#since the timelines are a bit more intertwined than in the novels

[gwynfish]

public service announcement for my friends: I have apparently succumbed to the call of penny and therefore decided to read all of bridgerton (i'm only at book five no spoilers!!) and also watch it, so, uh, if you want to block the tag. these characters are too stupid/iconic and the looks to amazing not to reblog stuff. be warned.

[sicksadnurse]

this year has been a year of indulgence, discovery, and healing. i have read more in 6 months than i have since i was in high school. i have worked on learning more about myself and my passions… it’s really been starting from the ground up, like i was born yesterday. i have also been working on healing; setting boundaries with those around me and reframing my thoughts on myself and on my life.

indulging in my passions has really helped me to create joy in my life as of late. my passions have started to also intertwine with each other.

when i read, i apply various analytical approaches as i do with my patients at work. i look at their strengths and their weaknesses, and i determine what each protagonist is eventually searching for in their journey. it’s the same way i’ve been thinking about myself lately. i’ve had to step back and often treat myself like i treat my patients, determine what my needs are and what i’ve been searching for- what i need to be better. they say nurses make the worst patients, it’s true- but we make even worse psych patients. there’s no shame in needing medication, there’s no shame in going to therapy, there’s no shame in integrating holistic practices into healing. there is no shame in putting your mental health first.

i’ve always been drawn to crystals, ever since i was a kid. in the past six months i’ve grown more connected to the world around me and all the many gifts the earth has presented us. it started with tumbled stones in souvenir shops as a child, and it’s transformed into filling our home with various quartz and jaspers. since then things have been more relaxing in the home and having calming stones at my bedside has allowed me to actually sleep (albeit sometimes a little too much).

everybody needs some positive intentions in their life. including some of my favorite female protagonists. if i were to gift them crystals to aid in their journeys, here’s what i’d gift them:

Clover - a death doula who has deeper connection with her dying clients than with her thriving peers in nyc. she lives through her clients last words and wishes… i have selected charoite as her first crystal because she needs to let go of the negative and shift towards positive thinking. instead of recording the regrets of others, use it as motivation to avoid her own regrets. i’ve also selected rose quartz for her, as she not only needs to accept and love those around her, but herself and all she gives to the lives she touches.

Maggie - a young divorcee with an endless graduate thesis, life is pretty messy and directionless as she has to find herself again. maggie deserves labradorite for transformation as well as enhancing her self worth. during her lowest moments, she also needs motivation and the courage to express herself and her needs, so a little citrine would go a long way. this transforming combo reminds us we can always bounce back.

Zoey - our 19 year old protagonist takes over her late mothers apartment in a peculiar complex filled with quirky and eccentric neighbors. this wonderful novel of interwoven timelines and backstories tells a story of hope and growth. zoey deserves the trust stone of topaz, helping her to trust those that are giving her a hand as well as trusting herself and her journey. as well, loss of a parent, especially at a young age, is not complete without a spiritual connection, thus ancestralite calls to zoey.

Harriet - in Emily Henry’s latest novel, our strong, driven, surgical resident is thrown into an uncomfortable only one bed, ex-lover, summer vacation. a stone of new beginnings and growth, moonstone is beyond fitting for ex-lovers and the prospect of rekindling long extinguished flames. aquamarine activates and enhances the throat chakra, and in a novel of miscommunication, every little bit helps. our protagonist also deserves some peace and insight, especially in the presence of not only her ex-lover, but their best friends and the tumultuous life changes as well.

Katniss - my love for the hunger games has been reignited as of late. maybe it’s the fact that i’ve been finding the fire and rebellion within myself, maybe it’s the increase in banned books including Collin’s masterpiece… all i know is that Katniss is one tough woman. first and foremost, in the arena katniss needs obsidian: protection, protection, and more protection. second is moss agate, for her connection to nature, but to also help regulate her emotions both in and out of the arena. there are times where she loses herself in grief and empathy, and lets her guard down, and times where she acts too rashly out of anger and hatred. as a stone of balance, emotional regulation is key in protecting oneself and staying alive amidst rebellion. lastly i have danburite; the healing stone. at the end of mockingjay, our protagonist has endured so much pain, suffering, and grief- it’s time to work on healing.

it’s time to be the protagonist in your story. set your intentions, manifest, and ultimately take care of yourself.

feel free to join @artbyjac IG live sale, saturday 6/17 at 11am MST/1pm EST & 7pm MST/9pm EST. whether it your connection to crystals be metaphysical, placebo, aesthetics, retail therapy, or something inexplicable, all are welcome. this week there will be moonstone, moss agate, and periwinkle quartz. in the mean time, use my code below for 5% off all non-live sale orders 🤍

FLASHY5

all my love

[flickermich]

One point I really like about IT the novel is that Stephen King overlapped the two timelines: adult and child.

At first glance, this seems ridiculous to fuse them together because King himself said that: "The book dealt with childhood and adulthood — 1958 and Grown Ups. The grown ups don’t remember their childhood. None of us remember what we did as children—we think we do, but we don’t remember it as it really happened." and The Great Stephen King Reread: It pointed out: “It draws a hard border between childhood and adulthood and the people on either side of that fence may as well be two separate species."

However, when thinking back about it, you suddenly find that it's very reasonable. The adults, even after moving away from Derry, even after forgetting everything, still intertwined with their childhood in one way or another. Stan was the one who remembered the most; Eddie married the same woman as his mother; Beverly fell in love with a possessive and abusive husband; Richie was a comedian when the jokes from the early days were initially meant to cover his fear of being forgotten; Ben hadn't gotten for himself a girlfriend with all the loneliness that swarmed over his soul since childhood; Bill, Bill who couldn't write a perfect ending, justified them by stating that they were a reflection of reality, as the concepts of closure and happy-endings were impractical, Bill that woke up every day with a sense of guilt swirling inside his stomach, and Mike who stayed in Derry after all the things they had gone through, to be the "lighthouse keeper", the one who would remember and fight for a cruel world that treat him, them like utter shite, the undeniable fact that all of these things were IT's "gifts" for them to never come back to Derry. We know that IT deals with far bigger problems rather than just a killer clown who went taunting and feeding on people's fears, one of them is childhood traumas that shape adulthood. As long as the promise was kept, IT was living, that all of them hadn't given up and would return, even with seven or six, they would never be able to break the thing that chained them with their childhood. They just hadn't grown "full adult" yet in the first take.

They returned to Derry, they had left a part of their souls here, they had met their friends here, they had suffered here. They went back, finished what they couldn't have as children. As children, they had led their hunch guided their ways, even them hadn't recognised all the abusing, because they had been everything but, "A child blind from birth doesn’t even know he’s blind until someone tells him. Even then he has only the most academic idea of what blindness is; only the formerly sighted have a real grip on the thing". With their innocence and the fact that a child just can't handle his/her own problems properly, they had been able to face, fight and put IT into another 27-year sleep. As adults, the battle wasn't focused on their physicality, but mentality. They had to recollect every bit of memories in order to be more mature and miles wiser, that their fears and weaknesses could be put into good use and even become their strengths. They had to get out of their LOSER status, to stop cowering in a hole in the ground and calling it a clubhouse, to deal with how the society views stereotypes on their owns, to know that there are memories which have to be forgotten, either they are so horrible or so beautiful (to forget everything once again) but at the same time, make them feel more alive than ever remembering them, to begin a brand new life without any traces of the past and regrets. By overlapping two timelines, King allowed us to see how the adults untied the knot with the past whilst pointing out how adulthood differs from childhood throughout the whole story.

Part 2 of My messy analysis on IT even though I haven't read the book yet

[aseriesofvariousevents]

Earthsinger Chronicles

I started reading this series after I got an ARC of Requiem of Silence on NetGalley, and I am so thankful that I have been lucky enough to read this series. The world was totally captivating and each story introduced more and more amazing and complex characters. Truly a great read from start to finish. 

It took a moment for me to get invested in the story, but once I got invested, I got very invested. Earthsong was an interesting magic concept, but more so than it being interesting in it of itself, the complex prejudices and societal interactions surrounding the concept took the story to the next level. Jasminda was a fantastic central protagonist and watching her grow throughout the story alongside Jack was really cute, though a bit insta-lovey for me at times, since I couldn't really get a good grasp on the timeline. Ella and Benn may have actually been my favorite part of the story (other than the collected folktales at the beginning of each chapter) since their arcs were simultaneously very independent from one another while their love for each other was still a perpetual factor below the surface. The religion in this world being tied to physical beings made for complicated interactions between characters, but felt a bit underdeveloped at times. Overall, this was a great start to the series and, despite my slow start, I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

Favorite Quote: A warrior who fights for peace is like a man leaving the shore to climb a hill so he may better view the ocean.

