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satoshi-mochida · 7 months

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Of the Red, the Light, and the Ayakashi Tsuzuri launches February 29, 2024

Gematsu Source

Visual novel Of the Red, the Light, and the Ayakashi Tsuzuri will launch for Switch and PC via Steam on February 29, 2024, publisher dramatic create and developer HaccaWorks* announced. It will support English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese language options.

Here is an overview of the game, via its official website:

About

What is Of the Red, the Light, and the Ayakashi. A PC game released in 2011, the second released by the dojin group HaccaWorks*. It has been adapted into a comic book (10 volumes total), a novel, drama CD, as well as other media. In 2014 it was re-released on the PSP gaming system with a major revision of the main scenario, and with full voices, a prequel, and a new ending. This new version of the game has all the content of the PSP version, but is now even easier to play, available on the Nintendo Switch and on Steam!

Added Content

Digital illustration collection.

Updated game specifications and user interface.

Multiple languages support (Japanese, English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese).

Story

Yue is a young boy, born in a mountain shrine in the town of Utsuwa. One day, he attends the winter festival together with his childhood friend, a black fox named Kurogitsune. The lanterns burn bright red, and the people are buzzing. As Yue sees the outside world for the first time in his life, he meets two mysterious boys. Upon returning to the mountain, the owner of the shrine, Mikoto, told him.

Characters

-Main Character

Yue (voiced by Shinosuke Tachibana) – Likes to take things at his own pace. He enjoys being lazy, but also has a curious side to him. He descends from the mountain for the first time on the day of the winter festival…

-Branch Characters

Kurogitsune (voiced by Kei Shindo) – A black fox that has been together with Yue since he was a child. He is a good friend, and a self-proclaimed big brother to Yue. Strong-willed and straightforward, he is an open book to those around him.

Togo Tsubaki (voiced by Daichu Muzishima) – A second-year student at Utsuwa High School. He lives together with his father and little sister. He has a rather mature personality for his age, and is a caring eldest son. Both he and Yue seem to remember something about each other…

Akiyoshi Tochika (voiced by Takahiro Sakurai) – A second-year student at Utsuwa High School, he is the son of the heir of a large land-owning family. Due to his severe allergies he is always carrying a box of tissues under his arm. He has a straightforward personality, for better or for worse. After having met Yue at the festival, he is trying to uncover his true identity.

Sagano (voiced by Kosuke Toriumi) – A mysterious man who appears at twilight. Even though he’s always smiling, there’s something not quite right about him. He acts as if he knows Yue.

-Sub Characters

Mr. Sato (voiced by Kenyu Horiuchi) – A Shinto priest at Utsuwa Shrine, and Mikoto’s right-hand man. To Yue he is a mentor and a father figure. He enjoys cleaning.

Mikoto (voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro) – She may look like a little girl, but she is actually the master of the mountain that rules over Utsuwa. She dotes on Yue as if he were her younger brother. She has a calm and natural disposition.

-Other Characters

Momiji (voiced by Akiki Yajima) – A doll-like specter that suddenly appears in town. He is always hungry, as eating is his pastime. Although he has a wealth of experience in meals and is a glutton who will eat anything, he eats in accordance with his own aesthetics, and is picky about his tastes. His dream is to make 100 friends.

Tomori (voiced by Junichi Suwabe) – A specter that serves Mikoto. Keeper of the mountain lights, he watches over them all night. In his free time he can be seen having a pleasant conversation with Yue and Kurogitsune. He is kind despite his frightening appearance. Kurogitsune in particular has taken a liking to him.

Saku (voiced by Yui Horie) – A schoolgirl-like specter. She does not get along well with the other specters of the shrine, instead patrolling the town together with Nagi. She has a cheerful and innocent personality, but as she hates to lose, she also has a belligerent side that loves to take on strong opponents. She is a little interested in Yue, as he looks like an opponent that she lost to once in the past.

Nagi (voiced by Saki Nakajima) – A schoolgirl-like specter. She does not get along well with the other specters of the shrine, instead patrolling the town together with Saki. Perhaps due to her calm and collected personality she often acts as the pacifist in contrast to Saki. She is well known for her long braids, which she sometimes braids herself, and sometimes Saki does it for her.

Ranchu (voiced by Kenichi Suzumura) – A specter that serves Mikoto. He is the caretaker for the residents at Utsuwa Shrine. Perhaps due to feeling comfortable around him due to their similar ages, and a bit of envy towards his positive attitude, he often treats Kurogitsune in a cold manner. However, despite his negative words, his actions are quite kind.

Mr. Abe+ (voiced by Akira Ishida) – A specter that serves Mikoto. They work at the talisman counter, where they make charms and fortunes. They’re always trying to get Yue to pull a fortune for some reason or another. Despite a suspicious-looking pair of hands emerging from his jacket, they insist that there’s no one else hiding inside.

Kagetsu (voiced by Takuya Eguchi) – A specter that serves Mikoto. He is a direct subordinate of Sato, and works together with Mashiro. He’s been together with Mashiro since birth, as the two are inseparable. He’s responsible for the “cleaning” of Utsuwa City, both literally and in another sense of the word. He has a rather blunt and condescending attitude.

Mashiro (voiced by Yuki Ono) – A specter that serves Mikoto. He is a direct subordinate of Sato, and works together with Kagetsu. He’s been together with Kagetsu since birth, as the two are inseparable. He’s responsible for the “cleaning” of Utsuwa City, both literally and in another sense of the word. He appears to be friendly and cheerful at first, but has an unexpected dry side to him.

Hina Tsubaki (voiced by Yukana) – Togo’s younger sister. She really loves her brother and is attached to him. She is a bright and innocent kindergartner, but sometimes she speaks and acts in a mature manner beyond her years. According to her brother, there is something called the “Hina Language.”

Goldfish+ (Suisen voiced by Marie Miyake, Gyokuro voiced by Juri Nagatsuma, and Kimun voiced by Natsumi Takamori) – Three goldfish specters that are always together. They get along well with Sato, and can also take human form. The Red Goldfish Suisen is the most energetic. The Black Goldfish Gyokuro is the calmest. The Yellow Goldfish Kimun is the most spoiled.

Sora Suzuki (voiced by Ryota Osaka) – A classmate of Togo and Akiyoshi. He enjoys taking notes in classes. He looks up to the cool Togo, and is obsessed with lending his notebooks to him.

Young Man A (voiced by Tatsuhisa Suzuki) – A boy that Yue meets in town. He seems to be connected to the disappearances happening in the town.

Yaichi Tsubaki (voiced by Toshiyuki Morikawa) – Togo’s father. He is an unsuccessful novelist that is working part-time. He is a caring father, but his sons don’t take him seriously. The family gets along well.

Akitoshi Tochika (voiced by Satoshi Tsuruoka) – Akiyoshi’s father. A major landowner who has supported Utsuwa City for a long time. He is the current head of the Tochika family.

#Of the Red the Light and the Ayakashi Tsuzuri #Of the Red the Light and the Ayakashi #dramatic create #HaccaWork*#HaccaWorks #visual novel #Gematsu'

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bucketsquid · 2 months

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Interpretation + Headcanons on Sanitization

more for my own reference than anything else, due to it not only being present in the narrative for lots of my OCs but also for starbound mod stuff lol. you can use it as headcanon / reference if you like, i don't really mind

science terms ahoy, i am a biologist after all. readmore'd for long post

"Sanitization" is a term for the physiological + psychological changes that an inkfish goes through when thoroughly exposed to sanitized ink. Thorough exposure constitutes a significant amount of sanitized ink being introduced to the bloodstream, inkveins, or bodily orifices, all of which can be used as pathways for proper sanitization.

