#i could go on and on but i'm so sleepytired

[queerkuro]

lishu is so. she's 17 widowed and divorced. her family sent her to a pedophile. her family does not claim her. people have tried to assassinate her at least three times, including her family. she's scared of men and clings to her surrogate mother who's dressed as a man. she falls in love with a man who can't stop saving her. he's worried his strength scares women, and she, known to be fearful of men, loves him for it. she gets fucking drugged. she has no home or family, but people still look out for her and love her. she raises ducks and knows she has growing up to do. she's soooo

[lakesbian]

ok i was going to read 1.3 and then say things about 1.2 but i'm sleepytired again so i will read 1.3 tomorrow. world's slowest bookread ever this thing is far shorter than worm and yet i will manage to make it take forever via power of being distracted easily

first of all: i have once again lost the fucking plot. lost in the sauce of bad things happening. i respond to horror like a baby watching keys dangle. so long as bad things are happening to blake i am going to be watching and clapping instead of thinking carefully. that's a lie i am absolutely still thinking carefully but i am primarily more invested in the bad things happening

ok no seriously though. ahem. as for thoughts on the universe thus far: no groundbreaking updates in that department. we're obviously getting more on rose but i do not have solid thoughts on her or the mirror world presently. watching and looking and contemplating but we'll get there when we get there.

i presume blake is correct abt the horrors being given specific instructions vs acting entirely autonomously--presumably others sent after him by whichever random enemy no 234325 he inherited. i'm aware "people can make pacts with magic guys to go do things" is an absolute nothing-statement when it comes to a universe called pact that runs on fairy-logic and we've already seen an example of it previously but my point is that i presume there are other specific ppl and/or entities w/ more character responsible for directing the attacks, and we'll meet them sooner or later.

exceedingly endeared to the atmosphere in this. as always wildbow will write one million redundant poorly phrased little sentences and then somehow it results in a genuinely compelling atmosphere. love the visual of blake driving the car around The Horrors & then it breaking down in the snowy darkness. the lights slowly going out et cetera.

also particularly endeared to him hauling down on the car mirror, getting the tire iron, going on a little monologue to himself about conserving heat, and then immediately having his Horror Movie Protagonist Preparations do nothing and go to shit and then he panics and runs into the woods and trips and almost dies. and he also starts crying near-immediately. and then going "that's fine. that's because of the wind. crying because of the wind. i'm fine" to himself while hysterically screeching at The Horrors he just very unsuccessfully attempted to beat back with a tire iron. he's not doing bad but he's not doing good either. literally just an extremely normal average guy who throws his back out running. it's fantastic. like whatever fantastical circumstances happen to him he still has the heart and soul of a Normal Guy who should be sipping his 7 dollar latte while he walks to art college instead of crying while trying to beat the shit out of fairies. and that's so funny. blake crying throwing up vibrating back and forth saying every swear word he knows in alphabetical order because he has to sew his own hand up So so fucking funny. taylor hebert could do pact but blake thorburn could not do worm. i was right that he could not handle having a juicebox poured on him without calling someone a cunt and slamming doors around about it.

i do hope i find out more about what caused his [pokes around in his brain with a spatula] Issues sooner or later bc it's more interesting to pick him apart if i know what exactly was going on there. but he looooves not thinking about let alone talking about bad memories and he might be a little too busy experiencing New bad memories to ever wheel 'em out for my pleasure. so we'll find out. holding off on any firm thoughts about him until i see if we get any more detail but either way he's interesting. certainly a guy ever. very endearing i like him

[zahroreadsthings]

More rocks...

Question: What do you do next?

Response: North side. I can explain away my presence at the platform easier tomorrow.

Check notes for previous instalments

You stare at the clouds passing overhead as you think of what to do. You don't want trouble for Deema or yourself so as tempting as the platform is, you decide to play it safe and avoid it for now.

You stand up and swing your empty bag over your shoulder with a sigh. The few people who pass you on your way back to the cottage barely spare you a glance.

Deema's flipping through a book when you open the front door.

'I didn't go all the way to the platform,' you say. 'Figured I'm less likely to be seen if I leave it for now and start at the north side.'

Deema snaps her book shut and turns her face to the ceiling. The expression on her face is the same one she wore when you asked about permits. 'You could have lied about it being for something else. They don't know what sigils do.'

'Oh. Well. Okay.' You self-consciously rub the back of your neck.