With sequels, there can sometimes be some worry as to whether or not it will live up to the first book, but this book did not disappoint. I loved all of the characters (especially Zeli) and their stories were intertwined in such complex ways while still having their own merit independently of one another. Kyara and Darvyn had such an interesting relationship progression and the dynamic of Nethersong vs. Earthsong was fascinating. I loved getting to spend time in Lagrimar instead of Elsira, and I appreciated the effort that was put into making it a distinct country with vastly different politics and beliefs. I loved that the story was told in-parallel with the first novel because you got to see a totally different side of the events that had taken place. Overall, I'm really excited to finish this series.

Favorite Quote: These words we speak: truth, lies, good, evil, they are merely sounds on the breath.

I started off unsure as to how I felt about this book, but by the end, I was totally obsessed. At first, the switching POVs between so many characters was a little jarring and made the story feel disjointed, but the interconnectedness of the old and new characters' stories made for a really compelling story. I was wary of giving Lizvette a redemption arc, but she and Tai totally won me over. Ella and Benn were welcome as always, but it was Darvyn's story (especially toward the very end) that was the most compelling. His frustration with Oola and people he had known his whole life was really impactful to read and he was just overall my favorite. The political stakes in this book were way elevated and I'm really looking forward to seeing how they are all going to play out in the final book in the series.

Favorite Quote: But cocoons were meant to be escaped. A shelter, too long occupied, becomes a tomb.

This was honestly the perfect conclusion to the series. It was so bittersweet and I may or may not have cried multiple times throughout, but it was also filled to the brim with hopefulness. Zeli and Varten allowed each other to grow in ways neither of them expected and it was really heartwarming to read their stories. Kyara and Jasminda are always welcome narrators, and it was really fascinating to learn more about Oola's and Eero's family dynamics. The political atmosphere of this story was fraught with tension, and the ending didn't perfectly resolve everything but instead made it seem very real. I was in love with the story from the first to the last page and I thought this was the strongest book in the series. L. Penelope created such an amazing series and ended it in such a satisfying way.

Favorite Quote: I have waited lifetimes for you. This cost is nothing in comparison.

The Earthsinger Chronicles were honestly one of the best fantasy series I read this year. It took me a little bit to get into the first book, but once I did, I was hooked for the rest of the series. Everything in the series, from the characters to the countries to the magic, was so well thought out to the point where I felt like I was right there with the characters. If you’re looking for a compelling fantasy series with a fantastic cast of characters, look no further. 

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Books in Series: Song of Blood & Stone; Whispers of Shadow & Flame; Cry of Metal & Bone; Requiem of Silence

Author: L. Penelope

Note: I received Requiem of Silence as an ARC through NetGalley.

[darkspellmaster]

Sex and the Castlevania series

So you may have all heard by now that the new seasons of Castlevania will have more gore and sex involved in the series. And for me at least this is a bit of a surprise. Not because Castlevania has not had sex as part of its storyline, (how else are the Belmonts going to be born), nor that nudity would be shown (see the Succubus for example) but in how it’s going to be used. 

As a player of the games, one thing has always stood out to me about the Castlevania series and the idea of fan service and sexuality and sex itself, it’s never used as a means of just titillation. There’s always a meaning behind it. And the reviews have me wondering if this is going to still be the case with the show, or is it going to be used as an “Oooh look how edgy we’re being this season.” because that’s not what sex in Castlevania is about. 

Sex, or the idea of intimacy between two romantic partners, has always been at the heart of the backstory of the Castlevania series. From the outset there’s has always been a sense of family and love and devotion in Castlevania. Even with the Arcade edition of Haunted Castle in 1988, the addition to the story of Simon was that he was newly married to his bride Selena, who was taken by Dracula. Years later Selena and the Mysterious Woman in Simon’s Quest II were mixed to create Linda Entwhistle who was Simon’s girlfriend in the book series based on the games. 

Years later during the more story-driven games that came out, sexuality and intimacy became part of the game in how it was presented. Namely the use of sex as a way to pull the innocents to the darkness ala the Vampire Brides in the original Dracula, and the loss of innocence (as with Lucy in the novel) and the idea of devotional love that conquers that darkness and temptation. 

In this sense, we’re seeing the use of the deadly sin of Lust acting as a temptation to the heroes as a means of making them be killed for their wanton desires. Yet love and intimacy also plays a huge part in fixing issues in the story and leading to tragic and happy endings. 

So with that in mind, I want to do a quick walkthrough of the way sex and love is used in these games and discuss why the idea of sex and violence shouldn’t be on the table with Castlevania as a metaphor as much. 

Let’s start with the timeline, rather than the game order because it makes more sense that way. 

The story of the Belmont Clan and Dracula are intertwined for all time, this is just a fact of the matter and not just some random accident. And Love plays a huge part in this story as the cannon story stands right now. Prior to this, Castlevania was a fun romp through the idea of beating up Old Universal Monster Movie characters (every one of the main bosses in the first game was tied to some form of Universal Horror Monster and it even has some Hammer Horror connections as well). But with the growth of the franchise, it was clear that a story needed to be told, so over the years, that story had evolved until in the early 2000s we got the very first story in the Belmont vs Dracula timeline in the form of Lament of Innocence. 

Now Lament isn’t just a story about the loss for Leon and his world view that there is nothing lurking in the dark. It’s the loss of friendship and of love, but also it’s the reinstatement of belief of the good of people and that there are those that can and will stand up to the darkness and that even as one loses everything, you don’t have to lose your soul in the processes. 

But let me start from the beginning in this case. Leon Belmont was a knight templar in the crusade. He was best friends with and cared deeply about his fellow Crusader Mathias Cronqvist. Now Mathias was a man of science and of learning and of a lot of things, he wasn’t a fighter the same way Leon was, so he was more into spells and magics, something that his family kept mostly from the Church at the time. 

Both Mathias and Leon were in love and devoted to the women that they felt deeply for, that being Leon’s fiance Sara Trantoul, and Mathias’s wife Elisabetha. Leon’s devotion to Sara was known by everyone, especially Mathias and this is very important since it’s Leon’s Love of Sara that drives him to abandon his cause with the Crusades and pretty much take up Vampire Killing for the rest of his life, training his children and their descendants, on how to defeat the man that took that love from him. 

Mathias, on the other hand, was emotionally devoted to Elisabetha, and, given the way he speaks of her, it’s clear that the devotion and love was returned. So much so that his love for her basically poisoned his mind and made him into the monster that would later come to regret his actions. As it was, Elisabetha died due to illness and Mathias abandoned the Crusades, became ill, and holed up in his home unable to be reached by any of his friends, Leon and Sara. It’s only when he learned that Sara was in danger from Walter Bernhard that he was able to get out of bed and warn his friend Leon of the danger, but, by then, it was too late and Sara was captured and taken to Walter’s castle. 

Now one of the huge parts of the story of Lament is is that it deals with devotion, honor, and the choices we make based on love. So while Leon is trying to save Sara he meets up with an alchemist, Rinaldo, who had lost his daughter Justine to Walter and was unable to save her. 

Leon renounces everything; his baron title, his home, his lands just so he can cast off his duty to go and save Sara. His love for her runs that deep that he’s willing to go into the Castle of Walter with just a sword and prayer and god save anyone that gets in his way. Rinaldo is far more of a pragmatic person and in this way juxtaposes Leon’s love of Sara.  Whereas Leon is far more optimistic about his chances against Walter, Rinaldo knows the bitter truth, that Sara has no hope of making it out of the castle and not becoming a vampire in the process. 

This becomes an important part of Leon’s story as he traverses the castle to try to locate Sara and comes across a number of characters that play a part in the story and the idea of love. Medusa, though not a sexualized being in this one, mentions that the whip he’s using is far more powerful than that of the version that Rinaldo used to save his daughter. 

