Aphna
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aphna.bsky.social
Aphna
@aphna.bsky.social
450 followers 240 following 3.2K posts
Honestly just a bit of a mess. Sometimes a writer, mostly easily distracted.

They/them

#KDrama #MMRomance #3D

https://benign-snails.co.uk
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aphna.bsky.social
#WIPSnips: Crystal

A little memory from Gabe. I admit I managed to wrangle the word in when I saw it on the prompt list at the start of the week. 😅 But it also came with a strong mental image, so I guess it was just meant to be.
Ghosted WIPSnips: Crystal His parents had cleared away her belongings in due course: the little crystal animals and assorted tchotchkes her daughter in Canada sent her that she’d dismissively referred to as dust catchers but child Gabe had been fascinated by, the clothes that smelled only slightly of Old Lady, some of the books they could pass along to charity shops; then they’d offered the annex to Gabe. A home from home at home, safe freedom. Of course he’d accepted. What self-respecting seventeen-year-old wouldn’t? He wondered, now and again, if his parents had expected to be able to turn it into a home gym or hobby room when he went to university, whether they’d anticipated he’d still be there eleven years later. They didn’t complain, at least not to him. And Gabe happily pottered around in his little apartment, and he never mentioned the two weeks after he first moved in when he watched Great-Aunt Wendy do the same.
November 22, 2025 at 10:41 AM
aphna.bsky.social
Testing something out on Gabe. I don't render him enough. I'm not a huge fan of that hair model but it's also one of the only ones that suits him. *sigh*
3D render of Gabe, a white man with reddish brown hair and brown eyes. He wears a blue shirt with blue and white checks on it and blue jeans, and stands with his right hand raised, his left loose by his side, and looks off thoughtfully to the right.
November 21, 2025 at 4:50 PM
aphna.bsky.social
There'll be a reference later in the story to a time when Jude was at university, and had his hair cropped and dyed blond. So I rendered it, and damn, he's even prettier with short hair. (The girl beside him is Christina, who got a degree in finance, burned out, and now runs a café nearby).
3D render of four university students at a punk party. From left to right: Unnamed female friend, a dark-skinned Black lady wearing dramatic makeup and with her hair in twists with pink highlights, a collared blue two-tone vest, and purple leather trousers. Christina, a young Asian woman grinning at the camera and making a peace sign. She wears an oversized black plastic jacket, a cropped plastic vest, and a pair of black trousers with one leg held up by green straps. She leans her left arm on the shoulder of the man beside her. Jude is a young half-Asian man with cropped hair dyed blond with black roots, and is smiling at the camera and standing relaxed with his arms by his sides. He wears a black net top with a slight floral pattern and oversized black trousers with orange accents. An unnamed white man wearing an oversized white sleeveless hooded top and black jeans, his right hand resting on Jude's right shoulder below Christina's arm.
November 18, 2025 at 4:40 PM
aphna.bsky.social
In fact, its spellcheck still sucks, just... with different words now.

