#i refuse to do any more worldbuilding but see i told you they were hot

[butterfrogmantis]

Woah uh been a while since I did any genuine AU worldbuilding/scenario work huh?

This was promised to a user on DA because they were curious about the illness I mentioned in this post: Dads by Butterfrogmantis on DeviantArt (and I didn't forget, just got distracted by the Wiki stuff and writing XD)

But yeah, basic jist is poor old Tracky here accidentally inhaled some bad bad spores. Dreamy, naturally, was absolutely distraught, and on top of handling his own stress was trying to carefully keep Rover from becoming too distressed as wee Rovey certainly didn't like seeing his dad that way. Actually, Rover suffered some pretty bad separation anxiety & attachment issues to Tracker as a child, perhaps subconsciously remembering this incident (which happened when he was a toddler.) Rover's fine now as a teenager/adult, although he's still very close to Tracker, and has possibly one of the strongest parents-child bonds in the NG ^^

The Sleeping Death plant has been removed from the Smurfs forest, and they know what it looks like now at least, so there will be no further instances (plus they have spare antidote jussst in case)

Writing extract + additional note under the cut

“Hey Tracky, I just put Rovey down for the night”

Dreamy walked over to the bed, and knelt down beside it. His husband lay in it, as cold and pale as he had been for the last week.

“You know he uh … he sounds just like you when he laughs”

Dreamy swallowed, trying to get rid of the lump in his throat. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to respond in this state, Papa Smurf had told him as much, but he still felt as though he needed to talk, in case there was even the slightest chance Tracker would be able to hear him. He knew it was probably all for nought. According to Papa’s books, Dreamy’s spouse had accidentally inhaled the spores from the Sleeping Death plant, an invasive herb foreign to their forest, known for inducing it’s victims in a death-like state for up to 6-8 weeks before the real mortality kicked in.

It had started with Tracker saying he had a headache one evening, and that he wanted an early night. When Dreamy gone up that night to sleep himself, he found the other Smurf totally unresponsive, but breathing. Over the past 7 days, Tracker had become paler, and strange purple marks had begun to appear in random blotches over his skin. Papa had assured him this illness wasn’t contagious, but Dreamy didn’t want to risk upsetting their young Smurfling, so had done his best to keep Rover’s visits with Tracker brief, hoping each day that Marco Smurf was closer to bringing home the cure from the Sleeping Death plant’s homeland.

He knew hope wasn’t totally lost, Marco had set sail the very day Tracker was diagnosed, but the antidote’s native country was many miles away, and there was always the possibility for bad weather or pirates that could mean unexpected delays. All Dreamy could do in the meantime was hope. Hope and attend to his own duties, and remind himself that Marco was the best sailor he knew – even better than himself in some regards.

“Marco’s coming soon” Dreamy said out loud, to reassure himself more than anything.

Tracker of course, did not react, his only movements being the rise and fall of his shallow breaths. The sailor felt his eyes well up, and he blinked fiercely, the hot tears running down his cheeks as he gently lay his hand atop the duvet. Tracker was such a lively Smurf, always so full of passion and enthusiasm. Seeing him like this was … distressing. This was Dreamy’s best friend, the Smurf he loved more than all the stars in the night sky. A life without Tracker would be no life at all, least not for him.

Dreamy leant over and pressed a very gentle kiss to his husband’s forehead. It was icy, and nothing like the warmth he knew and missed.

“Marco’s coming soon” He whispered, repeating his earlier statement “He’ll make you better. You’ll get better soon, you’ll see…” *** Fear not!! The ending of that sounds ominous but it's all good lmao. It was a bit of a close call but Marco makes it! Tracker gets the antidote and after a couple of days is able to open his eyes again, another day and he can very croakily talk (He asks for Rover) and after about 2 weeks is back to normal-ish, although does have some mobility issues after being bed bound for so long, plus he lost a lot of weight being unable to eat properly during that time, but within a few months it's like he was never ill, and good old Tracker is back to normal And Dreamy can finally sleep in his own beds again, he basically spent almost a month curled up on the floor because he refused to leave Tracker's side unless he absolutely had to. Dreamy and Tracker (C) The Smurfs

[neverdoingmuch]

a superhero au from this ask.

okay so in this au superheroes join different sects as disciples and go through a superhero training program and then if they pass they become official superheroes for the sect

for the most part things stay the same, your good guys go out and defeat evil and save the day but there’s also a bunch of extra stuff bc they’re in a sect

the extra stuff is mostly legal stuff like if you destroy a building in a fight, who pays for it and what happens if a superhero goes rogue, who stops them?

so the sects are good bc they give that security and also make sure things run smoothly, so you don’t end up with three superheroes in the one area

obviously you still have independent superheroes but they usually get picked up by a sect pretty quickly (or join the wens who are just the bad guys i guess but shh they’re hiding it,, badly)

for the most part though, new heroes realise they can’t cut it and quit

notice the most, because there are a few people who don’t, including people like the yiling patriarch 

so, worldbuilding aside, let’s start with lwj

bc we still have sects, lwj and lxc both went through the training program together and even graduated a few years early, meaning they debuted pretty young

they were both way too powerful to actually be needed in the field most of the time so lxc ended up helping his uncle and lwj started teaching at the training program (and even when he is needed, it’s usually enough just to send lxc, so he hasn’t been active in like five years)

life is going pretty okay for lwj but then there’s a fight between some wens and yllz and a building ends up being destroyed - lwj’s apartment building

at first he’s like whatever i’ll just stay at a hotel till it gets fixed but then he gets told that there’s some issue with the building regulations so it’ll be more than a year

lwj goes apartment hunting and ends up finding the perfect apartment. it’s spacious and convenient and looks really nice and the only drawback is his neighbour (spoiler: it’s wwx)

now we have wwx

he used to be a disciple with the jiang sect and was on track to graduate their training program probably even younger than the twin jades but then he dropped out suddenly. no one knows why 

what happened was that wwx had befriended wen ning at an intersect meeting thing where the training heroes could compete against each other 

when wen ning found out the truth about the wens being evil, he begged wen qing to take their family and leave the wens to get to safety. wen qing refused bc who would they go to? who would risk everything they had to keep them safe?

wei wuxian would. 

and he did!! when he found out what the wens had gone through, he immediately quit the jiang sect and spent the next four years helping them go in hiding, making fake identities etc. 

the only people who refused to leave were wen qing and wen ning and a-yuan so wwx was like i’ve done my best now we gotta live and ends up buying an apartment for the four of them and gets a job

at night he goes out as yllz and tries to bring the wens down. it’s slow-going at first and he’s just busting minor crimes and not really gathering any useful information but he keeps going bc a-yuan and the others will never be safe for as long as the wens are able to keep hurting people

he works a full-time job during the day and spends his nights fighting crime and he’s always tired and sore but it’s fine because he needs to do this but then one day his new neighbour moves in next door

the first time he meets him, he’s come back from work and by the time he bakes a welcome cake it’s like 10:40 and he goes over and knocks on his neighbour’s door and the guy eventually answers and holy fuck he’s hot (also grumpy bc lwj does not appreciate being woken up)

lwj slams the door in his face without even taking it from him, so wwx just leaves it on his doorstep and goes back home to nap for a few hours before going on patrol

the next day when he gets home from work there’s a letter in front of his door and when he opens it it just says thanks for the cake it was very delicious if unnecessary

wwx writes on the back: it’s all fine! i’m glad you liked it. if you need any help settling in, i’d be more than happy to help. he adds his phone number and then he leaves the note on lwj’s door and that’s where it all starts

the next morning he wakes up to a text from lwj saying that he appreciates the offer & his name. it’s short and kind of rude but wwx is lying there going lan zhan, lan zhaaaan, his name is lan zhan 

they run into each other in the morning a few times and take the elevator down together and wwx always chatters at him. lwj doesnt really respond but he doesn’t tell him to shut up either so that’s practically permission

and wwx is no idiot. he knows that hot neighbour + texting ability = potential romance so he makes sure to text lwj a lot 

and by a lot, i mean a lot. lwj is sitting in a meeting with his brother and by the time he finishes he has fifty new messages

but that’s okay bc lwj kinda likes the attention he thinks? lwj’s neighbour is funny and cute 

and after a while, lwj starts responding properly. it’s not like he’s sending 50 messages back but he’s engaging wwx in conversation and sometimes they call and once, when wwx was coming back from work, lwj had invited him in for tea

when lwj realises that wwx goes to work early and gets home late he starts inviting wwx over for dinner. wwx doesn’t mention that wen ning is more than able to cook dinner (if he ever mentioned that he was living with him at all) and they start having dinner not-dates and sometimes wwx falls asleep on lwj’s couch

the first few times wwx always felt really guilty bc lwj doesn’t want to put up with that and he’s letting down the wens but wen qing is like no, it’s good, you need to take some time for yourself and lwj is like it’s fine so whatever, wwx can sleep on lwj’s couch now

except it’s not just lwj’s couch bc wwx keeps waking up leaning on lwj and it’s very embarrassing bc he’s starting to find that he has difficulties sleeping without being able to hear lwj’s heartbeat 

so wwx is falling in love. wen ning is supportive and wen qing is probably laughing at him but wwx is so conflicted

on one hand, wwx’s entire life revolves around the wens and trying to stop them or protect them, and here lwj is, a completely normal man, who has no expectations about wwx. he doesn’t need to be a guardian for lwj, he doesn’t need to be the terrifying yiling patriarch, he can just be wwx

on the other hand, lwj is a civilian and wwx doesn’t want to drag lwj down with him and risk him getting hurt or killed

so he decides to stay as friends. he won’t give lwj up but he won’t tell him he loves him (unless something happens to make wwx need to give lwj up, in which case he will)

around this time lwj gets a call from his uncle asking for help with the yllz

he’s never met him before but lwj does not like the yllz 

like yes he’s taking down the wens which probably makes him good but he’s also taking what the wens had stolen for himself

so no one knows whether he’s a villain stealing from the wens or a hero who doesn’t trust the official means

