I've been feeling a strong pull towards the water lately, a siren's call that I can't quite ignore. Tonight, under the light of the waning crescent moon...
Mm, a ritual by the river tonight sounds absolutely divine.
I'll need to gather some ingredients first. I'm sure I can find everything I need at the occult shop downtown.
I commed Zara for this STUNNING minoade, and while the art absolutely stands on its own in astounding me with how exceptionally well they grokked my favorite guys...of course I wrote fic. More bang for my buck, more gently T-rated introspection (1.5K worth, to be precise) for you. If you'd like, you can read it on Ao3 here.
Since early 2021 I've been refining a design and backstory for Addam's wife, and in early 2022 I commissioned Aurora for this piece of the couple walking together in Aletta. At the same time, I started working on a fic focusing on their relationship throughout TTGC that grew to almost 13K words by the time we posted. It's M-rated for the themes and gravity of the underlying relationship, as well as one...awkward not-really-sex scene, but mostly consists of sweet moments twinged with a little something bittersweet. If you'd like, you can read it on Ao3 here.
This year I participated in PrideWrite, with one 100-word drabble for each of the 30 regular prompts and each of the 30 alternate prompts. I aimed to hit all my main and/or historic fandoms, with an eventual focus on crossover pairings (certainly, a focus on pairings I haven't already written for or would have a hard time expanding upon in a more established piece otherwise, when it comes to fandoms I've been frequenting recently). I've included the pairings and links to each piece under the cut, and you can browse the series on Ao3 here.
Farm - Minoth/Addam (Xeno Series)
Plaid - Calista & Ariela (The Last Story)
Queer Euphoria - Richie & Fonzie (Happy Days)
Baking - Oscar/Felix (The Odd Couple)
Occult - Nia/Midna (Crossover)
Unicorn - Pandoria/Wulfric (Xeno Series)
Gender Envy - Fiora & Dunban (Xeno Series)
Parade - Therius & Asthar (The Last Story)
Heart - Link/Shiek (Legend of Zelda)
Kiss - Max/99 (Get Smart)
Domestic - Shion/KOS-MOS (Xeno Series)
Meet-Cute - Flora/Elma (Xeno Series)
Content - Elma/Midna (Crossover)
Solidarity - Haze & Minoth (Xeno Series)
Coffee - Shux/Elma (Xeno Series)
Fake Relationship - Richie/L.B. (Happy Days)
Story - Medli/Tetra (Legend of Zelda)
Letters - Marin/Ruto (Legend of Zelda)
Time - Sharla/Vanea (Xeno Series)
Camp - Zeke/Groose (Crossover)
Polari - Vandham/Daruk (Crossover)
Violets - Midna/Brighid (Crossover)
Green Carnations - Citan/Sigurd (Xeno Series)
Sunset - Sena/Linkle (Crossover)
Complicated - Roger/Chachi (Happy Days)
Questions - Melia/Midna (Crossover)
Genderflux - chaos/Jr. (Xeno Series)
Bigender - Syrenne/Lowell (The Last Story)
Transmasc - Addam/Ziggy (Xeno Series)
Transfem - Syrenne/Flora (Crossover)
Alternate Prompts
Cottage - Melia/Haze (Xeno Series)
Cuffed Jeans - Nia & Minoth (Xeno Series)
Queer Longing - Midna/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Candles - Pyra/Pandoria (Xeno Series)
Cryptids - Lanz/Taion (Xeno Series)
Nature - L/Gwin (Xeno Series)
Role Model(s) - Link & Colin (Legend of Zelda)
Firsts - Addam & Azurda (Xeno Series)
Roses - The Professor & Ginger (Gilligan's Island)
Holding Hands - Joanie/Jenny (Happy Days)
Poly - Bart/Fei/Elly (Xeno Series)
Demisexual - Zelda/Mipha (Legend of Zelda)
Demiromantic - Sidon/Link (Legend of Zelda)
A-Spec - Kirk/Spock (Star Trek)
Platonic Relationship - Groose & Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Happily Ever After - Lana/Linkle (Legend of Zelda)
What qualities does she admire most in the people around her?
Rose wasn't the sort that people often flocked to, and she was fine with that. She wouldn't know what to do if they did. No, it was the other couriers of Empyrean Imports that took the 'stage', and the Shadowsuns themselves, and Rose was content to listen from the backroom of the office or watch owlishly from the counter as business commenced.
