#ft. arden han

[rxlinquo]

Minjun catches the joke and laughs, but it's stiff and awkward, so it doesn't last long. He coughs to cover it up, embarrassed with himself. "Right, right..." He says, nodding and listening closely to the other's words. He's been to a few indie bookstores, but Barnes and Noble has always been so easy and connivant that over time, Minjun stopped going to the smaller bookstores. However, that's not the case here, so he's learning. "That's... really cool. Honestly. Is the book club popular?" He wonders if the librarian Molly attends said book clubs, it would make sense if she does.

"Ah, I'm Minjun," he says. "Thank you, Arden, and it's nice to meet you."

It's another new face, new to her, at least, but also new to the shop, apparently. The first question gives them the slightest pause, eyes darting over to the rows of bookshelves crammed full of books. “That's what they tell me, anyway,” they joke, flashing the man a sly but friendly smile and hoping they didn't piss off a potential customer because they had to be a smartass.

“But yeah, we're a small, independent bookstore, so it's a bit different from Barnes & Noble,” is their genuine reply. “There's obviously the fact that shopping indie directly helps the town economy as opposed to a big corporation. But we also cater to the community more than a chain store, so you'll notice there's a bigger religious section and a bigger hobby section with more books on, like, cooking or gardening or animal care. We do try to keep a good, varied stock, of course, and you're always welcome to put in a request if we don't have something you're looking for.”

“Oh, and we run some community events on occasion, too; we do work with the library in hosting a book club.”

“Sorry, that's probably more of a response than you were looking for,” Arden chuckles. “But, indie bookstores are great, and I'm not just saying that because they pay me to,” she grins. “But, yeah, lemme stop talking. Feel free to browse all you want. I'm Arden, and I'll be here if you need help with anything.”

[not-poignant]

Do you view Gary/Ef as a 'fanfic' ship? Like... for me, Augus/Gwyn, Eran/Mosk, all the canon FT ships... whenever you wrote a different setup with them, I loved it, but I was sort of aware that it was a fannish thing. But somehow I don't get the feel here? Like I know Arden/Ef came first, but Gary/Ef feels just as canon, if that makes sense? Maybe bc the Rainbow verse is so fleshed out, idk, but I thought it was interesting and I'm curious how you feel abt it XD

Hi hi anon!

This one's complex, so I'm gonna try and explain how I think about it as clearly as possible.

To me, everything I write that's set in my own world with my own main characters is original fiction.

That includes the alternate universes, because those alt universes are canon within those universes. So what happens in The Wildness Within isn't canon for the main universe, but it's certainly canon to TWW, and not only that, but about 70% of the extra character details are canon to the main universe, they're just things I couldn't share there, for whatever reason.

On the other hand, if someone else wrote an FT story, it wouldn't be canon to anything at all, except for like, their own story.

I think of many of the Fae Tales AUs as being fannish in nature (they're serials, they go up on AO3, I'm pro transformative works, they show characters in different or new scenarios etc.), but to me they're still original fiction. I've never seen a single AU that I've written as a 'fanfic' ship, no matter how connected it is to the original canon (like The Nascent Diplomat and The Wildness Within which I think we can say are probably the closest to the original world, and the original canon).

However, when it comes to almost complete departures, where characters like Efnisien become almost unrecognisable compared to his original counterpart, I think of those as new worlds. For example, I almost never tag any of Underline the Black with 'fae tales AU' anymore, because it doesn't really mean anything. It's not helpful to newcomers. It's not useful.

Most of the cast never appeared in the canon. (This was also true for the main cast of Falling Falling Stars sans Efnisien - Arden, Gary, Kadek were all newcomers; for me, if a story is 75% new main characters and 25% one holdover vastly AU character, that's now another canon universe lmao).

But back to Underline the Rainbow:

Kadek, Gary, Anton, Flitmouse, Caleb, Faber, Nate, Janusz are all either original characters or were developed as original characters in AUs (like Kadek). Kadek, Caleb, Faber, Kent, and more aren't AUs of anything, they're original to the story. Characters like Gary, Anton, Flitmouse, Nate, Janusz were never anywhere near the Fae Tales canon, or the early Fae Tales AUs, and to me they have nothing to do with it. Which makes classifying Underline the Rainbow as a 'Fae Tales AU' make about as much sense as classifying it as an 'FFS AU' - there's about as much crossover in the characters, after all. And not only that, but main ensemble characters more fundamental to the canon - Ash, Mosk, Eran, Julvia, Gulvi, Augus, Gwyn, either haven't made an appearance (or been mentioned once), or have only been one or two chapters out of 50+.

