#i was inspired too by being subjected to the elements lately

[gunstellations]

desert heat

[insipid-drivel]

Toxins, Venom, and Poisons in Historical Western Medicine: How Are We Not Extinct From Doing Some Of This To Ourselves?

This piece is an involuntary piece inspired by @writing-with-sophia's awesome post "Poison list", which is an accurate and succinct list of commonly known (and ancient!) poisons, venoms, and toxins that have been and were used for causing poisoning in ancient and recent history. I wanted to write this because what struck me by their post crossing my dash was, the sheer number of poisons listed that were - and even still are - used as mainstays for healthcare around the world throughout the ages!

OBLIGATORY DON'T BE A DUMBASS PSA: If you're planning on incorporating these poisons into your HISTORICAL-era writing, it's also important to remember that many of them were used for medicinal purposes at one time, too, and it's great you're interested in learning about the subject! And also, you shouldn't try ANY of these! I will not tell you how to do it at home if you DM me, so don't! You are not appropriately trained to do it! You will harm or kill yourself and possibly your loved ones if you fuck around with any of these and it will be 100% your fault and you absolutely should feel bad bout it! I've seen some of you idiots believe 4chan posts about making home-grown crystals using recipes for actual mustard gas and seen you being wheeled into the ER on the news! I will not feel bad if you get yourself hurt if you screw around with any of these plants, elements, or animals!

Resource blog plugs and PSA over, now for the Hilariously Poisonous Medicines:

If you're writing something that's meant to take place prior to the advent of our more modern understanding of poisons, venoms, and toxins, factoring in "this is toxic to me NOW, but what about 500 years ago?" can add a lot of opportunities for interesting plot elements to your story.

These can include someone accidentally poisoning themselves with a toxic drug or substance that wouldn't have killed them if they'd handled it properly - like tansy? Grows all over the place in Europe and England? That'll kill you if you harvest it too late in the season, but it's good for intestinal parasites when it's harvested early in the year and processed right.

Did the lady's maid really kill her mistress with belladonna? Or was she trying to secretly help her mistress get rid of an unwanted pregnancy?

The protagonist's children can't survive to make it to weaning age! Is the wetnurse a poisoner, or does the milkman hide that he sells sour milk by pouring Borax into it so no one could taste it and has no idea he's killing his clients' babies?

Nuance and cultural mores regarding historical views about poisons and toxins can make writing even more fun, dynamic, and interesting! Explore 'em!

Just... please don't try any of this crap yourself. You will poison yourself, it will hurt, you will die, and you will hurt the entire time you're dying. Using OP's master list alone, here's the flip side of these lethal beasts through the eyes of our distant ancestors who believed illness was caused by "vapors", "bad air", and "imbalanced humors":

Hemlock:

Used across multiple different cultures in history. When properly administered to treat a disease, poison hemlock was used to treat asthma, whooping cough, bronchitis, joint/bone pain, muscle cramps, and insomnia. Hemlock was most often used as a sedative and antispasmodic.

Arsenic:

Arsenic is a heavy metal, and so has been used in everything from making specialty dyes for wallpapers (Scheele's green is the most infamous arsenic-based paint; Queen Victoria once had a guestroom in her palace redone with Scheele's green wallpaper. The first dignitary to stay there had to be carried out and taken to emergency care after breathing astronomical amounts of arsenic dust from the wallpaper's paint), to medicine. Arsenic was especially commonly used in history to treat skin ailments ranging from acne, to psoriasis, to syphilis sores. It was also sometimes prescribed for menstrual cramps, upset stomachs, colic, and arthritis, among many, many other things.

Cyanide:

Uh... I have literally never found any evidence of cyanide in medicine, outside of its use in modern medicine as part of certain chemical lab tests for measuring urine ketone bodies that involve no contact with a patient whatsoever. Cyanide literally works in less than a few seconds to render your entire body incapable of absorbing OR using oxygen in your lungs or already existing in your blood. Cyanide is really only good at making things that breathe not breathe anymore.

Nightshade:

There are a lot of different "nightshades", so being specific is essential here. Potatoes are nightshades. Tomatoes are nightshades. Calling anything a "nightshade" does not inherently mean it's lethally toxic. Belladonna is probably the most notorious of the "deadly" nightshades, but to this day, is still used medicinally, and would actually be seen as a health and cosmetic mainstay in historical fiction, especially if your setting is in Italy!

Belladonna is an Italian portmanteau for "beautiful woman", because tinctures (water-based drops) of belladonna were commonly used by Italian women as eyedrops to dilate their eyes and appear more attractive, aroused, and desirable. Today, belladonna's eye-dilating effects are still used by optometrists to dilate the pupils! Belladonna has been, and still sometimes is used as an NSAID, general painkiller, motion sickness treatment, asthma medication, and even as a treatment for IBS.

Ricin:

As OP said, Ricin is derived from the toxin found in Castor Beans, and is surprisingly new as an official "the only reason this is made is to make someone dead" poison. Not only is ricin a popular "nobody would think to test for this!" choice in mystery/thriller writing, but it has been used for political assassinations in real life before. Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian anti-Communist dissenter and writer, was killed in 1978 with a 1.7mm diameter ricin-coated pellet shot into his thigh muscle by an unidentified assailant using a modified umbrella as a gun. He died 4 days later.

Historically, castor OIL has been used for medicinal purposes, especially for treating constipation, inducing labor in pregnancy, and as a topical skin moisturizer. If you've ever watched the opening scene in Disney's "Peter Pan", when the childrens' mother is trying to give them a spoonful of medicine each, she's actually giving them castor oil! Castor oil tastes really bad (so much so that flavorings like cinnamon were often added to try to muffle the taste), so the childrens' reluctance and disgust at their mom making them take their medicine is very realistic for the era the movie came out in!

Strychnine:

Another lethal poison that started life as a medicine/food additive. Strychnine is no longer used medicinally at all today, but historically, it was used to stimulate the heart, treat bladder and bowel incontinence, and limb palsy. Strychnine is a deadly-powerful muscle stimulant that, as a poison, causes horrifyingly painful full-body strictures (spasms) and destroys the cardiovascular system. (Fun fact: Strychnine and hydrochloric acid were historically mixed into cheap vodka to make knock-off gin, especially during the Georgian Era in England if the brewer didn't have or couldn't afford juniper berries!)

Snake Venom:

Seriously, do your research before you write an actual, real snake species using venom they don't produce! The Big 3 Forms Of Snake Venom are: Hemotoxic, Neurotoxic, and Cytotoxic. Specific snake species exclusively generate the same kind of venom (so a hemotoxic snake will ALWAYS produce baby snakes that also make hemotoxic venom). Aristotle himself wrote in 380 BC that certain snake venoms could be applied for treating fevers, smallpox, and leprosy, and there is even some evidence in the historical record prior to the 1800s that different cultures have experimented throughout the eons with using venom for converting into antivenom, but I've never found a source citing anyone making a successful form of antivenom until around the 1850s.

Digitalis:

OP really nailed the important thing about Digitalis, and that is it's cardiac benefits for certain people - particularly for treating congestive heart failure. Vincent van Gogh was actually prescribed epilepsy medication that likely contained Digitalis, aka Foxglove, and there are some prevailing theories about van Gogh's love of bright yellow paint as being either caused or exacerbated by the symptoms associated with digitalis use, which can cause an attraction to and increased visual sensitivity to the color yellow. In several portraits, including one of his own psychiatrist, van Gogh shows subjects presented alongside foxglove flowers. Digitalis is absolutely lethal if consumed or taken without expert guidance, however, because it's the mother ingredient of Digoxin. Digoxin isn't used as frequently as it used to be a few decades ago, but it's still used and prescribed today for certain forms of heart failure and heart disease. Digoxin was also, at one time, was also sometimes used to induce chemical abortions.

Lead:

Dear god, lead. Not only is it so slow to kill you that you'll think that the only way to manage your symptoms is with more lead, but lead poisoning can be a life-long crisis for a person who is regularly exposed to it. Humans have used lead for everything from plumbing, to paint, to our cutlery, to cosmetics, to medicine. While yes, it is very possible to ingest enough lead in a single sitting to die within hours or days, most sufferers of lead poisoning experience it for years or decades before the symptoms become obvious. Some archaeologists believe that the Romans used lead cutlery because lead has a unique reaction when we lick it: when you have lead coating your tongue, it makes EVERYTHING you eat suddenly taste 10x better. I learned this myself from going target-shooting with my mom at a gun rage as a teenager, inhaled gunsmoke (which contains lead), and went for lunch immediately after. Even though I was just eating a $5 meal from In-N-Out, my burger tasted so good I thought I was gonna have to change my pants. When I asked the rangemaster at the target place about it later, he literally said, "Oh yeah, lead makes the worst cooking taste like heaven."

The ancient Romans ate a lot of rotten, spoiled, and sour food, and so lead would've made it easier to eat it back then. But the neurological effects of lead poisoning are nightmarish. It's suspected that, in America, the #1 reason we had so many active serial killers in the country from the 1940s-2000s was because of leaded gasoline. Ever since leaded gasoline was banned? Serial and random violent crime rates have dramatically gone down, especially in metropolitan cities. Ancient Rome, too, gradually became an increasingly violent city as its population went up and its reliance on lead did. We're only just now starting to figure out how toxic lead actually is, so go nuts with using it as a plot element regarding subjects like "Why Are You Like This?"

Mercury:

Mercury is also known as quicksilver, because in spite of being a heavy metal, the temperature at which it melts into a liquid is very, very low compared to most other metals. The first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, was rumored to be so obsessed with the notion of immortality that he would send his doctors on doomed voyages around the world searching for a legendary substance that would, indeed, make him immortal. Legend has it that some doctors who were tasked with the job found out about the last guys, and produced mercury before Emperor Qin Shi Huang and cried, "Here it is! I got it!" so they wouldn't end up doomed to drown at sea. Qin Shi Huang became so obsessed with ingesting and medicating himself with mercury that, when his legendary tomb was being constructed, he had a small-yet-accurate-to-scale map of China+the known world about the size of a football field with every body of water full of fountains of running mercury in his burial chamber. His tomb was rediscovered in the last couple of decades after archaeologists found suspiciously high levels of mercury in the soil on top of a "hill" that had been sitting in the countryside untouched for thousands of years. It turned out to be Qin Shi Huang's long-lost tomb.

