#like Eversion and The Golden Age that Never Was

[not-poignant]

Hi Pia. I've been a fan of your work for a long time now and was wondering if you'd ever write an original sci-fi story or an original contemporary

Altho I know FFS probably classifies as contemporary 🤔 But I just saw that as a human au loosely based off Fae Tales

Fae Tales is an original series with my own original characters, and Falling Falling Stars is an entirely original contemporary story that features only some of those original characters, so technically, it is an original contemporary story. I'm not using someone else's IP, so it's not really fanfic. Something being an AU doesn't make it fanfic, for example, if an artist who draws a superhero character decides to draw them as a merman for Mermay, they're not doing 'fanfiction' of someone else's character - they're doing original art of one of their original characters, y'know? It's just another way of looking at them. Plenty of authors have re-used their characters in other things, this is especially common in comics, but it also happens in fantasy writing a lot too. Also doesn't mean those things become fanfic! Still all original, just has an AU component. :D

But AUs aside...

Otherwise, like, sure I'd consider it! My next works are likely to both be original fantasy worlds, but I like science fiction and I like writing contemporary. I've written original omegaverse in a contemporary setting with the Perth Shifters series, but straight up contemporary is definitely something I've thought up scenarios for.

Science fiction generally doesn't interest me quite as much as fantasy does, but all speculative fiction is interesting/enjoyable to me. That being said, all the next original worlds I've thought up - Daemonos, Glamour Gods, Vexteria, Mallory & Mount etc. are all respectively medieval-style science fiction (but really more like a fantasy, it's just interplanetary), paranormal science-fiction romance, high/epic/secondary world fantasy, high/epic/secondary world fantasy/psychological thriller.

It's more fun for me to sandbox in specfic, because like... I don't get to write characters who have naturally violet eyes, or shapeshifting demons, or fairy-human hybrids who are used by criminals and governments for their glamour as enslaved propaganda machines, or characters who are actually just pretty human but where magic is illegal and serial killers are super common actually.

Contemporary is easy for me to write, but it's not as appealing overall unless it's in situations like Falling Falling Stars, or Smoke in Autumn, or As Green as the Ragged Grass, or Spoils of the Spoiled, or...

Actually you know I've written a fair bit of original contemporary!

I've actually finished a contemporary novel in the past, which a few folks have read bits of through the Patreon over time, called Every Day Awake. The playlists for the characters (Allie, Brad and Jacob) are still on Spotify, as character playlists. I still plan on rewriting that book one day, but it's definitely not high on my priority list.

[incredifan34]

Start of a next generation

Start of my next gen Incredibles au.

Name: Issac Judas Lebeau.

Super name: Gammabolt (his original name being Plasma Jack).

Age: 17

Appearance: White, tall, golden blonde hair that is always seen in undercut style, green eyes. Costume made to look like a combination of his parents’ costumes.

Personality: He has meglomaniacal impulses like his father but these are rare. He is also obsessed with the outdoors, violent at times but this is very rare, selectively charming, cunning, unpredictable, spontaneous, impulsive, go-getter, inventive, and ambitious.

Threat rating: 7.8

Powers: 

Radiation burst generation at short and long range 

Disintegration and burns of solid materials with radiation bursts 

Flight 

Electromagnetic energy production 

Heightened senses 

Can emit plasma waves by capturing electromagnetic energy in his hair that sticks out of his mask and transferring it to his hands

Weakness: 

Sharp intensity falloff

Control of his plasma waves is essential

Parentage: Nina Foster(Plasmabolt) and Jack Lebeau(Gamma Jack) got their names from cometcrystal.

Backstory: Issac was born in 1960, just two years before the ban would start(I headcanon that the ban started in 1962 and ended in 1977). Nina and Jack were in an on and off relationship due to his cold, egotistical nature. Only four supers knew about this relationship and they were Psycwave, Everseer, Gazerbeam and Universal Man. She loved him and he loved her, but to the public and the other supers, she hated him and he hated her. Jack loved her and did actually cared for her, but he didn’t like commitment. But when Jack found that Nina was going to have a kid, he wanted to leave but for some unknown reason he knew he had to stay. So he told her that he was going to adjust his behavior and seek counseling for three months so he can be the perfect father to their son. Five months later Issac was born, after that Jack and Nina moved to Boston. But when he was very little, though, he discovered his powers. The first people he showed was his mother and father, who quickly told him to never reveal or use his power for and to anyone else, because he could hurt them if he did. That quickly got him quiet, and he rarely used his powers at all after that and completely forgot about them. However at age 14 he rediscovered his powers when saving a girl from a thief. So this led him to become a vigilante and named himself Plasma Jack and started his own group called The Renegades which was a group of super powered vigilantes who trained in secret and would appear when there were crimes. He did this for 2 years until Jack disappeared (or was killed) this left Issac wondering why his dad just up and left. After the ban was lifted he became Gammabolt and joined the Crusaders, a team of next generation supers. In the coming months they’ll investigate into the mysterious disappearances of their parents and find more than they bargained for...

[witchyphilosophe]

