#Fun fact: Fable is pretty good at it too

[theecholegend]

Legend but he's a prince and knows fencing because that's what medieval princes did

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #14 – And Put Away Childish Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky

This book I basically came across by chance. Or, well, not exactly chance, but I’d never even heard of it before until I checked what Tchaikovsky books my local library system had copies of and saw it. Which in a sense is a terrible way to come into this – it’s an incredibly dramatic swerve from any of Tchaikovsky’s other stuff that I’ve read – but coming in totally blind pretty much worked, I think. Genuinely very fun read.

The story follows Harry Bodie, a children’s TV presenter facing down middle age with a career that’s never really lived up to expectations. Somewhat desperately, he signs on to a tabloid-ish program about digging into the family tree, hoping to use the residual fame of his grandmother and her fairly famous and successful series of postwar children’s fantasy novels as a career boost. Instead he gets his face rubbed in the fact that his great-grandmother is only recorded as an indigent madwoman, and the famous author was born in a sanitarium. That the famous Underhill stories were, in fact, based in large part on delusions told as childhood fables and family histories.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, the stories turn out to be less delusional than previously reported. Bodie is in quick succession accosted by a faun, approached by a suspicious PI, and kidnapped by a surprisingly moneyed fan-club-cum-occult-coven. Soon enough he’s getting his first taste of Underhill first hand – or, at least, what’s left of it after a century and change of economizing and entropy.

I’m on record as being fairly dismissive about the whole category of ‘stories about stories’, and I guess I need to eat my words a bit because I actually really enjoyed this. To an extent that’s probably just because it doesn’t get too meta – storyland is a work of deliberate artifice, the stories themselves don’t shape the world or do magic, it just generally never tries to get too cute or didactic about it – but still. This is a book where the hero at one point describes his situation as ‘Five Nights at Aslan’s’ so there’s no real principled distinction for me to cut here. One of the main characters is literally a folklorist.

Though, it’s less about stories than one specific story in particular. The unremarkable schlub plucked out of their mundane life and told that they’re special, that they’re the hero or the true heir and possess some inherent numinous essence that makes them the most important person in the world. This is a terribly appealing story, and one Harry feels the lure of very keenly – he’s self-aware enough to say quite clearly that he goes back to the frozen, decaying world full of half-dead monsters less out of morality or rationality than simply because it was a place where he mattered, for good or ill.

It’s probably not reading too deeply into the book’s themes to note that the story is a lure in a fairly literal sense, or that the true heir is destined to ‘save’ the world by being hollowed out and possessed by those who came before them.

Of course as much as this is in conversation with Narnia et al, it owes at least as much to whole genre of ‘what is nostalgic children’s property, but fucked up?’ creepypasta. Fairyland is choked with fungal growths and creepy, staticy not-snow. The scampering, troublemaking faun is miserable and worn out with bad knees. The Best Of All Dogs is a rotting, terrifying hellhound. There’s even a titanic evil scary clown. Aesthetically the book owes far more to r/nosleep than Lewis Carroll.

Harry himself is an absolute delight as a main character. By which I mean he just sucks so bad, but in very mundane and endearing ways. Who among us can not relate on some level to a failing middle-aged actor who always made a point of not trading on his family name but is secretly pretty resentful it hasn’t helped him more? He refuses the call to adventure then decides his life’s kind of shit and he’d rather get stabbed to death by goblins, so he comes crawling back and begs for a second chance. He’s left a glowing magic sword that will defeat all enemies, but it’s stuck in the body of one of his kidnappers so he just runs screaming and it spends the rest of the book in an evidence locker somewhere. I love him.

I really have no idea to what degree it was intentional, but it also does rather muse me that – okay, you know the standard bit of feminist media analysis where male characters are the actors, while female characters are generally walking set decoration and plot devices? It really deeply amuses me that Harry spends the better part of the story as a magical blood bank getting led around or terrified and awaiting rescue, whereas Seitchman (our counterfeit PI/folklorist) repeatedly forces herself into things through obsessive research skills and a complete disregard for her own safety (and at one point an enthusiastic if unpracticed willingness to sword people). Though to be clear this was mostly amusing to me because it was absolutely never highlighted or commented upon.

This is probably the first book I’ve read that’s recent enough to be set during lockdown without really being a COVID novel, if that makes sense? You could set this the year before or the year after without really losing much, and it lacks the ‘this was written in quarantine’ vibe of a lot of books I read last year. But it definitely adds a sense of specificity and timeliness to it that I rather enjoyed.

So yeah, do not open it expecting anything like Children of Time, but good book!

[bloodiegawz]

*skitters in* LILIA AND BO LILIA AND BO LILIA AND BO LILIA AND-

Lilia is someone Bo runs into often, but strangely doesn't know much about. In the hallways, or the cafeteria... pretty much anywhere, really. They get along quite nicely for the most part- with Lilia's love for spooking people, Bo often finds himself tense around the guy earlier on, but eases up after making it clear he despises being snuck up on (see: burst into tears after getting jumpscared one too many times)

Bo tends to drop by random club meetings a lot which is where he properly gets to know these strangers. The Pop Music Club is one of his favorites, whether they're actually having a rare jam session or not. Although it's a group effort, Lilia is the one who encourages Bo to pick up music again and helps him relearn guitar as well as share his knowledge of random assorted instruments.

They also both tend to make a lot of "old person back pain" jokes, funnily enough. Not that Bo is aware that Lilia is, in fact, one of those fabled old people. Lilia will poke fun at him for it, also constantly pointing out if Bo has neglected wearing his braces or is slouching. He will not have this kiddo dealing with joint pain that hard if he can help it.

At the end of the day, they're on good terms, and Lilia is someone Bo could reliably turn to for advice on practically anything, or really just a good story. They're not particularly close, but definitely someone Bo would call a friend.

[badsalmonella]

SGATGK getting 'er done.👍

TLDR: some neato historical/fantasy drawing references, I like character design would be neat if someone paid me to do that someday, I have to trick myself into being motivated to finish anything like one tricks a dog into taking their meds by putting it in the wet food, tales passed down for centuries are cool.

Why did I do this? : Because I'm obsessed with art books and design bibles and it's what made me want to study animation in the first place. Portfolio pieces like this, this and this were always something I wanted to do, I think they are so inspiring.

Unfortunately you like have to put in a lot of effort to get something like this done, and as I have learned from a semi-failed attempt to do this with Hadestown it is very easy to get too precious about the art and restart 80 times and essentially never get anything done. I'm out here chanting "finished not perfect" to myself in the mirror like a mantra maybe one day it will seep into my bones and I will fully embrace it. Full disclosure, one of the circumstances that led to me actually finishing this is that I have way too much free time on my hands atm, like I don't think I would have gotten this done (or gotten it done in a timely manner) if I was also balancing full time work, but I was tryinggg to squeeze some lemons out of a less than ideal situation. Second thing, on top of trying to do this for 4 years with Hadestown, I alsooo initially tried to do this with the musical Camelot/ the Arthur/Lancelot/Guinevere love triangle part of the Arthurian legends but found I was once again too obsessed with the thing, and getting too precious about the art to get anything substantial done. I did get these Guinevere runaway bride drawings done though. Phillipa Soo high cheekbones Guinevere will always be important to me!!

So I switched gears and chose an Arthurian legend I liked well enough, but not so much I would sike myself out of getting it done and went with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It's also a story that adheres to a pretty traditional fable structure. A young guy goes on a quest, he experiences trials in threes, he comes back a little changed having learned a life lesson, etc. Also designing The Green Knight comes with a fun 'cool' factor that I like. The Arthurian discord server run by queer-ragnelle on tumblr is full of really nice, and wayyyy more knowledgeable people who pointed me in the direction of Simon Armitage's translations of the poem so that's what I read to get started. Another great resource I liked was Queer as Fact's podcast episode on the story. Something that I found really interesting was that they discussed Gawain's kissing game with the Bertilak's being something that brought on both queer positive and queerness as a sort of cautionary tale that was encouraged to be turned away from interpretations*. Interesting that you could take away two opposite readings from the same text, but also really framed the experience of staying with the Bertilaks as something that is otherworldly and treading into unknown territory for Gawain.

*I wanna add that 1. just because I acknowledge the two conflicting interpretations doesn't mean that I think one cancels out the other's validity 2. Just because I acknowledge it doesn't mean that it's one that I like or agree with. Obviously these stories are so old we can't ask the author what intent they were writing with so we'll never get 'the right answer', all we really have is interpretation. So like why not interpret something positive out of it, especially if you can back it up with the text.

I got pretty tired of using Google images for research, and actually went to the library for most of my drawing reference. This was also good because it got me out of the house yay! It made me feel like those movie behind the scenes featurettes I love, where people go on their little research trips, like OoooO I'm making the fake movie in my brain!! I unfortunately never wrote down the titles of these books I was using but there were some great illustrated book of clothing worn throughout history. I wanted to keep Gawain, and the design of Camelot fairly close to something historical.

I loved this book especially because all the art was so colourful. I think a lot of people have this idea that medieval costuming should be dull/dark colours but I definitely didn't want to go in that direction. I love bright colours!