Since those days, mercury has closely been associated in early medicine as a sort of cure-all, since it literally kills anything it touches (including people). Captain Blackbeard himself, the most notorious pirate in Western history (Western specifically; google who Zheng Yi Sao was), was known or widely believed to be a syphilis sufferer, and desperately sought infusions of mercury from ships he'd capture (and the doctors onboard) to treat it, believing like everyone did that mercury could cure syphilis. It can't. They just didn't understand back then that syphilis starts off surface-level, and then eats your brain years after the initial infection.

Aconite:

Again, ridiculously toxic outside of specific medicinal applications that still aren't safe today! Aconite, or wolfsbane, has historically been used as a heart sedative (for slowing the heart), diuretic, painkiller, and even used to induce sweating. Evidence of wolfsbane being used for medicinal purposes has been spotted here and there over thousands of years throughout the Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Empires, but its original use came about in Ancient Greece for hunting and culling wolves by poisoning bait-food with it. That form of hunting died out long before the European Middle Ages, but the name "wolfsbane" stuck. Mostly because in the Middle Ages, a lot of people believed werewolves were a huge problem, and kept wolfsbane handy to deter said werewolves.

Thallium:

Today, thallium is mostly used in the production of camera and eyeglass lenses. Before its toxicity was known about, it wasn't strange to hear of thallium being used topically to treat fungal infections like ringworm. Thallium was also sporadically used in treating typhus and tuberculosis, along with a wide array of sexually transmitted diseases.

This list doesn't even touch the tip of the toxic iceberg when it comes to the sheer quantity of hilariously dangerous toxins people have, or still continue, to use for medicinal purposes! In a Victorian-era English London middle-class townhouse setting alone, there were dozens and dozens of ways to poison or otherwise harm yourself just by going about your daily life. So, if you've got a period piece you're working on, or are just bored, you can pick an exact date and time in our history and learn just how terrifyingly comfortable our ancestors were with upsettingly dangerous substances and home remedies. You can also watch a massive docuseries, called "Hidden Killers" and hosted by historian Suzannah Lipscomb, among other historians and archaeologists, which deep-dives into the hidden and unknown dangers of living in eras from Tudor-Era England, to the Post-WWII Reconstruction Age.

As a final note: I am NOT bashing Chinese or Eastern medicinal practices here, and in fact deliberately have gone out of my way to not include any references toward culturally-sanctioned medicinal practices in Eastern and Southeastern Asia. This post is specifically related to the history of WESTERN medicines and their associated history. I am not, nor have I ever been, a doctor of any traditional Eastern medicinal practices, and do not pretend to know better. Sinophobes are unwelcome in my blog space.

[jaded-jezz]

Shutter Speed (Part 2)

Jack Champion x Photographer!Reader

Part 2/3

☁︎ Fluff

Summary: y/n is a photographer for the new scream promo and Jack thinks she belongs in front of the camera rather than behind.

(Y/N POV)

"Look who decided to show up!" I hear Jenna say but I am too occupied in taping marks on the floor to turn around. Leah goes over to introduce herself, welcome the late cast to the shoot and explain the plan and rules.

"You must be Y/N?" I hear my name and stand up to correct the voice. "I'm Leah, she's Y/N." Leah turns to me as I appear next to them.

“Woah…I mean Jack, I’m hi.” The boy in front of me stutters. “No! I mean Hi, I am Jack. Sorry for being late.” I hold back a small laugh and smile. “Are you sure you’re Jack? I mean the name ‘hi’ might suit you more.” I jest. “I’m Y/N, did Leah go over all the rules? Are there any questions?” My voice moves back into professional mode as we have a lot of work to do today.

(JACK'S POV)

"You totally played that off man" Mason chuckles behind me, pulling me out of the trance that this Y/N has put me in. I feel my face heating up and I can't tell if its the multitude of lights in here or her stare that burned through my heart. God snap out of it, Jack, you have to do your job today.

I watch Y/N fall into her element and do what, I can tell that, she loves. She is mesmerizing.

"Stop drooling, she may run away" I hear Jenna whisper to me and before I can defend myself, "Umm... next I need Jack Champion over here on the blue mark please" You need me? Ok say less, I joke to myself to calm my nerves. I keep my eyes on the floor to ensure I don't trip but also so that I won't turn into a blushing mess if she looks at me. God, this is the first time I've been glad these lights are this bright.

I follow her instructions, her voice is music to my ears. It's like I am under a spell. A love spell? No lets not get ahead of ourselves. Wait, she's staring at me.

"Jack? Do you wanna see one of the photos?" Leah suggests from the side of the room, trying to break the awkward silence between the two of us. "Oh sure!" I stumble over wires to stand next to her. "No, go over to Y/N, she'll show you how everything works and how the images will be edited after the shoot."

(Y/N POV)

I give Leah a panicked look before Jack turns to walk over. His curls bounce as he hops over the leg of the tripod. "Oh you are tall." I say without thinking. "Oh yeah, but so are you." He answers looking down at me. "It's probably my shoes." I laugh, "Did you wanna see the photos?" I bring up the subject to make sure I don't say anything I may regret.

"Do you enjoy being a photographer?" Jack inquires. That sets me off. I could talk for hours about photography.

"I have loved it since I was 10 and I could not imagine persuading any other career. I am constantly thinking of photo shoots whenever I leave my house. Wall of graffiti? Photo shoot idea. Aesthetic shampoo bottle? Photo shoot idea. I am constantly inspired by everything around me which means my job can be difficult when I am given a strict brief but luckily, whoever hired us, gave us full creative freedom." I wave my arms around for emphasis. But too much emphasism as I almost hit Jack. He swerves and giggles, luckily.

"Oh shit, I am so sorry." I cringe and look back to the camera screen. "It's ok, Y/N" The way he says my name makes a swarm of butterflies flutter in me. I look up into his eyes. Brown eyes used to freak me out because it is more difficult to see the pupil, but maybe I like them a bit more now. Maybe he can help me like other things too. Ew, don't get carried away or you will scare him off.

After our stares last a beat too long, Leah clears her throat and alerts the group that we will now be moving to an outside shoot. She tells them to go back to the changing rooms to get out of their costumes and into the brand we are shooting with for the second part of the day. While they leave, Leah and I start to collect the equipment we are bringing. I grab my notebook for the checklist.

"You are doing great Y/N, especially with a certain someone." Leah raises her eyebrows and winks at me. I roll my eyes and walk over to turn off some of the bigger lights.

(JACK'S POV)

As the group walks to change, I see Jenna and Mason standing by the doors. They are sharing a similar look towards me, it's kinda freaking me out. "He totally does!" "Yep, I can see it in his eyes." I roll my eyes at their odd behavior and attempt to walk past them. "Oh no Mister."

They drag me out of the studio and into the hallway. "Man, when I said charm them with your good looks, I sorta hoped you would also charm her with the rest of you." Mason starts. "Yeah, we knew you were awkward, but not this bad. I wanted to claw my eyes out!" Jenna exclaims rather loudly.

"Could you be any louder? And it wasn't that bad, and I am not flirting!" I shout in a whisper. "No one said you were flirting, except you." Jenna retorts. "We've exposed you without even trying" Mason shouts to annoy me again. "Fine, she's really beautiful and she is really passionate about her job which is kinda cute and-"

"Ok lover boy relax, you don't need to go into detail." Jenna cuts me off with a look of both disgust and happiness, so I know she is just being sarcastic. "We will help you get this girl of your dreams" Mason adds. I can't tell if this is a bad idea but I nod and walk to the changing rooms to make sure I am not late again.

When we are all re-dressed, the cast starts to follow Leah out but I look for Y/N. I see her pacing back and forth, looking rather stressed. I don't know if me going over will make it worse. But I don't have time to decide as two pairs of hands push me towards her.

"Y/N, are you ok? Have you lost something?" "Yes! My notebok. It has all my plans and lists inside. I really need it. Like right now. Is it hot in here? Or is it just me?" She panics. "Ok, you need to sit down before you faint or something goes wrong."

I reach for her hand and gently guide her to sit next to me. I scan the room for a notebook before asking her any questions. She keeps a hold of my hand and I have to pretend not to notice or I might be the one to faint. "Is it that green thing over there?"

(Y/N'S POV)

"Oh my god! Yes it is!" I jump up and grab it. When I turn around, I am again faced with Jack's chest. I look up at him and smile. I feel weirdly calm after that whole anxiety filled fiasco, maybe it's because of Jack?

"Thank you Jack, I think I would've died without this." I try to laugh. "That's ok, I think we need to go now though, I know you have quite a strict schedule for today." He responds.

Jack offers to hold some equipment to make sure I can see where I am going over the pile of objects. When we leave the building I see the other cast members grabbing or putting away stuff in their cars so I take my kit back from Jack to allow him to do the same. I walk over to Leah to let her know I found the notebook.

"I was going to come back to help you but I heard a certain someone calming you down." She says as I stand next to her. "He is definitely your type, isn't he? Tall, lanky-" I cut her off "Yes Leah you don't need to continue. I can't let a silly crush get in the way of today though. It's not even a crush! I've not even known him for five minuets! All I know is his name." I say so fast I almost run out of breath.

"Let's get going while the sun is still out." I shout to the group.

(This is the photoshoot that inspired this series so you can vision this location and photoshoot style)

(TIME SKIP + STILL Y/N POV)

We have been talking photos outside in both groups and alone. It's so sunny outside that no lights are needed, just portable reflectors. Which are big circles of materials that bounce the sun in a chosen direction. Leah and I split up for the last half an hour as we have different ideas due to the location and lighting right now. Some of the cast have moved away to film TikToks and to stand in the shade but some are continuing to model for us if they have less photos than others.

