Hi, its me. My offer for you to not kill off Thomas has increased to a whole fifty quid. Just so you know...
Anyway, I have to ask because The Lagoon has been haunting my every waking moment lately, where do you get your horror inspiration from? Like the merperson and it's mimicking is sooo Magnus Archives 'can I have a cigarette' coded but that's probably just me projecting. The voice you use for the horror and the tension is really unique and captivating and I just desperately need to know where you got it from.
no he's my puppet! you'll have to pry his cold lifeless body from my sweaty little hands!
i read a lot of sff, gothic lit and some dark academia, was a fan of supernatural for a long long time, and i looove old gods of appalachia (it's distributed by rusty quill also, but i've not gotten around to magnus archives). i also played call of cthulhu for a while in my mid-twenties... i guess all of those blend together in my appreciation of the ooky spooky :)
i also try to match the structure of my writing to the atmosphere, eg longer run-on sentences for aldo's spiralling in chapter 9 to evoke a sense of breathlessness, and short snappy paragraphs and sentences and less humour for more action and thrill focused scenes to mimic a pounding heart. i think that contributes to the voices of different styles of scenes...
thank you so much for the ask and for reading! love you (platonic), bestie 🫶💖
Hi! Just wanted to say I'm OBSESSED with The exorcist of Venice, it's by far the best Bellesco fic I've read and one of my favorites in the fandom!!! They way you integrate bible verses and poetry so seamlessly in the prose is fascinating, and so are the mistery of the cases, the mythology, the tension (both spiritual and sexual), the internal reflection, the crisis of faith... it's perfectly tailored to my tastes, truly I've gotten a 5 star meal FOR FREE!!! I can't thank you enough for your work!
Your characterization of both Aldo and Goffredo is fantastic as well, I love how they aren't exactly friends but aren't enemies anymore, what an akward situation to be. Truly their dynamic is most interesting, I'm at the edge of my seat whenever they discuss or at the end of each case when they share strangely intimate moments.
I'm very excited to see in which direction you'll take the story, I'm sure it will exceed my expectations, as usual! But please take your time, rest well and be kind to yourself in the process!! I - and everyone else - will wait patiently! Sending you lots of love and admiration from Brazil! ❤
P.s.: Do you have any book recs? I love your repertoire and your writing, it really shows how skilled you are. I've been meaning to read Dante Alighieri for some time, maybe this will finally convice me to gather my courage and try.
Take care!
- 🐝
hi there, bestie! thank you so much for your sweet message, i'm so happy to hear my story hits the spot for you 🤭
tbh the bible verses require a lot of research, because with that book there's always something different than you expect behind the words (and i'm sure i've gotten things wrong before) but it's also very fun and i often end up reading a whole chapter or three (you know how some people have yearly goal of reading the whole bible? yeah i might accomplish that--just out of order lol)
bellesco is soo fun to play around with, it's so awkward and angsty and i love their worstie dynamic... when castellitto said there was an angry sensuality to tedesco? i felt that... deeply (maybe a little too deeply 👀)
awh thank you so much for the well wishes! my recent break has really helped my mental energy and i'm trying to take things slowly rn--but it's also very fulfilling to finish each part!
sending lots of love to brazil! 💚💛💙
p. s. oh wow reading recs... depends what you're looking for i guess? i read mostly speculative fiction, but let's see what i can come up with!
i don't think you're here for me recommending If We Were Viallains, The Locked Tomb Trilogy, Bunny or Rebecca, since they are already so beloved (this is me sneaking them into my rec list anyway haha)
let's see what i can dig up from my brain that i haven't seen talked about enough (i'll try 10):
This House Is Haunted by John Boyne (historical horror--fucken spooky)
Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger (ya low fantasy--top tier plot and world building)
Dead Silence by S. A. Barnes (sifi horror--the suspense made me nauseous)
Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (afrofuturism--beatiful worldbuilding & narration)
The Saint of Steel series by T. Kingfisher (cosy romantasy with mystery--perfect series in all aspects: plot, characters, WORLDBUILDING; i recommend the audio book narrated by Joel Richards)
The Clown by Heinrich Böll (general fiction--simultaneously pathetic and funny, riled up the german catholic church in the 60s)
Into The Drowning Deep by Mira Grant (scifi horror--i recommend this to everyone who wants more creepy merfolk and speculative fiction grounded in reality, FANTASTIC ENDING. i don't want to spoil the book, but there's an element CLEARLY inspired by it in my version of the merperson)
Folding Beijing by Hao Jingfang (scifi dystopia novelette--fascinating concept)
Emergency Skin by N. K. Jemisin (scifi short story)
The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland (fantasy horror--girl magic need i say more?)