The major aspect of this process involves the novel viruses in sanitized ink attacking the central nervous system and ink sac. Consistent symptoms include inflammation, a very strong burning sensation in the head / neck / back areas, intense drowsiness and decreased heart rate (in Octolings), abnormal aggression and increased heart rate (in Inklings), and unpredictable shifts in ink production (for both).

Sanitization is much more effective on Octolings in terms of complete transformation. Most of the time it just kills squids through cardiac arrest or exhaustion during the symptomatic period described above. That said, I'll still use "inkfish" as the catch-all term here because it CAN happen.

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Visual changes are consistent: affected skin and flesh will discolor to a green tone, with any chromatophores or photophores in affected areas becoming nonfunctional. An inkfish's eyes are also an obvious indicator of sanitization, with prolonged exposure turning the irises green and the pupils bright cyan.

More thorough sanitization results in heavily-decreased abilities to change the color of one's tentacles, ultimately resulting in them becoming a dark azure hue; adult inkfish may keep any tentacle/body accent colors that they had pre-sanitization. Any bodily markings or patterns become faint, and are often lost completely due to their chromatophores dying. It also results in black sclera, consistent with previous changes to eye color.

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After anywhere from four to forty-eight hours, varying based on the individual's immune system and amount of exposure, the process of sanitization completes. The result is a "walking dead" inkfish with severely impaired cognitive functions and complete lack of identity, producing large amounts of sanitized ink in place of their original ink. Their heartrate and circulation becomes extremely slow, giving the impression of "no vital signs"-- while their reflexes and physiological capabilities seem more sensitive and refined than before.

Their metabolisms slow but only somewhat, and they do retain the basic instincts needed to survive. These instincts also remain in social behaviors: many sanitized inkfish stay exclusively among their own, expressing the need for "clean" company. Some might lack this social nature completely and spend their time alone.

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They express intense aggression towards non-sanitized inkfish, primarily their scent and the scent + chemistry of their ink. And since sanitized inkfish use their ink very liberally as a weapon... well, this is the main method of creating more of them if nobody dies in the process. (There's also surgical sanitization, which has a very low fatality rate, but that isn't nearly as self-perpetuating.)

Most reproductive drive is completely lost during sanitization. Not only is the individual sterilized during the transformation, but all of those seasonal hormones just... stop doing anything.

This is all poorly-studied and nobody's turning people green specifically to study all of it. A lot of it is anecdotal description + study of individuals being rehabilitated.

It's quite common for inkfish to have a faint scent to their ink, varying heavily based on the individual's personal chemistry, the scent given off by coloring agents in ink, and many other details. Sanitized inkfish lack this variation, and their ink consistently has a very strong scent of bleach, alcohol, and blood. It's just as disgusting as it sounds.

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So, can sanitization be reversed? The answer is a surprising sometimes, though not completely. Combinations of cognitive therapy, hormonal + ink r&r (replication & restoration) treatments, and physical rehabilitation have proven somewhat successful all together: the most important step is to recover the sense of self and identity in an individual. Then through a long and comprehensive process of "teaching" their bodies how to function again and not be a complete biohazard, they can recover.

It takes literal years for the physical stuff to be fixed, though, and it's rough. Their immune systems remain very weak and need to be repopulated over time; they may experience large amounts of fatigue and pain; their ink will likely retain its scent of alcohol for a long while the ICS (ink circulatory system) heals. Migraines, physical tremors, chronic fatigue, and other issues of the nervous system are very common even in partial sanitization cases. Mobility aids help hugely, and thankfully they're very well-developed for inkfish.

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Some effects are unfortunately irreversible. The green skin tone is permanent, along with most tentacle + ink pigmentation and cell death in chromato+photophores.

Because of how incredibly variable cases of sanitization can be, ranging from mere skin exposure to complete transformation, lingering effects differ widely.

Captain 3 is an example of partial sanitization, having had a lot of highly-concentrated sanitized ink get into their eyes and facial area. Acht / Dedf1sh is an example of complete sanitization with following rehabilitation. Agent 8 likely had a lot of skin-level exposure, and might have developed some degree of resistance to it through that repeated exposure.

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It's still being studied as more and more green and partially-green octopuses emerge from the Deepsea Metro. Thank goodness healthcare is free in Inkadia!

#worldbuilding #headcanon #octo expansion #marine.txt #reference #damn you tumblr formatting. format my post correctly

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linfernomio · 4 months

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at 3am sitting in the dark knees to my chest squinting frowning face four centimeters away from the full brightness screen of my laptop (i got a burning desire to play nekomimi visual novels after already taking my lenses out)

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freefunchild · 2 years

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Hello to all

I noticed something interesting:

In the visual novel "Burning Bright at the Forest of the Night", when Levi and Petra are having tea together, Levi says "even love" and then he repeats "No, it's nothing!" When Petra asks him a question. Isn't this an interesting parallel to the song "The Light of the Two Wings", composed by Petra, where she tries to confess something to him, but withdraws and answers "no nothing" or "no, it's not important"?

Is it my imagination or are we trying to underplay mutual romantic feelings?

#pro rivetra #rivetra #levi x petra

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brightoakgame · 2 years

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Author’s Marginalia - 2

If writing is my passion, music is my refuge.

When I begin my day, one of the first acts in my morning ritual is to determine what shape and color to give the air around me, what sound design will make it easier to move through my space and accomplish what I must and simply breathe. Over the years, I have found it to be among the most effective tools I have in the ongoing game of cat-and-mouse I play with my anxiety: I may not be able to alter my circumstances or mental circuitry as I like, but I can effectively seize control of the soundtrack.

To illustrate how that works, I’ll begin with a fun thought exercise I was once shown:

(a photo by Nattu Adnan of a tranquil beach: the horizon is framed by two sloping green peninsulas like outstretched arms, embracing a brilliant gemstone-turquoise sea, above which meringue peaks of clouds scud across a bright blue sky)

There’s a base reaction to the sight of the sea, made up of personal associations and memories, but layer in music, and you have something potentially quite different-- and for many, those initial impressions can likely be changed drastically by just two notes:

…duuun-DUNN… duuun-DUNN… duuun-DUN-dun-DUN-dun-DUN-dun-DUN-dun-DUN-DUN…!

I have playlists upon playlists in my arsenal, running a gamut of genres and moods, aiding me in beating back the Too-Muchness when it comes calling, and changing the trend of the story my wayward brain tells me-- because music has storytelling power all its own, untethered by the same demands made by concrete images and printed words. When the opening bars of a favorite film’s main theme plays, a whole story can unfold within us; when we share a mix with a friend or loved one, we’re able to share some of those inner parts of us we feel even when we cannot speak them. Music carries our cultural mythos, our loves and ambitions, legions of composers, folk crooners, pop idols, and nimble rappers, all serving as the Greek chorus that stands upon the world stage, commenting on the action as it takes place. And in private, through headphones or at home, some of us may use it and shape it as a conduit for our own stories which we tell ourselves.

