#and ended up with something I could've made an entire novel out of

[slackerlifewhere]

TCF is all about healing

- This is a review about the novel.

There's possible SPOILERS for readers who haven't finished reading the first volume.

___

When I first picked up the novel, I didn't have high expectations. After reading a lot of stories that end up disappointing me because of how the author eventually adds romance or harems into the story because their main character apparently needs a romantic relationship to feel good about themselves, I thought that Trash of the Count's Family will be the same thing further down the line.

But damn, did the author prove me wrong.

In the first few chapters, the novel's entire vibe was almost unnoticeable. Sure, there were some small details like him not being used to extravagant clothes or finding a simple meal delicious, but it wasn't obvious. It made me raise my eyebrow but I simply thought that he's a simple salaryman or something.

The first lines about him not having anyone who would miss him if he's gone in his previous world can be excused as him having no lingering attachments. And honestly, some transmigration/isekai stories do have their main characters having no attachments in their previous world. So it makes sense and it didn't alert me of what could've possibly happened to Cale, former Kim Rok Soo, for him to be so aloof and calm at the forced transmigration.

And then...he thought about poverty and pity when interacting with On and Hong. That was the first sign that he may have left a few lines out of his introduction.

It steadily got worse when he was talking to Choi Han about him being used to the cruelty of people like Venion. And then, at the first meeting with Raon, he appeared as if he understood the hopelessness of a child under an abusive adult's hand.

That's when I finally thought that TCF is a story about healing. And I was pleasantly surprised.

Sure, there's action, drama, and comedy, but TCF is mainly about moving on or healing from past hurts. There are moments when it can be called "cliche" but TCF is unique in the way it portrays Cale and his relationships. There's the found family trope that I love but what I love the most about the story is how these characters who have lost something or were about to lose something if OG Cale didn't make the deal with God of Death to have KRS replace him, is slowly understanding that they're not alone and that they can improve as a person if given the chance.

It's heart-warming and completely unexpected. I didn't read the first chapter expecting this fantasy-themed action novel to be about this.

OG Cale, Choi Han, Raon, On and Hong, Lock, Taylor and Cage, Alberu, the Dark Elves, Mary, and so many characters paved the way for me to completely fall in love with this novel.

If I sound like I'm exaggerating, then I don't care because this novel is just beautiful.

What completely blew my mind is the final reveal of Cale's past as Kim Rok Soo.

Listen, I have a love-hate relationship with KR survival novels involving monsters and dungeons and the freaking apocalypse. I love some of them and I can't stand the others. But I did not expect that Kim Rok Soo was in a world trying to survive from the effects of the apocalypse.

My first reaction was "What the actual fuck" because I 100% did not expect for the story to go that way. And my second thought was "So that's why!" Because it finally explains why he hates "papercuts"! This guy is so good at making big things about himself sound so small that it left me stunned when the big reveal happened!

I wanna slap him and hug him at the same time.

It explains why he's so good at being a commander. It explains why he's used to getting hurt or why he hates the thought of his friends and family dying with him as the survivor (I believe he has a survivor's guilt?). It explains everything.

He may be in a new world but he's still stuck in his past no matter how much he says about not thinking about what-ifs and his past. The time he spends in this new world is him slowly realizing that he's not alone and he doesn't have to be so scared.

And when I finally thought that I'm done being surprised, OG Cale appears and flips everything I knew about the character. They talk about how content they are with their new identities. They smile. They're happy. And that proves why this novel is about healing and not the simple transmigration novel full of action and comedy. Instead of getting angry at Kim Rok Soo, former Cale Henituse, for the deal with God of Death, he's just happy for the man and for himself. I just love how the author doesn't forget about Kim Rok Soo's sacrifices and rewards him with a happy life with his mother.

It's so hard not to finish the novel within weeks because of how good it is. It can be fast in some parts for the action, which makes sense since everything is happening at once. But there are also slow emotional moments that keep reminding me why I love this novel.

So yeah, this is my review about TCF. It's not a perfect novel but it's a good novel about healing and family. And I'm waiting for the second volume to be done so I can finally read the rest.

[haedalkoo]

Do you have a favorite thing about the way the boys speak as individuals (can be about their general type of speech, words/phrases they use, etc.)? Can be jimin and jungkook or any of bts!

For example, I don't speak korean, but jimin's speech always sounds so soft and comforting. Even when he's not trying to be cute, he still sounds so sweet. Armys joke about kindergarten teacher jimin, but I really do feel like even his voice and speech give that gentle vibe.

This is the cutest thing you could've asked me! Let's go in order:

Namjoon: I love the way he mixes Korean and English so seamlessly. I think he has two modes, Serious-Leader-Speech, very eloquent and straight to the point, carefully chosen words; and Regular Kim Namjoon, still all of those things but super cute, he rambles a lot and mixes languages and tends to use a lot of slang? He def lurks online. But guys, he's also so poetic. He sounds like he's reading a beautiful novel. He always sounds super polite too (when he's calm I guess!! he can get super hyped up lol) but he doesn't slur his words, it's so easy to understand him even though sometimes his vocab is really precise and advanced. OMG AND he doesn't have an accent!! BUT he imitates the members satoori and it's super goofy bc he's not great at it, so it's like his own made-up satoori.

Seokjin: Jin is an amazing speaker. I think the actor training has a lot to do with this, but he has such a good voice for narration and when he speaks in korean interviews he sounds super gentle and eloquent. IDK how to describe it, but he has a v specific tone and pauses in a very unique way, making his tone very melodic and almost like a news anchor hahaha. But when he's talking to the guys he loses that formality and he stresses random words that give him a kind of goofy tone? And he uses a lot of expressions like “야” (yah) or “으아” (euah) as sentence fillers. Again, like Joon, no satoori!

Yoongi: oh he's by far the member I have the most trouble understanding. He slurs his words a lot, starting off somewhat strong but almost losing the entire ending of the sentence. I'm sure you know what I mean even if you don't understand him. A friend once mentioned to me that his pronounciation of the letter ㅆ is not as strong as it should be, tending to sound more like a regular 's' sound like in the letter ㅅ. This is apparently due to his accent! Also, like Joon, to me he tends to sound really poetic, maybe more unconciously than Joon bc I feel like he's really deliberate with his words and Yoongi is more spontaneous. As a sentence filler, he clicks his tongue a lot and sucks in air (something I think JK has also taken from him)

Hoseok: Hobi always brings a smile to my face. I think his accent is the most notable (or maybe I just catch it better than the other's, especially since it's different from the rest of the members' given he's from Jeolla.) His entonation varies a lot, it's very melodic but in an energetic way because of this accent. He also ends sentences with 잉, ing, a lot, which leads to those "said cutely" translations. HE LOOVES onomatopoeias and adding random noises when he's doing things or describing smth. He's just a really fun guy to listen to. I noticed he uses 되게 (dwege) as a filler.

