#also because of ~worldbuilding~ they also have basically a direct connection to the light god who hates them lol

[chisatowo]

A very quick random card au Rokka concept drawing since they've been living in my head rent free

[spockandawe]

Hi.....if you don't mind me asking, what are your top 10 favorite books? And why? Sorry if you've answered this question before....

This is an interesting question, and a difficult one! Which is why I let it steep for a few days while I was in a bookbinding fugue, haha XD

I’m not sure I’ll be able to answer it, because my level of fondness is highly dependent on how recently I read a book/how many times I’ve reread it, with an optional nostalgia modifier if something made a huge impression in my youth. And when I’m picking favorites, as the number of potential [thing] expands, the more I end up dithering and fretting that I’m forgetting something HUGE as I choose. So rather than a selection of top ten, I’ll just run down through some of my favorites! I’ll split it as five cnovels (recent reads, current genre hyperfixation) and five more conventional english-language novel (realistically, probably more like series, unless a standalone book occurs to me), and I’m not going to rank the conventional novels.

SO. Regular novels first. There’s a heavy recently-read/frequently-reread element going on in here. 

The Imperial Radch trilogy, by Ann Leckie. Okay, I am a sucker for a nonhuman protagonist, which is going to pop up in at least two other entries. And I’m also a sucker for themes of what can be perceived about a person externally versus their internal world, and Breq delivers like WHOA. She has SO MUCH going on in her head, and even though we’re in there with her, she still hides lots of her emotions from us. And characters like Seivarden hit me in character development buttons that I’m a sucker for, and the whole idea of consciousness being split across multiple bodies is DELICIOUS to me. Also... love me a sentient spaceship. ‘The Ship Who X’ series by Anne McCaffrey isn’t going to make this list, but I also love it a lot. (also, a universe of ‘she’s made me realized how STARVED i was for that degree of representation in certain genres that i love a lot, but don’t often see myself in as often as i might like)

The Murderbot series, by Martha Wells. Another nonhuman, sometimes-human-passing protagonist! Another one processing MASSIVE trauma of a sort that I, the human reader, have to slow down a lot and try to comprehend from an extremely different life experience! I like that a lot, it really forces me to LINGER on the nature of what a character is feeling. And oh my god, Murderbot’s voice is one of my favorite pov voices of all time. And watching it work (or go hogwild on its own asdfdgd) is absolutely delightful. I love literally everything about this series, except what happened with Miki. Other than that? Flawless.

The Books Of The Raksura, by Martha Wells. Martha Wells is a DELIGHT, y’all. Also! Another heavily-traumatized, nonhuman protagonist! And this time, like... It’s a fantasy world with huge amounts of sentient species, and the protagonist grew up away from his people, who are basically a bunch of feral homesteaders (LOVE THAT), and is trying to figure out how to reintegrate into their societal structures as an adult. That desperate desire to belong and feeling of discomfort and not-fitting-in, and the connections he makes and the way he DOES find a way to fit... like if u crey every time. Also, as far as we’re shown, it’s a cheerfully bisexual, polyamorous society, and *grabby hands*

Discworld, by Terry Pratchett. God, what do I even say about this series. It was a PARADIGM SHIFT. It’s bitingly funny, and also just plain biting, and full of huge varieties of interesting stories, set in a fascinating world, with a series of protagonists who I love too much for words. Vimes! The witches! Moist!!! They’re all so WONDERFUL. I still haven’t read the last book in the series yet, because then it will be Over Forever, and I can’t deal. This one is heavily nostalgia-tinted, but also, I stand by it.

The Belgariad/Mallorean, by David Eddings. Okay. Also very nostalgia, and the choice I can justify the least. But these books CLICKED with me. I’m afraid to reread them, because I’ve been wallowing in queer fiction for so long I’m worried about what the compulsory heterosexuality will feel like, and I know both series are very... episodic, in a way that isn’t necessarily great literature. But I dunno! Feels good, man. It’s high fantasy with a magical system I like, segmented worldbuilding of a sort that isn’t necessarily WELL-MADE, but it’s like... comfortable and easy. And something about the style and the character voices just clicks with me. I have no idea how well these hold up in the present day, but I do love them, and I’ve been planning to reread at least The Redemption Of Althalus by the same author as a standalone before I commit to a 12-book rereading of this universe, but.... I like em XD

--

Cnovels! I think I can rank these, so let’s go for it.

Fifth favorite: The Disabled Tyrant’s Pet Palm Fish :B Look, it’s ridiculous. It’s a transmigration story where the lead enters this fictional universe in the body of a fish, where he is adopted by a prince who eventually falls in love with him, and YES IT IS TAGGED MPREG, BUT HOLD ON A MOMENT-- I don’t know! I came here to point and laugh, but I’m honestly having such a good time right now. It’s really cute! And sweet! The main character is delightful, and the love interest is that particular flavor of semi-socialized upper-class young man, where like, can he do court politics? yes. can he politely express his affections for the main character? uh....... less so. It’s a really fun read, and I felt very sincere emotions about this prince who is passionately, deeply in love with his pet fish!

Fourth favorite: Mmmmmm, Mo Dao Zu Shi, I think. I struggle here, because it is NOT an easy book to read or show to watch, but having consumed the story, I love it to PIECES. I know a big draw for me is the protagonist, specifically, and his relationships to the people around him. And the more I cared about him, the more I wound up caring about the people around him, who I’d kind of neglected before, if that makes sense? It’s a story that really rewards some good old pondering. I didn’t care that much about Lan Xichen, but then I started thinking about how Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji relate to Lan Xichen, and then oh no, I care SO MUCH about his emotions, and now I’m thinking more deeply about how Lan Xichen relates to Jin Guangyao and Nie Mingjue-- It does lose points in this ranking because it IS hard to get into, and I would struggle to keep everyone straight even more if I didn’t have the show visuals to lean on, but it is still story I enjoyed VERY much.

Third favorite: Erha, but I feel REALLY, REALLY BAD that I can’t fit Yuwu on this list too, and I just want to loop them together. It’s time travel fixit fic, but it’s the book! Yes????? I love this. I love the striking character growth we get to see, and the changing perception of the world as the main character relives through events he already experienced and sees things in a new light, and I adore how Mo Ran’s growing guilt goes hand in hand with his growing love. And Meatbun in general... like, my god. I haven’t read another author who’s able to yank me through emotional whiplash so hard and fast. She makes me hoot with laughter one moment and then burst into tears the next. It’s absolutely wild. I love mxtx, and I think svsss/tgcf are gentler entry points into the genre and deal with lighter themes, but meatbun is seriously an UNBELIEVABLE writer if you can deal with the darker topics she covers.

Second favorite: The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System :V Look, I love it. I just love it. I love, again, characters dealing with the aftereffects of old trauma, plus I do also love seeing NEW trauma piled on top of it. I love having a main character with emotional dysregulation issues who doesn’t necessarily make good decisions, but doesn’t just leave me thinking ‘jfc what an asshole’, and I think that’s a really hard balance for an author to strike, especially without us getting direct pov. I love themes of being wanted and insecurity about being wanted, which is Luo Binghe’s major, major damage. And this is my first transmigration story I ever read, and the contrast between a main character who read the novel telling us about what’s totally going to happen versus the ground shifting under his feet is INCREDIBLY delightful to me. I’ve read other transmigration stories I enjoyed, but none that got my attention quite as much as this one.

