#this is what happens if you read too many deep sea novels

[ghost-bxrd]

Expedition 452.2222, foray into Abyssal Zone.

One out of three biologists survived following the catastrophic engine failure of craft. Reports suggest the crew survived a month in suboptimal conditions before pressure and darkness resulted hallucinations.

Survivor, name [REDACTED], undergoing further investigation for abnormal skin condition (cause: unknown) and deteriorating mental state.

Recurring statements of [REDACTED] include abstract concepts of water and depth.

Notes: Engine failure questionable, as all other vital functions to the craft remained in order. Investigation strongly recommended.

— Log Entry 3.11, Researcher: [REDACTED]

Addendum:

No investigation required. Engine failure the definite result of water pressure.

— [REDACTED], Clearance Level: 6

File Notes:

Researcher Status: deceased

[imgeekgirlfan]

The Curse of Cassandra│(Qimir x Reader)

Read in Ao3 : here

Pairings:  Qimir x f!reader(SEA Reader)  [The Acolyte]

Content Rating : Mature 18+  Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warning (AT YOUR OWN RISK)

tags/themes : Alternate Universe - Dune & Star wars, Partners in Crime, Strangers to Lovers

Summary: Being a prophet is both a gift and a curse; you see the future and you’re burdened with the weight of knowing that every decision you make could shape or destroy entire universe, with the overwhelming pressure that the fate of the galaxy hinges on your choice, and every path fraught with sacrifice.

Status: Completed (Finally! 😭)

A/N : I'm thai and english isn't my first language (sorry for the broken English)

This fic exists 'cause I got high (thanks to weed!). So my work's full of random shit in many ways. But I hope you'll dig it.

I got inspo from novels and movies I'm obsessed with: Dune, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Blue Eye Samurai, and Anne Carson's Cassandra Float Can. (Hence the title "The Curse of Cassandra," linking to the Greek myth)

It's a mash-up of different universes, not just Star Wars, with a lot of tweaks for my storyline. If you want fanfic that strict Star Wars canon, this fic isn't for you.

Also, diversity FTW! the reader in this fic isn't white, she's a SEA woman, we gonna representing ASEAN pride.

➡  EP : 1 // EP : 2 // EP : 3 // EP : 4 // EP : 5 // EP : 6 // EP : 7 // EP : 8 // EP : 9 // EP : 10 // EP : 11 // EP : 12 // EP : 13 // EP : 14 (Completed)

Special OS : Phantom Thread

[Intro] A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away

What fate could be worse? 

Being captured by Jedi 

Or being hunted by Sith

You close your eyelids, frowning at the stabbing sensation creeping into your brain. It's always like this when you try to sink into the stream of time, pondering what's yet to come. The price for this wicked foresight is torment of both body and soul, intensifying as your senses expand.

You see, you hear, you feel. The moisture in the air, the sound of water droplets hitting the ground, the wind rustling through the grass, the capillaries in your nasal cavities twisting and rupturing before blood gushes from your nose.

As you casually wipe away the red fluid with the back of your hand, you suddenly realize certain truths that have always been part of you. 

You are an aberration, something repulsive. An Abomination. 

And abominations must be eliminated—so they say.

You let out a long sigh, allowing your mind to drift through the past, present, and future—every possible event and situation. You watch it all with a numb mind, as if you've seen the same movie hundreds or thousands of times, a movie whose ending you already know well.

Yet there's one thing you still don't know: which ending will the path you're on now lead to?

Something pulls you out of your meditation, coinciding with the moment you sense someone's piercing gaze openly fixed upon you. That man is watching you from the shadows behind a large tree, not with malicious intent but with curiosity mixed with several other complex emotions too ambiguous to explain.

You remain seated in meditation at the same spot, amidst the blood and corpses of the Jedi, not daring to move, almost forgetting even to breathe.

You are the last one still breathing, the final victim of the Jedi massacre carried out by the mysterious Sith—The Stranger who is now closely observing you.

His face is completely hidden beneath a dark, twisted metal mask. Yet you can still feel his gleaming eyes surveying your body, as far as sight allows, focusing excessively, even invasively.

The curiosity in his mind is so intense that you find yourself trembling.

You see visions of what might happen—there's a high chance he'll rush in to slice you to pieces with his red lightsaber, searching for secrets or whatever might be hidden inside your body. Or he might subjugate you with his Force, using his power to penetrate your mind, deep into your subconscious, hoping to taste the forbidden fruit of secrets that you alone possess.

But he will never know, as long as you don't wish him to.

The scent of death hangs heavy in the air as heavy footsteps crunch over gravel, approaching you slowly, like a predator toying with its prey. You freeze, every muscle in your body tense, as you face the tall figure in dark cloak, his visage concealed behind a strange metal mask carved into a distorted smile.

For a moment, this man reminds you of the grim reaper from ancient religious myths that vanished thousands of years ago.

He is the harbinger of death everywhere he goes, including your own death

Awareness strikes like a warning signal. Various possibilities flash through your memory, similar to how a dying person recalls everything that happened in their life.

You instantly realize how crucial this moment is. This is an incredibly fragile juncture. 

There's a fifty percent chance he'll kill you, and another fifty percent chance he'll spare your life. 

Fear spreads throughout your flesh, imprinting itself on your soul, turning your blood ice-cold. Your pulse races with panic. 

You take a deep breath, quickly focusing, trying hard to regain control of your shaken mind. "I must not fear," you mutter to yourself, the same phrase your mother used to teach you as a child. "Fear is the mind-killer, fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration..." 

A low, hoarse laugh escapes from behind the metal mask. Clearly, he heard what you said. "Oh, I think you should fear," he says, his words teetering between mockery and sarcasm.

You know he wants you to fear because, for the Sith, fear leads to power.

 You do the opposite, swallowing the lump of fear in your throat, maintaining a calm demeanor as you force a faint smile for the person before you. 

"Humans fear what they don't know, just as they fear me, and just as they fear you." You pause momentarily, carefully considering your final sentence, which could determine your fate. 

Finally, you speak, firm and unwavering, "But I know you, so I do not fear." 

There's a fifty percent chance he'll kill you, and another fifty percent chance he'll spare your life—this thought returns to your mind once more.

He had always kept his secret well, never letting anyone who knew his true identity survive.

You know well that your revelation will bring about an end that changes everything, both for better and for worse.

This is the gamble you've already placed your bet on, for this purpose and for this moment.

The lightsaber hilt in his hand remains tightly closed, showing no sign of the red flame that has taken countless lives. He kneels before you, his action clearly revealing vulnerabilities in his body. You could easily grab the lightsaber from the Jedi's corpse and behead him in one stroke.

But you don't kill him, just as he doesn't kill you.

You look into his eyes, he looks into yours, gauging each other in silence.

His large hand reaches beneath his mask, unlocks the mechanism, and slowly removes it, revealing the familiar face in your sight.

His face is sharp in every proportion, with messy jet-black hair. His eyes, once gentle when touched by sunlight, now cold as ice, contrast starkly with the smile slowly spreading wide, in the same fashion as the smile on the mask he wore earlier.

"Qimir"

His name sounds strange when you utter it, as if it's not a name you're familiar with, and the man before you is not the man you know.

The man chuckles softly and moves even closer, cutting off any chance for you to escape. You swallow hard, trying to turn your face away from his intense gaze. But he doesn't let you. His fingers, wet with others' blood, dig into both of your cheeks, pressing hard enough to hurt, forcing you to look only at him.

"Surprised?" He leans in closer, his hot breath on your face, and whispers softly in your ear, "I told you, you can't run away from me."

[hils79]

Hils Watches Tibetan Sea Flower - Ep 4

Now that I'm back at work I won't be able to watch as quickly as I did yesterday but I think after this week the release schedule is meant to slow down a bit. We'll see how we get on.

Wait, how many years are we talking?

Is this the first time we've seen Wu Yiqiong in a drama?

Ah, we're back to new young Wu Xie again

Ooh a new Wu Sanxing too

So Wu Laolou says he must be cremated within 2 hours of his death, no one should be 30 meters or less away from the cremator and no one must look inside the cremator after he's been cremated. Did he...swallow something?

Oh no I know exactly what this is. Fuck, I'm tearing up already

IS THE STATUE CRYING?? 😭

For some extra knives in the novel Wu Xie runs to this statue when his life is in danget because he feels safer with Xiaoge nearby even if it's just a statue of him

Of course everyone wants to marry Pangzi. And we all know he's doing to drop everything if Wu Xie needs him.

And of course Wu Xie knows that Pangzi would drop everything for him so he pretends that everything is fine. I AM DEEP INTO MY PANGXIE FEELS ALREADY AND THEY HAVEN'T EVEN HAD SCREENTIME YET

Honestly I'm amazed it's taken 4 episodes for Wu Xie to figure out this is a trap. And he didn't even figure it out, Pangzi did and he's not even there.

I love Pangzi so much!

Yep there we go. From 'I'm happy where I am because everyone wants to marry me' to 'stay put I'm coming to get you' in the space of 5 mins

He's so happy that Pangzi is coming for him 🥺

Of course Wu Xie has decided to try and befriend the one woman in this place who looks like she wants to kill him by stepping on him. He has a type and that type is women who could snap him like a twig.

You can definitely tell this is towards the end of Sha Hai era Wu Xie from the way he's meticulously setting traps and cataloguing the fingerprints of suspects. This is a man who has worked hard to wipe out an entire clan to keep Xiaoge safe

Man who frequently has hot women trying to kill him is surprised to learn that a hot woman is trying to kill him

Has he seriously got an internet connection in a monestary at the top of a mountain?

I recognise that voice. And that walk. OMG it's finally happening.

CHEN MINGHAO MY BELOVED!!!! I legit just started crying because I am a huge loser. I HAVE MISSED HIM SO MUCH 😭

LMAO Wu Xie's face! But...um...okay, there's a thing in the novel that I kind of assumed wouldn't make it into the drama but now I'm not so sure...

Oh thank god! So, in the novel they first start off by communicating via Pangzi writing messages on the toilet stall wall in his own shit. When he talked about having diarrhoea I had a brief moment of terror that they were going to go there 😅 NPSS really does like to include gross stuff involving bodily fluids in his novels

God look at him

I'm such an idiot I know who this is and I still gasped when someone with Wu Xie's face showed up unexpectedly. I won't spoil it for those who haven't read the novel

There we go! That's the Wu Xie I've been waiting to see!

Now the two Wu Xies are bickering. Where's my popcorn?

Still not used to this drama actually having a budget. Where are the wonky special effects?

I hope the bickering continues for a while this is fun

Human skin mask my beloved plot device

IS THAT ZHU YILONG'S FACE???

[spectrechosts]

Cold, Cold Heart

I want to be done reuploading and all I have left is shorter stories I haven't touched in forever which means shit is getting CONDENSED into single posts so I can have all this done by Halloween.

This one is about a girl from an ice planet and her surfer gf. Three chapters.

Bella sat on a towel, under a parasol, her nose buried in a book. The perfect picture of someone who, by all accounts, did not want to be at the beach.

It was strange to her, coming from a planet where the temperature never went above -10. The sun was too bright, the heat too intense. The parasol and a bounty of cold drinks were not enough to soothe her, and she prickled with irritation at the sweat from her hands staining the pages as she flipped them.

She shifted her gaze to Marisa, coming ashore from her latest stint in the water. This, to her, was the strangest of all. You don't go in the water. Water got into your clothes, weighed you down, tried to keep you in it's embrace. Shock set in almost instantly, and even if you got above the ice again hypothermia would follow within minutes.

Marisa loved to swim. This had gone from shocking and upsetting the first time (Bella knew what swimming was, she had read books, but that doesn't stop the instinctual response to drag someone out of the water before they can freeze to death) to a hobby that Bella could admire from afar as something that could, hypothetically, be fun.

You know, for other people.

But she was great at admiring, and peeking from behind her novel she watched Marisa approach, all glistening in the sun with her wiry muscles and her pretty hair and her skin that tanned instead of burning. She dropped into the sand next to Bella, pointedly avoiding her wonderful shade.

"Water's nice today!" She said, and she fished a water bottle out of their cooler.

"I'm sure." Bella said, and watched as Marisa gulped down water, a slight trickle escaping the side of her mouth and running down her neck and into her cleavage. Bella took a sip of her iced coffee, suddenly feeling incredibly parched.

"I could teach you to swim, you know." Marisa said expectantly, and Bella's eyes flicked back to her book.

"Shock in seconds. Hypo-"

"-Hypothermia in minutes, I'm aware." Marisa smiled. "That doesn't happen here moonbeam, you have nothing to worry about."

"I'll pass."

"Suit yourself."

Marisa leaned in and kissed her, and the taste of salt on her lips made Bella think for just a moment that the ocean might not be so bad. She got up and headed back to the shore, and Bella put her book down to drink some more iced coffee and fully appreciate how good Marisa's ass looked in that bikini.

