#3 Point Shade Sails

[shadeworx]

Right Angle Triangle Shade Sails: A Stylish and Functional Addition to Your Outdoor Space

Discover the stylish and functional benefits of right-angle triangle shade sails. Create a comfortable outdoor space with effective sun protection.

[simphornies]

So my sad gay self found this while scrollin: https://youtube.com/shorts/KTjKsm2uLPA?si=aHCxEMjey1iZ_u0A

Very cute, very wholesome I AM YEARNING. So if I may request a mlm!reader who will just casually people soda tabs as a subtle means of flirting or asking for affection (mostly because its such a uncommon practice that it removes most of the actual stress of flirting) with Vox?

No pressure, please take you time! Kisses darling <3

-📽

A/N: Honestly the soda tab thing is SO CUTE. I'm experimenting with more with how I write Vox so hopefully this is good

Word Count: 1.7k (1,755)

Soda Tab [ Vox x M!Reader ]

“Vox what the fuck is that?” Velvette pointed at a jar full of soda tabs on his desks.

“I’m gonna be real honest with you.” He took a deep breath in, “I have no fucking idea.”

You were just a regular sinner in the Pride Ring. You grew tired of the one time dates that ended with your date wanting to take you home into their bedroom. You held yourself to a standard. It made sense why you were placed in this ring considering your pride never allowed you the speak freely, not wanting to damage whatever was left of your reputation after a failed relationship.

You eventually landed a job with VoxTek as an operation’s manager. The job wasn’t easy but it paid and gave you shelter. Your soul remained intact but your sanity was slipping.

Then it all changed when the fire nation attacked when Vox personally invited you into his office to discuss a promotion. He needed someone that could hold their composure better than the Vees during important meetings and speak on their behalf. You were basically Vox’s representative so they wouldn’t have to deal with whatever, or whoever, you had to deal with. You held your status with pride and Vox admired the way you didn’t take anybody’s shit professionally.

After years of working with the Vees, you became close with them. Conversations with the three weren’t easy but they were mandatory for you to be able to represent them properly. You and Vox were particularly close.

So when he invited you to a celebratory dinner, you donned yourself in the best suit money could buy and set off. You never admitted it but Valentino definitely caught onto your secret crush on Vox.

Vox rarely faltered his usual persona in front of you, only losing composure a couple of times when his emotions were at an all time high. What you didn’t know is how he admired your consistency with perfection. Perfection. Running this business with Velvette and Valentino, who are both hot-heads in their own way, was difficult at times but since you stepped in, it’s been smooth sailing. Your constant shower of praise fueled his ego and he enjoyed keeping you around, just so he can get his fill of ego juice.

This dinner he arranged was to celebrate your work, and to boast about how he’s so smart and picked perfectly because of course he picked perfectly. He was the Vox after all. So when he saw you running up to him a couple minutes early before the arranged meeting time at the limo, he was taken aback at your suit. He was enamored.

You matched him in colors, even wearing the same bowtie as him but blue. Your suit was a darker shade of his and he loved it. It was perfect. You were perfect to him. He didn’t know why his heart pounded louder so he assumed that he was just excited to talk about how he made an amazing decision to you.

“Vox, sir! I hope you weren’t awaiting my arrival.” You said, anxiously fixing your suit and straightening out any loose ends.

“Oh don’t worry about anything. I just got here. The suit is perfect. Where did you get it?” Vox spoke, looking down at you with his hands behind his back.

“I listened to your suggestion, sir, and went to Velvette to get suited. I paid her in full, of course.” You spoke formally. So formal that it somehow bothered Vox in a way. As much as he loved being perfect, he wanted to see you when you weren’t so…tense.

“Paid? You shouldn’t have to worry. You are a part of the Vees, services are free for us.” He laughed. He took note of how you looked in front of him. You stood up straight, not a single thing out of place. He wondered what exactly could break this perfectionist standard you held yourself to.

.

“He likes you, Vox.” Valentino said, “I’m fuckin’ blind and I can see the way he eye fucks you whenever you start talking about how you’re the shit and you know what’s right or whatever.”

“And how can you be so sure, Val? I think he just respects me.” Vox scoffed, “Not any of that nonsense.”

“Yeah and because any other demon would willingly hang out with your egocentric bullshit. I’ve known you for years and I can’t stand hearing you say you were right. Even if you were.” Velvette rolled her eyes, “He literally posts romantic bullshit all the time and they’re all about bosses.”

“Are you stalking our employees?”

“Cut the shit. It’s not ‘stalking’ if his account is open to me.” She flipped him off, “And he’s basically a Vee. He likes you. And now you’re going on a date. Be a dear and stop beating around the fucking bush and own up to it.”

.

Vox recounted the conversation he had with the two other Vees. This wasn’t a date. Or at least he didn’t arrange it to be one to begin with but with this revelation, it might just turn out to be just that.

As the limo began to slow, he glanced over at you. He sees you fiddling with…a soda tab? He squinted at it, trying to understand why you kept fidgeting. “We’re here.”

You quickly shoved the tab in your pocket and looked at him, “I’ll get the door for you sir.” You reached for the door on your side but he stopped your hand with his own.

“No, I got it. Come on.” He opened his own door and pulled you out, keeping your hand in his as you stepped on the curb. Your hands were warm and he enjoyed it. He looked at the way you instinctively held his hand back and he couldn’t help but feel how perfect it fit in his own.

“Thank you, sir.” Your thanks got a scoff and you stiffened, pulling your hand back down to your side. “I’m sorry.”

“No. Not that.” He said, grabbing your hand again, “For tonight, call me Vox. No more of that sir bullshit.”

You nod in response, unaware of why he’d grab your hand to say that. You were even more confused when he didn’t let go until you had to sit across from him.

“Regarding today’s meetings, I’d like to discu—”

“Hush. Please. No business talk. This is to celebrate you!” He proudly spoke, “I picked the best demon to be our representative and I’d like to give you another promotion. To be one of the Vees.”

You choked on your wine, “Excuse me? Me? No, I can't possibly be a fit person for that.”

“Look. You’re aware of our image, correct?”

“Yes. Perfection.”

“Well that’s exactly why you’re going to stand by us and be part of us. I have contracts ready for you to sign so you can get a couple of souls under your belt. Some goons to do your dirty work.”

“Sir—Vox. Vox, I thought this was a business dinner regarding my work quota for the week?” You questioned.

“What—No. You already exceed the quota triple the amount majority of the time. Consider this a…date.” He grinned, taking enjoyment in your flustered state. “A congratulatory gift for your hard work and your promotion. I called it too, by the way, your success with us.”

You were dying on the inside. He just gifted you a promotion and a dinner and now the dinner’s actually a date? You panicked, not having anything to give him.

“Well…I’m flattered but I don’t have anything to give you a gift in exchange.” You rummage through your pockets. Your fingers grazed the soda tab and your cheeks flushed a light red. “Actually…Here. A small token of my appreciation.”

Vox squinted at the soda tab you held towards him. “A soda tab?” He asked, “Do you just carry soda tabs? Why?”

“Just…trinkets! You know, my little collection. Actually you’re right, I’m sorry. It’s probably stupid.” You start to retract but he swipes the soda tab out of your hand.

“No. I’ll keep it. It’s weird and a little stupid but it’s…” He flips the soda tab around, looking at it from different angles, “Admirable. In a sense. Thank you.”

Oh if only he knew what he unlocked. Ever since the date, he’s been getting soda tabs from you. You were greeted with confused acceptance every time you gave Vox one out of nowhere. He tried asking you what they’re for exactly but you’d just run off, using work as an excuse.

“Vox, when are you going to cash these in?” Velvette asks, picking a pink soda tab out of his container.

He looked up, confused, “Cash them in? What are you talking about?”

Velvette bursts into laughter, “Oh my god. You’ve just been collecting these and didn’t know?!” She taps through her phone and shows him a video explaining the soda tab trend.

His face turned red, “These…these are for kisses? He didn’t tell me these were for kisses—I thought they were just trinkets! That’s what he said!”

“Vox for someone as smart as you, you’re really fucking dumb.”

“Velvette.”

“What?”

“Can you go get him for me?”

“I guess.”

.

You walked into his office thinking it was to talk about the latest update on his Angelic Security System. “Vox, I’m pleased to inform you that production is 80% complete. I was thinking the best workers get compe—” He cuts you off by placing a single soda tab on the stack of papers you had in front of you. You look at him confused.

“I’d like to cash one in.” He says, looking at you with a confident smile.

“Cash one in…” You think for a bit and as soon as you realize he knew what they were for, panic sets in and your face turns red. “Oh! Uh—Haha. What do you mean?” You lie.

“Y/N, dear, you’re terrible at lying. You’re perfect at everything but lying. And if you wanted some special attention, you should’ve said so.” He leans closer to you as he gestures to the jar on his table, “Also. I’d like to cash in half of this jar. 280 of them, including this one, I believe.”

“Sir! I can’t possibly—” He shuts up you with a sudden peck on your lips.

“Ah ah. None of that sir bullshit. I told you to call me Vox. Now…” He leans back and pats his lap, “I believe I have 279 left? Chop chop.”

[collinrobinsonsglasses]

Hello there!!

Really adore your "Too Soft to be a Pirate" work!! It's beyond incredible! I can't thank you for such a lovely piece!

Saw your requests are open, so here's my silly little thought:

Izzy Hands x Reader. Mutual pining. Fluff.

Besides being a certified badass, Reader is also a skilled artist. Stede, ever the enjoyer of art, buys the necessary supplies. Here come the portraits, landscapes and so on.

During some moment of quiet on the ship, Izzy is looking for the Reader and finds them in one of the somewhat secluded rooms of the Revenge, making a portrait of Mr. Hands himself.

They talk their pining through as a crew. Maybe even kiss about it lol.

Thank you for you works once again <3

Thank you for all the kind words @imchloefuckingprice-blog <3 I wrote the first part of this in Lucius's point of view, because he's the best when two people don't know how to express their feelings. I hope this was what you were looking for.

Izzy Hands x Reader (GN)

Masterlist

A Brush of Fate

Lucius prided himself on his keen observational skills. After all, he had recognized Stede and Ed’s feelings for each other long before they did. Now, his perceptive gaze focused on the unmistakable connection between you and Izzy. One night, while Lucius sketched and you painted, you opened up to him about your feelings for Izzy. Despite Lucius reassurances, you remained unsure about Izzy reciprocating your emotions. You insisted to Lucius that Izzy was still caught up in his feelings for Blackbeard. However, Lucius saw Izzy’s lingering gaze directed toward you from across the deck, noting his subtle attentiveness as he went out of his way to help you with tasks around the ship.

The more Lucius thought about the relationship between you and Izzy, the more it seemed to fall into place. Your undeniable skill with a sword and adept sailing skills meant you never pissed Izzy off like the other members of Bonnet’s crew. You were a certified badass and your artistic talents formed a quick bond between you and Lucius. You were Lucius’s favorite person on board, second only to Black Pete. Lucius believed Izzy would have to be an idiot not to have feelings for you. However, in Lucius’s opinion, Izzy frequently displayed behaviors that bordered on idiocy. 

“What are you working on today, babes?” Lucius inquired with a smirk as he entered the former ballroom, closing the door behind him. Lucius already knew the answer, observing a subtle shade of red flash across your face. 

In response, you turned the easel to face him and the doorway. Lucius gazed upon the beautiful portrait of Izzy hands before him, experiencing a pang of pity for its painter. 

As a thought crossed Lucius’s mind, he burst into laughter. “I can’t imagine what Stede would say if he knew you were using the paint supplies he bought you to create that. I feel like he would have a conniption.” 

After laying eyes on one of your small paintings, Stede had purchased supplies for you, hoping you would help replace the artworks lost on The Revenge during the era of the kraken. He confided in both you and Lucius, expressing his desire to make the ship feel like home once again. He wanted things to get back to normal and to help Edward feel comfortable. 

“I made those for Stede,” you remarked, and Lucius followed your finger to two paintings leaning against the ship wall to dry. One depicted The Revenge, and Lucius couldn’t help but marvel at the delicate details of the ship, rolling his eyes at your undeniable talent. The other showcased Ed, dressing in his exquisite purple attire from the night of the fancy party. You even included the tiny purple bows adorning his beard. 

“He’ll actually love those,” Lucius huffed, surprised to find no sarcastic comment to direct at the paintings. Playfully, he rested his chin on your shoulder from behind as you both admired the portrait of Izzy. “Now, who will this portrait go to?” Lucius teased. 

“No one. I’ll probably paint over it once I’m done.” 

“Why are you painting it then?” Lucius asked, disappointment evident in his tone. The portrait was beautiful, and he hoped you would give it to Izzy, finally admitting your true feelings. 

