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ryuichirou · 4 months ago

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Who do you think of the twisted wonderland crew would survive a horror game (or love them a bit too much for everyone's liking) and who would be screaming in terror?

Dear non-anon! You are the most patient one around here, since you had to wait twice because of me kind of reading your ask wrongly (?) and writing the wrong post ages ago. I’m happy you enjoyed it though, and I hope you’ll have fun with this one too. I certainly had fun writing it, even if it took me unreasonably long.

Thank you for such an interesting ask <3

Riddle – we’ve seen how much he struggles to play the most basic of games, so I am sure he wouldn’t survive a horror game... There could be a game that is simple enough in terms of gameplay for him to handle (if he just needs to click around and do puzzles instead of hiding or running), but he would hate jumpscares and get super focused and nervous. He is the one to accidentally break the monitor because he got scared and/or frustrated.

Ace – he is pretty good at them; it’s not like he never gets freaked out, but he prides himself on being pretty difficult to scare. He used to watch his brother play scary games, and his brother teased him a lot for being scared, so now Ace does the same thing to everyone else: he goes “ehh, are you scared, little baby?” and grins. Whenever Ace himself gets spooked and screams, he instantly gets mad, especially if others laugh at him. I also think Ace + the rest of the freshmen should play co-op type games like Dead by Daylight or Phasmophobia. But I also want Ace to play American McGee’s Alice.

Deuce – he is isn’t as good at videogames or horror, but he isn’t a 100% scaredy-cat. It will take him longer than Ace to get comfortable with the game, but whenever he shuts his brain off and gets into it, he’ll be pretty good at it. Still, he yelps and screams sometimes, and one time he got so scared that his hands started shaking. Ace loves playing with him because Deuce can’t hide his emotions at all when he’s playing.

Trey – he is the one to politely decline the offer to play: he was too busy playing outside and helping out with baking to get super into gaming. But at the same time, aside from being not super used to the gameplay, he would be pretty good. He does get freaked out, but he never screams, his eyes just get wider. He would also get pretty good pretty quickly.

Cater – I think he is weirdly good at them. I don’t know for sure, but I feel like Cater is better at videogames than we think he is, not nearly at Idia’s or even Ace’s level though. Still, he can handle horror. He would act surprised or scared sometimes though, almost unintentionally, because he feels like this is a scary moment, and he exaggerates his own reaction. Still, Cater gets very involved and terrified by a dark and gloomy atmosphere.

Leona – similarly to Riddle, if you find a game that is easy enough for him to figure out quickly (otherwise he’d get frustrated/bored and dip), he would play it. But he is also someone who would scoff at the game’s attempts of scaring him and keep repeating that this whole thing is stupid the entire time he’s playing... until some really stupid jumpscare scares the shit out of him and he just sits there in silence for 10 seconds... before facepalming, saying that this is stupid once again and turning off the game. He would survive a horror game, his ego wouldn’t.

Ruggie – it would take him a couple of tries, but he would get quite good pretty quickly, I think! He is a fast learner after all, and the moment he learns the game’s mechanics, he would be good. He would still get scared and probably even yell at the game when he gets too scared, but that wouldn’t stop him. I don’t know if he has it in him to finish the game though, simply in terms of wasting time on something useless, but you know what? I think Ruggie could get carried away. I think Ruggie would enjoy horror, especially if you can hoard supplies and upgrade your character in the game, something like Lethal Company.

Jack – I think he has some experience with videogames, so he isn’t a total noob, but he probably doesn’t like horror too much. He gets agitated and even angry because he just wants to bite the enemies’ heads off, but he can’t quite do it a lot of times. Still, whenever he succeeds, he gets such a dopamine boost that he starts wagging his tail. Jack gets super focused and surprisingly competitive when he’s playing co-op.

Azul – he is the one who would be one of the most uncomfortable people in terms of playing horror games. Azul hates surprises, Azul hates having no control, Azul hates things he is bad at, so at first he would hate horror games. He isn’t as bad as Riddle, but he isn’t super skilled in terms of videogames + there is always something for him to get spooked by. Being an octopus, Azul is always super cautious, which is a curse, but also a blessing: he would get very good at stealth sequences pretty quickly. He is also very good at puzzles. But sometimes there would be sequences during which he would have to just fuck shit up (esp. chasing sequences), and he would yell while playing these. He would get pretty invested for someone who didn’t want to play in the first place, but if he gets too uncomfortable (=terrified), he’ll dip... I guess it depends on if he is being watched or not: he hates when people backsit or comment on how he’s playing.

Jade – he prefers watching and not playing, and if he has to play, he would also prefer to do it alone. But if others have to get involved, he would prefer co-op games because he always messes with others, even his own team. And every single time Floyd is the one getting blamed for his antics instead of him... In general, Jade doesn’t really get scared by spooky games, but he doesn’t like being the subject of spooks. He would survive a horror game easily, but he wouldn’t enjoy it as much if it’s just him against the game, or him against the game + others watching him play.

Floyd – he loves horror games, but also doesn’t finish them all the time. A lot of them Floyd dropped because he got bored, but there is at least one game that Floyd didn’t finish because it spooked him and he got mad at the game for doing that. This is a rare occasion though because Floyd enjoys the spooks. He hates it when the game’s spooks are boring and always wants them to do their worst, to make Floyd feel as grossed out as possible. He has complicated relationship with such games... he would survive them easily (even if he isn’t super skilled at some games and it would take him more tries), it all depends on whether he cares enough to finish them. He also loves games that have a lot of blood/gore/violence in them... when he’s in the mood for it.

Kalim – he would have a hard time... he is the one to ask Jamil to help him during difficult or scary parts. He doesn’t really like horror all that much, it makes him very nervous, and while the thrills are fun and tickly, some games just feel too... gloomy and dirty and mean? It’s probably just a matter of picking a perfect horror game for Kalim, but he doesn’t care much for them: he’ll just get scared, yell a lot and them drop the game. But being in good company would make it better! If we’re together, it’s not scary anymore, it’s funny! Kalim, you’re missing the entire point of the game!

Jamil – you know, I think Jamil would be good at them. It’s not necessarily his go-to, but while playing it, he would think that he actually enjoys getting an adrenalin rush that doesn’t have any real life stakes behind them for once. This is also a good opportunity to flex how good of a gamer he is lol, and Jamil is not only skilled, but also very smart, so aside from some difficult annoying segments, he wouldn’t struggle too much. He wouldn’t get scared for the majority of time, maybe getting silently startled every now and then, but then... he would see a huge bug-like creature as a final boss... with a swarm of flies and centipedes filling the screen... he’d turn white and turn off the game forever.

Vil – he would get into them more than one would expect. We’ve seen that he is kind of interested in videogames, and since a lot of horror games have great visuals and story Vil would really enjoy those. His favourite ones would definitely be the games with great character writing. With some of them he would play and at the same time think how he would adapt the game’s story in a film form... Yeah, all that is nice, but does Vil get scared? Well yes, but he gets more angry than scared, and a lot of times he fights the enemies when there is an option to just avoid them. Of course he’ll survive the game: even if it’s difficult or scary, even if he doesn’t have a lot of free time, he is a completionist, so there is no way he’d stop until he sits there watching the final credits.

Rook – another thing Rook is unexpectedly and stupidly good at. Does he have this experience? He probably doesn’t, he’s a theater/film kid after all, but somehow Rook is a very fast learner, and has great intuition that makes him think both about the game’s mechanics and the in-universe logic at the same time. So yeah, it wouldn’t take that long for him to learn how to handle a game, and he doesn’t get super scared: similarly to Cater, he overly exaggerates his reactions sometimes. The only thing Rook doesn’t like about these types of games is that he doesn’t like being hunted down and prefers to do the hunting. I guess he should also play Dead by Daylight then lol

Epel – he gets terrified and he gets mad, he yells, he kicks things around, he breaks the controller, he pees his pants (alright that happened ONCE), he cries, he swears a lot, he goes through it. It’s honestly hard to tell if Epel loves horror games or not. When he’s just talking about them, it’s like he loves them a lot, as if he doesn’t get scared by them at all, and even if he does, he enjoys the thrill. But when he actually plays... I guess this entire experience is fun for him overall! He isn’t bad at them actually, he gets better pretty quickly, and he would probably finish the games more often and play with the rest of the boys more often his dorm didn’t have a strict “take a break after one hour in front of a computer” rule. Epel wishes to spend one day from morning till night just playing the game and eating junk food...

Idia – not a lot of things scare him, he loves horror and has a lot of experience with horror games. He is the one to rant about how jumpscares are cheap, but they’re still a big cultural part of horror as a genre, and yet people who use them should fuck themselves because jumpscares are cheap. Idia loves horror games with an atmosphere and a story, he replays a lot of old PS ones from time to time. He also loves jp RPG horror games + visual novels a lot. He plays a lot of indie games these days, even the ones that have 2 or 3 downloads total. So yeah, to Idia the majority of horror games isn’t a problem... he does get scared by them sometimes though, and either gets annoyed by that, or thinks that it’s a high praise for the game. Depends on his opinion on the game so far lol

Ortho – he is the best out of all the freshmen when it comes to horror games, which would probably make him a cheater because Ortho can’t necessarily get scared. But still, he loves horror a lot, mostly because of Idia’s influence, and he always monitors the reactions of people around them when he isn’t the only one in the room while the game is being played. If we’re talking about real!Ortho, he would also be the best out of all the freshmen (sorry, Ace!). But he used to get pretty scared and hide behind Idia while he was playing when they were little...

Lilia – oh he loves those, he is a big advocate of horror games being very helpful in building one’s character and developing a lot of necessary skills. The hardest part for him is to adapt to the new gameplay, but it also doesn’t take a lot of time; he’s gotten pretty good at videogames. He loves anything that has gore in it because he judges just how realistic it looks, but he also loves spooky castles and anything atmospheric (Amnesia? RE8?) – it feels romantic and nostalgic to him. He plays with gloomy samurai sometimes, but sometimes he just watches him play: Lilia is truly fascinated by his speedruns, although he’d enjoy watching a normal gameplay as well, but gloomy samurai doesn’t do those.

Silver – I think Silver doesn’t get to play horror games very often, but he probably kind of enjoys them. Lilia asked him to play together a couple of times, plus sits him down to play every now and then, so Silver isn’t totally horrible at them: he would do anything to make father happy, after all. But also Silver probably loves getting spooked because it keeps him alert and wakes him up. Silver finds this kind of games refreshing... he probably enjoys jumpscares too lol Sometimes games would get almost too easy for him. Lilia is so proud.