The use of music in visual novels is one aspect that intrigued me early on, because it grants another layer to the storytelling, a means of connecting with readers beyond the strictly visual. Perhaps strangely for so theatrical an added effect, I also find that a well-structured soundtrack adds a sense of naturality to a story; we humans rarely rely on words alone in our day to day conversations, but a network of shared experiences, small and large. We stammer and stumble, the cadence of a voice ebbs and flows like the tides, we turn what on paper might be a statement into a question that hangs suspended in the air. More than that, we are impacted by a barrage of other sensory information: someone playing piano in the other room, a subtle lean in our direction, or away from us, folded arms, the scent of something burning in the kitchen, laughter from the neighbor’s open window, tea spilled across the table, rain pelting against the rooftop. Intelligent animals that we are, it is altogether too easy to think our intelligence precludes us from being animals-- but read over nearly any straight transcript of a conversation, and it’s stunningly clear that words alone take us only so far.

I love a good book, where I can draw sounds and forms from the air on my own-- but I also love the potential visual novels carry to connect. Seeing a character’s smile twist in opposition to their words, having a melody drench a scene in melancholy or sweep it giddily into joy, it produces a different feeling than reading alone, or passively watching a film, instead carrying the cozy reassurance of meeting a friend’s gaze across a room: this experience is shared. It is not invasive or disruptive or demanding, but it does fill in some of the sterile silence the animal in us mistrusts, and which sends us back into our barricaded intelligence and solitary mental fortresses. It becomes a story that is more than words, and in its branching, it becomes almost a conversation.

For this reason, it was important to me to approach Bright Oak’s soundtrack with the same care and consideration I did the artwork. The characters have bespoke themes of their own, as well as individual sprites, and I hope that by taking this holistic approach in embracing both sound and vision, the words will carry that much more life-- that my imaginary friends might enter the world and befriend others, too.

Settling on a overall musical style felt like an enormous challenge, until I re-examined the bare bones of the story I have: a traveling stranger arrives in a remote western mountain town, its denizens banding together in the face of adversity-- and I arrived at Ennio Morricone’s Spaghetti Western scores as my inspiration. Thankfully, in recruiting John (Åhlin, not Forster!) the music has not simply met, but well and truly exceeded any and all hopes I had. John has a remarkable gift for finding the precise right instrumentation and tone for each and every character, and the location themes grant the settings life beyond what my words alone could generate. While Remnantation drew my characters out of the ether and gave them faces and form, John in turn has given them each a voice, one that speaks to the core of who they are, well beyond the words they speak alone.

And, of course, there’s an action track that I regularly find myself whistling as I go about my day, bringing drama and high stakes to the act of running errands or walking the dog. I look forward to others enjoying this dynamic boost as well, after release.

Back in the age when recorded music took on a more physical form, I handed out overthought mix cds to friends and lovers, anxiously hoping that the consideration and planning I poured into them would be rewarded with some new level of intimacy in understanding; music was my guiding star, and I wanted to think that those I cared for could look up and see the same constellations I did, even if we were separate and distant. I wished for those songs to catch their eye, make contact across the room, assure them that they were not alone in the crowd, that I could see them, and that my delight in being seen in return was transcendent, and was enough.

With Bright Oak, I have been fortunate enough to find truly incandescent talents-- Remnantation, John, and Wudge-- who are giving this story a shape and form it could never have held on its own, with only my words; no constellation is a single star, but rather a collection, through which an idea written not in the sky, but in the mind can be shared, until faint points of light become a bear or an eagle, a scorpion or a harp, across continents, languages, cultures, and time.

#bright oak #marginalia #author's note #interactive fiction #oelvn #visual novel #writing #gamedev #indiedev #longform #vn #soundtrack #music #storytelling

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you-are-my-neverland · 1 year

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[id: a graphic with a series of three images: a girl with her eyes cast in shadow, a statue of a saint dripping gold, and two hands with light between them. the text overlaid reads ‘the metamorphosis of the lost’ / end id]

THE METAMORPHOSIS OF THE LOST → A ROUND UP

“Kevla is rotten to the core,” June continued. She was as close to impassioned as India thought she would ever visibly be, reminding India of the times June had opened up before, the anger burning like a bright, cold, distant star in her eyes. “You can’t fix Kevla. All you can do is remove some of the damage.”

after roughly fourteen months of writing, i am proud to announce that the first draft of the metamorphosis of the lost is officially done. at the start of the summer last year (2022), i had only 120k words, and the end seemed unreachable. now, i’ve wrapped up the first draft at a rounded up value of 310k. it’s crazy to think that i’ve actually reached this point. i started tracking my writing progress during my summer goal of 200k, and continued to do so during the fall semester, of which i only failed to write one day. in retrospect, all those days where i was too tired to write more than a few sentences, with word counts under 100, and the months where i struggled to hit my goal of 500 a day - all those days piled up to the completion i achieved right on time for 2023 to hit.

will i definitely do more work on this novel? who knows. i can’t say for certain that i’ll ever go back to it, or that a second draft will occur. but i hope i will. i always planned for tmotl to have a companion piece, for this to be the first part of a duology. do i have nothing but a few scattered ideas tying the two together? yes. i do need to actually tackle the plot of that rumored companion novel soon.

“What did you ever do for me?” she asked bleakly. “I’m dead because of you. If you had cared at all, the Black Saint would have died long before I came back to find him still alive.” If he had been dead then, I might have come back to you, she didn’t say, because it was something that she would never be able to take back if she did.

i’ve posted a lot of (unpolished) excerpts on here before, so in honor of finishing the first draft, i figured i would let myself talk about the writing process and all the little things i haven’t shared yet! if you were ever interested in finding out more about this wip, or read the posts i’ve made and thought ‘idk what this is about but this is cool’ (as i never did post those character profiles or setting notes or anything informative beyond the wip intro...), read on.

(fair warning: it’s long.)

Kevla itself might be larger than life, but India didn’t believe in the city either. She just knew it existed, because she couldn’t ignore its presence in her life.

Maybe Kevla was God.

we’ll start with the city itself. kevla, a city set somewhere on the coast, estranged from the rest of the world that it can’t really be imagined somewhere on a map. kevla is, at it’s heart, a gritty thing to behold: it is a city that is trying to kill you, and the only thing that will save you.

there have been many times when i’ve looked at a wip and said, this wip is just going to be normal. there will be no magical realism in this wip.’ this was not the case for tmotl - when i was first visualizing the story, i knew that i wanted the city the vigilantes occupy to be alive in a very magical realism way. therefore, kevla is a sentient being, though it is never explicitly called that. it is only understood by the characters throughout the story, by anele and india and vin and june. it is talked about as something that acts on its own. in this, kevla becomes both the setting and a character.

kevla itself is neatly divided into districts. i live in the suburbs, and have not lived in any big metropolises, but i have visited nyc, and d.c. is kevla not exactly designed as a realistic city would be? yes. but i think it fits into the rest of the novel - kevla has to be small for logistical reasons, but it also has to be larger than life. it has to be a peninsula, with a raging coastline, and it has to have a living forest cutting it off from everything else. the people who live in kevla understand the uncanny nature of their city, but it is not unusual to them - it’s just the place they live.