“I thought that if I painted Izzy, his face would get out of my head,” you replied quietly, and Lucius couldn’t help but hear the vulnerability in your voice. 

Lucius empathized with that line of thinking, but in a slightly different way. He recalled how he had sketched Blackbeard’s face for weeks, only to be snapped out of it by Black Pete. “I get that,” Lucius replied, pursing his lips and scrunching his face, before lifting his sketchbook to reveal one of the many drawings of Blackbeard. 

He observed the relief that washed over your face at being understood, forming a smile at the drawings. “Flower Blackbeard was my favorite,” you chuckled.

“Maybe…” Lucius lingered, playfully bumping his hip into yours. “You should give Izzy the painting, and that’ll get him out of your head” he suggested with a mischievous glint in his eye. 

You responded with a sarcastic laugh, accompanied by a roll of your eyes. Lucius dropped his playful expression, reciprocating with a roll of his eyes. Deep down, he just wanted you to be happy. Over the past few weeks, Izzy had grown on him, and while he may not have thought Izzy deserved you, it was clear that he was always occupying your thoughts. 

“I’ll leave you to moping and painting then,” Lucius said, patting your shoulder before heading out of the ballroom with a clear objective in mind. 

He found Izzy in the hallway leading to the captain’s quarters, gazing at one of your new paintings Stede had just hung up. This sight caused Lucius to smirk; he knew he was right about how Izzy felt about you. Determined to push you two together, he decided he would do everything he could to make it happen. Lucius was tired of seeing you unhappy when all that seemed necessary was to talk it through. 

“Pretty good, right?” Lucius slid into the spot next to Izzy, crossing his arms and directing his gaze at the painting. The painting depicted a simple sunset over the water, yet it radiated a quiet beauty. 

Izzy only replied with a grunt, clearly annoyed that Lucius had caught him staring at your painting. 

“I didn’t know you were such a lover of art, Iggy,” Lucius continued, attempting to poke at him further. “You and Stede must have so much to discuss.” 

“What the fuck do you want, twatty?” Izzy snapped in response. 

“There’s a leak in the ballroom,” Despite his usual quick-witted nature, he knew this lie lacked conviction. 

“Why the fuck is that my problem?” Izzy grumbled. 

“Blackbeard told me to tell you, so you could fix it.” Lucius’s arms involuntarily squeezed more tightly across his chest as he lied, but he tried to relax once he noticed. 

“Well… you told me, so fuck off.” 

“Oh, absolutely,” Lucius quickly retreated from the conversation, hoping his lie was convincing enough to get Izzy to go where he needed him. Lucius perched himself on one of the mast tops, carefully watching the direction Izzy departed. When he noticed Izzy heading toward the ballroom, Lucius bit his lip with anticipation. 

⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓

Izzy slowly wandered down the hallway, heading towards the ballroom, frustrated at being the one who always had to fix the ship’s problems. He was even more annoyed by Lucius teasing him about you. He couldn’t help but stare at your painting. It was beautiful, just like you. If it was so obvious to Lucius how Izzy felt about you, then you must be aware of it too. Perhaps it was some inside joke between the two of you. Izzy had held feelings for you for quite some time now, witnessing how you found beauty in the small details that most people would overlook. Your ability to turn the mundane into lovely paintings had captivated him, and with each stroke of your brush, his admiration for you grew. 

Feeling discouraged, Izzy had almost decided to give up on his feelings for you when he opened the door to the ballroom and found you immersed in painting. He was taken aback for a moment, not realizing that this was where you created your art, and then confused about why Lucius had sent him here. There were no visible leaks in sight. That’s when he saw a portrait of himself staring back at him. His jaw dropped as he tried to understand the meaning behind the painting. 

“Fuck off, Lucius,” he heard you say as you continued to paint, not turning towards the sound of the door opening. Izzy contemplated whether he should leave, feeling like he had interrupted a private moment. However, in his moment of indecision, you turned around to face him. Izzy observed your eyes widen in surprise, followed by your cheeks blushing a deep shade of scarlet. “You’re not Lucius,” you whispered quietly, regaining your composure. 

Izzy tried to rack his brain, attempting to find a reason why you would be painting him, but he couldn’t come up with a single explanation. A moment of silence stretched between you both as you stared at each other, waiting for the other to speak. Izzy glanced over at the two other paintings in the room. “Are these for Bonnet?” he questioned, gesturing towards all the paintings. 

“Those two are. This one is just something I’m doing for fun,” you replied, and Izzy sensed the nervousness in your demeanor as you spoke. 

“Why?” Izzy inquired. 

“I feel like you have a face that’s worth being painted,” you whispered. 

Izzy didn’t know how to respond to your words; they seemed sincere, but this whole scenario didn’t make sense to him. Why did Lucius send him here? Taking a moment to examine you, he noticed you were in an old, oversized shirt covered in paint. As he gazed at your face, he observed a bit of paint smeared across your nose. He wasn’t sure what information he was trying to glean, but he also enjoyed just looking at you. 

Realizing he had been staring at you for too long without a response, Izzy quickly found his words. “Lucius told me there was a leak in this room.” 

Izzy watched your face contort from one of nervousness to annoyance. 

“Of course he did,” you snapped. Izzy observed as you dropped the paintbrush onto a nearby stoll where your paint sat, glancing towards the door as if you were going to find Lucius yourself to teach him a lesson. “There’s no leak, Izzy.” 

Finally, the pieces snapped together in Izzy’s mind. Lucius’s teasing remark and him sending Izzy to find you painting a picture of him–it was all part of a big joke, and he realized he was the butt of it. Izzy felt anger rising within him. He never expected you to treat him like this, and the revelation left him feeling both hurt and surprised. 

“Oh, I see. You and Mr. Spriggs are joking around and wasting my time,” Izzy spat as he began to turn towards the door to leave. 

“Wait, Iz.” Izzy felt your light grip on his arm, pausing at your touch. “Lucius knows how I feel about you, so I think this was his way of forcing me to tell you. I’m not trying to waste your time or play a joke on you.” 

“How do you feel about me?” Izzy whispered quickly. He felt his demeanor instantly soften and turned back towards you. 

“I like you, Israel Hands,” you said steadily, your big eyes gazing into his, seeming to search for any sort of reaction. 

When he gave none, you grabbed Izzy’s hand, leading him towards the painting, gesturing to your work as you spoke. “On the outside, ruggedly handsome, worn by the sea, tough but your eyes… There’s a gentleness you can see in your eyes. The way they soften when you talk about something you love, the subtle warmth they hold when you smile. I like you because I see a complexity in you, Izzy– a blend of strength and tenderness that intrigues me.” 

Izzy turned towards you, prompting you to face him. His fingers reached up to gently trace the paint on your nose. You closed your eyes at his touch, opening them to meet his gaze once his hand fell from your face. “Paint?” you asked in a soft whisper. 

“I like how you look… even with paint on your face. Especially with paint on your face.” Izzy confessed, his tone tender. “I like you.” 

Izzy gazed down, captivated, as a sweet smile stretched across your face. His eyes lingered on your lips, attempting to memorize their shape and color. A silent anticipation filled the space between you, Izzy pondering the sensation of your lips against his, the curiosity and desire swirling within him. You closed the gap between you, your lips meeting his in a tender kiss. The connection was soft and sweet. Time seemed to stand still as your lips gently explored the contours of Izzy’s. 

“I fucking knew it,” Lucius’s voice rang out from the hallway in delight. 

Izzy immediately let go of you, worried about your reaction to Lucius seeing you with him. You only replied with a giggle, shutting the door quickly. “Fuck off, Lucius,” you sang playfully. 

As your arms warped around Izzy, pulling him in for another kiss, he heard Lucius’s annoyed voice through the door. “I feel like I deserve a thank you, at least.” 

For the first time, Izzy was thankful to Mr. Spriggs for sticking his nose into everyone’s business. Thanks to him, he was getting to hold you in his arms, instead of just having to admire you from afar. You had told Izzy he had a face worth painting, but in Izzy’s mind, you yourself were a work of art.

[dont-offend-the-bees]

Charles/ the cat king and your 22nd song please

Song 22: Six Days in June by The Fratellis Look. This is FIRST wrapped song fic request I got, anon. And it was such a GOOD song, and I wrote the first section, and the first section was so good I got scared the rest of the fic wouldn't live up to it. I know this is a short and weird rarepair hatesex to non-hate sex unrequited love song-inspired one shot but it's also lowkey my magnum opus. So THANK YOU. Don't worry too much about the background, this is set very loosely in canon-verse, in some prospective alternate reality season 2/3 where Edwin is having his hot boy summer and discovering himself and Charles is trying to figure out his own feelings in probably a not super well thought out way. CW for mild but non-explicit sexual content/themes. 2.5k, unrequited love, background endgame Payneland, angst. Enjoy 💛 Also on Ao3

“You think you're all that, yeah?”

“Oh, sweetheart, I know I am. You want my references? Or did you want me to prove it some other way?”

You're playing a dangerous game, batting at that loaded pistol in his ribs. You don't know him well (yet, yet), but you know a man who loves with his whole chest when you see one. It's in the knuckles; bloody from holding on.

His jaw tics. “Go on, then.” He squares up. “Show us what you've got.”

Your smile cuts. “Alright.” You brace for impact. “Let’s dance.”

The first time, is… well. Let's just say it isn't your finest work. Finesse is not what this guy's coming to you for, after all. He's here to prove a point. Prove to you — or himself — that you're full of shit. That you're all talk. That you don't deserve to touch his little BFF with a ten foot pole (or a ten inch di— y’know what? No. Too easy).

And it may not be your best, but by god, you do not give him the satisfaction of being right on that count.

Weeeellllll, he's inexperienced. You can blow his mind with, what? Forty percent effort? Sixty, tops.

He's just the cutest shade of pink when he leaves, shrugging angrily back into his little retro jacket, all ruffled and indignant.

“Satisfied with my credentials, yet, officer?” you drawl.

His ear tips are dark, his collar jerked up around his blushing throat as he stalks away. “Shut up.”

Your laughter follows him out of the cannery, echoing off the high warehouse walls. “Call me!”

It's a joke, obviously. This was a fun little tumble, a chance to knock Mr. Righteous Protector down a peg and have some pretty passable sex in the process. Nothing more or less than that.

Except obviously the joke sailed right over his head, because he turns up like a bad penny a few days later with some more poor judgment to spend on you.

Fortunately for him, you’re not short on that, either.

“So has my score improved, or…?”

He huffs, hunting around for his left loafer where it skittered under the bed. “Piss off, cat. Was just… checking.”

“Checking, riiiiight. Y’know, if you need a second opinion, you could always invite Ed—”

The right loafer flies through the air and kicks you in the face.

“See you next time, then.”

“Not gonna be a next time.”

“Mm-hmm…”

“...Zip it, Whiskers.”

“Charming as ever. Won’t you come on in.”

Since three times is a pattern, that’s about when you stop doubting he’ll show up again, and again, and again. And that you’ll let him in every damn time; or at least when you’ve got nothing better to do.

Terrible idea, honestly. You give it a week.

You never see him for more than an hour or so.

You never see him in any mood besides pissed the fuck off.

And above all, you never see what the hell it is Edwin sees. The boy with the easy smile, the loyal knight in shining loafers. The best friend, the right hand man, the big, soppy puppy heart that a nice boy like Edwin couldn't help but fall for. No, no you don't get that.

You just get what's left over. The claws he never hones because he’d sooner sink them into his own stomach than leave his mark on anyone else. The parts he's too ashamed to show to anyone he gives a damn about; a category you most assuredly do not fall into. But hey, that's fine. A person like you can't be too careful about who you start fucking.

You can't go around screwing anyone who's nice to you — god only knows what ideas you'll come away with!

(That's not to say he isn't nice, of course.)

(Unfortunately he is, despite his best efforts. God, it can never be just a hatefuck with some people — it has to be worried eyes, trembling hands, little gruff check-ins on your wellbeing when you're trying to get fucking railed.)

(You try and focus on it for the boner-killer it is; and not for the sweet, unconscious thoughtfulness of a guy who holds the heart of the man you love precisely because he couldn’t handle it roughly if he tried. No, no, you shove that thought as far away as you can push it.)

(Dangerous thought to entertain, for a guy like you; a guy with his heart on a hair trigger.)

He shows up when he likes; or when he needs. When his skin is too tight and he needs an outlet for that electricity in his ectoplasm. He kisses you like it’s a contest; and you're nothing if not competitive.

He’s not running the show, though. Nuh-uh. You only kiss him back when you like. Or when you need.

The fact you haven’t turned him down once yet is purely coincidental.

