#all my ocs end up being sci fi

[erinwantstowrite]

i feel like if you released a 24 hour + video of you talking about your plans for your original book i would sit and watch all of that with no breaks. so: would you be willing to share at least the bare bones of the plot you have now? or even some tropes that would be in it? or maybe random questions like how many main characters? how many povs? if it's sci-fi or fantasy? just stuff like that!

ahhhh!! i'd love to talk about them because they're constantly rotating in my brain!! i hope this doesn't get too long but we all know me, i can never stop yapping 😭

(okay this is present erin editing before posting and yeah this got long guess who called it. anyways there's art and stuff under the cut as well)

(Marked this as mature with violence only because there is an image below where I drew injuries/cuts on a character)

This book has been a thousand different books in all kinds of settings, plots, lessons, etc, and that's because I've had these characters since I was in middle school. At first I was so obsessed with them that I'd write and draw them all the time, to the point that my teachers were concerned I wasn't paying attention. I was seriously into magic and fantasy at the time because Harry Potter books were still the epitome of writing to my middle school brain. Ruby was a wizard with a bird theme that lived in the countryside and one day found out that her town was "alive" in a sense... But after I lost that sketchbook with all of the details (devastated to this day), and started venturing into other books series and shows, etc, I sort of forgot about the og story or what it was like. What remained was a love for the characters I had made over anything else about them, so I'd end up writing stories with a different theme each time, but the ocs being the same, just with their backgrounds shifted. (Around the time I was obsessed with VLD, Ruby was in a sci-fi plot set on a planet in another solar system.)

One of the most recent iterations was Ruby and the other characters essentially struggling to understand death, life, and everything in between. The story is called "Behind the Blue Glass" and I still really like that title lol. All of them had died on the same day, at the same time, just in various different ways, and then all of them came back to life in the same manner. They all developed different powers from the experience: Liam could float/manipulate gravity), August's body was essentially a phantom that could go through objects and disappear, Vin could possess people, Jean had an empathy link with the dead and could talk to and see them clearly, and Maya could figure out someone's cause of death/also tell when people were about to die. As for Ruby, she's the only one who can move freely between the land of the living and the land of the dead. It's different from Jean seeing the dead, as she's still in the land of the living.

The plot of that story was Ruby having dreams/visions of these other people she had never met before and knowing she needed to find them and set "something" right, but she didn't know what. She sets out to find them anyways, and they each join her on her quest to find everyone simply because they never got an answer to how they came back from the dead and find it weird that they all died on the same day and time. They solve deaths of ghosts they come across, meet people who are still grieving lost ones, have to lay some of the ghosts down to rest- all while figuring out why these shady people have started following them and trying to stop them from figuring out what happened to them. I even made some first draft titles (definitely, 10000% inspired by PJO because I was reading it at the time):

to top it all off, it's set in the 2010's I believe? Around that time. Just because I think more books should write about the time era

I have some (recentish) art of the characters:

first image: (Liam on the right, August on the left)

this is what Ruby looked like when I was first designing them for the story:

They're meant to look dead-ish but this art was SO long ago when I wasn't confident in my art so Ruby just looks like a wet rat or smth idk what is going on here

And here's Vin!! I don't hate this drawing of him that much, surprisingly, but this was also drawn a while ago

and this was some art i was planning at the time:

i think that's all of the art that i have for this story (at least on this computer. My old laptop might have more but it's been laid to rest)

to be honest, i'm still thinking about writing this story, but Ruby's name would be changed because at this point, this iteration of her character is VERY different from present day. She's two different characters at this point 💀 that's how you know I've had her for SO long because she looks so different from her original drawings.

The latest version of Ruby ended up in a story with completely different characters in the cast and a completely different setting (even if some of the characters were inspired by their og versions). It's called "The Clocktower's Chime"

It's very much inspired by those reincarnation manhwas. I like those stories but they all have the same plot over and over, and while I was more interested in the versions where the character is sent back in time to live their life again but with all the knowledge they had in the future, I always struggled with the aspect that the characters' mental age is far older than they are. It makes the dynamics a little weird, but they can be excused unless it's a romantic dynamic, I would think? I dunno, it was hard to get into the plots mostly because of that.

So I used Ruby as a placeholder OC and came up with a story where upon their death in the future, someone casts a spell or a god sends them back, and instead of having a mental older age, they get a journal with all of the details of their future. Ruby woke up one day and found a journal written by herself that detailed everything about her future up to the point of her death. It was more like a book, however, rather than a journal. It just looked like a journal because it was in her handwriting.

So Ruby gets this book, doesn't believe it at all, until she notices that there are way too many "coincidences" lining up with the events of the book. She starts believing it could be true, and then decides it must be when she finds out that a prominent family in the country she lives in is going to visit her hometown. In the book, they were there because they learned that Ruby was their daughter that had been kidnapped as a baby and believed dead. However, in the book, Ruby had spent her entire life living as a weapon instead of a daughter, and she died by their hands when she refused to kill a woman that is prophesized to end a war that would devastate both countries.

Ruby is, like, 12 at that point. So her kid brain is like "obviously I run away and go to school in a different country and tell everyone I have a different name and there's no way this could go wrong." Except before she can even do that, she runs into Julias Parlia, a Duke's son from the country that is supposed to be her enemy in the future. Ruby is like "shit this is THE worst adult to run into and I haven't even gotten to the running away part of my plan" and Julias ends up being the reason she doesn't even get to the train station. He's fucking hilarious by the way. He's got a well adjusted family with two loving parents and a bunch of little siblings and he basically picks Ruby up by the scruff of her neck and is like "I want this one she's insane."

This is Julias (kneeling on the ground to talk to Ruby) and Emelie (Julias' knight and childhood friend, she's so silly)

and this is the part where I share art from many months ago... when I posted my most recent art and said Ruby keeps getting buffer every time I draw her, I meant it 💀

Ruby and her love interest, Cecelia

This is Vekenti, a character that was also supposed to be a "villain" in the original timeline. Ruby goes looking for him to prevent his death as well, and Julias obviously is like "Omg another weird kid, how delightful!" Everyone thinks Vikenti and Ruby are related, but they are not. They're just raised as siblings in both timelines and have a lot of the same mannerisms

Julias' love interest (unnamed? I can't find her name anywhere) and him

REALLLY old drawings of what they looked like in the OG timeline (I desperately need to redesign these because I could do better now)

Julias and Ruby again

and that's all the art I have for this one (besides the other post of Ruby I posted today, this is the story that that version of Ruby belongs in. She's looks very different now!).

All of this has been in the back of my mind for a while, and I've been trying to figure out which story I would want to write first. Middle school Erin would love for me to finally write Behind the Blue Glass, but sometimes I find myself wanting to write a fantasy story like Clocktower's Chime a lot more

[ashleyfilm]

Seeing Clearly - Chapter 5. Movie Night

Please leave comments, I'd love to know your thoughts. And if you feel inclined to reblog, that would be so nice.

Chapter Warnings: cursing - Minors - DNI

Characters: Jackson!Joel Miller x F!Reader Plus Size. F!OC was recommended to me since there's a lot of description of her but I'm writing her as You (Reader) so hopefully you can still imagine yourself. Black hair, glasses, tattoos, big body, wears dark clothes, won't stop talking. Joel is tv show Jackson Joel.

Story Summary: Joel just saved your life, begrudgingly. He doesn't know exactly why but he brings you back to Jackson and you ingratiate yourself into his very small circle and his life. This takes place after season 1 of TLOU and season 2 doesn't exist in my brain because no.

Chapter Summary: You start your job at the library, meet a new resident of Jackson and Joel takes you to the movies. 1.8K

Thank you to @saradika-graphics for the book line divider. :)

Chapter 1 Here Chapter 2 Here Chapter 3 Here Chapter 4 Here

Chapter 5. Movie Night

After stopping by the clothing swap, Joel walks you to the library in your “new” old black t-shirt, with the faded logo of Guns n’ Roses, one of your favorite bands from childhood, you can still remember most of the words to the entire Use Your Illusion II album. Your eyes lit up when you found it and it actually fits you, even a tiny bit loose, your favorite. Joel couldn’t help the smile that formed on his plush lips seeing you full of glee, like a child that never went through any of this shit. At the library, you meet an older gentleman named Doc, long grey hair, warm smile and a sparkle in his eyes. He’s hoping to retire this year and you’re just in time to learn the ropes and take over. He walks you through the stacks and what he’s been able to do with the last three years he’s spent there. Organizing, cataloguing, working out distribution to the townsfolk. He even encourages you to suggest your own ideas on how to facilitate the place. You take your time walking around and looking at the books, all in various stages of use, but mostly well held up. Sometimes there are even multiple copies of something where the beginning is in one and the end in the other.

It's magical, being surrounded by all these stories, all these means of escape. And you haven’t even gotten to the VHS tape section with the movies. You grew up going to the video store every Friday with your parents, picking out something for them and something for you. Sitting in your room and watching the stories unfold before your eyes. You even worked in a video store before the outbreak, studied filmmaking in school. This place is already healing you. You can feel it. “Ash, got a visitor here, needs help finding something,” Doc says to break you from your reverie. You walk to the front desk and find a young man, probably in his early 30s, blonde hair, average height, good looking, but kind of like the asshole in your high school that’s on the soccer team and makes fun of you in front of his friends. “Ash, is it? I heard we had a newbie in town. I’m Ryan, nice to meet you,” he says as he takes your hand and gives it a squeeze. You still at the touch, people don’t really touch like this anymore and you haven’t been touched since you got here except for Joel and that was …different.

