The Fury's Book Club-- Reading Cursed World: Initial Sparks

[Mystic Muse]

As I've already mentioned in Discord, the art is really cool, Zodi!

Spoiler: Time for Chapter 4

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So, Rei leaves the burnt out club, wondering to herself if that really just happened, even though she's pretty sure it did. She looks at her hands for the proof and thinks to herself "Huh. That really did just happen. What the actual-" And she's cut off, because you apparently get one F-bomb per book.

Verde comes running after her, since Rei let out a scream of...disbelief? Confusion and frustation? I guess kind of a scream of shock.

Rei comes home to dinner!...But it's 7:30, not 6:30, and both her and her mom are distinctly aware of this. Rei explains what happened, sort of. She doesn't say anything about the haunted club, but does mention the new students, and Aria somewhat rightly assumes that part of the reason that Rei got home is because of Goku Kestrel, the hot new guy.

Rei watches the news for a bit. ONY manufacturing, run by President Yamata, who sounds like a white-haired version of this dude but proooobably less evil, is talking about his company's new top of the line computer. I need a new desktop myself in the near future. Rei would like a new laptop, but doesn't have the funds. She does decide however, to go onto her slow laptop and look up the word gamma used, "mancer"

Since it's close to Rei's birthday, which she forgot in all the tumult today, she is obligated to watch a horror movie with her mom before she can look things up. The title is never mentioned, and all we know about it is that there's a DVD cover with a bloody hook on it. Is this based off of anything in particular? I would guess "I know what you did last summer" though would expect Aria to have slightly better taste (I've heard the first one is fine admittedly).

After the horribly scary movie, Rei goes up to her room to relax and train for the tournament of her favorite game on Saturday. She gets so high on the scoreboard while doing this kind of leisurely, she has a higher score than the next 3 on the scoreboard combined. Her most recent opponent is of course not happy about her getting a fatality Celestial Finish, and winning a perfect victory.

She decides to wait on looking things up, and probably just ask Gamma tomorrow. She eventually passes out on the floor, and has to be picked up and taken to bed by her mom at about 2 AM. Aria's happy she still can pick her daughter up, and suspects she won't be able to for much longer.

She walks back downstairs and sees a picture of her and her husband on their wedding day. Judging by the way she reacts, and says she wishes he could see his daughter, he died the day she was born. While I don't recall if it's established in the book, the fact I don't recall means it probably wasn't mentioned, and probably wasn't something simple like a car crash.

Thus ends chapter 4.

[Rater202]

Go Go gadget insomnia!

Spoiler: Chapter 6

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Yeah, Tobacco-stench feeling normal is concerning in any context.

Kestral's planning an ambush.

...Oh, that was a poor choice on Rei's part. The one thing thugs hate more than a witness is a snitch.

...Shoryuken?

...I have to wonder if Kestral didn't set this up somehow to get past Rei's guard?

Aria's still a mom. That's actually a reasonable punishment but if you're gonna give her a thumbs up for breaking the other guy's nose you might as well not punish at all.

...Aria's seen some fracked up sugar, hasn't she? House that's not at the listed address, fighting at Rei's age, shrugging off graphic horror movies?

Ah, hell. Is she a previous experiment? Is that why ONY is after Rei? BEcuase they don't know if they can get Aria but her daughter is close enough?

Spoiler: Chapter 7

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"Violence hurt" gets my nomination for understatement of the year.

...Pyromancy can heal? Fire=Life connotations+1

Indiana Rei and the Closet of Doom! Search for the lost cool-jacket!

Aria is obviously lying about the skull mask.

You said the decorative flowers were based on the very beautiful ones in your home town? If so, I can't help but think that their fading as winter approaches is symbolic of something. The end of Rei's innoncense(in the sense of ignorance of the supernatural and, in chapters to come, realizing how dangerous she is and how much danger just having powers puts her in?)

Or maybe Highschool english is just coming back to me and I'm seeing stuff what ain't there.

Ahh, friendship moment.

Oooh. Painful foreshadowing. Rei, you're gonna regret wishing that in a couple chapters.

Cliche exchange at end of bet, but some things are cliche for a reason.

I want to go into chapter 8, but I should probably save it.

[LaZodiac]

Go Go gadget insomnia!

Spoiler: Chapter 6

Show

Yeah, Tobacco-stench feeling normal is concerning in any context.

Kestral's planning an ambush.

...Oh, that was a poor choice on Rei's part. The one thing thugs hate more than a witness is a snitch.

...Shoryuken?

...I have to wonder if Kestral didn't set this up somehow to get past Rei's guard?

Aria's still a mom. That's actually a reasonable punishment but if you're gonna give her a thumbs up for breaking the other guy's nose you might as well not punish at all.

...Aria's seen some fracked up sugar, hasn't she? House that's not at the listed address, fighting at Rei's age, shrugging off graphic horror movies?

Ah, hell. Is she a previous experiment? Is that why ONY is after Rei? BEcuase they don't know if they can get Aria but her daughter is close enough?

Spoiler: Chapter 7

Show

"Violence hurt" gets my nomination for understatement of the year.

...Pyromancy can heal? Fire=Life connotations+1

Indiana Rei and the Closet of Doom! Search for the lost cool-jacket!

Aria is obviously lying about the skull mask.

You said the decorative flowers were based on the very beautiful ones in your home town? If so, I can't help but think that their fading as winter approaches is symbolic of something. The end of Rei's innoncense(in the sense of ignorance of the supernatural and, in chapters to come, realizing how dangerous she is and how much danger just having powers puts her in?)

Or maybe Highschool english is just coming back to me and I'm seeing stuff what ain't there.

Ahh, friendship moment.

Oooh. Painful foreshadowing. Rei, you're gonna regret wishing that in a couple chapters.

Cliche exchange at end of bet, but some things are cliche for a reason.

I want to go into chapter 8, but I should probably save it.

Spoiler: Chapters 6 and 7

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One could argue that Aria presenting a punishment (for getting involved in danger) but giving her an aside assurance that her mom is not mad about her motive (protecting people and beating up *******s) is a very complicated Mom Action. Parenting is hard, sometimes you've gotta admonish with one hand and praise with the other, because "trying to do good" is good, even if getting into danger is bad, and punishing "getting into danger to do good" is... a complicated thing!

Hah! Someone noticed the implication that Aria uses pyromantic heat to soothe injuries and stuff. It's not directly healing, but it is following the principle that if you've got sore muscles, a nice warm patch will make you feel better.

Okay so, here's a thing I want to say Rater- if you see something in my work that seems symbolic like the beautiful flowers fading being a representation of Rei's learning how dangerous she is and thus is sort of a Loss of Innocence type thing, regardless of me having intended it or not, it is totally valid to see that. While yes sometimes flowers fade because it is slowly becoming winter, the timing and framing of it is undeniably there.

Now, unlike older books where the author doesn't exist to tell you whether it was intended or not, I am alive and present and I can tell you "when I was writing this I hadn't considered that, but looking back at it I must have had this sort of symbolism in mind on at least a sub conscious level because it is clearly there and present and rather fitting."

That, at least, is my take on it. Which as you yourself said, could be all my English classes in school coming back to me

[Rater202]

Spoiler: Chapters 6 and 7

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One could argue that Aria presenting a punishment (for getting involved in danger) but giving her an aside assurance that her mom is not mad about her motive (protecting people and beating up *******s) is a very complicated Mom Action. Parenting is hard, sometimes you've gotta admonish with one hand and praise with the other, because "trying to do good" is good, even if getting into danger is bad, and punishing "getting into danger to do good" is... a complicated thing!

Hah! Someone noticed the implication that Aria uses pyromantic heat to soothe injuries and stuff. It's not directly healing, but it is following the principle that if you've got sore muscles, a nice warm patch will make you feel better.

Okay so, here's a thing I want to say Rater- if you see something in my work that seems symbolic like the beautiful flowers fading being a representation of Rei's learning how dangerous she is and thus is sort of a Loss of Innocence type thing, regardless of me having intended it or not, it is totally valid to see that. While yes sometimes flowers fade because it is slowly becoming winter, the timing and framing of it is undeniably there.

Now, unlike older books where the author doesn't exist to tell you whether it was intended or not, I am alive and present and I can tell you "when I was writing this I hadn't considered that, but looking back at it I must have had this sort of symbolism in mind on at least a sub conscious level because it is clearly there and present and rather fitting."

That, at least, is my take on it. Which as you yourself said, could be all my English classes in school coming back to me

Spoiler

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I meant more in conjunction with a punishment that minor... Though I guess that can be chalked down to my being an "intent" person over a "consequences" person.

