#yes as in physical untranslated copies

[skautism]

ughhhh my dads getting all the windows in the house replaced i should move all my hentai so no one accidentally sees it when they have to move my desk to do all that

[ilaiyayaya]

I did it! I found the last Chaos Emerald! :D

World's most annoying PSP fan finally owns the object of her delusions

Yes I've been obsessed with a console for the last 2 years that I didn't actually physically own. Yes that does make me cooler than you (yes you, the girl reading this :flushed:) in every way conceivable.

This one's a model 3000 which means it can plug into a monitor so I can also play games on -AAAAAAAAA sorry there was a bug on our leg (multi-celled processor organism moment) please continue- on teh big screen :3 I CAN LEGALLY READTHE PSP VERSION OF UMINEKO!!! UNTRANSLATED!!!! AND FOR LIKE AT LEAST $50!!!! ON THE BIG SCREEN!!!!!Umineko :)

Why did I not buy one before now? too much monee :( But now I had enough money and low enough impulse control to make dumb purchases! I refuse to reveal why I decided to finally buy a PSP right now it's too embarrassing, but also extremely predictable 😔

THERE'S A CARDCAPTOR SAKURA EYETOY GAME???? sorry that's unrelated and off topic, but I suddenly have an interest in the PS2 EyeToy

Now that I own a Sony PSP I'm obligated to legally purchase a physical English copy of Fate/Extra and play the game that made me obsessed with the console in the first place on actual hardware!

Nevermind 😔

At least I can cope and seethe and mald with my copy of The Matrix (tm) on UMD Video...

[verycharismaticdragon]

Got tagged by @thatlittlemouse to list 9 books I intend to read in 2022 (like a month ago but lets not dwell on that)

tagging uhhhhhh @seeorseem @danhoemei @izumiphoenix @fairandfatalasfair @snailcomicz if any of you guys want to give it a go!

MDZS - the only of MXTX's I didn't read before it went official, so I got an ebook version instead of physical copies like the other two. Stars however haven't been in position for me to start it yet.

Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov - so my bestie's Dostoevsky has been living on my bookshelf for... ten years?ish? and I figure someday I gotta actually get to reading it. I loved C&P when I was in high school, so I have some hopes.

A Sword of Frost by Yu Xiao Lan Shan - this is the only wuxia/gufeng novel of YXLS I've yet to read. Since YXLS tends towards lighter texts - like, her 'drama' (Tong Gui) is less heavy than pipi's 'easy' (You Yi) - I'm keeping this one for propping up my mental health next time I get tired of knifey stuff.

Character Design - my friends got me this baby for my bday last summer, but I've only read like three sections because studies take a lot out of me. I do want to work my way through it this year though.

Tai Sui - so we all know how I feel about priest (read 8 of her novels by now), and I've decided I wanna see her final form. Fully expect this one to rearrange me on a molecular level.

Drawing Hands & Feet by Giovanni Civardi - yet another book that has been living in my room, unread, for years. Idk where it came from actually? But anyway: while I'm pretty satisfied w/ the way I draw hands, I'm utterly plagued by leg trouble. Will it help? Who knows? I'd actually have to open it to find out though, which seems just unreasonable.

Qian Qiu - @izumiphoenix hiiiiiiii! Anyway, I've been recced this from all sides, and I've started it, but it's been slow going so far because uh. worldbuilding! politics! i wish i was getting all this info less densely!.. I assume I will eat this up as soon as the plot & character stuff picks up tho who knows.

(abridged version of) Journey to the West - I've read this one a while ago, but I'm very curious how I will see it after absorbing some cultural info from (modern) cnovels. I have considered trying the full version but reason won so far. And reading physical is easier on the eyes too, which is a huge plus for me...

Wushuang - due to my QQ troubles, I wonder if I should just start from the second book. Hey, that worked for me this far! (I've read TYK before Qi Ye and You Yi after nearly dropping ZJLY. Both times The Clowns have proven to be an easier entry point, and good motivation for finishing the other one.)

