#rmvspeaks

[rosemaidenvixen]

Based on a chat between me and @avirxy though I feel a lot of fic writers can relate.

[rosemaidenvixen]

Announcement for my upcoming fic plans.

I’m well into drafting Between Daylight and Darkness, and bar any unforeseen circumstances I’ll post the first chapter on April 1st.

I’ve also been working on an owl house fic, this will be a divergent take starting halfway through season two and expanding into season three. The title for this fic will be Algea, not a typo, look it up :) . This one will be posted on April 8th for Watching and Dreaming day.

My personal goal is to update both of these stories every four weeks, with one being updated every other week.

Between Daylight and Darkness and Algea will be my “Main” stories that I try to post on a regular, scheduled basis. I’ve also been working on In the Fullness of Time and Both Sides of the Sky. These two will be posted infrequently as I find time to work on them, but I should have In the Fullness of Time completed before the end of summer.

I’ve missed posting and I’m super excited to get back to it and start dropping these projects, see y’all in April!

[rosemaidenvixen]

Tales of Arcadia Halloween Fic recs

Any TOA fans out there looking for something spooky to read around Halloween? Well then this is the the list for you! A compilation of my favorite horror and Halloween themed Tales of Arcadia fics. Some of these are safe for all ages, but some do lean hard into horror, so mind the tags and read with caution.

Arcane Blight @avirxy Do you like horror? Do you like Tales of Arcadia? If the answer is yes to both then stop what you're doing and read this. Takes place in an alternate universe where Jim is the new kid in Arcadia, and he quickly realizes that this innocent looking town has dark secrets lurking beneath the surface. To say any more would ruin a lot of the truly gut punching, jaw dropping twists and turns this story has.

The Changeling Masquerade @earth-ambassador-jim Takes place in the author's changeling Toby au. Shows how exactly changelings celebrate Halloween, but with a sinister twist.

Tear Me In Two (The Moonlight Will Anyway) @avirxy Two words. Werewolf Claire. In a monster hunter au Claire gets a nasty bite from a lycanthrope and the whole group struggles with the consequences. One of my all time favorite pieces of werewolf media for the absolutely phenomenal way it explores what it means to unleash the beast within.

Through the Veil @pinkytoothlesso11 This one's just getting started, but holy hell what a start! Jim doesn't given much credibility to Eli's ramblings of monsters and conspiracies in their town, until he witnesses someone he trusts performing a horrific ritual on Halloween night that brings everything he thought he knew into question. Now Jim and his friends are far from home and lost in a world hostile to human kind, and no guarantee that they'll make it home safe.

Something's wrong with Arcadia @earth-ambassador-jim When Jim and team Trollhunters aren't running around causing problems, what does the average Joe think of the strangeness going on in Arcadia? Bular and goblins and changelings shown from a mundane point of view in a way that's absolutely chilling.

31 Days in the Darklands @xdeusxmachinax Not technically a Halloween story, but takes place near and on Halloween with tons of horror and spooky imagery. I always give it a re-read each spooky season. In the wake of an unconventional treaty Strickler struggles to keep balance between Trollmarket, the Janus order, Arcadia, and the Darklands but the universe seems to sabotage him at each stage, and there's more than just pumpkin spice in the air this year in Arcadia.

Snippets, Snails, and Trollish Tales @whitherwanderyouspirit Some mostly Stricklake centered Halloween one shoots ranging from sweet to spooky to downright terrifying.

The Manor atop the Hill @avirxy A Haunted House story like you've never seen done before. When a desperate and frightened Jim follows his mother into the mysterious mansion on the outskirts of town he finds himself trapped in more ways than one. No one has lived in this house for as long as anyone can remember, but it is far from empty. Forced to rely on ghosts and a mysterious girl, Jim has to keep his wits about him if he wants to escape with his life, and his soul, intact.

cave bestiam @rosemaidenvixen Based on the online two sentance horror story "A girl heard her mom yell her name from downstairs, so she got up and started to head down. As she got to the stairs, her mom pulled her into her room and said, “I heard that, too.” But staring Barbara and Jim.

Fear of Fears @rosemaidenvixen An alternate take on my sunshine au. Jim decideds to sneak out on Halloween by passing his troll form off as a costume, a decision that will ripple outward into horrific consequences.