DUDE I LOVE YOUR CONCLAVE FICS SO MUCH. I just caught up with the last chapter from the Exorcist of Venice and oh my days, I absolutely love the way you characterise Bellini and Tedesco it’s fantastic. I’m just sending you an ask because I was wondering if you have any recommendations for Conclave fanfiction on ao3? I’m open to anything, as long as it’s well written! I hope you have a fantastic day
thank you so much!! 💖
oh my, there's so many to choose from! but here are some of my personal favourite fics/series/authors (in no particular order):
machiavelli's room by harpernovakaine
Did you know it could be così? by Moonfishgirl
Crown Of Thorns by @rodamned
Labor omnia vincit by rodamned
Eros (ἔρως) by rodamned
Algo, Bellini by @incurablenecromantic
italian lessons by fuckityfardisgetinthetardis
veniat ad me et bibat by @kalincka
Enjoy the Silence by @yuhlena
So Pure In Thought by yuhlena
PLEASE keep an eye on the tags! most of these are explicit and/or violent and/or dddne!
out of the hundreds of fics i've read these have, for one reason or other, touched my soul in a way i find hard to describe.
but there are so so so many more brilliant and creative and fun fics on ao3! we just passed 500 fics in the conclave (2024) tag, so there's something for everybody out there!
Helluuu helluuu Just finished the lagoon story in your absolutely amazing exorcist of Venice story and wanted to I'm soooo enthralled by the story, your footnotes and the whole VIBE!!! It's so insane and good and I cannot wait to finish the next chapters <3 <3
Also I wanted to ask if I could base a pen & paper character of your tedesco? :3 I wanted to play a conservative priest at first but that would clash with the mages in our group (since priests in the world of this pen and pager game apparently HATE magic but we need it to get through the adventures) aaaand while reading your story I was like "wait what if my character doesn't hate magic but just hyperfocuses on demons? What if I make him an exorcist?" So yeah tldr for that but I hope you'll have an amazing day and good vibes all around!!
tysm 🫶
i replied to your ao3 comment before, but just in case this is relevant to anyone else, i'll answer it here, too.
of course! feel free to use anything from my story for your own creative hobbies. and also: i don't own tedesco and i don't own the magic cleric trope.
what i'd like to add though is, that tedesco only accepts his powers, because 1) he can use them to fight (in his mind) greater evils 2) if the powers are in his hands, they aren't in someone else's who might misuse them 3) he is pragmatic enough to use whatever is at his disposal to fight for what he believes in
I'm reading The Exorcist of Venice and IT'S AMAZING, BEST FAN FICTION I'VE EVER READ I SWEAR- bUT I wanted to ask (if you're comfortable sharing) if you are Italian? (I am and I'm curious because I TOTALLY wasn't expecting Monti Sibillini, Marche and it's dialect to be mentioned, and the Italian phrases are all grammatically correct)
THANK YOU AGAIN FOR MENTIONING MARCHIGIANO DIALECT, I GO A BIT INSANE WHEN MY REGION IS MENTIONED. <3
thank you so much!! 💓
i'm not italian, but from somewhere else in europe (english bilingual, although i do still make mistakes) and my italian is quite rusty tbh.. but i do do a lot of research, so i'm glad it's paying off! receiving a compliment from someone from the region is just making me tear up 😭
i wanted a case somewhere rural and easily reachable by car and through ann radcliffe i just fell in love with the apennines. in The Italian they travel from naples to the adriatic, and my descriptions of the landscape in exorcist ch. 3 are very inspired by her!
thank you again for your kind words and lots of love (platonic) 🫶
Hey hey, i commented on exorcist of venice a couple days ago and said my friend and i had Theories about your worldbuilding as though it were an ongoing tv show, and you seemed interested in hearing them. my (half-joking) theory is that there will be a reveal at some point that tedesco is partially demon, hence why the sheep referred to him as "brother" and bellini had that significant-seeming dream about it. could also be that tedesco is just weird randomly, however
my second theory is there will be more ongoing debate about how they'll handle dealing with creatures going forward, where bellini will keep arguing in favor of trying to understand them and tedesco will be like "no, let's just kill em all" and tedesco will be made to eat his words in some way. also i noticed a throughline with that mysterious circle symbol, and it never being revealed who created that mermaid. i have no idea where that's headed yet and i massively look forward to finding out (1/2)
omg hiiii! 💖
i love reading theories although I might have to rafo (read and find out) a few of them if i plan to touch on anything in the future or haven't fully decided on some of the lore. all in all you're reaaallly in depth with these and that's so cool!!
let's see...
spoilers for exorciat of venice ch. 1-10
theory one: i think most of you have picked up on "brother" by now, but that's all i'm saying on that front (rafo)
theory two: no, tedesco is human just with ✨️extras✨️ i hope that's not too disappointing
theory three: yes, the ethics behind the whole thing are quite interesting, but by now we've met only one creature they actually killed! the demon possessing the sheep was sent back, the lar was appeased, the pen was enchanted/cursed and not a creature at all, and o'malley is also still alive (although tedesco isn't too happy about that)
theory four: circle symbol and merperson origins > rafo
