#fantasy birth is my whole heart atm

[angelpregdreams]

okay but a healing priestess laboring in her robes in secret all day, then in evening prayers she feels the urge to push, the head bulging out of her and into her underwear before dinner, barely able to make it to her bed before the body slips between her thighs....

dreamily sighs in envy

[sexlovelitpodcast]

Sex Love Lit girlies! I watched Crash Landing On You (my first k-drama) and now I have a conundrum: A) I want to watch more k-dramas, and B) No k-drama can seem to measure up to CLOY 😭 Could you put together a playlist of entry-level k-dramas for new fans that capture the CLOY magic? Bonus points if they’re on Netflix

@sliceoflifegirl thanks for the ask!

(Corinne here) First of all, welcome to KDrama land! Crash Landing on You was my second ever KDrama, and the one that really got me hooked. I’m gonna be honest, it’s a hard one to top when you’re mid emotional hangover! That said, I love this ask and recommending KDramas to people, so I’m more than happy to recommend some. My strategy here, rather than recommend something that exactly mimics CLoY (because imo, there’s nothing exactly like it), is to recommend dramas that I think are some of the best of their genre—with some aspect that might help scratch that CLOY itch ;) So, without further ado, here is your KDrama Starter Pack: 

Goblin aka Guardian: The Lonely and Great God—This fantasy romance is a classic for a reason. The set-up: 900+ year old goblin Kim Shin is on a quest to find the goblin bride to pull the sword out of his chest and finally let him die. The catch: when he finds goblin bride Eun-tak and starts to fall in love with her, he wonders if there might be something to this whole “life” thing after all. Also featured: a glum Grim Reaper, with whom Kim Shin has a top tier bromance, who has a doomed romance of his own. Goblin gave me one of the biggest emotional hangovers post-CLOY in my early KDrama days. One caveat: Kim Shin meets Eun Tak when she’s in high school, so if huge age gaps in fantasy romances give you the ick, maybe give this one a pass (in which case the fantasy romances I recommend checking out instead are Alchemy of Souls and Doom at Your Service, both on Netflix atm). (On Viki)

Mr. Sunshine—My pick for one of the best historical (aka sageuk) KDramas out there. Set in early 1900’s Joseon, just before/in the early days of Japanese occupation, this drama follows the lives of five equally compelling characters as they navigate the political turmoil of the time. At the center are Lady Ae-sin, an aristocratic lady with a tendency for dressing up as a man and sneaking around at night on missions for the rebels, and Eugene Choi, an American Marine now stationed in Joseon who escaped enslavement there as a child and has mixed feelings about the land of his birth. This one resonates with the forbidden/doomed love of people from different classes and cultures from CLOY. (On Netflix)

Reply 1988—This slice of live drama set in Seoul in 1988 follows five families who live in the same neighborhood, and especially five of their high school aged children as they grow up during a particularly vibrant time in South Korea’s recent history. Like the other installments in the Reply series, the series uses two of the main characters in the present day (or present to when it was released, anyway) looking back—which means that viewers know the Deok-sun ends up married to one of her four besties, but which one?? Still, while the love triangle mystery is fun, at its heart, this story is about community. It’ll scratch the CLoY itch for the North Korean market lady shenanigans, and a few others as well (especially if you like intense yearning in your dramas). (On Netflix)

Business Proposal—If you’d like romance of a completely different genre than CLOY, look no further than Business Proposal! In this KDrama, Shin Ha-ri goes on a blind date in place of her friend as a favor only find out that the date is with her boss. This tightly plotted romantic comedy plays with more rom com tropes than you can shake a stick at, but never sits with one so long that it gets old. The B couple is also fire, and helps move things along whenever the A couple gets into a rut. This drama also features some chaebol (rich business family) shenanigans a la CLOY.  (On Netflix)

Extraordinary Attorney Woo–If you’re in the mood for a workplace comedy/drama, look no further than Extraordinary Attorney Woo. Featuring the incandescent Park Eun Bin as rookie attorney Woo Young Woo, this legal drama features about a case per episode as Attorney Woo finds her way in the world alongside a delightful main cast of characters. (On Netflix)

