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finiansmile · 10 months

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First Post

12/9/2023

Hi, I'm Finian, and this is my first blogpost! I'm really into like every single artform, and my main passion is gamedev! I learned it in highschool, I'm working on it in college, and I hope to make it a career someday.

I'm very critical on myself, and I am very embarrassed to share any art I make, but I've wanted to make a blog for a little while. I think personal writing is fun. I recently received some advice that making a blog might strengthen my portfolio, so I was like "what the heck" and now here I am.

With that out of the way, this post will be about what I consider my first finished game. I did some stuff in highschool, but that was all in a website called code.org. I worked in Unity in my final year, but I served the role of mentor more than developer.

This game was created for my final project in my ENC1143 class, and shall be called my Multimodal Artifact. The assignment was to share what we'd learned over the year in any form of medium we wished, so I made a game. I've only previously done 2D games and I consider myself acceptable at pixel art, so I made a simple 2D platformer. All of my artwork was done in Aseprite and all code was written in Unity, with Visual Studio.

My intentions going into the game were mainly to let the player interact with the sign pictured above, which is something I've never done before. I also wanted the text on the sign to have a scrollbar. I started with an unanimated player sprite, and I made an incredibly simple ground texture, which I stretched to represent a wall. I coded the player's movement and interaction with the terrain. Once I was satisfied with the player's movement, I created some simple animations for idling, running, and jumping.

I then created a tileset of which I am extremely proud, as I've been struggling with grassy and leafy terrain for years. This is the second tileset I've ever made, and the first to perfectly link with itself.

Once I had my tiles in order, I replaced my gaudy primitive, and created the first area of the game as seen in the first image, albeit with significantly less foliage. I created enough level to comfortably house five signs; about half of the game. Finally I began work on the sign itself. The sign was probably the most important part of the game, as its writing is what I was mainly being graded on. There are nine signs in the game, each containing small pieces of the whole final assignment. I created a sprite for the sign in about 20 minutes, and tackled the text with a scroll view. I watched a very helpful video on how it worked, added my TextMeshPro font asset, and made a sign visual behind it all.

My sign was done, from a visual standpoint. I could finally tackle the code, which I did within two scripts. The first script, "Interactable" would be attached to the sign sprite via a child. The script was actually pretty simple, using OnTriggerEnter and OnTriggerExit in tandem with a circle collider 2D to detect if the player was near enough, and an if statement featuring the UnityEvent Invoke in its body. Invoke calls a function from another script, established in the inspector. In this case, I attached a script to the Canvas which disabled and enabled the sign GameObjects.

I also added to the sign sprite a key icon, again of my own making, to make sure the player definitely knows what to press. It has an animation which activates when the player walks near the sign.

Both the coding and the visuals for the sign are finally finished! My final steps for this game were: 1) finish designing the level 2) add some scenery 3) if I had time, a pause screen and maybe even a start screen

This was a single-level game, and since it was an english assignment that needs to be graded, I figured it ought to be very linear and very non-punishing. There are no enemies and no dying, so the difficulty had to come from platforming. The player can jump exactly three tiles high and seven tiles far. The game features one six tile wide jump and no necessary three tile high jumps. The first area, already completed features very easy one to three tile wide gaps.

The area has the player go from the left of the level to the right, and eventually upwards and back to the left. Within the first zone, it is possible to fall After every new challenge there will be a sign as the player's reward: after the first jump, , two-tile wide jump, series of one-tile wide jumps (pictured above), series of two-tile vertical jumps, and finally after the first four-tile wide jump. There are some punishing jumps in the upper layer of this zone, which cause the player to lose some progress if missed.

Before making any level past the first sign, I added a second tileset. I took my preciously mentioned first ever tileset, which was a greyish castle brick, and changed it to match my current palette. It's not perfect, but any imperfections are so slight nobody would notice unless they were specifically seeking them out. I added this tileset because I felt continuous jungle would start to get bland, and because I really wanted to get some use out of it. I think it fits in really well.

The second area of my game is a platforming section based off of the loss comic, a suggestion provided to my by my wonderful girlfriend. I think it's a lot of fun to involve others in the gamemaking process, and I think it's fun to work with a specific challenge in mind. I thought of something really fun to do with that idea almost instantly, and got to work.

For those who are unaware, the loss comic is a meme from 2002, which features this character format: I II II I_

I tried loosely to stay within that format, I don't think it tracks very well, but the intention and setup is there.

I wanted my third and final segment to be the most challenging, and I wanted it to be inside of the castle/temple setting, in hopes of making the play subconsciously go "oh, this area is different." Each area of the game has its subtle distinctions, but the distinction here is the least subtle.

The final area features a great deal of wide and high jumps, as well as the first and only head-hitter in the game. In the final set of jumps it is possible to fall back down to the start of the section, and the very last jump isn't very difficult. I think it sucks when you think you're almost done with everything in a game, and you mess up at the very end and have to start all over. I didn't want the player to feel that way, hence the easier last jump.

The level was done! My signs (the part I get graded on) were done! I could have some fun with the rest of the game, not that I didn't have fun with the entire previous process, this final bit was just leisure. I love programming.

I started with controls. I put the controls of the game as well as some arrows to point you the right way on rocks, which would not only fit well in the game's environment, but also served well to fill up empty-feeling areas.

After the rocks, I created some bushes. I considered making hanging vines, but I forgot about it somewhere in the creative process. There's obviously not as many of them as the rocks, but trust me when I say these suckers get some crazy mileage. They're everywhere, rotated for the walls and ceiling, flipped, darkened to appear more in the background, placed somewhat behind rocks. These four bushes were super important to the decoration of this game.

After the bushes, I adjusted the hue, saturation, and light of the tilesets to make them appear as background elements. I created the background of the game as a repeating tile. I am not confident in my ability to create a full artpiece, rather than smaller assets, and my wonderful girlfriend added some pixels which I feel made it look significantly better than my rendition. I hue shifted it, and it works excellently as the game's background.

My initial rendition (black was empty) and the final rendition

The final thing to do was to add a pause menu, which is also something I had extremely limited experience with, but found to be super easy. The code is just about the same as making the signs appear and disappear.

The game was not without its bugs, however. There were two that I wanted to fix: 1) sometimes while walking, the player would randomly get snagged and stop. I believed this to be an issue with the ground's collision 2) sometimes upon landing, the player would fly straight through the floor! I also believed this to be an issue with the ground's collision

I had the ground's collider set to a Tilemap Collider 2D, which is a collider designed specifically for tiles. The way a tilemap collider works is that it assigns a square shaped colllider to every individual tile, and would combine all of those collider together in order to save space if it were more efficient on the system. In my game's case it was not more efficient to combine them. However, combining them is exactly what would fix the first issue, the player snagging on the ground. I added a Composite Collider 2D to the tilemap, and viola! No more snagging. The player would still fall through the ground on occasion, but it happened to me so rarely I figured it would be a nonissue. I added a line of code that would set the player's position to the initial spawn if they went too far beneath the map, as well as the reset button in the pause menu which would do the same.

After these fixes I had my incredibly generous roommate playtest for me. He probably played for about thirty minutes, and he relentlessly fell through the map. It was amazing to me how often he just perfectly fell through the ground. Clearly, this was a bigger issue than I anticipated. Thank goodness for playtesters!

After some research, I realized the composite collider actually created an outline of the tiles, rather than completely filling them with collision. The player would fall through the ground because while falling, their velocity would continually increase. Since the collision of the ground was so slim, the player's high velocity would sometimes cause their collider to be on one side of the ground on one frame, and the other side of the ground on the next, not allowing for any collision to happen. The slim outline of the composite collider was not cutting it. There is a setting on the component labeled "Use Delaunay Mesh" which, when clicked, converts the collider from an outline to a full mesh.

The orange lines represent the collider

A Delaunay Mesh is a mesh based on Delaunay Triangulation, which is a complicated math term which can be simplified to mean the mesh has the least amount of big system-taxing triangles possible.

My roommate once again playtested for me, this time with no bugs at all. His thirty minute experience turned into a three minute experience. Magical!

There's more I would have liked to do, but my time ran out and I needed to turn the assignment in. I think I would have liked to make a starting screen, and maybe some hanging vines. If I had as much time as I pleased, I would've added walljumping and maybe some destructible decorations to make the player feel more involved.

I think the game was a success. This is my first game I can say I've actually completed, and I feel proud of how far I've come. If I were to do this again, I'd probably study the games "Getting Over It" and "Jump King," as in hindsight these games were fundamentally very similar.

The end! Thank you for reading my silly blogpost! This took way longer than I thought.

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mybones537 · 10 months

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Time chapter 3

Moriarty the Patriot x reader

I have posted this on Wattpad under the same username mybones537

“Sir is there anywhere more private we could go to so I can give you a proper check over so I can make sure nothing else is wrong?’’ I ask as I pack my stuff away into my bag.

“Of course. We can go to my carriage” Sir said as I helped him up. The crowd makes way for us to pass. I helped sir into his carriage.

I give him a check up, I can see his heart is under a lot of stress but it is expected. He is a man in his mid 40s and overweight.

“So Doctor (last name) is everything alright?’’ Ma’am asks with a worried expression.

“Well most things seem to be fine but sir your heart is under a lot of stress” I begin to explain, “I’d suggest to lose some weight and eat more healthy, so less fatty foods. If you’d like I could come around once a month to check if everything is alright’’ I suggest as I pack away my medical tools. “That would be much appreciated. Here is my address, how does the 5th of every month sound?” sir says as he writes down his address.

“That is fine with me” I say as I’m about to climb out the carriage.

“How much do we owe you for your services?” ma’am asks as she takes out a pouch full of money.

“Nothing at all” I replied.

“Then please take this as a symbol of our gratitude” Sir said as he handed me the pouch.

“I can’t possibly accept this. What about you?’’ I ask, I feel absolutely terrible about taking the money.

“Oh please. I am a Duke, this is practically nothing to us. Please accept this as a token of our appreciation. I insist”

“I… Thank you. I don’t know what to say” I accept it gratefully, knowing I’m going to need it while I’m stuck here.

Just as sir was about to say something else there was a knock on the carriage door. Ma’am opens the door.

“Excuse me, I am Detective inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard. We heard a disturbance in the area when we were at a crime scene nearby. Is everything alright?” Lestrade asked while not even giving a second thought.

“We’re alright now. You see Inspector I had a heart attack and Dr (last name) here saved my life” Sir said while gesturing towards me. Lestrade looked my way, he froze. There was a look of recognition in his eyes.

Shit… He knows

“Dr (last name) could you be so kind and come with me?” Lestrade asked nicely.

“Of course. I’ll be there now” I said goodbye to the Duke and Duchess, took my things and climbed out the carriage.

“Please come with me, to talk somewhere more private” Lestrade said.I nod my head and walk with him.

Shit. What should I do? He knows. Or Does he? Maybe he just wants to know about the heart attack.

(name) don’t fool yourself. Like come on you saw his face when he saw you.

Okay don’t panic.

“After you” the Inspector opened the door.

“Thank you” I walked in. I see we walked into an old building that no one could possibly live in.

“Why are we here?” I asked as I looked around. I see a small old beautiful painting of a white lily.

“It's somewhere private so we can talk without any reporters prying in” Lestrade spoke as crossed his arms over his chest.

“Does anyone live here?”

“No. No one has lived here in a long time”

“Well then I’m taking this” I pick up the painting and carefully put it in my bag, “so what did you want to talk about?”

“You look like the body at a crime scene that went missing. Care to explain?”

“That’s very strange” I try to make it look like I have no idea. I look over at Lestrade to see him raising a brow, “Okay! Look I have no idea how I got there I swear!”

“Then what? Why were you wearing strange clothes” he said sceptically.

“Listen if I told you, you’d probably think I’m crazy’’

“You’d be surprised what I have heard before”

“I doubt you would’ve heard of this”, I spat

“Try me” he uncrossed his arms and put his hands in his pockets.

“I’m from the year 2023” I said as fast as possible.

“Excuse me but did I hear that right?” Lestrade asks dumbfounded.

“Yes.” (I explained what happened)

“So you’re telling me that you got hit by a ‘truck’ that knocked you over a bridge, you went unconscious and woke up at the crime scene?” He summarised what I said.

“Yeah pretty much”

“I was definitely not expecting that”, came a voice from upstairs. Giving both Lestrade and myself a fright.

“Oh my god! … did you know someone was there?” I ask Lestrade.

“I hadn’t the faintest clue” he said, “ Holmes get down here this instant!”

A man slowly walked down the stairs, he was wearing a navy blue suit, white shirt buttoned down his collarbone and he had his navy hair up in a ponytail.

