#small lore dump for the magical girl setting

[twstmagica]

Staff Meeting

Crowely dragged Yuu and Crewel to a room where Trein, Vargas, and Sam are waiting. Later Yuu will wonder why the campus shopkeeper was included.

Crowely tells the staff that last night one of the “mutated blot monsters” had snuck onto campus and attacked a student.

All the staff are disturbed

Trein asks why a student was at the abandoned dorm in the first place

Crowely tells them that since she was not sorted into any dorm, he had generously offered to let Yuu live there.

The others berate him for trying to dump someone in that wreck.

Looking for a distraction, Crowely prompts Yuu to explain what she knows of the so called “blot monster”

Okay, so! Magica (magical girls/boy) Champions of Hope! A formally recognised position in which a child has been conscripted by an otherworldly power to battle against the evil forces of Chernabog. Scholars theorize that the reason they are chosen so young is due to the pure quality of a child's hope, making it so that as a magica grows they become more powerful than if they were chosen at an older age. magica can apply for a vigilante license, allowing them to apprehend nefarious forces and get excused absences from school if needed.

A magica’s powers are granted in moments of great hope born from great despair. Once granted, the champion is able to boost their body and magic with the power of hope. This gave humanity an edge for a while and things seemed to be getting better. 

When Chernabog learned that kids were being empowered so that they may one day fight his army, he ordered his servants to kill them while they're young. Tactically this was a smart decision, but still a dick move in Yuu’s opinion. The various world governments have tried to set up programs and systems to stop this, but most magica grow up fighting at least once a week. 

Yuu’s home has been under attack by Chernabog’s fiend army for nearly millenia. 

She names and describes a few of the most common fiend types.

The staff are dubious of Crowely’s claims of another world, but can't deny Yuu’s knowledge of these ‘fiends’ as she called them.

[logarithmicpanda]

Let's obsessively analyse notw, part 1!

- the prologue is a really beautiful piece. Vivid imagery, and it creates an ambiance of mystery to pull readers in, in very few words

- the first chapter is so rich in details, gods. Every paragraph serves to subtly give information on the setting : times are hard, the inn is usually pretty empty, it's a small town with the mentality that goes with it...

- there's the story about Taborlin, establishing both a first whiff at the magic in the setting, a sense of the mythology these people have, and preparing the echo for the Rookery scene

- tinker lore! And chandrian lore! Both important bits of ... Can we say foreshadowing when it's actually events in the past? Lol

- amulet cold as ice, so probably a gram of some sort. An interesting insight on the truth behind the stories, so we're setting up things for the major theme of the book early on, too

- do we actually ever know what bad thing happened on Shep's farm? I don't think we do

- some accentuation on the chandrian lore, establishing questions we still only have vague answers to 2 books later lol

- Cob arrives covered in blood so we shift into action, and I find it interesting to notice that Kote has not been named the whole time. As if hiding in the shadows of his own story, like he's just the innkeeper, the background character you hardly need to pay attention to

- and there the first actual magical element is revealed, the scrael, and Kote is finally named because his behavior slipped. The next couple paragraphs make it clear he was acting the part of the innkeeper and actually knows more

- also it's time for fantasy racism! We establish that traders are badly seen, especially the caeldish (though at this point we don't know what that means. That book was truly written to be reread)

- not that subtle but we are told that this is it, we're in the story now, not just what happens far from home and you hear about, but the real thing. It's kinda funny that the inn part is absolutely not the main focus down the line

- a bit more mythology dump, and an opportunity to show Kote is not on good terms with God lol

- now that Kote is no longer in the background, my boy goes back to his roots and put on a good show! We hint at the fact he's a storyteller, and we already established he's full of shit a liar

And that was just the first scene! Good gods.

- there's the first real introduction as Kote focused on him, and it plays with the expectations and tropes of the genre

- it's a night with no moon, which is interesting because it will echo later the way we're told it's not a good idea to be out on a night such as those

- enters Bast! Who brings a smile to Kote's tired face, it's kinda nice... Until there's the whole thing about girls being better than books. Took me 5 seconds to remember why I don't particularly love Bast lol

- I wonder what happens if a scrael is not properly disposed of. Does it bring others? Or starts living again?

- a small mention of the troupe, just after Kote established a fake background for himself

- Why does Bast need Kote to teach him, exactly? He doesn't seem to learn anything he couldn't learn at the University

- now we focus on the chest, another mystery, and it adds to the suspicion that Kote really isn't what he appears to be

- the inn's customer come back and we lay a bit of groundwork about the war and roads being bad to lay down the groundwork for Chronicler's introduction

- aaaand that's finally the end of chapter 1. I doubt I'll go in that much detail from now on but first chapters are important

Tl;dr: there's a vast amount of worldbuilding and setup done from the get go. A dash of playing with tropes of the genre, and the first hints at the major themes of the series. Honestly, I'm impressed with the level of detail conveyed, it doesn't feel too heavy but upon careful consideration, there's hardly anything superfluous

[adw520]

Better Dylan Info Post (aka Dylan Lore Dump 1)

because I realized in the light of day that my last post was not very well organized or worded (I was very tired)

First off have another picrew. Baydews' character creator is my favorite one out there. Djarn's comes in close second, but I haven't made Dylan there yet.

☆ Her full name is Dylan Strand. For etymology nerds like me, Dylan is from the Welsh prefix 'dy', meaning to/towards, and word 'llanw', meaning tide/flow. Strand is from the Old Norse word for beach. Assuming the site I used to get this information is accurate, anyway.

☆ On a slightly related note, apparently Dylan isn't really used for girls outside the US? I wasn't aware it was such a unique thing.

☆ Her birthday is Summer 21. I used a random date generator and converted it to Stardew time. I think I still have the calculations somewhere in my phone's notes.

☆ She's 5'10", which is a little on the tall side. She has her mom to thank for that.

☆ Blue Moon Farm is on the forest map, which is without a doubt my favorite farm map.

☆ Dylan's mom lives off the east coast of the Ferngill Republic. Dylan and her dad moved to Zuzu City when she was about 6 to be closer to her grandpa, but returned to visit every year for Dylan's birthday. Her grandpa loved to talk about Blue Moon Farm and show her pictures from its heyday. He passed the year she graduated high school.

☆ She loves to fish and can rival Willy in skill. Some might think it's magic, but she's actually just had a lot of practice.

☆ While she generally follows the universal gifts, she loves Golden Coconut, Dragon Tooth, and Seafoam Pudding. She likes all kinds of fish as well as Sea Urchins. She's neutral about all Tackle, Bait, and Monster Loot, as well as Fairy Dust and the Tea Set. She only dislikes Joja Cola, but she hates Qi Fruit.

☆ She likes bright colors. Her favorite is yellow.

☆ I mentioned before that Dylan has trouble localizing sounds. In humans, the shape of our outer ears plays a big part in localizing sound. Dylan has no real outer ears, and her inner ears are structured a little differently to help with hearing underwater. If she were to keep her fins out, they'd do a fairly decent job of helping to localize sounds. However, they're more effective for that purpose underwater than on land, and they're not much help at all held flat against her head and hidden by her hair.

☆ Her fins are pierced! She normally wears a pair of large gold hoops, but she owns a few different pairs of studs for times where there's a risk of the hoops getting yanked out. She also likes necklaces, but isn't a fan of bracelets or rings.

☆ The effect of the full moon isn't entirely because of her heritage. There's a psychological aspect to it as well. The spring tides from a full and new moon have equal pull on her, but because new moons lack the light of a full moon, she doesn't have that visual indicator. With a full moon, it becomes a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. She's so worried about giving into the pull that it happens. Her umbrella is a visible barrier between herself and the moon to help put her mind at ease and keep from working herself up into an unplanned nighttime swim.

☆ I'm putting the Stardew lunar cycle at 20 days. It's a lot longer than a direct conversion would have it, but 9 days seemed a bit short for my liking. I'm also aware that spring tides are technically the high tides the night after a full or new moon, but I'm choosing to ignore that. My made-up lore, my rules.

☆ She has some small scales scattered around with her freckles. She also has gills hidden under her jaw. They seal themselves when she's above water, and open when she submerges.

☆ The forest magic the wizard gave her almost made her sick enough to go to the clinic. Fortunately, her body adjusted to it before it could get that bad. A full ocean spirit wouldn't have been so lucky.

[greatwyrmgold]

Started watching Parallel World Pharmacy, and I have some thoughts.

It’s not bad, exactly, but it’s not as interesting as it should be. The big problem I have with isekai is that so many of them are so similar. You’ve got your nerdy teen who dies, ends up in a fantasy world with super-awesome magic powers that let him beat up monsters real good and attract 2-5 hot girls that want to befriend him (or more, depending on the target audience), who uses those powers to beat up some monsters real good.

PWP should be different, and to an extent it is. So far, no monsters have been beaten up. But he still has super-awesome magic powers, some of which would let him beat up monsters real good if he ran into them, some of which are restricted to only trivializing everything within a two-field radius of pharmacology. There’s still the hot girls being set up as our hero’s technically-not-a-harem, still a bunch of exposition about lore that doesn’t really matter, the story still centers around all the awesome stuff the hero can breeze through.

I’m disappointed.

If you want a more detailed but stream-of-consciousness series of thoughts, keep reading.

Why is it that fictional hard-working scientists need to have some dramatic reason for wanting to develop life-saving medicines or whatever? Maybe it’s just me, but “I want to invent better medicines so nobody has to suffer like my sister did!” feels like a weaker motivation than “I want to invent better medicines because it’s good when people can be healed.” Like, yeah, the first is more personal, but it’s also more superficial, if that makes sense. Makes it seem like he’s not trying to save people because he knows it’s the right thing to do, so much as because he feels bad.

Dr. Kanji musing on how long it’s been since he directly interacted with a patient and wanting to be a small-town pharmacist some day feels like a way to blunt the impact of a researcher motivated by wanting to find a cure/treatment for a fairly specific kind of tragedy being sent to a world where he can’t actually research that. It’s also a nice touch of characterization.

The name of the dude Kanji got isekai’d into is Farma de Médicis. Farma de Médicis, the medical pharmacist. He makes a joke about how his name sounds like a pharmaceutical company, but still.

Having Kanji/Farma and his maid walk by some paintings of his family while she was expositing about them was a good way to add a bit of visual interest to the exposition scene, without needing to budget too many animation frames. It’s not that interesting, but as exposition-dump scenes go, it’s…above-average.

Speaking of which, I’ve seen and read plenty of isekai and isekai-adjacent stories, and I’m kinda sick of them hovering in this area where the hero is treated more or less like normal despite asking questions that would be really weird for someone from this world to ask. Amnesiac or no, it’s weird to ask if “that kind of thing exists here.” Some characters remark that Farma seems different after the lightning strike, but in more of a “comedy beat” way than a “foreshadowing” way.

The maid worried about the possibility that Farma might not ever remember how to do Divine Arts (magic). I think that it would be pretty neat if Farma had to make do with modern medicine instead of healing magic. Farma casts a water spell ~30 seconds after the scene with the worried maid ends. His biggest problem is that he casts too much magic and can’t make it stop. About a minute later, he starts conjuring everything from gold to sugar. Apparently he can conjure any kind of pure material, and “eliminate” (vanish) it too.

Kanji’s also able to recall Farma’s old memories of how the fantasy world’s medicines work, though I’m not sure whether they’re magical/alchemical elixers or just mundane folk remedies.

Did we need a maid-exposits-about-Farma scene and a tutor-exposits-about-magic scene in the first episode? Also, one of the five magical elements in this world is “none of the above”. (They’re technically called “attributes” and the fifth attribute’s name is just “none,” but still.)

Apparently it’s supposed to be impossible for people to conjure more than one type of substance (ie, both water and earth, like Kanji/Farma did), and that conjuration like the water trick he did practically by accident normally requires a divine wand and an incantation, and Farma using just the wand lets him conjure a “water spear” the size of a small waterfall. And he breaks the magic-potential-meter thingy his tutor grabs to make sure he didn’t waste his whole life’s magical reserves in one shot, and apparently breaking the Divinometer (its actual name, at least in the subtitles) is completely unheard of.

Kanji insisting that his divine mark is a perfectly normal burn while it’s glowing with divine light is pretty funny. I wish it was a consistent funny character trait instead of one funny moment, though. This show could use more moments where Kanji is wrong.

Apparently this world is so primitive that they don’t realize that blurry vision can be improved by looking through a small gap in your fingers. Which is basically just squinting with extra steps, but it also activates Farma’s divine diagnosis-vision, which is another power he has. Ugh. Boundless reserves of not-mana, power over all four elements and “none,” a Divine Eye, knowledge of cutting-edge modern medicine in a world rubbing bat wing lotions on wounds—pick one cheat power and stick to it!