Now, why is that? One could speculate that Rinaldo lacked the will to save his child, or that he knew the truth and couldn’t bear to have to take his daughter’s life. His feelings, however, whatever they lacked, caused the Whip to fail in what it needed to do, and thus he was forced to kill his own daughter. Leon on the other side of things has nothing but the will and drive to save Sara, and his love for her and desire to bring her home urges him on. This love, this need to help her, is what makes that whip work. That need for protecting something, it’s why Trevor needed to find Sypha and Alucard to eventually come to a reason why the Vampire Killer came to him. 

Joachim is an interesting one in regard to love in this game and how it is presented. Walter seduced the young man with the idea of immortality and when Joachim gained his Vampire state he realized that Walter was above him and rebelled. This lead to Walter putting him in captivity and driving him mad, for his own amusement. But how is this love? It’s a very dangerous and bad form of it, as Joachim both loathes Walter but also seems obsessed with him. He hates him with all he is, and at the same time wants to overpower and control him. This same sort of hate and love is what drives Mathias as well in his story. 

Then there’s the Succubus, the one character that really hammers in the idea of desire/Sex and love in this game and the differences between them. So the Succubus in Lament is an actual boss, vs. just being an enemy. She has no name, but her role is critical in understanding what’s going on in Walter’s castle. This succubus had previously disguised herself as Justine for Rinaldo, allowing him to lower his guard and possibly may have harmed him in the process. His rejection of this form of his daughter may have to lead him to make some critical mistakes. Mistakes that Leon doesn’t seem to make. Namely, after a bit, he sees through the Succubus using Sara’s form to trick him. 

Leon recognizes that the woman isn’t Sara based on her actions and way of moving, showing that though his connection with Sara he can’t be tricked and lured in by kind words from a monster. This is the opposite of what happened to Mathias. 

As I said there’s a tragedy to the love and sex in this game and the use of it. Walter luring Justine away with his beauty and her desire for him lead to her downfall, which leads us into Mathias. (We will circle back to Leon, I promise.) For Mathias Elisabetha was his whole world and when she died while he was away it leads him to reject all of his desires for hope and love and feelings. He lost his way and decided to renounce God and live as an immortal as revenge for God taking away his beloved wife. In order to get what he needed, he made a deal with Death, and the two decided to use Sara as bait for Walter and Leon was to be his sword. Mathias’s own devotion to Leon, and some of his humanity as well, shows up later in the story where he sympathizes and connects with Leon in regard to his own loss. Showing that they’re the same and that Leon should join him, which Leon rejects. 

This moment in the game is interesting because by this point in the story Leon has learned about how to defeat Walter and that Sara was bitten. In a lot of Vampire lore, biting is used as a way to indicate, in some cases, a sexual desire or a need that is fulfilled in a more intimate way. After all the neck is a body part that is known for being very much something that can be used for erotic aspects of lovemaking or showing desire. Which brings us back to the fact that Sara didn’t want to be turned. This wasn’t a choice on her part, unlike Joachim, and it leads to her rejecting the idea of wanting to remain a vampire. She desires death over having to be a monster and leads to Leon, at first vehemently rejecting Rinaldo’s order to kill her, and then accepting Sara’s desires to become one with the whip. 

It’s an important moment because it shows that Leon is willing to ignore his own desires for that of Sara’s, again showing his selflessness in putting what she wants ahead of his own, showing his love and devotion in a more adult and complex way. Sara’s own love is what fuels that whip and her need to protect Leon are the quintessential factors of  Love (Leon) to the opposing one of Lust (Walter) and in this case. 

Trevor and Sypha come next in regard to the issue of love and sex and while the show is clearly going to be showing more of their romantic escapades, it should be noted that the game doesn’t really make much mention of it at first, as Sypha in the game has a bit of a love triangle going on with Grant and Trevor as the main choices, although it seems like she only had eyes for Trevor. We know the two eventually had children but Sex, or lust, in the game never was a thing. Their devotion to each other in the show is telling, and in other games, both do pair up frequently, even in Judgement there’s an underlying tension between them. 

It’s of interest that in the show, we get to see the two of them acting as a couple, much like how Lisa and Dracula were shown acting like a couple. But actual sexual acts are, as with Lisa and Dracula, put on the side and in the case of Trevor and Sypha it’s only hinted at and not a full on display. Which falls into the same idea that most Castlevania games seem to have, the hero’s love interest typically is not shown engaging in sexual activity, or rather, only after bad things happen. 

I’ll jump to Richter and Annette, because that seems to be the next one in regard to how sexuality is used heavily in Castlevania. So in Rondo of blood, Dracula has Shaft take Annette since she is engaged to Richter Belmont. In a scene with him during the game, Annette threatens to take her own life rather than have relations with Dracula who intends to drink her and turn her into his bride. For the original version there’s a dramatic moment where Annette is talking to Dracula and he tries to lure her into becoming immortal to stay with him. She says she will not fall in such a cheap manner, the implications there are more along the lines of sex and him taking her physically from her fiance Richter. In the PSP game, if you take too long or go the wrong route you get the bad end where Annette has been transformed into a vampire and is placed in an overtly sexual outfit, down to a thong and bodice. Her hair goes down rather than the updo she has when she’s not turned and she very certainly is meant to be a temptress and a signal that Richter failed to save her from the deviousness of the vampire. 

This idea of sex, or the sexual, being used as a temptation and a devious thing in Castlevania has been around for a long time. However for every moment of some devious succubus being in the way of the hero, there’s always a moment of love that shows the positive side of it’s nature vs. the lustful side. Again, looking at Annette and Richter we get a moment when he frees her of her embracing him and happy that he’s there to be with her. That she knew he would come and that everything will be okay. 

Sexuality plays a heavy role in tempting Gabriel Belmont in his game, Lords of Shadow. During the game, as he tries to get to see his dead wife with a specialized mask. During the game he meets the Vampire Carmilla who offers to him a chance to become a vampire and enjoy the idea of a lustful existence. Every inch of her in the game is designed to pretty much be a temptress and lure Gabriel from his path to finding a way to see his dead wife. Yet it’s in this moment that we get to see how deeply his affection for his wife runs as Gabriel rejects this offer even more violently than with other Lords of Shadow that he’s faced. It’s a pretty strong moment for him as a character, and shows a deeper feeling in regard to his connection to his late wife. 

The reason I bring all these moments up is because even in the games where there’s hints of the sexual, as Vampires now are associated with Lust and temptation, the show uses sex as a means of connecting it with violence and some pretty dark ideas. Which contradicts the idea of how Love is the most powerful thing to defeat the darkness in Castlevania. 

Take Hector’s story right now. In the show we have his sexual encounter with Lenore which is contrasted with Isaac’s battle with Legion. The idea here is to show that both Isaac and Hector are being used, one being brought to his knees via false affection and entrapment by a woman who doesn’t love him and is using him as her own pet, who later slips the ring on him to collar him as she would a dog or cat. While the Isaac, even though he’s doing a good thing in defeating Legion (and i’m still damn sure that woman is Death in a false form) was used to destroy the wizard in the tower, releasing the village. In both cases manipulation was used in order for the opposing party to achieve their goal. 

For Lenore it was to get Hector to trust her enough to trap him and use him in her own way and for her own needs. She controls him now, making it impossible for him to escape from them, or so we are told to believe. On the other hand you have Isaac who, while used, acknowledges that he was so, accepts it, but is free to move on as the use of him wasn’t against his will, nor was it something changing him down. Rather the manipulation was used to not only stop something terrible, but also show him that there were others out there that were worth saving. Thus, in the poster, we have Lenore holding onto a bound and trapped Hector, and Isaac not quiet twisted up in thorns. 

The use of violence that we see shows that there’s a thin line in this world causing people to become entrapped by their own desires. For Isaac it was his revenge, for Hector it was his need to feel human again. Which brings us to the point where Rosaly comes into play in regard to Hector’s story. In Hector’s game Curse of Darkness, we see how his life drastically changed when he and she connect. From where he was in the story she brought the idea of hope and light to him, vs the darker aspects in the game that hint at someone who was cursed to believe he is a monster. In this way, I hope that if they bring in Rosaly we can see the opposition to Lenore’s way of using him for gratification and chaining him to her. 

On the other side of things, and something a bit easier to get at, is the idea of  trauma through the use of sex as shown in Alucard’s story. In the show we get to see Trevor and Sypha in bed, but it’s clear what’s happened there and the idea is that it’s less about their sexual encounters with one another than about their growth as a couple and how they interact outside of the bedroom and how they show love for one another. We see also they have a sense of betrayal when dealing with the Judge and the idea of Sypha’s world going from it just being fun and doing the right thing, to realizing the world is not black and white, and that not all people are good. 