Little Women—My choice for the makjang to include on this list (a genre in which extreme storylines are treated very seriously), this drama focuses on the three Oh sisters as the oldest finds that her friend who died under mysterious circumstances has left her 70 billion that a powerful political family will stop at nothing to get their hands on. Will the story always make complete sense? No. But will the stellar performances, fast-paced, genre-mixing drama, and wild cliffhangers keep you on the edge of your seat as you binge the whole thing? Absolutely. (On Netflix)

Extraordinary You—Youth dramas may or may not be your thing, but if you have the patience for the shenanigans of high schools, Extraordinary You is my top pick. In this fantasy romance, Eun Dan-Oh discovers that she is actually a character in a comic–and she’s not even the main one! While still high school appropriate, Eun Dan-oh’s literally doomed-by-the-narrative and impossible circumstances romance with Haru, another side character, is another one from my early KDrama days to stick with me just as much as Yoon Se-ri and Ri Jeong-hyeokk’s. (On Viki)

Search: WWW—Ayanni’s particular contribution to this list, this modern romantic drama focuses on intersecting lives of three women working in the fast-paced tech industry at the top two competing web portal companies. Just as interesting as each woman’s various romantic entanglement are their entanglements with each other as they put their careers ahead of just about everything else. Ayanni says she especially appreciates this one because it focuses specifically on three women (also in this genre are Be Melodramatic and Because this is My First Life). 

Happy watching--and do let us know if you pick any of these up!

[thelaughtercafe]

Fandom List!

IF SPOILERS ARE ALLOWED THERE WILL BE AN ASTERISK TO SIGNIFY I'M COMPLETELY FINISHED WITH THE WORK! PLEASE DON'T REQUEST WITH SPOILERS OTHERWISE! 

Asterisks* next to anime mean I'm completed with the anime not manga so please no manga spoilers! Thank you once again! 

Characters are fine but if I don't know someone I won't include them!

Italics mean I’m on the cusp of hyperfixating and bold means I currently am. Please request for these fandoms as I’m more likely to get them out faster!

Please remember the 5 character limit for headcanons, 3 for scenarios(any mix of fandoms is fine!) and I hope you enjoy your stay! 

Anime

Assassination Classroom* 

Haikyuu!!

Fruits Basket*

Brothers Conflict*

Dance With Devils*

Diabolik Lovers*

Angel Beats*

Claanad/Claanad: After Story*

Ouran Highschool Host Club*

My Hero Academia*

Death Note*

The Promised Neverland

Tales of the Abyss*

Avatar the Last Airbender*

Sword Art Online

Fairy Tail

Danganronpa 3: Despair Arc

Danganronpa 3: Future Arc

Danganronpa 3: Hope Arc

Danganronpa 2.5: OVA

Naruto 

Uta no Prince Sama!

Noragami*

Bungou Stray Dogs (Caught up to end of Season 4, including Dead Apple)

Death Parade

Durarara!!!*

Fullmetal Alchemist*

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood*

Angels of Death*

Ghost Hunt*

The Devil is a Part-timer!*

K!

Mekakucity Actors*

Maid Sama!

Seven Deadly Sins*

Violet Evergarden*

Soul Eater*

Yuri!! On Ice*

Akame Ga Kill!

Black Butler

The Dragon Prince (Up to end of season 3 so no spoilers past that please!)

Ninjago: Masters of Spinjutsu

Miraculous Ladybug*

Banana Fish

Horimiya*

Toradora*

Cardfight Vanguard Overdress!!*

Cardfight Vanguard Divinez*

My Happy Marriage(Up to episode 8)

Spy x Family (Up to end of Season 1)

Legend of Vox Machina (Finished season 1 and know the characters, just no plot past that please!)