“Who the hell are you?” I asked in a monotone voice.

“I, my dear, am Sherlock Holmes. The world’s only consulting detective” he smirked.

#moriarty the patriot #albert james moriarty #louis james moriarty #william james moriarty #yuukoku no moriarty #james moriarty #mycroft holmes #sebastian moran #fred porlock

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heartshattering · 5 months

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(I've tried to write this multiple times but keep getting interrupted...)

Anyway

Had a really good day yesterday, probably the first day in a while that was better than just "okay". I was happy and felt positive about myself.

Last night ended up being tough though. I fell asleep eventually but it wasn't until 5 AM. The later at night it got, the more stressed out I felt, which means I gave in to some compulsions and just felt uncomfortable and frustrated for hours in bed. I'm not sure if there was really a cause or if I need to accept that every once in a while there will randomly be some nights where I just don't feel right. I still feel like I handled things better than I would have before, but I still hate tossing and turning in bed and not knowing what exactly is keeping me up or what to do. The only thing I can think of is maybe I didn't give myself enough time to wind down last night but I still relaxed and did self-care things so I don't know...

Then today I've been home alone with my mom all day which is always "fun". We had an inspector come over which wasn't expected (they tried calling my mom and couldn't reach her) and now my mom has been in a shitty mood because of the inspector's comments like saying the house is a fire hazard and telling us we should move. Ever since the inspector left she's been non-stop complaining and rambling and is in one of her moods where she starts coming up with dramatic ideas like saying we need to leave the country or buy entirely new furniture. It's hard to hear myself think and she's asking for stuff again so I'm stopping here

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pebblysand · 11 months

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[CHAPTER 19 RESOURCES]

hi all! i've seen a lot of messages/comments asking about the political/historical events referenced in chapter 19, and the research i'd done about it. as such, i thought i would write this short post to give you more resources if you're interested in digging further. i will however caveat the below by saying that the aftermath of 9/11 (and particularly the iraq war) is my political roman empire; it's a topic that truly fascinates me, and about which i've done a lot of research/thinking throughout the past 20 years, and something i'm always coming back to. so when it comes to the below, this is mostly made of the media i've consumed semi-recently, and that i remember. i couldn't possibly tell you what i was watching/reading ten years ago about this when i was getting obsessed by dick cheney 😭.

- on 9/11 -

it's relatively easy to find out literally anything you want about 9/11 from an american perspective. there's so many resources out there, feel free to pick your own. i myself recently watched 9/11: inside the president's war room on apple tv, which was comically bad pro-bush propaganda, but does give you some insight on bush's bizarre state of mind. having said that, for this chapter, i actually needed to figure out what it would have been like in the uk government, and i felt that this podcast episode from westminster insider was very good at doing that.

- on iraq -

the war in iraq, be it from a uk or a us perspective, is one of the most destructive, outrageous government lies and cover ups in history, and certainly of the 21st century. we really don't talk about it enough. it also not only destroyed the public's trust in government institutions, but killed and injured thousands of civilians (as well as soldiers) only to lead to the rise of isis and the perpetuation of instability in this region of the middle east. i could probably rant about it for literal decades, but here are some resources if you want to be outraged yourselves.

note that most of these are from a UK perspective, which was a deliberate choice on my end as i was writing this chapter from that perspective. i've also watched/listened to stuff from the us (and france, probably), but that was a long time ago and honestly i wouldn't have the references.

film/TV:

(fiction) official secrets with kiera knightly isn't bad. it's a bit dramatised but it goes over the story of a GCHQ analyst who leaked secrets to the press before the invasion.

(documentary) once upon a time in iraq from the bbc is genuinely incredible. it is the story of the war told through the point of view of those involved in it, from american soldiers, to journalists, to iraqi civilians. i thought it was very well made and did a great job at showing the perspective of people you rarely ever hear from.

(documentary) everyone always recommends fahrenheit 9/11 which i think i saw a long time ago and i suppose it was good, although i don't think it taught me anything i didn't already know.

podcasts:

most of the "research" i did for this chapter was actually through podcasts, so here is the stuff i listened to.

the fault line's entire first season bush, blair and iraq is INCREDIBLE. it's both very good at setting out the basic facts about the war and the chronology of the iraq invasion, but also at explaining how we got there, the lies both administrations told the general public, and how global group-think led to intelligence services to believe in intelligence that was ridiculously unreliable. i would say that this was my main source when planning out this chapter, and the research put into this podcast is truly top-class.

british scandal did a series of episodes on the david kelly scandal - a british weapons inspector who committed suicide after giving an interview to the bbc accusing the government of lying to the public about WMDs. this led to a bogus enquiry into the british government and the bbc, and a report that basically concluded the government didn't lie, which was of course not true. in tone, british scandal is a bit more casual and less journalistic than the first podcast (maybe a bit easier to digest if you're not into deep stuff though), and although i was mildly aware of it, i'd actually never done much research into this particular story before, so i still found the episodes quite interesting.

politics weekly UK and politics weekly america from the guardian did two very interesting episodes on the aftermath of the iraq war 20 years on, last march. i thought both were interesting, but the america episode was particularly good at explaining the liberal case for war, and how/why so many left-wing liberals fell into the pro-war side, with very good intentions that later turned out to be catastrophic. i already knew of this, and knew i was going to have harry take that side going in, but i used this podcast a lot to refine his position and what i was trying to get across in the chapter.

shock war from radio 4 is a good overall source with rather short episodes, if you can't be bothered with longer ones.

anyway, i hope this helps! thanks for reading and enjoying this chapter as much as you have, reading your comments, DMs, etc. has truly been incredible.

#castles

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fangtastic-vampyra · 1 year

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Reaaally hate how it seems I have to be "watched" by people from the system the whole rest of my life.

It's MKULTRA MILBAS targeted individual stuff. You know the people that they go after?

Those that would stick their neck out for somebody else.

You know. Yes. So. I have to do a Stinkin' re-assessment sometime next week, ish, Im like "Im in for a life sentence. Schizophrenia gets worse when you get older. Very few people "get better" [or whatever they think] whatever that means, not understanding why I keep having to do a reassessment." I mean, I really hate Drs, of all kinds, I can take care of my Fecking self, and I want them to Bugger off in general. It was creepy asf. What is so hard to understand, stop thinking shit in my head, voices, v2k, and then, making me feel like shit with uh military, weapons? thennn tormenting me in my sleep. LIEK IF I FELT BETTER, I WOULD BE BETTER. a poisoned, drug, prescription or otherwise, filled body, with emo. pain, and trauma, and not enough healthy meals, and shit, prolly aint going to be around very long. plus parasites and what have you. I CAN BE A SCREET DR. JKKK. Just a herbal supplement recommender. :] {been studying those since I was 16, got a lot of time behind me on that particular interest, yah, thats why got me all into trouble, rebelling against norms, well if Punch Line really is my ..mm.. hear voices saying dont go out with her buut...what could i get out of it? it will probably, if i dont try, end up like harley and me, im fubar.. F.U.B.A.R.} And that? Was Mr and Mrs Smith.

And she mentions the Govt program medicaid enforces it every 6 months. I'm like nooooo. Even though I know it's fake, and thats fake, I have too much rage, to not be on meds, but I don't think they're quite ready to let me only be on one anti-"psychotic" umm Vraylar and Seroquel, are my two, and we lol we -- are doing great.

Yes Im a plural, also. DID... MPD.

Anyway-- I think I "actually am" schizophrenic.. Not just a Fake illness.. But Idk maybe it's just damage from previous incarnations. Some lady read my palms and said I was reincarnated. Neat.

Meanwhile, I've gotten into some sick sort of reminescensing/revenge thing. Prolly the first male "plague rat" -- Waheyyy. Emilie Autumn fan. They want them young, to study, and observe, if ya know what Im saying. AND. They dont like to let folks go. Once they have ya. Since these bastards, think they are some type of Woman Inspector. I dont want Pig Ass Hybrids for my kids anyway, fuck off. I am no longer young, and a Cantankerous ass bitch, and One day, THOSE Fuckers, are going to compensate me, for all my TBC, and everything else. TBC/Thought Broad Casting.

WTF..!! THEY CRASHED MY BROWSER, I HAD TYPED LIKE FIVE MORE PARA. Yes. they got access to my puter. UGH!!

WELL HOW ABOUT THAT.. AND....GAWDDAMN.

Note to self/other authors, authoresses: WRITE IN WORDPAD.

Or something similiar.. There use to be one that had a black background. White makes me feel like I got a lined loose leaf paper with no.2 in a uncomfy plastic chair. YES. UNCREATIVE. Like. In a fecking institution.

Uhm what had I said... Mum also said people get sacrificed to the devil a bunch more than most think. She's kinda uh weird. yes. Used to be into goth, and horror, and metal, when she was Younger, and witch craft, lord knows umm, now shes just, Blonde hair, blue eyes. And everything else, normal, she wants to be Barbie. IDEK, this Family wsa NOT ready. She was just another Handler, my dumb ass thought fighting, was the answer. I want to SUE the pants off MKULTRA ( and associations/etc, off them.) If you know what I mean. Abuse. Trauma. Mum says it happens to boys just as much. OHHH WELL. IDK about that. Shes just another brainwashed handler. Tho.. pretty insightful if you can actually get her to say anything. Lol we're munsters, I got out the sun synchronization, or something ugh.

Im just nursing a wound. Not caring about anything else, but trying to stop the pain. I dont uh see any point in living this way? My head is aching like someones been smashing rocks against my skull for the past hour. "Okay ill stop" Like they harass and make fun of me as AFAB UNDESIRABLE. Fat and whatever, though they did it um. And call me a he/she, they did that to. And I just uh, want to punch something in the face that something is God, Idk, until it stops moving. yes. then i can be god. >.> IDK, like whyyyy me.

Why all of this. WHYYYY.

He says we are all equal, he says his thoughts are higher than our thoughts, he says the enemies are not flesh and blood, but spirits. Yes. SAYS humans are more close to him than angels, says this and that, that we have power as humans over the animals, and the demons. idk. somethings not adding up. i think he's a f*cking rapist. celebrating the black majick curses he places onto children. a pervert, a predator. yes. i try. to calculate what is going on here, i hadnt known what i know now, i rebuke the thoughts i had as a child, the gnashing of teeth, in hell, and that, i dont want to end up there. AND? I think he's a bully. There's always been a man.. sigh.. tiresome.. voice over my shoulder harassing me.

WHAT I WANT: To be the Court leader of the Neutral guise. Or herd or pack or whatever. *LOL.*

What should my name be? Circe.

brendan used the word "blessed" in association with the amount of food we have. Im used to high quality meals, this is like, yuck, sort of. I wish I could remember shit, I want to give up. There are no plans, Im jsut saying "i want to" im tired of hurting, im tired of suffering, tired of aloneness, tired of rejection, maybe showing vulnerability will help? Why are men attacking me? Idk, i think they are scared of me.. Tbh. I will get my one desire, to be my true self. And theres nothing they can do about it." If " they try to mess it up, I have my ways.

{Wow, have the inkling of intimacy / u might be a d00d, on ur page, I MEAN, AMAB, and got scammers messaging me "hot photos" and shit lololol. Im too lazy to remove. if they're not a native English speaker, some of the messages are pretty funny...}

#targeted individual #mkultra #actually schizoaffective #schizophrenia #plague rat #emilie autumn #thought broadcasting #milabs

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cosmicmagicgirl · 2 years

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THE UNLIMITED VOID

Chapter 2

𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: Suffering, regret, shame: the negative feelings of humans become curses that plague our daily lives. Satoru Gojo, the powerful jujutsu sorcerer destabilized the scales of power, but nature always finds a way for there to be balance. This is a wild game of survival. Satoru sees that look in her eyes as if she knows his secrets and lies, and he knows there is nowhere to run from all this damage.

𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀: Fluff and Angst, Drama & Romance, Witch Curses, Jujutsu Kaisen Manga Spoilers, Pre-Shibuya Incident Arc (Jujutsu Kaisen), Blood and Violence, Crime Scenes, Investigations, Paranormal Investigators, Strong Female Characters, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage, NSFW.

𝑰𝒎𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒕: This fanfic is already available on AO3 if you are interested in reading more chapters while I don’t post them here.

Remember that I created an exclusive playlist for this fanfic and I’m always updating it as I write the chapters. Go there to listen on Spotify.

Enjoy the reading!

LIST FOR OTHER CHAPTERS: link

The Powerful One

𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐭, 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐲.

— Yes, Hitori — she huffed once again impatiently. — I can identify a jujutsu sorcerer when I see one and he was no ordinary one. I'm pretty sure who he is... — She stopped for a moment as she drank the rest of her coffee. — If I'm right, you shouldn't come to Canterbury.

