#archive verse: actual plot points

[annabelle--cane]

"the magnus protocol had a whole ARG beforehand? what?"

yes! it did!

"oh so I need to have participated in this whole big thing to actually understand the podcast?"

not at all! from the official post-mortem put out by RQ, "while the ARG was not something that was necessary to participate in to understand the magnus protocol, it was designed to contain a wealth of background story and context that would enrich any player's listening experience."

"a wealth of background context that would enrich my listening experience 👀👀👀 how can I learn about this?"

SO glad you asked. sadly, many of the materials made for the arg have been taken down since the game ended 😔 (ex., the official OIAR, magnus institute, and bonzoland websites. (edit ii: I found partial wayback machine captures! see below) though @strangehauntsuk is still up!), so we're a bit low on primary sources, but in terms of learning about what happened:

for a starting point, I would really recommend this video by @pinkelotjeart

it's super accessible, it was made in real time as the game progressed and follows the solving and revelation of clues as they happened, it hits all the major points of the mystery and moments of community insanity while eliding some of the nitty gritty puzzle grinding, 10/10 would recommend.

here's the official summary put out by RQ, and I'd recommend reading through this once you've already gotten a basic handle on the flow of the story and the basic connections between major clues and events. it's got some fun behind-the-scenes info and lays out the thought process behind the puzzles in simple terms

here's the full masterdoc of all puzzles and resolutions put together in the statement remains discord server. masterdoc my absolute BELOVED, masterdoc my bethrothed, masterdoc my soul mate. I'd recommend this as a second port of call after the above video as it either contains all details about the puzzles or links to other expanded docs that do.

here's the narrative summary doc that lays out all the plot and lore discovered in three pages of plain prose. if you just want to get to the good bits as fast as you can and get blasted directly in the face by contextless lore bombs, this is the doc for you. if you don't want to start with the video, I'd say this is another good entry point.

once you've got the lay of the land, some of the game materials that I found particularly interesting include:

the in-universe east germany expat usenet forum, with all content translated into english. most of it is irrelevant space filler with occasional extremely sus lore, but I still found it fun to read through. love to soak in some fictional forum drama.

chdb.xlsx, the spreadsheet of the names of all the children the protocol 'verse magnus institute was studying/experimenting on. EDIT: here is a version of the sheet without any annotations and with all of the names in their original order, kudos to @theboombutton for catching that the commonly shared copy had the order swapped around.

klaus.xls, a (very corrupted) spreadsheet with what looks like the classifications of a bunch of old OIAR cases.

EDIT: have a few more saved materials from the game that I forgot to include.

an in-universe audio ad to apply to the OIAR that ran before archives episodes and kicked off the whole game.

an in-universe video ad to apply to the OIAR, this one is an official upload that's still up from the game itself. you can subscribe to the OIAR's official youtube channel today, if you so chose.

the robo-voicemail greeting from the OIAR's phone line.

EDIT II:

here is a wayback machine capture of the OIAR's official website.

here is a wayback machine capture of the bonzoland website.

(pretty sure both of the above captures just archived the home pages, though I haven't tried clicking all of the links. I'd say they're still worth looking at, the home pages give a good window into the vibes.)

once you start poking around in these documents, you'll find a bunch of links to others with further information, the materials I've included here just contain what I feel to be the most relevant details to getting a broad feel for the whole game. once again, huge shout out to the statement remains server, I was barely in there as the ARG was in progress and only ducked my head in every so often to find links like these. true mvps of the fandom.

[deergravity]

Seeing as my internal rewards system has moved on to 'trans fiction' from 'queer horror audio drama podcast' I thought I should do a little roundup of everything I listened to the past few months.

A rough ranking:

Malevolent. Just squeaking into the top spot here based on 1) technical prowess (iykyk) 2) compelling characters and story and 3) they are my blorbos your honor!!! Mind boggling that Harlan Guthrie has so much chemistry with himself.

The Silt Verses. Only topped by Malevolent bc season 1 is not as polished, but it really doesn't matter. Top tier characters, amazing worldbuilding, intricate plotting and it had something to SAY about the casual violence of systems, the nature of hope, the complexity of being human in a world that tries to make us inhuman. Also, it doesn't rely on some thin recording contrivance (a framing device that has its place) and instead truly takes the mantle of audio drama without apology.

The White Vault. On the topic of framing devices, TWV has a very cool take on found footage recordings. A group of [researchers/archeologists] are sent to investigate a remote site in [Svalbard/Patagonia] and the podcast is structured as a documentarian presenting the notes, recordings and diary entries in a reconstructed timeline. My favorite element is that many of the characters don't make their notes in English, so the segments will often open with the VA speaking German, Spanish, Mandarin, Icelandic, Russian, etc etc before fading into the translation. There are miniseries between the seasons available on their patreon and they were so worth the $10 I paid to access them for a month. Reveals are slow, but worthwhile, and the mythology built for the show is highly original and intriguing.

Deviser. A one season contained story from Harlan Guthrie of Malevolent. Scifi, psychological, lots of wet awful body horror. If you're a fan of Harlan wimpering into a mic, you'll love this one.

WOE.BEGONE. Long, ongoing, and so so so far from the original premise it's hilarious, I'm ranking this higher than it maybe deserves for two factors 1) the creator and the VAs are clearly having a blast and 2) it's riding the line of taking itself serious despite a premise that invites irony poisoning without becoming too wrapped up in itself. It's fun, I think, that keeps w.bg strong.

The Magnus Archives. Should this be one up? Probably. But everyone bloody well knows tma by this point, it's good, great even! Beyoncé of horror podcasts.

I Am In Eskew. Only knocked down due to the actually godawful sound quality. Truly unsettling stories though (the one with the building architect haunts me) and a surprisingly realistic conclusion. You can see the bones of The Silt Verses here, from the same creative team.

The Magnus Protocol. Everything above this is there due to originality. As a sequel series, TMAGP will always suffer in that measure. However, I like our new cast and I do love an alternate reality. Curious to see where season 2 takes us. I'd like to kill Mr Bonzo in a fire.

The Inexplicables. Another one season story, this time from Rusty Quill, with really fun, flawed characters and no recording framing device!

Wolf 359. Storywise, great! Characters, excellent! Kicking it way to the bottom bc they just would NOT STOP referencing H***y P****r. Yes, Doug's characterization hangs on excessive reference humor, but that was one well I wish they'd left alone.

Red Valley. Knocked for HP references too (come ON british podcasters, do better) but more importantly for veering WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY too close to real life in season 3 onward. I was here for a horror sci fi story about cryogenics, not to listen to my worst climate disaster fears brought to life via hearing rich old sods try to buy their way out of consequences while the world burns and eco terrorism escalates. Too real. Not bad storytelling, just very much not fulfilling my escapism needs.

