#.. will expend on this in the future but this is just a quick intro for now

[octaviaaxford]

[ OCTAVIA AXFORD | 35 YEARS OLD | HUMAN ]

She is the youngest child of the Axford family from Staten Island, NY, and the granddaughter of Mylene Tillyman. She is the only human in her family which consists of mostly witches. She works at the roller skating rink, Roller Rocket, under the name DJ Venus. She lives with her grandmother in the downtown area of Lunar Cove. Her main goal is to get out of Lunar Cove as soon as she can. 

(trigger warning: child neglect and divorce)

PERSONALITY.

She is a free-spirited, chill, and music-loving human woman who cherishes her peace. She is into Record Collecting, Yoga, and DJing. She is a bit guarded around people and has a difficult time letting people in, but that's because she has a big heart that sometimes gets the best of her.

APPEARANCE.

She has brown skin with warm undertones, a small round nose, dark brown oval eyes, and black wavy hair that was manipulated with heat. She dresses her slim figure in retro, thrift clothing. She takes inspiration from the 70s and 80s when it comes to her fashion style. Her faceclaim is Shannon Thornton.

BACKGROUND.

Octavia swore that she was cursed. At least, that was what it was like growing up as the only human in a family filled with witches. Her parents, Raymond and Deborah Axford, were exceptional light witches who fell in love during their college years at Cheyney University while majoring in business. They were both ambitious and calculated to the point where they were considered the ultimate power couple to their peers. To this day, they are still the power couple their peers claimed them to be when they went to create the flourishing cosmetics brand known as Phadera. In their lavish home in Staten Island, they went on to have many talented and magical children who could carry on the proud Axford name both among the humans and their witch kind. That was until little Octavia Axford was born. 

Her parents didn't know what to do with her once they realized she was their human child. There was nothing magical about her. She was not of much use to the Axford name as a human other than molding her to be someone exceptional to the general public. But that was not what Octavia wanted. She always had a curiosity about the supernatural world that she was denied being a part of by birth. Her own humanity was a curse to her, her parents, and even her seven older siblings. She did not want to be just a human. She wanted to be magical. She wanted to be exceptional like her family. It was not fair to her. 

But as Octavia entered her teen years, her innocent curiosity toward all supernatural evolved into a cynical perspective thanks to her unfortunate upbringing. Her parents were strict on her to make something of herself to make up for what she lacked. Her siblings hardly interacted with her because they were busy trying to be the perfect witches for their parents. Octavia witnessed how awful supernatural beings can be. How magic was not all sunshine and rainbows like books and tv shows made them out to be. At the age of sixteen years, she started to learn that maybe her so-called curse was a blessing in disguise. So, she ignored her childhood disappointments, her parents' wants, and the supernatural to begin to figure out who this painfully average human girl is. 

Octavia never did make a name for herself by the time she hit her 30s, but she was content with herself. She finished college with a degree in education, became a music teacher, and got married to the woman of her dreams. Everything she could ever want was all in the arms of her wife and their little house in Sedona, Arizona. She was far, far away from her family and anything dealing with the supernatural. She was at peace. Though, it was a peace that ended up being, unfortunately, short-lived. Octavia did not know how it happened or why, but her beloved wife got turned into the one thing she wanted nothing to deal with ever again. A supernatural. Octavia tried to make the marriage work. She really did but there were too many issues that arise in their marriage because of this sudden change. Her wife did not seem like the same woman she once fell in love with. She could still remember the night she broke down, tears streaming down her face, and begged her wife for a divorce in a tired voice.   

Octavia pushed to forget her past and her complicated issues with the supernatural once she agreed to go live with her erratic maternal grandma, Mylene Tillyman, who happened to be the only member of the Axford she could tolerate these days. Octavia promised herself that she was only going to stay until she could get back on her feet. Though her dear grandma failed to explain to her the true nature of Lunar Cove and its people. 

TRIVIA.

Octavia's birthday is February 20th and her zodiac sign is Pisces.

Octavia doesn't like anything supernatural at all.  

