#also . chapter three is coming. eventually. i have 15 Plot Points i need to cover and im on 7/15

[daforged]

hi i need you to know that your DE fic is one of my absolute favorites and ive read it at least seven times over at this point. thank you for writing!!

:’) thank u …….

[shypotato-translations]

QTVW Chapter 15

Showbiz* Sexy Queen (II)

----

The expression on Mu Lan's face froze as she felt her eyes blacken at the thought of the cannon fodder girl's odd wishes.

But no matter what, now that she has entered this mission world, then the original owner's wish must be fulfilled.

She sat up slightly and twisted her head to look at the glass of the car window on her left, which reflected a blurred young woman's face, and she thought to herself: from this moment on, she was Mei Mu Lan, and she would definitely take that Highland Flower, Ling Yi Yao, and pick it off, tie it up and play prop play together afterwards!

Silence….

It feels like something is broken….

Mu Lan slapped her face and retreated back to lie on the car seat….

She sighed helplessly, then picked up her purse, which was on the passenger seat, and took out her mobile phone and looked through it.

After unlocking the screen, she found that the screen saver was a costume from a youth movie that Ling Yi Yao starred in when she first started out. In this film, Ling Yi Yao's cheeks are still youthful and florid, her expression is cold and hollow, but under her eyes there is three parts deep love, three parts ignorance, three parts tenderness and finally a deep hidden fear.

In this film, she plays a high school student who is forced to enter society at an early age, and she shows the recklessness and stubbornness of this generation of young people in the face of the dark side of society.

For this role, Ling Yi Yao won the Best Newcomer Award and became famous.

The original owner was also attracted to Ling Yi Yao because she saw this movie and has been a fan of Ling Yi Yao ever since.

Mei Mu Lan once again sighed a sinful sentence, and when she saw the screensaver on her phone, she had no desire to change it, because in the original owner's phone, apart from a few friends' phone numbers, the remaining 32G of memory were all pictures and videos about Ling Yi Yao.

She ignored the picture and looked at the time, realizing that it was already three o'clock at midnight, and it happened to be the day of the university graduation party, the original owner died today and she crossed over, so she had no memories of the future now except for knowing the plot.

After drinking, the original owner drove dizzily towards Ling Yi Yao’s villa and ended up dying on the road.

Mei Mu Lan rubbed her forehead, she had just finished receiving the plot and memories and felt a dizzying sensation in her brain, coupled with the desire of the cannon fodder girl this time, it was really odd.

She thought helplessly that it would be better to find a place to rest for the night and plan the rest when she was sober.

With this in mind, she sat up, turned on her electronic search engine and, after looking at her current location, thought it would take her about two hours to get from here to Mei's house ; And it's still over an hour to Ling Yi Yao’s villa ; And it's only a ten-minute drive from Aunt Wen, Wen Xueluo's home.

Mei Mu Lan remembered that in the original owner's memory, there were many images of Aunt Wen.

Because this person, her biological mother's best friend, was also considered her godmother, although she had never called her that.

But when she was young, her birth mother and Aunt Wen were the best to her, and whenever she wanted something, Aunt Wen would find it for her.

After the death of her biological mother, the original owner had a fight with Father Mei because he immediately proposed to marry her stepmother for marriage, and she moved in with Aunt Wen for a long time, until the original owner went to college and lived at the academy.

And on Saturdays and Sundays when she was on holiday, the original owner would come back to stay with Aunt Wen's family, because of this reason, in Aunt Wen's villa, there was a room that belonged exclusively to the original owner.

Mei Mu Lan took another look at the navigation route before starting the car and driving towards Aunt Wen's villa.

Fifteen minutes later, Mei Mu Lan arrived at the door of Aunt Wen's villa, she parked the car and got out, walked to the door and rang the doorbell, after about half a minute, the door opened.

A mature woman in her early thirties with elegant features opened the door, she was wearing a thin silk nightgown at the moment and her long, wavy hair was in a messy manner, when she saw that the visitor was Mei Mu Lan, she raised her eyebrows and pulled the door open, then picked up a long, thin female cigarette at the door and lit it up to smoke.

In a haze of smoke, she saw Mei Mu Lan change her shoes and step into the living room, then asked,

“Aren't you at a college party today? Why, the party's over.”

Mei Mu Lan shook her head, sat down wearily in her chair and said lazily,

"Not yet, I left early, I just got back from a drink and I'm so dizzy."

Aunt Wen immediately took a few steps forward, lifted her hand and touched Mei Mu Lan's forehead, and said with a tsk,

“You have a fever, you know you always have a fever when you are drunk. Go, go to your room and stay there, I will get you some medicine.”

With that, she headed upstairs.

Mei Mu Lan looked at the background of her departure and frowned. She rubbed her brow, feeling very dizzy indeed.

But the original owner didn't seem to have this problem, or maybe the original owner didn't realize it, because she only got drunk twice and had no memory of it after she fell down. And Aunt Wen was able to know about it, it seems that Aunt Wen was really good to the original owner, ah.

Mei Mu Lan felt a lot of emotions in her heart, then obediently went back to her room and lay down on the **.

A strong smell of alcohol hit her nose and she sniffed her body and sighed helplessly, thinking to herself that she would take a bath tomorrow, she really had no energy left now.

She opened her eyes and looked at the ceiling, noticing that there were several blurry posters taped to it.

She pulled on the lamp in front of her bed, the light came on and she could see the person on the poster clearly, it was Ling Yi Yao.

Then she turned her head and looked at the layout of the room and noticed that the walls were covered with Ling Yi Yao’s posters and photos ; There are also small pictures of Ling Yi Yao on the bedside alarm clock and decorations ; And on the other side of the **, there were Ling Yi Yao character dolls all over the place.

Mei Mu Lan's scalp tingled as she looked at it, the intensity of this star-chasing was simply terrifying, worthy of being a brain-damaged fan, even thinking of Ling Yi Yao when she was dying.

And while she was staring at the doll, Aunt Wen came in with a glass of water and a medicine dish, and when she saw Mei Mu Lan's dull and stiff expression, she said,

“Auntie Wen knows you like Ling Yiyao, but you don't need to stare at her every moment. Come on, take the medicine first, it has some sleeping ingredients, after you finish taking the medicine, get some sleep, Auntie Wen has good news for you tomorrow.”

She smiled mischievously at Auntie Wen, then with a furrowed brow and a drooping mouth, she stuffed the pills into her mouth, drank water and swallowed them, and after taking the pills, she said "Thank you, Auntie Wen" and fell asleep with her head tilted.

When she woke up, she first washed and showered, changed into her home clothes, then went to the living room and saw the note on the table, which read,

“Auntie Wen has heated up a bowl of sweet porridge in the microwave, remember to eat it when you get up, I'll be home at 6pm and have something to tell you, don't run away!”

Mei Mu Lan curled her lips, went to the kitchen to heat up the sweet porridge, walked to the dining room and ate it in a sober manner.

Once she had eaten, she went back to her bedroom, locked the door and took a pen and paper out of the drawer to write down the main points of the mission.

First : The original owner's wish is to play prop play with Ling Yi Yao, the difficulty factor of this task is much more challenging than that of raiding the villain, so this matter can be put off until after she raids the villain, then just use some tricks to complete this matter.

Second : The original owner's mother died in an accident, but after Aunt Wen's investigation, there are a lot of strange things about this matter, the original owner's mother may not have died in an accident, but was killed by someone else. Then, she needs to get this matter investigated.

Third : And the most important question of all, which is, who was the person who killed the original owner? How did the original owner be given the □, and will they take a new course of action after seeing that she is not dead? These were big questions for her life, and she had to find out.

With this in mind, Mei Mu Lan recalled her skill collection. Her favorite skills include Future Physical Arts and Basic Firearms, so it seems she needs to spend some time practicing Future Physical Arts to become proficient, and keep her weapons ready for the enemy's secret attack.

With all of the above, the second and third are confusing, so all that can be done at the moment is to raid the villain.

The villainous BOSS, Ling Yi Yao, is currently a big star who is still acting. At this point in time when she crosses over, Ling Yiyao is filming a tomb raiding movie.

In addition to Ling Yiyao, who played the lead role, two other important female supporting characters were involved in accidents that prevented them from continuing their roles in the film.

In the plot, it is mentioned that because the actor playing the supporting actress unexpectedly withdrew, the main lead of this novel, Bai Jieying, with the help of the male lead, entered the cast and played the role of this supporting actress, and eventually became famous and became the best supporting actress of that year.

After that, Bai Jieying was chosen as one of the leading actresses in the film 《Love in a Fallen City》for her outstanding performance in the film, and collaborated with the movie queen Ling Yi Yao to perform a Republican human-ghost lesbian relationship.

This first domestic lesbian film created a national and international uproar and, as a result, Bai Jieying became the talk of the town and won many international awards, setting up her future as the most popular film queen ever.

When Mei Mu Lan thought of this matter, she couldn't help but frown, this matter would become the □□□□□ of Bai Jieying's fame, for many reasons, Mei Mu Lan decided to replace her in this movie, so as to rip off the villain.

In the plot, it was cryptically mentioned that Bai Jieying's appearance in 《Love in a Fallen City》 made the villainous BOSS of this novel, Ling Yi Yao, fall in love with her, and after learning that Bai Jieying was her uncle's lover, Ling Yi Yao was ruthless enough to kill her uncle, who raised her. Two relatives, who live together, have become enemies in order to win over Bai Jieying.

The male lead chooses to be patient in the face of Ling Yi Yao's ruthless advances, but Ling Yi Yao does not repent and instead becomes more aggressive, even hurting Bai Jieying's feelings, so the male lead chooses to be righteous and kill his enemy, and the villain Ling Yi Yao ends up as a corpse in the wilderness.

As soon as Mei Mu Lan thought of this, she immediately made up her mind that she must win the supporting role in the tomb raider movie.

But how should she fight for it?

The asset she has on her hands is this exquisite and demonic skin, and every move she makes is flirtatious and enchanting with a twinkle in her eye, in addition to the fact that the original owner grew up studying theatre and grew up in a strict family of educated people, she is not only charming and attractive, but also carries the unique nobility and arrogance of a woman from a noble family.

It must be said that the character she crossed this time was a rare beauty. Mei Mu Lan drooled with emotion at the woman in the mirror, her face and body were indeed the most beautiful and stunning she had ever seen.

Mei Mu Lan reached out and stroked the silhouette of the woman in the mirror, the corners of her mouth pursed and a wicked smile was drawn up, the woman in the mirror was like a seductive demon, with a soul-stirring charm.

Now, the body's hardware is perfectly prepared, and she's on a mission to play acting itself, so her acting skills, too, are definitely of a high standard.

So, everything is ready, all she needs now is an east wind.

Mu Lan walked into the living room and sat down on the sofa, deep in thought about how to create an east wind that would allow her to enter the cast of this tomb raider movie.

As she frowned in deep thought, the villa door opened and Aunt Wen walked in carrying two boxes of cakes, she saw Mei Mu Lan sitting on the sofa at the moment with a clear sadness between her brows, her breath caught in her throat, she lowered her head, changed into her slippers and by the time she raised her head again, she was back to her usual gentle self

She walked over to Mei Mu Lan and sat down, unpacked the cake box, packed it up and handed one to Mei Mu Lan, then she poked the soft cake with her fork and said in a slow voice,

“Mu Lan, a friend of Auntie Wen's is a big director who recently ran into some trouble while making a film. He wants to find an actress of your type to be the supporting actress in his film. Auntie Wen already sent him your photos the other day. After he saw them, he was satisfied and said he wanted to meet with you to talk about them, I wonder what you plan to do?”

Mei Mu Lan asked with a tilted head as she savoured the sweet cream,

“Who is this great director? What was he filming?”

“His name is Wang Ye and he is a well-known director in China. He is recently making a tomb raiding movie named, I can't remember the name, I think it is called 《The Tibetan Antelope》? It's not right, is it?”

Aunt Wen frowned in confusion.

Mei Mu Lan said with surprise,

“It's《The Burial Man》, Auntie Wen, you're my idol, I want to go!”

This is the film, this is the tomb raider film in which Ling Yi Yao stars as the female lead, now everything is in place, she must seize this opportunity.

[8requiems]

A Webcomic Review of “Garden Club Detective Squad”:

Oh God Oh Fuck did someone just die?

By: 8Requiems

The Description:

“Gardening and solving crime aren’t what straight-A student Yeon Han thought she would be focusing on at her new school. But when she discovers a notebook that contains clues to a 15-year-old murder mystery, she and the other members of her new gardening club realize the murderer not only has access to the school -- they probably work for the school. Can the gardening club squad figure out who committed the murder even though the principal and their teachers seem desperate to cover it up?”

Now, this description is quite detailed, maybe a bit too detailed.

This comes down to personal preference, but personally, I don’t like seeing the plot in thorough detail before reading the story, especially if it is a mystery.

If it were me, I would write the description as:

“In her attempt to not become a backwater girl, Yeon Han eventually decides to become the President of the Gardening Club. But she’ll soon realize that maybe she might have bitten off more than she could chew”

This description may be a bit rudimentary, but it shows an idea of what my ideal description for this webtoon would be.

It says just enough about the story while also leaving enough to imagination. But the current description at present shows what the first 3-4 chapters are. Had the description not even mentioned the teachers, I probably wouldn’t have considered they were trying to cover anything up to begin with.

That being said, I did read chapters 1-3 of the webtoon blind. And I have to say, I didn’t expect the unassuming colorful cover of this Webtoon to show such menacing and dark panel off-rip.

(A panel from the first scene in Chapter 1)

But, let us familiarize ourselves with the cast, shall we?

Characters:

Yeon Han - The Brain:

Yeon is an honor student who moved outside of Seoul, presumably due to not having enough money to stay. Despite this turn of events, she doesn’t want to become a “backwater girl”. For the sake of her academic record, she decides to settle on becoming the class president. But her peers are just amused at how cocky she was despite being new to the school.

(A panel in the middle of Chapter 2 ^)

When that fails, she decides to settle on becoming the president of an after school club. But forget becoming president, they wouldn’t even allow her to join on the basis that she is too qualified. BRO, THE LITERATURE DISCUSSION CLUB HAS THREE MEMBERS. ONE INCLUDING A BODYPILLOW FOR FUCK SAKES. Part of me wanted to laugh but part of me also felt insulted for her.

I expected her character to be the “genius that finds a niche that she enjoys compared to other activities they would usually dominate at”, but she is already fed up with how hard gardening actually is. Not to mention the amount of faculty and students who ask favours from her.

It was a very pleasant surprise, because now I can rightfully assume that while she works on her cases, she might pick up skills from the gardening club. Dare I say, she actually comes to appreciate and enjoy it as a hobby? I guess only time will tell, as this is still a very new Webtoon, with 12 Chapters out as of this review’s conception.

The one thing I have on my mind at the moment, is if her range of skills she currently has will be useful when tackling the murder case.

Whether or not that is the case, I have high hopes for her as a character.

Mirim Shin - The Spiritual:

Although I said I have high hopes for Yeon, I think Mirim is my favorite character. As the daughter of a priest, she is in tune with her spirituality on a whole other level compared to her club mates. 

An interesting tidbit about her is that she decided to practice all forms of faith before her baptism. I can only assume it’s so she could have an idea of what could have been, before deciding to lock in on one specific faith.

Honestly, I genuinely didn’t expect for her to say something like this, not because it sounded ridiculous, but because up until that point, it felt like her spirituality was just a running gag that came with her character.  

It was nice to see her character expanded upon, and I hope the other characters get the same treatment, even if it is only brief.

Baekji Kang - The Muscle

Then there's Baekji, who easily wins in cool factor. 

I can’t say much other than that in addition to being a part of the garden club, she is also in the Judo club. Although the story doesn’t technically address it, I feel like she fills the role of pseudo-leader / Vice-President of the club. 

She’s cool.

Saessak - The Green Thumb’d Romantic?:

Ssaesak is a soft-spoken girl who attends to the garden's needs as one of the two members of the garden club. 

She is unexpectedly a romantic, being interested in bad boys.

I only found her annoying for a brief moment because it seemed like she was going to hold back information on her latest crush, Hyeonsu Jeong (the lunch guy), before finally finding the resolve to give a possibly game changing piece of evidence to Yeon.

She’s alright.

Execution:

Despite the mostly positive things I have said in this review, my first impressions of Garden Club Detective Squad were more negative in comparison to the opinions I shared at present.

When I read Wizard of Arsenia, I had overblown expectations because my editor Nen had already recommended God of Bath, a webtoon I have now come to really appreciate. I assumed I would love it in the same way.

My expectations were what held me back from what I usually do best: Sit down and just enjoy the show. Granted, I still hold opinions about it that I believe hold back the story, but the opinions were way fairer than what I could have said.

This time around, I made a similar mistake.

I decided on my own to read Garden Club Detective Squad for this review, and held expectations for the mystery element of the Webtoon, which was reinforced by the first panel I showed in the review. Thankfully, even if the webtoon didn’t live up to whatever expectation I had, I know that I could still appreciate it for what it was because I just went with the flow. At worst, the mystery could come across as contrived.

(A panel from the first scene in Chapter 1)

That being said, somehow, I was disappointed. Even a bit annoyed 5-7 chapters in. Disappointment is one thing, but why was I annoyed?

