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Jrwi Fated - Blog Posts
two of you asked @fishcop and @octolingo-writes (hiiii guys ilysm) and i’m on a lot of robitussin rn so here goes:
art analysis (cold medication hallucinogen jrwi fated relationship chart edition)
- go read the individual types of relationships. all of them are insane. some of them are only used once. some of them (lake blue, 90% grey, rose, lemon, carmine) were meant to be used only once, and then their very existence forced me to examine all the various ways that emotion or relation could be considered applicable or canonical. some of them don’t make any sense. some of them are very straightforward. go read them and make one of your own.
-go make one of your own. all of these charts will be different depending on the creator and how specific they get and what individual interpretations they bring to the characters stories. go make one. do it. get crazy. be normal. do it. tag me if you want, i wanna see it. this fandom is so small i’ll see it regardless of what you do probably. make one.
-the mothers and wives are at the top, with the gods, because i am examining relationships, not plot; and in stories and lives everywhere very few things are more important than mothers and wives- especially when their relationships are restricted by the way their husbands and sons deify and restrict them. what is a woman if not a force of reckoning. what is a god if not a human’s hungry demands. what is a daughter if not a promise to be both. maybe that’s why there aren’t any daughters with mothers in the fated. maybe jared was scared of what they’d be.
-the gods relationships are absent unless they truly serve as humans when they interact. the storyteller is a plot point, a narrative device. ungaroh is an antagonist, an ending scene, a concept. for the purpose of this, they mean nothing. they are plot. i do not care about plot here. i care about plot in very few places. the interesting shit is the people- and they are easy (impossible) to understand, too. i included the gods on the paper for the purpose of excluding them in what matters.
-the narrative haunters and the salvation paths get represented differently (crosshatching and dotted or trailing paths) but the colors are similar because the ideals are similar. the same is true with the devotion of love (mahogany, the top line in the codex) and the feeling of bitterness (raspberry red- a little brighter, a little pinker, but hard to distinguish, especially in pictures).
-i stole the idea for crosshatching the doomed ones and the haunters (slate grey) from kurt vonnegut. “the destruction of dresden was represented by a vertical band of crosshatching, and all the lines that were still alive passed through it, came out the other side.” (go read slaughterhouse five.) so if you want to really get inside my brain on this one, you should try and look at how names and space are encircled or overwhelmed by the grey. usually it’s for people who died, because jared had a real knack for killing- literally or just conversationally cutting down- societally “othered” characters. sometimes it’s just used over a name to say “what would they have been if they hadn’t been treated like mothers and wives? like monsters? like statues? what would they have been if they’d been complex?” other times, it’s a barrier. other times, it’s just true: doomed from the start and barricaded in all relationships behind that doom- but still reaching through it in that strange, pale, ghostly way.
-similarly, a lot of the negative emotions get angular edges. a lot of the positive ones get curvy ones. there are several modifiers to this formula. one: straight lines should not indicate a straightforward or close relationship, but physical distance sometimes does. the exception to this is for the pc’s at center: we see all their relationships to each other up close and personal. straight lines mean simplicity and comprehension for them. often, that makes the relationships simpler. take mountain and hilda, who we never see interact: he deifies her, her mourns her, she is or at least was his reason to live, and in many ways that pedestal she’s kept on is simultaneously why she is a form of salvation and why she’ll never get to be a real, multifaceted character. the lines will never quite reach. but, like. mountain and sylnan? we see them go drinking, we see them argue, we see them in combat. they’re friends in the worst and most unlikely of places. it’s violent. it’s a little unhealthy. it’s honest. it’s devoted. sometimes it’s a little bit closeted. within that, all those visible complications, it’s simple: they are friends in the worst and most unlikely of places. that visibility of their relationship covers so much because speculation is close to impossible- we know so much.
modifier two: the misogyny lines are curvy- not because they’re gentle, but because they’re all-encompassing, encircling. taking it back to color for a second: the “dioxazine” (or however its spelled im on my phone i dont wanna scroll back up to the pic) purple reads as blackish here but its purple irl, especially in light, and i chose it for a) velrisa and oriana b) because it’s pretty and c) because as a color it overshadows so much else on the page. the lemon yellow i use for a relationship of destruction i chose because it hurts to look at. purple is just the opposite- it’s woven into everything. it’s easy on the eyes. it’s as natural in the picture as it was in the podcast. that should scare you. it dissolves in some places. it’s bold and bright in others. if i made this picture again i’d probably add more- the love and labor of women is wasted and missed and dismissed time and time again.
