toribookworm22

[toribookworm22]

god dammit, just battled an ancient evil too powerful to defeat alongside my heroic allies and now they're all talking about "locking it away" and "binding it in a vessel" we are soooooo fucked

[toribookworm22]

Happy WBW! What is winter like in your world? Is it cold? Do people's behaviors change, ie dressing or eating differently? Does winter not exist but you have another cool thing you wanna talk about? 🙃

Hi Tori!! Thanks for the ask <3

In the Arcadian Wilds series, it's often hot with torrential downpours. It gets colder in Winter, but it's not freezing.

In the CS world, usually it's the same as ours, but with the whole imbalance thing, the concept of seasons don't exist in Sleep of the King.

[toribookworm22]

My favorite thing about writing short stories set in the past world of my queer superhero story is figuring out exactly who Orchid used to be.

And my conclusion is: she used to be weird.

Weird little girl weird. Unsettling and with sharp teeth. A wicked gleam in her eyes. She took no bullshit. She was a healer and a hero and a lover, but she was also brutal and pointed.

I never would've purposefully painted her that way, but it makes so much sense.

[toribookworm22]

Thinking about the leader being sick or stealthily poisoned/drugged and deteriorating during an important op. Everybody looking to them for the plan and getting confused/frantic as they're making less and less sense by the minute, possibly at risk of giving conflicting orders or making too much noise or blowing their cover or just straight up passing out and leaving the second-in-command to scramble and compensate, especially if it was a "We only have one shot to do this" sort of deal

[toribookworm22]

big fan of urban fantasy and similar genres because theres nothing funnier to me than a setting where youve got people fighting with enchanted blades and bows and hopping around doing magic tricks but you can also just hit a demon with your car if you feel like it

[toribookworm22]

“You shouldn’t glorify violence in your stories” well I’m glorifying it. Sexualizing it even.

[toribookworm22]

Happy WBW! In honor of October, are ghosts in your wip real? If so, are the characters aware? What would change if they were?

Hey, Aki! Thank you for my spooky January ask. 🤭

I have to do this for The Animatronic Saga. And I apologize, because it's confusing and has changed a couple times while I was writing, but it's actually very important to me that I talk about it.

The easy answer? No. Ghosts aren't real. There are no corporeal beings haunting the real world and the people in it from the beyond the grave.

(This was not always the case. Old drafts had an afterlife and ghosts and people who could see them.)

But in my blend of science and magic, something akin to ghosts is present in the story and some of the characters are far too aware.

●●● SPOILERS BUT NOT REALLY ●●●

The Roric people believe in afterlives and the power of those gone. There's still not GHOSTS, but no one would blink twice at the mention or vision of a spirit.

To everyone else, ghosts are something of fantasy. Sure, some people believe in them; some people are even fanatical about them, but no one KNOWS.

Which brings me to all my mentally ill children.

Through my mix of science, magic, and symptoms, several of my characters hear voices in their heads. Some natural, some programmed. Some evil, some helpful. But one of my characters in particular experiences what could only be called spiritual interactions. Ghosts.

In my rewrite, I'm trying my hardest to paint Jade's mental illness in a very realistic and accurate way. She experiences what, through my research, I believe categorizes as schizophrenia. She can't trust most of what she sees or hears.

But the spirits she sees and hears lead her to uncovering secrets, righting wrongs, and new discoveries for everyone. Her friends can't understand why these ghosts are only appearing to her if they're real, but the Roric? They'd probably get it. Say it's more often that way. After all, Jade is someone they can trust to find the truth.

Maybe there's no ghosts, but she's definitely haunted.

[toribookworm22]

Happy WBW! What kind of fall fruits and vegetables grow in your world?

Hey, love! Thanks for the ask!

So, my queer superhero novel is set in the US, Central, and South America. Figs, pumpkins, apples, pears, tomatoes, pomegranates, corn.

But in Aicina, the Extraordinaire population could almost guarantee that you can get pretty much whatever you want whenever. Between plant powers, water powers, time powers, etc. and a thriving community, farmers markets are booming.

[toribookworm22]

Happy WBW! Since it's Halloween season, are there any monsters unique to your world that lurk in the dark corners of the night? Creatures that send chills down your characters' spines, spooking people who just hear the fables of them?

Hey, Chiral. It's definitely still Halloween season. Mhm. Absolutely. 🤭

So I don't deal a lot with creature creation or horror elements in any of my writing. Unfortunately. Maybe one day.

But! I will take every opportunity to twist a question to my queer superhero story. So let's see.

In my warped history of the human race, it would actually make a lot of sense for most of the folklore around monsters to just be Extraordinaires in times and places where they weren't understood.

Werewolf? Nah, that's just an animal shapeshifter.

Demon? Try again. That would be a fire-wielder.

Fairy? Are you sure that wasn't just someone with wings? Positive?

The Creature of the Black Lagoon? Well, that's Denny. Yeah, he's pretty great. No, man, he CAN breathe above water, he just has asthma. Maybe if you stopped hunting him down, he'd stop dragging you under the water. Yeah, I said it.

