hello humanity nice to meet you. i am non-threatening come into my notes pspspsp
I have a side blog problem ✨
EU-posting @unstaerker
Charlie Bone Universe: @children-of-the-red-queen
Tolkien stuff: @1-small-world
& some other less relevant/active ones, ask away!
@halogenwarrior A sales pitch to you & anyone else reading this lmfao.
In short:
Children of the Red King (also called Charlie Bone) is a fantasy series aimed at middle schoolers that follows the titular Charlie as he gets into misadventures such as looking for a stolen baby, helping his time traveled relative, and trying to stop an ancient evil sorcerer from taking over the city, and more. Most of the cast has a unique power (called endowments) that helps or hinders Charlie along the way, from boosting electricity to hypnotism to conjuring ghosts with spears. There's a heavy focus on family as well, from Charlie's missing father to his quarreling relatives to the ancient and powerful magician-king almost everyone is descended from. There's very little romance, but not zero romance.
I'm not going to say it's the greatest of all middle school magic books ever, but I do think they're pretty good and worth looking into (add me at K_0809 on Discord for help getting digital versions of the books). If you like reading about preteens with magic powers who go to a gloomy school and get wrapped up in saving other characters from the villains, definitely give it a read!
Unless you're averse to stories where animals are injured (no animal death that I can remember offhand though), then due to an event in book 1 you'll want to exercise caution. There's also a 10 year boy who is blatantly neglected by his parents. As far as more direct harm to children, there's a line in book one about a child getting hit and references to a girl that might have maybe been killed and left behind a tattered cape. Otherwise, the villains prefer to hide children away, leave them for dead, throw them through time, trap them in paintings, and the like. It's a series for children, and nothing is very explicit, so most people should be ok to read the books.
In long (I start rambling so no offense taken if you stop reading here lmfao):
Ok so as far as my tags go:
#obligated to mention Children Of The Red King#is it a book for middle schoolers? yes#but does it have a 12 y/o half mermaid who's constantly attempting murder and is emotionally unwell and has a tragic backstory and#is under a curse to kill his father? yes#it also has a stolen hypnotized baby and a guy who turns into a beast every night and a long haired vaguely goth hypnotist#the hypnotist and the beast boy are even toxic friendship. yaoi if you're enlightened
Sadly, the incredibly awesome ocean boy does not show up until book 6. BUT. We get the black-clad hypnotist and his beloathed pet beast-guy from the very first book.
The hypnotist is Manfred Bloor, and he's a student (staff after he turns 19) at Bloor's Academy, which is arguably where the characters spend most of their time. Yes, his family owns the academy, and yes, they live there full time. Manfred is a bratty, tantrum throwing, petty little bitch, and I say this with affection.
The beast guy is Asa Pike. He and Manfred are NOT friends. Manfred is NOT shy about the contempt he holds for Asa. Even so, Asa obeys Manfred and often does dirty work for the Bloor family, like spying, chasing children, and generally haunting the castle ruins behind the Academy. He's a silly guy :3
As for their relationship... don't listen to me, listen to these Actual For Real Canon Quotes I'm Taking From The EPubs:
(note that the epubs did something to the punctuation and sometimes the spelling, and the physical books are written better than this)
Shipping them is something you do because you love angst and suffering and mutual misery. "Toxic yaoi" and it's because of [redacted spoilers but trust me that things get soooo bad between them].
As for ships in the vein of characters who like each other, we have canon romance Paton/Julia, a slowburn between an antisocial bookworm and a kindhearted bookseller. They have a bit of a rough start, but quickly become a couple to root for.
Speaking of Paton, he's a great character. He hates going outside in the daylight. He's forever writing a book. He used to keep his head down, but during the series he grows into a brave man who helps the good side. He kills someone (intentional) and burns down their house (not as intentional, but it's not like he feels bad either). Very cool guy.
I do think what I love most about the series is that there's a lot of characters who have cool powers and use them to do cool things. Storm guy literally blows other children into the air and out of the scene. Spirit Summoner guy summons ancient ghosts with spears. Ocean guy is constantly trying to drown people. Bird girl invents a new type of bird to turn into. These kids are great.
A lot of personalities are also just. fun. There's a flamboyant theater kid. Storm guy has wind around him that reacts to his moods. The moon influences how much of an asshole the half-mermaid is. There's creepy twins. There's an evil 6 year old. There's two grandmas that can't stand each other.
There's also a few different locations in the series that are cool. There's the gloomy school I mentioned earlier. There's a castle made of mirrors (they go there one (1) time). There's the crumbling ruins of a (different) castle. There's a cafe that only serves animals (humans may accompany their pets, but the cafe is FOR the pets). There's a gloomy land found inside a painting. There's a street called Darkly Wynd with three number 13s at the end where evil old sisters live. There's a bookshop.
As far as the hypnotized stolen baby... That's actually the main plot of the first book. Charlie learns about a girl whose father sold her years ago and searches for her so she can be reunited with her aunt.
Is the series perfect? No. But it's a fun read and I do recommend it a lot.
