#it's about the character development and the family ties and the magic and the books and the rhymes

[probablyhuntersmom]

The scenes towards the end of the finale were like an intersection of multiple characters experiencing the loss of father figures, in different shades:

Luz's relationship to her late father took on a different form, after King's own father passed on and his glyph magic was gone for good. Manny gifting her the Azura books before his death, and Papa Titan offering her glyph magic before he too passed on, helped Luz find her place in the world and defeat Belos.

Apparently this scene is what made Sarah Nicole-Robles bawl in the recording studio, right after she recorded the lines.

When these changes happen - when we experience the loss of a person, when our ties with them are wrangled into a new form, against our will - it can be devastatingly painful. Change and transformation make for fancy, dramatic scenes in fiction, and they always incur loss in some form, painful or not. It also made me so emotional when seeing how much 18-year-old Luz resembles Manny, and how her enrolment in the university is linked to both her biological father and Papa Titan.

King's experience of seeing the majesty of his father, however brief, left him in awe and exhilaration. He can rest in the beautiful knowledge that Papa Titan was watching over him the whole time too. The message that his dad left him, relayed by Luz, is something he'll hold dear forever.

Hunter will never be truly harmed by Belos ever again. But he can't discard the memories of Belos granting him attachment: even if the attachment ended up not being real in a sense. However, like what can be applied in real-life therapy, he can get guidance on how to rescript those memories.

Belos's lies about having good intentions don't change how it felt real to Hunter all those years ago. Hunter was a young child when receiving this 'love', and in a twisted way...the mission given to him by Belos kept him alive up till he could escape the Coven, because the mission gave his life meaning despite the circumstances being awfully terrible. A child cannot survive without attachment, and needs attachment even if the experience of attachment has been horrendous and scarring. And holy Titan don't get me started on how at age 16 (before the timeskip), he had yet to learn more grisly details about his predecessors - whom he might view as older brothers and fathers whom he never met - and the generational trauma in his Golden Guard family tree:

which would have definitely been explored before he could experience that amazing hard-won serenity and peace at age 20.

Even Philip's arc is inextricably tied to his manner of coping with how he murdered Caleb, who was the closest thing he had to a father, given how these two brothers were orphans. In the end, Philip meets his end while Luz gazes upon him the same way Caleb's ghost did. Philip won't be haunted by Caleb's ghost again, and he joins the person who was essentially his father figure in death. Till the very end, he was projecting onto another person because he didn't want to recognize the same traits in himself. He was the one responsible for his father figure's death.

But grief doesn't mean the relationships in question have ended altogether. It's kind of like what this post about the finale (link) says, and it even extends to the relationship between us fans and the show itself.

The cliché "5 Stages of Grief" is the most commonly mentioned grief model, but I follow the development and advocacy of a newer perspective on grief that challenges it. In fact, the 5 Stages was originally just intended for terminally ill patients, but it was taken out of proportion. I began a serious investigation into the newer models after I went through something that parallels Hunter losing Flapjack...eerily, it happened to me two weeks before TTT's release date. No wonder I feel so close to Hunter as a blorbo, I guess.

Unlike what the 5 Stages of Grief says, grief and linear time don't mix well. Without "stages" to follow, there isn't an expectation of some deadline or permanent end of a tunnel in the newer models. Such pressure wouldn't be honoring the sacredness of connections between us. Instead, less famous grief perspectives like the dual-process model and continuing bonds model, are a better fit to honor relationships that mattered, since they aren't given an expiry date.

I wonder how Luz would be feeling on the day she graduates from the Wild Magic University, and how King feels each time he unlocks his own new glyphs since he is the new Titan to supply the Isles with magic. And I wonder how Hunter felt when his coven sigil was replaced with the Flapjack tattoo, and how he feels when he sees the Gravesfield town seal and Wittebane statues.

There are ways in which they can get creative to integrate their grief (notice I didn't say "get rid of", "remove", "erase" or even "manage"...the pain is what is to be managed, not the grief itself) the best they can. In canon, we have examples such as the Hexsquad agreeing to get their Flapjack tattoos together. Luz letting go of the light glyph sheet here:

is also a fantastic representation of rituals like sending off a message in a bottle at a beach, tying a message to a balloon and letting it fly away (this happened in Reaching Out, didn't it?), or burning a message in a campfire to let it float up towards the sky in the form of embers.

It is a common recommendation to have exercises like letter-writing where the griever writes to the lost loved one. What many may not know is you can also do the reverse: you writing as your lost loved one, to yourself. Because the griever takes a piece of the lost loved one with them, that the griever has shaped within themselves. This is especially good if you need to extend forgiveness to yourself. An example from a book called Bearing the Unbearable:

The author felt responsible for the stillbirth of her child, but had a "happy accident" where she intuitively asked for forgiveness and then received it, by invoking the love that her child would have shown to her in a world where said child had remained alive.

I think Hunter in particular could benefit from something like this, writing to himself as the uncle whom he saw as genuine and nurturing, and gaining ownership of that part of him even though Belos was a liar and is now gone for good. It can help him move forward especially since he won't be spared from nightmares in which his loss is re-enacted. With this kind of rescripting, historical accuracy doesn't actually need to matter. After all, our own minds lie to us at times and mess with historical accuracy anyway, like Luz's thoughts telling her she was as bad as Belos, and how true that felt.

A physical loved one is lost to death, and it can feel just as painful - only in a different way - if people become estranged or separated without a literal death having occurred. But the connection to them isn't lost, it is only adapted. The bond continues. For better or worse.

I believe the pain in grieving is connected to each moment when we remember all over again that the one we loved isn't coming back.

It's like the needle of a gramophone getting stuck in the loop of an unpleasant-sounding record scratch noise. It's a bit like what C.S. Lewis says in his book A Grief Observed: "In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out." I can't find the other part but he later said something like, therefore if a friendship is lost, the part of you that only that friend could bring out, is also lost. Something in you is locked away forever, though new things can also be unlocked after the loss.

It wasn't shown onscreen but I wouldn't be surprised if it's regular for Luz to come across a meme and be freshly reminded of her dad's absence, because she can't show him that meme. King would be wishing that a new funny cat video he discovers is something his dad could also laugh at along with him. Hunter would be hoping that Flapjack, the previous Golden Guards and Caleb are watching as he brings back palismen.

Bereavement, and any grief that is significant enough to alter our personhood forever, are the forms of love that can never really grasp how time flows in a linear way. They can't be reasoned with, only experienced.

"...the howling at the center of grief is raw and real. It is love in its most wild form" - Megan Devine.

#I'm applying some of this to how I'm grieving the end of the show. our relationship with it has just changed..not ended #toh analysis #the owl house #luz noceda #king clawthorne #toh hunter #philip wittebane #caleb wittebane #manny noceda #papa titan #grief in The Owl House #loz writes a meta #death mention

[all-mirth-no-matter]

Mirth’s Masterlist

Explore: my everything tag | myotps

WIPs

Time After Time: (Peaky Blinders, Tommy Shelby x OC/Reader) You have been told by your mother since the moment you were born that you had the gift of prophecy. Convenient, since you managed to mysteriously transport back into time by one hundred years. What happens when you become wrapped up in the Shelby’s family business after the brothers return from the war? Will you ever get back to your own time or figure out how you got to Small Heath in 1918?

Reader Insert (tumblr): masterlist OC (multi-chapter): ao3 | moodboard

Once Upon a Supernatural Time: (Supernatural x Once Upon a Time, Dean Winchester x Emma Swan) Henry Mills needs help convincing his new-found mother, Emma Swan, to believe in magic so she can break Storybrooke's curse. Could Dean and Sam Winchester be just the help he needs to get Emma to believe? Or will they also need some convincing? Dean's dealt with a lot of things - demons, angels, witches, werewolves - but magic may be a bit out of his belief system.

Explore: ao3 | moodboards & manips

Our Lie Abilities: (Teen Wolf, Stiles Stilinski x Lydia Martin) She's a famous actress recovering from a difficult hiatus. He's a member of a band just trying to make it. They're lying to the world - but can Lydia and Stiles lie to themselves? Fake dating, non-supernatural AU.

