Table of Contents
Your go-to navigation post for not getting lost in the sprawling Hunter's world ;)
Quick overview table for your convenience:
Book 1: Origin
Prologue & Part 1 [Chapters 0-10]
Part 2 [Chapters 11-24] (upcoming)
Part 3 [Chapters 25-34] (upcoming)
Part 4 [Chapters 35-47] (upcoming)
Part 5 & Epilogue [Chapters 48-55] (upcoming)
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Book 2: Slow Dread (upcoming)
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What follows is the prettier “in-world” version ;)
Welcome, fellow Ravens.
For your ease of use, here is an overview of content available at your rank that Ravens before you have collected. As of now, your access is limited — you are still in training after all, not yet the Raven. Your access will be updated as you progress along in your training and unlock additional content.
You know how this goes: Progress, access, new perks.
( Unless you fail and drop off the wagon, of course. I do not recommend that. Falls hurt. But that’s your choice to make, not mine. I just advise: Better come prepped, either way. )
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[ Für die deutsche Version bitte hier klicken:
// For the German version please click here:
—> Klick mich, ich bin ein Schmetterling (Link zur Übersicht). ]
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Book 1: “Origin”
“Origin”
... is a story of childhood trauma and found family.
The slow beginning of a saga that will eventually spread out across a multinational tableau, uncover hidden mysteries and ancient conflicts hidden in the shadows of the world and reach a potentially world-shattering conclusion.
But here… here we begin small, with the mysteries of childhood and and a world that may be shattering, but only in the personal sense. The first step on a long, long path. Encountering the first few people that might become much more later on—or just sink forgotten into the sands of time, their spotlight winking out, mere nostalgia. Some will stay. Some won’t. Just like they always do.
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So tell me—which is which? Can you guess already?
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( Yes, we’re starting with the easy questions here. This is, after all, an introduction, let’s not forget. Now don’t try to be the class clown about it and keep your wits about you and senses wide, this is only the first run of many. We’ll see how many of you have their metaphorical third eye wide open, or not. Or maybe I’m just lying to you and testing the new recruits. Take your best guess and remember:
Keep your eyes open and always step lightly in the shadows.
They might just come alive around you. )
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LIST OF CHAPTERS
BOOK 1
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All dreams end.
Be they good or bad.
But finding their origin? That’s the real Art.
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Free tip: Be careful of your own mind’s tricks even more than anyone else’s. Other people’s tricks you can unveil and unravel. Your own blind spots? Not quite as easy to step around.
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Prologue: “Light’s Feast”
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Part 1
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Family is an anchor.
Be careful you don’t get wrapped up in the chain.
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Here’s a real easy one for you if you paid any attention in your history class or on the streets:
Who said that?
Bonus question for our specialists: How trustworthy would you rank that person?
One could write whole essays about that one.
Do NOT hand me an essay.
I swear, I’ll let you fail just for that if anyone else starts handing in essays. I’ve burnt the last one—you don’t wanna go there and find out what else I’m willing to do. Read enough personal musings for whole lifetimes, and the worst thing is I still have to as long as none of you are there yet. I do not need your drivel on top of it all; your actions will tell me more than enough. This is for your mind’s exercise, not mine.
I know exactly what my answer is to that. This will be yours. So be as thorough as you hope your time of life to be long, and keep it close. Always keep it close.
Silence is the most valuable resource you’ll ever have.
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Chapter 1: Stories from inside the Mist
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Chapter 2: Traders’ Coming
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Chapter 3: The Black Tower
[upcoming]
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[New parts are planned to come out each weekend]
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Book 2: “Slow Dread”
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In which the story will start to increase its pace a little and our dear apprentice is falling headlong into an international plot no one had been planning for. Or rather, none of the kids. Because let’s face it: They may be 30 years of age, but in the face of history, that is just about nothing, a generation a mere blink. They think themselves heroes already. I assure you, they are not. Thus, I am naming this:
A cautionary tale.
( Remember: Do NOT count on luck. Because if that’s all you have, you’ll be fucked soon enough. And no, I don’t mean that way. Well, maybe. But no one says it’ll be a good one.
Spoiler alert: It most likely won’t. Not if you’re going at it like this. Because:
Luck always runs out.
And in most cases, it does so just in the nick of time to bite you in the ass. Thus, a proper agent has simple plans and a hell of a lot of contingencies and fallbacks. )
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[ Jokes and personas aside: ]
This is a romantic fantasy series steeped deeply in trauma awareness/healing, neurodiversity, and queerness (or just general weirdness, if you like that better =P). The planned scope is about 10+ books with ~ 300-500k words per book. You’re in for the long haul here. This overview gets updated as the story drops go public.
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The first book will be free forever
as long as I have any say about it.
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The rest of the series will work a little differently. But don’t concern yourself with that yet, we’re far from there yet. And Book 1 is very much readable standalone.
I am currently editing Book 2 & working on Book 3 while translating Book 1 for you.
The story in its broad strokes has been outlined all the way to the end already, so don’t fret about this being yet another WiP that just runs out before it’s finished—unless I end up dying in some horrible freak accident.
