#and MAGIC

[bookofsecretstotell]

"Irulans fate"

[fairytalesofforever]

hey have you ever thought about how inej describes kaz's hands as being for making things vanish? how one of his classic magic tricks is making things disappear? how she describes her trauma response/dissociation as vanishing? how she is the Wraith and it is her greatest skill to disappear?

how we can imply from this that she feels like a) kaz's touch will trigger her and make her vanish and b) he only values her for that skill?

but how, the one thing he does, every time, is see her? is not let her disappear? is ask her, multiple times, to stay? is tell her, "don't slip away from me?"

"but it's what I do best."

[cherry-pop-elf]

God imagine the conversation Charlie and Ron must have had after the war was over

Charlie: “You did WHAT at Gringotts?!”

Ron: “Yeah we road the iron belly out of Gringotts…”

Charlie: “How?!”

Ron: “I just…Remebered what you taught me.”

Charlie: “You listened to my endless rambles?”

Ron: “Course. Yer my brother-!”

Like I said. Ron is the GOAT. Like if his skills were more utilized ((more like his family in GENERAL)) Voldemort probs would have been killed before book three. IM JUST SAYING

[breakandbuildfiction]

Meeting Other Royals

After becoming the Ghost King of the Infinite Realms, Danny finds himself having to take on a lot of new responsibilities. Chief among these is the duty to represent the Realms at interdimensional events for High Society. Luckily for Danny, he isn’t the only teenager/young adult forced to attend, so at least he has some people he can hang out with between schmoozing it up with his fellow bigwigs.

[theroundbartable]

You guys remember the episode where Gwaine appears the first time?

The melee that they attend is the "ultimate test for strength and Courage"... Yeah. Just leaving that out there.

[easily-distracted-by-fandom]

Eclipse just hit totality. Magic is real. There is nothing like an eclipse lol

[bean-there-before]

I just had a really weird realization about the fictional crushes I have on women

to name a few: Wanda maximoff, Agatha harkness, and grace chastity (mostly Angela but it extends)

[felonytaxevasion]

Glad you enjoyed pact!

I'd love to know your thoughts on the magic system and diabolism in general, also what did you think of Black Lambs Blood?

Also if you actually want wildbow long windedness in his supernatural setting, then I can say thats Pale's biggest weakness, so if you are okay with that I can heartily recommend it

Diablerism/Black Lambs Blood was my favorite part of the Pact magic system by a long shot actually. I wouldn't say there were any parts of the magic that I didn't like or enjoy to some extent but the best part of Pact for me was the character work and I feel like diablerie was the most realized supporting metaphor for the relationships between those characters.

For example, and I promise arent critiques so much as comparisons to illustrate just how good the diablerie is, the DuChamps enchantress magic system is pretty solid. They manipulate connections and in the process the connections within the family lose the authenticity within their relationships with each other and only end up being connected through magic and false promises. Pretty well realized metaphor for how focusing on a family's position rather than the family unit itself will weaken the unit to disrepair. Mara for all of the side eye worthy racial politics of her character, also has a fairly realized metaphor about family dynamics. The parent draining the life of the child to prolong her own youth only to ultimately fail to realize any new goals as youth was never a requirement necessary for change in the first place.

I will say where pact starts to lose me is the other Jacobs Bell Powers. Mags works to an extent. The representation of how violent trauma affects a person who then carries that violence forward and inflicts it on others. My main critique with that is that Pact is such a family focused story I wish we got to see more of Mags and her dads and how the metaphorical violent trauma separated her from her family. Padraic being the one to sever the connection rather than Maggie's specific individual practice hobbled the thematic resonance of goblins for me, personally. I also won't lie, I'm fairly confident that there IS a strong metaphor within the Behaims chronomancy. However, said metaphor went completely over my head. Chronomancy was a super cool magic and I loved reading about it and the Behaim family dynamic was also interesting, but since I couldn't see the correlation between the two it weakened both elements impact on me as a reader.

So with all that said. On the other hand: Diablerie. Honestly incredible work in terms of landing a metaphor. There's a lot with passing on karmic burden as the cycle of abuse that's great. What really hits for me though is the idea of Permanent Damage. Society really supports the idea of family as the strongest most unbreakable bond in the world. So writing a family then explicitly filling it with the power of completely unfixable never able to be undone damage is really good. Pact doesn't play around with the idea that the Thorburns could ever completely fix their family to have a normal or entirely healthy relationship ever again. Rose Sr broke them in a way that can't be fixed. There's no amount of family therapy or Wanting to be a family that can undo what's been done.

I think part of the reason Black Lambs Blood is such a good side story about diablerie is because it also centers a family unit and how a demon can destroy it.

What I really love about dark urban fantasy compared to standard fantasy is that there's no escapism present. Like I love escapism but I love magic as a storytelling tool to tell human stories about inhuman characters. Which is very much the core of pact and why it works for me.

