#some neat worldbuilding stuff though

[jitterbugbear]

ooh i just read an incredibly mid book! my 5 star streak has been SEVERED violently!! back to regular programming

[avithenaftali]

October 28, 2022, 7:11 P.M.

For whatever reason I enjoy thinking about Diana Wynne Jones' writing as a whole and picking out unexpected or resonant trends. For example, some things that comes up often is:

She'll fabricate a world (right down to its cosmology), fill it with memorable characters, set one or two short novels in it... and then never touch it again. On to the next one. Rinse and repeat for her entire career.

The concept of multiple/parallel universes appear half a dozen times in different novels/sequences, but always in completely different ways. The multiple worlds of Chrestomanci function very, very differently from the multiple worlds of The Homeward Bounders, which themselves function so different from the Ayewards/Naywards of Deep Secret, or the walls between the worlds in Dark Lord of Derkholm. More importantly, all these approaches to multiverse explicitly contradict each other. There is no larger DWJ multiverse; there is no way to coherently combine any of them, much less all of them. I love her for this. Every book is its own project. Franchising be damned.

With one exception (which is the Dalemark quartet, oddly enough), none of these worlds are sealed-off secondary worlds. Our own Earth appears in all of them, though usually from the 'wrong' end of the telescope. Meaning, it's stuff like reading Charmed Life and assuming you're reading a magical secondary world fantasy for most of the book... up until the point when Janet is pulled into the story due to Gwendolyn's spell. The reader instantly understands that Janet is from our own world, from the 1970s when the book was written. She never makes it home, either. She never sees her parents again. She's a supporting character who becomes permanently stuck in the world of Chrestomanci, as a casualty of Gwendolyn's spells.

It is interesting, though, how there are almost no sealed-off secondary worlds in DWJ's oeuvre.

There are lots of neat things to say about how DWJ did this, and why she'd do it, and the implications in the storytelling. But tonight I'm thinking mostly about how it can be a moment, narratively, that makes you halt and have to recontextualize all these things you thought you knew (or were assuming) about the nature of the story.

In Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed, Urras is obviously the metaphorical capitalistic stand-in planet for our own Earth... up until a moment right near the end, where we realize our own Earth exists in this novel too and is an ecological wasteland due to unchecked climate change.

Urras may be the distorted-mirror, uber-capitalist version of our own world. But it's also a planet with a functional ecosystem. It's a planet where society is careful about maintaining that ecosystem. We're not going to be Urras, says Le Guin. We'll be lucky if we become Urras. To become Urras means we wised up in time to not go extinct.

And suddenly, little subtle moments in the worldbuilding around both Anarres and Urras—their shared attention to their own ecology—come into a different light. All because our own, devastated Earth turns out to be present in the novel too.

And in Howl's Moving Castle, Howl is a magician who fits into the fairy tale landscape of Ingary as naturally as anyone else—until the chapter when he has to go home to retrieve a lost spell, and you realize home is in another world, aka home is our world, aka Howl is fucking Welsh and found his way into Ingary by pure accident. And Ben Sullivan, Ingary's missing royal magician, is no native of Ingary either.

To Sophie, it just means that both magicians travelled to Ingary from the same enigmatic foreign land, which is as strange to her as any spell.

To us readers, it means "oh my god he's Welsh too? Just how much is Wales secretly connected to Ingary? Next thing you'll tell me Ben Sullivan's a rugby player as well—"

[yuukirita]

"How? Expand on this. You can't just tell me that and run away, anon. Whatchu mean?"

I mean, I have a fanon where sparklings don't develop mentally or physically without their Sire and Carrier, since it wouldn't be safe for them. Sentinel killed Megatronus and Prima Prime before they introduced BabyBee and BabyCliff to the public.

And both BabyBee and BabyCliff were too young to remember what happened that time and considering the fact that they hit their heads when falling to Sub-Level 50, it can be expected that they don't have many memories.

ey only know that sometimes they have fleeting memories of two giant robots that (although they can't see their faces very well) always smile at them and make them feel safe.

(and when they see Sentinel for the first time, they are terrified for some inexplicable reason)

Ahhhhh! Context! FABULOUS!

Sparklings not developing without its caretakers is interesting. That on it's own is more interesting to me than the primes being the parents- but that's just because... I like worldbuilding. It reminds me of the Robots movie where the robots only grow when they get new parts so they need an external influence to change their bodies to match their mental when it's needed. Which is cooool. And having something like that with Cybertronians is neat! Even if the process is less involved.

With the babybee au however... Especially with your suggestion of the Primes being their first caretakers, it's tricky.

That means we'd have 50 year old babies (lol like Grogu), that in on itself isn't that bad. But if they're so young and they cannot grow neither mentally or physically, how did they survive so long?

The whole sparkling life cycle is a whole... mess. Because it's mostly fannon. Like, what is a sparkling? How independent can they be? At birth/creation, how aware are they?

Every version is valid though. Cuz its fannon. I like your idea, I'm putting it in the 'cool fanon' idea box. But I'm not using it. You can expand on that though! Would love to see it! Seriously, never stop creating! :D I didn't think much about why sparklings exist- why Bee is a sparkling. Just wanted to draw cute stuff. I say he comes from the well. Why does Primus make sparklings? I dunno! :D But it is fun to wonder about.

[fumifooms]

do you happen to have that page that talks about the beauty standards of each race?

Yeah sure. While scavenging pics for this I found this neat reddit compilation & chart & theory talk too. I had um, way more to say than I anticipated (I know you only wanted the one page. I have nothing to say for myself. Like most topics in Dunmeshi things snowball because they’re so interconnected. Mercy…) so, many races and observations are only mentioned near the bottom.

Beauty standards and race in Dungeon Meshi

Not pictured there’s also how elven society is harsh on visibly disabled people, and how the demon took away Mithrun’s silver eyes and ears to take away his pride. There’s also how Senshi might have fit in with the orcs more easily because of the dwarven wide body shape, and how they tend to have more body hair too I suppose. In the extra on orcs we see Senshi living with the orcs and he gets judged because of the hierarchy rather than his looks.

What is fashionable also differs from culture to culture, and there’s how tattoos only seem common with elves, though dwarves and others do also sometimes have some. They seem to not raise much brows, which makes sense since for many essentially they’re for professional (magical) purposes especially with elves. Gender roles also differ in type and importance, but generally they are similar to irl ones for the races we see. Elven society seems to be the least gendered, which would be an unsurprising logical outcome of having lesser sexual dimorphism aka they look more androgynous. Comparing fashions and gender roles and how they affect beauty standards would be a whole other compilation and conversation. Kui has great worldbuilding partially because she’s got such a good grasp on sociopolitics and geopolitics. History affects cultures and beauty standards greatly. Kui’s oneshot Distant Utopia was very eye opening on her way to worldbuild and the consideration she gives these things, I do really recommend reading it.

Out of the big 5, we know the least about gnomes, but their sheet does say both culture and region are similar to dwarves’ and they end up being confused together often, so we can imagine the beauty standards are similar to dwarves’ as well.