Anyways, Farma’s tutor sees all of these weird inhuman powers, realizes Farma has no shadow (by the way Farma has no shadow), and assumes he must be some kind of monster. He shows up later to bring her medicine, and she answers the door in full plate armor. I mention it because I found her paranoia funny. Also, she apparently did this (and assumed he poisoned the medicine) because she thinks Farma is the incarnation of Panactheos, the god of medicine, which makes me wonder what kind of dude that god is. What kind of medical god tries to murder people for freaking out over the god being weird?

Also, nobody else notices that Farma doesn’t have a shadow. He doesn’t hide from people once he realizes he’s deshadowed, the inside of the manor isn’t dimly- or evenly-lit enough for shadows to not be a thing that happens (as in, the artists drew some shadows in there), and Farma even goes outside just for the heck of it, in the middle of the day, where his shadowlessness would be obvious.

“I need you in my life,” Farma says to the tutor. And a moment later, he gives her flowers. I’ve mentioned that the tutor is a pretty girl, just a bit older than Farma, who shows up in the OP as what looks like an employee at his pharmacy, right? So, um, we’re up to two not-so-subtle love interest characters, because this is a much more conventional isekai power fantasy than I’d been lead to believe.

Farma’s Divine Eye means there’s no House-ish tension around him trying to diagnose people—he just looks at the parts that hurt, guesses a diagnosis, and prescribes something when his diagnost-o-vision glows. Synthesizing the medicine is practically handwaved, since Farma can just conjure all component chemicals, so there’s no early-Ascendance-of-a-Bookworm struggle. There isn’t even a Dr. Stone appeal to learning how various medicines get made or work, because the anime rushes through the synthesis process and doesn’t discuss the biochemistry involved. Is the source material better about this? This feels like something that a light novel would be able to handle better, but also like something a typical author wouldn‘t bother with.

I am really getting tired of this thing where Kanji does un-Farma-like things or casually hands out medicine that shouldn’t exist, someone points this out, and then nothing comes of it. Either have Kanji/Farma be good at hiding this stuff, or have the people around him realize something’s wrong, or just don’t have there be this Big Secret! The tutor figured things out, so it’s not as bad as it could be, but still.

Apparently Kanji has the knowledge, skill, and tools to build a handheld microscope that can look at bacteria. Not, like, “he spends a whole episode scraping the necessary materials together,” or even “there’s a montage of him assembling the microscope”. The first we hear of this project is when he’s putting the finishing touches on it. Because he wasn’t gifted enough already.

Lots of isekai anime have this same round orangish city surrounded by off-white walls in the middle of a green field with a river running through it. Parallel World Pharmacy’s version of that city is hexagonal!

[berryblu-arts]

Basic guide to my OC's stories

(yes i know i have a lot, help-)

august 9, 2021: added glow stage and diamond

February 23, 2022: added seedling

LONG info dump below the cut (no srsly, i´m warning you)

🍓🍋Strawberries and lemonade

Drama/ Slice of life with a hint of fantasy

Set in the main world in the early 2000s

Story about a girl who can see heartstrings and her various adventures in life, enphasis on personal relationships (not necessarilly romantic)

Aesthetic: lots of pinks and whites, soft and bright colors, 80s sailor moon backgrounds

Inspo: me being rlly mad at romantic love being taken as the only type of love, its also a twist on the red string of fate

🌼👻⛈Spectrum

Drama/ supernatural i guess?? (Can be categorized as urban fantasy i think)

Set in the main world, close to present day

Protagonist is a girl who can see "specters" (basically the counterparts of random animals except they're made of light or shadow), the story deals with themes of loss and lonelyness sometimes :( , but is also very centered around friendships (and i might sprinkle in some found family in there UwU💕)

"That shadow you saw at the corner of your eye the other day is real, but dont worry, its friendly :)!"

Aesthetic: rainy days, liminal spaces, small towns, fall, foggy days, childhood memories, abandoned buildings.

Inspo: ghibli movies, lil bit of kyoukai no kanata, and that one time i got food poisoning and couldnt see about 1/4 of my vision (not cool btw, but at least i made up some p cool shadow lore from it :D)

🧭🌌Twilight compass

Drama/fantasy (high fantasy)

Set 2 or 3 years before present day (in universe)

A bunch of kids (teenagers ig) get throw into an unfamiliar alternate world and try to get back to their own, but in the process uncover some important information that could finally end the tensions between that world's main kingdoms and so they get dragged into the mess, but maybe they were meant to be there from the very start (?)

Aesthetic: The world is half frozen and half on fire, its a todoroki world hehe-, lots of fantasy nature for yall's enjoyment ^^, huge animals that are mostly friendly, small animals with magic powers, magic circles and items, etc...

Inspo: loz breath of the wild, black clover, and a hint of star vs , among other things...

🤍⏳💛Time's end

Drama/ fantasy (high fantasy)

Set about 2 years before present day in the main timeline, but also 100+ years in the past... if that makes sense? (Theyre messing w time ok-)

Main character is a boy who suddenly finds himself in a magic world with a really bad political climate that's leading up to it's destruction, he gets dragged into that mess and soon discovers that world may be more that just a strange fantasy his brain made up.

Aesthetic: copper, stone, silver and gold, medievalcore but also rlly darn close to what the dragon prince was doing :>

Inspo: uhh i came up with this because i was trying to force myself to study history 😅😅, the very root of the idea for this can be traced to my obsession to winx club tho (which i will elaborate on if anyone asks)

💧🕰🔥Unwind

Drama/ fantasy (urban fantasy)

Set a little over a year before present day in the main timeline (unofficial time btw, still figuring it out)

Continuation/spinoff of time's end ft. One of my favourite side characters ^^ (im not spoiling this one lmao)

Aesthetic: a not so big beach town, bright and colorful houses and people, abandoned buildings few people know about, not so far from the outskirts of a little forest. (Really really vaguely based off where i live hehe)

Inspo: a dream i had where a comet fell from the sky, a combination of magical girls and superheroes

Fun fact: this is actually the story i started with, and even if it's mainly urban fantasy, it has elements like alternate worlds, cryptids and aliens thrown into it, fun stuff!

🏖🚃West coast

set in present day

Sort of a continuation of unwind, but centers around characters that were previously introduced as background ones now in the spotlight.

The story is split in 2 perspectives, the new guardians (an all girl element based squad i should talk about more) ,and what i'm calling the chaos squad (zac, roy, blaire, sara, viv and liam), these last ones are actually the most varied squad in therms of power category (i should probably explain that too in the future)

it´s the last story in the chronology.

Aesthetic and inspo: almost exactly same as unwind, as it's set in the same city

🌙💛Moonlight 

set in an alternate timeline, close to present day (high fantasy/ post apocalyptic)

Mini story and its honestly a sob fest, why was i even allowed to come up w this one ??😭😭

Sort of a prequel to time's end, it gives a bit of context to a couple character motivations but at what cost-

Aesthetic: lots of purples blacks and blues, contrasted with gold, post apocalyptic society...sort of?, society sucks but at least it's aesthetic😌✨, also looks like a story book UwU

✨👽✨Stardust outcome

Drama/sci fi

Set in the 90s

Prequel that isnt really it's own thing?? It's the story of the alien squad and 2 other characters from time's end, pretty sure if i ever make it it won't have a usual comic format but instead it'll be a bunch of mini stories, hopefully in chronological order...

Aesthetic: space and stuff, it looks a lil like voltron actually haha😅, but also on earth theres a clan of people w knives and cool masks that monitor all the shenanighans, and theres a secret society n stuffs.

Inspo: listen- i made a character that was supposed to introduce aliens into the main story, then went overboard w his backstory to the point that this one is literally how his parents met lmaoo

🤍👁💜Under the eye

Drama/fantasy

Side plot of spectrum that i feel deserves it's own story but i dont have time for it ToT

it's about 2 security guards in a hidden magic town, an old quiet dude w a grumpy face who lost his family a long time ago, and a newbie w a bright personality that has actually been having a sucky time.

They're both living pretty lonely lives and end up having a pseudo father-son relationship after the old dude finds out this kid was kicked out of his house. then after a couple more shenanighans a little alien girl is thrown into the mix, at which point the old dude *looks* like he´s not having it, but internally he´s like ´´welp, guess i have *two* kids now´´

overall rlly wholesome stuff with a dash of angst and found family :3

it´s called under the eye, because even if they´re working as security guards, the clan i mentioned in stardust is the one really in charge of monitoring stuff around there, so they have limited freedom on that front, and also they keep trying to go against them, that clan´s symbol is an iris ensata (flower) with an eye in the middle, hence the title.

aesthetic: same as spectrum, except if this was harry potter they´d be in that one magic town hehe (i hate making that comparison but it´s the closest i can get)

📖🎮⏳checkpiont

drama/ fantasy (urban fantasy w a dash of sci fi i guess??)

short story, set in present day

tecnically a spinoff of time´s end , but the tones are literally so different??

there start to be random zones in a city where pixelated videogame monsters appear, and kat (the main character) is appearently the chosen one to stop all that nonsense?, no one knows what´s going on but they better figure it out before reality alters inself badly enough to be unfixable. 

pretty lighthearted story overall, but it´s important cause it reintroduces some key characters into the mix :).

Inspo:i may or may not have actually made this just to justify a cheesy videogame themed story hehe, rlly feels like glitch techs tho :O (netflix series)

aesthetic: the city is pretty standard, the videogame area is all neon and pixel-y, kind of futuristic outfits for the characters, and lots of orange/ blue lighting UwU

👽🏙Unnamed ´´stardust outcome´´ sequel:

drama/ sci fi

a bunch of the characters are the kids of the original stardust, some are completely new ones, it´s basically kiddos interacting and doing shenanighans with superpowers at a school, but w an actual important subplot behind the scenes, the end of this one leads directly into the end of west coast and is the second to last story in the chronology (not counting what i have planned for next gen, those are only gonna be fluffy one shots)

🕸👑💚Glow Stage

*Not connected to the main story at all, but it exists there in the form of a show*

Drama/fantasy (rlly slice of life-y sometimes tho)

typical magical girl story but the main character is the redeemed villain type, trying to do good but with a slightly messed up moral compass. Also the mc befriends the magical girl in her civilian form without knowing its her because ✨free dramaaa✨

Inspo: i needed a fake show for spectrum then accidentally created a whole new story, whoops!

Aesthetic: everything is pretty standard and almost generic on purpose, the villains are edgy, good side is all sparkly and stuff, im aiming for something like what precure's got going on^^

something a lil creesy w lots of potential for both angst and fluff never hurt anyone :3

Seedling 🌱 🌼

Drama/fantasy (very slice of life leaning)

Story about a socially awkward kid learning to get along with his new step mom and sister, surviving through school, and of course, being a shapeshifter and perhaps the key to a conspiracy to take over the earth from the inside out. Fun times!

Fun fact- the main trio is composed of: ex villain mc who is -s t r u g g l i n g- , chosen one- magical girl-hero of prophecy who *does not* wanna be here, and the stable normal friend :)) (except no, he is holding the information and conciousness of several souls inside him, like the avatar thing... but theyre more an annoyance than actual help lmao)

Inspo: late 2000s action cartoons, the myth of changelings, and the sheer need to watch characters go from cold and indifferent with each other to "we are family now, I would die for you" :')

Aesthetic: idk man, will update this one later lol

Fun fact: I'm not sure if this one's Canon in the main universe hehe 😅

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Honorable story mentions:

Unnamed robot stiory: completely disconnected from the rest, put bluntly it´s about robots that think they´re people (came up w the concept w @/ashrayus a couple years back), it´s sorta just sitting there but i refuse to let go of it UnU

STARDUST: precuel to stardust outcome, it´s about a solari (star person) that falls in love with a rlly nice and humble avian farmer guy she met (this isnt set in earth), and they were both lonely, so they swear to be together till death do them apart, and they even have a kid, but solari have all these rules about forming attatchments with mortals and whatnot, so of course the fricken space police come knocking and stuff gets nasty and the guy dies- (it´s all just rlly tragic ok, i´m sad,,), so these stories are named stardust after the star girl cause she dies as well, passing all of her energy to her kid to keep him safe :(.

Diamond: Tells the origin of the world, powers, sub dimentions, etc... i won't have a story designated for it cause itll be like reading a mythology/history book, and idk how to make that entertaining hehe 😅😅

[gwydionmisha]

I watched Peninsula and I figured out what went wrong.

I watched Peninsula and I figured out what went wrong.

1. The obvious thing I guessed before I watched it, is a problem, but not the main one.  Still, it needs saying:  The Train to Busan is a perfect movie.  It really is.  The solid world building makes the thing compelling from the start.  It's beautifully shot and acted.  It has a strong thematic thread running through it.  The timing is flawless, with action and quiet moments in a perfect balance designed to keep the viewer engaged.  Most of all, it has heart.  The viewer really cares what happens to the people, and those character stories are perfectly twined with the thematic thread.  It's incredibly compelling and rewatchabe.

