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thrdnarrative · 5 months

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A young boy sailing across La Rivière Noire (The Black River) in Adjarra, Benin

Photographed by Nybé Ponzio [@visualsbyponzio]

#Adjarra #Benin #Africa #The Black River #La Rivière Noire #Nybé Ponzio

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interact-if · 2 years

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And the final interview for our Pride Month Event, with Jessamine!

Jessamine, Author of The Black River

Somewhere, somehow, you lost your memories. You’re aware that–whatever it was that happened –it involved chanting cultists, and horrible serrated knives, but unfortunately none of those nice gentlemen are around to explain what’s going on to you. Oh… and also it seems that whatever they did with the aforementioned chanting and knives tore a hole in the fabric of reality and opened a gateway from the world of the living to the Underworld.

Which you fell through.

And now you’re stuck, despite your best efforts, on an antique ship from several centuries ago, with a crew of dead sailors and a motley assemblage of others from the living world. You don’t know what’s going on back in the world where you’re supposed to be, but you know that it can’t be good.

In order to get home, you’ll have to help sail the Will-o’-wisp across the length of the Black River, uncovering truths that change the entire way you view the world and fighting villains whose ambitions extend to the very act of deicide.

And you’d quite like to get your memories back, while you’re at it.

Read More about The Black River here. Play the Demo here.

[INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT UNDER THE CUT!]

Q1 - Please, introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your project(s)!

Hi, I’m Jessamine (Jess for short, but not to be confused with Jess, the author of Fields of Asphodel and Diaspora – I’m surprised there isn’t more author name crossover, but it does happen occasionally), and you may have seen me around from time to time. I write The Black River, and I also do editing for other games (sometimes), and art (very rarely). You may also have seen pictures of my cat, Fëanor… she’s very cute.

My main project The Black River is a story chiefly about faith, which is a subject near and dear to my heart, but it’s also about resilience… being taken to the very edge of your limits and knowing that there’s no one coming to save you, that you’re on your own against a seemingly insurmountable foe. It’s fantasy, but it might not be the exact kind of fantasy that you’re particularly familiar with – it was very important to me that it not be Eurocentric, and there are steampunk and science-fantasy elements as well!

I wouldn’t say it’s romance-heavy, since some of the Relationship Options are aromantic, but it’s definitely character-focussed. All of the characters are important to the story and the plot in one way or another, and all of them have unique perspectives and information to give you, if you put the effort into spending time with them.

My secondary project is Boldly, a game that I haven’t really spoken much about (I’m trying to be good), but I’m honestly dying to, because I love it so much. It’s a Star Trek parody (hence the name), but along the lines of Galaxy Quest, with a different breakout scifi TV show hit taking the place of Star Trek in this universe. It’s divided into 16 episodes, a full season, and you get to play as a little spaceship ensign manning your duty desk and repairing lamps or calculating trajectories while the main crew save the day.

At least in theory… there may be some… complications.

Q2 - What or who are some of your biggest inspirations?

I’m a bit of a chameleon in that I’m always constantly taking some degree of inspiration from most things that I read or watch and enjoy… I don’t think I’ve ever stopped being inspired by things, to be honest. A lot of the authors that had the most definite impact on my style in particular are ones that I read a lot growing up, like David Eddings, Emily Rodda, Kate Forsyth, and Sara Douglass, but Tolkien and Terry Pratchett also had a huge impact on me in terms of storytelling inspiration. Also Dick Francis, but… I haven’t come up with an idea for a horse-racing thriller IF… yet.

For The Black River specifically, I don’t jokingly describe it as steampunk fantasy Mass Effect 2 for no reason. There’s also a bunch of other games that have given me some degree of inspiration… the various Dragon Ages, Diablo 3 and World of Warcraft are probably the most prominent. Boldly of course draws on Star Trek a lot, but also Galaxy Quest, and there’s quite a bit of Stargate, and especially my favourite TV show of all time, Stargate: Atlantis, in there, too.

Q3- What excites you most about IF? What drew you to the medium?

This is probably quite a boring answer but for me the most exciting thing about IF as a medium is the variation. That’s always my favourite part about any RPGs with choices (like Bioware games), seeing what things change based on different decisions. The ability to craft a story that is moulded to and by the player is something very special, and it really appeals to my love of storytelling in general.