'I'm keeping some of the rocks. The rest are still in the garden. Bring your paint with you and make the other sigils on site.'

'What are you going to do with them?' you ask suspiciously.

She opens her book. 'Don't worry about it.'

'Alright. Have fun with them, I guess.'

Deema's taken most of the remaining rocks inside. You're able to comfortably fit the last ones in your bag along with your paint, but as soon as you stand up with it you regret your decision.

The walk to the north side of town isn't very far, but you've spent more time carrying rocks than you usually do and your bag's straps dig into your shoulders. You're only glad it's not a hot day.

You spend the rest of the day working your way across the north side of town, pausing much more frequently to find and paint rocks in the dimming light. No-one's around to interrupt you and you only stop when the light's too dim to paint.

You've covered less ground than you did at the south side of town, but you can't bring yourself to care just yet. For now you lie down outside of a hexagon with your bag under your head and your fingertips touching a stone.

The faint heat radiating off the rock is pleasant and the air feels much less sticky outside of the hexagon than inside. You stare up at the clouds again; they barely look heavy enough to rain but you know that'll change when you seed them tomorrow.

[the-homunculus-project]

Well um. I said I was going to take sme time off and I did. Not by my own will though, my phone completely died on me and the phone doctor said there wasn't anything he could do as the motherboard had been fried.

a little disappointing for sure, but thankfully I played it smart and backed everything up from that phone. Since I didn't have a phone I couldn't post any updates or what have you, so here is the update now.

The homunculus project day whichever, i've lost track.

Something did indeed happen with Ichabod The Homunculus over the course of my online absense. the fluid I had made has become incredibly thick. There seems to be some sort of activity below the surface though, and something definitely is growing, but it's really hard to tell what might be going on exactly. I'm worried that while he might still be growing, there isn't really anything going on, if that makes sense.

I know i'll put out my research eventually, it just might take a while. My headaches arent getting any better and I'm just so tired all the time.

Do any of you guys remeber that post from 2016? Pokemon go had just come out and someone on tumblr said they had a dream about a pokemon called sleepytired breaking out of the game and making anyone who touched them suffer from chronic fatigue and coma. had the same dream last night, only with pokemon sleep instead. Not sure how to take that.

[infiniteorangethethird]

aaaah thanks n feel free to steal the idea for ur paracosm I know from personal experience it's a VERY fun concept to play around with

I'll try to talk abt this sensibly bc I frickin love talking about the science of magic in my paracosm but I'm a tad bit sleepytired so apologies if it doesn't make much sense 😅

Basically when I think of magic being "realistic" it's more that I try to set rules within which magic operates, and then any time something magical happens I ask myself "yes but is this possible within the rules?" and that way the rules dictate the plot (to a degree) but the plot dictates the rules too, that is if I really want something to happen but it should be impossible I usually just make up new bs to make it happen

As of now, magic in my paracosm is basically this massless substance that is completely separate from physical matter, kind of like pure energy of sorts? There are many different kinds of magic and each type is able to do one specific thing (I like to call this their "powerset") so e.g. one type of magic allows you to control water, another lets you heal etc. And of course there are rules as to how one can use magic, like how you need special "magical energy" to activate your magic, and magic as a substance actually decreases with each usage, but it also naturally multiplies over time if unused so for most magical species meanwhile it is possible to exhaust your magic, it isn't possible to completely deplete it.

Then there's lots of other stuff like how magic and physical matter interact, what each type of magic does, and also the fact that every living being needs some kind of magical source to be, well, living - sometimes it's a soul, sometimes it's something a lot funkier - and all of this is without mentioning that magic is actually only one of the four Aspects of Reality, as I like to call them, and not actually the aspect that's responsible for dimensions forming. (Which is a whole another story)

Not sure if I answered your question, I could go into a lot more detail if pressed but a) as I said I'm kinda sleepytired rn and b) since most of this isn't really recorded/written down I tend to forget certain parts of the system (especially the very niche details), so I'd probably need to clean all this up if I wanted to make it sound reasonable. (And also to avoid having to erase a great chunk of the timeline to fix all the plotholes - again. Then again, "rewriting history" is a canon possibility, so I guess I can't complain that much.)