My witchy iOS apps. Wow! I’ve never gotten more than MAYBE 15 notes in my many years on tumblr. Thanks, witch fam! UPDATED*** Here are some app links for @valicorne​ and others who requested. They should all be free. Some of these are also in the Android Marketplace, and for those that aren’t, there are comparable ones. And my mom has a baller sigil making app on Android I envy: Sigil Automatron. Anyone know of a comparable one for iOS? (I don’t want just a paint or photoshop-like app, but one specific To making sigils) Not all the full names show in the screenshotted app view, which is why some of you struggled to find them. Sorry!): 1. Tarot Card Memorizer: Pretty self explantaory. This is a nice reference when you’re trying to learn card meanings. 2. Pendulum Charts Free - a plethora of charts. I like using that on my iPad, not super useful on a smaller screen, aka my iPhone. Can also use to reference for making your own charts on paper, or woodburning like I’m working on. 3. Golden Thread Tarot - Really nice free eversion of great physical deck. Nice for witches on the go, or witches on a budget. 4. Crystals And Gems - Handy reference guide for both physical and metaphysical attributes. 5. Mighty Timer - temperature, time, and amount of tea you need for the perfect cup. Great kitchen witch app, especially if you grow some of your own herbs for tea, like I do. 6. TimePassages - Free daily horoscopes, meanings, planetary bodies glossary and then some paid options for chart downloads. 7. Herbs Guide - Herbs for health and cooking. ***never take any information found on the Internet or via apps as medical advice. Seek professional medical help if you have an issues. This witch is very pro-science and modern medicine, despite making teas, tinctures, and herbal salves. Those are merely supplements to help relieve symptoms. 8. Dreamboard - my favorite digital dream journal 9. Runes - pocket advisor - Get one, two and three rune readings. Also helps you learn the meanings of elder futhark runes. 10. SkyView Free -This overlays constellations and other astronomical information when you open the app and point it at the night sky. Uses your camera and GPS to know what it’s looking at. Works inside, too. I impress the heck out of people when I whip this out at stargazing events. 11. Best Essential Oils and Aromatherapy Guide Pro - This app, containing six broad sections - guides, application, single oil, oil blends, aromatherapy and weight loss. Again, this is not to be used in place of proper nutrition and medical attention, and be very careful when using essential oils. All need to be diluted with carrier oils, and some are dangerous if you’re pregnant, etc. 12. Spellcaster - tarot cards, horoscope and pre-written spells. Not my favorite, but fun to flip through. 13. Celeste -LOOOVE. Celeste allows you to calculate a natal chart, which you can view on a zodiac wheel. You also get a description of all the planets in signs, not just the sun sign. 14. Star Chart - This is similar to skyview. I haven’t played with it too much so I can’t vouch for it quite yet. I think I prefer the skyview interface. 15. Free Candle - Different candle options, and you cna blow them out. Great for on the go candle magick/meditation, and for those who aren’t allowed to use candles in apartments/dorms/etc. 16. The Pocket Pagan - “This unique Pagan app includes a map of the USA and Canada filled with Pagan, occult and New Age stores, a handy correspondence guide for quick magickal look-ups, and a calendar that shows you the next full moon and Sabbat dates. Quick links can help you find the latest news, blogs and videos too. One little widget shows the real-time moon phase too.” 17. Moon - current moon phase - Love this. Very simple interface for when you JUST want basic full, new, waxing, waning moon info. 18. Herbs in Magick - The application contains information about more than 200 herbs and their magickal use. No internet connection

[illapa-greybane]

The Nightmare Arc: VI

Or: It’s Always F*cking Tentacles

When the first of those monstrous, shadowy tentacles slammed down upon the platform, something about the way the angel winced was very reminiscent of the normal, uncorrupted Solarine. Her guard had momentarily faltered, and a very mortal-like whimper escaped her marble-white lips as she was startled into flickering once again.

Quickly, though, she righted herself and regained her full height, and the expression on her face became utterly statue-like. Impassive, calm, and detached, save for the crimson that had begun to swirl about in what had been her eyes.

It is you who are the delusion, she stated in an almost robotic, somewhat uninterested tone reminiscent of that once heard by Brann Bronzebeard when Algalon threatened to re-originate the entirety of Azeroth.

I will cleanse this realm of your corruption and free our world of the Nightmare’s grasp.

Blue-white, searing Holy fire crackled to life around her as all six of her wings lit themselves aflame with it, burning so brightly that it might have become difficult for Illapa to even focus on her for very long without leaving sunspots in his vision. A swirl of burning feathers swept up from around her feet, which left the platform as she suspended herself in the air, away from the vibrations that the massive Void tentacles had sent through the obsidian.

Without speaking another word, Solarine raised both of her hands in what might have been a benevolent gesture, and a barrage of razor-sharp, white-hot feathers was sent shooting through the air, toward Illapa and the tentacle that held him aloft.

The white-hot feathers blazed light trails in his vision as they streaked toward his position atop the massive tentacle. With an alacrity that belied his age, Illapa crouched and launched himself into the starry void as the barrage of razor pinions struck the shadowy flesh where he’d stood just a moment before. A hundred strikes turned the vast, muscular appendage into a ribboned ruin, violet-black skin curling away in blackened swaths from the flesh beneath. The raw flesh glowed a bright, searing purple as it continued to burn from within, and the tentacle fell slowly, ponderously, crashing into the obsidian platform before sliding limply back into the abyss.

Illapa did not have far to fall. A new tentacle rose and plucked him deftly from the air, and he rounded on the luminescent form of Solarine ascendant. There was little left of his lady in the mask-like visage, in the empty eyes, in the cold proclamation that she would scour his corruption from creation.

Not that she was entirely wrong in her Nightmare-deluded judgment. He was part of the corruption. As the Scion had once said, he was the key and the gate, the keeper and the way – and he had thrown the gates open wide. He would need every ounce of power the Void could suffuse him with to counter Solarine in this state.

The tentacle beneath his feet coiled and tossed him into the grasp of another before it, too, fell to another barrage of blinding feathers. Fully a dozen now writhed up from the abyss like some stellar kraken – including the one that unfurled behind Solarine, looping to twist around the radiant, winged priestess as she was distracted by her elusive lover.

Solarine, unlike the Scion, possessed only one set of eyes in her ascended form. A vague sense of satisfaction might have been communicated in the expression upon the mostly-blank, mask-like face of her angelic form as hundreds of feathers ripped Illapa’s tentacle to shreds. Slowly, she lowered her hand as she surveyed her handiwork, but as she did this, one of her pairs of wings curled about her torso in a protective manner. One half-curled about her legs, and the last remained extended above and behind her head, like a shining beacon meant almost to taunt her opponents into coming for her.

Already, one of your creations has fallen, she told them calmly, matter-of-factly. I will not fall to this corruption so easily.

As the tentacles writhed about the edges of the platform, Solarine not only ceased trying to track all of them visually, but she closed her eyes and instead held both hands up in a gesture familiar to any Priest who might call upon the Holy Light.

Twin flames grew in the palms of her hands, flickering blue-white as they burned with such intensity that they even revealed the strands of hair within the flowing, void-like mane that wreathed her head where the wings did not. Then, she hurled both to the platform at her feet, and fern-like patterns of brilliant magic burned through the surface and radiated outward, forming a protective circle about her that would, at the very least, painfully sear anything – man, monster, or tentacle – that dared approach her closely enough to touch it.

From atop his most recent, sinuous perch, Illapa watched that mandala of light illuminate the platform in a radius below Solarine’s hovering form. Consecrated ground. The glossy black surface had just become a child’s game of the-floor-is-lava.

