Hello magistralucis! Hope you are doing well! If its okay could you tell me about 'opium' and 'vermillion'?
Hello there! I certainly can. @north-wyrm also asked about Vermillion, so I hope this will come in doubly useful. This may be a lengthy explanation 🥴
You know the Lantern Fair sequence in Gheden from we live on archipelagos? I think about that specific part quite a lot, because a festival is a really useful setting to make characters interact in. There's the fun and grandeur, luxurious decadence (as befitting of the Nihilakh), and also a sense of enforced formality between the people who meet there. Sometimes one's true self is best shown by being made to behave. Over time I developed an entire series of WIPs that take place in that setting, not the exact Lantern Fair from WLOA but similar. Our usual pairs meet there, and a couple of unknown ones.
Opium and Vermillion deal with the former.
High up on a ziggurat they glimpse their host, the lead archivist of the Nihilakh, playing senet with the famed diviner of the Sautekh. [...] Trazyn's robes are plain, but Orikan is starclad in gold and midnight-blue. A fine Nihilakh gift. The young could stand to learn from them.
The above quote from WLOA inspired Opium. It's about what Trazyn and Orikan get up to during their Lantern Fair, and how Orikan got those starclad robes. It explores the fair from a host's perspective, since Trazyn is active in his role as a lord of Gheden, less of Solemnace. Orikan comes to him as a guest and remains by his side throughout.
It seemed every year they were roomed closer and closer together. When Orikan was shown to his room, he noticed a door leading from it which felt familiar, and was not disappointed to see that it led right into the lord archivist's bedchamber. Which was fine, that was where he wound up most of the time anyway. He'd always assumed the door from Trazyn's side led to a family shrine (most palaces in Gheden had one), perhaps a storeroom or a prime view from above, but it seemed the overlord's household had decided the double suite had gone unused for too long. He left the door ajar and took the time to examine his own room, thinking about all that'd happened so far.
The room was furnished like Trazyn's, just emptier. The overlord kept little company outside of Solemnace unless he was a guest himself elsewhere. Everything was clean, everything seemed normal, and Orikan could almost believe nothing was wrong around here. There was a little twig of his favourite fruit-blossoms upon the windowsill, held in a bud vase inlaid with faience. Orikan picked it up and turned it this way and that, noting that the water in the vase was fresh, and that the petals still had the hint of morning dew upon them. Winter blossoms, much too early for fruit, a fleeting memory of what could still be.
That was what his relationship to Trazyn felt like sometimes. No longer animosity, but not quite friendship nor courtship, marked with reminders of the little things they liked. Golden drops of memories, as faint as dust motes under sunlight, but dotting their selves like little wounds once the two were gone from one another.
No one would ever understand them truly. Sometimes Orikan wasn't sure they understood themselves.
It is also a very melancholy story. It's like if Viridian was sad. Trazyn and Orikan aren't a couple here, more like a slow burn FWB, and they're about to find out exactly how this arrangement will disadvantage them in a society that insists on legally defined ties. 😞
Vermillion is the Lantern Fair, Take Two, from the Djoseras/Zultanekh perspective. In WLOA they only talked and shared one kiss; in Vermillion they go all the way. Unrestricted by the prying eyes of their own dynasties, they meet up for a tryst by night - though they were not planning to have this tryst when they first met in Gheden, and are thus awkward about it at the beginning. I put this under a cut because the snippet is NSFW:
Djoseras moaned beside him, almost a sob, the one hand stretched behind him tightening into Zultanekh's hair. He'd been brought to the edge several times already: Zultanekh would circle his fingertip over the other's arousal, coating it with the silky fluid that ran from it, or stop while he was halfway through a thrust. He would then linger there, playfully refusing to move, until the tension in the kynazh's body broke in the form of a hard writhe or a hoarse moan bitten into the sheets. It excited Zultanekh tremendously to see the latter. Perhaps it was the only thing about their position he regretted, in that the kynazh was facing away, when he'd have liked Djoseras to set his teeth against his flesh instead.
"Be good for me, Djoseras... be good, and I'll let you come…"
Better the kynazh do it than anyone else. Like any warrior worth his salt Zultanekh valued a good battle-scar, and the idea of Djoseras marking him was intoxicating. Perhaps on the Crown Prince's wrist, so that the kynazh could finish what he started and truly claim his hand. Perhaps on the shoulder, so that Zultanekh would feel it whenever he lifted his warhammer, or with every powerful thrust he made unto the kynazh's body. He rolled them over fully so that Djoseras was under him, his face buried into the silken pillows.
