#I own the hardcover of the volume one

[sing-me-under]

Now that I’m finally catching up on reading the comics with Damian, I think I must admit that he’s probably my favorite bat boy. I want to hug him. He deserves a hug. Stephanie is still my favorite bat all around, but Stephanie AND Damian together just makes me very happy.

[prokopetz]

I have a pinned post for my games in development, but it doesn't really describe what they're about, and apparently this is something we're doing today, so:

My games in development, in rough order of priority:

(Note: all of these have public playtest drafts behind the links.)

Eat God

A game about weird little anarchist muppets with reality-warping powers themed after classic Looney Tunes gags wandering around a classic sword-and-sorcery fantasy setting stirring up trouble. Roughly 50% character creation rules by volume, with provisions for randomising every part of it; the linked draft, above, includes an online character generator if you want to play with it. The mechanics are a sort of elaborated spiritual successor to Costume Fairy Adventures, a game whose development I headed up about a decade ago.

Current status: actively writing, hopefully zeroing in on a feature-complete playtest draft within the next month or two.

Tiny Frog Wizards

One of my customarily literal titles, this is a game where you play as wizards who are tiny frogs. Features elaborate semi-freeform rules for casting spells, lots of big stupid random tables for when spells go off the rails, and absolutely no mechanics for anything that isn't casting a spell; it's a very focused sort of game. Narratively, it's a game about being an overpowered little twerp sticking your nose into other people's problems and offering solutions no-one asked for. Portions of the rules crib shamelessly from @jennamoran's Nobilis 3rd Edition, for which I offer acknowledgement but no apologies.

Current status: development of the text has been set aside for the moment to work on visual identity, with an eye toward crowdfunding an expanded hardcover edition later in the year.

Space Gerbils

A tactical mecha combat game with a very silly twist: the entirety of the tactical positioning occurs inside the mecha, because the game's premise is basically "what if instead of the Big Reveal at the end of Metroid (1986) being that Samus Aran is secretly a girl, Samus Aran was secretly 3–5 small gerbil-like creatures operating a person-size mech suit?" Players engage in positional jockeying and resource management to determine which stations they're crewing within the suit, which is boiled down to a single roll of the dice to determine what happens outside the suit. Includes papercraft minifigs.

Current status: essentially feature-complete, apart from some character creation options and a planned random mission generator; this will likely be the next game I crowdfund after Tiny Frog Wizards.

Indie RPG Prompt Generator [working title]

Essentially a joke that got out of hand, this is a big set of random tables of common indie RPG tropes that you can roll on to generate a description of a hypothetical game, complete with specific rules toys and setting beats. I probably could have finished this up already, but I decided to include examples of each rolled element, which turned into this big hairy research project I'm not able to give adequate attention to right now. If you've got a game of your own that you think would be a good fit for a presently unfilled example slot, please, let me know!

Current status: plugging away at it in bits and pieces as I'm able.

Three Raccoons in a Trenchcoat

This is an anthology consisting of three minigames: the eponymous Three Raccoons in a Trenchcoat, which is self-explanatory; Unfamiliar, in which you play as uncooperative wizards' familiars; and System Crash, in which you play as malfunctioning robots. More a series of formal experiments in character creation and group composition than proper full-featured games, all share the same core mechanics, with milieu-specific addons of varying practicality; for example, System Crash has specific rules for which senses each player is allowed to use when asking the GM for information, because it's completely possible to have a group in which only one of the robots can see. Large portions of Unfamiliar were later re-used in Eat God, above.

Current status: I have a list of notes as long as your arm on planned changes to integrate into the text, and I'm confident I'll get around to doing so one of these years.

Gone to Hell

Literally a Doom (2016) pastiche as a Belonging Outside Belonging game, which is just as silly an idea as it sounds; grown out of an earlier 24-hour RPG called Doomguy. The central conceit is that there's only a single player character, with players taking turns assuming the role of the Slayer, while everyone else takes ownership of the various hostile factions comprising the game's conspiratorial twelve-car pileup of a plot. Lots of pontificating about the implicit power structures of tabletop RPG groups. This one probably needs a full rewrite in order to lend a bit more formal structure to the "one player character, many GMs" conceit than out-of-the-box BOB offers.

Current status: I have not looked at this game in three years, which is actually a really long time for me.

Rotate Bird

Another of my "is this a formal experiment or a real game" titles, this one revolves around constructing characters out of abstract symbols, which are interpreted during play to retroactively define what your character is actually capable of doing. Even the title seen above is an interpretive approximation; strictly speaking, the game is called 🔄🐦. Possibly the most shitposty game I've ever written, which is saying something, but based on playtest feedback it seems functional.

Current status: the only reason this is listed as lower in priority than Gone to Hell is because I genuinely don't know what to do with it. It's probably publishable, with some cleanup editing and graphic design, but it feels like there's something missing. I'm open to suggestions!

Get in the Fucking Robot

A pamphlet-size, competitive, GMless title that's at least as much a board game as it is a tabletop RPG, this one is about a bunch of dysfunctional candidate mecha pilots competing to be the first to pilot the titular giant robot. The game is played under misère conditions: while each character's IC goal is to pilot the robot, each player's OOC goal is to avoid that fate, with the player whose character actually Gets in the Fucking Robot being accounted the loser.

Current status: playtesting suggests the current framework of play doesn't actually work – like, at all – so this one needs to go all the way back to the drawing board; I don't feel like doing that any time soon, which puts it squarely at the bottom of the list.

[cripplecharacters]

i'm debating giving one of my OCs strabismus exotropia. the work/story is YA SFF. part of my reasoning is he's one of two characters in the group who's the Brains, his specialty being history and languages, and his magic relates to mind reading and telekinesis, and i know too often characters with eye differences are portrayed as the opposite of smart. one of his big hobbies is reading and i know strabismus can affect it bc of focus/headaches, so i thought maybe reading/being fluent in braille could help him engage in his hobby when actual reading is getting on his nerves / refer to his amblyopic eye as his "permanent side eye" as he can be quite critical of others sometimes. his personality is being smug but normally right and very sure of himself (though not without his insecurities), he's seen as a bit of a Pretty Boy (handsome), and is the youngest of his group of friends so they do look out for and protect him a bit more. is there anything else i should look out for, or any way i may be playing into tropes i'm unaware of? he's also queer (gay) and brown (pakistani coded) if that helps any provide context, and has an antagonistic bickering but genuine friendship with another boy (the other brains) that eventually develops into a romance

Hello!

In general, this sounds like a perfectly fine character concept and there's nothing about his personality/portrayal that's immediately jumping out at me. He sounds like a well rounded character, which is something I'm very glad to see!

One thing I would like to mention is that, while braille may be a useful tool for him at times, it's not likely to be a feasible solution for his day-to-day life.

Braille books aren't like regular printed books, there are quite a few differences that make them much more difficult to use:

Size:

Braille books aren't easy to carry around. With the possible exception of some smaller children's books, most are pretty thick and VERY heavy. In fact, many braille books are split up into several separate volumes for this reason.

To put the difference into perspective, let's look at The Fellowship of the Ring (The first Lord of the Rings book).

A standard printed copy generally weighs around 1.5 lbs, give or take a bit if it's a hardcover. A braille copy of the same book weighs over 15 lbs.

This printed copy has 432 pages including pages for spacing, author's notes, etc. The braille copy has 873, not including any non-text pages.

The physical dimensions of braille vs printed books also differs greatly. While a printed copy of The Fellowship of the Ring may easily fit in a small bag or even a pocket, the braille copy is around the size of a standard three ring binder (In terms of length and width at least).

This is all to say that taking a braille book with him out on the go wouldn't exactly be a simple task and, because of how braille is read, reading on the bus or on a park bench or anywhere that isn't a flat surface without disruption wouldn't be a possibility.

Cost:

Aside from the problems with physically reading and using braille books, it's also very difficult to acquire them in the first place. Braille books are EXPENSIVE.

Depending on the availability of the book, the size, and the popularity, a single braille novel can go for anywhere from 50$ to well over 300$ (In Canadian dollars).

The hardcover printed copy of The Fellowship of the Ring mentioned before costs around 25$ (Again, in Canadian dollars). The braille version ranges from around 150$ to 225$ depending on the type of braille.

And if your character wants to request a less popular book, it can still be pretty expensive. There's a wide range of factors that can affect the cost and it varies so wildly that it's hard to get a reliable estimate but they could be looking at anywhere between 5$ - 50$ per page.

Although some libraries may have braille books and there are several virtual libraries for the blind with braille books, it can still get very pricey for them to build up their own collection.

Availability:

In part because of this cost, there is a very low availability of braille titles compared to printed titles.

If your character is into more popular books like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, or some of the classics, they'll have little issues finding a copy.

Beyond that, unfortunately, they'd be out of luck. If a book isn't incredibly well known, it's a very slim chance of there being a braille version. Likewise, there's also very low chances of finding more recent releases.

Even one of my old favourites, The Perks of Being a Wallflower -- which was written around ten years ago and is fairly popular, doesn't have any braille copies.

While it is possible to get a book printed in braille for yourself, the costs of it can get quite high (As shown above) and it's not generally an option that people go for.

Durability:

The last point I want to make is that braille books don't last as long as printed books. Although braille is read with a light touch, the braille does get worn down over time.

Library books in particular are an unfortunate victim to this. Because so many different people are borrowing the books, they often get worn down much quicker. This can be because of new braille readers using a harsher touch when reading or it could be because of improper storage, either from the readers or from the library itself. It's less likely that somebody will notice when the braille is worn down.

The braille itself isn't the only concern. A lot of braille books are bound differently than printed books are and often use plastic for the bindings, which requires more care than the usual bindings of printed books. I've included an example of what a braille book may look like below.

[Image Description: A braille copy of The Fellowship of the Ring. It is open to a tactile map of Middle Earth. The binding is made of small, circular pieces of plastic, similar to a notebook of sorts. End ID.]

Now, this all isn't to say that he can't use braille books -- these are just some things to consider. And if you do choose to go in a different direction, may I suggest audio books?

Audio books have a wider availability than braille books do and are much less costly. There's also the added benefit of being able to take them pretty much everywhere with you, as long as you have one or two downloaded to your phone.

You could also go with having a balance of the two. Maybe your character uses audio books with his headphones or earbuds during the day and reads his braille books at home so he can give his ears a break from his headphones/earbuds.

Another option is large print books or e-books that allow you to adjust the font size, which could make it easier for your character to read them. There are also other strategies that he could use when reading regular printed books, such as covering an eye or using a bookmark to sort of box in the lines as he reads.

As one quick final note: Reading braille is actual reading! Braille is just another language with a different -- not lesser! -- method of reading it.

Hopefully some of this information helps! If you're interested in knowing more about the specifics of braille books, Blind In Mind's Braille Bookstore has a lot of great resources and their copy of The Fellowship of the Ring is the one I've been referencing.

Cheers,

~ Mod Icarus

[it-was-funeral-grey]

Moving nowhere (Al Haitham x F!Reader)

Masterlist Part 5 Part 6 Part 7

Summary: you’re finally back home, so things should be back to normal, right?

Warnings: reader's parents (mother and father), anxious reader, a scream, blood, death (not F!reader or al haitham)

Word count: <3.4k

Inspired by: -

Author's note: i'm back! i'm thinking of setting up a writing schedule, and make writing a habit again.

Please give criticism! Also, if i missed any warnings, do tell me so i can add them!