Sebek – he is probably the worst out of all the freshmen because he is the least experienced one when it comes to videogames or horror. The only type of horror in Sebek’s arsenal has been novels so far, and he doesn’t really like reading this type of stories. But even though one part of Sebek wants to stay away from such an unnecessary waste of time, another part of him wants to be involved, wants to test his own bravery and adaptability and frankly wants to make Ace eat his smug words about Sebek being scared. Sebek would struggle a lot, his poor little heart is used to all kinds of irl emergencies, but not horror games. Still, he would persevere... He also tries to organise everyone in co-op, as if someone would make him the leader.

Malleus – please, leave him be. He can’t handle a phone without ruining it, he would probably have even the harder time holding a controller than Riddle did. He also gets frustrated pretty easily, so not only the monitor, nothing is going to survive his anger when the game starts to get annoying.

#replies #headcanons

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dreadwulf · 1 year ago

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someone with way more energy than me needs to write about how many writers (in various mediums) took exactly the wrong lessons from asoiaf, most prominently mistaking grrm's narrative risk-taking for a simplistic "kill your darlings / no one is safe" approach.

I mean, yes, the first book does kill off the closest thing it had to a protagonist 3/4 of the way through. Yes, a big chunk of the cast of characters dies abruptly and shockingly in the Red Wedding. But this is not the only way that GRRM pushes the narrative in unexpected new directions. For instance:

Just off the top of my head:

He also periodically adds new points of view that shed a completely different light on the story. We're suddenly no longer hearing about Dorne from a distance, we're IN Dorne, we're getting their side of things. Suddenly Melissandre is telling us exactly what she's up to. Etc.

After reading about someone second and third hand for several books, suddenly they are a point of view character and they are... not what you were expecting. They give us a different take on the world and on other characters that we didn't have before.

Some of these POVs are deeply unlikeable. They can be unpleasant to read about. They are supposed to be this way.

Some of them are strikingly limited for whatever reason, maybe they are 8 years old or they are isolated or mentally ill, but their viewpoint is still essential to the narrative.

These povs contradict each other often. The pov characters are sometimes wrong. They're sometimes lying, even to themselves. They're lacking important information to inform their actions. And this is done not simply for rug-pulling, but for psychological verisimilitude.

Okay, there are other examples of narrative risk-taking, but really the way GRRM uses the close POV is the main innovation of this series, not the ruthless killing off of characters.

Not all of these risks pay off, but they are all propelling the story forward and so are all of the character deaths. Yes, there are characters that die. But these deaths have purpose - there are consequences that take the story to entirely new places. It's not nihilism! It's meaningful! These are the biggest consequences of all, the ones that throw open the spine of the story and snap it into place. The result is that you are not reading the same story in book 4 that you are in book 2, it has evolved beyond the original premise in a way that is organic and necessary and while remaining consistently the same narrative. With each book of ASOIAF the story unfolds a little bit more and turns out to not be the story we thought we were reading in the best possible way.

AND YET. We are looking today at a media landscape, at least partially created by the TV adaptation Game of Thrones, that prides itself in killing off characters, using antiheros and unreliable points of view. And none of them seem to understand what all of this was FOR. They constantly feed characters into a narrative meatgrinder for shock value and yet the story doesn't GO anywhere. The essential premise just resets, treading water, and there are little or no consequences reverberating through the story for most things that happen. The narrator proves unreliable so that the author can say "Ha ha! I tricked you!" and absolutely nothing else. There isn't a metanarrative that is being propelled forward, no overarching concept to unify everything that's happening so that it's not just "stuff that's happening." Themes are for eighth graders, puzzle-boxes have nothing inside. Your lips are moving, but you're not saying anything.

And then they'll reduce GRRM to evil santa who murders characters and it's so, so frustrating.

#I mean obviously the HBO adaptation is one example but there are many more #including some that I like! but they get exhausting with this stuff!

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just7frogsinapeoplesuit · 3 months ago

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Finally reading the Locked Tomb series because for once it wasn't taken out of the library! Thoughts one book one (spoiler free):

- I loved that our point of view is a character who is completely clueless about everything that's happening. It felt like assembling a puzzle with most of the pieces missing. Very fun. I wish more authors did this. I can definitely see how other people could find it frustrating, though, especially considering that we're still mostly in the dark at the end of the book.

- The foreshadowing is done perfectly. We are never given too much information at once and rarely the whole picture, so even if you figure something out early on there's an extra layer to it during the Big Reveal that would only be noticeable on a re-read.

- Love the setting and the characters. They're unique and interesting and I'm excited to see where it goes from here. Science fantasy is a woefully underused genre.

- A lot of the characters' names are too long to be used in full all the time. I'm already bad with names, I cannot remember a large cast of people whose names are 4+ syllables, and it makes reading feel clunky when we have both "Protesilaus" and "Nonagesimus" multiple times on one page.

- The necromancer and cavalier of the 8th house are uncle and nephew, but the (younger-looking?) nephew is older by what seems to be a significant amount. I know this is completely possible, especially in a knights-and-lords society, but I feel like there should have been a sentence somewhere to acknowledge that their roles and ages don't match up as expected because it got confusing.

- The horror is really fun and creative, except for the blood writing and flickering lights in the scenes with the 4th teens which felt jarringly campy. Possibly that will be explained in a later book, or Muir was just having fun with tropes.

- Gideon's commentary sometimes breaks the immersion of the setting, which is otherwise done really well. For example, early in the book she describes her acne as "pizza face" when we know for a fact she's never encountered pizza and probably doesn't even know what dairy is. I don't think there's a way to justify her learning about whole types of food and a colorful assortment of swears and slang from magazines but not things like the concept of swimming and the existence of showers, which are clearly common in the places her magazines are from. The Autism in me wants to be bothered by this, but being funny is objectively the best reason to break the 4th wall a bit and she is very funny. Gideon is just the Locked Tomb Bugs Bunny.

- Re: immersion, my favorite detail is that Gideon's default unit of measurement is bodies. 10/10.

- My one real issue: the prose randomly switches between casual language Gideon would use and words that are about 3 levels more obscure than necessary. I could understand the obscure vocab if the word choice added something, but most of the time it doesn't and sometimes it's actually less applicable. I shouldn't have to look up words that fell out of the common lexicon over a century ago just to learn that what's being said is something like "this guy acts like a knight", and it doesn't make sense with Gideon as our POV. There is no way she's consistently thinking "deliquesce" instead of "melt away", especially not as part of a description that used "clusterfuck" two sentences earlier. Sometimes this shift happens midsentence and we get stuff like "a lahar of gunge"*. My spellchecker doesn't recognize either of those as words, because one is only used by volcano scientists and the other is so casual it's not in most dictionaries. Part of me is delighted by the choice to just chuck the whole English language into one book, but the inconsistent way it was executed made reading feel awkward and cumbersome at times, and having to somewhat frequently look up words that weren't actually adding anything got frustrating (I even looked up words I knew because sometimes the context made me think I had to be mistaking them for something else). I know it's not just me, because people regularly tell me I use words that are too obscure and I've had to learn to tone it down. I definitely wouldn't recommend this series to anyone with less than a solid "college level" vocabulary, and I think Muir's editor should've had a conversation along the lines of "most people are not immersed in worldbuilding research and/or in love with their thesaurus".

Overall, this was a fun read and I'm looking forward to the next two!

* Upon further reflection I think this one in particular is just a localization issue, since Muir is from New Zealand where lahars have historically been a threat and "gunge" is of UK origin. I'm guessing both words are much more commonplace in NZ than here in the US so if that's the case it's actually a fantastic bit of imagery I was too American to appreciate

EDIT: I just came across one of those "what's your English vocabulary size" tests and effortlessly got the highest possible score (which is apparently not at all common going by other people's results in the notes) so I feel further validated that the obscure vocab point is not me.

#the locked tomb #gideon the ninth #my posts

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misscammiedawn · 5 months ago

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Hi Wynn, it’s nice to meet you. I like your writing style, have you considered writing as a hobby? Or do you have any other hobbies?

Dawn edit: Switched out while working on the video below, some of the post was written by me.

Appreciated.

Writing is Cammie's thing. Dawn if it's a media essay.

We used to code. For Ren'py visual novels. Back before we cut ties with the game studio we called Family. The lead dev even noted to us once that we dissociate when we code which is why we forget how to code between projects and then pick it up again when working.

Sometimes we wonder if he knew about our condition before we did.

As with many things after that break-up, we stopped doing it afterwards and haven't picked up since.

Dawn once wrote about our solo project. We have no intention of finishing it.

In recent months we coded another quick game that we didn't bother finishing. The idea was trying to convince a paranoid friend you are in a time loop but he keeps changing his tell me this if you are ever in a time loop password.

The game mechanic is to work out how he is picking the password.

Here... let me show it off.

The idea is two transgender scientists in love who invent a form of time travel to go back to their younger bodies so they can transition sooner and spend more of their lives together.

The problem is the formulas were off and your character keeps waking up on the day that they started the loop on. What's worse is (after a hefty plane ride to confirm it) your partner does not recognize you. They're just a kid.

So you have to pass on your knowledge of time travel to this young person who does not yet know you and convince them to spend decades working on the fix. The good news is they are obsessed with time loops and time travel (hence dedicating their life to inventing it)

The game was going to be a puzzle based on all of the little secret rules the character Parker has spent too much time obsessing on while managing how frustrated your character is getting travelling 3-5 hours every day to have and fail this conversation.

The big themes of the game are tied up in the fact that there is no magic words you can say to make someone be part of your life again after losing them.

Here are some screenshots of the coding that we had for it:

Anyway. It is a cute little concept. I truly believe we would get success if we fleshed it out but we've no drive to do big projects on our own.

Wynn had typed this last bit a couple hours ago before we got pulled away while working on the video:

Wondering if I can pick up editing. Video, audio, writing. Any kind of editing. It would benefit Dawn's exhibitionist streak or Cammie's rough but spirited prose.

Perhaps a thing to YouTube and look into later.

#wynn asks #dawn asks #game dev #renpy #video post #voiced post #let's do the time loop again

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fanfoolishness · 4 months ago

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For the "even more fic writer asks!"

1, 26 and 29 (And Ietting you choose the fic 'cause I can't decide/maybe some have no linked answers?)

Ahhh, the agony of choosing XD Thank you for sending an ask! <3

I'll pick some Bad Batch ones for you <3

Start to finish, how long did it take to plan and write? Did you take breaks during the process?