He made sure to pause for a moment, in case Djoseras found this position too demeaning to continue. When he saw this was not the case he grasped the kynazh's hips, and he pressed in again, sinking into him and kissing everywhere he could reach. Zultanekh stifled his moans against the kynazh's shoulder, tasting the faintest traces of sweat and perfumed oils beneath his tongue; Djoseras let out a choked sound and grasped the sheets, steeled himself for the thrusts to come.
Yeah. 😳💖 Vermillion is not as melancholy as Opium, but the princes are still engaged in a forbidden love, and they know they must part when the night comes to an end. Really, all of the Lantern Fair AU pieces have this air of a dream to them, and the underlying sadness. But all that's for later. I hope this was a pleasant read for now.
Thank you, guys!! We really weren’t expecting so many people enjoying our works! Thanks to all of you 10,000+ people (whoa, five digits) out there following and supporting us!!
Though... it feels really weird... imagining 10,000 people looking at you...
(Thank you @karinred for telling us in the comments that it’s called Itazura!)
@horizonflyer96
S K I L L Z
@multiplefandomtrashguy
The only thing Ink remembers is being in the white place for a long time. He doesn't know anything prior to that - and to tell you... he doesn't really care about knowing. He has his life and more important he has a purpose, that is more important than some theory he cannot verify.
@silverstarpack
Really...? It’s actually pretty obvious when you look at the art styles...
Hello! I just found your blog and I am really sad I didn't found it earlier. I love your drawings and your 5 days comic is amazing. It is nice someone touch upon more realistic way shinobi must work on im order to function. I just want to ask something; How will Kakashi became a chunin in your manga? I mean he graduates at 5 became chunin at 6 but somehow fights Gai at final round who graduated at 7 and became chunin at 11?(Kishi why? ;') And can Gai use ninjutsu and genjutsu? He can in canon.
So I’m thinking Kakashi gets a field promotion to chunin at age 6 due to ~circumstances~ and later, once the whole acute war thing dies down to an acceptable level, he takes the formal chunin exam (though whether it’s in konoha proper or in a neighboring ally country to ~strengthen bonds~ I am unsure as of this moment).
If I want to coincide with canon’s bizarre time-frickery re: everyone somehow taking the exam together, then I could have Kakashi be 9, Rin+Obito 11 (they fail), and Gai would be 10 (he fails despite defeating obito; he makes chunin on his second try at 11 years). I actually personally headcanon that Obito never made chunin, and Rin was chunin for maximum a couple of years before dying at 14.
As for Gai not having an elemental affinity -- you can totally not have one and still use ninjutsu! I had Rin state she didn’t have one either as a nod to this, but maybe I’ll make it more explicit later on in the comic. Having an elemental affinity simply means you’re biologically predisposed to having an easier time using that kind of chakra. This is why I think Sasuke had such a hard time with the Great Fireball as a kid, despite eventually being able to perform it -- he has Lightning affinity, while his brother likely had Fire affinity. Now that I think on it, it’d be cute(?)/ironic if he got his Lightning from his dad Fugaku, which would have made him quite suited to having studied under Sakumo (who also has lightning affinity).
And yeah, Gai can definitely do ninjutsu -- I actually headcanon his body produces massive amounts of chakra, it’s just that his chakra “exit points” are tiny. (contrasting Lee who simply cannot because his body does not produce much chakra at all -- he has to have some because he can open the “gates” which are like, explicitly chakra gates??? apparently?? lmao, but he just produces a negligible amount of chakra / his exit points are nonexistent). It’s how I make sense of Gai’s insane indestructibility: the chakra inside his body repairs him despite the massive crushing abuse he puts it under, and it’s also how I mentally make sense of why his supposedly ninjutsu-free taijutsu manifests chakra-looking animal figures in canon, haha. I love the rule of cool as much as the next guy but I also like making sense of the cool by grounding it in some plausible foundation hehe
((If I ever get around to it, I have a mental AU where Orochimaru scoops Gai up for one of his ROOT experiments and succeeds in modifying his exit points, giving Gai the possibility of becoming even more OP than he is in canon. Just -- hhhk! IMAGINE. ROOT Gai is such a twisted notion, I’m all over it. And yes, I would intend there to be eventual Kakagai (and Kakayama and then a ROOT sandwich ot3) because I am a multishipper that cannot be stopped *evil laughter*))
AHEM! Yeah, it’s actually tougher than I make it look to juggle art and medicine, but I pretty much don’t have a social life so I draw every second of free time I have XDDD;; (Don’t be like me, kids, lmao.)
