#magickal misfits

[loresixx]

-Passenger-

[noahhawthorneauthor]

You are a ten thousand year old tragic romantic, bound to be perpetually forgotten. You dress exclusively in sweats and a baggy hoodie, and there's crumbs in your mustache from the scones you munch on during the workday in your bakery.

You've never wished for more.

You're not lonely. Really, you’re not. You’re used to this life, living as a fever dream.

You're elbows deep in dirty dishwater, working alongside your baristas, a vegan vampire and nonbinary treant, when a man walks in.

You don't have to turn around to know it's him, because he smells of magick and herbs and home. You'd know him anywhere, even after all this time.

But he doesn't know you. Not this go around.

He orders a box full of pastries and nearly a dozen drinks, and there's a beautiful man at his side. You keep your hood up, listening to him talk. Memorizing the sound.

When the man he's with laughs, you eat half a scone in one go to keep from speaking up.

But then you're called upon by the vampire, forced to meet the witch's eye as she makes introductions. You chew on the scone, swallowing down thick pastry and the words, 'I'd know him anywhere.'

But you're a stranger to him, so you introduce yourself.

Again.

And his soulmark alights his face, a burning reminder of everything you cannot have.

☀️ Grumpy x Sunshine

🏳️‍🌈 Misfit Found Family

⛈️ Forgotten Memories

❤️ Idiots to Lovers

🎧 Dual POV

💊Mental Health and Disability Rep

❤️‍🔥Slow Burn Mutual Pining

🪙 Treasure Hunt based on The Secret

[an-aura-about-you]

let's see about finishing up that chapter of Handbook for Mortals I was on, shall we?

Chapter 18 part 2:

when we last left our hero, Scheherazade was still dying, but now Mac thinks that's his fault when it absolutely wasn't.

-Mac was upset that Zade would do this without telling him, but Dela tells him that she did it with Charles for years without him knowing. jesus christ, what a violation.

-but Dela also mentions that Charles was in the show and thus couldn't have left, so once again Zade is the one who made the bad choices here.

-in spite of this not being Mac's fault, he is the one responsible for fixing this according to Dela. she said he "caused" the energy surge, but that's not right because ZADE caused the energy surge, she just did so without knowing she had no way to ground it! again, it's Zade's fault!!!

-"Normally I would sugarcoat this, but we don't really have that kind of time." 24 Hours Have Passed. You Have Had Plenty Of Time To Sugarcoat.

-"I'm just going to get down and dirty and to the point."

...

I do not care how much of a MILF the book is trying to make you out to be, Dela. That line just killed it. Never say that again ever.

-for this ritual, Dela has to forge something that "looks like a dagger--thought it won't actually be a dagger at all." and she says it's not worth explaining what it actually is besides magic.

you mean an athame? you know, tool used to sever metaphysical energy typically represented physically by a blunt dagger? you're fine talking about tarot cards and altars but calling an athame an athame is where you stumble? I would certainly think anyone who spells magic with a k would know what an athame is. hell, I have an athame!

if you wanna dumb it down for Mac, you can call it an athame and then explain that it is a type of magic dagger. it would be a shorter explanation and get you to the point with Mac much quicker. you know, the thing you said you were going to do in this same paragraph.

-the gameplan is for Mac to stab Zade in the chest with the athame at precisely 3am. ok, cool, cool. why? why that specific time? why are we not getting any information about why we have to wait? I know timing and moon phases are important for spells, but an emergency is an emergency. and we haven't been given any information along the lines of, "if we don't do it at precisely this time and no other then Zade will definitely die for real." seriously, what is keeping us from doing it now?

-Dela just compared the athame to an EpiPen. and I'll actually admit, in the context of the book, this metaphor does at least partly work. it's not going to fix Zade completely, but it is going to make it so that Della can heal her. but the part where it doesn't work is an EpiPen is used to buy time and should be administered IMMEDIATELY.

