#my dissertation is also on magic so is this even procrastination

[merlinsearlobe]

I don’t know if i hallucinated this but i swear earlier seasons Bradley said something about hoping Arthur realises Merlin has magic on his own.

And i wish, i wish, that had been the case.

That Arthur, knocked out, bleeding, injured, awakes too early and sees Merlin, eyes golden and angry, bending the power of the earth in raw wrath and fury towards their enemy.

And Arthur is bloody fucking terrified. But Merlin screams ‘not him, never him, never Arthur’ and the earth shakes and… Arthur can’t even remember what poor soul or creature had thrown him from his horse, certainly not now their body is torn apart by Merlin’s words and his flaming gaze.

Of course Arthur is terrified. Is he hallucinating? Is this some malevolent vision? His head throbs and he can taste blood in his mouth and he can see Merlin, Merlin his incompetent and clumsy and funny and innocent and soft and gentle manservant who wakes Arthur with a brilliant smile and some drivel about lazy daisies, stood like a deep and dark and threatening shadow over what was left of a once-body.

Arthur’s breath comes in short gasps and tears prick his eyes. Panic. And Merlin turns to him as he clamps his eyes shut against the image of Merlin dripping with death and anger. But deep within his shattering mind a small voice whispers to him. The voice is soft and gentle, blonde curls and kind eyes and patient hands cupping his cheek. She reminds him of each time Merlin has looked at him with pure, unadulterated devotion - his eyes deep and blue, a tiny ring of gold-green swirling around his pupils. How each time Arthur’s lain on the brink of death, and Merlin has never left his side, tending to his wounds with such tenderness that Arthur has never felt before. How it was in Arthur’s name that Merlin’s magic, Merlin’s magic, raged.

Another voice, thick and real and worried, breaks through the soft whisper of Ygraine.

Arthur felt shaking hands - how could they be so gentle when moments before it was from them that such unbridled power was released - stroke his matted and sweat-soaked hair, wiping the blood Arthur felt trickle down his cheek away. Arthur forces open his eyes, meeting Merlin’s as the gold fades to the deep familiar ocean-blue.

Did Merlin know Arthur had seen? How much blood had soaked Merlin’s hands when Arthur had lain unconscious, how many victories has Merlin won in Arthur’s name?

And deep within Arthur’s heart he knows he is safe in this sorcerer’s hands. Knows in fact he’d choose these hands over anyone else’s.

But Arthur can’t say the words just yet. He can’t admit to himself that the man he loves is made from that which he hates. Hated. Has been taught to hate. A new wound has been torn in him, one not made of blood and flesh. Because if Merlin is magic, how can magic be evil.

So Arthur lets Merlin’s hands and Merlin’s words and Merlin’s soft smiles wash over him. He feigns ignorance of what he saw.

But he watches. His wounds sit quietly: clean and placid from Merlin’s assiduous care. His face is washed from blood and grime by Merlin, who had fussed and worried as he went. Now he watches. He notices the damp wood Merlin had collected whilst the rain has fallen burst into eager flames within seconds of Merlin’s attentive hands and wonders how he never noticed before.

When they return to Camelot, limping but alive, Arthur notices the stone-deep warmth that graces his chambers. Where his room should be chilled and still from his absence instead there’s a soft and humble feeling of life suffused throughout, and Arthur realises with a small, private smile it is the same feeling that radiates from Merlin.

The lessening part of him argues he should recoil. For why is he rejoicing at feeling the touch of a sorcerer all around him. But Arthur argues back. He’s felt the saccharin, sticky grip of dark, evil magic masquerading as sweet ladies or sycophantic servants. He remembered the groggy, aching return to his own mind after Sofia had dragged him under her spell. Merlin’s gentle, joyous presence is worlds away. His magic may be hidden from Arthur, but Merlin’s grinning insults and blatant disregard for any sort of protocol meant any fears for further hidden motive besides self preservation withered immediately.

Arthur keeps watching. He notices now the shine his armour has, beyond what weary hands and cloth could ever achieve. He notices, or rather feels, when Percival’s muscled arm brings down the practice sword and Arthur - his mind worlds away - notices too late, yet the ensuing bruise is not angry and mottled but timid and quickly fades, even though ordinary chainmail would never have warded off such a blow. He notices Merlin’s unbridled joy when the two of them leave Camelot for the forest. He notices the bird that lands on Merlin’s shoulder, the whispered smiles Merlin exchanges with the creature. He notices the grass grow a little taller beneath Merlin’s feet, the way the trees bend to him as if they’re greeting a long lost friend.

Slowly, magic - or at least Merlin’s magic - loses the rotten, sharp edge Uther had imposed. Arthur begins to yearn to see the flames of the fire burning in his room reflected once more in Merlin’s eye. Still he can’t quite bring the words lingering in his throat up to his lips. Guilt begins to fester. Arthur remembers the years of Uther’s reign, how the screams of burning sorcerers - some of them so young, so young - had echoed through the cold stones of Camelot. He remembers now Merlin’s pale face and wide eyes, ghosted with tears Arthur knew not what for. He knows now.

And so when his knights bring him talk of a druid camp away to the south, Arthur stands tall, facing the court, and tells them to leave it be. That there will be no more raids (not that he had issued any since his ascension to the throne, but no formal proclamation had thus far been made). He tells himself privately he will end the ban on magic. He will forge a Camelot where Merlin will not live in fear, in a half life. The faces staring back are curious, some wary. But the one meeting Arthur’s steady gaze, wide-eyed with a shocked, gentle, proud, smile and slightly trembling hands gripping the wind jug, is that which Arthur cares about. He gives a slight nod. Too subtle for anyone else to notice, but as obvious and clear to Merlin as it ever could be, the two of them long since having needed words to communicate.

Merlin has a lot of questions. Naturally. They tumble from him as Arthur undresses behind the screen. And Arthur knows now that he’s ready. Merlin has magic. Merlin is magic. And Merlin is good. Deeply good. The words don’t quiver and cower in his throat.

And I wish Arthur had then told him. Had taken a deep breath and met Merlin’s gaze and told him he knew. That he had been scared. But he had trusted. Trusts. Loves.

We deserved Merlin fighting beside Arthur, raw devotion and power and fierce, fierce love.