Up until a month ago, owning books for personal use was against the Akademiya's rules. So, things like storybooks and guidebooks weren't a thing that most people grew up with. Books were considered items only used by Akademiya students or teachers (and record keepers)- untouchable and unnecessary for the common folk. Who needed books, anyway? The Akasha Terminal had everything, after all.

Oh, but you were different. And so much better off for it, so you'd like to believe.

Your mother was a trader- a rather adventurous one, at that. Instead of trading by Port Ormos, waiting for business to come her way, she'd set sail with her wares to the seven nations. And when she came home, she brought back all sorts of souvenirs.

One day, after a particularly long trip to Liyue, she came home carrying a mysterious brown squarish thing. 

"They call this a book," your mother had told you, gently placing the item in your hands as she closed the door behind her. "Open it and take a look!"

Taking the item from your mother, you slowly turned it in your hands, running a finger along its unbound side- the concaved, pressed pages bound by leather. 

"Records of... Jun- no, Jui-"

"Records of Jueyun," your mother corrected. "It's a storybook."

"What's that?"

"Why don't you open it?"

You cautiously pulled the hardcover and were greeted by pages upon pages of writing. But these writings were different from the passages you had to read at the village school. 

Words- both new and familiar, were placed together in ways you have never seen before, creating beautiful pictures in your mind. 

"...The merciful Geo Archon granted their request and made them as such. The end."

"Wait! That's it?!" you exclaim, desperately trying to find another page to turn. But all there was the brown, empty book cover. "That's all?"

"This is only the first volume," Your mother chuckled, patting your head gently as she took the book back. "I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'll try to bring the next one another time, alright?"

"...Alright, but can I keep it?" you reached out, trying to take the book.

There was a pause from your mother as she pulled the book away from your reaching hands.

"Pleaseee?"

"Only if you promise to keep this a secret, alright?" Your mother squatted to your eye level, her tone serious. "You have to keep this book a secret, ok? No one can know that we have this."

"Yes! I will!" 

"Alright, now go put the book at the bottom of your toy box. And then let's go help Daddy cook some dinner!"

At that time, your enthusiasm distracted you from the seriousness in your mother's tone. As a young child, you didn't think about why you weren't allowed to tell anyone about your new possession- or why your mother had removed her Akasha Terminal when she spoke of the book. All you could think of were brave stone beasts and a magical land called "Liyue".

As tough as it was, you managed to keep the secret until the Matra barged into your home many years later (though the Personal Books Act was abolished by then). In those years, however, your obsession with books only grew- and was wholly encouraged by your parents. You learned how to read and to learn through reading. As a result, the Akasha Terminal you had received from the Akademiya when you turned 18 had been useless to you- what could it tell you that your precious books could not? The information you wanted was sometimes beyond what your credentials allowed you anyway. Besides, you loved the process of reading and reading and reading even more before you finally found what you wanted to know. What was the point of having information beamed into your mind when you could learn that and way more through books and research? 

"The world doesn't just consist of Sumeru," your mother had told you two years later on the day you moved out with your secret massive (and illegal) collection of books. "Go, look further than Vimara Village. Explore! Your books can only tell you so much."

"I know, Mum," your voice strains as you place a crate packed with books shrouded in cloth into your new home. In the interest of saving money, you hadn't moved far- just about a kilometre from your parents' house. It's a little bigger than your family home, which means more places for you to store (hide) your books. "But Liyue's Law School is expensive, and I want to save up as much as I can for it."

"You're an intelligent young woman," your father dusts off his hands. "I'm sure there are bursaries and scholarships that you can apply for. And if money is an issue-"

"Thank you, Dad, but it's fine. I want to be able to go there using my own money- if I don't learn to save and make my own Mora, when will I ever learn how to?"

"We understand, dear," your mother sighs, looking at you. "We just don't want you to waste your youth away toiling away when you could go to Liyue and learn and enjoy yourself now. You'll have all the time in Teyvat to work when you're older."

"And what I want is for the two of you to enjoy your retirement and explore Teyvat," you smile at your mother. "Don't worry about me! I'll learn lots from the work experience! It's like you always say, Mum..."

"Book learning alone is not enough to cultivate intelligence. All those scholars from the Akademiya are prime examples."  

If you're being honest, you don't want to leave your house. But if you don't head out now, you'll miss the only opportunity to buy groceries from Bahram until tomorrow morning. You don't think the onion (half an onion- Al Haitham ate the other half) from yesterday can sustain you till then.

You shut the door again, sighing as you stretched your sprained ankle. It doesn't hurt as much as yesterday, thankfully. But your stomach does, as it growls yet again.

One more minute. One more minute, and you'll head out.

You stare at your feet as you clutch your door handle, pulling it slightly open again. 60, 59, 58…

Your heart pounds. For some reason, the sounds outside your door seem sharper now. You hear every footstep, every laugh, every shuffle-

40, 39, 38…

There are people outside. So, so many people.

The moment you step out, you know you'll be under fire. Everyone thinks you had kidnapped the Acting Grand Sage, after all.

What are they saying about you now?

30, 29, 28…

Your reputation is probably in shambles right now. Getting arrested was pretty much social suicide. Falsely accused or not, it doesn't matter. The village gossipers don't care.

Maybe it's better to stay at home. No one can see you here. You can't hear the things they'll say about you here.

They'll all stare at you if you go out. Angry, disgusted stares. All pointed at you.

20, 19, 18…

Yeah. Home doesn't sound too bad. Food? Technically, paper is made from trees, yes? And trees are kind of like vegetables. You'll have a damn healthy diet if you eat your books. Thankfully, you have no shortage of them.

10, 9, 8…

Yep. Home is where the heart is, and your bookshelf can be your new food pantry.

5, 4, 3…

You remove your hand from the handle. One light push and your door will close- shutting you from the world.

You'll be safe.

You'll be alone.

You place your hand back on the handle, ready to push.

2, 1-

But just as you are about to push, fingers wrap around the edge of the open door and push back against you, forcing the door wide open.

Zero.

Al Haitham was supposed to head back immediately after settling things with Dilawar. That was the plan. He had no time to waste hanging around anywhere other than his office.

That was the plan. 

Thanks to her directions, he managed to find Dilawar's house not long after he left her home. He had pounded on the man's door relentlessly till he opened up.

And when he finally did, Al Haitham went off.

Al Haitham had let him know the full extent of his frustrations regarding the lack of response to his letters. And let Dilawar know how appalled he was when he came to the port to find it completely deserted- how could he, the main trade supervisor, let that happen?

"But Acting Grand Sage Al Haitham, be reasonable! There was nothing for the workers to do-"

"It is one thing to cut down on staff. It is a whole other thing to call it quits the moment things go south and lay everyone off," Al Haitham ranted. "I sent the first letter three months ago a day after the Port Ormos crash. The fact that I heard nothing back- and that I found that letter completely unread and on your desk alongside the others in your office shows that you immediately abandoned your post," Al Haithan sighed heavily. "According to the reports I received, merchant ships were still coming in when the Wikala Funduq shut down. Trade could have still gone on- however inefficiently- had you and Ms Gauhar not caved."

It wasn't like Al Haitham to go on and on like this about things that have already happened and cannot be changed. But he can't help it. The Port Ormos issue has been one of his biggest headaches that has been going on for three months now. And all because two flimsy trade supervisors can't do their job right the moment their Akasha Terminals couldn't help them. The reason for the Port Ormos Crash was internal- which made him all the more upset.

By the time Al Haitham finished dealing with Dilawar, night had fallen. He was exhausted- but not so much that he would have taken Dilawar's guest room. All he wants is to recharge in peace. Alone. In silence.

Turning the noise cancellation on his earpieces, he slowly walked out of Dilawar's house and turned towards the village dock. But just as he looked ahead to see where he was going, he saw something glowing softly below in the distance.

Squinting his eyes, Al Haitham took a step forward- what in Teyvat is that? Now that he thinks about it, won't this direction head towards her home? All he'll have to do is take the slope back down, and she'll be right there.

Ah, wait. That is her home- and if he focuses hard enough, he can see that whatever is glowing is coming from her home. The pieces start to click- it's candlelight. She's lighting candles around her home. The Matra destroyed everything- even her lanterns. 

Peering over the ledge, Al Haitham silently observes a single, flickering orange orb float from one end of her home to another- slowly illuminating room by room in a gentle glow. It's so much easier on the eye than the other houses with obnoxiously bright white lanterns.

Through the now backlit curtains, he sees her silhouette- and he watches her as she blows out the candle in her hand. He watches her graceful movements as she slowly makes her way across the room, running her hands along what he recalls to be one of her bookshelves- the one where she told him to place her law books. 

She runs a finger slowly down the spine of one of her books, and Al Haitham feels a shiver go down his- snapping him out of whatever trance he was stuck in. 

Archons, he must be exhausted. What is he, a creep? Staring at someone in their own home??

Gathering himself, he looks around. It's 15-minute walk back to the dock. With no guarantee that there's anyone still awake to take him back to Sumeru City.

Might as well spend the night here. The more he entertained the thought, the more appealing it sounded.

Oh, whatever, Al Haitham caves. He's too tired, and the ambience is too comfortable to resist. Finding what seems to be a nice tree, he settles himself down, leaning his head against the solid wooden bark as he watches the gentle glow of the distant candlelights lull him to sleep. 

And if his eyes ever drifted to the woman still picking out a book to read? Well, that'll be a secret between him and imaginary Kaveh (unfortunately).

"Are you alright?"

Out of anyone who you thought would bust into your house today, he wasn't one of them. You were expecting more of an angry mob- or one of those angry-Acting-Grand-Sage-fanatic that had missed the notice that you were innocent and was going to kill you in revenge for kidnapping the Acting Grand Sage (yeah, you've read too many Mondstadt romance novels).

"Al Haitham?" you stabilise yourself, taking a step towards him. "What are you doing here?"

"Can I come in?"

"Ah, of course," you say, realising at that moment that the now fully open door left you fully exposed to the outside world. "Come on in!" You invite, before promptly shutting the door behind him.

He's carrying something, you notice as you turn back to face him. Alongside his overnight bag, he's got a paper bag filled with stuff.

"Is everything alright?"

"Yes," he replies calmly, looking around your home- his eyes lingering along a candlestand attached to your wall. "I just came by to pass you these," he hands over the paper bag to you. "Some groceries."

"Oh, you shouldn't have-"

"If I haven't, would you have gone out to get them yourself?" Al Haitham interrupts. "I saw you hover your door for over an hour."

"Ah, you saw that," you respond sheepishly. 

"I did. You opened the door just to close it every time."

"Well..."

"What are you afraid of?" Al Haitham cocks his head towards the door. "Your neighbours?"

When you don't reply, Al Haitham sighs.

"How's your ankle?" He changes the subject, motioning for you to sit on the couch.

"It's much better than yesterday! Just a bit of aching, but I'm fine," you reply hastily, grateful for the subject change. You don't want to talk about what could be awaiting you outside your door.

"That's good," Al Haitham sits opposite you, glancing at the book you've left on the armrest. "'Sumeru Law 203". I'm impressed you managed to get ahold of an Akademiya textbook."

"Oh!" Now this, you want to want to talk about. You've never had anyone to enthuse with about your book collection before. "I bought it from an Akademiya student passing by Port Ormos a couple of years ago! He kept saying that he wanted to quit and was throwing a whole fit at the docks!" you chuckle, remembering the scene. You had tried to calm him and encourage him, but it seemed his mind was made up, so you offered to buy the book from him. It took quite a bit of convincing since it was very illegal for Akademiya-associated individuals to sell their books to non-Akademiya individuals. But when you showed the student that you were willing to pay quite the sum, his determination wavered and eventually gave in.