-also, apparently, this entire procedure will be nearly impossible if Mac doesn't go along with it.

actually, now's a good time to hit you guys with the summary from the inside of the dust jacket:

Zade Holder has always been a free-spirited young woman, from a long dynasty of tarot-card readers, fortunetellers, and practitioners of magick. Growing up in a small town and never quite fitting in, Zade is determined to forge her own path. She leaves her home in Tennessee to break free from her overprotective mother Dela, the local resident spellcaster and fortuneteller. Zade travels to Las Vegas and uses supernatural powers to become part of a premiere magic show led by the infamous magician Charles Spellman. Zade fits right in with his troupe of artists and misfits. After all, when everyone is slightly eccentric, appearing "normal" is much less important. Behind the scenes of this multimillion-dollar production, Zade finds herself caught in a love triangle with Mac, the show's good-looking but rough-around-the-edges technical director and Jackson, the tall, dark, handsome and charming bandleader. Zade's secrets and the struggle to choose between Mac or Jackson creates reckless tension during the grand finale of the show. Using Chaos magick, which is known for being unpredictable, she tests her abilities as a spellcaster farther than she's ever tried and finds herself at death's door. Her fate is left in the hands of a mortal who does not believe in a world of real magick, a fortuneteller who knew one day Zade would put herself in danger and a dagger with mystical powers...

so idk why I even bothered with the recaps when Sarem is eager to tell you the entire story right there. there's nothing to work for in reading this. it's just handed to you like Zade's job at the show.

also, if I'm sharing what's on the dust jacket, I can't forget this part:

Handbook for Mortals is the first book in the series of this urban fantasy, paranormal romance series by author Lani Sarem. Following Zade through the trials--and romance--of finding her own place in the world, readers will identify with their own struggles to fit in, reflected in the fantastic, yet mundane world of Zade's life. Handbook for Mortals is in development as a motion picture set to debut in 2018.

also holy shit they wanted $25 for this? yeah, glad I only paid $2.

-ok either more time has passed when I wasn't looking or we're dealing with another classic Sarem continuity error because the narration has just told us 48 hours have passed???? when the fuck did that happen?

-I'm actually getting really pissed at the time thing because Sarem COULD have used the tarot cards to structure the book. I've actually written two fics where I did something similar, one of them being a fic for The Magnus Archives and one of them being a TMA/Chzo Mythos crossover.

for one of my fics, I used the 14 Fears in The Magnus Archives as a way to structure the actual fic and give it a sort of order based on what would make sense to follow one after the other.

for the crossover one, I used both the concept of the Blessed Agonies in the Chzo Mythos as well as an actual calendar since I was setting it during a specific year with a specific start date in mind. from there, I basically scheduled the fic and even reflected this by posting relevant chapters on the matching dates. and having that schedule helped a lot with my planning because I did research I needed like how long it would take to recover from certain injuries in the hospital.

and the Major Arcana of the tarot makes this even easier because it comes with a story structure built in. with just a little more thinking and effort, Sarem could have fit her story into that structure.

but considering her main character ignored a trump card in a spread, it's clear that she doesn't actually think much of it.

-in any case, Mac agrees to do the stabbing.

Mac the Knife?

-Mac is still blaming himself for the thing that wasn't his fault. like, ok, a little bit of that is usually normal, feeling guilty and getting hung up on could-have should-have is totally a thing. but the narration is making it clear that he's the reason Zade is dying, and that is a big ol' plate of bullshit and chips.

-ok we're getting more of the drama of Zade's parents and Charles has told Mac that he didn't leave Dela, Dela left him and took Zade with her. and the start of that is a doozy:

"I lost it when she told me what she was. It was right after we had Zade. I thought maybe she had made me love her... "Because I wasn't sure if I could believe her, I cheated on Dela to see if I could. When I was able to cheat, I realized that if she had put a spell on me she wouldn't have 'let' me be able to do that."

ohhhhhhhhhhh my god. okay. wow.

on the one hand, Yikes. did you HAVE to go all the way, Charles?

but on the other, god, can you imagine how terrifying that must be to worry that your free will has been compromised, especially with how much Dela and Zade have been talking about destiny in this book?

some part of me actually doesn't entirely blame Charles for full on cheating? don't get me wrong, it's a scummy thing to do and evidence that they didn't trust each other. but a paranoid part of me is putting myself in Charles's shoes and wondering, "am I able to flirt with a stranger because I'm freely able to be with them or is this just something allowed by the limits of the spell my spouse has on me?" especially now that we, the readers, know that Dela has used magic on Charles for YEARS without his knowledge.

-but that was only the start of it. the kicker was Charles started drinking and using and got to a point where he talked about putting Zade in the show. Dela consulted the cards and it looked like either they would be happy together or he would go back to his old ways. so she left him a letter and took Zade with her.

