rats!rats!rats!

But, crucially, the books manage all of this while having stakes. There are the relationship, personal level ones-- will these orphaned kids become friends? Will they learn to overcome the traumas of their respective backstories? Will they learn to master their magic?

And then there are Larger, life-threatening stakes... but crucially, not 'save-the-world' level. Pierce made the excellent choice for the first quartet (when the kids are like ~10-12 ish) to generally have the threats be natural. An earthquake, a forest fire, a pandemic; there's a pirate raid, but even then the framing feels more like a force of nature. As the kids age, the threats do become more human, but remain generally localized. A crime syndicate, a serial killer. The focus of the story remains what can we do to improve things, here, now, where we are?

Jacaranda trees

Harmonious Synchronicity Flag

A flag that represents your gender identity(ies) and sexuality(ies) being aligned in perfect harmony. Like voices in a choir or parts of a track they compliment, augment, and amplify each other.

For example: someone for whom they would not be the gender they are without how they love and vice versa.

“My identity as someone who loves men is harmoniously synchronous with my identity as a nonbinary masc”

Tags: @radiomogai @liom-archive

Like/reblog/tag appreciated if using! :3