It is absolutely impossible to catch that kind of magic in a sequel.  Viewers will want to feel that way again and you can't win no matter what you do.  You can do the same thing again, which will be tired and derivative.  you can do something different which will inevitably disappoint and/or piss off fans.  It's why second albums are often a mess too.  So they started this project with that against them.

2. But here is the real mistake: They picked the wrong protagonist.  No really.  If one hadn't watched Train to Busan this would have been a solid post apocalyptic action story with a really long boring start.  Picture Escape from New York and Road warrior mashing up with a Korean Speculative Fiction Movie.  It's the long boring bit that is the issue for this as a stand alone set in the same world as Train to Busan and Seoul station, and it isn't the actors' faults.

Why doesn't the first part of the movie work?  Because they picked the wrong protagonist.  Think about it.  Where is the emotional heart of the movie?  Where it always is the best of this kind of film coming out of Korea (For example: The Host, Snowpiercer, Train to Busan, Flu) with the family.  It may be small (a parent and daughter) and/or broken and/or found but that's where the heart is.  The family add and lose people along the way, but that heart carries the viewer through.  When does Peninsula start getting interesting?  When the girls turn up and you have the family that's the narrative center for most of the rest of the film.  

I'm not saying it's all bad up to that point.  There is that beautiful, haunting, Checkov's gun moment on the way in, for example, but mostly?  It's filler.

So here's how to fix it.  Just put the main narrative focus on the Mom and family.  No really.  It cuts most of the boring bits right out.  Let me show you how.

Warning: "Peninsula” below the cut Spoilers:

Start with the car crash and the encounter between the two families on the road, serving as a metonymy for the experience of the abandoned family that day and setting up the plot.  Now cut out the boring lead in, scenario setting, and exposition dumps.  You don't need them; the bits you actually need fold in again later anyway.

Cut to the girls surveilling the team come to extract the truck.  Set it up sort of like MST#K.  What's the first amusing moment in the film as is?  When the guys are being idiots and the girls start commenting on it.  So lean the fuck into that.  You can hit some of the same beats.  Current protag getting out of the car and spotting Checkov's zombies.  The three idiots piling out to check the second truck a little later and making a mess of it, but you have the sister commenting on it.  Make them trying to work out what these idiots are doing the focus. You can weave in the essential zombie lore here for people who missed Seoul and Busan instead of having people info dump on the protagonist stuff he'd clearly already know.  "Idiots!  Don't they know the noise will draw them?"  When the first firework goes off, something like "The 631!  Every zombie in the area will see that fire and come."  there's the we have to get in before sun up thing already in the script.  Folding it in naturally amidst the snark is more fun and doesn't slow down the film.  This approach centers the sisters' relationship once they rescue the current protagonist, he can stand in for the audience as far as explaining the current situation in the city, just like he already does.

the sequence were they introduce the mom and grandad stays the same.  he had to explain his mission to them anyway and look, here it is.  you don't need the bit in hong Kong at all.  He admits he left them on the road.  The mom gives the damning speech.  when she talks about escaping you can cut to the deteriorating conditions there and still do a slightly truncated version of the part with the brother in law, but it make it side plot.  There where bits like that in Busan too and it was fine.

You basically play the rest out mostly the same, but put the Mom a little more in the front because she is your actual protagonist.  The four characters with arc in this film as it was made are the current protagonist, the Mom, the brother in Law, and the Granddad.  Really we're switching the the focus a little and deemphasing the brother/brother in law relationship in favor of more screen time for the three female characters, way tighter editing, and a strong through line on emotional heart of the film.  You still have enough of the Brother sacrificed the Mom's family for his own family for the original protagonist's arc to make sense, but you get the Mom's badassery and willingness to do anything for her kids.  you still get the brother in law's moment of truth and Granddad's vindication.  All you lots were the boring bits and the cabbie who I liked in her few minutes of screen time.

It still wouldn't be great art, but it could be a fun action movie.

[jq37]

The Royal Report– A Crown of Candy Ep 3

Keep Sharp

On the Road Again

Welcome back to Calorum you guys. We last left off witnessing an actual miracle as a group of cheese assassins masquerading as meatlanders (and Brennan by proxy) failed to kill a single Candian, Tartguard included.

Now, everyone is picking up the pieces. Amethar is still messed up from the fight so he’s being tended to. Liam and some of the NPCs are working on clearing the tree from the road. Ruby, still covered in blood, is in one of the carriages and when she uses Prestidigitation to clear the blood from a circus flyer she was carrying, Calroy walks in and grabs her hand to stop her as a reflex. He quickly drops her hand--very bold move to grab one of the princesses like that--and tries to impress on her that the rest of the world isn’t like Candia and she really really needs to stop with the casual magic when they’re on the road. Ruby is really naively taken aback and frustrated by this information but Calroy describes it like it’s business as usual. Her aunt, Lazuli, has the title of Archmage but the official position is that the title is an archaic holdover from less enlightened times and she was simply a really good alchemist--even though everyone knows that’s untrue. That’s politics bay-bee! Lapin joins the conversation (along with Theo shortly after) and says that if people knew where he got his powers from, he’d be dead (which seems a weird thing to say with Calroy in earshot).  

Outside, Liam is chopping up the tree and finds these little peppermint acorn things called Heartseeds which are basically concentrated, ambient, magical energy that can grant small wishes. Preston eats them and gains a fly speed of 40 (but it’s like he’s a firework--he has to land after 40 feet). Jet finds Liam and asks for help with keeping an eye on Ruby. She’s pretty shook after seeing her almost die. Liam is down to do it for nothing (the kid just wants to be included) but Jet insists on being in his debt and--always on brand--he just asks for some cool seeds. She also finds a meat shield that’s made out of gross, burnt, stuck-to-the-pan meat bits that she names Burnt Ends. 

They get going again and in the PC wagon you have all the PCs but Jet (who is outside with the guards and Grissini) along with Cruller and his wife--Lady Donetta. She chats with Grissini for a little bit while the adults try to get her to get in the carriage. She’s finally swayed by Ruby but when she comes in she says she wasn’t (just) flirting. She was trying to get intel on how in trouble Ruby was. Liam offers that he speaks Ceresian so he can spy if they need him to and also did anyone have any dreams last night? Theo--who is trying to keep everyone alive and was like so close to being impressed by Liam--along with Lapin and Cruller try to get everyone back on track but Ruby--defiantly--is all, “They’re not gonna kill me. I’m a princess!” Theo points out that someone almost killed her literally ten minutes ago and Cruller points out that death isn’t the only bad thing that can happen to a person. She could get forcibly put in a monastery for instance. Jet is not even having that in hypothetical-land and says that as the heir princess, she would lay the smackdown on anyone who tried to do that. 

It looks like things are about to dissolve into overlapping gibberish but Amethar does the dad thing of putting his foot down and yelling at everyone to get along before taking a dad nap passing out from his injuries. Lady Donetta patches him up while Cruller once again talks about the importance of politics. It’s not just them that have to play this game. The Meatlanders are polytheistic generally but all Bulbian on paper. Jet thinks this whole song and dance is ridiculous and should be changed once she has more sway in politics, but she’s willing to shut up for now. She’s also willing to keep Lapin’s secret, but him bringing it up sparks Cruller’s interest. Lapin tries to gloss over it but Liam chimes in that he’s sorry about breaking his teacup. Lapin shuts him up (Liam on a low Insight check thinks he hates him) and rolls a 14 to get Cruller off his back.

Secrets and Lies

As they cross the border into Fructerra, Sir Theo invites Ruby and Jet out for some fresh air and they invite Liam which he goes along with even though it’s clear he wanted to talk to the sisters alone. As soon as they’re out of earshot of everyone Theo turns off the scold and says that regardless of everything they’re all saying, Ruby absolutely needs to keep studying magic. He says that he was a ward of Lazuli who taught him some magic (including animating Sprinkle) and he has a whole-ass lore dump for them that he was planning on subtly revealing over time but now’s the time for getting everybody up to speed ASAP not mentoring from the shadows:

He says that Lazuli--who, like Ruby and Jet, wanted magic to be acceptable and not relegated to the shadows of one kingdom--was doing arcane research into wild stuff like immortality that would have advanced the world a lot further than its current state. She died sacrificing herself in a battle where she was the only Candian casualty. Theo was there and, before she sent him away, she said that she needed to do it to, “save [their] people and save [their] world.” He didn’t get what she meant and why that would be literally the hill she--a princess and Archmage--would choose to die on but he knows she would sometimes have visions of the future and he thinks she might have known Ruby was coming and needed to ensure that timeline happened. Ruby--who is outraged that this is the first she’s hearing of all of this and shocked that Theo is suddenly cool (“I've always been cool! All of us are cool!”) still doesn’t want to do all this “book stuff” or embrace any kind of magical destiny and even Jet is like, “Come on girl.” Anyway, Sir Theo tells them they just need to be chill and lowkey and he’ll hook them up with magical training and banned books for Jet. He also promises to teach Ruby the Find Familiar spell. 

Liam helps Lady Donetta with herbal remedies for Amethar and he comes back at full health. Amethar gets to talking about Liam’s dad who he says had Liam’s knack from nature stuff and taught him (Amethar) how to fight. Calroy chimes in that his dad and Amethar fought together in the Ravening War. He also says that Liam being a hostage (he outright calls him a hostage) is what lets his dad not join the Concord (the kind of ride or die, post Ravening War pact everyone else is in) and remain an independent rebel state. Apparently, he seceded because, King Jadin (Amethar’s Dad--the past king), would not uphold Candia’s alliances. Liam’s dad (Duke Joren Jawbreaker) turned traitor to go fight with their Dairy Island allies.         

It takes another couple of days to get to Comida and, on the way there, Ruby learns and casts the Find Familiar spell--netting her a butterscotch falcon that she names Yak after the noise he makes. She hopes he’ll be friends with Sprinkle because Siobhan knows that the second real objective of every D&D campaign (after making friends) is acquiring pets and having them play with each other (which is in direct opposition to the DM goal of not letting any of your players have any pets).    

Cruller checks in with Theo about the secret magic lessons and also says that he’s looked into it and the imperial soldiers who saw Ruby do magic are gossiping. Grissini is shutting some of it down so it’s not spreading like wildfire but it’s really just a matter of time. Cruller tries to get more specifics about what Jet and Lapin were talking about (his Sugarplum magic) and Theo dodges the question. Cruller says that he can be more helpful if he’s in the loop but doesn’t push further. 

Faces and Names 

We have made it to Comida and, after a quick House Rocks family heart to heart, it’s time for a parade of a BUNCH of new characters:

Manta Ray Jack: Man at Arms of House Cheddar and one of Amethar’s Ravening War buddies. A literal 2 foot tall cube of cheese. He also has a tattoo of a Manta Ray on his arm  which isn’t important to the plot but is important to me that you know.       

Sir Morris Brie: Knight of House Cheddar, Master of State to the Duchess (who we’ll get to next) and another Dairy Island buddy of Amethar.

Duchess Primsy Coldbottle: A literal bottle of milk, 16-year-old regent of House Cheddar (Duchess of Lacramor specifically) and ruler of the Dairy Islands. On a nat 20, Ruby knows that Prince Tarthur Cheddar was the prince during the Ravening Wars but died. She also knows about…

Captain Annabelle Cheddar: (Captain of the Colby) who is this cool, naval, battle-ready lady that Ruby sees hanging out with a bunch of solider women fighters and having a great time while Primsy is talking to her advisors. Apparently, Anabelle should be the rightful heir to the Dairy Islands but was stripped of her title because she refused to marry (hmm) which Ruby thinks is sick as hell. She goes to chat her up and finds out that she’ll be fighting in the Melee part of the tourney.  

Senator Augustus Ciabatta: A full bread person who’s a senator from the very populous Ceresia and he’s throwing coins to the people from his palanquin. (I want it on the record that I feel an episode called Bread and Circuses coming.)

Prince Cabbage: The adult son of King Cabbage. His palanquin is the second largest. The largest belongs to...

Hierophant Rex Belizabeth Brassica: She is basically the Bulb Pope. She’s like a green woman with broccoli hair. She and Lapin have met before before she became pope. They quickly talk and she invites him to tag along as they pay their respects to the Emperor. He agrees to go. She’s followed around by Archbishop Onionpatch (another Primogen from Greenhold in Vegetania).

Theo is a little nervous about Amethar cozying up to all these dairy people considering the attack but Amethar insists he can handle himself. There’s a big feast set up and Amethar goes to talk to Primsy who is just super sweet and seems to know she has a lot of responsibility that she is trying her level best to uphold. She’s like the anti Jet and Ruby and Brennan...if something happens to her...I swear...  