+bonus: ~Mystery Novels~ (1) an untranslated danmei novel that I've started but haven't finished yet, which will either be extremely good or I will regret ever picking it up. The plot twist that I've largely seen coming still managed to take me out at kneecaps, so it's promising! At the same time, I'm deeply afraid of the author failing to stick the landing on all of the (potentially) amazing stuff they've set up so far. The reason I'm not naming names here is that I want to be able to pretend I never picked it up if it turns out shite. (2) a novel by Mu Su Li - haven't decided which yet, but I loved Copper Coins, so I wanna read more by this author. Panguan seems like the most popular choice and was recced to me before; I'm also curious about Heitian, I've seen someone read it very tastily. (3) a novel by Cyan Wings - same as previous, I loved one of their novels (Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know) and want to read more. I know there are two translated by e.danglars, so perhaps I'll start with one of those.

[sonic-candy]

1st update of 2022!

After dealing with minor laptop problems (And losing some of my work), and getting back into other/new interests I'm ready to post!

First off, my doujinshi was removed from Mangadex as it's untranslated so there only available on Megafiles and Dropbox at the moment. I plan on uploading them on archive.org eventually. Some people have been having problems with Megafiles so hopefully having another alternative that's easy to share will help. Check my pinned post for links. Speaking of doujinshi, the last one I uploaded was Collinear Starting Point (R17) by Fengta. It has the best art style, next to the Ehoba collection! There not active in the fandom anymore so sadly that's their only doujinshi. Need to write a post on all my doujinshi one day. I found out that Squid Sushi made two more Lab 7 doujinshi (R17 of course).

But I'm holding off on doujinshi for a while as I bought a new obscure one-shot slice of life Manwaha called X Dairy by Toma (published by Netcomics). It had a cute art style you don't see around that much anymore. This is my first Manwaha as well so I'm curious on how good is going to be. I also need to catch up on 60's Astro Boy and finally finish up the rest of Super Maxi Pad Girl before scanning my physical copies of Megamix/Gigamix!

Yes! I got lucky and manage to snag them both from a collecter off eBay. My most expensive white whale yet but worth it as udon and Capcom don't care for Mega Man anymore so a reprint seems unlikely. Hell, Mastermix #3 is still not published after 2-3 years!

Not sure when I'll get to work on debinding them (I don't want to do that, but we need/want excellent scans already) but spring/summer seem likely. Lastly, I'm into Rayman fandom now. I grew up playing the OG trilogy and played Origins/Legends years ago, but never really got into the fandom. I been playing Redemption and I love it! (Is there an active discord community? I'll like to join!) Mr. Dark is my new moody husband next to Dr. Tenma. Teen Titans ’03 has been brought up. I remember watching it years ago and got physic damage thinking about the Slade episodes. But he's a DILF so I might re-watch it soon or just his episodes. And maybe the Teen Titans Go! movie with him too. Yes I'm officially a villianfucker for DILFS I know I'm still coming to terms with that. Might not fully join the fandom but we'll see. Ok, I'm done ranting. Not tagging anyone (Don't feel like doing it anyway) Thanks for reading as always.

[razberryyum]

So you’re done with The Untamed and want more, what now?

Reposting this since I’ve updated it with new info/links. Again, I entered the fandom via The Untamed so I’m by no means a MDZS expert, just tried my best gathering all the resources I can which I hope will help some new Untamed/MDZS fan out there. If you spot any errors, don’t yell at me, just let me know and I’ll correct it as best I can, especially for any future reposts.

READ THE NOVEL

Read the original web novel the show was based on: The Untamed (aka “CQL” or “Chen Qing Ling”) was adapted from the BL web novel, Mo Dao Zu Shi (aka ”MDZS” or Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation) by author Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (”MXTX”). Yes the novel came first, CQL is only an adaptation. In the novel, you get the uncensored romance of Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, where they are canonically married and living happily ever after. The novel goes full into R18 territory so please tread carefully.

All four volumes of the novel can be purchased from the original publishing site, JJWXC. The site’s in chinese but here’s a tutorial on how to navigate it and purchase the books:  JJWXC Tutorial Link.

There’s also the option of purchasing the physical copies from Yesasia which might be easier but it’s also more expensive since they’re the middle man: Yesasia MDZS Link

It would be wonderful if you can support MXTX-laoshi by actually buying the books, especially since the cover art is so beautiful and the extra chapter volumes come with a lot of awesome extra goodies, but of course there’s also the option of reading the fan translations graciously provided by the Exiled Rebels Scanlations team at their site:  

They translated all the novels including the bonus chapters in their own free time and are providing the fanslations for free so please give them some love for all their hard work.  

