#the official novel art is also victim of this

[waitineedaname]

people draw sqh too cute i think. where are his sleazy car salesman vibes.

[autolenaphilia]

Some thoughts on The Coffin of Andy and Leyley

I found out about The Coffin of Andy and Leyley from an ”antiship” blog that I was on solely to block, because these people are always violent callout culture transmisogynists. Them getting very upset about this game having incest in it piqued my interest. The art looked interesting, and if these people hate it, it can’t be all bad.

(Case in point about the transmisogyny, from my understanding some people tried to dox the pseudonymous and secretive developer of this game, Nemlei. And the motivation was to prove the doxxer’s suspicion that Nemlei is a trans woman, because “only a trans woman could create such degeneracy.”)

Sure enough, TCOAAL is actually a nuanced and well-written psychological dark comedy /horror game. This is going to be more of a preliminary analysis than a review so full spoilers beyond this point. It’s by necessity preliminary since the game isn’t finished yet. My review is: go buy it if you are a fellow sicko who enjoys interesting stories about cannibalism and incest and like visual novels.

TCOAAL uses a trick from more transgressive forms of horror fiction, where the protagonists are not the heroes, but the villains, and the story is from their perspective. Andrew and Ashley Graves are murderers who kill people, sacrifice their souls to demons and cannibalize their bodies. They would be the villains of a more conventional horror story, their crimes investigated and thwarted by some heroic detective perhaps. But in this type of story, you are denied the comfort of heroes, or even innocent victims as you watch the protagonists twisted psychology lead them to commit terrible deeds.

The tone of the story mostly isn’t really horror, but very dark comedy, kinda Jhonen Vasquez-ish. The horrors are portrayed with a gleeful flippant tone, and cute appealing art. The tone mirrors how especially Ashley feels about her crimes. The game’s tone gets serious sometimes, going for straight horror occasionally, acknowledging how heartbreaking yet insane the Graves situation is, but there is a deep vein of the blackest humor.

Andrew and Ashley

Andy and Leyley themselves have this co-dependent toxic abusive sibling dynamic. Ashley is emotionally abusive, extremely possessive and manipulative towards Andrew. But her beloved Andy is the only person she actually cares about, and the rest she is able to kill with gleeful abandon in her heart.

Yet Andrew is not purely a victim. I’m going to talk at length about him, because the gap between how he describes himself and what the game shows is fascinating. I’m not the first to point this out. And it even extends to the game’s promotional material, like this official art on the game’s steam page is actually subverted by the game itself.

His character is not "doormat extraordinaire" who just "exists", the words "very not good, in fact very bad" apply to him too.

He is a victim, and loves to point at times how exploited, manipulated and abused he is by Ashley and he’s of course right. But he also uses that as an excuse for the horrific violence he commits, that he is just a doormat has been manipulated and corrupted by Ashley. “I was just being manipulated by Ashley to do it” is his variation on the old Nuremberg defense for his crimes. He has no sense of personal responsibility, no understanding that even if someone else tells you to do it, you are still responsible for your actions.

And the game itself proves that “it’s all Ashley” is not really true. A lot of the violence and murder are definitely on Andrew’s own initiative. He is violent towards Ashley too, the abuse is reciprocal. And he like Ashley doesn’t care much about other people. He gets distraught about killing people, but if you follow his dialogue, he is mostly freaked out about the consequences for himself. He is dependent on Ashley as someone who he can lay all the responsibility and blame for his own actions for. And of course, there is genuine affection there, because things are complex. He was parentified to take care of Ashley as a child and still has the drive to be her caretaker and protector.

It’s a fascinating pair of characters, and an interesting dynamic to observe.

“Der Mensch lebt nur von Missetat allein”

And the game’s writing is smart enough to have them not be an individualized evil, that came out of nowhere. Andrew and Ashley are the products of a neglectful and cold parents. Their mother made Andrew the favorite, but basically in order to parentize him to take care of his younger sister. And their dad can’t even remember the names of his kids. Not that the cycle of abuse starts with the parents, the mother had Andrew and Ashley when she was 15 and 17 respectively. But that doesn’t excuse how they ultimately, sell their kids’s lives for money to an organ harvesting scheme. This scheme is strongly implied to be part of an hilariously over-the-top soda company, toxisoda (it’s implied their soda is literally made from humans, so the company is doing the same thing that Ashley and Andy does, but on an industrial scale).

This is the situation that pushes Andy and Ashley to become evil murder-cannibals horror movie villains they become. They are deliberately being starved to death, and decide human meat is preferable to that. And the point here is obvious. To quote Brecht, “Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral” or in english translation “Food is the first thing. Morals follow on.” Andy and Ashley are bad people who kill and eat other people, but they are the product of an evil society. A family system where children are property of their parents to be abused and sold. And ultimately a capitalist system which kills people to feed others, a societal and systematic version of what Andew’s and Ashley does. They literally become cannibals to escape becoming literally or essentially cannibalized themselves by the capitalist system. Capitalism is a system which works on prey and predator dynamics, and they just fought to became predator instead of prey. To further quote the same song by Brecht, in capitalism, “Der Mensch lebt nur von Missetat allein” or in english “mankind is kept alive by bestial acts.” And in that broader view, Andrew and Ashley’s small-scale evil is dwarfed by the system they are born into.

Incest

It’s with all this context the game’s treatment of incest must be understood. It’s a horror game, about two siblings with a fucked-up abusive relationship. Of course there is incest, it’s far from being the worst thing these two do. The game only gets more explicit about incest in one optional ending, but it’s there explicitly and subtextually from the very start. Ashley jokes about it repeatedly, it’s there in the possessive jealousy Ashley feels for any of Andrew’s girlfriends, it’s implied in the casual physical intimacy of the siblings. Like it’s very obvious that their fucked-up but close relationship can lead there right from the beginning of episode 1. It’s a very natural conclusion to their dynamic. And the characters know it, Ashley definitely knows it, and their own mother accuses them of it. Andrew denies his mother’s accusation of fucking Ashley, and he’s probably not lying at that moment, but his relationship with Ashley leading there make perfect sense and he is not just capable of admitting that. Anyone who claims to have played this game and then claims be shocked that there is an optional incestous ending can’t have been paying much attention. This is the incest cannibalism game.

The Graves siblings are heading towards committing more murder as long as they stay alive, and incest is a minor sin for them. And probably not even the unhealthiest way for their relationship to develop. It definitely won’t fix them, but I doubt it will make things much worse.

And condemning the game morally is just absurd. This is a horror game, and you are outraged about the incest and not the murder-cannibalism? The Graves siblings relationship is not portrayed as healthy and the incest is part of that.

In fact the game portrays this double-standard in the actual story. It’s the possibility of her kids committing incest that finally makes Mamma Graves admit she is “the worst mother ever”, and not the whole selling the lives of her kids for money thing.

Sure, there is a fair argument to make that the incest is romanticized and fetishized. Ashley and Andrew are certainly drawn as attractive, and even the abusive elements can be part of the fetish. But the thing is, Ashley and Andrew are not real people, it’s fiction, it’s not real incest, so if people get off to it, I have no reason to see it as a problem.

The antiship blogger was actually especially angery about this official art from a devlog and honestly after playing the game, it kinda sums up my feelings about the incest controversy:

[hoshiko2000]

So with production for Good Omens Season 3 officially halted, it does look like cancellation may be on the horizon. Because yeah, I really don't think Amazon would 'pause' production on a show this lucrative if there wasn't serious discussions currently going on about 'if' and 'how' it should continue. A production shuffle-up - ie. Neil Gaiman getting booted and new staff being put in charge - is certainly a possibility. But it is important to remember that this will still be a show that is written by him and very intrinsically linked to his brand. And whether fans or studios will still have an appetite for it considering this fact is something that has to be seriously considered.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that as disappointing as it would be, cancelling Good Omens season 3 may be the hard but right decision. And, frankly, if season 2 is anything to go by, we may not be missing out on too much to be honest.

But on a serious note, I do want to use this news as an opportunity to share my own thoughts on the situation, which I will do under the cut (and as is probably obvious, there are trigger warnings for references to SA).

