#wip: liminal spaces

[cat-esper]

WIP Intro | Liminal Spaces

Genre: urban fantasy

Vibes: liminal spaces, video games as a life skill, father/daughter duo, friendship, dreamcore, inspired by Control, Quantum Break, and [REDACTED]

"You're listening to Lucid Radio. I'm your host, Casper Dorsey, here to remind you that you are dreaming." Ref Sanderson hasn't gotten a good night's sleep in years. Between student debt, a demanding job at a video game company, and raising a 16-year-old daughter who feels more and more like a stranger each day, he's barely keeping it together. But when his daughter, Avery, goes missing and Ref finds a portal to a strange place in her closet, he realizes she's been keeping a big secret. Apparently, she's been fabricating pocket dimensions, spaces that overlap our own world and where anything is possible. Now she's trapped in one, held captive by a group of people who use this power for crimes. If Ref is to have any hope of saving her, he'll need to team up with some local Fabricators and learn to navigate this strange power and fast. Because the longer a person stays in a pocket dimension, or Liminal Space, the more they lose touch with reality and when they forget the Space is not a dream, they are lost forever.

This is just a little side project I'm working on for funsies. It's planned to be a series of five novellas.

Here's a couple of songs that go with it:

If I Had A Heart - Fever Ray

White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane

[demont0es]

Bro turned into a fish tank :(

[seeminglydark]

Leaving this here so you can speculate about Mil-Liminal part 2: The Gateway, cuz it’s time for me to start getting into that after a years break from part 1. Are you ready?

Me either 🖤

[fantasiadodev]

cage sight seeing

o this a good one

ah HECK the VOID is BACK

[buggutzzz]

Planning out the layout for Nowheres store

ignore the extra stuff those were from my friends lol- Heres the layout of the store that I made a while ago

Its very W.I.P obvs :P

[darlingpoppet]

WIP Wednesday

I got tagged by @johaerys-writes & @baejax-the-great … tysm guys! <3 I’m currently putting the finishing touches on the next chapter of Liminal Spaces, and we’ve made it to the part of the story where I have given the blorbos my own incredibly cringe-but-free niche internet interests. I’m considering even making direct links in the fic text to make the whole thing a bit more interactive, hmm… thoughts? Anyways I’m tagging @calyxcurl @zorthania @elemmacil @sonderlivra & @levislattes in case there’s anything you wanna share! <3

“Lifetime by Surfing,” Achilles says suddenly to Patroclus when the song in question appears in the playlist rotation. “Tell me which song it is sampling and by whom, or pay the penalty.”

Patroclus closes his eyes to listen, brow furrowed with concentration.

“That has to be Eugene Wilde,” he says after a while. “The song is called ‘Personality’.”

Achilles clicks his tongue, perhaps lamenting the missed opportunity to playfully torment Patroclus for a bit. “I thought for sure that would get you… it was a modest hit only in the UK in nineteen eighty-four.”

“Who is Eugene Wilde?” Zagreus asks. “I’ve never heard of him.”

“He had a couple of number one hits in the eighties,” Patroclus says.

“On the R&B charts,” Achilles clarifies. “He never charted above seventy-sixth place on the US pop charts.”

“Oh, interesting,” says Zagreus, who can only nod along. He listens as another song begins to play: Boot, by Macintosh Plus. “I have to admit, I don’t really understand the appeal of this music. They just slow down old random pop songs to make them sound distorted and creepy, and anyone can do that. It takes no effort or imagination whatsoever.”

“What do you mean!?” Achilles exclaims, once again so loudly that it makes Zagreus jolt with the shock of it. “So by that logic, do you think a literal toilet bowl with a couple of words scribbled on the side couldn’t become one of the most influential and thought-provoking works of art of the twentieth century just because ‘anyone could do it’?” Achilles taps pointedly at his temple. “It’s the ideas behind the art that make them brilliant. If everyone could do it then someone else would have done it first, and then it wouldn’t have meant anything!”

Even frivolous arguments like these between Zagreus and his father had always felt like life-or-death—fraught with tension, fear, and anger, a thing that he had to survive. But despite his passion, there is no anger in Achilles’ tone or expression—his wide, toothy grin flashes with amusement—this argument is a game to him, and even if he wants to win, the stakes are low. It helps Zagreus to relax, to meet such friendly sparring in kind.

“All right then, tell me,” he scoffs back. “What sort of ideas are they trying to get across?”

[buffythevampirelover]

Story Introduction: Liminal Bird-Dogs

I post so much about this screenplay, I thought I should do an official intro!

Genre: mystery + adventure

Current word count: 7605

Synopsis: Callista “Cal” Tyson and Mary-Ella Weaver are paranormal investigators based in a small town in the Canadian prairies. With a mostly good reputation and some semi-reliable proof of the unexplainable, they receive calls every week about cases to explore. On a hot and groggy August day they are called to an Alberta campground for a werewolf-like creature, but soon find themselves involved in a murder case that is so much bigger than they can grasp. From unknown creatures to missing people and a world that isn't their own— this is their biggest and most dangerous case yet. 