Molecular biology and genetics are FASCINATING and I commend you for studying them!! Stay awesome!
Hi! I saw you post about the meta funny deathmark and wanted to ask; do you think Ithakas and the one dynasty with the 'Mother Of Oblivion' for a Pharakh who killed that C'tan can ever be cured of the Flayer virus? I know Oltyx and co accepted who and what they are and found some type of twisted sort of piece but...they are still cursed 😅 do you think flayer virus can ever be cured?
And what do you think the Destroyer curse is? I have always interprited as 'envy turned hatred towards life'.
This is a good question, albeit a tricky one. I have a lot of thoughts about this, but to keep it brief: I think it depends on what you define 'cured' to be. If one's definition of 'cured' is 'physically freed from disease', as in 'the flayers stop craving flesh and revert back into their unmutated necron forms' - then no, I don't think the Flayer Virus is curable. Yenekh will never look like he did when he was uncursed again, nor will he gain his pre-biotransference body back. The Flayed Ones will always want to feed. By the end of The Twice-Dead King, their condition is written into the laws of reality, and I think it's neither possible nor in the Bone Kingdom's interests to reverse that. You'd have to kill another C'tan to do that, probably, and that's more trouble than it's worth.
But 'cured', as in just... 'healing'? 'Relief from torment'? Were the necrons all that healthy before, don't they usually despise their metal prisons? ... IDK, I feel like in some ways it's necronhood that's the disease, and the Flayer Virus is the cure. I interpret the Flayer Virus as less of a godly curse, and more a psychosomatic manifestation of a mindset. Returning to what Yenekh says:
'[...] It is hunger, Oltyx. Nothing more. Hunger for what is lost. For what could yet be. Hunger that knows no reason. Hunger for the bodies… we threw away… in Szarekh’s war.’
‘That is the dysphorakh, then, which Mentep told me of?’
‘Yes. In the end, only… flesh will feed it. But we all find other… substitutes… to stave it off. We find obsessions… to keep it at bay. Compulsions. Discipline, tradition, power. Violence. Recklessness.’ (Reign, Chapter 21)
Fundamentally, the Flayer Virus is want. Multi-directional, irrational want, unbound by time. Yenekh is quite clear that it's not purely a desire to return to their past (they want 'what could yet be') - what he means by 'what is lost', I think, is potential, from when their kind were not bound to metal and undeath and the slow winding decay that awaits them now. The Flayers are like that because they want to live.
The vast majority of necrons are not free. They weren't free back when they were necrontyr, but they were capable of having their own thoughts, being loved, having families and friendships and close relationships that helped them through their short painful lives. Now they don't die so quickly, but they are more slavish than ever, literally incapable of having a personality or an individual thought; almost everything that defined the necrontyr as necrontyr are gone. This is made worse by the fact that most necrons have an inbuilt disgust of organic life, which draws them further away from the lives they used to have.
I believe the Flayers are the ones who have overcome this disgust. As gory and horrific their outer appearances are, they are the ones who are capable of breaking their bodies' limits, of seizing even the faintest shadow of what the C'tan stole from them. Most necron characters who try to change their fate are exactly that, characters, individuals who work largely for their own purpose - Orikan, who wishes to be a god, Szarekh, who claims to want atonement and maybe reverse biotransference somehow - but the Flayed Ones are an entire community of interdynastic and inter-hierarchical individuals who're capable of doing this. In a very real way they represent the necron future, providing no great cosmic relevations about biotransference occur, and whatever future they bring will not cling to outdated traditions. So no, they will probably not be cured, and I doubt they want or need that. They're exactly where they need to be.
As for the Destroyers' curse, I think that is on the opposite side of the same coin. If the Flayer Virus is the psychosomatic manifestation of the urge to live and be free, the Destroyer curse is the manifestation of the death-drive. (I don't like Freud's work or Freudian analysis at all, but the concepts of libido and destrudo may serve as a good analogue.) The fundamental difference between them is that living is close to impossible for necrons, but they are extremely good at killing, and killing has a well-defined place in their hierarchy; between the Flayers and the Destroyers, the latter is given more recognition, and I think that must be the reason why.
