#but i already had something for urban fantasy

[krizariel]

Jaytimweek Day 5: Mystery

Red Hood is investigating a case of people disappearing and body remnants appearing weeks later by the Gotham bay. Everyone in the area keep pointing at a beast that recently started showing up! it's gold and has horns and is scary. That beast must be the culprit >: (

Well, he is not a beast and is not the culprit and he is very very mad about being accused of half eating his food! He is a dragon and he doesn't eat shit thank you very much! He has a healthy diet that doesn't involve garbage >:[ ! So he will assist this red hooded human this time to solve this mystery and will get the hell out. Or will he...

[lovelyela]

lorenzo berkshire x foreign!gn!reader

synopsis: how lorenzo berkshire would act around a reader with culture (how do i word this help)

ela’s note: this was also a request but i don't have the ask, hopefully that anon can find this and hopefully you enjoy! :)

warnings: fluffy, maybe some cursing, cringe, maybe, uhhh, yeah that's it, lmk if there's anything else!!

word count: 447

・❥・

okay so i feel like enzo is so open-minded

he would be so respectful of your culture

he'd be curious too!

he'd wanna try all of your country's foods

i think when he first learns your nationality/ethnicity, he'd already be super interested

he'd ask if you could speak your native language and if you could, he'd ask to learn!!

if you're referring to modern!enzo i think he would be a duolingo superstar LMAO. he'd do all his lessons daily, he would actually study and learn, etc etc.

if you're thinking more canon enzo, he would borrow bilingual or translation dictionaries to study

he would definitely learn the curse words and funny words first though..

sometimes, he'd ask you for help, like maybe on how to pronounce something or slang that might be useful and more appropriate in a casual conversation

him asking for help does in fact turn into full lessons from you, though😭

if you two were just friends, you'd probably award him with pieces of candy or something.

if you two were dating, you'd award each correct answer with a kiss on the cheek or forehead!!

i think lorenzo would have a fascination with the mythical parts of your culture.

like urban legends or wives tales that originated from your country.

also the superstitions are cool to him.

if you and him ever had a conversation about myths, stories, superstitions, or fantasy creatures in your culture, you best believe that man is all ears.

enzo probably has a bucket list and i think he'd add "going to your country" on there

going back to him wanting to try your country's foods, i think he'd want to watch you (if you can cook) or someone make it yk.

like he'd watch tutorials or if he knew your family he'd wanna watch your grandparents or parents cook a dish.

a random headcanon i have about modern!enzo is that he likes to watch asmr and mukbangs so i just imagine him in his dorm sitting on his bed watching like mukbangs of cultural foods

if your culture has any traditions like festivals or something like that, then he would wanna participate in them if that was okay and respectful

if you ever took him to a cultural event then he'd be SO happy.

i'd also like to clarify that enzo doesn't have like a weird obsession with your culture and stuff (like how some people are when it comes to anime and sushi and waifus).

he is simply just a curious soul and i think he's just innocently interested with your culture and wants to learn more and i personally don't think there is anything wrong with that.

・❥・

reblogs, likes, and replies are ALWAYS appreciated <3

dni if you support pro-life, racism, homophobia, transphobia, antisemitism, sexism or anything along those lines!

[bump1nthen1ght]

Do the Crime, Pay the Time (M!Reader x M!Undead Knight)

Pairing: Male!Artist!Reader x Male!Undead Knight

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Misunderstandings

Warnings: Extremely Dubious Consent, No preparation

Word Count: 2254 words

Summary: All you had wanted was to paint, to decorate these abandoned ruins with your art. But it seems your presence is unwanted at these ‘abandoned’ ruins.

Request: i have an idea for a request,,

how bout an Undead Male Knight x Male Graffiti Artist

The Graffiti artist would wander into some ruins away from the city to paint a mural, unknowing of its origins and get caught by the Undead Knight…

Maybe some punishment for trespassing on the ruined kingdoms property,,? 🥹

You should have known this place was too good to be true.

You had stumbled upon it wandering one day, shocked that the crumbling ruins weren't kept behind a “KEEP OUT - PRIVATE PROPERTY” sign. That wouldn’t have stopped you, of course, but the fact the large complex was seemingly abandoned made it all the more interesting.

Most of the ceiling had caved in, remnants of flying buttress and great arches overgrown with moss and water damage. Some remains of stained glass lay shattered on the ground, brushed into the corners by the wind or wandering animals.

But what takes your attention is the surprisingly intact wall, clean of debris and dust. It’s perfect for a mural, and on first site the painting is already forming in your head.

You head home to pack up supplies and pray it stays unsigned by the next day. Your arms shake from all your equipment - a ladder, cans, some brushes and paints - and you mentally cheer once you see the clear wall left intact.

The high of uninhibited artistic creation must dull your senses, because you do not hear the crunching of rusted armor or the dragging of long-slept limbs. No, it’s not until you’re being choke slammed into your easel that you realize this place was very much inhabited.

“Speak your name, intruder.” 

Your attacker’s voice is low, tense and full of authority. Your nails scramble at the armored hand holding you up, trying to pry them off your throat.

I need to breathe to speak, you psycho!

You try to scream with your eyes, feeling your vision go spotty.

All you can see of your assailant is a glowing green eye, trembling like an open flame out from their dark helm. The light from it hints at something underneath, bleach white like bone, but it must be from the lack of oxygen to your brain. Surely he isn’t-

The man loosens his hold on your jugular, blood rushing back in as you suck in a deep breath. You slowly regain your faculties, and your eyes begin to adjust in the low light of the morning.

“I didn’t realize-”

The arm pushes you further against the wall, raising you so your legs dangle like a ragdoll.

“I asked for your name, not an excuse.”

The voice says, no less angry than before. A filtered beam of sunlight comes through one of the stained glass windows, and you see another glimpse of his face. 

Your brain hasn't deceived you. It was bone, a stripped clean skull right underneath a fiery green eye. But it was only one half, the other side being that of a shockingly handsome knight, sharp cheekbones and a smatter of freckles. His more human eyes are the same acid-green as the other, but doesn’t burn or glow the same way.

“___! My name is ____!” You gasp, hands still desperately trying to rip away his fingers.

The knight hums, eyes rolling down your form. It’s just some painter's overalls and a t-shirt, surely different from the thieves and nobles he is more familiar with.

“Why do you trespass on this place that is not your own?” He commands, holding you up with minimal effort. The bulk underneath his armor must not be just for show, especially with the large greatsword he wields on his back.

“I didn’t know someone was here! I just wanted-” You choke, feeling the palm of his armor digging into your jaw. You tap it furiously, and the knight must deem you harmless enough to set you down on the ground without a fight.

You drop to your butt, hands clutching what is surely your bruised throat. 

“I just wanted to paint.” You urge, trying your best to seem innocent and non-threatening. This dude seems to have a hair-trigger temper.

The human eye appraises you again, the knight humming with burgeoning thoughts.

“I see.” The bared teeth of his skull clink together as his mouth grits, brow half-furrowing as he thinks on what to do with you. You eye that massive sword, brain going for the worst.

“Listen, I can go right now. I won’t tell anyone about this place, and once again I am so sorry-”

A palm is in your face, the other creasing the growing knot in the knight's brow. He seems less angry now, more frustrated. The bared teeth clink together.

He keeps his thoughts to himself as he stews, seemingly having a mini argument in his head.

“I see you are not a thief, nor do you seem to have…” Both eyes roll down your outfit again, taking stock in your lack of weapons or tools, “...nefarious intentions. But nonetheless you have disturbed this holy place, and for that my cursed commands I punish you.”

You grab your throat, instincts somehow believing your hand could stop that sword from separating your head from the rest of your body. 

But the knight just sighs, arms not going for his great sheath, and instead kneels before you.

The gauntlet is cold against your flushed cheek, the knight's hand nearly the size of your face as he tilts your jaw to him. His face has fallen back to flat, contemplative and in control.

The human iris feels hot as it looks down the column of your neck, eyes your heaving chest, still full with nervous breaths. You think you see it sweeping lower, lower, before darting back. 

“I suppose I can provide punishment in an alternative way to the convention.” The knight grips your jaw, yanking you forward.

His glowing eye is hard to look away from. You feel like a moth, drawn in by the flickering emerald spits in his eye. Your heart thuds in your ears, wondering if you’re about to get the beating of a lifetime

And then the bastard kisses you.

Well, half-kisses you. The lips he has are soft and plump, conveying a lot of experience with one smooth motion. The bone is a little more jarring, jagged teeth crashing against yours, yet making the same movements as the lips. 

All in all though, not the worst kiss you’ve ever had.

The knight pulls away, no breath being lost on his end as a string of saliva connects your wet lips. Both eyes burn with something familiar,and he flicks a tongue across his half-lip.

“Yes, I think this will do perfectly.”

Before you can clarify, the knight meets you in another steaming kiss. It's quicker than the last, lips traveling down your neck and sucking hickies into the flesh. The knight seems particularly enraptured by your pulse, lingering and nipping at the pumping blood.

Ok, I guess this is happening.

You don’t really have a place to complain, as it seems your options are this or grave bodily harm. But even so, the flight-or-fight, survival monkey part of your brain tries to see the bright side. The bright side being that this guy isn’t too bad looking, and seems to be a very affectionate lover.

“U-uh mister knight-” You stutter out, brain beginning to bounce back from the shock of the last five minutes, “-what may I call you?”

“Sir Arthur.”

“Okay, Sir Arthur.” Your voice becomes breathily as Sir Arthur’s hands drift down your coveralls, deftly undoing your straps and yanking your pants loose around the waist. A metal hand caresses under your leg, groping the bottom of your thigh before reaching the fat of your ass, where it pushes and kneads like it was bread dough. Your body's instinctive reaction is to lurch forward, unintentionally grinding your crotch against his. There's muffled growls against your skin, and those gauntlets are back to yanking off your pants and underwear.

The castle floors send goosebumps down your bare legs, Arthur’s armor feeling ixy as he throws them over his thighs. The steel sends a jolt through you, your hips canting backwards as your cock feels the cold steel. But Sir Arthur’s grip is strong, his forearm keeping your power back in place. His hips swivel, groaning as he paws at your ass.

Does he even have a-

Your sarcastic question is answered with a couple pull of straps and the clank of armor falling to the ground. Something hot, heavy, and sticky thwaps against your stomach, brushing against your cock.

Sir Artur is still lost in kissing your shoulder, leaving several hickeys behind, and you feel comfortable letting your eyes drift downward. Unsurprisingly, his inhuman cock is as green as his eye, though luckily not on fire. No, in fact the ghost-cock seems to ooze a neon fluid, not dissimilar from cheap ectoplasm effects in movies.

Well, I guess we don’t need lube.

Your thoughts take a turn as you're suddenly thrown on your back, ankles still hooked around his back as Sir Arthur pins you to the ground. He’s pulled away from your neck, now focused on pushing your thighs back to your chest.

“Too long I have been without touch. This heat-” Sir Arthur’s chest rumbles with a purr, the flaming eye pulsing, “-it’s addictive.”

A warm head pushes against your entrance and you thank whoever’s up there for that spooky slime he has going on, because wow this man was packing.

Sir Arthur takes his time sinking inside of you, savoring every second of stretching you open. His armor clinks together as his body shutters, head thrown back in a moan.

