#op kod

[fanaticsnail]

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like tumblr has been eating my asks. I sent one to you a little while ago about an idea I thought was pretty funny, but if it's because you didn't feel comfortable answering or just didn't like it, that's totally okay. I won't be upset if you ignore this for your own comfort. I'm sorry if this is coming off as rude in any way, I'm not trying to come off that way, I promise.

The silly idea I had was, considering the beef between Kid and Beckman (probably one-sided all things considered), what would happen if Beckman had a daughter that fell in love with Kid? I'm imagining a "But daddy, I love him!" type of situation.

Reader: But daddy I love him! 🥺

Beckman: 💀 *thinking about buying 20 more packs of cigarettes*

Shanks: *dying of laughter*

Beautiful, darling anon.

Firstly, I swear to you that Tumblr has not eaten your ask. It's sitting very comfortably in my ask box while I covered my hands and muffled the initial scream of joy in my palms. The cogs have been turning ever since, and it's one of those fics that I simply cannot stop thinking about. I am consumed with it so much that I can almost think of nothing else.

Secondly, I AM OBSESSED WITH THIS PROMPT. I TOLD MY MUTUALS ABOUT IT AND I AM PHYSICALLY IMPLODING.

@jintaka-hane - here's the synopsis 😏

I have made an outline, set up several events, and attempted to make it a one-shot to no avail. It has gotten really angsty really quickly, but I am slowly but surely chipping away at it.

Here is the playlist for "But Daddy, I love him." Synopsis below the cut.

Synopsis:

Shanks always knew the risk he took in claiming a single father as the first-mate to his crew - but not ever did he anticipate an experience such as this.

Having you as Beckman's daughter, and apple of his eye, aboard the Red-Force was always a joy. Seeing the growth from a small child in infancy to a woman of such strength and courage was one of the few rays of sun against the storm clouds gathering in the raging sea.

As assistant to Hongo, the doctor aboard the ship, you opted to remain behind to seek and source out medical equipment for resupply while your father and your crew set sail for a month. Two weeks before they were due to return, you adventure to port where you witnessed the sight of a masked man dragging an unconscious, hulking redhead over his shoulder, with blood and bone breaking away at a mutilated and partially decapitated arm.

Immediately snapping into medical survival mode, you usher the two men to your lodgings and begin the horrible task of claiming the rest of this man's arm and suturing up the rest of his scarred flesh. Slipping in and out of consciousness, his tongue and lips would sing nothing but your praises each time he awoke. You bully him, yelling at him to stay put and keep still - and he flirts with you, telling you "yes, ma'am" and "no, ma'am" with as much of a grin as he can grimace through the pain.

When he finally gains full consciousness, you feel safe enough to tell relay to him the exact amount of damage done to his arm. You tell him you recognise the wound as a haki-infused bullet - something you know of intimately well. You know the treatment, you know the damage, and you know how much pain they can bring to an individual far into the future. He gruffly utters his thanks, asks you how much he owes you for treatment, and you simply roll your eyes and leave.

Before you have an opportunity to leave, he tugs at your hand and urges your faces ever closer together, looking up at you through his eyelashes and claiming your lips atop his. The kiss sparks passion, his injured state prompts your actions to remain careful but longing. He ushers you into the bed beside him and shows you just how much passion he can muster with only one arm and his partial strength.

By the end of the fortnight, you're hopelessly in love with one another. He offers you a place on his crew, and you inform him you already have one. As he reaches the pier where his ship is being repaired, you see your vessel on the horizon. He hooks his arms over your shoulder, first narrows his eyes before immediately widening them in shock.

As you point out your vessel to him, his lips part in shock. He has not only slept with a pirate rivalling his crew, but he has slept with the daughter of a man who claimed his arm from him. And he was in love with you. Desperately and unapologetically in love with you.

And you were none the wiser, only seeing your dad and your family sailing into bay to take you on their next journey.

IT HAS BEEN ON MY MIND EVER SINCE, AND I WANT TO KNOW MORE BEFORE I EXPLODE.

Anyway, that's just me. Thank you for your beautiful prompt, I am chip chip chipping away 🖤

[propalitet]

3000€ m² i oni se pitaju zašto ljudi odlaze lmaooo

[orchisailsa]

"The dreams were messy and completely without logic. Lin Qiushi even dreamt for some reason of his own wedding, just that when he lifted the bride's red veil, he found Ruan Nanzhu's face underneath."