Technically I'm cheating a bit, since a rain that sounds like home isn't yet complete. But it has been percolating since.... (checks google docs) May 15, and I only started to feel confident in actually writing it in the past month, and only started publishing it in the last 2-3 weeks. I kept going away and coming back to it, getting frustrated because I couldn't quite figure out how I wanted it to go. I knew I wanted Crosshair to have a big, messy breakdown about Tech. I'd been wanting to write that story for ages. But then the finale came along and cut off my boy's fucking hand and I realized I had to deal with that too. Then I had to figure out how to twine his PTSD, the recovery from the amputation, and his unresolved grief about Tech that just barely, barely got brushed on in the finale all together into a big knotty mess. Then I had to figure out how to start to untangle them. It kept feeling like a herculean task, and for a while I contemplated leaving Tech out of it. But it's my goddamn mission in life to help characters deal with sibling grief (since I got through it, I want them to, too!).

This next chapter is going to be an emotional nuclear bomb going off, and Crosshair's finally going to have to start dealing with his feelings about losing Tech while never reconciling with him, and I hope it comes out just as messy and painful as I've been aiming for. If all goes well editing-wise I'll post that tomorrow, and the final chapter still has some writing to do but has an outline. All told it will be about 3 months of work, with many breaks to let my brain try to puzzle it out.

26. Share your favorite detail.

Favorite details? Ooooh, that is tough. I do always like using my whole being a veterinarian IRL whenever I can in fic, sneaking in little things like medical whump or weird animal facts. Patching Up has Crosshair dealing with minor paw pad injuries for Batcher, and Evaluations is a fun little angsty look at Crosshair through Nala Se's eyes, using medical language to create distance. There's also a little shoutout to merle mutations in dogs when Nala Se muses that Crosshair's gray hair is likely linked to his ocular enhancements. Humans don't have a merle gene as far as I'm aware but what the hell, it's Star Wars, I can do what I want.

I have also slowly but steadily been throwing in references to Crosshair starting to pay attention to birds on Pabu in multiple fics to go with my headcanon that he develops a love of birding, using his exceptional vision to spot birds. They show up frequently in moments where he is observing things around the island, using details from real Earth species (or near-Earth species). He doesn't have names for the birds yet, that will come later, but the groundwork is being laid and if you are sharp-eyed you can find several references to them so far in my canon of work. :)

29. If you made a playlist, talk about the songs on it and share a link.

If. IF I made a playlist. omfg. my playlists, let you show them (or at least a good chunk of them). Every blorbo gets a playlist, some more than one if they have a long enough arc, and most ships get one too. Chaptered stories often get their own playlist as well.

Lately I have mostly been writing to my Crosshair and Crosshair Recovery playlists, but I sometimes visit other angsty ones for good writing music. I usually can't write to the show's score by itself because I get too focused on the themes and where exactly certain moments in the episode happened in the music; I can handle a few songs on a playlist but not the entire season score. Most of my Crosshair songs have a male vocalist with a heavy focus on angst, war themes, guilt, and isolation; the Crosshair recovery playlist starts frantic, veers towards guilt and depression, then builds towards songs focusing on release and acceptance, like the story itself (a rain that sounds like home).

Phew! Thanks for all that! Sorry for jabbering on :)

#the bad batch #crosshair bad batch #a rain that sounds like home #sibling grief #birding #my batcher fic

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bookaddict24-7 · 10 months ago

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REVIEWS OF THE WEEK!

EVERY WEEK I WILL POST VARIOUS REVIEWS I’VE WRITTEN SO FAR IN 2024. YOU CAN CHECK OUT MY GOODREADS FOR MORE UP-TO-DATE REVIEWS HERE.

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24. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Re-read January 2024

I've been wanting to re-read this series for a while because I never finished it. I remember really enjoying this first book in the series because of the competition aspect of it and I'd say I still enjoyed that!

I also see the foreshadowing for the MC's ability to attract all of the men in her life LOL. While I might not have enjoyed it as much as the first time, I still enjoyed it for the most part. There were a lot of things I forgot about and was delighted to be reminded of. The MC is a badass, but her constant "I could kill him with two moves" comments at the beginning had me rolling my eyes a few times.

Even though I know book two will break my heart again, I can't wait to pick it up. Also, SO MANY clues in this one about her identity that I missed the first time around. Definitely one of those books that is worth reading more than once just to catch all of the little pieces of the overall puzzle.

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25. Mixed Signals by B.K. Borison--⭐️⭐️⭐️

I have a bit of a gripe with this author. While I like a good chunk of the books she writes, the third act breakups are so infuriating. They take away all of those happy feelings that were building up throughout the book because the drama and miscommunication for the third acts are freaking ridiculous.

I was listening to this book last night when it happened--the inevitable "I'm afraid and a coward and let me let you stew in this miscommunication so that it somehow makes sense for me to break up with you because I'm so scared." Listen, as someone who has anxiety and has relegated herself to singledom because I don't want to deal with the messy emotions, I UNDERSTAND. It's freaking scary. BUT. But for the love of god, there are better ways around this. This manufactured and forced drama is so frustrating. I literally wanted to throw the book out the window.

These characters deserve better.

Three stars because I loved them when they were actually functioning like human beings and not drama puppets. Three stars for the small town side characters, who I have loved the whole way through this series (I'd give THEM a higher rating). And three stars for the diversity of a Latine character (even if the Spanish was sometimes questionable.)

Will I read the last book? Of course. I want to read about the other couple, but I KNOW that I'm going to be frustrated as well. Listen, I didn't think I was going to get as annoyed as with the climax of book one (because book two was actually kind of okay with the climax), but oh man. The FRUSTRATION.

Sigh. Moving on. Read this series if you want cute moments and sexy characters, but be prepared for the moments of frustration. This FMC has a lot of things to work through and I think one of the things that frustrates me the most about these third act breakups is that they feel like they come out of nowhere. They're fine in the moment and then boom, "I'm a coward."

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26. Breathless by Amy McCulloch--⭐️⭐️⭐️

One of the issues I have with adult thrillers is that I sometimes build them up a lot more in my head than the story itself. While BREATHLESS kind of suffers from this, it had its interesting and captivating moments.

I thought the mountain climbing aspect of the book was really cool and I wanted the MC to prove everyone wrong, including her awful ex-boyfriend. Granted I know nothing about mountain climbing, but that aspect of the book is probably one of the main reasons why I kept listening to this audiobook.

The mystery was not predictable but also it kind of was? LOL. It's hard to explain--I didn't actively think it was one person, but when it was all revealed, I thought it made a lot of sense. Like I said, I thought the mountain climbing was the true thrilling aspect of this book.

Overall, this was fun and I loved that ending, but it wasn't something I think I'll be thinking about a month from now. It was good, but *shrug*.

___

27. Slewfoot by Brom--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I didn't know what to expect from this beautiful book. I purchased it a couple of years ago because all of my friends were talking about it, so of course I fell to the peer pressure. Just like the beautiful and eerie artwork, the story itself is unsettling and straddles that morally grey line of justified vengeance and anger versus a society's portrayal of evil (ie. a woman refusing to be cowed by a male's authority.)

Reading this gave me this odd sense of satisfaction when everything came to a head--especially thinking about all of the women who were accused of witchcraft and murdered. I especially felt this anger when I think about how many people the MC helped and how those people let their fear and hatred guide their actions against her. I think, beyond the cowardice of a man not accepting defeat, that angered me the most--women turning on each other because of a male dominated society's idealism and "godliness".

Needless to say, I loved this and couldn't put it down. I wanted to know what came next, even though I KNEW it wouldn't be something good. I'm just grateful that Brom knew that I would be looking for those satisfying moments of vengeance.

Also, I'd call this terror in the sense of that overhanging fear of what comes next. But even with the gory bits and the blood lust, I'd say the real terror in this book is humanity and how easily they are swayed. It all leads to me wanting to ask: who is the true devil here?

___

28. From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I can't believe I've made it this far! Although, I have this feeling I have because the deja vu is hitting me HARD.

FROM DEAD TO WORSE had so much going on, but unlike some of the other books before this one, this one actually took place closer to home. I kind of missed reading about Sookie's misadventures near her home. We got to revisit a lot of her relationships with the men in her life in this one--like the cleanser book for any ends that weren't fully cut clean.

I may have been spoiled for who's endgame, so I am totally seeing how Harris starting laying down the little hints here and there. But even so, knowing this doesn't stop certain moments from feeling bittersweet for me.

More things were revealed and Sookie grew even more as a character. I understood why she made the choices she made because she's finally putting her self-worth above those of the men in her life, but I still DID feel a little bad for her beau in this one. But again, I am on her side because she's been dealt some shitty men cards in the last eight books.

Onto the next one!

___

29. The Fake Mate by Lana Ferguson--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

After trying and failing to read Ferguson's THE NANNY, I really wasn't sure what to expect with this vastly different genre of a book. I'm honestly so glad I decided to give this a shot anyway because THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN.

I was hooked onto the story and I loved the different tropes that were used. The whole grumpy/sunshine thing will always be a winner with me, and I am a puddle for this kind of tension. And don't even get me started on the smut. Omg, this man. The dirty talk in this was *chef's kiss*. This man is hot HOT.

I also really liked how the climax of the story was handled, even if one of my least favourite tropes was temporarily employed. I admire a self-sufficient FMC who can slap some sense into the MMC.

I do recommend this book to romance lovers, but I know that the topics explored in this book may be new to some. Research beforehand might be an awkward time LOL.

___

30. Just Happy to Be Here by Naomi Kanakia--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I want to preface my review by stating that I am not a member of the Trans community, so my opinions on this book are from an outsider's perspective.

JUST HAPPY TO BE HERE was an intense read, both because of the clear transphobia and because of the MC's youth/naive nature about the people around her. The number of times she was cut off by those around her, or had such clear transphobic comments and actions done against her and she brushed them off was rage-inducing. I think I know why she does this--especially at the end, when it all ties up really nicely together, but in the moment, I felt immense rage towards the people around her.

Kanakia's novel touches on so much happening right now in society and how people twist narratives to fit their agendas and their means. How some people can see one person as an "object" to further their ideologies.

This book just made me feel a lot and made me so angry, but I know I am privileged in my cis-life. My heart broke for the kids who are in these situations and/or are surrounded by people who just refuse to see beyond their own biases and hatred.

I also appreciate the representation of the complex familial relationship between the MC and her parents--it may have been imperfect, but as an adult, I can see the love there for their daughter.