WATCH THE ANIME (aka “Donghua” in Chinese)

Watch the anime based on the novel: The donghua was released before The Untamed. Two seasons are already available (23 eps total) with a third season in production and a special chibi version of the donghua in production as well. The Eng-subbed donghua can be seen using the WeTV app or on Youtube:  YT MDZS Donghua Playlist

Grant it, the donghua is even more censored than The Untamed, but the donghua team still managed to sneak in some easter eggs (f.e. WangXian naked bathing scene in the cold springs from the novel...in The Untamed they were fully clothed) and more importantly, the animation is just gorgeous so it’s absolutely worth a watch despite the censorship. 

READ THE MANGA (aka “Manhua” in Chinese)

Read the manhua which is ongoing and is being officially translated by WeComics, available on their app for free. Search under the name “Mo Dao Zu Shi”.

Unfortunately, the official translations are more than 20 chaps behind the raws and there have been complaints about the quality of the translations in the past, but I believe they’re starting to improve so since they’re official, it’s always better to support the official source.

The raw untranslated manhua can be found on the Kuaikanmanhua app. Other than being in Chinese, some of the chapters (f.e. the most recent ones) are behind a paywall, but here’s a tutorial on how to purchase the chapters, provided by @chiharuzushi on Twitter:  Kuaikanmanhua Tutorial

The chapters are quite cheap...I purchase 1000 KK coins for 10 rmb ($0.14) and each chapter is only 68 KK coins so even if we end up with 500 chapters it’ll still be...er...quite cheap overall (don’t make me do the actual math). The most painful part is figuring out how to set up the Kuaikanmanhua account, but otherwise, if you can read Chinese or know enough of the story by now that you don’t really need to read the words, the manhua is definitely worth reading because it’s less censored than The Untamed and the donghua. 

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO DRAMA

Listen to the audio drama, which is at this point the most faithful and LEAST censored adaptation of the novel we will probably ever get! Wei Ying’s voice actor in The Untamed is the voice actor for his audio drama counterpart. (Yes, almost everyone in The Untamed is dubbed by a voice actor, EXCEPT for Nie Huaisang. Ji Li, the actor for NHS, was the only one who used his own voice. Lan Zhan in The Untamed shares the same voice actor as his character in the donghua). 

Each episode art of the audio drama is AMAZING. Google Translate works well on the site, you’d want to see the listeners’ comments cuz they’re just adorable and hilarious.

Official links on Maoer FM:

Season 1: Maoer FM S1 Link

Season 2: Maoer FM S2 Link

Season 3: Maoer FM S3 Link

The audio drama was supervised by MXTX-laoshi, the author of the novel, so a lot of love and care went into the production, and it shows. The audio drama is behind a paywall but I remember it’s relatively inexpensive. Here’s the tutorial on how to purchase the audio drama from the Maoer FM site:  Maoer FM Tutorial Link

Ngl, it was tough at first navigating all that, Google translate helped, but once I figured it out, it was all so worth it because in addition to the MDZS, the site houses a lot of other wonderful audio dramas. There are also MDZS fan songs on the site that are near professional quality and oh so good.

Suibian Subs have kindly translated the episodes and their translations are available here:  Suibian Subs MDZS Audio Drama

Show them some love too for translating the episodes, but please if you can, purchase the episodes so you can support the audio drama team which have done an amazing job.

There’s even a Japanese audio drama which the Chinese AD team helped spearhead, available on the MIMI FM app. Here’s a tutorial on how to purchase the eps (half of the first season is out): MIMI FM Tutorial

It’s in Japanese but just follow the pictures. I’m hoping that the Japanese audio drama will end up being the MOST uncensored version of MDZS since Japanese BL dramas are not afraid (and allowed) to go all the way to R18. XD

MORE THE UNTAMED CONTENT

Lastly, if you’re just thirsting for more Untamed content, there are two spin-off movies you can watch. The first one, The Living Dead, is kind of centered on Wen Ning and Sizhui post-CQL. 

The second one, Fatal Journey, is focused on the Nie brothers, Nie Mingjue and Nie Huaisang, with a cameo by Jin Guangyao. It takes place prior to Wei Ying’s return from the dead.

Of the two movies, I definitely recommend Fatal Journey more. Both movies are available on the iQiyi app, which offers a one month free trial for first members. Each month afterwards for VIP is $6.99.