Despite Neil Gaiman's works being a massive part of my content here on this tumblr - and yes, that is something I am very aware of- I've not posted about the sexual assault allegations up until now for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I'm a working adult in my 30s; tumblr is very much a place I come to chill, I'm far too old (and frankly, tired) to get involved in discourse or heated fandom debates (not that those are the correct terms to use to refer to rape allegations but you catch my drift). But the other reason is that these revelations have honestly devasted me, in a way that I'm still processing and doesn't feel like an exaggeration to describe as grief, a feeling I'm sure is echoed by many other people.

Neil Gaiman's works have been a massive part of my adult life, and while I know it sounds like a cliche, they have gotten me through some incredibly difficult times. Coming to terms with the fact that such beautiful, thoughtful, empathetic novels and series have been written by a rapist has been incredibly difficult.

What has also been incredibly difficult to come to terms with is the fact that the incredible queer representation that has drawn so many of us to his television works in recent years was, in hindsight, indisputably a grooming tactic. And yes, grooming is the right word.

The grooming of communities is not something that is often discussed but is absolutely a thing. Predators groom victims to gain access to them, and they groom the people around both the victim and themselves to make it seem unbelievable when the victim later comes forward. And this can happen parasocially too. In the case of Neil Gaiman, he groomed his fanbase by constructing a calculated image as vocal a LGBT ally, drawing in queer fans and creating a smokescreen of apparent empathy and kindness to cast doubt on the future allegations he likely knew would inevitably catch up with him.

I really want to stress - particularly for younger fans - that no one is stupid or somehow culpable for having been fooled by Gaiman, for having supported his works previously, and for continuing to support his works now. I myself have no intention to leave the fandoms I am already a part of, and I genuinely do not believe anyone is under any sort of pressure or obligation to do so. The separation of the art from the artist is a very tricky subject and not something that can ever be done entirely. And if I'm honest I'm not really sure how to navigate this myself, or what this is going to mean for me in the future.

But to get back to the subject of my blog, yes I am planning to continue reposting content related to Good Omens and Dead Boy Detectives. However the latter differs drastically in that the series was not actually written by Neil Gaiman and is effectively an author-approved spin-off of one of his works. Good Omens on the other hand I have more complicated feelings towards, and at this point I am not sure how I feel about future series being made, with or without Gaiman's involvement.

I'm sorry if this post is a rambling mess, it has taken me a lot of time to build up to being able to share my thoughts, and while there is a lot more I could say I will stop here. But on a closing note, let's just be kind to each other. This situation is awful, lets not make it any worse. Give space for the victims, give space for the fans, and give space to people to continue to enjoy fandom spaces without making assumptions about where they stand on these allegations. It is a hard time, but things will get better, and these fandom spaces will continue to be a positive place for people to exist online. Lets keep it that way.

[sufferu]

MASTERPOST

Check the tags for quick and easy navigation. (this will no doubt end up being updated repeatedly lol)

Cool Tags

Reading the Light Novels for the First Time: At this point it’s more like reading the Web Novels for the first time, but it’s basically screenshots of quotes + commentary.

Reading the Side Stories for the First Time: Screenshots of quotes + commentary — this time from the side stories.

Re:Zero Brainworms: Cool thoughts/theories about Re:Zero.

My Inbox: Asks that I have actually answered (I am so sorry to everyone stuck in Inbox Purgatory —)

Fanart: Re:Zero Fanart. And also official art.

Fanfiction: Mostly commentary on popular Re:Zero fabric tropes tbh

My Fics: Completed fanfiction of my own. (Or. Completed chapters.)

My Ficlets: Small snippets of fanfics I am working on. I hope to add to this somewhat regularly.

Fan-made IF Routes

Nameless Wanderer AU: Julius loses his Name in Priestella and strikes out on his own, aimless, only to end up getting dragged along by the mysterious possibly-the-Archbishop-of-Pride named Schwartz who claims to be another victim of Gluttony.

Crusch IF: Reinhard brings Subaru to Ferris after Elsa’s assassination attempt, where he ends up being hired as a worker in Crusch’s mansion. Everything goes pretty well for the first month, until about two days before the Whale is scheduled to hit — at which point Subaru’s mind shatters.

Nect Reveal IF: Julius sees into Subaru’s memories when they link souls during the fight against Petelgeuse, where he 1) concludes that he is a couple months old, as he cannot see into his time from beyond the Great Waterfall and 2) figures out RBD in its entirety.

Housecat IF/Chewtoy IF: Everyone is an animal hybrid and housecat!Subaru has developed a complex where he has started to think that he was summoned here as a domesticated cat to serve as a chewtoy for all the wilder and more dangerous animal hybrids of the Re:Zero world.

Whale IF: Subaru dies during the Whale fight and resets to moments before it begins, where he spends about two months continuously looping in order to get every single person out alive. Everyone figures out that he has some sort of time travel ability behind his back. He has no idea.

Omegaverse IF: Omegaverse.

House Arrest IF: Reinhard kidnaps Subaru alongside Felt due to him being a suspected Witch Cultist.

Amnesia IF: Instead of Joshua and Julius losing their names in Priestella, Subaru loses his memories. Everyone gets a front-seat view to Subaru’s second spiral into madness as he rediscovers RBD, one loop at a time.

Natsumi IF/Homosexual IF: Crack AU where Subaru has internally accepted Natsumi Schwartz before the start of the series but is now consciously repressing her anyway due to fears of how crossdressing might be seen in this medieval-style fantasy world. He is so bad at this that everyone thinks he’s gay. This does not stop him from trying to present himself as a Man at every opportunity and giving everyone — especially the traditionally masculine men he is attempting to emulate — massive amounts of psychic damage.

Kintsugi IF: Reinsuba Soulmate AU where traumatic events show up as golden scars on your soulmate’s body. Reinhard has no idea who his soulmate is or what the fuck could be causing all of these horrifying injuries and he is trying desperately to find out whoever’s responsible.

Feral Subaru AU: Subaru is Isekai’d at ten years old and is immediately traumatized by Capella before being taken in by Emilia. He bites people sometimes.

Runaway IF: Subaru and Emilia have a miscommunication post-Petelgeuse that leads to Subaru (wrongly) concluding that he is unwanted, and for the very good reason of painting a target on everyone’s backs, and so he leaves in the middle of the night and accidentally kicks off a manhunt that lasts for an entire year.

Back to Zero IF: Everyone learns about RBD in its entirety, and then everyone except for Subaru gets sent back to Subaru’s duel against Julius. Chaos ensues.

[askbensolo]

Journal Entry #55: Updates on my novel and also my life

So, the blurrg sex scene probably isn’t integral to the main thread of my novel. But, I’m hesitant to cut it because I think it would be kriffing hilarious to tell people there’s a sex scene in my story, only for them to find out two-thirds of the way in that it’s just two blurrgs blurrging it on.

Also, the fact that I witnessed it with my own two eyes on Ryloth means I have to share the trauma.

A few more no-context spoilers for fun:

Fannie’s Sisters Casually Emasculate Me Over Dinner

Fifty Teenage Twi’lek Boys, One Brain Cell

Pennie Pentarra is Not the Innocent Victim I Thought She Was

Ruut Pentarra Joins the Club of People Who Disapprove of Me Dating Fannie (But Because He Thinks I Could Do Better)

Fannie and I Spent the Night in a Sex Dungeon (Nothing Happened)

And also…

Fannie and I Broke Up (Again)

So! I’ve spoiled the ending for you! You don’t even need to read it!!

Did I write this post mainly because I didn’t know how else to announce my breakup? Maybe. Possibly.

It’s not like it’s a surprise or anything. I think we all saw it coming.

Well, except for her, maybe.

…

Well—anyway.

I thought writing a novel about my own life would be easy because I didn’t actually have to come up with the plot, but—there is actually an art to arranging the details in a way that flows and makes sense. So, even though I’m like 80% done with my first draft already…I know it’s kind of garbage at this point, and I’ll have to do quite a bit of polishing.