Hitori grunted on the other side of the phone.

— I know you hate being alone. I don't like it either — she took a deep breath. — But as long as I don't know what he's doing here, I can't take the risk of him seeing you. — I'll be fine, believe me. Please don't be so stubborn and stay at the hotel.

She hung up the phone.

"Great, because I didn't have enough problems to deal with already" — she thought.

She put her hand in her coat pocket and held up the flask to make sure it was still there.

𝐍𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐲, 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐲.

𝐀 𝐟𝐞𝐰 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐨.

— So? — Harrison lit a cigarette. — Is that one of the damn things?

Luce showed him the small flask.

— Probably — she sat down on the bench in front of the building. — Sorry, but you'll have to make up a whole story now.

The inspector puffed the smoke and then exhaled it.

— I'm relieved that we don't have a homicidal maniac loose around here cutting people apart... — he bent over and sat down next to her. — But this supernatural stuff is sucks.

Luce let out a muffled laugh and agreed.

— Everything about it is really sucks. — she looked up at the sky. — Those other two cases might be connected to this one too.

— Holy shit... — He scratched his temple. — What answer will I give to the families?

— Sorry, I have nothing this time... — Luce closed her eyes trying to think of something. — I wanted to at least close this case for the families.

The inspector glared at her.

— You can't find a less painful way — He paused for a moment. — The cases have not been reported on major channels, so no one should revisit the subject. At least not yet.

— The families want justice as well as a reason. The grieving will hurt forever, I just hope that sometimes I can give them some relief, even if only momentarily.

Another wave of smoke has been released.

— Find out who or what did this and continue doing your work — He put his hand on the young woman's shoulder. — It's a burden, I know. But this kind of business sometimes makes us lose our empathy and sensitivity. Don't lose that, miss.

Luce smiled.

— I know. I won't lose it. — she looked at him. — And you should quit smoking, it will kill you.

Harrison let out a loud laugh.

— At my age, miss... Anything can kill me.

𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐭, 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐲.

She lost all sense of time sitting on the lawn of Westgate Gardens, checking photos and waiting for Harrison's call about the results of the victims' exams. The girl who had been found in a putrefying state was missing part of her spine, so she definitely had not died the same way as the early morning victim.

The fact that a jujutsu sorcerer had appeared in town didn't help either, they definitely wouldn't be sloppy if they wanted to kill someone. Luce didn't trust them, if it were a comparison, she would trust a curse more than a sorcerer.

She had her reasons and they were not a few.

She decided to go for a walk in the High Street, maybe she would meet the sorcerer again.

It had been a few hours since Luce had entered Canterbury Cathedral and she felt that he was following her. She sat down on one of the chairs and waited until the man with the dark glasses sat down next to her.

And so he did.

— Beautiful, don't you think? The Gothic style — she said as she admired the stained glass windows. — Canterbury Cathedral was founded in five hundred and ninety-seven, can you believe it? But it was completely rebuilt in one thousand seventy-seven.

— I've never had much time to visit historical places. — he answered. — But you are right. It is beautiful.

— In one thousand one hundred and seventy Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered by the knights of King Henry the Second — she said. — This ended up making the cathedral a place of pilgrimage because of Becket's shrine. But after the English reformation King Henry the Eighth ordered the shrine to be destroyed.

— This one I know, the guy from the Church of England — he smiled. — The divorce man.

Luce was silent.

— Good thing the famous Satoru Gojo is not just a pretty face - she said. — You were following me, why?

A smile formed on Satoru's face.

— So, do you think I have a pretty face? — he leaned back slouched in his chair.

— Why are you here? — Luce finally stared at him.

— I'm hearing about the history of the Cathedral — he said with a wry smile. — You're a great guide. And very beautiful.

She kept waiting for an answer. Her expression was as serious as ever and she was trying to remain as calm as possible.

— All right... — he sighed. — But I should at least know your name, you know mine.

— You already know my name — she narrowed her eyes at him. — In the cafeteria.

He laughed.

— Yes, I know — he adjusted his glasses. — But I wanted to hear it from you. — Her expression remained unchanged. — Here —he held out his hand to her. — Satoru Gojo, pleasure.

Luce arched her eyebrows and stared at his hand.

— Come, be polite. We are in the house of the Lord — he pointed to the ambo in front of them and laughed.

She sighed wearily and squeezed his hand.

— Luce Amaryllis...

— That's a lovely name. It suits you.

Her cheeks flushed slightly.

— I'm looking for a cursed object — he said. — Did you see something?

At least he didn't seem to be after her — she thought. And she had nowhere else to run, if she had to face him, so be it.

— I don't know — she reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out the bottle. — But I found this today.

Satoru looked at the flask and saw the object emitting cursed energy.

— Where did you find this? — he asked.

— It was inside the stomach of a young girl — she explained. — At least what was left of it. The police found the body this morning in one of the canals of the Stour River.

Satoru frowned.

— It doesn't seem to be a cursed object to me... — he seemed to be studying the situation. — You are not a sorceress... No, are you? Should I be suspicious?

Luce gave a cynical laugh.

— I should suspect you — she said seriously. — And you're right, I'm not part of that nasty bastards

Satoru looked surprised and let out an outrageous laugh.

The people in the cathedral looked at him in annoyance.

— You're really interesting — he crossed his arms. — Do you hate us?

— I have my reasons — she answered.

— I don't disagree with you — he became serious for a moment. — Those old people are really nasty bastards.

Luce sighed.

— Well, usually when one of you shows up I leave — she thought for a moment. — But I know you won't leave me alone, so let's get this over with.

Satoru smiled and watched her get up.

— Come on, I have things to show you — she picked up her bag and headed for the exit. — And I'm out of time.

Satoru followed her but not before laughing mischievously.

— What kind of things will you show me? — he put his hands in his pockets. — I deserve at least one date first. I'm a romantic man you know.

She paused for a moment, anger overflowing from her eyes.

— Are you always like this? — she asked.

Satoru gave her an innocent look.

— I'm afraid so. — he shook his shoulders. — It's a charming thing.

— It's pure hateful — she said drily, and continued walking.

She didn't notice, but he was smiling.

𝕋𝕠𝕜𝕪𝕠 𝕄𝕖𝕥𝕣𝕠𝕡𝕠𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕒𝕟 𝕂𝕠𝕜𝕦𝕤𝕒𝕚 𝕊𝕔𝕙𝕠𝕠𝕝

Suzume Miyamoto was fifteen years old and a first year high school student in Kokusai. She had a relatively normal life, and I say relatively because she had the ability to see curses. However, she was very good at hiding this fact ever since she began to see them.

Her father was always traveling for work, so she was raised by different people, but as soon as she turned fifteen she started living alone. Her mother had died as soon as she was born, and this made her father focus much more on work, and she couldn't even blame him. She knew he would do anything for her and worked mainly to provide them with a comfortable life. They got along well, not close of course, but whenever he returned to Japan they spent most of their time together.

Suzume was an exceptional student. She got good grades, was responsible and very applied. She participated every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon in the kyudo club, the art of japanese archery. And today was one of those days.

Class was over and she was more than looking forward to her training.

Until everything turned out to be wrong.

She felt an overpowering sensation hit the dojo, giving her goose bumps, and before she could say anything to her classmates — the explosion happened.

A creature full of eyes and immensely large emerged before her. Its feet seemed to have been driven into the ground and Suzume could not move, her classmates screamed desperately for help and some tried to run for the exit. The girl watched as the creature rolled its eyes in the direction of the two boys who were running to the back closet and before she could think of anything — she ran straight into the creature.

— Suzume! — one of the girls yelled after her.

— Go get help! Hurry! — she yelled back. — I'll buy some time.

The girl then ran through the exit - screaming for help.

"Buy some time? What the hell was she thinking, she could get killed." A voice echoed in her mind.

She didn't know why she was doing this, but she couldn't stop her legs. And as if she didn't fear death, she picked up one of the chairs and slammed it into the creature's back. Angered, the curse roared and ran towards the creature so fast that Suzume could barely think before the thing hit her and threw her over the side of the dojô.

Suzume felt as if her head was going to explode and her whole body numb. She was able to open her eyes and see that the two boys had succeeded in hiding in the closet in time, but unfortunately the other two girls were in the corner of the dojô cowering and the curse was running right at them.

Suzume Miyamoto needed to do something and quickly.

𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞.

— It is a grade 2 curse. We moved everyone out with the excuse that the school was leaking gas — explained Ijichi. — But unfortunately there were students inside the dojo in the back lot. An approximate six students.

Nanami Kento sighed tiredly.

— Okay. I'm coming in. — He fixed his glasses and tie.

As he approached the place he could feel the cursed energy. He saw a student running towards him.

— Please... — she spoke breathlessly. — Help me.

— Everything is going to be alright. You need to leave now... — he explained calmly.

The girl agreed, but before she could leave she pulled him by the sleeve of his suit.

— My friends are there," there were tears in her eyes. — Suzume is fighting that thing alone.

He frowned.

Then he ran into the dojô.

𝕋𝕠𝕜𝕪𝕠 𝕄𝕖𝕥𝕣𝕠𝕡𝕠𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕒𝕟 𝕂𝕠𝕜𝕦𝕤𝕒𝕚 𝕊𝕔𝕙𝕠𝕠𝕝

𝐃𝐨𝐣𝐨.

She saw one of her fallen arrows beside her and a flash crossed her mind — giving her the only possible idea at that moment. She spotted one of the long bows in the rubble a few feet from where she stood and in an act of desperation she ran as fast as she could and grabbed the weapon.

Suzume clung to the desperation that the creature had reached the two girls and without hesitation she lined up the single arrow on the bow, lengthened the string and determined her target. As soon as she released the string and the arrow flew like a bolt of lightning, a purple lightning flashed around the arrow and as the creature grabbed one of the girls the arrow hit one of her eyes.

The girl fell with a thud to the ground.

Now the purple light was consuming the entire curse and she roared with rage.

Nanami Kento had entered the dojo just as the arrow had been shot. And he was stunned when he saw the girl using cursed energy and even more surprised when in fact the curse had been exorcised.

Suzume was astonished — the creature was gone.

Everyone from inside the dojô had now run outside, leaving only her in the middle of the room and the man.

Nanami walked over to the arrow that had been used and when he touched it he felt an electric shock run through his fingers.

"An innate technique?" — He thought.

— How long have you been able to do that? — he asked her.

Suzume was brought out of her state of shock by the voice of the man in front of her.

— Huh? - she was confused.

— You exorcised the curse — he explained. — Is this the first time?

— Curse? Is that what they call it?

Nanami sighed wearily. He would have a lot to explain.

𝕋𝕖𝕞𝕡𝕝𝕠 ℝ𝕦𝕣𝕚𝕜𝕠𝕛𝕚 𝕕𝕖 𝕐𝕒𝕞𝕒𝕘𝕦𝕔𝕙𝕚, 𝕁𝕒𝕡𝕒𝕠.

Reiko Ohara, fifteen years old and heiress to the Ohara clan. A family somewhat removed from the larger sorcerers families. The Ohara preserved their Buddhist spiritual doctrine and did not like to participate in the conflicts of the jujutsu world, but inevitably sometimes they had to get involved - even if they had so little influence.

— Do I really have to go? - Reiko lamented. — Can't I go only next year?

Hana Ohara, her mother smiled.

— I'm sorry dear, but it's already done. — she tucked a strand of her daughter's hair behind her ear. — We can no longer remain indifferent.

Reiko agreed sadly.

— I know. But to think that I'll be away from you... — she said in a tearful voice. — What if I'm no good for that kind of thing?

Hana held her daughter's hands and looked into her eyes.

— You are more than capable, dear," her voice was sweet and gentle. — Your father would be proud. You've been working hard on your training and I know you'll be more than fine. — She caressed his daughter's cheeks as he wiped away her tears.

— I'm going to miss our little walks here at the temple. — said the girl.

— I will too. But I will visit you as often as possible, okay?

Reiko smiled.

— That's fine...

𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐭, 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐲.

𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐂𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞

Violet was looking curiously at the two customers sitting at the table near the window as she tried to prepare their orders. It was a funny thing, was she watching that kind of romance at first sight? The customer from earlier today seemed quite interested about Miss Luce when he saw her come into the coffee shop this afternoon, and now they seemed to be having a date.

The blonde let out a short excited laugh thinking it was adorable.

But the truth was that Luce would rather be sifting through crime scenes and dead bodies than sitting at the table with a jujutsu sorcerer, and especially when that sorcerer was the famous Satoru Gojo.

