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This is for your word game for TOTSMOV41! My word is "Snake".

An arrow whizzed by, and tore through the hem of her dress, causing it to fragment into dead, red butterflies that were crushed underfoot.

“That Snake!” Sophie screeched, puffing from the exertion of running in heels. “If he keeps this up, I won't have much of a dress left!”

Both Agatha and Rafal reddened for vastly different reasons.

Glass

"This is my class now." From the center, Rafal blasted everyone back to the walls of the rotunda.

The students’ faces contorted in rage, but he held them back with his magic as they struggled against their binds, class and professor alike bound to the walls with streaks of black magic.

He shot a petrification spell at Sheeks, and addressed the students, a few of which had gone glassy-eyed in numb terror.

Several other students glared at him, murderous and embittered.

"I'll take it gladly if you hate me. Magic follows emotion. Therefore, your hatred and fear will fuel your villainous purposes."

The venomous looks dropped off of some of the Nevers' faces as they took in his words, and Rafal grinned to himself, his eyes still watering profusely with unshed tears as he soldiered on through the scalding pain of his own punishment, and delivered the rest of his speech.

And the answer is:

RAFAL

If you selected "Japeth" or "Multiple of them," you receive partial credit!

Japeth causes blood loss that sends Tedros into a not-quite-lucid state, and Rafal is specifically responsible for the provocation that sets Tedros off.

Also, I was surprised by the spread of the responses. Did most people see "fowl" and immediately think "Rafal?"

If anyone wants to sate my curiosity, what was your reasoning for other choices/your thought process in general? I also had Tedros' head turn to be intentionally misleading, as if he were addressing two people instead of one—did anyone latch onto that?

Wizard Guessing Game

Somebody sent Tedros to the insane asylum (not literally) in TOTSMOV41. Guess who.

I'm sure you've all heard of: "Which witch is which?" Well, this is: Which wizard is this? Feel free to write out your reasoning. I'm curious.

Tedros’ head lolled to the side. “'Tis ungodly, my hears. Ears. Myne eyen hear. 's the Evil wizard, foul, foul." He laughed to himself as if he had witnessed a joke no one else was privy to. His head snapped to the other side sharply, his gaze unfocused. "No—foul fowl!” he burbled in a daze, approaching incoherence.

Round VII of Excerpts from The One True School Master of Vault 41

Someone has “revenge” on the brain. I thought the first excerpt might be funny and could stand on its own out of context. The actual context makes it funnier, in my opinion, but I unfortunately can’t spoil it because it involves possibly the most insane shock in the entire fic.

Admittedly, I’m slightly proud of myself for managing to not burst and to hold back on revealing the plot twists, particularly with major events #2, #3, and #4. Otherwise, there'd likely be zero surprises left.

Though, plot twist #1 is sort of foundational to the premise, so I gave it away! (Sophie is nominated for the position of School Master.)

Also, a strange observation about my own plot occurred to me: contrary to what I or others might think, the plot is actually quite simple. Or, at least, from my view at the moment, it is. I’d originally thought it was complicated, but no. Actually, it’s simple masquerading as complex because there are complications thrown into the story, like wrenches, via a few different elements/events. So, that’s something, I guess?

If I could summarize the plot in one sentence, it would be: three souls enter a crystal ball, and some of them emerged scathed, changed, or both at once.

That’s probably the easiest way to put it, without spoilers.

Anyway, here are the excerpts (from two entirely different sections of the fic):

⸻

That was it. To say it irked her was to put it mildly.

Assuming they were both alive by the end of it, the first moment she got after all these crises were over with, she was taking him for a haircut, whether he liked it or not!

She would march him directly over to the finest salon she could find in the Woods, posthaste, like a prisoner if he resisted—all for the sake of a nice, neat trim.

So be it if it ended up botched. His Doom Room had done the same to her. So what did it matter?

⸻

Rafal glared at Agatha as if to signal: don’t let on that you’re hurt.

“Why are you both limping?”

Agatha stole a quick glance at Rafal who found himself turning to stare intently at a Stymph on high.

He shook his head with the slightest motion. She couldn’t know what it had cost them, or she would intervene.