Luckily, I will have lots of time to do that! Because…I finally admitted to my mom about Snoke Part Two: The Snokening, and—as expected—she is making me quit my job and move back home immediately!!

And normally that would leave Poe paying 2,000 credits of monthly rent on his own, but in the interests of expediting my homecoming, my mom is graciously paying the difference until Poe can find another roommate.

Luckily, I know a guy. He threatened to kill me in the back of a Spacebucks once, but, eh—water under the bridge.

And speaking of ol’ stick-up-his-butt…

…I ended up paying back Armitage for all my “free” coffees.

Yeah. The Force made me do it—or something. Call it an early Life Day miracle.

I’ve been rethinking a lot, let’s just say that. I knew I could part with the credits, since I won’t be paying rent for the foreseeable future, and I’m gonna look for a new job on Hosnian Prime.

Ha. Armitage, Poe and Beebee-Ate. Now, I can see them all getting along reeaal well. Heh heh heh.

Sigh. I’m gonna miss Naboo, and miss Theed. I’ve spent the past three years of my life here.

…I miss Fannie too. I wish I hadn’t…well…yeah.

I’ll even miss Poe and Beebee-Ate. I’m leaving right as they were beginning to grow on me. Poe’s been a good buddy (even if I’ve seen his bare ass more times than I ever wanted to).

About the only thing I won’t miss is my job—but even then, it was part of my routine, something that made my days predictable in the bad way but also kind of in the good way, and it was a key part of my new life as an official grown-up adult-person-guy.

I’m gonna hang out with my old college bud Treeso one last time before I leave Naboo. And then I’m gonna put in my two weeks’ notice, pack up my stuff, try to sell whatever I can’t take home, and then…that’ll be that, I guess.

Goodbye, Naboo.

I feel like everything in my life is changing all at once. It’s…kind of sad.

But…that’s just how it goes. Isn’t it?

“Always in motion, is the future,” Fannie said, when we were breaking up.

“What?”

“The future. It’s always in motion.”

“Well, yeah—but why’d you say it backwards, the first time?”

“I don’t know,” she said, surprised, like she’d never thought about it before. “That’s just always the way Master Luke said it.”

And speaking of Uncle Luke…

…Mom wants me to start meeting with him again.

…It’s okay. Fannie and I aren’t a thing anymore anyway, so…

…Yeah.

My twenty-fourth birthday is in a couple of weeks. I was originally gonna do something for it, ‘cause I have ongoing December-birthday-overshadowed-by-Life-Day trauma—but…meh. I’m too busy now to celebrate. Twenty-four’s pretty much the same thing as twenty-three anyway.

Hey—sorry I haven’t written as much, the past month. (Well, I’ve been writing a lot—just, not for my blog.) But…I’ll try to keep you guys updated on my move, and whatever. Happy to answer any questions about my writing project, too.

Oh—but do me a favor and don’t…ask Fannie about my trip to Ryloth, or anything. Some…stuff happened while I was there—I mean, besides the breakup—and…well, I think it’s just best if you don’t ask. I’m not sure it’s something she’d like to talk about.

Hope everyone is staying warm and enjoying season’s festivities and punching germs in the face and all that.

Me—I’m doing pretty okay, too.

You know me. I always pull through.

Your dude,

—Ben

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 1

Propaganda Under Cut

Safu

I am adding my vote because the yaoi may be canon in this one but Safu is still Shion's best friend and the way ppl leave her out of stuff sucks ass. Her character development was the ONE thing the anime had over the novels and manga but even the anime only fans won't look at her. She literally said "I want your sperm" out loud with her mouth in a train station to ask her best friend to date her. Weird girl extraordinaire who became bee jesus people need to stop sleeping on her for the guys.

She has a crush on Shion and makes it quite known She also asked for Shion's semen once

Neurodivergent queen! She autismed her way through puberty so hard, she thought her feelings for the protagonist Shion were purely sexual, until she spent time away from him to grow as a person

Annabeth Chase

I feel like fandom is kinda split on her with percabeth shippers loving her but any m/m shipper I've seen does not like her, really. She is my bae tho <3

Percabeth antis grind my gears so much because they never hate Percy, nono, even though he's arguably done more questionable stuff than Annabeth. Not everyone who hates her is doing so because of a mlm ship— the Perachel stans claim that Annabeth is a misogynist. However, basically everyone that isn't trying to ship her boyfriend with Rachel is trying to ship him with Jason, Nico, or her old friend Luke. They make her out to be this horrible abusive girlboss(derogatory) that she's simply... not. She doesn't insult Percy for having ADHD just because she's highly intelligent. She doesn't physically abuse him, and doesn't lay a finger on him outside of training. She's really devoted to him in a non-anti-feminist way. They just hate her for 'getting in the way' of Nico's convoluted attraction to Percy, or Jason's close friendship with him, or Luke's rivalry with him. But those relationships all flourish the way they were intended by the author: non-romantically. It's not Annabeth's fault for being intelligent or capable or jokingly snide or determined or any of those non-stereotypically-feminine qualities. She's just out here existing and people hate her for not being a man. Sorry for the rant.

She's canonically in a relationship with Percy Jackson for most of the books they're in, but he often gets paired in canon with other male characters, such as Nico di Angelo or Jason Grace. In fan fiction (especially yaoi focused ones) she's characterized as being a stuck up know it all, but she gets into plenty of shenanigans in canon and can be pretty goofy and sweet!

I think I may have accidently used fanart for Annabeth's picture, if you have official art of her, send it in!

[aqualovesart]

Old from early-mid 2023 New from late 2023-early 2024

Welp, it took a while, but here's finally my drawings of Springtrap. Yes, I made two, and both of them were my first and second times drawing him respectively.

And here he is, William Afton, The Purple Guy, Vincent, Dave Miller Steve Raglan, Spring Bonnie, Scraptrap, Peepaw Willy, the infamous Tumblr Sexyman, Springtrap himself.

I will also admit that drawing him was pretty hard. I mean you can't exactly have character design like the one HE has and expect it NOT to be difficult. Especially when you have so many references to base it from and none of the seem to be the most concrete somehow, and it makes it even more hard to draw him as a result, and when you're never even sure which is and isn't official.

POV me trying to figure this s##t out. Just everything in this screenshot from the FNAF graphic novels REALLY describes how it felt trying to draw Springtrap and finding the right pictures and references of him just to be able to draw him:

Either way, I just wanted to have fun with these being my first ever drawings of Springtrap. With my first drawing, i was referencing Lord Raptor from Darkstalkers with the pose I made him be in, which to me made sense since he is basically a mummified, cyborg zombie, and to me, it just made sense that I'd use a zombie character like Lord Raptor as a reference for it, as well as being very inspired by Mike Mignola when I was making it.

My old Springtrap drawing Lord Raptor art from Darkstalkers

With my next drawing, I decided to go for something I little more original. He's in a taunting pose. He's taunting you. He's ready to make you his next victim. And yes, I had him holding a knife. I know good ole Willy doesn't have a knife in the game but has a knife in the movie, but I just wanted to have fun. I think we can all agree that he wouldn't hesitate picking up a knife even as a undead corpse in an old rusty, gross and mouldy animatronic suit and slash his victims with it.

02-03/11/2023

17-18/11/2023 22-23/11/2023 30/12/2023

25-26/01/2024

So yeah, Springtrap. He's great. I like him a lot, honestly one of my favorite characters in this entire series and one of my favorite villains ever. And yeah, he was hard to draw, but I still really enjoyed drawing him none the less and I'm still really with the drawing and how it came out. But what do you guys think? Tell me what you think in the comments, and maybe what you guys think about Springtrap in the comments.

[rhodezero]

Taking this opportunity to say:

You need to play Gnosia.

It is full stop my favorite indie title and visual novel, and thus one of my favorite games of all time. 

It is single-player werewolf/mafia/among us, with a deep sci-fi narrative and really great characters. As others have said, it's essentially a social deduction RPG. The art style, as evident, is mesmerizing, and the soundtrack is surreal in its qualities and absolutely perfect.

There are a couple enby characters as well who rule, an ace rep, and you can be non-binary yourself. Also there's a guy who wants to be a cat.