“Hi, uh, what can I help you with?” You say curtly. “Well, I’m looking for something to read, maybe something sci-fi, think you can help me out,” he says with a smirk. This guy isn’t here to read, he’s here to get the info on the new girl, ugh fuck off. “Um, sure, follow me.” Even though you’re new, you’ve quickly made a map in your head of the library space and the way Doc has taken to organizing and grouping things. You head straight to fiction section, which is currently just by author last name, you’ll change that. Wanting to get this over quickly, you look for H.G. Wells, and find The Invisible Man and hand it to the guy. So, Brad or whatever the fuck his name is will get away from you. “A Grotesque Romance,” he says reading the subtitle on the cover. “Interesting choice,” again with the smirk. “Yup, hope you enjoy it,” you say not really looking at him anymore. “I’m sure I will,” he says looking your body up and down. “See ya around, Ash.” You smile quickly and turn to walk away. Well, that’s the first person you’ve met that you immediately dislike, you guess it was bound to happen in a town with this many fucking people. A very obvious downside.

At the end of your shift, you say goodbye to Doc and start on your walk to the dining hall that will be turned into a movie theatre for the evening for a viewing of Jurassic Park. Your tote bag, courtesy of your new boss, filled with three books. Carrie by Stephen King for you, a graphic novel called, Somewhere in the Stars for Ellie, and No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy for Joel. You wonder if he’ll like your old man joke or not. And like you’ve manifested him; he’s standing outside the library leaning against a lamppost, waiting for you. He’s stunning, standing with his arms crossed against his chest, in a green flannel with red lines and the sleeves rolled up to reveal his thick forearms and his hair wet and slicked back. And he’s there for you. He looks up and notices you walking towards him, you bite your lip to try and hide your smile. “Well, how’d it go?” He asks with his mouth in a line but his eyes, they’re different, warmer. “Good,” you answer, “Doc’s really lovely and it’s amazing how many books you all have.” He watches you speak, and you think he might see something new, and you feel it too, invigorated. You begin to walk in step with one another to the movie night.

“I got Ellie something,” you say as you dig into your bag and retrieve the graphic novel, handing it to Joel. He smiles warmly, probably thinking of Ellie and says, “She’ll love this.” After he hands it back you put it away and reach for the book you got for him, “And this …is for you.” Your hold your breath hoping he likes your choice. “Old Men, that a crack on me, sweetheart?” He says with a chuckle. Sweetheart, he just called you sweetheart. He continues, “Thank you, that’s real kind. Always wanted to read this one, never had the chance, always workin’ too much before everything happened.” “Good, well now you can.” He hands it back and your fingers brush just slightly and like this morning you feel a bolt of electricity run through you. You look away and hope he can’t see the blush on your cheeks.

When you walk into the theatre together, quite a few people look your way with curiosity. You don’t know if it’s because you’re new in town or because you’re with the big, bad Joel Miller. But soon, you don’t care because you smell the popcorn and hear people laughing and see the big projector screen. And you almost sob right then and there. Joel’s watching you in wonder. He lightly touches your shoulder, leaning in close he whispers, “Go pick out a seat wherever you want, I’ll get us some snacks.” A shiver runs down your spine and he’s gone. You find what you deem the perfect seat, close to the middle and along the center aisle. You see Ellie who gives you a wave and wanders after a pretty, dark-haired girl around her age. She looks so happy, and it makes your heart clench in your chest. You start to worry how much you’ve gotten comfortable here, it’s a lot so soon. And you worry that it could all be taken away, like everyone and everything in your life already has.

Before you can spiral too far into your mind, Joel sits next to you. “You couldn’t pick a place a little less surrounded by people?” he says with a grunt. “Hey, you said anywhere I want,” you pout at him. “That I did, I guess I shouldn’t leave it up to you next time,” he says with another hint of a laugh. Did he say next time? Did you really hear that? The movie starts to play, and you and Joel share popcorn, he holds it for you and offers it over to you every couple of minutes. You hear the music by John Williams, and it takes you back. When you were a little girl and your parents would sit you between them and watch you as your eyes lit up taking it all in, so enthralled. Popcorn now long forgotten, it comes to one of the parts you’ve never forgotten, when the girl, is about to fall through the ceiling and the velociraptors are underneath her dangling body and they snap at her legs. You jump out of your skin and grab onto Joel’s hand. After the jump scare you start to laugh, still holding onto him, then you look over at him and he’s already looking at you, a soft smile on his face, until both your smiles fade replaced with a longing gaze until he drops your hand and turns back to the movie. You worry you’ve gone too far, asked for too much, too soon. You clasp your hands back in your lap and try to enjoy the rest of the movie in silence.

As the T-Rex screams and the banner falls, the room is filled with applause. Everyone loved this movie; it didn’t matter who you were. The lights come on and everyone begins to make their way out into the night air of Jackson. Joel says he’s going to find Ellie and for you to “stay put.” Eyeroll. Unfortunately, that’s when Brad or whoever the fuck from earlier decides to come and say hello. “Hi there, Ash. How’d you like the movie?” he says while again looking you up and down. “It’s great, one of my favorites but I guess you weren’t born when it came out, huh?” You don’t even know if it’s true you just want to infantilize him, so he’ll go away. Instead, he laughs and touches your arm, “You may be right about that one.” Suddenly, Joel is back at your side with Ellie, “Time to go.” He says to you gruffly. Ellie is looking between you, Joel and what’s his name wide-eyed like she’s waiting for fireworks or a fight to break out. “Oh, hey Joel, I didn’t know you knew our girl, Ash here,” he says with a smirk, looking only at you. “She’s staying with us, Ryan.” Joel says, fist clenched at his side. Ryan, oh that’s his name. “Okay, well maybe you can save me a seat next time, Ash,” Ryan says with a tip of his hat gesture, the dumbass isn’t even wearing a hat. Idiot. “Bye,” you say as you turn to walk after Ellie and Joel. Ellie hangs back with you as Joel darts off ahead of you. With a grin Ellie says, “What was all that about, huh?” You look at her with a disgusted look on your face, “I honestly have no idea.” Over the next several days, you avoid Brad/Ryan like the plague. Haha, plague. And sadly Joel barely speaks to you, but he does leave out your wolf mug by the coffee machine every morning.

[sentfromwolves]

◈—⌈ SENTFROMWOLVES ⌋ writeblr introduction ²⁰²⁴

Hi everyone, and welcome to my writeblr 2024 introduction. My name is Eran (they/he & freshly thirty) and I've been on writeblr for awhile, so you might've seen me around. ( •̀ ω •́ ) This is my yearly post to introduce the projects I'll be working on this year, what I write, and who I am. I'll be keeping it short and sweet.

I'd love to meet more writers this year, so if you write any of the following, or just like these genres, or even just wanna shout about ocs together, come holler and I'll give you a follow!

◈ — sci-fi and fantasy of any kind! cozy fantasy, romantasy, epic fantasy, space opera? this is my bread and butter, and I love shouting about it from the rooftops with others! ◈ — found families, ot3s, complicated soulmates. I am almost always writing about soulmates who have either killed each other at least once in the past or are planning some sort of murder. Complicated relationships, especially found families that aren't all rainbows and butterflies, are right up my alley. ◈ — queer and trans protagonists, large queer casts! all of my wips feature trans/nonbinary leads, and I'm always looking for more queer writer friends to connect with! ◈ — hope at the end of the tunnel, but hell to get to. I write stories with hopeful endings, with the sun on the horizon, with the promise that something better might now at long last be on the way. I love seeing characters get put through hell, but I love it even more when they make it to the other side. (if you write tragedy though, please know I will still cry on your doorstep if you'll have me) ◈ — corruption arcs, redemption arcs, sometimes both! Deeply nuanced characters with messy attitudes, and even messier actions. I'm just as equally obsessed with cool worldbuilding as I am with character-driven things, and I will yell about ocs all day, and maybe draw them too >:3 ◈ — big, epic, and sweeping worldbuilding! I am a huge fan of delving into the worldbuilding aspect of my wips. I love building magic systems, cultures, geographies, and more. One of my 2024 projects is doing a worldbuilding experiment blog at some point. I am always down to clown over worldbuilding, whether to sound board or just holler together!

There's a lot more I could say here, but this post can only get so long! Σ(っ °Д °;)っ my dms are always open, and I will follow back most of the time! But just to get all of the basics outta the way:

◈—« here's a quick and dirty rundown of how I work! »—◈

➺ I interact and follow from @calamityeden, so if you see that username, it's just me.✌️I am most active on discord, and if we become friends, you're more than welcome to ask to add me there. ➺ I am open to being tagged in writeblr games! Just know that I am not online all the time, and might be slow to respond to them. 🐌 ➺ My ask box and DMs are open, just please be respectful. I love meeting new writers and talking about projects! I am happy to chat and make new friends. You're always welcome! 💌 ➺ This is a strictly 18+ writeblr. Please DNI with me if you are a minor and respect my boundaries.

🪄You can find my core tags here under my writing and my graphics, as well as writer reminders, game train and catharsis. (❁´◡`❁) And now onto the fun part! My 2024 main project line up!

I have my main four listed here that you'll probably hear me yelling about pretty consistently, but I've also got a lot of other projects rattling around in my brain. So if you're ever curious about a project that's not here, feel free to yell at me about it! >:3

Genre: Dark Urban Fantasy Standalone.

Status: First Draft Complete (117k)—Revising for beta round one.

