#ttotss

[alienside]

hi and also hello. may i please hear everything about seia i would like the seia breakdown please and thank you <3

seia breakdown!!!! seia my beloved <3

the short version is that seia is 95% of keldan's impulse control. long version under the cut

okay in my head i picture seia as being from like a mountain village whose primary economy is mining-based. this is almost completely irrelevant to the actual story but i planned out everyone's backstories like three years ago so you're getting it. seia's naturally smaller than most people from these mining villages tend to be but he was also more sick than the average kid (which did not help) so growing up he was sort of on the frail side. that being said there was absolutely zero like "gender role" expectation that he would ever have to work in the quarries, because his culture doesn't really have Gender the way others do, and thus don't have gender roles either; everyone just contributes what they can to make sure the household runs smoothly, which means seia grew up helping out with stuff like finances, gardening/animal tending if he had the energy for it, sewing/mending clothes/weaving, other stuff around the house that's less physical labor. (btw this cultural view of gender is also why seia's nonbinary; he literally just cannot be bothered with translating his experience for others, and the first person who spoke to him in another language assigned him he/him pronouns and seia was like "whatever".)

anyway. there's some imperial/war-related stuff that happens next. crown soldiers show up, "this land belongs to this nation now", and they ship off basically everyone who's still school-aged to boarding schools in the empire proper. (two notes: first, i haven't named like most of the places that are relevant to backstory. yes i've had this wip for years. move on. second, i am assuming you've heard of cultural genocide. that's what's happening here.)

seia ends up rising through the ranks so to speak and gets a lot of attention for his knack for languages. he ends up in service of the crown that kidnapped him (this is probably around age 16 or so), as a translator/interpreter, and after a couple years ends up sold/traded to the highest bidder (melati's father, the king of. yet another name i haven't thought up yet.) they use nicer words than "sold/bought", because "slavery is illegal", but i'm not going to pretend seia had any choice in what's happening.

he does use his essentially-free access to royal libraries to do a LOT of reading, both before and after the trade. he teaches himself a lot of stuff, including More languages and some "applicable" life skills. (read: forgery. he gets terrifyingly good at forging official documents. he doesn't use this until after he joins up with keldan, because he's afraid of what will happen if he gets caught, but with keldan he's a bit of a loose cannon lmao)

also. MOSTLY irrelevant to the story but seia has like one friend, who was the youngest son of the first king seia worked for. they made it work alarmingly well despite the power imbalance thing, and the prince teaches seia how to swordfight. seia later trades that in for a dagger, saying it's more his style, but in a pinch.... absolutely deadly. they keep in touch after seia gets traded off, they write letters to each other in varying languages and use code names. the prince's real name is kazik tho.

also also. working for melati's father and spending like 90% of his free time in the library, seia's seen her before and she's seen him. they've talked more than once and melati would even loosely call him a friend at this point in their lives. being a princess she doesn't really question the exact terms of his employment. it's not really malicious, it's just that in her mind, the palace is kind of the best gig anyone could hope for, and she has a daughter's trust in her father (for now) and believes he'd never hold anyone against their will. and while technically he's not holding seia prisoner, seia has nothing and no one on the outside, and nowhere to go, and a contract a mile long that he doesn't know the exact terms of but surely there's a clause in there about abandoning your post before your term is served (there is. seia ends up breaking it anyway).

anyway. seia meets keldan on a diplomatic trip to okskiy, where keldan lounges around the throne room despite his king's best efforts to get rid of him before the party starts. (this is like almost immediately post-aderyn-breakup btw). seia doesn't get much time off during the actual meeting/negotiations/dinner, but once everyone's drunk and happy seia gets to slip away from his interpreter role, and he and keldan make small talk for a while and seia commits his face to memory because it feels like he's the first (second?) person to ever actually look at seia. it's complicated.

they end up meeting again on seia's "home turf"; keldan's delivering something on behalf of his king, and seia's the only one who speaks a language keldan understands, so they get plenty of more-or-less one-on-one conversation time. call it bonding or whatever. later, keldan's wandering around the castle (read: snooping) and happens upon the king propositioning seia (this is compete chance here. keldan's the only person i know who's obnoxious enough to have even the opportunity to stumble in on this conversation), which seia does not want but can't exactly say no to without risking. yknow. his life.

the king fucks off w/ keldan's arrival (not that keldan understood what was being said exactly but the postures... expressions... yeah) to avoid suspicion (does not work) and keldan's like. "fuck that guy." seia replies "he's my king." keldan says "what if he wasn't though" and then gets to play white knight for seia for about thirty minutes (the time it takes them to get back onto keldan's ship) before keldan really starts to get to know seia and realizes he is WAY out of his depth here.