She hated the beach, but she fucking loved going to the beach.

~~~

Bella and Marisa's second date was, for the most part, very pleasant.

They watched a mediocre movie, made fun of it over dinner, and then Marisa had offered to show Bella a secret hideaway that was, according to her, very romantic.

And so, because Bella really wanted there to be a third date, she somehow found herself staring into the fucking ocean. The 'romantic hideaway' was a small inlet surrounded by rocky outcroppings, and even Bella had to admit that seeing the moon and stars reflected in the gentle waves was quite something.

She did not want to go in there though.

"What do you think?" Marisa asked her, and she responded: "It's beautiful", which was true, if not the only thing she thought about it.

This, regrettably, prompted Marisa to take her by the hand and lead her to the water, the two of them kicking off their shoes and wading knee-deep.

Bella's fight or flight instincts were going bonkers, but were narrowly overruled by her "not blowing it with a hot girl" instincts. She knew of beaches, even if she had never been; She knew that people on temperate planets viewed them as fun, and that the general consensus was that the many dangers of the sea weren't that big a deal and were best not thought about, except for sharks, which were to be disproportionately feared as the statistically harmless terrors of the deep. The only times she had read anything about non-shark risks in fiction from the core worlds were tales of heroic, large-breasted lifeguards administering CPR with what she was certain was too much tongue.

This, however, did not stop her from shrieking when Marisa gracefully dropped into the water, nor from hauling her back to shore in an adrenaline-fueled panic.

She got halfway through removing Marisa's wet clothes to stave off hypothermia before she snapped out of it, and Marisa snapped out of her bewildered shock at suddenly being manhandled by a waifish girl almost a full foot shorter than her, and they both just stared at eachother not entirely sure where the fuck to go from there.

Perhaps in this situation, she was the large-breasted lifeguard and this was actually very romantic and not weird.

"This is… A little forward for a second date, don't you think?"

Nope, it was weird.

Bella struggled to find the words to explain why she had a perfectly normal reason to do this, managing to babble out "Ice planet" and "The water" and "Didn't want you to freeze to death"

Marisa must have gotten the gist of it, because despite Bella making a swift, mortified exit they would quickly make plans for another date that weekend.

Bella would pick where they went that time, Marisa insisted on it.

~~~

Bella keyed the stellar coordinates of her home planet into her console. The trip there from the core worlds was a good nine days, and that was with modern FTL drives. She couldn't fucking imagine what had possessed anyone to settle on a frigid rock well past the middle of nowhere, and she cursed them for saddling her with this horrible commute anytime she wanted to visit.

Marisa, however, squealed with girlish delight. "I'm so excited to finally get to meet your family, Moonbeam!" She dangled over the back of Bella's chair, arms wrapped around her.

"Try to hold on to that excitement for when we get there and you realize you're two weeks out from feeling the sun again." Bella warned, double checking her math on the jumps.

"Do you hate it there that much?"

"Oh, I love it." She said, finalizing the flight plan. "You'll hate it, surfer girl."

"You don't know that, maybe it turns out I do great in the snow." Marisa said. "And if not-" She tightened her grip. "I have my darling moonbeam to keep me warm!"

"Mm. At my parents' house. That they do not leave often. Because they live in a frozen hellscape."

"You're determined to make this unfun." Marisa said, and Bella could hear her pouting, and she sighed.

"I just don't want you to be disappointed." She said, and hovered her finger over the confirmation prompt. "Flight plan's locked in, are you sure-"

"Boop." Marisa said, and poked the confirm button for her, and they were swept across the stars as the jump drive kicked in and autopilot took over. "There, too late to change my mind, you don't need to tell me how awful it all is anymore."

"Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine." Bella said, a small smile on her face. "Even though I love talking about how awful things are."

"I know, Moonbeam. Why don't we head to the cabin and I'll make it up to you?"

"Maybe later, first I have a surprise for you."

"Oh?"

Bella threw a few switches and clicked through a warning popup, and Marisa yelped as gravity suddenly ceased to have any hold on her.

"B-Bella, what's going on?"

"You told me that swimming was like being weightless. I'm meeting you halfway." Bella said, gracefully flipping into a handstand and stealing a kiss before propelling herself to the roof of the bridge.

Marisa stayed latched to the back of the pilot's seat. "T-That's just a thing people say it doesn't mean I can-"

"Relax," Bella said, effortlessly bouncing from surface to surface. "Line yourself up with where you want to go and push off. Gently. Don't try walking, you'll spin. Just jump from place to place."

Marisa nervously pushed herself towards a handlebar on the wall, flapping her arms uselessly to try and steady herself.

"That won't help. Just let yourself float."

She drifted through the air until the bar was within reach, and latched onto it like a lifeline.

"See, easy." Bella cooed. "If you get scared you can just climb around on the walls, there's plenty to grab."

"Me? Scared? Ha, never." Marisa said unconvincingly, and Bella grinned.

"Good." She said, and propelled herself to the door. "I'll be in the cabin, catch me if you can."

"H-Hey wait! Moonbeam!"

She did not wait, slipping away down the corridor.

"Bella?"

No response.

"Y-You're coming back, right?"

The ship intercom crackled to life.

"The cabin, sunshine. Don't keep me waiting." It said, and Marisa watched as Bella's shirt floated back through the door into the bridge.

[le-panda-chocovore]

Can I ask your top 10 fav fics ever (from any fandom, if you don't mind)?

Also, just curious, is there a story behind your name "le-panda-chocovore "?

Oh I think I can actually answer that without rambling too much !! (<- took an entire week to answer the ask and select the fics, and I commented on each one of them lol) It won't be a Top in order of preference tho, there's no actual classment, it's just the ones I loved the most.

The Way I Behaved - EraserMic (MHA)

This fanfic gave me the inspiration to write my greatest work (still unfinished to this day) and literally changed so many things about me. It also made me discover a whole genre of music that I've never listened to before and with which I am entirely in love now. Prepare to cry tho, because this is deeply heartbreaking. It's a Villain Mic AU where Aizawa was never a teacher. And it is good.

What if Percy did become a God - Percy Jackson and the Olympians (based on the books !!! do not read if you just watched the show !!!)

The title says everything. This is not a happy story, you will cry, I promise. It's short, like a 1k word OS, it's really poetic, it's deep, it's beautiful, and also, it's painful. Humans were never meant to be gods, not even Percy. It's written like a poem, I read it so many times and it hurt me every time.

Demon and Angel Professors - Ineffable Spouses (Good Omens)

Not a fanfiction but a serie of short works about Crowley and Aziraphale and the people around them. A teachers AU very nice to read with many Original Characters (the students) who are all captivating and appreciable. The story is extremely queer-positive and neurodivergent inclusive and physical handicap representative, honestly, you want to read it. There's everything inside it. If you have chronic pain or if you're a closeted queer or even a curious ally who wants to understand their peers, this is what you need. The love is so pure it's overwhelming.

Honor and Vengeance on the High Sea - Zuko (ATLA)

Tbh this deserves to be published, it's a novel itself (I haven't finished it yet). The author reappropriated the Avatar universe to write something completely new. It's an AU where Zuko becomes a Pirate after his banishment and fights against the Fire Nation Navy, and eventually joins the Avatar's team. There's a whole work around internalized homophobia, the discovery of the self, acceptance, injustice, family trauma and everything. Original Characters are cool too. Chapters are long and very, very complete, you can see the author has historical and cultural knowledge.

Strength, the meaning of - Asano Gakuhou (Assassination Classroom)

I can't believe a fanfic about this total asshole made it to my top 10, but it is beautifully written. The progressive mental breakdown of a man who used to stand proud above everyone, the slow fall down to hell without even realizing it. There's also his son's POV here, which is equally beautifully written. I really hate the man and I don't like the fact that the end of AssClass completely disregard the consequences of what happened on the character's mental state, and reading how even him wasn't okay at all is very pleasant to read. That's karma my bitch.

Je suis assis - BokuAka (Haikyuu)

Yeah it's in french and on wattpad. It has been a while since I read it but I still remember the principal. It's a OS anyway so it's not very long (we didn't do that 20k words OS on Wattpad, this madness is only popular on AO3 lol). Since I'm sensitive to everything that is around handicap, it touched me. It ended up being cute and warm. Honestly I was more thinking of another BokuAka fanfiction but I couldn't remember the name nor found it online so I put this one.

25 - Riren (SnK)

Yeah yeah I know, pedo ship etc, but I was 14 and this is a High School AU where they're both 16 so, it's okay I guess. Yes the name of the fanfic is twenty-five. It's in french, it's on wattpad, and there's Eren's POV too. I don't know how I'm supposed to describe it... I think you have to read it, it's not actually strange or weird but, it's a whole experience.

Here there be dragons - Centennial Husbands (the Sandman)

This is the exact definition of love. What is love to me ? This fanfiction. Engagement, devotion, caring, this is it, this fanfic has the meaning of all these words. I had a hard time reading it because I hate ultra-long OS (I need CHAPTERS, give me a BREAK) but it was soooo enjoyable, and I was crying the whole time 'cause it's so pure and beautiful.

Palm to Palm - KaRen (Assassination Classroom)

Yes I am a part of the extremely tiny fandom that ships Karma and Ren (I do ship Karma with multiple people throughout the manga lmao) but only in THIS specific context. And this is beautifully written, I can't stop re-reading it. Also, the name of the ship makes me laugh. Karma and Ren relationship after losing Gakushuu -the boy they both love above everything else- is peak romance.

Le goût du chocolat - L x Light (Death Note)

I honestly don't remember a thing about this fanfiction except a single sentence, but I do know that I totally fell in love with it. It was one of my fave fanfic when I was full active on Wattpad, and I even archived it because I didn't want to lose it. I should read it again now that I found it again.

Alright that's 10 !!! Finally !!

Oh it was so fun to fall back into all the things I read before ! But it was harder than I expected because, well, I only have AO3 for 3 years and I've been on Wattpad for 7 years, but I started reading fanfiction even before that, I just didn't have any account back then. So, I kinda forgot about some of the things I read more than 4 years ago, and I couldn't find the gems I discovered when I was 12. Most of the books that made out to this list are my recent lectures, it's a bit biased I guess.

Anyway, thank you for the ask ! It was fun to analyze all my bookmarks and everything !

[bushs-world]

Rant: The protagonist doesn't always need to move the plot

So a few things resulted in this post. One, I was reading a writing article and the number one advice was that the protagonist has to move the plot or they are boring

And two, Tumblr recommended a 'Loki was useless in the series' post to me so here I go

Why this advice came in the first place

A good protagonist moves the plot!!

This is the first writing advice you will ever get when you are learning to write interesting, multidimensional characters and this isn't without reason coz some writers will put in the least effort to write their protagonists (it's mostly women written this way but sometimes men too). The result is a bland, boring who keeps sitting passively while the entire plot happens to them and they do nothing to try and change their situation. Instead, the writer adds other characters to fix their problems for them while they dont move a finger. This results in flat, uninteresting and often annoying characters.

A good example of this is Bella Swan from Twilight or the Sleeping beauty or Snow White. And I always believe this was a guideline to make sure people don't write flat, cardboard cut out protagonists but people took this rule as a checkmark indicator of whether that means the character is well written or not, totally forgetting that sometimes the protagonist doesn't need to move the plot.

The Subversion of this advice

This advice can be (and has been for a long time) subverted by a very clever but simple flip in the structure - when the plot impacts the protagonist and instead of focusing on how the protagonist overcomes the situation, the focus is on what they experience. And this is such a common trope, often used when the character is placed in an environment way outside their control or when the conflict is so big that they can't single-handedly change anything or when the odds are so stacked against them that there's nothing much they can do.

A very good example of this is Dani in Midsommar. She rarely moves the plot. The actual movers of the plot are the Harga tribes and Dani just follows whatever ritual they put her in and yet she is getting impacted by the plot. For one, she has no idea these friendly looking tribes are actually a death cult and even if she did, there was nothing she could have done. There's also evidence she was drugged and brainwashed but the story is rarely about Dani and her group escaping the clutches of the cult, it is about her experience both with the cult and her own sorrow.

Similarly, Pi rarely moves the plot in The Life of Pi. Everything that happens in the story is caused by coincidence and forces of nature yet the story isn't about Pi surviving the shipwreck to reach land. It's about his experience while he's stuck in the sea with Richard Parker.

A Christmas carol, Gulliver travels, the British soldier in Dunkirk, to some extent even Oliver Twist are all examples of stories where the protagonist don't move the plot, yet the characters aren't badly written. Heck, even in Infinity War, it is Thanos who moves the plot, not the heroes.

Thats also prominent in Frank Kafka's 'Metamorphosis' which Loki S1 takes some inspiration from where the protagonist Gregor rarely moves the plot but the plot impacts him and the entire novel focuses on his experience (which is also something because unlike the genre fiction which relies heavily on plot, literary fictions many times apply this technique to deep dive into the protagonists experiences).

The protagonist is not always the hero (and won't always win)

One reason I think this advice is taken as a holy grain of writing is because many people confuse the protagonist with the hero. A hero is essentially a hero, fighting the evils and bad guys but the protagonist is simply the character whose story we are following and I think this line blurs in the superhero genre because we are literally seeing it because we want to see heroes.