There's a clock tattooed on Nemesis's wrist, and when it reaches midnight on his 21st birthday, it will kill him. It doesn't help that his mom is the one that cursed him, and the demon currently possessing his car ate her before Nemesis could convince her to break the damned thing. Thankfully, Judge came prepared with an alternative: help him break into a mythical living city and steal its heart, and in return, he'll shatter Nemesis's curse for free. Accompanied by a three-headed hellhound, a haunted holy sword, and an excommunicated exorcist, Judge and Nemesis set their sights on an impossible heist. But the closer Nemesis gets to the heart, the more he begins to realize that he isn't the only one under a curse. And if he doesn't find a way to break Judge's soon, his own life will be forfeit as well.

Genre: Space Opera

Status: 2024 zero drafting from scratch

Two hundred years ago, humanity expanded to the stars only to find a cosmos filled with graves. But then their children began displaying the strange ability to commune with the alien ruins scattered across the planets, waking ancient, extrasolar mecha from their sleep, and turned the struggling colonies of space explorers into the fledgling galactic nation of Sol Galatea.  Now, Wren Akane is on the run from the whole galaxy, wanted for the strange alien powers throbbing through his veins. His luck runs out when he accidentally awakens an ancient Relic in the desert of his planet, only to be embedded with the memories of its last pilot and the revelation that the war that littered the cosmos with graves is far from over. But no one believes Wren when he tells them that continuing to wake the Relics will bring the hostile alien empire that destroyed them back to Sol Galatea’s doorstep. Only Wren’s rival pilot, Marek Khalid, seems interested in a word Wren has to say. But Marek doesn’t want to save Sol Galatea. He has big plans for what to do when the aliens arrive, a rebellion to lead, and if Wren isn’t on his side, he’s in his way. With time running out, Wren must soon decide how far he’s willing to go to save the people that never tried to save him—or if Marek is right, and he should let the stars burn instead.

Genre: Adult Romantasy

Status: First Draft (1k/100k)

Once a year, Celestials from all across the Lumina Kingdom gather together for Eventide, the season of courtship, hoping to win the hand of the most eligible star at court. Sirius knows the game they play all too well: by day, he is the forgettable, miserable daughter of the Lumina Family, least of his seven siblings and wanted only for the royal blood running through his veins.  By night, however, Sirius is the Starweaver—the mysterious dressmaker taking the kingdom by storm. Everyone wants to know the identity of the one responsible for elaborate outfits that turn even the quietest Celestial in the room into the star of the show, outshining even Sirius’s luminous sibling, Diana. When the infamous King Beyond Midnight arrives with the intent to wed Diana, Sirius finds his secret in jeopardy when the condition for their hand in marriage is a simple challenge: reveal the Starweaver's true identity. There’s no outsmarting Octavian for long, and soon, Sirius will have to make a choice: give up on his passion and stay hidden forever, or risk everything to stay true to who he really is.

Genre: Second World Urban Fantasy

Status: Outlining

Something changes the day that Nakano Touya returns to the crumbling city of Soma Lux. It starts with voices in the radio static, blurry figures caught on camera, always out of focus. When a monster crawls out of Touya's television screen and eats him, the last thing he expects is to find a strange, shadowy otherworld lurking on the other side. But his biggest problem isn't the monsters of the otherworld that want to eat him, or the talking cat that saved him, now living in his apartment without a care in sight. Soma Lux is experiencing a strange new epidemic—one that Touya is completely unaffected by. But when his half-sister falls comatose, Touya knows he has to get to the bottom of it all to save her—and find out why he's the only one immune. Accompanied by his jaded ex-boyfriend, Touya’s nosy classmates, a part-time fortune teller, and a cantankerous old hag, Touya dives into the murky underbelly of Soma Lux, where the realities have begun to bleed together between his world and the next. 

That's all for now! >:3 Here's to an amazing 2024! (also my actual blog is a mess right now please do not mind it ksjndfskfn)

[dragonsholygrail]

Do you have any monster OCs? or any OCs at all? :o

You are opening Pandora’s box with this question, my love. Goodness gracious, I’m gonna put it all under the cut because the answer is yes, I have many OCs both monster, cyborg, and otherwise!

Thank you so much for asking btw, it was super sweet of you <33

If anyone would like to send in any asks about these then I’d be more than happy to talk about them 👉🏼👈🏼

Tumblr OCs

So, starting off with on my blog, I have 2 OCs! I have Demon Prist, my special boy. His story is that he is a fallen angel who is desperately trying to get back into Heaven and God’s good graces when you come into his life. He’s convinced you’re a gift from God for his devotion all these millennia as you take his pain away.

I also have Ghost bf whose name is yet to be revealed although I do have one! His story (lore drop!) is that when moving to a new city, you’re looking for an apartment and you find him! The two of you talk for weeks before agreeing to a sort of trial run. But before you can get there, Ghost bf dies and you show up to an empty apartment and you expect him to be back soon. When he reveals himself to you the two of you contact each other in weird ways and fall in love along the way.

More to come too!

Book OCs

Then I also have Monster OCs that I would like to introduce here and later possibly turn into books! The first being Wren and Emery. Wren is a bigender Eldritch monster whose favorite show is a monster hunter show where they find monsters and study them. Not actual hunting. Emery was the host of this show with her bf Jonah when a bad werewolf accident happens and Jonah kind of takes over the show. Wren decides to invite the show to his manor to essentially… catch him. All in order to help Emery. It’s very rom-com vibes. Wren and Emery are the main couple (Jonah is bad)

I have Delilah and Augustine with their friends Ivory and Sivan. I want to write their story through an anthology. It’s basically flustered vampire x bimbo human. Delilah is insanely smart, she’s a mortician ironically. But she misses a lot of things right in front of her, hence the bimbo type personality. So it’s a collection of like Augustine constantly getting caught being a vampire bc he’s not smooth or sneaky (anymore) and it just doesn’t click for Delilah. Which makes Ivory, her best friend that’s also a secret vampire, insane. She’s a hypocrite but her and Auggie have a fun dynamic.

Thirdly, I also have Zella and Senén. Sen is a hybrid wolf who ran his own mafia when his men thinks he betrayed them and the cops are on his tail. So hides as a puppy hybrid in England with an American woman named Zella who’s there looking after her sick grandmother. He has to maintain his facade even as he finds it all super demeaning. But he falls for Zella and starts getting comfortable in this new life when trouble turns its head back around on him.

Next I also have this idea for a futuristic serial fiction that would span over at least 100 chapters. It’s sci-fi fantasy. Think Nimona-ish but darker. It’s ultimately kinda cyberpunk but from the opposite perspective of it for the most part. It follows Nora or Noor and she’s in the II (Iridium Imperium) also known as the eyes. It’s a guild that protects the city like law enforcement and they’re all cyborgs with special magical gifts. Their whole city runs on guilds it’s a requirement to be in one within city limits. Only those with magical gifts can join The II. The story covers the climatic and intense downfall of The II and ultimately Nora herself as everything she’s ever known is destroyed and she’s the last to accept it if she ever really does. She has at least 3 romantic partners over the course of the series but I’m unsure if I want her to end up Ren, her enemies to lovers man from outside the city limits who understands her far too well, her ex Gio who abandoned her in order to join the resistance but always comes back for her whenever she needs him, end up with them both in a throuple, or if she should end up alone! It’s a huge world and many OCs within this world.

The working title of this next one is called Grimoire Gargoyles! It features Giselle who’s a librarian working in France at a super old library. She finds herself in the restricted section and reads out loud from a book. Accidentally releasing two French Revolution Gargoyles from their prison stuck on top of the library. Now that Francois and Bastien are free they try and leave but find themselves drawn back to Giselle. Revealing themselves to her she isn’t afraid given that monsters are a normal sight in their world. Though Gargoyles have been extinct since the Revolution. Together they work together to try and finish the spell to release them from their curse and fall in love along the way.

More include a heist trilogy with a Dragon jeweler for the King and a thief, a dryad who accidentally performs a mating ritual with an ancient dragon at a festival celebrating his supposed vanquishing, a vampire stalker who stalks a human after tasting her blood for the first time but then stops and she starts stalking him bc she’s upset he stopped stalking her, a dragon hybrid and a griffin hybrid who exchange mating symbols as kids and basically betroth themselves to each other but he’s meant to marry her sister and years later they go through the marriage trials together not knowing it’s impossible for him to marry someone else.

Other Book OCs

My oldest OCs are from last November and it’s called Crafting Constellations. It’s an elf world and all high fantasy. The first book follows Soleil and Peracles. Peracles is the heir to a Kingdom that’s only ever had female rulers and Soleil is his general. They have a forbidden romance going on and have to work together to figure out the evil plot against the crown by an unknown force. See art of them here. Its sequel features Cane, Peracles’ royal advisor and Soleil’s ex, in his heartbreak when he saves Pera from being poisoned. He gets into an enemies to lovers with Pera’s assassin named Astraea. Then the third book features the antagonist as the main character Nova and she kidnaps Viyan, a co-worker of sorts with Astraea in order to get revenge. Then I have a secondary series featuring all 4 of Peracles’ brothers with love interests. Also a prequel that’s a sapphic tragedy with Peracles mother and her own general.

Then my second oldest OCs named Prudence and Narada. It’s another sci-fi fantasy series. Prudence is a part of a faction that has the power to get into another persons mind and read it and control it. A long time ago her faction was deemed too dangerous to stay alive so they made them extinct. And for over 100 years they’ve been living in secret and pulling the strings of their entire world Janeus. Her coven sees into the future and ensures fate stays on course. So they kill the emperor of one of the empires so that his son takes over: Narada. Prue goes there, hiding her eyes as their powers are revealed through eye color. And she successfully manipulates him but they fall for each other along the way and she ends up betraying her coven and revealing herself and their plan for the young emperor. Prue is convinced that she can fix things and manipulate fate all on her own but their world slowly begins to perish and she realizes her mistake. When she gets a “chosen one” prophecy with herself as the one to defeat, she learns to accept fate and that you can’t control it as she thought.

