286 | thousand autumns, high rollers aerois, & a poem

[straightforwardly]

► Last night, I finished reading volume two of the official translation for Thousand Autumns, the end of which is fairly close to where I believe I left off with the fan translation. It actually surprises me that I was only this far into the novel—I’d assumed that the betrayal was at the mid-point of the novel, but no, it happens only a little more than halfway through the second volume! But then, reading a novel via chapter updates you have to wait on creates a different sense of pacing than reading it all in one go.

It is exciting to know that I have so much new story still ahead of me. I love Thousand Autumns so much—it’s been one of my favorite cnovels for years now, and it’s giving me a lot of feelings to know that I can actually finally finish the story now.

Also: I’m so excited to see Yan Wushi fall in love with Shen Qiao and realize how badly he’s fucked up /gleeful*. I love both of them dearly, but Yan Wushi truly brings me to extra levels of delight. I remember friends who could read Thousand Autumns in the original Chinese hinting at things that made me go /eyes emoji all the way.

Honestly, my heart just wants to dive into volume 3 straight away, but I have pretty limited time for physical reading… and I’m planning on going to Nuremberg mid-October and very much want to have reread The Faithful Executioner before I go, so that’s going to have to happen first. But ahhhh, my fannish heart is not happy with that decision, haha. But soon, hopefully, I’ll get to continue to words that are all new!

► More High Rollers Aerois thoughts! Currently, I just finished episode 91.

It is truly amazing how much my listening speed picked up again once the group got back to Aerois. I’m enjoying it so much again now!

That demon city arc was the low point for me—I used the “skip 30 seconds” feature so much, and my motivation to actually push play was low, so it dragged on even longer. It did make me realize how much I actually do like listening to combat, though—I skipped most of the RP in that arc, but listened to most of the fights.

Things picked up for me after that—the space ice dragon was such a neat concept, and the group’s meeting with Palidor was also such a great moment. I took far too long to get around to writing this update, otherwise I absolutely would have had more to say about both of those things, but in short: yes, enjoyed that very much <3

But, again, when they got back to Aerois is when the episodes really started flying by for me again! I took a couple of notes on things that stood out to me in those episodes where they were taking stock and settling in, namely:

1. The cuteness of Aila getting (almost) everyone something from the kitchens on their first night back on the Stormchaser. It was really sweet, and did a great job demonstrating how far she’s come and how much she cares about these people.

2. This conversation:

Nova: Work smarter, not harder!
Lucius: Or, be born into a rich family and never have to work at all. …Though, that’s not really applicable to this current situation.

Lucius, darling <3

I also very much enjoyed the encounter with the frog cultists! Though I do wish that some of them had survived / weren’t all bad guys; I was actually feeling a little bit intrigued by their ways and culture and who they were and where they came from. In short, I was feeling the worldbuilding intrigue, though I very much doubt that there’s any fic covering this, haha.

I do kind of wish that Nova had summoned the Froghemoth with that illusory pipe rather than a giant frog—I’m curious about how that would have changed the events that followed and how the cultists would’ve reacted!

And Lucius’ whump-y near-brush with death and that injury table roll, and the terror and grief all his friends felt for him while they were fighting to save him… so good, so many feelings, and I’m pleased by how the players are playing out the aftermath of that as well, e.g. with Lucius having some sort of reaction during their next fight in H’esper’s temple, Nova going to him and trying to shield him and help him breathe again, her own shaking and lingering trauma… loved it all. I’ve gotten so much good food for my Lucius & Nova friendship feelings (and a little bit on the Lucius & Quill front as well, though not as strongly.)

I’m also loving, loving, loving this current subplot in The Temple of H’esper! Quill facing his past self and realizing how far he’s come from who he used to be was so so good <3 Especially since it also gave me a moment to reflect on who he was at the start of the campaign—always so uncertain!—and really appreciate for myself as well how far he’s come.

On a lighter note, the whole conversation that happens between Quill and Johann when Quill is holding the book written by H’esper while everyone else sees the name A. Plumbus on the cover instead made me laugh. Also, I would like it to be known that I immediately got the answer to that riddle. Smarter than Nova! /joking, that is 100% not true

The Trial of the Aeons was amazing—one of my favorite sub-arcs in the podcast so far, I think. Faedris was such a cool NPC. I particularly liked Nova’s moments with them during the past timeline, and again, they’re a character I’d love to see explored more in fic. Even if I’m not entirely sure whether their pronouns are they/them or he/him… the DM used both for their present and future selves! With all the talk of “you’ll understand once you see my future self”, I was actually originally wondering if they were the dragon, somehow, but when Aila arrives in the future timeline and sees a LICH sitting there before her… so cool. I got chills in the best way, and it made so much sense for Faedris to have that as their bad end.

► Finally, I have a poem to share— “The Star-Bright Hour” by Betty Alver.

I came across it because I was actually titling a fic after an excerpt from a different poet of hers, and wanted to reread the line in its original context, but was too lazy to dig out the book I originally found it in. So I tried to to see if I could find it online, but did not meaning that I had to go to my shelves anyway. However, in the process I found another poem by her which I liked and now want to share here.

The wind won’t ask: to what did life amount?
To yourself you’ll render your own account.

However long, however dark the night –
your forehead bears your name in plain sight.

Each leaf that sees the sunlight falls unknown
with all the rest. Yet each one falls alone.

No shining goal, no star to travel toward?
Go and see what is consumerism’s reward.

Do you know how kindness grows, unseen and gentle?
Why cruel deeds are never accidental?
Why helmets rust unless they bloom and flower?
Why life can never repeat its star-bright hour?
Why tiny flames withstood the snowstorm’s test
and flickered on within the human breast?

Go ask your betters, do their bidding.
Go ask the dead. And then go ask the living.

But never ask yesterday
for those who happened to stray
across the sandy marsh into pitch-black night.

It’s all the same to them – was it spite
that made the boatman take his chance
without a light, or was it happenstance?

— “The Star-Bright Hour” by Betty Alver

► I do also have some writing thoughts I want to take the time to reflect on (mostly in regard to iddyiddybangbang, which I successfully completed for the first time this year!), but that's for another post, I think.