[duckprintspress]

Meet Aether Beyond the Binary Contributors Flore Picard and Alec J. Marsh

We are 57% of the way to our funding goal for AETHER BEYOND THE BINARY, with 19 days to go!! This awesome anthology featuring non-binary and genderqueer characters in aetherpunk settings has been in the works for a year, and we’re optimistic that we’ll reach our funding target so that we can publish the book as an e-book, trade paperback, and hardcover. Slow and steady, race winning, you know the deal. 😀 Things have definitely slowed down, as is normal for this stage of the campaign, so just a note that we’d always appreciate your help with spread the word about this project so that more people will know it exists! You can find our “main” posts about the campaign on different platforms using these links:

Bluesky

Dreamwidth

Facebook

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LinkedIn

Mastodon

Patreon (public post)

Pillowfort

Tiktok

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WordPress

Thanks in advance!!

You can learn all about the campaign, the book, the merch, and the authors, by visiting our Kickstarter campaign page!

And, today we’re introducing two more contributing authors: Flore Picard and Alec J. Marsh!

The Light Organ by Flore Picard

About Flore Picard: I’m a linguist and translator who lives in France and I have been itching to write since I learned how to. I started writing (fan)fiction more regularly when I was procrastinating on my PhD dissertation, and I haven’t looked back since. I’m also an artist who loves drawing both fanart and original art, and I have a passion for patterns and systems, for the beauty at the edge of chaos and the complexity of being human. I tend to write about queer and disabled characters finding themselves and each other and learning to take up space in the world.

Links: Instagram | Twitter

This is Flore’s first publication with Duck Prints Press.

Title: The Light Organ

Tags: angst with a happy ending, capitalism is the real villain, coming out, disabled character, emotional hurt/comfort, family, fraught family dynamics, illusion, in the closet, magic use, mechanic, musician, non-binary, parenthood, present tense, science fiction with magic, teenager, third person limited point of view, transphobia (mentions of) (past)

Excerpt:

“No, no, no—the organ, the light ring—it’s all about the imagination, not the mechanics,” Kas exclaims, gesturing widely to encompass the aether pool behind the glass.

“I’m just here for the tubes,” the tech—Gilbert—says flatly.

His face betrays no emotions, not even annoyance. Kas almost wishes he would yell or be rude, if only for the sake of feeling like they’re having an actual conversation, but Gilbert has always been polite. He just never seems to care.

“Fine,” Kas gives up. “We’ve got glitches. They started about a week ago. It could be a leaking tube, I’m not sure.”

“What kind of glitches?”

“It’s as if… as if the story stops responding to me. I know how that sounds, but I swear that’s what happens. It doesn’t last more than a few seconds, but it’s getting worse. Earlier, I powered everything up to tune it and it kept flickering.”

“Flickering,” Gilbert repeats, mumbling into his neatly trimmed beard.

Kas grabs a cane in each hand and makes their way to the organ’s seat. “I can show you.”

You’re Gonna Get Older by Alec J. Marsh

About Alec J. Marsh: Alec lives in the Pacific Northwest, where they write romantic adult fantasy and self-indulgent fanfiction. They make candles inspired by their favorite characters.

Links: Etsy | Instagram | Twitter

Alec is one of the editors for Aether Beyond the Binary and has also published multiple titles with Duck Prints Press. His novella To Drive the Hundred Miles (modern, f/m, trans male lead) was recently successfully crowdfunded and orders fulfilled. His two erotica stories Heart’s Scaffold (sci-fi, m/m) and Study Hall (modern academia, m/m) are part of the Contributor Short Story Bundle add-on.

Title: You’re Gonna Get Older

Tags: arranged marriage, christian, coming of age, coming out, cults, fraught family dynamics, friends, in the closet, lesbian, midwest, misgendering, non-binary, north dakota, past tense, post-apocalyptic, relationship of convenience, religion, song fic, teenager, third person limited pov, trans man, trans woman, transphobia

Excerpt:

There was a radio in the room, an old two-way they had found on their last visit and hidden in an empty supply closet. It was still there. They slid open the battery pack and snapped in a fresh battery from their aether lantern. Chips of the meteor had been encased in metal tubing to mimic the lithium batteries of the Before, but they were precious and had to be used sparingly. Stardancer knew better than to use precious energy on something this frivolous.

They popped the battery cover in place and pressed the power button. It crackled to life. They cradled it like it was made from glass. The dials made a tak-tak-tak noise as Stardancer scrolled through channels. Music came through softly. It faded in and out, cut through with static, but it was music, and not the kind made on an acoustic guitar. They adjusted the antenna and turned up the volume.

It was like nothing they had heard before, fast paced with a heavy beat. Even over the fuzzy AM connection, it was invigorating. They wanted to dance. They wanted to sing along with words they had never heard before. The singer screamed their triumph, and Stardancer felt invincible.

There's no time like right now to become a backer and help us reach 100% funded! Check it out!

[dirty-bosmer]

I bet this is totally unexpected, but here are some uncommon OC questions :D just do them for whoever you want to ^_^

8.What were they told to stop/start doing most often as a child

10. What lie do they most frequently remember telling? Does it haunt them?

22. How does jealousy manifest itself in them (they become possessive, they become aloof, etc)? 

27. What causes them to feel dread? 

36. Do they actively seek romance, or do they wait for it to fall into their lap? 

41. How do they feel about children? 

And also

A) Why are you excited about this character?

B) What inspired you to create them?

E) Are they someone you would get along with? Would they get along with you?

G) What trait of theirs bothers you the most?

H) What trait do you admire most?

Oh my god, I answered these and tumblr glitched out on me not once but TWICE as I was reading them back. Last time it happened, I just about yeeted my computer into the wall and had to step away for a LOOOONG while before I even attempted it again. Bye-bye all my original words. 

But glitches aside, these questions were very fun to entertain. Thank you for asking 🥰

I'll answer these ones for Syl.

A) Why are you excited about this character? The necromancy mostly heehee. I am sooo excited to explore some more magical head-canons. I feel like I barely skimmed the surface of the lore while playing Oblivion, and I’m an anatomist so dead things and what we can learn by probing at them has always intrigued me 🤷‍♀️. I also thought it would be a fun challenge to write a character with personality traits that are opposite those of my last OC. Where Nim was awkward, introverted, and uncouth, Syl is confident (like unabashedly so 😩), outgoing, and sophisticated, yet she still fails miserably to fit in. I think it will be fun to explore similar themes of identity, purpose, and morality with characters who view the world through very different lenses.

B) What inspired you to create them? Well, I naturally gravitate toward scholars in fantasy worlds where we have not only 🧪 science but also 🪄 magic. I wanted Syl to fall outside my comfort zone— I’ve never played a conjurer or necromancer before, and I’m also not intending to give her any combat skills at the start of her story. I’m thinking some fish out of water vibes, maybe? TBD...