He's got you on your back — and you've got him on your hips. Pretty standard. You’ve done this dance enough to have a few favourite positions locked in; and this one gives you a hell of a view.

He’s looking pretty comfy up there — eyes closed, head thrown back, riding it out — and you like to keep him on his toes, so you give him a little shake, bucking like a bronco, laughing at his surprised face when he falls forward, when he catches himself on your chest and stares down at you with wide eyes and that little annoyed scrunch forming in his brow.

Then the line smooths, he squints, laughs — smiles. At point blank fucking range.

You take the hit. Right between the eyes.

You never stood a chance.

You’ll look back on that as the day he snuck his hand through your ribs and clicked the safety off.

He shows up when he likes. When he needs. Sometimes, increasingly, when he’s bored.

“How can you be bored again?” you grouse, fingers attacking his belt. “Don’t you have like a cute mystery-solving husband to bother?”

He scowls. He’s been doing that less and less lately — you’d forgotten how out of place it looks on his lips. “He’s not my… Edwin’s out,” he says, flatly.

“Out where?”

Oof, now that’s a chilly little silence. And a very, very loud one.

“Let me guess,” you drawl, dragging his zipper down tooth by tooth. “You’re not the only one gettin’ some tonight.”

He grabs your face and kisses you, hard.

More reliable than telling you to shut your big mouth.

“See you next time.”

It’s an old familiar exchange, an automatic call-and-response. You wait, palm metaphorically outstretched for the return, the denial, the brush-off.

He slips through the mirror without giving it to you.

You laugh. “Brat.”

Always leave ‘em wanting more.

He kisses words out of your mouth. He crashes into you like a wrecking ball. He throws it all down like a gauntlet, the fucking, the being fucked. He grasps and grinds, scratches and squeezes, lets those little claws out of their casings.

And those big brown eyes find your face every goddamn time. Like he’s watching you, like he sees you; like somewhere along this stupid, fucked-up little journey, he started caring. Caring what you like, caring what makes you snarl and scream, caring about how deep he can sink his claws before the blood wells.

(No, it can never be just a hatefuck with some people.)

(God fucking dammit.)

You’ve got him on his back, this time; and he’s got you on his fucking nerves, right where you like to be.

“Look, leave off, yeah?” he snaps.

“You sure?” You roll your body, feeling the electric tickle of those ghostly hands where they press into the dip of your spine, pinning you close. “Kinda getting mixed signals.”

“Y’know what I mean,” he grumbles, jaw twitching, avoiding your eyes.

You sigh, and fold your arms on his chest. Relaxed, non-confrontational. Idle hands, idle motions. Like you’re just sunning yourself and not, y’know, in flagrante delicto, as Edwin might charmingly put it.

Ah, there he is, again.

Damn ghosts. Always lurking in the corner.

“Look, I am not here to be your therapist,” you drawl, waving your spoon in a lackadaisical manner. “I’m just saying, from experience, little friendly advice: dick isn’t gonna solve all your problems. Not even my dick.”

He sits there, shirtless, cross-armed and endearingly grumpy (god, when did he start hanging around, instead of dipping before the sweat can cool?), his nose wrinkled up at your can of tuna. You roll your eyes.

“You can’t even smell,” you snidely remind him.

“Still mingin’. Wouldn’t kick you out of bed for eatin’ crisps, but this…” He shakes his head — and catches up to what you were saying. “And I don’t need your friendly advice.”

There was a very brusque, British-y compliment in there, somewhere, and you pause to pick it up and admire it. You’re a bit of a collector.

“Coulda fooled me.” You suck the spoon into your mouth, with relish, enjoying the way he grimaces and squirms as you withdraw it with a slow, exuberant pop. “Mm. Now, that’s the good stuff.”

“Does this have a point, or what?”

“The point, you little pest, is that I know what I want, and I go for it.” The compass of your spoon wavers, rocks. “And what I want is, oh, nothing extravagant. Good food. Good sleep. Good sex. Maybe someone around to help handle that last one, someone, oh, I don’t know… someone tall. Handsome. Cute smile, cute accent. Pulse optional.”

You let the ever-present spectre of Edwin Payne fill in the shape you paint; while the spoon settles on the true north right between Charles shitting-goddamn-fucking Rowland’s eyes.

He scoffs; mulishly, adorably oblivious. “You decided you loved him in, what, a week?”

You snatch the spoon back upright, and flick it like a tennis racquet. “And how long’d it take you?”

He shuts his mouth after that.

Maybe, one of these goddamn centuries, you’ll learn how to shut yours.

It ebbs and flows, the shape of your arrangement.

In the wake of that conversation it gets a little spiky for a while, just like the good old days; baring teeth and raising welts.

Then you get back to yourselves, a bit — the new versions that actually, against all the odds, have fun together. The Charles that laughs with you, who scrunches his entire face into uncontrollable giggles when you tickle his skinny little waist with your claws. The Charles who asks if you’re alright when he’s bending you in half, and sticks around for lazy kisses and a little light bickering in the afterglow; who turns up staring at his feet when he’s about to ask you for something he doesn’t think he ought to want. The version that’s so easy to love, it’s all too easy to see why Edwin does.

And then it gets… quiet.

Too quiet.

“C’mon,” he says, with a little hiccup — guy can not hold his enchanted liquor. “Let’s — let’s play something. That’s what you’re s’posed to do, yeah?”

You laugh, swiping the bottle. It’s pricy stuff. Wasted on this kid, really. “Uh, yeah, if you’re twelve.”

“C’mon — missed out on uni, didn’t I? Mm, let’s play… what’s the one… the two truths one. Two truths and a lie, yeah?”

“Jesus Christ.”

“You first. Go on, pusscat!”

You hum, hoarding his silly little pet name for your collection as you make a show of inspecting the bottle. “Alright… two truths. I took a vacation in the eighties and spent it as one of Freddie Mercury’s cats,” you count off on your fingers, that’s one. “Esther Finch owes me two hundred and seventy dollars, eighty-six cents, and my virginity,” that’s two. “Annnnnd…”

Your third finger hesitates, half-extended; your thumb teasing the loosening corner of the wine label. You affect the sarcastic tone like a warding spell.

“And this is the most rare, most expensive wine I got; I brought it out to keep you here longer because I’ve been missing you sooooo much.”

He snorts, and buys what you’re selling. “Yeah, right. Mate, you know you’re not s’posed to make it obvious which one the lie is, yeah?”

You’re probably not supposed to play when you’re a being who can’t fucking lie, either.

But hey, there’s always a workaround.

He shows up less. He fucks you less. You masterfully pretend you don’t give a shit either way.

He shows up once or twice a month and loiters, and chatters. He makes jokes and menaces your cats with penlights and tries to be so annoying that you won’t notice the cogs turning in that pretty little head. Maybe, if there’s enough frustration in the air, one of you’s lucky enough to get their dick sucked.

He hangs around, and you bite your tongue against the urge to tell him to pull. The fucking. Trigger.

(You could pull the trigger. You know you could. In fact, you probably should; call time on this grubby little charade and put both of you out of your misery.)

(But you’re a selfish old creature. Greedy, grasping. And you always want what you can’t have.)

(And you can’t have him. You never could.)

“See you next time.”

He pauses. Glances back.

“Yeah,” he mumbles. “Next time.”

He leaves.

You pour yourself a stiff drink.

“Well,” you say to the empty room. “It was fun while it lasted.”

Thanks, mate. For everything. Think I’ve figured it out.

Take care of yourself, yeah?

-C

Of course you send a couple spies. Just to check it out.

What? You never claimed not to be a nosy bitch.

They return with drooping whiskers, pitying voices that raise your hackles. They return with news of your ‘boys’ smiling, laughing. Holding hands.

They don’t describe the kiss in detail. Why would they? You wonder who initiated. Wonder if Edwin leaned in, all neat and prim and knowing like that time he kissed your cheek. Wonder if Charles did that thing he does sometimes where he bends and sways in like a too-tall tree in a breeze.

You shouldn’t ask.

You ask anyway.

Curiosity killed the fucking cat.

You punch a wall that night. You get mad at yourself.

You realise it’s something he would do. You get even madder.

You fall asleep with blood on your open knuckles and it doesn’t do jack shit to distract from the smoking crater in your chest. You didn’t think it would.

If there’s one bright side to all this — and honestly, you’ll take what you can get — it’s that you did, technically beat out your initial expectations.

You lasted longer than a week.

If you take it all together, anyway, all the time in-between, snatch every last hour, stack ‘em up. If you count the ‘off-season’. If you let the days you spent apart exist as days where he implicitly wanted you enough to string you along, to keep you as an option.

Count those days, and you made it half a year. A Christmas fucking miracle.

If you take out the empty days, well. Then you lasted barely six of them.

[circlejourney]

How I plan my writing, and then write it: Part 1 of 2

So, ignore the image for now (but not really). I thought it would be funny to start with this visualisation. This chart is specifically about 2 of my stories: Revolving Door and Of the Dragon of the Stars. Both of these novels are in the scale of 300k words or more, so naturally, the ideation and writing process are a bit of a Mess. But before actually going into detail about this "clusterfuck" genre of novel, let me talk at length about my process for shorter novels first.

A few things make Eagles and Swans (the one about an orphaned rebel and the unrest in her country as a banished goddess awakens) and Offshore (the one about two sailors making their last attempt at the most coveted offshore racing trophy in the world) much tamer than the earlier two. First, they follow the points-of-view of just 1-2 characters. Second, they each take place within the confines of a single country / polity, for the most part. Third, the plot events are conveyed in chronological order.

Each important POV character effectively adds an additional story that's being written in parallel. Juggling multiple characters arcs, ordering nonlinear timelines in a way that conveys info in an effective order, AND developing an expansive world, all balloon the story scope. So, thank goodness for stories that require none of the above.

Overall process

I write in three passes, as signified by the three shades of grey in the chart above:

a brief bullet-point outline of the whole story + character summaries

a detailed outline that fleshes out the first outline into a series of chapter hooks / summaries.

the actual novel, first draft.

editing - improving flow and coherence, fixing "telling not showing" etc.

Each stage takes what was in the previous stage and fleshes it out with more detail and more attention to the eventual audience.

Barebones outline

The first pass, for me, is a "thin" outline of major events and major characters' emotional states. It isn't subdivided into sections yet—what I'm really aiming to do is lay out the shape of the story and the rough order of events. A little sample:

Anqien and Jinai prepare for the race in a month's time, the Niro Helfi Race. We are introduced to it through a conversation between the two and/or maybe training or an event for invitees? This race is the biggest in the business! It's a 2000km route in 3 legs Establish that the two MCs are very (almost scarily) skilled, world-class sailors, and simply seem to be underperforming due to unaddressed issues. Internal conflicts established. General structure: ABAB with sailing/non-sailing content

For E&S I actually did this in calendar format, so that I could track the progress of the plot against their school calendar (as well as ensuring that enough time passed between plot events to make it feel like things were developing in the background).

Chapter outline

In the second pass, the outline above gets fleshed out into a backbone of distinct chapters. Not ALL the chapters, only the chapters that need to happen.

At this point I describe 1-2 important events per chapter (except the really important chapters, which get more detailed outlines). What's more important are the characters' takeaways at the end of each chapter - what they learn, or how their feelings evolve. Example (mild spoilers for Offshore):

A bad training day (idk they fall off the yacht from 5m in the air or damage some gear?), we get to see Jinai's stress and resignation and Anqien trying to be positive but visibly affected. The coach gives them an earful about recovery from mistakes They later discuss this and Jinai admits her biggest flaw is giving up too easily. Slice-of-life kind of scene where they go do something stupid/reckless to unwind, and maybe get in trouble

Idea bank

In parallel, I maintain a bank of loose plot points that I would LIKE to include, except I'm not sure where yet. In Offshore, I called them "filler episodes":

Episode: A bit of background about what they do between training Episode: A joyride in a boat. they hire a motorboat from the local boating club and are a nuisance in the rich people area and then head out maybe way too far into the open sea.

In E&S, I maintained a bank of "Chekhov's Guns" that I might bring back later in the plot to create a sense of setup/payoff.

Ruth’s key: unlocks anything, currently lives with Tante. Hyder’s power: to disguise anyone as anyone else. Tante’s knife skills: he’d win any knife duel. And he’s got lots of knives. Tanio’s inventory of inventions: there’s bound to be some stuff there that she can use. Tanio’s meat grinder: grinds meat. Hollia’s job and possessions: an aviary full of birds of all species, including eagles, swans and chickens.

When I come to a point in the novel where I think "something needs to happen here that ISN'T the next groundbreaking plot development," I can quickly whip out one of these concepts.

And now, the actual writing

So now I've got a backbone and a bank of modular content, I come to the moment I've been waiting for. It's worth noting that sometimes the outlining continues to happen even when I start to write, but I do really like to have a finished outline before I start writing the actual prose.

