Author’s Apothecary

that one wbk chapter basically...

SUO. SON. IF YOU DON'T START COMMUNICATING I FEAR SUGISAKUNIREI HAVE PLANS FOR YOU

sakura: we'll capture suo

nirei: even if we have to tie suo san up, we'll make him talk

this thought contains speculation about the current arc in wind breaker so spoilers from chapters 200+

then someone gets brave and makes a character who is a real bastard and makes all the wrong choices and is maybe even malicious at times and they make this character explicitly queer. and then fans are like "this is what you think of us?? worst representation ever" and the creator gets absolutely lambasted, ESPECIALLY if theyre queer themselves

then everyone else sees this and either thinks its too risky to include a queer character, or wants to make sure they're only doing the good and nice representation with no flaws or mistakes

1. Is this a cry for help? by Emily R. Austin (librarian dealing with a mental health crisis caused by the death of her ex and an onslaught of book banners targeting the library she works at)

2. The Starving Saints by Caitlyn Starling (protags stuck in a castle under seige that begins to descend into madness as supernatural forces begin to take power during the chaos)

3. Nicked by M.T. Anderson (a monk has a ‘prophetic’ dream and gets pressed into a scheme to steal the bones of a famous saint from another monastery)

4. Land of Milk and Honey by C. Pam Zhang (during a slow environmental apocalypse, a chef takes a job on a mountaintop colony owned by a rich man that is strangely untouched by disaster)

5. Clear by Carys Davies (a minister is sent to evict the lone remaining resident of a Scottish isle, but ends up in the care of said man after a severe injury leading to a fragile balance of secrets and a pressing moral quandary)

6. Model Home by Rivers Solomon (three siblings are forced to return home and confront the buried horrors of their childhood as the only black residents of a white neighborhood after the sudden death of their parents)

7. Evocation by S.T. Gibson (a magician races to undo an ancestral deal with the devil before his 30th birthday, while untangling his messy relationship with his ex-boyfriend and that ex-boyfriend’s new wife)

8. The Silence Factory by Bridget Collins (an audiologist is hired to help a man’s deaf daughter, but quickly becomes entangled in the sinister secrets of the factory that dominates the community and is owned by the family he works for)

9. Maddalena and The Dark by Julia Fine (two girls in a Venetian monastery of very different classes become entangled with a sinister force that grants wishes)

10. Knock Knock Open Wide by Neil Sharpson (a tale of Irish folklore where a young woman begins to untangle family secrets connected to a supernatural entity)

11. I keep my exoskeletons to myself by Marisa Crane (a dystopian novel where former criminals are given additional shadows to represent their crimes and face increasing discrimination)

12. Drunk On All Your Strange New Words by Eddie Robson (a translator for an alien ambassador must quickly solve his murder with the help of their remaining telepathic connection or be blamed for it)

13. Black Water Sister by Zen Cho (a young woman who returns home to Malaysia becomes haunted by the ghost of her estranged grandmother who insists she must help appease a vengeful god)

14. We Play Ourselves by Jen Silverman (a disgraced playwright takes a job on a documentary but becomes increasingly concerned about whether its content is just exploitation)

then someone gets brave and makes a character who is a real bastard and makes all the wrong choices and is maybe even malicious at times and they make this character explicitly queer. and then fans are like "this is what you think of us?? worst representation ever" and the creator gets absolutely lambasted, ESPECIALLY if theyre queer themselves

then everyone else sees this and either thinks its too risky to include a queer character, or wants to make sure they're only doing the good and nice representation with no flaws or mistakes