“By the gods.” He swears in a dead language as he reaches his hilt, green drool seeping out of his skull jaw. A keening whine comes for your chest, your cock twitching as the tapered head grazes against your prostate. 

The first thrust is tentative, but Sir Arthur seems encouraged by the yelp which explodes between your bitten lips. The nex thrust is slightly faster, sending a shock of pleasure all the way down your spine. Your toes curl behind his back, a drunken haze making your nerve ends tingle.

Sir Arthur’s armor trembles again, but it seems he’s found the rhythm he needs, and begins fuckign to you with a feevent desperation. Trails of slime connect your ass cheeks to his crotch as he thrusts down and into you, raspy breaths leaking from between his ribs. 

Beads of precum bubble at your tip, cock aching for a single touch. Your balls twitch and tighten with each of his guided humps, all targeted perfectly at your sensitive spot. Bubbles of blood come from your worried bottom lip, and your needy moans echo across the destroyed ruins of the castle.

A part of you prays no one else stumbles upon this site and overhears your debauchery, sees you spread wide open for this hulking beast of a corpse. This knight who is far too good at fucking, whose cock deserves to have a dildo modeled after it. With a slime function, of course.

Heavy balls slap against your ass, cold trails of Sir Arthur’s ooze dripping down your ass crack and onto the floor. An armored thumb presses down on your lower lip, prodding you to open your mouth. With a brain too cock-drunk to fight your jaw opens easily, the taste of polished metal on your tongue.

“Suck, whore.” Sir Arthur commands, voice dripping with desire. Your tongue wraps around each groove and sucks, your cheeks hollowing as Sir Arthur groans at the sight. The tears bubbling at the corners of your eyes, the mating press, it all drives him wild. The position of knight suits him well if all it takes is a little power to make him horny.

He’s not a particularly loud lover, Sir Arthur. Most of the noises is slapping skin and clinking armor, only some low grunts and curses joining the cacophony as fucks you with more and more fervor. But it’s the way his fiery eye begins to ignite, the way he bites his half lip enough to draw sickly green blood, and the tightness of his balls which tell you he’s close.

“I’m going to fill you to the brim.” Sir Arthur punctuates his sentence with a hard thrust against your prostate, spots dotting your vision. “You will leak of me for days, trespasser. I will make sure of it.”

You feel your own orgasm brewing in your stomach, cock weeping as your balls grow tight. Your eyes roll to the back of your skull.

“F-fuck.” Sir Arthur draws out his vowel as he ends with several harried thrusts, hilted deep inside when he finally climaxes. What feels like a gallon of oozing, green-tinted cum fills you up, bursting from between the seams of your connection and spurting into the floor. He was right, you will be leaking him for days. Your own orgasms comes just as dramatically, mouth open inna breathless scream as you finish all over your stomach,

You don’t quite remember him leaving you, only the gaping emptiness left behind. It's taking a bit for your consciousness to reboot, to remember where you are. But there’s the sensation of cold against your skin, a wet rag rubbing down your sore entrance and across your stomach. A dull heat radiates through metal, massaging your thighs and neck as you’re laid on your back.

True warmth comes in the form of a heavy blanket, and your eyes flutter close under its softness. 

“Rest your eyes, artist.” Sir Arthur whispers. “I will escort you back when you awake.”

Your last thoughts are vague, somewhat remembering the various paints you brought with you, and the pain they’ll be to carry home unemptied.

[anim-ttrpgs]

The Actual Patreon Post: You can get a PDF copy of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy right now for only $5.

As many of you who already follow this tumblr page have no-doubt already seen, after some difficulty, we have finally been able to set up a functioning Patreon page. Those of you who already follow this tumblr page have also no-doubt already seen that we have been working for several years on an original TTRPG called Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy. This is a robust, rules-medium TTRPG that is designed to run mystery, horror, and even action adventures in any time period between about 1850 and the present day.

More info about what makes Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy so unique as a TTRPG can be found

Here (Introduction/Summary)

Here (The Eureka! System)

Here (What is Eureka for?)

Here (The Woo Roll)

Here (Lore)

Here (2D6 System)

Here (Gameplay and Design Philosophy)

But for a quick summary, Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is a 2D6 system(NOT PbtA) that puts the players in charge of relatively mundane investigators as they attempt to solve puzzling mysteries, both ordinary and supernatural in nature. Investigators are flawed, vulnerable people who must rely on their wits more than heroic skills to overcome adversity and dig for the truth, even when it may not be enough. Combat is deep and tactical, but very realistic and deadly, with overconfidence easily able to land a character on the ground.

Eureka takes a rare approach to party dynamics and TTRPG narrative, where the PCs are on a mostly even playing field with NPCs, and playing their cards wrong could easily have a new group of PCs showing up to not only solve the original mystery, but the unsolved murders of previous party as well.

Additionally, it is not discouraged for PCs not to 100% trust the other members of the party, with betrayal being a real possibility. Even in the absence of an intended betrayal, in some cases a PC may actually be some kind of supernatural creature passing for a regular person, who can reveal this to neither the rest of the party nor the actual players sitting around the table. If your character is a vampire, that’s between you, the character, and the GM. No one else can know, or else. What supernatural characters gain in overall power and often durability, they make up for with the added challenge of utilizing their powers and avoiding their supernatural weaknesses while attempting to solve the mystery without tipping off anyone else to their true nature.

Now for a few quotes from those who have had the opportunity to playtest and preview this game:

“The most stress-free character creation I’ve ever seen.”

“The Eureka! system is something that really sets this apart from other mystery games.”

“This approach to investigation is the right way to do it.”

“I love the Woo Roll.”

“[The monster dynamic] is one of the most interesting things I’ve ever played with.”

So, why am I telling you all this again? Because Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is, basically, being soft-launched right now. The official Kickstarter is still several months away, but the actual game is 99% done. You can pick up a PDF of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, along with three pre-written adventure modules to go with it, for $5 right now on our Patreon page.

For official and top-secret reasons, I can’t actually speak about how much we intend to Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy for when it actually goes up for official sale, but I can say that this is a very, very good deal for what amounts to almost 500 pages of material.

[art]

Creator Spotlight: @fourbrickstall​

I’m a photographer who likes to shoot portraits,  acro, and toys. My favorite themes are medieval fantasy, steampunk, and apocalypse. I manage a fan community about LEGO photography called BrickCentral, and I am its LEGO ambassador.

Check out our full interview below!

How did you get your start in photography?

I think I have always really liked looking at things through a lens—I had plenty of microscopes and telescopes growing up—so photography was a natural progression. I started out taking photos of nature, architecture, and travel but really became a photographer in my mind when I learned studio photography. I love creating interesting light on people in particular.

What inspired you to work with LEGO specifically?

Several years ago, a couple of photography blogs I followed featured a 365-day phone photography project by Andrew Whyte about a miniature traveling LEGO photographer. It was the first time I had ever seen toy photography. And LEGO! It had been years since I had ever even looked at LEGO, but it brought back memories of smiley-faced space explorers on lunar bases. I was surprised by how modern LEGO minifigures had become: this LEGO photographer was so urban with a beanie hat on its head and a cute camera in its hand. I immediately wanted to create a little LEGO version of myself, too (called a “sigfig” or signature figure, I later learned.) Around that time, I had my hands full with a toddler and was looking for a way to keep shooting creatively. But I only had space for one bag at a time—a diaper bag or a camera bag—so a phone and a minifig seemed like a fantastic way to keep taking photos.

Once I got my LEGO minifigure in the mail, I started shooting and became instantly hooked. Not only on the photography but on the collecting aspect too. I now have hundreds of minifigures and even more LEGO minifigure parts to create custom characters with. So it was the LEGO that caught my attention right away, but the photography workflow is what sealed the deal for me.

What is your favorite piece of all time? Why?

I really love this photo for lots of reasons. It’s the kind of photographer I want to be: someone who doesn’t let weather or terrain or whatever become an excuse for not doing what they love. I also like that this shot looks like I found this great location in the forest, but the reality is that I shot this on my window sill with just some bark, twigs, and moss that I collected from around Brooklyn. It doesn’t get more metropolitan than NYC, but with just an idea and a few materials, I created a completely different environment. Atmospheric effects are another thing I like to add to my photos, so the “rain” hits the spot. It’s just spray from a water bottle.

From idea to final piece, how long does it take for you to create something?

The great thing about shooting LEGO is that it can be as easy or as complex as you want it to be: from subject to gear, to lighting, to location. As a portrait photographer, shooting an unusual or interesting character is part of the thrill, so I spend about an hour creating one custom minifig from my hundreds of loose parts.

Sometimes I use official LEGO models as a subject or as a background, and these take some time to build, depending on the size of the set. I build my own models and scenes, too—known as My Own Creations (MOCs) in LEGO lingo. These take me forever because I’m not a great MOC builder, and I don’t have thousands of LEGO parts at my disposal. It’s not unusual for MOCs to take days or weeks for me to finish. 

This tiny red house on wheels took me about 5 days to build:

This Japanese alley took me a month:

When shooting outdoors, I look for locations that scale well to LEGO minifigs and models and also have beautiful light. I seek out pockets of light through trees to put my subjects in, but I also make sure to have patches of shadow throughout the scene to give it some depth.

I already have some favorite locations, so it’s really just a matter of getting to them or waiting for the right time of day. Indoors, I can get shooting rather quickly at any time of day in my studio nook, which is an alcove I’ve set up with lighting and supports just for my LEGO photography. Having that dedicated space and grip really accelerates getting into a flow state. Negentropy is my friend.

A custom minifig in a MOC photographed in my studio nook is my favorite kind of work to do, but that also takes the longest because of the build time and more complex lighting.

What are 3 things you can’t live without as a creator?

My camera, my lenses, and Lightroom are three things I can’t live without as a creator. I love the whole process of shooting—seeing how different settings and gear change an image—and then taking that image and making it truer to what I feel in post.

What do you wish you knew when you first started out creating content that you know now?

I wish I knew that it’s easier to find your tribe when you figure out who you are as an artist first. I think it’s tempting to try to belong immediately because it’s exciting to find other people who share the same interests as you. But doing that too quickly and investing too deeply can influence your art or trap you in a style that isn’t really you.

What are your file name conventions?

FBT-desc-of-lego-subject.jpg I’m not as organized as I would like to be, but I have my folders set up descriptively and by date in Lightroom. It’s great for managing thousands of photos.

Who on Tumblr inspires you and why?

I love the DnD artists on Tumblr! I’m so inspired by their beautiful illustrations, character creations, and storytelling. I played a few campaigns with my Dungeon Master brother as a teenager, so I know and love that world. I guess my affinity for custom LEGO characters is rooted in the character creation part of DnD.

My favorite characters these days are artificers and tieflings, so I follow those tags on Tumblr to see all the stunning artwork by the community.

Check out more amazing LEGO photography over at @fourbrickstall​!

[nanowrimo]

5 Techniques to Help You Write Your Novel

Every writing project is unique, and the methods that help you draft one novel may not work for another. If you’re getting started on a brand new project this Camp, NaNo Guest Vee James has some suggestions for different techniques to help you explore your story. It took a few NaNos before I realized I was developing different techniques each time I sat down to the challenge. I think we all do this naturally, but it helps to step back and observe the process. If you’re strictly a pantster, you’ve been working on the story ideas in your head. If you’re a planner, you’ve set to paper the story concepts, characters, and an outline of what you are about to produce on paper. Some people take a hybrid approach to NaNo. Granted, the basics remain the same: butt in chair, accomplish the hourly/daily goal, and allow yourself to tell your story.