I wanted to touch on this in a post eventually, but how one daydream hour page said half-foots tended to be curvaceous like in the artwork below puzzled me for a long time, all the half-foot characters we see during canon are rather slender and lanky after all, Chil’s succubi also being more curvy than plump. Economics are for sure a factor in that I imagine, the half-foots characters we see are all implied to be some flavor of poor or malnourished, as are half-foots depicted as empoverished oppressed minorities in general. Even comparing the artwork with the half-foot sheet’s depicted average half-foot, the ones on the left seem bigger. Wouldn’t it make sense though, if unlike dwarves half-foots don’t have similar naturally wide bodies, yet due to idolizing dwarves they work towards having a similar body shape/type to emulate them?

It’s said half-foots tend to stick to pretty ethnically homogeneous regions (aka half-foots-only communities) unless they move to the big city with ambition to try and make it big (like Chilchuck and his wife & kids did), and that’s interesting imo because then that would mean that in a ton of half-foot communities, they rarely see or interact with dwarves whom they try to emulate. Of course, one thing about beauty standards is that when they get adopted, at one point it stops being "this is how dwarves look and so this is how half-foots should look" and just becomes "this is how half-foots should look", most people feel as though beauty standards aren’t learned but innate, so I figure the half-foots wouldn’t have any problem still seeking dwarvish traits when there are no dwarves around.

There’s also stuff you can glean here and there if you want to extrapolate more. Like how in the race swap artworks, Mickbell is only smiling in the dwarf portrait, and Rin’s elven portrait looks very close to her elven one- Rin who is stated to be beautiful in her profile blurb. Benichidori’s extra does teach us tallmen can definitely have harsh beauty standards, but also since the text portrays her as very dysmorphic that’s likely reflected in her thoughts to a much more intense degree than is common, not an accurate strict baseline to go off. Ah, Kabru’s blue eyes are also why he and his mother lived a rough life in Kabru’s hometown, but that seems to be regional. Good post here on the topic of Kabru’s blue eyes and ties to irl history. There’s a lot to be said about Kabru being a man that in many ways is close to elven beauty standards, and how that might have affected or been affected by his upbringing with elves + his persona as someone that can effortlessly charm most people. Marcille’s section here in this essay also goes into Marcille’s struggles to fit in with the ideal image of an elf.

Looking human

Also notable are beastkins and demihumans: Demihumans are all dehumanized which makes people treat them worse. So if you differ from the visual idea of "human" (an in-world subjective categorization just as much as demihuman is) most people do judge you negatively. Elves and dwarves get to fight about which type of human is considered the prettiest, but demihumans are below tallmen and half-foots, they are considered as simply below the beauty contest, incompatible with it.

Onis are perhaps the demihuman people we know of with the least cultural influence on the dunmeshi world, and with the least intensely different appearance than other demihumans—they seem to be technically categorized as human to people not from the eastern archipelago?— but even them are treated as lesser than human, treated as beasts to slain for reputation points or useful strength to have around and command. It’s said their "magnificient horns" and fangs are often shaven off when the oni lives in tallman towns, so you could easily make the argument that onis are denied the right to have their own beauty standards, having to conform to other people’s and going through mutilation to take away features they might otherwise have taken pride in. Inutade was bought by the Nakamotos from a dangerous sumo fighting ring that got one of Inutade’s tooth broken on her first and only fight, and kept as a low ranking servant ever since. Remember when I said different fashions existed in dunmeshi and how those could also affect beauty standards? Like the elves, if you look at the portraits pages which include a lot of characters that aren’t in the story you can see distinct cultures within the same races, for example one young elf is bald which is in sharp contrast with the usual elven long luscious hairstyles, and that’s especially true for onis I think. Maybe not only from different regions but different eras as well… They have a bit of population in the very north of the western continent, so I like to think some of the ogres live in very cold, maybe even subarctic or arctic conditions. The point I’m getting at here is that within a race, culture/ethnicity like with Kabru will also influence them it isn’t just tallmen as a whole, different communities will have differing beauty standards. The oni history blurb and third row first collumn portrait remind me of Mongolia (which historically was a lot of different nomadic communities with different cultural identities as well. Something something, the oni empire experienced a decline and then tallmen overpowered them, and now they’re governed and split apart by stronger social classes & slavers and the richness of culture was hurt for it especially if they have no real community left of their own), but obviously many of them are dressed and look rather japanese, makes sense considering living in/close to Wa, and first row second collumn portrait reminds me of ainus which again would be logical considering geographical placement, though I’m far from an expert. Interestingly, ainus are indigenous people both in Japan and Russia- Perhaps the northern western continent ogres are meant to be closer to Russia than Canada like I imagined? Ok tangent over.

The kobold sheet says they’re especially sought after as slaves because they’re "adorable", but locally in the western continent they’re repeatedly said to be seen more as ferocious and dangerous. The dehumanization is most apparent in the first comic below. The language barrier and conflicts no doubt worsen this by a lot, but I think it’d be hard to deny that their canine appearance makes the dehumanization worse. "They’re ferocious beasts, they’re demihumans, they can’t be communicated with". Most characters in Dungeon Meshi’s world are desensitized to slavery and most characters are prejudiced one way or another. Point being, kobolds are fully removed from human beauty standards, but no doubt for kobolds, other kobolds are more beautiful than humans are. They’re assumed to be an uncivilized bunch, but just like any other people they like to adorn themselves with nice clothes and jewelry and keep themselves clean and groomed; they too take care of their appearance and take pride in it.

And the orcs! This one we have the most contact with in canon, with not only there being foreigner characters from the ethnicity or hearsay of their homelands and culture but full on contact with a community. We get to see up close what they’re like and what they think, and of course in turn they’re our introduction to how demihumans are harshly looked down upon and seen as inferior, less human and thus less worth valuing and less dignified. It’s text that orcs are ugly to most humans and humans are ugly to most orcs. Since I judged they didn’t need accompanying explanation the pictures showing this are in the pictures dump at the top.

God forbid you sell vegetables to orcs my god- but then again they do basically mandate adventurers to kill any orcs they come across so yeah the world isn’t above that even a little bit.

So yes, my main point here is simply that orcs are yet another evidence of the physical ideal of "human" being an important beauty standard for human societies globally.

Izutsumi is our glimpse at how beastkins are treated in the world, and in Wa at least that’s ending up being caged and mistreated as part of a freak show. Izutsumi hates her appearance and wishes she could leave the feline part of herself behind to only be human. Interestingly, not that we have a lot of info on them so this is very much a take with a grain of salt situation, but there seems to be less stigma around artificial beastmen, those who can shapeshift at will. The main difference is of course appearance, that most of the time they simply look like average tattooed humans. Artificially creating humans is an illegal practice, and no doubt it’s not well regarded, but being able to hide that makes them less likely to be discriminated at any moment, or even just discriminated less intensely. Again, looking human is important, not only for belonging but for safety’s sake. Beauty standards rule the world with harsh hands.

