#hauntedorange

[haunted-orange]

A Sideways Step

a step to the side, a side ways step. that’s how i walk these days. i trudge blankly around this road, wondering why i can’t seem to move forward or back. a forward step is so scary, so big and intimidating. a back step is giving up, exiling all the progress i’ve made. but i’m too proud to stay still. so i take a side step. one at a time, slow and decided. i watch wanderers pass. travelers, pedestrians, couples and children. i watch them charge like a bullet past my road, watch them drag their feet sludging back. and i am here. taking my side steps. i cry a lot, because i see how much they feel. how every step means something to them. so joyful to break down and fall backwards for a while. so afraid as they are pushed forward to victory. i reach out to them, begging for a grasp of those emotions. my hand goes straight through. i take another step to the side. i’m not strong enough to go forward. i’m not weak enough to go back. i thought that way for near eternity.

i look back now, and im grateful i kept moving. turns out, i was never stepping to the side. my road was sideways, and i was going the right way. no matter how different it looks, how upside down or sideways it is, don’t let the path you walk keep you from walking at all.

[pb-dot]

What's the difference between steampunk and clockpunk? I refuse to Google it because I'm inherently a weak and cowardly person.

Are there clockpunk goggles? I had steampunk goggles as a Teen. Are clockpunk goggles just two alarm clocks belted over your eyes?

That probably achieves the same effect to the general public.

Well, on an aesthetic level, clockpunk is probably a fair bit less outrageous than steampunk. I personally view it as more Victorian in fashion, and the closest equivalent to the steampunk goggles is probably Clockmaker's Glasses, these heavy eyeglasses with a series of optional lenses you flip in front of the main lenses to increase the level of magnification to work with small and delicate parts.

When it comes to the thematic end of things, the clockpunk of the setting is actually a sign of decay and stagnation. The industrialists of the world of TCB had grown so rich from the steam-powered technology that they drove the nation of Imelia not only into expensive and unpopular wars to secure more coal once the local reserves ran low, it also drove the nation to near ecological collapse with deforestation in order to produce sufficient charcoal once the wars failed to pan out. The prevalence of clockwork technology was meant as a Hail Mary to adapt steam-powered technology to use rotational energy stored in springs to power industrial machinery. This failed to manifest, both because the process of fitting for these changes were expensive, and because winding these springs sufficiently was fraught with danger.

Thus forced to decomission their steam-powered machines or face truly usurious coal prices, the industrialists and capital-owners for the most part doubled down on extracting as much value from their workers as possible. After all, the Imelian government had recently collapsed, so any fears of regulation and political pushback just went out of the window.

This is all to set the stage for the status quo at the beginning of The Clockwork Boy, where spring-and-gear-powered machinery exists in some degree of sophistication, but mostly as expensive toys for the upper classes. This is, until a young man with a clockwork body shows up, and whatever gives drive to his gears, it's considerably better at it than a tightly wound spring.

So, hope this answered your question. I've mostly developed the idea of clockpunk around the -punk end of the phrase, in that I use the technology as a lens of seeing where society fails, where the failure to adapt how society functions to new technology leads to all manner of exciting societal ills.

Tag List:

@anonymousfoz @dyrewrites @kingkendrick7 @1indigoisles @jeahreading

@sm-writes-chaos @wrenofthewords @mrbexwrites @cat-esper @olive-riggzey

@teacupsandstarlight @owlsandwich @hauntedorange @ashirisu @mr-orion

If you want to be on the tag list for The Clockwork Boy check out this tag list post

[rcmclachlan]

RC I don’t think we’re even heavily in the same fandoms anymore, but I’m following you until my stupid fandom heart gives out ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I also wanted to send you a note so it wasn’t freaky to have me suddenly follow you in 3 different platforms - everything’s so unsure and weird right now...where are we gonna end up, you know?

OMG I JUST SAW THIS I’M SORRY FOR THE LATE REPLY

I’m really digging pillowfort, though. How about you? You’ve got some bitchin’ art up on yours already! 

[josselinkohl]

Dear Josselin, your murder!Laurent is STRESSING ME OUT WHAT IS HE PLANNING, will there be terrible misunderstandings as he tries to suss out kastor??? Or will we perhaps get some beautiful Laurent+Nikandros buddy cop moments where they work together to stop Kastor and then bond???? Please don't make us suffer through Laurent Jokaste-ing Kastor, auuugh. Will Laurent and Auguste properly make up?? Will everyone be happy in the end?? I'm dying. I'm dead.

