parkour is a popular recreational activity in one of the more densely populated city lands of apastron, mainly because the tight quarters and crowded living conditions don’t lend themselves well to most sports and other activities which require large open spaces. manhunt is another popular choice, particularly among elementary school-aged children. 

a particular group calling themselves the “roof runners” are a well-known exclusive parkour pack which goes on long missions and sprees during the evenings. in order to join the roof runners, members must be recruited and/or pass several induction tests. 

opinions on the roof runners vary amongst the population, but children with a rebellious streak and a knack for parkour idolize them. 

I’m just really excited and intrigued by apastron ahhhhhhHHHH

SPEAKING OF EXCITED AND INTRIGUED you need to do more stuff on the spiderweb worlds o u o

thetrifrmphm replied your post notes on the prequel; or, how i learned to stop worrying and love the savior

and by me liking this I actually mean: holy shit holy fucking shit this is blowing my mind and I feel like this belongs with all the other great fantasy/sci fi mythos and epics and ????????????? holy shit /holy shit/

jesus christ you are way too kind <_________>

Why the hell should we worry about the prequel, when we don’t even know what happens to the Apastron crew? Even though the exact details of the story are never directly related in the text of Apastron, the events of the prequel set the stage for that entire world. There’s a lot of really interesting shit that I’ve been developing as I’ve been formulating the story of the prequel, from religions to basis for the circumstances that set Apastron into motion.

The prequel, which is unnamed and shall henceforth be referred to as TUAP for “the unnamed Apastron prequel,” takes place several years into our future after an initially unnamed catastrophe has triggered a semi-apocalypse. The story takes place in a single town, one that was particularly badly hit by loss, and is essentially cut off from the rest of the world following the catastrophe and the Panic. It follows a girl by the name of Blaire Kingston, whose family was killed in the catastrophe.

I’m going to give the brief overview of the story—more of a myth—that is given in Apastron. 

After the Catastrophe, a great and terrible presence by the name of Adios arrived in Blaire’s town. He struck a deal with the townspeople: one game. Winners would be given passage to a safe place. Losers would be left to die. The townspeople, believing that they had a better chance of survival at the game than just sitting around, accepted. 

As it turned out, the game was as great and terrible as the force that had ushered it in. A puzzle-solving, monster-slaying RPG—one that was real, and was bending reality right in their very town. What was more, the game forced townspeople against each other, and every time they began to come out on top, it would change and begin to work against them. 

The story goes that Blaire—leading a band of followers and teammates she had gained—rose up and began to fight against the game itself, and, by extension, Adios, the force that had brought it upon them. Well, of course they could not hope to fight and win against Adios, as he was far more powerful than they could ever be. So Blaire struck a deal with Adios himself, one that would deliver the townspeople from him, in exchange for her. Different stories tell different versions of her sacrifice; some say she simply disappeared, or went with Adios somewhere she couldn’t be found. Others say she left behind a body. 

Her lanky, frost-white-haired visage is remembered as a symbol of bravery, sacrifice and deliverance: in Apastron-era, she’s been raised to somewhat of a sainthood, and there is even a religion built around her that has recently been growing in influence. 

Of course, that’s the rosy way of telling it all. St. Blaire—the Savior—and her crew caused a fair bit of trouble, and Blaire herself was hardly a saint—actually, it’d be more apt to call her a serious troublemaker. Furthermore, though she’s often painted as brave and selfless, her reasons for rebelling against the game were somewhat self-serving. There was also plenty of regular Stupid Teen Drama to deal with, none of which is ever covered in retellings of her adventures. 

Anyway! The tale of St. Blaire is a common one that is told throughout the Apastron series. I can’t tell the details of it (can’t even really tell you about all the shit they got wrong) but it’s been reasonably influential in the circumstances that the crew find themselves in. There is reasonable evidence that Blaire had a very big hand—on purpose or inadvertently, we don’t know—in the present instability of the universe, and may have indirectly caused the bonds of the universe to break and stratify into dimensions as they did. 

The other interesting thing is that white hair is now commonly associated with heroicism, selflessness, bravery, and questants. Lucy, Nate and Cass all begin the series with reasonably dark hair and a few white strands, but their hair slowly begins to lose its pigmentation as the series wears on and they fight more bugs and travel in the rifts. This serves the dual purpose of both “aging” them (since we typically associate white hair with growing old, and hypopigmentation with defects) and elevating them in the eyes of many of the more devout people they encounter from meddling kids to blessed questants.

I might go into TUAP a bit more later, but for now that’s the basis for the backstory and should help to understand Apastron a bit better. 

a few nights ago i was talking to snowie and kuri in one of kuri’s streams and we started talkin about stories 

i was prompted to give an explanation of what apastron was about so i hammered one out that is much more succinct and updated than what i had previously posted so i figured

why not post it!