Explore: ao3 | moodboards & manips

Doctor Who University: (Doctor Who, Tenth Doctor x Rose Tyler) Rose Tyler is still mourning the loss of her beloved mentor when she starts a new semester of classes. Unexpectedly, she develops a strong bond with his replacement - a tall, thin professor with really great hair. [currently on hiatus]

Completed

Once Upon a Time, Emma Swan x Killian Jones

Tonight You’re Mine: Two feuding band members are handcuffed together at the Enchanted Music Festival. Emma Swan, part of a rising rock band, can't stand the egotistical Killian Jones, lead man of the popular group Skull Rock. How will they survive the festival and both perform before they find a way to become free of each other?

Explore: ao3 | moodboards & manips

The Princess Bride: As the Enchanted Forest teeters on the verge of war, the reluctant Princess Emma is devastated by the loss of her true love, kidnapped by a mercenary & his henchmen, rescued by a pirate, forced to marry a prince, & rescued once again by the very crew who took her. Foiling their plans & jumping into their story is Killian, Emma's true love & friend to a dangerous pirate.

Explore: ao3 | manips

Much Ado About Nothing: Shakespeare's comedy meets Once Upon a Time. Emma as Beatrice, Killian as Benedick, Snow as Hero, and David as Claudio. A story of gossip, rumors, sarcasm, scandal, and manipulation tied up with a bow of romance and humor. What could possibly go wrong?

Explore: ao3 | moodboards & manips

Overdue: (one-shot) CS College AU. Someone keeps forgetting to return the book Emma Swan needs to complete her report, so she tracks him down and forces him to hand it over. Based on tumblr prompt.

Supernatural x Once Upon a Time Crossover

Swan Hunting: Dean Winchester embarks on one of his first solo hunts since his brother went off to college. But as he searches for answers, he becomes acquainted with a certain blonde waitress he met in the most unconventional way. A young Dean/Emma AU.

Other Swanchester One-Shots: a collection of one-shots usually accompanied by a manip.

Credits & Disclaimers

I do not own series characters and original script dialogue, they belong to their creators. Original characters, narrative ideas, and word manipulations used to create these stories are mine. I do not give consent for any of my stories to be copied, reposted, transposed, or used for AI without my permission. I do consent to reblogging and link sharing.

Story Header art by me

Divider art by @saradika

#mine #pinned #time after time #once upon a supernatural time #our lie abilities #doctor who university #tonight you’re mine #the princess bride #much ado about nothing #overdue #swan hunting #swanchester #captain swan #ten x rose #peaky blinders #tommy shelby x oc #tommy shelby x reader #once upon a time #supernatural #doctor who #fanfic #fanfiction #cs tonight you’re mine #cs the princess bride #ouat much ado

[elamimax]

Concept:

You like magical school stories, but the one that was so formative for you growing up is now largely known for its transphobic creator and, more recently, ties to explicit and graphic antisemitism (hypothetically).

This sucks because you're probably queer and you probably care about Jewish people (and all ethic and religious minorities) feeling safe, but you still like reading things. Maybe even magical school things.

WELL BOY FUCKING HOWDY DO I HAVE A BOOK FOR YOU.

ANY OTHER NAME

GUARANTEED GAY

AT LEAST TWO TRANS CHARACTERS OR YOUR MONEY BACK - THAT'S RIGHT, TWO, NO, MAKE THAT THREE TRANS CHARACTERS!

ANY OTHER NAME IS HOME TO CHARACTERS WHO ARE THROWN INTO A SECRET MAGICAL WORLD BEHIND OUR OWN AND IMMEDIATELY QUESTION THE AUTHORITY THAT KEEPS THIS WORLD FROM HELPING THE MOST VULNERABLE

YOU LIKE THEMES?? IT'S GOT THEMES!! FAMILY, LETTING GO, SELF ACCEPTANCE, OVERCOMING ABUSE, TEENAGE ROMANCE AND DEVELOPING SEXUALITY, HOW COOL IT WOULD BE IF YOU COULD STOP A BULLET WITH YOUR MIND

THAT'S NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU?? OKAY, I'LL THROW IN NOT JUST ONE, NOT JUST TWO, NOT EVEN THREE BUT AN ENTIRE CAST OF CHARACTERS WHO CAN TURN INTO ALL KINDS OF CUTE ANIMALS, INCLUDING YOUR FAVORITES LIKE BARN OWLS, CATS, ARCTIC FOXES, FERRETS AND MANY MORE!!

STILL NOT ENOUGH!? ALRIGHT BUDDY YOU ASKED FOR IT!! IT'S GOT REFERENCES TO YOUR FAVORITE LITERARY GIANTS! IT'S GOT DUMB PUNS!! IT'S GOT BISEXUAL DISASTERS!! IT'S GOT JOKES THAT ARE SO OBSCURE YOU WOULD HAVE TO BE A GRADE A NERD TO APPRECIATE AND YOU KNOW THAT'S YOU¹

SO IF YOU WANT TO SUPPORT A TRANS CREATOR AND YOU WANT TO READ A NOVEL THAT WILL GIVE YOU THE BOTTOM AND/OR TOP SURGERY OF YOUR CHOICE², LOOK NO FURTHER THAN ANY OTHER NAME, ON AMAZON OR WHEREVER ELSE YOU GET YOUR DIGITAL MEDIA

https://www.amazon.com/Any-Other-Name-Ela-Bambust/dp/B0B14G1P1J

¹ we are not responsible for potential mental anguish incurred from recognizing a Homestuck reference

²I don't have a medical degree but I've got gumption and a can-do attitude

#writing #my writing #any other name #writblr #writing community #trans writers #writerscommunity #writers of tumblr #queer writers #wlw #trans girl protagonist

[checkoutmybookshelf]

Regency Romantasy

So...it has been brought to my attention that I perhaps have a type, and this book ticked a lot of really good boxes for me. It's regency-inspired. It's fantasy. It's a romance. It has a chronically ill main character. It has sewing and fashion. Literally 90% of the characters are LGBTQIA. It has a BALCONY SCENE for crying out loud. It even has a gossip columnist who might be better than Lady Whistledown (do NOT come for me, Bridgerton Fandom, I said what I said). I could go on, but at that point I think we would have completely dissolved from actual review to screamed list of things I enjoyed, so let's rein it in for a minute and talk A Fragile Enchantment.

I'm going to start with setting, because while this book is regency-inspired, it also plays a little fast and loose with other historical inspirations. The reality of the blight and famine in historical Ireland (and frankly also the troubles and every time that Ireland revolted against England) was that it came after the regency, but here Niamh is the first generation after a similar event and subsequent revolt in her home country of fantasy Irel--I mean Machland. She has grown up surrounded by survivors of the blight and revolt, and like everyone who reads Maus learns, generational trauma is a BITCH. So when our dressmaker protagonist is invited to make the wedding clothes for the son of the king who murdered her people, it's politically and emotionally charged. Add to that the fact that Niamh's magic is hereditary and weirdly murdery, and yeah, things are emotional as heck.

Possibly I shouldn't relate quite so hard to a protagonist who is literally hurting herself for people who ultimately couldn't give a damn about her, but that IS my villain origin story, so all I had for Niamh was compassion at how hard a position that is to be in.

Niamh herself is beautifully written, and Saft balances all the threads tied around and pulling at Niamh's heart just beautifully. Every choice is complex and fraught, and so-deeply-ingrained-she-doesnt-even-notice-it impulse to shape herself around other people's pain and grief and comfort them instead of sitting with her own feelings is just stunningly well executed without feeling dramatic or indulgent.

Niamh is so desperate for friends, and the little ring she constructs around herself couldn't be stranger or more wonderful. From the enraged, grumpy Kit to Sinclair to Rosa and Miriam, this found family is wildly unlikely and prickly, but they fit between each other's thorns just perfectly.

And speaking of people having thorns...we need to address Kit Carmine. Younger son of a mad (and abusive before he went mad) king with an alcohol problem and green magic, our boy is GRUMPY. And BLUNT. And honestly I love him for that, because those thorns are hiding a very stressed out, distinctly squishy center. And also one that is deathly afraid of hurting people, because that's also a thing.

