Broken magic, found family, and badgers who bite

Read Foxtale for free: https://ldnoirewrites.carrd.co/ Hello! I write Foxtale. It's about a badger boy a fox man and a bird named Gunther. He screams, for I cannot. It's slow-burn, character-first worldbuilding beneath the shadows of a fallen empire. Found family between a reluctant mentor and a reluctanter apprentice. Updates every Monday and Thursday Want to read ahead and support us? Check out Foxtale on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/ldnoire/

[foxofkymera]

Foxtale -- A Post-apocalyptic fantasy

Anthro characters | High magic x Low Fantasy | Hope amidst gathering shadows

L.D. Noire | Author of the Arcane

Furry fantasy in a world that forgot itself. Magic. Memory. Collapse. Hope.

A slow-burn, emotionally layered dark fantasy set in a bioluminescent mire, haunted by the choices of a fallen empire. A land so tangled by rumors, its very name spoken like fable: Kymera.

Spiders crawl through the in-between, slipping through the cracks of reality. Grass hums your name before pulling you beneath the mud, muffled screams to never be heard. And somewhere between it all, the specter of a pale-beastman haunting the woods, wielding nature as blades. The land made mythical, horrific in its beauty.

Cael runs from his past, pursued by hands that would see him caged and sold. Straight into Kymera, and into the domain of a reclusive fox mage who clearly didn’t ask for this, nor the trouble that followed.

There’s no grand prophecy. No chosen one. Just a mage, his apprentice, and a world that would consume them both without blinking.

• Animalfolk leads in a world of men • Found family beneath the ruins of an empire • Reluctant Mentor and Reluctanter Apprentice • High Magic meets Low Fantasy • Character First Worldbuilding with vibe-based Storytelling

Updates Mondays and Thursdays

Read on [Royal Road] | [Wattpad] | [Ao3] Like the story and want to support us? Stay Four (4) chapters ahead on [Patreon]

[foxofkymera]

This has been my recent go-to for background music/ambience while writing.

Do not question my process.

[foxofkymera]

When the right words are wrong :(

Sometimes I have to redo the dialogue I wrote. Not because it's bad, but because it's not what the character would say. With emotions flowing, their haphazard toolkit for expressing their own inner monologue. Sometimes the first thing I write is what needs to be said. The exact language the person they're being confronted by needs to hear. Words that could make them understand. Empathize. But, under pressure? No one says exactly the right thing. Sometimes we don't even say the right thing at all. Feelings get in the way of logic. Biases, nerves, trauma, timing, poor impulse control.

When adrenaline hits, we're not built to think of tomorrow, or next week, or even 10 minutes from now. It's passion, it's ugly, and it's raw. And sometimes that means a happy ending isn't possible. At least, until they figure out how to overcome that gap. Worse yet, it might be too late for them. Years gone by on what could have been said, what could have been done. What they ended up with. Anyway, now I have to go and re-navigate this scene. Every stupidly human fumble over expressing anything clearly.

[ozempicofficial]

[foxofkymera]

My ancestors smile upon me imperials; can you say the same?

[foxofkymera]

Of all the breads, rye is best. It satiates the soul in ways wheat could only begin to imagine.

[foxofkymera]

There's just something so inherently wrong about sentences that have a high syllable and word count that just keeps going on without grammar.

It's like it's fueled by pettiness. Which, like, same, but. Rude.

[foxofkymera]

By far my favorite tag on Ao3 and maybe ever. Also bonus points for being exceedingly gay :3c

[foxofkymera]

I still argue with Prowriting Aid about how birds are supposed to speak. It's derogative, god. You wouldn't get it. it's in the tone.

[foxofkymera]

Head Empty

First time in months I've just been blanking. No new ideas for anything. Eepy fox brain wants to be social.

Still managing to write, but man oh man the pacing might be a concern with deadlines.

I guess that's why they don't call them lifelines.

This has been so introspective.

[solarsthoughts]

There are only 2 rules when it comes to writing fanfics:

Write whatever you want.

Have fun doing it.