Jimin: you were right, anon. Jimin is incredibly soft-spoken and extremely careful about his words, that's why he tends to mutter or start sentences over and over again to convey the feelings he tries to express. This leads into very long sentences, with a lot of what I call 'pleasing' expressions. This is, Korean (like other Asian languages such as Japanese) is a very indirect language. When you want to express your disagreement with something, you don't straight out say 'I don't like this' or if you're telling someone to do smth differently, you don't say 'be careful next time, don't do that'. You say things like 'in the future, i believe that if you are able to do so it might be benefitial if this issue were handled in a different way' (this is a random example). Your sentences get endless bc you add words and politeness that softens the blow of your different opinion. Jimin does that more than other members who tend to be more blunt, like YG, TH or JK. I think this has changed over the years with the growing international fandom, but he used to sound really informal in his vlives to sound like an old friend with armys. now I think he expresses his outmost respect for us by speaking really formally and in ways that are easy to automatically translate. I also read he has some "feminine" speech patterns, since Kr is a very gendered language in the sense that girls and boys have diff sentence endings or words they use. I think this kinda contributes to how softspoken he is.

Taehyung: Tae's speech is all over the place, but he's extremely sensible and I think he offers the most unique metaphors when he's being sentimental. He's very heartwarming, but sometimes it's hard to understand him because he changes the subject, grammatical order or point of his sentences a lot to adjust to the speed in which things are coming out of his mind. This has gotten better over the years, though. I think age has offered him a sense of calm that allows words to flow better than in the early years of bangtan, where he was an excited puppy. He pauses a lot between sentences, saying "ohh" quite often, and he has a bunch of characteristic filler words like 약간 (yakhan, a bit) or 이제 (ije, now). If you watch the run bts ep where they forbid words for each member, I think ije was one of those for Tae.

Jungkook: guys he's so cute. I'm so grateful that he started doing lives more often, bc I always got the impression he struggled to put his thoughts into words more than other members and that's why he shied away from giving speeches. He still has a lot in his mind, but when he's not in a rush, he pauses a lot and stumbles over his words without shame until he gets the thought out. He speaks really really fast when animated, mumbling and slurring his syllables (that's why it's so hard for me to translate the travel show without proper subs.) We all know he has a lisp, I believe it might be a characteristic of his Busan accent, which is quite present on the regular (in contrast with Jimin, who sometimes forces it out, often around JK. He even joked that he was losing it a little). When he's directing his words to army, he tends to be really soft-spoken and formal, speaking in a way that you know comes from a place in his heart. He also uses a lot of onomatopoeias when describing things, and he adds cute endings to his words just like Hobi (my aegyo kings.)

[lloydfrontera]

i think my issues with the canon romance at the end can be summarized by that competition alicia holds to win lloyd's hand.

she's like 'oh your new body sucks you need to marry someone who can protect you 24/7' so she holds a tournament to find the strongest woman in the continent and marry him to her so he'll have built-in bodyguard. which is objectively the funniest thing she could've done i love her so much. but. like. it's so unnecessary, redundant and also just,,,, factually incorrect??? ajdhka god lemme explain

here's how alicia puts it

but,,,, lloyd already has a bodyguard who's at his side 24/7. like. that's very much a plot point of the entire novel. there's literally a character who's arc is about coming to care about lloyd above anything else and deciding to stay at his side for the rest of his life to protect him. like. that's very much a thing that happened. it literally takes us 320 chapters to get to that point why are you acting like you're doing something new here

a swordsmanship competition. to decide who gets to marry lloyd. remind me what character have we spent the entire novel being told and shown over and over and over again is the most powerful and strongest swordsman in literally the entire world???

right. but he can't participate. because he's not a woman. which i think it's the point to this rant.

i don't think i need to spell it out but i'm gonna anyway.

the only reason javier isn't the one to end up with lloyd is because he's a man. because even by the in-universe made up requirements he's the most qualified one to do so, except that he's not allowed to even participate because he's not a girl.

and y'know what's the extra thing that just. makes me go a little insane because it's the one detail that makes me doubt for one second that all of this wasn't just pure chance or coincidence and instead is bk moon taunting us. y'know what it is.

what character is the only one who canonically can and has passed for a woman with no issue whatsoever in a seemingly out of nowhere gag that never comes up again. do you remember.

right. yeah.

so we have,,, a character who is devoted to our main character and has sworn to protect him for the rest of his life with everything he has, who is the strongest swordsman in the entire world and who can easily pass for a woman.

and then the main character is supposed to marry whoever wins a competition to decide who gets to protect him for the rest of his life, who is the strongest swordsman in the country and where only women are allowed to participate.

and i'm not supposed to read anything into that.

okay. i feel like i'm going crazy this is me right now

but seriously. this little tidbit that was probably just meant to be a joke about how alicia came to marry lloyd just,,, really highlights how unnecessary and redundant their romance feels to me

like. why would lloyd need to marry alicia. when he already has javier.

do you get what i mean

[booktomoviebrawl]

We are not judging how bad the movie is, we are judging which adapted the book the worst. There are good movies that are bad adaptions.

Propaganda below the cut (spoilers may apply)

Persuasion:

They massacred my girl!! That is not Anne Elliot!! The whole point is that she's beaten down and thinks she's missed her chance at happiness and is bullied by her family, not making mean and snarky nods to the camera :( They completely missed the whole point of the dynamic and it's SICKENING! They also cut Mrs Smith who is arguably one of the most important characters as she highlights Anne's lack of focus on title and rank and her family's comparative obsession with it + it's only through her that Anne learns about Mr Elliot's true nasty nature. Also they cut the 'I am half agony, half hope' line from Wentworth's letter at the end so what's even the POINT of adapting it if you don't have that!! Oh my god!! My poor favourite Austen novel :( (I do want to make it very very clear that my issues with the movie come from the writing and adaptation and not in any way from the race blind casting. The casting is superb and I'm genuinely so disappointed that they got such a bad adaptation bc so many of the cast are literally perfect)

Where do I even start? They tried to 'modernize' both the protagonist and the love story and managed to take out everything that made it good in the first place. Anne Elliot in the novel is quiet and good and helpful, full of regret. In the movie, she constantly turns to the audience to mock everyone around her, feeling so much better than everyone, to the point where nobody understands why Captain Wentworth would still be in love with her, or have fallen in love with her in the first place. Eight years before the plot starts, she broker her engagement to him because she was persuaded by a family friend that it was a bad idea. No way would movie!Anne have let herself be persuaded. They just tried to do a Fleabag/Emma type of thing without understanding what made either the novel or those two things work and thereby ruined it completely

Whoever made this didn't understand the point of the novel at all. They completely screwed up the character of Anne Elliot (the protagonist), which in turn screws the rest of the movie, as the original story only works because Anne is the way she is. Also, it's a period piece but the characters are talking in modern slang the entire time. And not in a clever way but in a very cringey one. If Jane Austen knew, she'd probably turn in her grave, and rightfully so.

