mwildflowa

[mwildflowa]

i started writing the emissary at 17 and i’m 22 now

[mwildflowa]

they say blue jays are the devil’s messenger

wip i’ll never finish.

[mwildflowa]

hey! I wrote the emissary over on ao3 and I wanted to say that i, too, was massively inspired by this work from when i was ~13 until now.

i cite all of your stuff when i post. i tell everyone in the fandom to read those collections and snippets and one shots you posted there. it honestly stuns me that you don’t like the writing anymore bc i still frequently go back to it and re-read it!

i hope you do end up talking about it more bc it’s one of my favourite fanworks ever!!! this just reminded me to give them a re-read again :)

Hey! I'm sorry if this is irritating to ask about, but I remembered that one story you wrote about the twins being reincarnated into humans that I read religiously as a kid. I just wanted to say that I was a huge fan of your writing- and to ask if there would ever be any more updates? No pressure if there won't, I totally understand, I was just curious.

You’d be referring to The Twins: Test of Redemption, a heavily AU and headcanon-based longform fic I started writing on the Terraria Community Forums in April/May of 2016 that I later ported to FF.net and AO3, but never actually finished. And man, I was not expecting anyone to remember it. Between this and actually getting a comment on it on AO3? I’m kind of floored.

(Also, the words ‘as a kid’ just sent me reeling with the sudden reality of the concept of time. Has it really been that long?)

I’m sorry, anon, but you’ve given me an excuse to ramble about it, which I’ve been looking for for a long time.

TL;DR? Thank you so much, I really appreciate it--and to answer your question maybe. I don’t like the writing anymore, so it’d be starting from scratch, but I’ve never stopped thinking about it and writing about it, and there’s still so much I wanted to do and share with it. Journey’s End is coming, which will probably change the game quite a bit--I’ve been considering trying to do a rewrite once that comes out, but I’m not sure I’d be able to finish it. 

Massive infodump under the cut, including introspection, concepts, and background info probably nobody cares about.

I appreciate the compliment--and it is a huge compliment. But honestly? I don’t like the writing anymore. There are bits that make me cringe just thinking about them. But the story itself? It’s never really left me, and there’s so much more I wanted to--and still do want to--do with it. Like, it’d still probably be ridiculous. The plot twists aren’t twists, nothing really make sense, and I’m a little stuck with a character whose only reasonable nickname is a massive insult in at least one country (blame re-logic for not thinking through their attempted pun). 

But I’ve still been planning it and writing it and thinking about it. I have far too many google docs of oneshots that relate to it. I started writing a crossover when the DD2 event was first introduced. I made an AU of my own AU based around the Calamity Mod (where Draedon and Yharim sort of replaced the Moon Lord, and the Brimstone Elemental was an extremely prominent character--to the point where a friend of mine working on the mod at the time slipped in a reference to the Guide knowing her in a bit of dialogue specifically because of it). Writing more chapters of it was part of my NaNoWriMo 2018. I play two of the characters in an ongoing D&D campaign; Spaz/Sherwin as a human-turned-vampire duelist fighter who makes recurring cameos, and a main character who was originally based on the Guide as a fiend-pact warlock raised by a version of the Clothier, who has grown and developed massively to the point of being unrecognizable (and thankfully has a much kinder patron and a much brighter fate courtesy of the DM).

ToR is a story I started writing in the last few months of my absolutely horrendous time at college, where I was at my lowest (struggling partially due to not knowing I was autistic) and just wanted to make something. It’s the first long project I actually tried to commit to, and I failed at it because I have the mental fortitude and attention span of a drunk goldfish. Despite the fact that I don’t like the writing now, I’m still kind of proud of it, and it’s still close to my heart. I’m glad that it was able to get someone’s attention and maybe make their day a little better, like other fics have done for me.

There was so much more I was going to delve into--The Keeper toeing the line of helping the twins and still trying to stay within their elders’ jurisdiction, handling it with their own bizarre perception of morality and eventually coming to terms with the fact that yes, the Corruption has begun to twist and eat away at them. Spaz working through the unwanted role of being the pair’s resident dumb red oni. Ret trying and utterly failing to deal with his past actions and the people he’s hurt. Alalia’s patriotism over the Hallow leaving her view one-sided, shielding herself from thinking about the things she didn’t say until it was too late. Bailey trying to be the happy, energetic face of the town despite the fact that she’s still hurting. Also disaster lesbian cultists I didn’t even get to introduce yet.

With Journey’s End on the horizon about to shake up the game significantly, I really have been thinking about trying again, though it would have to be a rewrite from scratch with a lot more planning beforehand--and I’m still not sure I’d be able to finish it, because again, what attention span, look, a squirrel. I’m not confident in my ability to commit to and finish something, and I’m still a little embarrassed and nervous about the plot I have and the writing I did. But...it’s still something I want to share, something I want to have exist in more than just my head. I want somebody else to be able to enjoy it, and the world and characters and story that have been close to my heart for so long.

It’s people like you who make me want to go for it.

[mwildflowa]

“Thank you, Titania!” he called after her, out of politeness, “For dropping it off! I would have forgotten otherwise.”

She turned back around from where she stood on the roof, piercing him with her iron-hot gaze. He felt his stomach sink into the floor.

