How To Read Effulgence
Aug. 31st, 2013 04:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alicornucopia posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
belltowerEffulgence is an RP (role play) hosted on Dreamwidth between Alicorn (me) and Pyth (a.k.a. "kappa"). We each play many characters; all of my RP accounts belong to this community, the Belltower, and kappa's can all be found at binary_heat. The short version of what Effulgence is about is that we put alternate universe versions of Bella from my fanfiction Luminosity in a wide variety of settings, mostly fanfictional in nature, and see what happens, then cross everything over with everything else. (Luminosity is canon for Effulgence, but the reverse is optional.) Kappa also has several recurring character templates, most commonly AU versions of her oddball interpretation of the Nolanverse Joker. The start is slow - it's earthfic right up until it's not, but then it's really not. Here appears a list of the canon(s) for each world.
You may track new/resumed-after-dormancy Effulgence threads via the forum updates thread. Effulgence is similar to Incandescence, by me and a different coauthor Aestrix, and to other "glowfic", by a variety of authors. If you like any one of those things, you should probably try the others. Effulgence is by far the longest.
Content warnings: Effulgence contains rape, torture, and parental abuse; these are generally not described in gory or graphic detail (people have proven able to blink and miss two of the instances of rape; we're apparently too good at euphemisms) but definitely present. It's a pretty long work and was, at first, written without thought of public consumption, so chances are it contains some other things we're failing to think of. Proceed with caution. Basically, if you can think of a way to be mean to characters, we've done it or gleefully intend to.
The index that kappa maintains at this post will show what posts to read in what order if you intend to read the whole thing. (The early stuff is not the best part, but it is unskippably prerequisite if you plan to read it all.) Most posts have comment threads under them; kappa prefers to read them in threaded mode, where they keep drifting off to the right, and this is the only way to correctly read threads that are indexed with bullet points (read each bullet, in order, in thread mode) but many people otherwise prefer to read in "flat" (just click "flat", and the comments' left margins will all line up and they will be arranged in pages).
Most posts are marked with one or more "symbellas" - symbols that indicate which Bells appear in which threads. These are in many cases exotic characters that might not render correctly on your computer, but they shouldn't be strictly necessary to enjoy the story. A Roll Call chart of each Bell, symbella, nickname, and world is available.
Threads with a plus sign next to them are in progress, as are sections with plus signs in their subchapter listings. The "chronological order" of the last several sections relative to each other is up in the air until they interact with the core plot, and may rearrange when that occurs. Additionally, there are a few spots where reading the threads in order will involve temporal confusion because they were written concurrently without anticipating third-party readers (for instance, 14.2 and 18.1 happen together); just keep reading through these and you should be fine.
If you do not want to read all of Effulgence, or want to read it out of order, you can do this. The settings don't cross over immediately in most cases, and you can read up to the crossover point with no prerequisites (although having read the rest of Effulgence would provide enriching context, it is not plot-necessary). You are welcome to ask us how to find what sections to read, but as a general rule of thumb: if a section is the first instance of a symbella anywhere in the index, and there is only one symbella in the first of those threads, it is probably standalone. (This is not foolproof: 38.5 is the first appearance of Tab's symbella, but her introduction does rely on a crossover. A more central example would be something like section 22, which contains four threads, each of which has the same single symbella; or 28, which may be read without prerequisite until the last thread where another symbella appears.)
Due to limitations of Dreamwidth, we cannot edit any comment that has replies under it. Please don't submit notifications of typos in Effulgence unless they're on the top-level posts or the last comments in a thread. Or if you can't understand what was meant and you need clarification.
Both I and kappa are eager to hear comments on the RP. You may comment here, and ask characters questions here and receive answers in-character, and I have a forum for discussion of this work (among my others), but please don't make comments on the story threads.