Kit is so tangled up between rage and duty and the few people he cares about that he and Niamh really have to work to develop a compassionate understanding based on wildly different personalities. And then you add all the imperialist and decolonizing stress between them plus the fact that KIT IS LITERALLY ABOUT TO MARRY SOMEONE ELSE and it's a whole deal.

There are so many wonderful moments in this book, it was a delight from start to finish. I objectively have more to say about this book, but I want to avoid spoilers here to inspire y'all to go read this book. I promise, it's worth it. Now, go get it and read. *shoos you toward the bookstore/library/tablet/place you get your books from*

#a fragile enchantment #allison saft #niamh o conchobhair #kit carmine #regency romance #fantasy romance #regency fantasy #green magic #thread magic #gossip columnist #chronically ill main character #chronic illness #lgbtq representation #bi representation #books and reading #books and novels #books #books & libraries #book recommendations

[viscountessevie]

Hunt On Dark Waters [ARC Review]

Release Date: 7th November 2023

Overall Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

My Review:

Hunt on Dark Waters by Katee Robert is a contemporary romance set in a fantasy world of various realms. Our witchy heroine, Evelyn has a bad habit of swiping valuables with her sticky fingers. After stealing from her ex Lizzie, a powerful vampire, she escapes through a portal. Evie finds herself floundering in the magical sea between realms called Threshold. She is then rescued onto the Crimson Hag, home to our telekentic hero.

With no tangible childhood he could remember, Captain Bowen's unflinching loyalty to his ship under the Cŵn Annwn has been his life's duty. The Cŵn Annwn is a network of ships like the Crimson Hag operate under. He has always enforced their rules and vows with no questions asked. Evelyn is no exception to the rule and he gives her the ultimatum to join their ranks or die.