Anyway, Theo is scanning the room for trouble and he sees (1) That Anabelle is looking at Amethar forlornly from across the room (maybe like she wishes she could be in the room where it happens so to speak?) and (2) there is a young Dairy nobleman stealth flirting with Primsy. Amethar asks Sir Brie about the attack and he says they had nothing to do with it. They don’t have the resources after the war which was fought largely in the Dairy Isles. He seems to blame Anabelle at least partially for the diminished power of House Cheddar based on the dirty look he shoots her when he mentions the state of the state. Amethar reiterates that the alliance between Candia and the Dairy Isles is solid and Manta Ray Jack pops in to casually drop that Amethar had a war girlfriend (lover? idk what the proper terminology is here) in the Far East Isles back in the day so I’m sure that’s gonna become relevant at the worst possible moment. 

Brennan also curses us by unleashing Thad (Jet’s avocado pen pal boyfriend) onto the story and as soon as Jet re-meets this poncy, French-y, horny, avocado she’s like “I made a huge mistake” and later gets him to “meet her outside” so she can ditch him.   

Theo goes with Liam to check up on Primsy because he’s concerned with whatever is going on with her and that cheese boy who he learns is her traveling companion--Lord Stilton Curdeau. And it’s covered by cologne but his cheese stink is familiar. He wants to alert Amethar but Amethar is currently eyeing Basha Myaso (Warlord of the Beef Clans and ruler of all of the Meatlands) who is glaring at him. On Calroy’s advice, he squares up with Basha who implies that Candia is responsible for the false flag attack. Amethar tells him to “watch [his] fucking mouth.” Diplomacy!

Meanwhile, Lapin is with the Pontifex in the Great Food Pyramid (which is, of course, a thing). She introduces him to Sir Keradin Deeproot who is this super buff super intense carrot Paladin. We learn that Lapin isn’t an archbishop and his title of primogen comes from his status as a “miracle worker”. Apparently, Miracle working is very uncommon even though the Bulbian church is so massive. When asked, Onionpatch says that things in Vegetania are fine except that King Belvedere Cabbage is infirm. Another Priogem--this one of Cersia--joins them, the Archbishop Fettucina Alfredi who is this very classically beautiful looking, toga wearing woman with glowing eyes--she’s also a miracle worker. Lapin is like, “Oh fuck,” because if she’s magic too then she might be able to tell that he’s not actually on the level.          

Lapin veers away from Alfredi and chats up the Pontifex who says Brightgarden is OK but they're currently dealing with a murder of an archbishop in the Meatlands (the Archbishop Raddica). Lord Basha is looking for who did it and the Pontifex wants them brought to justice ASAP. Alfredi brings up the attack on the road and wonders about the rumors she heard about strange magic. Lapin, sweating bullets, lies and says that he thinks it was the work of the Bulb. On a 14 Deception from Lapin, Alfredi thinks lavender fog would be a weird Bulbian intercession. It sounds more like something a false good she’s heard about from Candia would do. What’s her name? The Sugarplum Fairy? Lapin, with a 25 Persuasion check, is able to wave that off as primitive backwoods things that he’s working to stamp out in Candia. That’s enough to get the Pontifex on his side and they go up to see the Emperor. 

Outside of his room is his daughter--Lady Plumbeline Uvano--who is lowkey very upset about something. She greets them and then takes the Pontifex in to talk to the Emperor while Lapin waits outside with Alfredi and Kerradin. When she’s done paying the respects of the church, the whole holy crew goes back to the party. Before Lapin splits off, the Pontifex does a little pull aside with him about Candia’s role in the war and how she thinks, with him at the helm, Candia is in good hands.  

At Sir Theo's suggestion, Amethar has the Candy Crew stand with the Cheese Peeps during the announcement of the tourney which is a big deal because it’s a symbol that the alliance is still on even though they were attacked by cheese bandits. Primsy introduces herself to the princesses and gives them cool, milksilk handkerchiefs she embroidered herself with a candy cane crossed with a cheese cube on a stick with their house words: There is Strength in Sweetness. She doesn’t have one for Liam but gives him hers (it has her house words: Keep Sharp) on the condition he joins the archery competition and fights for her. With not a 15 between the 6 of them (even w/ multiple help actions) none of the PCs have presents for anyone else.              

The tourney is announced. There are three events, each with a dope prize. Winner of the melee gets a boon from the emperor at the end of his rule. The winner of the archery contest gets a seat on the Cornucopian Council, the title of Master of Arrows, and is made advisor to the next emperor (which seems like a LOT to put on a person whose main skill is “can shoot arrows well” but OK sure). The winner of the joust gets to name a candidate for Emperor from any class or house they wish and their choice must be considered. Ruby and Liam join the archery contest. Theo signs up for the joust. Jet is hesitant but Amethar convinces her to join the melee with him. She also scratches “The Dairy Islands Rule!” into a piece of wood for Primsy and she’s charming enough that Primsy doesn’t think it’s a slipshod afterthought.  

An imperial courier shows up and tells Theo the Emperor wants to talk to Amethar. He brings all the PCs and Calroy. Lady Plumbeline is still outside her dad’s room and she’s still pissed. On a 24 Insight check, Theo can tell that--as I suspected from episode 1--she is pretty ticked that she has all this institutional knowledge and competence and experience but, because of an arbitrary rule, she can’t take the throne. She tells Amethar (who she met when she was a teen) that they need to limit how many people go in as to not overwhelm him. He takes Lapin and Theo (who gives Sprinkle to Jet) and goes in to talk to Uvano.

Uvano, as we already know, was another Ravening War buddy of Amethar’s and another person he’s seen piss and shit--which we learn because that’s apparently how Amethar classifies who his best friends are. They talk the way old buddies do and Uvano asks what he would say about his life taking a surprising turn. Amethar says that if it was anyone else asking, he probably wouldn’t be on board but for Uvano? He’ll do it. That’s just what he wanted to hear.   

And that’s where we end the episode without rolling initiative because the combat in the next episode is all fun and games and to quote Lou Wilson--who I suspect is about to become the wrongest person in D20 history--“It’s all sparring. Nobody is going to get killed.”

Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure.

You Should Know

Country Accents seen to be as follows: Dairy (Scottish), Meat (Russian), Fruit (French), Grain (Italian), Candy (American/British)

In the long awaited sequel to “Kristen Has -3 Dex,” Liam has a -2 to Charisma. 

Ruby speaks Lacra (Dairy-speak).

The Meatlander gods include The Great Cow, The Great Boar, and The Great Hen. 

The head beef dude has a super jacked T-Bone steak wife who I assume we’ll get a name for during the melee next episode. Update, courtesy of @fjordgofurther--we did get a name this ep. Her name is Scravoya.

The Bulbian concept of hell/the devil involves the “Hungry Ones” which just serves to underline that Brennan really did think this crazy thing all the way through and still decided to not do it but to DO it. 

Everyone levels up every episode I believe since D20 uses milestone leveling for the main seasons but Ruby and Jet leveled up twice to level 3 to help catch them up a little now that they have a story reason to be stronger. 

Things I’m Concerned About

Uvano is only in his 60s. Like, people die in their 60s but that detail casually mentioned in a setting like this always brings up the possibility of poison or some other kind of sabotage.

The second Brennan mentioned the daughter of Uvano in passing ep 1, I clocked it and the situation is basically what I was anticipating it seems. Like, of course she’s pissed. I would be too. I wonder if either the boon or the chance to offer up a candidate could be used to override the Concord rules? Either way, gotta keep an eye on her. Also, I noticed the little flippant remark she had for the Pontifex (“This is Fructerra, I’m dressed for court.”) and I don’t know if that’s distaste for the church or something more personal but it seemed interesting enough to mention. 

I know that the improvisational nature of D&D means that there’s not foreshadowing in the same way that you have in something fully set like a book or a movie but every time the Rocks family gets together for a sweet (ha) conversation (“We just want to protect you, Pop.”) I am just more and more sure we are being set up for a fall.  

Lou Wilson’s defining trait as a D&D player is doing what his character would do and letting it play out to its logical conclusion, consequences be damned--consequences be welcomed even. And Amethar is--como se dice--no Calroy when it comes to politics. I can’t imagine these facts at up to any kind of happy sum.  

Also, speaking of, I wanna trust Calroy, but I can’t. He’s too good at this. He’s too competent. He knows too much information and Amethar trusts him too much. Hope he proves me wrong but I will not be made a fool of by a slice of cake. Do you hear me Brennan? I REFUSE.    

I've only had Primsy for a week, but if anything happened to her, I would kill everyone in this room and then myself. No but, seriously, if she is just as she appears to be (and this is GoT so I guess it’s not off the table that she’s secretly like bad and it would have taken a 30 Insight check to find out) then MAN I am so scared for her. Characters who are just trying their best to do a good job are my Kryptonite and she is as much in the wrong genre as the twins are. Moreso even.  

I’m concerned Amethar has a cheesecake baby somewhere out there that’s gonna end up being a Problem. Oh my god what if one of the twins dies and their backup character is Amethar’s illegitimate kid? 

The Bulbian Church has so much power but so little magic which seems...odd. Also, just curious, what is a Paladin without divine magic? Isn’t that just a fighter?

I very much vibe with the concept of Alfredi as a character but lol I was STRESSED for Lapin during that whole conversation and I feel like that’s gonna be my default state for him all season.  

I’m concerned (or maybe just suspicious) that there’s more to the backstory with Theo and Lazuli than we heard. That little extra narration from Brennan about swearing he could feel her smile? Mmm, OK. 

Five More Things

The character art for this season cracks me up because Brennan clearly gave the artist for this season two lists and one list was labeled “Hot” and one was labeled “Ridiculous” and that’s how we got characters like Primsy and Calroy in the same scene as Anabelle and Grissini and the funniest part is Brennan’s absolute refusal to play any of these characters like they’re any more or less ridiculous than any of the others. He’s like, “The hot pasta woman is valid and the talking cheese cube is EQUALLY VALID.” 

“Not this season. Not season five.” Very bold of Brennan to be outraged about Emily trying to ride a living sprinkle dog like that's the ridiculous thing about a world with a living sprinkle dog.

The Sucorsi Road running into the Glucian Road for Sucrose and Glucose is the kind of worldbuilding detail that I love. 

I was gonna be so mad at Brennan for the nonsense that is the name “Belizabeth” but he said on Adventuring Party that he was specifically dunking on GRRM with that so he gets a pass this time. 

You know that famous Pixar meeting/lunch where they came up with Bugs Life, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, and Wall-E in one conversation? I bet Brennan had a similar brainstorming sesh where he came up with Garthy, Anabelle, and two other thirst traps that haven’t been introduced yet. Like come on. He described her hair as, “princely”? Brennan is trying to kill some of y’all. 

[silvershears]

Alright, listen. This book honks. And I want to talk about why. No, I'm not getting into the book review scene, but please indulge me.

I never had any intention of reading this book. I'll be up front with that.

A new coworker is a newish fantasy reader who, upon discovering that I am a long-time fantasy reader who also writes and has some vague publishing background, asked, "Would you read this book and tell me what you think? I haven't read it yet, but I'm curious to hear your opinion."

Sure. Why not. I was only 50 pages into the book I was reading at the time, so why not put that on pause and give this a go? This became infinitely more complicated by the fact that my new coworker is acquaintances with his wife, and then add in that I've met this author, had a bad interaction, and decided I never wanted to read his books. Nevertheless, I was determined to give it a go anyway, and I wavered for a while on whether to even include that background here.

Wasn't I already predisposed to not like this book? Perhaps. But this book was an excellent learning opportunity, if not a good story, and I think it's important for us all to approach books we don't like this way: Each time I ran hard up against my own disgust, I paused to ask myself why I felt that way. What was it about the story, the writing, the character, the plot, the world that made me react this way, and how did that interact with the author's intent?

First of all, a disclaimer: This will have spoilers. If you intended to check this book out, perhaps don't continue further until you've read it yourself. Maybe then come back and compare your experience to mine.

> The worldbuilding is based on two-dimensional lore.

The world is comprised of what appears to be three human races split along religious lines. The three sibling gods each have their own race of followers with some individuals inheriting the magical power of their god. One is a magic associated with air and water with a father/older brother god figure; the next is a mother/middle sister associated with fire and light; the third is a little brother associated with... the hard labor of forging? It's unclear what he originally stood for, but by the time the immense lore dumps are complete, we see the little brother's transformation from a highly skilled craftsperson who takes immense pleasure in crafting gifts to his siblings into a petty, angry god bent on chaos and destruction of his siblings' domains.

What brings on this transformation? The gift of a song.

He is so enraged that his siblings gave him a song instead of a physical item like he gave them that he goes into a rage, evicts himself from the metaphorical house, and goes to live in the bowels of the world where he can forge in peace. He goes on to create all the various fantasy creature races in the world like dragons, fae, constructs, shadow demons, etc.

And his name? Keos. He's the chaos god and his name is Keos. I can forgive a poor name here an there—perhaps he never said them out loud—but add in that the sister's light/fire magic is called lumen—y'know, like what lightbulbs are measured in—and I have concerns.