Either way it’s a bad look for lwj & co bc they either look incompetent for not knowing about this guy & not being able to stop him or untrustworthy and maybe even corrupt 

but lqr wants lwj to either bring him in as a disciple or as a criminal. whichever is easier

the first time hanguang-jun shows up to a fight wwx is completely shocked bc he vaguely remembers seeing hanguang-jun fight at the practise matches and he was good, definitely on par with wwx so if hanguang-jun were to fight him he isn’t sure that he’d win. 

wwx quickly finishes off the wens and then turns to lwj, refusing to let his guard down but hanguang-jun just asks what he’s doing

wwx is cagey at first but eventually reveals the truth (or as much as he can tell) and hanguang-jun is like i don’t like your methods but what you’re doing is just, so i’ll help you and so commences the most awkward team up ever

wwx had expected to have to carry most of the weight but hanguang-jun is there defending him and helping him fight the wens and he can’t help but start to trust hanguang-jun.

hanguang-jun blocks a hit meant for wwx and wwx spends like half an hour carefully cleaning the wound on his arm and bandaging it up and at the end he presses a kiss to it and he immediately goes bright red but it’s okay bc hgj’s ear are red too

wwx slips on a roof and hgj ends up catching him and damn he’s strong and the look of concern on his face is almost making wwx think hgj doesn’t hate him

hgj brings in some intel once and wwx automatically goes damn i could kiss you right now and then decides to just become one with the floor

not only that but wwx talks a lot. when he’s patrolling, when he’s fighting, when he’s waiting,, he never shuts up and hanguang-jun listens to him every time and, just as wwx fell for lwj, he starts falling for hanguang-jun

it’s even worse in this case bc hanguang-jun is all righteous and good and here wwx is using the superhero equivalent of demonic cultivation (has he perverted his own powers or did he always have necromancy powers? up to you)

so here wwx is falling in love with hanguang-jun and lwj and he feels terrible about it

there is definitely a case going on in the background but it’s basically just the sunshot campaign if only lwj and wwx were fighting it for the most part

eventually he complains to wq about his feelings and she’s like just try confessing! so the next time he and hanguang-jun team up he tells him that he loves him

 lwj is 100% in love wwx and semi in love with yllz. for the most part, the things he loves about yllz all remind him of wwx so he doesn’t really see it as a crush as much as more yearning for wwx

but lwj is very awkward so he gives this kinda terrible rejection? he’s like im sorry, i don’t return your feelings maybe we should work apart for a while?

from his pov he’s giving yllz room to deal w/ his emotions alone and they’ll team up later but from wwx’s pov hanguang-jun is so disgusted he never wants to work with him again

so they go their separate ways and when wwx gets a tip-off about some weird shit about to go down at nightless city so he sneaks in by himself bc hanguang-jun definitely wouldn’t want to help him and ends up getting captured by wen ruohan

lwj, for his part, is freaking out bc wwx hasn’t responded to his texts in over a week and maybe he’s come on too strong and wwx has figured out his feelings and is letting him down gently? (by disappearing??)

but then wq comes banging on his door and asks to come in. he lets her in and she immediately tells him i know you’re hanguang-jun

lwj is defensive and ready to be blackmailed or something but she just explains that wwx has gone missing and he’d received a tip the day before he disappeared and when lwj sees the message wwx had got he’s just like why is wwx involved with the wens?

because he’s yllz, wen qing tells him and lwj is Buffering

reason 1: yllz wasn’t meant to be someone he liked and lwj had definitely been feeling guilty about the fact that he would need to be brought in bc he is morally dubious on main & he can’t reconcile that with the sweet and kind wwx 

reason 2: holy shit does wwx like me?

bc lwj is a disaster he only ends up asking about the latter and wq stares at him, dead-eyed and exhausted, and tells him wwx is in love with lwj and hanguang-jun

commence lwj’s plan to get wwx back and confess to him and hopefully get married but he’ll be happy if they just kiss and/or hold hands

 he starts off by explaining most of the stuff to his brother who ends up calling jyl (bc they have to be friends, i’ll cry if they’re not) who is like my brother?!! and decides to help. also probably nhs bc friends who share porn definitely save each other from wen ruohan

so they attack the wens. for most of the heroes it’s bc they finally have proof of wen ruohan being evil (helpfully collated in a colour-coordinated binder by wwx) but lwj is just there for wwx

he finds him in the dungeons or something and wwx is hurt kind of badly and lwj collapses beside him and presses down on the main wound, trying to stop the bleeding

and wwx goes hanguang-jun? what are you doing here? and lwj says nothing just pushing down harder bc he’s losing too much blood and wwx is like oh, do you hate me that much that you won’t even speak to me anymore?

lwj can’t bear it for another second and rips his mask off and wwx just gawks at him. lan zhan? you’re hanguang-jun? wwx stammers and lwj just nods and rips some fabric from his cape (would he have a cape?) and tries to bandage the wound

wwx asks him why he’s here, why he bothered to come for wwx when he doesn’t care for him but he passes out before lwj can actually say anything

he wakes up in hospital and lwj is sleeping in the chair beside him and the second wwx twitches he jolts up and stares at wwx with such relief that wwx wants to blush

i love you, lwj says, not waiting for another second. the reason i didnt accept your confession was because i loved you. i didnt know you were yllz 

and wwx is like and i didnt know you were hanguang-jun!! and lwj is like yeah but wen qing did /:

and wwx is like yeah but she’s smart & they kinda fall quiet for a few moments before wwx is like did you know i think hanguang-jun is very handsome and lwj is like yes? and wwx is like good! lwj is also handsome!

and lwj is like yllz and wwx are attractive to me and they finally kiss and it’s not a complete disaster thankfully

after that lwj goes back to his semi-retirement bc he doesn’t need to catch yllz anymore and sometimes wwx comes in to help teach a class with him and they’ll go home to lwj’s apartment after and watch movies together and not once do they comment on the miscommunication between love interests

[the-apocryphal-one]

Novel Review: Uprooted by Naomi Novik

“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”

I’m sorry, but when you open up your book with that paragraph, intentionally invoking and subverting typical fairy tale tropes with a fun tongue-in-cheek narration...you’ve got me hooked. And if you get me hooked like that, you’d better follow through. And this book did. Hot damn it was good. I binged it in a day.

Apparently the author used to write fanfiction; it shows, because she took away all the good lessons you learn from it and left behind the bad parts. Uprooted is a stand-alone medieval fantasy with a refreshingly original tale and lovely use of fairy tale tropes and you should definitely check it out.

Summary: Once a decade, the Dragon comes and Chooses a single girl from the valley he protects as payment. Agnieszka (Nieshka for short) doesn’t worry about being taken; she worries about her beautiful, talented, perfect best friend Kasia, who everyone knows will be Chosen. But for a reason Nieshka can’t fathom, the Dragon picks her instead, and she gets sucked into a world that is dark and horrifying...but not in the ways you’d expect it to be.

Spoiler-free cliffnotes review:

- After a while, YA female protagonists start to get cookie-cutter. Nieshka is not at all cookie-cutter; she’s unique, sweet, and genuinely flawed. I never found myself irritated with her, and I kept getting prouder and prouder of her as she grew into her own.

- Likewise, YA romances tend to be cookie-cutter and feel shallow or lust-based. And don’t get me started on the love triangles. But thankfully, there are no love triangles here, and the romance is background, slow-burn emotional goodness. Bonus points for neither lead being hot; they’re actually kind of plain. Poor Nieshka especially gets called horse-faced and nothing special to look at.

- The other characters are all developed well; Kasia, the wizards at court, the royals, the antagonists, they all have their own distinct personalities and motivations. And boooooooy I love Nieshka’s friendship with Kasia, it is Good and Strong and we need more platonic relationships like that in literature.

- Worldbuilding was enticing, I was genuinely interested in the different legends and histories and songs. Downside is the world itself felt a little confusing in terms of layout; nothing that created a plot hole, but I could have used a map.

- Novik’s prose is beautiful, and especially shines when she’s creating atmosphere, but can be a bit too long at times. It definitely slowed me down while I was reading.

- She’s great at pacing and tension. The stakes start small but important, and then they grow a little larger, and then they just spiral up and up and more and more is at risk and I kept holding my breath waiting to see how the heroes would get through it this time.

...And have the spoiler version below the cut:

The Gushing:

- honestly I love Nieshka because she is just so unlike your typical YA protagonist. A lot of them are cold, brave, loner-types who don’t need help. Nieshka’s a self-admitted coward, genuinely clumsy (she’s always dirty from spilling stuff on herself and tripping), and anxious...but also a big sweetheart, idealistic, and kinda spacey. Like the Dragon took her to teach her magic, and she keeps thinking about how restrictive it is. Then she starts thinking about it in terms of wandering through the woods not knowing what she’s looking for, but she’ll know when she finds it, and she’s picking berries in her head, and suddenly: boom, magic. And the Dragon is furious because that’s too unorganized, what do you mean woods there aren’t any woods here, how are you doing it????

- it is essentially Wizard vs Sorcerer, to put it in DnD terms, only she is the only Sorceress in a world of Wizards and they can’t. get. it. it’s hilarious. (but she also can’t do their stuff, she has all the power without the precise control. They’re all stronger working together, so it’s not “super specialness”, it’s a fair trade)

- Delicious slow-burn, enemies-to-friends-to-lovers romance, yum. It’s written subtly and beautifully; I love the detail when she stops thinking of the Dragon by his title and starts thinking of him by his name. You just see the relationship changing without being told it is. 