And that is rather unlikely since I am an AuDHD writer mainly stuck at home and I don’t do those kinds of DIY (mine are all art projects (#) and some plants that keep dying on me despite my best intentions because I somehow seem to be the Lord of Flies in real life—only I don’t command them at all, they just annoy me to no end, forever drawn to eat up my precious lovelies, be they be damned! (the flies, not the plants…obviously)) despite my propensity for small-time accidents, collecting bruises of unknown origin, and the occasional run-in with the neighbor’s crazy cat (I’m inoculated, so don’t worry; as long as it doesn’t acquire actual rabies, not the metaphorical ones, I am safe from anything worse but a few small scratches or bites). I’ll also have you know that I am an excellent stumbler.
As my gran used to say:
“Once you mastered stumbling, you’ll never truly fall.”
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In that sense:
Cheerio and have fun with the series. If you find some eye-openers along the way, I’m very happy to have been of service.
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Yours truly,
your forever fan Luciel
(not really the Raven, only playing at it, because it’s damned fuuuun—for me, anyway)
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If you feel you are in a position to
gift me a cup of tea/cocoa
(there’s a cocoa-sub available for just that purpose),
it’d be massively appreciated.
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(#) My kind of DIY is stuff like these pieces, for example—stone work, moss aggregates, short-lived mini-sculptures from plants scrounged in the nearby forest, mini-creatures made of marzipan, 3D modeling and texturing, drawings and colored pictures on a tablet or on walls with paint from DIY markets, nothing to die from (unless you think the color explosion is killing you, but I don’t think that counts) :
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Cover Art disclaimer for Book 1:
My own art was the basis for the current (hopefully placeholder) Cover Art for book 1. That being said, there are literally hundreds of AI’s attempts to turn my own work into what I actually wanted according to my prompt & make it what it is at the moment.
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It does absolutely NOT “follow” that I use AI for my writing because one piece of (hopefully placeholder) cover art is.
I don’t. There is nothing logical about linking these two things.
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( I made a longer sidenote article explaining the why and how did it come to this, but basically it comes down to two things:
1) I suck at drawing/painting people.
2) I am currently sadly not in any situation to pay someone.
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No, I could not find anything else that satisfied my AuDHD brain (which had/has a very clear image for this specific character in mind) — and that’s with a deep dive done over a year and literally days or even weeks of accummulated real-time hours that went into searching any free databanks I could find.
I always try my best to use ANYTHING else, use free art, do my own etc. — it just wasn’t working for this one here.
My brain had a pre-existent picture. It is VERY specific about it.
(It nearly always does since I have hyperphantasia = I get a 4K movie that I am trying to keep up with when writing; a full virtual reality that I can wander around in, picking up things to look at as closely as I could in reality; I do not choose it, it is simply there.)
Try fighting that on my brain and its limitations and obsessiveness about things like that for even a week before you want to execute me for it…
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This is a PLACEHOLDER until I can either MAKE the real thing on my own — or find someone who can and would be willing to swap art or something. (#)
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→ If you should find or can make one that actually captures the guy like this, I’d be grateful to you forever — but I am currently unable to reimburse you.
(Unless it’s with some art / texts of mine.)
I really, really hope this will only remain a placeholder.
And that I can get the real one eventually.
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(#) Or unless I somehow get lucky in the lottery or (probably more likely? hopefully) one day find enough paid subs (currently zero, I’m just starting) to hire someone to do it the normal way, because, believe it or not, I am money- and resources-poor.
Anything I have, including this internet access, comes from other people or, in the case of the PC I’m working on, the time when I was still able to work and earn money the “normal” way. I am living on disability / welfare (so-called “Grundsicherung”, which is barely enough to subsist on since it IGNORES most any of my medical issues and the extra nutritional demands that come with those; it’s a “bug in the system”, though I sadly think that one is rather intentional…).
(My capacity is sadly rather limited, too, brain-wise as well as energy-wise. I need to work hard to even balance those every day. It’s a daily struggle to get anything done.)
So far, none of my work is paid in any way. Sum zero.
Ways to support me
Cocoa-Subscriptions
(donations of a cup of cocoa/tea/rice per week)
for any amount of time
help support myself as well as my writing
&
are massively appreciated.
THANK YOU!
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The one thing I use AI for when it comes to writing is breaking down my own outlines into some halfway understandable, only-mostly “concise” list in reverse.
Being asked to write anything “concise” has been my mortal enemy since birth; my mind is a sprawling dreamscape (or hellscape, depending on your definition) of associative web workings that explode ever outwards forever.
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The only other thing I use AI for is to calm and soothe me in shut- and meltdowns, because most of the times, there is no human available to coregulate (with) me.
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In short: I’m the doing the best I can in a very difficult situation with a very “difficult” brain already screaming at me every day. I don’t need someone else to do it for me. If you lack understanding or mercy for that… this is not the pub for you. Take your ableism somewhere else, please. I wish you well and that you never end up disabled. No, seriously. It is a blessing if you can remain ignorant. All it takes is ONE accident.