Don't look up stuff. Just play it. It's on Switch and Steam.

[yanderefan-kimi]

Kurobe Makoto and the path of cruelty

Heeey yall this isn't something I normally do but I thought I'd finally live up to my username and start talking about some yandere characters! I was recently rereading this series in anticipation for it resuming soon when this panel (the second image) caught my eyes again, so I decided to rant a bit about this, so here goes *cracks knuckles*

Just a small disclaimer: I'm not an art history major or anything like that, I literally just googled this painting and read the wikipedia article because it fascinated me

Okay so let's start with a VERY brief description of this series, since I don't believe it has been officially translated yet so I don't know how many people have heard of it:

This is デスゲーム漫画の黒幕殺人鬼の妹に転生して失敗した (which basically translates to "I Reincarnated As The Mastermind's Little Sister from a Death Game Manga and Failed") which was originally a web novel by Inaida Sou and was adapted to manga form by Pepu.

I won't go too deeply into the details because I think it's the sort of story that's more fun to read yourself, but the basic premise is that Kurobe Mai, the protagonist, has reincarnated into one of her favorite manga series... which was unfortunate, since it happens to be a Death Game series and she happens to be the first victim. Her older step-brother, Makoto, is a psychopath and the mastermind behind said Death Game in the manga. With a year until the start of the manga, Mai's determined to stop her brother, but her actions cause him to develop an abnormal obsession with her...

In chapter 13, the two stop by an art museum that was showing a medical science exhibit (split into three sections: Exploring the Body, Disease and Death, & Love and Life.) They're both looking around until Makoto comes to a stop at this painting in the 2nd section of the exhibit and stares at it silently for a while. That is, William Hogarth's: The Reward of Cruelty - which is his final work in his Four Stages of Cruelty series (warning if you want to look this up, the paintings are a bit gruesome and unpleasant, on purpose.)

The Four Stages depicts the story of the fictional character Nero as he walks down the path of cruelty. In the First Stage, he's torturing a dog as a child. In the Second Stage, he goes on to beat his horse as an adult. In Cruelty in Perfection, he moves on to theft and murder. Finally, in The Reward of Cruelty, Nero has been hung for his crimes and his corpse publicly mutilated by surgeons.

These paintings were much different from Hogarth's other works because he wanted to shock and deter his audience. He was dismayed over the casual acts of cruelty he witnessed and wanted to warn others that the inevitable end of the path of cruelty was death as retribution.

I thought it was interesting how Makoto chose this specific painting to stare at. Sure, he was fascinated by the macabre, but I think it was likely because he realized that he was walking that path of cruelty himself.

Ever since he was young, he found everyone and everything to be dull and uninteresting. He never struggled at anything, could easily read others, and couldn't empathize with anyone. The only thing that excited him was death. So he started torturing and killing insects, but like all addictions, it was never enough. Soon enough he started desiring for bigger, harder targets. Like a cat, or a dog... or a human.

Makoto realizes that his desire for death and pain was far from normal, but he also felt no desire to change himself. I wonder if he was staring at that painting like he was looking at his inevitable end. Throughout the series, he's been devising various schemes to get Mai's attention (as well as juggling between wanting to kiss her and kill her), but she always strives to surprise him, so what if he fails? What if he succeeds? Was there nothing awaiting the end of his journey other than his early death?

After he's been staring at the painting for a while, Mai comes up behind Makoto and asks if he's finding the exhibit interesting and if he's feeling better. He hugs her, saying that he's fine, and the two go home without ever stepping into the third section (Love and Life.) Now, he's been getting more and more touchy-feely towards Mai with each chapter, but I felt like this hug was a bit... softer. Like he wanted some reassurance that he wasn't at that final stage of cruelty, that he hasn't gotten his "reward" yet.

Anyways, I'm just really fascinated by this scene since it was pretty much glossed over in the web novel, so it was something that Pepu-sensei decided to add in for a reason. Now we're at the gushing part of the post cuz I really think Pepu-sensei is incredibly skilled at panel/scene composition in manga and it's fun to analyze specific scenes and guess the reasoning behind them. (I am vaguely referencing the center spread from the first chapter, which I might talk about later but it's really great, trust me)

Basically, I really love this series (PLUS Inaida-sensei is one of my fav authors and I love Pepu-sensei's art sm) and I really can't wait to see where it goes. It has a good following so we're actually gonna get a whole extra volume and I'm so excited to see what new arc they're gonna throw at us!! And and I'm super excited to see how some scenes in the finale are gonna play out and I should probably stop gushing or I will never finish this post lol.

(if you like yandere, I highly suggest this series!! Plus this is the only series with Kurobe Mai so... 👀)

[satoshi-mochida]

Gnosia coming to PS5, Xbox Series, PS4, and Xbox One on December 14

Gematsu Source

Publisher PLAYISM and developer Petit Depotto will release science-fiction social deduction RPG Gnosia for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on December 14, the companies announced.

In Japan, the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 versions will also be available in physical standard and PLAYISM Official Store limited editions for 5,280 yen and 9,900 yen, respectively. First-print copies will include two reversible cover arts and “Jonas’ Dogtag.” The limited edition includes a “Silver Key.”

Gnosia first launched for PS Vita on June 6, 2019 in Japan, followed by Switch on December 17, 2020 in Japan and March 4, 2021 worldwide, and PC via Steam on January 23, 2022.

Here is an overview of the game, via PLAYISM:

Story

The Gnosia lie. Pretending to be human, they’ll get in close, trick and deceive, and then eradicate each person in the vicinity from the universe, one victim at a time. The crew of a drifting spaceship, facing off against a mysterious and deadly threat known as the “Gnosia” and having no idea who among them is really the enemy, formulate a desperate plan for survival. The most suspicious among them will be put into “cold sleep” one by one, in an effort to completely rid the ship of Gnosia. However, it is almost impossible to tell whether each person put into cold sleep was really Gnosia—or simply a poor, unfortunate scapegoat, sacrificed by the Gnosia for their own survival. Can the humans emerge victorious? Or is mankind doomed…? What exactly are Gnosia? Why do they attack humans? Discover the truth behind this mysterious lifeform and the intertwined narratives of your crewmates as you struggle for survival.

Gameplay

The story takes place on a spaceship. Among the crew are several mysterious life forms known as “Gnosia.” Apparently bent on the complete eradication of humankind, the Gnosia—having “brainwashed” their host infectees—quietly eliminate one crew member each night. The player can select whether to play the game as a human or Gnosia. When playing on the human side, you must find all of the Gnosia and put them into a state of suspended animation (“Cold Sleep”) to win each round. When playing as Gnosia, your goal is to attack and eliminate each crew member until the Gnosia outnumber the remaining humans. This is a “Werewolf-style” indie game in which you progress through the story by playing through approximately 15-minute rounds (“Loops”), and it has already garnered overwhelmingly positive feedback here in Japan. Apart from the story and gameplay, the characters’ personalities and interpersonal relationship dynamics are also an extremely appealing and important part of what makes this game unique and special. Themes of friendship and camaraderie, love, trust, life and death, and personal identity are explored surprisingly deeply, and the game’s seamless and natural inclusion of non-binary characters fosters a sense of inclusion and understanding often found lacking in many mainstream titles.

Key Features

Gnosia is not simply just a “single-player Werewolf-style game.” As you continue playing through the game in short rounds, the following elements gradually develop and evolve.

Repeatedly play through “loops,” triggering special events to unravel mysteries in a uniquely original narrative. Gnosia is an all-new style of text-based adventure combined with visual novel, RPG, and mystery elements. The game begins with the discovery that the crew has been infiltrated by the Gnosia. As you play through the game it becomes apparent that the characters are re-experiencing the same few days over and over again. Each “loop” ends once win or loss conditions have been met. More info on the nature of the Gnosia and this time loop is also gradually revealed.

Role-play a variety of roles to develop different character builds. You start out with low skill levels, unable to meaningfully influence crew discussions. However, playing through the loops and gradually leveling up allows you to selectively increase various parameters—such as Charisma, Charm, Intuition, etc.—which eventually makes you able to greatly affect the flow of conversation. Level up your Charisma stat so people are more likely to listen to you, or your Performance stat so people are less likely to see through your lies.