Day 9. Feminine

[weeblmaodotcom]

My Yonko just got KO'd by a couple of peasants...help me im losing my shit , Meme by Weeblmao.com

[yuexuan]

[Review]死亡回旋

Title: 死亡回旋 Death Spiral

Author: 深海手术刀

Length: 212 chapters + 2 extras

Rating:  M

Tag: Infinite flow, rebirth, supernatural, horror

Summary [taken from novel updates]:

I shall die and die again to know that life is inexhaustible.

Rabindranath Tagore [Stray Birds].

[Nth+1 Event Log] Detected [Core Player]’s death.

-> Reset world

The ghost monsters are resetting…. The world is resetting… Resurrecting all the players… Other than [Core Player], all other player’s memories are erased… Relationship meter is erased…

! Warning ! Detected [Player X]’s memory is still partially retained.

Resetting player again.

! Warning ! [Player X]’s memory imprint is too deep to be erased.

Deleting the player.

! Warning ! [Player X] is an important character and cannot be deleted.

…..

Override the bug, reset the world to the beginning.

***After completing the Nth+1 time of resetting***

**Instance is restarting**

! Warning ! [Player X] has made contact with [Core Player].

! Warning ! [Player X]’s feelings towards [Core Player] has exceeded the maximum threshold.

! Warning ! [Player X] and [Core Player] are commencing indescribable actions.

! Warning! The following content cannot be displayed according to the relevant rules and regulations.

Novel | Novel [translated]

Comments **contains spoilers**:

One day, Xu Rendong (MC) was returning home from work when he was almost hit by a truck. But right when he was about to be hit, an elevator appeared, sending him into another world. To live, he has to find the elevator and elevator button within the world that would enable him to escape. The problem was, the world was filled with deadly monsters. Fortunately, he was able to restart the world every time he died.

Similar to Kaleidoscope of Death, characters who were about to die were sent into different worlds - those that survived and found the elevator and its button can take the elevator back to their own world, whereupon they would extend their lifespan. Those that didn’t would also die in the real world. Also in a way I find similar to KOD, the ML (Lian Qiao) was someone who carried a mystery and was introduced as being not-too-serious at the start. Here, ML was a streamer who was also a puppy dog that gets worked up by the gory scenes. However, he was able to deal with the monsters more effectively than MC using his gamer knowledge/instinct, plus a dangerous hidden personality that surfaces occasionally.

Highlights:

What makes this novel unique is that MC was able to restart the world again when he dies, allowing him to accumulate experience and survive through trial-and-error. What this also means is that MC is portrayed as a normal person. Unlike other infinite flow novels where the main pairing has a ton of luck or where they are OP, the main pairing in this novel are mostly normal people (minus ML’s hidden side who comes out from time to time) who constantly fail and have to re-do things again. Through the novel, we can see that the MC is sometimes scarred from his previous ‘cycle’, which affects his behavior in the next cycle of rebirth. Sometimes, it even prevents him from moving forward because he is so mentally and emotionally worn out.

I love the times when the characters or the narration would make a statement that jumped the fourth wall (e.g. character making the comment: “if you say anymore, the novel would be locked!”. They just make for such fun mental double-takes.

All the worlds are very interesting and the concept of having a key player in the world is exciting. It definitely amps up the stake when the MC or one of the side characters I like become a key player. Depending on how many worlds the key player survived, their presence could drastically increase the difficulty of the world. For example, there was a player called Shi Jianchuan who was in his last world. His presence alone increased the difficulty of the world so much so that 80+ players were pulled into that world (more players = higher the difficulty of the world) and only one person could survive (although MC and ML used special means to survive).

The mysteries surrounding MC’s constant resets and ML’s hidden personality also kept the story going. We are constantly teased by other more experienced characters about ML’s dark side, so there is an urge to continue reading just to figure out what is going on. Similarly, every time they survived a world, pieces of clues were given to MC regarding the cause of his resets.

Shortcomings:

The mechanics regarding the difficulty of the worlds are still a bit confusing to me. It doesn’t seem quite fair if a new player is pulled into another player’s last world, they would basically become fodder. The last explanation about how MC resets himself, while already hinted at, does seem to come as a surprise - we weren’t told about the wish mechanic or about the rooms of gears and boxes, so it does read as a bit forceful where the author attempts to tie all the clues together.

