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the-mist-striders · 8 months ago

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Episode 10: Otter Hands

So we got our weapons back after departing the orphanage. We decide to do a long rest so that we can get our spell slots and wild shapes back.

On the way we found the guy Blinsky (the toy maker guy) described as the dude that keeps commissioning dolls of Ireena (lady we brought here with us and dropped off at the church)

He's the barons right hand man and everyone seems afraid of him

We do see them tearing down the decorations of the last festival as they set up the next

They have festivals non stop that are mandatory to attend

Every sign advertises the upcoming festival as "the greatest celebration of the year"

Jeebus this town is sick of festivals

Anyway we chill at the church while Sofya has a breather to contemplate her existence as someone who should be dead but isn't

Meets up with the elf that she talked to at the bar

He's some carnival guy with an angry big cat in a box that we have yet to see. His name is Rictavio.

They talk about the Vestani more and the nearby camp that probably has the dusk elf Kai is looking for

(Like a true bro )

Meanwhile Kai and Amahlia as humans need longer rest times so we do sleep. Both are sleep talking, Amahlia is using Fauna as a lap pillow

Oh, before Kai went to sleep she did talk to the priest and warn him about the Izak (the guy being really creepy about Ireena with his doll commissions) Fauna is meanwhile warning Ireena of the creepy dude

Amahlia was sleeping

"So this guy isn't a church goer?"

"Alas he is not. She should be safe here"

"What can you tell me about Izak?"

"I'm not sure. He serves my brother."

tfw you find out the priest is the barons brother

Amahlia randomly in her sleep sits up "-so we’ll need to finish him off"

Everyone is confused

Amahlia drops back down and resumes sleeping

So irl what happened is my sister cut in and said that and it made no sense in the context of what was last said. She had no idea what she was talking about. So we just said it was sleep talking

Anyway we finish resting at sunset

It's getting dark, which is dangerous in this setting but were too dumb to be afraid

We have to find Borat, the guy who bought the bones off of Milovaj

His name isn't actually borat but I can't remember his name

Anyway

We talk to the guards and discover he usually is back inside the gates by now, but last he was there he headed right back out with a mysterious sack over his shoulder

We are pretty sure it's the bones

He hasn't returned so we suspect he may be in danger

Can't afford to head out in the morning. So the party heads out into the mist at night

We track his footprints, we see that they do go towards the Vistani camp, we think he tried selling the bones to them. We do however find more fresher prints heading north. Kai and Fauna turn into horses and book it to see if they can catch him

Dude went real out of his way

Like what the fuck

We track him to a massive lake, he's on a boat at the lake center and struggling to throw a sack off his boat

The sack, its moving

So. This is where the session got into shenanigans

Fauna turns into a beaver and is going after the sack sinking into the lake

Kai turns into a very cursed looking river otter (no matter the form she has a hole where her eyes should be)

Goes right for the boat

Whispers into his mind "it is I... an angel... what did you throw off the boaat"

Hes drunk

Looks at his bottle like "what the fuck"

Yeets it off the boat

Meanwhile back on shore Amahlia fucking dives In after Fauna and is swimming

This is a big lake btw

Lucerian and Sofya take a boat and are trying to stealthily row

Amahlia is rolling really fuckin well.

Fam she for a bit was outswimming the boat

Kai is still tormenting the drunk man

He's mumbling about how the Vistani were laughing at him

Kai does sense a mind in the sack, broadcasts to Fauna that there's probably a Vistani in the sack

Does keep in contact to see if she needs help

Fauna does successfully get to the sack

Rolls a fuckin nat 20 to resurface

Just fuckin rockets to the surface

Amahlia is caught up to by Lucerian and Sofya in a boat. They grab her by the back of her outfit and haul her on the boat

Fauna takes the sack to their boat and inside the sack is a

Vistani child, about 11 years old

Sofya is pissed

Btw this entire time Kai is in his head like "what did you dooo" and "confess your sins to me"

Sofya as a cleric stabilizes the girl

Borat is fuckin mad about it and readies a javilin

So realistically borat is very inebriated and probably would have only hurt himself with it

But Kai panics and rolls to flip his boat over with her otter hands

Nat 20

Yeet

Hes drowning

#oh-yeah-we-need-him-alive-to-tell-us-where-the-bones-are

Reluctantly Kai and Amahlia go save him

So there was a communication mishap here

I thought we were pulling him back onto his boat

But this didn't happen

But still the dm allowed me to do cpr on him with my otter hands

Hes floating in the water

It works tho??

Because fuck it

I rolled really fukin well

So now there is a guy dead-man’s floating in the water as an otter launches itself up and down on his chest while making distraught noises, somehow waterboarding the man and doing CPR at the same time.

That communication is cleared up and we do haul him on the boat

Hes stable

But knocked out

Kai is slapping him with her otter hands

Otter hands however were not made for slapping

Kai give Amahlia permission to slap his stupid face

Sofya is like "make it hurt"

Amahlia slapped him two times and he vomits

All over himself

We take both passed out people back to the gates

Likely they won't let us back in

But we try anyway

Sofya is the most charismatic mother fucker in the Mist Striders

So we elect her to do the persuasion

It's a very high DC she'll need to meet

Sofya decides to hold the girl in a bundle and scream "HEELLPPP"

Which does spook them

But she rolls a nat 20

we rolled real damn good

They let us in against their better judgment

And we take everyone to the inn, debating the next best move to *finally* find these fucking bones.

