#minecraft fanficiton

[traderotales]

Reaper | Character Spotlight | Day 4

I KNOW I missed yesterday. But sue me, I was spending it with my partner lmao. So here's Day 4 of Reaper's Character Spotlight!

Day 1 is here!

Day 2 is here!

Day 3 is here!

If you aren't aware, character spotlight is a neat thing by @did-i-do-this-write, basically you babble about a specific character for as long as you choose, until essentially you have nothing left to babble for! It's great :)

[Reaper's Character Spotlight will go on for one week (Sept 12th to the 19th). This means any character asks sent during this week will be about her, and (hopefully) I put out more about her every day of said week lol. If you have any follow-up questions, I'd love to answer them :)]

Today's topic is:

Relationships with Others

Last time, I talked sort of at length about Reaper's relationship with authority figures (she hates them). Now, though, I wanna talk about her relationships with the other few main characters :). Because of this, there will be minor spoilers for Souls of Black, but not too much I don't think.

[All art posted here is made by me. Tap for better quality, and please don't steal it <3 that'd be rude.]

Coder

First, we'll start with Coder, the teenager who sort of started all this. He is Wolf's younger brother, and the two are outsiders to the Biome they meet Reaper in, the Plains. When they do meet her, she eventually agrees to Coder's pleas to help them find a cure for Wolf's odd magical scars, given to him after he regenerated with Coder in the Plains, after being killed back home.

Coder is someone that at first, Reaper just sees as naive, and a bit annoying with how much he talks and tries to connect with her, which is the one thing she's trying to avoid. Coder is very much one to not like the idea of violence, which Reaper tries to hammer out of him as she sees it as the only way in the world, at least with most people.

Throughout the story, though, Reaper slowly absorbs his ideas that not everyone has to be met with hostility and violence, as she grows as a person from the others as well. Reaper also slowly is more protective of Coder in a sisterly way, and does eventually let her guard down more around him. I think he's the first person she lets her guard down around, actually. Coder's the type of person to just... listen to people, not for any malicious reason, but to just learn about them and connect with them, and try to help them with anything if he can. One of the things he's always been confused about is why people hate outsiders so much, because in his eyes, the fact they come from somewhere else just makes them all the more interesting.

Wolf

Wolf is Coder's older brother, and a very protective one at that. He is also the type to not like being seen as weak, as it lets people have the chance to take advantage of him, or pity him, and it hinders him from functioning fully. And all of those, he hates equally, as he, like many others, think you must do most things yourself if you want anything done. This is skewed slightly, as he has Coder who he does appreciate when Coder insists he take care of him for a night, but even then Wolf takes it upon himself to try and do as much to help Coder as he can, even if it means risking himself.

Reaper at first, sees that Wolf doesn't really trust her too much, but she doesn't blame him, as that distrust is usually how you stay alive. She's annoyed with him too, as Wolf doesn't like stealing, which she sees as necessary, and he tends to shut down Coder's conversations a lot to keep information about the two on the down low. Reaper can respect it, but doesn't make it not annoying. She also likes collecting information lmao.

Over time, though, the two also gain a sibling-like bond, and more respect for each other, really. Wolf slowly realizes that Reaper's want to help them is true, and Reaper sees how stubborn he is to protect what he cares about, and she can respect it.

Phoebe

[Yikes, I really gotta draw my girl more.]

Phoebe... ohh, Phoebe. Phoebe is a character that honestly starts out as a foil to Reaper; Phoebe is instantly helpful to the group when they meet her early on (after a small scuffle and misunderstanding, that is). Reaper doesn't trust her at all, but stays due to Coder's insistence on trusting her, and the fact that Phoebe does offer legitimate help. Reaper at first sees Phoebe as naive, misguided even as she finds out Phoebe is Abyssalist (more on that in Day 3's post), and a little loony, as one of Phoebe's main hobbies is farming and gardening, which Reaper sees mostly as a waste of time.

And yet, Reaper slowly gains respect for Phoebe's fighting spark, as she's not entirely helpless on her own. She realizes that Phoebe knows when to be kind and when not to be, and slowly learns that from her. Overall, Reaper just starts falling for Phoebe as they're love interests for each other :3. But another thing is, as people of differing beliefs they do get into conversations about said beliefs, and Reaper finds Phoebe's willingness to do so refreshing, if not a bitttt annoying that Phoebe seems rooted in her ways (though Reaper does learn to leave it be and respect her ideas and beliefs.)