THIS is when we learn she put a spell on Charles to not talk about Zade BUT it's actually worse than that. he's not able to admit to a connection to EITHER of them. so I've got two things about that:

holy shit, so that means it was basically impossible for him to have any sort of contact with Zade unless Dela allowed it. if he can't admit to a connection to her, he can't get legal help to establish parental rights.

Why Was Charles Able To Tell The Doctor He Was Zade's Father In The Previous Chapter? How Was He Able To Do That? Did Dela Only Break That Spell Because Zade Was Dying?

and that's how the chapter ends with Charles wrapping up that story saying that maybe it was a way for Dela to not deal with the past. you'd think a professional fortuneteller would know that shit always comes back to you.

fuck it let's have another poll

[aishta-of-the-realms]

"Until recently, all magicks were viewed and classified as “divine” in nature; mysteries known only to those with the ability, power, and inclination to study them. Since the creation of the arcane battery by Sir Gundren Mistbeard and (controversially) Tobias Cephus in 1261 3A, though, we now understand this to be somewhat incorrect. With its development having infinitely deepened our understanding of how arcana behaves, is channeled, and re-collects itself, there has been a push in some academic circles to re-classify arcana as an “element”. This movement has been met with resistance from both religious establishments and several druidic circles, under Religious and Sanctity grounds, due to its potentially harmful “clinical and reductive” interpretation of the divine."

- Excerpt from "Magicks and Misfits: Pioneers of Prestidigitation", by Ulyria Vois

[blackrosebookstore]

The Queen of Life & The Beginnings of the Twilight Court

 The Twilight Court is ancient and one of the original Courts. It is so old that almost all have forgotten about it in all the realms. The twilight court is mostly relevant to the Fae but the Queen of the Twilight court is not just Fae. She is the Queen of Life as well and Consort to Death. It's hard to put these things into words especially when much of what I know is bits and pieces of a story. It's not a complete story or I would be publishing this in some other way. No this is more like scraps of a story lost through the centuries or just floating around the mind of one potentially delusional mage. ;) You never know after all. Aren't all writers a little nuts? You almost have to be to write and live with your characters the way we do. 

Anyway, the Queen of the Twilight Court was born at the very beginning long before recorded history and long before even the events of the bible took place. She was the youngest of the Old Powers, her first form came out of the waters and flames. Her Mother was the divine Goddess Danu (Earth\Water Mother Goddess known these days mostly to followers of the Celtic Paths) and who knows who her fathers or father were/was. That she even had half a clue who her mother was came much later since she was raised by the males and the beginnings were lost to her. The first few of her lives are shrouded in the veils of the ancient times. Life's first Incarnation was a dryad bound to one of the ancient Mother Trees. This dryad grew to become many other things from the Queen of Life and Death to a young goddess of the hunt and to have many names and incarnations through the ages. Some of them are remembered today but most are lesser beings that no one except her family knows. And even their memories seem to be clouded behind a veil.

The Twilight Court itself is considered to be the Court that the Queen has ruled from the beginning since a court has formed around her from the ancient times. I believe this is only natural considering that she is both darkness and light and a strong Power. Life was in the beginning a divine Power and equal only to Death although slightly superior to her Consort. Eventually Life took a new form and became less thus becoming Inanna, the sister of Lilith and daughter of the divine Lords of the Annukai. During this time she raised her sister's son who destroyed the first Death who was going to betray her. The Hound enters the scene. The Hound is loyal and dangerous, one of the great monsters of Realms. A destroyer who was an experiment. The young Inanna eventually entered the Underworld and died there, growing from that experience and being reborn. 

Ugh, I lost the thread of the magick and the story so I guess that's all for today. I can tell you all that the Twilight Court as it is today was originally one of the small free courts of the Fae. It is made up of misfits and those who don't belong with any of the major courts. The current incarnation of the Queen is a reincarnation of Oberon's beloved daughter Ashe and she is a mixed blood Fae witch with traces of Siren or Merfolk, vampire, kitsune, high Sidhe, winged fae, and potentially some sort of house fae that cares for hearth and family. 

[cobaltspace]

Okay so ironically enough I was scrolling your blog to catch up on a couple of your Nightcrawler fics I was behind on and seeing this finally made me finish my X-Men oc’s ref sheet.

Allegra is 29 and hails from Venice, Italy. Her mother died in childbirth and she was thrust upon her father Matteo, a well known crime mogul, as an infant.