Session end ✨️

Side Notes:

We did do some rolling on the side over some other things around the middle

So, rumors of Fauna being an angel will continue to spread

To the point where a month from now there will be a festival dedicated to the angel

Bitches are going to be painting themselves blue with wear prosthetic elf ears

With animal plushies because rumors cannot settle on the kind of animal she has

Also they think she's working alone, except for a red demon she combats (Amahlia)

Because the children saw Amahlia outside the orphanage and she was real scary

The baron tho is going to love the angel rumor and try to squash the red demon rumor #wishhimluck

The web of lies continues :)))

#all-because-Kai-panicked-one-fuckin-time

I'd like to add that many time in the part with the lake both dms were looking like they were losing 2 years off their life. Also when rolling about how well the "Fauna being an angel" travels about the city

Both dms while Kai is doing cpr as an otter while still in the water

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#curse of strahd #episodes #episode 10

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solar-prime27 · 1 year ago

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Blog on International Human Right Law & International Humanitarian Law (1)

Louie Izak G. Jacobe (AB Political Science 3B)

As a political science major, I studied to understand the very nature of politics, the underlying operations, and the coalitions of theories that explain and understand how and why politics work. The necessity of understanding human rights is fundamental in life, it is in a symbiotic relationship with politics and international humanitarian law, it helps us see our value as free individualistic persons and helps us understand that our innate human rights are swords and shields against unlawfulness and chaos.

Personally, growing up with young parents and poverty, I saw the world in black and white. Good was good, and evil was evil. If you do good deeds, good things will come to you, if you do bad deeds, karma gets you. Yet, how come, some people who infringed other people’s rights are able to get away with their crimes. I knew of human rights, yet was oblivious to its mechanism and purpose. As a child, I believed in absolute justice and as I grew older, I was met with the harsh reality of this world.

I was an adolescent in his second year in high-school. I heard of a fight that would transpire in an hour, outside the campus that I studied. Some kids from my class wanted to fight some “tambays” solely because one of our classmates got clobbered real bad by them. Naturally, I went with them, hoping to get some payback for what they did to our friend. Not knowing that event would change me and how I viewed the world.

During the fight, one of our friends was shouting “Tabang!”, as his voice echoed and grew louder with each utterance, we stopped our fight and headed towards him. What we saw was a knife at the back of his opponent near the spine, at first we accused him, but from witnesses around and from his own personal testimony, an unknown assailant was the suspect to this deranged act of violence.

Some of us left before the madness erupted, when the police and ambulance arrived no news of what transpired left that scene. From what I’ve heard, the architect of the fight and the one who was accused of stabbing were both suspended and were on probation, with their eviction from school still in deliberation at the time. The assailant was never apprehended, the victim of the stabbing unfortunately, died.

Everyone, especially the school, was quiet of the incident. Those involved, I included, were left with a warning and a probationary status. Rumors that came up in school were immediately stopped and erased. Since then, no one, besides some school staff and our batch, were aware of such an incident.

Since then, I wanted to be a lawyer, to help those who deserve to be represented and aided through legal means. Now I do my best to understand the nature of politics, power, and authority. Together, IHRL and IHL offer a rich landscape for political scientists to examine the intersection of law, politics, and ethics, shedding light on issues of state sovereignty, international cooperation, and the pursuit of justice in a complex and often turbulent world. They serve as essential tools for understanding and critiquing the behavior of states and non-state actors in both peacetime and conflict, contributing to the broader discourse on governance, diplomacy, and global politics.

By understanding our human rights and the perks and benefits that come with it, we may be able to see and experience the world in a different perspective, an innocent one. Our rate to be free and equal, free from discrimination, and equality before the law are but many of our found benefits and innate right to have.

Although, cases wherein those rights are violated or unmet properly, usually pop up every now. If that’s the case, we should always teach the next and current generation to uphold those rights to ensure that we, as a species, would walk down a better path.

International humanitarian law is a set of guidelines, but on a macro level, if we were to compare or apply that law in a micro situation, like from the experience above, we could have prevented the loss of human life if we had adhered to no weapons, or a change of venue for the fight, or if we had settled everything with words instead of immediately resorting to physical conflict, all of that would have never happened.

The value of international humanitarian law to political science is consequential. Politics is found everywhere, especially in international relations. With the existence of the IHL, we not only limit the casualties of war or armed conflicts and thereby save lives in the process, we also remind ourselves of the value and existence of civility, humanity, and love.

Studying International Human Rights Law (IHRL) and International Humanitarian Law (IHL) presents a mix of rewards and formidable challenges. These fields are intricate due to their complex framework, which includes a web of treaties, customary practices, and principles, often laden with ambiguous language leading to varying interpretations.

Distinguishing the boundaries between IHRL and IHL, particularly in the context of armed conflicts, can be intricate, as they sometimes overlap. Moreover, these areas are in constant flux, shaped by evolving treaties, resolutions, and court decisions, as well as the influence of customary international law.

Ensuring compliance and enforcement of these laws can be a struggle, given their limited mechanisms and varying state commitments. Cultural, political, and regional contexts further complicate their application, as interpretations of universal human rights can differ significantly. Jurisdictional limitations in international courts can allow some violators to evade accountability.

Access to up-to-date resources and the emotional toll of learning about human rights abuses and armed conflicts add to the challenges. Language barriers can also hinder access to vital information. Nonetheless, studying these fields is crucial for those committed to advancing human rights, justice, and accountability on the international stage. We must always be demanding dedication, critical thinking, and an adept understanding of the complexities inherent in their practical application to create a better society for our generation and the next.

#IHL

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matthew-alexander · 8 months ago

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MATTHEW ALEXANDER

Age: 30 Occupation: Preacher Background:

Matthew was born to a middle class family and raised in the biggest city in the country. He decided to become a preacher when he was in his early 20s after struggling with his homosexuality growing up. He was easily tempted by his attraction to men and his desire for romantic love with the same gender which is what prompted him to follow in his older brother Luke's footsteps to finally leave the big city.

He moved to Phantom Creak about 5 years ago when the town was still more populous than it is now, finding the much smaller Phantom Creak to be a conducive place to work on his own issues.

Unfortunately for him, there are still temptations abound in Phantom Creak and Matthew often finds himself giving in.

Matthew still takes his role as the town preacher quite seriously and justifies his sinful actions in his own way by helping others to a fault. He has a generally favourable reputation as the town's preacher, but there are some people who think that there is more lurking underneath the mask he is portraying to the world.