As Evelyn tries to evade honouring her vow, their two personalities clash. Tensions turn into something more. Through their journey together, secrets begin to surface and they both start questioning everything they have stood for.

~~~

This was one of my most anticipated books of the year and really took my time with this as I did not want it to end. I adored the book and am really loving Katee in this point of her writing career -consisting of epic sagas with political themes and great messaging. Just like I have been enjoying the ride through Dark Olympus, she is now taking us to the sea across the magical Threshold.

The world building was done extremely well. It was an immersive experience. From the physical space of Evelyn's world to the Threshold sea and the various islands surrounding it. Then we were introduced how the Crimson Hag is run and what exactly the Cŵn Annwn are.

On to the characters, I loved how fleshed out Evelyn and Bowen are as individuals before they get together. They are both very different people and feel so distinct in their point of views. I usually find that multiple point of views can get muddled with an author's narrative voice if there isn't a unique tone for the different characters.

However, Katee did excellent in distinguishing between Evelyn and Bowen's chapters. The differences were stark and it was a good contrast between the two. Evie initially starts out as a witty, sarcastic fun loving witch with a sentimental streak and some familial grief for baggage. While Bowen is a straight-laced Eldest Child coded man who is always following the rules of the Cŵn Annwn and would never think twice about going against them. He is very much of the mindset not to bite the hand that fed him. Or in his case, the people who saved and took him in as their own.

These two really go through a brilliant development over the course of the book. Flighty Evie finally finds herself a cause and someone to anchor herself to. On the other hand, Bowen starts to question the cracks within the corrupt system that is the Cŵn Annwn.

The main allegory within the book I really enjoyed was The Cŵn Annwn. They were meant to parallel the militarised police in our world. Katee does a great job of showing something isn't quite right with their organisation from the very start. Then slowly peels back the layers of Cŵn Annwn with each act to reveal their true colours. It is mostly through Bowen's point of view, whose gratitude comes from being taken in years ago. When Evie starts to question their modus operandi, we realise it's terrible system. It hits harder when Bowen has to confront the fact that he and his crew weren't really 'one of the good ones' and were just upholding a corrupt system.

In line with this, the plot was detailed, very thought out and well-paced. While there are loose ends regarding Bowen's past and a big event that happened to close off Act 2, I'm confident it will all be tied up in due time. The Act 2 Event is going to come back full circle in the next book as hinted in it's summary. As for the overarching plot of the series, it's been well set up. The direction the bigger story is taking is very clear. I am very excited for my favourite non-binary characters, Kit and Nox to hopefully show up! The way those two were being written, I'm hoping for either recurring roles or respective books for them.

As for the romance, it was solid. I liked their chemistry and banter in their scenes together. However, I felt that the development from lust to love could have been drawn out. Maybe by a chapter or two. They needed a bit more time to bridge the gap between being rivals who had an attraction to falling in love. It just felt like sex was substituted in when we could have gotten one or two more scenes to give their connection more depth. This was slightly remedied during their love declarations which pinpointed the moments they started to fall for the other.

Overall, I loved this book! Katee definitely delivered on all fronts. She has done it once again with her intricate way she built this universe - with Threshold and its interesting characters. This was a great first book with a sweet romance while wondefully setting up the upcoming series. I'm certain we will be seeing some recurring characters as they all come together to work towards their common goal. I definitely would recommend this for anyone looking for a pirate fantasy romance, vibrant settings and for those wanting to invest in an epic saga!

Thank you to Random House UK, Cornerstone, Del Rey for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. 

#NetGalley #ARC Review #Hunt On Dark Waters #Katee Robert #Romance #Fantasy #Hunt on Dark Waters by Katee Robert #Romance Novel Blogging

[scribefindegil]

My beloved tattered copies of my Artemis Fowl books that I got from library sales are the love of my life. I’m 90% sure I’m so snarky in my writing because of these books. Artemis and his relationships with everyone are so well done. The eye swap thing still gets me. What a duo. What a series. God do the last three really….. do things. I am still mad about Artemis losing his magic immediately yes. And for them making a character so powerful they have to keep making excuses why he’s not around. And… well. You know. But goddamn if I didn’t consume them like 800 times as a kid and goddamn if I’m not so sorely tempted to reread them now that you’ve reminded me (and maybe finally actually read fowl twins)

Listen, the last few books sure made . . . . Choices. AND YET. Even when they were bad (and sometimes they were very bad!), they never did it in a way that made me want to stop reading, which is honestly very impressive! The characters remain recognizable and entertaining and their relationships are compelling even as the situations they're in become increasing Like That, and the characters are what I'm here for.

They're not books that I would necessarily recommend to people who didn't grow up with them but man. I love them so much. Artemis' character development is so good. Every single thing about Holly Short is so good. The whole weird messy found family of it all is so good. The way the later books veer from heist narratives into fairy-tale structure is . . . like, objectively bad, but man does it manage to hit me where it hurts thematically.

Don't even get me started on the eye swap; I'm obsessed with the ongoing progression of how these characters look at each other, because with the magic of control so closely tied to eye contact at the beginning there's always something in the way--mirrors and shields and helmet visors--and it's a huge display of trust to actually meet eyes without any sort of intervention, and the swap ties into this and takes it to the next level and! UGH! (Was literally ANY of this intentional? Knowing Colfer, probably not! Doesn't stop me from losing my mind about it though!)

(I have not read Fowl Twins. I have not even read their cover blurbs despite staring at the audiobook versions every day when I worked at the bookstore. Has anyone read Fowl Twins? And can you tell me if Holly's in them? If not I do not care.)

#conversations #carry me always; carry me well #another fun thing about these books is that i have such *vivid* memories of the first time I read each of them #more than with any other series i think #the first one was a roadtrip present when my family was driving to see my dad's relatives #when it came out i was the same age as Artemis #and the last one i read when i was several years out of college and working front-desk at a hotel right across from the public library #and spent all my breaks sprinting across the street to check out YA books to revisit #learned the 8th book existed and then was too impatient to wait for the library hold to come in so I ended up buying my own copy anyway

[lyranova]

Alice Legolant:

Basic Information:

Name: Alice Legolant

Age: 15

Birthday: August 15th

Blood Type: B

Birthplace: Clover Kingdom

Current Location: Clover Kingdom

Affinity: Recombination Magic

Appearance:

Height: 5’7” or 170cm

Build: Average and Lean

Eye Color: Gold

Hair Color: Blue, Long and kept in a braid with part of it tied into a smaller braid.

Clothing: A White blouse with a Peter Pan collar and Lantern Sleeves, with a greyish purple color knee length corset skirt.

Personality:

Alice is very soft spoken, but speaks a little faster than her father. Her personality is very similar to her fathers, she is very compassionate and loves animals. She loves her friends and is very protective of them, like her father she is willing to sacrifice herself in order to keep them safe. She loves to read and has been known to read the same book over and over again until the spine completely wears out! She also loves figuring out how things work and enjoys building things, such as small buildings or “vehicles” like her dad, although hers are on a much smaller scale.

Background:

Alice’s birth was very…unconventional. Henry saw all his friends settling down and having families and found that he wanted that too. But due to his illness he wasn’t sure if he would ever be able to, he would have to try and find someone who either had zero mana like Asta, or had so little mana that it was undetectable. After a few years of having no luck he decided to go to the Science Department and see if they had any ideas or suggestions.

Sally suggested that she try and experiment with his DNA and see if she could come up with a cure or if Millie could create some sort of device. Sally began conducting multiple experiments with his DNA, she tried taking things out, shuffling things around, and adding a few things in but unfortunately she had no luck in curing his illness.

One day she decided to combine Henry’s DNA along with subject 0906’s DNA just to see what would happen. When she went to check on it a few weeks later she began to notice something forming in the standing container. After testing it again she realized she had somehow, accidentally, and unintentionally, created a child with their DNA! Of course she was excited that she had managed to create a human out of nearly nothing, but she wasn’t the only one who was happy and excited. Henry had all but given up hope at this point, so to see that Sally’s experiment worked and that he was going to have an actual child instead of only just a cure or device to control his illness…Henry was beyond overjoyed! After a few more months Henry’s daughter was “born” and he named her Alice after the main character in his favorite book.

Alice always knew of her origins and it didn’t bother her to know that she was the product on an experiment. She had grown curious about who subject 0906 was but Sally would never tell her, Millie once joked that maybe it was Sally herself but she quickly denied it, saying that she didn’t want kids and she wasn’t subject 0906.

Maybe one day Alice would find out, but for now she really didn’t care, as she has her amazing Papa and that’s all that matters.

Trivia:

• Is an only child

• Is close to Aloys Adlai, Wendy Agrippa, and Mikhail Silva (@/koneko-pi’s OC)

• Has a crush on Aloys but then eventually develops a crush on Mikhail

• Didn’t Inherit her fathers illness

• Doesn’t understand why her favorite books fall apart

• Can’t figure out who is the one always repairing her broken books (t’s Aloys and then eventually Mikhail)

#black clover #black clover oc #oc; alice #henry legolant #black clover henry #black clover next gen

[raayllum]