First favorite: Tian Guan Ci Fu ;u; It’s so good. It’s so well-made! It’s so LONG, and it meanders, but also, I would scream if anyone tried to trim anything out of it. I am here a lot for the ship, honestly, but I also find the plot themes VERY interesting. I am very much here for reading about characters trying to process old trauma that’s been dredged up by new events, and also very here for the themes about how characters either pass their traumas along to the next generation, or try to shield the next generation from taking the same kind of damage (see: mdzs). And I’m also very much into tempering stories about pain with like... memories of kindness, and small acts of kindness repaid with an outpouring of devotion (see: svsss). But the craftsmanship in this book is just... DIVINE. I’m always reluctant to start rereading this one, because I have a terrible time stopping. There’s nothing about this book that I don’t like.

[stevetonygames]

Spotlight Post: Canon Soulmate Bonds

Yooo, this is a blog takeover, Mizzy here, ready to champion one of my favourite fictional causes: canonical soulbonds in the Marvel universe.

We all love a good soulbond fic. Words on your body, names on your wrist, red string of fate...so many glorious versions, and all of them *completely awesome*. The problem sometimes with starting a soulbond fic, though, can be all the worldbuilding required to make it work. But what if I was to tell you that no worldbuilding was necessary? That you could technically write a soulbond fic without having to set it in an Alternate Universe? What if you could set your soulbond fic *directly in main canon?*

Marvel 616 delivers you a canonical soulbond mechanic… not once… but at least *twice*. There could be more. There’s a lot of comics to go through and I’m only smol. But here’s the two I know about and I’m here to introduce you to today. :)

The was a ripple of mild confusion around fandom when Kevin Feige announced that the Eternals were getting a title movie in the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Created by Jack Kirby in the 1970s, in a wild combination of mythological fascination and spite at DC comics for not letting him finish his New Gods saga, the Eternals were an offshoot of humanity, created by the Celestials for humanity’s protection; this reason for their existence would lead them into their ongoing conflict against the deadly Deviants. There have been a few Eternals runs (notably one run by Neil Gaiman, which did not serve to bring the Eternals the commercial success Marvel was searching for with the title, that nevertheless remains the most fun and accessible Eternals volume), but they’ve not yet really reached wide-reaching traction among even the most die-hard comic fans. The MCU might change that, and here’s hoping, because I love these nearly-immortal idiots, and I’m hoping not to be alone in that for much longer. :D

But even my Eternals-happy soul has to admit, Eternals canon for the most part is dense and can be convoluted, and the spellings—both of their character names and one of the main fun parts of their existence, the Mahd W’yry—are enough to give one a headache. The idea of the Eternals is that they’re long-lived and have interacted with human history over the years in various impactful ways. You might think at first glance that you’ve never heard of the Eternals Sersi, Ikaris, Makkari, but I think you wouldn’t find Circe, Icarus, or Mercury unfamiliar names.

The Mahd W’yry is a symptom of the Eternals being so long-living. In order to stop them going insane, the Eternals have to bond into something known as the Uni-Mind, which basically squishes all their consciousnesses together into one, where they can share memories and blend temporarily into one mind. Regularly bonding into the Uni-Mind allows them to stave off the Mahd W’yry. (Yep, that’s just a headache-inducing spelling of ‘mad worry’, we know.)

Anyway, did you need to know all this? Eh, maybe, a little bit of canned backstory is always handy for you to briefly glance over and promptly forget. Because along with some dense mythological adventures, some glorious angsting across beautiful landscapes, and that ability to turn into a big massive floating brain, the Eternals also gave us a beautiful gift:

The Gann Josin.

In Avengers #361, Ikaris comes down to Earth and decides that Sersi needs to be bonded to Dane Whitman, an Avenger who canonically didn’t have any powers, he was just a *really good guy*, destined for tragedy. Honestly. That’s his bio. Really good guy. Destined for tragedy. The character creation in the 90s was peak talent. Dane, sadly, was in love with another woman, but did this matter to Ikaris? No. Apparently the Eternals don’t know about the dangers of letting himbos like Ikaris have life-changing powers, like the ability to create the Uni-Mind. 

Because the power to control the Uni-Mind also gives an Eternal the power to form a Gann Josin bond. And that’s what Ikaris does in Avengers #361—he forces a Gann Josin bond on Eternal Sersi and tragic human Avenger Dane Whitman.

Gann Josin (sometimes Gan-Josin because what is spelling continuity in Marvel comics) is both the name of the bond, and the title given to an Eternal and their chosen life-mate. It has a bunch of cool side effects. Both Gann Josins get glowing full-red eyes. It’s a really intimate tiny form of the Uni-Mind (without the part where you become a big floating brain), and creates a small scale mental union. The Gann Josin bond makes the Eternal and their partner lifelong soulmates. As the bond progresses, it creates a telepathic/empathic bond that strengthens in time. According to the Eternal Sprite, humans are rarely chosen by Eternals for the Gann Josin.

Now, Dane Whitman does manage to break the Gann Josin several issues later. But… it’s not easy. It’s rare. When Dane manages it, it is called an “astounding act.” It’s pretty dang hard, in other words. There’s every chance your chosen Gann Josins won’t have the mental fortitude of Dane Whitman to break it. (Although, we’re talking about Steve and Tony, and are there any bigger stubborn idiots in the universe? Probably not.)

But Mizzy, I hear you saying. I don’t want to write about Ikaris, even if he is a party king and that sounds pretty nifty. I don’t know anything about the Eternals and I don’t want to go down that gnarly rabbit hole.

That’s totes fine, my friend. I am here to save you. Because in very recent canon, during Jason Aaron’s turn at the helm, the Eternals are all dead. Very dead. That whole Mahd W’yry thing got ‘em, it got ‘em good. But before Ikaris died, he granted his Uni-Mind power to someone we all know and love.

Yep. Tony Stark. Tony Stark currently has the power of the Uni-Mind.

Which means that Tony Stark can now Gann Josin people.

In Avengers #361, Ikaris performs the Gann Josin by basically just pointing his hands at Sersi and Dane and some light goes WHEEEEEEE!! in their direction, and bam, this rare and special bond is done. And Tony Stark can do that now. To anyone! Unfortunately Ikaris is dead and didn’t leave Tony with an instruction manual. But the point is, he *can*. You can make up all sorts of fun things with this canonical fact (or write your own version because lbr Canon Is Dead; Long Live Canon.)

There are so many possibilities. Does Tony deliberately learn how to use it so he can bond himself to Steve? Does Tony *need* to be able to hear Steve’s thoughts (to thwart some bad guys) and thus end up soulbonded forever to Steve in result? Is Tony’s power activating at random because he can’t control it, and he ends up soulbonding everyone around him? Does he just subconsciously bond himself to Steve without consciously meaning to? Do Tony or Steve want to try it for science?

Gosh, I love comics.

But WAIT. There’s MORE.

It’s not just 1990s comics going ham on the soulbond idea. No, we got some *this year*. Canonical soulbonding? TWICE? In one universe? Two different kinds??

And this time, it’s not in a D-list Marvel title. We’re up the ranks to the big leagues this time, folx, with a brief trek to the world of the Fantastic Four.

In Fantastic Four (Vol. 6) #15, we’re introduced to a Spyre citizen called Sky, a winged team member of the Unparalleled (more cosmic-powered superheroes), who work under The Overseer. (The Overseer, in a burst of beautiful retcon in the way Marvel comics keeps doing to us, is apparently the entity who is responsible for giving the F4 their powers. Huh. The more you know.)

On the planet Spyre, all children are brought before something called The Great Eye. This measures them against the radiation signature of everyone on the planet, divining who their perfect match is. 

Sky looked into The Great Eye, only to find out her match was Johnny Storm, who was 44 light-years away at the time. Long-distance relationships can be tough. Anyway, plot happens, the F4 get stuck on Spyre, get told they can’t leave, and Sky tells Johnny Storm that she is his soulmate. Oh, and she attached a soul binding onto him while he slept. Neat, huh, all the bodily autonomy people get in this universe before being force soulbond to people? So neat, much consent, wow.

