Okay wait I'm sorry but I didn't see it until after I sent the last ask so if double-dipping is verboten, then ignore this but:
Twijack but inspired by a kissing panel from Revolutionary Girl Utena
like oh my GOD RGU??? in 2026??? Aurora I might love you please tell me about this WIP please 🥹
Hi, Dis! Please do not worry, I don’t mind the asks! They’re super fun!
OOH YES, okay so! I saw this post floating around and being like “Okay that is BEAUTIFUL. It would be perfect for Twijack from MLP.”
I saved the image, tried to draw from it and realised… I wanted to make it into a fully fledged painting? Partially because I also thought of Midzel being a good potential pairing for a redraw too 🤣 so now this is the current stage of development for it, which is still very early days:
Once I’m caught up on wips, I would be happy to continue with this one again. It’s definitely a piece I am excited to finish.
procrastinating research paper writing by ruminating upon galex fic ideas. i had claimed a prompt for galex fest but i really don't think I'm going to get it done in time considering i haven't even fucking started. but anyway here's a list of prompts/fic ideas i want to write
george becomes a swan (my galex fest pick. i can picture some scenes vividly but I haven't written anything)
george gets sucked into a cult (*cough*toto as cult leader*cough*) and alex tries to get him out
boyband au
i also need to read the galex fics posted over the past two weeks and leave comments on them ♥️♥️♥️♥️
MAY I PLEASE ASK ABOUT YOUR CHAMPION'S BANQUET AU [clasps hands pleadingly and looks up with big shiny eyes] it sounds just so lovely and i love the fic and i am. abnormally invested. double life is my personal favorite life series, mostly since its the first one i watched live, and pearl is EVERYTHING to me and her character in this world is just so [screams incoherently] and its kinda inspired me to write some more mythical stuff based on the life series too
RAMBLING ASIDE if there's anything cool you dont mind sharing about this verse i would love to hear it :DDD
[you've just struck a critical dialogue box and engaged my secret lore !!!]
okay. first of all anon I LOVE YOU? you spoil me. the champion's banquet is one of those stories that i wish, oh i wish i had the power to write. ultimately it got toppled beneath its weight, but man it was so fun to write some of those moments. the name scene, her bath with dihya, the final scene she meets scott... screams incoherently with you
anyway here's a TON of infodumping about the fic that i couldn't reasonably fit into the already-absurdly-long-author's notes in no particular order:
TITLES:
One of the things that came from the earliest stories was Tilly and Pearl's dialogue throughout the games. Tilly, who doesn't quite speak like humans do, would only know the players by titles (like Cleo would be the huntress, Joel the manslayer, Bdubs the architect, Scar the undead, Scott the fool, Bigb the spectre etc.). These aren't entirely based on tarot cards, or Pearl's perception? It was meant to be Tilly's understanding of them, based on smell and instinct. Those were SO HARD to narrow down some (especially the players i don't know that well), and really were meant to play into their greater stories. Augh.
Also, speaking of names: Dihya and Amanar are both Maghreb names! It felt like a fun time to weave some of my own cultural history into this story. Dihya is the romanised version of Kahna or al-Kahina, a famed indigenous Algerian military leader who fought against Arab expansion. Completely left-field in terms of relevancy to the champion's banquet BUT really cool. Amanar is Apostle I THINK in Arabic>>>> but also is the Berber word for Pleiades, the constellation cluster. Ohto comes from Finnish mythology, I think the name meant King of the Forest but I am STRUGGLING to find this one in my notes. Soryyy
STORY:
I really wanted to write a fall from grace. Personally, interpretations of the Life Series as "players vs. the Watchers" don't stirke me in any meaningful way; other people can spin the idea incredibly but I am not thee. Instead, I loooove twisting things. What if the antagonistic force is Time? Inevitability? The sun (I'm looking at you, you are here to risk your heart), Death Herself? I felt really compelled to tell Pearl's fall from grace, loved by wolves but ultimately cursed to be human, then shunned by humanity for her animalism and cursed to be their doom. Fearing Death, running from Death, then serving Death to spare yourself. Taking her abandonment, her loneliness, and justifying anything to spare herself the humiliation and vulnerability of being left behind. That just really, really spoke to me.
The outline of the story really relied on the innate unreliable narration of the Traffic Series; you can watch one POV and receive a very specific narrative of events (which sucks for fandom discourse but is sooooooo good at writing unreliable narrators. See my SL scar fic). Ultimately, the other characters were there, but tertiary to Pearl's fragmented looking-glass self and Death's influence. For example, Tilly dying in episode 2 and Pearl quickly replacing her with another wolf by the same name, but treating her like her own wolf... I think there is something so intriguing about this denial of grief. She's so fucked up and not-normal to me /lovingly
But the chapter I posted (sort of chapter 0) was the prologue to it all. In following the general story of Double Life, I didn't want to exactly retell it, since I think making new scenes out of the story's large plot is much more fun (and familiar to my writing, if you've read my other life series fics). Recreating canon scenes isn't my cup of tea.
Miscellaneous things...
I picked poems for every chapter before even writing them (because I'm silly...)
SCOTT!! Scott is kind of super important to this story. NOT JUST because he's like. Pearl's tormented ex in the canon haha... When thinking about story circularity and how these two are opposite in many ways, I wanted their stories to begin and and at the same place, but take opposing paths to get there. So what does this mean?
Beginning: both are cursed by Death from cheating her a life. Pearl escapes freezing to an early Death, while Scott is the only to survive from his traveling caravan drowning at sea. They both, inadvertently, earn Death's focus. Scott lives a life of solitude after this, while Pearl is desperate to re-create the bonds she loses when the great wolf god's mountain burns.
Mid-story: Rejection hardens Pearl. Company and friends and watching Pearl softens Scott.
Late stage: Their tentative alliance towards the end of DL during the four-man alliance between them, Cleo + Martyn is like. Sooooo important to me? Scott feeding Tilly. Them hiding in the basement casually discussing killing one another. I'm crazy? But yeah. This point, this eclipse of their changes, where Pearl has fully sunken into Death's claws while Scott is concerned for her, that's the pass-by point.
End: Well, you know how Double Life ends.
SCAR: I really wanted to write Tilly as afraid of Scar. Which was kind of stretching my characterization skills since scary isn't a trait I'd prescribe to DL Scar... You've heard the adage (well, maybe) that being trusted by animals is a sign of goodness. Well I wanted to write the inverse in Scar. Pearl doesn't trust him much, but Tilly would be terrified of him. Tilly only knows instinct, and doesn't play the game of words. To her, the players are animals all out to kill. Which, perhaps was true... But Pearl the biggest of them all...
I had to dig through my notes to rite all of this and sort of shocked myself with the depths and love that were poured into a story that ultimately didn't come to be. It's sort of bittersweet to sit and write this, but the champion's banquet was the right story at the wrong time in my life, and there's nothing wrong with that. Forever it will live dear in my heart, and it brings me such joy to hear it may live on in yours. There may be a day where it's the right time but I'm not holding grief if it it never comes, you know?
Thank you again for giving me the chance to yap endlessly about a story of love, daughters, sorrow and blood.
I've been meaning to go back and add comments, but I've got to tell you that I love your stories with Hobie! >w< I admit I might be obsessed with him at the moment.
Panda/Black Feathers
Eeeee thank you thank you thank you! Yeah, I’m totally obsessed with him too, no need to apologize 😂 I’m writing like two more stories with him at the same time as each other so y’all are gonna be good for a bit! (Until I might write for Miguel? 👀👀👀)
