#note: this is gonna be polyam

[sillyzwyrms]

Quatrefoil: a bkdk/shinkiri comic

Page 1!!

starting with some good old bkdk misunderstandings and angst of course!

this takes place a little before the joint training arc..!

Page 2!

[the-vegetarian-artist]

Ninjago art dump 2 but it's just featuring my Neo-Ninjago au

[advancedscurvy]

other people have got to have someone who they keep around as a bug under a microscope for being like “what in the hell is wrong with you”

[thatdemiboymess]

My phone is begging me to restart it. It's going so so slow and it sent me a notification begging me to turn it off and back on, even. It wants to be restarted so so bad.

[fllagellant]

Need to hear more about what Aubade and Garrus have going on 👀

FLUTTERS LASHES …. Okok going to try and keep it short bc the amount of like . Lore in this . I gotta keep it short. Ish . Shortish

It’ s Garrus . It’ s fully in his head . Aubade and him are not similar but he has it in his mind they Are similar and if it just gave him a Chance then it would see that . Aubade is teetering the line of acceptable morality ( it’ s the shadowboker ) ( between the two sheps , it is the one that blew up the relay ) ( it’ s just kinda nasty and mean ) so Garrus sees that and is like okay ! So it’ s gonna understand what I got going on ! But Aubade is not looking back . It’ s not . It actually disagrees with how he does a lot of things !

Garrus is walking a circle while Aubade is getting better so his stagnation is like . you are doomed . You are not going to grab onto it . Important note Aubade is in a beautiful relationship . It’ s a polyam yeah yeah fork found in kitchen . But Garrus kinda has it in his head it’ s like Him and It agaisnt the world . It should be him and it and that’ s how it should all shake out . But his feelings are not even really realized . Or love in any sort of manner of the word . Aubade is like if he was a Spectre and got praised for his outbursts and not slapped on the wrist and turned away . His view of things are very warped but that’ s his co-dependency !

It’ s weird in me1 , it’ s offputting in me2 , it’ s bad in me3 . And it’ s Garrus trying and failing to make it look eye to eye with him because he is CERTAIN that it just hasn’ t SEEN it yet !!! Look we work together so good on the battlefield !!! ( they can’ t hold a conversation and Aubade sees him as Only a subordinate ) ( genuinely there is no chemistry there ) but he keeps trying !!!

There is . A LOOOOT of extra bits about the all of this BUT . Basic rundown I will return to this topic maybe one day

[tirednapentity]

this is the messiest thing I've ever written in my life and I might delete this in the morning. it's super late and I'm so tired I'm gonna say something about aro nya finally. because like - first of all season 3 makes so much sense if you watch it with the understandingf that this is a comphet thing. I'm only gonna speak about s3 here but skybound very much also factors into this. like a whole lot.

like - the love triangle and Nya's advances towards Cole were triggered through the perfect match machine. and that's when she starts showing interest. this very much reads to me as her being confused as to what romantic feelings feel like because she's never experienced them before and mistaking her existing platonic affection for Cole for romantic feelings.

(note: I've also seen people read this as her realizing she's polyam, which I think is also very cool, it's just not what I personally saw in that storyline)

it also offers her a solution to her already strained relationship with Jay - maybe the reason they're not really working out and she can't get herself to feel the right feelings is because he's not her perfect match, so maybe she'll feel the right way with cole.

and then it all goes up in flames. Jay's insecurities turn ugly and Cole fights back. nya is WILDLY uncomfortable. she ends up choosing neither of them. she wants both of them in their life but she doesn't want to choose one over the other. you already know how it goes.

nya at this point has internalized a lot of amatonormativity which does a lot of harm to her. as I mentioned before it ends up straining her relationship with Jay because she's trying to fit this mold of a good relationship but it feels wrong and hollow to her. it's just not the way she feels. so she distances herself from it because it's so uncomfortable and overcomplicated. This causes Jay to feel rejected and insecure and he copes with this by becoming even more clingy and making Nya MORE UNCOMFORTABLE so she pulls away again.

ultimately she wants him in her life but she wants the relationship to feel good and natural and not forced and suffocating. this is why I think a qpr would be a much more fitting progression for their relationship than tgem getting back together romantically. a qpr would be throwing out the window all the inherent expectations that come with a romantic relationship and that they both felt so pressured to fill. it would be them acknowledging that they care about one another deeply and that even though their connection isn't romantic it's still worth just as much. it's a fuck-you to all the things that caused them to fall apart in the first place.