I really took inspiration from this illustration I found for Gawain, even though people typically associate medieval knights with full plate armour, in the story Gawain is going on a lengthy journey to find the green chapel, then accept his beheading so I actually felt something lighter like this chainmail outfit with robe on top was the way to go to make him feel mobile. Also Gawain really lays on the self deprecating sauce thick when he volunteers himself up to participate in the Green Knight's game, claiming he is of no great importance, he's just a little guy, it's not a big risk if he gets hurt. (that's not a direct quote. That just the vibe) So I also snuck in the small detail that his clothing is a little oversized, not quite arranged straight, but he grows into it by the end of the tale :3

I also used designing Gawain as the chance to lock down what artstyle I wanted to move forward with. My brain told me 'oohhh storybook!' but go into a bookstore and give it a peruse and you will quickly find there is a wide array of storybook artstyles. So that was not specific enough. I tried simplifying my art style, I liked Cartoon Saloon's stuff (good catch everyone who commented on it's influence in the post's tags) but felt it was a little too simplified and stylized for what I wanted to do. The big lightbulb moment for me was when I found this art by an-old-lady on tumblr. I really like how this artist's work is pretty stylized but sticks close to recognizable human proportions. So I put this one my inspiration board, while still trying to keep it distinctly mine. not really my call to say if I succeeded at this or not lol

But yes Cartoon Saloon's influence is still there, especially with backgrounds,

and I also really loved looking towards the art of Sleeping Beauty. Really amazing use of colour in this art, also the way they simplify nature into easy to read shapes, then pack in all the detail there is something I loved.

me doing my best to harness that Disney concept art power

(Side note one books I can name from all this research is this one because I would like to own it some day. Fantastic resource for not only showing the classic art and architecture they are taking reference from, but how you can apply that to something a lot more cartoony and simplified. Seriously the side by side comparisons of medieval book artwork next to their Sleeping Beauty storybook scenes are masterclass mwah)

From there something I really wanted to drive home was this contrast between Gawain's world and Lord Bertilak/Green Knight's world. The Green Knight comes with lengthy descriptions about his odd (but hot *wink*) appearance, and there is definitely an aura that something unknown has entered King Arthur's court. While I tried to find inspiration for Gawain's armour from old artwork, Green Knight's outfit I was looking more to fantasy influences like Lord of the Rings, House of the Dragon, Renaissance Faire costumes, etc.

When you look up medieval fashion you get a lot of reference for these crazy cool headpieces

Lots of head coverings too for women (lots of it done for modesty reasons. Also a little bit for hygiene reasons) so I kept that consistent with the women of Camelot

Also even though a lot of medieval media associates the revealed shoulders and the sleeves with interesting cutouts with woman's fashion at the time, a lot of actual historical imagery I was finding has a full coverage layer underneath known as the kirtle (mostly for hygiene purposes......though I'm sure modesty is also a factor)

( Alicent where is your underlayer?? Cringe.)

But for Lady Bertilak I went full medieval fantasy and whipped out those sleeves that I always associate with princesses and gave her long flowing hair. Also interestingly I remember the story once emphasising her ~flirtatiously~ revealed shoulders. I wonder if that was a fashion choice still made back then, or if this is fantasy detailing, sort of like how the trash doctor drama TV show Doctor Odyssey will have doctors doing work on patients in full cocktail party attire a decision that is not based on any sort of reality but maybe hundreds of years from now if the media is preserved humans might assume that was how the doctors of our day dressed. HM!

Lord Bertilak actually gave me a hard time with his look. I went in really only knowing I wanted to give him that Hozier inspired bun hairstyle. My reasoning being that like Lord Bertilak loves going hunting he's a kind of man of the woods.....but he's also supposed to be this hot Lord who is making Gawain question if he wants to join a very unchristian open marriage and when I think of man of the woods but make it glam I think of this dude

but other than that I had no ideas on how to approach this 'same shape as the Green Knight but make him more warm and approachable' look I was trying to achieve, so I just made lots of sketches that got trashed pretty quickly. Also at the time I didn't know what colour scheme I wanted for these two yet, only that I wanted green as an accent colour to hint at his true identity (also because plot relevant green girdle) but not the MAIN COLOUR of their colour scheme. So anyways that's how you get this funny drawing of Lord Bertilak looking very Curious George's Yellow Guy vibes.

Then it hit me in the most unexpected of places....

You're probably wondering "hey there is literally a fantasy historical King Arthur musical you are OBSESSED WITH why are you not turning to that for inspiration?" or maybe "why would you reference House of the Dragon earlier but not the much more famous Game of Thrones?" and the answer there is as cool as those costumes are they are taking a LOT of inspiration from modern runway fashion and that just wasn't the vibe I was looking for. But then one day as I played the Camelot bootleg as comfort background noise (normal behaviour) I found inspiration from THE UNDERRATED FASHION ICON SIR PELLINORE!

I just really loved the long sleeveless drapery situation he had going on. I added the fur along the neckline for Lord Bertie though to make him more top heavy (like his Green Knight counterpart) and as a nod to hunting. but yes big props to Pellinore. ty king!

The contrasting shape language I used in the character design then informed all the extra prop details surrounding these characters.

But to keep things consistent I tried to keep some similar design principles for costumes. They like drapery. They like big sleeve moments. Bold colours. Girdles to break up dress forms. Tunics that generally fall close to knees in length.

I think the coolest bit of research I did was I visited a church in my city and got some good pictures as reference for the green chapel. In the poem the green chapel really ends up being a grass mound but that's not really an impressive drawing to put in your portfolio so I got the idea to have a chapel so old that nature has overtaken it and there's a structure in this hill. The church is open to just look through for free without attending a mass, it's a bit of a tourist destination for good reason it's really well kept, I'd been telling myself to go check it out for years of living here now but this project was what got me to finally do it.

I sketched some random object in there (this can be helpful even if you don't draw these things in your actual project just because it fills up your design bank in your brain) I also wish I took this picture but they had what looked like one of those office water coolers but it was labelled 'Holy Water' and I just thought that was funny. Sorry just wanted to share.

and I am HORRIBLE at drawing backgrounds, I really hate doing it, I find placing the horizon line/ vanishing points incredibly hard to do, so if you are like me but you wanna push yourself TAKE YOUR OWN PICTURES OF PLACES. AND TRACE OVER THEM. THEN ADD WHATEVER CHANGES NEEDED. IT'S NOT CHEATING I PROMISE. YOU CAN LITERALLY DO ANYTHING YOU WANT EVER IT IS NOT THE SAME AS PLAGIARIZING OR TRACING ANOTHER PERSON'S ART AND IT WILL SAVE YOU HEARTACHE. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

Anyways this has been my incredibly long advertisement for your local library, your local tourist spots, cool art books, cool cartoons, The Green Knight poem, the kirtle, to try your best to make the art you wanna make because it will fill your heart with joy. Don't be precious about your art in a design project, just sketch like your life is ending in the next couple of hours, it's cool if you draw something like this

There's definitely stuff I wish I had drawn, more props, something more to indicate Lord Bertilak's hunts (I also suck at drawing animals oop) and maybe those things will be drawn in the future, but I am happy to call this done for the time being :)

Did you get this far? Well thanks. ilu 🫶🏼

[theguardianace]

AROACE POLYSHO ???? SPILL SPILL SPILL TWLL ME ALL ABOUT IT PLEASE

AROACE POLYSHOW AROACE POLYSHOW THE GREATEST THING OF ALL TIME.

things of note that i think are fun.... nene and rui had major questioning phases pre-wxs about being aroace. i'd imagine nene being really confused why everyone around her seemed so interested in dating and romance and the whole amatanormative feel of dramatic media and such. it's in so many plays, and people get in so many shipping wars/draw suggestive art for games. it's hard to ignore as a theater kid and gamer. she didn't get it and felt isolated. she came across the term aroace online but had a hard time accepting that she might be that, but eventually silently embraced it. rui on the other hand knew full well he was not like other people. he's not the kind of guy who would pick and choose a crush that isn't there. being aroace and a middle/high schooler made him feel even more lonely and alienated from his peers. he agknowledged the fact he was aroace pretty easily, but it took him a lot longer to accept that isn't a bad thing at all.

emu and tsukasa had NO clue they were aroace. did not occur to them at all. emu had to be told it was a thing and she went "huh? OHHH THATS ME !!!! :D". skipped teh entire questioning/am i broken stage and went right to "hehehehehehe". (though other people don't believe her that often. emu is so full of love. how could someone like her not fall in love with other people? she's too young. she hasn't met the right person yet. it's just a phase. her siblings started off as ignorantly aphobic, but then realized the fault of their ways and learned.). my hc for tsukasa is a bit different than other peoples, but i am fully convinced he thought he was bisexual for teh LONGEST time. "guys and girls can both be good looking, so i must be bi! yeah the extent of my feelings is "they're cool" ... what do you mean that's not what a crush is". it was a shocking revelation to him that people actually want to kiss/have sex for real. he's accepted being aroace and actively embraces it, though he still feels connected to teh bi label. he'd like the concept of tertiary attraction and probably label as bi aroace, to honor both.

i like to think that tsukasa accidentally came out first (accidentally meaning he simply forgot to tell them and then was surprised when they were all surprised). emu was like !!!!! omg samsies and nene laughed and came out, too. wxs were the first people rui ever said the words "aromantic asexual" out loud to.

i personally think aroace polyshow never actually labeled themeselves as such, but BOY do tehy act like they're all married. they just care about each other soooooo much. its platonic its queer platonic its romantic its everything all blended together. if its them, they can do anything. with the shared knowledge of being aroace, they all also sort of feel more comfortable being openly affectionate, yknow? there's no risk of misinterpretation of intent- they love each other. they love each other in a way that they cannot describe and most people wouldn't understand. they are tied by their love of shows and their love of each other. emu is really physically affectionate and they all feel safe cuddling with her. rui lightheartedly flirts and half the time i dont think he even realizes he's doing it, the other half he's just trying to be silly. nene excels in the silent acts of love, making sure the stage is clean and there's always a few snacks backstage and honeslty just being there for everyone.

they have game night/sleepover every once in a while, usually during planning stages of shows. there's also a high likelyhood one goes to another's house at least once a week for some reason.

oh also they never do romance plays ever. it was a revelation tehy only came to after coming out. it just... never occured to them to do one. and now that they all know none of them can fall in love they actively try and avoid it. they've re-written fables to be about the power of friendship, or re-imagined the tale to the point romance wouldn't even be on anyone's mind. it's not a theme the audience ever picks up on, but at the same time they do? they don't realize the pattern but nobody ever comes out of a show with that interpretation. their shows are a hit every time, too. ("story" doesn't mean "romance", after all).

wonderlands x showtime isn't a romance. it's a love story.

[chrysalizzm]

vine boom. wasteland character expression memes

read the series here.

