#which characters i'm writing in the prologue so if you want to go in completely blind turn back now!)

[kadoodles-on-ao3]

Sickness update: Still coughing, but it's (mostly) dry coughing now, and my headache is gone! But I'm not at 100% back-to-normal mental capacity yet either :(

Writing update: I've been hard at work on my angsty longfic! I was going to work on something lighter (especially with my cold) but all of a sudden more and more ideas to add to my AU kept popping in my head and I just had to jot them down.

Before long I was finally organizing my outline by putting all my previous bullet-point came-to-me-at-random-times-of-the-night-and-put-in-an-equally-random-order concepts into plot-chronological order as they should be, and making headings/sections for the major location changes to find stuff easier, and getting down how exactly series-and-collection-wise I want to go about categorizing the fic and its sequels, and finalizing their titles (which are all names of songs on The Glitch Mob's Drink the Sea album, give it a listen with good headphones if you haven't before, it's great background music!!) and oh yeah I needed to go over the h2hs again better open that doc, and I definitely need to have the game's script and cutscenes on hand for reference as needed (which was very frequently) and now baby I've got a stew going

I'm having so much fun writing characters I haven't gotten to write before, and (minor/vague Xenoblade spoilers) digging into the details of the lore about Face Mechon and expanding on my take of what was happening on the Mechonis before the party got there, and fitting lots of little puzzle pieces that the game gives you but doesn't directly tell you they belong together which is why I love it so much, and getting into such a nice flow state with it all and gjshfhskfh I love Xenoblade 1 so muchhhhhh!!!

So all that is to say I will hopefully be posting the prologue tomorrow or the day after! :) No promises as it's gotten much longer/more-detailed than I planned for (although I really should have expected that, it's always how it goes with me when I'm having fun writing I just can't stop haha) but it is most definitely on the way to being published soon!

[infamous-if]

✮ CH. 2 PART I ✮ 92k (+86k) -> 178k ✮

PLAY CHAPTER 2: PART I

It's here! First, sorry for the long wait. Chapter 2 has proven to be a behemoth, and I'd gotten sick this past week, my computer broke, my documents went kaput and I had to do some Frankensteining for the last few pages of this part. I'm not too worried, as Part II update can help smooth out all the kinks. I will definitely be looking for beta testers once chapter 2 is complete ha

Anywho! Enough about my problems. This demo update adds 86k words (86, 818 to be exact) and is the first part of a two part chapter. Which means the narrative in this chapter is not complete, but I kind of closed it off at a pretty satisfying place. As with every Infamous chapter, this is very character driven. So have fun!

What to expect in Chapter Two PART I:

get on the bus & deal with the consequences of your actions lol

arrive to your first tour stop and do your first gig...which might get messy (both literally and figuratively)

hang with a familiar father and daughter duo

have some heart to hearts/ some cheeky little POV passages

meet more BOTB crew and learn exactly what's in store for you this season

get roped in some ValenReign mess !

Maintenance:

this chapter has a lot of flavor text, or at least, more than the demo did, so if there are any errors or if there are lines that don't correspond with your choices, please let me know so i can fix that!

you will no longer be forced to write your own lyrics and the update will offer you pre-written lyrics by yours truly. im not t swift so i would advise you not to expect professional level songwriting, but they work well enough lolol

lyrics page is up as well as stats, but i don't really like the system i used to balance it, mostly because new...stat things will be added as the story goes on, so that's still getting reworked. still, good enough for now, as there are some personality stat checks!

Prologue and Chapter 1 errors/typos/grammatical bits fixed. (Wouldn't be surprised if I missed some though...) + variables updated.

Scenes not showing up fixed. hopefully, that huge error in which it throws you back to the fight after returning to the house is fixed (It was a bit wonky for me, hopefully it works for everyone else)

Stat and relationship pages updated ( + lyric page to look back at all your lyrics).

Can choose to be asexual and any sexual scenes will be skipped or replaced with romantic scenes. Flavor text in which MC displays any sort of sexual desire will be skipped. (This option comes up during Dakota's party scene. If not, it will show up when it presents itself again.) (Nothing sexual has come up yet, but if there are any scenes or even lines/ internal thoughts that should be skipped or changed for Asexual MCs, please let me know!)

If there are errors or anything, im always open. I've play tested but you girl is always prone to errors. As always, thank you for your love and enthusiasm! It makes me really happy and motivates me to keep writing ! <3

(Also, if you're thinking "omg amy how did you go from 65k to 86k?!" i don't want to talk about it /j)

See you on tour!

[larkingame]

hello all! been a moment since we last discussed some things, so I'm coming online to discuss the progress of Larkin's development and make a few announcements :)

over the last ten months, larkin has gone through a lot of changes, some of which I've documented here--but most of it I've kept pretty private. I realized that over the few short years I've been developing the game, I sort of grew an unhealthy dependence on my presence within the 'interactive fiction' community that I really, really needed to take a step back from and break, all in order to ensure that I could enjoy working on what originally started out as a passion project for me.

since july of last year, I've completely reshaped and rewritten how larkin exists as a project, shifted it's genre and started collaborating with a few others to ensure it can be of the highest quality it can possibly be. uptop, i'd like to mention @tapeworrmart who's taken on the immense task of putting together most of the game art for me, @khiita and @ann1a-1 who have both taken on the roles of my editors (and also sounding boards for when I am being absolutely insane) and my production manager phillip, who without his assistance, larkin would barely exist. with that, let's do a progress report. the intended demo of larkin, or what i've taken to calling 'episode one' (yes, i said, 'episode,' more on that in a minute) has stretched to just over 200k words worth of content. it stretches all the way from the earliest versions of larkin's original prologue, to the end of the original chapter two. so far, we've completed 3 out of the intended 20 character portraits, as well as some more art that's slowly been in development.

now, on to the announcements. probably the biggest, and the one I am most ashamed of is--due to the fact that I've been slammed with graduate school work and some other external factors, Larkin as it currently exists is not the best that I think it can be. I'm deeply sorry for this, but I want to ensure that you all are getting the highest quality game you could get from me--and right now, I know it's just not that. Which is why I am unfortunately, pushing the release of the demo back until Friday, June 14th, 2024. Patrons will be granted access to the most recent edit of the demo two weeks earlier on Friday, May 31st 2024. In the meantime, I will be working day and night (quite literally) to get what I'm dropping on you up to par and something that I'm happy with.

To make up for this disappointment, I'm planning on repopulating the blog with a lot of content over the coming months, rewriting new versions of old asks, posting art and short stories.

Next on the agenda and also an equally important announcement. I'm changing the rating of Larkin to Mature or 18+ As I've been writing these past few months, working through a lot of themes and figuring out the story I want to tell, I've found that I think the change in rating is entirely necessary. While I don't think I've ever had that big of a minor fanbase--I think that this is just what I am most comfortable doing. There has consistently grown a little bit more of gore, and trauma exploration, which is the main reason for this change in rating, but, this does allow for the inclusion of something that I've been toying with since the intial release of the game. There is going to be explicit sex scenes in this new version of Larkin--all of which, you the player are able to opt out of, or completely avoid if that's something you want--but I just thought a little announcement would be warranted. This does not mean however, I am comfortable with answering thoroughly explicit asks or getting unsolicited sexual messages. The goal is to keep this game blog mainly tame.

Please respect this boundary of mine.

Third thing to be announced. I've also changed the format in which Larkin will be released. Rather than around the twenty-five chapters in one of a series of 'Books'/'Games', Larkin will be released episodically over four 'seasons' with eight-ten episodes of around 200k-250k words each (though, this is just an early estimate--they could grow longer, as I'm basing this purely off the demo/Episode One)

Finally and a little bit of a fun note: there are now twelve romance options throughout larkin, five male, three female, one non-binary and three gender-selectable. With those upcoming asks, you'll hear more about each in the coming days :)

With all that being said, I wanted to lastly thank all of you for supporting me over the years and putting faith and your interest in this project. truly, the support of all of you means the world to me and I can't wait to share more of larkin with you all.

thank you 💖

[friendlybowlofsoup]

Update Jan. 4, 2024

Happy New Year, Everyone! 🎆

I hope everyone has had a great holiday season and are managing to keep warm. I have been quite busy with school since my last update, but I had an extremely restful and productive winter break so I thought I should share my progress!

