lyraoctaviawrites - Tumblr blog

lyraoctaviawrites · 1 day

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Fuck your word count!

༺𖤐๋࣭ ⭑🕸🦇🕸๋࣭ ⭑๋࣭ 𖤐༻

"Focus on your word count," "Write 2,500 words a day," "Real writers set monthly word goals."

SHUT UP! Your word count doesn't matter. You're just stressing yourself out.

It doesn't matter if you write one word today or 10,000! At least you wrote something! Focus on that.

Quality and sanity of quantity.

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lyraoctaviawrites · 2 days

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Good stuff.

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lyraoctaviawrites · 3 days

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You Don't Need an Agent! Publishers That Accept Unsolicited Submissions

I see a few people sayin that you definitely need an agent to get published traditionally. Guess what? That's not remotely true. While an agent can be a very useful tool in finding and negotiating with publishers, going without is not as large of a hurdle as people might make it out to be!

Below is a list of some of the traditional publishers that offer reading periods for agent-less manuscripts. There might be more! Try looking for yourself - I promise it's not that scary!

Albert Whitman & Company: for picture books, middle-grade, and young adult fiction

Hydra (Part of Random House): for mainly LitRPG

Kensington Publishing: for a range of fiction and nonfiction

NCM Publishing: for all genres of fiction (YA included) and nonfiction

Pants of Fire Press: for middle-grade, YA, and adult fiction

Tin House Books: very limited submission period, but a good avenue for fiction, literary fiction, and poetry written by underrepresented communities

Quirk Fiction: offers odd-genre rep for represented and unagented authors. Unsolicited submissions inbox is closed at the moment but this is the page that'll update when it's open, and they produced some pretty big books so I'd keep an eye on this

Persea Books: for lit fiction, creative nonfiction, YA novels, and books focusing on contemporary issues

Baen: considered one of the best known publishers of sci-fi and fantasy. They don't need a history of publication.

Chicago Review Press: only accepting nonfiction at the moment, but maybe someone here writes nonfiction

Acre: for poetry, fiction and nonfiction. Special interest in underrepresented authors. Submission period just passed but for next year!

Coffeehouse Press: for lit fiction, nonfiction, poetry and translation. Reading period closed at time of posting, but keep an eye out

Ig: for queries on literary fiction and political/cultural nonfiction

Schaffner Press: for lit fiction, historical/crime fiction, or short fiction collections (cool)

Feminist Press: for international lit, hybrid memoirs, sci-fi and fantasy fiction especially from BIPOC, queer and trans voices

Evernight Publishing: for erotica. Royalties seem good and their response time is solid

Felony & Mayhem: for literary mystery fiction. Not currently looking for new work, but check back later

This is all what I could find in an hour. And it's not even everything, because I sifted out the expired links, the repeat genres (there are a lot of options for YA and children's authors), and I didn't even include a majority of smaller indie pubs where you can really do that weird shit.

A lot of them want you to query, but that's easy stuff once you figure it out. Lots of guides, and some even say how they want you to do it for them.

Not submitting to a Big 5 Trad Pub House does not make you any less of a writer. If you choose to work with any publishing house it can take a fair bit of weight off your shoulders in terms of design and distribution. You don't have to do it - I'm not - but if that's the way you want to go it's very, very, very possible.

Have a weirder manuscript that you don't think fits? Here's a list of 50 Indie Publishers looking for more experimental works to showcase and sell!

If Random House won't take your work - guess what? Maybe you're too cool for Random House.

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lyraoctaviawrites · 3 days

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reblog if you want your followers to tell you one thing they secretly think about you.

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lyraoctaviawrites · 3 days

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Disability Writing Guides

Collecting all of these in one convenient place! If you have any requests, questions, comments, and especially concerns about what/how I’m writing these, please let me know!

Writing Chronic Pain

Writing Deaf Characters

Writing Disability and the Idea of Cure

Writing Wheelchair Users

General Disability Etiquette for Writers

Overused Disability Tropes

Writing Blind/Low Vision Characters

Writing Facial Difference

Writing Seizures

Writing Visible vs. Invisible Disabilities

Writing Disability and Eugenics

Asks!

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lyraoctaviawrites · 6 days

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How do you format a book?

I’m still on my first draft so I’m not at that point with my work yet, but I’ll refer you to Abbie Emmons’ video on the subject - she also has a lot of other great writing tips if that helps!

youtube

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lyraoctaviawrites · 6 days

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Have some Encouragement

Fellow writers, remember, only one person can tell the story you want to tell.

You are the best person to tell that story, so tell it.