Between the beautiful cover, the emotionally stimulating and thought-provoking story, and the raw reality of a young character trying to figure herself out, I do recommend JUST HAPPY TO BE HERE. I do also recommend that the TWs be heeded: transphobic language, transphobia, internalized racism, transmisogyny. Read with care--but know that this is a pretty important story. Also, Kanakia has a pretty great author's note at the end!

___

31. The Probability of Everything by Sarah Everett--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

THE PROBABILITY OF EVERYTHING was so much more than what I was expecting and although my heart feels wounded and my eyes are still feeling that aching pressure after a good cry, I'm so grateful I was able to experience it.

Twelve year old me wishes she had this book to read when my world changed so irrevocably, much like the MC of this book.

This heartbreaking novel follows a young scientist-to-be who likes to deal with probabilities in exchange for the anxiety surrounding her world ending. We are faced with a family grieving the end and how everyone handles it differently.

I don't even know what else to say about this book for fear of spoiling it--but know that it is powerful, important, and heart-rending.

___

32. Long Shot by Kennedy Ryan--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Re-read: January 2024

I've been wanting to re-read LONG SHOT for a while, even though it is a very heavy and dark book. I had forgotten just how dark this book gets and while I highly recommend it, I do still super recommend you check out the trigger warnings.

Despite the dark and the abuse, the shining light was the blossoming romance between the two MCs and how, if something is truly destined for you, it'll happen.

LONG SHOT is a book full of emotion, heart, heartbreak, and a bit of magic in the sense that Karma is a bitch and it comes for all. Also, the FMC is one strong woman who did everything she could to protect those she loves. Kennedy touches on the misconceptions that haunt survivors of DA, which I thought was a very important aspect of the book.

Now I want to read the rest of the trilogy, which I never read after the first time I read this one.

___

33. Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I am always wary of sequels--especially when it's for fantasy books I initially really enjoyed. Somehow, Rachel Gillig delivers a sequel that was even better than the first book. TWO TWISTED CROWNS was a delight of a read full of dark moments, high intensity, anger, and a love story I felt more deeply than in book one.

The angst alone between two of the characters I wasn't expecting to see together was better than I could have ever hoped for. This was what made this book even more fun--just me casually waiting for these characters to just cross that line with each other.

Also, I found that TWO TWISTED CROWNS had me reacting more viscerally towards the hateful villains. The way I wanted to smack a bitch in this book because how dare they hurt these precious beings?

And, hi, I wasn't expecting to cry? Imagine that I'm enjoying this darker fantasy novel when all of a sudden, my eyes start to water during an emotional scene.

Let's applaud Gillig for making this a duology (hopefully) and not dragging this in a ten series saga. This whole series was such an incredible piece of fiction. I'm glad I fell into the hype and read these two books.

___

34. Holes by Louis Sachar--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Re-read January 2024

I don't even know how many times I read this when I was a kid. Reading it as an adult now was such an interesting experience. For one, the story felt a lot shorter and quicker than I remember it being. I also remembered everything because I'm not kidding when I say that I read this A LOT as a kid.

Being an adult, I can also see how truly sad this story could get--especially one of the historical stories told throughout the book.

Such an amazing classic and truly a gem.

___

Have you read any of these books? Would you recommend them?

___

Happy reading!

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overheaven · 6 months ago

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🍕🎹🎯❤️✂️💚🧠 for Everett please! 💜💜💜

THESE ARE FUN QUESTIONS LET’S GOOOO (sorry for the delay lol had my surgery as u know xD) 💗💗💗

under the cut since i got a little rambly!!

🍕 — What is their favorite food?

I haven’t been able to nail down a FAVORITE-favorite for him yet! But I do know he likes meat & rich foods. He’s really not afraid to get messy with some saucy barbecued meat which is kind of a charm point for him imo >w>

🎹 — Do they have any hobbies?

He has a few! Some are really dry, like reading medical journals and other professional development. Other are more lively and less focused on his field of study— collecting records and oddities like taxidermy pieces, reading fiction & poetry. He also really likes going to concerts or seeing live music, and visiting art galleries and museums. and of course then there’s the casual sex and the killing and the necrophilia :yikes emoji:

Bonus: I have an AU where he’s a musician, he plays bass guitar (which Lucy also picks up later)!

🎯 — What do they do best?

His job! He’s chief medical examiner for a reason. :> That title is a recent achievement at the time of his ‘canon’ story (2008-2009ish), but overall he’s been in the field and climbing the ranks for about 19-20 years by then. He sincerely likes figuring out the puzzle of a death and is very articulate in presenting his findings.

❤️ — What is one of your OC’s best memories?

Cheating a little bit on this one because he doesn’t have a singular best memory. Some of his most treasured memories are Lucy visiting for summers & then eventually getting full custody of her! He’s very fond of watching her grow into her own and bonding with her over music; taking her to concerts is something he recalls fondly often. ;w;

He also holds memories of his teenage sweetheart dearly, but that’s part of his esoteric history that he doesn’t share with anyone else. ;)

✂️ — What is one of your OC’s worst memories?

Cheating again because the years he wasted being married are all a miasma of ennui and frustration. 😬 He did love his ex at one point (at least, he thinks he did), but their relationship soured pretty quickly and both of them resented each other a LOT by the end of it. The silver lining is he got Lucy out of it all, at least.

💚 — What is your OC’s gender identity and sexuality?

He’s a cis man and like 99.9% straight lol. he’s experimented sexually with men (and maybe he’s kind of still open to that?), but yeah overall he’s attracted to women.

🧠 — What do you like most about the OC?

This is tough because I like everything about him xD I guess a good answer to encompass that feeling is: I like how indulgent he is! I made him & Lucy because I wanted to find a very specific flavor of a dark setting & taboo relationship, and I thought, “Holy shit I know how to write and draw. I can just make what I want myself!!” And I did! I’m giving myself everything I want with him!! So I’m ESPECIALLY happy that others enjoy him too ;w; I’m always thinking of new things about how his brain works and how he moves through their world, he’s challenged me to be creative but also trust my own process!

Part of that is also being proud of his design & personality, without trying to hold back on making him a really attractive character— sometimes I second guess character design because I don’t want to be corny or ‘mary sue’-ish with someone who is TOO attractive or perfect, but… no, we’re going balls to the wall and making a really fucking hot goth dad who is really smart and dangerous and it’s so sexy of him to be so fucked up LOL. I wanted to make a serial killer character who has babygirl sexyman vibes (think like, how fans lust after Hannibal Lecter or Patrick Bateman lol) as a sort of cheeky way to honor that type of fan xD Everett is my love letter to slasher fangirls, yandere fanatics, bad end lovers, people who understand the eroticism of sleazy horror movies, and so on. 🫶

#asks #ask meme #oc: everett #pangs OCs

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cyndalyssa · 2 months ago

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Here, let me give you a real cool hamster.

Bio under the cut.

Iceham (Gnawles) Merrimouser is a lot more mature than your average 14-year-old. This hamster is the most cool and collected of the bunch, and often has intense focus on what he deems important tasks. He has no time for petty things like the social hierarchy at school, and one look with his icy gaze can scare someone straight. He's quite intelligent and well-read, being a straight-A student who takes his studies seriously.

Between his smarts, his general seriousness, and his status as the oldest boy of the Squad, it's really no surprise that he is co-leader with the oldest girl, Bita. He is the cooler head to Bita's hotter head, and the strategist to Bita's enforcer. Even when they clash, the two have the utmost respect for each other.

His powers of ice suit him so well, it's a surprise that he wasn't born with it--he just happened to be chewing on ice cubes when he got empowered by the Great Comet. In any case, with the power to create ice and snow, he's got a handy way of catching baddies by simply freezing them in their tracks. He can survive in subzero temperatures while wearing light clothing. He even has a bit of weather manipulation in order to create blizzards, a miniature polar vortex, or his signature "Ice Hurricane" attack--though those are always last resorts because he wants to keep damage to a minimum.

He isn't without his pleasures, though. As stated before, he's well-read, so he clearly has reading as a hobby, and he likes to do puzzles and play chess to keep his mind sharp. He's even fond of writing poems, short stories, or even songs (sometimes Bita's band likes to play them, since he has a taste for rock). But on the flip side, he has a fondness for winter sports, snowboarding in particular. He doesn't even need to buy a board, he could just make one with his ice powers and away he goes. He's not above playing video, board, or even sports games with his siblings, and takes a little pleasure in frustrating them by beating them at more strategic games (though he'll lose gracefully if one of them gets lucky). And while he technically doesn't need it, he wears the jacket because he thinks it's cool.

He does have one fear that he would find a little embarrassing if not for the reasoning behind it--he's afraid of the dark. He can be even cautious of his own shadow at times. On the surface, it's laughable and breaks any coolness factor he may have. But if anyone were to learn about how his biological brother turned into a shadow thanks to the Great Comet, proceeded to consume their parents, and is still out there somewhere... yeah, it's a miracle that he still has a mostly level head. He just appreciates how there are three in the Squad that can emit light in some form (Fireball, Electrex, Lucia) that can keep that living shadow away, and it's been five years since that night and the official creation of the Squad and nothing happened. Still, Bita was the only one who knew for a while; to everyone else, his family just straight up disappeared.

