#second life yaoi role play

[mugenkuppukuisland]

9/4/23

Community service duties are designed to give students real-world practical experience in the workplace and beyond. Here, Student Council President Kuranosuke Saiga is learning how hard employees work at the Shizukana Onsen, even in tasks as simple as giving massages.

#yaoi rp #yaoi role play #yaoi roleplay #second life yaoi role play #second life yaoi roleplay #second life yaoi RP #SL yaoi rp #SL yaoi roleplay #SL yaoi role play

[nahte123456]

Role Play rules, kinks, and muses.

This wasn't going to be an RP blog, but I have so many of them at this point here's a primer.

First things first, I'm not a very picky person. There are a few exceptions but if I list a Series I'll RP for, chances are any character you can think of I'm OK with.

NEED!

If you want to RP with me this is the #1 thing I need, and that is communication. At any post we need to be able to stop and message each other ideas or miscommunications to keep everything going smooth. Let me be clear, I said 'post' not 'time', obviously real life happens, you don't always feel up for it, that's all fine, let's not bug each other. I just mean you have to be willing to stop the back and forth and just message back and forth a bit as the story needs.

Also just to be clear, 18+ ages everyone, for all characters. I don't really mind much as long as there's a clear distinction between fantasy and reality, but this is Tumblr not some hentai site, I do not want to risk anyone seeing that that finds it disgusting.

...Also if we are talking smut or anything like it you must be 18+ as well. That should go without saying but I'm saying it anyways.

Preference

Like I said I'm not picky, so these are things I prefer.

Smut. Will do no-smut, happily it's fun at times. But I prefer smut because it's something a story can always fall on. Awkward miscommunication? Odd phrasing? Misunderstood sentence? Start stripping!

I prefer playing girls at this point, but it's a SMALL preference.

OC's are fine but I don't play them, and keep your OC's few in number and under control. I don't want to have to read an essay for an RP.

Not a huge fan of Yaoi stuff. My preference in smut is straight or futa girl, for the relationship yuri, straight, or futa. Again will try it but it will be the last on my list.

Will play multiple characters if needed, and I prefer doing that then the other way around since it gives me more to think and write about.

Themes of domination. Again I do NOT need this, but much like the smut thing I like it as a fall back, if there's an awkward step in a story, having one character tell the other what to do or want to be told makes it much easier for both sides in my experience.

Muses

Series I'll RP for.

RWBY, no Jaune. He just REALLY bores me. Prefer yuri or futa/girl couples.

Fire Emblem except for New Mystery.

Miraculous Ladybug because I find it funny. I am very pro Marinette, not as big on Adrien, keep that in mind.

Bleach. LOVE Bleach. Yoruichi, Orihime, Unohana, and so many others perfect 10's.

Danny Phantom, look below

Kim Possible. Different series but DP and KP are two series I love and love to play with. DP I prefer Danny getting nice things and Kim being happy, even if she's 'beaten'.

Naruto and One Piece I know and will try.

MHA, lottsa hot girls.

Code Geass. Love it, but I stick with just the anime, no manga, movies, or author quotes. I love some of them but I ain't picking and choosing.

Winx Club, specifically the Winx or Trix.

Harry Potter. Luna is best girl just FYI, and deserves to be loved and 'loved'.

ATLA, no comics though thank you.

KOTOR, specifically 1 and 2. Not big on Star Wars in general but KOTOR is my baby and the sequel is pretty great as well.

Pokemon. I prefer the humans but some levels of Pokephelia are OK.

Metroid, or more like Samus. Love Samus, second favorite gaming character, of either gender. Only after Amaterasu from Okami, but Okami doesn't really fit the RP style unfortunately.

Persona 3! I want that distinction, I'll also do 4, and after I replay 5 I'll add that to the list, but P3 is the best and my favorite.

That time I got Reincarnated as a Slime, lottsa fun there.

Legend of Zelda, just in general.

Megaman Starforce. No one will ever do this one, and I think I'd actually prefer this not to be smut(and if it is no FM/AM having sex with humans thank you. That's just squick to me). But I'll put it on the list.

BANNED KINKS

Like I've said a few times, I'm pretty chill about things. I have very few hard 'no's'. You want bestiality, pokephelia, incest, cheating, rape? All things I'm OK with, heck I like cheating and to a lesser extent incest for smut(again, for smut. I support none of these things in real life).

But I do have limits.

Nothing sexual and damaging. You want Character A to beat Character B, cut them with a knife, and break their arm? Go ahead. You want Character A to fuck Character B like a whore? Yay! You want both at the same time? NO!

No blood play, no choking(that is more dangerous then people thing), no scarring, nothing like that. Spanking, paddling, wax play, that's all fine, some pain can be sexy, but nothing that could actually cause damage.

Related you can do stuff like kick someone's balls or whatever, it's fine, but it will not be 'pleasurable'. That is damaging, it can be done to punish someone, as torture, just as long as it's outside that person also getting off on it.

I really want to be clear here, a lot of my muse series are violent in some way, Fire Emblem has war, Bleach people get eaten by monsters, RWBY the characters are trained to slaughter, I like that. But there is a clear difference between violence, sexy, and combining the 2.

Unrelated but also banned are real people or live action stuff. There's a reason all of my muses are in some way animated. I don't think it's morally wrong to use a character just because it's played in live action, but I personally do not like it. And I won't do real people at all.

Preferred Kinks

Look at the other stuff I said, I'm not picky. But if your idea has these things, I'm going to be more into it.

Dom/Sub, as I've said.

Group dynamics. Harems, poly, just friends being around. You can focus on 1 pair of people, but I still like other characters being around.

Breeding talk. Don't need to actually happen, just being mentioned in some way, threatened or promised or plans made.

Seduction, Character A being so sexy Character B just NEEDS them after a point.

Cucking, I don't know, I like this. Whether the cuck is into it, humiliated, whatever. If I like a character chances are I like them cucking or being cucked, don't know what to tell you.

Powers Play. If Character A is super strong, use that. If Character B>>>Character A, let that be a factor. These abilities or just a difference in power should be part of them.

Little kinks.

Just a list of kinks that would make me go 'Oh?' And raise an interested eyebrow but not alone sell me on an idea.

General cheating, incest, public sex, 'marking' like hickies and bite marks, teasing, in RP talking about loving/fucking, gossip, teaching, threesomes, lots of cum, big but not absurd sizes(foot dick, eh ok, 16 inches go back. That kinda thing), pet play, titfucking, assjob, denial, biting that doesn't break skin(I guess unless you're a vampire?), interracial, first time for one person but not the other, one person has a LOT of experience but not the other (no relation), degradation, praise kink.

#muse list #kinks list #fandom list #roleplay rules #rules

[mikuni14]

Step by Step Ep 1

I liked the first episode a lot, the main characters made a good impression on me :) Pat is one of many similar office workers from the BLs, meaning he's at the bottom of the corporate ladder, he's kind, and as is often the case, his good nature and low position are taken advantage of by older workers. I like Pat, I also identify with him a bit, I had exactly the same situations in my working life 🙄 Jeng is obviously a “perfect man”, but he's likable, so he's not two-dimensional. Both actors play their roles well, they look good, I have high hopes for this series 😉 (but then again, I had high hopes after many other shows that had a great start only to disappoint me later, so I have high hopes, but I also don't have high hopes if you know what I mean)

What else I liked: - perfectly presented working environments. I literally met these people, they are so real - Pat's group of friends, their conversations, their dynamics - also presented very realistically - Poppy! - What about this Bible doppelgänger? 👀 - that Pat is gay, how his friends openly discuss his love life, encourage him, cheer him up. nice ✨ - their flirting is sweet, Jeng is charming and indeed very gentlemanly, Pat is adorable and clumsy. this is some really old-school yaoi stuff tbh

I'm a bit worried about the second episode, it seems that Pat's attempt to regain his dignity and defend himself will not be well received ... I hope it won't last long, I hate watching bullying and its victims who are also denied the right to defend themselves and they are still expected to “be better and to control themselves”. I hope so, because the series really has potential 😏 (and am I seeing correctly, is that Up? will it be a love triangle???)

#step by step #thai bl #bl drama

[aesthetic-bastard]

Media Interaction 2023

March

Before Dawn - this is a doujin featuring Kyon and Itsuki Koizumi from the series Haruhi Suzumiya. The anatomy isn't the best at times but it makes up for it with its writing. I appreciate that most of the dialogue in this doujin is narrated by Kyon which is faithful to the source material and I found the narrative about closeted homosexuality to hit really hard.

Algorithm - this is yet another of the many English-translated Kyon and Koizumi doujins I read through this month. The art is very nice but the dialog is just fucking ass, to be honest. I don't have very much to say about this one there was no impression left on me besides the art style which is unfortunate. I did find out later after reading this doujin the artist that made this went on to publish their own original works under the pen name Mikiyo Tsuda which I found hilariously inspirational.

Boy Meets Boy - another doujin featuring Kyon and Koizumi. This one was fucking awful I genuinely felt like I needed to brush my teeth or take a shower after reading it. I really DO NOT LIKE when consent is ambiguous or vague and this is unfortunately a common trope in yaoi doujins I have noticed. The art was also incredibly extreme to the point where it humored me to look at how awful, depraved, and dirty each illustration looked. After reading this one I genuinely felt like I needed a few minutes to recover.

I Don't Understand Adults - another Kyon and Koizumi doujin. The art is kinda janky and hard to understand what's being illustrated when looking at the panels. Kyon and Koizumi have been dating for a month but Kyon has an encounter with Koizumi 7 years from the future and it puts a strain on his relationship. I'm not very fond of angsty tropes so this one was very mild.

Game Boys - this is a short comic series featured in various issues of Genus Male, a male-only spin off of adults-only furry anthology comics. For gay furry porn, this is a very interesting and genuinely good comic about early 2000s online queer culture and self-expression in role-playing communities as well as the struggles of closeted homosexuality in real life. This was actually well written and illustrated and didn't solely focus on gay furry sex. I found a majority of the dialog to hit pretty hard and I think this is a very fascinating retrospective on early furry culture and homosexuality within such communities like furries, role-playing and gaming.

Genus Male Issue 1 - a lot of the art featured in this first comic anthology is excellent but most of the writing accompanying any of the short stories is just kinda mild. There was one short story that really stuck out to me though because it portrayed sex work in a way that wasn't incredibly demonizing but that was my biggest takeaway from reading the first issue.

Super Tecmo Bo - this is an album featuring The Alchemist and Boldy James. This is genuinely an excellent album from start to finish and another rare occurrence of enjoying every single track on an album. The use of samples is mesmerizing and I really like that each track crossfades into the next. I think this is gonna be another one of the top albums I've listened to this year I can not stop going back to it.

Secret Meeting - this is a doujin featuring Char Aznable and Garma Zabi from Mobile Suit Gundam. This is probably the most outstanding quality doujin I have ever read so far which is expected from this particular circle (GOMIX) and the most satisfying depiction of this specific pairing. There is just so much that I adore about this doujin I got really lucky to purchase a physical copy of this because the other Charma doujin released by GOMIX is no longer available for purchase online unless it were to be sold second hand which I highly doubt I'll find any time soon. (as I went back to edit this before publishing I scored a physical copy of this second hand weeks later after typing this in my drafts) The art is extremely attractive and identical to the original manga for Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin. There was a small note from the artist on the first page and what I could piece together from the shoddy Google translation on my phone is that they highly recommend reading volume 11 of the origin because "it's literally BL". The artist also stated they are very partial to the universal century timeline which I think is just very cute of them to state their own personal preference within the Gundam franchise. Something I'd like to add that is just a very special personal preference for me regarding any fan works like this is when either of the characters say "I love you" to each other. When Garma tells Char how much he loves him after they both climax that shit is the world to me.

Rooster Fighter - this manga series is still publishing so from what I've read up to the most current translated chapter I think this is the most stupidly fucking awesome thing I have read. The art is very detailed and the world-building is genuinely good??? I sincerely love how chickens are illustrated in this manga. I'm hoping to pick up the first few physical copies that have been released so far in the US since a lot of the online fan translations I've found vary in quality. The only thing I have to point out about this series is that there is a lot of NTR... with chickens...

Side Trips - 1967 debut studio album by American band Kaleidoscope. I liked maybe a maximum of 2 songs off this album and struggled to hit the skip button when listening to the rest. The genres used on this album are all over the place and made it feel like whiplash to listen to each track. My favorite track on this album would be Keep Your Mind Open

At Home - 1969 second studio album by Dutch rock band Shocking Blue. I liked a few songs from this album, which was about it. I enjoyed any track that particularly featured the use of a sitar as an instrument but besides that, I can tell this is another one of those one-hit-wonder type bands. My favorite track on this album would be Love Buzz

The Addiction Of Wanting To Touch You - another doujin featuring Kyon and Koizumi from Haruhi Suzumiya. genuinely very mild but the English translation is at least legible. This artist chose not to use screentones or any sort of shading that fleshes out the characters so I am puzzled looking at each panel trying to understand what's being depicted. Something that is a constant theme in these doujins with Kyon and Koizumi is whenever they start to make out they instantly say "did Haruhi wish for this" implying that Haruhi Suzumiya is a fujoshi and she wishes to see two men kiss each other.

Genus Male Issue 2 - the illustrations are nice as always but a lot of the stories in these comic anthologies are just weird wacky hijinks that end with gay furry sex so nothing really stuck out to me in this issue besides the art.

Hetalia Axis Powers - wow this has aged horrifically. From racist stereotypes to far right Japanese nationalism to fujoshi bait to historic revisionism to weird jokes about incest. Its revisionism is so all over the place the most I obtained from a history lesson is cringe. The jokes in this anime are about as racist as a G4 host getting ready to review a MegaTen game. There is not much left for me to discuss about this series when going back to it and watching it in its entirety.

On Air - this is a doujin featuring Char Aznable and Garma Zabi from Mobile Suit Gundam. The art in this was so cute it almost made me EXPLODE!! The dialogue and interactions between each character are very sweet and everything I want to see depicted with a pairing that's special to me which is very rare when reading a lot of these kinds of fan works. I am hoping to find this doujin available for purchase online since I really like it enough to add it to my collection.