At first, I was thinking it was because the story had a problem with how it presented tension. After all, the webtoon is categorized as a mystery, so I criticized it as such.

In my original draft, I wrote the following: 

“The webtoon is categorized under mystery, but I don’t really feel the urgency of the case whatsoever. I feel like I am getting whiplash between moments that I feel are supposed to be serious and moments that are just ‘slice of life’ hijinks.”

I hadn’t taken into account that, although it was a “mystery”, it functioned more like a “comedy”, like God of Bath.

I feel as though the Webtoon was miscategorized. I use God of Bath as an example because it could have easily been categorized under “Action”, because of the Ttaemiri battles. But despite these battles, because of the way dialogue is presented, it is understandably under the comedy genre. Moreover, the action was more of a vehicle to tell the stories and values of the characters themselves. In other words, even if you were to take out these action elements, God of Bath would be fundamentally the same.

But according to my logic, does this mean that if this webtoon didn’t have mystery elements, it would be fundamentally the same? 

No, and I do not think it would be the same if the webtoon didn’t have the comedy elements either.

To be perfectly clear, just because I think Garden Club Detective Squad is a comedy, it doesn’t mean that I think it shouldn’t present mystery elements, or vice-versa. But I wish Webtoon could at the very least categorize it as both a “mystery” and “comedy”.

Who knows, maybe my opinion will change as more and more chapters get uploaded. Or rather, I hope it does.

Personally, despite my position towards the webtoon being a comedy, it isn’t all that funny.

And as of the currently uploaded chapters, I think the mystery is all right.

In my opinion, what makes a good mystery is having all the clues presented to the characters and the reader to be able to solve the case. To understand 52chu’s take on mystery, I’ll break down the first suspect, Hyeongsu. Take this scene the beginning of episode 6 for example:

This scene is trying to insinuate that Hyeongsu is the killer. The dramatic irony of this scene, Saessak’s photo of Hyeongsu dumping bones in the garden, and the story deliberately pointing out that there are no cameras in the cafeteria/garden area are the three pieces of information the story provides to help the indirect claim.

(A panel from Episode 8 ^)

(A Panel from Episode 9 ^)

(A panel from episode 8 ^)

But it was all a misunderstanding. Whoops, my bad. “I was just trying to help you all”.

(A panel from episode 9 ^)

It's almost comical how much the plot just wanted to frame Hyeongsu, I can’t help but laugh.

All forms of evidence lead to Hyeongsu, except the fact that the bones were the remnants of ribs from past cafeteria specials:

(Panel from episode 9 ^)

(Panel from episode 9 ^)

If you were able to pick up the possibility, then great. But somehow, Hyeongsu’s mini-arc just fell flat for me. Whether you knew this one detail or not, it feels like I’m going to be dragged from suspect to suspect in the future. Everyone one of them will be the “killer” except for that one contrivance that makes them innocent. Honestly, I firmly believe that it isn’t any of the faculty.

You know what, here's my Trademark 8Requiems theory. The culprit is Chair Juyeong. 

(A panel from Episode 6 ^)

I don’t mind the club reaching dead ends, but if there aren’t elements that could at least help me identify who the real culprit is, I doubt I could enjoy it as much as I’d like to.

Conclusion:

Reading and understanding this Webtoon has been somewhat of a ride. Although it is still ongoing, I have mixed feelings on whether or not I want to continue reading. But despite the gripes that I have with it at the moment, I think I will continue reading it just to see where 52chu takes the story.

You will likely enjoy this Webtoon if you like stories where the plot focuses on the reader having fun with the misadventures of the cast.

But what do you guys think? Do you think my criticism was unfounded? Do you think it really *IS* a mystery, and that I am looking at this Webtoon in the wrong light? Talk about it in the comments below.

And as always,

Arrivederci Brothers. May you attain your grain.

[mbl17]

Old Friends 4 Sale

One of the most ironic sentences we can give you from Neal Karlen’s new book This Thing Called Life: Prince’s Odyssey On and Off The Record is when he writes “If Prince reappeared again, I was sure, he would die a second time the moment he saw what was being done in his name, memory, and supposed honor” (Karlen, Prelude). Neal took this jab at other associates in the book’s prelude yet went on to dishonor the man he says he loved too. These folks are starting to sound like a broken record now. Quite a few people claim to have loved Prince Rogers Nelson but won’t miss an opportunity to breakdance on his grave for pay. Or to get out whatever grievance they have over some perceived slight from decades ago. Or both.

Neal Karlen is a journalist who became friendly with Prince in 1985 when he interviewed him for his Rolling Stone cover story. Neal and Prince maintained a relationship for 31 years that consisted of late-night phone calls about life, love, music, sports, and all the things friends talk about. Neal says he last spoke with Prince three and a half weeks before he died. The odd timing of the conversation left Neal feeling shaken and Prince didn’t sound like himself either.  Neal was so worried that he reached out to C.J. (yes, the probable Billy Jack Bitch inspiration) to interview him for Minneapolis’ Star Tribune just days before Prince’s plane made the emergency landing in Moline, IL. This was a supposed plot to anger Prince enough to get him to call Neal again. Really Neal? Despite 31 years of contact with Prince there was no other way to initiate a conversation with the man besides providing an interview to C.J. and saying you’re waiting for Prince to die and other ridiculous tidbits? We’ll take backtracking and flip flopping for a $500 because Neal knows these quotes are a bad look.

In 2019 Neal was asked by a friend of a friend if we really needed another Prince book? He admits that he had no answer until he was reminded of the thank-you note Prince had written to him after that first Rolling Stone interview. The note said “Thanx 4 telling the truth!” and Neal believes this gave him the reason he needed to write the book. To tell the truth about Prince. Whether or not this is Prince’s truth is up to you. Just like it’s up to you to decide if the things written in This Thing Called Life needed to be told at all even if they are true. Either way, we wish Neal had just come out and admitted that he’s here for a check and attention just like the other associates he has disdain for because they’re behaving badly. We’ve learned that lots of people who knew Prince seem to have their version of the truth about Prince and somehow their truth becomes more true than anything Prince ever said about himself.

One of the most alarming things that Neal recounts is Prince’s alleged discussions of suicide that began in 1985 when the Purple Rain tour abruptly ended. Neal says that Prince admitted to hurting himself on several occasions throughout the tour and feeling like no one would notice. In a nutshell, Neal Karlen doesn’t believe that Prince’s accidental overdose was quite so accidental. He sees Prince’s untimely death as a passive suicide because Prince never recovered from the loss of two children and blamed himself for not having the life he planned to aside from the music.

Passive suicidal ideation — thinking about, but not planning, one’s own death.

Wow. That’s a hell of a psychological assessment from a man whose lane is journalism. Then again Neal is inclined to think that Prince might have been cognitively impaired and had savant syndrome while condescendingly referring to him as “ignorant”, an “extraordinary nitwit” at times, and an autodidact who had read books that looked interesting, but was still full of “ignorance and misinformation”. Are we talking about Prince or Rain Man here? We’re not sure if Neal even liked Prince very much aside from his musical genius because he takes perverse pleasure in taking Prince’s persona down a notch whenever he can. In Chapter 15 Neal describes a 1998 visit from Prince that is beyond disturbing. Neal says he had broken a leg and Prince called to check on his recovery. During the conversation the topic switched to the unlimited Percocet Neal had received for pain management after his surgery. Neal found it strange that Prince offered to come by, and what was supposed to be a well-meaning gesture ended with Prince allegedly downing a third of Neal’s Percocet like candy while looking like “Uptown’s skankiest panhandler” (Karlen, Chapter 15). “Uptown’s...skankiest...panhandler.” Let that sink in. The audacity of THIS guy to call John Bream an ass clown.

Another questionable portion of the book has Neal discussing the tragic birth and brief life of Amiir Nelson. Neal says that Prince “faux-consulted” Mayte after Prince had already made his decision to turn off Amiir’s ventilator. He recounts a conversation with Prince six month’s after Amiir’s death and grossly describes a man who had just made a decision that most of us hope to never be faced with as speaking in a tone that “was flat and carried with it all the ain’t-that-a-shame emotion of someone killing time by recalling, shot by shot, a very, very bad movie that he’d wanted to walk out of but couldn’t” (Karlen, Chapter 13). It’s funny that Neal gives a nod to Mayte Garcia’s 2017 book, The Most Beautiful, which directly contradicts whatever Neal is working hard to imply here. In Chapter 9 of The Most Beautiful, Mayte says she was the one to suggest that they let Amiir go while Prince tried to persuade her to let the doctors perform additional procedures. She knew their baby was suffering and eventually Prince AND Mayte agreed together to take Amir off the ventilator. Now we’ve given Mayte a hard time around here over some things since 2016, but why would anyone take Neal Karlen’s version of events over Mayte’s?

It isn’t lost on us that Neal Karlen takes a direct hit at Prince’s portrayal of his parents and childhood in his own autobiography, The Beautiful Ones. Although Neal calls the book “artfully-written”, it’s easy to see that he had issues, big issues, with Prince being less than truthful about his life. It’s a running theme throughout This Thing Called Life. If Prince had made peace with Mattie and John and forgiven them for any sins and/or chose not to rip that bandage off again, did Neal really need to go there? It’s obvious that Prince had troubles at home that caused him to land at Andre Cymone’s house, but why is Neal so offended that Prince wasn’t always truthful with people? Prince didn’t owe Neal, any other associate, or fans 100% of himself. Neal says he can’t let Prince escape history, but it seems more like he’s looking to put as many dents in Prince’s armor as possible. Neal saw Prince as a man who didn’t learn true empathy and how to stop using people until he was roughly 40 years-old, yet Neal gives fans a book that lacks empathy for the situations Prince probably wanted to bury and he is certainly using Prince for his own needs. Neal calls Prince’s father, John L. Nelson a “slimy, reptilian motherfucker”? Well slimy, reptilian pot meet slimy, reptilian kettle. Neal believes that Prince wanted him to write This Thing Called Life because Prince allowed him 31 years of conversation? We’re doubtful about that because like most fans, we believe that Prince wanted to tell his own story in The Beautiful Ones. We’re also doubtful that Prince agreed to be recorded outside of the 1985 Rolling Stone interview where Prince seems to be aware that the tape recorder is present.

It should come as no surprise that those taped recordings of Prince that Neal included in the audio version of the book don’t back up any of the outrageous claims he’s making. There’s nothing scathing in the recordings at all to be honest. You want to know what’s included in the audio version? Brief recordings of interviews and stories that most Prince fans already know. There’s no recording of the allegedly vile comments Prince made about his own mother. There’s no recording of Prince unleashing vitriol about his father. There’s no recording to prove Prince’s decades long suicide talk. Nothing. Nada. If Neal is holding back recordings to prove the worst details in the book what would be the reason at this point when he’s already shown us exactly who he is?

Old, old friends for sale Get 'em while the gettin' is hot But you better watch out, they'll kiss you Until they get what you got And they'll show you the friends that they're not Old friends for sale 

        Prince, Old Friends 4 Sale

[elopez7228]

Scenic Route 15/47

Read on AO3 : https://archiveofourown.org/works/18268208/chapters/43229774  

Start over : https://elopez7228.tumblr.com/post/620919089893933056/scenic-route-0147

***

Rey woke up around six in the afternoon. Her clothes stuck to her sweat-drenched skin, much like her hair. BB8 was lying in the back seat, chewing on her old sock.

She shuffled out of the car, wondering how on earth she was going to make herself presentable. She’d showered yesterday but it felt like ages ago—in a matter of hours she had sweated, taken a tumble in the leaves, wandered into a thorn bush, rolled around in a pile of nettles, fought with an actual bear, and managed to sweat even more in the aftermath. She was covered in dirt, scratches, and leaf litter. Not to mentioned that she reeked of dog slobber. At this point, a shower seemed less of a luxury and more of a necessity. But where was she going to do that?

She recoiled at the thought of calling Ben Solo again. Better not get too dependent, too burdensome...what kind of post-breakup-soul-searching-road-trip would this be if she was constantly relying on the first man that crossed her path?

She opted for a campsite, she would have to spend the night somewhere anyway. And since she was sleeping in the car she wouldn’t have to bother with the whole tent business. She was carrying a lightweight dress and makeup essentials in her bag. It would suffice for this evening. As for BB8, she would be coming along—the poor girl—she didn’t have to spend the evening chained to the car.

***

Cigarette in hand, Ben reviewed Snoke’s responses to the leaked information from Rey’s phone as he sat on the terrace of the Town Square Tavern.

According to his files, her employer—Smart Berries—was a London-based startup specializing in targeted advertising. Their app used a patented algorithm to identify potential customers for various businesses. It was nothing remotely compromising. They had zero presence abroad. Just a team of fifty people, most of them myopic computer geeks or Frappuccino-guzzling business newbies. No connection whatsoever with Earth Soldiers or FORCE. Rey’s primary contacts consisted of her ex-fiancé Finn Storm who also worked in IT, and his boyfriend Poe Dameron who was a mechanic. She went out for lunch every afternoon, paid her taxes on time, donated regularly to cancer research initiatives, and lived a generally uneventful life. No prior political engagement, revolutionary plotting, activism, or discernable link to any ecological organizations whatsoever. The investigation into Jessika Pava returned similar results. The one thing that stood out to Ben was that Rey was born to absentee parents and raised by an adopted family.

“That makes two of us,” he sighed as he picked up his phone to text her his location. She would likely show up on time.

In the central plaza, a crowd of onlookers had gathered to watch a group of comedians perform an Old West skit. Saloon girls strutted around in billowy red satin bloomers. Military men paraded in on horses waving the Stars and Stripes, and daring cowboys performed a mock duel with toy pistols. The crowd was in full swing, laughing and cheering along.

Night fell slowly, the air still humid, the sky eventually turning pitch black. Kylo and the band dispersed into the crowd, with the exception of Syed who was still under orders to shadow Rey. Wherever she went,  Syed was never far away. Syed tore through the crowd in Ben’s direction, silently wishing she was slicing through something else entirely.

Ben couldn’t help but find her beautiful, in her black leather pants, studded belt and combat boots. She stood in front of him, raising the cigarette she twirled between her fingers to her lips.

“So, how was your day?” he asked, feigning indifference.

“I went on a twelve mile hike, confronted a bear, saved your girlfriend’s life, and then watched her sleep for three hours. I wasn’t exactly idle. What about you?”

“You saved her life?” He exclaimed, no longer able to maintain a poker face.

“Yeah. She’ll probably tell you, she’s going to be here any minute now.” Syed responded, looking behind her as if to pick someone out of the crowd. Ben followed her gaze.

That’s when he saw her.

To this day he had only ever seen her in jeans and a t-shirt, her feet clad in ankle boots and her hair tousled at best. But now he hardly recognized the woman approaching him.

Rey was wearing a blush pink silk dress and high heeled sandals that accentuated her elegant figure. The silk flowed effortlessly down her body, held up by thin straps. She had evidently forgone a bra. Her hair was swept into a loose updo, with a few rebel strands escaping to frame her lightly  made-up face.

Ben suddenly felt overly warm. He swallowed the lump in his throat, cursing his own weakness as he felt a blush creeping up his face. Syed tapped him under the jaw.

“Close your mouth or you’re going to catch flies.” She intoned.

Rey held a small purse in one hand (just big enough for her phone and wallet) and a leash in the other. BB8 trotted along nearby, chewing contently on a red rubber ball that was too large for her jaw and wagging her tail excitedly.

But the dog froze as soon as she caught sight of Ben, growling viciously. The sound that came out was garbled, muffled by the rubber ball. Ben rose to pull out a chair for Rey. He had a hard time finding the right words.

“Good evening. You look...beautiful. What will you be drinking?”

“Margarita, thanks.”

She sat down, hanging the leash on the back of her chair. BB8’s eyes were still glued to Ben as the growling continued. He looked down on her disdainfully and contemplated a swift kick in her direction. The dog was easily within  range of his boot—but that would surely ruin the evening. He gingerly moved his foot away.

Syed broke her silence, crushing the end of her lipstick-stained cigarette into an ashtray. “I’m going to see what Saul is up to. Call me if you need me Kylo, I’ve got my cell.”

Without waiting for a response, she turned on her heels and disappeared into the sea of passers by. A waitress brought a margarita for Rey and a  pint of Rainier for Ben. They clinked glasses.

“So, did you have a good day?” Ben asked finally, strangely hesitant.

“I don’t know,” Rey replied, taking a long sip of the sugary tequila concoction through her straw. She looked up at Ben with gleaming eyes. “I fought a bear...”

“Oh, you too?” Ben asked, immediately regretting his untimely slip up.

Rey frowned, obviously perplexed. “What do you mean, me too? Do you know a lot of people who have fought bears?”

“Er no I meant—I thought it was just some British expression or something—to say that you’ve had a rough day?”

Rey burst out laughing.

Nice save.

“No, but it could be! Believe it or not, I fought an actual bear.”

Ben’s eyes widened. “If you fought a bear there’s no way you would have escaped, unscathed, to tell the tale.”

“You don’t believe me?” Rey feigned offense. “Would you bet on it?”

“A bet?” Ben took a gulp of his beer. He didn’t like where this conversation was headed. What the hell was the story with this bear? He knew Rey was danger-prone but this was too much even for her. “Alright, you’re on. What are the conditions?”