E) Are they someone you would get along with? Would they get along with you? Yeah, I would think she was cool lol. Most my friends are also eccentric nerds, so I think we’d vibe. Also she's far more stylish than I ever intend to be, so it would be nice to borrow her clothes. I think Syl would be absolutely thrilled at the prospect of having any other friend beside her brother 🥲

G) What trait of theirs bothers you the most? Syl’s lack of self awareness borders on pathological. This girl cannot comprehend why others find it creepy that she’s hauling around carcasses and stitching them back together for fun. She has a hard time understanding that not everyone values what she values and vice versa and often times her “experiments” have disastrous consequences. You can see why this may come off as deeply inconsiderate and self-centered :)

H) What trait do you admire most? Her passion. Her drive. Syl lives and breathes for her projects, while here I am procrastinating on my dissertation 😂

And these ones I’ll answer for Nim

8.What were they told to stop/start doing most often as a child Nim just wanted to run around, chase bugs, and look at flowers all day, but when you’re a castle maid, you are unfortunately not permitted to do that 😔

10. What lie do they most frequently remember telling? Does it haunt them? All the times she lied to Raminus about where she was while working for the Dark Brotherhood, especially as Lucien’s Silencer. It still makes her feel violently ill.

22. How does jealousy manifest itself in them (they become possessive, they become aloof, etc)?  The initial sting of it would be met with much denial, then she’d grumble silently, then she’d wallow in it and be a sad girl for a couple days.

27. What causes them to feel dread?  The thought of failing her loved ones.

36. Do they actively seek romance, or do they wait for it to fall into their lap?  A bit of both. She doesn’t go out of her way to look for it, but if she meets someone she likes, she’d pursue them and make a move. I doesn’t tend to go particularly well. 

41. How do they feel about children?  So terrified of them lol. See the answer to question 27 but amplified ten fold. She's thought about it before, but always reaches the conclusion that it's too much responsibility and she's

[beggingwolf]

In retrospect, that was a self-indulgent and probably silly experience. But it was absolutely central to my writing process. The protracted period of suspension, reading and thinking, doing other things — teaching, looking after children, etc. — were necessary to set the stage for the dissertation writing, which immediately took on a rhythm of its own. I could reliably write one chapter per term, and at the end of three years post-field exams, the dissertation was complete. I cannot emphasize this point often enough: the pace of writing was not because I am a disciplined writer, because I am the opposite of that. But I did have the confidence to believe that the writing would come when it was ready, and I pushed hard to get to the point when the words would be ripe and ready to fall on the page. ... Again, it sounds pretentious and magical, and completely implausible. But that’s what my experience has been like. And it is crucial not to lose sight of the enormous frustration, long periods of the inability to be productive, and painfully acute tendency to be distracted. I spend way more time wanting to write and not finding my way to it than I do in the act of writing. But when it’s happening, there’s nothing like it. ...if you find yourself thinking about many different things at once — the chapter you should be writing, and the conference abstract that’s due next week, and the guest lecture on Ovid you will give next month, and the baby you have to pick up from daycare in a few hours — maybe you simply are that sort of thinker. If so, embrace your process and celebrate it, because you will be able to create the impression of remarkable produc-tivity through the means of what is sometimes called Structured Procrastination. If the chapter isn’t coming along, write the conference abstract, even though it’s not due for another week; if the abstract isn’t coming along, write the lecture that’s coming up next month. You procrastinate, avoiding doing the task you should be doing by doing a different task that you also have to do. And the illusion is created — the magnificent illusion — of being able to do a tremendous number of things.

How We Write, Suzanne Conklin Akbari

[pchlarz]

Minecraft could have such a cool lore and game mechanics

So I played minecraft since I was like 13 or something, when the thing was still in early beta. I still play it, but after half an hour tops I just lose interest and quit. The game isn’t challenging, the world seems empty and npc and animals like wind up toys than anything else. I know minecraft is a canvas you have to paint on, but I was always more into the idea of Minecraft as a world you have to tame and grow into. There are mods that do that, like rlcraft (which im not gonna play cause the lycanite mobs don’t fit into the games art style and ice and fire mobs are straight up unfair). And you know, since I have a script, dissertation, stop motion animation to do this semester for my Filmmaking Uni, I’ve been thinking about minecraft a lot. Procrastination, am I right my dudes?

I have no idea how to make mods, I can barely use Java to install Optifine for crying out loud, but I can write a couple hundred words post on this hellsite that no ones gonna read, cause it’s literally my first post, and no one can stop me! Also maybe somebody’s gonna get inspired and make it. No need to credit me, just let me play it XD

The World and Lore, I guess

So, let’s get one thing straight... Is the Minecraft world post apo? Like let’s be real for a second. The player is the only human specimen in the entire world. There are villigers that are vaguely humanoid, but they are definately “The other” some ofshoot of the human race than actual human beings. Zombies and skeletons seem to share the player’s anatomy but they’re undead, therefore dead, therefore had to be alive at some point. So yeah, let’s work with that! 

Let’s say that in a distant future, like distant enough for new subspecies of homo sapiens had time to evolve with enough pressure. The human world died after they opened the portal to the End. This allowed magic to seap into the world, boosting the technology but also corrupting people it cam across with. Like why is the Ender Dragon dropping more exp than your PC is able to handle? Cause she’s the source of all magic! Why do monsters drop it? Cause it’s what reanimated/mutated them. So according to this, fucking with the eldritch magic balls is what created the zombie virus, destroying the human race. Also the End is the moon. Like not our moon. Opening the portal didn’t just link the worlds together, it straight up teleported the End into the earth orbit, destroying the native moon and replacing it. And that’s why the monster’s only come up night, cause that’s when the End holds the most influence over the overworld. 

But what about the villigers? Just descendents of humans who have survived the apocalypse. Some adopted peaceful agrocultural approach to survive, sharing and caring and being lovely anarchocommunist communities. The other ones living according to the “Survival of the Fittest” evolving into the illigers. But that’s only the two races that are already in the game. Since it’s supposed to be a mod adding shit, lets get some new races! The dwarves have been talked about by the developers so let’s add them. Shorter and stockier than humans, with glowing eyes and not so much beards as just thick fur on their bodies. The underground is cold after all. Also descended from humans, this time those that had enough brains to burrow themselves underground.They just chill in caves, building something like big ant colonies. You could trade with them just like villigers, although instead of emeralds they’d want silver (We need like shitload of new ores, my good people). Oh, and they wouldn’t be pacifist like villigers, if you piss them off, they will mine you to pieces. You could also find them in random caves mining their own business (XD) and by business i mean resources you could mine yourself. And so if you’re a bellend, you could straight up murder them and grab their stuff and have your ores left unmolested. Or you could pay them off to share the loot, giving you a temporary partner with basically x ray vision, leading you to more ores, than you’d find yourself. But at the end of the day, you’d be obligated to split what you found 50/50, meaning that you could get more stuff than on your own, or less, depending on your in real life luck. Boom, reasons for morals. 