(We'll get to why Mr. Shadow Brother hasn't shown up in those five years at some point in the future)

Overall, he does desire to keep being the big brother of the Squad, even if he often has to put his own troubles by the wayside.

~~~

Iceham was originally created by my brother as an addition to the Squad when we were kids, though his original name was Iceball (as an ice version of Fireball). Since bro has moved on, I've kind of adopted him. As part of a SRS revamp a few years back, I changed his name so he was less of a Fireball ripoff (he was also initially a dwarf hamster, but I decided that him being a regular Syrian hamster was just fine).

I did want to keep his more cool leader character intact, though I want to focus more on him being a more serious and level-headed character as opposed to him being that generically cool character that's cool for the sake of cool. So I decided to amp up his intelligence and more sophisticated side, though not to the point of making him a complete stereotypical nerd. A nice balance, if you will.

#super rodent squad #iceham #hamster #ice #ice powers #cryokinesis #oc #original character #lyssa draws

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rpgchoices · 2 years ago

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2022 WRAP UP: Games played this year - useless recs list (with small review, and in vague order of my personal enjoyment):

01. Enderal: It climbed up to become one of my favourite games ever. I played it twice in a row (still finishing the second playthrough), really enjoyed the story, fell in love with the characters and definitely cried. I am reading the novel now.

02. Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous: I love this series of games, Kingmaker is still my favourite, but I loved the story of Wrath so much more. The mystery, the paths, the customizations! The only thing I missed was romance, I still have to find a romance I like and reply is hard because of how long the game is.

03. The Forgotten City: Beautiful adventure game recommended by lairofsentinel, great (basically) detective story. Interesting characters and definitely had a lot of fun trying to find out what the hell was going on.

04. Mass Effect Andromeda: For all the bad rep this game gets, I expected worse? I actually really really enjoy it. The story was nothing too exciting, and many quests were just fetch quests, but I still liked the characters a lot. The feeling of found family? Yes please. Jaal romance? Bring it on.

05. Gamedec: Among the new games that came out in recent years, this has to be one of my favs. The overall story was quite interesting, and the investigation really makes you feel like a detective. My only criticism is that there is little to no customization as by the end of the game you end up levelling up all skills, basically. Still enjoyable and good characters too.

06. Spellforce 3: Soul Harvest: I am at the very last mission. This game is adorable, even if the rpg element is a bit linear. I think, from what I understand, the dialogue choices do not have much impact. Basically, only the romance choice change the plot. Still, the art is very beautiful, the companions lovely and they are also all voiced. The plot was nothing special tho, kinda boring, but I had fun playing minimal Age of Empire tactics alongside the fighting.

07. Hatoful Boyfriend: WHAT TO SAY - this game is a big joke - not in a bad way, just in a "oh my god what am I playing" way. I would definitely recommend it. Do not take the romances seriously, the characters are just parody of usual visual novel romances - but the murder mystery is so eery and absurd!

08. Ash of Gods: I think this game is the better version of Banner Saga. The characters feels more like characters, and the story is a bit less linear and even if sometimes confusing, still enjoyable. For personal enjoyment, I would choose this over other games most times - and I did, I played it three times in a row. I am liking some of the characters so much that I am actually thinking of writing fanfics.

09. Tower of Time: If the ending had been different, this game would be in the top 3. I really enjoyed the plot, the mystery, the way you can explore this fantastical tower - the orcs!! I loved the orcs subplot! But it all comes to a big nothing that left a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth. So - well, fun but disappointing.

10. Boyfriend Dungeon: HEAR ME OUT - this game is a visual novel with hack and slash fighting. The visual novel part is a bit... meh, and the plot is kind of absurd, but I enjoyed the idea of increasing your romance with character by using them to fight. In general I actually enjoyed it even if I won't ever play it again.

11. The Banner Saga: Interesting story, that gets a bit better the more you play. Some characters are pretty good - but generally they are not the main driver of this game. Still, I liked the gameplay enough that I will probably play 2nd and 3rd, even if the plot really did not leave a big impression on me... I barely remember it.

12. The Talos Principle: This game is amazing. The story is so well crafted... my problem is that I am bad at puzzles and easily frustrated. If you like puzzle games, I recommend this one because discovering the plot/lore of the world is amazing.

13. Hades: Okay, this game is great, just not for me. I am not a fan of hack and slash, and I get frustrated pretty easily, so playing the full game multiple times to reach the ending - it gets boring a bit too easily for me.

14. Black Geyser: A classic isometric rpg. I really did want to like it, but somehow... the plot is okay, but the characters are so flat. I felt no real connection to any of them, even the companions who join you end up joining you in such random ways and the ending seemed abrupt. Still if you want an isometric game to play, go for it.

15. Gods will be watching: I am still playing this one and I am eternally confused. The plot is quite interesting and the way the playthrough is incorporated is too, but it also looks quite random - as in there is no exact rule on how to pass every level, but a big level of randomization.

16. A golden wake: I love Wadjet Eye Games and A Golden Wake was one of their older ones that I wanted to play. It was a nice good combination of puzzle and characters, but I did not enjoy the setting too much. I won't probably replay it.

17. Seven: I just started it so I have no opinion yet - a part for the fact that I am somehow very bad at it!

19. Starfighter Eclipse: This is a very very short visual novel/dating sim - the plot is minimal and the romances non existent. It is basically a very short predictable event that allow you to get sex scenes in cut scenes and that is it.

Other games played from Itch.io and in random order:

Brassica: A Marry Tale: Cute AMAZING visual novel, with wlw and mlm content. Unfortunately it is unfinished... but it will be finished! I will wait for the next chapters.

One Night Stand: HORRIBLE. I HATE this game with a passion, because everything in this game seemed to led to crime (you wake up from a one night stand and can't remember anything, and the consent was so iffy, but somehow the game is supposed to be about humans connecting??)

Speed Dating for Ghosts: Beautiful small indie game about meeting different ghosts and going on "dates", mainly dealing with their deaths. I cried at least three times.

A Short Hike: Currently one of my favourite non rpg games. This game was beautiful and so calming. I loved everything about it, and cried a couple of times too. There is so much humor too. I definitely recommend it.

Overland: Fun game where you have to escape zombies. Sad that the characters are not really characters

Arcade Spirits: I am still playing this, sadly I am not big on visual novels. The characters are all interesting so I might try to finish this one.

The corner of SHAME: Games I never finished and never will (maybe).

Greedfall - this game is one of the most boring well packaged game I have ever played Hard West - I did not even... understand the plot Stardew Valley - not for me Wasteland 2 - I expected something completely different and was disappointed Fallout New Vegas - I will definitely play it because of the great recs, but I usually do not like action games of this type Danganronpa Happy Trigger Havoc - not for me

#mass effect andromeda #the forgotten city #pathfinder wrath of the righteous #gamedec #hatoful boyfriend #black geyser #a short hike #forgotten city #mea #ash of gods #spellforce 3 soul harvest #tower of time #etc etc #useless recs

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sylvarantii · 1 year ago

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I decided to play an indie game called Classmates that a Youtube LPer I follow had done before watching his video since I wanted to give it a try and see how much I'd like it. Especially since it featured a male yandere and I'm always looking for games to try featuring that specifically.

So, I'll go with the positives:

+ Good art. I love the designs of the characters and overall find the game very appealing to look at.

+ RPG Maker game. Nothing wrong with the Ren'py Visual Novels. Not only do I use Ren'py myself, but I know how much easier it is. That said, I do love what you can do with the RPG Maker program and enjoy trying those sorts.

+ Puzzles weren't too complicated. I got the hang of it after a bit of exploration of the house and while I did bump into a few difficulties, it didn't take me a long time to get the hang of it.

+ I LOVE that they made the "chaser" parts easy. If you can even call it chasers since it's more like hiding before the time limit hits 0. It doesn't make the game frustrating and I didn't have to stress myself out playing it.

And now onto the negatives, which actually aren't too many, but do cause me to be HIGHLY disappointed in the final product.

The yandere himself is very poorly written. He's not charming, he doesn't even feel like he loves the MC (no matter how many times he says it over and over again). Sure she rejects him, but it's like after a few times of being told how gross he is, he just shrugs and figures, "Okay, well, I'll just kill you then."

The ending you get if you decide to not enter his house is kind of disappointing as well. He doesn't...do anything. He just (reluctantly) lets her be on her way and that's it.

That said, I'm willing to admit I'm just horribly picky about how yanderes are written. I feel like people sometimes focus too much on the murderous/violent part and not much on the actual expression of love and obsession with the character. But that's just my views.

Truth be told though, I'm happy the creator is continuing with the story since they aren't leaving it open ended. That said, I do think they could perhaps use a little assistance in writing dialogue for some parts since it's...rough.

Anyway...

Feel free to try it yourself if you'd like. I do still recommend it despite my minor gripes with it. It's still worth a try and is a nice short game to play in your spare time.

#sylv's rambles #classmates #male yandere #rpg maker game #indie games

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anx1oustig3r · 2 years ago

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6, 23, 36 for Braith

1, 15, 39, 41 for Sorrel

BONUS

B, F, G for Scath and Delia

WHEW A LONG ONE

BRAITH

6: Do they consider laws flexible, or immovable?

She definitely thinks they SHOULD be flexible. Given how the laws have greatly harmed her family, she doesn’t have a lot of respect for hard laws that only benefit those in power or of status. If she had her way she would bend every law in the way of fairness rather than who can cough up the most cash.

23: How does envy manifest itself in them (they take what they want, they become resentful, etc)?

