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Maybe if I make some fanart, I won’t have to read the books?

Jake doesn’t reply instantly, which is fair because he’s probably in class himself at the moment, but I see I have a couple of Discord messages from him that I missed. The app is buried away in a folder so nobody might see it if they looked at my phone, but I feel a little thrill at seeing a few messages from @runicrascal a little while ago.

@runicrascal

So here’s the thing with s1 – it’s slow. Like, real slow. This is all worldbuilding, laying groundwork for character arcs and trying to introduce you to the dynamics of the kingdom and how the magick systems work and who’s who and why you’re rooting for them

@runicrascal

s1 is literally the entire first two books. Which are awesome, but … also very slow. But if you can make it through this, you’ll probably be attached enough to the characters to enjoy the extra content in the first two books! Which is kind of a bonus?

@runicrascal

Don’t give up on it just yet, though. You won’t even meet some of the fan faves until about episode 3 or 4!

I reread the messages three times over, and realize I’m beaming at the screen. Jake played it so cool over text last night when I was watching the first two episodes,but it’s clearly been on his mind today, too –I’veclearly been on his mind, if he messaged me two hours ago about all this.

Maybe he wants to keep our text thread for everyday chatter, and put all the OWAR gushing in Discord? We used to exclusively send memes via Instagram DM, so I’m used to holding different conversations with him in different apps.

Even though I just sent him my art project-in-progress over text, I put the photo into the Discord chat, too. This time, I write,Drawing fanart = fangirl status solidified?

Half an hour later, he replies.

@runicrascal

WHOA! Is that Téiglin?? He looks amazing!

@runicrascal

Hardcore, newbie. Already getting attached enough to characters with only three minutes of screentime that you’re making fanart …

@runicrascal

Don’t worry, him emerging from the forest in ep1 to nurse a messenger stag beetle back to life gets to everyone

@mythicwitch

‘Only’ three minutes? NO SPOILERS. If my adorable dead forest stag hybrid guy dies, I will riot.

@runicrascal

My lips are sealed. (But, you’re good. Téiglin’s pretty beloved, and you don’t get that far by dying as soon as you show up on screen. Also you do realize he’s not dead???)

@mythicwitch

His head is literally a skull?

@runicrascal

Oooh I cannot wait for you to find out about the masked cult of forest-creatures

@mythicwitch

I honestly can’t tell if that’s a joke or not

@runicrascal

No spoilers, remember?