A note on "canon-puncturing". Characters, as people, sometimes consume and refer to fiction. The problem is we keep adding AUs of the fiction in question, and so sometimes these are universes that characters from other universe have mentioned in the past. In the overwhelming majority of cases, this is just a lack of foresight and it is retconned insofar as it can be when we can't edit things. Please assume, for example, that when you reach the Harry Potter AU, that all previous references to Harry Potter were instead describing some equivalent but not particularly reminiscent story. The exceptions are as follows (may contain spoilers, depending on how finicky you are about spoilers):
INDEX POST: Click here to start reading.
A somewhat buggy HTML mirror of Effulgence is available. You can download an EPUB or a MOBI, more recent and suspected more complete.
binary_heat. The short version of what Effulgence is about is that we put alternate universe versions of Bella from my fanfiction Luminosity in a wide variety of settings, mostly fanfictional in nature, and see what happens, then cross everything over with everything else. (Luminosity is canon for Effulgence, but the reverse is optional.) Kappa also has several recurring character templates, most commonly AU versions of her oddball interpretation of the Nolanverse Joker. The start is slow - it's earthfic right up until it's not, but then it's really not. Here appears a list of the canon(s) for each world.You may track new/resumed-after-dormancy Effulgence threads via the forum updates thread. Effulgence is similar to Incandescence, by me and a different coauthor Aestrix, and to other "glowfic", by a variety of authors. If you like any one of those things, you should probably try the others. Effulgence is by far the longest.
Content warnings: Effulgence contains rape, torture, and parental abuse; these are generally not described in gory or graphic detail (people have proven able to blink and miss two of the instances of rape; we're apparently too good at euphemisms) but definitely present. It's a pretty long work and was, at first, written without thought of public consumption, so chances are it contains some other things we're failing to think of. Proceed with caution. Basically, if you can think of a way to be mean to characters, we've done it or gleefully intend to.
The index that kappa maintains at this post will show what posts to read in what order if you intend to read the whole thing. (The early stuff is not the best part, but it is unskippably prerequisite if you plan to read it all.) Most posts have comment threads under them; kappa prefers to read them in threaded mode, where they keep drifting off to the right, and this is the only way to correctly read threads that are indexed with bullet points (read each bullet, in order, in thread mode) but many people otherwise prefer to read in "flat" (just click "flat", and the comments' left margins will all line up and they will be arranged in pages).
Most posts are marked with one or more "symbellas" - symbols that indicate which Bells appear in which threads. These are in many cases exotic characters that might not render correctly on your computer, but they shouldn't be strictly necessary to enjoy the story. A Roll Call chart of each Bell, symbella, nickname, and world is available.
Threads with a plus sign next to them are in progress, as are sections with plus signs in their subchapter listings. The "chronological order" of the last several sections relative to each other is up in the air until they interact with the core plot, and may rearrange when that occurs. Additionally, there are a few spots where reading the threads in order will involve temporal confusion because they were written concurrently without anticipating third-party readers (for instance, 14.2 and 18.1 happen together); just keep reading through these and you should be fine.
If you do not want to read all of Effulgence, or want to read it out of order, you can do this. The settings don't cross over immediately in most cases, and you can read up to the crossover point with no prerequisites (although having read the rest of Effulgence would provide enriching context, it is not plot-necessary). You are welcome to ask us how to find what sections to read, but as a general rule of thumb: if a section is the first instance of a symbella anywhere in the index, and there is only one symbella in the first of those threads, it is probably standalone. (This is not foolproof: 38.5 is the first appearance of Tab's symbella, but her introduction does rely on a crossover. A more central example would be something like section 22, which contains four threads, each of which has the same single symbella; or 28, which may be read without prerequisite until the last thread where another symbella appears.)
Due to limitations of Dreamwidth, we cannot edit any comment that has replies under it. Please don't submit notifications of typos in Effulgence unless they're on the top-level posts or the last comments in a thread. Or if you can't understand what was meant and you need clarification.