"You're very lucky the Matra found you after the Personal Book Act was abolished," Al Haitham looks at your packed bookshelves as he flips to a page in the textbook. "All these books would have given you... at least a fifteen-year sentence- and your textbooks," he gives the one he holds a little shake in your direction while glancing at you, "would have been a separate sentence- easily ten years per book and-"

"The sentences would have been ordered to run consecutively, not concurrently," you finish his line. He looks up from the book, and you think he almost looks impressed. "I have seven Akademiya textbooks. In total, I would have sat in jail for no less than eighty-five years."

"...That's right."

"I could have spent an entire lifetime behind bars."

"You could have."

"Do you think I was stupid, then? To take a risk just to read books when I could have asked the Akasha Terminal and have all the knowledge beamed into my head instead?"

Al Haitham shuts the book gently and hands it back to you. His response is almost immediate.

"No. If anything, I think you are all the more brilliant for doing so."

Al Haitham spends the rest of the morning chatting with her about books. He gave his honest comments on those he had read before and took note of the ones she recommended. It was refreshing, to say the least.

This was the first time he'd ever spoken to someone so enthusiastic about reading. Any reader he had come across before this were all Akademiya students- who mostly did read begrudgingly just so they could say they fulfilled their book annotation coursework in the House of Daena. The only other person who even had the slightest chance of matching her current enthusiasm was Kaveh- and he didn't even like reading as much as he liked spewing out his opinions in whatever architecture book he was annotating.

But her- she enjoyed it, reading. She liked getting confused by the words, and looking them up in a (Al Haitham hardly gets surprised by anything, but this did) actual, paper dictionary. She likes jumping back pages to re-read that one sentence she did not understand, but they referenced it later so she has to. She liked finding out that one book said this, and the other said that- so she could think about both and try to figure out which made more sense to her.

The effort. The focus. The occasional paper cut. She loved all of it.

It was a whole experience watching her talk about what she had read. Hearing what she thought about it- telling her what he thought about it- pushing each other's horizons just that little bit further.

He loved it.

"I mean, I think it's valid for Risha to think like that," she states, pointing out a passage in a novel. They had moved on from non-fiction to fiction- from the bookshelf near the main door to the one at the back wall. "But her reaction wasn't justified- Ona doesn't deserve that at all! She didn't know!"

"I agree," Al Haitham prepares to rebut. "But-"

A shrill scream pierces through the calm atmosphere, and she nearly falls out of her seat.

"What happened?!"

"It sounds like it's coming from the houses above," Al Haitham hears a flurry of footsteps leading towards the slope. "Let's go."

By the time you reach the top of the slope, you're not far behind Al Haitham. Panting, you look up. Everyone's gathered around Mr Dilawar's house- and is someone crying?

"Get behind me," Al Haitham whispers to you. "Is your ankle-"

"My ankle's fine. I'm just- just out of shape," you pant. "That's Mr Dilawar's house."

"I met him there yesterday," Al Haitham slowly pushes past the crowd. "I stayed with him till the late evening, before I-"

"What-"

You've suddenly spun around, facing away from the house.

"Al Haitham?! What are you-" You turn your head to face back, but he blocks your vision with a quick step.

"How comfortable are you with blood?"

"Blood? What do you mean-"

"Human blood. In large quantities."

A shiver goes down your spine.

"Al Haitham, what happened to Mr Dilawar?"

Just as Al Haitham was about to reply, a loud voice from the house yelled at the crowd to give way. You step aside, guided by Al Haitham, as a makeshift stretcher quickly carries something covered by a red-stained tarp away from his house. The smell is unmistakable- it's blood.

You turn to face the house, and this time Al Haitham doesn't block you. You're instantly greeted by a world of red- which you're sure extends further into his house if only you have the guts to check. 

"Who was the last person to see him?" A man sobs- Mr Azmas. "That must be who killed my brother! Find him now! Get the Matra!"

"I met him there yesterday," Al Haitham had pushed past the crowd. "I stayed with him till the late evening, before I-"

You have a bad feeling about this. A shiver, now threatening to break into full-blown trembling threatens to take over your body as you turn to face the green-clad man slowly.

"Al Haitham, what happened with Mr Dilawar?"

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[empress-violetlight]

My Speculative Biology Library

Got talking on Discord about biology (it started with laughing about a pic of a bacteriophage my husband freaked out about) and because we're all sci-fi loving nerds, the topic of speculative biology came up. I'm no biologist (unlike two very talented other discord members), but I love science, and love reading and writing about animal life, evolution, and figuring out how to make my own aliens as "realistic" as possible (i.e. at least scientifically plausible).

One of my fellow discord members (Discordians? Discordees?) asked if I would post my collection of speculative biology "research material", so @admiral-arelami, this one's for you!

In no particular order, with some entries being more scientific than others:

Extraterrestrials: A Field Guide for Earthlings

by Terence Dickinson and Adolf Schaller c 1994

A kid's book, this little volume actually gives a great introduction to the idea of looking at aliens from a more scientific perspective. It starts with looking at some popular sci-fi aliens, then moves on to discussing theoretical planetary environments, and the aliens that might evolve to live there. The cutie on the cover is a creature that might live in the atmosphere of a gas giant!

Speaking of which:

Cosmos by Carl Sagan. c 1980 Both the mini-series and the book. Wish I could find my beautifully illustrated hardcover edition, but oh well.

This absolute classic features an unforgettable chapter where Carl Sagan speaks about the possibility of life in the atmosphere of Jupiter, imagining "sinkers", "floaters" and "hunters", as a small example. I was absolutely blown away and I'm not the only one! Notable sci fi writers like Robert L. Forward and Timothy Zahn (I'm a huge fan, if you couldn't tell by my blog) have both written novels about the same topic. If you're a fan of Classic Doctor Who, the Cosmos mini-series won't disappoint in the aesthetics department either!

After Man: A Zoology of the Future by Dougal Dixon c 1981

Considered one of the most influential texts of the speculative biology sub-genre, and probably one of the first to treat the topic with genuine scientific curiosity. It looks at a world 50 million years in the future, and theorizes about how modern day animals might have evolved during that time, assuming that humanity has gone extinct. Beautiful artwork accompanies intriguing looks at possible animals, all sorted by biome.

After Man is part of a loose "series" along with The New Dinosaurs (a speculative Earth where non-avian dinosaurs never went extinct)and Man After Man: An Anthropology of the Future (what might have happened to humans in the After Man universe, who aren't so extinct after all). I don't have the other two (yet), but the whole "trilogy" is available to borrow (for free, and legally!) on the Internet Archive, so I've read them. Man After Man is messed up.

The Future is Wild c 2002

Basically a spiritual successor to After Man, this 13 part mini series has the same premise -- looking at how modern day animals might evolve in the future -- though it examines different time periods: 5 million years, 100 million years, and 200 million years in the future. I love this series for its creativity, pretty decent CGI (especially for its time) and some absolutely unforgettable animals, like the giant Toratons -- tortoises the size of sauropod dinosaurs! Some of its premises are a little questionable as Science has Marched On, but it's still a really fun watch, and puts as much thought into its wildlife as its predecessor.

Future Evolution by Peter Ward c 2001

This book also looks at possible future life on Earth, but takes a much more pessimistic view of things, and the author honestly doesn't sound like he enjoys the topic at all, which makes me wonder why he wrote about it in the first place. Unlike the previous two examples, he assumes humanity will still be around in the future, and our presence alone basically prevents any cool megafauna from evolving in the first place, and he assumes we'll never make any headway into space either. Kind of a downer, actually.

HG Wells Science Fiction Treasury c circa 1895-1901

The previous entry compared his work to Wells' The Time Machine, and honestly, he shouldn't have. Wells was a visionary. In his novels, long before anyone else even considered doing so, Wells thought about the effects of lower gravity on his Martians and their susceptibility to Earth bacteria in War of the Worlds, the possible future evolution of humanity in The Time Machine, and more on alien life in The First Men in the Moon, to name a few in this collection. The Island of Doctor Moreau is a borderline case, since the "beast men" there were made and didn't evolve naturally, but is still an interesting look at humans' relationship with other animals. Basically, anyone interested in spec bio would be doing themselves a disservice if they didn't read Wells' novels.

The Resurrectionist by E.B. Hudspeth c 2013

Part guidebook, part novel, this work looks at popular creatures from mythology and actually tries to examine them from a scientific perspective, looking at how their anatomy might possibly work, and their relation to humans, if any. Definitely an interesting look at creatures that are usually brushed off as pure fiction, like mermaids, harpies, centaurs, etc.

Speaking of mythical creatures ...

The Flight of Dragons by Peter Dickinson c 1979

The original "Dragonology", this book, which partly inspired the animated film of the same name (which was made by the same studio as The Last Unicorn). Its ideas on how dragons scientifically may fly and breathe fire have been "borrowed" by many other speculative works afterwards, and most theories seem pretty solid. However, I can't ever read this book again after it proposed wildly unfair sexual dimorphism for dragons. It said the cool, fire-breathing giant lizards we all know and love are the males, while things like Medusa or Grendel's Mother, mostly humanoid mythical monsters with barely any connection to dragons, are the females. Yeah ... that killed it for me, I'm sad to say.

The Wildlife of Star Wars: A Field Guide

by Terryl Whitlatch and Bob CVarrau c 2001

This book looks at the animal life of various on-screen Star Wars planets, with specific chapters on Tattooine, Dagobah, Yavin IV, the Forest Moon of Endor, Bespin Hoth, Coruscant (yes, Coruscant apparently has some wildlife!) and 3 separate chapters on Naboo, with a little bit at the end showing off other notable Legends animals (such as fan-favourite Ysalamiris!) Not the most scientific on in-depth book in this collection by any means, but the artwork is beautiful, and at least it tries. I'm really glad I saw it on Ebay!

To Seek Out New Life: The Biology of Star Trek

by Athena Andreadis c 1998

There's a couple Star Trek biology books out there, but I enjoyed this one the most. It doesn't really talk about animal life, but instead focuses on Star Trek's sapient (mostly humanoid) alien species, and tackles some philosophical questions, such as whether artificial lifeforms like androids or holograms count as life -- a topic the shows themselves have wondered about.

The Teeming Universe: An Extraterrestrial Field Guide

By Christine Cline c 2021

The newest book in my collection, the author and illustrator really puts a lot of thought into what alien life might actually be like, using the newly-discovered planet types of reality as opposed to science fiction, like a tidally-locked planet around a red dwarf star. He also assumes humans will be able to go out and explore these worlds ourselves, and that we can make peaceful contact with sapient aliens we may encounter (who will NOT be humanoid!). A refreshingly optimistic and fun look, and very up-to-date.

The Zoologist's Guide the the Galaxy by Arik Kershenbaum c 2021

I had actually completely forgotten that I picked up this book! Once I read it, I'll give a proper review, but considering it's just as new as The Teeming Universe, I'm hoping it will be just as accurate and fun!