From birth her mutation made her skin so pale it’s partially transparent, and her eyes are a beady black. Ashamed of his daughter’s appearance, Matteo sentenced Allegra to a nocturnal existence away from his house staff and business partners.

Around 13, the spikes that decorate her skin began to come in, and at the same time she began to sneak out more, eventually falling in with the wrong crowd.

This led her to Carlotta, a girl 6 years her senior who was working as a runner for a different crime organization, she too being a mutant who was visibly different than others. Slowly she built a group of misfits around her, and at 16 Allegra ran away from home to permanently join Carlotta in her work

When she turned 18, and Carlotta 24, she began her own crime empire using connections she’d made as a runner. Her gang consisted of only visible mutants, as she believed they had it harder. She gave Allegra the name of Sanguine for her cheery personality as well as her power, which had now fully manifested.

Allegra’s power is blood manipulation, specifically that of other’s. It has to make contact with her skin where she can then mentally manipulate the field around her to harden and shape the blood, usually into weapons but sometimes into armor.

I imagine she betrays Carlotta after she discovers that she’s running a mutant trafficking ring some of the X-men have come to investigate. Said ring only selling mutants who can hide the fact they’re mutants out of spite. She abandons her friends for the X-Men in the end hoping to right her wrongs.

She covers her face in her civilian outfit to hide her sharp teeth and most of her face spikes, and her long coat is usually buttoned, hiding her body spikes.

Allegra’s X-men outfit shows more skin since the blood has to touch her skin to harden + she can turn it into armor. The tubes on the sides contain blood she can unscrew the bottom of to use, but she also carries knives in her leg pouch to replenish mid battle, same for the spikes on her uniform.

I’m undecided on who to ship her with, I’m torn between Nightcrawler or Magick, as she’s right between their headcanon ages for me. I see most of the new mutants + Kitty as being in their early to mid 20’s while I see Kurt as being in his early to mid 30’s.

Sorry for lore dumping about her but I need to share her with the world.

slams table

i demand to see your x-men ocs 💙

[cosmicmote]

Tonight in Momentum

a few words in Momentum Writer, tonight. was hoping to make this more of a regular thing, but distractions are what they are. I bought a book the other day, that's far more of a regular thing and too much so really, I'll never have time to read them all but it's good for the economy not that billionaires care about such things or us. I bought a book the other day, it was on sale at least and called Poetry As Spellcasting which has three authors listed on the front cover, Tamiko Beyer, Destiny Hemphill and Lisbeth White, and even before I started reading it today I was thinking that there is a big difference between kids and adults and mush of it lies in the accumulation of -isms and it's all so loud, bright red to hot pink, and many kids are eligible for senior discounts at breakfast now. The term immature is often used, probably too much, but terms like malmature likewise too often have never really taken hold. Malingering words fit for a malformed world in stead. Growing up I had a fixation on sickles, for a short time. They're more than a decoration, or symbolism, when they're put to good use. Misfits. Function. Language is art. Art is magick. Art is functional. Functionality is magick. How much does it have to do with you. Mechanisms of defense and creativity are their own worlds. The book reads like a string of egos with their falsified histories, more than a how to, so far. The bibles are full of this stuff. Boomer and Psychick some what less so. Mythology. Turned pre-modern identity politics and commodified narratives. We know and get where it comes from. The sources ain't monolithic. Lindbergh's war time diaries were insightful, part of me wishes I had the time to reread. Living history, destroyed. Malconnections. My plate is already full. My focus is here, how many seconds into the past is every look in the mirror. How do they add up. It's not so much what the books tell us, and much hasn't been left unsaid. Perhaps erase, a living Nakba, from a simulacra eternal. We do wonderings. So I write. I paint. I doodle. I type. & here I am. & here I am. & here I am.

Wonder less.

graphic and words ©spacetree 2023

[magickal-misfits]

The symbol of Mara, The Cold: Deity of Love and Growth and the Parent of all Merfolk who rules over the Plane of Water

[thesunnysash]

The power of the sexual energy

Have you ever wondered why some people might experience an untriggered emotional release after the act, finding themselves laughing, or crying having no clue why? some may feel a sudden urge to change something in their physical appearance or get so motivated towards life, while others may feel that they are demotivated, and depressed.