[glitchyvoice]

Hello everyone!! This is gonna be the text dump version of my intro post, this'll be updated once I have the carrd ready.

Looking for my post-game cotl references?? Don't worry!! You can still find those here

Shamura's temple refs here

And if there's other references you need, feel free to ask!! More than likely I'll go hunt them down for you.

My name is Glitchy. I am 20, genderfaun, polyam, and aroace. (sex repulsed.) I use any pronouns except for she/her. (including neopronouns!! go wild!!)

I am a British American artist and writer living in the US. Commissions are not currently open, (except for friends n moots) but I plan on opening them soon. (In the meantime, if you'd like to donate, here's my KoFi!!)

The fic I'm currently working on is Fate's Twine!! Feel free to check it out if you're into cotl!! (I'll add more info about it on the carrd.)

Note - If you're (somehow) here from Scattered Stardust, it's on hiatus currently. Not stopping it, but it might be a while before I get back to writing it.

Tags:

#glitchyvoices his (dumb) thoughts - text post/ramble tag

#glitchydoodles - art tag!! i put all my art here

#glitchycritters - oc posts

#glitchyanswers - for when i answer asks

#glitchysaves - my save tag. just a random collection of refs for personal use and posts i found funny enough to save

Link to my Twitch

Boundaries and fandom lists under the cut!!

MY BOUNDARIES

Proshippers, just block me. If you interact I’ll just block you and move on with my day, thanks.

Do NOT repost my art and claim it as your own. (Reblogging is NOT reposting!! Reblogging is appreciated and helps support me!! Reblog as you wish!!)

Do NOT put my art or fics through any ai programs. (Yes, this includes character ai!!) I don’t care what it’s for, I don’t want ai scraping my stuff.

You may use my art as a pfp as long as the account you are using it for is non-profit and you credit me.

Asks and DMs are open! Send whatever you like, with a few boundaries:

NO NSFW content. I am sex repulsed and that stuff makes me uncomfortable. If you send it, I will block you. Suggestive content and jokes are okay. (If you are an adult, obviously.) Not sure if something is suggestive or NSFW? Ask me! I won’t be upset with you for just asking, I promise.

Don’t advertise in my asks or dms, that’s weird.

If I don’t know you and you send me a link, I will assume you are a bot and block you.

Don’t ask me to proofread my fics, the answer will always be no.

Don’t come into my asks or dms critiquing my art or writing. If I don’t specifically say the words “Hey can you critique this?” then I don’t want it.

Want to tag me in a post you think I’ll like? Go for it! Just, again, don’t tag me in anything NSFW, thanks.

Want to make art of my designs or characters? Go for it! Please tag me so I can see it! (You’ll genuinely make like my entire week)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MY FANDOMS

This is mostly just a dump list of anything I can remember I like. I'll add to it as I remember more.

CURRENT MAIN HYPERFIXATION: COTL

Other fandoms I enjoy:

Animal Crossing

Billie Bust Up

Cookie Run Kingdom

Dayshift at Freddy's

Detroit: Become Human

Don't Starve/Don't Starve Together

ENA

Five Nights At Freddy's

Fran Bow

Generation Loss

Hollow Knight

Homestuck

Honkai: Star Rail

Indigo Park

Inscryption

JRWI Riptide [No spoilers, please!]

Kagerou Project

Life is Strange

Little Misfortune

Little Nightmares

Madoka Magica

Night In The Woods

Omori

Ooblets

Pokemon

Portal

Sally Face

Sky COTL

Splatoon [No Side Order spoilers, please]

Stardew Valley

The Amazing Digital Circus

The Bunny Graveyard

The Legend of Zelda

The Stanley Parable

The Walten Files

Undertale/Deltarune

Welcome Home

Your Turn to Die

Into something that’s not on this list? Shoot me an ask about it! I love hearing about new fandoms and just listening to people talk about their interests in general. More than likely I’ll end up looking into it. (Or I'll already know about it and just forgot to add it to the list)