Maximum Ride:

The storyline makes absolutely no sense, and the movie is nothing like the book. You could've given the movie an entirely different name and and keep the plot I wouldn't bat an eye

the movie's just bad mate

Horrendous low budget netflix movie with effects so bad they make me feel physically ill and acting so wooden the cast is in danger of being attacked by lumberjacks. The story already wasn't the best and the film somehow made it worst. I came in with nostalgia for my dear kids with bird wings and left never to be the same again.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children:

While Miss Peregrine was one of my favorite books as a kid and incredibly unique in the way the story is written (The author basically took a box of weird antique photographs and created an underlying story behind a handful of them) the movie is incredibly boring. Like seriously I can't remember a single goddamn thing about the movie besides my extreme disappointment with it after leaving the theatres. It's probably because the original is a trilogy but they didn't want to make it a trilogy for the movie so they just scrapped the ending of the first book and rewrote a shitty climax where they threw snowballs at the nightmare child eating creatures or something. I remember THAT scene perfectly because it was so, so dumb. It was so stupid oh my God- ALSO, thank God I have a copy of the book from before the film came out because new copies don't have one of the photographs that the actual book uses as a base anymore and instead have the shitty movie poster! We truly do live in a society.

Changed way too much so it doesn't feel like the same thing. The main characters are these kids with different abilities (called peculiarities) and the movie switches around their powers and changes almost everyone's age. Emma and Olive switch powers so that Emma now floats (they also added that she can kind of control air to some extent) when she's supposed to have fire powers to match her fiery personality. Olive can make fire now and she's also aged up from an eight year old to a teenager and put her in this weird romance with Enoch. Enoch is also aged up from a grumpy thirteen year old to around the same age as Olive. Bronwyn, one of the older kids in the book and sort of a motherly figure to the younger kids, is now one of the youngest kids. Hugh and Fiona are aged down and basically have no interaction at all in the movie, even when their book counterparts had such a good relationship. The only one they didn't really change was Horace and Jacob. They also added these gorgon twins that do like two things. The antagonist in the movie is Mr. Barron who honestly isn't super memorable and isn't in the books whatsoever. The ending of the movie is weird too because they manage to turn back time somehow so Jacob's grandfather isn't dead and then he hops through loops so he can be with Emma and the other peculiars. I guess the problem of wights and hollowgasts is magically eliminated and we do not have to deal with the consequences. It took six books to fix everything. I appreciate that the movie engaged me enough to read the series but once I did, I could not believe they did my kids that dirty.

Yikes where to start. The 3 girl characters are all mixed up. There are 2 teens, one who's super strong and has a brother (I'll get back to him) and one who controls fire and is the love interest named Emma. The third girl is a child called Olive who floats. She's lighter than air.

In the movie, strong girl is the child, olive is now the fire girl and is for some reason super introverted, and Emma the love interest floats and gets given a super breath??? Power?? Like she rises a sunken ship by blowing in and keeps a man blown against a wall by blowing air at him. He makes a remark that she'll run out of breath eventually, which happens here because plot convenience, but not when she's blowing in the sunken ship.

The enemies in the book are terrifying Hollows. Creatures who have lost themselves and devour souls of those with powers... The movie decides they eat eyes now. And turn human again. And get busted up in a fair for the final act of the movie. Ugh.

The movie also decides randomly that time travelling through the loops is a thing; a loop being a pocket of time that replays the same day over and over. But apparently this means Main Character can travel back in time and stop his grandfather dying??? What?? His grandfathers death is the whole start of the movie and motivation for the character.

The movie undermines many of things that made the book amazing and even decides it's not a trilogy anymore!! Fuck the other 2 books, right?!

Tldr; it is terribly hollywood-ised and t tim Burton ruined a franchise by trying too hard to make it quirky and fun when the books already had a brilliant sombre and interesting tone to them.

[theside-b]

So that's a wrap on Wandee Goodday... honestly, a good show, with a good and solid pair of leads with chemistry in spades which proves to be the saving grace for another GMM show.

I actually thought the show had a great start (episode one excluded) with an engaging script, and all characters seemed interesting in their own right. But unfortunately something happened halfway-through that made many plot points become moot or simply cease to exist, for exemple Dee and Ter's rivalry was electric in the first couple of episodes, with that loaded baggage between them ー the moment where Dee finally steps up and Ter makes moves on him to sway his resolve was super interesting, because Dee notices and states how Ter could be manipulative, painting him as a very dangerous rival ー but that got dropped, and Ter became genuinely interest in Dee which led to the most uninteresting love rivalry between Ter and Yak.

In a way, one of theirs strongest assets didn't always play out in their favor: At one point it became simply too ridiculous to not have Dee and Yak as boyfriends, specially with the way Sarin and Sapol played them, there wasn't any room for question when it came down to their feelings ー the script needed to constantly remind us that they were not dating.

I do wonder how much of a studio interference that was, because GMM does have a tendency to pull on writers leashes when stories stray too far from their bread and butter.

There were other fumbles: Taem whole arc was weird, suddenly realizing she had feelings for Yak when not one episode prior she was supporting his relationship with Dee. They pretty much vanished with Drake's Kao , who started out with a very unique quest for love as an assexual person, only to be reduced to Yak and Dee's sexual counselor (he provided them with sexy costumes pretty much) and a speedrun romance at the very end.

One of the best parts of the show wasn't bulletproof either: Thor and Fluke's hot-n-sweet couple Yei and Cher could've easily got a 'epilogue' episode telling how they got together, there is a whole novel of them by the way, they briefly mention some of the events but it would be nice to see it and considering that were at least two fillers episodes it wouldn't be too hard to have at least one focused entirely on them. They also teased a potential Yei story around his debt and gambling addiction, only for it to be resolved in 5 minutes in a brief fist-cuff with Yak. All that said, it was truly impressive how Thor and Fluke have that thing where we get uncomfortable watching them together, like we are actually invading their privacy, which is great.

Also, they got the first on-screen gay marriage from Thailand, so I can't do anything but love them.

Yak and Dee as well seemed to be watered down compared to what they were initially presented. When they argue why they won't commit to each other we get brief glimpses of what was their initial pitches: Dee went through some bad experience that made him averse to relationships, whereas Yak fears that his sexuality will cause problems in the competitive fighting world. Two stories way more interesting than what we got, and worse is that both plots were simply brushed aside for the "fake-boyfriends" approach.

The one story that wasn't altered and remained solid from start to finish was the complicated relationship of the Phadetseuk family, hands down the most complex in the show and the fact that Yei and Yak's sexuality wasn't an issue, but his father still had issues with them was great.

I know they were on a brutal schedule, there are reports of filming happening for the same week's episode, which more often than not reduces quality and demands script adjustments. I might be coming off too critical, it just that there was so much potential left out.

But what we got was good, could've been great, but it was good.

[vote-gaara]

Why didn't you like Gaara Hiden?

My feelings for Gaara Hiden are complicated.

Oh, and if you haven't read the English Translations here they are. Someone formatted it from the Tumblr post that was originally on Cacatua's blog.

Now what was I saying?

Oh yes, my feelings for Gaara Hiden...Complicated. Very, very very complicated. I don't hate the story, but I don't really like it either.

Now before I absolutely lampoon this novel, here are some things I do liked about it:

Gaara content in which he stayed in character!

The story was more or less unnecessary (more on this later).

Gaara's fixation on how Naruto saved him took a back seat to other things going on, which was a breath of fresh air as it allowed the story to focus on other aspects of Gaara's life.