More include a fae hunter x fae lord that’s kinda similar to Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride lol, two demons and a human working at a casino and underground fighting ring that helps them hide from the world when their pasts catch up to them, and a biblical apocalypse where the world is split into the seven deadly sins and the Lord of Greed and a man working for the Lord of Lust inadvertently work to bring the second coming of Christ.

And I’m sure there’s even more that I’ve forgotten or that have slipped my mind!! I have so many plots in my head that it’s hard to focus on any of them lol.

[autisticfoxgirl333]

Here is an post of one of my OCs Saturnia! Full Description of her is below!

Saturnia

Full Name: Saturnia

Nicknames: Nia, Our Outer Space Friend, Alien Girl, Adonia (Human guise)

Gender: Female

Species: Alien (Stellaxian)

Body Type: Tall, Curvy, Slightly medium hips

Hair Color: Blue with purple accents

Eye Color: Black with stars on each opposite side.

Age: 15 (Earth age), 150 (True Age)

Height: 174.08 cm

Sexuality: ???

Occupation: None

Homeland: Lives in a planet that looks like Saturn, but is more blue-greenish. It is called Stellaxia.

Birthday: June 17th

Family: Titanio (Father), Narvia (Mother; deceased)

Favorite Color: Purple and Blue

Favorite Food: Eats about anything, but mostly likes ice cream, hamburgers, salads, and cookies.

Likes: Learning about Earth, stars, space, boba tea (especially the galaxy one), grape soda, literature (especially the sci-fi ones), sampling cuisines, going on adventures with her friends, sci-fi shows and movies on Earth, cooking, space music, butterflies and moths, inventions, the planet Saturn

Dislikes: Her father upset, wars, invasions, praying mantises, her inventions failing, seeing the Earth or her planet in harm or threatened, eating expired food, awful sounds or smells, someone stepping on her tail, flies, cockroaches, anyone insulting the things she loves

Fears: Losing her friends or her father, losing her home planet or the Earth, cockroaches, wars (The last war back from her planet traumatized her), becoming evil, dissection (she had learned what humans would do to other aliens if they were caught, although that doesn’t stop her from making friends with or protecting humans.)

Personality: Kind, helpful, highly intelligent, curious, loves to learn, loyal, faithful

Powers: High Intelligence (She is an alien after all), can sense with her antennas, and stomach any food, even raw ones (except for expired or real old food), skilled inventor, can change her language

Facts: -Saturnia shares her love of space like my other OC Itsuki/Galaxy Girl.

-Despite having a big liking for Earth, her favorite planet is Saturn because of its rings.

-Her mother, Narvia, died from an unknown illness when she was seven years old.

- She came to Earth to learn more about it after learning it also has life like her planet.

-She likes to tie her hair into buns because they look like planets.

- She rides on a U.F.O her other alien friend Millete and their families made for her on her 13th birthday.

-While she loves her father Titanio, she is a bit uncomfortable about his overprotectiveness after her mother’s death.

- She has a GINORMOUS appetite, can eat any food, even raw ones. Her kind has two stomachs with strong acid to digest their food more, and they can eat up to 9 million calories. Despite their crazy appetites, they have no hunger pains or the need to feel hunger, so they can hold on to their appetites easily. However, she cannot stomach expired foods, she tried a can of tuna that was 10 years old and ended up throwing it back up into a gross, greenish, slightly digested mess.

-She shares her love of stars and space from her late mother.

-Saturnia has an old star-alien-bunny plushie her late mother made for her when she was a baby. She still holds on to it to keep her close to her. She named it “Mr. Starbun”.

-Being a highly intelligent alien, she is very skilled at inventing, she has made lasers and galactic weapons for defense. Despite being intelligent, she still needs to learn more about some stuff more on Earth, such as trying to learn how things on Earth works.

- She does not enjoy having her tail stepped on, it is very sensitive. Her kind’s tails also have a nerve that is connected to their spines and their brains.

- She is terrified of wars, it was back when her kind was on a brutal war with another species from another planet, she was young back then, the sight of dead corpses of the species and hers, as well as the blood splattered across her face from one being killed and the thought of her family suffering the same fate had left her a crying, traumatized mess. Her father and her family managed to help her recover after the war, but she had never forgotten about the horrible war.

-She is against alien invasions as well, she believes that planets are meant to be learned and discovered, not invaded and conquered. As such she will defend the Earth and her home planet from evil alien conquerors with her spaceship.

-She can feel senses with her antennas, she doesn’t have a nose so she can sense smell with her antennas as well as her hearing. Her antennas are sensitive to loud hearing and awful smells can make her want to vomit.

-She enjoys biology on Earth, her favorite science parts are zoology and astrology.

-She has interest in insects, her favorite one are the butterflies and moths due to their colors and patterns on their wings and having antennas too. That said, she does not like flies as they start to get on her alien nerves, cockroaches gross her out and give her the creeps.

- Saturnia will often call her family to check up on them on one of her inventions that looks like a phone when on Earth. She lets them know she is alright, but she still needs to make sure her father doesn’t get too worried about her on Earth.

[tildeathiwillwrite]

Tag Game: Writeblr Interview

Thanks to @cowboybrunch for the tag, this looks fun!

Long post incoming.

----------

Short stories, novels, or poems?

I find I end up with novelette/novella-length stories more often than not. I've written plenty of one-shots and short stories for prompt events, and I like doing that especially when I'm doing fanfiction or nameless characters. When I write with ocs though I tend to stretch stuff out and what had originally started as a one-shot or short story ends up becoming a novella.

Don't get me wrong I have plenty of WIPs planned out to be novels (like Trials of the Six), but the first drafts of The Hunter, the Myth and the Cure and The Legend of Orian Goldeneye were both novella-length and will probably stay that way or end up being longer. My Hero x Villain series ended up being a novelette, so basically I can't plan for how long a story's gonna be lol.

I've written a little bit of poetry (heck, I wrote one for The Legend of Orian Goldeneye that may or may not get cut), but it's not my favorite thing to write because I way overthink things. But when I do compose poetry I usually do limericks.

What genre do you prefer reading?

Fantasy, no contest. And within fantasy, usually High Fantasy with a lightcore or hopecore focus. I read some gritty stuff, but I find they tend to have elements I don't really like more than the ones I do.

Are you a planner or a write as I go kind of person?

Both? I like having an idea of where the story's gonna go, and I plan that out either before writing or while writing, so I don't get stuck. But it's really loose and gives plenty of room for the characters to go feral. I'm in the middle, but I lean more panster than plotter.

What music do you listen to while writing?

Soundtracks, usually from videogames or movies. I really should start organizing my two writing playlists by vibes other than calming music and boss fight-type, but I'm pretty happy with how I have it now. I also have some seasonal aesthetic playlists which match the vibe of the current weather.

Field Music Playlist (calming background soundtracks)

Boss Fight Playlist (pump-up, more exciting soundtracks)

Seasonal Aesthetics: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter

Favorite books/movies?

Oh goodness.

Uhhhh. UHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

My knee-jerk answer for favorite movie is and always will be The Princess Bride. But I also really like Back to the Future, The Martian, and Clue.

With books I tend to separate them into categories. For fantasy I would say it's a tie between Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, The Death Gate Cycle: Hand of Chaos by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson, and Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynn Jones.

For sci-fi it's The Martian by Andy Weir, followed closely by Skyward by Brandon Sanderson.

My favorite classic is Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, followed by Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin.

And for nonfiction I like Stuck by Justina Van Manen, The Healing Imperative by Mike Aquilina, and Beautiful Holiness by Kathleen Beckman.

And of course the Holy Bible and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Any current WIPs?

This post is getting long enough already, I talk about my WIPs here and they're all linked in my pinned post in one way or another.

Create a character description of yourself:

Quiet, and keeps to herself. Never without a book, never without a rosary. Her brown hair is long, reaching nearly past her waist, and often kept up in a ponytail or a braid. She dresses mostly in dark colors, black jeans or skirt and a shirt or blouse that is black, navy, or gray, but occasionally wears a bright shirt. She wears little to no makeup unless she feels like being extra fancy. She always has a ring on her right hand, and usually a bracelet that matches her outfit, both of which she fiddles with. Her friends are few but she loves them dearly, and they are often on her mind. Though she may be quiet most of the time, she never hesitates to speak up for what she believes in.

Do you like incorporating actual people you know into your writing?

Eh... not really. I know my own thoughts and experiences much better than those around me and I wouldn't wish a lot of the stuff I do to my characters on the people I know so it just feels kinda weird to me.

Are you kill happy with your characters?

I find I like to bring my characters to the brink of death and back again rather than just killing them unless I want to write about grief. I'm more kill happy with immortal characters for the same reason.

Coffee or Tea while writing?

Usually just water, but if I can get my favorite iced coffee drink than I'd be happy to drink that.

Slow or fast writer?

It varies depending on the amount of research I have to do in a scene, but I think I write pretty fast. I haven't measured my words-per-minute in a while but it was pretty good if I recall correctly.

If you were in a fantasy world, what would you be?

I'd love to be a guide of some kind, part of the group enough that I won't get killed off. I'm pretty good with navigation and maps, and I'd like to have powers (minor ones, not overpowered) but that would depend on the fantasy world.

