#soulstars

[lululawrence]

“Louis,” Harry breathed happily. His smile widened as he realized he’d finally found him, and he was stood before his soulstar. This was the closest they’d been in 31 Earth years, which had felt extraordinarily long for Harry, even in his star form. He could hardly withhold his happiness at seeing him again.

“Erm, yeah,” Louis said, interrupting Harry’s thoughts with his brows furrowing and looking clearly suspicious. “And you are?”

Harry and Louis are literal stars who have known they were soulmates from their creation eons ago, however when Louis came to Earth to start the next phase of their fated future, he forgot everything. Even Harry.

This leaves Harry to break the rules and instead of waiting for Louis to call him to join him on Earth, he crashes down on his own. Without Louis there to guide him and help him learn how to adjust to having a human body and everything associated with that, Harry has no other choice but to do the best he can. 

As Harry tries to correct what has gone wrong, he finds that friendship can be a light even in the darkest night, and through those bonds even separated soulstars can find their fated path once more.

I'm Praying (that you don't burn out or fade away) by lululawrence featuring art by @moon-sun-thyme

Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson | 74k words | 18 chapters

Coming April 22nd as part of @onedirectionbigbang round 7!

Subscribe on AO3 to be notified when the fic posts!

[neg-im]

Black Star would call Maka Honey because of her hair.

Kid would be Pretty Boy (useful to start a fight and flirting)

Tsubaki is either Tsu or Cielo (I hc Black Star knowing spanish, either by being raised speaking it or learning out of spite)

Soul would be Sharky, it's kinda ridiculous but the way Black Star says it makes it clear that it's the most romantic pet name ever.

[christabelq]

'SOULSTAR' BOOK REVIEW...

I haven’t done a review for a while, but I felt I should for this book, as I didn't like it and wanted to explore why. The book’s about a necromantic witch called Robin, who is fighting to make the country of Aeland a better place. At first she tries to do this by working with the new king, who appears to be quite progressive, but as time goes on, it becomes clear he’s not the person she thought he was and she needs to take a different route. She takes over as the head of the Free Democracy party when the previous leader Jacob is assassinated and ends up bringing about a revolution. The blurb for the book describes it as A WHIRLWIND OF MAGIC, POLITICS, ROMANCE, AND INTRIGUE, which sounded right up my street, but it totally didn't live up to my expectations and here are some of the reasons…

One of the villains (a terminally ill old man) is tried near the end and sentenced to hang. I find the idea of capital punishment deeply troubling, so this was never going to sit well with me. I think it’s inhumane, and when mistakes happen (which they totally do), there’s nothing you can do about it. The trial also left a bad taste in my mouth. It’s what I believe is commonly referred to as a kangaroo court, when the accused isn’t given a chance to defend himself and the verdict’s pretty much decided before anyone says a word. To make matters worse, Robin traps the man’s soul in a tree for a thousand years after he’s been hanged. This isn’t part of the court’s decision and there’s no consultation. She just does it. For me this little display suggests that power has totally gone to her head and Aeland has simply traded one arrogant despot for another, which I’m sure wasn’t what the author had in mind.

The pacing feels off. Parts of the book seemed rushed (e.g. the revolution and a lot of the magic stuff), while other parts felt bloated and unnecessarily drawn out. The author seemed unable to tell what to focus on to best serve the story, and if there was any editorial guidance, it must have been pretty poor judging by how it turned out.

Complex issues are dealt with in what for me seems like a totally simplistic way. The revolutionaries are holier than thou and the people they’re fighting against are like pantomime villains, when in the real world, almost everyone is somewhere in the middle. You only really hear one viewpoint about stuff and the whole mess gets cleared up in a ridiculously short amount of time.