- speaking of, I love the Dragon. He’s laid out as nuanced and “not a bad lord” from the start--protective of his vassals, enough to personally step in to help them, but also extremely distant. He thinks of the needs of the many vs the few, he’s grumpy, he never socializes, and he demands a sacrifice of a girl every decade--just to clean his tower, but everyone thinks the worst because he doesn’t do anything to make them think otherwise. So no one likes him except in that local proud “he’s our lord” way. And he keeps getting taken off-guard by Nieshka (again: “HOW ARE YOU CASTING LIKE THAT?!”) in a way that’s kind of adorable.

- Nieshka's profession at the end is becoming a druid-type healer. I LOVE THAT. there’s like some stigma against women doing feminine things in YA literature, and Nieshka just goes for it. She has the power to be a war-witch, and she’s used her magic that way, but she hated seeing battle and death. She goes “nope, I’m gonna peace out and heal the damage caused by this war.”

- I love how Nieshka knows the Dragon is gonna run from their relationship and decides she’s not gonna beg him to stay bc he needs to figure that out for himself. If he doesn’t come back, she’ll be sad, but she’ll move on. Her life doesn’t revolve around him, that’s refreshing, and it makes the moment he does come back (bc of course he does) that much better.

- Nieshka and Kasia’s friendship is the Good Shit, they’re just completely devoted to each other and it’s not at all framed in a romantic way. ACTUALLY their platonic love is the central relationship of the story instead of the romance, and I LOVE THAT, because romance shouldn’t be The Only And The Biggest bond in our life. But they also have their secret envies and hurts, but their friendship just grows stronger for it??? it’s just so good???

- Okay, for some non-Nieshka things (but seriously I love her), how about the side characters? They’re never reduced to “stop mattering when the hero leaves the screen”, they get motivations explained and other facets of their character explored. Alosha the witch-blacksmith, the Dragon’s rival the Falcon, KASIA, Prince Marek. Marek is like the perfect shadow archetype of Nieshka, they both really want to save someone they love from the Wood, they both refuse to quit, and it’s just plain bad luck that his quest was doomed from the start. So even though she hates what he does, she understands why he’s doing it, and admits she might well have done the same in his shoes.

- The Wood is terrifying. Novik uses a lot of pretty descriptive words in her narration that borders on flowery at points, but when it comes to the Wood, it underlines how horrific that place is. At one point, the Wood corrupts Kasia, and she describes sap seeping out of her eyes and mouth and I gagged reading it. Or here, take this paragraph:

“I could see light shining through my own skin, making a blazing lantern of my body, and when I held up my hands, I saw to my horror faint shadows moving there beneath the surface. Forgetting the feverish pain, I caught at my dress and dragged it off over my head. He knelt down on the floor with me. I was shining like a sun, the thin shadows moving through me like fish swimming beneath the ice in winter.”

- yes thank you I really needed the imagery of living evil fish swimming under someone’s skin in my life (translation: beautiful prose but ahhhh!)

- plus the Wood is alive and incredibly smart. It spends the whole book playing speed chess and keeping you double-guessing every apparent victory the heroes have. Combined with the supernatural/horror aspects, it really feels like an eldritch and dreadful force of nature. 

- there are like three books’ worth of plot in this one, but they all get developed and paced well. there’s just so much content, and it’s varied and exciting and gripping--training with the Dragon, rescues in the Wood, courtly intrigue, a siege on a tower, kickass magic battles, and The Big Final Mission which ends in a way I don’t want to spoil, even in the spoiler section.

Critiques:

- I really wish Novik included a map of the land, because I just kept getting confused where everything was. At first I was under the impression the Dragon’s tower was to the west, closest to the Wood; then it and the Wood turned out to be in the east? And the capital is...north, northwest of that? But then why are Nieskha and Kasia crossing mountains to get to the Dragon’s tower in the south, the mountains are in the east too, dividing them from Rosya, right??? where even is everything??????? it’s possible I was a dumbell and just misread/misremembered stuff, but that’s why a map would have been helpful.

- Novik’s writing style is beautiful, it’s fairy tale-esque and fits the setting...but once in a while it’s too much, you know? She really, really wants you immersed in the physical sensations of the world she created, and in cases like the Woods, it works well to convey the sheer monstrosity of the place. In other cases, it feels kinda like a slog; there’s one point where she writes at length about the pattern of a carpet. How interesting.

- Usually in YA fiction, the heroine doesn’t care about her parents or vice versa. Thankfully that’s averted here, but Nieshka mentions she has three brothers...who she doesn’t really think or care about. There’s a nice scene when she first arrives at the tower and starts crying about how she’s lost her parents, but her brothers? Nada. They don’t even get names or show up, with no explanation; at the very least a line about how they’re so much older than her that they’re not close would have satisfied me, but there’s nothing like that. It’s not huge, but it’s jarring.

- while I love the Dragon and Nieshka’s emotional relationship, I do admit the physical aspects felt sudden. Novik basically has it so that magically working together creates a charged intimacy between them, and the first time it happened I loved it because it seemed like it was gonna be ‘the gateway’ to more. Instead, it kind of ends up a crutch for their physical relationship. It’s like “slow burn, slow burn, magic, KISSAGE, slow burn, slow burn, magic, SEX”.

[katalicz]

So when I was writing Scarecrows, I wrote three or four different scenarios and situations before sort of merging them to create the one I published - but I’m sitting on ~1.5k that, other than the first paragraph or so, never made the final cut. So I figured instead of letting it go to waste, I’d post it on here.

Bandit rarely dreams.

He supposes that that’s a good thing – he knows his teammates all suffer from nightmares of some sort; that Blitz often wakes in a blind panic following a dream of his time in Mumbai, in Kosovo, or after a long, hard mission. That Jäger dreams of losing everything he loves, of wandering through endless corridors, of his Magpies failing and killing them all. He knows how IQ dreams of failure, of never being good enough, always being a second too late to spot a threat with her Spectre.

But he himself very rarely suffers from any dreams at all, good or bad, which Jäger is ever envious of. He gets it the worst of the four of them, thanks to his very active imagination and the fact that he isn’t as battle-hardened as Blitz, isn’t as logical and collected as IQ.

Bandit is well used to finding Blitz awake at odd hours, a haunted look in his eyes that makes Bandit’s chest ache. He's used to Jäger talking pale-faced at whatever recent dream he’s had – and they're not usually enough to upset him, send him into a panic the way they do anyone else, but they're enough to skew his memories and make him distressed enough that he won’t sleep until he drops. IQ doesn’t come to him often – she bunks with Twitch and they have their own system, he knows – but she sometimes slips into his room for half an hour to reassure herself that he’s still breathing before silently leaving to check on the others.  

He knows how to deal with his teammates, because despite all his misgivings about them at the start, they’ve become a family, a unit, and Bandit really doesn’t know what he’d do without them. He's used to their quirks and odd habits, from IQ’s drunken shenanigans to the way Jäger unintentionally winds him up to breaking point (but they forgive each other, eventually, because they’re a team) and Blitz’s inexplicable way of knowing when something’s wrong before he himself even does. Sitting up with them following a night of bad dreams is really the least he can do, and it has almost become routine.

What he’s not used to is dealing with nightmares of his own.

He supposes they come less to him because all his darkest memories are shunted so far to the back of his mind that he sometimes isn’t sure what’s true and what’s false. He does his best not to think of his time in Hanover, of the things he's done and the things he’s seen – he’d go mad from it all, trying to keep his identities separate and keep track of the lies he told to stay alive.

(“It’s not worth the hassle,” he hisses sharply at a worried looking Doc, after he asks one question too many. “It’s in the past; I’m over it.”)

(He’s afraid to dig deeper, to think about the whole ordeal in any depth other than he had to survive, because he doesn’t think the mask he wore for all those years is just that anymore.)

(In truth, sometimes he wakes up and doesn’t know who he is.)

---

The base is dark.

Bandit is used to the dark but there’s something wrong with it, here. It feels artificial, fake, as though someone’s laid a heavy blanket over the world in an attempt to smother it. It feels so thick that he can feel it in his throat, like smoke or gas or syrup, filling his lungs and making him wheeze and splutter as he pushes his way through the stairwell door.

He’s not sure why the base is so dark, but as he wanders towards the common room, he starts to realise that it’s empty. There’s nobody about at all, which is odd, because he knows for certain that Blitz and IQ were both here when he returned from his mission in France with Jäger.

He's going to have to find them. He clears his throat, the noise impossibly loud in the silence of the base, and slowly makes his way back upstairs.

Their rooms are all empty, dusty and dim and that itself is horribly familiar for a reason he can’t quite put his finger on. He checks the other rooms on their floor – Rook’s and Doc’s and Montagne’s – but they’re equally empty, just as silent and dirty and unwelcoming as the ones before. Something akin to panic starts to build in his chest, because he’s getting the feeling that something is very, very wrong.

The stairs have droplets of something black on them, and powder that Bandit is sure is too white to just be dust. He feels as though he’s being watched and it’s uncomfortable, making him shudder and try to pick up his speed. He wants to get the hell out, to figure out what’s going on, to find his team-

His limbs feel heavy, as though he’s walking through tar. It takes more effort than it should to get to the kitchen, pulse thudding in his ears from exertion, but it’s not worth it. There’s nobody there.

There is, however, a large brown package on the table. He makes his way over to it, slowly, carefully, and picks it up. There’s a label on it, spidery writing barely visible beneath the dusty plastic wrap.

