#I need to get back to my wip with this exact concept in it

[vampire-lord-garfield]

I think Sebastian deserves to get hit by force and powers greatly exceeding his own wounding him greatly.

And then get his pride obliterated and worldview erased by having to rely on humans in his life in order to survive.

Bonus points if they manage to deal with original threat by their own in the first place.

[3d-wifey]

Hi!!! Awhile back I sent something about how star reminded me of “Work song” by Hozier and I was thinking about how Finnick reminds me of “From Eden” (also this is long I’m very sorry)

—

Babe

There's something tragic about you

So I kinda view this as when Finnick first met Star he kinda realized what could happen to her. The Greek concept of tragedy is different from ours, it’s watching something, knowing how it’s going to end and being powerless to stop it. Thats the tragedy, the inevitably of what is going to happen and for Finnick that’s how he sees star when they first meet.

—-

Something so magic about you

Don't you agree?

I also think this applys to when they first meet because, correct me if I’m wrong, Finnick was kinda interested in star the moment they met and the fact that she can draw him in like that is odd, it’s new, it’s something he’s never experience before.

—

Babe

There's something lonesome about you

Something so wholesome about you

Get closer to me

When Finnick first met her she was alone, even when she’s around people she isn’t really like them. All her fellow victors from her district are much older, she isn’t like the people in the Capitol…she is alone a lot. I also think Finnick views her in…not an innocent light but wholesome in how much she cares. And Finnick literally is close to her a LOT.

—

Honey, you're familiar like my mirror years ago

I think there’s a big part of Finnick that views himself in star, at least at the start. There’s the same fear, same need to protect their families. For him it’s like looking in a mirror, one he’d rather not look at.

—

Idealism sits in prison, chivalry fell on its sword

Innocence died screaming, honey, ask me I should know

Eluding to the games, for Finnick he was apart of a career district he had a certain idea of the games that died as soon as he got there. I think the idea of “innocence died screaming” is referring to how they both had their innocence taken by both the games and the capitol.

—

I slithered here from Eden just to sit outside your door

Idk how to say this but Finnick is fucking WIPPED. He just wants a single glance at star, just anything.

—

Babe

There's something wretched about this

Something so precious about this

Where to begin?

You can view this as the start of their relationship, something they have to hide, how they can’t truly belong to each other but there’s this innocent precious love they share.

_

Babe

There's something broken about this

But I might be hoping about this

Oh, what a sin

Again their love is kinda a tragic one but something they have a lot of hope in, despite it being against Capitol rules.

—

To the strand a picnic plan for you and me

A rope in hand for your other man to hang from a tree

I mean…how many times has Finnick probably thought about killing snow for what he does to star?

—

Anyway I’m really sorry this is so long! I’m just obsessed!

You literally broke down my exact thought process when I added this song to the playlist

And don't apologize, I love when you guys rant in my inbox!!!

Here's a Lil sneak peak of chapter 15:

[ginkuki]

The way my mind INSTANTLY played Fantasy when I read the title 😌👌 Now I have to listen to the whole album again

I love the duality of this is loving and this is despicable xD Could I ask about these two?

HOO darky you really asked for it this time, SO!!!! these two wips are based on the same prompt but with different outcomes. as you would expect, 'this is loving' is tender and sweet and 'this is despicable' is the gaalees going through torment simply because i asked myself what if. prepare yourself for a long response...

'this is despicable' spawned first in conversation with @bayheart - what if lee got hit with a sleeper agent jutsu that led to him destroying suna once he returned home from a mission (in this universe, the gaalees are married and lee is living in suna), and the only option was for gaara to have to fight him? well. this. gaara realises just how much lee holds himself back normally, and that he can't bring himself to hurt him properly.

'this is loving' spawned when we got too upset at our own concept and we decided to make an alternate universe where this Did Not happen to lee, and instead he returned to find gaara had not coped with them being apart for so long. gaara is going Through it. cue body worship smut times.

they both start with the exact same scene but take on some divergence once lee gets home.

without further ado.... snippets under the cut....

i will say now - both need tws. the first for violence, the second for weight discussions

'this is despicable'

He rolls out of the way of Lee’s fist, but it still strikes the ground hard enough for the resounding shockwave to tear at his eardrums. New deafness greets his left ear when he suna-shunshins back to gain more objectivity. Space for thought.

Nothing comes to him in the split second he has before Lee catches up.

This isn’t something Gaara can mastermind his way out of - Lee’s attack style is unlike anything he’s ever faced in earnest, not since the last and only time they fought, again, in earnest. Quickness usually lends itself to lightness, and Lee might be light on his feet, yes, but he’s powerful too. Every blow is a tsunami, drowning Gaara, depriving his brain of oxygen, and the longer he withstands this, the more he worries he won’t be able to outlast Lee.

His stamina means nothing if Lee pounds him into a pulp first.

“Lee, please, you aren’t yourself! Listen to me!” He shouts, forearm barely blocking another punch so solid his bones protest. “Lee!”

Face torturously, vilely blank, Lee’s teeth tear at the bandages over his hands, and Gaara knows where this is headed. Still, the kick to his chin takes him off guard. His head snaps back, his teeth clacking together hard enough to rattle, and blood fills his mouth as gravity forgets it should have an effect on him.

With every punch, his thoughts grow muzzier. It becomes easier to accept his inevitable fate. Lee’s going to kill him, and Gaara hasn’t even had the strength to hit him back once.

But.

Maybe he doesn’t need to.

A palmful of armour detaches, spraying out with pinpoint precision to wind up in Lee’s eyes. It’s only a split second of distraction, but it’s long enough for Gaara to form the hand signs needed to substitute himself with a sand clone before bandages begin to wind around his torso. While Lee’s trying to snap a false Gaara’s neck, Gaara stands back with his trembling arms raised.

The Reverse Lotus doesn’t leave much room for peripherals, but even so, the flash of lighting would surely raise the alarm.

As he watches a mirror-image of himself and his lover crash headfirst into the ground, a sand dome snaps down to cover them. Then, praying he’s fast enough, Gaara places both palms on the outside and pulses lightning into it. Glass spiderwebs across the surface, molten silica heating and shifting to create a glass dome that’s enough to trap even the likes of Lee inside.

Lee slowly comes into focus inside, staring unfeelingly at the crumbling remains of Gaara’s clone.

The sand clone reforms, wrapping around Lee’s legs. Even to Gaara’s own eye, it’s pathetic. His own mouth moves, his own face dragged down with pain, his own eyes welling with tears, and Lee does nothing except meet Gaara’s real eye on the outside.

Gaara reads his own lips.

‘My love, please, stop.’

‘Listen to me, you have to snap out of this.’

‘Come back to me, please. I can’t stand to hurt you.’

It’s what he’d say if he were in there himself, but even that isn’t enough when Lee’s fist shoots out to crush sand-Gaara’s head mid-plea. Lee’s still watching the real Gaara. Only the real Gaara, with nothing at all behind his eyes. No memories of their love, no recognition. Nothing.

The oxygen inside will run out soon. Gaara only hopes he knows the right moment to let Lee breathe again.

'this is loving'

The Kazekage’s living quarters are found not too far from the office. Around the softly angled sandstone walls, it’s completely still but Lee knows ANBU are lingering. Even if he did know where to cast his gaze, he wouldn’t see them. They recognise him, though, even dirtied and exhausted from travel, and let him pass without so much as a flicker.

And Gaara, lovely Gaara, is waiting patiently outside the front door. He sits amongst small jungle of cacti, all potted in fine earthenware and laid around a wooden bench Lee brought from Konoha, where it’s impossible to breathe without stumbling across a master woodworker.

Lovely Gaara, though it is not Gaara in entirety, not as Lee left him.

The shadows at his temples, beneath his cheeks, under his eyes, seem deeper. The pallor to his skin is wrong, his hair looking thin. Lustreless. Lee’s spent years undoing the work of Gaara’s tireless youth, but they’ve crept back. A weed has grown while he’s been absent, unplucked convolvulus roots spreading to the surface.

