Katreal's Creative Corner

Katreal | 30 | she/her | Check AO3 (under Katreal) for my fics. Current projects: Defragmentation and Ersatz Abyss (Homestuck) | Status Rambles every Tuesday | Updates every Friday | Art Rarely but Sometimes I Swear

[katreal-fic]

been slowly making my way through defragmentation for the past two days. i think this is one of the best fics i've read in my entire life??? enthralled by your writing style and how you can make something as mundane as a grocery trip into something that i would read for another ten thousand words like holy shit. and all the character dynamics!! Cannot pick a favourite because they all feel so vivid and i love every one of them. kind of at a loss for words on how to convey like, the sheer depth of my appreciation for this fic but aagh just know that if it werent for the laws of ao3 i'd be leaving a thousand kudos at your doorstep and it still wont be ENOUGH

Aw! Thank you!!! I appreciate the thousand shadow kudos. I'm glad you enjoy it!!! I wish I had the ability to write another 10k words going grocery shopping or other mundane things. I feel like I should have done more of that...maybe with the later developments I can convince Dirk to actually bother pursuing more of those experiences again.

[katreal-fic]

Heya, I just started reading Defragmentation a couple days ago so it's fortunate timing that the update dropped today, ah? Quick question though, do you have a visual reference for Newt? Because I'm gonna sound like a real silly fucker admitting this, but up until now I've been picturing him as a young Ned Flanders

I don't think I do have a visual reference? Just a few concepts. Tall in a way that makes him look lanky, so on the skinnier side. Despite his nerves, he still has pretty decent posture. Hispanic, short hair (not really straight but not curly. Waves?) dark eyes. He's usually dressed smartly. Not straight up formal, but he's the kind of guy who would wear a long sleeved dress shirt rather than a tee shirt even in the middle of summer. No tie though.

No facial hair alas, so def doesn't have Ned's moustache!

[katreal-fic]

hi hello I'm alive and I finished the next chapter of defragmentation. No idea when I'll post it because boy do I feel rusty and I worry it won't be good enoooough

[r00mmat3]

Everyone go read ersatz abyss by @katreal-fic. Like right now.

[ask-di-stri]

BroBunny appreciation post.

Because lets not forget I have the cutest fucking cosplaying bunny around.

[katreal-fic]

[cosmic-pindrops]

Inspired by @katreal-fic’s story Ersatz Abyss. The way Katreal writes imagery is so amazing I couldn’t help myself <3

[katreal-fic]

its nice seeing u again :)

I've been here! Just been posting other fics.

...sometimes.

Okay I did vanish for a while.

[katreal-fic]

So uh. Yeah.

[katreal-fic]

Defragmentation

Chapter 76/??

Dirk > Figure it out later

Summary:

A gamebreaking glitch tore the game session to shreds, right before they reached the end. Dirk Strider was already dead at the time. Temporarily. Which left him to revive in the aftermath. As the Prince of Heart, he doesn't have much experience putting souls back together, only breaking them, but at this point he seems to be the only one who even knows shit is broken.

He's the last person who'd trust himself with this. Not when he's out of time, out of place, and over his head being responsible for a little brother, a life, and a body his conveniently dead asshole of a splinterself already, thoroughly fucked up.

AKA: A game crash creates an unholy mashup of who the hell knows how many sburb sessions, and Dirk-as-Bro attempts to figure out wtf happened and how to fix shit for the brother who fears him, and the friends who don’t remember him. Because that’s what he does. But no Dirk has ever excelled when truly alone. Good thing he isn’t, he just needs to learn how to accept the help.

Preview:

It’s a long day.

Unbearably long.

Followed by another.

Followed by another.

You’re running out of time, despite having too much of it.

Read the rest => [Link]  

[katreal-fic]

Hi I’m alive I finally got back into my tumblr lol

I might attempt to start posting update posts again. Maybe.

[katreal-fic]

Amberina by Morning

Chapter 17/??

Dirk > Descend

Summary:

The downing of the Aurora was one tragedy among many in the long history of Planet 4546B, but it is, perhaps, one you can survive.

Once a young boy stood on a sterile, white sand shore, dreaming of the stars.

After the fetters of broken dreams rain down with the thousands of red-hot meteors that scatter across an endless ocean with no hint of land in sight–maybe this tragedy will set you free.

Preview:

Luckily, the fall seems to have broken the crawlers, or else you might have never come to. Succumbing to the fate of your fellow crew members as they finally worked their way through an already over-tasked dive suit to the waiting flesh inside.

As it turns out, they’re just. There. Legs twisted and snapped by the force of the impact–you should be too–Shells shattered and lifeless–christ can you even move? Maybe you are. Maybe something snapped and now you can’t feel anything but pain–slowly sinking into the depths, still quite visible in the bright early evening sun-filtering in through the surface above.