I'd love to see a Hallowe'en (another word it hates) filled with trick-or-treasurers, and whomst among us has never seen the famous trick-or-anteater? They're always leaving anteaters in people's gardens (no treat needed!).
Scrivener's built-in spellchecker. Spelling Not in Dictionary: "managed to swing his leg over the top and clung there, gasping at the icy air. in the distance the sound of laughter drifted over the wind, high and sweet. Trick-or-treaters following" Suggestions: or-tr eaters or-tr-eaters or-treasurers or-anteaters or-treats or-heaters theatregoers
November 17, 2025 at 3:30 PM
aphna.bsky.social
(By 'capitalised,' I don't mean the initial letter, although that was also one suggestion.)
Screenshot from Scrivener version 1, showing the internal spellcheck program. Spelling Not in Dictionary: "Research department. It'd be a blow, true, but I'm sure with time we'd find another candidate. And even if you were able to tell people, maybe using the internet [word highlighted in red], the small matter of your own... skill might attract more attention than I think you'd be comfortable with." Suggestions: INTERNET Internet interned Internets inter net inter-net intent internee
November 17, 2025 at 3:22 PM
aphna.bsky.social
#WIPSnips: Run
But no 'run' in the story so far, so have a little bit of Jude's anxiety instead.
Ghosted WIPSnips: Run He clung a little tighter to himself and wished Ricky would turn up. Standing here alone was starting to make his heart race, but he’d used up all his ‘stranger patience’ for one week with his two days at Christina’s. Or maybe it was the idea of talking to the Influencer playing along his frayed nerves until it was all he could do not to bolt for home. And when he got home… Jude stilled, fingers pressing so hard into his arms he wouldn’t be surprised to find bruises there tomorrow. He could tend to his beer. That’d eat up a whole half an hour, if he was lucky. Then he could sit and stare at the walls, maybe stare at the TV without watching what it was showing if he was feeling particularly lively.
November 16, 2025 at 10:18 PM
aphna.bsky.social
Smol dog: *launches herself off the sofa*
Me: Oh, did you want to go out? *gets up and walks to the door*
Smol dog: *stares at me like I've gone mad, grabs her toy ghost, and drags it back to the sofa*
Me: ...That'll be a no, then.
Photo of a small black and brown Miniature Pinscher laying on a yellow blanket, holding a white furry ghost toy by the head in her mouth. She has a look of intense concentration on her little face, her enormous ears are at slight angles, and her whiskers are bristling.
November 14, 2025 at 8:17 PM
aphna.bsky.social
#WIPSnips: Shirt
Except I have no 'shirt' yet so it'll have to be 'hoodie' instead, and it's been an eventful walk up this foggy driveway for Gabe.
Ghosted WIPSnips: Shirt Except, as he forded through the irritatingly intangible obstruction, he realised it wasn’t a presence. Not the mysterious kind. Just a person in a grey hoodie with the hood pulled up against the cold and hands tucked in the front pouch, standing in profile and staring up at the building. Richard hadn’t noticed him. “Hey, you bastard! Want to explain yourself, fuckface?” See? Easy. He brought the phone up, already half-smiling to show he was joking — not that he was, not really, but he might as well pretend there as well — and froze as the hood swung his way. The empty hood, filled with nothing but shadow.
November 12, 2025 at 11:07 PM
aphna.bsky.social
#WIPSnips: Local

Trying something new, as an excuse to render the house Gabe and Jude are exploring some more. I procrastinated a lot moving lights around. (And then I procrastinated more while sorting out this image. But procrastinating's part of the writing process!)
Ghosted WIPSnips: Local They’d started this endeavour last year, after Gabe had watched some American ghost-hunting show where everyone screamed at the drop of a hat. He’d wondered aloud to Rich, “What’s the point? It’s not like they’d hear anything over their own fucking voices.” Rich had bumped his shoulder against Gabe’s and grinned. “Entertainment value. If you can do better, why don’t you?” “But it’s not entertaining.” He paused. “And you’re on. If you do it with me, I’ll find some haunted house and we’ll livestream it.” Rich had laughed like he didn’t believe there was any way Gabe would get it together enough to even think about it, and then he’d laughed again when, three weeks later, Gabe had dragged him to the local haunted pub and they broadcast their lock-in to YouTube.
November 10, 2025 at 8:11 PM
aphna.bsky.social
#WIPSnips: Little

Oooh, I have one! Or rather, I have far more than I really should have for how, uh, *little* I've written of this story.

I'll have to highlight them all for dealing with later, for my sanity's sake.
Whether it was the phone light or the torch that first picked out the figure, he didn’t know. A grey shape, little more than a humanoid form; Gabe froze mid-step. And he’d turned the phone off. He swore under his breath, fumbling through the screens to get back to the camera app and hit record, his torch flicking across shapes he realised were stone steps, dashing black, reaching shadows around pillars and old planters filled with the skeletal remains of plants. When he jerked the phone back up— The figure was gone.
November 8, 2025 at 2:29 PM
aphna.bsky.social
When part of your cloth sim goes very wrong, and another part desperately tries to contain it. 🤣
3D render of a man in blue jeans, a beige sweater, and a red apron. The sweater has become an exploded mass of fabric only a few eyes away from becoming a Lovecraftian beast; meanwhile, the apron is straining with its attempt to contain the exploded fabric at the front. But it hangs nicely at the legs, where nothing is trying to crawl away.
November 7, 2025 at 11:34 AM
aphna.bsky.social
I'm not doing Novmemeber, but I was curious about my phone's predictive text. And.. that's certainly a run-on sentence, so that's on-brand. 🤣

