Title: Resurgence Author: ???  Pairing: Harry Potter/Severus Snape Prompt: #2023-26 BDSM-AU: magical folk has certain dynamics between them. Magic ebbs and flows freely and healthily if one's dynamic's needs are met. Severus is a sub, but to keep his spzwork perfect, he pretends to be a dom. It's a thing that could seriously mess up a lesser wizard, but he is anything but lesser. He is not well though. Harry sees this, and a dom through and through craves to help. I love a good worldbuilding with these dynamics and the many ways bdsm-worlds could put could shape our favorite characters. Rating: Explicit Word Count: 37.9k Warnings/Tags: No Archive Warnings Apply, Alternate Universe - BDSM, Dom Harry Potter, Sub Severus Snape, Powerful Harry Potter, Accidental Bonding, Hogwarts Eighth Year *more tags on AO3* Summary: 

Prompt: #26: BDSM-AU: magical folk have certain dynamics between them. Magic ebbs and flows freely and healthily if one's dynamic needs are met. Severus is a sub, but to keep his spywork perfect, he pretends to be a dom. It's a thing that could seriously mess up a lesser wizard, but he is anything but lesser. He is not well though. Harry sees this, and, a dom through and through, craves to help. I love a good worldbuilding with these dynamics and the many ways bdsm-worlds could shape our favourite characters

💚❤️ Read on AO3 💚❤️

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ok youre getting out of context worldbuilding lore dumps (kind of very long) (also some pictures)

when cities began to be rebuilt by the neosaurs, many of the larger creatures found themselves unable to live properly within the smaller housing arrangements (mainly due to buildings' original human-sized architecture, the general lack of construction knowledge of the neosaurs, and some saurs' unwillingness to accomodate the larger species). thus, they quickly abandoned the larger urban societies and became nomadic hunters and grazers. these groups consist mainly of the largest hadrosaurs, large theropods such as tyrannosaurs and carchardontosaurs, and almost all sauropods.

tyrannosaurs in particular are regarded as virtually mythological to those living in urban areas due to their rarity and tendency to move quite often. some saurs dont believe they even exist anymore since they are never seen or talked about. only very, very rarely will a tyrannosaur group approach even near an urban area, and even then stories of these sightings are sometimes chalked up to mistaken identity (kind of like their version of bigfoot except tyrannosaurs actually exist).

travelling in large packs, most tyrannosaurs have a nature-based view of the world and their supposed ideal lifestyle. respectfully living off the land and respecting the ebbs and flows of nature is a big part of their culture, especially when it comes to hunting. as tyrannosaurs are obligate carnivores, they must hunt enough food to sustain their packs each day. the most viable food source for this is large mammals such as bison, bears, horses, and moose. however, this is often not enough for the larger groups of saurs, and as such, pack-herd traditions were born. these are the result of herbivore herds, such as hadrosaurs and sauropods, and theropod packs developing a mutual agreement regarding food. in prehistory, large tyrannosaurs were typically apex predators of their environments and hunted similarly large herbivores. however, in the posthistory world, the development of consciousness and morality puts into question how "right" it would be for a sentient carnivore to hunt and kill a sentient herbivore who is part of a larger culture and society. pack-herd traditions aim to allow the natural food chain to exist while still being respectful and peaceful towards all existing saur cultures and groups.

the most common form of pack-herd traditions is those involving postmortem processes. in many herds, when one member dies, their body is left in a designated location nearby known as a boneyard. after some time, usually no longer than a few days, the herd's fellow carnivore pack will check the boneyard and discover the body. they will use the carcass as food, strip the bones of all their meat, and leave the skeleton behind. herds that participate in this or a similar practice believe that it is only natural for an herbivore to return to nature once they have died by allowing their natural predators to break down their body after death and use their meat to sustain their own lives.

tyrannosaurs have their own traditions within their packs as well, some of which are universal among different packs. the most significant of these is the method of choosing the pack leader. most packs are headed by one tyrannosaur that leads until they die or are booted from the position, which can happen a few ways. the first is a collective effort from the pack to chase them out or kill them. if a leader is regarded as detrimental to the pack's livelihood and happiness, the pack members will take matters into their own teeth and basically mutiny, chasing out the leader (or, in extreme cases, killing them). the second and more common method is through challenges. while the exact rules typically vary slightly between packs, the general idea is the same. any saur, even those from outside the pack, is allowed to challenge the leader for their position. the two then enter a duel and the winner gains the title of leader, though general pack members' acceptance of the new leader is quite important as they could later gang up and chase out the leader if they are deemed inadequate.

an important factor in duels is the method of fighting. obviously, theropods in general would use their teeth when in combat as well as their feet or hand claws depending on their anatomy. tyrannosaurs in particular have a unique technique due to their anatomy. these involve the horns on the face. while in prehistory these may not have been very large or sharp, especially on the cheek, when neosaur tyrannosaurs were created their facial horns were incredibly prominent. this allows for saurs to use these in combat to cause extra damage to their opponents. a common sight in pack dwellings is tyrannosaurs sharpening each others' cheek horns with rocks. sometimes, if they are long enough and/or shaped just right, the eyebrow horns may also be sharpened. learning how to use horns effectively is often a large part of life for tyrannosaurs who focus on combat.

later i want to go more into their culture........ they can do a lot with those little arms i think........

Writer Positivity Tag [ 01 ]

hello and how are you?

We are diving into the Hoard of Tag Games we have still and pulling out random ones and we have another winner for this wonderful day!

Thank you to the wonderful @andromedaexists for the tag! You can find his response right here! :D

Rules? Question Time Baby!

Tagging with no pressure: anyone we tag within the tag game itself! and obviously, an open tag for whoever wants a fun thing to do! Don't be afraid, our tag games are free game for any and all! c:

What motivates you to write?

Both the encouragement of other people - our people and those who are close to us - and ourselves. We have been having a hard time shifting our focus and encouragement but we do want to learn to write for ourselves again.

And a lot of that motivation will come with self-inserts, fanfics, and just random and silly writes that are for us and those we call our Beloveds. (♡´❍`♡)*✧ ✰+ ｡

A line / short snippet of your writing that you are most proud / happy of. If not, maybe share a line of someone else's work you love (just please credit them):

We have quite a bit of happy / proud writes, but we think we will pull from our Work, Mitch's Journals, for this one.

He watches the scribe, notes how easily he swirls words onto the page. It makes him glance at his work, noting the scribbles that are tinted with doubt and inexperience. He frowns, eyes going back to Corinth as he tries to memorize the way he holds the quill, how he guides his hands along the page. And then the man is looking at him, Mitch blinking before he tilts his head at him. Corinth smiles, an easy thing that isn’t held back by much of anything. He calls for him with a wave and Mitch doesn’t think twice before he is leaping, easily dropping next to the man as waiting patiently. Corinth blinks, a soft chuckle bubbling up as he shakes his head. “I will never get used to that.” Mitch hums, a small sliver of emotion rolling through before he focuses on Corinth. Words bubble up but they sit in his throat, unsaid and unnoticed by the scribe.

We explore and experience so much from Mitch, we love all of the words we can garner from our favorite Observer. (◍•ᴗ•◍)♡ ✧*。

Which OC makes you smile every time you think / talk about them and what are they like?

Honestly, the one Character that hits those notes has to be the one that we actually ended up making an Intro Post for: our gentle king, Neal Anderson.

He is just... he is what we want with our Characters and our Worlds. He has come and grown and given ourselves over to him - he is also born from one of our alters, so he holds a very special place along with everyone else - and he is something of a wonderful Being.

If we could be given over to any character within the Storyverse, it would have to be Neal.

What process of writing do you enjoy the most?

We think we enjoy all of the parts of the writing process at times, with ebbs and flows with every thought. We also, of course, end up hating all of the parts of writing as well. It is obviously just what our brain and motivation and wanderlust mind is focused on.

Sometimes, we love characters and worldbuilding, sometimes we just want to write for days, and there are times when we are lost in the Void and do no want to be found at any point in the near future.

Just depends, we guess. (≧∇≦)/

What part of writing do you think you are the best at? (Yes stroke your own ego it's okay)

For ourselves, we think we can write emotions pretty well? We like to write them and make words mean certain things, or different things, or try to give more weight to one emotion over others with different contexts. We like using words in multiple ways.

For others, we probably can write things out pretty well. We do get a lot of compliments on how we write things, and how we end up giving words and thoughts meanings. So we guess we're doing good things if we can write and mean it. (❁´▽`❁)*✲ﾟ

What is something in the writeblr community that is most enjoyable?

Honestly love the way things are just open and waiting for others to come and go. You can slip in and enjoy your experience and even if you end up dropping off, you can come back and people will still easily bring you back.