He didn’t say anything. India drew in a shuddering breath and felt his chest expand slightly, in the barest way, ribs rigid through his costume. She could draw a knife right now, stab him fatally, slide it into the spot between the ribs, drive it in through his skin and break through his back. If not that, then a bullet at close range. The possibilities were endless. At this point, she could see the seams in his body armor. Everything and anything could be destroyed at this close.

india, india, india. tmotl definitely doesn’t have a single main character - june and india both share that title, and many other characters have a substantial amount of povs - but tmotl is also very much india’s story, because she’s the girl i wanted to write about first. an angry girl. an outcast. someone who is overflowing with all the wrong emotions. someone who bares her rage on her teeth.

india as indigo is directionless. she’s stuck in place, and she doesn’t know where she’s going. it’s only after she’s killed by the black saint and returns as the red saint that she finally has a purpose - to kill the black saint, and to prove the world (the vigilantes) wrong. to show them. where she had just been following other people’s paths, and rules, now she forges her own. still, even, she’s torn in her heart - does she really want burned bridges? does she want death? apologies? for all that india claims, she doesn’t really know, herself, but it takes her a long time before she can admit that to herself.

india is, at her core, unpredictable. she’s a series of contradictions, which is intended. no matter how much drive you have, it doesn’t amount to anything if you don’t know where you’re going, or why you’re going at all. she’s a treasure trove of trust issues, impulses, and sharp edged defenses. she doesn’t trust anyone, because she was abandoned from birth - there was never anyone in her corner until she met anele and vin. even then, even with a found family, she put up the walls; she wants to be understand, while believing so strongly in the fundamental divide between them all - that they will never understand what it’s like to be her.

india is a mouthpiece for something that often echoed throughout my thoughts, especially when first brainstorming for tmotl. who gets to decide who the good guys are in vigilantism? are you the good guys, india asks, because you didn’t let your trauma affect you? because you dealt with it ‘neatly?’ am i the bad guy for not being able to?

“I didn’t die easily,” June said ferociously. “None of us died easily. People like you didn’t let us die easily. Our death, to you, was nothing but a chance, but for us it was hell, over and over again. Why do you expect compassion from me when you never had any for any of us? You didn’t change anything. You didn’t save anyone. You took a legacy and let it live on.”

She swallowed back her anger and lividity, fingers curling around the knife handle.

“Complacency is a crime.”

june, our other leading lady. summer 2021, when i was first having the beginnings of an idea of what this story would become, june’s description was ‘a revenge driven victim of nonconsensual body modification/experimentation.’ she was always designed to be the perfect experiment, in a way. she’s the timepiece, not a cog, of the weaponization of children.

june’s story is one of agency. of irony. she’s dissociated from her body - it is just a thing she lives in. it was something that was made by other people. she uses that body to kill the people that made her, as if saying, ‘look what the body you made can you do. look what the thing you made is capable of.’ she is the sword that turns on its owner, the weapon that fights back instead of fleeing. where does the weapon end and the girl begin? she doesn’t even know herself.

june is the ice to india’s fire. they complement each other like that. she’s the level headed one, the executioner. india’s all impulsivity and anger, emotions spilling out over the edges as june keeps everything she feels close. she doesn’t even know how much she’s feeling at any time; june keeps everything muted, a further dissociation from the self.

her revenge is not really revenge so much as it is vengeance. it’s the only way she can even begin to reclaim her agency, and while she acknowledges that at some level, outwardly the reason for what she does is simple: so that it never happens to anyone else. not for herself, but for everyone else. or so she tells herself.

“We’re here,” Vail said. “If you ever want to talk more about any of it, we’re here.”

“But you’re not,” Emrys said, hating the way her voice cracked on the last word. “All of you are here, but you’re not there.”

They were alone. She felt terrible and peculiar, as if they were pins on a map, standing in the same city but far away from each other. As if walking in parallel lines, but heading in different directions. When India had been there, things had been different. When Aerin had been there, Emrys had thought she would at least have the comfort of knowing she wasn’t alone, but she was alone. They all were.

emrys wasn’t supposed to be that main of a character, but she ended up badgering her way into the story anyways, snatching up a large percentage of povs. she became very close to my heart, maybe because, out of all of the characters, she was the most like me in her mind (and i spent a lot of time in her mind). kind of like my embodiment of girlhood - she’s in her nebulous coming of age, in the background: confronting hard truths and hard feelings alongside grief, as she steps into new shoes all on her own. she didn’t quite end up following the ideas i had in mind for her, but i’m pretty satisfied with the emrys i have left.

emrys was supposed to be the hope of the group. in every story (at least for me), there must be someone who represents the new when it comes to the old (pain, trauma, tradition, etc). in a twist of irony, emrys herself became aware of this - she herself thinks that she doesn’t want to be hope, or in pandora’s box at all.

for a character that was supposed to be the happy, bright one, the emrys we meet in tmotl is living out an aftermath. that happy, bright girl is who she used to be. the girl she is now is one transforming, becoming a darker shadow to her brighter body. many of the things she does throughout the story would be considered uncharacteristic from those who know her, and even though the readers are not aware of who this girl used to be (and only catch glimpses of her), the reactions of other characters tell us this.

“You know why I saved you,” Catrin said.

“I do,” Vin agreed. He could never forget the life debt he carried so heavily on his heart, which had stayed his hand a hundred times over. It was the reason he was loyal to her after all; their relationship was built on mutual debt, with which came a degree of shared trust. Vin had always known that one day she might aim him at someone with intent to kill, and he would do it. If only to keep the balance.

onto vin, one of the older members of this vigilante group at 25, but no less important. he is supposed to come off as almost inhuman - flexible beyond measure, moving like a shadow, so quiet that he makes no noise at all, as if he was a ghost. vin is a mystery, and a private person, who is frustratingly hard to understand to his younger counterparts, such as india and emrys, and still an enigma to his older partners, such as anele. he has one of the most thought out characterizations (because i had so much to work out when it came to his character), but you probably learn the least about him throughout the story.

vin bears the brunt of india’s anger and emrys’ frustration in the story, partially because he’s so hard to communicate with (in a way), and partially because he’s the one they want to prove themselves to. he’s aloof and talented; he never messes up, or calls the wrong shot. he was built for the job, it seems. of course, this is what it looks like on the surface - underneath tells a story, the dark side of june’s moon. human experimentation to the point of dehumanization. on the surface, he looks ordinary. inside, who knows what he has become.

vin operates by a strict moral code. he’s brutal, and capable of extreme cruelty, but he never kills. in a fight, he says, the only thing that matters is the people you want to protect. one rule, but it’s the only thing that matters. this is where he and india clash - she wants the black saint dead, but vin will never kill (for reasons relating to backstory info that can’t be shared at this moment lol).

a fun fact, though, which i don’t think i actually mentioned in the first draft even though it’s so clever, is that vin is short for corvin. corvin derives from corvinus, which derives from the latin word corvus in turn. corvus literally means raven, but it also refers to the genus of birds including crows, ravens, etc. his vigilante name is crow btw.

Angry was too close to being a bomb herself, and for all her sermons on understanding bombs, Anele had already died in the face of one. She did not want to become one herself.

When bombs exploded, they left no survivors. Even the ones who lived were not untouched.

