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So I managed to rip the script files from Survive, and I seem to find something interesting in them--there are some Japanese dialogues that I don't remember encountering and have no English counterpart (i.e. the keys that refer to them aren't present in the English files, meaning that they aren't translated), which means these are probably dialogues that were cut in the final game?

For instance, we have this dialogue:

I put the whole scene into a table and translated it:

As you can see from the first pic, the script doesn't have the character name attached to them, and I haven't found a way to reliably figure it out either, so for now I'm just color-coding the dialogues based on who I think say it; green is most definitely Shuuji and purple is most definitely Ryou, but red is hard to decide... my guess is that it might be Saki, since you can infer from the dialogue that 1) it's spoken by a girl, judging from the feminine tone; 2) the speaker is close to Ryou; 3) Shuuji has a reservation about being called "-kun" by her (which suggests that she might be younger than Shuuji). Although her pronoun is stylized as 私 instead of わたし and she calls Shuuji with a "-san" instead of "-kun", this might be what was initially planned for her character.

I'll try to find more dialogues like this, I suspect there are more. And perhaps I'll try to compile it somewhere easily accessible? I'll decide later.

EDIT: I was a bit torn the first line and third line specifically being Saki's since it could also have been Ryou's, so I tried to ask a Japanese mutual who played Survive, and she believed it was Saki's as well judging from the tone

If anyone has opinions on this, please feel free to tell me!

I never understand people who are like "I love this character but I hate this other one" and the two characters are best friends. Your favorite character loves them, that's THEIR blorbo, their little shit, their sun and stars, and you want to hate them?

Analyzing Steam Reviews of Digimon Survive

Happy belated 2nd anniversary to one of my favorite games, Digimon Survive! To celebrate it, I was inspired to combine my professional expertise as a data scientist with my personal enthusiasm about the game to make a data science passion project revolving around it. This small project aims to delve into Steam reviews of the game and unveil what makes (and breaks) the game for the players who’ve tried it out. You can check all of it out under the cut, since this is going to be a really long post.

Before diving in, a bit about myself and this project to preface: I’m a data scientist with three years of industry experience and a big fan of Digimon Survive since its release, in which I’ve played both the JP and EN versions (you probably also know me as Shuuji’s passionate defense attorney lol). Emphasis on industry–my academic background is actually in a non-IT engineering field, and I have limited experience in data science applications in a formal academic setting. This means I tend to focus more on practical implications than on academic rigor (you can probably see what I mean by this as you read on). That said, this project is a labor of love aimed at understanding and celebrating a game that’s very close to my heart, so I did the best that I could with the data I have.

1. Data Collection and Preprocessing

Seeing the wealth of quality reviews available on Steam, I decided to use it as my data source for this project. I used a modified version of the Steam Review Scraper to gather the review data. Out of the 3,019 reviews available on the site (as of today), I scraped 1,533 reviews–all of which are in English–which accounts for 50.8% of the total. I focus on English reviews for the time being because it’s easier to clean and analyze English reviews with the NLP libraries currently available on Python (for those who aren’t familiar with it, Python is a programming language popular among data scientists, and it’s what I used for this project). Here’s a snapshot of the raw data to give you an idea of what it’s like:

This dataset isn’t quite ready for analysis though–we need to preprocess and clean it first to ensure more effective and accurate analysis. Here’s an example of what the data looks like after going through the general data cleaning (it’ll need more data cleaning later, but for now this should suffice as a first step):

Something to note here is that I keep the “helpfulness” dimension (column) as a way to weight the reviews (i.e., reviews that more people find helpful hold more weight than those that aren’t). I think this is a fair thing to do since I view the “helpfulness” score as people agreeing with the opinion voiced in the review.

2. Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA)

2.1. Sentiment Breakdown

What is the general sentiment surrounding the game? To understand that, I simply mapped the reviews based on whether or not the reviewers recommended the game (i.e., “Recommended” = positive, “Not Recommended” = negative), because I think it’s a pretty apt thing to do rather than running a whole new sentiment analysis. And here’s what we got:

Positive reviews: 1,257 (82.0%)

Negative reviews: 276 (18.0%)

Based on the data, we can see that the majority of people have a positive sentiment about the game, with only a relatively small minority viewing it unfavorably.

2.2. Word Counts

Now, let’s look at the frequency of words in both positive and negative reviews.