We have loved being able to be a Being of Humanity within the Writing Community. It is not like a celebrity making their grand entrance once again; it is simply an old friend dropping down on the well worn couch and being able to warm up with everyone else, no expectations demanded.

A writing tool/device you use that helps you with writing? (It could be speech to text, a writing program etc)

It would be have to be both Scrivener and the writing bots within Discord.

Scrivener is wonderful bc we can organize everything that we need and want to how we need and want to organize it. And we can tweak and copy and get our own things going and set goals and do all of the things we want to with it. And it is allows us to add fonts and scripts and displays and colors and it is just... a wonderful investment.

The Discord Bots help us with writing. We actually have a specific server - North Haven, our Beloved - that we love sprinting in. And it is bc the bot is shown as a beloved OC of our wonderful @lockejhaven. It definitely helps us, bc we feel like we are with people and doing things and that is thanks to both the server and our lovely friend.

A piece of worldbuilding that you like in your own story? (It could be the magic system, a particular place in the story, a law etc)

We think the thing that make us super happy with our Worldbuilding is that mostly everything is entirely connected. The Worlds, the Beings, the Beasts, the Monsters, the Magicks, are all connected and similar throughout the Storyverse.

And a lot of the Worlds who are aware of their place within the Storyverse, are aware of the other Worlds.

We even have ourselves a Galaxy Gateway, that connects the Worlds and the Void, and the Galaxies, and everything.

We are very proud of ourselves to allowing our Worlds and Ideas to be connected. Everyone knows of Magicks as Magicks, and everyone knows of the Beasts and Beings as the Beasts and Beings.

And Monsters do precede themselves in the worst way possible.

Tag some people whose works you love / have been your biggest supporters:

We'll be retagging a few people, bc they can be one and the same!

Biggest Supporters: @andromedaexists | @lockejhaven | @smol-feralgremlin | @crypticcodexcreations | @written-in-starlight | @inkspellangel | @enchanted-lightning-aes | @lourek | @pen-for-sword | @perasperaadastrawriting

Beloved Works: @lockejhaven | @andromedaexists | @crypticcodexcreations | @did-i-do-this-write | @blind-the-winds | @sleepyowlwrites | @memento-morri-writes others that we are definitely missing, but brain cannot brain!

☕ Natsume Rune, the Natsume Rune System

Last Monday of the Week 2024-01-15

back in the saddle

Listening: The Skeleton Dance, a single from Perennial which I clicked on solely because the title and band name go together so well.

Short and sweet post-punk snippet. Go check out their other albums, probably? I'm still going through those too.

Reading: New Murderbot, which I am very glad to say I actually liked. I did not really like Network Effect because it was too all over the place and felt more like three murderbot novellas in a trench coat. System Collapse is much more tightly written thing that actually fits its length.

Two big things going on that make it work: a strong focus on Murderbot having a hard time dealing with trauma because it refuses to acknowledge it is like a human in any way. Murderbot not wanting to be human and refusing all attempts to characterize it like a human are such strong parts of its personality that it's interesting to see it get hit by that revolving door.

The other thing is very tightly constraining the tools and environment. Murderbot has strict enough rules and solid enough explanations that mechanical limitations build well into actual narrative tension. Murderbot only having two camera drones and no armour is responsible for a solid half of the tension of the book, and controlling how much access it has to other systems is a big driver of the ebb and flow of that tension.

Murderbot as a series has such a delightful economy of worldbuilding. There's the entire implied world of hyperintelligent bots existing just out of view, things on par with Peri hiding in systems and allying with a select group of humans because it likes them. The whole human/construct/bot divide is repeatedly shown to be extremely blurry, which is fun because Murderbot treats it as unimpeachable truth.

Also one of the handful of book series where I read about some little thing and search for parts at my electronics supplier.

I have just started Hannah Ritchie's new book Not The End Of The World which is a bookified form of her general research on "things are getting better, there's a long way to go, but fatalism is not only unproductive it's incorrect". Having already read a lot of her work it retreads that a lot, and if you see a long patch of text without any citations you can skip over it, but it is handy to see all the numbers laid out.

Ritchie's research seems more correct than not most of the time, so while I do sometimes go "oh come on" at specific claims or propositions, it's generally interesting and worthwhile if you care about the data behind modern climate change and how it relates to economic and technological development.

It is really funny how much of climate discussion really does boil down to "for the love of god stop burning things."

Watching: Noah's Shark at Bad Movie Night, a Polonia Brothers movie about the curse laid on the secret fourth son of Noah when he brought a demonic third shark on the Ark. Yeah.

It's on YouTube in its entirety.

There's something funny about the fact that the Polonia team have put out so many movies that even their bad movies have flashes of clear competence in writing. Some genuinely good banter in between everything else going on in this movie.

Playing: Briefly picked up Dark Souls long enough to get to the Capra demon, but I have not tried to fight it yet.

Making: 3D printing a microphone holder for Dark Souls recordings because I did like editing those supercuts and the bad audio was killing me. Had a good time experimenting with dovetails and other sliding joints. Learning a lot about OnShape, especially poking at the Assembly system for the first time and finally using it enough to start picking up the shortcuts in earnest.

Tools and Equipment: Hey did you know that oranges are one million times easier to eat if you just cut them into slices and then peel the skins off. I have basically not eaten oranges for years because you can't peel them easily by hand. Oranges are great. Just cut them into quarters and go to town.

Space!

kind of hard for me to get that much into sci-fi worldbuilding largely because i can't really connect to the massive scale that a lot of scifi universes operate on, and also i don't find space super interesting? a lot of scifi novels/stories i've read feel like they take place in the square footage of the average medieval duchy or small university town except instead of having brooks or streams or forests in between places there's just nothingness that exists only to be traversed. i guess that's something that interests me about space: the cracks between realities or worlds that you can only move through--how can anything settle or drift there? I find the ocean a lot more interesting since it actually has character and texture to it, and endless variety and power and force, and is also made of a lot of water (i love water!).

Space from what I can see is just inert blank space, which I guess some people find interesting but I find boring. My favourite descriptions of space are from Paradise Lost where I remember Satan escapes from Hell and flies over the broiling realm of Chaos and looks over the millions and billions of worlds being formed before getting to the newly created earth (haven't read it in a while so might be wrong!). On the opposite end of creation I loved Dante's flight through the successive stages of the heavenly bodies toward the Empyrean in the Paradiso. Premodern cosmologies just feel a lot more fun to me.

I kind of want space to still be vast and terrifying, in concurrent to time, and 'dominate' people like in that thought experiment on Twitter a while back of whether rain 'dominates' you by stopping your plans from going outside, or enfold people and civilizations like the roiling ocean in Moby Dick (another really fun Biblical Chaos!).

That's a really large scale thing though and really overwhelming to worldbuild about. I remember talking on tumblr a while back about a scifi universe where polities have over millions of years grown so vast and successful that they became essentially unintelligible Lovecraftian entities that extend both in space and time, ensuring the conditions of their emergence and forming their own metaphysics, natural laws, politics, etc. This has essentially fragmented the galaxies into a mosaic of occassionally overlapping parallel realities that possess no conscious engineering of their own but a directionality to them from which societies of varying sort emerge. These celestial bodies render anything potentially conscious or animate depending on the ways in which they are disposed and formed. Space and time are conjoined and ebb, flow, are channelled, and shaped in various conscious and unconscious ways throughout the universe, in a primordial chaos of innumerable orders.

This is a super high scope idea that doesn't really make it easier to make up fun settings or stories, and will have to figure out how they function in a way that doesn't overwhelm me too much. I also don't know enough philosophy, science, anthropology, history etc to make interesting variations (i keep making up new variations of Space Dutch Republic). I'll try to zero in on particular spaces and times to make things fun, hopefully the flexibility in reality the setting allows will give me more wiggle room for fun or silly aesthetics --more space fantasy than science fiction.

Will also have to come up with what to call these large pocket realities/celestial bodies/space-time-logic worms/multigalactic polities. Maybe Geists? Imagos? Myriads? Will have to look up fun philosophy and religious terms.

Maybe a good place to start is a galaxy/Geist known as the Empyrean, formed from the agglomeration of the Milky Way and Andromeda along with several other galaxies and which itself as being the origin, source, from which all other Geists spring and which radiate outward, gaining being from its Being in a Neoplatonic way. Only the Empyrean itself is a hollow core, the material and fields through which it has reproduced and maintained itself have long gone extinct or been destroyed, creating a space of supposed chaos, with no "true laws", internal consistency, or logic, although there are many galactic powers who wish to continue simulating the Empyrean, or what they can scientifically approximate or remember what the Empyrean was. Will the corpse of the Empyrean grow and birth a new, all-encompassing Geist, or will the sum of its parts become something different?

ヾ(0‿0) Hi!