On symbolism... Yeah, I'm the same with the fanfics I write. Sometimes someone will point something out and I'mall like 'yeah, that was totally on purpose.'

Anyway, chapter 8

Spoiler

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...Chloe totally chose a character specifically because it was a perfect counter to Rei's favorite, didn't she?

Resetting the round? Maybe I'm too used to the Pokemon Anime where the rules of Confrances seem rigged so Ash loses or the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG banning any strategy that requires more creativity than hitting the other guy harder, but I wasn't expecting tournament officials to be that reasonable. I wasn't expecting Rei to be disqualified over her controller breaking, but I figured that they'd continue the round as is and make her eat the damage she took because of the unresponsive controller. I mean, with a tricky trapster high-skill character, Chloe was gonna lose anyway with the break, but this is a remarkably fair rulingall things considered.

Of course, Chloe would not be wrong to feel like she was "robbed."

Pyromacy, or just Mancy, burns calories? Makes sense, I guess. That energy has to come from somewhere.

Ella has a perfectly reasonable reaction to Rei dropping a bombshell about the fight and also Rei's lack of ****s about it.

...I'm a little ashamed to admit this, but Verde saying that Rei is bruised in her "face area" immediately made me think of something that Lanipator said
while drunk off his ass in one of Team Four Star's Bloodborne streams.

...I think Rei broke Ella.

And we we get the secret identity delima.

"I was mistaken, you're no cancer. Not one I'd know, anyway." So Gamma has no experience with Pyromancers? Or Rei's somehow differant in than other mancers in a way that confuses Gamma's senses?

Ooh, this not good. I can't blame Ella and Verde but, still. Yeah.

Ooh. Cherry red flame? Red fire usually comes from specific chemicals being burned, but when it isn't it's actually burning less hot than normal orange fire. Either says interesting things right now.

A lot happens this chapter, and it ends on a cliffhanger so I guess I'll move onto

Spoiler: chapter 9

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"Dark glow" is such an odd turn of phrase. It's a self-contradictory concept that's hard to picture in my mind.

Gamma is super fracked up in the head, isn't he?

And Rei's temper leading to serious injuries in others is established. You foreshadowed the Hell out of Rei burning Chloe, didn't you?

Verde gives way more of a damn here than on the cover, but continues to snark.

"Pyromancy, do the thing!"

"Magic hobo" is my new favorite phrase... Though "Hobo" is being used wrong. a hobo was someone who was homeless and traveling the country, supporting themselves with Odd Jobs, looking for long term work so they could settle down and have a home. Gamma would either be a tramp, someone who travels but isn't looking for work and supports themselves by begging, stealing, or they're homeless by choice and have money without having to work, or a bum, someone who is homeless,stays in one location, and doesn't work, depending on if he was planning to settle here or if he was gonna move along once his wounds healed. I'm not expecting a bunch of modernist teenagers to know that, though, I just felt like sharing trivia.

For completion sake, a "punk" was a boy or young man hobo in an aprenticeship with an adult hobo, which overtime gained a connotation that the punk was allowing themselves to be, uh, taken advantage of, so to speak... I don't have stats for how accurate that is, which is when Punk became an insult, and there's really no special name for someone who works but doesn't have a home, that's just homeless and is more of a recent thing.

The meanings of the words tramp and punk have changed drastically in the last century.

Oh, yeah, Gamma is completely fracked up. Dude needs a doctor buthe's probably never getting a doctor. It's been noted that his wounds smell of rot? Even with disinfectant those wounds are probably infected, cleaning them's just putting a poster over a hole in the wall. He needs some penicillin or something.

...He's not making it out of this book alive, is he?

The puppets are magic, but we know that they were created by a Mancer? So, they'renot the same thing, but there's overlap? Or maybe being a Ferromncer strong enough to control the colucular iron in blood gave Kestral somekind of insight into how to make puppets from blood?

Gonna start another metaphysics discussion up in here.

Beast men and demons exist, but demons aren't 'demons' but a forgotten bread of humanity, albeit a monstrous one?

I'd pay for a book that's just the history and lore of this setting. This stuff is honestly fascinating.

...Rei, be careful saying stuff like that. It's gotten me in trouble.

And that last segment with Gamma just kind of hurts.

[Mith]

Spoiler: Chapters 6 and 7

Show

One could argue that Aria presenting a punishment (for getting involved in danger) but giving her an aside assurance that her mom is not mad about her motive (protecting people and beating up *******s) is a very complicated Mom Action. Parenting is hard, sometimes you've gotta admonish with one hand and praise with the other, because "trying to do good" is good, even if getting into danger is bad, and punishing "getting into danger to do good" is... a complicated thing!

Hah! Someone noticed the implication that Aria uses pyromantic heat to soothe injuries and stuff. It's not directly healing, but it is following the principle that if you've got sore muscles, a nice warm patch will make you feel better.

Okay so, here's a thing I want to say Rater- if you see something in my work that seems symbolic like the beautiful flowers fading being a representation of Rei's learning how dangerous she is and thus is sort of a Loss of Innocence type thing, regardless of me having intended it or not, it is totally valid to see that. While yes sometimes flowers fade because it is slowly becoming winter, the timing and framing of it is undeniably there.

Now, unlike older books where the author doesn't exist to tell you whether it was intended or not, I am alive and present and I can tell you "when I was writing this I hadn't considered that, but looking back at it I must have had this sort of symbolism in mind on at least a sub conscious level because it is clearly there and present and rather fitting."

That, at least, is my take on it. Which as you yourself said, could be all my English classes in school coming back to me

Huh, I had missed the implication that Aria basically did reiki along with the general heat treatment to ease bruising and minor injuries.

[LaZodiac]

[SPOILER]
Anyway, chapter 8

Spoiler

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...Chloe totally chose a character specifically because it was a perfect counter to Rei's favorite, didn't she?

...I think Rei broke Ella.

Ooh. Cherry red flame? Red fire usually comes from specific chemicals being burned, but when it isn't it's actually burning less hot than normal orange fire. Either says interesting things right now.

A lot happens this chapter, and it ends on a cliffhanger so I guess I'll move onto

Spoiler: chapter 9

Show

And Rei's temper leading to serious injuries in others is established. You foreshadowed the Hell out of Rei burning Chloe, didn't you?

Verde gives way more of a damn here than on the cover, but continues to snark.

"Pyromancy, do the thing!"

"Magic hobo" is my new favorite phrase... Though "Hobo" is being used wrong. a hobo was someone who was homeless and traveling the country, supporting themselves with Odd Jobs, looking for long term work so they could settle down and have a home. Gamma would either be a tramp, someone who travels but isn't looking for work and supports themselves by begging, stealing, or they're homeless by choice and have money without having to work, or a bum, someone who is homeless,stays in one location, and doesn't work, depending on if he was planning to settle here or if he was gonna move along once his wounds healed. I'm not expecting a bunch of modernist teenagers to know that, though, I just felt like sharing trivia.

For completion sake, a "punk" was a boy or young man hobo in an aprenticeship with an adult hobo, which overtime gained a connotation that the punk was allowing themselves to be, uh, taken advantage of, so to speak... I don't have stats for how accurate that is, which is when Punk became an insult, and there's really no special name for someone who works but doesn't have a home, that's just homeless and is more of a recent thing.

The meanings of the words tramp and punk have changed drastically in the last century.

Oh, yeah, Gamma is completely fracked up. Dude needs a doctor buthe's probably never getting a doctor. It's been noted that his wounds smell of rot? Even with disinfectant those wounds are probably infected, cleaning them's just putting a poster over a hole in the wall. He needs some penicillin or something.

...He's not making it out of this book alive, is he?

The puppets are magic, but we know that they were created by a Mancer? So, they'renot the same thing, but there's overlap? Or maybe being a Ferromncer strong enough to control the colucular iron in blood gave Kestral somekind of insight into how to make puppets from blood?

Gonna start another metaphysics discussion up in here.

Beast men and demons exist, but demons aren't 'demons' but a forgotten bread of humanity, albeit a monstrous one?

I'd pay for a book that's just the history and lore of this setting. This stuff is honestly fascinating.

...Rei, be careful saying stuff like that. It's gotten me in trouble.

And that last segment with Gamma just kind of hurts.

Spoiler: Chapter 8 and 9

Show

Chloe absolutely chose her main to contest against Rei. RIVALS!

Ella's reaction takes on a deeper meaning when you factor in stuff we're gonna learn in chapter 22, and already learned a bit of in chapter 21. But yeah, poor Ella, broken by the irresponsible nature of her new friend.

