I mentioned that I wrote a fantasy novel, right? WELL, HERE IT IS:
Jasmine Walters leads a simple life; she goes to work, comes home, and finds another sewing project to dive into on the weekends. But after a fateful encounter with a stranger, she learns that she's destined for something greater than retail.
Jasmine is the Prime--a human blessed by a magical Flame to act as arbitrator between the Hellenians and Draconians, two ancient races engaged in a diplomatic dispute that awards the victor access to the human realm. Leon Exousia, the newly crowned Hellenian High Lord, seeks her out in order to maintain the rights of the Flame for his people. But when Jasmine later meets the Draconians, what she uncovers will have her questioning everything she thought she knew about her role, and her weighty decision grows even more daunting than before.
Is she only a tool, led by the strings of fate? Or will she be able to forge her own path?
My debut New Adult Fantasy novel releases February 14th, 2023! If you like stories that feature Black female lead characters, high-stakes magical journeysā¦ and most importantly, hot demons and dragons you can bone, then this novel may be for you!
Order at Barnes & Noble or pretty much any major retailer/independent bookstore in your area!
Iāve completed everything in this thus far and I remember I usually do a āreview no one asked forā about Integrated Strategy iterations, so leggo
General improvements: the ability to choose which ending to go for rather than relying on RNG, fun Fordartal shenanigans, added perks to relics on higher Braving Nature levels
General annoyances: unable to stop the Collapse level from rising (unless you pick the Eternal Hunting Squad), being locked into Braving Nature 0 in the beginning, both the 2nd & 3rd end bosses being a DPS and/or ASPD check
Aiight soā¦ best and worst categories GO
Best starting squad: Special Training Squad
The worst part about higher ascension runs is the +1 Hope cost for recruitment and this squad mitigates that. Made my BN 10+ runs a lot less painful LOL
Worst starting squad: Scientific Thinking Squad
Yeah, you end up with max Anti-Interference by like floor 3 but being blind up until then is annoying lol.
Best Fordartal: Sing
Listen. Hardly anything beats the endorphin rush of ASPD boosts anyway, but also I have not managed to beat the 2nd or 3rd end bosses without help from it.
Worst Fordartal: Hunt
Iām truly not tryna ASK to get my ass whooped outchea, yāall can keep this š
Least harmful Collapsal Paradigm: Convergence Consumption
For the most part I can just avoid getting screwed by this at all by skipping Bosky Passage nodes
Most harmful Collapsal Paradigm: Barometric Anamoly
Fuck this one to the pits of hell š Have me mad as fuck watching my DP like
Easiest Emergency Node: Hands of Moss
Yeah, itās a 1st floor stage anyway but like any of the others can steamroll you immediately if you have a poor starting lineup, this one is the safest bet cause nothing really changes about it from regular to emergency mode.
Worst Emergency Node: tie between March of the Dead & Stay Away From Strangers
If we being real? NO 5th floor combat stage is safe at high ascension š¤§ it will always be a fight for your life, but these two can be run-enders. MotD throws in two mudrock Colossi for funsies and SAWF will end in tears if you donāt have the ranged units to get all them drones gone and the swiftness to pick off all the Rot Eaters before they get too beefy to hold off.
Best Bosky Passage effect: Concentration Disorder from IS3 on steroids
I love set and forget shenanigans because I assure you, I will be setting and forgetting anyway! *grins in ADHD*
Worst Bosky Passage effect: too much Dominion
Donāt fuck around and get this while also having the Substantial Collapse paradigm. Whole map gonna have fart clouds on it. Pain.
Best new Relic: āDevotionā
Is it game breaking? No. But chip damage on enemies for healing racks up!
Worst new Relic: Frozen Whetstone
Way to make Bladedance absolutely useless LMFAO like honestly if thereās one thing is4 is good at is giving really good relics some disappointing handicaps.
Okay. Now onto the bosses!