Mermaids and fishmen

Ok we’re done now right? Right-! But wait… Wait…! Mermaids and fishmen are said to be demihumans too, special separate cases to the main three demihuman species however, which is also represented by how mermaids and fishmen both are in the Adventurer’s Bible chapter Monsters meanwhile ogres, kobolds and orcs are in the chapter World. They’re an interesting topic because they directly tackle this topic, not only in a meta way for the readers but also making characters themselves struggle to quantify their humanity with the goal of knowing wether they should be eaten or not, especially Chilchuck. Chilchuck’s "is it really just a matter of feelings?" mini arc.

The party asking themselves "Should we eat this?" is very common, and often they end up playing a little loose on morality, like eating the red dragon’s meat despite it having digested Falin. Not unsimilarly Marcille freaks out a little over the vegetables they harvested having been grown with fertilizer, aka largely human poo. Half of the motivation of "should we eat this perhaps sentient creature" is out of consideration and compassion, but more strongly and more often, the characters struggle with a sense of taboo at eating something too closely related to humans. Even, feel uncomfortable because of the deepseated impression that eating it would dirty them in some way. Cannibalism is an interesting and relevant topic in many ways, but what I want to mention is how there’s the more or less universal belief that committing cannibalism inherently taints you as a person and turns you more monstrous, morally but also literally depending on some myths such as w*ndigos and onis in some cases, like in Touge Oni. Marcille and Izutsumi both express a fear of eating monsters turning them monstrous. Maybe this is part of what Laios was hoping for, honestly. There are two fears here, if eating a demihuman monster constitutes as cannibalism or not, and so, will eating it taint you because it’s a human, or will eating it taint you because it’s a monster? You are what you eat, until it’s a little too literal. You morally are the means by which you get your food, and you physically are the result of your nutrition. Dungeon meshi manages to mix an exploration of humanity with the theme of food because our relationship to food is very deep and complex, psychological as much as physiological.

In the end, the characters sort of shrug and accept that they’ll never quite understand the world of mermaids and fishmen and how they operate, and what that means about them. Laios is the one always challenging these notions other characters take for granted, it’s not obvious to Laios why people are softer on mammals than other animals and plants, it’s not obvious to Laios why people would be afraid of eating a monster just because it’s a monster, it’s not obvious to Laios why some food is gross to Marcille but not fish testicles, it’s not obvious to Laios why you should immediately regard orcs and kobolds badly.

"Cows are probably closer to humans [aka closer to being human] than fishmen, though they’re clearly intelligent", dehumanization to lessen empathy towards them to be able to eat them. Meanwhile, mermaids seemingly have a less noticeable "civilization" or intelligence, they hunt in groups like fishmen, but they don’t use tools and such, they feel more primal and similarly instinct driven, and yet… Do they attract sympathy more? Mammals, humans, is it because of their nature or because of their appearance?

Both the nature and appearance of fish are ones people don’t typically sympathize with. "Fish don’t feel pain", "goldfish only have 5 seconds of memory", "it’s okay to keep fish in completely empty bowls too small for them until they die from it", so many lies and misconceptions exist that make people less considerate of them. The average lifespan of a goldfish is 10-15 years, the record is 43, but they’re not seen as lives that really matter, so a lot of goldfish die in a few weeks of bad aquarium conditions. There’s a lot of research on animals evolving to look cute and appealing to make some predators want to kill them less and parents want to care for them more, including humans. First good google research result gave me this credible short article on the topic. In Chilchuck’s weighing wether a fishman is far enough from being human or not to eat, "face is 100% fish" is his biggest argument for it being more acceptable. The face, the most important thing for empathy and recognition. The face, the decapitated fishman one that falls into his hands next chapter.

To quote @room-surprise: "Chilchuck can't explain why it's wrong to eat the merpeople, even though it's NOT complicated. But the problem is Chilchuck would have to accept and acknowledge that the merpeople might be people? And that's outside of the worldview he passively believes, so he can't just say that, because he doesn't think that's true. But that IS why he "feels" it's wrong. And it's all you'd need to say for Laios to understand! But it would require acknowledging that maybe the way they're treating and talking about the merpeople is wrong."

The idea of Chil not being able to grapple with how maybe some monsters are more humans than they seem, him who had been an advocate of half-foots rights, half-foots who get undermined and treated as inconsequential sacrifices… Grappling with how he could relate to the merpeople’s situation almost, and pulling away because it’s so existentially horrifying. I do not want to see myself into an hostile fish-faced warrior I can’t communicate with. In a way this also relates to Chilchuck being the only party member who doesn’t see Izutsumi as a cat in the relationship chart, the only one to treat her with full human dignity. He knows the struggle to be taken seriously, he knows being infantilized and he knows what it’s like to be treated as less than human.

Below, you will see Chilchuck draws the line of where they become not okay to eat as when "they already look like mermaids". Above, there’s speculation that the algae hair is partly to mimic "the mermaids’ beautiful female form". Is it because mermaids are their enemies and the ambiguity might give them extra seconds to attack or flee? Is it to trick adventurers instead? It’s striking to me that this is what works, with the adventurers. Sure the fishmen are intelligent, but explicitly here, what makes them no longer acceptable prey to Chilchuck is that they look close enough to a mermaid, close enough to human. Mermaids who of course themselves have this form to entice and seduce and charm the adventurers they prey on. Chilchuck considers the intelligence due to the tridents, but most of his internal debate centers around their appearance, and the image of a fishman skewered sickens him. The power of mimicry… Mimic being a beautiful human woman. Mimic being cute, babies being wired to make us feel protective and softened. Half-foots, sometimes pretending to be children for scams or help or avoiding trouble.

The mermaids are only concerned by their differences and not their similarities, and have no trouble treating the fishmen as food rather than peers. To an outside perspective like us, the audience, all these categorization of "more human" and "less human" between onis and orcs and elves and tallmen etc seem stupid and unfounded, but to the people living in Dungeon Meshi’s world, elves may as well be mermaids while onis are fishmen, not alike at all, unworthy of empathy and thus fine to eat.

Ultimately, Dungeon Meshi promotes unity. It’s about seeking to understand the unknown and the misunderstood, the dehumanized and the inhuman. It shows the good that comes from seeking to understand what you do not, even when that’s one another.

[astronomodome]

What’s Up With Those Title Cards, Anyway: An Analysis

Now that Mumbo’s second episode is out I find myself thinking about these title cards again. And as much as I realize that they’re meant to be a fun nod to previous Hermitcraft seasons and Mumbo’s place in them, the items included and the context of their presence raise a whole lot of questions for me.

First of all, these aren’t blocks, they’re real items. Many of them don’t even have equivalents in the world of Minecraft (or even in Hermitcraft). Think about that. Are the blocky forms that we see on screen mere representations of a larger, more high-resolution world? A world with stickers and stamps and keys? A world where a ticket to Hermitcraft is a physical object you can hold in your hand? This certainly seems to imply so.

