iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 03/09/2026

TW // MEDICAL Quick emergent room trip! On an antibiotic drip ATM. Tooth infection swelled up, and I'm getting it taken care of before it gets worse.

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 03/09/2026

New (official) homelab just dropped! New ISP came in today and hooked me up with a gigabit connection. Goodbye, Xfinity! I shant miss you!

Open source router with nothing locked down by the ISP

Website soon to be hosted on a Raspberry Pi!

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 02/09/2026

The ADHD does not stop, and the rabbit hole only gets deeper XD The "I'm making a distro" bit is a bit, sure. But in all honesty, I feel like I'm putting in a lot of valuable effort here. We live in a digital world, and I prefer to own as much of my digital life as possible.

SporeOS is a very opinionated Mint-Flavoured Arch Linux, made entirely by and for myself!

Use cases: Web browsing and development, writing, and some gaming.

It's just a personal ISO, but I've been learning a fair amount of sysadmin stuff to make my life easier. To make sure it stays persistent across system breakages, I've started learning how to make a custom ISO so I don't have to keep manually tracking down guides and stuff to get my setup back to the way I like it to be.

Now I'm just showing off aesthetics. Windows XP nostalgia with a modern flair!

And for those of you who actually care about my writing, I'm gonna make y'all ask for a sneak peek this time >:3

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 26/08/2026

Feeling nostalgic. Might pick up Deception Point somewhere...

A cover photo of Dan Brown's 'Deception Point'.

It features a snowy landscape with a mountain/glacier in the center, with the peak glistening like a star. Behind it, the United States Presidential seal is positioned like a rising sun.

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 25/08/2026

Took me nearly a week of cleaning out ( I DO NOT know why I let myself live like that for so long...), and I still need to rent a carpet shampoo vacuum thingy, but I can call it home now :3 I feel good enough about this room to share it now, at least.. 😷🫣🥳

A showcase of the cleanest bedroom I've seen in years. I've got a 5" futon mattress (frame pending) on the left corner, complete with sheet, pillows, and a stuffy - Tux the Penguin! In the center of the frame, there is a blanket being used as a privacy curtain, tucked aside so the cat has access to the window. Further along to the right is my humble computer setup, complete with a soon-to-be-switched Xfinity router. (Within days, I will be switching ISPs.) My couch has been reclaimed! (I moved that couch up and down two flights of stairs, and practically no-clipped it through impossible angles to get it out of my old apartment and then into this room.) My cat, Shadey, features on said couch, sleeping comfortably on the back rest. A Stitch dot-work art piece hangs on the wall, and a built-in shelving unit is still unorganized. "Lived-in?"

The floor is in a sorry state, but plans have been made to clean it properly!

Showing off a bit here, I've got an economical use of the limited space, with cat essentials becoming part of a makeshift nightstand, featuring a lamp, candle, and a hardback copy of The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.

A sneak peek at a closet, now empty of all items that I cannot definitively say belong to me. I have cleared the surface of the dresser of all junk, trash, and filth, and replaced it with an alter to Loki. I need to incorporate The Morrigan, Brighid, Flidais, Venus, and Calliope soon.
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Seriously though... WHO LEAVES MILK TO ROT FOR HOWEVER LONG IT TAKES FOR SOMEONE ELSE TO GET TO IT INSIDE CUPS ON WHATEVER SURFACE THEY LEAVE THE GLASS?!

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 07/08/2026

Site's back up! Now I gotta finish the darn thing 😂

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 30/07/2026

I watched Pantheon. I think it rewired my brain...

Han Ping and Vinod Chanda, post-upload, discussing philosphy over a game of Go.

S2,E1: The Gods Have Not Died In Vain

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 11/07/2026

Sell your book in 5 words: Breaks your heart without mercy 😈😘

The cover photo for my debut novel, Emergence. It is Book 1 of 3, found on RoyalRoad, here:
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/159019/the-emergence-chronicles-book-1-emergence

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 02/06/2026

HAPPY PRIDE🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ QRP this with your flags, explain what they mean to YOU, and block all haters! Descriptions in the alt text! One love, and may harmony find you. 💙😇😈

Starting with the genderfluid flag. Sometimes I feel like a woman. Sometimes, I'm super androgynous. Other times, gender doesn't exist lol

I'm intersex (XXY chromosomal, and gonadal, with ovaries on the inside and male external anatomy

I'm reversing years of forced masculinization, so I say I'm trans 😋

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 31/05/2026

My baby commandered my old chair. He loves his sunbathing booth :3

Shadow "Shadey" bathing in the sun. He's purring, and has one eye partially open even in sleep.