I discovered that each unique novel presented particular challenges, and I had to adapt my style and writing techniques in order to explore the story and keep the production happening. Some of these came from writing instructors and wonderful podcasters. Some came from “how to write” seminars and workshops. Others grew out of a feverish search for “more words.”

Here are five techniques I’ve found that helped me advance writing projects:

1. Research

It was a surprise to me to discover the concept of researching for fiction. I initially thought, “Just make something up.” But there are so many ways to broaden your approach. Plumb your memory, take a course in something related to the story, talk to an expert, and ask lots of questions. You could even become like the character in order to feel what they feel. If you’re writing a western, go ride a horse.

2. Write Scenes Out of Order

If you have a premise, you’ve already got scenes in your mind. Don’t wait until you get to chapter 18. Write that scene now. You can always revise it when you catch up to that point and it gives you something to develop toward. To expand on this technique, when you’ve written the scene, ask yourself, “What happened just before this?” or “What does this scene lead to?”

3. Put disparate characters together and have them have a conversation

Often, we write secondary characters who take a more subdued role in the plot. But what would happen if your protagonist’s best friend had a conversation with the main antagonist? Or if the antagonist’s agent of destruction came upon the protagonist’s love interest? In my experience, these conversations frequently produce more depth in your secondary characters and almost always it’s something you weren’t expecting.

4. Play with Genre Tropes

What have you chosen to write? Urban fiction? SciFi? Fantasy? You already know what your reader expects you to write, and what the plot ahead holds for them. How can you twist it? Sometimes the simplest thing you mentioned in chapter one can be the linchpin of a great plot twist.

5. Study Film

It’s no accident that some of the most astounding stories have been told through film. Quite simply, movie companies invest heavily in every aspect of their production and hire some of the best writers around. Yes, it’s a visual medium and has some advantages over prose. But the main lesson with movies is in the structure of the stories they tell. Here’s a good example: when I was writing a fairytale novel, I wanted to stay true to the classic story structure. One afternoon I was watching the comedy, Galaxy Quest, taking careful notes on the structure. I realized the story structure mapped very closely to what I was doing in the fairytale. It was comforting to see this, and it also gave me some ideas on how to approach the ending.

Most importantly: NaNoWriMo is a thrilling if exhaustive experience, and I urge you to immerse yourself in it completely. Write with utter abandon, delve deep for concepts that will give you the next 2000 words, and try new things like you’re a Mad Scientist in a hurry. We all know that what you end up with is a messy creation. But you will find you have given yourself a great gift.

Vee James is a cross-genre author who loves to write comedies, fairytales, and YA supernatural. He participated in NaNoWriMo for ten years in a row, writing over a half-million words, and it led to nine NaNo novels plus two more non-NaNos. Out of this work, he’s published four novels, with a fifth nearing completion. If interested, visit his site at www.veejames.com and leave a message. He loves to talk to writers of all kinds. Vee's photo by A. Roger Hammons Photo by Daniel Álvasd on Unsplash

[simonnebethel]

Writeblr Introduction

Just learned what a writeblr intro is so I'm gonna make one before I go to bed lol

I've already done something like this a few days ago but that was when I had no clue what I was doing lmao, so might as well make a more in depth one

About me:

19, she/her, bi

American

I write mostly fantasy and urban fantasy, and honestly i dont think i've ever written a story that was non-fantasy lol

Started writing when I was 10, but it was mostly Warrior Cats fanfiction on Wattpad lol. I went through a writing slump for most of highschool but last year I decided to get back into it since I'm not doing anything else lol

I like to read fantasy and classic lit, also anything with vampires. I also have a soft spot for slowburn romances where the main characters dont kiss until, like, the 4th book heehee

In love with anything gothic, vampire, and wlw 👩‍❤‍💋‍👩

I think one of my more niche interests is any early 2000s fantasy/sci-fi movie with a nu-metal/rock/alternative soundtrack like Queen of the Damned and The Crow. They are just...*chefs kiss*

My current stories:

A Chant for Blood (Formerly known as Account of Calamity)

Account of Calamity is a gothic victorian fantasy about a Grand Marshal, Karliah Helisende, and a blood-drinking fiend, Yorick Gwynplaine, who work together to investigate the mysterious portals that spawn dangerous creatures into the city of Isarnan, all the while Karliah is being haunted by the mysterious ancient temple that watches over her every move.

I'm currently working on the second draft, and I may start looking for beta readers once I'm finished, although I know I'm not far from finished with this novel. I also plan to make it a 4 or 5 book series, and slowly add a slowburn romance.

12/30/24 - Second draft has been finished!!

Looking for beta readers! Look here!

Our Demonic Hearts - The Craven Pact Series #1

Our Demonic Hearts is a urban fantasy about a cambion woman, Ana Kravens, haunted by her past. Taking place in a small Mississippi town, a man she went through a traumatic incident with, Beau Motloe, shows up on her doorstep one day with a deal; help him find his missing mother, and he'll give back the memories she lost during the traumatic incident. Her father, a demonic creature of unknown origin, wants nothing more than the Motloes dead, claiming that they were the very reason his daughter was almost killed 6 years ago. Ana goes against her father's wishes and accepts Beau's deal, suspecting that her father isn't telling the whole truth about that fatal night.

It is completed and available on Wattpad and Royal Road!! It was just a small project I had done for Nanowrimo, and has been edited at least once before being published. However, I plan to make it a trilogy and maybe have some spin-offs. This story is fairly new, but most of the characters are at least 5 years old and I love them very much <3

What I plan for 2024:

Finish the second draft of Account of Calamity and look for beta readers(Completed as of 1/30!! Will be looking for beta readers soon ^^)

Start the second novel of The Craven Pact Series

Write a short story/novella or two taking place within the Account of Calamity universe. My brain is currently exploding with ideas rn

Write a short story about Ana Kraven's mom and how she met Marchosias, Ana's father.

Plan something for Nano?? Idk where I'll be in November lol

I'm interested in following other writers and reading everybody's stories! I would also be interested in a beta read/beta swap ^^

Other sites I'm on:

Wattpad: LillithOfBees

Royal Road: SimonneBethel

Nanowrimo: BeeWitch

[pitviperofdoom]

PITS JONGERRYS LETS GO

Uhhh uMMMMMM URBAN FANTASY JONGERRYS

Things had escalated. With Gerard Keay involved, that meant something inevitably wound up on fire.

The initial blast took out two of Jon’s attackers and threw the rest into confusion. He was already running the second he was free, reaching out blindly until Gerard found his wrist. Without a word, his bodyguard shoved him to the front and sent another fireball into the cultists behind them. The flames, as always when they came from Gerard, burned hot and spread fast. The resulting confusion left their pursuers in disarray, but the spread of the flames cut off their exits as thoroughly as the cultists’ pursuit.

In the end, their only recourse was to flee deeper into the Rayner compound, away from the screams and shouts of their would-be captors.

Jon kept his mouth shut, breathing deeply and evenly as Gerard hurried him along. He was getting used to running, he thought wryly. Less than a year ago he would’ve been gasping and staggering after the first three hallways, but now his breath came easily, and he barely registered the burn in his legs until they finally came to a halt.

A spacious storage closet served as a temporary refuge; the closet itself was dark and unlit, but a small window at Gerard’s eye level provided him with a vantage point. Jon leaned against the wall to catch his breath.

“Lost them for now,” Gerard murmured. “Won’t matter much if we can’t get out of here.”

“Mm.” Jon let out a long, slow breath. “I think it’s safe to say that relations between Elias and the People’s Church have thoroughly broken down.”

“Long time coming, if you ask me. Mum always says Rayner’s lot don’t want anything less than total dominion. So alliances don’t tend to—”

Abruptly he went still and silent, ducking away from the window. Footsteps rushed past outside; a shadow fell over the dim beam of light that leaked through. Jon didn’t dare move. Eventually, after a few heart-pounding seconds, the figure outside moved on and joined the rest of the cultists searching the building.

The silence lasted nearly two full minutes before Jon built up the nerve to speak again. “Gerard?”

A soft sigh emanated from the darkness. “Thought I told you to call me Gerry.”

“I… haven’t forgotten,” Jon replied. “Gerry, then.”

The name felt uncomfortable on his tongue, even with permission. It held meaning, he knew. Gerard—Gerry had thrown it out in an off-hand manner, but Jon didn’t need to be a seer to sense the weight in that request. It wasn’t just a preference; it was an offer of trust, a wall coming down, a privilege that Jon had somehow earned, entirely without meaning to, without offering anything in return.

“I’ll follow your lead,” he said.

Gerry’s face hovered into the light again, casting sharp shadows over his features. “Not quite good enough.”

“What?”

With a sigh, Gerry let his eyes slide shut. “There’s too many of them. If we make a break for it, they’ll run us down, overwhelm us with sheer numbers.” His eyes opened, focusing on Jon. “You’re fast. A lot faster than you used to be, at least. All you need to get away is a diversion.”

“I don’t like where this is headed—”

“I’ll be fine,” Gerry said calmly, with a roll of his eyes. “And most importantly, you’ll be fine. You’ve got the easy bit. All you have to do is run fast until you’re out. I’ll take care of the rest.”

He reached for the door handle. Jon got there first.

***

Jon’s hand closed around his wrist, tight enough to make his fingers tingle. Gerry jerked back with a surprised hiss, but Jon refused to let go.

“Gerry, stop,” he hissed. “It won’t work.”

“Oh ye of little faith.” It was getting a little harder to keep his voice steady. Sure, his chances were slim, but that was nothing new. Slim chances were his baseline.

“No, listen to me,” Jon gritted out, yanking him away from the door. “It won’t work. There are too many of them and they’re spread out through the building. No matter where, when, or how you try to make a stand, I won’t even make it outside.”

Conviction rang in every word, bringing Gerry up short. He looked back; in the dim light through the door’s small window, he could see the set of Jon’s face.

“Trust me,” Jon pleaded. “I know.”

Gerry’s eyes narrowed. “How do you know? I didn’t see you swooning over a vision.”

“Think of something else,” Jon told him.

“Jon—”

“The longer we take to decide, the more everything shifts,” Jon snapped. “Think of something else.”

“Fine!” Gerry thought quickly. “It’s a straight shot to the east entrance from here—”

“Won’t work,” Jon cut him off. The light from the hallway struck his eyes, setting them aglow. His pupils, no longer light-absorbing black, flashed like a cat’s in the dark. “It’s too narrow—no escape routes. It’ll funnel us straight to them. Try again.”

“South, then. It leads to the warehouse—there’s plenty of places to hide.”

“The mezzanine’s already packed with armed cultists,” said Jon. “It’d be like running into a firing squad.”

“If we go further down—”

“No way out, and… there’s something down here.” Jon squinted and grimaced, free hand flying to his forehead as if in sudden pain. “I can’t—I can’t quite get the shape of it.”

“Then… up…?”

Jon blinked. “Keep going.”

“What?”

“Upstairs, then what?”

Gerry thought for a moment. “Head to the roof, take the fire escape down.”

“Fire escapes aren’t maintained, they won’t hold both of us,” said Jon. “Try again.”

“Not the roof, then. Out one of the windows. I can climb and carry you.”

“You—” Jon blinked, his strange eyes widening. “Huh. So you can.”