[playerofspace]

hello i am toby canine. click to read more. or don’t and watch out for red cars and crystal balls

✹ introduction speedrun: toby he/it 6teen transmasc homo . i reclaim f slur and t slur and i use/need tone tags sometimes thanks dawg

✹ i write gn & masc readers. i don’t write fem readers srry!!! for this reason anything with rose and kanaya with be purely platonic :P!! in the same vein dirk will only be paired with a masc reader

✹ i don’t do canon x canon, ocs x canon, matchups, weird shit or anything like that. i will however write aus, soft/regular yanderes, polyam yanderes, MY HS OCS X READER HAHAHAHA, and maybe some stuff with the tricksters

✹ i don’t write for the epilogues i think they are of the devil and should not be seen by anybody. take my word as someone who has witnessed the horrors

✹ requests are open. will i get to writing them in a timely manner? well that’s a game theory

✹ EXTRA NOTES: i am writing these characters as i see them in my minds eye! if they are off or out of character that is why. we all have our own vision and good golly if i ain’t gonna write mine

✹ I WRITE FOR JOHN AND JUNE. june is important to me and i relate to her a lot so i want to include her as well. i also write for roxy and rory (not sure if they ever gave tmasc roxy his own name but that’s what i’m going with)

[goblin-simming]

it's time. Meet Liesel Edgeworth, my most specialest girl of all time <3

Young Adult (24)

Aspiration: Legally Sim (This sim wants to pursue a law career.)

Traits: Cheerful, Geek, Clever, Kind, Soft

Teen (17)

Aspiration: Valedictorian (This sim wants to become a valedictorian! To do this, they'll need straight A's and some luck.)

Traits: Cheerful, Geek, Clever, Kind

Child (11)

Aspiration: Whiz Kid (This sim wants to be the smartest kid in school.)

Traits: Cheerful, Geek, Kind

Toddler (5)

Traits: Clingy, Inquisitive

Infant (1)

Trait: Wiggly

This post is long enough already but I desperately need to tell you about her so i'll go ahead and cut the post :p

Note for readers: our ocs exist in a universe that canon-adjacent at best. We change so much so far back that it's frankly absurd so just. keep that in mind while you read <3

She was born in Munich, Germany to a prominent prosecutor and his wife, their first child. Her mother died during childbirth, leaving her and her father alone and upset over her passing.

She was born with a birth defect that left her legs weak, making it difficult for her to stand and walk on some days, while other days she is largely unaffected.

Her father did his best to raise her himself, making sure she had the mobility aids she needed, and her childhood was happy. She inherited her father's passion for the law, often accompanying him to the courthouse when permitted, and excitedly insisting he tell her about the cases she wasn't able to see play out in person. She also adored her neighbors, and spent much of her time bothering hanging out with the older neighbor boy who wanted nothing to do with her and his baby sister. The spring after she turned eleven, her father's health took a turn for the worst, and in the early summer, he passed.

With no other family to take her in, she was taken to an orphanage, where she spent the next few months. Most of her free time, she was permitted to spend in the records room of the courthouse, taking in any and all cases the records-keepers would let her access.

That was where she met Edgeworth, who saw the similarities between her and himself, and, in an uncharacteristically spur-of-the-moment decision, adopted her himself.

She spent the next six years traveling Europe alongside her adoptive father, excitedly taking in foreign legal systems and studying thoroughly, with the plan to eventually become a prosecutor as well.

During this time she also had the opportunity to meet Phoenix Wright and his daughter, Trucy, whom she bonded quickly with.

When Liesel and her father returned to the United States, with no plans to leave again, Liesel threw herself head-first into Themis Legal Academy, using her knowledge from Europe to spur her focus into the way things are done in her new home.

During her time at Themis is when she met Nora Spect, her self-proclaimed best friend, and Athena Cykes, another close confidant. She was also given the opportunity to reconnect with her childhood neighbors, the Gavins. Things had changed drastically between them, since she'd last seen them, and she got along much closer with Klavier than she had as a child.

She graduated second in her class, and started her career shortly thereafter, facing off for the first time in a real courtroom across from her best friend.