Another angle of my baby boy, fast asleep in a sunspot. :3

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 15/05/2026

I'm a bit late, but I'mma start reading it on my Kindle tonight! :3

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 05/05/2026

Safe to say my finances are on track again lol Will try to be more active, but I'm always working on some project if I'm not working (I'm back to one full time job with a liveable wage again!! Woohoo!!)

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 02/04/2026

It's slow going but I'm adding functionality to the site!!! Got some test pictures, courtesy of Inspirobot, and I'm working on an on-site ebook reader too!

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 01/04/2026

Forcing myself to learn HTML in order to create an EPUB template I felt happy with plus having lived on "everything is a file" Linux for a decade made me realize that also applies to the web. So I'm going to carve my own slice of the internet. And I'mma turn IT into art too. www.alexriven.online

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 14/03/2026

Okay, my setup is snappy. My next chapter is finished. I have a scheduled upload on Scribble Hub, and in just over a week I can upload Emergence to Scribble Hub and do a grand relaunch of my Royal Road! Things are looking up this month! Wallpaper: konachan.com/post/show/35...

Desktop Screenshot, featuring a sample of one of the songs I've got saved to my hard drive lol

Fastfetch results (A Linux system information fetcher script):
caretaker@lil-monster ~ → fastfetch
OS: Arch Linux x86_64
Host: 20JNS1TC00 (ThinkPad T470 W10DG)
Kernel: Linux 6.19.6-arch1-1
Uptime: 4 hours
Packages: 1505 (pacman), 22 (flatpak)
Shell: bash 5.3.9
Display: 1366x768 in 14", 60 Hz
Desktop Environment (DE): Cinnamon 6.6.7
Window Manager (WM): Muffin (X11)
WM Theme: Everforest-BorderLess-MacOSButtons-Dark-Soft (GTK2/3/4/Adwaita Library)
Theme: Everforest-BL-MB-Dark-Soft [GTK2/3/4]
Icons: Papirus-Dark [GTK2/3/4]
Desktop Font: Comic Sans MS (11.6pt) [GTK2/3/4]
Cursor Theme: Qogir (24px)
Terminal: kitty 0.46.0
Terminal Font: ComicMono (12pt)
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6300U (4) @ 3.00 GHz
GPU: Intel HD Graphics 520 @ 1.00 GHz [Integrated]
Memory: 5.05 GiB / 15.49 GiB (33%)
Swap: 1.74 GiB / 7.74 GiB (22%)
Disk (/): 21.59 GiB / 32.00 GiB (67%) - btrfs
Disk (/home): 116.97 GiB / 205.47 GiB (57%) - btrfs
Disk (/mnt/2): 348.27 GiB / 923.77 GiB (38%) - f2fs

"“Fine then. How many of these Quereies have been used against the MacCarthy Clan or other guardian-types?”
“Against your Clan? None were asked directly. But they’ve had generations to sift through the meanings of my Answers of Substance. No doubt, some of that knowledge was weaponized against your kin in ways I am not permitted to see yet.”
The words dropped on Rudy’s shoulders with the weight of an anvil. He staggered, holding a hand to his head.
“The sheer scale of Michael’s plans… What’s his end goal? Why’d he try to take Elara out of the picture? There’s too much at stake here. We need a plan, but we don’t even know what to counter!” Rudy grunted in frustration, suppressing the urge to find something to punch in the swirling, inky void.
“How much manipulation can one ego produce!”
“If that question is for me, I’m not sure there is an answer for it…” Qiyam muttered in detached amusement."