A lot of things happen during the course of writing that I absolutely did not plan for, simply because it's where the story takes me—what instinct tells me would work in the moment. The writing process always surprises me like that, and it's a constant reflexive loop of checking in with what sort of scene/chapter I think would make a good follow-up to the current one, how far to take a scene before closing it off, etc.

The outline is like a leash that keeps the story from flying off course and also a scaffold for when I don't know what to do next. I can check what plot point I need to build towards and then start steering the plot gently in that direction. Then the editing pass is when I'll revisit with a critical eye and link ideas together in a coherent flow, look for the most impactful stopping point for each chapter and prune it, etc.

And longer novels?

So my process for longer stories like RD and OTDOTS is really...an expanded version of the above. Except that the detailed outline can often have multiple levels of subdivision (by volume/story arc -> by location if there are events happening simultaneously in different places -> by chapter), and the planning tends to be more regimental since there's a greater need for the story to feel tight and economical, to maintain momentum.

But there's another post's worth of rambling in that topic, and that's exactly what I'm gonna do at this juncture: put that in its own post.

[sonics-atelier]

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐧

Summary : Captain Lucien thinks it’s a brilliant idea to chase after a magical pendant with the help of a siren. What could possibly go wrong when you flirt with ancient dangers and ignore the crew’s survival instincts?

WC : 1269. Read On Ao3 or below the cut.

For 31 Days Of Tamcien, ran by @achaotichuman <3 - Prompt - Day 9 : Mermaid AU

. . .

The Firebird sailed steadily through the waters, its sleek hull cutting through the waves with a rhythm only the most skilled of crews could have achieved. At the helm, Captain Lucien, eyes narrowed against the wind, scanned the horizon. His thoughts were far from the duties of command. He was consumed by the whisper of something darker, something impossible, yet undeniably tantalizing. The sirens called to him—a song woven from the threads of dreams and desire.

Behind him, His First Mate Vassa’s sharp eyes narrowed as she approached, her footsteps light, yet laden with an undeniable sense of urgency. She stood a moment behind Lucien, watching the way his gaze fixed on the distant, dark horizon, where the sun dipped low in a haze of amber. Then, with a soft exhale, she spoke.

"Captain," she said, her voice taut with restrained concern. "This is madness. You’re going to get us all killed."

Lucien didn’t flinch at the sharpness of her tone, nor did he spare her a glance. He was used to her directness, her unyielding pragmatism. He’d heard her protests before, yet this time there was a note of finality in her words that caught his attention.

Jurian, standing nearby, crossed his arms, the lines of his strong face set in grim resolve. "Vassa's right, Lucien," he said, his gravelly voice betraying an uncommon sense of gravity. "I’ve followed you through countless battles, through storms that could drown the sun. But this... this is madness. You’re chasing shadows now. I’ve entertained many of your wild ideas, but this?" His voice faltered slightly, and he glanced toward the distant bay where Lucien’s obsession was pulling him. "This is too far even for me."

Lucien’s lips curled into a sardonic smile as he finally turned to face them. His mismatched eyes—one golden and the other a vivid, unsettling shade of amber—sparkled with defiance. "I don’t need either of you," he said, his words like a challenge, his tone thick with the kind of certainty that often preceded reckless decisions. "I can do it alone. All you need to do is bring the Firebird to the bay, and I’ll take it from there."

Vassa’s mouth set into a thin, unamused line, while Jurian’s brow furrowed in displeasure. It was not the first time Lucien had been insistent on some foolhardy course, and neither of them doubted for a moment that once Lucien had made up his mind, nothing would change it.

"You’re impossible," Vassa muttered, her eyes darkening with resolve. "But fine. We’ll bring the ship to the bay. But if you get yourself killed by those blasted sirens, don’t expect me to retrieve your body. Understand?"

Lucien laughed softly, the sound dark and knowing. "You won’t have to. If I die, I’ll be gone from this world, and I’ll leave you all to fend for yourselves." His smile was a razor’s edge, sharp and almost mocking. "But don’t worry, Vassa. You’re never going to have to worry about me dying."

Jurian exchanged a glance with Vassa, a silent understanding passing between them. There was no point in arguing further. Once Lucien set his course, there was only one thing left to do: follow.

As the Firebird neared the bay the next day, Lucien found himself drawn, inexplicably, into a strange trance. His body seemed distant, as though it were merely a vessel moving through the motions. The past few nights, he had heard it—a melody—tugging at his soul, calling him deeper into the dark waters where few dared to tread. It was a song that haunted him, echoing in his dreams, a song that pulled him toward the jagged rocks and frothing sea below.

He stood at the edge of the ship, staring out at the bay, his breath shallow. The melody wove through the air, rising like a mist, and he could not resist it. He knew, as if through some ancient instinct, that the pendant he sought—an artifact capable of granting the deepest of wishes—was buried beneath the waves, hidden in the dark recesses of a cave that beckoned to him.

The map he had stolen from the Federation, with its cryptic markings and foreign ink, had led him here. Now, all that remained was to claim his prize.

With a swift motion, Lucien descended the gangplank, the cool saltwater splashing against his boots. He walked purposefully toward the cave entrance, a yawning maw in the rocky shore, where the air was thick with the scent of brine and something more—a strange, intoxicating pull.

The moment he stepped inside, the world darkened, but the glow of bioluminescent algae lit the path ahead. He moved deeper into the cave, the silence pressing in around him like a tangible thing. And then he saw it—a glimmer in the water.

The pendant lay near a stone formation, an eerie glow surrounding it, almost as if it were alive. But Lucien was not alone. His heart quickened as he caught the flash of movement in the water, something large and shimmering, moving just beyond his reach. The song grew louder, more insistent, winding through his thoughts until they were nothing but a blur of sensation and need.

Without hesitation, Lucien shed his outer garments, his chest bare to the chill of the cave air, and waded into the water. The cold sank into his skin, but it was nothing compared to the fire that burned within him. As he swam toward the pendant, he saw the source of the haunting melody—an otherworldly figure, half-submerged, its golden hair flowing like liquid sunlight.

The creature's body was an impossibility: a shimmering emerald tail, long and graceful, curled in the depths of the cave. Its gills fluttered at the sides of its neck, its fingers sharp and clawed, like something born of the deepest parts of the ocean. It was a siren—a being of beauty and danger, whose very existence was a temptation no mortal could resist.

Lucien felt himself drawn forward, his body moving against his will, his heart thrumming with desire. The siren's glowing green eyes locked with his, and Lucien could feel the spell deepening. As his fingers grazed the chain around the siren’s neck, the creature caressed his face, its touch cool and smooth, sending waves of euphoria through him.

The siren’s lips brushed against his own in a kiss that was both sweet and savage. The taste of salt and something otherworldly filled Lucien’s senses, and for a moment, the world outside of this moment ceased to exist. He was lost in the kiss, in the overwhelming sensation, in the pull of the song that wrapped around his soul like a chain.

When they broke apart, the siren’s eyes gleamed with knowing. It handed him the pendant, its words flowing softly through the water, a sentence laden with ominous promise.

"You have what you seek," the siren’s voice whispered, "but the price of your wish is never as simple as you think."

With that, the siren vanished into the depths, leaving Lucien to float in the water, the pendant heavy in his hand. A strange shiver ran through him as he clutched it. The song faded, but the pull of the siren’s gaze remained, lingering like a shadow, a promise of something both beautiful and terrifying.

Lucien surfaced, gasping for air, the pendant clutched tightly in his fingers. As he made his way back to the shore, the weight of the siren’s words settled over him, and a new awareness flickered in the depths of his mind.

He had what he wanted.

But at what cost?

. . .

- @sonics-atelier 2024 ( do not repost or reuse in any way, shape or form )

[greenbloods]

Euron's Master Plan

something i recently realized about euron is that he wasnt always this unhinged. like, we know that he raped aeron and urri when they were kids, and that he has a crew of mutes with ships whose floors are painted red to hide the blood, and has raided all across essos, but the full-blown magically unhinged i-bring-forth-the-doom part of his character we see in affc and the forsaken is, by all indications a more recent shift. specifically it seems to have occurred after euron captured the four qartheen warlocks who were sailing to find daenerys and after he took their shade-of-the-evening, granting him visions that spur his actions in the main plot. so what is euron's grand master plan? lets see what his main actions were so far

Step 1. Hire a faceless man to kill your brother by giving the house of black and white a dragon egg (?)

Step 2. Get elected at the kingsmoot because you bribed everyone with gold and bcz all your competition is way tooo normal for the Iron Islands

Step 3. Capture your priest brother and a bunch of other priests of various faiths and lock them up in the bowels of your ship. This will come in handy later

Step 4. Give your other brother a dragonhorn, some ships, a suspicious mute woman, and a mission to fuck off eastward (to not bother you) and subtly hint to him that he can totally use the dragonhorn for himself and there wont be any negative repercussions ohh nooo

Step 5. Conquer the Shield Islands as a morale boost for your troops and as a launching point for capturing Oldtown. Impregnate Falia Flowers and let your unborn child grow for a few months

Step 6. Lure the redwyne and hightower fleet into the straits between the arbor and the reach, making them think theyve encircled you (parallel to when stannis actually did catch you in the straits in the greyjoy rebellion 10 years ago)

Step 7. Sacrifice the priests and Falia in an orgiastic blood ritual that will awaken krakens from the sea in order to defeat the reach fleet and leave westeros undefended by sea

Step 8. ???

Step 9. Take the iron throne

So it seems like euron's trigger for constructing his master plan was the discovery of the warlocks and him finding out about daenerys. euron wants to remake the world in his image according to the forsaken chapter, and for that he needs great power. so it seems like his plan is to use magic--the armor of valyria, of oldtown, and of dragons--to conquer the iron throne (at least based on aeron's visions in the discarded Forsaken chapter of Winds of Winter)

[deadpansandredlipstick]

Jon Snow Spin Off

I thought about posting my 2 cents on Reddit then I realized I don't want this to be a dialogue. However, I do feel enough time has passed since they decided to pass on the Jon Snow GoT spin off for me to say this

WHO TF ASKED FOR THIS?

Like we're all in agreement a lot of story lines and plot points did not get closure. A lot of questions and points went unanswered with the series finale, but did y'all really think 3-5 seasons of Jon Snow trudging through the snow with wildlings would bring us the answers we wanted and closure we needed. GoT Season 2 didn't even get close. And while I'm here lets address the myth of people believing the criticism regarding HoD S2 has anything to do with the action to dialogue ratio, because that is by no means the case. I (and I'm speaking on behalf of the entire fanbase) would happily take a dozen seasons of Tyrion and Cersei sitting in a room down south sipping wine and throwing shade at each other over anymore seconds of watching Tormund and Jon trekking through what Cersei would call that gray wasteland known as the north. NOBODY ASKED FOR THAT. Now what we (still speaking for everyone here) would like to see and that may have a chance of putting a button on that abortion of a final season is a spin-off centered on Arya and her adventures west of Westeros. A spin off series that shows her working as a sellsword in Essos to earn money for a ship and crew. A show that may even allow her to engage with the iron Islanders for their knowledge of sailing and leave the door open for Yara to return. A show that could focus on her still on the run from the faceless men. A show that could reflect how she's still a fighter with much to learn despite her victory over the night king, because in actuality she never actually finished her training with the faceless men. Give us a show that FINALLY visually gives us an exploration of the doom of Valyria through the eyes of Arya as an explorer and leaves the door open to know what happened with Daenerys' body and Drogon. Show us WHAT does exist west of Westeros and sure if there's still a budget for it bring Jon back (and if they can't scrape together a big budget for it or get Maisie Williams back to do it turn it into an epic animated show and dub the voice for Arya). Let her character engage with people who might know the back story of the night king while she reckons with the reality of being a killer herself. Now THAT is something we would want to see. But that is not something HBO is willing to give us. Instead give us another HoD season with nothing except flat dialogue.

[explosionshark]

Your turn!