As it was mentioned, sexual energy is one of the most powerful existing energies for living beings. It is transmitted to your partner during the act, surely affecting them. Getting intimate with someone means connecting with them in the deepest possible manner you can imagine, even if it was a casual onetime thing. Hence, if your partner is carrying hatred and negative energies it will be affecting you and there is no way to stop it, and if they are carrying positive energies, you’ll be able to absorb that.

Sex can be truly empowering when you are with the right person, but it can also be extremely destructive in other situations. Knowing that all energies cannot be destroyed, they only change from one state to another, makes it impossible for this act to be casual.

[noahhawthorneauthor]

“Could you show me some magick?”

“Oh,” I whisper, then nod quickly. “Yeah, okay.”

I clear my throat and stand, then sit back down, because I don’t want to stand over him. He’s already so much shorter than me, I feel like a giant just sitting next to him. He tentatively presses a hand to my arm, lips parting, and I startle. He pulls back, not taking his eyes off me. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you nervous.”

“Oh, I’m not. Nervous, that is.”

Felix chuckles. “Okay. Well, you don’t have to make yourself smaller, for me.”

“Oh,” I say, then stand and straighten to my full height before him. The leaves and petals in my hair and along my skin stand to attention, and I blush at the image of preening like a fucking peacock.

“Wow,” Felix says, staring up at me with wide eyes. “You’re really tall.”

I almost lean down, but he takes my hand. This time, he doesn’t let go. “No, don’t.” Felix stands beside me, my hand in his. I stare down at our entangled fingers, then back to his face. His neck is craned and it looks painful, but the determination in his eyes is almost frightening.

I squeeze his hand, then let go. I put my hands up, smiling wide. “Okay, have it your way, tchotchke.”

Oh, how he smiles at that. He pretends to be affronted, but that smile. It’s perpetual, blinding. “I am not a small thing.”

I shrug, turning away from him. I bring my hands to chest level and smile upon coming up with an idea. I close my eyes and murmur, “Abracadabra.”

🎄❄️🏳️‍🌈���️‍🔥

When Witches Sing is out in the world today!

Have fun with swamp witches, chaos witches, root witches and musical witches. Just, all of the witchery and tomfoolery there ever could be.

Amazon

Sign up for the Misfits to get it free

[artenderfoot]

All the sticker lovers out there! These Cutsy lil Magic Potion Stickers are out in my shop now!!

[thevelvetlotus]

🌿🌞The Craft Candle. A magickal candle dedicated to the film and the Craft.✨”Four female misfits connect with a higher power that enables them to rock and rule their high school”~The Craft. It was the summer of my 15th year when the movie, The Craft was released. And I will never forget how it changed my life, and the whole world around me. I remember “feeling” like I was different than most of those around me at an early age, but it was when I was 13 that I KNEW without a shadow of a doubt that I understood nature, power, balance....magick...and could get it to notice me because it was me.🎋I had a magical youth, and it was right before I turned 16 when The Craft came out, and then everyone in our school wanted to be a witch. It was comical. One day you are getting harassed and tormented by kids calling you a witch and the next day they come to school with a pentacle necklace from Claire’s around their neck wanting to be your best friend. It was the perfect time for such a film to be released. The youth of the early 90s had enough of the empty bubble gum mall rat glamor shot girls, it was time to pave the way for the garage band girls and goth chicks. Before you knew it, there was a clear divide in the high school hallways. You had the babydoll dresses with Birkenstock boot babes(me) and then you had the Gap girls in there overpriced pastel cotton tops that reeked of Bath and Body Works Country Apple spray. Identification was everything and The Craft helped “us misfits” find our fellow sisters which helped shape us into the women we are today. Those of you who lived through this particular time know just how potent those years were, and I could write about them for days because they were special times. Living proof that you can exist without the internet.✨I haven’t even begun to talk about the candle yet but IG is letting me know I only have a few words left. So I will make another post concentrating on the candle itself, but for now, here is The Craft Candle~for all of my fellow misfits who strived through the 90s!🌞🌿 #thecraft #craft #thecraftmovie #90s #90sstyle #magic #magick #wicca #misfits #witch #witchesofinstagram #witchcraft #witchythings #thevelvetlotus https://www.instagram.com/p/ByCQ25LBjuo/?igshid=ybtqk5gie6ji

[sonolucent]