He may or may not have spread rumours about other men in the past to save his own reputation.

Potential Plots/Connections:

Past/current flings (Izak, Judas, Elio, ...)

Anyone who is in need of a preacher's advice (Augustine, Jo ...)

Someone he can confide in (Judas, Izak, ...)

Someone he has wronged in the past

Someone who suspects him of his sinful actions

More to come...

#vievecorcitytask #vcspiritevent2024 #((hmu if any of these potential plots/connections can work for you!))

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fieldofdaisiies · 2 years ago

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Could you write HC's about like reader has become a new mom and obviously busy with new born twins so she neglect Azriel for quite few months and Azriel start feeling all jealous that reader loves kids more now so he start acting all baby and clingy 🙈❤.....Reader telling him " you're always going to be my first baby " 😄❤

ooh I love this and here we go again with the twins, hehe❤️

so Azriel does not really want to feel jealous, it is somehow silly they are your babies and Azriel loves nothing and no one more than Madisa and Izak

but he is also slightly frustrated, frustrated that the two of you haven't really spent some proper alone time...and that for months

Azriel does not want to think you love the kids more than him because obviously those two kinds of love are wholly different

but still, there is this feeling in his chest

and it only increases when you are just about to cuddle and Izak starts crying in his room

you obviously rush their immediately

and the moment he is calm again Madisa wakes and only wants to be comforted and held by her mother

and when she is finally calm Azriel has to leave for a meeting with Rhys

he feels silly, kissing you goodbye and then his two babies

once he returns there is still a gloomy smile on his lips, his shoulders hunched

Azriel walks to your shared bedroom, wanting to change into his sleeping attire before he joins you in your children's room, helping you put them to bed

he is more than surprised to find you already in bed, lifting you eyes to him, smiling

he is still frustrated and now a kernel of sadness blooms in his chest, making him feel even more silly

he does not like it when he misses saying good night to his babies

and now he has missed it, but then...you are here, with the babies already sleeping, so that means finally some alone time–time with you

Azriel rushes into the bathroom, changing into his sleeping pants before joining you in the bedroom again

you pat the mattress next to you, already having suspected something "what is up, Az? I think we should talk."

Azriel nods and crawls onto the bed, moving under the blanket

your hands move to his, holding one of his hands in both of yours "what is up?"

Azriel shrugs and meets your gaze "I just feel like we don't really spend time together anymore."

there is so much sadness in his voice, it makes a crack appear in your heart

you squeeze his hand, "but we spend all the time together."

Azriel closes his eyes for a moment "I mean just the two of us."

you giggle softly, watching colour bloom high on his cheeks "are you jealous of our babies."

he shakes his head but the blush staining his cheeks and how he averts his gaze tells you otherwise

you let go off his hands and move over to him, crawling onto his lap, straddling him "there is one thing you need to know." you kiss his nose which makes Azriel chuckle. "you will always be my number one Illyrian baby."

Azriel roars a laugh and squeezes his eyes shut

"you should have said something a little earlier." you curl your arms around his neck and kiss brow, before he leans his forehead against your chin

"you must think I am an idiot."

kissing the top of his head you shake your head "never."

"I feel like an idiot."

you cradle his face in your hands and make him look at you "don't. I missed spending time with just you as well. and I love our babies more than anything in this world but you cannot compare the love I feel for them to the love I feel for you, alright?"

Azriel nods and agrees

his babies and this family are the most important things in this world

Azriel lies back on the bed, bring you with him. and letting you snuggle into his chest

you kiss his soft skin and smile up at him "I love you so much, my big Illyrian baby."

#azriel headcanons #azriel

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naz-ulusoy · 3 years ago

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hard times | isabelle & naz

The drama with the murder and the suspect being brought into custody was starting to wear heavily on Naz. While she was determined to keep things neutral and fair, sitting on the council was hard at the moment. The spirits were caught in the middle and she had to look out for their best interests. The police had done their best but no one could predict a wild wolf. The clean up would be a mess but it was nothing compared to the explosion only a few months ago as well. There were more human witnesses to that but everyone seemed to forget that now.

She was just leaving another long meeting, lingering by the door when she saw the other vampire elder still there. “Isabelle, do you mind if I steal a moment of your time?” she asked. Between Isabelle and Izak, she believed that Isabelle could be a voice of reason, or she hoped she would. “I am sorry about Aleksis, was he a friend of yours?” she asked.

for: @isabellelaurent

#c: isabelle #isabelle: hard times

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esmeraldabheriya · 9 months ago

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The irritation prickled at the back of her neck but she gritted her teeth. It was clear the vampire wanted a reaction from her, something that toed the line of the golden rules. If she were younger, it might have worked. She had lost a few of her own children but it was always at the hand of a man. Ah yes, it always was like a father to act out in a rage. She had plenty of experience with dead beat fathers too.

While Esme could certainly sympathise with losing a child, she didn't sympathise with Izak Voros. The vampire had likely killed many children in his life without a care for the mothers who mourned them. "You don't have to. I also had a useless husband and have experienced that already." And if anything did happen to her children, she knew exactly who to suspect. "Mothers are the ones who end up bearing the pain of failed fathers."

If she had made her peace was a question for another day. Her name was called and coffee order was quickly collected from the counter. "Good day to you, Izak."

Izak followed her, standing aside to allow the line of tired faces continue to flow. He wondered how far he could push the she-wolf before she snapped, and the thought brought a shimmer to his eyes. An inhuman growl that would turn heads would sedate him enough, but she wasn't stupid. Even if her heat prickled her skin and Izak's digging words wouldn't make her break the Rule, and in the end, Izak would still have to sit before the council to defend his reasoning for provoking her.