In Alucard’s case we see the idea of the twins (I’m using the term as it’s easier for me to call them this, it doesn’t mean I’m saying they are twins just that they look alike) as filling a void and clearly being a representation of Trevor and Sypha (They even share the first initial of their names) that Alucard is looking for. Through their interactions we see that Alucard is, like Sypha in the other town, trusting them regardless of how many red flags they raise. The whole issue comes to a head when, after sharing a lot of things with them, Alucard is seduced by the two while trying to sleep. During the scene, as with Hector and Isaac, we see the sex as being connected to the violence of the battle that Sypha, Trevor and Germain get into. The twins end up wrapping Alucard in iron rings, much like Hector is imprisoned by Lenore with the ring, so to is Alucard. We see then that like Hector he’s betrayed and harmed by the emotional aspect of the betrayal. But unlike Hector who feels trapped, Alucard now feels anger at those that hurt him. 

The sexual act leads into the idea of him no longer trusting humans, especially with his heart. This of course is being used to drive Alucard to decide to lock himself back to sleep until the time of Richter and Maria (the warrior and the Mage), three hundred years later. The idea here is that the physical act of it is being used to show people being harmed in vulnerable states, and that sex is used as a tool to harm or destroy others just as certain acts of violence can. 

Yet, part of the story line of Alucard is that Maria chooses to go after him even after he says he’s cursed. Again, like Hector and Rosaly, showing that love is more of a counter to the anger and hate that seem to embolden those that would do bad in the world of Castlevania. So then, I must ask, why is the sex in the show being used not as it should be, showing how love can change someone, but rather as a connector to the violence. That wasn’t the idea of Castlevania, so I have to wonder what Warren is driving at here. 

[pixelgrotto]

A penny for my Witchery thoughts

The Witcher Netflix series was released at the tail end of last month, giving Geralt of Rivia the interesting distinction of a literary character who’s now a well-known TV protagonist but just happened to achieve international fame through video games first. (Aye, there was a Polish film and show in 2001 and 2002 which called Geralt a “Hexer” instead of a “Witcher,” but they’re not exactly good, though perhaps worth a peek on YouTube for chuckles.) 

Geralt’s adventures - both in the stories written by Andrzej Sapkowski and the games developed by CD Projekt Red - are close to my heart. I’ve spilled a fair amount of digital ink writing about the franchise, and my playthrough of the games and subsequent devouring of the books from 2014 to 2016 reignited my appreciation for fantasy and served as the impetus that got me reading more genre fiction and eventually delving into tabletop RPGs in 2017, leading to my current obsession with Dungeons & Dragons. I’m naturally protective of material that means a lot to me, so when the Netflix series was announced I viewed it with only subdued optimism. After all, with the possible exception of a certain HBO thing based on George R.R. Martin’s books (which now seems to be viewed worse in retrospect after the final season), fantasy doesn’t have a great track record on the small screen. I also wasn’t especially impressed when Henry Cavill was cast as Geralt, since I primarily know him from the recent Superman movies, which paint the guy in such a dour light and force him to constantly grimace like someone who’s just taken a dump only to discover that there’s no toilet paper in sight. 

But now the show’s out in the wild, and after scanning some mixed reactions (not to mention one truly baffling “review” by two Entertainment Weekly twats who only watched the first episode) I cautiously consumed it with my girlfriend over Christmas break...and can happily report that it’s good. But, it’s also a show that expects its viewers to skip through some mental hoops as we bear witness to three intersecting story lines, all of which are taking place in different eras. Then you’ve got your standard variety of fantasy names, terms and themes, several of which might be tricky to grasp if you’ve never read the books or played the games. For instance, I don’t think they ever bothered to fully explain the “Conjunction of the Spheres” (the time when planets aligned and monsters and humans came to the world, uprooting the indigenous elves and dwarves) or the “Law of Surprise” (when a person’s fate is intertwined with something unexpected - usually an unborn child). I can also see how the show’s numerous mentions of the word “destiny” could seem like wacky dialogue to viewers unaware of the fact that Sapkowski’s realm really does have a strong undercurrent of inescapable fate running through its veins. 

Unique structure and terminology aside, the first episode was more of a slow burn than I’d imagined. It starts with an awesome sequence of Geralt fighting a Kikimora, but then transitions into a fairly serious interpretation of “Lesser Evil” from the first short story collection, The Last Wish. The episode then cuts into the exodus of Ciri from the kingdom of Cintra, an event mostly described in flashback in the second short story anthology, Sword of Destiny. The scenes of death and destruction as Ciri flees her burning kingdom are fairly meandering, as are the interspersed interactions between Geralt and Renfri, a woman with seven loyal followers who was supposed to be a grittier version of Snow White in the books. There are some great fights near the end, but as I watched, I couldn’t help but think that I probably would’ve made the opener speedier and a bit pulpier, especially since the tone of these early Witcher tales was more “tongue in cheek fairy tale deconstruction” than plodding epic fantasy. 

The second episode also took its time, though the decision to detail the plight of Yennefer the sorceress before she uses magic to change her hunchback form into something that she sees as more conventionally attractive is a good one, since this was once again only flashback material in the novels. But the cream of the hour was certainly Jaskier the bard, who’s going by his moniker in the books rather than the “Dandelion” translation that the games used. He’s played by actor Joey Batey with a perfect blend of magnificent bastard bravado, surpassing his portrayal in the games with a larger than life theme song that’s now something of a cult phenomenon, and his characterization made me feel like the show knew what it was doing at the end of the day.

Episode three is where things truly came together for me, since we barrel straight into the Geralt versus Striga battle from Andrzej Sapkowski’s first Witcher short story. It’s a full-on horror interpretation (which I liked but my girl found too spooky), and also full-on fan service for someone like me who still watches the intro cinematic to The Witcher 1 on occasion. And in later episodes, as my head began getting used to the nuances of the three character timeline, the show seemed to find its footing with this delicate blend of fan service, pulp and seriousness. By the time episode 8 rolled around and the character arcs of Geralt, Ciri and Yennefer came full circle with the Battle of Sodden Hill - yet another event that Sapkowski mostly wrote in flashback - I found myself wishing that season two would arrive sooner than 2021, and my girlfriend felt similarly. I also realized why the showrunners decided on the unorthodox timeline - this is a series that’ll probably excel on rewatches, particularly if you already have an idea of what to look out for. 

Series producer Lauren S. Hissrich (who’s quite a joy to follow on Twitter) has mentioned in interviews that this is a show that expects a tad of patience and effort from viewers, but will give a lot in exchange. I’m inclined to agree, and while this depiction of Sapkowski’s lore has some initial roughness around the edges, it ultimately reminds me of how The Witcher 1 was janky even upon its 2007 release but exhibited a unique magic to anyone who stuck with it for more than a handful of hours. Many professional reviewers tend to avoid giving fantasy shows patience and effort (Game of Thrones is an anomaly), which may explain some of the negative reviews. But The Witcher seems to have found a strong-as-nails following from audiences, who made it one of Netflix’s top efforts of 2019, and even friggin’ Anne Rice liked it. (Geralt of Rivia now possesses the other interesting distinction of being a literary character/TV protagonist/video game hero who’s been mentioned in the same breath as Lestat the vampire.) 

Speaking of Geralt, I owe Henry Cavill applause. I didn’t think much of his casting, but he pulled through in the end, delivering a silver-haired hero that’s clearly influenced by the games - particularly in the voice and the occasional spell slinging - but still very much his own take, with nary a “where’s the toilet paper” grimace in sight. Audiences can now take their pick between an iconic video game interpretation of the White Wolf and a likely-soon-to-be-iconic TV version, which is a rare choice to have in fandom, especially for a franchise that was once little known outside of Poland. Toss a coin to your Witcher, indeed.

[taliawells]

Flash Points

this got long, so grab a seahorse and saddle up

what are some of your favorite tropes? 

It is such a cliche, but I really enjoy the fake married trope. It’s so goofy, especially when they go to great lengths to prove how ~~in love!!~~ they are. Bonus points if they are very grudging about this, but end up becoming a little bit soft and closer together. I love a found family moment, and arguably they can be deeper and just as, if not more important as other familial connections. It was a choice, and that can make all the difference. Another that gets me every dang time is when a pair always call the other by their last name only. In an emotional moment when one is injured or in dire peril, when the other just cracks and uses their first name while pleading with them to hang on just OOFs right to my heart.

do you have a favorite character you’ve written, in or outside of shiver? if so, what makes them your fave? 