For starters, I have finally finished porting over all of the prologue to twine 🎉 I completely forgot how needlessly complex this first portion was, but it's finally over and now I can move on to my Chapter 1 rewrites _(:3 」∠)_

I also finished porting over a barebones version of the stats/character menu page that I will probably leave alone for now. It's not the prettiest thing in the world, but I really want to focus on narrative writing, so it will have to do. That said, it is perfectly serviceable as it is and retains the functions that are included in the dashingdon demo, all except for a stats indicator of some kind.

As for Chapter 1 and 2, writing has been going well now that I can focus on it completely. I've decided to completely upend the first half of Chapter 1 to reflect the new direction I'm going in, and I'll give some small crumbs in the cut below for those who are interested ┬┴┬┴┤･ω･)ﾉ

But that is all I have for now! I will update again once Chapter 1 is finished, thank you again, Everyone!

Spoilers below: while I won't be going into too much detail, I will be referring to specific scenes and characters in Chapter 1, so if you'd like to experience the new demo blind, I recommend not clicking below.

--

General Route (prior to meeting Min He):

Rewriting the meet with Qiu at the apothecary

Extending the time you get with An and Qiu prior to meeting Min He

Also giving more chances to experience the spirit world route prior to the path split, to give MC more of a reason to stay or return to the mountain.

Mountain Route:

Rewriting first impression of returning the mountain overall

Possibly moving up Kaski meeting for pacing

Xinyi?? Fluff King finally??

Spirit Route:

Largest amount of rewrites here, mostly due to streamlining the four directions into two initial ones.

Pacing also moved up, so MC gets to maybe encounter something they probably shouldn't know about :)

Tai Clan -> turning from a clan of tengu into stone lions for plot, which means rewriting encounter with Tai Shek (it suits his name more too lol ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ)

Meeting two characters in Shi'Guo initially meant to be introduced later! They're very dear to me, so please treat them well ^^

Of course, everything is subject to change, but I hope this was insightful information regardless, hehe. Thanks again, Everyone!

[1moreff-creator]

What do you think about the possibility of Min possibly playing a role in the story beyond her being Xander's killer? Sometimes I have been feeling lately that there are certain things surrounding her character that are a bit suspicious you could say, the fact her secret in full detail isn't brought up in her bonus episode (for the most part), XF-Ture Tech being shady in general and her "potential" involvement with it could be a little beyond her getting sponsored, maybe some type of hidden motive since it's highly likely her reaction to being the blackened is genuine, but I have also seen it brought up a couple times how her plan was feels too elaborate to be something to be done "on the fly."

If I try to be as objective as possible, I imagine XF-Ture Tech is likely going to be important either to DRDT itself or at least DRDTAlt (are we still calling it that I haven't been keeping up-), and given how we learnt about it from Min, I want to say we'll at least hear about her again. Especially if her least favorite colors (pink and white together I believe) being XF guy from DRDTAlt's colors is more than a coincidence, and they actually know each other.

On a more conspiratorial note:

CW: Descriptions of Min's execution (blood, dismemberment), animal death

I think Min is the most likely to be the mastermind from the people who are dead, including Mai. It basically comes down to one of the golden rules of fiction: don't assume death unless you see a corpse.

If you go back and watch Min's execution (horrible thing for me to ask, I know), the camera actually pans out before we can see her corpse. The last thing we see is a blood splatter, but the blood could belong to the wolves attacking her. If they were killed before they mauled her, she could have been taken somewhere else to heal her. Yes, it's weird for the mastermind to dismember themselves, though it's not impossible, especially if she's being forced into the role instead of doing it for her own reasons (so XF-Ture Tech would be the real mms).

There's a few things that could point to it if you really wanna go crazy. The text in the about page source code (I talked about it here) mentions a "Teacher", and while I believe it's meant to be a quote from the fictional book "Forever Dead", the character most directly linked to teachers and schools is, in fact, Min.

Min's quote on the Mai page is "[Mai is] An average girl with nothing special at all about her." This is the only quote on that page which could be theoretically construed to be negative, the others are all either neutral or outright positive. For someone like Mai, who is "someone dearly loved", you gotta admit it's at least a little suspicious to say she's completely average, when it's generally assumed her death is part of the reason the killing game is happening.

As for her plan being too elaborate, I wouldn't say that necessarily. Throwing water she was already carrying on Xander was a reflex, and I can believe she's smart enough to break the light switch to give him a shock in the moment, again with a pen she's always carrying. Once he was down, the rest of the plan isn't too difficult; make sure he's dead, write a note to cover the light switch so no one catches on, and get the hell out of dodge. It was an event partially caused by Teruko's luck, too, so nothing about it is horribly suspicious.

There are details you could call inconsistencies (if Min wanted to save Teruko, why try to win the class trial? I think it makes enough sense without having to resort to mastermind accusations, but 'keep Teruko Tawaki alive at all costs' does actually fit the mm's interests, since Prologue-Guy-who-is-totally-not-Xander said if they couldn't stop the killing game, they would at least have to kill Teruko), but I don't think they're unexplainable. It's been a while since I watched DRDT though, maybe I'm forgetting something important.

Do I actually think Min is the mastermind? No, she's dead. I kinda want it to be true, with how much I love her and want her to be alive, but saying she's likely to be the mastermind is slightly delusional. I think she's a better candidate than even people like Ace or Charles, who are alive but would make no sense as mms, but I certainly don't think she's the most likely by a long shot.

Anyways, thanks for the ask! Now back into the void I go!

[blood-teeth]

05.19.23

howdy everyone! it's been a long time since i've done one of these. also this is going to be a long post, so if you're like "i'm not reading allthat but stay safe tho" im sorry in advance.

i was going to wait until the two year anniversary of TMITAWH to post this, but i've been getting more and more asks about the status of this game, why it's on lockdown, when it's coming back, etc. largely, i've been dodging these questions or answering them with a vague "oh, i'm working on it!" which is very much the truth. just, not the entirety of it.

the truth is this: the story is done.

the real truth is this:

actually, before i get into that, i wanted to mention something else. i know i've waxed poetry over and over again and maybe it's getting annoying to hear it - so i'm very sorry - but it really is important to me to mention this because it's the motivation and the life-force behind everything that i do on this blog. i wanted to say thank you. i remember typing up the intro post to TMITAWH after getting the second COVID shot, delirious, but bolstered by a fever that had rendered me brave. i've been writing this story since 2019, i had the vision, the characters, the aesthetics and the understanding and i wanted to desperately to share. i never expected the level of support and love from so many of you. i've never had people genuinely vested in my worlds or characters. i remember getting the first comment about the prologue and slamming my computer shut and freaking out. i cried when i got my first ask telling me how much they'd love it, despite the small amount of content. the fever may have given me the courage to post it, but y'all gave me the courage to continue. and that means more to me than anything means to me in this world. for two whole years!! you've dealt with my wildly out of pocket thoughts, long absences, and have continued to show your willingness to continue the exercise in patience. i dont have people in real life that would do that for me. so thank you, thank you for being here, thank you for caring, thank you for the sweet comments. i wasn't lying when i said that i keep most asks unanswered because i go back and read them, hold the words close to my chest, and convince myself that i can do what i want to do when it comes to storytelling. thank you. forever and always. i know this feels maybe so much like im baring my soul, but i think it's important. TMITAWH saved my life. I mean that in every understanding, with the breadths and depths of my soul. I mean that with all the fibers and cells and atoms that make up me. This story saved my life. it's important to me that you know that in so many ways you all did, too.

so much of the reason i've been sitting on this is honestly mostly fear. it's choking me now as i write this. i'm scared of y'alls reaction, i'm scared of potentially disappointing anyone, and i'm scared of people just being overall pissed off. which i would get! this is not why the majority of you are following me. i'm asking for grace, for understanding, for mercy.

so, the real truth is this:

Tell Me If There's A Way Home is complete. there's a beginning, of sort, a middle, an end. but, it is not complete in the way you might expect an IF to be complete.

this is, simply, because Tell Me If There's A Way Home has been re-written and re-formatted into a novel.