The movement caught Sophie’s eye, and she turned her attention to Agatha for the truth.

Agatha shrugged wordlessly.

Sophie narrowed her eyes. “Well, it certainly wasn’t bird-watching, that much I can gather.”

Agatha shuffled, and Rafal observed her shove one foot behind her other ankle, but in her gaping, oversized clumps, one sock slid down to reveal an inflamed, red welt.

Unfortunately, Sophie traced his sightline to Agatha's foot. “Agatha? What happened?”

I've had the last few lines of TOTSMOV41 in mind for a long time, so I thought that if anyone would like to humor me and play along:

I will give you a very minor spoiler that hints at something significant/symbolic if you squint at it, if you can guess the last verb of the fic.

If anyone can guess the last common noun (not a proper noun or a pronoun), then I will give a different minor spoiler.

If anyone comes close with their guesses, I'll still probably reveal both slightly spoilery things. This is really just an excuse to entertain myself with this game, (or alternatively, to shock you with?)

(And, unless anything changes massively, the lines will likely remain similar to their current iterations by the end of the writing process.)

Minor TOTSMOV41 Spoilers

This post references this post.

Spoiler #1: Someone, perhaps two someones, ought to land in hot water for this:

Kiko nearly dropped dead at the shock of Good’s shining spires terraforming, blackening, as if a sinister plague had spread from Evil, up its towers, across Dean Sophie’s breezeways and catwalks, creeping up the base of Good’s glass castle to its highest turrets, toxic, emerald green fog choking the atmosphere around the Schools, the Blue Forest drained of its signature hue, until… the rot receded, just as quickly as it had emerged.

“Praise the Storian!” she cried, relieved that her bare arms were absolutely featherless, thudding to the floor in a faint.

⸻

Spoiler #2: There will be an unorthodox murder weapon that harkens back to the prequels. (It is not a letter opener.)

Steps towards you wetly

Jean Paul Gaultier Spring 2024 Haute Couture

characters who dig themselves out of their graves (whether literal or metaphorical) are at the top of the list. nothing beats a character who should have died but didn't and comes back to haunt their own life and the world around them, benevolent or violent it doesn't matter, it's enthralling either way

Slightly Cursed TOTSMOV41 Thought?

The other day, I had a horrible yet probably true thought about Rafal in TOTSMOV41. He technically punishes himself. Ok, yes, the Storian is responsible for the red-hot iron shoes, but it happens inside the crystal, which I failed to consider, and that means that Sophie, Agatha, and himself (their collective, error-prone memories) are the forces punishing him. It's unconscious on all their parts, but it just seemed weird enough to mention.

In my conceptualization of it, the crystal will work like an alternate reality of a kind, a reality but also a simulation or unreality, where true and false intersect because I'm trying to match the TCY themes and so, there are both real and false elements and real and "false" injuries.

But, I'm kind of at a loss as to whether this works. Seeing as I don't have a complete explanation, I don't think this will change in the final draft, but it's certainly a... feature.

Basically, I'm not sure how well this works because the version of Rafal in the fic is the one from TLEA who isn't supposed to have a guilty conscience, so why would he be punishing himself, even unconsciously? And really, I'll have to blame it on Sophie, Agatha, and Rafal's memory of the Storian itself, leaving a painful impression on them in some way or another because it would make less sense for Sophie, Agatha, and Rafal himself to be subconsciously punishing him.

This is kind of a knee-jerk reaction at my attempt to find a reason for everything I can possibly conceive of. It probably shouldn't be taken that seriously, and at the moment, it doesn't seem to be a plot hole?

Any reactions or ideas, anyone?

To amuse myself, I made another aesthetic based on TOTSMOV41, and I'll even drop a "fun" line because why not!

If all else failed, he would call down one of his own Stymphs to end him quickly.

There may two biers in this, but the fic will only have one. Corpse not included.

Round VIII of Excerpts from The One True School Master of Vault 41

I'm only dropping a few short snippets from the draft (currently at around 178 pages—I haven't been doing much with it lately since the last update) because they connect in a very incorrect, misleading way, which I find funny, even if I already know the context with the redacted parts. Sorry (or not sorry)! Things aren't what they appear to be, and that's all I can say for now.