Engage with engrossing and eclectic characters and experience randomly triggered events unique to each one. Each character has a certain level of “fondness” for the main character. Various events occur throughout the game in accordance with how well-liked you are by the others, bringing a sort of “humanity” to the characters. As you repeat the loops and discover more character-specific events, each crew member becomes more richly fleshed out.

Characters

Setsu – A non-binary identifying soldier in the galactic military who leads the efforts to eradicate the Gnosia invaders onboard the ship. Kindly helps the main character, who starts out confused, with no idea what’s going on.

SQ – Somewhat stubborn and strange girl, she tends to lighten the atmosphere with her silly attitude. Her behavior makes it extremely difficult to figure out just what is genuine and what is false.

Raqio – A non-binary identifying crew member characterized by a sharp tongue and flamboyant outfits. This highly logical thinker often manages to expose the Gnosia the moment enough information has been gathered.

Gina – Somewhat stubborn and strange girl, she tends to lighten the atmosphere with her silly attitude. Her behavior makes it extremely difficult to figure out just what is genuine and what is false.

Stella – A kind young woman who treats everyone gently and politely. Apparently entrusted with administration and management of the ship, she strives to ensure that everyone is as comfortable as possible.

Jonas – A strange middle-aged man who wears outdated clothing from a bygone era. Often spouting aphorisms of varying levels of coherence, his often-nonsensical comments and behavior tend to vex the rest of the crew.

Comet – A somewhat wild girl hailing from a planet that advocates “return to nature.” Straightforward and energetic, her almost animalistic instincts make her extremely proficient at spotting lies.

Chipie – A young man who loves – and is pretty much constantly thinking about – cats. Apart from the weird cat thing, he is a good young man whose sense of decency and fair judgment are second to none.

Remnan – A shy and introverted young man. Apparently has trouble looking people in the eye when speaking. It seems as though some certain event from his past has caused him to develop this reclusive and easily frightened personality…

Kukrushka – A beautiful blonde young girl. She never speaks but employs expressive and rich gestures and body language to communicate flawlessly. As for where she is originally from, etc., nothing about her is known.

Yuriko – A mysterious woman with a strange, indescribable power. Possessing extremely high skill and ability levels, she can be quite a dangerous enemy to have.

Otome – An intellectualized beluga whale with the ability to speak human language. Wearing a water-filled bodysuit, she utilizes a motorized cart to get around. An extremely kindhearted young girl, she loves humans.

Sha-Ming – A young man whose sole priority is ensuring his own survival. Hates standing out. Faithful only to his own selfish desires, he is generally disliked and avoided by the female members of the crew.

Shigemichi – A… person… with a bright, silver body. Due to his friendly and sincere personality, people usually tend to listen to him. Apparently, he has encountered his first love aboard the spaceship.

Watch a new trailer below.

PlayStation And Xbox Announce Trailer

[arwainian]

Reading This Week 2024 #43

hello hello it has been a bit of a weird week of ups and downs. really excellent movie times with friends, good food, and halloween crossdressing, but also a long approaching break up finally got made official today. my reading has not slowed down in the slightest though so let's talk about it!

Finished:

The Twyford Code by Janice Hallet, narrated by Thomas Judd I think this book is really one that should best be enjoyed in audiobook format. Like yeah okay there's some reasons you'd want the text version if you're a person who likes to try to solve the mysteries in mystery novels and want to highlight or take note of certain parts, but the conceit is that these are transcripts of audio messages left by a severely dyslexic man who uses them for notetaking/journaling while trying to uncover a mystery. as I said last week I got really attached to our main character Steve

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Vol. 5 written by Kaneshiro Yamada, art by Tsukasa Abe, translated by Misa 'Japanese Ammo' I am not particularly interested in this first-class mage exam arc that Frieren and co have been on for this volume. Idk i just find it much less charming than the sort of adventure of the week style that had been the previous pacing. I'll take a break reading this for a bit and see if it has its charm for me again after a little away. The anime is definitely on my to-watch list now

"Male Sexual Victimization: Examining Men's Experiences of Rape and Sexual Assault" by Karen G. Weiss glad i read this for myself after seeing it cited in another work

click by hornyonside (birdlord5000) on ao3 tender sky/fourteen fifteen smut that's a good time

Whitewater Foxholes by Aterikakaal (Biorenewologist) on ao3 Phyrgian has a disappointing hookup with Corrasion bc they are home sick for other branched :,(

to remake ourselves by evilmageclub on ao3 read for shapeshifting samsam smut

when the moon has gone to bed by blacksatinpointeshoes on ao3 if you would like to cry over a Fero/Samol modern au, might i recommend this fic? go forth and witness Fero as just some guy you meet in Boston

"The Third Sex" by Talia Bhatt on substack

"Degendering and Regendering" by Talia Bhatt on substack read some of Talia Bhatt's transfeminist essays this week. highly HIGHLY recommend reading "The Third Sex" if you have ever heard of hijra being described as "India's religiously venerated third gender" because Bhatt does some vital recontextualization with that

Longbourn by Jo Baker, narrated by Emma Fielding A great supplementary read to Pride and Prejudice, spinning up a dramatic story for the servants of Longbourn that only mildly intersects with the trials and tribulations of the Bennets. Since it was written in 2013 is reckons a little bit more with racial and class politics for regency England in a way that Austen's work did not explicitly. not perfectly but in a way that made me sit up in my seat reading it. the romances in this makes my heart ache like crazy

blind item by blacksatinpointeshoes on ao3 tabloid fic of clementine kesh's school years

Magic's Promise by Mercedes Lackey, narrated by Gregory St. John I need to incorporate the ways this book handles sexual coercion and violence towards minors as well as incest into my thesis somewhere, at the very least to point at it as a thing the fantasy genre deals with. it is fascinatingly frank

The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallet, read by Annie Aldington, Nneka Okoye, Gareth Armstrong, Sid Sagar, and Kristin Atherton I guess having key characters make up fake people that seem as real as the rest in the epistolary format is Hallet's signature

Started/Ongoing:

John Dies at the End by David Wong (Jason Pargin's psuedonym) reading for SFF book club. I am finding it incredibly abrasive tonally....

The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall oh poor Stephen.... so my copy is like subtitled as a classic work of lesbian literature, but to be clear, it is also very easy to interpret it through a transgender lens

[lafcadiosadventures]

Madame Putiphar Readalong. Book Two, Chapter XXIII:

For the first time in this novel where any place can suddenly become a prison*, we enter the first tangible, actual jail in the novel, and it's none other than the Bastille.

*I believe Proust ironized about noblemen becoming the hosts of whichever place they were in. In Borel’s novel, they are imbued with the alchemic power of transforming any place into a jail whether they own it or not.

J.M.W.Turner, Lecture Diagram 75: Interior of a Prison c.1810 based on an etching from Piranesi’s Prima Parte de Architettura e Prospettiva (1743, pl.2)

We follow Patrick, armed with Pompadour’s letter, into the building. Borel compares it with a beast. Patrick is entering its belly to rescue an already semi digested Fitz-Harris. The jail itself is alive, slowly ruminating on and digesting its prisoners in its gut-like cells. The Bastille is a stone bull, a lot like Phalaris’ Bronze Bull, the narrator remarks. This was a terrifying torture device from ancient Greece, the neoclassicists’ model of rationality and measure, imposing the style in repressive official art (for example see Auguste Préault’s Tuerie: a Romantic response to Triqueti’s La Loi vengeresse a previous and official neoclassical bas-relief)

I’d also say Borel is putting us in perspective with this example: it not only casts the horrors of the Bastille in a magnitude of excess worthy of a capricious, self-appointed tyrant from antiquity, it also shows us how this type of power abuse is not specific to a determinate place and time period (although this novel is very much about ancien régime and restoration era France), it has happened in ancient Greece, it has happened in 18th c France, whenever this abysmal power imbalance is allowed to exist these types of abuses will happen. Finally, the brazen bull is also a great metaphor: its acoustic design transformed the tyrant’s victims desperate cries into the bull’s mooing, a final insult to those dying in it, transformed into a gag or entertainment for the tyrant. (also worth noting, Phalaris was established in what now is Agrigento, Sicily, a colony of Greece, coexisting with democratic Athens)(Phalaris was also, like the French tyrants, finally overthrown by the native population, and some say, roasted inside his own bull)(it is a VERY relevant comparison, on so many levels)

It’s also interesting to note how abstract Borel is keeping France’s most iconic prison. Most of his readers would have had a mental image of it I suppose. But think of how precise Balzac gets when depicting the Concièrgerie (or Hugo in his Choses vues, or Dumas with the Château d’If in Montecristo) it’s almost as if Borel, for now at least, is not interested in documentation of a precise space, we are allowed to imagine any prison, we are allowed to go full Piranesi here. [Insert your mental image of an ancien régime prison here] in lieu of ancien régime France’s most iconic prison, because, maybe its horrors exceed a concrete time and space, specific as they are.