That’s literally it. There is no “show and don’t tell”. There is no “make it realistic”. There is no “fit in with the trends”. And of course, there is no “write as fast as possible to keep up engagement and please others”.

No.

Most fanfiction writers are not professional writers. This isn’t a job, we’re literally writing for shits and giggles. We don’t have a team of editors behind us to make our story perfect. Fanfiction isn’t about creating the most perfect plot with the most perfect prose and the most perfect pacing.

Fanfiction writing is for you first. To make your heart happy. Other people just get the benefit to also enjoy it if they wish.

That’s it.

Write whatever makes you happy, with whatever writing style you want, whenever you want.

[foxofkymera]

3. Be respectful of the original creators requests. I don't know why this one is so poisonous to many. It just comes across as decency. You like the persons works, you like the world and the characters they developed, and then you flip them the bird and twist it into betrayal for dopamine?

Covers anything between 'please don't ship/sexualize these characters, one is a minor' and 'please don't merchandise my work.' Let's be cool to each other while also writing what makes us happy?

[foxofkymera]

Sometimes, I just want to bark.

A sound without meaning, in a lawless tongue bound to no language. Loud. Proud. And yet, when it echoes back from the vacuous dark, it resonates just as any other word might.

Soundless. Unheard.

[foxofkymera]

You ever just keep writing a series of escalating events of increasingly unfathomably magnitude just to see what happens? Like, ha. Good luck figuring your way out of that one Cael.

[foxofkymera]

Coming down from the series of events made it all the more worth while.

Just in time for the next one..!

[foxofkymera]

Trustworthiness & Evasiveness

Two traits inextricably intertwined in negative light. Someone who is described as 'flighty' or 'evasive' or 'closed-off' puts up a red flag for trust immediately. Ironic, they may have been led to these questionable traits by their own damaged trust. Learned caution.

Evasiveness in particular brought me to write this. Title doing heavy lifting, Redundancy doing something and I'm so proud of it.

When I picture an evasive person, I go to physical imagery first. Side-stepping a shot, dodging a swipe, evading a stab. Could just as easily twist it to side-stepping feelings, dodging a question, and evading committing.

I could also imagine a man described as evasive because they don't speak their mind. They pause before they open their mouths, as if they're twisting the words to suit a web in weaving.

But I could also imagine the same man withholding his word for fear of going against his character. Who cannot answer a question without introspection. Who cannot swear fealty to an oath that might breach their own beliefs. What one might see as a simple yes or no, is a promise for another. Another who would break before they break their vow.

To answer is to commit; to commit is to risk.

Funny how a single trait holds so much influence another, both positively and negatively, without any seeming connection at the surface.

Cause really, who tf watches a man dodge an attack, and parry his way to upper ground and think "Damn, that dude must be hella good at lying. owo"

Evasiveness may open a window to one's trustworthiness, but Evasiveness is not deception; evasiveness does not imply dishonesty.

Evasiveness is a symptom, not a sin.

A synptom as it were.

[foxofkymera]

Ok hear me out- I thought I'd have some better cover art by now. But, since I don't, I've committed to the absurdist approach. Better than AI, and honestly not too far off from Cael and Eldy anyway. Loveable swamp cryptids.

[foxofkymera]

• Reluctant Mentor and Reluctanter Apprentice

This is how I'm leading with Foxtale from now on

[foxofkymera]

"For some reason," "Somehow..."

Actual ways to get the blood pressure up. Reading 20+ year old stuff for references and influences while I write my magic system more closely; finding these lore holes that make no sense, and the author just decided 'lol yeah no one knows."

I get not having all the answers as a writer, but actually just dumping your empty hand so brazenly with shit like 'somehow Palapatine returned' makes me want to scream. Like, even if you don't know the exact minutiae and every detail won't effect the plot, at least TRY to pretend to know what you're writing about.

Can't think of a quicker way to disregard your own world building. "Like yeah I know its fiction, but you'll suspend your disbelief's for some reason."

[foxofkymera]

F u c h s i a

Fuchsia feels like its not a real word. just look at it. FEW sha? Fuck see ya? Foo Chee SEE ah?? Nah man, I ain't buying your conspiratorial language nonsense.