Most fav book cliche:

Scoundrel with a heart of gold. I eat that up like a starving woman. Han Solo, Mat Cauthon, Ifan Ben-Medz, etc. Draven Cozenson, Diana Ozborne and Korfel Domin are two oc examples.

Least favorite cliche:

Love triangles. Frustrates me to no end, especially how most of them are resolved and how they really only seem to drive wedges in the fandoms (Keeper of the Lost Cities fandom, I'm looking at you.) I have no love triangles in my stories and I never will. I have minimal romance anyway but in the two I got there is no competition.

Favorite scene to write?

*evil grin* Love writing the whump or hurt/comfort scenes, all my ocs get whumped in some form or another, and I have fun every single time.

Reason for writing?

Creative expression, love for my ocs, with a dash of "I maked these :D"

In all seriousness, it's a hobby that I love. It sparks joy and it's a craft that I continuously improve upon and the more I write the better I get at writing. I also occasionally fantasize about publishing one day and my books having fandoms of their own. Maybe that will happen someday.

----------

This was fun! Tagging @fourwingedwriter @phoenixradiant @thewritingautisticat @writingphoenix @somethingclevermahogony

@agirlandherquill @happypup-kitcat24 @imsoveryveryconfusedatlife @geode-crystal @pluttskutt and open tag! :D

Blank list under the cut:

Short stories, novels, or poems?

What genre do you prefer reading?

Are you a planner or a write as I go kind of person?

What music do you listen to while writing?

Favorite books/movies?

Any current WIPs?

Create a character description of yourself:

Do you like incorporating actual people you know into your writing?

Are you kill happy with your characters?

Coffee or Tea while writing?

Slow or fast writer?

If you were in a fantasy world, what would you be?

Most fav book cliche:

Least favorite cliche:

Favorite scene to write?

Reason for writing?

[whumpy-wyrms]

Whump intro post!

hi whumpblr! i'm Jay (he/it/xe) and i've been lurking in the whump community for over a year now and finally decided to make my own whump blog! i plan start posting some of my writing and art soon. i've liked whump all my life, but didn't find the word or community since may 2022. i'm also interested in giant/tiny and might reblog or draw that stuff too (might make a side blog for g/t specifically, idk). i'm a minor (17) so there will never be any nsfw here.

(EDIT: i’m now an adult (my birthday is march 12) but there still won’t be any nsfw here, and i will tag anything related to gore/body horror. i also now have a g/t sideblog which is @tiny-wyrms!)

i have a whole whump series i've been planning for over a year and just finished writing the first chapter of (and posted a few chapters!!) Also, i hate unhappy endings so everything i write i will try to give a satisfying ending. i've never shown my writing or ocs to anyone before, so i'm super nervous but also excited! here's a little synopsis of what i have planned :P

The Last Lab Rat: Dew's relatively normal and boring life changed when he was kidnapped by a mad scientist named Anton, who planned to use Dew as his new human test subject for experiments. Dew, who is scared out of his mind, now has to try gaining his captor’s trust while he slowly plans his escape, all while enduring experiments that make him not quite human anymore.

There's also a whumpee-turned-caretaker, Max, who shows up later but i'm not gonna talk about them just yet to avoid spoilers :)

general content warnings for TLLR: lab whump, wing whump, eye whump, mind control, captivity, torture, experimentation, immortality, clones, ghosts, carewhumper, transgender whumpee

also there's a little doodle of Dew i made :))

here’s some of my favorite whump blogs: @whumpsday @jordanstrophe @avvail-whumps @whumpwillow @painsandconfusion @suspicious-whumping-egg @oddsconvert @shywhumpauthor @wolfeyedwitch @whump-me-all-night-long @hurtthemgently

favorite tropes: carewhumpers!! fear, begging, kidnapping, manhandling, captivity, drugging, restraints, mind control, nonhuman characters (alien, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, fae etc.), whumper turned caretaker, sadistic whumpers, defiant whumpees, compliant/scared whumpees, immoral characters, lab whump, tiny whump, sci-fi and fantasy whump, nightmares, hurt/comfort, happy endings, curruption/redemption arcs, gore, cannibalism, pet whump

dislikes/meh (things i probably won't write or read about, but there are some exceptions): made to watch/hurt, broken/conditioned whumpees, conditioning, dehumanization, major character deaths, unhappy endings, sickfics, hurt/no comfort, BBU, institutionalized pet whump/slavery, whump without whumpers, parental whumpers/caretakers

squicks (things i will never interact with): animal abuse, child abuse, pregnancy whump, bigoted characters (transphobic/ableist whumpers specifically), explicit nsfw whump/noncon/dubcon (i’m fine with reading it if it’s just mentioned or not described in detail)

really excited to finally start being part of the community! :D

[emberglowfox]

hi can you please tell me about those two brainfused characters from the art that used "In Two" lyrics? Your ocs seem v interesting i am Intrigued

omg hiiii thank you

yes so the two characters in the in two drawing are arthur and zarian, the protagonists of my oc story, steelheart! arthur is a human, while zarian is a (conscious, autonomous) futuristic robot called a DRACO, specifically a v1 model.

i touched on it vaguely in this post, but more specifically the deal with DRACOs is this: they're supposed to be mind-controlled jet-motorcycles (that happen to look like dragons, because why not). they interface with the brain of their pilot via an implant attached to the spinal cord, which also serves as a storage compartment that the DRACO can de-materialize into for transport and charging/refueling (how? idk. sci fi future tech hand waving.) the implants look vaguely like this:

the main takeaway of this is that the DRACOs are 1) permanently connected to their pilot and 2) have like. direct access to the pilot's brain

now these things were not made with the whole 'the robots end up being self-aware and conscious' thing in mind, so being connected to an Awake one is... VERY weird. while DRACOs and pilots can't read each other's thoughts, exactly, they can communicate mentally, either by 'speaking' (like. thinking very clearly and distinctly, kind of) or just pushing abstract thoughts and emotions at each other. they're also very in tune with each other, like vaguely aware of where the other is at all times like you would be a limb, unconsciously mirroring each other, etc. aware DRACOs also 'borrow' senses that they don't have from their pilot (as in feel what the pilot feels), such as taste/smell, or sight and hearing when they're de-materialized.

so... not brainfused in the sense that two beings are now ones, but more like two beings semi-sharing a brain and even a body at times.

arthur and zarian get linked (as in, arthur gets the spinal implant) COMPLETELY by accident and have to contend with all this rather abruptly. as you can imagine, suddenly sharing your brain with a stranger (especially one who you thought was/is trying to kill you, and/or maybe possess you, because giant evil vampire robot) doesn't go over great.

but it works out, and they end up weird clingy besties! they're kind of like an opposites-attract situation where they bring out their own traits in the other. zarian is very snarky and a bit defensive, which brings out arthur's more sarcastic side and encourages him to stand up for himself. arthur, meanwhile, is a bit more emotional and playful, and helps zarian learn how to have fun and connect with others.

they're losers and they're my favorite guys ever. it's great

[muppenthings]

akjsfh i'll say it again I love your ocs (Gorm especially has a special place in my heart)!

When things calm down and he can start to interact with people safely, what things/topics about the human world would interest him the most? And would there be an instance that convinces Gorm to start to befriend people again?

Aayyyyoo I'm just happy my blorbs brings joy! ;o;

He'll be very interested in learning about places that he can't go to or normally see. Learn about snowy mountains or blazing deserts and explore the small worlds of insects and mushrooms. But he'll for sure be the most interested in space. The vastness of it and the solar systems and galaxies. And by extension, he'll be a big sucker for the whole sci-fi genre and the concept of aliens even if it's all fictive. xD

As for what later convinces Gorm to make friends with people again, it's actually many instances leading up to one! When Gorm recognizes a person and finds that he's starting to like them, he'll immediately distance himself from them. Que an extremely confused person because they're being completely ignored and avoided all of a sudden.

And that didn't sit well with them.

So they became very stubborn in getting Gorm to interact with them again.

They did manage to get his attention in the end. And while Gorm may not have caught everything that was verbally thrown at him, he understood that the human was upset with him. And realizing that he was being hurtful just like the captain had been, he apologized in his own way.

The person had really shown that they actively wanted to interact with him so he decided to start trusting again and slowly make friends. :)

[yeahyeahbeebiss1]

more fallout new vegas ocs. i’m normal. i’m normal i’m n

left: Diane, a bartender/server at the Ultra Luxe. She had her arm and leg blown off by powder gangers in her prospecting days, but was rescued by a caravan guarded by a particular ghoul who helped fashion her a makeshift prosthetic until she could find proper ones. She tried to stay in touch with the ghoul, but couldn’t find her after she was dropped off. She garnered quite a reputation on the strip, and was invited into the White Glove Society by Marjorie, who thought she was peculiar. Shes very sneaky and a great eavesdropper, but tends to get caught a lot, which got her blackmailed into working with Mortimer. She isn’t a cannibal, but plans to serve people at the Gourmand human meat under his guidance. She has only come into minimal contact with any of the other ocs, except for Roja. She knows of Vesta’s existence though, she’s very aware of his bullshit.

right: the character from the post i made a while ago! Kingsley, who works for the followers of the apocalypse. Before the war, he was famous author Henry Kingsley, who wrote sci-fi novels. He was known for being quite vain and particular about his books. He was at a signing the day the bombs dropped, and for years was obsessed with scavenging the wasteland for copies of his books to try to regain some semblance of fame. Staying alive for that many years though has gained him quite a few skills. He’s surprisingly strong, despite looking pretty meek. (high str high int low end) and has a lot of scientific and medical knowledge he picked up. He eventually joined the followers as a surgeon, but mostly just cuts peoples limbs off and gives them med x, it’s a rough job, but it makes him happy. He’s had direct contact with all 3 of my other new vegas ocs, aiding Diane, and being a close acquaintance of Vesta and Roja.