I noticed Jack had finished talking to Mason and Jenna before he started walking over to me.

"Hey Y/N! Is there any last ideas in your notebook?" He asks.

"Oh just this one." I start. "Because of the harsh sun I am are able to play around with different filters on my camera. One of my favorite makes stars in light reflections, would you try out over here?" My hands are shaking as I hand him a small square of mirrored glass.

We mess around for a while, me running back and forth to show him how to pose, how to angle the mirror to reflect light and to show him the results. After a while I am so out of breath that Jack finds it funny.

As the sun starts to go down, the cast all joins up for the last photo including Leah and I for our Instagram. We all start walking back slightly delirious due to the amount of running around some of us had been doing. Jack is walking next to me, at the back of the group, continuing one of our random conversations from earlier.

"You are really talented Y/N, I know you have probably been told that a lot today, but you really are." Jack says in a slight hushed tone. I can't control the big smile on my face. He is such a genuine human being. "Thank you for being a wonderful model." I laugh.

I notice him glance ahead at the group before slowing down and truing to me. "I don't know if i have read this situation wrong but I think you are beautiful and I get feel like we get along so well even though we haven't known each other that long and I am rambling aren't I?" He looks down at his feet and rakes a deep breath.

"I was wondering if you wanted to go out on a date with me?" He finally looks me in the eye as he says this. "Wow Jack, of course I will. I don't think someone has made me laugh this much, apart from myself obviously" I jest. We trade numbers as we catch up with the group.

After the cast all go their separate ways, Leah and I burst out into screams of happiness. "MY BEST FRIEND IS GOING ON A DATE WITH A HOT, FAMOUS PERSON WHOOOOOP" Leah shouts as we skip around the car park, arms linked.

Who wants a Part Three? It will be about pre-date, during and maybe even their reactions with friends after too?

As always, requests are currently open!

Please do not repost this, reblogs are appreciated.

Also some people asked me to Tag them so here you go:

@gwenlore @multi-simp-page @daffodil-darlings @mummatiri

I’m quite new to tagging people so lemme know if you want to be tagged for all my Jack Champion Posts or just this series?

[shou-jpeg]

-Back on the Beat-

Part 4. 04

Porchay can’t stop looking at Kim. 

Kim is sitting at the piano in the studio, humming tune Chay sent him earlier and adapting it for piano. 

He looks so beautiful. 

Kim looks amazing even on his worst days, but right now he’s ethereal; in his element and with a soft flush to his cheeks, as if he knows Chay is staring at him. 

He probably does know, Kim is observant and Chay isn’t being very subtle. 

Though... he’s been trying to flirt with Kim for two weeks now and Kim seems to let every attempt fly over his head. Chay would think he was being intentionally obtuse to let him know that he wasn’t interested, except Kim is the one who told Chay he wanted to try again. So Chay isn’t too sure what to think. 

Does Kim just have some sort of flirting detection force field? 

Maybe he’s just shy? Chay had thought that Kim was shy last time he tried this - maybe that was true. 

Chay wonders if he should just ask Kim out point blank and save them both the trouble. He did tell Kim that he would let him know when he was ready to try again, Kim might be waiting for something a little more specific. 

He wants to know if Boyfriend-Kim is also shy.

“I think this part would make a good prelude, and then the lyrics come in later over the top and the music builds from there, maybe a drum track and a bass to add depth.” Chay snaps back to the moment at the sound of Kim’s voice. 

Right. The song. 

The one they’re now composing together. 

Co-writing. 

Co-writing for a new WiK single, because Kim got inspired by what Chay had sent him and then asked him in the car on the way here if he wanted to help him make it into something real.

Chay dreamt of exactly this on a regular basis back when he was just a fan, except it means so much more to him now. 

“It should be soft though. The drum beat should be slow but steady, like a heartbeat, and the bass will then support that same energy.” Chay picks up his pencil and begins scribbling down dot points as he talks.

“What kind of song are we writing here? We should probably decide on a theme to help guide the composition.”

“Definitely a love song.” Chay says with confidence. Kim looks at him. “I’m imagining a love song, but for a person that the singer already knows. They’ve been in love before and then were torn apart and didn't see each other for a long time. And the song is about them finding each other again and rediscovering their love for each other.”

Chay really isn’t being subtle. 

Kim looks back to the piano, expression open and vulnerable. "In that case... perhaps the beat can pick up pace a little towards the bridge, to reflect the subject's emotions as he begins getting closer to his ex again." Kim says, and then begins talking about measures and other technical terms Chay isn’t that familiar with, since he’s never actually studied music theory. 

He loves watching Kim talk about music though. 

Chay is almost doodling hearts in his notebook. 

He considers his pen for a moment. Then draws two hearts in his notebook anyway, because it’s cute and he likes being a romantic.

They stay at the studio composing late into the night, until Porsche messages Chay telling him he missed dinner, and that Nok, the bodyguard assigned to him today, needs to finish his shift and also have dinner. 

Chay makes Kim order enough food at the drive through on the way back to feed both of them and also Nok, who reacts like Chay’s given him something a lot nicer than cheap take out. 

“I’m never allowed to eat stuff like this anymore!”

Chay makes a note to sneak his guards junk food more often. 

The rest of the drive back is quiet but not uncomfortable. Chay selects different songs to play over the car’s bluetooth and glances at Kim each time the song changes to gauge his reaction. 

They pull up to the compound and Chay hops out of the car. “Should we go back to the studio again tomorrow, P'Kim?”

Kim looks down at his phone, bringing up his calendar. “I have a meeting tomorrow morning until 10am. How about I pick you up for lunch and we go to the studio after?”

“Sounds good! I’ll see you tomorrow.” Goodnight, phi. Kim smiles at him softly and Chay tries not to melt. 

He closes the car door instead. Kim’s smiles are only slightly less devastating through tinted glass.

He waves goodbye as Kim pulls away and heads inside. It’s late, but he might stay up a little longer and play some video games, or to make some memes for Kim. He kind of wants to keep working on the song, but he doesn’t want to do any more without Kim around. 

It’s their song now.

Chay smiles to himself. 

He can’t wait until tomorrow. 

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

Chay takes a deep breath, determined.

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[adelheidvonschicksal]

Like I'm really asking why gege introduces characters just to off them. I hate saying its bad writing but I'm seriously looking like, why though. I really feel he got inspired by Togashi and is trying to come up with some banging plot twists and mind fuckery but it isn't slapping the same. Like "He can't keep getting away with this!!"

It is bad writing! I can talk about it for hours. It's a shame cause Gege writes so extremely well but suffers from telling more than showing.

When Gege takes his time, he writes amazingly! He has great symbolism and wordplay, good characters, and good plot elements, but then rushes all of it. In his defense, it must be hard to write on a weekly schedule especially under such pressure and under a company. I did add a tldr at the end cause I have so much to say.

But I noticed since around the Zen’in and Maki chapters that Gege’s biggest struggle as a writer is writing build up. I’m not the best writer myself, but it’s such a huge problem in his writing.

To preface, he does have good build up in certain characters:

Geto and Gojo’s relationship and downfall is done so exceptionally beautifully. There’s a reason there’s so much discourse with their relationship and fandom tears about it. Itadori and Megumi’s relationship mimicking theirs is also done very well.

Miwa and Mechamaru, as side characters, also have the right level of relationship build-up for their roles in the story.

Gege can even write deaths very well.

Junpei’s death sets up Itadori’s first failure, Sukuna as a non-ally, and sets the tone for the show that the good guys can lose.

Nobara’s “death” was unneeded for Itadori’s collapse. But as a character, I do feel she was completely fleshed out and finished.  She was a character who knew who she was and embraced that without failure or doubt. The only growth I could see for her character development was to gain more empathy for others and become more open minded (something she seemed to realize at her death). But that’s another discussion.  

Nanami’s death (although sad) was probably the best-done death in the series. He’s a fully fleshed out character, we know his motivations and his regrets, we were attached to him just as much as Itadori. Then, Gege adds on the juxtaposition of Mei Mei and Ui Ui to his death.

Spoilers below cut.

Where he goes wrong:

Gege tried to recatch the feeling of losing Nanami in Hiromi; but we got so little of Hiromi, it didn’t make an impact like Nanami even though Hiromi’s introduction is really good, and we see that Itadori starts to look up to him.

Choso, I believe, got caught in between being an important character that fans love and being a character that probably would have the least consequences out of the people who got stuck in Sukuna’s domain (i.e. Itadori and Maki) to die. So, his death would actually matter to the fandom; but after so many deaths, it’s too late to make the fandom care, it only brings anger.

I have a feeling he’ll do the same with Todo now.

The most ironic part is that Gege probably had the best character development moment since the Culling Games by choosing NOT to kill a minor character.

In this case, I’m talking about Remi and Megumi.

If we look at the Culling Games as the arc developing Megumi before he gets taken by Sukuna; we notice that Megumi is entering his serious, cold-hearted era. He’s making the sacrifices necessary to save his sister.

In this case, we see Megumi repeatedly killing other humans without stopping to think or any remorse. We touch this subject with all of the first years.

Itadori: struggles with killing humans, becomes regretful about doing so, hates himself for killing humans because of Sukuna. Then, he eventually resolves to do what is necessary as a cog.

Nobara: resolves this with her Bus Riding analogy. She won’t get bent out of shape when it comes to protecting herself or over strangers.

Megumi: He has the exact same thought process as Nobara. He kills humans when they attack him. However, we are also aware Megumi tends to have more sympathy for strangers and enemies than Nobara even though he likes to act like he doesn't.

Despite Remi leading him into a trap, he comes to see that she isn’t that bright and is being taken advantage of. So, even though he doesn’t like her, he feels sorry enough for her that he protects her, tries to talk reason into her, and gets hurt in the process despite her initially betraying him.

It isn’t until she attacks him, that he officially marks her as “scum”.

Megumi later hunts Remi down as easy points in the Culling Games and because she’s someone who is an enemy. Remi even describes men as wolves as he hunts her down and is confused and panicking about the situation since she’s never had to think for herself.