The ones who died, too, even.

anele!! the wisest of the bunch, maybe, if wisdom equals years. she’s not the mother figure, but more like an older sister to many of the vigilantes. someone you would go to for advice. where everyone else came from empty and hard childhoods, anele grew up loved with a single father, in a suburban neighborhood. she has memories she can look back on with fondness, instead of ones tainted by death or grief.

although anele is always moving forwards, she, too, is mired in the past. she grieves for herself. she visits her father as a ghost, leaving him things without ever knocking on the door, because she is afraid she wouldn’t be welcomed back as one of the living. so much of her current life is trapped in the half second before she died the first time. she might not have believed in the system, but she participated in it, until dying. then, she realized it was always going to fail her. despite being straight laced, she believes in the gray line between black and white, the area outside of laws and all that.

anele steps into the role of x-le with ease, but at the heart of the matter, she doesn’t trust catrin, especially since she never asked to be saved, or to be brought back to life with metal in her veins. she doesn’t allow this to color her professional relationships, but on a personal level, she doesn’t hide her scrutiny.

anele and vin have by far one of my most favorite relationships in the novel, mostly because she is, at least, deeply in love with him in a way that can’t even be described as love. it’s subtle, but interwoven in all their interactions. feelings where there shouldn’t be. emotion where it can’t exist. makes me go insane, honestly.

You didn’t have to answer, Diem thought, but couldn’t make herself say it, because a part of her had always been waiting. Ever since her childhood, when she had first heard the whispered rumors about her father, when she had realized that there would always be questions about her birthright and place following her, she had been waiting for a father to claim. For a father to destroy.

Her mother’s hand on her own, helping her slide the knife into skin, wiping the blood spray for her face gently, showing her how to clean the blade.

diem is, out of all the vigilantes (our heroes and heroines), the most antagonistic one by design. she is one of the characters that was meant to stay the truest to their original designs (of an old wip also called tmotl i half planned back in 2019-2020, of which several characters were taken off the shelf and dusted off for this story). the diem i created then was cutthroat and hard to the bone, the kind of person who used people and threw them away when she was done. here, her personality is a bit toned down, if only because she has to take the back burner - she’s not the leader, but now a ‘lackey.’ a team member. however, although diem might be one with the team, she very much chafes against the idea, an independent contractor.

daughter of the infamous bowman, a criminal overlord, and an unnamed man, diem grew up in a life of elite crime. she might have died since then, but it only made her harder. out of all of them, diem is the one who focuses the most on impartiality, of cutting things off before they drag her down. she cuts her losses before they can cut her. sentimentality has no place in her - she is a brutal machine, always pushing herself forward. the only soft spot she has is for vail, and even then, she’s hard pressed to show it. to diem, all her weaknesses became her strengths, including her death.

to india, diem is someone she wants to destroy. prior to death, they were always at each other’s throats, and after it, it’s no surprise that diem is the main voice preaching that india can’t be saved. their similarities only cause their differences to be more abrasive.

Kevla already had one saint. It didn’t need another. The audacity they had to call themselves Saints when all they did was contribute to the hell so many people were trapped in made Vail vengeful—he didn’t believe in Saints, and even if he did, they wouldn’t be the ones who walked the streets. Saint wasn’t a title one gave themselves; it had to be earned.

vail is the quiet one. where everyone else is brimming with opinion and emotion, vail is in the backdrop, a muted color against all the vivid, dark ones competing for space. he is kind and compassionate in comparison to diem’s hard headed ruthlessness, but he’s also the only one who can meet her head on without getting emotionally involved - maybe that is why he is the only one who can temper her.

vail is a man of family and faith, but he keeps both those things close to his heart. although he is a sentimental person, he is always hiding that part of himself, because it got him hurt, over and over again. family and faith hurt him, killed him, but he doesn’t know how to let it go. can’t.

all the characters pay homage to some sort of divine presence at least once or twice throughout tmotl, but vail is the only one who believes in a specific god, instead of an entity-that-might-be-a-god, or kevla-as-a-god-or-divine-being. kevla is a city that kills organized religion, but vail’s faith is too great to be killed.

He’d thought that he had gotten over it. That the past had stopped chasing him. That, when the past finally found him, Mika would be ready for it. That he would fight it. That he would kill it.

How many times had he dreamed of that night? How many times had he dreamed of another dreary Kevlan landscape, where this time he was the victor?

mika, son of the mockingbird. like diem, he believes in absolute strength, not allowing himself any sign of weakness. he’s very independent, and though he seems unwavering, he’s actually insecure in his identity, if only because of the immeasurable shadow his parents - a chemist and famous vigilante, respectively - left behind.

mika’s story is one of legacy. like his mother before him, he traverses the city in the guise of night, as phantom. he’s cynical, the pessimistic voice among those who believe in the best, and deals with everything that bothers him with coldness, putting up high walls. although he seems closed off, inside he carries a bone deep determination to survive, to defeat ‘evil’ and triumph. his thoughts on justice are often unclear, as is his morality, but he approaches the title of vigilante with a ruthless efficiency.

catrin flint, emrys’ aunt, is mika’s guardian, through a series of loosely explained events - often because it is not clear to mika or emrys themselves how catrin knew his mother, and what led her to take him in. mika never wanted another family, and that much is clear to both flints, but he is also the one who ends up being the most in emrys’ corner as she goes through grief and changes. he doesn’t agree with her on most things, but he stays by her side all the same.

mika was originally supposed to have a touch of magical realism to him as well - and he should still, if the necessary revisions are done and hints portrayed. mika was supposed to be someone who walked the shadowy line of the veil, seeing/communicating with the dead, or hand in hand with death (with nebulous connections to his own death or near-death experience).

Suicidal, Drakov had called him back then, when he had spared him and Jericho had thrown it away in favor of not taking the hint, trailing him because he had seen a lifeline in the other man, one he wanted to grasp, like flailing in the ocean and chancing upon a buoyancy device. It was coming out of a haze, like a dying man who had been living life with the expectation of it ending only to realize that he wanted to live.

But Jericho wasn’t fifteen. He was Jailbird, had been for years. He’d trained under Drakov, the only person he knew who had had the honor. He’d managed to survive in this shitty city, had gotten out of the trap where thousands of others had died, and had carved out a living without paying penance to anyone but himself.

jericho’s the only vigilante without a team, but he makes up for it by having plenty of connections. he’s india’s friend, before and after. he becomes mika’s and emrys’ connection in the grimy city, and potential ally. he communicates with the dragon, the only person who can reveal information on the assassin on a personal, instead of professional, level (with the exception of a few).

a vigilante who is more like a mercenary, jericho goes by the pseudonym jailbird, and mostly keeps to himself. he’s shrewd, witty, and plays the game as smart as he can as a kid on his own - and it’s worked; he’s managed to avoid any major trouble. out of all the cast, jericho is one of the few who avoids a near death experience.

still, he deals with a fair amount of imposter syndrome and guilt, most of which is only alluded to, as he only gets the rare pov. i can’t speak much on him because several big facts about him are technically plot relevant info that gets revealed in the novel itself.

June wondered if that was before or after he had died for the first time, before or after the first time he had tried to kill himself. With Rhys, the first time had never been the last. She thought of what he had said the last time they had talked so closely. I don’t care about life or death, June. I don’t care about the people I kill. I don’t care if it gets me killed.

