The Second Dimension

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Keep 'em guessing.

stories:

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Funnily enough, the idea for this one came from the title. In Wandercon2021, my team and I were sharing possible ideas, and we made a list of titles that anyone on the team could use as inspiration. My teammate ArcaneMemories (or GlitchyMemories), came up with this title. Something about it resonated with me (it was either this or 'Satsuma Prime'), and pretty soon I had the seedlings of an idea about Semeliel creating a story herself based off of a transmission.
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I have to give credit to Arcane, because the characters here are very much based on the title. Io, the watcher, is wistful and nostalgic and a yearning romantic and everything you'd imagine the ideal astronomer would be like. Eva, the painter, is creative and beautiful and charming and everything you'd imagine a space-faring artistic diplomat would be like, or alternatively, the ideal painter. Semeliel's character isn't anything special really — she's a product of her environment since she has no agency or ability to interact with the world. It works in this story, but I feel that aspect of her character can only be explored so much before it becomes tired.
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I wrote the poem first, and from there I devised the story based on the poem. Io and Eva's names are taken from the line 'I owe you; ever and ever.' The setting and genre are also taken from the poem. In a way, I was the transmission — at the time, I had no idea what the story Semeliel generated would be about, and so I thought a poem would be a good way of inspiring her, and I guess, in turn, it inspired me.
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Looking back, some of the dialogue is cheesy, but ultimately I'm very impressed with how much worldbuilding and characterisation I packed into this short thing. It was my first post to the Library, and I still consider it one of my favourites (and best)!‎‎

it was worth it, if only for a moment eternity: A watcher, a painter, and an unbearable wait

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Written in a couple hours while procrastinating exam study. At the time, I was thinking a lot about nature vs. city themes in fiction, and how that conflicted with my experience of the city; how cities are demonised in poetry and nature is romanticised, often to the point of ignoring what both of them are actually like. I think I did a good job of balancing romantic imagery (in both senses of the word) and more negative ideas of the city here. I'm especially proud of the final line, which encompasses the thesis in a concise and impactful way.

I use a lot of compound words in this poem, giving it an interlocking sort of rhythm I find quite interesting. The language is kind of unrefined and the adjectives are somewhat cliché, but there is some imagery I still find very moving. Combined with the custom theme I did, this page has a particular vibe I'm glad I captured while it was in my brain.

concrete and haphazard bricks now rubble under the weight of goodbye: Elsewhere

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This theme was created on request by Din-Bidor, who (wrongly, but in a sense, rightly) put his faith in me to create a theme for a piece he was working on. Previously, I only had minimal experience in CSS and theme-making, such as a simple recolour of dustjacket or helping out with CSS on the discord server.

My initial thoughts for the colour scheme were primarily red and black, inspired by this fantastic custom theme by JackalRelated. However, I realised red and black invoke images of pure terror, pain and violence; being chased by an unknown being — the Hollywood nightmare. Din wanted something very particular: the feeling of not being in control, of exploring a place familiar but at the same time foreign and corrupt. I truly struck gold with the header image and body texture. Both feel viscous, as if you are sinking into a dream. The body texture is reminiscent of the space between waking and dreaming; it looks like the back of your eyelids when half-asleep. Swirling mist that barely conceals the mysteries of the night.
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As much as I would like to attribute the success of this theme to pure miracle, the time and effort I spent working on it probably suggest otherwise. My advice for making a theme with no artistic knowledge: steal code from more talented people and get the header image right, and you'll be on track.