Sand sibling interactions are always welcome :)

Socially awkward Gaara is amazing, especially around romantic themes. Also, we love when Gaara can go off about his hobbies.

Strong things I dislike about the novel:

Gaara came across as really cold which irritated me, but also didn't surprise me. Gaara is a really complex character to write. He's simultaneously sassy, pessimistic and a bit of a meanie while turning around and being the most genuine, wholesome and inspirational character you would ever get to know. I'm not even saying Gaara was out of character, because they did a really good job of keeping him pretty true to who he is, but I wished the novel would have forced him to interact with other people as a normal person, rather than as Kazekage, which the entire book proceeded to do and thus we lost out on seeing Gaara's true personality. Like the book handled him floundering with Hakuto really well, but how he treated Shijima in comparison was just...Not good. It was boring. BORING! It was like watching a coworker talking to their boss the entire time, which just did not make for good reading and Shijima ended up coming across as very flat as a result. And I KNOW this is because they were on a mission, I KNOW they were just being "shinobi" but...like....I just wanted more of the genuine, good and wholesome "Gaara trying to interact with people" rather than "Gaara being Kazekage and acting like Kazekage and everyone treats him like he's the Kazekage."

We learned that Temari and Kankuro took a backseat in Gaara's life - The book did Kankuro dirty more than Temari. After I read the scene when Gaara and Kankuro are talking (which was like half a page long), and it said something like "this was the longest conversation Gaara had had with his brother in 6 months" I could not describe the amount of anger I felt. I know the sand siblings are busy, but 6 MONTHS???? WHAT??

Kazekage Clan - Crap. Crap, crap, crap and utter garbage. I think I wrote about this in a different post (on one of my other blogs, maybe? I don't remember now) but the "Kazekage clan" pretty much vetoed any meaning behind Gaara's speech to Kankuro when Gaara was like "I want to become Kazekage one day." In the beginning of the series, a person could've figured that becoming Kazekage would operate a lot like becoming Hokage, where only the strongest, smartest and most hardworking individual was selected, and that working towards that title was something not to be taken lightly. Assuming this, when you look at Gaara's speech to Kankuro, where he's professing that he wants to become special to others, to repair and heal the damage and pain he caused, and to connect to others, you imagine that Gaara has nothing but this treacherous, mountainous, up-hill battle to fight...Not only is it difficult to become Kazekage, but as Kankuro put it "the jonin don't think highly of you and people are as scared of you as ever." It had meaning to it. It meant that there was a lot at stake. And because of that, it meant so much when you discovered that Gaara did become Kazekage....But then oops, they just ruined that by making the position a family title. It just cheapened the whole thing, and it made no sense as to why Gaara tried so hard in the first place if it was just gonna be passed down to him anyways, since his siblings weren't interested in the title....Idk, just felt like it ruined any meaning behind Gaara's character development which just gutted me cause WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT???

The story was pointless - Okay, so I'm kinda thankful the story was pointless because I was hoping Gaara would remain single. (I know, I know, I KNOW and I'm sorry. Gaara deserves that romantic love, but also it's kind nice to have him be an ace/aro icon too). I just think it was realistic for him to just be by himself and to find happiness doing whatever Gaara does. HOWEVER, I also have a thing where I'm like...."Why tell a story that serves no purpose?" Which sounds so mean, and maybe it is, because I love any and all Gaara content, but also I don't know if I really got anything from this novel, either? Like it didn't develop Gaara's character and he was pretty much...stagnant the whole time, which is an interesting way to write a story. They could have gone in so many directions that would've had Gaara learn how to interact with people and to connect with others on a more personal level....Small changes that wouldn't have even been very hard to disprove in canon, but instead Gaara just....didn't change the whole time. He didn't learn anything and he just....was.

All the "gotcha" moments - Plot twists are only clever when there's proper foreshadowing (in my opinion). A lot of the "And then Gaara revealed that he knew about the person following him/the betrayal/the setup/the motive the whole time!!" was just....so....um...not good. It just felt like I was the constant victim of an ass-pull the whole time. In fact, the only plot twist/reveal the novel did well was unveiling that Gaara and Kankuro were in cahoots the whole time about Kankuro trying to take over being Kazekage, and believe it or not, that was because the novel took the time to set that up. They made you pay attention to it with relevant details. Meanwhile, in the end scene where Gaara stabs that dude that had apparently been following them the whole time just was a giant wtf to me, honestly lol. I was halfway expecting a T-Rex to burst from the earth crust and Santa clause to rain down from the sky just randomly, because why not at that point if we're just gonna make stuff up willy nilly? IDK maybe I'm wrong and maybe I missed some clever writing in it, but mostly I was just kinda underwhelmed.

That being said, Gaara content is Gaara content, so I am obligated to like Gaara hiden.

[tired-reader-writer]

Chapter 131 Rapid-Fire Reaction

I feel like I'm gonna be skipping over some stuff but here we go!

@innerchorus' reaction post here

Very happy to spot you, bud!

This was really cute. Jaswant on babysitting duty loooool.

This panel evoked similar feelings in me as Bodin's death scene. It's just this visceral, horrifying, and harrowing sort of feel that creeps up your spine. The contorted limbs. The blood-stained grass. Every aspect of it is just... yeah.

Considering how Andragoras' court was filled with corruption, the Temple a cesspit, and the person who tried to fix both issues essentially got chased out even if he left of his own volition... yeah. It's definitely self-flattery and delusion on Andragoras' part— Pars' capital and politics were rotten with a shiny veneer/mask on top. He did not care. He has no right lecturing Arslan on being “a strong King”.

This is definitely the first (and only) time Tahamenay initiated touch with Andragoras, just look at the shock in his eye. But it's— well.

I'm glad this change was made in the manga— it gives Tahamenay some measure of catharsis and closure, even if it's still painful in the end, she would never reunite with her child. But still. She got revenge. She got revenge for her homeland. At least there's that. Looking at this scene, I can't help but think this is a fitting end for a man like Andragoras. My brain is a bit fried so I can't put it eloquently but it's just. It fits. She even throws his words back at this situation. A farce.

Reordering the scenes a bit, at first I wondered if the manga was trying to hint at something with this panel (Tahamenay's talking about Estelle here) and I know I'm not the only one— but ultimately I don't think Arakawa will go this way. Their palettes are too different even if they're equally light-haired and light-eyed in this black-and-white manga form, and even outside of that... There was no indication or hint that Estelle was adopted (they were in the anime, but there's nothing about that in both the manga and the novels) and if Arakawa wanted to hint at Estelle being the lost daughter, I'd think she would've planted the seeds for this early on.

Rather, I believe this is like closing a door for Tahamenay, coming to terms with the fact that she'll likely never see her daughter again. Either this realization was what allowed her to kill Andragoras, or she's coming to terms with this after she'd killed him.

She looks so tired and sad.

Alfarīd is someone who inspires other people and lights a fire in them— Estelle needed this. This is where her priorities should be. The civilians. The innocents. I do believe that Alfarīd is in the know about how Arslan asked the three merchant boys to keep them safe— but whether she knew or not there's an element of uncertainty here, it's a gambit. They could've still died but she has to find something, anything, to snap Estelle out of this guilt spiral and redirect her emotions. And at first it seems like the gambit didn't pay off but no, no! It did! They're all safe! Estelle is rewarded for their efforts.