It's halfway through the year! Got any favorite albums/books/tv shows/whatever to recommend?

thanks to you @badwolfwho1 who both asked me!

music:

right off the top i'm gonna recommend 3 pop albums bc i almost never have this many TO recommend. but tei shi's valerie, empress of's for your consideration, and shygirl's club shy EP have all been on constant repeat for me this year.

big year for metal also - in particular crypt sermon, job for a cowboy, darkest hour, gatecreeper, aborted and tzompantli were all incredible. i feel like between seeing them live and the release of cure, this is the first time erra has really clicked for me and i'm loving it.

for post-hardcore i've loved the debut LPs by with sails aheads and your ghost in glass. the EP lonely people by love rarely was on repeat for me for weeks also - really great stuff.

i got heaven by mannequin pussy slaps too. and i also really, really want to recommend you could do it tonight by couch slut - if you love the queasy, depraved noise that chat pile make, you absolutely should be listening to couch slut.

i threw a couple little playlists together to roundup some of my faves:

(extended version here)

honorable mention: as was really apparent from my charts this year, i spent A LOT of time listening to the saosin s/t again. but also got really back into grouper this year - especially her 2021 album shade, which i missed entirely when it came out.

books:

okay for music i focused mostly on 2024 releases but for books i won't be so strict.

shirley jackson: a rather haunted life by ruth franklin was REALLY good and provided a lot of great insight into jackson's work and also just had some really interesting history in it. really enjoyed it.

hit so hard by patty schemel a rock music and addiction memoir by the drummer of Hole. very dark and upsetting at points, but compelling. was very illuminating re: the 90s seattle music scene and the drug culture around it, provided a lot of context and detail to some stuff i thought i already knew about. really great stuff.

penance by eliza clark - this is a fake true crime book that REALLY got under my skin. it's a meta commentary on true crime as a fandom and an industry and the exploitation inherent in it. it's a mirror to make you stare at your own internal biases. it's SO fucking 2014 tumblr. i've gotten like three other people to read it and they all went insane like me. highly recommended.

hex by thomas olde heuvelt - very late to the party on this one but i loved it. translated AND localized from dutch, with very interesting results. almost goofy to start and ends up totally bleak. i adored it.

magic for beginners and white cat, black dog by kelly link - REALLY falling in love with kelly link this year. read these two and currently re-reading stranger things happen and i just adore her style. weird but SO heartfelt, surreal and dreamy, as often horrifying as it is sweet. she's so talented, i'm really excited to read the book of love later this year.

between two fires by christopher buehlman - FINALLY read this and i loved it. absolutely deserves the hype. kinda wild that dark ages horror isn't more of a thing? i re-read buehlman's the blacktongue thief too and really loved it, definitely cemented it as one of my favorite fantasy books. i'm reading the daughters' war now and enjoying it a lot.

i also re-read the golden enclaves by naomi novik and had such a great time with it.

tv shows:

finished my buffy re-watch! been watching a ton of xena with @holdsteady and @nataliving this year too - we just finished s3 and it was insane and i loved it soooo much.

i watched under the bridge and thought it was very good, but i'd recommend people learn a little about the real reena virk case before engaging.

hacks season 3 was INSANE it made me crazy i loved it so much.

haven't watched much tv aside from that!

[all-the-things-2020]

All-The-Things-2020 Fan Fiction Masterlist

So I’ve decided to create a pinned Masterlist for all of my finished fics. Some of them are posted only on AO3 right now but I will migrate them here to tumblr as I have time.

Pedro Pascal Characters

Year of Fandom Crossovers Masterlist

Masterlist of all the fics I wrote this year as part of the Year of Creation Challenge.

Din Djarin x Reader - A Sprig of Silver & Blue

A holiday inspired one-shot featuring Din and The Child (written before we knew Grogu’s name).

Din Djarin x OFC (Tala Pavan) - Deeds Not Less Valiant

Completed series taking place after season 3. Demisexual Din finds out that maybe romance and love has a place in his life after all.

Din Djarin x OFC (Mariana Loxli) - Finding His Way series Masterlist. AO3 link to 1st title in series

Non-canon compliant series that takes place following season 1. It is canon-compliant up to that point and then diverges. Din and The Child meet a former Imperial slave who changes their lives for good. Featuring cameos from Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Chewbacca.

Din Djarin - The Man in the Shiny Mask (Futurama crossover)

Futurama script bringing Din and Grogu into the 31st century where they meet the crew of Planet Express.

Javier Peña x OFC (Cassidy Yates) - No Better Place

Completed series taking place in Laredo after Javi leaves the DEA. Featuring horses and some smut.

Joel Miller - Kindred Spirits (Anne of Green Gables crossover)

Joel and Ellie’s relationship reimagined on Prince Edward Island.

Joel Miller - Joel’s Pony Party

You are planning a birthday party for your six year old niece. Turns out the guy who runs the pony party place offers you more than just a pony ride.

Dieter Bravo - Fifty Shades of Orange (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy crossover)

Dieter ends up on the Heart of Gold and Arthur still can’t find a decent cup of tea.

Dieter Bravo x Orignal Female Character (Emily) - Late Night Talking

Regular person Emily meets celebrity Dieter Bravo. Romance ensues, along with plenty of humor and angst.

Frankie Morales - I Need a Pilot (Star Wars crossover)

Everyone’s favorite helicopter pilot transported to the Star Wars galaxy, with cameos by Finn and Poe.

Ezra x Reader - Lost, Only to Be Found (The Last of Us crossover)

Ezra and Cee in the Last Of Us universe. This one has a bittersweet ending.

Ezra x OFC (Claire) - All Our Future Prospects.

Ezra and Cee meet a corporate scientist and they all learn the importance of found family.

Marcus Moreno - Not All Heroes Wear Capes (Star Trek: the Next Generation crossover)

Marcus tries to revive his Starfleet career after losing his wife.

Non-Pedro Pascal Characters

Legolas - A Grey Ship Sails.

How Legolas and Gimli came to leave the shores of Middle Earth after the death of Aragorn.

Samwise Gamgee - Into the West. AO3 link

How Samwise the Brave followed Mister Frodo into the West.

Poe Dameron x Finn - Family Is More Than Blood series Masterlist.

Pure Stormpilot fluff, featuring a few crossovers with characters from the Finding His Way series. Also a hint of Reylo.

[beantothemax]

I’m so glad I stepped back a little. It’s so fun to have her angst a little.

Ping patrol: @soup-for-ghosts @lesbian-empress-nero @stars-and-loops @meme-boys-blog

Cws: Death, Persona 3 spoilers.

———————————————-

"Hey! I called the left seat!"

"Well I didn't hear you."

"You had it on the way here!"

"Did not."

"Did too!"

“Did not!”

“Did too!!”

(Sighs) "Makoto's right. Kotone, let him sit there."

"But mooom... the view is really pretty! I wanna see it!"

"You saw it last time, Kotone. Next time we go on a trip like this, it'll be your turn, alright?"

"Okay…"

—————————————

The ocean is a place of endless movement. With waves rippling across its surface; moving along the currents in twisting ways. The moon perhaps, would be its partner, controlling the cosmic push and the pull of the tides. With grace it dances with the sea, in a slow waltz across the land and sky.

Life and death move in a similar way.

There is a shadow upon the spire of a bridge tonight. A dark blotch on the meger canvas of stars. She waits for events that were remembered from times long past. But it is not a silent vigil. She has been quietly singing to herself, leaving her words echoing across the sea and towards the full moon.

A harp accompanies her. It rings with cascading notes that soothe alongside the crashing waves.

Theres a still tension in the swell;

Of dreamt debris afloat amidst the waves and then dispel.

The harp continues to play while the singer is left in thought. It is almost time, but that won’t stop her from finishing this set. A few key notes are highlighted, but the cascade still persists.

Aimless thoughts and papers blown around;

A million moments meant remembered rest in deep dark sound.

Game the mess.

I’d like to know why you,

Are all alone while I’m,

Lost at sea.

Maybe we’ll be there when you want.

A violin unexpectedly joins in. From where, it is unknown. It dips in and out, with long pulls and short pushes. The harp continues despite it all, acknowledging the violin at some points, but still following its own path.

Anchorless and unmoored set amiss.

Awake would only probe the fantasy made lucid sense;

Sail on, sail on.

I’d like to know why you,

Are all alone while I’m,

Lost at sea.

Maybe we’ll be there when you want.

She hums, letting the harp and violin heighten in tone. All three of them lay in harmony now, leaving only the ocean to perform as the percussion.

The moon stares on, impassive as ever. Perhaps it is charmed by the shadow’s song.

A single car races down the bridge.

There's a still tension in the swell,

So give into the vast receiving emptiness of ti-

The world turns a sickly shade of green.

Once dark waters of the ocean are now a deep shade of red. Gentle ripples move more ferociously, whitecaps tinted with ivory plasma. Stars are swallowed whole, coffins line the streets of the surrounding city.

Tires screech on the road beneath; a boy and a girl scream before being abruptly silenced by a loud crash.

The song is interrupted. A shame, but it’s not the first time Kurokami had to be flexible.

She drops down from its vantage point. From a distance, she appears to be a particularly large raindrop. The shadow reforms, and glides over to the smoking remains of the vehicle.

She wanted to see him again. To thank him, even though he didn’t know what he did to deserve it. She wanted to cherish him as she was now, even when he felt unwanted. She wanted to comfort him in this time of crisis, when he didn’t even know her name. He was the reason she had for being. Why she existed. He was the catalyst, the beginning of the end for Her. And Kurokami couldn’t wait any longer.

Her eyes widened in horror.

He can’t be. No. It’s not possible. He is destined-

But here he is.

A young Makoto Yuki's head is pressed against the spiderwebbed glass. Blood slowly seeps from his temple, turning once dark blue hair a shade of dark dark red. He looks peaceful, almost. Like the day She lost him. There was no blood that day. No pain, just letting go knowing that everything would end up fine.

She could hardly believe it. Was she too late? What could she do now, now that there was no one to fulfill the fates’ design? All of her efforts, the connections, the time.

Was it all wasted on this?

He could be on the edge of life, yes? She just needed to get a hand in there.

She reached through the cracks, and felt for a pulse.

There was none.

“No…”

He was gone.

Someone, anyone should have survived. Someone had to. She would have known if this damned world was to be consumed already, so this place would be fine.

She looked frantically around the wreckage, desperate to find any form of life, circling around the two coffins in the front seats. The parents, no doubt. A sad sight, but she did not linger. They were going to die anyway.

A lock of red hair caught her eye. She lay there, passed out upon a deflating airbag. Unlike Makoto, she truly looked like she was sleeping.

As soon as she felt her weak pulse, she looked.

It was muted with unconsciousness, but she could still feel the warmth. She is a bright soul, charming and kind. She was… beautiful. Kurokami had never seen a soul so unmarred.

Who was this?

Kotone Shiomi. Sibling.

She blinked.

A sister. Nobody had mentioned that Makoto was an only child. They had only said he was an orphan. Kurokami could hardly believe it, but the resemblance was right there. Silver and gold, moon and sun, Artemis and Apollo, Hades and Persephone, Orpheus and-

...Eurydice.

Was her Persona already-

A distant explosion.

Kurokami knew what it signified. She cannot linger for long. Already, she feels the sheer power of what is to come. And if she were to be caught in the crossfire…

She departs, leaving only a single lotus petal on Her Martyr’s chest.

It is the least she can do.

Death arrives, with a weapon soon behind.

They fight in spectacular fashion, a brutal display of power from both sides.

A girl keens in the night, the weapon takes advantage of the opening it grants.

Two bodies collapse in the middle of the road. They are seperated. Neither will remember this incident until it is too late.

The One Who Stares Back looks forlornly, and follows one.

There is a saying amongst many, that curiosity oft killed the cat.

But many do not know of its second part: speaking of the satisfaction that brought it back.

………

Alone…

At the edge of a universe humming a tune.

For merely dreaming we were snow.

Mmm mmm mmmmm mm…

A siren sounds,

Like the goddess who promises endless apologies of paradise.

And only she can make it right.

So things are different tonight.

do they know?

gotta say wasn’t expecting ‘makoto also dies in the car crash’ to be the kotone wildcard justification but this is the world we live in now I suppose

very nice song choices again as usual tho! yippee

[scribeforchrist-blog]

Missing Opportunities 

MEMORY VERSE OF THE WEEK

=========================

+ Matthew 15:17 Yes, it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

=========================

VERSE OF THE DAY 

========================

+ Jonah 4:5 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There, he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade, and waited to see what would happen to the city

=========================

SUBJECT: Missing Opportunities 

=========================

** SAY THIS BEFORE YOU READ; HERE’S SOME CHRISTIAN TRUTHS **

I AM NOT MISSING ANY OPPORTUNITIES 

I AM WISE 

I AM LISTENING TO GOD 

I AM RELYING ON GOD 

========================

READ TIME: 7 Minutes & 20 Seconds

========================

THOUGHTS:

=======================

     So, every day, we have choices: to put on socks, not to put on socks, to drink tea or coffee, to make our bed, to pray, or to watch Netflix. We have so many choices every day, and no one can tell us how to make those choices unless we’re a child. Children always obey their parents, but if you’re adults, we have choices we can make, and sometimes those are difficult for us because we don’t want to do anything that we shouldn’t and we don’t want to do anything that will be bad for our day, right?  But in this story, Jonah had a choice to save Nineveh from their ways; he had every opportunity to show them what the lord wanted from them; at first, Jonah didn’t want to do that; he wanted to run from the lord,

  Jonah 1:3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.”

