#Tainted Shadows

[gingersanps]

Does Gin absolutely obsess over this anime/manga/light novel? Absolutely. Do my students at the school think I'm crazy? OH ABSOLUTELY! But, anyway, I've been working on this behemoth of a story for weeks now. I've decided to upload it on Ao3, because others were enjoying it. I have 8 chapters written, and 6 of them are uploaded on Ao3 for your viewing pleasure. I will not be uploading the other two until I get at least three more chapters written. I plan to have an upload schedule as well. Please pop over and take a look! Mio is my blorbo at this moment, and I'm enjoy her "it's complicated" relationship with Dazai Osamu.

[abyssalcookie]

-sees all the SM PV Aus- That's great and all, but how about I throw a wrench in the pool of SM Aus?

This is due to a few strings of events happening.

My friend asked me what would happen if Shadow Milk Cookie temporarily gained control while the heroes were distracted by the dough monster and reached Licorice? -

My rp between Licorice and @milk-and-trickery that involved this thread [ still on-going ]...

And then i kept seeing all these AUs and my brain spat out this goblin.

I chose Tainted Licorice Cookie instead of "Blueberry Licorice" purely because of the title of the rp. I can't get this little bastard out of my head.

[fiendishartist2]

man. do you ever think about how paul and care are forever tethered to each other?

[crabs-with-sticks]

Just finished reading The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett and one of the many things I loved about this book was the way that it represented neurodivergency. I don't think I've ever read another book which has explored that to this depth (granted I haven't really gone out of my way to do this).

Like, Din having dyslexia was really influential to the plot and his character arc, but also wasn't like the only thing he was struggling with. And I loved seeing Ana being just...well very Ana, aka very autistic coded.

The moment at the end of the book (spoilers I guess) where there is just a beautiful moment of neurodivergent solidarity between the two. How Ana tells him that she chose him BECAUSE of his neurodivergency, and how she saw it as a strength. How she believes that the empire needs to be able to work for all of them. Low key made me emotional.

Anyway, would highly recommend the book. Its a fun murder mystery fantasy book with leviathans, spontaneous eruption of trees from the body (not a euphemism), and two very neurodivergent detectives with a very funny and endearing dynamic.

[pocketramblr]

Au where quirks exist ever since the beginning of humanity but thought the last 200 years they started becoming rarer for no explainable reason

"for no explainable reason"? Not "because someone born two hundred years ago started eating them all"? Well, both can be true I suppose

1- humans have always had quirks so just go ahead and disabuse yourself of the idea that world history looks anything like ours now. Any boundaries humans have drawn between themselves or their spaces are totally different. Anyway, our story is set on the island nation of Akitsuba, which has begun to receive reports of children who are born without quirks- it seems impossible, but apparently the child born in Canton Province to two glowing parents but had no light himself was not the result of an affair. He is genetically both his parents child - just, without any unique plus alpha factor at all.

2- when the news breaks, Setsuji looks over at his twin brother. The two stay in a group home, and on the record, they have a spike quirk, just like their mother did before she died at their birth. In truth, Setsuji can take others quirks. He assumes he took his brother's in infancy, which why the boy can't use them, but now he wonders if his brother was in fact simply born without. He doesn't say anything, but his brother does- whispering it at night, apologizing for assuming his brother took it all this years ago and refused to even try to return it, but there's simply nothing to return, is there?

3- more people are born quirkless over time, and more people lose their quirk to AfO over time. Ujiko theorizes that quirks would get too strong, so both quirklessness and AfO are evolutions to prevent plus alpha self destruction. That is, sadly, a generous view- quirklessness is largely viewed as a horrible strange disability, and suddenly quirks become more important. Few people before had jobs that specifically used their quirks, but now no one wants to be mistaken for not having one. Many people campaign to treat and 'fix' quirklessness, trying to force activate one, study and prevent it, etc. Just go ahead and assume all the terrible things that can happen with this mindset, it all happened.