As for why necrons become Destroyers, that seems to be a variety of reasons, too. Envy and hatred would be the strongest contenders - these are Zozar's reasons for becoming a Destroyer, and since he's the most compelling part of Indomitus, we can understand why a man who lost everything would want to descend to anti-life nihilism. But I don't know if that's the only reason, because I'm not sure if Borakka has ever meaningfully felt anything.* Before biotransference they were a cruel and violent executioner, but the text is clear that they did not do it for glory; it may be that Borakka was just a psychopath who enjoyed killing things, but I don't read glee in what they did/it does, only indifference. For whatever reason Borakka is a huge gaping void of entropy, and will always trend towards nil, until its self is destroyed.
(* Edited. Thank you @courgowr for the correction re: Borakka's pronouns.)
Hi sorry to bother you but I am on a bus and was killing time on tumblr as I noticed something; have you noticed that many incredible artists and writers consistently drawing/writing Orikan with a veil? And Trazyn with extra luxuriously clothed blanket burrito(with beautiful hand writing and golden paint covered hands) as necrontyr??
YOU single handedly changed the perspective of many people how these two were flesh and blood, dear. How do you feel about that?? 🥰👌😌
Hey there! I have noticed an uptick in scribe!Trazyns and veiled Orikans, tis true, but I don't think that was me as much as the fandom itself inspiring and re-inspiring each other in endless parallels 🤣 There are so many incredible artists + writers out there, making a huge output of character interpretations to choose from, and certain traits from said interpretations are bound to cycle over time. Such is the beauty of a community like this.
Still, I am very happy for (and thankful to! 💖) the people whom I know were directly inspired by Unravel. As well as the many other pieces I've kicking around in here, god knows that stuff actually needs sorting out for easy browsing sjhghghghghth
Hello! How are you Magistralucis? I hope you are doing well! So sorry to bother you but I've been thing about this since viridian came out and I HAVE to ask your genuine opinion about this;
How do you think Unravel gang , Nox Orikan , OG timeline Trazyn and Orikan and finally Viridian Orikan and Trazyn would react to one another? I see a LOT of jealousy and heartbreak from all non Viridian Orikans and Imotekh while Trazyn...cannot say really? What do you think? Sorry for the weird ask its just been a brainworm for a while 🙇♀️🙇♀️
Good to see you, @beril66! My dear, you can bother me any time 😂 Now what an interesting question this is! My answer draws on a loose comparison of each story, not just in terms of their relationship but narrative. It got longer than expected so I've put it under a cut. Spoilers for every mentioned fanfic, and a few aspects of The Infinite and Divine ahead.
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1) I think everyone would be baffled by V!Orizyn, and that the reverse would be just as true. While I hope their shared history (and the process of them falling in love) is believable within the text, it's also true that the Trazyn and Orikan of Viridian are different, so much that compared to the canon pair and Nox!Orikan they're extremely OOC. Viridian is a non-biotransference AU, too, so they fundamentally can't share the same paths the robotic necrons have tread. The canon characters and N!Orikan would probably find Viridian too weird to dwell on - they just can't remember the past enough to accept that they could've been in love like that, or that necrontyr society could ever have been so tender and adoring. Canon/N!Trazyn might be able to entertain the thought, but Orikan could never. Likewise, I think V!Orizyn would be horrified at the sheer length of cruelty the necrons put each other through. All necrontyr societies are fucked in every written medium, but at least in a non-biotransference AU there's an end to the evils, you know? 😰
Unravel, though… that's a different story. Viridian is basically Unravel!Orikan's forbidden fantasies about Trazyn, notably in the line where he's gazing longingly at the archivist after he and Imotekh have already entered a sexual relationship. He's not made of stone - he's a terribly lonely person, just like in Viridian, and he is intensely attracted to Trazyn, except his pride makes him hideously mad about the whole situation. If he ever saw himself in Viridian he might well lose his mind. But it's not like he has no excuse for doing himself no favours, since Unravel must contend with a world post-biotransference: Orikan saw that Imotekh possessed a noble and cosmic fate, thought his own survival should tie with it, and ultimately he kept to his investment.* In terms of characterization I thought it very reasonable, since the canon Orikan is spiteful and calculating, and Unravel was intended to be canon-compliant. U!Orikan would never ever go back on his word, yet spend eternity fantasizing about a Trazyn like the one in Viridian, and he'd be rotting with jealousy for it.
