country

mathtans

They'll have to redraw all the maps if Pike's given in though.

What the PUC?

Superjustinbros

mathtans

I feel like Ezo needs a friend even more than Adelaide. One who won't keep patting her on the head.

Maybe the injury will mellow her out, but I doubt it.

RebelVampire

i feel like ezo first needs to take a chill pill and stop going all life or death on everything

https://tapas.io/episode/850159 by this map id also assume pike's reach is a strategic advantage cause its closer to the west so if the west tries something its a good outpost to use to stave off an attack traveling in further eastward toward the capital

but all in all i think pella is genuine and really does want to make the country a better place.

mathtans

I can see that. It's a cool map too.

Superjustinbros

Yeah

Feels a lot like Europe/Russia/Asia merged into one

mathtans

"I will bring you love even if I have to smack you around."

RebelVampire

i actually dont know why pike's reach wouldnt want to unite with them to be honest. XD cause trade would be a nightmare at this point cause youd always have to try to skirt and sneak through the eastern horde lands. if the eastern hordes go to war with someone, land troops would be moved through pike's reach anyway. and to me it just seems pike's reach is more holding out for pride

but i guess tbf we dont know much about pella's country. maybe they eat babies and pike's reach has a strict no baby eating policy

mathtans

That's a fair point. Maybe there's something to the whole magic catastrophe, like they used to be a united continent and it went badly for them.

Jelly babies.

Incidentally, they seem to have all the major seasons, so don't live near an equator.

RebelVampire

i mean i guess it could just be an issue they dont want to be governed except by their own ppl or something. idk. i do feel the magic catastrophe has left some scares and suspicions. and ezo is proof pella isnt opposed to magic.

mathtans

Maybe, heritage and traditions or something. Ooh, maybe aliens will come and attack. That would unite everyone.

RebelVampire

this might be the wrong genre for that

maybe nefayn gets kidnapped

and they unite to save nefayn

cause love is the only thing that matters

mathtans

Could be. Oh, that's a thought, since she's vulnerable now and Adelaine owes her one or two.

Oh, and one nice bit I wanted to mention, the gag about her height.

RebelVampire

youll have to be more specific cause my mind is blanking on which specific gag youre referring to XD

although speaking of gags i liked the one where adelaide and nefayn were having the eating contest. except no one could see nefayn. XD

Superjustinbros

Alright, I'm gonna take my leave for now, thanks for the CTP and best of luck to Mabs on the story~

mathtans

(Sorry, little one again.)

The gag with Nefryn still being short... but being at an okay height. (Like, who isn't thinking that... )

That was amusing too. I wonder if you can get away with stuff when you see magic. "Uh, I wasn't talking to myself, no. Sure."

Have a good one, SJB!

RebelVampire

ah okay i know which gag you mean. that one was funny. XD

mathtans

Final closing thought, slow burn romance can be fun for when things come to a peak. Or a pike. ^.^

RebelVampire

i feel in general theres been a lot more jokes like that since nefayn became human

mathtans

It's been good for alleviating some of the tension.

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- THURSDAY BOOK CLUB END!

Sadly, this wraps up this week’s Thursday Book Club chat for now. Thank you so much to everyone for reading and joining us! We want to give a special thank you to Mabs, as well, for making Pike’s Reach. If you liked the comic, make sure to support Mabs’ efforts however you’re able to~!

Read and Comment: https://tapas.io/series/pikesreach

Mabs’ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mabsart

Mabs’ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mabs_art

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #book club #bookclub #webcomic bookclub #webcomic book club #comic tea party #ctp #pike's reach #mabs

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swipestream · 6 years

Text

Sensor Sweep: Grimdark, Ray Harryhausen, Pathfinder, Tim Willocks

Fiction (Rogue Blades): Cropley’s and Bridgland’s article in a recent issue of Grimdark Magazine got me thinking about what it is that keeps me from buying into the whole grimdark thing. I mean, I think there’s a place for it in fantasy, but it’s neither anything special or particularly new. The way I see it, grimdark writers start with epic fantasy, add shock-horror, and declare it a corrective to simplistic, cookie-cutter fantasy by having injected supposed realism, moral and physical.

To keep myself from going off half-cocked in a fit of impolitic and misinformed ranting, I did a little hunting for things other people had written during those heated times a few years back, when everyone was attacking and defending grimdark.