-the curly lines (see above, misogyny) are used for encompassing concepts- themes and feelings that entertwine and encircle. the fated love each other, as awkward and clumsyfooted as they are about it. i drew the vine-like circle around them (mahogany red, devoted love) as my second thing on this page, and for a while as i made it you could see the start of each path leading out from each character.
-that’s most of it. everything else is just kind of there if you look and i think the interpretation there is sorta fun so rehashing it here wastes time for most of us. sylnan and br’aad are brendan’s reasons to live, and whether you interpret the crosshatch for destruction as him towards them or them towards him it’s true. velrisa’s destruction and salvation are both in her being disowned, and she and ander are each other’s reason to keep going, so their entire relationship is framed in salvation (90% grey) because it’s a mutual thing. ugarth is encircled in 921 orange because in another world he’d have lived. oriana’s doomed narrative crosshatching is covered by these dioxazine spirals i made, because the misogyny is what really doomed her. there’s an old man yaoi (process red) line between ander and mountain, because it’s my relationship chart n i say so. there’s a question mark about whether or not velrisa’s family would have worked out with her in another life for the same reason that she has a relationship of deification, destruction, and salvation with them despite not one of them having names- there are so many unknowns we can’t even hope that in another world she would have stayed a happy little fisherman’s daughter. there’s a sexually charged hatred line between jacquot and sylnan/mountain for all that fag shit during the kidnapping in episode like 11.5. so it goes.
this is the most important thing:
song of solomon 6:3 -neon orange- was the first relationship line i drew. i traced over it again and again, and scrubbed away all the places where other lines overlapped it.
that is all.
i’d love to blame this on cold medicine and isolation later, but i did this with such earnestness i refuse to let myself feel ashamed of this when time passes and i look back. art is cringy. loving things is cringy. storytelling and interpretation is cringy. the energy of live performance is cringy. all of the above are also sustaining and crucial to the development of a soul. it sustains the human race to be cringy.
i wrote this whole thing in-app on my phone. it took an hour and ten minutes nonstop. i refuse to edit it or read it back. im done now.
btw if ur still here- song of solomon 6:3 is “i am my beloveds and my beloved is mine.”
hey is this anything
(fated relationship chart)
also song of solomon 6:3 (the neon orange line) is “i am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.” and it was the very first connection i drew. it doesn’t get the smeary-edged overlap every other overlapped line does. i just wanted to say that. because it makes me insane.
hey is this anything
(fated relationship chart)
hey is this anything
(fated relationship chart)
the trouble with practicing mindfulness and healing emotionally and getting a job and trying to be more present in my life means that my fics all suck right now. i’m not even writing the sex parts. if i can get a job in the dish pit somewhere maybe this will change and i will astral project into storytelling while my fingers get pruny.
gxd i wish i liked jrwi mountain’s plotline a little more because i miss the aggressively 21st century Bro energy that bizly consistently brought to the table as him. i am convinced somewhere at like. fucking FSU they have a 5’0 legacy frat president who spends 90% of his day shirtless and drunk and still somehow is crushing a wrestling scholarship, and bizly looked at him, dapped him up, and went “guys i have a character idea.”
as a psa
-i’m in the middle of changing my major and getting a new job
-my usual beta reader is in the middle of a compsci degree and busy as hell
-my other beta reader is about to give up romance/porno for lent
expect a little over 35k words of scythebelts as soon as college takes it’s boot off my neck- or, more likely, expect it with the end of lent and the return of our lord and savior jesus christ, on easter sunday.