over this past year, i was struggling with the story. things had along the way stopped making sense. this WAS the story i wanted to tell, i knew what had to happen in order to get the whole point of it across. is it better to get back what you've lost, what does it look like when you do get it back? but there was something that wasn't working. i could force the scenes, have The Traveler spend time with Cain in his little house talking about his past, or provide the option to explore the peaks of a mountain looking for a legend of old. i could do all this. but it was all wrong. the story had become corrupted along the way and the vision of it that i held onto so desperately was fading into obscurity.

so i opened a new word document and just wrote. i wrote for a whole year, and the story unveiled itself to be in the way i believe it was always supposed to. i understand so much more of this story than i did two years ago. sitting at 90k words, book 1 is officially done. it's essentially the same story you all had read, but different somehow. more than it ever could have been in an IF format. there are the characters you love. there's cain. there's silas. alice of course. there's the traveler as *her* own character. and there's the reverie. but the reverie is no longer Ezio/Elena. it's just elena now. its beautiful, gorgeous elena with her quick smile and hemlock eyes and her memories.

what happens now?

i'll be spending the next few months making the book as perfect as i can make it. i've been working through the rough draft - or alpha draft- and then i will ask some people to see if they want to read draft 2, draft 3 , draft 4. however many drafts it takes until i feel as though i can do no more. after this, i'll query agents and pray to god that in the hellscape publishing is in right now that im offered representation. after this, i'll pray to god that an editor likes the book enough to want to work with me on it. after this, i'll pray to god that a publishing house likes the book enough to buy it, put in on shelves. there's going to be a lot of praying to god. a lot of luck. so i think it'll be a while before anybody gets to hold the book in their hands, but god i hope y'all get to. i really hope you get to. more than that. i hope you want to.

after all of this, i'll be working on book 2. i already have the title. i already have the first chapter. i know exactly what happens and how.

i know there's maybe some confusion, so please feel free to send me asks about it. i will happily and gladly answer what i can and discuss it.

i'm so so sorry for the long post. this all felt important to mention and it felt important to be transparent with y'all. this was becoming a secret too hard to keep and i'm glad that i dont have to anymore. i hope you're not mad, disappointed, etc. that would really suck ass. i hope you're excited, maybe. i hope you're curious.

anyway. thank you for getting this far, if you did. thank you. i love you. i'll talk to you soon <3

[alexrosekey]

Hermione-centric and HP World Building Expansion edition

A late entry from me. Beware that this list is based on my personal preference. If you don't like the ships, remember the rule - don't like don't read. Ship and let ship!

That being said, it has been a while since the last time I've come up with a rec list. But reccing great fanfics has remained one of my greatest passion. Having decided to fully integrated myself into the Harry Potter fandom again, I'm amazed at how creative and talented the authors of this fandom are. There are a plethora of interesting ideas and premises, with various themes and genres along with inquisitive, thoughtful observation regarding the characters and the world building of Harry Potter.

Without further ado, let's dive in to my submission for today's @hprecfest prompt: fics with over 100k+ words. All the fics below are Hermione-centric (one less than the other two but still), with amazing social commentaries on the HP world and impeccable observation on the magical world, which to me are the best aspect of HP fic.

unsphere the stars by @cocoartistwrites (M, 222,827, Hermione Granger/Tom Riddle)

When you can't change time, but you can't go forward, what is left? Hermione learns how to be the protagonist of her own story.

To quote one of the bookmarks: Hermione is more than she ever was. This story is a journey of Hermione to grow, to love and to explore magic and its beauty more than she could ever be. Don't let the pairing deter you, this is no doubt one of the most memorable fanfic reading experience I have in my years of being in fandoms. Hermione and Tom are both portrayed spectacularly and thoughtfully, and the prose are some of the most poetic I've ever seen.

To sum up the whole of my reading experience, I laid on my bed and stared at the ceiling for 30 mins after reading the last chapter, completely shell-shocked.

All I could say is, if you want an astounding character arc for Hermione, with in-depth magical system and immersive world building, plus interesting OCs and breathtaking writing, then this fic is definitely for you!

*This fic could also be placed under the prompt of Day 7: A Canon-Compliant Fic.

2. What's Past is Prologue by ABitofWit (E, 244,611, Hermione Granger/Lucius Malfoy)

It's eight years after the war and Hermione Granger has taken a break from her career at the Ministry of Magic to compile an oral history of the conflict. She's interviewed just about everyone she can get her hands on but she wants to be thorough. And that means getting in contact with a very unwilling Lucius Malfoy.

Listen, I know the pairing is weird as fuck. I know, I had my doubt too before reading it. But the raving bookmarks convinced me to give this a chance. And boy, it was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

This fic is more than just a ship fic, it's about love and what we would do for it, the greyness of life and choices, of redemption and finding one's self worth outside of pre-existing, archaic ideas and values. It's about change and how we're never too old to learn. WPIP is everything I've ever wanted in a fic, emotional, sincere, humorous, gorgeous, sexy, steamy and sweet. Full of heart and soul.

Most of all, the development of and between Hermione and Lucius is so natural and makes a lot of sense, without them being OOC. This fic reminds me that Hermione is not at all flawless (the opposite of the usual Mary-Sue, little-miss-perfect trope that Hermione tends to be portrayed in fics), while successfully humanizes and makes Lucius Malfoy one of the most interesting HP characters in my eyes. (Who would have thought that I've spent years not giving a jot about this guy, only to fall in love with such a mess of a man like him??)

Combine with sharp commentaries and observations on the British Wizarding World, Wizarding politics and a not-canon folder supporting cast, this is no doubt one of the best HP fic, and one of the best fanfic I've ever had the pleasure to read.

*This fic could also be placed under the prompt of Day 2: A Comfort Fic and Day 9: A Rare Pair Fic.

3. Six Pomegranate Seeds by Seselt (E, 185,965, no pairing but implied Theodore Nott/Hermione Granger)

At the end, something happened. Hermione clutches at one fraying thread, uncertain whether she is Arachne or Persephone. What she does know is that she will keep fighting to protect her friends even if she must walk a dark path.

Sooo, this is one very weird fic. One of the oddest fics I've ever encoutered, in fact. I've read it twice, one before I read the book series in full, one after I've finished the books. And let me tell you, SPS is a stunning work.

The odd, floating third-person POV, the dry and sharp, straightforward tone of Hermione. Her competency, her compassion despite all the pain and the emotional repression. This is definitely not your usual time travel fix-it fic.

Most of Hermione's work happened in tandem with the 7 books' main storyline. Hermione's soul is put into the body of a young orphan Pureblood heiress. This gives the fic one of the most interesting spin on the Hermione-is-a-pureblood trope.

Through Hermione, we have a closer look into the background and the context of the main events of the books, plus a deeper understanding of the Pureblood society and a much more sympathetic view into the students Slytherin house. All without whitewashing and offsetting the corruption and the effects of the Purebloods and the Slytherins' stuffy, archaic views on not only the young generation of students but also the British Wizarding world.

I lost count of the amount of time I slapped my knees while reading this work the second time whenever I encountered a particularly sharp line of thought/commentary from Hermione in this fic. I'm also amazed at how much work and research the author has put into SPS, particularly in terms of making up tons of new magical theories and the use of exotic and lesser known vocabulary (seriously, if you decide to read this one, prepare a dictionary next to you, or get ready to regularly stop mid reading in order to look up certain words 😆)

*This fic could also be placed under the prompt of Day 7: A Canon-Compliant Fic.

That being said, thank you for checking out my list! Thank the admins of @hprecfest for holding such a fun activity. Feel free to join in yourself. Happy reading 💋

Day 16: A fic that made you laughed

Day 19: Fic with the hottest smut

Day 22: An unfinished fic (hasn't updated in 10 years or the author stated it has been abandoned)

Day 26: A fic with an ending you can't stop thinking about

[lisa972kdlz]

(It's translated from French, I hope there aren't too many syntax errors ^^" In any case, enjoy your reading !)

Dreamtale Theories:

Here's a list of a few theories about the Dreamtale Lore, this story leaving some very interesting gaps to try and fill. Philosophical and scientific thoughts helpt me to concretise these ideas, but although I've been inspired by them, it's not with these points of view I'm going to develop, but rather a purely artistic point of view. Little by little, philosophy and science have been lost in my ramblings, giving way to imaginations that seemed to fit together. Artists imagine. They cheat, they lie, they don't care much for concrete realities. In the end, the only science I get into position on is the elements of the Dreamtale canon, at least those I've managed to pick out. Perhaps I've missed some information that would disprove these hypotheses, in which case it would be courteous of you to let me know.