But he couldn't help himself. He was a child at the aquarium, viciously poking at the animals he was allowed to touch, and he stepped even closer so that she was the only one who could hear him. "How cold and low for a mother to say, but I suppose you're right. My eldest didn't make it to her fifth summer before I saw her cut down before me during a rival raiding, and what would she have thought of me when I enacted my vile, heartless revenge on those who wronged me?" A flash of fangs caught the light of the morning before they disappeared just as quickly. "I could return the sentiment, and we can be kin in our inability to be protective parents." He shrugged, as if what he had just said was just as common as talking about the weather, and then he stepped back to leave her be. "Just kidding. I have made my peace with the gods for all the slaughters that I have witnessed, and hopefully you will too."

#c: izak #izak: sunlight #child death mention tw #( yes I think so! Happy for this to be the end from esme's side ~)

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yamayuandadu · 3 years ago

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I don't know if this is your jam, but do you know about/would you be interested in critical/decolonial turns in ANE studies? I was just a hobbyist in Mesopotamia for a few months but I only found one article when I looked into this that basically amounted to "there are Iraqi-trained archaeologists but they tend to be interested in the same things as Europeans were and 'critical' examples tend to come from Europe eg Bernbeck & Pollock 2005."

When it comes to the more specific question - the fact Simo "perhaps the Sumerians were basically Finnish" Parpola is one of the biggest names of Assyriology today and has disciples who will probably continue advancing his work (one of them, a certain Amar Annus, also had horrible takes about autism as if the 19th century worthy hypediffusionism wasn't enough. Awful mix!) is probably all you need to hear to realize the field is, to put it lightly, not up to date with this sort of discourse, even if individual authors might hold progressive views. I suppose the regularly repeated discussion about the ethics of publishing unprovenanced tablets do to a degree touch upon this topic, but they are not terribly in depth usually, and I suspect some reflect personal beefs more than actual concerns about fueling illicit trade or about western perception of Syria and Iraq etc. A handful of articles on Ugarit (not even recent ones necessarily, surprisingly) bring up Said's work to explain why Bible scholarship and its idea of "Canaanite" (read: anything they want to take as "evidence" for their low quality theories; Ebla in northern Syria, deep inland, in the third millennium BCE, can be “Canaan” too lol) religion is... the way it is, for example Izak Cornelius' book on iconography of Anat, Ashtart, Athirat and "Qetesh". (not a fan of picking a grouping of goddesses entirely made up by Bible scholars instead of something more organic - also, as usual, Shapash gets thrown under the buss despite actually getting more in terms of personal devotion evidence in Ugarit than the other two) I think feminist and gender studies fare a bit better though the first authors to apply related methodology to the field, like Tikva Frymer-Kensky, were, to put it bluntly, not very smart and at most one step detached from the worst excesses of 1970s "goddess movement". A good overview is provided in the beginning of Asher-Greve's and Westenholz's excellent Goddesses in Context (about Frymer-Kensky herself, i feel like nothing sums up her efforts better than the fact her memorial volume consists mostly of people pointing out her methodology was wack. Granted, Scurlock is the last person who should be allowed to say that, hers is tenfold worse). You can also find Jo Ann Hackett's very interesting early piece on similar matters where she ex. offers a critical perspective of the common trend of treating goddesses as interchangeable in scholarship (something that can ruin even an otherwise good source). I'm not sure if this was exclusively her influence but it is more common today to be more pedantic about individual goddesses, ex. Gary Beckman wrote an entire series of articles on Hurrian "Ishtars" who are not actually Ishtars where he stresses the need to separate them, there is a new monograph on medicine goddesses which finally doesn't just gloss all as "forms of Gula", etc.

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coeurvrai · 6 years ago

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You know, on the plus side, reading this book has meant I’ve gotten listen to the entirety of Simon Curtis’ album Super 8-Bit Heart, so that’s neat!

Anyways so Malachiasz mentions that Vultures are unlikely to be able to track them down because their best tracker is not here. Nadya, logically for once, points out that couldn’t they do that anyways with some tracking spells but he’s like “Tranavians buy their spell books preloaded by arcanists, and unlike them I write my own spells into my spellbook”

“But you can’t know for certain Rozá didn’t have someone write her a handful of tracking spells before she came.”

“Of course not. It’s just incredibly unlikely.”

But why is it incredibly unlikely??? You keep saying it like it’s supposed to be obvious or speak for itself but it doesn’t, there’s no proper explanation for why Rozá doesn’t have tracking spells. We know they exist because Serefin used it on Nadya. Is it because we’re meant to assume Rozá is so arrogant that she’d assume she’d one and done them and not need tracking spells? Does she just never use tracking spells? Do Vultures not have tracking spells? Is it a pride thing? Like WHY, Malachiasz. Explain to me fucking why.

“Which doesn’t make anything better. They could still be at the church. Anna, Parijahan, and Rashid could be dead, and now we’re lost in the middle of the mountains slowly freezing to death.” Distantly, she knew she was panicking. Everything was falling through her fingers and she was powerless to stop it. This wasn’t how things were supposed to happen.

Nadya remembers that “the Akolans” have names, huzzah! Also, you are a Cleric with access to fire magic because you can pray to the fire god Krsnik and he is willing to give you his power, so I don’t know how you’re all freezing to death. Like sure, the state of your clothes is a problem but fire is warmth yo. And it’s not normal fire, it’s magical fire too.

Or again, AT LEAST ATTEMPT TO PRAY TO YOUR SPEEDY GOD TO GET SUPERSPEED POWERS. If you at least attempted to pray to him and THEN you couldn’t reach him then I’d give you a pass. But you haven’t even fucking tried!

Malachiasz sat down beside her, careful to keep space between them, but she could feel heat radiating off him and it was almost enough for her to lean into him. Almost.

Just fucking do it. You’re going to suck face anyways and apparently you’re still really cold even though you’re wearing his blood mage coat and Malachiasz isn’t feeling the cold despite being from the country with more temperate weather so sharing body heat is the smartest thing to do since you’re lost! You’re not smart enough to pray for magical fire so fucking do it.

She dropped her head into her hands. There had to be a way out of this. She would risk returning to the church for Anna, she had to. After that, she had nothing. She could continue running, it was apparently all she was good at.