Mylene Tillyman is an 87 years old woman who has a flair for drama and fashion. She used to be a well-known singer in the late 1950's.

 Octavia's favorite hangouts in Lunar Cove are WORE-DROBE, BLISS YOGA, BROKEN RECORD, & HEADS OR TAILS.

[omgjasminesimone]

Kept Part 1

Bryce X MC (Casey) X Ethan triangle (sort of)

Summary: Casey doesn’t want to go into debt for medical school. Ethan doesn’t want to be alone. Bryce doesn’t want to lose her.

Next part: Part 2

Author’s Note: I keep trying to write one shots that somehow turn into series. This will be short though, like 3-4 parts. And this one is short because it’s just the intro. Let me know if you’d like to be tagged!

Word Count: ~2200

Casey winces as her new Boston hair stylist sews the weave into the cornrows that are braided so tight her head is throbbing. She misses her stylist in Connecticut who she’d regularly gone to as an undergrad at Hartfield. She tries to keep the tears at bay, not wanting the older Nigerian woman to call her tender headed, again.

Casey only has to endure this torture a few more minutes before it’s done. Casey checks out her new long luxurious Brazilian hair weave in the salon mirror, admiring the transformation. She feels like she’s transformed from Casey Valentine, poor second year overworked medical student to Cassandra Valentine, the alter ego she’s adopted to separate her real life from the fantasy girl she’s created for Ethan.

Casey hands over the credit card Ethan gave her, standing from the chair.

1 year ago

Casey’s phone vibrates on the bar, but she doesn’t bother to look at the screen. She knows it’s Bryce calling, again, and she doesn’t have anything to say to him. Casey continues to drink her vodka tonic, staring blankly ahead of her.

Her phone vibrates again, with a text message this time. Her eyes fall to the screen unbidden, even though she wants to ignore him.

Bryce Lahela 💋🍆: come on Casey would you call me back?

She needs to delete those emojis she added to his contact info after their mind blowing first hook up. That’s when she’d first learnt that Bryce really does have magic hands (and other magical appendages). But after two months of hook ups, Casey wanted something more serious, something monogamous.

When she’d first started medical school at Tufts, she’d told herself she wasn’t going to let anything distract her. She was going to focus on graduating first in her class so she could get matched anywhere in the country. But then her roommate Sienna had insisted on dragging her out to a Harvard Medical school conference, and she’d met Bryce, who was starting his first year of medical school at Harvard.

It didn’t take long for their friendship to turn into something more. There was just undeniable chemistry between them, constant flirtatious banter. And when he stayed back to help her clean after she and Sienna threw their housewarming party, she couldn’t keep herself from tearing his clothes off.

In the subsequent 2 months, Casey thought things were going well. They helped each other study, explored Boston together, had lots of sex and heartfelt conversations. That’s why Casey had been so blind sighted when Bryce responded to her asking if he wanted to be exclusive by saying he wasn’t ready for anything serious, that they didn’t have to put a label on what they had. But that he really liked her, and wanted to continue to get to know her.

Casey rolls her eyes as she remembers how he reached for her hand, repeating how much he liked her. Casey stormed out after that without another word.

She downs the last of her alcohol, signaling to the bartender for another.

Her phone buzzes with another text.

Bryce Lahela 💋🍆: I don’t want to lose what we have

Well, too late for that. Casey thinks bitterly, chugging down half her drink quickly when the bartender brings it over.

Her throat burns, and she should really be studying, not drowning her sorrows in cheap liquor. Casey grabs her backpack from the floor, pulling out her anatomy textbook and laying it in front of her.

“They’re still using Netter’s book? Well, doctors do like to stick to what they know.” A brunette man sitting two seats down quips, loosely holding a tumbler of whiskey in his hand.

“I take it you’re a doctor then?” Casey responds, trying to decide why the man in front of her seems so familiar.

The man seems to bristle a little at her not knowing who he is. “Yes, diagnostics. I’m actually somewhat famous around these parts. Dr. Ethan Ramsey.” He takes the seat beside her and offers her his hand for a handshake. His handshake is firm, and it kind of hurts her hand.

