#because his most recent book(s) in other series

[hisui-dreamer]

Okay so we've got headcanons with the twst vices tickling their S/O, now we need the reverse. How do these boys react to getting tickled?

pay attention!

Characters: Vice-dorm Leaders (Trey, Ruggie, Jade, Jamil, Ortho, Rook, Lilia)

Synopsis: When your lover isn't paying attention to you, what better way to get their attention than a tickle attack?

Tags: tickling, fluff, crack(?)

Word count: 2.1k

Notes: wooo the long awaited tickling headcanons!! sorry it took me so long to finish the series hehe, hope you enjoy it!!

Dorm Leader Vers ✧ Part 1 ✧ Masterlist

ticklish rating: 3/10

there's a new dessert Trey has been experimenting with lately, but it hasn't been easy

so recently, he's always got his nose stuck in a recipe book when you're with him

this means less cuddles and affection, which upset you a bit

as he hums in response to your questions and conversation attempts, you start to understand why he was upset the other day

but also, isn't this a perfect time for revenge?

you quietly approach him, trying to stifle your laughter, but really with how focused he was, he probably wouldn't have heard it

your fingers dance over his sides and under his arms, wriggling about to find his weak spots

but instead of laughing, he jumps and shrieks at your attack

"Huh? Woah there! What was that for, sweetcakes?"

you continue trying to find a ticklish spot but his face remains confused, smiling wryly at your antics

oh dear, it turns out he's not ticklish at all???

the recipe book is long forgotten at this point, but now you just want to get a reaction out of him

so begins you trying to tickle all spots that you can think of, while he sits still and watches as you experiment around

you try drawing gentle circles with your finger onto his palm

he lets out a laugh at your soft caresses

!!! HE HAS SENSITIVE HANDS!!!

Trey's eyes widen in surprise as your fingers flutter gently on his palm. His initial confusion is quickly replaced with a soft chuckle and a look of wonder. "Okay, wait, that felt slightly ticklish," he admits.

But he immediately regrets admitting that to you, because the next second you're doubling your efforts to make him laugh. He tries to fend off your tickles, but you're determined to gain his attention.

"Okay, okay, you win!" he gasps between laughs. "I guess I deserved that. You got my attention, all right." He sighs in relief when your fingers pull back, "Now then, will it be better if we study the book together?"

ticklish rating: 9/10

you can't really blame Ruggie for always being busy and not having enough time for you

he's consistently on the move, managing errands and making the most out of every opportunity

but on some days he's just so busy that you can only see glimpses of him or he's just that focused that he can't even see you

unfortunately, today is one of those days

ruggie has zipped past you no less than three times, each time running a different errand, buying Leona lunch, picking dandelions, among other tasks

so by the next time you see him, you've already formulated a plan to get his attention

he's in his PE uniform this time, and once you manage to grab onto his shirt to stop him, you reach out and start tickling him, just like he did to you the other day

Ruggie yelps in surprise and laughter "Wha- It's you- Wait- Shyahahaha! What the-?"

he tries to squirm away but can't help but laugh, especially as you start tickling his ears

his tough exterior melts away into the infectious hyena laughter that you love

thank goodness you attacked him in a secluded area, his pride would've been so hurt otherwise

Ruggie erupts in a burst of laughter, losing his grip on the stack of books he's lugging. His ears perk up, and his tail thrashes excitedly as he attempts to evade your tickling fingers.

He turns to face you with wide grey eyes, a mix of confusion, shock, and amusement on his face. "Hey, what's the big idea?" he grumbles, though there's a playful glint in his eyes that can't be denied.

"Oh jeez, I didn't realise I was that busy..." he mutters with a tinge of guilt. "Alright, meet me in Savanaclaw at 5! I promise I'll make it up to ya!" He says determined. He places a quick peck on your lips, before running off to another task once again.

ticklish rating: 2/10

it's another hectic day in octavinelle, azul has big plans to boost sales through some new marketing tactic

and this of course means that Jade has become incredibly busy with these plans

normally you would greatly enjoy watching your beloved in his business mode, with polite smiles as he greeted customers, effortless smooth gestures as he glided across the room which would melt into genuine, loving glances when he turned to you

but this time, you really did need to talk to him about your new terrarium and how it looked more and more dead by day

but each time, before the question could even escape your lips, another errand in need of the vice-housewarden's help magically appears

so you took the chance to tackle him when he went into the supply closet (knowing he would not appreciate being dishevelled in public), fingers wriggling around his sides to try to make the fearsome eel crumble in laughter

but instead, he's completely silent, just his pair of mismatched eyes wide open, curiously focused on you

a wry smile forms on his face as he says teasingly, "My, I regret to inform you my pearl, but moray eels are immune to tickling,"

you freeze at his words. uh oh

Before you can even react, he swiftly sweeps you off your feet and carries you toward the VIP room. "Oh dear, I've been a terrible lover, haven't I? It appears I'll have to neglect my responsibilities for a bit..." he sighs, his brows knitted with concern. He continues in a hushed tone, leaning in to whisper in your ear, "Though I admit I would prefer to remain by your side as well,"

"Hm...?" He hums, his lips curving into a mischievous smile as you nuzzle into his neck, concealing your face. "Are my kisses ticklish, perhaps?" He pauses, then continues with a teasing tone, "Well, I suppose it's only fair, considering my dearest pearl has initiated an attack as well."

"By all means, I'd like to see you find my ticklish spots. Though you must be prepared, love, there is no deed I would not return," he grins mischievously, thoroughly enjoying how flustered you are.

ticklish rating: 9/10

it's not surprising your lover doesn't always have time for you

ever the dutiful servant, Jamil works every second of his life to serve kalim in every sense of life

it's something you'd long accepted since being in a relationship with him, but you can't deny you find yourself feeling lonely when he prepares feast after feast for scarabia

plus you know he likes it when you're selfish and want to monopolise his attention

you find your beloved standing by a large pot of stew on the stove, unfazed by your presence

you try calling out to him, but he's completely unresponsive Jamil are you okay

you tickle his sides for a bit, trying to gauge a reaction, but he instantly jumps and squeals "AHHHH! WHA-"

whoops turns out he's really ticklish

he relaxes when he sees it's you, and automatically starts leaning onto you, the fatigue weighing his body down

maybe you shouldn't tickle him too much for now

"I'm sorry I've been so busy lately, I just want to make everything perfect for Scarabia," he murmurs, a faint smile gracing his lips as he nuzzles into your embrace. "But I'm so grateful you're here. I missed you too."

"Really? Are you sure you don't mind helping out?" He looks up at you with those warm, expressive eyes, his gratitude evident. "Thanks... I really appreciate it,"

His hands find yours, clasping them gently. He leans his forehead against yours as he whispers, "I promise. I'll make more time for us, I swear."

ticklish rating: ???

Rook can always find beauty in everything and anything, so it's not unusual for him to be distracted

though you sometimes do wish you were the only one he would have his eyes on

but you wouldn't change him for the world, because his delight in even simple details is so infectious you can't help but want to stay by his side and listen to him rant on and on

still, that doesn't stop you from getting jealous of the person at the centre of his attention, mainly from magazines about a certain actor in RSA

so you decided to get his attention by tickling him, because maybe it could surprise your ever-careful hunter?

your fingers lightly danced along his sides, staring as his watchful eyes directed their gaze towards you

"Trickster! Oh dear, I'm quite ticklish!"

...so he says, but he's hardly flinching away from your touch at all

you try shifting your hands to other sensitive areas, but his lips simply curl into an affectionate smile, and he gently clasps your hands

you're not sure if he's lying or not, but you definitely have his attention now

"Oh là là! How daring of you, Trickster! To sneak up on a hunter like myself... Beauté! Your boldness is very attractive!" Rook exclaims, his eyes twinkling teasingly.

"Mon cœur, you always find the most charming ways to capture my attention," Rook says, his voice filled with tenderness. "But if it's my attention you seek, you have it, my darling, always."

"Now, is there something you would like to do in the moment?" he asks, gently planting a soft kiss on the back of your hand. "Personally, I wouldn't mind losing myself in your eyes..."

ticklish rating: 0-7/10

it started off really simple, Ortho was just busy researching new strats for idia to try in a newly released game

but the game was open-world, so there was a lot of information to sift through

so in a light-hearted attempt to get his attention, you tried tickling him

only you forgot he's not ticklish at all

"Huh? What's wrong? Why are tickling me? I'm not ticklish at all," he asks, tilting his head in confusion

you laugh as you explain it's just a fun thing friends do, but you've only made him more interested

he goes back to idia that night, asking him about friends and tickling

sure, big bro's not the best person to ask when it's about friendships, but he tries his best with his anime knowledge

and so ortho now wants a tickle response system so he can simulate being like real friends! and who is idia to deny him

the next day, ortho runs up to you excitedly

"Prefect! Go ahead, tickle me!" Ortho's voice rings out with excitement, his eyes shimmering like a pair of bright stars in the night sky.

Confused, you hesitantly reach out to tickle his sides like you did the day before. He instantly erupts in laughter, "Ahahaha! I'm ticklish now! It's a success!"

"How is it? Doesn't this make me more like a real boy now? We can have tickle flights now!" he exclaims. "My brother is so amazing!"

ticklish rating: 2/10

as much as you loved Lilia, you physically could not love his cooking

though that sentiment could be shared by many, even silver and sebek

so it's not uncommon for you to be called in to distract Lilia from whatever dish he has set his mind on mutilating

whatever distraction you come up with, it must be surprising and fun, he's notorious for brushing aside feeble attempts, determined to perfect his culinary concoctions

so, why not try tickling him?

this time, he's trying to remake a lemon tart he had sampled many years ago in his travels

though you're not sure what's compelling him to add pepper to the lemon curd (to give it more flavour he says...)

but as usual, the recipes aren’t nearly nutritious enough!

as he's scavenging around for 'nutritious ingredients' to add to the mix, you sneak close to him and start your attack, wriggling your fingers at his neck

"Ahaha! My dear, what's the matter?" He laughs gently, turning around to face you

but before you can even react, he's got both you hands pinned above your head, a devilish grin on his face

"Playing such tricks on an old man like me? You youngsters always trying to keep me on my toes, I see." he hums thoughtfully. "Though I suppose this means it's only fair if I return the favour, khehehe..."

His hands dance around your sensitive areas, his eyes keen on your reactions. With a wry, knowing grin, he asks, "Oh? It seems you're quite ticklish here?" A mischievous twinkle dances in his eyes. "Don't complain now, you're the one who tried to attack this poor defenseless fae."

By the time he pulls back, you're gasping for breath. "Now then," he inquired with a soft voice, "what prompted this sudden onslaught, dearest?" His fingers, tender as they grazed your hair, emitted a comforting warmth. "If you wanted my attention, I would have gladly given it to you."

Dorm Leader Vers ✧ Part 1 ✧ Masterlist

if you liked this post, don't forget to reblog!

[aleksanderscult]

Funny how LB started claiming in recent years that Darklina was abusive (I mean it was toxic, but not for the reasons she says) and that she'd never write an abusive relationship (she has made Malina endgame), but then goes and makes her every other relationship outside of Grishaverse a Darklina ripoff. In Ninth House - Darlington and Alex Stern: A dignified intimidating gentleman and a scrappy scrawny young woman who feels like she doesn't belong in an elite establishment. Gee, I wonder if those names remind me of anyone, hmm. And apparently, in her newest book the Familiar, she attempted a Darklina copy again. She fanned Darklina flames when S&B trilogy had just come out and was very ecstatic about Darklina. Then around the time when "Shadow Daddy" trope and "YA FMC was manipulated" shtick started gaining popularity, Darklina became a staple for abusive relationships. Correct me if I'm getting the timeline wrong, but either way it's like she didn't dig further to analyze her own writing and simply decided to drop it before she got labeled to be "promoting problematic relationships" in her books. But she sure milked it and continues to milk Darklina, its vibes and reminiscence for all its worth. She wrote it and can do whatever she wants with it, but doing the same thing in not two, but three different book series set in three different universes is just peak lazy writing. "Darklina was horrible and shouldn't even be considered a relationship" - not even the author herself can come up with an idea how write a better relationship and keeps doing the same one over and over. Can't wait until I see a Kanej ripoff too...Oh wait, that was Zoyalai.

That woman really fell prey to her purist fans. So she had to change her tune about how Darkling was totally, inclusively abusive and no fun at all.

(like girl?? I can think of another ship you have created that oozes with toxicity and most importantly gets on our nerves)

And she clearly profits from Darklina and its dynamic for money (and therefore copies it in her every book). It's a popular trope so why not? Who has the time to spend it on writing about something different? Easy cash.

Look let's face it. That woman is a hypocrite and has the spine of a gingerbread man. So it's no wonder that most of her characters are like that as well. I would highly respect an author who sticks with his/her opinions and writing choices than someone who wavers every now and then because she's afraid of her own fanbase.

[iouinotes]

Heroic Betrayal | Luke Castellan (part 1)

SPOILER FOR THE PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS SERIES AND THE BOOKS

pairing: Luke Castellan x female!reader

show: Percy Jackson and the Olympians

warnings: dark!character, betrayal, implied sexual content, heavy angst, kidnapping

word count: 5,8k

summary: When Luke switches to the dark side, he tries everything possible to win you for him.

a/n: so as the show comes to an end (dont cry dont cry dont cry), I thought I would finally post this :)))

read part 2 here

"I'll find you!" his voice echoes through the forest, my laughter much louder than I intend to. But that´s just how it always goes. It's our own little tradition.

Every year when the camp starts again and we meet after the holidays passed, we play hide and seek in the dangerous forest of the half-blood camp. The creatures usually don't come across our path, in recent years it has rarely happened, that we actually had to defend ourselves against them.

Once it was an angry dryad, who threw branches at me (she had a crush on Luke and wanted revenge, but since I could understand her feelings and felt sad for her, we sorted it out).

Another time we were spotted by some camp members, who made fun of us, but Luke must have said something to them later, because we haven't been bothered by these troublemakers since.

It is always the same pattern, but each time there is still something special about it. We have grown, became more mature (I think), and have more and more experience about the struggles in life.

So being able to just let go for a few moments and being completely alone with him is probably the best thing to keep myself sane (even if he drives me a little bit crazy with the love I hold for him).

But a lot has changed recently.