It's kinda crazy to me that anytime I mention this genre to normies in my life they say, "oh, like true crime podcasts?" And then I die inside. No dude, like radio drama. Like War of the Worlds.

Anyway, I'm off to get even less relatable by reading a zillion niche trans novels (hello Welcome to Dorley Hall, aka, what if there really was a 'trans cult' force femming dudes to undermine their masculinity? It's amazing how much yarn we can make by subverting the cis gaze.)

[phantomrose96]

how scary is the silt verses? i want to get into it bc you're saying so much good stuff about it, but i had to stop listening to the magnus archives because it was keeping me up at night :(

hmmmmmmmmmmm I have to think about this a little bit, because scariness in podcasts doesn't bother me much so it's entirely possible for there to be Some Great Horror I'm just not thinking of.

Relative to TMA! I'd say The Silt Verses horror elements are less frequent than TMA, considering the TMA format is to tell One Fucked Up Story every single episode. The Silt Verses does not have that format so it can go episodes at a time digging through the narrative.

But it does have horrific things that pop up which could belong to a TMA episode. A Deer That's Wrong, fishermen sewn together into a fucked-up boat thing, whatever body-horror Val does to people. I do think the flavor is different from TMA. A lot of those TMA horrors are from the perspective of normal civilians, unwillingly subjected to A Horror. In TSV, most everyone encountering The Horrors is ready to start punching. But still like... The Horrors ARE very much there, and part of it.

Though, there is a flavor of horror in TSV which I don't think is very prevalent in TMA, which is this "you're about to be killed and everyone in society is okay with this, actually" style of horror. There's a plot point where a company which is, essentially, going through lay-offs, is allowed to kill the people they're letting go as part of a sacrifice. And the POV character (who is not being laid off) is experiencing this whole thing going "this surely can't be right. they surely can't?" But they do, and she's complicit.

So... yes...! TSV is scary! But it's a kind of scary which is more baked into the society the characters are navigating, vs. the TMA-style "spend every episode one a different Horror Incident that happened"

[possibility-left]

Good Omens fic recs #50

long distance by thingswithwings - A/C, 4k words.  A little bit of post S2 sadness.  Aziraphale is watching Crowley from Heaven through the eyes of small animals.  Crowley is not pleased by it.  Soft and sad without being overwhelming.

Plush Toys, or, Madame Tracy Knows All by CopperBeech - A/C, Tracy/Shadwell, Anathema/Newt, 3k words.  A very fun little story just pre- and then just post-Armageddidn't in which Tracy gives some good advice, and takes it.  Great voices for all the characters.

Covenant of Salt by thingswithwings - A/C, 18k words.  After S2, every time Aziraphale returns to Earth, he and Crowley fuck, but don't really resolve anything.  Great angry sex that eventually has to become something else, involving actual conversations and forgiveness and hope.  There's a lovely scene where Crowley makes friends with a bunch of queer folks that I found really touching.  This doesn't resolve S3 plot points but I don't feel like that was necessary.

P. granatum by nieded - A/C, Crowley/Lilith, 41k words.  This is such a cool concept for a story.  In ancient Greece, Crowley ends up raising a demon baby who isn't demonic enough, and struggles over his feelings for and relationship with Aziraphale.  Read the tags because there is some character death here but I thought it was a really interesting story.  I really liked the way niedad blended together the GO-verse with the traditional Greek pantheon.  It feels very much like a Greek tragedy, but there's a soft landing.

Close Your Eyes by CopperBeech - A/C, 8k words.  Post Armageddidn't, Aziraphale soft doms Crowley into feeling happy.  One of the most romantic and soft stories I've ever read that involves this type of dynamic.  Some really good dialogue and a lovely, quiet ending.

[elithemiar-blog]

If Jeff is taking lore into the Time-Space Continuum with the references to Sunshine being God and Moonshine being this projective soldier/entity (my brain wants to go the Belief System), I want to have a genuine lore/world build discussion.

Below is a link to a post from a different fandom, but it still uses the same FICTIONAL LECTURE as a basis that has been my baby since like 2015-ish.

I can post like the entirety of the actual lecture (which reminds me that I need to work on the actual Energy Graph & Energy Convergencies Causes and Effects). There's so much to it...like a lot, there's even Mirror Energies (think Yin-Yang) that make up the multi-verse, which leads to specific gods, which then leads to the center of the multiverse (Peacemaker/Creator/CDC).

There's THEORIES!

For some of my own Lore Drop for this Series I'm working on (well, trying to):

Link is being weird..."Annalise has Questions (Don't We All)" is what it should be...also a reminder to change the TSD comparison to a sandwich.

Psychological Hypnotism (which is a big plot point in Infinity: Dusk to Dawn) will be included in 4, 5, 6, Rise My Phoenix. It deals with Emotional Energy mixed with Environmental Factors without a Environmental Event being the cause. Negative/Positive Emotional Energy Tethering from Magical Causes (which was hinted at in 1, 2, 3, Who Do You See [by accident]).

....that's hard to explain without context.

ANYWAY! IF Jeff takes this route, based on context we've been given he's gonna be the Dark Guardian to my Guardian of Light. Although that's where that ends. Cause in my 'verse the Dark Guardian/Light Guardian only have ONE of themselves (deals with POWER Expense: Multiple Alts (Alternate Selves) means power gets equally connected to each one. So the "main" Alt is less powerful when facing a greater enemy (ex: Dark Guardian), even if those Alts are physically together on the battlefield--also deals with too much energy all at once can destroy the human body/vessel).

Above deals with Names/Titles Give Power (if you haven't read Ghost Zone CDC, go read it, it will provide context.)

Either way, from my stand point, it's really fucking weird that my fav artist (almost my Celeb Crush [never happened before]) is synchronizing with my Comfort World Build.

Sunshine = Dark Guardian (Cortez), Moonshine = Malabyss/Sentient Darkness [Possessive Entity via accumulation of Negative Emotions (Energy)]/Houxvech (Entity of Nivoux)

Like I said, Discussion.

UPDATE:

[shitboy96]

Podcast recs please!

Basically I listened to a lot of the adventure zone and then tried branching out to other actual play shows but didn’t find anything that matched the level of humour and storytelling in taz (particularly balance obv)

Since went onto horror, loved the Magnus archives, caught up on protocol, and then listened to the silt verses and malevolent. I liked the silt verses a lot but found it wasn’t scary enough? And a lot of yapping. Similarly malevolent is good (just started s5) but the game quality of it I feel makes it a bit messy in terms of storytelling and structure. I need characters I need plot line I need spooks

With that in mind, any recs? I’m looking for horror but will take anything. I’m fishing around trying out things like video palace, old gods of Appalachia. I want something I can get invested in, extra points if it gives me the heebie jeebies.

Thanks!