He rips the wrap off, tearing the paper of the package slightly and letting a fine trickle of white fall onto the table.

The label, when he forces himself to be calm, reads; we know who you are.

Bandit holds his breath as the panic turns itself to terror, and he leaps away from the table.

He knew this felt familiar.

He needs to get out. They’ve found him out, they’re going to kill him-

But the others are somewhere, they’ll be in danger, they’ll know about them too and they’ll make them pay, he needs to get them out-

But he can’t find them, he needs to find them before they do-

The halls are impossibly long and his limbs are impossibly heavy, refusing to cooperate and making him panic all the more. There’s something wet on his face and his lungs are aching - he coughs up something sticky, spits its aside onto the dirty floor, keeps running until he reaches the door.

It’s dark outside, too, but he can just about make out dark shapes on the lawn, on the gravel. There’s something moving by the trees, the shadow darker than its surroundings, coming closer and closer-

He reaches the lawn, chest heaving and breathing ragged. The shapes don’t move but the shadow still does.

Bandit reaches for his phone, which is in his back pocket, and turns on the light, dread sitting in his stomach like lead.

The shapes are bodies.

He's not surprised by this – he knows what they do, he helped them do it – but there are so many, all face down in the grass, which is stained a familiar brown.

There are 29 of them.

His heart is pounding so hard in his chest that he thinks he might faint.

The body closest to him, unmistakably female, has short blond hair.

He knows what he’ll see if he turns it (her) over, but finds himself reaching out to do so anyway, hands trembling and fingers refusing to cooperate-

It’s IQ.

Whatever semblance of calm he might have had left leaves him completely as he stares down at her pale face, the red rims to her eyes, the tell-tale swelling around her nose and mouth. He’s seen this enough times to know exactly what they’ve done but it still hurts like it did the first time, more than anything he’s ever felt before because this is his fault, he wasn’t good enough and his team have paid the price-

He straightens up and turns, fury running hot in his veins and fists clenched. They’ll come for him next, he knows, they always do – target the family first, show the power they have, cripple the victim with anguish, then make them pay.

He took part in this. He wants to be sick.

There’s a man stood before him, a wickedly sharp knife in his hand that Bandit knows the exact measurements of, knows the easy way it carves through flesh like it were butter.

The man steps forwards, face still hidden by shadow, and holds up the knife. There’s a coil of rope strapped to his belt, and Bandit knows there’ll be a box full of needles in one of his pockets.

“We know who you are,” the man growls, knife raised, and Bandit feels like a rabbit in front of a lion, a man in front of a tidal wave. There’s no way out of this and a small part of him is grateful for that – he deserves this, after all –

The knife comes soaring towards his neck, will cut just deep enough to render him useless, unable to fight back, and his throat is hoarse as he screams because he’s not ready to die –

-

since I often end up with a good few hundred words I never end up using I might start putting them out - it's a bit more worldbuilding and slightly different character perspectives for the fics - so if anyones interested I'll probably do so every now n then

[kaibutsushidousha]

Artbook Data - Tsumugi Shirogane

Best girl doesn’t disappoint.

Seiyuu’s comment: Mikako Komatsu

She looks very much like a class representative, so I first expected her to be like a cool big sis, but when I got to play her it turned out she was much instable character, always getting overexcited about the things she like. I didn’t have much experience with this type of character, so I had a lot of fun with her. I’m really looking forward to play this game for myself.

Kodaka’s comment: The fanatic mind hidden in “plain” sight

She’s named “Shirogane” because it’s a name gives sort of a “honours student” vibe and “Tsumugi” because she is the one who weaves the story. This is a verbal representation of her mentality that allowed the killing games to continue. The keyword for her design was “honours student-like” and for her personality was “cringey otaku”. I personally wanted her to have vaguely likeable features without looking any special, but if I made her too lacking in personality it would get suspicious, so I tried to make her stand out from time to time while still keeping her plainness as her central gimmick and find this balance was extremely difficult.

The “Super High School Level Cosplayer” characterization was established starting from its final punchline: the alternating transformations. Reverse-engeneering from this established conclusion, we defined her as a cosplayer. And then we made her mixing this with the vaguely-defined “honours student” keyword we set from before. I had quite a tough time trying to decide how her “true personality” sprite, how it should be different from her regular sprites, what indications should I give to the seiyuu and stuff. I wanted her to be something more than just threatening... So we made her in a way she feels like an escalation of the outside world’s worldbuilding, a world hopelessly obsessed with DanganRonpa.

She has some “fun cosplay stories” in the first half of the story and her free time events. These were all stories I got by interviewing real cosplayers. I think that’s  the first time I actually interviewed someone to make a character. But it was very worth it, seeing how well-liked she is among the cosplayers.

By the way, about her cosplays of past characters, I really wanted to include the the characters from the DanganRonpa 3 anime. However, we didn’t have enough budget nor ready sprites, so my idea was almost immediately rejected. We’re limited to videogames, 1 and 2. Ultra Despair Girls was removed for being as spin-off and I cry every time I remember this fact. But even without them, the voice acting cost for the final parts already killed me... I’m sorry I had this idea.

Design Notes:

Plain Glasses: A must-have item for the plain folk. We’ll never figure out whether wearing glasses make you plain or if being plain attracts glasses but we still not for sure this is the plain character’s trademark.

Plain Face Out of Costume: Normally, she gets called a plain face a lot. But if Shirogane words “When I take my glasses off, I transform” are real, she could probably look like a different person with the power of her make-up.

Company Badge: 

A misterious company’s badge. She keeps it hidden in her person instead of wearing it so it won’t disturb her plain visual. Is it a cosplay office or is it perhaps something else...?

Plain Conversations: Shirogane’s speech pattern has the distinticve otaku quality: she’s only talkative about her hobbies and normally just reacts to what other people are saying and nothing else. She shows up for breakfast every morning, so the reason why people forget she exists so much is indeed because she is plain!?

Plain Body: When it comes to cosplaying a wide range of characters, having curves too wide can sometimes be counterproductive and you can hear many ingenious tricks to purposely make your chest look smaller, bigger, etc. Good thing she’s was born with a plain, moderate body, perfect for cosplaying.

Plain Uniform: A high-waist skirt with a form-fitting jacket. But even an uniform so cleverly design to emphasize her femininity so strongly becomes plain when Shirogane wears it.

Underwear: A pair made for the ultimate final battle. But they are not for show, so she firmly refuse to take low angle photos.

Favorite presents:

Cosplay Carrying Bag: A carrying case highly demanded by cosplayer for being easy to carry. Very useful for things like travels and of course, conventions. Something Shirogane would probably consider a trusted partner.

Photostore: An image editing software used mainly to retouch photographs. Perfect to erase flaws in your make-up or visible freckles. Indispensable for any cosplayer nowadays.

Sewing Set: A portal kit all the basic tools necessary for sewing. In the context of cosplay, she can use it to immediately fix a damaged piece. Indispensable for Shirogane’s daily life.

Steels Glasses Case: It’s sturdy enough to protect your glasses from any kind of shock, even being stepped on by an Exisal. After all, glasses are as super important as underwear! 

Hated present:

Death Flag: An item with an unexplainable effect of increasing it’s owner chances of dying. A rare case of an item hated by Shirogane, who is otherwise very proud of her open-mindedness.

Key phrases:

Cosplay is an Equivalent Exchange: The cosplays that defined Shirogane as the Super High School Level Cosplayer are famous and popular enough to earn her sponsors and their selling point is faithfulness to the original’s character design. That said, she prefers devoting herself to making the costumes rather than wearing them and acting the character. For that reason, she has a lot of complaints about the current community of idol-like cosplayers and vocally expresses them in order protect the quality and the soul of cosplaying. By the way, the condition for her cosplay is an “Equivalent Exchange”. She claims that if she imitates real people, she breaks out in a horrible allergic reaction and is limited to only playing fictional characters... Leaving aside the question that this can’t be described as Equivalent Exchange at all, this is a terrifying allergy that colors her whole body pink. You can tells it’s harsh just by looking at it.

Glasses are underwear!?: For Shirogane, a fervent defender of plainness, glasses are an indispensable prop, an item to be always worn, no different from underwear. The glasses are the trademark of the plain. By just wearing a pair, you are turned into a plain person and disappears from the plains of existence... That quicly leads to you having innumerable plain anecdotes, like passing unnoticed by the cashier, being left behind by your friends, entering the movie theater with a ticket, becoming an expert in covert investigations, etc. Leaving aside the question of how many of those are true, the point here is that appearence is important.

God has Black Hair and Red Eyes: Angie’s God prioritizes convenience above all else, changing it’s appearence according to the believer. So, if you’re wondering what would he be like for the fiction-loving Shirogane, the answer is the expected one: she sees a God loaded with fantasy tropes like “black hair and red eyes”. She, who values those characteristic hard to find in real life and makes fervorous speeches about “Red-eyed black-haired characters are all perfect”, has already completely turned to an Angie devout. I... just hope  someone who would wholeheartedly listen to all her hyperfixations descends from heaven to her soon!?

Main Quotes:

“Huhuhu... Don’t you know? Those who see my true form pay a terrible price, you see?“: The foul-mouthed Iruma told Shirogane “If you take off your glasses, you’ll fade away“. In other words, if she loses the glasses that mark her as a plain character, her character would lose it’s meaning of existance and disappear. However, Shirogane said she’s off, if she takes her glasses off, she will transform. “She was actually hot all along without her glasses!” is a plot we see a lot in shoujo manga, but in Shirogane’s case we’re very curious to see what her real face will look like!? 