Naming problems aside, the entire world's history and the racial relations all stem from a god's immensely childish reaction to a gift. I am well aware that many deity lore can be goofy or based on overblown reactions to things, but it feels so thin and flimsy that to prop the whole world and its cultures on top of it could not stand.

> Ableism is pervasive in the culture.

The story starts off with a prologue, which, as a concept, is not inherently a problem, but it was my first clue that this was not the story for me. In this world, being disfigured in any way physically marks you as an agent of the chaos god. Either these agents are killed or ostracized in order to better mitigate any mischief and evil they may commit or bring to their community. We are immediately thrust into this intensely ableist world with the birth of a child missing a hand and part of a forearm. The parents are killed and the baby taken to the woods to die.

I hate it already.

The author, being the sort of person to review their own book, states in his lengthy review: "Whatever you do, don't think for a moment that I'm blind to the tropes I've chosen to use. They serve a purpose and are conscious choices."

If this is the case—that he's aware of his tropes and they are purposeful—he must also be aware of the statement he's making by having all disabled and disfigured be labeled as evil ne'er-do-wells. Because this story takes place almost entirely within the small town of Chaenbalu where these beliefs are rampant, we're lead to believe that this is the way the whole world works. We get one glimpse of the outside world where it mentions a larger prevalence of disabled and disfigured individuals, but it's so brief and not at all explored that our understanding of the world goes mostly unchanged.

Is this part of Call's subversion of tropes? Perhaps Chaenbalu is indeed a backwards town, holding on to old traditions that the rest of the world has left behind, but the characters are so isolated they wouldn't know—and therefore we don't know whether that's the case. Bad news: It's so distasteful that I'm not interested in reading more to find out if it's just Chaenbalu that's the issue. I'm so put off by the whole concept.

> Every female character is cardboard, and they all die.

Centered in Chaenbalu is the Academy, a school with two gendered factions: the witwomen and the Master Avatars. (You'll notice that the sexism starts right off the bat with the fact that Masters get capitalized but witwoman does not.) The witwomen are trained midwives and kidnappers, sent out into the world to collect children and bring them back to the Academy as a "reap" or class of new students. The students are told that their parents submitted them to the Academy's care in a boarding-school-type thing, but that's spoiled in the prologue as being untrue.

Unfortunately, we don’t get a chance to really explore what it is the witwomen are up to, or what any of the women are like. There is only one female character with any amount of on-screen time, and even that is negligible. She acts as nothing more than a plot device, which I’ll talk about later, functioning only as an object for the main character to lust after. Anytime she is described, it is with delicate detail paid to her soft, plump, pink lips, the breasts, the hips. At every turn, she’s sexualized—and perhaps that’s due to the main character’s gaze being the narration we receive, but even in the epilogue scene when our main character is not present, the author continues to describe her this way, so perhaps it’s not a function of the main character at all. She receives no further development than who her father is, what her body is like, and how much she dislikes those marked by Keos, aka, the disabled and disfigured.

The other witapprentices and witwomen appear for two scenes, and by the end of the book, they are all dead in the midst of an attack on the Academy that serves only to move the main character's story forward. Without this attack, he would never have a story worth telling in a book. Without their deaths, the attack would not have happened. And even the romantic interest is faux-killed in order to provoke a specific emotional reaction in the main character to move the character's development forward.

> The characters are shallow.

While I can't guarantee that this problem is due to the two-dimensional worldbuilding, I personally feel they're probably related. There are a couple of friend characters around and a mentor that are all lacking in development, but let me focus on the main character.

The male students train at the Academy with the goal of becoming avatars, and then later, Master Avatars. As avatars, they are expected to go out on secret missions to retrieve magical artifacts and, if the artifact is a "dark artifact,"—that is, if it's built to do harm to another person, and by lore belongs to Keos—murder its owner.

The main character is one such student, testing to become an avatar, and worse yet, if he doesn't pass his test this go-around, he'll never be able to become an avatar and he'll instead be relegated to steward status, taking care of the upkeep of the Academy. And of course, no one wants to be a steward! You'd be a servant to everyone, and where's the action-packed fun in that?

But our main character has a motivation even more powerful than the dread of being a steward: a girl. Not just any girl. The headmaster's daughter.

To be fair, this book is not advertised as a romance. Which is good, because it's not a romance. The main character has a deadly crush. He even has a promise ring forged, ready to give it to her when he passes his test and becomes an avatar. His love for this girl is so powerful for him that it's quite literally all he thinks about, but because she's the headmaster's daughter and is also a witapprentice, he hardly ever sees her, and the times we do get them in the same scene, it's plain this relationship will literally never work out.

She may not know about his missing half an arm thanks to a magical prosthetic, but it's clear she holds on to the old ableist traditions with positive glee and with the same strength as a hippo's jaw. While our main character pines after her and even eventually when they are engaged, we are telegraphed again and again that it will never last, that she is a horrible person, and that she will never accept him with his missing hand. We know this and we watch the main character acknowledge this so many times that it is a failing of the plot that there is even a chance for her to betray him.

Which she does, of course.

This goes back to the author's assertion that he's aware of his tropes and to trust him in his plan. He sets up a male lead and throws the only female character at him, establishing the possibility for a romance—a common trope—and molds that romance into the core motivation for the male lead. She is his reason for wanting to succeed, and he waxes poetical about how terrible it would be if A) someone else got her first, or B) he didn't pass the test and he couldn't be with her. They must fall in love, yes? The author also tries to convince us that she is a likeable person, a person worthy of his devotion, all the while foreshadowing with a heavy hand that she's, frankly, ableist, racist, and a terrible person who is not at all worthy of his devotion. Ah-hah, a subversion! They are not at all meant to be together!

The problem is that she repeatedly shows her hand as a garbage human in front of him an innumerable amount. We the audience dislike her so intensely that to have her as the main character’s sole motivation is laughable. Perfectly inconceivable. A true weakness in the foundation of the plot that’s so profound that if the story struggled to stand on its weak worldbuilding, it almost certainly cannot stand on this. Her betrayal is so blatantly obvious and inevitable that his surprise is outrageous, and his hurt comes not with sympathy from us but absolute incredulity.

> The author’s prejudices taint the writing, and the writing needs editing.

I won’t talk too much in depth about a scene in which the romantic interest is stunned and the main character performs a grossly sexualized search of her body, but I will point out that later, the author writes, “he relived the seconds they had shared in the shadows...” There was no sharing of moments. She was stunned. There was nothing romantic about it.

Later, the main character is sent out on an assassination mission. The author writes, “He wondered what kind of a man he was about to kill - good or evil, father or bachelor - and whether the man would struggle.” Ah yes, an unmarried man. The opposite of having children. Of course, how silly of me to consider that being unmarried precludes me from having children, or that being married means I must have children.

At another time, a character who is well known to wear an eyepatch is described as “winking at him with his one eye.” I’m sorry, author, but that’s just blinking. I could have given him the benefit of the doubt that perhaps he’d forgotten this character is missing an eye and wears an eyepatch if not for the “with his one eye.” The author knew what he was doing.

These moments aside, many scenes dwell in the melodramatic, letting emotion set the scenes awash in a horribly garish light that fails to give the scenes their weight. The point of view was pretty tight to the main character, but with odd moments where it split away to document events that happened outside of that character’s view, even within scenes where the main character is present. It felt a bit sloppy. Passive voice is rampant, with sentences and whole scenes in dire need of better editing. “Myjun was walking in step with her father...” “His flyssa was caught by Annev’s flamberge...” It made the writing dull—hobbled by too many words that meant too little, and too specific of words amidst their plain neighbors that made it dissonant.

> The plot is overstretched.

This book is 576 pages. At page 250, something occurred that made me think that perhaps I’d just witnessed the inciting incident and that now the plot would begin. At page 330, I thought the same thing. At page 400, I thought the same thing. At page 525, I realized with a jolt that I was witnessing what this book would consider the climax, and I could put what happened at page 400 the inciting incident. Until that point, there was no clear indication of what the plot actually was, and there were at least 300 pages of unnecessary story.

I understand from a bit of research that this is intended to be the first of a four part series. Realizing that puts the entire plot of this book into perspective. This climax is the point of no return for the series, with a 500-page lead up. With a bit better editing and a cleaner line, this book could have been immensely less frustrating. Perhaps all these things that bother me are the point of the book—perhaps the next books in the series will overthrow some of these expectations as the main character ventures outside Chaenbalu and sees what the rest of the world is really like. Perhaps.

Do I trust that the author will do that? No.

Am I interested enough to continue reading this series to see if it gets better? No. Do I hope it does? Sincerely. I may not like the author, and I may not have liked this book, but there are people who do and I respect that. I hope it meets their satisfaction. It’s not for me.

Do I regret reading this over the last month instead of the book I was reading and will go back to reading? Surprisingly, no. I hated it, don’t get me wrong, but I also learned a lot about why I hate it—what made it not work—and I think there’s value there, too.

[blackevermore]

Jojo Sona info dump

Name: Chiara Maka Le'Roy Namesake: Chiara - French for Light/Brightest // Le’Roy - French (Leroy) for ‘The King’ Nicknames: Chia Pet (Mista) Chi (naturally) Age: 21 Birthday: 05/07 Zodiac Sign: Taurus Chinese Zodiac: Rabbit

Personality:  INTP-T /  Logician - short patience - stubborn - a big on the loud side - turbulent -/+ blunt and straight forward -/+ Introverted -/+ very cautious and questions things -/+ sective empathy and sympathy  + Intuitive + Enthusiastic + Friendly

Stand: [Truth Hurts] - Mid range attacker

💥 Addictive | This stand is able to numb the motor system in the nervous system with binaural beats that makes them dance nonstop in a relax trance. When the victim is subdued the user can set off internal explosions in the Neurons causing crippling pains in targeted areas of the body when made contract with.

the learned ability would be enhancing the explosions and leading them to the heart for a very painful heart attack and up towards the brain for brain cramping migraines (this would take a lot of training due to the user suffering a blowback if not powerful enough)

Another addition of this attack for the nervous system explosions are when the user lands an attack in the same place three times can shock the nerves in that limb/area rendering it unless

💥 Teleport | The stand can move its user in a teleporting way by blocking the visual motors in the eyes for short periods of time. To the person being distracted they just see veils flying over their eyes.

💥 Playback | The user can change the tone of their voice to mind control someone as long as they stays within 30 feet of each other. The farther away the victim gets from the user the weaker the hold on them gets, once they step out of bound they can pull out of the hold but are left confused and dazed.

Background

[Before GW]

x Born in Cameroon near the western region in a small village north of Yaounde to a well off mother who married an upcoming drug dealer. When she was born she was the youngest sister to her twin brother, this was considered a bad omen in many different tribes in Africa. Although her mother wanted to keep both of the children her father took it into his hands and decided that one of the twins would be killed in order to rebalance their "luck". Chiara was picked to be the one to die since girls aren't really seen as that important within the tribe while boys can easily be taught trade and what not. But the night Chiara was meant to die the wrong baby was picked and the boy was killed instead. The following morning was when it was discovered the mistake was made. Her mother knew that due to the mix up they would try and kill Chiara so she planned to flee from the village. But when she spoke to a voudou priest he told her that Chiara was protected by a floating spirit that refused to leave her side. The priest told her that since the spirit would leave, capture it and have the baby wear the spirit as a protect against all evils.

x The father found out the mother's plans and wanted to aid her but didn't know how but then he was told what the priest said and thought it was best to follow through with capturing the spirit. Her father took the only thing that was valuable to him which was his mother's emerald necklace and broke it apart get the gem. When they captured the spirit it didn't put up much of a fight and went willingly. What Chiara's mother didn't know was how to get the baby to wear the necklace at all time without it being broken. They thought of many things but nothing seemed to be reasonable without breaking the gem down again to make earrings but that might release the spirit. So they spoke to the priest for suggestions and the priest took the gem and magically implaneted it in the back of Chiara's neck

x Throughout her years of growing up there were always signs of bad luck that seemed to follow Chiara. She would be bullied by other students who parents told them not to talk to her and she would be yelled at by elders to get away bc they didn't watch to catch what followed her. Chiara couldn't see her "protector" but the elders could and they thought it was death hanging over the girls head.  Eventually, when Chiara was 10 her father had made it up the latter of ranks in the underground world that he sent her and her mother away to the states to live new lives. In the states  Chiara did have a better childhood but she was still treated weird for the gem in her neck.

x When she was 15 she went back to Cameroon to visit her father and was nearly killed when she was spotted in the market. The attacker blamed her for their parents' death with was the result of a bad drug deal from her father. Chia quickly returned home and grew to hate her father for what he was doing. She even developed bad self esteem for how much of a bad omen she was due to being a twin. This made her somewhat bitter towards her life.