Galisa

[I can SEE the quality crunch, jesus christ- lmao]

Galisa is a character that doesn't show up until a bit later in Part 1 (of I think 4) of Souls of Black, but is still pretty important. Galisa is another outsider, not being from the Plains, and was displaced into the Biome, or killed and regenerated there. Galisa is from sort of the higher end of society, and has lived in a town her whole life, so she's sort of self centered and snobbish. She doesn't fully understand the complete survival life that the other four have endured, and boyyy does this lead to a lot of tension between her and Reaper.

Reaper, as I've stated both here and in Day 3, hates authority figures, which Galisa may not fully be, but she embodies their attitudes well enough. Reaper is half against the idea of helping Galisa at all when the group finds her, and that only strengthens the more time Galisa spends with them. Reaper is never going to say it out loud, but at first she'd rather throw Galisa to a stalker den then have to deal with her herself.

Fortunately, this does change over time. Reaper sees that Galisa, however self centered she may come off as at first, does truly care about her friends. She and Galisa also gain a sisterly bond, and Galisa abuses the hell out of it by making jokes about Reaper's pessimism a lot, and just her demeanor in general, but not truly at Reaper's expense.

The other idea I've had is that both Galisa and Phoebe, mainly the former, help Reaper explore the more 'feminine' world, such as makeup, painting, etc, as Reaper's never been exposed to it. A cute scene idea I've had a bit is Galisa and Phoebe helping Reaper try makeup for the first time, and Reaper the whole time half complaining about it, but at the end she realizes just how beautiful she is. :D

End

Now, unfortunately, I currently have no ideas for the rest of this week-- so, iff you guys want, feel free to ask me anything about Reaper!! It can be related to the Spotlight posts I've done so far, or just, anything on your mind! I also know I have a lot of oc ask games on my blog, so if you want to pull from those, most of them are under the tag #oc asks :)) Obviously no pressure, but--it'd be nice, lol

Honestly, it could maybe also be doodle requests too, maybe. I have been trying to doodle these guys more often hehe

I just love it when people are curious about my characters! Likely one of the later days, or after the week ends (or if I cut it short) I'll do a poll of other characters to see who's wanted first.

As always though, I hope this was interesting! Any questions at all, I'd be more than happy to answer :3 also if you see typos no you don't

[traderotales]

Reaper | Character Spotlight | Day 6 (7) | LAST DAY!!

And so we reach the end of Reaper's Character Spotlight week. This was a lotta fun, and I'm excited to do another one! I'll be using this poll here to see who to do next, sooo go vote! There's only 7 4 hours left on it!

That or I just choose whoever I feel like--but I think I'll do it based on the poll lol.

Now, if you aren't aware, character spotlight is a neat thing by @did-i-do-this-write, basically you babble about a specific character for as long as you choose, until essentially you have nothing left to babble for! It's great :)

[Reaper's Character Spotlight will go on for one week (Sept 12th to the 19th). This means any character asks sent during this week will be about her, and (hopefully) I put out more about her every day of said week lol. If you have any follow-up questions, I'd love to answer them :)]

Day 1 is here!

Day 2 is here!

Day 3 is here!

Day 4 is here!

Day 4.5 (supposed to be six, really) is here!

Day 5 is here!

Today's topic is:

Inspirations!

For today, I'll be using the last few questions generously given to me the other day by @pluppsauthor! Copy pasted below:

How did you come up with Reaper as a character? Are there any fun facts related to that? How does she affect the story? / How does the story affect her? Are there any characters in other media similar to her, whether from intentional inspiration or coincidental similarities?

I saved this topic for last because it's kind of my favorite part about Souls of Black as a whole. It's something really close to my heart that means a lot to me, so I'm glad I get to share it now :)

[Continued under the cut. It is LONG, mainly because of the first question alone, but I think it's worth it lols.]

How did you come up with Reaper as a character?

So, for those of you who don't know who wound up reading this, Souls of Black is highly inspired by the game Minecraft. And as such, Reaper honestly started out as the character I often played as. For a long time I played on Bedrock Edition on my dad's XBox, and on his account. Part of his username had the word 'Reaper' in it, which on its own is pretty cool, and so I kinda stole that for her name, lol.

Reaper as an actual character with lore, though, started say, 4, 5 years ago? I was playing on a survival world by myself, and my (not yet) boyfriend had joined, and we were just messing around. There was only one thing though: he and I are very much known for spontaneously roleplaying.