⸻

[When I re-read this part, it occurred to me that I had possibly written an unintentional but legitimate burn.]

[...]

Rafal stared at her in the mask. “What are you wearing that for?”

“I-I felt strange, looking in the mirror. And well, the mask makes me feel less like you…”

[...]

⸻

Rafal had made up his mind. He would execute his plan, no matter the consequences.

[...]

⸻

[...] Sophie really was timely. Or perhaps, she was watching him [...] The thought almost made him laugh.

[...]

"Death to the School Master!" He raised a fist, and led them to class.

"DEATH TO THE SCHOOL MASTER!" They chanted in unison.

All according to plan.

A Hypothetical TOTSMOV41 Scene I've Talked Myself out of Writing

There's a scene in the draft of TOTSMOV41 in which Tedros punches Rafal in the face while wearing heavy, wide band, royal rings (I did a little sketch of the results here), and I'm soo tempted to have Rafal's first, instinctual thought be: how ineffective. And I could have him mock Tedros for the punch in such a condescending way that he'd just be asking to be punched again at that point. The subtext would drip with: look at me and what a fine target my perfect jawline would be—

Rafal would be evaluating the effectiveness and the actual impact of the punch, as if Tedros were one of his ineffectual Never students, thinking to himself that brass knuckles would've been better than mere rings. Should restock those in Evil's arsenal. Hmm... as if he weren't just punched in the face. Like, how non-reactive would that be?! It would not be immediate rage, but he would be operating on autopilot, due to all the other terrible things the narrative had subjected him to by that point, like he's blatantly apathetic.

The whole thing could be an absolutely scathing review of Tedros' punch, which he just finds pitiful, running through his mind, and besides, this pain is nothing in comparison to everything else that's happened to him as of late, so the pain doesn't even really register, at first, and he has a high pain tolerance anyway and he hasn't had a decent night's sleep in weeks, so what?

Thus, he just. Defaults to Evil professor mode. He's going on about the wind-up or the velocity of the act, and everyone's staring at him like he's grown a second head, and then, partway through, he realizes. He's instructing his sworn, mortal enemy. He's literally giving this young idiot pointers!

The idea strikes me as funny because it poses the question: what if Rafal were in teacher mode at the time? Alas, the whole thing is just so unlikely that I think I'll have to scrap the idea.

Unless—he's in a disoriented and dazed enough state for this type of thought process to occur, which could very well be true, considering the previous, slightly horrific things that happened to him. And yet, I think he's the type to always be alert, to land on his feet, to hit the ground running, etc., which again, wouldn't work too well for his character, unfortunately. And, well, there's probably enough humor in that scene already (depending on how potential future readers will take it?) so nevermind.

I want to maintain the integrity of his characterization, but the comedy potential to be had here could be such fun to exploit (and he is sort of known for being under-responsive/unfazed)! So, instead of all this, which could potentially detrimentally slow down the pacing, Rafal will likely just get an awful, sardonic remark, as per usual. Ah well.

It could've been great otherwise, but this Rafal-lecturing-Tedros scene might not work for the greater purposes of the story. Rafal is probably too self-aware and not quite "absent-minded professor" enough, and this scene wouldn't have fit the tone, so that's why I'm scrapping the idea and posting it here instead. (If I can manage to have it both ways, with the sardonic comment and his lecture, I may put it in, but the current outline/draft as it is will likely not use this at all.)

Inspired by the nursery rhyme "Rub-a-dub-dub":

Rub-a-dub-dub, Three mortals in a tub, And who do you think they be? The princess, the witch, the former School Master, Run from the burnt Wizard Tree.

if she's your girl then how come she's hallucinating my 10,000-y.o. dripping wet corpse

What is your favorite thing about SGE series and why?

I have multiple favorite things, so you can expect me to elaborate for a while.

One of my favorite things from the series is Soman’s novel concept of "psyche travel," and for christening it with an actual name.