Hetalia World Series - no different than the first series (very bad) but way more boring. There is a large focus on Eastern European countries but all of them have identical designs with atrociously revised history that doesn't accurately represent any of their personalities. I often found myself really bored watching this series when the attention wasn't on such countries as Japan, Switzerland, and Lichtenstein. I did really enjoy the Nekotalia segments and I wish there were more of them.

Evil Empire - 1996 second studio album by American rock band Rage Against the Machine. Very excellent hardcore album from start to finish there is not a single track I don't like and the sociopolitical commentary is still extremely relevant nearly 2 decades later.

Hetalia The Beautiful World - the new art style of this series is hideous and the fujoshi bait is at full throttle. This series in Hetalia is surprisingly less racist than the first two and the historical revisionism is toned down a bit because there's barely any history at all. This series was evidently different than the first two and no longer featured any sort of segments and cutaways which surprisingly made the pacing go even faster but was still a mundane watch-through. The overall drastic change made it feel less like a funny web series and more like 5-minute shorts made for TV despite still being classified as an ONA. I think this is where Hetalia really began to die out as both a series and a fandom.

Meeting Place - this is the prequel to Before Dawn, a doujin featuring Kyon and Itsuki Koizumi from the series Haruhi Suzumiya. The narrative about online gay relationships hits very hard just like the sequel and is probably the best fan work I've seen written with this paring that doesn't reek of homosexual fetishization. I've grown rather fond of this artist's style as I read more translations of their works and I'm hoping to purchase some of them to add to my collection.

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam - overall excellent saga within the Universal Century Timeline. I don't think I have ever engaged with any media that has had such an honest nonoffensive sincere depiction of autism which made this series more personally impactful to me than the first. I enjoyed the focus on character drama in this Gundam series and I surprisingly felt very emotional about the romance Kamille shares with Four which is very rare for me to experience when a series establishes love interests. I think what makes Kamille and Four so likable as lovers for me is how sincere and direct their feelings are for each other which overlaps with the depiction of Kamille's autism. This series was very intriguing to me, especially with the introduction of cyber newtypes and that any prominent character classified as a cyber newtype was very autistic coded. There were also a lot of new excellent mobile suit designs in this series and I never really expected to take to the gunpla aspect of this franchise because man do I need to add more of those little colorful plastic fellas on my wishlist.

#media interaction 2023

[blackknightgargiemoviephile]

How To Train Your Dragon Saga

In the beginning, I was never really interested in watching the movie and never even bothered to watch the trailer, since we thought it was one of those cliche failure movies (and Dreamworks hasn't really had a very good track record of good animated movies at the time), but after being bombarded with tons of Toothcup fanfics and fanarts and after very high recommendations by my friend Jello13 from dA, I finally got down to watching the movie. Boy, was I glad I took my friend's recommendation to watch this movie, and the subsequent sequels after that, because after 3, 4 friggin' times, I still fucking LOVE this movie!!!

Here's my findings of the saga:

Apparently this movie was based on a children's novel written by Cressida Cowell which focuses on the 2nd book in a 10-volume book franchise. There are certain deviations between the real Hiccup and Toothless and the storyline as a whole, but after reading the summary of the original story, I think I like the movie version better. In fact even the writer said so in her blog that she likes the deviation as the movie captured the core essence of her story and it was amazing to see her story to be interpreted this way.

The storyline and the pacing is very good, and the sarcastic humour and slight optimism of Hiccup despite people thinking he's anything BUT a Viking is very intriguing. I love his catchphrases like "I'm way too muscular for their tastes. They wouldn't know what to do with all...this" and "Thank you for summing that up" and his famous line "You just gestured to ALL of me!" is just some of the LOL-worthy lines the talented Jay Baruchel who voices Hiccup does.

I was totally shocked to find out that Gerard Butler plays the role of Stoick, Hiccup's old man! I have never expect him, who is known for his brawniness and action-packed persona, made famous in the movie 300, would actually play a voice-over for a cartoon character. After finding out, spotting his voice and hearing the familiarity was much, much easier.

And of course, the creme de la creme of the entire movie: TOOTHLESS!! He is just so, so, so, soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo uber cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute~~~~!!!!! When I read about him in fanfics and caught glimpses of him through fanarts, I was thinking, "Hey, this dragon is quite cute." Now amplify that feeling by a gajillion times more. That's how I feel about Toothless. He started off a little vicious with his snake-like slit for eyes, trying to act strong and tough like the dragon he was, but the moment he let his guard down a little, he got these pair of big doe eyes that is just so MOE and SQUEE-worthy. And of course I finally learn how he got his namesake: with retractable teeth that he can materialize at will

My most favourite scene of the entire movie would be this scene where Toothless finally was at peace with Hiccup and allowed him to touch him. The way Toothless tried to copy his drawing, and then growled whenever Hiccup stepped on his drawing, then Hiccup moved to avoid the lines in tune with the music until finally they were so close they were allowed to touch was just so AWW-worthy. And the music score was perfect too, especially the title of that score: Forbidden Friendship. Isn't that just sweet?

The part where Hiccup and Toothless slowly develop that bond while trying to get Toothless back on his flight feet again was also very interesting as they slowly worked together and forget each other's differences to reach a common goal, while at the same time trying to learn about each other, and Hiccup using that knowledge to good use (the eel and the scratching of the neck part was really epic), making him the life of the team, much to his crush, Astrid's chagrin.

I also love the part where Hiccup tries to convince everyone during the final exam of killing a dragon that dragons are not what they think they are, and tried to pacify the Monstrous Nightmare only to be interrupted by Stoick and having Toothless coming to the rescue (damsel in distress much, Hiccup? XD) and revealed their relationship. It felt really sad and my heart just broke when Hiccup shouted Toothless for him not to kill Stoick and Toothless looked at him with his doe eyes, then Hiccup tries in vain to stop everyone from hurting Toothless, and that argument which led to his disowning, and earning back his role as a son by proving his worth and Toothless' reputation, though a cost of his leg. I was wondering where would be the scene where he looses his leg, since I read that he had a prosthetic in fanfics, but turns out it happened in the near end of the movie, and literally mirrored Toothless' missing left tail fin.

Ending is a bit cliche where he gets the girl, he is lauded as a war hero and gained the respect of everyone including his father, the dragons made peace with humans and all that, but still it was a very heartwarming cliche scene. One that leaves a smile on your face and a sigh of contentment in your heart.

Speaking of Astrid, not really sure it's because of that yaoi in me, but I never really saw Astrid as a suitable pairing for Hiccup. I know, I'm not usually one for bestiality, but seriously, can't you just FEEL the love between Hiccup and Toothless to the point where you can consider them as lovers? Toothcup (Toothless/Hiccup) pairings are in the rage right now since the movie has been uber popularize, and you cannot deny that sort of relationship exist, right?

This one, personally I feel, is almost as par as the first one. Not better, not worse, but more or less par. Hiccup and Astrid are still together, but the Toothcup shipper in me just don't feel like they match somehow. Moreso, suddenly out of the blue, Snotlout and Fishlegs were heads over heels with Ruffnut, which I ABSOLUTELY have NO CHEMISTRY feel whatsoever! Even after I've watched their TV series that led to the second movie, I STILL don't get the vibe or the chemistry between those three people. It's like "Wait, what?" moment.

Although that moment when Ruffnut was just totally thirsty for Eret was absolutely hilarious though. I couldn't help laughing and cringing at the same time.

When the moment Hiccup's mom Valka showed up, I was not expecting her to be so... skinny. Stoick said that he made helmets out of Hiccup's mom's breast plate, and it seemed pretty big, but looking at her, she didn't look like someone who was close to being a big bosom woman, but what is continuity anyways? LOL Though Hiccup definitely has inherited her knack for dragons. Guess it's in the blood after all.

I teared up a little when Stoick died, and I felt so bad that their bromance was threatened by this, but thankfully Hiccup still loves Toothless and is willing to forgive him and try to bring him back to his side. Goes to show how deep their bond is, and Toothless ended up becoming the Alpha Dragon was one of the most epic moments in the whole movie.

It also kinda interesting that Hiccup has somehow became pretty hot in this movie. Was pretty surprised at how he transformed from the awkward tiny little runt of a boy to a strapping man LOL

Plot feels similar to the 2nd one, but the ending was so so SO bittersweet. A fitting ending, but sweet yet painful for me to watch.

My heart broke at the scene wen Hiccup was complaining about Toothless being in love n said "Am I not enough?" and I was like internally screaming "YES! U ARE ENOUGH!! U TWO ARE ENOUGH!! FUCK THAT LIGHT FURY!!"

Throughout the courtship scene btwn Toothless and the Light Fury i was like internally screaming "NO, SHE'S A TRAP! SHE'S A FUCKING TRAP! HICCUP, WHY ARE YOU OKAY WITH THIS?! I'M NOT HAPPY WITH THIS! I AM NOT OKAY WITH THIS!!"

I cried like a fucking baby, especially at the end of the movie. It was like I knew it was happening, that they were gonna break up, but I was in denial, then when Toothless hugged Hiccup goodbye, I lost it, waterworks all over. In fact, waterworks all the way to the end at their final reunion ugly-cried like a fucking baby.

It did ended perfectly; perfectly bittersweet and perfectly heartbreaking and I was like "This is it. It's official. It's over. My Toothcup ship has fucking sank!!"

Fuck you, DreamWorks, you have killed my bromance!! Gahh!! I hate and love this movie at the same time!

Overall rating:

HTTYD: 9/10

HTTYD2: 7.5/10

HTTYD: 9/10

#httyd #how to train your dragon #hiccup and toothless #movie review #toothcup

[translations-by-aiimee]

Mistakenly Saving the Villain - Chapter 5

Original Title: 论救错反派的下场

Genres: Drama, Romance, Xianxia, Yaoi

This translation is based on multiple MTLs and my own limited knowledge of Chinese characters. If I have made any egregious mistakes, please let me know.

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4

Chapter 5 - Wrong Answer

Readers who have read novels such as transmigration, quick transmigration, and system plotlines, know that if the fate of the character in the story must be changed, it should be prevented before the character's tragic fate has occurred. However, Song Qingshi interpreted this as the event having already occurred, and was meant to save the character who had already suffered a tragic fate. This train of thought meant that his decision was a thousand miles off.

In the original book, Yue Wuhuan only appeared three times:

The first time was when the shou protagonist had just been sold to Golden Phoenix Manor. When he saw the unbearable scene of Yue Wuhuan being played with by the guests, his three views shattered.

The second time was when the protagonist's naive illusion of the future was destroyed and he was forced to accept his identity because of the ridicule and humiliating remarks of Yue Wuhuan.

The third time, Yue Wuhuan was taken out by Jin FeiRen on the Langgan stage to treat the guests and was accidentally torn to pieces by the demon tiger. Jin FeiRen concealed the actual explanation of the demon tiger's madness and treated it as a deliberately arranged game for the banquet. With this extreme fear, he shattered the last trace of the protagonist's dignity, making him completely surrender and become a plaything.

In short, Yue Wuhuan was a small supporting role with little substance, leaving the plot early, using his degeneracy to offset the beauty of the protagonist. His beauty was only like that of a beautiful flower that was about to wither. How can it be compared with the pure and clean flower bud that had not yet bloomed in the dawn?

This was a super simple multiple-choice question that every reader could figure out!

If the system was a living thing and watching over the exam being taken, it would be so angry that it would have come out and beaten that foolish Song Qingshi to death.

Scholar-Tyrant Song didn't know that he had drifted so far from the original goal, but he was still eagerly confident, trying to do his best and vowing to get a perfect score!

On the way back to the Valley of the Medicine King, Song Qingshi had recalled all the memories of his original body and integrated it with its massive knowledge of medicine and alchemy. There were rare and exotic herbs and miraculous medicines in the cultivation world. However, similar to traditional Chinese medicine, even if the medicine worked wonders, the science behind the effects of these medicines was still a mystery.

Modern medicine conducts systematic research on traditional Chinese medicine to find out the monarch-minister-auxiliary relationship within its components, extracted the useful ingredients in each concoction, and then developed medicine that was easier to take and had even better results.

A female scientist won the Nobel Prize for this, benefiting the world. Song Qingshi focused on modern medicine, leaped away from the traditional path of immortality, and quickly found new ideas for solving problems for many areas that the original body had failed to properly study. He used the Tiangong Pavilion to make modern scientific instrument substitutes, and then analyze the effective ingredients in the immortal medicines, purify them, research them, and even artificially synthesize them. . .

In Song Qingshi's mind, there were countless experimental schemes in an endless stream, and there were tens of thousands of books and inexhaustible medicinal materials in the Medicine King's Valley, as well as abundant research funds.

He was overjoyed, like a mouse that fell into a vat of rice. He wanted to kiss the system if he could.

Song Qingshi fully understood why the original body lived here, staying in such a cultivation paradise. He could live here for the rest of his life!

He could immerse himself in the ocean of intense studying and research every day. He could dedicate his life and soul to his favourite medical god. No one could send him back!

Song Qingshi looked at Yue Wuhuan in his arms. The more he looked at him, the more he loved him.

This was the big treasure that had given him everything! He would do everything he could to save him, just like his parents used to treat him before; indulged, spoiled, loved, and giving him all the good things he needed so that he can live a happy life like a prince in a fairy tale!

Song 'a father's love is like a mountain' Qingshi was full of ambition. He suppressed his excitement and immediately placed Yue Wuhuan in the side hall of his bedroom. He did everything by himself. First, he poured the elixir carefully with the crane-mouthed pot to re-invigorate the breath of life. Then he changed into white clothes, put on a homemade mask, and found a pair of extremely thin animal leather gloves. After he finished disinfecting the wounds, gently cut off the blood-soaked gauze and feather skirt on Yue Wuhuan's body with scissors, rinsed the wounds, and then sutured them with very fine silkworm thread. Then, he cut off the shackles and treated his ankle wounds.