I'm here with asks for the latest ask game! -> 10, 13 & 25?

Hiiii!!! :D

10) OC you most struggled to make?

Oh, good question >.> Probably Rheva, from Masquerade. Or Ivah, in Nephew WIP. Just. Figuring out their motivations & their ultimate goal in their repective stories. (Honestly not sure if it's really a character thing or a plot thing - bc they both at least started out as adult antagonists to child/18-year-old protagonists lol)

13) Which story has the most lore?

Probably Ghosts, Dates, & Darker Fates, just bc it's been a WIP the longest at this point. I guess I should say it's been a consistent WIP the longest, really. Just between how much time I've spent working on it & how much of the lore/worldbuilding has remained the same through all the plot changes & rewriting. (Bc technically Ebb and Flow & whatever the Allisa WIP winds up being called & even like. Distant Light to some extent are older WIPs/characters, but their worlds & everything have changed so much since ... shit, 2013, 2014?)

25) What's your favorite genre to write? Is it also your favorite genre to read?

Ummm... urban fantasy? I guess? Or just 'fantasy', no subgenre required? Or sci-fi, maybe. idk, I'm bad at genres lol. But yeah, I think it's pretty safe to say fantasy's also my favorite genre to read - basically all my favorite books/series are fantasy (Six of Crows/The Grishaverse, The Dark Tower series, I am blanking again omg) with just a few exceptions. Which are sci-fi. xP

Thanks for the ask! ^_^

SWORDHEART is one of the funniest books I’ve read recently, and the main contenders for that honor are other White Rat books by this same author. It’s vibrant without requiring the characters to constantly be witty, the whole thing is a delight. It’s a fluffy romance in desperate circumstances, buoyed by Halla’s never-stymied open nature and endless optimism, and tempered by Sarkis’s practicality. Halla uses prattle, questions, and observations as a multi-purpose tactic on a near-constant basis. Sarkis is trapped in a sword and is unfamiliar with current customs of Halla’s home, creating a natural ebb and flow of competency and possession of relevant information at any one moment. Zale is a welcome addition to their party, a temple lawyer acquired to help with Halla’s legal tangle, and Brindle rounds out their party by taking care of the ox and cart.

Full review at link.

The Last Sun by K.D. Edwards

My rating: 5 of 5 stars I walked away loving these characters, which is great news since this is a series. The action was ongoing and had great ebb and flow. The magic fights leaned into D&D terminology lightly, so background in that helped a bit. I loved the worldbuilding around the politics, society around these Tarot gods, and the weight of the talismans that hold magic worked really well for tension that pulled me all the way through the story. Really satisfying read, highly entertaining and an awesome world to dive into and forget all other worlds for a few hours. View all my reviews

Hi. Um I'm reading your Gods among us series rn. I started like a couple hours ago and I'm on chapter 6 rn but i needed to pause and just say. HOLY. SHIT. this? is AWESOME. Dude. Dude. I can't deal with how good this fic is???!!! Its dark and fucked up i love it. Also the world building is immaculate!!

I'm literally kicking myself for not picking it up sooner. Honestly many many kudos to you. thanks for sharing this!

Hope you have a lovely day!!!

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Thank you so much for such a beautiful, glowing comment!! I’m sorry it took so long to respond to these but I kept them so that I could look back on them easily when I needed a confidence booster (which is too often lately). This is such a lovely, sweet comment. Thank you so much, you really made my... well, weeks that I’ve had this in my inbox lol. I’ve reread it so many times.

But one can only be selfish for so long and it’s time to get you an answer.

[Find the series we’re talking about here: GOD’S AMONG US] I’m pretty thrilled when people say they like the worldbuilding because I had so much fun thinking about it. If you haven’t checked them out already, you might be interested in the Appendices. (Also, I am still working on additional stories in this verse! I’ve just been very distracted by other projects lately. One is very close to completion though!)

Re the “War is a growing pain”/dual natures stuff... ultimately this fic was born from some thoughts I’ve had for original work over the years and my musings on the nature of divinity; how living forever and having these insane powers that separate you from the beings of the next closest evolutionary level by lightyears would inform how one viewed not just other life/intelligence but existence in general. I’ve always felt like there was something missing from the way we write and talk about immortality and I still don’t think I fully did it justice but I hope I managed to scratch the surface a little. The idea that we get so caught up in the world around us and all it’s problems that it’s easy to forget all the ways things are better now than they ever were before was kind of the catalyst for “If you had the first hand perspective and experience of history to inform your thoughts, would you be jaded or awed at the potential of humanity?” And at one point someone described a country or a political concept as “young” and I started thinking about international relations as interfamilial relations or even personal growth; how humanity as a species might evolve along the same emotional and intellectual ebbs and flows as a single human... I’m sorry, I’m not articulating my thought processes very well 😭 I’ll move on to the easy answer now 😂

The time period! I did mostly want to leave it open to interpretation, but I did have specific reasons for making certain decisions. 

SO while this fictional world is very similar in a lot of ways to ours, there are obviously some major differences. The biggest one is that these gods are known entities. No one questions whether they exist. There is no such thing as atheism in this world because the gods are tangible facts, happy to remind people that they do, in fact, exist. AND many of the gods are in same-sex relationships that produce children, the ones who are part of “fated” or “official” pairings are still ancient beings, monogamy isn’t really a thing for the gods (another one of those things that seemed unlikely for eternal beings). While there is still a lot of religious tension between sects and subsequent moralizing, it’s on a much smaller scale. So while each region of the world still has it’s own history and developed individual cultures, there is a also this massive shared experience with the gods. At the same time, the gods have largely secluded themselves from the world and humans, with all their problems and all their lack of power, don’t have that option. For good or bad, they can’t hide and are forced to deal with their issues.

All this apparently translated to this anachronistic, vaguely WWII era aesthetic on Earth with hopefully little bits from all over the world seeping in (If you’ve read any of the other fics in the series, Dick is India for the celebration of this universe’s approximation of Holi at the beginning of A Love Story and bits of his temple are definitely inspired by Japanese shrines) and the Hall of Divinity was largely stuck in a classic ancient Greek aesthetic.

A couple little notes: jeans and t-shirts have been around for a long time! Jeans since the 1800′s I think and t-shirts actually right around the time of WWII (though I think there were similar garments before that. And the stuff with the computers... that was meant to show that the gods do actually have jobs 😂 The computer in Tim’s rooms isn’t available on Earth. Jason is mesmerized by it. What he thinks of as a computer is MASSIVE and don’t actually have screens. The computer he sees in Tim’s rooms is the future and it’s Tim’s job to figure out how to inspire mankind to use it wisely when they finally invent it (inspiring mankind to invent it is Arsenal's job).

Thank you so much for such amazing and insightful questions! I really do still love this AU and I’m so glad people are still getting enjoyment from it. You honestly made my entire month lol 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

Telvan Worldbuilding #7: The Exchange Domain

Hello! This week’s worldbuilding post is the start of several going on about the Domains in Telvan. To summarize, a Domain is a category of both natural and supernatural happenings that are overseen and managed by a particular god. The focus here is on the Exchange Domain.

How is Exchange represented?

Exchange is mainly represented by the symbol above, which is a a double-headed arrow piercing between one circle with two semi-circles at each end. Blue is the signature color of Exchange.

What does Exchange cover?

Like all domains, Exchange covers anything that fits into the definition of its namesake, or in other words the process of giving and receiving. This includes monetary transactions, information, and many natural processes like the water cycle. 

What does Exchange mean symbolically?

Exchange as a symbol represents every act of give and take. It’s impossible to take a resource without giving something in turn, even if the exchange itself is not equal. Exchange also represents the ocean due it’s aquatic God, and as such water is usually revered as a sacred object. Doubly so if its filled with magic.

Who is the Exchange God?

The God of Exchange is Veneficus, the Flooder of Knowledge and Scholar of Waters. He is seen as a mass of tentacles that reach across the ocean floor, sometimes coalescing into a humanoid-esque form. According to legends, he is much more mild mannered than most gods, only being interested in the pursuit of knowledge and furthering the study of magic. Veneficus is the creator of not only all Thae but also anima. Without him, no one would be able to use magic.

Any known Aspects?

Veneficus has many Aspects due to his wide reach. Many don’t follow a prime directive and instead just seek to widen their experiences to relay information back to Veneficus. 

There’s the Aspect of the Deep Sea, an abyssal mermaid the size of a blue whale. Their role is relatively unknown, but they are the reason Aquean Thaes have an aquatic shape.

There’s also the Aspect of Heroic Angling. Disguising themselves as a Thae, this Aspect seeks to fish up all the species in the world, especially the dangerous and extinct ones.

What effects does Exchange have on a person?