Also this post by @children-of-the-red-queen. I feel like this post is a very good argument for reading the books
if a game is making you so angry that you have to scream, dusturbing the whole house and distressing your teammates maybe close the game and go cool your head and i mean this in the nicest most literal way possible
the world needs trans men more than it needs miserable cis women and the world needs trans women more than it needs miserable cis men and the world needs nonbinary people more than it needs miserable binary people
Big peeve: people increasingly using the apostrophe for plurals. Most recent was a fic from an author I like had like “just two gay’s”. Gay’s what? Is the thing that belongs to the gay in the room with us? No, cause it’s actually plural!
I had to learn this shit! I remember being in english class and explicitly being told that the apostrophe is for possessive. And if you’ve got a name like Marcus, then it’s «Marcus’» not «Marcus’s». I’ve made peace with people getting this one wrong, it’s unintuitive, I get it. But the plural peeves me to no end. Do kids not learn this in school? Do you only learn it if you’re in english classes for non-native speakers?
And it’s become so ubiquitous that I just know it’s gonna be accepted as correct in a couple decades/centuries - until the dictionary catches up. Correct language is the language that people use. And I mean, sure, I can understand what they’re trying to say, so it’s not that big of a deal. But I just know it’s gonna become another one of those things that makes english not make any sense, “Why is this a rule in english? Because fuck you that’s why” and you’re gonna need a linguist on tiktok to explain why some plurals have apostrophes and some don’t. It’s not even unintuitive, can they please proofread their fics that they post, if not their comments and dms??
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Marcus' vs. Marcus's is a stylistic choice. Just keep it consistent within a single work.
This other thing is called a greengrocer's apostrophe and it is a plague.
That said, the jokey name was apparently coined in the 1950s yet this misuse still shows no sign of mainstream acceptance. You can relax.
“some style guides”
why can't you have the one why English speakers make English so complicated
you know like the Royal academy of Spanish language
there's one single “style guide” and it is the law of language
whatever doesn't follow it is wrong and that's it
good for autism: clear rules
the royal in the title might give it away
it's a good thing that there isn't some body of coughracistcough elitist assholes making decrees about which words are illegal
I thought we all agreed it was stupid when France did that
To be fair, when I've looked at the RAE dictionary, it has a lot of "This term is used only in Bolivia" and a lot less "How dare you borrow internet words from English!!!!"
(But I suppose I might as well ask: if you have one single authority, when should I use el voseo: never or always? You can only pick one!)
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Anyway, for my many non-native English speaker friends out there, I wasn't joking about the peasant thing.
Yes, lots of highfalutin European stuff was in Latin until recently, but some European languages were at least a language of power some time before the last five minutes. English kings spent a good few centuries speaking French and not giving a toss about English. Even after the courts and such went back to being in English during the middle ages, we retained a giant inferiority complex towards Latin and French and a lot of standards for English didn't get codified until the last few centuries. The US in particular decided to make up lots of new spellings to prove how not English it was. Now that the US is very, very powerful but obviously not the origin of English, it's impossible to go back to a state where a single authority would be possible.
The result is that our authorities are several, and they're often more descriptive than prescriptive, like the OED or Merriam-Webster, or they're style guides that are telling you how you should write to match their standard but aren't necessarily ruling out other standards existing, like the Chicago Manual of Style.
We're a bunch of fractious peasants. The OED is as good an authority as you're going to get.
I usually despise saying a homophobic politician is gay because it feels like blaming the community for their own oppression but it is important to note Lindsey Graham was gay and this was an open secret his entire life that he thought he was hiding well from South Carolina
There are a lot of people who start creative projects with no business or financial plan, because "who cares, it isn't important, we'll figure that out later". And you can't let yourself become that person. Not because I'm a sneering finance bro who thinks your woke animated youtube series wont make money, but because if you don't you'll wind up financially exploiting your friends for years
Look, it's none of my business if you wanna work yourself to the bone for no money so you can make your dream project a reality. I think you shouldn't, but also let's be real that's basically a rite of passage for young creatives. But as soon as you start involving other people? You need a plan. You need to be able to compensate them for their time, and you need to have it in writing
head in my hands, as someone who does extensive freelance TTRPG work - an industry in which the vast majority of those involved are doing it as a passion project/side hustle, and in which many people are friends with those they work for and with:
if you are doing any creative project with someone else in which money will be involved, make a contract. Doesn't need to be super formal. Get something laid out in writing that very clearly indicates what the person you are asking to do something is responsible for, the timeline in which they're expected to complete it, and the compensation they'll get for doing so.
"oh but we've been best friends since eighth grade" make a fucking contract.
"oh but this probably won't make much money anyway" make a fucking contract.
"oh but I don't know all that legalese" there are tons of pretty accessible templates available online if you research, just make sure it's one that suits your needs and you understand what's in it (it can be written in normal language without legalese, as long as it's clear), and make a fucking contract.
I've heard horror stories about this shit destroying projects, friendships, livelihoods, and in most cases the fallout could have been avoided (or at least mitigated) by having a clear legally binding document about everyone's responsibilities and compensation from the get-go. Do not assign someone work without a contract or some form of written agreement; do not work without a contract or some form of written agreement. please for the love of god.