You can also go on the WeTV app for even more Untamed extras: WeTV put out a special edition cut of the show which tightened up the story AND features the original ending that was intended before censorship forced the production team to come up with the more ambiguous one we saw in its original run. It was a simple matter of rearranging certain scenes and getting rid of the separation part, but imho it really made all the difference to the ending.

There’s a ton of behind-the-scene cuteness that you can watch and also concerts with the cast in Thailand and Nanjing. VIP subscription to the WeTV app is $5.99/month and the Nanjing concert is for rent for 3 months at about the same price.  

The show also put out two official soundtracks, one for the vocals and one for the score. Both are available on Amazon and iTunes. For Amazon though, you can search under “The Untamed” but they did this weird thing where the vocals one is listed as “The Untamed (Chinoiserie Music Album)” (wtf) while the score is just listed as “The Untamed (Original Soundtrack)”.

Finally, most of the male members of the cast took part in a fan meet and greet at the start of the show, before it became hugely popular. The entire meet and greet is available on youtube subbed: The Untamed Fan Meeting

That’s it for The Untamed and MDZS. If you end up liking the novel enough to want to read more by the same author, MXTX-laoshi has also written two other BL novels, The Scum Villain Self-Saving System (aka “SVSSS” or “Scum Villain”) and Heaven’s Official Blessing (aka “TGCF” after its Chinese title). Both have been fully translated by fans (but always try to buy the original if you have the means, as a way to support the author!): 

SVSSS Translation: BC Novels Link

TGCF Translation chaps 1 - 24:  Sakhyulations Link

TGCF Translation chaps 25 - End: Suika & Rynn Link

As with reading any BL novel (aka “danmei novel” for Chinese BL books), please heed the warnings and if it’s not your cup of tea, just exit out of the page and move on with your life. No big deal, right? 

Anyway, hope all this info dump helps someone! If you’re brand spanking new to this fandom, welcome, and I’m so jealous of you! Would love to relive stepping into the world of MDZS/MXTX/danmei novels all over again since I feel like I’m already running out of stuff to read and I’m beginning to panic a little. 

Happy watching/reading/listening!  

[silvermoon424]

Hello Katy. I'm a huge Madoka Magica and Magia Record fan, I wanted to ask your recommendations on spin offs and extra material to know about the world building and other stories

Great question. I’m your girl! I’ve read all the spinoffs and can recommend them!

I’m going down a list on “most recommended” to “least recommended,” although I think everything on this list is worthy of reading. Oh, and everything on this list (sans The Wraith Arc) has been officially published in English; although I have offered links to read them for free I really recommend supporting the franchise by buying the manga if you can (plus, if you’re like me, you’ll like having physical copies to put on your bookshelf). 

1. The Different Story: Imo the best PMMM spinoff and one every Madoka fan must read. It has three volumes; the first volume focuses on Mami and Kyoko’s backstory as friends and allies (which is consistent throughout all of Homura’s time loops), which was originally revealed in an audio drama released with one of PMMM’s Blurays. However, the final two volumes take place in an alternate timeline where Sayaka contracted in time to save Mami from Charlotte. The series explores Mami and Kyoko’s relationship and gives them a lot of depth and characterization. It’s just a really excellent series I can’t recommend enough. Be sure to have tissues on hand.

2. Puella Magi Tart Magica: By far my favorite standalone spinoff and would have been my favorite overall if not for the Different Story. Tart Magica follows the journey of Tart, aka Jeanne d’Arc (yes, that Joan of Arc) as she and her allies fight on behalf of France during the Hundred Years’ War. Not only is this a great PMMM spinoff, it’s great historical fiction; the mangaka did a ton of research on that era and gives a lot of interesting historical background. The characters are also lovable and interesting, especially Tart herself and her closest companion, Riz. I highly, highly recommend this series and really wish more people read it.

3. Puella Magi Oriko Magica: Probably the best known PMMM spinoff because it was released alongside the original anime. Oriko Magica takes place in one of Homura’s alternate timelines, specifically one noted to be very irregular. The titular Oriko is a magical girl who can see the future and is trying to prevent some unclear calamity alongside her partner Kirika. The main girls from PMMM are also important characters, especially Mami and Kyoko (who actually adopts Yuma, a young girl orphaned by a Witch attack). It soon becomes clear that Oriko is willing to stoop to very dangerous methods to prevent the disaster she foresaw. 

