#this was such a fun read
Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor
byXiran Jay Zhao
Zachary Ying never had many opportunities to learn about his Chinese heritage. His single mom was busy enough making sure they got by, and his schools never taught anything except Western history and myths. So Zack is woefully unprepared when he discovers he was born to host the spirit of the First Emperor of China for a vital mission: sealing the leaking portal to the Chinese underworld before the upcoming Ghost Month blows it wide open.
The mission takes an immediate wrong turn when the First Emperor botches his attempt to possess Zack’s body and binds to Zack’s AR gaming headset instead, leading to a battle where Zack’s mom’s soul gets taken by demons. Now, with one of history’s most infamous tyrants yapping in his headset, Zack must journey across China to heist magical artifacts and defeat figures from history and myth, all while learning to wield the emperor’s incredible water dragon powers.
And if Zack can’t finish the mission in time, the spirits of the underworld will flood into the mortal realm, and he could lose his mom forever.
—-
A thrilling story with very compelling character dynamics. Especially Zack with all of his 12 year old sass & his ghostly ancestor Qin Shi Huang who’s straight-up a supervillain who Won. The world building is intricate and easy to follow, which introduces the audience to an entire library of legends, history & folk tales that may have been out of easy reach from their cultural lexicon. The world isn’t black & white, good vs evil, light vs dark, but as complicated as real life tends to be. I’m excited to follow this series into the future to see how Zack & his friends (and his enemies) change and grow.
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“Friendship fortunes are very popular right now,” she told the boy in red.
…But she hadn’t thought the boy would keep coming back to get her readings - and always with the same person in mind.
Fandom: Tales of Symphonia
Characters/Pairing:Lloyd Irving/Colette Brunel, Genis Sage, Fortune Teller
Rating:G
Word Count: 8494
Mirror Link:AO3
Notes: Written for Colloyd Week 2022, Day 1: Soulmates! So I decided to go back to the origin of this prompt in the game itself, and then it spiraled a bit out of control. Lloyd just really, really likes fortune-telling. (Especially when it’s free).–
Her fortune-telling business was quite slow today.
Despite the unbearable heat outside, the inside of her tent was cool and dark, with only the dusky glass lamps hanging overhead to shed any light. She took a long breath, seated herself on the plush cushions arranged comfortably on the floor, and decided that it was high time for her break.
Maybe I need a décor change, she mused to herself, even though she had already set up the potted plants in the corners and added some drapes along the sides. There was also the scent of myrrh from her new incense pot, relaxing her shoulders and easing the aches on her feet. She looked to her table, covered in thick cloth, embroidered with the constellations across its surface. Was her crystal ball not selling her skills well enough? I guess the two extra mini-crystal balls next to it makes it look a little tacky…
But few people had been coming by her tent lately, and most who did only asked for sobering things; on the whereabouts of loved ones, or if the Desians might attack today, just as they had the week before…
But at best, she could predict when first love would bloom, or if one’s job prospects were in the stars, or if the oasis will dry up during the scorching heatwave. The Desians were always so hazy in her readings, and there was only so much of the truth that she could reasonably stretch without feeling complete guilt, after all.
She was ready to close shop, perhaps dip her feet in the nearby oasis or shop at the Desert Rose for dinner, when she heard words just outside of her tent flap. They were low, a bit fragmented, but they drifted into her tent with ease.
“Is the fortune teller here? It doesn’t say so on the map…”
“It literally has a sign saying so right there, stupid.”
“Oh.”
