Alicornutopia

Apologies if I've put this in the wrong place, but I tend to have trouble getting my bearings on a new forum. I've read Luminosity and Radiance as well as all the Flashes and Metafanfiction, want to start reading Effulgence but get rather confused by it and don't know where to get started (in particular the standout good bits), and finally need a bit of help getting to know the social rules here. (EDIT: And what contextual information I might or might not need to know just to chat reasonably)

If you're willing to help, then thanks.

Hi Yadal!

Much of the content on this forum is Effulgence/Glowfic-related and kind of spoilery. I would be happy to talk you through reading Effulgence/point you towards my favorite parts, as would, I'm sure, most members of this forum, including many of the authors, who will probably be better at it than me.Have you read the How To Read Effugence page and is there anything specific you want us to clarify? (Also, yay! New Glowfic reader! Welcome, friend!)



I don't know that I could summarize the social rules on here but we're pretty chill. I'm rather socially inept and I just jumped in and started talking, and that worked fine.

EDIT: You've probably picked up on this, but because Alicorn and the other Glowfic authors are an active presence on the forum, the dynamic is different than in other fandoms. (Most meta is author-generated, speculations about future plot events will be confirmed or denied on request, if your interpretation of a character is wrong the authors will probably tell you, etc.). That's a social dynamic that felt a little weird to me when I first started, so I thought I'd mention it.

Thanks.

After you asked I decided to read it again. As I remembered, it was a bit confusing. Ideally, I'd like to get a guide on reading order which gives me a lot of stuff from the better quality authors and go from there. Since I don't know who is and isn't good quality that would be difficult to figure out.

EDIT: To clarify, I'd also like to know what fandom I'm reading something from before I start a fic. I'm given to understand that's tricky to tell with some of them.

Combined with Roll Call, Canons List may help you.

All of Effulgence is written by the same two people (me and kappa); other glowfics may be written by other pairs, trios, or larger numbers. I could recommend some of the best parts if I knew more about your taste, but I'm not actually sure any two people have the same favorite section.

Alicorn's on? Better restrain myself from bombarding her with questions...

I like the intelligence level of the original fics, I found your version of Demetri effective and memorable in a horror movie villain way and the drama around Elpseth's Imprinting and the resultant awardness nice. Broadly speaking I'm looking for something that is strong in roughly the same ways the originals are if not necessarily as much. Once I've had some taste of that, I can move on from there.

Honestly, I know myself well enough to have a significant bias in favour of the familiar. I'm used to Luminosity/Radiance, which affects my judgement, but my favourite bits are as specified. I'd list my fandoms, but there are too many I've heard of so that's probably tedious.

So, to clarify: Effulgence only has two authors, Alicorn and Kappa. Other Glowfic (Glowfic being the collective term for RP fiction written by members of this forum) has other authors. Effulgence is the only currently-updating continuity with multiple universes where characters from said universes have met each other. Sorry if I wasn't clear about this.

Which authors are "better quality" depends on personal preference, so I'm not sure I can help you there without more information about your preferences.

...I am probably explaining this badly, sorry, I'm on my phone and I'm crunched for time. Feel free to ask more questions, I can answer them when I'm not about to go somewhere or someone more available can chime in.

Okay, maybe I was being a bit stupid in how I asked these things. Sorry about that.

One last thing- with the Effulgence chapters, which canons do each of the early pieces (that is, the ones which could be read without any context) drawn from? That might help a bit.

You're allowed to bombard me with questions. While it is my ambition to one day be literally unable to keep up with everything people have to say and ask about my stuff on the internet, today is not that day.

Canons that have extant Effulgence sections which may be read to some point without other sections being prerequisite include... most of them, and some original worlds. It'd be shorter to list the ones that are introduced with crossover. I don't nail the exact note of Demetri anywhere in Effulgence (there is an alt of Demetri in Gift, but that's a crossover-intro and he doesn't have a love interest). It'll be easier to help you if you just click the Canons List link and name what sounds familiar/appealing and then I can say a little about how those are going.