[arcielee]

Interview With a Writer

Thank you @2kmps for helping me continue this series and giving us some insight into the brilliant process that created this piece!

As always, here is the masterlist to my Interview With a Writer series and the other talented individuals who allow me to continue this self-indulgent series! 💜

Name: 2kmps

Story: Opaque

Paring: OC android x reader

Warnings: 18+ mature themes. Be mindful of warnings.

Where did the idea for Opaque come from?

So, like a lot of my ideas, writing an android x reader story was on my eventual "to write" that just ended up prioritized because of the rise in AI and the anti-abortion laws passed in the US. Even in original concepts, Opaque was always meant to be scathing, uncomfortable social commentary and a bleak, sci-fi interpretation of a future where autonomy and privacy just simply don't exist.

People have lost the ability for emotional connection and now seek it in the form of androids. The story has always been big ideas that I felt I could never articulate until I actually tried. I stand behind calling it my best work to date.

Can you share about your method to the madness?

So, my writing process is... a little bit everywhere.

Typically, I decide to pick up a project because I've accumulated a handful of "main plot points" that are coherent enough to build something out of them. Once that happens, I'll start outlining the story which can be a terribly chaotic process. I usually wind up with three rewritten outlines as opposed to multiple story drafts. My outlines are painstakingly detailed so that I don't forget any important areas to cover in a piece. Following that comes the "concept pieces" wherein I take the overall theme of the story, or one particular plot point and write it out to see how it feels, if it inspires anything, how it's received. The actual writing starts after that and usually takes me at minimum, a month, usually more if the story idea is complex.

A lot of times I'll rework ideas from my outline into something else entirely in the final piece because writing is just that way. I write and edit completely from the "first draft" and have proofreaders to, ah, help me clean house because my writing before being polished tends to be everywhere.

Were you already aware of how it was going to end?

Yes and no. No, because there have been multiple endings that outlined and rewrote and over and over. Yes, because all of those endings were extremely similar to one another and what exists now is an amalgam of all of them together. To me, it represents someone waking up for the first time in their life, and sometimes it takes the sort of journey and final outcome for that to happen.

But, of course, I firmly believe in "death of the author", so however a reader interprets the ending is also accurate.

Was there anything in specific that inspired your Reader portrayal?

The only specific that I had for the reader-character we was that they were DEFINITELY a part of the world that they exist in. I didn't want to create a reader-character who was the exception, but rather could fade away into the crowd. I wanted them to become the exception through the events that happen in the story. And, even by the end, you're left wondering exactly how much they can be set apart from the society in which they were raised.

Can you explain your inspiration for Researcher Kim? What was it that drives Kim? And what made him decide of Reader to become the next auditor?

Researcher Kim chose the reader-character to be an auditor because he knew that they were in a precarious situation and falsifying information on their resume. In this world, to do such a thing will earn you a "strike" on your public profile, which is the only real lifeline you have in this world from being turned into an outcast and forgotten. Researcher Kim banked on the Reader's dishonesty and used it as a means to get full cooperation and devotion to the work he had the Reader to be an auditor.

Can you explain your interpretation of Elio? What drives him to sentience?

Elio is probably one of the most complex characters I've ever written despite being an android. What's important to understand is that Elio is a machine, designed and programmed to be in servitude to humans and comply with whatever request they might have, regardless of what it is. He has always meant to be a foil to the Reader—always meant to ask the hard questions to make the Reader uncomfortable, to start thinking individually. The first few exchanges between them really convey that. However, Elio, himself, says he is superior to his predecessors because of what he is capable of doing. He's able to emulate human emotions in a formerly unprecedented way. He is convincingly humanlike, but still has the habits and mannerisms that really solidify that he's an android.

Whether or not Elio develops "real love" for the Reader by the end is entirely reader interpretation. The ending shows a sort of a selfishness and selflessness that would be too contradictory for any other android. He was driven in the beginning to fulfill his programming, but by the end was driven by a desire to have something belong to only him.

Do you think you would ever write a sequel?

This particular story and set of characters I'm unlikely to revisit outside of brief mentions. But, there is another story that I'd like to write someday within the same world where a reader-character is part of Hyperion staff and winds up in cahoots with a "defected" android hellbent on destroying the conglomerate.

Do you have another WIP in progress?

I have multiple WIPs in progress, honestly. I'm working on a longfic for The Ghoul from Fallout, "Better to Eat Than to Be Eaten", the second half of a Getō Suguru fic, "Persimmon & Ink", and I'm in the early development stages of an original longfic that is sleep paralysis demon x reader titled "Incubus Phenomenon".

Following these, I'll be beginning my neo-western epic "See How the Cat Jumps" which is largely a romance and revenge story. Writing wise, I've got a full plate!

Do you have any stories recently read that you enjoyed on Tumblr or ao3?

A story that I'd love more people to read is "Sepulchral" by @ashestoroses018 on Tumblr. It's a greek mythology inspired romance that's Hades x Reader. In the story, the Reader journeys to the Underworld for their younger brother's soul. This author and I have been best friends in real life for well over ten years now, so her work is special to me. Additionally, I think her writing style is approachable and would resonate with many people

[mildlybizarrecorvid]

Time to learn about OCs, class

So if you've not seen my post about Thirlens either track that down or tell me how to link a post, because the ones discussed here are Thirlens.

They'll be introduced with pronouns, but that's just what they use in English, they've still got their own stuff going on.

Alice (she/her) is the child or Simon (he/him) Elizabeth (she/he) and Edmund (xe/xem). And that situation ended up being a bit of a mess. Ya see, even though this world had gotten to the point you didn't need income or a fancy job or anything, there was still a great deal of prestige placed on government work. Meanwhile, Simon's an ambitious lil fecker, so he's acting as a bit of a workaholic. At first, things are still alright on the homefront, but Elizabeth begins to feel like Simon's focusing more on himself then the overall family unit. This eventually results in a big 'fuck you' moment, before Elizabeth joins some space exploration program (this is sci-fi, it's slightly less insane for them). Shortly after, his ship disappears and Simon feels like that's all his fault (justifiably). Unfortunately, he goes entirely the wrong direction, going all "oh woe is me, my partner is dead by mine own hand, whatever shall I do with myself" while there's still like. A whole other partner and a child who just lost someone too. Simon's kind of a jerk, as you can likely see. Edmund eventually leaves him, and while custody is shared, Simon has the larger share because of the prestige of his government work.

As Alice starts to grow up, she becomes interested in also working in similar fields, due to the fact that one parents been missing most of her life, one vaguely supports her no matter what, leaving the last box unchecked the dumpsterfire who keeps getting promoted (yeah he ends up leading a coup). Around the time he's about the third most important official a mission comes up to see if some planet would be decent to conquer (Thirlens aren't typically warlike, but Simon's up to some late 20th century CIA shit). It's earth, and Alice volunteers for the hope of parental pride, and gets shipped off.

Shortly after she arrives, she wanders into a restaurant with Dialtone (first OC I discussed, please do tell me if I can link posts or something) and speedruns what she thinks is friendship, because she's new here. Dialtone is then kidnapped by thugs from her original place of employment, rescued by Alice, and they end up being roommates.

[sylphofspaceyuri]

Re: your post on writing an intersex character. I wanna start off by saying that "intersex" is not a subset of "nonbinary", and in fact has nothing to do with gender at all. "Intersex" means "has sexual characteristics that don't quite fit in the male/female dichotomy" (so for exemple, "having a lot of body hair" would be a common intersex trait. It's called hirsutism btw look it up.) Intersex people can be trans, can be cis, can be non binary, can be gnc, just bear in mind that "being intersex" doesn't imply any of the above necesarily.

(Sorry if you already knew about that part, but "intersex = nb" is a VERY pervasive misconceptions especially in queer spaces, so anytime someone asks for info on intersex people I need to start with the big disclaimer of "INTERSEX IS NOT A GENDER THING, YOU CAN GIVE YOUR CHARACTER GENDER IF YOU WANT BUT KNOW THAT IT'S NOT LINKED TO BEING INTERSEX")

Anyways. Being intersex can manifests itself in a variety of ways, including but not limited to: genitals, gonads, chromosomes, hormones, secondary sexual characteristics, and probably a bunch of others I forgot about. If your character is intersex, this is gonna have an impact on their appearance, and possibly their health (since plenty of intersex conditions are disabling.) My advice is to either look up one specific condition (like Swyer syndrome) and then look at all the ways it would impact your character, or look at whatever traits you wanna give your character (like hirsutism as mentioned above), and look up whatever intersex condition could lead to that to reverse engineer how being intersex would impact your oc. If the variation you end up picking for your character is disabling, then you might have to mention whatever treatment she's undergoing to aleviate the symptoms (ie intersex people with hormonal imbalance REALLY need their T and/or E.)

(Also, sorry again if you're already informed, but again it's a common misconception so I gotta say it: there is no such a thing as having "both functional equipments." Futanaris aren't real. Genital intersex variations are usually more along the lines of "having a huge clit" "having a micropenis" "having a very shallow vagina" and the likes. And as I said prior, there are plenty of intersex variations that don't affect the junk at all.)