[parf-fan]

Masterlist of recent PARF videographers

Inspired by a comment on my update of sorts in which the commenter stated that it had never occurred to them to see if anyone had filmed PARF, I present to you a post I have been intending to make literally since starting this blog.

● Michael Ulrich – PARF footage as far back as 2004, hitting stride around 2015, stopping at the end of 2022. Most of the older stuff is scattered in amongst the 2018 footage and again between 2020 and 2021. An excellent source for a one-off example of most in-house shows each year. Quite important for reviewing the Megan-Zach-Mary 'verse. Some of the highest-quality footage. ● Renaissance Road Trips (formerly known as maddog015) – PARF footage as far back as 2007. More out-of-house stuff than in-house, though they've been expanding to include a little more in-house in recent years. Contains footage from many different Faires, so sifting will be required if you are exclusively interested in PARF. Divides shows up into many pieces, which is handy if you want to reference a specific moment, but cumbersome if you want to just watch a whole show. Footage quality is perfectly reasonable, though not professional-level. Home of THE Halloween Finale of 2017.

● PARF Performers (formerly known as wavking) – PARF footage from 2011 through 2021, excepting 2014 and 2020. Filming is somewhat scattered and not systematic until around 2016. Occasional videos from NJRF and from non-Faire events taking place on PARF grounds. Overall the best source for Finales and an even selection of everything else for 2016-2018, petering off in 2019. Indispensable for reviewing the Megan-Zach-Mary 'verse, though less so the Mary part. Footage quality is perfectly reasonable, though not professional-level.

● Steve Kossor – PARF footage as far back as 2013. Very little in-house stuff; mostly focused on the artists who fall under the heading of “musicians of the shire”, both individually and as a whole. Plenty of stuff from other Faires, too. Most videos are clearly labeled. If you never got to witness the actual Pub Sing from the Before Times, this is where to look, particularly 2019. Very fancy filming, often including multiple cameras at different angles on the same day (goals tbh). Occasional interviews and such. Scattered throughout are videos completely unrelated to Faire, 'cause he's gotta put 'em somewhere.

● MerlinWinchestr – PARF footage as far back as 2013. Hits stride in 2016 (I think), at which point she carefully archives one example of each main-season plotline show, and sometimes Halloween, as well as scattered highlights. Literally the only person besides me to actually bother with non-Halloween plot before 2018, for which I owe her a small portion of my soul. Indispensable for reviewing the Megan-Zach part of the Megan-Zach-Mary 'verse. Nothing from PARF in 2018 or 2019 due to moving to a different state, but filmed stuff from other Faires in the interim. Picked up again in 2020, and expanded the number of shows filmed. Recent videos are carefully labeled. Footage quality is perfectly reasonable, though not professional-level. Scattered throughout are many clips from various unrelated concerts and cons and sometimes reenactment, as well as quite a lot of fandom edits of (predictably) both Merlin and Supernatural.

● Joseph Germano – PARF footage as far back as 2015. Almost entirely in-house; largely storyline, combat, improv. Initially filmed things exclusively for himself and his family, not listing the videos publicly for years. As such, the quality of camerawork can occasionally leave something to be desired (though much less, in my opinion, than he claims), hence his playlist called “MeadVision”. Filled the void left by PARF Performers's petering off, and is owed a small portion of my soul for archiving so much Disasterpiece in 2019. Footage quality is perfectly reasonable, though not professional-level. Chronology is a mere suggestion until 2021.

● PARF fan – If you're interested in 2017 plotline and combat, I've got everything I filmed up on the YouTube except for Halloween Joust and Halloween Finale. I've also got loads of raw footage of in-house stuff from the first half the 2020 season over on the Facebook. Effort is made with cinematography, though it sometimes backfires. Videos are carefully labeled, but only in the titles, not the thumbnails. Footage quality is perfectly tolerable, though far from professional-level, and the sound is sometimes bad (didn't have a fancy camera until the 2022 season). Indispensable for reviewing 2017, frankly.

● PA Renaissance Faire – PARF footage from 2018 only. One each Court, Melee, Bloody Best, some of the main-season individual Chess fights, Halloween Court, Halloween Chess, and a whole bunch of in-house songs from sundry Finales, many of which were not archived in any other form elsewhere (that I know of).

● Ren Faire with Rose – PARF footage as far back as 2018. Nigh-on exclusively in-house. Mostly highlights rather than entire shows. Features occasional streetwork, particularly from 2019, which is beyond value. Mostly chronological, but 2022 and 2023 and 2024 are intermittently jumbled. Tbh, I haven't gotten around to watching enough of their footage to comment on the quality of camera or camerawork.

● Dan Gualtieri – The newest member of this “team” (none of us actually coordinate or otherwise work together, though we should). Videos from 2022, 2023, and 2024. Mixture of highlights and full shows. Has already filled several gaps. I haven't actually watched any of his videos yet, so I cannot provide comment on camera or camerawork.

[topazadine]

Writer Questionnaire

As I prepare for the workday (sigh) I'm going to take a few minutes and hop in on the craze! Please go read @illarian-rambling's answers over here!

1. Is writing a hobby or way of life?

Way of life. Not only is my day job writing, but I spend pretty much all my free time writing my silly stories too. It's all I have ever known and all I ever do.

2. A journal full of writing notes or a clean, completed manuscript?

Clean manuscript. I double outline, meaning that I write a long, looong outline and a short outline with just the bullet points I desperately need. This keeps me from losing momentum while I'm writing because I don't feel like I've done the whole thing and don't need to write it. This sounds confusing, so let me show you what I mean. Here's the long outline for a chapter:

... and this is the short outline.

I then leave a comment on the chapter header in the actual Word document, something like "Cavalry confronts Uileac and Cerie," so I don't need to look back on the outline if I don't want to. Oh, and I do not work on WIPs simultaneously. Ever. One at a time. Can't relate to the people who say "hehe I have a million WIPs that are all half done." Like, girl, why do you think they're all half-done? Because your brain is overloaded with details for too many different plots. Jot down a note and get to it later. Otherwise all those things are going to stay half-done.

3. Who (or what) is your writing inspiration?

I started getting into fiction writing again after a long, long break because of Touken Ranbu, so we'll just say my beloved Uguisumaru.

My king .... I love you ... my darling ....

4. Which is worse: someone you "idolize" reading your first draft or listening to you sing?

Neither of those are particularly torturous to me. I guess singing.