The character of Zelind. Zelind is non-binary, which on the face of it sounds great, but the sense I got was that khe was a token character. I had no clue about kher appearance or what kher life as non-binary was like (e.g. the specific challenges khe faced). I noticed that the author used the wrong pronouns for kher a few times (usually SHE/HER, but also at least one THEY), which made me wonder if KHE was once a SHE and the non-binary element was added quite late in the writing process to be on trend or something. It certainly doesn’t add to the plot in any way. If it wasn't a late change, then it's another example of sloppy editing. You expect that kind of slip in self-published books, but not when they're from a big company like Tor and not when its something people might be sensitive about. I also wondered how everyone the character meets seems to immediately know which pronouns to use for kher. I don’t have any direct experience of this myself, but I’m guessing it doesn’t always work that way for real non-binary people, so it doesn’t ring true. Another thing that didn’t seem realistic was the way the character rustled up a machine to generate electricity at the drop of a hat, when others have been trying for years and utterly failing. It’s not properly explained how khe is able to do it and it all happens off camera so to speak, so you don’t get to see what it actually involves. This character could have been so much more and for me was a big disappointment.

The plot feels contrived. I knew all along where the book was headed, so getting through it felt like a chore. There were also quite a few times when seemingly hopeless situations were quickly resolved by unlikely events, e.g. Robin happening to know there would be a hidden door which would allow her and Grace to escape from a burning room, or footsteps lying undisturbed on a snowy rooftop for days, so Robin can solve the mystery of Jacob’s assassination (luckily there hasn’t been any snow in the meantime and it hasn't melted either). Magic also felt a bit convenient at times and the rules around it seemed to shift to fit the plot.

So those are my biggest gripes. I won’t tell anyone they shouldn’t read the book, because I’ve seen a lot of glowing reviews and I’m sure a lot of people will 💜 it, but for me it just didn’t work. I haven’t read the other books in the Kingston cycle and I won’t be doing now. This one was more than enough. 2/5

[homoqueerjewhobbit]

The Kingston Cycle, A Summary:

Witchmark: Huh, it seems like people might be doing bad things for profit and power.

Stormsong: I'm trying to reform the system from within but gosh it is not going very well.

Soulstar: Burn it all to the motherfucking ground.

[segadriven]

New video! Core Design made some of the most technically impressive Mega CD games, and with Soulstar they may have made their best. Let’s take a look:

[pewcat2]

"You taught me that I should make Aeland a better place than it was before," Grace said. "You told me to defend Aeland with everything I had. That's what I'm doing. I'm protecting Aeland from you." (Soulstar)

and

"You would applaud it if it were another woman," Ysbeta said. "You would call it ambitious, and bold, and brave. Why can't that woman be me?" (The Midnight Bargain)

be hitting me in the unique combination of mommy and daddy issues that come from being raised to be a strong, powerful woman by the same people that want me to dull my opinions when they make them uncomfortable.

Thank you, @clpolk, for emotionally ruining me for the forseeable future.

[chroniclesofnadia111]

✌🏾🖤🖤🖤🌙

[reviewsthatburn]

There's something very satisfying about sitting down to read a series that's complete, ready and waiting for you to crack open and devour it. Finishing a series also requires readers to have supported each book along the way as they came out. Well, these duologies, trilogies, and series by authors of color are finished, available to be read entire. We've previously reviewed every entry on this list and included links to those thoughts for anyone who wants a bit more detail. While it's entirely possible that these authors may publish associated stories in the future (either sequels or just set in the same story universe), what's available now feels complete. Each entry includes the synopsis from the first book in the series.

Full post at link, book titles in tags.

[ichigokage]

Found some nice Picrews and made Soulstar Daemon; Emperor of Reju!

The himbo himself!

[lululawrence]

Sunday Snippet

Okay I was tagged by @kingsofeverything and @louisandtheaquarian to share a snip so since I'm editing and getting my big bang ready to go up next week, I thought I'd share a little ditty that I enjoyed enough to send to emmu when I read it lolol It's another Mitch and Harry scene... which isn't the entire fic, I swear lololol I'm just leaving the best stuff for when you actually get into the fic, right? lol ANYWAY... it's a bit longer, sooooo I put some of it under the cut just to be sneaky lollll

“You should join Louis and his friends at the pub tonight.”