[crispy-crust]

top 10 yuris

usually i would answer these asks in a jokinG manner but you've asked me about a topic i am extremely passionate about so prepare for a massive text post

addinG a cut here because this post is larGeee and i don't want it cloGGinG up any dashes

NUMBER 10: hatbow!

at number 10 due to the extreme lack of canon interaction but the fact it's here at all despite how little of it exists is a testament to how much these two have rotted in my brain. Go play a hat in time it's so cute and so fun i wish there was more content of these two

NUMBER 9: kimona!

ah kimona. how i wish there was more actual canon content of these two. this shit made volume 5 for me it's the reason volume 5 is the only volume i own of the hardcovers (for now). there is undeniable tension between these two i refuse to believe bryan lee o'malley wrote this without the intention of makinG it seem romantic. and as a friend once said "they two bad bitches n they kissin each other 🔥🔥🔥🔥"

NUMBER 8: ROSEMARY

iconic in every sense of the word these two are special to me. i have to include them here purely due to how influential they were it's awesome not much else to add here as this isn't one of the ships i'm severely brainrotted about i just think they're neat!

NUMBER 7: lumity!

i used to be biG into these two they're wonderful and it was Great seeinG somethinG like this on modern television. shoutout dressinG up and travelinG toGether (iykyk)

NUMBER 6: weblena

now we're GettinG into brainrot territory. the showrunners said somethinG alonG the lines of "webby won't Get a romantic interest because the show isn't about romance" and i Go "what the fuck are you talkinG about we already had a romantic subplot with her and lena that was clearly the point of all of that" there is a scene in season 1 where webby calls lena a "beautiful idiot" and then looks at her like this

TELL ME THAT ISN'T gAY! YOU CAN'T BECAUSE IT'S gAY AS SHIT THESE TWO ARE SO FRUITY TOgETHER DUCKTALES 2017 I LOVE YOU FOR EVERYTHINg BUT I WISH YOU ALLOWED THESE TWO TO HAPPEN

number 5: sashanne!

much can be said about this ship and the anGst behind it and all that. i'm huGe on sashannarcy as a whole and i considered addinG that ship to this list but i thouGht talkinG about the dynamics of the pairs would be more interestinG sashanne is a stronG case of missed potential to me, a lot could have been done to make their dynamic a lot more compellinG even more-so than it already is and a lot could have been chanGed about the way they handled sasha's "redemption arc" in season 3. season 3 as a whole is a mess that i have many opinions on but that's for another day. despite all the flaws and missed potential this ship still aches me in the best way possible. they were 13 years old at the time of amphibia and they had to deal with ALL OF THAT. at aGe 13 sasha elizabeth waybriGht attempted actual honest to God suicide due to a fiGht she had with anne while lean on me was playinG in the backGround and the world was forever chanGed. amphibia was so held back by so much and the amount of missed potential in it (especially in season 3) kills me but despite all of that this relationship shined throuGh as one of if not the best part of the show for many people. Good shit!

NUMBER 4: lapidot!

NOW WE'RE gETTINg TO THE gOOD SHIT how come even in media that has explicit queerness everywhere i always tend to Gravitate towards the dubiously canon clearly more than friends who were done dirty by their lack of screentime toGether? lapidot is a lot for so many reasons and i'm very much not alone in beinG abnormal about these two. IN FACT REBECCA SUgAR HERSELF DREW HUMANSTUCK ART OF THEM! AND THE OFFICIAL CARTOON NETWORK SOCIALS HAVE RECOgNIZED THIS SHIP MULTIPLE TIMES!! the way these two Grow to be comfortable around each other and learn to live in this new stranGe place toGether is so charminG and so Gut wrenchinG when you're rewatchinG the show and know what's cominG. in the episode where peridot learns to bubble stuff for the first time she sends the bubble off and when she asks steven where it'll Go he says "home" AND THEN IT CUTS TO LAPISSSSSS. SHE THINKS OF LAPIS AS HER HOMEEEEEEE DON'T EVEN FUCKINg gET ME STARTED ON DISTANT SHORE I ACTUALLY SOBBED SO FUCKINg HARD WHILE WATCHINg THAT SCENE IT'S UNREAL they were done so dirty with their reunion as well what do you mean all we Got was a "hey" I NEED TO SEE TEARS AS THEY MAKE OUT DAMN IT!! these two are imperfect and they stumble throuGh this whole life thinG a lot and there are many ups and downs to their relationship but that's what makes it compellinG that's what makes it so Good and damn it at the end they made it back to each other... if we ever Get more official su content and these two aren't canonized in it i will end up on the news

NUMBER 3: stephcass!

yea what did you expect of course this was Gonna be here these two are everythinG to me and every day that passes by where they aren't canon is a day i am in physical pain their dynamic throuGhout batGirl 2000 Gives me life and the anGst that comes from it is delicious the obvious queerbait in batGirls doesn't help this at all. they knew what they were doinG and you can't convince me otherwise these Girls and their relationship persevered despite all the editorial nonsense that tried to split them up and each time they came back stronGer than ever they have such undeniable chemistry and they're universally loved as a pairinG come on dc you would be actually stupid not to put them toGether come on everyone already clocked them like 2 decades aGo

NUMBER 2: junerezi!

dear lord this pairinG has had an affect on me. you really do Go into the epiloGues expectinG roxyGen and then end up on the other side screaminG and clawinG at the walls in the name of junerezi i was hooked on them before i even read meat! the little crumbs in candy were so dense and so impactful to me their dynamic is so incredibly fun to read and their scenes in meat are so painful and so powerful they are the reason i own the epiloGues physically i need beyond canon to be done already so i can see the end of this plotline throuGh i need them back toGether you don't understand june's death in meat while in terezi's arms actually made me feel numb irl for like a week i wish people would Give the epiloGues a chance because they're actually really damn Good and the junerezi is sooooo delicious i cry so hard i usidgfbuiydboguiszdghbfuijdsbvgfyihsdfobuijgbf[9usapigbvfuidjbsfuijdb

NUMBER 1: MARCANNE

spoiler warninG for amphibia

i don't talk about these two often on here, not as much as i'd like at least. but marcy wu as a character and this ship specifically literally chanGed me as a person. there is a reason i still call marcy my favorite character in fiction despite havinG read stories i consider to be much better than amphibia since. and this may sound stupid but i Genuinely do not know if i would be alive today were it not for marcy i started amphibia at a very rouGh time in my life and the character of marcy and the lenGths she went to for anne hit me so incredibly hard due to that imaGine with me for a second that you are 13 years old. a child Genius! everyone around you recoGnizes you as someone who will be incredibly successful later in life you have 2 people who are incredibly important to you. they mean everythinG to you you would Give the world for them and yet those two people cannot be bothered enouGh to enGaGe with you about your favorite movie or your interests in General

marcy Gave up her entire life back on earth just to be able to exist around anne and sasha. she had everythinG GoinG for her earth was her home she Got Good Grades her future looked briGht she was studyinG for the SAT from aGe 13 and earth was where all of her interests were. everythinG she knew. and she Gave that up for anne and sasha. do you know how deeply you have to care about someone to be willinG to do that? do you know how stronG your love for them has to be? cut to true colors. this episode ruined me i won't even Get into the confession scene. i have that scene memorized by heart and i start to tear up whenever i think of it i Genuinely don't think i can handle talkinG about it the stabbinG scene however.

once aGain i remind you this is a 13 year old. imaGine beinG 13 and usinG what you think may be your very last words ever to apoloGize to someone. someone you so deeply care about. you are dyinG in front of them and all you can think to say in that moment is sorry. because you believe they hate your Guts at that moment. could you imaGine GoinG throuGh that?

could you imaGine then wakinG up realizinG you're alive only to be Greeted by niGhtmarish hallucinations of your worst fear. and what's your worst fear in that moment? your friends hatinG you. them leavinG you behind after all that you went throuGh to stay close to them

the first thinG she said when she woke up was "sashy...? anne..??" SHE WAS DREAMINg OF THEMMMM

AND THEN WHEN SHE'S TAKEN OVER BY THE CORE HER FANTASY IS gETTINg TO EXPLORE NEW FANTASTICAL WORLDS ALONgSIDE ANNE AND SASHA!!! ALL SHE WANTS TO DO IS SPEND TIME WITH THE PEOPLE CLOSEST TO HER this is quickly turninG into an essay about just marcy so let me try and Get into some of the more liGhthearted aspects every sinGle scene we see of marcy and anne throuGhout their time toGether in season 2 is the Gayest shit i've seen in my whole life. them sobbinG and huGGinG each other after beinG reunited... anne boopinG marcy and tappinG her on the head later in the episode.. anne tryinG to impress marcy by actinG smart... marcy STANDINg STILL IN ONE SPOT UNTIL THE SUN WENT DOWN IN A DAY AT THE AQUARIUM AFTER ANNE LEFT TO gO WITH THE PLANTARS. ANNE BLUSHINg AT MARCY'S INFODUMP IN NEW WARTWOOD. THEIR ANTICS IN THE SLEEPOVER EPISODE. THE PROCESS OF ANNE gETTINg HER NEW ARMOR AT THE END OF SEASON 2 AND THE WAY MARCY LOOKS AT HER AFTER SHE DECIDESSSS

as previously stated this ship is extremely influential to me and i would not be the same person today without it. i don't even know if i would be here today without it. so i would like to close this post off by sayinG thank you amphibia. thank you matt braly. and most of all thank you marcy wu <3 you are a treasure that i will cherish for the rest of my life nothinG will ever compare to you

[7ndipity]

Serendipity pt.2: 8months, 2 weeks, 6 days ago

Namjoon x Reader

Summary: A recap of how Joon and Y/n met.

Word Count: 1.4k

Warnings: swearing,

A/N: Yay, we finally got part 2! I don’t have a ton to say yet as we’re still just getting started, but I hope you like it!

Masterlist Serendipity m.list

°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•

8 months, 2 weeks, 6 days ago

(Namjoon)

May

Namjoon eased his way carefully through the cramped aisles of the little book shop, the faint scent of worn paperbacks and hardcovers and quiet 90s music a comforting escape from the buzz of the streets outside.

He had wandered in while trying to find a gift for a friend’s birthday, but had quickly gotten distracted as he scanned the titles, lured into adding a few more volumes to his ever expanding to be read shelf at home.

Stepping back to get a better view of one of the higher shelves, he startled as he accidentally collided with another person, stepping on their foot and making them drop the books they were holding.

“Shit, I am so sorry! Are you okay?!” He asked, catching hold of the stand of art prints he nearly sent toppling over as he staggered back.

“I’m fine.” You said with a laugh, quieting as you caught the disapproving eye of the older woman behind the counter. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah I’m good.” He replied, finally stilling long enough to take in your features, staring for slightly too long before catching himself. “Uh, here, let me help you with those”

He quickly knelt to gather up the items you’d dropped, trying to shake himself out of his sudden flustered state.

“Oh,” He frowned as he gingerly lifted a particularly tattered volume, the spine nearly split down the center. “I think I owe you a new book.” He said apologetically.

“It was already kinda like that, that’s why I wanted it.” You said taking it from him.

“Really?”

“Yeah, I like finding old books that need a little love and patching them up, gives ‘em character.” You explained, adding it back to your stack.

He glanced at the cover again. “Jane Eyre?”

“Mhm, It’s one of my favorites.” You said.

“I’ve never read it.” He admitted.

“Really? Well then, here.” You handed the worn copy to him.

“But I thought you wanted it?” He asked, looking at you.

“I was just getting it because it looked like it needed a home, but I think I found it one with you.” You said grinning at him.

He returned your smile. “Thank you.”

“No problem.” You replied, turning to make your way to the counter.

“Wait!” He said, struck with a sudden idea, ducking back around one of the shelves before returning with another book in hand, passing it to you. “Here.”

“Murakami?” You asked, glancing up at him curiously.

“Mhm.” He nodded. “You gave me one of your favorites, let me return the favor.”

“Cute, I like that.” You grinned. “Thank you.”

“Namjoon.” He offered.