[lapinneok]

delilah 4 the ask game !! <3

hehehe. hahaha. i apologize in advance. @chesthighwater also asked me about her! i'll put it all in one post not to repeat myself. thank you both for the ask!!

First impression: i hated her at first. the reason for that is bc how she's written in dh2 compared to dh1 dlcs. behavior and plot in general. i just think they did a poor job with her character arc. it feels repetitive for her to do the same thing she did in the dlcs. also she was made op by giving her new void powers (which she doesn't really use exept for dragging emily in the void and for the last fight. kinda lame imo) and not by developing her as a character. etc etc etc i honestly think i've said this a million times already

Impression now: i support women wrongs. all hail the queen seriously though, she was the best villain in all dh1 + dlcs. very unique and the most memorable of them all

Favorite moment: the cutsceen in tbw where she gets killed and pulls daud's blade deeper into her. WHAT AN INSULT. GIRL DIED A LEGEND. a honorable mention: her meeting with billie and daud at the end of kod. fighting her in the dlcs is sooo cool also. love her

Idea for a story: i'll leave this here. nothig else so far

Unpopular opinion: she deserves so much better. and whatever was in the "first impression" question.

Favorite relationship: billie lurk breanna ashworth. yes to toxic wlw couples.

Favorite headcanon: she preserves the world as a theatrical play (literally) where she is the main character and narrator. and the director.

the ask post

[iron-sides]

@suzaojou hi :)

I meant powerhouses as in pure power, Ochako is very good with her power but no one is calling her the strongest or "the next *best/highly ranked character*" like they are for Deku or Bakugo or Shouto. I do like her aspirations, personality and character, my issue with MHA is separate from her and just a general "none of the girls are in the same league as the guys" which is seen a lot in the 90's shonen "be the best" shows.

im going to be really blunt for a second and i need to emphasize this is not a personal attack or even necessarily criticism considering that fandom is first and foremost meant to be fun. but have you considered that no one calling ochako "the best" is fandom misogyny. and anyway, again, have you considered that if the fandom doesnt see any of the girls as being in the same league as the guys that could be because the bnha fandom is biased towards men. because-- and let me hold your hand as i say this-- most of the girls in class A kick ass. (hagakures powers a little lame but like. momo is the most op character in the whole show so i think it evens out esp considering kods and ojiro both have lame powers too so wtvr)

we are talking very specifically here about the fandom tendency to be more willing to get into a male character with no backstory or characterization than a female character who has been throughly fleshed out. ao3 has more fics tagged sero hanta centric than yaorozu momo centric, even though momo is a more fleshed-out character (to my knowledge anyway again i stopped reading after the dabi reveal). thats what op is talking about.

My bad, 90's and 00's, that is where I developed this terrible attitude which I try not to backtrack to whenever I decide I don't like a girl character.

Naruto is considered bad now? That explains all the anti-konoha stuff coming through my dash lol.

i mean idk for sure that ppl dont like naruto i havent seen naruto ive just heard pretty mixed reviews. more importantly if you know this attitude is terrible why would you bring it up unprompted on a post about fandom misogyny? op was not talking about anime. if you know this era is an outlier even within anime why would you a) bring it up at all and b) generalize as all anime when you just specifically say "naruto"?

OP is my jam and is one of those ones that I really enjoy despite the female character designs. Oda makes some bombass women (with a couple minor exceptions), which is probably because they all have strong goals and dreams. He does have some...questionable content but those came up so late in the series, I'm already so invested. Dude made me cry over a boat...

yeah i havent seen op 😭 i know its supposed to be absolutely fantastic i just do not have the time to catch up to all that. thrilled to hear there are good girls though :D

i really like anime and i think its such a pity it has a reputation for having no good female characters when thats just not true-- sure, there are a few bad shows for women, but by and large I watched a couple episodes of three different shows yesterday while i was painting my nails and they all had great female characters! i think it's really a matter of what shows you're watching and what shows you get really into.

i know for me i started watching a lot more anime with great female characters and paying those female characters more attention when i started moving away from anime fandom spaces. when all you see on your dash are male characters it can be hard to see how great the female characters are!