Luce might be completely nonchalant and would constantly stray from any path where there was a sorcerer, however, she never stopped informing herself about them. Curse users used to talk a lot and information was something she always presided over. It is impossible that once involved in this parallel world where one can see and use cursed energy, you have not heard about the all powerful Satoru Gojo, the man with the six eyes. A sorcerer so powerful that he unsettled the scales of power in the jujutsu world.

In addition to having been given such powers, it seemed that the universe loved him and blessed him with unusual beauty. Obviously even in this broken and dirty jujutsu world people were talking about his appearance and how the Gojo clan had received the greatest gift from heaven. The perfect child — responsible for all the curse users hiding and the absurd growth of curses.

Luce realized on her short walk down the High Street to the Valley Coffee House that even the most ordinary human could be charmed by the appearance of the man next to her. She had experienced a similar situation with Vesper, but it was a natural beauty... There was absolutely nothing natural about Satoru Gojo. She didn't need to use her skills to know that he was on another level, however, something about this particular figure made her disturbed.

She had never really believed in this; from her own experience, she knew that everything could come to an end. However, was this man in front of her really an all powerful being? She could feel the density of his presence and the weight his aura carried, but it made something inside her turn around — wanting to prove that this man could also fall.

Satoru on the other hand, kept wondering how in his entire existence as a sorcerer, he hadn't heard about her. How had something like this been hidden all this time? He was curious, but most of all dazzled for the first time in a long time. Was there really someone of his level?

Ever since he had a simple dazzle with his six eyes on the woman in front of him, he hadn't stopped thinking about it. Was she the threat that intelligence had detected, but they didn't know what it was exactly? It would make sense. But no, Satoru had a very good sense of judgment about people and that woman definitely didn't seem to be the threat of the moment. However, she could really be a threat if she wanted to be.

He put his hand on hir chin and stared at her taking the laptop out of her purse.

— Just ask — she said, breaking the silence — or stop looking at me like that.

He smiled.

— Why do you think I wanna ask you something?

— Because I'm not stupid —she opened the computer screen. — And you're restless.

— I'm restless? - he asked curiously.

She typed something on the keyboards and answered.

— You talk too shamelessly — she began. — You haven't stopped with the stupid jokes along the way and now you're annoyingly quiet while you wrinkle your forehead at me — she explained. — You want to ask something and you are thinking about what you want to ask. Otherwise you wouldn't have followed me as soon as I left the cafeteria earlier.

At no point did she look in his direction.

Satoru Gojo smiled broadly this time.

— You are really good," he clapped his hands together. —But I didn't follow you when you left the café.

She looked into his eyes, and saw her reflection in the dark lenses of his glasses.

— You're right, you didn't follow me — she crossed her hands. — You tracked me. It's certainly different.

He widened his eyes.

— How's that?

— I went to Westgate Garden and you took your time getting out of here. You didn't see which way I went. But coincidentally you waited for me near the Cathedral because you knew exactly where I was going to pass, that side of the Cathedral is not known by tourists. — She explained calmly as if it was obvious.

— Who said I didn't know it? — he had an amused smile on his lips. — And how did you know it took me so long to get out of here?

— The answer is simple, because you ordered a frappé coffee and a berliner ballen. — she flashed a winning smile that could go unnoticed, but obviously would not go unnoticed by Satoru Gojo.

— What? — he hadn't understood, but he was excited.

— You asked for the same thing I did, but you didn't make the request while I was still here. So you did it when I left and Violet can be fast, but not too fast. This suggests that you didn't know half of the candy and didn't want to waste time choosing, because you needed to find me. So you know almost nothing here. Much less shortcuts.

Satoru was impressed.

— How do you know this?

— Because I love berliner ballen and frappé — she answered. — And together they make a very unique scent. I smelled it as soon as you sat down next to me in the Cathedral. And well, the fact that you had, even subtly, berliner ballen cream on the corner of your lip also helped.

Satoru brought his fingers to the corner of his mouth and wiped.

— You let me walk around with that on my face? And you didn't even warn me?

She shrugged.

— You're mean," and let out a laugh.

Just then Violet approached the table with the orders.

— Here it is," she put the drinks on the table — English tea for the young lady and a hazelnut milkshake for you — she smiled. — If you need anything else, please call me.

— Thank you, Violet — Luce replied with a smile on her face.

Satoru nodded slightly in thanks.

— Let me show you the victims," Luce said as she turned the laptop so that the man could see. — The first was Joyce Miller, a twenty year-old girl who disappeared a few days ago. — On the computer screen you could see the unfortunate corpse of a dark-haired girl. — Her mother contacted me, but unfortunately I can't always attend to everyone so I left the police on their own. But I felt that there was something strange in the story, so I wanted to be informed if they found anything...

— And they did," she took another sip of her milkshake. — Her dead body, though.

Luce agreed.

— Joyce's mother reported that she had been acting strange the days before she disappeared. I asked if she might have met someone, since in many cases it could always be a new flirt. A guy she met and in the end, well... It could be nothing more than a murderer. — Luce took a sip of her tea and continued. — But as in most cases, she didn't know.

Satoru listened attentively.

— Her body was found yesterday, it is estimated that she died around ten thirty at night. She was found in an alley in London, exactly as in the photo — She zoomed into the image on the screen. — And as you can see, there is not a single trace of cursed energy.

—- Then why are we looking at a poor girl's dead body?

Luce sighed.

— Because of this... — she indicated a specific spot on the image. — See? Her hand was ripped off.

Satoru moved closer to the screen and frowned.

— Yes, I see..., but what about it?

— If you be patient, I'll get to it. - She informed. — Now, the second victim. Emilia Clark, twenty-five years old, dead three days ago, but her body was found yesterday afternoon by her mother — She clicked one of the keypad buttons and the image changed. — That was her condition.

— This looks closer to the work of a curse," Satoru said. — Shredded bodies are usually quite common. That's in the best case scenarios.

Luce again agreed.

— It turns out that she wasn't exactly shredded and there is no trace of cursed energy — her voice came out in a more serious tone. — Despite the advanced stage of decomposition, if we zoom in — she zoomed in on the image. — You can see the cuts. And once again notice — she moved the mouse arrow to the victim's back. — She is missing a part of her spine.

Satoru looked thoughtful.

— If you compare the two victims — she put the images next to each other. — Can you identify the similarity?

— I really don't like to think too much. — went back to drinking his milkshake.

— You don't take anything seriously, do you? — she said impatiently. — I knew it.

She was about to get up.

— Oi! - Satoru grabbed her hand before she could close the laptop. — I'm just kidding, dear. It's just that analyzing corpses isn't really what I do. Please, continue.

She calmed down.

— Okay - still with a suspicious look on her face. — The similarities are the cuts, they are the same. That is, the same tool; an axe.

— It was a human, so... — Satoru put one of his fingers over his chin.

— And all this brings us to the third victim - she picked up a small flask and put it on the table. — I have no pictures, but the death was not the same. She simply burst from the inside out and there was this inside her stomach.

— How does this last one connect to the others?

— Because when I analyzed the body, I smelled hydrogen peroxide, sodium tetraborate and formaldehyde — She saw Satoru's confused look and tried to explain. — Sodium tetraborate is borax... and formaldehyde you may know as formalin.

— All right, but I still don't understand... — crossed his arms. — What's the point?

— Have you ever heard of maceration? — The man denied it with his head. — It is nothing more than a technique for the physical, chemical or biological cleaning of bones. — He clarified. — What does this have to do with the case? Well, it is the fact that these three products I listed can be used to preserve bones. And as you can see the hand and the backbone of two victims were removed. Which leads us to conclude that whoever killed the two, was also responsible for the death of the third. — Luce explained every line of her thoughts, while Satoru listened attentively. — But why would he kill the third one differently? He made her swallow something, otherwise I wouldn't have found this — she pointed to the flask. — However, whoever did this also took what he gave the girl away. That's where you come in.

— A cursed object...— Satoru smiled.

Luce nodded in agreement.

— Wow, you're really good at this — he complimented. — How do you do that?

— Thank you, Luce. But that's not important right now... — she was silent for a moment. — When did you get here?

— Today, actually. I left Tokyo yesterday, but the flight is quite long, which sucks to be honest. Why?

— Yes, but what time?

Satoru smiled again.

— If I didn't know better I would think you were suspecting me.

— And I am suspecting you. You sorcerers don't make many distinctions when you want to kill someone — her voice lowered a tone, and a shadow of spite flashed across her eyes. — So tell me, what time did you arrive?

— I arrived here in Canterbury at eleven o'clock, I was supposed to arrive at ten, but I got the train an hour late — she laughed. — I arrived in London at eight o'clock in the morning, if that's what you want to know. Do I need to show you my ticket?

— No —she reclined in her seat. — I know you didn't do it. I just don't trust you.

— Ouch! — he simulated pain. —That hurt...

— To be honest, I think whoever did this must have left town by now, especially with you here... Then your trip must have been a waste of time — she informed him. — Your object must be somewhere else.

Satoru was silent for a few seconds.

— And how could I not suspect you? — he asked.

Luce narrowed her eyes and her heart leapt.

— Don't get me wrong, dear, I don't think you could have killed anyone. But you're hiding something from me. — he leaned across the table and came close to her face. — And I'm going to find out what it is. You know, I'm pretty good at this too. — an ironic smile opened his lips. — So, are you going to tell me what it is? Or are you going to play hard?

He adjusted his glasses and continued to stare at the woman.

Luce tried to put his million thoughts in order, what exactly did he suspect? She knew he probably saw everything about her with those damn six eyes, was it about that? Or about Hitori? Could he have known about that? He didn't seem to be lying about the time he arrived, he couldn't have even crossed paths with Hitori. So it could only be about her?

— What do you want to know, Gojo? — he asked.

He smiled.

And before he could ask, her cell phone rang.

— Just a moment —she answered. — Yes, I can talk. I'm fine, inspector. Sure, no problem, I'll meet you there. See you later — and then she hung up.

— Appointment? — Satoru arched his eyebrow.

— Yes, the victim's tests came out. I just want to confirm my theory. — began to pack his things. — See you later, Gojo.

— Wait a minute! We're not done, we still have to solve this... — raised his hands.— And other things, like our conversation.

— I don't have time for that. I already gave you the information I had, do your super sorcerer thing or whatever you usually do. — She picked up her purse and put it on her shoulder.

— I can do a lot of super things if that's what you want to know. — a wily smile formed. — But since we haven't worked anything out yet, I need to keep in touch with you, don't you think? - he held the phone out to her. — Give me your number and we'll meet again.

Luce rolled her eyes.

— If that's what it takes to leave me alone. — she picked up the cell phone and typed. — There you go.

— See you again tomorrow, sweetheart — he took the phone from her hands.

— Okay, whatever you say — she turned the tables and left.

Satoru Gojo was more curious than ever. Of course, it was a rather unusual case given the variations. If was a curse user and it was in the city, he would be able to find it. However, for now he wanted to know more about Luce Amaryllis, if that was really her name.

𝐓𝐨𝐤𝐲𝐨 𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐧 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐞.

— Dead? — shouted the boy. — What do you mean dead?

— I'm sorry, Haru — wailed Utahime. — When I found you...

Haru Tokugawa was seventeen years old and a second-year student in Kyoto. He was a descendant of the Tokugawa clan, none remaining except for the boy who had been raised by his maternal grandmother. He and his team had been given a simple mission, but in the end it all turned out to be chaos. The curse was much more powerful than they had expected, and there was one of Sukuna's fingers involved.

He couldn't remember much since he had tried to use his technique to buy time and save his friends. One instant he smelled blood, and the next he woke up in the college infirmary. Not much time had passed since he woke up and the news Iori Utahime was giving him.

— I'm sorry, Haru — Iori repeated. — That cursed object wasn't supposed to be there. It was unexpected. Nobody knew that Sukuna's finger was there.

Haru could hardly breathe. It was too much to take in at that moment.

— You need to rest now — said the supervisor. — Let me know if you need anything, okay?

Haru didn't answer.

— Listen — she touched the boy's shoulder. — It wasn't your fault, all right? There was nothing you could do against a special level curse.

And so she left the infirmary.

𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐲, 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝.

It had been two days since Luce had met with Satoru Gojo and she couldn't have been more worried. The person responsible for the crimes had left the city, perhaps the country and she didn't have a single clue as to who it might have been.

Since she had given her number to the sorcerer, she had not expected that he would send so many messages informing her about his day in town. Satoru wanted to have lunch with her the day before, but Luce made up an excuse to get away from any conversation with the man. She knew she couldn't run from it for that long, but maybe, just maybe, she hoped that he would just get tired of it and go back to Japan.