Johnny feels a connection to Sky, which is supposed to let us know this lack of choice is a good thing I guess. The Overseer wants Sky to renounce Johnny and crush the F4 which obv doesn’t happen, so of course she leaves The Unparalleled and skips off to Earth to be with Johnny. 

Who knows how this relationship is gonna last. I mean, you can look at the rest of Johnny’s relationship history and have a good guess. Who knows. Anyway, Reed and Sue are each other's soulmate, and also share a “Soul Binding”, so there’s some canonical proof right there that maybe this system has some validity going for it.

The soulbond for this form takes the form of a golden bracelet worn on the upper arm, that Sky explains her people call a “Soul Binding”; it represents them as being soul-mates. This bracelet can only be removed by your soulmate. This soulbond doesn’t seem to come with any extra powers, it’s just to show that The Great Eye has measured their radiation signature and declared them a match that is supposed to mean they’re perfectly compatible in every way: spiritually, mentally, and physically.

I don’t know about you, but I have a pretty good feeling that Steve and Tony might just have matching radiation signatures… Or what if Steve and Tony have perfect matching signatures….with other people? (Someone else on Spyre believes Sky is *their* perfect match, after all!) What if Steve has feelings for Iron Man, but he’s a perfect match with Tony Stark? I feel faint already just thinking about it.

So here you go. Two canonical types of soulbonds for your fannish consideration. Feel free to ask me questions! You can find me on tumblr (@mizzy2k) or on discord (addy#0908).

[imintheunderworld]

Night Of Gods Worldbuilding: Cirines

Cirines

Cirines are human like creatures that live in hescadotean forests, predominantly in the south of the kingdom.

Cirines were the first creatures to ever habit Hescad. They used to live freely in the kingdom until the first human tribe, later named natives, arrived and fought against cirines, taking the land from them.

Everything the cirines built was taken down and human buildings were built on top. Cirines, with only small pieces of land to live in, decided to mainly live in their original dimension again, shifting from time to time to human dimension.

Politics

The Cirines are governed by a Queen, that used to reign Hescad when the cirines were in control.

They highly respect their Queen and have a lot of festivals around celebrating her and all the previous monarchs with great love.

Nobles are not really a thing in the cirine’s world. The only prestige one can get is through devotion, hard work and bravery, by getting the acknowledgement of the Queen. The cirines who have the Queen’s trust are usually prestiged in the world and would be given important positions in the military if they ever went to war with another species.

Lifestyle

They live in wood cottages filled with plants. The Queen lives in an extremely majestic cave filled with crystalline lakes, amethysts, opals and multiple other crystals and precious stones. Her throne made of tree trunks and branchs and her bed is made of plants.

They don’t eat animals. Their diet is fruit and vegetable based. Their bodies can handle meat and other animal based products, but they just choose not to due to their connection with nature and the benefits that this diet has on them. Too much fruit sugar can make them aggressive, but the sugar that goes into their bloodstream helps them raise their vibrational energy, feeding their ketheric body and recharging their spiritual powers.

Abilities

Power wise, they are highly clairvoyant, claircognizant, and all other clair types there could be. They also have a high telepathy skill between themselves and have a more advanced and complex respiratory and circulatory systems than humans.

They have telepathy between them, but they don’t use it to read others’ thoughts, only to communicate with each other (basically they only read the thoughts that others’ send them). They are not able to send thoughts or information to humans or other species.

They can give powers to humans or remove them/other abilities from them, however they would need to kidnap them in order to do this.

Kidnappings, however, can only last a couple of minutes, at least to a human’s perception of time.

They also live longer than humans. Some cirines have been registered to live up to 230 years.

Physical Appearance

There are Cirines of all genders and skin colors. Their skin tends to have a silver (or dark blue in darker skin tones) shimmer all over, that is more noticeable in direct sun light or in night time as the shimmer can be lumniscient. They are tall and usually more on the slender side and their eye are all white or all black, although they can camouflage them to a normal human eye if they need to blend in with humans.

Fashion

They usually either have platinum or very black hair. They never wear their hair fully loose, always tying it in braids (all genders, including men braid it)

The most popular braids are accent braids, mohawk braids, side braids, half up mermaid braids.

Many cirines also have part or parts of their heads shaved or have dreadlocks.

They also use a lot of ear piercings as they believe it heightens their spirituality and their health, putting them in a non stressed state.

Fashion wise, cirines wear pants, leggings, doublets and tunics, some pairing them with cork leather cuirassers, ornamented by bones and chains. Because they are highly resistant to heat and to cold, they don’t feel the need to use fitting clothes to the weather.

about the author | wip intro | pinterest board

Other Night Of Gods’ worldbuilding posts:

The Kingdom of Hescad

The Anara Gods

The Pentacle Sisters

The Dark Knights

Veoks

Ephryas

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[albatris]

Sorry in advance for the potentially dumb question, but: do you suffer from psychosis/schizophrenia? I’ve seen you reblog a lot of posts about it, of course, but i was curious. Also, if its not too personal, if you do, how much does it impact your writing/the weirdness glitchiness factor?

Not a dumb question at all, you’re all good!

So this is kinda…….. not something I’ve spoken about in a great amount of detail or specifics on this blog? And talking about it directly is actually kinda weird! I wasn’t expecting this to feel weird, but it totally does! So please excuse how long this answer took me hahahahaha

So I mean YEAH psychosis is a thing that I possess, this is a thing that resides inside my brain and occasionally outside of it………. I’m not schizophrenic, I’m more in the schizotypal realm of things, which is like….. I mean, that’s a label that best encompasses my experiences and so far it’s the only label that’s been vaguely and tentatively applied to me that’s ever really made me go “oh hey yeah that would actually explain a whole fucking lot” but like. Bits of it are still kinda wonky. Mental health is wonky, I think, generally speaking…………….

I was gonna talk a bit here about my specific experiences but, like, I really had no idea where to start with those and I don’t actually know how relevant it’d be to this question aside from being vaguely tangential in terms of psychosis………… so uhhhh I’m gonna jump ahead and talk WRITING which is WAY more in my comfort zone apparently

and oh my god this was so many words, I’m so sorry in advance, I have no idea if any of this is actually like………… super interesting? But I enjoyed the opportunity to talk about it so cheers for that! I think!

(and I’m sorry if you were expecting like………… a really short sharp sweet answer, I don’t really deal in shorts or sharps or sweets, I mostly deal in, uh………. rambling)

Rest of this post, under the cut, which I hope actually works on mobile, for the sake of your dashboards - 

So this message was an adventure for me into how the questions “How does it affect your writing?” and “How does it affect the glitchiness/horror factor?” are actually two entirely separate things. I mean, they’re two separate things because I’m assuming by “glitchiness factor” you’re thinking specifically of the stuff in my recent ATDAO posts about body horror and the unreality? In which case………… let me get to that in a moment

And since this post got super long, I’m going to start with my extremely short summed-up answer, and then elaborate on it………

In terms of how it affects my writing? In lots of direct ways!

In terms of how it affects the glitchiness and horror aspects? In some weird roundabout ways! It’s not where the horror stems from, but it’s where the response to the horror stems from and where a lot of my descriptive choices stem from! It’s not the horror, but it’s kind of the lens through which I explore the horror!