That's something that'll get brought up later, but for the most part unless something Bad is going on, an element that is coming from a mancer takes on a specific colour befitting who they are. Rei's are cherry red, Aria's are white, and so on.

I foreshadowed the HECK out of what Rei does to Chloe! It's an intense scene and it needs the build up to it!

Thank you for the cool history lesson! I definitely went with the term magic hobo because it sounds hilarious though.

Rei did use some disinfectant beyond just cleaning the injuries but... yeah, Gamma's really not doing great. He'll need something a bit more to stop from succumbing to these injuries, I imagine.

I will note; we have not received any confirmation in universe that the mnemonic puppets were made by the Ferromancer. This is one of those things that isn't super elaborated on in this book which'll probably get touched on more later, but puppets can be built by anyone. Mechanically, magically, or trough mancy, though mancer made puppets are less durable than mechanical or magically made ones since the mancer has to be actively powering it for it to keep going. Mnemonic Puppets, which I will say ARE made of crystallized waste-blood and or materials, are not made by Ferromancy. It's definitely more of a factory-born situation for them.

Also gonna make a note about wanting a lore book; while I don't have one in mind, we're gonna get deeper into the setting in Hidden Embers, and I'm excited to hear people are interested enough in it to be that excited about learning more! Humans, Demons, and Beastmen, but two of these three went into hiding For Some Reason. I wonder...?

[Rater202]

Spoiler: Chapter 8 and 9

Show

Chloe absolutely chose her main to contest against Rei. RIVALS!

Ella's reaction takes on a deeper meaning when you factor in stuff we're gonna learn in chapter 22, and already learned a bit of in chapter 21. But yeah, poor Ella, broken by the irresponsible nature of her new friend.

That's something that'll get brought up later, but for the most part unless something Bad is going on, an element that is coming from a mancer takes on a specific colour befitting who they are. Rei's are cherry red, Aria's are white, and so on.

I foreshadowed the HECK out of what Rei does to Chloe! It's an intense scene and it needs the build up to it!

Thank you for the cool history lesson! I definitely went with the term magic hobo because it sounds hilarious though.

Rei did use some disinfectant beyond just cleaning the injuries but... yeah, Gamma's really not doing great. He'll need something a bit more to stop from succumbing to these injuries, I imagine.

I will note; we have not received any confirmation in universe that the mnemonic puppets were made by the Ferromancer. This is one of those things that isn't super elaborated on in this book which'll probably get touched on more later, but puppets can be built by anyone. Mechanically, magically, or trough mancy, though mancer made puppets are less durable than mechanical or magically made ones since the mancer has to be actively powering it for it to keep going. Mnemonic Puppets, which I will say ARE made of crystallized waste-blood and or materials, are not made by Ferromancy. It's definitely more of a factory-born situation for them.

Also gonna make a note about wanting a lore book; while I don't have one in mind, we're gonna get deeper into the setting in Hidden Embers, and I'm excited to hear people are interested enough in it to be that excited about learning more! Humans, Demons, and Beastmen, but two of these three went into hiding For Some Reason. I wonder...?

Spoiler

Show

Geeze, why would groups of people who suddenly had massive drops in population start hiding themselves from 'ordinary' humans?

Based on human history? The answer that comes to my mind starts with 'g' and ends with 'enocide.'

[LaZodiac]

Spoiler: Future Theories

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Hehehe... lets just say I have a lot of stuff to get through before we fully find out the answer to that question~

Which is about as direct as I'm going to get on the "what caused the supernatural to become a secret?" theory crafting. I love seeing people try and figure out what'll happen and what the secrets are, but I'm trying really hard not to directly point any out to avoid telling my hand, so to speak.

[Rater202]

Spoiler: Chapter 10

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Yeah, "my dreams are always on fire... I thought that was normal?"

Watto? Take it away.


Ella? No. *beats Ella over the head with a newspaper* "Maybe think of the world as one big fight" is bad advice. That's a toxic mindset.

Yeah, Pyromancy seems to draw on Rei's bodily reserves of energy. If she's gonna make using it a habit they she needs to move somewhere with a decent variety of affordable buffets.

If fluff is coming of a plush toy then... Eh.

Joke about friend's shortcomings are a situation thing and... Damn it.

Roasting a chicken? Is Aria the type to save the carcass for homemade stocks?

Hmm. I think most people would have crashed pretty soon after something like that. Rei, Verde, and Ella must be good friends if she didn't crash till after she got home.

...Zodi? Are you Rei? Is this you publishing stories from your journal with the names changed adapted as fiction?

It's been mentioned that Chloe's father wants her to be an "Idol" type... And from the reviews of later chapters we know that Chloe's parents made the decision to terminate the girl's friendship and forced Chloe to make 'friends' with Heather and the Heathers. I'm wondering if Chloe's parents are the kind ofparent who would drastically improve their child's life by disappearing and never coming back.

Heather and the Heathers are, in fact, stuck up entitled bitches who deserve to be burned far more than Chloe does.

Chloe's been made to believe that using people is normal. See above re: Watto. Chloe needs a clean break from her "friends" and probably her parents. ASAHP.

It as at this point that I am certain that my foreknowledge of Kestral is not making me read the text as more shadey and predator than it is. I'd suggest that Robert Pattinson play him in the movie, but I think he'd get mad at being typcasted as a predatory, abusive hunk.

[LaZodiac]

Spoiler: Chapter 10, Dream Casting

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Hehe... about this being my journal I have only to say; no comment.

There are... other reasons why Robert Patterson might not work for a live action version of Kestrel. He'd probably make a good voice for him which sucks because I'd want to hire someone who actually matches Kestrel's appearance for voice-work because I'm absolutely not going to let the (unfortunately, so far unless you count Rei and Ella both being half Kaigan) only POC character in my novel get played by a popular white guy.

[Rater202]

Spoiler

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...I'm gonna be hones, I hand't realized that Kestral was a POC.

I should probably go back and reread his introduction scene...

Okay, yeah "Dark brown eyes that matched his skin-tone..." Completely overlooked that.

Sorry.

Spoiler: Chapter 11

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Rei, if there's liquid fire running up your arms and spine, you need to go to the hospital because that sounds like a potentially debilitating condition.

Okay, I'm gonna be honest, if I didn't already know about the training later in the book, Rei's deciding to ask Gamma for training would have had me expecting a "can you help me learn Water Bending?" "Sorry, I'm an Air Bender" type moment.

"Best friends because we live next to each other" is probably more common than not. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing, but it seems to be working out here.

"I atent dead yet!"

...It says weird things that 'burned, ashen, dusty, warped in places and smells vaugly of death' isn't a dealbreaker for whether or not something counts as a home.

Wouldn't a person sized tube count as furniture?

...Gamma tried to eat the cans? God damn he is feral.

Sarcasm is clearly Verde's forte.

Either Smiles Subs is really, really good or the fast food scene in this town is dead. I've never seen a sub shop that packed.

I still want to know if Kestral isn't using somekind of blood control to mess with Rei's brain chemistry to make her more attracted to him. She flat out admitted early on that she's more attracted to him than she should be.

Verde is good people.

...Yeah, I really don't think it's a good sign that people growing Mancers in tubes think that knowing how to rip someone's arm off is vital.

Verde clearly wants powers.

[Mith]

Spoiler

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...I'm gonna be hones, I hand't realized that Kestral was a POC.

I should probably go back and reread his introduction scene...

Okay, yeah "Dark brown eyes that matched his skin-tone..." Completely overlooked that.

Sorry.

Spoiler: Chapter 11

Show

Rei, if there's liquid fire running up your arms and spine, you need to go to the hospital because that sounds like a potentially debilitating condition.

Okay, I'm gonna be honest, if I didn't already know about the training later in the book, Rei's deciding to ask Gamma for training would have had me expecting a "can you help me learn Water Bending?" "Sorry, I'm an Air Bender" type moment.

"Best friends because we live next to each other" is probably more common than not. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing, but it seems to be working out here.

"I atent dead yet!"

...It says weird things that 'burned, ashen, dusty, warped in places and smells vaugly of death' isn't a dealbreaker for whether or not something counts as a home.

Wouldn't a person sized tube count as furniture?

...Gamma tried to eat the cans? God damn he is feral.

Sarcasm is clearly Verde's forte.

Either Smiles Subs is really, really good or the fast food scene in this town is dead. I've never seen a sub shop that packed.

I still want to know if Kestral isn't using somekind of blood control to mess with Rei's brain chemistry to make her more attracted to him. She flat out admitted early on that she's more attracted to him than she should be.

Verde is good people.

...Yeah, I really don't think it's a good sign that people growing Mancers in tubes think that knowing how to rip someone's arm off is vital.