She prioritizes truth above everything else, leading her to have very few wins on record against Nora, though that hardly stops them from celebrating each case they work together, inviting friends out for drinks and karaoke.

okay i'm gonna stop rambling here bc actual events get really shaky from here on but!! other stuff to mention

she's autistic as fuck (she caught the Lawtism, as I've been calling it)

she's cishet & polyam

she's 18 during the events of aa4 and saw all four of the cases in person (4-1 from the gallery, and 4-2 through 4-4 while working alongside Klavier)

she had a crush on Klavier when she was a kid and it kinda faded while they weren't in touch but it comes back full force when she meets him again (and she's exceptionally awful at hiding it)

she has been asking for a cat since she was a child and only gets one after she moves out of her family's home because she was always either moving around too much in Europe or, once in the states, phoenix moves in and he's allergic

she's legally 5 feet tall but medically she's 4'11". she lied on her drivers license and her id and doesn't feel bad for it.

she spent a good portion of her life thinking of gay as the 'default' because so few of the people she interacted with were straight. she came out as straight to her family and is still embarrassed about it years down the line

she gets into a relationship w/ Klavier and Apollo at some point. still workshopping when exactly i just know she ends up w them ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[transarsonist]

ok i have a connundrum, this is officially open topic for discussion cause like, h ok so ive been crashing on a friends couch, and over this time have become friends with her neighbor, who i find rather attractive, and i have indications that she finds me attractive, which i think falls directly into the definitive because this girl, straight up, bought me a gift, related to one of my passions, and left me a note with her name in hearts. girlllll shes crushing anyways the conundrum, at our last conversation i found out shes like REALLY christian, also im not exactly single and im fairly certain this girl aint polyam, basically shes really fucking sweet, and im pretty sure shes into me, and we're not incompatible forreal, its just that basically to have any real chance with her im gonna need to rock her entire worldview six times in a row because like get this she didnt even know that the witches persecuted in the middle ages, like, werent witches, like, i dont think shes malicious, shes VERY receptive to education, but like, as far as the information shes been given and the level to which shes accepted that at face value its like. ok shes SUPER succeptible to indoctrination and propeganda and like, i COULD educate her and educate her but it would be SOOOOO much work, and i dont actually know if im up for it im talking like "afraid of a pentacle because witches" like girll, first of all IM a witch anyways, i feel a hundred different ways about this cause its like, im pretty sure this isnt ethical, also my friend whos letting me crash here specifically told me "please dont fuck my neighbor" whcih like

shes WAYY too sweet to do anything Unserious with so like, any kind of unserious relationship imo is completely off the table, but like, she bought me Canvasses🥺🥺🥺🥺, and shes WILD like, a little bit Feral

[tabby-shieldmaiden]

X

Gonna make my own post to not disturb either the OP or the respondent, but re: the notes, I do want to talk about amatonormativity’s origins as a term as well as my views on it.

So, my understanding of the term’s origins is that it initially was used to describe the assumption that all people wish to be a part of a monogamous long term partnership in relation to how the expectation is that all people will enter into monogamous marriages in society, and how that is a force which shapes many of the laws and morality around relationships. It’s a pillar of heteronormativity, definitely. But also specifically 1) one which heavily impacts ace/aro people in particular, and 2) one which also heavily affects polyamourous people (hence the common line around aro/polyam solidarity and allyship).

I think the ace and aro community have done a lot of work to expand upon the definition and the ways it manifests in society. Hence why it as a term has come to be associated with those communities particularly. And truth be told, I feel that it is a useful term regarding the prioritisation of long term monogamy within society. Not just because this prioritisation is a pillar of heteronormativity, but also because it’s one of those aspects of heteronormativity that quite a lot of even queer activists subscribe to. (Think gay marriages.)

Gay marriage is about healthcare and housing and other aspects of queer people’s material well-being. But it also begs the question of why those things are even tied to marriage to begin with. And I feel like it might be hard to shift people’s minds away from [gay marriage for the benefit of gay people’s material well-being] to [theorising a new system where people get their material needs taken care of regardless of marital status] if there isn’t language around it? It is a very in-baked assumption that all people desire a monogamous long term relationship. And to the heteronormative mainstream, that partnership is straight (hence it being a pillar of heteronormativity). But even among a lot of the queer activists and allies, there still is this assumption that one does desire such a partnership. (Very common for queer allies to conceptualise it as a matter of ‘love is love’).

