Yep, it’s that time! I’m (re)introducing myself, yet again!
»»—————————- 𓆩❤︎𓆪 —————————-««
So hi! I’m Locke!
➺ I’m a 21 y/o rising senior in college, majoring in psychology
➺ I’ve been writing for nearly eight years now, and after all that time, I actually have some idea of what I want to do with my work
➺ When I’m not writing, I draw, play video games, read, cross stitch, bullet journal, and dabble in photography during my free time
➺ Some of my favorite games are Minecraft, Stardew Valley, Coral Island, Guild Wars 2, Spiritfarer, and The Evil Within
❝ worlds are burning, my child.
gods alone cannot suffocate the flames.
My Writing
➺ My work probably fits quite loosely under fantasy, but I often dip into all sorts of genres, including but not limited to poetry, steampunk, dystopian, science fiction, supernatural, and more
➺ I’m polyamorous. My characters are polyamorous. Relationship webs are complicated and I love them dearly.
➺ I have quite a few WIPs on the backburner due to my rather chaotic writing style, with only one being a finished first draft. I adore them all and I can’t yet bear to part with any of them, so you’ll probably see some ‘new’ wip snippet pop up occasionally
➺ Lore and worldbuilding makes up most of my word count and takes up most of my time; it’s the most consistent thing I do!
➺ That said, it’s also my current focus, so expect a lot more of it!
my works // world anvil // north haven discord // pinterest
WIP // Fable
➺ My tale is an old one. That much should be quite clear. It is not, however, as it has been told... For in a memory as old as mine, there is a truth worth seeking; a light worth following. Perhaps in the candor of my tale, others will find the necessary inspiration to continue on toward their own light.
Summary
A fairytale retelling in the form of a journal come to life. Written by Myhren, or ‘Merlin’ as they may be better known, Fable contains lifetimes of experiences and the truth behind the fairytales we all know and love.
Fable mainly focuses on the stories of King Arthur, Camelot, Merlin, and associated characters. It is written from Myhren’s point of view, with some discrepancies due to the nature of their immortal life and their experience within a time loop. Entries are not all seemingly in order. Instead, the writings follow Myhren’s stream of consciousness.
Status
This is an ongoing, very long term WIP of mine. I’ve written some pieces, and brainstormed others. I’ll be releasing new entries as I complete them.
Phase: It’s complicated.
wip page / cast page / character intro
WIP // The Minutemage Compendium
➺ The MinuteMage Compendium is a browser-based RPG concept presented in an old-school rpg field guide format. Explore the world of Iane and discover its secrets!
Summary
A clock is ticking in the mist and fog; people have begun to vanish right off the streets, and dark knowledge is kept from the common folk. Thrust into an unknown world, it is up to you to bring corruption to light and save the clockwork city of Iane. Can you find the Minutemage Coin and open the doors before it's too late?
Status
Phase: Brainstorming. I’ll be designing items, NPCs, locations, creatures, enemies, and more. Eventually, I plan on making it into a physical guide and an RPG!
WIP // A Ghost, a Quill, and a Mockingbird
➺ Something in her remembers her past; a part of her that stands tall in the face of another's rage. Mountainous strength, hidden within a mouse. Confidence born of past instinct, of power, of creation and abandonment; Yet her conscious betrays none of it. Her spite does nothing to reveal what she had been so desperate to forget; what her rage continues to remember, impressively extreme for such tame, conscious memory.
Summary
Ghost has lived her entire life in an underground bunker on the planet Serus. The last of her kind after a swarm of vitians invaded her world and slaughtered her people, she spends her days in blissful spite where the vitians are unable to reach her.
It's not in any way peaceful, of course, to hear the screaming from outside the bunker, but as long as she has her music and drink to keep her company, she figures she'll be able to live a nice, conflict free life.
That is, until her simple day-to-day life becomes a bit more interesting; a little more chaotic. Her god has returned, and he's not at all what she expected, nor does he seem all that keen on leaving her alone.
Status
I’m proud to say that GQM, while my eighth existing wip, is the first to have a completed first draft!
Phase: Paused. While I take a step back and move onto other things before revising, adding, and rewriting!
wip page / wip intro
OTHER WIPS // The Back-burner
➺ A list of WIPs I love very much and that have been set aside
It is worth noting that I tend to write a lot of standalone vignettes that don’t pertain to specific stories, as well as a lot of poetry that I like to call my ‘spout of bullshit’
Arcane // world anvil // tag
Alchemist // floating idea // tag
The Demon’s Eyes // world anvil // tag
Encounters of the Primal Sort // world anvil // tag
Faefinder // brainstorming phase // tag
Twisted Tales of Myth
➺ Ellyse of Wonderspire // world anvil // tag
➺ Servant to Dragon and King // floating idea // tag
Wane of the Lunar Human // floating idea // tag
the problem with autism is sometimes you want to do something (brave) but you need someone to gently walk you through each step so you know what will happen. and people don’t like doing that
every time i see this post i think of that person who posted on reddit that they wanted to go to subway for the first time but they were scared they would say the wrong thing so someone gave them step by step instructions for the entire process and what all the choices would be and when they would ask what question and i just think
someone will
someone out there will see you and say "yes. the world is scary. but let me hold your hand and show you how to do it anyways"
everyone needs that someone, and everyone can be that someone
The subreddit r/explainlikeimscared is a surprisingly good resource for this. People are always very kind and thorough from what I've seen, and I spend a decent amount of time there giving walkthroughs and answering questions when I know the process.
