#Caz writes stuff

[endawn]

REFER HERE . act 3 conclusion to his 'personal' quest. sort of. bal reclaiming the rite would involve ascending pax. thereby making PAX a vampire ascendant instead of caz or astar..ion. which, would only deepen mol..ag’s hold on him and bring his body all that closer to becoming a vessel / conduit for bal to cross over into the mortal plane with. not only is the tadcrew saving pax and all those spawn, but the world from another being bent on death and domination. before the crew sets out to deal with caz, there will be a little camp event involving pax where he’ll mention feeling strange but believes it to be the lingering necrotic energy he absorbed while in the shadowlands ( this will be important later ) compounded by being a tad overwhelmed by the hustle & bustle of the city as he has not been in one for some number of years. he can be questioned further and if a perception check is passed, the pc can notice he’s nervous about something. if persuaded, he’ll admit the events at the mausoleum are weighing on his mind. yet, he’ll seem hopeful it is not possible outside of the shadowlands despite the absorption of necrotic energy. if asked if he’s still fit to fight, he’ll assure them he is and it’s really nothing to concern themselves over. if, however, the pc tells him to sit this one out and rest, he’ll agree and say it might be for the best.

if he is brought along, after defeating caz, pax will cry out and fall to the ground as he holds his head. mo..lag wields a form of mind magic: he intrudes upon the minds of mortals as a form of torture. it is an invasive, agonizing experience. by forcing his way into a mortal's mind, he can show them horrific visions. he does this in an attempt to make pax more susceptible to possession; break his will. this together with using his influence over necrotic energies, bal is able to take over the knight's body. if going with the left at camp choice, pax will show up right after defeating caz but not before the crew can pull him out of his coffin. the dawning realization something is wrong with him; his eyes. the light in them is void. there will be little time to react before pax starts attacking the party. a voice not quite his own begins thanking them for returning his rite to him. they will remember it as mol..ag’s when he possessed pax at the thorm mausoleum. the tadcrew can either try to kill pax, knock him out or try to survive 9 turns against him like with hal..sin’s portal.

note: he has the standard vampire powers of being rather resistant to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage and is unaffected or barely harmed by necrotic magics, resistant to cold and lightning, and completely unaffected by psionics and paralysis. in addition to this, they'd have to overcome his regeneration by using holy water, any spells that produce sunlight or deals radiant damage. creating water and having it act as running water would deal acid damage and debuff him slightly. though, he is more resistant to sunlight than standard vampires. he'd be able to manipulate / pull the blood out of an opponent from a distance sparingly, try to dominate them with his gaze, slam, punch, rend, bite, teleport in mist or as a swarm of bats, turn invisible, thrall person or use his skills as an eldritch knight [ gestures vaguely]. action surge, eldritch strike, weapon bond, war magic, shatter, scorching ray, shocking grasp, thunder wave, magic missile, misty step, shield, booming blade ( need to look into him game wise ).

during the entire fight, pax will be trying to resist mol..ag and regain control of his body. he'll occasionally receive a dazed condition and won't attack or will miss them. apologies can be heard as he strains to speak to the party; apologizing for attacking them. he does not wish to hurt them, he's trying to fight. resist. mol..ag will retort by calling him weak or a worm. as pax is addressing his friends, he'll also invoke a divine each round starting with sten..darr preserve me. if the party is able to survive the 9 rounds, it ends with pax invoking akat..osh and then addressing them all by going divines ! purge this foul darkness ! but not before asking his friends for forgiveness ( or directly going forgive me, cor meum. my heart, forgive me. if romanced ). his body is lifted into the air and erupts in a blinding, all consuming light. as quickly as it came, the light will recede and he’ll drop to the floor while smoke wafts from skin. charred and burned , but otherwise seems to be whole. an outcome he did not expect. he believed he would perish when he invoked the divine spirits. leave naught but ash , purging all of mol..ag corrupting presence.