Song Qingshi's movements were extremely gentle and quick, barely touching any skin, but Yue Wuhuan's body was extremely sensitive. He twitched slightly and groaned a few times before falling asleep again. Song Qingshi took the opportunity to take some blood samples for analysis, and also performed a full-body scan of him with his mental probe. He was a good-tempered person, but after seeing the disastrously ruined dantian and meridians in Yue Wuhuan's body, he couldn't help but curse darkly at those beasts. He scolded them repeatedly, thinking about how he was going to explain this situation to him once he woke up.

Song Qingshi was not good at communicating with strangers. He was able to make do when discussing his interests, but his thoughts often went blank when forced into small talk. For example, when everyone watched the popular men's group selection variety show together and argued over who was the male god?

He answered sincerely that it was Asclepius, the god of medicine. . .

Song Qing hasn't understood why everyone said he killed the conversation.

He thought hard for a long time and remembered that when his Lou Gerhig's hadn't been as advanced, he worked in a hospital for an internship. His senior brother knew that Song Qinshi was afraid of social interaction and would end up a stuttering mess when he tried to have conversations with his patients. He taught Song Qingshi: "Push down all of your feelings and act like a medical machine. First write down their case in detail and their treatment plan, recite it with a smile, and then end with a comforting sentence." Song Qingshi took this secret technique, practiced many times in front of the teacher, and, finally, he could talk to patients without fear.

A hospital is a place for treatment, just like how the Medicine King's Valley is a place for treatment. What's the difference?

After Song Qingshi had this epiphany, he replaced Yue Wuhuan’s bed sheets and bedding with the white ones commonly used in hospitals. He ordered the valley servant to make several sets of patient clothes, put them on by himself, and then tied roots on his wrist to represent the hospital information band. With a red wristband and a sign on the bed with "Special Care" and the instructions for how to care for him, Song Qingshi instantly felt calm in this makeshift hospital environment.

He wasn't comfortable with the type of care that the valley servantswere giving and took on nursing himself. He was careful and not afraid of getting tired. He wiped down Yue Wuhuan's body and washed his face, fed him medicine and water, and even replaced the bedding to deal with all kinds of filth.

When Yue Wuhuan woke up three days later, he was confused. He didn't know where he was. He stared at the white veil on the top of the bed in a daze for a long time. He finally realized that he was still alive and he hadn't been this relaxed in a long time.

He closed his eyes, faintly recalling the slight fragrance of medicine lingering from his dream and the hands that had gently released all the restraints for him. He took a deep breath. He didn't want to wake up and face the never-ending nightmare.

After who know's how long, Yue Wuhuan threw his eyes open, remembering where he had smelled the fragrance of the medicine. He slowly turned his head and looked at the round table next to him, but saw that Medicine Master Xianzun was attentively making changes to the cursive writings on the table. He was frowning, his expression serious, as if thinking about something bad. There was also a familiar spirit bead in the silver plate next to him, and it became obvious that he had been given to another guest to be played with.

Yue Wuhuan’s phoenix eyes shrank. The rumors of the perverse and evil deeds of the Medicine Master Xianzun appeared in his mind, but he was not afraid. Whether he was willing or unwilling meant nothing under the control of the spirit bead. Besides, his broken body was no longer worthy of being cherished. He took a deep breath, gritted his teeth and struggled to get out of bed, but a sharp pain came from his shoulder, which made him dizzy and he fell right back down. Song Qingshi never had any distractions when he was researching. He heard the movement and found that the patient was awake. He was afraid that Yue Wuhuan might have moved his body and reopened the wound. He quickly reprimanded him with a stern tone: "You, go to bed right away! You are not allowed to get off for ten days!"

This stern technique was a secret taught by the head nurse of the hospital. It had a good effect on treating patients who didn't follow the doctor's advice.

"Ten days?" Yue Wuhuan was stunned. He couldn't help but look at Song Qingshi up and down. The more he looked, the more he felt that his appearance was deceiving. He had been with guests for many years, and he was used to seeing many lustful scenes, but he never would've guessed that this person had such prowess in the bed. . .

Seeing that he hadn't gotten back on the bed, Song Qingshi put down his pen, walked over and picked him up with his own hands.

Yue Wuhuan remained unmoved, stretched out his hand and gently hugged his neck. Hot fingertips touched his cool skin, as smooth as cool jade, and the clear and clean scent of medicine wrapped around him gently like if he was in a dream. Yue Wuhuan couldn't help but shake for a moment. He chasticized his heart for still not knowing how to behave, then resumed his usual posture, and breathed out ambiguously: "I hope that Xianxun will take pity. . ."

"Don't worry, I will." Song Qingshi put him back on the bed carefully, then pulled the blanket up. He wrapped him up tightly, and solemnly told him, "The valley is wet and cold. You have a mortal body so be careful of the cold and stay under the blanket. Keep your hands and feet tucked in and don’t kick off the sheets."

Yue Wuhuan had never seen this trick in bed before and was at a bit of a loss.

"You;re a patient now. Let me tell you about your situation." Song Qingshi turned back to the table, picked up a stack of paper covered with words. He nervously pushed the non-existent glasses on the bridge of his nose, and read with a smile, formulating his tone. "The patient is Yue Wuhuan. There are three lacerations from the right shoulder to the chest, which are 18 cm, 14 cm and 12 cm long. The right shoulder bone is fractured, and the suprascapular artery has been ruptured. The right elbow has a skin contusion. The left and right wrists have skin tissue bruises, the left and right knees are bruised along with the left and right ankle tissue. The buttocks skin has soft tissue lacerations. There are signs of drug abuse in the body and potentially drug addiction. Do you understand?"

Yue Wuhuan only felt that his stiff smile must look increasingly forced. The more he thought about it, the crazier everything seemed. All he could do was nod his head and pretendto understand.

"Very good." Song Qingshi felt that what he said was both detailed and easy to understand, and began to recite the preliminary treatment plan. "Your dantian and meridians have been destroyed, and your body is seriously damaged. Your body is too fragile right now to use stronger medicine, so you cannot take Rejuvenation Pill, Gather Breathe and Disperse Pill, All Creation Pill or the Bone Growth Pill. You need to be treated with mortal medicine first, and then treated with the Six Meridian Rejuvanation medicated bath. Then you'll take the Rising Dragon Pill and Nine Revolution Blood Lotus Pill."

Yue Wuhuan finally understood what he was saying. These pills were common immortal medicines, and he had also taken it when he was seriously injured.

The All Creation Pill and Rising Dragon Pill were worth thousands, and he had heard that the poster of Jape Pearl Tower's Lord had used it for his own treasure.

He didn't know what the Six Meridian Rejuvanation medicated bath was, but the Nine Revolution Blood Lotus Pill was the treasure of the immortal world. It is made of ten thousand year-old blood lotuses. There were only nine in the world and only few know where their locations. He only knew that the master of Xuanji Palace had used it and ascended to Fen Shen; the lord of Fluttering Snow Fortress turned against his Daoist companion and killed him and his wife to win the treasure; one appeared in the Qizhen Pavilion auction, and it was won by the owner of the East Sea Langya Pavilion with hundreds of thousands of high-grade spirit stones. For some reason, Jin FeiRen wasn't able to participate in the auction. He always brought it up as one of the greatest regrets in his life.

If it were described in mortal terms, it would be like saving a beggar on the side of the road and saying that you would give him precious delicacies, golden houses, jade horses, and billions in wealth. FInally, you tell him you'll give him the fade seal of the country and all lands under the heavens. Only an idiot would believe these claims.

Yue Wuhuan laughed but his heart was cold. He basically confirmed that Song Qingshi was just toying with him.

He had also encountered many such sweet talkers, pretending to show compassion for some and pity for others. All he wanted, though, was to coax his slaves to play this game with him. He only lusted after his dirty body, in the end.

Song Qingshi finished off with some final closing words: "Don't worry, as long as you follow the doctor's advice and cooperate with the treatment, you'll be cured."

"Okay," Yue Wuhuan's phoenix eyes showed a bit of flattery, and he replied in a sultry voice: "This slave depend on Xianzun for everything. . ."

"I almost forgot." Song Qingshi looked into his eyes and suddenly remembered something. He put on the animal skin gloves again, picked up a luminous bead the size of a goose egg and placed it in a strange, long, tube-shape lampshade. Then he sat on the side of the bed, leaned over and looked at Yue Wuhuan. He gave him a serious warning: "This may be a little uncomfortable, please bear with me."

Yue Wuhuan smiled self-deprecatingly. He let the phoenix eyes show waves of desire, and he relaxed his body, waiting to be played with.

Song Qingshi stretched out his hand and opened his eyes, illuminating the inside of the eyes with the luminous bead. He carefully observed for a while, then whispered: "The problem of the lacrimal secretion system is not visible on the outside, so I still have to do a colored dye inspection..."

Yue Wuhuan: "???"

#mistakenly saving the villain #mistakenly saving the villain translation #chinese bl #chinese novel #english translation #yaoi novel #song qinshi #yue wuhuan

[carriagelamp]

~ Queer Lit 30 Day Book Challenge ~

I decided to do this challenge I came across for June! Originally it was designed as a “day-by-day” thing, but my June was way too hectic to do a write up every single day… so I decided to make a nice compilation for the end of the month instead!

This is perhaps not the “purest” form of the challenge but I wanted it to be personal for me. Growing up when I did and where I did, I had very little exposure to queer books, especially age-appropriate queer books. That being said, there’s some books on this list that are really only “queer” by technically, or through a secondary character rather than the main character. I debated whether to include these but finally decided that, yes, I would. I owe it to myself. Even though some of these books that aren’t “as queer” as other, they were (or are) really important to me as a queer person and my journey is understanding that, so I wanted to acknowledge them!

More info about the books and the challenge under the cut!

Day One: First Queer Book You Remember Reading

Color by Taishi Zaou and Eiki Eiki

Remember how I mentioned a lack of available, age-appropriate queer books? I was one of those kids who was definitely exposed (probably too young) to queer manga/yaoi. It wasn’t necessarily what I wanted, especially as a wee ace teen, but it was the best I had at the time and it meant the world to me at the time, to see same-sex relationships even if looking back on them is very “YIKES”.

I’m sure I read others before this, but Color is one of the first that I really remember and which I a) actually owned and which b) wasn’t completely repellent in hindsight! I haven’t reread it in probably over a decade so I have no idea how it stands up, but at the time it read like a much more “realistic” account of two teenagers developing a crush and starting a relationship and as a questioning teenager it really helped me realize that this was a real, viable option.

Day Two: Queer Book That Reminds You Of Home

The Witch Boy by Molly Knox Ostertag

I hummed and hawed about this one for a long time because honestly I tend to read books that make me feel far from home. I decided to go with The Witch Boy though because it’s a story that challenges gender norms and stars a large family out in the woods, running wild and exploring magic, and honestly it gives me vibes that remind me of vacationing with my extended family. We’re also partially ginger and inclined to run wild in the woods. If we knew magic we’d have used it for sure.

This book is about 13 year old Aster, who lives in a family where the women all become witches and the men all become shifters. Aster, however, has no interest in shapeshifting and instead finds ways to study magic and learn the arts of witchcraft while constantly being pushed out by his female relatives… though everything might change when a new danger, that may or may not be connected to Aster studying magic, begins to appear.

Day Three: Queer Book That Has Been On Your TBR Too Long

Beneath The Citadel by Destiny Soria

That was an easy choice, this has been sitting on my bookshelf for months, staring at me accusingly every time I enter my room. I’m really excited to read it (Magical heist? Rebellion? With an asexual protagonist? Yes please) but for some reason I have not gotten around to it. Some day, baby, some day.

Day Four: Queer Book With A Name Or Number In The Title

George by Alex Gino

George is an absolutely charming middle grade novel about a child named George who the world perceives as male… but who knows she’s definitely a girl. The novel begins when her class decided to put on a play about the novel they had just read: Charlotte’s Web. George is desperate to play Charlotte, her favourite character, but isn’t even allowed to try out because it’s a “girl’s role”. George and her best friend struggle with how to handle this problem and manage George’s secret amid elementary school and home drama.

This book is really adorable – it was a nice, easy, cozy read for an adult, and would also make a great read aloud to elementary-age children if you want to introduce them to transgender characters.

Day Five: Queer Book Where The Protag Has A Fun Job

The Magic Misfits by Neil Patrick Harris

Not actually a queer protagnoist, but a queer side character who plays a major role in the series. Mister Vernon, one of Leila’s fathers, has arguable the coolest job: he’s a retired stage magician turn magic shop owner, which is complete with large rabbit, hidden room, and tons of fascinating gadgets to help a young practical magician learn their trade. He is hands down one of the neatest character in the series and is a major catalyst throughout the series.

The first book follows Carter, a runaway orphan who practices street magic to get by, as he runs away from his horrible uncle and winds up meeting a gang of magic-loving friends in a small town. Hiding from his uncle is only the beginning though, and the mysteries surrounding the town and Mister Vernon become thicker and thicker as the series goes on.

Day Six: Favourite Queer Graphic Novel

Check, Please! by Ngozi Ukazu

There’s lots of fantastic queer graphic novels out there, but I have to name Check, Please! as my favourite (and not just because I’m Canadian and am legally obligated to at least show interest in a hockey story). Check, Please! is the friggin cutest story about Eric “Bitty” Bittle, former figure skater and avid baker, who joins the Samwell University hockey team. The story is told in the form of Bitty’s vlog as he recounts the bizarre quirks of the Samwell hockey team, his struggle to overcome his fear of checking, and his growing crush on the team captain, Jack. Seriously guys, this is cavity-inducing sweetness and you can read it all online for free, here on tumblr @omgcheckplease or at its own website, checkpleasecomic.