Verde clearly wants powers.

Spoiler

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1) I too missed that Kestrel was a POC. And I'll have read that paragraph many, many times by now. **** I hate it when I miss character descriptions like that.

2) I had assumed that Kestrel had a "magnetic personality".

[LaZodiac]

Spoiler

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...I'm gonna be hones, I hand't realized that Kestral was a POC.

I should probably go back and reread his introduction scene...

Okay, yeah "Dark brown eyes that matched his skin-tone..." Completely overlooked that.

Sorry.

Spoiler: Chapter 11

Show

Rei, if there's liquid fire running up your arms and spine, you need to go to the hospital because that sounds like a potentially debilitating condition.

Okay, I'm gonna be honest, if I didn't already know about the training later in the book, Rei's deciding to ask Gamma for training would have had me expecting a "can you help me learn Water Bending?" "Sorry, I'm an Air Bender" type moment.

Wouldn't a person sized tube count as furniture?

...Gamma tried to eat the cans? God damn he is feral.

Sarcasm is clearly Verde's forte.

Either Smiles Subs is really, really good or the fast food scene in this town is dead. I've never seen a sub shop that packed.

I still want to know if Kestral isn't using somekind of blood control to mess with Rei's brain chemistry to make her more attracted to him. She flat out admitted early on that she's more attracted to him than she should be.

Verde is good people.

...Yeah, I really don't think it's a good sign that people growing Mancers in tubes think that knowing how to rip someone's arm off is vital.

Verde clearly wants powers.

Spoiler: Chapter 11

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Kestrel's skin colour is only mentioned like twice, and the first time fairly un-obviously, so no need to apologize! This genuinely happens to the best of us; I read all of... this one book, whose name I cannot remember, about a boy who unties a Gordian Knot and also runs from the white community to the black community in town and the entire book is about how we shouldn't judge people and I completely missed that half the entire cast was black. It happens! I also wish I could remember this book name so I could bring it up and everyone could tell me how obvious it was. EDIT: MANIAC MAGEE!

I'd argue a giant tube is not a piece of furniture, depending on the usage of said tube. Also yes, chompa the can. Gotta get at the inside food.

No joke, the line at the local subway has been outside the door at some points... which says a lot since it swerves in an S shape before hitting the door!

There's a couple factors as to why Rei is so hot for Kestrel. The combination of rugged, handsome looks plus the obvious (to Rei, who is reading into Kestrel's responses and reactions) soft nature he has, plus the clearly protective streak since he saved Rei from getting hurt (even if it was kinda creepy how he beat them up but that's definitely not him that's just violence being scary right? Right?!) and his generally being a nice person to her hit her in all the right ways. He's just a hot teenage boy that just happens to match a fair number of criteria that Rei looks for in a partner, almost as if he was trying to learn who she is and present himself as that to her.

Verde is good people but also Verde dot png.

Spoiler

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1) I too missed that Kestrel was a POC. And I'll have read that paragraph many, many times by now. **** I hate it when I miss character descriptions like that.

2) I had assumed that Kestrel had a "magnetic personality".

Spoiler

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As said above, don't sorry. It's just one of those things that wasn't mentioned as much as I thought, so it's harder to realize.

ooh, that's a good one.

[DataNinja]

Spoiler: Chapter 11

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I read all of... this one book, whose name I cannot remember, about a boy who unties a Gordian Knot and also runs from the white community to the black community in town and the entire book is about how we shouldn't judge people and I completely missed that half the entire cast was black. It happens! I also wish I could remember this book name so I could bring it up and everyone could tell me how obvious it was. EDIT: MANIAC MAGEE!

Verde is good people but also Verde dot png.

Spoiler

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Ah, Maniac Magee. Admittedly, the book mostly sticks in my mind, because my teacher the year after I read it's name was "M. Magee", so every time I looked at her nameplate, it reminded me of the book.

Bahahahahaha. Yep, sounds like Verde.

[Rater202]

Spoiler: Chapter 11

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Kestrel's skin colour is only mentioned like twice, and the first time fairly un-obviously, so no need to apologize! This genuinely happens to the best of us; I read all of... this one book, whose name I cannot remember, about a boy who unties a Gordian Knot and also runs from the white community to the black community in town and the entire book is about how we shouldn't judge people and I completely missed that half the entire cast was black. It happens! I also wish I could remember this book name so I could bring it up and everyone could tell me how obvious it was. EDIT: MANIAC MAGEE!

I'd argue a giant tube is not a piece of furniture, depending on the usage of said tube. Also yes, chompa the can. Gotta get at the inside food.

No joke, the line at the local subway has been outside the door at some points... which says a lot since it swerves in an S shape before hitting the door!

There's a couple factors as to why Rei is so hot for Kestrel. The combination of rugged, handsome looks plus the obvious (to Rei, who is reading into Kestrel's responses and reactions) soft nature he has, plus the clearly protective streak since he saved Rei from getting hurt (even if it was kinda creepy how he beat them up but that's definitely not him that's just violence being scary right? Right?!) and his generally being a nice person to her hit her in all the right ways. He's just a hot teenage boy that just happens to match a fair number of criteria that Rei looks for in a partner, almost as if he was trying to learn who she is and present himself as that to her.

Verde is good people but also Verde dot png.

Spoiler

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As said above, don't sorry. It's just one of those things that wasn't mentioned as much as I thought, so it's harder to realize.

ooh, that's a good one.

Spoiler: Dude

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I read Maniac Magee in fith grade for class, never finished it, remembered it years later, got it for Christmas in high school so I could finish it, and ended up reading it cover to cover about three times a week.

To be fair, the fact that the town is literally split down the middle with all the black people on one side and all the white people on the other is surprisingly not as big a deal as you'd think. It's a background detail, there's one instance of a older black man yelling at Maniac that he needs to get back to West End where all the white people live when he's staying with a black family during a block party, and part of the final "arc" of the book is Maniac staying with the family of a bully who later turns into his friend who are all white trash and seem to genuinely beleive that come the summer all the Black people will come raiding like indians in an old western and they get over it.

For the entire rest of the book, it's just a kind of background detail. Other than where people live, there's really not much indication of whether a given person is black or white.

Which might actually be the point, now that I think about it. Maniac very clearly thinks that the segregation and racism are stupid whenever it comes up and had never been exposed to it before now. When he's told he's white he's like "the only thing on me that's white are my eyes and everyone's got that."Of course he's "color blind."

[The Fury]

Before we get into our next chapter, I'd like a chance for y'all to weigh in on which book I'll cover next. I've narrowed it down to two choices.

Spoiler: Book Choice!

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Aeon Legion by JP Beaubien. The Terrible Writing Advice guy. This is another YA Fantasy built largely on time travel. The main reasons I'm suggesting this is because it's a book that I've wanted to read for a while, it's by someone whose humor I appreciate, and I already own the book. The fact that it has kind of a unique premise is something of a selling point as well.

Spoiler: Book Choice!

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Aaand After the Fall by EC Meyers. The RWBY book. I have my reservations about this one to be sure, but I also feel like it's something that I'd have a lot to say about. As most of you probably know, it follows the exploits of Team CVFY after the events of Volume Three of the series. I'll probably cover this book eventually if for no reason, I'm a little curious. Also, since I met Zodi on the RWBY threads, it seems weirdly appropriate.

I guess let me know if any of you have preferences about these two and we'll hash it out once we're done with Initial Sparks. If nothing else, I'd like to keep discussion of Initial Sparks going until Rater and Mystic Muse finish their readthroughs.

On that note, on to our next chapter.

Spoiler: Chapter Twenty-Two

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Our chapter opens with Rei pleading with Kestrel and trying to keep her flames from coming out. The text describes tears "sizzling in her eyes," which I rather like since tears sometimes do feel like they're burning your eyes. She's also a pyromancer though, so her tears might literally be sizzling. Yet Rei still has to wonder how honest Kestrel is being. His earlier lines, Rei notes, indicate that he's aware that there are multiple people helping her. Yet he could still be lying to throw her off her game. It's a hard call to make. Though between Kestrel's mirthless grin, his self-satisfied confidence there's reason to fear the worst. In any case Kestrel is still menacing Chloe with a crude saber, so she's clearly not out of danger yet. For now Rei complies. Kestrel leaves Chloe and moves towards Rei.