However, deep down she knew that wouldn't happen. Not if it was up to him anyway. Satoru had informed her that he had looked for the person responsible, but he had certainly run away. And she didn't even have to ask how he could be so sure, because she knew it had to involve the famous six eyes.

She tried to keep in touch with Hitori, but he refused to answer her calls. Which made her even more worried.

𝐍𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐨.

She had already lost all sense of time, all that was left was a few scratches and the smell of blood that refused to leave her nose. Most likely from the dried blood that marked her small hands and face. The eyes, red and sparkling like lava from a volcano, no longer glowed, all there was an immense abyss of an agonizing emptiness. There was nothing left for that child but the confusion of probably never understanding what had happened. What could she do?

She held on to the only thing she could feel at the moment — the large hands that were holding her and guiding her through the dark forest.

She lifted her head a little and looked at the young boy's face, which remained unchanged in a hard serious expression. His eyes focused on the path ahead as he held the girl's small hands firmly.

After walking for what seemed like hours, they finally reached a clearing. The young boy released her hand and left her standing in the middle of the open space.

He left for a few minutes and came back with a handful of wood in his arms, stirred his hands for some sign, and flames appeared burning the wood in front of him.

The girl sat down beside him and watched the flames.

They remained silent for long minutes until the boy spoke.

— My name is Hitori — his voice sounded deep. — I am the curse you created, your brother made a pact with me. I will train you so that one day you will face me and one of us will die.

She nodded.

— Is Vesper there? — she asked, her voice almost inaudible.

— Yes, but he can't talk to you. I own this body now.

And again, silence.

𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐲, 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝.

She was now lying on her hotel bed, trying to calm her mind when her cell phone vibrated.

Satoru Gojo sent a message:

S: Hey, are we having lunch today? pls :((

L: No, I'm busy.

S: That's a lie, if you don't leave I'll come to your Hotel :))

L: You're already here, aren't you?

S: ;)

Luce let out a sigh and got out of bed. She tidied her long red hair and grabbed her purse.

As she left the hotel lobby, she spotted the tall, white-haired man in his blue dress shirt and light pants. Yes, handsome as ever, she thought.

Satoru turned toward the woman and waved with a smile.

— Even more beautiful than last time —he said. — You couldn't hide from me forever, you know.

"I wish I could..." — she thought.

— You couldn't leave me alone, could you? — she sighed in defeat.

He smiled.

— You know I couldn't, dear. — he moved closer to her face. — You and I still have a lot to talk about.

They walked for a few minutes to the entrance of the park, there was a large arch with the words Greyfriars Gardens written on it.

— Weren't we going to have lunch? — Luce asked.

— I'd like to talk first — Satoru smiled. —The open air sounds better, don't you think?

Luce looked at him out of the corner of her eye.

— Okay, whatever you say — she answered.

They sat down on the benches under one of the large trees, and Satoru began to ramble on about the landscape.

— Just ask what you want, Gojo. Spare us the time... — she said impatiently.

Satoru gave a slight smile, and adjusted his glasses.

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transmasc-wizard · 3 years

Text

an opinion on scrivener (by a normally very picky individual)

I've seen a lot of people talk about scrivener, mostly in a mix of positive and negative; it's too expensive! It's great for organizing! It's too complicated! It's XYZ!

It's only natural for I, someone who has had scrivener for about a year now, to want to add my opinion, so... here I am! This is somewhere between a review and a basic how-to? Idk. When have I ever made sense.

Note: this is not in any way sponsored. Literature & Latte/Scrivener does not even know I exist.

Another note: I believe the iOS/Mac version of scrivener is, in fact, more complicated than this, but the same stuff probably applies. I wouldn't know, because I'll burn in hell before I have an Apple product.

Onwards!

So, once you open a scrivener document (specifically the "novel with parts" template, but they're all very very similar), this is what you see. The corkboard-looking thing is, in fact, called the corkboard. The teal band off to the side (which iirc I changed the colour of, I think it defaults to grey) is the binder. If you look above the corkboard, you'll notice there are three little icons; the middle one is selected (and yellow), and sets it to the corkboard. On the right is the editor (actual page with words) and on the left is the outliner (more on that in a second).

You can write in the little notecards; this creates a synopsis that can be viewed in the inspector (more on that in a second, again), in the outliner, and in the corkboard, like this. There's also labels and statuses and stuff, but that's more than just The Basic Basics, so... moving on.

Now I've both gone over to the outliner, which lets me see the synopsis, label, status, word count, target, progress, and target type of each document, and have also opened the inspector (that column on the right) by clicking the blue i in the top right corner.

All these features are fine and dandy, but this is the love of my life:

The binder, my beloved. It lets you have individual documents for ANYTHING you want, plus folders to keep them separated & grouped. I have not had to worry about keeping track of 48763847 word docs for one story since getting scrivener; it's all!! right there!! In little folders!! I like organizing things, ok? This is my happy place.

So, above we have the actual scrivener editor! It's pretty similar to word's page, all things considered, with the exception that there's no page breaks. If you go up to "project" in the top of the screen and click "project statistics" you can see page count, but scrivener focuses on word count. WC is more accurate toward story length, anyway, as page count can vary vastly depending on font, font size, and spacing. (Also, I have the page colour changed to a light pink, but it defaults to white.)

Those are all the main screens you'd use if you had scrivener; there's also focus mode/full screen, but that doesn't usually get as much use.

The actual review-ish part of this post:

Scrivener, if you couldn't tell, is my favourite program I've ever used. (I've used word and google docs, btw). It has the most functions, is AMAZING for organization (which is great as a fantasy writer with a lot of Stuff), is great for progress tracking and project goals (something I didn't really touch upon hear; short version, each individual document can have a goal, plus each chapter/part/etc, plus the manuscript as a whole), and is much easier to use than it's reputation says it is.

I didn't even go into detail on keywords, labels, custom icons, the auto-save and auto-backup (every two seconds without writing), document notes, snapshots, custom meta-data you can track, the name generator, the trash function (you cannot accidentally delete a doc), or the thesaurus!

Overall, if you're interested in scrivener, I strongly suggest trying out the trial. It's 30 free days of use. To be clear, that means if you don't open it that day, it doesn't count as a day in your trial. You only write 2 days a week? You'll have that scrivener trial for 15 weeks.

Scrivener doesn't work for everybody! I most strongly suggest it for my fellow organization lovers, but really, if you're interested, I encourage you to give it a try.

#scrivener #writblr #writeblr #writerblr #long post #this was. something. can you tell i am enthusiastic about scrivener

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malarki · 3 years

Text

Harry Potter FanFiction I greatly enjoy (it’s just tomarry and sevitus)

Fair warning, I’m not good at describing stuff, and most of these are not complete (yet) but if you have similar tastes as I do then you’ll definitely like these stories.

Meddling of a Mischief Maker - by Athy

https://archiveofourown.org/works/5380535/chapters/12427268

I enjoy this fic because it shows a more human Voldemort with him still being an asshole as per usual. They do a good job of having Voldemort believably change into a not crazy murderous bastard haha. It also has Sirius interacting with Voldemort and for some reason I find those scenes hilarious in any fic I read.

“Harry's being a horcrux is a bit reworked here in this AU Story set during the summer after 5th year. A Mischief Maker intervenes in the Ministry during Voldemort and Dumbledore's duel, changing the course history. MorallyGrey!Dumbledore, Sirius, Restored Souls, HP/TR”

Draw Me After You (Let Us Run) - by ToAStranger @toast-ranger-to-a-stranger

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22327684/chapters/53334382

This story is a delight, it’s tone is very good and they do a great job of writing in the characters ‘voices’ for their pov’s. I especially like the posh way Voldemort talks and acts. This story is also hilarious on top of just being a very good slowburn, AND it has Sirius, which as you might have guessed, I love dearly. They also don’t bash any of the characters, and instead make them well rounded but flawed individuals, which I really appreciate.

“Harry Potter,” comes the soft, sibilant hiss of a voice he has heard in his dreams, in his nightmares, in his waking hours for years.

Slowly, carefully, Harry twists over and pushes up onto his hands and knees. He stays there, short breath fogging in front of his face, and his pursuer lets him. Harry has no doubt of that; he’s being allowed this respite. This small moment to catch his bearings, heart pounding in his ears, blood singing.

“It seems I have finally caught you.”

Consuming Shadows - by Child_OTKW @childotkw

https://archiveofourown.org/works/7040089/chapters/16011331

I’ve read two of childOTKW’s fics and both of them are fantastically written and attention grabbing stories. This one was the first one I read, and it has a very interesting take on lily Potter (one which I really enjoy) and the plot can leave you on the edge of your seat at times. The characterization is great, and the process of Harry and Tom getting to know each other is done very well.

“His attention skipped passed the students and moved to the politicians’ pavilion. His gaze locked with crimson, and he nearly faltered under the sheer hunger in those eyes.

It unnerved him how fixated the man was on his dirtied, exhausted figure.

But what troubled him more was the slight smirk he could make out on the man’s lips. It was almost pleased.

On the night of the attack, Lily managed to escape with her infant son, but at the cost of her husband’s life. Distraught and distrusting of her friends, she fled to France with Harry, to raise him away from the corruption in Britain and the rising influence of the Dark Lord. She trains him to the best of her abilities, shaping him into a dangerous, intelligent and powerful wizard.

But when Britain re-establishes the Triwizard Tournament, and Harry is forced to return to his once-home, he finds himself questioning whether he really wants to kill the Dark Lord. Voldemort finds an unexpected challenge in the child, and as his intrigue and amusement grows, so too does the desire to possess the spark in those defiant green eyes.”

A story that is kind of similar but not really: The Train to Nowhere

You Belong To Me (I Belong To You) - by child_OTKW

https://archiveofourown.org/works/11270490/chapters/25203408

This is a story inspired by the manwha ‘At The End Of The Road’ by Haribo. A comic I read before reading this, which is very good I recommend it. They do not take the exact plot from the comic though, obviously changing significant details for it to work properly as a Tomarry Fic, but one main thing stays the same, which is that this is a body swap. Honestly I really enjoy childOTKW’s works, and this is no exception. The characterization is wonderful as always, and Harry is Fantastic. Plus I’ve always been a fan of time travel fics. (Fair warning this is another slow burn and Harry centric)

“What I find absolutely fascinating,” Riddle said, stalking closer, “is you.” He marched forward, backing Harry up until he was pinned to the cool wall of the common room. “Do you know why?”

“No. And I’ll be honest here, Riddle, I don’t particularly care.”

The taller boy grinned at him, small yet infinitely pleased. “That. Right there.” One hand rose and brushed some of Harry’s fringe from his face. “Nathan Ciro was a spineless little boy too afraid of his own shadow to dare even glance in my direction. But you…”

He leaned closer, “You look at me like you want to stab me.”

“After an accident, Auror Harry Potter wakes up in the body of fourteen year old Nathan Ciro, a tormented Slytherin who recently tried to end his own life. Seeking answers to his strange predicament, Harry returns to Hogwarts, and causes quite the stir through staff and students - especially when they come to realise he is not the same boy as before.

He tries to avoid suspicion, but as his quest for the truth draws more and more attention to him, Harry begins to think that he might not like what he will discover.”

Some Bonus AU tomarry

A Thousand Paths Among The Stars - by Haplessshippo @haplesshippo

https://archiveofourown.org/works/12015060/chapters/27191238

This is a star trek au and it’s honestly my favorite tomarry au fic. Granted, I am a huge sci-fi fan. There’s also a bit of a twist at the end, or at least it surprised me, due to the way we usually expect tomarry plots to go.

“Harry Potter, newly appointed Captain of the Marauder and son of the famous Captain James Potter, was falling apart at the seams. His crew didn’t respect him, he was lost in the empty expanse of space, nightmares plagued his sleep, and his Commander deserved the Captain position more than he did. Good thing multiple attempts on his life and a vicious warlord after his head was all it took to turn it all around.

Alternatively, that space fic in which Harry Potter almost dies too many times, Tom Riddle slowly becomes the most smitten fool on the ship, and the rest of the crew are all just a bunch of assholes with popcorn watching the show. And exploding ships, don't forget the exploding ships.”

The Matchmaker - by TanninTele

https://archiveofourown.org/works/16507676/chapters/38664089

I am ALSO a huge true crime fan, and this story has a criminal that kinda reminds me of one that might appear in Hannibal (but with less murder). I enjoy the characterization, though tom is pretty tame in this compared to more cannon fics, considering he’s not the criminal and instead an investigator. Harry is also different from how people usually portray him, but I still like it.

“'The Matchmaker' is a serial abductor whose modus operandi consists of pairing two same-sex individuals together in a coffin, six feet underground - buried alive. He isn't a killer. He's a kidnapper with morals, and Detective Chief Inspector Tom Riddle finds himself obsessed with solving the case.