they're more or less business partners after that. it's weird because seia definitely is not considered part of keldan's "crew", but keldan's operation is able to expand thanks to the breadth of languages seia can speak, seia travels everywhere with keldan + has his own cabins on the ship that he never uses bc he's always in keldan's, they read each other's minds and gaze longingly when the other isn't looking, but if a crewmate asks whether they've slept together keldan is like "why would we do that". they're a hot mess. seia forges like 90% of keldan's documents, whatever he needs (the other 10% are, technically, legal), and literally asks for nothing in return. keldan's always putting gold coins in with the rest of seia's stuff or trying to slip him payment some other way. seia stashes his collection of inks and fancy pens and parchments under keldan's bed.

the really sticky part is that neither of them really talk about their pasts. granted keldan can't talk about his childhood without getting into stuff that would make him sound crazy ("turns out there is stuff below the continents" crazy), but neither of them know where the other is from, they don't communicate w/each other in either person's native language, seia doesn't even know keldan had a partner before him.

keldan's also a bit insane. so he gets all these random ideas for all kinds of things (business, ship repairs/additions, fanciful vacations, you name it) and then seia's the one who filters it down into something doable. half the time seia is then also the one who implements it, whatever it is. keldan will be like "lets do a vacation on one of those waterfall islands" and seia will be like "what if instead we just spend a couple weeks off in okskiy" and then also schedule that time off into their calendar. this is more or less because seia is wayyyy more organized but also a little bit because even tho keldan has the big ideas, he wouldn't actually be into them. he would hate the wet humid nature of the waterfall islands and seia knows that and talks him out of it, and keldan wants seia happy so he agrees readily when seia suggests okskiy instead. they make it work somehow and everyone's like "how have you not broken up yet" and they're like "broken what up?"

so. that's where they're at at the beginning of the story, and then aderyn and melati walk onto their ship as a unit and everyone collectively is like. "what the fuck" for a whole host of different reasons. the plot of sky sea is like 50% character-driven conflict in the sense that while aderyn and keldan are trying to reconcile their old history, aderyn's guilt, and keldan's anger, seia's also insanely jealous but doesn't understand why and almost flat out refuses to talk to keldan about it. aderyn and melati have the whole "we're only in this together because both our lives are in danger" on top of the whole "you said no one would know who you were" "how was i supposed to know that the one person who could possibly still be alive to recognize me would be on this boat" thing. seia and melati have a little bit of a guilt/anger thing happening too; it's sort of "logically i know it wasn't her fault but emotionally i need someone to blame and she should have known something was wrong". keldan and melati are pretty much the only pair NOT fighting, but they do bond over being generally obnoxious and high-maintenance. when aderyn and seia aren't trying to kill each other over extremely minor arguments that are actually metaphors for much bigger issues, they're complaining about "royals. ugh". keldan's crew wants to quit sooooo bad except that they also find the drama highly amusing. one guy on the crew is like 'man i always wanted to be part of a high-speed chase' and boy does he get his wish.

#.txt #ttotss #truly i have no explanation for what's happening here but i love you #seia is like. my darling my beloved. like i try not to play favorites but god. #also didn't mention this in the main post but i do want there to be some part of the story to involve seia having the chance to go home #and taking it only to realize he's been gone for so long and he's changed so much that he doesn't fit there anymore #like they would make space for him to fit if he wanted them to #but despite the drama and the danger he has something that makes him happy now that isn't a faded memory #home is an actual place (read: person) and not a concept he can never go back to #also untouched in the main post but im getting into it in the tags now: huge huge themes of sky sea are belonging and family #because it's me so of course they are #it's all about these misfits who have never fit in anywhere discovering that they fit with each other #despite their rough edges and tangled histories #or perhaps because of them!! #anyway. thank you for asking i'm kissing u on the mouth rn

[morenerdthanperson]

Writeblr thing?

Hey world,

I’m new to Tumblr, but I want to do the Writeblr thing (I repeat: new to Tumblr; can you use “Writeblr” as a verb?!) because writing is sometimes lonely and I want to find my fellow ink gods!

So, um... hi?

Let me introduce myself: I’m a daydreamer. Bookwalker. Soundtrack nerd (Steve Jablonsky > John Williams, FIGHT ME). Digital artist, a musician, aspiring composer, and (most importantly for this blog) the author of a space opera series currently titled The Trials of the Singing Sword (that’s what the first book is called, anyway). 

TTOTSS (the book; I’m not spoiling the series for you!) is about a girl named Ahrin who has been raised in the Order of the Singing Sword since birth. All she’s ever wanted is to become a knight of the Order, but when one of her closest friends is killed and the Order tries to keep it quiet, she begins to doubt-- is being a full member of the Order really what she wants? And if she isn’t destined to become a knight, then what else could she possibly become?

