Ollo! I’m Savvy (she/her, or they/them, I’m not attached to any really). I am an autistic aroace writer in my mid-20s. My other blog is @elritze, which you may see lurking around reblogging art or memes.
My WIP is The Glass Lament, the first book in a high fantasy series. The main characters are neurodivergent and queer with themes of identity and self-acceptance (longer blurb below).
My project masterpost is here. You can find any writing I post under the tag #savvy's snippets. I'll get a wiki up at some point but for now, worldbuilding info will go under the tag #the glass lament.
About me: I’m a huge nerd, I love reading fantasy/sci-fi and playing videogames. I'm a fan of Knives Out, Hollow Knight, Hermitcraft, The Locked Tomb, the Murderbot Diaries, and much more. I mostly listen to orchestral movie and game soundtracks. I also have two parrots, Beedle the conure and Ferb the cockatiel. I am currently devouring every writing by James Baldwin.
Blurb-ish for my WIP, The Glass Lament:
Zara never wanted to fight. Not until the Nemesi, whose fanatic regime tried to conquer her homeland a century ago, return without warning and raid her village. Her oath of vengeance drives her away from her people to join the army, but before she can reach the front lines her patrol receives a mysterious new order.
Now, against her wishes, Zara finds herself escorting a Dracai'seng – one of the last of a legendary race – across Lopenya on a fateful mission. Along the way, she will face hungry spirits and winged bandits, and discover secrets about Lopenya, the Dracai’seng, the war with the Nemesi… and perhaps even herself.
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3 teams for art fight this year is crazy!!!! I love it. I was really torn between comedy and mystery but I chose comedy in the end. I like the funnies. The tone in most of my writing is overall light-hearted I think, even when it comes to Kye. He's overly edgy in a silly way lol.
anywho!! Here's my af: https://artfight.net/~MyUniverseinaBox
Still updating some profiles. I have some new art to add to Rae and Kira's profiles which will be posted there in timeee
I was tagged by the fabulous @memento-morri-writes! Thanks!
Alex watches the seconds hand on her watch move around the circle.
“—and these unfounded accusations! My ex-husband never bribed anyone, not for me. When he finds out about this—”
I'll tag @akindofmagictoo @cat-esper @gaslightwestern and anyone who wants to play!
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🌹Rose: What or who does your character admire? What do they admire about that person or thing?
I'll answer for both Jakobi and Zara, main characters who eventually become queerplatonic partners.
Zara admires Jakobi's curiosity and wonder at the world, his knowledge, and his gentleness. When they first meet she is deeply jaded and has pushed everyone else away, yet he slowly but surely breaks through her walls. Sometimes his positivity is too much, but sometimes that compassionate, hopeful perspective is exactly what she needs. She's also impressed by all the fascinating facts he knows.
Jakobi admires Zara's courage, loyalty, and honesty. She can be too reckless, and very blunt, but Kobi has spent so many years hiding from the world and repressing his darker emotions. He wants to be more like her, forging ahead through grief and rage rather than plastering on a smile. He wants the same willingness to die for someone that she has.
Full name: Rusefino Belrevas, aka Rusef or Red-Winged Blackbird among the Retjevu people
Race: Human
Culture: ethnically Strasím, member of the Retjevu culture of the Volary
Age: mid-30s at start of prequel
Gender: he/him, cis man
Sexuality: homoromantic asexual
Hobbies: painting, sailing, taking long walks in nature, browsing the Volary’s markets for inspiration pieces
Appearance and Clothing:
Rusef is considered very handsome by other Retjevu. He’s 5’11” with a broad chest and toned arms and shoulders. His brown irises turned deep ruby-red after an alchemical experiment went wrong, which is why he and his sister Garceta are on poor terms now. He has a tan complexion, black hair in short curtain bangs, and a short neat beard.
Despite his coveted status as a fashion designer in the city of the Volary, Rusef usually dresses in plain black shirts and trousers with some splashes of red and gold. He prefers to stay out of the spotlight rather than flaunting himself. On missions for the Retjevu, however, he has worn a wide-brimmed hat and a long black coat with flashy red-and-gold epaulettes that resemble the markings of his bird namesake.
He speaks with a deep, husky voice. (If you’ve seen the critically acclaimed and widely beloved children’s classic, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, he sounds like Delgado but with a different accent. That's awfully specific but the most accurate voice I could find.)