     He ran away from God because he didn’t want to do what God wanted of him. We often rejoice over someone's downfall and think it's okay to do this, but it's not. The Bible tells us to rejoice when someone is happy and be sad when someone is sad. It's about choices, and we must make them. We might not like them, but if we say we believe in God, we can't just do half of the word and not the rest.

    Romans 12:15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.

 

   James 2:10 For whoever keeps the whole law and stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

  Jonah had a choice and he didn’t want any of these people to be shown grace and mercy. Sometimes, we think our actions are justice, because we are saved and someone else is a sinner, but Jonah, as you can tell, had problems. Just because someone can't see our faults doesn’t mean we are better than the other; God wants us to always look at our life and see what we must do to change it, and if we don’t know, we must go to God and ask him to help us to change what we are doing,

  Verse 5 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There, he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade, and waited to see what would happen to the city.

  Jonah sat there waiting for the lord to change his mind, but the people of Nineveh changed their ways. They repented of their wrongdoing and even fast; they didn’t just fast. The animals did, too. This is a contrite heart, and it showed that no matter what they did, Jonah thought they were wrong and needed to be punished, but God showed mercy to them and Jonah, too. 

     A lot of us don’t take accountability for the things we do that are wrong; we are quick to shake the finger but never to look at our hearts. Today, do we hear God when he speaks or do we stay in our state of disobedience . God came to Jonah twice and told him what he needed to do the first time he ran and the second time he was obedient; we must be obedient to God and ask him what choices we need to make and how to become better with our walk him.

   Sometimes, making a choice is hard; sometimes, we want both. I remember my dad telling me, Lui, go to school; don’t be the class clown; if not, you're going to have a problem this evening. And I would go to school try my hardest to make good choices there and still fail, but sometimes, in our failing, we learn, we learn boundaries, and we learn about ourselves; even as adults, we have choices, and sometimes those choices are the hardest because we want both and sometimes you can have both and you must choice ,God can help us with every choice we make before we do them he likes for us to do this with anything relationships ,marriage ,finances ,work issues whatever it is ,he doesn’t care he wants to be included. 

   2 Peter 3:17 17 Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position

   Every action has consequences, and Jonah suffered when he disobeyed God. God called a fish to swallow him up and hold him in his belly for three days! 

  Jonah 1:17 Now the Lord provided a giant fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

   Some of us look at Jonah, and we laugh at the fact that he was inside of a fish for three days, but sometimes we miss our destiny, we miss business opportunities, and other things because of disobedience, and some of us are held there in this same spot for years and months because we wouldn’t listen , see his punishment is obvious it can be seen and read about. Still, some of us never know what we are missing until we talk to God about it. 

  ***Today, we talked about choices we have to make and how hard it is sometimes to make a choice. And even if we don’t like the choice that we have to make, it’s still something we must do; we read how Jonah didn’t want to save those people and how he ran from the presence of God, but what we must understand is that God wants us to be obedient even if it’s hard to do.

   We also talked about the consequences of our actions; a lot of us don’t care what happens as long as we are happy at the moment, and we shouldn’t be that way; we should be concerned about the future , what are your biggest concerns? Is it miss opportunities?, is it growing closer to God ,we grow closer to God when we obey, and if your having issues with being obedient or your concern with your miss opportunities ask God today what have I missed and how can I fix it, and he will show you the way, but sit and listen to him speak . ©Seer~ Prophetess Lee

========================

PRAYER

========================

Heavenly Father, thank you for today, lord; we love you and thank you for everything; forgive us if we did anything we shouldn’t, and help us to be more like you and not like this world. Lord, lead us and guide us, and we will follow; forgive us of the sins we have done. Lord, help us to understand this devotional and apply it to our lives; in Jesus Name, Amen 

========================

REFERENCES 

========================

+ Acts 14:22 strengthens the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.

 

+ Proverbs 4:5 Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn away from them

 

+ Proverbs 18:15 The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out.

========================

FURTHER READINGS 

=========================

 Proverbs 22

Leviticus 22

Genesis 40

Judges 8

=========================

[seeingbeyondtheisland]

YULARA - ULURU KATA TJUTA NATIONAL PARK 2023

I have just returned from a trip to Yulara, I know that Yulara is part of "the island" and not "beyond" it, however my trip was so amazing and the place so special that I felt it deserved a blog post so here it is.

PS - Tumblr have put a new restriction on how many photos you can put in a blog post, so sadly I won't be able to post as many photos in the post as I did my Singapore post, Stupid Tumblr :(

Yulara and Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park is owned by Anangu, the traditional custodians of the land.

DAY ONE Date: 6/11/2023 Weather: Day: 35 Degrees Night: 32 Degrees Humidity: Day: 32% Night: 16% Itinerary: Arrive At Yulara Check Into Hotel - Sails In The Desert Gecko's Cafe

The trip start at Sydney Domestic Airport on the 6th of November, my Mother and I flew from Sydney to Yulara via Jetstar. The flight to Yulara was 3 hours, I would like to give a shoutout to manager Pat and the crew on our flight, all of them were super friendly and lovely to talk to and made the flight a really lovely experience.

Just like Singapore, the minute the plane landed and we stepped off the plane I immediately noticed the heat. Unlike Singapore which is a very humid heat, the heat in Yulara is extremely dry, according to my phone it was 35 degrees and the humidity was 32%. Apart from the heat, the other thing I noticed was the bright red sand and dust, letting me know that I was indeed in the Red Centre. We got our luggage and then got on to the Hop On Hop Off bus to our hotel in the Ayer's Rock Resort complex, we were staying at Sails In The Desert. I want to take a moment here to say that the rock is NOT!!! Called Ayer's Rock it's called Uluru, it used to be called Ayer's Rock however that name was changed to Uluru in 2002, I'll explain why at the bottom of this post but just remember to call it Uluru and not Ayer's Rock as the local Anangu do not appreciate people referring to the rock by its old name. The resort complex however is called "Ayer's Rock Resort"

Arriving At Yulara

Mum and I checked into our hotel and by that point we were both starving so we decided to have lunch by the pool, I had Mushroom Gnocchi and my Mum had the Ancient Grains Salad. The gnocchi was delicious!!! I almost licked my plate clean it was so good.

Mushroom Gnocchi

After lunch we both had a nice long dip in the pool, which was so refreshing as it was so incredibly hot outside.

Ready For A Dip In The Pool

That night we both went down to Gecko's Cafe which is located in the Town Square for dinner, I had a chicken schnitzel and Mum had a vegetarian pizza. I forgot to take photos of our dinner as I was so tired by that point, sorry about that.

Going Out For Dinner

COSTS Lunch: $32.00 Dinner: $26.00

DAY TWO Date: 7/11/2023 Weather: Day: 32 Degrees Night: 21 Degrees Humidity: Day: 15% Night: 18% Itinerary: Uluru

Day two was all about what we had travelled all the way to Yulara for, seeing Uluru. We started our day nice and early, so that we could do the 10 kilometre base walk around Uluru. If you are planning on doing the base walk, it is important that you go either early morning at sunrise or sunset, it is not safe to do it in the middle of the day as it gets extremely hot and there is no shade. Also make sure you pack plenty of water and Gatorade as well as wear appropriate clothing (information on appropriate clothing in "Tips") to avoid dehydration, heat exhaustion and heat stroke.

We got on the Hop On Hop Off bus at 7:00AM and arrived at Uluru in 25 minutes, note that Uluru is inside Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park and you need a ticket to enter the park, you can buy a ticket online or you can do what we did which is go to to the Town Square and buy a ticket at the tourist office.

When we arrived at Uluru, I was at a loss for words, the rock is huge and just feels so magical. They say the rock changes colour throughout the day and I can confirm that is 100% true, I could see Uluru as we entered the park by the bus and it looked purple but by the time we actually arrived at the rock it was bright orange.

Uluru

As we embarked on our walk, admiring the monolith, we came across some signs which told a story about an event that took place here thousands of years ago, I would share the photos but thanks to Tumblr's stupid 30 photos per post limit I can't so I will type out the story for you.

"In the beginning, the Mala people came from the north and could see this rock. They thought it looked like a good place to stay a while and make inma (ceremony). The Mala men decorated and raised Ngaltawata, the ceremonial pole. The inma had now begun.

The Mala people began to busily prepare for their ceremonies. The women gathered and prepared food for everyone. They stored nyuma (seed cakes) in their caves. The men went out hunting. They made fires and fixed their tools and weapons.

In the middle of preparations, two Wintalka men approached from the west. They invited the Mala people to attend their inma. The Mala people said no, explaining their ceremony had begun and could not be stopped.

The Disappointed Wintalka men went back and told their people. Enraged, they created an evil spirit - a huge devil - dog called Kurpany to destroy the Mala inma.

As Kurpany travelled towards the Mala people he changed into many forms. He was a mamu, a ghost. Luunpa the kingfisher woman was the first to spot him. She warned the Mala people but they didn't listen.

Kurpany arrived and attacked and killed some of the men. In great fear and confusion the remaining Mala people fled down into South Australia with Kurpany chasing them. The story continues down south.

These ancestors are still here today. Luunpa still keeps watch, but she is now a large rock. Kurpany's footprints are imprinted into the rock leading towards the east and south. The men who were killed are still in their cave.

This story teaches that it is important to finish what you start and that you should watch for and listen to warnings of danger."

There are certain parts of Uluru that you cannot photograph, these places are clearly marked with signs asking that you not take photographs, this is around the north - east face of Uluru. The reason for this is that the rock details and features at these sites are equivalent to sacred scripture for the Anangu - they describe culturally important information that should only be viewed in their original location and by specific people.

Throughout the walk, there are emergency phones and seats with wooden shelters over them should you become ill or injured and require help. About 9 km's into the walk, I began to suffer from heat exhaustion, luckily for me it was only very mild and I recovered quickly and was able to finish the walk but do be mindful that heat exhaustion is a possibility on this walk.

Me Towards The End Of The 10km Base Walk

Once we had completed the walk, we got the bus back to our hotel, we both had a much needed swim before we had lunch, we ate by the pool again and i had the mushroom gnocchi again.

That night, we were booked to go and see the Field Of Lights, however a huge wind storm picked up and all of the outdoor night tours including the Field Of Lights got cancelled. We decided to instead have a buffet dinner at out restaurant, Sails In The Desert has a buffet dinner every night, it costs $89.00 per person. It was the best buffet I have ever seen!!! such a great variety and everything was delicious, I had hokkien noodles, arrabiata, truffled cauliflower and garlic and rosemary focaccia. They also had a desert station with a huge chocolate fountain!!! I had ice cream and chocolate and two small slices of chocolate cake.

Dressed And Ready For The Field Of Lights

The Amazing Buffet Dinner

COSTS Uluru Kata Tjura National Park Pass: $38.00 Lunch: $32.00 Dinner: $89.00

DAY THREE Date: 8/11/2023 Weather: Day: 32 Degrees Night: 20 Degrees Humidity: Day: 19% Night: 12% Itinerary: Bush Yarn Gallery Of Central Australia Mangata Field Of Lights

The next day we decided to go into the Town Square and attend the 10:00AM Bush Yarn where an Anangu man explained the use and production of tools used by Anangu men. The tools we were introduced to were

Kali - The Kali is what the Anangu call a boomerang, unlike other boomerangs, the kali does not return when thrown. it is used for hunting.

Miru (Spear Thrower) - The Miru is a mulipurpose tool, it is used for hunting, making fires, spear sharpening, mixing ochre and digging.

Kulata (Spear) - Used for hunting.

Kali & Two Miru

Kulata

After listening to the Bush Yarn, we got on the Hop On Hop Off bus and went and checked out all of the other hotels, there are 5 hotels within Ayer's Rock Resort and a campground. - Desert Gardens - Emu Walk Apartments - The Lost Camel Hotel - Sails In The Desert - Outback Hotel & Lodge

When we got to the Desert Gardens Hotel, we discovered the Gallery Of Central Australia (GOCA), a small art gallery which showcases absolutely beautiful works of art by local Indigenous artists. In the middle of the gallery, were two Indigenous women working on beautiful paintings. You can buy some of the artworks and there is also a little gift shop selling paintings, cards, bags and more. I desperately wanted to buy one of the artworks, I bought a card instead and put it in a beautiful frame.

A Card I Bought & Framed From GOCA

After a tour of the complex, we went back to our hotel for lunch and a swim, i of course had Mushroom Gnocchi!!!

