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angstandhappiness · 8 months ago

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Neat

Among the Hollow Masterpost

Someone pointed out that I should make one of these for Among the Hollow, so here we are. I will update this post as more content is created. Please also note that character concept designs and worldbuilding have changed over time, which will be reflected the further back you venture.

UPDATE: The novel is finished and available [here]

book cover design - [x]

character concept sketches and outfits - [final design]

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3] [part 4] [part 5] [part 6] [part 7] [part 8] [part 9] [part 10] [part 11] [part 12] [part 13] [part 14] [part 15] [part 16] [part 17] [part 18] [part 19] [part 20] [part 21] [part 22 NSFW] [part 23] [part 24] [part 25] [part 26] [part 27] [part 28] [part 29] [part 30] [part 31]

character voice sounds - [x]

plot comics - [introduction] [the opium den part 1] [children] [names and souls] [coitus interruptus NSFW] [the Death of Emperor Cyrus] [Sevila vs Guards]

sketchdumps - [part 1] [part 2] [part 3] [part 4] [part 5] [part 6] [part 7]

history and worldbuilding - [comic guide to the magic system] [character backgrounds] [on the nature of souls] [necromancy part 1] [necromancy part 2] [necromancy part 3] [the reign of Empress Iustina] [General Theodoros’ Coup] [on the nature of gods] [Imperial Structure] [the Arrum Empire and Kinship] [Zoe and Theodoros] [The Northern Threat] [the Helani People] [map of Aurel and Sevila’s journey] [Helani Sight] [Detailed Maps of the Arrum Empire] [The Constantine Siblings]

silly sketches / character interactions / memes - [part 1] [part 2] [part 3] [part 4] [part 5] [part 6] [part 7] [part 8] [part 9] [part 10] [part 11] [part 12] [part 13] [part 14] [part 15] [part 16] [part 17] [part 18] [part 19] [part 20] [part 21] [part 22] [part 23] [part 24]

#among the hollow #sevila peinatokos #aurel #oc #roman does art #holy hell I've created a lot for this already #and that doesn't even include the massive gdoc I have for this world lmao #ideas

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astercrash · 6 years ago

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Just finished reading @romans-art‘s Among the Hollow and liked it so much I wanted to write something with the characters. Fic below.

If you enjoy:

Falling in love with a well-written byronic anti-hero snake of a woman

Dealing with the muted horror of losing your body and your memory

Making friends in high places and enemies in higher places

Saving a crumbling empire from its own resurrection

then Among the Hollow might be the book for you.

Aurel stared at Sevila in a manner they hoped conveyed their profound skepticism.

“I’m not lost!” Sevila repeated. “Do you have any idea how many things in the universe would need to break for me to become lost?”

Aurel let the silence drag out so they could not be accused of answering yet another rhetorical question.

“Someone must have moved the city,” Sevila said finally, turning her back to the spirit as if to ignore them.

“Am I expected to believe it is easier for a city to move than for you to lose your way?”

“Yes?!” Sevila replied, incredulous. “Why is it so hard to trust me?”

“Because—”

“Rhetorical!” Sevila folded her arms and stared once more at the empty cove before her. Waves crashed against the rocky shores and birds cried from their nests on the nearby cliffs. Aurel imagined the air must smell rich with ocean spray and feel cool to the touch. Sevila glared out at the pleasant view, yet still the city of Sperina refused to manifest.

“If the city had been moved, would we not see some sign of that? How long ago were you last here?”

Sevila shrugged. “Twenty years or so, not that long.”

Aurel was still not certain they could roll their eyes, but Sevila’s expression told them the message had gotten across.

“We might as well camp here tonight,” they suggested. “There’s not enough sunlight left to find a road today.”

“We don’t need a road, we need whoever moved the city to unmove it before I lose my temper.”

“Oh no,” Aurel mocked, “the great and terrible Sevila Peinatokos is going to unleash her wrath on an empty cove. Run for your lives.” They lowered Sevila’s saddlebags to the ground and set off to find a rabbit to scare to death. Sevila’s mood would improve with something to eat, or at least she would be less unbearable about the whole thing.

Small game proved difficult to find in the shrubs around the cove, but as the sun lowered into the ocean Aurel managed to find a bird’s nest hidden in a small rocky outcrop. They gave a brief apology to its occupants before gathering them up and bringing back to their camp to prepare. Sevila had already started a small fire when they arrived and was poking it aggressively with a stick, sending sparks dangerously into the air.

“I hope you weren’t looking forward to seafood this evening,” Aurel said, lowering the bird’s nest down between Sevila and the campfire. Her eyes flashed over the dead yet otherwise healthy-looking gull laid on top before narrowing on the trio of spotted eggs at the base.

“We don’t have any water,” she said, motioning towards the kettle Aurel had insisted they buy at the last market they visited. It was still largely unused, as they had had little success in convincing Sevila that tea could be a suitable replacement for wine on some of their longer treks, but still they held out hope.

“You’ll find a stream just over that hill,” Sevila said, pointing without looking. “The city used it for drinking water, then someone made the river run a different colour every day for a week and none could trust it anymore.”