Jesus christ. She ran ONCE after stupidly marching to the front lines and being spotted by Serefin that he and several other soldiers could identify her by sight and know what she looks like, and was like “ugh i can’t keep running” even though it’s y’know, PROTOCOL AND THE SMART THING TO DO IF YOU’RE THE SUPPOSED CHOSEN ONE EXPECTED TO WIN THIS WAR FOR YOUR COUNTRY, WHICH YOU ARE MARKEDLY INTERESTED IN DOING. And then you did it again to protect your friend and your “potential allies” because the Vultures just wanted you and Malachiasz and are presumably uninterested in the other three LIKE YOU HAD REASONS TEXTUALLY TO DO IT AND JUST AKJSFAJSFJASJSAJKFASJAJKSJF

“Would killing the Tranavian king destroy the Vultures as well?”

He shook his head. “They have their own king, the Black Vulture.”

Well there you fucking go. I was right - killing the Tranavian king isn’t going to magically fix things for various reasons, including your biggest threat of bodily harm. What a surprise that is.

Also, what is so fucking evil about the Tranavian king? Like what is so distinctly evil about him that he, SPECIFICALLY, has to get murdered. What is the logic that everything will get fixed if they assassinate this particular man? Like I suspect and assume that Malachiasz is the Black Vulture because he’s Kyle Ron/the Darkling so Black Heretic = Black Vulture and King Izak Meleski is his Snoke except he really, really wants to be in power and being king of both Tranavia and the Vultures will mean he’s all powerful but I digress.

He caught the disappointment on her face because he was quick to continue. “You can rattle the order, Nadya. You already have.”

“The Vultures destroyed my country’s clerics,” Nadya whispered. And he was one of them.

You can rattle the stars, Nadya, if only you dare! Also yes, the Vultures wholesale slaughtered all the other Clerics 30 years ago and Malachiasz is a “former” Vulture and you keep saying that as if it’s the first time you’re realising this but you’ve already had a Moment about it and seemingly acknowledged that perhaps... People From Other Countries Are Also People Like Me, so I don’t even fucking know what’s going on anymore.

Like sure conflict is great in enemies-to-lovers tropes but not if you never follow through on your hatred or have apparently taken steps to resolve it. So, like, I’m throwing my hands up in the air at this point

Also I HAVE FINALLY REACHED A THIRD OF A WAY INTO THIS BOOK. 128 pages! Celebration time, guys, cause it’s been a long and painful road. Hurray!

#sarah reads ws #now to read the other two thirds of this damn book...

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sophoreads · 6 years ago

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Annotation notes for Wicked Saints

Attached under the cut are my word-for-word annotation notes pulled straight from my copy of Wicked Saints. Check out my previous post and goodreads review before reading the annotation notes.

I only decided to start annotating this book 115 pages in, because I realized that there were so many problems I was complaining about to my friend Sophie over text that I thought “Hey, I’d better write this shit down so I have receipts/can easily reference my thoughts.” I’d never really done annotations before, so I pulled out a new pack of sticky notes and color tabs that someone gave to me for free when I was in college and got to work. I ran out of sticky notes (started a new pad) and yellow tabs (borrowed last few from a weird tab/highlighter I found at the bottom of my college study stuff bin). I also got so frustrated I had to put the book down several times, because I’d paid eighteen dollars to pre-order this fucking garbage.

Pg 115 Pink tab – Character note --Bitch do you want to kill him or not? This is like bad Reylo fic— (Nadya being ~~inexplicably~~ held back from killing Mal, because she really wants to kill Mal, but just CANT for SOME REASON)

pg 123 Yellow tab – writing/literacy/grammar note --no note written— “He braced himself for the inevitable summons from his father. It arrived immediately by way of servant wearing a plain brown mask that left only his eyes visible. One of his father’s personal servants.”

Pg 137 Yellow tab – writing/literacy/grammar note --WTF is “it commanded attention”?! This whole throne bit is needlessly over-explanatory and could be fixed by adhering to golden rule “show, don’t tell”—

pg 139 Yellow tab --you don’t have to repeat the same thing twice!— “…Serefin paused, swallowing down the anxiety threatening to choke him. He was suddenly unspeakably nervous.”

Pg 140 Yellow tab --you just said they didn’t know who it was and now, not even a page later, you’re literally describing Mal and saying you DO know who it was?! WHO TF EDITED THIS SHIT— (Izak telling Serefin that they don’t know the vulture who escaped, then the vulture lurking behind him describing the backstory of the vulture who escaped)

pg 145 pink tab --what, is she Canadian now?— “You’ve realized your father isn’t so good a father to you, eh?” she [Pelayega] asked.

Pg 146 Yellow tab --For all that Duncan over-explains things in this story I still don’t fucking understand the High/Low prince thing??? Not once has she gone into it. And what the fuck is a slavhka?— (in reference to the first mention of there being “low princes”)

pg 148 Blue tab – Plot note --Why is the church still standing they LITERALLY TORE IT DOWN! THIS PART OF IT COLLAPSED!!!— (in reference to parijahan lying on top of pillows in the church Mal and Nadya just destroyed to get rid of the Vultures)

pg 153 Yellow tab --Are we really still saying “invalid” in the year of our unbridled insanity 2019?— “…Your mother, Estera, is an invalid…” (Mal making up a fake background for Nadya)

pg 153 Blue tab --SINCE WHEN DOES HE HAVE TATTOOS ON HIS HANDS— (in reference to the very first mention of Mal having tattoos on his hands, 153 pages into the story)

pg 155 Pink tab --Anna is so flat a character she could be removed from the whole book and not one thing would change— (in reference to Anna deciding to leave the group to re-join Kalyazi forces. I hold by this statement because Anna had no fucking role in the end of the book, and was therefore a useless character throughout)

pg 157 Pink tab --I’m sorry are we ETHNIC CLEANSING?! IS THIS WHAT WE ARE ENDORSING?! WTF?— “…then we can cleanse Kalyazin of the heretics entirely”