Rey lit up instantly. She had Ben right where she wanted him. He wasn’t particularly well dressed this evening but she found a surprising amount of grace, watching him in the dimming glow of twilight. His shoulders were massive and his mouth too large, his nose too long and his ears slightly too big for his face. She had lost count of his beauty marks. But it all seemed to work, his features coming together in atypical harmony. What she really liked was his hair. It fell in thick waves to the nape of his neck and she suddenly had the urge to run her fingers through it. The idea of sliding her nails through was enough to make heat bloom in her stomach.

She crossed her legs to clamp down on the impulse as she feigned an air of nonchalance. “If I can prove that I fought a bear today, you have to...let me pleat your hair.”

Ben broke out into a laugh—the genuine  sort of laughter that Rey had never heard from him before. She smiled. It suited him, tracing dimples along his cheeks and revealing a row of slightly imperfect teeth. The nth little flaw that added to the equilibrium of his face.

“No way,” he finally managed after he caught his breath.

Disappointed, Rey pressed her lips into an exaggerated pout. “Tell me, what would you counter, then?” Rey asked politely.

“If I win you have to teach your dog to like me,” Ben replied without missing a beat.

Rey smiled inwardly, she was touched by the fact that he wanted to make friends with BB. She couldn’t help but find his intentions adorable.

“Alright,” she agreed, but only if you let me do your hair.”

“Okay.”

That would cost him. He wasn’t afraid of looking ridiculous—what he was really afraid of was the feel of her fingers running against his scalp. Would he be able to keep himself in check? What if she noticed he was half-hard? But the truth was he had a lot to gain if he won the bet.

Rey grinned triumphantly, reaching into her bag to take out a piece of metal which she placed on the table.

Ben held it between his fingertips. “What is this? A bullet?”

“Yep. It belongs to the hunter who scared the bear off,” she confirmed.

“The bear...that you fought with?” Ben had a hard time buying it.

Rey launched into a story, gesticulating wildly as she recounted her adventure: BB8, the chipmunk, the bear and the invisible shooter.

Ben licked his lips. It all corresponded with what Syed had so succinctly reported: Confronted a bear, saved your girlfriend’s life. He could have denied it, could have asked for additional evidence that she would never be able to supply. But he already knew it was true. What point would there be in antagonizing her and calling her a liar?

He nodded. “Okay, you win.”

Rey raised her arms in victory, it was her turn to laugh. “Are you ready for a makeover?”

“Here?” Ben sputtered incredulously.

Rey grinned mischievously. “It’ll happen whenever and wherever I choose tonight,” she countered, sipping on the rest of her cocktail. She was hungry too, her stomach growled in complaint.

And so they ordered pizza. BB8 perked up at the scent. She didn’t hesitate to butt the table with her snout in begging for a slice.

Rey caught Ben’s attention. “Give her a little piece,” she whispered, “and then pet her gently. She’ll warm up to you.”

Ben obeyed, albeit with caution. The dog growled, but was unable to resist the temptation of hot pizza. She swallowed the piece whole with a single movement of her jaw. Ben slowly retrieved his hand. BB reclaimed her rightful place next to Rey, who stroked her affectionately.

“That’s it, good dog. See him? That’s Ben. You’ll get used to him eventually. I’m sure he’ll give you more pizza, and you’ll be friends. What do you say, Ben?”

“I...suppose, yes.” He wasn’t quite at ease with the animal but in order for the mission to succeed, he would have to be able to approach Rey.

She finished her pizza and ordered a second margarita, all the while licking the salt on the rim of the glass from her fingers. She raised her honey colored eyes to Ben.

“So l’ll summarize what I know about you: you play music, you drive a big pickup, and you have history with the lead guitarist. Who are you, Ben Solo? Is music your business or your pleasure?”

He diverted his gaze. He had no intention of stumbling this time. “I tour with the band for a month at a time but...the rest of the time I work at a multinational company in Silicon Valley.”

“Oh? You’re in tech?”

“No, it’s in the industrial sector. What about you?” He turned the tables on her ”I know that you’re British, that you’re single as of late, that you like music and hiking, and that you fear solitude. What do you do in life, Rey?”

She blushed. “My title is Office Experience Manager. I work in HR at a startup where I handle the well-being of the team. I make sure that they like what we do and are happy with where they are.”

That was definitely her calling. There was something luminous about her, she was like sunshine. He didn’t doubt for an instant that she brought happiness wherever she went. Ben himself was so taciturn—more like moonlight—and yet he found himself changing in her presence.

“Why do you think that I fear solitude?” She asked, dreading the response.

Ben’s hand reached out and gently swept a loose lock of hair behind her ear. She trembled slightly, making his palm brush against her cheek. She was warm to the touch. He didn’t move his hand, somehow frozen in the moment. Rey closed her eyes.

“You say you’re travelling alone, but you keep coming back to me, again and again,” he murmured breathlessly, “why?”

“You’re the first person I met here, when I was in the depths of hell. You helped me,  in your own way. Brash and intrusive...quintessentially American.”

Ben’s palm cupped her cheek. His hands were massive, he could have held her whole face in that palm.

“Rey.”

She blinked, coming back to her senses.

“Come.”

He rose, depositing a handful of cash on the table. She took the hand he offered her.

“What about BB8?” She asked softly.

“We’re not going very far. She can wait a few minutes.”

Rey let Ben pull her away—pull her in—far from the crowd. He lead her down the alley, a shelter away from prying eyes and public lighting. He grabbed her wrist, pinning her against the wall. Rey gulped. He was so close, and his gaze was so intense. He licked his lips, a tick that she had noticed on the first day they met. It gave away his apprehension. Or was it anticipation?

Slowly, she lifted her hands, and with a slight tremble, buried them in the dark waves of his hair. Obeying an irrepressible instinct, he took her face in both hands and crushed her mouth to his.

[firesign23]

15, 29 & 24

Do you prefer first or third person?  Why?

Look, I will (and have) written second person before I write first person. The need to get a character voice dead on, and having to filter literally everything through not just their perceptions but their perceptions of their perceptions? Sounds like hell to me, and definitely not the writing style I enjoy.

Which style/era of writing do you most fit in with?

Oh god, I have absolutely no idea? My style is very fanfic, to be honest, in that the plot comes secondary to the characters and emotional continuity, which YES you can get in published fiction as well but it’s hard to pinpoint a style/era. This is one of those things where I’d love other people’s opinions, because I don’t think I can be unbiased enough to answer.

How do you plan your writing?

It depends on the story, but the general rule for a multichapter fic is that I do a very short version of each chapter, telling the story to me. At this stage I also put in any lines that are floating around my head. This can change wildly as I write, but it gives me an overview of whether all the pieces of the puzzle are in the box at least. Sometimes the pieces are upside down so I can’t even tell what colours they are, but they are there.

Then I start writing mostly linearly, or at least linearly by chapter. I often do the same “Tell myself the story” outlining, just figuring out what scenes are in the chapter, make sure any existing lines I like have a place, etc.

Then I write and edit and write and edit and eventually scream at whoever is nearby, but that’s beyond the planning stage. There are still some twists I only find out about when I get here though, so that’s fun.

Now, for my current big multichapter, in the wild blue yonder, I was not nearly so organised, and I am telling myself the story in bits and chunks. I’m going to put an example of the process below the cut, showing how it works for the most recent chapter and chapter I am writing next.

First telling:

Jaime arrested, people are sympathetic to him. Address the Sansa situation. Fenton Waters confesses he was trying to stitch Jaime up just because he doesn’t like Jaime and then is like “I was writing letters to my uncle in King’s Landing” (one of the signs not all is as it seems) and Sansa dismisses him, tells him that if she sees him in the north again she will not be so lenient. Maybe he’s offered an escort back, aka “Make sure you don’t sneak off and if you do someone is there”, they write to Addam who promises to continue looking into things and found this Gilberd of Tumbleton, or rather that he once existed and died three years before. Cool, cool, everyone’s on their guard but JB have some breathing space to rebuild. 

Second go around, the bolded is what chapter 22 needs to cover, and so the outline looks like:

Brienne POV- Deus ex overheard detail that allows them to confront FW. Tie it into M who hates Jaime? Arya overhears? Or Arya and Brienne so we have a scene that isn’t just a conversation about action that happens offpage? Seriously, you messy bench, what is UP with that? Whatever, chances are high this will transgress into a discussion about Sansa again, or possibly the Gendry Problem.

*

Brienne POV- Confrontation/semi-trial. It can’t be too echoey of Baelish, so Jaime’s not there. It’s not been 5 scenes where JB haven’t interacted, so loooooonging. That’s ridiculous, objectively, but whatevs the girl has only just gotten back into banging and she’s allowed to have the sadz. Do they use FW’s rampant misogyny to lay the trap? He confesses he was trying to stitch Jaime up just because he doesn’t like Jaime and then is like “I was writing letters to my uncle in King’s Landing” (one of the signs not all is as it seems) and Sansa dismisses him, tells him that if she sees him in the north again she will not be so lenient. He is to be escorted south by three of Sansa’s men, chosen at Brienne’s discretion to really twist the “You hate women and fuck you buddy” knife.

*

Jaime POV- JB scene. This is where they discuss writing to Addam, who... will send men to meet partway? Depends on how much I hate geography, but it’s a good way for a more thorough set of messages to be delivered in a semi-timely manner in later chapters. But mostly it’s just a lot of talking and non-sexual touching and possibly some teasing about how much the ladies in the kitchens like him. They brush against the Sansa topic, for sure, but Brienne doesn’t want to get into it. There might be something there about communication and secrets we keep for other people, and how Jaime’s never really had a reason to make this distinction before but he trusts Brienne.

I have three scenes (a constant in this particular fic) and at least one through Jaime & Brienne’s POVs. I’ve got a rough idea of the starting point of each scene, and a hook (a line likely to make it into the fic) on which to start. So I’ll slowly pick at it until the whole thing unfolds, and the next thing I know there will be five thousand words and I am swearing never to write a longfic again.

Writing Ask Meme

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Fruits Basket 2019 Episode 15: “I Wouldn’t Say That”

The one and only thing this episode needed to do was succeed in making Hatori look fine as hell, so I’m glad they managed to do that, since this part of the story’s always been kinda forgettable beyond that, lol.

Thoughts under the cut. [Spoiler warning for the whole series]

Just to get right to the chase, this episode adapts chapters 25 and 26 of the manga, same as episode 16 of the 2001 version. It’s actually kinda interesting to compare them, since even though they’re about 99% the same, the comparison really highlights even more of the consequences of the stuff the 2001 version cut out as a whole.

I think I already mentioned this last week, but anyway, since the 2001 version removed the whole hat subplot and everything referencing Kyo’s connection to Kyoko, everything about Yuki and Kyo acting weird in this part had pretty much no context in that version, whereas at least in this version you have a pretty good idea what’s going on and how it connects to the previous episode, even if they’re both subplots that are largely still mysteries right now. And in addition to that, they also entirely removed Mayuko from the 2001 version, so the stuff with Hatori there was left on a more vague note. Which all just made this part feel super filler-y and disconnected from the rest of the story, originally.

But honestly even in the manga this part was always kinda filler-y and uneventful. It was just made even more so in the 2001 anime because it basically removed the few important story elements that were actually set up here. I think the series is really good at having every new story beat either introduce a new character, meaningfully develop existing ones, or just set up future plot points, but I’ve always felt like this is the weakest arc out of all of them, with the set-up mostly just being ‘wow, Yuki and Kyo sure are still moody for reasons we don’t fully know yet’ and ‘I guess Hatori will maybe hook up with the main trio’s teacher eventually’.

I do think it’s kinda funny, though, after seeing a lot of anime only people last week be like ‘I can’t wait to find out what’s going on with Yuki and Kyo next week :)’, when in reality this episode is like 90% Tohru going ‘I wonder what’s going on with Yuki and Kyo’. We’re not gonna find out what’s up with them, especially with Kyo, for a loooong time, lol. I hope that anime-only people don’t feel too genuinely let down or disappointed by this episode, but if there’s any one part where I think new fans might start thinking that the series is beginning to spin it’s wheels and needs to kick it up a notch, this episode would be it.

This whole part’s also always stuck out to me, even in the manga, as being just about the only part of the story after the first volume where we actually see Yuki and Kyo transform. It’s one of the things that make this part feel like a very episodic, filler-y ‘return to the status quo for a whole’ sorta part, if that makes sense. You’d think it wouldn’t be noteworthy that they transform here, but it sticks out in hindsight when you notice how they otherwise stop doing so pretty much entirely after the first volume. It’s not actually a recurring element of the story. Though I actually think it feels a bit more ‘natural’ in the 2001 version because they added some bits here and there in other episodes to have them transform when they didn’t in the manga, which made it seem like something that happens way more than it actually does.

Like always, I tend to be mostly ambivalent to these sorts of comedic breather sections [even though they’re necessary for the overall story flow], but I still really like the whole Jason joke. It reminds me that when I first read the manga I assumed that it must have been a localization of a reference to a Japanese horror movie, but nah, it was literally a Jason reference even in Japanese, lol. Which actually makes it feel a bit more understandable that Kyo doesn’t get it. Although, come to think of it, I wonder if this has more to do with how his sheltered upbringing lead him to being completely oblivious to a lot of ‘normal’ stuff. Which would make it kinda depressing in hindsight. But still funny. 

Even though I still kinda don’t like the whole Mabudachi trio as a unit, Hatori’s still great, so I appreciate how this episode is actually more about giving him a chance to take a nap and read a book, more than anything to do with the main trio. I do still like how many parts there are like this that focus on the adult characters and their perspective on things. Even though, as much as it gets more relatable over time, it also becomes kinda funny, in the sense of ‘stop being such a drama queen, Hatori, you’re not even 30 yet, lmao’.

Also, it’s not like they really changed it from how it was in the manga, but I forgot just how immediately obvious it is that he’s gonna hook up with Mayu later on. Although I think it’s actually even more blunt in the manga since apparently she had a picture of Hatori next to the picture of her and Kana, which I didn’t even notice until I just saw someone point it out.

I’m actually pretty excited for the episode we’ll get later on focused on them, even though it won’t happen until season 2 at this rate. They’re one of my favourite side couples in the series, and it still bugs me that they cut Mayu out of the 2001 anime [even though I get why they did it].

Anyway I think that’s about everything there is to say about this episode, but in addition to all that, we now know for a fact that the next episode will be adapting Uo’s backstory, which is really interesting to me. I already guessed it based on the vague look we got a while ago of Caitlin Glass’ notes, but I’m still a bit surprised they’re shifting that part up so much. If I remember right, it’s chapters 39 to 41, so at least in the manga it’s a fair bit ahead of where we are now. But it’s also mostly a flashback arc so I don’t think it’d exactly be hard to shuffle it about.

I’m mostly curious to see how they’re going to adapt it and pace it out, partly because it basically wasn’t adapted in the 2001 anime at all so it’ll sort of be all new in the reboot, and partly because it’s a three chapter arc in the manga, and the reboot hasn’t adapted mote than two chapters in a single episode yet.

Caitlin Glass’ notes do seem to indicate that Uo’s backstory will cover the next two episodes, though, which would at least be better than cramming it into one. It’s a pretty substantial arc with a lot going on, so I’d be happy if they give it a two-part treatment here. Though if they do it across two episodes, it makes me wonder how they’ll break it up, and if they might flesh it out with some material from later in the series, to bring it up to effectively two chapters of content per episode, which would be in line with the average pacing of the reboot thus far.

If they do that, I hope they find a way to slide chapter 50 [the one where Uo and Kureno meet for the first time] into it. I think it’d be fairly easy to tie it into the present-day parts of the Uo backstory arc, and it’d be nice for the reboot to throw a curveball and formally introduce Kureno this early on. At the very least the alternative is that he probably wouldn’t show up until season 2, which would be kinda sad.

We’ll see how it goes, but at the very least the next episode will definitely be getting into the flashback portion of the arc, since the episode title is taken from when Uo first met Tohru. I wonder if it’ll adapt all of the flashback, or if it’ll stop halfway and finish off in the episode afterward.

Most of the series thus far has split very easily into single episode chunks, so it’s kinda exciting to get to a part that’s a bit less obvious in how it’d translate into an anime format. It’s the sorta thing I really like speculating about.

And as a reminder, going by what we know from the next episode preview, Caitlin Glass’ notes, and the official confirmation of season 1 being 25 episodes long, it looks like the structure of the season from here on out will be two episodes for Uo’s backstory, Kisa’s intro, Ritsu’s intro, Hiro’s intro, the episode with Hana and the Yuki fan club, Hana’s backstory, and then probably Tohru getting sick and then the whole Kyo arc across three episodes total. I wasn’t sure about it at first, but after looking back at the notes we saw, it looks like the two Hana episodes will in fact be two separate episodes back to back, so Hana’s backstory would be episode 22 at this rate, which leaves three episodes to adapt chapters 30 to 34. Which I think would work fine. I think they’re going to tie the set-up for the Kyo arc into the episode with Tohru getting sick so that it ends with Kazuma showing up, and the last two episodes can spend more time on the actual meat of the Kyo arc. But we’ll see.

Either way I’m really excited for the next two episodes. The reboot’s been pretty similar in execution to the 2001 anime for a while now, so it’ll be fun to get two episodes in a row focused on material that basically wasn’t in the 2001 version at all.