Like, opposing gay marriage from the standpoint of a marriage abolitionist is seen as objectionable to gay activists, in part because it’s a liberal/incremental assimilation vs leftist/revolutionary divide. But a part of that divide is also shaped around the way societal morality and law is structured around assumptions that long-term monogamy is something that all people necessarily want. So I feel it is good to have language around that. As well as to expand its definition to specifically talk about it less from an “identity” angle and more as how it shapes the material structures of the world.

[komilys]

prof/ovember ! - info

hi hi! last words b4 my f/os come in. im really excited to get to do an f/o takeover this year! i’ll be reblogging posts and hopefully answering asks! a couple f/os are gonna be here this month— and might interact with each other— there’s more info underneath!

click to return to my regular pinned introduction post !

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⌒⠀ִ .𖥔 ݁ ˖ ﾟ

[ yuki, izuku, garroth and gene, kei and touya, laurance, and tomura ]

… are here for the month !

they’re very excited i definitely did not make them do this!— don’t ask them. i’ll be popping around in the back and still be here, but i’m gonna give them the focus for the month! most of them are my romantic f/os, but my brother tomura is also here! (dragged him here, really). we have a weird relationship, to be fair, he fits in.

feel free to say hi, they don’t bite! (mostly)

–

side note ! – diaries and mystreet laurance are different! think: same soul, but reincarnated, so different people! garroth and gene are different, though, they’re their mystreet counterparts only!

the heart means a polyam relationship!

[queer-merm]

I try not to bring up too much discourse but I will just this once:

You may have noticed that this blog went from “yeah haha I am an inclus :) I guess I just support queers haha (refuses to elaborate, refuses to specify)” to “I am explicitly inclusive of all good faith identities including but not limited to ace and aro people, but also queer people, kinky people, polyam people, and bi lesbians, lesboys, turiagirls, trans people with “contradictory” sexualities, etc”.

When I went with the former, it was really out of fear of getting hate, but also cowardice.

And when it turned out someone close to me had one of those lesser known identities, I realized it’s not enough to be vaguely inclusive.

In the face of hatred, we /have/ to take a stand. It’s not enough to not hate, we have to show support to ALL queers. In the face of discourse, in the face of gay related things we don’t understand, it can be easy to forget that the people whose identities were ducking fighting about already face hate from the cisheteropatriarchy for /being a queer. Being a faggot. Being a dyke. Being a tranny./ These people are already vulnerable, how dare we not show support to people in our own communities?

Who cares if you don’t understand everything? Who cares if I don’t understand everything? It’s not about me, it’s not about you. It’s about standing together no matter our differences.

And you know what? I think I can empathize with people who don’t get /how/ easily one can identify as a lesbian. I remember when I first started identifying as one. After years of feeling pressured of being into men, only to realize no, actually, I don’t like men, it can feel liberating, and frustrating to know that it took years to unlearn that.

Then you turn around and see people seemingly going “I don’t care about what #society thinks. I’m gonna identify like I fucking want, lulz”.

If I learned about the concept of bi lesbian right after I came out, I think I would have had the same knee jerk reaction. “It’s not fair! /I/ WORKED HARD! I had to work for my label, and these people can just choose to do it? What the fuck?”

Two things to note:

-our goal /should/ be to make it that everyone has an easier time figuring themselves out. People saying “fuck cishets, I’m queer in my own way” is a good thing! (And, I’m saying this in the most gentle, kind way, but you being upset you had to work for your labels is not other people’s problem. Sorry.)

-honestly, it’s bold to assume people didn’t think this through. Honestly, they probably had very similar self doubts and thoughts than you did. I guarantee they chose their labels after thinking about it, just like you did. One word can have multiple meanings, and that’s okay.

(Also, no, bi lesbian (because I’m gonna guess this is the current big one that people are still pissed over) isn’t inherently transphobic, it wasn’t made by and for transphobes, it’s not from last year, and no one (no one) is forcing you to ever like a man or give up on your bi idetentity. come on yall we’ve been through this)

And look if you foam at the mouth reading about bad queer identities, and you refuse to ever tolerate people who use them, fine. I’m not here to change your mind. My goal with this blog and my posts isn’t to make you happy, it’s to make queer people feel safe and included. Cis straight people already want us gone, I won’t tolerate people feeling like they are not safe with fellow queers. We /have/ to support each other no matter what.