Estelle struggles with guilt of having been the one that escaped, the one that lived, the one that was always late to save people, and I'm so glad that the streak has finally been broken. They've been through a lot.

I can't form a coherent thought on this but I think there's smth about their growth and Arslan's kindness and how things pay off buuuut my brain is not cooperating.

Look at that! I think Isfan's smiling! That lil fang! He's happy for Arslan!

This panel is particularly ominous even without featuring Shapur (which it does, I just cropped him out) because like. Isfan was shown smiling in literally the previous panel. But here the speech bubble obscures his face, there's a tension to it here, and the sense that something is incredibly wrong.

Which, of course, is entirely correct because there's an undead Shapur literally looming in the back.

To map out the absolute journey my brain took upon seeing that last page:

Not Registering That It's Shapur → Oh Hey It's Shapur! → Wait Why Is He Here He's Dead → Realize His Eyes Are Different → OH NO HEART ATTACK in the span of like five seconds 😭 Like, it did NOT intellectually register at first and then the dawning horror catches up.

[licncourt]

begin again COOKED as a post-qotd fix-it (fave fic! <3) but i need to know your thoughts on prince lestat/how you would re-do it in the correct way. to this day i still think LESTAT becoming prince monarch of all the vampires is one of the craziest decisions made during the novels. to me lestat is a prince in the same way that jack skellington was king of halloween (that includes the running away to cause delusional hijinks that ultimately jeapordize everyone)

Aaahhh thank you!! That fic is my child that I birthed so I appreciate it more than you know! It's actually BA's one year finished-iversary next week, my baby's all grown up.

I've talked about that before actually in this post about how I would rewrite the whole series, but I can expand a little here!

Firstly, this could've been two books instead of three. There was nothing going on in there that required three entire novels

Things that have to go entirely: aliens, test tube clone baby Viktor, Atlantis. Sorry, not salvageable

I think rather than the Amel thing, it would have been cool if the sacred core had started corrupting Lestat and altering his behavior as host, maybe changing him gradually into a animalistic, violent folklore-like vampire, making him slowly lose his mind like Mekare, or erasing his sense of self to become a blank host. Then it's a race against the clock and vampire magical biology to save him. This could be the first PL book

Ideally, I think this book should be narrated by Louis and focus a lot on his growth as a character as he finishes his personal. It would bring some happy ending closure to the IWTV version of him without being a jarring change. I also think having his POV for the best of his and Lestat's relationship would be a nice full circle moment from seeing him describe their worst. The idea of Lestat losing himself to the core and them potentially coming together too late would add good drama as well. Maybe this is Louis' follow-up memoir describing how they fixed things

The Rhoshamandes conflict can stay for the second PL and final VC book, but I think it could've been less boring if the drama between him and Lestat had been better fleshed out. They have a lot of similarities that weren't used to their full advantage. It would really highlight Lestat's growth to have him defeat what he could've become

When Lestat reunites with Louis, they would actually have some long, hard conversations about their past, ones that continue throughout the PL trilogy

Hopefully an explanation for why Lestat has made this 180 is included, even if it's just the crushing realization of his own loneliness and longing reaching critical mass after twenty years of who the fuck knows what

The cast is pared down to the strongest written and most interesting characters so the story isn't spread so thin, probably Lestat, Louis, Armand, Gabrielle, Marius, Pandora, and maybe a small handful of new characters with significance in the story. I think Seth, Fareed, Sevraine had the most potential to be good additions to the primary roster if she wanted to add on

Cool characters from the original like trilogy like Maharet and Khayman are expanded on rather than killed offscreen to make room for more Anne Rice NPCs. If we're going to kill someone from the trilogy, please God let it be David Talbot

This goes without saying I think, especially from me, but Louis would be restored to his former glory as a true main character alongside Lestat instead of relegated to lobotomized housewife. There was so much potential for him in an active consort role. We also don't get to see how he got to such a peaceful place at the end of PL, so I would like to see him work through some stuff on the page

I would either cut the Rhoshamandes/Benedict storyline because of how redundant it is with how it mirrors the Marius/Armand dynamic or do something to differentiate it as its own relationship. At the very least, maybe the similarity could be highlighted to become a character beat for Armand

As far as Armand in general, I would make him a much more prominent player. I think he's a great fit for a court setting and could create a lot of intrigue as well as adding coolness factor. I'm always torn about whether I like the reveal of his romantic feelings for Lestat, but in the interest of keeping SOME things intact, I would just play it differently. Primarily, I think he becomes way too agreeable (similar to Louis) in how he submits to and idolizes Lestat, so I would love to see him come into more conflict with Lestat in spite of those feelings. Maybe we can see him make some peace with their history and let go of that intense emotion for something healthier

If we're going to keep the sex injections (IVs, whatever), I think we should do more with it than have Lestat prematurely ejaculate into a random woman. I think there's potential for a very interesting new dynamic with Louis and Lestat. It would be cathartic and maybe an interesting part of their healing process and of becoming a real couple for the first time

That's what I can think of for now, but I might update later!

[tartigglez]

"perhaps you should test the theory?" (pt.1)

kaeya x gn!reader

genre: friends to lovers (idrk how to categorise it. too wholesome to be smut too suggestive to be fluff)

word count: 700-ish

summary: truth or dare?

tags: first kisses lol, spoiler alert: they're secretly in love with eachother, basically just reader putting ninety per cent of their energy into comebacks to kaeyas flirting ngl

tw/cw: itsy bitsy bit suggestive, esp towards the end but that's kinda it

a/n: i was gonna write this prompt with childe and i still might but wbk im a kaeya main and i just n e e d e d to,,, i just h a d to

for someone with a cryo vision, kaeya alberich was surprisingly good at turning on the smoulder, making you feel warm inside, making your cheeks heat up, maybe making you feel a little hot and bothered in other ways, but that is something you would never admit to. he was someone you considered your best friend on earth, and he thought the same of you. you’ve been inseparable for years, to the extent where the citizens of mondstadt have often questioned you on the status of your relationship, were you friends? or something more? 

you would be lying to yourself if you said that you didn’t ask yourself the same question quite often. you loved kaeya, no doubt about that, but was it just platonic? and despite the fact the man has flirting skills which are arguably unmatched in all of teyvat, he seemed to always be single, which made you wonder if it was something to do with you, but you knew that deep down, that was simply a fantasy. 

a loud, disruptive knock on your front door tore you away from the pages of your book, a romance novel, coincidentally enough… 

you opened the door to find a tall man carrying copious amounts of snacks in his arms, and wearing the standard tilted grin on his face.

“kaeya…?”

“that was me the last time i checked. open the door, we’re hanging out”

“alright…” 

despite the fact the man had an entire house to himself, it felt like he was rarely away from yours. after welcoming himself into your home, and making his way to your room, he dropped the snacks on your bedspread, analysing his choices, and secretly praising himself because he remembered to pick up your favourite snack. 

“dare to tell me if there is any reason for your sudden visit, mister cavalry captain?” 