[houseofvans]

SKETCHY BEHAVIORS | Interview with VALERIE SAVARIE

Denver artist Valerie Savarie creates intricately carved book sculptures that she painstakingly maps out and cuts, forming her own unique narrative creation. Each of her unique sculptures can take her from 40 hours to over 100 hours to complete. Not only one thing, Valerie also runs a collective gallery, Valkarie Gallery in Colorado, where various artists in the community show and share work. We find out more about Valerie’s book sculpture process, what her favorite tome creation is, and the things that inspire her. 

Take the leap below! 

Photographs courtesy of the artist. 

Introduce yourself Howdy! My name is Valerie Savarie and I create carved book sculptures. I live in the Mile High city of Denver, Co, sharing a house with two cats Meelo and Varuka and my ever loving and supportive husband Matt. As cats are insatiable creatures when it comes to food and attention (which can turn into a zero creativity day), I eventually relocated my studio to Lakewood where it is connected to the collective gallery I run (Valkarie). I believe in lots of vitamin C to keep me healthy and creating (coffee, carrots and chips). Random fact: most of my tattoos are beyond the legal drinking age.

What was your introduction to art like? I was fortunate that my parents got myself and my sisters into art as kids. During the summers instead of wasting our time in front of the TV, we were enrolled in art programs. The city where I grew up - Madison, WI – also had this (and still does to this day) awesome thing called the Art Cart that would find its way to various parks over the summer and have free art projects – my favorite was the plaster casting of our faces at the beach. My dad also took us to many galleries and lectures. I can remember being in third or fourth grade and attending a Georgia O’Keeffe exhibition.

How did that eventually lead you to creating your own works and specifically your book sculptures? Honestly, I have an older (not too much older) sister that was always the artist so I shied away from art for years. Sure, I was a professional doodler, yet I wanted to be my own person and struggled with the sibling rivalry a la Jan and Marcia for years. I turned to creative writing in high school and the first go around of college. Finally, I moved away, and moved away again, tried college a second time majoring in interior design and minoring in scenic design (secretly I wanted to be an architect) and ended up having a professor that had an MFA – Robert Work – who I am still friends with (god, it has been over 15 years since graduation). He reignited that artistic spark in me. I even applied to grad school for art and got rejected from every school I applied to yet I still made art.

A few years down the road I met my husband and he really pushed me to get my art out in public, which was frightening. I ended up joining a co-op where I experimented with various mediums and styles. I created some cube sculptures (bartered autocad drawings for them) and I was in love. 3D art took over my heart, unfortunately, I couldn’t afford to buy the cubes out right and my cabinet maker friend didn’t need any more drawings. So I sought out something that I could afford for material, something that was also easy to come by and easy to manipulate. A thrift store junky, I decided to test my hand on carving up books. That was just over 7 years ago.

What is the process for book creations? From start to finish, how long does the entire piece take? My pieces are formed by three different processes of creation: what it is, what I want it to be and it will be what it will be. What it is means that the story in the book inspires me. What I want it to be means that I have an idea that I need to find a book that fits the visual story I want to create, whereas it will be what it will be means I take a book with no idea in mind as to how it will turn out and intuitively start cutting.

I would say about 67% of the books I create fall into the what I want it to be category so that’s what I will describe. I will get an image stuck inside my head and think about it quite a bit before I will put pencil to paper, working out basic concepts in my head and then creating a very rudimentary sketch (mainly so I don’t forget the idea). I then head off to the stacks – a very unorganized collection – in search of a book whose story has some of the same elements as mine. This is a daunting task as I have no idea as to what the content of at least 97% of the books I house is.

Sadly the adage “you can’t judge a book by its cover” is all too accurate. Titles can be misleading, the content seems like a good match but the cover has illustrations that are in conflict with the vision, and heaven forbid I can’t find any information on the book on Google and then have to decide if I have the time to invest in reading a few chapters or should just keep looking elsewhere.

After hours and even days of searching, I find the match – the perfect companion to my vision. I leaf through most of the pages, book marking those passages, illustrations, lack of text or unique text layout for me to revisit as I cut layer by layer, page by page. Then a slightly more detailed sketch is created – and then comes the point of no return …

I draw the shape of the cut out on the cover and with book and blade in hand, the transformation begins. All cuts are done with a craft knife – yes, even the cover. It is cut by scoring multiple times and then stab and drag, stab and drag. Sure, there are easier ways to do this - the not so occasional accidental sacrifice of blood still doesn’t deter me - I prefer to use my hands, to be able to pack up to my art, take it anywhere I chose to create and not worry about access to electricity. With the cover hole cut, I take out my file and smooth the opening, refine the curves and lines. Then another sketch of how the piece will be laid out is drawn on the front leaf of the book. This can be especially handy to have in more complex designs where I use the image as a template or stencil when cutting the many layers.

From then on out, it is just a matter of cutting one to three pages at a time. The number of pages is determined by the quality of the paper and over all design. Admittedly, this can become tedious if the depth of the layer is greater than ¼” but it is also important for me NOT to rush through the cutting of pages stage as phrases and images easily hide from view when I first go through the book in search of the elements I want expose.

Accidents do happen – the occasional over cut of a section or completely cutting out a page I meant to keep. I am very rigid in my creative process – if the section has been completely cut through, I just walk away from it – even though it would be quite easy to simply glue that section to the page below. The story can develop plot twists during this time as the layers start taking on a different life and their shadows start telling a story of their own as I cut deeper and deeper.

This, the lengthiest part of the creation process, I mentally start to flesh out what the painted characters – or inhabitants – of the book sculpture will look like (I can easily spend over 40 hours of just cutting the pages and so have a lot of “free creative brain time”) . How will they interact in the environment, what will their facial expression be? I dare not start painting them until all pages that will be cut, are cut, as I want the character - be in human, animal or other worldly - to look as if they had grown up in the book sculpture and has called it home forever. The characters are painted with acryla gouache on sheets of mixed media paper or directly onto the book page. The latter is more of a spirit creature – a ghost that is still very much part of the life force of the book. These little paintings are then mounted to illustration board for rigidity and cut out (again by hand with a craft knife).

Once the book cutting is complete and the character painted, I move on to the last creative piece which ties the story together (literally) - the stitching. Each altered book piece has some thread or string (occasionally wire is substituted) added to help in the visual story telling. It can be very elaborate such as sewing branches and leaves onto the cover or something as simple as a few blades of grass. The drilling to create the needle holes in the cover is (again) done with a hand tool called a jeweler’s drill. This nifty device has interchangeable bits from the diameter of a hair to 7mm lead. I believe the longest recorder amount of time I have spent drilling/stitching a single piece is 15 hours.

Now it’s time to do all the boring stuff that makes the piece ready to hang. All the pages are bound together, I create a little wire coat hanger in which the piece can be hung and sew it onto the back of the book as well as stitch in the publication and rebirth years. Both covers are glued to the bound pages, clamped and by the next day, what was once an orphaned book, now rid of its shell, is a three dimensional sculpted piece of art!

And that is how my book sculptures are born.

How long? On average 40 hours a piece. A few take less time and I have spent over 100 hours on a piece more than once.

Where do the books come from? Are they from collecting or via donation? How are you inspired when creating these intricate piece? Are they inspired by the book or from an idea you jotted down? My books come fro various sources. Initially I would get them at thrift stores, the rule was that they had to be as old as me. I normally still stick to that rule unless it is a commission or a piece created for a specific themed show. More recently, I have had a lot of books donated to me – some because the thrift stores won’t take them any more and others because the former owners’ had cherished them and hoped that they could find new life in my hands. On rare occasions I do order from Ebay. I prefer the hunt, stalking down the perfect book, taking weeks and even months. Sometimes, I don’t have that luxury due to deadlines.

Normally I have a concept I want to develop, I look through my stacks (which numbers in the 100’s and shelved at random) hoping to find one that has a similar story line. Since I don’t have time to read each one, I go online and do research – reading the synopses – as well as skimming the books. This can be dangerous as sometimes the books I am sorting through pull me in and new inspiration is born from the written word.

I see my pieces as more of a collaboration between myself and the authors and illustrators. I use their art form as an inspiration stream and add my own twist (or chapter) to create the stories anew.

Is there a piece that was directly influenced by a memory or experience you’ve had or story you’ve heard? It is rare that I remember my dreams but a few years ago I awoke and remembered having a very strange dream about tiny cyclops octopuses and tea cups. Shortly there after I stumbled across a Reader’s Digest collection that contained 20,000 leagues Under the Sea and so I had to create the little cyclopes – sans teacups. I really want to revisit that dream in art form again – with the tea cups – as of yet, I haven’t come across any books that would fit.

What’s the perfect day at the studio like for you? What kinds of things would we find in your creative space?

A perfect day would start around 6pm. I prefer to work at night until the early hours of the morning. I would have a nice cup of endless coffee at hand, a bag of baby carrot and raw nuts available for snacking (separate bags) and some left over Indian food for later in the evening/morning. The original Twin Peaks is playing in the back ground (i pretty much have the dialogue memorized) and my shoes are off and slippers on.

Spread around me on the floor (I work sitting on the floor) is a brand new cutting mat that smells of childhood summer beach toys, an assortment of craft knifes with brand new blades (I rarely use new blades as I have learned to sharpen them) and a vintage book begging me to caress its pages, ogle its inner beauty and then skillfully and slowly start to transform its story from the 2D writing into a 3D world it never knew it could be!

Within my studio I have quite a nice collection of small art (besides my own of course). I use it for inspiration and feed off the remnants of creative energy that the artists left with each piece. There are books, LOTS of books that have no rhyme or reason to their shelving locations or book neighbors. I have quite a few orchids which may or may not be in bloom – all of which were gifts. I have a cool vintage love seat which normally is a place for art to lounge on along with the occasional visitor. A nice collection of coffee mugs – with at least half of them needing to be washed- and of course a coffee maker. I also have an old radio from probably the 30’s that I occasionally plug in and turn on – the sound is great but there aren’t that many am radio stations with strong enough signal that are worth listening to.

What’s one of your favorite creations you’ve made and why? I created a piece based on Pan’s Labyrinth. It was the first piece of fan art I had ever created.

I rarely actually watch movies or t.v. - I listen to them but my eyes and hands are busy creating art. I don’t like foreign films that have voice overs, there is just something unnerving about them.

So with Pan’s Labyrinth, it is something that I actually had to watch. It is a visual masterpiece – as is everything that Guillermo del Toro does.

Creating art based off of something that is already a magnificent piece of art is quite challenging. I didn’t want it to be obviously fan art it was important I make it my own. I ended up using a book in Spanish about the Spanish Civil war. I also used some techniques that were new to me – removing the decorative fabric only from the cover to create pattern, adding color and even adding the cover of a larger book as a backdrop. Oh yeah, and a drop of blood – my fingers tips are pretty callused from art making it took a little more effort than I liked to get that blood.

It was exciting to use new techniques and to push myself to be precise and exact – an actual labyrinth with tiny stairs down to the portal – and at the same time use my imagination to explore concepts that I could only see (movie) and not read and translate them into my own design.

What’s your main tool for making art? Is there a medium you’re wanting to try? A craft knife with an Excel blade – the brand REALLY makes a big difference. In a tie would be a good mat – still looking for the perfect one.

I took a class last year on wood block cutting and would really like to do more with that. I think it would work well with the book page scraps I collective (I have many many boxes of them) plus it is another substractive art techniquewhich makes sense in my brain.

Who are some artists that you’re inspired by and have influenced you throughout the years? Edward Gorey is my main influence. Partially because he was both a visual artist and a writer. I love how dark his images are and the same time laced with humor. His black and white color palette obviously works for me as well. There is a simplicity to it and at the same time it is so masterfully done that the work appears much more expansive than it already is.

As far as artists that are alive and kicking today, my local biggest influences are Aria Fawn and Nicole Grosjean. They are completely different in everything they do and at the same time such masters of detail and story telling.

Aria creates surreal and fantastic worlds in watercolor, largely inspired by the beautiful and violent balance of nature and wild things and the cycle of life, death and rebirth. There is such organic and natural beauty in her style, a freeness that I strive to incorporate into my rigid calculated creation process. I probably own more of Aria’s art than anyone else's - I have multiple pieces by her in my studio and home. She is constantly with me, always inspiring, motivating and energizing my creative spirit.

Nicole on the other hand, creates tiny worlds from hand cut, hand painted paper – which she considers three dimensional illustration. Sometimes there are over a thousand individually cut and painted pieces of paper in one work of art. She is so precise, so CLEAN I have no idea how she does it. I have a very tiny praying mantis in a watch piece from her as well as a larger dragon that I got for my husband as a gift to cover all holidays for several years.

My my top three non locals are Jolene Lai, Jason Limon and Kristen Egan. They all are completely different from one another – Kristen creates magical creatures from gourds. I am dying to get my hands on one as 3D art really needs to be experienced in person to feel the texture, see how the light and shadow changes the mood of the piece. She makes it look so seamless – at first glance I thought the were ceramic.

When I first saw Jason’s work I thought it was the most amazing paper cut art I had ever seen, then I realized it was a painting! His playfulness along with social commentary paired with his insane talent to place highlights and shadows it something I strive for. I feel that my painted characters could be so much more influential – a better actor one could say – in the dioramas I create if they appeared more three dimensional. I am lucky to own one small original that lives with me in my studio.

And then there is Jolene. I would consider her one of the greatest artists of all time. There is so much emotion, energy, story telling in her paintings. Her use of color (and again light and shadow) makes her works hyper realistic to me – I feel sucked in and transformed as an active participant in her paintings. I own two beautiful graphite pieces of hers which live at my house.

What’s your experience been like with the art scene in your area? How is the artist community? I LOVE the art scene in Denver. We are a “new” city that still has not lost its small town connectivity in the arts. Artists support other artists, galleries support other galleries. It is not an us vs them mentality here and I really think it will stay that way.

I got my start in a traditional co-op gallery that sadly just closed this year after being open for nearly 30 years.

They rejected me the first time around and told me what to change for the next application round and I got in that second time.

Even at Valkarie we host a drop in creative night every Thursday – going on almost five years. All levels of artists come, from doodlers to professionals, painters to jewelry makers. We openly give feedback on what we re working on and share calls for art and discuss booth set ups for conventions – what works and what doesn’t.

How do you stay inspired on those days when you’re feeling uninspired? To be honest, it has been years since I felt uninspired. I think because of the super supportive art community I always have someone to run ideas off of. Also, the books themselves are full of written and visual inspiration, an unending supply of it. And all that awesome art I collect, for me it’s not a lack of inspiration it’s more a lack of what I want to focus on – too many bees buzzing with ideas in my brain.

When you’re not working in the studio, what are you doing? What do you enjoy? Truth be told, 83% of my waking time revolves around art. Besides spending time with my own art and running Valkarie Gallery, there isn’t much time for anything else.

In that 17%, I enjoy making pies from scratch with my husband, getting out into the mountains to escape all the compartmentalizing of city life and being servant to the cats – if they had their way, I wouldn’t get any art done at all.

If I ever find “free” time again I would love to get back into creative writing, pick up the violin again and go on more bike rides. Nothing sporty, just peddling around town with no destination in mind.

What advice would you give someone who is thinking of becoming an artist? Start young – before you get tied down with a house, spouse or kids. It is much easier to get by on less while you are young.

Don’t feel like you have to get a degree in art (I know I will catch flack for this one). Do take art classes, marketing classes, get involved in with meet up art groups and build community. Some of the most successful artists I know have no formal art degree. Their talent, passion and drive have given them much success without a pile of debt and they tend to be the most active in artist groups.

Know that rejection is 90% of the game and don’t get discouraged. It doesn’t mean you aren’t good at what you do, it can mean that you weren’t what they were looking for. If you are really passionate, you will always create no matter what others say about your art.

Develop a style that is unique to you. This can be the most difficult especially with everything being available to anyone with a smartphone, computer or tablet. I think it is one of the reasons I keep creating the book sculptures and expanding what they are.

What are your FAVORITE Vans?  It really depends on the weather and where I am headed. If it is snowy or raining and am headed to the studio, slip-ons are best, so I can easily take them off and on multiple times a day (sitting on wet shoes is a mistake only made once). In good weather, any Vans are comfortable enough to wear evening while squatting on the floor creating art.

Finally, can you tell us about any exciting things you’ve got coming up? This year I have had my art in five different states and at the beginning of December I will be showing in my sixth. I will have a booth at the Recycled Art Market in Santa Fe, NM. This will be the first time showing my art there and think I will come back with some pretty exciting new ideas on how to incorporate other repurposed items into my books and maybe even find some new resources for creating my sculptures.

I also have two commission coming up that I am really excited to get going on. Will be doing A Clockwork Orange piece and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe(for two different clients). It has been decades since I read either but I think these two both warrant a reread before I start them (I really do my best to avoid watching movies of books for inspiration).

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The Archon's Retread

by Robinson L

Friday, 06 May 2011Robinson L reviews the second book in Catherine Fisher's  Oracle Prophecies trilogy~

The Archon (American title: The Sphere of Secrets) is the second book in the YA fantasy series Catherine Fisher began with The Oracle. Again, I'm using the American cover because I like it better.