We do see the vault Fitz-Harris is locked in, in its tangible side: a dreadful place where you can barely stand upright, humid, dark, freezing; as well as in its psychological dimension, the effect it has had on Fitz-Harris, how different he sounds now, no more cheerfully mean spirited “monomania of speech”. After weeks of sensory deprivation and immobility, probably half starved as well, he’s grown completely paranoid and afraid of his own shadow. He has probably been hallucinating before, since he thinks Patrick is imaginary too, he also fails to react to the sound of his cell’s door opening.

Fitz-Harris’ monomania of speech is not entirely gone, he cannot help and call Pompadour “—L’infâme! La Putiphar!” right within the guards’ earshot. Patrick grows understandably anxious....

(Interestinly Patrick, a relatively recently emigrated man, knows the Bastille by reputation, he mentions in reference to Fitz-Harris’ anti Pompadour outburst, something called citerne-aux-oublis, a place he says, prisoners were thrown into for harsh(er) punishment. I tried looking this up on Borel’s Bastille related sources but had no luck with the exact words or synonyms I could think of... It is possible Borel is referring to the apparently famous “oubliettes” of the Bastille?

“M. Viollet-le-Duc has assured us, quite gravely, that the famed oubliettes (the bottoms of which were shaped like sugar loaves, so that prisoners might have no resting-place for their feet) were merely ice-houses! It is not denied that these cells existed, and those who care to believe that a Mediæval architect built them under the towers of the Bastille as store-chambers for ice to cool the governor's or the prisoners' wine, are entirely welcome to do so. These were amongst the places of torment in which Louis XI. kept the Armagnac princes, who were taken out twice a week to be scourged in the presence of Governor l'Huillier, and "every three months to have a tooth pulled out."

From The Dungeons of Old Paris, by Tighe Hopkins.

Violet-le-Duc’s drawing of the vaults, and explanation of its origin as ice storage here

Whether he means that or something else, it speaks of the Bastille’s infamy as a symbol of terror, mentally torturing the general population in an attempt to keep them in line out of fear.)

Fitz-Harris, maybe out of prison instilled paranoia, or maybe just projecting his own faults into others, thinks this is a trap, Patrick is lying, he falsely claims he is pardoned, but Patrick is actually leading him to his execution. He still follows, because he has to prove he’s not a coward. (this reminds me of the duel and how differently they both understood masculinity and honour... more on that very soon, in a shocking reveal about Pat’s character)

This routine of Patrick begging for FH to follow him, and the prisoner refusing to be set free is pretty interesting.... there’s something Plato’s Cavern to be said about it, surely. However terrible the conditions, a routine is a routine, sudden change is more scary than quotidian incarceration. It is uncertain and stable at the same time (trying to put myself in the shoes of a person who could barely see his surroundings, calculating the passage of time by the irruptions of the guards, once you realize you’re not being moved I imagine you grow calm because it means you get to live, since any abrupt change is seen by Fitz-Harris as the possibility of execution)

However, as F-H is not as far gone yet as to be unable to notice that he is in fact, being released, showers Patrick in praise, abases himself, swears to change for good and live to “earn” Patrick’s friendship, which he has without having really deserved it. But Patrick reveals a dark side to what we before though was his Christlike behaviour. He confesses a rather perverse pleasure in subjugating the one who hated him so much by making him thankful. His revenge is simply not won by the force of an iron blade, but it is a much crueller revenge, he says. Patrick is less of a saint, less of a Christ intuiting virtues in his potential apostles than what we had been led to think before. He of course has never shared this secret source of pleasure to Debby, not even when she thought him mad and too good for this world for helping Fitz-Harris...

(i am including Fitz-Harris’ previous phrase, I bolded a part that seems like it will be relevant in the future, translation by @sainteverge )

“Apologies, apologies for the all the harm I have done to you! My entire life shall henceforth be entirely dedicated to cleansing myself of my crimes towards you. I shall do everything to be worthy of your esteem; for he whom you esteem must be esteemed by God. As for your friendship, do not ever give it back to me, it would be to profane it! Keep it for hearts righter than mine. Oh! you have my eternal gratitude!” “Fitz-Harris, no gratitude. You owe me nothing, I told you I do not avenge myself with a blade; but I did not tell you that I am not capable of revenge; therefore here is mine: a good deed for an insult. This one is more cruel, I think, than the blade, what say you? to force someone who hates you to bless you, despite himself, in the depth of his conscience; to force a man to blush, to die of shame before his fellowman; that is, if I’m not wrong, a revenge! What say you, Fitz-Harris? We are even, I believe?”

I for one, did not expect this from Patrick... his revenge is still, killing them with kindness in a way... but there’s something about his choice of word that is sensuous and almost cruel, that reveals a vanity, and a perverse relishing in other’s subjugation that is surprising from him. He seemed exceedingly good, and it’s interesting for borel to suddenly introduce this mildly sadistic streak in him.

We are denied Fitz-Harris' reaction, but I bet he was surprised himself.

[doitinanotherlanguage]

Reading Around the World: Italy

Viola Ardone: Oliva Denaro (2021; The Unbreakable Heart of Oliva Denaro)

Original language: Italian

Translation read: Finnish translation Nimeni on Oliva Denaro (2023) by Laura Lahdensuu

Genre: Historical fiction

Summary: In a Sicilian small-town in the 1960s, a 16-year-old Oliva refuses the advances of a man, who consequently kidnaps and rapes her in order to force her to marry him out of shame (i.e. trying to bully her into a "rehabilitating marriage"). The novel is loosely based on the kidnapping and rape of Franca Viola.

Review: 4/5. Small towns and women-centric storylines with feminist themes? Say no more, I'm in! This was a powerful novel about girlhood and growing up as a woman, and of standing up against unjust traditions. The aftermath of the real-life Franca Viola's trial ruled that rapists were no longer able to avoid punishment through marriage to their victims, eventually leading to the law about "rehabilitating marriage" finally being repealed in 1981.

Stefano Benni: Baol: Una tranquilla notte di regime (1990; "Baol: A Quiet Night Under the Regime")

Original language: Italian

Translation read: Finnish translation Baol: eräänä rauhallisena yönä valtakunnassa (1998) by Laura Lahdensuu

Genre: Satirical dystopia

Summary: In 1991, the citizens of City T. live under a totalitarian regime in a society that is ruled by cruel hierarchs who monitor their subjects and where reality is being shaped by government officials in secret underground studios. In this brutal world, the last baol wizard is trying to understand a secret about his life, and in the process gets drawn into a plot to save the reputation of a past-his-prime comedian.

Review: 3/5. Funny, exciting, weird. A fabulous satire of the modern world that also slightly scares me with its focus on control through distorted media presentations of reality. This would make an absolutely thrilling movie! Minus points for some casual sexism.

Umberto Eco: Il fascismo eterno (1995; Ur-Fascism)

Original language: Italian

Translation read: English translation Ur-Fascism (1995)

Genre: Essay

Summary: A short and intelligent essay on the fascist movement and ideology, written by a man who grew up in Italy under Mussolini's fascist rule. The essay gives a definition of fascism and lists its fourteen typical features.