If someone falls under the Exchange domain, they tend to be free spirited and focused. Whatever their desire is, they'll be ready to give up everything in pursuit of it. Just like the ebb and flow of the tide, their personality is subject to change at a moments notice but may gradually flow into a single form over time. The true depth of their self may be as deep and unfathomable as the sea itself. In terms of anima, they tend to have exceptionally deep reserves and can quickly adapt to any circumstance. 

i used to think i was not very good at world building. i can spun a history and a political arrangement in broad strokes more or less fine but then when it comes to inhabiting a world or having a story dvelop in it it all feels superficial, like its made of cardboard and set dressing. i get caught up on details, i start to double guess my self, would the economy really develop in this way? what laws would they push out? how would their actual technological progress bear out? how would the language develop? would there be dialects? small colloquialisms? ho would the institutions be organized, what would be their tax policy?

its made worse by the fact im actually very ill educated when it comes to history and societies of the past, so if i want to write fantasy set is a semi medieval or reinassance world, im really at a loss about where to even begin. on the other hand i dont know nearly enough about economy or sociology to extrapolate with any kind of confidence the world of the future, so my stories always tend to happen in a vague almost cartoonish world of which we merely see the broadest possible strokes, and that frustrates me a bit.

but then i realize.

i am actually really good (or at least really comfortable) doing what i call “mundane worldbuilding”. i actually really enjoy and truly comes with a lot of naturality creating modern or semi modern day events. say i need to write the history of a social club that showed up in 1967 in new york. i will, with utmost comfidence and fluidity tell you its history, its gossips, its rumours, the ebbs and flows of its members, it inner conflicts and policies that shped it.

say i have to write the history of a fake hobby, for example, collecting vintage clocks, i can spun pages and pages of the weird drama that happened in the clocker community (that is the quirky name that i would claim they gave themselves) and how it eventually dissolved due to the power struggles between its members

and so on and so forth. and just because its not the history of a galactic federation or the wacky colorful lore of a fantasy land that doesnt mean its any less of an excercise in worldbuilding!

Snarry AUctoberfest: Week 3 💚❤️

💚❤️ [Fanfic] Calamity at the Canadian Call Centre || E || 3.7k Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings Tumblr Post: Link AO3: Link

Harry has a bad day at work. His manager calls him into his office to check up on him.

💚❤️ [Fanfic] These Gifts are Made for Using || T || 9k Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Tumblr Post: Link AO3: Link

Possessing the Family Gift is enough to elevate a half-blood or pureblood to become the Heir of a Family, regardless of the current Lord or Lady’s wishes. The Princes, Blacks and Potters each have Family Gifts, and in the annual Ceremony, Heirs are chosen, leaving some relatives… disappointed. The 1970 Ceremony will change people’s lives, for better and for worse.

💚❤️ [Fanfic] Resurgence || E || 37.9k Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Tumblr Post: Link AO3: Link

Prompt: #26: BDSM-AU: magical folk have certain dynamics between them. Magic ebbs and flows freely and healthily if one's dynamic needs are met. Severus is a sub, but to keep his spywork perfect, he pretends to be a dom. It's a thing that could seriously mess up a lesser wizard, but he is anything but lesser. He is not well though. Harry sees this, and, a dom through and through, craves to help. I love a good worldbuilding with these dynamics and the many ways bdsm-worlds could shape our favourite characters

💚❤️ [Fanfic] A Potter Thing || E || 5k Archive Warning: Underage Tumblr Post: Link AO3: Link

Severus had always been sensitive to other people's magic. Lily's relaxed him, the Marauders' made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, and he vomited the one (and only) time he felt the Dark Lord's. But Harry's, the new Defense Professor's, aroused him. “You’ve been avoided me, Severus Snape.” “Hardly,” snapped Severus, turning his emotions to anger in a desperate bid to keep the arousal at bay. “Today, you stared down at your desk while thinking of another man.” “And how did you even know what I was thinking anyway, you creep!” Potter pursed those plump and kissable lips of his in apparent annoyance. “That’s certainly no way for you to talk to a professor, Mr. Snape.” “Oh gods…you look so much like Potter I thought you’d be saved from the Black madness but you’re positively raving.” “You’re not the only one who feels it, you know,” Potter replied, his voice seeming to drop an octave as he did so. "It’s a Potter thing. From what James has told me, he’s felt the same pull from Lily since the moment he met her. Unfortunately, since she’s a Muggleborn, I suppose she’s not sensitive to it the way you are. Are you done fighting me now? Why deny what is inevitable?"

💚❤️ [Fanfic] In darkness, there is fear and comfort || T || 6.4k Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Tumblr Post: Link AO3: Link

The anguished scream, muted only by distance, had his feet racing before he could even consciously recognize who the voice belonged to. Even if he wasn’t pulled to the sounds of agony and loss and despair like a bloodhound on a hunt, the fact he recognized the voice as Harry’s would have made him run regardless. Ten years after the end of the Wizarding War, Severus and Harry face their worst fears once more. They've changed and so have their fears.

💚❤️ [Fanfic] The Mistake || NR || 593 Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Tumblr Post: Link AO3: Link

You know how embarrassed you feel after accidentally sending someone the wrong link? Wouldn't you hate to imagine how bad it would be if you sent the wrong link to *two* people? Imagine no more. Sequel to The Barter System.

💚❤️ [Fanfic] For I Have Found Salvation || E || 7.1k Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Tumblr Post: Link AO3: Link

Severus is a priest, and Harry is the parishioner who may just make him break his vows of celibacy.

💚❤️ [Fanfic] The Promise || M || 27.9k Archive Warning: Major Character Death, Graphic Depictions of Violence Tumblr Post: Link AO3: Link

Ever since Harry arrived at Hogwarts: Home for the Orphaned Magicals, his life has been perfect. all the Sisters are here to help, he has a family in his friends and is working hard to be Chosen to graduate. But Hogwarts is keeping a dark secret and Harry needs Severus now more than ever. Prompt 2023-197: Based on Promise Neverland Premise (you don't need to read the story to read this one). "I want you to be part of that whole"- is a paraphrased quote I took from one of the main leads from the anime.

💚❤️ [Filk] Game Over || T || 3 minutes Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Tumblr Post: Link AO3: Link

As the war ravages on, they meet again, years after Snape's betrayal.

2023 Snarry AUctoberfest Entries || HOS Tumblr || Discord

meta tag game

thank you for the tag @nya-is-typing!!

rules: infodump any cool meta about your wip! this can be anything you like: lore, worldbuilding, character development, metaphors, themes, symbolism, etc. just any cool details about your wip that makes it what it is

WIP IN QUESTION: jackdaw

i'll touch on the infamous academy in question w/ some mentions of world building of a world i haven’t fully fleshed out yet :0

keep reading for content below!

DAPT Academy

The academy — Deerfoot Academy for Powered Training — is the nation’s most critically-acclaimed and easily the most heralded training facility that doubles as an education hub for every up and coming powered individual that’s usually coming out of post-18 study. 

It was founded by Alessandar Deerfoot, the city’s longest-standing mayor before his retirement a few years back. His recent death was a shock to many, and only a few weeks before Callisto’s arrival. 

It was a venture, at least 6 decades back, between the conservative government at the time, and various affluent and aristocratic investors with more than enough money to spend on both their future bloodline success and the city’s future. Selfishly, obviously.

The investors change over the years, a sort of secret society without so much the secret, but one of the the most intriguing — as per their donation records — to note is the Fairchild Family. 

A lot of high-ranking heroes work prominently in the city where the main DAPT campus is based in. Therefore, a good chunk of them hold ranks within the academy as instructors, tutors and everything in-between. The reason for that is the city is the capital, and the statistics released in the past three years determined that the majority of nefarious and ne'er-do-well villains get the most up to no good there! So there’s ease of access whilst scheduled in to train the students or holding seminars, as well as safeguarding the next generation.

Whilst facilities like these (because Deerfoot is not alone, there are at least five well known academies across the country!) are mostly received well, there’s a good chunk of the population that argues that exploiting newly-turned adults into the government’s personal registered army is morally corrupt. This is actually a key point in the nation’s political battle between the two opposing parties, because superpowered individuals are so tied to modern society in this world!!!

There is a barrier of magick installed within the main entrance gates and the territory perimeter by the current Headmistress and Chairwoman of DAPT. With her powered tied to something akin to an eidetic memory, the barrier recognises students and other people relevant to the academy that she is aware of. The magick can ebb and flow depending on whether her bonds are held up, and because of that she is at the forefront of every student acceptance meeting, every hiring of instructors, down to the wire because her magick has to register them as people of importance. (Trouble can arise when unscheduled journalists come snooping about.)