I really enjoy playing Talia, simply because she’s different from the types I’ve played most recently. Talia is dauntless and ruthless, but there’s a vague nervous energy deep down and she just shrouds herself in apathy and indifference. Internally there is so much more going on. She is strong and would happily throw down if the situation would call for it, but she clings to an icy poise that’s called from her for all of the different roles she has to play. She has never felt more vulnerable and yet, more like herself on land since she’s been able to take a step back and reevaluate. She’s strong and seems unwavering, but Talia is really figuring out who she is and what she wants currently, happily putting royal duties on the backburner for now... especially when a familiar face popped back up that doesn’t have her wanting to go back to the sea quite yet.

The character I played before Talia was Stella Rosenthal. She stuck with me through five iterations, and seems much more fragile than she is. She is an entirely soft human that aims to be a bright spot in a darkening world. Her strength is in her softness, and it’s almost unexpected with how gentle she is. Talia seems unbreakable, but she’s more vulnerable and guarded. Stella was a museum curator + conservator and really, really cared about inclusiveness and accessibility throughout all facets of her life. She aimed to be a walking safe space but really struggled with her own mental health at times. Stella tried to surround herself in layers and layers of light, but she struggled in immense darkness and some trauma until she started working through it. She’s deaf in one ear and her other isn’t the greatest, and I had 8 ear surgeries of my own growing up so she’s near to my heart. She was a ray of sunshine and Talia is a ball of fire. Stella is the type to Rick Roll her beloved in sign language on their wedding day, while Talia will flip the general public the bird and elope.

do you prefer writing with small casts of characters or large ones? what are some of the pros and cons?

I think I tend to like things somewhere in the middle! Of the two, I would say that I tend to gravitate towards things on the slightly smaller scale. I love a good small group where you really feel included and integral to the plot, where all of the characters and layers of the bigger story intertwine and intermingle. I tend to like that as a more casual environment with friends I’ve written with before or friends of friends. I truly love getting to know people and their characters, but I’ve been incredibly picky about truly small groups. I’ve had to miss out on one due to real life issues, and it was rough having everything move forward and then those connections carried over into future projects with the same people. If not done right, it can end up being very cliquey and that’s not a good time for anyone. I’ve been burned by that before. Some roleplays are truly massive, and that can be so great for a busy time of the year where you don’t feel like you’re holding everything up if you can’t get online for hours and hours. I was advanced literate elite on a different website back in the day (I am so freaking old) but it was just deluded pretentiousness disguised labeled good writing -- it wasn’t. Bigger ones tend to move more quickly which can be exciting, but it is so so easy to fall between the cracks and hard to feel heard. I really dig the size of Shiver and the different areas of play.

what’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever done in the name of outlining/worldbuilding (timelines, research, maps, spreadsheets, etc.)? 

There was a time where I really got stuck in a rut writing bios, and I was creating yet another dark academia/murder roleplay back in the day. I had a cast of 15 characters and ended up settling on a skeleton roleplay but I wanted to come up with a fun little twist. I wanted to leave things incredibly open and let the writers sink their teeth in and really breath life into the characters. The roles were all named after flowers/plants (big shocker, bless you Jess for putting up with weekly Plant Rants with Rian™) but there were strong hints of digging a little deeper than that. Be it the symbolism of the flower, some pulled from the Victorian language of flowers, the colors, the locations. Basically, there was a lot more to the label should the writer want to dig in, or it was just simply taken at face value. It was fun seeing how it was interpreted!

The skeletons themselves were about a thick paragraph, with the bulk of things being presented in Two Truths & a Lie and a playlist for each character. What was true and what was false was left up to the writer, with the option of swapping out two of the three for a different interpretation. Three songs were to be added to the five given, but more could be subbed out. Snippets of the lyrics for each could be pulled for that section, or a quick few sentences about what the songs (and even a few classical pieces chosen by the writers) either meant to the character (a memory, etc) or what they said about them.

It was just a different way of presenting starting points for characters and a lot of fun trying to figure out what were the truths and lies throughout the game.

share the last paragraph you wrote you’re most proud of. 

I can’t decide between these two so yikes

The ocean could be cold, so terribly frigid in the concealed, inky depths. How many placid surfaces disguised stormier waters that hid debris pulled to a final slumber upon a sea bed? There were wrecks, warnings. Something had happened here. Good, bad. Wrought upon nature by mercurial seas or upon souls by its inhabitants. There were distinct memories of explorations of such ruins, and the most vivid cast itself upon Talia’s eyelids when she closed them. Spires of shrapnel, warped wood of vengeance that had been wreaked. They were almost skeletal, and she had so curiously flit between the carved curves. The mast had toppled and bent at unnatural angles, and she figured her own rib cage looked as such currently. An irregular thud was beating so fervently against that cage in an internal collision that threatened to sink her very being. Would the bones break in the newly found fragility of a human body, or would the heart beat itself to a mangled pulp in a valiant ploy for release? Would the state it was in even matter, as Talia never intended to offer it up for the taking? One day she would love her kingdom and she would be loved in return. That would be enough.

--

Her heart had slumbered in darkness. A place as cool, calm, dark, as unyielding and eternal as the saltwater they were pulled from. It could be as serene or tumultuous as a rolling storm – ready to pull down and trap anyone that dove too deep into those depths. One person had learned the angles of a sole beam of light and learned how to reflect it just so. One person emanated light into her dark so thoroughly and Talia held it as close as she could without immolation. She was but a jealous moon. A detached, mysterious beauty that pulled beings to her like the tide before sending them ebbing away. The hand she held was warmer than hers, and Evikaia would always hold that sentiment. Before her was a radiant beauty, though dimmed by something she couldn’t place, but Talia would turn her face towards her own personal sun until she went blind. She wanted to observe and absorb every shred of warmth he had offered until her bones were drenched in his rays and sun-bleached; washed ashore and finally free of the seaside sepulchre.

describe your current muse’s physical appearance using only one, over the top sentence.

She’s got electric boots, a mohair suit, you know I read it in a magazine.

A crepuscular girl with a crescent smile, a moon’s pull to your demise under inky waves, waves & waves & waves of dark and auburn  — a red sky warning daring you to step closer.

if you had to write a novel about one of the characters in or outside of shiver, which character would you choose and why? 

I would have to go with the meyrs! I’m so excited that we have some more in these waters, but I’m so excited to see how everything plays out in the group. The group, and different writers and perspectives, would just add more nuance and ideas than I could ever do justice solely. I think it would be so exciting to explore the different kingdoms and how different people cope with courtly life. The plot of the Amethyst leaving and all of the regents pulled from the deep to unite on one task (with their own motivations or lack thereof [[Talia]]) just offer so much to explore. I think this is much better suited for a group dynamic and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.

Writing one for Talia would be rather interesting as well. She has a lot of conflicting emotions about her role as Regent and the royal court. She could have had an easy, glamorous life with Vik at her side as her betrothed, but she felt she had too much potential and the opportunity for power was far more enthralling than a vapid existence. The trials were such an extended period of heightened emotions as she laid claim to what she wanted, or thought she wanted. It’s so starkly juxtaposed to her own time on land in the 1970s, and she still has a bit of flair for that era. She had never, and has never felt as free and happy since but duty called and she was bound to answer. I’d probably have to choose writing Talia living her best life while exploring her dynamic with Vik.

[reconditarmonia]

Dear Yuletide Author

Hi! Thank you for writing for me! I’m reconditarmonia here and on AO3 (and have been since LJ days, but my LJ is locked down and I only have a DW to see locked things). I have anon messaging off, but mods should be able to contact me if you have any questions.

The Psychology of Time Travel | Simoun | Sleep No More | The Strange Case of Starship Iris

General likes:

– Relationships that aren’t built on romance or attraction. They can be romantic or sexual as well, but my favorite ships are all ones where it would still be interesting or compelling if the romantic component never materialized.

– Loyalty kink! Trust, affectionate or loving use of titles, gestures of loyalty, replacing one’s situational or ethical judgment with someone else’s, risking oneself (physically or otherwise) for someone else, not doing so on their orders. Can be commander-subordinate or comrades-in-arms.

– Heists, or other stories where there’s a lot of planning and then we see how the plan goes.