Braith is a nice girl, but she can get very mean and nasty when she gets jealous. The best example is with her family. She has two much younger brothers who are twins and they get a lot of preferential treatment (biggest portion at dinner, prioritised clothing etc.) and because of this she tends to treat them very harsh. She insults them, fights with them and just very openly acts like she wishes they were never born.

NOW THERE IS A DEEPER REASON FOR THIS BUT IT’S A SPOILER SO IM KEEPING MY MOUTH SHUT FOR THE MOMENT.

36: Do they actively seek romance, or do they wait for it to fall into their lap?

She actively seeks romance. She’s very much a shoot your shot kind of person and is actually a big romantic if you catch her eye. Now she can often be way too forward which has made people uncomfortable but she doesn’t really care. She thinks sitting around and waiting is boring and won’t accomplish anything.

SORREL

1: What’s the maximum amount of time your character can sit still with nothing to do?

About ten minutes. Sorrel’s a bit of a fidgety fae and likes constantly having tasks or something to do. Boredom makes them slightly dangerous and may make them lash out. That’s why, in spite of the horrible pay and hellish conditions, they’re grateful for their job helping drive and deliver coal from Iron Fog. They get to be productive, help the people in their community and make a bit of coin for small things.

15: How do they speak? Is what they say usually thought of on the spot, or do they rehearse it in their mind first?

They’re much more of a thinker. They speak slowly and precisely, choosing words carefully like it’s a puzzle. It’s like they believe their conversation partner is going to try and outwit them. It’s a mindset that’s unusual for a peasant in Revtel.

39: How easy is it for them to ignore flaws in other people?

Very difficult. Sorrel is unnervingly observant and if they catch a flaw or personal weakness, it will always be at the back of their mind. Not even in a malicious way. They don’t even like that this is something they focus on, but it was drilled into their head ever since they were a child.

41: How do they feel about children?

Very neutral. They have younger siblings who get on their last nerve and tend to avoid younger children because of that, but they find older children to be really entertaining. They enjoy delivering coal around where the local gang of hooligans live because they always get very excited to hear about Iron Fog and all the machines.

SCATH AND DELIA

B) What inspired you to create them?

OH BOY so. It actually started with our AU when I was trying to figure out how to fit Mireska’s lore into that modern setting. Knowing that her family were shady in the lore, I ended up doing research into drug cartels and such. For Scath I took inspiration from drug lords while Delia actually was inspired by accounts of their hitmen and body guards. Then their dynamic and relationship with Mireska was inspired a lot by Butterscotch and Beatrice from Bojack Horseman. (Delia in particular was heavily inspired by Beatrice AND SOMETIMES IM SCARED I MAY HAVE JUST RIPPED IT OFF BUT)

F) What do you feel when you think of your OC (pride, excitement, frustration, etc)?

I get excited. It’s been really fun to write characters that are just, genuinely pretty terrible people. With Delia she’s done some bad, hypocritical and downright cruel things but the circumstances in her life have just, never given her a chance so of course she’s bitter, but that doesn’t excuse her taking it out on her daughter and leaving her family in the dirt because she was too proud to go back to them. While Scath is a complete monster, I love how it stems from this desperation for control and a deeply buried longing for love and admiration that he’s doing all the wrong things to acquire.

They are two horrible, fucked up people who need to divorce and get therapy and leave their daughter alone and I love them.

G) What trait of theirs bothers you the most?

For Scath it’s everything. Okay in seriousness I think it’s his refusal to take any accountability and admit when something’s his fault. I think so much of the tragedy in Sunbreeze could have been avoided if he just let go of his ego and apologised to his wife and child.

With Delia it’s her shaky principles. She knew the Sunbreeze family was bad and they had hurt her parents, but she still ended up sleeping with Scath and chose him over her family and her best friend who was the reason she even had the job as his bodyguard in the first place.

#dota oc #sunbreeze #I AM HAPPY I COULD DEVELOP A BIT ON MIRESKAS FRIENDS #BC SORREL IN PARTICULAR I WAS STUCK ON

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jaynesilver · 1 year ago

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hello! i am really bad at asking people stuff but yknow. here i go. anyways what do you do when the writing won’t happen? istg i’ve been staring at this word document since two fridays ago begging my brain to make the words happen. i know that’s a bit of a universal writer problem but how do you, as a fellow kylux writer, combat this?

Hi! You are more than welcome to ask me stuff, and I'm glad you did!

It is a universal problem. I am no expert, but I will do my best to help.

1) Give yourself a break. I know. I don't like this one either. I had to do this recently because I had typed so much between my job and fanfiction that I was wearing my hands out...so I tried to do other things for a while (side note: apparently every hobby I have involves my hands). Your mind is much the same way. Try doing a different hobby for a while and see if that shakes something loose.

2) Reading other people's work. You can read something totally unrelated to Kylux / (whatever ship you're trying to write for), and sometimes that will get your mind rolling. Or, alternatively, give your favorite Kylux stories a re-read to get yourself into that place again. If you're feeling quite daring, try to find a new Kylux story, maybe by an author you haven't read yet, to give yourself new material to consider.

3) Re-blogging fanart, other people's fics, and just engaging in fandom. Let yourself relax, and roll around in it like a cat in catnip. This can often refresh you a little bit. Take some pressure off.

4) Re-watching the source material. Sometimes it helps you to re-establish your feel for the character and puzzle out "How do I really think they'd react in this situation?"

5) Talk to a fandom friend / friend. Maybe you can find a fellow writer to bounce ideas off of, if you're lucky. I have had a couple of different friends in the fandom help me solve plot problems, and I am so grateful. Strangely enough, my sister - who doesn't even like Star Wars at all (gasp) - has been really helpful in solving a couple of plot point issues for precisely that reason. She has no biases, opinions about characters, etc - so sometimes she suggests things that someone who is super invested in the source material might not.

6) Write what you don't want to happen. This sounds crazy, and I only discovered this out of frustration, but I wrote out the exact opposite decision of what I wanted the character to do, and that helped figure out the direction I actually wanted to go in. Also...give what you wrote a chance before you chop it into your scrap pile. Why couldn't this be the direction it went in? I ended up keeping what I'd written and going in that direction instead.

7) Take a shower or go for a walk. I think the shower is a magical place that frees ideas from your brain, and walks are often when I manage to work some plot idea out, or think of a new one. Also, showers and walks are nice.

I hope this helps. You've already done the hard part, which is starting a story and giving it a chance to live. Whether you finish it now, or later, you'll get it finished ...and I hope you let me know when you do!

#fanfiction #fanfic writers #fanfic

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kithtaehyung · 2 years ago

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3tanW was just 🫠😘🤌🏻

Where should I even start. Every emotion was covered in this. The fun, the excitement, the jealousy, the insecurities, the frustration, the anger, the sadness, the guilt, the regret, the assurance, the love, the care, the angst, the lust, the happiness, the silliness, the fear. Every. Fucking. Emotion is there. And you took us all through them on this wonderful rollercoaster ride. The shift from one emotion to other was so smooth & effortless. And I fucking loved every single thing in this.

I feel so connected to them now, that when I am reading a part, sometimes I imagine the response when yoongi says or does something, which I read next from oc, is exactly the same.

This angry dominating yet caring Yoongi is so hot. Please bring him back again if possible in next part. Where OC and Yoongi both can explore this side, without any care in the world.

Oh I can't wait to see them openly showing there relationship to the world. Oh but reader's brother! Please be nice & supportive when they tell you about them. 🤞🏻

You are an awesome writer Ryen!! Lots of hugs and love to you.. 💜😍😘

-🍓

strawberry oh my goodness.. this is so damn sweet of you!

all the emotions were present in here and tbh it was quite the challenge figuring out how to navigate everything. bc i knew there was gonna be angst and spice and fluff, but it was getting from one to the other that took some time to think about. i had to rearrange multiple parts and switch up plots a bit here. but once things started slotting into place, it legitimately felt like a puzzle was being built and i could see how to finish it. i'm glad it seems to pay off!

also, wow. you feeling that connected that you're already anticipating dialogue and getting it right? that's cool! like yes i'm all about plot twists and unpredictable events, but if the characters are consistent while evolving? amazing feedback.

this yoongi... hell yeah lol i loved writing him. he'll most likely make a return, and in the canon line, as well<3 just don't know when that will be yet. and we'll see what happens as far as the bro situation, too!

thank you so much for your wonderful commentary, babe! this was fun to read and i will cherish it💜

#you are a gem #🍓 anon #asks:3tan #3tanW #lovely people #*ryenfictalk #mailbox💌

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hunxi-after-hours · 3 years ago

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hunxi’s danmei awards, 牛年/2021 edition

(should’ve made this at the end of last year or something but I was only recently possessed by the demonic urge to make something silly like this so we’re doing this now)

I recently realized that I’ve now consumed roundabout 10 danmei novels in either novel, donghua, and/or audiodrama form during this past year of the ox, so I wanted to commemorate this milestone with some longform shitposting. thus — awards night!

Here are some of the categories:

Best Worldbuilding

Best Relationship Development

Most Iconic Use of Punctuation

Most Iconic Takedown (verbal)

Most Iconic Takedown (physical)

Best Unreliable Narrator

Best Performance by Voice Actors in an Audiodrama

...and more!

yeah okay, so I got a bit carried away

And here are the candidates in the running:

《天官赐福》 Tian Guan Ci Fu by 墨香铜臭 Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

《千秋》 Qian Qiu by 梦溪石 Meng Xishi

《七爷》 Qi Ye by priest

《天涯客》 Tian Ya Ke by priest

《人渣反派自救系统》 Ren Zha Fan Pai Zi Jiu Xi Tong by 墨香铜臭 Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

《双杀》 Shuang Sha by 娜可露露 Na Ke Lu Lu

《烈火浇愁》 Lie Huo Jiao Chou by priest

《黄金台》 Huang Jin Tai by 苍梧宾白 Cang Wu Bin Bai

《判官》 Pan Guan by 木苏里 Mu Su Li

《哏儿》 Gen’er by 南北逐风 Nan Bei Zhu Feng

of course, obligatory disclaimer that these are nothing more than my opinions, these designations mean nothing, and I really abandoned all brain cells at the door in the writing of this post

Best Worldbuilding

Winner: 《判官》 Pan Guan by 木苏里 Mu Su Li