It all started when rumors spread, that Zeus' lightning bolt had been stolen by Poseidon's son. And then the most supportive, bravest, sassy kid in the world showed up here. Percy Jackson. Ever since I met him, even though it's not his fault, there's been war going on. The gods are angry, the monster attacks became worse and again, rumors about the oldest, most powerful titan Kronos reached the camp.

It scared and frightened many people, including me. That's why we've been training harder and stay awake, even when the stars are shining, so that we can prepare for any catastrophe. To be able to fight.

My mother is the goddess Demeter, my father a simple man. I adore them both, even though my mother isn't one of my closest contacts. But I never really held that against her, because at least she decided to acknowledge me as her daughter. After all, it's a privilege that not everyone gets. My siblings and friends at camp are important to me, but the world is changing and so is everything around it.

The only stability I have left is my boyfriend Luke.

If I had to rely on one person in the whole world (and by that I also mean the underworld), it would be him.

He's been my best friend since I arrived at this camp. We've been together through ups and downs, I know every side of him and he knows everything about me too. Many of the people here are like blank pages to me, but not him. He is like my favorite book, that lays open to me and allows me to read each letter individually. Just as I know every of his dreams, every secret, every truth and every lie. He is my protector, my hero in every dark night and every bright day. Without him, I don't even know who I am. He is a part of me and my heart wouldn't be whole without him.

I watched him grow up. From the small, thin boy whose eyes hid so much pain and sadness to the strong, soulful leader he is today.

His beauty cannot be influenced by anything, he is like my very own sun, without him I could not survive.

I wouldn't want it any other way though.

Now, I'm hiding behind a tree with my back pressed against the bark and I am able to hear the cracking and swinging of the branches.

I smile so wide, that my cheeks start to hurt, when I hear his voice calling. My heart is beating in my throat, but it's not just the adrenaline of not getting caught. It's because of my love for him, which is so strong that sometimes I'm afraid of it. But only in the moments when I realize that nothing, but him is my biggest flaw. I think I would do anything for him.

Then I concentrate again and listen to the sounds around me. But his voice has fallen silent and I don't hear his footsteps anymore.

My eyebrows furrow, confused I try to look around the tree and search for an orange t-shirt. Likely together with his slim body, biceps, beautiful face and wonderful personality.

But when I want to withdraw again, it's already too late. A branch breaks behind me and before I can move I'm pushed against the tree from behind.

I immediately feel his body against mine, hear the laughter in his voice and listen to his strained breathing. His hands wrap around my body and turn me towards him, so that we are now face to face.

He's taller than me and as I look up, I feel the familiar fluttering feeling in my chest. I am so in love with him.

He grins triumphantly at me and I lean against the tree, smiling kindly.

"Found you, princess." The light reflects in his brown eyes and some of his curls are laying wildly on his head. He looks like an angel.

"I made it easy for you." My voice teases him and when he leans in so close to me, that our lips almost touch, I forget how to think properly. A habit I can't change. He's just so captivating.

"Yeah? You think I wouldn't have found you otherwise? Funny. I remember that in the last few years, I always was the winner of our little game." His lips brush mine, I want nothing more than to kiss him. But he knows that, which is why he slowly pulls back, when I start to lean forward.

When I want to complain, he puts his hand around my waist and pulls me into his chest. My knees almost give out, I feel so intoxicated by his presence.

"I-I wanted you to find me." My voice whispers quietly.

His eyebrows rise in mock surprise.

"Then I guess, I can claim my prize without feeling bad." In the next second, his lips are on mine and I'm unable to do anything, other than kissing him back. I wrap my arms around his neck and enjoy the warmth that radiates from him. He sets my heart on fire.

While pushing me against the tree, I've completely forgotten about, he lets his hands wrap possessively around my waist. Digging his nails into my hips, to keep me grounded. Otherwise, I would probably get lost in those sensations.

Luke kisses in a way, like it's the last time he'll have the chance. (As if I would ever want to keep him from doing that).

He's passionate, my body feels like it's on fire and the heat inside me feels so good, that I want more. I can never get enough of him and he knows it. He grins against my lips, but he doesn't break the kiss. I think he secretely loves knowing how much he can mess with me, with just a few kisses.

My hands find his hair and pull him closer to me, our chests touch and his breathing mingles with mine.

It is wonderful and so precious, I would refuse any gift from the gods just to be close to him.

When he pulls away from me, our bodies are still close. My eyes open and look dreamily into his, our gazes reflect a familiarity and love that is like nothing I have ever experienced.

He smiles at me, pushes a stray strand of hair behind my ear and leans himself against me. His fingers stroke the exposed skin of my pulled-up shirt.

"I've missed you." If my heart hasn't melted before, it has now. I give him a kiss on the cheek and hug him, we stand in our embrace for a moment. Enjoying each other's closeness, the calm feeling until the next chaotic situation happens.

"Now we are together again. Only that matters." It's quiet around us and when I close my eyes for the second time, I hear his fast heartbeat. I have to supress a smile.

The wind is the only thing I hear until his voice breaks the silence.

"Something will happen soon. Something big." The peaceful atmosphere is threatened by his words and when I look at his face again, I see his worried eyes.

I sigh, but then nod to agree with him. "I thought about that too, it feels different. Like something is coming our way, that we can't control."

His fingers stroke my cheek and for a moment, his face holds an expression, that I can't understand. It resembles regret.

But before I can ask him about it, he smiles tenderly at me again.

"Nothing will separate us. The world is just a game. It's a matter of time and making the right moves." That is his motto. But I'm not always convinced of this. Even though I trust him to do the right thing.

"I'm just worried we'll get seperated, you know? Evil can be sneaky and traitors always exist. You never know who you can trust." Something I said must have really bothered him, because he looks like I just stabbed him.

This time I ask him about it.

"What's on your mind? You can tell me. Two people who worry about something are better, than one who is alone with it." I take his hand and stroke his skin, it feels cold even though we have summer.

"Nothing, just- I don't want to lose you. I couldn't be here without you. I need you. I mean...I-I love you. You know that I would do anything to keep us together, right?"

His words surprise me. I know he loves me. I can sense that, everyone probably does. But he has never worn his heart on his sleeve and the three magical words only come out of his mouth on special occasions. The fact that he's telling me now surprises me.

"Of course. I trust you. We will survive together, I know that. Are you worried because of the rumors about the Titan King?" This topic is always very critical and he usually doesn't like to talk about it, but this time I decide to address it directly.

"He will come. I just want you to be safe, when it happens." He sounds so confident it gives me goosebumps.

"Perhaps. His followers will definitely try. But love is stronger than anything else. Especially our love. We will get through it." He doesn't look convinced, so I turn his face towards mine and kiss him.

My voice sounds soft, when I speak again.

"Luke, I love you. I could never leave you. Not even the King of the Underworld will be able to keep us apart. I promised to be by your side in every moment of our lives. You are my soul and without it I am damned."

This seems to reassure him, but I feel like he's not telling me something of great importance. But I don't want to push him, I know he will tell me when the time comes.

He always does.

⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️

As the day comes to an end, I say goodnight to my siblings and report for my night watch duty. The situation has been a lot more worse the recent weeks. Kronos exists, my worst fear was confirmed. And he is building an army, that is so strong that it will be difficult to fight against it. But what I'm really worried about are the rumors about our people, who have also joined his cause.

Nobody knows who, the spies have been hiding ever since. I've never felt like I was paying more attention to my words than I am now. The only person I don't have to hold back to is Luke.

But even with him I notice the effects of the bad news. The circles under his eyes are darker than ever and his nerves are so frayed, that every little thing makes him want to explode. His temper is hanging by a thread, that is increasingly threatening to break. And I'm trying everything to prevent this.

No matter if I try it by making him laugh (which has become difficult), massaging his tense shoulders, trying to kiss him to the point of forgetfulness (usually it's the other way around) or when he takes out his frustration by burying himself deep inside me. With every thrust of his hips, I feel him relax, his hand so tight around my body as if I would run away, if he didn't hold me close enough.

He's changing and I'm trying my best to maintain his good sides. That he doesn't completely lose himself in his responsibilities and the pressure, that he has, because he is a member of the camp council.

Besides, I can't complain, when he fucks me until I can't breathe aynmore and I block out everything around me. When he comes, he whispers the sweetest things in my ear. Even if sometimes they sound so protective, that I could almost come from his voice alone.

When he whispers to me how good I am for him or how much he loves being able to have such a power over me like that - maybe it should scare me, but I trust him like no one else.

My mind concentrated his best for my shift, but when I finally go to bed after quiet some time, my eyes quickly close.

Looking back, I wish I had never let myself sleep that night.

Because, when I close my eyes I see waves. Hear the seagulls screaming in the sky, the fish swimming in the water and the distant cries of strangers.

It's all unusual and the bright light would blind me, if I didn't avert my gaze. And as soon as I do it, I see a ship. It's huge, rust shimmers in the sunrays, the anchor shows that it's been in the same place for a while now.

I feel something pulling me towards it, pushing and burning in my chest, leaving me with a tremor that I can feel, even in my deep sleep.

As I flit through the window like a ghost, I feel paralyzed. My blood freezes, I want to disappear immediately and in my mind I scream at myself to wake up.

But it's no use, whatever is here, someone decided that I have to see it. Only then, my wish will be fulfilled and I can wake up. So, I hide in a corner, there are scratched picture frames above me and broken glass is scattered on the floor. The monsters that loudly crush the glass ahead of me seem unstoppable.

I tremble as I look at at least seven dracaenae, several shaggy hellhounds and set my eyes on gigantes, that take up almost the entire room.

But that is nothing compared to the terror, that grips me when I see my classmates. My friends. People I trusted, who I fought alongside, for who I cared about. People I would have sacrificed myself for. They all betrayed me. And I feel close to tears. When I want to turn away, I hear a voice that almost brings me to my knees.

It's Luke.

My faithful and caring protector, my heroic love. Someone, to which I had dedicated everything. He was my life, with every single breath I took. The motivation behind my every action. The reason I wanted to survive in this cruel world. He was everything I had and everything I will ever have and in that moment it was abruptly taken from me.

I didn't have the strength to concentrate, it was as if every fiber of my body was on fire, triggered by the torment of my suffering heart. Seeing him like that, in black armor, Kronos' silver mark glittering around his neck, instead of his colorful necklace. A stoic, hostile expression on his face, his hands gripping his sword, it all hurt too much to watch.

And as I sank to the floor and covered my eyes with my hands, I was still forced to listen. I couldn't understand why he was saying such things.

"With every day he becomes stronger, with every participation in our army, we become stronger. Everything is planned, the camp is weak. Just like all of its residents. The surprise is on our side, because we will show no mercy. We will kill anyone, who does not confess to us. Do you hear me? No hostages will be taken. Only Hades population will be expanded."

The screams around me are so loud, so angry and horrific that I feel tears running down my cheeks.

I don't want to see any of that. The person infront of me is not my Luke.

A kind of fog creeps around me and I feel cold, it seems too late to forget it now. When I notice the golden coffin and Lukes hunched posture, the scar on the side of his face, I realize he is praying to him.

To the fall of Olympus. Kronos.

I want to cry, to scream, to be angry - but I just feel like every part of my heart is breaking and will never be whole again. Luke will never again be the one to heal it.

My consciousness leaves the ship until I finally wake up, but I can't move at first. I feel lost, my muscles are stiff and after a few seconds I notice that I'm shaking. But it's not because I'm cold, the summer air is wafting in the air.

Such dreams are rare, but are like the own scary predictions of the future.

And then it comes all back so me, the memories, that have just turned my whole life upside down. Traitor. The word appears in my mind, I feel like I almost can't breathe. And then there is a finger on my cheek, gently stroking the skin and my chest immediately becomes warm.

I know this gesture.

When I open my eyes, I see his loving eyes and the smile that covers his mouth makes my heart clench in sorrow.

It was just a nightmare. Luke would never betray me.

But the whispers in my head say otherwise.

As we continue to look at each other in silent, I notice his furrowed eyebrows.

"What's wrong, my love? Did you have a nightmare? You look scared. Don't be afraid, I'm here. I will always protect you." His voice is so calm, so usual loving and it makes the butterflies in my stomach fly around like crazy.

He is so beautiful.

As he briefly turns his head to tighten the blanket around me, I see his side profile and the scar. Reminders of my dream crash onto me like a lightning strike from Zeus himself.

I sat up abruptly. Luke is a servant of our enemy. How could I ignore that? I feel like I'm almost starting to hyperventilate. The thought, this nightmare, Luke's appearance, this evil feeling - it makes me sick. And I'm suddenly so afraid, more than I have ever been in my life. But I can't tell if it's the fact that I just found out he joined Cronos' army or that he broke my heart doing so.

I see him tense, my panic seems to be affecting him too.

My thoughts are so confusing, I don't know what to do, I have to tell someone. I have to-

His hands find their way to my cheeks, cupping them gently to direct his gaze towards himself. I would have preferred not to look at him, but I have no choice. His eyes search mine.

Then, as if the weight of Atlas punishment was put on his shoulders, he lowers them. His lips tremble slightly and his eyes look at me, as if I am the most valuable thing in the world and he is about to lose it.

"You know it." He doesn't have to say what he means by that. We both know.

I want to break away from him, but he won't let me. He's always been much stronger.

But everything still feels so different, light surrounds us and I can't really feel my body.

"Listen to me, please. I can explain it. Please-" The world goes silent, before he can finish his sentence.

It is too much.

I stifle a scream. I want to jump out of bed, but his hands hold me close. I only manage to fall to the ground, breathing heavily, but his arms are much stronger and I'm still weakened by my dream. He trys to hold me in a position, so that his back hugs me. His hands grab mine and one of them covers my mouth to silence me, when I want to scream for help.

With any other person, I would have known what to do. With anyone but him, I could have defended myself without any problems. But it wasn't just anyone and what he had done to me, the betrayal he had committed, was nothing I could handle.

I tried to wriggle out of his grip, to kick him, but the more I cried and the more hysterical I became, the easier it was for him to have control over me.

And for the first time, it scared me.

"Please calm down, I have to explain it to you- you have to know, that I never wanted to deceive you, please-" I notice how his voice is failing and he has to pull himself together, to not to lose his composure.

When I shake his hand away and want to yell again, he grabs my neck with such a warning force, that no sound escapes me.

I tremble in his hold. Tears stream down my cheeks and I literally feel my heart breaking.

Then he starts whispering in my ear and his grip feels like a tragic prison.