#writeblr #writers on tumblr #creative writing #author #writers of tumblr #writerscommunity #writing

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lyraoctaviawrites · 6 days

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OC in three

Again, thanks @kaylinalexanderbooks here

Kora:

Source 1

Source 2

Image three is by meeeee

Welp, this took way longer than I thought it would!

Imma go read The School for Good and Evil now, k byeeeee

#writeblr #writers on tumblr #writerscommunity #writing #writers of tumblr #writing community #into the phantasm

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lyraoctaviawrites · 6 days

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OC in three

Thanks to @kaylinalexanderbooks here

Imma be honest, I’m only half sure what I’m doing but fuck it, we ball.

Three images that represent my OCs (imma do the Phantasm squad all in one post if that’s okay with everybody)

Sarah Taylor:

Source 1

Source 2

Image 3 is a sketch by yours truly :3

Maya Cadigan:

Source 1

Source 2

Source 3

Lillian Snow:

Source 1

Source 2

Source 3

Into the Phantasm masterpost

It won’t let me add more than ten images, so I’ll add Kora here

Tags: @arimonsterwolf @when-dreams-feel-too-real

#writeblr #writers on tumblr #writerscommunity #writing #writers of tumblr #writing community #into the phantasm #oc in three #oc tag post

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lyraoctaviawrites · 7 days

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Chapter Three's out! Remember to check trigger warnings (although that's less of a problem with this one imo)

Dare set his knife down, careful not to touch the blade, though comforted somewhat by it being made of stone inlaid in the hilt, not iron. It was safer.

He was alone then, since Amon had left a few minutes ago, planning to corral Kaya and Kaz into somewhere they could eat.

Dinner had been a process, and a longer one than Dare would have expected. Peel and cut vegetables, add them to a pot full of stock, and let them cook into a soup. No meat, which he found strange, but there was a loaf of bread to cut and toast. He had no idea where they got it from, since it looked generally fresh and they didn’t have any way to make it.

It felt good, to have something there that he had made, even if he’d just helped. And it was going to be eaten. So it wouldn’t be there for much longer.

But either way, he could do it again. And he probably would.

Dare had decided that he liked cooking. It was simple. He was in control. It was right. He was safe.

And the knife that sat across from him was stone.

Amon knocked quietly at the door, then ducked his head inside.

“I’ve successfully wrangled my sister, and am in the process of luring Kaz out of its workroom. It keeps almost all of the light out of there, I have no idea how it sees. It says to tell you it’s almost done.”

“Thank you. I think the food’s ready.”

“Should be. You want to help bring it in? I can give you directions, and take a second trip for whatever you leave behind.”

“Okay. I can handle the cauldron.”

“You sure? It’s heavy, I can take it. It always seems like it’ll be fine until you’re halfway there and can’t set it down without spilling.”

Dare shook his head. “I can do it. I’m stronger than I look.”

“Alright. Don’t hurt yourself, lift with your legs, not with your back, and all of that.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Sure. Should be the last tent on the right, table’s at about waist height so don’t let the cauldron drop below there. It’s awful lifting it back up. I’ll go check in on Kaz again, since it’d burn the midnight oil eternally if it needed light to see. I might need to help out a bit to convince it to exit its doom cave.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me, you’re helping. See you in a bit.”

Dare had her hands full. Literally. The good news was, they were full of the stew cauldron, and it was a perfectly manageable weight, at least for her.

She eased it down gently, careful not to spill, and leaned against the table.

Kaya was sitting at the table, legs crossed and feet up on the chair next to her, arm slung around the back.

“Is there anything you need me to do? I’ve already got dishes set out, so there’s that, but I’m here to help if you want.”

Dare blinked quickly, then shook her head.

“Okay, well, tell me if you change your mind.”

She turned around, sliding her arm off the back of the chair and her gaze to Dare’s. She paused for a moment, exhaled deeply, and started talking.

“So, have you thought much about whether you want to stay here? Obviously you’re free to go, but if you want to stick around, we’d be happy to have you as a friend and not just a visitor.”

Dare didn’t respond, didn’t know if she should. Instead, she stared at her hands, arms suddenly holding her steady, propping up a wooden statue of a person with termites in her veins and rotting organs turning to mulch.

“I… uh, I’m sorry, I…”

Don’t cry, please, please, don’t cry, hold it together, you can’t fall apart at the first kind thing someone says.

Kaya was standing then, blurry and wavering in Dare’s glazed eyes, but with clear concern etched into her face. She reached out a hand, but pulled back before actually touching Dare, fingers hovering by her shoulder like an open door.

Dare folded into herself, arms crossing over her chest and knuckles white and clenched around her biceps. Hold yourself together, that’s it.