Tales of All Hallows Eve @rosemaidenvixen Collection of my Halloween themed one shots and drabbles.

Dig your eight graves @rosemaidenvixen Eight teens from Arcadia wander far from home and suffer a brutal attack from an evil that was much closer to home than they could ever imagine. Alone and traumatized, one of them makes a bargain in order to reclaim what was taken from them. They gain everything they ask for and more, but lose more than they ever thought possible.

A Bunch of Hocus Pocus @rosemaidenvixen A collection of 31 spooky and Halloween themed one shots for Tales of Arcadia and The Owl House, released one per day each day of October until Halloween.

[rosemaidenvixen]

Someone else asked you about villains so: A-Who is your favourite and/or least favourite Protagonist in ToA and B-What would you change about them in Sunshine?

My favorite TOA protagonist, to no one's surprise I'm sure, is none other than Jim Lake Jr himself. He's so caring and sweet, he deeply values all the people in his life and believes that every life is precious and worth saving.

My least favorite protagonist would have to be Krel Tarron. Not because there's anything wrong with his character, his character is a good one and I love him, but because of how the plot mishandles him. He's constantly pushed to the sidelines in favor of Aja hogging the spotlight and his technological prowess was turned from a valuable skill to something that just existed to fill whatever need the plot demanded (he had to work and scrounge for parts to build a daxial array in season 1 but in season 2 he was able to throw together a teleporter on a whim).

It should be clear how Jim's arc will be different in the sunshine au, his struggles with his shifting half troll nature and acceptance into troll society, and for Krel I'm going to explore the strengths and limitations of his tech skills and give him proper time in the spotlight.

[rosemaidenvixen]

My ongoing fics

Tales of Arcadia

Between Daylight and Darkness: Ao3, Cover art, 1

The Owl House

Algea: Ao3, 1

Here's where I keep track of all my in-progress fics. They'll be removed from this post as they're completed but the separate chapter posts will remain up and all my writing is permanently archived on Ao3.

In the event that I'm indisposed indefinitely or otherwise can't return to tumblr I have a dead man's switch post, a post I have queued and continuously go in and reschedule, with links to all my drafts and outlines in case the worst happens. Otherwise I'll post notices about any hiatuses or breaks in writing I take.

[rosemaidenvixen]

So quick update on where things are at for me.

I just finished up my 31 days of Halloween project, very fun but exhausting, and I have the last two chapters of A Secret's Worth drafted. I'm planning on posting the next update on November 11th and the last chapter some time in December. After that I'm going to be taking a break from posting for the first few months of 2024.

I'm super excited to start posting the next installment of the sunshine au, Between Daylight and Darkness, but whenever I start posting a new story I start feeling a lot of pressure to keep up with regular updates. Not to mention there's a few other fics I want to work on as well. So with these next few projects I want to get a lot written ahead of time and build up some momentum before I start posting.

Starting in January I'm going to be taking a three month break from posting while I draft and work on my various projects with the plan on posting Between Daylight and Darkness starting in April 2024.

[rosemaidenvixen]

Hello! I really love reading your Sunshine AU, but if you dont mind, I have a few questions.

1. Where exactly did the inspiration for the bathbomb come from?

2. If Dorrie (the CPS worker who appeared in Secret's worth) did find out about Jim how would she react?

3. When it comes to Morgana, what will she do when she possesses Claire?

By the time I got to planning the "How" of the troll potion getting into Jim's bath I'd already decided that James was going to be the ultimate culprit behind the potion. I just needed a method for sneaking the potion into the bath. I knew you can make homemade bath bombs with baking soda and scented oils, so James making the bath bomb of doom by mixing the troll potion with baking soda was the best solution.

Initially Dorrie would be as shocked as anyone just learning about the existence of magic and trolls. Then once she's had a bit to process and connect the dots to Barbara and Jim's situation she'd have a little lightbulb moment of "Oh that's why that looked that way". Then once she full recovers from her shock she'd step right back into her role of a caring CPS investigator.

Most of Claire's possession will happen the same as canon, but unfortunately Clairegana's going to give the gang the slip before they can try to exorcise her, resulting in her meeting up with Gunmar and causeing a few significant problems before the gang can pin her down

[rosemaidenvixen]

Are any of the Sunshine versions of the villains considered irredeemable?