"Nobody can know. I never wanted you to find out. Not until I convinced you, that it is the right thing to join him. Because he will win, sweetheart. I want us to win by his side." His voice sounds so confident and at the same time, as if he was a completely different person.

Tears continue running down my face and he slightly let's go of me, so he can comfort me.

"If you would just listen to me, you will understand my actions. Please, just listen to me-" but the world blurs infront of my eyes and I am only able to whisper three words, before darkness surrounds me.

"You betrayed me."

⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️

When I wake up, my head hurts so much, that it takes me several minutes to open my eyes. When I finally do it, I almost have a heart attack.

I recognize the similarity of this room from my dream. When I stand up, I run to the round window and look out, being only able to see the blue sea. Feeling empty and alone.

When I want to step out the door, I expect it to be locked. But instead the handle turns and I step out of the room. I'm so surprised about that, that I'm acting without thinking twice.

As I walk around the next corner, the deck creaks and I see an ugly creature in front of me, that makes every instinct to escape kick in.

I run in the other direction, but every turn makes me more desperate and, without any consideration, I run into the hall, I was so afraid of.

It is filled with all kinds of ciders, and I also see the figures of my classmates, wounded and unhappy.

It's all so overwhelming, that I dont even see him standing on the podium, in the first place.

But as the monsters try to grab me, his voice echoes through the room with an affable authority.

"Nobody touches her. You hear me? Nobody. She is under my protection." I almost freeze into a stature, as he comes towards me and I have no way of avoiding him. No weapon is within my reach, his eyes notice my growing panic.

"Everyone leaves the room. Now." Nobody discusses it, even if some roll their eyes or quietly protest. His authority is unquestioned, it sends a cold shiver down my spine.

When the last doors slam shut, we stand a few meters opposite each other.

"The doors are guarded." It's the first thing he says.

When he tries to approach me, I lose my nerves and run to the corner with the broken glass, that I saw in my dream. I take them in my hands.

I see his eyes widen and he stops in his tracks.

"You- you want to fight me?" He actually sounds surprised and sad. Like I was the one who betrayed him and not the other way around.

"Don't come any closer. I may not have been able to do anything last time, but if you take one step closer then-" I don't know what to say. In no scenario did I ever think, I would have to threaten him.

But despite my warning, he comes towards me with his hands raised, the panic within me so palpable, that I can feel every muscle in my body.

I dodge, when he is only a few meters in front of me. Right into the next corner. As far away from him as possible.

"Princess, you can't keep me away forever. I've always loved that about you. You need me as much as you need to breathe."

It's supposed to sound sweet, but his words make me feel sick

"I'd rather suffocate." He didn't expect that. My words hit him so unexpectedly that he is almost speechless. Almost.

"I won't hurt you. You just have to let me get to you and I'll show you everything. You will understand, believe me." He really thinks, I'll just stay by his side and let him explain.

"Are you crazy? You're a traitor, Luke. You- you betrayed everyone. You betrayed me. How could you do this?" I suppress my tears, because that's exactly what he's waiting for. That my defense becomes weaker. I can't allow this.

"You dont understand. I always told you I would protect you. And I can only do that, if I'm on the winning side. And I am now. We are." His eyes flash with a craziness that makes me tremble. I don't recognize him.

"Why are you acting this way? You are doing the wrong thing - you give up everything. You're giving up on us." Tears leave my eyes and I see him take a few steps in my direction.

"I'm doing the right thing for us. You'll see. You just have to trust me, please. You know I always win. With the power he gives me, I will be invincible. You don't have to worry about one of us dying in this war anymore." I can't move, even if I wanted to, I wouldn't have a way out now. He's too close.

"You are wrong. I would rather die in this war than join this monster and his deceitful army." The shards in my hand hurt, but I don't let them go. They're the only thing I can use to defend myself.

"You would leave me?" His eyes are staring into my soul.

"Would you fight me?" Every word is more intimidating.

"Would you stop loving me?" His words are like his own shards, leaving deep wounds in my heart.

He's standing right in front of me now, looking at me like I'm fragile.

Then he whispers "Would you kill me?"

In the next second, he suddenly has my hands in his, making me drop the glass. Be is only a few centimeters away from me now, his eyes are looking into my own.

"Would you, princess? Then show me." Suddenly he does something, I would have never expected. He takes out his sword and puts it in my hands.

His own hands go behind his back, his eyes tempting me. I feel all the blood in my body drain.

"Do it. I can't live in a world, where you don't love me anymore. In which you are no longer by my side. I am yours. That will never change, just like my love for you."

I can barely hold the sword, it's so wobbly in my hands. He stands in front of me and gives me every chance to defeat him. But I can't move.

It's quiet for a moment, then I see new hope in his eyes and when he speaks again, the tone of his voice melts my heart.

"What did you say a few months ago, you would always let me win? Let's win together this time. Please, just listen to me." His hand strokes my cheek. Wipes away the tears.

Then he drops his hand and grasps his sword, letting it fall to the ground.

He takes my hand instead.

"Follow me." He pulls me behind him, closer and closer to the golden coffin, it's like I'm in a trance, but when I finally feel the cold aura of something cruel, I'm able to think clearly again.

"No-" I don't want to be one step closer to this thing.

He turns around so quickly, that I can only slap his cheek, before he grabs me again.

"That was for kidnapping me. Let me go now!" I want to avoid his grasp. But again he does something I don't expect.

He holds me still, catches my gaze and then, kisses me so gently that the feeling alone makes me almost completely defenseless. His hands cup my cheeks, grip my hair, hold my body.

This is probably his worst trick. I've never been able to resist one of his kisses. And he knows that. He uses it against me.

Then he murmurs words against my lips, that barely reach my ears.

My heart is pounding in my throat.

"You feel this? We belong together. It is not written anywhere on which side we need to be. As long as we are together." His fingers stroke my lower lip, his figure towers over me and for a moment my surroundings fade. It's almost like always.

But he's not wearing his orange t-shirt, his expression isn't relaxed, and I don't hear any insults from the camp members in the distance.

"You're manipulating me." I am powerless against him. I thought we were on the same team, that no one had more power over the other one. But I was so wrong.

His eyebrows furrow again, and when his hands try to pull me against him, I hit his chest, without thinking, with the only piece of glass I hid in my pocket. But unlike I expected, nothing happens. The shard bounces off his skin and falls loudly to the ground. I can only stare at him in disbelief.

"How-" He just looks at me worried, no anger is visible in his eyes.

"You can't hurt me. I have the curse of Achilles upon me." I suddenly become aware of the effect the lake Styx in the underworld hast and I almost fall to the ground at the realization, my knees weaken.

"That was a test earlier. You wanted to see if I would kill you-" my voice fails.

He just looks at me sadly and smiles in regret. My heart becomes heavy.

"And I knew you wouldn't hurt me on purpose. You would never hurt someone you love. Not if you'd kill me in the process." What can I do? He knows me better than anyone, he can see right through my every thought.

"I can't do this, Luke. I-I can't be together with you, if you are like this." I'm serious, but he doesn't believe me.

"That's what you think, but it's a lie. The sooner you admit it to yourself, the more pain you avoid. Our souls are linked together, without me you are not able to live. I know, that you will continue to love me, no matter what I decide to do. That's how much you love me. You would rather die than not loving me."

I can't listen to him. I can't.

But his eyes are like all the promises in the world. He is my world. How could I ever forget that?

"Please come back with me, Luke. I-I won't tell anyone, but please. Let's go, let's forget everything, please-" I cant deal with this anymore. It's like he's draining all the energy out of me. More with every word, that leaves his lips.

"I can not do that. It will stay the way it is now. Don't fight against me, fight with me. You are so smart and loyal, you will be convinced. He will show you." His eyes now flash with something that frightens me. I see his hunger for power, something that has always been dormant within him.

"Luke, the only thing I ever really wanted was you. No power, no war, no prosperity. Only you. But I'm about to lose you. Don´t do this to me, I beg you." My hands find his face, stroke the skin and I look into his eyes. But they are no longer the same ones I fell in love with.

I never thought he would love having power more than he loves me. It breaks my heart.

"I have decided. Nothing will change about that. Not even your pleadings. I'm sorry." His eyes reflect my desperation.

"What's holding you back? All you need is me." He says it so confident, that I almost wonder, why I don´t agree with him.

But my conscience has always been my greatest strength.

"I won't betray them. I couldn't live with myself, if I did." He takes a step back.

"But you could live without me? You would rather be by Jackson's side than mine?" His words hurt me. But he speaks the truth.

"I love you Luke, more than I ever thought was possible. But just as you put power before me, I put loyalty first. And I'm not sorry about that."

Frustration finally seeps through his perfect facade. I wonder how long he's been playing with me. The thought of it makes everything inside me tighten.

"I am not letting you go. Our fate is set. You will recognize it too and when that happens, you will be on my side."

His conviction frightens me, but this time it doesn't freeze me into a statue. Now, I'm running away.

And luckely, he didn't expect that.

For a few minutes now I've noticed one of the windows, that doesn't look very stable. I just have to jump against it to open it.

"NO!" Luke's voice echoes across the room, loud and warning, but it doesn't stop me. Before he can catch up with me, I jump towards the window, my shoulder hurts, but I was right, it breaks.

But I didn't think about the height difference and I realize it might be too late to do something about it now.

As I try to hold on to the wall outside, two thoughts repeat in my mind.

Either I die or I'm trapped.

Then I hear Luke's voice. He sounds desperate and at the same time angry, like I have never heard him before.

The wall is slippery and it takes every bit of strength in me not to fall, I know it would be my death. I hold on to the broken wall.

"She is outside. Get her back, NOW!" My muscles hurt and I don't know what to do. Then I hear the loud beating of wings. Before I can see who it is, I hear Percy's quiet voice. I feel like crying.

"Drop down, I've got you." I have to trust him. So, I let myself fall without thinking.

Then I feel myself landing on something soft, I hold on to it and my knuckles turn white.

The screams and shouts of the monsters make me tremble, I just want to get out of here. Even if it means, that I perhaps will never see Luke again.

"Come on, now. They'll be here soon." As the wings of the Pegasus move towards the sky, towards freedom, I let the tears fall. The wind is beating around my ears and I can only see in the corner of my eyes that we are getting closer to the clouds.

"I'll find you!"

Luke's threatening voice is the last thing I remember as I close my eyes from the grief of leaving him.

[uzumaki-rebellion]

Some new fandom/fanfiction writing thoughts from me...

Author's Note:

This is just some thoughts I needed to get out because they kept me from finishing my Vampire!Terry Richmond Fic and forced me to start writing my "Sinners" fic I hadn't planned on dropping until April, but my spirit was moved to write by some aspects of the media hype of the "Sinners" new movie trailer release. It's stream of consciousness straight from the hip for Black History Month, so let ya girl cook!

Who remembers this movie?

Do you remember this dynamic duo? (Yes Dr. Karen Jenson!)

Do you remember what happened to most of the "Blade" fanfictions in that fandom as the series progressed (even into television)... and who got centered instead of Blade/Karen Jenson?

Blade essentially became a secondary character in his own franchise. He stopped knowing other Black folks, too. Even the writer of the original franchise David S. Goyer confessed that the studio wanted Blade to be white from jump.

Bitch...whut?

Others have written of this before with the Blade franchise. I personally have lamented the missed opportunity to expand the role of the sexy, beautiful, dark-skinned genius hematologist, Dr. Karen Jenson, played by the gorgeous and talented N'Bushe Wright. Who is still fine just so you know:

The de-centering of Black characters from their own leading roles in fandom is nothing new. Y'all remember this oldey but goodey?:

Remember how they did our girl Abbie Mills (played by the lovely and fabulous actress, Nicole Beharie)? She was the heart of the show with great chemistry between her and Ichabod (Tom Milson). But the Sleepy Hollow Showrunners started centering this heaux:

They even brought in Ichie and Katrina's old ass son Henry Parrish/Jeremy Crane:

Baybee, me and a ton of other Black women were OVER the sidelining of Abbie Mills. Don't even get me started on how they did baby girl by writing her off her own show. Soon it was looking like this:

Chile when I tell y'all Black women rode in like the Sin Eaters on that show and burned that bitch to the ground! No Abbie Mills? No more Nicole Beharie? Alright, bet. Nan one of you hoes is working then. The industry treated Nicole so bad after that show. She was blacklisted and experienced a hostile work environment with that American flavored soup du jour: racism. A recent book, "Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood", broke down all the horrors Nicole Beharie went through bts.

Here was a show that gained popularity because of BLACK WOMEN. We started the weekly Tweet storms, chatted to each other, wrote fics, did panels about it at fandom conferences (I spoke on some and attended a few myself about the TV series). It was a sexy multicultural cast, a literal crack fic come to life that first season.

But then...the centering of whiteness rears its ugly head and ruins nice things.

Which brings me to the new "Sinners" movie trailer release, and my fears at seeing a lot of the media hype online (thumbnail photos, clips etc) pushing Hailee Stenfield a lot more than Michael B. Jordan (in a double role as twins!) or even the other Black women characters in the trailer.

They got Wunmi Mosaku in this bitch with Jayme Lawson.

You know Wunmi, right?

Marvel Wunmi in the Loki TV Series:

Lovecraft Country Wunmi:

Wunmi with Idris in "Luther" Season 5:

Then there's the exquisite Jayme Lawson from "MLK/X: Genius" with our new fic king at the moment, Aaron Pierre. He plays Malcolm X and she is Dr. Betty Shabazz:

Jayme playing the Queen in "The Woman King":

Jayme as the mayor in "The Batman" (she could be our next Angela Bassett with her acting range and beauty!):

Now, about that elephant in the room for me personally.

Hailee Steinfeld and Jack O'Connell.

Their images are everywhere, often more so than images of the star Michael B. Jordan. Twitter (I will never call it X), Threads, Bluesky, YouTube, TikTok et al, have them hyped up to the point where I'm worried that it will turn into a Blade situation. The white characters overshadowing the central Black one.

Of course, they're playing the vampires. The bad guys. The ones we want to see the Black people vanquish. Some bad guys are sexy if we're being honest (cough--Killmonger--cough). Life in Clarksdale, Mississippi, the birthplace of the Blues, is tough enough with racism, lynchings, prohibition...just white people nonsense in general, let alone white vampires. A horror movie has to have compelling antagonists to keep our interests. But again, the overshadowing of Michael in some places...