I’ve seen these scenes used to describe him as not being a kid anymore and basically using it to downplay his depression over losing Tsumiki, the mahoraga and bum memes.

But Gege uses Remi as a way to still display Megumi’s stipulations over killing others and his connection to Tsumiki as someone who helped him develop his moral compass and keeps him grounded.

Did Remi attack him? Yes.

But she was no longer posing a threat and actively running away from him, making her a non-enemy again. Megumi deciding to let her live is actually a solidifying moment in Megumi’s character, his relationship with his sister, and re-establishes him as a character who despite being outwardly cruel and distant at times has empathy and kindness for people. It shows this holds true when he has no reason to be kind to them and even good reason to kill them. However, this is something a) Megumi would have probably regretted later or b) set him on a worse path. Most importantly, it confirms just how much Tsumiki's ideals and expectations of him as a person means to him, giving reason to why his soul becomes weak enough to possess towards the end of the arc.

This is actually such a good example of his writing once again being amazing. Gege is aware that choosing to let someone live, even minor unimportant characters, works just as well as choosing to let someone die in terms of character motivations and development. Something that he doesn't give to Itadori for some reason, other than maybe the slim chance Nobara might live.

However, because the culling games swaps to purely fights after this, it’s a missed opportunity to continue exploring Megumi’s downward spiral and relationship with his sister before losing her. Sure, it would've been nice to see Tsumiki as her own person as well, but Gege does a good job in making Megumi's feelings about her known like when Megumi only chooses to go with Gojo because of Tsumiki.

However, this makes his exploration Maki and Mai, another sibling dynamic, lackluster in comparison.

This issue probably bothers me the most in Maki’s story and the story of the Three Big Clans.

After Shibuya, Gege has a chance to world build without Gojo as the issue. After all, the issue with Gojo being sealed was the dismantling of Jujutsu society.

He missed the chance to expand on the big clans and jujutsu societal structure as a whole. He has touched on the clans and their love of bloodlines, but he has not touched on how they function with each other and jujutsu society as a whole especially as they try to power grab and go against each other with Gojo’s absence rather than solve the Kenjaku problem.

We have no idea about the Gojo clan except that Gojo is the leader and main political figure. Kamo’s clan was slaughtered very quickly. As well as the Zen’in and higher-ups.

The manga could’ve used an arc focused on the downfall of Shibuya and the consequences, but we go straight to the culling games with barely a mention on Nobara.

Now with Maki, Gege once again sets up his relationships and character structure beautifully Mai and Maki. Their ending is also very well done.

However, there’s a lack of interaction between those two plot points. Gege consistently gives us just enough to make inferences but very little else.

We don’t see the twins react to one another outside their initial meeting and Mai’s death. We understand both their motivations, but we get no further insight into their relationship or them having another discussion on their choices.

Imagine how much harder Mai’s death would’ve been if we had scenes with her together with Maki; the possible hope of them repairing their relationship. Even if they were still fighting and didn’t make up, Maki would receive more character development if it was shown that she would one day make things up to Mai and her failure to do so. Also, it seems like Mai suddenly knows everything about why twins are bad luck, and Gege once again exposition dumps us about this information. The fact that it isn’t until Maki kills her mother that she finally says “She was so happy to have Mai and Maki” also rings very hollow.

The same with Maki and Naoya. We know Naoya is an asshole, and that he made Maki’s life hell but due to our lack of insight to clans and chapters to absorb the new characters, it’s lackluster. Naoya could’ve easily been swapped out with any other jerky character; the same way random sumo wrestlers helped Maki unlock all her potential.

Choso and Itadori suffer from this as well due to the month time skip. We care about Choso, and we know how much Choso loves his brothers, but I personally feel like I didn’t see Itadori truly accept Choso as his brother due to that time skip. Yes, he calls him Aniki, but I didn’t really see where the connection came from on Itadori’s end other than Itadori sympathizing with Choso’s feelings and his guilt over the fate of his other brothers.

I’ll probably get a little backlash for this, but the same can be said for Megumi and Gojo. Yeah, dad Gojo memes and fandom art are cute. Some of the games and light novels let us know that Gojo legitimately cares about Megumi, but we don’t get opportunities to see Megumi return that affection. In Japanese, Megumi only speaks casual to Tsumiki, and it’s said in interviews that Tsumiki is the one that mostly took care of herself and Megumi.

In the long run, I feel like if it was between Itadori and Gojo dying, Megumi would care more on a personal if Itadori died despite knowing Itadori for only 3-4 months. I could be completely wrong, but Gege doesn’t give us the insight to know for a fact Megumi’s feelings towards Gojo. I’m sure he cares about Gojo, but dad is pushing it.

Even Sukuna is suffering from this. Gege wants a story about a powerful villain, but he fails to realize that you still have to make the reader’s either a) care about that villain or b) interested in the villain from a character analysis point of view.

However, all we learn about Sukuna has been through telling. We learn about his twin, we learn he was an unwanted child, we learn he was a god to humans.

The most we got of a flashback was Yorozu’s crush on him, and Sukuna was rejecting her so hard that we didn’t really get any insight on how Sukuna feels about his past. Gege doesn’t give us anything to work with to care about Sukuna. Sure, he’s hot; sure, he has fan theories and fanfic that build upon his character, but in the sense of the manga, I really don’t know why I should care about him other than power scaling and his character design is cool.

Don’t even get me started on the month time skip either.

Tldr; Gege likes to tell more than to show, and we just got to rely on taking his word for it because he’s the author. He sets up beautiful plot points; he’s an amazing author when he takes the time to build upon them, but more often than not he glosses over the build up for quick emotional shots.

[shepherds-of-haven]

Because you talked about how being good at both shifting and wild magic is kind of like a good painter also being good at biology (not that those would be the equivalent subjects), I was wondering if you had roughly equivalent subjects in the real world for the types of magic? Also what kinds of people tend to be good at what types of magic? Thank you!

Hi, thanks for your question! I don't have a 1:1 equivalency for subjects in the real world versus magic, as I think the inherent experience of using magic is so different from real-world pursuits that it's hard to compare them! But I have noticed that I definitely think of arcane magic as more mathematically-inclined or more scientific-minded, with Shifting requiring a knowledge of molecular science and biology, Binding definitely seeming more like engineering and programming (with more chemistry if you're an Alchemyst), and Conjuration somewhat involving more math and calculation aspects? Whereas I feel like psionic magic requires opening yourself to the outside world in a way that I've sometimes heard of the arts being talked about, sort of like how artists in the late 1800s/early 1900s thought themselves to be "channelers" who would open themselves up the spiritual or psychic world in order to paint, or how a writer makes themselves free and pliant for inspiration or "the muse" to take over, or how a pianist lets the music flow through them in order to play? So in that way I think Divination can sort of be akin to painting or the arts, where you let the vision come to you while still being focused and searching for it, if that makes any sense at all... And Enchanting and Wild Mage are sort of like that, too, opening yourself up to these outside forces and intelligences, but I'd say Enchanting is also along the lines of psychology and speech/debate with sprinklings of social sciences like anthropology, and Wild Magic is influenced by animal behavioralism and zoology as well! Astral magic seems very kinetic to me and doesn't have a straightforward equivalency other than being very in-tune with the external world, its forces, and its energies: obviously battle magic involves athleticism, combat, physics, and kinetics; healing involves anatomy and medicine and all its many branches; and and elementalism has always had a flavor of meditation and spirituality to it, at least to me, since it heavily involves being aware and making use of the interconnectedness of the world and its elements; though of course you could argue it also has flavors of more kinetic "sleeves in the mud" physical activities, maybe like gardening, hunting, fishing, swimming, metalsmithing, knitting, building, woodwork, or even to an extent cooking or baking, or where you have to become one with the thing you’re doing, in a certain sense; labor-intensive science like geology or botany; while mixed with more cerebral sciences like thermodynamics, meteorology, entropy, and physics!

...So to break it down, as I said, there's no simple 1:1 magic-to-real-life study, since I think the different types of magic involve so many different elements and aspects and are so foreign to our reality that it's hard to compare, especially in a straightforward, clean-cut way. 😅 But I'd maybe think people who tend to be more mathematic, logic-based, or scientifically or engineering-inclined tend to be drawn to the school of arcane magic; people who tend to be more creative or artistic might (?) be stronger or more at ease in psionic magic; and people who are more kinetic or physical could be more astral (?). But definitely take that with a huge grain of salt; I don't really think of them in this way when I'm writing, so this is not something that's set in stone! Like, I don't think of Idalia (who's talented in Battle Magic, Healing, and Elementalism) as a particularly "physical" person, and I don't think of Isodel (who's talented in Wild Magic and Shifting) to be both "artistic" and "science-y", so these distinctions probably don't mean anything at all--they're just different subjects you can be good in, I guess lol! Because the type of magic you specialize in doesn't often dictate what kind of hobbies you're into or your strength in other non-magic areas, so I don't think it really has a strong correlation. :) So maybe even discount everything I just said. XD Hope that all makes sense though!

[ac-liveblogs]

Hello! Just wanna say thank you to you & kyogre-blue (and the anons) for being like the only people I can find that agree that Genshin's storytelling is wack lol I'm surprised how many people praise the writing when it's so confusingly paced and conflicts they bring up don't really go anywhere or the payoff is lackluster. There so much unnecessary dialogue & the last acts of the main story are always such a big rushed mess!

That being said, I wanted to ask if there's any series(game, anime, manga, etc) you'd recommend that does the things genshin wants to do but better, or even just series you'd recommend in general or wish more people knew about!

Hi anon! Sorry for the late response, I have been adding and removing stuff from this list for a few days. I genuinely don't know why people think Genshin is well written - I can understand people thinking it's good in concept and that some of its high concept ideas are interesting, but the actual story itself? Beyond me.

Thank you in return for the validation - the more I see people go on about how great it is the crazier I feel...

As for recs...