Without even having removed Gaara’s coat, Lee knows he’ll be finding more ribs than he left.

He tries for a smile. Maybe it falls flat, he thinks, when Gaara ducks his head. The flesh underneath his chin doesn’t crease like it did a month ago.

This isn’t the time to be worried. It’s been so long since he’s seen Gaara’s smile in more than memory. His pack thunks to the ground, puffing dry sand into a cloud he leaves behind in his quick stride to his husband. “Long time no see, stranger!” Gaara folds into his arms with a happy chuckle, happier still when Lee presses a wet kiss to his cheek. “I have missed you so much.”

“I’ve missed you more, I think.” Gaara sounds so very small as he nudges his nose into Lee’s collar, arms winding around his ribs and back up to the nape of his neck. His thumb strokes gently over Lee’s hairline, the grown out strands of his undercut now at tickling length. “You at least had distractions.”

“Yet still, they were never enough to keep me from thinking of you. You were my last thought before sleep and my first thought upon waking.”

“And mine of you. I’d forgotten what it’s like to go to bed alone.” Gaara’s grin is a damp smear across Lee’s throat. “Not to mention, I’d forgotten what it’s like to be so pent up. I’ve been masturbating like a hormone-addled teen since you left - it hasn’t been enough.”

“Gaara!” Lee buries his face into the side of Gaara’s hair, ears burning. “Your ANBU are still within earshot!”

“I know. The poor things have been witness to it all, I imagine.”

“Let’s get you inside, you relentlessly obscene creature.” It’s still natural to scoop Gaara up and over his shoulder, no matter how intensely Gaara may protest at the indignity. After doubling back for his rucksack, he carries his husband over the threshold for what feels like the thousandth time. For all Gaara may splutter and bang his fists against Lee’s back, he does nothing else to wriggle free.

“I’m a Kage and have been since I was a teenager.” Gaara grouses, face still tucked into the small of Lee’s back. By Lee’s chest, his feet kick petulantly. Though he knows he shouldn’t, Lee can’t quite help but notice he’s grown lighter. “I’ve led countless shinobi in war, I assisted in the defeat of Uchiha Madara, I was host to-”

“You have an erection.”

[verbenaa]

for the fic asks: 2, 19, 29, 37, 40, 47, 57, 59! 🫂❤️

ahhhh tysm my friend 🥹🫂💕

(answering from this set of questions here)

2. do you plan each chapter ahead or write as you go? I already answered this question here, but the short answer is both, haha 😅. I am a very chaotic writer.

I will say though, the farther I get into writing to eden, the more I have planned for each chapter moving forward. In the beginning I had very little plans for the story and more of a vague idea, which gave me a lot of room to figure out exactly what I wanted to story to be and now I have a much clearer trajectory of where I am taking things. But even knowing that, I still technically only have a basic outline set up for the next 5 chapters or so (which puts us post-confession near the end of act 2)! Once I post the confession chapter, I definitely need to sit down and think about how to move towards act 3 for sure (though I've definitely already been thinking about it in my mind) 😅🫡

19. what is the most used tag on your ao3? I think it is a 3-way tie between 'Porn with Feelings', 'Soft Dom Astarion', and 'PWP' hahaha

29. what's your revision or editing process like? absolute chaos. Every chapter and fic is different during editing, of course, but I am very much NOT an organized person in any facet of my existence, and this extends to editing✨. I do a lot of rereads, change wording around, change it back, etc. The one thing I do in every WIP though is use the color red to designate something that needs attention, so it serves as a clear visual marker of 'hey something about this word/phrase/paragraph is off and needs a little more TLC'. I also utilize this while writing as a way to say ‘I like this idea but the English is not flowing and I can’t find the exact words’ so I can know to go back to that concept and flesh it out when the English DOES decide to flow again. I also like doing this because it means when I'm done editing, I get to see a word doc without ANY red which is a great feeling!

37. how do you choose where to end a chapter? straight vibes 😎. but honestly I never really know if I'm ending on the right thing, I just attempt to close stuff where it feels like a natural conclusion--like someone leaves, someone has a thought that ends, and so on so forth. (there's lots of leaving tents in to eden, ok? it's a thing.)

40. if someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see? ooooooh certainly something from to eden, but I have no idea what scene? I think I'd be happy with any of them, honestly.

47. how many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting? a million? a billion? it's an infinite number. all I know is that once my eyes start to cross and my head gets fuzzy when I'm reading over it and any obvious mistakes are gone, it's probably time to post.

57. do you prefer editing as you write, or waiting until it's finished? Either, really! I edit when I am having a not-so-great writing day typically so I can feel like I am at least achieving something! But in general, the bulk of my editing does happen at the end. But really it’s whatever suites my brain at that moment.

59. does anyone in your personal life know you write fic? If not, would you tell anyone? Aside from my husband, no! Family members know that I do write though, but I just tell them I am "writing fantasy stories for fun", which seems to appease them. I would probably tell someone I felt close to that UNDERSTOOD it, but I don't actually know anyone IRL who writes/reads fanfic believe it or not.

[gabeorelse]

WIP Update: Empire of Death

I'VE FINISHED IT.

Okay, I haven't completely finished it. I still have some edits to do. Scenes to rewrite, some worldbuilding to add, etc. I've also sent it to my CP and she'll definitely get back to me with lots of notes. BUT:

I started this book in November 2023 and wrote a draft that was fun but not nearly what I wanted it to be. Okay, that's fine, first drafts can be like that. But some stuff wasn't working in the concept - I couldn't 100% figure out exactly what I wanted this WIP to be. I put it aside, started on draft 2 in February, and got stuck 50k in. It was drifting even farther away from what I wanted. So I tabled it, and sometime in spring tackled a couple AU versions of the characters to see if the world was the problem. And it sort of was? But not entirely. So I tabled it again and wrote a different book.

Eventually though, I hit upon some stuff that made the world really sing for me, and went back to the original concept: a dark, gory, horror-fantasy world with a lot of humor mixed in. I outlined my third draft in July and started it in August. Finished September 4th. And yeah, it's definitely not perfect, but it has the shape. It's what I want it to be!! And I'm so excited for this book.

A constant reminder to myself: books take time. I write fast (fanfiction skills, yo), but sometimes, fast is not what you need. It can actually be the exact opposite. Impatient as I am, I needed time between drafts to think, experiment, and rest. Will I probably forget this lesson? Yeah. But oh well.

Either way. IT'S DONE!!

Stats:

First draft start date: November 8th 2023

First draft final word count: 84k

Third Draft (Most Recent) Start Date: August 5th, 2024

Third Draft Finish Date: September 4th 2024

Final Word Count: 106k (will probably add 5k in edits)

[aboutdragons]

Hello, I'm sorry to bother but I had a spur of questions after reading your 'ttad answers' tag.

You’ve talked about not being straight or monogamous, what made you choose that? Why pick Aemond to be her main bae?

Will Aly Rivers appear in ttad? 

What will Lyra’s relationship be like with the next gen?

What make you pick the 14 flames as the main gods in this fic?

What scene has been your favourite to write? Both published and wip?

What make you want to write the dragon-riders the way you did? Like with all the dragon/ inhuman features? As well as the bond with their dragon?

What was your thought process when creating Lyra? Why make her the child of Daemon and Rhea?

Alicent and Lyra seem to have a blooming friendship, will that continue in the upcoming years?

sorry about all the questions - they've just been burning in the back of my mind for a bit now and I just had to ask. Thank you so much

Yes, hello! I like questions, I'll try to answer them thoroughly.

I never thought about Lyra not being straight being a big deal. She just isn't. Same with polyamory; though they both might well hark to the whole 'freedom' part of her story. Freedom to love who she will, even if it's multiple people at once. Aemond as main bae was concieved at the initial concepting stage with my friend because she likes Aemond a lot. Whole store began from that actually.

Alys Rivers will make an appearance indeed. Aemond canonically has a thing for women older than him after all.