Personality:
Somewhat secretive and guarded, naturally melancholy
Deep thinker and worrier
Compassionate; listens to everyone, no matter who they are or how small their troubles seem
Has a creative eye and sees beauty in every detail of the world, which he enjoys pointing out to others
Hard-working to the point of exhaustion
As a tailor and fashion designer (a position highly valued by the flamboyant Retjevu), he sketches, measures, sews, cuts, and matches clothing. Rusef wants to establish his own business but currently works for the tailoring guildmaster, Peacock, who abuses him and pushes him past his limit.
Rusef struggles with shame over his asexuality, because although he desires love and keeps attracting suitors, every past relationship required more than he could give. After one particularly ugly breakup Rusef placed the blame wholly on himself and thinks he is undeserving of romance. Maybe, as his parents demonstrated, that kind of love isn’t meant to last anyway.
Recently he has sunk into isolation and depression, bewildering his friends when he pushes them away.
Abilities:
Rusef is trained in melee, archery, and stealth and reconnaissance, though his skills are rusty. As a fledged Retjevu he is able to fly by summoning a pair of magical wings. His wings - and the smaller stabilizing "wings" that appear on his lower legs - are feathered black with splashes of red and gold on their leading edges.
Rusef speaks the Volary's most common dialect of Balso and understands eastern bekk-sign. Because many Retjevu are from the Tetrad or trade with people there, he can speak the Tetradic Alliance's lingua franca of Breligdan, but he isn't fluent.
Backstory:
Rusef grew up in the shadow of his cold and brilliant older sister, Garceta. He once attempted alchemy at her side, but an experiment gone awry stained his eyes scarlet and caused a rift between the two. He refuses to acknowledge that Garceta is even capable of caring for him.
Rusef’s parents divorced when he was eighteen. In an attempt to prove his worth to them and his new stepfather, he trained as a city guard and became a skilled fighter. But his insecurity led to him picking fights with fellow guards or civilians. His friend, Cassowary, recommended that he transfer to the Butcherbird assassins who defended the Volary from outside its perimeter. Rusef carried out several successful missions with them, but finally realized that his true dream was to create art, not violence. He eventually joined the tailoring guild instead, though he is still remembered for his prowess in combat.
Redbird is a clothing designer and tailor at a high-end shop, Pinions and Pearls. Lately his boss, Peacock, has escalated his unwanted advances on Rusef and lashes out at him with each rejection. Peacock is guildmaster of the Volary’s entire tailoring guild; if Rusef tries to leave, Peacock threatens to sabotage his career by revealing a secret that could ruin Rusef’s reputation...
Rusef has a sprawling family with deep roots in the Volary. His and Garceta’s parents, Sunbittern and Scarlet Ibis, split (mostly amicably) when the siblings were young adults. Ibis remarried to Raggiana, a wealthy “bird of paradise” and an advisor to the Volary’s ruler, the Golden Pheasant. Rusef is distrustful of Raggiana but always attends family gatherings to see his mother and twin stepsiblings, Satin and Flame Bowerbirds.
Rusef is very close to his almitad (sworn platonic partner), Weaver, whom he trusts more than anyone. They can communicate almost imperceptibly and work together in perfect tandem at the same shop. He is already preparing for the heartbreak of her loss, as a bekk’s lifespan is much shorter than a Lopenyan human’s. Weaver and Rusef share an apartment; before she moved in he added perches to the walls and an entrance just for bekk so she would feel more at home there. While Weaver has her own room she likes to sleep in a small hammock beside Rusef’s bed where he can reach over and stroke her fur or hold her tiny claw. He does not entertain anyone calling her his “pet”; he and Weaver are equals.
Other Facts:
Rusef's favorite color is pastel orange.
He keeps waking early to try and paint the sunrise, but every time he gives up and starts over the next day.
Like most Strasím Rusef worships prominent ancestors of both his family and the Retjevu in general. He believes these Guides are always watching over and influencing him. He chose three patron Guides in particular who represent steadiness, observance, and the freedom of the sea winds.
Rusef keeps his old longbow on display in his home. He has killed with it - he doesn’t want to again.
Other Retjevu think his eyes are a striking fashion statement, which even inspired later copycats, but he resents that it was not his choice to change them.
He regularly eats at the Kook’s Burrow restaurant with his close friends, including his old buddy Cassowary. Rusef sometimes goes rock-climbing with him to destress but has spent less and less time with friends in the past couple of years.
Rusef’s workspace always ends up cluttered no matter how he tries to clean and organize. He's rarely on time but that's a cultural norm in the Volary.
Btw Rusef's appearance was loosly inspired by this low-quality pic of young Andy Garcia:
Coincidentally, you know who voices Delgado in the iconic aforementioned Beverly Hills Chihuahua? That’s right - Andy Garcia.