Since the beginning of 2016, I’ve written 2.1 books of the series. A lot has changed since that first moment when Ahrin’s character popped into my head, and lots will still keep changing as I do my newest round of edits (once my last year of high school is done at the end of this year) and hopefully search for an agent (I’m not deluding myself on my chances of snatching one, but you never know!).

I’m hoping that through this blog I can share my progress, random poems and ideas, and connect with other writers. Please reblog, comment, message, whatever it is Tumblr dudes do. I would love to hear from you <3

#writing #writer #writing blog #amwriting #writeblr #totss #my writing

[alienside]

hypothetically if you had the possibility to adapt tsh and sky sea into any other type of media what would you adapt them as?? what parts of the story would you focus on in the adaptation and what parts would get left behind (would overall themes change at all? character interactions? worldbuilding and plot? etc etc)?? how would telling the story in a visual medium change them for better or worse?? how would people online horribly misinterpret the story or what do you think theyd say about it?? (this is a longass question answer as much of it as you want LOL)

your MIND okay

mixed feelings on sky sea tbh because i think from a worldbuilding/aesthetic standpoint an animation of some kind would be better BUT a live-action thing would let a lot of dialogue get flattened into significant Looks that are exchanged (which imo works best with live action but CAN be done w animation too). i also think that sky sea could be adapted really well to an episodic style in that their shenanigans could easily be translated to the mini self contained plots with overarching seasonal themes. buuuuut on the other hand u could in theory cut out a lot of the fluff and make the core plot into a standalone movie. i personally think i’d prefer the episodic thing (the character development that could happen here… muah) but hollywood would eat up the standalone movie concept bc of its tendency to flatten characters into What Sells.

i think whether it’s episodic or not an audience would flatten the characters the same? u know. rugged adventurers, snotty princess, Troubled (tm). the difference is that with a series there’s more room for character development so i like to think that there’d be like a portion of the audience devoted to gifsets of parallels and how characters have changed!! with a movie it’d be more about how shippable the characters are.

also because a huge huge huge part of sky sea is. yknow. relationships and old history. a LOT of that tension is portrayed via aderyn and keldan’s internal monologues, which you’d lose in pretty much any screen adaptation but could keep in a comic format. in a screen adaptation the only way to convey that history would be overzealous use of flashbacks (yes i have brainrot but leverage has like. the best use of flashbacks in any show/film ever so i’d probably do that style if anything).

i do kind of think that any adaptation would be more humorous, which tells me that either my book needs to be funnier or something something literature is weightier. idk but i do love the idea of sky sea as a comic book series/webcomic and i think the worldbuilding lends itself well to dramatic “camera” angles so to speak.

tsh HAS to be a live action mini series. like i would simply refuse anything else. there’s enough plot there that trying to cram it all into a movie would be overwhelming and it wouldn’t allow for any downtime or slower moments. the pacing would be so fucked. episodes would let there still be some fluff and softer parts (which are also critical) without sacrificing the plot. it’d be the kind of show with like one season of 8-10 episodes tho; unlike sky sea, tsh has a very definite beginning and end, and it would be a lot more difficult (read: impossible) to pad out with shenanigans the way u could with sky sea.

the live action is an absolute requirement for me. tsh is ultimately a story about humanity (fun fact: originally some of the characters were vampires and fae and the like, bc urban fantasy, but then i realized that the whole 'morality' theme wouldn't hit as hard with monstrous characters aka the ppl the readers expect to have dubious morals anyway), which means seeing real humans do the things the characters do. like idk i love animations but the ‘real’ aspect would get lost in the art style if that makes sense.

as far as worldbuilding goes i would probably simplify the magic system? or at the very least i think it isn't particularly necessary to explain it in a lot of depth. u know. soft magic systems.

also tsh would be the kind of show where ppl would be like "you have to watch it, it's got gay people" "okay what's the plot" "..... there's gay people" BUT there would be a select corner of fandom where everyone is as insane as you and i are. they're writing essays about themes and analysis and symbolism and i love them for it. mwah

idk what else to say even tho im sure i missed stuff so tl;dr (even tho i know you read everything anyway): sky sea would be an ongoing tv series with ideally a game of thrones-style fandom (except imagine if got didn't have the worst series ending in television history) doing the like. gifsets and parallels and in-depth meta analysis. tsh would be a one-season mini-series and most of the fandom would talk about literally anything except the important themes and character development <3

#.txt #ttotss #the starless hour #aghhhhh ben i LOVE this #sorry if i missed something you Wanted answered but like feel free to ask clarifying questions idc

[alienside]

hi luna vitally important question. for all of your ocs if they were inexplicably youtubers what niche youtube subculture would they be a part of

the way u always ask about ALL my guys. i get to sit here and rant about them for 12 hours straight bc theres so many <3