“Sorry... I’m in a bit of a financial trouble. Oh, if only someone could support me, that would be so great“: Now, Shirogane ascended to the top of the cosplayer world with overwhelming fame and reach. But before, she was a measly cosplayer that lived barely scraping by and had to earn her money through part-time jobs. A simple and easy option if you wanted to earn money fast, is to work in a place that sells alcohol to rich men, smile sweetly and conquer sponsorers. It’s admirable how far her passion towards her hobbies go!

“But, as I thought... maybe you should be The White Kanata“: After teaching the Cosplaying 101, Shirogane finally starts luring Saihara into the unescapable path of cosplay (popularly known as “cosplay hell“) and starts endlessly brainstorming garments that would suit him! After considering fantasy knights, failproof school uniforms and even crossdressing, the answer she arrived at was the protagonist of an old superhero anime Saihara also knows, “The White Kanata“. It was the first character Shirogane ever cosplayed and visibly a character she has strong feelings about. Knowing about their unexpected common point, Shirogane became unstoppable, filled with the will to put her soul into Saihara’s outfit.

Final comment: She clinging on to her otaku hyperfixations, fully trusting the belief they do no harm nor good. Shirogane’s presence runs full speed on the path to plainness, but it turns out she wants to make it shine on the cosplay stage!?

[flower-of-the-desert]

So I just finished s01 of Shadowhunters and I have some thinky thoughts about it. I’m putting it under the cut because it’s not all positive (well, most of it isnt really) and if you are a die-hard malec shipper, you should probably skip this.

Overall, I think my opinion so far can be summed up as this show has a lot of potential to be really good and interesting and nobody seems to want to do anything about it. I mean the set up is great - demons threatening the world? Awesome. A secret society of warriors whose purpose is to protect the world? Nice. Magic? Warlocks? AU worlds? Perfect. Class issues between the races? Homophobia? Relevant and important concepts to tackle. So in theory everything is great. But in practice? Not so much.

I think the two main issues this season has are 1) thngs happening way too fast and not enough time and focus given to certain topics and characters in order to understand their motivations and the worldbuilding of this universe and 2) the problem with show, dont tell - that is to say we keep being told things but almost never shown anything to actually back up these claims.

Now I know there are time limits and you cant fit everything into a single episode or even a single season and you shouldnt have to. I’m not saying they should have crammed everything into 13 episodes. That is not the issue. The problem is that when topics that should be given due focus and time within the specific episode arent, things get confusing. For example, why did Alec decide to marry Lydia? We find out in the next episode that he’s decided to restore the family honor on his own terms after finding out about his parents’ past. Which is great. We have Alec’s motivation. But in the episode itself where he proposed everything was set up for him to follow his heart. That was the theme of the episode and Alec through the entire thing kept agreeing with Magnus and whoever else was telling him to do what he wants. Only for him to turn around simingly out of nowhere in the literal last minute of the episode and decide to get married. Dont get me wrong, I dont have a problem with him NOT choosing to follow his heart given the situation but there wasnt enough focus on his struggle between the two during the episode in order to make his last-minute turn seem less weird. And that doesnt even cover Lydia’s side of thngs. Why did she decide to get married to a literal stranger after meeting him like yesterday? And this is not an exxageration - Alec proposes literally 2 or 3 days max after Lydia shows up. Is she that desperate to run an institute? Wouldnt she be allowed to have the position if she’s not married? Why does it even matter - doesnt it make more sense to give her the position based on her skills and results on the job? We dont know. But these are the sort of worldbuilding questions you might want to answer.

This is just one example of how things are going way too fast and there’s not enough time given to explain the characters and universe properly. There are more but if I keep going, we’ll be here tomorrow too. I’m not even gonna bother to cover all the scenes that just flat out do not make sense cause then we’ll never leave.

The other thing bothers me even more - there are sooo many things we are TOLD but never really SHOWN - Alec has been in love with Jace for I dont know how many years, Alec is repressed, the SH society is homophobic (admittedly we are not told this in canon, I dont believe? but that is at least the implication made), Magnus is in love with Alec and Alec feels the same, Magnus is a centuries-old warlock, one of the most powerful people in the world, Ragnor is even more powerful, etc etc. But. Where is the evidence? If Alec has spent so long being in love with Jace and repressed, wouldnt it have been more difficult for Magnus to get him to agree to a date than one half-assed phone call? Wouldnt Alec be struggling even more with accepting that Magnus is interested and panicking about what to do, denying everything with all his might? Shouldnt there be more struggle here?

So far I havent seen any signs of anyone in the Institute being homophobic. Maybe that changes in s02 but so far? Nope. Even Alec’s parents whom fandom for some reason has decided to demonize as some kind of terrible scumbags are not homophobic and actually hella decent people all things considered. Lydia is not homophobic. The goddamn Silent Brother seemed more interested in the kissing scene than anything else.

Warlocks are supposed to be hella powerful yet Magnus needed Alec’s help to fight off ONE circle member and Ragnor got killed by a TINY demon thingy that even Clary can handle. We were told Magnus cares so much about that necklace he’d risk his life to get it back yet 5mins later just casually gives it away to Izzy and doesnt mention it again. 

Clary and co LOVE to make these passionate speeches about how they’re the new generation of shadowhunters who respect the downworlders and believe everyone is their equal and the Clave is wrong - yet the moment a downworlder refuses to help them, they have no problem blackmailing, focing, lying and going behind their back to get what they want. And this is admittedly not a bad thing to show that these people despite their good intentions cant just change over night, if the narrative at least acknowledged their hypocrisy as a sign they need to grow some more but it doesnt.

Again, I an keep going but I wont. And finally there’s Malec. By all accounts I think this is the thng that disaapointed me the most. It could have been so awesome if developed properly! Like again we have a great set up - two people from opposite sides of the war, leaders to their respective groups, meeting and falling in love against all odds - it’s basically every enemies to friends to lovers fic ever and it’s AWESOME. Except not really because the way they play it in canon is just what even? So they meet and Magnus is obviously sexually attracted to Alec and wants to pursue that. Cool. Alec is... feeling whatever it is he’s feeling, I honestly cant even tell if he was interested from the start or just happy someone was paying attention to him. I suppose that stuttering scene when Magnus introduces himself is supposed to show he’s interested. Or something. Then Magnus calls to ask him on a date which yay, makes sense with how eager he was when they met. And then Alec agrees. And this is where things start going wonky for me.  Why does he agree so easily? Isnt he supposed to be in love with Jace? Isnt he supposed to be terrified of anyone finding out he’s gay? Next scene after they heal Luke, Magnus goes you’ve unlocked something in me and I go was it your dick? Because this line for all its romantic vibe and whatnot in the context we’ve been presented so far makes no sense. Because now the show wants me to believe that Magnus fell in love at first sight. Except this is not how they played it - what I saw was Magnus being really fricking horny. I did not see any grand revelations of omg, I just fell in love for the first time in over a century with this hot piece of shadowhunting ass I just met. Now I’m supposed to believe Malec has had enough development and enough scenes together to warrant such a strong emotional reaction from Magnus two episode after meeting Alec and after like 2? 3? scenes interacting with him. Insert the sure jan gif here.

Fast forward to the wedding - awesome scene really. Kiss and all (such a hot kiss and I ask why arent they kissing like that in s02 instead of these we’ve been married for 50years and cant wait for one of us to die already pecks?). But again, it only works if you ignore the context and take it as a stand alone scene. Because otherwise the emotional depth that it’s supposed to have? Goes out the window to stand besides all the emotional and mental development that was needed between them in order to make the scene really work and resonate on a deep level. And dont even get me started on how wrong Magnus acted at the beginning of the episode.

I can buy - at a push, a big big BIG push - that Magnus fell in love from the start but I absolutely do not believe Alec did as well. Honestly, I dont believe he loves Magnus even now in s02 (I havent watched it yet but I have enough context about some of their key scenes to say this, there is no way I man in love would tell his boyfriend not to take a treath to his life PERSONALLY, amongst other things). And that is just sad. Because this could have been a great love story, all the fire and passion and fireworkd like we keep getting told there is but what we see is something different.

[frostironreversebang-blog]

Claims are now CLOSED

If you are unsure how this works, please read this post on how to claim. The blurbs are under the cut to make things easier on your dash. If you can’t read them on our tumblr, click here for the plain HTML page

All the arts have been claimed! Rejoice!!

Entry #1

Tony is an omega, who has always wanted to bond only with the very best, he refuses to settle for anything else. When he sees Loki's alpha side his inner omega swoons and the more he sees, the more head over heels in love he falls and wants him, because this alpha, Loki, is everything he always wanted. But Loki's not interested. So, obviously, Tony tries to convince him. Wooing, courting, plans, flirting, touching, clinging, seducing, letting his omeganess show, he tries absolutely everything he can think of. Still, he get's a no. Then one day, Tony wakes up to find Loki spooning him, he tells Tony that he said no because the human's lifespan is too short, that if he bonds with someone he wants it to last for all eternity, asking if he's serious about them bonding, because then he will offers Tony an golden apple and make him his forever... 

The drawing is of them spooning. I might draw another picture with Tony’s tries of courting.

Entry #2

Fantasy RPG AU where Avengers is a team of mercenaries in a need of a mage for the next quest. But none of their usual candidates are available at the moment, so Thor mentions that his brother Loki is a very powerful battle mage. The problem is Loki’s spiteful personality; besides he is a little too good in dark arts. Tony doesn’t care at first, he tends to find mages boring, but Loki proves to be different…

Pic description:  Loki is going to fight someone with his staff and spells while Tony in his full armor stands nearby and enjoys the view.