#it's also interesting that he's a bit of a contrast#to the flamboyant retjevu#by being more lowkey and refusing to stand out
@enchanted-lightning-aes This is actually one of the reasons that Saméol falls for Rusef! Saméol has been pressured to put on a show for others all his life, and many Retjevu expect him to put on a smile and strut and be flashy. But Rusef, who is used to being overlooked, doesn't care about the spotlight and doesn't need Saméol to perform either. Saméol feels like he can relax around him.
wish everyone could perceive the Vague Concepts in my head because i just know you would looove my Vague Concepts. you would think im so smart if you saw the misty clouds of Vague Concepts floating around in my head. #MyVagueConcepts
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🏳️🌈LGBT Pride: Are any of your characters LGBTQ+? What are their identities? How did they realize they were queer?
🏳️⚧️Trans Pride: How is the idea of gender/queer identities treated in your world? What was your character's experience like?
🌈Rainbow: Has your character ever been to a Pride event? What was it like for them? If they’ve never been, what would it be like?
Happy Pride! This'll be a longer in-depth answer 😅
🏳️🌈LGBT Pride - Many of my characters are LGBTQ+! But some of their identities are a little hard to define/categorize by our world's standards, and some characters may not realize their own identities or care about it, so I leave them without exact labels. Here's the main characters:
Zara - most likely aromantic and straight but doesn't think much of it. Knows she is different but focuses on the other ways she stands out, so has no idea she could be considered queer.
Jakobi - genderqueer (his unisex race views gender differently than most humans); usually masc-presenting and attracted to femme-presenting people. Always knew he was "different" because the humans of his homeland were so strict about gender roles. He doesn't understand that, even if he prefers to dress and speak like human men are expected to. Humans are odd creatures.
Nyela - lesbian. Realized her attraction to women as a young soldier who visited brothels and often saw her fellow soldiers in states of undress.
Saméol - intersex (though maybe not in the same way as humans because he's half of a unisex race). This does personally affect his gender identity; he'll accept any pronouns but is used to he/him. Probably pansexual. Like Jakobi he always knew he was queer even if he didn't have the words for it.
Rusef - homoromantic sex-repulsed asexual. He realized this later in life after several failed relationships with allosexual partners. Queerplatonic relationships are common in his culture, but he values his QPR especially because of his asexuality.
There also side characters (both human and not) who are trans, nonbinary, genderfluid, a third gender in their culture, and more characters in QPRs, same-sex relationships, and polymarous relationships.
🏳️⚧️Trans Pride - It depends on the region. The rural northwest tends to be more militant about gender roles and has laws against crossdressing, changing your birth name/pronouns, etc. But most of Lopenya is at least tolerant, and the farther south and east you go the more openly queer people can be. Third genders exist in several cultures but may not be considered "queer" at all.
Jakobi and Saméol are from an isolated northwestern culture that forced them to hide their differences. Zara's people are similar. Nyela spent much of her childhood in a diverse central city where opinions were generally favorable. Rusef is from the eastern Retjevu culture, which is accepting of all gender identities and sexualities.
🌈Rainbow - Pride events don't exist in my world, either because queer identities are commonplace/culturally normal in some regions or repressed in others. So my characters haven't been to Pride, but if they did here's how they'd react!
Zara - This is, uh, interesting. Why am I here? And why am I so happy? I feel... accepted. Huh.
Jakobi - There are people like me! I could take notes all day. I'm quite fond of these flags, though I doubt any of their cultural terms would fit me. Oh, that's much too loud now, I need to lie down.
Nyela - What would I celebrate? Everyone's attracted to women to some degree. No? Really? It doesn't matter. I don't belong here.
Saméol - *heard faintly in the distance having the time of his life*
For any and all who jump in, please and thank you!
The English of Flights of Fancy is what a majority of the characters speak. Actually it's the only language I have them speaking because I have yet to think of a jumble of letters/real life language I want other kingdoms to speak in for their code.
We know Krea has their own language and that Fenne knows how to read said language, but I haven't determined what that looks like aside from it's runic.
Though I think Etria would have the most English-like language considering it's a mosh pit of kingdoms conquered by one kingdom. No matter how much the conquerors try erasing parts of what the conquered speak, they can't do that effectively without losing a lot of slaves. They might be the bastard kingdom who are mean to everyone, but they have standards. And they need fodder for their armies.