Review: 3/5. A very important and necessary read now as neo-fascist movements and parties are on the rise again. Unfortunately, there's a lot I recognise from modern politics.

Lorenza Mazzetti: Il cielo cade (1961; The Sky Is Falling)

Original language: Italian

Translation read: Finnish translation Taivas sortuu (1965) by Pirkko Wass-Colussi

Genre: Autobiographical psychological fiction

Summary: 10-year-old Penny has been orphaned together with her little sister Baby. They now live with their rich, Jewish uncle and his family in a large manor in the Italian countryside. It is 1943, and there is a war raging somewhere in the distance, but the children play and go to school in the village, learning to sing fascist songs and write essays about Il Duce. Then, the war creeps closer and eventually brings along chaos, blood, and destruction.

Review: 3/5. I saw a reviewer describe this novel as "perversely naive", and I couldn't put it any better. The novel cleverly describes the world of children and the world as experienced by children, particularly war as seen through the eyes of a child. Penny idolises Mussolini and is proudly a little fascist, having very little understanding of what is actually going on in the world of adults, until it all tragically blows up in her face. The events portrayed in the novel parallel those that happened to the author's real-life uncle, the cousin of Albert Einstein. This novel seems to have some sequels, so I'm planning to pick those up in the future.

Goliarda Sapienza: L'arte della gioia (1976/1994/1998; The Art of Joy)

Original language: Italian

Translation read: Finnish translation Elämän ilo (2014) by Laura Lahdensuu

Genre: Historical fiction

Summary: Written between 1967-1976, this novel was published in full only in 1998, after the author's death, because the novel was initially rejected due to its length and its portrayal of a woman unrestrained by conventional morality and traditional feminine roles. The novel follows a woman, Modesta, who is born on 1 January 1900, through her life in twentieth century Sicily as she pursues cultural, financial and sexual independence.

Review: 3/5. This door-stopper of a novel was a gripping, thought-provoking, sightly disturbing reading experience. With around 700 pages, this novel of growth and development packs in free-love and queerness, social climbing, strong-willed women, murder, and (sort-of) incestual relationships. At the centre is a woman's pursuit of independence. I was left wanting a bit more of the political and historical stuff regarding Mussolini, fascism, socialism, and the world wars, since the novel was quite indrawn. As a sidenote: I heard that there's an Italian TV adaptation coming out this year, which I'm very much looking forward to!

[delirium-inspired]

Welcome.

Pick your Enchanter.

(scroll down for Muses description)

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OCs

Tristan Laurent Beaumont - the Vampire Artist

Elizabeth Báthory - the sadistic Vampiress

Rebecca Schade - the Hexenbiest Wessen (witch-like creature)

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Canon

Dorian Gray - The Picture of Dorian Gray

Gellert Grindelwald - Wizarding World

Homelander - The Boys

Bucky Barnes - MCU

Guidelines

#1: This is a side blog, I follow back from my main: the-raven-dhampir

#2: I'm not my Muses. Please read several times and it sink in! DM me anytime, Mun friendship is strongly encouraged!

#3: Both Mun and Muse must be 21+. Please, take this seriously. 

#4: Open to NON Mutuals.

#5: Multi-para/novels strongly preferred. You don't need to match my lenght, but if you leave all the plotting to me, I lose interest very fast.

#6: I'm not an English native speaker and I may be slow with replies. This is a hobby for me.

#7: Let your fantasy run free!

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Tristan Laurent Beaumont

Face claim: Emerson Barrett

Species: Vampire (formerly human)

Age: 158 (born 1865) - Looks in his 20s

Occupation: Artist and Leader of a community of Eternals with the name LeRoy

Sexuality: Panromantic, Homosexual

Born with very peculiar aesthetic and creative skills, Tristan thrived during the era of France's cultural and artistic climate called La Belle Époque as a very appreciated visual artist, musician and poetry writer. He gets turned against his wish at the age of 26 by one of his models.

Struggling to accept his new condition and still missing his human form meant to decay and ultimately die, Tristan kept chasing after any form of art to feed his sad soul and gained a discrete success as an artist also in the modern world; as he gathered around him a growing but exclusive elite community of Vampires who were artists during their mortal life.

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Elizabeth Báthory

Face claim: Lady Gaga

Species: Vampiress (formerly human)

Age: 400+ (born 1560) - Looks in her 30s

Occupation: historian and model (both as a time-passing activity) - owns several night and strip clubs all around the world.

Sexuality: Bisexual, women leaning

Born as a Hungarian noblewoman from the family of Báthory, who owned land in the Kingdom of Hungary, she made it into the history books for being the first and probably most famous female serial killer after she tortured and killed hundreds of girls and women.

Turned at a young age, the stories of the countess bathing in her virgin victims' blood were all but legends. Upon leaving Hungary when it was time for her to officially "die" as a mortal, she exploited her family wealth to create a small economic empire, ensuring her a luxury lifestyle, never quitting the old sinful and sick enjoyments.

Sadistic pleasure was and is the very only motive for Lisbeth's crimes.

¦¦ Inspired by the Hungarian Countess Erzsébet Báthory

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Rebecca Schade

Face claim: Margot Robbie

Species: Hexenbiest Wessen (Witch-like creature)

Age: 32

Occupation: Lawyer

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Rebecca Schade is a witch-like creature called a Hexenbiest, which appears to have rotting flesh in Wesen form, but is strikingly attractive in human form. As all like her, she excels at concocting potions having various compulsive, emotive, or deadly effects and possess various supernatural abilities such as telekinesis.

She was born this way from Wessen parents who taught her to use her abilities at best to hide in human society and succeed as a brilliant lawyer. She made a very fast career exploiting her appearance and, whenever necessary, her supernatural abilities.

For her magical powers to be effective, she need to unleash the Hexenbiest and turn into a hideous creature.

Main traits: determined, ambitious, charming, selfish, possessive, social climber

¦¦ Inspired by Adalind Schade from the show Grimm.

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Dorian Gray

Face claim: Ben Barnes

Age: 133 (born 1890) - Looks 20 years old.

Sexuality: Pansexual, man leaning

Upon having a portrait of him painted by a friend and newly understanding that his beauty will fade, Dorian expresses the desire to sell his soul, to ensure that the picture, rather than he, will age and fade. The wish is granted: his portrait ages and visually records every one of Dorian's sins. Meanwhile, believing to be invulnerable to death, Dorian indulges in every pleasure and virtually every sin, studying its effect upon him. He firmly believes that beauty and sensual fulfillment are the only things worth pursuing in life.

Main traits: narcissistic, enthralled by hedonism, selfish, reckless, careless. Lives for himself only.

¦¦ Canon divergent from "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde

⋇⋆✦⋆⋇ ⋇⋆✦⋆⋇　 ⋇⋆✦⋆⋇ ⋇⋆✦⋆⋇

Gellert Grindelwald

Face claim: Mads Mikkelsen

Sexuality: homosexual

Gellert Grindelwald is considered to be amongst the most powerful and notorious wizards of all time. A student at Durmstrang, he was expelled for twisted, dark experiments. His life is dedicated to the search of the Deathly Hallows and to lead a Wizarding revolution and create a new wizard-led order that would dominate Muggles. He owns the Elder Wand after stealing it.

Main skills: advanced use of Magic (also wandless), Seer, healer, necromancer.

Main traits: highly idealistic, talented, charismatic, ruthlessness, with a ferocious temper.

¦¦ Books and movies based - possibly canon divergent

⋇⋆✦⋆⋇ ⋇⋆✦⋆⋇　 ⋇⋆✦⋆⋇ ⋇⋆✦⋆⋇　

Bucky Barnes

James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes is brought back from supposed death as the brainwashed assassin cyborg called Winter Soldier (Зимний Солдат) by Hydra. His memories and personality are later restored, leading him to become a dark hero in search of redemption.

Main skills: being injected with the Infinity Formula, he has increased natural vitality and physical traits (general strength, resiliency to injury, speed, stamina, and agility). Master of hand-to-hand combat and martial arts, as well as being skilled in the use of military weapons and blades.