id highly recommend getting into-- if not shojo, at least romantic shonen-- if you want to see more good female characters! i'm obviously a huge ranma 1/2 fan, and the remake is coming out this season with two episodes on netflix rn, and dandadan is really good as well (also coming out this season on netflix-- ranma is saturdays and dandadan is thursdays :))-- and everyone loves spyxfamily :) there ARE shows with really great female characters and i personally had to deliberately seek them out to learn how to start paying more attention to female characters (and im still not perfect-- my favorite character in mdzs (which is a novel & a donghua, so a but off-topic but its my main fandom rn lol) is jiang yanli (a woman) but im more likely still to read and write fic about her brother) but its so much more fun when you do imo

[misogynistic person who is biased against women and favors men in all circumstances] wow it's so crazy that in literally every show and book and movie ever made all the male characters are likable and sympathetic but all the female characters are shallow and irrational... obviously this is the fault of the writing and nothing to do with me

[m2emacak]

Prema zvanicnim izvorima roditelji ce kod vestacke op;pdnje moci da biraju pol novorodjenceta, boju kose i ociju, visinu i fizicki izgled tela ... Moze kako hoces. Zene, radjate decu dok vam je jos uvek dozvoljeno. Vestackom oplodnjom menjaju i genom novorodzencetu.

[zvoneradikalni]

Live praćenje rezultata New Hampshire predizbora

Start 01:11. Konačno je počelo prebrojavanje . Nismo više u vodstvu . Al’ noć je još mlada . 1:24 – 1% done … sad još 99% ovako 💪. 1:28 – op, riješeno i 2% (je, je, je, ZNAM da su to vjerojatno oni urbani dijelovi koji prvi obrade rezultate, ista priča kao kod nas … al’ pustite me da se malo veselim). 1:31 – 4%, the plot thickens 1:34 – 5% i Trump prelazi u vodstvo 1:36 – 7%, sad…

[impulsi-udobnosti]

Sreo sam tek jednu, ili dvije osobe tijekom svog života koji su razumjeli umijeće hodanja, tj. odlaska u šetnju - koji su imali dar, da tako kažem, za lutanje: što je riječ koja je predivno izvedena iz "besposleni ljudi koji su lunjali zemljom za srednjeg vijeka, i tražili milostinju pod izlikom da idu a la Saint-Terre," u Svetu zemlju, dok bi djeca govorila: "Evo Saint-Terrera," lutalice [1], svetozemljaša.  Istina je, mi smo tek plahi križari, i hodači koji ne poduzimaju ustrajne pothvate, pothvate bez kraja. Naše ekspedicije su tek obilasci, i završavaju navečer kod ognjišta od kojeg smo i krenuli. Polovica naše šetnje tek je vraćanje po vlastitim tragovima. Trebali bismo otići u najkraću šetnju, slučajno, u duhu neumiruće avanture, i nikad se ne vratiti – spremni da natrag pošaljemo samo svoje balzamirano srce kao uspomenu na svoja napuštena kraljevstva. Ako ste spremni napustiti majku i oca, brata i sestru, ženu i djecu i prijatelje, i nikad ih više ne vidjeti – ako ste platili sve svoje dugove, napisali oporuku, i ako ste riješili sve svoje brige, onda ste slobodan čovjek, onda ste spremni na hodanje.

― Henry David Thoreau, Hodanje

[1] eng. Saunterer, op. prev.

[cointahmin]