Aurel paused in thought while gathering up the kettle. “I don’t know what this says about you, but that might be the least awful way you’ve ever ruined a city.”

Sevila shrugged and got to work cleaning the gull for the fire.

The stream was right where Sevila had said it would be and fortunately for Aurel’s sensibilities the water flowed clear, reflecting the last of the fading sunlight as dusk became night and the stars began to show out in the heavens. It only occurred to Aurel then that if the stream was here, Sevila couldn’t be completely wrong about the city’s location, unless it had moved much earlier.

Sevila had the gull mostly cooked by the time Aurel returned, skewered on a stick and held out over the coals glowing at the base of the fire. She had seasoned it with some of the herbs they had picked up at the last market, Aurel could almost imagine the scent of the simple meal cooking away. They settled the kettle down on the coals and left it to boil while making sure Sevila had not grown impatient and stuff the eggs in her mouth whole. It would not have been the first time.

Sevila herself simply stared at the cooking gull in sullen silence.

“Is this really upsetting you?” Aurel asked.

“No.” Sevila insisted, lifting her makeshift spit up to take a bite from the wing. She winced at the taste of the not-quite-cooked meat, but swallowed nonetheless. “Maybe.”

“Explain it to me,” Aurel suggested, putting the eggs one by one into the steadily boiling kettle.

“You and your explanations, I never explained a thing in all my days before you came along.”

“Not for any lack of questions.”

Sevila exhaled and pouted and fidgeted with her discarded veil and did everything she could to pretend she wouldn’t eventually give in.

“Travelling is my business,” she explained at last, “and to travel you need two things, a destination and a route to get there. It is not a matter of maps or history. I cannot arrive at a place other than my destination and I cannot walk a route that does not lead there. I can pick the wrong path, certainly. One that takes longer to walk, one that is more unpleasant, one with a very annoying detour, but any path I take leads to my destination.”

She gestured out towards the empty cove, where rightly there should have been a port city resplendent with lights and sounds. “And here we are. I cannot get lost because I am who I am, so therefore this must be the city of Sperina.”

“And if this is not the city of Sperina, then who are you?” Aurel followed her train of thought.

Sevila curled up around herself, looking like she might drop her skewer of meat into the fire at any moment. Aurel plucked it from her hands and drove the skewer into the ground. Sevila let herself be tended to as Aurel placed a pillow in their lap and pulled her over to sit on it. She barely made a fuss before giving in and leaning on the spirit’s shoulder. Strong arms wrapped around her and pulled her in tighter while she muttered curses into Aurel’s cloak.

Aurel didn’t try to talk her out of her foul mood for there was little they could offer. Their death had forced them to discover themself again, piece by piece, but Sevila had always known what she was. They could not expect her to be comfortable with personal change if that was indeed what this was.

They sat together like that for some time. Eventually Sevila gave in to the comfort and picked up her skewer of now-overcooked gull to devour while Aurel shelled the three eggs for her. After the meal was done and the bones were thrown into the fire they remained seated together, staring out at the empty cove. Stars glittered off the waves like a hundred eyes, winking open and closed with the roll of the water. Sevila rested her head back down on Aurel’s cloak, expressing no interest in getting back up.

Despite all she had eaten, still her stomach rumbled.

“I was looking forward to the seafood,” she admitted, at last resigned to the city’s apparent disappearance.

“If we stay here another day you could catch some fish in the shallows.”

“That sounds like far too much effort,” Sevila snorted.

“I’d be happy to instruct you from the shoreline. I could even tell you what you’re doing wrong while you stand ankle deep in seawater for several hours. I’ve never fished before but I’m sure it’s not so hard that I couldn’t tell you how to do it better.”

“Did I do something to deserve this or are you just being insufferable for no reason?”

“You always give me a reason,” Aurel said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

“I’ve no interest in staying here,” Sevila continued, ignoring Aurel at the same time as adjusting her position so that she could be more comfortably embraced. “We’ll leave first thing in the morning.”

No sooner had the words left her mouth than the starlight before them began to warp and bend, as if it were merely a tablecloth being pulled away all at once. The sky continued to ripple like a mirage for several seconds before walls and a gatehouse stood at the base of the cove where previously there had only been a shoreline. Slowly the rest of the city took shape as well and sounds began to return. The last thing to appear, out in the distance, was the enormous spirit of a whale, which let an eerie cry out before sinking below the waves, whatever contract it had struck completed to its satisfaction.

Aurel was lost for words. Sevila was not. The stream of colourful profanities that came out of her mouth as she jumped to her feet crossed three different languages that Aurel knew and at least two that they didn’t. Her anger passed quickly, curses blending seamlessly into an enormous belly laugh of triumph.

“I was right!” She shouted and made a rude hand gesture at the no-longer-invisible city in front of them. She turned back to Aurel “See? You should trust me more.”

“You cannot blame me for not imagining this. Who does this?”

“Sevila Peinatokos!” A voice cried from the gatehouse. “You are not welcome in this city, leave immediately!”

Sevila grinned her usual, awful grin. “Someone who was really unhappy about all their drinking water turning yellow.”

#among the hollow #my writing #fanfic #just wanted to write something cute #mostly spoiler-free #but read the book first or else none of this makes any sense

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