I’d like to see a basic faction system, based on which aspect of the game the player finds most appealing. If you’re the kind of a peaceful player who just wants to build and farm, the villigers are your people. They’d gladly take you in if you build, farm and trade for them. If you’re into conquest and looting Pilligers could use your skill to cut some Villigers throats. And if you want mining and exploration, The dwarves wll take you in. Ofcourse you can just be your own person and solo the entire thing, and no one will nag you. 

Character Customination and Skills

I want roleplay, man. Skins are cool but what if on one save I’m the peaceful farmer, developing my village and chilling with my bros, but on other I’m the fucking antichrist, burning them to the ground and taking what I want? Do I just swap my skins depending on what world i’m gonna play today? I quess I could, but that’d be hardly graceful. So let’s just put proper character creation into the game, with ethnicity, hair models and all that other bling. Ideally you’d also be able to paint on your characters if you want scars or tatoos or just dont want to look human. Clothing on the other hand would be a seperate system linked to the survival system. But more about the clothing system later. 

Also since Minecraft is getting slack for becoming more of an RPG when it got its full release, lets embrace that. I’d split them to Gathering, Combat and Crafting skills.Gathering would include your tool proficiency, allowing you to skip enchanting altogether while still getting some upgrade for your tools. Also chances for more resource drops or just getting new utilities from the tools. Any movement releated skills should also be there for simplicity sake. Combat is self explanatory, if we add different weapons types, than there has to be some incentive for specialization. Some skills for combat overall wouldn’t go unwelcome. Dodging, parry without a shield, throwing various weapons and stuff like that. Crafting would be for the new weapon customization, enchanting (including proper spell casting wands) and alchemy. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves with that. 

Custom Tools, Weapons and Armor

Doesn’t it bug you that on multiplayer server everyone just walks around in enchanted diamond eq, throwing all sense of individuality out of the window. Do you like the idea of roleplaying as a cave men the entire game, but the stone sword doesn’t really give you that opportunity? Well let’s do something about it. Instead of vertical tool and weapon progression let’s do it horizontally. Lets take a bit more realistic approach to crafting. Stone tools have to knapped and assembled, bronze has to be casted, iron hammered into shape and wood carved. All types of materials have their drawbacks. Knapping tools would just need you to pick a stone in your offhand and the crafting material of your choice in your main and right click. And from there you get the list of shapes you can knap your stone into. And after choosing the tool/weapon type of your liking you knap it again to customize the shape more. Do you want your hatchet to look like a primitive piece of sharp rock or a skillfully crafted tomahawk? Casts for soft metals and wooden objects would be made in the same way, just with a carwing knife instead of stone and wax or wood for the crafting material. Than just put your cast into clay to get a mold. Fire the mold, craft a crucible and pour the molten metal into the mold. Change the anvil from an enchanting tool into a proper workbench for your hard metals. Then craft some handles, guards or accesories and put them all together in your crafting window. Different materials would have different pros and cons. Stone tools have low durability but don’t have any wear mechanic. Wood rots, Soft metals can bend and have to be straightened and hard metals rust and have to be cleaned. Also no tool progression. What you can mine depends on your mining level. Right now you can easily get diamond on yout first day if you mine deep enough. Locking it over a skill tree would pace the games more high tier materials more naturally. Also diamonds are classed as knapped material. No diamond swords for you, but a diamond macuhuitl is totally cool. Just craft a wooden sword of your choice and add some diamond blades in the crafting. 

Armor would be split into classes, Light, Medium and Plate. You can’t make armor out of stone (so no diamond armor either, but you could encrust your other armor with it) but you can make wooden plate. Just for the heck of it. Different armor classes would affect your stamina meter differently. 

Guns!!!

I’m not a gun nut, but hey we have gunpowder in the game. Let’s add guns. But just the flintlock ones, atleast the ones made by the player. They could be made out of anything even stone, just for the heck of it. They would be crafted like any other weapon. But shooting them would be expensive with all the gunpowder you’d have to loot from creepers (I like the idea of dead creepers burning away, giving you only a short window to loot them) or craft from sulfur, a new rare resource. Still they’d pack quite a punch and make hella noise, bringing all the monsters to you. Also long reload time, they’re flintlock after all. 

Also lets adhere to an old fantasy trope and make them unenchantable. Their op as they are. 

Animals and Looting 

Just add more animals. Add more predators, so the day isn’t just a cake walk. Add predators hunting. Pray running from a player simply approaching. Give me a run for my food. Animals reproducing on their own. If you want to tame livestock or pets than you better hope for a rare domesticated kind of animals or trap and break them enough for them to let them eat from your hand. 

And what about hunting. If you manage to kill an animal, it doesn’t just disappear and live porkshops in the cloud of smoke. Every killed entity just turns into a corpse that you have to manually loot, while holding a sharp weapon (for simplicity sake). All of them drop their hide (acting kinda like armor with its own durability, on which depends how much letter you’ll get from it, thus encouraging clean one hit kills), a lot more meat (so you don’t have to slaughter an entire herd just to have something to eat) and bones. Also food would spoil now, to discourage hoarding it. But there would be workarounds like salting it or drying it for jerky. 

Various animal hides could act as trophies (if you’re a cunt) or for crafting special clothing items or beds (since proper wool would be much harder to come by now). 

Monsters and the Night

Same deal as in the main game. Mostly undead with some mutated mobs like creepers and phantoms. The only hostile mob I’d add would be Vampires, who would follow the player and try to score a hit while you’re unaware. Of course they’d be rather rare. Enderman on the other hand... Let’s raise them to the mini boss standard. When they were announced I was hyped, that they’ll be a proper horror mob that you could be genuinely terryfied of. But no, they just vibin’ most of the time. So let’s change them. Since in the new lore the undead are humans corrupted by magic, enderman should be the remnents of the humans who have gone and got trapped in the End, turned into the Dragons army. And now their job is to stalk you and kill you. You still have to look at them for them to turn hostile, but now they don’t care if you only looked at them from the distance. If they can see you and you can see them, they attack. Give them proper range. Let them teleport behind you to score a hit. Put blocks in your way if you try to run. They could pick you up and teleport with you next to ledges (they shouldn’t just be able to throw you over the edge, let’s give players a fighting chance). They should also steal more valuable blocks than just dirt. Let them target specifically blocks placed by the player, allowing them to pick holes in your defenses for other mobs to get to your house. 