And here are some links on my page ~ Mary-Ella / Cal / Winnie / Inola / + . On my page the #detectives tag is for this wip! @prairieparanormals is my side blog

[cyanideoreo]

What if someone drained the poolrooms?

I guess these are just rooms now.

[creatrackers]

Creatrackers: A Novella Series

Story (re)introduction

Genre: paranormal fiction, mystery

Tropes: paranormal investigation, found-family, lgbtq+ cast, English gothic, cryptids, folklore, friendly neighbourhood vampire, character blog

Status: book 1: first draft complete + being edited (current word count: 24607) book 2: half written book 3: outlined

Synopsis:

Holly, Adrian, Jo, and Omari are the original Creatrackers; a self-proclaimed research team who try to find evidence of supernatural beings and any other creature they hear about. As the number of crew members and their fans grow, and as the original four start to get older, their fun little hunts start to become far too real. Watch these characters evolve as they grow into adults who start to unravel what truly is out there in the world. In the first book two new members join, including Willa. A seemingly normal 21 year old who has actually been travelling the earth for the past few hundred years, trying to keep her vampire identity a secret. She has no thirst for human blood, only human cultures and the way of life for other creatures like herself. She becomes interested in the group while living in a small English town, and soon joins them on a hunt. Then another, and another... What could possibly go wrong for a vampire who befriends a bunch of monster hunters? 

Characters: Holly / Willa / Adrian

Jo / Omari / Kenny

I started this story in July of 2021, though it has been in the back of my mind for longer. Most of it was written between September 2021-January 2022. I spent a year living in England during that time, and it helped me so much with my writing. Not only for realism to the story, which is set in England, but because I was doing online classes and the only person I truly knew in the country (besides my family) was my elderly neighbour. Those months were mostly spent exploring the countryside, sitting by the ocean, struggling through my classes at home, and at a cafe downtown where I wrote. I missed my friends and social life, but this story helped me through that. The group of characters really felt like friends, as cliche and silly as that sounds. I wrote them to be my age, and now as I work on the next two novellas they grow with me.

I started this account as a username claim. I didn't plan on making it into a writeblr account, nor expected to enjoy it so much! I have not been active these past few months because I took a break from editing the first draft of novella one, and hadn't been writing much in general. But I feel inspired and plan to edit and hopefully write during August (around my camping trips) and in the autumn!

I'm not sure if anyone will read this far (lol) I kinda just have spewed nonsense. But I'm really excited for these next few months <3

[bloodkrieg21]

My Newst WIP art. Rough draft. I drew it up because I couldn’t sleep.

[cat-esper]

For the snippet ask game!

⭐ share a snippet where a character is the best at something

🧢 share a snippet about clothes

⭐ share a snippet where a character is the best at something

Here's a little scene I just wrote today from Liminal Spaces:

"Care to give it a try?" Neal held out the kernel to him. Ref took it, passed it from one hand to the other like a softball. It almost seemed to defy gravity with how lightly it moved, like a balloon. He was almost afraid to let it go in case it rose up out of his reach. "What are the boundaries?" Neal held out his hands in a shrugging gesture. "Whatever you want them to be." Ref thought for a bit. The room they were in flickered and warped in response to his indecision. And then he got to work. The floorboards and the rug smoothed out into untextured panels, then seemed to sculpt themselves with an unseen chisel until a weathered, wooden road stretched out beneath their feet. The walls melted away, though Ref made sure to keep the cottage door intact. Wrought iron lampposts sprang up at intervals along the road and spongy, swampy earth extended on either side of the wood planks. The ease of creation was nearly overwhelming, it felt like Ref could make everything all at once but he was too used to going slow, taking it one detail at a time. So he focused closer, building up a ramshackle hut with a rickety door and warm light emanating from grimy windows. He added a porch that was falling apart. "Interesting choice of scenery," Neal remarked, watching with hands at his elbows. "It's from a game I helped develop." Ref concentrated and building-like shapes emerged farther away, interspersed with willowy trees. But unlike the hut that he'd spent time on, these lacked texture and proper perspective. They looked more like a 2D backdrop to the scene than anything else. He figured he needed to get closer to really fill in the detail and add proper depth to them. Then there was the lighting. The sky was still white and he filled it in with a thought, giving it an evening hue, low-lying clouds tinged green. He played with the sun's position for a time, trying to get it perfect to match the set time of day he imagined this setting to be. And watching it come to life before his eyes, more real and vivid than anything he could render on his computer had him speechless. He could spend hours in one of these Spaces. Days, even. Just creating for the sake of creating.