She held the blade up to him. The pale light glinted on the edges, showing the smooth, glossy sheen of it all.

if winter were a person, it would be personified through rhys. aptly enough, his last name is winters, although this never gets mentioned in-text (i don’t believe). surprisingly, rhys doesn’t get a single pov throughout tmotl, even when most of the characters mentioned here get at least one (like mika). still, he has a presence, if only because he is june’s partner in crime. they come from the same history, cut from the same cloth.

rhys is the apathetic type of person who doesn’t believe in anything. he’s suicidal (to a lesser degree in the present, but this is still an explicit textual fact). he likes to weaponize his discomfort and acidic personality to make other people (namely kit) uncomfortable. human misery on the downlow, though this could also be attributed to the fact that he lives a miserable existence - as if his history wasn’t bad enough, in death he was saved and made alive only through the fact that he is literally toxic, consigning him to a life wearing a gas mask, as his breathe could kill people if it is not filtered.

in tmotl, rhys is in many ways an abettor. does he care for june’s revenge? not really, but he helps her with it anyways, because what he feels for june is complicated, but he would follow her anywhere, if only because she gives him something to do. does he care about kit? does he care about human life? who knows. sometimes he says things just to be contradictory.

rhys was also from the original wip, and he stays much the same, if a little more fleshed out. so does his and kit’s antagonistic relationship.

Flames were dancing in the fever bright blue of Kit’s eyes, his arm running red as he carelessly studied the tracker, letting it catch the light. She could see the thin displeasure set in Rhys’ mouth, even behind the gas mask, which snaked around his ears, the rebreathers fitted like a glove to the lower half of his face. He passed her a strip of cloth wordlessly, his own arm bound. She in turn took Kit’s hand, nodding at the tracker as she cinched a quick tourniquet.

“I know,” Kit murmured, and then threw the tracker back towards the warehouse. His skin beneath June’s cool, blood stained fingers was burning. She could feel the thud of his heartbeat beneath the thin skin of his wrist, beating a wild rhythm, but when she looked at him more carefully, he still stood unwavering, which was good enough.

this excerpt is actually from page number one. kit, our final ‘main’ character (besides the villains and adults of the story, which are not quite as interesting, and also don’t have much i can reveal about them without spoiling things), is part of june’s team of three. he doesn’t go out in costume like basically every single other character; he doesn’t even have a code name. he’s the technology behind june’s operation, the one who runs things behind the scenes for her and rhys.

kit is important because he’s who june wants to protect. he’s one of the reasons she keeps moving forward at all. he’s a failure, at least to the organization - they saved him, but they couldn’t make him something better. sometimes, when you fix something broken, it doesn’t turn out as it was. for kit, this means a slow, aching death sentence, fighting the deterioration of his own body.

still, kit tries to stay brave in the face of it all. he’s light hearted, especially in comparison to rhys and june’s dark moods. he’s a light - something june follows, and rhys abhors. much of kit is a mix of appearance and projection; it is as it looks, but it also isn’t. sometimes, you’ve barely scratched the surface, because as much as kit is the open one, he also has a history of lying and conning that mark him as as much of a street kid as india, or june was.

he’s destined for death. the only question - one that is revisited throughout tmotl in scenes - is how long it will take before he gets there.

That last day in the Fold had never stopped being a blade lodged in his sternum. Vin could still feel it, the wound it covered. If he ever pulled the knife free, he would bleed out, but the longer he kept it in, the more damage would be done in the long run.

He kept the blade in. It was the risk he could take, for now.

that’s it for now. i could go on and on, but i think i’ve written enough for now. if you have any questions about this work on the characters, or just want to know something, please reach out via my ask box or messages! i hope this piqued your interest - that being said, if you would like to be added to this specific taglist, or my general taglist, let me know in some way shape or form!

taglist: @cannivalisms @sunshineomeara @thepixiediaries @muddshadow

#.txt #wip: tmotl #wip: the metamorphosis of the lost #writers on tumblr #my writing #creative writing #wip info #first draft #writeblr #wip #wip excerpt #gratuitous amounts of folly here (me rambling about it)#this is SO long but in my defense this is what i want on my blog. long posts where i just talk about my writing #no more making stuff look pretty. i want it to be what i want. and that is about how much i LOVE what i write ok #anyways. hope this cleared some things up or made them more confusing #i have a whole tag you can peruse if you want to learn more or refresh your memory #10+ characters that i never introduced outside of excerpts...we love to see it #this is so crazy and insane and this took me days to write on top of that #but i'm DONE so please interact if you want #if you have the time <3 #and send me an ask if you want to know more!!!

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forestsofthenight98 · 1 month

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everybody wants to rule the world

youtube

Holding hands while the walls come tumbling down

When they do, I'll be right behind you

Hope you like it :3

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translationandbetrayals · 1 year

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A review on Hyouka and why it's so great

Hyouka is easily among the best products that the renowned Kyoto Animation anime studio have worked on.

Hyouka is a character driven slice-of-life anime that uses seemingly mundane mysteries as a means to move the plot forward as the characters interact and develop. The anime is an adaptation of the original source novel series, specifically the first 4 volumes of it.

The story follows Houtarou Oreki, a teenager who prefers to be laid back and save his energy, or so he says, and we get to experience his lazy view of things. At the start of the story, he gets a letter from his older sister who wants him to join a certain school club so that it won't be abolished, and once he visits the club he finds out that Eru Chitanda has already joined the club, but despite his obligation to his sister being fulfilled (as the club now has at least 1 member), he finds himself feeling entangled by Chitanda and ends up joining the club anyway.

Throughout the story he is exposed to both good and bad things about having a rose-colored life through the mysteries the main cast interacts with. Seeing his clubmates having fun makes him feel restless, but the negative feelings from having been burned in the past by his desire to have fun and put energy into what he wants to do lead him to hold back, after all it's safer to not get involved too much so he won't hurt. The story arcs bring seemingly mundane mysteries that drive the plot and slowly make him feel like he wants a brighter life.

Among other elements that I think make this anime great, I could list many:

- The rest of the main cast are compelling and interesting. Each of them has a distinctive personality and design, and they also develop as the pronagonist does. The characters are realistic and have a life-like feel to them, as they experience complex feelings like frustration, resignation, envy and longing that fuel their development and improve their depth. The progress in their relationships is gradual but satisfying.

- The art and animation are really well done. I could list many scenes where this stands out, but as an example there's this scene at the start where Oreki is trapped by his clubmate and co-lead Chitanda's hair as if it were vines, to show how he's captivated by her and how he feels that he can't escape or refuse. The use of colors and saturation greatly enhance certain scenes. Visually this anime is satisfying.

- The soundtrack never misses the mark. The soundtrack is always on point, ranging from bright, well known classical music pieces to dark, eerie and intriguing pieces that enhance the sense of suspense.

-The undertones of other genres like psychological or romance are not necessarily too pronounced, but are present to different degrees of subtlety, and they're enjoyable nonetheless.

- The usage of visual cues and symbolism are outstanding. There is a lot of thought put into this adaptation, as there's a clear attention to detail we can see from hints that are shown regarding the mysteries to the body language and demeanor of the characters.

While on the topic of how detailed and well crafted this story is, I'd like to highlight a particular portion of the story, which is the contrast between the first and last episodes of the anime. I find this very telling how much Oreki and Chitanda have grown closer throughout the story.

