#acaciapines

[duskwingmoth]

Asriel is driving down the long, empty highways. He doesn't really know how he got here, though that's not so strange. It's easy to zone out when he's driving back to Hometown—all that sprawling space, on the rattling two-lane roads broken up only by the occasional mile marker, a brief spurt of billboards if they happen to drift closer to civilization. It's nearing ten PM. Which isn't great. He promised Mom he'd make it back by eight. But he's not so far, now—GPS says he's only a few miles out. And then he'll be home. No ghost sits in the passenger seat, not that he has any reason to think one would. He is the only person here.

fanart for @acaciapines' the ghost in the back of my head, which we've read several times now and it's made us cry every time. Really good stuff

[patchwork-crow-writes]

for the fic ask: how aboutttttt number 1 for a heart brimming with light?

What inspired you to write the fic this way?

Well! The initial idea came about thinking about how Deltarune might end, and whether it would involve the permanent sundering of the light and dark worlds. How would Ralsei react to this? How would he take the notion that he's been on this epic adventure with these two friends he dearly loves, and he thought he'd be ready for it to end but then it ends and suddenly he wants it to keep going... but he's always known he was never going to be afforded a happy ending. From loneliness and darkness Ralsei came, and back to loneliness and darkness Ralsei goes.

From there, an idea blossomed - maybe he would try and recreate his own pseudo-lightner, in defiance of the prophecy, his purpose, his very being and his ultimate fate to fade quietly back into obscurity. What would that do? Would it truly work out the way Ralsei wanted it to? Or would there be... unintended consequences?

Lastly, the story as it's being told has become a meditation on how stories end. Are its characters necessarily entitled to a happily-ever-after? Can a character who knows they're part of a finite story still struggle and fight past the story's bounds in an attempt to attain a "better" ending? And would such a fate even be satisfying or desirable - especially if it winds up perpetuating the central conflict the story was trying to resolve and contain? From there, A Heart, Brimming With Light as we currently know it was born.

Thank you so much for your curiosity! I hope everything I wrote here made sense! :D

[mallowstep]

@acaciapines i don’t think you meant to but ur latest comment on ashes might have me changing my plan for the next few chapters,,,

i can’t help it ur so right snailpaw is adorable and i’ve been thinking about chicakdeekit as a name and like,,,i can make this work. i have a timeline set up. i can do this.

[verdantelf]

Sketch dump for @acaciapines 's incredible fic, Collide the Space that Divides Us !! Go read it!!

Featuring: Barry and Lup doing some trick diving, Barold's internal awkwardness with Dav, a sketch of Lup's drawing, chibi Blupjeans bein cute, Lup enjoying some sweetgrass, and Barry's blueprints

i can't draw people for shit lol

[mallowstep]

cricketkit’s name is 100% a very unsubtle nod to @acaciapines and mothwing. leafpool is 100% thinking about her girlfriend when she names her. just wanted to make sure everyone knows.

[mallowstep]

@acaciapines you CAN’T JUST DO THIS TO ME I HAVE A LIFE TO LIVE YOU KNOW

[patchwork-crow-writes]

oh shit is it your birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY YIPPEE. claim your power. its unlimited on birthdays. probably.

Haha, thank you, it is indeed my birthday! Or it was, but I suck at getting back to asks. But thank you all the same!

Given the timing of your most recent fic, let's call the everlasting psychic imprint it left on my brain my present, shall we? I think that's more than fair, haha XD

[mallowstep]

for the fic writer ask: 🛒✅ and/or 🤩.

🛒 What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc.

hm. uh, gender is a big one! gender seems to keep sneaking in. or just for fun. i'm a huge hurt/comfort guy, got a lot of that. this doesn't really show up in my published work bc i usually can't be assed to write the fic around it but i am constantly writing scenes where one character is just like. themselves really hurt/etc and trying to defend another character whose hurt even worse.

oh and a BIG one is watching someone you love be hurt and/or participating in that hurt. that one comes up in warriors fic all the time (i mean even just looking at recent posts, "blood up to my knees", "sunlight over me" and "kneeling down at her altar" all incorporate that, and arguably "i don't like a gold rush" and "evidence based practice" are just the other side of it). it also is in like everything i write. i'm a sucker for it.

✅ What's something that appears in your fics over and over and over again, even if you don't mean to?

gender LOL i swear i don't mean for it to be a thing. honestly tho everything above?? sometimes i feel kind of like a one trick pony. if you show up to a mallowstep fic you know what you're getting, more or less. there's some fluff and stuff out there but mostly i'm exploring characters.

i think agency comes up a lot. how much power you have over your own narrative. "evidence based practice" and "race conditions" [not warriors] are both about agency, "i don't like a gold rush" is also agency, "sweet like honey" [not warriors] is about agency, "blood up to my knees" is about agency...it's all about agency.

huh. food for thought. why does matthew keep putting characters in positions where they either feel powerless or they have to subvert the system to get power, or they lose power, or their form of power is unrecognized, or-

🤩 Who is your favorite character to write?

oh this question is so hard to answer. i don't know if i even have one? like i have a rotating cast of blorbos. but i do have a type. i like characters who went thru hell as a child and now pretend that everything is normal and fine. (see: feathertail, kirk, steve rogers, player and carmen, etc.)