I’ve only seen this concept in a few other, more science-fiction or speculative type of stories, like the Divergent series, The Giver quartet, "The Veldt," a fascinating short story by Ray Bradbury (which TOTSMOV41 is very much inspired by) and the Artemis Fowl series, which involves time manipulation that wasn't strictly time travel (which is far more commonly seen in fiction). And I love Soman's more fantastical spin on psyche travel! To me, the concept was previously called "mental landscapes" or simply "simulations" of reality. "Psyche travel" as a term is just far broader and more versatile, and I feel like you could do more with it, experimentally.

In fact, I would've loved it if Soman could've left more room in his tight plots to explore human consciousness and "the cauldron of the unconscious" more in TCY, so I will be doing exactly that with the themes in my longfic TOTSMOV41. If anyone wants to know more about TOTSMOV41, I'll redirect you to this table of contents/introductory post.

My fic's entire premise reflects how much I loved that one scene in ACOT. It was absolutely brilliant, especially with the edited views of what reality once was, how subjective memory could be. Plus, in that moment, ACOT managed to combine a few of my major interests: psychology and how generally error-prone the human mind and memory are, surreal imagery in literature, and delving further into SGE’s soft, irrational/nebulous, thematically-relevant magic system. (The way I see it, problems are more often unintentionally created than intentionally solved with magic, and we understand little of it, what goes on magically, really, and can't logically extrapolate what the characters could possibly do said magic. So, the magic is framed as unstable and flexible, even while it does reflect the state of the world and the important relationships in the tales. Thus, that's how I might classify the SGE system. You're welcome to disagree on which type of magic system it is though!)

The following points are probably more obvious:

First, Soman’s prose and images overall are enthralling, and his use of VERBS, especially, rivals few authors that write for a younger demographic, at least in my opinion. It’s often just so well done. It's the little things, like using "scalded" or "pinked" instead of "blushed" that I love. Soman's use of language is so inventive at times, and I love trying to imitate it. Verbs can make or break a piece of writing in my mind.

Also, I love the extravagance and length and readability of this particular book one sentence that I think is underrated for the sheer exasperation embedded in it:

“After chastising her for slipping in the Ever ranks, explaining every assignment thrice, and berating her to cover her mouth when she coughed, Pollux finally left in a circus of hops and falls.”

It’s fabulously sweeping and exhaustive.

In addition, the third person omniscient pov is less common nowadays, I think. So much of middle grade and YA is in first person these days, so it may be a trend, for its immediacy. Though, I tend to prefer third person, even if my preference also generally depends on how well the work was executed.

I love SGE for its basis in fairy tales since I loved reading the classic Grimms' fairy tales before I discovered SGE—they were probably my favorites for a while (and still sort of are, alongside SGE). And they inhabited my storytelling before I ever discovered more subversive things existed. Thus, it's the overall darkness and the dramatics I find compelling about Soman's work.

The cleverness in the writing, when it’s well-executed, is phenomenal. And this applies to two aspects: first, Rafal, obviously, and second, the plot structure itself.

When I say Rafal, I mean specifically during the moments in which he shows off his conniving craftiness, his prowess at outfoxing others. And I love any instances of scenes in which he tricks or outwits people and systems.

Someday, I’ll have to remember to discuss the Fala-shoe-fairy-kiss scene from Fall, one of my favorites ever, in a future post. Those particular thoughts must be somewhere in my scads of drafts... I’ll have to look for them. For now, I will give you any thoughts I have now:

I'm referring to the scene in which Fala lures a fairy with a golden kiss and traps it in his shoe without a single word of verbal explanation, and he expects everyone to intuitively follow his genius thought process, the solution to their dilemma. Then, everyone, except Aladdin, manages to catch on, when they watch his demonstration.

Here's an (exaggerated?) approximation of how I'd imagine his internal monologue could've gone:

Watch and learn, youths. I’m better than you. In innumerable ways, and this is one. But fear not! I will lead you to success. No one else is capable of doing it. Yes, I will take on this burden myself. Give me all the credit. But don’t even bask in my cleverness, even if it deserves your attention. My actions speak for themselves. Just get the task done. Now. We don’t have all day to dilly-dally like inane cowards.