A character experiencing the plot is not a passive character

Another thing people forget is that a character experiencing or getting impacted by the plot instead of fighting to overcome the conflict is not a passive character. A passive character is one who doesn't try to change their situation. In contrast, characters in such stories where the plot impacts them often try to overcome their conflict but fail, either again because they can barely make an impact alone or because they don't have the necessary power or control.

So, is Loki in the series a badly written protagonist??

So, I have seen many posts claiming that Loki was totally useless in the series or incompetent or that he didn't matter in the series. And I see three reasons for this

1. He rarely moved the plot

2. He was incompetent

3. He had no importance in the story

I will tackle each of these points individually

He rarely moved the plot: Ok, this is partly true but again this doesn't prove that Loki was a badly written protagonist because Loki was experiencing the plot. The series was never about Loki defeating the TVA, it was the journey of Loki and his growth as he experienced the TVA and the restraints of the sacred timeline. And Loki didn't have neither the knowledge or the power to drastically change something or to defeat the TVA because he was facing off against an organisation that went far beyond his comprehension and knew everything about them, stripping him of the upper hand. And idk why people are so shocked of this particular point coz the trailers always hinted towards Loki being forced to work with the TVA.

Another way this argument is flawed is because this totally ignores Loki's importance to the emotional aspects of the plot. Loki's role in the series is that of the archetypical trickster (as described in the myths, not a literal trickster). Tricksters were often people who shook the status quo and uncovered the harsh reality with their plans and that's what Loki does. Ever since he landed foot in the TVA, he had been challenging the TVA dogma and his presence causes every person be it Mobius, Ravonna, the Void Lokis or even Sylvie, Loki shakes their moral stance and forces them to reconsider their opinions. Some like Mobius or Classic Loki change while others like Ravonna shut him down with their dogmatic views.

Another thing is that he's the moral and emotional centre of the series and he provides the series the much needed depth.

People mistake Sylvie as the person who moved the plot because of her strong screen presence and compelling storyline but if you look carefully, it's the TVA that moves the plot. HWR even says this in episode 6 that he paved the road, they merely walked down it. But people just see Sylvie's plan and think that she moved the plot when in reality, her plan was an important part of the series but it wasn't the plot. The series was never about killing the timekeepers, it was never about saving the multiverse. It was always about Loki's experience with the TVA. Everything else was just audience opinions.

And then Loki did move the plot. He moved it in episode 2 when he located Sylvie, he moved it in episode 3 when he hid the tempad. So, how did he not move the plot?? It's only possible if you think the series was about killing the timekeepers but tell me where it was said??

He was incompetent: Again, Loki wasn't incompetent. He was just placed in a situation out of his control. And most people who say this don't say it in regard to the situation in the series. No, they will bring Avengers Loki and point out how he was a badass, which frustrates me so much coz are you telling me that a character is only nice if he's an overpowered badass who defeats everyone. And if the character suffers defeat, then he's worthless. Idk it seems like a very toxic and shallow take to me.

It's also not that Loki isn't trying. He tried yet he failed coz the TVA knew each of his tricks and were so powerful that there wasn't much he could do. It's one thing if there was something Loki could have done which he didn't. But that's not what the complains are about. It's always about how Loki wasn't how he was in the Avengers or how this cool thing that this other character did should have been done by Loki instead.

They want an overpowered gary stu and since that's not who Loki is, or even if he's a little goofy, he's pathetic and weak and whatnot because he doesn't show outward, superficial displays of strength. If you think your character getting hit or losing is insulting, especially when there's a narrative reason why he can't win, then it's not the writing that's bad, it's you who's superfacial. Which I don't mind if you just want your fav to kick ass but then they won't say it simply. No, they have to add some weird twisted logic of how it's humiliating when nowhere in the series is Loki mocked for being weak and the only one who has problem with underpowered Loki is them.

He has no importance in the story: Again debatable coz one which plotline are we talking about? The series was always about Loki and his experience so without him there won't be a plot but also if you think that the series was only about killing the timekeepers (which was a subplot no doubt but it wasn't the main focal point ever), even then Loki played a big narrative role.

Without him, there would have been no Mobius and B-15 turning against the TVA, no Ravonna struggling to keep the TVA afloat and doubling down on her beliefs, no internal breakdown in the TVA, no Classic Loki redemption, and I don't even think Sylvie might have been able to enchant Alioth alone. Without Loki, even Sylvie's emotional struggle won't have come to surface so if you remove Loki from the series, you remove all the emotional aspects of the series which the series was definitely not.

The motto of the series was 'No one bad is ever truly bad. No one good is ever truly good' and it wouldn't have come out without Loki.

And yes, Sylvie's plan and mission made an equally important part of the story as Loki's own journey, and the series balances both along with the world building quite well.

In the end, it's ok if people don't like the series but can they please kindly stop saying it's bad writing when they don't have the nuance to critique the writing on an objective level. Just because one doesn't enjoy something doesn't make it a bad writing.

[blamemma]

every book i read in march ( all seven!! of them - a good reading month)

the lying life of adults by elena ferrante, 4* - ferrante sure does know the female psyche well. she pinpoints it just right every time. the way one small comment throws one teenage girls life into disarray was such a fun whirlwind to go down. a big fan of this one

the book of goose by yiyun lie, 2.5* - sigh. so much potential. the first 100 pages really did such phenomenal character development and i felt this book would have taken a very different route than it did. however in the end this felt choppy and as if li had chopped together two different novels into one

the mountain in the sea by ray nayler, 3* - another deep sigh from me on this one. so many interesting themes explored in this one, but only at the surface level. i think if nayler had stuck to the core story here, this would have been a really good novel. however the character jumps really made the book feel disjointed and the end felt very anti-climactic.

the covenant of water by abraham verghese, 4* - the first 500 pages of this was phenomenal. impeccable writing. gorgeous scene setting. quite, subdued, but wonderfully explored plot. and then due to spoiler i will not insert, the book loses its magic and its footing and from there you take a really weird turn. and the ending seemed to be there for shock factor and shock factor only. a real shame as this could have been a real steep contender for best books of the year if it hadn't of fallen apart in the last 200 pages.

cursed bread by sophie mackintosh, 3* - ummm what the fuck was that. no seriously. weird, sapphic love affair that is never actually a love affair. weird village happenings. questionable main characters. the recipe for a great book for me. mackintosh just really needed to hone in on those though and pick her scope better. left with far too many open ended questions at the end which made the book feel lazy. weird tho. interesting.

brother do you love me by manni coe and reuben coe, 5* - tears from the very beginning. oh this one will cut you deep. this one will make you question whether you are a good human or not. this was both devastating and heart-warming in so many ways. if you pick up one non-fiction this year i implore you to choose this one. especially if you live in the uk. it really challenges our care system and the way we treat those we deem to be different. i flew through this so quickly.

hurricane season by fernanda melchor. 2.5* - yeah im not even gunna try and explain this one. wtf.

[kamreadsandrecs]

Title: Our Wives Under the Sea Author: Julia Armfield Genre/s: horror, contemporary literature Content/Trigger Warnings: body horror, death of a parent, claustrophobic environs, the deep sea, portrayal and discussion of grief and grieving Summary (from publisher website):  Miri thinks she has got her wife back, when Leah finally returns after a deep sea mission that ended in catastrophe. It soon becomes clear, though, that Leah may have come back wrong. Whatever happened in that vessel, whatever it was they were supposed to be studying before they were stranded on the ocean floor, Leah has carried part of it with her, onto dry land and into their home. To have the woman she loves back should mean a return to normal life, but Miri can feel Leah slipping from her grasp. Memories of what they had before – the jokes they shared, the films they watched, all the small things that made Leah hers – only remind Miri of what she stands to lose. Living in the same space but suddenly separate, Miri comes to realize that the life that they had might be gone. Buy Here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/our-wives-under-the-sea-julia-armfield/17449967 Spoiler-Free Review: The last time I read a horror novel that explored grief, it was John Langan’s The Fisherman’s Wife, which I enjoyed thoroughly and found appropriately spooky. So when this book cropped up in some best-of lists this year, and many of the reviews implied or out right stated this was a horror novel, I decided to give it a shot. And yes, yes, it IS a horror novel, but not quite in the same way as Langan’s book. No: the horror here is in watching the slow deterioration of a relationship/relationships, something indefinable hanging between everyone that no one can seem to get over or around. And the thing is: it’s neither of their faults. On one hand, how do you explain a profoundly traumatic experience to someone? An experience that has changed you so fundamentally, that it might feel like you’re someone else entirely? And on the other hand, how do you try to understand what your partner is going through in the wake of a traumatizing event? How do you reach out to them, ask them to open up, without accidentally cutting them, or yourself, on the sharp edge of a memory? How do two people deal with the weight of all that? How do you keep a relationship from just...disintegrating? In broad strokes, that’s what happens in this novel. The story is told via first-person narration with both Miri and Leah as narrators, the chapters alternating between them. On one hand, Miri’s chapters are mostly set in the present, drifting back and forth to explore her past as it relates to the present of her and the just-returned Leah. It is in Miri’s chapters that the themes of grief and grieving are most pronounced, and it is both heartwrenching and nightmarish to read about how she deals with Leah, and her notion that maybe, her wife didn’t quite come back as herself. There’s a kind of slow, inexorable awakening in these chapters that feels terrifying, because you can see how Miri realizes that something is coming, KNOWS it’s inevitable, but isn’t sure yet what she’ll do. She’s failed before, after all. Will she fail again? As for Leah’s chapters, this is where the horror story side of the novel comes in, which I won’t get into for fear of spoilers, but they feel very cosmic horror-esque - and no, NOT because of the obvious Cthulhu references. These chapters are slow too, like the Miri chapters, but the flavor of terror here is different: a slow descent (heh) into the unknown, into madness (?), into thoughts that are maybe best left in the depths of the mind. What’s down there in the very deepest depths of the ocean? Who knows. What lies in the very deepest depths of the human mind? Who knows. Do we want to know? SHOULD we know? Taken all together, these chapters twine and twist and twist and TWIST so the tension’s almost unbearable, until finally, towards the book’s latter fourth, they finally snap and unravel into the conclusion. That the POV makes everything feel twice as intimate and maybe a tiny bit claustrophobic - which I personally enjoyed, mostly because of how uncomfortable it was to see all this happening. I know that seems strange, but the up-close feel really made this even more compelling to read. This is helped along by the writing, which is lovely right from the get-go and makes reading this book immensely easy for all that the story feels like it should be going a lot more slowly than it actually does. Rating: five faceless cusks (seriously go look those up they’re so STRANGE) Thoughts under the cut for spoilers:

- What in the actual everloving FUCK was that THING Leah saw at the end of the expedition? What the fuck???

- Also what was it Leah was turning into? WHY was she turning into it? Could swear she was turning into a jellyfish but still? WHY??

- Who the fuck’s behind the Centre? I know it’s not supposed to be answered, that they’re essentially a MacGuffin, but STILL. I am CURIOUS - not least because if kind of reminds me of the similar organization in Vandermeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy.

[justfinishedreading]

Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen

The Little Mermaid (1989) is my favourite Disney film, I love mermaids. I also love seeing familiar stories told in new and unexpected ways, like Maleficent, Enchanted, The Lion King being based on Hamlet, Clueless being a modern take on Emma, and so on. So when Halle Bailey was announced as Ariel in the 2023 live action remake I naively thought we were getting a brand-new interpretation of The Little Mermaid, that they might lean in to a specific black culture and setting, like what Disney did for The Princess and the Frog, setting it in New Orleans and giving Tiana an identity and aspirations based on a real time, a real culture and a real community. Although side note it’s never sat well with me that the first black Disney Princess spends most of her time as a frog. 

With The Little Mermaid 2023 a Caribbean setting and culture would have worked wonderfully, ok yes the film is suggestive of being set somewhere in the Caribbean (although filmed in Italy) but fails to fully embrace the culture, passes up the opportunity to create brand-new music inspired by the amazing sounds of the Caribbean, and to have a predominantly black cast. The Caribbean is one possible setting given its wonderful beaches and Sebastian’s Jamaican accent but the film could be set in any number of countries (with a coastline), past or present, where there is a strong black community. At the end of the day these Disney remakes aren’t about real diversity, they are first and foremost about reusing past successes as an easy way to create new ones. 

When I picked up Skin of the Sea it was with the hope that it would become the story The Little Mermaid 2023 live-remake could have been. Unfortunately Skin of the Sea has its problems mostly to do with writing and in the end I didn’t love it enough to continue the story in book 2, Soul of the Deep. Here’s a break-down of the good and the bad. 

The Good:

-The novel does well in introducing West African culture, Yoruba religion, and mythological creatures. 

-Although it is set during the slavery period, and the topic of slavery is discussion properly and made part of the story, it is also very clear that the identities of the characters and community go beyond slavery, they have a long history, identity and wealth, and they are not defined by this moment in time. 