AND NOW HERE WE GO………… WORDS AHOY

So in terms of how it affects my writing, generally speaking

boring straightforward answer first:

It’s something that crops up in a super literal sense, just in that I’ve got a fair few characters who are psychotic to some degree or another, and it’s something that plays into how they relate to the world and their specific character voice and how they respond to the situations they find themselves in. 

somewhat irrelevant, it’s, uhhh….. something that I feel interacts with themes in a different sort of way, too. ‘Cause a lot of times there’s, like….. stories about people going on cool magical sci-fi quests, and there’s Stories About Psychotic People, and there’s not an awful lot of overlap between the two unless it’s in the context of “and the whole magical quest was a delusion all along!” which, ew

and for fucking REAL there is so much interesting ground to cover and opportunities for different perspectives and new avenues through which themes can be explored, like, in that overlap of stories. It’s something I wish I saw a lot more of in fiction! Which is another huge driving force in, like, why I write stuff the way I do

and now slightly more interesting:

Worldbuilding! It’s definitely something that plays into worldbuilding and like…. my love of creating stories that are kinda just……. “reality but a little bit to the left” if that makes sense? 

Whether this is something like Undertow, where there’s a degree of magic woven into the fabric of the universe, where things are connected by invisible threads, where I can give opinions to objects and feelings to the weather and the streetlights, where the earth itself has a voice? Or whether it’s something like ATDAO, where reality is coming undone at the seams and the fact that everything is just a little lopsided and haywire is a Mundane Part Of Everyday Life? That’s something I find super cathartic and quite lovely to play around in! I’ve always experienced the world as Just A Little Bit To The Left, and writing was one of the first avenues I found to kinda…. channel and explore and expand on that and put my feelings of strangeness into words?

It’s kinda, like, I like being able to share that kind of vision with others in some sort of way, and not necessarily in a frightening or horrible way, y’know? 

THIS IS ABSOLUTELY NOT TO SAY that anything I write is, like, 100% a direct mirror or my own life and how I see the world lmao. A lot of my writing takes experiences and feelings and little facets of how I experience the world and works them into something that’s often more literal and concrete, or it’ll start out as My Thing and as I’m writing, it sorta blooms into something totally different. But bits of it are in there, sure, although they change shape a lot! And it’s definitely in there with a lot of the general overarching feelings and concepts! Yeah!

One other thing that kinda leads onto my next topic is, uh…… that a lot of how I interpret events and meanings in the world around me can be kind of frightening and threatening, and that’s not reeeaaaally something I want to delve into too much in my writing from a worldbuilding perspective? So generally the parts of ATDAO’s “reality but a little to the left” that start to twist into horror and unreality are things I’ve constructed specifically to serve that purpose, more so than things I’ve pulled directly from my experiences.

AND NOW IN TERMS OF GLITCHY HORROR STUFF HELL YEAH

so again I’m assuming by “glitchiness factor” that’d be all the unreality and all the body horror stuff and weird horror? Which, fuck yeah! Despite my squeamishness when it comes to horror, this is one odd little corner of ATDAO that I’m extremely fond of hahahaha

And, like, initially when I considered this question I was like…. oh, this is not something that really has any of its roots in psychosis or my experiences of mental illness. And that’s…… kiiiiiind of true? My construction of the unreality and its contents is a lot of me just me sitting at my laptop going “Hahahaha that makes me physically nauseous! That’s the worst thing I’ve ever come up with!! I’m adding it in immediately!!”

But yeah, it definitely does factor in, though! Maybe not in as interesting a way as you’d hoped? 

So first off, my experiences are something that sorta plays into my word choice and the specific way I use language in those scenes. And I’m also gonna go ahead and say that dissociation and specifically derealisation are also things I draw from pretty heavily for those kinda……. more glitchy horror-ish parts? So for me, my experiences factor more into HOW I describe the content more so than any of the horrid glitchy gory content itself. 

‘cause it’s kinda, like, a specific kind of fear, I think, it’s a little bit off-beat and weirdly-worded and disjointed and it hits your senses all wrong, it doesn’t make an awful lot of sense but it’s still extremely real. There’s a lot of weird or unsettling bullshit that goes on in the unreality that there’s no convenient Real World Descriptive Equivalent for. Like, cityscapes made entirely of soundwaves, the aforementioned body horror stuff in earlier posts, places that are a complete and total lack of Anything where there’s not even space or colour or texture or light, senses getting all tangled up into each other, something being simultaneously bigger than the sun and smaller than an ant, voices unravelling like twine? LOTS OF WEIRD, BASICALLY

There’s no nice neat right way to describe that, and if there was, it probably wouldn’t pack the punch it needs to, yeah? But I love that kinda shit, I get to pull from a bunch of really weird sensory experiences and feelings I have no real way to articulate and I get to use language in creative ways to evoke the same feelings, the same experiences, the same sense of fear and wrongness? I get to draw from weird shit to describe a bunch of weird shit that makes NO fucking sense whatsoever and that can’t realistically be tied up with words

Point is, they’re experiences I draw from in order to Get Real Fuckin Weird With Words

and getting weird with words in this specific way is CATHARTIC as FUCK dude it’s so good, it’s one of my favourite things. This is, like, the dark edgy version of what I talked about earlier in regards to worldbuilding and me painting a nice odd vision for people to share in hahahaha

“let me take you on a nice gentle stroll through my imagination” vs me supplexing you to the ground and beating the shit out of you with a bat 

And one other thing is just……. I’m sorry, I’m super tired, this bit is probably gonna be jumbled and wordy and maybe not super relevant but uhhhhhhh

So the unreality is not something I initially drew from any particular place in my psyche, but it IS something I’ve come to construct in a specific way, and a lot of it is something I build with the questions of like…… “How does a psychotic character respond to this input?” and “What does this scenery draw out in my character and how does it challenge them?” in mind, so I guess………… in that sense, there’s definitely still a fairly big impact? But kind of in a sideways way. The unreality is not so much based on psychosis, but it’s something I use to highlight specific elements of it, I guess, but mostly in terms of the skills it draws out

‘cause like. in ATDAO the only characters who kinda get to butt heads with the unreality aside from that one random dead car driver who may or may not be vaguely half alive in a state of horrific limbo are Jacob and Tris, and like

I don’t ever really frame Tris’s psychosis as some horrible terrible thing he’s burdened with that makes life a terrible living hell 24/7 but it is, like………. something he struggles a lot with over the course of the story, both in general terms and in terms of people not taking him seriously about the Extremely Real Fantastical Nonsense that’s going on and in general being hesitant to trust his perceptions of reality. And ALSO I guess in terms of just…….. the way he relates to the fact that he’s been dragged into some Extremely Real Fantastical Nonsense? And him wrestling with how he’s supposed to believe in something like that when no one else can see the evidence and everyone is telling him he’s just crazy, and how “ridiculous interdimensional dumbass sci-fi quest” is something that’s reserved for other people, because he’s already been there like four times already and it has extremely different implications for him

In terms of mental illness, all my protags have patches of the story where they make it through kinda “in spite” of their struggles with mental illness (though that’s a sentence I fuckin hate) and other patches where mental illness is just a thing they deal with alongside whatever plots they have going on…… but their experiences with mental illness are also something that gives them specific skills and perspectives and ways of understanding the world that are invaluable, and some of the most important parts of the story are the parts where they make it through specifically BECAUSE of those skills and perspectives

Which is kind of the Whole Thing With The Unreality, that’s its whole deal

The unreality is a fucking huge turning point for Tris as a character, because it’s specifically because of his experiences with psychosis that he’s able to navigate it so effectively, it’s because of the specific skills he’s developed and the practice he’s had in similar circumstances

not, like, the SAME circumstances, but things from other contexts that kind of, transfer, circumstances where the same skills are applicable

‘cause like, turns out, he’s really good at navigating confusing frightening hellscapes where nothing makes sense and mis-stepping can get you killed, because he’s had a whole lot of practice just like. existing as a person with psychosis in a weird apocalypse world where reality is collapsing in unpredictable ways. He spends a lot of his life trying to make sense of reality and figure out the rules and developing countless systems for navigating the world safely, which he often needs to adjust at a moment’s notice, or completely scrap and reconstruct. He’s had a lot of experience of just sorta waking up and whatever bullshit is going on he’s just gotta be like “ok cool so this is what we’re doing today, I have to deal with this, so how can I deal with this”. He’s used to grounding himself and problem-solving even under intense pressure and when he’s terrified and regardless of whatever objectively horrifying nonsense is happening around him. He’s used to sorting the horrifying things that are not dangerous from the horrifying things that are extremely dangerous.  