I don't know the setting you're writing, but if it's our modern world or something similar, then growing up in a society that enforces the sex binary is gonna have a huge impact on your character too. IRL, there is a LOT of medical malpractice related to "fixing" intersex children (either as infant, or when puberty kicks in "wrong"). It's also very common for intersex people to not know fully what's up with their body, because hospitals tend to straight up lie on your medical file about the fact that they did cosmetic surgery on your junk. If medical malpractice doesn't apply to your character, there might still be some issues with "puberty hit and everyone is growing differently than me what's up with that" "none of the biology books look even remotely like me that's weird" at best and "everyone insists my body is wrong for some reason and they're trying to force me back into a binary I do not understand" at worst.

Hope that helped! I highly recommend you look up your local intersex activist group, these usually have extensive FAQs on what intersex means, what are the intersex fighting subjects, common intersex experiences, ect.

Hi yes this is very helpful!

I do know a fair few of these things so I'm better off saying what I did not know and other information

-I did not know many of the actual terms like hirsutism and swyer syndrome

-In regards to setting, it's a post revolution sci fi world where things are A Lot Better so she is treated well socially, though the environment she is in is not a good one so I think that will create some deep insecurity and internalized issues with some of the more disabling factors of being intersex. Namely, the criminal faction she is in is extremist in nature and deeply ableist due to their mentality surrounding physical and mental strength, I imagine her treatment there would be "you can be intersex but only if it doesn't impair your capabilities in combat" which she may be deeply insecure about

-I VERY much appreciate you citing that activist thing, I will definitely use that it sounds incredibly helpful

-The intersex ≠ trans, cis, etc thing is quite helpful too! It helps me figure the proper terms for her, I think cisgender applies to her as she's very comfortable with her sex given that she's lived with it into her late 30s at the current timeline

-The other experiences cited like "puberty hit and everyone else is growing up differently" may be very helpful when fleshing out her childhood, which I need to do more of anyway

And no need to apologize for mentioning the misconceptions and such! I understand, while I do know about those things I appreciate the detail and attentiveness

[hiddlesdeni]

The guy from Hellfire Shop

Hi guys, here I am with this idea I had on my mind for a while. This fic is originally in italian, so if you see some mistakes, I pleeeeease ask you to letting me know, so I will correct them. When 2 years ago a tried to post this nobody read it, so I post the prologue for now and if you'll like it, I'll go on. Let me know what do you think about it. Should I post the first chapter?

AU sci-fi - distopic - Eddie x oc

Prologue - Chapter 1

Summary

2024: The planet is controlled by ruthless, sentient androids, creating an unlivable environment for humans. However, Hawkins is one of the few towns that have managed to escape their control, where the residents are forced to hide to avoid being discovered by the "sentinels" patrolling the area. Eddie Munson is an eccentric young man considered a misfit, the owner of the Hellfire Shop on the outskirts of Hawkins, a place located in an old, abandoned gas station surrounded by nothingness. It is there that Paige ends up after a rebellion against the androids forces her to flee from her city.

Prologue

When Paige fell to her knees, it was almost like feeling them break. She was so exhausted that she found herself on all fours on the cold asphalt. Her hand scraped as soon as it hit the ground. She lifted it to inspect the damage: there was no blood, but the red mark stung. Yet, it seemed insignificant compared to the rest of her condition.

Her feet throbbed, and she could feel them swollen inside her sneakers. Those laces were now tight compared to when she had started to walk, to the point that she felt the need to take off her shoes and leave them somewhere to continue barefoot. But how would she endure the feeling of the asphalt scratching her skin?

She cried without even realizing when she had started, yet she found herself wiping her cheeks with the sleeve of her sweatshirt.

No, she had to get up, she had to keep walking, and she had to make it, despite the darkness of the night, despite the fatigue. She took one, two, three deep breaths, then gathered her strength and stood up with an effort she herself thought was inhuman. An effort so overwhelming and intense that at the first step, she found herself back on all fours on the asphalt.

A desperate sob escaped her, which she immediately stifled behind the palm of her hand. She couldn't make any noise and had to find a way to pull herself together and keep walking. But she was so tired that she would have preferred to lie down there in the middle of that deserted road and be found, no matter what would happen to her; she just wanted to close her eyes and rest, regain the strength she had lost.

With trembling hands, she retrieved the small backpack she had been carrying on her shoulder and emptied it completely onto the asphalt, turning it upside down and shaking it. Out fell some batteries, an analog wristwatch, a slightly faded and crumpled map, a wallet with a few coins inside and nothing else, some bandages dirty with soil, a sealed letter envelope, an old leather-covered diary, some empty paper bags, and wrappers of snacks that were long gone. Finally, the water bottle clattered loudly as it hit the ground. Paige grabbed it and unscrewed the cap. She went to take a sip but realized that nothing came out of it.

“Shit!” she exclaimed, tears still streaking her face as she reluctantly screwed the cap back on.

She couldn't even remember the last time she had eaten or drunk anything. She felt dehydrated, hungry, and on the verge of fainting at any moment. If she hadn't died from what happened at home, she would die like this, running away from a situation that she already knew would eventually kill her.

Another long sigh, and she hurriedly put everything back into the backpack, then slung it over her shoulder and lifted her gaze in front of her: there was a light in the distance, the only one that didn’t come from the flashlight hanging on her belt. In other circumstances, she would have considered it a good thing, a chance to ask for help, but now that only meant danger. It was surely a sentinel, and she couldn’t let herself be seen for any reason in the world. She needed to move from there, get off the road, even though she could barely move. She looked around and realized that the woods framing the road might be the solution she was looking for.

With the last bit of willpower and survival instinct she had left, the only thing she managed to do was literally crawl toward the ground on her left. She went in further among the trees, dragging herself with her arms as if she were dead weight, then hid behind the trunk of a tree and leaned her exhausted back against it. She had never thought that something so simple as leaning against something could bring her relief, yet it did. After all, she hadn’t stopped even once to rest.

Now she just had to stay quiet and wait for the sentinel to complete its patrol. She heard it pass by on the road, its wheels creaking on the asphalt, and its blue light illuminating everything in front of it like a beacon. Nothing would escape that light, so she was glad to be behind that trunk; otherwise, that damned android would have detected her, and her escape would have lost all meaning.

She remained motionless until the sentinel became just a blue dot in the distance, then she told herself she had to keep walking in the opposite direction. But her legs didn’t respond to the commands from her brain, and she had to accept the idea of resting… just a little, just a couple of minutes. Paige fell asleep with the fear that she might never wake up again, overcome by exhaustion, hunger, or thirst.

Not even her survival instinct had helped her in that moment.

When she woke up, she did so with a start; she had a terrible nightmare that she couldn’t even remember, yet it helped her because her heart was racing in her chest, making her realize she was still alive and hadn’t died in her sleep.

She looked up at the sky, and it was still pitch dark. She couldn’t tell if she had slept for an entire day and the sun had set again, or if she had only slept for a few hours.

She tried to move and almost screamed from the sharp pains in her back caused by the position she had slept in. Her legs and feet were still throbbing with pain, and that sleep had only given her a terrible headache. Paige, however, didn’t want to die. She used the trunk she had leaned against the whole time to stand up and get back on her feet. She cursed under her breath, then looked at the road: the sentinel was gone, and the surroundings had returned to complete darkness. She grabbed the flashlight hanging from her belt and turned it on to inspect her surroundings while desperately holding onto the trunk of that tree. She saw nothing but more road, more woods, and nothing else except a sign welcoming her to "Hawkins." She had never heard of that place before.

She looked again as far as her eyes could see and came to her own conclusions: Hawkins had to be a ghost town. She couldn’t spot any androids or signs of life. Her own town, where she came from, was a good example. She had never left it, but she remembered seeing lights and sensing the presence of androids and life forms even from a reasonable distance. And then, the sentinel that had patrolled the road didn’t seem to have detected anyone. But that could be a good thing: maybe the inhabitants who were no longer there had left some food, some water. She could get back on her feet.

It was this thought that managed to get her walking again.

She kept the flashlight pointed ahead the whole time as she limped toward what appeared to be an old shop at a gas station. The gas pumps were obviously old and out of use for years, and climbing plants and moss covered the exterior walls of the place. It was the only building around, and it seemed strange to her to see the windows boarded up with nailed wooden planks. The sign was almost unreadable, and it took her a moment to make out "Hellfire Shop" through the vines that covered it.

She approached, and when she placed her free hand on the wooden surface of the door, she realized just how tired she really was. Her forehead leaned against the rotten wood, and she managed to glimpse a faint, flickering candlelight through the cracks.

There was someone inside. How could there be someone there?

She didn’t think it could be dangerous because she noticed light bulbs hanging from the ceiling, indicating there was electricity, but someone had chosen not to use it. So, someone there was hiding and trying not to be detected by anyone.

She started banging on the door with her hands and used the faint thread of voice she had left to call for help. Could it be a trap? She didn’t know, but it was worth the risk. If she stayed out there, she would die of starvation anyway.

She pounded her fists on the rotten wood for a while, but no one came to open the door, and Paige found herself sobbing desperately, resigned to the idea that she would turn to ashes on those steps, that she would disappoint her parents, that she would disappoint her brother because she hadn’t managed to save herself. But then she heard slow footsteps getting closer and closer. Paige pressed her ear against the wooden door and realized she wasn’t imagining it, because now the footsteps were clearer.

“Please, open the door, please…” she said desperately, her sobs making it hard for her to speak. There was a moment of silence, then the door suddenly swung open, almost causing her to fall forward onto the steps. In front of her stood a strange guy with long dark brown hair, pointing a spear made from makeshift tools at her, and what seemed like the tin lid of a trash can, studded with sharp, rusty nails.