I'm not sure if Targtowers are included in the next gen, but she's going to interact positively with them, though for Reasons she'll be largely absent later down the line. But she likes them and is a role model to them in a way. She's obviously going to have a close relationship with the twins as they're her sisters. As for Rhaenyra's spawns, Lyra will keep her distance, mostly due to the growing rift between Rhaenyra and herself and Daemon. She has nothing against them per say, and she pities them a little because they will inevitably be caught in the crossfire of the consequences of Rhaenyra's choices, no matter if she ascends peacefully or not.

Because 14 are Valyrian gods and the main characters are Valyrian, it just fit very well. Plus I get to do some Fun ThingsTM with them later, plot-wise.

For published, my favorite scene so far was Lyra telling Daemon about her reincarnation and then retelling him Silmarillion. For WIP, there's a little scene of Rhaenyra and Alicent basically at the end of the whole story. I really like it.

Because I am primarily a fantasy hoe and Targaryens are supposed to be the elves of ASoIaF, they deserve to be a little more inhuman as a treat. As for the dragon bonds, I'm honestly just making shit up I think is cool because I like the dragons a lot and I want them to feature as more than props or pets.

I needed a convenient spot to place Lyra in the timeline so that she'd have biggest influence of the world, and this worked well. With Daemon as her father, it gives her a great personal freedom as well. As for the conception of a character itself, I simply asked myself what would be most interesting to throw in the setting, and came up with a woman who doesn't at all fit in with the times. It makes for some very interesting interactions, especially later down the line.

I'm not entirely sure where the future of Lyra and Alicent lies, but I will try to keep them friendly with eachother. As I mentioned prior, though, Lyra is not someone who fits in with what a highborn noblewoman of that era is supposed to be, and Alicent's whole persona is built upon being just that; they're on the exact opposite ends of the spectrum, and I'm not sure where it'll take them yet.

Don't be sorry! I really enjoy being asked questions and discussing ttad things with people!

[misscherry-26]

omg from your WIP --

bellamy blake <3

im so happy you love him too. dropping in a request, was wondering if you would have a lil drabble or shot story of maybe Biker!Bellamy AU? 👀 (echoing my Biker!Ari series too, I could totally see Bellamy apart of the crew)!

Ahh hi! I'm glad to know that you like Bellamy too!!!

Well, I have four (five with your request, which by the way, I will write it down so thanks 💖) in the works and I love the ideas ya'll sent me.

I'm currently editing the first one I finished and I realized—while reading other fics—that I had a lot of mixed concepts (my timeline of the series is a mess 😂 a lot of time has passed since I last watched it) so now I'm focusing on that. I don't expect it to be exact, but there are small details that I need to correct.

🫣 I won't say what is it about yet but here's a sneak peek...

You whirl around, stepping closer, your chest brushing against his, both too angry to care. “Then why are you here?” you fire back, your voice louder than you intended. “Why do you always have to control everything? Who made you the boss of me?”

His hand, still on your back, clenches into a fist, pulling you closer instead of pushing you away. “Maybe because I’m trying to keep you alive!” he spits out, his face inches from yours, his breath hot against your cheek. “You’re always doing this—taking risks, getting in my way. Do you have a death wish?”

Your heart pounds in your chest, anger flaring into something more intense. “No, but maybe you do,” you whisper fiercely. “Coming out here, risking your life for someone you supposedly can’t stand. What is it, Bellamy? Why do you even care?”

~

Now, Biker!Bellamy AU... Oh my goodness I'm getting some ideas already. Though Ari and Bell in the same universe!!? Are you trying to kill me? Hahaha, kidding I love it, he would fit perfectly 👀

[nestingtendencies]

Hello, my lovelies!

For some reason I don't post here often as just... me - the person behind NestingTendencies. I'm not quite sure why this is; I guess most of my crafting needs are catered to by Ravelry, as a platform. But I do realise that I have many, many wonderful followers, who have been regularly reblogging both the patterns that have piqued my interests and my own creations. And for that I am very grateful!

So I'd like to try and be a bit more social here; get to know you a little, learn what projects you're working on, and show you what's on my own hook!

First up is the Mariposa Sweater which has been the bane of my existence sole focus of my work since January!

You see, one of my new year's resolutions was to grow as a crafter beyond shawls, which are my specialty, and make sosme sweaters and jumpers! I've been having urges for those since last autumn and by now the craving cannot be ignored any longer.

So this is my first ever crocheted sweater, right? Do I bother with a gauge swatch?

No. Gauge swatches are for the weak.

Pretty soon I realise that my crochet is much, much tighter than the author's. Do I go back and try a size bigger? Do I increase the hook size to obtain the right gauge?

No. I decide that I know better, and I understand enough about how raglan works to just wing it. The joy of making a garment yourself is that you can make it fit your personal body contours perfectly, right?

So long story short, I am now on Mariposa the Second (First one is here) and I have frogged SUBSTANTIAL NUMBERS OF ROWS (like, all of the yoke for example) - wait for it - upwards of 20 times. Yes, 20. Not an exaggeration. If I hadn't done that, I could have probably about 4 completed Mariposas by now.

But no. The Gods have cursed me with a perfectionist streak. So we live and we learn and we carry that burden with us.

The photos in this post are the latest of the most correct version of this top that I currently have. My New Hope. My baby. I'm going to be sharing more WIP photos in the future.

The only good news is that as soon as I figure this sweater out, I'm going to have meticulous notes, which will give me the exact stitch sounts for my measurements and unlock the door to other jumpers like this one, of which I want to make at least 3.

And then there are other sweater patterns. 74 of them currently in my library. At least a dozen literally burning a hole in my consciousness - I want to start them immediately right now yesterday!!! Look look!

Elara Pullover - This is want in gradient purples, like an autumnal sunset

Chevie Sweaer - This I want in greys and golden ochres. I love the stitch used.

Don't Scrap That Raglan - Aaaah, Moss Stitch my favouritest stitch ever and I've almost improvised a sweater like this before!

Cosmopolitan Sweater - This I want in solid teal. Alpine stitch could well become my new mistress. It's also probably THE sweater I should have started with as my first project...

Peony Tee - I am in love with the funky-coloured contrasting sleeves and the raglan concept

Bridgette Ballet Neck Pullover - Ballet necks are my weakess...

Cap Sleeve Top - This I had a little romance with before, oh, about 8 years ago and it was shaping up beautifully in navy - I have all the yarn that I need for it.

Isop Sweater - I really want to learn this fair isle technique of making yokes, because I saw this pornographically beautiful set of 2 knitted sweaters in just the perfect colours and I'd like to do equvalent crochet versions, no I'm not at all trying to run before I can walk, why you ask?

Many of them much easier than Mariposa. Many of them not so tailored to the figure.

But no. Mariposa.

I have been buying up yarn in bulk again. This is how I know I'm in trouble.

But what about you guys? Do you have a Nemesis Project that has been kicking your ass for ages? Do you get overly ambitious like me? Or do you make your gauge swatches and avoid pissing off the Gods of Yarn, like sensible people?

[queenofalpaca]

PLEASE TELL ME ABOUT MERMAID BODE 🖤🖤🖤

Yes! A second ask! Of course I’ll tell you about mermaid Bode 🩵 (I actually got curious about this one when I found it in my wips and went back to check it out so lucky you, this one’s fresh in my memory)

So this wip came from me wanting to participate in MerMay someday and deciding I needed an idea. Lo and behold, my brain promptly complied and came up with this. Sadly there’s no snippets to share (yet. Perhaps we’ll make this may my first MerMay) but I have some concepts/ideas.

First thing’s first:

Who’s who?

Well, Bode is a mermaid/merman. The sort that can shift into a human. And here comes the fun part: my half-asleep brain decided all good mer shifters need to be mute (Ariel style) so Bode’s got to be mute. Why is he mute? Because there’s a superstition about mermen being sirens and someone made sure to damage his vocal cords to take his voice. He’s got a nasty scar on his throat from it too. Additionally, this au was created around the time I was taking a sign language course at uni, so I feel I have at least the beginnings of an idea of how it works and what to watch out for when writing a mute character. I will have to do more research but at least I have a head start, right?