when approaching his body , they can attempt to shake him awake. it will not garner a response. the pc can then decide to do nothing or cut their palm to allow a few drops of blood to fall into his mouth. doing so stirs him to a semiconscious state and heals a few wounds present on his body. propping him up and offering him a wrist to bite will be met with meek reluctance. if they insist, he’ll bite only briefly and abstains further as he does not trust himself not to take too much in his current state. he’ll use what strength it game him to assist them. otherwise, the party has to deal with caz in his coffin by themselves. during the fight with pax, caz was able to recover some of his health but will be much easier to defeat. IF they wake pax up via blood, despite his still injured state and experience with mol..ag, he'll use his vampire lord form to help end caza..dor one final time. collapsing from exhaustion not long after the battle ends and will not wake again until a day has passed. the tadcrew will have to carry his body out of the palace either way. when he wakes, pax thanks them for helping him and laments on his inability to resist. if questioned on the possibility of mol..ag returning, pax will admit he will but not for a long while. for once, he feels....unburdened. that not all is entirely lost, perhaps. maybe there is some hope for him? at least it was a small consolation his gods answered his pleas. while they could not remove the taint entirely, they were able to temporarily banish bal when his power waned from the strain controlling pax placed on his reach & influence in fae..run. if asked about mol..ag reclaiming the rite, an answer will not be given. he is uncertain. regardless, he'll be notably....happier, but attention quickly turns to defeating the elder brain.

ANOTHER THING TO NOTE: if they manage to kill pax, that’s that. he’s permanently removed as a party member. his body turns to ash. mol..ag will not appear in camp to offer pax’s resurrection for a price. withers will be unable to resurrect him. if they defeat ( KO ) but don’t kill, mol..ag will be unable to maintain his possession of pax. he will be too weak to extend his reach pass the watch of the faerunian gods. the prince will slink back to his domain.

[xynchronicity]

Y'know I never thought of any of my muses as like love interests from romance books but Cazimir really do be like that and I'm honestly proud.

[ensinia-internetstranger]

Hi there hihihihi I infected the SWTD oc I made literally yesterday (Spoilers if you haven't seen it)

You guys remember Weber right? Ofc you do I made her yesterday, and now I've infected herr To kinda explain what I got goin on here. She hangs out with Caz from when he wakes up after nearly drowning (watching over him to make sure he doesn't die (that's literally her job) and then sticking with him to be sure he's alright), to after they find Roy. She sticks with Roy after that and upon Roy stating he needs his insulin she goes to get it for him. After or during (I don't remember a lot of the second half of the game) the whole electricity issue and the getting a helicopter crashed into him Caz gets a call from Weber that's like "Heyyy uhhh, I got the stuff on me. Can you grab Roy's insulin? I've ran elsewhere so the area's safe now but don't come to save me I beg of you" and you get to hear her over the phone just goin through the worst. Caz during his little getting roy his insulin session he runs into her and she looks like this

Yea, not a pretty look. Stuck to the wall. Basically just in the same position as O'connor and Roper. Just groaning in pain while Caz does stuff, she doesn't even sort of attack him like O'Connor and Roper do she's just there like "I thought I told you not to come get me-" and Caz gets what he was there for and leaves. Buuut what makes her interesting you see, this is more of a chrysalis than anything. Some time later and the whole rig is basically like, falling apart and Finlay and Brodie are like "Bro we should do something about that. Ay Caz can you go figure out what the hell is doing that" and for plot reasons Caz does and wuh oh! Guess who it is!

It's Weber! She's detatched from the wall and her state's gotten worse and now she's tearing metal off the ship and just, merging with it. Kinda like the infected absorbing more victims but it's just the metal on the rig. Now, unlike the others, who's death just happened to happen (trots and muir getting squished, rennick drowning, addair being set on fire, ect ect). Caz HAS to kill Weber cause if he doesn't she'll destroy the entire rig. I haven't decided how he kills her but I'm thinkin he manages to lure her to a part of the rig that's like dangling over the edge and he manages to get her on the other side of that bit and she basically does that thing when someone saws off the branch they're sitting on in media and shit and she plummets into the ocean and is not seen again. Rip girliepop Bonus: Post-infection her lines bounce between english and german. With her "HOLY SHIT CAZ HELP" lines being in english and her "Gotta go home to see my family!!" lines being in german. Should I write some voice lines for this poor girliepop? I don't speak german but I could give ya'll some more stuff of her if ya want it

[boxjellyjelly]

i know almost all of you follow me for Weddie stuff but ermmmmmm Muirinnes time!!!!!!!!!!! Anyways here are some headcanons of them because i wanna flesh them out a bit for a fanfic im writing :] ( spoilers for the fic: lots of soft fluffy m0nsterfvcking)

Some of these are probably hella ooc but idc, im cringe and free and i wanna see those two old men BOINK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Innes

- Something tells me he's a good friend of Roys, probably not as close as Caz is obviously, but still I can see them throwing playful jabs at eachother

- Dimples. The man has dimples. You cant change my mind.