Day Seven: Queer Book You Often Reread

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan

Another book I haven’t reread in years, but this was the first queer novel I ever read (and owned!) so I read it obsessively, first the copy from the high school library and then my own copy (which is, let us say, well-thumbed by this point). It was pure fluff, in an aggressively diverse, relentlessly accepting, rainbow-coloured high school and it was exactly what I wanted in high school, and it still makes me happy whenever I remember it. It’s a straight-up high school romance, pretty traditional to the genre, but it has the most delightful supporting cast you could ever ask for. Maybe I should reread it again this summer…

Day Eight: Queer Book With A Happy Ending

Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst

This was a bit more of a “yeah it was fine” book for me, but honestly… queer people deserve some average, run-of-the-mill YA fantasies. As far as my normal reading preferences go, run-of-the-mill YA fantasies are my bread and butter. And this one has a cute sapphic romance to go with it. It’s about Denna, a princess with a dangerous secret: she has a magical Affinity for fire, despite being betrothed to the prince of a kingdom that aggressively prosecutes and fears magic-users. So now Denna is in a strange land, trying to hide her increasingly volatile magic, solve an assassination that rocked the kingdom, and deal with the growing connection between her and the prince’s wild sister, Mare. It has court intrigue, a murder mystery, horses, and lots of confused sapphic pining so it’s totally worth picking up if you want a light summer fantasy adventure.

Day Nine: Queer Book With (Over) 100 Pages

River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey

I decided to try to get as close to 100 pages as possible! River of Teeth is a 114-page novella that I haven’t quite finished (work and covid stress happened) but which I am fucking losing my mind for. I can’t recommend it enough. It’s peak alternative history, about queer hippopotamus-riding cowboys in Louisiana during the early 20th (late 19th?) century. Like… I don’t know how to emphasize how unbelievably cool this book is. Genderqueer demolition expert with a giant crush and a penance for making things blow up and attempting to poison guests when they’re bored?? Check. Gay gunslinging hippo-riding cowboy with an angsty backstory (and also a giant crush)? Check. Sexy, fat, badass lady con artist with an albino hippo that she spoils? Check. Like damn guys. I’m not done the book and I’ve already bought the sequel because I know the second I pick it back up I’m not gonna stop until I’ve ploughed through it all. This book is the epitome of “refuge in audacity” and “rule of cool”. Is it over the fucking top? Absolutely but that’s the point.

Day Ten: Favourite Queer Genre Novel

The Red Scrolls of Magic by Cassandra Clare

I’ll be honest, I’m a little shaky on what counts as a genre novel (isn’t… everything… a genre??) so I decided to interpret it as “slightly trashy YA supernatural fantasy” because that sure is a hella specific genre I’m weak for.

I really thought I was done with the Shadowhunter novels, I thought they were a goofy series I left behind in teenagerhood that I could look back on with amused indulgence. And then I found out that there was a novel specifically about Alec and Magnus and! Oh no! Ding dong I was wrong. I fell back in hard because listen… I love them. They were one of the first canonical same-sex relationships I ever read about in an actual novel, they meant a lot to me then and still mean a lot to me now. I have nothing to say to defend myself here except that this book wrecked me and I can’t wait for the sequel.

Day Eleven: Queer Book You Love In A Genre You Don’t Read

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connel

I am very rarely a slice-of-life / romance genre sort of person. I like my stories cut with a heavy dose of fantasy, scifi, action-adventure… something. So a graphic novel that’s not only a romance, but one about an unhealthy relationship and infidelity is like… super outside my usual range of reading material. But it was very much worth the read! The art was stunning, and the complicated emotions it tapped into really touched me. I’m very happy to have read it, and was so damn satisfied by the end.

Day Twelve: Queer Book With A Strong Sense Of Place

Belle Révolte by Linsey Miller

Linsey Miller is one author I very actively follow, I love her works and they always have very distinct, complicated worlds with unique societies and magic systems. Belle Révolte was her latest book and followed a prince-and-the-pauper type of story, in which wealthy Emilie des Marais is determined to learn noonday (magical) arts in order to become a physician, someone who can actually work to make her home a better place… but this is not something a proper lady would ever be allowed to do. So she flees her finishing school and meets poor, but magically gifted, Annette Boucher and offers her the chance to switch places. Annette goes back to school as “Emilie” and gets to hone her skills at the midnight arts while Emilie will use her name to sneak into medical school and fight her way up the ranks to physician. This is a challenging enough task, with rebellion roiling just beneath the surface and the country about to slip into a arrogant war that threatens the lives of hundreds…

Day Thirteen: Queer Book That Really Made You Think

Our Dreams At Dusk by Yuhki Kamatani

This is a four book manga series that is completely breath-taking. It’s touched by magical-realism and completely drowned in visually stunning metaphors and symbolism. Seriously, I’ve reread these books multiples times trying to digest how the wide variety of symbols overlap and contradict and compliment and challenge each other. I still haven’t really gotten a solid handle on it, it’s very fluid, so yeah… definitely makes me think.

The story starts with Tasuku Kaname who believes he may have just been outed as gay by a high school friend, and feels like he’s watching his entire world crumble around him. He is seriously considering taking his own life, when he runs into the mysterious woman “Someone-san” and winds up leading him to a drop-in center that’s run by a local non-profit, and is also a hub for a number of queer people in the community. The books follow Tasuku as he grows, learns, makes mistakes, and confronts his feelings, along with a number of other members at the drop-in center. It is completely beautiful, optimistic, but also quite stark and harsh at its look at homophobia and transphobia in modern Japanese society and how it can effect people in different ways. I just bought book four and can’t wait to read it and see how everything ends.

Day Fourteen: Queer Book That Made You Cry

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

Holy shit guys. Listen. Listen. If you don’t read any other book on this list, please consider reading The Marrow Thieves. It is hands down the best book I’ve read so far this year. Another book that doesn’t have a queer character as the protag, but as one of the main supporting characters and listen, his story fucking destroyed me as a person. That romance just… aaaaaaah. AAAAAAAAH.

Anyway. The Marrow Thieves is a Canadian dystopian novel. It takes place in a post-climate change world in which society has been ravaged – partially due to the wildly different and extreme weather patterns, but also through a strange disease that has spread through the population that has left people completely incapable of dreaming. Now unable to rest, process their lives, and dream of a future, people are being driven insane and only one group appears to be immune: North America’s First Nations people appear to be unaffected. And so they begin to be harvested, rounded up and collected in “school” in order for people to suck the marrow out of them to give to white people afflicted by this disease. The Marrow Thieves follows a First Nations boy named Frenchie as he flees the recruiters and tries his best to survive in this post-apocalyptic like wilderness, banding together with other First Nations people who are heading north, where they hope to find communities of their own people with whom they can shelter and start to rebuild their lives.

It’s a YA level novel, not very long, and such an insanely good read. I cannot emphasize enough PLEASE GO READ THIS BOOK. 

Day Fifteen: Queer Book That Made You LOL

Mostly Void, Partially Stars by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor

Welcome to Nightvale always makes me laugh and it was a lot of fun to get to read the transcripts of the episodes. I’m a sucker for novelizations/transcripts of shows. It was a nice nostalgia trip and gave me an excuse to go back and relisten to some of my favourite episodes too! If you’ve never gotten into Nightvale… hey, it’s a classic! Podcast is fucking stunning if you’re into podcasts, and if you’re not but would enjoy a weird, queer, eldritch horror comedy then try the book! It’s the first “season” compiled in text form, exactly how it’s heard in the show.

Day Sixteen: Queer Book That Is Really Personal To You

Jughead volume 1 by Chip Zdarsky et al

Including this one because gee golly it sure did make me want to fight a lot of people for quite a while. It was one of the first stories I ever found/read that had an explicitly asexual main character… (and a character I already really loved! Which I now got to feel an even stronger connection to! It was so fun and validating!) so it was super awesome how like half of tumblr decided for a year there that this was apparently a cardinal sin. Imagine… one single version of old, long standing comic series deciding to retcon a character to represent a heavily under-represented community… imagine being so fucking angry about that that you decide to start a hate campaign on the internet. So much fun to live through that as an ace person. Anyway, these comics were nothing amazing but I sure do love them aggressively out of pure spite, even now that the aphobia on tumblr has died back down I will hold this to my chest and adore it.

Day Seventeen: Favourite Queer Book Sequel or Spin Off

The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee

Honestly do I even need to say anything here? Is there any queer person who hasn’t read Mackenzi Lee’s The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue series? If you are someone who hasn’t read it yet… go do that?? Absolutely stunning, one of my all-time favourite book series. It’s the perfect combination of hilarious and goofy, intense action, heartfelt character development, and a dash of “wait was that supernatural or??” This sequel was fantastic, this time focusing on Felicity, Monty’s sister, and her quest to become a physician despite being a woman in the 18th century. Awesome look at femininity, feminism, asexuality, and race. (Also… OT3? OT3.)

Day Eighteen: Favourite Queer Book By A Favourite Author

Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett

One of those “ehh is this technically queer? Not really but close enough, it is in my heart” books. It was one of the books I read as a teenager when I was still beginning to seek out and try to explore queer lit in so much as I could.

Terry Pratchett is, hands down, my favourite author, and though he doesn’t tend to write explicitly queer literature, his exploration of gender through allegory is top fucking tier. Everything to do with the dwarves in his series is fascinating, and a really great challenge/critique/exploration of gender, and this is the book that takes it to the next level (and brings in at least implicitly queer characters). It’s about Polly Perks, who lives in a small, war torn nation, choosing to join the army in order to find out what happened to her brother. However, as tradition dictates, she can’t join as a girl… so she disguises herself as Ozzer, a young man. There’s a lot of twists and turns, and as always Pratchett delivers fantastic humour and just absolutely delicious satire.

Day Nineteen: Queer Book That Changed Your Life

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson

This was the book that made me realize that I, as a queer teacher, could have queer kid lit in my future classroom. Maybe a comparatively small revelation, but a really important one to me. It made me realize that this didn’t need to be something I kept a secret in my professional life and which could really positively influence children, especially queer children. It was the first queer children’s book I ever bought.

Day Twenty: Favourite Queer Book Series

Candy Color Paradox by Isaku Natsume

Alright… I’ll admit it, this isn’t actually my favourite series, but I’ve used my favourites in other spots. And this is a good one! Definitely more of an actual “yaoi” than the other manga I’ve included (here there be sex) but it has a very different vibe that what I’m used to from that type of manga. The main pair are actually both capable, mature adults, with careers they actively care about, and who get together in the first volume! 

The rest of the series is less about them angst-ily toeing around their relationship, and much more about them learning to grow as a couple and balance their work and relationship and society. It’s funny and sweet, and I really enjoy these two losers. It’s a very low-stakes enemy-to-friends-to-lovers story, in which Onoe (a reporter) and Kaburagi (a photographer) are paired up on a news story they’re supposed to dig into together. What starts as a bickering rivalry gradually becomes respect, friendship, and love~ Onoe is a gremlin of a protag, so he’s a treat to follow.

Day Twenty-One: Queer Book That You Recommend A Lot

Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller

To repeat myself: Linsey Miller is awesome! This is my favourite book of hers, the first of a duology. It’s kind of like an intense, edgy Tamora Pierce novel with murder. In this world, the Queen has a team of assassins known as the Left Hand. They’re an elite group that keeps the Queen safe and does the dirty work that needs to be done to protect the kingdom and keep the encroaching nations at bay. When the assassin Opal is killed, a contest is announced to find the new Opal. People from all over come to complete for the honour of being one of the Queen’s royal assassins, including gender-fluid thief Sallot Leon. Sal has some deep motivations to become Opal that go beyond a loyalty to their kingdom, but they’re going to have to survive their competitors if they even wants a chance at it… (Sal generally goes by either she or he in the books, but I’m using they in this instance since it’s in a more general sense.)

Day Twenty-Two: Queer Book That Made You Take Action

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

Uhh, I don’t really have any books that made me take action per se, but this one sure gave me a lot to think about. It’s about deep sea mermaids who originated from the pregnant slave women tossed into the ocean to drown during passage to North America. From those dying women, this race was born and were taken in by whales, raised and protected until they could descend into the deep ocean waters, to form their own safe society. Their collective past is so painful though that as a species they’ve developed a very short term memory. But a people can’t live without any ties to their roots and so one of them, the Historian, holds all the memories for their entire species and shares it with everyone once a year so that the community can be connected to their ancestors before once again returning the memories to the Historian for safe keeping. Yetu, the current Historian, is so overwhelmed by these memories, that she can no longer take it – she flees her people, her responsibilities, and her pain and escapes to the surface instead...

Day Twenty-Three: Queer Book By An Author Who I Killed Is Dead

Cybersix by Carlos Trillo

I cannot emphasize enough, this is not actually a queer comic, it is in fact a very homophobic, transphobic and sexist comic written by a horrible person.

That being said, he’s dead and I own it now the TV series was essentially about a genderqueer superhero and a very confused bi biology professor who has a crush on both personas. I had a passionate crush on both personas as a child, and I will cherrypick this comic until I die in order to enjoy the only kickass genderqueer/genderfluid noir antihero I’ve come across. I am valid and I am not open to debate or discussion. Do not read this comic it’s horrible (but consider watching the show).

Day Twenty-Four: Queer Book You Wish You’d Read When Younger

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

This is such an incredibly soft story with the nicest art. There’s so much understanding and compassion in it and its exploration of gender and self-confidence and being true to yourself would have been very reassuring to me as a child, especially by late elementary/middle school. 

Day Twenty-Five: Queer Book In A Historical Setting

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

A retelling of Achilles’ and Patroclus’ relationship from childhood to the Trojan war. So yeah, you can imagine that this was also a candidate for Day 14 :’) I haven’t read this one in years but god it was lovely and emotionally destroyed me as a person.

Day Twenty-Six: Queer Superhero Book or Comic

Overwatch: Reflections by Michael Chu and Miki Montillo

I don’t really read superhero stories very often (the comics have always driven me a little bonkers, trying to find a way to enter the totally unapproachable Marvel/DC canons, and the MCU burnt me out years ago for every other sort of superhero story) so this is the closest I can get. Tracer’s a superhero yeah? Anyway, I, like every other queer person in the Overwatch fandom, lost my fucking mind when this dropped for Christmas a few years back and officially declared Lena Oxton not only the face of the entire franchise but also a lesbian. It’s an adorable little comic and Tracer’s girlfriend is a sweetheart.