It seems Fisher recognizes the truth behind the old cliché “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” As

The Archon

opens, young Alexos has been installed as the eponymous religious leader, but in terms of power, the status quo has largely reasserted itself. Hermia and General Argelin still effectively rule the country, which is still blighted by drought.

Argelin, shrewd strategist that he is, has promoted Seth, provided Alexos with a bountiful supply of pets and toys and baubles, and provided Obleck with a bountiful supply of wines and spirits. This keeps them all too busy or distracted to plot further against himself or Hermia.

But when a petitioner pays tribute of a shiny sphere to the Oracle, Mirany discovers this Sphere of Secrets is actually a map to the fabled Well of Lost Songs. Alexos decides to go on a quest for the Well, taking Obleck and Seth with him.

Mirany stays behind with Argelin, Hermia, and the rest of the Nine. However, even before the trio set out, political machinations have set in motion which could swallow up all their lives, and much more.

Reading

The Archon

was much like reading

The Oracle

, except that now I've taken Fisher's measure, she no longer surprises me; I know what to expect from her.

Fisher tries to give her characters added depth by keeping the viewpoint character (and the reader) guessing about the true nature of the people around them. She did something similar—with moderately more success, to my mind—in

Incarceron

.

My problem with the characters in

The Oracle

and

The Archon

is that they never feel alive and three-dimensional to me. Please refrain at this point from skipping to the comments section and drafting a response beginning “My dear sir, are you aware ...,” explaining how this sense of characters as real people is merely illusion. I know all that, but it is a necessary illusion for creating truly powerful and engaging characters.

The characters in

On the Jellicoe Road

or

The Woman in White

or even

Schroedinger's Ball

feel real to me in a way those in Fisher's works generally fail to do. I'm at a loss to explain the phenomenon, which I also experience when reading the works of

Llyod Alexander

, for instance. Possibly, as our esteemed editor

suggests

, I have no soul.

Since I'm unable to connect with the characters on any meaningful level, reading the

Archon

was a lackluster experience for me. It doesn't help that this time around, our heroes' journey through the desert is epic in terms of both length and tedium.

That said, the book is perfectly readable, the plot interesting, and the story flows quite well—bar a few unfortunate scenes in the desert. The characters, though flat, are all right, and I do appreciate the way Fisher plays around with the the supporting cast and her readers' perceptions of them.

Rhetia, in particular, stands out in this regard. In

The Oracle

, she was the self-centered-jealous-antagonist-turned-unlikely-ally. With

The Archon

, Fisher could easily have kept Rhetia in the role of Mirany's ally—instead, she keeps true to the antagonistic as well as the cooperative side of Rhetia's character by having her pursue her own agenda over Mirany's objections.

Fisher challenges conventions in other ways, as well. Most strikingly for me was a scene where a servant stumbles upon Mirany eavesdropping on Hermia and Argelin. Mirany knows the servant will rat her out sooner or later, so instead of retreating or trying to bribe the servant as most protagonists would in her shoes, she marches into Hermia and Argelin's room as if that were her intention all along.

I'm of two minds about the climax. On the one hand, Fisher evokes one of my least favorite narrative tropes—without straying too far into spoiler territory, we'll leave it at a supporting character sacrifices their life to save a main character. On the other hand, it's probably the most exciting climax of Fisher's I've read so far. The final chapter of the book is downright explosive, and while the story nominally ends, it leaves many questions unresolved for book three,

The Scarab

.

The climax was for me, hands down the most engaging part of the book, and I should add that I found it exciting in its own right, not merely in comparison to the rest of the story. Although I suspect

The Scarab

will be more of the same, I admit the ending leaves my interest piqued to learn what comes next.

In summation,

The Archon

is a little weaker than

The Oracle

, but otherwise much the same. Anyone who's already read the former would be justified in assuming their reaction to the latter (positive, negative or neural) will be similar, and should proceed accordingly. Anyone who hasn't read

The Oracle

might as well start there, and see whether it's worth their while to continue to

The Archon

.Themes:

Books

,

Sci-fi / Fantasy

,

Young Adult / Children

~

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~Comments (

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)

Wardog

at 11:06 on 2011-05-06I'm kind of saddened to read this review. I know I reacted with similar dismay to your review of the first book but since, despite being quite openly a fan of Fisher's work, I still haven't got round to either finishing the first book or starting on the second. Which makes me suspect that either I have no soul as well or that some of your criticisms are correct. Wah. I do remember Incarceron with deep pleasure though - although perhaps it was just the awesome setting overwhelming everything else. The thing is, I don't really remember much about the characters in The Oracle, but I do quite vividly remember Claudia and ... uh ... the other dude.

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http://roisindubh211.livejournal.com/

at 23:08 on 2011-05-08I actually find Fisher a bit hit and miss. I love her "realistic" fantasy, like Corbenicand Darkhenge, but find that her high fantasy tends to fall a bit flat. I never quite believe in the characters- very nearly but just can't manage it. I found this with the Snow-walker trilogy, and Incarceron, though the people were a little more real, felt formulaic and dull, even though I know it shouldn't have. The ideas behind it are good and new, but it just feels off somehow- somehow it reminds me of Dragonlance novels, if they were written with more skill. I'm definitely going to read Sapphique to find out what comes next, but I really prefer her stories set in the modern world.

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Robinson L

at 15:30 on 2011-05-09

I do remember Incarceron with deep pleasure though - although perhaps it was just the awesome setting overwhelming everything else.

I could see that. The setting really is imaginative and well-realized.

I actually find Fisher a bit hit and miss. I love her "realistic" fantasy, like Corbenic and Darkhenge, but find that her high fantasy tends to fall a bit flat.

I haven't gotten around to

Darkhenge

yet. With

Corbenic

, it took me until about the last third of the book to feel really emotionally invested in the characters, but I'm pretty sure I did get there eventually.

By the way, how many articles does an author need to rate a theme handle at this point?

[neioo]

Fanfic Rec! ( • ω • ) 

Rules I’m constraining myself to: I’ve either had to read the fic more than three times and/or have thought about it years in the future. (This means I’ll have to leave out some other fics I really enjoyed reading and thought were well written) 

A bunch of different fandoms will be under the cut! (as I expose what I ship across the board too lol)

We’ll Meet Again by George deValier (usuk) (complete)

This is the first fic of george’s that I read, and I’ve read it multiple times, and it’s been integral in my shaping of characterizations within my own hetalia fics. I could include all of his works, but this one stands out the most. I also listen to the vera verse songs and get extremely nostalgic, so there’s that

WW2 AU. London pub owner Arthur Kirkland is driven to distraction by loud, brash American fighter pilot Alfred Jones. Unable to stop it, Arthur finds himself falling for Alfred’s charms… just as the pilot is preparing to leave for war.

Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue… by anonymous (pruaus) (unfinished)

This fic is odd in the sense that I found it while suddenly getting on a pruaus kick, during which I followed a bunch of pruaus people on tumblr. Eventually, I would find out years later that I was going to the same college as one of these people and become friends with them. So not only does this fic have a nostalgic tie to it, I find the story brilliantly written with wonderful characterization, though it is in a weird format.

Inspired by the film 500 Days of Summer, I’d really like to see a couple meet and fall in love, but eventually one (or both) ends the relationship because they realise it’s not working/they can’t imagine spending their whole life with this person/what have you. I’d really love to see how the relationship develops, with the happy times and the eventual bad times as it falls apart, and then the hope of finding love elsewhere.

Redeemer by CocoaCoveredGods (L x Light, Mello x Matt, Mello x Light) (complete)

I can’t tell you how happy I am that I found this fic after 6 or so years. I can’t tell you how nostalgic is makes me for my death note phase, remember when I would read this in my mom’s office, minimizing the fic on a laptop I hope she never checked. The writing is phenomenal. The format on this site is wonky, but doable to read. (I’m even reformatting it myself right now). It’s mostly everything I could have wanted in a death note fic; it even inspired my own very complex death note AU back in the day. In some alternate reality, I wrote that instead of AWH. I plan to maybe make a personal paper copy for myself of this fic I love it so much. It is on the level of George’s stuff on how much it means to me.

The story takes place *after* Death Note ends, although the main characters have not died. Here the Yellowbox Warehouse is essentially the pinnacle of L's 6-year long offensive against Kira, who believes L to be dead, when he really isn't. L faked his death, and proceeded with the case behind the cover of his three top heirs, Mello, Matt and Near. Kira himself doesn't succumb to his defeat, but is instead rescued at the last moment by his nemesis lover who decides that a more apropos end to the God of the New World is not death--but redemption, in the form of a new case and a 5th so-called Kira, that L and Light must bring down together... or risk losing everything. Yes, there is actually a plot LOL Buuuut, this puppy has yaoi and pairing's aplenty. LxLight and MelloxMatt are technically the mains, but when you cut straight down to it, this is a story about Light and Mello and how they go from hate to need, from enemies to lovers, and maybe even something more...

and indeed there will be time --orginally by lawlietismyfavorite, but they have since deleted their account :’( (the fic is still on AO3, though!) (L x Light) (unfinished)

I love death note, okay? After the beautiful live action series came out (the recent japanese one not that fucking netflix shit), I felt the need to read some fanfic of the series again, and I found this. HOLY SHIT. It’s a soulmate AU that goes through the plot line of the manga/show and fuck. Light is Ace?? The writing is so good?? 

L is the greatest detective of not only this century, but of six centuries. And then there’s Light.

Between the Lines by Klitch (Fushimi Saruhiko/Yata Misaki) (complete)

I’ve read this fic about 5 times and have accepted it as canon for this stupid show

The first time Yata saw him the kid was sitting in the corner of the cafeteria all alone with his bought lunch spread out before him, painstakingly picking out the vegetables and stacking them according to color and size.

Picking up the Pieces by SilverThunder (Fushimi Saruhiko/Yata Misaki) (complete)

I really like K. It’s a weird show, and it has copious faults. Maybe I just really like that the characters have so much potential, and this fic (as well as the one above) truly expands on that potential. This fic is an excellent exploration of these two character’s relationships, there’s just the right amount of angst. I’ve read it multiple times.

A whole year, gone from his head just like that - and how many memories could you fit in that time, anyway? It wasn’t a question Yata thought he’d ever have to ask, but with so many things changed between Saruhiko and himself, he wasn’t about to leave it alone.

It just sucked that the new world they’d built was still so easy to break.

to be first, to be best by kittebasu (chanyeol) (iwaoi) (complete)

haikyuu!! is odd for me because I don’t care about it anymore, but I really like this fic, and I’ve read it about 5 times. The characterization is on point, and the story is extremely well written.

Hajime is apparently something of a masochist, and as he stares down at the tie-dyed AREA51 T-shirt in his hands, he thinks“I’m totally in love with this asshole, aren’t I?”

Cat's Cradle by evocates (Fujioka Haruhi/Ootori Kyouya/Suoh Tamaki) (complete)

every new years eve, since 2011, my brother and I have watched Ouran High School Host Club. for the past 4 years, I have read and re-read this fic without fail in the days after

Kyouya had been able to see the red threads between people’s fingers since the day he was born. A song of fate, and the breaking of. Tamaki was a man who could never be predictable. Vague spoilers up to Chapter 63.

"Relationship Stuff" by arokitty, Ponderess (shinara) (complete)

This fic helped me realize I was asexual. It’s beautifully written.

"Relationship stuff" — that's what Yasutomo kept calling it on the occasions we discussed how things were going between us. He never failed to say it dismissively, as if it was an annoying plague he was forced to put up with. But even when I told him that he could opt out of it at any time, he did not pull back.

[lithromantic asexual Shinkai, aromantic asexual Arakita, quasiplatonic Shinara]

You Really Ought To Know by isengard (midotaka) (complete)

I really like this ship, and out of all the fics I’ve read of it, this is the one I adore the most (obviously enough to read it three times)

The Fates have an important message for Takao Kazunari.

A Gradual Fall by grassandcitrus (originshipping) (complete)

This maybe isn’t the best written fic, but it has a lot of heart, and for a ship that there is little content for, this fic served me well. It’s hard to write a realistic pokemon AU, but this feels grounded. For whatever reason, this ship still means a lot to me, so when I get in the mood for it, I’ll re-read this fic.

Meeting Wallace turned out to be a life changing event for Steven. He realizes that pretty early on. Other things, however, come with time.

The Punchline and the Resulting Silence by youremyqueen (thiefshipping) (complete)

from the author: “so i went ahead and wrote ygotas fic because, hell, if LK can record videos in which he vocally flirts with himself while playing video games, and then write gay porn about it, I sure as hell can write gay porn about it too.” yeah. 

In which Marik destroys many household appliances, Bakura naps doggedly, and they sometimes pretend - with very little success - not to be in love. (YGOTAS, thiefshipping. ridiculousness meets poeticism meets more ridiculousness.)

Six Days As Boyfriends by sitabethel (thiefshipping) (complete)

I just really like this ship and I have since I was a 14 don’t @me

In order to avoid talks of arranged marriage, Marik convinces Bakura to trick Ishizu into thinking that they're in love.

The Longest Job & The Smallest Favor by emanthony (hisoillu) (complete)

everyone in like march-ish of 2018: omg in the new update of hxh illumi says that he and hisoka are engaged!

me having watched 10 episodes of hxh 4 years ago and having a faint idea of the series: who?

me: *looks up fanfics of them*

me: *finds these two*

me: *proceeds to read them 15 times and gets obsessed with the ship*

Illumi is forced out of the Zoldyck estate and seeks a living arrangement with an associate. He's not altogether pleased with it.

Hisoka is a floor master at Heaven's Arena and has the unexpected pleasure of spending time with one of his oldest acquaintances. He doesn't share Illumi's frustrations.

///

A sequel to the Longest Job, another HisoIllu fanfiction.

Hisoka and Illumi have been living together for six months now without much trouble. But when Illumi's youngest brother goes missing, Hisoka manages to make the situation just a bit too complicated and much more fun.

Lessons in Etiquette by KnockKnockBadminton (promtis) (complete)

I knew nothing about this video game but for whatever reason decided to look up fanfic for it after seeing some fanart, and then because this one was so well written, I, again knowing absolutely knowing about this video game or the series it’s a part of, binged the entire 164k fic in like two days. I’ve also re-read it and convinced my brother to buy the video game as a result. He refers to them as the “leather boy band” and sends me updates about his play through lmao

Begins in high school. From Prompto's desire to befriend the sullen, bullied prince blooms a relationship even the Astrals themselves could not have foreseen. Basically fills in the gaps from Brotherhood to the fall of Insomnia. Some liberties taken.

say it like you mean it by spaceburgers (takuleo) (complete)

Ever since playing the video game, I loved the dynamic between these two characters, and this fic is a wonderfully crafted and fun to read AU staring both of them.

Wherein Leo is a transfer student, Takumi is overly competitive, and they're doing Romeo and Juliet (but not as the titular roles).

[zippdementia]

Part 53 Alignment May Vary: What to do About Those Pesky Dragons!

This was a short session almost entirely taken up by a single combat. I’ll get to that in a moment. First of all, some housekeeping. Before we leave the temple of Maaken, Trakki announces he has something to do. He takes Trellara and lelads her into the altar room.

Trellara is smitten with Traki, but she is not stupid. The temple of Maaken already has an evil reputation and each step she takes into the temple seems to confirm this. She lingers for a moment at the mural showing the three figures rising to rule the world, but she does not comment on it. When they reach the altar room, her doubts finally settle into fear and then a terrible sort of comprehension. This is due in part to a natural 20 on her insight roll, but probably has more to do with the giant pulsating blob of horrible meaty parts resting in the corner of the altar room, yet in clear view (the Soul Jar).

Trellara draws her scimitars but seems unwilling to accuse Traki. The thought of him betraying her is too awful. “No,” is all she says. “I am sorry,” is all he replies, though no sorrow enters his voice. Then he is on her, stabbing at her with the Dagger of Erythnul, burrying it in her shoulder. It’s evil properties drain the life from her and while she is stunned he open palm strikes her, knocking her unconscious.

A dry cackle comes from out of the shadows and the old woman with the slit throat, who once made honey cakes but whom we now know Traki previously murdered and turned into an undead, approaches. “Nazragul is pleased by your decision,” Mama Honeycakes says.

“Then ask him to tell me how to perform the ritual that made you what you are. But I want it better this time. I want her to rise more powerful than before.”

Mama Honeycakes smiles a broken smile.

Soon the ritual is set. Trellara lies with her chest and heart exposed on the altar. Over her hovers Traki, his arm slit open and the blood gushing over her form, staining her white face red. Sitting on her naked skin are pieces of the soul jar, pulsating slowly in the blue torch flame that lights this area. Traki has drawn a rune on Trellara’s chest, over her heart. Next to him stands Nysyries, supervising the work, for she is one who can manipulate the magical weave while Traki is a stranger to that world. Luck alone, and the power of the dagger,  showed him how to bring the old woman back. Now he wants something more than luck.

“Now we begin,” she says, in Nazragul’s throaty growl.

So what’s happening here is a couple of arcana rolls. DC 15 on the first one, to see if Trellara can become anything other than a slobbering zombie who will follow Traki around slowly like a dangerous pet. He passes this, but only barely and with the help of Nysyries aiding him and a fate point (+1 to any roll, remember these? We use them a lot). The second test is to see whether Trellara becomes blood crazed or maintains a semblance of control over her new powers. This he succeeds at wildly!