“Thank you, Namjoon.”

The two of you made your way to the counter together, reluctant to let your conversation end.

“So, what are you doing after this?” He asked.

“Nothing, why?”

“I was just wondering if you might wanna get a coffee or something?” He offered, hopeful.

You glanced at him, contemplating for a second before nodding. “Okay.”

...

“Wait so, what’s your name?” He asked as you walked along.

“Hmm,” You thought, locking him in with a mischievous smirk. “Guess.”

“What?” He laughed. “Why?”

“I don’t know, just guess.” You replied, biting back a chuckle of your own at his bemused expression.

“Okay, fine.” He turned to face you, studying you for a long moment before drawing a blank.

“Cass?” He offered weakly.

You couldn’t hold in the snort of laughter that slipped out. “Cass?!”

“What? I’m not good at these kinds of games!” He laughed as well.

“Nope, we’re going with Cass, I like it.”

...

“Okay, let me try again.” He sat back, studying you for a moment. Your eyes follow him curiously, a small grin playing at your lips.

You had been sitting together in the corner of the tiny coffee shop for the better part of two hours now, conversation flowing easily between the two of you, talking about everything from work to family to dreams, repeatedly returning to the little guessing game you had created.

“Well?” You asked, shaking him out of his trance.

“Oh, um, I think you have at least one sister?”

“Nope.” You shook your head, making him sigh in defeat. “But people say my roommate and I look like sisters, so I’ll give you half a point.”

“Agh, why am I so bad at this?” He complained, letting his hands fall onto the table with a thud.

“You’re overthinking it.” You chuckled. “You gotta go with your gut feeling and not question it.”

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.” He admitted.

“Why?”

“Because I would've kissed you like three times by now.”

You leaned back in your seat, brows raised in surprise at his sudden forwardness.

“Alright, my turn. You said, redirecting the conversation. “I think… you’re in a relationship.”

He shrugged. “Kinda.”

“What is kinda?”

He sighed. “She moved out, took all of her stuff back to her old place, but I’m still her date for her parents anniversary party.”

“Sounds like a soft breakup.”

“It’s happened before, a couple times. I leave, she leaves, but somehow we always just…?”

“Keep coming back?” You finish for him.

“Yeah.” He nodded.

You shrugged. “Could be fate?”

“I don’t believe in that kind of stuff.” He shook his head.

“Why not?”

“Because doesn’t it kinda defeat the purpose of life?” He asked. “If everything is predestined, then what’s the point of trying?”

“I don’t think that’s how it works.” You stirred your drink as you tried to explain. “I think the universe gives us little signs or signals towards things that can be helpful or useful to us, but how we follow those clues is totally up to us.”

He nodded, but didn’t comment, thinking.

You studied him for a moment before speaking again “I think you’re a good boyfriend.” You said kindly.

“I’m not so sure about that.” He responded quietly.

“I am.”

“Why?”

“Because you would’ve kissed me like three times by now.” You said plainly, making him flush red. “Alright, Favorite word?”

…

It was dark by the time you stepped back out onto the now artificially lit streets, having stayed at the cafe until it had emptied and the staff had to tell you it was near closing time.

“You know, maybe you should give me your number, just in case?” Namjoon said as you walked.

“In case of what?” You looked at him quizzically.

“I don’t know, life.” He said. “I had a really great time with you, I don’t want to leave it up to fate to find you again.”

“That’s not a bad idea actually.” You said.

“What is?”

“Letting fate help figure out if we’re supposed to meet again.”

He gaped at you. “You can’t be serious.”

“Why not?” You asked. “I said earlier that you needed to trust your gut more, this will be a good exercise!”

“You’re insane.” He said, shaking his head at you in disbelief.

“How about this,” You said, fishing into your shopping bag from earlier. “We take the books we picked for each other, and once we’ve read them, we’ll write our names and info in them, and then sell them to a used bookstore and see if we can find them.”

“Which store?”

You grinned.

“You’re not gonna tell me, this is ridiculous!” He exclaimed. “I just had one of the best evenings of my life and you want to leave it up to chance?!”

“Yes.” You chuckled. “If it’s fate, we’ll find each other again.”

“That’s not how it works though!” He insisted. “You’re not even living here full time yet, you think fate’s just gonna drop you in my lap again like today?”

“Yes, you just have to trust it.” You said. “Besides, I think the chances of us running into each other again are pretty high.”

Namjoon wanted to argue with you more, but he could see that you wouldn’t move on this.

“Fine.” He said reluctantly.

“Okay.” You smiled at him. “Then we’ll say bye for now?”

He nodded, still not believing he was going along with this.

You turned to walk away, only going a few yards before turning back to him.

“By the way,” You called, making his head whip back up quickly. “My name’s Y/n, not Cass.” You said, turning and ducking across the busy street, quickly getting lost from his sight in the crowd.

...

January

8 months, 2 weeks, 6 days.

That’s how long it’d been since he made what he fears was the biggest mistake of his life, letting you walk away.

He stared out the window of the cafe, at the same table that you’d shared that evening, the January chill seeming to color the air a faint gray-blue, hoping against his own previous skepticism that fate might give second chances.

[chibivesicle]

Current manga[ish] reading list in no particular order

Neighborhood Story (Gokinjo Monogatari) by Ai Yawaza - I now own up to volume 3 of the English release of the manga. The four volume set is based on what I believe was the 10th Anniversary reprint of the manga in Japan. The French edition also follows the four book format but I think the German sticks to the original seven. I have the original tankobon editions for volumes 1-3 where when you line them up, it creates a long dinner table with the entire cast.

I read the entire manga in the early 2010s via scans and had spent the late 90s to that point praying for an official release after Paradise Kiss was printed by Tokyopop. The series was old enough that in the late 90s early 2000s no one was out there doing the line by line translations that I used to use to read manga. I read all of Wish that way with the original manga and the speech bubble guide. e.g. page 12 panel 5 Overall impressions - this was a white whale for me - I likely bought the original manga when I was sixteen or seventeen based on the art style alone. I would say it falls into your standard dramatic shoujo manga with high school students but the lives of ones in counter-culture, outside the norms of usual expectations. When I read the scans I enjoyed it and while it was nothing mind blowing it is a rewarding read. The various individuals sporting alternative fashions is one of my favorite aspects of it. You have a MC who leans mostly towards mod style (Twiggy from the 1960s) with a strong vintage twist, punk, lolita, generic 90s alternative dude, preppy and your designer brand girl.

I look forward to getting volume 4 and completing the set, just it will be likely 28 years later than I would have wanted. The Rose of Versailles by Riyoko Ikeda - I sprung hard for the recent English hardcover editions. One of my friends lent me her roommates 2 volume tankobon set of this series in 2000, but it too lacked a good translation to find online and read along to it. I watched the anime in 2014 and bought the DVD box set. Of course, I couldn't say no to this classic shoujo manga. I'm through the first three volumes and slowly working my way through it. Seeing that I already watched the anime, nothing in it is overall surprising.

I have noticed that early on the level of gay is pretty high and this current "twist" of Andre getting closer to Oscar is much stronger than I felt in the anime. The entire loss of Rosalie and her fawning over Oscar was a disappointment, also toned down in the anime. There is a lot more questioning with Oscar's character as to who she is, what she desires and how to fit into her world. I really wish it pressed those questions more but alas, I'm really starting to feel the Oscar x Andre pressure ramping up. In the anime I felt like it sort of came out of nowhere and in the manga it is more like - okay Rosalie's crush was cute but real adult relationships need a man. lols. Even with my different opinion on the manga compared to the anime, I cannot stress how owning such a fundamental manga series is. I don't think I'll ever attempt a meta on this - more than enough already exists about this with how long it has been around. Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama - An impulse purchase at The Comic Swap on Allen Street. I'm pretty sure some of the individual volumes of X and other early 2000s manga were on the shelf when I was in university.

I'd heard some good murmurs about this manga and a friend kept recommending it. I can't explain how blown away I was this series. The art style is amazing with little use of screen tones and the emphasis on line art. With the author's previous work for DC and Marvel it shows but in all the good ways as far a composition and again that line art. And we haven't even gotten to the story itself! I have read through volume 3 and the pacing is excellent. It doesn't info dump how magic works and the world building is natural and unforced. It already has brought up great questions about who controls knowledge, disability vs accommodation, dealing with trauma, what is your purpose in life/goals. It has the right amount of whimsy that you feel cozy but at the same time you know when shit is serious.

What I feel the most is that Witch Hat Atelier is intentional with everything in it. It is a carefully constructed story and comes together naturally with a good balance of young pupils and adults. And the character designs! Oh my goodness, I love them all.

The Apothecary Diaries by Natsu Hyuuga - Can't skip my gal Mao Mao. I mean I cosplayed as her back in April because how frequently do you get a pragmatic female lead with deadpan humor and is a scientist who likes plants? I also watched the first season of the anime loving every moment of it and how it really shines with its focus on women navigating a world not made to really benefit them. I decided to read the original light novel instead of the manga based on the light novel. I think by time I finish volume 2 I will have caught up to season 1 and hopefully, pull ahead of the eventual second season which comes in 2025, I think.

Out of all the titles, this one is likely my biggest guilty pleasure as a plant biologist; Mao Mao as a character has a lot of common scientist traits which make her very relatable and fun to see in any sort of media. Her obliviousness to certain things not because she doesn't have an eye for details but because she can't be bothered is realistic but rarely given to a female character in most forms of media regardless of cultural context.

Will I dive into the rest of these series for a meta? I'm honestly not sure. I may do a "quick" review of Gokinjo Monogatari when I complete volume 4 but it isn't the sort of manga that feeds into deep critical analysis. It is a coming of age story about artistic kids and looks cool.

I'd likely be more inclined to tackle Witch Hat Atelier but sometimes I just want to read something and not deep dive into it even if it intellectually feeds my curiosity. My current plan is to catch up on the manga and I'm relying on my county library to read volumes 4-13. If I really like it, I'll probably become a sucker and buy it at some point but I need to be a little more mindful of my manga purchases for the sake of my overflowing bookshelves. I took one of those surveys about how much manga you own and I wasn't expecting to clock in at almost 200 volumes when I've given away/sold/donated them from time to time.

I've got some thoughts on Kekkai Sensen but I'm waiting for the next chapter to drop since it ended on a cliff hanger with that plot twist where the "Count" from previous statements in the manga was not some old frumpy classic Dracula like Blood Breed but instead in a teenage form as Edgar. I liked the twist since I was suspicious of his character but didn't think he might have been the true mastermind of things. But we'd be lazy readers if we'd forgotten that Blood Breeds can easily shapeshift as demonstrated with Girika and Tonio. I will always give her ultimate cougar cred testing out her boy toy before committing to making him a Blood Breed instead of snacking on him.

[austenide]

First published this day, January 28 1813 in three hardcover volumes.

‘I want to tell you that I have got my own darling Child from London;—on Wednesday I received one Copy, sent down by Falknor, with three lines from Henry to say that he had given another to Charles & sent a 3d by the Coach to Godmersham’.

Jane Austen in a letter to her sister Cassandra.

[aclowntiny]

In Every World- Vernon x Gender Neutral Reader

Just a short little reverie I wanted to record 😌

Word Count: 1392 | Bookstore Date, Established Relationship, Fluff | Warnings: none really~

“Do we really need this many?”

Vernon’s deep voice chuckled into your reverie, the fog and beauty of the scent of paper and leather and all that comes with the shelves of volumes you perused. You were practically hypnotized by the bookstore, strolling idly and dreamily through it as if under its spell and falling harder with every spine you stroked.