Oriko Magica also has two spinoffs (yes, there are spinoffs of a spinoff). The first is a collection of side stories that take place in an alternate timeline. The second is Sadness Prayer, which greatly fleshes out and adds depth to the original Oriko Magica. Basically, it recounts everything leading up to the events of the main Oriko Magica as well as showing scenes from Oriko and Kirika’s perspective. The original Oriko Magica is only 7 chapters/2 volumes long whereas Sadness Prayer is 24 chapters/4 volumes long, so you can tell how much is added to the story. I absolutely love Sadness Prayer and highly recommend it. The original Oriko Magica is pretty good too, and you should read it, if nothing else than so you can enjoy Sadness Prayer.

4. The Wraith Arc: The Wraith Arc is an interquel that takes place between the events of PMMM and the Rebellion Story. It’s actually an adaptation of the first draft of Rebellion, before it was reworked into the Rebellion we all know. Imo that shows, because it feels somewhat unpolished and rushed compared to the other spinoffs. Nonetheless, I think it’s worth reading. It follows Homura, Mami, and Kyoko in Madoka’s new world as they fight against Wraiths. However, Homura inadvertently sets off a chain of events that lead to disaster.

5. Puella Magi Suzune Magica: This spinoff follows Suzune Amano, a magical girl who is a serial killer of other magical girls (not a spoiler btw, we find this out in the first few pages). Four other magical girls in the city she just moved to soon become her targets, but they’re not going down without a fight. As the story goes on, we find out Suzune’s motivations. We also follow Matsuri Hinata, one of Suzune’s targets who is trying to befriend her. This spinoff is pretty good and has a great concept, although unfortunately the ending feels rushed and could have probably benefited from another volume. I still think it’s worth a read.

6. Puella Magi Kazumi Magica: A girl wakes up in a suitcase with no memory of who she is. She is soon discovered by Umika Misaki and Kaoru Maki, who reveal that she is their friend Kazumi and that they are all magical girls. The trio soon meet up with their four other magical girl companions and together they form the Pleiades Saints. However, as soon as they’re reunited, a chain of events is set off that puts them all in danger. All the while, Kazumi is trying to regain her lost memories and find out the secrets her friends are hiding from her. Honestly, that’s the best I could do to come up with a summary because over the course of five volumes the events become kind of disjointed and less coherent, haha. I think Kazumi Magica is worth reading, but imo it’s the worst spinoff and lacks the polish the others have. Despite going on for five volumes, it still feels like there wasn’t enough time for the mangaka to flesh out all the different plot elements. 

----------

That’s all 6 of the main spinoffs! There’s one I’m leaving out, Homura’s Revenge, which I haven’t read or been able to find scans of. There’s also an assortment of parody/4koma manga, but those are mostly untranslated (except for Homura Tamura, which also doesn’t have scans but has been officially published in English). 

As for other world-building, I highly recommend reading through the Wiki’s pages on the various routes in the Madoka Magica Portable game. It’s a game for the PSP that was unfortunately never released in English (although it looks like someone is currently working on a translation), which is really a shame because it has top-notch world-building and characterization. The PSP game is actually where the designs of Candeloro (Mami’s Witch), Ophelia (Kyoko’s Witch), and Homulilly (Homura’s Witch) originate from, which were later used for the Doppels in Magia Record. 

[latenightcinephile]

#828: ‘L’Avventura’, dir. Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960.

“It is a symptom of the emotional sickness of our time. But this preoccupation with the erotic would not become obsessive if Eros were healthy, that is, if it were kept within human proportions. But Eros is sick; man is uneasy, something is bothering him. And whenever something bothers him, man reacts, but he reacts badly, only on erotic impulse, and he is unhappy.”

- Michelangelo Antonioni, Cannes, 1960.

Antonioni made a loose trilogy of films about this sickness of Eros, L’Avventura, La Notte, and L’Eclisse. All three of these films approach this same topic from slightly different angles: all of them are about young, mostly moneyed people who struggle to live meaningful lives against an increasingly technological Italy. These characters are consistently unable to confront this meaningless, or even truly recognise it in themselves most of the time, so they turn to physical and romantic pleasures to try and distract themselves from their uneasy existences. The indication that these films make is that erotic impulses are inadequate replacements for meaningful lives, as the social foundations these impulses are built on are also unstable.

What I’m interested in, largely, is why all three of these films are on the list. What is it about L’Avventura that sets it apart from its thematic sequels, which requires its additional inclusion on the list? If L’Eclisse is the most developed of the three films, why does it not supplant them? The work of Antonioni, which after the release of L’Avventura was immediately crowned in the Sight and Sound top ten best films of all time, is as much about the effects of canonisation as it is about anything else.