– Femslash, complicated or intense relationships between women, and female-centric gen. Women doing “male” stuff (possibly while crossdressing).

– Stories whose emotional climax or resolution isn’t the sex scene, if there is one.

– Uniforms/costumes/clothing.

– Stories, history, and performance. What gets told and how, what doesn’t get told or written down, behavior in a society where everyone’s consuming media and aware of its tropes, how people create their personas and script their own lines.

Smut Likes: clothing, uniforms, sexual tension, breasts, cunnilingus, grinding, informal d/s elements, intensity; stories whose resolution isn’t the sex scene.

General DNW: rape/dubcon, torture, other creative gore; unrequested AUs, including “same setting, different rules” AUs such as soulmates/soulbonds; PWP; food sex; embarrassment; focus on pregnancy; Christmas/Christian themes; focus on unrequested canon or non-canon ships.

—

Fandom: The Psychology of Time Travel

Character(s): None

I just read this novel, and it's so cool! It's so carefully worldbuilt, yet with such amazing potential for unusual character interactions, life stories, and relationships as shaped by time travel as well. I nominated this without characters because I would be delighted to receive fic that focused on worldbuilding, whether through the stories of OCs, or through any of the canon characters. I'm most interested in:

the Conclave and more broadly in social interactions and relationships between multiple characters who are time travelers (rather than a time traveler and their non-time-traveling partner or family)

art that might be created with time travel (like Grace's exhibitions or Angharad's dance; what about novels or other fiction somehow created using time travel?)

the rules and customs of time travel (in-world documents? habits or observances that develop on a mass level beyond people's individual compulsions or visits to significant dates within their own timeline? what fictional stories do time travelers write about time travel?)

interactive fiction?!

but really I'd love to read anything in this fandom.

—

Fandom: Simoun

Character(s): Neviril

This is a perennial request for me and anything (other than, I guess, the slice-of-lifeiest slice-of-life) would make me very happy, but I'm particularly interested in the military side of the canon - how the war changes all the characters and their relationships with one another, how Everything is Beautiful and Then Shit Gets Real but amidst the war-is-hell there’s still the creation of bonds of trust and loyalty and chances to do what’s right (the bits with the Plumbish priestesses, for instance). Every character gets a chance to develop and make choices that are all brave in different ways. I've requested Neviril but would also be interested in fic about Paraietta or Mamiina if that's what you'd prefer. Some prompts:

Post-canon - what happens if Neviril and Aeru make it back to the main world when war is brewing again, but Neviril has no one from the old cohort to lead because they can’t fly anymore? What does she do, or see her role as being - a leader for peace, for war? How does she interact with Paraietta, Rodoreamon, Floef, Vyuraf, or anyone else?

What does she see or learn in the other world?

Magic or time weirdness retcons character deaths or disappearances! Go ahead and bring Mamiina back.

Paraietta and Rodoreamon building a life together and finding purpose in helping the war orphans, but they're also veterans and neither of them is the other's lost love

I love loyalty kink so I'm always up for something like that involving Neviril with the choir, Paraietta and/or Mamiina. But I'm also really interested in other permutations of loyalty, as we see with the Plumbish priestesses' loyalty to their role or ideal over loyalty to their side.

Fandom-specific DNW: Dominuura/Limone.

—

Fandom: Sleep No More

Character(s): Bald Witch

One of my favorite things about Sleep No More was the idea of this world of darkness and magic that���s underlying or intertwined with the social world, rather than in a separate space - I loved seeing the Witches at the ball and, holy shit, Bald Witch pulling off her wig after the ball in her solo ritual thing! (I hadn’t realized it was a wig until that moment.) So -

how does she as a Witch interact with the normal world (Paisley/the hotel/etc.) or deliberately carve out other spaces (like the apothecary shop)? For that matter, I love the apothecary shop and her scene in it so more about that would be awesome.

How did the Witches find each other - before or after they were witches?

Is she immortal, and if so, what's that like for her?

How much does she have a day-to-day life vs. witching all the time?

If you want to ship her with Sexy Witch or Hecate (or both) I'm very up for that as well. Some sexy prompts if you go in that direction -

ritual sex magic to make something happen or share power?

If Bald Witch and Sexy Witch have non-witch personas and sleep together while they’re being normal people, is there still magic?

Sex in one of the play locations - the apothecary, the ballroom, the bar that’s the empty shell of the real bar?

Slow dancing nude, or another inverted version of something in the normal world?

—

Fandom: The Strange Case of Starship Iris

Character(s): Sana Tripathi

One of my new favorite fandoms. I've requested Sana because I'm not interested in every single person in the tag set and so can't request Any, and because I love the core of steel and dangerousness and crew loyalty/protectiveness inside her nice exterior, but I'd also be delighted by fic about Arkady, Brian, or Krejjh. (I like Violet and Park a lot also and would be equally delighted to see them interacting with any of these characters, but wouldn't want fic that was just about them.)

I hope it's not too much of a cop-out to say I just want MORE of these characters.

Heistfic/casefic with extreme competence (either as a team with working together, or as individuals if it's pre-Rumor or they're doing a job for the team on their own - when else might Brian's linguistic skills, Arkady's fighting and hacking, Sana's mechanics, etc. have come up?)

slice-of-life on the Rumor or Iris II

backstory (Sana in the rebellion?!)

things they like or get excited about (the music they like to listen to/sing/play? food? Krejjh introducing Dwarnian customs to their crewmates and how they pick some of those up, or vice versa?)

I especially love loyalty kink and the Sana/Arkady ship, so I'd also be into a story about their history together (any cool places they've been to in space? starting to work together?), or one where they put themselves in danger for each other, or rescue each other, or Sana has to decide how to risk Arkady or use her skills. (I also have specifically sexy prompts for them in my "dear author letters" tag.)

Fandom-specific DNW: Violet/Arkady is cute and I don't mind if it comes up (it is canon, after all) but I'd prefer not to receive fic focused on their romance (or fic which suggests that an Arkady/Sana relationship is inevitably temporary or better-as-friends). I also do not want Sana/Campbell. Brian/Krejjh is an exception to my unrequested ships DNW.

[no-fate-but-what-we-make]

Blocked: A Bughead Fanfic

Summary: Jughead blocks Betty from Facebook because he doesn’t want to see her “happy couple” posts with Archie. He then gets some interesting information.

Word Count: 2023 (I was not intending for it to be this long, but whatever)

~

Jughead sat on his laptop, his eyes glued to his screen. This was nothing new, but if anyone saw what the boy was staring at, they would be thoroughly confused.

Facebook. He had gotten the damned thing only because a certain blonde someone had practically forced him to create an account six months ago. Well, it was more Veronica than Betty. Once the new girl had searched for him and not found a trace, she had insisted he get one. If he was being honest with himself, Betty’s pleading had done him in.

Now, he was about to block one of his only three – four, if he counted Kevin Keller – friends on the site. And it was all because of some stupid feelings.

He had realized his feelings for Betty Cooper only a few months ago, which just so happened to be right around the time she began dating Archie. If he had his way, he would be deleting Facebook altogether, but he didn’t need the whole Scooby Gang breathing down his neck and asking questions. So he was doing the only thing he figured wouldn’t raise suspicion – he was blocking the girl he had a crush on.

It was juvenile, he knew. However, he wasn’t sure that he could take much more of the sweet couple photos that both Betty and Archie posted on Facebook – the two sharing a shake at Pop’s; holding hands at the park; basically just the two of them being perfect together. He was sick of it; it was bad enough that he had to see it in person every day, but to see it online, too? Not cool.

However, the process was a bit complicated. He first had to figure out how to block someone, which caused him to more research than he had wanted to do for this endeavor. Once he had read that the person being blocked would not be notified, from at least five outside sources, he was ready. He clicked on Betty Cooper’s profile picture, a sweet photo of Archie kissing her cheek while she giggled and looked away from the camera. Jughead’s stomach flipped – he wanted to be the person making her giggle.

Are you sure you want to block Betty Cooper?

Betty Cooper will no longer be able to:

§  See things you post on your timeline

§  Tag you

§  Invite you to events or groups

§  Start a conversation with you

§  Add you as a friend

If you're friends, blocking Betty Cooper will also unfriend her.

If you just want to limit what you share with Betty or see less of her on Facebook, you can take a break from her instead.

Jughead clicked ‘take a break’ but after reading the description, he decided he needed something a bit more permanent. He figured he could just resend her a friend request and play dumb when she asked what happened. After all, he was unfamiliar with the concepts of social media, which played to his advantage in this scenario.