On a more chill note, say I'm just a teenager with a overflowing mind who loves to come up with crazy theories with whatever I can get my hands on, and I write this mainly for fun ^^

In fact, I don't think for a second I'm right, so I don't know if I can call those theories... Maybe speculation ideas about Dreamtale I wanted to share? Almost headcanons, but still based on concrete elements of the canon.

So let's go, first theory!

☁︎ Canon/Fanon:

For starters, why do I insist so much on canonicity? Because when it comes to Dreamtale, the boundary between Fanon and Canon is not always well understood, given that there are a lot of preconceived ideas on the subject.

The fact is, I see Dreamtale's Fanon and Canon as two completely separate worlds. And yet, understand that I hate adhering to variants of this and that for anything and everything. The idea of viscerally separating the Canon and Fanon sides of an oeuvre makes no sense to me, especially in an open world where each universe is a piece of a larger puzzle, where the world we're presented with is meant to be a huge playground.

And at this stage, if we do that with this universe, we could do the same for all the existing stories, no? Nevertheless, for THIS world and this world in particular, I think it's important.

For there is a crucial difference between C!Dreamtale and F!Dreamtale, a difference that completely alters the interpretation of the oeuvre. Fanon doesn't just make a few interpretative changes... He changes the very nature of a character: Corrupted Nightmare. And that, well... It's a bit complicated not to separate the two, especially when the Fanon version is so popular... Canon, he is dead and his body belongs to another character who has his own personality and background. Fanon, he's alive. Trapped, imprisoned, manipulated, split into two personalities (Night and Mare) or fundamentally evil, depending on the case, but alive.

Night is experiencing a bit of Asriel syndrome: it was because Undertale fans couldn't accept his death that the first AU's were created. And for Dreamtale, there was such misunderstanding about this (Because reading the Prologue, everyone agreed that Corrupted Nightmare was...well... Nightmare), that the majority think this is official. (It has to be said, it wasn't evident let me reassure you...)

To this we can add the fact that most of the time, in very fanon fanfics and fancomics, the other two trees don't exist or are never mentioned, that Corrupted (I refuse to call him "Nightmare" simply because he isn't Nightmare) isn't a real person or doesn't exist at all, that Dreamtale is an AU of Undertale, so made up of codes like the other AU's, but all that still depends on people's interpretation and knowledge of the real Dreamtale.

To put it more bluntly, and if the boundary's still unclear: F!Dreamtale is a part of the Undertale Multiverse, while C!Dreamtale is its own universe.

Since I like both aspects equally, and in order to get everyone on the same page, I've come up with a mini theory:

Dreamtale Fanon, being the Dreamtale developed by fans based on the belief that Corrupted Nightmare is more or less Night, has strayed so far from its original story (it focuses more on the "broken brothers" relationship of the twins, their mutual development and their relationships with the characters of the Undertale fandom), that over time, by putting down roots in the world of Undertale and through the influence of the creators, Dreamtale would have "split." This double would then have merged with the codes of the Undertale Multiverse, because Dreamtale was so well integrated into it that this version of it ended up becoming imprinted on the very core and codes. That's why, in F!Dreamtale, we don't always mention the other trees, since they never joined the Undertale Multiverse. Even we NEVER mention them in Dreamtale's AU's like Swapdream or the alternative Multiverses like Dreamswap, Swapverse, etc. That's why Dream and Nightmare exist in the alternative Multiverses,AU's and not the rest (Vampireverse, Empireverse, Minuscultale and so on).

The result is two Dreamtales:

The Canon Dreamtale, which belongs to Joku,

The Fanon Dreamtale, which belongs to the Fandom Joku too.

Well yeah, it's still Dreamtale, so it still belongs to Joku, no matter what haters want ◖눈ᴥ눈◗

Duh.

Also, this definitely doesn't prevent fanfics from being based on C!Dreamtale, it's even advisable to give it the prominence it deserves. Hence the idea of completely separating these versions, because fans can make fanfics about the Canon, and although it's fanon, it won't be similar to the F!Dreamtale version at all.

Two worlds taking different thematic paths created on the uncertainty of Night's death (like a "Schrodinger's Night" ͡° ͜ · ͡°).

Next theory!

☁︎ Tree of Feelings/Creators link:

This is a question I picked up when wondering about Dream and Corrupted's various attacks. Where Dream needs a body to hold him together, Corrupted has so many black apples that he can physically hold himself together without a body, and more or less correctly. Do positive and negative energies function differently? Is it because Corrupted has more apples that he holds on better? What is positive and negative energy in Dreamtale's Lore?

At the beginning, I'd started from the principle that Energy with a big E, being what makes up absolutely all existing things, humans and monsters alike, could be used by Dream and Corrupted to be converted into either magical energy or physical energy. As Dream only holds one apple and enjoys a body, he'd mindlessly convert his energy into magical energy, which is why he has a soul similar to human's souls and why he's able to heal as green magic does, or cause damage as white magic does. For Corrupted's part, possessing no body of his own and having amassed enough power from his hundreds of apples, he would have to convert negative energy into physical energy. This would require a great deal of power and would therefore explain why, despite he's stronger than Dream, he's not 999X stronger than him. He already uses a lot of his energy simply... Holding on without melting.

I also theorised that if one of them were to acquire all the apples, not only would it have a stable body, but it would also be able to convert this energy as it saw fit. Corrupted could then generate magical attacks AND have a physical body.

The trouble is... Dreamtale isn't actually part of Undertale. So there's no Magic,Physics duality. And even assuming that Dream converts that energy into magical energy because he's unconsciously copying the way his adopted world works, he's still canonically attacking with positive energy and not MAGIC made from positive energy. Energy comes in many forms, but I don't think he can control it in such a pure form...

All this can still hold together, but what bothers me most is that pure Energy would have... A positive side and a negative side? And what's more, related to feelings? Why not, but I'm not really pleased with.

Dream and Corrupted's energy is material, palpable. Of course, we could stop at the fact that it's just a magical energy like we find everywhere in stories and not ask ourselves any more questions.

But I love wracking my brains to find answers to questions that no one wonder, so I'll keep going èwé–

What kind of energy would this refer to? Not energy in the scientific sense, because that's independent of any emotion, whereas in Dreamtale, positive energy, for example, is directly linked to positive feelings.

Because tree of FEELINGS–

The most plausible thing I found with is that positive and negative energies are linked to the spiritual energy: auras, meditation, etc. Proof of its existence is fairly hazy in the world of creators. But in the world of fiction...? What if? This energy of consciousness exists, whether it's real or not. And if it's not in the real world, as long as there are people who believe in it, then it's in the world of fiction. What if the fruits of the tree of feelings were the material manifestation of this spiritual energy produced by the consciousness of the creators? Just as a world is created by a creative mind, what about Dream and Nightmare were the guardians of the feelings of fiction as the direct embodiment of the emotions that creators instil in their work? This could be the reason why Dreamtale isn't made up of codes, because it's the direct embodiment of a philosophy and not just another fictional universe among many.

I can't decide whether it's too obvious or too far-fetched ^^". It was the concept in Underverse that made me think of it... There are references between what Nightmare implies in 0.6 and creators tearing up their own universes because they're filled with negative emotions. Underverse isn't canon, but there's nothing to stop this idea of the creator,feeling link being applied to Dreamtale.

Especially as it allows us to imagine something even bigger that could work in relation to the three trees...

But before that, a little theory about Corrupted, because the more we learn about him, the more this character becomes... Mysterious.

☁︎ Something is rotten in the state of Dreamtale :

Ever since I knew that the three trees were part not of the Undertale Multiverse but of all the other Multiverses, I've been wondering why it should be Corrupted who embodies absolute Evil and not someone else. After all, we know plenty of evil lords, don't we? Isn't it a bit pretentious to claim him to be above everyone else?

But one detail, one nuance, makes all the difference.

By definition, Corrupted does not embody Evil, but negative feelings. He embodies them because he has become their guardian, their bearer. What I'm trying to say is that black apples and evil are not linked... Black apples are not fundamentally evil. They have no conscience; they are neutral, they exist for balance and have a purpose of their own.