I will redirect you to this post, if you would like to read more about how I happen to interpret Rafal's "trickery," or rather, absence of trickery, perhaps.

And for my second spiel on the series' cleverness, elaborating on its predictable unpredictability, on a structural level, even if I only saw it in hindsight:

I love any kind of legerdemain or sleights of hand, or twisting of plots, except the devastating Fall one, I suppose. And there is something very characteristic of SGE I've observed: there are often, very, exceedingly late third act turning-points. These points are likely hallmarks of the series, to the extent that I've come to expect them by now, especially after Rise, and sometimes, I'm probably actively on the lookout for them when I read other books. Besides, Soman likes to lull readers into a false sense of security, that much we can probably confirm.

Furthermore, these turning-points seem to take two forms and you can literally only expect one of two things to happen.

It's either: 1) the characters reach a point of what should be a settled peaceable resolution, that is then rapidly negated, or 2) the characters reach a darkest-night-of-the-soul moment, the prospect of temptation in the story, often for an individual, and wishes are granted (often in subversive, unfulfilling ways to almost everyone's dismay).

Examples:

1) In Rise and TLEA: you think you are safe, that you're out of the dark Woods (which often represent the darkness of the soul or the human psyche as a symbol) but you're not. There is no built-in "warmth" to the narration, as Soman puts it in one of his interviews. This all is literally the narrative's "liar's tell" or "slip" in the third act, a revisiting of conflict, the reopening of the tale. You know there is more disaster to come. The ride is not over yet, however much you may think or desire it to be so.

In AWWP, characters say and believe the wrong things, are misled, and narrowly miss a possible "happy" ending because Sophie felt alienated enough to choose Rafal, who chose her.

In TLEA, we think everything is resolved, but all of a sudden, we get one more little impact, a jolt, that not all is well or completely restored, the moment Aric kills Lady Lesso.

In Rise, when Rafal is revived and reclaims the Schools from Vulcan, setting everything back into their original, proper forms, back to order, we think we've averted all crises, and have reverted back to the status quo. But, that resolution, again, is only momentary. Supposedly, Rhian's Evil, his rot, was awakened, and the moment Rafal considers leaving again and does, to seek out a new replacement student, is when the plot begins to race downhill again. When Rafal leaves, he leaves a gap for Rhian's poor judgement to bleed through, and Rhian hires Hook, effectively setting off the second wave of awful plot events in Fall. Rhian sort of resurrected old conflicts, and breathed new life into them.

2) Before the Great War in TLEA and the climax, we get tonal signposting that nearly "all is lost," that we're approaching, marching towards our imminent demise. There's an ever-present fog of "Abandon all hope, ye who enter" because if there's anything Rafal's good at, it's cultivating an air of stifling oppression. Hence, we have the narrow aversion of the darkest moment:

Agatha (unlike prequel Rafal with Evil Rhian) doesn't use the wrong emotional appeal. She gets through to Sophie, she and Tedros aren't executed, and Sophie destroys the ring, killing Rafal. Despite everything that said otherwise, that said Good would lose.

Lastly, a few other bits I appreciate are the roles the Seers play in the series, the meta aspects of the Storian (or Lionsmane) and the tales in general, and the names of a lot of the proper nouns such as the kingdoms—I don't know why I love some of them. The alliteration is oftentimes fun, and the names feel right and plausible.

Fun fact: The red sky was described in one of the excerpt posts I released.

Devils Horns sunrise during a partial eclipse (2019) located: Al Wakrah, Qatar

‘don’t you want your favourite character to be happy???’ no? i want my favourite character to be interesting. i want me to be happy. which sometimes involves my favourite character being in exquisite agony

when a powerful figure is reduced to kneeling. when the lord is forced to bow. when the exile stumbles into an unwelcoming bar. when the “beast” is chained by their horns. when a god is dragged behind their enemy’s chariot, a captive and trophy. when the loyal “guard dog” character is muzzled and the silver-tongued thief falls silent in horror.

that’s the shit

it’s about the contrapasso. the reversal of roles and the sudden, plunging terror of being unable to hide.