(also im ASSUMING u mean like. a modern day au. like they live in our world. sorry if that's not the case)

aderyn: fashion vlogger. he'd be so annoying too bc the thing is his goal is to show ppl how to dress for their body type but also their level of comfort w/exposure, the weather, the occasion; like he wants ppl to rly think about what they're putting into a fit instead of just following trends. also he's constantly following keldan around like "let me give you a makeover next time ur in town" and keldan refuses. obviously. they have ongoing twitter beef about it so there's actually a surprising amount of fandom crossover

keldan: travel vlogger. like he lives out of a van/rv so he'd do periodic van tours, show off where he's staying, what he saw, etc. he always posted the videos like two weeks after he was actually there so no one could predict where he was going next. sometimes he does campsite reviews but they're all super vague like "the views were great! bathrooms were kinda gross if ur not a fan of bugs" and everyone's like "what does that mean. how many bugs were there". his viewership is all ppl who romanticize vanlife but would never actually do it.

melati: cafe reviews. luckily she lives in like... nyc or some other large city so there is no shortage of cafes to visit. she'll do repeat visits to cafes if she likes them or if they're the type to do seasonal specials or change their menu a lot. she's also active on tiktok where she does "what to order at starbucks" and it's those insane drink modifications that no reasonable human being would ever actually order. (except if you did for some ungodly reason actually order them, they'd be pretty fuckin good.)

seia: not actually on youtube. he shows up one day on keldan's channel and it's like... kind of extremely obvious that the two of them are traveling together but it's not like he shows up in every single place they visit (is keldan just not filming him? is he really not there? no one knows) and also the two of them never clarify their relationship (also true to canon) so comments are like "theyre dating for sure" "uh you can't just assume that" "theyre sleeping in the same bed tho?" "maybe seia has his own van" "it's homophobic to imply that they're just friends" "can't we just have rep for non-toxic male friendships?" etc etc. seia screenshots the best ones and sends them to the sky sea gang's discord server.

delwyn: daily vlogger, but it's clickbait-y shit like "i almost died doing parkour today" and then u watch it and he actually DID almost die and ur like. how did yt allow this to be uploaded. luckily he doesn't do any of the cringy prank stuff but he doesn't need to bc he's cringy enough on his own. the secondhand embarrassment is so real but he has a ton of followers anyway bc ppl are like "no way how is this guy still alive". it's like watching a train wreck or seeing a car crash. you just HAVE to find out more

chan: chan would have a cooking channel. he'd post recipes and tutorials and stuff and would have a long-running series where he invites other big-name youtubers and tries to teach them how to cook, except theyre always atrociously bad at it and it's funny. 90% of the ppl subbed to him don't cook, don't know how to cook, have never and will never try any of his recipes (even tho he'd make it SOOO easy for beginners) they literally just think he's funny and like to listen to his jokes. there's a small minority of ppl who do try his recipes and post rave reviews on their tumblr blogs about him. he never sees them bc he doesn't use tumblr

junhee: junhee would inexplicably have one of those asmr craft channels. i like to think he's really dedicated to those paper theaters (exhibit a, exhibit b) so most of his content is making those (he does a lot from scratch, zero pattern/template etc, but he also does requests for pokemon cards and stuff like that as well as theme requests. if someone requests like a ghibli movie or maybe a minecraft inspired one he'll take that into account. he's got a whole list he's working through). but he also sometimes does mini diorama stuff (exhibit a, exhibit b). those are extremely rare uploads bc theyre so time and resource intensive but ppl go crazy for them. he's got almost a million subs even tho ppl have never seen his face or heard his voice. he rarely even replies to comments. it's literally like he just logs in to upload a video and leaves again. no one's gonna say he's their fave youtuber or anything but no one hates him that's for sure

sasha: sasha would be a daily vlogger. just like here's my life etc. except they still work in a hospital/medical care so the vlogs are supremely censored bc of hipaa and other privacy policies and also bc some of the stuff they do on the daily is actually gross and would get taken off youtube. they have like max 6k subs but those 6k subs are dedicated. they love sasha's content and are like genuinely invested even tho sasha's extremely vague all the time

hana: hana would literally be one of those tech review vloggers. she gets free stuff and sponsorships etc from cutting edge companies and startups. microsoft sends her care packages. she has like a billion subs. it's like 63% male viewership so she says it's only bc they think she's mildly attractive but all the comments sections are ppl genuinely interested in her reviews and opinions. healthiest yt comment section on the planet no joke

kei: SUPER into astrology. she posts videos like "how to interpret your daily horoscope" and "what mercury in retrograde means for YOU". but she's actually more into tiktok where she does vids like "zodiac signs as vines" and "zodiac songs as hit 1999 singles" etc etc. has a cult following that takes everything she says super seriously even tho she herself is like "guys it's not that serious"

other fun trivia:

junhee has a tumblr that's totally untraceable to his yt account. the last time he reblogged a post was in 2016 and he only uses it to find the recipe reviews ppl post about chan's channel.

