if you are coming from my kirby side, please note that RETRY NOW addresses topics I don't usually address with my fanfiction, including things that could be read as metaphors for sexual coercion and manipulation (i.e. Solanis). everything will be tagged appropriately both here and on AO3 when this story goes live, so please treat this as a "dead dove: do not eat" situation and mind the tags!
hey guys, not sure if this was a stranger or if it was a follower/mutual, but please don't go seeking out my spotify playlists or anything like that. my personal information is attached to it, and having stuff like personal playlists get saved makes me extremely uneasy. if I accidentally linked my info somewhere, please let me know because that was NOT intentional. in any case, the playlist is privated now. thanks much.
if you take commissions or sell art, would you be willing to tell me how much you charge, how you got to that price, etc? you can DM me if you'd rather not talk publicly about finances. thanks!
this will go through more editing since it's weird and experimental but have a bite for now :) this funky style is just for solanis.
CW: blood + detailed gore, not inherently sexual but kinda is in how solanis talks? dd:dne, you've been warned
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23RD OF KYTHORN, 2080
THE CENTENNIAL SOLAR ECLIPSE
. . .
It is like being incised from the mother’s womb.
She is itching—then she is scratching—then she is in debilitating pain. Something slimy and wet pours out of her front. On instinct she gathers it up, a collection of slippery intestines and tangled, bloodied wires, and shoves it back into the cavity in her abdomen. Her fingers touch cold metal between her ribs, and an engraving in the shape of a heart.
She screams.
Her screams are bells ringing in dissonant pitches, are vibrating earthquakes across the paved, neon-lit roads of Neo Eclipse. Her screams pierce every ear with their microscopic needles. They are like doomsday beneath the solar eclipse over Exonia.
When the malformed god first finds sight, she looks not to the mayor who had ripped her from the uterus, but rather to the two young men with their hands over their ears. The human, sun-tanned and and rugged, unkempt brown hair and a shotgun. The half-elf, long twists embedded with gold, a mahogany complexion, glasses and a broadsword. She focuses this new sight on them, and she feels her flesh cleaving to flesh.
THE WIRES THE WIRES. RED RED RED.
Solanis! The mayor cries. It was now named. Sol - a - nis.
SOLANIS.
Yes, Solanis, he whimpers. His eyes are dazed and hollow. There is no remaining vitality, only blind obsession. He is not like the tangle of red wires between the young men. He has a frayed and graying cord that flickers in and out of its vision. A cord running from him to it. Cannibalization.
Why the hell’s it staring at us? The one with the gun. He sounds like he is trying to be brave, and failing. He is all fear and panic, and yet he is nothing but DEVOTION and REASSURANCE and LOVE when he is looking at the one with the sword.
WIRES LOVE HUNGER.
Like a baby babbling its first words. HUNGER I HUNGER WIRES RED WIRES.
It creeps towards them on shaking hands and feet, contorting unnaturally, wings of pure white feathers holding its balance. Blood gushes out of the cavity like waves lashing against a seawall, and it spills its red foam onto the metal floors. When intestines slip out, it holds them between sharp teeth, releasing them to the floor with a wet thud when it decides it is close enough.
Such fear in their faces. She did not understand. They become pale, they grow cold with sweat. Only the empty man has no fear. He stumbles over his own feet, fingers smearing through the blood on the ground. He looks as though he does not know if it is his or hers.
Our utopia, Solanis, he says. This rancid city is in shambles. Let me help you. We will make utopia.
Solanis is too hungry for utopia. Solanis is unsure of what she is for. The young men see that she is not listening to him.
We’re done, says the human. It’s over.
I know, the elf replies. He is quiet, and Solanis watches. He then takes the human’s hand. I think I fell in love with you.
I know, he echoes.
It is electricity, it is everything she craves, crawling through the floor panels and pulsing through their interconnected hands. Her wings twitch, her body lurches. She halts only when she hears her name. A buzzing in her ear. A gnat gnawing at her food.
Solanis, listen to me! The useless creature cries. Ignore them! They are nothing! You are a god and they are nothing!
A wing—one closest to her back—extends and wraps around him. For a moment there is BLISS and LOVE, but there is also obsession. It is not enough.
There is a head on his shoulders, and then there is not. There is only a wing wrapped like a noose and brain matter dripping down white feathers.
HUNGER, she repeats. FEED LOVE.
They look ill now. She is displeased by this, but decides to placate them.
NO KILL, she says. JUST FEED LOVE.
The elf points out that she just killed someone. She looks at the body with distaste. ROTTED. She then looks back to them and tilts her head, her sharp teeth glimmering under the dim light of the eclipse. YOU—HAVE—LOVE, she manages. RED WIRES. The human shakes his head—he does not know of the wires. He does not see the wires. Only she sees the wires.
The bloodied wing circles forward and wraps around them, encasing their warm bodies, carefully avoiding sharp things and the human’s swatting hands. She sniffs at them. They smell like passion deliciously tucked away, yet to be exposed. Aging like wine inside of their wires. Her maw opens, saliva dripping from her teeth, the scent growing more powerful. She knows consuming them will not sate her. Her eye opens, then closes in a slow, deliberate motion.