“Are we good?” Gerry asked.

“Wait.” Jon’s eyes flickered again, before he squeezed them shut and came back into himself. “Christ. Car park on the west side of the building. There’s a blue sedan with keys on the center console.”

“Okay.” With one last look out into the hallway, Gerry reached for the door handle. There would be time for questions later, and Gerry had many. “Get ready to run.”

***

“Want to tell me what that was about, then?”

Jon’s hands barely shook. It was a bold move, starting an interrogation when Jon was the one applying gauze to a bullet graze Gerry couldn’t reach himself. “Depends on what you want to talk about—”

“Don’t.” Gerry’s voice brooked no argument, barely stuttering even as Jon pressed a disinfectant-soaked pad to the gash over his shoulder blade.

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Jon insisted. “I’m a seer. You knew that when Elias brought you on. Why are you so disconcerted over watching me see the future?”

“Because you’ve been holding out on me, Sims,” Gerry said mildly. “Holding out on him too, seems like. Does Elias know you can do that? Just peek into the future of your own accord, instead of waiting for it to creep up and pounce?”

Jon sighed.

He didn’t say anything after sighing, but he did continue to patch up Gerry’s wounds. Gerry sat patiently, holding still even as Jon’s ministrations stung his torn and scorched skin. He could be patient. Once Jon was done, he wouldn’t have an excuse to hide behind anymore.

“I’m not stupid,” Jon said. “Or naive, or sheltered. I don’t know why you thought I was when we first met.”

“You’re not my first bodyguarding gig,” Gerry told him. “In my experience, anybody who gets as petulant about being protected as you were is usually naive and a bit stupid. And after that stunt you pulled with Jude Perry, you can forgive me for coming to a reasonable conclusion.”

“That wasn’t stupidity or naivete,” Jon said primly. “That was recklessness. Learn the difference.”

“Jon.”

“I just mean—I know how people see me,” Jon went on. “What they usually want from me. It happened back when I was a kid, before my grandmother stopped letting me talk about it. Everyone wants to know something about the future, even if they think they don’t. I’m a useful tool for some, a deepest wish for others. I’ve been hiding what I am since I was a child. And when Elias identified what I was in spite of my best efforts… I thought it best to keep hiding what little I could.”

“Like having control over your own power.” Gerry’s eyes narrowed. “But you work for him. Being a seer is literally what he pays you for.”

“But I don’t know why.” Jon finished fussing over his wounds and stood back. “He pays me a wage plus a bonus for every vision I report to him, but I don’t know what he’s getting out of any of it. He’s looking for something—I know he is. I just don’t know what.”

“If you don’t know what he wants from you, but you don’t trust him enough to ask, then why stay at all?” Gerry asked. “I’ve seen your paycheck, and it’s not that good. Why do you still work for him?”

Jon moved to the sink, where he washed his hands with the methodical care of a surgeon about to walk into an operating theater. Gerry was halfway through putting his shirt back on when Jon finally replied.

“Because I haven’t found a path to quitting that doesn’t end with Elias killing me.”

Gerry froze, his shirt still rucked up over his chest.

“I’d been working for him for about… six months? When I finally admitted to myself that I wasn’t comfortable.” Jon returned to the kitchen table and sank back into the chair beside Gerry. “I didn’t think much of peeking ahead, so to speak. Elias just struck me as the sort of boss who would take a resignation personally, and I wanted to know what I’d have to deal with.” He took a deep breath. “Turns out, what I’d have to deal with was Elias coming into my home and beating me to death in a staged burglary gone wrong.”

Gerry gripped the edge of his chair until his knuckles turned white.

“I-I went through as many possible exits as I could think of,” Jon went on. “Moving wouldn’t help. Neither would changing my number, ghosting him, stringing him along to keep him from realizing I was quitting—nothing. If I try to quit, he’ll kill me. And I don’t know why.”

He stopped, steadying himself. “All I can do is just—linger. Be as useless as possible. Try to figure out what he wants from me. I-I keep checking, every now and then. Cycling through possible resignation methods. I’m—” HIs voice caught. “I’m quite sick of watching myself die, as you can imagine.”

“Can’t you use your sight to figure out what he wants?” Gerry asked.

“No, it’s—it’s not that simple, it’s—a question like that is too vague.” Jon paused, looking thoughtful. “Did your mother ever teach you about probability?”

Gerry gave him exactly the look that question deserved.

“Right, didn’t think so. Here—here’s an incredibly simplified demonstration.” Jon reached across the table and snagged a legal pad. “Right, so—imagine you’re trying to pick an outfit for the day. And you have… two pairs of trousers, three shirts, and four pairs of socks. So you start with picking the trousers.” Turning the pad sideways, he started on the left and drew a sideways V, the two branches spread wide, nearly spanning the width of the page. “These two points are your two choices of trousers. From there, you pick a shirt. Both choices of trousers can then go with three possible shirts, making six outcomes in all.” From the end of both branches, he drew three more branching lines. “And from there, you choose socks—so each of these six shirt-trouser combinations have four further possibilities for socks.” He continued drawing until the diagram resembled a sideways skeletal tree with twenty-four branches at the end. “And you can continue this ad nauseum—you’ve got three possible pairs of shoes, five possible hats, two possible pairs of gloves, and so on and so forth.” Before long, the entire page was filled with simplistic tree branches, uneven and crowding each other on the page. “Following me so far?”

“Yes?” Gerry said dubiously.

“This is, once again, an incredibly simplified version of what the future is like,” Jon explained. “It’s not a straight path. There are countless possible outcomes for every single—well. Everything. You make different choices to go down certain paths, and the choices available to you depend on random chance and the choices of the people around you, who are also living in their own tangled probability trees.” He tapped the scribbly mess on the page with his pencil. “When I use my sight of my own accord, that is what I see.”

Gerry stared down at it. “Huh.”

“The trick I pulled in the Rayner compound was… simpler than it could have been,” Jon went on. “It’s easiest to see what’s straight ahead, because that puts me back here—” he tapped at the single point on the left side of the page, from which the rest of the branches originated. “Because I can focus on myself, and my own choices, and the number of possible outcomes are slightly more manageable. The present and immediate future are always the easiest to deal with, because whenever I choose a particular branch, the rest of them… wither away, so to speak, and all the tangled might-have-beens that grew from them disappear. It frees up my attention.”

“So it’s difficult to figure out what Elias wants from you because… you don’t know how to find the right branch?”

Jon nodded. “I don’t know how to find the path that leads to him telling me.”

“Do you know what happens if you tell him the truth about your abilities?”

“I looked, once,” Jon replied. “Not for very long. None of the outcomes I could find involved him letting me outside ever again.”

“Fuck,” Gerry breathed out. “You realize you’re taking a huge risk by telling me, right? For all you know, I could take this straight to Bouchard.”

Jon’s eyes flickered again. “I’ve yet to find a branch where you do.” Gerry snorted. “And besides that…”

His scarred hand came to rest over Gerry’s. By some miracle, Gerry managed not to jump.

“We’re in this together,” Jon said. “We’re both stuck, and I’m relying on you just to keep breathing. You’ve been—good. To me. So far. You’re no friend of Elias, that’s for sure.”

“I’m not,” Gerry said firmly.

“Maybe it is a risk,” said Jon. “But I’m just—tired. I’m trapped either way, and the closest I have to company I trust are the infinite possible future versions of myself, who I can only observe and learn from. To tell you the truth, I’ve been getting a bit lonely.”

“Bit sad, that.”

“Never said it wasn’t.”

They sat in silence for a while, neither of them pulling away from the other’s touch. Gerry stared at the hand over his own through half-lidded eyes, wondering what would happen if he turned his over and held Jon’s properly. For a split second he wished he could peek ahead.

“Hey Jon?”

“Yes?”

“What happens if—” He faltered for a moment. “What happens if I’m with you when you try to leave?”

“Hm.” Jon’s eyes flickered for a moment.

Without warning, they flew open wide.

“Jon?” Gerry asked nervously.

“I…” Jon’s throat bobbed. “Sorry, that—that just opened up an entire dimension of branches that I didn’t even—” His eyes flicked from side to side, as if the entire tree of fate was sprouting and growing before him, and he could only take in a few branches at a time.

“Talk to me,” said Gerry.

“There are—a lot more answers to that question than I realized,” Jon said. “Still a lot of ways to die, but—not as immediate. There are more branches ahead, I can’t quite…” He seemed to catch his breath. “I have to think about this. But…” The strange light in his eyes went out, and he turned to look at the Gerry of here and now. “Would you do that? Are you sure?”

Gerry took Jon’s hand and squeezed. The outcome, it turned out, was Jon’s wide eyes locking on his face, and the faintest hint of a blush creeping over Jon’s skin.

“Yes.” He wondered how many paths vanished when he made his choice.

[theresattrpgforthat]

Second, do you have any good fantasy RPGs set in a non-european focused or at least not medieval-European world? It can be based off of a real-world culture or something brand new

THEME: Non-Western Fantasy

Hello friend! For this recommendation, I wanted to highlight games made about non-western fantasy by authors who hail from the cultures that inspire the games. For that purpose I really want to shout-out to rpgsea and rpglatam, two community/movements that have made it much easier for creators from Southeast Asian and Latin American cultures to advertise and publish their games. Not all of my recommendations come from these communities, but they’re a great jumping-off point to find more games with unique settings, fresh ideas, and beautiful, beautiful art.

Nahual, by Miguel Angel Espinoza.

Nahual is a tabletop roleplaying game about brjos nahuales, humans of mestizo and indigenous ancestry that have the power to shapeshifter into an animal form. These nahuales hunt angels to make a living, running a changarro - a business - together to sell the products they make from the bodies of the angels they have killed. These are stories about underdogs, struggling to find their place in a Mexican world of fantastical and overwhelming forces.

Miguel Ángel Espinoza is a Mexican layout artist and game designer, and the head of Smoking Mirror Games. His ttrpg Nahual really picked up steam on Kickstarter, unlocking stretch goal after stretch goal. At its core, this game is PbtA game about underdogs going up against celestial parasites. Angel Dust is a potent drug, and angels are used by corporations, politicians, and the Church to lure in worshipers and make money. You play the labourers at the bottom of this pyramid, aching for freedom but trapped inside a concrete jungle. Your biggest asset? The special gifts you’ve inherited from your ancestors, watered down as you’ve lost your cultural memories. 

This game is more urban fantasy than anything else on this list, but if you want to explore a game about reclaiming something that you’ve almost lost, you should definitely check out Nahual.

ARC, by momatoes.

Ready Yourself. For Tonight, we save the world.

The RPG to slay the apocalypse. Capture your imagination with near-inescapable dooms that threaten infinite worlds. Be a hero or be the guide to facilitate a heart-racing story to remember.

ARC enables people wishing to run a game with limited experience. The Doom and its Omens help create tension and manage the story’s pacing. The rules are approachable so you can focus on helping make the best story for the table. Additionally, the last chapter of the full book is filled with tips for building a good experience for you and your friends. 