The Bad:

-The writing, some descriptions are clumsily written to the point that they make things confusing, the author also has a bad habit of repetition, one character was described as smelling of soap so often that it became a joke between me and my reading buddy, and the colour of the protagonist mermaid tail does not need to be described every time, especially towards the end when we’ve already read its description before.

-Pacing. It was quite hard to get started, but gets much better towards the end when characters aren’t just travelling from one place to another but finally actively participating in plot. At one point in the middle when the two main characters are going through the forest it felt like the author was including too many mythological creatures just to tick them off a checklist. I don’t know what happens in the second book, but my feeling is that the first needs a lot of editing, scenes cut but also a significant amount of writing cleaned up, and then along with the second book should be made into just one big epic book. Unfortunately we live in a time of YA trilogies and duologues, why sell one book when you can split it and sell two. 

Part of me was very tempted to get Soul of the Deep, because Skin of the Sea was 90% set on land and didn’t have much about underwater mermaid life. At the end of book one it’s suggested that book two picks up underwater, however if I didn’t enjoy the writing in book one, why read book two.

P.S I do like the book cover a lot though.

Review by Book Hamster

[hier--soir]

january reads

this thing between us by gus moreno [★★★★★]

"I don't want to get over anything, Thiago. I want to sink as far as it'll take me."

: ̗̀➛ grief and love and loss and horror and all the mess that drips in between.

dog songs: poems by mary oliver [★★★]

"Finally, the slick mountains of love break over us."

: ̗̀➛ short and sweet lil poems that made me look over at my snoozing dogs and smile.

big swiss by jen beagin [★★★]

"I once saw you at a farm stand. I was there to buy tomatoes, but I noticed you in the meat section, pulling venison cubes out of a freezer, and I fell in love with your forearms. I obsessed about them for weeks."

: ̗̀➛ greta is a transcriber for a sex therapist. she becomes obsessed with one of the clients, who she nicknames big swiss, and subsequently makes many bad decisions that will make you want to tear your hair out but never stop reading cause you want to see which bad decision she makes next.

: ̗̀➛ great book if you love reading about women doing things that make you cringe so hard you worry your face will never go back to normal.

decreation by anne carson [★★★]

"I am excess. Flesh. Brain. Breath. Creature who breaks the silence of heaven, blocks God's view of his beloved creation, and like an unwelcome third between two lovers, gets in the way."

: ̗̀➛ a collection of poetry, essays, and operas. anne carson is so random and weird and smart and sometimes her stuff goes over my head but even when that happens i still wish i could write like her.

a certain hunger by chelsea g. summers [★★★]

"I loved him, I suppose, but it was the love of an itchy sweater that looks too good on you to throw away. Every time you slip into that sweater, you know you're going to get compliments and admiring glances, and every moment you're alone, you're going to scratch your flesh raw."

: ̗̀➛ a food critic who murders and cannibalises her lovers [but only her favourites??]

: ̗̀➛ fun and gross; i like it when women are the worst.

sharp objects by gillian flynn [★★★★]

"A child weaned on poison considers harm a comfort."

: ̗̀➛ murder mystery thriller with a heaping serve of trauma sprinkled overtop.

: ̗̀➛ mothers and daughters, hey? ouch. this one made me cry and cringe and i read it in one day.

our wives under the sea by julia armfield [★★★]

"'I think,' June says after a pause, 'that the thing about losing someone isn't the loss but the absence of afterwards. D'you know what I mean? The endlessness of that.'"

: ̗̀➛ a very quiet, sad, contemplative read. i am terrified of the deep sea so it made my stomach roll at points.

: ̗̀➛ i rec this one to any gays that want to be sad and also unnerved.

autobiography of red by anne carson [reread] [★★★★★]

"Geryon's life entered a numb time, caught between the tongue and the taste."

: ̗̀➛ the autobiography of a young boy who is also a red-winged monster.

: ̗̀➛ a favourite of all time. poem, novel, and mythology all tied into one gorgeous gut-wrenching read. i'll never stop reading this one.

the carrying by ada limón [reread] [★★★★]

"What if, instead of carrying a child, I am supposed to carry grief?"

: ̗̀➛ a tender and honest poetry collection about youth, loss, acceptance, and fertility. made my chest hurt! [but apparently not enough to stop me from reading it multiple times]

my dark vanessa by kate elizabeth russel [★★★]

"...pulling the words out of me like teeth."

: ̗̀➛ i'm not going to say what this is about but proceed with caution.

: ̗̀➛ while this was rough to read due to the subject matter, i couldn't put it down.

my book rating system is as follows:

★ = i felt pure contempt the entire time

★★ = yeah it's a book

★★★ = i liked it!

★★★★ = good fucking book, damn

★★★★★ = blew my dick clean off and i'll throw a tantrum if everyone i know doesn't also read it and love it

[nonsubstantial]

2023 Book Log (part 3/3)

++++October++++

Mort (discworld 4) by Terry Pratchett ~ Adventures in the Discworld continue!!!! I still haven't been completely captivated by any book in this series yet, but they're never too disappointing either. It's just reliably fun sci-fi fantasy. ~ my rating: 7/10

++++November++++

Witch King by Martha Wells ~ This book was kind of like solving a puzzle. You're suddenly dropped into this fantasy world, and every character there understands what's going on, but you as a reader are just staring at all these pieces and trying to put them together until you get a picture of the book's setting. That aspect of discovery and worldbuilding worked well for me, but I didn't feel like it was properly coupled with down to earth character moments. In other words, the world was interesting but the characters were not, in my opinion. I think I liked the way that the narrative swapped between the past and present, but it's also worth noting that I felt like the past story was not as strong as the present one, and I sometimes felt like the chapters were too short and it swapped between them too soon. Anyway, I had fun, so if Wells writes in this world again I will probably read it. ~ my rating: 8/10

Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield ~ This book is about 1/3rd horror story, and 2/3rds tragedy about coping with death. It is a concise and beautiful attempt at expressing something very difficult. Though it was a heartbreaking and terrifying journey, it also ended with a celebration of love, and a little cosmic horror to boot. I don't know how many times I've read short fiction online about "the horrors of the deep", and felt like those stories were missing something. Well, while it may not incorporate EVERYTHING I'd like, this book still manages to feel like nice mosaic made up of many of those great short form ideas. Two well rounded characters, and their relationship, form the glue that holds all those ideas together. I highly recommend this one, for many reasons. ~ my rating: 9/10

Shards of Honor (vorkosigan saga 1) by Lois McMaster Bujold ~ I enjoyed this book immensely at first, and upon finishing it I still have to admit that Bujold is extremely skilled at writing drama that is both exciting and easy to understand. She had no scruples about letting major plot events happen off screen, for the benefit of only focusing on what, I'm sure she believed, were the most exciting parts of her story. However, I might need additional convincing to continue this series because this book comes across as very conservative and problematic by my standards. I get that it was published in 1986, but even for its time I felt like there were a few unexpected trip-ups that make it difficult to enjoy today (the main characters referring to 'fetuses' as 'people' raised some serious red flags, for instance). I know it's a sci fi staple, and I have friends who still like it, but I'm willing to bet that there are some other books out there that I'll enjoy more. ~ my rating: 5/10 Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle ~ I love Chuck Tingle's spirit and all the ideas that he crammed into this novel. I didn't find his writing entirely believable, and there were a lot of events that didn't feel earned, in my opinion, but I did like it overall and I felt like the second half of the novel was stronger than the first. That's probably because I have an aversion to stories based around amnesia (which was a big reason why the first half was losing me), and I thought that Saul was an interesting foil to Rose, so my interest spiked after he was introduced (in the second half). In the end, despite the story kind of feeling like a stream of consciousness rather than a well sewn together narrative, I still think that Tingle's good ideas carried it a long way and I actually had a lot of fun with it. ~ my rating: 7/10

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone ~ Honestly, this book lacked even a modicum of substance, and the only emotion that it managed to stir in me was bitter disappointment. I wrote several paragraphs (on goodreads) about why exactly I hate it, but even they fail to do justice to just how worthless and frustrating the experience of reading this book was, on every level. Congratulations, worst book of the year. ~ my rating: 1/10

System Collapse (the murderbot diaries #7) by Martha Wells ~ I love Murderbot!!!! ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶ The conflicts in this series are always so cathartic to read about. As always, Murderbot is extremely relatable and groundbreaking as a character. I really need more authors like Martha Wells, who can write good neurodiverse characters outside of the gender binary (bonus: even neopronouns were featured in this book). This did not disappoint. ~ my rating: 9/10

++++December++++

README.txt by Chelsea Manning ~ It's unbelievable to me that this book hasn't picked up more of a focus in the American cultural psyche. I've been casually interested in Chelsea Manning's story since highschool, and this book is a stunningly well written and levelheaded account of what Manning (hopefully) believes are the most crucial parts of her singular life narrative. I feel like Manning's story has got to be one of the most important stories about American identity, propaganda, and foreign policy, of the last three decades. Also, Manning did a great job narrating the audiobook. I feel like I should recommend this to everyone I know. ~ my rating: 10/10

[ichayalovesyou]

THE BIG VULCAN BIOLOGY POST (aka Vulcan is a Hell Planet)

DISCLAIMER: I am not a biologist, astrophysicist, neurologist, animal psychologist or literally anything that would qualify me to talk about this with 100% confidence. This is the result of dozens of headcanons and obsessive deep dive research. I don’t want this post to be three miles long, so after I address the planetary stuff I will oblige y’all with a Read More.

Adsfasdkfjhaslkdfh I’ve been working on this post for almost a month SO HERE WE GO!

First of all, Vulcan (aka T’Khasi) is a HELL PLANET, which is part of the reason they’re so badass, I say this for the following reasons:

No moon(s) (natural satellites)

Sodium (Salt) is so rare on the planet that Vulcan’s oceans are freshwater

It’s a “Super-Earth” (as in big chonkin’ planet of similar composition to earth in the “goldilocks region”)

Let’s do this.

“Vulcan has no moon Ms. Uhura.”

-Spock, The Man Trap

Tons of things change about our planet if there was no moon:

Much darker nights (no moonlight)

Much lower sea levels since there is no gravity from the moon to pull it upward.

Lower and weaker tides because the water is pulled by the sun instead of the moon, and it depends on how large the Vulcan solar system’s sun is for how big the waves are.

Stronger winds from faster planet rotation.

Depending on whether the axis of the planet would straighten or tilt further without the moon’s pull, combined with the faster rotation would lead to more severe seasons (strong tilt) or no seasons at all (no tilt)

The first factor may lead to Vulcan eyes being very catlike even if they aren’t nocturnal (I think they’re crepesucular but we’ll get into that later). Which given the likely nature of their blood and their herbivorous eating habits they probably aren’t. The sky would still be so dark that our human eyes couldn’t even see our hands in front of us, being blind when the sun goes down could be a death sentence. Alternatively, if they didn’t develop strong night vision that may be one of the reasons why they have such strong senses of hearing.

The stronger winds, faster rotation, and stronger (or nonexistent) seasons come from the lack of resistance and friction that stronger tides and the moon’s pull create on our planet. I suspect that Vulcan is larger, or at least denser than Earth, but I’ve been informed that according to the TMP novelization that it does rotate faster. I also think that Vulcan’s tilt is on the more extreme end to get the hostile extremes like storms and heat that we see on Vulcan.

If you look at this image of Vulcan, water covers way less of the planet’s surface than Earth. I don’t think this is necessarily because Vulcan has less water, but that it isn’t spread as far because of the lack of moon, and the fact that the oceans are freshwater, I’ll get into that shortly.

“My ancestors spawned from a different ocean than yours.”

-Spock, The Man Trap

In the Star Trek: The Original Series (third) pilot The Man Trap, there is a creature that kills its victims by draining their bodies completely of salt. Spock encounters the creature but does not die, implying his (and Vulcans overall) body contains little to no salt. His justification is that his species did not evolve from a salinized ocean.

What does it mean to have oceans with no salt?

This has to mean that sodium is a very rare mineral on Vulcan, as the reason our oceans are so salinized is due to erosion of minerals by rainfall, carried from river to ocean. Salt in the ocean is also generated by submarine volcanic activity, which means either that the volcanoes on Vulcan (which we definitely know exist) somehow don’t produce salt, or the vast majority of the submarine volcanoes have been inactive for millions if not billions of years. The active volcanoes on Vulcan must be very far inland and/or Vulcan has almost no rivers, which given how hot the planet is, wouldn’t actually be too much of a stretch of the imagination.

Which means every single lifeform on T’Khasi, including Vulcans, evolved biosystems that exist without (or with very little) salt content. Any salt that exists would likely be deep beneath the planet’s surface, and within volcanoes.

No saltwater has a ton of consequences:

Plants (like underwater algae) are rarer and may not photosynthesize the same way Earth plants do, meaning less oxygen and more carbon dioxide, which means more greenhouse effect, which means higher temperatures.

The lack of salt would also mean less diverse plant life (at least as humans know it) and given the lack of visible rivers and vast swaths of desert on Vulcan, we can safely say vegetation must be hardier and infrequent.

Lower sea levels as the oceans would have lower density due to lack of salt.