L’Avventura has two significant narrative elements which make it depart from the traditional cinema fare up until that point. At first, the plot of the film appears to be clear: Anna (Lea Massari) disappears while visiting a barren island with her boyfriend Sandro (Gabriele Ferzetti) and her close friend Claudia (Monica Vitti). Her method of escape from the island is unknown and, although many individuals claim to have seen her on the Italian coast and we see several women that look somewhat like her, Anna is never definitely found within the film again. For many viewers at the time, this lack of narrative explanation or closure was either wonderful or infuriating. For Western audiences, this development was wholly unsatisfying. Secondly, almost immediately after Anna’s disappearance, and while still searching for her, Sandro expresses his love for Claudia and she, eventually, returns his affections. The psychological conditions that lead the characters to do this are never made explicit, and Claudia in particular ricochets between childlike adoration of Sandro and indignant suspicion of him.

How the viewer interprets this sequence of events is less important, ultimately, than the process of interpretation itself. A cynical viewer might imagine that Sandro drowned Anna to get closer to Claudia. A more pragmatic interpreter might imagine that Anna drowned accidentally - we have already seen her feign a shark warning to get Sandro’s attention, so Anna and the sea are usually combined into a plea for attention. The other well-to-do people on the trip are quick to forget Anna’s disappearance, so who is to say that Anna’s disappearance is as strange for them as it is for the viewer?

These characters all seem to be behaving in recognisable, if unexpected ways. Sometimes things do fade from attention faster than they should; sometimes people shift their romantic inclinations abruptly or recognise the slow shift of emotions in a single moment of perfect awareness. All of these things could be happening in L’Avventura. As Geoffrey Nowell-Smith points out, we see these moments and realise that “yes, that does happen, though it doesn’t conform to the way we think things ought to happen”.

The drama of L’Avventura is regularly compelling because of this (although not always consistently). Sometimes, it feels, the viewer is meant to thoroughly distrust Sandro, and his fickle nature is perfectly in keeping with Antonioni’s comments about Eros’s sickness. Claudia’s shifting emotional response is a little harder to grasp, but it does seem in keeping with the slow erosion of stable morality on which to rest. Claudia and Sandro spend most of the second half of the film traveling. Claudia’s intention is at first to search for Anna, and Sandro may well agree, or may just be tagging along to be close to Claudia. Without a firm geography, without a clear indication that Anna is ahead of them on the path or even still alive, and with Sandro moving ever-closer to boning whatever has long hair and a pulse, it seems reasonable that Claudia would eventually lose her footing and fall into the erotically-driven pit with Sandro.

This is not a good place for Claudia or Sandro to be, and the lookalikes of Anna serve to suggest that she is still haunting them; making them feel guilty for what they have done. At the end of the film, Claudia, now madly in love with Sandro, finds him sleeping with a young ingenue (Dorothy de Poliolo) and walks out on him. Yet the final shot of the film, as they look out towards Mount Etna and the possibility of future searching, implies that Claudia is already in the process of forgiving Sandro. What that means for the characters is one of those many things that is never explained.

L’Avventura has a firm place in the history of cinema narratives. It is an irritating and obsessive film while also being beautifully shot and engagingly told. It is a difficult watch - I can’t remember how many times I had to rewatch certain scenes as my eyes kept sliding away from the screen. Like all three films in this trilogy, it seems like it gives more to those who actually understand Italian: most of the copies I’ve found translate only what is ‘integral’ to the ‘plot’, which means that potentially illuminating throwaway dialogue is left untranslated. You can follow the story without it, but I’d love to know what everyone is talking about when they’re not talking about Anna’s disappearance. This film is about the illegibility of people’s minds, though, which makes the lack of subtitles feel, in its own way, part of the theme. What does that mean for La Notte and L’Eclisse? Stay tuned to find out...

[cresselian]

Wizards at Broadway

Young Wizards Winter Anon Secret Santa Gift for @ohthewhomanity. I hope you like it!

Nita didn’t blame anyone except herself for this little trip down the spell diagram rabbit hole.

She had been checking the Unfavorable Instigation again with Bobo’s help, to see if there was anything she could do to refine it, make it more energy efficient, and an accidental page turn to “N’hzzrt’s Zoetrope Animation” had caught her attention. Nita had paged back all the way to “Mjlliaeouyinaeian Transcription Convention” since then.