The next time Kaya stretched her hand towards Dare, palm up like an invitation, she leaned into it, practically collapsing against her into a tight hug. She tucked her head down and felt fingers reach up to the base of her skull, almost catching on the chain in her left ear.

“Hey, love, it’s okay, you’ll be fine. Is something wrong?”

Dare felt like she might rip apart, because nothing was wrong, but here she was. Breaking down, like she’d always felt just on the verge of. And what was worse was that it felt good to be able to cry and squeeze her eyes shut and just be held. To be safe enough, to feel safe enough, to do so.

She stood there, still as a stone, for another minute. After that, she pulled away, wiped her eyes, and sat down.

Back straight, eyes forward, she said, “I don’t know what I’m going to do. But I know I want to stay.”

#Kaz is a mood tbh #writeblr #writing #writer stuff #writing community #writers on tumblr #writers and poets #writerscommunity #tw: sharp objects #tw: trust issues #tw: trauma #tw: distress

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lyraoctaviawrites · 7 days

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Chapter Two

it's a bit of a long one! check the tws please (critique is always appreciated!)

Dare blinked her eyes open, sat up and stretched, and stood up as quickly as she could. If she didn’t wake up fast enough, bad things happened. She learned her lesson after the first few times she’d spoken before thinking, or looked half-asleep, or moved too slow.

She stepped over to the exit, pulled the tent flap to the side, and immediately almost ran into someone trying to enter.

Dare barely managed to dodge out of the way, stepping backwards as quickly as she could.

“Sorry! I should have been looking where I was going, and I must have startled you, an-”

“Hey, it’s okay. I probably startled you too, with the way you started rambling right now. I’m Kaz. It/its pronouns, please.”

“She/her for me.”

“Alright.”

It was tall, though not quite as tall as Dare, and wore nearly all black, though there were also flashes of bright color throughout, popping against the dark tone. Kaz leaned on a crutch as it made its way towards the only available chair, and gestured for Dare to follow it.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but, uh… why are you here?”

“Few reasons. One, there’s only so long you can wear the same pair of pants, someone shot a hole through your shirt with an arrow, and I’m the only one here who knows how to follow a pattern. Two, there’s a strange new person in a very small community I’m a part of, and she isn’t telling anyone much of anything about herself.”

“But that’s only two.”

Still half-asleep, I see.

“Hmm?”

“You said you had a few reasons, but you only had two.”

“Good point. Two reasons. But I do need to take your measurements, if that’s okay.”

“It’s fine.”

Be careful, don’t let it get the drop on you, make sure you’re aware of your surroundings, make sure you’re safe. Remember, you come first.

“Just give me a heads-up first, before you do anything. Please.”

“Okay. You want to tell me how you’d like to look, while I do that?”

Dare had officially been given a clean bill of health, and while they normally wouldn’t have trusted the opinion of someone who described himself as “slightly better than fly larva,” they had a feeling Amon was just being modest. Or possibly joking, since they didn’t always have the ability to distinguish between fact and humor.

Either way, they were feeling much better, though they had a new scar to add to their collection. Or two, depending on how you kept count, but since it was one arrow, they had decided it was one scar, front and back. They had enough already, they figured, though some were worse than others.

They would be okay there, if they decided to stay.

That was another decision Dare would have to make. If they kept moving, they’d be harder to track, at least in theory, since they’d be further away. More of a chance to let the trail go cold. But they were isolated here, and if no one let news of them slip, no one would learn where they were. They could be safe. And secret. And stuck. Besides, there was no guarantee they’d be all right then, either.

There were a few things they could have done to make the decision, but by far the most effective in their experience was working on something else. No list of pros and cons could amount to quietly mulling things over while occupied.

Only thing was, they didn’t know if there was anything they could do. Anything helpful, that is, since they could wander into the woods and peel the bark off of trees all they wanted.

It’s not like they’d be useful in a forest, anyways. They’d probably end up accidentally getting poisoned, or mauled by a pack of wolves, or gored by a moose. Dare had a few skills, but wilderness survival was most certainly not one of them. They hadn’t been in the woods for a long time, and years of smooth stone and small windows didn’t lend themselves to retaining old skills.

That left tasks at camp, which either meant talking to people, or risking stepping on toes by getting in the way. Great.

Dare wandered around for a bit, looking for signs of life, and eventually heard clattering coming from what appeared to be the only free-standing structure, a small cabin with a sturdy door.

They turned the knob gently, and the door creaked open with a soft squeeeeea.

Standing inside, they saw Amon huddling over a cutting board, knife in hand and slicing steadily, movements and blade sharp. Dare edged inside quietly, not wanting to startle him. They considered the pain of a slice to be better than puncture wounds, but they didn’t necessarily want to inflict either on him.