TAGGING: some new mutuals to do this!! don’t feel pressured / sorry if you’ve been tagged already </3 @breadcrumbs, @pamsdrabbles, @momjeanss, @aelenko & @dreadwvlfscript​!!

i'll tag this?!?!?!?! idk if i should. idk i worked hard on it she’s a lil kewt i will

jackdaw taglist: @sprigofbasil / @mxxnwrites / @nistrada / @spillme / @flawless-sins / @writingbyjillian / @viciousvenganza / @viawrites-andacts / @ezrathings / @nsanelyawkward / @alicewestwater / @aetherwrites / @melpomeny / @ultimatecryptid / @sunwornpages / @eatingjupiter / @semblanche / @ljscrawls / @chloeswords / @isherwoodj / @alexsidereus / @writerlywonders / @elaichichais / @svpphicwrites / @avi-burton-writing / @ryns-ramblings / @kitblogsthings / @ravens-and-rivers

general: @ryns-ramblings, @ljscrawls, @kowlazovdi, @chloeswords, @avi-burton-writing, @pamsdrabbles, @kitblogsthings, @aetherwrites, @elaichichais, @tarttisms, @radiomacbeth

let me know if you would like to be added or removed!!

The Cycle

Hi! I’m here to share a short bit of worldbuilding around the mythos for the world and the major players in it! Under the cut because while it’s short it’s also multiple paragraphs. Also unedited so it’s probably messy and doesn’t even really start to get into religious separations

The Cycle is the name given to the shifting of power between beings of Order (Oathkeepers) and beings of Chaos (Fallen) within the bounds of Existence. While the name itself is something made up by humans trying to explain the phenomenon, it is a real thing, describing a cycle of power where it ebbs and flows, creating a net equal amount of power between the two universal forces.

Either being permanently more powerful than the other is not a good thing. The consequences of Chaos taking full control over the rules of existence seem almost obvious - nothing would work as expected, and every single thing would be some game of random chance.

The consequences of Order being in full control are also bad, though a little less obviously so. If Order were to take full control, creativity would shrivel up and die almost entirely. For humans to create, and to exist, there needs to be a little spark of chaos and unpredictability thrown into the mix. Otherwise, nothing new would ever happen. The world would resemble a perfect white box with nothing truly in it.

It is believed that this is the cause of the cycle of world-ending events and the following "rebirths" of the world, though these events are typically so far apart from each other that they barely create a concern. As well, they are so far apart that it is impossible to truly study the nature of these events, or the potential causes for them. The last one, however, began the new age of the world, notated as "S.A." and which contains most-to-all known knowledge on the Cycle.

Worldbuilding Tangent 3

Part 1 / Part 2 And here’s the section that made me want to start writing about worldbuilding in the first place. Waterfall. And since there’s no way to avoid it, bits of Hotland too. (A reminder that these are my own observations and analysis of the Game’s text  it is still only my interpretation of how this area MIGHT work if we attempt to apply real world systems Undertale’s world. It’s possible that I misunderstood or don’t know enough about the natural systems described and that things couldn’t work that way without some kind of magic, whether that of the Monsters or some natural source of it.) So let’s start off with my theories about Mt Ebbot itself. I think that at one point it was an active volcano. The area must have, in some primordial age of the world, been under high sea levels. There is no way for some of the larger caverns, such as the Snowdin Cavern, to have formed except through dissolution of Limestone over very long periods of time through water. Limestone is usually made from the accumulation of shell, coral, algal, fecal, and other organic debris at the bottom of bodies of water. As water levels receded over time, we were left with layers of limestone. Then at some point a magma chamber beneath the earth had an increase pressure and the magma was driven upwards. Interactions between magma and limestone are can cause extremely explosive eruptions, and its my guess that this caused the formation of what I’m calling the Grand Cavern which contains a huge portion of Waterfall as well as the City of New Home. This would have been a Stratovolcano, which is characterized by multiple explosions of both streams of magma and clouds of ash and thrown fragments. Usually such explosions are massive, and the high pressure of lava streams even underground might even lead to the formation of Lava Tubes. Volcanic activity and limestone would explain the presence of both the numerous crystals that decorate this part of the Underground as well as some the larger smoother areas of the visible caverns. Based on how the path seems to work, my guess is that streams of lava flooded upwards and the lava tubes formed became the main path of Waterfall. Then when the Volcano became dormant and the magma receded to lower areas, surface water began to flow back into the Underground, smoothing over and eroding at the volcanic surfaces of the caves and making waterfall much bigger as lava caves and tubes were opened into various Solutional caves and caverns or areas blasted open by the eruption as well as new layers of igneous rock which were easily eroded. Many speculate that there must be a body of water above this area of the Underground to produce that much constant water. I don’t entirely think so. While its likely that there is a nearby source for a large amount of water, there is so much water in this area that it can’t all stem from that. Part of it actually comes from the river we see in Snowdin. When you enter Waterfall, the river vanishes because you are in tunnels which are walled on one side, and drop off with the falls on the other into an unseen area (Will return to this). The river vanished behind these walls somehow, yet still manages to flow on steadily till it reaches Hotland and then the Core. My guess is that the river is one of several sources for water. Others include natural springs, probably some body of water on the surface such as mountain streams and various small lakes in the area. It is all of these that would allow water to collect in the Underground. Right above the area we travel through is probably a larger reservoir of water. Without such a thing, the water levels of this area would be affected seasonally and the caves would be dry at times, which is not hinted at anywhere. Also, Waterfall is one of the largest sections of the Underground and is significantly darker than other areas. Since the area is on the same level as most of the livable Underground, rather than deeper down, its likely that it sits under the main body of Mt Ebbot, while Snowdin Cavern, the area New Home sits under, as well as the Ruins are all much closer to the edge of the mountain and sometimes lie underneath the foothills and normal ground. This allows for the openings and shafts of light that are present in these other areas, but not so much in Waterfall. So our larger reservoir would collect water and its shores would ebb and flow as the water table was affected. It would also contain large amounts of trash if the visible area of Waterfall is any indication. Its possible that many denizens of this area live around the reservoir and river instead of in the lower tunnels, this would account for a good many monsters supposed to dwell here. We also have another piece of evidence that hints at the existence of multiple levels of the area by remembering that Undyne appears on the opposite side of the river with Papyrus at the beginning of the area. Behind them are some columns formed from limestone deposits as water drips down from above. Later she appears again attacking you through gigantic hand carved columns that line the edge of the dark water. Eventually though, if the reservoir got too low, such as during a drought, the water level in the lower areas would be affected too. Which Onionsan tells us is so with the comment that it gets shallower all the time and that many others have moved to a large Aquarium in New Home, though some are probably just eager to escape the Underground. We also appear to have rather large cliffs with standing water pools, probably a plunge pool or basin formed from the falling water. Other caves appear to hold  huge bodies of relatively still waters allowing for the growth of “Water Sausages” or Typha, grasses of various kinds, and bioluminescent mushrooms and flowers. What kind of wetlands these areas area was a bit tricky to figure out. Since they are in a cave system and there are no trees in this area and limited vegetation and animals, then things like swamps and marshes can be eliminated. A bog was a possibility, until I remembered that unlike the Dark Waters areas which have near black water, one large area has its colors inverted making the land dark due to the light coming from the water. The probably cause of this is due to Bioluminescent Dinoflagellates. Dinoflaggellates are plankton that can be found in many bodies of water such as streams and lakes. But mostly they show up in the ocean. However bioluminescence is rare, and usually only occurs to aid in escape from predators, or to help find food in dark places. We have the dark down, but Bioluminescent Dinoflagellates require relatively stable conditions such as water that is not too cold but not terribly hot, and isn’t flowing too quickly. This along with the difference between the Dark Water area and this one means that this pool is probably somewhat warmer, maybe some very light geothermal activity, or simply the shape or makeup of the cave allowed for it to be just warm enough for Bioluminescence to develop over who knows how long. Since various forms of BIoluminescence are common in dark caves big enough for complex ecosystems, this wouldn’t be too strange. But the necessary warmer temperature rules out bog, swamp, fen, and bayou. Leaving us with a marsh. Since I have no real evidence of a sea or ocean (some people say that you can see one in the distance at the end of the game, but I looked and its too blurry to tell out that far. Could be ocean, could be more land, could be hazy horizon with the setting sun. Who knows.) its unlikely that its a saltwater marsh.  This is doubled by all the fungi, freshwater plants, and such that live here, plus all of the underground gets its water from these connected rivers, lakes, and pools. So we’re left with freshwater marsh. A freshwater marsh is an area that is continuously or frequently flooded and primarily consist of sedges, grasses, and emergent plants. This checks all of our boxes for Waterfall while still allowing for enough stability in certain areas that the Dinoflagellates won’t be disturbed much. There are areas that are still very wet soil that grasses and mushrooms grow on plentifully, along with the clearly magical Echo Flowers. Though no mushroom exactly resembles those found in game, there are many many instances of bioluminescent fungi. The Echo Flowers sadly cannot be explained without magic of some kind, though there are a few very rare flowers that have bioluminescence, nothing but magic could be responsible for the echo mechanism. Also, the glowing of the crystals that make the stars is likely a natural phenomenon and the only mentions we get of them are that monsters have seen them and remember the stars. They are explicitly named as stones instead of the Arachnocampa luminosa gloworm species we are familiar with from the Waitomo Caves. So their glow must be due to some kind of Luminescence. There are several types of natural light minerals can produce, but unless the crystals have a source of light to give them energy, are glowing with intense heat, or are somehow being disturbed constantly and in ways that cause them to break chemical bonds... they’re probably magical. (Unless we want to say that the underground is flooded with Electromagnetic Radiation like Ultraviolet Light, Infrared Light, or X-Rays. I somehow doubt this is the case. Some of these would kill the monsters and any humans. Others would be impossible this far underground.) The light of the stars must be bright enough to allow the Typha to grow. Water Sausages are a resilient and adaptable species, but they must have some light because all studies showed that in total darkness they could no longer germinate. So while magic is probably involved, or this species has evolved greatly from being underground for a long time, this plant needs some light to survive. The Grand Cavern, where New Home is shown in the distance, also gives us a vague and shadowy impression of a lot of open space between you and the city proper. This is likely filled with fields for growing whatever food can be effectively produced in the Underground with limited light from the cavern ceiling, and the glowing crystals. Funnily, various parts of the Typha can be eaten either raw or after cooking and can also be used in medicines. Traditionally it has been used by certain indigenous cultures of British Columbia. This plant is probably a large part of Underground diets. We also see an abundance of fireflies around this area, who are nocturnal and wouldn’t have much problem down here. Finally I return to the countless falls that flow past you and down into the area below which we as players cannot see or reach. It is possible that the waters continue to flow down and erode or dissolve further caves and caverns below, maybe even form a massive lake or being absorbed into the stone and soil and vanishing (this depends on geological conditions down there). Now, while I think there is a great deal more room for monsters to spread out down there, it has a few problems with livability. Our biggest problem is light. Without sources of light such as the crystals or shafts of sunlight or glowing magma, it’s difficult to make a lot of things work. Because the Core is able to produce electricity due to geothermal activity, we know that the entire Underground is powered, so artificial light can be applied to crops and to every home, though clearly not every single section of the Underground. It’s possible that if Monsters found a safe way into the lower depths, they could easily use the extra room and find ways to power everything. But plant life would be scarce and limited to what artificial stuff they could grow or keep alive. It would be far more oppressive than living at higher points, even with an entire group of people you would begin to display serious psychological problems such as loss of spatial awareness or warped sense of time. This wouldn’t be a problem for most of the Underground because there are areas with large amounts of natural sunlight that leak through. But the deeper you go the more dangerous it becomes mentally. However Monster Biology is somewhat of a mystery to us and though they don’t display the strongest constitution when a human attacks with intent in their soul to do harm, perhaps they’d be more able to adapt for such living conditions since geological phenomena don’t usually possess intent to kill (At least...I hope they don’t.) Furthermore you could not only have dwellings at the bottom of the caves, but tunnels and small caves and stairs dug down into the cliffs beneath the waterfalls. The same can be said for the upper falls as well, allowing for far more territory in the area than can be seen by the player. But danger lurks in the future for the Waterfall area. It may not happen quickly, but as the water continues to flow, the stone that makes up the area will erode or be slowly dissolved. One day the roof of this part of the Underground will collapse. If the damage is extensive enough, the entirety of Waterfall could collapse into the deeper areas below we can only guess at and a massive sinkhole could open up on the surface. This process could take decades or happen very quickly. Hopefully there is enough of a rock barrier between Hotlands and any water displaced by said collapse, as such an influx of water and possible boulders of limestone to the Lava Lake could cause Mt. Ebbot to erupt.