Gaming (RPG Confessions): While the current crop of fantasy and sword and sorcery films were hit and miss in the early 1980’s, there was at least one library of cinematic wonder we could all reference for both style and substance. For many members of the Dungeons and Dragons crowd, their first exposure to the magic of Ray Harryhausen was Clash of the Titans (1981), which turned out to be his last movie. Side note: they had planned a follow-up to Clash which was to be all about the Norse myths: Thor, his chariot pulled by goats, ravens, the Midgard Serpent, Fenris Wolf, the giants…I can’t even fathom how cool that?

Gaming (Hack & Slash): Oh, doesn’t fall always breed new campaigns? It certainly seems that way to me. But I’m not talking about the adventure I’m playtesting, or even the game I’m going to be running for family, I’m talking about old, regular, Dungeons & Dragons that happens on a Friday, pretty much every day of the year, excepting football times? I’m not sure, my friends are reprehensible people.

Gaming (Black Gate): Since Gen Con 2018, the PathfinderPlaytest has been in full swing, testing the new rule system that will form the basis for Pathfinder Second Edition, slated to release at Gen Con 2019. The game looks to streamline the system, and create a more coherent play experience across the diverse options that players of Pathfinder have available.

Pulps (Pulp Flakes): [J. Edward Leithead wrote over 200 stories for the pulps from 1922 to 1950. In this article, originally published in True West, Feb 1967 (also republished in Pulp Vault 14), he reminisces about writing for the western pulps, starting with Western Story in the 1920s to the end in the 1950s. He also wrote many articles on the dime novels which appeared in the fanzine Dime Novel Roundup.]

Fiction (Frontier Partisans): “He doesn’t write for pussies and he doesn’t write for women. He writes for men. Because he’s a man.”

Sam Elliott said that about film writer and director John Milius; the words apply in spades to Tim Willocks. I know there are women who have devoured his novel of the 1565 Great Siege of Malta, The Religion, with as much gusto as any man, and I am most grateful that such women exist. But Willocks truly is not writing for them. He’s writing for men. Men like us.

His new novel, Memo From Turner, is a tale about a man. A man of integrity and honor. A man of violence. A man who cannot compromise, even with himself.

Fiction (Too Much Horror Fiction): “Horror is a woman’s genre,” says my Paperbacks from Hell pal Grady Hendrix, and he is so right. Horror is often seen as a boys’ club, and that is true to an extent, yet there is a feminine power flowing through the genre that is not always acknowledged. The genre features many novels, minor and major, from a beleaguered woman’s point of view: “The Yellow Wallpaper,” We Have Always Lived in the Castle, The Haunting of Hill House, Flowers in the Attic, The Possession of Joel Delaney, The House Next Door, and others lesser-known, such as Burning, Nest of Nightmares, The Landlady.

Fiction (Paperback Warrior): John D. MacDonald’s 1960 paperback, “The End of Night” is often cited as one of his finest stand-alone novels. This is a bold claim as MacDonald produced so many excellent stories outside his acclaimed Travis McGee series. While picking a

best JDM book is likely a fool’s errand, there is no doubt that the short novel is a crime fiction classic.

Writers (Pulprev): Robert E Howard stands astride the world of American literature as a forgotten titan. With hundreds of stories and poems to his name, he built a bibliography that dwarfs any ten modern writers by the age of thirty. He wrote in a vast array of genres, from Westerns to spicy romances, light-hearted humourous tales to gritty detective tales. Most of all, he is remembered for creating the genre of sword and sorcery, in the colossal figure of Conan the Cimmerian.

Fiction (Glorious Trash): I continue to ponder what exactly Manning Lee Stokes was up to with his work on The Aquanauts (which with this volume moves over to Manor Books). Once again he’s taken what is ostensibly an undersea commando-type plot and turned it into a lurid crime thriller more akin to the crime paperbacks book packager Lyle Kenyon Engel would later “produce.” And he overwrites to the max; Whirlwind Beneath The Sea comes in at a whopping 220 pages of super small, super dense print.

Gaming (Niche Gamer): Mojang has announced Minecraft: Dungeons.

The new action-adventure game set within the Minecraft universe is coming to Windows PC sometime next year.

While details on the new game are scant, you can view the above announcement trailer.

Here’s a rundown on the game:

Cinema (Brian Niemeier): Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has renewed her contract with Disney for three years.

