#cs new

[knightmareaceblue]

Confession: When I first saw that there would be an episode entitled 'The Chef', I was convinced it would be about the CG running a restaurant. Obviously that is NOT what ended up happening, but the idea was amusing, so I got a few scenes out of my system. Enjoy!

[laur-the-cat-prince]

[whewchilly]

carlossainz55 First week of training camp 🚴 ☀️

[squidcave]

little Etho scribble while manifesting his win

(line art under the cut)

[dranka]

I'm afraid CS Pacat has ruined literature for me 🥲

I'm trying to read something other than his books now, and it's like I'm forcing myself to eat cereal with water 🤧

[rendoesart8]

princes gambit sketches!

[clanslist]

Changing Skies #2 - Hidden Moon

Erin Hunter’s #1 bestselling Warriors series continues with the second book in the Changing Skies arc, as the Clans continue to navigate an ominous prophecy that foreshadows the end of the cats' connection to StarClan.

Still healing from an accident that almost killed her, Tawnypelt is eager to share the message she received from StarClan about a “great peril” looming over the clans. But her vision is dismissed by her son and leader, Tigerstar, leaving Tawnypelt with no choice but to take action on her own.

Racked with guilt that he caused his father’s death, Starlingpaw is determined to atone for his mistake. His chance comes when Tawnypelt warns him of a “two-faced cat” intent on destroying the clans. Believing himself uniquely suited to find this cat and stop them, Starlingpaw seizes on the opportunity to prove that he is an asset, and not a liability, to SkyClan.

Moonpaw is settling into her role as a ThunderClan apprentice, even as she continues to grapple with the voice in her head. But the more she tries to ignore the voice, the louder—and angrier—it grows.

Meanwhile, Twolegs have set their sights on the Moonpool, preventing the Clans from reaching StarClan. Will the cats find a way to reach their ancestors before all is lost?

Cats depicted: Starlingpaw (front), Crowfeather, and Nectarsong (back). Coming November 4th, 2025.

[fixated-dark-king]

Sooo, I had the amazing experience of attending a panel C.S. Pacat was part of during the Sydney Writers’ Festival on 25th May 2024. The panel was called “Creating a Monster” (with two other YA authors).

And finally a week later (because adult-ing is hard), I had time to actually go through my notes and write up some of the fascccccinating things Pacat had to say about: monsterous heroes, and villains, and enemies-to-lovers deliciousness, and queer identity!

I didn’t want to forget some of the interesting things said in this panel and thought others might be interested in hearing about them too? Please indulge the splurge. :)

(Please note that all bold headers are just my thematic summary of each section for people to jump to, not the actual question asked.)

WHAT APPEALS ABOUT ‘THE MONSTROUS’ TO PACAT:

From a technical writing standpoint, the ‘Monstrous’ is appealing because a villain will often do an act and the hero reacts to that. It gives unconscious clues to the reader that when the villain turns up, something exciting is going to happen. In that sense, villainous characters have a special sort of ever-present attention given to them (possibly because human nature is to always keep one eye on the dangerous thing that could harm you).

On a personal level: A) When queer characters are awesome but also ‘Monstrous’, Pacat says it can feel really ‘electric’ and empowering to reclaim/allow yourself to embrace the monster role that you’ve been told you fit into by society. Like in Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles where queer people are allowed to be beautiful/glittering & powerful & witty & have existential conversations about good and evil while fitting under the Monstrous label. Like heck yeh, that’s cool. And B) as an author, you can feel a ‘minority pressure’ to have characters be Good all the time and be the perfect ambassador for that minority, but sometimes you just want to be a vampire and take over the world, you know?

THE EXISTENCE OF ‘PROTAGONIST-CENTRED MORALITY’ WITHIN THE DARK RISE BOOKS:

When pondering whether it is hard as a writer to convince readers that a Monstrous protagonist is a likeable character, Pacat pointed out that the funny thing is that the question ‘How am I going to make readers like this monster?’ never really ends up being an issue because people actually really like monsters! The thing you might not expect is that the struggle is actually: ‘How am I going to make these readers who are barracking for the protagonist feel that this ‘monster’ is actually monstrous?’

Pacat explained that when a protagonist is also a monster, it brings into play something called ‘Protagonist-Centric Morality’ -- where you bond with that protagonist and want the best for them etc, so much that it can obscure when the protagonist is actually doing something bad. Pacat mentioned that he has found the Protag-Centric Morality fairly striking in the case of the Dark Rise books because people have said to him things like: ‘The Dark King Did Nothing Wrong Ever In His Whole Life’ and Pacat questioned whether the moral centre of the story was landing somewhere different than intended. He was curious whether the other authors had experienced that with their ‘monstrous’ protagonists too.

