#ask noctu

[ciestess]

Oooh! I know!

Everybody send Noctu asks and I'll MAKE them answer!

It'll fuel me for WEEKS!

[ciestess]

Times I Saved Tess's Life when She would've Died in Dumb Ways

By: Noctu

1. Going to make pasta when super tired. Grabbed knife instead of spoon to stir. Tripped.

I took over the fragile meat sack and grabbed the counter.

[ciestess]

Ye Olde Tag Game

Tagged by @jaywrites101​. (OK, if you’ve read any of these, you probably know the drill by now: “read” and “book” can and will be substituted with “watch/play” and “story.” Because I don’t actually read all-that-many books, but I consume mountains of stories in other formats.)

1: What book have you read a million times and would read a million times more? And why?

I will never get tired of watching Durarara!! I LOVE the characters, their dynamics, the twisty plot that just keeps building on itself -- and I never seem to stop noticing little character quirks or hidden details!

2: Which OC of your current wip did you come up with first?

Not many OCs going on at the moment. And by that I mean, I have none that I can actually TELL you about right now. Try again in a few months, lol!

3: What piece of world-building gave or is giving you the most trouble?

Believe it or not, the freaking Marauders’ Map was a headache-and-a-half to figure out workable mechanics that didn’t give Danny away. Thankfully, JK gave us little enough to go on for how it works that I could more-or-less make it up.

(If you’re interested in how I decided the Map works in PM: The Map shows the Hogwarts’ ghosts because they are “tied” to the Grounds, but it would not show a non-tied ghost if one was to appear. It DOES NOT show dementors because, while they are tangible and sentient beings, they do not have names. Phantasm physiology is closer to that of a dementor than a ghost, but in this case, the ectoplasmic/non-corporeal nature of his body wins out. In this case, the Map treats him like a “non-tied ghost,” rather than a “named dementor.”

I decided on these mechanics for plot reasons because we aren’t told about the Map showing unnamed animals OR dementors in the books.)

4: What type of scene is your favorite to write? Why?

I love writing scenes with lots of suspense and moving parts! Any scene that I can see playing out in my head like a movie, I absolutely LOVE putting on a page. (Such as the opening fight scenes in PM, the biting/kissing part of the OSW “Chocolate Blood,” or Hiyori’s temper-tantrum in OSW “Petty Irreplaceable”)

5: (Stealing this one) What chapter of your main wip is your favorite? Why?

Ah! Finally a question I can (kind of) answer using Crossroad of Infinity!

My favorite chapter WILL (probably) be the final chapter of the book. ... Y’know, actually... My favorite chapters of longer WIPs almost always ARE the last (or second-to-last, in the case of PM) chapters. Huh...

6: If your OCs the characters in your WIP were transplanted into another genre (say, fantasy to sci-fi or sci-fi to horror), what would their new occupations be?

Well, we’ve lived through just about everything... Yo, Noctu! You answer this one. I’m running on empty here.

(Seriously? No crazy color fonts on PC? It’s Pride Month, you losers! Come fix this!) “Occupations” huh? Heh. Tess once was a barma-

AAAAAANNNNDDD that was a mistake. I really should’ve known better. Noctu has been bored out of their mind in this dimension.

Can you really blame me? There’s NOTHING interesting or different about this world’s physics! I’ve seen all of this a million times. ... LITERALLY!!!

7: How well would you survive if you were dropped into the world of your main wip?

We HAVE lived them! CofI is LITERALLY OUR LI-

If you’re going to be a grumpy-butt, then go back to studying the Crossroad and stop yelling at the readers.

8: Which of your OCs is the scariest, or if none are scary, which is the sweetest? Why?

[ (<< ) Wait for Noctu to lose intereeeessst.... Aaaand GONE!] You wouldn’t know it by how they’ve been acting recently, but Noctu is basically “the Mom/Dad.” They get attached SUPER easily, and once they do, they go straight into “protecc-mode!” As for scary, that’d be me. ...We go to great pains sometimes to keep me from getting “hungry.”

9: What would you say was the one thing that sparked the idea for your main wip?

For Phantasma Magica, I didn’t actually come up with it -- I adopted the fic from Atrieisan YEARS ago. But the main PLOT TWIST/cliffhanger was all me. The idea for THAT occurred when I was rewatching the Prisoner of Azkaban movie one day and wondered “So what would happen if-”(you can fill this in after PM is over)

10: Describe the space you write in like you’re telling a story.

I wait for the noise to disappear from the house. A last call of “Goodnight” hits my ears through the door -- and I emerge. All is quiet and dark. I make my way by memory to the lamp, and the room is lit with a soft glow. I can see the driveway through the large window taking up half the wall. There’s a soft woosh as the occasional car passes by. I set the lap-tray down on the couch and fetch my snack: some beef jerky, an orange, a cup of water, and maybe some coffee and some crackers. I sit and place the blanket over my feet, move the tray over me lap, grab the laptop from the table beside me -- and my night begins.

Perhaps I’ll start with some episodes of Tsubasa. I need to eat first to think clearly anyway, so I might as well continue the series. I want to fulfill that OSW request, after all...

11: What is the first thing you remember reading and thinking ‘This inspires me to write’?

The very first fanfic I ever wrote was a Danny Phantom one on the nickelodeon website. (It has long since been deleted by the people in charge of the forum for lack of interaction with or updates on the post.) This was almost a decade ago, though, so I don’t remember much about it. It was an OC-insert and there was something about Ember’s sister also being a music-themed ghost, but preferring acoustic/country...?

Tagging whoever. Feel free to do this if you want!