“nope”

“try again” you said sternly

the man cannot resist the questioning look on your face (secretly he found it adorable), and therefore offered his reasoning

“my shift finished and i was bored. after all, i haven’t seen you today, that's all”

the sudden confession from the captain was enough to arise butterflies in your stomach, but you decided it best to simply ignore his flirtations for the time being, swiftly moving on to a new topic of conversation.

“what do you want to do?”  

“you” he mumbled, under his breath

you could've sworn your ears were playing tricks on you, as well as your stomach, which you could practically feel doing a backflip. after all, kaeya was flirty, but he was generally quite chivalrous, as is to be expected from such a well respected knight of favonious. 

“excuse me?”

“lets play truth or dare” 

“uh huh…”

after about ten minutes, you are laying on your back on your bed, next to kaeya, who is doing the same, whilst quietly munching on some sort of new snack a friend in liyue had sent to him. 

“okay truth” he opened, “what is the weirdest compliment someone has ever given you?”

“hm, let me think” 

after about 10 seconds of silence, you answer, not expecting anything to rise, of course…

“probably that my lips look very soft? i’m not sure, sometimes people talk about me having nice eyes but i think the lips one has gotta be up there”

“right… now that i think about it, your lips do look... really soft” he said quietly, so quiet it was almost a whisper, whilst never breaking eye contact.

from pure reflex, a sharp breath drew itself into your lungs. quite frankly, its hard to know how to feel about having something like this said to you, especially by such a close friend, but somehow, you happened to find the perfect response somewhere in the back of your mind.

“perhaps you should test the theory?”

within a split second, the cryo user was hovering over you, his arms planted on the mattress at either side of your head, so close that you could feel his breath on your skin.

“may i?”

you simply nodded, having suddenly realised that you have never wanted anything more than this.

and so, you finally felt the contact of kaeya's slightly cold lips upon yours… 

part 2

[friendsim2]

Looking back on the game so far is there anything you’d change? Is there a character you would’ve written differently or made more/less important?

(director/lead writer responding)

This is a tricky question to answer, because there's not really any one singular thing that I'd personally want to change in terms of, like, "I really don't like how this came out at all." And with some time for it to marinate, I really enjoy a lot of the elements of what we ended up doing (and there's some aspects coming up that close the loop on a couple things I'm excited for folks to see), although I do have a few things:

More low-end machine testing for the walk-around segments. Especially the Volume 3 style stuff, because there was a solution to the initial issues with control responsiveness and I wish we'd delivered it out of the gate being less frustrating to play. I was actually watching a livestream where someone was using the keyboard and realized just how bad it was. As it stands now, it's actually quite good (I re-wrote the control handler to use PyGame instead of RenPy's control layer), but on release it wasn't great.

Someone mentioned having a Marsti walk-around segment related to Volume 4 and I think that would've been really cool. Volume 4 was already one of our longest routes, so I don't know where we would've stuck it in, but I still think it's a neat concept.

I wish we'd had the resources to put something akin to the Volume 1 trial sequence into Volume 8 - I think it would've been thematically appropriate, but it also would've required a bunch of sprite resources we didn't have and additional time spent on a volume that was already a decently chunky amount of writing.

Character-wise, I'm pretty happy with the balance of how folks were written. I know some people were disappointed we didn't focus more on certain characters - and I'll readily admit that "I like writing this character" plays a role in how to prioritize stuff (which, to be fair, it did in the original game too). But also, I think even the characters that're less of a focal point still got some decent development (and yeah, you'll see more Vikare/Zebede coming up as supporting characters). I wouldn't have minded having a bit more Folykl and Kuprum since they were a lot of fun to write. Kinda wish that I'd wrapped Lanque back into Volume 6 and 7 a little bit more.

I feel like the prologue volume probably could've used another pass of editing. It's the first thing I wrote for the game, so you can definitely see where the tone of the original Friendsim and Pesterquest is more of an inspiration, and the game's unique voice hasn't quite started to shine through yet. Which I suppose would be considered a high point if you really wanted "Friendsim, but again" but also I feel like the differentiation for "this is going to be a sequel, not a repeat" doesn't really start to hit until Volume 1 starts. I'm not unhappy with the writing, but I can't help but feel a little so-so about it, especially since I'm really happy with Volume 1 as folks' first major experience with the game and its writing.

This is so incredibly out of scope, but I think it would've been neat to make the entire game a full-on Act 2 style adventure game merged with visual novel elements for literally every volume. It would've been a huge amount of work, required a different engine (or significant work to make the Volume 7 walk-around engine scale up better), and cost a bunch more money but can you imagine how cool it would be!

[lara635kookie]

Ship Analysis pt.2.

RedCrackle, CarmIvy and Carulia.

So, I decided to divide it in parts because we'll have to analyze Gray's character a little bit to understand Red Crackle more. I think this is going to have five parts or something because when I try to post things too long Tumblr goes all error and stuff. And I got a lot to say about Red Crackle.

Okay, to start, I haven't read the novel but I heard that there has some scenes of the novel that conflicts with canon. And I looked for Duane Capizzi saying that and couldn't find it. Second of all, this person seems to don't understand what is Gray's purpose at all. He's that interesting yet misterious unpredictable morally gray character. He's not truly good or truly evil, he's that one character we never know which side he's going to take. Both A.C.M.E and V.I.L.E.(specifically the personification of each, Chief and Maelstrom) talking about "seeing the world in shades of gray" while Gray in on the screen proves that. He never seems to fully embrace completely one of the sides until the very ending of the show. Even when he sticks to V.I.L.E. the good in him still shows. He's the second most sweetheart operative V.I.L.E. ever had(only loses to El Topo). Third thing is when Carmen and Player are talking about it Carmen says that Gray tried to "blow her out like a birthday candle" and when you blow a birthday candle, you can light it up again. Fourth:at the conversation they have on the train, Carmen says:"V.I.L.E. wants me stealing FOR them instead of FROM them" so why would Gray kill her if that's not what V.I.L.E. wants? V.I.L.E. wants her alive, on their side, and we know how V.I.L.E. manipulates their agents to do what they want. Besides Paper Star, I don't think we seen any other agent disobey V.I.L.E. Anyway, for me it doesn't make sense, and I always understood he wanted to make her unconscious and take her back to V.I.L.E. Perhaps V.I.L.E. said :"Convince her and if she doesn't want to, kill her." but I don't get why they would say that since they could just mind wipe her like they did at the finale but then again a lot of things about V.I.L.E.(and on this show overall) don't make sense but it adds a certain charm to it I guess, lol. But canon or non canon that he tried to kill her or not, even Carmen defended him saying he did that on "direct orders of V.I.L.E. which he doesn't seem to remember exists anymore." So if Carmen herlself forgave him, why can't you? I particularly like to think he would have stopped saying he couldn't do it, like we see him doing afterwards in the Himalayans. I like to believe that's the kind of person he is because homeboy listened to her telling almost the whole entire story of her life, when he didn't have to(my personal theory is that he was trying to avoid the moment the most that he could). And when he says "bye black sheep", the camera focus on Carmen saying:"You weren't listening, I go by Carmen now." with the crackle rod on, in front of her. He could have made it quick, but he hesitated. Intentionally or not, he gave Carmen the time to say that and fight back because he lowered his guard down. So these are some signals that, to me, indicate he wouldn't have finished the job, but you can believe whatever you want. The point is that he didn't knew V.I.L.E. would throw him away in an instance. He clearly looked confused before having his mind wiped.