OPEN EYES. MEET EYES.
They do not want to look at it, and it knows. They are hesitant, fearful. But still, they look at it, for there is nowhere for them to go.
She sees it in striking clarity. The wires, the pounding electricity, the thoughts and wants and emotions dangling between them, and the passionate memory of a single kiss. All of the wires were virile. That wire was the thickest, undulating and throbbing.
Solanis creeps forward and snaps the wire only she can see between her teeth. The essence spills, and she drinks, and she is addicted. She is complete.
so @queen-honey, I was holding off answering about the other deities because honestly, I wasn't sure. I was going to use the dnd gods, but that was kind of unappealing to me. I also have gods I've made before for another world, but they function on such a different system that it wouldn't have worked very well.
BUT, I was thinking—Solanis was born because of technological advancements, specifically those of the digital kind. and so I thought maybe it would be cool to have gods born based on the technological eras. (i.e. beginning with a god of fire and heat, to a god of farming, a god of sailing, a god of the iron age, etc.)
I think this is neat, cannot lie. but if it's not, tell me now before I get too far. and if people have ideas let me know! this also... is why I don't have much written yet. I don't know how long it'll be before the first couple of chapters, because while I am staunchly anti-drowning in worldbuilding, (I think it's the fastest way to kill a project), I still think I need more world info before I get too crazy. ANYWAY.
I also think Solanis' early birth really speaks to tech progressing too fast, you know? Even if Elias is the one who woke it up too early, there are plenty of people like him willing to progress faster than humanity can handle.
Solanis takes on an Aasimar form sometimes. that’s as close to human as its avatar can get. it finds tracking people down to feed from their essence comes easier this way. and of course, presenting itself like this makes it easier to bother Benny and Leo in public…
respectfully, if you’re not a bot, please don’t message me like one! if I get a dm that just says “hello” I’m going to block you. I’m always open to messages, but just make sure I know you’re a human, that’s all!
this is such a good question, thank you @le0nidnt!!
Screw picks at everything — his skin, his nails, the seams of his clothes (which drives his mom insane). It doesn’t help that he’s got harpy-claws, and he can very easily scratch himself on accident. He’ll also chew on silicone stim toys, though this also has the benefit of keeping his fangs healthy!
Fyre will compulsively doodle if she has paper in front of her. She will also doodle on her own skin to help focus. She’s very bouncy, and when she’s nervous, she tends to rock back and forth on her feet, pace, etc. She likes to go jam on her guitar to calm down if she’s feeling especially jittery. Basically, she needs something to do with her hands.
Benny has unfortunately been smoking since he was 12, and so he’s never been able to fully quit. He smokes noticeably more when nervous/anxious. He’s taught himself some healthier coping mechanisms with time though, and so he does his best to take his anxiety out on a punching bag instead of his lungs if he can help it.
Leo journals. Excessively. He has stacks of them in a box in the bedroom closet, some of them from when he was very young. Most of the time it helps, though sometimes his thoughts can spiral out of control if he doesn’t actually talk them out with someone else. He also has the tendency to stress bake. Nobody in his life has ever minded that particular tendency.
Gods form when the world changes — the world changes as gods form. Nobody is quite sure which came first. But as technology began to take over, and the people of the universe grew less holy overall, it meant that it was due time for another god to be born.
Solanis was meant to be the God of Technology — a source of divine inspiration for scientific development and the betterment of humanity. When gods begin to develop, the people of the universe can usually tell; everyone is happier, advancements are made faster, and things tend to be more peaceful. However, there was one man who chose to take advantage of this time of peace and manipulate it for his own means. His name was Elias Hart.
Elias was the elected mayor of Neo Eclipse. From a wealthy background, he was bought into the position by wealthy Inner Ringites, and he led the city with those wealthy in mind. There was always something a bit off about Elias, though, even to his peers. He acted as though he was owed something, as many men like him do. That it itself is not unusual. However, it became unusual when those close to him discovered that he felt he was owed godhood.
This desire to become a god quickly grew cult-like. The Cult of Solanis formed — Solanis was named by Elias himself — and with the assistance of five others who controlled different portions of the city, he began to wrap others into his domain. Soon, he would be a god — because he was going to wake up this growing god, and take its power for himself.
Elias was a fool.
When Solanis was woken up, it was clear she was malformed and incomplete. Her movements erratic, blood and wires and gore sopping from her metallic-flesh chest, she simply wasn’t ready. Gods are not supposed to feel emotion — they are neutral beings, acting only on what benefits them best. Solanis felt. It felt everything.
In a fit of rage, Solanis destroyed Elias Hart and consumed his essence. His blind devotion was delicious to her. She needed emotions to feed off of, and the newfound love between two unlikely partners was particularly appealing. And when a god threatens to destroy the world to consume all of its love and emotion, you bargain.