5. Has writing from someone else's POV ever changed your own perspective?

It's very strange, but as a lesbian, I didn't really banish my own internalized homophobia until I started writing slash fic. Even in my own sapphic relationships, I always felt there was something 'wrong' about it and that our relationships weren't as valid as a straight couple. This was due to a lot of very violent homophobia imposed on me by others that made me really struggle to accept being gay. Writing about so many gay couples helped normalize it for me and feel more confident in my own sexuality. I no longer see gay couples as somehow apart from heterosexual relationships but just as deep and loving. In fact, writing stuff like the Moonbeam and Crane series was the push I needed to fully come out as a lesbian and stop pretending I was attracted to men, which is bizarre because, you know, I was writing about men banging. And then I went on to write gay longing and, eventually, a whole gay af series <3

6. Tumblr, AO3, LiveJournal, or FFN?

Archive of Our Own and Amazon :)

7. AO3 wordcount, and are you satisfied with it?

Quite satisfied with it! I did my million words of practice and then some before moving on to original fiction.

8. What movie/book/fic gripped you irrevocably?

Remainder by Tom McCarthy. It has this lulling menace about it. I loved the repetition and the incredible environmental descriptions. Another favorite is Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, which really encouraged me to get more experimental with my work. And my all-time favorite, Moby Dick. I've read it three times and keep meaning to go back for a fourth read; every time, I find something different to love about it. I started it again a bit ago and this time, I was focusing on the relationship between Ishmael and Queequeg.

9. What’s the highest compliment you’ve ever been given, and have you been given it?

This comment by Wapato_Sprout is the one that convinced me that I was ready to start writing original fiction:

I'm not kidding: I started writing Poesy, the full-length book in the Eirenic Verses series, like one week later. Then went and started filling in the back with shorter stories lmao. Being able to write two original characters with depth, goals, and motivations that people really cared about was such a rush, especially because I'd been told before that my original characters were more plot devices than people. And this should be your reminder that your comments on fanfiction matter a LOT! You may be the push to get a writer to start taking more risks and maybe even writing their own original fiction. Around the same time, my boss randomly told me that I should do more with my writing than just crafting business emails. I like to think that was a bit of divine intervention, to get two nudges from people I respect almost simultaneously. And hey look where it's gotten me! I'm writing a seven-part series now!

10. What defines your writing style?

My background in poetry gives my prose a sense of lyricism and movement. I think about whether my prose would flow like a poem when read aloud, and I hear that rhythm in my head when I write. It also means I know when to go short and choppy, or when to use long, moving description. I would not be anywhere near the writer I am today without those years of practice.

Open tag!

(I think most of the people I would tag were tagged elsewhere lmao)

[aethergate]

⭐

REWIND & CHROMEDOME

okay well i feel like this ones obvious. but it's because it's true to me i love these two. i think their dynamic is so interesting what if we decided to not end it all for the sake of each other.. but there's this strange thing happening where they know each other but not as well as before, because they're different versions of the person they knew. i'd love to go more in depth about how that shift effects them, and how they adjust and end up loving each other still but somewhat differently due to circumstance. their dynamic is so interesting i could ramble on about it but for the sake of this post i will not. as for plots i diverge a bit as for how they end up, instead him him getting stuck in his alt mode, he's working on expanding his archive to earth and other colonies connecting to cybertron! fun stuff. i'd love to write just about anything with them honestly.

TAILGATE & MEGATRON

I think these two are really funny based off the premise that Tailgate sorta missed the whole war and pretty much everything Megatron did. If I remember the time where he was before getting knocked out I think he missed everything actually. Which is really funny to me, because while Tailgate very much understands why other people are wary, he sort of... doesn't personally get it. There's a disconnect there. This is a stranger to him who he's only heard has done bad things. Obviously he gets to hear more and more about stuff he did, and see Megatron talk about it directly, all that stuff, but I feel like it's a really interesting aspect of their dynamic to discover. As seen by everything with Cyclonus at first, he's very hard to properly shake or make properly regard you as unreachable. So I think it'd be really fun and interesting to see how that plays out with these two.

okay and now i'm gonna hit you with a quick list of other ones i'd be interested in with maybe a few bullet points but nothing in depth. TAILGATE & RATCHET , because while I haven't read MTMTE in a HOT minute, I remember them having a fun friendship! WHIRL & WHEELJACK because, I don't trust myself to actually WRITE whirl until i reread the older comics and mtmte, i feel like there's history there or at the very least a very fun dynamic to be had. BUMBLEBEE & TAILGATE for the vibes I feel this in my soul. and if you'll let me cheat for a second and bring up sideblogs, i feel like this is obvious, STARSCREAM & MEGATRON. I have a MTMTE / LL verse for her, and I think it'd be super interesting to see how they'd cope with dealing with each other after the war. I have a hard time putting my thoughts into words here, but the war is lost, and I think it'd be interesting to see them navigate around each other with new circumstances. Lot of complexities to sort out between each other, trying to avoid falling back into old toxic cycles where they bring out the worst of each other. I have too many thoughts that'd make this post longer than it is, but if you'd ever wanna brainstorm something there just lmk and I'd love to discuss :]! Both for like these ideas for them and just in general cause I wanna make sure we can handshake and I don't wanna step on your toes at all ever. last but not least if i can cheat and mention a sideblog of YOURS, KNOCKOUT & STARSCREAM eaugayagah i LOVE their dynamic so bad SO BAD i think they're so interesting. I know yours is a mix, and I find that inch resting as well and would love to see how that blends together!

[astral-athame]

Hello! My name is Sapph! Welcome to my RP blog!

This blog is for an indie, witch, OC of mine: Cassia Keller. I'm currently making a more well put together bio page for her (including different verses), but in the mean time, this is where you'll find all the information you need <3

(Last Update: 6/14/2025)

Here are a few things to know (Feel free to read just the bolded stuff if you’re in a hurry, the unbolded just elaborates):

Mun is 25+ and will only rp with those who are 18+! If you aren’t 18+ please don’t interact. I’m just not comfortable with it.

I don’t write much smut, so I apologize if things head that way and I end up dropping the thread without warning (I don’t usually drop threads intentionally, it’s probably just stuck in my drafts until I’m in the headspace to write it, but that day might never come, so I apologize).

I have a separate side blog for more intense nsfw content! I might reblog some smutty over there, though in general I prefer to write it on discord. It's not a smut shaming thing and I'll never judge anyone for writing it on their main blog! I just don't feel confident in my smut writing abilities so I like to keep it a bit separate sometimes.

I’m super slow with replies most of the time. Totally feel free to give me a nudge if it’s been a while since I’ve replied. I lose track of stuff so easily and then feel like I’m not allowed to reply to it when I remember it because it’s been a while.

I’m technically semi-selective, but mostly not selective at all. Aside from the rule of only writing with muns who are 18+, I’m actually not particularly selective.

I’ll ship just about anything with just about anyone, but I still reserve the right to not ship with a character, especially on first interaction.

Cassia is bisexual, so I'll ship her with any gender <3

REBLOG KARMA: I try to be respectful and reblog things from the source or from a meme blog or whatever because I understand why people don’t want to be feel like they’re being used as a meme source. If I ever reblog something from you that isn’t a reply, I’m sorry. I try not to let it happen, but sometimes it does.