“Cassandra Valentine.” She returns. She’s not sure why she gives him her full name, no one calls her Cassandra. But it seems more regal, mature. And for some reason, she has this urge to not be seen as immature or naive by this man.

He looks her up and down in her leggings and skin-tight work out top fairly blatantly, as if he doesn’t know or care about discretion. “Do you want me to quiz you Cassandra? For each correct answer, I’ll pay $1 of your tab to keep you motivated.”

Casey rolls her eyes, turning her attention back to her book. “I can pay my own tab, thank you very much.”

Ethan is taken aback, no one ever challenges him or turns him down at Edenbrook, where he’s viewed as some kind of diagnostics God free to treat everyone terribly. “I see. Then will you let me buy you dinner instead? I know a nice place in Seaport.”

Casey is about to turn him down when another text from Bryce shows up on her phone screen.

Bryce Lahela 💋🍆: why can’t we just keep having fun? I told you from the beginning that I could do no strings

She’d only said they had to keep it casual because she was so focused on school in the beginning. But her feelings have changed, she no longer wants to have no life during her four years of medical school. She could see herself building said life with Bryce, but obviously he doesn’t feel the same. If he wants to see other people, then she should see other people too.

She turns to face Ethan, giving him a flirtatious smile that had been reserved for only Bryce in recent months. “I could eat.”

Present:

The doorbell rings just as Casey is taking the chicken out of the oven. She leaves the chicken on the counter to cool, hurrying over to the door.

Ethan looks surprised for a moment when she opens the door, but his shocked expression quickly transforms to a pleased one as he takes in her new hair. She leans up to give him a quick peck as he steps into the apartment. “Do you like it?” She asks, giving a slow turn so he can see the full effect.

Ethan smiles. “It suits you.” He praises.

“Dinner is almost done.” Casey, or rather Cassandra, informs him. Ethan nods, sauntering over to the living room and plopping down onto the couch as if he owns the place. Which technically, he does. Ethan pays the rent on Casey’s high-rise luxury one-bedroom apartment overlooking the Boston Harbor.

Casey’s not sure how they got to this point.

At first, he just casually offered to pay for her medical textbooks as they had drinks at Donahue’s, having first met at the bar the week before. He was very knowledgeable and connected, so when he proposed getting together weekly to discuss her future medical goals, Casey was grateful for the mentorship opportunity. After a few months of these weekly meetings, he said he saw great promise in her and decided to cover her 2nd semester medical school tuition. She had insisted this was too much, but he waved off her concern, telling her that he had so much expendable income that he was considering not drawing a salary from Edenbrook.

It was around this time that he invited her to attend an exclusive medical conference hosted by Edenbrook. A surgeon from Stanford, who was an adviser to Bryce during his undergraduate years, was giving a talk, so Bryce was also in attendance. Despite how hurt she’d been by Bryce rejecting her proposal to be exclusive, she was still hooking up with him. She couldn’t help herself, she craved him. After the panel, Bryce had wrapped an arm around her, leading her out to the cafeteria for lunch.

Ethan had called her that evening and told her that he didn’t want her seeing anyone else. Casey was taken aback. She and Ethan weren’t together, and although she was aware of Ethan’s unprofessional feelings towards her with the way he looked at her sometimes, which honestly made her a little uncomfortable, she had thought they were building a mentorship, not a relationship. Up to that point, they hadn’t even kissed.  

But during that phone call, Ethan laid it all out. He offered to get her an apartment, take care of her, introduce her to the right people in the medical field, teach her everything he knows about internal medicine. And all she had to do was go to some events with him when he asked, and not see anyone else. He had stressed this last point.  

Casey grew up poor. She was only able to afford her undergraduate education with the help of need based financial aid. She’d watched her parents struggle to support her and her four older brothers. She couldn’t turn down such a generous offer, an offer that would allow her to not take on mountains of student debt, allowing her to send money back home to her parents who still lived paycheck to paycheck.