Now, of course this is SpyScrapper (I say, despite the fact that SpyScrapper always seems to come second to everything I write having to be about Bode first and foremost), so Cal’s here too. I’m not sure what his exact relationship to Jaro was in this verse but in any case, Jaro ended up dead because of mer-people and Cal got his famous cheek scar from that encounter. He’s then taken in and raised by Prauf because we love him. Cal’s obviously got big trauma about mer-people and the ocean in general.

All the other characters may feature as I need them, but they don’t have a concrete role to play as of rn.

The Plot

You can guess where this is going but I’ll spell it out anyway. Cal and Bode meet at a bar. Cal catches sight of the big cutie and goes to introduce himself. Bode is pleasantly surprised by Cal’s ease around the fact that he’s mute. They communicate by writing/drawing out letters in Cal’s palm before they get a pen, the scraps of sign language Cal picked up (spontaneous idea: could this be where he picks up the nickname?), and a lot of lovingly gazing at each other of course.

Something something, they go on a few dates, something something, they start falling in love (not yet sure what to do about this part). Cal being scared of the ocean comes up. Bode starts helping him work through it. Side note: Bode does have scales as a human, but they’re so light, they can be mistaken for strange scars. Thus, Cal doesn’t know he’s been falling in love with a mer. Big angst when he finds out. I’m thinking something with a big storm, choppy waves, potential almost drowning or something. Whatever it ends up as, I’m sure it’ll be fun, heh

That’s about as far as I’ve gotten. But man, now I really want to actually write this.

Hope that satiates your curiosity 🩵 I really wish I had a snippet to share, but rest assured, when I do, you’ll be the first to know about it

[jadeile-writes]

Fanfic Progress Update 153

Hi people, it's time to do an update on this week's writing progress. Stay tuned for a sneak-peek for Keep the Cuddles Platonic -challenge at the bottom of this post!

Current WIPs:

Keep the Cuddles Platonic -challenge

Fandom: Sonic the Hedgehog, movieverse

Summary: Doctor Robotnik is simultaneously touch averse and touch starved, which results in a plan to "get the touching needs over with" in the most efficient way he could think of: cuddles overnight, when he wouldn't be doing anything useful anyway. Agent Stone was not privy to the plan until they arrived at their hotel room for their business trip.

Progress: Chapter 2 is the current latest chapter and was posted on 23rd of November. Chapter 3 is finished and will be posted on 30th of November aka next Thursday. Chapters 4 and 5 are also finished :D

Originally this was supposed to be a threeshot, but chapter 3 got so long that I cut it into two chapters, and chapter 4 reached the desired word count perfectly naturally, so it was clearly a necessity. Chapter 5 just kind of wrote itself, it's a shorter epilogue chapter that the fic didn't really need, but now that it's there it perfects it, so turns out the fic did need it, I just didn't know it. Anyway, it's all written now and only needs to be posted.

—–

I'm Signing in the Drain

Fandom: Sonic the Hedgehog, movieverse

Summary (temporary): Not many people know this, but Doctor Robotnik is actually deaf and uses hearing aids to make up for it. Agent Stone does not know this, he just kind of assumes he's told to learn sign language upon being assigned for some other, mysterious reasons, and not as a "just in case" measure.

Progress: This fic will have at least three chapters, maybe four, maybe more (if I decide I actually want to do more with this concept than my initial idea, because the potential is there). The second chapter is almost done. The first chapter is now about 1/3 done.

I'm actually not sure if this fic will end up being Stobotnik aside from Stone being Big Gay as usual, cause Robotnik is being very aroace right now and I don't know if he'll give Stone a chance or not, as that is not really the point of the fic. We'll see how this shapes up.

—–

SBLF (workname)

Fandom: Sonic the Hedgehog, movieverse

Summary (temporary):

Wanted: a yesman who is capable of operating an espresso machine, has at least a higher IQ than your average amoeba, and is willing to put work before having a personal life, or indeed a life, period. The extra in your pathetic paycheck is good, but the strain in your psyche will make up for the positives. Forfeit your basic human rights and apply today if this sounds like you. 

Maybe it said something about Agent Stone - and probably not good things - that the poster in the cafeteria's pin board piqued his interest more than any of his official assignments had for a good long while. 

Dr. Robotnik, huh?

Progress: This one will be a longfic, probably around 20 chapters. It's a bit hard to estimate at this point, so the number is subject to change. Or I might cut this into two fics in a series, because quite honestly, it's two stories in one package (that is, half of it is pre-canon and half post-canon, so you know, could easily have two fics.) My writing hours will be devoted to this fic.

I have the first three chapters completely written now. Chapter 4 is half done. I also have two halfway written chapters that don't yet know their exact placement within the fic (they're scenes that will be slotted in to wherever they feel natural, once we get Stone settled in.)

—–  

Other WIPs I’m not currently working on but intend to get back to Someday™:

PoE Drabbles (Pillars of Eternity)

DC Drabbles (Justice League)

Diaphanous Relations (Forgotten Realms, R.A. Salvatore’s books)

Rolling with it (Zelda: BotW)

Hah, our afterlife is the most hilarious bushwa, dearest! (Hazbin Hotel)

—–

That’s it for the WIPs! Here’s the promised sneak-peek into Keep the Cuddles Platonic -challenge (Note: the text may end up slightly different in the fic itself due to more editing happening before publishing). Enjoy!

It was a perfectly average day at Doctor Robotnik’s laboratory. No business trips, no missions, no field tests, nothing but staying at the lab. Stone’s workday would be from ten to six, he’d do his usual everyday work, no meetings scheduled, no presentations, no visitors, no deadline crunches.

Simply a regular Thursday.

Except it was going to be anything but.

When Stone came in for the day, the lab smelled off in a way that was hard to define. Curiously, he walked up to the big crossroad that divided the lab building into two distinct halves and sniffed the air, pinpointing that the smell was coming from the left corridor, which meant the origin was likely the testing lab. Upon entering it, he could immediately see the cause of the smell: the large steel glass cabinet where the doctor tested various weapon proofnesses of his prototypes was covered in soot, metal bits, and chemical splatter. In short, the machine he had worked on yesterday when Stone clocked out had exploded upon testing.

Stone cringed in sympathy. That was days of careful work gone up in smoke just like that. At least he hadn’t been here to get yelled at for it.

—–

That’s it this time. See you next Saturday!

Links:

My AO3   My FFnet   My Ko-fi    Radiohusk Discord Server

[macabremoons]

Midas' Prologue

TW: Grimoire being himself, sicko for sicko romance, possessive behavior, anxiety, and general dark themes.

Word count: 1.2k

A/N: "Wow, Moon," you ask with sweet innocence, "you're four concept stories in. Are you closer to understanding this wip?" No. No, I'm not. Honestly while I like this I still haven't untapped Grimoire's true insanity. One day, truly. Oh! Sabelina's name has been changed to Annabella <3 Anyway enjoy!!

Rain taps on outside of my tent. I try my best to relax to the sound, but the smell of petrichor takes my mind right back to where it was running from. 

The sword shifts from more to less than an itch away from my face. Cassander smiles down at me, and my mind is flown back to my father. All this effort, and he regards me with the same causal power. 

I bite the inside of my cheek. I can afford this time to recoup, but I can not afford to be consumed by fear. I still have to find a way to get out of Cassander’s hands. I’ve escaped them temporarily, but he will be back, even madder than before now that Grimoire has killed so many of his men. I’ve steeled myself through many things on this trip. Corpses, infected wounds, screaming soldiers. This matter is not different. Rather, I refuse it to be.

The tent flap goes up, and I go deathly still. I resist the urge to cover the tear marks on my face, but then I see who it is and sigh.

“Grimoire, you still need to announce yourself before walking into my tent.” To my delight, my voice doesn’t waver.

“My deepest apologies, my lady. I am a bit tired, so it must have slipped my mind.” 

“Tired? You?”

Grimoire laughs softly, flopping onto his side of the tent.  “Yes, me; tired. As violent by nature might I be, too much of it is still exhausting.”