I'm going to add a few questions down then. Just in case I get too chatty, feel free to simply ignore the ones which go over proper limits.

-From a Luminosity canon perspective, Wren seems to have stuffed up in "Quixotic". Her Lyle imprints on Jillian, but claims not to feel a need to be with her romantically. How is this supposed to match up with Luminosity's version of Sam Uley, whose imprint and Alpha were trying to get him to stop loving Emily and failed?

-Was it intentional Bella stuffed up in early Luminosity regarding how she dealt with Alice? If she'd been a bit smarter, she would have realised that Alice was rigging the situation so that falling for Edward would inevitably happen whether it was in her best interests or not, consider the power used in that way in the same category as Edward's mindreading, and at least try to resist being caught up so easily.

-Would you say James Orland's "Truth" is a bit OOC? Bella's blowing up at Elpseth, the idea that Elpseth falling for Jacob was seen as inevitable by the characters, and the fact Jacob has gone back on what he said in Radiance about it not needing to be romantic.

-Why did the vampires end up letting Bella take power? I would have thought most of them would have seen the risks and decided to give the vegetarian faction something (after all they are a major part of the movement) but been very afraid of the results.

-This is hardly on you, but a traditional Werewolf pack would have a major potential weakness in the capacity for an Alpha to imprint either on somebody amoral or close to it who uses the pack for their own ends, or somebody with severe mental problems who tries on a course that makes sense to them but nonetheless leads to disaster. Trying for worldbuilding which makes sense, how would the tribe survive so long without that happening and ruining everything?

-I was considering trying to write a bit of metafanfiction based around movements which argue that Imprinting or Mate Bonds are brainwashing, either a human with such beliefs arguing about them or a vampire/werewolf who desperately does not want to be that way taking paranoid measures not to be and dealing with social reactions. In terms of such a movement existing (as opposed to it's admittedly shaky logic), are there any problems I've missed with the idea?

Favourite choice off the top of my head is unambigiously Rewind as I like Puella Magi Madoka Magica enough to be an unambigious fan. List of worlds with a canon I like enough to want to read more: Arceus, Aurum, Cenozoia, hesitate about Fantasia (like HP and some of HPMOR), Narnia, hesitate about Origin, Sunshine, Warp, and hesitate about Yggdrasil, Edda. Between those, some degree of bias towards the higher quality ones. Not sure where to start on any of them.

Finally, thanks to my ineptness I've caused quite a bit of trouble for which I apologise.

...Quixotic? Is this a metafanfic? Is it on my site somewhere, I don't see it in my index? I can't necessarily comment on those anyway. But in general I have it that wolf imprints do not become romantic until and unless the imprint in question is "ready" (intentionally a fuzzy concept) for some form of romantic relationship. This does rule out romancing children but does not rule out awkwardness with lesbians.

Nnnnot sure that you're making all the right assumptions here but I could also just not understand the question.

I don't want to comment on the metafanfics here, especially as regards their quality. I don't think that could end well.

Bella ends the story as the most credible director of the highest concentration of applicable witches and can rule through threat of force (and some genuine affection from the preexisting vegetarians, and bribery for Addy).

There haven't been that many total werewolves, so this hasn't happened to apply as a pressure against them up until they can apply some more careful selection to possible imprints.

I don't know what problems you've considered so I don't know whether you've missed any.

Rewind hasn't started yet, Aurum, Yggdrasil, and Origin are present only in crossover. By current numbering: Ceno' is section 58, section title "acquire (ptsd)". Arceus is 48, "monsters and legends". Fantasia's 49, "swish and flick". Narnia's 55, "the emperor beyond the sea". Sunshine is 9, "raise the stakes", and doesn't cross over within that section but does in subsequent instances of the symbella. Warp is 52, "the prime directive". Edda is 57, "seidr and spear".