He’s basically the one character who can get tossed into the unreality and actually work with it and figure out the rules even though everything is screaming and glitched out and trying to kill him, he’s spent most of his life developing the perfect skill set for it

(and like, this is the first point in the story where he sorta realises that his specific way of viewing the world is going to be a strength rather than a weakness, but like. despite the fact that Tris is basically a walking panic attack he’s actually always been the one of the team who’s been the most adept at navigating daily life with the apocalypse, it’s just not something he’s ever really picked up on)

and uh

that’s kind of a vaguely irrelevant note to end on, actually

HEY THAT WAS SO MANY WORDS I’M SO FUCKING SORRY

I DON’T EVEN HAVE A NEAT WRAP UP TO THIS POST

MY WRAP UP WAS THAT SUMMARY AT THE START

IF YOU READ THIS FAR I HOPE IT WAS AT LEAST SOMEWHAT INTERESTING

[weaverlings]

(so this is super long and mainly about WTNV because that’s the part I understand, or... at least have spent a lot of time thinking about, but there’s definitely a heavy component of comparison between the two series in this)

@vildflower said: I’ve been thinking how wtnv and tma approach similar concepts of vaguely otherworldly entities who are only somewhat connected to the universe that they seem to operate in vs. the universe that they seem to exist in

so this is all super interesting stuff thank u!!!! I just needed to get to the computer to go over it properly bc tbh it deserves it

vildflower said: like,, tma has the whole concept of rituals and avatars whereas wtnv could arguably have. a hierarchy? like when you think about it;; huntokar, the distant prince, the woman from italy, even the great golden hand, are ancient and possibly the closest to ‘gods,’ who dont interact w nightvale often but either have vested interest in it or are able to interact w it more easily due to number of reasons as compared to, like, the rest of the world? 

Part of the reason I listened to The Magnus Archives in the first place was because I’d heard hints of the connection between belief (fear specifically, as it happened) and reality, and the tangible effects that this connection has. I have pretty much always interpreted Night Vale along similar lines, but now having listened to TMA... I don’t feel like the execution is all that similar? 

While the lines are super fun to draw, WTNV doesn’t have such clear divisions or, well... I guess TMA didn’t, either, but I don’t think WTNV does have such clear organizational structure?

I think the/a key difference between WTNV and TMA is that not all of the entities of Night Vale necessarily tie back into an overarching force, or at least... the same overarching force. Which you go into, but that’s just such a core aspect of TMA that it at least feels pretty distinct. 

And the gods of Night Vale, I think, all have a much clearer and even more “relatable” sentience than the Powers. The gods have trouble communicating with other people, in various ways, but they also, say, express regret or ask for coffee when they do communicate.

vildflower said: and then theres the smiling god who could be said to be in a category of his own, or even perhaps in the same category as cecil- the way the smiling god’s existence seems to be in direct connection to desert bluffs/the joyous congregation and cecil seems to ‘depend’ on nightvale and its residents. or maybe it would be more accurate to equate station management and the smiling god, both finding ways to communicate w their respective towns through 'avatars’: cecil & kevin.

Yeah! If being a “Voice” means anything, I do think it would be related to these gods... I guess it would’ve been Huntokar, once, for Cecil. (And now, well... I don’t know. But if bloodstone worship is just happening, that’s a lot of undirected faith, and I feel like it needs to go somewhere... or to something.) And yup, for Kevin, it would be the Smiling God.

However, one thing I’m hoping we’ll see from this arc is addressing the fact that what the Joyous Congregation THINKS is the Smiling God is apparently really different from what it actually is. Even some of the church elders - the actual pastor - believed that it was the centipede, and this would seem to indicate that’s not true. 

I mean, if nothing else It Devours! was pretty clear about the fact that the centipede was just an animal, so I don’t see it or anything like it having plotted or directed someone to exploit people’s brains for labor in the future

So I wouldn’t put the Smiling God in the same category as Cecil, or even Kevin, but I think Cecil and Kevin occupy the same category like you said... 

For what it’s worth, I’ve always thought of Cecil more like an “oracle” (even before Alice Isn’t Dead!!) - giving advice or answering questions, kind of a guide, if in a sort of opaque or enigmatic way, whether he wants to be or not. And then Kevin is more like a prophet - offering a vision of how things should be, giving commandments, etc, regardless of what people might ask for or what would help them.

vildflower said: continuing this heirarchy the next lower tier would perhaps be city council and the librarians which have pretty fixed, smaller areas of direct interaction w nightvalians. there’s also the spire! which sounds quite similar to the spiral, i think….

I think that’s a good example of how it’s different... “Barks” sounded like the kind of thing that could have been related to the Spiral, that sort of distortion. But the purpose was different - the Spire wanted to bargain, and from the sound of it it’s a lot more open about its demands (iirc: Night Valian “Thanksgiving” involves going out to thank the Spire for its “mercy”). It’s also a known destination. 

People in Night Vale know what it is to them. They may not know what it is exactly, but they do know the role it plays in their community. So while it absolutely fits into the structure of Night Vale, I don’t think it’s that similar beyond some (admittedly major) aesthetic elements?

All of those forces in Night Vale, the librarians and the council etc, while indeed forces and while they definitely relate to the human citizens in weird ways... they’re still citizens. 

The Powers are TIED to the world of TMA, but an explicit part of it is that they’re fundamentally alien to it, too, and basically need to be forced in.

vildflower said: but yeah,, hope you don’t mind the long rant rip aksk but at this point I’m pretty sure one could draw up a list of some 15 nightvale entities too lmao

(fdsdgh no you don’t need to apologize, I loved it and I’ve been thinking about this kind of thing a lot anyway too!!)

vildflower said: HOW COULD I FORGET! the glow cloud interacts w an even smaller group of people (the PTA) than the city council + angels!! I’d say they’re actually at the lowest rung cause they seemed to only be interested in josie; maybe their attachment to them in turn lead to be attached to nightvale even after she died?

actually the Glow Cloud works w/ the school board and seems to end up in conflict w/ the PTA and I only remember this because I was checking on it for something recently oops. 

ALSO THE ANGELS... YEAH THAT’S NEAT because!! they’re the only part of this that has an explicit connection to belief in canon!!

“They are all named Erika with a K. All angels are equal to all other angels. They share all memories and all physical sensations. They experience everything simultaneously. Their minds are overwhelmed with enlightenment and pain.

“They have no centralized leadership, but they do have committees, lots of committees. These committees do not have titles nor objectives. The committees simply emerge as needed...

“Angels have no bodies, only visual projections of winged, barely humanoid forms. These forms are dreamed up by those who see and acknowledge them, and may vary based on the viewer.

“The secret hierarchy of angels is an ethereal mass of feelings and thoughts made manifest by necessity. They’re only individual beings because we imagine them so, but they are collectively beings.”

But I think, yeah... Night Vale is, at its core, a community. And the worldbuilding of WTNV reflects that, even to the extent that belief is involved. I mean, really, the world does run on “belief” it’s just not a supernatural thing... We believe in the necessity of our social structures, so we create and act on them. 