That said: REBLOG WHATEVER YOU WANT FROM ME. Seriously, it doesn’t bother me at all. You don’t even have to send me a meme to reblog it. Just... go ahead. Reblog it. It’s totally fine by me <3 (Though I would definitely prefer if you sent me a meme when you reblog.)

OOC conversation can be really hard for me. I try and usually I’m fine when it comes to plotting, but I drop the ball a lot or come off as cold a lot because I just don’t have the energy to talk ooc a lot of the time. Please don’t take it personally, it’s just that my social battery is usually at 40% or less in general oTL

If we’re shipping something together and you’ve decided you don’t ship it anymore / don’t want to write it anymore- please just tell me. It'll make life a lot easier on both of us <3

Putting this blog on a semi-permanent hiatus while I decide if I want to archive it or keep trying over here. <3

I may add more rules at a later point, but I think these are the most important ones <3

Handy Dandy Navigation Links!

The Icon PSD I Use (PSD by asa-resource!) The Divider I Use (Divider by Saradika!) Ask Memes Replies (every single thing I reply to should be tagged with this!) "About" (random headcanons and things that apply to Cass) "Visage" (pics of Cass's FC- Fiona Palomo) "Aesthetic" (all the pretty things~) "Thoughts" (similar to about, but more directly from Cass's head) "Desires" (just stuff Cass wants- mostly relationship things) "Alt FC" (Cass's original fc) "Wardrobe" (things Cass would wear / probably does wear) "Music" (songs Cass would listen to ) "Skills" (stuff Cass is good at- mostly music and baking things)

OTHER AVAILABLE VERSES (underlined ones link to a verse page, others don't yet have a verse page for them but they're available anyway!): High School English Teacher (the only change to her main verse is that the band doesn't make it big and she ends up using her college degree to teach High School English) High Fantasy / DND / Arthurian Legends Star Wars (Honestly, I'll write her in almost any era. Just ask!) Star Trek (I'm only really familiar with TNG and DS9 so far but plan on watching the others eventually!) The Hunger Games (This is the kind of verse that's super dependent on time period / your muse, canon or oc. Totally up for discussion!) Vampire AU (possible Interview With The Vampire Verse. NOT Twilight. Basically this is just to write Cass as a vampire. Everything else is up in the air xD) Umbrella Academy Marvel / DC (honestly, these verses will basically just be her main verse. I'll only switch things up as needed because I think her main verse fits them well enough already!) I'm also open to coming up with other AUs to fit whatever you're up to writing or if we just want to move our muses around to different universes xD

Other Blogs! Rogue Phantom Overdose: this blog houses two bands (there may be a third one added later)- Phantom Overdose (Cass's band) and Black Rapture (an all female metal / rock band with ties to Cass's band). This blog also serves as kind of a multimuse for not only characters that are in Cass's universe but also a handful of canon characters (including Hunger Games muses, Star Wars muses, and The Covenant muses) Multimuse (main)Multimuse (secondary) (the two multimuses are basically abandoned now as I don't have time or muse for them anymore)

[astro-break]

New hypmic anime season and I'm BACK IN THE FUCKING BUILDING AGAIN (I feel like the Martha I'm coming home sweetie audio)

Thoughts on the 1st ep of Hypmic Rhyme Anima+. Spoilers beware

New plotline lets gooooooo I like that they're straying away from the drama tracks actually, Rhyme Anima is fundamentally a different experience from the core drama tracks which gives new material for both new and old fans OP is an actual banger, Ramuda's verse is the best fight me all you want but you know i'm right Nemu!! uh spoiler chara for anyone new to the anime I guess? Like they spoil her right at the introduction and iirc they didn't really build off her mystery in the first season. Makes her impact here a bit weaker but I'm willing to let it slide since some might not catch it (Post Editing Astro here: I haven't rewatched Rhyme Anima since it finished airing and uh. Nemu definitely was a plot point there lol they dropped it after ep 11 but she was there!) Jyushi my son I love you so much you idiot I love the little stingers for each team that they did for each team, its so cute and gives so much personality The visuals have definitely improved, a big step above the last season in terms of animation i don't see an improvement with story writing though… Pacing is still all over the place and very squished/fast paced makes sense since the cast has grown by a quarter since last season but still makes me sad that there isn't much time given to each character individually I forgot how much I love the localization of Doppomine Okay so Pink hair and Green hair in the flashback are most definitely the two in the white cloaks. Theres just no subtly with this series lmaoooo Nice that they were able to incorporate everyone somehow but too many people means that too many parts to handle I'm getting deja vu, this exact same thing happened last season…. Oh. Its the same guy. Makes sense lmfao Listen bud I have minimal rap experience but that rap was just embarrassing wow. No rhyme or flow, there was only straight passion which i mean props I guess but you suck ass Look at me being so smart and predicting all of these ahead of time without looking at any materials Did Rio just contact Jyuto with his hypmic???? Samatoki have I ever said that I love your for being a bullheaded idiot? bc I do. you're so silly Damn the typography has gotten even better, its just a lot more smooth and the animation too especially during Jiro's part is just so stylish The animation has improved a lot I'm glad it got a little more love compared to last season My guess is that maybe someone from the six divisions will fall under the anger thingy that's going around, something like the stage show. My biggest guess is that they might re-incite the Samatoki and Ichiro conflict again but I hope not. Another guess is that there will be old MCD or Naughty Busters beef which seems more plausible given that this is Sasara and Kuko's anime debut but I guess we'll wait and see THE OUTFITS!!! THE STUPID OUTFITS I LOVE THEM the art style of the ED is super pop punk and has a strong sense of style which i love. its simple but stands out really well which i love Very jjk but more toned down. Feels a bit like a cleaned up croquis drawings the smear frames is just so stylish and good, very simple and a bit messy and sells the gesture drawing kind of feel of the ED Ramuda's parrot costume i love you Those hand signs just make the first letter of each word which is really fun. Not proper JSL though I guess beggars can't be choosers esp for a series like this

Overall, a really strong start. It shows how it built off the first season and where it improved and while some things (like the horrid pacing) never change, at the end of the day its still a fun and delightful watch

If anyone wanted to read my thoughts on the first season, they're all archived here

[silenthillmutual]

i keep looking at my own fic ideas from like a couple years ago that i have outlines for and going "wow, i really don't want to write these!" so here's a comprehensive list of fanfics i still have on my desktop which i have started but made litle progress on:

masterpiece theatre - an akira/mob psycho 100 crossover. the premise of this one was that tetsuo managed to create an alternate universe at the end of the film/manga, which was the mp100 universe. he's just kind of there trying to live a normal life while navigating the trauma from his past life. naturally this does not work out well and he winds up both meeting people from the akira 'verse and people from the mp100 'verse. i think i had in mind that it would end roughly around the first season of mp100. anyway this was roughly inspired by my musings about mp100 reminding me of a sort of inverse of akira's storyline that i can no longer articulate because it has been years since i read mp100 all the way through.

