#((not viewable ic))

[jujulebee]

((god shes just sooooooooo shaped

[fancyratvanity]

One more day

The sun reaches my bed

One more day to spend alone again

[emberoops]

Ember sighs, and sits, and looks out the window.

He lies so easily, these days. I don't know what I want, he'd said, just moments before. Ember wants to know everything, explore everywhere, be himself. She has the barest of notions of who that self is, and it becomes ever more shifting with each passing day.

And yet...

They want to carve a path through the world, burn through the cobwebs of the status quo until something new can be born. Ember knows this is impossible to do - you cannot have birth out of death, not in the traditional sense. You cannot set a path for peace through violence, or love through hate.

Ember also just wants to retreat back into the warm solace of mundanity. To return to paperwork, or house cleaning even. To work through poverty and make things work.

Out in the backyard, the dragon lifts his head, and looks directly in Ember's eyes.

Stop playing helpless, he says.

[acolytesinvocations]

Sable wakes up. More missed calls. The phone rings again and she groans. She can't keep ignoring forever. They will resort to more serious measures if she doesn't reply eventually. And while she probably could deal with it, she really doesn't want to.

Fine, fine. She picks up the phone.

"Hey, mom."

"Sable! Why haven't you been answering your phone? We were worried sick!" Her mother's voice is shrill on the other end of the line.

Sable flinches.

"I'm doing fine," she replies passively, "I didn't realize there was something to worry about."

"The fact that your school burned down and we haven't been able to get a hold of you for weeks isn't 'something to worry about'!?"

"Oh, right, that." Sable's eyes trail to the floor, wanting to shrink away from the conversation even when there's no one physically to shrink away from. Don't tell them what happened. You can't tell them what happened. "It's okay. No one was hurt. Just some faulty wiring I guess."

"And faulty wiring is what made you not tell us you were okay for weeks?"

Sable hesitates. Her silence is enough of an answer. Her mother's tone shifts. Something softer, something pleading.

"Sable, honey, if something's wrong you can tell us. Something like that is scary-"

"I'm fine-"

"And what if you weren't?" Her mother starts to raise her voice again, "You were getting sicker before you left, what if something happened to you-" She stops. Sable hears a breath over the phone.

"Your father and I want you home for a little while," her mother finally says. "Just for a bit. Just to make sure you're okay. We'll come get you; I presume your classes are suspended for the time being?"

It wouldn't matter if they were. "But-"

"No buts. Get your things together. We'll be there in a couple days."

There's an electric blip as the phone hangs up, and Sable just groans. She wishes that she could just go back to bed.

[midnight-blue-blood]

Eavesdrop?

A conversation lost in the soft chimes of a purple house made store front.

"...The first time you've approached me in nearly three months and it's to ask after some random child, Regent? I wasn't aware your people had such interest in the local sewers."

"Well, of course he is from the sewers! What else could he be? My, is there something you haven't told us? A secret, perhaps? If you doubt my word so, please feel free to meet with Jericho."

"Why, he is already engaged! He looks after signorina Vicario's rather extensive library. It does keep him busy. I'm afraid you wouldn't be able to find a free spot in his schedule..."

"He's a sweet boy. I'm not certain how I feel about these accusations, given how he assisted in pulling our friends out of a literal fire. You should perhaps be more careful..."

[smoulderingember]

Ember enters the room five times, then locks the door.

He hadn't been joking about forming an orgy of just himself, but now that they're all in a room, they stand there awkwardly.

"I. We - fuck. How does the pronoun game work here?" The one speaking has white hair, flashing eyes, and an androgynous frame.

"No idea," a more male figure speaks. His hair is flame. "This obviously isn't going to work, though. We're all just - I'm not going to do this. Which of me had this idea?"

A large, beefy, golden Ember points at a frailer-looking Nafar.

"I thought it would be a good exercise in self-love," she says. "I - ok. We - I am not ready for this."

"Obviously." He says. "I need to ease into it. Start, like, doubling up with Fex, or someone."

"Right." The golden one gestures. "Unlock the door. Amichai won't sleep long. Let's all go home."

Ember unlocks the door and files out.

[interdimensionalburnout]

>>but the mirror HASN'T spit you back out. The lights WERE on earlier.