The dagger plunges into Trellara’s heart, piercing the center of the rune on its way there. Trellara moans, whether in pain or ecstasy, Traki cannot tell. The pieces of the soul jar suddenly move for the wound in the chest, squeezing themselves inside of it, while the blood Traki smeared on Trellara’s face and body seems to be sucked up by her skin, disappearing into it like water poured over dry sand. Trellara sucks in a breath. Her skin has gone whiter than before. Her eyes have sunken back in her head. Her teeth have become sharp points. Yet despite this, she seems to have retained her beauty, unnatural as it might now be. She looks around like a newborn. The hole in her chest reveals a softly beating heart. She demurely covers it with her clothing.

“You have freed me,” she says in wonder to Traki.

Tyrion Ragedrinker, also known as the Blue Bard, sits outside the temple sharpening his axe. He looks up when the three emerge and briefly lets his eyes rest on the new Trellara. “Well, there’s that, then,” he says, and goes back to sharpening his axe.

Trellara has become a wight, with all the good and bad that brings with it. She is pretty powerful now, if not the sturdiest fighter. Definitely more powerful than before! And Traki’s successful ritual means she retains her beautiful voice and a sense of self. She’s a little odd right now, crying tears of blood without knowing why she is crying, and tearing out the feathers of her owl as slowly as possible to see how it reacts (Nysyries has them bent to her will, using her powers to make them actually enjoy being afraid of the group... they are a little twitchy, but they obey). But eventually she will learn to adapt to her new body and will be able to fit in almost as well as any of them. She doesn’t like sunlight, though, and becomes sluggish and less charismatic under its glare. The group is going to have some fun roleplay challenges when they reach Brindol, considering they will have to hide their evil nature during that entire chapter. This just adds to the fun and gives them a powerful NPC ally to boot!

Dragon Leftovers

I have long been dissatisfied with how Red Hand of Doom handles its end game with the Dragons. I’m going to jump ahead a bit here (my players, if you are reading, I’ll keep this vague and spoiler free)... So you’re powering through Red Hand of Doom, having a good time, and then you get to the end of the adventure and, oh, guess what? Your party didn’t kill all the dragons. So now they have to fight them all AT ONE TIME. This is supposed to be a punishment for players who didn’t succeed at routing dragons throughout the adventure and to be honest, it is not an impossible fight to win, depending on your players’ levels and how many there are. But dragons are tough. Young dragons have a CR of somewhere between 7-10, depending on their type. Now, one of these may actually not pose enough of a threat to your party. But two or three of them at once?

Not that I’m saying non-legendary Dragons should fight alone (we’ve seen how that worked back at the Sunken City of Rhest) but they should be paired up with lesser minions meant to keep players from being able to focus fire on them and pin them down, maybe CR 2s or 3s or even a couple 4s if the party is really tough and needs a challenge. You’ll see this happen in the storm battle I’ve set up for Ozyrandion, below. I used Xanathar’s guide for this fight. Looking at Xanathar’s guide, five level 9 characters are said to be equal to taking on a level eight challenge, but I’m not sure I agree with that in practice. At least in my group, I’ve seen two of my party (Traki and Tyrion) take on Ozyrandion at the bridge by themselves and do okay, and that was back at level 6 or 7. At level 9 I have no doubt that all three of them would destroy a single young green dragon and honestly two of them could hold their own in a fight. Thus, I treat my players more like level 13 when using Xanathar’s guide to set difficultly. There are a lot of things that could factor into why this happens in my group, like the fact that we allow epic maneuvers like grappling in mid-air, or it could be the NPCs they travel with, or their aggressive tactics, or my poor rolls, but it seems to balance out a lot better.

Note: A lot of this is gut work more than math work. I pick my monsters for fights based on how well I know my players and how they fight, so I have a good idea of what challenges them. Xanathar’s guide is just there to give me a guideline to judge what I’m doing after the fact.

That said, three young dragons versus my three party members is almost a guaranteed TPK, even using Xanathar’s guide and treating my players as higher level.

But there are story reasons, too, to dislike the way the dragons are used. The players are supposed to believe these beasts show up for one fight in the game and if they survive it then they just disappear from the playing field to go back home. Why would they do this? Why wouldn’t they continue to be active participants in the war? Dragons are touchy beasts: wouldn’t they hold a grudge and seek out the adventurers who escaped their wrath, especially if those adventurers succeeded in getting past them to the thing they were guarding (bridge/eggs/phylactery/etc)?

My advice to GMs running Red Hand of Doom is this: if the players encounter a dragon and survive the encounter without killing it, then look for ways to work that dragon back into the plot before the battle of Brindol. You will have to adjust their fights a bit to keep them a challenge, but I think it lets all the dragons shine more as individual, willful creatures and makes them feel less like obligatory boss fights. For instance, in our game, Ozyrandion lives. I decide to have Azor Khul send him to guard the Ghostlord’s lair instead of Varanthian. Varanthian is a fine monster, and a level 11 challenge would be a decent solo monster fight at this point in the game (and I’ve got other minions in the Ghostlord’s lair who can reinforce if the Behir gets locked down with stun or the like), but I would rather the players get a shot at a reoccuring villain rather than have to establish a new one. So instead of the players fightng her, they have an intense encounter with Ozyrandion and three Manticores who accost them in the middle of a raging storm on the edge of the Ghostlord’s lair.

Here is a list of other suggestions for how to bring surviving dragons back:

Ozyrandion: the haughty green dragon is sent to hunt the players, catching up with them on their way to Rhest or at some other point in the adventure between locations (as I did above). If he fails again but escapes, he becomes obsessed and “goes rogue,” chasing the players down even after the adventure has ended, gathering more powerful allies each time (wyverns, chimera, etc).

Regiarix: if Regiarix and Saarvith both still live, then maybe they attack the elves right after Rhest and launch a side quest to hunt them down in the fens, where they will fight alongside some ghoulish minions. If that doesn’t appeal, or if they survive that, then they join in the battle at Brindol, attacking at the same time as another major event that the players are on their way to help with, waylaying the players and preventing them from reaching their goal. The players have to defeat the two here and if they don’t do it quickly enough, they fail to reach their goal in time, causing the failure of one of the major events of the battle. Note, if you do this, consider giving them extra healing options after the battle.

Varanthian: I think the Behir has the opportunity to become a much more interesting character then just a boss fight. Consider introducing her earlier in the campaign, when the players have little chance of defeating her in combat. Knowing this, she should taunt them, warning them to leave this quest to “better men.” She will continue to dog them throughout the adventure, tracking them for her own pleasure, enjoying the thrill of the hunt more than the promise of the kill, maybe attacking before a big event just to weaken and frighten them.  She will criticize and downplay their actions, mocking any other dragons they face as “inferior foes.” She will only go on the full offensive at either her original Ghostlord’s location, or after the Battle of Brindol. You may even want to consider replacing Tyragun with her in this case and removing Tyragun entirely, as using this method the Behir is a more interesting character then him. I honestly wish I’d thought of this sooner...

Abiathrix: The Red Dragon is the only one that it really makes sense to have the players meet again at the finale, if not defeated earlier. Mostly because there really isn’t anywhere else for him to go, as he’s encountered so late in the story. But having two dragons to fight may be an acceptable challenge. If not, it is very possible he defects and flees the fight altogether. I always assumed he was really a coward at heart and hasn’t run yet only because nothing has really challenged him before. Chances are he will remember the characters who defeated him, though, and will return when he is older and more powerful to wreak his vengeance on the people of the Vale.

Riders on the Storm

The players approach the Ghostlord’s Lair by night on owlback, scanning the horizon for signs of “a giant stone lion” which they’ve been told contains the Ghostlord’s lair. Nazragul says they MUST secure the Ghostlord’s services so that he can use his powers over flesh to shape the Soul Jar into something more suitable for carrying into battle. Readers may recall that the point of the Soul Jar is to release the trapped souls of Nazragul’s army into freshly killed bodies after the Battle of Brindol. The entire point of the players fighting off the Red Hand of Doom is so that Nazragul’s armies will then have the easier time of slaughtering the weakened people of Brindol and bringing the city under his control, fulfilling his age-old dream of conquering the vale and the people (descendants in this case) of Rhest. We’ll see how that goes in a future chapter. For now, the players are suddenly distracted by a massive storm which rises just as they finally think they spot the stone lion. Nysyries knows time is short for her: she has two nights left before she needs to feed again on male human souls or else risk losing her druidic powers forever, as per her pact with the lady of the wood. She is not willing to wait out this storm. Tyrion is all for flying in, too, so the group pushes onward.

The storm bats their owls around and visibility drops to what is illuminated by Tyrion’s magical breast plate and the occasional lightning strike. in this darkness hides four ambushers, who roll very well on their stealth checks... but Nysyries rolls even better on her perception, even beating Ozyrandion’s 25 to hide! So she sees the shapes flying out of the darkness at them. When she calls to her companions to ready for combat, Ozyrandion hears her and realizes the surprise is up. “MY CHANCE FOR REVENGE HAS COME!” he booms.

Combat takes us a couple of hours. There is a lot going on. The Dragon is obviously the heavy hitter, but the Manticores get to roll enough times each turn that they pose at least a threat that can’t be ignored. Complicating things is the fact that the owls pose a big weakness. Yes, as mounts they allow the players to dodge, dash, or disengage for free, but they have little hit points and if killed, the players will be in free fall. Finally, the storm itself makes ranged attacks at disadvantage and is difficult terrain. It also has a special effect that happens each round based on a d100 roll:

1-10: A new combatant is carried into the storm. Choose a flying creature of CR 4 and add them as a neutral creature that selects a random target on its turn. Roll initiative for it now.

11-35: everyone must make a DC 14 CON save or be hit for 2d8 thunder damage and have disadvantage on all attacks rolls this round. Success on save takes half damage and avoids the penalty.

35-44: The clouds gather into a thick mass. This round nothing happens. Next round, roll the dice twice and apply both effects, re-rolling 35-44.

45-55: Nothing happens this round, the storm rages on.

56-69: Everyone is struck by confusion as per the spell confusion for one round. On their turn, if they can make a DC 18 WIS save, they avoid this effect.

70-85: lightning strikes a random character in the storm for 4d10 lightning damage

86-100: Everyone must make a DC 14 STR save or be blown into the nearest character within 20 feet. Succeeding the save means nothing happens to you. Failing the save moves you as described and both you and whomever you hit take 3d6 bludgeoning damage.

My players continually roll the thunder and lightning effects throughout combat, with a round where nothing happens occuring near the middle of combat, so we miss most of these effects, but the thunder and lightning have a big impact on the combat nonetheless, usually in favor of the players, who roll much better on their saves than the monsters do.

The combat starts with Nysyries taking control of the storm through call lightning and trying to strike an approaching Manticore. Traki leaps from the back of his owl, meanwhile, and aims for another Manticore, tackling it midair and tumbling down into the storm with it, stabbing with his dagger and punching with his fists all the while. Tyrion, seeing this feat of bravery (insanery?) follows suit, but not to be outdone, he chooses to leap on the dragon! Hey, he argues, Traki already got to kill a dragon, so it’s my turn!

Ah, classic DnD. Where Dragons become equivalent to big-game trophies.

By the end of the round, things are not going as well. The manticore Traki is, er, riding gives as good as it got, using its tail to reach that “oh so hard to scratch spot” on its back where Traki is and impaling him with a critical hit here. Traki gets hurt pretty badly, dropping below half life as he takes three massive hits from the Manticore. Nysyries finds herself targeted by Ozyrandion, who chooses to ignore Tyrion for the moment (”Disgusting little flea! I’ll deal with you next!”) and instead breathes poison at both her and her owl. It’s a heavy hit. The owl dies instantly. Nysyries is knocked unconscious and begins to fall into the storm. 

Trellara, meanwhile, goes nuts, unleashing the power of her now supernaturally beautiful voice to psychically attack the nearest Manticore. Her voice allows her to either target one enemy for 10d6 damage or ALL creatures within 30 feet for 3d6 damage (halved for both effects on a save, on a DC 13 Con save). The Manticore makes the save and launch into a flurry of attacks on her, bringing her down to half life. A lightning bolt then sparks across the sky and arks its way through Trellara and her owl, blasting her off into the night sky.

Tyrion casts healing word, saving Nysyries, who mid fall transforms into her signature Quetzalcoatl and rejoins the battle. After this, things turn to the player’s favor. Ozyrandion fails a ton of rolls against Tyrion, both in trying to pull him off and in trying to just do damage to him. Eventually, he flies high above the others, heading into the storm clouds to focus on Tyrion alone. The two beat eachother with their various weapons, the dragon missing more often than not, Tyrion having the same problem. Tyrion gets the upper hand, though, when he uses his reactionary Breastplate of Chaos (which has previously had such wonderful effects as turning him permanently blue) to randomly unleash a high level magic missile on the Dragon. This turns the tide, and from here on out Tyrion hits more and more with his berserker axe, going berserk in the process.

Far below them, Traki keeps leaping from Manticore to Manticore, asking each one “Hey, do I know you,” and confusing the hell out of them in the process. He’s thinking one might be the Manticore from Vraath Keep, you see, though that Manticore is actually still lounging around in those ruins, king of his own little domain. No, these Manticores DO NOT know Traki and have regretted meeting him at all. He manages to intimidate the first one into carrying him back into combat (and then this Manticore quickly bails on the fight), from here leaping on the next one. This one has a smarmy British accent and he’s less inclined to surrender, deciding to Kamikaze in the storm instead of letting Traki have victory. Good thing Nysyries is there to save him!

The rest of the fight is easy to describe. Nysyries and Traki together make easy work of the last Manticore, Nysyries diving underneath it while Traki drags the blade of Erythnul across its exposed belly. And Tyrion finally delivers a bad enough blow to Ozyrandion that he gives up on trying to rip the annoying little man off of him and instead dive bombs into a storm cloud brimming with lightning and booming with thunder. Here Ozyrandion meets his end, struck by a lightning bolt. That same bolt rips through Tyrion as he falls, a speck in the black sky that Nysyries turns and speeds towards.

At this point, what I think would be amazing is for Nysyries to catch Tyrion but have him still be berserk. I think that would be amazing. I think Nysyries and Traki agree, they laugh a little and Traki starts to muse about how he could restrain Tyrion until they can knock him out. But Tyrion isn’t for it and since it would be a stretch of the rules to insist that it happens, we move on. I’m usually okay with bending the rules a little in the name of hilarity and fun, but only if everyone is on board. So instead, Nysyries succeeds on her “catch the Blue Bard” roll without incident and we move on to the rough landing that puts them inside the eye of the storm and directly outside of the Ghostlord’s lair (I’ve doubled the proportions on everything here for reasons I’ll reveal once we actually meet the Ghostlord):

Rising from a low mesa is an intimidating sight. A massive lion of stone crouches, as if ready to pounce on a nearby hill. The cyclopean monolith is composed of a dull tawny stone. It looks to be about four hundred eight feet in length, and the top of its maned head rises over one hundred feet from the ground. There seems to be some sort of hollow between the lion’s front paws, in the area bordered by its chest. Likewise, hints of a dark cave are apparent in its gaping maw. The lair is constantly shrouded by a flight of dozens of ghostly lions. These spirits fly in unending circuits around and through the structure’s stony body and head. They are invisible during the day, but append the following description if the PCs approach the lair at night. Dozens of translucent lion-like shapes fl y and caper about the massive lion’s head and body. The shapes sometimes even pass through its stony surface to emerge in a different spot.

As you stare at this phenomenon, suddenly a voice calls out a confused “Now what is happening here?” You turn, and see the professor’s ghostly form standing nearby, looking aghast at the spiral of ghostly forms. Suddenly he is pulled from your side and lifted into the air, making thin protests as he is quickly drawn towards the spiral against his will and joins the other souls in the vortex.

Quick Analysis: This fight was meant to replace the opening fight against the Behir that’s set up for the entrance of the Ghostlord’s Lair. Thus, the goal was twofold. First, to provide a similar challenge (something equal to a level 11 one enemy challenge) which will drain some of the players’ resources heading into this dungeon. Second, to deliver something impressive to start off this dungeon.

On the first point, I think this was a success. The fight ends up being challenging but fun. It could have gone either way for my players, but once they got the upper hand, the fight continued to go in their favor. They definitely have used up a fair amount of heal spells and Nysyries has used a valuable transformation. They will have to decide whether a short rest is worth the risk before moving on next time. Regardless, they won’t be entering the dungeon at full strength. And Trellara is gone, disappeared in the storm. Not dead, perhaps, but missing in the Thornwaste for the time being, along with the surviving owls.

On the second point, it is also a success! This was a memorable fight and set up the environment for us, too. Flying through the storm to get here and then seeing it surround them as they approach the Ghostlord’s giant lion makes this all the more ominous and impressive. If your players fought and escaped Ozyrandion earlier, then I recommend using this fight (or a similar one) instead of the Behir. Save her for more interesting encounters.

[justanothercinemaniac]

Epic Movie (Re)Watch #200 - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Spoilers Below

Have I seen it before: Yes

Did I like it then: Yes.

Do I remember it: Yes.

Did I see it in theaters: No.

Format: Blu-ray

1) The prologue.

