[personal profile] paradoxcase
Name: Clarification
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Techelet #5: Tikkun Olam (repairing the world), Light Black #17: Lose
Styles and Supplies: Brushes (June 27 2025: Oblige), Oils (“You can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks, or even months over-analyzing a situation; trying to put the pieces together, justifying what could’ve, would’ve happened… or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and move on.” - Tupac Shakur)
Word Count: 2040
Rating: PG
Warnings: Discussion of slavery
Characters: Setsiana, Sapfita
In-Universe Date: Night of 1912.1.1.2
Summary: Setsiana gets clarifications from Sapfita.

Clarification )
[personal profile] paradoxcase
Name: 20 Years Later
Story: Tales From the Neighborhood
Plot Thread: Bishop-Curtis Family
Colors: Light Black #9: Knock
Styles and Supplies: Silhouette, Chiaroscuro, Gesso, Acrylics (June 21 2025: "If I didn't love you, this would be easy"), Stain ("Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness." - Desmond Tutu), Novelty Bead ("Deep breath. Fresh horrors. Let's go." - Elanor Janega, given here)
Word Count: 2555
Rating: T
Warnings: Past character death and undeath, and associated trauma; Implied vampire attack; Implied minor mind control and vampire-related domestic abuse
Characters: Bonnie Bishop/Alex Upsnott Curtis, Edith Curtis, Joanna Curtis
Summary: Bonnie returns to her home after a long absence.
Notes: Tales From the Neighborhood is going to be a completely different Sims story from Crimes Against Romance, about my current Sims 2 neighborhood, that I've been playing on and off since 2013. This is not so much a single long-form story as a collection of loosely-related short stories about a community of approximately 200 people who are all related in probably confusing ways. They are assembled into (currently) six different plot threads that follow the same sets of characters. The purpose of these mainly is to use up prompts that didn't fit into my long-form fics, and will be sprinkled in between major parts of the long-form fics. Most of the prompts I need to use up in this way are from the Warm Heart list, so there won't be more of these until after I pick up that list later on.

These are going to actually be somewhat more closely related to things that actually happened in my game, and should be more silly and less serious business than Crimes Against Romance. As I type this, I realize that this one kind of is serious business, actually, so I guess this is more of a promise that most of the rest of them won't be.

20 Years Later )

Gesso Notes (819 words) )

Sim Pictures and Notes (1243 words) )
[personal profile] paradoxcase
Name: Passunder
Story: Crimes Against Romance (Alternative title: Be Gay, Do Crime)
Colors: Light Black #13: Rotate
Styles and Supplies: Life Drawing, Gesso, Gift Wrap, Thread, Portrait, Graffiti (May-June Parents Challenge), Oils (your character is gay and loves their life), Acrylic (June 16 2025: "Your character finds a journal or a letter that explains or reveals something important that they would never have known otherwise.")
Word Count: 6030
Rating: Technically G, but there are hints of non-G-rated stuff happening off-screen
Warnings: Introduction of 15 different on-screen characters, and a couple off-screen characters who are haunting the narrative
Characters and Established Relationships: (deep breath) Aubrey Bren/Irfan Pai, River Bren/Tabitha Bren, Gail Bren, Jeanine Bren, Anne Bren/Gavin Newson Bren, Benjamin Bren, Daniel Bren, Noah Bren, Andrew Bren Goss/Vamsi Goss, Sadie Gregory, Bess Gregory
Dates: March and April of 1996 (but see the Gesso Notes about the passage of time)
Summary: Aubrey discovers secrets in his grandmother's house during a Passover seder.
Notes: This is my tawdry gay Sims telenovela a story I came up with for some sims in an ancient Sims 2 neighborhood about organized crime and crooked lawyers that I never got to realize because the neighborhood got deleted in 2013, but this story has never been deleted from my brain. Silvercat said on the Discord that this kind of Sims story about original characters counts as original and counts as Gesso for Rainbowfic purposes, so I figured I would actually write it up and post it. There should be 33 more installments, but most of the rest of this won't come until after I've finished the Fulcrum, because I want to use a completely different set of lists for it. I technically could have waited to post this, too, since I'll be using Light Black for a long time still to come, but this particular scene was burning a hole in my brain and I had to write it now. I've added notes about the Gesso borrowings, since I don't expect people to actually be familiar with 20-year-old video games, and also included the in-game portraits of all of the sims, since I do actually still have them.

As was hopefully communicated by the telenovela title, this story runs on high octane interpersonal drama and really tropey romance, which is kind of par for the course for stories I come up with for my sims, really, although this specific piece of it is uncharacteristically normal. This is also very much a grey-versus-black morality story - the protagonists are not really good guys, and don't have a lot of illusions about that, but they should at least be significantly more sympathetic than the antagonists.