The real issue is that Genshin tries to do a LOT of different things, but there aren't a lot of games that do ALL the things Genshin tried to do. That's what makes Genshin stand out, though obviously a lot of what it does do leaves a lot to be desired... I am mostly going to stick to anime/manga/games per your request, but if you like fantasy worlds with lots of lore there's a lot of western high fantasy that might also be your thing.

And you know, these are gonna be subjective recs.

In general, if you're looking for more JRPG fantasy games - Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Tales of Franchise are good places to start. They're all self-contained stories and you can easily jump from one entry to another. My experience with anything except Final Fantasy is really spotty, but narrowing it down a bit;

Tales of Vesperia and Tales of Symphonia are generally the most well-regarded Tales of games; they're on my 'to-play' list so I can't rec them personally. I am playing Tales of Berseria (very slowly) and quite enjoying myself, but it's supposed to be pretty different to the rest of the series.

Dragon Quest XI is a very well-regarded entry into the series, and the most recent. It's a fun game with a cute cast; it doesn't do anything particularly exciting and is a very standard 'save the world from the forces of darkness!' plot, but it's very cute and I had a good time.

As an generally well-regarded MMO Final Fantasy 14 probably comes the closest to encapsulating what Genshin offers, though I never got far (no shade to 14; I just don't like MMOs). Apparently the guy that wrote FF16 is also a 14 writer, but I thought FF16's writing sucked so take that with a grain of salt. Actually, FF16's combat reminded me a lot of Genshin too lmao. Lots of waiting for skills to cool down.

Final Fantasies 6, 7 and 9 are generally pretty safe jumping-on points - 7 being the most well-regarded for a reason, though arguments on the 'best Final Fantasy' can get vicious. 15 is also open-world but, uh, I got bored and couldn't finish it.

Final Fantasy Remake, Intergrade and presumably the upcoming Rebirth are very good, I just disagree with some choices made (and every they're not ALL bad choices.) Rebirth will apparently be open-world, but it's not a cheap investment to get them all.

Games that have elements similar to Genshin's;

Legend of Zelda; Breath of the Wild inspired Genshin's open-world and though it's not as pretty, it's certainly more engaging. It's not as story-heavy as Genshin. It handles exploration a lot better in almost all regards, imo.

Bravely Default and/or Octopath Traveller (party-based RPGs with HEAVY party customisation options - if you wish Genshin allowed for more variety/options there. Very different experience, BD is a 'complete party' and OT is '8 separate storylines')

Similarly, if you like character/party building and strategy games in general, while I didn't love the story Fire Emblem Engage was really fun to play. If you want a cute party and story, Fire Emblem Awakening is a pretty solid entry too.

Ace Attorney, if you need to detox after Fontaine's attempts at writing trials. Ace Attorney vs Professor Layton has a batshit ending, but its about witch trials, which is cool.

I'd also tentatively recommend Kingdom Hearts. A game about traveling to different worlds, meeting new people, searching for people that you've lost but still care about despite everything. Very fun hack and slash gameplay from KH2 onwards; iconic villain squad and some of the best (bonus) boss fights in the business, incredible soundtrack and plays around with identity and personhood as concepts in more interesting ways than Genshin does. Clunky and cheesy, but still close to my heart. But yes the worlds are mostly Disney.

Fate/Samurai Remnant is both probably currently the best introduction* to the Fate universe and a good game in it's own right. And if you like series with a fucktonne of lore and world-building that take their own spin on history and mythology, you'll probably like the Nasuverse. The original Fate/Stay Night will be getting an official english release later this year, along with Tsukihime. Witch of the Holy Night is also already out - they're meaty visual novels. FGO walked so that Star Rail could faceplant into the ground, etc etc.

Some general adventure anime/manga;

One Piece Live Action: Surprisingly, I really enjoyed this. You might also enjoy actual One Piece, on the off-chance you haven't already seen it. (maybe that's the more sensible recommendation? I really wish I liked One Piece more than I do) After all this time, Romance Dawn is still my favourite One Piece saga.

Hunter x Hunter is generally just good and fun, though its a bit of a slow start. Finally finished 2011's anime adaptation. It made me cry. Also, the Phantom Troupe are just. So fun. Chrollo my beloved scumbag

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End and Delicious in Dungeon are two adventure anime with extremely different vibes. Though you might already be watching those. Frieren has themes of living longer than your friends and companions, and watching people you care about vanish while you stay young - what it's like to experience that, and how to move on. Delicious in Dungeon is a comedy in a well thought out fantasy world.

Trigun's anime, Trigun's manga and Trigun: Stampede are all very different but similar narratives about a semi-immortal inhuman character traveling across an apocalyptic planet humanity failed to properly settle. I haven't watched the original anime, but the manga and Stampede were both fun.

If you haven't seen Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood yet, rocket that to the top of the list.

I'm currently watching a mid-2000s shonen isekai - Marchen Awakens Romance - with a friend. We're enjoying ourselves so far... at ep 40/ out of 100ish. If it gets bad it's not my fault.

Classic old-school isekai I haven't seen in ages are Inuyasha and Magic Knights Rayearth. Didn't finish InuYasha, actually. Fushigi Yugi is on my to-watch list.

Tsubasa Resevoir Chronicles is a mid 2000s adventure manga that involves a LOT of dimensional travel and found family feels. It gets very mind-screwy by the end and has a sister series partially needed to understand what's going on - xxxHolic, which I also remember liking though it has been a hot minute (over a decade) for both of them. Go manga, not anime. More of a 'alternative to Star Rail' rec, tbh.

I think if you mentioned some specific characters or potential plotlines in Genshin I might be able to offer alternatives? Like, if you liked the House of Hearth as morally grey found family trying to protect Fontaine, I could say you might like Moriarty the Patriot or Bungou Stray Dogs, but a lot of that's gonna be way more subjective than broader fantasy/adventure story recs...

(If you wish Scaramouche had ever been able to confront his creator and his vague allusions to 'having a heart' and personhood/identity were more of a thing - Lies of P! If you liked Diluc but wish he still did anything vigilante-like, you'll probably like... some... Batman media! Depends why you like Diluc! Stuff like that.)

The thing I've watched most recently that I really, really liked was Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. I read the books in high school and revisiting it (and it revisiting itself) was really interesting. The show has some extremely interesting animation choices and generally looks incredible - it's also pretty funny, so there's that. I'd recommend either reading the books or watching the movie first (the entire movie cast returned to voice act Takes Off, actually - and do an incredible job).

I've also been playing a shitton of Castlevania lately. I didn't like the shows very much, but I found myself enjoying the games I got on the Switch store.

[tamelee]

Hi Nonee, if I’m not mistaken, these all come from the same person as it is partly in response to >this< (?). In case it’s not, I separated them. 

No, I think you misunderstood a few things.

I said I didn’t expect to find good female representation/empowerment in a story like Naruto. (Or frankly, Shonen in general.) That finding that in media overall (especially lately) is already a struggle, meaning I TOO want them to exist (more). And that a character can inspire me, which has everything to do with the story and the quality of the characters, not their gender. I disagree with the notion there that you’d have to share someone’s gender to be able to relate about something. Sure, it depends on what it is, but then that's very gender-specific. I already said it was a broad subject, hence why I kept it specific. Saying what all men do or think about something is a very large generalization, same for dudebro’s with Sakura/Hinata. It doesn’t help anyone tbh and it has nothing to do with my own view on it. There are plenty of people whom aren’t female, that share our desire for better female characters and they are found easily if you wanted to. People who criticize such characters BECAUSE of the desire for better. Look at a few dudebro’s reacting to ‘Naruto’ the anime and you’ll realize that most start hating on Sakura for example not because of reasons you stated, but because she did/said something unhinged which simply makes her unlikable and certainly don’t want her together with their fav. And in my own personal experiences, it were especially the female viewers (even among friends) who kept excusing unlikable behavior until it became impossible. So, it really depends. Even the women that criticize Sakura/Hinata online get labeled as misogynists when we both know that isn’t true. That doesn’t mean that there might be a few who are. How is that different for men? And with that, personal bias about how they should be represented will always exist as that’s just a normal human thing.

You say you were like me once and then had this realization where you chose to become strict about female characters as it is only fair since “they” (men) are strict about female characters too. Is it then really your personal view or is it only based on what you think others believe? Just because a character can inspire me, doesn’t mean that I’m not strict about female representation in media, especially when it claims it has just that. You can have both if you want and it has nothing to do with “them”, or anyone else tbh. I think that’s just being fair to yourself and how you feel about something.

2. Ehh, I don’t really agree with you on Misa there.. I already shared my points about Kishimoto, but Shonen Jump editors often want stories to include elements to structure a story in a way that can bring them the most success. They know what their readers like to read and guide a lot of the (new) Mangaka through those ideas for a story with characters that are better translated to such a targeted audience. You can read plenty of books about it or find other resources if you were interested in Manga. I think, saying that everything in it represents how a Mangaka feels about something is very much a stretch. It is often about an author to spread a message and challenge the truth of that in their fictional world through different kind of characters. It isn’t for nothing that even Kishimoto had to fight them about things he wanted.

3. ... sounds to me like you really didn’t get it at all. I have a feeling I know exactly what kind of posts you’ve been reading and from which kinds of blogs to come up with these conclusions :’) Read the Manga (again). 4. Sasuke gets hated on for plenty of dumb reasons, but it is mostly because some have little understanding for his situation which leads them to blame him for lashing out, instead criticizing the characters that are the cause for not just his own trauma, but also the source of most hatred within their world. Something that just became worse throughout their history and Sasuke desperately wanted to change. They don’t see Sasuke is hurting because he rarely shows it in order to reach his goals. It isn’t just anger, he’s in pain. Hm, well, even his own fans don't really acknowledge his internal conflicts tbh, seeing him exactly as the character people hate him for :’) It’s so contradicting. Even though Kishimoto showed Sasuke symbolizing certain feminine energies, I don’t think that is the main reason why he gets hate.

