#fictomere

PITCH FORMATS

these formats are not required, but if you're unsure how to pitch, feel free to copy or base it around one of these! you're also 100% free to just go ham and pitch however you want... or as long as you want. for the sake of dashboards very long pitches may be tagged #long post haha.

ex = example, can be a similar media/work, tropes, songs, vibes, etc. fill in the blank basically.

medium = what form the source is in. eg, a game, a book, a comic, if multiple, you can say multimedia or list all forms.

"it just is" pitches

SOURCE is a [medium] where [description]

SOURCE is a [medium] about [description] and [description]

comparative pitches

You might like SOURCE if you like EX, EX, and EX.

SOURCE is EX meets EX with a touch of EX.

info dump pitches

Ok, so, SOURCE is a [medium] about [ex] & [ex] where [ramble]

[ramble as long as you need to] and that's my SOURCE and it could be yours too

visceral pitches

Do you feel like you were meant to belong somewhere else? SOURCE might be that place if you long for [vivid description]

Do you miss [vivid desciption]? The sound of [vivid description]?

Remember the [vivid description] that day? When [event] happened and you didn't know what would happen next?

begging pitches / will be tagged 😭

SOURCE is GOOD PLEASE CHECK IT OUT PLEASE

you want to check out SOURCE sooooo bad. you want to meet [characters] now!!!

watch/read/play SOURCE. no longer asking. just do it.

my filled out examples

do you miss the cool shade of the tree we rested under after we fought? the sound of the river gurgling as fireflies flickered in and out of existence? (source: mod's original story haha)

omniscient reader's viewpoint is an existential queerplatonic apocalypse story about trauma, stories, being loved when you can't love yourself, and sacrifice.

First reason: Eliza has always felt strange inside, in certain very specific ways. She's always known that if the world knew her as she was, they'd tell her "that's not how people really are" and then ostracize her as completely as possible. She sold her soul knowing it would give her Superpowers, and the ritual she designed involved marking her skin with shapes and symbols.

Eliza's spent her life hiding from people's judgement, designing a persona that accomodates her needs and limitations while allowing her some amount of social acceptance, because she knows that to live as an outcast would be unbearable. The only way she can imagine showing the world her true differences is by making them physically undeniable, and by gaining so much power that she can show the world they need her more than she needs them.

Second reason: The specific way Eliza's always felt strange is that she has a deep, intense affinity for symbols and metaphors, and how they build off each other into works of rhetoric. It's beyond just enjoyment- for her, there's wonder and transcendence in the process of discovering how ideas fit together. She belongs at the center of a flowing network of ideas, more than she's ever belonged in a group of people. She's the work, and the work is her.

Eliza excels at magic because she's fascinated with the nuances and capabilities of the system Jacky designed, but she's frustrated with how he refuses her access to the deeper tools. Designing a spell he specifically tried to deny her access to, working from a single vague insight to a full-fledged ritual, is the most compelling challenge she's ever faced.

Third reason: Despite the two reasons above, Eliza held back for years- until right after her husband Dev was taken from her, to go die alongside Jacky, and many of Eliza's other housemates/coworkers, and potentially most or all of the Pyramid. Eliza waited until she had nobody left who loved her as the person she appeared to be. Only then she took the leap to sell her soul, and physically, concretely prove who she was- a metaphorician, not a person in any conventional sense- and prove that nobody could hurt her for being so.

---

I'm scared to post all this without explaining all the reasons I think these things. I'm worried people will disbelieve me, maybe even start excluding me. But I need to just get the words out, and hope some people will listen, and maybe start processing my observations of the comic itself later.

Because here's the thing. Eliza is alterhuman in a world where it's actually possible to choose physical nonhumanity- except nobody else ever has, because either they knew better or didn't know how. She's demonkin, but I'd argue that her soul-deep affinity for patterns makes her archetropal in a way I'm defining as "metaphorician". She's also xenogender, in the sense that she's never not a woman, but she feels wrong in her body until she can present as a nonhuman kind of woman.

You could argue that "alterhuman" and "xenogender" (or MOGAI more broadly) are invalid concepts to apply outside the specific internet communities those concepts grew out of. But I don't know of any better words for the shifting undefinable otherness that Eliza spends thirty years of her life biting down on, before it resolves into demonhood.

But I know how Eliza feels, because I am Eliza. In a strictly metaphorical sense, don't get me wrong- but I too am a metaphorician, and I take metaphors very seriously. Once two ideas truly attach they can never be separated back out. And only if you take that attachment seriously, and allow yourself to believe nonliteral truths, will the metaphor start becoming a useful tool for truth-seeking.

Eliza's mistake is that she's too afraid to admit to being different, unless she can undisputably prove those differences and turn them into strength rather than vulnerability. She'll use the powers of hell to make her body validate who she was all along, and rationalize away the consequences. She's got reason to fear the judgement of others... but ultimately, bargaining with hell did her worse.