Irredeemablity is a tricky thing, I like to gauge characters based on how likely I think they are to view their action in a new light and take action to change.

Someone like Gunmar I consider highly unlikely to change their viewpoint, and even less likely to change his actions.

From Gunmar's (admittedly highly warped) perspective he's the hero, humans are squandering the surface and he's doing trolls a favor by taking it back for them. And if some trolls disagree with him and Gunmar kills the ones who get in his way, well heroes sometimes have to do hard things, and it was really their own fault for getting in his way.

[To be clear if someone does want to write a story where Gunmar changes his views and stops being a villain that's great, it's just not something I have any interest/plan to write about]

So in the sunshine au a lot of villains, Gunmar included, will not be redeemed. But a few of them, with the will and drive to change, will find themselves shifting to other sides of the battlefield.

[rosemaidenvixen]

Alright I've decided that going forward the friendship tag I'm using for the Toby+Jim+Mary+Darci+Claire friendship will be "arcadia quintet". Is there a high likelyhood that I'll be the only one using a tag that I created for my personal niche interests? Yes. But that's what being on tumblr is all about.

[rosemaidenvixen]

hi! Big fan of Sunshine Through The Clouds (I've been following the story since about the tail end of You Are My Sunshine) and I was somewhat curious; what would happen to Jim if grave sand and its effects were applied to him during the day? Given that he's a half/were(?) troll, would it change anything in the effects of it?

Jim's shifting troll curse is controlled strickly according to the movement of the sun and whether Jim himself is above or below ground. More generally, whether Jim is a troll or not is determined by how close he is to the "world" of trolls itself, which is why he shifts on the surface and is a troll permanently underground. And if he ever visited Akiridion-5 he'd be stuck as a human as he did.

So if Jim ever had gravesand during the day it would just have the "normal" effect of making him angry.

[rosemaidenvixen]

Me: this writing project is fun, but it's getting pretty lengthy, maybe I should try to shorten it a bit

the chapter: no, never sacrifice the natural flow just so you can write faster

Me: I get that, but I have a lot of prompts to work on, so maybe this time I should--

the chapter: *pulls out a gun* you're done when I say you're done

Me: b-- but I have a so much to work on

the chapter: you listen up and you listen good, you do not choose what inspiration strikes or how long the stories are. You are but a vessel for transcribing stories into the written word. Now get to writing.

Me: but I have other commitments and work and family--

the chapter: *cocks gun* I said get to it

Me:....yes sir

[rosemaidenvixen]

Merging the magic systems of Tales of Arcadia and the Owl House

Ever since I added the Owl House in alongside Tales of Arcadia as one of my blorbo shows, I’ve wanted to do a crossover between the two. The trouble is I’m coming up empty with plot ideas, zero, nada, zilch. I want to bring these characters together but I’ve got no idea of what would bring them together and what they’d do when they got together. I still want to write a crossover, but right now I’m waiting for the right inspiration/idea to strike.

Since I have no idea when the right inspiration will strike, let alone when I’ll have anything written. I’ve decided to share my ideas for how I’d reconcile the magical systems between the two shows.

In the Owl House it is repeatedly, explicitly stated that humans cannot use innate magic; and in TOA we have multiple humans using innate magic. So how to make these two incompatible systems mesh without completely throwing out one or the other?

First step is to flesh out the world(s) the stories take place in, using some interpretation and a lot of my personal headcanons. To begin the Demon Realm isn’t really another world so much as another plane of reality to the Terrestrial Realm (aka Earth). If all of reality is a house, the Terrestrial realm would be the first floor and the Demon Realm would be the basement. Another universe would be a whole separate house. The Demon Realm isn’t the afterlife, but humans falling into the Boiling Isles and bringing stories of it back did give rise to myths about the underworld.

Now the two magic systems in these show as they are are completely incompatible, so to make them compatible I’m doing some heavy tweaking to the magic system in the TOAverse. I chose the TOAverse to alter because the Owl House has a lot of in-universe explanations for how the magic system works, while TOA is incredibly vague about it.

What I came up with is this.