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Bonnie: welll

Bonnie: the idea is that there are these big monsters that float around the multiverse

Bonnie: and latch onto universes

Bonnie: and feed off their energy

Bonnie: and then use that energy to give birth to new universes

Read More

i just enabled replies on this blog…i don’t know if you can reply right away or if you have to wait the two weeks? but hopefully this means if yall wanna say something you don’t have to reblog it and clutter up people’s dashes n’ stuff 

uhh that being said i want to write some more posts…any ideas or requests? 

(photo cred to kid zoom)

I’ve mentioned them before, I think, and for awhile now they’ve even had their own tag over at the inspo blog, and heck I even titled the blog after them. But I’ve never said who they are. So by Anne’s request, I’m clearing that up! Let’s talk about spider children. 

The Spider Children go by many names, depending on which level the narrative is taking place in; however, TSC is the first incarnation we encounter, so it’s become a sort of collective title as well. They are, in short, a cult, because what quasi-dystopian sci fi future rife with monsters is complete without a cult to go with it? The immediate connection you should draw is spider children == glitches. Their level—and nature—of involvement changes depending on which layer you’re in, but the spider children always know about the glitches, and they do not intend to fight them. They work as followers, worshippers, servants, diplomats, messengers and megalomaniacs. They wish to usher in the glitches, or harness their power, or sometimes both, and sometimes other things entirely. The other thing you should know is that the spider children are very dangerous. 

Now, I know that having a cult / religion type thing is pretty cliché, perhaps even trite! But they serve an important duty in the story, and that duty is basically to exist as a physical manifestation of monsters that, technically speaking, my little band of heroes cannot fight (especially when they’re first starting out). They are a steady supply of villains and half-villains and even some anti-heroes. The main gang can get to the monsters through the spider children, but the spider children serve as intimidating foes in and of themselves! 

Not only that, but they complement and complete the threat that the monsters pose. The monsters—glitches, parasites, demons, whatever you want to call them—are not malicious in their destruction; they merely destroy because that is what they do to survive. But humans can be malicious, they can be precise and intelligent and cruel as hell. The monsters are all brute force and devoured universes and carelessness, the spider children are compasses and scalpels. It’s a fairly classic method of balancing villains and power—think Doc Scratch and Lord English, or Loki and the Chitauri, or any other story where the villain courts an immense power they believe they can harness. Power needs control, precision needs puissance. The spider children and the monsters they serve exist in conjunction; neither is quite as frightening without the other. 

That’s all quite technical, though, and I am not sure it’s really what anyone is looking for. Hard facts on the children, then? You got it!

First, it should be known that “children” is a loose term. Most people in the cult are not actually children, though some are (filling the empty “creepy children” niche in my heart). They are typically teens and young adults, since this is a relatively new phenomenon, but as we advance through the levels and the problem becomes deeper and deeper the age grows higher. Just as there are children, there are also older folk, but in newer groups, age does little to determine rank. Older groups have more of a hierarchy, and typically the older members wield more power. (Like I said, it depends on the layer you’re in, and what timeframe as well.) Children instead refers to themselves as “children” of the monsters they serve. Also, it sounds better than “spider individuals.”

The Spider Children’s full title is “The Spider Children of Nephrite, the Devouring Messiah.” Spider Children is shorthand for that. It is typically left uncapitalized if you’re referring to the collective group of cults, which would include those under a different name, but capitalized if you are referring specifically to the Spider Children of Nephrite. Nephrite doesn’t mean anything deep, it’s an arbitrary name that I chose as a placeholder because it sounds nice. Other titles from different layers that I’ve played with: Nerve Burners of the Warping One, First Spectral Ones, and Wolf Criers of the Grasping God. (The general rule of thumb in naming is to be as ridiculous as possible.) 

Spider children have a noted fascination with skeleton imagery, in a way that is probably significant. Skull makeup and bone-shaped skinstains (similar to henna, a stain that can be used to create temporary tattoos of varying potency) are common in ceremonies and certain fanatics, but most members try to be more discrete by having, perhaps, a single bone inked on a thumb, or an omnipresent skull-shaped ring, to identify themselves to other members when they are out and about.

They spread their message in subtle ways, typically by way of vague graffiti slogans and elaborate skull paintings to establish their presence. I imagine their motto pops up quite frequently, and if I knew what that motto was, I would tell you, but alas I haven’t come up with anything interesting yet. They adore theatrics and make a show of being mysterious when it is appropriate. 