#cultivateawe : Love. I will be playing music for you on the Native American flute at the @rochesterfringe, Sat Sep 17, 5pm and Sun Sep 18, 6pm at @thespiritroomroc. See you there! Posted @withregram • @thespiritroomroc We are so happy to have this amazing event back! The Cobbs Hill Consort is a unique Rochester acoustic ensemble featuring Native American flute supported by the living sounds of harp, guitar, drums and percussion. The music is soothing, emotive, and transporting, engaging you in a journey of the heart. The group returns to the Rochester Fringe Festival for an eighth year sharing the gift of healing energies and creative collaboration, including Dr. Jefferson Svengsouk (Native American flute) and Sandy Gianniny (harp), both team members of UR Medicine Palliative Care. #haunted #occult #cocktail #bar #misfit #cabaret #naturalhistory #Theater #taxidermy #curio #halloween #codeorange #oddities #obscura #curiosities #spiritualism #spiritboard #magick #gothic #antiques #tarot #metaphysical #spirits #afterlife #spooky #rochesterny #roc #585 #rocfringe22 (at The Spirit Room) https://www.instagram.com/p/CiO_faKOdYE/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[meabh-mcinness]

Okay but does anyone know what exactly is Kalego’s specialty in teaching? I know he’s the misfits homeroom teacher but he has to have something he specifically teaches since Momonoki, Buer, and Dali are homeroom teachers as well but they also have something specific to them (fundementals of magick, healing/nurse(?), and history respectively) and he’s obviously been there for a long while so what does he teach?

At first I kind of thought maybe he was a familiar specialist since he’s in charge of the ceremony and maybe he got upgraded to some kind of Vice President position and Robin took his place but that also doesn’t seem to fit? I don’t know, thoughts?

[interact-if]

Day 2 of Religious Diversity Month is Dani!

Dani, author of The Rising Night

Gahliarch is not kind to those with magick. Breaking from treaty, they have returned to their dark roots and have begun purging their lands of magai once more. Where the nations of Syrel'Court and Heimshall believe that magick was given as a holy connection to their god creator Eddath, Gahliarch believes it a curse meant to be snuffed out; and themselves the divine judge, jury and executioner to do so.

You know of these executors first hand, born with magick and taken into captivity by the Gahliarchen nobility's personal bloodhounds, the Lumniscen Order. Like cloying shadows they came after you and others of your kind as you had tried to cross the sea into the magai harboring lands of Heimshall and left you a vengeful husk upon your escape from them.

Now you hunt them in return for the pain they inflict. A vendetta through years of hardship and dedication to your craft, you have become the same nightmare they invoked on your kind in turn for their grotesque genocide. An assassin taking down the inner workings of Gahliarch’s most corrupt factions.

But there is news of war on the horizon. The nations of Eddathil all meant to be governed by mutual interest by the  The Seven Circle Court is being broken apart from the inside by quickly silenced rumors and faceless ploys, but this political turmoil might just be what you need to finally infiltrate and be done with the Lumniscen Order once and for all; to burn them from their rotting inside out.

It is time to decide who you want on your side, or risk going alone into the underbelly of Gahliarch’s hungry underground political society. Bring their secrets to burn in the light, dig into your history, fall into the depths of revenge and madness, discover hidden treaties and balance the lives of others in your hands. God or no god on your side.

• Read more about The Rising Night here. (Rated +18)

• Dani’s Ko-fi.

[INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT UNDER THE CUT]

Q1) Tell us about your project(s)!

The Rising Night is a dark gothic fantasy where you get to take the role of a mage turned assassin brought into a team of other outcasts and misfits looking to take down the deep rooted corruption within your government— all while facing the rumors of war between countries and possibly the biggest industrial revolution because of it (as well as some deep dark mysteries regarding the origin of magic.)

I’ve always been a fan of stories and characters that focus on the more morally gray aspects of human nature compared to the classic good vs evil, so I wanted to really dive into that and give readers an experience of what that could be to them, let them choose what is good and bad and have to stick with it. The Rising Night never really has factions to side with and the majority of choices available have both good and bad influences throughout the plotline that can really have someone stop and say “I shouldn’t have done that”. And while some decisions can seem like dead ends, there’s still this glimmer of hope, a future, that you have to grasp and fight for. 

While The Rising Night and its respective series is my focus, I definitely have plans for more projects that I’ve been falling back onto when I hit a block on TRN and I’m really excited to start sharing them. The one I am most excited to share right now is a supernatural urban setting where you get to be involved with a Lovecraftian horror mystery (and starting the end of the world/apocalypse :D)

Q2) Why did you choose to write interactive fiction? What drew you to the format?