Hellooooo hi, I'm too lazy to scroll yeah

Can you tell me a bit about your paracosm? :3

A bit? Nope, sorry, no can do, I can only tell you a metric fuck TON about my paracosm. Hope ur prepared for an infodump >:)

Sooooo uh. There’s a lot to talk abt (because I don’t know how to shut up) so let me break it up a little. Setting-wise, the story’s set in a fantasy version of Earth, where the most important difference (aside from the presence of magic) is that if someone writes a story and enough people read it, the story becomes real in a parallel dimension. I originally thought of this as a way to explain how my OCs could meet with the characters from my favorite shows/books, nowadays it’s both a mechanic that facilitates the story and (recently more frequently) the focus and source of conflict.

Because of the setting, aside from the numerous stolen characters from other media and reworked versions of said stolen characters, there’s obviously a lot of magic going around with a fuckton of places to visit and even more magical species to populate the world and wield said magic – “angels”, demons, shapeshifters, monsters, gods, you name it. Most of my paras are non-human and those who are also tend to have non-human ancestry or some kind of extra magical power (what’s the point of fantasy without fantasy, yknow?). But also, because I have a weird obsession with Organizing and Putting Things In Boxes, I have the physics of magic worked out to an absurd detail, feel free to shoot me an ask abt it if you want to be bored to death :D

Plot-wise… well. I would summarize the story, I actually HAVE a pretty decent summary, but it’s like, 100+ pages (50k+ words if I recall correctly), and I’m pretty sure tumblr would not Like That (and this version’s not even up to date), so. There used to be a lot of exploration of the world (aka me integrating my current interests into my paracosm because I can), nowadays it’s a lot more character-focused, with the plot revolving around 15-ish “main” paras and their lives. Which can be anything from “I can finally go to college and study the stuff I wanna study! Yay!” to “oh god oh fuck I’m a general in a multidimensional war and thousands are dead if I make the wrong move” so. There’s a lot of throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks. (I am a sucker for big epic fights tho so that happens a lot lol)

Thematically, I like to focus on the inner worlds of my paras and how they relate to the world around them. Each of them come from different backgrounds with different perspectives so any time I wanna explore a concept I can just pick whoever falls closest to that (like, “oh THIS one was abandoned by their family but THIS one is a stable father figure, found family trope go brrr” just to name an example). There’s a lot of hurt/comfort generally speaking, heavy on the emotional angst and, because I’m a secret whump enjoyer, there also tends to be a lot of blood. Like a lot. (Dw I always balance it out with some old-fashioned “finding peace in each other’s presence” daydreams, especially soft and cuddly.) Oh yeah and also everyone’s gay but that’s pretty much expected at this point.

Sometimes I also like to wonder about the morality of certain aspects of this universe, since the setting and world is so different from ours, but ig that’s a topic for another day haha

Anyway yeah that’s as short as I could get it 😅 it’s a bit hard to talk about my paracosm as a whole because it’s so old and as a result incredibly widespread. I do have a sideblog dedicated to it but tbh I haven’t really touched it in ages so what little info it has is probably outdated. Idk what else to say, if there’s any part you’d want me to go into greater detail feel free to ask (I know ppl mostly only care about the paras which, fair, but when it comes to talking abt my paracosm practically any topic is free for the asking lol), and sorry for the long ramble haha

Bonus doodle of one of my paras (Rowena) I did like a day ago

[zahroreadsthings]

Briefing...

Question: What do you say to the request?

Response: 'I have no idea what that means.'

Check notes for previous instalments

'I have no idea what that means,' you say flatly.

The coast witch sighs. 'Has she taught you anything?'

'I mean... we're not coast witches.'

She heaves another sigh. 'We need to make seaweed ropes long enough to reach the caves from the sea. We can't exactly do that when our fingers are too cold to move.'

'Yeah, okay.'

'I'll be waiting on the reef.' She quietly closes the front door behind her before you can tell her that wasn't an agreement.

You wait a moment before knocking on Deema's door. 'I need to change the weather so they can make ropes or something?'

She pulls the door open. 'I heard. I'm sorry, but I don't think I can make the walk today.'

'Hey, that's fine. I hope. What do I need to do?'

'Really, nothing. It's outside of your scope as a weather witch. I've unfortunately set a precedent.'

'Okay, but if I do go?'

'Find an enclosed area - or make them do it - and make it warm enough to let them work, but not so warm it'll dry out the seaweed. Hurry up and leave. If you do go.'

'Thanks, Deema. Rest up.'

She closes her door. You make sure you're halfway presentable before you start to pack. If it's in an enclosed space you don't expect to need a fan, but you'll definitely need hot air.