The night itself would change. For the first couple nights there should be no monsters. The rise of the undead according to the new lore is the Dragon learning about the new human in the world trying to slow them down from discovering the End portal. But for the first few nights it would be unaware of your existance, letting you to get comfortable. But when the first full moon hits, The dragon saw you and she will let you know she sees. And from then on, every night the undead horde will rise to haunt you, only resting during the eclipse (since the dragon can’t see). On the other hand the full moon would be equivalent to the blood moon from terraria.  With mobs more aggressive, able to break your doors and forcing you to defend yourself. Also you wouldn’t be able to sleep during the full moon. If you manage to fall asleep, you wake up dead with mobs spawned all over your house. Also the mobs don’t burn in the sunlight. When the night ends, they just disapear like Enderman. 

The mobs right now spawn only on active chunks, but let’s add a lore reason for it. They’re targeting you. This is why going to a village means bringing the horde to them. And if you don’t fight or they kill to many, the viligers will add two and twoo together, banishing you from their dwelling. The illigers will just turn hostile. The dwarves won’t mind since the undead are plentiful underground anyway. 

Also give me my Overworld Dragons. Like proper fire breathing ones. Kinda like the ones from Ice and Fire but actually managable and not the size of goddamn school. 

Survival Mechanics

Let’s add thirst. You can’t just drink any water ofcourse, so while food means you have to scavenge or hunt, thirst encourages you to either find drinkable streams or distill the water. Eventually just drink juices or booze. Yeah, let’s add booze. Just for fun, with all the stuff i’d want to add the game wouldn’t be kid friendly anyway. 

You have to sleep now. Unslept nights cut your stamina meter by 25% while also bringing the phantoms to you. You can sleep without a bed, but you’re risking temperature debuffs and less stamina regen. 

Temperature. With adding seasons and all the clothing option it seems reasonable (also i loved it in don’t starve). To not make the HUD to cluttered I’d just display the temperature on your heart meter, having them freeze over for cold and dry out for hot. Dried and frozen hearts wouldn’t be included in your hp pool, meaning that temperature makes you weaker. You could fight the temperature with proper clothing, fire or ice. Although the hot temperatures would be more forgiving, just making you lose water faster and being managable with shadow from blocks. 

Clothes would have their own slots, be made in their crafting table and heavily customizable like banners and letter armor, giving proper use for all the dyes we have. They could also be drawn on like player skins. You could also wear some of them on armor, allowing for further character customization. They’d have their own durability, but be easily repairable. Aside from temperature protection they would be mostly cosmetic and if you don’t like the idea of having to wear a coat in the winter, just enchant your shorts with some frost protection. 

Hunger would be overhauled slightly, letting you to get fat from food. But just like in real life FAT IS YOUR FRIEND (just you now, moderate amounts). It let’s you absorb all foods value even with a full bar. Still to much of it will slow you down and make your stamina bar go down faster. Oh and it’s no longer your stamina bar, that’s a seperate thing now, indicated by a small lighting bolt icon above your exp level. Still a full food and water bar is nessecary for healing. 

Enchanting

Bookshelves no longer make the enchantments stronger. Atleast not the decorative ones. Instead you have to enchant books on your own hoping for the “Arcane Knowladge” enchantment, which can’t be put on anything but, if you put a book with it in the bookshelf it will raise the enchantment cap. So does leveling your enchanting skill, as well as allowing you to see what enchant you’re putting on your stuff, as you grow more fluent in the language of magic. Enchanting would also be more powerfull in the night, as that’s when the End - The birthplace of magic is the strongest. This also means that enchanting during the full moon would create the most powerful enchantments, if you can manage to enchant while the undead hordes attack. And they will try to get to you as an active enchanting table is drawing them closer. 

Different materials have different enchantibility. Pracious metals are overall more conductive, while obsydian might make fire enchantments stronger. This would come into play mostly when crafting staffs!

While Guns are unenchantable, Staffs are just weak pole weapons without magic. But enchanting them let’s you pick a spell for them, like lightinig bolt, healing, stuff like that. One staff can hold only one enchantment and casting spells uses exp points meaning that you’d need quite a big pool to be able to just be a mage. While staffs are two-handed you can also make wands to cast with your offhand. Ofcourse they’d be less powerful to balance things out. 

As the Anvil is now a crafting station, the Arcane Anvil would take it’s place made from obsidian and golden bars. While we’re at it lets also think about Arcane Chests to store your exp. 

Player Death

Why can the player just live after death? Well depends on difficulty. If you want to lose your stuff but keep the skills, it’s because the last humans put a spell on you allowing you to be uneffected by the corruption and also be linked into the world, cursing you to wake up from dying in the last place you slept, making you think if your death was just a dream. If you want a more hardcore experience then it’s because they cast a spell of reincarnation on you, so you don’t come back as the exact same person, having to work upon the achievements of your predessecors (I have no idea how to write that, I’m polish okay?). And if you just want straight up hardcore, they sent you to the future, with only one chance to make things right. Applies to the multiplayer, there’s just more of you that have been cursed.

If you find your dead body you can loot it. But on the reincarnation difficulty all the food, potions, weapons and armor you had will have long rot away. A lot time passed afterall. 

The Stronghold and the End

So if you actually read so far, I love you and congratulations. I’m writing this while I’m high, so it probably doesn’t make much sense. Still, thanks! 

So... Strongholds suck. Let’s get rid of them. Instead let’s put the End Portal in a new rare biome. The Ruins! They would be a large decimated city from before the apocalypse, now overtaken by vegetation with undead present even in the daylight. The magic is right in the heart of the city after all. The undead are much more powerfull here, some even having modern weaponry like assult rifles. They can be looted, but they’re all falling apart and you can’t craft them. But you could repair them and use them. They’d be end game unenchantable gear. Enderman also stalk the city, so you’d have to be prepered for them. You still find the city with the eyes of ender, but this time crafted with a compas and obsidian to create the Ender Compass, cause fuck throwing balls into the air. The End Portal is in the heart of the city in the special dungeon called the Crumbling Facility. It’d be a long parkour challange with you having to reach the top while also fighting for your life. “But Pchlarz”, I hear you saying, “You could just build across or up, this is Minecraft”. Well no, cause the building would be made from gravity affected blocks, meaning that if you do, the whole thing falls apart. As for building up, try to do that while being shot from every direction. What if the tower falls? Well, the End Portal awakes spawning more monsters and moving to the height limit. So now you would have to build straight up, while the Enderman teleport to your position and try to throw you off. But if you get there, the Portal is your to enter. 