A bit of fear along with adrenaline flooded his veins as Jughead hit ‘Confirm.’

You've blocked Betty Cooper. We're sorry that you've had this experience.

Jughead rubbed his temples and closed his laptop.

~~~

As fate would have it, Betty Cooper had chosen that exact day to clear out her friends list. Her life was too overwhelming, and it was bad enough that she had to satisfy the general public on a daily basis. Facebook had quickly turned into the online equivalent, and Betty was over it. She went through every single person on her friends list, evaluating each person with her own personal criterion. Did they post too much? Too little? Had they talked since school started that year? Were they relatives she wanted to keep in touch with? The list went on.

She had just gotten to the letter ‘J’ on her list, when someone – or, lack of someone – caught her eye. Curious, she searched ‘Jughead Jones’ in the search bar, but nothing came up. She picked up her phone to text Jughead, then thought better of it.

From: Betty

To: Ronnie

              Hey, is Jughead on Facebook anymore? (9:01pm)

Her reply came a few seconds later.

From: Ronnie

To: Bettz

              As far as I know, yeah. Why? (9:01pm)

Betty reread Veronica’s words. What the hell? She thought to herself as she typed.

From: Betty

To: Ronnie

              Weird. I’m going through my friends list, and he’s not on here. Thoughts? (9:05pm)

              Could you see if he’s still your friend? I’m confused. (9:05pm)

 From: Ronnie

To: Betty

              Yeah. One sec. (9:06pm)

              He’s still my friend. Is he not still yours? (9:10pm)

Veronica’s response shocked Betty. Her shock quickly turned to anger, and she typed furiously.

From: Betty

To: Ronnie

              NO!!! I THINK HE BLOCKED ME. (9:12pm)

              BASTARD (9:12pm)

From: Ronnie

To: Bettz

              WTF?!? DO I NEED TO KICK HIM IN THE BALLS FOR YOU?!?! (9:14pm)

From: Betty

To: Ronnie

              No. Thanks, though. I’ll figure it out tomorrow. I got homework to do. Night, girl! Love you! (9:15pm)

From: Ronnie

To: Bettz

              ❤ ❤ ❤ (9:17pm)

~~~

The next day at school passed by slowly. Betty had not seen Jughead all day, and her anger built every time she thought about him blocking her.

She finally caught him after classes in the Blue and Gold offices. He sat on his laptop, typing away as if nothing was wrong. Fuming, Betty stalked over to him, her hands in fists at her sides.

He looked up at her, nodded, and continued typing.

She was the first to break the silence. “Hey.”

“Hey,” he replied, not looking at her.

“Is there something you wanna talk about?”

“What do you mean?”

Betty seethed internally. Surely, he couldn’t be serious?!

Jughead, on the other hand, froze. How had she figured it out so quickly? Had Facebook lied and notified her anyway? He looked up at his blonde friend, and he was positive she could read the panic on his face.

Seconds passed in silence. “So, you mean to tell me that you just accidentally happened to block me from Facebook?!” She wasn’t shouting, but her voice was low and quiet with rage. Jughead quickly realized that he wished she were yelling at him.

“Uh…not particularly.”

Betty rolled her eyes. “What the hell does that mean?”

“Just that I didn’t do it accidentally.”

“So you did it on purpose, then?”

“Not by choice.”

Betty laughed mirthlessly. “So. You mean to tell me that someone held a gun to your head and made you block me? Who, might I ask, was this horrible person?” 

It was in that moment that Jughead decided to come clean. He couldn’t walk around feeling this unrequited like/love/lust/whatever-it-was anymore. “You.” He said the word so softly that Betty wasn’t sure that she had heard him correctly. She paused, taking in his demeanor. He had stopped typing, and he refused to make eye contact with her.

Betty felt like she had been stabbed in the chest with one word. Her anger melted away, and concern took its place. She pulled up a chair and sat across from him. He set his laptop on the chair next to him and gave the girl across from him his full attention.

“Juggie,” she began, her voice practically a whisper. “I’m sorry.” She grabbed his hand, and Jughead almost lost the ability to speak.

“For what?” His voice caught in his throat as he replied.

“Whatever I did to make you angry.” Jughead sighed internally – at least he now knew that she didn’t know about his true feelings for her. Knowing this turned out to be both a relief and agony at the same time. However, it made him angry to think that she felt that she had to apologize for nothing.

He turned his wrist so that he caught his hand in hers. He let out a wry chuckle as he stared at their intertwined hands. “Betty.” His eyes met hers. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Her eyebrows furrowed. “But…why did you block me, then?”

Jughead sighed. This was going to be harder than he thought. “I just got tired of seeing your posts.” Surprise grew on her face, but she said nothing. Jughead took it as his cue to continue. “I mean, you and Archie are a cute couple, but I see you guys being cute in real life. I didn’t see why I needed to see it on the internet, too.”

The two were silent, unable to look at each other. Their only contact was their hands. Jughead thought that he had said the wrong thing, and was about to take his words back when Betty spoke up.

“Juggie, when was the last time you actually spent time with me and Archie together?”

“Every day at lunch.”

Betty sighed, frustrated, “Outside of school.”

At that, Jughead had to think. Sure, he had hung out with Betty and Archie, but together? It had been a while. He had been so preoccupied with his novel and his feelings for Betty that he realized that he had practically abandoned his friends for the past few weeks.

“Shit. Three weeks?” He blushed, ashamed at his complete disregard for his friends. Since admitting his feelings for Betty to himself, he had inadvertently distanced himself from the Scooby Gang.

“Yeah. What you see at school isn’t the whole picture. Archie and I haven’t been right for weeks. Everyone expects us to be perfect, so we’ve been keeping the façade up for a little over a month. Juggie, Archie and I broke up six weeks ago.”

At that, his eyes met hers again. “What?”

Betty smiled slightly. “Archie and I haven’t been together for six weeks.”

As happy as he felt, Jughead felt that this wasn’t the time to celebrate. “I’m sorry you two broke up. You guys always seemed so perfect for each other.”

Betty rolled her eyes. “That’s what we thought, too. Turns out, we’re too imperfect for each other.” Jughead’s concern must have registered on his face, because Betty then said, “Oh, don’t worry about me. I’m fine.”

He looked at her, a bit disbelieving. “Are you sure, Betts? I’m here if you need to talk.”

“Thanks, Juggie. V and I already talked about it over many pints of ice cream. Besides, I’ve got someone I’ve got my eye on.” She blushed, and lowered her gaze.

It was Jughead’s turn to feel as though a knife had just sliced through him. He smiled, and settled on the classic, “I’m happy you’re happy, Betts,” response.

“I can always count on you, Juggie. Thanks for being such a good friend.” She removed her hand from his, noting how much larger his hands were than hers. Ignoring the sudden loss of heat, she stood up. Jughead followed suit, and the two hugged. Betty couldn’t help but notice just how safe she felt in Jughead’s arms.

She thought back to the day she and Archie officially broke up. Archie had suspected that Betty had feelings for Jughead. When he asked her about it, she had brushed it off, because even she hadn’t been all that sure of her feelings at the time. That was six weeks ago; this was now. And now, she wanted to do something about it.

As their hug ended, Betty paused and brought her hands to Jughead’s face. She closed her eyes, mentally bracing herself for what she was about to say, and the impending rejection she was sure she would face.

Jughead waited patiently as his friend seemed to steel herself for something emotional. He wanted to kiss her, but he needed to hear what she had to say. Finally, she opened her eyes and looked up at him. When she spoke, her voice was barely a whisper. “Juggie. It’s you. I like you.”

His smile was so big, she thought that he was going to burst. Her words were like a catalyst; he kissed her and everything felt right with the world.

When they came up for air, Jughead confessed.

“You do know I only blocked you because I like you, right?”

Betty laughed. “I guess it’s time you fix that, and we update our relationship status.”

                                                              Fin.

[entergamingxp]

A Love Letter to the Fantasy Airship • Eurogamer.net

There’s a joke that does the rounds on Twitter every so often that somewhere around 2015 or 2016 we slipped into an alternative timeline. One of the bad ones where your cuddly best mate wears an eyepatch and jackboots and everyone’s suddenly got sinister facial hair. This would, in a way, be a comforting notion, except that it can easily be disproved with one simple look to the sky. If this really were a parallel world, even one of the bad ones, the sky would be filled with the silent, graceful shapes of airships gliding serenely back and forth. Nothing says ‘parallel universe’ like an airship. From Fringe to Doctor Who, from Wolfenstein to Bioshock Infinite, if you want people to know they’re on the path not taken, bung a Zeppelin in the sky and, to be honest, you may not even need the evil goatees.