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 10/03/2026

I'm shitposting because I wanna share the memes I've been hoarding lmao

When God makes Indie Authors:
"A spoonful of determination... Some wit and courage... And an extra dose of natural writing talent. But they can't have EVERYTHING. I'll add just a dash of poor marketing skills..."

*pours the whole cup*
"Whoops..."

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 10/03/2026

Think a transmasc John Constantine, after selling his soul to Paimon, decides to cheat her out of it and take his soul BACK, but loses everything else important to him along the way.

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 10/03/2026

Me in the camps as I look my executioner(s) in the eyes:

Stormcloak Soldier saying, "My ancestors are smiling at me, Imperials. Can you say the same?"

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 07/03/2026

Name your fav film from the year you were born.

Neo from The Matrix, saying "I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life."

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 05/03/2026

9 games that make me who I am! 😈😇🤓 my9games.com

There is no particular order of importance, really.

Games are:

Minecraft

Call of Duty: Black Ops 1

Factorio

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Undertale

Risk of Rain 2

Halo: Combat Evolved

Borderlands 2

Fallout 4

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 01/03/2026

Hello #LateNightWrite! I write fantasy with queerness and neurodivergence taking the most important, most unspoken parts of the world itself. I want to showcase all kinds of love and relational dynamics, unbound by traditional roles and expectations on how to fulfill them. Here's a taste of my work!

Chapter 10
The Changing Tides
Rudy ●
“You trusted me in a time where you trusted no one. That’s gotta count for something.”
Rudy’s Letter to Lilith
Rudy sat up in his loft, unable to sleep. Normally, the skylight helped him drift off. Tonight, the stars were as countless as the thoughts racing through his mind. Even through the frantic racing, one question roared above the noise.

How do I stop history from repeating itself? Their new status quo was abruptly put back into focus, the rustling of paper cut through the early-morning stillness. Elara just revealed the reason the Liber was the world’s most dangerous infohazard, and the reason stood, humming to himself, rolling his eyes in judgement at the books he and Raven read for entertainment. Access to television wasn’t exactly a high priority for them, but life without a bit of escapism was too boring to fully return to it. Rudy seethed, realizing just how it must be for her. They lived in comfort, but they had no space. No style. No privacy. It was no way for a teenage girl to grow up, especially with a single father.

His mind was thrown back over a century, trying to hold on to those precious few years before his own childhood was forced aside. The memories flowed back – of him and his siblings playing on dirt roads, wandering home before dark. He smiled, remembering how him and his siblings learned the lay of the land, practicing their Shift together. His smile faded when the pleasant memories, once again, became subsumed with what came next.

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 27/02/2026

Thank you to whoever purchased a paperback copy of Emergence! This is a huge milestone for me, knowing my first novel exists in print! I couldn't express enough gratitude!

A screenshot from my KDP order reports page! Thank you thank you thank you thank you!!! 🤩🤩🤩

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 27/02/2026

Was blessed with a bit extra this paycheck. Hope to pay it forward. :)

It ain't much but it's hard-earned, honest cash...

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 22/02/2026

Chapter 10 of Convergence is TOUGH rn...

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 21/02/2026

Me trying to figure out how to live off of my writing like

Step 1: write the book
Step 2: Edit the book
Step 3: Market the book
Wait, market the book? Aw, fuck!

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 19/02/2026

I was going to try to do a raw screenshot of the page in LibreOffice, but even resizing it didn't turn out very nice. I'm hoping porting the snippet into Obsidian makes it a bit more legible, even if I have to use another screenshot! #WipSnip #WriteSky #BookSky #Convergence #TheEmergenceChronicles

Chapter 9
The Defector’s Gambit
Julius ▣
“The first moves have been made. Now I must wait and see if I can outwit The Almighty himself.”
Julius’s Private Journal Entry #33
As a creature of the night, Julius usually took comfort within the shadows. Tonight, he struggled to shake off the irrational fear that every pool of inky blackness he stepped foot into would reach into his mind and steal his secrets, revealing him to The Design. He moved quickly, a phantom in the corners of the eyes of what little passers-by that strolled the main thoroughfares. He remained a suggestion of presence – there, then gone.

