extremely mecore question so i have no idea if this will make any sense. but. i think i remember you said that tsh is at least partially a roadtrip. can you please talk about how various places in the story influence and relate to the overall themes and narrative etc not in a worldbuilding sense but in a Vibes sense. what does the city theyre from Mean to the various characters and what does leaving it mean and are there any other particularly important places etc etc
VERY youcore question. the best part is i haven’t actually decided where they go on the road trip but i’m giving u themes and vibes anyway
first of all. this is technically worldbuilding but i think urban magic would work slightly different from rural magic. the plot reason for this is so that junhee can see some rural place for the first time and be like “what the fuck is that” and the other two can go “???” and then realize there is something deeply wrong with him
so like. every town/landmark they hit has to be significant to one of the characters even if the rest don’t realize it. one of the towns is going to be where sasha’s parents were killed but delwyn & co. obv don’t realize that when they stop there for the night (they only know that its like irradiated with magic; haha turns out that’s what killed sasha’s parents). the town where sasha & co. catch up to them is the sight of the last family vacation hana and chan went on together. the idea here is that the metaphorical ghosts that motivate them are also made very very real by forcing them to revisit the scene of the crime so to speak. like yes tsh is a story about the future but it’s also about the past. that which haunts us. time is circular. etc etc
on one hand i like the idea of them making it to the west coast. beachside confrontation* and all that. plus it’s got a very final “you can go no further” feeling. on the other hand i also like the idea of them almost-not-quite making it. very sexy in a “falling short of expectations” way. or “trying and failing”, which resonates w tsh’s whole failing to stop the apocalypse thing.
(* just to be clear by confrontation i actually don’t mean sasha and co. that happens earlier in the plot. this climactic deal is the one where delwyn goes supernova and blinds junhee. i’m still undecided what the main threat is actually. i like the idea of a magical governing board that keeps tabs on mages and thinks delwyn is too powerful to allow him to go rogue. but also monsters never fail me. like to be more specific the magic governing board appeals more to my “commentary on human nature” instinct but i don’t think they’d be such a threat to junhee that delwyn would need to cause an apocalypse to stop them. a congregation of ppl who happen to be magic beacons drawing a shit ton of monsters to them, on the other hand… i might do both and give the board a smaller climax-type but i’m literally inventing that as i type this so i haven’t thought of consequences or long-term ramifications for any of this)
btw the journey itself uses chan’s car (delwyn and junhee, being new york boys, do not own cars). i imagine it being a mildly beat-up subaru or smth. chan apologizes for the mess in the backseat and junhee is like “we have bigger problems right now”. also lots of stops in run-down motels, dusty midwest towns, rusty gas stations and laundromats that sorely needed a remodel in like 1980. sort of the americana vibe. probably a quarter of the story? takes place in nyc until chan sees a vision of sorts that makes him think the apocalypse will start in nyc so like. if we just take delwyn out of the city everything will be fine! (spoiler alert it is very much not fine)
(also i think the aesthetic vibe is supposed to be a little bit “the world has already ended/been abandoned.” does that mean it doesn’t matter whether delwyn causes an apocalypse? or are we trapped in a story, where the environment knows already where the narrative intends to go? just a little bit of spice for u and me 🤝)
for both junhee and chan this whole apocalypse thing is also the first time they leave their hometowns (nyc and rural georgia respectively). for chan it’s a little bit self-discovery, a little bit hero’s journey (also significant i think that although delwyn is sort of The Main Guy, chan’s the one undergoing the transformative process of the hero’s journey). for junhee it’s a lot more symbolic of his willingness to follow delwyn anywhere (not to make his character sound like that’s his only personality trait?? if it weren’t for chan tho junhee would probably never leave nyc in his life). but it is also very much a “leave behind everything familiar and comforting” moment that does freak junhee out. part of it is that rural magic Does Stuff that urban magic doesn’t and it makes him very jumpy.
also sasha’s crew is following a weird and disjointed set of clues, courtesy of kei, that doesn’t so much lead them to delwyn as it leads them to places that are of emotional significance to him. (this is also how they manage to end up behind delwyn; tw worlduilding but the first clue leads them to new york, so they hop on a flight and then break into his apartment, but he’s already long gone. from there tho kei and sasha can both use the sort of. increased proximity to delwyn’s energy to track him a little more precisely. the more data points the better, which is why they get closer faster with each new city/town.)
delwyn’s hometown is gonna be pretty close to the west coast/end of their journey, around when delwyn’s coming to the conclusion that he is going to cause the apocalypse for real, that he has that power etc. the entire reason for him hailing from the west is that tsh is very “consequences of your own actions”-based; delwyn’s family still lives there and we’ll meet his parents and younger sister. haven’t decided her age yet but the important part is she is completely innocent. she’s sort of the connection to the real world, and delwyn has to be confronted with the reality of everything he’d be sacrificing, and it has to be fresh on his mind when he does it. he has to admit to himself that he is dooming everyone, has to decide for himself that saving junhee is worth that.
anyway thank you for letting me talk about this flesh this out in words etc. also thanks for being literally just as insane as i am muah <3