the tsh main trio have a weird poly thing going on. they're not out about it but junhee's guested on chan's channel ("this is my bf junhee", zero mention of said bf having a yt channel bc that's how junhee prefers it) and there are brief glimpses of delwyn's filming through the apartment where ppl see the kitchen and are like "isn't that....?" somehow delwyn always sees those comments and replies "idk who this chan guy is :/" and no one can tell if he's being serious

in this universe sasha and hana are madly in love because there's no "you literally killed my brother" "well he came back didn't he?" conflict to tear them apart. they're so gross and mushy about it. sasha catches hana in their vlogs, they do unboxing videos together, and every time they kiss or are generally in love on camera ppl post fan edits on twitter like "omg they're so in love" "get you someone who looks at you like hana looks at sasha" etc.

no one knows hana and kei are friends until they both show up in one of sasha's vlogs. the entire internet explodes bc the whole jokey rivalry their fandoms have built up ("theyre so different they wouldn't get along if they knew each other irl") just crumbles.

if seia DID have a youtube channel it would be asmr bullet journal/calligraphy stuff. also stationery-from-aliexpress unboxing videos. but his current lifestyle (driving across the country in a van with his not-boyfriend) doesn't really suit the stationery hoarding thing. so.

keldan finally agrees to let aderyn give him a makeover and then they DON'T FILM IT. keldan films exactly one video with the Look that aderyn puts together for him and then never does it again. everyone is freaking out about it

#.txt #rabbit-rays #BEN. BENJI. IM OBSESSED #like. genuinely invested in this au now hold on.... hold on. #this is soooooo much fun to think about and genuinely. truly. i love this #i love YOU thank you #i don't think i forgot anything but like.... if i did.... whoops #ttotss #the starless hour #btw there would totally be crossovers #like chan would invite melati to taste test his creations kind of crossovers

[alienside]

also i have no idea if this will make any sense but for both of your universes if you had to choose a specific art style/piece of art/etc that represented the texture and Feel of each world what would they be and why?? essentially like. if you had to condense a pinterest board to one image ykwim

ok tsh would be the weird ai-generated art. u know the kind where like sometimes (rarely) it looks normal and passable but most of the time there is something deeply and unsettlingly wrong with it. like it's not human and you can tell, even if you don't know why. another maybe vague genre of art. hands. the reaching and yearning of it all.

the thing about sky sea is it's both about loneliness and companionship. like, landscape paintings especially the ones that make you feel the vastness of it. the scope of the world. how lonely and small you are in comparison (there's a lot of this in romanticism). but also connection. the bonds we form with other people. the kindness we give to others and to ourselves.

examples of both under the cut <3

tsh:

(biblically accurate angel, @images_ai on twitter)

(hands, louise bourgeois)

(almost touching, hannah lock)

sky sea:

(seascape study with rain cloud, john constable)

(the oxbow, thomas cole)

(holly warburton. couldn't find a title for this piece but see also: making amends panel 1, making amends panel 2, sisters, blues, lilac wine. insane, all of it)

#.txt #rabbit-rays #ben i love you omg #once again this features my complete and total inability to be concise or make commitments #like if i HAD to choose one for each it would be the hands and the holly warburton pieces #but the ai art and landscapes were my First thought so i felt like i should include them anyway #also something something hands as the tools of our own destruction #im feeling a LOT thank you for this <3 #ttotss #the starless hour

[alienside]

hiiiiii ok for both sky sea and starless hour if they were being adapted into a movie/tv show/etc what would the soundtrack be like??? any songs you would specifically have to include??? general vibe and type of instrumentation etc??? (this is also me saying if you have playlists i would like to see them and hear you explain them bc 👀)

okay SO for sky sea im just gonna hit some key points (since i've been using the same playlist since it was a space odyssey and haven't cleaned it up yet, some songs are no longer relevant) but tsh. oh boy. none of these are in a particular order sorry <3

(because i've committed the high crime of knowing more than one language. sorry some of these songs are not in english but im including translations to the best of my ability. also sorry this post is LONG long)

sky sea:

all time low - a love like war

keldan/aderyn anthem. literally just every line

"is this the end of us or just the means to start again"

i would say most of the song is referencing their past relationship except the last line (and maybe the repetition of "we go together or we don't go down at all") which is like. present day learning to fuckin deal with each other

muse - won't stand down

another keldan song sorry but like. come on

specifically when his revenge arc begins. somewhere in there he's gonna try to ruin the nation and then have to decide whether it's worth it to follow through :)

sleeping at last - neptune

literally NO idea where this one fits in bc it literally suits every one of the main four and lowkey every possible dynamic