The streets and alleys of Dublin were slick with an earlier rainfall. Julius stuck to the latter as much as possible. The Old World still remembered magic much more than the New, and the United States had a rude awakening at what havoc uncontrolled magic could wreak.

The Design’s attempts to hold the heir of Lucifer resulted in an uncontrolled terraforming of the Rocky Mountain range when containment was breached. No one expected the Warden to exist, let alone wield two fundamentally opposing forces. The Aegis was a system designed to hold The Warden’s – Lilith’s - Entropy; it could not process Genesis.

Julius was a child of the old world. He watched the rise and fall of magic as power. He remembered the world as it was–untamed, slick with the blood of conquest and ego. Very few branches of magic arose seeking benevolence. Julius remembered the stories of the clan of people who became Titans of the Wild. The MacCarthy clan was a buried legend. It was less than a week since Julius had murdered Liam MacCarthy, former Guide of the Clan. And he was about to walk into the jaws of Liam’s children.
Many of their legends held tale of family avenging the fall of one of their own, driving out threats to the land and their clan. There was no guarantee of his survival tonight.
Alistair was predictable in his instability. He could be managed. Manipulated. The MacCarthys were different. Their Creed demanded careful scrutiny towards parasites such as he. The situation he found himself in was a tightrope of unprecedented thinness. Julius had walked them before, even playing with knives. In this situation, it felt instead like he was handling a nuclear grenade. The fallout would be devastating, but localized. Julius only hoped the fallout, when it came, would be contained to him alone.
The letters seemed to itch in his breast pocket, weighing him down even, as he tried to stay out of sight. He stopped in a thickly-shadowed alleyway, taking a moment planted to a wall, steeling his nerves.
Irregardless of his continued existence, The Almighty’s opposition needed all the intelligence he could provide. If tonight was to be his last, the intelligence he gave must be quickly relayed and immediately useful.
A single rat squealed in terror as it scurried past Julius’s tactical boots–the only article on his person that did not match his normally impeccable wardrobe–followed closely behind by a particularly damp and shivering feline. It froze the moment it entered the alleyway, locking eyes with Julius. It hissed, arching its back, even clawing at the air, before fleeing the way it came.
Jul…

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 16/02/2026

Thanks to the 12 of you who already snagged a copy of Emergence! Means the world to me! If you haven't already grabbed it, though, the promotion ends after the 16th! Last chance to grab a licence to the .epub (and any future revisions for bonus content ;]) if you want it!

A screenshot of my KDP dashboard showing the spike in "sales"! Seriously, thanks, guys! ^.^

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 16/02/2026

#Febchantment The "most powerful" display of magic, as defined by me, is, by definition, the most potent act of self-actualization an individual can do. If that's the case, this is the "most powerful" display of magic in my works so far: An almost 1-year-old raven becomes human for the first time!!

'...Feathers didn’t just melt; they shimmered and dissolved into a cascade of dark, swirling energy that briefly outlined a new shape. Wings elongated into thin arms. The beak receded, the body stretched and expanded with a series of soft, unsettling pops. And then it was over.
Where the raven had been, a girl now crouched on all fours on his welcome mat. She was small, maybe ten years old. Her pale skin was smudged with forest dirt. A shock of unruly black hair fell over her face. She was naked, eyes wild as she shivered violently, not from cold, but from the sheer shock of the transformation itself.
Every thought of pursuit, every plan of escape, evaporated from Rudy’s mind. The world narrowed to this single, impossible, vulnerable child on his porch. Instinct, older than reason, took over. In one fluid motion, he yanked his flannel shirt over his head, the buttons snapping free.
“Hey. Kid. Look at me,” he said, his voice low and steady, stripping it of all its earlier panic. He didn’t approach. He just held the shirt out in front of him, like a flag of truce. “It’s okay. You’re okay. Let’s get you covered up.” The girl cocked her head to the side, a painfully...'

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 16/02/2026

#Febchantment! I'm a really big fan of psychological horror, so the terror here isn't in what he is, but what he represents. Qiyam al-Hikma, The Djinn of Near-Omnipotent Knowledge and Wisdom, is a threat to the status quo, and has his own goals and methods to achieve them.