Day Twenty-Seven: Favourite Queer Children’s Picture Book

Prince & Knight by Daniel Haack

There’s a number of sweet queer children’s books that are popping up these days, but this is my favourite just because it’s less about “explaining the gays to children” (though those books also have their place) and more of a cute little fantasy adventure in which the actual protagonist is gay. It’s about a prince who sets out to find himself a bride who can help rule by his side, but it quickly becomes clear that he isn’t interested in any of the girls. Instead, when a fire breathing dragon threatens his kingdom, he meets a brave knight who fights along side him. It’s very supportive and the art is lovely.

Day Twenty-Eight: Queer Book That Made You Feel Uncomfortable

Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann

This is a book with an asexual protagonist that I was originally really excited for. I know there are a lot of people out there who really enjoy this book and connected with it, but it didn’t do it for me. Maybe because my expectations were too high, but the protagonist’s experience with asexuality was vastly different than my own and the narrative voice ended up rubbing me wrong (and let’s be honest, slice-of-life romance is NOT my usual genre at all). So it’s not “made me uncomfortable because it’s Bad And Wrong” more just… totally vibed wrong with me. Maybe the perfect book for other people but definitely not for me, I had to return this one unfinished because it’s portrayal of asexuality just made me so deeply uncomfortable.

Day Twenty-Nine: Queer Book That Made You Want To Fall In Love

The Gentleman’s Guide To Vice And Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

This book had to make it on here somewhere, and honestly it could have gone in a lot of different spots, but I chose to put it here because the relationship between Monty and Percy is so incredibly sweet and authentic it really does make you want something like that. TGGTVAV (for anyone who has somehow not heard of it) takes place in the 18th century, and is about Monty, his best friend (and crush) Percy, and his sister Felicity going on a final “hurrah” tour of Europe before Monty's father finally tries to pin him down in England and force every part of Monty that’s deemed “unacceptable” out of him. So Monty intends to live this summer up… until everything goes off the rail and the three of them are suddenly fleeing across the continent with assassins at their heels and a strange, stolen artifact in their possession.

Monty has a lot of growing to do in this novel, and that’s one of my favourite things about it. For his and Percy’s relationship to ever have a chance, Monty needs to learn and change and actually communicate with other people, and it makes the relationship feel strong. Not a fluffy, surface level romance that often happens in YA but something built from the ground up by two friends who really want to make it work. Ahh, it’s lovely. One of my favourite novels.

Day Thirty: Queer Book With Your Favourite Ending

My Brother’s Husband by Gengoroh Tagame

A two-book manga series that was completely stunning. It deals with queer relationships and homophobia in a very stark, real-world manner that you don’t often get in manga, while still being incredibly loving and sympathetic. The book is about Yaichi, a single father whose estranged brother (Ryoji) recently died. One day, a Canadian named Mike arrives, introducing himself as Ryoji’s widower. Mike had come hoping to visit his late husband’s homeland to try to get some closure, and Yaichi ends up inviting Mike to stay. The whole story looks Japan’s societal biases, through Mike’s experiences, Yaichi’s thoughts, feelings and prejudices, and those of his daughter who adores Mike. 

Seriously, this is one of the kindest, most earnest looks I’ve ever seen to internal prejudices that critiques them without demonizing the person who feels them. Instead it lovingly embraces grief, growth, and love. This series made me cry multiple times, was good enough that even my straight brother practically ordered me to go out and buy the second book when he finished the first, and the ending was just *chef’s kiss*

Honourable Mentions

A few books I really wanted to fit on my list somehow but couldn’t quite manage it, so here: All Out an anthology of historical fiction short stories about queer teens. The Tea Dragon Society series and Princess Princess Ever After, graphic novels by the amazingly talented Katie O’Neill. Heartstopper a webcomic turn graphic novel by Alice Oseman about a pair of rugby players. The Different Dragon a cute picture book in which the boy has two moms and which is about accepting different ways of being. And Lady Knight a part of Tamora Pierce’s Protector of the Small series because because Kel is word-of-god aro(and/or ace) and I’ve adored that series and Kel since I was about thirteen so by god I’ll take it.

- 

Now for those that wanted to do their own challenge, I found it on @gailcarriger’s blog.

#queer lit #queer literature #queer books #pride books #pride 2020 #book review #book reviews #lgbt literature #lgbt books #tggtvav #tlgtpap #mask of shadows #belle revolte #jughead #check please #shadowhunters #our dreams at dusk #my brother's husband #manga #witch boy #wtnv #the marrow thieves #canadian lit #canadian literature #river of teeth #the prince and the dressmaker #and tango makes three #the deep #song of achilles #idk and others i guess

[orionsangel86]

I agree with the overly fetished views that fandom seems to have of gay men. As a gay man who’s really short, it’s soooo fuckin weird to have people assume I’m a bottom??? Like, I don’t even know you enough to disclose my sexual life and you’re making? weird? assumptions?? Also, there’s a certain fan artist who shan’t be named who makes a certain shorter character super feminine and it kills me every time

EXACTLY

Urgh I’m sorry fandom makes you feel that way.

I’m gonna put this under a cut as I am about to rant about this topic because it is my biggest gripe within fandom. Don’t read on if you are here for fun happy positive things. Beware fair readers, there be strong potentially offensive opinions and plenty of fandom wank down below...

Fandom is unfortunately filled with CIS het women who like to stereotype and force men into their preconceived internalised misogynistic perceptions that to be short or slender means you are the weak dainty “girl” in the relationship and that’s why whichever character they deem the “girl” is also ALWAYS the “bottom”. It also is the same way fandom tends to muddy the waters between sexual positions top/bottom and BSDM terms dom/sub, where bottoms MUST be submissive as well. Half the time you will see posts talking about character traits which perhaps might indicate a submissive streak, and people will take that to mean that a character is a bottom, when the two do not correlate and it is highly problematic to assume that they do.

It’s so fucking problematic and I don’t think that these (mostly straight cis female) fans realise that by encouraging these harmful stereotypes, they are actually also being totally misogynistic and anti feminist. Women are not all bloody Anastasia Steel’s for christs sake (and don’t get me started on that god awful book/movie series). A women can be tall, broad, muscular, she can be dominant and strong and she can damn well top a man if she wants to.

When it comes to shipping male characters in gay/queer relationships, fandom MUST stop inflicting outdated heterosexual stereotypes on them. It seems like fans find a pairing they like (for instance Dean and Cas) and then immediately have to decide which one of them plays the female role. They then twist and change the characters, their traits, the way they look etc, so that one of them is basically a woman. That character then MUST be the submissive bottom and URGH I HATE IT.

(Making a quick note to say that whilst these particular common stereotypes within fandom are very much a problem, this is not to be confused in any way with fans taking their fave characters and headcanoning them as trans or nb or anything else genderwise which reflects an even more marginalised group and is usually a type of fanwork created by fans who are in fact trans or nb themselves.)

I’m not gonna comment on specific artists, but I tend to block urls of bloggers whose stuff I feel is particularly problematic and I also now have the WONDERFUL post blocker xkit extension OMG it is a GODSEND I highly recommend it. If you keep seeing a post on your dash because everyone is reblogging it even though it is super squicky to you (like for instance an obviously feminised Cas or Dean is squicky for me) you can use the extension to block that particular post so you never have to see it again regardless of how many of your mutuals reblog it. Its amazing!

I know that on this hellsite we like to encourage everyone to be as creative as possible and that everyone is valid and we don’t kinkshame and everything etc etc, and I’m all for that, whatever floats your boat and all that. But there is a line, and the line is when what you are doing becomes offensive to the marginalised groups you are supposedly supporting. Like I really don’t care if you are into tentacle sex or hell, even a furry, but I do care if the only way you can comfortably support a gay ship is to force either of the male characters into a “female” template and give them a “self lubricating asshole”. Like... come on. This is why I hate A/B/O. If you have to force gay men to fit a hetero model, you aren’t supporting gay men, you are fetishising them. You are also probably kinda homophobic.

What I really hate about this stuff is how it always seems to be the problematic stuff like this that blows up and becomes a trend and suddenly everyone is jumping on board and no one is given a second thought to how fucked up it is. WHY IS A/B/O EVEN A THING?!? It started as a J2 beastiality fic like WHY DID IT BECOME SO POPULAR?!

Why is Twist & Shout so bloody popular too? Its not even in character. They aren’t even Dean and Cas! Cas is a pale skinny little TWINK?! WHHHHYYYY? I don’t understand it if you ship Destiel wouldn’t you at least want the characters you are reading about to BE Dean and Cas?!? Don’t get me wrong I love AU fics, but I still want to be able to picture and hear Dean and Cas in the characters being described.

Why was it such a thing in the early seasons to make Cas a girl? (that’s hyperbole obviously but he might as well have been based on some of the early fanfics/fanart I’ve seen and immediately noped out of.) Misha Collins has never looked anything like that! He’s never been feminine looking and just because the dude can pull off a dress doesn’t mean you can force him to suddenly be the cute tiny pale perfect curvy pretty submissive beauty you can’t help but imagine Dean with. If you want that for Dean, ship him with Lisa. Stop forcing Cas into a model that just doesn’t make sense for the character.

This goes for Dean as well of course. The dude may have a thing for pink panties and ballet shoes and taylor swift sure, but can we not feminise him to the point he is unrecognisable as the character please?

I know that a lot of this has routes in YAOI. Something I have generally avoided because quite frankly it disgusts me. I find the whole thing just super uncomfortable and messed up and see it purely as a straight womans fetish. So much of fandom shipping behaviour comes from YAOI and its caused a lot of the toxicity we have seen over the years. I think it has got a lot better in recent years though because the queer community is slowly gaining a monopoly in fandom (imo) and as they (we, I should say, as my bisexual ass has quite clearly had enough of this) become more interested in shipping and fandom culture, we can also start educating those straight fans who might be willing to listen and learn. Maybe one day we can say goodbye to the problematic trends of today, or at least, keep them on the fringes of fandom as more and more people wake up to the fact that they are harmful.

And if that means I never have to look at an image of a short pale “pretty” Cas with womanly hips again, I’ll crack open the prosecco and consider it a win.

#phew #that was theraputic #but seriously #don't read under the cut if you think you might be offended #because you happen to enjoy overly feminising characters #just don't bother #i'm not gonna get into a debate about this #these are my opinions after all #if however you also find the feminisation of your fave characters disturbing #and are sick of seeing assumptions and stereotypes of gay men #then by all means read on #destiel #fandom problems #homophobia in fandom #misogyny in fandom #fetishes in fandom #wank for ts #asks #anon #Anonymous

[natsthinkitythinkthinkthonk]

Anime with Short Episodes

I didn’t want to call this a “recommendation” list because my opinions for some of these are really... not valid. I’ll bold the ones I liked. I’ll put a few words. Trying to make this post shorter than the others.

Rules

Official episode lengths must be shorter than 15 minutes even if they are presented in short segments (ex. Nichijou, 4-koma manga adaptations in general)

No spin-offs that are attached to full-length series

No short films (must have more than one episode)

Nijiiro Days

Genre: Romance, Shoujo, Slice of Life, Comedy Duration: 13 min per ep

Basically, it’s centred around four guys with no personality and their love interests. I was only interested in one pair, and they were not the main focus. Very bland overall. Ironic considering the title is “Rainbow Days” in English... it has as much colour as a beige wall.

Bananya

Genre: Kids Duration: 3 min per ep

It’s a kids’ show about cute cat bananas. Ayumu Murase and Yuuki Kaji make cat noises. Each cat has its own trope.

Hetalia: Axis Powers

Genre: Historical, Comedy Duration: 5 min per ep

This topic had to have Hetalia mentioned. I watched it. It was funny... kind of. Look, I am not into this kind of adaptation because the real-life version still leaves scars on this planet, and this anime does nothing to say that what they did in the past is wrong. Liking this anime is still valid. I just didn’t like it much.

Sekkou Boys

Genre: Comedy, Music Duration: 5 min per ep

It’s about an art student dropout who’s trying to avoid statues. She gets a job as a manager who manages idols... who happen to be statues. It’s simple, it’s sometimes funny, but the gags don’t always hit and feel a bit stale after a while.

Orenchi no Furo Jijou 

Genre: Comedy, Slice of Life, Fantasy Duration: 4 min per ep

It wasn’t listed as a shounen-ai (yaoi which basically means romance between two guys), but I should’ve seen that coming I guess? Hmm... it’s a lot of cutesy fujoshi baiting? It was alright I guess. I hear it was one of Yuichiro Umehara’s first major roles.

Kenka Banchou Otome: Girl Beats Boys 

Genres: Action, Martial Arts, School, Shoujo Duration: 8 min per ep

I watched it because @bungou-stray-alies-tales-of-aly recommended it after I said nothing good comes from otome game adaptations except for cringe-inducing moments and fangirl baiting. This one avoids that by... avoiding the otome game elements entirely. It tries to have a story. I was actually entertained. I actually liked the cast. The guys weren’t just tropes and cardboard cutouts with good voices.

Bonjour♪Koiaji Pâtisserie

Genres: Slice of Life, Comedy, Harem, Romance, Shoujo Duration: 5 min. per ep.

Exactly what the previous entry was avoiding. Who were the characters again? I watched it for good anime food though, so I was satisfied with the visual presentation of food. Just don’t ask me about the characters, storyline, or literally anything else.

Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko: Everything Flows 

Genres: Slice of Life Duration: 7 min. per ep.

HOW DID SOMETHING SO SHORT MANAGE TO CAPTIVATE MY HEART LIKE THAT? Shows the daily life of a cat and his owner. It shows the experience of growing up and what we take for granted. [me screaming to my doggo: PENNY I LOVE YOU!]

Honobono Log

Genres: Slice of Life, Romance Duration: 2 min. per ep. 

They manage to guilt-trip you for being single every time (ten times) over the course of two minutes over cute fluffy situations that you can stick a lot of OTPs into. One of my absolute favourite short-episode series. No character names to remember either.

Saiki Kusuo no Ψ-nan

Genres: Comedy, School, Shounen, Slice of Life, Supernatural Duration: 5 min. per ep.