Samivilinn aka that bigass ice mountain with an attitude
Very straightforward. Typhon will trivialize this boss and Reedalter will trivialize the stage itself by clearing it of all the ice in one s3 activation. The enemies on the right hand side tend to be more annoying to corral but if you have Eyjalter with her s3 itāll keep the whole squad across the map healthy enough to push through.
Eikthynir aka the Snowpriest who really wants to be Usain Bolt
Full disclosure; most of my wins against him required creative stacking of Sing fordartals and proper timing/abuse of Goldenglowās s3 to get him down most of the way before he speedruns the exit. But so many battles have ended up with him blowing past all my blockers with 1% health and me not being able to do shit but watch š
Crazelyseon, aka the teleporting Flying Spaghetti Monster
A menace š Invulnerable 90% of the time, warping around the stage, dropping cancer squares of doom, and worst of all the time limit. If you donāt kill this thing soon after it starts warping three times in a row then youāre finished cause itāll explode. I havenāt felt such a time crunch on an IS boss since BSL.
Best practice is to set up your heaviest hitters at two of its stopping points and only activate the device when itās overcharged to get the most bang for your buck. You have GOT to time it right tho cause if you get impatient or your DPS gets wiped then the whole stage goes to shit really fast. Once again, I have never beat this boss without an ASPD boost of some kind.
Great Operators for IS4:
Ines - her invisibility reveal is goated
Typhon - really good for general carry on all floors but outside of the ice mountain boss her meta-ness falls off esp at higher ascension levels
Reedalter - her s2 will melt anybody including those Shattered Champions
Eyjaberry - frankly indispensable, her s1 holds it down and her s3 reaches everywhere
FedExecutor - his s2 allows him to dodge most bullshit and he holds his own despite not being able to be directly healed
Virtuosa - def a luxury pick and fairly new but a way better source of Necrosis damage than Valarqvin and just overall very fun to play
Ling - I usually do not play SummonKnights because I donāt have the brain cells but honestly the runs Iāve done with her were solid and fun especially with the Empty Fowlbeast relic
Hoāolheyak - rather mid as a Core Caster but with the relics that boost levitation effects she can actually hold her own
Jessica Wick - her deployable shield can buy you some time against these sprinting mobs
Yato alter: sheās a key FastRedeploynights operator for a reason!
Mlynar - full disclosure; I donāt really use him in IS unless I get him as a temp recruit because while his damage output is unrivaled, I hate how he canāt block shit unless his skill is up
Ethan - a low cost GOAT at crowd control. That Prisonerās Night stage is trivialized with him
Other random tips:
Avoid the Nameless Hero stage. Please. š If you come across the Always on Alert encounter, just dip. Expeditiously.
When going for the 3rd ending, donāt go in a Scout node until like floor 4. Why? Cause that Routeweave Net will make additional enemies appear in all your stages and itās best to just put that off till the last moment. By floor 5 if you take the bottom most route the Prophecy node thatās supposed to be the fork to get to Eikās stage will turn into the one you need to get the Boundless Gift to open up floor 6.
GGās s3 is garbage for the ice mountain stage. Sheāll target every individual ice square before she decides to hit any enemies.
If you pick up the Scarred Amber relic, maximize your slay by stacking hella Plunder or Migrate Fordartals
Always save your best Fordartal combos for end stage bosses! Thereās no limit of how many buffs you can stack on a node so take advantage of that.
After a certain Collapse level is reached you wonāt get any more Fordartals outside of what you can buy from Cannot or get from a unique Encounter
There are two secret Collapsal Paradigms to unlock. One obscures your operators and the other obscures the enemy health bars and how many life points you have left. Both are fairly annoying. BUT STILL BETTER THAN BAROMETRIC ANAMOLY
I really think everyone needs to truly internalize this:
Fictional characters are objects.
They are not people. You cannot "objectify" them, because they have no personhood to be deprived of. They have no humanity to be erased. You cannot "disrespect" them, because they are not real.