My eyes dart away. He wouldn’t be so tired if he hadn’t had to save me from Cassander. It strings—seeing my exact failure stare back at me. Worst yet, Grimoire has been very obedient lately, and said obedience allowed me to make mistakes. His resistance before had felt like a curse, but now feels like a blessing in disguise.

“We’ll take a break then. I have many things to do,” I say. He doesn’t reply. He’s drifting off, but he looks tense. “Wait, Grimoire.”

“Yes, my lady?”

“Sleep in my bed tonight. The floor is not enough for proper rest.”

Grimoire opens his eyes, staring into mine. His eyes stake through me completely, but I stand my ground. I must look ridiculous, but if I want respect, I must demand it in any circumstance. A king that can not be mocked by his jester is a coward, after all.

He wordlessly gets up and slides into my bed with me, face down. He’s quite close to my thighs. Too close, even. Though there is only so much space in the bed for him to be comfortable. I’ll just bear through it. 

“Might I ask one question?” Grimoire whispers. 

A single question in a lifetime of servitude. “I don’t see why not.”

“Does the taste of violence satisfy you?”

I begin to regret my kindness immediately. “I’m not sure I understand.”

He turns to look at me. “Violence is blood, and blood is life essence, at least for me. For you it’s power, no? But power at the hands of violence is an acquired taste. Do you like it?”

My fingers curl around the blanket. “I’m not scared of violence.”

“Mhm? I didn’t think so.” His lips ghost my skin, but I am too angered to be embarrassed by it. “No, no. You’ve been in too many battles to be scared of violence. I just don’t see that you enjoy it.”

“It’s a means to an end.”

“So you don’t enjoy it?”

“I am not sadist, Grimoire. Of course I do not enjoy violence.”

“But you enjoy the power it brings?”

Is he of all people suggesting pacifism to me? Grimoire reeks of blood.. He’s washed of it now, but you can see it in his very soul. Or the nook it used to be in. Nothing I could do would compare to him.

“Ah,” Grimoire hums. “That is more than one question. No pressure to answer, my love.”

A way out of this conversation. An easy solution, I do not take those anymore. Grimoire’s words could be excused with exhaustion, or it could be that exhaustion is letting him say what he really feels about me. If so, I need to know this. Grimoire is my greatest ally, and therefore my greatest enemy.

“I do enjoy the power it brings. Words can only get one so far. Or, perhaps ,they could get a different person farther, but I am not in a position to be propelled far by them. You know I had to fight just to be here.”

“Verbally, but yes.”

“We wouldn’t still be here if I did not resort to violence.”

“We wouldn’t be, no.”

The format of his words irk me. “You have more to say.”

Grimoire sighs. “Wouldn’t it be better if you were in the bed, like I am? You deserve rest too, you know. We are not in a battlefield, my lady, no need to be so tense.”

I should deny him, but I am tired. I sink into the bed. A sparkle goes through Grimoire’s eyes, but his expression does not change. Something, too, goes through me. Grimoire is my familiar, but he is still a man. This is the first time I’ve shared a bed with one. 

"Well?" I press.

"Time takes most things despite how tough they are. Maybe I just worry it will take the fire you have with it.”  Grimoire gives another soft laugh. “Or maybe it’s not my place to say at all. Yet, your desire is so warm. Ah, I’d miss it.”

Warm? The rain has me frigid cold, and I can’t stop shivering from fear. Grimoire thinks too highly of me. I wonder if it’s delusion from living for so long or another part of his… charm.

His words make me even colder. He’s slightly right. I find myself not missing the men lost in battle until I have to send letters home. It’s easy to have poison testers until they find poison. Does this make life not worth living? Does this mean that my dreams should not be achieved just because I might feel differently about them years later? An easy answer comes to mind.

“Maybe I’ll puke on the taste of bloody luxury later, but I am certain that starvation kills. I do not have the hindsight to tell you you’re wrong, but—” Words catch in my throat. They scramble away from me, leaving only the truth that lets me sleep at night. “I have to become more than my father’s daughter.”

Grimoire stares into my soul one last time before smiling wide enough I can almost see his fangs. “We will have to find out together then, mhm? I am excited to see it. Whether you like your Midas’ touch or not, I’ll stick with you. High heaven or low hells—they’re all the same to me, my lady.”

“Such is the life of a familiar,” I murmur. My tiredness is catching up to me, but I force myself to stay awake. 

Grimoire leans in closer. “Sleep. No one will harm you by my side.”

As I drift off, I call back to my own thoughts: greatest ally, greatest enemy.

Taglist (ask to be added!!): @anonymousfoz, @stesierra, @leisoree, @immortaladrien, @lyra-brie

[new-royston-cursebreakers]

NRCB's Writeblr Intro!

Hey all! My name’s Rene and it’s about time I actually introduced myself, huh?

I’m a transgender, neurodivergent writer from the Metro-Detroit area. I love writing fantasy, slipstream, magical realism, and poetry, and I love reading those same genres (if your story has dragons, giants, and/or bug-based characters/races, hmu!) I tend to world build a lot, then pants a plot that takes place in that world. I’m always interested in being tagged in tag games, and if you’d like to be added to my tag list, please let me know!

You’ll find my stories chock full of:

queer relationships between men

rampant optimism

ridiculous concepts taken seriously

questions about religion, purpose, existence, etc.

character-specific motifs

dramatic irony

mild horror

My interests include:

writing, of course! And editing!

video games (LoZ, Terraria, Bully, SDV, Subnautica, FF1, 6, and 9 just to name a few of my favorites!)

tarot

religious studies

roleplaying

beading

making playlists/moodboards/anything about my characters!

Stuff about WIPs under the cut!

The Curse of New Royston

Main tag - wip: tconr

Current status: editing. again

Within the borders of the town of New Royston, Connecticut, one’s net worth proportionally affects their physical size. Sometime in the early 2000s, high school sophomore Gio Violett, a 20-foot-tall giant recently recovering from a near-death experience, meets Cricket Collins, an 11-inch-tall freshman who’s been living on his own since his parents left town with the intent to save up enough money to bring him with them. Together, the two of them resolve to try to break the spell over New Royston, but a variety of adversaries, from supernatural forces to the town’s political machines, stand in their way.

Pitch

Comic Sans PowerPoint

TCoNR Tag Masterlist (links lead to their intros)

waterlogged curseling 🌊 (Gio)

held in darkness 🦗 (Cricket)

self-appointed guardian 🍓 (Fletcher)

fear-laden medium 📒 (Eneas)

avoidant sleuth 🪡 (Caelan)

remedy provider 🕯 (Auster)

of two worlds 🌸 (Cameron)

ice-eyed warden 👑 (Theodore)

boundless learner 📖 (Margaret)

regretful fugitive 🎓 (Lionel)

the kindest soul 🩸 (Darryl)

TCoNR Short Stories

Flowerbed (2000 words - Fletcher, in his hour of need, meets the heir to the Violett legacy)

Oracle of the Stained Glass Windows

Main tag - wip: ootsgw

Current status: on the back-burner

Kilroy, a pacifist hippalektryon, lives with his herd in the area around the Oracle, a great stone hall of unknown origin that magically shifts itself to create wondrous stained glass windows dyed with different types of magic. Kilroy himself is featured in one of these windows jamming his horn into the gut of some unknown, pitch-black creature. One day, an attempt from Kilroy to avoid his violent, prophesied fate goes wrong just as he runs straight into Mar, the creature from the window. Mar helps heal Kilroy’s injury and Kilroy, shocked by his would-be adversary’s kindness, vows to find a way to avoid their mutually-destructive destiny.

OotSGW Tag Masterlist

two-toned warhorse 🪽 (Kilroy)

wayward academic 💥 (Mar)

The Sun and the Craftsman 

You can read it @the-sun-and-the-craftsman!

Main tag - wip: tsatc 

Current status: posting, but on a bit of a hiatus

Darius had been one of many ordinary people pulled into Ashur’s world from his own—and at the nick of time. The portal had been his only way out from the law after exacting revenge on his parents’ murderer. But Ashur’s world wasn’t exactly a paradise either. 