Harry froze before looking at Mitch. “How do you know Louis and his friends are going to the pub tonight in the first place?”

“Nevermind that,” Mitch said, waving his hand at him. “I just think you should go.”

“I’m not going if I’m not invited,” Harry said, eyes wide. “I told you before and I meant it. I don’t want to be another red flag.”

“You don’t want to raise any more red flags,” Mitch corrected.

“Who even cares if I say it right?” Harry asked, irritated. 

Language and this style of communication was so complicated. Every time he thought he was getting it right, he was corrected again. He was tired of doing everything wrong and wanted people to just be able to understand him. 

“You know what I meant.”

“I did. And you were invited.”

Harry snorted. “Right.”

“You were,” Mitch insisted. 

 “It couldn’t have been Louis…” Harry trailed off before looking at Mitch hopefully. “Was it?”

Mitch’s gaze was sad as he shook his head. “No. It wasn’t.”

“No one else had your number, and as far as I know, you don’t know any of his friends. So how would I have gotten invited to the pub tonight?” 

Mitch held his eye contact and as his head tilted forward a little, Harry gasped. “Oh my god, it was Zayn!”

“I didn’t say that,” Mitch said, pointing at him. 

“You didn’t have to, I could read it in your eyes!” Harry cried, clapping his gloved hand over his mouth and therefore rendering it useless now. He’d have to replace it with another new one before he got back to work on the croissants. “How did Zayn get your number?”

Mitch looked at the ceiling as if he was begging for patience from someone above. “I’m not telling you that either.”

“Technically you didn’t even tell me it was Zayn in the first place,” Harry said, smugly. “Look at me and maybe I can read the answer to this question in your eyes again.”

“How’d you even do that, anyway?” Mitch asked, sounding incredibly annoyed. “If you can just learn anything you want to with your weird star superpower ways by looking in my eyes, then I’m going to lose all of my mysteriousness.”

“Oh, dear Mitch,” Harry said, walking over to him and squishing his cheeks between his hands. “You’ve not been mysterious to me from the moment I walked in here. You were the sweetest, cuddliest person I’d ever met, and that still hasn’t changed.”

“I hate you,” Mitch said, staring at his nose rather than his eyes.

“I love you too,” Harry said before pressing a kiss to his cheek.

With a sigh, Mitch answered, “Yeah, that’s what I meant, too.”

“I know.” Harry gave him a wide smile before prancing back to the counter and putting on another new glove.

hehehe!!! And now I tag... @disgruntledkittenface @2tiedships2 @londonfoginacup @voulezloux @reminiscingintherain aaaaaand @all-these-larrythings

[beelas-bees-art]

these are leafstorm(star), puddleheart and soulclaw(star). leaf and puddle are littermates while soul is their little brother. leaf and soul become leader of different clans and puddle is a medicine cat yayyy woohoooo

leafstorm also murdered the leader of their clan and got exiled but we dont need to talk about that

[neg-im]

The main cast is all in a big poly relationship.

Idc what anybody else says

[six-of-ravens]

actually I think I've identified my issue with Soulstar, and that's that the book is totally fine, I just experienced a Mood Shift(TM) Saturday and don't want to read this in particular anymore.

that was the day I started binging more WizBru episodes and for the past few days I've been on a semi-nostalgic pop culture spiral, and I just....don't want to read a serious, dark, political fantasy anymore. or at least not one that doesn't have Nostalgic Value. I finished Stormsong and my brain went 'thats all for now, folks!" and all I wanna do is podcast, replay video game, watch twin peaks, eat hot chip & lie.

[musictyme]

Musiq Soulchild- Babymother

[segadriven]

Soulstar is one of the Mega-CD’s showcase titles. A tour de force of sprite scaling and rotation and another outstanding release from Core Design who constantly made the console sing