What is the context for these items? Where are they? Where are we? The stylistic choice was made to have them sort of resting on a solid-colored background. The selection of items makes me feel as though this is a representation of a desk of some kind, items important enough to Mumbo for him to keep around, lots of paperwork and stuff that you might find in a private office drawer. Which just raises even more questions. How does Mumbo keep these items from season to season? Where are they right now? Do they actually exist at all? (Not to mention smaller timeline questions. When did Mumbo receive the Grumbot message? When was it sent? Does the Grumbot left in Season 7 have a different consciousness than the one in Season 9, which last saw its dads only a month or two ago?)

If you follow the Rendog school of Hermitcraft lore, I guess you could say they’re kept on the Hermetheus along with all the other season-to-season holdovers and souvenirs. But that is one interpretation of many, canon to Rendog but never really canonized on a server-wide scale. Plus… if we take that interpretation in its entirety, how do the items from season 8 even exist, given that their entire world was canonically a simulation?

I also notice the relationship between the real world and the Minecraft world, the distinction between Mumbo the youtuber and Mumbo the block man. The ‘Official Rich List’ certificate mentions a ‘screenshot of a Minecraft chest’, implying that whoever wrote this certificate knows what Minecraft is from an outside perspective and finds Minecraft diamonds to be meaningless as a measure of wealth. And yet the certificate is addressed to one Mumbo K. Jumbo. The middle initial, having its origin in a highly in-character storyline during season 8, makes me feel like it could be more of a character Mumbo thing, but there’s no hard evidence.

How does Mumbo even have a picture of real-life Grian? Is this redstone incident report out-of-universe too? Who is he reporting this damage to, anyway?

And yet these are placed alongside items that are definitely from inside the world of Hermitcraft, if only the more fleshed-out version of it. A key to a mechanical car-horse would be functionless unless it was actually used, in-universe, by Mumbo the character. The ODEA manual was an idea considered but rejected by Mumbo during Season 7 in favor of tutorial videos, but perhaps this would make sense as an alternative for a world where the characters live in their Minecraft world as reality and have no capability to access the ODEA website.

Perhaps, in Mumbo’s view, there is little distinction between what we in the fandom call c!Mumbo and cc!Mumbo. We see both in-universe and out-of-universe items side-by-side, contradictory, because they are interchangeable here.

I doubt we’ll ever get any answers to these questions because obviously Mumbo made these title cards as fun little references instead of serious or purposeful lore, but I still think it’s fun to think about. Neat little worldbuilding details like this are few and far between in most mcyt content so I was foaming at the mouth when I first saw these. Well done Mumbo!

[starfall-dream]

Okok hi, I had more thoughts regarding this AU and a little headcanon I had about our poor little friend Withers... and also the Gods in this au- but mostly Withers. (Since I've been playing around with him for my own yan BG3 isekai thing)

I feel like this might be very different from what you have in mind for the worldbuilding (as I remember you mentioning how this isn't the game at some point but I might be thinking wrong), but I thought this was on my mind, and just in case this might inspire something, I thought about saying it. So don't feel pressured to reply to this. It's just me getting my thoughts out there because why not and I wanna hear your thoughts too!

With Withers I've been playing around with the idea that, since in BG3 he is the one who let's us play around with classes, stats, reviving long lost party members, stuff like that I thought it would be pretty neat if he actually knew of other timelines or had some sort of magic that had some sort of ability tied to it for Withers to know/look into the knowledge of things like stats, classes, and possibly the fact that reader is from a whole other realm/world. Possibly even knowing the meanings for when they talk strange. He definitely lets on for more than he shows in the early game at least.

So in my AU I sorta lean into that and have Withers and the reader character get really close as friends because, "at least someone has a sense of what is going on and can explain in a way that I can understand". Probably has to explain that they're a human fighter or a ranger (especially later on when characters like Wyll get way more protective, he might start trying to move them away from the front lines at some point. Even if he taught us swordfighting it's still 'too dangerous' for his darling out there so they gotta pick up being a ranger to even think about contributing to the combat)

That actually leads me to my second batch of thoughts! Reader's class. I know you said they were leaning towards a fighter class but as I said before I feel like soon enough archery or being a ranger might be more viable, or if they get the attention of a god they might just get cleric (not as plausible as ranger but one can assume). The thought of them playfully or jokingly making an oath and becoming a Paladin is also funny but just as impossible. Still, always fun to play around with, especially since clerics in general sometimes don't even get a say in becoming a cleric, poor reader might just suddenly become the cleric to someone like Sune who even covers more darker aspects of romance (as a god of romance)... at least from what I've read off her Forgotten Realms wiki page. For all we know, someone might just "you're my cleric now, we're getting soft tacos later" the poor reader and they'd have no say in it.

The possibilities could be endless!

Honestly I love withers, he's great.

In my head, reader technically doesn't have a class, they just fall into fighter since it would make the most sense in my head. I didn't even think about ranger though, even though that was the first class I played as. I feel like they would be a mixture of any class that doesn't use magic, since they really can't.

I think since withers has more of an understanding of things, reader and him and a nice relationship. I think reader just confides in him about a lot of things and he offers very wordy and lengthy advice. It's like a grandpa and grandchild relationship.

[tossawary]

I finally saw "Transformers: One" and I really liked it! If you like Transformers at all, it's a really fun and solid movie. Not, like, deeply sophisticated by any means, it got a little silly at times, though with the usual amount of on-screen robot death for the kiddos and everyone else to enjoy. But the movie was also compelling and colorful, visually striking and with pretty solid emotional beats, and it's perhaps the first time that I've actually really enjoyed Megatron as a character (as opposed to just being mostly neutral) out of what TF stuff I've seen. His voice actor really did a great job.

I wasn't sold on the animation, exactly, the first time that I saw the trailer. I do love stylized 3D generally, but I was still a little dubious with how shiny everything looked. Walked out of the movie at the end honestly loving the overall style choices: the still frames of the movie sometimes looked like really, REALLY well-done photographs of toys / photoshop edits of toys, and I liked it? Like if video game animation and stop-motion done with Transformers action figures had a really vibrant baby. Reminded me of an "I Spy" book for some reason. The backgrounds looked really great. It was different! And neat! I enjoy things that look a little unique.

It was fun to see what felt like really fresh takes on Optimus and Megatron. Like, I'm not married to any particular canon, so I don't really care about lore and characterization overhauls with new continuities, since TF has been doing that for a long time now anyway. I just want any given continuity to own its choices. It was funny to see Optimus as a "information and mobility and freedom of choice should be available for all! and I am going to pursue those things with the stupidest fucking stunts and schemes you've ever seen" guy and Megatron as a "believe wholeheartedly in suffering for the system until its deceptions are stripped away" guy. It felt almost like a role reversal sometimes, with certain lines, which was cool, but the conclusions felt very natural. Elita and Bee were also fun.