Layer-2 ölçeklendirme tahlili Optimism, merakla belenen Bedrock yükseltmesini 6 Haziran’da hayata geçirecek. Heyecanla beklenen bu yükseltme, ağ genelinde bir dizi uygunlaştırma sağlayacak. Bedrock güncellemesinin süreç fiyatlarını kıymetli ölçüde düşürmesi, daha fazla ağ güvenliği sağlaması ve Ethereum ile uyumluluğu artırması bekleniyor. Bedrock Güncellemesi, Ağa Birçok Yeni Özellik KazandıracakOptimism takımı 15 Mayıs’ta Twitter üzerinden yaptığı açıklamada, ağın 6 Haziran’da iki ila dört saat müddetle kapalı kalacağını belirtti. 2022’nin Mayıs ayında duyurusu yapılan Bedrock, Optimism yönetişim kurulunun Token House’u tarafından oylanan birinci büyük ağ yükseltmesini temsil ediyor. Optimism’in, ağın protokol geliştirme ünitesi olan OP Labs’in varsayımlarına nazaran yüzde 47 oranında daha düşük süreç fiyatlarından faydalanması planlanıyor. Optimism topluluğunun güncelleme ile ilgili açıklamasında: “Bedrock, optimize edilmiş toplu sıkıştırma ve bilgi kullanılabilirliği katmanı olarak Ethereum aracılığıyla süreç fiyatlarını azaltıyor. Layer-1 yine düzenlemelerini daha şık bir biçimde ele alarak bu süreçleri toplamlara dahil etme gecikmelerini kısaltıyor” tabirleri kullanıldı. Buna ek olarak, ağda para yatırma müddetlerinin de kısalacağı ve Optimism’in bir para yatırma sürecini onaylamak için müddetin yaklaşık 10 dakikadan yalnızca üç dakikaya ineceği belirtiliyor. Bir öteki kıymetli gelişme ise ağın, Ethereum akıllı kontratlarını yürüten temel yazılım kesimi olan Ethereum Sanal Makinesi (EVM) uyumluluğu ile ilgili olacak. Bedrock ile ağ, Ethereum ve EVM’den şu anda Optimism ile mevcut olan farklı kod, tasarım modelleri ve blok başına süreç modelleri üzere çoklu sapmaları ortadan kaldıracak.

[cannoli-reader]

Just a couple notes on the OP's excellent points.

Regarding the emotional issues with Elayne, we see that they are undermining her confidence in her judgment, when she brings up her plan to send the sul'dam who have been made to accept they can channel, back to the Seanchan, to force the Seanchan to confront that sul'dam can channel, in hopes of undermining the whole system. And when she is met with skepticism, she worries that her perspective on her plan is being warped by her pregnancy emotions. Except she had the same ideas and the same plan, back when she first got the Seanchan captives from Taim, and mentions them in Winter's Heart, at a point in the story when she was still a virgin, and completely free of pregnancy hormones. Furthermore, in that same book, Egeanin speculates that the word spreading that sul'dam can channel will have just the effect that Elayne hopes. (Jordan seems to love doing this - set up a defense or counter-argument to criticism for his main characters, in a book or two before the criticism or skepticism comes up: see for example, Rand's Aiel credentials) But this is an example of how the pregnancy stuff is making things harder for her, how she has to deal with questions of her judgment that other characters, or even herself at other times, are unlikely to face.

The other is about how radical Elayne supposedly isn't in her career, as opposed to her personal life, but she's done a lot of new and different things, even while laboring under the need to meet certain expectations and conform to traditions and customs, and lacking the power to do much before she is crowned.

She plans to make the Queen's Guard larger. This doesn't sound like a big deal in the face of the threats she has to confront, from the challenges to her claim, to the risk of the Seanchan, and the certainty of Tarmon Gaidon, but Dyelin reacts as she does for a reason. Because the Queen's Guard is a standing professional military force, which seems to be something of a no-go in the setting, deliberately kept small, with rulers relying on levies from their noble supporters when going to war. Elayne is moving Andor closer to a national army, a component of a more modern nation-state. She also founded a royal bodyguard, essentially splitting that function off from the Queen's Guards, which, in fact, from the name, is their intended primary purpose. While it originated as merely guards for Elayne in a time of danger, it is clear as of KoD, that it has become an institution. And by creating a ceremonial and personal protection force, effectively relieving the Queen's Guard of those duties, she is helping to transform the Queen's Guard into more strictly an instrument of war and regime enforcement. Similarly, she intends to establish a postal service, and assumes patronage of the school Rand founded, which, the way things are going, would tie to the crown and make it a national institution. Considering this is a story about a fantasy apocalypse against an evil god and genetically engineered monsters, and Elayne is at best, the quintagonist, if that's a word, that's a lot of government reform and nationalization from someone who doesn't have the throne yet.