Get ready to read fast. Fast-paced, fun, great characters, but sometimes the jokes don’t hit.

Tsurezure Children

Genre: Comedy, Romance, School Duration: 12 min per ep

I don’t remember the names of the characters, but it was fun to watch, some of the couples are great, and you get to enjoy yourself even if it’s too short to remember.

Tonari no Seki-kun

Genre: Comedy, School Duration: 7 min per ep

A guy does stupid things while wasting his time at school. It’s fun to watch, but it isn’t fun living in that position sometimes because it’s distracting.

Ani ni Tsukeru Kusuri wa Nai!

Genre: Slice of life, School, Comedy Duration: 3 min per ep

Awesome, non-incest, and relatable sibling antics that are originally from a Chinese manga with an atypical animation. Brilliant voice acting from the cast with a simple concept that manages to work well even into the second season... somewhat (first season was way better).

Senyuu

Genres: Action, Comedy, Parody, Fantasy, Shounen Duration: 4 min. per ep.

This is one of the best parody anime, one of the best short-episode anime, and one of the best RPG-based anime out there. It’s hilarious, well-casted (Hiro Shimono and Yuuichi Nakamura play the leads with a star-studded supporting cast). It’s slapstick, witty, and it manages to connect you to characters that you will remember despite its short run.

#anime #senyuu #ani ni tsukeru kusuri wa nai! #tonari no seki kun #tsurezure children #Saiki Kusuo no PSI Nan #honobono log #kanojo to kanojo no neko #nijiiro days #orenchi no furo jijou #kenka bancho otome #hetalia #bananya #anime shorts #short anime

[medea10]

My Review of Given

*this exists* Huh? Fuck Isekai shit! GIMME SOME BL LIKE YESTERDAY! Yes, I know what I said before but…it’s an anime with boys and music! Could this be the next Gravitation that many of us have waited for?

Ritsuka Uenoyama on the outside has always seemed listless when it comes to many things and can’t be bothered with most people or demands. One day, he was about to take a nap in a stairwell when he comes across another student by the name of Mafuyu Satou. At first glance he’s pretty aloof, but the second Mafuyu met Uenoyama he couldn’t stop hanging around him. After having quite the hard past, Mafuyu took to Uenoyama’s kindness (or whatever you call it) and took a fascination with him. He even managed to join the band Uenoyama was in. While Uenoyama had his reservations over this sudden change, he finds himself dealing with feelings he’s never felt before.

Is this love that he’s feeling? God, I hope so! BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: At the moment, no licensors have taken this anime and it’s only available through Crunchyroll. I swear Yuuma Uchida is having one hell of a year in the anime voice world. I know he’s been around for a couple of years and really hit it off with roles on Banana Fish and ReLIFE. But this year with his main roles on Kono Oto Tomare and the Fruits Basket reboot have really given him quite the boost. Give this boy a Seiyuu Award! Here’s what you might recognize these folks from. *Uenoyama is played by Yuuma Uchida (known for Kyo on Fruits Basket 2019, Eiji Ootori on UtaPri, Chika on Kono Oto Tomare, Ash on Banana Fish, Ooga on ReLIFE, and Shirazu on Tokyo Ghoul :re) *Mafuyu is played by Shougo Yano (known for Nanao on Tsurune) DISLIKED CHARACTER: In a yaoi-esque series, what is the one element I despise more than life itself? The cock-blocker! Actually, this is a trait I see in other genres of animes. Simply put, these are the characters who think they know one character better than anybody else and have this aura of jealousy because some new guy is in the picture. But when I see an annoying bitch hanging around a potentially cute ship and cock-blocking the cuteness, I lose my shit!

Fuck is this lady’s name? Kasai?! Whatever, cock-blocks like you need to go away! Though I will give her some leeway as she does apologize later in the series! It’s just that I found what she did to Uenoyama to be a bit of a “dick-move”. I’ll just be happy if I don’t see her in any upcoming projects this series has. SHIPPING: I knew I was expecting something to eventually happen with the Uenoyama x Satou ship. But I didn’t expect much from Haruki x Aki! Let’s get crackin’!

*Uenoyama x Mafuyu: From the beginning, I'm like, I want this to happen one day…but I know Mafuyu is still in pain after losing the love of his life. For the majority of this series, I see Mafuyu being aloof and depressed. The only exception is when he’s playing the guitar with Uenoyama (at least at the beginning). As we all know, Mafuyu has been in pain ever since losing his best friend and boyfriend, Yuki a year prior. As for Uenoyama, feelings started to develop once he spent a lot more time with Mafuyu. We even get a realization for Uenoyama when he learned about Mafuyu’s love, he got jealous. Aw, our boy loves Mafuyu! I’ll delve deeper into what happens after a certain point in the ending.

*Haruki x Aki: So I didn’t expect any kind of chemistry with these two outside of the band. But it turns out Haruki has had a crush on Aki since meeting him at college. Their friendship and becoming bandmates kind of came without any kind of super drama. And Haruki has been able to keep his feelings in check when he’s playing in the band with Aki. I mean, Haruki is pretty strict about dipping your pen in the company ink (if you get my meaning). It’s just that he does get blushy when he’s super close to him. Like when he’s being pinned down on the bed because Aki had a few too many beers and Haruki is just embarrassed. Unfortunately for this ship and for Haruki…Aki has a boyfriend!

I don’t like Aki’s boyfriend. No way, no way, I think he needs a new one! *sighs* …Yeah, I gotta talk about it…

*Mafuyu x Yuki: So Yuki’s reveal was building throughout the series that made the audience wonder if this was an unrequited love of Mafuyu’s, a sensei who can’t love him now, or someone who is no longer with us. But once you understood that Mafuyu and Yuki’s relationship dates back to when they were children and they have such a history, you can feel that pain Mafuyu carries with him everyday. Yuki would be there for him during tough times, including dealing with an abusive father, yeah, our boy had some issues. Yuki was a seemingly good friend and lover to Mafuyu. There was even a cute moment when Yuki takes him to the ocean, saying he wants Mafuyu to remember this moment. But what happened to Yuki? Unfortunately after the boys began high school and went to different schools, their relationship strained. And then one day Yuki was found dead due to alcohol poisoning (weird, I would have guessed suicide). Yes, Yuki’s death was freakin’ traumatic for Mafuyu. This was a big enough shock to the system to cause him to not be social and to carry around his dead lover’s guitar everywhere (even though he doesn’t know how to play it). And yes, in that song the group sang in the 9th episode, Mafuyu went the extra mile to express his feelings to his long-lost love. I would have to wonder a bunch of ‘what ifs’ with Yuki. Because poor Uenoyama is fighting against a dead guy. MAFUYU’S SONG: Just watch.

My boy Mafuyu here is giving me some super feels with this song!

EPISODE TITLES: Ever notice how all the episode titles are named after famous songs. Let’s just say I was thrown off when the episodes were named Creep (song by Radiohead), The Reason (song by Hoobastank), and Wonderwall (song by Oasis). God only knows what the name of the movie will be! I’ll laugh if it’s The Dope Show, Bittersweet Symphony, or I Alone. ENDING: So Haruki, Aki, and Uenoyama were given the opportunity to perform in front of an audience. Now the big question is if Mafuyu is up to the challenge of performing with the rest of the group. He only just recently joined the group and isn’t that great playing on the guitar. But the boys have hope with his vocals. He does have a good voice. It’s just that up until the night of the performance, Mafuyu hadn’t written down any lyrics. No question this boy has something to get off his chest, it’s just that Mafuyu was conflicted moments until they go on stage. It wasn’t until they were on stage where Mafuyu let out everything in their opening song. That heartbreak of losing the person you loved just shook the audience to its core and hit every single person there. Mafuyu’s friends were happy that he finally released all that pain he’s been holding in. Uenoyama’s classmates were inspired to hold onto the person they love tightly. And after the performance, we got our moment we fangirls have waited for since episode 1…

A MOTHER-FLIPPIN’ KISSUUU! Although this kiss (while passionate), was kind of forgotten on Uenoyama’s side as he forgot what he did and Mafuyu caught a fever shortly after the performance. I know Uenoyama has been wanting to do this because throughout the series, we kept seeing the boy conflicted over him liking Mafuyu. He even got jealous over a dead guy! We know he likes Mafuyu and we know that kiss after Mafuyu's performance was more than just a "Good job, mate" kiss. So will Uenoyama's feelings be returned? After Uenoyama came to terms over what he did and Mafuyu recovered from his fever, Mafuyu took Uenoyama to the ocean. I know this was a little symbolic for Mafuyu as Yuki brought him there when they were dating. And while there, Mafuyu told Uenoyama that he liked him. And Uenoyama noticed that...

IT’S MUTUAL! HIS LOVE IS MUTUAL! But then, Uenoyama remembers an ugly reality. Long before Mafuyu joined the band, the other guys were talking about a band breaking up over two of the bandmates getting involved with each other (romantically) and Uenoyama said some pretty…well, hypocritical things. That’s why many folks try to steer away from dating someone who’s a co-worker, a co-star, and in this case, bandmate. This is also a driving factor why Aki will never be the one to step up and tell Haruki he loves him. Haruki’s gotta be the one to leave that dickhead boyfriend of his. LEAVE HIM ALREADY! Regardless, Haruki and Aki are both happy for Uenoyama and Mafuyu’s new love. And now the boys feel refreshed in trying to come up with a second song, do a photo shoot, and even come up with a steady band name, “Given”. And so we get this cute end with a lingering hope that a season two will come and… Or a movie! Damn, that was fast, guys! Okay Crunchyroll, when this comes out, I want you guys to hop on it and get this movie in theaters. I don’t care if it’s in Seattle, just get it shown in WA. The ball is in your court now, don’t fuck this up! Also...

Uenoyama, please protect this boy's smile. I like this anime! I have such a weakness for animes involving characters in bands. And believe it or not, it was not because of Gravitation. For me, it was because of NANA. I fell in love with the songs and the characters and the simple story. Now of course this anime fell way too close to Gravitation’s orbit and that’s because of the yaoi aspect. My only gripe is that we really only got one memorable song (aside from the opening and ending theme). But it’s only the beginning the way I see it. I hope that Mafuyu is able to sing some more. And with a new movie on the horizon, I’m severely hoping for a soundtrack filled with awesome music. Seriously, I will laugh if the title of the movie really is, Given: Bittersweet Symphony. I give a recommendation to those who love musical animes or those of you into Shounen-Ai. I’m into both and I don’t judge. Currently, Crunchyroll has all 11 episodes available for streaming.

#anime review #given #mafuyu satou #ritsuka uenoyama #yuki yoshida #haruki nakayama #akihiko kaji

[mugenkuppukuisland]

9/4/23

Student Council President Kuranosuke Saiga also had to participate in monthly community service. In September, he had to work in Shizukana Onsen as part of his duties.

#yaoi rp #yaoi role play #yaoi roleplay #second life yaoi role play #second life yaoi roleplay #second life yaoi RP #SL yaoi rp #SL yaoi roleplay #SL yaoi role play

[tcndrcssc-moved-blog]

Takumi Fukui

Currently in his second year of high school.

Has an older sister who is in America for college. He tried to fill her role, but isn’t the best at cleaning. Has nothing but respect for her for looking after them for so long.

Was going to join the manga research club at his school but it’s filled with yaoi fangirls so he joined the literature club instead.

plays a lot of games in his free time, would have been a NEET but school requires joining one club or sport.

He’s good at all games honestly, rhythm games are his specialty though. Right now Monster Hunter takes up most of his life.

Follows a lot of idol groups, and has MANY  opinions. He collects his bias’ merchandise a lot if it’s good quality. And yes, he can do the dance moves but only in private.

Has very nice long legs that his sisters are jealous of. Kinda makes him a tad curious to try crossdressing. 

is the living knife emoji on the outside, but is the cat emoji on the inside.

#; the savant: headcanon ; #O SHIT HERE WE GO

[becumsh]

Oh hi, sorry if this is weird, but I've seen lots of post (reblogs?) you have about Guardian and... I'm intrigued. What is it? And do you know where I could watch it? (also I really like your blog so thank you!)

Sorry for the reblog shitposting, but this blog is nothing but a shitposting trashcan... But I’m glad I managed to pique your interest.

Guardian (zhen hun/镇魂) is a Chinese drama that has consumed my life and soul. I see it as a story about Chinese Torchwood that deals with supernatural creatures from the underworld. But absolutely no one in this fandom watches it for the sake of the plot due to the lack of thereof. I personally started watching it because Chinese is my minor, and I need some practice, but then I really got into it even though I really don’t want to be into it, but I’m very very very into it.

The show is based on a BL (boy’s love? yaoi? slash?) novel by Priest. The novel is about an epic love story between the Ghost King (an anthropomorphic demon-something being) and the Mountain God Kunlun, the drama unfortunately is very different and, as we say in Russia, tries both to eat a fish and sit on a dick, so it’s sort of Supernatural meets Torchwood meets CSI meets I don’t know what, it’s a bit of a mess. The series itself follows the adventures of the Special Investigation Department whose chief, Zhao Yunlan, is one of the two main leads of the show. At the beginning of the show he is very friendly, brave, devoted, and outgoing but has a cold heart. That is until he meets the second main lead, a polite and unassuming bio-engineering professor Shen Wei, who JUST HAPPENS to be the Black Envoy, the most powerful supernatural creature out there. It’s a little bit difficult to take him seriously because he’s wearing a black robe and wears a mask I can buy in a craft shop for kids down the road, so he kinda looks like a dramatic angsty goth teen going through a phase, but the actor manages to pull it.

Shen Wei (Black Envoy or what have you) met Zhao Yunlan 10 thousand years ago. Zhao Yunlan met him while investigating a murder in present day. Zhao Yunlan isn’t aware of that 10 millenium connection between them, and while Shen Wei silently pines after Zhao Yunlan, Zhao Yunlan falls for Shen Wei pretty fucking quickly. The rest is history, and you just need to watch it.