Faced with the threat of being sent back to the exact moment of his capture, Darius must find a way to get along with the ruler of this world—a powerful, god-like entity with an affinity for scorching sunlight, an insatiable hunger, and a magical mastery over flesh. And Ashur, in turn, must find a way to co-exist with this stubborn human who joins the long line of mortals who have attempted to truly understand him.

TSatC Tag Masterlist 

sun-touched ☀️ (Ashur)

dual justice 🧥 (Darius)

stars below 🌠 (James)

Unnamed Time Traveler WIP

Main tag - wip: ttwip

Current status: second draft completed, need readers! See here if you want to help!

Neor is a talented mage. Sent from her hometown of Dunevale to apprentice at the continent's only Mages' Guild, she finds herself disillusioned at how segmented and rigid their structure seems to be. So when the greatest living mage, Archmage Sacha, presents a completely different idea of magic, Neor jumps at the chance to follow and learn from her.

But a spell gone wrong—or right—ends up sending Neor to a distant and bleak age. Now, her only companion is Vultarne, a ruthless, violent mage who brought the world to its knees and would've killed Neor if her spell had not protected her. Now Neor has to contend with not only Vultarne, but also the mysterious reason why she's been sent and hidden truths about her own time.

[millenari]

2 for wip ask game? Time travel is a crazy concept

Number 2, the timetraveling 7kittens au! This one is inspired by the 'pulled seven kittens out of a hat' line from Misto's song that people often hc to mean that Misto is trans and has given birth to kittens before. This au is an offshoot of Gold Rush, in which only a few elements are changed (most notably that Misto is trans). The story starts when, one night on the junkyard (perhaps only a year or two prior to the events of the show) a group of seven kittens come trotting into the junkyard, claiming to be Tugger and Misto's litter from the future. The kittens have no idea how they got stuck in the past (and had no idea they'd even moved through time at first) so Misto and the others are stuck taking care of the little guys while all the resident magical cats try to put their heads together and figure out how the litter got there, and why. I don't want to call this story 'dark' but it could be severely triggering for some people, because it has a lot to do with Misto struggling with dysphoria due to his heats and the idea of becoming pregnant in the future. The concepts of choice and fate and destiny and such are tossed around a lot, and Misto spends a lot of time struggling with the feeling of having no control of his body. He has to wrestle with these feelings all the while he grows fonder and fonder of the kittens he'd initially resented, and also has to re-evaluate his relationship to Tugger along the way. And if all of that wasn't complicated enough, one kitten of the litter in particular, Victor, is a little too much like Misto for his own good. Or at least, Misto thinks so. Another way too long summary. Anyways, snippet:

Misto waves his paws a little, incredulous. “Don’t you want to know if you actually make your own choices?”

“No. Because I know I do.” Reaching over, Tugger rips a small chunk off of Misto’s fish, and then proceeds to chuck it across the clearing. He’s lucky it’s empty right now, or he would’ve probably hit someone.

“Tugger!” Misto barks, taken aback.

“See? I just chose to do that. I know that for a fact.”

“And if every existing— existing universal iteration of you did that exact same thing at this exact same time? Is it still you choosing?”

“Yes. You know how I know?”

“How?” Misto sighs.

“Because I chose to. Just now.” When Misto groans again and leans back against the crate behind him, Tugger smugly adds, “Put that one in your diary.”

“Do you really not care about any of this?”

“What? Destiny? No. A bunch of shit happens and then we get reborn into a new life. And then a bunch of shit happens again. Repeat for eternity. We’re cats, Misto, how much does any of this matter?”

“Because I want to know where I’m headed!” Misto exclaims up at the stars, gesturing at his chest. “I want to know if there’s any point in fighting against— my destiny, or my future, or whatever.”

“You don’t need to ‘fight’ your destiny at all, Misto.”

“That’s easy for you to say!” Misto exclaims, sitting up to look over at Tugger. “You were born in the right body! All I fucking do is try to work against what the universe hands me, and if there’s a possibility that there’s no point in it and I have no say—”

“Then what?” Tugger asks wryly. “You’ll just stop?”

Misto pauses. He scratches his nose before admitting, “Well. No.”

“There you go. Just do your thing, Misto.” He leans back against the crates, folding his arms behind his head. “Who cares about destiny and shit.”

[nuatthebeach]

2022 Wrapped

Tagged by @corneliaavenue! You're a lovely thing <3

Oof, it's already 2023, isn't it? Oh, well.

Post the top 5 works you're most proud of that you released in 2022 (not necessarily your most popular)

it's gonna be 4 now lol.

persist and resist the temptation to ask you - this one is perhaps the most authentic, soul-pouring fic i've ever written. and the one i'm most proud of because of my growth in writing prose and pacing overall. there were many times i would huddle with a blanket in a dark room (💀) simply because of how much i was feeling in the moment. it was the most visceral experience i've had writing so far.

like passing notes in secrecy - i would say that when i finished persist, i was in this writing craze/high in that i simply wanted to write anything since i finally felt like i was on a roll, but that wouldn't do this fic - and my work - justice. because persist was so angsty, i desperately needed to write something that was light and fluffy in consequence for my own sake. i'm very happy about the banter and humor i was able to apply to this OTP; it was pure serotonin, and i hope it was the same for others.

Midnight - my first hinny smut!! aka i took my headcanon of switch!hinny and really ran with it. though i no longer have the same exact headcanon about the two of them, i'm still really proud of how steamy this turned out. and i have a feeling all the private bookmarkers do too 👀

you knew that i'm a mastermind, and now you're mine - man, the sheer power tswift holds on all fic writers everywhere. the aim was to use this song ("mastermind") in irony to show how the wizarding world perceives ginny relative to her relationship with harry. and because ginny is such a force of nature, she and the press manage to come to a certain albeit amusing level of agreement (a true mastermind har dee har). it's a bamf character moment for her, and she owned every second of it.

your top 4 current WIPs that you're excited to release in the new year

you reminded me to open up my google docs for the first time in a month! phewww.

premed hinny!rivals to lovers fic - snippet here. my final fuck you (and extremely reluctant thank you) to undergrad in the form of my OTP. fic is fully outlined and ready to be written if only i could give it the time of day 😭. but now that i have a lot of time opened up for me in the next several months, i'll finally get to it! fingers crossed

anniversary hinny smut - hinny roleplays as strangers in a bar, and let's just say we'll stick the art of acting to the shitty movies. a whole ass page written so far, so i take that as a win!

a somewhat angst, somewhat crack fic... i uh... have the most written for this wip so far of all my wips and im both proud and mortified by that. let's just say it's a story of how hinny finds themselves back to each other postwar... and the path is not exactly a straight route. playlist is a wip as well.

another crack fic because apparently that's all @takearisk-ao3 and me are on... though it's more accurate to say i helped to brainstorm and Hannah, the brilliant Executioner. to quote Hannah's post... "no comment."

im adding a fifth one because why not. hinny!vampire au. though there's only been half a page written for it so far, and hence a lot of white space, im so, so ready for the tools of creativity to lead me to more crackheadery that ive yet to discover. (like i needed more to start with.)

your top 3 biggest improvements in your writing over the past year

i think my writing comes off a bit "cleaner" now? there's more of a coherent plot, resolution to my fics than most of the simple "slices of life" that i wrote more of last year.

i'd like to think the dialogue comes off more natural now too. im finally getting the hang of doing more "showing" than telling and implementing symbolism and metaphors when trying to display a broader theme/concept.

im able to sit with fics and be at ease with the fact that im not going to have the right answer immediately. that i have to wait before i can post to make it better. i started prioritizing quality over mass production - and while this is still something i struggle with a lot of the times - i feel like this is a bit of a step up from last year. and most importantly, i learned that rewrites - not just editing - may be necessary too, and that is okay. that does not make me a bad writer but (hopefully) a thoughtful one.

your top 2 resolutions (ways you wish to improve your writing/blog) for the new year

to not constantly compare myself to other people's writing. focus on how i can improve myself without being intimidated by all the works of the many amazing writers in the fandom. to finally put words on the page fearlessly and authentically, like i felt i did with persist.

to take more risks. keep putting my characters in uncomfortable situations and testing out how they can grow from them. to not feel limited in my writing just because in my young age i havent experienced them. to push my boundaries more. (i thank @fairsquare16 @takearisk-ao3 and @narukoibito for encouraging this and the first goal every single time i feel even the slightest bit down about it; they're also the reason im still entertaining all these crackfics so put the blame on them when they eventually come out)

and your number 1 favorite line you've written this year

my fucking answer to this changes every two seconds...not for any other reason except that it's my biggest conspiracy theory that i have early, early onset dementia and can't for the life of me remember. here's one for now:

Like the story, the moral is just as simple: love unconditionally, act irrevocably. One shouldn't fear wearing their heart on their sleeve if the alternative is to never plant, water, and bathe it with the light of day.