cause - this was just going to be a complete rewrite of rebel without a cause where i fixed what i saw as a pacing issue with the film and also gave more context to the characters' lives because i have a love/hate relationship with the original

it's not my party, but i'll still cry if i want to - a really short fic that was taking characters from rebel without a cause and plopping them into a modern 'verse just for the sake of having jim infodump about the 50s while sulking because he thinks judy & plato are doing something together and generally having rsd

where worlds collide and days are dark - all i got is that it's for mgs and i still have a hold of this document despite it just being snippets of fic i wrote like years ago.

statement of daniil dankovsky // statement of artemy burakh - magnus archives crossovers for pathologic, the first one being daniil's statement about the world being alive (based on pathologic classic) and the second one being artemy's statement about seeing daniil die, only to be "replaced" by another actor the following day while everyone else acts like nothing ever happened.

when you finally get involved, face to face - danganronpa ishimondo fic that was a project to see if i could focus long enough to write 100k. instead of getting together as teenagers, the fic would take place over the span of 10 years, where they'd get together as adults. i was really excited about this one when i started it, but people started being transmisogynist in the comments so i stopped working on it and got into pathologic instead.

a document titled 'cool ishimaru has a chill day with boyfriend' which i think was about ishimaru discovering he's trans, that was meant to be a non-despair au and with everyone being generally supportive of him.

flaws - danganronpa fic where taka talks to makoto about feeling possessive and how horrible it feels but i never actually finished or published it. it's pretty much done now... i could go back and edit it down to where i'm satisfied with it but i don't know :/

i wanna ruin our friendship (we should be lovers instead) - some kind of au where either it's non-despair or everyone lives... it was going to have hina and taka bonding over having crushes on their best friends who are oblivious. it was gonna be from hina's pov bc i love her

in the middle - okay this one i swear i will write one day... whenever i replay trigger happy havoc... it was going to be a polyamory fic where mondo is dating chihiro, who used to date taka and desperately wants mondo and taka to be friends. they'd be in college here. chihiro is transfem and taka is transmasc and mondo realizes he's nonbinary i think was a plot point. anyway,

an untitled danganronpa fic wherein hope's peak decides the classes need mentors and taka picks juzo, w ho came out of the closet for the express purposes of getting out of having to mentor anybody. but taka thinks it was very brave of him and wants advice on coming out despite being a public figure.

letters - this was just going to be eight, thirty-one from taka's pov

jojo's despaire adventure - jojo characters put in a danganronpa situation. pretty sure polnareff was going to be the protag of this one. it was going to be a simulation dio was running to try and rewrite the universe, hence why so many characters from so many parts were there and also had no memory of each other. i think kakyoin was going to be the first casualty.

all of my started but unfinished assorted jjba works you can still find on ao3: next chapter of cherry wine was going to have a karaoke section because fox gave me the funniest image of hol horse singing a shitty maroon 5 song. i have no idea where i was headed with heads on a science apart. not sure what the next chapter of heart of glass was going to be and i don't feel like pulling up the outline but i can tell you how it ended if anyone is curious about that. she told me to come but i was already there - there was going to be a battle of the bands kind of thing wherein we were going to get hol horse singing 'ride a horse, save a cowboy'. that was the highlight of the chapter and i don't remember what else i had planned for it. starfish crusaders was going to have a mechanic where some of the joestars were part merpeople and could transform at will. warmth, though, i have no idea where i was going with that.

alexithymia - a patho fic exploring the turmoil of not knowing, understanding, or articulating your own feelings. with daniil, of course.

something just titled 'angst outline' that is for a long form pathologic angst fic i was never going to write because i was convinced nobody was going to read it. it was going to be burda but with even more problems and issues and angst for the sake of angst.

a fic about artemy's insomnia

some unspcified fics about daniil being autistic

bio murky - okay this is really obvious but the reason to read the fic was that it was transmasc artemy. essentially artemy and daniil met and hooked up and maybe started falling in love in the capital and then artemy left for home unexpectedly... because he was pregnant. i think this was going to be an everyone lives kind of au or potentially even a no-sand pest au.

a blurb about andrey and his bipolar disorder

e pluribus unem - if i ever actually write this one i'll have to find a title that won't invoke such a knee-jerk reaction but anyway this was a fic about daniil going about wooing artemy by making amends/friends with those of artemy's bound. it was going to be told in little shorts of daniil meeting with the kids. originally i wrote this from daniil's pov but i think if i write this one i'll do it from the kids' povs.

a blurb about daniil having a breakdown after the end of classic

let's climb the cliff edge and jump again - this was gonna be a fic about daniil and andrey's tentative friendship in university where andrey is a horrible influence, a horrible friend, and a horrible brother. it was loosely inspired by my toxic girl friendships i had in college [a/n: i was a girl in college] and the first time i got high. i wanted it to be My Dandrey Fic but without happy dandrey at the end... hints of griefdrey instead... and again thinking about andrey's bipolar disorder because i'm always thinking about it!

a mark/rubin fic that was gonna be nsfw.

mystical inclinations - a soulmate au with tattoos i think? polyamory and platonic soul mates were going to be a thing in this au but i kind of don't remember what i was doing with it.

another pregame burda au

a fic i started where rubin is mortified to be caught in between artemy and daniil's...whatever

a fic about artemy & daniil's first kiss

talk too much - daniil, who is usually a smoother talker, has a habit of sticking his foot in his mouth whenever artemy is around

another fic entry in my modern au thing, where artemy's kids meet daniil for the first time

vince malum bono - clara talking to each of her bound on the last few days of the plague, patho-2 version

when my time comes around, lay me gently in the cold, dark earth - this was going to be mashing up daniil and artemy's routes (and at the end, clara's as well). with burda. of course.

when the day met the night - burda fic where daniil is about to get taken out by the government because he's a criminal against common sense and good morals, and artemy panics and tells the emmisaries who show up that they can't take daniil because they are to be married, and they can't take the menkhu's husband. and of course the emmissaries aren't stupid so they say they'll be back for the wedding. very romcom.

[codexnuminous]

1.) The first podcast I ever listened to was Welcome to Night Vale; the first podcast I ever listened to in it's entirety was, I believe, the Magnus Archives.

2.) None, yet, though I came close over The Silt Verses.

3.) Khoshekh, from WTNV/The owl that Carpenter from TSV actually had, the entire time. It just wasn't mentioned because it wasn't relevant to the plot.