Entry #3

Modern AU where Tony is still the famous billionaire but one of his rivals have sent an assassin (Loki) after him, except well that didn't quite work. Ok so no set fic summary yet but how about a description of one of the arts? So Loki's at the door because he's leaving Tony and he won't tell why. And Tony, who's not understanding what's going on except that Loki is leaving (why is Loki leaving?!?) is on the floor begging Loki to stay, to make sense, to just turn around and talk to him for one hot second.

Entry #4

There's no concrete plot here, just some vague ideas, so the plotting and worldbuilding is up to the writer. 

Iron Man gets sent as an envoy to Jotunheim, or he's curious about the barbarian world that Thor describes and wants to see for himself, sceptical of the Aesir description of it... And he comes across Loki, who's either the prince or Loki who was adopted Loki, and is doing penance for the almost genocide.... And somehow - either the armour fails because ~handwave science~ that Tony couldn't account for, or Loki magical it off him .... Anyway, he's seen as a threat by Loki here.

Entry #5

Au where Loki never messes up Thor's coronation. Loki instead flees from Asgard after he finds out the truth of his heritage and finds a place in Midgard. Loki builds up his own franchise that soon rivals Stark Industries. Tony is intrigued by the owner of an uprising business and plans a merger. Loki and Tony combine their businesses and practically run the world. Thor gets corrupt with power, kills Laufey, and goes after the next king which happens to be Loki. My draft art is what I want the end result to be, a family between the two. (I know background is raggedy, pushing for time)Kinda in between iron man 1 and 2.

Entry #6

The art shows Loki doing some involved magic while kneeling, while Tony stands guard. There's no story to go with this, so knock yourself out, author!

Entry #7

Loki travels the Hidden Pathways/The Branches first to escape his brother’s shadow and later to deal with being on the run in plain sight (impersonating Odin). He meets Tony, or a version of him in time, who’s ended up there in his sleep on accident. At first, younger Loki thinks it’s just a weird coincidence but it keeps happening over the years. Eventually he accepts it as A Thing, then starts to enjoy it, and gets curious enough to investigate. It’s all weird dream time travel shenanigans to Tony. 

The story should feature magical/science fiction-y time travel and slow burn.

There will be at least two digital drawings/paintings, one of them of younger (pre-first Thor movie) Loki and pre-ironman Tony meeting on the branches and one of older (been ironman for a while now) Tony sleeping.

Entry #8

It's the first day of the Paris World Exposition in 1889. Tony, a promising young inventor, has just arrived in the city to participate in a flying contest - and by pure chance he happens to witness a young man performing as a magician at the local circus. Befuddled by the skills he displays and convinced that no such thing as 'magic' can possibly exist, he tries to befriend him and convince him to give up his 'secrets' - but the young man, Loki, seems immune to his charms. Suddenly, their meeting is interrupted when five strange people dressed as warriors appear and try to kidnap Loki, apparently determined to gain possession of his pendant. What mystery lies behind the small blue gem that Loki has been carrying with him since childhood?

(Basically the 'Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water' AU that I can't believe doesn't already exist in this fandom.)

I'd like to draw two pics for the story; one will show Tony and Loki in the process of escaping their 'enemies' on Tony's plane. The other… is still pending, as I'd like to see where my author wishes to take the story first. :D

Entry #9

Everyone is born with their soulmates name on their wrist. Finding them was nevertheless not that easy. On Earth there were matching agencies to help find them, which worked for some, but not all. Tony never even bothered registering in the first place, the name on his wrist was an indecipherable mess, matching no language known on earth. Meaning he was simply broken, doomed to be alone and had no soulmate, or his mate was an alien… which yeah, either sucked in their own way. Loki on the other hand was obsessed with looking for his soulmate, his Anthony, the one person who would accept, respect and love him for sure, just like he always longed for.  Picture is put together in three parts, kinda comic style, showing Loki and Tony's faces in the first two and in the third holding hands with the names showing on their wrists. 

Entry #10

Thor Movie AU. What if not only Thor was banished to Midgard? What if Odin decided to punish them all and cast out Loki too? And while Jane still found Thor, Loki landed somewhere else and was found by Tony. Things would have turned out way different for sure. 

Draw is of Loki being cast out and falling.

Entry #11

Loki shows up uninvited to Tony's housewarming party with a hateful bouquet of flowers. It's a party that only a few of Tony's friends have been invited to.

There will be one painting, a mix of traditional and digital art, where Loki is holding the flowers.

Entry #12

At the end of Thor: The Dark World, Thor thinks Loki is dead and he’s heading back to Earth, what if he spends some time with the Avengers in the following weeks then? Being depressed. After questioning him, Thor tells them what happened. In his eyes Loki redeemed himself so he won't take any bad comment from them. In the following months spending time with the Avengers he let's comments and stories slip about Loki and while at first they were uncomfortable with it and said nothing, after a few weeks they encouraged Thor to tell them things for various reasons. Thing is, the more Tony hears the more he's crushing on the guy, a dead guy, how insane is that? Then one day after spending some time in Asgard, Thor comes back carrying an unconscious and badly hurt Loki in his arms. Apparently he was not dead and Thor found him like this. Needless to say, Tony is the only one to eagerly help right away. 

Drawing is of Thor carrying Loki bridal style. Not even close to done yet, but it's going to be bloody.

Entry #13

Offering someone mortal an golden apple, wasn’t just offering them immortality, it was synonymous with asking them to spend eternity together, which was basically a marriage proposal and a question to become a family in one go. Which yeah, someone should have told Tony that. Loki totally failed to mention it, thinking it was common knowledge. Tony just thought that it was a weird gift of art decoration. It was a fucking golden apple, it didn't look like something to eat, he wasn't all that informed or interested into myths, how was he supposed to know that having the apple sit prettily on his desk and not eating it just showed a painful and long indecision akin to rejection to everyone who knew what the offering of an golden apple actually meant? 

Drawing is of Loki presenting the apple to Tony. I plan to draw another picture with the golden apple sitting on Tony's desk or somewhere in his workplace too.

Entry #14

Smartass Family AU. Loki and Tony have an established relationship and Peter Parker is their son, including Spider-Man powers and all. The picture shows them just hanging around in the kitchen together (some of them quite literally). The story is up to the author. No story at all and just domestic daily life is absolutely fine as well :D

Entry #15

"Tony and Loki have a secret relationship, and are quite happy like that. They also both sometimes like to have some kinky BDSM sex. When Steve hears screaming and bursts into the room, only to see Tony being tied up and in pain, he assumes the worst. Steve tries to defend Tony, and things escalate. How can Loki come back from that?

To me, this idea is less about the porn than about the misunderstandings, secret relationship, the hurt/comfort aspect, and generally the feels. (So if you only want to write implied porn/fade in, that's fine with me :) )

Pic: Loki in the foreground, naked but with a dagger, while Tony is tied up on the bed and Steve is behind him, looking shocked. (I'm not quite up to posting too explicit stuff, so the picture cuts off at the right places ;) )"

Entry #16

Grey Scale with red as the only pop of color. Loki draped in a plain chair, wearing nothing but heels and dark briefs, holding the leash attracted to Tony’s collar. Tony in similar briefs and a custom collar that exactly matches Loki’s shoes. And pulling the whole thing off with a Ta-Dah gesture and cheeky grin… While all of New York is spread out below them. There is a prompt available if desired. 

There is currently only one picture, but possibly another of a SFW-ish nature might be possible if there is something in the story that would make a good one. Would prefer consensual, minimal gore and happy endings.   

Entry #17

Your general coffeshop!AU, where Tony is, well, Tony, an extremely annoying customer coming up with the most ridiculous orders mostly just to spite Loki, who did nothing (but not really) to deserve all this and has to put up with Tony's shit. Oh, they also might or might not be friends with benefits, not that it changes anything.

Entry #18

Wanda’s powers get stronger and she can’t really control them anymore. They need someone who can teach her, a sorcerer would be best. But there is no one on earth that can help and there either are not many mages on Asgard or they are too weak to help. So after it gets worse and Wanda completely loses control, Thor decides to take Loki out of prison and bring him to earth to let him teach her. Which he does. To the surprise and horror of everyone. But it works. Thing is, after spending a bit of time with Loki and watching them do their magic thing, Tony falls hard and fast for Loki and starts to get jealous when Loki’s attention is solely on Wanda. So, he asks Loki to teach him magic too, anything to get Loki to look at him and hopefully getting him to reciprocate his feelings in the long run too. 

 The drawing is of Loki and Tony sitting on the floor practicing magic. Or more like Tony staring at Loki doing magic and failing himself. 

Entry #19

There isn't much to say, to be honest. I've got this idea of a drawing from a long, long time-- and now, hooray! I finally managed to put it into works! I came up with this visual (even if slightly different, at first) by listening to a song. I guess it was from one of those Frostiron mixes that, at the time, were everywhere (I kinda loved them, I think I've saved a couple of them as well, somewhere) 

Anyway. Seeing and then trying to cope with UnC*vil Whatever made finally up my mind about this drawing. Something where Tony at least looks happy and/or relaxed. In the very first idea, Loki wasn't even there. Then he just came in, and I couldn't say no to him :D 

Entry #20

The Avengers have a magic wielding villain on their hands, it gives them problems, because the best way to defeat magic is magic itself. Which they don't have. So when the villain does something that really threatens a city and lots of people, they need someone who is a skilled sorcerer to stop it. There either aren’t that many mages in Asgard or they just need the very best or a real powerful one, which yeah, that’s Loki currently rotting in his Asgardian prison. So Thor gets him out, brings him to Midgard, in chains and muzzled, wanting Loki to help out… which surprisingly the latter actually does. But what is even more surprising, is when afterwards Tony wants to keep him, not only because he would be an asset for the team, or because he’s terribly curious about magic, even if that does factor in a lot, but well, he has his personal reasons that count the most. Besides, no one touches his stuff, which yup, he pretty damn fast saw Loki as his and was pissed off enough already that Thor took Loki away in the first place, because again: Loki was his. 