I liked how alien and scary the Quintessons looked compared to everything else. Cybertron as a constantly shifting planet was a fun and visually striking choice. Of course, the worldbuilding quickly starts to fall apart if you poke it too hard with a stick (intrigued as to what the hell was happening with Starscream and company's backstory), and I had some personal quibbles with the ending, but that's normal for TF stuff. I liked how fast-paced the movie was, I thought the humor worked better in context than it did in the trailer, and the action scenes were all a lot of fun. It was super cool to see them actually transforming and shifting between forms and into hybrid forms during fights.

Overall, it was entertaining! I'll probably go see it again for the visuals. I wouldn't mind seeing more of this continuity.

[dinitride-art]

Au fics that i think are neat and that i want to compile into a list because im trying to figure out how to comment on a chapter of a fic but i need time to sort out my thoughts (usually for fic recs i try to rec fics with less kudos/engagement because reasons but im just gonna throw everything in this list. probably multiple fics by the same author in the same universe because thats the one im trying to sort out my thoughts on.)

the strawberries are dying by eggowlss - historical fiction and very interesting character relationships and also character exploration within the time period. I really like this one because the pacing and tone are very gentle. There’s a srt of ebb and flow to the story that makes both the time period and the characters really fit into it. idk how to describe it i just like it a lot.

in the quiet of the night (acswy ao3 series) - they’re putting those characters in situations. It’s a very good time. 10/10 do recommend. If you haven't heard of this one though, it’s basically a modern au where everyone works at a summer camp and Mike and Will cause problems for themselves, each other, and usually everyone else around them. 

si vis amari, ama by perexcri - demons and angels and heaven and hell and its honestly just one hell of a story. like ive got vivid images in my head of scenes i imagined when reading this. 

you start to kiss (and the record skips) by eclipseadventure - this is a band au with a side of a secret relationship and im a sucker for secret relationships. a bit of drama/high stakes in here too which is always pretty fun. 

End Racism on the OTW! - you and me and the horrible teenaged ghost who keeps eviscerating himself in our apartment makes three by TheWrongKindOfPC - i am also a sucker for buzzfeed unsolved aus. buzzfeed unsolved, hauntings, ghosts, yknow the fun stuff. 

into the daylight by andiwriteordie - THIS IS NOT THE FIRST ONE, it’s just the first one that came up in my bookmarks. anyways, this is the second fic in a fantasy au series. The worldbuilding is really cool and there’s magic and history and politics and i like it a lot. the most recent chapter is spinning around in my mind.

the heartbreak prince by andiwriteordie - THIS IS THE FIRST ONE. 

beneath these boughs, my devotion blooms by perexcri - this is the fic that nearly killed me. i literally cant summarize it because im still recovering from what happened to me when i read it. Did i read it in april? Maybe. Listen, it had me asking questions about things i had never considered before. its 11k but im pretty sure it took me a good few hours to read because it made me think about it so much. again, ive got a bunch of visuals running through my head. its just... so much.

sweetheart, you're so cruel by perexcri - Mike’s in a band, Will’s a music snob, they’re both contemplating their life choices. very fun, very interesting, also made me think about some things. 

keep it hush by wiseatom - theres an amusement park and the horrors of customer service. and some other stuff but basically its pretty bright (the visuals of the fic in my head are bright- like sun glinting off metal- and idk how else to describe it)

the start of an age by delusionaltogether (Whyyyyy) - this ones funny and serious at times and its got Max in it. fantasy au with prince will and knight mike and a secret relationship and a small scheme between three parties that involves a fake (ish) marriage. 

superhero therapy by silverluminoqity - spiderman au with a side of trauma and healing? it’s complicated theres stuff happening, i had a good time reading it. 

you've got this spell on me by andiwriteordie - this one was really fun. basically its a fantasy au theres magic and mike gets himself hit with a spell that makes him fall in love with will and will freaks out about it for a while.

Daydream by disaster_energy - i really really liked this fic. its a fantasy au and its got gods and stuff and will gets chosen by the moon goddess because hes Will and everyone is like... woah.

takes one to know one by andiwriteordie - i also liked this one a lot, its a superhero au and its got ironic (like... dramatic irony- i think is what im talking about? maybe? but like fun irony) secret identities. 

Love goes 'round by evil_ontheinside - conversations in a laundry mat. mikes flopping (as in, flopping around like a fish) around a bit and this was pretty cute. 

my promise could be your fiend (could be the smallest of signs) by s0ld_it - spider man au, theres a bookstore involved and a lot of stuff. ive read this fic twice and greatly enjoyed it both times. 

Tip-toeing on Lily-pads by cherryisgone - very very fun, fantasy au and... mike gets cursed to be a frog. can only be un-cursed with a kiss. 

filling in the blanks as we go by delusionaltogether (Whyyyyy) - bookstore meetcute

there’s more but i spent all day painting my room and i am tired. Ive also got way too many bookmarks to go through and i have decided to stop here. still haven't figured out how to write that comment (but i am working on it because i love the fi(s) and ive been thinking about one specific thing that came up in a new chapter for so long). anyways, i hope someone enjoys this list of au fics from my bookmarks. 

[miralyk]

rubs my eyes seeing some vagueposts on the dash. tron legacy Is neat and works as a standalone film, but there are a lot of elements that make it a disservice of being an actual “”sequel”” for tron 1982 and its core themes, as legacy’s weaknesses are the result of being a product of the times from people rehashing sci-fi cliches instead of building off the source material And unintentionally perpetuating racism in said cliches

stuff like “it’s a bad idea to have a story focusing on programs exiting the computer even though quorra did it” is valid for lore/worldbuilding concerns and being inconsistent to 1982, but i also think most fans are unaware legacy and quorra’s deal are inherently yellow peril racism in sci-fi 😭😭😭 “we fear this corrupt, advanced alien society and its technology imperializing Us Good White People, however there’s One Good Sexy Alien Lady who’s the exception and can help Our Good White Society, so have the white male lead whisk her away as they escape the evil corrupt alien society beyond saving”

[personal-blarghe]

I finally watched Trigun Stampede. Speaking as someone who really, really loved Trigun (1998) and watched it + Badlands Rumble multiple times growing up, nothing holds to that nostalgia. But I really liked it! The animation and art is so, so pretty. The framing, the combat scenes, it's all just really impressive and gorgeous. The original was also very impressive visually, especially for its time, so that feels like something that held up. It looks like how a Trigun revamp should, I think. (A little disappointed by Vash's sexy hair because he was sexy DESPITE his goofy hair damnit, but yeah like. it looks good on him. whatever. also the old coat was cooler sorry.)

Not sure who out there wants to talk about this and not just look longingly at Vashwood art (fair) but I really enjoyed that it was so fully different. Different takes on the story and a different but still fully contained story structure so that I wasn't 100% sure what was going to happen or how things would play out. I haven't read the manga yet (I really do mean to get around to that one day), so I can't speak to which show is more book-accurate, but it was neat to see some of the same stuff happening but have it be handled differently enough to keep me on my toes. I particularly loved the fuller backstory and more fleshed out angles of the main conflict, and especially the worm perspective. I did a little reading on the wikis and it seems this is the more manga-accurate lore for Zazie the Beast, and I enjoyed that part of Stampede a lot. It did sort of bring up more questions than it answered (ok so what happens to the worms if humans and plants learn to get along and they terraform the planet?), but then it also left a big open door for more story that I really hope we will get. Excellent setup and worldbuilding overall.