Passunder )

Gesso Notes (1499 words) )

Sim Pictures and Notes (2698 words) )
[personal profile] paradoxcase
Name: A Final Return
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Ecru #8: Judge, Techelet #6: Olam Haba'a (the world to come)
Styles and Supplies: Panorama, Glue (June 12 2025: "It's a good day to express your thoughts and feelings, Gemini. Whether it's a loved one who'd appreciate affectionate words or a colleague who requires instruction, communication will come more easily than usual. You have a practical nature. Often you say what you think is required and not much else. Yet others may need you to say a lot more. Consider this as you go about your day."), Brushes (June 12 2025: Impute)
Word Count: 2625
Rating: PG
Warnings: Discussion of Slavery
Characters: Setsiana, Qhoroali
In-Universe Date: 1912.1.1.2
Summary: Setsiana talks to Qhoroali while they return to Nwórza.
Notes: This is the last post of Part 1 of the Fulcrum (and the last Ecru prompt, as well). In terms of Rainbowfic posts, this is almost exactly 1/3 of the way through the full story. Thank you guys for reading! There will be a short break where I post two non-Fulcrum-related things, and then I will be back with the beginning of Part 2.

A Final Return )
[personal profile] paradoxcase
Name: Repairing Bridges
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Techelet #10: Mechilah (forgiveness)
Styles and Supplies: Chiaroscuro, Graffiti (May/June Parents Challenge), Brushes (June 7 2025: abstruse), Novelty Bead ("In times of crisis, the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers." - T'Challa, Black Panther, given here)
Word Count: 1637
Rating: T
Warnings: Minority-Report-type stuff
Characters: Setsiana, Bríghlot (Setsiana's mom), Qhoroali, Cyaru
In-Universe Date: 1647.6.2.2
Summary: Setsiana seeks help from her parents.
Notes: Setsiana's mom will appear again much later in the story, but I'm not sure if her (Vrelian) name will actually make an appearance in the text. But I would like it to be known that I did give her a name.

Repairing Bridges )
[personal profile] paradoxcase
Name: Return to Syarhrít
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Fresh Thyme #8: Turn Back, Dogwood Rose #1: red: courage
Styles and Supplies: Chiaroscuro, Cartography, Glitter (this poem), Novelty Bead (this gif, given here)
Word Count: 3099
Rating: T
Warnings: Fantasy Drug (Ab)use, Non-Graphic Violence
Characters: Setsiana, Qhoroali, Liselye, Cyaru, Chuanyoa, Meqhola
In-Universe Date: 1912.1.1.2, 1647.6.2.2
Summary: Qhoroali returns Setsiana to 1647.

Return to Syarhrit )
[personal profile] paradoxcase
Name: The Timeline You Want to Live In
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Ecru #9: Prefer
Styles and Supplies: Novelty Bead ("moral of the story", given here)
Word Count: 389
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Characters: Setsiana, Sapfita
In-Universe Date: Night of 1912.1.1.1
Summary: Setsiana has a dream before she returns.

The Timeline You Want to Live In )
silvercat17: silhouetted figure of a person with raised arms (woo)
[personal profile] silvercat17
If you're motivated by banners, take a look at ALL the things you can earn. All you have to do is comment with what you've earned - it's all on the honor system. You can also just grab one of the generic banners (not available for all colors or color/style combinations). Need help figuring out what banners you've earned? Try the Auto Counting Tracking Sheet

ParadoxCase )

Wallwalker
side-b-blackstar.png

Silvercat )

I'll make a banner for you no matter how long ago you earned it! I have one more banner for me once I've made the post, but I'm running out of time today.
[personal profile] paradoxcase
Name: A New Year
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Ecru #4: Talk, Techelet #4: Tashlich (casting off sins)
Styles and Supplies: Life Drawing, Gift Wrap, Panorama, Stain ("The follies which a man regrets most, in his life, are those which he didn't commit when he had the opportunity."), Novelty Bead ("petting", given here)
Word Count: 1634
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Characters: Setsiana, Sapfita, Qhoroali
In-Universe Date: Night of 1911.9.5.6; 1912.1.1.1
Summary: A new year arrives, and with it, a change of heart.

A New Year )
[personal profile] paradoxcase
Name: Renewed Conviction
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Nacarat #9: Trepverter (Yiddish): A witty comeback you think of only when it’s too late to use.
Styles and Supplies: Cartography, Graffiti (Three weeks for Dreamwidth)
Word Count: 428
Rating: T
Warnings: Imaginary violence
Characters: Setsiana
In-Universe Date: 1911.9.2.2 (mostly)
Summary: Setsiana returns from the visit.

