#thundamoo

[dragon-appreciator-fray]

I just finished Hive Minds Give Good Hugs.

The last time I stayed up most reading a beloved story, I was gushing to a future beloved partner of mine about how much her writing means to me.

Tonight, I got to finish reading a story recommended to me by her.

I got to parrot some of its most heartfelt words that brought me to tears back at her. Another partner who overheard the scene made me feel incredibly seen and treasured. To share in the enjoyment of a story with the plural systems I love means the world to me.

There were times I really struggled with Evelyn's pacifism.

But I am ultimately really pleased with how much meaning I found in how much time and space is given two characters struggling to love and understand and support each ogher as much as they can. All while hurting each other as little as they can. Even when they demand answers to questions they know have painful answers.

There is a moment where a question with a binary answer is expected. It is a moment where admitting there is no way this question can be answered hurts so much. But probably cemented this story as an easy favorite of the many I've read.

I'm going to treasure this book and the people who recommended it to me dearly.

Hive Minds is incredibly heartfelt and willing to really deeply engage with its own subject matter that I wish could have more of from writers who engage with the kinds of stories that interest me.

Feeling a sudden need to catch up with Necroepilogos and Lamentations of the Dead Dreamer. >.<

[snugglesquiggle]

@mchallwrites's post about metroid reminded me i never shared this fic i devoured a little while ago.

the fic is mainly focused on x parasites (and boy does it do interesting things with the all-assimilating hivemind), but the samus pov is insanely good. she's scarier than the monsters.

if you don't like being human i think there's a lot to enjoy in this fic

best part is, you dont even need to be familiar with metroid. i wasn't.

[qwertystop]

when i was trying to explain a story i'd been reading (Bioshifter, by Thundamoo) to @lazodiac i went with the "deliberately and knowingly do it badly to at least stop agonizing over getting it perfect" route at first

(better half than none)

and so i said "halfway between Chronicles of Narnia and Kafka's Metamorphosis", got a good cackle of that-tells-me-less-than-nothing

(why is it always "Kafka's Metamorphosis" but most other books go author-unnamed or by-author?)

and then after the laughing was done we gave it some more thought and i tossed in Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking-Glass and also Flatland. and that last made for a lot more laughs

(i love your laugh)

[eromancery]

"I'm not autistic! I'm not autistic!" I continue to insist as I slowly shrink and transform into a hyperspider

[worcestersaucesuace]

Perhaps there is beauty in tragedy, but damn if that isn’t depressing as hell

[0x4f5da2]

trying to get my friend (gay monsterfucker who loves toxic yuri) back into being fully bookpilled by way of recommending @thundamoo novels, wish me luck (*^。^*)

[notthatcera]

Several commissions of Hannah from @thundamoo's story, Bioshifter.

[qwertystop]

i made the chart

this is thoroughly vibes-based, though the original thread may indicate some semblance of meaning on the axes. thought of a work, said "hey that seems like it goes on this spectrum somewhere", tossed it on the chart. somehow it ended up really evenly distributed anyway?

not sure what goes in top-left.

Cited works, clockwise from top: Flatland (Edwin A. Abbott), Katalepsis (Hazel Young, @hungryhazel), The Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka), Addergoole (Lyn Thorne-Alder, @aldersprig, sadly deceased), Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass (Lewis Carroll), Cassette Beasts (Bytten Studio), The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (C.S. Lewis), Bioshifter (Natalie Maher, @thundamoo). Support your authors.

[dragon-appreciator-fray]

Irene Fray's Wordthings 2023 (And 2022)

I started writing Ruinous Hearts in early 2022 with the promise to leave everything I write available for free somewhere on the internet. (Currently that home is Scribblehub under the username IreneFray)

After seeing another beloved story of mine report on their word count for the year, I wanted to take a step back and see what my output was.

I ended up gushing, so I'll keep the details below the page break for those of you into having a trans girl hyperfixate to you about her passion. <3

2022: 56,437 words for Ruinous Hearts.

2023: 143,413 between Weight of Broken Promise and Deluded Hearts: Inheritance.

It's been a hard year, but I'm really fucking proud of those numbers. So many of those days in 2023 after I burnt out were 50-100 word writing days. (Those are valid and they add up!)

2022

Ruinous Hearts hit a total published word count of 58,667 words, with only the last 2,230 word chapter coming out on January of 2023.