The creator, Momatoes (aka Bianca Canoza), is from the Philippines, and is the custodian of RPGSEA, as well as a Winner of the Diana Jones Emerging Designer Award. Her game, ARC doesn’t have a lot of setting decided for you - instead, you decide elements of the setting yourself. There's even a license for creators who want to publish their own content! The biggest selling point of ARC is the Doom, a terrible event that the Heroes want to prevent at any cost. The GM will set up Omens, which are pieces of the story that advance the Doom - pieces the characters will need to investigate and interact with in order to resolve. Finally, the Doomsday clock is a tool that can be used to keep the sessions tight and focused: every moment on the Doomsday clock has the GM roll 1d6 per unresolved moment - the higher the roll, the closer you tick towards catastrophe! If you want a beginner-friendly game that allows maximum creativity, you should definitely check out ARC.

Arunika, by Anonymocha.

Darkness and gloom threaten to shroud the entirety of this world you call home. Or perhaps, it already had. However, there's hope.

You are a Light Bearer. This beacon of light you hold is the key to reviving the world's gleam and hope, through your own. You are bestowed with the pursuit of rekindling the world, forging bonds with its inhabitants along the path, and freeing it from the murk with what you can offer.

Arunika is a TTRPG of maintaining hope, sharing it with the world, and most importantly, caring for yourself while you're at it.

The rulebook reflects a world's journey towards revival from the characters who escalate it. It is made with the vision of a game that has a non-violent, narrative-first, and feelings-focused system which can be interpreted in many optimistic, creative, whimsical, melancholic, or introspective ways.

Mocha, the creator, is an Indonesian artist with a beautiful and unique art style, visible in the projects they create and contribute to. One person plays the Light Bearer, a character who holds the Light, a beacon that needs to be used to rekindle the world. Other players can play the Companions, friends and old foes that accompany the Light Bearer on their journey. This game can be run with just a GM and one player, with all of the Companions as NPCs. The stats of your character will fill or deplete depending on the events of the game, so Heart will increase when the party has a positive interaction, while Hurt will increase from suffering harm, or decrease when your character is comforted. If you want a game that is easy on the eyes, gives you the basic premise and lets you build your own world, you should check out Arunika. 

Hearts of Wulin, by Lowell Francis and Agatha Cheng.

Hearts of Wulin is a game of wuxia melodrama, Powered by the Apocalypse. Players take the role of skilled martial artists in a world of rival clans, conspiracies, and obligations. The game emulates films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Chinese wuxia TV series like The Smiling Proud Wanderer and Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain, and Chinese martial arts novels from the second half of the twentieth century. In these tales, romance is as dangerous as a blade. Everyone has ties to factions, loves they can’t quite express, and secrets which will shake them to their core. As in the source material, stories in Hearts of Wulin are driven by the characters’ duties, romantic desires, and entanglements with other characters.

You get everything you need to play the game in three different styles: Core, Courtly, and Fantastic. The core game is as described above: a game of wuxia melodrama featuring wandering wulin warriors. The courtly style of play sets the game in a world of politics and factional scheming. The fantastic game adds strong elements of the superrnatural to the story. Each style of play has its own playbooks and moves—it's like having three games in one! 

Agatha Cheng is a cultural consultant and a podcast host, on top of being a co-author of this wuxia-inspired game, in a genre she’s loved since childhood. Hearts of Wulin is an homage to melodramatic stories about protagonists, torn between equally treasured relationships. You may be in love with your teacher’s greatest rival, or perhaps your master and your father despise each-other. The PbtA system that Hearts is built on prioritizes emotional conflict and failure that moves the story forward, while slimming down the mechanics to simple 2d6 dice rolls. If what you’re looking for is story beats that rip your heart up and make you feel all of the feelings, you should check out this game.

Gubat Banwa, by makapatag.

Gubat Banwa is a game of rapid kinetic martial arts, violent sorcery, heartrending convictions and bouts of will. Warriors that channel gods face sorcerers that master black arts, martial artists who have unlocked a new form of cultivation clash swords with those that perfect the night alchemies.

Gubat Banwa is a  Southeast Asian fantasy martial arts Role-Playing Game, inspired by the refulgent cultures of Southeast Asia. Raise your spears, KADUNGGANAN, you elite warrior-braves and asura-knights who travel The Sword Isles to prove their conviction and dictate the fate of the world. Revel in larger-than-life war drama like in Asian Dramas, ballistic tactical martial arts grid gameplay in the vein of Lancer or Final Fantasy Tactics, and find glory beyond heaven. Wield the Thunderbolt of Liberation! Rejoice! In the Glory of Combat!

Makapatag, or Waks, is a Filipino creature who loves creating tactical ttrpgs. All of their games have strong Southeast Asian inspiration, but Gubat Banwa is what you’re looking for if you want good old fantasy. Rules-wise, the author credits Lancer, Pathfinder 2e, ICON, Ryuutama, Apocalypse World, and so many more iconic, well-loved games for their inspiration. This game is made to specifically centre Southeast Asian cultures, and the setting is not solely based in a specific historical setting, but is rather inspired by many cultures and stories of these cultures. I strongly recommend you read the Note On Intended Audience on page 4 if you get this book.

And what a book it is. 400 pages, with maps, roll-tables, an extensive dive into the lore and terms created for this book, and pages and pages of gorgeous gorgeous art. Character creation is heavily involved, incorporating the culture you hail from, the ideal you’re fighting for, major life events and debts, as well as different Disciplines, combat arts that each have their own styles, weapons, and techniques. Fighting in this game is not just a matter of survival - it is a science. If you want a game that gives you in-depth characters and hours and hours of material in a world in which every piece of lore has been carefully thought out, I heavily recommend Gubat Banwa.

Mangayaw, by goobernuts.

Mangayaw is an RPG for one facilitator (the Mangaawit) and at least one other player. Players act as Binmanwa, adventurers and survivors in an archipelago of bloodshed and goldlust. This game is inspired by Philippine legend, folklore, culture and history. The game and its setting is still a work-in-progress. Based on and inspired by Cairn, Into the Odd, Mausritter and numerous other games. 

Benj, the creator, is a member of RPGsea, and draws heavily from Philippine folklore and history for this game. This is absolutely for OSR fans, with delay fast combat, class-less and level-less characters, and a ton of equipment and magic items inspired by Philippines folklore.

Whereas many OSR games present the rules with the assumption that the GM knows what they’re doing, Mangayaw contains a page of principles for the Mangaawit, outlining narrative focus, the purpose of danger and treasure, and advice on how to present the characters with choices, NPC motivations, and the benefits of random generation. It also contains principles for the players, and principles of the World, providing guidance for folks who may be unfamiliar with the culture that inspires this setting. There’s suggestions for names, descriptions of unique items, and tables for magic and sorcery. If you love roll tables, you’ll love Mangayaw.

Brave Zenith, by Roll 4 Tarrasque.

Brave Zenith is a post-fantasy tabletop RPG, set in a world inspired by Brazilian culture and long summer nights playing JRPGs on a pirated PS1. With a set of simple interpretative rules, that focus on player creativity and imagination, explore the ruined world of pastpresent, meet colourful (and deadly) creatures, see the sights of the Second City, partake in delicious Monkey Oil and become an adventurer.

Roll 4 Tarrasque is a team of Latinx creators whose efforts won Game of the Year for 2022 at the Indie Groundbreaker Awards with this game. Brave Zenith is a game about fantasy odd-jobs, rather than epic quests - your characters are cleaning up houses, hunting ghosts, stealing from the rich, etc. The people and creatures of the world are unique and enchanting, from the friendly Jelly shopkeeper to the slippery butter construct, to little porcini goblins. 

Characters have 3 stats, gain abilities based off of their occupations. There are three suggested origins to help you determine what your character looks like, but you’re also welcome to create your own! There are typical hallmarks of dungeon delving here, such as loot tables, monsters to fight, and spells to cast. For the GMs, there’s a chapter full of advice on how to prepare for a session, quick NPC generation, and tables to help you write an adventure on the fly. Finally, the rulebook itself is bright, colourful, and fun - perfect for communicating the kinds of games it’s designed to run!

Lutong Banwa by Sinta Posadas (Diwata ng Manila).

We, the Tamawo, we have no concept of hunger, food, or of a nuclear family. We wandered aimlessly for a long time. Then, we met a Giant Grab. She took us in like her own children. Clothed and sheltered us like we were her kind. We call her Mama Kasag. She showed us more about the people that came before us. The ones she calls “Humans”. 

Lutong Banwa is a cooking game, where you set out to adventure and find ingredients from Spirits and recipes from old civilizations. Embark on this anti-canon storygame adventure with its own custom system and play to find out just what sort of zany adventures you can get up to in this weird, wild world. Do whatever you want.

Sin is a Filipino game designer who loves designing games that incorporate magic realism. Lutong Banwa is no different. You play Tamawo, who have bodies that appear similar to humans, but live in an age in which humans are long gone. Humans are strange beings of a past age, with unfamiliar customs, such as cooking. You’ve picked up cooking as something to explore, and thus go out on errands to find new ingredients for Mama Kasag. This game is charming and small, quick to learn and easy to play. It even includes recipes to get you in the cooking mood! If you like cozy games with low stakes and a charming setting, you should absolutely check out this game.

A Thousand Thousand Islands.

This is not a game, but rather, a collection of system-agnostic zines for use in fantasy tabletop games. This collection is designed by a trio of Malaysian designers, and contains places such as Mr-Kr-Gr, a river kingdom ruled by crocodiles, Korvu, a maritime nation of tenant mercenaries, and Ngelalangka, a market inspired by Southeast Asian bazaars. If you have a game system that you’re already comfortable with and you want to explore fantastical places within that system, I heavily encourage you to check out these zines.

[literary-illuminati]

Book Review 57 – Pale by Wildbow

I have been reading Pale as it released from the very beginning in 2020 until the end. As such I am clearly suffering from a severe and acute case of Stockholm Syndrome, and you shouldn’t trust a single thing I say. But to try and step back a bit – Pale is the best 4 million word serial I have ever read, and very nearly even good.

The story follows Avery, Lucy and Verona, precocious and for various reasons marginalized teenagers in a decaying Canadian ski town. They are recruited by a council of the various ghouls, ghosts and goblins who live in the shadows of the town to be its Official Witches and investigate the mysterious death of the Carmine Beast, the greater spirit who stood as judge over all contests of struggle and violence in the region (less in the hopes that find anything and more so that any nosy outsiders can be truthfully told it has already been handled). Being of a protagonist-ey bent, they rapidly exceed their new patrons’ expectations, especially the ones among them who had a hand in the murder. After that it’s basically just literally several million words of things escalating further and further out of anyone’s control.

Or, I kid, but it really is impossible to talk about Pale without forgrounding its length and medium, I think. This is a serial which ran continuously with at least one update a week for more than three years, and (to grab another story about child wizards to compare) is roughly four complete Harry Potter series’ in length. Beyond being an entirely superhuman accomplishment as far as writing productivity goes, this had unavoidable effects on the story as it was being told. It also makes it literally impossible to provide anything like a complete plot summary in a review short enough that anyone will read it. So just take my word that there’s a lot of it, and we’ll come back to the others length-related issues.

This is an urban fantasy book, and a kitchen sink one at that – it’s clearly one of the underlying principles of the setting that it should, insofar as possible, be able to fit every type of storybook monster and horror movie plot and twilight zone episode within it somewhere. Underlying and ordering it all is the axiom that (almost) nothing magical can lie. The world will only respond to your word if its actually worth something – contradicting or gainsaying yourself harms your karma and sets the universe against you, breaking a sworn oath is an open invitation to fates worse than death. The natural consequence of this is that every practitioner (wizard, basically) worth shit has been trained from birth to be an asshole genie and most of the really powerful Others (catch-all term for supernatural creatures) come by it naturally.