Gallant as he was, Vernon had offered to carry your purchases or purchase candidates, but that decision had come from a certain ignorance on his part- it was his first bookstore date with you. He hadn’t known you in childhood as your summers filled with weeks of repeatedly taking the maximum number, stack barely doable for you and your mother, had only heard jokes that the bookstore was a dangerous place to take you.

The joke was about your wallet, sure, but Vernon couldn’t help the feeling that it was about his arms, which were starting to strain a bit at having to hold eight books up for as long as you walked around.

At his words, you swiveled on your heels, facing him with a ninth book in hand and eyes half amused, half shining with pity. “We don’t need them, no, and I can cut them down. I shouldn’t get that many anyway. Want to go sit at one of the tables? I’ll try to be fast.”

At that, he shook his head. “No, I want to stay with you. I’d like that better.”

“Then let me lighten your load, please.” He’d insisted on carrying it all for you, but no matter how much fight he put up or even how nonchalant he acted, you knew it was getting tough and that was not fair.

Sighing, button-up shirt rising and deflating with his shoulders, he nodded, relenting and relaxing his grip as you sorted through your candidates again. Skimming the synopses once more, you decided one might be a little uncomfortable, one a bit more generic than the rest, and another frankly too expensive.

Your eyes darted up from the books into the warm brown of Vernon's own irises. "There. I should probably get less than four, so I guess I'd better take-"

As soon as you reached for another, though, Vernon's hand closed over yours, holding it still. "No, it's fine," he told you with a shake of his head, "I want to read that one, so I'll get it."

Your face lit up, bringing forth a chuckle from Vernon, who was already reshelving your most recent grab...and re-elimination. "And that'll bring me down to my usual limit of three!"

"With a freebie," your beloved reminded you teasingly, waving the romance-mystery hybrid tale you both had eyes on in one hand.

“Thank you.”

Vernon waved his newly-emptied hand, the other still clutching his future purchase. “Don’t worry about it. I want to read it together.”

“We can read that one first, then,” you said with a smile as he joined your side again, hip bumping yours gently, affectionately but mischievously towards the shop’s checkout counter.

~

The air was all wind and wash, the showers having faded since morning and leaving behind just enough of a pleasant dew to the sky. The day’s chill was negated by the warmth you shared with Vernon, who gave you his arm and walked down the lane with you pulled to his side, your cheek occasionally falling to brush against the soft suede of his coat.

When you got to the car, he went around to the passenger’s side with you, opening the door and ensuring you were seated before returning to his seat and starting up the drive. One of your hands gently ran over your most ornate purchase’s textured cover, feeling the smooth, cool raised metal designs pressed onto the hardcover, while the other fell atop Vernon’s the moment he rested it lovingly on your knee.

He gave a smile, eyes crinkling, and pulled out his phone to plug in. “Want the aux?”

You shook your head. “You had to deal with carrying all those books! The least I can do is let you pick the music.”

“Cool,” he said with a nod, but you saw his head bob in excitement as he played his newest favorite album, glancing at you with soft eyes whenever you sang or rapped the words you know. You played an air guitar solo at one point just to see him smile and chuckle at you, barely able to keep up with the music, but making your own in the process.

When you arrived home, you pulled your new purchases from their bag, setting them on the coffee table like a trophy on display. Tossing the bag in the recycling, you met back up with Vernon in the bedroom, where he was setting his own signs of the day down.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

Confidently, he gave you a nod and a wide smile. “Oh, yeah.”

And with that, you both set off for the closet, eyes and hands roaming hangers for the perfect find, which they soon locked onto. Vernon exchanged the white button-up he had tucked into his jeans with his favorite red hoodie, the one you insisted smelled the best. Otherwise, he’d have had a different preference altogether. You had a cozy matching top and bottom set you loved- and Vernon didn’t think was so bad either- that you changed into, relieving yourself with a sigh from the going-out clothing you’d been draped in earlier.

“So,” you inquired, hand falling into his with a squeeze, ��yours first?”

“If you’re alright with that,” he replies with two squeezes back.

“Of course I am. I think you could read me anything and I’d enjoy it.”

He cocked a brow at that. “Anything?”

The hand that wasn’t interlaced with his gave him a shove as images of countless ridiculous, possibly even scandalous, things he could be thinking about dashed through your mind. “Don’t push it. I almost bought yours, though, and you did, so it must be special. Come on.”

You allowed Vernon to lead you back down the hall into the living room, where he dropped onto the couch’s plush surface first, and giving you a tug brought you down with him, laughing a bit at the squeak of surprise you gave as you tumbled into his chest. Holding you across him with one arm, he searched your coffee table with the other, finding the book he’d chosen.

You settled in as he reached over you gently to open the covers, voice fluttering over you alongside his heartbeat beneath your ear as the romantic tale began.

~

You’d gotten to the point when the love interests, a pair of soulmates though only one of them knew it, met when you paused, granting your beloved’s vocal cords some reprieve.

After confirming you were enjoying yourself, you hummed, the side of your head now firmly pressed to Vernon’s chest.

“What?” His voice reverberated over your warm skin, swelling the flush there that much more.

"Do you think we'd be soulmates in a magical world like that, bound by words or stars or something of the sort?" You sat up slightly, palming the softness of your couch as your eyes bore into Vernon's, soft brown seeming to melt as his eyelashes drifted faintly shut and open again.

He surges forward, lips pecking yours lightly at first, ramping in intensity at your eager response, leaning in again and again. Your lips meet repeatedly until you're apart inhaling deep breaths, gazes unfaltering as you drown in each other, Vernon suddenly pulling you back into his chest with both arms, his heartbeat entering your range of hearing once more.

"You're so cute," he mutters, "what would I do without you?" With a shake of his head, he speaks again. "I wouldn't. I think my character would be like this one. I'd find you even if there were no soulmates. In every world."

Your heart swells, chest feeling as if the swirling air has grown it three sizes. The kisses had been dizzying, certainly, but those words were what took you on that soaring fairyland journey of love. "I love you," you said, "in every world."

"That's why we explore them all together, right?" He smiles at your loving eyes, nodding to the book. "I love you, too, (y/n)."

[ash-and-books]

Rating: 5/5

Book Blurb: Most fairytales end with a wedding and a happily-ever-after—but this is no fairytale. The updated and official translation of Under the Oak Tree, the #1 webnovel on MANTA. The gorgeous first edition hardcover of Under the Oak Tree: Volume 1 (The Novel) will feature designed sprayed page edges, full-color patterned endpapers, silver foil stamping on the cover, and a ribbon bookmark!   Lady Maximilian is the daughter of the powerful Duke Croyso, but she is rarely allowed outside her family’s sprawling castle for fear that her stutter will tarnish their noble name. When she is forced to marry Sir Riftan, a lowborn knight caught in one of her father’s schemes, Maxi doesn’t dare hope for happiness, let alone love. Her stumbling communication and his gruff manner sour their relationship before it can begin, and Riftan leaves without a word the morning after their vows are exchanged.   Now, three years after their disastrous wedding night, Riftan has returned as a war hero. To Maxi’s surprise, despite rumors that he was offered marriage to Princess Agnes, a beautiful and renowned sorceress, Riftan still wants Maxi for his wife. And when he comes to claim her, his longing becomes a desire that bewilders Maxi, even as she is overcome by the scorching heat that Riftan’s presence ignites within her. As she learns to navigate the intricacies of her new life, Maxi will find herself and her courage, and discover that she is anything but powerless.   This volume collects chapters 1-76 of the original webnovel by Suji Kim.

Review:

I've loved this story for so long and am so happy it's getting a english adaptation! A young woman who has been living a sheltered and abused life is forced to marry a lowborn knight in one of her father's schemes.... yet to her great surprise she finds that there is love growing there and that her own happiness might finally be here. Lady Maximillian is the daughter of the Duke of Croyso and shes been forced to stay hidden in her family's home due to her family not wanting her stutter to tarnish the family's noble name. When she is forced into a marriage with Sir Riftan, a lowborn knight, due to her father's scheme.... she couldn't be more scared. Her timid and shy stuttering nature vs his gruff manor makes their relationship have a sour beginning when Riftan leaves without a word on the morning after their vows are exchanged.... and now three years later he has returned as a war hero and he still wants Maxi for his wife despite rumors that a princess has offered for his hand in marriage.... Riftan has actually been longing for Maxi ever since he met her, he's been in love with her and wants nothing more than to be with her. As she is moved into his world and his home, Maxi must find the courage to claim her own happiness after a lifetime of being powerless, she has to find a way to speak for herself and claim the love that awaits her. This series is one of my favorites and its such a fantastic adventure. I can't wait to read the other official english books and am so happy to be able to read this now!!! It's such a beautiful and touching story of growth, love, and healing, and I would absolutely recommend it!

Release Date: November 5, 2024

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Inklore for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Week in Review (October 1-7, 2023)

Godzilla: Rulers of Earth has evidently been a huge hit for Japanese publisher Phase Six, kicking off a lengthy run of translated and original kaiju comics. They'll be releasing the first 12 issues in a ReMonstered Edition hardcover on Halloween. It's ReMonstered because Matt Frank made some tweaks to his art, although he promises he "didn't, like, replace guns with walkie talkies." The real prize, however, is a new six-page story called "Thinking On Our Feet", starring Lucy Casprell, Kristina Sumres, and Varan! Longtime readers know that I am Not Normal about the Rulers of Earth lesbians and will probably have to import this reprint of comics I already own, as an English release for the six-pager is just a dream right now.

EDIT: @starestream points out that IDW is reprinting all of its Godzilla comics in giant Library Editions, and they haven't done Rulers of Earth yet. (Volume 1, which came out a couple days ago, gathers Gangsters & Goliaths, Legends, and The Half-Century War.)

Legendary Comics launched a Kickstarter for hardcover editions of two Monsterverse graphic novels: Godzilla x Kong: The Hunter and Monsterverse Declassified. They've already vaulted over their goal, unsurprisingly. If you're content with paperbacks, the main news here is a little more information about the comics. Oh, and a glimpse of a new Titan on the cover of Monsterverse Declassified that the campaign studiously avoided naming. (Supposedly it's Abaddon.)

Synopsis for Godzilla x Kong: The Hunted:

A twisted Skull Island trophy hunter baits his trap and sets his sights on the biggest game of all deep within the Hollow Earth in the official prequel graphic novel to the upcoming film Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.

Synopsis for Monsterverse Declassified:

Discover the legends of four fan-favorite Titans - Doug, Behemoth, and Tiamat, plus one to-be-revealed Titan! Join Bernie Hayes as he takes readers down the rabbit hole to reveal classified Monarch secrets and ancient monster myths in the first-ever Monsterverse anthology!  

Godzilla: Here There Be Giants #4 has the series poised to end on a high note, bringing in the Giant Octopus in its final pages. (It's called Oodako here, which is a name I never expected to see in official media, seeing as it just means "giant octopus" in Japanese.) Amazingly, this is its first time fighting Godzilla, despite debuting in a Godzilla movie all the way back in 1962.

If you live in the States and were hoping to see Godzilla Minus One in IMAX, bad news: Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé is now opening on December 1 as well, and IMAX preorders for it have already started. Godzilla's taken on a Queen B before, but concert films are suddenly box office gold (Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour is poised to open with $125 million domestic, higher than any 2023 superhero movie). The subtitled period piece doesn't seem to stand much of a chance, Godzilla or not. Still, keep an eye out.