[toribookworm22]

Last Line/Writing Share

I've been tagged by my lovelies @theskeletonprior and @ceph-the-ghost-writer for this one! (their posts here and here respectively!)

The laundromat inspiration has struck once again, and this time I've got an adorable (and curious) new addition to The Runaway's roster~

“Alright,” Temperance says, more sharply than he meant. “Let’s get this over with.”

The girl doesn’t move from the center of the doorway as he approaches. Instead, she reaches her hand up, determination pulling her round little face into hard little lines.

“We have to introduce ourselves. I’m Kate.”

Temperance stares at the little hand for a long, blank-minded moment before he gingerly reaches out and shakes it. Kate’s hand is delicate and warm in his, small enough for him to wrap his fingers around entirely. Her face brightens like a sun breaking through clouds when she smiles. It almost makes Temperance want to smile back as he drops her hand quickly and says, “I’m Temperance.”

“Tem-per-ance.” Kate bobs her head with each syllable, forming his name in her mouth like it’s important to get right. Temperance shivers as a prickling sensation drips down his spine. It’s gone as soon as it’s started, though, so he brushes it off. Probably just the biting cold worming its way through his jacket already.

I'll extend a no-pressure tag to @toribookworm22 @cee-grice @sunset-a-story and @tabswrites <3

[toribookworm22]

Happy spooky WBW! I wanna focus on ghosts today. Ghosts and/or the afterlife are super important in most worlds. What are spirits like in yours? Real or imagined? Good or evil? Sacred or common? 👻

(this is not an extremely delayed response December is SUPER spooky)

in Ghost Punch, obviously ghosts are real. They're not typically conscious beings, more like memories or echoes, remnants of what a person used to be or what was important to them. At one point Finnias says a ghost is like an empty house.

They're fairly common and most of them are neutral, but you have a few good ones (Finnias) and a lot of bad ones (siphons, demons...Archibald...)

Thanks for the ask!

[toribookworm22]

Happy spooky WBW! I wanna focus on ghosts today. Ghosts and/or the afterlife are super important in most worlds. What are spirits like in yours? Real or imagined? Good or evil? Sacred or common? 👻

Hey Tori! Thanks for the ask, sorry it took me so long to get to (it's always spooky season to me, so let's just pretend I didn't get this ask in October - sorry!)

This actually gives me an excuse to talk about something I've had in the back of my mind for a while - the Five Man Band paranormal AU that I wrote some snippets for a few months ago

Essentially, ghosts in this world are real and this is widely accepted (the art of "ghost documenting" - since there isn't a way to get rid of them, people go to haunted houses to see what kind of ghosts they can find - is a well-respected profession), and there are a lot of different types of ghosts.

The longer someone's been dead, the less their ghostly form starts to resemble a huma - they go from essentially living people who look pale and can walk through walls to glowing silouhettes to orbs of light to just moaning wind in the dead of night as they lose hwhat humanity that managed to cling onto after death.

There's a bit more to do with what they can do, but it's been a while since I went over my notes for this AU, so I might post about it a bit more later outside of just this ask.

Thanks again for the ask, and sorry that it took me s long!

[toribookworm22]

Fun fact: it seems that while acronyms have been a thing for millenia, the word acronym was invented in the 1940s. This means that whole the UC uses several acronyms, I can't actually call them that...

This is why I hate language-building

@theprissythumbelina

[toribookworm22]

Your wip’s antagonist will be granted their fondest wish, but they must sacrifice what they value most.

[toribookworm22]

Hey so that was a great date, yeah, but I don't think it's going to work out. Nono you didn't do anything wrong, and I have indeed had a crush on you since we started high school, it's just... well, I didn't want to bring it up at the time but we kinda got sucked into a portal fantasy midway through. We saved the kingdom over and over, relying on our knowledge of and trust in each other every time, throwing ourselves into the firing line to protect each other and using each others' conviction as a rock. We got married and lived a happy life together until the portal sucked us back mid-battle and you gave up all your memories of our journey in order to save my life right when we ended up back in the coffee shop. Yeah that was when I got a bit weird and went to the bathroom.

Anyway I thought we could push on and make the date work but I have all of these memories of secrets that this you never chose to share, decisions that this you never made, and intimacies that this you never experienced. And it's kind of screwing with the vibe yeah. Also on the date it was really, blatantly clear that you're sixteen whereas I have memories of ruling a fantasy kingdom for thirty years so like... that's a problem all on its own. Anyway this you just feels more like a daughter to me. A daughter with the woman I gave my heart and soul to over and over and received like in return, only to lose her forever on the journey home. On the plus side I can definitely help you with your math homework now.

[toribookworm22]

i wish my writing was like my dreams: chaotic, creative, and always going somewhere, even if i don’t know where.

[toribookworm22]

No one puts baby in a corner, and no one ever tries to keep Melania LaVeau contained. Her friends in the crosshairs, a trusted associate now a traitor, and her life having just been threatened, Melania has gone rogue. Her actions are unpredictable, but her team has her back. In trying to uncover the past of serbia, it is her own past and her own family that will be uncovered. And in doing so, it will not only be her own life but the lives of others that will be put into jeopardy. They say that blood is thicker than water, but the ancestors care not for blood but for loyalty.