God's Infinite Tits Has Made Its Way Into My Vocabulary Thank You Jin Ily

I'm convinced any negative reviewers/DNFs of The Archive Undying are mainly fantasy readers rather than sci-fi. I see people on goodreads complaining about there not being enough worldbuilding or explanations of what things are, that's just sci-fi! In the best sci-fi media we ride on vibes! Lack of exposition is a feature, not a flaw! We learn on a need-to-know basis, and this book is doing a really good job at that; when it's important, you'll find out what it is/how it works in a subtle, non-intrusive way. Until then, it's about people, and emotions, and scary robots with people (and probably emotions) inside, and you're just along for the ride.

I'm only 20% in and it's already so good, I can see this being a comfort book I reread multiple times. I can't wait to see where this series goes, what gets revealed in this book, and what we'll be left to speculate on until the next.

Pinterest, my savior. The brainrot for The Archive Undying is so severe, but there is so little fanart I've taken extreme measures.

10% of danny rumors on campus are 100% true

phighting OC I drew for artfight

all character credits to TripleBaaambi <3

Reference images included for context, and the two different versions of the art

ok alright i've got one:

tenbeasts! is there a, ah, list of them? or is more of a "i'll name one when i want one" thing? or any associated spicy lil tidbits?

THERE IS IN FACT A LIST. Kept for my own reference, though often misplaced. Some slots are immutable and others are still open to revision!

Basics: There are ten divine beasts, though the number and exact animals are somewhat up for debate depending on who you ask and where they're from -- e.g., downworld apocrypha might say that there are in fact only nine, or that the number varies between eons. Overall analogous to the Chinese zodiac.

The tenbeasts are chimeric combinations of the divine beasts in the most common roster, so there are five distinct types that Iterate Fractal, er, mass-produced, so to speak.

The divine beasts:

Peacock

Serpent

Salamander

Carp

Cat

Monkey

Fox

Bat

Ox

??? varies too much btwn my lists to say with certainty. Moth? Bear? Deer? I'll decide at some point. (OR MAYBE I WON'T!!)

The tenbeasts derived from them:

Sentinel-fowl (peacock + serpent) [canon]

Dragon-children (salamander + carp) [canon]

Company-cat (cat + monkey) [canon]

[Winged fox] (fox + bat) [probably pretty canon]

??? some kind of ox-forward beast of burden (ox + ???) [working on it]

It’s one of trauma’s funny tricks. It lurks in the wings until you’ve proven your strength by carrying everybody else through the performance, and just when you’re about to take your final bow—bam! Kicks you right off the stage.

— The Archive Undying, Emma Mieko Candon