Video Games

Final Fantasy 3

Final Fantasy 4*

Final Fantasy 5

Final Fantasy 7/Remake*/Dirge of Cerberus*/Crisis Core*

Final Fantasy 8

Final Fantasy 10*

Final Fantasy 12*

Final Fantasy 13*

Final Fantasy 14*(Caught up to the end of Endwalker, but not post patches yet)

Final Fantasy 15*

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates*

Final Fantasy: Type 0*

Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition*

Xenoblade Chronicles 2*

Xenoblade Chronicles 3*

The World Ends With You*

Neo: The World Ends With You*

Kingdom Hearts*

Kingdom Hearts: Re: Chain of Memories*

Kingdom Hearts 2*

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep*

Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance*

Kingdom Hearts 3*

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days*

Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded*

Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory*

Undertale*

Deltarune*

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc*

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair*

Danganronpa v3*

Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls*

Tales of the Abyss*

Tales of Vesperia

Suikoden*

Suikoden: Tierkreis

Persona 5 Royal*

Dragon Quest 11 S*

Mr. Love: Queen's Choice

Obey Me!

Collar x Malice ( Finished Mineo and Takeru's routes so no spoilers for the others but please feel free to request any character!)

Genshin Impact

Honkai Star Rail*

Ikemen: Sengoku

Ikemen: Vampire

Ikemen: Revolution

Ikemen: Villians

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Fire Emblem: Birthright

Fire Emblem: Conquest

Fire Emblem: Revelation

Resident Evil*/Remake*

Resident Evil 2*/Remake*

Resident Evil 3*/Remake*

Resident Evil 7*

Resident Evil 8*

Baldur's Gate 3

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

Stardew Valley (I'm on Year 1 Summer, but can already tell Sebastian and Sam have my whole heart so they're the only two I'm able to write for atm, will update as I finish more)

TV Shows

Blacklist

Criminal Minds

Lucifer 

The Vampire Diaries

Teen Wolf*

Sherlock

Supernatural

Good Omens

The Walking Dead

The Umbrella Academy*

Asian Shows

Sweet Home(currently up to Season 2 episode 2)

Bride of Habaek(currently up to episode 7)

My Holo Love*

Boys Over Flowers*

Cheese in the Trap*

Murphy's Law of Love*

Squid Game*(I'll be picky with these requests probably since it's been a while <3)

Movies

Rise of the Guardians*

Heathers*

Scream*

Scream 2*

Scream 3*

Scream 4*

Hush*

The Little Prince*

Meet Joe Black*

The Princess Bride*

A Little Princess*

Annie*

Rent*

Phantom of the Opera*

Les Miserables*

The Breakfast Club*

Fame

The Santa Clause*

The Santa Clause 2*

The Santa Clause 3*

Spirited Away*

Howl’s Moving Castle*

Princess Mononoke

Ponyo

Iron Man*

Iron Man 2*

Captain America: The Winter Soldier*

Avengers*

Avengers: Infinity War*

Avengers: Endgame*

Spiderman: Homecoming*

Spiderman: Far From Home*

Musicals

Heathers: The Musical*

Epic: The Musical*

Not sure where to put this one so it gets its own category!

Tabletop

Critical Role (Up to Campaign 1, episode 40 atm)

Baldur's Gate 3 Oneshot*

[my-lady-knight]

Favorite Reads of 2020

I take back everything I said last year about how 2019 was a comparatively bad reading year for me. 2020 was even worse. I only read 48 books, I could barely focus on reading even when I did find a book I liked, and, just like last year, I ended up with fewer favorites than usual. Starting in August I’ve been having trouble reading any written media that isn’t TOG fic. And some of my eagerly awaited releases by favorite authors ended up being disappointments (Deeplight by Frances Hardinge and Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee).

2020—the year that keeps on giving.

I sincerely hope 2021 will be a better year in all respects, including my reading habits, but, as with everything else, who knows.