None of which is new – this is the second serial Wildbow has written in the setting – but they do combine to make a bunch of amateur detectives investigating a murder really, really fun. The heroines POVs also offers a great way to introduce the setting to the reader, or, at least, provides an excellent justification for in character exposition dumps – and to be clear, this is a series with lore. I consider this an absolute win, but if you don’t like elaborate asides about random monsters or marginal otherworlds that clearly exist only because the author thought they were cool, then this is not the series for you. (On the other hand, most of them are absolutely cool). The world is vast, and the story is full of asides and tangents about things that could easily sustain a novel in their own right.

The other way the exposition is provided is through occasional Extra Materials mini-chapters (quite regular during the beginning of the story, less so as it goes on), which are just excerpts of in-universe documentation – specifically things that the protagonists or occasionally another major character would have been reading. Everything from class notes to chatlogs to investigation summaries as written by one of the girls to local social media posts to a dozen other things. Surprisingly good graphic design on most of them too, which really helps sell them as in-universe artifacts and as ways to characterize the implied authors/readers. It’s very much to the serial’s detriment that these fade away as it goes on.

The series has three protagonists, and chapters alternate between each of their POVs and internal narration. It actually does an excellent job differentiating between Lucy, Avery and Verona and giving them their own distinct voices and making each compelling in their own right (not that I don’t have my favourite, but). While the book’s not perfect about it, on the whole they mostly feel like unusually bright and dedicated teenagers (and increasingly incredibly traumatized child soldiers with variably healthy coping mechanisms), rather than short and legally disabled adults.

As is fairly common with web serials, the normal chapters are intercut with interludes from the perspective of some more minor character. Across all Wildbow’s works, these are honestly where he really shines most, I think. They’re each essentially short stories introducing and providing the history and characterization of someone from their own point of view, in the process more often than not totally recontextualizing their role in the story so far, with how they advance the actual plot almost incidental half the time. If I wanted to sell someone on the setting with as little investment as possible, I would probably just link them the first interlude – the first 90% of the chapter is a really quite good standalone horror story about a totally normal kinda shitty kid getting drawn into and being consumed by an occult living ritual (with its own creepy song! And cannibalism!)

Wildbow is actually an incredibly gifted character writer - both as a web serial author (but on the whole that’s not really any great accomplishment) and just, generally. Despite having an absolutely comically sprawling cast (like, dozens, minimum. If you told me hundreds I’d believe you), he manages to give the vast, vast majority of ones that matter their own distinct aesthetics, voices, and even their own little character arcs and plotlines. Even as much as I complain about bloat and pacing, it never stops being a joy to just spend time in any of the three protagonists’ heads, and I was deeply invested in them achieving their dreams in a way I rarely if ever am for fictional characters.

Now, the complaining. Wildbow is, as I said, one of the best character writers I know working today. The same cannot be said for his skill writing action scenes – which is incredibly unfortunate, because there are so, so fucking many of them. Some serve a real narrative purpose or showcase some bit of characterization, but most could honestly be cut by 90% and you wouldn’t lose anything except wordcount – even the ones which should be there tend to drag on past their natural end because of the book’s love of making things as desperate and hardwon as possible. Which I wouldn’t necessarily mind but like, there are individual action set-pieces that are longer than some published novels. At a certain point exhaustion sets in. If I had to guess, I’d put this down to the fact that when you’re writing 10k words a week and don’t have any concrete ideas of where to go next with the plot worked out, just extending the action scene and throwing some new monsters or puzzles or reversals of fortune at the heroes can eat up a chapter and buy you some time – but just because it’s an understandable consequence of the serial format doesn’t mean I need to like it.

Perhaps reading far too much into it, but if I had to guess, I would say the story’s more structural issues stem from the same thing. Pale was originally planned as a (relatively) short and (relatively) light serial, but in the process of writing rapidly ballooned past all planning and expectation. Which like, as I said, I just enjoyed spending time in the various protagonists’ heads and seeing them develop, but at a certain point you can absolutely start to see the plot starting to outpace all planning and spinning off in multiple entirely new directions that were pretty clearly informed by whatever idea Wildbow was turning over in his head at the time. Sometimes this worked out very nicely – I still love Avery’s whole Thunder Bay/accidental love triangle arc. Sometimes it’s a bit mixed – Wonderkand is a very fun idea, but tonally and aesthetically is kind of a mismatch with 90% of the rest of the setting. Sometimes, well – did anyone like the extended Aurum/Dark Fall trial sequence? But even aside from individual arc quality, if you are someone who cares even slightly about things like ‘pacing’, ‘narrative discipline’, or ‘plot points/foreshadowing not going in weird directions or fading in the background because the author just forgot/kind of lost interest in them in the course or writing a novella weekly for three years’ then oh boy is this not the story for you.

A similar sort of thing happens, I think, with the story’s themes. Pale is from the beginning very explicitly concerned with ideas of punitive versus rehabilitative justice, an already slightly fraught use of the subjugation/binding of magical creatures as a metaphor for oppression and colonization, and just generally with the idea of building a better world in the hidden corners of the current one. The story, well, remains very interested with those subjects, but having any coherent viewpoint on them falls to the wayside compared to coming up with ways to advance the plot or dilemmas to throw at the protagonists or just vivid bits of imagery in the moment. This more or less generalizes – I kind of get the sense that Wildbow set out wanting to write something that goes against his narrative reflexes/habits, but as the story went on and the writing piled up they just kind of crept back in. Certainly for a story that take pains at first to emphasize how hellish and cruel long term binding and confinement are, the happy ending involves a lot of various cruel and torturous prisons that are portrayed as somewhere between necessary and just. The big final villain also more or less works on a character level, but thematically is basically the single worst choice of anyone the protagonists faced down across the entire story.

I’m accentuating the negative here, and part of that is just because I’m a miserable husk of a human, but it’s also just that Pale’s real problems tend to be structural, while its high points are much more particular and specific, and hard to sell without immense amounts of context – there are so many random side characters who get more compelling stories than the actual protagonists of some books I’ve read this year, and a half dozen scenes that are pretty permanently burned into my memory. My favourite dynamic involves a character whose only present for, like, 3% of the story max.

At one point the story was intended to end with Arc 13, followed by a hiatus and then a sequel. I still think this would have been the correct choice, even that ending would rip my fucking heart out and also possibly get Wildbow literal bombs mailed to his house. Still – if you can stand that sort of ending and also are the sort of person to read million-word web serials to begin with, that would be my recommendation. Get to that point, and then decide for yourself how invested you are in spending time in the heads of the protagonists and in the world. Or read Pact, which is like a fifth of the size and ostensibly set in the same setting – though leans so much further into horror than urban fantasy for tone that functionally there’s a lot of discrepancies.

All of which said, Verona Lucy and Avery are going to live in my head for the rest of my life and I make no apologies about this.

[seananmcguire]

hello! I was wondering, what was your process when deciding when to use pen names versus your real name? Is a pen name (or multiple pen names) something that you would recommend to authors who already have a small body of work under their given name?

The process was almost entirely publisher-driven. Readers--and I say this as a reader, as well as an author, and someone who has observed this in multiple settings--readers have expectations based on the name on the cover of the book. At the time Feed was published (Mira Grant's first appearance), I had a few fairly standard urban fantasies published, and nothing else.

My-then-Mira's publisher was legitimately concerned, with cause, that people who would enjoy hard science fiction about pandemics, politics, and zombies would skip over Feed because they assumed it was an urban fantasy. So we slapped a pseudonym on it, to distance me from the work.

I recommend a pen name any time you're shifting genres or (to a degree, and unless you're already, say, Neil Gaiman-level known) age groups. Lilith Saintcrow uses a different name for her YA, while Ursula Vernon uses the T. Kingfisher name to distinguish her middle grade from her freaky adult work, and prevent parents buying it for their eleven year olds by mistake.

[unsoundedcomic]

what was your inspiration behind Sette's character?

Hard to say, she's been with me so long. I think she began as a kind of self-insert when daydreaming about lots of stuff I liked as a kid: pirate adventures, cowboy adventures, goofy urban fantasy adventures. Sette was always there to take the lead.

When I got into public chatroom RP in my early twenties, it was in a generic fantasy themed setting with dragons and ye olde tavern, and such. Sette became a law-skirting street rat; a Huck Finn or an Artful Dodger sort. I'm not sure why she had a tail other than she needed something to make her stand out, and I'm a Leo who loves lions. The tail came before the backstory.

Sette has lot of facets. The criminal is easily attributable to Dickens and Twain, but the scrappy misfit in a family full of assholes with a dad who doesn't get her - well, that's just me, and a lot of other people :) And at the same time, Sette is also an asshole. I think that's why she's cool. Wouldn't we all like to be that utterly confident, lawless, bold, telling it like it is. She knows herself to the extent that she's not even interested in all these strange forces trying to get her to realise she might be something else. She doesn't need them because she already knows who she is. She's not going to change. She's going to change the world.

[deancaspinefest]

Faking It?

Author: GhoulsnHalos | Artist: king-of-moose

Posting on Saturday April 13 

Actor Dean Winchester's career has hit a roadblock and the offers for a juicy lead or series regular role have dried up. In contrast, Castiel Novak's acting career is struggling to get off the ground. Despite critical acclaim for his latest part as the angelic lead in an upcoming urban fantasy show, offers aren't flooding in. What happens when the pair agree to their managers' scheme of a three-month fake relationship to push them both further into the media spotlight? It is only three months of public appearances together pretending to fall in love in front of the cameras, right? They’re both actors. They play at make-believe for a living. It can’t be that hard to pull off, can it? Besides, what could possibly go wrong?

Keep reading for a sneak preview!

“Speaking of the next three months, have you seen the schedule the Sasquatch and the Demon made?”

“It appears designed to put as in front of as many cameras and gossip columnists as possible, while subtly making use of those times when one or other of us already has something scheduled. It’s well-researched.” Dean lifts his eyes skyward.

“That’ll be my brother—the king of research and best-prepared boy scout that never was. Has its uses, so I shouldn’t complain. Don’t tell him that.”

“Why would I? There are parties on there,” Castiel says unable to keep the unease out of his voice as he makes the non sequitur. “Beginning next week.”

“Right. Not a fan. Cozy nights on the couch in pjs, I got it. Don’t worry, I’ll be with you, Sunshine. I’m certain I can show you a good time.”

For a second, Castiel thinks the million-dollar, boxer-dropping grin that follows is for him. Then reality hits again.

“Thank you.”

He doesn’t know what else to say without making an even bigger assbutt of himself than he already has.

An unrecognizable emotion flashes across Dean’s features.

“Besides, we don’t have to do what they’ve scheduled all the time. We’re big boys, we can do whatever we like.”

“True. But they’ve gone to so much trouble pulling—”

Dean holds his hand up to stop Castiel talking.

“Maybe my offer isn’t so altruistic as it came across. Look, if either of is uncomfortable with what’s been planned, then chances are that’s going to come across in our, um, performance?” Dean sounds hesitant about using that word, eyes darting around the room. “We won’t have a second, third, or fourth take at any of these things, unlike in our day-job.” Castiel has barely registered that he’s had the thought before he’s blurting it out. “We could meet up for breakfast early next week before I start the promotional tour, go through the list and iron out any kinks, so to speak.” Dean stares at him. “You asking me out on a proper date, eh, Cas?”