(more on the characters and also quality details under the cut)

so wasteland, the series currently being updated on ao3, focuses pretty much entirely on the dsmp cast, but behind the scenes the cast of this thing is sprawling, including but not limited to empires, hermitcraft, the life series, mcc participants, smpearth, noxcrew, older guard mcyts like jordan n mitch n jerome n seto n deadlox, speedrunners, tiredtwt, outsiders smp, fable smp, redacted smp, and my personal scrungklies, which are team salad, a korean mcyt group that brings me great joy. this is why there r characters on this expression meme chart that u probably do not recognize if u are a) under the age of 18 b) exclusively know dream smp or c) are not a korean speaker. some fun facts abt the wasteland characters, their powers, or the circumstances in which these expressions take place:

ivory was a sidekick for hermit that was chased into villainy following her coming out as trans. as throne, she is now one of jordan's lieutenants in trinity and has assassinated several government officials.

jimmy, alias firebird, is an empire offices hero. he also happens to be allied with the fates under the alias wildfire. i'm sure this is of no import in the story /lie

i cannot imagine in what circumstance punz would ever make that expression. mans is chill as fuck.

i accidentally anime boyed the hell out of fruit, alias floodbloom under chase co. he has a lot of admirers on tumblr and about two thirst accounts on twitter

shelby's (alias wilder) hero uniform is heavily inspired by princess mononoke. she's signed on under empire offices, like jimmy, and can release poisonous spores from her skin.

tommy's doing the nervous lore laugh in that drawing

velvet is doing the anime lady hohoho pose while covered in blood. if he didn't have painful and complicated emotions about velvet turning to villainy, ant would be swooning

dont worry about why illumina is covered in blood it is absolutely not related to the series whatsoever /suspicious. instead consider how illumina (alias anima) is fruit's hero partner under chase co.

shoutout to @pixelperfunctory for this req. thats the most boomer ass lookin expression in the world

a brooding phil (not to be confused with a broody phil, which is c!phil). techno starts to see this expression more and more as they get older.

not to toot my own horn but foolish came out extraordinarily handsome in this drawing. he has some golden scales and they glimmer brighter when he's happy, which eret is very fond of.

grian, who we know as seraphim from wonderland, is remarkably scrungkly. he has three sets of wings and is a talented flier.

wilbur also came out quite beautiful, blood and tears notwithstanding. the next fic scheduled to be published hopefully either by the end of may or early june might shine some light on his expression here

sapnap, like ivory and shelby, would probably tear someone's throat out with his teeth given the opportunity. in the interim he gets thousands of thirst traps made of him by adoring stans.

i imagine that's the kind of AYO?? expression ponk makes whenever sam short-circuits the entire spark co. headquarters

my boy. he's not lookin too good

mapple (villain name kallisti, also known by other villain orgs as she of the heights) my scrungkly. in wasteland he's the leader of villain org team salad which is not at all what it appears to be. that particular drawing is a rare moment where he's being flustered by his very charming queerplatonic partner parkmo.

oh my love. by the time the silver age ends seto has been dead for six years. in life he was one of chase co.'s senior heroes, alias sigil, and he could control the wind. his friends - mitch and jerome, especially, who are the joint heads of chase co. - loved him very much.

[laundrybiscuits]

Omg okay that ask list is so much fun I'm overwhelmed with choices. This isn't small enough to count as "for want of a nail" but if you ever wanted to write palm split where Eddie gets the cut ... I'd love to read. Otherwise, purify our misfit ways - time after time - Eddie or Steve noticing the other at any point before the story begins ?

I do already have a snippet with that first premise here, but I wrote a little more:

Hey, idiot. You fucked up.

Eddie can kind of remember writing those words, but it’s blurry and remote, like he’s remembering a scene from a book he read years ago.

Docs say I’ll remember most stuff but not the emotions. Something like that. We never were too good at paying attention when it really matters. So this is me, telling me to listen the fuck up: DO NOT FALL IN LOVE WITH STEVE HARRINGTON AGAIN. He’s just a guy.

There’s something else written after that, but it’s scribbled out so heavily, the paper’s a little bit torn. Eddie searches his memory for what it might be, but he’s coming up blank.

Probably for the best if you stay away from him until you get a real boyfriend or something, if that ever happens. You’re just being lonely and pathetic  No. That stays in. You’re just being lonely and pathetic, so get a fucking grip. Stay away from him like he’s the plague, because he is, for you.  Also this is REALLY IMPORTANT so pay attention numbnuts: he doesn’t know you have a thing for him. HAD a thing, by the time you read this, I guess. If you don’t die on the slab. 

There’s a little doodle underneath of zombie-Eddie going “BLAH.” It’s pretty good, if Eddie does say so himself. 

Guard this secret WITH. YOUR. LIFE. Munson. If he figures it out, you might as well be dead. 

Huh. 

It goes on for a while, laying out some key facts about how Eddie got here like one of his campaign journals. It feels like getting a briefing from some super-secret headquarters on a spy mission, except his handler is also Eddie and therefore kind of a dick. 

The guy who gave him the notebook in the first place is gone by the time Eddie puts two and two together to deduce that he must be the fabled Steve. Eddie doesn’t see what’s so fucking great about him that Eddie had to get a whole actual surgery to stop mooning over him, but—he did pay for the surgery, so. Yeah. He’s probably a little different from how Eddie vaguely remembers him in high school. 

Still, it can’t be that hard to keep from falling in love with Steve Harrington again. He just has to get through the drive home, and everything can go back to normal.

palm split with a flower with a flame on AO3

Fic-specific asks

[scooby-review]

Scooby Doo Where are You? S2 E1-E4

1. Nowhere to Hyde

Nowhere to Hyde kicks off season two of Where are You? in a spectacularly mediocre way. This episode is just fine to me, it doesn’t really do much to stand out against the previous seasons episodes, likely oding to this season releasing in September of the same year the finale of season one aired. However, there are some changes to the previous season, which I'll mention as they arise. 

The episode follows the gang encountering a fabled jewel thief, The Ghost of Mr Hyde, and latter running into Dr Jeykll, where he admits to being afraid he is turning into the ghost of his father’s infamous dark reflection. 

The first big change for the series is the different background style. Part of what gave the first season its charm and gothic aesthetic were the gorgeous backgrounds by Walt Peregoy, who defined what the show looked and felt like. Strangely, it’s difficult to find too much information about the artworks, but I believe he painted all the first seasons, and then this season had other background artists painting them. Stylistically, they are a more blatant acrylic style, with some locations harkening back to the originals more than others. Ultimately, these paintings are still great, even if it took me a while to adjust to the change. Within this episode I especially love the crypt-like laboratory, which odes to the gothic aesthetics of Frankenstein and of course, Dr Jeykll and Mr Hyde. 

This season also sees the introduction of new writers, with a trio taking on the reigns to write the batch of eight episodes. I’m still unsure how I feel about this writing style, which is incredibly close to the original. I think as far as the stories go, they are far tighter, again similarly written, almost exactly so, but you can tell the differences in how they write, such as the frequent use of locations like the malt shop and beach as ways of initiating the mysteries and framing the episodes. I think the mysteries are mostly better written here, at least when I watched this one I wrote it as being more of a fluid story! However, I prefer season one by a mile, mostly coming down to how bland a lot of these characters and locations feel. I’ll elaborate on those throughout the season, but I found myself somewhat bored while watching a handful of these episodes, and so I wonder if the writing is better or more streamlined? When researching other people’s thoughts I saw a lot of people saying they preferred season one, but two did have a lot of defenders! In fact, people were pretty split on the topic! One of the main reasons people love season two however, are the chases, which I’ll expand on soon. 

I would also say that the animation changes a bit here, or at least I noticed the animation looking different. Hanna Barbera cartoons look cheap, they feel cheap, yet they also harness this excellently. There’s a certain charm to it when watching back much after it was released, everything about this season especially feels of the time, for better or worse, but I find the animation has taken a step up in how fluid it is! I think it looks worse. I love this cheap looking style, it’s so fun to see how even on such a small budget, the animations can be made, they can be fun to look at and love and labour was poured into these! But this upgrade comes without a lot of necessities to back it up, therefore, characters moving more isn’t always a positive thing, it simply makes the animation stand out more, causing the characters to go off model even more. It’s whatever, but it’s worth pointing out. 

But all that can be said about the entire season, this episode itself is entirely just fine. 

The villain’s design is kind of whatever to me; creating a good looking Mr. Hyde is something rarely done well I feel. The entire basis of his character is being human evil, this suppressed piece of ourselves we hide from the world, however, this guy is just a green ghoul. To be fair, I do like that he is the ghost of Mr. Hyde, like the actual character, with the culprit being the son of Dr. Jekyll, also called Dr Jeykll. It’s funny! And it’s the only part of this entirely boring design that I enjoy. Returning to the writing quickly, this is maybe the best mystery of the season, with the writers framing Helga, the maid, as being the villain, constantly setting up clues alluding to her, subverting your expectations! It’s great and makes the episode more enjoyable to watch. 

Plus, I like Shaggy in this one. In the opening we see him about to eat his food, before Scooby steals it, where he grows furious, before melting and hugging Scooby happily. It’s the best encapsulation of their relationship in this iteration. When I was younger, I used to think Shaggy could be overly mean to Scooby here, but looking at it in a vacuum, their relationship is instead just slightly different, he isn’t mean or malicious, just less willing to accept all his antics. I like it!

Of course, this all leads to what season two is best known for: their chase scenes. Backed to bubblegum pop inspired by the British Invasion, in seven of the eight episodes we see the gang chased by the villains, wacky hijinks ensue. Consistently, these are the best parts of the episode, it makes them come to life in such a great way! Although these would only later return many, many series down the line, I do love them! Their purpose was likely just to sell an album of bubblegum pop - hell, The Archie’s were only a band to make money for the studios, and most bubblegum pop is corporately churned out behind animated faces or characters to sell to early teens. However, it’s fun, and I like it a lot! 

Overall, just a whatever episode! It’s not bad, but it’s forgettable and weak against some of the episodes of last season that were poorly written and kind of wonky! But as is, it’s okay!

2. Mystery Mask Mix-Up

I didn’t want to include everything in the previous episode, but I am going to start this one negatively again. God, the intro to this one sucks. Not the cover of the theme song, that’s all good! But the way it’s edited is awful. Like it’s really bad. 

Rather than cut a new intro, they edit the previous one, which makes sense! However, they include the old intro’s skeleton, throwing still images of the new villains over the old one’s. No joke, there’s a point where Scooby runs into Charlie the Robot, the original intro then pans up to his face. Here, he runs into Charlie’s legs, the camera starts panning up, and instead there’s a still image of the Hawiian Medicine Man. Like, it’s awful man. Sometimes it works fine, but other times it’s egregiously bad, only harbouring a little charm as a result of this! As a child it used to creep me out whenever this one came on, it just felt wrong and off somehow. 