Interestingly, the top words based solely on their frequency are similar between the two categories. While it provides a preliminary picture, it’s hard to tell what truly makes the game good for the people who like it and bad for the people who don’t, so we need more nuanced analyses for better understanding.

3. Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA)

Next, I employed Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), which is a popular technique used for topic modelling that can discover hidden themes in texts and summarize them into topics. In the case of this project, using LDA can help us find out what are some of the most frequent talking points that players discuss in their reviews. For those curious of how it works, this diagram I snatched from this article explains how LDA works in a simple way:

Because this post was initially done in the form of a Twitter thread, I decided to go with 4 n-components (number of topics) to be identified each in positive and negative review topics (*do note that this might not be the best number to choose for the n-components). Also, the results are going to be presented in the form of word clouds.

3.1. Positive Review Topics

Topic 1 seems to focus mostly on game mechanics like “battle” and “choice”. Despite the generally favorable reviews of Survive, even the people who like it still acknowledge the gameplay as an issue for the game. There's a recurring comparison to another Digimon game, Cyber Sleuth, where Survive's mechanics are probably seen as a notable point of comparison.

Topic 2 is centered around how the game design ties to the narrative design. Specifically, players seem to love the different endings and evolutions, where the branching storylines and multiple outcomes keep players engaged and invested in their choices.

Topic 3 is the most frequently mentioned among all the topics and it centers around the characters and story. The characters and storyline seem to resonate deeply with fans, presumably especially true for long-time fans of the anime series. This topic shows that the emotional connection to the story and its characters is a significant factor in the positive reception of the game.

Topic 4, much like Topic 1, is largely about the gameplay, specifically about the combat. It seems that opinions are divided–despite the criticisms surrounding the actual (SRPG) gameplay part of Survive, there are some who do enjoy it for what it is. This makes the gameplay a polarizing aspect to Survive that’s both a positive experience and an area needing improvement.

3.2. Negative Review Topics

Topic 1 of the negative reviews–in contrast to the first topic uncovered from the positive reviews–seem to center around character enjoyment instead. Despite gameplay issues (mainly the combat system) hindering the overall enjoyment of the game, even the critics of the game still appreciate its characters and acknowledge it as one of the game’s strongest suits. However, translation problems in the game are also noted, which affect the immersion and enjoyment of the game.

Topic 2 seems to mostly come from people who are disappointed about Survive being largely a visual novel. Some players don’t like the heavy focus on story and dialogues, wishing for more battle elements. This expectation mismatch leads to dissatisfaction.

Echoing the first topic, Topic 3 is also about gameplay critique. There seems to be significant frustration over the game’s mechanics. Terms like “anime” and “cutscene” likely refer to the complaints about the game freezing after the animated cutscene that plays at the beginning of the game, which has now actually been fixed. There are also mentions of “price”, probably from people who think that the price point of the game isn’t worth it considering the lack of proper gameplay and the aforementioned bug. 

Similar to the positive reviews, comparison to Cyber Sleuth is also a recurring theme in the negative reviews, as shown in Topic 4 (which is also the most frequent topic in the negative reviews). It seems that some recommend Cyber Sleuth over Survive for a better gameplay experience when it comes to Digimon games.

3.3. Key Takeaway from LDA Results

We found out that most people agree that Survive’s strength lies on its story and characters. Meanwhile, its gameplay mechanics receive mixed reviews with most finding it not executed as well as its narrative design.

4. Text Network Analysis (TNA)

Ever thought about how words in reviews connect with each other? Text Network Analysis (TNA) can help us analyze and visualize these connections. Simply put, TNA views text as a network of interconnected words, revealing how these words are related based on their co-occurrence in the reviews. Aside from that, we can also measure stuff like centrality and detect communities. What are these, anyway? To avoid confusion, let me briefly explain these terms first before proceeding into the analysis:

Betweenness centrality measures how often a node (a word) appears on the shortest paths between other nodes (i.e. other words). In the context of TNA, it indicates the influence of a word in connecting different parts of the network–a high betweenness centrality means that the word is crucial in linking various concepts within the reviews.

Eigenvector centrality measures the influence of a node (a word) based on the centrality of its neighbors, i.e., a word is considered important if it is connected to other important words. High eigenvector centrality means the word is connected to many other influential words, so words with high eigenvector centrality are central to the review network and play a significant role in shaping the overall sentiment and themes.