Animai would probably have a language where the written form depends on the region. The Feathre Region would be written on leaves or stone (most mountainous Region of Animai), the Felae Region would be wither written on grass stalks or woven in grass, the Aquae Region would carve into sea shells, the Equae/Canae Region would weave into grass but use knots in specific patterns and spacings to indicate words and they'd have to use so much grass, and the Serphae/Scalae Region would carve into sandstone. And yes the Animal Noble Families would have to learn how all the other Regions write so they can read that.
This also means that all the books Rayven had to read due to her father were likely all made of leaves :/ and the letter Cobrea and Fenne carried to summon Rayven was woven and Kestrel couldn't read it so they could have said anything and he'd had to trust that they were speaking the truth.
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SAPPHIRE FINALLY HAS AN OFFICIAL DESIGNN. Everyone celebrate the like fifth charm actually worked pfft
Closeups:
I've also updated her ArtFight page :3
Then rambles (plus taglists) under the cut!
Sapphire has always been very fem vibes to me, so like spinny skirts and SOME sort of comfy top. Honestly she probably has a buncha large sweaters too (so she can hit people with the arms lmao). But I still struggle with drawing skirts but I DID IT!! And now I can use her for practice pft
Overall I wanted a fun kinda adventurous vibe for her? Also a magical girl one. SO much a magical girl one. She lovesss magical girls, it's probably her favorite kinda genre to watch. She thinks Sam is Ultra Cool because Sam basically has her own magical girl transformation with Daluyong, her sword. And one day Sapphire wants to have magic so she can be like that :3
Her hairspike turns into a bo-staff, but it's more tech-based than magic (their friend Katie made it for her). I gave her platform boots because they're stompy and that fits her to me.
Sapphire's signature color is also yellow, despite her name (which she chose to be opposite yet connected to Ruby <3) but as always I tried keeping sapphire gems and the blue in there. This was a bit difficult though because I don't mess with largely yellow color palettes—it's usually neutral colors with yellow/gold as an accent. But I had fun with the paler orange and the white!! :3
I'm just very happy with this iteration, I feel I've finally got her down <3
Art Taglist (interact with this post if you wanna be on it!)
🏳️🌈LGBT Pride: Are any of your characters LGBTQ+? What are their identities? How did they realize they were queer?
🏳️⚧️Trans Pride: How is the idea of gender/queer identities treated in your world? What was your character's experience like?
🌈Rainbow: Has your character ever been to a Pride event? What was it like for them? If they’ve never been, what would it be like?
Answering all these with Shackle and Noose, because yeeee
🏳️🌈oh EVERYONE in this thing is queer! I've had enough of writing straight people lol
Pryseia and Rhea are both lesbians, and they realized pretty early on in their lives - Rhea saw men and was all "No thank you." while Pryseia never even considered them.
Malakh's demisexual and only interested in women, and she realized that in her teens when boys her age started showing an interest in her and her initial reaction was disgust (girls her age, however, were a different story).
Nevara and Viatrix are both aroace, and Nevara figured that out when she entered her teens and people started asking if she wanted to be a mother (netting a disgust laced hard "NO" from her), and Viatrix when she started getting into media, and saw sex and romance and was all "I'll watch, but I don't wanna participate".
Elytra's ace and demiromantic (with a preference for women), but its not something she has any plans of actively seeking out. She cottoned on to that in her teens as well, when her peers started getting into relationships while she was just sitting over here going, "Nah".
V'tala's demisexual and demiromantic, and only has an interest in women. Due to extenuating circumstances, she didn't come to this realization until she was well into her twenties.
🏳️⚧️This story's set in a space age future where there are a shitload of different alien races out there, and the gender and sex binary we have in this day and age isn't as common out there as people today think it is. For the most part, what people identify as is a non issue, because they have bigger things to worry about??? This race has only one gender, that one has three, what does it matter what anyone identifies as when there are giant eldritch monsters lurking in space and fucking up trade routes??? Of course, there are those who try to be weird and controlling about what people can be and who they can be with, but they're generally fucked up outliers rather than the norm.
For the leads in the story, for the most part, they never faced any kind of issue with how they identified or who they loved. The only exception was V'tala, who grew up in a rigidly heteronormative culture, which is why she didn't get to explore that facet of herself until later in life. lol, among other reasons...
🌈None of them have ever been to a Pride event, because being queer in this setting is so normal that there isn't really a need to celebrate it?? For quite a few cultures, this kind of discrimination never happened, while for others it happened so far in the past that it's nothing more than a bank holiday that no one really knows the origins for off the top of their head. lololol this setting is an indulgent fantasy where being queer is no more remarkable or dangerous than being straight 🙃
But don't get it twisted, they would all LOVE to go to a Pride party!