Picture is of Loki muzzled... so far, planning to add chains and Thor next to him, maybe Tony and the others on the opposite side too.

Entry #21

Role reversal AU. Loki is a successful engineer, his company is well administered by his old friend Pepper, the Avengers are well liked by the general public and no one is trying to kill him. He could even believe he got a bit of good karma in his account. Except now Thor’s brother-in-law is on his balcony, being obnoxious and asking for a drink. And no matter how attractive or familiar the guy is, if he open his mouth again, he’s gonna be defenestrated.

The pic(s):

+ In Loki’s workshop, Tony shows his magic for a awestruck Loki, with Tony looking fondly to Loki and a lot of scans runs in the background.

+ A little comic strip of Tony arriving suddenly and freaking Loki out.

Entry #22

Pre Thor 1, during Iron Man 1. Kinda Reverse Role thing, where Loki is still loyal to Asgard while Tony as Iron Man is on a rampage to destroy warfare and terrorism after no one takes him seriously when he comes back from Afghanistan. Loki is part of the team to stop him.

The art shows Tony ready to blow something up with his repulsor while Loki clings to his back and grabs his wrist.

Entry #23

Due to their longevity, they take being in love really seriously. When a relationship gets serious in their eyes, when they can imagine being with that person for eternity, they stop even looking at other people, they take everything into being with just that one person, to be together forever. So it’s natural for Loki to feel like shit every time he sees Tony flirt playfully with someone else, not getting that it’s just fun for Tony and nothing more, thinking Tony does not take their relationship seriously, doesn’t want to spend their life together. And that hurts, really hurts, badly. It’s destroying him from the inside, but he says nothing. Just gets more and more depressed over time. And Tony sees that, but doesn't get why. Surprisingly, it’s Thor of all people, who after nearly strangling Tony for hurting his brother, clears that misunderstanding up.

Drawing is of Tony and Loki sitting together, Loki looking very depressed, Tony worried.

Entry #24

A lot of races are pregnant for a very long time compared to Midgardian pregnancies. But with a long pregnancy, the first few months are crucial, it leaves them very vulnerable and a lot miscarry. So when Loki notices that Tony knocked him up, he’s not saying anything about it, wants to see if he gets through these critical months first. Tony on the other hand is a constant bundle of worry, Loki is sick all the time, having regular fainting spells that freak him out, Loki even got so weak that the last time Thor hit him playfully on his shoulder it actually got him to stumble and show bruises for a few days, when it normally wouldn’t even move him one inch. Tony was sure Loki was so ill that he would die on him soon. Imagine his surprise when he wakes up one day to Loki grinning happily at him and telling him he's pregnant. Good thing that a pregnancy of over three years gives Tony at least enough time to wrap his head around it. Mpreg drawing of Tony touching Loki's baby bump.

Entry #25

Young Mer!Loki and Young Bird!Tony meet each other and become friends. 

There is not much world building, just they meet each other when they was young, become friends, when they getting older, they fall in love with each other. (And Happily ever after!)

[bforbookslut]

ARC Review: Zero Repeat Forever by Gabrielle Prendergast

This book was provided to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This review edition is an ARC and may differ from the final edition.

I have given Zero Repeat Forever by Gabrielle Prendergast a ☆☆☆ rating. It is Book 1 of The Nahx Invasions series. It belongs to the Young Adult Fantasy genre with some Romance, Science Fiction and Retelling elements. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers publishes it. It was published August 29th, 2017.

The blurb reads:

The 5th Wave meets Beauty and the Beast in this fast-paced and heart-stopping novel about an invasion of murderous creatures and one girl fighting for her life at the end of the world.

He has no voice or name, only a rank, Eighth. He doesn’t know the details of the mission, only the directives that hum in his mind.

Dart the humans. Leave them where they fall.

His job is to protect his Offside. Let her do the shooting.

Until a human kills her…

Sixteen-year-old Raven is at summer camp when the terrifying armored Nahx invade. Isolated in the wilderness, Raven and her fellow campers can only stay put. Await rescue. Raven doesn’t like feeling helpless, but what choice does she have?

Then a Nahx kills her boyfriend.

Thrown together in a violent, unfamiliar world, Eighth and Raven should feel only hate and fear. But when Raven is injured, and Eighth deserts his unit, their survival comes to depend on trusting each other…

Add to Goodreads

Verdict:

If you want an amazing alien/robot creature falls in love with human, you’re better off with Defy the Stars. Zero Repeat Forever is indeed like a Beauty and the Beast retelling (I’ve never read The 5th Wave so I can’t make a comparison there) complete with kidnapping and some Stockholm Syndrome, insta-love and of course, a science-fiction/dystopian society. The setting of Zero Repeat Forever is unclear: science fiction or dystopian? I’m leaning towards the latter mostly because it seems to be set in a future United States of America. But what’s more confusing is the worldbuilding because there’s no prerequisite to the Nahx, one day they are there and the next, they aren’t. It is also difficult to get through and I almost gave up but Eighth was such a sweetheart and the Nahx are interesting enough. Zero Repeat Forever’s biggest crime however is that one of its lead characters is absolutely unlikeable. Raven is abusive, she’s rude and she’s annoying as fuck. Perhaps, a crime worse than having an unlikeable lead: having cookie cutter characters as background white noise. Shame, honestly. A great shame. The plot twist only occurs right at the end and ends in a cliffhanger, drawing the reader back for more.

To break it down,

[may contain spoilers]

The Good:

1. Eighth is the saving grace of Zero Repeat Forever. Because Eighth and the Nahx are a non-speaking race, communicating through sign language, the story is told from Eighth and Raven’s point of views, allowing the readers directly into Eighth’s head and motivation for his every action. His naivety and curiosity at the human world is adorable and endearing, finding every little thing that humans do fascinating. He’s like a helpless little puppy. And I also really loved that Eighth was almost human in his actions and his thoughts, feeling every emotion on the spectrum and being confused about it but also acting upon it. Like, in one instance, he hides and cowers while his “team mates” seek out and kill humans. And he is able to empathise with Raven and her friends’ actions. But I mostly love Eighth’s ability to love.

2. The diversity is refreshing. Raven isn’t your typical cookie cutter white girl heroine. In fact, she’s a mixed raced girl and a lot of times in Zero Repeat Forever, her struggles with being mixed raced are referenced. Other than that, Eighth is unable to speak but he can hear and understand humans, making him differently abled (which really makes sense when it comes to the plot twist). Amongst Raven’s friends, there is one Asian kid, but I cannot recall if there are any other races amongst her friends.

3. There was a great amount of creativity put into the creature building in Zero Repeat Forever. The Nahx have been described in great detail from their armour to their internal workings. It can come off a little confusing at times as we often learn about the Nahx from Eighth’s point of view and he’s not the most articulate alien-creature out there. But despite how much creativity went into creating the Nahx, there are still multiple gigantic gaps in the worldbuilding.

3.1 I think the Nahx sign language that was created was pretty creative although a little difficult to explain in a review. Zero Repeat Forever, the title, comes from the sign language that Eighth teaches Raven. It’s probably the only parts I did really like.

The Bad:

1. I’m bothered by the lack of worldbuilding. There isn’t a lot that the readers know about the world but judging by the fact that they have some sort of summer camp and a supposedly military bunker and it’s set in the sprawling woods, I’m assuming that it’s set in real time Earth. And not a dystopian society. But we still don’t know how the Nahx invaded the Earth or what the Earth has done to save their citizens or I might have missed that detail because it was probably in a throwaway line that I quickly forgotten about.

1.1 A good amount of the book was set in a) the forest, b) Eighth and Raven’s hideaway. Also, despite them being at a survival summer camp, none of them seemed to really know how to survive which was annoying af.

2. Oh god, not to mention, the pacing was so incredibly slow. I forced myself to push through and judging by the fact that I didn’t give it up, it’s somewhat engaging. If you can put yourself through all the boringness in the beginning. And if you’re expecting Eighth and Raven to come together and get the ball rolling? That doesn’t even happen until more than half the book had passed. The worst part? There wasn’t even any worldbuilding in the boring starting bits: it was just Raven and her friends and Eighth and his partner, Sixth, running about the woods trying to survive and kill people.

2.1 And once Raven and Eighth meet, it just consists of Eighth trying to nurse Raven back to good health and Raven being a complete bitch about being kept prisoner/kidnapped.

3. Raven is abusive. Okay, fine, I suppose she couldn’t just succumb to Stockholm Syndrome but Eighth is as naïve as they come and he was only trying to help her but she kept hurling verbal and physical abuse, hurting Eighth’s feelings even though she was aware that he HAD FEELINGS. She even mentions that it felt good but she also felt bad for yelling and insulting him. It was so difficult to get through that I mostly skimmed her parts so I could get to Eighth’s parts and have some semblance of rationality in the book.

4. Another thing I really didn’t like with Zero Repeat Forever is that Raven’s friends were cookie cutter cardboard characters there to decorate the background. They barely had any personalities of their own except that one was a gay pair, one girl slept with her boyfriend, her boyfriend’s brother and some other guys I can’t really recall. The gay pairing was merely just gay although one of them had some military background of some sorts and the girl who slept with her boyfriend was just a really good hunter. I would say that Topher, the boyfriend’s brother was the most developed mostly because she spent the most time with him. And if you’re wondering about the boyfriend? He gets killed within the first few chapters. Like hello I didn’t even get to know him yet.

