Crystal Glacia / Tropers

Hello, hello.

I'm a female Chinese adoptee living in Ohio, working as a professional code monkey and writing on the side.

I remember discovering this website through a link from Bulbagarden Forums back in 2008, then proceeded to go on an Archive Binge through Parental Issues, producing a proto-version of one of my earliest story characters. I made my handle sometime in 2009, I would assume, after discovering the Unpublished Works index and feeling that I should have a page, too. (Hint: please don't do this if you ever hope to at least post your writing for viewing.) My first forum post was in the wake of The Google Incident, whereupon I managed to rather spectacularly miss everything that happened, and I became a denizen of the Writer's Block subforum and the Character Development Threads in late February 2011, during my sophomore year of high school.

My very first online community was Bulbagarden, which I joined in 2006 with just the name Glacia because it was the Japanese name of my favorite Pokemon at the time, Glaceon. I didn't prefix it with 'Crystal' until a bit later (don't ask me exactly when) so I tend to view Glacia more as my internet 'first name'. You can call me CG, too.

These days, thanks to the craziness of full-time working life and living on my own and having to pay bills and stuff, I haven't had as much time as I used to in high school to hang around here. When you do see me, expect it to be somewhere in Writer's Block. I still lurk pretty much daily and read the wiki, so you're free to contact me via PM. It just might be a day or two before I can come up with a good response. In my spare time, I like to doodle, take pictures, play video games, bake cookies and bread, and make attempts to write.

I've been working on a sort-of-anthology of original fantasies (tentatively) called Rietessian Tales since 2008. Its characters can be seen in the older Character Development Threads pre-2018 and I might start posting their stories again somewhere if I can get some time.

Troper Wall here, if you'd like, as long as the administration is okay with it existing.

Tentatively-titled plots I'm (sort of) working on that could or may already be posted for viewing someday

Currently, all of my works take place in the same universe, focusing on a planet called Rietes. Here, human civilization began tens of thousands of Earthen years ago; technology levels run the gamut from stone-age to Crystal Spires and Togas; merfolk, dragons, and faeries control a good portion of the world, and magic is commonplace in the lives of all and incredibly diverse in how it is applied and has shaped its users.

The Water Bearer: An immortal, millennia-old family man discovers one night that whatever gave him his immortality also endowed him with telekinetic abilities, which manifest for the first time in the form of a dissociative episode that maims two of his children. With the help of his wife and mother-figure, he tries to heal and uncover what happened that day while fighting for people's rights. Includes depression, racial activism, domestic life as a plutocrat, and Food Porn.
- The Pseudo-Retirement of a Painted Servant: This story follows a prideful Rivari man whose life gets turned upside down, and the aftermath that drives him to forge his own path as he reconsiders what it means to be what he is. Includes themes of isolation and personal autonomy.
- The Heliocentric: One of my only direct sequels to a work. The aforementioned immortal has grown more reclusive than ever and is now obsessed with a glass sphere the size of a beach ball. Includes a Cloudcuckooland, an Amnesiac God, and still lots of Food Porn.
- In Search of Nisariaq: After the Rivari were granted personhood in Mialor, thousands of Rivari who had been "boxed" by the state over the centuries have been found and are being brought back to life. The great ancient Rivari chief Nisariaq is likely to be among them, if only the scientists could just find them, because if there's anyone who needs a hero of their own, it's the Rivari. Includes themes of identity, finding your place in the world, and learning to be human again.
The Epic of Iris: An anthology told epic-style of the rise of Lady Iris, Phoenix of Uduinya, from servant girl to mother to carer and mentor of the downtrodden, executioner of old, stagnant empires, and ambassador of the Cephasti dragon-queendoms. Includes classic Heroic / High Fantasy, social vigilantism, motherhood, and dragons, ranging from blot-out-the-sun-huge, scary, and Nigh-Invulnerable to shoulder-sized, cuddly, and enjoying scratchies.
Shining Over Heaven: A sort-of political story that centers around the three dysfunctional personal bodyguards of a very unpopular chancellor, all taking place within a mess of a 'country' that has taken the equivalent of a hundred Earthen years to destroy itself. Includes lots of talking about life, the serving of fresh-baked croissants and tea, a boy and his kitty, and occasionally beating people up, all from the perspective of a blind protagonist.
Do No Harm: A disgruntled ex-military doctor with very advanced (and versatile) healing magics travels the aforementioned 'country' after the events of Shining Over Heaven, helping people any way he can, even if that means he has to assassinate a few along the way because it's just so easy for someone with his abilities to get away with. Includes Medical Horror, lots of ends supposedly justifying horrible means, and a man's slow descent into madness.

