Fic Concept Roundup 2023

Jul. 4th, 2023 11:41 am
rionaleonhart: top gear: the start button on a bugatti veyron. (going down tonight)
When I have a fic idea, I’ll usually scribble it down in the back of my diary. It’s time to switch diaries again, so I’m going to carry on the tradition I started last year!

This post lists all the fic ideas at the back of my 2022-23 diary. If I’ve written the fic, I’ll include a link to it. If I’ve started the fic, I’ll share a snippet. If I haven’t started it, I’ll write at least a hundred words on the spot.

First of all, here are the fics I’ve written in full. Fandoms: The Book of Mormon, Life Is Strange, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Do Revenge, Person of Interest, Lost, The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope. There may be spoilers for these canons below the cut.


( Written fics from my 2022-23 diary. )


Next, let’s look at the works in progress (or at least the works that were started; I’m not sure they’re actively progressing). Fandoms: The X-Files, Silent Hill, Hypnospace Outlaw, Final Fantasy VIII, Lost, Animorphs. There may be spoilers for these canons below the cut.


( In-progress fics from my 2022-23 diary. )


Finally, it’s time for the fic ideas I haven’t touched and now have to write something for. I’m a little intimidated by this category, but let’s see how it goes.

Fandoms: The Book of Mormon, The X-Files, Beacon Pines, Person of Interest, Community, Lost, Scrubs, Silent Hill. There may be spoilers for these canons below the cut.


( 2022-23 fics I hadn't started... until now. )


I’m glad I started doing this! Most of these will probably never become full fics, but it’s good to at least make a start on these concepts, rather than letting them languish eternally in my old diaries.
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Squisherz Are Really Cool.

Sep. 26th, 2022 07:54 pm
rionaleonhart: top gear: the start button on a bugatti veyron. (going down tonight)
Last year, [personal profile] zarla posted some interesting thoughts on Hypnospace Outlaw and the way the Internet has changed over time, and I thought I might check the game out if I got the chance. I picked it up in an itch.io bundle earlier this year, and, after the Spamton Sweepstakes ignited my nostalgia for the old web, I finally sat down and gave it a try.

Hypnospace Outlaw is one of the strangest and most interesting games I've ever played. It's also extremely absorbing; I wasn't prepared for how thoroughly it would get its hooks into me. It combines the addictiveness of browsing personal webpages in 1999 with the addictiveness of constantly progressing by performing small tasks in a videogame, and I found it extremely difficult to put down.

I also found Hypnospace Outlaw very stressful at points. I don't want to have to download malware! I don't care if it's fake malware that will only mess up my fake operating system!

While I enjoyed myself, I do have a couple of complaints. The first is that, at times, what I was supposed to do felt a little too obscure. I ended up losing confidence in my ability to work things out for myself and relying a lot on walkthroughs. Hypnospace Outlaw is basically a puzzle game, and puzzle games don't really work if you don't trust them to present you with reasonable puzzles.


( Spoilers for Hypnospace Outlaw. )


Even if there are some aspects of Hypnospace Outlaw I'd change, the core of the game is the reproduction of what the Internet was like in 1999, and that was so, so well done. I loved the variety of sites, from well-laid-out websites with a clear purpose to unfocused single-page websites made by people who are just trying this new thing out. And cool experimental things like the Freelands! Also, 'Ready to Shave' is the raddest song about shaving I've ever heard.

I collected all the Squisherz and displayed them proudly on my desktop. Obviously. Of course I couldn't resist the fake Pokémon. I'm glad there was a Pokémon analogue in Hypnospace Outlaw; 1999 wouldn't feel right without it.
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