56,437 words in my first year of writing feels pretty good. I still remember how good it felt to put those emotions into words and discover so much more about myself than just exploring my gender.

2023

2,230 words of RH's 19th Chapter - Something that can never Be.

This... chapter released with a feeling that I no longer knew how to tell my own truth and by extension, was letting Verity down.

Weight of Broken Promises by extension had so many false starts.

But on April of 2023 Royal Road, the site I was reading a lot of fiction on, namely Thundamoo's Vigor Mortis and Siilver Lining's Edge Cases, (both of which you should absolutely read.) announced a Writathon.

So I started a clean slate. And for the next grueling month I managed to almost effortlessly keep pace with the daily word count needed to hit the goal of 55,555 words (Almost the entirety of Ruinous Hearts!!!) within one month.

Our plurality's agreed pen/username on Royal Road is ArtoriaFray if you'd like to check the 2023 April Writathon participants list

Needless to say I felt fucking invincible there for a while.

But that kind of writing takes a toll.

Weight of Broken Promises hit a word count of 88,920 before I burnt out. But I never stopped working a full time job, even if I have slowly reigned in how much overtime I've worked. That it is as good as it is still feels like a miracle given the span of time that it was written within.

For the last six months I let myself write as much or as little as I felt like. This time focusing on the parts of Ruinous Hearts that never stopped living rent free in my head.

So while I have kept Deluded Hearts: Inheritance close to my chest with intent to only release completed books, I can only give you Google Drive's word count.

It is currently at 52,263 words. (Even if a lot of this is notes, outlines, and rather raw. That I still wrote all of this in the latter half of this year is wild to me.)

Adding my 2nd and 3rd stories with that last chapter of Ruinous Hearts published in January all together?

143,413 words is so much more than I thought I would ever be capable of despite working a full time job that is causing a visible drain on me.

I'm still not making more than spare change off this passion of mine despite how much it means to me. But that has come secondary to really exploring myself and connecting with new friends + girlthings whom I love and adore and cherish and occasionally nibble on.

And I'm not even counting a little collab project that started earlier this year and my headmates pushing out full chapters of writing projects I haven't committed to.

Or that time one of my newest partners recommended I record a journal of my time with Fear and Hunger 2 Termina, which I treated as a Death Game Diary in order to justify the looping of the game and growing my knowledge of how to play. This is frankly one of the small side projects I am MOST PROUD OF but I'm waiting for a new update and another playthrough on the rumored harder difficulty before I share the Let's Journal.

I want to share the picture proof of that Let's Journal, but it has serious spoilers. So! This is where I sign off.

Thank you for reading any amount of this little recap of mine. (Or making the leap to reading either of my stories!) I just wanted record somewhere that this all happened.

I never expected it to become all that it has.

But I'm so glad it has. Writing is how I found the people that mean the world to me. I literally come alive and out of funks in order to write.

Edit: I forgot the Termina screenshot and tags

[lllllllllllines]

Vita vibes

You always wanted to be a Healer. Unfortunately, your dad was an Necromancer and your mother a Demon Summoner. So your healing was a bit… unconventional to say the least.

[lllllllllllines]

Ok so, I've noticed that there is fuck all abt it so imma put my hat in the ring. (even though no one is gonna read this.... prolly)

Is there anyone here that has read Vigor Mortis by Thundamoo? (And by extension, Bioshifter and HMGGH?)

Cause I've only seen like one post on here abt it, which is honestly criminal.

The story is honestly really good and if I have to get the miniscule amount of people I know look at my blog every now and then to check it out then so be it.

AS BRIEF AS I CAN EXPLANATION: The story takes place in a world separated by several floating islands, each of them surrounding a massive misty core.

Each island being not only it's own land mass, but also acting as the day/night cycle, cause the sun never sets, islands just float over each other eclipsing the sun to act as the end of each day. (The days are literally named after the islands that block out the sun each day.)

In the mists below is the Mistwatcher, an eldritch being the people worship as a god. (The term Watcher's eyes is akin to saying god's name in vain.) Seen as the creator of souls and giver of life.

Giving a special few souls Talents, Instinctual magical skills, though magic can also be learned.

The story follows a girl named Vita (hehe like the word for life), A young, starving street urchin, who when looking to help out the two people taking care of her and several other younger kids in her situation, is almost beaten to death by the baker she tried to steal bread from.