A black-and-white version of Shin Godzilla called SHIN GODZILLA:ORTHOchromatic will play in a handful of Japanese theaters on the last weekend of October. I'm guessing the film has been regraded (the announcement mentions that Shinji Higuchi and AD Katsuro Onoue supervised the project), so changing the settings on your TV won't perfectly replicate it. But it's a hell of a lot cheaper than a plane ticket.

[b-else-writes]

The Great CLAMP Re-Read Part 10: Magic Knight Rayearth

Part 1 (RG Veda) | Part 2 (Man of Many Faces) | Part 3 (Tokyo Babylon) | Part 4 (Duklyon) | Part 5 (Clamp Detectives)| Part 6 (Shirahime)| Part 7 (X)| Part 8 (Chunhyang)|Part 9 (Miyuki-chan)

In 1991, Sailor Moon was launched in the magazine Nakayoshi, aimed at younger girls. It kicked off an era of fantasy and magical girl-oriented manga, and CLAMP were scouted to publish their own in Nakayoshi. Rayearth is very dear to me as my very first CLAMP story, as the anime aired in my country in my kindergarten years. Released in two parts, Part 1 ran from 1993 to 1995 in 3 volumes, followed by Part 2 from 1995 to 1996, again in 3 volumes. It spawned a two season anime, an OVA, multiple video games, a forthcoming new anime, and countless merch. I purchased the 25th anniversary release, a lovely hardcover version that allowed me to appreciate and reflect on a childhood love as an adult.

I've discussed how X ended CLAMP's 90s run, both in art style and thematic content, but I do think Magic Knight Rayearth was the beginning of that end. The mega-hit cemented their rising star, and proved that CLAMP's favourite themes could be meaningfully applied to a younger audience they'd never reached before. While Rayearth does not entirely stick the landing, it cannot be overstated its impact on the magical girl genre as it deconstructs and reconstructs ideas of girlish purity, innocence, and power systems in a thematically brilliant combination of philosophy, fantasy, and video game tropes. Some imagery from Rayearth has remained with me forever, a testament to its emotional impact. Heavy spoilers!

Synopsis: Three colour-coded Tokyo middle schoolers are summoned to the world of Cefiro, where the strength of your heart's will can shape yourself and the world. Princess Emeraude is Cefiro's Pillar, spending all her days praying for Cefiro's peace. But the priest Zagato has kidnapped Emeraude, and Cefiro is crumbling. The trio, revealed to be the Magic Knights of legend, must journey and level-up, video-game style, to unlock the mashin and save Cefiro. But all is not as it seems about Emeraude's kidnapping - and should the happiness of a world rely on the prayers of one single girl? Who will pray for that girl's happiness? Can such a world be truly beautiful?

The Story: Initially, Magic Knight Rayearth feels charming but a bit rote - especially in 2024, with a glut of bad isekai out there. Cefiro isn't a terribly fully-realised world and we never meet its ordinary citizens - though the pace means we don't really notice. Hikaru and Emeraude embody the classic pure-hearted shojo, who valiantly fight against the evil adult sexuality the likes of Alcyone and Zagato. Yet, the rote nature of the girls' fantasy video-game quest is precisely part of Part 1's entire deception: Princess Emeraude is not a child, but an adult woman trapped in the confines of the Pillar System that demands she remain a sexless little girl and pray for the happiness of others, instead of her own. The Magic Knights exist to kill the Pillar, following their pre-scripted roles to the one of the most haunting moments in manga where they have no choice but to kill Emeraude.

Its such a brilliant deconstruction of magical girl tropes that usually valorize girlish innocence, where everything can be overcome by the purity of one's heart, and fantasy RPGs, of a perfect princess and an evil dragon. The Magic Knights never consider Emeraude's humanity or free will, only her relation to her society, playing the video game only to realise the entire system is broken and at its heart, Omelas-style, lies a suffering child. Its bone-chilling as the girls celebrate that they've saved Cefiro by killing Zagato, unaware Emeraude is losing her mind. Its not to say Part 1 doesn't have some structural narrative issues: its pacing, while relentless (I could not stop reading Vol 3 in particular) can feel uneven (the Forest drags, while Ascot's turn is too fast and cheesy), the prat falls get tedious as an adult reader, and its meta-narrative of formula to critique formula is better understood on second readings. Still, I loved so much of what Part 1 ambitiously tries to do on a thematic and structural level and it is a gripping read.

Part 2, CLAMP admits, was written very quickly because it was not expected to happen - and personally, I think Part 1 is much stronger than Part 2. Part 2 tries to meaningfully address the trauma the girls have experienced ("the weapons I made became instruments for your suffering" from Presea was one I had to write down), but it does gloss over the culpability and tragedy of Part 1 - I hated that Emeraude was happy in death to placate the girls. A lot of stuff feels retconned in, and the lack of driving narrative means the story treads water in unnecessarily long bits with Fahren and Chizeta and the Magic Knights are mostly reactive. I also cannot take god Mokona seriously.

Still, I enjoyed Part 2 for the strong arcs of characters like Eagle, Hikaru, and Umi, and the conversations about whether a world built on the suffering of another can really be beautiful. Despite how silly god Mokona is, I do think the ending is a fantastic answer to Part 1: the only way to save Cefiro is to break the entire system and rebuild it again where everyone must, together, make society worth living in. Hikaru becomes the new Pillar not because of her purity - indeed that self-sacrificing Christ-like behaviour is what gets Emeraude in trouble in the first place - but because of her earthly refusal to accept anyone else sacrificing themselves for others AND her belief that we have to trust and try to make society better. It's a very mature look at empathy and compassion and individual vs. collective happiness, handled for children to understand, and its lush, badass, and emotional to watch Hikaru save Eagle in the process. Yes, its cheesy and sloppily paced (it is for 12 year olds and I do have to remind myself of that), but damn if it didn't move me. As I keep saying, CLAMP has never written a character I've loathed!

Despite its inconsistent quality, I do think it is good to read both Parts 1 and 2 for how they overall deconstruct and reconstruct magical girl manga in a way that moves away from rote roles of purity and self-sacrifice that bog down the genre, in a story that is overall fun and deeply emotional.

The Themes: I can absolutely see how Rayearth was written concurrently with X (Mokona tossing aside Earth for its corruption). But these same themes of what makes life, and the world, worth living, are taken in fascinating new ways. Here, CLAMP's favourite concept of "destiny vs. free will" explores destiny not as a divine system but a societal enforced structure. Emeraude believes she's fated to only pray and thus her loving Zagato destroys everything, but this is the result of her accepting that the system is infallible and unchangeable. She is the Christ-figure maiden trapped in the world tree to support it, but who needs redemption not from the divine Eagle, but the earthly Hikaru, who teaches self-love. Nobody in Cefiro (or beyond) can conceptualize a Pillar-less world. The people of Cefiro accept the game's logic and play it, but - as CLAMP loves to remind - we are individuals and our choices have meaning and power.

And this leads to a really interesting theme of whether peace bought too dearly is even worth it - is collective happiness more important than individual happiness? Happiness, CLAMP does remind us, is different for every person, but comes out on the side that individual suffering suffuses the whole system. Self-sacrifice - like in X! - does nothing but lead to suffering from the people who love you and holds no glory. And who can't love a story that tells little children that we have to find a way to live that allows us all to be happy?

There's also a really interesting gender dynamic that I rarely see discussed by fans that I find fascinating. Shojo is infused with pure-hearted innocent heroines who face off against "phallic mothers", that is, adult women who embody sexuality and power in contrast to acceptable female roles (there's a lot of very interesting discussion on whether shojo is actually feminist that I feel bypasses Western audiences). At first, Rayearth seems to follow these tropes - the girls and Emeraude are shojos, while characters like Alcyone (a sexually mature woman who is characterized as evil for loving Zagato when he doesn't love her) are phallic mothers.

Yet the finale twists this - Emeraude is another phallic mother whose "selfish" love for Zagato has transformed her into an adult woman that must be killed. And killed she is, as shojo tropes demand, but no happy ending comes. Emeraude was not selfish, but human, and failed by a system that demanded this of her. Part 2 never lives up to the potential set up by Part 1 - Hikaru remains a shojo who can't recognize Lantis is confessing to her - but it was something I really enjoyed chewing over in Part 1.

The Characters: While the girls might seem typical at the start, CLAMP has a real charm for making cliche work for them. Fuu is much quirkier than the shy meganekko trope, and Umi. Umi was the stand-out for me as the most dynamic of the bunch, with such a wonderful character arc across all 6 volumes from bratty rich girl to compassionate, brave warrior. It is she who recognizes the world isn't beautiful and her own naivete, she who finds inspiration from her friends to like herself more, she who grows up! The supporting cast is equally charming, and I loved the tragedy of Emeraude and Zagato.

While Lantis is a fine Yasha-style giant guy, I really adored Eagle by the end and his relation to Hikaru and Emeraude. Hikaru is s a highly static character, but her deep self-love and determination are impossible not to love. There's something just so compelling about his mirror of Emeraude and especially Hikaru, who frees them both by absolving them of their self-denying divinity. Their entire arc is a beautiful reaffirmation that we are humans who deserve to live and find meaning in that. I would say the character I cared for the least was probably Ferio, who never shows either comedic charm (Caldina, Ascot) or inner depth. But he appears so minimally that I can wave aside that he's a boring, paper-thin love interest.

The Art: I'm in two minds when it comes to Rayearth. There are some truly stunning moments in the artwork and visual motifs. The very idea of making an Art Nouveau magical girls in a fantasy RPG world led to so many incredible creative design choices (though Hikaru's skirt in her final armour bothers me. Metal and fabric don't fall like that). The silent two page spread where the girls murder Emeraude will likely haunt me for the rest of my life. Emeraude's hair pearls transforming into her crystallized tears is such a brilliant twist on the established visual motif. There's a lot of highly inventive panelwork that lushly moves between the real world and contemplative spaces.

On the other hand, because Cefiro is not the real world, CLAMP could not use their trick of scanned photo backgrounds. The result is a distinctive lack of backgrounds that were especially frustrating because I felt like I had no idea what these fantasy spaces look like - and RG Veda never had this problem! There's one particular hand-drawn Tokyo background that looks horrendous in how sketchy it is. Rayearth definitely reflects CLAMP's burnout period in that there are definitely more corners cut, like with the constant chibi scenes (very classically 90s, but not something I've ever enjoyed) and heavy use of screentone to mask lack of background. It's still visually stunning, but it's definitely not their drawing peak. Would I still frame some of these pages? Absolutely.

Questionable Elements: Presea makes an off-colour Native American joke. The designs of the Chizeta and Fahren characters lean heavily into cultural stereotyping of the "Orient" - they at least are real characters in the story, but they really irritated me for quite a long time in the story because of how glaring this is. Especially when Aska says white-ish, blue eyed blonde Emeraude is a "true princess". It makes the epilogue's (very good) moral of "we were all made different so we can learn from one another" fall a bit flat if CLAMP themselves made no effort to actually learn from people unlike them.

Overall: While Part 2 of Rayearth never quite lives up to the potential set by Part 1, the entire series overall is such a refreshing take on the magical girl genre, even 30 years on. Its meta-narrative and postmodern reflections on the genre and its blend of magical girl tropes, philosophy, fantasy and JRPGs, and unique and timeless visual influences has led to a series that has withstood the test of time - and many of its peers that similarly attempted to be the "next Sailor Moon". I think, unlike them, Magic Knight Rayearth has such a strong CLAMP fingerprint upon it - it is their humanist and occult-flavoured take upon the genre, and for that it affirms the value of individual human life, each one, and our choices, in being necessary to create a society that will last, not divine action.