No, Corrupted is Evil for another reason. He's Evil because he's simply wicked. If the personification of negative feelings is evil, it's not because the negative emotions or the apples are mean, but because they are themselves corrupted, alienated by a consciousness that manipulates them irresponsibly. Why would the Entity feel hatred? Hatred and not despair or dread? Because he was already filled with hatred, or because he has a fighting personality that allows him to exploit this emotion for its dark projects. Is it a sign that Corrupted isn't worthy of being their carrier? After all, he's not their basic guardian; it was Nim, then Nightmare.

In this way, that doesn't prevent him from being THE allegory on the scale of all dimensions (or of a large area of dimensions, if you don't like the idea that Dreamtale is linked to all fictional universes) , because the role relating to negative FEELINGS in a neutral behaviour is rather original. He's an allegory of negative feelings that doesn't need to be, and that gives a false image of what negative feelings actually are; the pejorative and common image we have of them. In reality, negative feelings are neither good nor bad; they mean no harm to others. The one who wishes them harm is the Entity, Corrupted.

He's a simple villain who has got his hands on power that doesn't belong to him and is out of control with.

...

Maybe not a 'simple' villain either?

Because, another theory, I think that Corrupted is this fourth guardian that Joku mentioned. Firstly because I don't know who else he could be, but also because he knows about the other dimensions outside Undertale. How would he know if he didn't come from outside? Who else would this fourth guardian be, and why would Joku mention him? What's more, a number of elements fit together with this theory, notably his strategy of manipulating Nim (Nim is far from stupid, and he probably wouldn't have succeeded so easily if he didn't already know a little about her), in order to create Dream and Nightmare, dividing positivity and negativity to undermine the pillars of balance, all with the aim of finding a carnal envelope and taking possession of the Tree of Feelings...

Like a plan that has been fine-tuned for years and years... Add to this the anecdote that the tree guardians are not the original guardians and that Nim learnt something awful about them before leaving for Undertale, and you'd think there was a rotten menace already pulling the strings in the shadows, long before our dear twins were born.

So what is Corrupted looking for? What's his ultimate plan? To spread negativity across all dimensions and reign supreme as a Living God?

A fine programme... But what if we took his ambitions one step further?

☁︎ Feelings, Life, Magic:

Why three trees? Why THESE three trees? Why place them at the centre of the Multiverse? Why are feelings, life and magic at the heart of the worlds? What link can we make between them?

Feelings, well ok, that works... Life and death, logical... Magic? Why magic? Magic isn't a necessary element in the Multiverse, sometimes it doesn't even exist... Why a tree of Magic and not a tree of Souls, or a tree of Virtues and Sins, for example? Undertale is very closely linked to magic, but that's not the case for all worlds...

This is where we come back to the idea that apples are the materialised forms of the feelings creators apply to their work... Does this also work with Magic and Life? Yes, it does. Trees don't just take care of Feelings, Life and Death and Magic... They reflect what creators need to create.

Feelings, as we've said, are exactly what it takes to find inspiration, to feed the imagination like maintain fire. As long as the feelings remain, so do the passion and inspiration.

Life, on the other hand, is quite simply what enables a work to exist, to remain. Life is the nest in which the spirit bathes, gathering together the experiences of the creator, housing and preserving them. You could also say that the more lives there are to witness a work, the more real a work is.

Inspiration, yes... The environment, all right... But what is needed to create something out of nothing? To make the unreal real? The immaterial material?

Nothing more than a little magic ✨ !

Not the kind of magic you find in fiction with wizards and pseudo-scientific logic, no... Magic in the sense of believing in something irrational. To believe that these worlds exist, to have faith without needing proof. Accepting imagination. Not in a religious connotation, but in the sense: Magic = Consenting Suspension of Disbelief.

Feelings: The fuel.

Life: The oxygen.

Magic: The spark.

Fire triangle is complete.

What if these three trees were the equivalent of the Triforce of Creation itself? Feelings to stimulate, Life to sustain, Magic to materialize.

What would happen if, by some mischance, an ill-intentioned person managed to seize the power of these three trees? What would be the consequences? In the end, perhaps this mysterious Entity wants more than just the golden apple in Dream's care?

And if these three trees work very well together, what would the fourth guardian be doing?

Would he be the original guardian?

Or the exact opposite of Creation: Destruction and Nothingness?

(Voilà! I hope theses theories will have interested you ^^ And you, what do you think? Do you have theories about what's going to happen in the Dreamtale sequel?)

Dreamtale belongs to @jokublog

[esta-elavaris]

I won't list all of my stuff here - just the things that I think are worth shouting about. Organising it all via fandom, with some little sub-categories within those because some of them *cough*James/Theodora*cough* have decided to become ungovernable.

Where to find me: AO3 -- IG -- Goodreads

Catch the Wind-verse:

Catch the Wind - James Norrington/Modern!OC Status: Complete. [400k+ words] AO3 The behemoth that started the absolute sickness in me, and probably where you should start if you want any of the rest of my Norrington stuff to make total sense to you.

When it was completed, I also did a read-through on here talking about some behind-the-scenes type stuff. The tag is here, but it's obviously reverse-chronological order so spoilers abound! I plan on doing this for other fics when they're complete!

Sainted by the Storm - James Norrington/Modern!OC Status: In progress, updated sporadically. AO3 The home for any random snippets of this pairing that I write - there are a few AU chapters here and there, mostly it's flufftober fills, or pieces not long enough to warrant their own story. Wicked Game - James Norrington/Modern!OC Status: In progress. AO3 Semi-sequel to CTW, just a very small smutty series set after the events of the main story. Red Thread of Fate - Theodore Groves/Pirate!OC Status: In progress. AO3 Vague companion piece to CTW, taking place in the background of that story, and then branching into the timespan that follows it - with appearances made by Norrington and the OC I write for him.

Catch the Wind AUs

Fallen Through Time - James Norrington/Modern!OC Status: In progress, on a break. AO3 -- Tumblr An AU of Catch the Wind, exploring what might've happened had Elizabeth Swann been the one to find Theodora when she fell into the world of POTC.

As It Was - Modern!James Norrington/Historical!OC Status: Planning - a teaser can be found on tumblr for now. Teaser Another AU of Catch the Wind, where James Norrington is the modern character, and Theodora Byrne is the "canon" character from POTC who is fated to die.

Here, Where Fire Grows - Boromir/Modern!Amnesiac!OC Status: In progress AO3 Writing Catch the Wind didn't get the "modern girl falls for fictional dead man" trope out of my brain, so I had to inflict another on Boromir - but this time with an amnesiac twist, just for some added fun. Other mini-stories for these two written during flufftober can be found here.

Flufftober '23 The non-Theorrington flufftober fills can be found in this series on AO3, but all of the fills also be found on Tumblr where they have pretty banners to go along with the chapters.

Free - Cullen Rutherford/F!Inquisitor Status: Updated sporadically. AO3 Modern!Royalty!AU which will eventually follow the events of the game.

20th Century Boy - Eddie Munson/OC Status: Debating on whether to continue it. AO3 A struggling artist moves to Hawkins for a year of studying abroad, and finds a kindred spirit in Eddie Munson. Will eventually follow the events of S4.

Obscure, Plain, and Little - Aemond Targaryen/OC Prologue A Jane Eyre-inspired fic -- probably won't follow the events of the show/book.

Dracula [Van Helsing 2004]/OC Coming soon! Set in the modern day, lots of cliché favourites with (hopefully) some added twists to spice things up a bit!

List of ideas for tentative future pairings and fandoms I want to go into can be found here. I'm also always open to suggestions, so don't feel too shy if you want to send me an ask or a message 💜

[unsanctioned-if]

Update 20/10 2023

Hey everyone! Here comes yet another monthly update.

I'm currently at a bit over 56.000 words. Not exactly where I wanted to be this month, but I feel like progress has been pretty solid nonetheless. It's my hope to be able to get more done during my upcoming vacation next month.

(More information about how the chapters so far are divided below; don't read if you want to go in completely blind once the chapters are released!)

I've decided to do things a bit differently than I originally intended when it comes to dividing the chapters. At first I had planned for the MC's childhood to be covered only in the prologue, but since the entirety of the prologue is now long enough to be its own chapter (and that's not even counting the origin/background stories for each background that I've yet to write), I've reworked things a bit.