Originally I never thought that I would start to write interactive fiction. Funnily it was a kind of spur of the moment hyper fixation that turned into a hobby.

I started reading a lot of IF’s after one was recommended to me by a friend and it was down the rabbit hole from there, I started stockpiling all the IF’s I could get my hands on which then led to finding out how they were made and then trying it out myself with zero coding experience and a lot of guts. 

I’m a really visual person, being an artist reflects that, and I wrote a lot growing up. For a while in my life I was put off by reading books despite my ever growing to-be-read pile because I could never find anything I really enjoyed and it was difficult for me to visualize what the author’s were trying to portray. I couldn’t “feel” the story. But there was something about how the IF’s were put together that fixed that for me and I wanted to figure out why. So I shuffled through some ideas I had already been working on and started working it into an IF.

I’ve been using the experience to learn more about coding, formatting and presentation in order to eventually create Visual Novel’s — a long time dream of mine — and I have had a lot of fun getting to learn a new skill and getting to know others in the community. I’ve honestly not felt as comfortable and open as I have in the IF community in a very long time, and it’s something I hope a lot of people get involved in no matter what they believe their skill level to be, it’s been eye-opening. 

Q3) How have your identity and beliefs influenced your work?

A lot of my work focuses on human connection, and I think a lot of my identity has to do with that because for some time I felt like I was facing the world with kind of a blank face, I didn’t know who I was. My art and my writing was an outlet for what I felt I couldn’t show the world. Because of that my work always stemmed from what I wanted to see and needed to hear from society that I couldn’t find.

But as I began to really become myself, explore my identity and reach out for support and connection, I was able to not just create, but share with others and I was surprised by how many people began to say they saw themselves in my work. 

So now my focus is on bringing that connection and identity into the open for others who are either just starting to explore, trying to understand, or those who, like myself, want to see the representation of their identities and beliefs in everyday media, not just the occasional nod to or token character.

There is too much to see and experience to want to get stuck in the loop of rehashed characters and settings and in my work I want to try and bring something new and exciting to the table that people can see themselves in.

Q4) What aspects would you like to be more explored or represented in media regarding your religion?

For myself it’s less of what I’d like to see represented, but more of what I’d like to see represented accurately. Unfortunately the media has never really been kind to Judaism, both purposefully and accidentally, and I think because of historical ramifications there is a major misunderstanding of it both religiously and culturally. 

I think it’s easy to fall into the ideas that the media has of Jewish religion and I’d love for people to instead seek out Jewish creators (myself included) and feel comfortable in asking questions about it and respectfully exploring and depicting it so that we can start to change the representation of it that is currently being shown. 

Q5) What are you most excited about sharing related to your project?

It’s difficult to choose because I tend to hype myself up about things I know isn’t really going to be noticed, but I think I am most excited about sharing the reader-driven connections between stories. I have a lot of plotline that what you choose in one story affects the next in a very Dragon Age style, so there’s a lot of variation to be explored not just by rereading The Rising Night when it is finished, but its accompanying books too.

 Whether it’s whole new paths in plotline opening up or recurring characters, I think it will be fun for readers to see later parts in the stories and remember a choice they didn’t think would do too much at the time is now a choice that could save a life or completely change the ending. 

Q6) A tiny bit unrelated, what's your favorite religious event?

I’d have to say Hanukkah would be my favorite event. Growing up messianic jew and in a family that moved a lot meant that I wasn’t as in touch with my Jewish heritage as most and had some religious differences to my relatives that were, but Hanukkah was always a time that I remembered fondly and spending with my family, learning the traditional meals and the prayers. It is something I still actively participate in with my family and bring friends in to experience with me. It’s really a special event that holds a great place in my heart. 

Q7) Any thoughts or advice you'd like to give to fellow authors or readers?

Don’t be so hard on yourself, be proud of the work you do. Sometimes it feels like the world is expecting perfection and every little critique or nitpick on you or what you are doing can seem to seep your energy and put out inspiration, but give yourself the grace to mess up and try again, and again, and again. Instead of looking at your day or a project, or anything really, and pointing out what you weren’t able to do, find one thing you are proud of yourself for and say it out loud. No matter how small of an accomplishment.