Regardless, here’s my list of favorite reads of 2020, in chronological order of when I read them:

Network Effect by Martha Wells

I’d read the first four Murderbot Diaries novellas when they first came out and enjoyed them, but I didn’t fall head-over-heels in love with them. Maybe because they were novellas, and too short to get fully invested? Possibly. As it turns out, Network Effect is the novel-length fifth entry in the Murderbot Diaries that turned me into full-on squeeing fan—SecUnit, aka Murderbot, continues to be its delightfully acerbic, antisocial self, SPOILER makes another appearance and oh how I’d missed this character, the supporting cast is fun and endearing, and the novel-length story means there’s time and space for the brand-new corporate espionage/colonization/alien civilization murder mystery to unfold and spread its wings. (Sounds like a Sanctuary Moon plot tbh). SecUnit is possibly my favorite non-human fictional character atm, and I am now fully on-board for every and any new story in the series.

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

When I first heard about this book and read the words “time travel romance”, I immediately went, “Nope, not gonna read.” I don’t like reading time travel stories, and honestly, I was imagining it to be something like The Time Traveler’s Wife, which granted I haven’t read but also sounds like it’d be the opposite of my cup of tea. 

And then I went to a reading where Amal and Max took turns reading chapters – letters written by Red and Blue, enemy agents who repeatedly taunt and thwart the other’s plans to ensure their side is the one to win the time war and who can’t resist smugly outlining just how they’re staying one step ahead of the other – and the prose was witty and gorgeous and clever and intricate, and Red and Blue were snarky and arrogant and talented and fun. I had to read it. And I ended up loving it, this enemies-to-lovers story that is a meld of fantasy and science fiction such that they’re indistinguishable from the other, where the past is as equally fantastical and alien and imaginary as the future, where Red and Blue’s power play transforms into something different and scarier and more intimate than either of them imagined. 

To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

Becky Chambers has done it again, writing a gentle, hopeful story about humans working together out of a share a love and fascination for scientific exploration and wonder for all the possibilities the entirety of space can hold. With the advent of both space travel and technology that alters human physiology to allow them to survive otherwise inhospitable environments, a team of four astronauts and scientists have embarked on a mission to ecologically survey four distant planets and the life forms that inhabit them, from the microscopic to the multicellular—not to conquer, but to record and to learn and to share the gathered knowledge with the rest of Earth. In the meantime, lightyears away, Earth is going through decades without them, and the four of them must also contend with a planet that may have forgotten their existence—or that’s abandoned the entire space and scientific exploration program.

Reading Becky Chambers is the literary equivalent of sitting down with a warm mug of my favorite tea on a bad day – I always feel better at the end and like I can imagine a future where humanity does all the wonderful things we’re capable of doing.

A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker

I started reading this book right as NYC was gearing up to go into lockdown, which should have made this a terrible choice to continue reading since part of the premise is that a combo of multiple stochastic terror attacks and a brand-new, deadly plague upend the world as everyone knows it by causing the U.S. to pass laws that keep people physically apart in public for their own safety and make concerts, theatre, and any other kind of artistic gathering obsolete.

But that’s largely just the set-up, and the real story is that of Luce Cannon, an up-and-coming singer-songwriter who played the last major concert in the before times who twenty years later performs in illegal underground concerts, and Rosemary, a younger music-lover who’s only lived in the after-times, and who’s taken a new job scouting out talent to add to the premier virtual entertainment company’s roster of simulated concerts.

It’s a love letter to live music and what it feels like to connect and build community via music in unusual and strange and scary times, the energy involved in making music for yourself, for an audience, exploring the world around you, imagining and advocating for a better tomorrow, and embracing the fear, the possibility, and the power of change, both good and bad. This was the book I needed to read at the beginning of the pandemic, and I’m thankful I ended up doing so.

The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 edited by John Joseph Adams and Carmen Maria Machado

When I end up loving half of the stories in an anthology and greatly enjoying all but two of the rest, that’s the equivalent of a literary blue moon for me. My favorites included the following;

"Pitcher Plant" by Adam-Troy Castro

"Six Hangings in the Land of Unkillable Women" by Theodore McCombs

"Variations on a Theme from Turandot" by Ada Hoffmann

"Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Memphis Minnie Sing the Stumps Down Good" by LaShawn M. Wanak

"The Kite Maker" by Brenda Peynado

"The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington" by P. Djèlí Clark

"Dead Air" by Nino Cipri

"Skinned" by Lesley Nneka Arimah

"Godmeat" by Martin Cahill

"On the Day You Spend Forever with Your Dog" by Adam R. Shannon

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

No one is more surprised than me that Harrow is on this list, given that I am one of approximately three people in the universe who did not unequivocally love Gideon the Ninth. 