I know this has good intentions, so I will just add the "how you treat them, even as objects of fiction, can speak about your own character, be careful out there"
Your addition is actually completely antithetical to my message. It is literally the opposite of what I am conveying.
Stop telling people to encourage the cop inside their head.
How you treat fictional characters, given they are entirely objects of fiction, does NOT necessarily speak to your own character, and you do not need to be "careful".
It is not dangerous to imagine dark things happening to fictional characters. It does not mean you are secretly a bad person. It does not mean you unconsciously want to hurt people in real life. It is not a "slippery slope" to doing bad things to people in real life. You cannot damage your brain or turn yourself into a bad person by consuming "dark" fanfic.
I can write tentacle noncon of my favorite character all day long and be a fierce anti-sexual assault advocate in real life because what I do in my head is not the same thing as what I do in real life.
ā The name of the most esteemed pleasure house in Hellenia. Run by an elite courtesan named Sustina, it is known that any adept who is preened by her hands will be exceptional. Most students are female, but Sustina does not turn men away from her doorstep who wish to be trained, as they are rare and in high demand.
ā Havenās ubiquity is also due to the fact that it is the only pleasure house that is tasked with training Hellenian women for the High Lordās harem. Wings are a recessive trait in Hellenians yet are required for any heir to the throne, so the High Lord mates with as many women as possible in order to conceive what is necessary.
ā Havenās doors are open to anyone who can meet the high asking price of its adepts, but Sustina has one hard rule: none of her courtesans are allowed to take an assignation from a patron going through a Rut.
I just saw a post about an Ao3 writer who took down their fanfic because they were salty that they were not getting enough comments on their work & is now bitterly only emailing updates to those who did comment, and I cannot express more how deranged that kind of behavior is for a creator.
You are not entitled to the type of engagement you like on your work.
If your main motivation for creating is for that engagement, then you're just an attention whore.
Yes, writers love detailed diatribes on how much you love our work, but we canāt hold shit hostage over our fans like that. I know I've said this multiple times over the years on here because every time I saw one of those posts circulate that basically tried to guilt trip people into commenting on fan works for the sake of the creator, it made me roll my eyes so hard they flew into orbit.
"Comments motivate me to continue writing!" Yes, they're a great endorphin boost, but it's not on consumers to compensate for your insecurities.
"It's rude to consume what I create & not leave a comment!" I highly doubt that you took the time to write a Letterbox review on a movie/submit a book review/post a detailed analysis of a music album, etc for every piece of media you've ever liked. Does that mean you donāt appreciate the people who made it?
"I'm not getting paid for it so the least people can do is like & comment!" Unfortunately, even if you were getting paid, you still are not entitled to engagement. The vast majority of consumers partake in their media of choice quietly. Your injured ego is not changing that.
"If you don't comment, then the algorithm will ignore me!" Do you want fake, forced interactions for the sake of maybe a 1% boost in a fickle algorithm or do you want sincere & freely given feedback?
"How else am I supposed to know people want to see more of my work if they don't comment?" This is where you have to divest from needing an undetermined amount of outside validation to do what you allegedly love to do.
If you find yourself having trouble continuing on a creative project, it's fine to take a step back and re-center yourself. But do not lash out at your audience; it's a terrible look & it will not garner you the results that you want. If you let yourself be puppeted by the desires of randos who can & will turn against you the moment you stop being a content vending machine, you will burn out FAST.
ā Hellenians ā
ā The name of a people estranged from their God. Averaging a life span of 300-500 years, they carry themselves with a rigid dignity and superfluous way of speaking. When they are allowed passage to the human realm, their passive influence results in the increase of mysticism, spirituality, and religion.
ā With heads adorned with horns and fingers tipped with talons, Hellenians also carry with them an ethereal beauty that is timeless in nature and attracts gazes easily. When not glamoured to conceal their unique features to blend in with humans, they also sport unnatural eye colors ranging from blood red, vivacious purple, to metallic gold.