Before you say anything: it’s canon, and boi was I surprised just how much can you throw past the censors. I know, I was surprised too. I never thought that there can be the greatest love story never told in flesh and blood, not just only a queerbaiting delusional bullshit. And the love story is heartwrenching, you will bawl your eyes out.

Zhu Yilong (Shen Wei) is the most beautiful and etheral human being on the entire planet Earth second only to Cate Blanchett, Fan Bingbing, Eva Green, and Doona Bae, but let’s be real, those standards are unreachable, he might as well be the most etheral and beautiful person on the planet. I love him with all my heart. He deserves better roles, I cannot bear to watch the shit he stars in. He also is very meme-worthy, and random snapshots of him are hilarious, an opinion the fandom and I apparently don’t agree on, but like... I have a special folder on my laptop that says “Zhu Yilong Meme Screencaps”.

Johnny Bai (Bai Yu) who plays Zhao Yunlan is a precious cinnamon roll of pureness and kindness, he singlehandedly restores my faith in humanity, I will fight for him, and his voice drives me up the wall. He has an upcoming drama called ‘Detective L’ which is like a Sherlock Holmes adaptation set in Shanghai 30s, a series I’m absolutely obsessed with even though it doesn’t come out until March 2019. 

I lost the track of thought and I forgot the question, but basically:

There’s more relevant information in this post by @andwebegin

To understand exactly how unapologetically gay it is, watch @nerjaveika‘s works, my personal fave is this crack. Every single line spoken in Mandarin is present in the original show. Every single line. I know.

You can watch it on Youtube. I downloaded the episodes from MEGA, the subtitles are also there (the subs there are not that great though)

Basically [2] the plot, integrity, CGI, anything is terrible in this show, it’s very cringy and makes my eyes bleed. But the love story between Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei is one of the best I have ever, EVER seen. And considering that creators couldn’t make subtext text because of the censorship (it’s China, so...), I just thing the show deserves a round of applause because it managed to show such profound love it leaves me speechless. (bbc go and fuck urself, i hate you even more after having watched this show, just go and fuck urself).

And the acting of Johnny Bai and Zhu Yilong is absolutely banging, also once you start digging in, reading the novel, reading interviews and readint the making of, you realise how much love and work went into the show, I love it very much.

P.S. I have to warn you that you will cry buckets and buckets and buckets, it’s just........ there are going to be a lot of tears, so if you are not prepared for a perpetual trauma and a gaping hole inside of your heart, may be watch it up to, idk, ep33 or whatever. I’m sorry, my answer is all over the place, I lost it xDDD

#镇魂 #guardian #white-spirit-of-darkness

[addytheheartbreaker]

Guilty Blood Gang members

*Lower main gang members

•Beatrice De Guzman (Nature Nurse)

Assistant/Nurse of Ryan, younger sister of Ryan, former experiment, the 1st youngest member of the gang.

Her relationship with Addy are very good friends. Since Addy rescue Beatrice and bring her to meet her brother after being kidnap by her uncle as his experiment, it was that moment that Beatrice likes her and she admirers her from her character. Beatrice would play with Addy in a swing and she would go get Addy to watch cartoons with her or even share cartoons from Addy's childhood past, but in the other hand she will not bother her when she was busy similar to her brother for not bothering Addy. She soon died at age 11 (Addy age 14) and been replace with Geselle.

Beatrice is similar to Ryan, she is an old oc that I have created beside Ryan at age 14. Similar to Ryan she is from a children's story book that I like but soon replace by Geselle. This is also similar about what happen to Ryan and Obi as well about being replace to they old position to the ocs this year along with Joket as well.

•Joket Akshay (Acid Jester)

Addy's Security of the Guilty Blood Gang, oldest mechanist, former favorite soldier, older brother of Obi Addy's communicative man.

His relationship with Addy were similar to his younger brother Obi, a simple friendship but with responsibility as her security and communicative for someone who calls for her in any complaints that she can't handle. His loyalty to Addy is quite complicated then Obi, because the fact he, Obi and Ryan had been revived by Addy and her master he has a conflict feels toward Addy and it turns out he was jealous for her perfection and seriousness as the leader of the gang herself and that he want to be a perfect and serious soldier to her. At the end he died at age 16 (Addy age 14) and replace by Dante.

Joket is also similar to Obi, being created at the year of 2017. Also similar to Obi, he has been inspired by the character in One Piece and the other idea came from a certain anime that is now forgotten. Since Ryan, Obi and Beatrice all been replace by Addy's main gang in 2018 (Ishmael, Cian and Geselle) Joket is also replace by Dante as well. A similar trait between the General and the former favorite soldier is almost as predictable the I expected which I have no idea how my old main gang (Ryan, Obi, Beatrice and Joket) has been replaced from the main gang today.

•Stuwie B. Potestio (Undead Mage)

Addy's 3rd bodyguard, leader of the ROYGBIP family, Addy's favorite 2nd pianist, step older brother of Sayaka, Prime minister of the Junior syndicate.

His relationship with Addy are very close. Addy always loves Blue (which Addy nickname him) because he is the first person revived with his hair change azura blue. Giving him a role as the leader of a family gang called the ROYGBIP family. Since he is the first and leader of the family gang she was supposed to put him to the main gang but soon rejected and let his faithful member Green (Francise) to be at the main gang and inform him about Addy's status. This in fact they both having a strong brother-sister relationship which is why he is supposed to be in the main gang instead of Francise. A unknown absence cause Addy to get worried of Blue and remain umknown what happen to him. He is always her favorite and he is one of those people who are willing to play his piano since Cian's demise (p.s Cian has been revived today), often giving her hugs and watch anime together or anyone and he is one of Addy's overprotective big brother's.

Stuwie has been created at the year of 2015 of January before Jefferson, Harold and Francise. He is the first character created based on the group of the rainbow (the ROYGBIP family gang explain soon) and the first character in the year of 2015 after year 2014. He is inspired and based on one of my favorite music video character 2D from Gorillaz, but don't get me wrong, he is different to him.

•Silvia Bonilla (Tigerstar)

Addy's path keeper, vice leader of the ROYGBIP family, Prime minister of the Newbie syndicate, 1st strongest young member of the gang.

Her relationship with Addy is bittersweet. Having a opposite personality to each other (Addy being shy and sweet then Silvia being tough and cold) but she is loyal to her no matter the issue. She didn't seem to bother her work but she loves her job and do it seriously when anyone crosses the path to see her, even though Addy cares she give her full time to fight/punish her enemies off the edge. Secretly, her relationship with Addy has a feeling of a mother-daughter relationship but could denied it in anyway, Stuwie knows about it.

Silvia has been created at the year of 2015 February, similar to Stuwie, she is the second character created before Jefferson, Harold and Francise. I design her as a delinquent tomboy inspired by two characters who are female delinquents. And when I put Purple (Addy's nickname to her) with Blue (Stuwie) was good but in process I have lost track of giving her more parts of her character just leaving her absent similar to Stuwie and as for her relationship with me (Addy) is in fact bittersweet which is true.

•Sayaka Potestio Miyaki (Geisha Widow)

Addy's Night patrol, ninja and protector of the Newbie syndicate, musician assistant of Stuwie, step younger sister of Stuwie, 2nd strongest young member of the gang.

Her relationship with Addy is different then her brother Stuwie. After learning she had a step brother far away from Japan and her full name, she came to meet Stuwie and join Addy's gang because she revived her brother from the dead. Even though she is really loyal and responsible to her job she deeply care for Addy that she wanted to pay her back to reunited with her step brother. Similar to Stuwie, she will watch anime with her along with Blue, and Indigo (Addy's nickname for her) will talk about anime stuff with Addy and having a 24/7 anime conversation or fandom in the internet, talking about the fandom both Addy and Indigo are yaoi fans (because why now ;3).

Sayaka is the last character that I have created in the year of 2015 of March. Since Sayaka was the last oc she will be Stuwie's step sister because Stuwie was the my first character in 2015, also both Stuwie and Sayaka are inspired and based on Gorillaz, 2D and Noodle. But her design was the hardest to design with alongside with Valmo (Red, the traitor of the ROYGBIP family).

•Narcis S. Nikonov (Pride Beast)

Addy's favorite gambler, President of the assassination, famous drag queen, step older brother of Sergei, Military colonel, leader of the Gambler Pride gang.

Addy's relationship with Narcis is a over reacting bitterness relationship but get along very well. Addy always scold him when he gets into trouble but she mostly interested in Narcis drag queen tendency. Sometimes Addy gets angry the fact he was careless about his job but could get serious if the leader if fallen down, even though his guardian knows Addy's master he join in without any intention on why his guardian would force him to join in. Narcis would come to Addy if she needs a make up artist if there is any parties that she attend although Addy wanted it simple which makes him annoyed of how opposite they are (Addy being a simple elegant and Narcis being a snobby narcissistic clown queen) but since he lives in Russia, he was interested of the beauty of Philippines and Addy herself in which he hated to admit and Addy's acceptance and understanding why he is always narcissistic because here in Philippines there are many transgenders that she had met in her life (true story). Even when she is always bossy to scold him has a feeling of a mother-son relationship. Sometimes they both like to watch RaPuals drag race, baking episodes and fashion shows.

Narcis has been created in the year 2017 of August. I created this oc inspired by one of my favorite artist in tumblr, having the idea of transgender (alongside Silvia who is a tomboy) and the attitude from one of my friends who is also a transgender, this includes my relationship with Narcis of how angry I was when I meet someone who is very narcissistic and bossy to themselves but could get along very well. Another idea came from RePual's drag race.

•Sergei Sokolov (Ruthless Emulate)

Service of Addy and Narcis, gambler and security of Gambler Pride gang, step younger brother, excellent soldier, driver (mostly military and common vehicles).

His relationship with Addy is similar to Ostin. He is a tsundere type member to Addy's gang and a excellent soldier beside Narcis (colonel) and Dante (general), despite his hostile,cold hearted and serious attitude he is just a friend to Addy only. He respects her after asking for a duel then defeated at the end, he respect her being the leader who is both capable and incapable to control and he respects her that her master knows his brother's guardian.

Sergei has been created alongsise with Narcis in the year 2017 of August. Sergei was based on the character from the game called "Papers Please", long story short I watch Jacksepticeye's videos to play that game and that when that character name Sergei becomes my favorite. Giving an idea to be Narcis brother with the same design together as brothers, although his character was complicated the fact it was a mixture of Ostin, Ryan and Dante.

•Thalia Florida (Maiden Clear)

Servant and best friend of Narcis, maid, assassin, gambler of the Gambler Pride gang.

Addy's relationship with Thalia were common, they are friends but Thalia wouldn't mind her business since she is belong to Narcis. Getting involved the gang was nothing but dirty work. Addy knows she has OCD and Thalia understands that she has suffers with BPD.

Thalia has been created the same year as Narcis in 2017 but in September. She is based on a anime character who is a German maid, anoter idea about her OCD is when I was studying at school about mental disorders.

•Koko Daria (Swirlsoft)

Addy's favorite baker, master of baking all recipes, best friend of Cian

Koko's relationship with Addy is nothing more then a staff member to her. Her job as a baker is nothing more then that, she is an employer of Cian's cafe and Koko is a fan of Addy because she is Cian's soul sister. She even admired her about Addy's most favorite sweets. Chocolate. She will always delivered her some chocolate pastries if Addy wanted to eat sweets today.

I haven't design her yet but I did a concept of Koko, in truth she used to be an up coming Cuphead oc. After leaving the fandom, that is the problem that I haven't plan to create her as human like Ishmael, but the image of Koko in my mind is still remains. I think I will create her someday if I have time....

•Rosaria (Dollmaker)

Addy's favorite doll maker, president of the Dollies corporation, creator of Tristan

Her relationship with Addy is common. She is a friend to her but a member of her gang, she used to be Addy's student and choosing her to work as a doll maker and teaching Rosaria how to create life and soul capturer from the dead but only for those with a broken soul so that they are possessed to a doll body.

Rosaria isn't been created yet but I did have a concept with her, but due that I left the Cuphead fandom I didn't get a chance or a opportunity to create her as a oc of mine but the image of her is still remain in my mind.

•Marco Kurai (Iron Fury)

Oldest soldier in the gang, brother of Ostin, expert weaponry guns, dealer of military weapons.

His relationship with Addy are commonly friends but has high responsibility at the gang, she haven't talk to him a while ago since she last meet him at age 13 (Marco age 15) but they meet each other even when Marco's reason to avoid her was because of her job and her laziness.

Marco was one of the oldest ocs beside Ostin in age 8. Similar to his brother Ostin, he was inspired by my childhood cartoon that I forgot about.

•Shirakawa Karai (Torch Blade)

Addy's favorite Blacksmith, Master of samurai swords, owner of the Karai family resort (public), younger brother of Caranoske, President of the Blacksmithing corporation.

His relationship with Addy are close best friends. He didn't met Addy yet until his brother introduced to her (age 8). When he started creating many types of weapons Shirakawa was inspired of Addy's ideas of weapons, some of the weapons are girly but the design has fascinated him, he mostly create bladed weapons while the others (others like weaponry of guns, chemicals, cyber technology, crystalization, military, etc) dealing other weapons. He has high expectations for the leader and she is willing to give him the designs of weapons and send someone to collaborate to combined weapons (until now in 2018-2019) especially Addy who is also collaborate with him if she feels like to make one.

Shirakawa along with his brother Caranoske are both been created in the year of 2014. But this oc is based on when me and my older sister watching a Japanese channel. Since 2014 I have this feeling that I wanted to make an oc who is from Japan and when me and my sister watching a certain tourist show in a Japanese channel there I found a name that caught my eye. Shirakawa. It is a name of a place in Japan (if you search it) and the place was called land of Fire, seeing a scene of a blacksmith making a samurai sword, the training of handling a katana, and more. This inspired me to create Shirawaka from those things, him as a Japanese samurai boy in crimson red hair and kimono like fire and his brother with Caranoske which is based on chefs making seafood types. So basically both of the brothers are opposite to each other (Caranoske for water and Shirakawa for fire).

