I guess I should introduce myself here.
I'm on Neocities because my cousin reminded me of Geocities' existence (which then turned into Neocities.) He's kind of in the phase where he's now having a lot of retro nostalgia for the 90's. I luckily passed that phase three years ago (cough cough - unless it's having a resurgence. Or maybe I'll just be in that phase for the rest of my life. It's OK, most old people are like this.)
I am also on Dreamwidth which I remember specifically as hosting a lot of fanfiction, of which I was a devoted reader (too devoted, maybe) in my preteens and early teens.
Since my fiction doesn't really fit into any well-known publishable genres, I thought I'd just get it out here on the web. It takes in all sorts of influences, most notably games and anime, which is partially why it doesn't really feel like it belongs on a site like fictionpress or why I shouldn't actually look for self-publishing. But at the same time, it's definitely not fanfiction (which I did write a fair bit of - see above - always leaving it discontinued to my small yet disgruntled body of readers.)
Some of my interests, which might also be your interests, include:
* Games and anime - older Nintendo games like Zelda, Pokemon, Mario for the N64, GameBoy, GBA, GameCube, DS. Older PC games like Myst, Roller Coaster Tycoon, but also Terraria. Shounen anime like Yugioh, Bleach, Hunter x Hunter.
* Books - I read a lot, but currently I'm really loving JK Rowling (her newer stuff under Robert Galbraith which is murder mystery/romance,) Madeleine L'Engle (she wrote so much more than just A Wrinkle in Time,) Robin Hobb (medieval fantasy,) and random authors I find in sci-fi/fantasy/mystery/thriller, old or new.
* Drawing and art - I wanted to be an artist growing up and when I realized I probably wasn't going to be able to pay rent that way, wanted to study fine art. Apparently, when I was little, I used to draw on the shower walls - before I could talk? Art is preverbal, so that would make sense. I studied at a classical oil painting school, but most recently have been most inspired by a silverpoint workshop I took to do colored pencil. I also sometimes do digital colored pencil. Most of my art is realism or copies of nature. I haven't done anime style art in years although I have recently done some copies as my friend got his tablet and I wanted to join in too.
In my day to day life I have an office job. What I do, and where I do it, is probably none of your business.
None of the assets on this website are mine. They're from MapleStory.
The Dragonfly in the Tower is an idea I cooked up fairly recently after moving to, guess what? a tower.
I was heavily inspired by playing through Myst for the first time. There's a level called the Mechanical Age where you're in (again, surprise surprise) a tower. It's beautiful, it's on an island, and you get all these traces of an intelligent, cultivated man with a taste for the finer things in life; whiskey, chess boards, books, paintings, and odd little geometrical shapes and simple automata (ie. a drinking bird.) But then you (spoiler alert) find out about his lair which has mounted pig heads and weird, pig but also human like heads in chests, and finally, a cage with a button to electrocute someone in. You realize he was a violent, disturbed man, and you want out...
I really like the idea of a green dragonfly whizzing about helping the player solve clues.
The main character is a 14 year old girl and and one of the subplots is how it feels to be 14 and in love - or more specifically, 14 and just beginning to understand what it might feel like to become more intimate with someone else. It's drawn from my memories of that time and it's really just the precursor to love - the strong, intense physical attraction isn't there, and neither is the knowledge of what love, romance, and a sexual relationship actually entail. It's not an elementary school crush, which is just butterflies in your stomach, but it's not even physically exploratory yet. It's just the sensation of realizing (from my own limited heterosexual female cisgender standpoint) "I'm a girl, and this boy notices I'm a girl," and leaving it at that. Pre-romance.
On the other hand, The Black Squirrel (which I barely even remember writing anymore... it's been a year, lol) was heavily influenced by MapleStory and Hunter x Hunter which I had just finished. MapleStory, at least the beta version which was the version I played growing up, started off with four classes: bowman, mage, thief, or warrior. I used this basic model in The Black Squirrel, too. I really, really loved how Hunter x Hunter did the fight scenes between Gon and Hisoka, and that was an inspiration for how I wrote the scenes between Morden and Cassiopeia. Finally, although I didn't intend to, JK Rowling permeated her way through as well. The tone and diction feels straight from Harry Potter and a lot of the scenes parallel scenes from Harry Potter. This was not at all deliberate but something I realized upon rereading.
The Black Squirrel was really based on my struggles as an INTJ young adult (I don't think I classify as INTJ any longer - probably INTP, which was my first tested classification.) INTJs are very gifted, but have a lot to learn through life. The story also focuses on sibling relationships, more specifically on the relationship between brothers. I have an older brother, so I'm sure I leaned a lot on that experience, even though Alvin has nothing in common with my brother (really. Really really really. :)) It's really based off the "archetypal" brother relationship.
Looking back, The Black Squirrel was way too complicated and unwieldy of a plot line. I don't think I will ever continue it (a shame - the next book, LETTERS FROM ALVIN, promised to be a great read.) I'm a different person, in a different space than when I first started it. But it helped me get back into the groove of writing.