Retrospring is shutting down on 1st March, 2025 Read more
512
First of all your works are amazing!! And I wanted to ask about the commissions if you're taking like very general ideas or specific stuff. :)
Hello and thank you so much! As for the commissions, I am willing to work on whatever the comissioner wants - as long as it is within word count! Some stories/prompts/ideas might not be suitable for, or lend themselves to, certain lengths - this is something I am willing to talk with with the comissioner, as long as they are open to communicate, before finalizing the comission request and starting on writing!
whyd you say youre scared of people on your twt account? anyway would you be interested in joining a gc for mhists?
(shaking and vibrating) please don’t post wips if ur not ready for me to be outside your door yelling knocking ringing doorbell 12 hours a day everyday until next spring series update 🥲
Do we think this is mahae coded?
https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSFT3K3y4/
Thank you so much for your answer! I wish I could scan your brain or better yet sit down and talk to you about this wonderful world you've created !!! its so interesting how everything works, I don't know if it was something I missed while reading, but I had no idea the place was atemporal, that it exists beyond where the characters come from. I can't wait to read it again and check back on all the things I've missed! Ill make sure to take a look at those videos you provided, Im excited to resume the story when an update finally comes, I hope you do not feel pressured by me asking for one, anyway thank you once again ☺️🫂
Im not the original anon but your answer on 24 worldbuilding and lore is so beautiful and complicated that I just want to reach deep into your brain and paint your thoughts and I mean this in the most romantic way possible
someday love of mine is always gonna be my roman empire even after this civilization collapsed and a new intelligence species has started, that fic will always leave a hole in the markhyuck community. It’s not just a mcd fic with inevitable death, but it’s so so much than that and whenever i see two toothbrushes in one cup my eyes keep watering. I would love to know your thoughts about the fic if you don’t mind, I have always been a fan of your words :)
I too always remember that damned toothbrush scene... I'm afraid I don't have many words regarding the story itself - to quote Jane Austen "If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more." I feel like I always circle back to the same feelings and commentaries on it: I cried like a baby, I have been only able to read it once, I tear up when I talk about it, I want to be as good a writer as to have a magnum opus like it one day.
I do think it's a testament to a writer's ability to write something that leaves such an ache behind. Truth be told, I can't even remember exactly any quotes or passages (even if I'm not a quotes gal) to say "Hey, I loved the writing style!" and a LOT of the plot, main beats aside, escapes me. But I remember the imagery it evoked, and the feelings as well, so clearly and dearly. They haunt me, even. There's not a week, or a month, that goes by that I don't remember it. Even now, as I write this, it makes me tear up. As a unfortunate yapper, you can imagine how something must overtake me to the point of silence eheh.
I will say this, to close and try to make up for my lack of commentary, it's one of those fics that made me reevaluate my relationship with writing deeply and my forever ideal of the impact I want my writing to have. Whatever goodness you think of my writing, "Someday, love of mine" is behind it. What a blessing to have found it. What a blessing to have read it. What a blessing it is to feel.
hi! do u speak multiple languages...if so which ones?
I only speak three to a decent degree of fluency, including my native tongue!!! English and italian, to be more precise (and english MUCH better than italian TuT). I can speak spanish very badly, french even worse (though I can read those languages more or less), and though I took classes in latin and japanase.... I forgor it all....... Actually,, you've reminded me that one of my objectives when I was lil was speaking 6 languages, so maybe I should get back to studying LMAO
https://twitter.com/MARKHYUCKARCHIV/status/1749066068596076784/video/1 is this the video?
hello!! I just finished reading 24 and as always I’m so In awe of your writing style as well as your world building, the magic system for this world is so complex and I haven’t seen anything like it before. I won’t nag you in asking if an update is soon because of course you have your life and things to do, im just grateful it exists is all.. but I wanted to ask what was the inspiration behind the world building and if you can give us some tid bits about it, as I am hungry for more !! Thank you for writing so wonderfully and blessing us
Hello!! First off, thank you for your words!! I'll try to answer the question about worldbuilding as best as I can, and give off a few lore drops from my very dusty and full of cobwebs 24 worldbuilding gdoc.
While I have a firm belief for myself that my stories should have three different ways to be read (as in, I should have enough in it and in myself to give three distinct new things per read or reread), that's not necessarily how it starts. 24 started as a small thought from two distinct Jacob Geller:
1) Control, Anatomy and the Legacy of the Haunted House (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mexs39y0Imw)
2)Fear of the Depths (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MOKTU9tCbw)
And also, although in a much minor way also this one: "Why do horror games sound so beautiful?" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aFfN4HtjEc). I've had my current dear editor both refer to Anatomy of a Haunted House and a VERY specific song in the Horror Games Music one as something that reminds them of 24, unprompted, which made my whole year tbh.
Another thing that was important to the creation of the worldbuilding for 24 was Occultism. I promise that is as annoying as it sounds. I won't reveal ALL occultic/esoteric references, themes and usages (and don't worry I'm not using anything demonic), but, for example, if you're curious, look up the Seven Hermetic Principles - I think you'll see some things that could be applied to 24, both in particular scenes and as a whole.
You asked about the worldbuilding, and here I am giving you a rundown of how it started and its main inspos. I do hope you forgive me, I'll go right into the worldbbuilding in a second, but these elements are inseparable of the overall narrative. Why? Because 24, beyond some personal demons I'm exorcizing as I write it, is about the chase of the sublime, alienation (in many forms), and the consequences, or cost if you will, of both of these. (Not that it's perfect, mind you, I do make lots of typos and mistakes and even plot holes/lore holes - I am just one person, and in truth, I hope to one day review the series entirely after it's finished to have it all be consistent. My apologies for mistakes in the meanwhile.) With these in mind, and the references I already mentioned, the worldbuilding comes naturally: a power system that requires balance, is the manifestation of will (but also not), and the chase of perfection. Or, as you know it in 24, Truth.