The re-up comes as the division gets back on solid footing following “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” the Alden Ehrenreich Han Solo spinoff that suffered disappointing box office returns and behind-the-scenes drama after the studio dismissed directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller well into production. They were replaced by Ron Howard, who was tasked with bringing home the pricey standalone (which cost at least $250 million).

Fiction (John C. Wright): Xuthal of the Dusk is the fifth story in the Conan canon, first published in Weird Tales, September 1933, under the title The Slithering Shadow.

If this is the first Conan story you ever read, your notion of him will not be the aging but still stalwart king, tough as an old oak tree, betrayed but still fighting, nor again the daring thief who escapes from a curse-shattered tower of eldritch witchery, nor the young warlord wise in war-craft. In Xuthal of the Dusk, we finally see him in the setting, situation, and garb of the Conan of popular imagination.

I have seen reviews dismiss this tale as formulaic. It may be so, but let is also be remembered that this was one of the tales that set the formula.

Sensor Sweep: Grimdark, Ray Harryhausen, Pathfinder, Tim Willocks published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

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pamiedrawnic-acid · 6 years

Text

Re:Zero Review

Borrowed photo

Ola! It's been a while since I made a review and I think this is the 4th time that I'll be reviewing an anime. Oh well, me reviewing something means this show is really amazing cause I got a lot of beautiful things to say about it. Yes, I only want to review things I've found beautiful because it's really not in my nature to rant about something since it's really tiring and I hate negative thoughts! 😆

Well, let's get down to the business, first things first, what's with Re:zero?

Re:zero or starting life in another world is what exactly the title tells us about. It's a story of a typical shut in guy who suddenly got into another world, with this story a game-like world, set in a medieval era, where magics were not a very unusual thing and where humans and humanoids live together. Fortunately, our protagonist, Subaru, was very fond of playing games so he had already an idea on how to start or how to literally "play the game." Such a generic story isn't it? It's supposed to be but it's actually not.

Normally, in such stories, the protagonist is supposed to have an unknown ability that will only be released when the situation calls for it. Most of the time it would later on revealed that the protagonist in an important part of the world, either a part of the royal blood, a saviour, a god etc. Also in some stories, there would even have a character who would appear in front of the protagonist and explain whatever is happening. Likewise with how Subaru expected it, I was also expecting for the same thing. However, what happened was really unexpected.

[SPOILERS ALERT] He died but then he was reset to his last save point; literally like a game. The difference was, he would not know where or when was his save point unless he would die and be reset. Also, this ability of him do not allow him to have any choice. Once he died, he would automatically go back and complete his mission, which he still needed to figure out. The only rule is that, he would die over and over unless he could solve the mystery or found the "happy ending." Thus, "quitting" was not an option.

At first I thought that it was such a very convenient ability. At least you'll have another chance, not just once but as many as you want until you find the happy ending. But as I moved to each episodes and as the story goes deeper I've realized that NO it's not very convenient.

Subaru can reset from death thus, if there was something not good happening with his life, with his friends or even with the kingdom, which would result to their deaths, then he was the only one who could change it. Imagine the pressure and the burden that he was carrying?!

Subaru did not have any choice but to go over and over into an ugly situation not until he could find the solution

Have you tried solving a math problem that needed you to go over from the scratch because you know somehere in between you made a mistake but can't find it so you have to do it again? Or a science experiment that ended in a bad result so you need to go back to procedure 1? A project, a drawing, or anything~ anything that you were doing but did not go well so you have no other choice but to do it again, over and over, not to mention that your only option was to finish it. Frustrating isn't it? Imagine how frustrated, irritated, desperate and tired Subaru was? Not to mention all the time he needed to go back just to witness the death/s of the people around him.

Lastly, [SPOILERS ALERT] Subaru's ability was actually a cursed from some witch, which he couldn't tell to anyone because everytime he tried to, the witch would squeezed his heart to the point that he could almost die. Out of desperation, he actually tried to tell it to someone but that someone died. Imagine how difficult it was for Subaru to face everything alone? No one could understand him not because he didn't want them to but because he COULDN'T. (cursed that witch I definitely wanted to tear her apart! 👹)

I've read a lot of comments from somewhere on how people disliked Subaru because he was a helpless, hopeless, useless boy. Because he did not have any special power or because he was weak. Well, after all he had been through, is he still useless?