Fortunately his shadowy summons had no need to touch the platform. The burst of holy power scalded patches of violet-black hide from the massive appendage that twisted around Solarine, but did not flense it like the assault of feathers had done to the first. As she discharged the energy into the platform below her, the tentacle’s lazily looping coils constricted, first squeezing the delicate shell of her six wings. Despite their fragile appearance, the wings did not buckle and snap like frail bird bones, resisting even the strength of the redwood-thick girth that wrapped around her. The white-hot feathers hissed and burned where the tentacle’s thick hide touched, but the muscular appendage continued to squeeze mindlessly, mercilessly, and even she would be hard-pressed to resist being crushed without effort.

Illapa did not answer her impassive taunts. Let her be smug. He was counting on it.

While she was forced to divert her attention to annihilating his manifestations – not just the one that wrapped around her, but the half-dozen others that threatened to join it and pile on her like a nest of frenzied serpents – he took the opportunity to bring his true assault to bear.

He could no longer make out the glove on the hand he held out before himself; nor cuff nor sleeve nor glittering cufflink. Everything was black, a man-shaped silhouette cut in the cloth of this quasi-reality.

An eye opened on the night-dark palm, the same shade as the Void-stained glow that now emanated from his natural eyes. His vision doubled, tripled, more as they continued to open like night-blooming flowers on his transfigured skin.

and he heard a most

beautiful

s o n g

he could see the weave

it was so easy to reach out

and pluck

a thread

And where he reached out and touched, space and light distorted like a ripple in a pond. A tiny sphere eversed from a single point in reality, an utter absence of light, darker than even his eye-studded form. It drank the ambient glow from Solarine’s consecrated ground, and the space around it rippled again as its horizon expanded. It distorted the view of the stars beyond it, all those points of light seeming to bend and dip sharply toward its surface at impossible angles. A swirling corona of deep violet radiation began to form around it as it grew, filling their ears with the radio static hiss of vaporizing matter.

A sphere of Void the size of a marble. A sunfruit. A scrying orb. Its growth slowed but never quite stopped, and it hung in the space above the platform, before Solarine’s ascendant form.

He would devour the light and its maddening hold on her.

The original, real Solarine surely would have stopped her offense and either come to her senses or at least tried to defend herself as tentacles summoned directly from her own void realm wrapped about her, trying to crush her wings and shatter the nightmare illusion she had created. The real Solarine would have at least paused in awe when Illapa’s void form overtook him, darkening his silhouette like the void and opening so, so many eyes. It was no wonder he and the Scion had been chosen for one another in the Faceless’ quest to see and learn all They could.

But this was not Solarine as he knew her, and she appeared barely affected by any of it. Her expression remained impassive, her eyes closed as if she was simply in meditation rather than a battle for both their lives, and a remnant of her placid Priestess’ smile remained fixed in place as if carved there. The topmost pair of wings finally curled around her head, protecting it from the assault by the tentacles wrapping about her, and a sound akin to hot metal screaming against dry ice shrieked out into the darkness of the stars before it began to be drowned out by something far more terrible.

She, too, had a song.

And she, too, could touch the Void. It was an ancient hymn that her psychic voice began to sing, one that vibrated and rippled not only through the air, but through the very fiber of the strange universe in which they had been suspended, atop a platform made of resolute will and protected memory. The air itself filled with a haze of golden light, and no matter how much Illapa absorbed and devoured, he would never be able to extinguish it.

The true power of this hymn was not in its light, but in the psychic vibration that began to ripple underneath, through, and into all present. Like the deep bass of a huge pipe organ, Illapa’s very bones (or whatever passed for bones in a shadow form) began to vibrate as Solarine searched for the resonant frequency that would shatter them into splinters and bone dust.

the air filled with golden light

he swam it, he breathed it

he had been here before

not the thing he was now

but the man

younger (much)

pale hair, but instead of silver, a blush of gold

and eyes unlined by wisdom or hardship

(though the shadow of arrogance, even then)

they had taken him there

to stand before a sea of light

a font

a well

and taken a single drop of its radiance

and anointed his brow

he had found himself in the heart of the sun

he had seen a realm of endless light

where things of skin and dreams did not walk

and never had

and never would

and he had opened his mouth and out poured the light

and he had opened his eyes and out poured the light

and his tears of ecstasy burned on his cheeks

and his sobs were the sincerest hymn he had or would ever sing

perhaps that was where he had first known this hunger

to be more, to be more, to be MORE

to shed his skin and dreams and walk in realms of

endless light

endless shadow

at the heart of everything

A persistent tremor shook the obsidian platform as the Void sphere continued to draw light and matter to its obliterating surface. The platform’s reflective sheen began to dull as the sphere stripped atoms away from its glossy surface. It sucked in even the light that filled the air, the golden haze blueshifting as it was drawn to the horizon, adding to the violet swirl that spun around it in a hurricane spiral.

A hissing shriek filled the air as the constricting tentacle tightened around Solarine’s serene form, heat and pressure producing an agonizing screech as the muscular column strained to crush her winged coccoon. Great swaths of violet-black flesh burned away under its own crushing weight, but it persisted with painless, mindless, idiot intent. A half-dozen unscarred tentacles joined it just as it seemed it would collapse under the damage, and Solarine’s floating form disappeared under a writhing mass intent to crack her nightmarish vessel.

It did nothing to stop her song. The psychic hymn resonated not just matter, not just mind, but the very fiber and structure of that strange quasi-realm and everything within it.

It was beautiful, a melodic counterpoint to the basso profondo of the Void and the chorus of entities that dwelled within it. A song not just of light, not just of shadow, but of the annihilating force where they met. He could hear her song exploring the scales, seeking the perfect destructive note that would undo him. His void-infused flesh began to thrum in response, those terrible chords seizing the most vulnerable parts of him and threatening to ravage him from within: bones, vessels, organs, and all. The tentacles’ writhing became erratic as miles of muscles began to spasm, their hold weakening as their strength betrayed them. Violet-black hides ruptured and split spontaneously as connective tissue weakened. They began to fall away, one by one, limp and ponderous, disappearing back into the black void below. Rays of light shone out where their coils fell away from Solarine, bathing the Void sphere with spears of white light and heat.