I love how invested people are in murder!Laurent! I will relieve you that I have great affection for murder!Laurent and will not torment him too much. :D 

[ahdriking]

I feel like you've been single handedly filling my entire dash with capri art whenever you're on. Thank you. It keeps my shriveled heart alive.

Hahaha that’s my goal! Honestly i’ve been diving deep into the archives of blogs that have been around since the very fuckin beginning of this fandom, and it’s amazing to see all the beautiful pieces from years ago that I would have completely missed had I not. I hope you’re all enjoying them!!

[nikanndros]

I had somehow missed your Hennike lives au when it was on tumblr, but I got the ao3 notification and then I saw August Lives in the tags... :') It was SO GOOD. You're a gift.

Hahahaha thank you!! Now that I think abt it, I think all my AU fics have Auguste alive in them :’) I’m too weak

[haunted-orange]

someone needs to be reminded. don’t write what your friends want. don’t write what the media says is good. don’t write what a youtube video says is the perfect character arc. write what you think is too cringey. write what you’re afraid of. write what you’re scared of being judged for. write amatuerly, write disconnectly, write endlessly. write bad. write what you want. write what is yours. stop forcing yourself to write someone else’s story.

[nikanndros]

:') :') :') :')

This feels so mocking hahahahaha 

[haunted-orange]

get to know me tag game!

thank you so much @literarynecromancy for the tag :DD

last song i listened to: Luna Moth by Maya Hawke

currently reading: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

currently watching: Dead Poets Society (rewatch)(oh my soul)(it’s so)(jesus cheist)

currently obsessed with: percy jackson, luke castelean, writing, melancholic poetic music

silliest tags to @illarian-rambling @kazzinix @gothamxwattpad @holdmyteaplease and anyone else who wants to join! tag me so i can read :D

[haunted-orange]

do i actually have something to say or do i just want to say something?

[haunted-orange]

i just saw macbeth on stage and i actually think my pants are pissed

[haunted-orange]

“what if people will judge my word choice and the cliches i use? what if my novel is amateurish? what if my protagonist is annoying? what if people see me enjoying my craft, my work, my art, and they judge me? they think less of me for thinking what i make is any good?”

what if they didn’t?

you exist, so someone else like you does too. people of every world and life, new to reading and ready to find your work. but what if it didn’t matter? what if you fully immersed yourself in your art? posts of it over your blog, doodles about it on your pages, ideas on your hand and a motive in your heart. what if people saw how brave you were to share that with us, all this love for your work, and they loved it too?

“what if nobody cares?” did you put your deepest desires and darkest sympathies into this just for approval? are you writing out of validation? no. no, no no. i don’t think so. what if nobody cares. you are a writer. you were born for this. and you are the only person who can speak for your worlds. the fact that you are sharing that with us? is a gift. i know you have to carry that on your own, but it is enough. you carry enough love for your work to live infinite lifetimes.

so write with maddening hunger and tell the world the fire it lights within you. stop being ashamed. forget they exist—and write, post, create, for you.

[haunted-orange]

500 days of summer messed me up so bad

what do you meant that movie was the most realistic portrayal of modern love i’ve ever seen? what do you mean the movie felt like a self-indulgent masterpiece of art that will stick with me until i die? what do you mean this will ruin me forever??

[haunted-orange]

i hope i get a love that transcends overthought. it’s okay if the hug lasted a little longer than you went in for, because this love won’t pull away. it’s okay that you looked a little awkward when you tried to dance with me, because this love will spin you around and dip you off your feet. it’s okay that our teeth knocked when we kissed, this love won’t let you know shame. its okay that you have plans tomorrow and i have to leave soon, because this love won’t leave you. it’s okay that my friends say the worst things about us, because this love thinks for itself. this love surpasses your overthought, because this love lives for us.

[haunted-orange]

Last Line Tag

Thank you sososo much @andyswritings for the tag!

Rules: Share the last line you wrote/edited of your WIP!

(yes i put more than one line but we all bend rules sometimes)

Joey almost gags on her words. “You’re thinking about it? Gambling a car for some white bread pretentious snob?

“Absolutely not.” I can’t let that get back to him. I know happens when a man like that holds too many cards.

“Yes, you are. And he’s going to know it’s you.” She throws up her hands. “You’re not even good at poker.”

tagging @circus-mcgurkus @talesofsorrowandofruin @k-v-briarwood

[haunted-orange]

astoration… opulent… nihilism… largess… nefarious…  connoisseur… ubiquitous.. bewitched… oh you pretty mouthy words i want to fit in my wip… soon…