(continue reading on Ao3 on Saturday April 13)

[minecraftbookshelf]

Adventures in Grian-Napping

Yakety Sax plays overhead.

Limited Life Session 3 Urban Fantasy AU not-quite-crack but definitely not serious either

Thanks to @crabbbage and @possiblyawesometmblr for the inspiration!

1.9k words

On AO3

-

"Grian's in a coma!"

Scott almost dropped his coffee when Martyn came flying through the front door, grinning like a madman.

"You know when Pearl moved out," he started, carefully re-balancing his armload of coffee and paperwork. "She left her key. Because she doesn't live here anymore. Because she has somewhere else to live. Just something to consider."

Martyn just looked at him like he was stupid. "Pearl doesn't use the front door, she comes in the window. You complain about it every time." He reached for the coffee pot on the bar and Scott batted his hands away.

"It's rude." He said defensively, taking a sip of his coffee to avoid having to answer any further. Martyn didn't say anything, just watched.

"You also have somewhere else to live. Somewhere you lived before, even."

Martyn tried for the coffee pot again.

Scott dropped his bag to grab it first. "Oh my GOD! Would you stop that‽ I made it, you should know better."

Martyn slunk back a step with an overly dramatic sulk. "You let Cleo eat your food."

"Cleo is undead and therefore immune to faerie food." Scott dumped the contents of the pot down the sink. "You, however, are not. You'd think twice would be enough."

"What can I say, I'm a glutton for punishment." Martyn hopped back towards him. "Anyway, that's not what I'm here for. Grian is in a coma."

Scott left the coffee pot in the sink and gathered back up his work things before making another try for the front door. "That's so sad, I'll send a card to the hospital."

"Oh no no no," Martyn shook his head. "Not that kind of coma, he's not in the hospital. He's on Joel and Timmy's sofa." He clearly thought this meant something, looking at Scott expectantly.

Scott just rolled his eyes up at the ceiling. "When will my husband return from the war and take you back off my hands?" He paused. "And by husband I mean Ren and by war I mean his communing with the moon and the wilderness werewolf thing."

"It's a two month retreat," Martyn said immediately. "He'll be gone for three more weeks."

A deep sigh and he looked back down. "Alright, I'll bite. What is going on with Grian and why do we care?"

"Wow, that's cold. Grian is in a coma because, according to Timmy," and Martyn made the most dramatic air quotes Scott had seen in awhile. "Grian said 'Oops, just a second, the gods are trying to take me back.' And then flopped over into his breakfast."

Scott mentally filed that away in his What the Actual Fuck is Up With Grian folder. "Okay, so again, why do we care?"

"We should steal him."

Scott should have kept the rest of the coffee, risk to Martyn be damned.

"We need to hurry though, Cleo, Scar, and Bdubs are already trying for it."

Of course they are.

-

It took them nearly half an hour to get to Joel and Jimmy's place because Martyn couldn't fly and Scott refused to carry him. No matter how many times he almost got run over jaywalking. Pearl was perched in the window by the door when they got there, her wings twitching behind her occasionally to balance. Scott stopped at the threshold and exchanged a look with her that only felt a little bit awkward. (They were doing better, even if they weren't quite back to the level of friendship they'd had before the soulmates debacle.)

"What's happened so far?"

Pearl grinned. "Scar has been baby-talking him, Cleo is hovering ominously, and-"

"STOP TRYING TO TAKE OUR GRIAN!"

"-And Joel is working himself towards an aneurysm."

Scott peeked through the door that Martyn so thoughtfully left open. He couldn't quite see into the living room from there but he could see Bdubs standing in the hallway and Jimmy fluttering back and forth, wings fluffed up indignantly while he argued with someone out of sight.

Oh, he might just be distracted enough that...

"Hey, Jimmy? May I come in?"

Pearl stifled a giggle next to him, her antenna bobbing in front of her face.

"Huh, yeah? Wait, no-"

Too late.

Scott strolled across the threshold, hands shoved in his pockets and smirk firmly pasted on. Jimmy threw his hands up in the air and stomped away, further into the sitting room.

"He never learns."

"He let me and Scar in too," Bdubs confirmed as he walked up beside him, eyes twinkling with mischief. "Though I don't think he'd realized that was a bad idea yet."

Scott just hummed in amusement. Invitations at this house were good one-time only, courtesy of Lizzie and the copious amounts of wards she'd thrown at the house first when Joel and then later Jimmy moved in. And if he focused hard enough, Joel would be able to throw them out, invited or no. They'd just have to make sure he was too distracted then. 

Though Cleo and Scar and Martyn seemed to have that well in hand, circling like vampires at a seedy nightclub. Joel was standing in front of the sofa, his hands on his hips, staring Cleo down, which looked pretty comical from the height difference alone. Scar and Martyn were flanking, trying their best to get at Grian (wrapped in a blanket, sitting on the sofa, staring blankly into space) while Joel body-blocked them without breaking eye contact with Cleo, who looked more amused than anything else. Jimmy was hovering anxiously in the back.

"Awwwww, who's a widdle Gwian," Scar was cooing, practically radiating mildly malicious delight. "Lookit the widdle Gwian!" 

"Stop that!" Joel blindly flailed a hand in Scar's direction and managed to smack him across the face, more out of luck than intention. Scar wheeled backwards a bit but wasn't deterred for long, rolling right back up to the sofa, turning his chair so that it was partially shielding him.

"Does the widdle Gwian want to go for walkies?"

"NO!" That actually got Joel to look away from Cleo, clear alarm on his face. "NO HE DOES NOT!"

"Are you so sure," Martyn inched closer. "It's got to be a bit dull, just staring at the wall like that. What kind of friends would we be if we left him to suffer boredom while he does..." he waved a hand vaguely in the air. "whatever he's doing."

Jimmy's wings fluffed up further. Pearl appeared in the living room window with a bag of popcorn as if she'd always been there. 

"You're not stealing our Grian!" Joel insisted. It was a good thing there were privacy wards. Who knows what the neighbors would have done by now otherwise.

"Do you think if we threw him across your lap you'd be able to carry him out?" Cleo asked Scar directly, leaning in a bit closer to Joel in a way that would have intimidated probably anybody else, but Joel's sense of danger was skewed and he didn't even flinch.

Scar looked genuinely thoughtful, tapping one finger on his knee as he considered. "Maybe. We'd have to tuck the blanket in tightly to make sure it didn't get caught in my wheels and kept his wings folded up."

Joel looked about ready to explode and was sputtering incoherently. Jimmy was squawking like an offended chicken. Pearl absolutely had the right idea with the popcorn.  

"You could at least turn the television on for him," Scott decided to throw his two cents in. "He's already in here."

Everyone quieted for a moment and considered that.

"Mario Kart?" Pearl suggested through a mouthful of popcorn. Jimmy perked up at the suggestion and Martyn looked like it had genuinely distracted him.

"We should do that!"

-

Two hours later everyone was firmly focused on the television, controllers being passed around and insults even more so. Cleo and Martyn and Scar and Pearl were fighting their way through Bowser's Castle and Scott leaned back against the sofa, closed his eyes and took a soft, deep breath.

Jimmy was easy, Scott's magic familiar and nonthreatening to him. He slumped over almost immediately, sound asleep.

Joel was harder. He had an innate resistance to magic in general that was very annoying, and an extra buffer from Lizzie's claim, but he was fairly relaxed and unsuspecting and he wasn't that far behind Jimmy.  Scott stifled a yawn and sat back up. Sleep charms always made him sleepy too. 

None of the others except BDubs had even noticed, too focused on the game.

"If you still want to steal Grian," Scott said, right as Martyn crossed the finish line with a cheer and shouts of disgust from the others. "Now would be the time."

Bdubs hopped to his feet. "Right, c'mon, Mom!"

Cleo looked somehow both exhausted and entertained at the same time. "Don't call me mom." Regardless, they got to their feet and gave the room a quick look-around. "Right."

Without further ado, she strode over to the sofa, threw Grian, blanket burrito and all over her shoulder and looked back at the rest of them. "Are you coming or what?"

There was a mad scramble, full of giggling and loud shushing and one close call (Jimmy rolled over in his sleep and almost hit Scar with his wing) before they were all out in the hallway looking at each other.

"Where to?" Martyn poked the Grian burrito. No reaction.

Pearl looked up from her phone. "I texted BigB, he'll meet us at the corner with the car."

"We should take him to Dad," Bdubs said emphatically. 

Cleo sighed. "Fine, we'll go see Etho."

Scar and Bdubs cheered. Martyn hushed them and they cheered again, quieter this time.

"We should hurry, the sleep charm won't last much longer," Scott jumped a bit when Pearl linked her arm with his.

They were out the front door and on the sidewalk, BigB's sedan pulling into view before the jig was up.

"WHERE IS GRIAN!"

Scott exchanged glances with Pearl and Martyn and as one the three of them bolted for the corner, giggling all the way, the others hot on their tail.

The trunk popped as they got close and Cleo yanked it open and tossed Grian inside without hesitation. Scar swung himself out of his chair and leaned up against Scott, who had to scramble a bit to catch him, scooting his chair at Cleo. They folded it up in record speed and shoved it in the trunk as well, right on top of Grian, before slamming the doorclosed and immediately pulling Bdubs out of the passenger seat so they could sit there themself.

Scott somehow ended up squished in one corner of the back, with Scar in the middle, Pearl on the other side with her knees pulled up, Martyn in his lap, and Bdubs squished down in the footwell in front of Pearl. Just in time too, as Joel came dashing down the sidewalk, Jimmy on his heels and fury on his face.

"GO! GO! GO!" At least three people screamed and BigB screamed wordlessly back as he peeled away from the curb. Scott managed to twist enough in his seat he could look out the back window. Joel was red in the face and looked genuinely distressed enough that he almost felt bad. Behind Joel, Jimmy took to the air.

"Jimmy's following," he informed the car at large. "He'll watch us from the air but he won't be too hard to lose."

Martyn leaned back, his elbow making forceful contact with Scott's diaphragm as he tried to look out the window. "He forgot to glamour before he took off, didn't he."

Scott wheezed, Pearl laughed, and Scar cackled like the madman he was.

"Etho is going to hate this," Bdubs announced from the floor. 

"Only one way to find out," Cleo said cheerfully and turned on the radio. "To Etho's house!"

[neoneun-au]

afterdark; a svt series m.list

There is a world that runs alongside ours. Lives as full, as vibrant, as depressing and chaotic. A world with its own set of rules and regulations, with its own needs and desires. It hums and buzzes, a hive swarming just under the surface of our own threatening to spill over into the daylight should the carefully constructed, thin barrier separating them show even the minutest of tears. 

You walk through neighbourhoods and city streets, content in your understanding of reality and the world that surrounds you. Going to work, going home, going out. Weaving through life as a single thread in a much bigger tapestry; millions of other threads of people that weave around you and create your world, your city. A tapestry that could unravel, expand, rip apart at the seams if you deviate. 

If, perhaps, you stumbled upon the wrong nightclub one day and found yourself amidst people that populate a different reality–strangers with glowing eyes and sharp teeth–that perception of your world would have to shift to accommodate them. Maybe you’ve already found yourself among them. Maybe they work with you, maybe they deliver your mail. Or maybe they just slip sight unseen through the cracks of your life. Either way, through some subconscious effort towards self-preservation, you’ve avoided the full realisation of who (and what) they were.