Little to no water convection, which salt is crucial for on Earth. Which means warm ocean water doesn’t move to cold regions and vice versa. Creating extremes, the equator being obscenely hot, and polar waters freezing at the poles more extensively.

Lack of convection means more frequent and stronger storms like hurricanes.

If you thought the lack of a moon made Vulcan inhospitable, compound it with the low sodium factor and you’ve got a planet of even more severe extremes than before. The heat, and the decrease of plant diversity definitely explain why the vast majority of Vulcan is rocky desert, even being near the water poses more extreme dangers than it would on earth due to the increased frequency of hurricanes.

“Mr. Spock is much stronger than an ordinary human being.”

-Kirk, This Side of Paradise

I am almost 100% sure that Vulcan is either bigger or denser than Earth. Which would explain why Vulcans are so much stronger than Humans and other species that exist on similar gravity worlds.

Effects of a high-gravity planet or “Super-Earth” include:

Everything is shorter or has very strong foundations, plants, animals, structures, and people.

More “Armageddon” class asteroids would hit the planet (like the one that killed the dinosaurs and created the Gulf of Mexico)

Larger liquid mantle under the planet’s surface, higher pressure under the surface as well.

Weaker magnetic field due to lack of convection in the planet’s core (not to be confused with the mantle interacting with the planet’s crust). Which means a weaker atmosphere, lower magnetism in surface metals, and increased vulnerability to solar flares.

More volcanically and seismically active due the the increase in the mantle’s size and generated heat, more earthquakes, and more volcanic eruptions.

Would have to have a smaller sun but be closer in orbit to it than earth.

Extremely deep oceans, potentially with water under so much pressure at the bottom that it becomes solid like ice. Luckily Vulcan is not an ocean world, because the pressure would block the planet’s core from interacting with the atmosphere, which would prevent life as we know it from happening.

There is plenty of evidence for this on so many levels. We never see any plant life similar to trees on Vulcan. Nor animals significantly larger than Vulcans, the ones that are bigger are much more muscular. Vulcan’s sky is more red than blue because of the lack of oxygen molecules for the light from the sun to filter as blue. I actually headcanon that Spock is unusually tall for a Vulcan because of his human heritage (Leonard Nimoy was around 6ft tall) , and may have had heart and muscle problems in his teens and early adulthood while on Vulcan.

Perhaps Vulcans are the result of many more extinction level events than we are, contributing to their hardiness. Perhaps they are, evolutionarily, not too much older than we are, and had more incentive to develop extraterrestrial technology than we have, so that they could repel Armageddon Class meteors and defend their planet against Solar Flares? Space travel being born out of self-preservation rather than curiosity. Which would absolutely account for their attitudes in the beginning of Star Trek: Enterprise.

It could be that Vulcans still maintain a semi-nomadic lifestyle even today because their planet is so incredibly volatile. Unsentimental and utilitarian in anything less than the most sacred of architecture long before they adopted the teachings of Surak. Their own survival more valuable than any structure that would inevitably be damaged or destroyed by their planet’s harsh environment.

In summary, Vulcan is a Nightmare Planet because:

So, so many much natural disasters, like, so many, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, hurricanes, twisters, just, so many more than Earth.

Water is relegated to specific locations in the world rather than spread across it due to lack of flow and lower sea levels.

Extreme temperature changes, intense heat, intense cold, hard to breathe, stronger gravity.

Due to the planet’s hostility, there is a smaller diversity of life than we have here on earth, which means fewer and hardier food sources that, like Vulcans, are very difficult to kill.

So… How do they handle it? What features have they developed to adapt and thrive in such an inhospitable place?

First thing is first, lets talk about

BLOOD

“My hemoglobin is based on copper, not iron.”

-Spock, Obsession

Funny thing is Spock, it’s not hemoglobin at all! It’s hemocyanin! In fact, there are earth animals that have it, among them Horseshoe Crabs, crustaceans, mollusks and spiders!

Hemocyanin is blue when it hasn’t been exposed to oxygen, and blue-green when it has, according to some sources on Vulcans their blood is orangey red when unexposed to air and that’s why they have pink lips and so on, but we can brush that off as chemical variation within their hemocyanin. Better yet, maybe it’s trendy for Vulcans to wear pink lipstick nowadays, ‘cause Surak knows how horny Humans and Vulcans are for each other XD! Anyway!

Hemocyanin does quite a few things that our blood can’t, it’s uniquely built for high pressure, low oxygen environments, as well as endure temperature extremes like cold (not unlike nights on their planet). Not only that, but it coagulates and clots WAY faster than our blood. Which means wounds seal themselves off from harmful bacteria and stop bleeding much faster than hemoglobin. Pair that with the Vulcan ability to enter a healing torpor, no wonder Spock keeps surviving environments and wounds that would definitely have killed a human.

Now, the animals I listed don’t have veins, which for us carry oxygen around via hemoglobin, so it’s possible that the same difference that causes Vulcan blood to be a coppery orange-red beneath the skin, is the same reason they have veins. Allowing them to look more like us and lack the exoskeletons and deep ocean delving that their earth blood cousins have.

“The ship’s temperature is increasingly uncomfortable for me. I’ve adjusted the environment in my quarters to 125 degrees.”

-(Elderly) Spock, The Deadly Years

Oh goodie, the Vulcan blood temperature discourse has arrived, the age old question, are Vulcans warm-blooded or cold-blooded? The answer to this question is

YES

I am firmly in the small (but hopefully growing) camp Vulcans Are Heterothermic. Among the earth animals we know to be heterothermic are bumblebees, several species of bats, the opah fish, and the arctic ground squirrel. Of all these animals, despite the opposite temperature intensity of Vulcan’s environment, I’m basing how Vulcans function on the last one, the arctic squirrel.

Which means they can deliberately control their body temperature in accordance to the needs of their survival. I imagine, just as arctic ground squirrels can drop their body below zero as needed (entering what is called a “daily torpor”) Vulcans can do the same. In turn, they could possibly skyrocket their bodies to temperatures that would be a lethal fever for humans. Which makes both McCoy’s “nonexistent Vulcan metabolism” comments in various episodes, as well as describing his blood as “ice water” make sense. As well as Spock being able to handle the heightened body temperature caused by Henoch in “Return to Tomorrow”. It also explains why Spock was in far better shape than Bones in the freezing temperatures of the planet from “All Our Yesterdays”.

However, like arctic squirrel newborns, they start out as ectothermic (cold-blooded) which lends itself to the Vulcan infants needing even more skin to skin to survive than humans theory by @acesexualspock. Being born cold blooded would prevent them from immediately dying the second they were exposed to the dangerous extremes of Vulcan’s heat. I also think they slowly lose the ability to control their metabolic rate as they grow older, slowing down dramatically as they age, which is why Spock gets increasingly colder as he ages rapidly in “The Deadly Years”.

“The brightness of the Vulcan sun has caused the development of an inner eyelid.”

-Spock, Operation: Annihilate

I wanna thank @tribbleland for inspiring this part in particular.

I want to offer a special congratulations to furries people who let their love for anthro-cats bleed into their love for Vulcans, turns out Vulcans are very catlike! Like our feline Terran friends, Vulcans have what is called a Nicitating Membrane. It’s functions that would serve Vulcans well in their desert home include spreading moisture across the eye, protect the eye from small water and small debris (like sand for example), as well as protecting the eye from ultraviolet radiation, which is more or less what Spock said in that episode. Other animals that have Nicitating Membranes aside from felines is actually the majority of the animal kingdom, and primates (like us) are the exception and not the rule. I also subscribe to the idea that Vulcans have other desert dweller features like thick hair and eyelashes, sealable nostrils, big feet, a crepuscular sleep cycle (avoiding extreme midnight and midday temperatures), and a tough as nails digestive system!

As an added bonus fact since this section is pretty short: It makes purrfect sense for Vulcans to purr! In cats purring is an emotional regulator when they are angry or scared (Vulcans are ALL about regulating their emotions) as well as purring when they are happy. It is also a mechanism for healing themselves, their kittens, and their owners, the frequency at which cats purr (25-140 Hz) cover the same frequencies that are therapeutic for bone growth and fracture healing, pain relief, swelling reduction, wound healing, muscle growth and repair, tendon repair, and mobility of joints. I’m over here getting emotional about the mental image of like, Spock or Tuvok or smth sitting next to a wounded crewmember and just like, purring with a completely straight face and that is soft and just a little funny and I am emotionally compromised.

“And are it’s natives predatory?” “Not generally, but there have been exceptions.”

-Spock to Trelaine, The Squire of Gothos

Surprise! This isn’t just going to be about Vulcan dietary needs, it’s gonna be about animal behaviors and self-domestication as well! I was trying to think of herbivores that are capable of eating meat, and then this idea hit me like a bomb going of in my head-

Vulcans are like Hippos!

I don’t mean I think they used to be hippo-like (visually anyway) somewhere along the evolutionary line. I mean that they were probably big, extremely aggressive, pack roaming herbivores that are able to eat carrion when food is scarce. Have you ever seen a video of a group of Hippos smashing an alligator to smithereens? They kill more humans than any solitary predator on the African continent! What about a murder of crows killing a cat that injured one of them, or a group of bison saving a calf from a lion?! Herbivores can be insanely aggressive while still being social, plant-eating animals.

With that in mind, let’s talk about self-domestication! This is something that we humans (and to an extent, cats too) did way back in our biology according to some studies, we bred out aggression and bred in cooperativeness and curiosity. Cats, while partially domesticated by us, started looking for mates that were more sociable so that their offspring could exist closer to humans (and their food) as well as to tolerate other cats. While I do think Vulcans self-domesticated to a degree, I do not think they were able to do so nearly to the same extent as humans or our deliberately domesticated companions. Vulcan is a harsh, violent, and unforgiving planet, even more so than Earth, if Vulcans were naturally as friendly and curious as we Humans are now, they would not have survived as a species.

I believe this is why their emotions are so primal and strong, and things like Pon Farr and their unusually high wariness of the new and unexpected still exist so strongly. How do they live together in such high numbers and develop a functional society? They developed other means of coping as a work-around the impracticality of decreasing aggression!

“Call it a deep understanding of the way things happen to Vulcans.”

-Spock, The Immunity Syndrome

So, how do you have a species as aggressive, unforgiving, and frighteningly strong as Vulcans keep from completely destroying itself (aside from Surak’s teachings)? You take the empathy that humans already have, turn it up to 11, and tack on every evolutionary possibility to increase it. We already know how the Earth comparisons for Vulcan empathy: the extreme vitality of touch for the survival and emotional stability, cats purring to heal each other and themselves (and regulate emotions), nonverbal communication, the ancestral instincts of an infant animal being able to walk days after its born. What if we had all of these traits in remarkable spades, Vulcans certainly seem to! (Be prepared, the science starts getting a little squidgy because there are no real world comparisons and neurology research is very jargon heavy)

Electricity is a fundamental part of the biology of nearly all living things, it allows synapses to fire, regulates our internal organs, and gives us our senses of touch and movement. Skin to skin is so incredibly vital to the survival of infants, and the emotional stability for adults, that needing any more touch could be impractical and counterintuitive. So what if we got more from less? What if our sense of touch, and the acuteness of being able to read the emotions of others from body language and touch manifested as a form of what looks like from an outsider’s perspective, telepathy!

Now what if the radius of the sensation of touch could be extended much farther, say being able to sense someone to the same intensity I described in the last paragraph, like, through a wall or from across a room? What if you could connect to other lifeforms with the same ability like a chain circuit that could connect a whole species together in one giant circuitboard? I just described what Vulcans call the kwar’ma’khon, the telepathic energy that connects all Vulcans to each other!

Imagine having this same intense telepathic connection to someone for an extended period of time, like a t’hy’la or Bond Mate. What if you had a relatively easy to master non-lethal attack against other members of your species, that comes to you easily due to your intrinsic understanding of nerves and touch, like the Vulcan Nerve Pinch. In turn, what if, through the intensity of this connection you could transfer everything you knew and saw and felt to another person in the event of your death. That way, if you survived the harshness of your world without dying violently or unexpectedly, you could deliberately pass on that knowledge and those instincts to your next of kin, like the Katra. (thanks @distractedducky @spacedancer1701 & @find-me-in-outer-space)

Now, that’s A LOT of empathy on top of A LOT of aggression, if you don’t have a work around for any of these, as a species you’d be rendered a complete emotional wreck pretty much 24/7 (or whatever the time cycles for Vulcan are). Which is where @ineffablebuddies theory that Vulcans can control, or at least mitigate their incredibly strong emotional reactions the same way they control their nervous system and metabolic rate. Which is how they are able to be touch telepathic, able to enter a torpor at will, and be heterothermic in the first place. The only reason Vulcans come off as unemotional to us is because we simply do not see and feel the way that they can. Unlike us, because of their ability to control their own internal chemistry, if they follow Surak’s teachings and/or Syrranite ideology, they can take that emotional regulation to the extreme.