And that’s what happens in Night Vale, it’s just that in Night Vale, a divine Glow Cloud runs the school board and the librarians will eat you. All the “forces” that we expect are there. Even though they’re strange (to us, at least), it’s all centered around the maintenance of a community. TMA has a much larger scope.

theres that whispering forest too and omg the desert otherworld, and the black star in ‘a story about you’ & other episodes; entities that manifest more as locations than sentient beings? 

So yes!! Night Vale as a place is definitely a gathering point for the weird. I think of Hiram’s favorite memory in this context, too - Hiram was happy in Night Vale because he could just live, for a while, anyway. Or at least, when people were upset, they weren’t upset by his nature as a five-headed dragon (who cares, right?) but because of what he did)

It does have a clear structure, but it’s not the same kind that the Powers operate under - WTNV (depending on interpretation, and none of it is canon tbh, as much as I love it) and TMA are both very different explorations of the connection between belief and reality.

Like the Whispering Forest is... well, apparently it’s its own town now. But it was sort of the local weird forest; it was... a citizen, maybe. In the way, indeed, that the Glow Cloud still is! It just wants to live (and grow. and expand) and Night Vale is a place it can do that. 

The Desert Otherworld seems to be connected to the Smiling God, although we don’t know much about how or why or if it’s always been that way. Dana saw some things, though, like when she almost forgot herself in the image of a triangle (iirc), not to mention the rumbling and whatever’s up with the Mudstone Abyss... And then it does have its connection to Night Vale, too, through the Dog Park... There’s a LOT going on w/ the Otherworld; that’s basically its own post dsfdgfdg 

And the dark planet lit by no sun is like. I admit I’ve never thought of it in the same light as the other things before! So I’d want to do that before going into it but that raises some SUPER interesting possibilities and if you have more thoughts I’d love to hear them! It definitely merits that further consideration. 

So in summary: TMA has rituals and avatars, and WTNV has community. I think.

[dracodemortem]

Because I’m clearly evil and want to subject everyone here to the torture you put me through, how about explain all the lovely dragons you’ve come up with.

OKAY SO. YOU WANT SOME FUCKIN DRAGONS LETS TALK DRAGONS. OKAY SO WE GONNA TALK ABOUT THE DRAGON UNIVERSE THINGYMAJIG KAY KAY GOOD.

So currently we have 20 dragons who belong solely to me that are named. The oldest and the progentitor of these dragons is the dragon deemed Fate, she absolutely massive even compared to the other dragons and serves as one of the ten ruling gods of the dragons. Size comparison wise she is roughly the size of uhhhh florida? More or less. She is actually three seperate conciosuness inhabiting the one body, and as a being who exists outside of more or less everything is nigh unkillable unless she wishes it. To clarify the dragons being named are called true dragons and are beings similar to elementals in the fact that their bodies are made from the magic for what they are named for. This would encompass the sixteen elements of my larger universe they belong too. Chaos, Creation, Destruction, Order, Antei, Matter, Time, Space, Life, Death, Darkness, Light, Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. Other dragons are made from lesser elements that would be a minor part of one or more of those six. Due to the nature of Chaos in the worldbuilding creatures that aren't actually from the universe it elementally originates, such as the dragon of Chaos, dont actually have the full abilities of that Chaos itself. This is why the dragon of Fate is actually an older god than the dragon of Chaos due to her being from that universe. All of the dragons are immortal due to their connection to their elements and the only thing that could pierce their hides would be something who believes they can better than the dragon believes theyre impenetrable, something thats highly unlikely and will rarely be fatal.

So continuing, first is the Dragon god of Chaos. This true dragon serves as the head of the council, the ruling figures within the dragons world. More or less his power appears as stroms of highly volatile magic, able to strip away enchanments and revert things to their most basic of forms. The color that represents him is actually iridescence, the appearance Chaos takes when introduced to the material world. He is also the primary antagonist of the world, having partially lost his sanity after his mates death.

After him is the dragon of god of creation, who serves as his polar opposite in every way except they have left from the rest of the world due to wishing to protect the world from their fits of madness. Creation holds a pink color and this dragon is similar in appearance to a dragon shaped distortion of pink light and crystalline flower petals.

Next are two characters who are more or less the main characters of the story that belongs to me. Dolkel au Maug Keshil and au Maug Rea. They are the dragon of Destruction and Restoration respectively. They are twins born in the same body but due to events in the past have been seperated into two new bodies over their original. Their magic works in that Keshil is able to cause things to fall into a State of Chaos or into a more primordial state of being should they not have said origin. Rea works to the reverse of this and restores things to whatever point she wishes in that objects path of Creation. Their only real limit they would have on this is to what extent they are able to expend their energy.

Keshil is also the ruler of an demiplane known as the Chasm. The Chasm is a plane of beauty, with the main kingdom area having purple crystaline spires serving as the buildings for the diverse population of near any sapient being and several non mythical beings as well. In between the towering spires are lakes lit by crystals that shine brighter than the stars themselves. The sky is filled with numerous visible galaxies, every so often the appearance of supernovas lighting the city more brightly below. To the north of the city is a primal forest, trees larger than skyscrapers reaching high into the sky, and people and creatures tending to forest and living in harmony with it. The eastern area of the plane is an ocean beyond compare, the shallows clearer than crystal with beaches in a rainbow of colors. The deeper oceans are green and blue across the spectrum the ships passing throughout floating palaces in there own right with smaller ships working as merchants, fisherfolk and messengers. The southren plane is plains and meadows and the bulk of the agricultural area in the plane. Eventually howeveor the valleys turn to canyons and eventually chasms in their own right, sometimes glowing with heat and smelling of sulphur in the deepest of them. To the west rise plateaus and formation of canyons far deeper than even the souths chasms. Running all through these are mines that crawl through the earth l, twisting in on themselves to gather the great riches of the world. Farther still rise mountains taller than the sky and beyond them a white waste of snow, colder than the Voids empty space.

There is a second area to the Chasm, a demiplane of the demiplane itself ruled by Keshils advisor Algin. These are known as the Depths and while considered by those living in the chasms bright lively plane a hell, to those who live here, it is a heaven. Massive pillars of jagged rock dot the landscape, pools of lava and sulphur pits bubbling merrily away between them. It is much darker than the chasm due to enclosing of rock around its realm but for those who live there it is perfect adjusted to the darkness and celebrating it. Algin himself is the oldest friend to Keshil and Rea and finds himself known as the Faebane due to his innate connection to iron in all its states and forms.

Aòdhagan is the dragon of order and younger brother to Keshil and Rea. His body is of crystal that shines witb hidden fires. Though srystalline one cannot see into his internal body though they can see through him. His magic grants him the ability to condense energy to form crystals of purified magic that will pierce through near anything, and also gibe him the ability to impose his will on those who break the laws of the council. For the beginning of the story he acts as an antagonist toward Keshil although eventually remebers the promise made to his siblings.

Tzerana is the dragon of Antei or beyter known as the Void. The void is the absence between the worlds of matter, an existence outside of Matter Time and Space to balance the three and to absorb them as they await Destructions hand. As such Tzerana hasnt a true from and is closer to a distortion within the material world over a physical being. However her magic is simple and strips Matter, Time and Space from what she wills, turning it into a pure absence of said elements. Her colour is white as that is the closet to a colour the void will ever have.

The dragon of Matter is perhaps on of the more simple of the dragons. Named Eoren he rules over Matter, or physical shape of the world. As such he can change any matter to another, water to superheated plasma, air into stone all are the same to him. His scales are platinum in colour and the only thing that shows his power is that which touches his scales, the air chaging states as it contacts him.

Nosae is the golden dragon of Time, and perhaps one of the more developed dragons being mentioned. The defining charecteristic is the effect Nosae has on Time. Around them Time seems to both flow in every direction yet stand still and as such Nosae uses this power as sparingly as they can due to them being one of the few dragons who prefers to company of mortals over their own immortal brethren.