It pulled them in them greedily, swelling threateningly, a storm of perfect darkness at the center of a sea of light. But Solarine’s hymn shook the very fabric of that strange dimension, and even in his own ascended state, Illapa felt something like dread as the sphere began to destabilize. The perfect curvature of its horizon began to bulge equatorially; the storm of violet radiation around it spun out into a thin disc. A ripple ran through the spiral arms of crackling energy around it – and then, with a sickening pop, the sphere of utterdark at its center collapsed, annihilating itself.

The massive tentacle holding him aloft spasmed as the destructive resonance began to savage it, too. The psychic pressure nearly obliterated all thought as he simply struggled to hold himself together, to hold onto the power that suffused his flesh and mind. The violet-black hide under his feet split and peeled. Shadowstuff vaporized from his skin, wisping away into the eternal night. A glowing violet eye ruptured and popped. His sight went out, one glowing eye after another.

He fell. It was a long way to fall. When he crashed into the cracked obsidian, the burst of white-hot light behind his eyes was nearly as bright as Solarine’s terrible radiance. He heard the sound of impact on the unyielding stone, the heavy thud of soft meat and the deep crack of his bones. He struggled to breathe, mouth gaping and chest heaving, and when he finally managed to suck in a breath, the pain almost made him regret it.

The power drained out of him, a broken vessel that could no longer contain it. Blood-rimmed eyes – only two of them, now – stared up into the starry sky. The few crimson stars that had first appeared were now a vast nebula that stained the celestial expanse. Solarine hovered on blinding wings against a backdrop like a bloodstain on a sky adorned with a thousand bloated, dying suns.

[not-poignant]

Do you have any plans for Temsen in the UtR series, or outside of it, where he's the MC? Or do you want to keep him strictly a side character?

I like him a lot as a supportive character. But I would be lying if I said I wasn't curious to see him as a main character.

Hi anon!

I don't have any formal plans for Temsen in the Underline the Red universe. If I was to ship him with anyone, it would be Gwyn, but in my general 'pls let me have a break from writing Augus and Gwyn' space that I'm in right now, all I'm really doing is dropping hints about that if I ever decided to pick it up a year or two from now.

(Hints so far include that Temsen was the only one to twice spend time with Gwyn alone, and was the one getting under his skin the most, so contact between them - including a lot of contact we haven't seen - has been firmly established).

But also, Temsen is just...happy being single, and I'm not really interested in writing stories that aren't romances of some kind. I do think Temsen would make an amazing main character, and I really like making side characters that are strong enough to handle their own narratives (that's how Gwyn and Augus were literally invented - they were side characters strong enough to carry their own narrative), but that doesn't mean it's going to happen!

I would say Temsen is growing into main character status in The Nascent Diplomat though, but that still doesn't mean he's going to be a POV/point of view character! And I'm not even sure I'd write him as a POV character if he was like...a main character in a romance / eventual romance. I think he's stronger when we don't know his perspective. :D

[not-poignant]

What is the best order to read your works?

It really depends on what you like, anon -> Because I write across quite a few different genres!

If you like original stuff:

If you like contemporary / slice of life, then you might want to start with the Spoils universe, specifically Spoils of the Spoiled and subsequent stories!

If you like omegaverse, you might want to start with the Underline the Rainbow universe! (Careful though, this one's unfinished!)

If you like epic fantasy, you might want to start with the Fae Tales Verse, which is the main canon, with Game Theory as the first story.

If you like epic fantasy but you want to read a standalone instead of something over a million words long, that has a happy ending and is an OT3 (i.e. M/M/M), you might want to read The Wildness Within!

If you like epic fantasy but you want it to be a standalone and you want it to be really dark incest between two brothers that ends up having a hopeful ending despite going to some truly twisted places, you might like Strange Sights!

If you you like epic fantasy but want to read a standalone, and features diplomacy, meeting strange, alien cultures, and dealing with fae who have very unique ways of doing magic and interacting with the world, as well as childhood sexual abuse recovery, and a Mage trained by his father figure who also happens to be the King of the Unseelie fae, you might like the Lone Wolf series, and especially The Nascent Diplomat! (Careful though, this one's unfinished).

If you like fanfiction:

If you like fanfiction where you don't need to know much about the original world, as well as space opera and military / political plots, you might enjoy The Golden Age that Never Was!

If you like fanfiction where you don't need to know much about the original world, as well as classic fairytale fantasy elements, fights between Good and Evil, and obstacles that the heroes need to overcome, as well as a villain-turned-antagonist-turned-antihero, you might like From the Darkness We Rise and its direct sequel, Into Shadows We Fall! This is a GREAT introduction into the Fae Tales universe too!

If you like fanfiction where you don't need to know much about the original world, as well as epic fantasy in an elves/humans/etc. style world that's similar to DND, you might like Stuck on the Puzzle!

If you like fanfiction where you don't need to know much about the original world, as well as dark science fiction with an android/human relationship, you might like Eversion!

If you like fanfiction where you don't need to know much about the original world (and if you ever do, you can just ask me), as well as awesome fantasy/magic worldbuilding, ghosts, and exorcisms as well as fantasy BDSM, with two older lovers, you might like The Beast that Chose Its Own Bridle!

If you like fanfiction where you don't need to know much about the original world, as well as contemporary slice of life about enemies-to-lovers in a small country town you might like The Wind that Cuts the Night or even A Stain that Won't Dissolve (careful though, this one's unfinished!)

--

But I have no idea what kind of things you like to read or why you're here, or what you've read already (most folks who find me here have read something of mine already, if you haven't, then the above is a pretty good primer - just be aware that I put BDSM in everything, that it's all m/m and that there's always trauma recovery and hopeful or happy endings and you're good to go!) and some folks who like some stories don't read other stories, so there's no point saying 'this is my favourite' or 'this is the best place to start' when it has all the things you hate in it! You know what I mean?

I can't do much off a single sentence, I'm afraid, and because I've written so many different series, across different genres, I have over 5 million words out there, and it's not all in the same series, and it's not all focusing on the same thing. :D

But who knows, maybe you found something this way!

I don't know if you like the dark stuff or if you're uncertain about the dark stuff. If you love kink or don't know how to feel about kink. If you find trauma recovery really squicky or if you're okay with it. And I can't make blanket recommendations on a reading order when I've written millions of words across multiple series and genres.

So I'd much prefer to target recommendations specifically to what you like, anon, because we are not all the same, so I wouldn't give everyone the same reading order to my works :D

Happy reading, if you find something you like, let me know!!