The prologue is going to cover the intro (first draft finished) and your chosen origin/background story, all which will provide a different starting experience depending on which one you choose (not yet written).

Chapter 1 will cover the MC's childhood after they come into Cirern's "care".

And Chapter 2 onwards will cover the MC's life as an adult.

The first draft of Chapter 1 is almost finished by now, as is the first part of Chapter 2. The first draft of the first and last parts of the prologue are also finished (that's a bit of a confusing sentence smh).

What I've got left to do is:

Write the origin stories

Edit, polish and code the prologue + Chapter 1

Add codex/character info/etc.

Finish the rest of Chapter 2

I'm not sure yet if I'll release the Prologue + Chapter 1 when they're finished or if I'll wait until I finish Chapter 2 and release it all by then. If you have any opinions or thoughts about that, feel free to let me know!

On another note, I've also updated the intro post a little bit and will continue to polish it here and there going forward, both when it comes to its content and some of its design.

Thanks for the support and interest <3

[hollyethecurious]

CS WIP Wednesday Challenge - Week 3

Week 3

🥰 Your favorite WIP (which one do you actually WANT to be writing right now, regardless of what anyone else thinks of it)

I'm not sure I'd classify this one as my Favorite WIP, but it IS the one the muse seems the most eager to make progress on, so that's what we're gonna go with!

This year for the @cssns I'm doing a Captain Swan AU inspired by the tv show Grimm that debuted the same year as Once. I did not watch it when it was airing, but caught up with it later and LOVE IT! I do a rewatch of the entire series every Fall, and have often thought it would be a great verse to put the Once characters in, seeing as the premises are both grounded in fairytale lore in their own unique ways.

So far, I've completed the Prologue and first two chapters, and this past week I wrote on and made copious amounts of notes for chapters three, four, and beyond. I can't wait to share the fic with y'all this summer and hope you enjoy this small snippet of what's to come.

Per usual, much love and thanks to @captainswanwipwednesdays for helping us dust off these WIPS!

Once Upon A Grimm - Chapter Three Snippet

“Its street name is Dreamshade,” she told him. “It’s a mixture of wesen venoms, including manticore. The combination would be instantly lethal to humans, even Grimms, but less effective on wesen, which is why--” “Why it only managed to render me unconscious,” Killian finished for her. “Here,” she said, passing him a vial of something. “Take this. It will help flush out any remaining toxins from your system.” Killian did as instructed, throwing back the contents of the vial without question and earning him a slightly stunned raised brow from Swan.  “What?” “Nothing. I…” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and toed the linoleum tile beneath her feet. “I wasn’t sure you still trusted me enough to just… take it.” “Why wouldn’t I trust you?” Killian asked her, his brows knit together in confusion. “If anyone has to earn back trust between us… It’s me.” Emma shrugged and kept her eyes pointed downward as she mumbled, “I just thought… since a wesen already tried to assassinate you and your brother, that you might--” “How do you know she was wesen?” Killian asked, prompting Emma’s head to snap up. “Because… no human would use Dreamshade. She had to be a wesen, right?” “Aye, she was.” He paused for a moment, hesitating to add, “A hexenbeist, in fact.” Emma flinched and cast her eyes aside. He hoped she knew he did not paint her with the same broad brush others would use in regards to her kind. He knew she was different.

My ao3 | ff.net | buy me a coffee | add to tag list | Curious? Come Ask Me!

[nuwanders]

20 questions for writers

tagged absolute yonks ago by @wispstalk and @dirty-bosmer, thank you both <3

Tagging back: uhhhh everyone will probably have been tagged already. sorry if that's you. @ghoulsbeard @ervona @lucien-lachance @stormbeyondreality @zomboidatomic @gilgamish @profanetools and any other writer mutuals who'd like to consider themselves tagged!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

3

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

302,371

3. What fandoms do you write for?

the elder scrolls. it sits in that perfect overlap between 'compelling enough for me to get invested' and 'narratively dissatisfying enough for me to want to fix it'. and it's the perfect sandbox for writing abt my own characters... not sure how motivated i'd be to write fic without that sort of freedom

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

i only have 3 :/

5. Do you respond to comments?

yes, usually! unless it's a comment along the lines of 'update soon' i will usually get round to replying at some point.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

ummmm well two are WIPs and my one completed one-shot doesn't 'end' in the traditional sense (it's an imaginary prologue to an in-game book) so... i will go with The Waiting Door as it's pretty angsty already and will (eventually) continue in that vein if i ever get round to it, the fic with the angstiest ending WILL be my take on the dragonborn DLC. but that's a long way off

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

see above

8. Do you get hate on fics?

no

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

ermmmm sort of. if you count the odd sex scene in King & Lionheart. but i usually only include it if it bears some kind of significance to the narrative or someone's character development. the sex scenes i've published so far have been quite introspective and not super 'smutty' in the traditional sense. BUT i do sometimes write smut-smut. i'm just not very good at it lol so it will never see the light of day

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

no

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

no

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

no

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

nothing published but one of my beta readers and i have a couple of one-shots together

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

well. it has to be my beloveds jórunn and raydrin. they are everything to me. i made them when i was 9 (they weren't originally TES characters) and have thought about them basically every day since. my forever ship fr <3

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

at this rate... king & lionheart </3

16. What are your writing strengths?

hmmmmm i think my character work is a strength. and i've been trying to get more creative with my prose on my last few projects/chapters which i think is paying off (based on some lovely comments i've received)!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

picking and choosing what to include and what to skip over. i think, as well, i was so afraid of purple prose for a long time that my prose suffered from being wayyyyy too sterile and uninspired. but this is something i'm working on!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

OUGH this one's complicated. done correctly, i love it! but it needs to take into account the languages spoken by the POV character. a few lines of dialogue in another language to indicate that the POV character doesn't understand what is being said is fine. but obviously you don't want to write out a whole conversation like this. there's a few other contexts where i think it's okay but TLDR it depends.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

i think i wrote tokyo mew mew fic when i was maybe 7 or 8? if that counts

20. Favorite fic you've written?

has to be the waiting door! everyone please read the waiting door. not to toot my own horn but i fucking ATE with that fic <3

[ravenstargames]

✦ Lost in Limbo Devlog #3 | 03.31.23

Almost April already, huh? Time does really fly when you are busy. If February promised to be a stressful month for me and the team, March has been hell let loose. Our second trimester has ended as of today and our plan of action is to do as many things as we can during April, as we will hopefully have less workload from our master.

Without further ado—let's see what we managed to do this month!

Fixing sprites has still been one of our priorities. Truth is our master is doing a good job at teaching us how to do things better, and the eyes that once did those sprites are not the same watching them now. One of our bigger struggles is the lack of personal—we are literally four people doing our best with our daily lives while also being in charge of whole departments, and that is a bit crazy sometimes because there's a lot to do. I hope we can hire some help for the full game, because I don't want us all to crunch forever :').

Following the character art train of thought, this month we will also be giving priority to finishing at least one of our key art / promotional art pieces. Raquel is already working on polishing the sketch and we hope we can finish it soon to really start having a solid package of key art to represent us and our game.

Final piece will include bodies attached to heads, mind you. Unless...

Ahá! Remember last month when we said Raquel and I were working on some LiL backgrounds for a master assignment? Well, they are looking pretty good! We got rid of one forest background during the prologue outline process to alleviate some workload, but we seized the opportunity to bring it back! We won't be showing that one yet as we want to finish it and make an individual post for it, but you can have a look at this one instead!

Taking a stroll through Limbo's woods seems like a good idea...

Not too many news from the writing department this month. I'm going full speed with the fixes and editing the demo script like I planned, and I hope to have everything ready next month, but we'll see how things go. The changes to the script are being very beneficial to the general pace of the prologue. We want to get to the juicy part as soon as possible and have as much content of the LIs as we can, right?

The main lore document is still on the works too, but, dare I say it, I'm very happy with it! I'm secretly hoping we can offer the lore book as a physical reward for our future kickstarter, but that's still far away in the future. The artbook is our main priority!

This month we have also focused on something really special and important that sadly we won't be revealing until it's done because, well, it's in the making, and no one wants to see it all ugly and in progress, right? But we are working very hard and are very excited to be able to show it soon! Agh!