[electrosair]

OMG HI!!! GOOD EVENING DEAR! I hope i'm not late for these match ups? Because i'm requesting for one if you don't mind? <(-∀-)>

SOME BASIC INFOS...

i'm a she/her, ISTJ or INTJ? i don't know honestly i'm having trust issues with personality quizzes. huhu

ambivert (introvert lean), and a bit of gay. HAHDNSNDN 10% of gay and 90% straight. (so yeah i prefer guys. favs btw is short boys squad: Venti, Kazuha, Albedo, Lyney!!, Wanderer, Heizou, Xiao, and the list goes on.)

Nation: Sumeru and Fontaine!!

Vision/Element: Dendro and Anemo.

Personality: Imagine that we're in our first day of school and have to do the introduce yourself again, the way I introduce myself is a masked enthusiasm. Masked because I look confident on outside but if you took a glimpse of my hands are shaking, i'm getting nervous talking to people in the inside. My thoughts are unorganized and I hate the fact where I try to say something but ended up not saying it because I don't know what is the accurate word of that subject or my though suddenly went empty when the person I talked to is waiting for my reply. With that, I stuttered a lot. I'm pretty distant when you meet me in person but I will open up when someone gets along with my antics.

I'm really shy, yes. But I do wanted to take an action if I thought of something. It's like a fight or flight situation. Like telling my concerns to the teacher rather than just go with the flow and not mind the discomfort.

Conversations is clearly not my forte. So I really need a friend or someone who shares his or her thoughts and understood my concerns on communicating.

I'm having a hard time to understand feelings in a deeper level or to know what is right or wrong. Such as when someone suddenly told me that she does this thing even though she knows it's unfair and then I thought it's bad for me to be upset (she's my friend btw so I got guilty of being upset.) Relationships too! I'm still taking my time understanding them... Btchless since birth indeed. I'm not academically smart since I tried finding things that would balance my personal happiness and school.

I got concerned when my friends is acting differently. Even they brushes their heavy feelings off, I don't want to leave anything that I see. Trying to consult them with their problems if they open up and I gave reassurances that i'm here for them of they don't.

I mind my own business when my thoughts are clouded.

I'm observant when I try to.

My gut feeling comes in random moments...

.

Free time: I do reading books! Fiction or non-fiction. My favorite is Sherlock Holmes by the way hehe. I do singing, cosplaying, sketching, listening musics, sometimes writing, watching anime or movies, and I... Sleep. I love to sleep anywhere and I desire of someone to be my pillow.

Random Facts:

Actions speak louder than words. I rizz someone with actions by suddenly grabbing their hand and dancing waltz with them or the kabedon thing for fun.

My intrusive thoughts sometimes won so...

I wanted to go out either alone or with someone. Then I go home drained even it's a minute walk outside.

I mentioned sleep in my free time but when my thoughts are too heavy to bear or my feelings, I sleep it out.

I'm a Sherlock Holmes enthusiast and I got talkative if I see an inspired S.H. story. Anime, movie, or a series.

All you know about me is i'm always tired yet wanted to go out and communicate with others.

(That's all dear and thank you for taking your time reading this. Have a good night!! <333)

Venti!

This guy would come into your life to show you a side you didn't know. He would present himself in an energetic way and encouraging you not to be so shy with him, always trying to bring the most out of you in conversations and pushing your limits.

When he sees that you really start to get overwhelmed when talking to someone you don't know or to himself he would give you a break, taking the reins of the talk himself.

He would appreciate very much the capacity you have for caring for your friends and worrying about them so much. It's something that Venti also does, perhaps because of becoming more nostalgic as time goes by.

For him, a bard, words and the way he uses them are very important, so seeing your more physical than vocal way of interacting would make something in him even more interested in you and your personality.

[commiegoth]

Okay after marinating on it (no pun intended) for a few days my (perfectly subjective) opinion of The Menu (2022) is this:

Things I liked: The strongest element of the writing imo is that there is a proper story happening alongside the social themes. A lot of contemporary screenwriting seems to be under the impression that political/social commentary needs to be written as like a 1:1 allegory, which is totally cool when done well, but with less-than-stellar writing it tends to come across as kinda hokey. The Menu does a good job imo of putting together an interesting story without using the social allegory as a crutch to get from Point A to Point B. Like if you were kept on an island you couldn't leave to serve the extremely wealthy who don't appreciate what it does to you, you'd probably snap too. It's easy to understand why all the characters make the choices they do beyond the writing being "this character represents [X] and therefore they need to do this to make the allegory work". More contemporary screenwriters should try to approach allegory from this direction!

Things I did not like: It's sooo obvious that the writers have a background in writing for late night talkshows. While a lot of the humor is pretty strong, some of the jokes just don't land the way I would have liked. What is or isn't "funny" is a pretty subjective standard so I get that not everything will appeal to everyone, but there is a certain particular Flavor of neoliberal late night humor that just makes me roll my eyes. Like basically just boiling some shitty cultural thing down to "Isn't that annoying? That's just the way things are though". Sometimes the horrible things about living in America are more than just "annoying"!! This is turning into a tangent but the residual late night talkshow flavor of the writing was a little irritating and distracting.

There was also something about the overall Style of the film that felt a little more like trying to be like other movies than its own thing. Like there were only a couple moments that I felt were too much like this, so I'll chalk it up to tv writers/director still figuring out how they want their feature film work to differ, but I definitely felt like I wanted it to be More than it was in certain respects. Like as beautifully shot as it was, there's a difference between being a Yorgos Lanthimos Ari Aster-like, and having its own direction inspired by those kinds of movies.

I'm gonna wrap this up cuz I'm talking in circles but that's the gist I thought it was pretty good but I wish it was better check it out

[mediaevalmusereads]

The Seven Year Slip. By Ashley Poston. Berkley, 2023.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Genre: contemporary romance

Series: N/A

Summary: Sometimes, the worst day of your life happens, and you have to figure out how to live after it.

So Clementine forms a plan to keep her heart safe: work hard, find someone decent to love, and try to remember to chase the moon. The last one is silly and obviously metaphorical, but her aunt always told her that you needed at least one big dream to keep going. And for the last year, that plan has gone off without a hitch. Mostly. The love part is hard because she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone—she isn’t sure her heart can take it.

And then she finds a strange man standing in the kitchen of her late aunt’s apartment. A man with kind eyes and a Southern drawl and a taste for lemon pies. The kind of man that, before it all, she would’ve fallen head-over-heels for. And she might again.

Except, he exists in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact. And she, quite literally, lives seven years in his future.

Her aunt always said the apartment was a pinch in time, a place where moments blended together like watercolors. And Clementine knows that if she lets her heart fall, she’ll be doomed.

After all, love is never a matter of time—but a matter of timing.

***Full review below.***

CONTENT WARNINGS: suicide, mild sexual content

OVERVIEW: I kept hearing about this book, so out of sheer curiosity, I picked it up. I'm not normally a contemporary romance reader, so this was a little outside my wheelhouse, but I was excited to give it a chance. Overall, I think I'm rating this book 3-3.5 stars for reasons of personal taste. While I loved the time-travel element and atmosphere of the apartment, I also felt like a lot of narrative tension was sucked out of the story. Maybe this book was supposed to be fluffy and light, so I'm perhaps being unfair. But I kept seeing moments when the stakes could have been raised, so that drove my subjective experience.

WRITING: Poston's prose is ok. It's definitely not the worst, but it doesn't feel particularly inspired either. Much of what put me off was the millennial humor and pop culture references. I understand this book is written for a particular audience, but the humor was simply not for me and will, I think, age this book poorly.

I also think Poston repeated herself a bit - some of the same ideas expressed in the same manner (for example: the sensation of pop rocks in one's stomach). It wasn't so obnoxious to be jarring, but it was something I noticed.

PLOT: The non-romance plot of this book follows Clementine West, a book publicist who devoted herself to work following the death of her aunt. The aunt has bequeathed a magical apartment to her niece - one that randomly transports its occupant 7 years backwards or forward in time, and Clementine soon finds herself being catapult into the past too meet a young man who lived in the apartment for a summer 7 years ago.

I was a little mixed on the plot for a number of reasons. On the one hand, I really loved the possibilities that came with the time travel. Because occupants were only separated by 7 years, they're was always the possibility of meeting up yet being changed by time. There was so much room to talk about how people change and timing and so much that Poston takes advantage of several times.

I also liked the focus on grief and the relationship between Clementine and her aunt. Even though the aunt is dead, Clementine has enough flashbacks for her to feel like a real and integral part of her life, and the longing that accompanied her time travel into the past - during a time when the aunt was alive - was palpable.

I also think the atmosphere of the apartment was well done. Poston made it seem magical in all the important ways: not for its time travel, but for the way the light hit it, the way it was decorated, the memories it held. It was a more effective way of making the setting feel enchanting than detailing the exact way it launched someone into the past.

On the other hand, I do think Poston could have leaned heavier into making the plot work for her themes. While I appreciated the way friends were used as support systems, there were scenes that I thought could have been less fluffy and more purposeful.

I also didn't quite feel like the stakes were as high as they could have been. This isn't to say that I think there should have been action or life-or-death scenarios, but Poston didn't exactly make me care about Clementine's job or Iwan's success as a chef. This might be because I felt like I was told too much about why they mattered more than shown, and I really wanted to see the effects of workaholism on grief, for example, more than Clementine wanted to just simply advance her career.

CHARACTERS: Clementine, our heroine, is fine as far as romance heroines go. There were things I liked about her, like her relationship with her aunt, her meditations on grief and repetition and adventure, and the way she comes to terms with the realities of change. I think I would have liked her more without the millenial humor, and if the plot had worked harder to really dig into her psyche, she would have felt more dazzling.

Iwan, our hero, is ok but a bit too "safe" to be interesting. This doesn't mean that he needed to be some kind of bad boy; I mostly mean that he doesn't seem to have character flaws that make him feel three dimensional. His love for cooking was admirable, as was his relationship with his grandfather, but he felt a little too perfect and his arc wasn't necessarily one of growth. He was fairly perfect from the get-go, and though he loses some of that in his vision for his career, I don't think it developed as strongly as it could have.

