#labyrinth wip

[wordwings]

Ace Spec OC: another old one

There is another ace-spec character in Labyrinth WIP: Jasmine. She would be a demisexual lesbian in our terms, but she comes from the magical world most of this portal fantasy plays out in and doesn’t have that same language or cultural framework.

This is something I’m still working out as I’m expanding my worldbuilding, but my idea so far is that sexual and romantic orientation are not really something most people in this fictional setting* see as an identity signifier—they see attraction more along the lines of ‘having a type’ and there’s no hetero- or amatonormativity. (Gender is more complicated, because I’ve somehow already created at least four different cultures with different ideas of gender, none of them binary.)

I am pretty excited about exploring the queer cultural exchange between the kids from our world (like my other ace OC, Nick) and Jasmine and their family, who are the first people they meet in Aia.

Quick facts about Jasmine

age: 15 / pronouns: she/they / powers: shadow magic / occupation: training to be a healer with her mother

Picrew: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/603210

strange children maker

hey create your own forest child ヽ(>∀<☆)ノ ☆ ok to use: make oc profile picture/banner/etc commission reference ☆ do not use: commer

* By ‘this fictional setting’ I mean mostly the area of Aia that Enby Witch Kid and Labyrinth WIP are set in, which is only a small part of the world. I’m focusing my world building on that area as I write these stories, but I’m not making a homogenous one world culture.

[wordwings]

Happy WBW, dearie! 👻 - Is death permanent in your world? If ghosts exist, are they common, or is there a way to contact someone who has passed away?

Thank you! I meant to answer this yesterday, but my anxiety spiked so I stayed away from social media. But here I am now!

I actually hadn’t thought about this yet, so thank you for exposing a gap in my worldbuilding—genuinely! I’ve been thinking about it since yesterday and I’m full of ideas.

The Otherworlds stories are set in both our world and a second, magical world with its own magical creatures and deities, which I’ve been calling Aia. To answer the first question, yes, death is permanent.

There might be one or two myths about someone bargaining with the god of death to bring their loved one back, but this would only happen within moments after death. Aia’s god of death is a god of thresholds, they guard the threshold between life and death (they’re also associated with birth). So once someone fully crosses that threshold, they’re gone forever.

Ghosts, then, are beings who are stuck in-between, past the point of no return but holding on too hard to life to cross. I’d say they are uncommon, but not extremely rare—most people will have at least one family ghost story. They also don’t tend to stick around forever; eventually they have to accept their fate and move on.

[wordwings]

Happy WBW! (from the-down-upside-finch's main blog)

What is the the housing market like in your world? Is it easy to find a place to live, or is it near impossible to find a good place with affordable rent? Are houses a sign of status, or are they something that everyone has? (Bonus if you want to tell me anything about the architecture itself!)

Happy WBW! Thanks for the question!

Aia is a world without capitalism, so there is no housing 'market' per se. It differs per area how housing allocation works, though. Enby Witch Kid takes place in a rural area, where people live in family farms that may have been built by their great-greatgrandparent or something like that. It's a small enough community that people can figure things out amongst themselves if someone wants to move out or in, or if a new house has to be built.

My inspiration for the farmhouse of the family who take in my protagonist, Moss, when they venture into this world, was a blend of historic farm living. I looked into medieval and renaissance references mostly, but I also included something I know from more recent Dutch history: a 'bedstee', which I decided to call a bedsty in English. It's a bed that's built into the wall, behind wooden closet doors as a way for people to have privacy in what were generally one-room houses.

The nearest big city, Stendal, is where my other WIP Labyrinth takes place. This is a city state ruled by a monarchy. I hadn't thought particularly about housing yet, but I would say there's probably a government committee that makes sure everyone has a place to stay and handles relocations. There's also a big university which takes care of housing for its staff and students. The city is hewn from a mountain, so part of it, including the royal palace, is actually part of the mountain wall and the rest is all built out of the mountain's pale yellow stone.

[wordwings]

Ace Spec OC: oldest OC

The first asexual OC I ever created is Nick from my YA portal fantasy Labyrinth WIP. He is a gloomy teenager who loves poetry and plants and pretends he prefers books over people.

I have a lot of big changes to make to the draft I finished several years ago, and one of those changes is that I want to delve into each character’s background and personality more—including Nick’s asexuality. He’s also autistic and about to figure out he’s nonbinary through the power of queer friendship.

Quick facts about Nick:

age: 16 / pronouns: he/they (eventually) / powers: [redacted] / occupation: secondary school student, works in his grandmother’s bookshop

Picrew:

strange children maker

hey create your own forest child ヽ(>∀<☆)ノ ☆ ok to use: make oc profile picture/banner/etc commission reference ☆ do not use: commer