if you have time/want to could you go on a righteous tirade about how the cube hostage exchange theory doesn’t reduce Rayla to just a “plot device” in Callum’s story or make her a nothing but a damsel in distress… getting real tired of That One Person saying stuff like that on reddit

Honestly I stay off reddit as much as possible for a lot of reasons but bc I'm literally always down to talk about my beloved theory:

1) In regards to the "damsel in distress" argument... Thus far, Callum has saved Rayla every single time she's been backed into a corner. Who saved her from the smoke wolves, from the giant fish, from the slug, from Soren Claudia and co. in 2x07? Who saved her after she jumped off the Pinnacle and when she went into the Moon Nexus portal? Rayla is still exercising agency in those scenes, trying or successfully saving someone, but from the start, her and Callum's dynamic has very often been "You save everyone and I save you."

This ties into Rayla's bigger character arc about learning how to rely on other people and that she doesn't have to do everything alone. She's gone from relying on the boys because she had to, choosing to rely on Callum, and is now fearful she'll rely on him too much (and get him killed). She left in TTM because she was determined, specifically, to do things 'alone' - she can't succeed without having that belief reaffirmed. Literally, her only two options are either to see shit going down and somehow book it back to safety, or to get captured. It's not crazy to explore the other half of a 50-50 split.

2) So a "plot device" is something that only exists to propel one character's arc. The thing about Rayla is that while a character hasn't used her against Callum before, the narrative absolutely has. The metaphor arc of Callum getting his wings that's set up carefully in S2 is only fulfilled in S3 because of his love for Rayla.

They literally used the Power of Love trope for it, and Callum says as much: how could he do something so miraculous? "Because I love you, Rayla. I really do."

And Callum is only put on the path of accessing the Sky Arcanum because he does dark magic to protect Rayla in the first place. While Rayla's arc development has typically existed a little bit more separately from Callum (aka her mini arc in 3x09 and some of TTM) which again, reflects her character, Callum is far more relational, which also reflects his character. This has been the case since season freaking one, with Rayla choosing the egg and Ezran choosing her, and Callum choosing her because Ezran did so first. None of this should be surprise.

Cube Hostage Exchange Theory, in what it would cause both of them to choose and/or to learn is really no different than 2x07, but the order would change. In 2x07, Rayla decides to take Callum's worldview (concerning the cycle) as her own and puts her life in danger. Callum follows and does something morally and magically dubious, unwilling to lose her. In Cube Hostage Exchange Theory, Callum would do the dubious thing first (risking potentially the world by passing over the cube or something else important) and then Rayla would take his worldview (that she has worth, in this case, that she cannot erase nor deter him from seeing no matter what she does) as her own, thus completing her character arc, setting her up for a new one, and working to evolve his before they likewise resolve it together.

Just like Ezran&Zym's relationship, Callum&Rayla's is one half of the narrative's heart, so to speak. It's clear from a narrative standpoint they were each designed as pairs, and part of the reason why Callum and Rayla foil each other so fiercely, their arcs constantly working in interlocking circles with each other. This is already shown in arc 2, where Rayla existed in a painful emotional limbo concerning her family in TTM, but by leaving, she has now left that space to be occupied by Callum in S4. In some ways, Rayla kinda has to lose her agency a little, in order for (narratively) circle back around to her realizing what she denied Callum by leaving him behind.

At the end of the day, cube hostage exchange theory is just that: a theory. I think it has real merit, and I'll be extremely curious what route they'll take if it's not this one, as it seems the most straight forward with what's been set up, but no less delighted and pleased by whatever S4 deigns to do in its stead.

And on a closing note, because I know The One Person Troll loves to reference Star Wars, and the creators have used Empire Strikes Back as a comparison time and time again... you know, the film where the hero famously dips on training and prioritizes saving his friends above all else, and loses the battle horribly? (Which ATLA also did with a trope so famous it's called Always Save The Girl?) The movie where in the actual romance plot line, one love interest is taken captive and has to be later rescued? That movie?

#rayllum #cube hostage exchange theory #thanks for asking #star wars #loosely #anonymous #requests #i've been nursing this theory for so long it would be a young Toddler by now this isn't my first rodeo

[cyeayt]

Ambivalence OC Profiles

ive been tagging some posts as my ocs and i want to talk about them so here are the three main characters of my ambivalence oc set.

Ambivalence lore (very cliche but this story is more for me to process religious thoughts and weird relationships): its basically an incredibly stereotypical urban fantasy setting where there are realms/planes where magic is more distilled, there's a heaven and a hell analogue and like, werewolves, etc. There are a gods/demons that sometimes organize stuff and might try to end the world but eh. there's a group who tries to stop that happening but its centered around one specific god and gets v culty, they are referred to as "the knights" from here out. Ben spent his childhood as a 'chosen one' figure (he's half demon), and got really fed up with the whole bit. Alice was his friend and brief girlfriend when they were younger. During the last arc of their childhood and after the last big battle, their ragtag hero group gets absorbed into the knights who have been gaining numbers and legitimacy. Ben runs away and Alice takes it hard. The main story takes place a few years later when they reunite.

I've made them each in these three picrews to properly capture the vibe.

Ben:

Reuben (Ben), 24, he/him. Ben lives alone in a house he inherited from his maternal grandfather. He likes to live simply and peacefully, and works as a carpenter. His hobbies include pottery, gardening, and collage making. He is badger coded and capable of great violence, but is very calm most of the time. Since cutting ties with his old life, he has simultaneously mellowed out and repressed a lot of shit. He is trained to fight with a broadsword, although he turned his old one into a garden sculpture. He has a lot of scars and pain from old injuries. He is generally very stoic but is pretty emotional if you can read his understated facial expressions. He values the happiness and safety of himself and the people he loves, and dislikes liars. He can often be hypocritical and selfish.

Alice:

Alice P. Morrison, 23, she/her. Alice lives on a remote knight compound researching and developing ways to protect the balance of the planes. It is a very high stress environment and she's honestly pretty miserable. She likes caffeine and graph paper, her hobbies include sleeping and eating. Sometimes she goes hiking in the surrounding woods. Since Ben left, she has lost connections with old friends and mentors and become increasingly reliant on an unhealthy relationship with the director of the knight organization. She is trained to fight with only magic and can maybe use a spear. When she eventually gets out she will enjoy live music, painting, and reading nonfiction books. She's 'dog that you might think is a large rat or sick cat at first' coded. She shows her emotions pretty strongly and gets embarrassed easily. She cannot read facial expressions she just knows Ben really well. She values values knowledge and approval and dislikes apathy. She can be petty and stubborn.

Max:

Maximilian Hadley, 24, he/they. He certainly is here. Ben meets Max after leaving the knights and as Ben makes a new life he and Max build a relationship that Ben is hesitant to define, although Max would like to. They are outgoing and very socially adept, he likes fashion, history, and forming connections with people. his hobbies are a lot of what people around him want to do, but he personally enjoys horseback riding. Their family is very rich and owns a lot of animals. He knows little to nothing about magic, although his moms got up to their fair share of bullshit before he was born. He is not trained to fight but he would try to bite if it came to it. He is fancy cat coded and expresses his emotions carefully. They value connection, loyalty, and finesse. They dislike cruelty. He often struggles with boundaries and can be pushy or jealous.

Other Characters:

John: Ben and Alice's mentor figure, was not very good at the actual raising children part of it, was injured in the final battle and died as the knights were taking over.

Archer: Another mentor figure, they were closer to Ben and ended up faking their own death after he left. Was involved with John's sister.

John's sister: So very dead real narrative haunting gal she was prophetic and very mentally unstable about it.

Mason: Stereotypical fighter guy, was very close to Alice and Val, is still essentially loyal to the knights but doesn't talk to Alice anymore.

Val: Mason's partner and also fighter gal, was always quick to put herself at risk for the others and it caught up to her. She's been in a coma since the final battle.

#remind me to make posts for some of my other sets someday #oc #ocs #original character #my characters #ambivalence ocs #note to self learn to spell ambivilance #oc ben #oc alice #oc max #writing #creative writing

[onwriting-hrarby]

hi hera! what are some tips you can recommend for world building?

hi anon! <3 thanks for the question! i don't know if i'm authorized to talk about worldbuilding, because even though i use it to create novels (they all have a kind of dystopian, political reality) i still don't write sci-fi or fantasy, in which worldbuilding is much more important. i do read them, though, sparsely. (coming back here after finishing to say that i think i know more than i thought, and also that this is going to be a long post).

of course, first i'd like to throw you the question: are you asking about creating or about depicting?

creating

for creating worlds, i truly have no "special" advise: i'd say that it can go before establishing your characters or later, but in any way, the worldbuilding should be tied with the ambitions/anxieties of your hero(es). for example, i am now writing a novel about a political disruption, but essentially it is a novel about friendship amidst of that. i have to make sure that the worldbuilding is strong enough so that it interferes in said friendship: there's a revolution coming, and my heroes don't know which side to choose (they choose different sides, and therefore, what happens with their friendship?). even though the revolution is not the cause of their friendship to fall apart, it is important enough.

because i knew this was going to be important, i was sure to think about the history of the world, what brought the country there, establish their politics (what do people from this country face? how do politics work?) and culture (which language to they speak? does it encompass my heroes' reality?). but this is all very basic, and i'm sure you can find fantasy or sci-fi guides that will tell you so and much more.