Proportionately, the amount of characters remaining from the original canon Fae Tales universe stands at about 10%. If you had a dog that was 90% border collie and 10% beagle, you probably wouldn't call that dog a 'beagle AU' or a 'beagle cross' - you'd probably just start calling it a border collie with a weird grandpa. Falling Falling Stars is the same to me, honestly, because so much of the core cast was original to the story, and everyone else from the original series mostly got 'cameos' if they weren't Efnisien or Gwyn. I made a conscious decision to give more weight to original characters - even side characters we don't see much - Vicki, Bridge, Han Yuen, Leo, Nate, Janusz, Teddy, Mika, Gary, Arden, Kadek, etc. The story is nothing without them.

To me, this kind of process (10% og characters remaining) separates Underline the Black out into its own universe. It has very heavy, fairly robust worldbuilding for an omegaverse story (enough that I need to use worldbuilding software to keep track of some of it). I don't need to go back to the Fae Tales canon ever to write it (which I did have to do sometimes for The Wildness Within, and have very rarely had to do for The Nascent Diplomat). I don't need to go back to the Falling Falling Stars/Spoils universe to write it. It stands fully on its own, complete and contained.

Because it has some links to Fae Tales (Efnisien + Gwyn's family mostly), it still has like... a Fae Tales flavour. And now that I've started working on like completely original world stuff in the background, there is a difference.

But yeah no, for a start I don't consider any of it fanfiction, and it's weird when people do, because it's not fanfiction if it's something the OP is doing. We don't call comics by the same comic author - that happen to be different versions of the same world - 'fanfiction.' If the Russos direct two Marvel movies focusing on two separate characters, but the first character cameos in the second in a way that retcons the character's narrative, we don't call the second movie an AU of the first, or fanfiction of the first. It's still an original property.

Underline the Black and Spoils are both separate universes as both have like less than 25% of the original story/characters within them (Imho Iron Man is still Iron Man just because Loki or Thor cameo, or join the ensemble as minor characters). It could be that the Spoils universe feels less fleshed out to you because it's contemporary, for me they're on a similar keel. Especially because Efnisien was literally a 2 dimensional paper cut-out of a fae before Spoils who exists for like 5 seconds in the canon, and he bears almost zero resemblance to his originating character except in name, family and appearance. But certainly not in personality, origins, actions or capacity for growth - i.e. everything that makes the character a character.

But it is fannish.

Tl;dr: I definitely don't see Gary/Ef as a 'fanfic' ship. I don't see any of my AUs as 'fanfic ships' because I don't see any of my original writing as fanfiction even though it's fannish in nature.

If anything, Underline the Black is a Spoils AU, lol.

[illcgal]

♡ ◞  𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒏𝒐 𝒔𝒆𝒆

ft. @microcosmcs​

El tiempo pasa, sin piedad y sin detenerse ni un mínimo momento. Corre como el agua entre los dedos, se desliza fácil como la seda y duele tanto como agujas en el corazón. Hyuk, quizás mejor que nadie, es perfectamente consciente de lo que es contemplar su vida pasar; en blanco, triste y con el constante anhelo de recuperar algo que se ha marchado tiempo atrás. Desde la ruptura, desde que vió a DongYeol abandonar la habitación sin mirar ni un momento sobre su hombro, supo y tuvo claro que no volvería a él tan fácil. Que la discusión que vivieron había sido motivo suficiente para no volverse a ver frente a frente y que por ende, tendría que comenzar a buscar maneras de olvidarse de él o mantener su mente lo suficientemente ocupada para no pensar demasiado en el amor de su vida.

Sin embargo no fue una tarea fácil, pues a donde quiera que fuera el recuerdo de DongYeol se volvía una constante dentro de su memoria, dando vueltas en una eterna espiral haciéndolo sentir mareado, acongojado. Trató de todo, el trabajo se volvió su prioridad y compuso cientos de canciones en cada una de sus largas noches de insomnio pero nada parecía ser suficiente. Siempre, al final del día, la imagen del rubio estaba presente y casi podía jurar que lo sentía a su lado, viéndolo convertirse en una persona miserable y vacía. De verdad intentó deshacerse con todas sus fuerzas de ese recuerdo, de ese fantasma y la sensación de estar siendo juzgado que incluso terminó cayendo en una alternativa que ni él mismo se hubiese imaginado antes.  Aunque claro, no contaba con que su ex-novio tuviera aún un inigualable poder en él como para hacerlo correr y escapar la primera vez que intentó salir con alguien más.