"i'm only honest when it rains" etc etc

"i want to love you but i don't know how"

florence + the machine - king

melati my beloved <3

this is her theme song after she ascends to girlboss mode

5sos - lover of mine

keldan/seia

i think this one pretty much sums up their dedication to each other even tho they truly don't actually label that relationship it's just like. they're so absorbed in each other that they're like one single entity at this point. creepy but effective

side note this is really just a reflection of my 12 y.o. self's music taste idk why

for starless hour i actually have two playlists, one for like. instrumentals and the other for vibe inspiration. again trying to hit key points only but i don't know how to shut up

the ready set - the witching hour

"heard that energy is a constant state / nothing ever ends, it will only change"

"and then I fall into a hurricane of empty thoughts / where I become all my own problems when I swore I'd not"

"there's something telling me that I still have a lot to give / maybe there's beauty in uncertainty, I hope there is"

this one's literally 60% for the vibes because how can i not include a song called "the witching hour" on this playlist

but also i really like the feeling of sort of. cautious optimism in the song that feels really central to. maybe not the overall plot of tsh but definitely where i want the resolution to end up

monsta x - destroyer

"however many times it takes, rewind / i'll go to you, rewind / the ending is up to me anyway"

"i believe in destiny, i believe in us / ... / all of the memories in this vicious cycle"

"then the ending is complete / our string is already connected"

ignoring the time-travel themes of the song. god the idea of writing your own destiny. or like even though tsh doesn't have time travel i like the idea of trying over and over again to get it right. like i'm not giving them the chance to try but i like the idea.

also UGH red string of fate theory my beloved

lea - ende der welt

"this isn't the end of the world ... / just the end of us / this isn't the end of the world, even if it feels like it / it doesn't kill us"

"and when the sun goes down, is it just the earth that turns with us?"

i know the song is intended as a breakup song but again. come ON how can i not include it. it's literally called end of the world.

all time low - old scars / future hearts

"i don't wanna be the one that's left behind / don't blame me, don't hate me"

"i am lost inside this endless haze of life / but this life is mine to live"

again sort of in line with the idea of making your own decisions/writing your own future. i think it also fits neatly with delwyn's belief that only he is in control of his own choices? he's the one who picks his destiny. even tho in the end he chooses wrong, it's still his choice etc.

bastille - get home

again. literally the whole song but:

"we are the last people standing / at the end of the night / we are the greatest pretenders / in the cold morning light"

"how am i gonna get myself back home?"

this song goes along with the end of the story, once all the worst has come to pass and there's nothing left to change/prevent

and it's getting home in a literal sense because the story i think will take them pretty far from home. but also in the figurative sense of the journey changes them so much and how can they possibly go back to who/where they were?

jo sung mo - do you know (youtube link to my preferred cover)

"if you ask me why i didn't say anything / my heart aches, i can't answer"

"no matter how many times i'm born again and leave again / there's no world like this one where i met you"

"maybe this world is beautiful because of the traces of you"

"do you know today is the last day you and i will be under the same sky?"

another breakup song but GOD.

also sorry my translations are rough but i literally could not find an eng translation of the lyrics that i liked enough to use so i just made my own

anyway. haven't figured out how to word all of my feelings about this song so i'm hoping u will just Understand. thanks <3

stray kids - chronosaurus

not really an exact lyric to point to actually but i think this song captures the desperation and the "oh god i'm running out of time" vibe that i LOVE for tsh

the theme for instrumentals is yearning baby! loneliness and hope and "the light will come again" and "everything is so different than it was". extremely unquantifiable emotions with no lyrics to guide me. good luck bestie (this playlist is shorter tho because it's newer)

gone in a flash (spider-man: no way home)

the quiet loneliness.. the fade out... ugh i literally have no words

you're going to notice a lot of these instrumentals follow the same theme lmao

exit through the lobby (spider-man: no way home)

obsessed with the way this builds slowly and then fades out to the lone piano

on the nature of daylight (max richter)

this song would be included on the basis of title alone but it's also perfect. one of my long-time fave instrumental pieces out there

a knight of the seven kingdoms (got s8 soundtrack)

yes this is from game of thrones. yes it's a masterpiece. next question

a different idea of love (luke howard)

again. strings. there's something about string instrumentals that makes me sob every time.

manhattan sunrise (ola gjeilo)

PIANO. i really love this song and also the title and the vibe fit equally perfectly with tsh. the light dawning over the city. despite everything that's happened there is still hope.

maybe you can guess that this piece corresponds to the end of the plot

at dawn (hania rami)

once again. slow sad piano. what more do i need to say.

one day you finally knew (slowed remix) [chad lawson]

no comment. just vibes

(translation: this is the song that would play during the end credits of the movie. if it were a tv show it would only play during the last ep's credits tho)