pg 163 Blue tab --this is the first we are hearing about any hierarchy in the vultures, which we should have read many chapters ago, not just when convenient for the author/plot— (in reference to first mention of Crimson Vulture)

pg 164 Yellow tab/Blue tab (overlapping domains) --Inches? FRACTIONS? IN THIS ECONOMY?!— (what is math in medieval Poland)

pg 167 Yellow tab --Still have not defined nobility and what makes a family “noble” or slavhka or whatever “low prince/royalty” or some shit— (In reference to yet another mention of low princes/royalty and somehow differentiating them from slavhka)

pg 168 Blue tab --I am more interested in gay Romeo/Juliet in a blood mage society than I am the entire plot of Wicked Saints— --Also this interaction feels cringey and thrown in for…no real reason?— “You’ve missed so much! Did you know that Nikodem Stachowicz was caught in the palace archives with the youngest Osadik boy?” (Zaneta)

pg 170 Yellow tab --FIRE YOUR COPY EDITOR— He shrugged, burying his tattooed hands in his pockets. “It binds over time, magic does. Especially blood magic. It’s so accessible. You don’t have to have a true affinity for it…” (Mostly I got furious over the fact that we’re only just getting Mal’s tattoo hands, which was obviously written in as an afterthought for his character partway through the writing process and not retconned into the story. I also just hate the sentence “it binds over time, magic does.”)

Pg 170 Yellow tab --Page 170: “walked on” Page 177: on horseback. WHAT IS THE TRUTH?— “Malachiasz stopped to wait for Nadya while the others walked on ahead” (this note coincides with a future note)

pg 173 Orange tab – blatant parallels to and lifts from Dragon Age franchise --you get a special shame-color for copying Dragon Age (also WHAT IS YOUR MAGIC STRUCTURE HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE) (it’s just bad writing)— “He was referring to witches—apostate magic users outside the gods’ approval—but there had been no witches in Kalyazin for decades. Their route of magic was considered just as heretical as blood magic…”

pg 176 yellow tab --Emily A Duncan focuses [more] on the little actions of Malacheezit than she does for any other character and it hurts the story— (specific reference to line “He fidgeted, fingers picking at a hang nail” interjected in dialogue. This action-dialogue tag does no service to the story at all.)

Pg 177 Pink tab --What the fuck? Is this about Holy War or is this a romance fantasy? (note the order: not “fantasy romance”)— “In a flash, his hand was underneath her chin, thumb brushing against her jaw…If Nadya hadn’t been sitting down she suspected her knees would have given out on her.”

Pg 177 Yellow tab --SINCE WHEN DO THEY HAVE FUCKING HORSES?! FIRE ALL YOUR EDITORS FIRE THE PUBLISHER— “Nadya let her horse wander instead of tying it up, sending a short prayer up to Vaclav to keep an eye on the animal so it didn’t stray too far.” (These horses were never mentioned before (note connects to a prev. note) and were never mentioned again after this. I literally cannot fathom how or why this book made it to final printing in this state.)

Pg 183 Pink tab --All this romance shit seems so forced for both Nadya and mal. I see no actual attraction on either party?— (I’m not recording the second note as it is a crude remark against the author, a remark of which I still stand by, but would be damaging to both her and myself. However, the emotion of the second note follows the concept of “anyone who knew what they were talking about wouldn’t write this kind of bullshit.”)

Pg 185 Yellow tab --“Per se”? I’m sorry is there LATIN in this world? (it’s bad writing)— “He wasn’t putting it off per se, he…”

pg 186 yellow tab --“It was fitting THAT assassins…” ugh— “It was fitting assassins chose to strike that same evening” (Doesn’t the author have a masters degree? And works in a library? How is her writing this chopped and sloppy, omitting crucial subject/action markers?)

Pg 198 Blue tab --Jesus, are prostitutes of war a NORMAL THING? WE SHOULD BE SAVING THESE POOR WOMEN— “The girl is…” He faltered, convincingly. “Well, you understand.” He winked at the soldier. (the soldier doesn’t even remark on Nadya’s sex slave status) (Also I realize that “prostitutes of war” is not the correct vernacular, however I’m committed to giving you my direct and exact notes. I know that they are slaves of war, sex slaves specifically, and do not receive true compensation or reparation for their suffering.)

Pg 201 Pink tab --HOW THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT NOBLES? YOU LIVED YOUR WHOLE LIFE IN A MONASTERY!— “Nobles are nobles,” she [Nadya] said waving a hand. “Regardless of where they come from. The pettiness of court transcends all cultural boundaries.”

Pg 202 Blue tab --WHAT THE FUCK? EXPLAIN YOUR MAGIC/MYTHS— (referencing the blasé and brief mention of Wolf Changers, which we never hear about again)

pg 203 blue tab --WHAT NECKLACE? WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?— --Oh, that necklace, that was mentioned in the first chapter, forgotten, reintroduced the following chapter, then COMPLETELY forgotten again! Bad writing. Bad props.— “Her prayer beads were safely in her pocket, so she clutched at the necklace Kostya had given her.”

Pg 205 Blue tab --Is her accent suddenly better?— (reference to previous statements of Nadya having a terrible travanian accent, hence the sex slave thing to the border guard so she doesn’t have to talk, but now she’s talking and there was no reference to her improving her accent at all or even working on it.)

pg 207 yellow tab --I can see Emily has a kink for masks + chin grabbing— “He [Serefin] reached out and took her chin in his hand, lifting her face up to his” (Mal has also done this to Nadya countless times and she orgasms almost every time.)