“What is it with all of you today? I wish I had answers too. I wish I could figure out what my brother’s plan is before he tries killing another one of my siblings! I wish… I wish this book would just open up and talk to us! That way we –” Elara was cut short as the Liber de Profundis started flipping pages on its own, landing on the section about binding. The text that Rudy had found glowed crimson, and a maniacal, almost mad laugh filled the room.

A cultured voice rose from the Liber as the ink dissolved, bleeding into a cloud of black smoke that poured from its pages. It coalesced, obscuring their view, until the silhouette of a man took shape within it.

“Free at last! Seven hundred years, and I am free of that accursed blasphemy! Why, oh, why could my prison not have the curved, infinity-teasing beauty of the scroll?!” a rich, eloquent voice exclaimed, thick with an accent that sounded vaguely Arabic, but much older.

The smoke coalesced into the form of a tall, elegant figure robed in ancient middle-Eastern scholar’s garments. Raven thought they looked woven from twilight and ash in the dull way that it still shimmered. His face was that of a sharp-featured, ageless sage, but his hair was the give-away. It flowed from his scalp, not as hair, but as a living, slowly undulating plume of the same ink-black smoke that had birthed him. His eyes, fixed upon them, smoldered like banked coals in a scholar’s brazier.

His hands were outstretched, admiring his chocolate skin and refined, if dated, attire. Then, as if he was satisfied with his corporeal form, he turned to his hosts – and amusedly, patiently waited for their jaws to be picked up from the floor.

“I,” he declared, “am Qiyam al-Hikma. Thank you, masters, for the release from my prison. I am compelled by the terms of my arrangement to disclose unto you the terms of our arrangement, during which you may ask me any question regarding said arrangement. Do we have an accord?”

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 16/02/2026

#Febchantment Each character manifests it differently, but each character is threatened to be consumed by their own power, or lose control of it in such a way that it causes damage to people and/or the environment around them. I felt that showing rather than telling would help explain better:

Data.

The word was a splinter of ice in her heart. It didn’t hurt. It was just… there. A new, immutable fact.

Michael. Patience. Experiment.

Her tears didn’t fall. They crystallized on her cheeks, twin tracks of cold diamonds. She wondered, distantly, if this is what happened to comets – if they were just bodies freezing solid from the inside out, as they fled, futilely, from their star’s influence.

The hellfire in her core was quiet, dormant. Not gone, but submerged under a glacial lake of understanding. The ice on her arms wasn’t just a loss of control. It was a consequence. The physical manifestation of a truth too cold to bear exposure to light.

He wasn’t even angry. He was just… curious.

She remembered the silence that had preceded the pain. The focus. The silence of a scholar peering into a microscope. Watching what happens to a colony of bacterium when he introduced its predator virus into it.

$What emerges if the colony survives the ravaging? A paradox he neither anticipated nor understood. She hoped. The wind tore at her wings. She let it. The physical strain was a welcome anchor. Below, the world was a map of darkness and silver. Trees, boulders, and rivers passed. Even the occasional light of a lone dacha. A world he wanted to silence. To make perfect. Still. Her brother. The Unseen Hand. A sob finally broke through. A sharp, fractured sound tore from her, choking her to the point of stumbling mid-air. She was not a victim. She was a result. Her rage stopped building, apparently reaching its limit. It started to sharpen into a terrifying, chilling clarity. The kind that freezes boiling water in motion. She banked, turning in a wide, slow arc. Her breath was still heaving, and the chill in the air kept building until she was almost surrounded by a wall of fog. The ice was spreading across her chest now, seemingly freezing her heart. Elara thought it should’ve hurt, but it simply sat there, consuming her slowly. For a brief moment, panic took hold, and she began falling to the ground, but she regained a controlled hover, breathing getting laboured. She tried to warm herself. She started to feel fatigue from needing to constantly fight the encroaching ice to maintain mobility, and it was sapping her will.$

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 13/02/2026

Omw home from helping a friend with their animals today :3 I want to do so much more to take care of them but they're not my birds 💔

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 13/02/2026

I just learned BlueSky implemented drafts. This changes things. 😈

A screenshot of this post, showcasing the new Drafts button next to the Post button on the top right.