Yes, he showed us the time when he almost quit even resorting into running away because he had failed so many times and thought that there was no other choice but to leave. He showed us his frustrations, desperations, helplesness and weaknesses, that he actually admitted and you hated. Well, on the other side of the note, I commend the writer for doing a great job because I believed that, that really what he wanted you to feel. Congratulations! You've been his victim! 🙊 Going back, Subaru really became a hateful character those times but if you are going to watch the anime and try to put your feet into Subaru's you will understand me or perhaps him.

He was disheartened for who knows how many times. He was fighting all by himself. Despite of having his friends and allies who supported him with his actions and especially to those who gave him courage and moral supports, no one really knows what he was going through. He was all ALONE. But still at the end of the day he would always proved to us how strong he was; mentally and emotionally, and that, stories only ends once you've reached the happy ending so life's goes on until you became happy! Quitting was never an option!

The only downside I've seen with him is that [MAJOR SPOILER] when he did not choose Rem despite of all the things she had done for him and even asked her to help her save Emilia, the woman he trully love. He was such a cruel man, a fact that actually Rem accepted and even told him outloud which he actually agreed with. However, despite of that, I still believed that he only showed how faithful he was to the woman he love. For me he was a man of word who knows how to fulfill his promises.

I'm sorry for defending Subaru so much but I really like how his character was made in this story. Everything, including his downsides, just fell rightly into the plot and that was something you wouldn't find mostly in the animes now a days. Another thing is that, I really liked how he could accept his own flaws but would still do something to compensate with it and not to be a burden to all the powerful people around him. He was the weakest but he was also the embodiment of willpower and unending hope which made him the strongest!

Story wise, as I've said, it was a very typical but was also different at the same time. It actually gave me the feeling that it was something that I've seen before but actually I haven't. I think it's because of how the story was narrated by using the main character. The writer was actually succesful in making me experience what the main character is going through, as if I am Subaru himself. Both of us learned things about the realm at the same time. Both of us believed that some things will happen, like on a typical story, but then will hit us the least that we have expected, as if both Subaru and I were played by fate. For example is what I have said from above, when Subaru first arrived on the kingdom and he thought that since he was summoned in a different world he would definitely have a super power, which made me believed also, but he actually never had. He also remained as an outsider, someone who do not hold so much of a power, a weak human with no special fighting ability except for his naturally strong body and an incredible amount of willpower. He was not revealed as a saviour but he made himself as the saviour of the kingdom. In the end, his journey to the other world actually made him a better man; wiser and stronger mentally and emotionally.

Overall, this story was very unique on its own way. Every seconds of each 25 episodes was worth watching as you wouldn't want to missed any sudden heart attack moments and important information that will be necessary for the future. It was actually a dark story that gets a little bit of depressing but would lighten up in the end. It's a complete pack of action, drama, suspense, mystery, romance and comedy with a bonus of life lessons and words of encouragement. YOU DON'T QUIT, YOU ONLY CHANGE YOUR PLAN and STORIES ALWAYS ENDS WITH HAPPY ENDING; It's not yet the end if it's not happy.

I can actually give this series a 10/10 score if not because of the hanging questions they left after the last episode. I hope this would be answered on the next season (if there will be!). I've heard that there will be an OVA but I don't think it will be enough to tackle everything and give the story a solid conclusion. This is the kind of anime that worth having more season! Anyway whether they'll decide to give it a season 2 or not I will still recognize this anime as one of the best I've watch for being unique and unpredictable as well as for having a well constructed story and characters.

Rating: 9/10 - highly recommended

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jesscreason · 7 years

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Red Winter Trilogy by Annette Marie

I am doing this review a little differently than all of my other reviews, since I am doing one review for the trilogy, instead of three separate reviews. I am posting the review first, with a synopsis of each book below, so you don't have to read through all of them before getting to the review, in case you don't want any spoilers. I will also try to make my review as spoiler-free as possible.

I requested to read this trilogy a while ago, and frankly, I didn't realize that I was getting the whole trilogy, instead of just the first book. That was an awesome surprise, because after I finished the first book, I immediately wanted to keep reading the rest of the series! I initially planned to do a separate post for each book, but as soon as I started reading the first book, I couldn't stop until I got to the end of the story (and even then, I was sad that I couldn't keep reading), and even though I knew that it was a trilogy when I started reading, I was super disappointed that there is not a fourth (and 5th) book that continues the story after Immortal Fire.