Witches can practice innate magic because they have a gland of magical bile on their heart that serves as the source of their magic power. They have these bile sacs because they evolved from the decomposing carcass of an incredibly powerful eldritch god and inherited some of the Titan’s innate magic. Humans did not evolve these bile sacs and therefore have no innate magic. But what if there was a way to bypass the evolutionary middle man and get magic directly?

Because while mature titans may be some of the most powerful deities in existence, they are far from the only ones, and the terrestrial realm has plenty, the Arcane order and many others.

So while humans have no innate magic, by making a deal with a deity they can get some of their powers to use as their own.

Quick aside, in this verse deities aren’t all knowing/all powerful/pure good/pure evil. While they’re immensely powerful magical beings, deities aren’t omnipotent, and have their own struggles and limitations, just like mortal beings. There are almost no deities that are pure good or pure evil, and they often make contracts with mortals for their own reasons or their own gain, ranging from noble to petty.

And a deity giving a human some of their power doesn't lessen the deity’s power. It’s like lighting a torch from a bonfire, the bonfire isn’t reduced by lighting a torch, and it gets to spread its influence without leaving its confines.

The conditions and stipulations that go into such a contract with a deity, and what powers the human gets out of it, varies from deity to deity. An honest person making a deal with an honest deity would get an equivalent exchange, but a foolish person making a deal with a trickster deity might soon find themselves in over their head and little more than a slave. Of course there are plenty of mortals who wouldn’t mind feeding a bloodthirsty god all they desire if they come out more powerful for it. In rare cases if the mortal is clever enough they can trick the deity and come out on top of the bargain.

Every deity is unique and they all have different risks associated with making contracts with them. But making deals with ancient, primordial deities is considered especially dangerous, because while these elder beings are no more pure good or evil than their younger counterparts, their minds are much more alien. And this lack of understanding of human morality can lead to blessings that look like curses, gifts that are more like punishments. One should exercise extreme caution when making a bargain with one of these elder beings.

Now what would this look like applied?

Let’s start with Merlin. I can easily see him being clever enough to trick a deity and a lot of Arthurian myth has him being the son of the devil. So based on this, I imagine in his youth he was able to trick a very powerful, sadistic trickster god, I’m not sure how the specifics of this trick go down, but it ends with Merlin getting all the power he desires and the deity being left with almost nothing. The deity is furious but is bound by their own word.

For Douxie I imagine that a few thousand years down the line Merlin’s trickster made a deal with Douxie as a young child, giving him power with the intention of grooming him into causing Merlin’s downfall. But Merlin outsmarts them again, taking Douxie as his apprentice and teaching him all that he knows. And Merlin’s not immortal, if one day after he dies Douxie steps into his shoes that is just fine with him. Again the trickster is super pissed, but can’t do anything about it.

Now Zoe. There’s pretty much nothing in canon about her powers but I’ve seen a lot of cool fanart of her with electricity powers, so I imagine she made a bargain with Thor, god of thunder, to get lightning based magic. Thor really didn’t ask for much in this bargain, as he likes giving mortals power just because he has fun seeing them running around kicking ass and taking names.

Claire actually did what few dared to do and made a bargain with one of the oldest beings in existence, Nyx, goddess of the night and primordial darkness. No one’s sure what exactly Claire promised in exchange for power over shadows and darkness, only that Claire herself goes gaunt whenever asked and refuses to say.

Rather than being a human that made a bargain for power, I see Morgana as being a demigoddess with innate magic of her own, the child of Uther Pendragon and a powerful fae and Arthur’s half sister. Being a demigoddess makes her incredibly powerful, and killing her…complicated.

So contracts are how “typical” human magic users get their power, but when Luz goes to the Boiling Isles she discovers the glyphs, the titans’ language, and a way to use the titans’ power without a contract or a bile gland. Speculating down the line, once King learns of his true heritage and the Collector enters the scene, this opens up the possibility of Luz making a contract with one of them, but this has its own set of risks. While King and the Collector are friends and allies, the two of them are children, and while they might never intend to harm Luz they could easily end up making a contract with devastating side effects without even trying to. They’re so young they simply don’t know or understand all the subtle intricacies that go into making a bargain with a human.