Unfortunately for Tom, the Matchmaker is just as intent on knowing him.”

And on to the Sevitus Stories

Far Beyond A Promise Kept - by oliversnape

https://archiveofourown.org/works/547431/chapters/974693

A classic, Harry stays with snape and unintentionally proves all his assumptions wrong and makes snape care about him. Both the stories have this aspect, but this one has snape a bit nicer from the get go. Probably because it takes place during the third book, so they’ve only known each other two years. It’s quite wholesome though, and I rather enjoy the progression of their relationship.

“Snape never wanted anyone to know of his promise to Dumbledore, but has realised that he can protect Potter much better by taking a less passive role in the boy's training. Actually liking Harry Potter has never been part of his plan. mentor/guardian.”

Crime And Punishment - by melolcatsi

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24102232/chapters/58018174

Snape and Harry have way more of a rocky start in this one, and Snape having to pick Harry up from the police station Really Doesn’t Help Snape’s opinion of him. This story very realistically shows the progression of their relationship, going from enemies to family, and near the ‘end’ (it’s not finished) it becomes very wholesome with Snape trying to help Harry with his mental and physical health after years of abuse/ neglect.

“Harry is accused of burglary. The Dursleys leave him to rot. Dumbledore sends Snape to remedy the situation. Harry finds himself in the care of an irate Snape. Not slash, gen-fic w/ focus on Sevitus relationship. Angst galore. Warnings: coarse and suggestive language, mentions of abuse/neglect. Un-betaed and un-Britpicked.”

#tomarry #tom riddle #harry potter #sevitus #severus snape #fanfic #fanfic reccomendation #ao3 fanfic #ao3 #archive of our own #tom riddle x harry potter

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ryansjane · 3 years

Text

axelle judges non bl shows > Remember You

summary: A genius detective teams up with a colleague to investigate a case that hits close to home, but the duo becomes entangled in a cat-and-mouse game.

where to watch: netflix | dramacool

grade: 8,5/10

pros:

- the acting was really solid. I had only seen petch in his role as gus in diary of tootsies which was EXTREMELY different from his role here, and even though he already demonstrated some talent in that, here he really impressed me. I loved seeing the shell around tanwa slowly melt away, and petch played him incredibly well & in a very nuanced way. bell was also great, though her character is less nuanced, she still did great in emotional scenes. but probably the biggest surprise for me was tay tawan, who for me was BY FAR at his best in that role. he managed to capture the volatility & fragility of the character SO WELL, while also looking mysterious & scary at first. it gets me really excited for his future roles bc it’s amazing to see him finally coming together as an actor. and finally, kudos to the actor who plays inspector thanat who was lowkey my fave & really well done as well.

- the characters were all very nice, as I said tanwa was a very compelling main character, paytai was also so fucking layered & complex I was crying over him, and aye was also a really great feminine presence that I enjoyed very much (even though everyone else hated it her for no reason than the fact that she was annoying for like 2 seconds at the beginning & that she’s a woman.) I even greatly enjoyed the side characters.

- the ship was really cute tbh. I loved how slowly but surely they evolved, with no drama, no betrayal, no weird morally grey stuff, just longing & trust. they had just the right amount of screentime imo, enough so we root for them but not too much so we can still focus on the investigation.

- the cinematography & filming was good, not life-changing but that was definitely a really nicely executed show for sure :)

- the writing was honestly really solid. the plot twists are weirdly not surprising at all, yet you’re still on your tiptoes for some reason? I think this show is more about watching stuff unpack rather than being surprised about the stuff that’s being unpacked if that makes sense, which changes a lot from most other thriller/investigation shows. and once again, the balance between the characters & the crime stuff was done really well imo.

cons:

- the beginning of the show is a bit slow, and it could’ve easily been 13 episodes instead of 16 without sacrificing anything important. it would’ve greatly helped the pace & overall made the show feel more polished imo.

- there were some inconsistencies that made me feel like this wasn’t the most tighly run show tbh. it only half bothered me, but does keep me from giving it a higher grade.

would I rewatch it: honestly yes

Overall even though the first few episodes are kinda slow, this is a really good show! I genuinely really enjoyed it & would absolutely recommend it :)

#remember you #remember you the series #remember you thailand #axelle judges non bl shows #bypiningbisexuals #my gif as alwayyys

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zaharya · 2 years

Text

Scrivener 3 – Main Tutorial (Part 2)

I hope you find this guide useful! To enable me to make more of these, and make them available for everyone, please consider supporting me via KoFi! I love sharing my stuff freely and don't want to paywall anything, but I also have to eat – every contribution helps and is greatly appreciated!

This is tutorial 2 (part 2) of my neurodivergence-friendly tutorial series for Scrivener 3. It's intended for people who are new to Scrivener, as well as people who are already familiar with it, as it covers the major features in quite a bit of detail.

Important note: All my tutorials are based on Scrivener for MacOS! Though minor, there are some differences between Scrivener 3 for Windows vs for MacOS, so you may notice a few small discrepancies if you use Scrivener with Windows. Further, all tutorials are based on my own personal workflow, and all screenshots are from my personal files, so please don't distribute those elsewhere. My workflow is not universal (duh), and if you use certain features differently that doesn't mean one of us is doing it wrong. You do you! Lastly, this tutorial originated on Discord, which is probably noticeable in how it's written – I am not changing that, since many people have insisted that this was exactly what made it easier to follow than the official Scrivener tutorial.

A continuously updated Masterlist with all my Scrivener 3 tutorials can be found here.

(Part 2 begins below the cut.)

Main Tutorial (Part 2)

[Direct continuation from where Part 1 left off.]

Copyholder

Now I've already talked about layout and the Split modes further up, but that's not the end of our layout options in the Editor. Besides Split mode to show two files/scrivenings, you can also use the Copyholder to display notes, a snapshot (we’ll get to that), another scene – whatever. To do that, you right-click on the file you want and go to Open -> in Copyholder. You can change the position of the Copyholder with a right-click into its frame.

Similarly, if you choose Open -> as Quick Reference, the selected file will open in a small, floating window. Many options to have many things open at once – neat shit.

[There are a couple other options for the Editor (including Typewriter mode, Focus, and Composition mode); they are covered in the Extended Tutorial.]

The Inspector

So, finally, all to the right we have my favourite thing: the Inspector, with five tabs. [Reminder at this point that this is just my personal workflow. Ok? Ok.]

Notes

The first tab (outer left icon) is Notes. With Notes selected, up top you see Synopsis. I use this to roughly outline my scene. Sometimes there's no more than a sentence or two in there, in this case now it's a fairly detailed one.

Under that you see the Notes, and you see that not everything is in the same font. I put many things in the notes, the three main ones of which you see in the first image above:

something that'll potentially go into the author's notes when I eventually post the chapter with that scene in it; aka my thoughts while writing, how i felt, something funny, idk — really whatever, just author's notes

shit I wanna remember without having to think about it every time; here, who's in the scene and the age of the three most important characters

in the serif font you see deleted sentences! meaning sometimes while writing I'm like "nah, i wanna say this differently" but I also am not sure how, so instead of deleting the thing outright I cut-paste it into the side notes and keep it. Sometimes it gets used later, sometimes it won't.

Every now and then I'll clear out the side notes, for which (in some projects) I made a dedicated Deleted Passages root-folder to collect it all in. Whenever the side notes get too full, I cut-paste the whole blurb into the deleted passages file for that scene. Though, admittedly, it's quite rare that I keep multiple and organised files of my deleted passages. Usually it's just one huge thing where I never find anything.

Still, I've legit brought back whole long sections of text from this deleted passages log. Like, sometimes I'd bring back up to 700-1000 words that barely needed edit, it just had to go somewhere else and I wasn’t there yet. And I still do that, even though I by now discovered the Snapshot function. We’ll get to that in a bit.

Bookmarks

Moving on to the next Inspector tab, we're not with Notes anymore but with Bookmarks! So, wtf are Bookmarks, how do they work, why the fuck do we care?

In essence, a Bookmark allows you to open linked files in the Inspector. That’s neat because your Editor can stay where you were and you can continue writing, rather than clicking away from your scene there to check your notes — which then means you have to find your spot again once you return. Nobody likes that.

(Yes, you could right-click on your desired internal file to open it in the Copyholder. That’s effort though, plus now you can’t use the Copyholder for something else. Anyway, moving on.)

There are two "types" of bookmarks: Project Bookmarks (PB) and Document Bookmarks (DB) -- yes i'm abbreviating those because I'm lazy. You can easily switch between the two like this.

And because Scrivener is amazing, both of these do exactly what it says on the tin.

Project bookmarks are accessible from everywhere and anywhere in the project. No matter which folder, file, or scrivening you're in, PBs are always there for you, like the kind of reliable person that is too mentally stable to be friends with any of us and brings us tea when we’re cold.

"Okay, great, but why do we need that?"

Well, no matter what you’re writing (thesis, novel etc.) there are probably certain things you’re gonna look up more than once (if you’re anything like me and your memory is as sound as sieve at least). General notes, outlines etc. seem like the obvious choices to be linked as PBs — you’ll likely need them over and over, and a PB lets you access the thing(s) from anywhere quickly. Neat shit.

Document bookmarks on the other hand are specific to the file where you created the bookmark (shocking, right? I’d never have guessed that). So if you bookmark a thing for the third scene in chapter 14, the DB won’t show up anywhere else.

"But V, you just said that we can make things accessible from everywhere, why would we not just do that?"

Right, sure, fair point. Until there’s this side character which is kinda prominent in those two scenes but not really anywhere else and you keep forgetting whether you gave them armour or not, or whether they’re tall or tiny, and where did you say they came from again? Are you sure you want to clog up your project-wide bookmarks with the half-empty character sheet for Obscure-Sidekick #36? Exactly.

Now, though I’m sure it’s already quite obvious from above: What exactly do you actually save as a bookmark?

Internal Bookmarks (IB) are any files from within your Scrivener project that you select over the Binder-menu thingy you see in the image. Those are the notes, the outlines, the character and location sheets, the research you’ve imported — whatever, you could even link another scene that is really closely related to the one you’re working on with a DB.

External Bookmarks (EB) are the logical counterpart of IBs, meaning anything that isn’t in your Scrivener project. Is there this one website you always inevitably open while writing? Bookmark it.

EBs also include External File Bookmarks which allows you to link a file from your computer to keep it on hand; like the PDF of that one Review article that covers the entire theory for your thesis and you’re tired of going back and forth while trying to paraphrase.

Now those of you who paid attention saw a thing named Matching Text. The way this works is that it’ll compare the text of the doc you’re currently in with the text in all the bookmarks and show you any matching text. I’ll admit I have not yet found a good use for this, except if you’re writing a research paper and wanna check that your paraphrasing holds up. I’m sure there’s a point to it and it’ll reveal itself eventually – until then we'll gloss over this here.

Metadata

Moving on from Bookmarks, we go one further to the right to the little tag icon: There we have General Metadata, Custom Metadata, and Keywords.

General Metadata is literally just that; ordinary metadata. Boring, moving on.

The only preset that I saw for Custom Metadata is “Event Start Date” – I added Event End Date myself by clicking on the three little dots which opens the settings. You can pick your date format (short, long, full, including time, custom etc.) and there are three other types of metadata (Text, Checkbox, List) that I haven’t explored yet.

I assume if you have something that can either be true or untrue for a scene a checkbox would make sense.

Keywords are really quite simple: To set it up, you either use the menu bar (Project) or click on the three little dots in the Keywords field and choose Show Project Keywords. Now in the beginning that’s obviously empty – so you fill it with ... well, with whatever you want!

I sorted mine by character and location, but you do what you need for your project. The left little plus is to add a keyword on the same level (sibling), the one to the right of it creates a sub-keyword (child), and the minus to the right of that deletes whatever is selected.

You can shift the keywords around as much as you like, can drag and drop them into each other to make them child-keywords etc. Though personally I’d create it as linearly as possible because then it makes a pretty rainbow by default! Whiii!! Of course you can also change the colours so… ANYWAYS

To add a keyword to a file (folder, scene, whatever), you either open the Project Keywords and drag-and-drop (works with multiple at once!) or you click on the three little dots again and choose your tag you wanna add.

Now why is this cool? It’s cool because a) if you go into the Project Keywords, select one and then click the little magnifying glass (bottom right), it’ll show you all the files/folders that have that Keyword in the Binder (neat shit), and b) COLOURS!

Corkboard view, for example, looks like this:

And Outline view looks like this:

You can also display the actual text of the tags, I chose to have them as colour chips. You can pick and choose what is displayed in the outline; word count, progress, synopsis etc. Further, Outline view also gives you the option to display any Custom Metadata you made.