And they didn’t want to get too close to that knife, either. They’d had their fair share of close calls.

“Oh. Hey.” Amon glanced up at them, hands still moving steadily, chop chop chop chop chop.

“Do you need something? I can take a break, dinner isn’t urgent, and the water hasn’t started to boil yet.”

Dare blinked back at him, slit pupils narrowed in the false light.

“No. Sorry, no, I don’t want to interrupt you, but I was wondering if there was anything I could do to help. I still need to pay you back.”

“Well, no, you don’t, but if you need something to do, I could always use help here.” He pointed with his knife, gesturing to a pile of potatoes covered in eyes, and Dare edged back, circling around him towards the starch vegetables.

“There should be a knife in the block over there. Be careful, yeah? Cut away from yourself, slow movements. Just get the eyes off, the skin doesn’t matter.”

“Alright. I can do that.”

They reached over for the knife, gripping it so tightly that the gray of their skin drained to white and the hilt dug into their palm. Control. They just needed control.

Okay. Loosen up. Breathe in, breathe out.

Amon glanced over, eyebrows curving together, and asked, “Hey. Are you… I don’t know, is something wrong? Your hands are shaking.”

Steady hands, steady breaths, steady movements. You can do this.

Liar. You can’t say it. You know better, deep down.

“I need to do something.”

Not a lie.

“Fine. But if something’s wrong, you know you can tell me, right?”

“Thank you.”

Amon slid his gaze back, continuing, “You know, you have every right to be worried about knives.”

Dare stiffened, holding their tongue between their teeth and forcing themself to stay quiet.

“No, I mean, it’s a reasonable fear, is all. I learned a lot about knife safety through practice, which isn’t the way you want to go about it. Do you want me to teach you some basics?”

Dare and cooking hadn’t really mixed before. They knew how food was prepared, since they sometimes hid out in the kitchen when they had a break, and even used to linger a while longer than they needed to in order to watch it happen, before they got caught. After that, they kept their distance.

“Yes, please.” They might need it, honestly, could end up being the difference in them getting a job in some city, since they didn’t know if they could stay here forever. They didn’t know if they would stay here forever.

Watch out. Don’t make snap judgements, these people are not to be trusted.

Aren’t they?

No.

Why not?

You know, you remember, you know what happened…

Last time. I do.

Then don’t forget.

There’s an arrow in the next tent over reminding me. I don’t think I’ll ever be allowed to.

#writeblr #writing #writer stuff #writers on tumblr #writing community #writers and poets #writerscommunity

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lyraoctaviawrites · 7 days

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The Words that Cut

i'm very much open to criticism on this (since it's the first draft of a half-finished idea). hope y'all have fun with it, though! trigger warnings are in the tags.

Dare woke up covered in blood. While he sat up blearily, frosty purple hair in his eyes, he felt something start to rip, resistance from bandages and scabbed-over flesh. He eased himself up more slowly, making sure he had leverage beyond just his spine.

Alright. Breathe. You’re okay. Just try and remember what happened. You were… Oh. You tried to run. Stopped up your ears so no one could call your name and snuck out in the night. Okay, you’re okay. Where are you?

Dare peered at his surroundings, golden light around him. He wasn’t home, then, suffocating behind stone walls. Cloth rippled in the breeze, cascading sunlight falling through it, and he took another breath.

Good. You’re doing it. You’ll be fine.

“Uh. Hi.”

Dare jolted slightly, still trying to hold himself still through the surprise. He turned slightly, seeing a boy who looked around his age, moss green lipstick a contrast against dark brown skin. He held clean bandages and trauma shears, but it didn’t seem like he was planning on using them yet.

“Are you okay? My sister found you a good distance away, and, well, I’m better than the maggots at keeping people alive.”

“I’ll be fine. Thank you.”

“I’m Amon. Can I have your name?”

“No.”

That was rude. You can apologize later. You should apologize later. But better safe than sorry, I suppose.

“Okay, sorry, uh… what should I call you, then?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, I guess we can figure it out later. How are you feeling as of right now? You said you’d be fine, but there’s a difference between being okay later and feeling alright now. I didn’t want to give you any painkillers while you were asleep, but being shot with an arrow can’t feel good, especially since you moved around. Did that do anything? It’s not really safe to sit up after an injury like that.”

That’s a lot to process at once. Just think through it. Ask him to wait. He’ll give you time.

“Uh, not great? I don’t need painkillers, though, especially if you’re running low on them. And I don’t think I hurt myself badly enough to kill me.”