Every time I thought 'I'll stop there' it spat something new and weird out, and it's even all in English!
I'm wearing a new one for the weather in the UK and I write about it so I can get a little watering from the rain and the sun is out of the last few weeks of the day job involves having to listen to the radio last night and then I can only disappoint you to the best of times I know you are a marine biologist who dabbles in the occult of the world and you can always tell when Duolingo buggered around with the lesson structure and the rest of the world in general and you can see its faintly belligerent pose for a walk along the path from the post about last night and the other behind the scenes of the world in general.
November 1, 2025 at 4:52 PM
aphna.bsky.social
A little Hallowe'en-y / Samhain-y Jude, because I cannot resist an Ophelia-esque bit of submerging.
3D render of Jude, a black-haired, brown-eyed man in stark highlights. His jeans are partially undone and he's shirtless, lying back and partially submerged in strange black water. There are water spatters on his stomach, and wet marks on his body like hands have been grabbing at him. One hand shields his eyes, the other rests on his stomach, and his mouth is sensuously open.
October 31, 2025 at 8:06 PM
aphna.bsky.social
I forgot I had this figure, and once I found it I just couldn't resist Muppetifying Gabe and Jude. 🤣
3D render of two puppet figures: puppet-Gabe, red felted with a blue nose and eyelids, a mop of brown hair on top, wears a red and white long-sleeve T-shirt and holds his phone up in his left hand, looking unimpressed; puppet-Jude, beige-ish with a pink nose and an untidy amount of black hair falling over his face and wearing a grey turtleneck sweater, looks at puppet-Gabe and holds up his right hand, forefinger raised, to make a point as he holds a digital camera in his left. Behind them both, unnoticed, a sheet ghostie glowing green hovers behind a filthy open door. In the top right corner is a streaming logo: BooTube.
October 24, 2025 at 8:01 AM
aphna.bsky.social
Wow, I'll have to sign up! I can't wait to see what Author 352650 might write next!

🤦
From your notification 👍👎 Penguin Books UK Author 352650 17 hours ago – Never miss a book by Author 352650. Sign up to be notified of new releases and ebook deals by Author 352650. Sign up. By signing up, I confirm that I'm over... More updates for you
October 22, 2025 at 6:21 PM
aphna.bsky.social
Just a little render of Jude.

I had fun figuring out the balance to simulate his hair while keeping its shape; lowered the shape constraint too much the first time and he looked like he'd been caught in a nasty storm. 🤭
3D render of Jude, a man in his late 20s with untidy black hair. He is looking down and to his right, right-side on to the camera, and wears a grey hoodie. He is backlit by a red light.
October 22, 2025 at 5:28 PM
aphna.bsky.social
I always find it fascinating that despite the size difference in these boxes, they both contain three sachets and you use exactly the same amount of water for both. 😂
Photo of two boxes of miso soup, mushroom on the left and yellow on the right. The box of mushroom miso is significantly larger than the box of yellow miso, but both contain three packs.
October 19, 2025 at 3:33 PM
aphna.bsky.social
If it helps, here's a firefly-y render of it post-fiddling. One of the laces is making a break for it again (the same lace as before—I need to weight paint it), but it looks miles better with just slapping one of Birthstone's easy dforce presets on it (collar set to 0 dynamic strength).
3D render of my pointy alien guy again, with his inflated grey top now looking much more relaxed. We'll ignore that his hand is buried in the pocket of his trousers without entering through the top; it's next on my list.
October 17, 2025 at 8:51 PM
aphna.bsky.social
Me: The proportions of this outfit are so weird. It levitates off his shoulders and sticks out at his waist like a hoop dress.
Me: Oh, it's set up for simulation? Maybe that'll fix it!
Also me: ...Oh. No. Someone really didn't actually want this to be simulated, did they? 🤦

(Just... why??)
3D render of an alien elf guy. He wears a grey sci-fi vest top, blue and orange sci-fi cropped pants with lots of straps, and futuristic black, blue and orange sneakers. The top is sitting very weirdly on him, levitating about an inch above his shoulders and sticking maybe two inches out either side of his hips. Its concession to bending with the movement is that it has a very small crease at the waist. His smile has taken on a strained quality.
October 17, 2025 at 4:51 PM
aphna.bsky.social
I dreamed I was back here last night, and then I woke up in my own bed. 😭
Photo of the brightly coloured beach huts at Saltburn. Although the day was quite overcast, the wooden huts are still cheery; from left to right they are green, pink, scarlet with an orange door, royal blue with a red door, and canary yellow with a blueish green door.
October 15, 2025 at 9:50 AM
aphna.bsky.social
#LGBTQWriteAThon
I don't have any pride-inspired moodboards (or... well, any moodboards) for this project, but I managed to get a render of Gabe and Jude.