–––

Due to Tumblr having a maximum limit of 10 images per post, this is the end of Part 2 for the Main Tutorial. Click here for Part 3.

All tutorials, supplementary posts, and what they contain are listed in the Masterlist. Thank you for your attention, I hope it was helpful, and if you have questions send an ask or message me.

Part 1 | Part 3 | Tutorial Masterlist | KoFi

#scrivener #tutorial #writing #tool #resource #adhd #adhd friendly #neurodivergent #neurodivergence #neurodiversity #full tutorial #main tutorial #part 2

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eyeballjazz · 3 years

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gosh I LOVE whenever you talk about the crews (midnight or problem sleuth) because your ideas are always so unique and detailed but in a realistic way? like they're all very specific but also mundane so it all feels so natural and REAL, it's always so fun! Plus your writing is very pleasant so seeing that "read more" under your replies always makes me go FUCK YES

You said you had fun with the last ask so here's me asking you to share more headcanons you have! Could be domestic, silly, sad, whatever, I'm just giving you an excuse to talk about them whever you feel like it!

#1 and first of all THANK YOU SO MUCH! I’ve delayed replying to this not only because I wanted to cook up a good answer but because your words are so sweet and I wanted to spend longer just reading and rereading them. Thank you thank you thank you!

I got a few little ones and then some big ones for ya:

Problem Sleuth and Hysterical Dame both are from Brooklyn and have harsh Brooklyn accents, though Dame’s is much more pronounced. She sounds like a slightly less congested Fran Drescher. Sleuth, additionally, loves the Beastie Boys and thinks he could’ve been one if he’d had half a chance at it.

Droog loves Sting. That’s it, that’s the headcanon.

Droog is native Italian, from part of Tuscany that is just 1 kilometer from the official bounds for the Chianti region. The fact that he’s not actually, truly, from Chianti haunts him and makes me laugh a great deal.

Now for a big one:

What war did they all serve in?

This one I’ve gone back and forth on. While I love studying war I’m not any kind of expert nor do I have any relation to military culture. But, because I write Intermission stuff as period pieces (the adults all live in a pseudo 40s and 70s mash up, all the kids live in the early oughts and that’s why none of the StabDads knows how to work a computer despite all their kids being online constantly) the setting of mid-20th century America requires there to be some war that people are living during/living through the aftermath of. I have a whole thing about the 20th century being one long war but anyway.

There was a large scale global conflict that Team Sleuth and the Crew all experienced. The Crew saw more intense, violent conflict while much of Team Sleuth saw less direct action and often sunnier outcomes.

Hearts, Slick and Droog were all infantry men whose issues with authority prevented any of them from moving up the ranks. Clubs was a technician and occasional mechanic, he learned everything he knows about bombs between his years as a soldier and a few jobs working in plastic factories back home.

Hearts was a cook as well as a renowned fighter in his unit. Slick came in and went out buck private despite some award winning violence in the field. Droog was considered for a promotion to officer because of his neat habits and efficient performance but later denied when his more anti-social and unstable qualities showed through.

For both Slick and Droog The War is much more like WW1. They met and became friends/fell in love in the trenches and saw the intensity of suffering and combat on an almost daily basis. For Hearts and Clubs The War is a little more like Korean, they were stationed far from home and were effectively playing cat and mouse with the enemy. Clubs experienced and learned from chemical warfare, while Hearts saw much more guerrilla warfare.

On the Sleuth side, Ace Dick is the only person to have served in as intense a fashion as the Crew. He enlisted young and made the rank of sergeant before retiring to become a detective. Of all of them his time was the most like WW2, in the European theater. Though he maintains his rank in retirement, Ace has relaxed out of the rigidness that made him a good officer. His hard disposition however has not degraded even one iota.

Problem Sleuth had a gay li’l stint in the Navy where he mostly ferried trade vessels along the coast. The action he did see was at the distance of sea battles, so while it was intense it was not as close and personal as the Crew or Ace.

Hysterical Dame did not serve but instead worked as a riveter and community organizer back home to get more women into the workforce as well as to provide for the families of soldiers who had been lost. That picture of Rosy the Riveter eating a sandwich with her piston driver in her lap? That was Dame, just with much more buoyant and gorgeous hair.

Nervous Broad was a nurse and was stationed abroad for most of The War. She saw a lot of very bad and only very occasionally some good. While she was in the medical corps she met Pickle Inspector, who was a contentious objector and refused to serve when drafted. Because of this, he was dumped into the medical corps at the front lines and like Broad saw some very awful things. They both don’t like to talk about what they saw more intensely than the others.

Post war they all assume the roles we’re already familiar with, most of them using the combat training they already received to do their work as detectives and/or mobsters. Broad, Dame and Pickle Inspector all learned to handle firearms (and in a Pickle Inspector’s case a whole sniper rifle) post-war. As a treat.

And, while I really don’t come to fandom spaces for sad things (the world itself is hexing enough) I do have a sad headcanon for Hearts:

His parents had an awful marriage and his father was often abusive to both him and his mother. She, in turn, eventually did away with him but not before long years of hard times for herself and her son. Once Hearts was big enough to help with the manual labor of running their small farm she took his father out during a particularly bad fight. It was a brutal night that would have seen one or the other of his parents gone from the world, but his mother won out in the end and she and Hearts lived better and better once his father was out of the picture. Hearts, to this day, sends money to his mother and believes she is the strongest woman on the face of the Earth. And he’s probably right. She still lives up in the hills of Georgia with her gun.

Momma Boxcars loves Tavros and insists that he and the other kids come spend part of their summer with her out on the farm.

Like Hearts’s mom, Droog’s parents also love their grandbabies. They immigrated to America after Droog put together enough money to bring them over from Italy and keep them living in style in the city. They were not good parents to him, in fact they have a very fraught and often vicious relationship, but they are wonderful to their grandkids and often tell Droog how much more they love Karkat and Arabia than they ever loved him. Again, I find Droog’s pain and inconvenience hilarious, and he’s fine despite all this. He actually thinks of them as ideal parents, being as he is an ideal sort of person by his own metrics.

Again, thank you for your lovely words and for the excuse to gab away about all these clowns, this was so fun!!!

#the intermission #problem sleuth #spades slick #stabdads #stab dads #diamonds droog #hearts boxcars #clubs deuce #pickle inspector #hysterical Dane #Ace dick #nervous broad #humanstuck

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ashenpages · 3 years

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Current Projects & Emoji Voting Key

Quick disclaimer: I’m a romance writer in all aspects of the term, so most of my works will contain mature content. Engage at your own risk, you know the rules, you’re responsible for curating your own experience of the internet, blah blah blah.

This post serves as a current mock up of fic ideas I’m either actively working on or considering working on next. You can drop me an ask about any of them, or just vote via the emoji combo I’ve assigned them.

Voting lets me know you’re excited about an idea and makes it more likely I’ll actually work on it. You can vote anytime, there’re no deadlines or winner announcements, just me gauging your interest by what I see in my ask box most often.

You can also ask me about the original stuff I’m working on currently. The current WIPs are Medusa centric and the emoji for them is: 🐍

Support my original work on Ko-fi and Patreon.

- Lupin: 🤑🤠💍 These are all oneshot ideas, between 5-15K each. If you want to vote for a specific idea, send me the emojis and the number of the idea.

Born from the idea that Goemon and Zenigata probably couldn’t be an item, my brain decided to come up with how I could write for them. Goemon’s teaching an ikebana class as part of his training, and Zenigata shows up as a student on forced recreational leave for his health from the ICPO. Zenigata wins the samurai’s heart through flowers. But what happens when Lupin and Jigen find out? (Only good sexy things, I promise. These beans are in a healthy polycule--be gay, do crimes) (WIP)

Jigen/Lupin, but it's Jigen deciding to seduce Lupin while wearing his own Lupin disguise. The thief is waaaaay too into it, and some artistry is taken with the sex so that they don't mess up the disguise too much during their encoutner.

Jigen/Zenigata/Lupin where Jigen has some fantasices about Zenigata, but is pretty sure they'll never happen. Tells Lupin about them. Suddenly the fantasies are coming true, in the middle of a heist, and Jigen doesn't what to do except get swept up in the moment and enjoy. Plot twist, it's Lupin dressed up as Zenigata granting all his gunman's dreams. Plot twist again, Zenigata catches them at it.

Zenigata/Lupin, where Lupin keeps doing good things in illegal ways and Pops has to find a way to punish him for it. Good thing for Pops Lupin's a masochist?

Trans!Lupin and Trans!Jigen premise: Jigen cares for Lupin after the master thief has top surgery, since Jigen has Been There and Done That. Caring, sweet, and a little sexy. Lupin is a much better patient than Jigen.

The one time Zenigata caught Lupin in an alley and kissed him and it was Jigen in disguise. Things get sexy anyway, and Zenigata has crushes on two thieves now. Lupin and Jigen "kidnap" him later for an evening of taking care of their inspector.

The background plot of Jigen's Gravestone where we see Jigen think he's done for and try to leave Lupin. Our thief has none of it, and we get to relish in the inherent eroticism of Lupin sitting in sniper fire, knowing Jigen's got his back. This is the moment I think Jigen finally believes he can be with Lupin forever.

I love the idea of something longer and more plot driven like a Lupin special where Lupin ends up in hot water and Jigen and Fujiko have to work together to save him. Jigen and Fujiko have such an interesting relationship. They're both partners of Lupin, they don't really like each other, they constantly screw the other over, but when it really matters they take care of each other. I'd like to see that highlighted a little more and also give them space to call each other out and bicker. Nothing sexy between them, but maybe a really interesting threesome with Lupin and Fujiko in a strap on once they save their boy.

- Sonic Vampire Novelist Coffee Shop AU: 📚☕💐

Shadow is an immortal vampire who has seen the world change for the worse too many times. These days it feels like he only lives for his coffee dates with Rouge, another immortal who loves each new era they encounter, warts and all. He has to admit that the book series she got him into speaks to him, at least. If someone in this era can understand him without meeting him, it can’t all be bad. But he hardly expected the goofy blue barista at the new coffee place to understand him the way those books do.

This is a novel length romcom romp with some big feelings about what it means to watch as things change, grow, and die. Expect lots of Big gothic feelings from this one, emotionally charged kissing, and overly-adoring sex. But also expect shenanigans from everyone in the coffee shop, which include Rouge, Amy, Tails, Knuckles, Cream, and more.

- Sonic Blazamy, "Like the Sun": 💖🌸💎

Amy Rose has been in love with Sonic for a while.

Or has she?

When the Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, and Silver are trapped as the fuel sources for Doctor Eggman’s newest evil scheme, Amy teams up with Blaze, Rouge, and Cream to save them. With Sonic out of the picture and Amy fulfilling his role, was she ever really in love with him? Or did she just want to be like him?

This is a novel length epic romance with lots of competent women and lots of romantic Blazamy content. Expect flowery hopes and dreams, badass self-actualization, and glancing hand touches that give way to cuddly and sweet sex.

- Persona 5: 🗡🍛☕

After bringing down the Metaverse twice, Ryuji didn’t think graduating high school and figuring out what to do with his life would be so hard. Akira’s back in town, and the gang’s more-or-less all in Tokyo, but everyone else seems to have a plan while Ryuji just floats. How’s he supposed to change the world when he’s not a phantom thief anymore?

This is a novel length fic that addresses how powerless one can feel being just one person in the face of all the corrupted systems and bigotry the world has to offer. It’s about holding on to what you believe in, working through the doubt, and fighting your way to a better tomorrow with the power you do have. The whole gang is queer, featured relationships being Mako x Ann, Ryuji x Akira, Futaba & Yusuke as platonic life partners. Akira is polyamorous and omnisexual, Futaba’s asexual and aromantic while Yusuke is demisexual and very romantic, Makoto’s a lesbian, Ann and Ryuji are bi, and Haru’s pansexual, demisexual, and aromantic. They’re one giant band of queer Phantom Thieves, and even if they’re not really doing the Metaverse thing anymore, they’re still gonna save the world!

Also, I’m gonna make Makoto not a cop. That super didn’t age well. Zenkichi and his boss can work on making them better/abolishing them for other better organizations.

- Hades Game: ❤️‍🔥💀

Oneshot. I just really need to elaborate on the threesome you can have with them in-game, okay? Healthy and canon poly relationships are so few and far between, so often I have to do a ton of groundwork to explain why it’s working in the fic, but NOT WITH THESE KIDS!

Get ready for Meg helping Zag and Than be better at expressing their feelings, lots of kissing, and probably pegging.