Everyone has something that they can’t let go of, and in the world of 《判官》 Pan Guan, sometimes those unresolved regrets, unfulfilled wishes become 笼 / “cages”—subconscious traps where a soul can wander forever, caught in the vortex of their own grief and rage. The 判官, then, are those dedicated to unlocking these cages and releasing the souls imprisoned inside. Travelling into these subconscious dreamscapes, the 判官 must unravel mysteries and uncover the truths, bearing witness to the grief, rage, regret, and love that define human lives.

This novel has, hands down, one of the coolest premises I’ve ever read, and Mu Su Li utilizes it to explore the emotional struggles of frustration and denial as well as the catharsis of learning to let things go. Each cage is an intricate puzzle box of clues left by the cage host’s subconscious, such that the novel reads like a blend of detective case fiction and horror (these dreamscapes can get pretty gnarly). Lest you think this book is all dark and gloomy hours, however, 《判官》 Pan Guan ALSO features the best use of WeChat in a novel I’ve ever seen (that’s RIGHT, this is MODERN FANTASY, never forget Wen Shi vs. the roomba). The entire Zhang family chat... iconic.

Best Characterization

Winner: 《千秋》 Qian Qiu by 梦溪石 Meng Xishi

Anyone who’s been on my blog for the past year has probably seen me losing my mind over Meng Xishi’s 《千秋》 Qian Qiu, and for good reason—here is enemies to lovers like you’ve never seen it done. Over the course of 128(+) chapters, 《千秋》 Qian Qiu slowly, carefully, painstakingly develops the relationship between Shen Qiao (compassionate, sheltered, forgiving, kind) and Yan Wushi (brutal, mercurial, arrogant, cynical) as their paths continually intertwine amidst rising turmoil in the jianghu. Meng Xishi sets up two characters fundamentally opposed to each other in belief and refuses to pull any punches or take any shortcuts as these two negotiate jianghu politics, shadowy conspiracies, and their own character arcs to eventually come to stand by each other’s sides. These two literally don’t get together until the fanwai, which is how hard Meng Xishi makes them work for it.

What I particularly appreciated about the characterization in 《千秋》 Qian Qiu was that this novel isn’t about how true love can redeem even the worst of villains, or that naive idealism will forever be doomed to a tragic end. Shen Qiao is often forced to concede that Yan Wushi has a point, just as Yan Wushi is often faced with the error of his assumptions. Neither of them is wholly right, just as neither of them is wholly wrong, and the development of their dynamic/relationship is the constant negotiation of how they balance their unswerving personal beliefs with everything the world throws at them—including each other.

Best Relationship Development

Winner: 《双杀》 Shuang Sha by 娜可露露 Na Ke Lu Lu

Look, I wasn’t planning on getting into an audiodrama about competitive video gaming either, and yet 《双杀》 Shuang Sha came out of nowhere and double-killed me with its deft, nuanced development of its main characters and their relationship. The narrative follows 19-year-old Feng Can—talented, feisty, and headstrong—in his first year with the pro gaming team SP. As Feng Can struggles to adjust to a starkly different playing style and his new teammates, he continually butts heads with the team captain, Cheng Sunian. Where Feng Can is impulsive and hot-headed, Cheng Sunian is steady and serious, and at the age of twenty-six, Cheng Sunian is all too aware that he is nearing the end of his gaming career. As the competition heats up and the world championships draw closer, the two of them must learn to navigate both the game and their feelings for each other if they want to win.

While I could write loads about Feng Can’s character development as he grows and matures as a person (he is, after all, nineteen, a fact both that Na Ke Lu Lu and Cheng Sunian pay careful attention to), my heart really belongs to Cheng Sunian, an ace icon for the ages. Just as Feng Can learns what it means to take responsibility for his own actions, Cheng Sunian also comes learn that he doesn’t have to be an island alone, that he doesn’t always have to be independent and self-sufficient. Throughout the narrative, the two of them clash and argue, hurt each other and forgive each other; together, they stumble, and together, they eventually stand.

Really, my heart is at all times overflowing with my love for extremely competent, coolly sensible, deadpan snarker Cheng Sunian, so perhaps I’ll just leave it with this iconic exchange:

封灿：但我真的喜欢你，我想把坏毛病改掉，变得好点再去找你。我这么想没错吧？

Feng Can: But I truly like you—I want to change my bad habits, to come find you again when I’ve become better. Am I wrong to think that?

程肃年：所以这就是你一直不来找我的原因？你想 ‘变好了’再来？但如果短期内变不好了呢？你打算让我等几年？

Cheng Sunian: So this is the reason why you never came to talk to me? You wanted to “become better” and then come back? Then what if you couldn’t change so quickly? How long were you going to make me wait?

封灿：我会努力的，你应该喜欢那种懂分寸，情商高的成熟男人，对吧？

Feng Can: I’ll work hard—you must like men who understand propriety and restraint, who are mature and emotionally intelligent, right?

程肃年：那我为什么不直接去找这种类型的人谈恋爱？或者干脆照镜子，自己和自己谈算了？

Cheng Sunian: Then why don’t I just find those people and date them? Or just find a mirror and date myself?

封灿：啊？

Feng Can: Ah?

程肃年：行了，你也别瞎想了。算我什么都没说。真是恋爱降智。

Cheng Sunian: All right, don’t agonize over it further. Pretend I didn’t say anything. Truly, love makes people stupid.

封灿：我想的不对吗？那你究竟是什么意思？想让我怎么做，你直接说不行吗？非得给我绕弯子，我猜不出你的想法，你到底想—

Feng Can: Were my conclusions not right? What do you mean? Can’t you just directly tell me what you want me to do? You always beat around the bush, I can’t guess what you’re thinking, what exactly are you—

程肃年：我想让你闭嘴。

Cheng Sunian: I want you to shut up.

[he kisses Feng Can]

GET ‘EM, 队长—

Most Extravagant Act of Devotion

Winner: 《黄金台》 Huang Jin Tai by 苍梧宾白 Cang Wu Bin Bai

Danmei is full of characters doing outrageous things for love, from carving giant stone statues that can double as mechas in boss battles to waiting 13/800/3000 etc years for one’s loved one to come back from the war/death/vagaries of worldbuilding, but somehow one (1) general from an ambiguously historical, non-fantastic danmei managed to beat out all of them for me:

Fu Shen and Yan Xiaohan are Cruelly Separated From Each Other for plot reasons, miles of battle lines and enemy-occupied territory filling the vast distance between them, but let it not be said that a certain general lacked for batshit insane ideas as well as the willingness to follow through on them. Taking inspiration from literature, bullying his subordinates, and yearning desperately for his husband, Fu Shen shoots down several dozen swan-geese, nurses them back to health (or rather, gets his long-suffering field medic to do so for him), and ties letters to their legs with the vague hope that one might make its way southwards to Yan Xiaohan. And when Yan Xiaohan somehow, miraculously, does find one, there are only four words on it, ink-smeared and barely legible: 吾妻安好？

Seriously, Fu Shen, you couldn’t even have been bothered to sign it with your name???

Best Interrogation of Themes (aka the “Rent-Free Award”)

Winner: 《七爷》 Qi Ye by priest

It is nigh-impossible to declare that any one of these titles has “better” “thematic” “content” than any of the others, especially because I can and will go off about characters, characterization, and character dynamics for days, but the novel whose philosophical ramifications have haunted me the longest is definitely 《七爷》 Qi Ye by priest. Part reincarnation novel, part time-travel do-over, part political intrigue, part interrogation of destiny and what it means to defy it, 《七爷》 Qi Ye packs a lot of thorny themes and complicated relationships into a deceptively short novel.

I’ve gone off about 《七爷》 Qi Ye‘s thematic complexity in other posts so I’m not going to rehash them now, but really—the questions this book deals with about power and morality, about legacy and responsibility, and the lengths a person would go to in order to see something done are still living, as they say, rent-free in my head.

Best Banter

Winner: Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu in 《天涯客》 Tian Ya Ke by priest

These two I stg. Moving on—

Honorable Mention: 《哏儿》 Gen’er, because… because. I mean, it’s 相声 xiangsheng, banter is like, the literal essence of xiangsheng

Most Iconic Use of Punctuation

Winner: 《天官赐福》 Tian Guan Ci Fu by 墨香铜臭 Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Really, nothing is ever going to top this scene in book 5:

慕情[...]沉默片刻，道：“殿下，你真的很喜欢他吗？”

“[…]after a moment of silence, Mu Qing said: ‘Dianxia, do you really like him?’

谢怜没料到他会突然这么问，道：“啊。啊？... ...啊。”

Xie Lian would never have guessed that he would suddenly ask this question. “Ah,” he said. “Ah? ... ...ah.”

Honorable Mention: 《千秋》 Qian Qiu, for the sheer number of ��沈峤: ...” / “Shen Qiao: ...” in this novel but particular shout-out to the one in That Scene. You know the one. LSP NI SHEI A—

Most Iconic Line

Winner: 《天涯客》 Tian Ya Ke by priest

I believe so strongly in the superiority of the 凉雨知秋 line that I translated and subtitled the audiodrama season 1 trailer for the sole purpose of yelling about the choral rendition of it:

凉雨知秋，青梧老死。一宿苦寒欺薄衾，几番世道蹉跎...也不过一声“相见恨晚。”

When cold rain falls, autumn makes itself known; the wutong tree ages and dies. Thin robes offer no protection from a night of bitter winter, years and lives wasting, whiling away… nothing more than this: resentment, that we met so late.

Chills, every time.

Honorable Mention: 《千秋》 Qian Qiu, for the truly lovely line 苍生有难，山河同悲。草木有灵，天地不朽。 / “When the living things suffer, the mountains and rivers also sorrow. Grass and tree possess spirit; heaven and earth remain uncorrupted.“

Most Iconic Takedown (verbal)

Winner: Shen Qiao in 《千秋》 Qian Qiu by 梦溪石 Meng Xishi

I’ve literally made a top five list of Shen Qiao’s best takedowns before, but I have magnanimously decided against letting him sweep these awards. That being said, Shen Qiao’s very public, very messy martial brother break-up in a crowded teashop where he verbally drags Yu Ai before the entire jianghu remains one of my favorite scenes of all time, to the point where I literally added 23 extra pages to the SHJX survival guide for the sole purpose of translating this iconic scene. Get ‘em, a-Qiao, I’ll hold your flower.

Honorable Mentions: Wen Shi in 《判官》 Pan Guan, for the line “意外在哪？做事全靠躲的懦夫，也就只能当当影子。” / “What’s unexpected about this? A coward who relies on hiding to do anything could only be a shadow.” Rest in absolute fucking pieces a-Jun

Xie Shuangchen and Ye Ling 《哏儿》 Gen'er — given that this is a novel about 相声 xiangsheng / “cross-talk,” a form of traditional Chinese comedy that functions on wit, wordplay, and mutual roasting, not an episode of the audiodrama goes by without some truly sick burns

Most Iconic Takedown (physical)

Winner: Xie Lian from 《天官赐福》 Tian Guan Ci Fu by 墨香铜臭 Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

I honestly could not tell you if I am giving TGCF this award for the giant mecha fight that takes up a solid amount of book five or for the vindictive rush of satisfaction from seeing Xie Lian, powers finally unlocked, pummeling Jun Wu into the ground, but it wins, Xie Lian wins, TGCF absolutely wins this award.

Honorable Mentions: 《判官》 Pan Guan, for battle couple chenshi destroying a certain useless ancestor and looking fabulous while doing so (shout-out to Wen Shi’s many, many three point landings)

《千秋》 Qian Qiu, for the September Ninth ambush 😉

Best Babie

Winner: Xia Qiao from 《判官》 Pan Guan by 木苏里 Mu Su Li

We all know this secondary character—the sweet, summer child who gets accidentally or forcibly adopted by the main characters, often a force of Pure Goodness to be Protected At All Costs, even if they can take care of themselves. (Especially if they can take care of themselves.)