It's how Call of the Void started, and it's how this started, too. We started playing as actual characters, using our gamertags as their names: Reaper and Yoda. Eventually, the roleplay started growing and as such so did the lore. We got a few of our friends to join in on it--a lot of them came and went, but at least one of them stayed until the end and what was for what we decided was the world's finale. That world, which we affectionately named Loreland (the pinnacle of creativity obviously) was really was started Reaper as a character. And I am so ever grateful for it.

And actually, Reaper's outfit in Souls of Black was inspired by/based off of the Minecraft skin I'd made and had in Loreland:

Her hairstyle, boots, and the length of her coat were really all that I changed for Souls of Black. But, the neat thing is, her hairstyle in the photos is what I use for as a base for her current day hair :D

I have a few pictures from Loreland, very bad ones as it was me taking photos of my TV screen, but I love them very much and I'm going to explain each of them like a mother through a family photo album damnit!

I've realized some of them can't be put here because they're somehow too big. BUT I can try and share the important ones!! But be warned, yeah there's a lot, and I have a LOT to babble about hehe.

Locations

The first image is an apiary I'd built in front of my house. Self explanatory, it had three floors fillleedd with bees :3 The second image is another shot of the front of my house, thankfully done by my wonderful boyfriend.

This is what we all affectionately called 'Cobble Cave'. It was a cave across the mountain I lived on top of, and we really only used it for cobble, digging a deeper and deeper quarry in it as we did lol. I didn't want anyone living in it because it was basically our quarry, and so I put this sign here

So, Bedrock is known for its bugs, and this is one of the few that happened once. My brother and I were playing together, and while I saw rain, he saw nothing but sunshine. We thought it was really funny, given Reaper's consistent dour mood, versus his character, Gerald's, usually chipper one.

Now this is my WONDERFUL home, god I love it so much. This image isn't wholly accurate, because some of the underside stairs on the roof, on the left side, were missing, because for the entire world I'd forgotten that I hadn't put any there. Unfortunately my boyfriend fixed that before he took the photo lol

This image pertains to him, actually, or rather his character, Yoda. This is Yoda's house, which was essentially a bunker underneath mine, inside of the mountain.

This was on the east side of my mountain, where a few buildings were. This bridge is one I'd just built and was rather proud of, with the building behind it being a courthouse that was used...a few times, actually. We put one character under house arrest for murder, with the ghost of the victim as the judge--

Finally, this is a work in progress shot of a shop I'd built. Essentially it sold music discs--mellohi being my and then Reaper's favorite. My love for music discs started hers, honestly, but that only fuuully shows up in current day Apocryphal SMP. It does a little bit in Souls of Black, I'll admit. But I feel they have a few more pressing problems than finding strange music discs.

Lore?

This is Reaper's attic; in it was where she kept a lot of keepsakes and gifts from other characters, as well as two of her journals, which were used to essentially keep tabs on other characters, as well as it being a diary of sorts. This, along with me usually using book and quills one way or another in every world, helped along the idea of Reaper's journal in SoB :)

And here's a few of said entries. The first is after Yoda's first canon death--caused by Reaper herself, because she saw killing him as the only way to sever the sculk's connection to him that was controlling his body. The castle mentioned was another building near the courthouse, and was there before it, actually. And the ghost... well, he's important and will come later :)

The second image is an example of her notes on a half human, half Enderman character named Sir Evan II. He was the final friend that stuck around for Loreland's finale, as well as my brother joining in.

Here is the ghost of Yoda, named Ghoda. And this is his first meeting with a natural pink sheep, the first we found on Loreland, which he decided to bring home and into the lore and name him pal.

Pal has become something of a running bit, yet an endearing one all the same. Any pink sheep found on a world with me in it is usually the first one found on it. It sounds rigged but I can assure you it really isn't 😭😭. But I always see it as pal looking for Reaper again in any world, hehehe :33

Now, in Reaper's sort of lore timeline, Loreland actually happens after Souls of Black--hence the reason her outfit doesn't really change between them. But now I get to talk about the inspiration behind Souls of Black itself... I'll try not to get too emotional, haha. Again, it's something I hold very dear to me, because it's really the reason Souls of Black exists at all.

Souls of Black's Inspiration

As I mentioned, for the longest time I played Bedrock Edition of Minecraft. And on Bedrock, you have a few select servers you can choose to play on. And there was one I loved a lot, for the sole fact that I could play survival mode with new people, when my friends weren't up for it or weren't available, or if I just wanted a new experience, really.

This server was called Lifeboat, and its Survival Gamemode was the entire reason Souls of Black exists today.