And look I don’t get fundamentally understand everything. I don’t /get/ how one can only be one gender in one way their own lives. I don’t understand people who are comfortable using certain labels when they are non-binary. I don’t understand people who find men attractive. But I understand I don’t need to understand everything, I just understand I need to be open minded and be kind even if I don’t always “get it”.

(If you’re not queer, if you don’t like the word queer, consider that this post isn’t for and about you and not everything revolves around you :) if you’re not queer you’re not included in this post dw)

[twofiftychic]

I'm gonna break up with my friend of ten years on Tuesday. I just realized that we are in different places in our lives and tbh, I can't stand them anymore. They don't work and live off disability, they're one of *those* polyam people, and they stink. It's honestly embarrassing. Like I might be a bad person for that, but truly I don't like them anymore. They're not really my friend. Yeah they listen to my voice notes that I send but I have no one else to talk to. It just became habit for me. I'm their friend, but they're not my friend. It became clear after last Tuesday when we went to see a play (which i paid for) that they're cool when it's something on my dime but they never ask to hang out. It's not like they work and they know my schedule. So I'm over it. I'm done.

[void-botanist]

let’s start with 1-5 for all the polycules! -@vacantgodling

This is gonna be a long one lol. But first, a little note on these polycules for those who don't know: they're legally mandated for the royal family (Kiatcarmen, Marcus, and Minaya) and have at least one of each sapient species in them. That's why Jimmy was replaced in Kiatcarmen's polycule when he died, whereas in an organic polycule, that likely would not happen.

1 - How many members are in the polycule? How are they related to each other? Feel free to draw a flow chart.

Kiatcarmen: there have only ever been five at one time. But those members have shifted twice, when existing members died. Kiatcarmen and Ashmalo are Marcus and Minaya's parents.

First set of members:

Second set of members:

Third (current) set of members:

Marcus: seven, technically. It remains to be seen whether Heith will stick around. With the exception of Heith, it's safe to assume they're all friends. Gren only knows OF Heith, since Marcus met her on another planet. Yera and Hossan recently had a baby. Also they don't actually have non-cow ears I just couldn't rally myself to make updated picrews for this post.

Minaya: six, all pretty much friends. Dawn is currently pregnant with Arbores's baby. Lanya is permanently annoyed with Arbores because his state of being is sort of to just disappear into the woods and not engage that much with the administrative/royalty things he, Minaya, and Dawn manage.

This isn't all the existent relationships in these polycules but it is all the most notable ones.

2 - Did the relationship start polyamorous, or was it a monogamous relationship that eventually opened?

All three of these started as technically polyamorous relationships, though they grew little by little. But if you look past the legal requirement it's a little more complicated. Kiatcarmen's polycule has always been a mess, and to be honest she would have been just fine having just Jimmy.

Yera and Hossan in Marcus's polycule started out as a functionally closed couple within the whole (they don't actually restrict each other to this but that was how it was anyway) but a couple years in, Marcus married Gren and Gren became besties with Yera. Over time this morphed into Gren being their third partner, but Gren is still very mobile between the different members and divisions of the polycule.

Minaya's polycule, once completed, was functionally three parallel couples (Minaya and Lanya, Dawn and Arbores, and Lucy and Ramona) until Ramona fessed up about her crush on Lanya and those two couples merged into something like a quad.

3 - If it started monogamous, how did the process of opening the relationship go?

Marcus: for a while it wasn't clear whether Yera and Hossan's relationship was going to open - maybe Yera just had a new fuckbuddy. But Gren and Hossan spent a lot of time together incidentally, and Gren also wanted to be friends with him too, and over time Gren just sort of got absorbed into their dynamic. There was a little jealousy they had to work out (Hossan was very used to being Yera's singular obsession), and there was a conversation at some point, though, when Hossan realized that he no longer thought of Gren as a separate external addition. He still doesn't think of himself as polyam but considers Gren in the same breath as Yera.