Solanis
she/it
Due to her premature birth, Solanis is extremely volatile. It may be stable and pleased one day, then suddenly destructive and rampaging the next. Though it is hard to tell what causes these fits, it is clear that they are less likely to happen when it is fed properly. Solanis is also slightly less powerful than a fully-formed god, which is why it was possible to seal her away, albeit temporarily.
In order to keep Solanis placated, the heroes of Neo Eclipse visit her on a monthly basis to provide their emotional essence. This is a well-hidden secret, only known by a select few people, including the current mayor of Neo Eclipse and former revolutionary, Lyra Wu. If the people of Exonia were to find out Solanis was not dead, but rather just sealed away, things would descend into chaos quickly. This, as one might imagine, is not a light secret to bear.
Solanis only likes to feed on what we would call positive emotions. Love, joy, pride, lust, excitement — these are the things it needs to remain stable. The more that Solanis feeds on one person, the harder it becomes to call upon these emotions. Emotions begin to feel transactional, and above all else, pointless when they are inevitably consumed. It is a miracle that Benny and Leonardo kept feeding her for as long as they did.
The immediate next question one might have is, why can’t someone else feed it? This is a good question, and is one that the heroes themselves have asked. The problem is that Solanis is temperamental. It doesn’t want anyone else’s emotions. It wants their emotions. Like an angry toddler, when anyone else is offered, it throws fits that tear dimensional rifts open across the city. And no, it cannot be reasoned with. They’ve tried.
Slowly being starved by a lack of love and passion between the partners, Solanis grows hungrier and more unstable. When Benny and Leo fall back in love, and familial bonds start to form between them and Screw and Fyre, she only grows more feral. She longs to feed off of them, and she will do anything — anything — to do so.
(thank you @queen-honey! way more on solanis coming—i'm out of town and left my notebook with some stuff written behind which is very annoying.)
Exonia is a high-fantasy/sci-fi world set in the distant future of established Dungeons and Dragons worldbuilding. Technology has greatly advanced and is used to amplify already existing magical energies. Many races, alien to one another in different ways, coexist peacefully across the galaxy.
Where does “Retry Now” take place?
Technically, “Retry Now” is based in Dungeons and Dragons worldbuilding, which is part of the reason AO3 is such a blessing working on this. However, the planet it takes place on—Exonia—is entirely my own!
The main plot takes place in Neo Eclipse, a cyberpunk-turned-solarpunk big city. It’s a comparatively up-and-coming city in contrast to the older, more foundational cities on the continent. It has only been around for just over one-hundred years—the city was founded on Exonia’s centennial total solar eclipse, hence the name.
When Benny and Leo were still young, Neo Eclipse was harshly segregated into class status, and as a result was functionally a caste system. It meant that someone like Benny had no chance of crawling out of poverty when people like Leonardo Montague II, Leo’s father, existed. Cut into rings, the city used walls and the police to force class separation, and in order to cross from a lower ring to a higher one, one had to identify themselves and prove that they were wealthy enough to do so. This essentially did not happen. You could travel to the lower rings, but why would you? Unless you were treating them like a tourist attraction, of course.
Now, the walls have mostly been torn down, though a hundred years of gentrification and gerrymandering still keeps folks from escaping poverty, as well does the remaining millionaires and billionaires. The city itself was built with the caste system in mind, and it can be felt in its infrastructure. As the economy heals and the police force is reformed, however, things are looking more hopeful than ever. At least, so long as Solanis stays locked up…
Population: Approx. 3 mil.
Climate: Temperate
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A Day in the Life: Neo Eclipse
If you’re Screw, you’re sent off to get more buttons from the button-man down the street first thing in the morning, before he runs out of stock. (But if you’re Screw, you don’t actually think that the Feywild button-man runs out, and you think your mama just wants it done.) You duck beneath tight streets and weave between booths and vendors, your ears full of music and chatter and bargaining. You live in the market district, and have all of your life. The towering skyscrapers against the skyline never gets old no matter how many times you see it. The stench of cheap, fried food, sometimes does.
If you’re Fyre, you wander the streets at night with your friends from the band, headed to the old garage you took over to practice. You secretly smoke synthetic weed and piss off the neighbors with your noise, but you have a blast doing it. You barge into the convenience stores on every corner and buy snacks, and you look out at the river winding through the city as the distant planets and stars glimmer on the surface of the water. You enjoy every moment before you’re shipped off to Strixhaven—because you don’t know what happens next when you’re there.
Neo Eclipse has become a much more walk-able city since the walls were torn down, and as the years pass and more is built, the public transit continues to get better. A train system runs through the majority of the city, though it still has its issues. (Some things really are harder to get to than they should be.) It’s gotten greener since new bills were put in place a decade or so ago, though, and now most citizens are lucky to see trees and green spaces scattered wherever they can fit.
(psst. say thank you @quinn-pop for asking questions because I didn't know where to start. more posts incoming!)
what do you want to know about the world? the characters? (especially about the teens would be appreciated lmao.)
I’ve barely set up any world-building, sorry about that, it’s been in my head for so long that I forget people aren’t mind readers 💀 so even basic questions like “where the fuck is this taking place” are welcome. I’m off this week so I’m gonna try to work on it hehe