References for “A Portrait in Synesthesia”

This fic is COMPLETE now, so anyone who might have been hesitant to follow a wip, here you go! The whole synesthetic package, wrapped up with a nice lil bow on top. :3

For those who might have missed the masterpost: the fic was my contribution to the good omens big bang and is a sweeping, canon-compliant romp through history, told in (almost) all original scenes, with lots of nature imagery and T.S. Eliot. Kind of my own cold open, but with way more feelings and flowers. Also the sea. And an emotionally significant comet.

I had the opportunity to throw all of myself at this project and really enjoyed making it an intense focus for a while. In a way, it was an experiment to see how much I was capable of, which as it turns out, is more than I thought! (there’s a lesson here, probably...). Going this deep with the research and worldbuilding is not something I will likely be doing often for fic writing, but since I did with this one, I figured I’d share a bit of the process.

Under the cut are major spoilers for the timeline, story, and historic events in my recent fic, A Portrait in Synesthesia. I had originally planned to post this information in the end notes of the fic, but at some point, the list got way too long and posting it here became the sensible choice. There is a link to this post in the end notes of the fic, so it will be easy to find your way back here if you get to the end and want to know a bit more about the writing and research process. 

The Title:

Putting this bit at the top because I don’t know where else to put it: The working title for this fic throughout the entire writing process was “In Synesthesia.” I almost changed the final title in the eleventh hour to “The Still Point of the Turning World” because of what a prevalent theme Eliot became (that line was also slipped into the story three times at important moments — once for each POV character). I also briefly considered “Always, We Were Enough” as a title, since the conversation with Adrielle at the lighthouse kind of... accidentally became the thesis of the whole story, but that was a bit too sappy even for me, a Confirmed Sap. 

And while I’ll be questioning my choice of title for the rest of forever (titling things is hard, y’all), I ultimately thought the more descriptive title was best, and wanted to keep the nod to the song that inspired it all.

Speaking of the song... have you listened to it yet?? It’s great, I promise!

Synesthesia:

This was my research starting point. Before I dug into any of the historical or astronomical research or even started any serious plotting, I started reading about synesthesia, or, as Psychology Today defines it: the neurological condition in which the stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway (for example, hearing) leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway (such as vision).

Full disclosure: I do not have synesthesia. I spent a LOT of time researching it for this fic and did my best to portray it accurately, in spite of the fantastical elements I added. If I’ve overstepped or gotten something wrong and there are any synesthetes out there who would like to talk about it, I am very open to those discussions. The AO3 comments are always open to that, or you can message me/send me an ask here if you would like a less public forum.

I probably read r/Synesthesia in its entirety, but this thread of first-hand accounts was one of the most interesting to me and provided a lot of the inspiration for how I used the emotional synesthesia imagery. 

Besides everyone’s favorite research staring point of Wikipedia, this link is one I got from Boston University’s Synesthesia Project, and it is a pretty exhaustive list of research and books, as well as art and poetry about synesthesia. I have also been working my way through The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales, by Oliver Sacks which is the book that came most frequently recommended to me in my search. It’s an extremely approachable and interesting look at neurological conditions, synesthesia among them.

As it appears in the fic:

In a broad, generalized sense, Aziraphale and Crowley have a few types of synesthesia in this story. Obviously, I gave it a supernatural/celestial twist and a healthy glug of magical realism, but I did try to keep it firmly rooted in the actual condition. The types of synesthesia they have are:

Chromesthesia: they both have this. Sounds, specifically each other’s voices, have a color association

Lexical-gustatory synesthesia/emotion-flavor synesthesia: Aziraphale has this. Words (in this case, emotions, specifically Crowley’s emotional state) have a taste.

Odor-color synesthesia/emotion-odor synesthesia: Crowley has this. Words (again, emotions, specifically Aziraphale’s emotional state) have a smell.

One of the defining characteristics of synesthesia is that it is constant. If a synesthete connects the number 9 with the color blue, for example, then they will always connect them in this way. This was the major difference between real synesthesia and the fantasy synesthesia in this fic. The sensory/emotion connections for Aziraphale and Crowley changed in subtle ways as their relationship evolved through the ages.

The “binding thread” also had nothing to do with synesthesia. That was me wanting to make the spool analogy work for the body swap, baking it into the entire fic because I liked how the imagery fit with the synesthesia, and then leaning into the magic and the soul memory so hard that I fell flat on my face into magical realism. (A True Fact: I have spent a fair amount of time lying on the floor in the past 6 months, shaking my fist at the cute little plot bunny who grew fangs and claws and dragged me down a rabbit hole that ended up being 100k words deep). 

Anyway! Research!

Before I get into space and history and flowers... Yes, I admit to absolutely making up some wacky shit about Europa for the sake of fun banter and making a metaphor work. All those pre-Fall scenes on abandoned Earths are 100% a fantasy setting and I exercised the super fun right of a fantasy writer and embraced the worldbuilding (moonbuilding?). I also just thought Crowley would have delighted in tying a moon’s guts in knots, and Aziraphale would have delighted in the idea of whimsy-for-whimsy’s-sake. Please don’t lose sleep over the scientific inaccuracies.