And yet the sequel worked for me. 

Maybe because this time I already knew and was used to the way the world and the Houses worked, and I knew to not take anything I read for granted because I could be guaranteed to have the rug pulled out from under me without even realizing. Maybe Harrow’s countdown/amnesia mystery worked better for me than Gideon’s locked room mystery. Maybe the cast of characters was more manageable and fewer of them were getting murdered left and right before I got a chance to get used to them (and some of them even came back!) Maybe it’s that Harrow blew open the potential and possibilities Gideon hinted at and capitalized on just how fucking weird and mind-blowing the whole premise is in a way that felt incredibly and viscerally satisfying.

Also SPOILER happens three-quarters of the way through. That was pretty fucking awesome.

Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark

P. Djélí Clark is a master of melding history and fantasy in ways that are in turn imaginative and clever (his fantastical alternate-history, early 20th-century Egyptian novel A Master of Djinn is one of the books I’m most looking forward to in 2021), while also using fantasy to be frank and incisive about the history of American antiblack racism (as in the above linked story in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019). Ring Shout combines the late-nineteenth and early 20th-century history of the rise and normalization of the KKK with Lovecraftian supernatural horror, in which the release of The Birth of a Nation summoned literal monsters (called Ku Kluxes) that became part of the KKK’s ranks. Maryse Boudreaux is a Black woman who’s part of a grassroots organization hunting both the monsters and the human members in order to keep the Klan at bay. However, there’s soon to be another summoning ritual atop Stone Mountain that will unleash even more Ku Kluxes into the world, and Maryse and her friends are running out of time to prevent it from happening.

Maryse is a fantastic character, as are her two friends—brash, unapologetic Sadie and WWI veteran, weapons expert Chef—her mentor and leader of the Ring Shout group Nana Jean, and all the other members of the group who work and fight together as a team and a family. Maryse’s past and the journey she goes on in the book to uncover the truth and stop the summoning is harrowing and heart-stopping, the supernatural elements are both horrific in and of themselves while also undergirding the real-life horror of the KKK and the hatred they engender. It’s smart, it’s fun, it’s eye-opening, and it’s also being turned into a TV show starring KiKi Layne. It’s really, really good.

The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley

“Stick to the brief.” This is the maxim given to Dietz and all the other soldiers who join the war against Mars, where soldiers are broken down into light to travel to and from their assigned battlefields instantaneously. Only Dietz isn’t experiencing the jumps like everyone else – Dietz, like Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse-Five, has become unstuck in time and is experiencing all the battles in the mission briefs out of chronological order, to the point that Dietz starts to build a picture of a war and a reality that’s been sold to Dietz and everyone else on Earth as pure fiction. 

I’ve always appreciated Kameron Hurley’s stories, but this is the first book where she fully succeeded at writing the book she set out to write—it’s fast-paced science fiction thriller in the form of a loaded gun that takes brutal aim at late-stage capitalism, modern military warfare and the dehumanization of everyone involved on all sides, the greed of ungovernable governing corporations, nationalistic and military propaganda, the mythology of citizenship and inalienable rights, and it’s viscerally bloody and violent without being grotesque in the way all of Kameron Hurley’s books are. Especially important for me, I loved that Dietz went through the entire book not being gendered in any way, shape, or form (those last five pages didn’t exist, what are you talking about), and I love in general that Kameron Hurley is committed to writing non-male characters who aren’t less violent or fucked-up or morally superior to men just because they’re not men.

Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga

Middle grade is a hard sell for me these days, as are books in verse, and I wouldn’t have known this book existed if it weren’t for the Ignyte Award nomination list earlier this year. As it turns out, this book, the story of Jude, a pre-teen girl who wants to be an actress who leaves Syria and the encroaching civil war with her mom to go live in the U.S. with her uncle and his white wife and their daughter while her dad and older brother stay behind, is full of beauty, curiosity, humor, confusion, grief, pain, and joy, and the poetic prose is both lyrical, nuanced, and perfectly fitted to Jude’s voice. I devoured this book in one day, which is the quickest amount of time it took me to read any book this year, including novellas.