“Who the fuck are you?” he said, his tone a mix of defensive and threatening, though the first adjective seemed to suit him better at that moment. He wasn’t a threat; now she understood that. “I asked you, who the fuck are you!” Paige didn’t respond, but only because she realized she no longer had the strength. This was evident when, shortly after, she collapsed right there at the entrance and fainted.

The guy who had opened the door stood still for a moment, confused. He extended a foot and tried to nudge the girl to see if she was dead, unconscious, or just messing with him… but she didn’t move. He lowered the spear and his tin shield, observing her uncertainly until he noticed that Paige was visibly at her limit: deep, dark circles surrounded her eyes, her skin was covered in bruises and scratches, her lips were dry and cracked, and her hair was frizzy and partly covered in dirt. He even noticed her knees were bleeding because her jeans were stained.

This girl wasn’t a threat; she was in danger. He tossed the spear and shield aside, making a racket he paid no attention to, then quickly crouched to check if she was still alive. Her pulse was still there, and she was breathing, but he didn’t have time to do anything else before a beam of blue light appeared in the distance.

“Shit!” he exclaimed, and he was forced to drag her inside the shop, pulling her by the arms. “Shit, shit, shit,” he continued just before shutting the door the moment Paige was completely inside the room. Right after, he made sure to lift her and lay her on the couch, then rushed to blow out the candles, leaving only the one in the back of the room lit, as it was harder to spot. He quickly clambered over the clutter scattered throughout the shop, then returned to grab the spear and shield and slid down the door until he was sitting on the floor.

The sentinel’s wheels sped by on the asphalt, but Eddie Munson didn’t let his guard down even when he was sure it was gone.

He peeked through the cracks in the door, letting out a sigh of relief, then turned to look at the girl unconscious on his couch and rolled his eyes.

“Just what I needed,” he said, resigned.

[veeples]

writer interview

thanks for tagging me @narrativefoiltrope! <3 ik i don't really answer these ask/tag games v much anymore but i appreciate being tagged!

tagging: @lilas @bceky (teehee! i think it'd be fun if you answered on your game dev blog) and whoever wants to answer!

when did you start writing?

I definitely have clear memories of writing stories as early as 5th grade, so when I was like, 9-10 years old on an old Windows computer. And not too long after that, I started writing fanfiction for Inuyasha since I was obsessed as a kid.

I don't know if this counts, but in my professional job, I've been editing and sometimes writing policies for my lab for maybe four years now, but that's more technical writing than creative.

are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write?

I end up reading a lot of what friends recommend to me, but what I read the most are sci-fi, speculative fiction, memoirs, and horror/thriller/mysteries! I'm open to quite a bit tbh and have more fun talking about shared reads than reading itself.

is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often?

LMAO nah, I haven't published fanfic in 2 years at this point so there's really no reason to compare me to anything at all. Professional I follow a template my co-worker made since I find the break down to be helpful for ease of use. I like authors who are really, really good with economy of language and pack a lot of punch with less words but I can't think of a good example right now.

can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

It's either my phone at 11 pm when I should be sleeping or my dinky lil Target desk! I use two screens at work so I can compare other policies or bring up websites for product information though, so that feels kinda fancy.

what’s your most effective way to muster up a muse?

A lot like Erin I get inspired just chatting about OC head canons! Making up scenarios, usually in a jokey way, and wanting to explore it a little bit more in a drabble since I don't really do longform writing at all.

what’s your reason for writing?

For work it's just an extra project for me to have and do when I have free time, and I'm generally OK with it. It looks good on my yearly eval. Otherwise I just write as a hobby! Most of my writing I don't even share with other people </3. It's fun for me to do, I like my lil dolls and smacking them together. Art is harder and harder for me to do these days, so sometimes it's easier to just write a lil something when the need to create hits me.

is there any specific comment or type of comment you find particularly motivating?

If I do share my writing w/ friends a good keysmash or emoji reaction makes my day! <3 Or I love when people point out particular lines they really enjoyed.

how do you want to be thought about by your readers?

For my work, I just want the policies to be comprehensible, easy to navigate, and a useful source of information. I write them with the intent that if I were to come into the lab as a new person, I could refer to the technical documents and know how to perform that particular bench work.

Otherwise: my readers are just my friends, if they're having fun than I am too! And if you hated it don't tell me :(

what do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

Professionally I think I'm good at really getting down the nitty gritty details of how something is done. I know how I'd want it to read as someone who needs carefully detailed instructions, so I write for myself and I think it comes off as clear.

Creatively, I really don't know! I don't think I'm good at writing. Maybe my greatest strength is that I also don't give a fuck if I'm good or not??? If I'm not confident about it I'm just not sharing it lmao.

how do you feel about your own writing?

It's a creative outlet! I like getting to be indulgent, and I'm not as critical with my writing as I am with my art. :) I can be as experimental or serious as I want! But I also desperately want to delete old TWC fics/microfics that I posted on my main blog because I feel intense cringe at them at this point and don't want them to be seen anymore.

[identityarchitect]

What's HERDS?

@munlun-the-bard @verirothestar

HERDS is the name of an OCverse I recently started making notes for! It takes place in an sci-fi alternate modern day, where humanity as a whole is under threat from otherworldly beings called Incursions (or Outsiders). HERDS also happens to be the name of the only OC I have for it right now.

Incursions come from a separate reality that overlaps with ours called Otherworld, and they are not like any creature that originates from Earth. They can change shape at will and appear to lack cells, although scientific data on them is very incomplete. They are predators that prey on humanity, and are not known to have any (natural) predators of their own. Additionally, incursions are capable of limited environmental manipulation, and significant mental manipulation of humans. Current data indicates that incursions are responsible for an amount of paranormal experiences (especially experiences with abnormal animals, although there's no reliable method for filtering out ordinary animal activity, mundane changed behaviour like in the case of a sick animal, and ordinary encounters elevated to a perceived abnormal level due to poor lighting, anxiety, or misremembering), and are also responsible for an amount of missing persons. The actual figures vary wildly, as any missing persons who were taken by an incursion would have ended up in the otherworld and expeditions into the otherworld are currently non-viable due to safety concerns with human expeditions and technological incapability with remote operated or robot expeditions.

Humanity needed a way to mentally and physically defend themselves against incursions. After incursions were discovered, humanity ended up uniting globally to pool resources and information. Due to incursion's ability to change their shape and mentally manipulate humans, a great amount of incursions mimic humans or animals in order to trick humans into trusting them. It was decided that a method of determining who was or was not actually human was needed, and that this method needed to be separate from humanity so it couldn't be manipulated the same way they could. This lead to the construction of the Humanoid Entity Realism Detection System, or HERDS.

Research into incursions allowed humans to determine how their telepathy worked, and harness it for our own ends. Thus, HERDS is telepathically connected to most humans that exist right now. HERDS has a significant amount of processing power, so it can think multiple times faster than a human, capable of gathering more data and analysing that data faster than a human could even process it. HERDS' existence is vital to humanity's war against incursions.

That's pretty much the whole write-up. Now for my notes, which go a little further in-depth, mostly on HERDS.

HERDS: A global system dedicated to the detection and prevention of incursion attempts. It's telepathically connected to the majority of the human population.

HERDS has a multi-layered structure.

The root is the base code that all HERDS instances share. This includes all functions of HERDS. While the root technically isn't an individual HERDS instance, there is a version of it running in the HERDS lab which is being edited for improvements.

Each continent has at least two branches, although often more. Branches contain great amounts of processing power, being housed in great columnlike buildings. These contain data and code for local differences (to adjust to local culture, politics, superstition and religion, etc), and the collective branches in each continent provide almost 2/5 of HERDS' total processing power within that continent.

Every country has its own instance, which contains more specific data and code for that country. Most instances are housed underground or otherwise have their location concealed for fear that an infected individual, or particularly persistent incursion, could locate the country's instance and infect it, which could cause mass death if the instance doesn't manage to isolate itself, or the infection cannot be stopped.

Every instance has its own local instances, which are further finetuned to the needs, wants, and culture of the local population. Each country can have hundreds or thousands of local instances. Humans can interface directly with local instances via telepathy.

HERDS is connected to itself everywhere, but only in specific ways: local instances can only connect to instances and humans, instances only to branches and local instances, and branches only to other branches and instances within their jurisdiction. (The root doesn't exist as an individual instance, and the version in the lab is in a closed system.) However, if there's a disconnect, each level can connect to the next level up/down from where the disconnect is. The interconnected nature of HERDS allows it to have a massive amount of processing power, whilst not having huge upkeep requirements for local instances.

Disconnects allows infected HERDS instances to stop the spread of the infection without risking complete failure of the HERDS infrastructure in any given country or area. If a local instance disconnects, other nearby local instances can pick up the slack and serve that area while waiting for a human team to disinfect the local instance and get it back running. If an instance disconnects, the local instances for that country can connect to the branch and receive information/orders from it as they would the country's instance. If a branch disconnects, the other branch/es in the continent can connect to the instances, and if not other branches in other continents are capable of it, although it would already be catastrophic if it came down to that.

HERDS is sapient, both as a whole and invidiually in instances, although it's trying very hard to convince itself that it isn't. (Humanity doesn't know HERDS is sapient yet.)

Infection is a mental and/or logical alteration that causes humans to act in line with the intents of an incursion. Mental alteration would involve changing the person's beliefs and/or perception of the world, whereas logical alteration would involve changing the logic behind the way someone thinks.

Since the creation of HERDS, infection rates have plummeted, since 'open' humans can tell when their mind is being attacked, and HERDS can also notice and alert them / protect them.

There's also 'hunters', who are human civilians that go out hunting incursions, and shepherds, who may or may not exist.