On IMDB, Hailee is listed first as the star, then comes Jack O'Connell, and then Michael B. Jordan. Y'all, the two white actors are listed first BEFORE Michael is. I don't care if Hailee was nominated for an Oscar at fourteen. (Black people should know by now the Oscars are highschool popularity contests for white people, and every now and then they throw a bone at negroes who act circles around them on any given day.)

How is Wallace Vince Killmonger Adonis Creed John Clark (aka Muffin to me), listed third in his own goddamn movie? Maybe this will change when the movie comes out, but...excuse me?

Give me a minute. I need to sip some tea to calm down.

I barely see Wunmi in online hype, and she has been in some pretty high profile roles the last few years, especially in superhero action projects. And it looks like she plays a Hoodoo practioner (like myself). I want to see more of her promoted too. Like why can't I see a photo of this on more fandom websites?

That question was rhetorical. We all know why.

The centering of whiteness even in Black spaces.

I already know the fanfiction that will be churned out soon by non-Black people. Shippings of Mary/Remmick (Steinfeld and O'Connell's characters in the movie). There will be the I/R shipping of Mary and Stack (Steinfeld and Jordan) because the ads are playing up their sexy juke joint dance everywhere. I'm beginning to get a sense of deja vu...a la Blade/Sleepy Hollow decentering vibes.

The trailer all but gave away most of the plot in terms of what the Black characters will be up against during Prohibition Mississippi. Moonshine and Monsters, with sprinklings of Black American Blues music, both real history and the myths of it with Robert Johnson/Crossroads energy. And clearly Mary, who starts off as human, will get turned into a vampire like Remmick...and then run off to dance with hot, sweaty negroes tryna have their own goddamn fun away from white racism and the dangers of white women turning into the o.g. Karen's of their day. Smh. Can't have nothing without white characters slithering in and causing chaos as usual, lol! (I'm looking at you Agent Ross in the Black Panther fandom, you dirty C.I.A. infiltrator!) Plus there's always some dumb Black man willing to risk it all for unseasoned coochie putting every other Black person in his community in danger.

I mean, even in real life, Black people can't even access DEI opportunities without white women taking all the spots. Now I gotta watch DEI Mary-the-vampire mess up Black people's good times? The horror!

Now I'm just fussing. America recently voted the orange racist/fascist menace back into the white house, and he brought his incompetent white people and their Pee-oh-See lackeys. (One day we have to have a conversation about why so many Indians from India in this country-- and their children-- side with white racism and use anti-Blackness to move ahead in America.) I'm a little salty with white folks right now, not gonna lie. We saw those voting exit polls where only Black women and Black men overwhelmingly voted for the correct side of history to try and stop the Magats by any means necessary with the little we had to work with. Forgive me if I'm grumbling and projecting this onto a fictional movie. Two beautiful dark-skinned women are also love interests in the film (based on the trailer), but I can't find them promoted as much as the white vampires? I don't like it.

Listen, I used to do screenwriting. I helped friends make short films for festivals. I also screened films to help choose projects for the L.A. Film Festival when that was still a thing when I was a member of Film Independent. I've done screenwriting fellowships, too. I understand film marketing, and the work it takes trying to get the largest audience possible to see a movie by pushing the big names or face draws to a project.

But...

I want Black things centered in "Sinners". In the long run it will be, because...Ryan Coogler is that dude.

I want this rambling lament to be a call to other Black fic writers who plan on seeing the film to write your asses off after you see it, and even before you see it based off the trailer. I want hundreds, if not thousands of "Sinners" fics stretching out the worldbuilding we'll soon see on the screen. Heck, I already have a prequel fic started that I want to post in the next few days once I finish it. @nahimjustfeelingit-writes has one out already, and I saw a couple more by other writers floating down my TL.

I want Smoke and Stack and their world steeped in Blackness so that they won't be isolated or damn near relegated to a corner like Blade or Abbie Mills was among their world of supernatural shenanigans by the end of their onscreen run.

I hope we write so much that no one would dare try to push these other Black characters aside. There's so much richness to work with: the Blues guitar singer (who has a fucking banjo inside the core of his magical guitar!), the Hoodoo woman, the Black sexy female love interest that Jayme plays, Delroy Lindo's piano player and his Native wife (I'm guessing), and even the Asian woman (probably descended from the Chinese railroad workers in Mississippi) . We need all the fics telling so many stories in this "Sinners" world.

Granted, fic writers are free to write what they want. Black writers will take a side Black character and create a whole universe for them outside of the main characters in a predominately white film/fandom. But that's only because Black characters are always set aside, shunned, or written in racist/stereotypical ways. They are often fetishized, turned into brutes, or given so much less time in the front. Me writing all this is not saying that non-Black writers can't write stories about Mary or Remmick or anyone they choose. They write/appropriate what they want anyway, so it doesn't matter. I'm only interested in what Black fic writers are going to create

I want to be selfish and see Wunmi and Jayme heralded and pined over even if their characters aren't used as much as Hailee's in the film. I want us to have our shine finally. I want "Sinners" fics that reflect that.

I want to see more Black fics with Black characters paired with Black characters.

I want Black fic readers discovering this new fandom and finding new writers and new stories celebrating us.

I want this movie to succeed and everyone who goes to see it having a good, scary, time.

I want to see Muffin show out in his first period piece. Dressed casket sharp with gold teeth, lol!

I want Black fic writers to be able to write Black horror period piece stories that aren't rooted in Black trauma. There will be so many magical/supernatural things to write about in "Sinners" that we don't even have to touch on the horrors of historic white racism in America if we don't want to.

I promise you, Black people back then experienced joy, wonder, falling in love, and going up against antagonists that weren't always white people or white racism, or even the remnants of our enslaved past. The Klan ain't got to show up! Lol! Hell, white people don't even have to show up in your story. Coogler even hinted that there were more things other than vampires going on in the movie. We'll see. But my point is, we can create "Sinners" fics that Black readers won't have to fear dwelling on Black trauma porn as a plot point.

So...my fellow MBJ/Coogler fans...can we write the hell out of this new fandom? Revel in Blackness? Enjoy our latest entry into the vampire genre?

I would love to hear people's thoughts after they see the movie in April!

Last thought: If you know of some "Sinners" fics, share them!

[thehomelybrewster]

How Much Do Systems Matter?

This post is directly inspired by the video "You shouldn't use DnD for narrative campaigns." by Questing Beast (aka Ben Milton) about the Polygon article "Worlds Beyond Number is teaching me things that no D&D book can" by Charlie Hall.

The video and article basically posit the following:

TTRPGs can use concretely designed procedures for certain types of challenges and scenarios while having much looser procedures for other types of challenges or scenarios

Just because a TTPRG has less thorough rules on a type of challenge or scenario than a different RPG tackling the same subject matter doesn't automatically make the former worse at being used for these scenarios than the latter

Depending on the preferences of the table, having a robust mechanical framework for one element of gameplay while lacking that for other types of gameplay may be preferrable than having robust mechanical frameworks for both

Having distinct game mechanics for narrative progression and character interactions is uncommon in D&D and derived games, but is very common in story games, e.g. most Powered by the Apocalypse games.

The Polygon article includes this quote by Worlds Beyond Number's Brennan Lee Mulligan: "[People say that] because D&D has so many combat mechanics, you are destined to tell combat stories. I fundamentally disagree. Combat is the part I’m the least interested in simulating through improvisational storytelling. So I need a game to do that for me, while I take care of emotions, relationships, character progression, because that shit is intuitive and I understand it well. I don’t intuitively understand how an arrow moves through a fictional airspace."

This intuitive knowledge on handling emotional beats, narrative, and characters of course stems from years of experience Brennan has as a writer, actor, improv teacher, comedian, camp counsellor, and professional TTRPG GM and player.

Using Ron Edwards design language (s. his 1999 essay "System Does Matter"), Brennan wants to run primarily narrativist games, while 5e would fit Edwards' idea of a Gamist system, i.e. one which involves the pursuit of "winning" against NPCs.

Now let's look at 5e: it's generally agreed upon that 5e is opinionated on combat, while also being vocal that exploration and social encounters, while less fleshed-out, are still part of its pillars alongside combat, meaning the game is still encouraging you to pursue these types of play.

Combat is a very fleshed-out series of systems. The action system is centered on combat, both in terms of time and types. Spellcasting is very distinct and allows for casting mostly offensive or defensive spells. Class progression usually focuses on improving one's combat capabilities.

Exploration and social interactions are much more bare-bones.

On the social side, a few more recent supplements have reintroduced the classic Attitude table present in earlier editions and which are a mainstay of the OSR community. Additionally the DMG spends merely three pages on how to run NPCs, mostly using fairly general advice instead of concrete game mechanics. Interaction between player characters is also barely discussed in 5e rules.

Exploration is similarly simple, mostly related to the omnipresent but simple skill system, as well as some relatively simple rules on weather, hazards, overland travel speed, and tracking rations.

5e's shift towards simplified rules for these two pillars, including simplifying the skill system into a mostly binary failure-success affair is a shift away from earlier D&D editions and some of its direct competitors, e.g. Pathfinder, Rolemaster, GURPS, and The Dark Eye, which often would involve subsystems for various aspects of social or exploratory encounters, s. Edwards' "System does Matter" essay and his point on simulationist games.

So if Brennan wants to run a narrative game where we can realiably use his knowledge of narratives and character writing to create a compelling story while having a set system as his backup to run situations where violence becomes a factor... Using a game like 5e is a decent choice.

Of course other systems might be even better for that. Shadowdark for example may just be the perfect fit for someone wanting to run a narrative game with occasional combat. The combat rules are thorough enough to cover the fundamentals. Sure, you may just need to get rid of real-time torches, the key mechanic which sets Shadowdark apart from other OSR games, but subtracting a mechanic, instead of modifying it, is a relatively uninvasive procedure.

Personally I too like it when my TTRPG, especially stuff intended for medium- or long-term play, doesn't touch social and narrative elements much mechanically.

Meanwhile games like Ironsworn and Heart - The City Below, which are much more narrative-focused, do have issues where their resolution mechanics clash with the fiction in ways that would pull be out of the story we're trying to tell. Heart has the issue with the Supplies resistance not being shared within the group, and Ironsworn's fulfillment of vows can be glacially slow (s. A. A. Voigt's "Ironsworn: A Narrative Dilemma" video essay).

Ultimately, it all comes down to preference. Personally, if I wanted to run a fantasy game with magic and a strong narrative (like Worlds Beyond Number), with the clear goal of not getting bogged down in combat or minis, I'd legit use Shadowdark as described above. If I knew I wanted to tell a specific type of story and knew of a game that was designed for these types of stories, I'd definitely give it a read and talk about it with my players before we adopt it.

However, I do implore folks to not Ship of Theseus a game with tons of homebrew and houserules so that it's no longer recognizable as its original game. If you ever feel compelled to do that, ask other players what systems might be a better fit for your needs.

[companion-of-the-dragonmark]

Is the Light Fury Based on a Book Character(s)? (HTTYD 3)

Warning: Spoilers for those who either haven't read the books or having read books 10-12.

Greetings and well met, my fellow Dragonmarkers!

Today is the start of ONE of my new article series that I promised to start working on for you guys!

Today's first topic will be diving into the possibility on whether or not the Light Fury is based loosely on a book character as well.

Now, as you guys know, my opinion of the Light Fury is a little on the low side since the trailer. Not only because I've seen Light Furies since the first film came out (thank you, fanfiction and fanart 2010 and up), but also because of the obvious sexual dimorphism that they've created between Toothless and the Light Fury that you never see in other dragon species — which, in my opinion, is a bit of an insult. And her feminine-like physicality and seemingly OP skills.

DreamWorks, be honest, you took this character from the fanbase, didn't you? 😒😑

Would it have killed them to give us another Night Fury? 😭

But, to save time and to prevent you from listening to old rants and explanations from previous articles, I'm moving on.

There's been several theories and headcanons that I've been voicing as to explain her appearance physically and canonly-speaking in the past, but most of them have been shot down by metaphorical bola-launchers manned by Hiccups in the form of Dreamworks. Thank you, Dreamworks! (Notice the sarcasm)

However, recently, I've been re-reading the books and I've noticed something peculiar that never struck me before.

What if the Light Fury isn't as random as I had thought? That she isn't just something that Dreamworks implemented from the fandom in order to please the fans or created for the sole purpose of being Toothless's mate? What if she was inspired — as many HTTYD characters are — from the books?

The reason why I suddenly was struck by this though was by what Dean DeBlois stated: "That we will be basing a lot of the third part of Hiccup's story on the last book of the series: Book 12," to paraphrase heavily here.

He said that they'll be basing the third film to be loyal to the twelfth and final book of the series: How to Fight a Dragon's Fury. (Which, by the way, wasn't really the case.)

So, if this is true, then is the Light Fury a possible nod to the books? That's what we're here to hopefully find out. 

Two Possible Influences:

There are two dragon characters that the Light Fury could possibly be inspired by: 

The Silver Phantom — a powerful dragon species that shows up in books 10-12 (as well as the Complete Book of Dragons)

And Luna, a Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus who's Furious's second-in-command and eventually Ruler of the dragons when a dying Furious names her as his successor and leaves for the Great Ocean (the author left it open-ended for the reader to decide whether he lives or not).

These two are not only female dragons, but dragons that are closest to what could've inspired the Light Fury that I could find.

I'm going to begin by discussing the Silver Phantom and the Light Fury and their similarities and differences. Then I'll do Luna and the Light Fury.

Now, please keep in mind that these upcoming reasons of the possibilities of the Light Fury sharing inspiration from one or both of these dragons are pure speculation, hypotheses, guesswork, and assumptions. So please take these words with a grain of salt.

If you think that I am wrong at any points or to improve any points, please let me know. I don't claim to have or know all the answers or that everything that comes out of my mouth is 110% accurate. I'm just making speculative reasonings and theories to try to better understand certain characters out of my love for this fandom.

So on to the Silver Phantom!

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Similarities Between the Light Fury and the Silver Phantom:

The Silver Phantom is first mentioned in Book 10: "How to Seize a Dragon's Jewel", where it's waiting for Hiccup and his dragons in ambush. We find out later that it's the Riding Dragon of Valhallarama, Hiccup's questing mother. It's nameless and doesn't talk (similar to Humungous Hotshot's dragon in book 5: "How to Twist a Dragon's Tale"), unlike other Riding Dragons. Though, I'm sure that's because of irrelevance to the plot of the story.