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 13/02/2026

Wanna celebrate Valentine's Day early? Know anyone who likes a tension-filled sapphic romantasy that rips its own heart out in front of you, just to perform surgery on itself last-minute? Emergence is FREE, from TODAY 'till Feb 16! Thanks to @ech0reads.bsky.social for his amazing review!

All text in an elegant, cursive typeface.
Title: Emergence
Subtitle: A demon with too many Secrets
Author: Alex Riven
---
Cover Contents:
A black background, with smoke/fox rising from the bottom. A charred and blackened heart, to the point of nearly being charcoal, is bleeding blue flames, rests in the center of the image.

I'm only pasting the important bits:
---
Want to buy for $0.00?
Digital List Price: $5.95
You can purchase it now FOR FREE! With Amazon's 1 Click method, tho
By placing an order, you're purchasing a content license & agreeing to Kindle's Store Terms of Use.
Sold by Amazon.com Services LLC. (For now. I plan to branch out soon.)
---
Book Details:
Title: Emergence.
Series: The Emergence Chronicles
Genre(s): Dark Urban / Epic Fantasy
Print Length: 389 Pages
Language(s): English (SOME Spanish)
DRM: Never.
---
Synopsis:
A reclusive sovereign of ruin, an amnesiac celestial, a soul-reading wild consciousness, and a weary werewolf lawyer form a sanctuary against a fanatical cult. The Grand Design seeks to correct reality itself, a goal that demands the unmaking of all they hold dear. As the cult's disillusioned lieutenant uncovers the genocidal truth at the heart of his faith, this fragile found family must learn to wield their power not as weapons, but as the only tools capable of protecting a world worth saving.

The prose of this book was... fantastic; it was extravagant in a way that was... fitting for the religious tone and fantasy-esque genre. I really enjoyed that the first chapter threw you straight into the plot, weaving more world-building and lore organically into the narrative as the plot progressed further.

The characters were all... likeable and well-written. Lilith had undergone a lot of trauma from her parents who... told her that she corrupts everything she touches... Naturally, she’s reluctant to become involved further with Elara, convinced that she’s going to ruin them both. Rudy has his own parental difficulties, but reaches out to extended family for help with escaping The Grand Design. Elara starts out not knowing who she is, so her personality is... muted. As the story progresses, she gradually recovers her memories, and becomes an absolute badass. Raven was a really interesting character; the chapters from her perspective were... cool and abstract. Lilith and Rudy had such a good dynamic; I loved their sibling bond, and all of their interactions were so funny.

The romance between Lilith and Elara was so good. I... liked the imagery of Elara describing Lilith as her anchor. Lilith sees this as a negative thing; worried that she’s going to pull Elara down and ruin them both. But Elara sees it as a good thing, keeping her grounded, and wishing that Lilith would trust her to pull them both up.

The Grand Design as a concept was... interesting. I liked the organisation as an antagonist because they had believable motivations and a complex method to achieve them, without feeling flat. I also found the Grand Architect role... interesting; I’d be so intrigued to learn more about how the organisation came to be and how the role of the Grand Architect developed as time went on.

Overall, this was a really unique and fun read! It definitely had darker elements, but the overarching theme of found family and letting people help you was a joy to read.

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 09/02/2026

last 4 characters in your photo roll define your mental health I'm just going with what I had in my camera roll lmfao

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 07/02/2026

#Febchantment I'm really proud of this scene, but I'm nervous if anyone can even understand it lmao I don't know how it looks for you guys; my scenes can get dense! But I've got alt text if that helps! :D