Not much to add anymore. The apparent blandness of him as Graham Calloway is called "wasted potential". They could've done so much with Graham before he was Crackle again. Anyway, done for today. Part 3 is coming soon.

[pumpkin-spike18]

✨Weekly Progress #11-12✨

Weekly Progress #11

Wrote 400+ words for BWBOK (fin)

Prepared SYVNH script for editing, discussed with editor

Wrote 2.9k+ words for a gift

Did 2.5 panel coloring for DGM

Sketched 4 illustrations for [fan project #1]

Revisited Peter Pan idea

Weekly Progress #12

Prepped SYVNH new art

Made Peter Pan idea outline

Finished 4 linearts for [fan project #1]

Programmed in all new SYVNH art

Sketched sprite for SFB

This is probably the only art I have to show for the past two weeks so here it is...!

The Beauty Which Only Beast Knows

The script is now done and currently being edited. Unfortunately, we have slipped a bit on the dates we hoped to meet for milestones. I'll probably need to make a new schedule soon.

But, hey... If we take until May to finish, we can submit it for Otome Jam!

Stuck in a Yandere Visual Novel... HELP!!

Okay, I may have dropped the ball on this 💦 I got the script to my editor/proofreader and they did amazing!! They finished reviewing well before the deadline they gave themself, but I didn't realize that lol;; So I could've started scripting a lot earlier, but I didn't;;

I was really hoping to finish the entire project by the end of March, but since March has 3 days left, that probably isn't possible. But, it should be done soon. I just have 20k words to script...

But other than that, all the art has been programmed in! (Until I decide I want more animation during CG moments lol

Other Fanworks

I won't go into a lot of detail for this, but since it took a lot of my time the past few weeks, I decided to add it here as accomplishments.

(I think I wrote over 10k words in gifts the past couple weeks.)

A Sky of Falling Birds

The script for this has been finished for a while so I thought I'd start making some sketch sprite work for it. I still don't know for sure what sort of visual theme I want to use for the game so I didn't get very far.

[Peter Pan Project]

Perhaps I'm jumping the gun a bit, but since SYVNH is coming to a finish, I started thinking about what future projects to do. This idea was something I came up with on a whim last year and I decided to revisit it to see what I can possibly make out of it.

It'll likely be shorter than SYVNH (read: for my sanity, future me, please make it shorter) and is inspired by Peter Pan. It'll be a BL so we have Wendell as our main character, exploring a fictional Victorian-esque kingdom. I'm still debating on the routes and gameplay.

The visual themes for this project are inspired by Pandora Hearts, D. Gray-Man, and possibly Smokin' Parade.

[lloydfrontera]

do you know how fucking mad i am at the fact that the webcomic gave us lloyd giving javier his own mana in an attempt to save his life and javier overcoming literal dimensional differences in order to be able to accept it into his body effectively foreshadowing how far he's willing to go just to be able to protect lloyd,,,, but they did it all with a fucking 'haha lloyd is ugly' joke. do you.

this could've been one of the best scenes in the entire thing. it could've been such a pivotal point for their character development. it could've been one of the most earnest moments in the story. but it's made into a joke because they just need to draw the ugliest faces possible to make a cheap joke that has been made a hundred times already. i'm not being funny i'm genuinely mad at the wasted potential lmao

the tone of the scene was changed from the webnovel so much it's almost unrecognizable. and not in a good way. like. why would you cheapen the emotional core of your own story like this. do you trust your own plot and characters so little to keep your readers engaged with the story that you feel the need to make everything in a joke. is that it. was the original story not funny enough to keep your attention so you think no one will care if you turn what's meant to be an earnest and heartwarming scene into a joke you've made hundreds of time before.

i'm not. mad. about the changes themselves (mostly). like i said this particular scene had so much potential to compliment the original story and foreshadow the ending that i'm actually upset that the tone and art made it so i can't in good faith say i like it.

they just. shot themselves in the foot by trying to make the scene funny. all the tension and emotional built up is wasted when the webcomic makes fun of itself. it cannot take itself seriously so i can't either.

like. it was going so well. i loved the built up with the scene where they talk about javier's parents and you see that they're still emotionally guarded with each other, they don't quite feel close enough to the other to call themselves friends even when we know that they care deeply for each other. i liked that they changed it so lloyd had the opportunity to save javier the way he wasn't able to in the novel. i even liked the development with lloyd's mana being so different from javier's that he struggles with accepting it, cause it was a chance to call forward to a very important event in the future.

the scene where they're reaching for each other as they realize that yes, they're friends and god help them they will save their friend no matter what?? gorgeous i loved it so much, it wasn't 'We'll be together forever, just like we've always been. Casually. As natural as breathing air.' yeah but it was perfectly okay on it's own too.

and then they do this.

like. what.

all that emotional built up, all that tension, all of it,,, for this?? this????

what's the point of making your audience feel emotionally engaged with the story if you're just gonna make the art equivalent of a fart noise. a well executed yet still completely out of place fart noise lmao

it doesn't feel funny, it just makes me feel like i wasted my time being emotionally invested in something that isn't interested in delivering. it's like watching someone setting up dominoes to topple them in a gorgeous pattern only for them to put on clown shoes and start kicking them all over the place without rhyme or reason. like yeah they're in their right but then what was the point of all that work in the first place.

and yeah maybe it's my fault for expecting something earnest and heartfelt from a webcomic that has shown multiples times that it's not interested on that but like. is it really too much to expect for an adaptation to, well, adapt the original source in a way that doesn't feel like it's making fun of it??

[muttakutagawa]

can you share about your shibusawa kids :D

yes!!!

(sorry this took so long to get out, my computer broke so its slow typing big text posts on mobile so please forgive any typos)

they're still in development at the moment as i try to build my nextgen but heres something of an overview of them so far to give you a bit of a general idea :]

some background: i like to ship shibusawa in a monstercule (monster polycule) of him, bram, lovecraft, adam, and sigma so the four kids i talk about here have additional siblings from those as well

they also each have some reptile i equate them within my mind that i use to characterize them

Tatsumi Shibusawa-Lovecraft

Tatsumi is th oldest of the family, and has the least conventional origin in comparison to not only his siblings but all my fankids (yes, even chimeraverse, even if those aren't actually technically shipkids).

He's technically closer to a singularity than anything else, first appearing as an egg shaped bundle of excess energy in the aftermath of Dead Apple. He wasn't really concious or anything during this, just a bunch of barely contained highly unstable energy swirling around. The egg was initially gathered by the ADA but was turned over to the Special Division for Unusual Powers so it could be more safely stored and observed. I don't want to spoil the entire story since I plan on writing/drawing it, so to cut to the end, the energy stored in the "egg" wasn't stable enough to actually form a living body and Shibusawa couldn't provide any more than what he already had. It required contact with another extreme source of energy, which ended up being the cosmic power Lovecraft is constantly using to maintain a human form himself. (I will say there were a couple other circumstances that could've provided Tatsumi with his stabalized human form, Lovecraft was just the one who actually made physical contact with the "egg" to actually trigger it)

His ability, Revolt of the Body doesn't actually do much, primarily because it's not much of an ability and functions more like Great Old One. It's main point of use is just shapeshifting and letting Tatsumi be able to do that without becoming unstable again. But... perhaps it does have other capabilities yet to be seen...