The depths.

Your eyes sluggishly open, something’s missing. You can feel it. Even as you float there, the timer on your O2 meter ticking down and down as the muffled rumble of the collapsing earth and the wail of the damned echo through you.

The display flickers. Again and again. Fuzzing. As if a signal is just out of range.

Read the rest => [Link]  

[katreal-fic]

Amberina by Morning

Chapter 17/??

Dirk > Descend

Summary:

The downing of the Aurora was one tragedy among many in the long history of Planet 4546B, but it is, perhaps, one you can survive.

Once a young boy stood on a sterile, white sand shore, dreaming of the stars.

After the fetters of broken dreams rain down with the thousands of red-hot meteors that scatter across an endless ocean with no hint of land in sight–maybe this tragedy will set you free.

Preview:

Luckily, the fall seems to have broken the crawlers, or else you might have never come to. Succumbing to the fate of your fellow crew members as they finally worked their way through an already over-tasked dive suit to the waiting flesh inside.

As it turns out, they’re just. There. Legs twisted and snapped by the force of the impact--you should be too--Shells shattered and lifeless--christ can you even move? Maybe you are. Maybe something snapped and now you can’t feel anything but pain--slowly sinking into the depths, still quite visible in the bright early evening sun-filtering in through the surface above.

The depths.

Your eyes sluggishly open, something’s missing. You can feel it. Even as you float there, the timer on your O2 meter ticking down and down as the muffled rumble of the collapsing earth and the wail of the damned echo through you.

The display flickers. Again and again. Fuzzing. As if a signal is just out of range.

Read the rest => [Link]  

[katreal-fic]

Amberina by Morning

Chapter 16/??

Ascension

Summary:

The downing of the Aurora was one tragedy among many in the long history of Planet 4546B, but it is, perhaps, one you can survive.

Once a young boy stood on a sterile, white sand shore, dreaming of the stars.

After the fetters of broken dreams rain down with the thousands of red-hot meteors that scatter across an endless ocean with no hint of land in sight–maybe this tragedy will set you free.

Preview:

The Aurora didn’t stop being a hazardous deathtrap just because you found the flimsiest of silver liningings.

The higher up the wreckage you go, the more certain you are that this is the bridge. It’s collapsed onto and through at least four floors by your count now, judging by the signs dotting the gutted wrecks of hallways you pass that have been crushed by the much thicker, shielded room.

It hasn’t just been a straight shot either, the path almost seems to curve, abandoning the open sky for the shadow of the grave instead, ending up under the overhang of an upper deck and a smouldering hull fragment that results in the occasional burning chunk of metal and debris coming loose with the shifting of the ship and smashing into the metal flooring around you.

The very picture of an ancient hellscape. All you’re missing is the rivers of magma that would seem more at home on planet 1531, may you never have to return there again. That particular warp-gate was recently serviced, however, so the demand for on the spot fabrication wasn’t likely unless something catastrophic happened and then it wasn’t your fucking problem.

Not that...it’ll ever be your problem again.

Read the rest => [Link]  

[katreal-fic]

Probably won't get to post again tomorrow. Sorry.

[katreal-fic]

I'm gonna say this now I will not have a chapter up this week sorry!

[katreal-fic]

Amberina by Morning

Chapter 15/??

In the Shadow of the Grave

Summary:

The downing of the Aurora was one tragedy among many in the long history of Planet 4546B, but it is, perhaps, one you can survive.

Once a young boy stood on a sterile, white sand shore, dreaming of the stars.

After the fetters of broken dreams rain down with the thousands of red-hot meteors that scatter across an endless ocean with no hint of land in sight–maybe this tragedy will set you free.

Preview:

You don’t get right up next to the Aurora, although you could. The bulk of the ship is just a couple hundred meters of your right hand side, a pittance considering the extra speed afforded to you by the introduction of the Seaglide. Even so it fucking towers over you, blocking out half the fucking sky.

From this distance, if you poke your head above the water and peer through the trailing sea spray lapping up against your visor you can pick out a number of potential breach points. Dark and twisted patches, openings forced into a metal hull. In some, embers continue to glow, indicating fuel still burns.

The question is, how deep, and would they get you to where you want to go?

You doubt it. Even without access to the ship’s schematics--Lexie refused to produce them when you asked, once again citing policy, and the grudgingly produced maintenance map didn’t tell you how thick the hull was. You only got that one because you fucking argued that the automated message said any crewmember--you are pretty confident there’s more than enough layers of shielding and unsalvageable (and possibly still half-alive systems) between you and any of the interior pathways.

Read the rest => [Link]