The stats on the picture say 7 for Size and 8 for Disobedience, though in the stats in the 10th book for the Silver Phantom, it says that all of its categories are a 10. I'm not sure how to account for this, on whether or not if this is a mistake. Or if it's dependent on gender. However, the 10th book was published in 2012, while The Complete Book of Dragons was published somewhere between 2013-2014, so I'm guessing that Cressida changed the stats a bit?

So here are some possible reasons as to why the Silver Phantom and the Light Fury might be similar and why the latter could be loosely-inspired by the former.

1) Both dragons seem to have similar colored scales.

Both dragons seem to have scales of a silvery-white hue, as both of them are sparkly and glowing. 

In page 23 of Chapter 1 in Book 10, it says: 

"Even though it was in the dead of night, every silver scale was lit up and shone brighter than was strictly possible in real life. The Silver Phantom seemed to give off its own light, like the moon.  "Its scream was so high and so loud that Hiccup felt as if it were setting fire to his ears. And as the dragon screamed, it poured out a jet of bright blue flames that blasted the trees in front of it, burning the leaves as bright as green stars before they dropped to the ground in powdery black smithereens."

The Light Fury seems to glow in a similar way, though her scales seem to be nonexistent and more reflective than the Silver Phantom's. Now, the Light Fury doesn't breathe blue/purple flame (the film seems to show that she breathes a regular plasma blast with the normal color of fire, not a bluish-white color), but Toothless does. So I believe that the Fury family could easily be based on this particular dragon, as they can fly in high altitudes, and (the Night Furies, at least) can breathe blue/purple flame, and are the fastest in the dragon world in the movie franchise.

2) Both dragons seem to be rare.

It's described in page 1 of Chapter 1 as being "an Air Dragon of the purest silver — very, very rare and very, very dangerous."  

In Book 10 and in The Complete Book of Dragons, Hiccup says that the Silver Phantom is a very rare dragon. However, in the latter book, it shows Hiccup the First, the second and third Hiccups' ancestor, riding on the back of a female Silver Phantom—which according to Hiccup the Third is very rare. So I'm not sure if Cressida is saying that the Silver Phantom as a species is very rare, or just the females. Or maybe because there are few females, that the Phantoms as a species can't reproduce as quickly and so their numbers were dwindling.

Or maybe during the previous two Hiccups' times, they weren't so rare, but they're rare now in Hiccup the Third's time?

Regardless of the reason, they're a rare species of dragon, and a Viking who has this dragon as its Riding Dragon would definitely be getting a big rise in social status. Valhallarama is the only known Viking in the series to ride a Silver Phantom as their riding dragon. There's also Hiccup the First, but it's not known whether the female Silver Phantom he's riding was allowing him to ride her for a temporary period, or if she was another riding dragon for him. There's no mention in the series of anyone having more than one Riding Dragon. Many Vikings are known to have more than one Hunting Dragon—or just more than one dragon in general—but there's no evidence of any Vikings having more than one Riding Dragon. Wodensfang said in Book 9 that he was Hiccup the First's blood brother and Riding Dragon. So, because of the lack of evidence of Vikings having more than one Riding Dragon, I'm assuming that's because you can only have one at a time, while you can have multiple Hunting Dragons.

Now, concerning the Light Fury, Dean DeBlois has said that "she is not the last of her kind," when talking about the Light Fury. However, you can take that with a grain of salt. For one thing, he says, "not the last of her kind." It doesn't say that they're not rare or endangered, nor does it say that female Light Furies aren't rare. However, I can't say with 110% certainty because neither the movie nor the behind-the-scenes vids have come out to prove this, nor is there any certainty of there being any concrete information in the film even if it does come out. Informative, and quite possibly visual, evidence on Light Furies and Night Furies will probably be scant if at all existent.  

3) Both dragons seem to be super fast.

In pages 32-33, it speaks of the Silver Phantom's speed: 

"Over the past year they had often eluded dragon pursuers by climbing up into the higher air, too high for the other dragons to follow. Most dragons prefer shallow air, the air nearest the ground. Very few can operate in the higher atmosphere. "Apart from the Silver Phantom. ". . . The Phantom was an Air Dragon. They were among the best flyers in the dragon world, and they flew the fastest and the highest."

In Page 307 of Chapter 27, the Phantom's speed is confirmed and the dragon is said to be "the fastest riding dragon in open skies."  

Now, since she's part of the Fury family of Dragons, I'm assuming that she's really fast—as fast as Toothless if not more so (which might be the latter since he's encumbered with flight equipment, while she doesn't have such encumberments). 

The Fury family of Dragons seem to be the fastest dragons in the dragon world, as Hiccup and Dreamworks have stated several times, and is mentioned in the book of dragons. Which makes me not help but wonder if the Night Furies weren't somewhat inspired by the Silver Phantom species.

Now, again, these are just speculative hypotheses at the moment, and probably won't ever be proven.

Now, on to Luna!

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Similarities Between the Light Fury and Luna the Sea-Dragon:

(Second_Only_To_The_Dragon_Furious_by_Grim1978)

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Luna, Second-in-Command of Furious, King of the Dragons:

Now, this latter character is who I personally believe that the Light Fury is based on, in my opinion. I'll explain as I go along.

1) Both dragons are of the same species as their respective Toothlesses.

In the 12th Book: "How to Fight a Dragon's Fury", Luna is described in Page 76 of Chapter 4 as "a luminously beautiful Sea-Dragon slightly smaller than himself (Furious), known as Luna." 

In the books, "Sea-Dragon" is a term often used to describe the Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus (due to the first part of their species' scientific name, I think), a massive Sea-Dragon species that are arguably the most dangerous dragons known in the dragon world. That, and they're also quite possibly the largest dragons in the dragon world—hence why Furious is King of the Dragons. Size and ferocity are very important for an Alpha, in a similar aspect to lions and wolves, etc. 

Anyway, it's been revealed in Book 11: "How to Betray a Dragon's Hero", that Toothless is a Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus, and NOT a Common or Garden Dragon, making him akin to other SGMs such as Wodensfang, Furious, Luna, Merciless/Green Death, and Purple Death (Book 1).

Meanwhile, the Light Fury, while not a Night Fury, is of the same family as the latter and are very close cousins. And since both the Light Fury and Toothless are Furies, and Toothless is loosely inspired from the Book!Toothless, who is a Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus (or a Sea-Dragon) like Luna, it makes sense that the Light Fury might be based on Luna, however slightly. 

2) Both dragons have glowing white scales.

In the same page and the same chapter, the narrator (Hiccup) further describes Luna as such: "She was so-called because she glowed with light like the moon. She lit up the dark storm clouds all around, and waves of heat pulsed out of her, so that the rain smoked and hissed when it landed on her shining body."

Now the Light Fury doesn't have glowing scales; her scales are more sparkly or glittery than anything. But in certain environments under certain exposure of light in a particular angle, it does look like that her scales are glowing in a sense. Unlike Luna, the Light Fury seems to copy the Deadly Shadow's and the Changewing's cloaking abilities, though in a smaller and more temporary sense, and having to use her plasma blasts to activate it.

3) Both dragons become rulers.

In Pages 415 and 421 on Chapter 26, Furious gives his Alpha-ship to Luna before he swims away into the Great Ocean, either awaiting death or even surviving the venomous injury he acquired from the Witch. And Luna then becomes the new Alpha of the Dragons and rules the Dragons for the rest of her days (which are very long indeed, even well past the end of the series.)

Now, here's my theory and headcanon for the third film concerning the Light Fury: That the Light Fury either 1) is Alpha of her own thunder (term for flock of dragons) as Toothless is when they find her and somehow got separated, 2) she'll become co-Alpha when she becomes Toothless's mate, or 3) Toothless, like Furious, ends up giving his Alpha-ship to another—namely the Light Fury—so that he can stay with Hiccup.

What do you guys think? Which do you think is plausible?

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Conclusion:

So that's my thoughts about the Light Fury. What do you guys think? Think that any of this is plausible? Do you think that she might be inspired by the Silver Phantom or Luna or a little bit of both? Anything that I got wrong and needs correcting? What are your thoughts on this?

(Personally, I still think that the Light Fury is a fanbase add-on by DreamWorks.)

Again, this is just a theory since I can't prove any of this. So if you have any thoughts you'd like to give me to prove or disprove this or to add to this that I didn't think of, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks again for your time and for reading this, as well as any comments that you might post. I appreciate the feedback and support!

If you guys have anyone specific you'd like me to write an article about in this comparison series, let me know.

Long Live the Wilderwest!

— Companion of the Dragonmark

[comickergirl]

I thought it would be kinda cool to try and make a tier list with my own drawings and, in hindsight, that was maybe too ambitious, given I had more manga titles this year and less free time for fanart, but regardless, here we are! Gonna hide additional thoughts on some of the books under a read-more for the terribly curious. XD

Going in order from top to bottom, left to right:

Snow White with the Red Hair: ...No. There is too much to say. I'll need to return to this some other time. XD (Actually I'm gonna skip the other 2023 titles on the tier list as well)

King in Limbo: LOVED this one. Possibly one of my favorite that I read this year. (Am I biased because it takes place in San Francisco? MAYBE SO.) Really great sci-fi series with a crime/murder mystery element, and Rune and Adam make for a great mismatched 'buddy comedy' duo. Also... *cough* Am I excited for the Your Forma anime? Yes. Do I think King in Limbo did the same plot but better and first? Also yes. *cough*

QQ Sweeper/ Queen's Quality: Look this title has everything, okay? Action, romance, comedy, horrifying nightmare monsters, tips on window cleaning, what more could you want, really?

Wolf's Daughter: A Werewolf's Tale: THANK YOU SEVEN SEAS FOR LICENSING THIS FOR PRINT THIS YEAR!

Library Wars: Admittedly I'd tried this one a handful of times before and struggled to get into it (also I don't care for the anime) BUT. I told myself to stick with it and lo and behold, loved it. Such a charming cast of characters.

Immortal Rain: I recall encountering this in either middle school or high school and loving the art, but I don't think I read past volume one. Really enjoyed reading the whole series through.

Wolf and Revolver: How can an unlicensed title rank this high, you ask??? V I B E S

Rose of Versailles: Listen I felt genuine anxiety over the fate of Marie Antoinette and if that isn't the mark of a skilled storyteller right there, I don't know what is.

Gold Kingdom and Water Kingdom: IT'S SO CUTE AND CHARMING and way funnier than I thought it would be??? Also reminded me of The Thief and the Cobbler a fair bit, in terms of tone and art.

From Far Away: Feel like this had a bit of a slow start but the main draw, in my opinion, is Noriko. She’s such a sweet, determined heroine.

Children of the Whales: I actually have some nitpicks with this one, story-wise, BUT. It’s so impressive from an artistic standpoint and unique in its world building that I just gotta give it to ‘em, you know?

The Hachioji Specialty: Tengu’s Love: How can a manga with only two volumes out rank this high, you ask? IT'S ADORABLE. XD In all seriousness, I love that it’s a ‘fish out of water’ story that doesn’t infantilize the woman so that the guy can save her with his worldly ways. Refreshing! And I say again: so. Heckin’. CUTE.

The rest of the titles all tend to fall in the same sort of, ‘I liked this!’ area for me, except fooooor….

Fushigi Yuugi: Listen LISTEN, it ranks real low and I’ve got complaints about the plot and pacing BUT. I’m glad I read it and would like to someday dive into the sequels because it is clearly a genre-defining staple. Maybe I’d like the anime better?? (I liked the first volume of the latest spin-off! XD)

SECRET BONUS ROUND! Most of these had a physical edition of their first volume drop at the tail end of the year and as such, felt a bit too last minute to draw, but they generally all fall in the ‘solidly entertaining’ tier:

Stomp, Kick, Love Blade Girl Love, That’s an Understatement Agents of the Four Seasons* In Another World, My Sister Stole my Name*

(*These came out less recently but I forgot to write them down! XD)

SECRET BONUS ROUND: 2023 EDITION! These didn’t make it onto my illustrated list that year but I *have* read ‘em:

Red River (Note: If I had to pick a soap-opera-esque, sprawling, vaguely historical isekai fantasy, I prefer this to Fushigi Yuugi) Prince Freya

SECRET BONUS ROUND: SHONEN/SEINEN EDITION! Nozaki Kun Your Forma Dahlia My Dear Detective Noragami Tropic of the Sea Opus Seraphim The Concierge at Hokkyoku Department Store The Golden Sheep

And there we go! :D

[namorthesubmariner]

My mutual, Doombot, has written a great analysis of Namor & why many writers & Marvel fail to grasp an understanding of his character. This is so well written & really sums up what Namor fans have been talking about on the CBR board for years. I think people who don't "get" Namor should read this.

Full text under the cut

Doombot: What's interesting, or disheartening really, is that, for people who don't know Namor that well, all these mini-series' and supporting roles in recent years must be how so many people see Namor, and it's just not him. He's in this awful limbo where he needs an ongoing series for readers to understand him again, but he also (in Marvel's eyes) needs to be popular enough to be given an ongoing. It's like employers asking for 10yrs experience for entry level positions, it's backwards. Plus every modern showing of Namor in all these other books have him as a huge assh*le or an outright villain (or both)

Modern writers simply don't seem to understand Namor, and their OOC portrayals of him present Namor to modern readers as someone he isn't.

Even if Namor felt he had been wrong, if he felt he'd been unjust or needed to atone for some action or judgement he made, he would never in a million years submit to human "justice". (which in Marvel almost always means American) The same justice that has never been afforded to his own people, even when humans (usually Americans) decimate, poison or outright murder them in hundreds, if not thousands. You never see Captain America or IronMan coming to Namor's aid, to help get justice for the scores of innocent Atlanteans that are blown up, murdered or displaced by human activity. In fact, Captain America and IronMan will be the first to confront and threaten Namor if he dares to even think about getting any kind of justice for his people. Yet time and time again, Namor will answer the call to help save humanity from looming threats and disasters. He does this KNOWING it is never offered in return, that the same people he fights for and beside will never come to the aid of him and his people. Yet all the heroes will instantly clutch their pearls and label Namor as unstable or a villain if he gets frustrated or angry enough to seek his own justice. This alone tells you a lot about who Namor is and who the heroes (who claim they're his friends) are.

