Q&A Answers

I was asked which of my protagonists is most powerful, in whatever definition I choose, so I've attached a very silly doodle about it.

Xavier from VELVET wins on pure power scaling, but upon receiving the certificate in the mail, he shredded it and burned the scraps without telling anyone.

Farrow from PIECE BY PIECE wins on a functional "able to win in a fight" basis. He frowned at the certificate but Dr. Hayes framed it and hung it in his own office. It's up next to his various medical and science degrees.

Val from KNIVES IN YOUR EYES wins on a durable level, as he is just so hard to kill. He's not very good in a fight, but he'll wear out almost anyone before they can figure out how to kill him. Chances are incredibly in Val's favor at being able to talk anyone down from fighting anyway. He's really killing everyone with kindness. EDIT: forgot to mention how Val reacts to his award. Val shows his certificate to everyone very proudly, but later on, Hunter has to stop him from eating it.

Winner of most powerfully sexy is obviously Kolt from VELVET. Even without his ability to compel lust from people, he is simply one of the hottest boys I've ever made. Upon receiving his certificate, he made Xavier build a custom metal frame for it and then forgot about it five minutes later. Xavier did not forget.

Non-protagonist honorable mentions go to Hunter from KNIVES IN YOUR EYES who is both incredibly capable and very sexy, with the gap moe of big n buff but shy. The stranger from HEART OF A HAUNTED HOUSE also gets a mention for just being So Upsetting and breaking the rules of reality! I didn't write his name on the doodle, but I should have mentioned Lee from ANGEL/PEARL who checks the competency kink box with flying colors.

I was also asked if Xavier (from VELVET) has ever carried the boys around on his shoulders.

Xavier says, "Ah, well. It was certainly easier before I became quite so brittle. There were times when I would try to carry as many of them around at once as I could. The boys would jokingly call me their climbing tree. I used to let them on my shoulders, but we had to limit that after a small incident where Six got a little scared and grabbed my antlers instead of my hair. I don't blame him for the migraine I got, but we reserve any shoulder-carrying for the winter months after I've shed. These days, Kolt is better at carrying them, and he doesn't have any exposed bone to complicate things. He's better at it than I ever was, though he can't get them quite as high up as I can, which remains a point of...friendly contention."

Lastly, I was asked about examples of good writing from outside of my chosen medium (prose). I'm not going to think too hard. Unfortunately, almost all of my books and games and movies are in storage right now, so I don't have access to my physical library anymore, which means I have to rely on my terrible memory which isn't great, but I'll do my best.

Incredibly obvious answer but the environmental storytelling in BLOODBORNE is obviously great and has inspired a billion other people including me. I highlight BLOODBORNE out of the entire Fromsoft catalogue because it does what no other game of theirs does in my opinion: it limits the scope. I admire the DARK SOULS series from afar, but those games are not nearly so focused in their lens. I think BLOODBORNE manages to strike a very fine balance between density of atmosphere, surgical precision, and clarity of vision. There's almost nothing in that game that I would cut because almost everything is adding up toward the same story. Meanwhile, you take a game like ELDEN RING and it's so huge, I literally can't remember everything that's inside of it. That game is a monster and while I did love playing it, there are also several repetitive elements that don't actually add anything new to the soup. Too many ingredients, can't taste them all. BLOODBORNE is juuuust right.

CENSOR is one of my favorite recent horror movies. It's use of color and incredibly well-placed dialogue really excites me. This is a movie where everything happening in the foreground is just as important as everything happening in the background, and there are several lines of dialogue that feel like throwaway filler only to realize they are very much relevant to what's happening to the protagonist. She is in her own world, but we can see the rest of the world. A very smart and focused story that feels really quiet but is allowing you to fill in SO many blanks if you put your mind to it. I love a movie that leaves me wanting to immediately talk to someone next to me about underlying messaging. Effective without beating you over the head.

HEART + KNIFE is another horror fave. It's not necessarily subtle, but that's okay when you're stylish as hell. That's a movie that manages to get a lot of different queer experiences in one very charming (and bloody) narrative. It takes inspiration from a lot of 70's cinema and it shows, which makes for a really fun story that manages to be incredibly deeply relevant now, and likely forever.

I have to mention Ranmaru Zariya, one of my favorite BL mangaka who manages to tell incredibly dramatic, emotionally dense stories that still remain incredibly fucking hot. I love the yearning in those books. I'll read any Zariya title.

I'll also read anything from Nagabe, because I know I'll get really thoughtful stories and characters with clear intent and lovely atmosphere basically every time. I think Nagabe does a great job of implying action without needing to explicitly show you (which works great for conveying eroticism without showing actual sex).

Shout out to SUPERPOSE, one of the most carefully crafted webcomics I've ever read! A real marriage of character arc and overarching story arc. That's a story that I trust not to leave anything behind. It's not finished but I really have full faith that it's going to continue nailing it. A slow burn that really gets under the character's skin in a deeply satisfying way.

BLACK SAILS is a really amazing TV show with some great writing, and (as a friend helped me understand) good lighting use and visual symbolism! TV is really hard to judge sometimes, because more often than not, you're dealing with multiple writers and multiple directors, so it's pretty rare to find perfect consistency, but BLACK SAILS manages to stick to its story from episode one, right to the end. All the characters are interesting to watch, they all serve a purpose, they're all chasing their own arcs, and it culminates in a really great story about what it really meant to be a pirate back then.

I know I'm forgetting a million things, maybe I'll add more as I think of them, but right now my primary focus is reading more queer books which is really important to me! I hope everyone on earth finds more time to read novels. They are so good for you, and will teach you so much about storytelling, which can be applied to any medium!

If you want to ask me more questions, please do so in the replies here!! Thank you to my supporters, if you guys have any suggestions or questions for me, they will get top priority.