first one to guess what i’m about to write gets five american dollars
this is like watching a single snow-white dove fly over a pristine alpine meadow.
sorry guys what the fuck do you mean jrwi has been going on for six years. who is br'aad. who is narwhal who is triplemcwheatie. what im going insane. am i hallucinating
i don’t think any of you understand. the impetus, the fucking click behind scythebelts for me, is not strictly romantic. it is that sylnan, his entire life, has been trying to hold on to everything he can and he never gets to. and velrisa, god fucking bless her, has been waiting for someone to hold on to her like that, like nobody really has.
the impetus, the fucking spark, the starting point for everything i write for them, is based upon the gutsense fucking horror of seeing someone reach for you and not knowing if they mean to catch you for certain or just until you’re not useful.
everything else is just fluff and filler. the cleric/rogue dramatics, the high contrast, the jokes, the mutual admiration, the aesthetics- all of it is fluff and filler. good, but just not why i love it.
at core and center, they are holding on to each other until they are bleeding from the goddamn fingernails because nothing else is willing to stay as static and calm as they are. nobody else- not as though it is a personal failing on anyone else’s part, it is simply the way things go- is willing to cling on as hard for some chance at steady ground. sylnan and vel are. that’s what makes me write em.
br’aad vengolor is a manic pixie dream girl in the sense that i think if he had prolonged exposure to any particularly evil character who did not want to kill him he could probably fix them.
come get y’all soup-
new chapter of the orphanage au is up in honor of me escaping containment in finals
HEEEEEEEEEY
sexay laday-
i don’t know what i’m doing. don’t ask me. i’m dragging all of you through the desert with this fanfiction on my back.
chapters four and five (katherine, br’aad, and sylnan) are out now!!!
dude why is ander’s lore so acutely stupid. what do you mean he’s a
hundred and eighty-two
that’s not how nieces work.
let’s say, hypothetically, ander is a firstborn, and his parents have him at 18. when he’s 30, his parents are 48. let’s be generous and say they stop having kids at 50, and their last kid is velrisa’s dad. he grows up. let’s be generous and say he’s 30 (we see him in middle age in the clip with vel’s sister) when he has velrisa’s sister, and 35 or 40 by the time velrisa is born.
that would make ander 85-90 when velrisa is born. he promises to protect velrisa as long as he lives when she is three. that makes him 88-93 at the time she starts living with him. she is 19 at the start of the campaign- and nobody has any mentioned birthdays so let’s consider all ages static. they all were born on january 1st.
19-3 is 16, so our estimate for ander’s age becomes 101 to 106 at the time of canon. instead, he’s
a hundred and eighty two
and like. i get it. i do. bad storytelling? found in the bad storytelling place???? fork found in kitchen!!!! dick found in ass!!!!!! nobody is surprised!
but on like. a genuine level. i made the most liberal efforts possible to defend ander being
a hundred and eighty two
and it is just not making sense. like. he and vel’s dad are described as looking to be a similar age. he and vel’s dad have a close relationship soured by ander’s championship to the goddess. ander was crowned champion long before velrisa entered the picture and probably before her dad was even born. no fucking unborn baby is gonna have beef with one of their brothers finding spiritual fulfillment.
we can infer the rest of the family doesn’t have beef with it, as ander was close enough to the rest of his family to have context on velrisa’s life and curse. why the fuck is he
a hundred and eighty two.
i got two genres of comment responses on my fics it seems
“thabk u smm!!!! imm so glad u liked! ty-ty 4 the kudos!”
and
“anger is more comfortable than fear, in that way, because it washes away all insecurity; becoming a boiling, red-hot tide. ‘i am right and you are wrong’ is comforting to say, especially for children, who rarely get to be right in a world of grown-ups… that i’m-right-you’re-wrong sentiment quickly becomes: “i am better and you are lesser. i am normal and you are the freak. i deserve more, and you deserve less.” and the kids act that way with impunity, because their guardians never provide correction to that instinct and behavior path… because they’re just as scared.”
uhhhh fuck what’s another vine i can reference to announce a chapter.