At the start, Oreki has a monologue about living a dull life, and at this time he sees Chitanda as someone who lives a rose-colored life because she's always bright, energetic and curious. Oreki initially makes little effort to try and help her and doesn't want to do much, but by the end of the story it only takes Chitanda telling him that she needs his help for him to accept her request, even though it goes completely against how we've heard he wants to live life, clear evidence of character development.

Having said this, in the last episode we come to understand it's the other way around than how it was at the start: one could say Oreki has started to want to live a rose-colored life, or has already been living one for a while (thanks to Chitanda in particular), and what's constrasting and polarizing is that we realize (through her own monologue) that Chitanda is the one who's been actually living a dull life, as she is anchored down by her family and its traditions and she feels like her path is set in stone. It's important that we start the story with Oreki's monologue and end with Chitanda's, and we come to realize the development of these characters. This is very well thought-out by the author as it's not only contrasting, but also symmetrical.

Not just that, but in the final scene we see Oreki and Chitanda walking together as Oreki is holding a bycicle, which also contrasts with how in previous episodes it was Chitanda who would be holding a bycicle while Oreki walked beside her. The bicycle is one example of what I previously mentioned: symbolism. It symbolizes freedom and possibilities: at the start it was Oreki who had a grey outlook on life and he saw the bright Chitanda through his own lens, therefore we're shown Chitanda holding the bike, the freedom.

As Chitanda has this monologue (which is already evidence of how close they've become throughout the story), it is her that is tied down while Oreki has the freedom symbolized by the bike he's holding. Moreover, in the scene, Oreki is on the side of the frame that has crops growing while Chitanda is on the side that shows wilted trees and the river. This is a great example of symbolism: the paddy fields represent the possibilities for Oreki's life, the bike is freedom to go places and make choices, while for Chitanda the dead trees represent stillness, boredom and a lack of options, while the river is a metaphor for how her life moves forward in a set direction and only leads to one destination. I find this marvelous, and it's just one example in this series that is handled with passion and care.

Felipe Arenas.

#Anime #essay #submission

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mediaevalmusereads · 2 years

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Witchy, Vol.1. By Ariel Slamet Ries. Roar, 2019.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Genre: graphic novel, fantasy

Part of a Series? No

Summary: In the witch kingdom Hyalin, the strength of your magic is determined by the length of your hair. Those that are strong enough are conscripted by the Witch Guard, who enforce the law in peacetime and protect the land during war. However, those with hair judged too long are pronounced enemies of the kingdom, and annihilated. This is called a witch burning. Witchy is a comic about the young witch Nyneve, who is haunted by the death of her father and the threat the Witch Guard poses to her own life. When conscription rolls around, Nyneve has a choice to make; join the institution complicit in her father's death, or stand up for her ideals?

Content Warnings: violence

Overview: I picked this book up on a whim at an independent bookstore. I was looking for something fun, and the premise intrigued me - a magic system that is tied to hair? The promise of LGBT+ characters? Sign me up! While I did like this graphic novel, I didn’t love it - some of the worldbuilding left me with some questions, I didn’t quite feel connected to some of the side characters, and the art style (while fun) isn’t usually the kind I go for. Still, other readers may adore this book; there’s plenty to love, and most of my criticism is based on personal taste more than anything.

Writing: I’m going to include art in this section because in graphic novels, art is a storytelling element as much as (or even more than) dialogue. The art style for this graphic novel is very simple but with very dynamic motion. Ries is very good at portraying emotions on her characters’ faces, and at creating exaggerated poses to convey movement. It almost reminded me a bit of animation, which I enjoyed. The art in this book is also very colorful with a lot of purples, greens, pinks, and yellows making the pages feel bright and lively. Some of the layouts, too, are quite interesting, and it’s easy to figure out which panel flows into the next.

Personally, however, I wasn’t blown away by the art, so while I liked the colors and the motion, there wasn’t a lot visually that stuck with me after I finished the story.

Plot: The plot of this book follows Nyneve, a young witch whose father was killed by the Witch Guard for having too long of hair (and thus, too much magic power which could threaten the ruling government). Nyneve doesn’t quite fit in with her peers at the school and is nervous about the upcoming Conscription trial - a test which will determine which witches essentially get drafted into the Witch Guard and which ones will go their own way. She desperately wants to avoid getting conscripted though some of her closest friends see it as an honor.

Part of what I liked about this plot was the setting. Whenever I read political plots about magic users, it always seems like the magic users are the oppressed ones (which always felt weird because they have so much extra power). In this world, powerful magic users are the ones upholding a corrupt government, so it felt more realistic to have people born with an advantage (or privilege, if you will) to perpetuate an oppressive system.

However, I do think Ries bit off a little more than they could chew. While the political messaging is very good, I ultimately don’t think Ries adequately explored the intricacies of how power works. Of course, this is only volume one, so subsequent volumes could go into more detail, but as it stands, I felt like Ries introduced way too many themes: queer people in the military, queer discrimination in medical fields, closeting, book banning, education systems formed by the government, using religion as a tool to manipulate others, etc.

I also think Ries didn’t fully give enough context to understand some things about the worldbuilding or gave context way too late. For one, it wasn’t clear how hair and magic were connected; while I don’t need a breakdown of how the magic is embedded in the hair or something, I did have questions such as “what makes hair length vary and why is the ability to grow longer hair a struggle for some? Couldn’t they just wait and get more powerful over time?” and “Is there a law against cutting hair? Why? And how do they know if you do it?” Also, it seemed like the spiritual/religious aspect to magic didn’t come up until halfway through the book; I didn’t even get the sense that characters were profoundly religious/spiritual until much later, and I wish it had been part of the worldbuilding earlier to make it feel like a huge part of daily life.

Characters: Nyneve, our protagonist, is your typical character with an extraordinary secret which makes it hard for her to fit in with their peers. While I liked that Nyneve could be vulnerable and part of her arc involved learning to be more confident with her choices, I was also a bit frustrated because it didn’t feel like she wanted anything. To put it another way, I didn’t feel like Nyneve had any strong convictions or goals; despite professing to want to resist the government, she also questions a real resistance when she encounters it, and it was a little frustrating to see her walk something of a middle road. Of course, Nyneve still has a lot of growing to do - this is only volume one, after all. So maybe her arc will be more satisfying in the long run.

Supporting characters were somewhat interesting, depending on how complex they were. Nyneve’s closest friend is a male witch named Batu, and while I liked how kind he was to Nyneve, he also didn’t have any strong convictions that made him an interesting character. Much more compelling were characters like Prill - a transgender woman who is dying to join the Witch Guard to escape her oppressive family. Prill had some understandable motivations and is the character I’m perhaps most interested in following - I want to know if her attitude towards the Witch Guard changes or if she struggles with wanting to belong to an oppressive system.

But as much as my attitudes towards individual characters varies, I really loved the way some of them interacted with Nyneve. Nyneve’s mother, for example, was wonderfully supportive and fiercely protective of her daughter, and seeing that mother-daughter bond was one of the most touching parts of this book. I also enjoyed the rapport between Nyneve and Banana, the talking raven. While Nyneve could be rather unkind to Banana, I ultimately enjoyed how loyal the latter was, and the banter was fairly entertaining.