Tropes Associated With Me

Asian and Nerdy: Biology, computer science, and sociology are fun.
Author Appeal: Food Porn, life science, historical computing, horribly depressing backstories, and stoics.
Beware the Quiet Ones: My friends have speculated that my quietness might be the reason why our degree program's resident Jerkass personally insulted everybody (professors included) but me.
Embarrassing Initials: I don't like using my initials. If I include my middle name, I get "J. A. K." (the cool kid spelling of Jack), and if I omit my middle name, I get "J. K." (Just Kidding). My full first name is uncommon and short enough that I can often just use that in place of my initials.
Every Scar Has a Story: Albeit dumb stories... just looking at my right hand, the C-shaped one on my wrist is from when a girl tried to pry my hands off of the playground steering wheel in kindergarten, the one at the base of my thumb is a scratch from a puzzle piece (it's been fifteen years and I'm still not sure how it happened), and the one on the pinky side of my hand is from scratching myself on the sharp metal corner of a sanitary napkin receptacle in the restroom at work. The inch-long raised line on the inside of my right arm is from when I unscrewed my bedposts to paint the ceiling and scratched myself on a protruding screw.
Femme Fatalons: Whenever I let my nails grow out, they get sharp. Not jagged, just pointy and prone to catching on people wrong. And I don't even have to groom my nails in any specific manner for this to happen.
Happily Adopted: My papers say that I was abandoned at a school in Wuhan at the age of one month (at the start of the summer during record-high temperatures). Ever since I was adopted at five months, the identities of my birth parents remain unknown to this day. I don't care to get any closer to my native culture than food, and I have no desire to seek these people out.
Hates Being Touched: Especially my knees, which are also very sensitive to temperature and can feel a draft anywhere. You know how some people can't fall asleep if their feet are cold? I'm like that with my knees.
Heavy Sleeper: Apparently once slept through my father's police cruiser deciding that it wanted to make every noise it could possibly make (sirens included) in the dead of night once. I sleep through my alarm clock only on rare occasions, though.
Innocently Insensitive: Comes with the territory. That being said, if I ever say something that rubs you the wrong way, please let me know because I historically have not been able to realize anything was wrong until months or even years later.
The Klutz: I tend to injure myself in weird ways, and have several scars with stupid backstories to prove it.
Not a Morning Person: This was the case throughout my student years. Let's be honest, school life does not produce a consistent spread of work- teachers can give schedules of tests and homework all they want, but they spread it out so unevenly that my energy level and work-life balance were never able to settle, producing tons of late nights that messed up my mornings. Getting a job, oddly enough, actually evened all that out, and now I have a much easier time falling asleep at a reasonable hour and waking up early. After about six years of working full-time, I very suddenly lost the ability to sleep in past about nine or so, and more often than not wake up on time for work even on days off, no matter how little sleep I got the previous night. It's so annying.
Real Dreams are Weirder: My sleeping brain has no sense of narrative or continuity, and any unnamed extras who appear have no distinguishing features- not even genders -aside from being human beings. Despite being a writer, this actually makes the vast majority of my dreams unsuitable for any kind of inspiration.

Things I like

TV Shows, Anime, And Such

Webcomics, Web Series, Websites, Podcasts, And Other Online-Format Things

Movies

Alien
Aliens
Big Hero 6
Christopher Robin
Hawking
The Heat
The Imitation Game
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
The Jungle Book (2016)
The LEGO Movie
Maleficent
Spirited Away
9
Raya and the Last Dragon
Rogue One
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
SHAZAM! (2019)
Soul
Spirited Away
WALL•E
The Wind Rises
Wonder Woman (2017)

Video Games

Alan Wake
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Bioshock
Final Fantasy Tactics A2
Half-Life
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Lost in Blue 2
Minecraft
Minesweeper
Ōkami
Pokémon (since 2004!)
- Pokémon Mystery Dungeon
- Pokémon Shuffle
- Pokemon Picross
Portal1
Stardew Valley
Subnautica
Super Mario Odyssey
What Remains of Edith Finch

Books

Music

Other Stuff, All/Mostly Theatrical Productions

Wiki Activities

The vast majority of my work on the wiki consists of small things like moving YMMV and Trivia tropes to their respective tabs, indexing, folder installation, page type setting, and occasionally moving a works page off Main. Very rarely will I add an actual example. Below I've just decided to list the bigger things I've done, which takes up far less space.