What Happens instead however, is that she rips his soul from his body, causing her to realize she has a talent of her own. One that should be impossible due to souls being the Mistwatcher's domain.

Her talent being that of natural necromancy.

************************************************************************

Spoilers for worldbuilding stuff, if what i had just said interests you go check it out: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/40373/vigor-mortis

************************************************************************

So firstly, the story feels like it takes a lot of inspiration from litRPGs and Gamelit without actually being one. Setting the story a bit closer to Progression Fantasy, at least in the beginning.

(e.g. Vita's ability to see the strengths of monsters in comparison to herself by the size of their souls. Being able to consume the souls of other beings to grow stronger, and being able to store souls inside herself like a sort of inventory, that sort of thing)

There are the traditional staples of stories with similar gimmicks. Such as an adventure's guild, (Or Hunter's guild as it is called in the story, though that is another trope that can be seen around).

Lots of monster hunting, at least in the beginning. Though unlike most stories that implement that sort of structure, its not just used without some sort of forethought.

A lot of the weapons and armor used in the story are made out of monster parts.

Lots of descriptions of armor being made of scale or chitin, hell, even the currency is just coins made of chitin with designs engraved on them.

Metal is not a common material in the story and when it its mentioned, it has this sort of reverence behind it.

Descriptions of metal are mostly found in artifacts used to help with magic in some capacity.

and I don't mean any sort of special fantasy metal either, no mithril or orichalcum here folks, Just your standard Metal.

And as such you won't see metal used in any of the buildings either.

Many of the buildings, seem to be made of either stone, clay or wood.

And this is because of three things.

First, metal and glass just fell out of the sky one day. Its not embedded in the earth (at least from what I understand) and its rarity isn't due to mining limitations due to the fact that they live on floating islands.

It absorbs mana, and holds it there almost indefinitely, which is why most magical tools use metal.

If you horde too much metal, the Mistwatcher will attack you from wherever you are. Due to this The Templars (the church's forces) and the church itself keep an eye on the selling and buying of metal.

As I had stated before, the sun is always shining above, the islands above eclipse the sun for those below them, which signal's the end of the day.

(not really something that would be needed to know to get you interested in the story but its a neat fact none the less)

There is so much more to Vita's story that i haven't mentioned yet, big mystery goin on.

but I will not spoil that, cause that is for you to find out.

Really good character writing all around really.

And there is this all around grimy feel to it all, like with how the people use monster parts as materials, this isn't you monster hunter type shit. (don't get me wrong I love MH but despite the darker lore of the games, the games themselves don't really have that, not that it's any sort of negative.)

All in all, really good read.

Vol. 1 Official Cover art by Tsuu (not fully sure who that is, but if anyone can tell me that would be great)

Also by Tsuu (Vol. 2 Cover)

Again by Tsuu (Vol. 3 Cover)

[kvothbloodless]

OK so they're webfic but

Bioshifter

Vigor Mortis

Both are by Thundamoo. Focus is on wlw protagonists with monstergirlification standing in as a trans allegory. VM is straight up fantasy, bioshifter is a mix of fantasy and urban fantasy.

Anon i am kisisng you on the mouth, adding both of these to the top of my tbr

[il3x]

Have you read Ghost in the Flesh yet? And outside of your primary fandoms, have you read Apothecia (by Taz Muir and Shelby Cragg) or Bioshifter (by Thundamoo)?

Haven't read any of them yet, unfortunately. Thanks for the recommendations, though! I'll let you know if I do read them.

For Ghost in the Flesh, how much does one have to know about Love, Death and Robots? (I haven't watched it.)

[catamony]

Even when the ending is inevitable, sometimes you can’t help but hope they find another way till the bitter end.

i'm actually very okay with "there was no other way this could end" endings. if they gotta die, let them die. if they gotta break up or go the wrong way or lose something important, let'em. so long as it completes the story. only thing i dislike more than a forced happy ending is a forced bad ending

[notthatcera]

Two commissions of Aile from Mega Man ZX, thanks to @j4n-et3 and @thundamoo!

[lllllllllllines]

So in my journey through royal road, I had come to read this story called Rend, a story that i found when reading one of the few other stories i don't see anyone mention on here(Pretty much all of Thundamoo's works, Godclads, etc) as a recommend from one of the author's at the beginning of a chapter.