- Castlevania Animation Trevor/Sypha/Alucard: 🧛🏰🛌

Castlevania gave Alucard a threesome last season, and I just really need S4 to give me him being taken care of by his partners. They’re probably not going to give it to me, so I’ll need to do it myself. This is just an everybody loves Alucard oneshot, with the gang’s signature banter (to an extent), Sypha being sexy, and Trever being remarkably sincere. This fic is gonna feel like that Ann Hathaway picture with Trevor kissing Alucard and Sypha holding the end of Trevor’s whip while she leans her head on Alucard’s shoulder adoringly.

- Devil May Cry Nico/Lady/Trish: 💋✨😈

Nico’s gay, okay? Like really, really gay. And Lady’s bi and not into men who make her pay bills, but very into women who make amazing guns for her and demonesses with hearts who fight by her side. Trish is ace, but loves people and is pretty attached to Lady at this point. Plus it’s cute when Lady blushes and says nice things like they’re insults. I don’t have super solid ideas for them yet, and I envision these more like a polycule where Lady’s with Nico and with Trish but they’re not with each other more than seeing it as a threesome, but who knows what might happen. This is probably 1-2 oneshots depending on ideas, but might turn into a series of oneshots if people are interested (or I can’t control myself and inspiration strikes).

- Post FMA:B Blind Roy & No Alchemy Ed: 👀👑🙏

This is actually an old novel-length fic I wrote ages ago and didn’t post that didn’t turn out well because I was new to writing sex when I first wrote it. The plot is good, and is all about Roy learning to work with his blindness to reclaim his ambition of being Fuhrer and changing the system to something that actually cares for its people. He and Ed reconnect, fall into bed, and both set about working through their respective traumas about being “useless” having lost their sight/alchemy. They go to Xing as an ambassadorial party to offer Amestris’s collaboration on Al and May’s Alkahestry experiments--and uncover a plot that might threaten both kingdoms.

- Age of Calamity continuity Mipha x Revali: 🦚🐟💘

The first time Revali noticed Mipha, it was in the heat of battle. She stole his mark, taking them down with a flurry of quick blows from her spear. Violence rained from her like water--and then she healed him on her way to her next battle. No questions, no conditions, just pure kindness. The usual need to measure himself against those around him was quiet in her wake. And Revali couldn’t understand it. But how to get to know more about her? A fish and bird may fall in love, but where would they live?

This fic could be a oneshot or novel length depending on how far down the hole I fall. I need it to cover time, but it could be done in linked vignettes or with actually covering events in detail. I may elect to do a oneshot just to get it done and out of my system faster. So much fic to write, so little time.

Expect trans!Revali, polyamorous Zoras, scary competent Mipha, songbird Revali, love confessions that are made up entirely of berating Link for not loving Mipha the way she wants him to, and breaking these characters a little outside of their assigned roles in BotW and Age of Calamity. Background Link x Zelda, and Urbosa x Zelda’s Mom.

- Epic desert romance about Urbosa and Zelda’s mom: 🏜🏝⚡

I just think Urbosa should kiss women and Zelda’s mom should get more development and maybe a name or something. Also, lightning imagery/metaphors/play.

It also went way over my head that Riju wasn’t Urbosa’s daughter the first time I played BotW, so now I want to write about the Gerudo queen who refused to produce an heir. The Gerudo are fascinating and have a very interesting cutlure, but I think it could be examined from a nonbinary perspective that rejected pregnancy and wanting to find a husband. Not in like a hateful way, but in a way that examines if that’s really right for everyone. There’s that shop in town that sells Voe armor, after all. Maybe finding a husband and having children isn’t something you have to do if you don’t want to. And Urbosa really doesn’t want to.

#age of calamity #Devil May Cry #RoyEd #Castlevania #Breath of the Wild #Hades Game #Sonic the Hedgehog #Lupin III #Persona 5

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celiabowens · 4 years

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Book recommendations, Literary Fiction edition(?)

A companion to this post (which should be updated, at some point lol)

Short Story Collections:

Salt Slow by Julia Armfield: grotesque and disquieting collection about women and their experience in society, how they view and perceive their own body and desires. Pretty strong mythic, magical realism, body horror elements in here.

The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks: fascinating collection in which Sacks reminishes some particularly odd stories of patients who had to cope with bizarre neurological disorders.

Home Remedies by Xuan Juliana Wang: a collection focused on the Chinese millennial experience. Stories about love and loss, family, immigration and the uncertainty of the future. (also there’s an extremely beautiful short story about a pair of Chinese divers that broke me forever!!!)

Bestiary: The Selected Stories by Julio Cortázar: unforgettable selection of short stories that mix surreal elements to everyday life and apparently ordinary events. Would also recommend All Fires the Fire by the same author.

Novels:

How Much of These Hills is Gold by C. Pam Zhang: one of the biggest debuts of 2020, it follows two recently orphaned children through the gold rush era. An adventurous historical fiction piece that focuses on themes like gender, identity and immigration, this is one of my favorites 2020 reads so yeah, I’d really push it in anyone’s hands to be honest.

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent: historical fiction inspired by the last days of a young woman accused of murder in Iceland in the 1820s. A quite bleak, but beautiful novel (the prose is stunning).

The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave: historical fiction novel set in Norway in the 17th century, following the lives of a group of women in a village that recently (barely) survived a storm that killed all of the island’s men.

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead: the 2020 winner of the Pulitzer Prize. The book follows the lives of two boys sentenced to a reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. A bleak, but important book, with a shocking final twist (side note, I’ve been recommended The Underground Railroad by Whitehead as well, but I haven’t gotten to it yet. If you’re looking for something quite peculiar, if a bit less refined when compared to The Nickel Boys, The Intuitionist is a quite odd pulpy noir set in an alternate NY about...elevator inspectors *and racism*).

The Leavers by Lisa Ko: haunting book about identity and immigration as the main character is apparently abandoned by his own mother (an undocumented Chinese immigrant) during his childhood. Mainly a story about living in between places and constantly feeling out of place.

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa: when everyone would probably recommend Murakami (not much against Murakami besides his descriptions of women and their boobs), I suggest checking out some of Ogawa’s books. The recently translated The Memory Police, published in Japan in the mid 90s, is an orwellian dystopian novel set on an unnamed Island where memories slowly disappear. Would also really recommend The Housekeeper and The Professor, a really short novel about a housekeeper hired to clean and cook for a math professor who suffered an injury that causes him to remember new things for only 80 minutes.

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong: Ocean Vuong’s debut novel, following a son writing a letter to his illiterate mother. The book seems quite polarising due to Vuong’s writing style (his poetry background is really quite clear and the book doesn’t really follow a regular narrative, rather than portrays events and memories in brief flashes), but I loved it and I’d really just recommend going into it without knowing much? It’s a beautiful exploration of language, family history, trauma, sexuality and more.

Exist West by Mohsin Hamid: this book was fairly popular when it came out (in 2017 I believe) and was often incorrectly marketed as magical realism. Hamid’s book is a brief and quietly brutal journey with a few fantastical elements, following a couple trying to escape their city in the middle of war, as they hear about peculiar doors that can whisk people far away. The doors are, of course, a quite effective metaphor for the immigrant experience and the book does a great job at portraying the main characters’ relationship.

Family Trust by Kathy Wang: this has a really low rating on goodreads which...wow i hate that. Family Trust is a literary family saga/drama about a Chinese-American family residing in the Silicon Valley. It’s often been compared to Crazy Rich Asians, but I believe it to be more on the literary side and definitely less lighthearted.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee: historical family saga (one of my favorites tbh, I’m absolutely biased, but this book deserved more hype) set in Korea and Japan throughout the 20th century, following four generations of a Korean family. While I wasn’t the biggest fan of the prose, the book has really great characterisation and absolutely fascinating characters. (I’d suggest checking out eventual TW first, in this case).

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker: another recent read, The Silence of the Girls, while not faultless, is a pretty good retelling of The Iliad, narrated through Briseis’ perspective. The prose can feel a bit too modern at times, but it provides the reader with some really strong quotes and descriptions.

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng: and also Little Fires Everywhere by the same author, to be honest. If you’re looking for really really good family dramas, with great explorations of rather complex and nuanced relationships? You should just check out her stuff. Vibrant characters, good writing, and some superb portrayal of longing here.

Nutshell by Ian McEwan: i’m starting with this one only to grab your attention (if you’ve even reached this part lol, congrats), but McEwan’s one of my favorite authors and I’d recommend almost everything I’ve read by him? Nutshell, specifically, is a really odd and fun retelling of Hamlet...told from the pov of an unborn baby. But really, I’d also recommend Atonement (of course), The Children Act, Amsterdam? All good stuff.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles: I’ve read this book this summer and, while I’m still unsatisfied with the ending, I’d thoroughly recommend this? The novel follows Count Alexander Rostov, who, in 1922, is sentenced to a lifetime of house arrest in the Metropol, a luxurious hotel in the center of Moscow. A singular novel, funny and heartbreaking at once, following a vibrant cast of characters as they come and go from Rostov’s secluded life.

Human Acts by Han Kang: from the bestselling author of The Vegetarian (which honestly, I thoroughly despised lol), Human Acts focuses on the South Korean Gwangju uprising. It’s a really odd (and at times grotesque) experimental novel (one chapter is narrated from the pov of one of the bodies if I remember correctly), so one really has to be in the mood for it, but it’s a really unique experience, worth a chance.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon: sort of a really chunky historical adventure novel following two artists in 1940s/1950s NY, who create a superhero and use him to wage a one man war on the Nazis. A bit slow in places (the pace can be uneven at times and the book is quite long), but an enjoyable novel that does a pretty good job when it comes to exploring rather classic themes of American contemporary fiction: the American dream and the figure of the artist (I think there’s a particularly interesting focus on how the artists navigates the corporate world and its rules) and their creative process.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel: this is a pretty classic rec, the book really got a lot of hype when it came out? It’s a dystopian-ish novel set after civilisation’s collapse, following a post-apocalyptic troupe (of Shakespearean actors). It’s a really odd, but surprisingly quiet book. Not sure if a pandemic is exactly the right time to read it, but I thoroughly recommend it.

The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng: I feel like this book is extremely complex to summarise to be honest. In short, it’s a book set in Malaya at the end of the 1940s, following a woman who, after surviving Japanese wartime camps, spends her life prosecuting war criminals. But truthfully this book is about conflicts and contradictions and in particular about remembering and forgetting. Lovely prose.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt: and also The Goldfinch. I’m sure no one really needs me to introduce Donna Tartt?

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton: quite cerebral mystery set in New Zealand in 1866. Honestly you have to be a patient reader who enjoys novels with a pretty complex structure to like this, but if you’re into this sort of challenging read...go for it? It’s a book of interlocking stories (with 10+ pov and main characters) with a really fascinating structure based on astrological charts, which provide insight to the main characters’ traits and personality as the mystery unfolds.

The Hours by Michael Cunningham: ok...do not watch the movie first. The Hours is an incredibly difficult novel to describe to be honest: it begins by recalling the last moments of Virginia Woolf’s life, as she’s writing Mrs. Dalloway. The book focuses on three separate narratives, each one following a specific character throughout a single day of their own life. Goes without saying that I’d suggest being familiar with Mrs. Dalloway itself first though.

An Artists of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro: not one of Ishiguro’s most famous works (most start reading his work with Never Let Me Go or The Remains of the Day), but probably my favorite out of those I’ve read so far. The novel follows Masuji Ono, an artist who put his work in service of imperialist propaganda throughout WWII. Basically a reflection and an account of the artist’s life as he deals with the culpability of his previous actions.

Stoner by John Williams: I feel like this is an odd book to recommend, because I don’t think someone can truly get the hype unless they read it themselves. Stoner is a pretty straight-forward book, following the ordinary life of an even more ordinary man. And yet it’s so compelling and never dull in its exploration of the characters’ lives and personalities. Also, I’ve just finished Augustus by the same author, which is an epistolary historical fiction novel narrating some of the main events of Augustus’ reign through letters from/by his closest friends and enemies. Really liked it.

Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien: back to integenerational family sagas (because I love those, in case it wasn’t clear lol), Do Not Say We Have Nothing follows a young woman who suddenly rediscovers her family’s fractured past. The novel focuses on two successive generations of a Chinese family through China’s 20th century history. While not every character got the type of development they deserved, the author does a good job when it comes to gradually recreating the family’s complex and nuanced history.

There’s probably more but I doubt anyone’s going to reach the end or anything so. There’s that lol.

#book recs #book rec #litblr #2020 reads #all the typos are my own LOL #also i didnt put here philip roth or auster #but tbh #i dont think anyone needs me to rec them???

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