Halley’s comet:

I promise not to bog this down with a billion comet facts, but there were a few particular things about Halley’s comet that had me gasping dramatically about how it’s “A.J. Crowley, but a comet!!” Specifically, it’s orbit and it’s structure. 

Halley’s retrograde orbit gives it one of the fastest velocities (relative to Earth) of any object in the solar system. I never explicitly worked the “you go too fast for me” line into the fic because I was trying to do original scenes (this particular story lived between the lines), but... just know that tidbit is there and join me in these emotional dire straits. If you like.

The comet’s structure is what is known as a “rubble pile”, meaning it’s made up of a bunch of smaller rocks held together by gravity (read: a hot god damn mess held together by stubbornness). 

As it appears in the fic:

The nucleus of Halley’s comet is shaped like a weird lopsided peanut. In fact, one could almost look at it and say it resembles a contact binary star, if such a thing could be a shriveled, misshapen pile of rubble.

Officially, Halley’s comet might have been recorded as early as 467 BC (a comet was recorded in Greece that year— unclear if it was Halley’s, but the timing and the fact that it was visible to the naked eye suggests that it probably was). This was the year I had Aziraphale making the scroll that causes Crowley’s panic in Athens (390 BC). I like to think that some human, at some point, caught a glimpse of it and tried to bring it to light, only to be written off as a crazed conspiracy theorist.

The apocalyptic depiction of Halley’s comet in chapter 9 (Bithynia) is actually based in fact. The comet made its closest approach to Earth (in human memory) in 837 AD, passing within 5 million kilometers. Its tail stretched halfway across the sky and it appeared as bright as Venus to the naked eye.

1910 Halley’s Comet panic. Bonus: c o m e t  p i l l s

Where 1910′s appearance was a spectacular sight and one of the closest approaches on record (coming within 22 million kilometers of Earth), 1986′s was the worst viewing conditions in 2,000 years. The comet passed within 63 million kilometers at its closest approach, and had the sun positioned between it and Earth, making it impossible to see from areas with any amount of light pollution, and almost invisible to all of the northern hemisphere. 

Historic events and settings:

Chapter 6 (Ostia): This was one of the chapters that I did a bunch of arguably unnecessary research for, since the history and the meat of the setting faded into the backdrop as the scene itself focused on dialogue and train of thought. The port town of Ostia was incredibly engrossing to read about, and between wikipedia’s ever-branching paths, ostia-antica.org, and ancient history encyclopedia’s entry, it ended up being one of the deeper rabbit holes I went down. My original intent for Aziraphale being in town was as a response to pirates sacking Ostia in 68 BC. I had him stationed there to guard against further attacks as the town rebuilt, and had him lingering because he was swept away by the romanticism of the art and the sea and the constant ebb & flow of people. I never found a way to work this in that didn’t feel super awkward and expository since the chapter was Crowley POV, so it was just left it as background noise.

Chapter 6 (pyramid of Cestius): Beyond being a magistrate of one of the four great religious corporations in ancient Rome (the Septemviri Epulonum), little is known about who Gaius Cestius actually was. As the city expanded, his lavish tomb was absorbed into the city walls (circa 3rd century AD), where it remains what he is remembered for to this day. I took most of my information from here (cross referenced with our lord and savior, Wikipedia) and had a chuckle at this poem by Thomas Hardy.

Chapter 8 (Plague of Justinian): The Yersinia pestis bacterium leaves no indicator on skeletal remains, meaning we rely on written records to track its path through history. The 6th century plague pandemic is the first recorded outbreak of bubonic plague, and for the purpose of our story, a certain distraught chronicler was the one on site, writing that history.

A note/cw: I wrote chapters 8 and 12 in October and November, respectively, and did much of my research for them over the summer. I imagine, given the current covid-19 pandemic, these sources would be less fun to follow up on now. Please be aware that the podcast episodes linked here, and the book cited in the miscellaneous refs section, get into pretty grisly details about illness and pandemics.

Chapters 8 and 12 (bubonic plague/The Black Death): I took a fair amount of my notes on bubonic/pnuemonic plague, specifically it’s path of destruction through Europe in the 14th century, from the two plague episodes of This Podcast Will Kill You. It’s pretty fascinating stuff and the Erins are great hosts, so check it out if you’re into delightful nerds bantering about epidemiology! 

Chapter 9 (the death of Peter of Atroa): Peter of Atroa was an abbot whose fame as a miracle-worker landed him in a scandal accusing him of exorcising demons by the power of Beelzebub, rather than God. Theodore the Studite’s letter cleared his name enough to avoid execution, but his reputation didn’t fully recover until after his death in 837 AD, when he was canonized as a saint. Peter and Theodore were tough to find extensive information on without passing through a paywall, so I took these scraps and ran a mile with them.

Chapter 13 (Tlatelolco, the Aztec Empire, the Feast of the Dead): I used this site as the source and starting point on much of my research on the Aztec Empire. And listen… I know it looks like a website for babies, and yes, I’m aware that a lot of the articles are literally written for a pre-teen audience, but it’s also one of the most concise, thorough, well-researched, and — perhaps most importantly — easily-searchable sources I found. Most of the pages cite papers and archaeological journals and I was able to jump to SO many other great sources of information. Mexicolore has my undying love and devotion for making my research process easy and fun and also having lots of pretty pictures.

Most of the physical descriptions for Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco (surrounding landscape, canals and causeways, chinampas, etc.) started here.

Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco were independent cities, but shared a border (kind of like a city and a suburb) and the small island on Lake Texcoco (located where present day Mexico City is). Tenochtitlan was the capital city of the Aztec Empire, and besides cross-referencing Mexicorlore, the link in the previous bullet point, and Wikipedia, I got a fair bit of information from these essays. 

Tlatelolco’s market was the major hub of trade and commerce, and saw 20-40,000 people trading PER DAY. Research on the market started here.

Chapter 14 (Terschelling and the Brandaris lighthouse): While I strove for historical accuracy as much as possible in this fic, I did take some liberties— especially with the island of Terschelling and the Brandaris lighthouse (yes, it’s real!) circa 1350-1435. 

The village of Brandarius is based on present day West Terschelling— a settlement founded as a direct result of the lighthouse. In the middle ages, both the village and the lighthouse were named after Saint Brandarius (or Brendan of Clonfert: ‘The Navigator’, ‘The Voyager’, ‘The Anchorite’, ‘The Bold’; patron saint of divers, mariners, and travellers). It’s still a relatively small village today, and it was a surprisingly difficult task to find historical records for Brandarius/West Terschelling dating back to the 14th century that say much beyond “it existed.” I loosely based the village off information found here, and named it “Brandarius” instead of “West Terschelling” based on the information found here. 

The original lighthouse was built in 1323, destroyed by the sea in 1570, and rebuilt in 1594. Since there were no records (that I could find) of what the original lighthouse looked like, I loosely based the height and floor plan on the current tower, and made up everything everything else about the interior. The interior was based on information about other live-in lighthouses, specifically this one which is roughly the same height as the Brandaris.

The present day Brandaris lighthouse sits directly in the middle of West Terschelling. For the sake of that sweet Self-Imposed Exile + Cryptid Lighthouse Keeper drama, I took the liberty of making my fictional village of Brandarius teeny tiny and setting it slightly apart from the lighthouse. 

Miscellaneous references:

In addition to the podcast, details about plague in chapters 8 and 12 were gleaned from the book The Great Mortality by John Kelly. It’s a cool read if you’re into nonfiction that reads like fiction, but does have some rather graphic passages so proceed with caution.

Yaretzi’s maquizcóatl/Aziraphale’s memento. To clarify, they were NOT the same item. I pictured Aziraphale cherishing the memory of the day by the lake with Yaretzi so much, that once he acquired the bookshop and had a place for all his kitsch, he hunted down a bad luck dragon of his own.

Here is the Aztec creation story about sun cycles and Earth’s rebirths that Yaretzi told Aziraphale. Another version of it.

In the scene in Mexico where Aziraphale briefly remembers, I used an analogy about a moment that hovers and flits away as “quick as a hummingbird.” Besides just liking the words, this was a nod to the legend of the cempasuchil flower. I originally had Yaretzi telling Aziraphale that story too, but the chapter was just way too long and something had to go.