That night, we were booked in to the Field Of Lights which had been cancelled the previous night. The bus picks you up at 8:00PM so we went and had an early dinner beforehand. We went to the Desert Gardens Hotel and ate in their restaurant Mangata, Mum had poached chicken and vegetables and I had spaghetti bolognaise, both of our meals were delicious.

Spaghetti Bolognaise At Mangata

After dinner, the AAT King bus picked us up from our hotel and took us out to the Field Of Lights. The Field Of Lights is a solar powered light installation created by Bruce Monro with more than 300,000 lights covering a vast space of more than seven football fields. This phenomenal installation took over 2,000 hours to design and build in the United Kingdom and then another 3,900 hours to assemble on the site near Uluru. The exhibition first exhibited on the 1st of April 2016 and was scheduled to finish on the 31st of March 2018, however the installation is now permanent thanks to its immense popularity.

Field Of Lights

COSTS Lunch: $32.00 Dinner: $29.00 Field Of Lights: $46.00

DAY FOUR Date: 9/11/2023 Weather: Day: 33 Degrees Night: 20 Degrees Humidity: Day: 17% Night: 19% Itinerary: Didgeridoo Workshop

We really didn't do much on our fourth day, we mostly spent the day by the pool just relaxing as we hadn't had much of a chance to do that since arriving at Yulara.

At 11:00AM we went too the Akari theatre outside GOCA and the Didgeridoo workshop, while many people call this instrument a Didgeridoo, Didgeridoo is actually the rhythm produced by playing the instrument, the instruments actual name is Udarki. The man who played the Udarki explained the skilled and proper way to play a Udarki, it is not something you can just pick up and blow into anymore than you can just pick up a guitar and start strumming away, it takes practice and skill to be able to correctly play it. During the demo, Udarkis are handed out to the audience to have a go, however only men are given one as women do not play the Udarki and it is culturally insensitive for women to do so.

COSTS Lunch: $19.50 Dinner: $32.00

DAY FIVE Date: 10/11/2023 Weather: Day: 33 Degrees Night: 20 Degrees Humidity: Day: 12% Night: 19% Itinerary: Paint Your Own Australian Animal Desert Awakenings

Like the previous day, we didn't really do much throughout the day besides swim in the hotel pool, although I did take part in a Paint Your Own Australian Animal workshop in my hotel in which you get given a wooden animal that you paint as well as a guide on Indigenous markings and what they mean. We had also booked to do the Desert Awakenings tour that evening.

My Paintings, The Marking On The Lizard Means Travelling And The Markings On The Platypus Means 2 Women

In the late afternoon, the AAT King bus came and picked us up from our hotel and took us out to Kata Tjuta, the ride there took 37 minutes. Along the way, we stopped off at the Kata Tjuta Sunset Viewing Platform, where we were able to see both Uluru and Kata Tjuta and get some photos, we then got back on the bus and headed to Kata Tjuta.

Mum And I At The Kata Tjuta Sunset Viewing Platform

We arrived at Kata Tjuta and had drinks and canopies whilst sitting and watching the sun set over Kata Tjuta, it was a truly spectacular site. We stayed for an hour, watching Kata Tjuta change from orange to brown to purple, before getting back onto the bus, on the bus ride home, Mum and I were sitting at the front of the bus and were lucky enough to see two King Brown Snakes slithering across the road, I was absolutely stoked as I'm a snake lover.

Kata Tjuta Changing Colours As The Sun Sets

We got back to our hotel and had dinner in the restaurant, I got my final bowl of mushroom gnocchi, and then we went back to our room and began the depressing task of packing up our stuff, ready to leave the next day.

COSTS Lunch: $19.50 Desert Awakenings Tour: $160.00 Dinner: $32.00

TIPS

If you are doing the 10km base walk of Uluru, make sure to wear a hat, a lightweight shirt with sleeves that cover your arms, sunscreen and comfortable walking shoes, avoid wearing black clothing as this will absorb heat.

If you are doing the 10km base walk of Uluru, make sure to pack plenty of water and Gatorade, dehydration, heat exhaustion and heat stroke can occur very easily out here and be dangerous.

Climbing Uluru was banned in 2019 so you cannot climb Uluru, instead admire its beauty from the ground.

Due to its remote location and high overheads, EVERYTHING!!!! is expensive, food, souvenirs, tours and basic necessities like sunscreen and tissues, try to take as much of your own stuff as possible and if you're staying somewhere with kitchen facilities, there is an IGA so preparing your own food is an option for cutting down on costs.

The Sun is harsh and extreme, be sure to consistently keep up with sunscreen application and wear a hat. When possible wear long sleeves and long pants/dresses/skirts, the less sun on your skin the better

The Hop On Hop Off Bus is free and operates every 20 minutes, making a stop at every accomodation.

CULTURAL INFORMATION AND SENSITIVITIES

Ensure you have permission before photographing any of the Anangu.

Whilst some Anangu may give you permission to take a photo, you must NEVER!!! film them

Do not photograph or enter any sacred sites.

Anangu greet each other by saying "palya" a word which can also mean welcome, thank you, understood, ok and goodbye.

Do not refer to Uluru as Ayer's Rock or Kata Tjuta as The Olgas.

The Anangu honour their dead by not speaking their names or looking at their pictures, it is believed that doing so will recall and disturb the spirit.

HISTORY OF ULURU KATA TJUTA NATIONAL PARK The mesmerising monolith known as Uluru was created over 600 million years ago. While Indigenous Australians date back 60,000 years, the Anangu have lived in the area and used Uluru and Kata Tjuta for sacred ceremonies and rites of passage for the last 10,000 years. The caves and crevices of the monolith contain many sacred areas and ancient rock paintings. Before European invasion which took place in 1770, Indigenous Australians spoke an estimated 700 dialects. Today, only 20 - 50 languages remain and are spoken by children. Anangu mainly speak Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara, although some speak up to six of the Aboriginal languages.

In 1873, William Gosse went on a three month journey from Alice Springs through the desert, which brought him to Uluru, he was the first non Indigenous person to see Uluru and so he named it "Ayer's Rock" after Sir Henry Ayers, the Chief Secretary of South Australia at the time. On October 26th, 1985. Kata Tjuta, was discovered by a non Indigenous person for the first time in 1872 by Ernest Giles. Upon his discovery, Ernest named the collection of mountains "Mount Olga" after Queen Olga of Wurttemberg.

In the 1930's more explorers began arriving and by the 1940's the first graded road was laid. Tourism to the area officially began in the 1950's and over the next few decades, tourism operators started tours, roads were built as well as a small airport.

the Australian government finally returned ownership of the area and the national park back over to its rightful owners the Anangu on the 26th of October 1985. In 2002, the a few name changes were enacted in order to show respect to and acknowledge the Anangu as the traditional owners of the land, Ayer's Rock was changed to Uluru, The Olgas was changed to Kata Tjuta and Ayer's Rock Mount Olga National Park was changed to Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park. The Anangu people do not appreciate people calling Uluru "Ayer's Rock" or Kata Tjuta "The Olga's" as these names were a result of European colonisation and were imposed on a section of Aboriginal country. For this reason, you should always refer to the rock as Uluru and the mountains as Kata Tjuta.

[cat-esper]

Find the Word Tag

Thanks for the tag, @kaylinalexanderbooks!

My words are provide, surface, cream, and road

Tagging @sentfromwolves, @autumnalwalker, and @pb-dot and your words are dare, scream, fly, and follow.

This one's from Incantations of the Mad Mage book 3:

Provide

The path meandered among the garden and as they walked, the maid pointed out things, naming the flowers and the plants. There was a bench for resting and even a pond with brightly colored fish in it. The pond emptied into a small trickling stream which made its way around the garden and then returned to the opposite side of the pond, emptying back into it. She realized, looking around, that the palace closed them in on all sides and thought that if she could see the place from the sky, the palace must be shaped a bit like a big, square donut with the courtyard and its garden in the center. A colonnaded walkway wrapped around the garden, offering additional shade where it hugged the sides of the palace. "But other than when the Emperor comes here, anyone can visit the garden at any time?" Arna asked, peering into the pond. "Of course," the maid said. "Well, except for night. For you. Sorry." Arna waved away her comment. She'd already figured as much. What she wanted to know, she doubted she would find here. The courtyard was not at the back of the palace as she'd first thought upon looking out the windows. It was still encased within its walls and as such didn't provide much of an escape. Unless she could somehow scale the walls and get up onto the roof. She squinted up at it now, the sun obscuring its features. But one thing she could make out, there was a shape that broke up the level of the roof, a very particular shape. "Is there a person up there?" Arna shielded her eyes with her hand but it hardly helped. The maid followed her gaze. "Oh. Yes. There are guards on the roof." "Oh." So much for that plan.

And the rest of these are all from Records of the Spiral, book 1

Surface

This couldn't be real. He must have finally snapped. What other explanation was there? After the day he'd had? Rory trudged out of the surf, the wet sand sucking at his sneakers and leaving messy, misshapen footprints behind. His were the only ones so Crystal couldn't have been here before him. The strangest thing was that it almost felt like he'd been here before. Here on this beach, the sea and the horizon unending, like something from a dream. A starfish lay on the sand just beyond the tide line, its pink and pebbly skin covered in a fine layer of sand. He picked it up and it squirmed sluggishly, its little starfish limbs curling over his fingers. He hurled it out to sea and watched it sail through the air before plopping into the water with barely a disturbance. As he did, something in the air caught his eye, a strip of silver arcing overhead, as pale as the moon during the day and brighter. He followed it with his gaze, craning his neck to see straight up. The dream of two nights ago flashed into his head, the image of the sea spiraling up and up like a funky plastic straw. He'd completely forgotten about it until now, looking up at this spiraling thing but what was it? Everything came back to him. The sea. Flying high above it and skimming its surface, swooping up into the massive spiral in the sky. Everything, every sight and smell and feel, even the touch of the breeze, was the exact same. Rory raked his fingers through his hair. "Holy shit."

Cream

The little bell on the door chimed and Rory looked up to find the gang of his friends pouring in. He stood up, placing the magazine spine up on the counter. "What the hell are you guys doing here," he asked, but there wasn't any negativity to his tone. "Checkin' on you, man." Aden held out a fist and Rory bumped it with his own. "Just wanted to see the high life for myself, you know?" Rory rolled his eyes. "Whatever." "Joy ride," Rose explained. "Aden's dad let him borrow the car and he's determined to use up all the gas. Hey, you got popsicles?" "Yeah, in the cooler." Rory jerked his chin in the direction of the ice chest. "Sweet." "You get off soon?" Aden wanted to know. "No, not till three." "But you wouldn't know anything about work, would you, Aden?" Rose tossed over her shoulder. She had the chest freezer open and was meticulously examining the popsicle and ice cream selection. "Hey, I got no need for work just yet. Gotta hold onto my freedom while I can." Aden fished around in his pocket and dramatically slapped a few dollars onto the counter. "One ham and cheese sandwich, please. And a large coke. And potato chips." "Chips are in the snack aisle." Rory rang him up while the others scoured the snack aisle and gift shop, then got to work making the sandwich. As he did that, a few customers came in for the lunch hour and paid for gas and food. Since he was the only one there, he had to run back and forth between the register and the little kitchen in the back, oftentimes risking leaving things on the stove to ring people up. But he was practiced at it, nothing burned, and no one complained.

Road

Out in the country, this was the only road and theirs was the only car on it. Others would call it peaceful but Rory always thought it was too much. Or not enough. Not enough people or buildings or, well, anything. Just dust and grass and a few cows or horses. Occasionally a great big semi truck might pass them by and Crystal would signal for the driver to honk his horn, a low, blaring hnnnnnnn that broke the relative silence. As they got closer to home, a few ranch houses broke up the horizon but they weren't truly in Merrick, Wyoming until that feeling of utter isolation enveloped them like a fog. That's when they knew they were home. Right after the Isolation came Old Man Billington's house. His mailbox, which said Billington in words so faded you only knew what it said if you knew who lived there, stood in place of a "Welcome to Merrick" sign. There had never been and never would be a sign welcoming anyone to Merrick.