Playing on the Survival Mode on Lifeboat was always an... experience. You spawn in a normal Minecraft world, only, people have been here before. Blocks litter almost the entire land, spread around sporadically. Towers of various materials loom everywhere, left behind by people trying to escape others who'd kill them for no reason. Trees would be left floating, and old bases were left across the world, looted and half destroyed for their resources and contents.

You might've already seen it, but a lot of these things are things I translated into the world of Souls of Black. Those towers? The fight pillars in-canon. The old bases became what are known as Remnants in SoB. Lifeboat servers also have chests full of supplies that spawn, and that mechanic is in SoB too, one of the very first ones you see. But what really inspired the story itself was an adventure I had on it four years ago, one that I've been working on ever since.

That adventure started like any other on Lifeboat: I spawn in, and instantly started sneaking around. The main reason was because, like in SoB, people tend to kill other people a lot, and it could quickly just become not fun if it happened right after you spawn in. It wasn't fun at all, really, but right after you just got there was a lot worse.

As I was sneaking around, I was glancing at chat occasionally, just out of curiosity. And I saw people struggling. People being killed or just wanting company. Unfortunately, even with my sneaking, I did end up getting in people's line of sight, and per usual they had better gear than I did. And so I died. But, I spawned in where Reaper starts in Souls of Black, a sort of mountainous area with a forest at the base.

And that was when I decided to group up with the people I saw struggling. See, Lifeboat's got a mechanic where you can essentially request to teleport to a person, and they can accept. I told a few people they could, and they all grouped up with me, and together we really just started going around the world and deciding on a place to live. We all worked together, and at first we just made a really cute farm:

It was something that brought us together, more. Something that was like 'yeah, we're friends :)'

The other fun fact about it, is: those people's usernames are direct inspirations for the characters that Reaper's friends with. Wolf and Coder's names were direct inspirations-- those words were part of two of their usernames. Phoebe's name came from a user with 'FBI' in their name, and me trying to mash the letter's sounds together into a name. Galisa's name was originally Galaxy, due to that being part of another person's user. But I recently changed it to Galisa for that more medieval-y feel that SoB has going on, lols.

Unfortunately, shortly after we actually finished our base, someone in diamond armor came and started killing us over and over, and started burning the forest with lava. We got separated (but teleported to one of the others, and ended up with a new person that one of the others found, in a mountain base that the person had.

Now, throughout this entire adventure, I was half in roleplay mode, especially because novel-esc things just kept happening. At this mountain base, the previous guy who'd killed us before came back and apologized, and promised to help us get better armor and gear. It was all well and good until eventually, more diamond armored people came around.

The worst part? They were hackers. Kept teleporting around, flying, being invulnerable. They attacked the base and blew it up, I think, and left us running away. Previously, FBI had left the game, and I think a few others had too after we were ambushed. So it was the previous murderer, Galaxy, and I, I remember.

I think the murderer left the game at some point, so at the end it was just me and Galaxy. The two of us roamed the land, trying to decide what to do next. We made graves for the others, and I was in full rp mode at that point. I think Galaxy went off on her own, or maybe left the game. Because at the end, I decided enough was enough. For nothing but dramatic effect, and because I thought it made sense, I had Reaper find a pool of lava... and jump in.

Now, is that the ending of Souls of Black? No, I know that for sure. I'd previously toyed with that idea, but decided it just didn't fit, fully.

A lot of the above events inspired SoB, and a good portion of its plot. Other times, more recent ish ones, that I've been on Lifeboat again, I met other people who inspired more characters for the novel. And I just think that's amazing. How... my favorite game, ever since my childhood, has evolved into a full blown novel (idea) from one simple adventure.

Whew, that was a lot, but I hope you enjoyed that regardless :). Time for the other questions!

How does she affect the story? / How does the story affect her?

I'll be honest, I'm not too sure on how to answer the first part, but I'll try my best!

I can't say much without spoilers, but I guess she's the reason Souls of Black happens in the first place. Her one act of kindness towards Wolf and Coder ultimately bring rise and light to other darker areas of the world and plot, which thus help the characters eventually stop them. Though, on that note, Doc is also partially responsible for the story happening, or, at least them being able to stop the overall antagonistic plot. He discovers information that's helpful to them later on.

For how the story affects her? I'll be so honest, 'trauma' was my first answer. Because even current day Reaper very much is affected by the events of Souls of Black. But even though bad shit does happen, Reaper ultimately became a better person out of it. She grows and learns the so very important lesson that people can be kind and good, and will do so if they can. She learns to let herself be loved, to know that she can be loved, and gains an aspect of confidence she didn't really have before.