Unfortunately, this episode doesn’t win me over too much either! I think I prefer the previous episode. 

This episode follows the gang buying a mask in Chinatown, only to learn it’s supposedly haunted, with Daphne subsequently kidnapped by The Scare Pair. 

Just reading that the characters enter Chinatown in an episode aired in the 70s should be enough to tell you what happens. It’s impossible to return to the mindset of the children watching these, unaware of the way the material is depicting people! I never try to return to these periods of time to understand what it would have been like to watch, because I’m sitting, streaming this on my laptop at midnight in 2024. Without having been there, I cannot return to this place, and honestly, that’s a good thing! This episode made me uncomfortable, it simply made viewing what would have otherwise been a fun episode frustrating! We see this a lot throughout the series, especially with Native American characters, and trying to remove the knowledge that this is poor is simply irresponsible and not how I enjoy watching art! It’s there, and sometimes it’s still entirely possible to enjoy something despite its themes and characters reflecting poorly, however, in this case, very little was left for me to enjoy regardless! 

While I do enjoy the setting, I’m very lukewarm on the villains, The Scare Pair are the more interesting of the two, their designs a simplistic black robe with a white mask, but the simplicity works for them; they act like many other silent, hulking villains, although these ones in particular are down to murder, which is always fun the rare time it’s done! They are completely fine, I don't feel too positive or negative about them!

I feel similarly about their leader, The Ghost of Zen Tuo, who receives far less screen time than the others. His white and lime green robe is striking against both the scare pair and his own golden mask, an intricate design that automatically signals his place in the hierarchy against the pair perfectly - he is more defined through his appearance, while the others are a nameless pair of followers. Again, he’s violent and has a blood thirst to him, but beyond this i don’t get loads from this set of villains!

This episode's chase, again, the most consistent aspect of this season to me, is a car chase, which is so unique and not something we see again this season! I love them spicing up the formula already! 

Another great aspect of this episode is the aforementioned peril the characters are placed in! It makes this scenario feel so perilous and places a high level of importance upon the masks! This entire episode parallels the 1932 film The Mask of Fu Manchu, and so I imagine it was used as inspiration, possibly leading to this feeling and tone. 

Also, there was a great POV shot in here which was crazy to me. 

Overall, it’s about the same level as the previous episode! Just kind of whatever, with a few great elements constantly bogged down by all its tedious aspects. While watching I actually had a flashback to watching it on Cartoon Network or Boomerang (RIP) as a child! I think I enjoyed it more then? But still, it was evidently a forgettable episode! 

However both episodes so far have had mouse jokes so maybe this season is better than the last. 

3. Scooby’s Night With a Frozen Fright

Unfortunately, again, the negativity doesn’t end here (I promise the following episode is wholly positive!) because I found this to be one of the worst episodes of the series.

Simply, I found this one super boring! Despite all my notes being positive here, I took less than a quarter of my usual notes, because ultimately I had so little to say! I’ll focus on the positives here, because most of the negatives are just that I was super bored by this one, and there’s not too much more I can elaborate on there. 

The episode follows the gang on a beach where Shaggy reels in a frozen caveman. Upon handing him in, they soon learn the ice has melted, and the caveman is gone.

I’ll rattle through all the positives first, and then end on the villain and briefly, the setting. 

There’s a mouse in this one, so that’s a good start. 

We see both the malt shop and the beach in this episode, two locations they love using this season and that I love seeing them use! Both are able to elevate the gangs relationship and create a stronger bond between them, giving a greater feeling of their relationship and specific friendships. 

I also love the chase again too! They’re so dynamic and gaggy, they lean so much into the best slapstick that the show has to offer, and the bubblegum pop sound is something I’ve come to love and be really fascinated by recently! Even if I wouldn’t listen to any in my spare time, God do I find it interesting!

Okay I’m now realising the rest of my notes are about Tusk because Scooby and Shaggy pretend they’re seals at one point, and so I found the parallel funny. 

The rest of the episode feels muddy if not boring, such as the gang being afraid of one of the scientists talking to a dolphin and fear for their lives when a room they’re in starts having large ice cubes funnelled into it. 

The villain is an archetype I can’t say I’m too interested in! I just find them super uninteresting, always used to tell the same slew of jokes and ultimately not doing anything interesting! This guys monster design is just a man from the past who looks incredibly human, wearing only a single garment of clothing. It makes his design uninteresting and I just don’t care for this kind of character! In searching whether or not there’s another caveman villain, it’s not too clear but it seems like there’s not! Which is all good with me! 

The setting here is oceanland, which with a more interesting villain could have stood out way more! But as is, I hope we see it again, this one just didn’t leave too much of a mark. 

Not a great episode! I never felt invested in anything going on here, but even in the worst episodes, there’s still something I like! I think I’ve disliked the past three as a result of their central concepts feeling far less inspired than season one, or maybe just doing less for me! I think there’s two more episodes which I really dislike in this season, and they come from a similar place of finding their villains very drear, and I think these episodes lack creativity in where their plots go! They are tighter written, but that only highlights the flaws of the series current structure, which is all a result of budget. 

But I cannot wait for the next episode. 

4. Jeepers, it’s the Creeper

This episode follows the gang heading to a school barn dance; although all appears fine, they soon find the dance interrupted by The Creeper. 

This episode is the second highest rated episode on IMDB and it deserves all the praise it gets! This shows the best of what the season two writers can do, again, when the monsters, settings and mysteries are truly pushed. 

I think most love this episode as a result of its great villain, The Creeper. Inspired by the jazz song “Jeepers Creepers”, and possibly a character from Dr Terror's House of Horrors, the villain is difficult to describe, he’s unique in what he is, being a hunchbacked zombie-like creature. He’s human enough, in fact, if his skin weren’t green, he could easily be human, which is a criticism I had of Elias Kingston, but I think this design is way more interesting, the theming of colours is perfect, the greens complement each other perfectly, but the reddish brown hair grounds the earthy tones of the design. His expression is also evocative of a zombie, it again makes him stand out uniquely where a character like Elias falls for me. 

Also! The first ever computer virus was called The Creeper, named after the villain from this episode. 

Honestly, I like the Creeper but don’t love him! He’s a good villain but isn’t in my top ten, and not even my favourite of this season, yet the episode works so well because of the creativity he represents. Sure, we’ve had a fun variation of settings before, but here it’s pushed to its limit, it’s so much more creative than the gang visiting Chinatown because they use it to introduce a larger world, create a feeling of isolation and despair and using the setting as a vehicle for its gags, whereas Chinatown is used to tell a series of racist jokes before leaving it to sit away from the bustling streets and in a closed temple. 

I adore the barn sequence, where we see the gang dancing alongside their classmates, it’s so fun to see this world expanded even if these nameless characters feel like background characters from something like The Archies, although I couldn’t confirm anything about their whereabouts - very little concept art for the series is readily available! Regardless, it’s so fun to watch, and I love Velma and Shaggy’s relationship a lot generally, but they excel here! 

After the party goers notice The Creeper, Fred suggests they move the dance to the malt shop. I love this authority he shows and how popular he appears against his peers! This leads into what’s likely my favourite chase scene, maybe with a single exception, showing the gang running through the countryside, using this location to show hen houses and giving Scooby a chick for the rest of the episode as well as having the gang in horse wagons. It’s just so fun to watch!

Most of my favourite episodes balance the series’ sometimes unique sense of humour with fun horror aesthetics, a great villain, character interactions and setting. This episode is in my top ten, yet it doesn’t make me laugh all too much! Yet it’s delightfully fun, something that I’ve missed so far this season! 

Although, my favourite joke in the episode has to be when Scooby and Shaggy flee from The Creeper across a bridge, entering a cave where they encounter the hermit of the hills. He never returns after this sequence where he offers them his food, his purpose feels more so geared towards being an inconsequential suspect, showing off the writer's enjoyment of framing one character before revealing another, again. Yet, I find him so funny - he appears out of nowhere, he’s got such a sweet design and personality, he’s my favourite side character for sure, I adore this man. 

I also love the running plot thread in this episode of Scooby just having a chick following him throughout. This culminates in him returning this little chicken to his mother, where the episode ends with more eggs hatching and them flocking to Scooby. 

What a great episode to end on! It deserves the popularity it has, and I love the legacy it’s left behind through the creation of the virus, alongside his reappearance in the Mystery Incorporated episode  The Legend of Alice May, which is great! 

Love this one!

Episode Ranking:

Jeepers, it’s the Creeper

Nowhere to Hyde

Mystery Mask Mix-Up

Scooby’s Night with a Frozen Fright

Villain Ranking: 

The Creeper

The Scare Pair 

Ghost of Zen Tuo 

Ghost of Dr Jeykll 

Caveman

Next Review: Coming Soon!

Previous Review: SDWaY S1 Episode Ranking

[howlingday]

Godzilla in Remnant: What are the odds when Atlas tests their new Anti-Kaiju weapon or when the Kingdoms digging out space for an Anti-Kaiju bunker that a new Kaiju is discovered?

So I've been talking with a buddy of mine at work, who is also a RWBY fan. And he brought up some really good points and ideas for the Godzilla in Remnant story.

First, he said he liked the idea of a pure white beam for his "atomic breath". He also suggested having Godzilla breathe dust crystal, which I thought would be pretty cool, too. However, he also mentioned that RWBY already has so much going on, with magic, semblances, Grimm, aura, alternate dimensions, that throwing Godzilla into the mix would be tricky.

He said it would be a tricky subject, too, since Argus is now flattened and the Grimm are going to start swarming over the area due to the DEVASTATING amount of negativity Godzilla brought. Also, the fact that Salem's biggest Grimm was destroyed so easily is going to set off a chain reaction across Remnant, especially since it's WAY bigger than what Huntsmen are normally equipped for.

As we were walking and talking on the subject, an idea came to me. The Relics. Specifically, The Relic of Knowledge. Every one hundred years, the Relic of Knowledge permits three questions to be asked and answered. So I thought, "Hey, what if Ozma asked about Remnants greatest threat and it turned out it wasn't Salem?" Then I learned that 1. You can't ask about the future. And B. Ozma spent them all in The Lost Fable.