This first scene of the last film does a number of things well. For one, Sméagol suddenly becomes a much more sympathetic and tragic character. We see how happy this creature was before being corrupted by the evil of the ring; before becoming Gollum. And that’s the other thing this scene does well: we understand better than ever how evil the ring is. How quickly it can turn good people bad. This sets the stakes high for the final chapter of the trilogy. Originally meant for The Two Towers, its inclusion in this film works so much better I think. Also it’s worth noting that the transformation from practical Gollum makeup to CG is seamless and visceral.

2) I love how freaking angry Gimli gets upon running into Merry & Pippin alive (after searching so desperately for them in Two Towers) before being tempted by what they’re smoking.

3) It’s worth noting that I HAVE watched the extended editions of all three films and while I usually forget about the scenes added in those versions, Saruman’s death scene (which is cut in this film) is always one I miss. It is a nice note of finality for such a major character in the trilogy.

4) Much as this film really covers Frodo’s eventual corruption by the ring, Aragorn’s journey is also complete. Over the course of the trilogy we see him go from a loner who wants nothing to do with leadership into the king of men. This film is very much about Aragorn accepting that part of himself, becoming the leader he was always meant to be, and we see it in many little ways. He takes a moment for himself to respect those fallen before celebrating a victory, he imparts wisdom onto Gandalf, he earns the trust of Théoden, later honors his promise to the ghost soldiers even though he could’ve used them as a weapon, and leads his army into battle in an effort to give Frodo the time he needs. By the time the credits role Aragorn fully embraces his duty as king and that’s a wonderful transformation to watch.

5) Have I mentioned I low-key ship Sam and Frodo?

Frodo: “I need you on my side.”

Sam: “I’m always on your side, Mr. Frodo.”

6) The last film very much covered Merry’s maturity, becoming invested in the war (which guides his actions in this film as well). In Return of the King we get to see Pippin grow more as a person. We see him go from a someone who doesn’t think before he acts (like when he looks into the orb and risks alerting Sauron about Frodo) to someone with deep sorrow who takes responsibility for his actions (such as when he pledges his allegiance to the Stewart of Gondor because he feels responsible for Boromir’s death). It’s a nice subplot for the film.

7) Can I just say: Théoden can be a real idiot.

Théoden [about Gondor]: “Tell me: why should we ride to the aid of those who did not come to ours?”

Dude, you made SUCH a big deal about not asking for Gondor’s aid in the last movie when you were heavily advised to do just that. And now you’re getting pissy because they didn’t give you something you said you didn’t want?

8) While Sam and Frodo’s kinship is wicked strong, that’s not to undersell how deeply connected Merry and Pippin are. They’re great friends and the sadness of their goodbye as Gandalf takes Pippin to Gondor speaks to that.

9) Okay, can I just say something? There are only three named female characters in these films I can think of who have lines: Arwen, Galadriel, and Éowyn. They’re all awesome, they’re all great. They never EVER interact with each other and while we understand both Arwen and Galadriel are dangerous women it’s only Éowyn who gets to fight in the war. And I get the books were published in the 50s and everything but come on. Some changes to improve on female presence wouldn’t kill the movie.

10)

Arwen [about Aragorn]: “If I leave him now, I will regret it forever.”

And that’s literal, because elves are immortal. I just wanted to point that out.

11) John Noble as Denethor.

While there is initially a bit of sympathy for the stewart of Gondor because he’s mourning his son Boromir, wow is that lost quickly. I am rooting for this guy to die harder than I am any other character in this series because he is such a raging asshole. I think he’s supposed to be and John Noble plays him in a very interesting way. Much like Imelda Staunton was great at making us hate Doloris Umbridge in Harry Potter, John Noble is great at making Denethor a selfish, arrogant, cruel bastard who I just want to punch in his fucking permanent scowl of a face. HE FUCKING ADMITS THAT HE WISHES FARAMIR WERE DEAD INSTEAD OF BOROMIR! I just…yeah, I’m glad when this jackass dies.

12) The Dead City always reminded me a little of the Emerald City from The Wizard of Oz. Or is that just me?

13) I apologize for this in advance.

Frodo [when he feels the Witch King near, who stabbed him in Fellowship]: “I can feel his blade.”

(GIF source unknown [if this is your GIF please let me know].)

14) At first I questioned the need to include Faramir’s skirmish with the orcs, but for one thing it shows the continued darkness which spreads across Middle Earth as well as the scale of this war. Not to mention it feeds directly into a conflict between Faramir and his jackass dad.

15) I love Éowyn, which I said as much in the last recap. But in this film she is just so freaking ready to fight for those she loves, to stand up against evil even though the sexism of Middle Earth tries to keep her off the battlefield. But she doesn’t and we get the best moment in the whole trilogy. More on that later.

16) When I was younger I never really understood why Frodo believes Sam actually stole the bread, why he sends Sam away. But now I get just how great a manipulator Gollum is and how dark the ring can be on Frodo’s soul. Gollum knows EXACTLY what the ring is doing to him, the little things it whispers to him, the greed and mistrust which is taking him. He knows because he spent (I think) five hundred years under that very same influence. He knows what Frodo is going through better than anyone which he manipulates to his advantage.

17) Sean Astin just freaking shines with his breakdown after Frodo sends him away breaks up with him (you know, after refusing to give Sam a ring). He’s come so far, sacrificing his very life, to make sure Mr. Frodo stays safe and trying to make sure the ring doesn’t take him. And he’s ALWAYS on Frodo’s side, he always trusts Frodo. But Frodo can’t do the same thing for Sam. In fact, he does the complete opposite and distrusts him so deeply he tries to get rid of him. And it’s based on NOTHING, just the manipulations of a fiend and the darkness of the ring. Astin i just so great and conveying how heavy this is on Sam, I love it.

18) Ah, the song.

First of all, Billy Boyd’s vocals are just absolutely amazing here. They infuse the song with such grand heartache which helps it set the tone for Faramir’s attack on the orc troops. This isn’t a grand action scene, this isn’t a heroic triumph, this is a heartbreaking suicide mission made because of a son wanting to earn the love of his soulless father. And that’s why the song works as well as it does. It sets a beautiful tone.

19) Honestly, a few of these notes are just going to be me acknowledging awesome Éowyn is.

Éowyn [after some troops laugh at Merry for wanting to fight]: “Why can he not fight for those he loves?”

20) The scene where Aragorn takes the sword from Elrond is a great moment. The music, Aragorn’s demeanor, the subtleties of the cinematography, the visual of Aragorn taking the sword, it all just makes it feel like a real hero’s moment.

21) While the extended edition of this film may have some more Legolas & Gimli moments (there’s this wonderful drinking competition they get into), the bromance of the entire trio is still something I love.

Gimli [after Aragorn tries going into the dead mountain alone]: “You might as well accept it: we’re going with you, laddie.”

22) Merry is told he can’t go into battle by Théoden, that no one will carry him on their horse. Meanwhile Éowyn - who was basically told to stay at home and look after things while the men fight - says, “Screw that,” and takes Merry into battle herself. I LOVE ÉOWYN!

23) The scene with the ghosts and the dead mountain is truly eerie. Peter Jackson’s roots as a horror director really shine through in this wonderfully creepy scene and place. It’s just chilling.

24) In the long running list of why Denethor is a piece of shit: he is so freaking eager for Faramir to be dead and to have some man pain he doesn’t even check his pulse! Then he bitches about not getting help from Rohan which HE DIDN’T EVEN WANT and then gives up. Thank god for Gandalf.

25) The initial battle of Gondor has a nice sense of scale and stakes to it, especially when we see it through the eyes of Pippin. There’s this constant sense of dread and hardship which builds tension nicely.

26) I’m not talking about the spider scene because I always hide behind my hands when that scene is going on. I fucking hate spiders, guys. I hate them. It’s a miracle I didn’t just straight up fast forward past all the spider stuff. AND IT JUST KEEPS COMING BACK! You think the spider is gone but then no, it comes back for one last attack! ENOUGH WITH THE SPIDER ALREADY!

27) Gollum is totally done with the manipulation, the tricks, all of it. As soon as Frodo reveals his intention is to destroy the ring, he loses it and just is going to solve his problem with brute force. This doesn’t really work for him though.

28) Awww, Sam comes back to rescue his boyfriend only to think he’s dead.

Sam: “Don’t leave me here alone. Don’t go where I can’t follow.”

29) A coincidence to get the character in trouble helps move the plot along. Such as when the orcs show up RIGHT AFTER Frodo gets paralyzed so they can easily capture him.

30) Through a strong sense of visuals there is a nice feeling of hope when Rohan shows up to participate in the battle of Gondor. The build up to that and the fact we see it via Merry and Éowyn works REALLY well because they - like the audience - are both new to this.

31) I always liked that Gandalf is willing to leave the main battle to save Faramir, because isn’t that what this is all about? Saving as much life as we can.

32) There are few film deaths which are quite as satisfying to me as Denethor’s death. I won’t include it hear but those who have seen the movie know exactly what happens. Know if you seek it out it does involve fire (so if that triggers you maybe best to stay away).

33) Once the freaking elephants show up to battle you KNOW this shit is epic. One thing this film does best out of all three is its battle sequences are amazing. They may be long, but they are choreographed interestingly and use a strong sense of action = reaction to them. They’re epic and totally amazing.

34) I do have a bit of a fear of death, so Gandalf’s words to Merry always bring me calm.

Gandalf [after Merry says he can’t believe it’s going to end like this]: “End? No, the journey doesn’t end here. Death is just another path we must all take.”

35) THE BEST FREAKING MOMENT IN THE ENTIRE FREAKING TRILOGY! If you only watch one moment from The Lord of the Rings, make sure you watch this one. This is all you need to see. This is beautiful and I love it and it’s awesome. Watch it! Watch it now!

FUCKING ÉOWYN VERSUS THE FUCKING WITCH KING! YES! You can see she’s TOTALLY scared but that doesn’t matter at all. She works through the fear, she fights this mythical creature who is supposedly un-killable AND SHE FUCKING KILLS HIM! It’s either him or her uncle and damn it’s sure as hell not going to be her uncle! It is glorious. I cheer every time. I love it. Best moment in the trilogy. No contest. Done.

36) There is this tone shift in the battle of Gondor once Legolas and Gimli start their contest.

Gimli: “There’s plenty [of the enemy] for the both of us, may the best dwarf win.”

They bring out an intense amount of fun to the battle which just has you cheering them on. Cheering on the victory! I mean, LEGOLAS TAKES DOWN A FREAKING ELEPHANT!

Gimli: “THAT STILL COUNTS AS ONE!”

I love it.

37) Again, I apologize for this in advance.

Orc [about to kill Frodo]: “I’m going to stick you like a stuffed pig.”

Sam [killing the orc]: “Not if I stick you first.”

(GIF source unknown [if this is your GIF please let me know].)

38) It is always important that characters not be passive. Them making a choice is interesting. So even when Frodo is at a point where he can easily STOP carrying the ring and let Sam carry it, but he CHOSES not to, that’s interesting. It speaks to his character.

Frodo: “You must understand: the ring is my burden.”

39) This is one of my favorite things to hit the internet in 2012. It’s so random and weird I love it.

40) The moment when Aragorn really becomes the king of men is when he rallies his troops to fight against Sauron. He takes his role as leader seriously and he’s damn good at it.

Aragorn: “I see in your eyes the same fear which would take the heart in me!”

He relates to them, he lets them know he’s afraid, but his bravery inspires bravery in others. That’s what a good leader does. They speak of hope and unity against hatred, they don’t encourage it. They don’t divide people, they bring them together.

41) Have I mentioned I love Legolas and Gimli’s bromance?

Gimli: “Who thought I’d die fighting side by side with an elf?”

Legolas: “How about side by side with a friend?”

Gimli: “Aye. I can do that.”

42) Frodo is literally pushed past his physical limits, unable to climb any further up Mount Doom to destroy the ring. But he HAS to. That’s high stakes. Forgoing physical needs for the goal is the highest stakes imaginable. And also: HELL YEAH, SAMWISE GAMGEE!

Sam: “I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you!”

43) Can I just say: I will never truly wrap my mind around the super convenient giant eagles which show up at the last minute. Like, maybe there’s an explanation for this in the books, but wouldn’t the eagles have helped out A LOT MORE before this final battle? I mean really. What’s with this Deus Ex Machina stuff?

44) The scene where Frodo decides to keep the ring visually matches the one where Isildur did the same thing in Fellowship, meaning the seeds for this were planted in the trilogy from film one. It’s smart planning and helps make the choice all the stronger. We’ve seen the consequences of this action once, but again? Oh man, that could be disastrous.

45) You can really see the influence the ring had on Frodo when this is the first thing he says after it’s destroyed.

Frodo: “I can see the shire.”

Frodo talked about how he couldn’t remember it before, while he was carrying the ring. But now it’s gone and he can. I love that.

46) One of my favorite moments in the series is when Frodo wakes up in Rivendale with Gandalf standing at his bead. Remember, Frodo thinks Gandalf is DEAD from the first film. So not only is there the joy at his own survival but that of his friend too. And you can see it on Elijah Wood’s face.

47) This film has A LOT of endings. Like, it takes 20 minutes to end. But I like each and every one. Firstly, this massive respect the hobbits are paid.

Aragorn [king of men, to the hobbits]: “My friends. You bow to no one.”

[Aragorn bows, then so does literally EVERYONE else]

48) The Shire still brings about the same sense of peace it did in Fellowship. You know you’re really out of danger when you are in that place. The tension defuses and it feels like…home. It’s worth noting that the hobbits at first have nothing to talk about while at the bar. They just sit there in silence because…what is there to say?

49) The final goodbye.

I may not be the best to pick up on subtext, but even I get that this boat into the West is meant to represent the afterlife. That Bilbo, Gandalf, and Frodo are all going into the afterlife (even though I always forget that Gandalf leaves). This is honestly not only the most fitting ending to the story, but for Frodo’s character as a whole. There’s no way Frodo could’ve just gone home after all that evil. He couldn’t have just returned to normalcy. He’s changed too much, so he has to move on. But just because Frodo’s gone, doesn’t mean life moves on. And I think that’s one of the greatest messages this film has: even in the face of great loss, life moves on. And there is always ALWAYS hope.

50) And I think instead of analyzing the song “Into the West” I’ll just leave you all with a link to listen to it because it’s a wonderful piece.

The Return of the King is everything fans loved about the first two Lord of the Rings films dialed up all the way. The stakes are at their highest, the battles are at their most epic, the performances are incredible, and the characters finally reach the end of the journey they started at the beginning of this film. Winning Best Picture at the Oscars the year it was nominated, this film definitely deserves it and is worth the watch (even if it is a long watch).

[polizwrites]

WIP Update - 10 Oct 2017/ Current Creative Projects Meme

List all the things you're currently working on in as much or little detail as you'd like, then tag some friends to see what they're working on. This can be writing, art, vids, gifsets, whatever.

I was tagged by the awesome and talented @sabrecmc -- many thanks!

As I mentioned yesterday, my @imaginetonyandbucky Road Trip prompt (tentative title So Open Up, I'm Climbing In) is going like gangbusters. Just finished the first draft of Chapter 5 & the fic is sitting at just over 11k words.   Told from Tony's POV, they (Bucky, Tony, Sam and shrimpy!Steve) have been on the road five days so far (total trip = 9 days), seeing the country and dealing with a couple of Dramatic Plot Points while the UST/pining builds. I'm finally getting around to the "bed sharing" (and potential smut) part of the prompt in Chapter 6. This may be the last chapter, depending on how wordy I get (and I obviously have a lot to say about these two idiots in love!)  The amazing @hddnone is beta'ing and doing a fantastic job, as always! My self-imposed deadline for completing this and getting it on the blog is about a week and a half. (!!!)  It will be posted to Ao3 sometime in November, probably in twice-weekly installments.

I'm also getting some serious work done on the To Shield From the Storm prequel - Forging the Shield.  Set in 1934 and told from  Steve's POV,  it covers Bucky and Steve's unexpected transitions to omega and alpha status, and their subsequent bonding.  Currently sitting at almost 4k words, Bucky's getting ready to go through his third full heat -- and he won't be alone for this one.  @hddnone is also rocking it as beta for this fic! Still trying to decide if this will wrap after their first time/bonding (and whether that's one and the same event), or carry forward thru the canon timeline (potentially up to the war).  This will probably start posting once the above fic is complete on Ao3.  

To Shield From The Storm: Not technically a WIP anymore, but I will probably tinker a bit with each chapter as I post it.  Chapter 15/17 goes up tomorrow; it's three months later and Tony and Steve's relationship has changed in unexpected (and perhaps unwanted) ways. But I promise all's well that ends well, and there will be more smut before we're done.  This fic will be complete on Ao3 as of 10/25.

I have Vague Ideas for a TSFTS  sequel as well - the last couple chapters of the fic set up the possibility, and an angsty bit of business (inspired by another fic I read recently) popped into my head during a bout of insomnia late last week.   But the prequel (and the other projects below) probably take precedence.

Two more pieces to go up on Ao3  Real Soon Now: Time Out of Joint –   Bucky POV where he, Steve and a group of strangers wake up in a sealed room.  Where (or perhaps more accurately, when) are they?  It reads like the first chapter of something bigger, but I have no idea what that ‘something bigger’ is, but don't want to throw away the work I've put into it.  I need to make sure all my rework is done and finish general spit & polish before this goes up - maybe this weekend?