The dragon with mirror for eyes is the dragon of Space. Their name is Quivusta and their magic will sitort and switch the area they focus on. From plains turning into an ocean to a city into a volcano they will distort whatever they fancy in whatever they please. As such they are also able to travel between points as they will it. They are silver in colour and as they move their wings leave trails similar to a comets tail.

Life is next and is overseen by the dragon Mivyss. The appear as a dragon made from silt and loam , blacker than than the night sky l, with willow tree wings. Around them life moves at an accelrated pace with the cycle happening in the span of seconds rather than centuries. Black is the colour of Life, as black as the good soil to grow life from.

Avyeros is of Death, the point in the cycle of life that people are entirely to hung up on. Their body is made from red sand with wings mummifed and wrapped in dessicated tissue like bandages. Their magic will force things to reach the point of death within seconds, howevor they also retain the ability to refuse somethings right to die and can only be overuled through powerful Life magic. As such they can cause things to reanimate with just glances.

Darkness is gray, and its Dragon is a living shadow with the halo of light it absorbs appearing around its body. Darkness is older than light as it had to be the state that existed before. As such it can quench any of the elements lesser to it or cause their absence but not their erasure. Its simplicity is what makes it dangerous , such as causing the absence of heat to create cold to extents of absolute zero. Their name is Kaziquell.

The dragon of Light is Verse and they are a living supernova to Kaziquell shadow. Each wingbeat blinds those with the flash and their scales twinkle on an on like a strobe. Light is energy and as such Verse is able to bend energy as they wish. Creating heat or force is nothing and light is second nature whether given a physical presence or only as enrgy it remains as their magic. As such Light's colour is yellow bright but still harsh to some.

Air is ruled by a small dragon. A hummingbird to the condors above. Bright green with four feathred wings, her wingbeats generate more force than the storms of the earth combined. Air is not only the magic of wind and storms, it is suffocation and poison when the air has left or been transformed to chlorine gas. Air is the gaseous state of the world and so the dragon called Malani commands air as so.

Burning bright and hot a dragon bodied of magma stands to the front. Glowing in every colour that fire burns the dragon of Fire Yevrayal commands Fire, heat and plasma to his whims. His eyes are.minature stars while his claws are fire given a physical presence, the colour of fire is orange, and said colour is the safest of them all.

Sephu is the dragon of Water and represents it in all its states. Hindquarters of ice harder than steel with wings of green-tinged water vapor and the forebody liquid as the sea they control Water, that is to say any thing considered a liquid even if it is just molten metal that they control. Water is blue and so is Sephu predominantly as it should be.

Two hours later and we get to Earth, and Earth is a dragon carved of stone, scales of polished clay and eyes and claws cut jewels. The presence shakes the foundations of the world and a foundation must be as solid as the earth to be strong. Such as it is Gyavesh is who controls solids, known to her as earth, within all domains.

Oh and theres Fairlos but hes just Keshils court jester with the really badly chosen job of being the scribe out of the numerous better candidates. He tries his best, but honestly? He fucking sucks at his job. He is basically any shape you could imagine a dragon is plus every other shape you can imagine a dragon as. He changes between all of those and is the Dragon of Deception.

I HOPE YOUR FUGGIN HAPPY MEEEEEEGGGGG!!

[beneaththetangles]

BtT Light Novel Club Chapter 22: Of Dragons and Fae

Yo ho ho! Tis time fer another voyage on the good ship Light Novel Club. I staged a mutiny an’ took over from old Cap’n Star this time. No, I’m not sure why I decided to open this post in such a piratical way, but…moving on, today we’re discussing Of Dragons and Fae: Is a Fairy Tale Ending Possible for the Princess’s Hairstylist? from Cross Infinite World. Yarr, matey, a question appears on the horizon!

-----

1. WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THIS BOOK OVERALL?

stardf29: Overall I enjoyed it. As a one-shot story it pretty much just did what it needed to do and then wrapped things up, and that’s cool. The main romance was solid and there were some interesting ideas throughout revolving around cultural differences and whatnot. At the same time there isn’t really anything that would put it among my “top tier” of light novels or anything; it was just a nice, enjoyable, quick story.

If I had one complaint about it… I guess I wish there was more actually done with the Flowerfolk powers, as if you put aside the occasional flower-making, for the most part the protagonist basically was “human with high temperature sensitivity” (which, honestly, describes me all too well) so it didn’t quite feel as much a story about “fae” as I might have liked. Ah well. I guess there’s only so much you can do with that when your story is a one-shot focused more on relational development than fantastic hijinks.

jeskaiangel: Yeah, what you said. It’s a fun fantasy romance with a bit of intrigue and some interesting commentary on biracial relationships (since it’s a topic with a rather sad history in America, it makes me curious how biracial marriage is regarded in Japan / how this book might be commenting on those attitudes). There was a strong primary relationship and some interesting secondary characters, and the story reached a nice, tidy resolution in only one volume, which helps excuse the slightly underdeveloped worldbuilding.

Far too often, in my view, romantic comedies come off as painfully forced. The leads like or misunderstand each other not organically, but rather because the story requires them to do so. I appreciated that both Mayna and Ray felt relatively believable, rather than getting mired in artificially induced irrationality or stupidity. It may not reach the level of all-time great light novels, but I do think it’s one of Cross Infinite World’s stronger releases.

2. WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE CHARACTERS?

jeskaiangel: I thought Mayna was cool because she’s such an “otaku” about hair. It’s not a subject I often see LN/anime protagonists nerd out over, but Mayna’s artistic passion for styling provides an effective solution for the problem sometimes seen in romances where the leads seem to have no life or personality outside their romance. Mayna’s work helped ground her as a person apart from her romantic relationship. The author was also careful to give us just enough about hair that we could share the fun of Mayna’s passion, without bogging down the narrative with haircare monologues.

stardf29: Yeah, Mayna is the star character here. It’s nice that she feels like a hairstylist first and a romance story protagonist second, and the story is really more about her efforts as a hairstylist in a new land than it is about her developing relationship with Ray. (Though I will admit to sometimes skipping over the more detailed hair information…)

jeskaiangel: Ray is a fine character, but not a great one. I find his early behavior, where he unceremoniously dumps Mayna and then acts rudely toward her in their first couple encounters in Vaxwald, to be the weakest part of the story. Even with the later revelations about why he acted as he did, I find it difficult to accept that he would just push Mayna away in deliberately misleading fashion like that, without even trying to talk things out. The rest of the story tries its best to show why he thought it made sense at the time, and succeeds somewhat, but it’s still a weakness in the overall narrative. Once again I suspect this could have been smoothed out a little more were this a multi-volume tale.

stardf29: Speaking of Ray… yeah, he’s got his issues. Definitely should have actually voiced his worries to Mayna rather than just brush her off and hope she forgets about him. Not sure if additional volumes would have given some chance to smooth that out but I think it could help in giving him a chance to work on what seems to be insecurity and overprotectiveness. But at least he’s got a good heart, and cares about Mayna without wanting to stop her from doing what she wants in life.