“That doesn’t sound like you’re okay. Are you sure you don’t want painkillers?”

Idiot. Give yourself time to process the information. If you always have to tell the truth, you should make sure you can deceive, at least. He knows, he can see it in the horns that coil around your ears and the color of your hair and everything you’ve spent years wishing you could hide. You’ve lost a lot of blood, but you should be more careful if you don’t want to lose more.

“I don’t need them.”

“That’s not what I asked. We have plenty.”

“Fine.”

He’s trying to help you. Be polite.

Amon crossed over to a cabinet at the far side of the room, or tent, or whatever you wanted to call it, and pulled out a vial of liquid in a terrifyingly saturated blue tone.

“Drink this all in one go. It looks pretty, I know, but I swear it does not taste good. And if you need to, you can plug your nose.”

Dare grabbed it, and did as instructed, although he’d had much worse in his time. Choking down painkillers was honestly a nice break.

“Thank you. You didn’t need to do this, so I appreciate it.”

“You’re right, but I should have, so I did. There’s not many of us left out here, away from big cities or castles. We’ve gotta look out for each other, you know?”

“I might be more trouble than I’m worth.”

“Well, I’m sure you’re worth a lot of trouble, so I’d like to see someone try to give us enough to make that happen.”

“You should be careful what you wish for. I’m not a safe person to be around.”

“Is it your fault? The danger, I mean?”

“No.”

“Then it’s fine. Anyways, you should try and get some rest. I’ll leave you to it.”

Dare slept poorly, dreams of puppeteers and lying smiles haunting her. She woke up to a girl peering down intently at her, with braids trailing to a puff of curls at the back of her skull. Her dress was covered in flowers, pearlescent gold embroidery catching the light and reflecting back luminous yellow.

“I’m Kaya. You don’t have to tell me your name, not unless you want to. How are you feeling?”

“Better. I’m assuming you’re Amon’s sister? He mentioned you,” she responded, propping herself up gingerly on one elbow.

Be careful. You’re still hurt, don’t make it worse. You’ve had worse, yes, but you need to keep yourself alive.

“Yeah.”

“Then I’m in your debt most of all. Thank you. I wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for you.”

“I’m sure someone would have picked you up. After all, there’s a castle nearby, and there are usually patrols around those parts. I just happened to be the first one to get to you.”

“Yes. Well, I was fortunate it was you, as I doubt I’d have fared as well with the nobility. I’ve… had some difficulty, let’s say, with a lord in the past, though I hope to have put that behind me.”

Kaya sighed.

“You and everyone else. We try to keep ourselves as distant from them as possible, so you shouldn’t have to worry too much about that.”

Okay. You can rest easy now.

Dare closed her eyes, breathing out a long, deep sigh of relief.

“I hope you’re right. This place… It’s nice. Better than anywhere I’ve been in a long time.”

“Well, you can stay as long as you like, stranger.”

Dare thought they might be okay, eventually. They were healing, at least, though they couldn’t look at the arrow lying nearby without quickly turning their head away. It was broken in two, since Amon had to get it out safely, and it was still sitting near them, since he’d insisted on testing it for poison.

Besides, they didn’t need it gone. They could just look away, so why even mention it?

Speaking of Amon, he’d brought a chair in with him some time earlier, since there was only so much time someone could spend on their feet. Dare got the feeling that he’d spent most of his time here working on smaller, less… mortal wounds. Nonetheless, they were grateful for his experience.

And he didn’t push, not unless they were trying to “act tough,” or however he put it. It wasn’t something they were used to, his quiet way of nudging them to tell the truth, but it might have been worth getting shot half an inch under their heart for.

Kaya wasn’t there as much, but, then again, she had her life to live, and she wasn’t as integral to the healing process. Still, it was nice to see her on occasion, when they could.

They couldn’t help but feel, though, that this peace, this respite, wouldn’t last. Either they wouldn’t hold on tight enough, and it would slip through their fingers, or they would crush it in their hands. And they just knew that it was made of glass.

that's a wrap on chapter 1! i hope you enjoy my little people as much as i do. if you want to be added to a tag list, let me know!

#I'm not great at praising people's writing so just pretend I said something really nice :)#writeblr #writing #writer stuff #writers on tumblr #writing community #writers and poets #writerscommunity

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lyraoctaviawrites · 7 days

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"Uh... Where'd the lizards go?" Sarah asked.

If you're seeing this, add one more sentence to your wip and then reblog with the sentence as proof 🔫🔫🔫

#writeblr #writer #writers #it makes sense in context trust me #this is genuinely just where I'm at...

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lyraoctaviawrites · 7 days

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Into the Phantasm was created at 3am one day so... yeah basically