[sir-moss]

🕯️

🐉 Never got to do any space adventures... Part of me wants to ask her if she'll take me on any, but, I'm worried I'll care too much and get grumpy. She probably doesn't need a big sad lug like me slowing her down.

[subjectivemortality]

Eavesdrop?

Highway is...do you know personal security details, how they're always looking out for danger even when they seem relaxed? I don't think I've ever seen him truly let down his guard, but it's not necessarily...hm. Not closed off either? He's not unfriendly, quite the opposite in my experience - Oh! Have I shown you his puppets? They're delightful little things, it irritates me that he gets made fun of for them sometimes. Do you know how rare it is to find someone with such a serious deportment and past, someone nearly as old as I am, who still has whimsy?? Anyway. I call him Caretaker because that's what he does, he takes care of people. Often, I think, at the expense of letting those people very close to him. It's deeply relatable.

[djsangos]

your family misses you.

The message shoots you straight through the chest and leaves you frozen, staring at your phone for several minutes. You don't have the words or will to respond.

How the fuck would they know? For all this asshole knows, you don't even have a family to miss you at all. They're just trolling you, trying to get a reaction, trying to upset you--

Hands shaking, gritting your beak, trying to blink away the tears, trying to sob quietly so you don't wake Eight, your finger hovers over the screen for a long moment before finally pressing down on a button.

[This ask has been deleted.]

[jujulebee]

[the-road-from-calvary]

📝

I do not know if it is my imagination, but I do feel like Prince Lehmann has softened somewhat. While I do not imagine he will ever stop admonishing the fledglings about the perils of entanglements - nor should he, given. The Perils. - he has seemed less fatalistic and more tolerant of my antics.

How much is an indulgence of me, and how much some softening due to Mr Herrington's situation? Or some other angle I cannot yet discern?

Not that I would say such, either way. I am sure if I made a public note, it would be a prompt to remedy it. Especially if it is a softening on behalf of his childe, it would be a pity to be the cause of said softening ending.

[emberoops]

>> [Your cookie arrives nearby! It's a large gingersnap glittery with red and orange sugar, shaped like a heart, and tastes slightly spicier than average. It appears with a glowing purple feather and a scribbled post-it note: "I couldn't figure out how to make a fire-themed cookie but this 1 caramelizes in a very pretty way if that sounds fun. Enjoy! -Mads"]

Ember takes the cookie up immediately and clones it twice, pushing it halfway through reality and then severing it from itself, allowing reality to flood into it to fill the void. Three cookies now stand before them.

Ember claps and wiggles their fingers in delight before taking one, stacking the other two on thin air (which somehow holds them) and taking a big bite of their own. The other two will be for their live-in partners in this particular home.

[acolytesinvocations]

Sable never could've expected the subject of the ritual to be herself.

One of the Magisters holds her as the horrific mix of ingredients is forced down her throat, containing just enough blood for her to keep it down. Her sire and Regent then takes six long golden needles, the one ingredient Sable didn't collect herself, and places them in pressure points across the Acolyte's body.

"If this succeeds," her sire says, "Mastery of thaumaturgy should come easier to you. I will be here keeping you held until you finish moving the mixture throughout your body. You're already showing promise... don't disappoint me."

Sable is kept in the air under her sire's watchful eye as the ritual progresses. While she may not be the caster, the grand majority of the work must be done on her own.

[midnight-blue-blood]

😌 eavesdrop women's wrongs?

A conversation lost to the roar of an indoor waterfall.

"My dear, why are you asking me about signorina Bloem? We are not exactly friends-...."

"...Ah. She did well at the salon, I take it? Very well. I suppose sharing her love of flowers is not untoward. And angels, as you may have guessed from her alterations. Ehy not gather and press flowers as a gift for hee next visit?"

"...I suppose you could say her sire was... hm. Unduly harsh with her in her nascent years. Yes, tragic. She is only just now coming into proper society..."

"Ah... the Prince told you? Signora Alvera is... hm. Yes. Very different, you observed well. I don't know how far we can trust her..."

"Oh, on that matter? We can trust to an extent. I think they wronged her somehow on a personal level. But I do not claim to know her mind. I don't think anyone could."

"I- her aura what? I have no idea- No- Harpy Bravinski, please- Just a moment-"

[therealslimstrider]

==> You're definitely clued into some shit happening.

==> Unfortunately, you have your own shit happening and you can't help anyway.