[not-poignant]

I saw that Mallory and Mount post and I have to ask if you could choose any of your current stories to compare it to, or a combo, which would it be?

Oh hmmm *thinks*

I think it would be a combination of:

The Golden Age that Never Was + The Beast that Chose Its Own Bridle + Game Theory.

(It's got the dystopia and enemies-to-lovers and intense government corruption and 'big background trauma' of TGATNW, it's got original worldbuilding and really complicated main characters a la Beast, and it's got the hatefucking element and the high stakes that GT has.)

(I would also hazard that it's got some Eversion elements too, especially the 'we're definitely going to be dicks to each other at first' dynamic, as well as the 'hostile world' element.)

Idk it's a tough one! I'm pretty happy with my first combo lol. It's hard to compare it to any one thing.

[not-poignant]

I totally love, love, LOVE the wonderfully rich fantasy worlds that you've created. Would you ever write Sci-fi?

I have, but like, okay so my published original short stories are science fiction. Eversion is science fiction with a lot of futuristic original worldbuilding (especially regarding dystopian weather aspects) even factoring into account that the original video game is also science fiction.

The Golden Age that Never Was is science fiction with a fuckton of original worldbuilding due to like, space exploration, extraterrestrials, and space technology. That’s definitely soft sci fi, but it counts!

So...yeah, I do write it, and I love writing it! I actually really enjoy reading it too! I’ve done science fiction art that’s won awards at conventions (like this one) and science fiction short stories (that are very sad with very sad endings) that have done the same.

In terms of would I ever write sci fi in an original serial (which isn’t what you asked, but hey, I can go there), yeah, I would. I don’t have a concept I like enough yet to really bring it to life. So far all the serial-style worlds I want to play with are like, fantasy, or fantasy with technological aspects, such as steampunk or diesel punk.

The first ever novel that I wrote as a 10 year old was science fiction, and I still want to turn that into a novel series one day (it’s been adapted a lot since then! Lol. But it’s had a ton of research done on it, and worldbuilding, and it’s ready to go. That’s set on another planet, in a political dystopia (of course), and has a lot of stuff to do with biomes and ecology and it’s a pro anarcho-syndalist series).

I really like science fiction that looks at how the environment and the people are interacting together (like Eversion and its weather, and the fact that everything from the plants, to the homes, to the sewerage system etc. had to be adapted to deal with the clear consequences of rampant global warming and climate change - which actually leaned a bit harder into hard science fiction elements than soft science fiction elements). So it might not look like the science fiction you’re used to, but it still counts! I like soft and hard science fiction.

This question is funny to me because actually for like idk 15 years before I had an AO3 account I just about only wrote science fiction and fantasy, and nothing else, and of course you don’t know that anon! But it’s like ‘oh yeah that’s what I love.’ And that’s why I’ve made excuses to write it on AO3 over the years.

But...we’ll see if I bring original serials into that world one day! I actually really love fantasy settings too (almost all of my fiction books are SFF - science fiction/fantasy and general speculative fiction). I don’t have any concepts, unless I turn Winter Syndicate into a serial, which is actually...probably doable?

Like, anon, you don’t need to hold your breath, there’s definitely a day where I’m likely to dive back into original science fiction. It’s where I started as a professional author, and it’s the only thing I’ve actually won legit writing awards for (that and a sonnet about the moon at university, but that doesn’t count lmao).

[not-poignant]

Masterlist of playlists for the writing of Pia Foxhall / Not_Poignant / thespectaclesofthor

So here’s the currently complete list of Fae Tales, SAL and other fic playlists that are publicly available (casual reminder that you need to be a member of Spotify to hear these I’m pretty sure? I’m sorry Spotify sucks that way):

Underline Series:

Underline the Black

Underline the Blue

Underline the Gold

Underline the Red

Underline the Silver

Fae Tales Stories

Game Theory (based on the first half only, afterwards I transitioned to listening to character playlists because Augus’ perspective was hard to ‘feel out’ at first.) The Court of Five Thrones The Ice Plague The Ice Plague (instrumental) The Ice Plague #2 The Ice Plague #3 Strange Sights Hard Edges (never written) The Spoils of the Spoiled Falling Falling Stars

Constellations Tradewinds (unpublished) Sealstorm (unwritten)

Fae Tales Characters

Gwyn ap Nudd Augus Each Uisge Augus & Gwyn (mostly angst or love songs) Ash Glashtyn Gulvi Dubna Vajat Mosk Manytrees Eran Iliakambar The Raven Prince Julvia Dubna Vajat The Nightingale Terho the Mouse Lad Mikkel the Reader (this playlist never failed to make me cry, because I always shaped it with his whole arc in mind).

Mallory & Mount

Mallory & Mount - Woodsinger Mallory & Mount - Lewis Mount Mallory & Mount - Mallory

Other Original Fiction: (unwritten)

The Lucent Vexteria

Daemonos

Glamour Gods

The Zoo of Last Wonders

Rise of the Guardians

The Golden Age that Never Was From the Darkness We Rise Into Shadows We Fall SAL Jack Frost SAL Pitch Black / Kozmotis Pitchiner

Other fanfiction A Stain that Won't Dissolve Palmarosa

Stuck on the Puzzle

A Game We Can Try Cold Red Light (unwritten, but playlist is fleshed out for when I’m ready to start) The Beast that Chose Its Own Bridle Eversion

Perth Shifters

Blackwood (Coll/Braden) Gentle Wolf (Aodhan/Thomas) Hunter’s Luck (Hunter/Luuk) Seamus and ??? Hardy and Dazza

Jesse and Mal

You can also search me by username: Pia Ravenari. I have other playlists public too. I’m a huge playlist/music person basically.

I honestly thought way more of these were public, so I suspect that Spotify glitched at some point and made over half of my playlists private. *sighs heavily* Oh well, links are up! I also have playlists for other original stories that I’m working on, like The Zoo of Last Wonders.

[not-poignant]

Top 5 characters you’ve written :)

I’m not going to include fanfiction characters in this, and just go with original characters I’ve created!

*

1. Augus Each Uisge - While I enjoy Gwyn as a character (and he’ll be in this list), there’s always something really appealing about writing Augus in any scene at all. A lot of the time he’s very self-possessed, and has a lot of self-control, but he also has a zen attitude that a lot of the other characters I write (except maybe the Raven Prince) lack. So while it’s difficult to write from his POV, writing his presence is generally really enjoyable, unless he’s going through hell, and then I suffer oh my god.