You open up the case Deema keeps by the door and reach for the vials. You blink. They're not warm at all. 'Deema? I think we're out of hot air.'

'Fireplace!' You can almost hear her pinching the bridge of her nose.

'Oh, right.' You laugh to yourself as you scoop some hot air by the fire. As you grab a breadroll from the kitchen you notice the plate you brought home last night is empty. Well, that's good news.

You leave the kitchen, breadroll in hand. Your bag and pockets aren't big enough to cram everything you want to take.

Going with the two most popular options here. Wish we could cast two votes but alas :c

[zahroreadsthings]

Beach again...

Question: You can only bring two other items. What do you take?

Response 1: A notebook and pencil, since apparently I'm supposed to know what they're doing.

Response 2: The stuffed bird. I'm so sleepytired.

Check notes for previous instalments

You pack your bird, notebook, and pencil in your bag and start the walk to the beach. You wish you could have brought your blanket bug the thought of shaking sand out of it for weeks after makes you shudder. Instead you pull your jacket closer around you and hug your stuffed bird for comfort in the cold.

There are too many steps down to the beach considering how tired you're feeling but you manage to make your way down without incident. The coast witch didn't tell you where to go so you follow the footsteps left in the wet sand. At least the beach looks beautiful, you think.

The footsteps lead you to a ravine and promptly disappear as the sand under your feet is replaced with rock. You hear snatches of voices in the wind but can't narrow down where they're coming from.

You raise your voice. 'Where are you two?'

An arm appears close by. You follow it, taking care to not trip over the uneven ground, into a shallow cave. The bottom of it is flooded and a lantern is burning near the back.

The coast witch sits with her back against a wall. Lex looks up from where they're crouched over a pile of seaweed. Their hands are tucked into their sleeves.

'You got something?'

'Yeah.' You shift your stuffed bird to one arm and pull out your case of vials. Their eyes follow your bird jealously. 'Good thing this place is already enclosed, huh?'

'Please hurry,' the coast witch says tersely.

You pour hot air over the ground and wave it around with your hands like you've seen Deema do. You swear it's harder to open the vials in the cold than it used to be.

Lex and the coast witch wait until the area warms up then both reach for the pile of seaweed. You watch them with your bird tucked under your chin. You've never seen rope being made up close. It looks like plying spun fibre.

They don't talk except to judge when a rope is long enough. You rock on your heels. You're still at the cave entrance and are bearing the brunt of the wind.

Bonus write-in: What should the bird be named?

[lakesbian]

Touching her implement, she found and extinguished the torches and candles around the patio. “We’re here to protect you,” Mavourneen said.  “There’s no need to extinguish any fire.” They were so good at lying.  It took her a few seconds to figure out how they might be misleading her.

help i don't know how they're misleading her :( getting a bad grade at pact reading comprehension. what being sleepytired does to a motherfucker

i'm less biased towards it than to maggie's because there's less people bleeding and dying. the faerie feature is fun taking little notes in my brain for when i manage to get around to answering that ask about why the Creatchures in pact are fun. you know how reading worm will permanently ruin other cape fiction for you. like "huh where are the traumagenic powers why aren't the powers traumagenic" and so on. pact is gonna do that for me but with ghosts and faeries and shit. i'm gonna walk into any other fantasy novel and be surprised if the pact faeries aren't in there. extremely endeared to the artificially placed environment and how clearly it's communicated that these are Old Ass Things eternally talking over your head because they're playing a game that's been going on longer than you've been alive or will be alive. the callback to the gendered role assigned to the chalice in the fucked up and bad gender roles chapter is nice. there's more coherent analysis i could probably be getting out of it wrt the gendered violence necessary to artificially prolong the structure of the family the duchamps have going but i am So Fucking Seepy Tired so i'll just microwave it in the back of my brain for now. but i do enjoy that like. waves hands incoherently. we got the maggie interlude (little horror story abt girl being sucked into it all on her own just bc she was in the wrong place at the wrong time) so it's fun to follow with a contrasting interlude abt a long-running family which demonstrates how integral the magic system is to replicating violent family structures each generation and keeping the cycles going. your grandmother was manipulated and your mother was manipulated and your aunt was manipulated and you're manipulated and you all know it but you're still bound 2 do it to the next girl! also i like hildr. fun design.

ok finished arc 3. does anyone have any arc 3 pact questions for me. no i did not finish answering the arc 2 questions but [thru gritted teeth] that's Fine and the important part is Having Fun