Both I and kappa are eager to hear comments on the RP. You may comment here, and ask characters questions here and receive answers in-character, and I have a forum for discussion of this work (among my others), but please don't make comments on the story threads.
A note on "canon-puncturing". Characters, as people, sometimes consume and refer to fiction. The problem is we keep adding AUs of the fiction in question, and so sometimes these are universes that characters from other universe have mentioned in the past. In the overwhelming majority of cases, this is just a lack of foresight and it is retconned insofar as it can be when we can't edit things. Please assume, for example, that when you reach the Harry Potter AU, that all previous references to Harry Potter were instead describing some equivalent but not particularly reminiscent story. The exceptions are as follows (may contain spoilers, depending on how finicky you are about spoilers):
- The Sherlock Holmes stories (and miscellaneous adaptations thereof) exist most Earth-typical places, except for Strat's universe of origin (and at least one forthcoming world).
- In most Earth-typical universes that do not contain actual live Matildas, the Roald Dahl book "Matilda" (but not its movie adaptation) exists. This book never coexists with a Matilda, however. (The fact that it has taken some characters such a long time to notice this is mostly poor communication on our part, although there is an adequate thread of causality covering it.)
- We are treating Pokémon about like we treat vampires: some universes have fiction of them. Other universes have real ones (too). The details like region names, organized crime team names, and city names that we use for the Pokémon AU and are taken from the games or anime may be assumed to be replaced with comparable but not particularly reminiscent versions in the fiction about Pokémon from other worlds.
- In some worlds ("Sunshine family" worlds) various Marvel Cinematic Universe events began to unfold, but did not complete the process. In at least one, they were cut short very early (specifically, Captain America existed but the project did not work very well and there is fictionalized media about what might have been). There are some worlds where the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe is approximately taken as canon, except our obvious changes as described.
INDEX POST: Click here to start reading.
A somewhat buggy HTML mirror of Effulgence is available. You can download an EPUB or a MOBI, more recent and suspected more complete.
Re: Sherlock minus Shell Bell
Date: 2013-12-15 02:23 am (UTC)"Do you know how long it's been since I've even seen a three-year-old?"
Date: 2013-12-15 11:55 pm (UTC)Hmm, do I have anything else? Oh yeah, it's interesting which things read differently the second time around. I don't remember being particularly interested by Belle's story the first time, but I enjoyed it much more this time. And I found the whole Chelise subplot, which I distinctly remember not liking before, much more affecting this time. Maybe it's because I hadn't made the obvious Chelise=Chelsea leap? Or maybe it just reads better with the Gift threads as comparison. But the whole "I didn't want much" thing is really interesting, and now I kind of want to see more VaguelySymphathetic!Chelseas.
Re: "Do you know how long it's been since I've even seen a three-year-old?"
Date: 2013-12-16 12:10 am (UTC)Some of them might be well-disguised :D
Re: "Do you know how long it's been since I've even seen a three-year-old?"
Date: 2013-12-16 12:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-16 09:00 am (UTC)(prompted by this)
Re: "Do you know how long it's been since I've even seen a three-year-old?"
Date: 2013-12-16 09:01 am (UTC)Re: "Do you know how long it's been since I've even seen a three-year-old?"
Date: 2013-12-16 09:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-16 04:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-22 05:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-22 08:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-24 04:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-24 04:43 am (UTC)...actually, now that I'm posting here I guess I have an OOC question relating to Alethia. What parts of the actual His Dark Materials are canon? Presumably not Will and Lyra, but does the Subtle Knife exist? Is Dust still leaking out of the universe? Is that going to be Amariah's next big plot after the Epic Negotiation With The Demons which I totally just predicted?
no subject
Date: 2013-12-24 04:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-24 07:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-24 01:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-30 03:30 am (UTC)EDIT: It's possible I'm misremembering how forcing doors works. I had thought that you could force the door to any place you'd been before. But maybe that's just how Shell Bell's aura works, and the only reason Juliet could force the door to Downside is because she had died?