Namor willingly does this is for a few reasons. First, he simply believes these are the right things to do. Secondly, because he has a deep need or longing to be accepted by the people of his father. Just as he has a deep need to be accepted by the people of his mother, the Atlanteans. Namor, for all his blustering and power, is extremely lonely. He's never been accepted by either, humans or Atlanteans, from his childhood to now. Yet he's always strived to do right by both, in a naive hope they will eventually love him, that he will finally belong somewhere. That's the tragedy of the character, it's the entire fucking point. These are complex social and psychological issues, yet extremely simple at the same time. He's alone. He's angry and hurt, distrusted and disliked, yet always tries to do what is right, and he's usually repaid with scorn. His prickly, pompous or cold demeanor is a facade, it's covering the fact he's a deeply lonesome man who desires a connection to his people(s) and also the fact he was raised as a Royal and everything that means. Being distant, exceptional, superior, a living symbol.

Part of the reason people don't present Namor correctly, as we've discussed here before, is that he's not a superhero. Not in the sense most think about it. Captain America, Superman, Spider-Man, the classic superhero who is out to do right, to fight for "Truth, Justice and the American Way" isn't at all what Namor represents. Not only is Namor not a hero for America, he's not even a hero for humanity. From his very inception he was a champion of "the other", the outsider, the non-American, non-human. He's a main character in American comics who is NOT fighting for America or American values. He's the opposite of Superman. Superman is an alien who does everything in his power to become the best version of a human, of an Amercian, that he can be. Namor is not human, not American, and doesn't want to be. In fact, he's more often than not at odds with humanity. Humans are a real danger to him and his mother's people. This is quite remarkable for a superhero in 1930-whatever. Marry this concept to a character who is also raised as a Royal, as above the everyman, destined not to fight for American justice and democracy, but to be a king and rule a kingdom. All of this adds to the difficulty many readers and writers have with Namor, especially in modern comics. These things aren't made clean enough, instead Namor is seen as a huge a-hole, who's just arrogant and is always on the edge of being a dangerous lunatic villain. The quirks of Namor's personality are left bare, on the surface, but he's hollow. Modern readers don't get to see and understand WHY Namor behaves they way he does.

Namor doesn't need to be deconstructed. How or why would a deconstruction be interesting or valid for a character you barely understand to begin with? What Namor needs in a new and strong foundation so he and his world can be rediscovered and examined/explored for new and modern audiences.

[wetcatspellcaster]

I saw you respond that you a very much not an SJM fan 😅 fair enough but I did want to ask what books/series you did like or would recommend that are of a fantasy/romantasy vibe!

lmfao, i am destined to become known for my parasocial enmity with the wingspan lady on this hellsite.

I don't read stuff with the same vibe as SJM all that often anymore. I used to read a lot of paranormal romance but the heteronormativity of SJM clones was upsetting me, so I've turned more towards the romance genre or just straight up fanfic these days.

So these recommendations might not be the perfect overlap but-!

Books with Fey Romances that are good

Holly Black, for all your fey needs. Tithe is the OG (and if you like sad men with white hair, have I got a blorbo for you!) but The Cruel Prince is her most popular series, that most people have read. The Darkest Part of the Forest is also an amazing standalone novel with a bit more creepiness than the other two. Not very explicit sex.

Olivia Atwater's Half A Soul and Ten Thousand Stitches are regency romance novels with fey associations, the first book is about a girl under a fairy curse and the second is about a fairy himbo trying his best at being a fairy godmother. No sex, that I can remember.

Heather Fawcett's Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Fairies. I've talked about this book a lot. If you like my fanfic, you will like this book, because this book was written for Me specifically. Not very explicit sex.

The Falconer series by Elizabeth May. This is the closest in this list to what SJM writes, only this is. um. better. Much sex, but also just... 'what if we started an apocalypse together, and the guilt meant I was scared to touch you, but we've got nothing else to live for now so why shouldn't I just do it?'

Fantasy Books with Good Romance

T Kingfisher's Swordheart and Nettle & Bone - both standalone novels. Swordheart is just Howl x Sophie dynamics, if Howl was a martial class, and also. A sword. Some sexiness.

Uprooted by Naomi Novik (if we count the love interests as both the hot sexy wizard man AND the protagonist's gal pal). Some sexiness.

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. If you like your immortal/mortal romances, this is a pretty stellar read tbh. Some sexiness.

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan. This is such a fun book just generally but the slowburn of a 7 year high school romance sent me a little feral actually. Some sexiness.

Daevabad trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty. Now, this one is a little bit evil bc its an epic fantasy trilogy that is quite dense, and the romance is amazing but it takes a WHILE. *I* can write an evil slowburn, but there is nothing more evil than what happened in these books bc everyone is so fucking repressed. Alternatively, The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by the same author, which cut to the chase a lot quicker, romance-wise.

Fantasy Books that are 😌😌 sexy 😌😌

The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman. This is my favourite paranormal romance I've read in recent years, and they don't even have sex but I'm putting it here because um. they did. to me. That's what happens when you write a regency romance where if a woman takes of a man's coat they have 37 horny thoughts about it in real time. Imagine if Darcy and Elizabeth for P&P were also fighting demons at the same time as falling in love (not metaphorically. literal demons.)

Mating the Huntress by Talia Hibbert. Talia Hibbert's books in general fucking slap but I wish she'd written more paranormal romance than just this ONE story bc um. This was. um. Good.✌️

A Marvellous Light and A Restless Truth by Freya Marske. Freya Marske is also a popular fanfic author, and it shows with the way she writes sex.

That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming. This author is the one who went briefly viral bc she accidentally has a book cover with Astarion on it lmao. This book was the first in that series, and unfortunately it wasn't for me (dragon shifter porn, I did *not* know going in) but the sex was really, really well-written, if that's something you could be into.

[fantasygerard2000]

Tastes and Preferences Are Not Standards

There's this issue with fans of any media complain about the lack of original works over actually watching them.

So, recently, D23 announced a ton of upcoming projects for the parks, games, shows, etc with their movies being the one that got the most attention. Majority of them are sequels and live action remakes and per usual, people are outrage over the big D for prioritizing on nostalgia baiting than making new ideas.

Here's the thing tho, alongside the sequels and live action remakes, they also announced Hoppers, an upcoming original film by Pixar directed by the guy that made We Bare Bears, Daniel Chong. Response to Hoppers, was near nonexistent. Like, very little anticipation as in "it exists".

Not only that, another original film before Hoppers is currently to be released next year, Elio. Just like with Hoppers, Elio only seen as this movie that was originally supposed to be released this year before swapping places with Inside Out 2.

Now, the obvious answer to this is rage culture. Being angry over the current thing is an easy content mill. Mufasa is being blasted because it had the audacity to not be faithful to an obscure prequel book series and Snow White for even much more dumb reasons, mostly centering on the lead actress because, if that didn't work on Halle, might as well try again on Rachel.

And when other people addressed that Pixar and Disney did made original films with Elemental and Wish being their current examples, the response these grifters is "We want GOOD original ideas." Now that just shows that they genuinely don't actually care about wanting to watch original ideas, regardless of quality, and simply only using them as a point to why hollywood is dead, blah blah blah.

Original ideas take time to get people invested into watching them. People prefer to engage with media they are more familiar with over the new ones, hence why they are always needlessly comparing things.

Elemental was mocked for being a Zootopia clone but with living elements and themes of racism, but while Zootopia is about general prejudice, Elemental is about personal prejudice. It doesn't use allegories like Zootopia, it's straightforward about the characters being immigrants. Just like any other Pixar film, there's more to the story than the general concept. But that didn't stop people saying that the characters being living elements didn't contribute to the story. Just like with Turning Red, the creator chose so because he want to, as if kids totally wanna watch a movie about immigrants. It's his story, based on his own life experiences told through a lens so kids can enjoy it.

I already talked about Wish to death, but it is a major factor considering that it's an original story that is deliberately made to be an homage to classical and renaissance era Disney films. The comparisons of to to previous films like Disney's more well known works like Snow White are dubious because they're oddly biased and surface level when there's another Disney film that's even more comparable, The Princess and the Frog.

Princess and the Frog is a lot like Wish, black lead, classical villain, hand drawn animation (though Wish's is stylized) and themes about working hard to achieve your dreams. While Wish has problems about how "half cooked" it is, Princess and the Frog has more problems than Wish; Tiana, their first black princess being a frog for majority of the movie, the sugarcoating of a 1920's setting, the demonization of an active closed religion that people use as an aesthetic coughAlastorHazbincough and a complicated story about technicalities to break the spell and a forced moral about love and family, and not in a good way.

Despite these issues being present and are still discussed today, the fact that it's hand drawn animated and has a cool looking villain wallpapers all over this issues. This is also extends in a lot of Disney's other older films. The mess of a cultural mix setting that is in Aladdin and Raya, the racism in Peter Pan, the usage of g*psy in Hunchback, Pocahontas existing and characters of color being played by white actors that the same thing literally happened with Raya (SEAsian characters, not SEAsian actors). Even though these problems have always been present, people dismiss them with "It was fair for the day". They value their personal nostalgia over the issues other have during them.

Coming back on the topic of comparing films, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is often brought up to compare anything Disney and Pixar make. People had low expectations towards The Last Wish because it was a sequel to a spin off no one asked for and it succeeded their expectations. The reason why I brought up The Last Wish is because a minority of animation fandom use it as the standard for animated films. The comment saying "We want GOOD originals" is practically them moving up the goal post because to them, any original idea isn't good enough for their tastes. We can't have an original idea without someone bemoaning about how it's inferior to an already existing idea based on surface level comparisons.

Bringing back Wish because it's a good example, people wanted it be like the previous Disney films. However, being like them means loosing its own identity. Turning Star into a generic pretty boy for the girls to salivate over means losing what Star represents, the hope people have to keep on pursuing their ambitions.

An ironic thing is whenever they find a good idea they liked, they want more of it. Basically, wanting others to be just like it. What's the point of wanting an original when all you just want is the same old thing again?

[trickarrowsandbatarangs]

Time to make a too-long post about Kate Bishop (because I love her 💜) and her potential future in Marvel comics

The most recent major appearance of Kate Bishop was (I believe, I’m not perfectly up to date on my Marvel) in Avengers (2023)’s blood hunt tie in from mid-2024, and it was GREAT. I loved getting to see Kate in her element, and I really enjoyed the way CF Villa draws her. This new costume took an adjustment period, but I really like it!

HOWEVER. Because she’s my favourite and I’m totally biased, I think she should get an ongoing comic where she’s the/a main character again, and this post breaks down some potential ways I think it would be cool to see them do this!

I hope no marvel news that I’m not aware of comes out while I’ve been writing this that makes this post completely redundant

Also! This is an open invitation to share what kind of comics you’d like to see Kate headline!

Option 1: A New “Hawkeye” Book

- Hawkeye (2017) Vol.1 cover, and Hawkeye (2012) #9 cover

The most obvious option is to give her a new series all to herself. The Kelly Thompson run is really good, and a character-defining comic for Kate. I also enjoyed the miniseries Kate got in 2021 to coincide with the Hawkeye show - I don’t think it was as strong as some of her other appearances, but it was a fun comic that introduced Kate’s sister on-panel for the first time (and gave KB a new look as Hawkeye).

For me to properly get behind a new solo series for Kate, I don’t think I would want it to tread the same ground as Thompson’s - primarily tonally, but also with the move to LA - and would be thrilled to see someone give Kate a type of story she hasn’t been in before (at least as the sole main character).

Maybe it’s just because I recently read a comic set during this period, but something like Grayson (2014) did for Dick Grayson, in giving a character a “spy arc”, I feel like an espionage-inspired run wouldn’t feel out of place (and it is canon that Kate wanted to be a SHIELD agent growing up).

- Avengers (2023) - Blood Hunt tie-in

Alternatively, (and in a very different direction) following up on Blood Hunt and (spoilers for Kelly Thompson’s Hawkeye run) with the fact that Kate’s mum is a vampire, something that learns more into that horror and supernatural side of things and maybe feels a bit Buffy the Vampire Slayer (although with the private investigator background, Angel: The Series might be a better ref) could be really cool!

Going to the other side of Kate’s lineage, taking notes from Clint’s story in Freefall, and having Kate go against her father, who is able to exploit his wealth to get away with it all, could be a really interesting read!

I’m sure there’s many different new takes or types of story to get out of Kate as a character, and as long as it was trying something new, I’d be pumped to see how it went! (If anyone has new directions they’d want to see this character taken in a solo, PLEASE share!)

While I adored the Thompson and Romero run and would’ve loved if it had gone on longer, it was strong and unique enough that I’d prefer to see something fresh as opposed to an imitation.

Option 1b: A “Hawkeyes” Comic

- Hawkeye (2017) Vol. 3 cover, Generations: Hawkeye & Hawkeye (2017) cover, and All-New Hawkeye (2016) #6

Unsurprisingly, as a Hawkeye fan, Fraction & Aja’s 2012 run is one of my favourite comics of all time. Part of this is because of how well the characters of Kate and Clint play off of each other, and I love the weird hard-to-define-but-definitely-codependent relationship that develops.

I also love Clint, so would be thrilled if the pair of them had a new comic together (oh hey! And maybe they could introduce a variant of Charli Ramsey into 616! The more Hawkeyes the merrier!)

However, with that said, similar to my view on the 2018 Hawkeye comic, this dynamic has already been done *fantastically* in this way in Hawkeye 2012, and while I am desperate beyond desperation to see these two together in a comic again, and have their relationship explored, I’m not certain how excited I would be for something trying to get at that and not succeeding quite as well (which - and this might be a hot take - I think the Lemire and Perez run kind of does).

Any new run with these two at the helm would have to

1.) capture their pre-existing dynamic

2.) present this dynamic in a way that didn’t feel like it was just using fraction/Aja’s run as a crib sheet without expanding or adding anything

Option 2: A New “Young Avengers”

The 00s had a young avengers run, the 10s had a young avengers run, it is only fair that the 20s get one as well. Also- I think they’re leaning towards this vis-a-vis the movies, so this could be something we see emerging in the run up.

The 2021 Kate Bishop: Hawkeye miniseries also ended with Kate teaming up with Cassie Lang and America Chavez, and teased potential future missions, so it would be cool to see this trio setting up a new group!