And so you do. Before you stands a temple build in the center of the New Moon. The towers are still there and the Dragon still heals from them. The temple is built from blocks the Enderman took from you (not just them ofc) You destroy the crystal and fight the dragon. It picks you up, throws you around, breathes Black fire (purple is ugly, sorry guys). You chip at its health and finally you bring it to half. And thats when the dragon falls into the temple with broken wings. Now it’s a ground battle. Now you have cover, but the temple is destructable. It’s blocks affected by gravity. Finally you kill the dragon. It imbues you with its magic and drops it’s heart. Still beating, Scarlett and glowing. The Enderman stand around you, their eyes no longer white (yeah i dont like purple), but now inteligent with pupils. They seem thankful. You’ve won. The end stone around you starts crumbling, falling into the void. And there’s no way back home. You start to accept your fate. You’ve sacraficed yourself to end the Undead horde’s reign. And thats when an Enderman takes you by the hand. You walk to the edge of the crumbling world and gaze into the blue globe staring at you from the abyss. It’s the Earth. But you wouldn’t survive the impact. Not from space. That’s when you see the Enderman holding something, with his hand stretched out to you. He’s holding a pair of wings. The Elytra. You put them on, say goodbyes to the newly freed Enderman and dive into the world beneath you, watching as the tall figures behind you die with their dying world. 

You crush into the earth. With half a heart you drag yourself to safety. The Ender compass now points the way to your bed. You walk. Victorious. 

Endgame

So you’ve beat the game. What’s now? Well the Enderman are no longer hostile. And the dragon heart? You can put it into your alchemy station and turn it into the potion of resurection. While the zombie villigers could be cured with a golden apple and the potion of weakness, the human zombies need this one. The skeletons are to far gone, but zombies and vampires can be turned back. The Dragons Heart can never be used, but if you lose it, well it sucks to be you hero. 

With cured humans you can create a village and start rebuilding. You can have relationships with them, turn them into companions and even have children with them (i like stardew valley okay). And with their numbers growing it’s up to you if you will live in peace with new races populating the world or reestablish the human reign on earth. 

Okay this took me like three hours and the weed is wearing off. I think way to much about minecraft, maaan. Still hope you like it. And make this mod for me. I’d be grateful. 

[musicislife1396]

So, I was planning to do a review post today. But I just really didn’t feel like being thoughtful and critical and all that. So as I was watching some Booktube in procrastination, I came across this tag. I saw Sam from Thoughts on Tomes do it, and I believe the original creator is Kirstin @ Kirstin Reads. Even though people sometimes OTPs from film and TV, I will only use book couples because otherwise, this will turn into a full blown dissertation on my ships.

Alright, here we go. Prepare for a lot of fangirling, ranting and so forth. This is going to be a long post. Grab some popcorn.

1. Pick an unpopular OTP that you ship

Hmm… I’m not sure how unpopular this is because it’s the Harry Potter fandom. I don’t think there is any ship that is unpopular in the Harry Potter fandom, but Snape and Lily Potter. I love Snape and I wanted him to be happy. And I understand that it wasn’t going to be a good relationship and I absolutely think that Lily did the right thing getting away because it was toxic. Although, I personally feel like she made a  mistake giving up on him, not necessarily as a romantic interest, but as a friend. I strongly believe in not giving up on your friends. I will go to hell just to drag a friend out of there and I think that’s one of the most powerful kinds of love that is or should be the foundation of romantic relationships as well. And for all his faults, Snape had that loyalty, that unconditional love that cannot be explained by infatuation or attraction or fluffy romantic butterflies. That’s why some of my favourite OTPs are based on friendship.

I didn’t necessarily want them to be canon, but my heart still ships them together in a “What if” sort of way. And I also personally believe that, at least as far as we are shown, which might be biased because we only see Snape’s memories, but I don’t think James Potter was a good choice either. He was immature and an ass and we don’t see him growing out of that. So I really don’t care at all about that relationship.

Okay, that derailed. I feel very passionately about this. I have written longer essays than this on obscure, background Harry Potter stuff. But let’s move on now.

2. Pick an OTP that you didn’t ship at first but do now

I don’t really know what to say for this. I usually either ship a couple or I don’t. Well, sometimes I’m just indifferent. But I don’t think I’ve ever not shipped a couple and then shipped them. Actually, I have just not from books, so for this question I will pick a TV couple and that is Willow and Tara from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I did not like Tara at first at all. And I was a hardcore Willow/Oz shipper and I wanted them to get back together and I just did not like this ship at all. But then Tara really grew on me. And especially after re-watching the show. I still don’t really like her as a character in season 4. But I do like her in later seasons. My favourite Willow OTP is still her and Oz, but her and Tara are my second. I really, really hate everyone else that Willow is ever with. I can’t… just no.

3. Pick your most hated NOTP

BUFFY AND RILEY! Okay, I said I’m not doing TV shows, but I needed that out there. My most hated book NOTP… there are different ways I could look at this. I could tell you just an OTP that I hate because I hate the book and the characters. Or I could tell you an OTP that that I just don’t like them together. I’m going to do both, because I can’t decide.

An OTP that I just hate because I hate the book and the characters is Mare and prince whatever his name is. Cal, Cat, Cam. I don’t even remember. I absolutely hate Mare with a passion, if you’ve read my review of Glass Sword, you know how much I hate that book and Mare in particular. I don’t really have a problem with Cal. I just don’t care about him because he’s so one-dimensional and tropey and boring that I just don’t care.

And one OTP that I just don’t ship them together is Celaena Sardothien and Chaol from the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas.

 Art by Linneart

I never particularly liked Chaol. I don’t hate him, but he’s a little bit too boring and self-righteous for my taste. But I really did not like him with Celaena. I literally ship her with anyone else more than I ship her with Chaol. Anyone. I got a really sibling-y vibe from them for some reason and I don’t… that’s just wrong. I can’t ship that. It doesn’t work for me. And I really think that their relationship was completely ruined by them being together. I think there was potential for a good friendship there, but it was completely ruined and that kind of annoys me.