As for what drew me to the medium, I was really very encouraged by a lot of the first IFs I came across, which were high quality stories told in a way that was very interesting to me, to give it a go myself. A lot of those stories are ones I’m still reading (Virtue’s End, When It Hungers, The Northern Passage, and Fields of Asphodel in particular… though sadly 3150 Dahlia Street is no longer around), and I was lucky enough to become friends with a lot of the authors! I have to admit meeting so many wonderful friends in the community was a huge factor in helping me decide to stay also.

Q4 - Are your characters influenced by your identity? How?

Yes and no. I have a very complex identity for various reasons, and to date I’ve never made a character who was really everything that I am in one person, but I do tend to use separate aspects of my identity in my characters here and there. I also generally default to all of my characters being bi or pansexual, which I suppose is the most obvious influence my identity has on my work overall.

When I first started writing The Black River, there weren’t a lot of ace characters around – there are some more now, but it was definitely more unusual when I started. Our Lady is a character that has quite a bit of me in her, in regards to her asexuality and her relationship to it, and her feelings about it and about romance.

There’s also an RO in Boldly who is intersex and nonbinary in a similar way to how I am… I’ve never been somebody who particularly looked to stories for representation, maybe because I expected to never find any characters that were really much like me, due to the aforementioned complexity. I’m enjoying writing a character that is more like me than any other I’ve read for myself, though… I hope other people will also enjoy it!

Q5 - What are you most excited about sharing related to your project?

All of it, really; I’ve always been excited, in general, by storytelling as a whole. I love when people read things I’ve written and feel emotions about it… I love when people think about my work and it leaves an impact on them. I suppose in a more specific sense I’m looking forward to unravelling some of the mysteries that have already been laid out in The Black River. Some of them probably don’t go quite where people will expect… oh, and soul-familiars. Those are coming towards the end of the next chapter.

When it comes to Boldly I’m just excited to get to the stage where I can share the game haha

Q6 - What would you like to see more of in LGBT+ fiction/IF community?

It feels somewhat trite to say “more acceptance,” but I do think there’s still a ways to go on a lot of issues. Recently some parts of the community took quite a hard stance against intersex representation, which as an intersex person was obviously quite worrying for me. I used to regularly receive hatemail from people about having ace characters, and I still get hate-filled comments about my aro and aroace characters.

The landscape of the community can change slowly sometimes, but I’ve seen nonbinary ROs change from oddities to a norm over time, and I’ve seen a slowly growing acceptance of ace-spectrum characters and binary trans ROs, so I’m hopeful that things can continue to become more accepting as time goes on.

Otherwise… maybe just more understanding that a single character doesn’t have to be universally-applicable representation. If I write a character that specifically reflects my personal relationship with my specific nonbinary gender, it probably won’t be the same as yours or a character based on you– but that won’t make them bad, or wrong. Just different threads in one large tapestry.

Q7- Lastly, what advice would you give to your creators and readers?

I’m not sure that I have much advice to give to readers, and even a lot of what I would say to other creators has probably been said before, many times. I suppose the thing I feel needs to be said the most, from my experience in the varying corners of the author community, is that creators are so often too harsh on themselves, for no real reason.

“Author” as a vocation is a full suite of interconnected skills working together, not just writing but also other things like planning, editing, time management, worldbuilding, critique, and in the case of IF authors, coding and design as well. I’ve seen too many authors, who have spent years and years writing but never edited or outlined before, be frustrated with themselves and expect to be able to perform just as well in a skill they’ve never even tried before as in one that they’ve been honing for years, and then berate themselves when they understandably fall short of that impossible expectation.

It's not odd to find editing hard if you’ve never edited before; it’s not strange to have to fumble through outlining if you’ve never outlined before. It’s normal, actually. You wouldn’t assume that someone can speak fluent German just because they can speak fluent French. They’re separate skills, that need to be worked on separately, and you’ll never metaphorically learn German if you don’t allow yourself to start with the basics and keep expecting to be able to jump straight into complex conversations.

Be gentle with yourself. You’re allowed to be still learning. We all are. And good luck!

#if: events #Pride 2022 #Pride Month #The Black River

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junaart · 19 days

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a little mock postage stamp i did a while ago. free to download (X) and print as stickers, posters or whatever you like.

#palestine #gaza #from the river to the sea #art #illustration #postage stamp #traditional art #digital art #white txt in Arabic: from the river to the sea #black txt in Arabic: resistance is the deepest form of love #green txt in Arabic: freedom for Palestine

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violottie · 2 months

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"This International Women’s Day we call on all who identify as feminists to engage in the lifelong unlearning of their biases and to be in solidarity with Palestinian women, Sudanese women, Congolese women who are experiencing an ongoing genocide." from The Slow Factory, 08/Mar/2024: caption cont. under images.