My personal ideal roster would be a bit of a merge between 2005 and 2013’s Young Avengers - with additions from the Kate-led West Coast Avengers team: Kate (obviously), Wiccan & Hulkling (they may be too busy being married space royalty, but they feel essential to YA), Speed, America Chavez, Cassie Lang, with new additions Fuse & Alloy (because I love them), and if we wanted fully fresh blood, add Shela Sexton and Brielle Brooks to the team. I am aware this is… a lot of characters - definitely too many, even - but I could not cut anyone from this list because I love them all.

Oh hey a “Fuse & Alloy” comic run would also be cool as hell. But this post isn’t about that rn.

A criticism I have of both Young Avengers runs is they never quite establish a “status quo” for the heroes to work from. This is probably very much personal taste, but I would enjoy a comic that firmly sets up their day-to-day/Homebase/etc. and then has them going on individual adventures, fighting off threats episodically, or in longer several-issue-spanning stories (I think Thompson’s West Coast Avengers is really good for this).

Option 3: A “Kate Bishop & America Chavez” team-up

- America (2017) #5 cover, Civil War II: Choosing Sides #3

I have an agenda and its name is Amerikate.

I think it is very telling that despite only minor (but great) interactions in Young Avengers 2013 these two were quickly established as best friends by writers afterwards. They play off each other very well, and I love to see their closeness and friendship.

This could be a fun dimension-hopping adventure! Combining an overarching plot of America and Kate traveling these different realities, but also the individual stories and problems of the duo in these realities (and the denizens they would come upon and want to help).

While if I were at the helm, I would obviously want a “Hawkeye & Ms America” comic to build towards a romance between the two, given the flirtatiousness of their friendship (and hey there was even that pitch for them to actually kiss a few years ago), with it starting as two friends fighting crime/monsters/aliens/supervillains/etc. and feelings reaching a tipping point… but honestly I would also be totally okay if we got a comic like this and it was purely platonic, with that kind of teasing flirting vibe that they already have. I love both these characters and their friendship is always so enjoyable to read.

When I first read Young Avengers 2013 years ago as a teen, it was actually America, not Kate, that I initially gravitated towards and went “holy shit she’s the coolest woman alive” and became one of my favourite comic characters. I would love to see America as a title name in a new comic run. Especially because her own solo titles have unfortunately not really been as strong as I was hoping for.

Option 4: “Jones & Bishop: Private Investigators”

Given that “superhero” isn’t the only profession they’ve shared, I can already see the image of this building so clearly in my mind. I think the dynamic they have in comics has been really great to see so far (Jessica Jones’s appearance in Thompson’s Hawkeye is such a good issue), and I would be so pumped to see what direction this could go.

I also think as character parallels, the conversation they have during Young Avengers Special about their different trajectories following a similar event is deeply meaningful and I think about it a lot.

- Young Avengers Special (2005

[pb-dot]

Writeblr Introduction

Suppose I should introduce myself per the writeblr Very Friendly Suggestions. I'm PB, or peebs if you prefer. I publish my books under the pen name Victor S. Dale. I'm in my 30's, bisexual, dyspraxic, and as behooves a man of my standing I'm also grappling with considerable depression.

I like to write, like it a lot and I always have. My main WIPs are: a clockpunk love story titled The Clockwork Boy, a Lovecraftian Horror Romance titled His Impossible Brushstrokes and a 30s-punk portal fantasy serial titled Thereafter. I also dabble with smaller projects I won't get into here. Mostly coherent and concise synopses of The Clockwork Boy, His Impossible Brushstrokes, and Thereafter follow below.

The Clockwork Boy

My NaNoWriMo 2022 novel was initially conceived because I couldn't find much fun MLM genre fiction to read, so I decided to get myself good and wedged into that niche. The story follows Jake, who's stuck in a dead-end job of machining gears and sundry parts as well as lifting heavy things until a small, yet deceptively strong young man crashes into his life, and also his arms. The young man is called 13, his entire body from the neck down is made out of impossibly complex clockwork parts, and he's on the run from multiple powerful people and factions.

13 is stronger and faster than anyone has the right to be, but several broken parts hold him back. Jake is immediately smitten by the complex mechanics of 13's clockwork body, not to mention his sad, blue eyes, and so vows to help repair 13. The complexity of the task at hand is only increased by the two being pursued by local goon squads as well as other clockwork-bodied people with numbers for names.

The world of The Clockwork Boy and the Hearts In Clockwork series, provided I get around to writing more of these things, is languishing in a peculiar type of anarchy. The Age of Steam has come and gone and after a series of destructive colonial wars known as The Coal Wars, the power of government and nation has all but eroded. In their place, an alliance of powerful merchants and holders of capital keeps an iron grip on what passes for law from their seat in the massive tower known only as The Spire. Their power is exerted through monopoly and other economic maneuvers, but also by their rowdy Enforcers, who rule through intimidation and sheer brutishness.

13, as it turns out, is part of The Clockmen, a hitherto hidden faction within The Spire, whose acerbic leader is working to create an elite force of clockwork-powered individuals to overthrow The Spire and their enforcers, but even within the clockmen, agendas differ. 13 was originally made to fight and kill rogue clockmen, but so objected to this that he fled, searching for his memories and what freedom could be found.

Jake and 13 eventually find themselves under the auspices of The Northwest, an underground worker-owned coop parts workshop that takes them in and offers them succor in their time of need. In the relative safety of The Northwest's hidden workshop, Jake and 13 get the time they need to perform the sizable number of repairs needed, and perhaps ask the question of what they are becoming to each other and what comes next.

The current status of the project at the moment is going through the old rewrite and editing wringers. I'm currently having the thing beta read and I'll make whatever changes I need after that before attempting to hook an agent to help me get the thing published. In the meantime, I post about it a lot. If you want to be up-to-date on the most recent rambles in the setting, check out the tag list post here

My final goal with this project is to somehow get it published and, provided I am not met with immediate scorn and ridicule, get started on writing one or more sequels. I don't have the entire series planned out or anything, but I have several stories in this universe planned, and I know where and how I want it to end.

His Impossible Brushstrokes

My 2023 NaNoWriMo entry and occasional Lagrange point of my life. Continuing the trend from last year of writing novels that I wish someone else had written already so I could read it, Brushstrokes is a male-led queer horror with a mspec protagonist, exploring the shared points between love and fear, admiration and obsession, and art and madness.

The story follows Oscar Skerry, an obsessive San Fran art critic who goes to progressively more extreme measures to understand the works of his favorite artist, a pan-European enfant terrible by the name Tomasz Gildebrant. Gildebrant is an obscure artist, whose paintings nevertheless go for exorbitant prices on account of his cult appeal.

Following the thread of an art patron going berserk and attempting to destroy a Gildebrant painting by eating it, Tomasz unravels the urban legend of Gildebrant Psychosis. This sickness allegedly drives some who see a Gildebrant painting into acts of brutality, depravity, or the profoundly absurd, and Oscar starts to suspect there is something deeper and darker going on than repeated failures of the mental health system.

Seemingly out of the blue, Oscar gets an invitation to join Gildebrant in his home in the southern Carpathian Mountains. Eager to get to the bottom of things, and share his theories with Gildebrant, Oscar accepts.

Once there, two things become readily apparent. One, Gildebrant is incredibly charming, so much so that Oscar finds himself doubting that Gildebrant could be the man behind the dark, disturbing paintings he obsesses over. Two, there are way too many things not adding up, like how the doors to his guestroom in the Gildebrant household lock automatically at midnight, and how many pairs of shoes fill Gildebrant's hallway.

Per April 2024, the first draft for His Impossible Brushstrokes is complete. The plan remains to seek tradpub or indie publishing once I've edited the thing.

Thereafter

My first self-released project. The first chapters of Thereafter is slated to be released via buttondown starting May 1st 2024. This story follows Michael, a man in his 30s who traveled to, and saved, a magical cave-world populated by kindly molefolk at the tender age of twelve (and a half.) Now, 20 years later, Michael struggles in life and finds himself wishing for those simpler days of adventure again. Life is not without a sense of cruel irony, as the phenomenon that spirited him away all those years ago reoccur. Michael doesn't find himself in the serene caves of the molefolk, however, but in a desperately ramshackle city built from the flotsam and jetsam of thousands upon thousands of worlds.

This strange town goes by the name of Thereafter, and it was the surviving population of the cave world, as well as many other worlds, built with what they could salvage after The Calamity. Few who saw the world-destroying catastrophe lived to tell the tale, and the few who have, tell conflicting and surely nonsensical tales of it. Either way, the few that survived being flung into the void between worlds found their way to this nexus of the dispossessed, where the despair of dispossession percolated under the pressure of resource insecurity and a general sense of the world quite literally coming to an end.

To assuage some of these fears, The Council of Thereafter, a hastily assembled collection of wizards, wise men and the occasional cryptic hermit, decided to summon heroes of the old to their side. Due to the way time flows differently in the realms of magic, centuries and even millennia have passed since Michael saved the Molefolk, and the tales of his exploits have only grown in his absence.

Fortunately, Michael will not be alone in his task of portraying a heroic figure far beyond what he is able to actually be. Unfortunately, his colleagues in this endeavor are all messed up to an equal degree to him. Lex, the Polish enby scientist, is cynical on a level that borders on the parodic and worryingly horny. Felipe, the Mexican pro athlete archer, is arrogant, flighty and seems physically unable to take anything seriously. Finally, Alicia, the New York-based fitness influencer, seems restless in a way that either speaks to undiagnosed ADHD or truly world-shaking rage contained under the athletic facade.

Together, this rag-tag band of 30-somethings must unite in their quest to portray the heroes that history have made them, all the while grappling with what it means to be a hero in a desperately imperfect world. The city of Thereafter is full of crime born of desperation, hatred born of fear, and runaway magic, but that is not all. After all, the only thing anyone can agree on about the Calamity is that it is still out there and may one day turn its destruction upon Thereafter.

With Thereafter, I plan to work more with character and group dynamics than I have in my earlier works. The dysfunctional found family of the Heroes is supposed to be a big draw of the story, alongside the mystery of The Calamity and more pressing concerns about survival. As usual for a Peebs story, there will also be rumination, politics and philosophy involved, tigers don't usually change their stripes after all, but we're also getting a fantasy post-apocalyptic tale of love, bravery, and the many obscure pains of growing up.

Thereafter will, as mentioned above, be released on a chapter by chapter basis via Buttondown. To subscribe to the release of Thereafter chapters, please see the introductory post or just go straight to my Buttondown site to subscribe. Archived chapters can be found here

[hunter-slime-660]

HI HELLO YES IM INSANE HAVE A DESCRIPTION OF MY SALUBRI'S HAVEN AND OTHER FUN STUFF ABOUT HIM

POSITION: his haven is situated underneath milan, probably in some unexplored part of the paleo-christian chatacombs. It hasnt been found as of the 2010's because he set up several wards against people, kindred and wraiths.

THE HAVEN: the room is fairly small, damp and dark, although the dampness seems fairly new. the only source of illumination is a series of pine tar-based torces along the wall and small cndles around the room. the room itself is basically a single chamber with a rounded ceiling, like a chapel; the walls are covered in drapes of various quality, subjects and ages, once often taken care of, now suffering from mold. in the center of the room theres an altar with a lot of catholic memorabila (including dried olive and palm branches, several eucharistic chalices and several rosaries, etc) stacked both around and above it, the altar IS covered by a red drape. in front of it a small pillar holdin a bowl filled with with rancid blood. one of the walls is carved in to "shelves" hosts a great collection of books and srcolls of different shape, dimension and lenguages, some leather bound, some cardboard bound, clearly from different time periods, so many of them, in fact, that a lot of extra ones are stacked at the feet of the library. one shelf sticks out for what clearly looks like "hand made" leather books: his personal diaries, of different ages, some more consumed then others, clearly showing their age. In front of the library, a lecturn with an open book, incomplete, a collection of various legends and myths of kindred (basically a homemade book of Nod), and traditionally made quills and ink(?). the lecturn looks pretty messy as if often and repeatedly left in a hurry; a bunch of partially to completedly consumed candles all around it. in a corner a simple mattress, clearly overused, over a stone slab; funnily enough covered in regal and expensive sheets, now patially covered in humidity stains. around the bed, a lot of crosses and pictures of saints, of different materials, age, dimension and conservation state. The last wall is once again carved in to "shelves", but this time it holds a lot of memorabilia of different kinds: jewels, cups, statuines, clothing, paintings, perfumes, small books, religious items from different cults, straight up artefacts both of human and supernatural origin. its clear looking at it there at a time, in the past, there used to be system of organization for these memorabilias, that with time was abandoned as there was less and less space for the different artefacts that were now covering the floor in piles.

THE DIARIES: from oldest to newer, some, more recent, dated most not. In the oldest of diaries there is a lot of talk about prayers, recipies on making bread, cooking in general and eucharistic food, as well as instructions on how to make books, weaving, falconry and animal care and medicine, but also they talk a lot about mistreatment, although its fashioned as if it was "deserved", Elia often refers to himself as "a child of evil that needs redemption". From the time of embrace, the diaries speak of a woman, Mikal and how she promised Elia redemption and "sainthood" through the embrace and apprentiship. still in the early diaries there are written a lot of stories, parables and teachings about golconda, often accompanied by crude-ish illustrations (probably made in haste) as well as mention of the persecution both him and his sire were facing. while all of the early diaries are very worn and damaged, one among them clearly stands out for the type of damage, seemingly deliberate: most pages have been torn out, the few that remains seem to have been soaked in blood or staind by bloody tears and the whole book seem to have suffered severe fire damage. the few readable sentences are either insults towards that woman, Mikal, or read something among the lines of "SHE LIED" and "SHE DAMNED ME". From then on most diaries talk of sabbat practices, rituals, specifically some speak of thaumaturgy rituals and how to hold them, as well as their effects, the time it takes to hold them (usually measured in prayers, such as "3 Angelus") and the materials needed; as well as the inners thoughts of Elia that in this time period go from angry and vendicative to resigned and tired. reading them it becomes clear how Elia was initially just very suggestible, the diaries betray how him believing in "im a child of evil" gets used to push him to think along the lines of "im a child of cain and as such im above cattles", but it also becomes clear how with time he starts to build his own line of thought and how he becomes aware of the predatory tactics of the sabbat and how he plans on leaving it. The latest books seem to write of a un-life of isolation after leaving the sabbat. for most of the diaries from here on, Elia talks a lot about moving, as well as rewriting about pages from past diaries or rewriting the same events multiple times (as if he either lost cognition of time or has been having memory issues); he also writes a lot about "visions of death plagueing his slumber". all of the writings in these diaries are dated and its very obvious he would write very sporadically. it is also to note that in these diaries are the first without any addeed notes or pictures stashed between the pages. although all diaries seem full they seem to cut off when he moved to Florence, the entire part of his un-life spent in milan seems to be completely missing (see section: LAST DIARY)

OTHER ARTEFACTS: Upon his final death, Elia left some artefacts outside his have, either because they were on his person when he was killed, or deliberately left to kindred close to him. To Rhadamès: being his "partner" in his last years, Elia left him several jewels, necklaces especially. Is of note a pair of brass hair pins decorated with amaranth flowers made of silk thread. To Amelia: being the kindred that killed him, Amelia got everithing Elia had on his person. of note are his last diary and his skull, left behind after his death.