What follows is pretty tense. Rei quietly looks for an opportunity to light this bozo on fire. How to do it without risking Chloe though? Although she's left behind, Chloe is being kept within striking range for Kestrel's saber. Also, Kestrel has already demonstrated to being pretty tough. Rei's pyromancy works well enough to put a teenage girl in the hospital, but Kestrel... Dude survived getting his arm ripped off. He even made a new one. Ferromancy aside, it's fair to say that Kestrel is not a normal teenager. For now, Rei decides to let Kestrel believe that he has the upper hand and tries to get him talking. Her friends forced her to let them come along, she says. Adding that they thought she'd never beat Kestrel alone. Since he's sooo kewl.

For his part, Kestrel admits that if Rei had her friends here, they might have been able to beat him. Rei just made a bad plan. Relying on her friends was a mistake. Too bad they underestimated him, right? Oh, and speaking of underestimating Kestrel is no longer paying any attention to Chloe. Chloe that has that scalpel that she's taking out of her pocket...

Rei keeps the charade going, telling Kestrel what he wants to hear. He buys it, because as near as he can tell, he's go Rei dead to rights and offers Rei a chance to come willingly. A chance to discard her friends an become stronger. A chance that Rei seemingly takes. Yet... even though Gamma and Verde are dealing with their own problems, Rei is not as alone as Kestrel thinks.

Ella is only barely keeping it together. As has been pretty firmly established, Ella is a sensitive person that gets spooked easily so a murder-puppet pointing a gun at Aria under the table has her barely able to contain her panic. The "ding" of the coffee pot going to sleep snaps Ella back to reality and gives her an idea. Aria's phone! Aria can use it to contact Rei! Or so she tells Aria so Puppet-dad will hear. Anything to make Puppet-dad to think that she and Aria are more useful alive. As Ella goes to the kitchen to get Aria's phone, she thinks to herself that puppets are dutiful to their orders without question, this one seems to have been told to find Rei since it keeps going back to that subject. So... Ella knows what puppets are and how they work.

For now, Ella types a warning on the phone before giving it to Aria. "Puppet. Has gun, under table. Aimed at stomach. I have plan." For now, Aria keeps Puppet-dad talking, telling him what he wants to hear. That Rei and Kestrel will be back shortly. Ella returns to the kitchen, where there are some bloody dishcloths an bandages from what happened to Gamma. Ella is a sanguimancer. Blood reading is one of tricks, another one is... something that she'd really rather not do. She takes the bloody dishcloth and after some hesitation bites down on it, ingesting some of the blood. Suddenly, Ella's senses become sharper and her muscles strain against themselves as they grow stronger. Ella actually has to restrain herself from going crazy with bloodlust. Then she splits the table Aria and Puppet-dad are sitting at with her umbrella. Puppet-dad turns his gun on Ella, but she's much faster and stronger than she is normally thanks to having consumed some blood. She knocks the gun away with enough force that it tears off Puppet-dad's hand, exposing the red crystal underneath. Aria is take the puppet down though. Not using weapons or her pyromancy. Just her bare hands. Commenting that she thought she'd got the last of the red puppets five years ago. The puppet is still alive, and apparently can transmit a message back to its handlers. Aria has a message: "Leave my family alone." With that she uses her pyromancy to incinerate the creepy thing. Then she cheerfully asks Ella to get the broom.

Meanwhile Gamma's fight with remaining ONY Security Force soldier... could be going better. Evidently he's using rounds that are infused with light magic, which they had in case the shadowmancer showed up. Eventually, Gamma gets rifle-whipped in the face and is held at gunpoint. The soldier has to ask, why did Gamma leave the facility? Evidently what he went through was no worse than what the other Projects went through. Even the Aves class endured similar treatment, yet they don't complain. Gamma agrees because Kestrel didn't even scream when he tore his arm off. This is the first mention of the Aves class, which means "birds." This seems to suggest that "Kestrel" might be a code name. Amid the back and forth that Gamma has with the soldier, Gamma is able to glean that Rei is being underestimated-- at least that much is going to plan. With that, Gamma has had enough of this conversation and just has his shadow's basically... eat the soldier. Going all out like this, he's not sure he'll survive. Though as Raziere and others have pointed out, Gamma doesn't seem to value his life much. This just underscores the point. Gamma does survive though. At least for now. Though he's in a state where he could be knocked over with at stiff breeze.

Now some of you might recall that Verde got stabbed-- lucky for her, it was in the leg. Extra lucky that the knife is stuck. On an unlucky note... Oww... Not that this is doing much to stop the puppet though. The flesh has peeled off of her left hand revealing the bare bones, which are long and scythe-like. Verde gets her sweater shredded and her glasses cracked before getting another Klingenluft spell off. Since most of her magic circles that she drew are now ruined, it's time for another plan. A rather reckless one. Verde has a weapon after all, it's... just lodged in her leg at the moment. Now, those of you that have some understanding of first aid know that removing a foreign object that you've been stabbed with is generally a bad idea. Typically, it's just going to make any bleeding much worse. But that's why it's a reckless idea. After Verde pulls the knife out of her calf, she works quickly to use a piece of her pants leg as a tourniquet of sorts. It slows the bleeding, but doesn't stop it. All the while the creaks of the puppet getting back up and getting ready to come after Verde can be heard. Verde uses her own blood to draw a magic circle on the knife's handle. That's right. Verde uses her own blood to enchant a combat knife! That is so metal.

As the puppet bears down on her, it's the moment of truth. Only one way to see if the enchantment worked. If it doesn't... Well, Verde likely won't get to try again. Verde shouts the activation word-- "RASIERMESSER!" (That's "razor" in German. Again, according to Google Translate.) The first thing that happens is Verde gets a piercing headache. The second thing? The knife flies out of her hand with such force that it tears the skin off Verde's palm. (Oww...) The combat knife buries itself in the puppet's skull as the magic circle glows intensely and burns itself into the knife's grip permanently. This is enough to put the puppet down for good and it falls to the ground and shatters. Verde falls to the ground too, but does not shatter. Taking a moment to smile. To take in her victory. Maybe a bit premature though. Bleeding to death or succumbing to hypothermia are still possibilities after all.

Rei has Kestrel right where she wants him. Or so she thinks. She shouts for Verde and Gamma, only... they're not here. Rei use her pyromancy to wreathe both of her arms in flames with such intensity that it actually hurts. At this moment, Chloe stabs Kestrel with her scalpel which causes him to turn in her direction. Rei hits him with fire, which sends his saber out of his hand and leaves him smoldering on the ground. Rei yells to Chloe to make a run for it, which she does. But Chloe asks Rei a simple favor-- "Live, please."

Now, we should know that getting blasted with fire won't be enough to put Kestrel down for good. Dude wasn't stopped after getting his arm ripped off. He staggers to his feet and pulls off his burning hoodie. It's now that we finally get a good look at the arm he made for himself. It's crude. Pipes, screws, bits of metal scrap. I have to wonder if it's modeled after the prosthetic that Tetsuo made for himself in AKIRA. Hopefully that's where the resemblance ends. For now, the two get ready to fight. Rei hears a scream somewhere in the distance and the fight begins.

In this chapter, our heroes manage to escape but not without the encounter taking a toll. Rei gets Chloe away from Kestrel, but she still needs to fight him. Even though Kestrel is without a hostage, he has an advantage of sorts-- he's a killer, Rei isn't. Chloe escapes with her life, but will have to be uncertain about Rei's fate for a bit. Verde defeats the puppet, but she's also bleeding on the ground as snow is falling. Ella managed to save herself and Aria from Puppet-dad but not without resorting to a power that she's uncomfortable having, much less using. And Aria... she's got a mess to clean up.

Going back to Ella's sanguimancy-- this is the first time it's name-dropped and explicitly stated that she's been a mancer this whole time. I have a minor theory about this. It's been stated that in the Cursed World setting, myths and legends are true, just not in the way that everyone expects them to be. So my theory is this-- Ella is a vampire. Not a literal blood-sucking creature of the night that catches fire in the daylight. But I can see how the existence of sanguimancers like Ella might have perpetuated the vampire myth within the setting. The fact that she's sort of pale and dark-haired probably helps.

There's been earlier hints that there's more to Ella than what she's said about herself. Not just the fact that she's a mancer. She also seems to know more about how puppets work that Rei or Verde do, which suggests that she may have some experience with them. Combined with the book she lent Verde, which she totally found in the library because that's a completely normal book for a public library to have, it's pretty clear that as forthcoming as Ella seems, she's got some secrets.

Next is Chapter Twenty-Three. Come and see!

[Mystic Muse]

I'm personally curious to see how the RWBY book is in comparison to the show.

[Rater202]

Spoiler: Chapter 22

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Yeah, lot to take in here.

I figured that there had to be something up with Ella's umbrella when I noticed attention being drawn to it, but I genuinely thought that her fortunes were just cold reading.