Lilith took some deep breaths before she reached deep into the Weave, looking for the threads of the forest around her.
She found them – a blend of browns, greens, yellows, and reds for the flora, so bright it nearly overwhelmed Lilith’s senses. The mosaic of the fauna bustled all around her – in the air, in the ground, wandering above the forest floor. Every time Lilith opened herself to this sight, it brought tears to her eyes, for even an immortal Celestial could be cowed by true beauty.
Lilith nearly forgot her question, the Sight enveloping her focus. But she reigned herself in just enough to send greetings to the local Elemental, who called itself Permafrost.
/Peace./Prosperity./ Its reply was sent back as a vibration in the earth that translated into meaning.
/Favor?/Demon seeks Wisdom/ Lilith sent her query into the Weave, hoping her thoughts wouldn’t muddy the message. Even the waterfall’s rush was a weak salve today.
/Request Unclear./Wisdom for what?/ Lilith considered this for a moment, realizing she may be blocking off more than intended. Speaking with the Elementals was a lesson in negotiation. In order to get anything from them, you had to give something in return.
Lilith slowly let her mental barriers down. She gave the Elemental what it needed: her worry for Elara’s anger and Lilith’s fear of losing herself again. The moment her barriers fell, the sanctuary changed.
The vibrant tapestry of the Weave didn't just brighten; it deepened, pulling her into a stratum of meaning beneath the living present. The cold of the stone seeped into her soul. Permafrost wasn't just listening; it was integrating her into its ecosystem, incorporating her feelings into itself in order to understand the drive behind her question.

Lilith held back the instinctive recoil that screamed in her head, Invasion!
No, she told herself. This is communion. Temporary. Safe. Gaia does not consume; She only nurtures our inner natures.
Panic receding, Lilith allowed Permafrost’s threads to wash over her, considering the weight of Lilith’s resolve. Its answer didn’t come in words, but concepts and images. Flashes appeared in her mind. She felt the heat trapped underneath the ground. Dangerous in potential, but also useful. As much as it held the power to take life, it preserved it. Deep roots stayed warm enough to gather nutrients. Freshwater was melted to the point of harboring and feeding the ecosystem again, despite the surface the Elemental named itself for.
She felt the immense weight of an ice sheet, suddenly feeling meaningless as it broke free from its source and free-fell into the ocean below. She felt every bump, scrape, and bounce along the way, processing every groove, crater, and divot the glacier left behind.
She heard the song of the same jay as before, but now she understood its meaning. She recognized which notes indicated the bird’s concept of self and its concept of her.
/Answer Given./Peace./Prosperity./Gratitude for Service./
The connection severed. The profound, vibrating silence of the stone returned. The technicolor Weave blazed on, indifferent.
Lilith opened her eyes. The sanctuary was the same – the waterfall, the stone, the scent of pine and cold water. But she was not.
The wisdom was not a mere, simple solution. It was a reorientation. A demand to shift her entire axis. The images and sensations coalesced in her mind, arranging themselves into a new, stark understanding.

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 07/02/2026

#Febchantment! The most important vocabulary to consider, or whatever I haven't shown here yet, is right here! I kinda wanted a softer system, But I had so much on my mind, I guess I had to write nearly 6,000 words to describe this world before I could write what I wanted to write XD

3. Key Metaphysical Concepts
The Weave/Web

The fabric of reality, consciousness, and connection. The medium through which all power flows. Think of the field of a fundamental force, spawned from a quantum emergence of the brain of the universe itself. A representation of The Dream itself that entities with enough magical senses can tap into.
Weave:
This is how beings with an ascended consciousness understand the fabric. This would include Celestials (Angels, Demons, Djinn, Fae, etc.), Raven (eventually; her arc is learning to do so) certain, rare sorcerers of exceptional mental fortitude and/or willpower (to varying degrees of success). It is interpreted primarily in colours and threads.
Web:
This is how nature-magic-based beings interpret the fabric. It is interpreted in sensory perceptions, i.e. smells, sounds, tremors in the ground and/or air, and a sense of a living connection between things that they interpret as web-like.
Sin

A primordial, neutral force. The Yin of Chaos to the Yang of Genesis. An emanation of The Dreamer's chaotic potential. A potential source of power when integrated. Dangerous in excess, but with discipline and moderation, one can ascend to new heights when integrating their internal darkness, and harnessing it for not "light", but for good.
Genesis

A primordial, neutral force. The Yang of Creation to Sin's Yin of Chaos. An emanation of the chaotic potential of The Dreamer. Nearly impossible to control. Dangerous in its potential, but is necessary for life to exist, and necessary to balance against the chaos of Sin.