4.) I really like the intros and outros for Old Gods of Appalachia, and Ain't Slayed Nobody has had some really good songs. And, of course, the Weathers from WTNV can be very catchy.

5.) None that I can think of, really. I'm generally pretty good at staying on top of podcast plots.

6.) I don't know about friends, but - it would be fun to set Carpenter loose on some other horror podcast protagonists - Jonathan Sims from The Magnus Archive, Cecil Palmer from WTNV. And I feel like Melanie from TMA and Paige from TSV would get along pretty well.

7.) Cecil and the Presenter from Monstrous Agonies - they just have such different radio hosting styles, they'd be like chalk and cheese.

8.) None - at least not any more. I find that with a lot of non-audio-drama podcasts - such as talk-shows and actual plays - it can be a bit hard to remember which voice goes with which name, but that's only at the start, and I tend to figure out who's who before too long.

9.) The Silt Verses, absolutely.

10.) The Silt Verses.

11.) None yet, although I'm planning a relisten of the Silt Verses once I've fully recovered. I'm also considering a relisten of TMA, at some point.

12.) The Silt Verses - not necessarily because I want more people to be able to talk to about it, but because it's a work of art, I think that anyone would benefit from listening to it, and because everyone who works on it is amazing and they deserve to have all of their work appreciated. Also, Deck of Many Aces. It's an actual play podcast that I've recently got into, and I'm really enjoying it and I think more people should check it out.

13.) Draw, go for walks, do jobs around the farm - all sorts of things.

14.) Carpenter, from The Silt Verses.

15.) Carson, from The Silt Verses.

16.) None that I can really think of.

17.) As you may have been able to guess from my other answers, The Silt Verses.

18.) None that I can think of.

19.) I don't really have one.

20.) Carpenter.

Podcast themed ask game cause I’m bored!

1.) what’s the first podcast you listened to?

2.) what’s a podcast you’ve cried over?

3.) Favorite podcast pet? (Idk if that’s worded weird but like if one of the characters has a cat or smth)

4.) what podcast has the best soundtrack/music?

5.) what’s a podcast that you really like but find it kinda hard to follow the plot?

6.) what characters from different podcasts do you think would be friends?

7.) what characters from different podcasts do you think would hate each other?

8.) what’s a podcast where you mix up the characters voices?

9.) what’s a podcast that you know the characters so well you can recognize their breathing?

10.) what’s a podcast that you wish you could listen to again for the first time?

11.) what’s a podcast you’ve listened to more than once?

12.) what’s a podcast you wish more people listened to?

13.) what do you like to do while listening to a podcast?

14.) who is a podcast character that you love?

15.) who is a podcast character you can’t stand?

16.) what songs do you associate with a certain character/ podcast?

17.) what’s a podcast that you can’t stop thinking about?

18.) are their any podcasts that you regret listening to?

19.) whose your favorite podcast couple?

20.) whose a podcast character that you think would dress really cool?

[lightdancer1]

Back when I first saw this show I went for 'OK if *I* created this Verse, what would I do with it':

And when the comics came out, I realized I did predict one arc that I did ultimately as a kind of 'Buffyverse meets Timeline-191' as a love letter to one of my favorite authors and favorite genres. Originally Nehemiah Malloy was Jefferson Featherston, and the Freedom Party was 100% a Turtledove riff instead of a 70% Turtledove riff that incorporated elements.

And that was mainly because 'supernatural fully exposed and the revelation the government was lying to people about it and trying to weaponize it allows a genocidal demagogue to rise to power exploiting actual demons and non-human monsters in the shadows' is a blindingly obvious plot point.

But after working on this thing since, essentially, I first started trying to write stories on my own I now have the satisfaction of fully doing 'Buffy if The Lightdancer had written it instead of Joss Whedon.' I'm sure there'd be plenty of stuff that'd be cringy as Hell and that might age poorly in its own ways in 20 years but this is ultimately my own vision, not his, and I am proud to say I've finally taken it from outline to finish.

And it starts and ends on the same note, the two witches whose journey is the lodestar this version of the Verse is written around meeting at the end as they did at the beginning, and an unironic and unapologetic assertion of love as superior to hatred, with the final chapter equally holding to one of my creative focuses with my own work.

Namely that the ends are to a point open ones, because while characters are vehicles to tell a story, the end of a story allows them to feel alive and like their decisions are their own, as an assertion of another truism that freedom and the ability to choose as one wills are innately good and in this small way this too can and should be asserted.

[archiveverseshenanigans]

Meeting Aitax and getting involved in the Clone Wars

And no those two things are not synonymous. 

As it turns out working for the senate pays really well and eventually, Zalia has more money than she knows what to do with. Especially since She started sharing a room with Jiya. Zalia, being the Jedi raised being that she is ultimately goes to Jiya for ideas on what to spend her money on.

Surprise! Jiya thinks she should get a ship. Yeah, no one is surprised. (Jiya is slightly surprised that Zalia is so good at saving her credits.)

And thus they gain a ship. Or well Zalia gains a ship and entrusts it to Jiya to pilot. Zalia is a decent pilot but Jiya is better.

They spend the next period of time exploring parts of the galaxy that they hadn't yet seen. On Jiya's days off that is. Eventually, Jiya drops her job in the senate as well and they permanently move onto the ship and earn credits with odd jobs when needed.

Jiya introduces Zalia to an old friend/older brother figure, Aitax, who spends his days as a mechanic. He teases the pair a lot and was very quick to adopt Zalia as his second younger sister (much to her delight). He is almost constantly neck-deep in the girl's ship as he does all sorts of modifications and upgrades. He falls asleep on their ship often enough that Zalia just set up a room for him on the ship. Eventually, he just moved onboard and that was that. He only really pretended to resist at first.

​Then began the Clone Wars

For the most part things for the trio continued as usual. Sometimes slightly longer routes were used to avoid space battles. And then Zalia was approached for a job. Or well kind of. Jocasta Nu seeks out Zalia one of the few times the trio is on Coruscant. Unlike most Jedi, she had actually noticed the missing presence. Mostly because no one else spent nearly as much time in the Archives as Zalia did. Master Nu however did not inform the council when it became obvious that they did not know. She had done her research first and been quite happy with Zalia's drive for knowledge. That and the force told her so.

Anyway.

Jocasta Nu had recently been made aware that they may be some plots involved in the war. And while the Council had decided against doing anything about it the force was urging her to do something. Meditating for quite some time on the issue she began creating a backup of what she deemed the most important documents. Mostly History of the Jedi, Medical Journals and other such information. (of course the whole thing with the Self Updating Jedi Holocron happened too but you don't keep all your eggs in one basket no?). When she had amassed a good deal of datachips she approached Zalia and asked her to keep them save in the case of the Republic falling. Zalia- our knowledge loving nerd- was pretty much always going to agree. She only hesitates to drag Jiya and Aitax into it. Jiya accepts for her. Aitax thinks his siblings can be really dumb sometimes.