The art change for the Wolfwood backstory was also really neat, and again, I enjoyed getting more and fuller backstories in general. I loved the contrast of that soft fuzzy artstyle to his gritty present day, and and I loved, loved how bloody and gory the show was overall. I don't watch a lot of anime these days but the blood spouts felt very 90s to me. I did miss a lot of the old Wolfwood angst though. His whole cult was still there as a villain (I don't think they called them the Gung-Ho-Guns though, too silly?), but the twist of his character arc was so heartbreaking in the original and it's very understated in Stampede. Of course I love that he's not dead (yet?), but his role in the story felt a lot less significant.

I think my recommendation would still be to watch 1998 first. Stampede has a huge tonal shift. It almost isn't goofy at all, which is fine if you already have the silliness of OG Vash in your heart and know that side of the characters, but I did miss it. A lot of the comic relief got pushed to Merryl which I didn't love, but I did like what they did with her arc in setting her up to go from naive kid employee to the one in charge. Interesting to see kind of a prequel for her while the rest of the story is not "prequel" to Trigun so much as just a kind of all over rehash of some of the same events and some different ones.

I think with having more episodes, Trigun (1998) was able to pull off a better slow burn on these goofy characters with traumatic pasts and all the fun little whiplashes you can get out of seeing the goofy idiot turn serious, but it also suffers from bad anime tropes and being From the 90s. Stampede is pretty much just serious, which worked very well in its limited story time, but I missed the goofs.

Without having actually read it, I would say that Stampede feels like it is probably more manga accurate. And while it was self-contained in a satisfying way, I like the open ending and the many new questions I have. Like, wtf happens to all those pregnant plants now? Vash didn't undo that as far as I could tell, they were very much still pregnant with Knives' baby independents. Did they die? Knives clones for season 2? Maybe not quite clones because of Vash's involvement? Not getting into the general grossness of that, (it's pretty gross!) but it's definitely room for more questions about freewill and souls and mutual dependency. Can't wait.

Anyway, I liked Trigun Stampede and I will be very excited to get more. (Wolfwood death scene that defined me as a person when?) All in all, Trigun remains a 10/10 and I will probably finally go read the manga now, it's about time.

[wuxiaphoenix]

On Writing: Upcycling

I don’t know if this holds for every writer. But for me and no few I’ve traded emails with, our brains and accumulated libraries of books/notes/articles/stray neat things off Tumblr is a vast collection of “it could come in handy someday.”

This holds for less-than-great movies and TV shows, too. See something you think is kind of meh, but there’s a character, setting, or worldbuilding aspect you like? Write it down. Toss the note into your collection of ideas. Maybe let it marinate a bit. Then take it out, check that you can file the serial numbers off and make that bit original, and see if it slots in as a neat piece of an Idea.

Note, a piece; not the whole thing. If you want to rewrite The Acolyte so that Jedi Master Sol gets out alive and with his morals intact, instead of that... confused mess of characterization shift between the first eps and the last that reviews say happened-

If you want to, go to; but that will be fanfic. (Nothing wrong with good fanfic!)

If, however, you like the idea of a Korean space wizard traveling the galaxy and getting mixed up in a murder investigation... that could very well be original, and vastly entertaining. A wuxia wizard and a cop; together, They Fight Crime!

Ahem.

(Am I a smidge grumpy that this was the premise the Acolyte advertised, and then neglected completely? Yes, yes I am. I also predicted that takeoff of The Fugitive scene minutes before Roommate showed me the relevant review clip. I predicted, in fact, no less than three bad Plot Twists in the review that way. I may have made my roommate a tad nervous. So yes. A smidge. Or more.)

Picking up snips of ideas can be particularly helpful if, like me, your ability to visualize people is... ahem, not your strong point. Seriously, change your hat and I probably won’t recognize you the next time we meet. Faces don’t stick in my head. So giving a character a physical appearance can be daunting. I mean, they have... two arms and a head? Hair? Human-ish shape?

But as the internet saying goes, if you can’t make it yourself, sometimes store-bought is just fine. So I look at actors. Anime characters. Comic books and manga. “Does X look like the kind of person in my head?” And then, yes, alter some details. You don’t want a copy. Just a general model. And since writing is a verbal media instead of visual, that should work out fine. Your readers are going to picture their own versions of your character anyway, even if you do get lucky with your cover.

Also note, watching people in motion can really help with action scenes. I’ll take all the help with those I can get!

So never let anybody diss the, ahem, less than perfect stuff you watch or read. If you like it, there’s something good in it. Make a note.

It could come in handy someday....

Unrelated side note. If you used to love lemon meringue pie but turned up allergic to eggs, search for this recipe: Sweet & Tart Egg Free Lemon Bars, by Safely Delish. (It’s been a few years since I got the printout, so searching for the link is probably best.) This recipe is not only egg-free, it works with GF flour! Though the crust is a tad crumbly. Sometime I’m going to do some experimenting to see if I can fix that....

[tommyssupercoolblog]

BIG MAN!!!!!!! QUESTION!!!!!! host is wondering if you have any good miscecanis blog reccs!!!!!! he wants me to ask JUST in case -@ctommyinnit (pssst ping me when you answer)

HEY OTJER TOMMY @ctommyinnit HELLO HELLO!!!!!! Sorry this took so long to answer, I have things HAPPENINGG

In general I suggest just searching "miscecanis" or "a/b/o lifestyle" (since they're the most popular tags here) and looking at some of the recent posts now and again, and then following blogs that consistently catch your eye.

Regaurdless, here (under the cut) are some blogs and the general vibe of their accounts, what to expect, etc, to help out!! (Hopefully)

@beta-adjacent is one of my mutuals and posts a lot of cool a/b/o stuff- they Reblog other unrelated stuff too from time to time.

@omega-floof is great. Lots of worldbuilding-esque posts which is SO FUCKING RAD. Sometimes has nsfw content but in a very like, clinical way?? It's not porn is what I'm saying, nothing is described it's just like "oh and then they breed lol"

I have no idea how to describe @pack-the-pack , but I can say that this account rocks. Just like….just look at it. I'm sure they can do a better summary or someone else can but sometimes I struggle to describe things. LOOK AT IT look

@transiota is also a mutual and is really cool!! They post a lot of alpha and intersex-a/b/o content, the latter being a rlly specific niche haha. they also post unrelated content there, and sometimes post suggestive-ish content too tho I personally have never seen anything completely nsfw. (I could be wrong though). They don't tag their posts either so if you have a trigger or if you want to avoid discourse than tread carefully or just look at their posts when they get reblogged or show up under #misecanis.