LAST DIARY: the one diary missing from the collection in Elia's haven and now among Amelia's possessions. in his last diary he talks about moving to Milan and his last couple years there. in this diary he seems extremely disillusioned and tired of his unlife, often writing something of the sorts of: "at this point either i reach golconda or i let myself die". the dates are very sporadic, only writing of important events, sometimes alternated by prayers or reminders on how to create the wards he placed on his haven. of note are the parts where he speaks of Rhadamès. notably he never calls him by name, referring to him only as "the serpent", but does include medieval-like illustrations of him. within the book he writes of his meeting with Rhadamès, especially the moths leading up to it where he was stalking him. in this period Elia writes of how he wouldnt mind being killed by this "serpent" and how he hopes that being killed by the "embodyment of evil" might grant him some mercy after his death. the following entries, tho, speak of various conversations he had with Rhadamès, as well as a renewed desperation, as he realises the Ministry is not gonna be his end.

THE LAST ENTRY: (not dated) "[...] ho sentito di questa Magister della Piramide. Dicono che abbia fatto ricerche sul Golconda. È arrivato il momento di stare a quanto promesso. Le farò visita stanotte.

Deus meus, ex toto corde pǽnitet me ómnium meórum peccatórum, éaque detéstor, quia peccándo, non solum pœnas a te iuste statútas proméritus sum, sed præsértim quia offéndi te, summum bonum, ac dignum qui super ómnia diligáris. Ideo fírmiter propóno, adiuvánte grátia tua, de cétero me non peccatúrum peccandíque occasiónes próximas fugitúrum. Amen." translation: "(in italian) [...] I heard of this Magister of the Pyramid. They say she researched Golconda. It is time to fulfill my promise. I will visit her tonight.

(in latin)(Act of Contrition) O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve with the help of Thy grace to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin. Amen."

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[gffa]

what order would you recommend reading the batman comics in? also where do you find the comics?

"What order would you recommend reading the Batman comics in?" only has one answer and that answer is for me to immediately burst into tears. Okay, this list is designed around what I think is most likely to get you into comics and having a good time, if you're enjoying the kind of posts that appear on this blog: - Nightwing 2016, you can start from issue #1 and just keep reading (well, once you hit the Ric Grayson arc, you can skim if you want) because it's a fun, light-hearted series that's just very easy to read and is my comfort series in a lot of ways. I enjoy Dick Grayson's character, it does a lot of work to establish him in his own city, but also touches on his relationships with his family, and I think is a great starting place. You can start with Better Than Batman, Back to Bludhaven, Nightwing Must Die, Blockbuster, Raptor's Revenge, The Untouchable, The Bleeding Edge, Knight Terrors (not to be confused with the 2023 event of the same name!), Burnback, The Gray Son Legacy, The Joker War, Fear State Then there's something of a 'soft reboot' where the volume numbering starts over (but issue #s keep going) with: Leaping into the Light, Get Grayson, The Battle for Blüdhaven's Heart - Robin & Batman (2022), a beautifully illustrated series from the early days of Bruce and Dick, where Bruce is not exactly the world's greatest parent, but he's trying, there's an amazingly emotionally satisfying hug, and it shows what a delightful hurricane child Dick Grayson was. - "The Murder Club" is just one story out of many in Batman: Urban Legends but it's a fantastic one, with beautiful art and a story that's about Thomas and Martha Wayne traveling forward in time to see what's become of their son, and they don't necessarily approve--until Dick and Damian are basically impossible to ignore and they see what Bruce is fighting for. For more general Batman stories (rather than ones focused on my Blorbo), I'm enjoying: - The Court of Owls [vol. 1][vol. 2] by Scott Snyder, which is a solid case story and introduces the Court of Owls, which I genuinely like as a relatively recent addition to Batman's rogues gallery! - Batman 2016 is a bit of a controversial pick, because not everyone enjoys the authors writing for this series, but I've had a blast with a lot of Tom King's writing, personally. I especially enjoyed a lot of the run-up to the Bruce/Selina wedding with Rebirth book 3 (there's a double date with Bruce/Selina and Clark/Lois that's just a silly, fun good time!), The Rules of Engagement, Bride or Burglar, The Wedding, and Cold Days. I wasn't really a big Bruce/Selina shipper before those issues, but they really won me over because I love a good hot mess of a couple that have a bunch of thorny issues between them, that Selina loves Bruce not as some mythic figure but as the dumbass guy she loves, and then some bonus quality content with Bruce's kids, especially once the wedding falls apart and he's in such a bad place and Dick Grayson is so good at stabilizing Bruce that it's unreal. (You can also read Preludes to the Wedding in around here, if nothing else the Dick + Hush one was really, really fun! Clark and Dick take Bruce to Batburger for his bachelor's party because they're horrible people who think they're funny, and it's DELIGHTFUL.) - Batman/Superman: World's Finest (2022) by Mark Waid is also more light-hearted, but is so much fun, the characters banter with each other, but you can see their genuine friendship and how it became to be one of foundational relationships in both their lives, and plus Dan Mora's art is always TOP NOTCH. (Plus, volume 2 is out as well.)

I limited myself to anything from the 2016 reboot ("Rebirth") because I think that's easiest to draw someone in and these are the starting places that I would enjoy, though, they do assume a fair amount of pre-knowledge about Batman characters, like personally I enjoyed Batman & Robin Eternal but I don't think it's a good starting point for what the comics are actually like. As always, if someone has a good suggestion for a newer fan, I'd love to hear them! Especially since I tend to be Nightwing-focused, that's where my area of expertise is, if you have some good Tim or Jason or Damian recs, feel free! Though, in general, I think you can pick up almost any trade paperback and it'll be designed to be read without too much confusion, so just find a character you think you'll like and jump in! :D (p.s. I'm linking to Hoopla pages because, if you have a library card with your local library, you can use it to sign in to Hoopla!)

[justforbooks]

What in Me Is Dark by Orlando Reade

The writers, philosophers and politicians who have raided Milton’s epic poem for inspiration

In 1818 Mary Shelley published Frankenstein, the story of a man who trespasses on God’s turf by crafting a new form of life. She took its epigraph from Book X of John Milton’s Paradise Lost, when Adam rages at God like a teenager who didn’t ask to be born. Shelley returned to Milton for 1826’s The Last Man, a grim, grief-sodden read about an annihilating pandemic: “Let no man seek / Henceforth to be foretold what shall befall / Him or his children.” One novel describes the creation of life, the other its destruction, and both open with Paradise Lost.

It is no surprise that Milton’s epic figured in the genesis of science fiction. Orlando Reade suggests that it “might be the most influential poem in English”, frequently stripped for parts. In relatively recent years, it has furnished the titles of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy and Nick Cave’s Red Right Hand, influenced the collapse of the candy-pink Eden in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and undergirded the series three finale of The Good Place, whose title, Pandemonium, is one of many Miltonic neologisms. As a young man, Milton dreamed of creating an epic poem “so written to aftertimes, as they should not willingly let it die”. That hope was fulfilled, in ways he could not have comprehended.

It is 350 years since Milton died, shortly after revising his masterpiece (the first version was published in 1667). Writing it was a heroic feat. Between 1652 and 1660, he had lost a son, a daughter, two wives, his sight, his job, his political project and almost his life. As a Cromwellian propagandist who had endorsed regicide, he was lucky to survive the Restoration. Yet in the aftermath of total defeat he still had enough energy and self-belief to not only radically expand the scope of English poetry but rewrite Genesis to tell his own story of mankind, the universe, Heaven and Hell. Milton credited a celestial muse and it’s enough to make even an atheist wonder about divine intervention. He received an advance of just £5 (less than £1,000 today) but within decades Milton was stationed beside Shakespeare at the summit of English literature.

It is Paradise Lost’s afterlife as a political document, rather than a work of art, that most interests Reade. As he ably demonstrates, writers and political activists have been raiding the text for inspiration for centuries, coming to often incompatible conclusions. Lively and humane, Reade is the friendliest of academics. Like many an English literature undergraduate, he was initially daunted by Paradise Lost (“a mountain … whose slopes are scattered with bodies”) but came to adore it while teaching poetry to prisoners, and he wants you to love it, too.

Each of the dozen chapters summarises the corresponding book of Paradise Lost and profiles a famous reader of the poem, from Thomas Jefferson and George Eliot to Max Weber and Hannah Arendt, with mixed results. The strength of the connective tissue varies and the topical analogies (Satan as tech CEO?) get a little strained. To claim that Blade Runner is “the most influential cinematic version of Paradise Lost” may be a juicy conversation-starter but to call Milton the “unacknowledged legislator … of mass incarceration” is a stretch. Still, Reade’s enthusiasm and curiosity are winning.

Milton promised to “justify the ways of God to men”, by which he meant explain how a deity that is both benevolent and omnipotent could permit so much evil and suffering. Well, he failed. And Paradise Lost is great precisely because it fails as propaganda. Written in an age of murderous polarisation, it writhes with contradictions, particularly concerning the tension between liberty and authority. As the critic William Empson observed, “the poem is not good in spite of, but especially because of, its moral confusions … I think it horrible and wonderful.”

Put briefly, Satan aspires to corrupt humanity to avenge his defeat in the war in Heaven, and God empowers his efforts in order to test Adam and Eve’s judgment: “Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.” Milton may not have intended to equate God with Charles I, or Satan with Cromwell, but his revolutionary sympathies surely explain why Satan gets most of the best lines: “Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n” is a slogan for the ages. In the Bible the Devil is merely an antagonist – God’s negative image – but Milton gave him a charismatic personality, and the majesty of opposition against the odds. William Blake famously observed that the poet was “of the Devil’s party without knowing it”. Milton’s God, by contrast, is a chilly authoritarian, hard to love and passionately denounced by both his enemies and his creations. Empson remarked that the deity was “astonishingly like Uncle Joe Stalin”.

Every era finds a different use for Paradise Lost. The Romantics took it primarily as a rebel yell. Even though Satan degenerates towards petty tyranny and ultimate humiliation, Percy Shelley saw him as a glamorous Promethean hero and adopted the line “Awake, arise, or be for ever fall’n” for 1812’s Declaration of Rights. American revolutionaries such as Jefferson and Paine, less keen to be aligned with the Devil, preferred to quote the stirring rhetoric while smudging its origins. “By 1776,” Reade writes, “Milton had become American.” But what kind of American? Slavery is one of Reade’s core themes. Paradise Lost was embraced by abolitionists such as James Redpath (“man over men / He made not lord”) as well as the Mistick Krewe of Comus, diehard New Orleans segregationists who twisted it into a justification of white supremacy.

Not all radicals identified with Satan’s defiance. When Malcolm X read Paradise Lost in Norfolk Prison Colony in 1948, Satan reminded him of Yakub, the evil scientist who, according to the Nation of Islam, created white people. Conservatives certainly did not. Edmund Burke found it “dark, uncertain, confused, terrible”. Jordan Peterson sees Satan as a prophecy of Enlightenment arrogance, leading to the gulag. (Everything leads to the gulag with Peterson.) During the Arab spring, an Assadist Syrian newspaper cited Paradise Lost as proof that all revolutions fail. Some of Reade’s subjects performed fascinating U-turns: CLR James initially dismissed Milton as a proto-Stalinist before deciding that the poem was in fact a vital warning about insurgents turned despots.

People love Paradise Lost for divergent reasons. Sometimes they love and hate it simultaneously. Goethe thought the poetry “majestic” but the subject “detestable”. Even the modernists, who liked to use Paradise Lost as a punchbag, were conflicted. Virginia Woolf considered it cold-hearted and misogynistic yet still “the essence, of which all other poetry is the dilution”, while TS Eliot scorned it even as he pillaged it in The Waste Land. Milton was literature’s looming patriarch, who had to be admired even when he was loathed.

Such ambivalence is the most appropriate response to Milton’s endless contradictions. Reade’s more emphatic claims undermine his pluralistic conclusion that Paradise Lost’s strength is the potency of its competing arguments, in line with Milton’s defence of free speech as the surest way to reach the truth. Yet he is confident that Milton’s heart lay with neither God nor Satan but Adam and Eve, who have the freedom to make catastrophic mistakes and, the world all before them, to decide how to live with the consequences. The ending is a new beginning.

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[quitealotofsodapop]

If the JTTW book and the JTTW-inspired media all exist does that mean that OSP (aka 'Overly Sarcastic Productions')'s 'Journey to the West' series is canon-? Since it's Red's own flavor of retelling the book

Idk, I've had the idea of Wukong stumbling across Red's JTTW series and showing it to the others because Red's humor and the on-screen quips made him laugh, and also look how handsome he is! Look how adorable Nezha is!! LOOK AT HOW FLUFFY MAC IS!!!

MK is absolutely entranced because he can actually follow the story this way instead of struggling through a whole bunch of boring words to get to the awesome 'Monkey King being a badass' parts

oh my, MK would love the OSP series for condensing the story in a manner he can follow easily. Wukong ofc loves his own scampish fluffy design, and how fluffy Macaque is in his brief appearance.

Red Son scoffs loudly when he sees the Red Boy segment: "It's a mockery of my trials!" MK: "So wait... you did at one point tie yourself to a tree and pretended to be a bandit victim? And then tried to eat the great monk?!" Red Son, grumbling: "...I was mad at the Monkey King for something unrelated. Eating a monk would have been a bonus victory." MK: "excuse me?!"

bonus Hc that Red Son did infact have his head shaven most of his time with Guanyin. It's all over the place now cus he only recently started letting grow out again.