Also, our GUI is almost, almost completely finished! Only the title screen is left, so we are leaving you a preview of another screen right below. Our designer is once again doing an impeccable job.

Yep, you'll have a compendium with all the important bits and lore pieces you discover. Only in the full game, though.

It has been an okay-ish month for us. Very stressful because of our master; there's definitely a lot of excitement we have been bottling up as we found ourselves unable to work on LiL like we wanted to. I hope that April, or at least the beginning of it (before the last trimester of our degree starts getting serious and unhinged, which I'm afraid will happen) proves to be productive and enough to at least tie up some loose ends. The team needs a couple of days to rest, but we are ready to get back on track and do as much as we can this next month.

Thank you all so much for your unending support and for your patience, it means the world to us :') 💜 We hope you all are doing alright!

[pttucker]

I raised my hand to the Attributes Window without thinking. Then there was the sound of sparks appearing and the Attributes Window started breaking apart. …Was it already 10 seconds? I thought so at first but the problem wasn't that simple. A faint ringing was heard in my ears and my head suddenly throbbed. The finger touching the Attributes Window was numb and the world became dizzy. I felt like vomiting. Beyond the insurmountable wall, something was calling me. [The exclusive skill 'Fourth Wall' is strongly activated!] The situation wasn't improved despite the Fourth Wall activating. The surrounding landscapes started to mix together. It was a scene where things that shouldn't go together were merged. In the midst of this terrible mood, I felt a strange sense of unity. It felt like something I had been wanting for a long time. Then I heard a strange message. [Your understanding of the character 'Kim Dokja' has increased.] What…? The moment my consciousness flickered, someone spoke to me. 「 (So, you were told not to look for too long). 」

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I swear ORV loves to plod along as an isekai-adjacent fantasy story for 50-75 chapters at a time just so it can once again come out of nowhere and just smack the shit out of you with pure, unfiltered existential horror.

I mean what the fuck!

What happened??? Why did it happen? The novel has mentioned a being inside/behind the Fourth Wall before and clearly someone or something told Dokja to turn it off the first time (which I'm still not certain if they were being helpful or opportunistic) but what is going on!!!

He mentions "the Abyss" and that actually is something in TWSA so is that what's behind the Fourth Wall? Is the Abyss just constantly watching, waiting for him to turn it off? Except that doesn't make sense because that would mean that the Abyss was part of Joonghyuk's story if Dokja knows about it and Joonghyuk doesn't have anything to do with TWSA aside from being a character in it. (...That we know of.)

But it also doesn't feel like the author? It almost seems too creepy and ominous to be the author...though, looking back on the prologue, while the author has always been polite and sweetly excited by any attention, they were pretty ominous with the whole "I won a competition, you wouldn't have heard about it" and talking about how Dokja will have to start paying now. So maybe it was the author.

Also, looking back on the prologue, the whole "I was able to complete it to the end thanks to you" combined with the fact that the novel is now being updated in real time to match Dokja's actions... Even the "competition" they won could perhaps be interpreted differently looking back on things.

Obviously it can be taken at face value, "Due to your support all these years I completed my novel which then led to me winning a competition" (the prize presumably being that their novel was chosen to be the next big world for the scenario) but it can also be taken to be Dokja writing the novel from the inside and thus completing it and the "competition" they won being the the end of the scenario that Dokja reached.

And he's been labeled a character!!! Ahhhhhh! And his attribute isn't reader it's "apostle." Wtf! Did Dokja accidentally turn himself into a character by looking at his Attributes Window? Or has he always been a character? Is that it? Is this story going to end with Dokja realizing that he's just a character in a novel that some other bullied, introverted guy is reading about on the subway somewhere?

Oh man, what if that's what it means by Fourth Wall? Instead of Dokja being a real person and the Fourth Wall existing because he knows he's not part of the novel, what if he's a character and the Fourth Wall is actually the barrier between him and the real world where the author lives? In which case, the being behind the Fourth Wall could be the author (or the reader!) of Dokja's story.

My voice didn't sound like me. It was only a moment but it felt like I had become a different existence and came back. A terrible sensation remained in my entire body. The shoulders being touched by Jang Hayoung's fingers trembled.

And what does this mean! Did you temporarily become a character and managed to pull yourself back to not being one??? Is that the "different existence" or were you temporarily completely outside the story like the author? Are you the author? I know I've been theorizing that you are for a while now but now I'm not so sure...

Actually, if Dokja is both a character and the author, could it be that he's a self-insert? And that's what's giving him all of his weird knowledge and power? My original thought was that he wrote the story and then forgot it like Asuka Ren and is now perhaps becoming a character like she did, but if there's still someone outside the story...

Now that I think about it though, Asuka's attributes window said she was the creator of Peace Land until she became a character. Could Dokja's have said reader (or author) and then switched? And maybe he's not a character again? The Fourth Wall didn't let him look at his attributes window a second time...

「 What if I use Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint on myself? 」 I never thought of it before. There was clearly something lurking inside me that I didn't know. I didn't know if it was something the author left behind or if it naturally permeated me during the process of the world changing. The obvious thing was I needed to figure out what it was.

And apparently there's now something inside Dokja?? Is it the Abyss? Some other thing? Bits of the Fourth Wall? Or, if he's a character, does he suddenly feel like he's being written by the author and what he feels inside him and the reason he feels strange is because it's the author's will being exerted on him and he's broken through the Fourth Wall enough to notice it??? Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.

The fact that he has this Reading Comprehension skill that's increasing his understanding of...himself? his stories?? is also a little worrying.

And of course not only is Dokja terrified to use ORV on himself to get more answers (with good reason) but Biyoo has just so conveniently been kidnapped so now we'll probably have another 50+ chapters of fantasy before The Terror returns. 😰

I have so many questions but idk if I'm ready for the answers.

[thelustybraavosimaid]

Hey! i wanted to know about your thoughts about how Jon would be like post-resurrection with the time skip grrm originally considered?

So that really took hold of me for the first three books. When it became apparent that that had taken hold of me, I came up with the idea of the five-year gap. "Time is not passing here as I want it to pass, so I will jump forward five years in time." And I will come back to these characters when they're a little more grown up. And that is what I tried to do when I started writing Feast for Crows. So [the gap] would have come after A Storm of Swords and before Feast for Crows. But what I soon discovered — and I struggled with this for a year — [the gap] worked well with some characters like Arya — who at end the of Storm of Swords has taken off for Braavos. You can come back five years later, and she has had five years of training and all that. Or Bran, who was taken in by the Children of the Forest and the green ceremony, [so you could] come back to him five years later. That’s good. Works for him. Other characters, it didn’t work at all. I'm writing the Cersei chapters in King's Landing, and saying, "Well yeah, in five years, six different guys have served as Hand and there was this conspiracy four years ago, and this thing happened three years ago." And I'm presenting all of this in flashbacks, and that wasn't working. The other alternative was [that] nothing happened in those five years, which seemed anticlimactic. The Jon Snow stuff was even worse, because at the end of Storm he gets elected Lord Commander. I'm picking up there, and writing "Well five years ago, I was elected Lord Commander. Nothing much has happened since then, but now things are starting to happen again." I finally, after a year, said "I can't make this work."

George R. R. Martin — The Complete Unedited Interview

You know, this is something that I haven't really thought about. I only haven't thought about it because there's something we just don't know: when was George planning to kill Jon with the gap in place? A year or two into the skip? Later? Earlier, or even after the skip, when he's had a few years of rule under his belt? It's probably more likely that it was going to happen after the skip, so I think the end result would be the same as the current book!Jon.

We know that death changes a character to the point where in some ways, they're not that character anymore:

And as I got older and considered it more, it also seemed to me that death doesn’t make you more powerful. That’s, in some ways, me talking to Tolkien in the dialogue, saying, “Yeah, if someone comes back from being dead, especially if they suffer a violent, traumatic death, they’re not going to come back as nice as ever.”