So... Sanquimancy s reading bood and drawing strength from blood, but actually controlling it is Feromancy? Or is there overlap and Ella just doesn't know how to control blood?

And Kestral is probably a supersoldier and.... Oh. Oh. That's why Gamma asked why Rei had a date with a bird, wasn't it? He suspected something was up even that early, didn't he? With the Aves program?

It's interesting that the ONY grunts don't think what happened to Gamma was that bad when... Yeah, it kind of was.

And I'll be honest, I was picturing something like this when I wondered what was under Kestral's bandages.


Good to know that it's actually a Hell of a Lot Worse than that.

[Lord Raziere]

Spoiler: Chapter 22:

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....I think blood is just incredibly powerful and vital for magic in the Cursed World.

The puppets? form flesh from blood
the knife enchantment? goes weird and does something different than expected because of Verde's blood
mancies? inherited through blood
Kestrel? can control the iron in blood
Ella? uses hemomancy to read peoples blood and enhances her own abilities.
Rei's emotions? directly connected with blood, blood keeps your body warm, so blood and fire are linked.

things like that. Blood is just somehow symbolically/metaphysically/magically significant in some holistic sense, and that Verde accidentally stumbled upon one of its applications by basically binding that dagger to her. Perhaps even permanently. when I first read it I didn't get what happened, I thought she simply screwed up the circle and discovered a completely different spell at the time by doing so, but now I'm pretty sure its the blood that made the dagger be bound to her. blood is often a symbol of incredibly long binding contracts and structures among humanity.

Ella, on the other hand....her hemomancy is potentially incredibly powerful but I noticed something. both her applications of hemomancy require touch contact. palm reading, drinking blood to empower herself, I don't think she can control blood from a distance. I don't know if this is how hemomancy works, or if its just her own shortcoming, but that is how it seems to be. I mean given Ferromancy and Pyromancy, theoretically she could, but....hm...

but yeah, Ella's bloodline being the inspiration for vampires in this setting would make sense.

[Rater202]

Spoiler: Chapter 12

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The description of Gamma on the dance floor and moving like a dancer in his Shadowmancy made me picture him doing capoeira.

Shadowmancy training has no effect for a Pyromancer. News at eleven.

Rei wants to be a Hero... Unfortunately, there isn't an Almight to teach her. Hopefully, she turns out all right on her own.

Yes, Verde. ONY controls the Government and you know that ONY is investigating this stuff. Ergo, someone in the Government knows about this.

Ella: "Humans are notoriously superstitious at times." Yeah, I think that Fury's "Sanguinomancers=Vampire Myth Origin" is dead on the money. I bet she's experienced it first hand.

"Oro Yamata?"

Yamata no Orochi

Lord Orochi.

Lord Orochi is President Yamata. Come on Zodi, you're not even bothering to hide it.

...Kestral probably murdered that cop right before he talked to Chloe about Rei.

"I'm here, and as long as I am you don't have anything to fear" is Mom for "anything that tries to hurt you, I will reduce down to atomic dust with white-hot Hellfire and then scatter across the cosmos?"

Irony that Aria is probably the last person who needs to be protected.

...Was Samson also a Pyromancer, or is the comment about his fire becoming Rei purely metaphorical?

Hooks! I'm gonna be honest, I've got a thing for Classic Slasher Flics. I don't uch care for Saw or Hostile style Torture Porn but there ain't nothing like a masked Maniac with a big sharp vaguely phallic implement of death slughtering some horny teens, most of whom are jackasses, only to be defeated at the end when the Final Girl takes symbolically emasulates him by taking his knife, machette, or chainsaw from him and "kills" him with it.

...I may have or may not have passed a Crime and Culture class by writing a paper on the subtle phallic and yonic imagery in slasher movies and how a hint of sexuality is used to drive the horror home, using the shower scene in Psycho(which had been spoken of as a mystery/thriller in the class) as a jumping off point.

The thing is, when I was a kid I couldn't even watch Goosebumps on the TV and know I love a good scary story if it's the right kind.

Rant aside, Verde being smol also makes her freeze easy? Is that a real thing because I've never heard of it... Of course if the picture on the cover is accurate not only is she short she's also very light framed and seems to be on the skinny ide so it could be the lack of fat and muscle mass meaning she doesn't retain heat?

I may be over thinking this.

Verde tries thinfs but gives up when it doesn't work?Trouble focusing? Never feels good enough? #TooDamnRelatable.

As does the suddenly becoming obsessed with something despite yourself.

"Magic is think, mancies are feely..." But what if you think and feel? Feeligns come from the Glands and most of the glands are controlled by the Gland in the brain, the two things are intrinsically linked?

Can a Pyromaner also learn Fire Magic and combine them? I must know! My curiosity demands it!

[The Fury]

I'm personally curious to see how the RWBY book is in comparison to the show.

Me too, though I'll probably try to keep comparisons to the series at a minimum in my write-ups. I think it would be better and more helpful to try to meet the RWBY book on its own terms.

Spoiler: Chapter 22

Show

Yeah, lot to take in here.

I figured that there had to be something up with Ella's umbrella when I noticed attention being drawn to it, but I genuinely thought that her fortunes were just cold reading.

So... Sanquimancy s reading bood and drawing strength from blood, but actually controlling it is Feromancy? Or is there overlap and Ella just doesn't know how to control blood?

And Kestral is probably a supersoldier and.... Oh. Oh. That's why Gamma asked why Rei had a date with a bird, wasn't it? He suspected something was up even that early, didn't he? With the Aves program?

It's interesting that the ONY grunts don't think what happened to Gamma was that bad when... Yeah, it kind of was.

Spoiler: Chapter Twenty-Two

Show

It's kind of a pedandic point, but ferromancy is not controlling blood. It can allow someone to control iron within the blood though. As for what sanguimancy can do... Ella seems really uncomfortable with her powers so it makes sense that she hasn't developed them much beyond her blood-reading.

The ONY soldier talking about how Gamma's treatment wasn't that bad reminds me a little of how people try to normalize bad things that have been done to people. I mean, how often have we heard something like this:

"High school was terrible, and I think it really did a number on me."

"What? Why do you say that?"

"I was bullied."

"So what? Everyone gets bullied! I got bullied too!"

I mean, the basic idea is that you're not the only victim, other victims are fine, so therefore you should be too. Taken a step further, the final conclusion seems to be "what happened to you wasn't that bad."

Sanguimancers being the origin of the vampire myth makes more sense to me the more I think about it. I mean... they get stronger, faster and get sharper senses from ingesting blood. And yeah... Ella prefers frilly blouses, black and white clothing, she's pale, dark-haired, kind of tall, so she even kind of looks like a vampire. She's even trained in and enjoys ballet, so there's that appreciation for finer things that aristocratic vampires are supposed to have.

Spoiler: Chapter 12

Show

Rant aside, Verde being smol also makes her freeze easy? Is that a real thing because I've never heard of it... Of course if the picture on the cover is accurate not only is she short she's also very light framed and seems to be on the skinny ide so it could be the lack of fat and muscle mass meaning she doesn't retain heat?

I may be over thinking this.

Spoiler: Chapter 12

Show

I don't think Verde's getting cold because she's so tiny. I think it's because she's from Felisian Hub. Dulace is said to have a much colder winter than other parts of the world, so I think it's a little like someone moving from Northern California to Alaska and dealing with a much colder winter than they're used to.

[LaZodiac]

Spoiler: Chapter 22

Show

Yeah, lot to take in here.

I figured that there had to be something up with Ella's umbrella when I noticed attention being drawn to it, but I genuinely thought that her fortunes were just cold reading.

So... Sanquimancy s reading bood and drawing strength from blood, but actually controlling it is Feromancy? Or is there overlap and Ella just doesn't know how to control blood?

And Kestral is probably a supersoldier and.... Oh. Oh. That's why Gamma asked why Rei had a date with a bird, wasn't it? He suspected something was up even that early, didn't he? With the Aves program?

It's interesting that the ONY grunts don't think what happened to Gamma was that bad when... Yeah, it kind of was.

And I'll be honest, I was picturing something like this when I wondered what was under Kestral's bandages.


Good to know that it's actually a Hell of a Lot Worse than that.

Spoiler: Chapter 22:

Show

....I think blood is just incredibly powerful and vital for magic in the Cursed World.