🧢 share a snippet about clothes

Way to call attention to my lack of clothing descriptions lol! But here is one, as requested. From The Last Paladin:

Chelsea found herself in front of her small mirror, making sure everything looked alright. She wore a long-sleeve blouse that was stitched in layers of blue, black, and white fabric, with sleeves that covered the backs of her hands, and a modest collar. The slacks were made out of a comfortable, loose material that swished when she walked and when she stood still, it could have been mistaken for a long, black skirt. Comfortable flats completed the ensemble and Solika had let her borrow a silver clip to hold her hair up; it was too short to do anything else with. It was far and away not Chelsea’s vibe. It had none of her personality, but she kind of liked it. It felt like a costume, like she was an actress in a play and tonight’s investigation was the performance. “You ready to go?” Shay called through the door. Chelsea grabbed her phone, waved goodbye to the holographic dragons, and met Shay in the hall. She did a double take when she noticed he was wearing a suit that was a red so dark it was almost black. It came with a knee-length coat like the kind of thing someone might wear in a fantasy movie, and he’d even combed his hair back. Seeing him without the leather jacket was just weird. Shay crossed his arms and looked self-conscious. “Yeah, this is why I never go to these things.” “What, you don’t like parties?” Chelsea asked. “Definitely not.” “Well, if things go like they always do, it won’t be a party for long.”

[4ngel3d]

WIP: Poolrooms (but in pink)

[norbezjones]

Sketch sheet of the 4th love interest of Romance The Backrooms, my upcoming dating sim visual novel. Meet the scared boy, Zenobos! He was designed by jemii.

This poor guy. T_T Under normal circumstances, he probably wouldn't have survived in the backrooms as long as he has lmaooooo! He can't really fight and is very cowardly. However, his spiral eye can see where reality "no-clips" and entrances to other levels appear. That comes in very handy when you're running away from a Smiler or the like! Also, he thankfully ran into the other love interests, and now they protect him from any violent opponents around.

The idea of Zenobos being able to see entrances into other levels came about in the same brainstorming discussion I brought up in my last post, with my friend L. I don't think I mentioned this yet, so I'll mention it now: it was L who said that each of the characters' strengths should have a drawback/weakness, which has been an important element for each of my love interests. L really helped make the characters who they are now, and I owe them a lot. <3

Zenobos is voiced by @auroraaveva , who does a fantastic job playing my "adorable little bundle of nerves", as she described him (great description, Aurora!). People seemed to like the casting story I told in my last post for Sam, so I'll also tell the story of how Aurora got cast!

It was early May, and the deadline to the casting call was approaching fast. I had gotten a few auditions to Zenobos that were pretty close to what I had in mind for him, and I trying to figure out which one I liked best in case I had to choose one of them.

Then, literally a DAY before the casting call was to close, someone named Aurora comes into my inbox with an audition! She had auditioned only for Zenobos, which was something no one else did. I was also pleasantly surprised to see a non-masc person auditioning for the part.

I listened to xer audition, and was blown away. It was pretty different than all of the auditions I had received for Zenobos, in pitch and delivery, and it captured dimensions of the character that I hadn't really heard in other auditions yet. It really made me smile--there was my scared little guy; he had finally arrived in Aurora's voice! Hooray!

I was very excited when I got to contact xer and tell xer she got the part. Ok, that's true for all the voice actors, you got me lol. I should also mention that I try to keep things very professional when I contact people, but when it comes to bringing on talent for a project, 99% of the time I'm fangirling inside lmao. So when I say, "Hi, I'm the project lead for [game] and we received your work," inside I'm like, "HI OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M TALKING TO YOU, YOUR AUDITION/ART/WRITING/ETC IS GREAT AND I AM SO EXCITED TO BRING YOU ON BOARD AHHHHHHH!" Just being honest with y'all. ;3

That's all for today. Thanks for reading about my "adorable little bundle of nerves" (I can't emphasize enough how much I love that description)!

[fantasiadodev]

Under construction!

[elshells]

Hey all, I'm back with the polls, and this time I'm conducting research for my own enjoyment. So...

Assume you are alone and all regular operations (music, artificial light, moving contraptions, etc.) are down.

[darlingpoppet]

WIP Wednesday — Liminal Spaces Ch 4 excerpt

I know I only just posted chapter 3 of Liminal Spaces, but I already have something to offer from chapter 4, since this is another scene I pretty much had written out since the beginning :) It takes place after an extended sex scene (which needs expanding so no sense in sharing it now lol) and is inspired by the patzag love conversation from Hades… except yanno, make it pillow talk :3c

Afterwards, Patroclus rests his head against a hand propped up by his elbow, facing Zagreus as he absentmindedly traces lazy shapes along his side. This is his usual manner in the post-coital afterglow, while their minds are still humming from the high, limbs heavy. His eyes are shut, as if half-dozing; there is a faint smile on his lips as his head nods to the lo-fi hip hop drifting softly from his phone on the table behind them.

“Have you ever been in love before, Zagreus?”

His voice is a distant, dreamy purr.

Zagreus untangles himself from his own drowsy woolgathering; it takes him a while to comprehend the question.

“You mean, like now? Or are you talking about before this?”

“Hmm,” Patroclus murmurs, and then doesn’t answer.

If anyone else had asked him this question, Zagreus might have said Of course I have, I’m in love right now. But now, coming from Patroclus, he isn’t so sure. Perhaps that’s what this is—isn’t it? These extraordinary and profound feelings he has for Achilles and Patroclus are love. But also perhaps, it is altogether something different from being in love.

“You and Achilles are in love, right?”

“Naturally.”

“But you were never in love with anyone else before him, were you? So then, how do you know? ”

Patroclus opens his eyes. The dreaminess dissolves away, his expression turning serious as he considers.