Oh no, he thought, was I not supposed to use her name?

He thought he’d been given explicit permission to use it with her letter. Was it considered rude to use it? Was it rude to not use it?

Before his fear was able to fully glue him to the spot, the Dryad shocked him by giving him a soft smile.

“You are welcome, Wyatt.”

[mwildflowa]

BEAUTIFUL ART

poor mechanic :(

[mwildflowa]

Continuing my efforts to design Chris' next armor set! Commentary below the cut.

I tried to make the meteor armor set work, but was having to stretch things too far to justify it (completely changing its shape/patterns, dyeing it, layering it with diamond robes to make his staves/tomes build work, etc. to the point it was really meteor armor in name only). So this is a hard pivot -- for this outfit, Chris works with the Guide/Dryad to make jungle armor, and then transmutes it into the ancient cobalt set using the Shimmer. The wings and diamond staff design aren't set in stone; I just needed something simple to get the colors down while focusing on the armor.

This does decrease the impact of the meteor a bit, but hey, Malik will still appreciate some meteor shots I'm sure. And plot-wise, having another moment of the Guide/Dryad both influencing Chris is helpful to set up some following scenes.

I'm definitely happier with this than my previous designs. Swapping "generic metal plate"-star for the diamond-star ties the ancient cobalt breastplate nicely into the diamond staff. And if he picks up the magic missile (haven't fully decided his late pre-hardmode loadout), the outfit design and color scheme fits with that well enough too. This outfit also doesn't suffer from some significant issues the previous ones had (body design too dark and lacking contrast, metal garters too shiny causing a striped look, etc.) because of the updated color scheme. It also displays his worm scarf more prominently (albeit still dyed), helping to immediately justify the Eater of Worlds fight beyond "well the Dryad said so and also you can get a cool pickaxe or maybe a void bag later."

The lunar/celestial imagery is a bit more naturally integrated with this design, such as the "comet/falling star trails" that form the pattern on his breastplate being more emphasized, rather than just "here's a giant star, 'cause he's a mage, get it?" And while dropping the robes look is a significant design shift, keeping his gloves and boots visually similar connects his previous design with this one without seemingly having just palette-swapped his old robes. This is also barely armor -- it's more of an armored shirt -- so it doesn't invite as much whiplash from seeing Chris jump from "mage in robes, albeit with a somewhat heroic cape design" to "wearing straight-up armor."

Color-wise, I did add a small amount of purple to this design compared to the in-game ancient cobalt armor. Magenta/purple is associated with the amethyst set, Nebula pillar, shadow magic, band of starpower, etc. and so I didn't want to make him too blue and muddy the waters (blue is Lunatic Cultist, Stardust pillar, etc.). I also don't want him to blend too hard into the dungeon walls, one reason why the outfit is so bright. But it should still be enough blue to make Chris stand out against the red backdrop of Hell later on. I'm feeling good about the level it's at currently, and I can always subtly tweak it in particular scenes as-needed to make him fit in or stand out as needed. On the flip side, his wings get a soft warm brown tone rather than a cold sheen to contrast his outfit and tie into his skin/eye/hair color to both introduce more color hues into his outfit and make his head less disconnected from the rest of the design.

I did try to minimize the number of different colors overall, but it doesn't significantly impact the complexity either way. This is just a product of how I color characters -- instead of color-picking from a reference image, I have a folder of coloring layers for each character that I copy into each page. So each folder will have, for instance, one layer for hair, one for a character's shirt, and so on. Each layer has a max of two colors so that I can color pick them into my main/sub color icons, clear the layer, and then paint bucket those colors in. So since I'm already handling every layer separately, adding more layers (especially of solid colors) doesn't significantly impact the time I need to spend coloring.

Anyways, that's all I've got. Character design is hard.

[mwildflowa]

some art of the Guide and the Angler from the most recent chapter of my fic

[mwildflowa]

THIS IS SO GOOD I LOVE IT SO MUCH AGGHG

Doodles of <The Emissary> by @mildflower-writes

https://archiveofourown.org/works/29695224/chapters/73021695

[mwildflowa]

I think I deleted my old blog where I commented on this but thank you?? omg?? I love the way you drew his cloak, the ruffled collar detailing is so so good and the colors are amazing!

guess who’s playing terraria and drawing at 3am again

[ID: a digital drawing of Guide from @mildflowerz‘s Emissary AU. He is holding a bow, and frowning. The background is a night sky. End ID] 

[mwildflowa]

discord link! rb and feel free to invite any others in the fandom :)

are there any other terraria content creators who’d wanna join a discord for the terraria fandom? i feel like there’s so many of us lol 👀

[mwildflowa]

are there any other terraria content creators who’d wanna join a discord for the terraria fandom? i feel like there’s so many of us lol 👀

[mwildflowa]

(Not my characters, original comic: @purity-town )

[mwildflowa]

My dearest followers and mutuals and friends and lovers. I am going to extend one deadly serious question to you on this beautiful afternoon.

What is your #1 video game recommendation

[mwildflowa]

i lied this blog is dead oopsies

[mwildflowa]

it’s ok

[mwildflowa]

why is there angler discourse

[mwildflowa]

how did my mother manage to delete WhatsApp