Oh, and one more thing. There’s another role of the spider children which I haven’t mentioned yet. The more talented members act as sort of spirit mediums, channelling the parasites. Sometimes it is voluntary. Sometimes it is not. Possession is a risk with everyone in a world that has begun to break down, the sole exceptions being Lucy, Nate and Cassandra, who have built in “armor” to protect against breaches by probing parasites. 

Unless they were to sacrifice that protection for some reason. But they wouldn’t do that.

Okay, here are some tropes! Unfortunately, I don’t really have a whole lot, and a couple are stretches. But this is just a chance to get acquainted with the characters. 

I’m putting in some commentary on the tropes. Hover over the links for the laconic summary of each trope, but I recommend reading the whole pages because who doesn’t like TV Tropes. 

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Lucy: Action Girl: There are few things I despise more than wimpy female leads, so I simply could not permit one in Apastron. Lucy, although far from strong, is very willing to fight, and she’ll probably win. She takes advantage of her small frame to move fast and outsmart the person she’s fighting against. 

Lethal Chef: Cin and Cass aren’t great, but Lucy manages to concoct vile poisons using common household ingredients such as paste and tomato sauce. She is in complete denial about this, and maintains that she “only needs practice.”

Chronic Hero Syndrome: Out of all of them, Lucy most embraces the idea of helping and being a hero. 

Primal Fear: The dark. Nothingness. Lucy is absolutely terrified of complete darkness.  To the point of near-breakdown over it. 

Bad Dreams: Lucy has a lot of very confusing nightmares, and any normal dreams she has tend to get corrupted very quickly. 

Red Oni: To Cass’s Blue Oni. 

Blue Oni: To Cin’s Red Oni. 

(To be continued)

Cinead: The Lancer: To Lucy. 

Friendless Background: Not entirely friendless, but he does put himself in a sort of perpetual isolation due to his travels. He’s nomadic, and prefers not to get too attached to people he knows he will eventually have to leave behind. 

Hair Trigger Temper: He’s not flying into a rage necessarily, but his go-to expression of negative feelings is anger and frustration. It’s not hard for him to push people away like this. Lucy will push right back. 

Last of His Kind: Ah…what the heck, this is a little spoilery, but you find out pretty quick, so whatever. The city he was born in, Athos, was destroyed when he was a baby, by rogue bombers. He was the only survivor, found in the center of the city amongst the ruins. He is obsessed with finding out the mysteries behind it. 

Berserk Button: He has a few. The most notable one is anything against Athos. 

Red Oni: To Lucy’s Blue Oni. 

Cassandra: Anti-Hero (Type III or IV): Cass is mostly type III. In contrast to Lucy’s general morality, Cass does not hesitate to behave in “bad” ways in pursuit of “good” goals. Anything that keeps her and her friends alive is the right choice. Cass is not afraid to hurt someone very badly or even kill them, if that’s what it takes.

Emotionless Girl: To an extent. She gets angry, but she doesn’t have a hair trigger temper like Cin’s. She does, however, keep relatively calm in stressful situations, although she may snap at people. 

Stepford Snarker: I think this summarizes her pretty well. They are all pretty snarky, but she is in particular. It’s a complement to her emotionlessness / emotion repressedness and her anti-heroism. 

Action Girl: Yes, she’s moody, but damn does she know how to kick some ass. Her mercilessness really comes in handy here. (If you could really call it “coming in handy.”)

Perpetual Frowner: To this day, I have not once drawn her smiling. Usually she appears neutral or slightly annoyed. Canonically speaking, she does smile, but it’s rare and small and looks kind of funny. 

Blue Oni: To Lucy’s Red Oni. 

Bad Dreams: Not really about events, though. (OR ARE THEY??) And yes—everyone in the initial trio of Lucy-Cass-Nate have really bad dreams, typically featuring the same fearful and corrupted subject matter. Cass has it the worst, without a doubt, due to her particularly “tuning” ability. (Which we will discuss later.)

Nate: Adorkable: Not as awkward as other Adorkable children have been in the past, but he is pretty precious. 

The Heart: Nate plays a very conciliatory role with everyone. If they were all trolls, Nate would be everyone’s moirail or auspistice. He is simply the best there is.

Morality Pet: Mainly to Cassandra, though he does this for Cin occasionally, as well as Lucy at her darker times. 

Nice Guy: Well…he is. 

Nate is hard to find tropes for. These make him out to be incessantly optimistic and cheerful, and while he’s definitely positive, he doesn’t share Lucy’s energy. He tends to be more laid-back and somewhat nervous and awkward. Like I said before, he’s very good at keeping everyone calm and working together. 

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OKAY. This is more than enough for now. I am pretty tired, so I’m going to bed. I’ll finish with Lucy and Nate sometime soon.