Closeness centrality measures how close a node is to all other nodes in the network, which is calculated as the reciprocal of the average shortest path length to all other nodes. High closeness centrality means the word is well-positioned to quickly interact with many other words. The implication that comes with this is that words with high closeness centrality are pivotal in spreading information throughout the network, meaning they are central to the overall discussion.

Before I explain what the Louvain community is, let me explain first about the concept of community and community detection. In the context of TNA, communities are groups of words that are more closely related to each other that we can think of as a group/cluster (i.e., community). Community detection is the process of identifying these groups within a network of words. One of the techniques we can use is Louvain community detection. Using this helps us understand different themes in the reviews.

Now with that out of the way, let’s move onto the actual analysis. We’ll start first with the words co-occurrence where we take the top 100 pairs of words each from positive and negative reviews, and then move onto the centrality and community analysis. As a note, for the words co-occurrence graphs, the size of the nodes indicates how often the respective word is mentioned in the reviews, while the thickness of the edges represents how strongly connected a certain pair of words is.

4.1. Positive Reviews

4.1.1. Words Co-occurrence in Positive Reviews

In the positive reviews, the terms “story”, “visual”, “novel”, and “character” are among the most frequent words. They also make up prominent pairs like “visual-novel” and combinations involving “story” with positive adjectives (e.g., “like”, “good”, “great”, “love”, “enjoy”). This shows that the story is a central aspect of enjoyment for players. “Story” also connects strongly with “character”, indicating how the characters are a pivotal part of what makes the story good.

4.1.2. Centrality and Community Detection in Positive Reviews

Centrality Measures: We see that the word “story” holds the highest values across betweenness, eigenvector, and closeness centrality, which makes it the central theme in the positive reception of Survive. Other high centrality words like "visual-novel" and "character" also support this finding. The key takeaway from this is that the narrative elements are what people like the most from the game, aligning with what we previously saw from the LDA analysis.

Louvain Communities:

Community 0 (“visual”, “novel”, “combat”, “great”, “gameplay”, “far”, “love”, “recommend”, “rpg”, “enjoy”, and “tactical”) seems to revolve around story and gameplay integration, recommending Survive to fans of visual novels and tactical RPGs.

Community 1 (“like”, “good”, “play”, “character”, “time”, “fan”, “battle”, and “first”) likely represents the opinions of first-time players who appreciate good characters (as fans of the Digimon anime, perhaps?)

Community 2 (“story”, “take”, “fun”, “give”, “look”, “choice”, “different”, “dark”, “experience”, and “world”) highlights the dark story and world, also how the different choices can lead to varied experiences. This suggests that the players who like it welcome the dark twist in the story, and enjoy how their choices can shape their experience in the game.

4.2. Negative Reviews

4.2.1. Words Co-occurrence in Negative Reviews

As we can see, the frequencies of words are more balanced in the negative reviews than in the positive reviews, although terms like “story”, “visual”, and “novel” still pop up more than others. For the popular pairs, “visual”-“novel” tops, followed by “like”-“story”, “like”-“play”, and “like”-“novel”. We can infer from this finding that most negative reviews seem to talk about how this game is only recommended for those who enjoy visual novels and story-heavy games, and not for people who actually look for an actual, proper gameplay.

4.2.2. Centrality and Community Detection in Positive Reviews

Centrality Measures: The words with the highest values across different centrality measures are “like”, “story”, “visual”, “play”, and “novel”. We can quickly see how this most likely means that the game’s critics acknowledge that this game is only meant for people who like visual novels and story-heavy games, aligning with our previous findings.

Louvain Communities:

Community 0 (“cyber” and “sleuth”) very likely comes from people who enjoy Cyber Sleuth a lot more and keep making comparisons between the two games.

Community 1 (“like”, “actually”, “recommend”, “still”, “keep”, “dialogue”, “look”, “take”, “free”, “try”, “read”, “boring”, and “first”) represents the general opinion that Survive is for people who like story-heavy games, as it has a lot of dialogues and requires you to read a lot, otherwise you’ll find it boring.

Community 2 (“story”, “price”, “start”, “choice”, “give”, “end”, and “love”) is similar to Community 1 in that it also mainly talks about how Survive is a game for people who love story-heavy games. It also perhaps talks about how the price isn’t justifiable considering how a large part of it only revolves around reading the story with minimal proper gameplay.