Also, her employment of gateways for political purposes and tactical and logistical military purposes is an enormous innovation. Rand uses gateways tactically in tPoD, and Egwene orders their use strategically in the same books, while the rebel Aes Sedai have been using Skimming for communications purposes, but concerns about availability of supplies in whatever area they happen to be passing through is a recurring issue in each book of Egwene's journey with the rebels. The hundreds of Aes Sedai and auxiliary personnel with the camps seem to have all failed to think up Elayne's solution to supply problems. Also, the use of the gateways to conduct what amounts to a campaign tour, while technically besieged in her capital city has to be unique even by modern transportation standards. Monarchies have had the concept of a royal progress, but that's more in the nature of a moving court, as the king, and with him, the government, travels around to keep an eye on things and be accessible to his subjects. Elayne is using her own Traveling version to carry out a cross between a royal visit and a modern meet-and-greet, to make a positive impression on those she intends to lead through the worst times in Andor's history.

Elayne might merely be doing the job she was expected and intended to do, but she is rising to meet unprecedented challenges, in completely new ways, with an impressive degree of flexibility and innovation. It's rather a perfect setup for her to become the royal patron of the first artillery development in their world, and to establish her as the best choice for commander-in-chief for Tarmon Gaidon.

Elayne (Knife of Dreams)

Reading through Elayne’s chapters in Knife of Dreams, I noticed a different vibe to her story (compared with the stories of Egwene, Rand, Mat and Perrin) and I started wondering: how much of this is due to Elayne’s personality, how much is due to her pregnancy, and how much is due to other factors? Writing out my thoughts seemed like a good idea at the time, so here we go…

Firstly, I am well aware that there are characters whose chapters are more dramatically different from the Two Rivers’ gang than Elayne’s do! But I expect, for example, that an Aes Sedai Sitter will be in a very different place in her life, and one of the Forsaken will have very different priorities, and a sul'dam will have a different worldview… Elayne, on the other hand, comes from a - comparatively - similar culture as the Two Rivers folk; she’s a similar age, leaves home not long after they do and shares in many of their adventures; she is similarly central to the overall story.  And while these characters all have different personalities and end up in different places, doing different things, they nevertheless still go through similar sorts of experiences. Coming to terms with their abilities, assuming positions of responsibility, commanding armies, being underestimated by those who think they are too young, learning how to be an effective leader and so on… Yet Elayne does not have quite as much in common with the others than they do with each other, and not merely because she didn’t grow up with them.

(Before I repeatedly compare Elayne’s adventures and achievements to those of the Two Rivers gang, it seems worth noting that I don’t believe that Elayne’s story is inherently inferior because it’s different. It is just different.)

Part of this different vibe is simply due to Elayne being at home. She is the only character who gets to return to their childhood home and stay there. (The closest any one else comes is Perrin… but his home is no longer standing and although he gets to build a new one, he does not get to stay there long.) And even though the palace isn’t exactly the same home Elayne remembers - corridors seem to move unexpectedly and her mother is no longer around - it still feels like home.

She is actually dealing with many of the same things that the others are: armed forces and warfare; moving corridors; spoiling food; politics. Yet because she’s at home (and will likely need to stay at home, even once she’s secured her throne), her situation seems much more stable - more bearable. As if it could drag on and on… Oh, it wouldn’t be fun for anyone if it did drag on, but Elayne would still get to sleep in her own bed at night. Whereas for characters who are travelling - for instance, Mat or Perrin - there’s a greater sense that their current adventures have an end in sight and that in the interim, anything could happen.

Keep reading

[yuexuan]

[Review]画怖

Title: 画怖 Paintings of Terror

Author: 瑆玥

Length: 380 + 2 extras

Rating: E (for horror/gory elements)

Tag: infinite flow, horror, mystery

Summary [taken from novel updates]:

If Ke Xun could do it again, he would have never left his house to go out and flirt with guys, even if it would mean getting beaten to death.

Weren’t they supposed to have just been taking shelter from the rain in a museum and looking at some erot*c paintings while they were at it? Why…did they enter the world inside a painting?!

Mu Yiran: Every single one of us is acting out a role in the painting.

Ke Xun’s eyes lit up: How do we get into an erot*c painting?

Mu Yiran gave him a long, drawn-out look: Shut your eyes and lie down.

Novel[translated]

Comments **contains spoilers**:

One day, Ke Xun and his bestie Wei Dong entered an art exhibition to avoid the rain. Instead, they found themselves transported into one of the paintings, kickstarting their journey of going through multiple paintings in different art exhibitions. Their goal? To survive the paintings, find the artist’s signature/seal, and solve the larger mystery of why this is happening. 

And maybe, have time for some romance in between. 