Pg 209 Orange tab --The veil, yet another stolen Dragon Age concept!— “…closed her eyes, letting herself feel the invisible wall separating gods from men. She felt it the moment they had stepped into Tranavia, the weight of the veil pressing down against her, choking off her only access to the divine.” (This is also the very first reference to any such veil being in place. It took 209 pages for this to be mentioned, in a book chock full of a girl talking to gods in her head. Also, they’ve been in Tranavia for awhile. Why wasn’t this mentioned when they first stepped foot inside? (because it’s bad writing))

Pg 209 Pink tab --Nadya’s powers seem almost limitless at this point— “Holy speech whispered through her head and she moved to disassemble the spells woven through the walls. She couldn’t take them apart completely— someone would notice, precautions in place—she was just making them fuzzy, bleeding them out. She dulled them so any information imparted back to the mages who set them would appear mundane.” (If Nadya’s powers (at this point in the book) are tied to the gods, there is no mention of which god provides these powers. If this is meant to foreshadow that Nadya has her own powers, it’s a lazy job. It’s simply overpowered and oversimplified. )

Pg 210 [no tab just a sticky] --oh FINALLY we hear how they met!— “I’ve known him [Rashid] my whole life. And we crashed into Malachiasz about six months ago after getting into trouble with some off-duty Kalyazi soldiers.”

Pg 214 [no tab just a sticky] --also can we acknowledge the whole “brown girl serves a white girl” thing because WOW— (in reference to Parijahan playing handmaiden to Nadya at the palace)

pg 215 Pink tab --“Couldn’t worry about the prince”? wasn’t HE the one she wanted to kill in revenge for Kostya? (IS THAT ALL FORGOTTEN NOW?)

pg 216 Pink tab --First Zaneta is Indian [coded] and now she’s black [coded]? WHAT?— “…a tall girl with luminous skin like onyx threaded with gold…her spiral curls fanned out around her head like a halo.”

Pg 217 Orange tab --The game? Court intrigue? Masks? This all reeks of Orlais and direct theft from Dragon Age— (in reference to basically the whole castle competition, masks, etc)

pg 217 Yellow tab --And now we’re switching perspectives mid-chapter? Just start a new chapter!— (in reference to the very first mid-chapter perspective switch, which will occur more from here on out)

pg 232 yellow tab --I am so sick of these italicized words without any translation or description— (in reference to szitelka which I still DON’T KNOW WHAT IT IS)

pg 233 pink tab --what the fuck is Nadya’s perspective? Does she want to kill all Tranavians or not? Emily make up your fucking mind— (in reference to Nadya getting pissed at Mal for killing the other blood mage girl in Nadya’s duel, so that Nadya wouldn’t die and the duel would end)

pg 234 pink tab --literally when has Nadya worried about his safety, esp. when she’s the one always threatening to kill him?— “She hadn’t forgotten, not even while she found herself worrying about his safety and wanting him by her side.”

Pg 235 Pink tab --oh FINALLY we get a description of his tattoos! 235 PAGES IN!!!! BULLSHIT YOU HACK WRITER!— “She found her eyes drawn to the tattoos on his long, elegant fingers. They were simple, straight lines: two on either side of each finger and one down the back that started at the bed of each fingernail and ended at his wrist in a single black bar.” (I literally vomited in my mouth when I read this)

Pg 238 Pink tab --Oh so Mal can’t murder to save you but you can murder Tranavians and its fucking justified? Nadya is such a bad Nazi char.— “It’s not an apology for murdering that girl, she noted. But it was a start. It was something from this boy who obviously had no morals and no regard for anything that didn’t serve his own interests.” (Nadya is the worst hypocrite and I want to punch her in the face)

Pg 239 Yellow tab --Hanged? Since when? Has hanging? Been a threat? Ever? In this world?— “…or else this whole mess of a plan will go up in smoke and we’ll all be hanged for it.”

Pg 240 Pink tab (this is another omitted note because it is a crude comment in part against the author, but the other half does say that Nadya is such a virgin and that I am second-hand embarrassed because this book and the “romance” scenes are so bad)

pg 242 blue tab --If Nadya used blood magic, why don’t the gods cut off her powers for her heresy? It would only make sense— (this is just a general comment on the chapter and how, after the duel and Nadya used blood magic, her gods were still talking to her. This is also before we find out that Nadya has her own powers)

pg 247 yellow tab --the way this is lazily written we’re supposed to assume it’s Ostiya at the door. Could be written much better (all of this could be written much better)— “Serefin hastily wrapped his still-bleeding hand with cloth while Kacper got the door. Ostiya blinked her single eye at the sight of both of them.”

Pg 248 Blue tab --“delicate gov[ernmen]t? we don’t even know how the gov’t is even structured!— “This was too far. It would crumble Travania’s already delicate government.”

Pg 259 Blue tab --Oh good, a love triangle. Good to know Nadya’s type is “blood mage tortured/charming boy” that grabs chin + kisses hands— “…and wasn’t sure what to do with this charmingly awkward boy. That he was one of the most powerful blood mages in Tranavia...She wavered too much already; she couldn’t allow herself to feel any more.”

Pg 260 Pink tab --Literally all that Parijahan does is be soft + comforting? That is literally all she does to Mal + Nadya + Rashid?— “Nadya usually didn’t see this side of Parijahan. It relieved her to see there was a warm softness to Parijahan’s flinty gaze.”

Pg 270 Blue tab --What do you mean? When did you mention that the gods had withdrawn their power from Nadya?— “She had no magic. She had nothing. She had no hope without her gods.”

Pg 275 Blue tab --But they would abandon her for using blood magic you dumbass— “The gods wouldn’t have abandoned her. Not for a few doubts, not for kissing a heretic—not even that.”

Pg 278 Blue tab --Okay this is actually a really cool scene— (when Nadya is first using blood with the pendant to see her way out of the room the rogue Vultures locked her in)

pg 280 blue tab --Calls her “little bird” is this Mal?— (referencing this unnamed god that Nadya is talking to via Kostya’s necklace)

pg 287 yellow tab --sloppy transition makes it seem as though a new person is talking— (Basically for the next two pages Emily incorrectly punctuates her paragraph breaks while Pelayega is talking.)