Hi, these bees are babies! They’re not clumsy at all, this is what is called orientation flights. After birth and before beginning their careers as foragers (as all Honey bees cycle through all the jobs in the Hive throughout their lifespan), Honey bees take short flights back and forth, to and from the Hive, to orient themselves with their wings and their home so they can learn its location and how to get back home after foraging! Everyone has to learn, these are just smol little baby turkeys. Bees use the angle of the sun for location so adults have a better and more direct sense of location than any human
Maybe it's naive of me, but whenever I see portraits like this, with just a father and daughter, it restores my faith in humanity a little. Because people seem to love this idea that fathers never loved their daughters in the past and only saw them as bargaining chips for marriage or whatever, but look at the guy in the first portrait on the left, he loves that little girl! And the dad trying to do his work while his daughter bothers him with an Old Timey Barbie. The man teaching his daughter geography, his expression is so soft! The way the man in the last portrait holds the little girl's hand! And none of these are incidental, these aren't photographs, someone (probably the father) paid good money and sat down for hours so that they could have a painting of themselves and their daughter. Probably because they loved their daughter.
From left to right: 1795 Michał Jerzy Mniszech with his daughter Elżbieta - Marcello Bacciarelli; Christopher Anstey and his daughter Mary Ann by William Hoare 1776; A Musician and His Daughter by Thomas de Keyser 1629; The Geography Lesson (Portrait of Monsieur G. and His Daughter), 1812; Jean-baptiste Isabey And His Daughter; Portrait of a Young Girl and Older Man by William Harrison Scarborough
(this is probably somewhat related to my other favourite genre of painting, Husband With Multiple Kids Making Come Hither Eyes At His Wife)
oh I love those! People being people is one of my favourite kinds of paintings and an important reminder that people in past times were not all that different. There were dads who loved their daughters fiercely. There were fathers who happily looked after their babies too. The German reformer Philip Melanchton for example had a cradle in his office. His wife was busy organising a household for 20 people- she was out and about, he mostly worked in his office, it made sense for him to look after their babies too babies while she dropped by at snack time.
in fact often if it was kind of safe dads had the babies in their workshops for just that reason as we can see in these paintings:
The left is “the busy father” by Theodore Weber, the right one is “At the china repairer’s “ by Wenzel Tornoe. All dads who are actively involved in childcare and a painter who thought it was a cute topic rather than anything ridiculous.
As much as I think it would be fun to have emotive anthropomorphic ears, I also recognize I can barely control my facial expressions. Like hell can I keep from Angry Ears-ing during meetings
I have flat out refused to drink anything other than blood for three seasons of Interview With the Vampire. But Rolin Jones is adamant that the vampires drink regular drinks and eat regular food. And I've been like, this is so dumb, I don't understand why we do this.
the thing about being bullied for being weird as a kid is that even if you've always embraced being weird your brain is still always looking for the line where it's too much. you can be as proudly and intentionally weird as you want and you can love being weird but your mind is still convinced there's a point where you get too weird and people start treating you like a weird looking bug again. also it feels like you reach that point 500 times a day even if everyone you've spoken to today found you pleasant and likable and even if you're completely alone in your house with nobody looking at you at all.
on the topic of disabled characters, though, i think a LOT of artists give characters mobility aids that their character wouldn't actually benefit from using.
i'm sort of having a mild brain fog moment rn so i can't fully articulate what i'm on about, but i think a lot of able-bodied artists view things like canes and crutches as interchangeable. and they often don't know enough about the wide range of mobility aids to make an informed decision about what their character might actually use based on their disability
i also think that aids like walkers and rollators are sort of viewed as "cringe" on some level, and many people view them to be "just for old people," so many artists will opt for giving a character who has full-body pain and fatigue a cane (which, in many cases, can potentially WORSEN full-body pain) instead. and a lot of people don't realize that most wheelchair users are able to walk, so they don't consider it an option for characters with chronic pain
idk it's kind of frustrating. i've genuinely never, ever seen a character that uses a rollator before. not once. i cannot name a single one. i know of multiple ocs who are described to have full-body pain, dizziness, and fatigue that are drawn as cane users and are never shown with wheelchairs or walkers, though
it's also sort of sad? i've been diagnosed since i was twelve years old, and i only heard of rollators LAST YEAR. and that was only because i saw one irl and immediately asked what it was. i wonder how many disabled people out there don't even know it's an option solely because they're completely underrepresented online and in media
if you're a creative with a disabled oc, PLEASEEE check out this link. it's a very nice and detailed guide for telling which mobility aids suit someone's needs best. it's incredibly important to make the right choice for your character! mobility aids tell you a LOT about someone's lived experience. picking the right one will communicate to your audience #1 what your character goes through #2 that you UNDERSTAND what your character goes through!
for those curious, this is joanne, a 15-year-old sumatran tiger currently living at phoenix zoo. it's very sweet to see her playing and tumbling around like this at her age -- she's got some people taking care of her if she still has this energy at that age.
i did see some users in the notes who were concerned about her looking 'scrawny', or wondering if she's maybe a juvenile -- far from it! at 15, joanne is very much considered a geriatric tiger; she's a grandma. she is, however, a sumatran tiger (panthera tigris sumatrae) -- sumatrans are the smallest extant subspecies of tiger, built more for the sweltering jungles of sumatra than the blistering cold of the amur river or the dense forests and mangrove swamps of south asia.
when you're used to seeing amur or amur-bengal hybrid ('generic') tigers on television or online, most of which are often overfed and overweight, a sumatran is going to look a bit weird, but joanne looks to be in wonderful shape -- look at those muscles flex and that coat shimmer when she moves! that's a healthy old lady for sure. props to joanne's keepers for taking such good care of her.