(BIG EXHALE) Congratulations on getting through this insanely long post! I hope you enjoyed it, if you want sources on any of my non-tumblr post research just let me know in the notes. LLAP! 💚🖖🏻💚

[melaschnie]

it’s time for pride reading challenge update #2! two bingos, let’s go! 

listening to audiobooks whenever possible alongside reading the books truly did wonders for my reading speed lmao. here are the additions to my challenge reads since the last post, the short opinions on all books (in chronological order of when i read them) are below the cut :)

original post || my storygraph (tell me if you add me so i know to add you back!)

#ownvoices

Cemetery Boys - Aiden Thomas

down with cis

The Passing Playbook - Isaac Fitzsimons

historical seeting (aka public universal friend and sappho are dancing on your grave)

A Marvellous Light - Freya Marske

sword wlw

Motor Crush Vol. 1 - Brenden Fletcher, Babs Tarr, Cameron Stewart

epically queer

The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller

old queers

The House in the Cerulean Sea - TJ Klune

Never Been Kissed - Timothy Janovsky

i really enjoyed this one, and i certainly did not expect to tear up while reading it but i sure did. there are a few places where you notice that this is the author’s debut novel but imo the characters make up for it mateo beloved

The Heartbreak Bakery - A.R. Capetta

this was a very light-hearted read, and it really felt like an ode to underrepresented identities (in a good way, i’d say). sometimes confusing, but oh well that happens and is more a me thing than a book thing lmao. i think i would’ve liked it even better if it was less teen-y and with a little more focus on the magic itself, but that wasn’t what i was signing up for so it’s perfectly fine

The Charm Offensive - Alison Cochrun

so. damn. sweet. honestly, this book was so good to read. i liked the setting, i liked the characters, and the awkwardness in this is so lovable. 10/10 would read again

Cemetery Boys - Aiden Thomas

every time i leave a book with a favourite character they are the same. this book made me realise that i am predictable af. anyway, this book should really not have made me cry my eyes out (because nothing super surprising happened and also *takes a deep breath* melli, these are fictional characters. not that my one (1) braincell would truly comprehend that but yk) and that’s all i’m gonna say about that.

The Passing Playbook - Isaac Fitzsimons

i am torn about this book. i think i would have enjoyed it a lot when i was around 13/14 but there are simply so many things that annoyed me in this book now, i can’t really just ignore them. it was still a good read and stories like this are important, but i feel like there were so many plot points opened that didn’t get wrapped up? to me it felt like too many issues that the author wanted to include, but not enough space (or plot, idk) to pay each the attention it would’ve deserved.

A Marvellous Light - Freya Marske

what a joy to have read this. the main characters are lovely and the setting was very cute as well. i think this might’ve been the first book in a while where my brain was somewhat on the backseat and i was able to enjoy it just based on the vibes. definitely looking forward to the sequel!

Motor Crush Vol. 1 - Brenden Fletcher, Babs Tarr, Cameron Stewart

i’ve never been very into comics until i read heartstopper earlier this year, but once again i did enjoy the format here! i think all the racing isn’t exactly my Thing(tm) so i won’t be reading the other volumes/issues but it was nice regardless of that.

The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller

to be honest, this book was pretty underwhelming. i went in not knowing much about the actual story behind it and still what happened in the end didn’t come as a surprise to me. it was very predictable in my opinion, and i don’t quite get the hype surrounding it.

The House in the Cerulean Sea - TJ Klune

omg. omfg. this man do be writing good books and he’s well on his way to become my favourite author of the year. this one in particular was such a joy to read. the kids are absolutely amazing and a delight, would 10/10 befriend if they were older. pure joy, i cannot emphasise that enough.

[thatharringrovehoe]

So I've been playing Dishonored which is my favorite game and this popped into my head so now you all have to suffer with me. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*.✧

He's so fucking cold. Like he’s been plunged into a lake mid winter and can’t find his way to the surface. Hands shaking, Billy sifts clumsily through the box of his mother’s things he keeps hidden in the back of his closet. He's found that if he thinks about the good times, picnics at the beach under the California sun, the thing oozing it's way though his brain losses just a bit of it's grip. Leaves Billy with enough motor function to stumble around his bedroom, trying to find the right pieces. And fucking hell it’s been so long since he's done this. He can remember helping his Ma when he was little, chubby fingers clenched tight in her cotton sundress as she arranged the items on the table just right. Pricked her finger to draw sigils in a language long forgotten, her voice a soft cadence through the bedroom as she hummed Billy’s favorite lullaby. No words, just a beautiful mournful thing. Humming a song of grieving loss. Billy doesn't know why he likes it so much.

“Remember baby. When you offer your gifts they have to be special. Well loved. Something that brings you joy every time you use it.”

His mother kept a pair of earrings on the cloth covered table. She never wore them when his father was home. Took them out and put them back on the little rickety stand in the back of her closet every day before he came back from work. Dangling silver daggers with the onyx beads. Billy shoved one straight through his left earlobe when he turned fifteen and has barely taken it out since.

His Ma told him that everything he built his shrine with had to mean something. Had to be something he treasured. From the fabric to the stand itself. So Billy tried his best. Draped his best leather jacket over the milk crate that held all of his favorite hair products. Placed his Ma's Fleetwood Mac album next to one of his mother's silver earrings (the one he always wears), arranged as neatly as he can manage. He’d had to prick his thumb seven times because to his dawning horror it kept healing over. Just another tally mark towards something being really fucking wrong. And he remembers the warehouse. Can still feel the slimy caustic sludge being pumped down his throat by a fucking tentacle. But he’d hoped it had been a dream, a nightmare from reading to many Lovecraft novels. Billy curses as he slices open his thumb for what feels like the millionth time.

Apparently not.

He's drawn the characters just how he remembers. His mother had made him practice every day, showing him each and every shape and line, drawn in colorful crayon. She gave him a cookie every time he got them right. Never hung them up on the fridge though. Didn't want his father to see.

He can feel the shadow creeping through his blood, dragging it’s claws against his veins. It might not know exactly what he’s doing yet, but it must be able to feel the intention. Billy thinks of ocean waves and a soft hand running through his curls. Fights the pull at the back of his mind to just give in. To sleep. His hands shake harder.

Fuck, where is it?! Billy combs through records and trinkets, a bottle of her perfume. He’s desperately hoping it didn't get lost in the move because his mother never taught him how to make one. Hell, he's pretty certain that he wouldn't be able to find the pieces he needs in Hawkins anyway. Not like Melvalds has a supernatural voodoo isle.

Then finally, finally he finds it. Lifting up his mother’s satin scarf it comes tumbling out to land on the floor with a clatter. Bleached white and beaten smooth by the waves, it's about the size of a sand dollar. Billy picks it up, places it in the palm of his hand. He still remembers the day he found it out on the shore. Washed up between some sea glass, the leather bindings still somehow soft even soaked with salt water. Etched with symbols and shapes Billy will never understand. When Billy showed it to his mother an unreadable expression crossed her face. It was that evening she showed him her shrine.

The rune seems to hum against his skin, an otherworldly song from far away ghosting past his ears. The thing that’s trying to Shanghai Billy’s brain writhes. It's angry, but more than that it’s fucking terrified and Billy has never been more sure of anything in his life. This was a good idea. But his limbs are getting colder, heavier. Whatever this evil piece of shit is it doesn’t like what Billy’s doing. He has to fight against the deadening of his limbs, crawling towards his shitty attempt at a shrine from his place on the floor. His vision is starting to grow dark when he finally clutches on to the milk crate, placing the rune between the earring and his cassette tape. And he knows that there's no guarantee. That whatever his Ma prayed to every night never shielded her from Neil’s fists, didn’t do a damn thing as the cancer slowly drained her down to nothing. That sometimes (most times) when someone would call out to the void the only thing they heard in return was their own disappointment. But he's got no other options. This is his trump card. His last resort. If this hocus pocus bullshit doesn’t work then Billy is up shit creek without a paddle. With a frustrated shout against the nightmare pulling him in, Billy begs.

“Please! Fuck, help me! I'll do anything, c’mon just- please!”

The air in Billy’s bedroom all of a sudden seems to shudder. The shadows flicker and meld together, reaching outwards. The sound of dry fall leaves blowing in the wind, a wail of a thousand dying worlds ricochets off the walls. Then nothing. Billy scrunches his eyes shut against the sting of tears. Fuck, of course it didn’t work. Story of his life. He called for help and just like always it doesn't mean shit. No one is coming to save him.

“Well well well. Certainly been a long time since someone summoned me like that. Very old school.”

Billy’s eyes snap open, the surprise and adrenaline enough to fight the heaving weight of his limbs to raise his head. And there, perched on his shitty milk crate shrine, sits the most beautiful boy he's ever seen. He's got hair the color of soil after it rains. High cheekbones and full lips, milky white skin dotted with a constellation of beauty marks. Billy didn't know what he expected but it certainly wasn't this. The boy god is dressed in a swanky leather coat the color of charcoal with pants to match. Eyes like an oil spill, inky black and endless. With a good look at Billy, they narrow dangerously.

“I thought I fucking told you not to touch this world. You want a repeat of last time?”

Whatever deity he summoned looks pissed as hell. Did he not do it right? Maybe the items weren’t good enough. That would be just his luck. He's so confused he almost doesn’t notice it right away. The shadow slowly working it’s way through his body has stopped, retreated a little even.

“I-... I don't know what you’re talking about. Please, there's something wrong with me. Something got put inside of me and I need it out. Please, help me.”

Billy hasn’t begged since his Ma was takin her last breath in that damn hospice bed. Didn't see the point when it always got you nowhere. But now he can't make himself stop. Cuz he's never been this scared before. The things this monster inside him wants him to do. It's so strong, like he’s fighting a steam roller. He's got no hope on his own.

The boy sitting on his best leather jacket stills. Cocks his head to the side slightly, considering. Then those pretty pink lips are spreading out into a gleeful smirk. Slides off the shrine to settle on his knees in front of Billy. Reaches out his hand to cup Billy’s jaw gentle enough it makes him want to cry.

“You can't get a good enough hold of this one can you? Interesting. Tell me trouble maker, what's your name?”

That voice, deep and ethereal, seems to echo from all around him. He can feel it vibrate in his bones. He wants, no, needs to answer.

“Billy. Billy Hargrove.”

The boy smiles now, all gleaming pearly whites. If Billy looks long enough reality starts to flicker. And for just a second all he can see is teeth sharp like knives in a Cheshire grin. There for a moment and gone in a flash. The hand on his jaw tightens just the slightest fraction.

“Well Billy Hargrove. You seem to find yourself in quite the predicament. That parasite sucking on your soul is an old acquaintance of mine. He's one nasty little shit.”

If a brain washing shadow monster could feel indignant he’s pretty sure that’s what's happening now. Whatever was hijacking Billy's mind has curled up somewhere tight, sunk it’s teeth in deep. Cornered like a threatened animal.

“Please, I’ll do anything you want. I can’t… I can’t fight it. It's too much.”

There’s enough tears leakin down his face that it's soaking the front of his shirt. The boy is giving him this look, almost amused. The longer he holds Billy’s jaw the more the monster losses his grip, and Billy is ready to do anything at this point. Because that thing stuck to his brain wants him to find people. Feed it people. Wants Billy to drink all the chemicals in the supply shed at the pool. Told Billy that if he tried to fight it would take Max first and he can't let that happen.

The boy seems to come to a decision, grabs Billy’s hands to help him shakily to this feet. He doesn’t let go even when they’re both standing.

“You know there’s not many who can fight his hold for this long. I'm impressed.”

He steps forward until his chest is practically pressed up against Billy's. He smells like ozone and smoke, bottomless black eyes trained on stormy blue. Reaches up to tangle his fingers into Billy’s curls, sending tingles across his scalp. Smiles wider at the small noise that escapes Billy's throat.

“I'll help you Billy Hargrove. But in return, you have to do something for me.”

Billy's nodding before he can even really register what’s being said. Anything. He'd do whatever this pretty boy asked as long as he keeps touching Billy like this. Gentle, with a reverence no one has ever bothered to show.

“I need you to kick this little shit back into the hole he crawled out of. Can you do that for me Billy? I wanna see how your story pans out trouble maker. Wanna see what you do when someone gives you a chance.”

Billy nods again, breathless. The boy chuckles, the sound saccharine. Like warm honey dripping down his spine.

“Gunna have to use your words baby.”

Billy swallows, the click of his dry throat loud in the warm personal bubble they’ve created.

“Yes. Yeah. I’ll do it. Whatever you want pretty boy, please.”

It comes out a whisper but the boy hears it all the same. The boy smiles bright, pulls Billy forward. Soft warm lips press against his own and Billy is floating. He's never been kissed like this before. Slow and deep, the boy's tongue pressing in to curl and slide. Stuff him full. Billy's shaking for a whole other reason now. Reaches out to grip the boy's coat, cool to the touch where Billy is burning. Fire rushing through his veins, and he's already so close just from this. Whimpers brokenly into the kiss.

The boy pulls him in impossibly closer, slots his thigh between Billy’s legs, pushes up up up. And Billy is right fucking there, grinds down as he swaps spit with an old god in his shitty bedroom with the peeling yellow paint and the door that locks from the outside. Can feel the tell tale tingle spreading behind his navel.