- Extremely patient and level headed, i mean, we saw how he was when his literal best friend turned into a sludge meatball, shock or not he was clear headed enough to tell Caz to get his shit together so they could (try to) help eachother out.

- I feel like he has a really good relationship with his parents. Type to have sunday dinners with the family before his job on the rig, clean the dishes afterwards and everything.

- Someone said this already (cant exactly remember who) but he definitely seems like the type to destress by just sitting with one of his favorite tv shows in his underwear, smoking a cig and sipping a beer. Though, occasionally he destresses by hanging out with the rest of the crew.

- During competitive games i feel like hes the type to try an trick the other out of winning, making a quick loud noise, getting in their head, stuff like that lol (Muir backs him up every time)

- Always up to some weird shit like feeding seagulls bits of his lunch or helping Roy cook even though he has 0 culinary skills

Muir

- Papas boy. 100%. Has a few pictures in a picture book of him and his dad working on cars together

- The type to work so fast he forgets safety, gets injuried (not huge injuries, things like smashed fingers, split nails, etc) on the job all the time

- Dares/bets some of the crew members to do stupid shit whenever work feels too slow to him, Finlay and Caz are the only ones who still take him up on the dares

- Actually really smart though when he wants to be, to the point that it suprises some people

- I also feel like hes suprisingly good at drawing. No professional by any means, but the type to make nice scribbly doodles when bored or taking calls (Mostly of cars or the crew, sometimes the stray seagull too)

- Always. Gets. Sick. During the colder seasons. Im talking sickly victorian ill but still wanting to work, Innes has to practically force him to stay in his cabin.

- His love language is calling people names and having playful verbal fights. Sometimes roughhousing too but after Finlay threw him into a door and broke it, Rennick put a stop to that real fucking quick

[radi0gh4stxd]

Au infodump post!!

I feel like I’ve wrote enough about this au to now, like, post about it?? I don’t know, but I think writing it out might help me to fill stuff in lol.

I don’t think this will be a long post, but I intend to yap a little so yeah-

Habromania Au!

Yes, I’ve finally got a name for it, but longer than I wanted it be called but eh, it’s whatever. Fun fact: the word means, ‘Delusions of Happiness’, and I think that fits the premise of my au as well as it can right now.

Now, onto the actual Au.

So, this au focuses a little more on my favourite little guy, Raffs!! He was given the short stick in the Og game, so I’d thought I’d let him shine a little in this au!

Don’t worry, Caz is still around and is just as important, but I’m not confident in my ability to write him yet, so for now, Raffs is our main guy!

Everything leading up to the drilling stays the same, except in this, Raffs isn’t the one going into the dive bell, it’s Brodie. Why?? Because one) I needed a reason for Raffs to not be infected and two) I wanted Brodie to be an infected in my au. So, basically Brodie decides that, to soothe the boys anxiety, to go first to just show him that all is fine, and that he’s safe.

And then the drill happens. And The Shape wakes up. This stays the same. Caz and Gregor still fall, except, I decide to be nice and decide that Gregor also gets to live, so Raffs and Douglas pull those two out, help them and that jazz. Douglas and Gregor stay with the diving bell, and Caz and Raffs go down and investigate, like in the game.

They find Gibbo, not infected, but rightfully scared. Finlay is also here, but she isn’t too well, instead of Gibbo getting the stuff in him, it’s her. But she swears she’s fine, that it didn’t hit her skin or whatever. So now, the group makes their way to accommodations, where Roy, Trots, Archie and possibly, again im making this up as I go, O’Connor are. They talk, discuss what the hell is happening and are later joined by Douglas and Gregor.

Archie is Very happy to see Gregor alive :)

Raff’s quick to ask where Brodie is, because you know, if they’re here, then where’s Brodie?? And the two explain that, well, Brodie went to look for him. But he wasn’t right, something was definitely wrong with him. But he was gone before they could ask anything.

So, now they have to go round the rig, searching for the others. And the shape stuff still happens, infected still try and fuck them over yadda yadda-

Now not everything written here is set in stone, but most is. This is me just kinda word vomiting and hoping it makes sense.

Now, the Shape and the infection and infected.

As already seen, some of the og infected aren’t infected here, while some who weren’t infected are. Thats only a few characters, most of the og infected are infected here too.