Main traits: loyal, brave, honest to a fault, headstrong. Due to his past, tends to become pessimistic, confused, and feel lost.

¦¦ MCU-based only. NO comic influence.

⋇⋆✦⋆⋇ ⋇⋆✦⋆⋇　 ⋇⋆✦⋆⋇ ⋇⋆✦⋆⋇　

Homelander

Homelander is a Supe who serves as the extremely powerful leader of The Seven—a group of corrupt and hedonistic superheroes funded by Vought-American.

Beneath his public image as a noble and altruistic hero, he is an egotistical and sadistic narcissist. His powers and sense of entitlement have led him to exhibit extreme megalomania, causing him to commit crimes against innocent people, including acts of rape and mass murder, out of the idea that he can do anything he wants because of who he is.

Homelander's powers include heat vision, super strength, durability, flight, super hearing. He also ages more slowly than a normal human.

“There isn't a weapon on Earth that they haven't thrown at him. They've all failed.”

Main traits: megalomaniac, narcissist, unstable, depression-oriented.

¦¦ Based on the Character from the Amazon TV series The Boys. Generally Canon. NO comic influence.

Mun

I'm 30+, Cis-Woman, from Europe.

I love writing and I’m also a visual artist, which basically means I have a lot of fun with Photoshop. Most (or even all) of the simple edits you see here will be done by me.

I'm a very easy-going and open-minded person. Feel free to drop a message anytime, both for role playing and not! Everyone welcome, as long as you're not a jerk!

[fictionfromafar]

The Venus of Salò by Ben Pastor

The Venus of Salò

By Ben Pastor

Bitter Lemon Press

Publication Date: 23 May 2024 

The Venus of Salò is the latest and the eighth novel in the Colonel Martin Bora series, the most recent of which was The Night of Shooting Stars in 2020. The Martin Bora series written by Ben Pastor is comprised of a total of 11 books, which were released in Italy between the years 1999 and 2015. Ben Pastor is actually the pen name of a famous Italian author named Maria Volpi Verbena. Born in Rome, she now has dual citizenship and lives and works as a teacher in the United States. 

This was the first novel I had read featuring Martin Bora and while there are references to his previous exploits, particularly on the Russian front, the characters in this story aside from Bora appear specific to the novel. They comprise of a combination of real historical figures and fictional characters. 

The story sees Martin Bora arrive in the fascist Republic of Salò on Lake Garda in October 1944, six months before the end of the war in Europe. This was a very turbulent time in the history of Northern Italy as the once captured Mussolini has been rescued by the Germans from his mountain prison and restored him to power in the north of the country. While the German occupiers ruled through violence and the aid of the local Fascists, official and unofficial armed bands would roam arresting suspected partisans, members of the Resistance and terrorising the local population. During this time, Salo‘s grand villas by Lake Garda are used by Mussolini, the Gestapo and the SS. When a valuable painting, the Venus of Salò goes missing from such a residence, Bora is tasked with the investigation into the theft of the work of art, and it's recovery. A pattern of mystery develops when several attractive women are found dead, apparently but perhaps not by their own hands. 

The investigation sees Bora mingle with a range of Italians whose allegiences can vary quite substantially as well as German occupiers from whom he has his own secrets to preserve.  Along the way finds himself mistrusted by nearlt everyone, yet also falls in love while at risk of capture from Slavic partisans. 

Ben Pastor's astute reading of historical settings emerges strongly through this story providing a multifaceted crime novel which gives the reader a real flavour for the chaos and paranoia of this period while on a human level, they route for Bora to emerge from the situation unscathed. 

The blurb:

October 1944, in the so-called Republic of Salò, the last fascist stronghold in Italy. After months of ferocious fighting on the Gothic Line, Colonel Martin Bora of the Wehrmacht must investigate the theft of a precious painting of Venus by Titian, stolen with uncanny ease from a local residence. While Bora’s inquiry proceeds among many difficulties, the discovery of three dead bodies throws an even more sinister light on the scene. The victims are female, very beautiful, apparently dead by their own hand but in fact elegantly murdered. 

The author

Ben Pastor, born in Italy, worked as a university professor in Vermont before returning to her country.   She is one of the most talented writers in the field of historical fiction. In 2008 she won the prestigious Premio Zaragoza for best historical fiction. She writes in English.

Many thanks to Bitter Lemon Press for an advance copy of this book and to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for inclusion in the blog tour. Please check out the other reviews of this book as shown below.

[mybookplacenet]

Featured Post: And The Forecast Called For Rain by Kim Carter

About And The Forecast Called For Rain: "Now a Book Excellence Mystery Fiction Award Winner." Detective Jose Ramirez and the Sierra Hills Police Department are scrambling for leads on a killer who has already struck five times, each time leaving his signature trademark: large butcher knives piercing the abdomens of his young female victims. Profiling the killer is proving to be difficult, and Detective Ramirez knows that it’s only a matter of time before their perpetrator strikes again. As if Ramirez wasn’t frustrated enough, to his dismay, he was assigned a partner. Officer Daniel Chatham, a handsome young man fresh out of grad school, has pulled some strings to join the division and becomes Ramirez’s right-hand man. The lead detective’s anger slowly begins to dissipate as he discovers the book-smart kid can be quite the asset. With Ramirez’s experience, Chatham’s sharp mind and quick thinking, and the insight of Erin Sommers, a beautiful young journalist, the three make a powerful team gaining on their criminal. It’s raining… it’s pouring, and a killer is on the loose in the rainy Sierra Hills of Washington State. No one is who they seem; the plot thickens with every turn. You’ll never guess the ending of this enigmatic tale. Targeted Age Group: adults Written by: Kim Carter Buy the ebook: Buy the Book On Amazon Buy the Print Book: Buy the Book On Amazon Author Bio: Kim Carter is a multi-award-winning author and critically acclaimed writer of gripping suspense, chilling thrillers, and haunting historical mysteries. Ms. Carter is widely known for her vibrant characters in her Clara and Iris Mystery series, a couple of overly curious widows who turn into private investigators. These funny women were inspired by Kim's mother and her mom's best friend. Book one of this series, Murder Among The Tombstones, was chosen Finalist for the 2018 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award and a recipient of the 2017 TCK Publishers' Readers' Choice Award. Ms. Carter's Mysteries and literary works include 'Sweet Dreams, Baby Belle,' When Dawn Never Comes,' Deadly Odds' (chosen Editor's Pick in Books Shelf Magazine in 2022), No Second Chances, 'And The Forecast Called For Rain,' and her newest mystery Dark Secrets of the Bayou. "Bayou" has been awarded a Reader's Favorite Editorial 5-Star Review, also chosen #1 Finalist for Best Historical Mystery from Reader's Favorite 2021 book awards, and was awarded a 2021 Killer Nashville Finalist for The Silver Falchion Awards. In 2022, "Bayou" was chosen by The Author Shout book awards as a Recommended Reads. All Kim's novels can be purchased online at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, BAM, and Indie Bound. Kim's writing career started after she suffered an illness that made her housebound for a couple of years. An avid reader of mystery novels herself, she embarked on writing to fill her time. Kim's health struggles and successes have been chronicled on "Lifetime Television" in early 2000, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution, Women's Day Magazine, and Guidepost. Now, with seven acclaimed mystery titles to her credit, Kim worked in many different capacities in county government. Still, her job as a correctional officer ultimately offered her opportunities to talk and interact with a diverse group of people. Her experiences run the game, from inspiring success stories to tragic endings, as she writes within her mysteries. Kim began networking and made connections with numerous homicide detectives, medical examiners, and prison officials. Her research has taken her to many places, including morgues, death row, and the occasional midnight visit to cemeteries to gain material for her novels. Kim is a Saint Leo University college graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology. When she is not writing, she enjoys gardening, is an avid reader, and is a proud mother of four beautiful grown children; she resides and shares her time in ATL, GA, and Biloxi. Follow the author on social media: Learn more about the writer. Visit the Author's Website Facebook Fan Page Twitter Instagram Read the full article