ā A very rare but distinctive mark in Hellenians are a pair of wings. It elevates the individual to an elite position in society and is a required feature for the High Lord of Hellenia.
ā Clothing choices for Hellenians veer towards dark colors with deep jewel tones as accents. Silver is their preferred metal of adornment. Older generations lean heavily towards the Victorian-gothic aesthetic, while the younger ones mesh it with elements of steampunk or gothic couture. White is a sacred color reserved only for death, as it signifies purity that Hellenians believe they can only attain once the soul leaves the body.
ā Orandi gratia dei nobis in tenebris luceat ā āMay Godās grace shine upon us in darkness.ā A common phrase amongst Hellenians uttered at formal events or farewells.
some people think writers are so eloquent and good with words, but the reality is that we can sit there with our fingers on the keyboard going, āwhatās the word for non-sunlight lighting? Like, fake lighting?ā and for ten minutes, all our brain will supply is āunofficialā, and we know thatās not the right word, but itās the only word we can come up withā¦until finally itās like our face got smashed into a brick wall and we remember the word we want is āartificialā.
ā A realm hidden away from humans, home to the descendants of fallen angels.
ā Most of the populace lives in a tightly packed metropolitan area centered around the Exousia manor. The architecture is Gothic in nature, accented with flying buttresses, fleches and stained glass windows. Stone sculptures of angelic figures are a common sight along the cobbled streets lit with lamps powered by magic.
ā Daylight never crests beyond dusk here, and the air is often heavily laden with plumes of fog. The weather is moderate and lends itself to the lush forests surrounding the main city. It is not unusual for random showers or a light dusting of snow to fall.
ā Aside from walking, the main mode of transportation are horseless stagecoaches. Hellenians use magic in place of animal labor, which helps keep the streets clean of detritus. Notable families have their own coaches emblazoned with their family crest or are otherwise uniquely embellished.
Iāve decided that Iām going to do a series of random posts about the places/people in my book, Fated to Flame.
Is it self-indulgent? Damn right, it is. š But I also just love lore and any excuse to expand upon it, so ima do it!
It also helps as prep to the upcoming related VN, so if I need anything promotionally relevant down the road at least Iāll have something to pull from.
All of you are a captive audience to my ramblings. I apologize in advance!
Fictional characters are more Concept than Person.
Something I came across on Twitter the other day that made me go, āyes, this is exactly what Iāve been trying to put into words for a hot min!ā
I still (futilely, perhaps) hope that the antis or people who are otherwise heavy into fandom discourse internalize this. Fictional characters are nothing but a concept, so to attach morality to them in any way is very flawed.
It may be hard to hear for some of yāall, but what you engage in fictionally has no bearing on anything materially. Thereās staunch lesbians who will buss it wide open for male characters. Thereās people who wouldnāt harm a fly who are comfortable regularly consuming extremely dark or taboo media. There are literally no rules to this shit, no 1:1 relation of fictional preferences to real life values. To believe otherwise does not make you safer, but it does keep you dangerously naive and easily manipulated.
If you cannot maintain an appropriate psychological distance between who you are as a person and the media you create/consume, that is a problem, not a virtue. Well-adjusted individuals treat fiction as an escape and not a stand in for being a Good Personā¢ļø. If more folks settled with this, then at least 90% of the heated discourse/witch hunts in fandoms wouldnāt exist and weād be much better off for it.
You ever hear of a game called love and deepsace? It's an otome gatcha, but there's a character named Zayne who seems right up your alley š
I have heard of the game! I actually lurk on the subreddit for it, butā¦
I have literally never seen a more visually boring assortment of LIs paired with the corniest assortment of situations and lines in my LIFE š
I may be too old now to find that type of otome appealing to me, sadly. š The stuff Iāve seen folks squeal about or find steamy with Love & Deepspace reads as juvenile to me. The VR aspect of it is pretty cool tho, Iāll say that. But I think I need a more mature approach to otome (which probably aināt happening outside of indie games now).