Darius the Great Deserves Better by Adib Khorram

The first book Darius the Great Is Not Okay was one of my favorite books in 2018, and I’m ecstatic that the sequel is equally as amazing.

It’s been approximately half a year since Darius went to Iran, met his maternal grandparents in person for the first time, and found his best friend in Sohrab, and in that time he’s come out as gay, joined the soccer team, got an internship at his favorite tea shop, and started dating for the first time. Darius is also working through some things though—when and if he wants to have sex with his boyfriend, his grandfather’s worsening illness, his dad’s recent depressive episode, his emotionally distant paternal grandmothers on his coming for an extended stay, the fact that he’s getting to know and growing closer with one of his teammates who’s best friends with Darius’s years-long bully, and a bunch else. 

Darius the Great Deserves Better has the same tender and vulnerable emotional intimacy as the first book, more conversations over tea, new instances involving the mortifying ordeal of being a cis guy with a penis, even more Star Trek metaphors, and so much growth for Darius as he works through a lot of hard situations and feelings, and strengthens his relationships with all of the people in his life he loves and cares about. I can’t think of any other book that’s like these two books, and I love and treasure them dearly.

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson

I had zero awareness of this book until a bunch of SFF authors started praising it on Twitter a couple months before the release date, and I was intrigued enough to get a copy from the library. I loved this book. I happened to be reading it right at the time of the presidential election, and it phenomenally served the purpose of desperately-needed distraction from the agony of waiting out the ballot counts.

It’s book about the power behind borders, citizenship, exploitation, and imperialism, set in a late-late-stage capitalist future, in which a prodigy invented the means to access and travel to slightly divergent parallel universes to grab resources and data – but only if the other universe’s version of “you” isn’t there. It’s the story of a woman named Cara – poor, brown, born in the wastelands outside the shelter, security, and citizenship privileges of Wiley City – who’s comfortably employed to travel to all the parallel worlds no one else can visit, because all her counterparts in those worlds are dead from one of the myriad ways Cara herself could have died growing up. It’s the story of Cara traversing the muddied boundaries between her old life and her new one, the similarities and differences between her own life and that of her counterparts, as well as the figures of power who defined and shaped her and her counterparts’ existences, and solving a mystery involving the unexplained deaths of several of her counterparts and the man who invented multiverse technology.

It’s a story of the permeability of selfhood and self-determination, and complexity of power dynamics of all kinds – interpersonal, familial, collegial, intimate – and the interplay between violence and stability and identity, and how one can be both powerful and powerless in the same dynamic. It’s a story with literary sensibilities that is unequivocally science fiction, written with laser-precise prose that flays Cara open and puts her back together again.

I worry this description makes this book sound dry and removed when reading this book made me feel like I was coming alive every time I delved back into it. This is a book I cannot wait to reread again to experience the brilliance and skill and thoughtfulness and emotion of Micaiah Johnson’s writing. I have no clue what, if anything, she’s writing next, but I have a new favorite author.

Honorable Mentions

Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

Stormsong by C. L. Polk

The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin

Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather

Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke (I feel bad putting it here and not in the first list – it is undeniably a modern classic and a brilliantly crafted book! But I had zero interest in any of the Italy chapters, and I found the way he finally figured out how to access fairy magic by essentially making himself mad to be both disappointing and narratively unsatisfying.)

War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi

For my yearly stats on books written by POC authors, in 2020 I read a total of 24 books (one of which was co-authored by a white author), which is fewer than last year (30). However, because I also read fewer books this year overall, this is the first year ever that I achieved exactly 50-50 parity between books written by POC and white authors. I honestly wasn’t expecting this to happen, as I stopped paying deliberate attention somewhere around April or May. Looking over my Goodreads, the month of September ended up doing a lot of heavy lifting, since that’s when I read several books by POC authors in a row for the Ignyte Award nomination period. But also, it does look like the five or so years of purposefully aiming for 50-50 parity have materially affected my reading habits, by which I mean even when I’m not keeping my year’s count in mind, I’m still more likely to pick up a book by a POC author than I was five years ago when I had never kept track at all. My goal for next year is to once again achieve 50-50 parity and to not backslide.