*oven shattering sounds*
this one (chapter 3) has the longest ever end of chapter notes but theres good soup in there so!!! read at your own risk!!!
come get y’all juice.
new fic. go hog wild.
au where taxi and vel end up in the wharf about a decade and a half earlier than usual- and by going through the things the vengolor brothers left behind when they escaped, taxi and vel find themselves searching for answers only the other escapees of their orphanage can give them.
it’s gonna fuck so hard you don’t understand.
getting my wisdom teeth out thursday. send images of the fated. and also texts about the fated. and also-
situationship so bad i started neglecting my schoolwork to write fanfic again
BRAAD AND SYLNAN VENGOLOR AS BENEATHA AND WALTER YOUNGER. IS THIS MICROPHONE ON. CAN YOU FUCKING HEAR ME!!!!!! I SAID THE VENGOLOR BROTHERS AS BENEATHA AND WALTER YOUNGER FROM GODDESS LORRAINE HANSBERRYS CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED PLAY A RAISIN IN THE SUN.
IS MY GXDDAMN MICROPHONE ON CAN YOU HEAR ME I AM TALKING TO YOU AND IM RIGHT!!! IM RIGHT!!!!!
see i’m TELLING you guys it’s a good time!!!! the relationships! the characters!!! it’s a good time in this dead content soup pot hop in and boil with the rest of us!!!!
tag yr fave character relationships cuz mine is platonic taxi/mountain and romantic sylnan/vel. the vibes. the vibes.
The Fated Five’s relationships with each other is already so interesting, Sylnan trying to help Velrisa with a stealth check while she’s panicking, Br’aad and Taxi joking around with each other and just messing around, Br’aad and Mountain eating the umber hulk after defeating it AND both of them swan diving off the cliff and hitting the ground so violently, Velrisa giving Cat’s Grace to the others but refusing to give it to Taxi because he’s already a cat, Braad asking for Velrisa to heal him and she just staring at him and saying no before begrudgingly healing him
i love writing fanfic and making the characters do whackamole silly ass shit that is at least 20 tiers of separation from the plot if they’re even in the same universe. it’s like playing with barbie dolls because all the plots are deep and elaborate and involve struggles of oppression and violence and i solve every problem by making my two favorite ken dolls match each other’s freak narsty style.
sneak peek into Boombox Crimes
pick! your! fic!
i’m such a slut for a big header on a post. idc. that is me starting my letter to send to you in the mail. i am saying hello.
to the point:
a poll on my next work (s?)
VOTE NOW ON YOUR PHONES!!!!
in fairness all of these are like. halfway done already but the projected sizes are wildly varying. please feel free to ask for more context! if i don’t get many votes i’ll probably just dick around with a bunch of different pieces till @parallasso gets up my ass about one of them lmao
WAKE UP BIGGAYHIMBO ENJOYERS
i humbly present the final chapter of irish goodbyes.
t’was a joy to make and i’m sorry for the big upload delay, but i have like. a job now????? so. anyway. poll about next work soon to follow. fated enjoyers send me your brains and votes.
ATTENTION BIGGAYHIMBO STANS
new work!!! miriam and alwyn vengolor! big thanks to @violaextract for the inspo on this, i’m sure they’ve posted their work on miriam and alwyn design but i’ll post it with the final link for this if i get permission
hey guys i survived the show i was running!!!!!! i’m baaaaaack!!!!!! and mentally illllllllll!!!!!! tag me in everything ever i love you all so much!!!
hello biggayhimbo enjoyers!
new fic just went up! it’s a velrisa-centric one-shot for a transmasc vel au. it’s mainly inspired by a short-hair fanart of vel that @ttrpgenjoyer drew a little while back, so go check them out!