Renewed Conviction )
[personal profile] paradoxcase
Name: After the End
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Ecru #12: End
Styles and Supplies: Chiaroscuro, Life Drawing, Panorama, Cartography, Resin (Three weeks for Dreamwidth), Feathers (This Day Trivia May 13 1985: Police burn down a Philadelphia neighborhood)
Word Count: 4587
Rating: T
Warnings: Fantasy Drug (Ab)use, Swearing, Discussion of wartime atrocities
Characters: Setsiana, Qhoroali, Liselye, Cusäfä
In-Universe Date: (Approximately) -10,000; 2434
Summary: Setsiana and Qhoroali go to get Cusäfä some screws.

After the End )
[personal profile] paradoxcase
Name: An Anatomy of Tharse
Story: The Year Universe
Colors: Liver Saturation
Styles and Supplies: Saturation, Miniature Collection, Panorama, Cut-Away, Fingerpainting, Graffiti (Three weeks for Dreamwidth), Stain("I have too much respect for the idea of God to make it responsible for such an absurd world." - Georges Duhamel)
Word Count: 1750
Rating: PG
Warnings: Some slavery apologia; Mention of cultural genocide
Summary: Some notes about the structure of Tharsi society, from a Northern Kingdoms perspective.
Notes: Worldbuilding for the Year Universe. Because of how I wouldbuilt Tharse, I knew I had to do this with the Liver list. Originally I was going to do longer pieces as a tapestry, but then decided to do it this way. I've never really done drabbles, or other challenges involving restricting wordcount, so it was kind of an interesting challenge to keep everything to <= 100 words, which is why I put Fingerpainting on it. I thought about trying to do it as Pointillism, too, but I don't think I am there yet.

An Anatomy of Tharse )
[personal profile] paradoxcase
Name: Naming Day
Story: The Year Universe
Colors: Fresh Thyme #4: Countdown
Styles and Supplies: Panorama, Life Drawing, Gift Wrap, Parchment, Resin (Three weeks for Dreamwidth), Watercolors ("In his introduction to The Best American Short Stories 2019, guest editor Anthony Doerr lists several dos and don’ts one often hears about writing short stories and describes his love for reading and writing stories that break those very rules. Some of the rules Doerr mentions are: “Don’t start with a character waking up. Jump right into the action. Exposition is boring. Backstory slows you down. Stick with a single protagonist. Make sure he or she is likable. Don’t break up chronology.” This week, think carefully about the reasoning behind one of these oft-cited rules, then write a story that explicitly goes against it. How can the incorporation of an aspect of experimentation or innovation effectively push against the possibly clichéd rationale behind the original rule?" - This breaks both "Backstory slows you down" and "Don't break up chronology.")
Word Count: 3847
Rating: T
Warnings: Brief discussion of sex/sexuality
Characters: Ghefairh, Zheinnau, Dhashtu, Kheosaid, King Izalla, Vozkhunh
In-Universe Date: I haven't decided on exact dates for this one, but this takes place a couple decades after Qhoroali's time in the Fulcrum.
Summary: Ghefairh Nhorei Kondi attends a Naming Day.
Notes: Slight break from the Fulcrum for a couple posts. Since I think we just got all the Tharse worldbuilding we're going to get in the Fulcrum, and I need to use up this prompt that doesn't really work well with a time travel story, I'm posting this now. This is the first part of a story in the same universe as the Fulcrum that takes place in Tharse and Meandhshen and is (eventually) going to be about the Cothas religion that was mentioned at the very beginning of the Fulcrum. I haven't outlined it anywhere near as thoroughly, and I don't know exactly how everything here will tie into the rest of the plot, but I had a very clear idea about how the story was going to begin. There will probably not be more of this until I finish the Fulcrum, however.

A note about the spellings: In the Fulcrum, I was using an apostrophe for the retroflex consonants, but for this story I am switching to using h, because it looks way less cursed when there are multiple of them in the same word (imagine if I had written "D'as'tu" up there, for example). Kh and gh are actually velar fricatives here, but all other h indicate retroflexes. I'll continue to use the apostrophe in the Fulcrum, since there are only two Tharsi names there and one of them is actually a fake name invented by Mázghwent.

Gift Wrap here is for the Naming Day, the wedding, and the two wedding anniversaries, and Parchment because I actually did write something for this story fifteen years ago when I first got the idea for it. The worldbuilding has changed so much now that it's almost completely unrecognizable, but it was the same basic story idea. I might rewrite that particular piece later for Reimagining credit here.