4- by the time of canon, however, quirklessness has been around for two hundred years, and it isn't going away- clearly the opposite. about half the population of the world has no quirk, and the number's hanging around 45% in Akitsuba when our main character, Akatani Mikumo is born. He's quirkless, and lives in the capitol of Higakyou, as schools there are required by law now to no longer require certain or any quirks. It's an election year, so his first semester of high school all anyone can do is talk about the candidates- especially Yagi Toshinori, a bit of a symbol for quirkless politicians and one people thought would run years ago. Mikumo, who helped Yagi carry groceries home one day and didn't recognize him outside of the bright suit, camera lights, and makeup, makes friends with a few kids at school. (Ochako, and the twins Tokoyami Fumikage and Kuroei- while the latter has a quirk, the former does not).

5- Then one day, Yagi is kidnapped, vanishing on live tv through a smokey warp. Mikumo doesn't know what to think about that, until he runs into the man on his way home from school- clearly in bad shape, with strange dark eyes that glow with some quirk he shouldn't have. Mikumo helps Yagi hide, and asks what happens, and how he can help. (AfO decided to end Yagi's use as a symbol by forcing a quirk on him and controlling him, but one of his brother's successors managed to break Yagi out first and give him his brother's quirk, allowing him to fight against AfO's quirk and withstand them safely. As for what Mikumo can do to help... he's done far more than he should already, a kind boy, but that answer isn't going to be good enough for him- he's determined to do more anyway.)

[exaltedhysteria]

Probably been done but I’m genuinely curious so

(For the record since I’ve seen this crop up, I’m sure this isn’t like a good/evil option, I myself think the colours on the names are just like ‘what would Jade have named them/what would Stalker have named them’ - I picked Orion myself.)

[necromancyandtendrils]

"Tainted Licorice"

[ Main verse / Starter with @milk-and-trickery ]

--------------------------------------------

"You could do so much more.. you know that, right? Dark Enchantress Cookie may have the means, but she lacks the method. But you.. you want power. Do you truly think she will give that to you?" A testing voice, eyes of blue peering between the cracks of shadows in the Laboratorium.

Even in the aftermath of Matcha Cookie's tantrum, work was proceeding apace once more.

And there was a certain, very awake beast who was reaching his tendrils out across the land. To latch onto anything while the heroes were distracted by the little 'big' mistake born from this lab.

( From @milk-and-trickery )

~Prologue~

It had been a long day for him. He had not only had to deal with the aftermath with Matcha Cookie, but the mission with Pomegranate Cookie was also stressful. Which was originally a recon mission, turned into a scuffle with a strange cookie with weird jelly magic.

After all was said and done, he was exhausted, but he wanted to return to his research. He was hungry for power, wanted to be stronger, and wanted to prove further that he wasn't weak! His fight with this Candy Eye Cookie wasn't a fluke! She yielded to HIM.

As he continued to read over his books, taking notes, he felt his eyelids slowly feel heavy. He attempted to shake himself awake, trying to focus harder, but eventually, tiredness took him over...

Licorice Cookie found himself in the lab, making sure nothing else exploded again while he was gone. Gods forbid Matcha Cookie lost her temper again or something.

Then without warning, a voice that seemed to be emanating from the walls called out.

"W-what?! Who?!"

Licorice looked around, he was startled by the voice. As he became more observant, he saw eyes peeking from the cracks of the walls, he stared back before looking up at the ceiling.

"Heyy-HEY! Don't you DARE talk like that about Dark Enchantress Cookie!" He snapped back

Power? Power?! Of course, he wanted power! But not give him any? No of course she would give him power! R-Right?

Unless...

Pomegranate Cookie-!... No no no! It's his turn! it's his time! He will prove to her that he is the better one! HE-...!

He stopped himself with his thoughts and shook it off. He then took a deep breath and raised up his hands, attempting to play it cool with... Whatever this thing was. It hasn't quite clicked just yet to whom Licorice was actually talking to.

"W-well what makes YOU think you know her better, HMM? Just who are you anyway? What kind of big shot thinks he can do better than the great Enchantress Cookie herself?! You must be mistaken!"

He scoffed crossing his arms, he wasn't going to easily give in to... Whatever this was.

"What do you know? NOTHING! That's what!"

[doublelsatan]

This sums up today's stream accurately. Yep, mhm, 100%.

That whole stream was chaotic. Also, he isn't asking. Another option is to bust a move.

Best meme lol

[recallback-art]

Did a second run of Shadows over Loathing because I wanted to do an evil run. I had far too much fun with this guy and I am perhaps even more attached to him than Cecil because sometimes you need a guy who loves being fucked up.