While it took me a few chapters to get into the first book, once the action starts, it doesn't stop! The first few chapters were needed for world building, as there are many different aspects to learn before getting into the main part of the story. The author did an excellent job of this! She did a great job of world-building and explaining all the intricacies involved with Emi's commitment and connection to Amaterasu. I seriously got soooo sucked into these books! I absolutely loved EVERYTHING about them!!!! I fell in love with the characters, their world, and absolutely EVERY aspect of the book! I am super impressed by Annette Marie! She not only did an excellent job of building this amazing world, filled with gods and goddesses, and their "counterparts," yokai, but she also wove all of this into traditional Japanese culture. I loved Emi! I love the transition she goes through in the book. In the beginning, she is so sheltered and timid of any and all life experiences that are normal for most girls her age, but by the end, her perception of the world has changed and she is going extraordinary things that most girls her age couldn't dream of. After saying that, I have to say: I ♥ ♥ ♥ Shiro!!! I loved his personality and how mischievous he is! I love how his relationship with Emi starts and how it evolves throughout the books! I know that I am SUPER critical of most books and their romantic aspects. I even fell in love with the romance in these books... The author wrote it so well! I really cannot say enough good things about this series, and I definitely can't say anything bad! I will say that I am super sad to be leaving Emi and her magical world behind. I'm sad that it's a trilogy, and I won't get to see what happens after Immortal Fire ended. However, I still CAN'T EVEN get over how the story ended! I think it was the perfect ending to an amazing trilogy! I encourage anyone who likes YA fantasy to read this trilogy! Even if you (like me), are tired of typical romantic aspect included in many YA fantasy books, that tend to take the focus away from the story and the characters, I guarantee that the romance in the book is an exception. I received these books through Xpresso Book Tours, in exchange for an honest review.

In a few short months, Emi's mortal life will end when she becomes the human host of an immortal goddess. Carefully hidden from those who would destroy her, she has prepared her mind, body and soul to unite with the goddess - and not once has she doubted her chosen fate.

Shiro is a spirit of earth and an enemy of the goddess Emi will soon host. Mystery shrouds his every move, and his ruby eyes shine with cunning she can't match and dares not trust. But she saved his life, and until his debt is paid, he is hers to command - whether she wants him to not.

On the day they meet, everything Emi believes comes undone, swept away like snow upon the winter wind. For the first time, she wants to change her fate - but how can she erase a destiny already wrought in stone? Against the power of the gods, Shiro is her only hope... and hope is all she has left.

Red Winter includes 10 full-page illustrations by award-winning artist Brittany Jackson.

Emi has dedicated her life to becoming the perfect vessel for the goddess Amaterasu, but the insidious betrayal of another deity has changed everything. Now, Amaterasu has charged Emi with an urgent mission: to find and free the earthly gods before mankind is brought to its knees beneath divine tyranny.

At her side is Shiro, the mysterious fox spirit. When she first saved his life, she could never have imagined that behind his cunning and confidence, he was lost - his power bound by a devastating curse and his memories obscured. His veiled history is somehow tied to the missing gods, but he can't remember how or why.

As their search leads them into the murky depths of the spirit realm, the shadows of Shiro's past begin to emerge. With each brief awakening of his true self, she loses a little more of him. The fate of the heavens and earth rest in her mortal hangs, and she must find the missing gods before time runs out for her world -- and for Shiro.

Dark Tempest includes 10 full-page illustrations by award-willing artist Brittany Jackson.

Once, Emi believed the heavenly gods were righteous and wise, while the earthly yokai spirits were bloodthirsty and evil. But with a traitorous deity poised to destroy her world, and the yokai standing as humanity's only defense, the lies of her upbringing have toppled to reveal a far more terrifying reality.

Despite the looming threat, Emi can't escape her greatest distraction: Shiro, the fox yokai who has so deftly claimed her heart for his own. Soon - too soon - she will have to break the curse that minds his magic and memories. And once the ancient power inside him awakens, the yokai she loves will be changed forever.

As the earthly gods gather to wage war against the heavens, Emi and Shiro must gamble everything to turn the tide against their immortal, all-powerful foes. Together, the will find a way to save the world - even if it means losing each other.

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