Please don't look at the hands holding the flags too closely. I had so. many. problems. simulating the fabric and I lost the will to live. 💀
3D render of two men holding hands. On the left is Gabe, a white man with brown hair, brown eyes, and a black stud in his right ear. He wears a black T-shirt with a spattery red winged guitar design with a black and red striped long-sleeved T-shirt underneath. In his raised right hand hangs a Pride flag; his left hand is entwined with Jude's right hand and he is grinning at him. Jude is a shorter half-Asian man with untidy black hair and brown eyes. He wears a grey hoodie. He holds another Pride flag aloft in his left hand, and he is smiling at Gabe.
October 10, 2025 at 2:52 PM
aphna.bsky.social
It's nice when inspiration suddenly strikes, but... I haven't set up a document for this yet... and I'm working, so suddenly having to bolt down a bunch of words that turned up in my head unexpectedly is a bit weird...

Kinda wish it happened more often though.

Ah Notepad my old friend.
He closed his eyes and let his hands linger over the cards, sensing when to select one. The first one he flipped was Death. Beside him, he heard Gabe take in a sharp breath, and smiled slightly. "Don't worry, it'd be weird not to get that considering how old the building is." He closed his eyes again and repeated the process; this time, it was his own short gasp that escaped. The Tower. Gabe frowned. "What's wrong?" Jude took in a deep breath. "You know how everyone thinks Death is the big bad card, right? Well, it's this one. This one is destruction." Another breath, this one to still his suddenly shaking hands. It wasn't the first time he'd drawn the Tower in a spread; why did it affect him so badly now? Before he could close his eyes again, a finger tapped gently on the back of his hand. When he looked up, Gabe was smiling lop-sidedly at him. The expression looked unutterably sad. "She says you've been drawing these cards for yourself, not for the building. She says to choose this one next." He pointed at a card. No matter how hard he stared, he couldn't see what Gabe could. Obediently, not wanting to displease anything that had come to see them, he turned the last card. The Lovers.
October 10, 2025 at 1:11 PM
aphna.bsky.social
MC1 told me his name is Gabriel (Gabe) West, and this is what he looks like.
3D render of Gabe West, a white man in his 20s with brown hair falling over his left eye and a black stud in his right ear. He is standing with one hand holding the other, wearing a black T-shirt with a splattery red winged guitar motif and a black and red striped long-sleeved shirt beneath it, and is giving the camera what he probably hopes is a suitably mysterious look for a ghost hunter. 3D render of Gabe West, a white man in his 20s with untidy brown hair and eyes, with a black stud in his right ear. He wears a black T-shirt. He is angled to the right but is looking over his shoulder, one side of his mouth lifted in a smile.
October 9, 2025 at 6:27 PM
aphna.bsky.social
MC2 is Jude Jones, which he handily told me today. He's a fairly short hedge witch with one small tattoo, and he'd intended to meet someone to explore the haunted building but got ditched, so he goes with MC1 instead. He's shy and awkward, doesn't swear, and forgetting things stresses him out.

3/3
3D render of a young man with black, untidy hair crouching in a cellar with his back against a grey carved pillar. He wears a grey hoodie, ripped blue jeans, and dirty grey sneakers; as he crouches, he rests his left arm against his knee and his right hand on his left elbow. He's glaring at something off-camera, or maybe is just a bit miffed about sitting in a cellar on his own. Beside him is an orange torch, a closed notepad, and a ballpoint pen that, if he's not careful, will roll away into a dark corner and refuse to be found again. Behind him are some boxes draped in sheets and, just beyond, cubbies for storing wine... or something else?
October 5, 2025 at 8:37 PM
aphna.bsky.social
I'm not quite sure how she managed to rearrange the blanket like this, but she's delighted with it now.
Photo of a small black and brown Miniature Pinscher laying on a yellow blanket. It's all bundled up under her head and she has one leg stretched out in a lazy position. Her eyes are half-closed and one ear is crumped under. She's just getting ready to doze off. Photo of a small black and brown Miniature Pinscher laying on a yellow blanket. She now has her head buried into the fluffy fabric and is fast asleep.
October 4, 2025 at 2:08 PM