Xia Qiao from 《判官》 Pan Guan beat out some fierce competition for the title of Best Babie, but I could give this award to no other because he really is one of the most hapless characters I’ve ever met in fiction. What a precious child. What a darling disaster. We award this title to him in honor of the many times he dutifully followed his Wen-ge into various horror movie situations despite the fact that he is the biggest scaredy-cat in the entire book.

Honorable Mention: Zhang Chengling in 《天涯客》 Tian Ya Ke, because he too is a hapless sweet summer child who would lose a fight against a chicken

Best Beleaguered Side Character Award

Winner: Xiao Zheng from 《烈火浇愁》 Lie Huo Jiao Chou by Priest

We all know this character, too—equally as hapless as the babie, but for reasons of the plot conspiring against them rather than relative inexperience or personality. This character is in all likelihood actually quite competent, but because they lack the Protagonist Halo (TM), they are often relegated to picking up after the maelstrom of the main characters—cleaning up their messes, filing their paperwork, providing crucial information for the next plot arc, etc etc. In any other book, they might even be the protagonist. Unfortunately, they live in this one.

I’m giving this award to Xiao Zheng for his hair travails alone. (blows kiss) this one’s for you, Xiao-baba

Honorable Mention: the Zhang siblings from 《判官》 Pan Guan because they really set records for accidental cringe when they unintentionally Zhangsplained to the literal founders of their magical practice

Most Competent Side Character Award

Winner: Bian Yanmei from 《千秋》 Qian Qiu by 梦溪石 Meng Xishi

Did I make up this award solely to give it to Bian Yanmei, one of my favorite characters in existence? Yes, yes I did. I would trust the man with a budget and a spreadsheet, which is quite possibly the highest praise I could give a fictional character.

An incomplete list of Bian Yanmei’s accomplishments:

ran a sect for ten years while his shizun fucked off into seclusion

continued running it after his shizun returned, because Yan Wushi was up to a lot of things but uhhh taking care of budgets and logistics were not part of them

functionally raised and trained his younger shidi

became a mover and shaker in Chang’an politics

befriended all the noble families to the point where their children call him “Uncle Bian”

deduced his way through his shizun’s bullshit in record time when he first met Shen Qiao

helped organize a political coup

was adapted out of the donghua for being the only brain cell in the jianghu

Best Antagonist

Winner: Dan Li from 《烈火浇愁》 Lie Huo Jiao Chou

Dan Li is, easily, one of the coolest characters I’ve seen in a novel. Ruthless, calculating, cryptic, opaque, he is both teacher and opponent, strategist and enemy, murderer and protector, demonic and divine. He taught Sheng Lingyuan everything he knew, which, if you’ve met Sheng Lingyuan...well.

Though Dan Li has been dead for literal millennia by the beginning of the book, his actions, legacy, and stratagems linger throughout the narrative, playing out a centuries-spanning game of strike and counterstrike, move and countermove long after his death. The fact that no one has seen him without his mask is just icing on his cake of general mystery.

Best Unreliable Narrator

Winner: Shen Qingqiu from 《人渣反派自救系统》 Ren Zha Fan Pai Zi Jiu Xi Tong by 墨香铜臭 Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Could it have been anyone else? Was there any doubt in your mind that this award could go to any other character? Yeah, I thought so; no other character comes remotely close to the level of Shen “I hate this novel with every fiber of my being” Qingqiu, Shen “I’m not being nice, I’m acting in my own self-interest” Qingqiu, Shen “isn’t everyone a little gay for Luo Binghe” Qingqiu.

Honorable Mention: Xie Lian in 《天官赐福》 Tian Guan Ci Fu for neglecting to mention that Qi Rong was his cousin for fifty-some chapters which will never not be funny to me

Best Clown

Winner: Shen Qingqiu from 《人渣反派自救系统》 Ren Zha Fan Pai Zi Jiu Xi Tong by 墨香铜臭 Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Gaze deeply into your soul and ask yourself if it could have been anyone else. If your soul tells you otherwise, I don’t want to hear it. I will not be taking criticism at this time.

Honorable Mentions: Yu Shengyan from 《千秋》 Qian Qiu for... too many moments to count. Looking at an amnesiac Shen Qiao and going "it’s free shidi” and thereby accidentally tricking himself into feeling responsible for Shen Qiao. Showing up eighty chapters late to a sword conference still calling Shen Qiao “shidi” after the man has beaten up half the jianghu. Losing a bet with a housekeeper despite having inside information. RIP Yu Shengyan, if Shen Qingqiu weren’t a god-tier clown, this title would have been yours

Xie Shuangchen in 《哏儿》 Gen'er — have you ever faked amnesia after a head injury to try and get your beloved xiangsheng partner to admit that he likes you, only to have said beloved xiangsheng partner see through your bullshit and con you right back, which you fall for and end up chasing him through the hospital begging him to come back to you? You could make a drinking game out of the number of times Xie Shuangchen wails “叶老师，我错了—” / “Ye-laoshi, I was wrong—” in this audiodrama

Best Personal Weapon

Winner: E’Ming from 《天官赐福》 Tian Guan Ci Fu by 墨香铜臭 Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

I will hear Absolutely Nothing against this precious cursed scimitar who just wants cuddles. Nothing. E’Ming is the best and deserves All the Cuddles, All the Time. Jail for Hua Cheng for a thousand years.

Honorable Mention: the 山河同悲剑 Shanhetongbei sword from 《千秋》 Qian Qiu, for having a stupidly beautiful name. See also: Most Iconic Line, Honorable Mention

Dishonorable Mention: 《烈火浇愁》 Lie Huo Jiao Chou is disqualified from this award for Reasons. It knows what it did.

Best Moment That Wrecked Me (aka the Knifiest Award)

Winner: chapter 121 from 《烈火浇愁》 Lie Huo Jiao Chou by Priest

Over the course of these books, I’ve seen desperate yearning. I’ve seen centuries of pining. I’ve seen betrayals and destructions, disappointment and despair, resurrections and redemptions. But only one novel has had the absolute goddamn gall to drive half of its central pairing to his knees, begging, in tears, promising to let the other go if that’s what he wants, just give him a goddamn second—

盛灵渊后知后觉地想：“我伤了他的心么?”

Sheng Lingyuan thought, belatedly, “Have I broken his heart?”

Bixia, we get it, you’re the most metal of them all, but was that strictly necessary.

Honorable Mentions: chapter 106 of 《判官》 Pan Guan. It knows what it did.

chapter 79 of 《千秋》 Qian Qiu. It knows exactly what it did.

Best Performance by Voice Actors in an Audiodrama

Winner: 《哏儿》 Gen’er by 南北逐风 Nan Bei Zhu Feng

This audiodrama. This audiodrama. I realized halfway through writing this overlong shitpost that I actually haven’t consumed 《哏儿》 Gen’er in its entirety, but I felt the need to yell about how insanely good this audiodrama is. 《哏儿》 Gen’er follows two lovers and performers of 相声 xiangsheng / “cross talk,” a traditional Chinese form of comedy that blends improvisation and classic scripts, as they work to establish their own xiangsheng studio and carry on the legacy of Xie Shuangchen’s shifu and adoptive father.

What makes the voice actor performances in this audiodrama absolutely bonkers is that xiangsheng is an art that performers train for years, entire lifetimes, not unlike Beijing opera performers or professional stage actors. While voice actors are very good at what they do, this is a whole other level. I’m not saying that Zhao Qianjing and Xie Tiantian are good enough to be xiangsheng performers, but like, 他们还真有一点那味儿你知道么，太神了. The technical brilliance demanded by these roles, including but not limited to talking a mile a minute, is utterly insane, and I can’t wait for the three whole 完结FT’s (post-production interviews) this audiodrama promises.

Best Post-Production in an Audiodrama

Winners: 《千秋》 Qian Qiu by 梦溪石 Meng Xishi (post-production by 声罗万象 Shengluo Wanxiang Studio)

and

《双杀》 Shuang Sha by 娜可露露 Na Ke Lu Lu (post-production by 祝余 Zhu Yu)

I think it is a demonstration of my restraint that I haven’t been giving out ties left and right throughout this entire overlong shitpost, but for this award I really have no other choice. Post-production sound editing is tremendously important in audiodramas, not the least for general atmosphere, but also for narrative clarity. As a result, the audiodramas for 《千秋》 Qian Qiu and 《双杀》 Shuang Sha stand out for their brilliant execution.

As a wuxia novel, the action and narrative of 《千秋》 Qian Qiu are often advanced by fight scenes, which Meng Xishi describes in loving, lavish detail throughout the novel. The miracle of the audiodrama, then, is that these fight scenes remain fundamentally intelligible despite the fact that we can’t see them. With a deft combination of voice acting, sound effects, Foley, voice-over, soundtrack music, and bystander commentary, the listener can follow the progress and turning points of individual fight scenes without much difficulty at all, which is super heckin badass when you think about it.

Similarly, 《双杀》 Shuang Sha features multiple video game competitions that occupy a similar narrative function to fight scenes in a wuxia novel—they are intense, fast-paced, and filled with complex technical components that illustrate and advance character development. 音熊联盟 VoiceBear Alliance, the voice actor studio that produced this audiodrama, pulled from its wider cast roster to record unique lines for every single playable video game character that came up in the novel at varying degrees of health. Correspondingly, during matches, the canned voice-overs of player characters telegraph the progress of the competitions that audiodrama listeners cannot visually witness. And an additional shout-out to voice actors 刘强 Liu Qiang and 龟娘 Gui Niang is in order for absolutely killing it as the commentators. Commentating is a particular skill (in the post-production interview, they mentioned that multiple voice actors had to beg off Liu Qiang’s role), and these two were critical to appreciating, comprehending, and following the action of these scenes.

Voice Actor with the Most Insane Range

Winner: 吴磊 Wu Lei of Listen领声 Studio for his roles in the 《千秋》 Qian Qiu audiodrama, the 《穿越自救指南》 (the SVSSS donghua), and the 《判官》 Pan Guan audiodrama

All right, we all know I have a voice actor problem, but really, listen to Wu “maomao-laoshi” Lei in a few productions and you’ll understand why. A single person who can voice characters as disparate as Yan Wushi (which includes, by definition, Xie Ling and a-Yan as well), Shen Qingqiu, and Chen Budao/Xie Wen deserves to be feared and adored.

And never! Forget! the Da! Ah! Jian!

Honorable Mentions: 姜广涛 Jiang Guangtao (aka 姜sir), for the sheer range of bumbling fool 伊依 Yi Yi in the 《诗云》 Shi Yun audiodrama to murderous warrior emperor 盛灵渊 Sheng Lingyuan in the 《烈火浇愁》 Lie Hou Jiao Chou donghua

赵乾景 Zhao Qianjing, for playing both brusque tsundere Wen Shi in the 《判官》 Pan Guan audiodrama and mischievous motormouth Xie Shuangchen in the 《哏儿》 Gen’er audiodrama

Okay that is QUITE enough nonsense from me tonight, if you’ve made it to the bottom of this post I heartily congratulate you. No one is allowed to send me corrections because I’ve decided that I am right, but everyone should feel free to let me know if there are any award categories I’ve overlooked in this—oh god—4k+ post

Here’s to a 2022 filled with more reading and discoveries, more disaster gays and fictional stabbery! 咱们再接再厉！

#ARE YOU READY FOR THESE TAGS #ok ok ok let's go #hunxi reads TGCF #千秋 backlog #hunxi thinks about qq #seventh time lucky #zhou zishu comedy hours #hunxi thinks about svsss #voice(bear) appreciation hours #spine chickens and war crimes #if I were really clever I would schedule this post to coincide with 春节 #but I have always been yours in calendrical heresy #if I do this next year I promise I'll divvy this up into multiple posts oh my god

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