x When she was 18 she wanted to travel to Europe for graduating high school. Her father offered to pay for the trip as long as she had someone there to watch over her. Chia didn’t think anything of it and took the offer, when she arrived in Italy she was already being waited on by two strange men who were younger than her. Bruno and Leone. She hated the idea that two 17 year olds were watching her which made her cause trouble. Leone was the first to put his foot in her ass and tell her the only reason they had to look after her was because her father was signing a deal with their boss (no off the info was shared) and Chiara ended up having a break down while in Italy. For a few days of her trip she locked herself away in her room and didn't go anywhere.

x It was Bruno who popped Abba upside the head and managed to get inside Chiara's hotel room but that lead to Bruno having to face off with her now discovered stand Truth Hurts ( not Lizzo ) who was protecting Chiara from anyone who tried to get close. After coaxing Chiara to stand down and trust him Bruno managed to comfort her and coax her out of her room with a deep heart to heart yada yada

x The last two days of her trip was her apologizing to Bruno and Abba grumpily apologising to her for cussing her out. From then on out she found new friends in the two and would often chat with them when she could. Within the next year she was traveling to Italy for vacations and meeting the new members of Bruno's gang

x In the year before the canon lore of GW Chiara enrolled in university in communications major and English minor. Bruno helped her find her passion in not only in herself her in what was around her. Her major issue was always feeling like she actually was a bad omen and her desire were to one day find her meaning and be her true self not only for herself but those around her.

x During the events of GW Bruno tried to cut ties with Chiara to protect her from being connected with him and it worked for the most part and she was really depressed because she realized she loved him. While he was gone living his upmost dangerous life she was in Italy hanging on to false hope that he was still alive (he betrayed his boss and was now wanted dead or mostly dead along with his team)

[After GW and everyone lives >:G]

x Neither Bruno or Chiara confess their feelings in words but in actions and a long kiss outside Bruno's hangout spot it obvious they are a thing and she becomes the second mom to the group and "adopts" Narancia and Giorno. It was also the first time Mista got to met her in person.

x She also becomes an activist to stop the slaughter of twins throughout Africa and with the help of Don Gio she is able to accomplish a lot more than she could by herself. She also helps stops the drug smuggling from Africa to Italy with taking over the northern part of her father’s routes and shutting them down. 

[ Trivia!! ]

x Chiara tends to not voice it but when bad things do happen she thinks its because of her. If too many bad things happen at once she’ll distance herself from people.

x She knows her stand is hers but sometimes she talks to it like it’s her brother or a brother figure.

x She is a strong ride or die, she also feels strongly about people being abandon and having to make it on their own. She has a bad habit of babying Naracia that Bruno constantly tells her to stop doing.

x Kelpto, there was a phase in her life she was feeling rebelous and would steal things for temporary happiness. Old habits die hard and Brunp has to tell her to put things back a lot.

x She loves the fashy fashion life style and will not hesitate to spend someone else's money.

x Her pride is in her nails, which she gets done with fancy designs, if she breaks on you better fucking move.

x Has a strong attitude and when she starts counting “your red flags” and makes it to three you have crossed her patience line. 

x Should be wearing glasses but she wear contacts. On her down days she wears her glasses.

x Loves music and will play RnB on Bruno’s cleaning days

x She loves to dance, learning new dances, making dances, all of it. She was clown you in Just Dance in a heart beat. She can’t sit still and always has to move.

x She’s a kid at heart so sometimes Bruno is raising 6 kids and a grumpy teenager (Abba)

@gunkyengines​ @kapperson​

[tsundokutouched-blog]

Review: The Mistborn Trilogy

A warning for the wise: if you have an exam coming up, and need to study, do not read this series. Should you be planning what books to pack for a trip away with friends, put this series down; it can wait. Your social life and your trip will thank you. But, if you are like me and perfectly enjoy stabbing yourself in the foot and finding yourself awake at 3 A.M. the night before a big exam, reading what you swear is the last chapter for the day, then please, pick up The Final Empire. Don’t say I didn’t warn you though.

Mistborn follows the story of Vin, an orphaned street thief who finds herself adopted into a band of thieves planning the biggest heist in recorded history, one which, should all go well, would end with a slave uprising, the fall of the nobility, and the coup of the tyrannical, and supposedly immortal Lord Ruler. The series is well balanced with fast paced action, mystery, and a healthy enough dose of classic fantasy trope subversion to keep readers continuously on their toes. To say anything more would be to spoil, but suffice to say, this was all I required to pick up the first book.

Set in a grim world only just entering its industrial age, Mistborn lies squarely within the realm of high fantasy. And in that genre, Sanderson effortlessly marks himself out from his peers. His worldbuilding is exquisite: each city we enter feels alive and different, and the different cultures and religions are all superbly fleshed out. Sanderson knows just how long to spend worldbuilding too. He knows just when we require a cursory glance and the illusion of depth, versus the times we require more detail to make the world seem believable. Unlike many authors, he knows not to bore with information dumps, opting rather instead to weave the lore seamlessly into the narrative, occasionally having the characters asking the same questions as the reader, a situation which in less capable hands would seem garish and annoying, but he manages to keep it intriguing.

What is most outstanding about his worldbuilding however is his magic system. I have heard Allomancy to be described as a Full Metal Alchemist-esque magic system, in the way that there are, to an almost scientific degree, rules that both the readers and the characters know of, and yet still enough mystery and vagueness that it remains magical. The rules also make sure that the magic can never be used as a deus ex machina to get our protagonists out of trouble easy. Allomancy is also unique in how it works - it has the benefit of being an incredibly simple idea done very well. And when we start encountering Allomantic fights, Sanderson never once fails to make you feel the breakneck pace of the combat, or the heightened danger, or the incredible power wielded by the Allomancers; and he never slows it down with unnecessary collateral destruction. Pages of fighting flip by in seconds and leave you standing breathless among the corpses of our hero’s enemies.

Speaking of heroes, the series’ biggest selling point is arguably it’s protagonist. In a genre plagued by the frankly uncomfortable number of male protagonists and underdeveloped female characters, Vin stands squarely apart. She is incredibly well fleshed out: strong, vulnerable, feminine, and badass, with none of the sexist “not like other girls” bullshit. She is her own character, with her own agency, flaws, insecurities, likes and dislikes and is just a very believably written girl, albeit with super powers. The other characters too are never boring or interchangeable, and the character dynamics come across vividly the moment they set foot in the scene. The one gripe I would put forward is that, in concentrating on making Vin a well-rounded character, Sanderson fell victim to the classic blunder of not including many other prominent female roles. While other female characters do exist, it is arguable if all the books pass Bedchel, which although not the best of markers, is still disappointing. Sanderson has, however, expressed his regret at this oversight, and is working to make sure his other books are better. And while this is most definitely a flaw in the series, it is not one I would consider a deal breaker, especially when given how well Vin, and indeed, the rest of the entire series is written.

Another point I would like to touch upon may verge into spoiler territory. I shall be as vague as possible, but if you do not wish your reading experience be tainted at all, I suggest you skip the upcoming paragraph.

One thing Sanderson did well in this series, which I have seen few authors do this well, is deal with an explicitly mentally ill character. At one point in the series, a character falls into depression. They lose all motivation and purpose in their life, and each day becomes a chore for them. Thanks to the writing, you can really feel the sheer slog of depression, the completely lifelessness of the characters’ existence, get into their skin in a way that is eye opening for those who have never experienced it, and comforting for those who have, altogether without drying the narrative flow, or becoming a dead weight. It is something small, but handled well, and for someone like me who deals with depression, a comfort to read.

Overall, The Mistborn Trilogy is a masterclass in high fantasy literature. The worldbuilding is top notch, the characters are flawed, believable and ultimately lovable, the magic inventive and immersive, and the fights pristine. Whether you are a veteran fantasy fan looking for something different from the classic sword-and-sorcery, or a teenager who needs a good female role model in their books, I could not recommend Mistborn enough. It will grab you tight, and take you on an adventure you will not be able to put down, and leave you three books later emotionally compromised in the best of ways.

Scores

Mistborn: The Final Empire: 9.5/10

Mistborn: The Well of Ascension: 9.0/10

Mistborn: The Hero of Ages: 8.5/10

Overall: 9.5/10

(Note: Overall score is not an average, but rather a mark of how well each of the books tie into and enhance each other and how complete the series feels)

[Instagram]

[hannah-deserved-better]

Fan Fics

I have been focusing on my fanfictions and I wanted to introduce them to you. They are all long multi-chapter series fics. You can find them all on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TruthfulNomad

I have three Supernatural fics, one Hobbit fic, and two crossovers. One is a Supernatural/Hobbit crossover and the other is a dystopian themed multi-fandom fic with Supernatural/Hobbit/Star Trek DS9, TNG, and VOY, X-files, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 

Below is a short summary of the fic along with a short description of each pairing involved in each fic. They are all Castiel/Hannah focused, of course, but there are a lot of other pairings in each one as well. Please read the AO3 tags as all my fics tend to be dark themed and although most are still in the beginning stages, they usually get pretty violent and disturbing.

Supernatural fics

Chosen

This is a complete rewrite of the show starting with season one. It’s AU in some big ways. It starts with Sam and Dean shortly after they left Stanford after Jess’s death. Along the way, they run into Castiel (almost literally since he was laying in the middle of the highway). They also meet up with Charlie who in this fic, is Bobby’s daughter and was raised as Sam and Dean’s little cousin. Castiel explains that a renegade angel has released Lucifer and some demons from hell and started the apocalypse. Meanwhile, Jo Harvelle runs into the renegade angel who happens to be Hannah who had been set up by Raphael and is now on the run from heaven. Jo meets with Eileen Leahy and Meg. Both groups discover that it’s not just heaven and hell, but other realms that are kickstarting their own apocalypses and need champions. The Greek gods, the Norse gods, the Celts, Egyptians, Aztecs, and Hindu gods all have a stake in these characters.

Pairings

Castiel and Hannah: Castiel and Hannah start off as enemies in this one. Hannah is the renegade angel and Castiel was sent to find and kill her. Castiel’s world gets turned around when he realizes that heaven is at the center of a conspiracy scandal and that Hannah was the one who was betrayed. 

Dean/Jo: Jo and Dean start out as adversaries. At the time, Jo is dating the hunter Gordon Walker, who turns out to have some ulterior motives. But Jo has sworn to protect Hannah from the angels which puts her in conflict with Castiel and with the Winchesters. 

Sam/Eileen: Eileen has allied herself with Jo and Hannah and her knowledge of witchcraft makes Sam uncomfortable. But she is a well-traveled hunter with extensive knowledge of lore and this intrigues Sam. But Sam is still grieving for Jess and is reluctant to be in another relationship.

Crowley/Meg: Meg starts out as a spy. She allies herself with Jo and Hannah and is spying for Lucifer, but she develops a bond for the women she’s supposed to be undermining. Crowley is out for himself and doesn’t want the apocalypse to happen so he helps the Winchesters. Crowley and Meg start out as bitter enemies, both willing to torture and kill the other. 

Charlie/Anna/Rowena: Charlie encounters the fallen angel Anna after she and Castiel were left in the motel while the Winchesters went to investigate a crime. Anna doesn’t know she’s an angel and doesn’t know what has drawn her to this town. Later, after meeting up with Jo’s team, Charlie becomes acquainted with Rowena.

Maine Chronicles

This story takes place sometime in season 14. It’s AU, as are all of my fics. In this fic, the empty is releasing angels and demons because it’s becoming unstable. Many old enemies and friends are returning to Earth. The Winchesters relocate to another bunker deep in the woods of Maine, but when they do, they fall victim to something strange that’s happening in the small town. All the women in town are getting pregnant. The Winchesters suspect supernatural involvement, especially when Hannah, Jo, Eileen, and later, Meg all fall victim to this town’s plight. 

Pairings

Castiel and Hannah: Castiel and Hannah have been together ever since she returned from the empty. Hannah is the first victim of this town and since angels aren’t supposed to be able to get pregnant, they wonder what magical forces might be at work here. Especially since Hannah begins having visions and seeing spirits. There’s evidence that Hannah has been in this town before in the past, and that her memory has been tampered with.

Dean/Jo: Jo comes back to life mysteriously. But she doesn’t exactly come back normal. She and Dean are together at the beginning of the story but she hasn’t told him everything about how long she’s really been back, or what she really is. She didn’t come back human.

Jo/Charlie: Charlie learns about Jo’s secret and the two are trying to keep it from Dean. The two begin to get closer and form a relationship which they also keep secret from Dean, at least at first. 

Sam/Eileen/Gabriel/Rowena: Eileen also returned to life not quite human, but she is only now becoming aware of it. She’s developing some strange symptoms. She and Sam are together, but when Gabriel arrives wanting protection from Loki whom he dumped after the Asmodeus incident, he and Sam start having feelings for one another. This results in a threesome with some supernatural consequences. Later, Rowena arrives and the four of them get together.