HOWEVER: although i would stress that you have to read about the genre, please, do not only read that genre. for me, the best novels are not only one thing but many, they take from many genres. for example: a share of night by mariana enríquez is basically a story about a father and a son tangled up in black magic amidst the political uproar in argentina. so, we have: family saga (literary fiction, how the characters develop, even a bildungsroman) with a fantasy novel (the hero gets tangled up in a mess and has to choose their path towards this magic) with thriller (because it's told from different povs, you don't really know what's happening, you discover it along the characters, so it's terrifying) and political novel (they are all touched by politics). so, i'd say, break the genre. i don't think that any fantasy or sci-fi novel doesn't have any politics or any other genre in between, but i do believe that if you want to make a good fantasy novel, you can infer much more "literary fiction", whereas if you want to do a good literary fiction, you can infuse fantasy to bring it up a notch. (that's my opinion, anyway)

depicting

now, this is i think where the tricky part comes. it's difficult to explain your worldbuilding without explaining to much or doing an info-dump.

i recently read a book (fourth wing, by rebecca yarros) that didn't do a good job on that, and the first 3/4 chapters i felt like i was reading a wikipedia sometimes. this happened because the infodump wasn't justified. the main protagonist, violet, has lived in this world FOREVER, yet, even though the novel was in first pov, she was explaining it. and that completely threw me out of the loop. it wouldn't happen because when we think we tend to know our world as the palm of our hand. when the novel advanced and violet knew more people with whom she could talk, the worldbuilding was revealed little by little through dialogs and conversations, which i think was great and how it should be.

i'd say that one can reveal it in different ways:

the main protagonist is a estranger to this world: essentially, a little bit like harry potter, eragon or memories of idhun (one of my fave books when i was young), or even cornelia funke's ink blood: the protagonist stomps into a world they don't know and thus, they make questions about it. constantly, small questions in each step so that it doesn't overflow the reader and the reader keeps on discovering things until the end. in the example of "harry potter", harry is not a magician so must of the info-dumping on the magic world comes from hagrid when they go shopping. however, rowling makes sure to only say some things during that time, what has to do with the shopping itself: we know that people have pets, that they fly brooms, that they have a bank with their own money; we do not know how hogwarts works (instead, mcgonagall explains before entering the sorting hat) or nothing about voldemort (this is the main incognita of the book, and it gets revealed little by little). what rowling does is camouflage the real incognita by another one: the philosopher's stone. but truly, this is just a coy so that we get more worldbuilding (chess moves, prohibited section in the library, dog with three heads, snape is terrifying). a lot of it is revealed through conversations and also harry's pov about things, filled with surprised and exclamations from the others, who are not strangers to this.

confidante: we could argue that the characters of hp are confidantes to harry, but this wouldn't be what i'm talking about. take, for example, game of thrones (i'm talking about the series, not the books). in the first episode, we get the introduction between the most important families (yet, it is said that there are many others—by only showing those two, grr martin makes sure that we are seeing the main enemies) and in the same episode, we have the conversation between robert and ned. they talk about the main conflict, which is the long winter, and the revolution that robert led. they talk about this with such normalcy, because it's their world and they know it perfectly. it's okay not to know all the details, they are going to be revealed bit by bit as the series progresses. similarly to their conversation, we have daenerys and viserys convo about their condition as targaryen. we can piece together that they were thrown out of the throne, but we don't know how many years that was, or how exactly it happened (many seasons later, we learnt that jamie has a nickname because he killed the targaryen king). we can't forget that the politics and reality of a world is what makes us, so our characters need to be the same. when i meet new people, or when i talk with friends, i do not explain the history and culture of my country all at the same time. i begin with what's affecting my reality now, and maybe as i get to know them, i give them more info about everything.

through books/manuscripts/recordings: "the fourth wing" does that in every chapter, in which they cite a bible, or a recording, or something that talks a little bit more about worldbuilding. in game of thrones, we also have the little girl in the jail (i don't remember her name know) which the skin condition that talks about what's in her book. in harry potter, they discover the philosopher's stone because there's a recording about it. i think in the game of thrones books it's already explained like there was being a recording about it (as if, you're reading a historical recording of what happened in the world), which i think it's very clever because you can infodump asa much as you like without it being weird.

make all of this interact (read further on an example)

also, use the povs available. in "a share of night" by mariana enríquez (what a book, i can't recommend it enough), the father knows about the dark magic, the history of the family (to a certain extent), because his wife, now death, told him about it. however, his pov and information is limited because his wife was hiding things, and he also limits it in regards to gaspar, the son, because he doesn't want him to find out certain things and wants to protect it. but gaspar has secrets of his own (regarding dark magic itself), yet he's not able to fully grasp it, the world has been hidden. SO: when we read from the father's pov (not 1st person, but 3rd limited), we get the pov of a confidante because the way he talks with people about their reality signals that they know about it. but when we read from gaspar's pov (again, 3rd person limited) we get the view of the stranger. furthermore, gaspar sneaks in conversations with two or more confidantes, and also finds recordings and books. so, if you make the three interact and each character have their own thing, it makes it much more interesting.

anyway, as i told you this is not my main area of expertise! but this is all i've learnt through observation and critical reading! i hope it helps a little bit.

(ah, after writing, make it read to someone whom you haven't talked about this world. ask if there are questions by the end of the book, if they got bored, in which point... i think it helps!)

#writing #writer on tumblr #writing advice #worldbuilding #fantasy #sci-fi #writing inspiration #writers on tumblr #creative writing #writers #writeblr #writing community #writing exercise #hrarbycraft

[em-dash-press]

How Do You Know When Your Manuscript Is Ready to Query?

You just wrote the last sentence of your novel—congrats! That’s an incredible accomplishment that took hours of your unpaid time and effort. You poured so much of your creative energy into that manuscript, so you’re ready to query it. It should see the light of day and reach the hearts of readers.

But should that happen now or after more detailed work?

These are a few ways to know when your manuscript is ready to query.

1. You’ve Finished Your Manuscript

It’s no longer your WIP! Call it what it is—it’s your beautiful, hard-earned manuscript. It should have a completed arc with tied-up character development points to conclude your theme and plot twists.

2. Ask Someone to Read It

You can re-read your manuscript for weeks and still have errors that your eyes naturally skip over. It helps to ask a fresh pair of eyes to read through your work. They’ll read every sentence closely because it’s all new information. They also won’t know what’s coming in each chapter, so they’ll point out if plot twists surprised them or if the character development felt natural.

Your beta reader should feel free to point out what works and what doesn’t work about your manuscript. Those aren’t the same thing as what they like and don’t like. When something works, the reader will understand what you’re saying and feel what your characters are feeling. If it doesn’t, the reader will be confused. They might become emotionally disconnected too.

Encourage your beta reader to give specific feedback. They may point out things that need more refined wording or a re-write in a second draft of a chapter.

3. Find a Critiquer

There are various ways to find a professional fiction critiquer and pay them to comb through your newly edited manuscript. Although their advice will be top-tier, you don’t need to pay someone to check for line edits.

Ask your friends and family members to see who feels confident with grammar and punctuation. Anyone who rarely got edit notes on their school essays can provide some helpful line critiques to polish your manuscript.

4. Pinpoint Your Audience

Agents need to know who’s going to read your book. It’s an essential part of your query letter, so don’t send anything unless you know your target audience. There are a few ways to indicate who’s going to love your book within your query letter, like:

Naming the genre (Children’s, Young Adult, New Adult, etc.)

Naming comparative titles (“Readers who loved Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games will love the action-packed arena fights in my manuscript.”)

Talking about why you wrote your book (“I wrote about this coming-of-age perspective to reach middle schoolers who are learning how to accept their changing identities.”)

If you’re unsure who your audience will be, ask your beta readers for their input. They might point out certain themes, scenes or points that are better suited for specific ages.

5. Research Your Agents

After drafting your query letter—which I wrote about in this post—you can’t send your manuscript to every agent you find on QueryTracker or various publishers’ websites. You need to find agents representing your genre. 

To do that, you have to know your manuscript’s genre. Give it some thought while considering factors that will point you toward one genre or another, like:

The time period your book takes place (historical fiction, futuristic sci-fi)

Your protagonist’s age (child, young adult, adult)

The presence of magic (fantasy)

The presence of science or technology (sci-fi)

Dark or scary themes (horror)

A mystery that drives your plot (mystery)

-----

It's okay to take your time editing and revising your manuscript after it crosses that initial finish line. Sometimes it takes writers months or years to get their work to a point where they feel confident and comfortable enough with it to query.

Give yourself time to work through these points and your editing process. The publishing world will be waiting for you when you're ready.

#querying advice #querying tips #writeblr #writers of tumblr #writing community #writing advice #writing tips

[gealach-in-a-misty-world]