My mistake is that I've been too afraid to admit to being different, because I didn't think I could undisputably prove it, and I felt like it'd be a vulnerability instead of a strength. Because after all, I'm Eliza and both of us are metaphoricians.

I always lurked around alterhuman and MOGAI communities, envying the people who'd found the other half of themself, even if mainstream society wouldn't understand. I always wanted mine, but nothing fit well enough to stick. I knew I wasn't the spiritual type of alterhuman, or the label-collecting type of MOGAI- I wanted a single metaphor to align myself with.

The problem is that I've always liked playing with symbols too much to ever take one seriously. Hand me an idea and I want to shake it, rotate it, take it to pieces and put it back together- but not accept it at face value. The closest I ever came was that I like sharpness metaphors for myself- sharp mind, acute senses, keen curiosity, piercing wit, incisive critique. But I never felt like that was an identity in and of itself.

It's so obvious in retrospect. The only true metaphorical match for one metaphorician is another one. But you don't know how far any comparison can take you until you get going.

So like- Eliza's fictional. I'm real. I don't see us as literally the same person, even if I'm her in the ways that really matter. But, my reading of The Power Fantasy is absolutely that Eliza is burning in hell because she was scared to speak her truth unless she had an unbeatable get-out-of-mockery-and-exclusion-free card. I've been trying so hard to pull together my unrefutable explanation for why I think that and all it's doing is make me anxious, because I know these are the kinds of claims people will go at you for anyway.

What subject are corresponding to and the explainations of why below.

Trainer icon:: Ninja Archetrope: while I usually don’t count it as fictional based, archetrope is one of those ambiguous identity in terms of strict categorization.

Background:: Hisui Region Para-hearthome: Due to the combination of various identities (Naruto hearttype, Japanese ocean dragon kardiatype->Joumon Japan hearthome), born from them is a paratype feeling of a hearthome in the Hisui region.

Pokemon::

Ninetales:

Uzumaki Naruto hearttype - due to his friendship early on with his Kurama, this Naruto has some affinity or alterhuman relation with kitsune. I have particular strong feelings with three-tails in specific. Shadow is for that flare of tailed-beastliness.

Mega Rayquaza:

Star dragon vaguelink - Somnivago Stelforma is the same species as Aurelion Sol, but a lot more of sapient asteroids. There are connection towards cosmos and the celestial, almost alien, thus the Mega Rayquaza. Shiny is because the star dragon is colored with galaxy, deep dark purple and indigos.

Mew:

Mew paratrope - My one archetrope born of paratype feeling (from myself being a divine/deific/celestial shapeshifter, mythic, dream dragon(kind)). Mew is a deific/spirit entities, mischivious, mystical, shape changing, and if you were to scoop out Mew, I can fit in the narrative left by the Mew shaped hole.

Zygarde (50%):

I don’t really know how to encompass the Golden Holy Dragon Digimon line vaguelink. Near the final stage however, most are followed by this zilant sort of body type, plus shiny for the holy aspect of the evo line.

Hydreigon:

It was hard pick between this or Zygarde. I ultimately added it because the hydreigon actually encompass the whole vaguetype, AND the whole plural aspect of it. Both the vaguetype were linked collectively between the dream dragons, and the general body shape, etherealness of each vaguelink also aligns well with Hydreigon. Shiny is for the digimon aspect of it, I just find the shiny better fitting for a digimon inspired pokemon, even if I prefer the regular color more.

Mega Latias:

Okay, so the manga (and by extension, the anime) The Summer Hikaru Died is still being written. It updates actively for audiences to see where the story goes. This is pretty typical, I would say, of a serialized manga.

But where does that leave the beings who identify with/as/etc. the characters in said piece of art/media?

Maybe someone has already written on this topic. If so, I'd be interested to see what they have to say.

For me, this is both exciting and sort of anxiety-inducing. My belief system (as of rn) is that I am this universe's version of "Hikaru." This means that I am not exactly the same as the "Hikaru" we see in the manga, which is why I refer to him as character "Hikaru." His actions aren't something I have done or would necessarily do. This means the plot of the story isn't 100% tied to my 'self.'

But! That character is still...me, in a way. So I care about what happens! I worry about what he might do that doesn't align with how I am in this universe, and I worry about the public reception of character "Hikaru." Because of how I am, it makes me feel bad when people dunk on him.

But I can understand that random strangers don't mean it personally, so I try not to take it to heart. Everyone is allowed their own feelings and opinions, just like I am.

SO!

What are y'all's experiences as fictionfolk with updating sources/fictomeres?

Do you feel emotionally affected by seeing a new update?

Do you just vibe as yourself and not really care about the plot?