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 07/02/2026

#Febchantment! There's two core concepts of my magic system: Magic is self-actualization, and all magic comes at a cost. (I thought against doing this at first, even originally uploading a version of this post with only the first screenshot, but this is truly all foundational in my eyes...)

Part III: The Mechanics of Meaning
1. Magic as Self-Actualization
Core Narrative Mechanic: Power emerges from within.

The Process: Trauma/Shadow → Conscious Integration → Unlocked Aspect of Self (Manifested as Power)

This is the character arc made manifest. It is not simple spellcraft or merely innate talent, but a risk/reward system based upon the somatic expression of healing.

Conversely, this can be turned on its head. While unintegrated trauma can be (with great effort) worked past to perform even powerful feats of magic, once control slips, a character's power will manifest in wild, uncontrolled bursts. Depending on how much they've self-actualized, these are capable of catastrophic damage to the caster and/or their surroundings - living or not.

2. The Universal Law: The Cost of Power
A Foundational Principle: All meaningful power requires a reciprocal offering. This theme manifests differently across different expressions of the core magic system.

A. The Druidic Tithe (Symbiosis)
Philosophy: Power through relationship, not domination.
The Tithe: Every significant working requires a reciprocal offering to the land (the Geodic Courts).
Somatic: Physical substance (hair, blood) returned to the cycle.
Memetic: A vivid, personal memory consumed by the land's consciousness.
Energetic: Life force channeled to heal blight.
Consequence of Failure: The land remembers debts. A Druid who takes without giving becomes a parasite, and the land will resist or curse them.

B. Djinn Binding (The Conditional Pact)
Philosophy: Power through metaphysical contract and containment, not mere dominance.
The Nature of the Pact: A Djinn accepts binding on the promise of eventual release to the Prime Plane upon completion of services. The Liber de Profundis enforces this contract with fused with Djinn-flavored Celestial law.
The Hidden Cost:
For the Binder: The ethical cost of imprisoning a sovereign concept. The spiritual corruption of treating wisdom, passion, or memory as a tool rather than a relationship.
For the Djinn: Potentially centuries of confinement, reduced to answering one or two questions at a time as their human masters misuse their power. Gambling with a state of suspended animation waiting for true freedom.
The Grand Design's Perversion: They use this system as a tool of control, embodying "imposed order." But the system itself contains the seed of its own dissolution: the final wish that grants freedom.
The Tragedy: Previous owners of the Liber either never discovered this clause, chose not to use it, or died before fulfilling the contract - leaving the Great Djinn of the Book, Qiyam al-Hikma, in perpetual confinement.
Nuance: This isn't simple "good vs. evil" magic. It's a flawed but functional system that can be used ethically (with intent to free) or unethically (as permanent imprisonment). The Grand Design would represent the latter.

C. Personal Integration (The Alchemy of Self)
The Process: Not "facing trauma" in a therapeutic sense, but metabolizing the shadow into a new organ of perception and power. The trauma isn't merely remembered; it is physically and metaphysically reconstituted as part of the self.
The Somatic Cost: The "cost" is the permanent alteration of one's being. Integration changes how you experience reality. A character who integrates their fear of abandonment doesn't just "get over it" - they may permanently perceive the strength or fragility of bonds as a tangible, synesthetic quality in the world. This is a gain of power, but also a loss of naive perception.
The Danger: This is not safe self-help. It is psychic surgery without anesthetic. Failed integration risks fragmentation, possession by the unintegrated shadow, or the trauma manifesting externally as a hostile phenomenon (e.g., Elara's freezing rage creating "hell-ice").
Example (From the world): Lilith doesn't just "accept" her Entropy and Genesis aspects. She must allow the "cooking grenade" and the "trembling woman" to inhabit the same body without annihilation, forging a new, sovereign identity from their tension. The cost is the death of her old, simpler self-conceptions.
It's Alchemy, Not Accounting: The "tithes" here are paid to oneself - pieces of a former identity are sacrificed to create a new, more complex whole. The pain is the fuel for the transformation.

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Alex Riven 🔞📖⌨️🖋️ @alexriven.online · 07/02/2026

Post your favorite "Lord of the Rings" character. Wrong answers only.

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