4. Pick an OTP that took waaaayyyy too long to get together

I don’t have any such OTP. I quite enjoy slow-burn romances. I hate, hate, hate insta love and I actually really like relationships where the two partners grow together, grow to know and love each other. So I don’t have an answer for this.

5. Pick your favourite non-canon OTP

I don’t know… maybe Ruby and Clancy from The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken. I mean, not really. I like Clancy because he’s so clever and scheming. I don’t particularly care about Ruby though. I don’t know. I can’t think of any other answer though, so I’ll go with Ruby and Clancy.

6. Pick Your favourite BROTP

Will Herondale and Jem Carstairs from The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare. Forever. I just love them, they’re my babies. I love their friendship so much, I don’t even know how to explain my love for them, I just ugh! I love them. That scene in Clockwork Princess. If you’ve read the book, you know which one I’m talking about. When Will is on his way to… wherever he was going. It broke my heart. I cried so much just… I cried.

7. Pick an OTP you adored in the books but not as much in the movie or tv adaptation

Jace and Clary from The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare.

Art by Firelordwael

I love Clace. I am a very hardcore Clace shipper, but I did not really feel the relationship in either of the adaptations. I did not like Jace at all in the film, even though I loved Lily Collins as Clary. And in the show… I’ve yet to see season 2 of it. But I had a lot of problems with the first season of the show and the relationship between Clary and Jace was one of them. I didn’t feel it at all.

8. Pick a popular OTP that no matter how hard you tried you just can’t ship it

Dorian and Sorscha or whatever her name is from Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Mass. I can’t even find any nice fanart of them.

I’m always picking the same series, but I just really didn’t like this relationship. I know a lot of people did and were really upset by what happened, but I just didn’t really care. I was even a bit relieved, because it just rubbed me the wrong way. It felt like that relationship was used as a crutch and I don’t like that kind of relationship. I like relationships where the two partners make each other better. And that just wasn’t it.

It wasn’t a good, healthy relationship. They had nothing in common. Her crush on him felt like a celebrity crush and I felt like he was only with her because he was broken and lost and needed a crutch. And I think that a lover is never a good crutch. At least, not a new lover. Like, getting into a new relationship as a crutch… I don’t like that. I don’t agree with it, I cannot get behind it no matter how much I try.

9. Pick your favourite LGBT+ OTP

Hmmm… I’m gonna go with Alucard and Rhy from the Shades of Magic series by V. E. Schwab.

Art by Victoria Ying

I love this series. I love all the characters. I just, I love them. Nothing more to say.

10. Pick your al time favourite OTP/s

I mean, there are so many! I would say maybe Feyre and Rhys. My babies.

Art by Charlie Bowater

Some other ships I absolutely love are Kaz and Inej from Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo.

Art by projectnelm

Will and Tessa from The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare

Art by Taratjah

To name a few. I could go on and on naming OTPs and showing you pretty fanart, but this post is long enough as it is, so I will stop here.

Feel free to do this tag if you want to. Let me know some of your ships, let me know if you agree or disagree with some of the things I said.

OTP Book Tag So, I was planning to do a review post today. But I just really didn't feel like being thoughtful and critical and all that.

[finishthatthesis]

On the importance of writing consistently

Writing consistently hides a multitude of sins. You would be surprised. In my opinion, the most important thing you can do in graduate school is to write every day for at least 15 minutes. This is not a new idea. There is a great book out there called Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes A Day, and this sounds totally laughable. And..... it is. You can’t write your dissertation if you really only spend 15 minutes a day working on it. But the magic is in the “a day” part - writing every day (every weekday, at least) makes it easier to write every day. That sounds cyclical, but what happens is that when you force yourself to sit down and write for 15 minutes, even if all you write is half a sentence, the next day will be easier. And the day after that will be easier. 

This doesn’t mean you won’t struggle. You will. But the magic is in those 15 minutes. Just like Kimmy Schmidt declares that she can do anything for 10 seconds, you can write for 15 minutes. You can. It doesn’t have to be good writing. It doesn’t have to be fast writing. Just write. Do it. 

After a while, push yourself a bit. Do 2 sessions of 15 minutes each. Then expand those 15 minute sessions to 20 minutes. Keep expanding. Then, on those hard days, those days where you can’t do it, fall back on your “at least 15 minutes” plan. 

So when you hit this point, of writing every weekday for at least 15 minutes, you will still have your ups and downs. Days where the words won’t come, where you spend 45 minutes staring at the page and manage to get 3 sentences out. The beauty of consistency is that you will also have days where you write 3 pages in those 45 minutes. If you’re writing every day, whether you have a good day or a bad day doesn’t matter. They will balance each other out, and over time you will have more good days and the bad days won’t matter as much. 

Do you think you’re lazy? Are you a big procrastinator? Writing for 15 minutes a day is something even the laziest procrastinator can do - I should know, because I used to think of myself as a lazy procrastinator. Just showing up every day and putting words on paper, no matter how bad, even if it’s just for 15 minutes, will, over time, conquer any real or perceived laziness and overcome procrastination. 

You can do this. I promise. Just give me 15 minutes a day to start. 

[spoonielivingfree]

  So this weeks post is going to be a law post instead of a chronic illness post. And more specifically a post for law students who are either currently trying to write their dissertation or want to get a head start on the whole process.  Now my only qualification is that I myself got that magical first and in doing so I saw that there were few blog posts dedicated to legal dissertations.  So what I want to do here is give the graduates perspective on getting a first in your dissertation.

The first place to start is with choosing your topic and more specifically the question that you want to answer. The number one most important thing here is to make sure that you are passionate about what you want to write about. As much as you can anyway, as at least with my university you need to write three proposals and the uni gives you one. If that’s the case then spend a lot of time thinking about the three proposals you put down. Ensure that you can really see yourself spending a year working on any one of them. Passion makes the whole thing so much easier – I found that I actually wanted to work on my dissertation and enjoyed doing so because the topic was so me.

When choosing a topic you also need to do your research and I mean proper research not just reading the relevant textbook chapter or lecture notes but actually start looking into journal articles and case law. You need to look out for whether there is enough but also to make sure that there is a gap in the scholarship and the law for your dissertation. It also helps if your topic is current.

Don’t be shy. Ask for help. Be that friends, family, professors. Sometimes just talking out your ideas really helps. I also mention this because from my knowledge it is common for people to need to refine their questions and if your supervisor says this do not get disheartened and work with them. Easier said than done I know. I wasn’t asked to refine my question and I didn’t refine my question but I can imagine it feels a bit like falling at the first hurdle. But you haven’t fallen and you have got this.

But Hannah, my problem isn’t my topic. I have my topic, I have my question. I just don’t know how or where to start. 