Remember, Then Follow - Tony POV that picks up right after the CA:CW Siberia missile silo battle.   It's currently sitting at almost 2k and desipte the Vague Ideas of where to take this, maybe posting it will absolve me of the guilt of not giving this idea the attention I think it deserves. (I suppose I could always come back to it someday.) It's a fairly decent one-shot as is, with a bit of polish and perhaps a tweak of the scene/fic ending.  

The Subtle Briar  – still no updates to this Peggy POV alternate-origin story of our favorite SSR agent.   Canon-level StevexPeggy is the eventual end game, pairings-wise, but I expect the rating will remain Gen/Teen.  Still sitting somewhere around 2k on paper  for the first major act with a few plotty bits sketched out and several  further elements still to be jotted down. This is gonna take awhile; don't expect to see this before the beginning of next year. If anyone is interested in beta/cheer-reading, HMU.

I also have two possible  WinterIron ficlet ideas that I've jotted down the bare bones of: both musically inspired, with one of which making  direct reference to the song that inspired it. If they see the light of day, they'll prob just be Tumblr posts.

I've also had fun with the One Sentence -->5 Sentence prompt meme, so will continue to solicit these. If you are so inclined. throw me the first sentence and a POV/pairing and I'll try to turn something around within the day.

Tagging:  @spectralarchers, @catbelwrites, @readingfanficsblog, @this-is-romanoff  @lazyamara and anyone else who wants to play!

[karyu-endan]

Twilight Chapter 15/16 review: Meyer Wrote This Story Sideways, I Swear

I’m in a bit of a pickle right now.

See, I read two chapters of Twilight back-to-back today. This is because chapter 15 ends in a really awkward spot. Edward starts telling Bella about Carlisle’s backstory, but he stops partway through rather abruptly and picks it back up early into chapter 16.

Now, I could see it being done like this if Meyer wanted Carlisle to join the conversation and talk about his own past in order to get a feel for how the man himself reflects on it, but this doesn’t happen. Chapter 16 starts with Edward taking Bella to Carlisle’s office to ask him to continue where he left off, but Carlisle has to fill in for another doctor who called in sick and can’t say anything, leaving Edward to tell Bella more about Carlisle. The chapter transition has no point other than giving Bella an excuse to gush about the size of Carlisle’s book collection and a painting on the wall when she steps into his office.

So chapter 15 doesn’t really end and I read chapter 16 as well. But now I have two chapters’ worth of content I need to say my piece about, and if I put all of my thoughts into a single post it would be too long. So here’s what I came up with. I’ll be splitting the review of this couple of chapters into three parts. This one, which will cover most of the content in both chapters, and two more parts which will deal with Carlisle’s backstory and Edward’s backstory specifically. Carlisle’s backstory forms a bulk of both chapters and is big enough it deserves its own review, and while Edward’s backstory is not given anywhere near as much focus (strangely enough) that small section is nonetheless rather important and I want to give it my undivided attention.

With that out of the way, let’s begin the chapters in earnest.

Chapter 14 ends with Bella falling asleep to the sound of Edward singing a lullaby too quiet for Charlie to hear. Chapter 15 starts with Bella waking up the next morning, and after the initial surprise of it, she is ecstatic to learn that Edward stuck around all night long and was at her side when she woke up.

Well, after being flattered by Edward breaking into her house every night to watch her sleep without her consent nothing surprises me. Maybe it’s just another chance for Edward to lose control and turn Bella into a vampire. I don’t know.

Anyway, after Edward informs her that Charlie already left, Bella has breakfast and as she’s eating it Edward tells her he’d like Bella to meet his family today... and eventually he’d like Bella to introduce him to Charlie as her boyfriend. After some squabbling about the word “boyfriend” Bella reluctantly accepts Edward’s proposal to meet his family.

But not reluctantly in the sense that she’s afraid of being eaten by half a dozen vampires, oh no. That’d be the sane reaction. Instead, Bella’s reluctant because she’s afraid the Cullens won’t like her!

Because if the Cullens don’t like her, they won’t go along with her inevitable pleas to turn her into a vampire. Come on; for what other reason could this cognitive dissonance possibly exist?

Oh, and Edward points out how irrationally Bella’s behaving. This is actually something rather common in this book, for several characters. Most of the time, someone will acknowledge that a given character is being stupid, crazy, or a jerk. But aside from Mike in chapter 7, no one ever actually learns from being called out and keeps doing what they aren’t supposed to be doing. It can only happen so often before it gets annoying.

No wonder Mervin started keeping track of it with the Sin Thine Ass Off counter.

Back to the story. Bella quickly gets changed and then Edward takes her to the Cullen household, which is understandably pretty far away from the rest of town. Then Bella goes into detail about the surrounding scenery, and the exterior of the house… and the interior of the house when Edward takes her in. The extended description is surprisingly not filled with purple prose and does what it is intended to do: give readers an idea of what the setting looks like and provide atmosphere for the coming scenes. Thankfully not everything Cullen-related is dazzling.

And now Bella meets the rest of the Cullens… well, save Rosalie and Emmett. Rosalie is the only one that doesn’t like Bella and Emmett’s trying to reason with her, according to Edward. Though Emmett still has enough common sense to consider Edward a lunatic for staying with Bella; he just doesn’t have anything against Bella herself. Upon learning this Bella asks Edward what Rosalie dislikes her for and after Edward says it’s because she’s jealous, Bella asks how Rosalie could possibly be jealous of her.

Yeah, Bella! How dare someone stuck being teenager for all eternity be jealous of someone capable of growing up and living a full life? I mean, that’s not quite the reason, but as usual Bella is too dazzled by appearances to even consider that.

As for the actual reason? In due time… In due time…

Back to the Cullens that actually meet Bella, Carlisle and Esme are the first. Carlisle is amicable enough to request that Bella refer to him by his first name (after previously referring to him as Dr. Cullen). As for Esme… she’s very happy. Almost too happy. She pressures Edward into playing the piano for Bella and Edward later says that even if Bella had webbed feet and a third eye she’d be impressed. Edward had gone on without a partner for so long (and flat-out rejected Rosalie, let’s remember) that Esme was apparently getting worried that he’d be forever alone.

I wonder what Esme would think if Edward brought a boy home instead of a girl.

Also, when describing Esme, Bella compares her to Snow White. That’s three allusions to Disney princesses now.

Then down comes Alice! She stops just short of glomping Bella in excitement. Esme could be seen like the mother who’s relieved that her son is straight after all… while Alice is definitely the fangirl who’s celebrating her OTP finally becoming canon.

I like Alice. Alice might be crazy, but unlike Bella and Edward who understand the problems with their actions but do them anyway, she’s innocently crazy. Her having no memories of her human life means she has no innate understanding of social etiquette and her ability to see the future might give her a warped sense of morality. Scenes like this one demonstrate her naivety when it comes to basic, human things like introductions. The rest of the Cullens are reserved and trying to ease Bella into getting to know them, understandably trying to make sure Bella isn’t frightened by a bunch of vampires she’s never really met before. Alice, however, holds nothing back and shows off just how much she wants to befriend Bella the moment she can.

It actually provides a nice contrast with Bella. Bella is a compulsive liar that can’t comprehend just telling the truth is an option, while Alice has no conversation filter thanks to her unique circumstances and has difficulty lying when she should. One can only imagine what Alice had to go through in order to learn how to pass as an ordinary high school student (and she seemed a lot quieter in chapter 12 too; in hindsight, she was clearly out of her element).

Again, I posit that Bella/Alice would be more interesting than Bella/Edward, since their personalities actually complement each other and they can help one another overcome their flaws.

In contrast to Alice, Jasper is the most shy about meeting Bella. He doesn’t even as much as shake Bella’s hand and actually initially uses his power to make Bella feel better about meeting him before Edward gives him a sharp glare and he stops it. Again, this is an effective introduction for him because of course Jasper would be the most hesitant at meeting Bella; he’s the one with the worst control issues and has to worry about losing control the most.

It’s just a shame we’re getting these Establishing Character Moments after Edward gave us a bunch of exposition about them in chapters 13 and 14. Showing Alice’s lack of social skills and Jasper’s hesitance and then explaining what was up with them would have given the scenes more impact. As the books are structured, Alice and Jasper are given exposition first as just a bit of fluff breaking up the pace of the story, and these moments here only back-up what Edward was saying; an Establishing Character Moment loses its weight when we already know what to expect. Had I been writing this story, I wouldn’t have gone into detail about Alice and Jasper until right after these moments here, with Bella asking why they were acting weird as a segue into Edward explaining their backstories. The chapter would end when Edward finishes and starts showing Bella the upper floors of the house, leaving the chapter hanging as Edward’s about to talk about Carlisle’s backstory, with chapter 16 devoted entirely to that with Carlisle adding to the discussion himself for reasons I pointed out earlier.

And with that… it’s over. Practically nothing substantial happens after meeting the Cullens for the rest of these two chapters. After they leave, Edward starts playing the piano for Bella. Then Edward talks about Carlisle. Then Edward talks about himself. Then chapter 16 ends with Alice and Jasper letting Edward know they’re going to play some baseball in the back yard. In the middle of it all Edward brings up Alice having a vision recently about some human-eating vampires coming to visit (which seems to be there just so Meyer can say that James doesn’t come out of nowhere), but that’s pretty much it from the plot development standpoint.

Next time Carlisle’s backstory is getting closely examined for any story-related illnesses we may diagnose it with.

[jestbee]

June 28: Ships that pass in the night (Chapter Eight)

[recentanimenews]

Bookshelf Briefs 5/28/19

Creature Girls: A Hands-On Field Journal in Another World, Vol. 1 | By Kakeru | Seven Seas – This was another “I’ll get the first volume, how bad could it be?” sort of book. The answer is pretty bad, at least for readers of my taste. That said, for those in the market this is aiming for, Creature Girls must be a dream come true. A monster girl story with actual coitus, as well as deep down analysis of the girls’ bodies, almost to the point of parody. The plot is the standard “guy transported to fantasy world” stuff, and there’s a few mentions made of battles against enemies that he helps them with. But the target reader is not here for that. He is here to see monster girls show off their boobs, swear they’re 18, and get screwed. This book gives that to you, in spades. I’ll pass on future volumes. – Sean Gaffney

Haikyu!!, Vol. 32 | By Haruichi Furudate | Viz Media – Oh boy, more full volumes of volleyball. They sure do (punches fist in air) PLAY that volleyball, huh? OK, OK, let me see… the twins’ backstory was quite good, and I enjoyed the end, where we see more of Hinata’s growth to the point where Tsukishima even praises him, as much as Tsukishima is ever going to praise anyone. And credit to the author, 32 volumes in, for continuing to find ways to not make volleyball boring. There are great poses and a fast pace which reminds you why this is such a popular series. The pace is not fast enough that the game is over, though, and I’m fairly sure that the next volume will have me groping for words once more. It’s a good series, though. – Sean Gaffney

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Part 4: Diamond Is Unbreakable, Vol. 1 | By Hirohiko Araki| Viz Media – Ten years after the final battle between Dio and Jotaro in Cairo, the fourth part of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure returns to Japan. In the first volume of Diamond Is Unbreakable, Jotaro has come to the town of Morioh to investigate a series of crimes and to search for Josuke Higashikata, his uncle and the illegitimate son of his grandfather Joseph Joestar. When Jotaro finds Josuke he discovers a high schooler with a very powerful Stand and a hair-trigger temper (both literally and figuratively) to go with it, a potentially dangerous combination. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure continues to be a violent and grotesque series—the human and animal cruelty present will be too much for some readers—but I continue to love it for its strangeness, over-the-top action sequences, and ridiculous characters. Josuke in particular is one of those delinquents with a heart of gold that brings me tremendous delight. – Ash Brown

Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits, Vol. 3 | By Waco Ioka and Midori Yuma | Viz Media – I’m wondering how much of this series is going to be Aoi healing people’s hearts through the power of delicious food. Oryo spends most of the volume sick (well, the impression is she’s also hiding), but even she will eat Aoi’s food. We also get backstory on Suzuran and Akatsuki, and take a trip back to Japan so that Suzuran can pay her respects to the late Shiro, and also stay behind. It’s a perfect opportunity for Aoi to stay behind as well, something her captor knows only too well, but she chooses to return anyway. This series looks pretty slow burn, so I think the food may outweigh the romance for a while yet. But I’m OK with that. – Sean Gaffney

Kiss & White Lily for My Dearest Girl, Vol. 9 | By Canno | Yen Press – Half this volume is Yukine and Ayaka, who are coming to realize that “winning” or “losing” is not the be-all and end-all of their relationship. Good thing too, as Ayaka finally wins. Elsewhere, we see a girl who’s a repeater (she was injured and couldn’t get attendance credits), so is something of a loner, but also a cosplayer. She ends up falling for a younger, puppy-dog sort of girl, but it’s hard to get over putting people at a distance, so they end up breaking up quickly. But is it really over? This volume frames the “main” pairing right in the middle, with the ‘volume’ pairing as a bookend, and it woks very well. Next volume is the last, so I suspect it will be all Ayaka and Yukine. – Sean Gaffney

Little Witch Academia, Vol. 3 | By Trigger, Yoh Yoshinari and Keisuke Sato | JY – The spinoff comes to an end here, and there’s no real climactic finale—they have to win a flying contest against another school, but Diana is ill, so Akko tries her hardest (and mostly fails) and succeeds in the end, because she’s just that plucky. In the end, I think this spinoff probably works best for the groups it’s marketed for—kids and those who watched the anime. I wasn’t as fond of it as I was the other ones, as it’s clear that any character development is going to be in the main series. But as an advertisement for the main series, it’s excellent—I certainly would like to see more of everyone. Something to get your niece for her birthday—at three volumes, it’s even affordable. – Sean Gaffney

My Monster Secret, Vol. 16 | By Eiji Masuda | Seven Seas – Every new volume of the series after its first “ending” seems to be designed to annoy me—something that also befell the very similar Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, if I recall. As the cover might give away, this volume doubles down on the teacher-student romance between Akari (who has at least appeared a lot) and Sakurada, best known as the least developed one of Those Three Guys, who looks much older than he is, which I guess is supposed to take the curse off the creepiness but doesn’t. Elsewhere, there is still some good comedy—I particularly liked the chapter with the supermarket sale—but more and more it appears this should have ended with the mutual confession. – Sean Gaffney

One-Punch Man, Vol. 16 | By ONE and Yusuke Murata | Viz Media – Still far too serious, and now faced with Saitama barely being in it. Certainly if you like cool fights it’s a good read, but I can get that from a dozen other manga titles. I read this for silliness, and that’s in short supply here. I did like the idea of the superhero “Megane,” who is pretty much just a guy with glasses. There’s also some good development from Garo, whose analysis is top tier, but who sadly is a bit too focused on the wrong things. But then again so are the A-rank heroes—there’s a fair bit of hypocrisy here. At least Genos knows what’s what, and we also get the return of Bang, who has a grudge of his own. It looks like Saitama will show up soon, and thank goodness. Who needs a totally serious One-Punch Man? – Sean Gaffney

Ooku: The Inner Chambers, Vol. 15 | By Fumi Yoshinaga | VIZ Media – Revolution is approaching as the most senior of Iesada’s ministers signs a trade treaty with America without waiting for Imperial approval. This fellow silences his detractors with harsh punishments and winds up assassinated by the end of the volume for his trouble. Meanwhile, the pregnant Iesada has evidently been gotten out of the way by somebody, but it’s unclear who, leaving her bereaved consort Taneatsu in the dark about her demise for a full month. Now he’s doing his best to guide her clever successor, who has just been married to an Imperial prince. She was concerned about deceiving the emperor, since the shogunate’s part of the deal was to oust foreigners, but a big reveal in the final pages proves they’re the ones who’ve been deceived. Still great, if sad. Poor Taneatsu. – Michelle Smith

Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization, Vol. 3 | By Tomo Hirokawa, based on the story by Reki Kawahara | Yen Press – The danger is ramped up a lot more in this volume, which also comes with the return of a familiar face from the Progressive series. When it comes to “NPCs can surpass their programming,” no one’s done it more often than SAO, with the current Alicization arc being all about that. Kizmel was (storywise, at least) first, though, and it’s heartwarming to see Kirito and Asuna reunite with her, even if she doesn’t know who they are. That said, this side story is still all about Premiere, who has a role that she is clearly there to fulfill… and also there’s more than one of her? Not for casuals, but SAO fans should find this a lot of fun. – Sean Gaffney

Yowamushi Pedal, Vol. 11 | By Wataru Watanabe | Yen Press – The joy of our whole team of six catching up with one another is tempered by the reminder that there can be only one winner of this race… and that the others are going to drop back and fail. It’s a hard lesson for Onoda to absorb, and by the end of the book he’s still struggling to. The rest of the book is filled with the most manly cycling ever, fortunately, and I have to say pound-for-pound this series even manages to out-shonen the Jump titles. That said, holy hell, this is a long race, and we’re still not done. Sports manga go on forever, and nothing says that better than this omnibus, which equates to vols. 21-22 of the original. I hope Sohoku eventually wins. And by that I mean Onoda. – Sean Gaffney

By: Ash Brown