It was never that she didn't like people. People were fairly interesting, and much of her sketches were inspired by them. She could simply people watch better when people weren't watching her. Or not talking to her, especially. It was always harder for her to determine what she felt about a person in the collision of conversation, when socializing in the first place was the discomfort of sometimes pulling teeth, as words out of her never sounded as good as she wanted. Ahh, the conflict of being perceived.
She liked very much about people. She liked most of all their kindness, people with easy laughs that made you smile to hear them. She liked patient people -- some of Empyrean Imports were more patient than others, of course, but you had to have a measure of patience to do the work they did. People with open minds were always nice, people that were a little bit mischieveous were always the life of the party, and people with their silver tongues both intimidated and amazed her. She very much liked people that animals liked, particularly canines. Dogs could always pick out the good ones. And she liked people that could say so much with only a few words. She was particularly partial to people that knew their way around flora, and treated plants and flowers like precious babies.
And of course, she liked generous people, people that listened more than they talked and strived to make the admittedly mousy Roselyn feel comfortable around them.
Dearest Rose, your assumed namesake comes in dozens of colors and varieties. Each painting the world just as you do. But some roses have thorns. Do you?
Rose blinked a few times and tried to smile at the likening, but facts were trying to pour out of her mouth in the moment. "It's uh, 'Roselyn' fully. I was...uh, just kind've named after people? I mean family, heh. It's a family name. But yeah, I just go by Rose."
She straightened the strap of the large messenger bag on her shoulder, fingers clinging to it for a moment as she explained. "I think most natural roses are born with thorns? Defensive...kind of thing. If roses don't have thorns, it's cos people bred them not to have any. So they can be easier to handle. And roses grown indoors don't really need thorns, I guess? Probly says something about roses or people or something, huh?"
The gentle giant of a woman lifted her shoulders in a slow shrug. "I can have thorns if I have to. That's usually with a lil' magic. But uh, most people leave me well enough alone t'not need em."
hello! i was going through my ao3 bookmarks the other day and i noticed that all of the ones written by you had been archived into a collection, inaccessible. Can I ask why? Is it just a temporary precaution, or are they gone for good?
HI!!!!!! i'm so sorry for causing any inconvenience - as it happens, as of just a couple hours ago, before i logged back into Tumblr, all of the works have been unarchived. whenever my works do go into an archive collection, there is a sort of safety net in that i'm too obsessive/compulsive to actually delete them from Ao3, because that means that all their stats and comments disappear too. something something media/data preservation, something something the work is really only complete to me once i post it (my spreadsheet more or less ensures that...).
now. i'm gonna soapbox on your lovely ask. i am constantly editing my Ao3 bio trying to say something like this...
as to why: i've just put a lot of pressure on myself, starting back when there was rather a lull in TTGC fic (my longest fic was in the works for a couple months before i made my Ao3 account in mid-May of 2021), to sort of be The Author in the [Xeno] tag(s) who has all the best concepts and ships and interpretations and style, consistently, universally. i want to appeal to everyone! i want everyone to love me! i want everyone to respect me! i want everyone to smile when they see my username pop up YET AGAIN in the tags. i want to be recommended! i want to be remembered... i'm not on Twitter so much anymore, and the culture's obviously quite different here, so how do i even ensure that people who don't browse the tags know who i am? hough...the impossible task...
so, i have only continued to experience that pressure in comparing myself to other creators (writers/artists) who are "less online" than i've been at points but have "better" work in terms of length, range, appeal, quality, imagination/esotericism/divergence, themes/mood/gravity, self-indulgence, representation...you name it. newsflash for me: that's just not a thing! it can't be!! fanwork is as varied and personal as each and every person who's ever experienced media properties and expressed their thoughts in any medium or forum. i seek out other creators/fans who like the same elements as i do (all minoade fans, you're on my list) specifically to converse with them and conquer my feelings of inadequacy head-on, and when i find myself scared to join a conversation with those who have become my best friends (or speculating from afar on ex-friends from whom i just grew apart, for these reasons or others) because i feel like i'll ruin the "quality" of the conversation...it's really not a good feeling. when i'm really feeling like a fraud and an intrusion, away go the fics...
all that to say: if you create something, if you think something, if you love something, i love you. even if it's really hard and scary, i'll make myself do it. that's what i want my fandom experience to be about <3
(but most importantly THANK YOU for asking - i am glad that i didn't see this before deciding to re-reveal the works, because it honestly might have spooked me, but seeing it now lets me know that it was the right decision :)