#Backlight and Bitrot

[branmuffins22]

Behold, the most important thing that came out of my drawing stream earlier today: concept art for the interior of not!lyoko's towers in my owlhouse x codelyoko fic, Backlight and Bitrot.

Image ID: A cylindrical space sits within a dark void, almost enclosed. A haze-like golden glow rises from below, and scattered, translucent, golden panels line the "walls" of the space. A large platform in the shape of a target-like glyph sits in the middle, and an endless flow of black water springs from underneath it. Where the jutting end of the platform meets the "wall", there is a rippling portal, the entrance and exit to the tower. A bright golden terminal floats across from the portal, near the center of the platform.

While its shape and overall vibe is most similar to the tower interiors from Code Lyoko, its color palette resembles The Owl House's Inbetween, and the symbol on the floor is the glyph found in King's tower. I'm still about 50/50 on having the outermost three-quarters-circle be a sort of ramp up to the middle part, and I might change how the terminal is oriented compared to the portal, but other than that, I'm pretty dang happy with what I've got so far.

As for the exteriors of the towers... I might have to do a little more amalgamating, between Lyoko's towers (iconic), King's tower (thematically appropriate), and the tower in the back of the Owl House (rustic, safe). That design is very much not set in stone yet. Hell, I might even vary them from sector to sector...

[branmuffins22]

From Masha and the Very Normal Nocedas:

The only reason they even needed to include the meeting with Vee was because she would turn out to be close to Luz, and yet their head was already teeming with traitorously warm thoughts in the middle of this dark prologue.

From a yet-unnamed fic in my Artificer Au:

She could only hope to deliver enough retribution for his four-hundred-year crusade, for his fifty-year reign, for trying at every turn to hurt and kill her friends, her family, everyone she loved, and everyone they loved.

From Backlight and Bitrot:

The specter, in turn, flinched back, eyes locked on Luz like a cornered prey animal.

This week’s word is…

✨ TURN ✨

Find the word in any WIP and share the sentence containing it. Reply, reblog, stick it in the tags, tag us in a new post, or keep it private. All fandoms, all ships, all writers welcome.

[branmuffins22]

Woke up today with visions of a new WIP.

The Owl House characters in a Code Lyoko -esque setting/story, in a similar vein as the Owl House X Adventure Time fusion Owlventure Time! by GoreMiser (its a good read, and almost complete, for a certain definition of "complete"), only in this case it'd also be sort of a Swap AU, putting Luz on the magical otherworld and the hexolios on Earth.

...Actually, given the almost-a-Swap-AU-ness, perhaps a better comparison would be the Owl House X Steven Universe fusion Seashells and Stars by Unniebeans (another good read, though nowhere near completion).

Anyways, Amity would replace Jeremie as the guy in the chair; Gus, Willow, and Hunter would replace Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich as the ones primarily on the front line; Luz and King would split the role of Aelita as the amnesiac kids stuck in the machine; Belos would replace X.A.N.A. as the BBEG (obviously); Eda would replace Franz as the creator of not!Lyoko (and once-guardian of the kids in the machine); and Boscha would replace Sissy as the nosy bully (and unwelcome suitor).

Members of the Hagsquad would also be sprinkled throughout the faculty of Hexside (which replaces Kadic), such as Lilith as the history teacher and Raine as the music teacher, and I've got A Few Ideas about Camila replacing Dorothy/Yolanda as the school nurse. Basically, I think it'd be neat to have a bunch of characters with ties to the supercomputer but who are nonetheless unaware of its existence.

I might leave Jim as Jim though, both because TOH doesn't have a similar character to replace him with, and because he's just kinda fantastic. I think he and Steve would be besties.

I would probably also incorporate ideas from my Code Lyoko rewrite, a backburner project I may or may not have mentioned here once or twice.

For instance, Franz (or in this case, Eda) retiring from whatever sketchy military thing to become a game developer rather than a science teacher, with Lyoko (or, whatever I call this not!Lyoko) as the world of the overly-ambitious-game-turned-haven. Maybe also the initial attempts at materialization ending up a bit crude, and leaving Aelita (or, in this case, Luz) with characteristics of her virtual avatar for her first season's-worth of trips to Earth.

[branmuffins22]

My paragraphs are pretty short, often only a sentence long, so have a couple!

Suddenly, the impostor froze in its attack, its heinous blue glare winking out to reveal the black abyss of its irises. "Phew! Okayyy, nice going, guys! Now, we can return to the past, and forget today ever happened!" said Luz, more desperate than relieved, as the polymorphic specter began to loudly dissolve from the head down.

I've been a bit sick again lately, but in my feverish state, I managed to squeeze out my first proper prose in months last night/this morning. A shame that it's not in any of my higher-priority WIPs, but my silly little sorta-crossover AU is as good a place as any to pick myself back up.

...Or, it would be, if the brainrot hadn't landed me over halfway through the story. Ah well. At least I've got a kinda-concrete idea of how to start this one, too. More than I can say for some of my other fics...

Now, a little poke for my writer moots (and/or anyone else who wants to join in)

@localowlhousefanatic, @zyrafowe-sny, @queenwendy, @bat-in-the-machine, @unniebeans

A tag game where you tag your mutuals and then post the first paragraph of the last thing you wrote.

If you’re not a writer/aren’t comfortable sharing, you can simply tag, you don’t have to share.

If you are going to post, keep it SFW, please.

    The museum at the corner of Lith St. and Wickethelm Av. was an imposing building, but that didn’t matter much to Jennifer Huchly. She didn’t care how old the museum was (it’d been constructed in 1824), or how it went against Gotham’s traditional architectural styles (painted in colors that weren’t black or grey, had lots of windows, open interior space, etc. etc.), or how it was one of the the only buildings that survived some famous natural disaster or something (the Great Gotham Fire, 1836), Jennifer Huchly just didn’t care. Some things that Jennifer Huchly did care about, however, where money, hair salons, and her two children, although not specifically in that order.

@scarred-serafina-fan @psychicbluebirdmiracle @that-one-raccoon @timdrakemybeloved @rowenas-my-fave-child @zathebooknerd @smolandweirdwriter @ashpkat @lescahiersdesable @discountsoysauce

[branmuffins22]

Something a little different this time: Drawing and Code Lyoko!

Been thinking about my owlhouse x codelyoko fic, Backlight and Bitrot, all day. So we're gonna try and get some concept art going! The ideas in my head MUST make it to page, it is imperative.