So she agreed, although she’d never thought she’d be the kind of woman to let a man take care of her. She promised herself that she wouldn’t let this go on for long. Just until she made those important connections, just until she saved a little bit of money. But a year had already gone by, and this little arrangement showed no sign of ending anytime soon.

Casey finishes setting the table, pulling the wine from the fridge and setting it on the table. “Honey, dinner is done!” She calls. Ethan likes this girlfriend act, so she plays along. Ethan sits at the table, waiting for her to serve him. She puts his plate in front of him, kissing his cheek before making her own plate and sitting across from him.

“How did your anatomy lab go?” Ethan asks, cutting into the chicken.

“I think it went pretty well. I learned a lot about Mrs. Rodriguez.” Casey responds.

“Don’t do that. It’s not Mrs. Rodriguez. It’s a cadaver.” Ethan interrupts harshly.

Casey resists her urge to roll her eyes. Ethan can be very condescending. He thinks he knows more than everyone, and constantly insists on proving it to everyone. Now that he’s her sugar daddy instead of her mentor, he’s very dismissive of her. He really doesn’t seem that interested in seeing her succeed as a doctor. She suspects he wants to keep her dependent on him, and that’s why he’s constantly putting her down and questioning her ability to be an effective doctor.

Ethan lets them sit in silence and eat for a few moments. “What are you doing Saturday? I’m supposed to wine and dine some pharmaceutical representatives. I think it would be slightly more tolerable with your presence.”

“I can’t. I’m going to Cape Cod.” Casey replies, picking at the last of her chicken.

“With who?” Ethan questions.

“Sienna and Jackie. It’s a girls’ trip.” Casey answers.

“You should really spend more time studying and less time gallivanting with your friends Cassandra.” Ethan criticizes, seemingly enjoying watching her wilt.

“There’s this thing called work life balance you know, maybe you should try it.” Casey quips, quieting when Ethan’s gaze darkens. Whatever response he had is interrupted by his pager.

He looks at it and sighs. “I have to go back to the hospital, my patient is seizing.” Ethan explains, standing from the table.

Casey walks him to the door. Ethan quickly kisses her goodbye. “When will I see you again?” He asks.

“I’ll be back early Monday morning.” Casey replies, waving goodbye. Casey sighs with relief when the door closes, a weight immediately lifted from her shoulders. She changes from the tight black dress Ethan likes and into a comfy pair of sweats and a t-shirt, making herself comfortable on the couch before flipping on the tv.

The next morning, Casey is awoken by her phone ringing. She glances at the TV, which is still on. Casey groans, stretching. She really needs to stop falling asleep on this couch. Even though Ethan assured her it was expensive, it’s not particularly comfortable.

She answers the call. “Hello?” She says groggily.

“Did I wake you up? I thought we agreed on 6 AM?” Bryce asks.

“Yeah, we did. Give me 15 minutes.” Casey mumbles, dragging herself to her feet to get ready quickly.

25 minutes later, she steps out of the building and approached Bryce’s car parked on the curb. He grins when he sees her, stepping out of the car to grab her bag. He takes in her new hair. “You’re always beautiful, but you know how much I love your natural curls.” Bryce comments, leaning forward to kiss her gently.

“Ethan likes it.” Casey responds, watching Bryce’s face darken at the mention of the other man in her life. She doesn’t know why she does this, brings up Ethan knowing it will darken Bryce’s mood.

Bryce doesn’t take the bait, determined for their Cape Cod trip to start on a good note. He says nothing, opening her door for her. He seems to have completely let her comment go when he gets back into the driver’s seat. “Cape Cod, here we come!” Bryce exclaims joyfully before starting the car.  

@octobereighth  @akrenich  @lovehugsandcandy @regina-and-happiness  @brightpinkpeppercorn  @choicesarehard  @lizeboredom   @desiree-0816  @hellooliviaolivia @dreaming-of-movies  @friedherringclodthing  @weaving-in-words  @fairydustandsarcasm  @goldenjellyfish12   @pessimystic-fangirl  @mimikoasahina  @srta-give-me-my-jax-rl   @god-save-the-keen  @caroldxnvxrs  @cora-nova @emceesynonymroll @lady-dianelewis @choicesgremlin @anxious-arliah @cordoniasmost @lahelable 

[skyplayer37]

Worm Liveblog: End.