I’ve had a bit of a thing for airships since I was in my teens. I loved – and love – all airships, but it was the great steampunk contraptions of wood and cloth and wrought iron that had me most under their spell. Where the ‘ship’ is taken literally and a creaking old galleon is slung implausibly and enchantingly beneath bulging balloons. Games love them too – they’re most associated with JRPGs, although I think it must have been in Super Mario Bros 3 that I first encountered them. But the airship that really sparked my love affair was in a much more obscure place. Does anyone remember the Fantastic Worlds expansion pack for Civilization 2? Anyone remember the airship units? I do. For some reason that unit captivated me. I loved it, in all its tiny, pixellated glory. I couldn’t find a picture of it. Sorry. Take my word for it, though: that was a good airship.

The history of fantasy flying machines goes back further than you might think. Both the ancient Greek playwright Euripides and the historian Herodotus give the vengeful sorceress Medea a flying chariot drawn by dragons, which she uses to escape Athens after murdering her children.

By the early first millennium AD, the assortment of tall tales that had grown up around Alexander the Great gave him a variety of fantastical vehicles and devices appropriate for a globetrotting, monster-fighting hero. As well as a submarine used for fighting sea-monsters in Alexandria’s harbour, he was also reputed to have constructed a flying machine powered by griffins, which he used to travel high into the sky and look down on the earth below, before becoming scared and hurriedly returning to terra firma. The Russian folk-tale ‘The Fool and the Flying Ship’ gets us closer to the familiar steampunk airship we’re familiar with. In 1894 this was printed for British audiences in The Yellow Fairy Book, one of Andrew Lang and Leonora Alleyne’s popular series of children’s fairy-tale collections.

Unsurprisingly, the nineteenth century is when things really hot up for fantasy airships. The first hot-air balloon flight had occurred at the end of the eighteenth century, the novel was finding its feet as a literary genre and fantasy for both children and adults was everywhere. We often think of Jules Verne when we consider steampunk vehicles and Victorian science fiction-fantasy, and he certainly did offer his share of airships – notably in 1886’s Robur-le-Conqurant. But Verne was only one of a long list of late Victorian and Edwardian writers excited by the dawning of the age of flight. Another Frenchman, the journalist and pioneer of science-fiction illustrator Albert Robida, is particularly fun. His imagined future in 1882’s Le vingtime sicle and its sequels offers future-Parisian skylines filled with airships.

Of course, the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries also saw the hydrogen-fuelled rise of the real airship. In 1875 Jean-Pierre Blanchard crossed the Channel in a powered balloon with flapping wings and there was a failed attempt to build a military blimp as early as 1812 to defend Russia against Napoleon’s invading armies. By the end of the century several successful flights had been made by motorised dirigibles, and the beginning of the twentieth century marked the beginning of the age of the Zeppelin.

We all know how that ended up.

The Hindenburg Disaster and the conspicuous failure of the commercial airship cemented its position in the world of fantasy and alternative history. For a few decades airships plied the skies, demonstrating their near-viability, but when all that was cut short the airship never had the opportunity to become a mundane part of our everyday lives. Not only that, but the imagery of the flames licking around the Hindenburg’s swastika-emblazoned tail meant those mighty Zeppelins remained inextricably linked with the Nazis, who were soon to become their own staple of the alternative history genre. Two roads not taken intertwined in popular imagination. It’s no surprise, then, that the rigid dirigible, the realistic Zeppelin-style airship, tends to be associated in popular culture with timelines where something’s gone awry, with totalitarian rule and military might.

Even before the rise of the Nazis, though, the airship lost its innocence in the First World War, when Zeppelins took part in German bombing of European cities. When games and other media have wanted to portray the airship as a force for good, associated with optimism, adventure, freedom and exploration, they’ve tended to focus on the fantastical whimsy of Victorian and Edwardian fiction, before harsh reality came along and ruined everything. It’s worth remembering that in the 80s and early 90s, when video games were coming of age, real airships would still have been within living memory of many older people. But their fictional counterparts were safely in the world of historical literature, abstracted from the mundane world as much by time and the passing of generations as by their intrinsic fictionality.

A lot of this early airship fiction comes from Europe, especially France. But video games – and their love affair with the airship – blossomed in Japan. We probably shouldn’t underestimate the importance of Hayao Miyazaki and his Studio Ghibli films in bringing airships – and the ‘sky-fi’ sub-genre in general – to Japanese audiences at a critical juncture. 1984’s Nausica of the Valley of the Wind features airships that are effectively gigantic planes, their aesthetic drawing heavily on the technology of the first half of the twentieth century in a way that’s now often called dieselpunk. Even more influential is 1986’s Laputa: Castle in the Sky. As well as more dieselpunk aircraft, we now have a wonderful array of airships. From Zeppelin-like liners to grim military dreadnaughts and ramshackle pirate ships of cloth, wood and whimsy.

These are the roots of the Mario airships, the Fantastic Worlds one, and the skyborne galleons of Skies of Arcadia. No series is more associated with this approach than the Final Fantasy series – especially the early entries. The first game in the series came out only a year after Laputa and the Ghibli influences are pronounced throughout 90s Final Fantasy. The airship was a staple of the series, with particularly notable appearances in 4 and 6, but its wood-and-cloth airship obsession reached its apex in the sublime Final Fantasy 9. Airships abound in this game, every one a love-letter to the fin-de-sicle fiction that inspired it. The airship-filled city of Lindblum is like Metropolis by way of Robida, a strong contender for the capital of dirigible aviation in gaming.

Particularly in the 80s and 90s, Japanese games’ airships found their comfort zone between the two intermingled aesthetic styles evident in the Ghibli films. Victorian-flavoured wood, cloth and steam on the one hand, 1940s and 50s dieselpunk juggernauts on the other. Often the goodies tended to skew towards the former and the baddies to the latter, like in Skies of Arcadia, where you take airborne sailing ships up against airborne battleships that could have been drawn straight out of the Second World War (not an airship as such, but obviously we have to mention the influence of Space Battleship Yamato here). The boundaries were never absolute, though. The scents of wood-polish and engine oil were always mingled. And perhaps the most dieselpunk airship of them all is a hero vessel – Final Fantasy 7’s Highwind, which from its gleaming aluminium hull to its glamorous pin-up nose-art, thoroughly converts the classic fantasy airship to the aesthetics of 1940s and 50s aircraft.

Barring the exuberant throwback that was Final Fantasy 9, the Highwind is something of a turning-point for Final Fantasy’s airships. The traditional outline of a boat-like gondola slung below a gas-filled lifting body was still there, as were the propellers and guy-ropes. But the heroes’ airship was being pushed towards something more modern. Later Final Fantasies have almost all subverted the traditional idea of the airship in some way, from the spaceships and flying universities (!) of Final Fantasy 8 to the Star Wars-influenced fighters and flying fortresses of 12. By Final Fantasy 15, the old-fashioned dirigible has been almost entirely lost in the brutalist sci-fi troop-carriers and late-game airborne concept-car that are its take on the airship idea.

That’s fine, in its way. I guess there are people out there who love those for their sleek coolness. But for me, it feels a bit like something’s been lost. Maybe it’s because I grew up in the 90s and I’m getting to an age where, as much as I love science fiction, spaceships and the futuristic, I can’t quite escape the pangs of nostalgia for the dying days of the analogue world. Nifty as exotic flying-machines held aloft by exotic glowing energy or unseen magitek are, for me they lack the sense of tangibility you get from a wooden gondola creaking precariously below a bag full of hot air. The sense of wonder and adventure to be had when you stand by the bowsprit with the headwind billowing out your greatcoat and streaming back your wonderful 90s JRPG hairdo just so. Where you can hear the chunner of a grimy old engine that runs on oil, coal and the promises of a grubby bloke with goggles and a spanner. Where an unlikely number of propellers whir to keep you aloft, and a thrilling musical theme accompanies your flight over the rolling hills and seas of the fantasy world below.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/02/a-love-letter-to-the-fantasy-airship-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-love-letter-to-the-fantasy-airship-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net