He's not even evil, really, because that would imply he cares about what he's doing.

Bonus picture that's a vital contribution to their dynamic:

[bonefall]

Okay I’m fixated on this too much, but how do they know Tom’s soul is gone? Do they see it being eaten? Imagine existing as a ghost for one second after being crunched just to get eaten again

They don't! Only Clear Sky was there when One Eye ate Tom, and he probably didn't stick around to the end of the gruesome ordeal.

One Eye said something about the taste of his soul, and Skystar knew something was very wrong. It clicked, in that moment, that One Eye wasn't here to bring him power. Or the revenge he wanted against all the cats who had humiliated him, and 'killed his cats' at the First Battle.

He was being fattened up for slaughter. And that's when he decided he needed to work with the others, to get rid of the threat he'd invited into the forest.

[six-improbable-things]

I adore the end of Shadowheart's personal quest. Specifically her final confrontation with the Mother Superior. After letting that woman control so much of her life for so long, she just walks away. She doesn't give the Mother Superior the attention she so clearly wants. Because that woman doesn't deserve it. Especially not from Shadowheart.

And I'm not sure if this is because I'm romancing her or not, but I love that she told my Tav "I know you'll choose well", and had no opinion on what I did to the Mother Superior afterwards.

[ladynicte]

I lied I still have more Nico Hestia besties stuff to go insane over

Particularly about young Nico who just found out that Greek mythology is all real, and his sister just left his side for the first time since he can remember, and now he's staying on an overcrowded cabin with a bunch of older kids who also don't know who their parents are.

Nico who as excited and ready to accept the situation still feels kinda lonely, who has only ever known safety by his older sister's side or, on the shadows.

And Hestia sitting by herself, as goddess of the hearth, keeping the fire shining really bright, and in the process creating the most dense, constant shadows right by her side.

Nico who now sits right next to her, feeling the safety of a new friend and of the shadows.

They are helping each other out.

[asurius]

I blacked out and when I eventually came to, the day was gone and I had made two Monkeys in Hero Forge

[quoteablebooks]

Genre: Fiction, Adult, Fantasy Mystery

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Content Warning: Murder, Body horror, Death, Violence, Blood, Ableism, Drug use, Classism, War

Summary:

In Daretana’s most opulent mansion, a high Imperial officer lies dead—killed, to all appearances, when a tree spontaneously erupted from his body. Even in this canton at the borders of the Empire, where contagions abound and the blood of the Leviathans works strange magical changes, it’s a death at once terrifying and impossible.

Called in to investigate this mystery is Ana Dolabra, an investigator whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities.

At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol. Din is an engraver, magically altered to possess a perfect memory. His job is to observe and report, and act as his superior’s eyes and ears--quite literally, in this case, as among Ana’s quirks are her insistence on wearing a blindfold at all times, and her refusal to step outside the walls of her home.

Din is most perplexed by Ana’s ravenous appetite for information and her mind’s frenzied leaps—not to mention her cheerful disregard for propriety and the apparent joy she takes in scandalizing her young counterpart. Yet as the case unfolds and Ana makes one startling deduction after the next, he finds it hard to deny that she is, indeed, the Empire’s greatest detective.

As the two close in on a mastermind and uncover a scheme that threatens the safety of the Empire itself, Din realizes he’s barely begun to assemble the puzzle that is Ana Dolabra—and wonders how long he’ll be able to keep his own secrets safe from her piercing intellect.

Featuring an unforgettable Holmes-and-Watson style pairing, a gloriously labyrinthine plot, and a haunting and wholly original fantasy world, The Tainted Cup brilliantly reinvents the classic mystery tale.

*Opinions*

Robert Jackson Bennett’s other series, The Founders trilogy, was so well received, that it made me interested when this book came out earlier this year. This is compared to a fantasy Sherlock Holmes and Watson (that is like the first line of the description on Goodreads) and while I think that is a fair comparison to make, that does not take into account the huge amount of world-building done in this novel that I think is the true highlight. At its heart, this is a murder mystery, but all the bones and muscles that surround it are what this a truly enjoyable read for me.