So it was possible that she didn’t want to write a reading response on Hemingway.

The kitchen door crashed open, and Nita started at the sound. “I say no watching a musical tonight!” Dairine sang. “I do say yes to Star Wars, though.”

Nita checked her watch. Ten PM already. That was three hours spent in the manual this time.

Kit slipped out the kitchen door and waved hello as Roshaun said, “I don’t find it enjoyable to spend a portion of my day disagreeing with how your authors mangle the laws of physics.”

“They’re good movies.”

“I know. You sleep on pictures from them. Stars also don’t work that way. I should know, as I spent a while inside of yours.”

Kit widened his eyes and sighed loudly. A long argument, then. One of their circular ones.

“I’m glad to know that you would prefer a movie about a giant space-firebird who got trapped inside a family of humans.” Penn leaned out the kitchen door to wink at Nita, then retreated. Nita heard the back-door slam as he headed to the usual thicket to travel home.

Nita thought she heard Roshaun grumble something else about accuracy before Carmela forced him out the kitchen door and into the dining room. “There! Go pick a movie now!” she ordered, shoving him toward the TV. “I don’t even care what it is!” She dropped her purse and fell into the chair across from Nita, a hand across her forehead.

Carmela and Roshaun wore their theatregoing best. Well, theatregoing best that wouldn’t get laughed out of the theatre. Carmela had given Roshaun’s ceremonial robe a hard no, no matter how bejewelled it was, and forced him to wear one of the button-ups she had convinced him to buy on a trip to the mall, then given in to his need to be somehow bedecked by doing his hair up in a braid wrapped around his head. She was wearing a Hamilton T-shirt under a pastel shawl, and her hairdo matched Roshaun’s elaborate knot hair for hair.

“No luck?” Nita ran a finger on the bottom of her open manual page.

“Twelve times, Nita. Twelve times I have taken seven people to the lottery, and not gotten in once!”

And that was why you stopped going, Bobo commented.

“We went to the library instead. ‘Mela got a Latin book, Dairine scared everyone away from the chess tables.” Kit came to stand behind Nita’s chair, looking over her shoulder at her manual. “Why were you reading about the ways that they transfer a gestural language into stone in the Pleiades?”

Nita yawned. “I got distracted.”

Dairine carried out mugs and the teapot as Carmela spoke again, “Distracted? We were all of us waiting with bated breath on Broadway while the girl who said she had too much homework read about magical writing techniques? What would Lin say?” She grabbed a mug and attempted to fling a tea bag in with vigour. She missed.

“Did Ronan already go home?”

“It’s 3 AM in Ireland by now. He headed to Grand Central.” Dairine managed to collect her mug and tea bag with rather more grace than Carmela.

By now it was a point of pride for Nita to keep her page while she gathered up mug, tea bag, and hot water and moved to join Roshaun in the living room. She did her best to look studious as she stole the most comfortable chair. Roshaun shot her a dark look from where he was paging through DVDs, but kept his silence.

Kit almost jumped into the chair beside her as soon as she put her tea down. “Still working on that optimisation stuff?” he asked.

“It’s really just a pet project.” Nita reached for one of the couch’s throw blankets. “I never want to use that spell again, but if I do…” She shrugged. “It would be nice to have as many charges as possible.”

Carmela continued to moan something about unattainable Hamilton tickets.

“Didn’t she use her worldgate to get backstage at the theatre?” Nita asked.

Kit gave a gusty sigh. “Yes. She did. Sker’ret had to stop half the Crossings from following her once they realised where she had linked them up to.”

“What happened to Carmela?”

“Papa heard the sounds of the show coming through the gate before she got back. He closed the gate while she was sneaking into the wings. She had to pull out that call-for-help spell I put on her so I could come save her.” Kit smiled wickedly. “She’s never gonna hear the end of it.”

“I heard that!” Carmela yelled. “And it was worth it!”

Roshaun sniffed. “On Wellakh, we wouldn’t be hosting a lottery for something like this.”

“No, you’d just order a performance at the Sunplace.” Dairine rolled her eyes as she marched into the living room.

“It was rather enjoyable to be in that crowd, I suppose. It must be very exciting to sit in the audience.” Roshaun held up Tangled for approval.