#ben im obsessed with you and this question #u know i LOVE music but also i have adhd and thus zero organizational skills #someday i'll clean up the playlists and put them in order and import (export?) to spotify #today is not that day tho sorry <3 #i can find links to any of the songs if u wanna listen tho just dm me or something #i thought about including them anyway but decided i was too lazy lmao #the starless hour #ttotss #rabbit-rays #also im posting this without editing or rereading ANYTHING so i'm sorry if it's an incoherent mess. just know that i love you #and i loved this even tho i had no idea what to say half the time and im pretty sure i didn't even address ur actual question #.txt

[alienside]

ok i know i JUST asked a question but i can’t stop thinking about the worldbuilding you mentioned pls may i have more worldbuilding...is okskiy the only nation on the floating continents?? have ppl always been on the floating continents and if not how did they get there?? how much do ppl on the ground and in the air know about each other??? what’s up with gravity??? (or ignore my questions and just talk about what you want tbh i’m just SO compelled by this)

first of all with the way i harass u about s/n me getting annoyed at u asking questions would be hypocrisy at its finest

second of all. i’ll be real with u some of the science gets real hand-wave-y real fast but:

okskiy is not the only nation on the floating continents! okskiy isn’t even the largest nation on the floating continents. in my head they’re like MAX the size of germany. they’re also technically landlocked so they have a sky port, which is astronomically expensive* and thus not highly frequented.**

*sky ports aren’t inherently expensive to maintain, but the initial cost deters a lot of nations, and the costs in time and fuel are enough to put off any traveler who doesn’t desperately need to get to one. this again has a lot to do with the way the airships work, and the amount of energy that’s required to get their ship to “cruising altitude” (as opposed to remaining at “sea” level, aka approx. level w/ the edge of most of the continents) is insanely high, not to mention that the energy is then released when u return to sea level, so most normal ppl consider it a net waste of resources. that being said, most ordinary ppl are not sailors, and most sailors would absolutely make that journey because they are, by and large, in it for the adventure. or getting paid to do it, like keldan.

**there are actually some ships that STAY approx. level with the sky ports, which does greatly limit their destination options but also eliminates the energy waste problem. again bc of how airships work it is cheaper to just leave it running than it would be to land it every time you dock somewhere. every port whether it’s sky or “sea” level takes this into account. dry docks are few and far between.

ppl have always been on the floating continents. ppl on the ground are a more recent development (relative to. yknow. the whole of human history.)

okskiy knows a fair bit about the culture on the ground, insofar as it benefits them to pretend theyre there on solely good terms (keldan’s existence on the continents should tell u everything u need to know about that one tho). most ppl on the continents don’t even know the surface exists. the ppl on the ground (who are, like the continents, actually multiple peoples and cultures) have amassed some knowledge of the continents, but that only goes so far as. here’s what the two stray travelers* per year, from different countries, can tell you about the entire world’s culture, history, politics, etc etc.

*the number of adventurers who decide to give up their entire lives and descend below the clouds varies (obviously), but is generally quite low since the journey essentially requires that you accept that ur going to die. this is for most people not ideal

gravity/continents: i haven’t decided exactly whether it’s all that important to the story to KNOW for sure. like none of the main characters are into science so maybe it’s just sort of “this is how the world is” for them

for u tho. first of all i beg u give me some leeway here. i haven’t taken a science class since senior year ap physics. and also there’s no real amount of earth science that would justify what i’m doing here. BUT the planet is locked in an extremely fucked up orbit with something definitely too large to be classified as a moon. and the continents are far enough from the planet’s core that the planet’s and moon’s gravitational pull sort of. achieve equilibrium. this has the added effect of fucking with the tides (not relevant to the floating continents but EXTREMELY relevant to the surface) and the seasons (by way of the fucked up orbit). if everything i say on the subject sounds like total bullshit i just made up on the spot thats because it is <3

#rabbit-rays #sorry this is so long i have absolutely no excuses just a lot of love #ttotss #there's also going to be some weird religious stuff relating to the moon and seasons but that will be at best tangential to the plot #and is mostly for worldbuilding purposes bc i enjoy the concept #im also doing fun stuff w okskiy bc i love the concept of a city built into cliffs #so the imaginary art that exists solely in my head is wicked cool

[alienside]

hiiiiii luna i would love to hear more about aderyn and keldan im such a sucker for characters that are old friends

hiiii ben i would love to tell u more about aderyn and keldan <3

keldan's tragic backstory is as follows: he's from the surface world (and is, to his knowledge, the only person from the surface world who's currently living on the continent(s)). the short version of this is that he was smuggled on board a ship*. the long version is that okskiy (OX-key), one of the nations from the floating continents, is/was waging an invasion on the surface and keldan, being royalty/otherwise very important (haven't decided on the exact political structure here), is a very valuable hostage. okskiy nobility can't, obviously, acknowledge his roots, so they give him training and later a job as an aristocrat/privateer etc etc. there is a lot of gaslighting here along the lines of okskiy telling keldan they saved his life, he's forever indebted to them, etc etc. the ship that he flies when the story picks up is one that he pilots for the crown of okskiy.