In terms of Pale though. Eeehhhh? I'm going back and forth on it because like you brought up, length in and of itself is not something that bothers me. However, how that length is used IS pretty critical. Worm and Pact both like to put the protagonist in an unwinnable situation where Taylor/Blake try several strategies that fail before either finding the solution or suffering a great loss. I think this style can bother people because the failures, especially in large numbers, aren't necessarily adding new character development or plot elements to the narrative and they would much rather just skip to the loss/solution. But personally I love when things get drawn out in this way because it helps hammer home the emotional feeling of victory or tragedy. The reason I'm apprehensive about Pale though is that I do not think that Ward used it's length well and that's when I started to get bored. Victoria would have very long fight sequences where she wouldn't need to find new creative solutions so much as continue through waves and waves of goons before she could reach the final boss and either win using the same strategy she did in the beginning, or lose using the same strategy. And like the things I like about Worm and Pact this definitely CAN work for people, it makes her victories via punching very hard feel earned. For me though it just felt like a slog and I've heard from some friends that Pale can fall in to this category in its latter half as well. Also frankly, the idea of pulling the magic outside of a family narrative and into a Magic School sounds like the least interesting possible choice to me. So while I'm sure it's more interesting than I'm imagining it is a steep barrier to entry for me.

[5ellaal5]

I dunno, man. Pastels are difficult. (referring to original art below the cut)

Anyway

The Operative and the Witch

The latest episode of my AU.

She ate a copper vein for a Magical Girl Glow Up.

The work is EXPLICIT but still #HopePunk Emily Nagoski / Gottman Institute type healthy relationships at heart.

The art isn’t explicit. The work/episode is.

Art the 1st: HECATE's Tarot reading from Chapter 1

"(2 of cups) (8 of cups) (6 of swords) (3 of cups) (vi the lovers)"

Image from Chapter 10, by me.

Summary: An anonymous Sons of Prometheus Tier 3 Operative with a painful past meets a Sentient, Sapient, Self-Developing AI Child/Subordinate Function of GAIA who really wants a Focus. Antics, romance and makin' luuurv ensues.

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage<br />Relationships: Original Character/Original Character, Aloy/Kotallo (Horizon)<br />Characters: Original Characters, Aloy (Horizon), Kotallo (Horizon), GAIA (Horizon), ARTEMIS (Horizon), ELEUTHIA (Horizon), MINERVA (Horizon), Sylens (Horizon), Verbena Sutter, Sons of Prometheus agents (Horizon), Tenakth Rebels (Horizon)<br />Additional Tags: Children of Emotionally Mature Artificial Intelligences, Adult Children who survived the Red Raids, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Canon-Typical Behavior, mention of worse than canon-typical violence, Healing Potions (Horizon), Human/AI Romance, Human/Monster Romance, Tentacle Sex, Sexual Fantasy, Witches, Mythology References, Comfort/Angst, Healing Sex, Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Implied/Referenced Slavery, Implied/Referenced Death from Medical Malpractice, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Sex Work Is Work, All My Porn Has Plot, As long as you're alive you can change your mind and change your path, whether you can make amends and repair is a different question, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Kink Exploration, Internalized Kink Shaming, Tentacle Kink, Vore, Needle and Piercing Kink, Blood Kink, Hand Jobs, Prostate Massage, Consent Issues, Aloy learns to be a good listener (Horizon), Being Believed comfort, Age Difference, strong men being manhandled by stronger women, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Computer Code as Narrative, POV Alternating, Non-Consensual Voyeurism, Implied/Referenced Anti-Trans Violence, Revenge

Series: Part 8 of https://archiveofourown.org/series/4184356

A Spectrum of Fractal Premonitions

https://archiveofourown.org/works/57561802

[wisedreamenemy]

Why are robots so difficult to draw?

[maxisbea]

[sanddollarpoems]

Whisked away to some magical place

I saw you in the reflection on the water

Eyes a deep sea green color

And it was as if I had carried you always

In the breaths of a past life

You may have been the stars shining over

Or the clouds that held me in winter

Or the soft face of the moon

That clung lightly to my shoulders

I have long since wandered from the river

But I carry your warmth within my heart

Forever

[ladyjuxtaposition]

I promised pictures of my hooded cloak, but then I discovered a movie making app & inspired to create a video instead.

This is now the new tradition every Halloween: get or make a cloak, add some embellishments, become magical & have fun.

Wishing everyone a safe and happy Halloween! 🎃

[inspiredrawaw]

So my 2 oc stories Starry Orchard and Aces and Omen right? Yes.

SO as I’m writing the story for Starry Orchard I’m realizing both of these stories is about a deer character finding out their parents love has hidden them from the embodiment of Death itself but now Death has found out and is pissed and will kill the deer by any means necessary.

Featuring 5-7 death omens and magic