It is a story about stories, making it fascinatingly ahead of the curve. And while its child audience means that it lacks subtlety and nuance in many ways (and frankly Nanase Ohkawa has the subtlety of a brick in her writing in general), I can't deny how much it has remained with me all these years and I find something new to love in it each time. It warrants being one of CLAMP's hits for these reasons, by taking apart the genre set up by Sailor Moon to say it is not pure-hearted divine princesses who will save the world, but our selfish human love that will fight off entropy, every time.

[arecomicsevengood]

Jack Cole's Plastic Man

I recently discovered that some volumes of the Plastic Man Archives, those fifty dollar hardcovers issued by DC, can be had for fairly affordable prices these days. I had always heard that Jack Cole was one of the few Golden Age cartoonists whose work held up - Some would advocate for Will Eisner's work on The Spirit, but Cole's work, being more explicitly comedic seemed like it might come closer to E.C. Segar or other strip cartoonists whose work I know to be enjoyable. I'd read a little bit of Plastic Man before - his origin story, as reprinted in Jules Feiffer's The Great Comic Book Heroes, is not that impressive, but is ingrained in my memory due to poring over that book at my grandparents' house as a kid. I also know that I read the Art Spiegelman and Chip Kidd Jack Cole And Plastic Man: Forms Stretched To Their Limits book but that was much later in life and so I don't remember the stories reprinted nearly as much as I recall the Chip Kidd of it all: The scans from newsprint, the ephemera. There are only a few complete stories in that book.

I do wish there was a single volume best-of, in an affordable softcover, rather than a series of eight hardcovers, committed to completism. There are also now four softcovers, put out by PS Artbooks, that reprint four issues of the Plastic Man series at a time - I believe there is some overlap with the archives in the first two of these volumes, but that with the third they get to reprinting material DC didn't get around to. I also believe that PS follows the "scanning from old issues" method preferred by Spiegelman to the "restored and made crisper" approach seen in the DC Archives books. I don't know, of course, if my personal taste in what I think is the strongest material would align with that of the editors of a hypothetical best-of. I'm sure there are great discrepancies between my taste, those of an editor at DC Comics, and Art Spiegelman's when it comes to contemporary work, but I would also like to think that, when evaluating work from the 1940s, our collective tastes would approximate those of the theoretical modern reader. I believe we'd all agree that The Granite Lady, from Volume Five, with its reoccurring gags of men being suicidal due to a beautiful but indifferent woman, or the same volume's Thinking Machine, with its prefiguring of AI played for laughs, constitutes top-shelf material. Volume 3 is a little more consistently high-quality than volume 5, but not by much.

But beyond selecting the stories that hold up as comedy, that are able to maintain a certain velocity, there is the cartooning itself to observe the oddity of. There is a peculiar way these panels move from panel to panel, which is abnormally solid: Often it seems like the figures are made of clay, and they and the camera are being moved around a stop-motion diorama. There's a way of foreshortening the bodies and backgrounds that gives the comics a sense that the spaces have been realized by the artist with perfect precision before he laid his pen to paper. This is most in evidence with Woozy Winks, Plastic Man's sidekick, a big fat guy wearing polka dots and a straw boater hat, but there is always a sense of solidity, of moving the reader through the space of the page by identifiable props. A big part of this is the gag of Plastic Man himself, how he disguises himself as an object then reveals himself later.

Cole shows Plastic Man stretching within the panels themselves, which are set out in a standard three-tier page. He doesn't go for wacky byzantine dynamic layouts that have Plastic Man moving throughout the page. There is something inherently deadpan or understated, which is both a big part of why these comics work and something that people trying to adapt Plastic Man to a more traditional superhero comics framework miss. Plastic Man is now owned by DC Comics, and when he shows up as a character, he is played as zany, while the sense of humor in Cole's comics is situational and occasionally dark. In a non-Golden Age context, it makes sense to play the character for what he can do visually, but playing the cartooning broader leads to different calculations as to how the timing would work.

There are other factors in play as to why later incarnations may not work as well. Over time, the idea of a humorous superhero veers into superhero parody, which then gives way to head-up-its-own-ass self-referentiality. This is a trap even very funny people can fall into. Jack Cole is simply telling stories, that require very little from the reader in terms of background knowledge they need going in, and he elaborates on his basic premise, time and time again, becoming reliably entertaining. I don't think I need many more of these collections beyond the two that I have, but two volumes of classic comics is generally my limit: That's all I have of Carl Barks, Floyd Gottfredson, E.C. Segar, and Cliff Sterrett. Cole easily ranks among those guys, a great entertainer for a broad audience.

[askmalcador]

ff+ Kusig Alad (Aka the Emperor of Mankind)

Dunno why you posted this anonymously.

Malcador smelled smoke. A peek out his tower window revealed some kind of fire all the way down in the courtyard. From the look of it, the Custodes were burning what looked like...

"Burning BOOKS? he gasped. He reached out his hand and his metal staff flew obediently into his hand. He hastened down the tower stairs and blew into the courtyard, his green Sigillite's robe whipping around him.

"You best be burning copies of the Lectitio Divinitatus!"

There were two Custodes, and he didn't recognize them immediately. Both were holding boxes of cheaply reproduced booklets or pamphlets.

"They are...not," the one on the right admitted.

"It is traitorous, though," the one on the left added.

"Then I should know about it. I should know about every potential danger to His Majesty!"

"These are not a danger," said Right Custodes. "Lord Dorn ordered us to--"

"Lord Dorn oversteps his boundaries. Let me see those."

The two Custodes looked at it and then placed the boxes on the ground in front of him. They made no attempt to put the fire out.

Malcador grunted as he bent over to take a look. The contents appeared to be what used to be known as "zines". Political zines, given that he and the Emperor were on the covers. Malcador picked one up, opened it up and--

There was a double page spread of himself and the Emperor. They were on a lightly sketched out enormous bed and they were...

"Good Lord!" Malcador exclaimed. He dropped the one he was looking at and pulled another out at random. This one was hardcover, with a full-color dust jacket that depicted himself with youthful, androgynous features and his robe slipping from a bare shoulder. The Emperor loomed behind him, one hand touching his exposed skin.

Malcador dropped it into the box. "Have these sent to my quarters. I will inform the Emperor."

"You want to...read these...my lord?"

"Wouldn't you? I'm burning with interest as to what these I presume to be young women think about their highest levels of government." He glanced at the second box. "They certainly don't have any idea of what He and I look like."

+I think they have flattered you immensely, my friend.+

I look pretty. You know how I feel about seeing myself prettified.

+Oh, let it be. I will meet you in your apartments.+

The boxes were consigned to delivery servitors and Malcador returned to his private office. He was alone in the massive chamber except for some docked servo-skulls and his cat curled up in a corner of a battered, overstuffed sofa.

Malcador continued to skim through the volumes. There were stories as well as pictures, and the content had come from a wide array of language groups. He could read most of them, but the stories were somewhat repetitive.

+I think the ones about the Primarchs tend to be better+

Malcador turned around to find the Master of Mankind standing behind him, smiling gently. He was wrapped in a toga with no tunic beneath, His long black hair framing His noble features.

"I confess I am not sure how I feel about these," Malcador admitted. "Should I feel honored in a strange way? Violated? Disrespected?"

+They are a labor of peculiar love+

"Are they a danger to the Imperium, do you think?"

+I think they are a sign of public approval.+. The Emperor took a number of them into His hands. +The way they draw Me...+ He turned a page towards Malcador. The image showed Him with only His leg armor on, the better to frame and display His...

Malcador sniffed. "They intend that to be alluring, but I know better."

The Emperor settled onto the sofa. +I find many of these images of you to be alluring indeed.+

"More alluring than the reality?"Malcador asked, testing.

+No.+. The Emperor took Malcador's hands in His own. +But these children have some creative minds.+. He tipped His head to one side. +I think that we could mine these for inspiration in our vie de couple+

"We have been in a dry spell together," Malcador said. He picked up a stapled paper zine which had himself on the cover with bulging muscles Malcador had never possessed. "I can't compete with this, though."

+I don't know about that. This looks like a position we could achieve, provided you relax with a few glasses of wine.+

Malcador smiled up at Him. "You know where my wine cooler is. I trust You to select an appropriate bottle."

[magicalrocketships]

Books!! Thanks to @officialmood for the tag :)

An estimate of how many physical books I own: Me, staring at my bookcases and doing an estimate per shelf x number of shelves... maybe 500? (and if you include ebooks, then there are 304 books in my to read folder and 339 in my read and keep folder). AND I did a big clear out before I moved last year. And took four bags to the charity book shop earlier this year. I cycle a lot of second hand books in and out tbh.

Favorite author: There are loads of favourite books and I could pretty much go on about most of the books on my shelves, but I think I could continue to lose myself in Lois McMaster Bujold's books over and over and over again. I know that Georgette Heyer books are very much Of Their Time but it is also true that if I ever need a comfort read then I know what to reach for.

A popular book I've never read and never intend to read: Godddddddddd. Liza said Infinite Jest and I also have zero intention of ever reading this. But SO MANY.

A popular book I thought was just meh: Red, White, and Royal Blue. I did not get along with Wolf Hall, but I also didn't get that far into it before giving in.

Longest book I own: Toss up between the Neal Stephenson Baroque Cycle volumes, War and Peace, Samantha Shannon's The Priory of the Orange Tree (although I've lent this out and probably won't get it back), and Victoria Goddard's Hands of the Emperor / At The Feet of the Sun. They're all pretty chunky, without doing any specific investigation.

Longest series I own all the books to: Elinor M. Brent-Dyer's Chalet School series (approx 62 books, depending on which editions you own). After that, Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series.

Prettiest book I own: I don't own any where the cover is the prettiest thing I've ever seen, but I do own a queer historical photography book where together the inside and out is the prettiest visual history. Some of my books are v pretty because of the way they make me feel, but that's a different question.

A book or series I wish more people knew about: Maybe Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard? There's a core few of us that feel a lot about it. One of my very oldest internet friends that I haven't seen in years sent me a package earlier in the year that was just a notebook that had reminded her of this book and therefore it was a necessity to share it with me (she was right to do this). I also kind of want more people to talk to about Joan Aiken's Black Hearts in Battersea series.

Book I’m reading now: I'm listening to Jingo by Terry Pratchett, have just picked up the second Sandman volume, and I'm partway through Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield (although I realised last night that it was too creepy for me to read in bed, lollllllll)

Book that’s been on my TBR list for a while but I still haven’t gotten around to it: BRB just going to stare into an invisible camera, my goodreads to read pile is 462 books long and is only made up of stuff that I own / once owned and is probably not up to date with paperbacks. Let's say The Simarillion, because I've probably intended to read that since I was a kid (and have not yet managed it). I've read 133 books so far this year and yet my to read pile never gets any fucking smaller.

Do you have any books in a language other than English: Nope. I used to own some HP books in German and Latin but I did not keep them. I am not very good at languages, although me and the Duolingo owl are trapped in a daily standoff.

Paperback, hardcover or ebook?: Mixture of all three. Love a good paperback but I am... gently allergic to paper, so sometimes if I've read too many paper books my hands pay the price, and on the whole I do believe that skin should stay on my body, where I've put it, rather than peel off and bleed. A healthy mix of ebook and paperbook in general, with the odd hardback.

People have probably already done this, but tagging @junkshop-disco, @magog83, @dearmrsawyer, and @pennyplainknits.