Supporting characters were fine, though I think they distracted from the plot more than served it. As much as I loved the supportive network of friends around both characters, I ultimately think they didn't work hard enough to create subplots of their own that complimented the main romance. Drew and Fiona, for example, were nice to have as emotional support, but they mostly felt like repositories for millenial humor. The same can be said of Miguel and Isa, who would have been fantastic commentaries on chasing passion over accomplishment and formal recognition.

ROMANCE: There were some aspects of this romance that were really interesting. The time travel was perhaps the main attraction, shoving these two people together and holding them apart at moments to create productive frustration and tension. I liked that the time separation meant that both characters were in different stages of life and thus, finding each other in the present was fraught with difficulties.

I do think, however, that more could have been done to put past and present storyline in conversation with one another. While Poston eventually delves into things like how time changes people, it felt like from the get-go, the time travel was more used for a quirky meet cute. Of course, if this romance is meant to be more light and fluffy, there's nothing wrong with that; personally, however, I wanted the time travel to really work harder for our love story, creating scenarios that couldn't necessarily be solved by just getting over oneself or having a frank heart-to-heart.

TL;DR: The Seven Year Slip is a romance with an interesting premise that is somewhat undercut by its millenial humor. Though it wades into the waters of tackling things like grief and pursuing happiness, it ultimately felt too surface level for my taste.

[tinytrivialthoughts]

Disclaimer - THis one is on planetary energies. Many may disgaree with me on this and may claim that one shapes his destiny, and there are no such non-sense energies. I was one such person.

What I did discover was they do exist, they impart their influence and we have a bigger intelligence within us to override these influences. We can shape our destiny but at the same we are subject to a higher will, life forces that at times propel you and at the same time pull you back and give you certain tendencies to act and behave a certain way which if we are not conscious can nudge you in certain ways.

Also inspired by some of TRS clips on this topic :P

The Infinite Now - the place of Eternal joy, Contentment and Acceptance of life as is and puts you in touch with the One Principle! 💫

Ippodhu, ippodhil, ippodhil ellame.

The year 2022, as it will go down in my history, as the year when I had experienced bouts of anxiety, a deep sense of melancholy, and an extremely disturbed state of mind amidst a whole life existential crisis triggered by adopting new perceptions to the phenomenon of death and deep sense of emptiness from not living up to the societal expectations from me where instead of being deeply engrossed in "income tax sections and auditing standards" I was reading " Autobiograhy of a Yogi" and "Karma" under the wrapped sheets at 2 a.m. As it was getting too much to handle all at once, and I simply didn't feel myself, and asked the quintessential rhetoric "Why me?" It will all pass it is just a bad planetary phase, they said. I've been conscious enough to ride the planetary waves if not always successfully atleast without a profound impact on my sense of self, if not for all the 22 years but atleast through most of my late teens, but why "NOW" as I mumbled, I developed a deep intrigue for these planets mumbo jumbo.

HUMBLING and nothing less as I searched for answers in this new realm of planets whom I thought resided billion light years away whereas they in fact seemed to live here, in the now, in the air around me and within me. With the air of mysticism slowly descending on me, making me realize that the " space " between you and me is more than just space but some mystical element that has within it infinite energies, information and organizing and disorganizing powers, I went on a rendezvous with the beloved planets

First came the Sun, the

Who believed in living true to one's self and living in honor

Happiness lies in individualism, initiative, growth and grandeur, may you have the will to rise to great heights and be crowned as the King, he bestowed his shiny rays on me

That's what life it all about, he asserted

Then came the Moon,

Happiness lies in familial ties, good food, lovely children, travel and comforts, kindness, compassion and love for one and all

That is what life is all about, she comforted

Then came Mars,

Full of Zeal and energy, ready to act, ready to get things done, ready to jump and start and get going with whatever he set his eyes on, he was competitive and in a hurry all the time

Happiness lies in winning, getting ahead of others, you're literally wasting my time and life is all about activity, you just gotta do, he squealed in enthusiasm

Thats what life is all about, he squealed

Then came Mercury

Happiness lies in change and new experiences, friendships and gossip, communication, companionship, and networking, happiness is all about intelligence and strategizing your way to the goal. It's about changing with the situations

That is what life is all about, he winked

Then came Venus,

Happiness lies in luxuries, in relationships, in beauty and style, in sensual pleasures and aesthetic appearances, happiness is a beautiful marriage and a loving romantic partner whispered Venus

That's what life is all about, she seductively conveyed

Then came Rahu, the north node

Life is all about winning, and being the greatest, life is about having the wealth and the status, its just one life you have to have every experience, forget about the world go get what you want, devour all that you can and live for yourself, you need to have it all, go obsesse about it and you will have it! Happiness is about the material pleasures and wants.

That's what life is all about he roared like a mad lion

Then came the Saturn,

Happiness is in discipline, consistency and living as per virtue

Happiness is about living a life of order and then you will reap the benefits of your work. Life is hard work, but that is what gives you discipline and order

That's what life is all about

Then came Jupiter

Happiness lies in following your gurus, having higher virtues, helping others and living a moral life, happiness comes from living to your highest standards and attaining the greatest wisdom

That's what life is all about, he advised

Then came Ketu,

The real happiness lies in the spiritual and Astral realms. The materialistic world of today knows nothing of true happiness. It lies in meditation and renunciation and in attaining the highest state of moksha.

That's what life is all about, he concluded

Confused by the pull of these forces in different directions and their own ideologies of life and what it actually means, I did a quick life audit of the little life I've lived so far.

I was flabbergasted by what I found.

Everytime something seemed to promise me happiness be it growth, comfort, action, change, pleasure, obsession, order and virtue, morality or even moksha, I've been nothing but a puppet in the pull of these planets and their phases. The inclinations were not "mine". It was as if I had been in denial of a whole universe by itself. I've been pulled and pushed seeking and seeking to make this feeling of happiness last running behind one after the other, in an unconscious haze inside what seemed to be a ceaseless maze.

What's the way out then, do I even have a say? How can I loosen their grip if I atleats can't get rid of these impending impartial influences I asked God, Universe, Consciousness, the Observer, whatever you call it.

Drop it all, I heard.

But what about happiness, I need it. I can't do without it. Where will I get it I ask? What will I do? Who will give it to me? How can I become?

It's here, I heard.

But where?, I ask.

It's here and now, I heard.

But here and now is empty, I ask. It's got nothing. But I want everything.

But this where it is. Try it for yourself

For once; although skeptically

I dropped it all, and stayed and waited on it

Nothing came about, I waited in faith thinking myself as patient

No trace, empty now, empty promise

As I got up and turned

Grumbling, But God,

As I got up and turned, this time around actually dropping it all fully

Dropping a few unconscious things i had gathered on my lap

Something did descend, or rather flowered

A familiar feeling, oh the same one

The one that I'd been chasing, it's descending, oh it's flowering, it's the same feeling

Oh it's right Here, it's empty but it's here.

And for one last time, life whispered,

IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN HERE AND NOW.

[guyrowlinsonfmp]

Evaluation

Media And Techniques

I researched some post processing effects, Which i have never done before because I saw games like borderlands3 and The Bloodborne Demake. I learned a decent amount from this project about using materials and post processing in my game. These features saved my game artistically as I don't really like the art elements of game dev, yet with post processing its code and made my game look very uniform and kept all the assets looking similar and consistent. Research Meant. I was able to get a good idea of an aesthetic in my game. Having mainly taken influence from hotline Miami for my top down character, and games like doom/ Wolfenstein for my side of character. The Games Portal-2 and It takes two Were a good look at how coop can be correctly executed. These puzzle experiences inspired some of my thinking and subsequent approach to making my game. A Lot of the knowledge I gained from all of my research was just being able to take a step back and ask myself ‘why?’ before doing something. All of these games and pieces of media have strong core themes and goals.

Purpose/ Theme/ Concept

When looking back on my proposal and thoughts I definitely ended up taking the game in a bit of a different direction. Unfortunately due to time constraints my game ended up devoid of a lot of the story and narrative that I thought of. Rightnow the player is kinda just thrust into the facility. The gameplay still is narratively accurate. With the player being able to infer that the human is in an enemy facility to get the turret. Although there isn't much indication of a final goal other than to escape the facility. An apparent greater motive/ objective would help my game engage players and give them reason to engage, Yet sadly that wasn't possible. To think of what I did achieve: I think that I was able to do a good job of meshing the two players and making my game work as a coop. I Spent not too long on the sprites and other art aspects this time compared to past projects. This was a good thing for me as I find myself being a lot more efficient at coding/ polishing my game than art. Late into the project I had a revelation, that my game at that state didn't feel fun. I wrote a blog post detailing how even after adding the sprites my gameplay was lacking. So I spent some time tweaking the basic combat to make it feel impactful and not like you were fighting punching bags. This was a good realisation as I'm now much happier with how the basic gameplay feels. And i think that it was good to realise that if the basic gameplay isn't fun what's the point of all the art and everything else

Outcome:

The game definitely meets my initial expectations considering what I have learnt over the last few months. In my proposal I stuck much more to my initial mantra of not sinking as much time into art, sound and hud elements and instead left those till the end in order to prioritise a good base game and think about what makes the game fun.

As I said at the start of this project, I didn't want this game to be a single player experience with a second player tacked on. The differing perspectives and how i layed out the mechanics and levels makes the game feel true to what my initial concept of my game would be. I think that i somewhat achieved that with the mechanics i made that involve the players having to think and problem solve together, But next time I could certainly think of better and more interesting mechanics that fully utilise the subject, theme and environment of my game.

Conclusion:

When looking at what else could be done. A better focus on story and a bit of exposition in order to better engage a player. The key point I managed to learn from this game was in the later stages of development when I realised that despite the mechanics I had made, despite the art I had done, my game lacked a good feel and general gameplay that felt satisfying and engaging. So that concept really opened my eyes to how important getting other people to play my game is and the general subject of user experience. After Getting some external opinions from classmates and teachers I was reaffirmed that I had a good idea yet I could have better used the co-op and the different perspective in some more engaging mechanics and ideas. Yet What i have made currently is simply a demo that shows off the initial concept through some basic mechanics. And more in depth Challenging mechanics that better demonstrate the idea that I have. My Art was lacklustre and mainly saved by post processing and other technical aspects. This was, although ‘planned’ because I made a point of not spending too long on art. I could have better done the animations for the characters. I'm still struggling with animating Movement for the human character. And i should probably spend some time figuring out how to better animate humans.