Pg 294 Orange tab --Velyos=Solas=Mal? Oh my god is this whole plot a regurgitation of DA:Inquisition/Trespasser?— “Have you heard of him? I suppose not. The veil went up, Velyos broke away. Your gods were probably relieved, but here he is once more...”

pg 298 blue tab --fucking called it (“acted like he was dead”? Literally said before that he was “sent to the country”)— (in reference to Serefin seeing Mal and discovering that his cousin is the Black Vulture. Previously, a not so subtle mention of a nameless male cousin of Serefin’s was “sent to the country” when he was young. I immediately pegged it as being Mal. But now it is written that Serefin was led to believe that his cousin died? The inconsistencies are rife.)

pg 308 pink tab --Does Nadya literally have no self control or sense of morality (for her own morals)? What the fuck is this?— “Then her traitorous, heretical hands betrayed her as she reached up and wove them into his hair, pulling his face down to hers and kissing him. Because she was angry with him, furious with his lies, but not even her anger was enough to cool the burning she felt when he was near; the heat that spread through her nerves when he touched her.”

Pg 308 Pink tab --ooh power shift, she’s doing the chin-grabbing now!— “She took his chin in her hand, directing his gaze down to hers.”

Pg 309 Blue tab --except for the vultures that kidnapped her? What about them?!— “Go to the cathedral when you’re finished here,” he said. “None of the Vultures will give you any trouble.”

Pg 313 Pink tab --Didn’t want the fate of nations? She LITERALLY came here to topple the monarchy and uproot Tranavia and start a mass ethinic cleansing— “She was only one girl; she didn’t want the fate of nations resting on her decisions.”

Pg 314 Pink tab --YOU CAN’T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS YOU DUMB BITCH— [the dumb bitch being Nadya] “The war took something important to me,” she said, fingering Kostya’s necklace unconsciously. She couldn’t think about how it had been Serefin who had led that attack. (Nadya literally forgets and completely forgives Serefin for what she believes is Kostya’s murder (we know that Kostya wasn’t killed by Serefin but his BABY BRO WAS). Like, wasn’t Kostya super important to her? And she tried to kill Serefin in revenge but Mal stopped her? And in literally less than a week she totally forgets about it?)

Pg 318 Pink tab --Honestly, Mal deserves better than Nadya. He’s clearly doing his best and she’s just being racist and unwavering.— He opened his mouth, at a loss for words. Finally, he asked, “Will it always be like this?” Would it? She couldn’t say. Would she ever be comfortable with what he was? Or would it always be this constant hot and cold, friends one second and enemies the next? “I don’t know.” (Nadya is so abusive in this whole relationship I feel bad for Mal)

pg 321 yellow tab --He literally said he only told her the truth?! Mal has literally not told one lie?— “He was a liar and she wanted his truths”

pg 322 yellow tab --The whole order of this scene description + the characters is clunky and wrong— (no further comment really, that pretty much explains it)

pg 326 pink tab --Did she literally forget about Kostya? Did Nadya literally just forgive Serefin b/c she thinks he’s cute and tortured? LITERALLY? WHY?— “Serefin. He’s good,” She nuzzled his chest. “I like him. He should live.”

Pg 327 Blue tab --Can Serefin suddenly write his own spells now?! I thought only Mal could do that— “As he sat down at his desk with spells sprawled out in front of him, blood still drying on the pages, he couldn’t shake the feeling…”

pg 335 pink tab --That’s right, bitch! You’re damn nigh abusive to him and for some reason he keeps coming back! I don’t know why since you have the personality of a Nazi but for some reason Mal just really wants to fuck you!— “How could she be the only good thing to happen to him? She had almost slit his throat, had hung him off a railing. She didn’t even trust him, not really.”

Pg 351 Blue tab --since when have we seen a fucking calendar system?— “…turned the tide of a battle in 625 when…” (this is a “Vasiliev’s Book of Saints” entry for chapter 33. There is one more reference to a year in an earlier codex entry (tsk another Dragon Age ripoff) for something like 15XX. We don’t know what year it is, nor do we know when/why they started counting. Maybe it’s not critical for the story but it IS critical if you’re bringing it up.)

pg 357 orange tab --Literally Solas’s plot in Trespasser— “She bit back a cry of pain and shoved her magic harder up at the veil. If this was when she died, then fine. Fine. She would tear this veil down first and bring the gods back to Tranavia with her dying breath.”

Pg 360 Blue tab --How did she get here? Already? These scenes are so lazy, show me Nadya scrambling up the dais to Mal’s waiting neck— “He idly spun a chalice on the armrest and Serefin watched as the cleric stood and darted for a dagger that reseted a few steps away. It was time to test just what he could do with this power. (now it’s Nadya’s POV) Malachiasz’s eyes closed. He tilted his head back, baring his throat to Nadya’s blade.”

Pg 363 Yellow tab --Did we just miss Serefin fighting his father for Nadya’s sexy threatening? Was that really a real choice the author made?— (Nadya looks over at Serefin) “Serefin was on his knees, hunched over in pain, blood oozing from his head, one hand white-knuckled on the ground holding him up. Dead moths littered the floor around him. The stars around his head began to flicker out.”

Pg 368 Yellow tab --you CANNOT call it an “Adam’s apple” when there is no “Adam” or Christianity in this fantasy world! Lazy writing indeed!— “His head tilted back, Adam’s apple bobbing, as he swallowed hard.”

Pg 376 Yellow tab --this line is so cliché and fucking bad why the fuck is it even in here?— “The king is dead, long live the king,” she said, handing it [the crown] to him [Serefin].

Pg 376 Yellow tab --And why didn’t you write that the other vultures disappeared? There is so much missing here— “Where are all the Vultures?” Ostiya asked “Most probably fled with their king,” Serefin said.

Pg 378 Yellow tab --Is what enough? Power? Crown? What the fuck? This is so sloppy— “Will this be enough?” she asked him [Serefin]. “To stop the war?” … [Serefin:] “It will”

pg 380 yellow tab --No clear description of where Mal is. Is this physical or ethereal? What the fuck is happening?— (Mal’s whole epilogue)

#review #wicked saints spoilers #spoilers

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