#cultstuck

[littl3d0ll-art]

Doodles from last night and now

[elanorpam]

Hey, ive been a fan of your cultstuck series since i first read it 10 years ago and its one that i hold dear along woth toastyglow and their siblings' works. Given that we are all adults now with very busy lives, i dont expect you to kerp up with an old project like writing a fan novel fpr free, but i am curious as what ur current plants for earthbent are, if there are any atm.

(Tbh id be happy with any answer you provide, whether its a detailed outline, an unsure shrug, an excited wink hinting at a deadline or an announcement of permanent hiatus. Youve given so much with your writing, thst i just want you to be happy with whatever plans u have)

hey there! i'm going to go with unsure shrug as an answer here.

see, I did have a detailed outline for cultstuck-- i wrote it all down at around ...2015? very soon after the second eridan chapter, and sent it to my beta, who then proceeded to ghost me forever. I was already sensing she was growing disinterested in the fic/the fandom, giving constant excuses, and I myself was dealing with an anxiety/depression combo that would sharply nosedive by the time the finale came around, so i just... let it go. She didn't care. I wasn't in a good mental place to care. We went our separate ways.

I decided to take a mental health sabbatical, and now, after a few years of sertraline and therapy, the thought of picking it back up is very, very far down my list of priorities. I have so many other fics I want to write, for media which hasn't let me this profoundly down! And also, Cultstuck was conceptualized in the post-cascade hiatus, in chat logs and rough outlines, and was never supposed to take later canon into account unless it dropped any interesting, matching lore...

...but late act 6 took such a dump on the characters and the setting that it took the joy right out of playing on my patch of sandbox, fenced off as it was. And I couldn't connect with the Retcon timeline at all, but some of its developments are so popular and so deeply entrenched that I hesitate to contradict them even though i kind of hate the whole thing and never meant to take it into account?

Let's take the strongest example: Davekat. Dave and Karkat in Cultstuck were never meant to be anything more than mutually annoying acquaintances connected only indirectly via Terezi-- Dave was to be her moirail, and aro-ace besides. This was because for the entirety of the comic, that was the only vibe I got from Dave as a character, and from his interactions with Karkat as a whole-- he and Karkat felt too similar in mutually unpleasant ways, like a cousin that's just enough like you to give you second-hand embarrassment. So by the point the comic was playing coy with pushing the New Dave and New Karkat action figures together, you couldn't get me to care about Davekat if you put a gun to my head. This really hasn't changed in the least. And that means whenever I think of dealing with disappointed Davekat fans in the future of the fic, I just feel an all-encompassing, soul-deep exhaustion.

but i also don't want to drop the fic altogether, for some reason? Like, I might not feel this way forever. So idk, i'm keeping my options open i guess. Subscribe to the fic/series and maybe 10 years from now you'll get a notification like a holiday miracle. Who knows.

[landofcolorfullink]

I have been reading cultstuck by @elanorpam again and this image popped up in my mind. I am not sure why he is dead but... yeah (?)

[elanorpam]

♪   I am not dead yet ♪   I can dance and I can sing ♫   I am not dead yet ♫   I can do the highland fling ♪   I am not dead yet ♫   No need to go to bed ♪   No need to call the doctor ♫   'Cos I'm not yet dead

Happy 4/13, folks!

[elanorpam]

real talk

i still am mighty proud of the eridan chatlog chapter in earthbent, like, there’s a lot going on in that stupid sexy roleplay bit, i put a LOT of thought in it and sometimes I wonder if people picked up some stuff or are curious about some of its implications

[elanorpam]

Wait does this mean you updated cultstuck? HOLY SHIT WHY WASN'T I INFORMED? I'VE BEEN DYING FOR AN UPDATE FOR A WHILE THAT'S LIKE MY NUMBER ONE HOMESTUCK FIC

the update is called “earthbent” and i haven’t touched it since like 2015 or something, but there’s like 3 or 4 chapters there, if i reckon? It’s been entirely too fucking long

[elanorpam]

About you're fan fics! Specifically your Cultstuck series! I've been following you since before you started it for your art and I absolutely LOVE the AU world building you've done, and the chapters with the group pester logs have been saved on my phone home screen for years they are so funny and good to me. And your art for it always feels so like soft and atmospheric, and gentle where it needs to be, just feels really well rooted in your writing! A+++

Awww oh man! This is such a nice ask, thank you so much! I’m really super stuck (pun not intended) on the next chapter, but hopefully once my life settles down a little i’ll be able to go back to working on it! :Dd

[elanorpam]

isleofconclusions replied to your link:Earthbent! - Chapter 5

That conversation/roleplay Eridan did is such an experience! It’s just as incredible and eye-popping as all the reactions to that conversation hinted it would be. I wonder what the threshecutioner who responded to all that was thinking. That 180 in emotions though. What’s happening to Eridan seems very ominous.

Well... that threshecutioner wasn’t particularly smart, so he was thinking as follows:

1) haha I have him fooled. I am the lowblood-impersonating hightblood, it is me 2) i’m angry and bored and everyone else is trying to look busy elsewhere. I totally have time for sexy roleplay with some kid i’m supposed to kill. it’s been like two days and i’m on edge 3) this guy is a roleplaying amateur. time to show him how roleplaying is REALLY done. 4) this is a promisingly sexy scenario. maybe there is hope for him after all. 5) ok no i have standards fuck this