“ ‘m gunna cum! Fuck, more please!” Billy mumbles curses into the kiss, breath hitching as his balls draw tight. The boy smiles against his mouth, yanks his curls back to bite into the meat of his neck and Billy’s gone, pulsing rope after rope of cum into his underwear.

“Oh my- .. Fuuuuuck. Yes! Uhhhnn!” He's panting like a dog as he slumps forward into the boys shoulder. Gentle fingers card through his hair as aftershocks zap up and down his body. A kiss is pressed behind his ear, a soft warmth flooding his core. He can't feel the shadow anywhere.

“So good for me sweet thing. Makes me want to keep you.”

It's said so quiet, like the boy doesn’t intend for it to be heard. Billy presses his face into his neck. There's no heartbeat under the boy's skin.

“You could. I want you to.” Whoever this is, whatever he is, he came for Billy. Answered his literal cry for help when no one else did. He doesn't know what he has to offer but he wants to give this impossible boy everything.

The boy in question hums. Brings Billy's left hand up to kiss the back of it. His skin feels hot under his lips, bordering on uncomfortable. Like stepping on sun scorched pavement. When the boy pulls back there’s a tattoo on his hand. A strange design that looks vaguely like a compass. It's the same mark as the one on the middle of the rune sitting behind them.

“I haven't given my mark to someone quite so special in a while. Try not to disappoint me Billy Hargrove.”

The boy goes to pull away but Billy still has his hand clenched tight on his coat. Panic wells up in his chest. Doesn't want to end whatever this is quite yet.

“Wait! What’s-…what's your name?” Which is a valid question he thinks. And probably one he should have asked at some point before he started grinding his dick on the guys leg. Oh well.

“I've had many names, none if which would hold any significance for you. Call me what you want trouble maker. I'll be there when you need me.”

Billy believes him. Then between one blink and the next the boy is gone, tendrils of dissipating smoke the only evidence he was ever there. A deep voice whispers from nowhere and everywhere.

“Ask your sister about the monsters in the woods.”

On the shrine the only thing that remains is the rune, both his gifts having apparently been accepted. Billy gives a hysterical bark of laughter at the thought of some higher being listening to Fleetwood Mac somewhere out in the void. It gives him an idea. He drags his lips across the fresh mark on his hand, mumbles into his skin.

“Thanks Stevie.”

[earnestly-endlessly]

Hi! Do you have any Cherik Army AUs? I've managed to find just 3.

Hi Anon, thanks for the ask. I found some good Army AUs, though some might not quite fall into the category of 'Army AU'. There are, surprisingly, few Army AUs that I have found, whereas there are several military and war AUs, but those don't necessarily involve an army. I did include a variety that involve an army in one way or another, though some fit the bill better than others. I hope you find some that you enjoy!!

Cherik Army AU

I Want to Guard Your Dreams And Visions – luninosity

Summary: I was reading Barbara Hambly’s Abigail Adams mystery novels, and then Erik/Charles American Revolutionary War AU happened. Little snippet in which they share a tent, drink coffee, and provide support to each other.

The Eggnog Riot – Sophia_Bee

Summary: 1826. The American Military Academy in West Point. The day after Christmas. Cadet Erik Lehnsherr wakes up naked with a certain cadet Xavier sprawled across his chest. He can only blame the eggnog.

No Man’s Land – ikeracity

Summary: It's 1914 in Ypres, Belgium. British soldier Charles Xavier has been in the trenches for four months of endless artillery fire, bone-deep cold, and constant fear of the enemy. But on Christmas Eve, the gunfire falls silent, and they climb out of their trenches for a Christmas truce. Charles, of course, meets Erik, the German soldier across the way.

My Land’s Only Borders Lie Around My Heart – pseudoneems

Summary: WW1 Christmas truce of 1914. Opposing soldiers Erik and Charles meet.

Le soldat – Iggyassou

Summary: Erik is in the trenches, trying to survive the war so that he can go back to Charles, his young lover waiting for him back at home.

Names – Squeegee

Summary: In the summer of 1917, British soldier Charles Xavier finds himself taking cover in a shell crater.

Not sure if the 'graphic' tag applies or not, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Quell a storm with pen and ink – patroclux

Summary: Charles had spared his life. That was not something he could easily repay.

They wrote letters to each other for two years, until Charles was pulled out of the war from a sudden illness and Erik remained to fight for a cause he didn't believe in. One that ultimately had no effect; one that stole away four years of his life.

Traumatized and persecuted, Erik applied for a post at Janus, a lighthouse in the middle of the Irish Sea. He thought being alone would do him good.

Despite the letters and despite the love, Erik didn't expect Charles to find him.

Hier steh ich an den Marken meiner Tage – MonstrousRegiment

Summary: Erik Lehnsherr is a spy in the SS, and his British liaison is strategist Charles Xavier. Their relationship from the moment they meet to a year after the end of the war.

Theme and Variations: War – ninemoons42

Summary: Erik Lehnsherr is a musical prodigy and a man destined for great things and great stages. But his life is shattered by a terrible accident that leaves him blind and trying to find his way back to his life, his music, and his place in the world.

Then he meets Charles Xavier, an agent of Section 8 of the Military Intelligence Directorate of Providence, and he finds himself listening in to clandestine radio transmissions and clicking Morse code, and these sounds are part and parcel of a war that can only take place in the shadows and the hidden places of history.

Strib nicht von Mir – ravenoftheninerealms

Summary: A squad of Allied Forces, led by Charles Xavier, liberates the Nazi concentration camp where Erik was being held prisoner.

Cold foxholes, warm hearts – oddegg

Summary: Basically, this is Band of Mutants. A little slice of life in Bastogne.

Photographs and Memories – tirsynni

Summary: When war-battered Erik Lehnsherr met Charles Xavier, the man kneeling in the dirt and whispering to a lost refugee child, Erik feared his days of running from his deviance was done.

Marching Home – Quietbang

Summary: For a prompt on the meme asking for fic dealing with the fact that, in comics canon, Charles served in the Korean war.

War meant something different to this generation, Charles knew.

Crash on the Levy (Down in the Flood) – Quietbang

Summary: “This is much bigger than you think. You're in the middle of a war, and you don't even realize, do you?”

He pauses, and answers his own question.“No, of course you don't. How silly of me."

The Knight and the Dagger – Dow

Summary: A Lieutenant in the Soviet Army, Erik Lensherr had no other goals than to find the man that killed his parents. But when a discovery yields a little boy with wings like an angel, Erik is shocked to realize that he isn’t alone. There are other people like him, both dangerous and alluring.

Lifelong Service – Pookaseraph

Summary: Erik thinks he should be the one to teach their recruits hand-to-hand combat; Charles makes a persuasive argument to the contrary.

Footsteps of uprooted lovers – ninemoons42

Summary: Against a turbulent backdrop of artistic, social, and political upheaval, the playwright Charles Xavier and the photographer Erik Lehnsherr find themselves meeting under less-than-polite circumstances, but part rather more amicably than they'd met.

When they find each other again in a Barcelona that is falling inexorably toward war, they find themselves taking up arms, each in his own way, and together they join a struggle for freedom, for love, and for their very lives.

Dear Soldier – Lindstrom, ToriTC198

Summary: "Dear Soldier,

I pray that this package finds you well. The organization gave us a list of odds and ends that you might need, but I thought that a person so far from home might appreciate something more than soap and tube socks."

When Charles' school decides to send care packages to the soldiers fighting in Vietnam, he chooses to also include a letter and a few personal touches. When Staff Sergeant Erik is the recipient of that particular care package it will spur a relationship that will change them both.

Fortunate Son – blueink13

Summary: he days leading up to and during Alex's deployment in Vietnam. Everyone handles it in their own way. Some handle better than others.

You’re Here – Deshonana

Summary: Everyone decides its a good idea not to tell Erik when his boyfriend comes home from the military.

Welcome Home –  loveydoveyecstasy

Summary: It's been two years since Charles was deployed to Afghanistan, and Erik can't wait to pick him up at the airport.

When Secrets have Secrets – ximeria

Summary: The arguments that take place in General Xavier's office when General Lehnsherr has a bad day are legendary. Quite frankly, no one really knows what's going on and if the two men have it their way, no one ever will.

Quiet Company – Sophia_Bee

Summary: Erik Lehnsherr is always on the move. He's spent the last many years going from war torn country to war torn country telling the stories of the people there through photographs. Then one of his pictures is selected as a winner for the Pulitzer Prize and Erik finds himself stuck in London for longer than he wants. He ends up with an assignment to photograph Charles Xavier, a wealthy philanthropist who is intrigued to find himself working with a Pulitzer-winning war photographer. Erik is far less intrigued by someone he considers privileged and out of touch. Both of their lives are about to change in ways they couldn't imagine.

The City is Ours – RedStockings

Summary: Erik felt his heart racing with excitement, lightened, and for once felt joyful. Charles had looked at him, really looked at him, and there had been something there, a knowing of a kind. As the soldiers laughed amongst each other, and joked each other about who would succeed in marrying the boy, Erik made himself a silent vow. Charles was going to be his, and nothing would keep him from having him. He’d marry him, and he’d save him, and Charles would love him for it.

Not even the war could keep them apart... right?

Sign of the Times – dsrobertson

Summary: Casablanca-ish AU.

Charles Xavier meets Erik Lehnsherr in Paris, 1937. They spend the next two years with one another, stupid in-love, until war comes heavy in September 1939. Erik leaves for Poland and the Resistance movement there, promising to return. Charles is left in Paris, where Nazi jackboots march in, Summer of 1940. He becomes a member of the underground French Resistance, publishing illegal newsletters, leaflets, until news comes through in February 1942: Erik is dead. Charles throws himself into more dangerous work, meeting with Communists, helping derail a German train, and he does too much, goes too far. His friends find him safe passage out of France, out across the Mediterranean, to Morocco, Casablanca. It is here he finds Erik, alive.

The Waste Land – nekosmuse

Summary: The White Queen and her Shadow King sit on their throne, safe behind the psionic shields of the Walled City. The armies of Genosha batter uselessly at the gates, a war locked in stalemate. Magneto, camped in the frozen mud, receives word the Citadel intends to send a telepath to the front lines. The same telepath he met two years ago, who sat across a carved wooden chess set and offered Magneto the first friendly smile in a lifetime. The same telepath who still haunts his dreams.

Winter Comes With a Knife – RedStockings

Summary: It apparently came to no one’s surprise that the war-mage Erik Lehnsherr took up residence in the Dark Keep. I knew he was going to choose my sister, Raven, to be his apprentice so why wouldn’t he let me go? What did he want from me?

My name is Charles Xavier, I can read minds and use magic. I’ve met Kings and Queens, mages and magic users. I’ve travelled through lay-lines and jumped through the Dark Void… but none of that really matters.

I am leading an army into war, I am scared and I never wanted this. I’ve come to realise that what I want, rode into my life when I was still a child. Now he’s out there, ready to charge into battle. Ready to die for me.

Polaris – LastAmericanMermaid

Summary: Charles Xavier is 19 years old, doe-eyed and soft; Erik Lehnsherr is 24 years old, steely-hard and bitter. One is a soldier, the other a refugee. Both are mutants. There will be pain, oh yes.

(An AU in which Charles is a wounded British soldier, Erik is the German hiding in France who nurses him back to health, and the contents of this fic are best read to the soundtrack of Atonement.)

Note: Unfinished

MEDIC! – paladin_danse

Summary: A British airborne medic finds himself alone and afraid behind enemy lines. When he decides to save the life of an S.S. German officer he finds wounded in the snow, he has no idea the choice he has made will alter the course of the war—and their lives—forever.

Note: Sadly unfinished

Suicide is Painlesss – weethreequarter 

Summary: Erik Lehnsherr did not become a doctor to pick bullets out of children. Unfortunately the US Army had other ideas.

Stuck in the middle of the Korean War, Erik and his fellow civilian surgeons have to battle not only the war, but also weather, mud, and boredom. And that's without mentioning Major Sebastian Shaw who thinks war is the best thing that's ever happened to him and never should've been allowed to pick up a scalpel, or Colonel William Stryker who may or may not work for the CIA and probably doesn't even know himself.

Throw in new arrival Captain Charles Xavier, and Erik is in for a very interesting war.

Note: Unfinished

A Light That Never Goes Out – R_Cookie

Summary: It was meant to be the war to end all wars; these two men were never supposed to meet. One a German Jew, the other a British surgeon. The odds that their paths should cross were next to none - but War defies the expected. It always has, and always will.

From the beaches of Dunkirk to the treacherous slopes of Monte Cassino - this is their story.

WWII AU.

Note: Unfinished

[readermishok]

Top 20: my favorite interactive stories

Hello, guys!

Once I saw that one of my popular and mostly likeable posts was about IF, I decided to share with you my personal top of the best IF authors I have known. 

I read a lot of WIPs (work in progress) and finished novels since three long years, so I might recommend truly incredible stories. I apologies for adding pics and some additional info about my MC, but I wanted to bring spark of life into this top.