[starsocsideblog]

did u want to hear pointlessly long rambling about ocs.....this is the post for u

okay so studying is killing me atm so i decided to use some chill time to chatter about my ocs…my kids….because lbr this blog is a mess of assorted information

stuff under read more

context? i suck at plotting and also gonna dodge some spoilers for now so all u need to know is that the story is set in a futuristic sci fi/urban fantasy sort of world (with some of those sweet dystopic elements thrown in because i love dystopias, even ya ones, especially ya ones) in which magic is a thing which a few people have (is it genetics? is it prophecy? this is why i don’t have a plot yet) but its sort of rather illegal to use and have because either a. magic users have put people in danger in the past and/or b. there is a prophecy that claims magic users will revive an old aristocracy based society in which those with magic had absolute rule and it sucked for every else so there was a revolution and honestly? no one wants that back. it sucked. mostly magic users have their magic removed and their memories wiped so they can start anew in society (although with a few restrictions for a while)

the main four kiddos are a bunch of late teens/young adults (i’m thinking about 19/20?) that have teamed up for various reasons to do some of that sweet illegal magic stuff and maybe jumpstart a prophecy that dooms the world but that last bit was an accident, and accidents happen.

first up is stella shields, who technically dates back to one of the first ocs i ever made??? (she has definitely changed a lot tho haha) stella is the self-proclaimed leader of the group given that she has good leadership qualities and is confident and brave and also very tol and swol, so there skylar

she has no memories of her childhood and is fixated on finding her birth mother, who she believes was andromeda sparks, famed/disgraced figure in prophecy. stella has no magic and believes it was removed as a child, and has been adopted by a lovely but kind of sneaky lady called tamara. tamara studies prophecy and such which is how stella even guessed that in the first place (also because they look super similar).

stella is a deconstruction of a heroic stereotype - she’s tall, strong, and despite having no magic she fights just as well as (if not better than) most of the cast. she even has the fancy heir-style backstory to boot. unfortunately, during the story…things…happen which deplete her strength and she has to take a backseat to the action, which tears her up inside but also prompts her looking at herself without a heroic lens and seeing her flaws/how much unnecessary importance she places on her status as a hero and her heritage

besides being obsessed with the idea of being a hero like her mother was, stella kind of has an ongoing identity crisis which she fills up with fantasies of finding her mother and dumping traits she thinks a hero should have in place of her almost “blank slate” personality (which she’s pretty in denial about). her character arc is about her finally recognising the way that she fills in others’ traits as her own and her growing as her own person and aaaaaaaa i love to see my baby mature

next is lina taylor, the problematic fave™ and stella’s best friend since high school. I’m not gonna lie i love lina a lot because she’s probably the first character i started applying actual flaws and consequences - as in, not 100% forgivable and pure intentioned flaws like being ‘too selfless’ and stuff.

lina is paranoid to the point where it hurts not only herself but others, and tends to lash out when feeling pretty much any negative emotion - sometimes her caution pays off, other times it does even more damage. she’s deathly scared of being betrayed and thus hates anyone knowing too much about her, lies about herself incredibly often, and will attack anyone who tries to get close to her if she feels threatened. however, she is a quick thinker and will immediately take a fall for her loved ones if she thinks one of them is in danger.