(I know I had post this before and I couldn't find it! So, I rewrite the lower gang members. They are like allied gang but connected to her gang as one. I accidentally deleted the original post of the main gang members but good thing I reposted it, yet still I was so ashamed for deleting the original post though)

#my ocs reveal #beatrice the nature nurse #joket the acid jester #stuwie the undead mage #silvia the tigerstar #sayaka the geisha widow #narcis the pride force #sergei the brute emulate #thalia the fallen maiden #marco the iron fury #shirakawa the torch blade

[gascon-en-exil]

So Who’s the Queen?: A Chess of Blades Review (Part 1)

A gay male dating sim with a recurring motif of chess references and not once are any of the guys likened to queens. How positively appalling.

That missed opportunity aside, this quick little indie visual novel caught my attention about a week ago and got me invested enough to generate two posts’ worth of discussion. Admittedly this is only the second visual novel I’ve actually played through - the first being the delightfully raunchy Coming Out on Top - but I’ve picked up a bit of other examples of the genre from fandom osmosis and watching playthroughs on YouTube so I’d like to think my reference pool is at least a little larger than that. Despite the apparent lack of a fanbase a few of my followers expressed interest in hearing what I have to say on the game, so here we are. Note that as this is one of the very rare occasions where I’m not presuming that I’m writing for an audience already familiar with my subject I’m going to do my best to avoid major plot and characterization spoilers in the event that anyone wants to check this game out on Steam. I will be talking a fair bit about the lategame sex scenes, but given the nature of Chess of Blades I don’t think anyone will be spoiled to learn that the main character gets up to an assortment of naked sweaty fun with his various love interests. This will be a review in two parts - this one covering my general thoughts on the game’s overall story, themes, and presentation, and the second one on the love interests and their individual routes.

Protagonist Rivian Varrison is a young nobleman of an unnamed kingdom modeled after a vague blend of early modern European nations. The son of a celebrated military strategist, Rivian is sent on his own to attend a week-long celebration for the king’s birthday at a remote royal castle despite his mildly antisocial tendencies and lack of familiarity with court life (and sex, because of course he’s a virgin). During his time at the castle he becomes embroiled in one of several plots by antagonistic forces that threaten to destabilize the kingdom’s foreign relations, and with the help of a collection of men who want to bone him Rivian has to avoid getting murdered, save the day, and also figure out what and who he’s going to be doing with his life once the party’s over. Oh, and there’s a quick handwave in dialogue near the beginning of the game establishing that homophobia is not a problem in this setting. Arbitrary sidestepping of serious real world obstacles, yay!

However, from my limited understanding of traditional yaoi homophobia is not often as much of a concern in the genre as might be expected, and this is one of several elements of CoB that give me the impression that, like yaoi/BL, the game is written with a female audience in mind. Rivian hits all of what I assume are defining traits of an uke intended to be identified with by a female player; he’s a waifish and inexperienced sub bottom with flowing hair and sensitive nipples, all of which come into play in some way for every sex scene. I don’t mind it though, because I just so happen to also be a waifish sub bottom who can find him quite relatable. Not the bits with hair pulling and nipple play perhaps, because I get next to nothing out of either, but I can use my imagination. Suffice it to say that CoB is clearly inspired by the conventions and dynamics of yaoi even if it isn’t always entirely beholden to them.

I wouldn’t even say it’s the sex or those particular dynamics that comprise the main draw of the game, because both the political and romantic storylines offer enough enjoyment on their own to encourage multiple playthroughs in order to see everything. It helps that the main conflict differs depending on the romantic route, and each comes with its own antagonist(s). Characters - love interests included - who act in a certain role in one route may serve an entirely different one in another, or they may not appear at all. At the heart of all the nefarious goings-on lies a shadowy organization presumably modeled after the politically divisive Jesuit order of the Catholic Church minus the religious motivations (the fact that the organization appears to be named after their founder St. Ignatius of Loyola is a dead giveaway), although there’s enough variety in the specific antagonists to allow for more than one reading of what’s really going on with all these murders and kidnappings and such. The distinct but interwoven nature of the four storylines manages to do a lot with a small cast and a compressed timeframe, and while I don’t think you’ll find anything truly groundbreaking in terms of narrative I feel like it would be rude of me to spoil the particulars.

Gameplay is...well...

...just that, really. It’s a series of fifteen or so questions with two choices each that determine which storyline and romantic route you’ll follow and then eventually whether you get the good or bad ending for that route. That’s a bit sparse even in comparison to other visual novels I’m familiar with, but it works well for what it is. The algorithm for determining the romantic route especially is less obvious than you might expect, as it’s impossible to favor one man exclusively at the expense of the others. Moreover, if you don’t favor one man to at least some degree Rivian gets murdered before the plot even gets properly started in a generic bad ending that’s almost comical in how unexpected it is.

Presentation is a bit of a mixed bag. The artwork is serviceable and even quite good at points. but there’s a fair amount of stylistic variation and the NSFW art in particular doesn’t impress me very much. The soundtrack is excellent for an indie game, with fourteen original pieces that all do a great job of matching the tone and atmosphere of the scenes. I have no complaints about the writing apart from the odd typo or awkward phrasing choice, although there are a few quirks I couldn’t help but pick up on. For instance - Rivian, all of the love interests, and several of the side characters get compared to animals at multiple points. In exactly one scenario there’s the implication that this might lead into some offscreen pet play, but aside from that it’s just a rhetorical device. Maybe Rivian is secretly a furry? The chess motif is also less prevalent than I was expecting; it’s actually more prominent in the names and icons of the game’s Steam achievements, rather than in the game itself.

Then there’s the matter of the voice acting. While I appreciate the ambition of an erotic visual novel with multiple routes having full voice acting, the execution often leaves something to be desired for a number of reasons. The most common is that the VAs affect noticeable accents for many of the characters, usually to make them sound posh and refined, and either because of inexperience or because of just how strong the accents can get some of their line reads can come across as stilted or unnaturally paced. Rivian is unfortunately one of the more notable offenders. He’s the character with whom the player is meant to identify, and yet his voice is so obviously affected that it took me some time to stop thinking of him as a parody of a nobleman designed purely as comic relief. I found his voice less distracting in major emotional scenes thankfully, although on that note I also have to point out that the sex scenes are fully voiced as well. This doesn’t help anyone on the whole, not least because of how difficult it can be to authentically vocalize getting your dick sucked or taking a cock in your tight virginal hole. Also...there are sound effects for some of the kissing and blowjob scenes, and I really wish there weren’t. In all seriousness, if you’re audibly slurping that much while doing either of those things you’re either being intentionally sloppy because your partner’s into that or you’re extremely slow on the uptake about what to do with a penis or someone else’s tongue in your mouth. I suppose I should be thankful that we’re spared tonguing sounds during the rimjob scenes or the slapping of balls on ass. It’s worth noting that the option to mute some or all of the voice acting exists, but I stuck it out because there were some performances I genuinely liked and because I was determined to get the full experience - for better or worse. 

Whether what I described above justifies the rather steep price tag for an indie visual novel (because of the voice acting, possibly?) is a personal call, but for what it’s worth I enjoyed my time with the game in spite of those shortcomings and do recommend it for fans of period M/M romance, particularly the kind you’re likely to find in Japanese properties like the ones from which CoB clearly draws inspiration. I feel like I’m getting ahead of myself, though, as this post is going to have a second part. Next time I’ll be critiquing each of the four love interests both in and out of bed, which will undoubtedly make for a fun and extremely filthy bit of writing.

#Chess of Blades #M/M visual novel #BL novel

[curestardust]

if you want: boi this is some Grade A yaoi dom/sub shit > this is a review of both the 1992 and the 2012 versions

So upon seeing this anime in my PTW i was thoroughly confused. I like yaoi from time to time but I don’t actively look for it. Then I suddenly remembered; one of my friends in like 8th grade was bugging me constantly to watch this because it’s “so HOT NGHNGHGH”. Well Fruzsi it’s been like 7 years now but I finally watched it!

The story is set in some futuristic world in another planet. The society is ruled by machines and the Blondies that were created by them (I think, I actually read this part on wikipedia). There’s a district where men with no official government identifiaction live and they’re called “mongrels” and are considered the lowest of the low.

In this society the Blondies keep certain humans as pets and furnitures (basically sex slaves and worker slaves). Our main character Riki is a mongrel and has a run in with a Blondie. NSFW things happen and Riki becomes the Blondie’s (Iason’s) pet for 3 years after which he is allowed to go back to the Slums for a year.

So let me begin with the original 1992 version. The animation and art are as you would expect from anime from this time. The Slums are mostly dark with vivid colours giving the neon and futuristic feel. Tanagura (the “capital”) is mainly shades of white to give the feeling of purity and perfectionism. The characters are wonky however. Actually good character designs basically stop at the 3-4 main characters with secondary characters basically being indistinguishable. 

Just like the colours, the music also plays a big role. The lack of background music can actually be distracting at times but the anime only uses tracks when it really wants to give another layer to the events happening on screen. Voice acting is decent but with more emotional scenes some of the performances were uhhh....unintentionally funny.

The pacing is off. The 1992 version consists of 2 almost 1 hour long episodes. In the first one we join in at the time when Riki is let back into the Slums by Iason and we follow him in the present. Then the second one is divided between flashbacks and advancing towards the ending. You’d think that Ai no Kusabi would be giving you steaming hot yaoi action but in reality there’s barely any NSFW content in the first episode; the majority of it is spent by fleshing out the world.

While quite a lot happens, the character development is lackluster. The anime feels more like just events happening after each other because the plot demands it and not because of a natural flow of the characters actions.

The 2012 version is an improvement in certain areas and a downgrade in others. The most glaring change is obviously the art and animation. It’s GORGEOUS. Not only is the animation fluid but the character designs of the secondary characters got a huge haul-over. They no longer look like clones of each other but like they have their own character. They went to extreme length with this; even the facial structure of characters were completely different.

Somewhat of a downgrade would be the music which is...fine. Just fine. The OST sounds like it came off of “free-copyright-music.net”. 

The 2012 version consists of 4 25 minute episodes. It is much slower than the original version and goes much more in depth on the story. It also doesn’t have an ending....yep. As it turns out this was supposed to be 12 OVAs long but they discontinued it due to financial reasons (seems like creating HQ sex scenes dries up money fast).

It is dissapointing as I was just getting into the groove of it by episode 4 and then just bamm, it’s over. Oh and one thing to mention; in one of the episodes there’s just a random conversation in which Riki tells his age and he says that he is 15...UMMM??? SO i know that the Blondies don’t really have ages or whatever but this made me immENSELY uncomfortable so I’m just choosing to think that Riki has been like 18-20 when the story starts, alright? Alright.

SOOOOO...I don’t really know what else to say. You like yaoi and this dom/sub slave whatever fetish thing you’ll probably enjoy this? It is unfinished...but the episodes made are still great quality and there’s always the manga? [6/10] (x) [6/10] (x)

Recommend: HELL Yeah! | Yes | Eh??? | Nope | This anime killed my parents

if you want: something really edgy that doesn’t have a purpose besides being edgy

Mahu Shoujo Site is godawful.

This “dark magical girls” trope is starting to get on my nerves. They usually have no point besides giving enjoyment to sick fucks who enjoy seeing little girls in horrible situations. Oh and also to the people who think “dark, depressing and gorey = d e ep”.

So, I obviously caught notice of this the first time I saw it as I’m always interested in magical girl stuff. And if you’ve read my previous reviews you know that this usually doesn’t go very well. Anyway, even from the summary I knew that this was going to be edgy but how much? Well I read the first review on MAL on it and lowkey scarred me into ignoring this anime. In the end, curiosity won out and I really wanted to see how much of a trainwreck MSS actually was.

I feel like a summary of the first episode would scare a lot of people away as it shows a lot of really cruel stuff that many people are sensitive to. Which would be: the apparent murder of a kitten to fuck with main character (not actually shown), the main character getting severely bullied and beaten at school by 3 of her classmates, her big brother tying her up and beating her (and punching her in the stomach) at home and at the very end some dude almost rapes her. Oh and the main character is like some 14yo little girl.

Whew. Ticks off all the “ew wtf” boxes, doesn’t it? Well rest assured the anime NEVER goes into this level of cruelty again. There are no animals in the anime after episode one. *Spoilers* happen to the bullies which also mostly takes them out of the picture after episode 2 and our main character is barely home or if she is then she is with friends which makes his brother unable to beat her. 

All this was just used to show how “unfortunate” she is so that she will be made into a magical girl as in MSS only girls who have had to deal with a lot of pain are eligible to become magical girls. OOOO edgy.

Then they have their weapons which are stupidly all named “sticks” even though they can be whatever (gun, phone, yoyo, panties...). And speaking of sticks, using them eats up the girls’ life forces...OOOO edgy. Have I mentioned that whenever they “transform” they HAVE to bleed from somewhere? Like eyes, nose, head...OOOOOOOOO edgy!!!!

We’ve a main cast of characters who get some personality but then we’re introduced to a second set of characters who literally have one personality trait each, plus their powers which makes me give approximately 0 fucks about whether they live or die.

The animation is quite poor, the OST is unremarkable and they seem to use the same 3 tracks in every episode (the OP and ED songs are bangers however) and the voice acting also leaves much to be desired but the VA’s did as much with the script as they could. 

The worst part is that the anime kinds of ends on a cliffhanger. Even from the opening I was expecting some grand battle but nope. There’s a plot twist which made me go “HMM” but that’s about it. So you sit through this shitfest and don’t even get a proper conclusion. Any enjoyment you could take away from this is seeing just how much bullshit they can put into these 12 episodes.

The characters you can grow to care for. Mostly because they’re SET UP to be pitied and babied, but my thought regarding them is “you didn’t deserve to be in this pile of garbage of an anime”. (x) [2/10]

Recommend: HELL Yeah! | Yes | Eh??? | Nope | This anime killed my parents

#dusty reviews #i put these 2 in a seperate post #cause these are not usually the stuff i review #welp #long post #Ai no Kusabi #Ai no Kusabi (2012) #Mahou Shoujo Site #Magical Girl Site