2. Gwyn ap Nudd - I mean, I mean I’ve devoted like over a million words to him, so. The og whump bicycle in Fae Tales. And general sex bicycle. Just the bicycle.

3. Mosk Manytrees - When I first started writing him, I was way more invested in Eran (and I still love Eran, a great deal, but he’s not a character type that comes easily to me to write), but Mosk is evolving into one of my favourite characters in general.

I think that combination of near constant(ly suppressed) outrage and anger, coupled with ‘way too powerful for his own good’ and ‘is he a villain? An antihero? What is he?’ along with what is a scathing sense of self-deprecation, but a fairly scathing sense of judgement towards others as well (sometimes he really is judging others to his own standards, lmao). If I ever come back to write more Fae Tales after The Ice Plague, Mosk has convinced me that the next two big series will still be Mosk/Eran series, and not Gwyn/Augus series. But I don’t have to worry about that for years and years now.

4. The Raven Prince - Though I never write from his POV, I love even just referring to him, and it’s been a personal pleasure to have him in so much of book 2 of The Ice Plague. I worried he would lose a lot of his mystery and magic, and he’s lost some of his mystery, but to me he’s gained even more of his magic. And I worried ‘I won’t like him as much if he’s actually there in scenes’ but it turns out I like him even more. Mosk definitely helped things along.

5. The Nain Rouge - I wavered on this one, but she’s just so much fun. Like Eran could easily take this spot, because I love him, but I get genuinely excited to write the Nain Rouge and her deliberate anachronisms in the Fae Tales environment (they’re not anachronisms to her after all, she’s there to fuck up anyone expecting seriously outdated language in a fantasy where humans can travel to the human realm at will).

But I also feel very grounded when I’m writing her, there’s something so ancient and powerful and wise in her, and I have a strange kind of trust for her, trust that she’ll gain power where she can, but she also has an internal code that she obeys. We haven’t seen the last of her. I loved her even all the way back in SAL when she really just gave Jack a long-ass death sentence and gloated about it. She feels like a very atypical villain to me.

It’s important to me not to put her in anything for too much, or too long. She’ll always be a cameo character. But man she packs a punch in all of her cameos, whether it’s straight up blowing a hole in Gwyn because she wants him to concentrate, or making mysterious deals, or coming to deliver exposition, or demanding status upgrades, or making shaky alliances, she’s so dynamic for moving the plot along, and I enjoy her intense, playful, dangerous energy.

*

An honourable mention / shoutout to: Gavril, Anton, Eva and Sharpwood, my favourite OCs from The Golden Age that Never Was. Aidhe, Betsan and Hensley, my favourite OCs from Stuck on the Puzzle. Gabriel from Eversion, as well as Oengus Og, Eran Iliakambar, Ash, Fenwrel and Julvia from Fae Tales. And definitely all the rest. I wouldn’t create them if I didn’t enjoy writing them.

Also ask me at another time and Ash and Eran would definitely be in this list? It’s for sure situational.

*

From the Top 5 Meme!

[not-poignant]

It's so interesting that you struggle with happy endings. Why do you think that is? I enjoy your endings so much because they feel so real and like you didn't cheat us of their good moments? Even Eversion which was quite a short happy ending, still ended in such a hopeful place for everyone, which I didn't think would be possible at first!

Hi hi anon!

I don’t know, really, re: happy endings. I’ve always been that way, too. Like, in movies I’ve seen before, it’s really normal for me to walk out of the room when there’s like 20 minutes left, because I just don’t care about that part. There are exceptions! I’ll always watch to the end of a Studio Ghibli movie, or to the end of a romantic comedy. But otherwise I just kind of...feel nothing towards happy and hopeful endings? I don’t like miserable endings either, don’t get me wrong. I just get bored of endings. (Please please don’t think I love tragic endings, I hate them, lmao).

I think it’s maybe because I get my emotional closure earlier than some people do. So if the big, anguish-filled events are happening mid-way through the movie, then I don’t really need the whole rest of the movie to tie that up for me. I can tie it up in my head, and I can ‘feel’ the completeness of the arc so well that i don’t need to stick around for it? It’s hard to explain, but the moment Augus was defeated in Into Shadows We Fall, everything was finished for me, because I knew that Jack, Pitch and co. would be happy no matter what I threw at them. That would be the point where I closed the book, if I was reading it.

BUT, most people aren’t like this! And also, they still had a lot of significant PTSD stuff and grief stuff to process! Some of my favourite scenes come after Jack and Pitch defeat Augus (including the snow in North’s mansion, and Jack making frost-Seraphina for Pitch). So it’s not like I hate or dislike that I have to write it, I just struggle to open something I’ve already got closure on. I can’t explain that feeling, and I generally try to write stories where there’s so many different layers of closure that by the time we get to the end, I’m still really invested in the characters.

Eversion is a great example of that. No way did we get closure on everything - especially not Connor and his relationship with his mother, and Hank and his grief around Cole. But there was enough kind of...happy, hopeful, healing moments that it still works as a solid hopeful ending (and a tentative happy ending).

I’ve kind of learned over time the sorts of happy endings I enjoy writing most. Stuck on the Puzzle was another, because Cullen was never ‘fixed’ by the end of the story, so even the happy epilogue - one of my favourite chapters ever - is not like...offering so much closure that I felt like I had to walk away earlier. The Golden Age that Never Was, was probably the riskiest ending I’ve ever written, because like a whole chunk of that chapter was just spent on an alien planet, with Jack and Pitch in mourning. But I still felt it had its happy ending, because of the way they returned to home, and family, and hope. 

In published books I try and give much clearer happy endings, because that’s a mainstay of the romance genre, and it should be (I’m not out here pretending that my way in fic is better, it’s just my way).

But yeah, god, the writer’s block I get with endings and happy endings in particular is so predictable at this point. I just have to put my head down and really fight through it. It’s the most excruciating part of writing for me, harder than beginnings, but I also think it’s worth fighting that writer’s block and resisting an ‘easy way out’ because the characters have fought so hard for their happy ending and generally, all of you have as well. It kind of feels like running the last part of a marathon, when I was ready to stop a few miles earlier lol.