That is in direct contrast to Kirion, who I pretty much hated from the start. Which, given that he is the “main villain” of the story, was probably intended. I almost never like these “constantly flirting guys” characters, and he’s an especially nasty sort who doesn’t actually care about the girl he’s flirting with at all. So yeah, it’s kind of a good thing he is straight up the main villain and not some kind of “misunderstood” good guy. I do agree that it might be nice to learn more about his motivations, and about what’s going on in Kazarth or about the Shadowkin in general, which might have made for good material for a future volume. Ah well.

jeskaiangel: Kirion could have used more development. He’s apparently just a spy-for-hire, and he’s malicious and enjoys manipulating or antagonizing people. But why did he become an agent provocateur? Why accept this particular job? Is he greedy for an exorbitant reward? Does he need the money for something? As a source of conflict who is obviously sketchy but not obviously evil, he plays his narrative role well enough, and again I suspect the one-volume nature of this story limited his opportunities for development.

stardf29: As for our royal couple Dario and Patricia, I wish I could have read a full side story on how their relationship developed. I do like what we did see of them, though.

jeskaiangel: I have no objections to stories about princes and princesses, but it’s also fun having a tale where they are the background characters. That said, Dario and Patricia both impress with moments of surprising maturity. I appreciated seeing their efforts to build a meaningful relationship out of their politically arranged marriage.

3. IS THE ONE-VOLUME FORMAT OF THIS STORY SOMETHING YOU’D LIKE TO SEE MORE OF, VERSUS THE MORE COMMON TENDENCY FOR LNS TO SPAN DOZENS OF VOLUMES?

stardf29: One-shot volumes like this are nice in a world where every single web novel author wants to write long-running stories in the hopes of a long light novel serialization. Especially since a lot of stories in the world of anime/manga/light novels seem to like to meander and take a long time to get anywhere as it is, so reading a story where things largely cut to the chase is refreshing.

That said, you did make some comments earlier about how you would have liked some things to have gotten more development, which is hard to do in a single volume. So maybe what we really want are series which tell a complete story in 2 or 3 volumes?

Whatever the case, I believe an author should know when to end a story (or at least the main plot; if they want to continue with side stories after that, good on them), and each story will have a different ideal end point. Some will only need one volume, and some will need quite a lot of volumes. One-shot volumes are nice because they require little commitment, though.

(The real unfortunate thing is when a web novel only gets 1 to 3 light novel volumes published and then the publisher doesn’t publish any more because it’s not selling well or whatnot, forcing the author to either scramble up a rushed ending or just leave things hanging…)

jeskaiangel: Yeah, I think what this book shows me is that it would be nice if some LNs found a way to wrap up in, say, <10 vols. And, as you say, the needs of the story should determine exactly how many volumes are needed. Sometimes, it would be nice to sit down and read a volume or three and have the complete story, instead of feeling like I’m in danger of needing to read 20+ volumes every time I try a new series.

4. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE STORY’S CONCEPT OF “BONDMATES”?

stardf29: So the whole “Bondmates” thing interested me quite a bit. Obviously, it plays into the whole idea of “soulmates” and the supposedly romantic notion that there is one person out there that we were specifically meant to be with (whether by God’s design or some general belief in “fate”). It also interested me because another shoujo light novel, The White Cat’s Revenge as Plotted from the Dragon King’s Lap, had something similar with two people having “compatible” wavelengths that make it feel nice to be around each other. (And that one also has dragon people. And fairies. Go figure.)

That said, I’m not the biggest fan of the whole idea of “soulmates”, in and of itself. I could go into a whole discussion about this, but let’s just say that while I do believe God works in our life as far as if and who we marry, it’s not like there’s one person out there we absolutely have to marry, and if we “choose wrong”, our marriage is doomed. Or perhaps the worse interpretation, that if we do find our “soulmate”, somehow our lives will magically be perfect and the marriage doesn’t need any work.

What makes the whole “Bondmates” concept more interesting is that it’s not strictly a “we must get married” connection; as mentioned by Mona, it’s a desire for your Bondmate to be happy, even moreso than your own happiness. It means that if you realize that marrying your Bondmate might not make them happy, whether because of bringing about political strife or threatening their life somehow, you would refrain from doing so even if it hurts you greatly. And we see how painful that connection can be, with how Ray tried to reject Mayna in order to keep her safe from Vaxwald’s extreme climates. Sure, he went about things the wrong way, but it does goes to show that the Bondmate connection can involve a lot of self-sacrifice.

And that is something that is quite interesting. Imagine if God told us, “See that person there? Your purpose in life is to make him/her as happy as possible, even over your own happiness.” While it might not be completely aligned with Christianity, I think it’s definitely a lot closer to what Godly love is like, especially compared with Kirion’s more self-centered twist on the concept. And it’s definitely closer to what love between married people is actually like.

jeskaiangel: Agree. On one level whole soulmate thing dredges up the always messy of question of providence vs. human agency. To what extent is it actually possible for us to “mess up” God’s plans for our lives? Beats me. Also agree about how interesting it is that it stresses selfless love. It’s a positive message that reminds me of a favorite quote from Diseny’s Frozen: “Love…is…putting someone else’s needs before yours.” Too often in fiction, “love” is a tiresomely superficial blend of emotional highs and physical attraction, so I think it’s cool to see a deeper depiction of it.

5. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON HOW THE STORY DEALS WITH CULTURE AND CULTURAL DIFFERENCES?

jeskaiangel: The book is a good reminder that we have both commonalities and differences with people of other times and places (e.g., adjacent regions can share the same language, but differ with regard to courtship behavior or fashion). It seems to me like we humans are prone to taking extreme approaches: either those other people are exactly like us, or they are nothing like us. Reality is far more messy.

stardf29: As I mentioned before, the elements of cross-cultural interaction definitely helped make this an interesting story. There’s obviously plenty of straight-up prejudice with the rioters, but I think it’s interesting to see how those who are at least slightly open-minded are able to accept cultural differences with just a small push, especially for people like the princess who are just more scared of the unfamiliar than anything. It also shows how much it helps for those in high positions like the prince to lead the way in accepting others, because they set the example for others to follow.

With all that said, there is one big part of all of this that really got to me, which leads me to my next question…

6. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE FICTIONAL BOOK TALES OF TRIBAL ROMANCE AND ITS ROLE IN VAXWALD’S CULTURE?

jeskaiangel: There’s a good message here about stereotypes, critical thinking, and media consumption. Media, whether billed as fiction or non-fiction, can distort our understanding. We read or hear something, and then assume we have a thorough understanding of the topic. And yet we can’t just uncritically accept what we read or hear, because it may not be true. And even if what we learned is true, we still might not be seeing the full picture.

stardf29: I’m not going to lie: I absolutely hate Tales of Tribal Romance. Or rather, I hate how it’s become the de facto source of information on other races for Vaxwald, to the point where people there don’t even consider that Flowerfolk might not be as frail as the book portrays them as. And I can’t even imagine how it’s impacted their views of the other races (especially the other race for which the romance ended tragically).

What’s worse is that there seems to be no other major work, fiction or non-fiction, to say anything to the contrary. If this were a real place, I would definitely hope the new prince and princess start a project to learn more about what the other races and their cultures are actually like and publish that information, and hopefully more fictional works appear that give a much broader view of those other races as well.

As you’ve said, it really goes to show how much media, even fiction, can actually affect our perceptions of the world. That said, the question comes up whether the responsibility is on the writer to not portray things inaccurately, or on the audience for thinking more critically about what they consume. I’d say both are partially responsible, but given that even the most “accurate” author can only write so much on a given subject in a single work, I think the audience has a greater responsibility to manage the role of media in their own personal lives, and to make sure that their views aren’t too narrowly focused on works that were never meant to be gospel. (Note that things are different regarding the Bible, which actually is Gospel. Still, even there you have to be careful with various interpretations that twist things around… but that’s a whole ‘nother beast of a discussion.)

jeskaiangel: This sounds like another issue that could have been at least partially smoothed over if this were a longer story that included more worldbuilding and followed up on more of the details already present.

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And that’s it for our discussion of Of Dragons and Fae! If you read along with us, let us know of your thoughts in the comments! And visit the Cross Infinite World website for purchase options.