   So thats how Worm ends.... where do I begin?

   I haven't done a serious liveblog for the second half because I just wanted to take it all in, but I guess I'm at the point now where the taking it in is over and I need to vomit out some words. The fact that I'm writing this one in a word processor instead of the Tumblr text editor means I'm already subconsciously knowing that this is going to be pretty long, so buckle up.

   In short? It was awesome. Everything in the story came together perfectly. At the beginning I just couldn't concieve an ending that would involve Cauldron, Scion, Endbringers, Passengers, and all the various capes in a way that was satisfying. But it was pulled off pretty damn well.

   Let's take a look at some of my predictions and use those as launch points for some discussion:

   - Arc 1: "Taylor remains adamant about being good even after enjoying the company of the villains. Her descent to evil will be a slow corruption, but the story will justify it by making the superheroes look bad."

   She did indeed descend into madness as Khepri, with a large focus on self-justification. Taylor always thinks she's doing the right thing, which is a staple of any good villain. Except she wasn't truly a villain and did save the day in the end. Except she accept her villainy and wanted to die in the end. Except the heroes decided to keep her alive. So the morals are all over the place. In the end, Taylor gets a happy ending. With  (kinda) both her parents, and a self that isn't defined by her powers.  Skitter and Weaver were personas shaped by her Passenger, and for all intents and purposes were actually killed in the end. But Taylor, the little girl from the beginning of the story, gets the happy ending.

   - Arc 3: "the Birdcage sounds like an interesting location. And no story ever says “No one has ever escaped that prison!” without the protag later escaping that prison (or the big bad to show how big and bad they are)."

   Nope. The  Birdcage was made rather pointless by Doormaker, despite the set-up that teleportation tricks wouldn't work. Even Kehpri, without much practice with Doorman's power, was able to break in and out easily. There wasn't the all out war in the Birdcage that I expected, but I expect a similar prison to be used in Ward, perhaps the same Birdcage but upgraded. At the very least it made Panacea much more tolerable and brought in Marquis, one of the coolest parahumans. But it also introduced Teacher, one of the more boring ones. Assuming Ward is a true direct sequel, I expect Teacher to go down in the first few arcs as the intro-villain before being surpassed by someone a thousand times more evil.

   - Arc 5: " It’s too obvious that Grue’s little sister will get powers".. " Regent’s gonna die real soon. He’s expendable."... "Taylor is going to get a good boost to her power soon"

   Correct on all accounts. Imp is one of the best characters left alive by the end. Regent had to go because Taylor just ends up with a better version of his power. It's left pretty vague when she had her second trigger event thought. I'd guess sometime during Leviathan? It was after that, when she took over her  territory, that her multi-tasking powers really ramped up.

- Arc 10: "Everything happening went right over my head until they arrived at the Wards after being “caught”, which is to say I didn’t realize we were being introduced to Regent’s actual power of body possession. A power eerily similar to what I guessed Taylor’s endgame powers would be, just a bit more limited and requiring conscious movement on Regent’s part for every motion and not how Taylor just taps into natural instincts."

   So let's talk about Khepri. Taylor finally thinks she has the power-limitation thing figured out, so she goes to Panacea who just... kinda gets it instantly? A bit odd that the ability for Taylor to go crazy like that was so easily reached and out of nowhere. But I guess Panacea had gotten to the point where she barely needed to second-guess messing with someone's head. So Taylor comes up with a crazy idea and 5 minutes later has powers worthy of instantly jumping to Class-S, taking control of every parahuman in existence with some quick synergy, combining Doormaker and his clairvoyent bf and ballooning in power like a good Binding of Isaac build. Thematically though, it works beautifully. She's become the Queen of her swarm, with all of humankind nothing but insects in comparison to a mighty godlike entity. Scion treated humans like we would ants, toying with them as one would burn ants with a magnifying glass. But as Taylor proved with her insects against humans, enough humans working together through a hivemind can overcome an entity thousands of times their scale. She killed the impenetrable Alexandria by commanding bugs, and now the immortal Scion by commanding humans. Wow you can really look back at the first few arcs where the teenage girl is learning about the heroes and say "yeah she fucking kills all of them eventually, weird huh?"