 Ahora, en la soledad que compone cada uno de sus atardeceres, avanza por las concurridas calles de la capital de Sur Corea. Sus ojos se pasean de lado a lado, contemplando rostros desconocidos con la profunda e incesante necesidad de, entre tantos, descubrir ese que tanto ha ansiado ver en tanto tiempo. <<¿Por qué te haces tanto daño?>> Se pregunta a sí mismo, reparando en que quizás nunca va a poder olvidar a la única persona que ha amado realmente y que, si llegase a hacerlo, sería solo el día de su muerte... aun si esto fuese demasiado trágico y exagerado. <<Deja de dar pena, Hyuk.>> Escucha a su consciencia decir, antes de bloquearla y encerrarla en alguna parte remota de su mente tras dar con la cafetería que se había vuelto su lugar favorito de algún tiempo para acá. Un lugar modesto pero bonito, pequeño y privado como para pasar el tiempo solo, tomar una taza de café y leer un libro.

Las campanillas de la puerta resuenan cuando se adentra a paso lento, recorriendo todo con sus ojitos como es usual. Desde la fachada rústica, las pinturas abstractas colgadas en las paredes, las lámparas de luz cruda y amarilla, las máquinas de espresso, los banquitos de madera pulida que se forman en hilera junto a la barra y por último... una cabellera rubia. Un hombre, fino y delgado, sentado al final con una taza entre sus manos.  Su corazón da un salto dentro de su pecho, siente los pies tambalearse y como de pronto sus piernas han comenzado a temblar; débiles, tal y como si fueran de papel. Parpadea y pasa saliva, quedándose como un idiota de pie a la entrada de la cafetería con dos opciones bien claras en su mente: ir y correr. Correr de la misma manera en que lo ha estado haciendo todo este tiempo, por que aún que lo ha anhelado demasiado... lo cierto es que no está ni lo mínimamente preparado para volver a verlo.

Pero como siempre, su cuerpo reacciona antes que su raciocinio y sin darse mucha cuenta ya está avanzando hacia él, a pasos lentos y tortuosos. Sus dedos aferran con fuerza las mangas de su saco y en la diestra aprieta el tomo de su actual lectura, buscando aferrarse algo ante el miedo que tiene de desplomarse si es que descubre que no se encuentra solo. ¿Cuanto tiempo ha pasado? ¿Cuantas noches han pasado desde el día que se dejaron? ¿Cuantas horas, minutos? Prefiere no pensarlo por que poco a poco su estómago se vuelve más pequeño y para el momento en que se encuentra cerca ya está pálido, con una capa de sudor perlando su frente apenas cubierta por algunos cuantos mechones de cabello azabache. Toma una respiración profunda y pesada, sintiendo como sus pulmones arden un poco ante la captura del oxígeno que le estuvo haciendo falta en los últimos dos minutos que se ha quedado hecho piedra. 

Su cuerpo cobra vida entonces y, incapaz de contenerse más, sus labios se separan y dejan salir palabras cortadas y ahogadas, estranguladas. ‘  ¿Dong? ¿E-eres tú?  ’

[controlcube]

Week 11

This week, I have reviewed the project and did the final touches. The mouth tunnel scenes are recolored into the hallucination color (2009), which consists of bright RGB mainly. 

Inspirations drew in this week is from Travis Scott’s INTERSTELLAR ft. Frank Ocean, Hans Zimmer. This is a remake piece. The new version has added new synth, drums and strings. The instrumental part for the song is beautiful. The string creates a spatial hearing experience of might, power and greatness while the tender synth is singing me to sleep like a lullaby. These seemingly contrasting factors however triggered me into a confused but still comfortable state of mind. And this experience is much like that of hallucination. 

Bibliography:

Madill SA, Lascaratos G, Arden GB, ffytche DH. Perceived color of hallucinations in the Charles Bonnet Syndrome is related to residual color contrast sensitivity. J Neuroophthalmol. 2009 Sep;29(3):192-6. doi: 10.1097/WNO.0b013e3181b1b2bf. PMID: 19726940.

Goldzieher, M., Andrews, S., & Harris, I. (2016). Two scenes or not two scenes: The effects of stimulus repetition and view-similarity on scene categorization from brief displays. Memory & Cognition, 45(1), 49-62. doi: 10.3758/s13421-016-0640-9

Mavromatis (1987), p. 81

Shaham, I. (2013). The Structure of Repetition in the Cinema: Three Hollywood Genres. Poetics Today, 34(4), 437-518. doi: 10.1215/03335372-2389578

Staff. "The 25 Best Dream Pop Albums of All Time". Paste. Retrieved 29 May 2021.