4.1 And I cannot for the life of me understand why everyone seems to be attracted to Raven. Firstly, she’s a hot mess and honestly very whiny. I don’t quite understand the relationships she has formed either. Is Xander her friend or is there some lust thing going on there? Is Topher her friend or was he also in love with her? It added absolutely no value to the story.

5. Which brings me to my next point. I just cannot see the relationship or the chemistry between Eighth and Raven. It happened out of the blue. Eighth looked at her and fell in love. Even the whole kidnapped and nursed back to health part of the book where I suppose they were supposed to bond, could not save it. There was no bonding because Raven kept abusing Eighth. But, but, Raven managed to develop some feelings for Eighth in some strange Stockholm Syndrome situation.

Conclusion:

It took me a lot longer than I usually would to read Zero Repeat Forever which is testament to how much this story needs to improve. It clearly is the prelude to a second, possibly more action-driven and engaging story. However, Raven’s tone, attitude and behaviour in this one really has put me off from finding out more. I refuse to read about her whining and crying and throwing a huge hissy fuss instead of trying to save herself, be more independent and accept help where she can get it. I’m a little torn about whether the second instalment would be worth it. However, if the story can be focused on well, the actual alien invasion plot at hand instead of forcing Raven and Eighth’s romance, it will be salvageable.

[ghoultyrant]

FoZ Notes 18

Alright, we finally are having the plot start moving. Kinda. In any event a decent amount of stuff I felt like making notes of is happening.

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

Saito literally glowing after him and Louise affirm their love. Neither of them notices. [You know, I’d forgotten about this because it doesn’t come back]

Fouquet giving money to Romalian orphans out of kindness. This is apparently just a thing with her. Oh, excuse me, to Albionese orphans in Romalia. So she's got loyalty to her country, I guess?

Also, Wardes is back. Apparently him and Fouquet have been hanging out in Romalia for... some reason... since Albion lost the war. He's been reading some secret Romalian book detailing historical events involving people revolting against Church power etc, among other books he's been reading in this period. Apparently Fouquet stole it for him.

Wardes mother was a researcher at the same facility Eleanore works at. She researched history (I guess she was an archeologist?) and 'earth history' (??), eventually went crazy, sexist commentary ensued because the author STILL cannot make up his goddamn mind. It's heavily hinted that the Wind Stone Catastrophe I've been spoiled on is her Go Mad From The Revelation moment, which she for some reason decided to not tell anyone about. Wardes is now trying to follow in her footsteps. Why? Because he semi-accidentally killed her when he was twelve by giving her a shove at the top of some stairs, so he's felt guilty ever since.

So. The fuck does that have to do with his original plot of wanting to become God-King of Halkeginia? [No, the story makes no attempt to explain what his original storyline was about]

Romalia knew Wardes and Fouquet were here the whole time, did nothing until just now because Reasons.

Josette has never felt happiness in her entire life. It takes her a bit to recognize it when she first experiences it. She's fully aware Julio is just using her, but loves him such that she's fine with that, which would be creepysweet except she's like the fifth such character at this point, so really it's just plain creepy. Especially since they're all women.

I am getting REAL damn tired of Romalia knowing everything everywhere all the time EXCEPT when they fail to know a thing that it would actually be plausible for them to guess at. (eg Joseph being the Gallion Void mage) The story almost never makes the slightest effort to justify it. It's ridiculous.

More generally, Julio is a goddamn Sue of the highest order. More so than Saito! That's nuts!

Isabella has a knife that talks. Unclear if it's a knife-person or just a knife-radio. Later narrative implies it's a radioknife.

Tabitha saying she isn't foolish enough to help a religious fanatic -to the Pope. Gutsy.

The Pope replacing Tabitha with Josette is intended as a plot to bait out Saito and company because of fucking course.

Guiche views stealthy action as un-noble. No wonder he's so shit at his attempts to court a zillion women without them knowing about each other.

Oh hey now WE are using 'Skillnir' to fool enemies. Skillnir apparently require blood from the person you're wanting them to imitate... which raises the question of how Romalia got a sample of Saito's blood without him knowing. This is a dumb plotpoint.

Kirche will fucking murder you if you kill Tabitha. No hesitation. That's pretty darn close, emotionally! It’s more emotion than she’s shown for, say, Colbert, who I’ve utterly failed to mention her having the hots for after his ridiculous non-death because it’s an idiot plotline.

Saito is fucking baffled by someone having seemingly changed their face with magic. Don't think too hard about how Louise told him about the bastard-hiding place with its face-changing magic, you know, last volume. That was a whole volume ago, how dare you expect the author to remember things from so far back!

Abruptly, we're told Earth Stones are a thing and are necessary for golem production. Okay, cool. Fuck you, you horrific piece of shit, this is either some of the worst planning I have ever seen or some of the most blatant, disrespectful retconning I have ever seen. We should've been hearing about this in Volume Fucking One. Volume Two at the latest, where we were introduced to Wind Stones. We should not be hearing this nonsense in VOLUME EIGHTEEN.

Abruptly we hear that the Pope, when traveling, has to stop and bless people, thank people, etc etc. Why has this never cropped up before, then?

Chikasui -the girl of face-changing and Isabella's right-hand woman as far as I can tell- showing up as a man. Is she a shaspeshifter?

You know, I only just realized the "Mountain of the Fire Dragon" is actually something we heard about back in Volume One. Holy Continuity, Batman!

Really annoyed that Tabitha being pulled from the Pope's carriage doesn't cause Vittorio's men to second-guess their loyalties. Their outrage seems to be over, essentially, casting aspersions upon a man who should be beyond reproach, and then the aspersion turns out to be true. They ought to be horrified and/or outraged to discover that Vittorio has abused the trust that everyone puts into him, NOT blithely, angrily fighting for him like nothing has changed. [Reader note: Saito and company accuse the Pope of kidnapping Tabitha, basically, the Paladins are all “His Holiness would NEVER and how dare you claim otherwise!” and then out comes Tabitha and they don’t acknowledge how this contradicts their belief in the man]

Also getting tired of Vittorio and Julio insisting people should trust them, as they totally have a good reason for it honest! Nope, don't care. Behave in a manner not worthy of mistrust before you demand trust, assholes.

I'd be thrilled to see Saito calling Julio on his manipulative womanizing bullshit if he wasn't a massive goddamn hypocrite. Also because it devolving into a fist fight while Tabitha, Kirche, and Louise stand by and watch is idiotic nonsense. Earthquake interrupt! Vittorio makes a comment that implies this is the Wind Stone Catastrophe. Specifically, Fire Dragon Mountain takes off. Julio claims this Wind Stone issue is why they need to retake the holy land... which explains fucking nothing.

Ugh.

Ridiculous claims that half the landmass of Halkeginia will rise up and this will cause a land war. Guys? You remember Albion? That place people live on right now? I know you do, because you're mentioning it in this conversation. In fact, this will INCREASE the amount of land available to Halkeginia! There will definitely be chaos and death, but you're all wrong ANYWAY.

Oh and we learn Brimir made a device that's in the holy land that requires four Void Mages to activate and which will somehow fix this. Dude. It's been 6000+ years. Even shaving it down to 5000 since Halkeginian years are shorter than Earth years, that's way the fuck too long. It's probably rust and dust, or at least buried. This should be obvious to everyone. Yes, I know, there’s those stupid preservation spells, but the plot itself seems to have entirely forgotten about them.

Why did all this stupid shit happen? Because! In true Shonen style, Julio wanted to fight Saito! Okay, so? What, Vittorio obligingly did a bunch of pointless bullshit to accommodate his familiar secretly being hijacked by an Entity? This is not an explanation that makes any kind of sense.

Of fucking course there's a spell for turning a wand's tip into a whip. And of course Eleanore knows it. As an aside, Malicorne is a masochist. It looked that way for several volumes, but A: I thought he was nobody important, a temporary character and B: it was ambiguous. Nope, he likes being whipped. sigh

Aaaand Louise saying she's "not a child anymore" seems to be taken by everyone as a shocking admission that she's had sex. Oh god she's had sex with Saito. I need brain bleach.

Naturally, Tristain digging into the Wind Stone issue causes them to agree to participate in the Crusade. This is stupid. The stupidity is unending. I'm having trouble making myself keep reading in the face of the biggest, most world-building-est plot twist of the series being such a crock of shit on every level.

Luctiana gets Ali to accept this mission he hates by virtue of refusing to marry him if he denies her the "greatest adventure" she can imagine. Because she wants to come along too, you see. Bidashal Just As Planned this, pretends innocence when Ali calls him on it. [Wait, did I mention Luctiana and Ali before? I don’t remember that being in my previous notes, did I lose the original notes or is this misplaced? In any event they’re both Elves. Luctiana has a fascination with ‘barbarians’, which is her entire character aside from being pedobait, while Ali has basically no character at all]

Oh fuck no. No, don't have Louise throw away her noble title to be with Saito. This is heinous bullshit. (Okay, it doesn't actually happen, but that Louise would consider it worth it horrifies me regardless)

Something I ought to have mentioned back on Volume One: magic lamps. Thing is? They've never been explained. Who makes them? Why are they in noble houses/institutions, but nowhere else? What powers them, given that magic is chant-based? They're just... present, and questionable worldbuilding.

Elves murdering bandits. Ali purports to dislike killing, but none of the Elves seem upset at the gruesome deaths they're inflicting. Wow, what pacifists. I am very convinced.

End volume 18.

------------------------- In which we finally learn about the Wind Stone Catastrophe and learn that Romalia's Crusade is not just fanatical religiousness. Oh and we finally see a bit of Elf culture/lands.

Alternative summary: Stupid Nonsense Pileup. Like a thirty-car pileup, but of stupid nonsense.