In my very first outline, I had Aziraphale’s grief and personal growth chapter taking place at a Día de Muertos festival in Mexico. When the plot and the timeline finally got ironed out and I realized only half of that story was going to take place on Earth, I ended up focusing on Aziraphale’s brief relationship with Yaretzi instead of the festival itself (she was always the important bit). I also found myself married to the idea of that chapter happening in the 14th and 15th centuries, which meant the scenes in Mexico take place before Spain invaded and the festival was based solely on its Aztec roots. Because the plot shifted in this way, a lot of research went on behind the scenes that never made it into the fic, but for anyone interested in the Aztec Feast of the Dead, Mexicolore was my starting place again. From there, I found my way to reading about Mictecacíhuatl, the Aztec goddess of death, who was the main focus of the festival.

This isn’t research, but it might interest, like… three of you, so here you go. The scenes in Heaven (Aziraphale’s solo chapter in general tbh) were hard to write. One of those walls you hit with writing where you kick and punch and bang your head against it for months (literal months, I started wrestling with it in August and it didn’t come together until the end of January) but can’t seem to make any breakthroughs. Inspiration truly comes from unexpected places though, and when @gottagobuycheese sent me this Gregorian chant generator it actually… worked? I cranked that hum slider up to 100 and left it there for a few days (to the chagrin of my spouse) and lo— Zophiel.

There’s a cool legend about Saint Brendan of Clonfert’s sea-faring journey in search of the Garden of Eden that has nothing to do with this fic beyond being neat parallel. If that happens to be anyone’s cup of tea, the story is here. The tl;dr version is here. My original vision for the lighthouse included carved whales (St Brendan’s attribute) over the front door, and images from this story (the island of sheep, the Christmas island, the paradise island of birds) drawn on the walls of one of the bedrooms used by previous keepers’ children. Continuing the theme of “how stories echo” if you will. It felt really awkward and out of place once I wrote it in though, and that chapter was already so long once I got through all the plot bits I wanted, so it was left on the cutting room floor. 

Speaking of taking liberties with the 14th century, I did fudge the timing a bit on the art created by Crowley and Adrielle. Drawings, especially pencil sketches, have their historical roots in the late 15th century, and I’m chalking this one up to the fantastical setting of the Good Omens universe. In a fantasy world where angels and demons walk among us and the earth is literally 6,000 years old, I feel like inventing pencils 100 years early is small potatoes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

This is the edition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream that Crowley nicked in Norwich. There are some really wonderful illustrations and scans of full pages under that link. I may or may not have lost a few hours down that research rabbit hole for a few throwaway lines (no regrets, I fall like Crowley). 

One last rabbit hole...

I saved this bit for the end of the post since it’s not really research and I don’t know how interested people will be in this kind of thing. Also... this is a lot more emotional and personal than the historical aspects of the fic. This is just what I was feeling and thinking while I was writing, and this story is absolutely the kind of thing I expect everyone to take something different away from. If you read the fic, took your own meaning from it, and want to keep that meaning without me tarnishing it by babbling about symbolism (first of all, high five, I love you, thank you for hanging out with me and my stories), then feel free to skip the rest of this post. <3

But! For anyone who wants to know more about what I had in mind with the flowers and nature metaphors I worked into the story, read on!

The tag “it’s an OT3 where Earth is the third” is something I really worked to pull to center stage. In my mind, Earth was a fully formed character who also spent the pre-Fall storyline being jerked around by God and having its memory wiped. It experienced transformations, pain, heartbreak, joy, and love just like Aziraphale and Crowley did, and I wrote it as falling in love with the two of them over the course of the Earth Project, then remaining very much in love for the entirety of iteration 23 (the current iteration). “Memories that are buried in places deeper than the mind” referred to the soul imprints being formed, but also Earth’s buried memories— seeping through the cracks to connect them via synesthesia in emotionally charged moments, allowing them to find each other from orbit in iterations 20 and 21 (music and the sea), and pulling them together in moments of distress like Constantinople and Barcelona.

In the vein of “Earth as a character,” I used plants (mainly flowers), topography, and weather as Earth’s “voice” in the grief chapters when Crowley and Aziraphale were separated from each other and going through their individual arcs. I’m not sure it technically counts as flower language, since all the flowers featured in the fic were wild and growing in nature, but (almost) all of them served a metaphorical purpose.

Flowers:

Jasmine (for the moon): Aziraphale’s flower. Love, beauty, sensuality, good luck, purity. The rational hedonist.

Marigolds (for the sun): Crowley’s flower. Grief and remembrance of the dead, lost love, the fragility of life, creativity, winning the affections of someone through hard work. The fallen artist.

Purple Hyacinth: Earth’s flower. Regret, sorrow, a desire for forgiveness. The witness. These were the wildflowers that grew in the orchard/vineyard on the penultimate Earth, where Aziraphale and Crowley managed to work out the differences they couldn’t by the sea. Hyacinths are also the hazy images they would see in those moments of vulnerability, compassion, and compromise. 

A fun aside! In very early drafts, the placeholder name I was using for angel Crowley was Jacinto, which is a Spanish/Portuguese name meaning “Hyacinth.” It was meant to be a reference to both the flower and the Greek myth of Apollo and Hyacinth, but my brain absolutely could not disconnect it from Manny Jacinto (and kept insisting on imagining Crowley calling Aziraphale homie and calling everything dope). Eventually I leaned into the Latin and landed on Joriel, then attached my banner to the Achilles and Patroclus myth instead of Apollo and Hyacinth, but the name Jacinto still makes me think of starmakers.

Honeysuckle & morning glory, climbing the oak tree: Aziraphale + Crowley + Earth. Seen in chapter 10, when Aziraphale and Crowley shake hands on the Arrangement. Two plants whose vines grow in opposing spirals. In nature, they have a symbiotic relationship, twining around each other in order to climb trees, walls, and fences, allowing both of them to grow higher than they could alone. 

Or: local woman sees this tweet, hasn’t known peace since.

The deasilwise / widdershins (clockwise / anticlockwise) thing got sprinkled throughout the story, with deasilwise being the “angel direction” and widdershins being the “demon direction.” Halley’s comet, with its backwards orbit, orbits the sun deasilwise, even after Crowley becomes widdershins.

Amaranth: Immortality, unfading affection, finding beauty in inaccessible places. 

The garden in the dunes and Petya’s travelling garden:

Where Aziraphale took a methodical, Kubler-Ross approach to dealing with loss, Crowley’s process was meandering and chaotic. The garden in the dunes was where it all came to a head— his way of throwing all of his emotions on the ground like a big jumbled pile of pick-up sticks, then slowly sorting through them and putting himself back together. There was a whole lot of Earth/flower speech going on in those scenes.

With the exception of zinnias, the garden was made up of perennials or self-sowing flowers. This happened “off-screen” as I could never find a decent way to work it in, but... the zinnias which Crowley bullied into being perennials returned to being annuals and died off after he left Terschelling and sometimes I still cry in the shower about it. 

Zinnias: Adrielle’s flower. Endurance, lasting friendship (especially friendships lasting through absence), goodness, daily remembrance. This one is also a small self-indulgence on my part since Adrielle was something of a self-insert. My mother loves zinnias and, growing up, our house was absolutely surrounded by them in the summer. Anywhere there was a free patch of dirt, Mom planted zinnias. They’re a scrappy, weird looking flower that doesn’t have a smell and a lot of people find rather ugly... and I love them with my entire heart. There is no flower on this earth that fills me with more whimsy, nostalgia, or childlike contentment. Also butterflies love them.

Chamomile: Patience. Fresh chamomile flowers are very aromatic and smell like apples.

Daisies: Transformation. Also simplicity, loyalty, and new beginnings.

Poppies: Restful sleep or recovery, peace in death, remembrance.

Tulips: Each tulip color has its own meaning, but the most common thing they symbolize is deep love. That said, I mainly chose this one for their prevalence in the Netherlands, as well as being very colorful perennials.

Pansies: The love or admiration that one person holds for another, free thinking, remembrance.

Lily of the valley: Rebirth, the return of happiness. They also have a very strong, very sweet smell and can grow in cool climates. These were the main reasons I chose it, rather than any of the religious connotations.

Lavender: Silence, devotion, serenity, grace.

Orchids: There’s... actually no deep symbolism with this one. Nothing intended anyway. Orchids, lavender, and cranberries are the dominant native plants on the island of Terschelling. I thought they’d be pretty in the dunes.

I am also a music-must-be-playing-at-all-times kind of person and I came out the other end of this project with FIFTEEN (15) playlists. Some of them are all instrumental playlists that I used to set the mood while I wrote certain scenes/segments, others are lyrical and tell a story or helped me sort out the story, some chapters got entire playlists all to themselves (looking at you, 14th century). The main playlists are linked in the notes on AO3, but I may collect them all in a tumblr post at some point if there’s an interest.

This entire project was an enormous labor of love that took up pretty much all of my free time for six months. So, if you read this far... thank you for coming on such a long journey with me!! Truly, deeply, and from every corner of my heart, thank you for reading. <3