Jack Alston, Lord Hawthorn, would love a nice, safe, comfortable life. After the death of his twin sister, he thought he was done with magic for good. But with the threat of a dangerous ritual hanging over every magician in Britain, he’s drawn reluctantly back into that world. Now Jack is living in a bizarre puzzle-box of a magical London townhouse, helping an unlikely group of friends track down the final piece of the Last Contract before their enemies can do the same. And to make matters worse, they need the help of writer and thief Alan Ross. Cagey and argumentative, Alan is only in this for the money. The aristocratic Lord Hawthorn, with all his unearned power, is everything that Alan hates. And unfortunately, Alan happens to be everything that Jack wants in one gorgeous, infuriating package. When a plot to seize unimaginable power comes to a head at Cheetham Hall―Jack’s ancestral family estate, a land so old and bound in oaths that it’s grown a personality as prickly as its owner―Jack, Alan and their allies will become entangled in a night of champagne, secrets, and bloody sacrifice . . . and the foundations of magic in Britain will be torn up by the roots before the end.

"Broken items wanted to be whole". Freya Marske's A Power Unbound sticks the landing with this exhilarating conclusion to the Last Binding trilogy. A new set of main characters takes center stage, but this time the protagonists of the two previous volumes are more entangled with the plot and even undergo more development as this big, queer found family races against time to unveil a plot that could destroy everything.

After the enclosed setting of the second book, we find ourselves once again in England, between estates and magical parliament; we also see poorer parts of the city as Alan, who was introduced in the previous book, is an immigrant with a big family he works hard to support. This allows the book to introduce themes of class and power dynamics that work very well in the general context of the series and give it more depth. The journalist who's secretly a writer of queer erotica finds his perfect partner in bisexual Lord Hawthorn, as the two of them slowly dismantle their walls over the course of the book and a couple of intense sex scenes.

Every loose thread from the first two books is accounted for in this finale that asks questions about family, power, and abuse. The magic is made bigger and more interesting as the roots of power are explained and explored; every character has a moment to shine, from the medium that facilitates a heart-wrenching heart-to-heart with a ghost, to the nobleman who once thought he wasn't as powerful as his peers, from the seer to the powerful actress to the one who got violently torn from his own magic. And then there's Alan, who isn't magical but who can disrupt magic, and the surrounding cast of magicians, friends and foes, enstranged family and abusive brothers, and mothers who'll tear the world apart for their children.

The book weaves a rich tapestry that's much more deeper for its focus on land and contracts, the places where we live that protect us, and the free contracts between two people. It's a honest exploration of unconventional desires, woven together by the books written by Alan and mentioned in the first two installments: a thread that slowly reveals itself and makes the whole series almost a metanarrative.

A Power Unbound is a powerful exploration of love and the ties that bind.

✨ 4 stars

.

📚📚📚 IF YOU LOVE THIS, YOU MIGHT LIKE:

* The Magpie Lord, by K.J. Charles

for: Edwardian England, power dynamics

[You can find more of my reviews about queer speculative fiction on my blog MISTY WORLD]

#freya marske #a power unbound #the last binding #lgbtq books #queer lit #queer books #queer #sff #queer sff #sff books #books #book reviews #reading #gealach reads #gealach writes

[wyyvernn]

Moonbearer - ☾ Character profile: Arthael Taelvaan

Name: Arthael Taelvaan (/ɑːθeɪɛl teɪɛlvɑːn/ Ah-thay-el Tay-el-vahn) Age: TBA Gender: Male Height: 190cm/6’3 (6'6 with heels) Species: Mutari (Grand) Abilities/Magic: Shapeshifting, telepathy, various lunar powers Aliases/Other names: The Chamberlain of Is Roya (Formerly), The Hermit Sorcerer (Among common folk), The Masked Lunar Guardian, Know-it-all (by Aurelia), Artie (by Aurelia), Master/Lord Arthael (by Seraphina and Jewel) Typology: INTJ 5w6 Spoken language/s: Islie, Common tongue, various others Affiliation/s: Is Roya (Ascendia), Taelvaan family. The Mending Grey Occupation: Guild Consultant of The Mending Grey – Arthael often provides his support and input on matters that the guild sometimes cannot solve or do not understand. Being extremely knowledgeable in many areas of magic, he is able to determine results quickly and efficiently. On the rare occasion, the Guild Master will ask Arthael to investigate an area that is suspicious. In exchange for his services, he earns a large sum of gold; however, he will sometimes ask for favours instead. Relatives & Relationships: Father, Mother (deceased), Fierathame (sister), Aurelia (Apprentice), Seraphina (Maid), Jewel (Servant)

About/Backstory:

Born and raised in Is Roya, Arthael became a well-known scholar among his peers and frequently delved in books and ancient texts, anything he could get his hands on containing knowledge about different magic types. As heir to the next Chamberlain of the queen, Arthael would eventually go on to become an advisor by her side; however, due to his vast interest in the arcane arts, Arthael ultimately decided to leave her services early, instead leaving the role to his younger sister who appeared more than eager to fill his place.

During his time in Is Roya, Arthael became convinced that there was something about himself that he lacked the knowledge of, leading him to develop a theory that he was somehow tied to the great guardian of life, Yyeros. This idea sprung from the unknown feeling he felt pulsing through him frequently, a feeling that began from an early age. It became stronger each time he would gaze at the white moon, a strong burst of adrenaline growing in his chest. He constantly questioned if other mutari felt the same only to find that he was alone. He became eager to find the source of this sensation and set out from his homeland at a young age to pursue answers.

Physical Description:

In his true mutari appearance, Arthael has navy blue skin with gold markings on his chest, arms, legs, back and face. His dark navy-blue hair reaches to a stunning 210cm and fades out to a lighter blue. It is so long that it even drags behind him when he walks. His eyes are a piercing bright amber with black sclera framed by long lashes. Despite being fairly tall, he is considered somewhat short among his kind. Beneath the left corner of his lip and left eye, he has two beauty spots which can be difficult to see on his skin. Just like all mutari, he has slightly sharp canine teeth and long pointy ears - his left donning an ear cuff with the Taelvaan crest attached to it. Due to being one of the more powerful mutari, he has four horns on his head and eight wings - a pair on his lower back above his hips, mid back, shoulder blades and forearms, respectively. He wears long robes of various blue, red and black shades.

While in his shifted form, Arthael has pale skin, no gold markings and his sclera are white. He is used to reducing majority of his original features to blend in among common folk; however, his amber eyes, beauty spots, hair and ears appear the same. While he is usually mistaken as a human, closer inspection to his ears has others believing him to be an elf instead, which he prefers. In this form, Arthael will wear various shirts, waistcoats, plain knee-high boots, leggings and a loose pony when he is at his mansion. In public, he can be seen wearing a long, navy coat with a thick fur neck trim and, red and silver accents. Beneath it he dons a lighter waistcoat and navy shirt, a cravat with a silver brooch, dark leggings, thigh high boots fastened with belts, black and blue gloves and his hair done up in a low bun or high pony with a red ribbon.

‘A bright soul, unrelenting and unknowing, yet hungering for knowledge, famished for the unseen – akin to the moon craving to be reflected in the faces of a crystal.’

Personality:

Due to his knowledge-hunger nature, Arthael spends majority of his time alone, and researches many things about The Shattered Fragments and other worlds even after leaving his homeland. When he takes in Aurelia as his apprentice, he gradually becomes more interactive with the people around him and comes out of his shell over time, experiencing the little things about the world rather than researching about it.

He is naturally serious about the things he does and considers, and often wears a slight frown. However, occasionally he will show amusement, usually from teasing Aurelia or gaining some satisfaction from taunting his opponents, displaying a slightly sadistic side. He can be a strict mentor to his apprentice but this is only because he wants her to progress well in her studies and abilities. Despite this, he is oblivious to the sensitive feelings of others and genuinely tries to understand if he goes too far.

Physical Reference

Concept Art & Gallery

#Moonbearer #OC - Arthael Taelvaan #webtoon #original character #oc #art

[bluerosesburnblue]

PSA for HPHM players: if you see a pop-up for a survey in the app, this is a survey for TLSQs! They focus mostly on the short NEWT quests they've been doing recently and how receptive people are to the idea of several short quests with interconnected themes vs. the current longform quests, but there's also areas to respond about TLSQs in general and I know we all have a lot of complaints! So be vocal

I, for one, called the sidequests out for feeling like filler unrelated to the main game a lot of the time, being way too long, and having nonsensical trigger points/not being designed to work with the main story. But I also tried to be constructive by pointing out ones I liked, such as ones focusing on backstories for our friends and ones that introduced relatives that fleshed out our main cast (like Andre's cousin or Ismelda's sister)

I also suggested a concept taken from another mobile game that I play with a similar premise (Twisted Wonderland if you've ever seen me mention it, which is set in a magical boarding school that sorts students into dorms but with an anime and classic Disney coat of paint if that appeals to anyone). Twisted Wonderland has a genre of story event centered around one of our friends going back to their hometown for the weekend for an event and taking some of their classmates along with them. Some examples are the two friends inspired by characters in Aladdin taking their friends to their hometown, based on Agrabah, for a fireworks festival that the one friend's family is in charge of, or another friend inviting some of the cast along to be his teammates in the sled race that his hometown puts on based on the story of Snow White. I thought that this kind of event could be really interesting for HPHM, developing the backstory of their cast (which is my favorite part of the game), pairing together characters that we don't normally see interacting, and developing the world more without just going "remember this from the books??? It's the thing from the books!"