After all, what are mistakes if not signs to grow?

Tagging

@narukoibito @heartstopping-waves @ashotofogdensoldfirewhiskey and whoever else would like to do it (i truly mean that)!

[ratwavekayla]

@msmcnevertweet tagged me to talk about different works in progress. I think I've been getting better at tracking my WiPs this year so here's where I'm at.

TTRPG Projects that I'm "actively" working on

Terminal - I finished the first draft before the Kickstarter launched (terminal.ratwave.uk) but there's still lots of stuff I'm doing beyond just running the campaign

Jukebox Tarot - A GMless one-shot game for telling stories inspired by musical theatre, using a deck of tarot cards and the music you love.

Godslingers - Play a posse of cosmic desperados with necrodivine weapons in a space fantasy western setting. Built for short campaigns as characters deal with their weapons eating them alive.

Demon Cage Fireball - Play a season of diabolic football league, using a unique mechanic for aping the emotion of football match.

The last are "active" because what they all essentially need is a playtest to check they work before I move on to the next steps and I'm bad at organising playtests.

TTRPG Projects that are "paused"but I may come back to

Untitled Kassily Solo Journaling Game - Half written over a year ago. Involves venturing into a shifting dreamscape illustrated by public domain Kassily paintings. I intend to come back to this but it's a weird one as it's fully just diving back in mid flow.

Bloody Hands Dig Shallow Graves - A campaign length adventure for Wild Duelist. I had some fun ideas I was batting around but basically Wild Duelist has never sold well enough to justify me putting the effort into this (unless the fancy really captures me)

My Heart is a Nuclear Reactor - Worked out some concepts based on this phrase that popped into my head during a therapy session. Realised I was getting upset if people didn't grasp the exact metaphor I was going for so decided it was too raw. Feels more likely to get scrapped for parts than picked up but you never know.

TTRPG Projects that are paused with no intention of being revisited

Awesome Altered Hero Force - Power Rangers Lumen game with plural characters. Had some fun ideas but I never got a setting that actually felt interesting. Already scrapped a lot of the moves for Wild Duelist parts back in the day.

Hyper Racer: Triumph - A PBTA science fantasy bloodsport racing game I was working in just for friends before I actually started taking games seriously. I think I just have too different ideas around what I want from games I make to revive this idea.

TTRPG Projects that are just a glint in my eye

Transgender Deathmatch Legend II - An idea I've batted around is crowdfunding a box set with multiple adventures as well as some tweaks to the system inspired by other games built on the original game. Basically the hold back is making sure I feel confident enough to have a bash at a box set.

I Only Listen to Underground Music - Psychopomp road trip playlist making game. It was a pitch for an anthology that didn't get picked up. Doesn't feel like a priority right now but I dug the ideas so I could see myself knocking it out one rainy day.

Low pressure tag if anyone wants to talk about their WiPs; @gormengeist , @anarcutie (I always feel awkward doing tag chains but also I never jump on them if I'm not tagged and I had fund doing this

[amadeusgame]

Amadeus Devlog 1: from Concepts/Ideas Into An Actual Demo

Well, as of this past Saturday, the demo for Amadeus is live. I hope it's a good introduction to the world, story, titular character, and general atmosphere/ambience of the game.

Over the next year, I'm going to be shifting my sights toward getting the full release of Episode 1 ready by next summer. I'm planning to post at least monthly long-form development updates, both here as well as devlogs on the itch.io project. I'm considering a newsletter, but that hasn't happened yet - in the event it does, I've created a Linktree to track all of the resources relevant to the ongoing development of Amadeus. Give this a bookmark and check back: https://linktr.ee/amadeusgame

Without further ado.... the first update about the ongoing making of Amadeus! Or, in this case, a retrospective on making the demo. If you're curious about how this project started, and how various inspirations and circumstances helped me see it through to a released demo, give it a read! It's a bit long, so if you'd rather skip it, you're not missing anything but context on what's already done. Future devlogs will be shorter and have more news looking forward.

Amadeus the character has existed in my brain for several years, now. Solea - who is mentioned in the demo, but has not yet made an appearance - was conceptualized at the same time, but she was originally named Solaris. I changed her name because it felt strange to have both main characters' names end with the same sound. Now that it's changed, I think Solea fits her better.

Below are the first sketches I made of these characters. It's interesting how little Amadeus changed, but Solea on the other hand is almost unrecognizable. Her characterization changed so much that I felt she needed a new design to accompany it. As for what that design is... that's something to be revealed later! I think she's an incredibly compelling character, and I can't wait for everyone to meet her.

What motivated me to turn these characters into protagonists of an actual, real video game, was a series of concurrent Things during my second year as a grad student studying music composition, last year. At the time, I was:

Taking an elective course on C#/Unity, and learning how to Actually Make A Game

Writing a music piece for solo marimba and electronics (for a different course), and using Professor Layton music as inspiration

Thinking about a particular scene I had just come up with involving Amadeus

#2 is extremely relevant here. There was one evening when I was listening to a WIP of the marimba composition I wrote, and realized it evoked the exact kind of melancholy that might fit my story - so, as a form of fun procrastination, I played the track back on loop and sketched out a title screen for Amadeus's story in a small notebook.

Yep... the very first thing I made for this game was a title screen. Not exactly the conventional way to do things. (That marimba piece eventually turned into "Spellbound Mischief," the BGM track during the largest interactive/investigation scene in the demo. It was greatly inspired by the "Kodh" BGM in Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy, and "Bewitching Puzzles" from Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney.)

Meanwhile, in the Unity class, I had just learned how to make a very basic title screen with a button to proceed to the game on it. So I opened a new instance of Unity, imported a phone camera picture of the drawing I did as a title screen asset, and made a "proceed to game" button that deactivated the title screen. I went ahead and put the in-progress version of the marimba piece as background music while I was at it.

And so the development of Amadeus began.

The very first build was made in one weekend, after I had finished my actual Unity/C# homework for the week, and wanted to apply what I had learned to building a game. Unfortunately, a game needs art assets. I found that it was incredibly difficult to motivate myself to work with pure greybox assets, so I sketched up very placeholder-y assets (a background, a walk cycle) and played around with them. As a visual artist, I find it easier to work in pencil and paper than digitally, so I sketched the assets in the same notebook as before.

Behold the glory of Prototype Amadeus:

I ended up building out a very rough skeleton version of the first scene in the demo, almost exclusively using Unity buttons as functionality, because that was what I understood best at the time. The portraits for Amadeus and the Witch are used in the final game, as well as the hand sprite and the door scene (all of which I put considerably  more effort into than the placeholder walk cycle and manor, seen above.)

...In fact, if you're REALLY bored, the prototype still exists here on itch.io: https://arcanaxix.itch.io/amadeus-prologue-demo (password is "werewolfdepressionsim").

If you're not that bored, you can hopefully still appreciate how much better the released demo version of the text UI looks, compared to this:

At this point, the professor of my Unity course introduced us to our final project: we were to create a Game Design Document for a game, a timeline with finishing major benchmarks to complete the game as proposed by the day our final project was due, and then have a fun party where we would all play each others' games. The game didn't have to be anything very involved at all (it was music school, expectations were not very high), but I was getting excited about actually making a game with MY CHARACTERS, and I wanted to use this assignment to build a playable point-and-click chapter.

