You Can't Keep Them All Caged They Will Fight And Run Away Mother, Tell Me So I Say (la-la-la, La-la-la,

fresh midnight Question for you:

are there any TAU worldbuilding elements or character facts or whatnot that you wanted to include in the book, but ended up cutting? or alternatively, have any specific story elements you have a burning desire to talk about?

Hm! Some thoughts on queer stuff! Which is ambiently in the text but not so much defined.

I was interested in writing a world with multiple competing theories of queerness, none of which are "perfect" -- in the sense that none of these societies have managed genuine queer liberation (i.e., everyone has the freedom to be who and love however they want). They're not necessarily awful, though some definitely are, but none of it's ideal.

The dominant queer culture originates in the Immaculate Empire and gives us "hermit" and "widow" -- pretty binary terms for a specific variety of desire, often linked with a kind of gender performance. There is no similar term for bi/pansexuality, at least not in the common parlance, so if you're, say, a cis bisexual woman, you'd still be described as a widow, were you engaging in widow-like conduct. The understanding and room for transness is highly dependent on where you are; some states have done that particular brand of evil thing where they see providing trans care as a way to enforce state power, because it's a way to police the binary and deviations from it.

Outside the empire, we get the legacy of downworld "third gender" -- which is actually a catch-all term for queerness. It also...doesn't have any further distinctions. They lump the entirety together in this one category -- which is itself somewhat binarist, as it distinguishes "cishet" from "not that," even though it's on a different axis. So if it's particularly important to you to be perceived in a more specific way, welp! Good luck!! This might actually be pretty chill in a world where authoritarian powers weren't keen on destroying your existence. Unfortunately!

I also have thoughts abt the ways different character relate to these systems of identity and meaning; like Sunai is pretty comfortable swimming between them and has a more fluid sense of self, while Veyadi cleaves more to "hermit" as a term, even though he has a somewhat complicated relationship with it. Jin has latched onto "third gender" even though they're not as bound up in downworld culture as say, Oyu, who is from a downworld caravan, third gender, and presents in a distinctly hermit-like way. And Imaru is the ur-lesbian! Widow supreme! Next question!

Happy 2025 here’s briar!! I was always fond of her design and her character so I’m very happy with this labor of love.

Also check out my instagram if you want to watch me lose my mind in live time while drawing (I post constant wips as I draw) ^^

how much will it take for you all to read the archive undying. what must i sacrifice so you will read it and draw fanart of sunai and veyadi

having spoilery thoughts about The Archive Undying in the context of that post that someday the queer couple that says "let's fuck it all and run away together!" should actually do it:

Sunai and Veyadi don't actually run away but I do think that's what emotionally/ethically happened in the last quarter or so of the book?

Sunai's initial motivation was to prevent the totalitarian state from getting to keep an enforcer mecha to oppress his home city. Made perfect sense. Despite the emotional upheavals and betrayals and murders, that kept being true pretty much up until the Maw eats him. We learn that the Passenger trying to help him do this is the same entity that has caused Corruption aka the deaths of AIs who became tyrants.

And there's a whole ethical quandary there bc the AIs who died were tyrants and Iterate Fractal ate people and there should be some force that can stop even gods. But also the Passenger killed these AI in ways that led to the deaths of millions of people and left their corpses as weapons that could be used by the Harbor and left their remnants as hungry scavengers who kill people.

And so as various characters align with/against the Passenger I am just lost on how I should feel. It's cause is noble in abstract! It's methods cause great suffering! It's unclear why the Passenger cares about killing the Maw at this point given that it is no longer controlling a large group of people. Perhaps it is just that Sunai asks and Veyadi asks and Ruhi asks and the Passenger always answers when people ask because that is it's purpose.

And then Sunai is one with the Maw, who is a remnant of Iterate Fractal and that larger plot goes out the window. His friends want to separate them or mercy kill him or kill the Maw with him as collateral damage. He can't be separated from the Maw, who had always wanted him as their conscience and thus horribly abused him his whole life. Veyadi, on realizing that they can't be separated decides he wants to protect Sunai more than he wants to kill the Maw. They fight the Passenger and Ruhi, who remains laser fixated on the larger cause.

And that's the point where the pair of them decide to leave and they leave. Sure, the Passenger might be the only force capable of protecting humans from tyrant AIs. But they no longer care about that compared to the fight to live and get to be together. They imprison it and Ruhi (and, if I understand correctly, entomb Ruhi alive in eternal torment??) to prevent it from ever trying to kill them again. They survive together. The End.

And, well. The gays sure did run away from their problems together for once! but boy howdy was I unsure of how to feel about that final arc.

phighting OC I drew for artfight

all character credits to TripleBaaambi <3

Reference images included for context, and the two different versions of the art

I had a vision…

Me and the 3 Xurkitree fans cheered

Excited for Knights of Guinevere ✨

Sunai chicken saga

Sketch from today

ok alright i've got one:

tenbeasts! is there a, ah, list of them? or is more of a "i'll name one when i want one" thing? or any associated spicy lil tidbits?

THERE IS IN FACT A LIST. Kept for my own reference, though often misplaced. Some slots are immutable and others are still open to revision!

Basics: There are ten divine beasts, though the number and exact animals are somewhat up for debate depending on who you ask and where they're from -- e.g., downworld apocrypha might say that there are in fact only nine, or that the number varies between eons. Overall analogous to the Chinese zodiac.

The tenbeasts are chimeric combinations of the divine beasts in the most common roster, so there are five distinct types that Iterate Fractal, er, mass-produced, so to speak.

The divine beasts:

Peacock

Serpent

Salamander

Carp

Cat

Monkey

Fox

Bat

Ox

??? varies too much btwn my lists to say with certainty. Moth? Bear? Deer? I'll decide at some point. (OR MAYBE I WON'T!!)

The tenbeasts derived from them:

Sentinel-fowl (peacock + serpent) [canon]

Dragon-children (salamander + carp) [canon]

Company-cat (cat + monkey) [canon]

[Winged fox] (fox + bat) [probably pretty canon]

??? some kind of ox-forward beast of burden (ox + ???) [working on it]