(*u may recall that the in-universe lore says there is no center to the planet. the reason okskiy decides to double check is bc they're very science AND trade oriented. if there's a faster way to the other side of the planet, they want to know about it. the reason no one ELSE has done the same thing is that the energy wasted by the descent as well as the cost of fighting gravity on the way back up is so insanely high that pretty much everyone's decided it's not worth it. there are some batshit adventurers who leave behind their floating continents to permanently immigrate to the surface. as u can imagine the culture shock is a lot. the reverse is nigh impossible bc societies on the surface world are devoted to water transport as opposed to air transport.)

aderyn's backstory: his hometown was devastated by a freak incident involving the airborne version of plate tectonics and one of the islands that floats a little ways above the continents. long story short he is left with nothing and no one, and resorts to thievery to survive. once he's built himself up a little he realizes there's a lot more money and fun to be had in grifting, so he builds that skill set and reputation, which eventually catches keldan's attention. (this is because aderyn's always on the move, so the whispers literally follow him all over the continent.)

keldan takes aderyn onto his crew, which puts aderyn on the right side of the law (there's still plenty of legal fuckery with privateering, but this time it's crown-sanctioned theft), and aderyn very quickly rises thru the ranks bc he is very very good at what he does.

aderyn is essentially seia's predecessor even tho they have wildly different skill sets, in the sense that he goes everywhere with keldan, they're best friends, right down to the same weird will they/won't they sexual tension and the bizarre unwavering faith and devotion. (keldan has a type. aderyn and seia look nothing alike but keldan has a competence kink for sure) (also aderyn and keldan definitely hooked up a few times which is not a step seia and keldan have gotten to yet)

i am not going to lie to u: they were extremely not good for each other at the time. they both had a shit ton of unresolved trauma and didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things, but were willing to "look past it" because of how much they loved each other (which they did, they really did, but they sort of locked each other in a situation where no one could grow). eventually that came to a head and then exploded violently, resulting in aderyn slipping away in the middle of the night without telling anyone. they are both obviously heartbroken but the distance does eventually let them both heal and move on not just from each other but also from their childhoods

aderyn's pretty sure keldan could never ever forgive him, so he just intends to stay far away and never see him again, right up until the story takes place. meanwhile keldan sort of just assumes that aderyn is dead or imprisoned, because that is what happens to criminals who don't have someone's legal protection over them, and he never really sorts out his feelings on that because he's of the mindset that "what's done is done" and it can't be changed. resolving his feelings about aderyn won't bring him back from the dead, etc etc.

anyway then aderyn shows up and is like "i won't beg for your forgiveness even tho i desperately want it and won't admit it to myself" and keldan is like. "what the fuck"

#rabbit-rays #this got SO FUCKING LONG i love you for asking #this is not even beginning to address their story during the plot #and im sure i've left out some critical details because of course i have <3 #literally ben if u keep romancing me like this im going to sprout wings fly to ur house and give u eight thousand smooches #ttotss

[alienside]

ok wait now its your turn i would LOVE to hear about your wip and your worldbuilding...👀👀👀

aaaaaaah ok i have this sort-of plot bouncing around right now that sorta revolves around 2 mcs aderyn and keldan; longtime friends with a complicated history. u know the kind where someone asks "how do you know that guy" and you get to reply "he's ... an old friend"

aderyn sort of accidentally-on-purpose ends up trying to smuggle a princess (melati) out of her country? except the royal family isn't popular and it turns out a lot of ppl want her dead. so they have to get off the continent* asap

(*the continents float. according to in-universe lore there's no core to the planet, only the continents and the upper and lower layers of islands. according to me, the writer, there's actually an ocean with surface islands. more on that in the future)

so aderyn turns to his old friend keldan, who is a privateer and captains an airship, to help them escape, and keldan reluctantly agrees (despite melati's apparent connection to keldan's first-mate/right-hand person/ambiguous "are they together or aren't they????", seia). keldan is also actually caught up in his own political intrigue (with a completely different nation), given that he's actually from the surface World and was stolen??? rescued??? a stowaway??? to the floating continents as a kid/pre-teen.

anyway. the general vibe is mystery and drama and. i cannot stress enough. political intrigue. found family w/complications and misadventures and "it's about the journey" etc etc

also crime. the secret ingredient is crime . a lot of it

#i LOVE you thank u for asking <3 #this is probably uhhhh incoherent but im hoping it sounds at least vaguely interesting <3 #ttotss