So, as you may have noticed, we have zero tags wrangled in our AO3 tag right now. Not only is this frustrating for filtering purposes, but it also means tagging your own fics with incorrect or missing tags is very common.
Therefore, I have been working on creating a master document that contains all the tags you'll need, and extras we can add for wrangling sake too.
You can find the link to that document at the bottom of this post. However, please keep in mind this is still being updated, and I am open to requests for additional tags to be added to this growing document. So, if you have a request, go ahead and either drop me a comment under this post, or feel free to DM me about it and I'll review it and let you know if I decide to add it.
Otherwise, I suggest you use this document for a guide when posting future fics, and also portentously consider going back and updating older fics with these uniform tags as well.
In this document you will also see a guide as to why certain tags are formatted certain ways, which tags are mandatory, and which tags are optional. My comments and DMs are also open for questions about any of those too.
Here you go, go wild!
Pulp Musicals AO3 Tags Fandom Tags* The Great Moon Hoax - Dahan Pulp Musicals - Dahan The Ghosts of Antikythera - Dahan (Optional) The Brick
okay so it seems like a pretty safe bet that Kal used to have Radiance, right? He was a traveler like Sia and Margaret, and Sia talks about Itzal poisoning Kal's mind—but maybe it wasn't just his mind that Itzal poisoned, but his magic? The fog as corrupted, twisted Radiance is one of my favorite theories & I really hope it's proven right at some point in the narrative, lol.
(I would also just like to learn more about it in general, even if it disproves that theory. GIMME THE TRAVELORE™!!!!!!! pretty please! 🙏)
anyway, @snarky-wallflower asked me what ideas I had for how a traveler could acquire fog magic and I kinda got carried away, lol.
Musings about Radiance corruption below the cut!
⚠️ I think what I wrote could count as body horror, so please be mindful of that! ⚠️
One option is that it's a slow, gradual corruption. whatever the process is—spell, poison/potion, infection—it takes time. and it probably hurts. your DNA is being rewritten and changed strand by strand, cell by cell, and it probably feels like sickness, like you're dying, and the Radiance is trying to burn it out of you. the thing you've known all your life, the magic that has been your tool and your source of power, of protection is turning against you, and you can't stop it and you can't turn it off. it's instinctive.
but eventually, when the fog takes hold and smothers out the last bits of light, it doesn't feel so sick or unnatural anymore. it probably feels like relief. the darkness is a blessing, and there's a new power thrumming in your blood where the Radiance used to burn. It probably feels cool and thick, a weight you can always feel in your chest when you breathe, whereas the Radiance was light and hot, weightless, nothing as tangible or real as the fog curling inside you.
the other possibility is that it's fast, merciless and invasive. maybe the Radiance has to be torn out of you before something else can take its place. you're in blinding agony as the core of you is stripped away—maybe it is a mercy if it's all at once, imagine losing who you are one painful chunk at a time—and it's over quickly, yes, but the memory of it haunts you and now you're just a shell, wounded and raw. and the fog is like a soothing balm as it fills that gaping void inside you, but it feels so alien, it feels wrong, it feels like you died and something else has taken your place. you aren't YOU anymore. the person you used to be was gone the moment they gutted you and stole your Radiance.
...or perhaps the Radiance isn't an obstacle to be removed but something to be beaten into submission, to be destroyed from the inside. maybe the fog is so thick and overpowering that it sinks into you and chokes out that light in a matter of minutes. you can feel the Radiance writhing inside you, fighting against this dark invader. there is a war in your body, and you are the casualty. the fog is what wins—you're just a survivor.
did you survive? are you sure? it doesn't matter, it's already over and you have a King to obey.