*

This novel reminded me a lot of Kaleidoscope of Death, in terms of the level of horror, humor, mechanics (e.g. people who died in the paintings would also die soon thereafter in the real world for unknown reasons), and the main character’s personality (i.e. shameless Ke Xun vs shameless Ruan Nanzhu lol). Even the ending style, with the what-the-fuck-ery, is very reminiscent. So if you like KOD, chances are, you’ll also enjoy POT.

Highlights:

Each painting has a complex worldbuilding with a message behind it. The painting that fascinates me most is probably the “Animal World”, where humans and livestocks exchanged their roles. It seems like a criticism about industrial farming and some of the inhumane practices in the industry (Ironically, this might be one of the reasons - per rumors - the novel is no longer hosted on jjwxc, on account that it depicts and possibly criticizes certain aspects of China, especially in regards to homophobia). But even more impressive is how the author ties together all the different paintings and their hints at the end. Hence the latter part of the novel is heavily invested in mystery-solving with a lot of big brain moments.

I’ll say the horror element in this story is top-tier. Not just in the spooky scary way, but in a dystopian way. Just *chef kiss* 

One thing I do find refreshing about this novel is that there is an explanation for why certain characters are so good at surviving. In a lot of infinite flow novels, the stories are structured in a way that the protagonist and his few selected friends are often incredibly lucky and/or incredibly smart in every subject - even though they are sometimes just normal students. But POT provides a reason: that is, the characters have been specifically selected by a higher force so that their specialty can ensure their survival (e.g. a doctor being selected for a painting requiring medical knowledge). 

Some of the side characters are fun - such as Wei Dong and ‘carrot’, who provided nice comic relief. I also like Fang Fei, one of the few surviving female characters in the story. Also, love the Dong Fang pairing, they are quite cute together. 

The ending is a wild ride. I love the mix of science and history behind the Shan Hai painting. That said, there are some parts that are just pure information dump and can make for difficulty understanding.

Things I don’t like

Even though I said that every character was selected for their specialty, it still doesn’t hide the fact that ML is too OP. He is an art collector and has some knowledge of the paintings, but he also possessed knowledge beyond his realm of expertise, even going so far as to be able to acquire weaponry…I’ll say he is the standard stoic gong that doesn’t inspire a lot of interest as a character.

Female characters - As with a lot of infinite flow danmeis (and danmei in general), female characters get shunned and disposed of easily…But for some reason this novel just rubs me off even more than the rest. I think it has to do with the fact that a lot of the female characters are quite competent, but they were casted in a bad light, in comparison to male characters that had similar qualities. E.g. Sha Liu - she was actually really knowledgeable and while her interpretation of the clues weren’t completely correct, the main characters seemed unfairly critical to her explanations and didn’t even care if she died??? Basically, until the latter ⅓ of the story, you can bet that most female characters are getting axed, and those that get left (with the exception of Fang Fei), are just seemingly there for narrative convenience.

[xamaxenta]

I have not seen this specific idea before but ABO except if a omega is too stressed out they won't have their heat and yes it becomes painful after a while and can eventually kill the omega. Of course once they are relaxed they have a really bad heat to make up for missed heats. Anyway ace while on the Moby fighting whitebeard is too stressed and misses like one or two heats until after he joins he is finally happy and relaxed enough his first heat on the Moby hits hard and Marco helps ace through it but the whitebeards feels guilty about the stress and/or happy that ace is finally relaxed around them

Yeah!! I love this idea, its the main concept i used (where Ace out of a personal self hatred for his dynamic and utilisting multiple chemical means to stifle his heats) for part 1 of the marcoace abo fic i wrote when i first entered the op fanbase and proceeded to never finish part 2 and 3 bc semantics writing is hard i really truly appreciate yall who write FOR FREE you guys are the real goats

I like the idea that after settling and realising hes got a safe space and nothing to no longer prove Ace would end up getting KOd by his heat, and ofc all the alphas on board posturing and preening hoping to be chosen as the partner but Ace locked in on someone a long time ago they all stood no chance haha

Its marco obvs ✨ the marcoace abo ace joins the wbp has a heat for the first time is great its a classic for a reason

But pondering the flip side with Alpha Ace finally going into an extremely belated rut and having to be physically restrained bc hes rampaging? Yeaaaaah… 🥰 both tbh……..