Community 3 (“visual”, “play”, “novel”, “character”, “time”, “battle”, “good”, “hour”, “bad”, “gameplay”, “combat”, “point”, and “rpg”), again, essentially repeats the points of Communities 1 and 2–it’s a game for visual novel enjoyers and not for those looking for an engaging RPG. It probably highlights how the visual novel portion is the good part of the game, while the RPG portion is–simply put–bad.

4.3. Key Takeaway from TNA Results

Both positive and negative reviews frequently bring up the game’s narrative elements, which shows that this is a polarizing aspect of Survive. Positive reviews praise the game for its rich, story-heavy content. On the other hand, the negative reviews criticize the heavy focus on narrative, perceiving it as boring. It shows that Survive is mostly meant for people who appreciate a game more for its story than gameplay. This finding aligns with our previous finding in LDA.

5. Conclusion and Final Thoughts

So, what's the final takeaway? Overall, Digimon Survive is loved for its compelling story and characters, perhaps particularly by fans of the Digimon anime. However, even most positive reviews of the game acknowledge that the gameplay could use some areas of improvement. I personally agree with this general sentiment, even as someone who likes Survive for what it is–improved combat elements could’ve provided a more balanced experience that could elevate Survive to be an even better game.

Comparisons with Cyber Sleuth pop up a lot in both positive and negative reviews alike, though I observe they recur more often in negative ones. Cyber Sleuth is most likely brought up as an alternative for people who don’t like Survive–if you don’t enjoy visual novels, then you’re better off just skip Survive and try Cyber Sleuth instead.

And that’s all I have for now! I hope you enjoy this post and find it insightful. If you want to see the full codes for this project, you can find them here (I thought about linking my Github account, but since it’s connected with my professional endeavors, I’d rather not to as to keep my privacy lol) (also, as of the writing of this post, the codes are still somewhat messy, and I’m looking to tidy them up later). If you have any suggestions or corrections, feel free to tell me on here or via twitter (@deutzian). Thank you for reading this far!

Ao3 version that lets you open the 'director's cut' where I, the author, explain every detail in excruciating detail to you and what it is in reference to.

Hi to my followers!

Here is the long overdue 'about me' post that I've been avoiding.

I draw art and write fic.

That's basically it. I never know what to write but I mean, you could always ask me questions about my art and fics whenever.

I got a few new followers during the time I was posting some old art in multiple fandoms. I still draw and write for all the things I'm a fan of but they rotate like A LOT.

These are the fandoms I want to make art/fic for/you can yell at me about (and the year I got obsessed)

1996ish X-men (mostly Summers fam) 1998 Yu Yu Hakusho 1999 Digimon 2002 Transformers 2005 Final Fantasy 7 2008 Marvel Loki (mostly the Loki fam) [Look at this gap what was I doing?? Edit: oh heck I was into Kpop 2011-2013] 2018 Fire Emblem (mainly SOV) 2019 Final Fantasy 9 2022 Digimon Survive (yes its a thing on its own) 2022 Kimetsu no Yaiba 2023 Idolish 7 (I wish I could do more for this one) 2023 Tokyo Revengers 2024 One Piece (I'm only up to Wano)

I do 5 minute doodles requests for these fandoms though it does take me a while to get to them.

Happy Anniversary to Digimon Survive

I had something else planned for today but I left my tablet at home and will be away for a while. So I had to borrow my little sisters tablet again for this one.

I'll be going to our local con this year in October (if you're in NZ, I'll be at Armageddon Expo selling art prints with my little sister)

So I'm opening commissions to help me pay for expenses.

I'm currently only doing Full bodies and 3/4 bodies

Please let me know if you're interested or if you just wanna ask for more info.

Likes and Reblogs are appreciated 💖

Tumblr: cypreus_and_willow

Discord: cypreus_and_willow

Twitter: CypreusWillow

Chibi Commissions Open

Detailed chibi samples

(w background)

(some old chibi that I did)

Simple chibi samples

(group/multiple)

Oh dang I AM old

I see arrow, I click it

So I thought this was commonly known internet navigation (but apparently it might just be those of us who have been using the internet since the 90’s who still know it). Or so it seems based on… a grumpy comment I got.

When you see an arrow like this:

It means you click it to expand out a hidden section.

It’s an accordion section/menu! It’s useful in web design to hide information that may be overwhelming under specific headers so people can only see what they need.

Here I’m using it for people who need the content warnings to be able to check, but for those who don’t need them and don’t want to be spoiled to just move right past without accidentally reading anything.