So I thought, dang. What now? Because there was an idea I had that would've given humanity an edge. Something that would make them able to protect themselves from Godzilla and any other Kaiju that comes their way. And that's when I found the loophole... The gap.

See, RWBY's events are so greatly spaced between whenever The Brothers gifted humanity and when the Relic was last used that we could find our questions before Ozma asked. Among these questions, one of them could have been "How can we protect humanity?" And Jinn shows them an image of a human as tall as a tower, stepping on Grimm and striking even larger Grimm. Which leads us to my idea... The Guardians (name is a work in progress).

The Guardians are essentially giant magic mechs designed to protect humanity from enormous threats. However, such power would be too dangerous in human hands, so humanity locked them away and sealed them like they did the Relics, and to ensure that they could not be used in tandem, the Relic Vaults were hidden in one location, with the Guardian Vaults hidden in another, maybe even requiring high-level magic to unlock, instead of a maiden. I don't know. I'm just brainstorming at this point.

What do you guys think? Should there be Guardians? Should there be other Kaiju tossed in? Should I start designing Grimm to fight Godzilla? Please let me know! I'm having a lot of fun with your questions, suggestions, and feedback!

Until then, keep up the good work!

[umichenginabroad]

Week 0: Sleep 0

Hi, my name is Alex Shamoun, a rising sophomore in Robotics. I am Michigan born and raised and I am very excited to be able to share my journey through Reykjavik, Iceland. Iceland is a very unique country in both geography and culture. Iceland being an island formed with a large amount of volcanic activity gives it both a geographic uniqueness and due to its separation from everyone else it was able to be culturally unique. Over these next 7 weeks I can’t wait to share what I get to learn and experience with you. 

Me getting my last bit of real sleep for the next 48 hours.

I will say that while Iceland may be a really nice destination to visit, packing to be here for 7 weeks was not fun. That comes from the fact that Iceland is cold and windy, but despite being from Michigan I don’t really know what I am going to be dealing with. I’ve mostly got a lot of sweaters and hoodies but I also have my fair share of graphic tees and UofM shirts. I spent multiple days packing and repacking just to try and make sure I am well prepared for whatever environments and situations confront me. I think I have enough stuff to where no matter what happens I will be good but who knows. What will I be able to wear or will I freeze? I will learn that and much more very soon. 

The mess that is trying to pack for Iceland and being unsuccessful in said venture.

I am writing part of this while at Reykjavik airport after landing from my overnight flight. We left DTW at 8:30 pm and it was a group of four of us UofM students on an Icelandair flight. I will say that Icelandair was kind of alright. The price was pretty good (when compared to Delta), however there was no meal for a 6 hour trans-Atlantic flight (you have to buy it). I ended up just eating some Kaleche(middle eastern pastry) I had packed with me to satiate my hunger. Once we got off the plane and got through customs we were met with our fabled guide for the next 7 weeks Christopher, and oh boy did he live up to the legends. 

The man, the myth, the legend: Christopher, keeping us entertained.

Christopher was foretold to us by the students of last year as a very eccentric and high energy man and for it being 6 am that was definitely true. He was up and active, telling dad jokes, speaking in a high energy voice and was tryna get us going and honestly it was working. This man actually worked miracles on us, while the jokes weren’t the best it was just the fact that we were able to talk and his energy was flowing into us just by being around him. Christopher was honestly one of the only things that got us through the morning and the airport.

On the drive over from the airport to our apartment we were able to actually see the volcano that is erupting. While we weren’t able to get too close, we were still able to see the smoke plume of toxic gas coming from the volcano. It was really interesting that it was just literally that close to the place we all flew into and that it was completely safe for us to  be there.

The volcanic plumes in the distance

After this we all got situated in our apartments and worked out details with roommates. The view from my apartment was absolutely fantastic. I’m in a 3 bedroom apartment where I thankfully have a single room. We have a balcony on the 4th floor and so you can see the Hallgrimskirkja church (extremely large lutheran church) (pictured at the end) over the heads of all the buildings and it’s really beautiful.

Everyone in the apartments after the drive, trying to stay awake while waiting for them to let us in.

We were given some free time in which we went to the grocery store ( of which I’ll probably talk more about next week) and just explored the city. In the end it was a lot of walking which I am going to be doing again tomorrow. To cap the day off and bring an end to probably hte most busy and tiring 24 hours of my life, we went to a really fancy restaurant called Loa. We had a magnificent 3 course meal. I had lamb soup, lamb shank, and (not lamb) chocolate cake. Iceland is known for its lamb and fish, and this was some really good and tender lamb. Honestly though, the chocolate cake was what really sold me on the meal, it was absolutely delicious and exactly the right amount of chocolate. 

This lamb shank was glazed in a sauce, cooked on top of mashed potatoes and roasted vegetables. 

I have had a really busy day (i’ve been up all day and yesterday) so I am going to call it a night and send this off and report more of my journey later. Stay tuned and have a wonderful night.

The view from my window at 12:30 am, the sun never sets on Iceland, much like the British. The Hallgrimskirkja church is the tall tower that is pointing out of the skyline.

-Alex Shamoun

Robotics

Engineering in Reykjavik

[readingaway]

Worst Reads of 2022

time for some negativity! I’m just going to list the books I absolutely hated this year and give a short explanation of why I hated them.

1- Disfigured by Amanda Leduc

Literally the best part of this book is the description. The contents never get deeper than that and the book utterly failed to really investigate or explore what Leduc claimed to be writing about. Much of the text is taken up by autobiographical details and biographical details about other writers. 

2 - Namesake (Fable, #2) by Adrienne Young

This was especially disappointing because I’d quite enjoyed Fable - in-so-far as I can enjoy most YA adventure fantasy-romance, and Fable was very typical of its genre. But Namesake? What the hell was the point of this duology. I have to ask. What was the point Ms. Young? More importantly, you do understand that in your chosen genre of YA fantasy adventure the protagonist needs to do something.

But wait a second I need to go over another detail before I get back to the insanely weak plot and characters. The worldbuilding. It sucked. In Fable I put up with it, there was some nice imagery. But with all the other issues in Namesake I couldn’t ignore it. Young uses the same tired costuming tropes where, in one scene, the MC is forced - forced I say! - to wear a pretty dress to a party which involves a horribly uncomfortable corset. (What undergarments was she wearing before?) But that’s barely even an issue compared to, for example, that there is exactly one alcoholic drink in the entirety of this fictional world and it is called rye. That’s it. Rye rye rye. He was drinking rye, she was drinking rye, they were drinking rye. I wouldn’t be surprised if it had originally been rum and the editor made Young come up with something else to call it because rum would be too stereotypical or whatever. The rye thing is a pretty good example of the weak worldbuilding without getting too far into the plot. But I would also note that there is no clarity in what the climate is like, or the various cultures. Oh yeah. I guess there’s some magic in this story and some people have the ability to read or sense gems somehow, and it is only used for tension in a couple scenes and doesn’t matter to the main plot.

And back to the plot, which sucked. As a general rule, the main character of a story needs to do something. There are other important things about plots and characters, such as that a main character should want something, and that this drives the plot. The MC here does, at least, want something: her father’s love. What she does do over the course of two books is all about gaining her father’s approval or love, or it’s about helping her love interest. Just typing that makes me realize that somehow this duology failed the sexy lamp test with its main character. Fortunately it’s been almost a year so I won’t write more but seriously. This book is so bad. It’s soooooooooo bad.

3 - The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

I love the 90s adaptation of this book and so was excited to read listen to it, at last. That was a mistake. The first section of the book, up until Edmond escapes prison is good. It’s tense and you can really feel and understand why he’s so angry and set on revenge. The rest of the book.... his revenge is too intricate, there’s too much moralizing and talking. The revenge isn’t even satisfying. There’s a time gap between the escape and Edmond’s return to Marseille and he picks up this Greek slave girl who is kind of his adopted daughter but then becomes his love interest. He screws Mercedes over. The movie changed almost everything from the point of the escape and that was the right decision. There’s no satisfaction or great romance in the novel.

4 - Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

So, I wasn’t a fan of American Hippo because it turned out that the novellas were not, in fact, fun and were instead gritty westerns. I figure that’s more an issue of my not reading the description carefully enough. This, I was unsure about and I just wish I hadn’t picked it up. It might have been good, but it’s missing so much worldbuilding/ information. I cannot buy into a story where somehow, at the time of the real american civil war, there’s instead this very fascist government over all the white people and there’s a secret society of people ferrying folks from the east to the free, rebel-held west. And that the headquarters of this rebel stronghold are in Utah. And the place names are the same. You cannot actually expect me to believe that there is a Provo, Utah not twenty years after initial colonization that is a glorious safe haven for free speech and being gay and nonbinary. I also don’t recall there being much about race or colonization in this story despite it being set, again, at the time of the real american civil war and with the group the audience is supposed to be rooting for heading for safety in a very recently colonized place.

*addendum, apparently this story is actually supposed to be “near-future.” But the worldbuilding issue remains the same. There’s nothing in this novella to 1) make it clear when this is supposed to be set, 2) make it clear or even possible to guess what has happened to bring about this “near-future” dystopia. I’ve read other, similar stories that also involve a near-future dystopia set in the US that give enough detail for that described future to be plausible. (Ex, The Handmaid’s Tale, or Civilwarland In Bad Decline.) This novella does not give enough information for me to even visualize the story, much less understand the essential question of “how did we get here?”

5 - How to Write a Mystery, edited by Lee Child

There were a lot of bad essays

6 - Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam

I wrote a review of it which you can read here.

7 - The Once and Future King by T.H. White

So yeah. I would like to stuff a sock in Merlyn’s mouth and duct-tape it shut and shoot him out of a cannon. That’s a bit extreme, but so much of this text was taken up by his patronizing, philosophizing, when he wasn’t going on racist rants and making up colonial manifestos. Such speeches rang especially hollow with the hindsight provided from the last several decades since the books were being published. There were other issues I had with the book, such as abrupt time skips and glossing over important details or constantly referencing other authors so that in order to understand this excessively long book, one must already be familiar with the preceding major works of arthuriana.