- Epilogue

   Where does the story go now? Assuming again, that Ward is a standard sequel. Which it heavily implied by Bitch's epilogue, with trigger events now going haywire without Scion and being a very cool way to get his POV on the last few moments of his life. Teacher is doing his thing but again, I assume that wouldn't last for long into a sequel besides getting a new hero protag set-up with someone easy to fight. Dragon and Defiant had a very touching epilogue, and I'm excited that at least they might be around for a whole other 2 million word story. Unsarcastically: these characters are good enough to warrant ~44 YA novels worth of story.  I'd hope that Taylor doesn't make much more than a cameo though, her story is over. But if this story grew to be so epic in scale, its hard to imagine a sequel that wouldn't involve Earth Aleph getting fucked up. Imp is set-up to get a pretty good protag role, I'd wager one of the Heartbreaker kids as the most likely to get the main POV. Someone with the birthright of a villain proving themselves to be a Hero, in contrast to Taylor being a hero trapped as a villain and succoming to the role. Although I've figured out myself that Dragon already fills the role as her foil, being coded and trapped into being a Hero against her will, with the pun of being a "Wyrm". Which might have made for a cool sequel name, albiet a very confusing one when talked about out-loud.

   Is a sequel to a nearly 2 million word story needed? I'd say.... yeah. There's still plenty left unanswered. The Endbringers for instance. It's implied that Eidolon made them, outside the knowledge of anyone else, but only really implied. They go silent after Scion goes down for some reason. How much did The Simurgh know of the future? She was responsible for setting up Panacea's stay in the Birdcage (fitting name here) and of the Yang-Ban Emperor being one that was critical for Taylor to have control over after Panacea fucked up her head. So did she know about Khepri? She was, after all, responsible for setting up Echidna, the only other Human-Turned-Endbringer. And what of Scion's partner? How did Cauldron kill something like that? Granted it was the more passive of the cherubic-twins. (Aranea's talk about Cherubs was before the Interlude about the Entity right? Let's check... Aranea's was in March 2013, 26.X Interlude was in August 2013.... pretty crazy to both have the idea of invincible serpents flying through the multiverse, reproducing by tearing their scales off, with one more aggressive and one more focused on passively studying humans, granted I’m taking some liberties but you get the idea) (Chuckles the Clown raised Scion calling it now).  But I guess the same odds as Vriska/Marceline being introduced the same summer with the defining traits of "grey skin, gay, and loves wearing red-colored boots".

   This would be the part where I talk about how emotionally wrecked I am from this journey being over. Of investing in these characters and seeing them grow up. From clueless children to powerful pseudo-gods with the power to kill unfathomable monstrosities. Of the good times and the bad, of the nostalgia of the simple bank heist scenes, of taking a moment to remember those that didn't make it. Regent, Emma, Clockblocker, Grue, Taylor's virginity. Damn, Clockblocker dieing actually hurt me the most. Maybe I should say a few words about how Worm has changed me as a person and become one of those major pillars supporting my future that I'll someday look back on with "that specifically effected the way I Create" as Homestuck once did.

   But no, I don't get to say that quite yet. Because even after 6 months. Of reading almost nightly since I started on the plane-ride home from spending a weekend across the country with my boyfriend, knowing it would be this long and still not see him again and deciding to start on this  journey to take my mind off being in such an emotional ride home. Thousand of feet in the air and reading about some girl trapped in a bathroom stall having juice poured on her head... Half a year dedicated to Worm, around 5 times longer than it took me to read Homestuck. Nearly 2 million words, an estimated 22 regular novels in length, longer than the entire Percy Jackson series I was obsessed with as a teenager (probably not anymore, theres way too many of those) and now, having read that much, what can I say now?

   There's still more I haven't read.

   Guess this liveblog is gonna keep going into Ward