@omega-puppy has a neat account, again I'll give a heads up that they post nsfw on their acc a lot, but it's not exclusively nsfw; they have other posts too. We aren't mutuals (they are following me though, hi!!!) but I see them in my notes a lot and tend to reblog a lot of their sfw or close to sfw text posts. From what I've seen I think they're poly/have multiple mates, but if I'm mistaken I'm sure it'll get cleared up in comments/reblogs.

Last but certainly not least, @transalpha-coining . They're inactive nowadays but they have a TON of treasures stored up on that blog if you're willing to scroll through it. Headcanons and flags and explanations of worldbuilding stuff, plus they used to take asks/requests. They even invented words for things, like "kappa" as an omega version of "feminine", which regardless of whether you like the word is definitely a super cool thing to do. They're one of my all-time favorite miscecanis blogs so if you have the patience to look through their old posts, definitely do.

If anyone tagged here wants to correct anything or make any comments, please do!! You can also reblog w more blog recs if u want

[spotsupstuff]

where should i start reading your Rain World stuff about your OCs and such?

i don't really have any order in it so just jumpin into the oc tag n readin thru it would do, i guess?? though yeah,, tumblr isn't nice with the tags i won't lie, so i'mma compile some stuff for ya

there Are something of intro posts for the characters, though they've evolved a lot over time (originally the Anemoi Iterators were just not a thing, the only one i was meant to have was Fish with Zephyr serving only as a little neat backstory for one of the scugs connected to Fish. so Zeph especially has had a lot of evolution done to her character)

here are the posts: • Intro for Fish Inside a Birdcage, the Seafarer, the Tinkerer and the rest of their little family (x) (out of this Fish and Tinktink are most important n developed, with Seafarer bein a char i wanna work on a bit at some point) • Intro for Murder of Crows (she's a bg character for Moon's group, I rarely actually do stuff with her), Abet Zephyr, the Pan Wielder and few of the Scavs living in Fish's facilities (x) (this is also where The Children of Eo group is first mentioned) • Intro for the rest of Anemoi Iterators of The Children of Eo group, voice claims (Zephyr's is outdated) and the first look at world map, which i'm updating for myself as i'm workin on this stuff and will repost at some point so y'all can see the updates too (x) • List of Iterator City names (x) • Voice claim for Three Sparrows and updated one for Zephyr (x) • Spotto™ Ancients design reference post (x) • -sigh- "Who's Beppi?" (x) (here's him as a baby) • quick off the string in Ancient times AU designs for Euros 'n Boreas (x) • Sparrows' quickly put together art ref (proper one pending) (x)

Three Sparrows' lore is scattered basically all over over the place n she doesn't have a proper intro post yet

Some direct links for the convenience: • How the Great Cycle works in the Serotonin Take (a little add-on to it)

• Iterator anatomy lesson (mostly about the puppets) • Iterator anatomy lesson: detailing of the Hivemind that makes them up • Iterator anatomy lesson: personality development • Rambling about worldbuilding, mostly the Folk Gods (quite disorganized, explains The Saint though) • Ancients' hand mutilation in the name of the Global Religion • Ancients' mask culture • Ancients and their feeding face tentacles • Ancients' "hair" • Ancients and water habitats • Ancients, their venom and Also The Cleaning Slugs • Ancients' gills and some stuff with breathing • Three Sparrows character notes • Little drabble thing for Three Sparrows, though some things might not hold up • "Has Sparrows made any connections while in school?" • Three Sparrows and her slugcat reincarnation (lil continuations of it x, x) • "The Eo Iterators get off the string, who dies who thrives?" (not canon, except the Haboob comic at the beginning) • Zephyr and Moon swap as a characterization exercise that got a lil outta hand (not canon, but neat either way) • A continuation of the above, with Looks to the Moon in the Eo group + some talking about Abet Zephyr as a person • Fooling around with the concept of Zephyr knowing Pebbles, but then big explanation of Mission Self-preservation aka the biggest thing happening in the OC lore • "Can Euros run Doom?" • How did Caper of Euros and Three Sparrows get together romantically • Caper of Euros' priorities the lil comic • "What is Euros like during a Hivemind unsync?" + Three Sparrows the treasured component • Euros and Sparrows married?? • Caper of Euros' first case of the Rot • post 1st Rot reconcilation between the lovebirds • "Did Euros' entire Lab have to be rebuilt after the eradication of the 1st Rot?" • Sparrows' deathbed • Sparrows' Memory Crypt beef (x)• "Who's older? Notos or Haboob?" + Euros 'n Haboob's relationship • Gushing about the ending of the playlist for the group (link to the playlist itself here) • some Tinkerer and the Scavs fooling around content • tiny Seafarer post • what happened between Seafarer and Artificer? why were they separated?

(new text block cuz apparently tumblr has a character limit for that) • Iterator anatomy lesson: the antennas • Iterator anatomy lesson: sexuality and desire for pleasure • Ancients' blood • Ancients' skin texture • "How are Ancient's born?" • "Did Ancients' ancestors have even bigger teeth?" • Farmer Ancients weaponry and tools + Sparrows' encounter with a Red Centipede • "How'd Zephyr end up like that?" • "What are some of Zephyr's happiest memories?" • "Did any other continent have a bootleg Iterator situation like Zephyr?" • What was young Boreas like • Boreas, his batflies and what Desaevio was like • "Very beautiful, very powerful." Boreas animatic made by me sister • Angry Boreas? Let's try to fix him with a controlled shock • Filler Iterators stuff, especially introduction of Orion's Pathway • designing filler stuff a lil: NAE, Gem, high circle Sparrows outfit, first look at the Preacher, Expiation and Spore • Orion's helmet and RW constellations • some lore stuff for Orion • Orion's General • more on the Polar War • Fish and Pigeon Drones • Fish Inside a Birdcage Daycare for scav kits • "What is stored on Caper of Euros' puppet chamber pearls?" • How Boreas and Zephyr took Euros' romantic relationship with Sparrows the comic • Sparrows' daily routine • "Has Sparrows ever seen Euros without his faceplate?" • Iterator baby photos and first appearance of Sparrows' mom, Inkling of an Inbound Daybreak • "Does Sparrows hide her tail in her high circle outfit?" • Movement within an Iterator • "How does it feel like to respawn?"/Sparrows' first death described a little • How did that wedding of Euros n Sparrows' looked • "Does the Rot smell bad?" • "How did Boreas bail Sparrows out of getting fired after the 1st Rot case?" • Grandmama Sparrows • some stuff on Euros' 3rd Mechanic • Euros and his relationship to his memories of Sparrows • "Why do Biting Notos' colony worships teeth and the mouth?" • "Did Notos know something was wrong with its puppet?" • "What does Orion think about Notos' puppet design?" • Biting Notos' sins against its own kind • Inhale in Haboob colony (and herself) notes and ideas • some things on the relationship between Euros 'n Haboob • the Anemoi + Fish as slugcats • Fate of Boreas' Blessing in Saint Time • Ascending Biting Notos comic

[cowardlychimera]

also gonna ramble a little about my crossover au I've been obsessing over for ages, since I'm working on some art for it right now...