IF A HERO IS ALSO MONSTROUS, HOW ON EARTH DO YOU DIFFERENTIATE THAT FROM THE VILLIAN? When pondering over the distinction between a Monstrous Hero and a Villain, Pacat shared some thoughts from his lived experience. He said the times when he has felt most threatened by the ‘Monstrous’ is when that person isn’t clearly identifiable to others around you; where there isn’t a shared understanding between everyone that ‘yes, that person is a monster’. Extending from that, the Truly Monstrous is when that person has some kind of control over you and control over the narrative as well; if the monster is the one telling the story but casting you as the monster. Essentially gaslighting via ‘narrative control’.

ENEMIES TO LOVERS TROPE:

This is Pacat’s absolute favourite romantic trope. And he elaborated that he doesn’t mean that in the sense of ‘these characters sort of don’t like each other’, but rather to the point where two characters really hate each other and for a very good reason. He likes when a path between two characters feels IMPOSSIBLE to overcome.

This trope was first explored in the Captive Prince trilogy and Pacat loved it so much he just had to use it again for the Dark Rise trilogy. The planning behind it for CaPri was brainstorming: ‘What is the worst thing I could think to use?’ (Answer: Killing a character’s brother, which lands the bereaved character into a set of hellish circumstances.) But that meant when Pacat decided to use it again for DR, he had to extend that to: ‘Now I need to think of something EVEN WORSE THAN THAT (CaPri)’ in order to separate the main characters. So Pacat had to spend ages thinking about what could be the absolute worst thing to use this time -- and he hopes that he came up with something that is ‘truly, truly way worse.’ Which essentially had everyone, including the moderator, laughing loudly in fear. XD

WILL KEMPEN: FOUND FAMILY & THE LONELINESS OF INAUTHENTICITY:

Pacat spent a lot of time trying to develop a really meaningful platonic friendship between Will and Violet. It meant a lot to see a friendship like that reflected on page for Pacat because some of the most important friendships of his life were across gender lines. The reception to Will and Violet has been so pleasantly surprising, so Pacat supposed he wasn’t the only one with a hunger for that kind of friendship within the romantasy genre.

Pacat also reflected on Will’s complex relationship with his Found Family -- that having the support of a Found Family can be so essential, but in Will’s case that lifeline is undermined by secrecy, turning that Found Family into a different kind of loneliness. Because the thing is: if something so immense happens to you that you feel you can’t talk about, or you feel some way about yourself but think you can’t share that with others, it means you can’t really be your authentic self. But if you’re not being you’re authentic self, who are your friends friends with? They can’t be friends with the true You; they can only be friends with a facade/with a performance. So as long as Will is scared to show his true self and remains hiding himself away from even his friends, he will be alone. It’s a hard step to take. (Note from me: so heavvvvy but poignant.)

NOT DR-RELATED, BUT PACAT’S FAV MONSTERS FROM POPULAR FICTION: Pacat was so excited to namedrop his favourite monsters from popular fiction, he volunteered to go first LOL. The answers: 'The Brat Prince' Lestat (Lestat has been on his mind a lot recently because the AMC TV portrayal captures Lestat so well & has completely rejuvenated Pacat’s 12 year-old love of vampires. Total mood); serial killers such as in the Ripley series; and simply: American Psycho.

Great panel, right? Now it’s Europe’s turn!

[luthqrs]

"What?" "You, at a festival? With your face painted? Dancin', wavin' your hands in the air like you just don't care?!" CARLA CONNOR and LISA SWAIN in CORONATION STREET ↝ 04.11.2024

+ bonus live lisa reaction

[diemsomnians]

the kings of akielos and vere | ig: diemsomnians

just a classic damen and laurent portraits for my first art for the fandom 💫

- round icons of the portraits under the cut -

[carsthatnevermadeitetc]

BMW 3.0 CS, 1971. The E9 coupé was introduced in 1968 to replace the 2000 C/CS New Class coupé. The shared much of the bodywork with its predecessor but had a longer wheelbase and nose to accommodate a 6 cylinder engine. The was succeeded by the E24 first generation 6-series

[smurny]

A list of all the kinks Will discovered he liked during his hot girl summer in Italy:

1. Necks

2. taking care of James when he’s tired

3. Collars & leashes

4. Blondes

5. virgins who stayed chaste because the dark king was coming for them

6. making sure no one else touches James

7. bossing James around

8. bossing everyone around

9. James looking slightly mussed

10. James showing off

11. James coaxing his power fucking his magic door

12. James, basically

[eklaize]

Did you all see the genderbend of Lamen by rendoesart8?? They are sooo fricking cute, I want to draw them! ♡＼(￣▽￣)／♡

-----------------------------------------------------

Anyways I thought it would be fun to practise drawing a fighting scene, because they are so hard ! (I'm posting these page by page because I don't have that much time to work on them the next few weeks.) Spoiler warning:

Credit for Story: "Captive Prince" by C.S.Pacat; Drawings by me

Also! I got the pretty new french version of the Capri books this week and I'm so excited to finally be able to read the summer palace, which i haven't done yet! <3 But first the 2nd and 3rd!