is lina a magic user? technically spoilers (eh…like its pretty early on? not a big one?) but someone dies and in her panic she brings them back to life. sort of. mostly. in that yeah, their heart beats, but they’re kind of (unknowingly) a walking corpse. her magic is of the healing variety, but explaining how magic works is kind of complicated in a character post rn….maybe later. just know that that sort of magic is a one-off and no, she can’t bring people back to life willy nilly (or even fully back to life at all)

honestly i love her character development as well because she learns that hey, she kind of is a pretty toxic person and has to work to undevelop these traits and make up for the times she screws up. it makes everyone around her happier, but it also makes her so much happier too (which i think she does deserve)

next is skylar ashe, technically good person? best known for doing his best, skylar is far and beyond the best magic user in the cast (main characters and probably even secondary characters too) probably because he’s one of the few characters that indulges in the slightly illegal hobby. skylar is well spoken and clever, and one of those people who has stupidly high aspirations at all times. he and stella have a rivalry thing going on, and they’re very jealous of each other (although skylar never notices because his self esteem is so low he can’t comprehend someone admiring him. he needs a hug)

skylar for the most part is a sweetheart (#teammum) and is a nice person to be around but can also be a bit scary given that a. he is very very manipulative when he wants to be and b. his moral code is a bit worn down in places. he tends to over-rationalise his own behaviour when guilt becomes too apparent, and can come off as cold. rip don’t piss him off mostly

skylar is sort of??? essie’s adopted brotherish person (essie’s up next!!). his magic appeared when he was a really little kiddo but his parents didn’t want to turn him because he was like 6. and thus a pair of lawful goods decided to buck the law for a while (like 10 years, which is a p good effort i guess) but that went about as well as expected and skylar eventually runs away from home, and comes under the care of essie’s mums. this is partially why skylar gets so much of his self worth from magic because despite the fact that it kind of screwed up his family it’s one of the few things he’s good at - he spent years and years practising so he could bottle it up (btw his magic is illusion and telekinetically based)

listen just give this kid some history books and a quiet room and he will be the most happy ever, and probably give you a hug and buy you lunch. his heart is in the right place most of the time and he does try to act in altruistic ways. that whole self-rationalising thing gets challenged a LOT throughout the story likethetimeheaccidentallykilledsomeonebutdontworryaboutthat and honestly? boy learns that no, you don’t need magic abilities/fun illegal hobbies 2 b kewl. u just need to love urself xx

fINALLY IS ESSIE IM LOVE HER TBH. vanessa mayford, known gay, and also part of the magic squad made up of skylar and a few other characters. a dancer by day and the voice of reason™ by night. except she’s not really that great of a voice of reason per se given that her response to “is that illegal” is “did u mean a challenge"

essie is very extroverted and a bit (a lot) of an attention seeker - if she’s there she’s mostly in it for the thrills. even if she’s not the best with reasonable advice (see above) she’s a bit of a bleeding heart and will always give someone a hug and a pep talk if they need it. on one hand she’s got her super overdramatic flair going on but also on the other she’s occasionally chill?? like she’ll do dumb stuff just for fun but is also pretty much unfazed by anything. a dragon or something could be staring her in the face and she’d just be like “can i jump high enough to kick it in the nose”

alas, as is the way with many loud people, she has pretty low self confidence and relies on the validation of others to feel like she’s accomplished anything in her life (which is one reason why she’s always trying to get people’s attention). she feels very unfulfilled with how her life is going despite still being very young, and thus is driven by the fatal american need to have a pretty good time to do reckless things just for the adrenaline rush - everything is a performance for her. she also hates conflict within her own group of friends, and sometimes brushes things under the rug if she thinks it’ll cause a problem, electing to try to deal with it herself.

essie’s magic has been a bit fiddly given that the rules change depending on the rules of magic (which tend to change from setting to setting). her magic is atm shapeshifting but the rules of it are getting a bit confusing so I’m thinking about changing it a little bit. whatever her magic is, she cares the least about magic and thus while she has a lot of raw power she can’t be bothered training to increase it (if she did, she’d probably outrank skylar power-wise).

in conclusion? essie is a babe and im love her a lot. she’s the charming, gay and flirty gal that we all need in our lives and one of my fave characters to write tbh. wins awards for best dressed, most likely to succeed, best dancer (she’s a cheerleader btw) and probably also prom queen. i would vote for her. she would probably cry but that’s okay

so those are my children i love them and now i have to go back to studying my ass off bye