Crowley/Meg: Meg arrives first, with Jesse the cambion. Then Crowley arrives, having been deposed as king of hell. He reveals that he knows a little about Meg’s past as a demon and as a human and that it’s connected with this town and with Hannah’s visions. The two start out as adversaries that are reluctantly forced to work together, as Crowley has an interest in Jesse, hoping he can use the cambion to get his position back in hell.

Claire/Kaia: Claire is de-aged in this fic and is a minor. Castiel gets custody of her but the law is watching them closely because he’s being accused of abandoning her. Claire has some behavioral problems and she and Hannah butt heads. Kaia is a teen runaway whose powers have kept her on the run. Charlie takes her in and petitions to adopt her.

Jack/Jesse: Jack is going to high school. Since the law is watching Castiel so closely, he is unable to live in the bunker with the Winchesters. He and Hannah have their own house in an abandoned property. Jack lives with them and is trying to learn how to be a human teenage boy, even though he’s only 2. Jesse arrives with Meg who has been looking after him so the two start going to school together.

Bunker Pack

Castiel is on a mission to save the angels from extinction. This fic takes place in season 13. Apocalypse Charlie arrives with three of her most trusted fellow resistance leaders. Jo Harvelle and Eileen Leahy have suffered at the hands of Michael’s angels. And Hannah, who betrayed Raphael to help the humans, has developed a deep hatred for her own kind. These women are nothing like their real-world counterparts. They have been hardened by the harsh realities of their world. Castiel finds Gabriel and the two devise a plan to put the remaining angels into a safe home situation and to lockdown heaven. The plan involves a lot of ingredients and a lot of sacrifices. 

Castiel and Hannah: Hannah is a shell of what her real-world counterpart was. She has suffered and has some very bad PTSD. She and Castiel begin a very strained relationship because she has trouble trusting him, especially because she has had a run-in with his Apocalypse world counterpart. She is reluctant to help the angels in any way. Castiel is trying to help her heal and learn to trust again.

Dean/Jo: Jo and Dean butt heads from the beginning. They have a few one night stands usually followed by massive blow out fights. 

Sam/Eileen: Sam is worried about getting involved with Eileen because he is afraid of losing her. Eileen has had some trauma of her own but she seems to be handling it differently than Hannah and Jo. 

Charlie/Claire: Charlie meets Claire in the bunker and lets her tag along with them, much to Dean’s chagrin. Dean doesn’t want Claire involved in their plans in any way. But Claire proves herself and she and the leader of the resistance form a special bond.

Jack/Annika (OC): Annika is a Nephilim and Gabriel’s secret daughter. She and Jack meet later when Sam and Castiel take her to the apocalypse world where Jack is trapped.

Hobbit fics

Kings and Masters

Takes place after the battle of the five armies. In the aftermath of the battle, Thorin and his nephews are injured and take refuge in a private home owned by the Laketown master. Fili and Kili are recovering from serious injuries and are both shell shocked from all they had gone through. While with the master, they befriend two of his servants whose past seems mysterious. It becomes clear that the master might be guilty of abusing these two servants of his. 

Fili/Brenna (OC): Fili is recovering from a back injury that has left him paralyzed. His morale is low and he is having a hard time coping with the prospect of having a permanent disability. Brenna is a brash young woman. She’s one of the two servants living in the masters home. She is a Gnome from the far north of Middle Earth. 

Kili/Asphodel (OC): Kili is dealing with his own trauma and has developed a breathing problem because of his injury. He befriends the hobbit girl who has been their nurse while they recover. But he knows the dwarves would never accept their relationship. And when it is discovered that the girl is actually Bilbo’s niece, it seems their love is destined to end in heartbreak.

Crossovers

Of Wings and Beards

(SPN/Hobbit)

Four paths across middle earth begin to intersect. This takes place between season 7 and 8, after Castiel’s incident with the Leviathans. Instead of going to purgatory, they all end up in Middle Earth. Meanwhile, Fili and Kili are left homeless orphans after orcs destroyed their village. They embark on a journey with Thorin in hopes of finding a new home.

Castiel and Hannah: Castiel arrives in Middle Earth with no memory of who he is. He meets Hannah, who has been trapped in Middle Earth ever since the civil war with Raphael. Hannah was part of Raphael’s army against Castiel, but when she tried to defect from Raphael, he banished her to Middle Earth. They begin their alliance on board a cargo ship where they are abused by the crew.

Crowley/Meg: Crowley and Meg had disappeared during the battle with Dick Roman, Crowley had kidnapped her and intended to return to hell to torture her but due to leviathan interfearance, their ‘route to hell’ was redirected and they became trapped in Middle Earth. They meet up with Castiel and Hannah after boarding the cargo ship they were on. Crowley is still bent on torturing Meg and Meg still plans to stab him in the face but for now, they are forced to work together to get out of Middle Earth and to help Castiel and Hannah. Through their traveling together, they begin to get closer.

Dean/Jo: Dean and Sam were both blasted into Middle Earth after defeating Dick Roman. They arrived in Rohan where they are escorted to Edoras by the Rohirrim. There, they discover Jo Harvelle who was brought back to life by Osiris but dropped off in Middle Earth. She has been working as a bar maiden in Rohan ever since.

Sam/Eileen: Eileen is another bar maiden and she and Jo are very close. Sam has never met Eileen at this point, but she was blasted to Middle Earth after a run in with some fairies. 

Kili/Asphodel: Kili meets Asphodel while he and his brother are recovering in the Shire. Asphodel and her mother Azalea join the dwarves on their search for a home, along with Bilbo.

Fili/Brenna: the dwarves and Hobbits meet Brenna and her mother Bringen after they are captured by slave mongers and sold to a cargo vessel (the same one that Castiel and Hannah had escaped from not long before). 

Charlie/Dorothy/Gilda: This is an AU in which instead of Dorothy being released from the MOL bunker, she was released by Charlie accidentally, along with the witch. The two of them tried to return to Oz but ended up in Middle Earth instead and Charlie meets Gilda the fairy. Who was exiled there from the fairy realm.

Brave new worlds

(SPN, Hobbit, X-files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Trek TNG, DS9, VOY)

End of season 14. Castiel dies and goes back to the empty where he is woken up by Billie. Billie explains that Chuck has destroyed the fabric of the universe and has let multiple universes interact, causing a devastating reaction. Billie sends Castiel, Jack, and the Winchesters back to Earth, along with a few friends, in order to try to fix things. Meanwhile, on this botched planet, Captain Picard is living with Captain Janeway, Kira Nerys and other remnants of their crews on an Earth that has been devastated by the Dominion and the Borg. In this changed timeline, the Dominion won the war and destroyed the federation leaving Earth a desolate post-apocalypse world. Inhabitants from Middle Earth and other ‘Earths” are finding themselves in this world. This is a collection of one-shots, short ficts, and drabbles centered around this dystopian theme.

Castiel and Hannah: Hannah is happy to see Castiel after he brought her back from the empty but she is sad to see the state of the world after she left it. She reunites with her old vessel, Caroline and joins Castiel and Jack.

Dean/Jo: Dean is angry at Castiel after Cas brought all these angels and demons back from the empty but he is happy to see Jo and Eileen were revived from heaven in the process.

Sam/Eileen: Sam is happy to see Eileen again 

Crowley/Meg: Crowley and Meg were both revived from the empty. Meg immediately wants to kill Crowley for their past and is angry to discover that he’s been working with the Winchesters up until his own death. She also finds herself in a rivalry with Hannah over Castiel.

Angel/Buffy: In Buffy’s world, this apocalypse happened shortly after the destruction of Sunnydale. She reunited with Angel and she and Willow set out to rid the world of vampires once and for all.

Charlie/Willow: Willow used her magic to track vampires across the country while the world around them fell apart. 

Mulder/Scully: Mulder and Scully’s world ended in season 7 when the syndicate helped launch a few nuclear weapons in order to distract the world from the alien invasion.

Picard/Crusher: The Enterprise was in the frontlines in the defense against Earth. Earth fell to the Dominion and the enterprise was destroyed. Picard, Crusher, Troi, and Riker were in an escape pod and they have been living on this devastated Earth ever since.

Kira/Odo: After the dominion won, they occupied Bajor and Kira and Odo tried to fight back but they left to help Dax and Bashir retake Earth and ended up trapped on the planet along with many others.

Janeway/Chakotay: Voyager arrived back in the alpha quadrant only to find the federation destroyed. 

Tom/B’Elanna/Jadzia Dax/Bashir/Riker/Troi:  After the small band of humans are forced to live in the cave, relationships begin to form. Riker and Troi are back together, Tom and B’Elanna are together, and Dax and Bashir recently got together after she was separated from Worf who is presumed to be dead along with the rest of the Defiant crew. Then, Dax, Troi, and B’Elanna started seeing each other and it is going to evolve slowly into a six part poly ship.

[patheticphallacy]

It was a busy bee month for me!

While I took a semi-break from blogging- which means I limited myself to only 1 or 2 posts a week, instead of my usual 3 or 4- I took that time to plan out future blog posts (June, specifically) and read a lot.

#PanelAThon happened, which was the absolute best time. I smashed my TBR, in my opinion. Comic-heavy read-a-thons seem to suit me best, so I know how to sort my TBR for future read-a-thons now!

I also started up a brand new Bookstagram which I’m very proud of, even if my sister is helping me with most of the pictures due to her better camera quality. It’s like a project for us both, really: I provide the books and the good cat content, and she helps me position the shots and take pretty pictures!

Towards the end of the month I went to a gig that my best friend’s boyfriend was doing with his band, which was a great time. I also moved my things out of my Uni house! Next year, I’m living in a flat by myself, which is very expensive but will hopefully be worth it.

In June, I’ll be predominantly reading LGBT+ books, which I talked about more in my Pride Month TBR post! I can’t guarantee I’ll finish everything, though, as my twentieth birthday is on the 18th June and I’ll be spending the last two weeks of the month basically with only friends and family for the entire time, which I’m really looking forward to.

Also, last off: all my posts this month are twenty themed. So it’s all lists of twenty things, catered around my birthday and also my general life. I really hope you’ll check the posts out as they come out, I spent a lot of time making the lists and formatting everything for maximum good content.

READING WRAP UP

      This Is Not A Test by Courtney Summers– this was a very human look at the way teenagers would cope in the apocalypse, extremely dark and very upsetting, from the point of view of a suicidal girl. It did let me down in that I wasn’t fully immersed in the story, but it definitely picked up towards the end.

NENENE by Shizuko Totono– while I really wanted to love this, the massive age gap between the two characters really ruined it for me. It tries to make up for the age gap by saying the characters will wait till the main girl is 20, but that honestly makes me quite sick thinking that the only reason they haven’t done anything is because the rest of society are telling them it’s nasty, not because they have any understanding of the massive imbalance of power in that relationship.

The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin– I’ll be honest, I read this because of BTS’s Spring Day music video, but I’m glad I did. It’s a very dark look into a utopian-esque society that only thrives based on the suffering of a child. I really love the distant narrative voice in this piece. 

It Only Happens In the Movies by Holly Bourne– this is one of the most disappointing reads of all time for me. I did a long review of this on my Goodreads breaking down issues I had with the characters and the narrative that really ruined the whole experience. I know I don’t drop star ratings anymore, but this was a definite 1 star. 

      The Case For Jamie by Brittany Cavallaro– This had probably the weakest beginning in the series, with it not picking up until the 160 or so page mark as it relied a lot on info-dumping about Charlotte’s life and didn’t really have much happen. However, the last 150 made up for the weak start, and I really ended up enjoying this and I cannot wait for the final book!

The Unbreakable Code by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman– I really didn’t enjoy this and I am sad. I’m pretty sure it’s a ‘me’ thing, for the narrative, but I will say that there’s a lot of telling instead of showing, which really does lessen my enjoyment as we don’t see characters have any major realisations bar a few. 

By Night #7-#10 by John Allison– this series has flown by! There’s only two issues left now, and I’ll be very sad to see it go, but I definitely think it’s coming to its end.

Labyrinth Coronation #12 by Simon Spurrier– I AM DISTRAUGHT that this series has ended. So so upset. I’m not completely content with this conclusion because a character does something that seems very OOC for them, after their development throughout the series, but I don’t really know how I could have been 100% satisfied with a beloved series coming to a close. 

      Why Photographers Commit Suicide by Mary McCray– this is a poetry collection I’ve had for literal years, a lot based on space and Mars. I was disappointed with this one and didn’t really connect with it overall or gleam anything valuable from it, although there were a few decent poems in there.

Small Spaces by Katherine Arden– I love this! Very atmospheric and creepy middle grade horror about some kids, terrifying scarecrows, and a long history of mysterious deaths and disappearances. 

Nuclear Winter Volume 1 by Caroline Breault– Nuclear Winter is a fun story about a Montreal full of mutants that is in its ninth Winter after a power plant exploded. I love Flavie, the main character, and the art style is perfect for a slice-of-life adventure full of mutants, partying and bagels!