The narration follows Dinios Kol, an assistant investigator of the Iudex who has recently been assigned to the eccentric Immunis Ana Dolabra. As the Iudex division is tasked with finding justice when crimes happen within the Empire when the body of a dead Engineer is found at one of the most influential family’s homes with a contagion growing out of his body, Din and Ana are tasked with finding the murderer. Especially because the death happened on the lands of the Haza family and it is unclear if they may be involved or a target of this assassin. The investigation takes Din and Ana out of their smaller town and into the beating heart of the effort of the Empire to keep the Leviathans from making landfall. With the loom of another Leviathan attack, Din and Ana find that many more individuals have been killed with the same contagion, and clues that point to more than one murderer may be at play. Yet, corruption runs deep in the Empire and soon it becomes clear that Din and Ana will only be able to rely on one another. 

This novel reads like a police procedural and I don’t mean that in a bad way. As someone who grew up watching CSI, NCIS, Criminal Minds, and those types of shows, there was a familiarity to the structure of this novel. We are introduced to the first victim, we get information that leads the team to believe that something else is going on, more victims are found and then it is a race to find the killer(s) before they strike again or strike a member of the team. Now, I am not saying that this book is predictable in any way, but Bennett did not reinvent the wheel with the plot structure. I don’t think that every novel needs to do something weird or different, there is comfort in knowing the way a story is going to go even if you are unsure of the steps it will take. As someone who did countless assignments to Law and Order in the background, there was a coziness to it even with all the death and gruesome events that took place.

I think the mystery itself is well crafted so that the reader can pick up on clues while reading so when Ana or Din come to a conclusion, you can follow the logical steps of their explanation to get there. A pitfall that a lot of writers fall into with a Sherlock-esque character is that their leaps in logic are not backed up with textual evidence so the reveal doesn’t feel earned, but just told to the reader. I also hate when the reader is not given the information needed to solve the mystery, it makes it feel as if the writer wants a big twist instead of a fulfilling conclusion. I don’t feel as if Bennett fell into this trap and whenever Ana explained her thought process, it was the aha! Moment it was meant to be. I also appreciated that Din was not just the assistant in her eyes, but also made a number of connections and discoveries himself without Ana’s assistance. He wasn’t just a vehicle for the story, he was a character. 

My favorite part of this novel, however, had to be the world that Bennett wrapped around his mystery. It was lush and dangerous and you are just dropped in to figure it all out. Everything that we are presented with, from the idea of the contagions to the leviathans, to the augmentations and grafts, to the Empire itself is fascinating and I would read a whole novel just about the history of this world. This novel does have a feeling of science fiction about it because it is obvious that science has a large part in this society, but then the Leviathans put it firmly in the realm of fantasy. Bennett’s descriptions are visceral and so well done that I felt like I was in the jungle, or the mud, or looking at a dead body right alongside Din. I cannot wait for other books to see this world expand further.

While in the acknowledgments of this novel, Bennett stated that Ana ended up being close to a Hannibal character, I think she was given enough humanity throughout so that the reader cared about her without her ever being soft. Much like other brilliant minds, she is eccentric and incorrigible and oftentimes rude, but she is also given enough moments when it comes to Din that you see her as a person as well. Then there are small moments where you see that she does care for Din and doesn’t want him to be injured during the investigation. I think having her being overstimulated easily so she had to have her eyes blindfolded, leaving Din to be her eyes, not only is a great plot device for him to be the active member of the investigation but also made her have a vulnerability aside from the inability to talk to people properly. 

Din grew on me throughout the novel. During the first fourth I did not like him or Ana all that much, but the mystery was interesting enough to keep me interested. However, by spending all the time close to Din and what he was thinking and experiencing, I started to care about him and worry when he was put into numerous dangerous situations. I also appreciated that both he and Ana have disabilities that they have to find workarounds to manage. The small bit of romance in this novel was so sweet and so well done, I appreciated its addition to the story, even though it was a small part of this whole novel. I don’t know if we’ll see them together again, but what we got was a perfect accent to the story. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this reading experience and gave this a 4.5 rounded down to a 4. I got this from the library but I am totally going to buy a copy and continue on in the series. I need to know more about this world if nothing else. 

[marksman-ofthe-mist]

something something "what is his problem", etc. Assorted ALFIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[a-queer-kitkat]

joe mama makes horrible life decisions while obie the oboe hobo fucking dies more at 11