MC – Julia (deShanre), she|her.

I'll start with telling about quartet of works greatly affected on me. It was almost like… living my second life. It felt so real, so vibrant. In the darkest times it gave me the strenght to meet the next day.

1. Samurai of Hyuga, Books 1-4 by Devon Connell (WIP, planned 7 books). Patreon. Buy Book 1.  Buy Book 2. Buy Book 3. Buy Book 4.

Samurai of Hyuga is a brutal, heart-pounding interactive tale. Prepare to enter the land of silk and steel, where fantasy clashes against grim reality, and where the good guys don't always win in the end. It's a harsh world with tough choices at every turn. Good thing you're the toughest ronin around.

My MC: Ronin, the master of the Jigoku Ittō-ryū, The Sword Who Cuts the Heavens

Jigoku:

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2. Fallen Hero by Malin Ryden (WIP, planned 4 books). Tumblr: @fallenhero-rebirth​. Patreon. Buy Book 1.

Become the greatest telepathic villain Los Diablos has ever known! Once you were famous; soon you will be infamous. That is, unless your old friends in the Rangers stop you first. Juggle different identities and preserve your secrets as you build new alliances and try to forget the friendships you've left behind.

My MC: Sidestep Puppetmaster:

Jane (puppet):

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3. I, the Forgotten one by Bacondoneright (WIP, planned dilogy). No tumblr or Patreon|Ko-fi. Demo.

It has been five long years since the end of The Border Wars. Five long years without a purpose. Endlessly drifting around from one job to the next, serving your apathetic father only to receive no credit. Nobody in Kanton truly knows what you did. How you won The War, leading the armies of Kanton as a youth.

Nobody knows what it took out of you. Spending your formative years in war is not good for one’s outlook on life. Your emotions now lie behind a mask of stoicism. After all, all emotions do is cloud one’s judgement and wind up costing lives.

Nobody knows how much it hurt to be cast down from the throne and succession. To be disinherited, cast away from the family, and left aside to die.

My MC: The Marshal, the bastard child:

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4. The Exile by Pheo (WIP). Tumblr: @exilethegame​. Patreon. Demo.

You’re the ex-commander of the Kingdom of Plaithus, and your name is known by all. It used to be whispered in fear by your enemies, and the very mention of it could send men fleeing. Your people had cried it out in battle, swords raised in your honor as they faced death fearlessly. You were a hero, and to some, a legend.

Until you weren’t.

You can’t remember what happened. All that’s left are blurry faces, screams, and the feeling of blood on your hands. The only reason you still have your head is because of the pity of an old friend.

And now? It’s only been a year since the incident, and already things are going wrong again when a rather peculiar sorcerer offers you absurd amounts of gold in exchange for protection from… well, that’s the problem, isn’t it? You don’t know.

My MC: the Commander:

Ex-commander.

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Shepherds of Haven by Lena Nguyen (WIP). Tumblr: @shepherds-of-haven​ Patreon. Demo.

Shepherds of Haven is a dark fantasy interactive fiction game. In it, you play as a Mage living in a world where magic is outlawed and your people—those possessing supernatural powers—are oppressed and reviled. The world is ruled by humans who believe in science, technology, and industry: at best, you and your kind are nothing more than a fairytale, and at worst you are the state’s greatest threat.

My MC: Human Mage, gunner

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God of the Red Mountain (WIP). Tumblr: @friendlybowlofsoup​​​ Demo.

You are a spirit born of the Red Mountain–though you’ve run away from it long ago. You’d be content to stay away, too, if not for the mountain god who suddenly comes looking for you. But what purpose do they have? And what exactly is your end goal?

Based on East Asian myths and folklore, you play as a powerful, nameless spirit in a shifting world. As a being caught between death and life, you are connected to a stream of limitless power, and the more you are known, the more powerful you become.

However, your journey will not be so smooth. You have been cursed by powerful, malignant beings known as Foxes, and it’s only a matter of time before you fall from sanity yourself.

My MC: Owl spirit, human appearance

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The Bastard of Camelot by Rebelgirl (WIP). Tumblr: @llamagirl28​ Demo. Ko-fi.

Your child will be the undoing of Camelot. Born under an ominous prophecy, you are the incestuous bastard of King Arthur and Morgana Le Fay. Will you fulfill the prophecy, or rebel?

Be the villain they expect you to be, or the hero they don’t- be remorseful or unapologetic, make your destiny or be Morgana’s tool of revenge.

Arthur can’t have any more children, making you the sole blood heir, and sole other Pendragon. As a Pendragon, you have the power of dragons.

The Bastard of Camelot is a trilogy following Mordred as they become a knight of the Round Table, and save or destroy Camelot.

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The Seven Heirs of Ophaesia: Part One by (WIP). Tumblr: @fantasyfawkes​​​ Demo. Patreon.

The Seven Heirs of Ophaesia is a low-fantasy game set in a Renaissance-esque world where you play as one of seven heirs to a fictional kingdom rife with intrigue. As the King’s seventh child, you are a prince or princess of Ophaesia, a luxurious nation along the southern coast of Selanes. You are the first child of your father’s third wife, a woman hated throughout the realm due to the pervasive suspicion that she poisoned the previous queen, and her poor reputation taints your image in the eyes of the court and beyond. From your days in the palace nursery all the way to adulthood, you must navigate treacherous court politics and delicate foreign affairs while trying to find your place in the world — and your family.

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 Attollo by A.E. Jendryke (WIP). Tumblr: @attollogame Demo. Patreon.

After several years of radio silence, you receive a message from your younger sibling that carries a strange sense of urgency to it. Either out of familial concern, or boredom, you embark on a journey from your residence to your siblings apartment in New Hampshire to see what’s wrong and then get on with your life. Too bad it’s never so simple.

Deal with cults, interdimensional entities, and far too many people with superpowers (where, for once, you’re the odd one out) in your journey to bring your sibling back from an underworld far out of your control.

My MC: lawyer

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 Land of the Dragon (WIP) by Hilsee Foo. Demo. Last update was long ago... (crying)

Welcome to the Land of the Dragon! Here you shall experience an adventure in an ancient land, navigate court politics, forge friendships, and maybe even pursue romance if you so choose!

The Dragon Emperor sits upon the throne, as he inherited it from his father before him. But all is not well in the realm. In the provinces, an Uprising is gaining both strength and popularity. At court, the Elder Prince plots in secret to usurp his brother's throne. And within the Emperor's harem, the Empress and Imperial Consort vie for power.

As the Emperor and Empress' only trueborn child, you are at the centre of this power struggle. When all hell breaks lose on your 21st nameday, what will you do to find your place in this world?

All this, and more... In the Land of the Dragon.

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The Northern Passage by Kit H.J. (WIP). Tumblr: @northern-passage​ Demo. 

The Northern Passage is a horror fantasy CYOA, where you play as a hunter sent up north to investigate a series of missing people along the border and in the port cities of the Blackwater.

Working with your handler, Lea, you will travel north and discover that things are far worse than you ever could have imagined, and that there is something powerful lurking out in the deep, dark sea…

My MC: Hunter

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 The Nameless by Parker Lyn (WIP). Tumblr: @parkerlyn​​ Demo. Ko-fi.

The Nameless is a low fantasy WIP that is character and romance driven, with your race (sheevra) loosely based on stories about the fey and other myths. Where deals are a weapon and a name is the most intimate secret someone can offer. You play as a sheevra investigating the city of Renescen after the complete disappearance of one of four sheevra Clans in the world, running across a ragtag group of both sheevra and mortalis along the way.

Will you find out what happened before it comes for you?

Mortalis appearance

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Virtue’s End by Crimsis (WIP). Tumblr: @virtuesend-if​​​ Demo. Patreon.

In a dark world overrun by monsters from the shadow plane, you exist as a hybrid monster hunter called a helvling, a human whose very soul has been Bound to one such entity. Travelling from warded settlement to warded settlement with your surly Keeper, Shea, you have the thankless task of defending the common folk against these horrors from Hel.

Usually, a fate such as yours is only reserved for the lowest of criminals, as penance for their loathsome deeds… You wouldn’t know if your fate has been deserved, however, since upon completion of your Binding seven years ago, all former memories of your human life have been lost.

You’ve been moulded into a weapon by the Virtuous Order, trained to be an unfeeling and ruthlessly efficient hunter… But is that who you are? Who are you, truly?

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A Tale of Crowns (WIP). Tumblr: @ataleofcrowns​​​​ Itch.

A Tale of Crowns is a high fantasy love story with Middle Eastern roots, both on pc as well as mobile! It’s entirely text-based, with choices throughout to shape both your main character’s personality and skills as well as influence their relationships with others. There are four love interests for you to choose from, both female as well as male, each with their own stories and secrets for you to uncover!

Crown of Arsur

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 Wayfarer (WIP). Tumblr: @idrellegames​ Demo. Patreon.

When your mercenary work backs you into a corner, you take the only option available and accept a contract: to travel to the city of Velantis and steal an ancient artifact said to be blessed by the gods. Simple, right?

But Velantis holds more than you bargained for. Gathering a ragtag party of malcontents and renegades from across the city, you must navigate enemy factions, meddling guilds, and escalating political tensions. Your choices will ultimately determine the city’s fate – and the fate of every person who lives there. 

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When Twilight Strikes by evertidings (WIP). Tumblr: @evertidings​ Demo. 

You are a bounty hunter. Responsible for taking in rogue supernaturals, you work for IAOS—the International Agency of Supernaturals—where, alongside your best friend and partner, you two have quickly become the best hunting duo of the branch. After a particular tricky hunt, you brief your boss, Caine Atheron, and come back to work the next day to find that he has mysteriously disappeared overnight, the company is now in the hands of his best friend, Sebastian Mai. And though no one else seems to question it, something tells you that there’s more to the story.

With bounty cases rising at an alarming rate and a second mystery unfolding, you and your ragtag team of allies set out to find the truth.

But as you go further and further, the secrets you uncover begin to make you question: who… or what exactly are you fighting for? 

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Passanger by Pime (WIP). Tumblr: @the-passenger-if Demo. Ko-fi.

Do you like monsters? Do you think they are the best part of their respective movies, books, and shows? Then The Passenger might be the game for you.

The Passenger is a choice script work in progress in which you are an eldritch abomination that’s about to be devoured by another unthinkable creature. Good news is you are pretty crafty and know how to jump dimensions to escape your ghastly fate; bad news is, you’re now stuck on Earth, trapped inside a dumb human larva.

As years go by, you realize the amount of energy you need to leave this horrible dimension behind is a lot more than you anticipated. Not to mention the creature that almost ate you all those years ago never really stopped looking for you. But there’s no way it’ll pinpoint your actual location… right?

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Scout: An Apocalypse Story by Anya (WIP). Tumblr: @anya-dev​ Itch.

It has been over a decade since a worldwide natural disaster obliterated the natural planet and decimated human civilization. There are small groups of humans still alive, fending for themselves, trying to create communities amongst the rubble.

You are a 24-year old scout living in a small community on the edge of the Orange Plains. You lost your mother and your sister before finding your way here. You are primarily an academic, and you put your skills to use on regular scouting missions. With your best friend and your scouting team leader in tow, your small group is a pillar of the Community.

On your first scouting mission of the hot season, you meet the leader of the People Across the Orange Plains. Will you break from the Community you have known your whole life? Ask a romantic partner to join you? Discover secrets that your own people have been hiding? Become a leader yourself?

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Body Count by Nell Bolton (WIP). Tumblr: @bodycountgame​ Demo. Ko-fi.

Your life isn’t going how you’d hoped. Despite having big plans when you graduated, you’re stuck in a dead end job and a crappy flat with zero romantic life to speak of. All until a friend convinces you to join the cast of a new reality TV show.

The premise is simple: 12 singles are sent to a villa on a tropical island and they live there together for a month. After 28 days, the couple who is voted by the other islanders as being most likely to withstand the test of time will win £500,000. In addition, the couple with the highest body count will win £500,000. Total prize pool? £1,000,000.

In this context, “body count” refers to how many people you’ve slept with… right? Well, that’s what you think when you sign your contract. Turns out, though, that not all of your fellow cast members will be using that definition to get to the prize.

Fall in love, win big money, solve some murders and try to stay.

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Project Hadea by nyehilism (WIP). Tumblr: @nyehilismwriting​​ Itch. Ko-fi.

You play as an OPERATIVE of Scytha Industries, a highly selective private security company. As their most elite Operative, you possess many skills and talents, not to mention top-of-the-line equipment - including your very own AI module, IVI.

This, of course, puts a price on your head. An AI module goes for billions on the black market; carrying one around in your skull is, perhaps, not the safest idea. Sure, you’re more than a match for anyone who might come after you - but no-one outside the high levels of Scytha knows about it, so you should be safe anyway, right?

Wrong.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

I do want to thank all these tremendously talented authors for creating such complex and beautiful worlds. I love it with all my soul.

Thanks for reading, I hope you will find story for yourself. I’ll gradually extand this top! 

Stay tuned.