Naming Day )
[personal profile] paradoxcase
Name: Before Rice
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Fresh Thyme #1: Wake-up call, Ecru #14: Claim, Nacarat #7: Duende (Spanish): The mysterious power that a work of art has to deeply move a person.
Styles and Supplies: Panorama, Life Drawing, Portrait, Cartography, Graffiti (Three weeks for Dreamwidth), Glue ("You have a sharp, inquisitive mind, Taurus. Today you're likely to put it to good use exploring some arcane fields. It's likely your chief area of interest is scientific. You will find that if you get online, your research will be particularly fruitful. See if you can link to university sites for some real high-level information.")
Word Count: 8429
Rating: T
Warnings: Fantasy Drug (Ab)use
Characters: Setsiana, Qhoroali, Cusäfä, Liselye
In-Universe Date: Summer of 2050; (approximately) -10,000
Summary: Setsiana, Qhoroali, and Liselye arrive at their destination.
Notes: Sorry, this wound up being 8000 words of worldbuilding, haha. I promise that all of this is going to be actually relevant to the story. Eventually. Let me know if there are any tenses in here that sound wrong, I went back and forth a bit on what tenses some parts of this dialog should be in.

Before Rice )
[personal profile] paradoxcase
Name: The Train to Duqhora
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Dogwood Rose #3: white: silence & secrecy, Fresh Thyme #2: Wind Up
Styles and Supplies: Panorama, Silhouette, Life Drawing, Calendar Page (National Take A Chance Day)
Word Count: 4659
Rating: T
Warnings: Fantasy Drug (Ab)use
Characters: Setsiana, Liselye, Qhoroali
In-Universe Date: Spring and Summer of 2050
Summary: Setsiana, Liselye, and Qhoroali take a train to Duqhora.

The Train to Duqhora )
[personal profile] paradoxcase
Name: Escape
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Fresh Thyme #6: Flash Forward, Color of the Day April 20 2025: Apace
Styles and Supplies: Chiaroscuro, Thread
Word Count: 2611
Rating: T
Warnings: Fantasy Drug (Ab)use
Characters: Setsiana, Qhoroali, Liselye
In-Universe Date: 1911.9.2.1, 1911.9.2.2, Spring of 2050
Summary: Setsiana takes an opportunity.

Escape )
[personal profile] paradoxcase
Name: Mental Block
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Ecru #20: Resume
Styles and Supplies: None
Word Count: 1194
Rating: T
Warnings: Fantasy Drug (Ab)use
Characters: Setsiana
In-Universe Date: Summer of 1904, 1911.8.5.1
Summary: Setsiana tries to overcome her fears.

Mental Block )
[personal profile] paradoxcase
Name: Qhoroali Versus Qhoroali
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Fresh Thyme #5: Time Loop
Styles and Supplies: Vaudeville, Life Drawing, Diptych, Stain ("A person is never happy except at the price of some ignorance."), Charcoal
Word Count: 1583
Rating: T
Warnings: None
Characters: Liselye, Qhoroali, Cyaru
In-Universe Date: Summer of 1904
Summary: Qhoroali has a conversation with herself.
Notes: Heavily inspired by that one Homestuck pesterlog where Karkat spends ten minutes arguing with his future self, and then his past self from ten minutes ago logs on and he has the whole argument again from the other perspective. Unfortunately, Homestuck seems to not be available online anymore, so I can't link to it.

Qhoroali Versus Qhoroali )
[personal profile] paradoxcase
Name: The Rules of War
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Ecru #1: Inform
Styles and Supplies: Chiaroscuro, Panorama, Stickers ("Allodoxaphobia is the fear of other people’s opinions.")
Word Count: 1906
Rating: T
Warnings: Implied threats
Characters: Setsiana, Cyaru
In-Universe Date: Summer of 1904
Summary: Cyaru takes Setsiana to look at some art.

The Rules of War )
[personal profile] paradoxcase
Name: The Way to the Fair
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Nacarat #10: Ré nao (Mandarin): A place with a fun and entertaining vibe where you just want to be.
Styles and Supplies: Gift Wrap
Word Count: 2950
Rating: T
Warnings: Fantasy drug (ab)use
Characters: Setsiana, Qhoroali, Liselye, Cyaru
In-Universe Date: 1911.8.5.1, Summer 1904
Summary: Qhoroali and her friends go on an outing.
Notes: Gift Wrap for Qhoroali's birthday.

The Way to the Fair )

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