[whisperingmidnights]

hi angel

I DIDNT KNOW WE WERE STILL DOING NEW YEARS BINGO I THOUGHT I MISSED MY CHANCE

if ur feeling inspired maybe lace for feysand x dove x az? 💋💋

Oh, I have SO MANY PROMPTS in the prompt morgue right now. Maybe we can resurrect a few later. For now, though, you're asking for my favorite polycule.

The gown is simple: a thin sheath constructed from a whisper of black silk and scraps of lace so fine, I'm afraid a wrong breath will destroy it before it can be properly appreciated. If it does happen to survive the trip downstairs, the too-eager hands of my mates will certainly take care of it. I turn in front of the mirror one more time, admiring all the right ways it clings and drapes, perfectly created just for me.

Just as Rhys intended.

I glance back in time to see the black box on the bed vanish. I don't know if I'll ever grow accustomed to his more extravagant gifts, but he does so love to give them. I tug at the pendant resting just beneath my collarbone, a beautiful, dark sapphire encircled by a halo of diamonds, making certain it's centered before I take one more, decisive breath and head downstairs.

The halls are dark, with only the faintest glimmer of golden light guiding my path down to the main sitting area. I spot Feyre first, happily settled on the sofa in paint-stained studio clothes, nursing a glass of dark wine from the continent. Her favorite these days. Rhys swirls his own glass of butterscotch-colored liquor near the fireplace, his jacket abandoned on a chair, and black shirtsleeves rolled up.

They must have had a busy day.

"There she is," Feyre purrs, smiling over the rim of her glass as her eyes sweep over me.

"Welcome home," I greet her with a smile of my own.

"I told you it would be perfect." I roll my eyes at the self-satisfied tone of Rhys's voice, shaking my head as I glance around, searching for the last adult member of our immediate family.

"Your taste is impeccable as ever," Feyre agrees, laughing when I wrinkle my nose at her.

"Oh, don't compliment him, his head will just get bigger."

"It couldn't possibly," she assures me with a wink. Rhys scoffs behind her, taking another sip of his drink before he wanders over.

"Azriel still isn't home?" I ask, trying not to twist the fabric of my dress as our mate inspects my dress. I wonder how much of his exacting eye he picked up from his mother and how much is just him. Approval lights his violet eyes as he lightly runs his knuckles over my exposed back.

"Soon," Rhys says, holding up his glass in offering. My lips part for a sip, but the tilt of his glass is a bit much. Cold liquor spills from the corner of my mouth, but his warm lips are there to chase it, sucking the spiced Autumn brandy from my skin.

"Oh. Delicious." I whisper, lightly rubbing the fine cloth of his shirt between my fingers as his arm wraps around my waist, pulling me against him. It's so easy to go pliant in his arms as those lips trail along my neck. It's not long before a smaller, finer hand finds my chin, angling my face towards Feyre's as she leans in, murmuring, "let me try," before she sweeps the taste from lips with her own.

It's easy to lose myself in them, the way their hands roam over my body, their mouths as hungry for the taste of my skin as I am for theirs. I'll never get enough of them. It could never be enough. But I'm not so lost that I don't notice the sharp scent of chilled mist and rich, musky cedar. The sharp press of cold, hard leather against my back is my only warning before Azriel's hand guides my head back, and he takes a too-brief kiss of his own.

"This is new," he notes with a sharp, possessive smirk, lightly nudging the thin, lace strap further down my shoulder, giving Feyre room to place more warm, unhurried kisses. "It's pretty."

"Pretty," Rhys says with an exasperated glare over my head. "It's exquisite."

Azriel shrugs. "It would look better on the floor."

"We have to eat," I grumble, running my thumb along Rhys's lower lip. Stars dance in his eyes as he catches the digit between his teeth. Shadows swirl around my wrists, slowly guiding them until they're behind my back, trapped against Azriel's leathers as his mouth lowers to my ear.

"Oh, we are, Dove. We're starting with you."

[nocturnalhe]

imm not dead, just busy.... scraps from the soul :3

[whewchilly]

carlossainz55 Strange and tough weekend. We'll look into it and go again in Japan.