[elenajohansenreads]

Books I Read in 2023

#6 - How Not to Let Go, by Emily Foster

Rating: 2/5 stars

I'm baffled by my reaction to this book as a sequel: it is both completely not what I expected, and absolutely inevitable based on the events of the first book. What do I mean? For the not expected part: the first book was (mostly) fun erotica with some solid emotional underpinnings and heavy-handed thematic elements that my brain interpreted as an attempt to elevate the story from its original inspiration. This second book is a psychological slog-fest of angst and melodrama centered around incredibly heavy subjects like terrorist attacks and assisted suicide, with the romance being a thin sheen painted over it, and the erotic elements almost nonexistent. It's a complete tonal shift away from the bulk of the first book. For the inevitable part: That pacing problem I had with the first book, where it seems on track for a happy ending until Charles revealed that he's a messed up "monster" incapable of true feeling--that last 15-20% of the first book is a sneak peek at exactly what the second book holds in store. Endless angst and even more heavy-handed metaphors for his journey out of self-imposed suffering. And that's a story worth telling, just maybe not billing it as a romance? Because I'm not going to be dismissive of the fictional Charles' "man pain" as some other reviewers have been; but the story stopped being about Annie and what Annie wanted or needed pretty early on. She was in love the whole time and Charles was both the object and obstacle, and it took an entire book for him to work through that, while she went through a much more minor growth arc about recognizing that what Charles needed from her wasn't an exact mirror of her own needs. And this is absolutely a legacy of the author doing a "Fifty Shades of Grey, but better" approach to novel writing, because if Christian was a horrible monster then Charles has to be too, and in order for him to be loved and lovable he has to heal from it. And the reason this book gets a second star at all is because some of the emotional-processing-talk actually resonated with me deeply, as I've been thinking a lot about healing and forgiveness lately for reasons of my own. I'm not saying that the author didn't do the work to make Charles' pain and healing believable or relatable. I'm just saying that the work is maybe based on a flawed premise to begin with and results in a story that both isn't really romance anymore, despite the happy ending, and also represents a massive shift away from where it started and what I, as a reader, expected.

[serpenttailedangel]

Legitimately, it really bugs me that I see people say “the real world is diverse, so this fantasy story should be as well” or “don’t you dare complain about ‘historic accuracy’ or ‘realism’ when you have [fantasy element] in your story” when complaining about European-based settings.

And like, I’m not upset--I want to clarify this--I’m not upset that people are writing diverse worlds. Literally I don’t give a shit one way or the other. You could hand me a book that’s racially homogeneous or a book where every character is blatantly meant to represent some different real world demographic and I’m good either way. As long as the cast have likable personalities and the plot is engaging, I don’t care what the characters’ skin colors are. I quite like changing up the region a setting draws inspiration from now and again for the sake of variety and that means I sometimes specifically seek out stories based on other cultures.

It’s just that lately I’ve noticed that any time I pick up a fantasy based on some part of East Asia, the Middle East, Africa, South America, etc. the stories are very racially homogeneous. Which no one seems to complain about. While any story with a more western setting, even one with some manner of fantasy element that would make widespread travel way less common like monsters that come out after dark each night and kill anyone not sheltered in a city, must be heterogeneous or else the writer gets dragged on social media as having it out for every race not included in the story.

I wouldn’t care if I saw the people who demand diversity be consistent, but it’s not consistent. It’s a double standard. It only matters when the setting is a historically white one. If none of the characters are white, If the whole cast is East Asian, it doesn’t matter that there’s no black characters because the complainers consider a racially homogeneous cast to be “racially diverse” so long as it’s not white.

And I know too. I know this is driven by people who will call a single individual “diverse” for being black, even though the word is not intended to describe a singular subject because its about how varied a group is. This is driven by people who treat “white” as a default and use “diverse” to describe anything that deviates from their assumed default. I know this because there’s no earthly reason to think a story with a cast comprised entirely of upper-class citizens from a single Japanese island is diverse unless you use that erroneous definition. It’s deliberate misuse of the English language to deceptively capitalize on the positive sentiments of the word’s historic use in order to sugarcoat an idea that would not get the same level of support if presented honestly.

.

I don’t remember what spurred my writing this rant back in September before shoving it into my drafts. I feel like I recalled a distant event regarding a book and got miffed, then felt nervous posting it. But apparently this is now a drama where game journalists are trying to stir up controversy over Final Fantasy making a medieval European setting that lacks demographics that weren’t particularly common to medieval Europe, so it feels topical to express this now.

[nano--raptor]

As Luck Would Have It  [1]

Pairing: Werewolf!Bucky x Monster hunter!Reader, Eventual Stucky x Reader

Words: 981

Warnings: Poorly written fantasy elements, nothing else really aside from reader being sort of snuck up on, and references to hunting or being hunted. Eventual a/b/o dynamics

A/N: A little bit late, but I’m trying something new! This is for @the-ss-horniest-book-club​​ for the HBC Lucky Charms challenge! The prompts inspired me to do something fantasy au related, and at first I wasn’t going to go with werewolves, but that’s what the muse wanted. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy it!❤️ The first prompt is Gold Coin

Divider by @firefly-graphics​​

My work is NOT to be copied, translated or reposted in ANY way. 18+ ONLY. This post contains mature subject matter. By clicking 'keep reading', you agree that you are 18+. Do not interact with this post if you are under the age of 18.

The gold coins were heavy in your pocket as you slinked through the woods, crossbow in hand, your sword at your hip. You held a dagger in your other hand, pausing every few steps to listen, prepared to deflect or counter if anything were to attack you in the dark brush.

A monster hunter, they called you. Not your preferred title, but it paid well, many local villages seeking you out to rid their woods of the beasts that terrorized them. This particular time, you were following a lead on a werewolf, a ‘wolf-man’ that had been spooking the locals and apparently eating their livestock, as well as going so far as allegedly kidnapping one of the villagers.

You didn’t care either way. Sure, you didn’t want people getting killed, but the pay had ended up making your stealth and fighting skills quite useful. And no one could turn down gold.

Some time passed, day turned to dusk, and dusk turned into the darkness of night. You wanted to stop and rest, as you were too far travelled to go back to the village, yet you were hesitant to set up a camp in werewolf territory. Whether you believed the villagers or not, there was a spark in the air, a magical presence that confirmed you were in the right place. There were definitely magical creatures in these woods.

Eventually you found a small cliffside with an outcrop that would protect you from one side, as decent a place to settle down for the night as any. The moon wasn’t full, so you would be safe from the wolves, provided you left them alone, and weren’t yet in their immediate territory. After building a small fire, you leaned back against the rock to rest.

A short while later, you woke to find mostly embers in the place of your fire, and you stretched, then warmed your hands over the smoldering remnants while listening to the woods around you. Everything seemed calm and quiet, except for… 

Your hand flew to the crossbow at your side and quickly fired an arrow into the darkness where a pair of eyes had been watching you. Silence followed, and the hair on the back of your neck stood up at the realization that you weren’t alone. As quietly as you could, you made your way to the edge of the outcrop, peering into the darkness to try and spot those eyes again. They were gone, so you ventured a little further away, trying to keep your back protected and against the cliffside. Silence and empty woods stood before you, and you frowned, turning to head back to your site, when a strong arm clamped around your shoulders, and an equally strong hand covered your mouth.

Panic flooded your veins, and you tried to wrestle your way out of the hold, throwing an elbow backwards in an attempt to knock your attacker off. It didn’t work, and the arms just held you tighter, a low voice shushing you and whispering roughly in your ear.

“Shh, you have to be quiet. It won’t be long before they find you too.” You paused, the voice sending a chill along your skin as you were pulled away from the cliff and into the darkness of the woods. 

Who, you wanted to ask, so you did, the man behind you seemingly able to understand your muffled voice.

“The guards. Betas. Someone spotted you earlier and now they’re on your tail.” Betas? Your eyes widened slightly when you realized that meant you were dealing with a whole pack, not just a single wolf. The voice in your ear hummed, as if recognizing your sudden understanding, and you reached up to grip the arm secured over your chest.

“You’re not safe out here,” he continued, his voice low and quiet, but smooth, almost like honey, and it was strangely soothing. “I can try to protect you, but you have to trust me.” After a pause, neither of you moving, he asked, “Can you do that?” Another beat, and you nodded, the hand finally moving away from your mouth. You quickly turned, stepping away from the man and were met with the eyes you’d seen a few moments ago. Shockingly blue, but wild, the man’s gaze seemed to bore into you, his dark hair loose around his face, matched by dark stubble along his jaw.

“Who are you?” you asked quietly, more captivated by the man’s looks than you’d like to admit.

“One of them,” he answered begrudgingly. “But they don’t trust humans.” He turned as if to start leading you to wherever he figured he could protect you, and you huffed, standing your ground.

“What makes you think I’m human?” He turned to you, his lips curved up in a smirk, making your temper flare.

“Really? I can smell it all over you. You’re definitely human.”

“Well… even if I wasn’t… what makes you think I’m just going to willingly come with you, some… stranger I’ve met in the woods.” The man paused, his eyes darting around the woods around you, before settling back on your face.

“Because the alternative, if you survive, will be hell.” His eyes seemed to flicker and he turned again, clearly not concerned about you or your weapons. You turned to look back, feeling your skin prickle again as if you were being watched, then decided to follow the man, if nothing else, to find out more about what he was talking about. 

Trying to keep your steps as silent as his, you followed him deeper into the dark woods, and after a while, you were almost grateful for the company.

“So uh, what’s your name?” you asked him once you’d caught up to him in a small clearing. He looked at you, smiling in a way that made you actually smile back at him. 

“Call me Bucky.”