That’s all I’ve hashed out for now. Like I said, any crossover story will stay in limbo until I get a good idea for a plot. And if anyone wants to incorporate any of the ideas I wrote about here into your own stories feel free. Thanks for reading my rambles!

[rosemaidenvixen]

Hi! If you dont mind I have a question about your AU.

Can anyone with strong enough magic be able to tell that Jim is cursed or not?

Not really, Jim's curse is only "Active" so to speak when he's actively transforming. If a magic user was nearby (I'm talking ten feet away or less) while Jim transformed they would be able to pick up on the magic of that, but because Jim's so cautious about his transformations that's highly unlikely to happen.

[rosemaidenvixen]

Reread a few chapters of your Sunshine AU recently, and Strangers Like Me from Tarzan feels like a song that would suit Jim in BD&D

Just imagining him all excited to learn about Troll stuff gets me hyped

For real, when Jim gets introduced to larger troll society he's going to find fulfillment and acceptance that he didn't know he was missing.

[rosemaidenvixen]

A while back I posted that in the sunshine au each of the kids will have a signature color, and I thought I'd go a little more into detail about what that means for one character in particular.

Darci.

Her color is green, the color of both envy and harmony.

After the Battle of Two Bridges Blinky decides that in order to give his human charges an advantage in their struggle against the Janus order, he'll let them handle several magical artifacts that Vendel has in storage in the hope of awakening some form of Wizardry in them.

Because learning magic is a lot like learning music. It doesn't require any special innate factor, and with practice and hard work almost anyone can become skilled at some form of it.

Jim is barred from using the artifacts, due to his "curse" interfering with any outside magic, but for the rest of the kids it's wildly successful.

Claire awakens her magic first, darkness flickering at her fingertips and shadows bending to her will. Toby discovers his magic in the stones he spent his life studying, finding power in the heat and pressure of the earth itself. Mary's magic burns bright and hot, much more volatile than the others', able to summon an inferno on a whim.

Then there's Darci, who tries as hard as she can but is never able to summon more than a flicker of power.

That's when they learn that while most people can learn some form of magic, a few people are the magical equivalent of tone deaf. And that no matter how much work and effort they put in they'll never be able to master anything but the most basic of spells.

Darci falls into this category.

She's utterly crushed at learning this but tries to keep her spirits up and be happy for her friends. After all this isn't their fault, and they'd happily give her the ability to practice magic if they could. And while Jim does have special abilities of his own he paid a terrible price for them.

The other kids know how left out Darci feels and make a point to never exclude her and to not rub their talents in her face.

But as sympathetic as the others are and as much as she tries to force herself to stay positive, Darci can't help but look at all her friends growing into new, fantastical powers and feel the sharp sting of envy.

As time goes on Darci find herself more and more torn between her support for her friends and her growing bitterness. But then something unexpected happens that sends everyone reeling.

The arrival of someone who's also known for wearing green.

[rosemaidenvixen]

Alright it's the middle of July, you all know what that means....

Halloween's coming!

(I know it's obscenely early but bear with me)

People who have been following me for a while know I like doing a Halloween special fic each year. This year I want to try something different. Instead of doing one long story I release on or shortly before Halloween, I want to write thirty one drabbles releasing one each day of October.

There's only one problem, I don't have thirty one story ideas.

The solution, open my askbox to Halloween/Spooky/Autumn themed prompts!

Anyone with an idea for a one shot for spooky season please send it my way. For help with ideas there are some prompt lists here, here, and here.

Guidelines:

What I will write

Prompts for Tales of Arcadia or The Owl House or any other fandom I've blogged about

Any pairing (except for Adult/Minor ships)

Any genre; including but not limited to fluff, drama, and horror

Minor to medium levels of gore and blood

What I will not write (any prompts sent in with these will be instantly deleted)

Prompts for fandoms I'm not familiar with

Adult/Minor parings

Rape or sexual assault

Thirty one prompts is a lot so feel free to send in more than one (as time goes on this may change). My plan is to start working on this as soon as possible so I have most of it finished by October and can stick to a daily release schedule.

Until then, happy early spooky season!

Current prompt count: 31/31, prompt count full, no longer accepting new prompts.

Edit: Adding some more Halloween/Autumn prompt lists here and here.