I'm Doing It Scared though so under the cut it goes !

okay so. it's a crossover of omori, yume nikki, yume 2kki, and .flow! yay!! fucked up dreamers!!!

I'm really happy with it though because of the worldbuilding I've had to piece together using stuff from all the games, and I'd say how dream worlds work in this au is pretty neat...

anyway, since omori is the only game with a clear story, for the other 3 I just picked some themes from the games and theories I like that I thought would work well together, and I think I did a decent enough job to make Madotsuki's, Urotsuki's, and Sabitsuki's stories in this au pretty interesting!

okay now for a simple summary: it takes place after the good ending, a bit after Sunny's moved and settled in a little in his new house. Sunny could say he's doing better, but that leaves out the fact he's still struggling to reach out and open up. until one night he ends up on a balcony instead of white space.

after learning he's not the only dreamer out there, Sunny makes it his mission to find and help as many as he can! helping others like him counts as helping himself, right? (spoiler: wrong <3)

one last thing, I do eventually want to throw in more yume nikki fangames because I think it'd be even more fun. whole family of mentally ill dreamers yay <3

[awritingcaitlin]

September Wrap Up

I totally meant to write this yesterday. Obviously, I did not write this yesterday.

That said, I did write more this month! I feel really accomplished. Also, there’s a ton else that went on so. Still no move though. 🎮With a Controller🎮 Actually with a controller, I purchased Project Diva, which is a rhythm game set to Vocaloid songs (like Hatsune Miku etc.) It really scratches an itch. My only complaint is actually with my thumb, because it doesn’t want to work 100% of the time. One neat thing about Project Diva though, is that the D-pad is cloned to the buttons on the other side. As in X is the same as Down on the D-pad. So I can play left-handed for a lot of things.

Still going through Dragon Age: Origins. I finished up Urn of Sacred Ashes and the rest of Redcliffe. Then I went through and got Shale, went back to Ostagar, killed Flemeth, and have been taking care of some side quests on my way to Orzammar.

I really only play on the weekends though, so it’s been slower going. 💻At the Keyboard💻 I wrote 30k this month! And that doesn’t include stuff in random worldbuilding documents. Also does not count stuff that may have offset words I deleted. So I wrote more than 30k this month, in actuality.

Zero-draft stream of consciousness Dragon Age: Origins fanfic still goes! I’m actually mostly caught up to where I’m playing, as opposed to having a bunch of notes strewn a bunch of places.

Beyond that, I made a lot of progress in Heist! I was averaging about three chapters a week! I’m really excited and happy about the progress. And I’m being a bit more vague this month than I was last month but that’s because there’s a few things in flux so, yeah.

💜Regarding Me💜 Still trying to move. Still getting some health stuff squared away that’s simultaneously made easier and harder by the impending move. Because if we do move, anything I’m waiting on here is going to have to start over again there. But I persevere.

Also two of my cats are competing for most expensive cat of the month. One cat needs dental, and another cat needs allergy testing. Sigh.

The boy who needs dental. Anyway, short update for the month, but that’s all I’ve got for you right now! Take care!

[lacependragon]

2024 Book #1: The Hanging City by Charlie N. Holmberg

Intended Audience: Adult Genre: Romantasy (Romance-focused fantasy) Length: 335 pages Finished: February 17th, 2024

Narration: single narrator, first person pov

Summary: In a fantasy world consumed by an endless drought, a young woman on the run from her father has arrived at the last place that might take her in: the troll city under the greatest bridge ever built. But in order to get in, she must tell the leaders of her strange magic ability - she can push fear onto others, though she'll feel it too. As Lark, our MC, tries to fit into trollis (their preferred term) society, she finds herself struggling to fit in when kindness and compassion don't get you far in a society of strength. But some trollis soften to her, especially a handsome one named Azmar that Lark can't stop thinking about, no matter how dangerous it is.

Review: This is a very good book. Lark is a fun, compassionate, and quick thinking main character whose mistakes are understandable and who uses all the information at her disposal in clever ways. I loved how her compassion and struggle to fit in led to so much of the conflict in the story, and I loved how it also was a huge part of her success in the story, too. Lark's relationships with other characters, including Azmar and Unach, who she lives with, are just so, so good. I loved the job that Lark ended up with - monster hunting - and I really appreciate how it never stops being relevant to the story, both in activity and in social situations. In fact, this is just a very tightly written little book and everything circles around in some very fantastic ways.

The writing is lovely, too. I really enjoy the way this author writes books - I own a few of them - and I find there's a nice cadence to the words. It's smooth to read. And that spreads into how information is given to the reader, as well. Everything feels very smooth and easy flowing.

And, just to come back around, I really, really love compassionate protagonists. I love when characters want to help others, no matter the cost, and sometimes make stupid decisions because of that. Lark is such a fantastic protagonist who works around everything she is given. I love her. I love Azmar, too.

I think my biggest problem is that this is a seriously closed door romance. A few on-screen kisses and that's about it. Some light references. I would have loved to see more - I prefer my romances a little smuttier - but YMMV.

Just a fantastic book, seriously. So glad it was my first of the year.

Things I liked, specifically:

The romance was good. I understood why Lark was attracted to Azmar, and even though we never get Azmar's point of view, it was clear to me why he liked her. Watching them fall for each other was just adorable. Also, I love when a romance doesn't rely on badly done miscommunication for its third act drama. This does something SO GOOD that has nothing to do with that!

The worldbuilding was really neat. This is a standalone, so there's a lot of questions left unanswered, but the answers we got were fun. I also loved how it tied into the plot, as well as the culture of the trollis. You really get a sense for what their people value when the architecture is described. It's very evocative. And the cultural bits we get, the government and tax and law systems, the currency and caste stuff. God it's all so good and intriguing. Layered in just enough, in my opinion.

The friendships. There are so many good supporting characters in this story, including Unach, the trollis woman originally assigned to look over Lark. She's Azmar's sister and she's basically my fave. She's so gruff and short-tempered but also fantastic. Love her. I loved all of the supporting characters. All of them were well-written, well-rounded, and had motivations that were clear to me.

LARK. Again, emphasizing that Lark is just a fantastic, compassionate and kind protagonist. She is tired of fighting. Tired of having to hurt others. She wants a family, friends, and peace, and it is beautiful to watch her strive for her.

The themes. Sometimes you can't change a place, only you can change. Family isn't what your born into, but the people who will accept you no matter what you are. It is always right to try and save others. What is a monster? What is a man? Just to name a few that I personally pulled out of the story that I just adored the execution of. It's so good. And the trollis society embodies both good and bad, and you get to see the way it echoes into the themes and guh.

Rating: 4 1/2 stars.

Recommended for: Fans of romance who enjoy good worldbuilding, fans of Holes, fans of Gentle Giant men.