The puppets? form flesh from blood
the knife enchantment? goes weird and does something different than expected because of Verde's blood
mancies? inherited through blood
Kestrel? can control the iron in blood
Ella? uses hemomancy to read peoples blood and enhances her own abilities.
Rei's emotions? directly connected with blood, blood keeps your body warm, so blood and fire are linked.

things like that. Blood is just somehow symbolically/metaphysically/magically significant in some holistic sense, and that Verde accidentally stumbled upon one of its applications by basically binding that dagger to her. Perhaps even permanently. when I first read it I didn't get what happened, I thought she simply screwed up the circle and discovered a completely different spell at the time by doing so, but now I'm pretty sure its the blood that made the dagger be bound to her. blood is often a symbol of incredibly long binding contracts and structures among humanity.

Ella, on the other hand....her hemomancy is potentially incredibly powerful but I noticed something. both her applications of hemomancy require touch contact. palm reading, drinking blood to empower herself, I don't think she can control blood from a distance. I don't know if this is how hemomancy works, or if its just her own shortcoming, but that is how it seems to be. I mean given Ferromancy and Pyromancy, theoretically she could, but....hm...

but yeah, Ella's bloodline being the inspiration for vampires in this setting would make sense.

Spoiler: Chapter 22

Show

Ella herself admits it's a mixture of both cold reading and her sanguimancy, so you weren't wrong. There is more to how sanguimancy works than just using it the way Ella shows here, but given she's never really trained it this is what she can do right now. Kestrel's more trained in his ferromancy, leading him to have that one shot "I touch you and you die/are taken out" attack by manipulating the iron in your blood.

Hehehe, good catch

Yeah, Kestrel's iron arm is way more Akira than that. Fury's description of it was spot on.

------

I'm not going to confirm or deny your theory but I will note both Ella and Kestrel independently use the term "the chaos in your blood", Ella when explaining her reading and Kestrel when thinking about the mnemonic puppets. Take that as you will.

I'm annoyed at how much hemomancy flows better than sanguimancy god dangit

Spoiler: Chapter 12

Show

The description of Gamma on the dance floor and moving like a dancer in his Shadowmancy made me picture him doing capoeira.

Shadowmancy training has no effect for a Pyromancer. News at eleven.

Rei wants to be a Hero... Unfortunately, there isn't an Almight to teach her. Hopefully, she turns out all right on her own.

Yes, Verde. ONY controls the Government and you know that ONY is investigating this stuff. Ergo, someone in the Government knows about this.

Ella: "Humans are notoriously superstitious at times." Yeah, I think that Fury's "Sanguinomancers=Vampire Myth Origin" is dead on the money. I bet she's experienced it first hand.

"Oro Yamata?"

Yamata no Orochi

Lord Orochi.

Lord Orochi is President Yamata. Come on Zodi, you're not even bothering to hide it.

...Kestral probably murdered that cop right before he talked to Chloe about Rei.

"I'm here, and as long as I am you don't have anything to fear" is Mom for "anything that tries to hurt you, I will reduce down to atomic dust with white-hot Hellfire and then scatter across the cosmos?"

Irony that Aria is probably the last person who needs to be protected.

...Was Samson also a Pyromancer, or is the comment about his fire becoming Rei purely metaphorical?

Hooks! I'm gonna be honest, I've got a thing for Classic Slasher Flics. I don't uch care for Saw or Hostile style Torture Porn but there ain't nothing like a masked Maniac with a big sharp vaguely phallic implement of death slughtering some horny teens, most of whom are jackasses, only to be defeated at the end when the Final Girl takes symbolically emasulates him by taking his knife, machette, or chainsaw from him and "kills" him with it.

...I may have or may not have passed a Crime and Culture class by writing a paper on the subtle phallic and yonic imagery in slasher movies and how a hint of sexuality is used to drive the horror home, using the shower scene in Psycho(which had been spoken of as a mystery/thriller in the class) as a jumping off point.

The thing is, when I was a kid I couldn't even watch Goosebumps on the TV and know I love a good scary story if it's the right kind.

Rant aside, Verde being smol also makes her freeze easy? Is that a real thing because I've never heard of it... Of course if the picture on the cover is accurate not only is she short she's also very light framed and seems to be on the skinny ide so it could be the lack of fat and muscle mass meaning she doesn't retain heat?

I may be over thinking this.

Verde tries thinfs but gives up when it doesn't work?Trouble focusing? Never feels good enough? #TooDamnRelatable.

As does the suddenly becoming obsessed with something despite yourself.

"Magic is think, mancies are feely..." But what if you think and feel? Feeligns come from the Glands and most of the glands are controlled by the Gland in the brain, the two things are intrinsically linked?

Can a Pyromaner also learn Fire Magic and combine them? I must know! My curiosity demands it!

Spoiler: Chapter 12

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*makes a note to research capoeira"

In earlier drafts it was made less obvious, but still pretty obvious if you applied any sort of rational thinking or engaged in the story at all, but my editor mentioned I should make it clearer and honestly as I did rewrites and stuff I realized that it really just isn't a secret at all so lets play around with that a bit.

After, actually.

"Samson was a pyromancer" I wonder~

That sounds super interesting! Also I'm also a total coward who could never watch Goosebumps as a good, while liking horror far more as an adult.

So the thing about Verde is that she is, from a medical standpoint, a little person. She is tiny and thin and small as a result, because one of the side effects of this is reduced growth due to hormonal imbalances, as well as delayed/no sexual development. She specifically is Proportionate, medically speaking, so she looks quote unquote normal, just small. She's four foot nine, and just barely a-cup, for reference of just how small, which is within the standards for being a little person medically. Part of the symptoms of being a little person is that you do have a reduction in fat and muscle, so it makes sense for Verde to get colder, easier.

that said like Fury mentioned, which I somewhat forget to touch on in this post, Verde is just also born in a warmer area of the world, so she's weaker to cold geographical speaking as well.

I can say that mancers can learn magic, absolutely, but some sorts of magics are harder to learn. I don't imagine Rei, who's mentality is so drenched in fire that her dreams are always burning, is going to be able to connect with water in the way a wizard would need to learn and cast water spells, for example.

[Mith]

Me too, though I'll probably try to keep comparisons to the series at a minimum in my write-ups. I think it would be better and more helpful to try to meet the RWBY book on its own terms.

Spoiler: Chapter Twenty-Two

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It's kind of a pedandic point, but ferromancy is not controlling blood. It can allow someone to control iron within the blood though. As for what sanguimancy can do... Ella seems really uncomfortable with her powers so it makes sense that she hasn't developed them much beyond her blood-reading.

The ONY soldier talking about how Gamma's treatment wasn't that bad reminds me a little of how people try to normalize bad things that have been done to people. I mean, how often have we heard something like this:

"High school was terrible, and I think it really did a number on me."

"What? Why do you say that?"

"I was bullied."

"So what? Everyone gets bullied! I got bullied too!"

I mean, the basic idea is that you're not the only victim, other victims are fine, so therefore you should be too. Taken a step further, the final conclusion seems to be "what happened to you wasn't that bad."

Sanguimancers being the origin of the vampire myth makes more sense to me the more I think about it. I mean... they get stronger, faster and get sharper senses from ingesting blood. And yeah... Ella prefers frilly blouses, black and white clothing, she's pale, dark-haired, kind of tall, so she even kind of looks like a vampire. She's even trained in and enjoys ballet, so there's that appreciation for finer things that aristocratic vampires are supposed to have.

Spoiler: Chapter 12

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I don't think Verde's getting cold because she's so tiny. I think it's because she's from Felisian Hub. Dulace is said to have a much colder winter than other parts of the world, so I think it's a little like someone moving from Northern California to Alaska and dealing with a much colder winter than they're used to.

Spoiler: Chapter 12

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My uncle knew a man who wore sweaters during a Mexican winter because he found it that cold. He came up to Canada to work for a while. It was -40 with iirc -10 C wind chill on top of that.
He reeaallly didn't want off the plane.

Spoiler: Chapter 22

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Aria's demonstration here is why she is my curret favourite character. She is always angry, just not in a way that is easily actionable.

Another point that I find interesting about Ella, is that she seems to be always using her abilities, as seen by the massive amount of food she goes through, so it'll be interesting to see if her control is in part done by self imposed bindings/turning her power on itself. (I picture it like storing water in a bowl of ice)

[DataNinja]

Spoiler: Chapter 12

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In earlier drafts it was made less obvious, but still pretty obvious if you applied any sort of rational thinking or engaged in the story at all, but my editor mentioned I should make it clearer and honestly as I did rewrites and stuff I realized that it really just isn't a secret at all so lets play around with that a bit.

