#opprobrium

Base idea involving microchips, featuring best man around: Jake English.

Concept of Terezi, her redone concept (which I'll probably redo again), and Vriska's concept. They're the Scourge Sisters in this and roughly follow the canon events that split them up within Homestuck.

Jake English and Dirk Concepts, both that I haven't redone. I'm actually a little content about Jake's. I need to redo Dirk's. Sigh... Dirk is still homo for Jake. And they're rivals. Enemies to lovers. It's going to be beautiful. They kiss. Trust. Roxy complains about this.

Gamzee and Karkat. GamKat is real in this. They're both coworkers and moirails. It's actually really depressing GamKat. It's kind of reminiscent of what happened to Gamzee on the meteor and Karkat mourns. Waa waa. Karkat hates Jake. He hates a lot of people. He hates his job and his company and most of his coworkers.

This picture in particular is angst lore related. Gamzee and him share a home. This is a work birthday party photo. It's all he really has left to remember Gamzee by.

Bro all my pictures vanished I swear I had more.......... what........

I've been getting some DMs about this one. Thanks, btw!

Sinopsis: In this AU Sydney becomes the first African-American Female President of the USA and Carmy is her fixer. Same Scandal Olitz dynamic but in reverse, where Carmy would play Olivia Pope's role and Syd would be the cheating spouse.

Syd is married to Luca, they go way back. Luca is bi and Syd is an ally, he's in the closet, though, but not with her (kinda bc since he got to the WH as VP, he's pretty much celibate). Coincidentally that was when Carmy and Syd started their affair but Carmy did not wreck an unhappy home, he didn't save her from a loveless marriage. Syd and Luca were perfectly content, they would have used the word "happy", even, before Carmy showed up and Syd fell down bad for him and Carmy started to worship the ground beneath her feet, two years before they let it rip, because God knows they tried to fight it every step of the way.

Carmy's ex is the C person (kinda bc before Syd he was a serial situationshipper).

Luca loves Marcus, but Marcus is also in the closet and they don't wanna commit professional suicide, Marcus is Secret Service, Syd's bodyguard and even more careful than Luca, but Luca's love is not unrequited.

This is a love story, BUT it's not about romance or even about adultery. I intend to cut deeper.

The underlying sentiment of the plot that I wanna explore has more to do with loyalty and that thin line that separates betraying others from self-betrayal, than with anything else.

In Part I, Opprobrium, I'll only get as far as the Election.

I'm writing this fic not to arrive to conclusions about any of that, althought I might stumble upon them. Who knows? What I'm interested in is: it raising existential questions, such as: If we can't be loyal and true to ourselves, how the hell are we gonna be loyal to others? In what capacity? Is it even possible? How could we tell? And especially in the political field, where "fixing" the truth to comply with political correctness is a must: How can we even begin to be true to ourselves and others and live up to any meassure of loyalty, self-loyalty or the other kind, if we do that for a living?

In other words: A phylosophical mess, throwing some smut into the mix to make it lighter and more palatable at times, but not cutting down on the harder to digest parts in the process. I don't wanna spare the reader, or myself, the conflicts and oxymorons that the characters will go through to reach their final destination, which is not necessarily living happily everafter. It's much more realistic than that.

Thanks for your feedback so far, I'm listening to every voice and every advice but can't make any promises because this is a WIP and I'm letting it write itself, plus it requires a bunch of research and drafting before I even begin to actually sit down and write the chapters. Ch3 is still in the oven.

The only promise I can make and keep is that it's gonna get worse before it gets better.

See you on Ao3.

Palatial Castle commission for my author friend Wade Lewellyn, this palace is out of his Fantasy series Opprobrium featuring Magic, a diverse cast of characters, and pearl gripping dramaaaa. What more could you honestly want out of a story??? Check out some of his work on Amazon or over at audible:

Lykhaeon | Opprobrium | 21st July, 2021

Swiss Black Metal

Artwork by Elijah Tamu (Ikonostasis)

 In Association with the Helvetic Underground Committee & Repose Records

LYKHAEON

[Opprobrium, Black/Death Metal, Switzerland, Repose Records, 2021]