[the-heroines-of-thedas]

@elliscousland

Lothering wasn’t known to be a busy sort of place. All her life, Moriah had enjoyed a fairly quiet life with her family there. In fact, any sort of trouble or disturbance that arose was usually something she had caused. These last few days, however, something dark and frightening was at the horizon, pushing ever closer.

On one hand, Moriah was grateful all of the hubbub about the village kept the Chantry templars busy with all of the travelers that were passing through. Refugees, merchants, soldiers searching for some fabled holy article… It was enough to keep eyes off of Bethany more than usual.

On the other hand, all that same excitement had made Carver absolutely insufferable. She and mother had to talk him down on more than one occasion when he insisted he could run off to join the King’s army to fight darkspawn. Since their father had died, Carver’s attitude had only continued to sour with every passing day. Part of her almost wanted to let him go just to see that it wasn’t all fun and games out there.

She knew she’d never forgive herself if she did.

There was one other thing that irritated her more than anything, though, as people filtered through Lothering: the bandits posted up just outside of town. Moriah couldn’t stand to see innocent people being swindled out of their coin and belongings as they tried to escape the encroaching threat of darkspawn. If she were more than just one woman, she might have done something about it too.

Alas, the most she could do was keep her bow and quiver visible on her person as she went about her business. She wasn’t exactly the most imposing of persons, but carrying a weapon at least kept the less invested scum away. It wasn’t a foolproof plan though.

She had strayed a little too far from the village that afternoon, looking for elfroot for Bethany. As hard as she had tried to keep away from the roads that were being guarded by opportunistic highwaymen, she found herself face to face with three burly men that seemed to think she was a good target.

“I’m sorry gentlemen, but if you would simply let me pass–”

“What’s all this then?” One of the men took a step toward her, a smirk on his face as he gestured to her bow and quiver. “What’s a pretty, little thing like you doing out here on your lonesome with a toy like that? Hunting squirrels?”

Moriah blinked twice, praying to The Maker in advance for forgiveness. Then, plastering on a smile, she fluttered her lashes at the trio of highwaymen.

“I was, but as you can see by my lack of squirrels, I’m quite a lousy shot.” she said with a dramatic sigh. “I’m just headed home to tell my poor, starving family that we’ll be without dinner again tonight.”

“Oh, that’s a right shame.” The man said with mock pity. Neither of the other men spoke up, but they seemed plenty amused by their ring-leader’s antics. “You see, we’re poor and starving too. We’ve been traveling for weeks with hardly anything to eat. Maybe you could give us your bow and arrows. I’m sure one of us has to be a better shot than you are.”

Clutching at the strap of her quiver and her bowstring, she willed herself not to take a step back. Instead, she did the best she could to smother the fire in her eyes as she gave them a pleasant look. She wasn’t about to be bullied by these idiots, but if she could avoid a fight, she would try her best.

“Oh but you gentlemen wouldn’t part a lady from her only means of defense against darkspawn and brigands, would you?” she said with a saccharine look and a bat of her lashes. “I’m so utterly helpless without them.”

Unless one counted the daggers concealed in her boot and at her hip.

“Well then, Princess, you should have thought of that before you went wandering so far from home.” he said, a sinister sort of mirth gleaming in his eyes.

Oh, the pet name… That was something she couldn’t stand for.

“I’m going to need you to step aside now.” she said, any hint of warmth immediately draining from her. Her fingers itched as she contemplated her odds of beating all three of the obstacles in her path. If she played her cards right, she could probably make it out of a scuffle with some minor bumps and bruises.

“Or what?” the man scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

Mother would never let her hear the end of it if she came home with a black eye.

“Don’t make me ask again.” she said, her green eyes boring into him with intense frustration.

She had prayed to The Maker for forgiveness. What she really needed was just one more person at her side to even the odds.

[lifewithoutmeds]

september 13, 2023

5:26 p.m.

week in review: 9/9/2023: oppah called in the morning and talked to me for an hour and a half. mostly about himself, but he also seemed to be inviting me out to something called "echo park rising," but i declined as i was meeting up with anjali later. at 1:15 my mom swung by and picked me up, and we went to three nearby open houses (condos.) nothing looked good, and it was hot, and afterward we went to fish king where we split a spicy tuna roll. around 6pm, anjali came by, and we went to joon shabu shabu which was pretty good. then we came back to the condo, chatted, and watched three episodes of the office before retiring.

9/10/2023: woke up pretty tired as i think anjali had left around 10 or 10:30 which was late for me. barely was up in time for my 9:05 a.m. pick up by my mom. we went to church, then to roscoe's afterward for lunch. i proposed that we try a new restaurant every time we go to church, and she seemed happy about it. i was in much better spirits than the last time she saw me. we both discussed our desire to get back into church; she wanted to join a choir maybe, and i wanted to plug into some sort of community group, but preferably a similar demographic and not that of Lake Avenue's. on our drive back, she choked up talking about how she had a sense of shame/embarassment from having stayed in the marriage so long, and i choked up too, saying that she left when she had too, when she was strong enough, when she was brave enough, and she shouldn't get upset at herself for not leaving sooner. i compared it to my own coming out, how i couldn't have done it when i was 12 or 13, how i was up against my parents, my church, my society, and i thought that was my life, and i'd just never be happy and i'd just be plagued by suffering until i died. she said she had no idea, and also thanked me, and said something like, "i know why you're saying that and i thank you." i came home pretty exhausted, took about an hour nap, then headed over to rhiannon's for the third time in two months which kind of felt like a lot. we went to go watch this new lesbian high school comedy called Bottoms, which was pretty fun, then we ate some pizza's at BJ's, my treat, as it was her birthday. i came home tired. i think i cried a tiny bit, but this could also have been a product of an upcoming period, evidenced also by the fact that i started each morning by eating a few scoops of haagen dazs coffee ice cream.

9/11-9/12/2023: these days just bled into each other. i was tired all day, barely did any work, and would take long naps during lunch. i didn't do any chores, didn't make my bed, didn't really do anything but stare at my phone and lie down. the only differences between each day was that on monday i met up with tracy, and we went to a new bar called The Fable in eagle rock (which was just ok. strong but not particularly tasty drinks, no food, too dark, and regular clientele that didn't seem to appreciate outsiders,) followed by spitz, which she enjoyed. i had had two strong drinks and was drinking a big beer and got pretty buzzed, and talked a lot, about embarrassing things, shameful things, for which i felt shame the next morning. tuesday after work i went all the way over to century city again, where i met up with patti, alex, and matt, and we ate dumplings at din tai fung and caught up with patti, who was planning on moving back to LA in the next month. she also walked me to my car and i cried as i told her how i'd been. she was incredibly kind, compassionate, and conciliatory, and i felt ... seen. heard. cared for.

9/13/2023: not sure what it was, but i made my bed this morning. delayed my coffee. washed two loads of dishes. took out recycling. took close to an hour walk at lunch. was very productive at work, made two cluster presentations, got good feedback from my bosses, and at the end of the day, SUZY called. i hadn't heard from her in several months (i think we may have met up in a group in january) but she rarely if ever calls me. she asked if i was okay, concerned about an ig story i had posted earlier, and i broke down and started crying again. she was kind and conciliatory and i was so thankful. she also basically forced me to agree to get lunch with her in a week, even though it'd be on a working day for me, but it wasn't for her, and apparently every other day she is busy with the work or the children, so i guess that was the only day that worked for her. it was very good to hear from her and she said she loved me and i remembered that i was loved, that i had friends, that i loved them, and that somehow, in these near-40 years of life, i had forged some really intense, life-long friendships, which also made me cry a little. among the things she said was that she was pretty sure i'd find love again, and that if i had nothing else to hope for, i had that. and that i had gotten to experience love, and learn from it, and ... who knows, something else from it.

i think some of the crying is PMS. but each time i cry, i cry a little less. well this time i cried a LOT, like heaving, hiccuping crying, where i had to hold my breath because i sounded so bad where i couldn't even get out words. but before this crying spell, i went a record 5 days without crying, which was a new record for this month. i should give myself a little credit for that. and even though sometimes the loss of jadai feels so close, at other times, it feels a little more distant, like an echo. i hope it keeps fading and fading with time.

Upcoming Week: 9/14/2023, Thursday: In office, as we'll have an in-person meeting. afterward will be a kind of random dinner with stacy and catherine. rather, they had planned it for themselves, and when i randomly texted stacy, she invited me along. fortunately i'll already be downtown so it won't be too far away. it will be good to see them and another reminder that there are people out there. there's a community. there's support.

9/15/2023, Friday RDO: undecided yet, but may go fishing with Tracy. might go on a hike. might register for the october volunteer registration for the burbank animal shelter.

9/16/2023, Saturday: No plans!

9/17/2023, Sunday: might check out Bread Church, where grace goes in the morning. also plan to meet up with kendy at matt in the afternoon, tentatively 2-5 p.m. after i basically begged them to meet up with me because i liked them and i needed the company and care.

9/18/2023, Monday: noon check in with psychiatrist, and dinner at grace k's. i forget why, but we randomly texted one another last week and she invited me over for dinner and we decided on monday.

i'm really glad i have some social things planned. i need to be around people. my best experiences in life have been with people, and the closer i've felt to them, the better the experience has been. my times with jadai, my trips with antoinette, playing the guitar with lorena, staying in the cabin with my Venice CG. these were the best times, the memorable times, the most treasured times. so as much as i'm being told to go adopt a dog, i think i need to try and connect with people as much as i can.

one of the better things that i'm thinking about the past month is that i've never tried so hard to get out of this. i'm reaching out, i'm researching volunteer opportunities, i'm journaling constantly, i'm looking into a new church, i'm asking for help. i'm trying. i'm remembering who i was pre-jadai, and so far it hasn't been that great honestly, but i'm trying to find whatever impelled me to live for 35 years before i met her. i'm not in my 20's anymore, most of my friends have married/moved away, but they're still there, albeit in smaller doses, and with more planning, etc. but i need to keep trying.