General taglist: @thatrandomlemononyourcounter1, @teacupsandstarlight

Records of the Spiral taglist: @awleeofficial , @desastreus

[starrysharks]

how do you go about creating characters and designs and a story for them?? im an aspiring character designer / storyteller and i looove your designs so im curious!!

when it comes to stories, i always try to imagine something that turns common tropes/things on their head ! like for ultimate excalibur, as its focused heavily on naval stuff, sailing and pirates, instead of regular ships on the sea, its all in space ! and for reassassination, the main character is a teenager, but her dramas are all mostly focused on assassinating people while juggling exams and rumors, so i guess it's kinda like a juxtaposition? for my stories i always get a lot of inspiration from other media (ult. ex is inspired greatly by the premise of one piece and other media and reassassination is very loosely inspired by panty and stocking), so it's good to broaden ur horizons when looking for new things to watch/play/read - you could find a new story idea from that!

for designs, i focus on three things: character personality, profession, and cool/cuteness factor. for example, musa marine - she has a bright and energetic personality, so her colors are bright and sunny (yellows and blues), she's a pirate, so her clothes are rugged, and she's more cool than cute to me, so 'cool' pieces of clothing are added like her big hat. other 'cool' character traits include V-CON's shades and clyde's scarf, but cuter characters like mina have other design traits like a starfish hairpin (who is also mina's manager!) i like to call these specific design traits 'the key point' - to me, theyre what make the designs unique! i use a mental 'cute - mix - cool' scale for that, but you don't need to if you don't want to! its just a weird thing i like to do ^_- but stuff like that is just the beginning!! when designing characters you have to take into account how they'll look next to everyone else in the cast - even if they have a similar color pallete to another character, they have to look unique while still being obvious as someone from your story's universe ! like, if i gave savory animal ears and plunked him into ult. ex, he'd look out of place because his sharp design and darker color scheme clashes with everyone else. speaking of sharpness, shapes are really important too! for my own designs, i like to take one or two shapes and apply those to as many aspects of the design as i can - like in my deep cut designs, i tried to focus on sharp, triangular shapes! shape language can help accentuate personality especially if you have a more cartoony/anime artstyle ! :D there are lots of people who are better than me at explaining character design/story stuff so i'd suggest you look at other guides or watch videos on how to write + design! also, this is just a me thing, but if i see a design or a story that i really like that inspires me to draw/write something, for the first few weeks/months of the development, i like to wear that inspiration on its sleeve if that makes sense? like it'll look *very* heavily inspired as it starts out - this is because i know that as the story develops, the characters/story will be redesigned to look unique ! like, when i first started writing starsaints carnival in 2021-ish, all the characters looked like rip-offs of characters from worlds end club lol ,, but as i redesigned the characters (3 times!!), they now all have (imo) unique designs while still looking inspired by wec!!

that's pretty much it about character design and story, sorry this is so long ;w; ,,, i just like talking about characters and stories,,, hope this helps !!

[acornsandoaktrees]

LOTRweek Day 3:

fear | courage | adventure

fac fortia et patere (do brave deeds and endure)

Following in old footsteps, Tauriel and Alphes leave home for the Lonely Mountain in order to face the world.

>---|-

Nimble, Thalanes hopped from a low twisted bough of the tree to where the shrubbery reduced suddenly into stone. Crouching by the border, she stared through a thin bush at the stretching blue ahead.

Thranduil joined her in a scrambling hurry. "What is it?"

"There's a boat out there."

At least, that's what she imagined the brown blur bobbing faraway on the glittering water to be. Thranduil's pale eyes brightened when he caught sight of it as well.

"Yes, I see the sail!"

"The what?"

Thranduil blinked at her. "The... big canvas that catches wind and pushes the boat."

"Oh," she shrugged. "There must be someone onboard, right?"

"...Well, yes."

Thalanes stood. "I'm going to go and meet them."

"What?!" Thranduil yanked her back by the flare of her shirt sleeve when she made to step out from behind the bush. "Thalanes, you cannot!"

Tearing her arm free, Thalanes bared her teeth at him. "Then stop me, Prince."

She stepped out from the shade of the forest into the sun. Grass found no seed in bleached stone, trees bent by a biting wind that dashed up from the surface of the lake. It tossed Thalanes' hair, golden tapestry waving about her face.

"Thalanes, turn back," Thranduil hissed, hiding still behind the bush in the canopy's shadow.

"But aren't you curious?" Thalanes took a step further. Moss faded into patches.

Even if he was, Thranduil wouldn't move. "We are not allowed out here. We will get in trouble."

Turning lazily on her heel to face him, Thalanes made sure he saw the exaggerated roll of her eyes. 

"Where is your bravery, Prince? Future slayer of dragons?" She goaded him.

Thranduil's face paled then went red as fire to the tips of his ears. He drew soil into tight fists.

"Fine. But I am not defending you when my adar finds us."

"Works for me."

Grinning, Thalanes stuck her tongue out at him when he reached her, walking as if burrs would appear beneath his feet any second. She slung an arm over his shoulder, leaning her weight onto him so that he stumbled and yelped.

Constantly eyeing suspicious rock formations -- for they were exposed out here beyond the trees -- Thranduil followed Thalanes' leading steps. Crossing from soft marshlands to damp duned stones, they came in due time to the edge of water, where the land sloped suddenly down and beneath the reeds. 

Covering her silvery eyes from the sun's glare, Thalanes peered out at the boat. Bravely, it was quite close to the lakeshore, keeping to slow currents following the curve of the land.

Suddenly, Thalanes waved her arms; a wild thing. Furled sail snapping at its constraints in a warm stirring wind, the boat began to turn and grow closer.

Yanking her arms down, Thranduil cried, "What do you think you are doing? Is it not enough to look?"

"No," Thalanes said, her eyes bright and fixed.

Fishing nets hung from the boat's rigging, ripe for the catch. Its hull rippled beneath the clear water with encrusted glossy barnacles, wide oars breaking the surface of the lake with great force.

Curling into himself, Thranduil shrunk away. He bent and gathered a large pointed rock in his hand, hiding it behind his back. Young elves did not carry knives, for they were not to stray from the forest, and never to meet the monstrous Men of stories. 

Standing as close as she could to the edge, Thalanes ignored him and watched the boat's approach with fatal interest.

Oars stilled, and a dark head crowned by a fraying woolen hat appeared over the stern.

"Who goes there?" A rough voice called. Sunken coal eyes widened as the fisherman took in the creatures before him. "Yeer elf children!" He gaped.

"Obviously," Thalanes said in his Westron.

The fisherman appeared surprised that she could utter any sound at all. Thranduil's grip tightened on his rock.

"Well, what brings ye to me shore? I ain't never known no elf dare wander out this far from yeer trees."

Thalanes cocked her head. "Not in your lifetime. We wanted to meet a Man."

"'We' is an exaggeration," Thranduil grumbled under his breath beside her.

"And it's our shore, anyway," She added.

The fisherman scoffed and spat over the lip of his boat into the water. It sank with a meek plop. "What would ye children know o' matters o' whose land is whose?"

"We are not unlearned savages." Thranduil spoke up, bristling.

Turning his coal gaze on the princeling, the fisherman looked him up and down with distain. "You don' look much learned to me."

Spiteful, Thranduil bared flat white teeth. Appreciative of his effort, Thalanes in turn pushed a hiss through her long canines. 

The fisherman recoiled like a Man confronted by beasts. Fear ignited her nose.

"Bah!" He cried, casting about his arms in order to shoo them, "Turn back to yer forest. Th' world o' men ain't for ye!"

Ready to trade rounds of scathing insults, Thalanes opened her mouth, but Thranduil dragged her away by her arm before any sound could leave her.

"You're an ugly Man!" Thalanes spat over her shoulder, then they sprinted for the forest's edge.

>---|-

Nimble, Tauriel hopped from a low twisted bough of the tree to where the shrubbery reduced suddenly into stone. Wasting no time, she moved lightly, leaving the forest and following the river. 

When she paused at the bloodied beginning of the Dwarves' trail, footfalls alerted her to pursuit. Arrows were nocked and bowstrings drawn in a flash.

Halting, Alphes raised her hands in surrender.

"If I were an orc, you would be dead by now." She returned a swan-fletched arrow to her quiver.

Tauriel eyed her warily. "Then how fortunate for me you are not an orc. What are you doing here?"

"Watching your back, obviously."

The speech formulated during her journey through the forest dissipated into vague adoration. Tauriel lowered her bow. 

"Thank you."

Smiling, Alphes shrugged, as if denying her father and King was of no consequence, her decisions to follow of no weight. 

"Well, not even the brave Captain can hunt thirty orcs on her own."

"It seems I am not on my own."

"Never," She promised.

Lump rising in her throat, Tauriel played with the fletching of her arrow. "If I go back, I will never forgive myself--"

"Tauriel." Eyes soft, Alphes stopped her. "I know. I am with you."

Searching for some possible out for the Princess, her mouth worked silently for moment. "Thranduil will not take kindly to his heir leaving her station."

"He is not going anywhere soon. Now, the plan?" Alphes prompted, moving in lithe hops to stand beside her.

Returning her bow and arrow to their proper places, Tauriel sighed and looked back across the lake. "Kill those orcs, then face whatever comes next."

"Mmh. Shall we?" Alphes gestured along the shore to a small quay.

Droplets of Dwarven blood made the trail easy to follow by eye, let alone scent. Constantly eyeing suspicious rock formations -- for they were exposed out here beyond the trees -- Alphes followed Tauriel's leading steps. They moved swiftly to the edge of the water, where the land sloped suddenly down and beneath the reeds. 

Stretching fog was beginning to swamp the lake. The quay was abandoned, though the stench of Dwarf deepened and intermingled with Man. They had garnered passage here.

Alphes kicked a splintered barrel ring. "So how do we cross the lake after them?"

Tauriel scanned what was visible of the waterline. "We follow the shore to the bridge," She said, pointing.

Alphes adopted a sweet tone. "And how do we get to the other side of the river? Or shall we go the long way around?"

Tauriel levelled her with a glare. "Do not mock me."

Throwing up her hands in surrender, Alphes dropped the voice. "As you command, Captain."

Frowning, Tauriel set her hands on her hips. "If you're going to complain the whole way, why are you even here?"

"Someone needs to defend our home. Evidently, it must be us." Alphes pointed a little ways upstream to a lone bowed tree breaking through moss and stone on the opposite riverbank. "Look, that branch extends over the river. Do you think we can make the jump?"

Caught between two answers, Tauriel fumbled. "Um, yes, it looks far enough."

"Then let's go."

>---|-

The house was quiet in the aftermath.

Legs shaking as she rose from behind the overturned table, the youngest child breathed fast and shallow. Quickly, the eldest pulled her to her front, arms secure around her sister and eyes aflame.

Accepting Alphes' offered hand, the middle scrambled up from where he had fallen during the fight. His fingernails scratched the fine leather of her bracer until he found his footing.

"They wanted Dwarves. Do you?" The eldest asked, guarded.

Tauriel sheathed her daggers in a slow motion that kept her hands visible; not that the children could act faster than she could move if she so chose. Moonlight pooled around her from a rupture in the roof.

"Those orcs were our prey. We must follow the rest."

Eyeing Tauriel, the eldest steered her sister behind her coat. The middle stood beside them, slightly rising into his toes.

"The Dwarves aren't here. They left for the mountain this morning," The eldest said, then cast a look around the house. "Those orcs would've killed us just for being here, if not for you both."

Alphes yanked her arrows from the stilled bodies of orcs bloodying the house. "Children shouldn't be caught in this fight."

Following her movements, the eldest's gaze dropped to the bodies, weapons slack in deadened grips. Weeping lacerations that had been their end were clean, precise. Black blood soaked fast into the grains of old wood to rot. 

Steel rung under a hammer strike in her eyes. "You should stop them."

Tauriel moved to the doorway. The night was clear, earlier fog long since shifted. The mountain was a dark shadowed shape across the lake. Redness lit the seams of its great doors.

Appearing at her side with a full quiver, Alphes caught her hand. "Dwarven lives are not our responsibility."

"No," Tauriel sighed, "It is the dragon they have woken that scares me."

Alphes followed her gaze, then glanced back into the house. "Do we hunt?" 

This was her choice to make. Devout, Alphes would obey her call. After all, she was a soldier of the Guard, and Tauriel her Captain.

Tauriel looked over her shoulder at the huddled children. If she understood one thing, it was that what is most important must be prioritised and kept safe.

"No." She looked back at Alphes, and locked their fingers. "We protect. The Dwarves, the dragon, are out of our hands."

"But the Men are innocent in this," Alphes filled in. Tauriel nodded.

A ring of scraping metal sung behind them. "The Master won't listen to you," The eldest child chipped in. 

She had been listening, and now held a pikehook in a passable grip. Her brother stumbled under the weight of an Orcish sword, unable to raise its tip from the floor.

A roar shook sky and earth and water.

"He will listen to that."

"Time to go," Alphes said, taking the sword from the boy and discarding it.

Herded down the stairs to the little boat fighting its rope tie in unsettled water, the eldest insisted on keeping the pikehook, laying it lengthwise across the hull. The youngest tucked into her brother's arms and screamed when dragon fire lit buildings across the canal, taking to flame like matchsticks.

The two elves exchanged a glance. Tauriel cast off the rope, and Alphes plunged oars into glowing water.