Spoiler

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Yeah, there was a lot of stuff that was spelled out rather less explicitly in earlier drafts. Whether that's preferable highly depends on the reader. But... really, the type of person who's gonna be reading these books is probably going to be savvy to the general tricks writers like to pull.
(Though... sometimes too much. I remember running a tabletop where the government was genuinely telling the truth with their stories, and doing the best things for the people in the post-apocalyptic world. And I could in zero ways convince my players of that fact. Everyone was exactly at face value, but they were convinced there was an obvious conspiracy. )

[Rater202]

Spoiler: Chapter 13

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Rei brimming with confidence at the halfway point of the book is a bad sign.

Though her admitting that not looking away from the horror movie was a mistake was funny.

I think it's interesting that Rei thinks of Heather and the Heathers as Sychophants when, from our objective position, we know that they're the dominant partners in that toxic relationship...

...Was Heather's name being Heather a deliberate reference to Heathers or the archetype it named?

I thought that Ella's voracious appetite was just a character quirk, but with what I know now?

Hesitation in doing something that needs to be done? Yeah, that's a problem I think everyone can relate to.

...I wonder if Chloe is a nickname? Is her real Name Cleopatra? Because she's swimming in da'Nile right now.

Holy Psychological Projection, Batman!

Chloe can punch hard enough to draw blood?

Rei know the problem but said nothing... Yeah,she's right to feel responsible, because in doing that it ceased to be an accident and became, in part, her fault.

This is the "Hero" moment right here. This could define Rei's character development going forward in a manner not unlike Peter Parker letting the burglar get away becuase "I'm the talant, not security, I'm looking out for me and mine and that's it" and eating the consequences when that same man murdered Uncle Ben.

Rei's temper and negativity, even justified, led to horribly consequences. So... What is she gonna do about it?

Is she gonna feel bad but eventually get over it... Or is it burned into her mind that she has a Great Power, and for that she must accept the Great Responsibility of using it properly?

Oh, never mind on Chloe's punch. I forgot that Rei was injured.

So far it seems like Rei is learning the right lesson, maybe a little too well. You need the hug, girl, take it.

Ironically, going home and telling her mother exactly what happened would have been the best way to make sure ut doesn't happen again. Aria could tell her exactly what she needs to do to get the hang of it.

I think that's a problem with a lot of "surprise, we're secretly magic!" Stories. I understand that if you have a need to keep it secret you don't tell the kid until you're sure they can keep it a secret, but... This exact situation. Rei's powers came in before Aria was prepared to tell her, crap is happening, and now Rei doesn't know who to go to or what to do and is going with suboptimal options becuase she doens't know that her mother can and will hep her with this.

Honestly, not telling Rei about this like, a year ago, was somewhat irresponsible of Aria... But then I guess there wouldn't be a story. My only hope is that if Rei ever has a bio-kid that she doesn't make the same mistake.

Verde's being coy about her magic lessons. Honeslt,y I don't like that she's keeping her desire to be a Wizard secret from Rei. Motivvated by envy or not... Rei envys you in some ways, she claims you're stronger than her.

Envy is normal. Everyone envies their friends, unless their friends lives suck. That's normal. The key is to not let t get in the way of your friendship.

And something that would lead into a very effective fake out if I didn't know it was coming.

[LaZodiac]

Spoiler: Chapter 13

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Rei brimming with confidence at the halfway point of the book is a bad sign.

Though her admitting that not looking away from the horror movie was a mistake was funny.

I think it's interesting that Rei thinks of Heather and the Heathers as Sychophants when, from our objective position, we know that they're the dominant partners in that toxic relationship...

...Was Heather's name being Heather a deliberate reference to Heathers or the archetype it named?

I thought that Ella's voracious appetite was just a character quirk, but with what I know now?

Hesitation in doing something that needs to be done? Yeah, that's a problem I think everyone can relate to.

...I wonder if Chloe is a nickname? Is her real Name Cleopatra? Because she's swimming in da'Nile right now.

Holy Psychological Projection, Batman!

Chloe can punch hard enough to draw blood?

Rei know the problem but said nothing... Yeah,she's right to feel responsible, because in doing that it ceased to be an accident and became, in part, her fault.

This is the "Hero" moment right here. This could define Rei's character development going forward in a manner not unlike Peter Parker letting the burglar get away becuase "I'm the talant, not security, I'm looking out for me and mine and that's it" and eating the consequences when that same man murdered Uncle Ben.

Rei's temper and negativity, even justified, led to horribly consequences. So... What is she gonna do about it?

Is she gonna feel bad but eventually get over it... Or is it burned into her mind that she has a Great Power, and for that she must accept the Great Responsibility of using it properly?

Oh, never mind on Chloe's punch. I forgot that Rei was injured.

So far it seems like Rei is learning the right lesson, maybe a little too well. You need the hug, girl, take it.

Ironically, going home and telling her mother exactly what happened would have been the best way to make sure ut doesn't happen again. Aria could tell her exactly what she needs to do to get the hang of it.

I think that's a problem with a lot of "surprise, we're secretly magic!" Stories. I understand that if you have a need to keep it secret you don't tell the kid until you're sure they can keep it a secret, but... This exact situation. Rei's powers came in before Aria was prepared to tell her, crap is happening, and now Rei doesn't know who to go to or what to do and is going with suboptimal options becuase she doens't know that her mother can and will hep her with this.

Honestly, not telling Rei about this like, a year ago, was somewhat irresponsible of Aria... But then I guess there wouldn't be a story. My only hope is that if Rei ever has a bio-kid that she doesn't make the same mistake.

Verde's being coy about her magic lessons. Honeslt,y I don't like that she's keeping her desire to be a Wizard secret from Rei. Motivvated by envy or not... Rei envys you in some ways, she claims you're stronger than her.

Envy is normal. Everyone envies their friends, unless their friends lives suck. That's normal. The key is to not let t get in the way of your friendship.

And something that would lead into a very effective fake out if I didn't know it was coming.

Spoiler: Chapter 13

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Rei seeing Heather and company as the peons to Chloe is a fun bit for me. Showing through characterization how they've so fully manipulated Chloe into being seen as the big shot when she's in fact their plaything, eventually. Also yeah, absolutely named Heather after the musical.

So, as evidenced by the fact that Verde and Ella go snooping and Rei is open to telling them the truth now that they know, I'm not a big fan of hiding secrets either. So when I do do it, it's for a good reasons. In the case of Aria, it is meant to be a failing on Aria's part that she chose to do this. She has her reasons (she says as much later; that she wanted Rei to have a normal life unlike herself) but she admits that it was wrong of her. For Verde... while she is envious of Rei, her reason for hiding her wizard training is much more legitimate; she just wants to surprise her with it. Given as we learn later it was Verde's idea to throw Rei a surprise party, as you'll see later, it was absolutely just going to be part of that.

[Rater202]

Okay, based on metaknowledge this is gonna be a hard one to get through, might as well get it done.

Spoiler: Chapter 14

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"How many shadows can dance on the edge of a knife?"

...Gamma can taste with his lungs? That's... Disturbing.

"This thing that you hate keeps you alive" counting as a concession... Yeah.

"This would be the day he let them kill him." ****, man. This... This is gonna be rough.

The first mention of Mnemonic puppets and that the project concluded, but no further details.

...putting your life in the hands of the suicidal person that you've abused the Hell out of but need alive to not die? I think that's a Darwin award.

...Okay. The truth is, I can't really formulate many thoughts on this chapter. The previous line was my attempt to comfort myself with some morbid humor but...

This chapter left me feeling disturbed and vaufgly uncomfortable in a way I don't enough words or enough energy to describe.

If that's what you're going for, you succeeded. That's something to be proud of.

...I'm gonna go try and process that.

[LaZodiac]

Spoiler: Chapter 14

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I will say, that is what I intended. It is genuinely something I wanted to get across that Gamma was put through utter hell.

I do apologize though, if it was too much. I don't want to hurt with my writing, at least in a bad way. Good hurting is important, bad hurting... less so.

[Rater202]

Spoiler: Chapter 15

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Rei, sweety? Trust me, you're better off not knowing.

Ella knows what's up.

Yeah, Rei finally gets that different powers work differently.

Luckily it won't take Rei long to unlearn what little she's learned, now that she knows to feel instead of think.

...That doesn't sound like any bike I've ever heard of, but I never learned how to ride a bike so what do I know.

Ella has scene fights before.

...Again, something Rei would be able to handle better if she'd known ahead of time.

Verde, no. You're going Full Vegeta. Never go full Vegeta.

[LaZodiac]

Sorry for a late reply, been busy with things.

Spoiler: chapter 15

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Hehe, I wonder if Ella's specific phrasing there is a hint of something. Nice catch~

"Verde is Rei's Vegeta" is a fun image to me because he is also very tiny.