TL:DR: Despite some stumbles, Witchy is a delightful graphic novel with charming art and a fascinating fantastical world. While I wish the protagonist had more definitive convictions and the plot was a little more focused, I ultimately enjoyed the story and am curious to see how the characters will develop in volume 2.

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eg-writtenthoughts · 4 months

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Another year gone and more books read. My goal was 24 books and I finished 25. I know that’s not a big difference, but it’s still past my goal. Due to my writing schedule, I wasn’t sure if I would divide my time enough to read them all.

My 2023 Reading List:

The Naturals - Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Killer Instincts - Jennifer Lynn Barnes

All In - Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Bad Blood - Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Caraval - Stephanie Garber

Cry Wolf - Patricia Briggs

Alpha & Omega (Novella) - Patricia Briggs

Scarred - Patricia Briggs

Forsaken - Kelley Armstrong

Hunting Ground - Paticia Briggs

Spellbound - Kelley Armstrong

Fair Game - Patricia Briggs

Dead Heat - Patricia Briggs

Burn Bright - Patricia Briggs

Wild Sign - Patricia Briggs

Thirteen - Kelley Armstrong

Darker - E L James

Rule Breaker - Nikki Hall

Freed - E L James

The Deal - Elle Kennedy

Dirty Curve - Meagan Brandy

My Dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russell

Under Locke - Mariana Zapata

The Ritual - Shantel Tessier

The Sinner - Shantel Tessier

So, let’s talk about it.

First, I’d like to point out there are a few rereads this year. Originally, I read The Naturals series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes in grade 12. A friend introduced them, knowing Criminal Minds is high on my mental shelf of favourites. At the time, only three books were available. The series was just as enjoyable during the second read. All four are easy to read, not too dark and gory that you can’t enjoy it on a sunny afternoon where you just want to get through a quick book. If I was to choose a least favourite from the four, it was Bad Blood. From my little blurb of a review (written in January), my issue was with the characters’ personal conflicts. I didn’t get the feeling the series was coming to an end. We’ll have to see if JLB decides to add more.

The other rereads was Darker and Freed by E L James. Like I said in my 2022 reads review, I liked Christian’s POV significantly more than the original. To be honest, the reason I reread them was because I was in the mood to read and they were the only books on my Kobo app.

Caraval by Stephanie Garber was one of the recommendations I read. I adored this book. The idea of a magical world inside any single building is such a fun concept. It gives me Coraline vibes, without the freaky bits. I think it would make an incredible movie, but only if it’s done right. I don’t want anyone half-assing it. I would love to see the visuals I see in my head. I might watch that movie a million times. I know there’s two more in the series, but I’m not a fan of changing POVs. I wish there was more of Scarlett and Julien’s story.

The Alpha and Omega series by Patricia Briggs filled most of my year. The series is currently six books and one novel long, with the option of more to be written. I initially found this series on Goodreads, looking at urban fantasy books. I read the synopsis of Cry Wolf (the first book) and it piqued my interest. I began reading it and was extremely confused. You meet the two main characters, Anna and Charles and they don’t know each other, but they’ve already been through something fairly traumatic. You have no idea what that is. The novella, Alpha and Omega, is 86 pages that I think should’ve been added to the first book. It would make Cry Wolf significantly less confusing. As a writer, I can understand why it’s not. The novella is its own story. I just wouldn’t have felt so lost in Cry Wolf. Over-all, I more than really liked these books. The concept of werewolves being almost immortal and the degradation of their sanity over time is new to me. My biggest issue with the series is the lack of flow. Each book is its own independent story and has time jumps that are barely mentioned. It’s like jumping from one pond stone to another.

After taking an extremely long time, I finally finished the Women of the Otherworld series. I only needed to read Spellbound and Thirteen. Kelley Armstrong is hands down my favourite author. The two books didn’t disappoint. The consistent changing of POVs made the story flow beautifully. It didn’t butcher the plot like it can occasionally. Yes, I would love more of certain characters but the series isn’t Harry Potter. Not every book, every year, the same character has to go through chaos. I’ve decided to do a few rereads in 2024, and this series might be at the top of my list.

As I got farther into the year, I caved to my FOMO and read three sports romance books; The Dirty Curve, The Deal and Rule Breaker. And if you want to hear what I have to say about those, check out my blog post “Romance Books; Are they for me?”. Generally thought? I liked them, but they might not be the first thing I reach for.

Under Locke by Mariana Zapata is my first MC romance book. I really liked that there wasn’t a lot in the motorcycle club, it was more of a background piece to give the main male character a dark vibe. It wasn’t Sons of Anarchy. After reading this book, I could say that Charles Dexter Locke became my favourite male character and I would do anything for him.

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell might be my top book of 2023. I’d seen the black and white cover everywhere, which stayed in my mind and when a coworker mentioned she had it, I knew the universe had fallen into place. It took me about a month to read and it’s because of how upset it can make you feel. If you want to hear more, read my post on the book.And finally, I began reading Shantel Tessier. This was originally a recommendation that I added to Goodreads TBR. I read The Ritual and The Sinner in 2023; I’ve already read The Sacrifice in 2024. Since I started looking into dark romance, The Ritual always popped up. I gave it a try and it’s one of the top books I read this year. I don’t want to go into the sexual themes since it’s very trigger warning heavy. If you’re looking at the books through a psychologist's eye, you’ll see how messed up the stories are, especially if you look at the romantic relationships. But if you just enjoyed it? You may like it. When I finish these books, I’m going to take a peak at Tessier’s other books.

#2023 reads #book review #romance books #book blogs #book recommendations

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satoshi-mochida · 9 months

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Otome* visual novel Of the Red, the Light, and the Ayakashi Tsuzuri announced for Switch, PC

Gematsu Source*(I left the headline/description as is, but this doesn't seem to actually be an otome game)

Publisher dramatic create and developer HaccaWorks* have announced otome* visual novel Of the Red, the Light, and the Ayakashi Tsuzuri for Switch and PC (Steam). It will launch in 2024 worldwide with English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese language options.

Here is an overview of the game, via its official website:

About

Added Content

Digital illustration collection.

Updated game specifications and user interface.

Multiple languages support (Japanese, English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese).

Story

Characters

-Main Character

-Branch Characters

Sagano (voiced by Kosuke Toriumi) – A mysterious man who appears at twilight. Even though he’s always smiling, there’s something not quite right about him. He acts as if he knows Yue.

-Sub Characters

Mr. Sato (voiced by Kenyu Horiuchi) – A Shinto priest at Utsuwa Shrine, and Mikoto’s right-hand man. To Yue he is a mentor and a father figure. He enjoys cleaning.

-Other Characters

Sora Suzuki (voiced by Ryota Osaka) – A classmate of Togo and Akiyoshi. He enjoys taking notes in classes. He looks up to the cool Togo, and is obsessed with lending his notebooks to him.

Young Man A (voiced by Tatsuhisa Suzuki) – A boy that Yue meets in town. He seems to be connected to the disappearances happening in the town.

Akitoshi Tochika (voiced by Satoshi Tsuruoka) – Akiyoshi’s father. A major landowner who has supported Utsuwa City for a long time. He is the current head of the Tochika family.

#Of the Red the Light and the Ayakashi Tsuzuri #Of the Red the Light and the Ayakashi #Akaya Akashiya Ayakashino #HaccaWorks*#HaccaWorks #dramatic create #visual novel #Nintendo Switch #Steam #Gematsu

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