U!Trazyn would have no such reaction. He wouldn't be sold on life events as they happened in Viridian (U!Trazyn is even less invested in Orikan as a person than in canon, at least while they are necrontyr, because he has so many different investments with so many other characters), but he wouldn't find it unpleasant or anything. He'd probably be amused at the thought of Orikan being so soft towards him, but like most other Trazyns, he could take it or leave it as long as his own interests are fulfilled. He'll have sticky fingers, no matter what, he'll be rich and a venerable scribe no matter what, and he'll always get away with every god damn thing no matter what any Orikan feels about it 🤪
*. Imotekh is a curious one. Somewhat problematic, because I can't talk about him in any other context than Unravel just yet, and the Imotekh of that fic has some yandere fuckery going on. He would be extremely jealous of what Trazyn and Orikan have in Viridian… but since Imotekh is the victor of Unravel, it's not like he can have more hope than what that universe afforded him. He won. He's the king and he owns Orikan. He's not happy, but Orikan isn't happy either, and he's content to marinate together in their misery.
As for Viridian!Imotekh (yes, he does have a cameo in the last chapter 😳)… well, I guess we'll have to see.
2) Nox was written to fit into canon as a midquel, so I'd hope the canon characters would find less to quarrel with re: their characterization. N!Trazyn is definitely more of a romantic than canon, but we don't really see him as much as we see his memories; N!Orikan is extremely realistic about their relationship, which aligns with his headspace around the time of the final battle. I note the admission that he will eventually forget the goodwill he developed for Trazyn, and that he knows the cycle of their hatred will begin again. Their relationship in Viridian is too OOC for the Trazyn and Orikan of Nox to entertain seriously, but Trazyn might enjoy the lushness of Viridian's universe, given the whole opera sequence thing.
V!Orizyn would probably have a better impression of N!Orizyn's future than the text suggests. They'd probably find the whole situation permanently hopeful, like this is the upward turn in Nox!Orizyn's story, just like V!Orikan came around to Trazyn and will remain so forever. It's not like, a bad assumption or anything… it's just that the characters of Viridian are not equipped for millions of years of murderdere samsara hell to grasp what Orikan's realizations about death mean within Nox. I haven't even really shown Trazyn angsting in any of those stories about anything, let alone death… oh boy that will be one hell of a bonus to consider 🙃
As for Unravel, probably a complex matter, yet again. The Orikan of Nox would have almost no patience for U!Orikan as necrontyr, all bound up in his worldly cares and his self-dishonesty - but as a necron, N!Orikan would actually admire him, I reckon. The Orikan of Unravel sticks to his goals, at great expense to himself and others, purely because it's what he has seen and needs. The fact that he's a gaslighting user is irrelevant to N!Orikan, because that kind of thing is how a true cryptek gets ahead. He'd approve of U!Orikan's sidequest to annoy Trazyn, too, though he'd also prefer that Orikan to be a little less precious about his hatecrush.
U!Orikan would envy the understanding N!Orikan reaches in his tale, but it'd be a more muted jealously. After all, the two Orikans go through the same event, i.e. being crushed under a mountain and fighting a god - they just return to different people afterwards. U!Orikan would envy that N!Orikan gets to go back to Trazyn. Trazyn is having a great time stealing and existing in either universe. It's all good.
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Some of this will have to be revised as the last chapter of Viridian is updated, and future projects reveal more about my Trazyns' and Orikans' mindscapes. Every time they're written it's never quite the same, I can't wait to show them off 🥰 I hope this is helpful, and thanks for stopping by 💖💖
Hello @magistralucis I am putting this here because I assume submit is for things we want to sent you? I am sorry if it isn't the case. So...I wanted to thank you so much for humouring me with all those Orizyn prompts and your writing really inspired me alongside Ghost-in-the-gallery so I write something for you both! You seem to be more active on tumblr so I am sending you the link. If you read it I hope you will enjoy it! Thank you again for all those lovely stories!!
https://archiveofourown.org/works/53799550
Hello welcome this is indeed where the things people wish to send me go! I did get the AO3 email as well as this message, and I've read the fic now once over dinner and am gonna leave a review 😍😍😍 Thank you so much, it's always wonderful to be an inspiration!!! 💖💖💖💖💖