In Palestine, more than 9,000 women have been brutally killed by the Israeli Occupation. 63 women killed per day.

In Sudan, 4 million Sudanese women & girls are at risk of sexual violence.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, more than 1 million women have been survivors of sexual violence.

In Turtle Island aka the so called USA, 94% of fatal violence committed again Trans people are committed against Trans women.

This isn’t about the stats, the poverty porn or the constant shock doctrine the West desperately needs in order to be inclusive. This is a call for solidarity and collective action.

Access to feminine hygiene products, bodily autonomy and the access to necessary safe and caring spaces as women are all human rights.

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moonage-daydreamy · 4 months

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people look over my screen and be like what are you reading and how do i explain that its about harry potter's dad and his godfather's younger twink brother exploring their knife kink as a whole revolution unfolds around them

#crimson rivers #marauders #the marauders #jegulus #wolfstar #james potter #sirius black #regulus black #remus lupin #starchaser #sunseeker

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incorrectwolfstar · 5 months

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sirius: just found out james is shagging regulus

remus: and??

sirius: therefore me and you need to get together so we can give him a taste of his own medicine

remus: how would that remotely affect james

sirius: i don’t know but we should still do it anyways

#wolfstar #incorrectwolfstar #remus lupin #sirius black #the marauders #sirius black x remus lupin #incorect quote #incorrect remus lupin #sirius x remus #incorrect marauders quotes #jegulus #james x regulus #james potter x regulus black #prongs and moony #atyd #crimson rivers #all the young dudes

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newsfrom-theworld · 3 months

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What’s happening in West Papua?

source

The West's involvement:

complete source here

History: summarized

Books to read

The Road by John Martinkus

An Act of Free Choice by Pieter Drooglever

A more complete list

And always,

Free West Papua

#free palestine #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #news from the world #free west papua #west papua #books to read #no one is free until we are all free #fuck colonialism #black month

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marinlupin · 1 month

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AHHH ONE THING ABOUT ME IS MOONWATER GETS ME IN A DAMN CHOKE HOLD “he’s been following me around” yes remus because you got him to open up and he now finds comfort in you and quite honestly i don’t blame him i too would follow remus around like a puppy

#marauders #ao3 author #jegulus #wolfstar #james potter #regulus black #remus lupin #marauders era #marauders fandom #dead gay witches #dead gay wizards #crimson rivers #moonwater

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propussyslayer · 29 days

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midnight, remus silently leaves sirius' room and is eye to eye with regulus who is leaving james' room

remus:

regulus

remus: silence agreement?

regulus: oui

#incorrect marauders quotes #marauders era #marauders headcanon #dead gay wizards #jegulus #regulus black #james x regulus #all the young dudes #james potter #sirius black #wolfstar #remus x sirius #reminder #regulus x james #regulus and sirius #the marauders #marauders #crimson rivers

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marauderstars · 9 months

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Regulus: This Barbie is *depressed*

James: Babe, do you ever think about getting help instead of expressing your mental health struggles through memes?

Regulus:

Regulus: This Barbie is *feeling attacked*

#jegulus #regulus black #james potter #this barbie is #this barbie meme #marauders #marauders era #incorrect marauders quotes #harry potter #hp marauders #incorrect quotes #starchaser #crimson rivers

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falsekingfrancis · 1 year

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For anyone who also cannot stop thinking about dead gay wizards

Here’s some fun and fresh facts for you

The Length of:

ATYD: 526,969 words

Choices: 624,187 words

Crimson Rivers: 720,011 words

The FUCKING Bible: 783,137 words

ALSO

50,000 words is about 200 pages

WHICH MEANS

The shortest of those works is

2000 FUCKING PAGES

We all need mental help

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urfavsherlockholmeskinnie · 2 months

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Peter to Remus, who’s about to get married: Today, two families are becoming one. James, in an ominous voice: Two families enter, one family leaves. Marlene: That sounds so threatening… Lily: The Wedding Games… Sirius: May the bouquet toss be ever in your favor. Remus: Beautiful. Peter: Fuck all of you!

#they all share one braincell #james potter #marlene mckinnon #lily evans #sirius black #remus lupin #peter pettigrew #wolfstar #crimson rivers #the marauders era #marauders era #marauders #the marauders #dead gay wizards from the 70s #dead gay wizards #gay dead wizards #incorrect marauders quotes #marauders incorrect quotes #incorrect quotes

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