I also wanted to learn how to try and code a drag-and-drop puzzle mechanic, not just for this game, but also to try and help with the ongoing development of another exciting project I am part of (Project DuskPuppy). At any rate, I used the final project of this class to build a very janky "chapter" of Amadeus.

I learned so much working on that, and at the end of it, I had something that was Technically Playable, an absolute nightmare in terms of user experience, and in which half of the assets were scribbles. But I shared it with friends, and one of them gave me the following feedback, which (thanks ZeroJanitor) basically directed my continued development of the demo:

"i love the whole tone of this game, the paper cutout sprites and somber music set a really cool tone, which compliment the character dialogue and theming really well! also it functions from start to finish which is always nice"

I'm including this because I think it's important for people to know just how much their comments can influence and motivate creators. Hearing just one person say that the paper sketch visuals - which I was using originally NOT out of any aesthetic direction, but literally just because I personally find it easier to draw assets on pencil and paper, and needed assets to implement - set an interesting and unique tone? Well, that settled it! I decided to double down on the pencil sketches from then on, and have used the same notebook that I sketched the original title screen in to draw every single art asset in the game.

This has come with its share of difficulties - a couple of the sprites I needed to entirely re-draw, because they were drawn at a different scale in my notebook, so the line thicknesses didn't match up with the other sprites. This would have been much easier to tweak digitally, but for pencil-on-paper, I had to just start over.

The second version is an improvement anyway; but I ended up using the "rough" version as an in-between frame in an animation, and by sheer luck, it happens to flow pretty well. So the original still made it in after all!

Anyway, that all came later -- at the end of 2022 I simply had a technically playable version of the game that was extremely rough and was mostly held together with Unity buttons deactivating and activating things, but it was Enough of an accomplishment that I started to feel like I could see this through into a real release.

I had learned:

The basics of how C#/Monobehaviors work, and enough of an understanding to be able to look up answers and resources for further learning

How to make a game design document and break a HUGE task like "make a game" down into every single small task within it, and prioritize/schedule those to get something made

That no matter what you will never actually finish everything on time, and to make peace with that

(Regarding Point 3: my original script for the movement could not handle the upper limit of movement on a screen being anything except a horizontal line, so for the scene with the grave on a hill, I just.... rotated the camera and Amadeus' sprite. I figured out a more elegant solution later, but sometimes, deadlines mean you have to slap on a band-aid that sort of works!)

And, crucially, I had the OK from my professor to continue asking him code and Unity questions after the course was finished, with the caveat that he would respond when he had the time. This is probably the only reason I actually finished the Amadeus demo. Being able to ask for help when you need it is invaluable.

The next important thing that happened was over winter break I spent 2 weeks obsessively binge-reading the visual novel Umineko When They Cry. This was, I cannot emphasize enough, THE most motivating thing I could have possibly done. I was struck by several things: the insanely catchy soundtrack, the fascinating abstract sound design choices, and the CHARM of the MS-paint graphics. I had been surrounded by an obsession with big budget games at school and the idea that music that's too melodic or looping distracts from the game, but here was an example of a soundtrack with some of the catchiest tunes I've ever heard that hit incredibly hard during key narrative moments.

(The development of Amadeus had to take a brief pause while I painted the Golden Witch Beatrice on my laptop. But this means that the majority of serious development for Amadeus happened on a laptop with the Golden Witch Beatrice on it:)

Playing Umineko was exactly what I needed to completely throw the "soundtracks should support the game but not draw attention to themselves" value out the window. I had just played a masterpiece of a game in which the soundtrack hit you over the head with itself and it ruled so indescribably hard. Moreover, I had just played a masterpiece of a game in which almost all of the art assets were clearly drawn by one person doing their best, and it ruled so indescribably hard. So I doubled down on my values: I was going to create a game, with my own hand-drawn assets, and my own music, and it was going to be chock full of certified bangers if it was the last thing I did.

(May as well plug the soundtrack again while I'm on the topic: https://arcanaxix.bandcamp.com/album/amadeus-demo-original-soundtrack - I was studying music at music school during the majority of this game's development, so unsurprisingly, the music and sound are by far the most polished part of the whole affair.)

On the subject of music-! My last semester at school I didn't have a C# course giving me deadlines to work on the game, so I had to learn how to make my own deadlines. I drafted a calendar that originally scheduled the release of the demo for the end of May, 2023. I broke down the remaining tasks for a "complete" demo and scheduled them across the remaining months.

I did not follow this calendar at all. What I did do, was learn more about myself, and how to motivate myself. As you can see, the demo got released - so that means I managed to find a way to keep myself on track! And that was to take advantage of the fact that I was in music school, making music.

The whole project was started because of a piece of music I was writing. So it made sense to me to channel that, and to use my remaining time at school to create the perfect soundtrack, and to draw inspiration for the game itself from the music I was writing. Sometimes the game inspired my music, and sometimes it was the other way around! The point being: I still had deadlines, but they were music deadlines now, so I used that to motivate my development of the game.

A few examples:

Spellbound Mischief: I worked alongside percussionist Jay Lee on this composition, and engineered the recording session. Because of that, I had the backing track and the marimba recording split into two different audio stems. This gave me an idea: what if I had the marimba stem fade in and out? The actual nature of the dynamic soundtrack in the scene changed a lot over development, but it was inspired by the fact that I had multiple audio stems to work with in the first place.

Fugue ~ Interlude: The underlying composition of this piece is just what it says - a fugue. My final project in my counterpoint course was to write a fugue. The nice thing about fugues is that, once you understand the process, fugues more or less write themselves; this was written entirely divorced from Amadeus. So I wrote this fugue, and a different friend (thanks monstrman) gave me the feedback that it sounded like a Final Fantasy villain theme. I started thinking about it and I realized it had a ton of potential as a theme in my game... and much later, when I created the "Amadeus opens the notebook and thinks to himself" scene (added after playtester feedback that the narrative flow was hard to follow), I realized that I could use it there.

Deal With a Witch: I knew I needed a witchy theme. I didn't have one. So when I got assigned to write a contrapuntal ABA form piece, I wrote one in minor on the harpsichord, and it felt suitably witchy. The clarinet was added after, and I don't even remember why I added it other than that I know someone who plays a mean clarinet. It was definitely the right call.

A Riddle for Thee (Demo Version): I'm being a bit rude by including this one... this piece was written as a final project, a "Theme and Variations" for a course on 20th century harmony. However... this piece is going to manifest very, very differently in the complete game. I won't tell you what that is, but I will say this much, and hint at it very heavily: I hadn't quite figured out how to structure the complete narrative of Amadeus, other than that it would be in episodes; but writing this piece finally gave me a very compelling idea.

So I continued to work on the audio assets while I was in school, and resolved to have a mastered version of every track before I left campus for the last time. Once I graduated, I took the "end of May" deadline very seriously and focused on knocking out all of the remaining tasks to get the demo ready for private playtesters. Privately, I extended the actual demo release to the end of July, to give myself some time.

And here is where I have learned the most about keeping myself on track, as an individual with ADHD, no formal deadlines, and a lot of passion for this project:

Make your own deadlines, and make them ones with accountability.

I didn't follow my calendar because there was no accountability. What I DID do was finish a private-ready demo by end of May, because I had announced that it would be ready by end of May, and had a handful of people ready and excited to playtest it. And I finished the public version by end of July, because I had announced that it would be ready by the end of July.

You may be suspecting something... that's exactly what these monthly devlogs are going to be! I have a private calendar with benchmarks to meet in order to ship the finished Episode 1 of Amadeus by next summer, but the best way to be sure I meet those benchmarks is to write about them each month. This also helps keep you all informed too, and hopefully, excited about the project.

I know this has been a long write-up, but hopefully you gained some insight into how this project started, and how I as a musician-slash-multimedia-artist with one semester of C# under their belt managed to cobble together a game demo. And I hope you're as excited as I am about the complete game. I can't wait to make it so you can all experience it!