I definitely relate to not knowing where to start. It can all be so overwhelming but I’m going to share some planning and writing tips that should help you get over that block. Although it’s important to remember that we all work differently and ultimately you need to do what works for you.

Firstly it’s necessary to make a brief and flexible plan, utilising your initial research. Essentially, write down each overarching concept, idea or argument that you want to cover. This will really help you break your dissertation down into chapters and sub-headings within those chapters. This and be done in mind map format or in a word document or you can handwrite it and stick it upon your wall/place it at the front of your dissertation folder, on your desk or whatever works for you.

I had a mind map, I had random scribbles in my notebook whilst I tried to work it all out in my mind, but for this I used a word document, as then I could add research to it as I went along either by writing in my own words, copying and pasting or just “see y at line 34.” This really helped me keep my research, which there was a lot of, organised and help see the links, as well as where I maybe needed to do some more research, and what that research needed to consist of. It is so essential that you keep your research organised in whatever way that works for you and your dissertation.

Set a schedule, set deadlines. Be that “I’m going to work on my dissertation on a Wednesday,” or something else.  That will definitely help you get from the overwhelmed stress procrastination block and mean you don’t leave it all to the last minute.

So what do I do now I’ve started?

Immerse yourself into your topic, but if you need to take time out that’s okay to. It’s a marathon not a sprint and wellbeing is a key component to success.

Use your supervisor to your advantage. Use them way more than I did. You are not a burden it is quite literally their job and if you have a good supervisor they can be a real helping hand.

Keep a notebook or a section of a notes app or both with you at all times for those random thoughts. Most of them will be useless but some will be gold.

Make use of a wide variety of sources for your research, don’t just look at legal journals, books, cases and legislation.  Use videos, podcasts, or even journals from other disciplines if these may be relevent. This can definitely help with motivation as well as give content that is laking in the legal resources.

Keep challenging yourself to go deeper, get others to challenge you. Writing a first class dissertation isn’t easy for most of us and I certainly submitted it knowing that that piece of work was reflective of the top end of my academic ability at that time. To add on to this believe in yourself. A first is not out of reach.

Proof-readers are essential. Especially if your chronically ill and suffer from brain fog. Once you’ve spent that long on something an extra pair of eyes or two are useful to let you know when you’ve made a typo, when something doesn’t make sense, is repetitive or where there’s a grammatial error.

Finally, make it original. Come up with an original solution, an original justifiation. Add a bit of personality to it. Some level of originality is needed for a first and adding a bit of personality to it will help keep your examiner interested.

This is longer than I wanted it to be but to close, you can do this!

                How to write a first class law dissertation.

So this weeks post is going to be a law post instead of a chronic illness post.

How to write a first class law dissertation. So this weeks post is going to be a law post instead of a chronic illness post.

[recentanimenews]

Land of the Lustrous, Vol. 1

Land of the Lustrous is a gorgeous trainwreck, the kind of manga that doesn’t make sense on a panel-by-panel basis, but ravishes you with artwork so beautiful and strange it’s hard to look away.

I’ll be honest: I read the first volume three times, and found it almost impenetrable. As best I could tell, Land of the Lustrous depicts an interplanetary war between two races: the Gems, whose androgynous, humanoid appearance belies their true, rock-like nature, and the Lunarians, who frequently raid Earth, hoping to capture Gems for decorative purposes. (What kind of decorations remains a mystery; my vote is for bedazzled jeans and hoodies.) Since there are only 28 Gems, they’ve organized themselves into “fighter-medic” pairs to defend Earth from the Lunarians. One Gem — Phosphophyllite, who registers only 3.5 on the Mohs scale — is too weak to perform either task, so the group’s leader pronounces Phos their official naturalist, and tasks Phos with writing a history of Earth.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that Land of the Lustrous was a satire on the dissertation-writing process, given how much time Phos spends procrastinating and grumbling about the book, but these scenes are interspersed with awkward flirtations, violent combat, and a brief episode in which Phos turns into a cute, sentient space slug. These abrupt shifts in tone frustrate the reader’s ability to get a handle on what, if anything, Land of the Lustrous is trying to say. The narrative lurches from one storytelling mode to another without any transitions that would justify the abrupt shifts from comedy to melodrama. The problem is compounded by the dialogue, which is sometimes so windy that it’s a drag on the story, and sometimes so burdened with exposition that it barely passes for conversation.

When the characters stop talking and start doing things, however, Land of the Lustrous is a show-stopper. The first glimpse of the Lunarians reveals the depth and richness of Haruko Ichikawa’s imagination. The Lunarians descend from the sky, led by an enormous Bodhavista-like figure who’s flanked by an undulating line of archers with bows drawn. Scanning this image, we can sense the collective potential energy of those taut strings while marveling at the lattice-like pattern formed by the soldiers’ formation; it’s the kind of careful arrangement of bodies that Busby Berkeley would have appreciated. What happens next, however, is even more arresting:

In this sequence, a Gem has sliced through the general’s head, only to reveal a lotus pod filled with lethal “seeds” — a beautiful but unsettling moment reminiscent of Aubrey Beardsley’s work, both in its stark use of negative space to draw attention to the characters’ faces, and in its use of sensual linework to create an image that enchants and repels simultaneously. Ichikawa’s execution of this sequence is made even more effective by the dramatic shift in perspective from the beginning of the sequence — when we see the impending attack from the general’s point of view — to the end — when we see the results from the Gems’ point of view. The eerie stillness of the final two panels reveals the extent to which the characters themselves are horrified by the Lunarian general’s true form; we can almost hear them gasp.

Looking at these images, I wonder what a more assertive editor might have done with Land of the Lustrous. A firmer hand might have reigned in Ichikawa’s worst storytelling tendencies — the characters’ aimless chattering, the clumsy transitions from one scene to the next — while encouraging her to devote more of the series to what she does best: draw fantasy action scenes. (And by “action,” I’m also including bodily transformations caused by poison, magic, etc., not just hand-to-hand combat.) A good editor might also have improved the story’s pacing and tone, resulting in a more coherent approach to world-building than what’s on offer in volume one.

The bottom line: Your mileage will vary. I loved the artwork, but not enough to soldier past the clumsy dialogue and poorly developed characters.

LAND OF THE LUSTROUS, VOL. 1 • BY HARUKO ICHIKAWA • TRANSLATED BY ALETHEA AND ATHENA NIBLEY • KODANSHA COMICS • RATED: TEEN (13+) • 192 pp.

By: Katherine Dacey