But what if that all changed? Would you embrace your new reality? Or would you cower in the face of the unknown.

Enter the Nightworld. Thirteen stories of the known and unknown, the mysterious and the apparent. Urban fantasy running the gambit of moods and genres. Choose one, or choose them all, but I hope you enjoy your journey either way.

☾ Shadowboxer ; Choi Seungcheol urban fantasy au / boxer au / childhood friends to lovers

Once on his way to an illustrious boxing career before injury soured his life path, Seungcheol sacrifices his soul for a second chance at glory. But the Devil deals in shady business, and now he’s contracted to a life of underground boxing between the boundaries of reality and the shadow realm, trying to win his way back into his life.

You meet him one night when your friend brings you out to a match in the basement of a dingy bar at the edge of the city. Something about his technique and demeanour remind you of someone from your boxing club back home. Someone who you had always hoped to see make it big.

☾ The Devil and I ; Yoon Jeonghan urban fantasy au / devil au / opposites attract

You've been working as the liason from the Dayworld to the Nightworld for going on 6 months now, mostly dealing with low level employees and the Devil’s stoic lawyer Wonwoo, but one major incident involving a breach in the barrier between the two worlds implores you to finally meet the Devil in the flesh.

Handsome and intelligent, but most of all sly, he is nothing like what you had been expecting. A test of wits presents itself to you upon entering his office and after bumbling your way through it unprepared, you have to try and put your simmering animosity towards the man to the side and find a way to work with the Prince of Darkness to fix this mess before two worlds collide into one and the balance of nature is undone.

☾ There Will Be Blood; Joshua Hong urban fantasy au / vampire x vampire hunter au / enemies to lovers

Another night, another new target. The only difference being that tonight you’re having to deal with a new recruit. Which means questions. And mistakes. Mistakes that might get you killed; or worse, turned into the very creature you've spent your entire adult life hunting down.

When a mistake does happen, and you get severely injured during the hunt, you find yourself a ward of the vampire you had been targeting. Presumed dead by the rest of your group, you wait on tenterhooks for the inevitable end. Will this encounter reinforce the hatred you've built against vampires or force you to re-evaluate beliefs you've held close your whole life?

☾ Death and All Of His Friends; Wen Junhui urban fantasy au/ grim reaper au / mystery

So you’ve died. So now what? Scenes of your life flashing before your eyes? A tunnel of with a white light at the end that you float idly towards, calm in the acceptance of the inevitable end? Maybe golden sparking pearly gates in a landscape of white cloud...

None of that, actually. Instead, you’re sitting in your caseworkers office, all too similar to a cubicle you worked in during life, and wait for your assigned death worker to help you come to terms with what happened and usher you out of limbo. The only problem is, neither of you can really figure out why you haven’t already been shuffled along to the next life yet and this process is going to take a lot longer than either of you ever bargained for.

☾ Creature Comfort; Kwon Soonyoung urban fantasy au / witch au / friends to lovers

You're closing up shop for the night, setting aside your spells, potions, and tarot cards to head to bed when a small, oddly coloured hamster squeaks his way through the front door. You try to let him know you're closing but he seems intent on sticking around, almost like he has something to tell you. Still, you manage to shoo him out and close up only to wake up the next evening to news that a friend of yours, a rather chaotic witch named Soonyoung, has gone missing without a trace.

The news unsettles you and the night starts off slowly until a familiar squeaking interrupts your thinking and you look down to see the same hamster nudging the tip of your boot. This time you decide to take him a little more seriously and see what message he has to convey to you. Maybe it has something to do with Soonyoung’s disappearance.

☾ The Devil's Advocate; Jeon Wonwoo urban fantasy au / lawyer au / strangers to lovers

You enter the office one day on a mission. Your parents had contracted your soul to the devil when you were an infant to help their struggling family survive and now that you’re a year away from the age outlined in the contract, you are doing everything in your power to avoid paying your parent’s dues and becoming an underling for the rest of your life.

Wonwoo has seen every possible petition that people have against his boss‒all except one. He thought the idea of parent's selling their first born to the Devil was the stuff of fairytales but here you sit in his office, outlining your side of the situation and he cant help but feel a little moved on your behalf. he’s not sure he can really do anything to help you, not since he is technically working for the man you owe your life to, but he’s willing to bet he can find a loophole somewhere.

☾ Ghost Notes; Lee Jihoon urban fantasy au / phantom au

After decades of bad luck, businesses going bust, rumours of hauntings, and sitting empty for the past 18 months, the old opera house in the city's old quarter is set to be demolished. You hear about it through your grapevine network of urban explorer hobbyists and realise this is your last possible opportunity to revisit a relic of the old city.

At best you had expected old instruments, glassware, some interesting artefacts when entering. Something to post in your Discord chat for explorers across the globe. At worst, just some dust and cobwebs inside of an otherwise empty building. The last thing you had expected was a labyrinthine basement suite housing a fully functioning music studio, apartment, and the strangest man you’ve ever met. And yet here you were, face to face with a phantom of the past.

☾ Reality Bites; Lee Seokmin urban fantasy au / vampire au

Okay, so you messed up? So you maybe felt sort of kind of bad for the poor schmuck who ended up on the other end of your fangs and didn't fully drain him of his blood. You felt an ounce of pity and now you’re left with a newborn vampire to take care of and introduce to the Nightworld.

But does he have to be so goddamn nice about the whole thing?

☾ The Wolfman; Kim Mingyu urban fantasy au / werewolf au / exes to lovers

You live a pretty average life. Work from home, partly some freelance coding, partly chipping away at your pottery business. You have a dog, an emotionally dependant German Shepard named Garth, and you have your small home with an equally as small yard. Your own little slice of heaven that you scrimped and saved for for years.

At least it was average, until the man you dated for 3 years, who all but ghosted you at the end, shows up completely butt ass naked in your backyard one morning. His body is bruised and broken and now you have to re-evaluate your entire concept of reality with the information he is giving you as he begs for a place to lay low for a while.

☾ The Crow Prince; Xu Minghao urban fantasy au / assassin au / shapeshifter au / childhood friends au

No one told you that when your estranged grandmother died, leaving you as her only surviving heir, you would be inheriting a lot more than just money. For one, a strange 3-story brownstone sandwiched between two massive skyscrapers, all of her worldly possessions (and there are a lot), and last but not least, a contract on her life. A debt now to be paid with your own.

The Crows are methodical in their work, they never leave a contract unfulfilled, and Minghao is very good at his job. Now that the contract has landed on his desk, you’re going to have a lot more to deal with than just a house full of dust and books. For one, there’s this huge crow that keeps staring in through the kitchen window while you cook…

☾ Siren Song; Boo Seungkwan urban fantasy au / siren au / strangers to lovers

It’s Friday, the night is still young, and yet you are spending it waiting in line at the DMV (Department of Magical Vocations) to get your herbalist license renewed. Boring. Or at least it was until the clerk at the counter starting sassing a death worker for not having his identification in order and now all of a sudden you’re having to remember where you recognize him from.

An achingly familiar face. You turn him over and over in your mind—eye rolls and all—as you head home. You continue rotating him like a rotisserie chicken while you open and close shop. And fold and unfold him like a secret message as you wake up, change clothes, and head into the Dayworld to indulge in an exceptionally guilty pleasure—human musical theatre. Except you’re not alone this time, and you’ve finally solved the riddle occupying your mind. The opening song begins and a voice enchants the audience in a way that’s almost supernatural.

☾ The Midnight Corner Store; Vernon Choi urban fantasy au / convenience store au / exes au

You know you shouldn’t be out this late, the city gets weird at night, but you had a hankering for Cool Ranch Doritos that just would not quit. So now you stand, face to face with the past you tried to forget, as he yawns behind the cash register sporting an electric green vest.

The reunion is as awkward as imagined when you finally approach the counter, and you cannot leave soon enough. The store itself, on the other hand, has different ideas. You step through the door only to find yourself immediately back inside the store. Vernon stares at you agape and you try and try again to no avail until you hear a strange rustling down the chip aisle and now have to confront more aspects of your past than you had bargained for.

☾ Ghost Encounters; Lee Chan urban fantasy au / paranormal investigator au / demon au

In a bid to impress the sceptical head of the paranormal investigation team he has joined, Dino ventures out with a few supplies scavenged from the equipment room and a desire to find any proof he possibly can.

You've been more than content to just exist in the shadow region between the real and the corporeal. Moonlit walks through the woods or the nearby cemetery, spending time combing through the libraries of the undead housed in the mausoleum of a former oil baron, the occasional tea or coffee at the only demon-friendly cafe left on this end of the city. All in all, keeping to yourself.

But now that some young, stubborn human obsessed with the paranormal has unwittingly bonded his soul to your own, will you ever really get to enjoy any of that rest? Not until you can figure out how to sever the connection.

† all aus, genres, warnings, etc subject to change with each individual release. stories may contain suggestive material.

©️ neoneun-au, 2023 all rights reserved

[lazulian-devil]

I think, deep down, what Im enamored with as a Skulduggery Pleasant Fan, is not the actual written canon but the vibes.

I dont know when it started and how and why, but there was a shift at some point in which the silliness of the books was outweighed by reality.

And yeah. Thats fair, honestly. But Ive read Demon Road as well and it just.... It literally oozes fun. Its a short, contained thing. Its full of funky ideas that dont have to be perfectly explored because, oopsie daisy, we dont actually have the time. It says something about growing up, about gender and sex, about trauma and about magic and then its over.

Maybe the Skulduggery Pleasant Universe is just... its been too long. If you need to reset everything, if your scale goes from Ireland to global to godhood, from Mage to Grand Mage to Supreme Mage, from protagonist to hero to godcreature? Maybe its too big.

I really enjoyed Book 10 and 11 and even 12. But its not the same enjoyment I have of Book 1. Or 2. Or 3. Like... This whole rant was prompted by Valkyrie saying, ca. Two thirds into Book 12, that (this isnt an accurate quote) "At first, it was Elementals and Adepts. Now theres so much more. Neoterics and Mutations. I think its enough."

And thats kind of funny, isnt it. Because yeah. The world grows and grows and grows and we say goodbye to characters, we get invested in new ones, we worry about Omen and Auger and Never. Militsa, even. Oberon. We meet characters again and they're different and new now.

But maybe, and I love this series to death, maybe its enough. There is an expiration date on all ideas. You can only write so much.

I wish Landy would do something like Demon Road again. It was fun, it was fast, it had vibes. At the same time, I know theres Book 16 to 18 in production right now and... Do I read them? Will they be good? Or have I already said goodbye to this series and all the things I held dear about it.

I was so young when I read the first book. And all its ideas and all its contents have been living in my head, essentially rent free. It has inspired me. It has shaped my perception on urban fantasy. It made me want to become a writer.

... So what now, I suppose.

I have 2,5 books more to go. I have a few ideas for analysis left. At the same time, the characters I love and want to support arent really there anymore. And thats both good and bad. Development is good, moving forward is good, writing shouldnt necessarily be stagnant.

I feel like - and this will make no sense to anyone - the bard in "The Sims Medieval". I have traveled the world, I have gathered my inspirations. Time to retreat and write an epic.

Or something silly like that.