So if you have ideas, put them in the survey! Or if you like my suggestion, steal it, the more people suggesting it the better. (Also, if people could ask them to fix the permanent "!" markers tied to Brilliant Bargains/the Dirigible Plum Tree/the Study with a Friend task in the library, that would be great. I know it's not really relevant to the survey, but you can make it sound relevant, like saying in the "what would make sidequests better" section that "Brilliant Bargains/the Dirigible Plum Tree tend to show up during TLSQs and the exclamation mark makes it harder for me to balance the ongoing event at the same time as the TLSQ" or "the mark on Study with a Friend" at the Library sometimes confuses me as to where the next part of my TLSQ is." Even if you're lying, please say it, because I don't know when we might get another chance to call these out and potentially get them fixed and they drive me CRAZY)

#harry potter series #harry potter hogwarts mystery #hphm #btw i didn't name twisted wonderland directly in the survey because they might skip over it if they think it's 'stealing' #so wording things in a way to be vague has a better chance of getting their attention

[bookshelf-in-progress]

Trick-or-Treat 🎃

I'll treat you (and myself) to the behind-the-scenes info about the writing of "The True Story". (There will be spoilers).

The idea for 84, Charing Cross Road + Imaginary Book Recs in an epistolary fantasy story came to me in one of the last days of September as a Team Chesterton possibility. I was very excited by the wish-fulfillment of writing characters to get to read these books I wish existed.

(For those who might not know, Imaginary Book Recs is a game I've been playing on my main blog for the past two years. In the first round, people sent me the titles of books they loved, and I "recommended" a similar book that didn't exist. In the second round, people sent me titles and genres, and I came up with plot summaries for these nonexistent books.)

Initially, the first letter was going to be from a woman whose family had history of buying books from a shop that carried books that came from alternate universes. She totally knew the history of the shop and where these books came from. And maybe I could fit in the theme by having the bookshop owner get arrested for selling an alternate-universe banned book or something.

That version fizzled out because figuring out the logistics of this alternate universe set-up was too complicated. And having the only fantasy element be "these people can read books that don't exist" didn't feel very fantastical (I can throw imaginary books into mundane contemporary fiction in exactly the same way). Plus, I knew from experience that trying to write an epistolary fantasy for Inklings never works.

In the last week of the Challenge, after my simpler ideas just weren't coming together, I suddenly got the idea to go for a more magical-realism take on this story's shop. Even the bookshop owners don't know where the books come from. That instantly gave it a more whimsical fairy tale feel. The conflict could involve the girl learning about the strange nature of these books. I fit in the "work of mercy" theme by having the FMC take care of a sick grandmother, and we were off to the races.

This is the first original story I've let myself discovery-write in a long time. I knew the story would involve the FMC coming to believe in the supernatural origins of the books. I had a handful of imaginary books I wanted to highlight. I knew the characters would meet in person by the end. Beyond that, I just let the characters talk, and let their conversations shape the story.

I tried really hard to highlight books in a way that fit the story. So I kicked off a story with a children's fantasy that would be a nostalgic tie between Christine and her grandmother. (Song of the Seafolk was invented in response to a prompt from @magpie-trove). Mysteries are a vast genre beloved by grandmothers, so The Wings of Hermes (from a title by @siena-sevenwits) came next. Mercator Must Walk the Plank was another beloved @siena-sevenwits title I had to feature, and comedy was a reasonable request from someone stressed out by dealing with illness. I felt odd featuring Alfred Quicke (with its ties to @isfjmel-phleg's fictional universe), but the comedy and mystery blend were the perfect mix after the previous two books, and I needed a long-running series to justify frequent use of the shop. The Autumn Queen's Promise (from a suggestion by @into-means) and The Queens of Wintermoon (inspired by @lover-of-the-starkindler) were both seasonally-focused fantasies I could reasonably fit in.

Originally the story was just going to consist of letters between Christine and Ben. When I introduced Mercator Must Walk the Plank, Ben mentioned "we read it aloud at the Christmas party" as part of his pitch. I realized that if they were donating a book with such personal significance, the other shop employees would probably want to chime in, and since I'd been vaguely hoping to include other employee voices, I threw in the notes from Penny and Heinrich.

This let me develop the secondary thread of Penny's letters. Penny provided the fun "let's fangirl over imaginary books" side of the story, while Ben's could stay more serious and plot-focused.

Penny's the main reason this story got finished. I woke up on the last day thinking that this was a terrible story. My mains had no personality beyond what I stole from 84, Charing Cross Road. I had no plot except "people talking about books no one had ever read". But Penny's letter was fun and voice-y, and made me think maybe there was a spark of something worthwhile here.

Looking back, I'm shocked at how little was planned. The Mercator fan club, and the subplot surrounding that book, was totally unplanned. Even the main themes were unplanned!

Seriously, Christine's initial response to Ben's "I hate agreeing to disagree" letter was "Thanks for agreeing to drop the subject. Now let's get back to talking about Imaginary Books." Then I came to my senses, realized I was bypassing a major source of story conflict, and started the subplot of Christine and Ben arguing about the existence of the supernatural.

Cardinal's Map was always going to be an important part of this story (from a suggestion by @siena-sevenwits, it's my favorite of the Imaginary Book Recs), but Christine and Ben's conversation gave me the chance to make this story match the themes of that imaginary book (which is probably the closest I'll ever get to writing that book). Instead of just being one book among a list, Cardinal's Map could now bring about the climax of the story.

I had an idea to have a fourth employee at Wright's and Co. who provided a third set of letters. Christine could fangirl with Penny, fight with Ben, and this third woman could offer more personal insight and advice--and she'd be the one to recommend Cardinal's Map. But as I wrote, there wasn't much space for her, and it worked much better to split her role between Ben and Penny.

I considered having Ben recommend the book, but that came across as very patronizing--"Here, read this book that proves I'm right." Having it come from Penny (who isn't involved in this argument) felt more natural (and made the miracle of the book feel more miraculous).

Until very late in the story, there was a 50-50 chance that Christine's grandmother would die, and the characters would meet at her funeral. But that offered too many emotional and logistical complications for me to resolve before the deadline, and I figured it was better to keep the story centered around Christine's internal journey with the books.

I don't know if this counts as a treat, because it went on so long, but here's hoping it's not totally disappointing.

#answered asks #trick or treat #the true story #inklings challenge

[dragonthusiast]

Break the Day: Proper NaNo WIP intro

I finally got around to writing a proper blurb for the first book in this series, and also it’s developed even further since my last one so I thought I’d compile a proper post about it. Still excited about this to dangerous levels.

I’ll update this post as things develop.

Genre: Fantasy, LGBTQ+

Status: Writing book 2

Short Summary:

This series is set in a medieval-ish fantasy world, partly inspired by slavic language/culture, about magic users called the az-ari/the priori, particularly two of them called Fennrin and Ainreth, who can control shadows and light respectively. They fall in love while trying to navigate a world of politics, war, the ramifications of individuals being given too much power, and also their own complicated feelings because they’re idiots. 

Proper Blurb:

Fennrin is a shadowforger, a type of az-ari who have mastery over shadows. But all it's ever brought him is misery. People are afraid of the power that he himself barely understands, seeing his shadows as omens of bad luck and death.

Forced to barely scrape by since his parents disowned him, Fennrin's life takes a turn when he is approached by Ainreth, a lightweaver and famous general, asking him to come with him to the royal court to be trained and help him stave off an assassin who's made an attempt on Ain's life, somehow able to counteract his powers.

Even though Fennrin is suspicious of Ainreth's flirting and his arrogant attitude, Fennrin decides to go with him because his life can't get much worse.

Thrust into a world of politics and power, Fennrin quickly learns just why shadowforgers are so infamous and how strong he could become, while, much to his chagrin, starting to fall for Ainreth. However, unwelcome feelings are only the start of his problems as the neighboring, tyrannical monarchy is preparing for war. And if Fennrin wants to survive, he will have to fight it.

Map and Geography:

There’s two countries in the story (though I’m sure I’ll add more to mention on the side later). Orinovo - the somewhat slavic country on the left, and Lys-Akkaria on the right. Lys-Akkaria used to be part of Orinovo, but freed itself over a century ago. Now that Orinovo has a new monarch, a new war has started to try to regain Lys-Akkaria back.

Orinovo is a monarchist dictatorship where az-ari are hated, while Lys-Akkaria celebrates them, and is ruled by 4 elected leaders: the Bulwark of the Royal Guard, who manages the army, the Patron of Treasury, who deals with taxes and money in general, the Arbiter of Law, who deals with law, unsurprisingly, and the High Herald, the guy who keeps an eye on the other 3 to make sure everything runs smoothly.

And here’s some flags for the two nations. Lys-Akkaria’s the first one because they’re cooler of course:

Magic System:

The az-ari can control various aspects of nature, but they’re all limited to their specific talent. What exactly they can do is still up for changing, but so far the types of az-ari are lightweaver (controls light, especially sunlight), shadowforger (controls shadows), sproutkeeper (can either control plants or mushrooms, there’s two types), flamewielder (controls fire), ironspinners (control iron, so far not officially added, may be deleted at any point :D), and so far unnamed ability to take the powers of others.

To be able to use their powers, the az-ari have to be able to move their fingers, which is why special finger clamps exist to restrain them if necessary.

The powers are inherited from ancestors, but it’s not super likely for someone to receive them, and the longer a family line goes without them the less likely it is for someone to have powers. Shadowforgers and lightweavers are incredibly rare because their powers are tied to only one family line each.

I would list characters here but I compiled a character introduction post here for anyone interested.

#writeblr #amwriting #creative writing #original writing #nanowrimo #wip intro #fantasy #my writing