I think that’s why I also really struggle to feel accomplished after I’ve finished a novel or a book. It’s hard to celebrate what has felt like an anticlimactic slog, because my ‘ending’ came so much sooner (though people’s excitement gives me secondhand excitement? Which is really nice). And I think that’s why I rush so quickly to start new stories, in part, because that’s one of my favourite parts of writing. (That’s not necessarily healthy, either, it’s just a phenomenon where I want to be really happy I finished something, and accomplished something, and instead my ‘months ago closure’ drives me to start something new instead while other people are only just processing their closure on something).

[not-poignant]

I absolutely love your work and I think I've read and re-read all of your stories. Of all your work Fae Tales is always going to be my favourite, but SotP is simply incredible. That story is so well written and striking. I'm not even familiar with the source material, but I fell in love with Cullen and Bull. SotP rang so true for me and settled something inside me that I never knew needed settling. So, thank you for all that you do and all that you are. Do you think you'll ever write them again?

Hiya anon, I’m really glad you enjoyed Stuck on the Puzzle! I had a hell of a time writing it, omg.

The chances of me adding more to it are really low, and probably only likely to happen in the form of oneshots in the Puzzle universe. Like, one of the reasons I write something that’s basically three novels long, is so I can sort of write everything I really want to be writing in one go. Which means I have real closure at the end and no drive to write any more.

I’m actually rereading Stuck on the Puzzle right now, and it’s not really pinging me to write anything more for it. It feels really complete, and I have a lot of other fandoms and original things I want to write for that aren’t remotely complete or even started yet, so my brain is often driving forwards into new things. It’s rare for me to stick around in any fandom for too long, I think partly because I do seek closure in fics, and once I have it, I’m sort of ready to go on into something new.

Like, after that came The Wind that Cuts the Night which is still one of my favourite things that I’ve ever written, and then Eversion which I’m still working on now, and after that I’ll leave the Detroit: Become Human fandom and move onto something else. I mean I’ll still reblog fanart and stuff on occasion, but like...that’s just my process, I guess?

So I never say never (because we got The Golden Age that Never Was some time after SAL), but I have no urge. Probably because I also felt really settled after writing it, and didn’t need to be in that space in the same way anymore, so found a new space in another fandom instead!

[not-poignant]

This is sortve a personal question so no pressure if you don't have the spoons or aren't comfortable answering! I was just wondering, early into posting your fanfic and original fic, how did you deal with seeing views rise but not getting comments or kudos to use as feedback? If you experienced that? I recently started an original fic on A03 and I'm struggling a little with the anxiety of not knowing if anyone is enjoying it, even though I know I'm supposed to write for me. Love your work ❤️

Hi anon,

Okay so, I think there’s two things going on here. Firstly, original fics on AO3 do terribly unless you already have a decent fandom or following (and not just on AO3, but off it, on Twitter or Tumblr or wherever people can follow you - so you can drum up interest or gauge how interested people are in your original writing). That’s just the way that is.

Let’s be clear, I never wanted to write original fiction on AO3, I didn’t make an AO3 account to do that, I just sort of ended up doing it, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone writing original fiction who wants that fiction to be discovered. Idk how I ended up here, but I’d be the first to say it’s not the smartest way to promote original fiction. (I have to say that, to beat all my author friends from telling me how much of an idiot I am for doing it this way, lmao, my only response is I love fandom and it’s fun).

The vast majority of readers on AO3 not only aren’t interested in reading original fiction on AO3, they actively go out of their way to avoid it.

There’s also things that a lot of fanfiction readers don’t like taking risks on: reading a story that’s only OCs (especially in the context of roleplay OCs, because authors don’t always work hard enough to make characters like this accessible to strangers, so what is fun between two people or a group of people, doesn’t read well to outsiders), reading stories that have too much exposition (not many people read fic for reams of exposition, though there are exceptions - but obvs this is what published fiction does that fanfic can generally skip), original short fics and drabbles (especially ones that aren’t explicit), etc.

When I first started posting Game Theory, less than 10% of of Shadows and Light active readers (i.e. people who comment and leave asks etc.) came over to try it. Tbh I think, initially, it may have even been like less than 5%. Eventually Game Theory came to stand on its own, but I had to work at that, over a long period of time (and I was frankly blessed with some truly amazing individuals who worked hard re: word of mouth, without my knowledge), and to this day my original fiction on AO3 still performs terribly compared to my fanfiction - I’m lucky it performs well overall, but if you compare kudos on say, The Golden Age that Never Was to like...The Ice Plague #2 or even Eversion, it’s pretty damning. 

The upshot of all of that is...AO3 is already working against you when it comes to original fiction. It’s amazing that AO3 allows original fiction, and some people still think it shouldn’t.

Okay! Now to the actual second part, which is how to cope with just not getting any feedback at all. This is more complicated. Honestly, a huge chunk of what might be happening may all be down to how many readers respond to original fiction in general. Overall, multi-chaptered fics do better than oneshots, unless the oneshots are explicit PWP, for example. There are some exceptions, but you can bet that those exceptions are ‘author who is traditionally published put some side work on AO3 and already have a huge-ass fucking following.’ There are I think well over 17,600 original fics on AO3 that have zero kudos. That’s nearly 1/3 of all of them. You are not alone.

The second part is down to you. And this stuff I can’t answer, because this is more complicated. Some of it is going to be you sitting down and looking at the quality of the fic, or how much hard work you’ve done to promote it (i.e. are ppl on your social media interested, for example?), and how much work you’ve done to introduce strangers to your characters (remember, they don’t have the benefit of a TV show/movie/fandom to introduce the characters for you anymore), because just putting a fic in the world is not enough if you don’t have a fandom to attach it to, unless you’re somewhere like Wattpad (and even then, I daresay the number of fics that have no comments/faves is HUGE). There’s a reason publishers make the commissions they do, and it’s partly because they have access to readerbases who will take risks on what they’re publishing. AO3 doesn’t really have the same base for original fiction, it doesn’t even want to.

Some of it will be down to how much you’re enjoying writing the fic (if it’s meant to be ongoing). Could you keep putting chapters up with no feedback? I’ve done it before (back on LJ, when no one gave a shit about my writing lmao and in the earliest days when I didn’t promote it through any communities), but I’ve also pulled and stopped fics that didn’t do well enough, because I needed that sense of fandom collaboration to keep going. This is deeply personal. Sometimes the story alone is enough to keep you going. But creators do enjoy feedback, so sometimes it’s not, and that’s okay too. It makes it more painful in the moment, but it may make you more likely to grow in the direction of attracting more readers in the future, and growth is good.