The infection is different in this au. It’s mostly mental, but physical traits still appear, but it mostly stays in its origin spot of infection, unless said person has more than origin spot of infection <3

Think of this like, a mashed up version of those mlp infected videos, the infection from hollow knight and the mold from resi 7. I’ve taken bits and pieces of what I like about them and just- threw them in a blender.

^^^

These are like, shoddy, sketched renditions of what I mean by the , ‘physical’ effects. The one on the left is Muir, and the one the right is Brodie. Not the best but I tried-

Now, I did change some things about the Shape for this au, and how it affects the crew, but I might, and by might I probably will, make a separate post for that.

As for now, that’s all I’ve got for this au. But yeah! Fun! If you have any questions about this au, I’ll try and answer them best I can, but I’ll warn you, I’m not to great at it. So if it comes off a bit awkward, that’s why<3

[billy-cockblock]

Your beacon fic goes SO HARD dude. I gotta ask, will Caz be developing any more mutations as the fic goes on?

WILL THERE BE HINTS OF HIVE MIND STUFF WITH HIS FELLOW INFECTED?????

Your getting me invested bro and it's perfect timing I just started watching Jack's let's play of this gameeee <33

THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! And YES JOIN US

For Caz developing more mutations as the fic goes along, I thought about it, and kinda wanted to, but ultimately decided not to. Kinda spoilers for what I want to write later, but my thoughts were that the shape infected them and caused them to mutate, but if this were a good end thing, then they couldn’t come back to the mainland if they were still infectious. So, once they get infected, it mutated them, but then their immune systems kinda fight off the infection and just leaves them like that. The same happens to Caz, but on a much smaller scale (and with a sprinkling of my theory that he gets Ethan Winters’ed and it somehow slows his infection). He got infected, it mutated him to be able to bioluminesce, and then his body fought off the infection and left him like that.

And I LOVE HIVEMIND STUFF. It might not be on the level of a true hivemind, but I definitely plan to have some “we’re connected on a deeper level than people are supposed to be” stuff. Hehehe

[ghxstlly]

Is there any starting point of your aus Caz i kinda got stuck while reading and idk what to do now [I'm sorry for asking (⁠´⁠;⁠︵⁠;⁠`⁠)]

Yea— I'm very sorry, I have a hard time keeping organized. The plot of my AUs is fully written out in my head, but because I tend to only write out and share the most interesting/fun parts, I can see how that might be a bit hard to follow.

I am working on making up like a sort of .. timeline for my Attorney AU that'll hopefully help, but if you have questions about that kind of stuff, don't hesitate to ask! It's no problem for me at all :)

[thechaoticghostscientist]

The Queen and Her Subject

Woooo boy am I excited to be writing this. Finally a fic I'm actually putting time into

Word count: 1,298 words TWs: Lovely-dovey gooey mushy stuff, kinda self-shipping ig? Also kinda OC x canon

And here’s what I imagine these characters would look like

But also the bendy in this would look like This (credit to the creator of this, it’s SO cute)

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I HIGHLY suggest listening to this before you read on, because one of the main characters and the main story of this prologue is VERY MUCH based off of this video. All credits I mentioned go to this creator on YouTube ⌄⌄

Now since that's out of the way, ENJOY THE SHOW!

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“M-My Queen? Are you all right?” A nervous wimpy voiced asked

“!!!” 

Jumping out of her skin, she is jolted awake. Already with adrenaline pumping through her body. Though as quick as a blink, poor Caz already has her hands up ready for any and all danger.

“W-Who are you? Where am I? What i-is this place?” She sputter with a twisted fear in her voice

“My Queen! I-It’s alright! You’re alright! Really, you’re ok.” 

Stopping dead in her tracks as if regaining her senses. She notices a few things off about this mysterious person helping her. 

1) He (or whatever it may be) called her a “Queen.” Why in the hell would it do that? 

2) The voice seems to be coming from…a bendy shaped figure? She notices stitches. Is it one of those many bendy dolls with a crooked smile? 

“W-Where…where am…where are we?” She questioned in low shaky breath

“...S-See for yourself” The wimpy bendy figure suggested. 

Doing as she was told, Caz begrudgingly gets off of the ground to soak in the atmosphere. At first, she notices they are on what appears to be an island with a door behind them. Surrounded by this…weird black stuff. The ink? 

With a tapping on her shoulder, the weird awkward alive bendy plush points another thing out. “Look…look at that” it asks with fear in its voice.