So now they have a crate full of contraband datachips. Aitax begins to install some cavities in the ship to hide the various staches of chips.

They beginning plotting.

They're going to need to put all of these chips somewhere eventually and they're going to need more people too. Eventually. They have a big ship for now.

Of course, practical plotting quickly turns to plotting that is ... less practical. ie where else is there invaluable information that may be lost in the war and can they get their hands on it.

Aitax is mostly against the irrational extra danger his sisters would be putting themselves into.

At one point he tries to stage an intervention and says something along the lines of "And what will you do if they try shooting at you?" and naturally Zalia says that she would deflect the blaster fire with her lightsaber and proceeds to pull it out much to Aitax's surprise.

Then begins the are you a Jedi conversation but with much less making out afterwards.​

Aitax doesn't have any more arguments so they continue plotting.

But first new archive location. Eventually, they decide to set up on Hoth. Obviously, Zalia knows of an ancient Jedi structure that is supposed to be there so they go, scout, that out. It takes a lot of time and a fair bit of listening to the force to find the building. It had become a little bit buried over time. It's just a tad dilapidated and there has definitely been some wildlife in and out over the many many years it had been abandoned. However, it's not on the map and a building is a building, right? And so they reluctantly begin to clean up the mess the animals have left them and begin repairs on the structure.

The building itself is below the surface like a big burrow. Much smaller than the Jedi Temple on Coruscant but large enough that it'll be quite some time before they fill it up with knowledge.

Aitax is already planning on all the tech upgrades to make.

They quickly decide that they are going to need more credits if they're going to make this place more liveable.

And what pays well really, really quickly? Bounty Hunting and smuggling.

Of course, this calls for serious-time and talks where they discuss what they would and wouldn't do as a group.

Aitax makes a mental note to find a med bot.

[honeybyte]

Can you explain all your OCs and worldbuilding in detail? I've always seen these beautiful drawings and sketches of your character is based on song lyrics and stuff, but I've never really figured out much from a cursory scroll of your blog

OKAY i'm gonna take this as an invitation to spill my guts abt my verses. so let me start by saying these get tweaked all the time, little details might change but generally once i settle on a plot it typically stays the same. And, for the most part, these are all outlines w scenes and A》B subject to change. BUT 👏

Honey Verse Compendium: Start!

Axe + Cleaver

》Agnes, Elle, Goliath, Angus, Euan, Odelia

Agnes Laroche is a theologian hellbent on writing an esssy of the Harlach Parish, a cult in a small town called Kencree. While searching for leads she meets Elle Sinclaire, a butcher in the Rhodes District of Kencree who specializes in. Less popular cuts for the smaller crowd. Elle points her in the direction of Goliath Abernathy, a former cult member and champion for the priestess Odelia Harlach.

As it turns out, the Harlach Parish is darker than Agnes imagined; members offer pieces of themselves to the priestess for her favor, trophies she collects in reliquaries. Her most favored happens to be an eye she keeps on a necklace, stolen from Goliath shortly before he left her court. As Agnes pokes around (meeting blacksmith Angus Reid and unwilling court member Euan Harlach), she catches Odelia's attention, who makes a bid to ensnare her in the cult. Outraged and fueled by old anger, Goliath finds his way into her church and a confrontation. He takes back his eye, steals documentation, and sets the church alight.

The town will take time to heal, but Odelia's death is everything she didn't want it to be: quiet and unremarkable, alone in a dark hall.

Flock

》Kaz, Valentine, Mozzwood, Gabriel, Neera

Years after a series of HEMP bombs take out tech worldwide, knowledge on agriculture and horticulture are considered scarce and precious. Kaz, a tractor driver, and Mozzwood, a variant of apex predator gone anxious, are traveling cross country looking for... something. Neither is quite sure yet. They meet a ghost from Kaz's past, a seed dealer and arsonist named Valentine. In a fight to understand their actions comes the revelation Valentine was a cult child-- one that burned down the church that kept them captive, and who continues to burn churches now. Its cleansing, they say.

During their journey, Valentine burns one more church, saving a single little girl named Gabriel. This event inspires a new direction for the group: a cross-country trek to find Kaz's mother and shelter with her.

From there, the story is a road trip. It comes with the ups and downs of having a family along for the ride, with the trials of tribulations that comes with adventuring across a post-apocalyptic land. But they find Kaz's mother, find a safe place with her, and build a home.

Red Heron

》Alec, Librarian, Johann, Kairos

The Red Heron Project is an experiment in body modification, its extreme and practical uses. Alec and the Librarian are abandoned projects, experiments deemed failed but just functional enough to keep in the program as archivists. They rarely receive visitors (there's often fights when they get them), and they like it just so. Its when the doctor Johann and their subject Kairos visit that things become strange.

Alec has never known much about the Librarian; they met in the archives and he's never seen the actual body behind the modification. It happens that Johann knows everything there is to know about the Librarian-- in fact, they're the one that made it. The question isn't so much where the body is as much as it is who has access to it? Certainly not Johann, and definitely not Alec. Not now that they're both considered failed experiments.

Now. How do they get the body back?

Farmer's Bible

》Eremiah, Garrett

This is admittedly my most threadbare concept. What I know is this:

Garrett is a priest in a small town beset by a plague, one which consumes the host via spore and mycelium. The host becomes feverish, then demented, then becomes a mushroom, and Garrett is sick to death of watching his people die. He sets out to find patient zero, tracking lead after lead, until he is brought back to his hometown, and the woods behind it. He finds patient zero there: a man named Eremiah, who keeps to himself and tends an infected farm.

Eremiah doesn't really know he's infected, and if he did he wouldn't much care, benefit of having a mushroom for a brain. The real trial for Garrett is whether it would sit right with him to kill a man like Eremiah, someone who just happened to wander into town with a bad cough.

Kor

》Adriana, Frogmouth, Grace, Andrew

Adriana spends her whole life blaming herself for the death of her best friend when she was a child. Wrought with grief and self-blame, she becomes skilled in ways she shouldn't and takes up work as a mercenary. Work eventually brings her home, where she meets a strange jester with the circus visiting town. She calls him Frogmouth when he won't say his name, but soon annoyance turns to fondness as he gives her a peek of his world. She takes up singing, something she hasn't done for years, and finds herself a new life within the tents. She can almost leave her grief behind like this. Almost.

Alas, work brings her to an audience with the duchess of the town and her advisor. In a breakdown of negotiations, a fight ensues, and Frogmouth finds himself at the center of it. He steps in to protect Adriana, but in the process loses his mask, shattering against the edge of a blade as it reveals the face of the elusive jester:

Adriana's childhood friend, Kor.