[semper-legens]

73. Pet, by Akwaeke Emezi

Owned: No, library Page count: 203 My summary: There are no more monsters in Lucille. The angels got rid of them, long long ago. Before Jam was born. But when Jam accidentally summons a creature named Pet from a painting, it tells her there’s another monster. One that’s lurking in her best friend Redemption’s home. But that can’t be right...can it? My rating: 4/5 My commentary:

I'd heard a fair amount about this book before I read it, so I was cautiously optimistic about it going in. It had come up in lists of LGBT+ YA fiction, so of course I was interested in it. Akwaeke Emezi seems like a pretty cool author as well, and I love to read books about LGBT+ folks written by LGBT+ folks. And overall, I really liked it!

The setting of this story is a town called Lucille, where there once were monsters, but the angels drove them away. It's made pretty clear that both monsters and angels are, in fact, humans - monsters are people who did horrible things, angels are those who fought against them. It's alluded to that the angels haven't necessarily done good things in their past, but those days are behind them. Except there's a monster at Jam's friend's house, and a creature has come through a painting to hunt that monster. The setting was an interesting blend of magical realism, with the nature of angels, monsters, and creatures like Pet all meshing together to make a vaguely fantastical world that still has a grounding in reality. One thing I really liked is how this book used language. It's implied that most if not all inhabitants of Lucille are black, and they use different forms of language in their speech. Some use Standard English, some (like Jam's parents) use AAVE, Jam herself switches between spoken dialogue and signing, and Pet talks to Jam telepathically as well as out loud in a strange, circuitous dialect. It's really fun to read, and tells you a lot about their characters.

Jam herself is a very charming and engaging protagonist. She's a selectively mute, implicitly autistic trans girl with a strong sense of both loyalty and morality. She's slow to accept Pet as something that can help her, but her relationship with the creature progresses to true friendship. She struggles a lot with doing what's right, but her protective instincts over her friends and family are very sweet, especially when she is determined to help them no matter what. There's a coming-of-age element here too - Jam is learning to be independent of her parents, to make her own decisions about what's right and what she should do, and speaking truth to power.

My only real criticism of this book was how short it was! I wanted to play in this world a while longer, because it genuinely fascinated me. I want to know its history, its quirks, what the town is like to live in, that sort of thing. I appreciate, however, that less is probably more in the case of this actual narrative. The overall message of the book is about how 'monsters' can be lurking anywhere, and that no community is inherently safe from people doing bad things, but also to stand up against those people in a fair way. Pet wants to kill the monster, but Jam says no. Instead, she makes people aware of who he was and what he did, and so the community can put measures in place to stop what happened from happening again. It's a mature way of looking at the situation, and definitely suited to its YA audience. This book was great, and I'd highly recommend it!

Next up, a fable of a train, and its most precious cargo.

[twilightpoison]

It’s been brought up to me that a lot of my content is Isekai based. However I didn’t want this to be a Ieskai HC post. Instead let me tell you all about a stupid thing I came up with as a kid that I’ve been meaning to make into a fic for so long.:

What if the characters you play actually can feel your presence and/or can hear your commentary when playing?

Fair warning I never play Hyrule Warriors and Twilight Princess so let me know if I got things wrong.

Head canons under cut!

General head canons (These are all platonic headcanons btw.):

- Let’s say that the simple reason that you are here was to help the chain. Think of it like you’re the groups companion on this journey. Who better then someone that knows about each hyrule?

- The people who dealt with a lot of magic recognize you at first. The others need a bit of a push to connect the dots but everyone gets there.

- The connection wasn’t as strong at times during their original adventures, so its not like they could always hear you or sense you.

Time:

- You saw him and it was clear he has another sibling now.

- Time knew you where telling the true, that you followed both of his adventures however he wasn’t going to be fully open to you.

- Guess who isn’t scared of Time? You.

- Literally at one point you’ve pointed at Time and with a straight face says “thats a child”.

- This is also how the chain found out that Time actually fought the moon technically.

- “You fought Majora on the moon while it was falling. That’s not the same thing.”

- You meet Malon and it was an awkward first meeting since how do you explain this in the first place.

- Yet the two of you got along amazingly.

- When you and time are alone you instantly ask Time if he knew how she got the cow in his house. He kinda just… stares at you? Like you just met his wife and thats what your asking about?!

- The answer was that he wasn’t sure how she did that but the cow isn’t in his old house anymore. Since different timelines and all.

- It’s honestly weird for him to have someone remember both of his adventures in confidence.

- All be a little awkward hearing someone go, “oh yeah! Time had to do something similar.”

- Early on Time did go over boundaries since he really doesn’t like to talk about his adventures to much.

- So instead you both agree to be as cryptic as possible or at least there is an attempt on your part. Since your the only other person that can confirm or deny his claims.

- And no. You also don’t know his true age. But your guess is the closest.

Twilight:

- Since he is one of the Link’s that is drenched in magic, he recognizes your aura instantly.

- Chaotic sibling energy.

- If he is giving Wild or any of the other Link’s a hard time you are by his side calling Twilight out. Unless if the person in question did something truly idiotic then you let him go off.

- Speaking of, you call this man out as much as you possibly can. Like hell if you’re going to let the others think he isn’t a gremlin.

- He did try to stop you by covering your mouth but you licked his hand. So…. guess what he isn’t trying again unless it’s necessary.

- Somethings are kept a secret though. Since he did live through it and even if it was stupid he still could of gotten really hurt.

- You both play good cop, bad cop to the younger Links all the time.

- Twi is surprisingly very open with you about his adventure, to finally talk to someone about it with out having it sound crazy is nice.

- He also has some questions about you and your life. Since before this adventure started you just disappeared.

- The two of you honestly get along like two best friends who haven’t seen each other in years but still can banter like its the good old days.

- Knowing only small amounts about what they all been through it’s nice to know that you’re looking after the others as well.

- That feeling makes him really push himself to protect the family he has here and luckily you are here can smack him upside the head before lecturing him.

Warriors:

- heeeeey… you know what happen the last time he met someone that was suppose to be watching over the hero’s spirit?

- Yeah, so….War’s isn’t so keen on trusting you like some of these Heroes.

- You seem nice and not obsessively crazy. If anything what makes him decide to give you a chance. It’s seeing you get along with the other Heroes post battle or around the campfire when you think no one is watching.

- The moment that he recognizes you. You were cursing out some monsters and calling Dink every name under the sun. Which he actually remembers hearing your panicked voice briefly when fighting Cia.

- Anyway, you guys are a sass duo and even a trio when you get Leg involved.

- You steal his scarf sometimes with Time and Wind’s help

- He finds you and Wind wrapped inside of it leaning on time and his heart just- clenches, he has more siblings now!

- Then Warriors realizes he has another sibling… another sibling that will prank him…

- You two can be found discussing tactical strategies. Mostly him teaching you though since depending on the person not many people will know how to lead an army. Yet he is a good teacher and you catch on pretty quickly.

- Same with Twi, Warrior’s needs someone to pull him back sometimes it seems. Who better then to remind him then the person that already saw his lowest moment when his ego got the better of him?

- Seriously speaking. He wouldn’t come to you to talk. If anything he will try to avoid you if he wasn’t his best. In his head he has a reputation to uphold. Which will lead to a heart to heart. No sass. No banter. Just you and him sitting down to remind him that he is human.

- He needs a hug. Please give him a hug.

Sky:

- Sky actually didn’t recognize you at first!

- Yes he felt your presence and hear your voice in his adventure, but that was a while ago at this point. Also he isn’t as connected to magic as the others are.

- He does slowly befriend you despite everything.

- It wasn’t until you referred to a certain demon lord as a ‘B*tch A** Clown’ and a flood gate of memories open up for him. Memories of you cursing out Ghirahim, calling the imprisoned an ‘avocado with feet’ and so on.

- Nothing really changes between you two honestly, he just accepts it.

- If anything he becomes more open to you about everything, setting clear boundaries on what he doesn’t want to bring up. He will tell everyone about the curse eventually, but just hasn’t found a good opportunity too. Things like that.

- You do have to argue with Sky that the curse wasn’t his fault since you were also there when it was put on him, also the fact that he didn’t asked to be cursed in the first place.

- Most of the time you two are together its to get away from the chaos that the group of nine heroes could bring.

- Walking or sitting in silence is how you two end up most of the time together. It may not look like you two are bonding. There are some days while Sky is wood carving you would work on your small hobby as well. Then there are days he plays the harp and your reading.

- Despite it all he really enjoys the peace you bring. There is a sense of comfort that you have.

- When you and Sun finally meet. The first thing you ask him is to be invited to the wedding and it may or may not been in front of her too…

Wild:

- The recognition was really slow for him like Sky. Since Wild just got off of his first adventure he didn’t actually notice you were gone.

- It was until he realized that he couldn’t hear your panicked voice or snarky remarks when fighting in his head. That he finally realized you where outside of his head. He was quick to connects the dots after that.

- There was a moment where he didn’t know how to react since he just figured that you were just from his imagination.

- He now has another adventuring buddy with Hyurle! Though luckily you do keep the both of them from harm. Mostly because if something happens to them you will get in trouble with like Twi and Leg and thats never fun.

- Though you have your moments. Shield surfing and paragliding are on top of that list and Wild is all up for teaching you the ropes.

- The topic of the history of hyrule gets brought up a lot with the two of you. Since his era has a lot of connections to the past era’s. He is all up for learning about what came from where. Soon theories start to fly about.

- When You, Him and Flora are finally all together. There is nothing stopping you all from bouncing off theories. With your outside knowledge mixing with what they know. Things start to fall into place.

- The answer to why the timeline is like this doesn’t get answer. But hey! At least you all are having fun!

- If you can’t cook he will teach you that too! If you can! Well buckle up your going to share your knowledge with him whether you want to or not.

- Once you know how or get used to cooking while camping, you help him out a lot and its these moments where you both talk the most.

- It’s comforting to him to know he wasn’t alone this whole time.

Legend:

- As soon as you two locked eyes he felt instant dread. Yes he knew. No he isn’t going to opening up to you.

- Playful Insults to bond? Yeah that’s literally how he talks to everyone so no special treatment.

- He keeps you at a distance but its not actually working.

- You talk about his adventures so casually like it happened a few days ago. You avoid Link’s Awakening though. If you got hurt with the plot twist then you could only imagine the pain Leg went through.