How do I portray alienation in a magical world? I make the people capable of using magic be stuck in an unknowable place where most can't get out of. I take away their humanity, I crack them open or in two, I call them Residents instead of people, I make most come in young so they forget, I make the ones that remember the outside and their communities die or suffer. I call people objects (Gates, Books, Bridges). I don't give them relationships that fit in traditional molds. When they have human like reactions, I call them animals. Etc, etc. I'm sure you can think of more examples - I will admit you have read 24 much more recently than I, hehe. I do try that these things are made to be as "natural" within the world - I am a try hard writer that attempts to make the story both as much from my pen as from the world I build, I don't separate worldbuilding from my writing, per se, but both happen simultaneously.
How do I portray the chase of the sublime? Well, for a very concrete example, I have Taeyong be consumed near-entirely by this otherworldly thing called Magic, or The Place. In the scene where you see him, star made, he mixes with the Place itself, he's almost entirely his element. This chase also happens with Donghyuck, this consumption of books, his limitations as he's bound to the material plane.
How do I portray the consequences? Well.
As for tidbits!
Mark is able to verbally speak, he just chooses not to, or is overwhelmed by speaking in most circunstances. I was doing research in Selective Mutism for something entirely unrelated to the story, I think, and I came across it and thought that while it didn't fit the specific thing I was looking for, it did indeed fit this damn character pretty well!!! However, since I didn't find many resources in Adult Selective Mutism, I did add a bit of personal experience here and there.
My favourite chapter to write was chapter one, as I could go buckwild in the description of The Place. The Place is HUGE. There's three more Towers in the Place, but the Place is so big that communication between them takes ages, and there aren't a lot of interactions from Tower to Tower, they're mostly isolated and each do their own thing. (Feel free to imagine your kpop boys living in other Towers! Hehe).
Renjun's culture and Jaemin's culture historically just straight up don't get along. I don't think they have, however, realized that the Place distorts time immensely just from existing, so there is a possibility that a) their cultures have changed and a new reality emerged or b) their cultures just straight up don't exist anymore. Bridges are the only ones allowed to leave The Place, and Gates, in very very very rare occasions, but since The Place is so atemporal, and Specific outside info relatively restriced, these time shifts and breaks aren't as easily noted.
The Learning Place is in the center of all maps, mayhaps even the world, and every populated region (The Seas, The Cities, The Far-Aways) is named after the cardinal position determined from the Place. So for example, the four major cities are the City of the West, the City of the East, the City of the South and the City of the North, the same for the City of the Southeast, the Far-Away of Northwest, etc. The Wild Lands are don't follow this naming pattern because they reject the authority of The Place, while the Calmed Lands are named that because they have been tamed. The closer you are to The Place, the less you see aglomerates of population - The Calmed Lands are literally devoid of humans, and cannot sustain normal life.
I've always thought Donghyuck/Haechan to be from The Seas, but I haven't decided each one. I really like associating Hyuck with watery things. Gods know why.
Anyways, apologies for this huge essay. And apologies for the pretentiousness - I'm sure me busting out the Western Occultism bit was a wee too much. I do hope you were at least entertained, and I hope I succeded in answer your questions, even if partially.
And, btw. New chapter before the start of March.
what’s wrong why didn’t you answer the rs i sent you? 🤔 release that rs and let us hear your thoughts queenie
you screaming crying feeling everything about writing and writers literally is me everytime i read a new delicious fic in nct tag. and if i deep dive enough, i am obsessed with how writer just have infinite plots and worldbuilding and trope in their works like nothing is the same, this bring me back to the 1st time i read your am/fm fic and thought to myself omg this is some good shit i have to read it 30th times more and then I discovered the spring series, the look at me i beg you fic AND I WAS STUNNED. I WAS LIGHTSTRUCK. You gave us so many different characters and writing style its like dating 26890 personalities in a human. I can never thank you enough for feeding the markhyuck community with good food for pass years, i know there would be someday you got tired of writing little gay kpop men falling in love and move on with your life and thats still so valid but in the meantime i just want to treasure your works, your words, your characters and just the existence of you right now. So thank you ☺️
I feel the same! Though I don't have as much time now to read fic as before, when I first started to dwelve into reading I was surprised with the amount of stories and plot everyone could come up with - and how different they could be!
:(( I'm so happy you also felt that way regarding my fics... Also, haha, I didn't really notice I could have different writing styles actually? Like I know am/fm and Spring series are different but I never considered the differences enough to think it could be two styles... I always think my writing is very... "mayhem-y".
Thank you for liking my writing so much!! It's comments like this that make me happy that I clicked "Post" on that first fic... I'll be here for a lil while still (don't worry) but I hope when I stop writing, I leave you all with good stories and good memories!!!!!!
as a non-english native person and also the anon who asked u about the most-likely-to-never-be-publicly-born works, I am very much obsessed with your star trek au idea although never watch any of it. In the blank spaces I have in my brain I spent 50% of it thinking of captain lee and 1st officer lee and their adventures. So I am very glad knowing they also haunt u
tbh u give beta because I feel like you need to be a beta to look at the world for what it is ? because as an alpha or omega you’re going to be guided by things that aren’t in your control…heats ruts etc.
Retrospring uses Markdown for formatting
*italic text*
for italic text
**bold text**
for bold text
[link](https://example.com)
for link