The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell– God, I’m still scared of this book. It’s basically like the terror of the weeping angels, combined with commentary on female hysteria, and is one of the most Gothic settings I’ve ever read. It’s honestly a masterpiece.  

    Haikyuu!! Volumes 1-  by Haruichi Furudate– This is a GOD TIER sports manga, and probably my favourite, volleyball is just great. I absolutely adore these characters and their dynamics, the competitions, the illustrations– it’s all amazing. I have watched the first season of the anime, which means I was already familiar with most of these volumes, but I honestly do prefer the manga over the anime and highly recommend it.

The Walking Dead Volume 2 by Robert Kirkman– OK writing although it’s nothing special, but the art style change was very evident and I highly dislike it. Has a terrible case  of ‘tiny font’ that really ruins any reading experience for my short sighted ass, so I don’t know if I’ll carry on. I just don’t think I carry about the characters enough.

The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James– this completely blindsided me. It goes from a sci-fi romance to a sci-fi horror survival story, and I think it’s great. Definitely my favourite Lauren James, she truly is the queen of UKYA sci-fi stories. Apparently her next one is a soft-apocalypse novel, which, YES. 

The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson– really disliked this. I think I’ve grown out of the picture perfect beautiful YA characters. Clark never leaves the house and never exercises but apparently has perfect abs and the most chiselled of jaws. It’s just unrealistic, fellas! It doesn’t appeal to me at all. Also suffers from a case of ‘long-book-itis’ and is at least 200 pages of unneeded scenes too long, and is very predictable. 

    Lore Olympus by Rachel Smithe– this is a very pretty adaptation of the abduction of Persephone myth. The art gets better the further you get in, and I really do love the personalities of these Gods and other miscellaneous mythological creatures personified (EXCEPT FOR APOLLO APOLLO SUCKS). Content warning for rape and victim blaming, as well as a character being roofied (unrelated to the rape, though). 

Uzumaki by Junji Ito– very strong first two thirds, but a very dissatisfying conclusion. However it is suitably creepy and has stunning art, and Kirie and Shuichi have a great relationship that I loved seeing develop throughout the story. 

Welcome To Wanderland #1-3 by Jackie Ball– such a lovely series! It’s about fantasy realms and theme parks, magic and rebel princesses, and is very great. Unfortunately #4 won’t be out for a while as the illustrator had to leave for health reasons, but I’m hoping the new illustrator will be able to give this series a good end when it eventually comes out!

Go For It, Nakamura! by Syundei– a very cute manga about gay sixteen year old Nakamura and his pursuit of Hirose, a boy in his class. While this doesn’t end with a romance, it’s still a soft read seeing these characters become friends, and I can only hope another volume will one day be released.

    Coady and the Creepies by Liz Prince– not one of my favourites, but it was enjoyable to read. This follows triplets on the road with their punk rock band collecting pins from all the biggest punk venues in the country, and also has ghosts. Probably my favourite part was commentary on punk rock being inclusive and how so many dudebros have lost sight that the movement was built going against a a discriminatory regime, not upholding it!

I Want To Eat Your Pancreas by Yoru Sumino– this manga literally knocked me TF out for absolutely no reason at all other than wanting to purposefully break my heart. The last 100 pages made this one of my favourite manga of all time just for how slyly it managed to make me care about these characters.

When I Arrived At the Castle by Emily Carroll– an erotic, Gothic graphic novel from a literal master of her craft. I love everything Carroll puts out, although I don’t think this ranks above Through the Woods. It’s very unnerving and has wonderful art, although I’m still just a tad confused by it. 

Nuclear Winter Volume 2 by Caroline Berault– I’m not putting this with volume 1 just because I didn’t like this one as much. It moved way too quickly and I wasn’t as invested in the storyline. However, I do enjoy seeing older-younger sister dynamics, and Flavie and her younger sister Elsie really reminded me of how I am with my younger sister. 

  Teen Dog by Jake Lawrence– an incredible, quirky coming-of-age comic with anthropomorphic animals, best friends, chess, prom, and a dope pug called Thug Pug! I really loved this, it’s one of my new favourite all-time reads. 

Honey So Sweet Volume 1 by Amu Megura– this was OK; not my favourite shoujo manga, and I’m not a big fan of this kind of art style, but it was fun to read and I like the softness of the main boy!

Junji Ito’s Cat Diary: Yon & Mu by Junji Ito– SO TRUE TO LIVING WITH CATS. Cannot express how much I could relate to this, I giggled so much. Ito and his wife do have a little bit at the back talking about Yon’s passing, however, so prepare yourself for that, I ended up crying.

Fullmetal Alchemist Volume 9 by Hiromu Arakawa– I don’t want to talk about it. I’m heartbroken this series is over. I loved this ending, but I’m heartbroken. I cried so many tears of joy, especially at the ending it gives Hohenheim. 

  Smooth Criminals Volume 1 by Kiwi Smith– another OK read! It wasn’t really stand out in comparison to a lot of the other comics I picked up this month, but it’s a quick read, and it has sapphic spies and hackers, if that’s your jam!

Turf Wars Volume 2 and 3 by Michael Dante DiMartino– Finally picked these two volumes up after procrastinating for months! It’s a really cheesy and much deserved conclusion to this graphic novel series, and I’m very much looking forward to the next series coming out. I’m keeping my hopes out for Wu to return, I miss him.

Bungo Stray Dogs Volume 1 by Kafka Asagiri– Very funny detective agency manga where all the characters are inspired by famous literary authors, each possessing powers that aids them investigations. It quickly gets into the main arc and villains. My main issue is that it has that creepy manga trope of having that sibling relationship that’s a bit too close, just for laughs, and it’s something I absolutely despise, so it kind of ruined how much I was loving it for an issue.

My Hero Academia Volume 16 by Kohei Horikoshi– it’s the start of the Overhaul arc, properly! Some decent character development in here, especially for Tamaki, Kirishima and Fatgum, who are the ultimate team, to be honest. 

The Avant-Guards #1 to #5 by Carly Usdin– Carly Usdin genuinely writes some of the best diverse comic series currently. I love this as a sports comic, although I wish there were more issues to develop the characters and their relationships gradually as it does come across as quite rushed at points!

No.6 Volume 1 and 2 by Atsuko Asano– I really love the anime, so I figured it was about time to read the manga! It’s really fast moving, with great characters and a wonderful breakdown of the Utopia/Dystopia dynamic, and I really enjoy it. Shion is genuinely one of the best characters in manga in my opinion.

Faithless #1 by Brian Azzarello– A very dark new series about a woman who experiments in magic and accidentally summons something very dark. It’s strange and unsettling, and I really loved this first issue!

Slam Volume 1 by Pamela Ribon– This wasn’t that great, to be honest. It’s told in a very third person voice that stopped me from ever connecting with the characters, and although I love the roller derby parts and enjoyed the art, it’s not really a standout comic.

And finally, I read the Save Me Webtoon! Pardon my French, but this was so fucking good, and it’s really reminding me why I love both friendship-focused stories and time loop narratives. I think the art is great and I love the story, but I would not recommend this if you’re unfamiliar with the BTS cinematic universe and basic theories. Not all theories- I only knew basics so I could form an opinion on timelines, conclusions, etc.- but just the basics on the time loop theory. I talk more about all this later on in this post, though!

And my June TBR Jar pick is…. HUNGER MAKES ME A MODERN GIRL by Carrie Brownstein!

ESSAYS/ARTICLES

I read this article analysing BTS’s Spring Day, one of my favourite music videos of all time, and it really hit me hard. BTS in general have stunning music videos, so I highly recommend them for anyone who wants interesting visuals and/or a brand new narrative to invest themselves in with the BTS ‘cinematic’ universe.

TV SHOWS/MOVIES/VIDEOS

BTS’s Spring Day music video. Are any of you surprised?

THIS AMAZING CYPHER PT.3 ANIMATION. There are so many little easter eggs! Fans are amazing.

Another BTS video: their Go Go dance practice video is amazing. They all dress up as Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

Literally my whole month was spent watching BTS videos. Their whole cinematic universe with their music videos? INCREDIBLE. It starts with the uncut version of I Need U (content warnings for most of the videos discussing suicide, abuse and has a lot of violence), and I realised later on once I’d watched them that the Japanese versions of some of the songs are part of the series! You can find playlists and lists online to help you navigate which videos to watch first. I look at Spring Day as being the conclusion to the cinematic universe with Jin finally saving them all by helping them save themselves, as dramatic as it all sounds.

MUSIC I’VE ENJOYED

I basically spent all month listening to BTS. Particular favourites include Silver Spoon/Baepsae, Answer: Love Myself, Mikrokosmos, Cypher Pt.4, and GoGo!

Nightmare by Halsey is top notch, I got really into Halsey’s hopeless fountain kingdom again this month literally a day before Nightmare came out, so I recommend her! Obviously Boy With Luv is great too, I decided to get into BTS just because the Boy With Luv MV was so great and now look at me!

OTHER POSTS I’VE DONE 

Graphic Recommendations: #PANELATHON

TTT: Characters That Remind Me of Myself

TBR Alphabet Tag

MM: Playlist Book Tag #2

TTT: Books That Should Be TV Shows

Panelathon TBR

TTT: Favourite Books Released in the Last 10 Years

June 20th Announcement

May Wrap Up & June TBR Jar Pick It was a busy bee month for me! While I took a semi-break from blogging- which means I limited myself to only 1 or 2 posts a week, instead of my usual 3 or 4- I took that time to plan out 

[bouncingtigger10]

New Post has been published on The Bouncing Tigger Reads

New Post has been published on http://www.tiggerreviews.com/legends-and-lore-box-set-mythology-multi-genre/

Legends and Lore Box Set: Mythology Multi Genre

There are 21 short stories – some very short and others longer – in this box set.

I shall review in sets of 7 and give an average of stars per set.

Two if by Sea

Ines Johnson

A novella about Vivi from her previous Nia Rivers series, who is a river magical creature, with a shoe fetish (she explains this as being because all she ever saw were people’s feet and the shoes they wore from her river bed).

So Vivi, who had been given a pair of enchanted shoes in the previous books so she could walk (she was crippled), goes in search of some up-dated shoes from the same designer. The new ones were coming out in his shop in Rome, only the ley line she travelled on dumped in in the Athenian sea at the feet of Poseidon. He introduces her to modern life and its small issues like cars and roads and hotels….

A good novella with a charming Vivi. 4 stars.

2. Well Loved

Emma Nichols

So here there are some twins with the smaller, and weaker twin being a girl.  She is very sick, probably dying and modern medecine can do little for her. Her father and brother are determined to find a way she can be healed and so research lores and legends finding Brigid, the Celtic Goddess and Catholic Saint in Ireland with a reputation for miracles.  Note: Holy Wells feature in this story.

3 stars.

3. Stealing Persephone: Isadora Brown

A story about Dream Walking that I couldn’t be bothered to finish. 2 stars

4. Mercury Rising: Rebekkah Lewis

Hybris is the goddess of Hubris and having a tempestuous love affair with Hermes – who is sad for the wood nymph that Apollo has stolen from the satyr Melancron, and is keeping chained up in his temple until she ‘admits’ to being in love with him. if ever…

A rather slow short story. 3 stars.

5. Hearts and Arrows: Natasha Larry

There is Venus, Cupid and Arrows plus Sirens and their daughters in this story. Do remember that Gods feed on the love of their worshippers – no love = no God and no Power. Hence Cupid is now living in a run-down trailer.

Not exciting. 3 stars.

6. How to Defeat a Demi-God: Nicole Zoltack

When a vampire-hunter goes to Italy for a change of scene and to hunt for serial killer, he doesn’t expect to find Medusa working out her revenge for a love gone bad.

Okay. 3 stars.

7. Cassie’s Curse: Liz Gavin

In Cassie’s family the women are descendants of the Delphic Oracle and obtain their gift of prophecy from Apollo – by being his worshipper – and lover. What happens when you reject Apollo?

Okay. 3 stars.

8.Goddess of Time: Monica Corwin

Morgana and Arthur and some enchanted islands. Didn’t enchant me. 2 stars.

9. Ovid’s Folly: Todd Skaggs

Medusa again but not an intentional serial killer. A modified curse but in some ways worse.

Quite enjoyable. 4 stars.

10. Hellbent: Tina Glasneck

11. Secret husband: Normandie Alleman

12. Water Warrior: Pauline Creedon

13. Gods and Monster’s: Jill Cooper

14. The Yaga Legacy: Debbie Cassidy

15. The Medusa Consiracy: Jackson Dean Chase

16. Hearth, Home and Havoc: RJ Blain

17. Tears of Stone: Raine English

18. In the Essence of Blood: Melle Amade

19. Aterion: Katalina Leon

20. The Fight of the Sorceress: Leona Bushman

21. Gods and Nymphs: Shannon Eckrich & Rebecca Hamilton