And I found that not only was it a very interesting read, (if not for some weird grammar and awkward dialogue) but it seemed to be taking inspiration at least at a technical level to Worm. Although Past those little pieces, it also feels a little [Prototype]-esque in some places though I'll get to my reasonings on that in a little bit.

It took me a while to notice, but after the reading the chapter's I was on, I realized some tiny quirks that made it feel like it was inspired by worm, from some of the writing structure to some specific parts of the world building. Though they were just different enough to make the story feel like it's own thing. (I could be completely wrong in my assumptions however, I just wanted to point out some things and talk abt a neat story I found.) The first thing(and the most dubious) is the title.

Rend, in a similar way to Wildbow's naming conventions is a four letter word that eludes to some detail about the story's plot, though it is rather blatant to point that it could just be coincidence. Still, pretty interesting to think abt in my opinion.

The setting is an alternate timeline where people have gained powers of some sort due to a specific event. (The event's between the two stories differ quite a bit, though the idea is similar.)

Basically, at some point in time, these extradimensional beings called Adumbrae appeared, attempting to peel their way into our world by possessing the bodies of specific people, granting their wishes by gifting them a power in return. (This process is called 'Seeding', and is not kept secret like how things were in worm at the very beginning.)

Over time however, the infected person would be slowly taken over by the Adumbrae, turning them into some sort of monster.

At some point during this time a thing known as the Mother Core appeared and with it came an organization known as the CoreBring hive. Individuals would would be given means to fight the Adumbrae threat, first through weaponry then when their training is finished they would be given a core of their own. Giving them powers and a constitution similar to that of an Adumbrae but without the side effect of loss of humanity.

Those who allowed themselves to become seeded and become Adumbrae in the process and are labeled as traitors to humanity, their lives themselves not only forfeit but are also but are also considered crimes by proxy. (If that does not sound right, just know that i do not word good. What I meant to say is that just by being alive they are considered criminals) as it is only a matter of time before they lose themselves.

It's been like this for so long that it's common sense at that point.

Hell, there is a Governmental Bureau dedicated to the tending of 'Adumbrae Crimes'. The BID. (Not quite sure what it stands for, i might have missed the explanation, by the by however, it is another similarity world wise to worm.)

The main character is Erind Hartwell, a girl who through specific circumstances, finds herself meeting with what she assumes an Adumbrae. A doppelganger she immediately dubs SpookyErind, who, in an attempt to save her own life, she makes a deal with.

Giving her a power that still follows a series of rules she set for herself, Specifically her 4th rule, or rather a twisted version of it:

That she wouldn't bother others, if they didn't bother her first.

(the synopsis said that this was one of many that she would get.)

It is then found soon after that the person or thing that was trying to kill her and her friend (said certain circumstances) was from a tightknit group of vigilantes that through some slightly unknown means were given artificial cores which allowed them to fight against the Adumbrae themselves.

Though it does keep them also on the other side of the law.

(Another two major similarities between the two stories, First in how the MC view their worlds. Not just in the fact they soon find themselves smaller pieces to a bigger whole, but in their mental states, only major differences being how both authors play it out.

Taylor's mental state and her severe leaps in logic are all caused by her environment while Erind is shown to have Psychopathy/Sociopathy.

Another being the thing I mentioned just now, as while one of the people in that group did attack them, Erind, and by extension her friend find themselves working with the group in a lot of their missions, her friend getting a core of her own.)

(The group doesn't think they know who attacked them, so they told them that it was an Adumbrae, though Erind knows, for reasons you'll have to read to find out.)

And as a final similarity, at least for right now, although it could also be seen as dubious at best.

I had just seen the author do that thing in wildbow did in worm a couple times, where he put in who we assumed to be a major character only to kill them off in an anticlimactic manner.

Again, most likely coincidence, but it makes you think.

As for the [Prototype] comparison, looking back on a lot of the things ive mentioned, i can't be the only one who sees it.

It might not be an inspiration for the story but it does give off that feel.

Mass infection turning people into violent monsters, a main character who seems to be able to control these powers. (if a little questionably) Agencies out to either kill or control the infected, that sort of thing.

Ik comparisons aren't the best thing to do when looking at other's works but i couldn't help but notice it.

All in all, i just wanted to talk abt another cool story on Royal Road, since I can't seem to find any sort of discussion abt a lot of the stories on there.

which seems kinda sad to me.

Be sure to read it when you get the chance, and give the author some love.