 “I wrote a sentence today.” It might not seem like much, but that sentence leads to another, which leads to a paragraph and then a page and then a book. So don’t go looking at someone else’s book and feel bad for not having the same already.

Take the time to be proud of yourself, because you are someone who is worth being proud of. I’m proud of you. Keep going, keep trying and keep exploring.

[st-just]

Hey, coming in for the usual rant about a setting I thought of.

Okay, so: picture a version of humanity that developed with magic. Some wars happened, the continental face of the planet was reshaped a bit here and there, humanity eventually united in tenuous peace and took to the stars because the planet was getting a bit dicey to live in.

Magic fills the current gaps in space travel (because while I love the Expanse I can't write physics to save my life), and after about a thousand years of expansion, terraforming and exploration, alien life is found. Thrice, even!

And this is when humanity realized they were in a Humans are Space Orcs story. The other races find Earth borderline uninhabitable even without all the magic nuke pollution, humans have adrenaline (which is a forbidden combat drug for everyone else) and bones that heal back stronger, stamina for days, they ocassionally nuke planets they're still on, etcetera.

So then the humans decided to Manifest Destiny the shit out of the universe. The universe considered this a bit of a questionable move, but unfortunately the humans weren't accepting a democracy at the time.

About another millenia later and the Milky Way Galaxy has more or less been conquered. The other three races have been dominated and forced to live as second-class citizens, most inhabitable planets have been conquered in the name of Glorious Humanity, and the uninhabitable ones are being fixed.

So, for lack of enemies, humanity turns on itself. Infighting, politicking and the ocassional insult to someone's hairpiece has lead to mankind splintering into three factions.

The Iron Imperium: trans-humanist fascists, big military power, huge dicks, but they have cyborgs which I know you'll see as a redeeming feature.

The Lazar Dynasty: Space Capitalists. Basically, all the biggest corporations in the splintering became divided and eventually fell under the domain of a single enormous family, which became its own faction. No one likes them, everyone has to deal with them.

The Arias Coven: Space witches. Think the Houses from the Locked Tomb saga, mixed with a bit of the Unseen University, a dash of Blue Heron Institute and that one country from Game of Thrones with the magical slavery and you're basically at where they are.

And of course you have the independents, the dregs that fall through the cracks of society as the factions can't be everywhere. Escaped slaves, pirates, runaways, criminals, refugees, anarchists and many others find solace in the company of fellow misfits, often holing up in stations around asteroid belts, mostly uninhabited planets and the ocassional moon.

Anyways, the factions form, spend about a millenia and a half fighting until they reach a tenuous peace/cold war, which is when the story begins.

It has been 3,460 years Terra-standard (yeah, humanity forces the entire galaxy to conform to their planet's rotations around the sun. Easily the most evil thing about them in this setting) since humanity left its cradle. Most of the known universe has been colonized and certain groups are looking to reach further beyond. Weapons are being thrown into the ocassional skirmish as fast as they can be developed. And humanity has mechs.

(That last part is because I realized I was writing sci-fi without mechas and I realized that just wasn't who I am.)

The Iron Imperium sends one of its finest young mech pilots to a secret lab in order to retrieve a prototype for the next step of human evolution.

The Lazar Dynasty sends the youngest son of the family's main branch away to negotiate with a growing criminal organization as people conspire in the shadows of their palace.

A slave escapes the Arias Coven by cutting off her own arm, replacing it with an alien's through stolen magicks, spitting in someone's mouth, kicking someone else in the face, and stealing a bioship. Not in that order.

An independent mercenary catches wind of the job of a lifetime, as rumours of a pirate nation start circulating the independent stations.

Interesting times are ahead.

Thoughts?

So sincerely sorry this took my like two weeks to reply to, but

a) I adore it.

b) Incredibly anime, but I assume that's rather intentional?

c)

Think the Houses from the Locked Tomb saga, mixed with a bit of the Unseen University, a dash of Blue Heron Institute and that one country from Game of Thrones with the magical slavery and you're basically at where they are.

these guys aren't the 'Huge Dick' faction? Terrifying.

But no it sounds like it both has an endless potential for gonzo over the top setpieces/cool aesthetics, and also you've got a solid idea for the problems that drive a plot, which are the main things.

Also a mispent childhood has left me with a natural affection for any setting where it seems like it'd be super easy to write whole supplements of nothing but fluff and description for different very distinct factions.