Are there any characters in other media similar to her, whether from intentional inspiration or coincidental similarities?

You know, I tried thinking about this. Because a good few of my other characters have clear inspirations: Ruby Darkshine with Carmen Sandiego, Sam Allen with Percy Jackson, Sapphire with Aang, Riot with Rascal from Glitter Force. But actually, I don't think Reaper has like, a clear one. There's only one I can name that really seems right: Technoblade.

You might have heard his name before. Technoblade was a Minecraft Youtuber, and one a lot of people, including myself, admired. I especially enjoyed his character on the DSMP, an witty anarchist with dry humor and who could easily overpower most other opponents via mainly preparation. I think that's where a lot of Reaper's personality stems from, even if not 100% intentional. So, yeah. Technoblade :)

I hope you guys enjoyed this!! I know I did, talking about SoB's inspiration and how it came to be is always something I love doing. I can't wait to see/figure out whose Character Spotlight I'll do next! Until then :)

[traderotales]

Phoebe | Character Spotlight | Day 5

Original idea by @did-i-do-this-write!

A link to Souls of Black on AO3.

Day 1 is here!

Day 2 is here!

Day 3 is here!

Day 4 is here!

Admittedly, this is going to be Phoebe's last day. I just cranked out 20k words for ch3 of SoB (which you should read using the link above ヾ(•ω•`)o) and currently attention on it is at a low. But, I just finished a new book that my partner graciously gifted me, and so I'm back to thinking about it. A little.

But, after Phoebe's spotlight, I plan to start doing some for CoV, because they've taken back the wheel of my brain. I'm stuck between two candidates--the main female lead, Ruby Darkshine, or Sam Allen, an arguably really important character who's sort of the reason CoV even happens, lol. But, I digress.

Today's topic for Phoebe's last day: Motivations!

I honestly think that Phoebe's main motivation is kindness.

The poor woman has been through so much hatred and disrespect in the Soul Ring, and that's the very thing that caused her to cling so hard to her faith in The Black, and Abyssalism's teachings. And the main one, the biggest one they preach, is kindness. Kindness to those who are suffering, or to those who help you. Kindness to people you've just met, because a good first interaction is better than a bad one.

Unfortunately, Phoebe is one of the few that actually practice this. A lot of other Abyssalists let their societal labels and prejudices get in the way. Being out in the forest by herself, Phoebe doesn't have much of those, but she does hear things, and without solid evidence to confirm or refute them, her imagination of horrific people runs a little wild sometimes.

Phoebe unfortunately clings to being kind a bit too much, and it causes her to not know when exactly to stand up for herself sometimes. But in relation to that, another teaching of Abyssalism is karma. And Phoebe is one who eventually learns to better know when to dish it out, rather than let it pass her by and tell herself she'll be fine when people do her wrong. But don't worry, a lot of the first few times she does it, Reaper is eager to put whoever wronged her in their place.

Delving more into her faith, Phoebe in general tries to stick to it a lot, doing what she think The Abyss would approve of, and using her faith as a moral code. She prays daily and wonders a lot if her time spent in the Soul Ring is reprehensible or not, if The Abyss sees it as sin. And so a lot of her prayers are apologizing for it, even if the situation hadn't exactly been her fault.

Phoebe honestly just wants a better world than what they live in, and a peaceful one at that. One where people live happily and abundantly, where they don't have to scavenge for scraps. Part of her feels guilty for thinking that, for dismissing the world that The Abyss created, but it persists all the same. She believes people are a product of this environment, despite her wish for them to choose a better way for themselves. She thinks everyone could use a little listening to The Abyss, that listening to their Creator would help change the hearts and minds of men. A lot of the time, she feels powerless because of it all, but has adopted the mindset that any small bit of help counts eventually.

Phoebe wants people to be kind to each other. She wants a better world, where people aren't forced to fight to survive. She wants to be a good person, and tries to be even when a lot of the time she feels like she isn't. She wants to be someone that The Abyss, if it can feel, is proud of to have created. She doesn't want to be like everyone else, fallen to sin and violence. She wants to do good, and to be good. And she wants to eventually inspire others to do the same.

And eventually, she does. Arguably, a lot of Souls of Black happens because of her, and her inspiring the others, namely Reaper, to be better and do good in the world.

Any questions about Phoebe, I'd be happy to answer. Have a good day <3