Some of it will be time. How long has the fic been up for? A day? A week? A year? Almost half of the entire kudos on the Shadows and Light stories came once the story was finished. I’m not saying wait a year, obviously, I don’t know anyone that patient, I’m just saying...it takes time for people to discover things. It takes even more time if people have no signposts to follow, and since people use fandoms as signposts to find things on AO3 (when they’re not using highly individual kinks anyway), you can see how being in origfic sets you back. You have fewer signposts.

I’m not gonna lie. It’s hard. The metrics support that it’s hard. 17k fics with not a single kudos is no joke. Dealing with it isn’t easy. Generally speaking I get depressed for a good long time, and then I take a step back, remember that in the grand scheme of things this really doesn’t matter very much, make myself some tea and go outside to stare at trees and clouds (I am just Like That (TM)). And then I decide if the story is still worth it, if I need to take some time, or if I need to work on something else.

You go story by story, and you keep working at it, unless you decide you don’t want to anymore, and then you’ll find something else you enjoy just as much. It’s not an easy process, but I don’t think anyone who ended up writing ever ends up with an easy process, alas. I wish you luck out there in the word mines, it can be a hard journey sometimes.

[not-poignant]

Is Jack in either of the verses into name calling during sex? Like slut, whore, ect, or is he just into the praise factor for the most part?

I mean, if felt that Jack was into either of things in those universes, I would have written them in, because I had time to explore those facets.

But no, I don’t really headcanon him as being someone who readily responds to that. In Shadows and Light, he’s been basically having cheap sex with random spirits who think nothing of him before he meets Pitch, so he knows what it feels like to be genuinely humiliated with sex (see his Satyr story). So that Jack doesn’t really respond to humiliation in general. Name calling would just, for him, make him feel like he was being insulted or reduced.

And in The Golden Age that Never Was, I think it’s just something he wouldn’t especially be into. That Jack likes a measure of humiliation, but not in the form of overt name-calling. I mean I think if Pitch started saying things like ‘you’re such a slut for it’ or whatever, I think Jack would kind of privately roll his eyes and be like ‘I guess that’s something Pitch needs right now, whatever.’

I’m happy to write it when I think the fic calls for it, like in Eversion and The Wind that Cuts the Night, but a lot of the time I’m writing characters who are more likely to be damaged by name calling than find it hot.

[not-poignant]

For the trope meme: a) time travel b) Groundhog Day AU /yeah similar to the first one but it's its own thing/ c) forced to work together out of necessity (e.g. enemies against Bigger Bad, office rivals for a project, etc) Hope ur having a great day! :)

Oh wow! Lots! I’m just gonna go through them in order.

Time Travel:

No | rather not | I dunno | I guess | Sure | Yes | FUCK yes | Oh god you don’t even know |

The only time travel I’ve ever enjoyed was in Homestuck and even then the time travel was my least favourite part of it. I hate time travel in general, and it will actively drive me away from a published or fic story. As soon as I see ‘time travel’ I’m like ‘HI I’M GONE.’ The only exception to this so far has been Loki selfcest fics where the time travel is really just a device to get an older Loki in the room with a younger Loki.

**

Groundhog Day

No | rather not | I dunno | I guess | Sure | Yes | FUCK yes | Oh god you don’t even know |

Aside from the actual movie, Groundhog Day, I have zero interest in this trope. Which is probably why I’ve never written it. Again, like above, if I see ‘groundhog day’ in the tags of a fic, it’ll be grounds for me to not read it. There’s been like two exceptions for this in the Thorki fandom, but this is more a sign of me being thirsty for fic, than it is me wanting the tag.

No | rather not | I dunno | I guess | Sure | Yes | FUCK yes | Oh god you don’t even know |

**

Forced to work together

No | rather not | I dunno | I guess | Sure | Yes | FUCK yes | Oh god you don’t even know |

I mean, I write this one! This is literally the set up for getting Mosk and Eran together in The Ice Plague. It’s part of the set up behind Hank and Connor in Eversion. It’s pretty much the only reason Jack and Pitch get an opportunity to develop in The Golden Age that Never Was. I love that trope, I’ll probably write it again in the future. :D

**

From the trope meme.

[not-poignant]

You've talked before about the three-act structure of your plotted novels, and how they tend to be further broken down into arcs within each act. Given how long you've been writing, would you say that using that structure is something that developed organically over the years, or is more something that you learned later and then intentionally applied because you really liked it? Or some other reason?

I mean it was something I was taught at university during scriptwriting, a long time ago. Writing in highschool had introduced me to the three act story, I mean that was pretty fundamental and I think I was learning that when I was 13/14, but in terms of multi-arcs, A/B/C storylines and so on, that came during scriptwriting.

A lot of it felt like being taught something I already knew. Unbeknownst to some, I guess, that’s just the bedrock of a lot (but not all) of writing, and so if you’re watching TV, or movies, or reading classic stories, or new stories, you are learning those rules unconsciously, in the same way that we sometimes pick up rules of grammar without ever being taught. You may not be able to explain why we do something a certain way, but you can sometimes tell when it’s been done ‘wrong’ or something feels off. And storytelling can be like that.

When I came to writing fanfiction and so on, myself, it just...came naturally? I noticed even in things I had written when I was 11 and 12 years old, I still had all of the components of storytelling. It’s not like I consciously set out to do it that way, it just...went that way. Maybe I’ve been lucky, I had the foundation of fairy tales and other books when I was younger, as I was an introvert and a curious reader, and my Mum was willing to get cheap compendiums of folklore at the secondhand book store. So while I never read a single Goosebumps novel (though I guess I could’ve started once I was in highschool, lol, and taken them out of the library), I was fortunate enough to have early exposure to different kinds of stories.

So I guess, yeah, in a way I learned it organically, then it was formalised at university and it just seemed like the right way to do it (I was already pretty much doing it, so why not?)

But I don’t really set out to intentionally apply it, unless part of the story is broken actually, or unless the story is juggling a lot of components (like The Ice Plague). Like, I don’t do this intentionally with things like Eversion, or The Golden Age that Never Was, or Stuck on the Puzzle, or even most of Game Theory and so on. Part of the enjoyment of winging a story is trusting that I have the foundations inside of me, and can lay them out instinctively. It doesn’t always work, but it’s a lot of fun.