It’s still the user’s responsibility to click the arrow and read things as they need! But it is all warned. (And, yes, the all encompassing issues are already a tag on the fic, I’m just providing additonal warnings per chapter.)

"I don't mean to be rude... what am I saying, of course I do"

- Genesis Rhapsodos, probably

I'll be going to our local con this year in October (if you're in NZ, I'll be at Armageddon Expo selling art prints with my little sister)

So I'm opening commissions to help me pay for expenses.

I'm currently only doing Full bodies and 3/4 bodies

Please let me know if you're interested or if you just wanna ask for more info.

Likes and Reblogs are appreciated 💖

Tumblr: cypreus_and_willow

Discord: cypreus_and_willow

Twitter: CypreusWillow

Shuuji Kayama (Digimon) vs. Gon Freecss (Hunter x Hunter)

Y'all Hate Teens Tourney, Round 2C

(Propaganda linked in the titles)

Reblog and put in the tags how many pieces of jewelry you wear on a daily basis (like rings, piercings, necklaces, bracelets, etc.)

When you're autistic, it's impossible to miss how much society normalizes child abuse.

I could dedicate my entire life to studying how to interact with people and I'd still never master the social skills that young children are expected to have on command.

Say the wrong thing? That's disrespectful and you're punished. And you don't even have to actually say anything wrong. Pretty much anything you say can be considered "giving lip" if your parent wants some excuse to punish you. But if you say nothing, then you get punished for ignoring. You also have to calculate your response to their mind game quickly because taking too long to respond is considered ignoring. Also, if you're being wrongly accused of something, saying nothing is considered a confession. And even if you somehow manage to say exactly what your parent wants in exactly the correct tone, they'll still punish you for "sarcasm" or "not really meaning it".

whenever I finally realize that one of my mutuals is a sideblog and that the random user that’s been liking my posts was my mutual all along I feel like bruce willis at the end of the sixth sense

I feel like when I say ‘relatable’ what I really mean is ‘resonant.’ I don’t want characters who I feel are like me, I want characters who have emotions so strong I can feel them through the page.

When I was younger it used to bother me that Lopmon's horns don't match w their other evos. So I made up a theory/headcanon to make it bother me less 😂

So Lopmon's adult, perfect and ultimate have their horns placed with middle horn in the front

While Lopmon's is placed with middle horn in the back.

I started thinking that the horns signify the mons willingness to fight since some descriptions of Lopmon says he doesn't like fighting.

Makes sense right? RIGHT?

But that would imply that Conomon and Chocomon are ready to stab.

To be fair, only Chocomon, Wendimon, Antylamon and Cherubimon showed up in Hurricane Touchdown. And they all had front stabby horns.

Fell into a rabbit hole of instapoems

Crawled my way out like I'd been tortured by Vogons 🤢

Why'd I do this to myself

I love when people are passionate about platonic/friendship ships. Destroy the idea that favorite friendships must always come after favorite romantic ships and the idea that platonic dynamics aren't enough to drive people insane. Go go

Digimon Survive Crests

In deciding what crests to give them, I basically picked a colour first and then justified my reasoning later. Honestly this is more for aesthetics than anything reasonable - if you look at my art and fics over the last 2 years, you might notice I've been using specific colours and words for each kid.

Courage - Minoru (bc orange)

Friendship - Takuma (bc blue)

Love - Kaito (bc red are you sensing a pattern here?)

Knowledge - Miu (bc purple, also I never like giving knowledge to the most academic person on the team)

Sincerity - Aoi (bc she gives her all + 200%)

Purity - Saki (bc green)

Hope - Ryo (bc yellow gotta match with Kunemon)

Light - Shuuji (bc pink)

Also, I chose their crests according to the quality they were lacking/misusing when they died. 'Cept you know who

BONUS

Kindness - Professor

Destiny - Miyuki

Miracles - Haru

all RIGHT:

Why You're Writing Medieval (and Medieval-Coded) Women Wrong: A RANT

(Or, For the Love of God, People, Stop Pretending Victorian Style Gender Roles Applied to All of History)

This is a problem I see alllll over the place - I'll be reading a medieval-coded book and the women will be told they aren't allowed to fight or learn or work, that they are only supposed to get married, keep house and have babies, &c &c.

If I point this out ppl will be like "yes but there was misogyny back then! women were treated terribly!" and OK. Stop right there.