no subject
Date: 2013-12-30 03:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-30 04:36 am (UTC)Minus is capable of producing stars, and, in a real pinch, evils. Juliet would have to play really conservatively with her coins in the long term if she were stuck forever or for an unknown length of time, because he doesn't want to be doing that routinely and she'd rather not run down her stash and have to ask him to do it even once - but that's not her situation; she knows she can leave anytime she wants. Even if the stars won't cooperate with door-forcing to anywhere with, say, a Joker (stars may or may not work to force the door even to places you have previously been; Shell Bell's aura is reliable on that point but stars aren't) Juliet could, in extremis, door Downside (since she died to it and can get the door there without wishing) and talk to Eights, which she doesn't wind up deciding to do.
So as long as Sunshine doesn't urgently need help and she's not claustrophobic with only one sheaf, Bar, and Downside to play in, Juliet is not in a hurry in this situation.
no subject
Date: 2013-12-30 04:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-30 05:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-30 05:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-01 06:27 am (UTC)Things I caught:
-The Burning Man reference! Clever enough that I'm not going to spoil it here. Suffice it to say it makes me happy that you guys remember your own canon that well.
-Hyperion! Well, Endymion technically, I guess. I remember really liking those books when I read them a while ago. Have both of you read it?
-Some of the alts. The easy ones are Chelsa=Chelsea, Aelise=Libby, Anneia=Anna/Eights, Corona=Joker, Sandre=Sandy/Chainsaw, Kers=Chris (Libby's aunt). Then I think Demauri=Demetri (the tracker from Luminous)
Things I couldn't figure out (and would like the answers if they're available):
-Some of the alts (assuming they actually are alts). It really feels like I ought to be able to figure out Tima, Luhan, and Amdon, but I can't seem to match them to anyone. And then Pacco and Jony and Lionara are mentioned, but I don't know if they actually are alts of people.
-The identity of the child immune to Chelsa who Aelise had killed. It feels like I should be able to figure this out, but I haven't managed it. EDIT: Oh, I guess it's this, but more details would be welcome.
-How Aelise figured out that Harley could torch. Possibly related: who the reports Aelise is getting from the orbital ring (before either Tab or Harley is there) are from, though I guess this could just be generic surveillance stuff.
-If the old man in Milliways is important. I would normally assume no, but the remark about his daughter's name seemed suspiciously specific...
More general comments on the Harley stuff pre-Gift:
-You guys do outstanding dialogue for children! (e.g. greek deities) Not something I've ever been able to manage, so I'm jealous.
-I want to call out for particular praise the parts of the history channel where Harley is talking to the various half-vampires (Lily, Lindsay, Nicole, Henry, Oliver, Parker...). A lot of the interactions in Effulgence between protagonists and tertiary characters get super-monology--Bell or whoever has long paragraphs of stuff which is responded to with "Interesting" or "Yep" or "Okay." That doesn't happen in this sequence--it feels like all of these various characters have opinions and histories and existences when they're not on stage with the protagonists. I'd happily read threads on the day-to-day exploits of these people!
no subject
Date: 2014-01-01 07:34 am (UTC)EDIT: And I guess this conversation answers most of my template questions.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-01 12:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-01 03:37 pm (UTC)The child: yes, it's that, retroactively the unspecified child is someone else with a different situation from Tab that just happened to upset Chelsa in a comparable way. She is no one in particular.
Aelise found out that Harley could torch because Corona tried to kill him and she sensed the flicker in his aliveness with her Gift.
Kers lives in the orbital ring.
The old man is not important. Elise or whatever isn't such an uncommon name.
I am glad we hit our marks with "greek deities" and "the history channel" :)
Delphi is just a background Gift villain to explain the nonbeing of Toronto and currently has no alts, threaded or planned, and no significant character traits.