Minaya: opening her and Lanya's relationship felt easy. For a while, though, it was pretty much just sexual. That was easiest for everybody, especially with Lucy and Ramona being away for training and competition a lot. But over time it's developed into a more romantic dynamic, which has been fairly smooth, despite Lucy's defensiveness and Lanya's counter-defensiveness. There is some uncertainty about how things will change once Minaya ascends the throne, though.

4 - Are there any mono-poly relationships in the polycule?

Kiatcarmen: sort of. Despite having a sexual and quasi-romantic relationship with Pirianus the only person she's ever considered her partner is Jimmy, so in essence she has always been the monogamous person connected to her own polycule through her very popular spouse.

Marcus: no, but only because Heith isn't monogamous.

Minaya: Lucy teeters on the edge here. She's never outright decided she's monogamous, but she also doesn't have a lot of patience for maintaining multiple romantic partnerships.

5 - What “shape” is the polycule? A triad, a “V”, a straight line of metamours, or incomprehensible?

Kiatcarmen: currently, a cul-de-sac. Kiatcarmen only considers Pirianus anything close to a partner, Pirianus has complicated relationships with her and Thade, and Thade, Caladea, and Orvi are all just vibing with each other. In other words: almost entirely metamours and meta-metamours from Kiatcarmen's perspective, and something resembling a cohesive whole from Thade's.

Marcus: in Marcus's absence, it became kind of a bow tie, with Gren in the middle between Yera & Hossan and Umedes & Pali, and Marcus and Heith as a separate island. Upon his return, it expands into more of an anglerfish - Gren is still the point of connection between Yera & Hossan and Umedes & Pali, but Marcus has joined Umedes and Pali, and also has a connection to Heith.

Minaya: it's more or less a quad (Minaya, Lanya, Ramona, Lucy) with an orbiting couple (Dawn and Arbores).

[marianne-dash-wood]

Writing rant for a moment bc I need to vent and Reddit is not helping as I thought it might

We finished. We did it. And I know we still have a long way to go - we can see them, and I'm sure our betas will also pick them up.

But because I'm me, I've been looking at the next steps, after we've made the first draft as good as it can be.

And fuck me.

I want to get it published. Properly published, and not just left to die on Amazon's self publisher list. I want it, because I think this story deserves it - I think the characters deserve it.

But so much of the advice given is for people who are dead serious about writing. A lot of advice is "you might not sell your first manuscript, but it'll help you sell your second!" But we don't have a second. I don't want a second, I want this story out there. I'm not here to be a full time writer - I gave up that dream a long time ago, because I knew it wasn't viable. I just want this one - for us, for these characters, for our baby and a story I wrote with my best friend

And the more I read the more we're up against just... What seems like an insurmountable wall that is traditional publishing.

1) the first book is at least gonna be 120k (at the moment it's 140k, I think with some brutal editing it could go down but is that a good decision? Is it what's best for the story?) which is already Too Long. For a debut novel, most advice I'm seeing is a max 80,000 words. For fantasy, there's a bit more leeway, but it's still around 110,000, which is still a significant difference

2) it's fantasy. It's niche. Yeah people do buy and read fantasy, but it's a niche, competitive market. Does the world really stand out enough against the river of other worlds?

3) it's queer. And not only that, while there is a romance, it's very much secondary to the character friendships AND it's a polyam relationship. It's not easy to market as a "queer romance fantasy!!" Because the romance isn't front and centre at all times. Plus, polyam relationships in trad publishing? Who is going to be willing to push that particular boat out

4) we are two completely untested authors with a fantasy series straight off the bat with a silly many amount of words. It's a huge gamble. Even if the books were masterpieces... Idk who is willing to take that chance, especially when the first book ends on such a down note

If we self publish, it never gets seen by anyone except it's original readers. We aren't social media gurus, we don't have huge followings or connections, and we're both full time in our actual jobs - we can't just go round promoting it at every book fair in the country or go to publishers gigs or whatever. So it'll die, right there, alongside every other self published book.

I know we even haven't gotten to the point of querying and I'm jumping ahead and looking at all the negatives. I know that. I'm just feeling really bummed at having managed to climb a mountain, and seeing an even taller one right ahead.