- “I’m still trying to process the fact you married a tree.” “Hey remember that one time with Yuga, you slammed face first into a wall so hard you knocked yourself out?” “God do you not wear pants because of the fish thing?”

- This relationship is literally: Only I can bully this one.

- He fears the moment you meet Ravio and Fable knowing full well you all will bond over teasing him.

- Overall though he knows you got his back no matter what, to the point he finds himself confining in you slowly.

- Guess who is also teaming up with Hyrule to get Legend to sleep. It you.

- Once you probably have forced him to sleep by getting wolfie to lay on him. It was the wolf or yourself. In the end it was both of you and he was trapped.

- A sign that he was becoming soft towards you was when he started sharing his items with you. He trusts that you know how to use them and if you don’t he is actually willing to show you.

- He regrets giving the bee badge to you.

Hyrule:

- Another person that is drenched in magic. It only took one look at you for him to realize who you were.

- The two of you were awkward as anything at first. Since to you he never really spoken in his adventure so you didn’t know how to picture his personality.

- There’s a lot of mystery in your mind about him since again there isn’t much to go off of with what your given in game. It’s weird for him to hear about how you interpret his personality from that perspective.

- Hyrule didn’t honestly expect you to try and befriend him tbh. It mostly him over thinking it.

- You do follow him sometimes when he wants to wander around and explore. Mostly because you claim he finds the coolest things when he does.

- But its just a excuse to actually get to know him.

- The two of you trade stories and questions about each of your lives. There might be things you know that he might not know of about his adventure and his hyrule.

- Of course never going into to much details since there are things you couldn’t tell him.

- Hyrule honestly was dreading the day you all would land in his Era. He loves his home but is also very aware of it not being the most…welcoming place.

- So it’s more then surprising to him that there is even more then the glint of familiarity and excitement on your face. Knowing full well what dangers where a head of you, you still were open to exploring his world to the fullest.

- It’s honestly refreshing to see someone love his era as much as he does.

- Another boy that needs hugs, please give him a hug.

- You both cheer each other on though.

- This relationship is just aggressive support between you two and the others.

Four: (I’m actively mixing the Four Sword game and manga just to be clear.)

- Not sure if he would know exactly who you where since during the second adventure your voice and presence bounce between the four of them.

- Yet I also feel like he took after you because he was a child in his first adventure, which worries you a lot. Since you did have choice words for Vaati.

- The first to realize was Vio then it went Blue, Red and Green. Despite being in the same head it was just a theory they had over all. They all had their own ways of confirming it.

- Vio noticed the small things you do around Four. Like not stepping on their shadow, and covering Four when things got chaotic in their head. Small references here and there. When the two of you are alone he almost quizzes you about things. Just to see how much you know and to see if your telling the true or not.

- Blue recognize your mannerisms being something he picked up on during the first and second adventure. Only vaguely since again he was a child / there was only a small part only with him. Your fighting banter when your in battle made you see where Blue got his colorful language from…

- Your comfort was what clued Red in. He remembers your presence more clearly then the others from the first and second adventure. It was a comforting (yet chaotic) presence in their adventures that he latched on to. More so from his first adventure since as a kid he made an imaginary friend to process the fact he could sense and hear your presence. When you came back in the second time around it felt so natural for Red to have you there and really helped make him go forward through his small journey.

- For Green? It was a lot of things but when he see’s you treating each color differently when they are in charged. It’s a refreshing sight to be honest. He just enjoys hearing and seeing that his brothers had someone to confide in. Even when they switch who is in control you some how could tell and spoke to them accordingly.

- They were all some what surprise that none of the others picked up on your treatment of him swapping so much. Yet their also glad because their not ready to reveal themselves quiet yet.

- As Four or as you nicknamed him ‘Rainbow’ the two of you tend to sick together when the world’s shift around. Since his body needs more time to recover.

- You two are another pair that cheers each other on when the moral is low.

- He introduces you to the Minish! Getting you a jabber nut so you can speak to them too. You can’t shrink down to properly talk to them so this was the next best thing.

- The four of them makes you a dagger to bring home to remember him by, there’s a kin stone imbedded where the blade meets the hilt.

Wind: (hello self projection my dear friend)

- Wind didn’t recognize you ether at first, yet he didn’t even blink when you join everyone. He was fully on board with getting a new member and is easiest the most opened.

- It was when you two are alone together that something clicked in his head. You see during the Wind Waker he was alone most of the time when he was on land. So he had to face a lot by himself.

- Having you was reassuring to him when facing some of the monsters alone, especially with the puppet ganon fight. The two of you both agree that it was creepy.

- CHAOTIC SIBLINGS PART 2… well kinda

- Wind is a lot more mature then you realized but you two still have those moments.

- You, Aryll and Grandma get along too! So he and his family basically sees you and the chain as family.

- Pranking buddies! You’re targets would never know. Mostly because your covering up for him. You two team up with Four and Wild so the pranks can get chaotic at times.

- No matter what age you are compare to him and if your ok with it he does like platonic physical affection. Your going to be trading off with Warriors a lot of the time for cuddles or it’s the three of you together.

- You teaching him our worlds sea shanties and him teaching you his? Heck yeah! Even making up songs with the others is something on the table and in the works which is nice.

- It’s another thing to bring back home thats personalized!

Honestly since I’ve written all of this down I want to write the fic more. Though I’ll probably not only because idk if people would even read it lol. So it will just be a bunch of head canons. Anyway rambling is done.

[digital-dhampirs]

vnc episode 11 thoughts

The penultimate episode of VnC season 1 has aired and I have feelings about it! This is actually the first time I’ve done an anime episode breakdown/ review type thing, and I was considering just doing a full season review after the final episode comes out next week, but I have a lot of thoughts on episode 11 specifically. So! Let’s get started.

one quick spoiler alert— this review contains spoilers for manga events that don’t happen/ haven’t happened yet in the vnc anime; and will probably spoil parts of episode 12 of the anime. proceed with caution..!

VnC season 1 episode 11 is based on chapters 19 through 21 of the manga. We see the entirety of Vanitas and Jeanne’s date, which, while having a handful of janky animations and proportions, is a very fun time.

The voice acting is all around fantastic; Domi and Dante’s interactions are great; Jeanne is pretty. The chibi sections are adorable (especially Jeanne eating snacks). The music that plays when Dante notices the pair on their date is fantastic, and so is the music when Jeanne spills her full plan to Vanitas.

There are a lot of little details that got cut from this date scene, along with two more major things we’ll get to later, but in general you don’t miss them too much. Domi telling Jeanne about a fable her grandfather once told her, Domi saying she only has experience getting romantic attention from women, Dante sharing candy with Domi, Domi telling Dante everything that led up to the date…. a handful of these little character details (mainly revolving around Domi) got chopped, but none of them are too important. The date moves at a pretty breakneck pace for a lot of the episode (the scene where Jeanne almost gets hit by a car is especially guilty of this), and these details likely woulda made it too cluttered and fast paced.

Speaking of pacing, there’s one part of Vanitas and Jeanne’s date where things seem to slow down— the scene where everything goes to shit and Jeanne very nearly attacks a human. Jeanne drinking Vanitas’s blood is fantastically ominous and dark, and I would say it was absolutely perfect… if not for the two parts of that scene that the anime left on the cutting room floor.

Firstly, they left out Vanitas’s vision of Mikhail after promising Jeanne he’ll kill her. This scene is so short and so significant and I think it coulda easily been thrown in after Vani’s promise.

To break down why that one other thing was omitted from the date scene, we first have to go over the other half of this episode— Ruthven’s encounter with Noé. As a warning, this is the section of the review is where I go full on salty manga fan. don’t worry, I still love this anime, I’m not gonna say it’s inferior to the manga even though it is, and this is all just my opinion! here we go

In my opinion, the cafe scene was by far the weaker half of the episode. I love chapter 19 of the manga so damn much, and while the anime did at least a solid portion of it justice, it also left out a lot of fascinating exposition and made the decision to chop this scene up into little pieces to play concurrently with the date storyline, leading to (((IMO) a much weaker scene in the anime.

Firstly, and similarly to the date scene, we lose a handful of interesting little details in the anime’s version of chapter 19. We don’t get any exposition on the shapeless one’s past or standing in vampire society, and we lose the hug pillow line and Amelia’s lil crush on Noé. And most importantly, the way the anime has the date and cafe scene run concurrently means we miss out on the thrilling final few minutes of Noé’s encounter with Ruthven, which will likely occur in episode 12.

I really dislike how the anime chops up the cafe scene. It messes with the episode’s general timeline (Jeanne and Vanitas are still on their date in the afternoon and it’s night by the time they retreat to the abandoned studio, while Ruthven and Noé’s conversation takes place entirely in the morning, but the anime flips between the two like they’re happening at the same time) and makes things feel quite rushed.

Not to mention… the “swear” scene at the end of chapter 19 adds a Lot to the blood drinking after Vanitas and Jeanne’s date. The anime scene is still really well done and horrifying in a good way, but it’s missing that extra boost of “oh holy shit what’s going on what did Ruthven dO” that Ruthven’s curse brings to the table.

I really do find myself wondering why the anime chose to purposefully save the end of Ruthven and Noé’s interaction for episode 12. Did they think including the scene and then immediately going to the date would be too abrupt a shift in tone? I do think the way the general tone of the episode across its two storylines stays pretty consistent, starting out fluffy and cheerful and slowly turning more dark and creepy, is very nice. Was there just not enough time to fit all of the cafe scene in? Did the showrunners want some sort of Olivier style “things are worse than they actually are” red herring cliffhanger? Or did something else entirely happen?

Either way, I’m pretty disappointed by the pacing and two big cuts from this episode. But! Regardless! This episode was still enjoyable. The music and voice acting is consistently great and the episode’s consistent tone across both storylines was a big plus.

I beliiiieve the final episode of the show will wrap up the events of chapters 19 and 21, and will probably tackle chapter 22 as well. I’m up in the air on chapter 23, because while the ending of chapter 22 seems like a very decent ending to a season, the events of 23 directly correlate to stuff that happens in 19, 20, and 21… I guess we’ll find out next Friday! Either way I can’t wait to see more of Roland and Olivier, Mikhail’s introduction, and the conclusion of Noé and Ruthven’s confrontation!

fun fact

Jeanne pretty