Tatsumi is fairly laid back but is also frequently bored and gets sleepy if his interest isn't held. He seeks out a lot of novelty to keep himself entertained (and yes as a result he is easily taken in by video games for those dopamine hits. Please don't let him near a casino.) He's rather sluggish in most aspects but when excited can cause a lot of accidental damage by forgetting how strong he is. He has a penchant for theatre and art and can be found skulking around galleries or performance halls people watching or waiting for plays or dances to begin.

He's designed to evoke a python or anaconda 🐍

References: Tatsumi Hijikata and his solo work Hijikata Tatsumi and Japanese People: Revolt of the Body

Mina Shibusawa-Stoker

Mina is the middle child of the Stoker triplets (including her older brother Jonathan and younger sister Lucy aka Lulu).

Her ability, White Wyrm Lair lets her hypnotize others. The ability takes the form of a crystalline looking serpent that inflicts a setting bite, its venom making the victim extremely susceptible to suggestion. Mina can choose to activate the latent venom at whatever point she chooses, provided the ability hasn't been deactivated in the time passed.

She's got a lot of confidence and can be a bit of a trickster, using her charms for her own amusement. She's also very into luxury and likes to lounge around. She's honestly got knife cat energy, which I love for her.

Her reptile is a komodo dragon 🐉

References: Mina Harker (character in Bram Stoker’s Dracula), Bram Stoker novel The Lair of the White Worm

Yukio Shibusawa

Yukio's one of the two "middle children" of the group (along with Slava, who isn't discussed here since they aren't a Shibusawa kid).

He's fairly laid back, or at least appears that way in terms of his introspective nature. He gets on well with most people and tries to be accommodating but can end up as a pushover in his attempts to people please conflicting against his own wants.

While he doesn't have an actual ability, he does eventually gain access to The Book. That plays a lot into his character and arch so I don't actually want to say too much about it here to avoid spoilers, sorry about that.

While it wasnt initially intended, for some reason he reminds me most of a snapping turtle 🐢

References: Yukio Mishima, assorted work by Mishima (Confessions of a Mask, The Frolic of the Beasts, The Sea of Fertility tetralogy (Spring Snow, Runaway Horses, The Temple of Dawn, and The Decay of the Angel))

Epsilon Shibusawa

Epsilon is the baby of the family!

Because they're so young I don't have too much to say unfortunately.

They don't have an ability of their own but did end up inheriting access to Draconia's fog. They're very clingy to their family and don't like to be far from them or in new places around new people. They're generally very anxious and withdrawn, but they enjoy listening to stories and solving puzzles, which helps feed their curiosity.

While designed with the inspiration of a hognose snake, they also take some aspects from crocodilians 🐊

References: the greek letter Epsilon, Tatsuhiko Shibusawa’s The Song of the Eradication and The Rib of Epicurus

Bonus "Fun" Fact!:

The reason all of them have dragonic hybrid physiology is as a result of being fused with energy from Draconia. Tatsumi is of course his own special case in regards to that being a literal singularity and Revolt Of The Body making it possible for him to shift just how human vs monster he appears.

The others are permanent, with their horns growning from the spot in their skulls where Shibusawa embedded shards of Draconia gems into them, thus making them hybrids just like him.

[abyssaldyke]

Elemental asks: shadows, sand, summer, fall

Shadows: What's the darkest theme you've ever written about?

Starting off with the big guns!! I've been all about the dark themes for basically my whole writing life and there's not much I haven't touched on. Systemic dismemberment and cannibalism are up there, but probably the nastiest thing I've written is this ongoing relationship between Marko (billionaire in his 40s) and PK (his 22 year old half-sister). PK can't be physically touched but the way Marko views her, the way he created her as a designer abomination baby and then positioned himself as her father, teacher, captor—the moral center of her entire world, enables an extremely fucked up power dynamic between them. I'm trying to leave the extent of their relationship ambiguous and up to reader interpretation, but it's not a far leap to nastier conclusions.

Sand: What's the softest scene you've ever written?

Oh, dude. It's definitely at the end of 2 Space, when Sal kneels beside the bed. The fealty, the devotion of it all. Or the nature room scene. 2 Space is absolutely flush with those moments, but I hope to blow them out of the water in Tokyo Drift.

Summer: How do you know when you need a break from writing?

In terms of taking a break for the day, I know I need to stop when I start pulling stuff out of my ass or the progress feels unstable or out of character. In terms of taking an extended break from writing, it's not happened yet so who's to say.

Fall: Have you ever completely abandoned a WIP? What led to that decision?

Fanfics, absolutely. I wrote fic briefly and have no real desire to return. I ended up leaving my first novel after working on it for six years because it felt like it had run its course and I needed to work on something else. I'd written The Bone Zone after that first novel's first draft was done and it was so nice to work on something else that I decided to pulp that first novel and fertilize more with it. This was extremely hard but also the best decision I could've made for my writing. I felt suddenly untethered and though I still look back on that work with affection, it's unlikely I'll ever return to it.

Thank you so much for asking!

[nibwhipdragon]

📃 for YTTD and 💔 for JoJo for the hyperfixation asks!

📃 What is the plot of your hyperfixation? And is it a movie, game, show, etc?

So. Oh boy. First off, it's a visual novel game, and also a manga. Your Turn To Die is about this 17 year-old girl and her best friend Joe, who get kidnapped into a death game. There's 10 other people who also got kidnapped, and they try to find a way to escape and find out why they've been put into the death game. I'd elaborate more but it is so intricate I Literally Cannot. God I feel like I'm explaining the plot really badly

There's 4 routes the game takes at the moment, and as there's one more part left to release before it's fully done, I'm not sure how many endings there are. I know there's the chapter 2 "Massacre" ending but that's about it.

This game genuinely has some of the best characters I've seen, everyone has something deeply wrong with them in one way or another and I love it

It's coming out on steam where you can pay for it in about February but if you ever wanna try it out/play it yourself you can play the entire game for free here!

It was originally meant to be free as it was an indie game made by one person but it blew up a lot more than expected, hence why there's a manga and a paid-for steam version. I highly recommend it, though PLEASE heed the content warnings there is so much triggering stuff in there

💔 Tell us about one of your least favourite characters and why you dislike them.

All of them/hj

OK I actually am not sure how to answer this one, the characters I don't like are usually ones that are meant to be disliked so I kinda wrap around to liking them as they do their jobs as characters good.

Giorno? I feel that the plot was more around Bucciarati than him despite being the JoJo, and his character felt kinda flat. He also had so much wasted potential his stand could've been a great way to add hamon to the part despite it being stand oriented he could've been half vampire/had vampiric traits, the list goes on