By & large, what we as a culture think of as misogyny & patriarchy is the expression prevalent in Victorian times - not medieval. (And NO, this is not me blaming Victorians for their theme park version of "medieval history". This is me blaming 21st century people for being ignorant & refusing to do their homework).

Yes, there was misogyny in medieval times, but 1) in many ways it was actually markedly less severe than Victorian misogyny, tyvm - and 2) it was of a quite different type. (Disclaimer: I am speaking specifically of Frankish, Western European medieval women rather than those in other parts of the world. This applies to a lesser extent in Byzantium and I am still learning about women in the medieval Islamic world.)

So, here are the 2 vital things to remember about women when writing medieval or medieval-coded societies

FIRST. Where in Victorian times the primary axes of prejudice were gender and race - so that a male labourer had more rights than a female of the higher classes, and a middle class white man would be treated with more respect than an African or Indian dignitary - In medieval times, the primary axis of prejudice was, overwhelmingly, class. Thus, Frankish crusader knights arguably felt more solidarity with their Muslim opponents of knightly status, than they did their own peasants. Faith and age were also medieval axes of prejudice - children and young people were exploited ruthlessly, sent into war or marriage at 15 (boys) or 12 (girls). Gender was less important.

What this meant was that a medieval woman could expect - indeed demand - to be treated more or less the same way the men of her class were. Where no ancient legal obstacle existed, such as Salic law, a king's daughter could and did expect to rule, even after marriage.

Women of the knightly class could & did arm & fight - something that required a MASSIVE outlay of money, which was obviously at their discretion & disposal. See: Sichelgaita, Isabel de Conches, the unnamed women fighting in armour as knights during the Third Crusade, as recorded by Muslim chroniclers.

Tolkien's Eowyn is a great example of this medieval attitude to class trumping race: complaining that she's being told not to fight, she stresses her class: "I am of the house of Eorl & not a serving woman". She claims her rights, not as a woman, but as a member of the warrior class and the ruling family. Similarly in Renaissance Venice a doge protested the practice which saw 80% of noble women locked into convents for life: if these had been men they would have been "born to command & govern the world". Their class ought to have exempted them from discrimination on the basis of sex.

So, tip #1 for writing medieval women: remember that their class always outweighed their gender. They might be subordinate to the men within their own class, but not to those below.

SECOND. Whereas Victorians saw women's highest calling as marriage & children - the "angel in the house" ennobling & improving their men on a spiritual but rarely practical level - Medievals by contrast prized virginity/celibacy above marriage, seeing it as a way for women to transcend their sex. Often as nuns, saints, mystics; sometimes as warriors, queens, & ladies; always as businesswomen & merchants, women could & did forge their own paths in life

When Elizabeth I claimed to have "the heart & stomach of a king" & adopted the persona of the virgin queen, this was the norm she appealed to. Women could do things; they just had to prove they were Not Like Other Girls. By Elizabeth's time things were already changing: it was the Reformation that switched the ideal to marriage, & the Enlightenment that divorced femininity from reason, aggression & public life.

For more on this topic, read Katherine Hager's article "Endowed With Manly Courage: Medieval Perceptions of Women in Combat" on women who transcended gender to occupy a liminal space as warrior/virgin/saint.

So, tip #2: remember that for medieval women, wife and mother wasn't the ideal, virgin saint was the ideal. By proving yourself "not like other girls" you could gain significant autonomy & freedom.

Finally a bonus tip: if writing about medieval women, be sure to read writing on women's issues from the time so as to understand the terms in which these women spoke about & defended their ambitions. Start with Christine de Pisan.

I learned all this doing the reading for WATCHERS OF OUTREMER, my series of historical fantasy novels set in the medieval crusader states, which were dominated by strong medieval women! Book 5, THE HOUSE OF MOURNING (forthcoming 2023) will focus, to a greater extent than any other novel I've ever yet read or written, on the experience of women during the crusades - as warriors, captives, and political leaders. I can't wait to share it with you all!

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I feel like the beach is something I wanna use for Shinonome sibs more in my fics. Mostly for Miu bc of Syakomon. But like, I imagine them at the beach making sandcastles and collecting shells.

And it sounds so simple but thinking of them pre-incident being happy and content and working together to make the biggest, prettiest sandcastle whilst burning under the sun

And something about sandcastles being a metaphor for a fragile childhood or something.

I can't articulate what I mean, but I wanna use it for a fic one day.