Dairine responded with a glare. “I just spent hours in the cold outside a theatre, hoping that I would get to see a live musical. That just can’t hold up.”

“And what a musical.” Carmela floated into the room, holding up an untranslated edition of The Aeneid. “The lines, the beats, the words. What that man does with English almost makes it sound like the Speech.” She struck a pose in the middle of the room.

Roshaun, Dairine, and Kit all sighed in unison. “We know.” Nita could have sworn she heard a chuckle in the back of her head.

Nita idly turned the page back one more time, and took a cursory glance at the spell diagram on the page. Wow, that’s impressive, she thought. That’s got to be a couple of dozen lobes, and each one looks like it’s in poetic form…

There was a diagram underneath the spell diagram as well, a series of concentric circles. Nita turned to look at the facing page while Carmela continued to wax poetic on Hamilton.

So, the circles turn within each other while the lobes are recited, rearranging the spell to connect different words and increase functionality. Nita mimed a few of the motions with a frown. That was some of the most intense artistry she’d ever seen in a spell. She would have to check the name to ask Carl about it next time she saw him. She flipped back a few pages.

“Miranda’s Poetic Re-Enervation”, huh? Poetic is definitely righ…

Nita took a closer look at the spell diagram, then paged to the detailed transcription of the spell she’d barely glanced at before. Kit looked as she leaned forward to mouth a few words to herself.

“Bobo…” she said out loud.

Yes? The voice of wizardry sounded definitively cheeky.

“You didn’t feel any need to mention this because?”

You hadn’t asked. Bobo stopped talking, but Nita felt its presence in the back of her head, watching with glee.

“Nita?” Kit didn’t look concerned yet, which was good. He looked at the spell diagram as well, and started to grin. “’Mela, you might want to sit down.”

“Why?” Carmela darted over and made grabby hands at Nita’s manual. She turned it around. “Uh, that’s a pretty diagram, but… oh my god.”

Nita would later inform Ronan that the noise Carmela made could have shattered glass, which might have been a slight exaggeration. As it was, Roshaun and Dairine both jumped nearly a foot in the air, and Carmela snatched the manual out of Nita’s grip and started to page through it with manic intensity.

“What’s up?” Dairine asked.

“Hamilton is a spell Hamilton is a spell HAMILTON. IS. A. SPELL!” Carmela ran a finger down the page as she skimmed through the description.

Roshaun craned his neck to try and see it. He held a copy of Chicago in one hand. “What do you mean?”

“The entire musical is a spell, and the stage is the spell diagram,” Nita explained. “Not sure what its functionality is, but-“

Carmela cleared her throat dramatically. “’The spell is meant to create a feeling of rejuvenation in the audience, encourage their openness to new ideas, and instil in them what Miranda feels are the ideals of the Founding Fathers, these being perseverance, belief in good, and a drive toward improvement.’” She continued to read greedily.

Dairine blinked. “That’s a lot of psychotropics for one spell.” She looked a little shocked. “Making it have a lasting effect without hurting people would be a job.”

“My question is how it can be a spell when it’s not performed in the speech,” Kit said.

“There is a technique for that,” Roshaun told him. “It’s usually reserved for big public workings on a sevarfrith planet like this one. One of the clauses at the beginning of the spell will define terms for the spell and inform it that it’s going to be read in another language, and then it may be performed. It usually requires Galactic-level dispensation to use, because of how hard it is to use any other language to replace the Speech.”

“And how do you know about that?” Dairine sipped her tea after speaking.

“A ceremonial ritual on Wellakh uses the technique. It’s older than the naturalisation of wizards on the planet, and it helps to calm Thahit down. One of the Sun King’s duties is to recite the first clause before it’s performed.”

“Guys guys guys guys.” Carmela surfaced. “At least one cast member has to be reciting the spell all through intermission! They define some more terms for Act 2! And the turntables, they turn the spell back on itself every time, but change how the words line up so they’re always different.” She looked up at Nita. “Can I borrow your manual?”

I’ve given Kit’s manual complete access to the spell, Bobo informed Nita. But you might want to warn Carl before Carmela goes over there to ask for Lin’s précis.

“Just use Kit’s when you get home.”

Carmela nodded and dove back into the book.

“Well, I know why he’s so particular about every staging, now,” Dairine pointed out, giving Roshaun a thumbs up for Lady and the Tramp. “That spell must be a beast to rewrite for each of those stages.