George R. R. Martin on the One Game of Thrones Change He ‘Argued Against’

And we have this, from Varamyr Sixskins:

"They say you forget," Haggon had told him, a few weeks before his own death. "When the man's flesh dies, his spirit lives on inside the beast, but every day his memory fades, and the beast becomes a little less a warg, a little more a wolf, until nothing of the man is left and only the beast remains." (Prologue, ADwD)

Jon's connection to Ghost takes the front seat in ADwD, so we have moments like this:

Jon expected hot mulled wine, and was surprised to find that it was soup, a thin broth that smelled of leeks and carrots but seemed to have no leeks or carrots in it. The smells are stronger in my wolf dreams, he reflected, and food tastes richer too. Ghost is more alive than I am. He left the empty cup upon the forge. (Jon II, ADwD)

--

He was walking beneath the shell of the Lord Commander's Tower, past the spot where Ygritte had died in his arms, when Ghost appeared beside him, his warm breath steaming in the cold. In the moonlight, his red eyes glowed like pools of fire. The taste of hot blood filled Jon's mouth, and he knew that Ghost had killed that night. No, he thought. I am a man, not a wolf. He rubbed his mouth with the back of a gloved hand and spat. (Jon III, ADwD)

--

Jon smelled Tom Barleycorn before he saw him. Or was it Ghost who smelled him? Of late, Jon Snow sometimes felt as if he and the direwolf were one, even awake. The great white wolf appeared first, shaking off the snow. A few moments later Tom was there.

...

The shield that guards the realms of men. Ghost nuzzled up against his shoulder, and Jon draped an arm around him. He could smell Horse's unwashed breeches, the sweet scent Satin combed into his beard, the rank sharp smell of fear, the giant's overpowering musk. He could hear the beating of his own heart. (Jon VII, ADwD)

So ultimately, I think the five year skip!Jon would have the same outcome as the Jon we have in the books: a little ruthless, a little different, and far more closer to Ghost.

[beea-idiot56]

Let Me Know, I need to make a decision.

Some of you may be confused if you do not personally know me/follow me on Discord, but I've been seriously obsessed with Minecraft Diaries recently. yes. the series was made 8 years ago by a creator who has now been making childish to the point of cringe videos on youtube. The series ranged on for 237 episodes and has 3 series, was discontinued, and then remade(which I don't know but I don't believe it was ever finished). specifically, I've been obsessed with Garroth. GARROTH..... I mean why does my heart hate me so? why must I be obsessed with him if all characters, it's really bad.

So in my fanfiction writer abilities, I've been thinking of/daydreaming/conjuring up a plotline for a possible Garroth x reader. I wanted to know if this was anything even SLIGHTLY exciting and if it was I was planning on maybe writing out a few chapters, and then going from there. I am well aware that this post, nor any chapters I may or may not post, would get any cred. but to the people who may see this, let me know! I'm super curious and if it piqued anyone's interest then I'll explore the possibility of putting Perfect Hit on hold for a little while to divulge my hyperfiction.

well, here we go, some little snippet weird prologue summary thing I've conjured up

First things first, Aphmau IS alive and well in this series, heck shes even the lord! however, at some point on one of her journeys, she returned with someone who looked a little down on their luck. they didn't respond to anyone and seemed to stick to aphmau like glue.

"Oh dont mind them!" aphmau would excuse anyone who questioned them. however one day Garroth let his concerns get the better of him "Lady Aphmau, I mean not to pry more than my position allows me, but I worry for your safety. Who is this person?" he would ask, and the person would look at aphmau with wide eyes that were full of fear. she would sigh and hesitate before speaking.

"Im sorry, Garroth. i cant tell you before they are willing to let me, ut rest assured they wont hurt me." aphmau would say. silence would pass between the three for a few moments before the person sighed, they opened their mouth, shut it, then opened it again and this time words followed.

"Im Y/N." they started, their voice cracking a little since it wasn't used to being worked, "I come from a village far off south, I was a guard for a long time, but the lord became corrupt and would turn against the villagers if they didn't look at him the right way. so when aphmau came by, i had tried my best to deter her from entering the village, visitors were not particularly welcome, especially lords." Y/N had begun, the words flowing out of their mouth in a tidal way of sudden information. "She had refused to listen to my pleas and came in any ways, stating that she needed to talk to the Lord for some sort of potion. In reality, she was looking for the past lord who had been killed. not under my watch, but rather the lead guard at the time, who was then executed as it was found he had been the one conspiring against the lord. that was when the lords son rose to power and appointed me to be the head guard." y/n sighed, rubbed their arm, and then continued, "Well aphmau came in and found the village in complete disarray. so she decided to help with her utmost kindness. I was thankful to her and began to talk to her more as she stayed the night in my village. I found out she was a lord and immediately wanted to follow to her village. so she helped me escape."

"How did you escape?" garroth had asked, being curious considering he himself had gone under something similar. "Well, it wasn't particularly hard. i simply told my lord I wanted to leave, for a long time it was a back and forth between her and him as they argued for who would take me. Eventually, it came to the point I decided to simply leave, so I asked aphmau to take me in a golden lasso and go home."

"Before you say anything garroth, it took a long time to convince me, it felt wrong to take away the head guard of the town, but y/n assured me that the apprentice guard that was training under them would help." aphmau spoke, smiling as she reminisced in the old adrenaline that followed their daring escape.

"so why don't you reside bear the title of guard now?" garroth asked, curious as to why he hadn't been training this person as a guard if they were previously a head leader.

"oh that's easy!" aphmau spoke, smiling, "because they don't want to be!" with the words released in the air everyone paused for a moment, but aphmau quickly started speaking again. "they made a deal with me actually, they did not want to be a guard that was out in the open about it, but rather a personal guard of mine that would be there in disguise. they would carry weapons but conceal them. we both agreed it would be easier on future trips and in general, it would provide more protection if Y/n was under the premise of being seen as a mute follower!" aphmau smiled.

garroth had nodded, then reached across to hold his hand to y/n, "well then Y/n. welcome to the guardship of Pheonix drop, you are officially aphmaus secret bodyguard."

from there the two had a blossoming relationship. y/n had continued to be silent, but would show up more to guard meetings and had stated to talk a little more to the other ones. laurence, dante, garroth, and aphmau were the only ones who knew of this arrangement and they kept it well in secret.

however, one-day aphmau asked to go on a trip by herself, she had wanted to go to bright port, it was only to be a four-day trip to check up on the people of the town and visit the wolf tribe. so y/n had stayed back, and suddenly they found themself bored.

What were they supposed to do when no one was around? looking around aphmaus property they sighed, before looking up to the guard tower, ah, that's right. they could go up there. they smiled thinking about it, deciding they would bring some paper and a quill and draw the scene that lay at the top of the tower.

so they went, grabbing the materials needed and climbing the large staircase, they hadn't expected anyone to be there. since it was mid-day many people were either eating lunch or hanging out in the plaza, so most guards would most likely be in patrol or joining their families in lunch. however, when they climbed to the top, they found garroth sitting on the side and looking out into the ocean.

"oh, hello there Y/n" garroth spoke, his voice grim and his face downcast. he had obviously been shuffling around in an attempt to put on his helm when he heard the trap door open. "hello there, garroth. i apologize for intruding. ill be ff" they spoke, a little disappointed they would have to go somewhere else, the tower produced the best scenery. "no need, you may sit with me if you'd like, you seem to need the company" garroth spoke, leading y/ns gaze with a wave of his hand towards the chair next to him. y/n nodded and sat down, taking out their quill and beginning to do a light sketch of what lay before them. making sure to include the wide arrangement of objects that were seen on the horizon.

"do you often come here to draw?" garroth asked, which earned a shrug in return. garroth looked at them before a small chuckle erupted from his lips. "I feel as though we are not a good match when it comes to socialization." garroth spoke out loud, his voice seeming more upbeat. rather than grim as it was before. "it is because neither of us seeks out a conversation unless sit is of importance. we are simply comfortable with the silence of the world or the conversation being held by someone else." y/n stated, having noticed this very thing on other occasions. it was not often the two were alone. however, when they were it was always an awkward silence. Neither of them were outgoing, and neither of them were willing to break their old habits of being quiet to cure the silence.

"well, should we try?" garroth asked, "to communicate better" he spoke, clearing the air of questionatore. "We both work together so I feel as though it would be worth it. additionally, you seem lonely"

"sure..."

(also this story would probably be in season 1, but not in war and before they enter the dimension with rene and shz)

so let me know, honestly, i think I could write a really cute fluff heavy story :D