Caz then turns around, not knowing what to expect. What she sees makes her more confused than anything. A giant blocky machine with tubes and wires poking all around it. 

“Woah…what even is this place? Who are you?” Caz sternly asks the bendy doll. 

Without even giving it time to respond, Caz already starts to spew even more questions. Something about this small living bendy plush is weirding her out. And yet something about it seems familiar.

“What’swrongwithme?WhereamI?Whoareyou?Howareyoualive?Howdidthishappen?What’shappeningtome?”

With the freaked out tone and with her having a sudden panic attack, the nervous bendy doll tries to consult the paranoid newbie again.

“It’s alright! It’s alright! Your highness, please! It’s me.”

Who? How the hell is she meant to know who this stranger is if she can’t even remember how Caz herself got here. 

“You? I don’t know you! I don’t know anything that’s going on!” She vents out in feared rage. “I don’t even know how I got here…” the new freak-show murmured solemnly.

“Why, d-don’t you recognize me? I-It’s your loyal drone servant, Billy Bee. Well, I w-was a bee” He says as he looks back at his upside-down heart tipped tail as it whips around. Then it all clicks. Caz knew what this black stuff was and how she got here, “Oh, weren’t you that one-off character I one-off voiced in that one-off episode about bendy tryna steal honey? I was the….queen bee, right? Is that why you keep calling me royal names? You still must think I’m her. I really am not.”

Puzzled, Billy asks “Not h-her? Even if you…you aren’t, you’re still incredibly beautiful l-like her.” Finishing off with a giggle and his cheeks getting lighter. Or darker? Flushed or embarrassed.

“But how did…How are…How can I know you’re telling the truth.” 

“W-Well, I could never hurt you. Honestly, I w-would even dream of hurting you. Y-You my queen! I’ll never do that e-even if I wanted to.” He exclaimed passionately and happily.

“You seem…oddly cheerful despite the situation we’re in.”

Now with that pointed out, the color of the sides of his crooked smile deepen more in color. 

“B-Because I’m with you, m-my queen. Oh, your presence always…always calms me down.” Billy happily whimpered. 

With a huff, the supposed “queen” dusts herself off, ready to move forward. But just as she was about to look back at the moving bendy doll, she noticed yet another thing. Her arms. Then her torse. Then her clothes. 

Sharp dark golden bones seem to be protruding from her elbows out of the flesh of her forearms. Spider-like. Almost widow-like. It’s not causing her physical harm. But emotionally, her view on herself is almost completely shattered. 

“I’m…I’m…How did this happen?”

Then, the awkward bendy plush gently wraps its lanky tail around Caz’s ankle. Tugging away from the surrounding ink. With him being paranoid about something lurking in there.

“I really t-think we should…we should go, my queen”

“Wha- huh?!” Caz exclaims, almost like snapping out of a trace of anxiety. 

Billy couldn’t help but to be drop dead worried about his “queen’s” mindset. Question after question. Worry after worry. Almost as if she can’t let go.

“Wha- what are you talking about, Bills?! Don’t you see? I’m an inky monster! You’re an inky monster. We’re trapped down here!” She snapped. “I don’t know how to explain it but we’re trapped, what are we able to do?!” Caz couldn’t help but to yell. All of this, is getting to her head so quickly. There doesn’t seem to be any luck for them. The gods Joey was babbling about before this happened mustn't be on their side for now.

“I know, my queen. B-But…sometimes there’s only one thing to do. Press on”

.

.

.

With simply a defeated sigh. Caz has nothing left to do but to agree with the small “Billy” plush. Reluctantly though. Not too keen on exploring this horrible and disturbing place. Especially with the likelihood of easily getting lost with not knowing where to go. 

“...I guess we could try.”

Billy giggles happily. Glad his queen agreed with him after some persuasion. Adding a hop and a skip to his step, Billy the living bendy plush begins to flow the “queen” he so lovingly adores. But whilst turning to face the doorway, he caught something just out of the corner of his eye. 

“M-My queen…do you see that.”

Caz then snaps her head back, as quick as an owl. But she notices nothing out of the ordinary. Well, for this world at least. 

“No? What are you on about?”

“That.”

Caz tries to figure out where the nervous little Billy guy is alluding to. He seems to be worried about something about the giant machine almost a hundred feet away from the both of them. Everything is fine. But…the doorway in front of the large machine. On top it reads “GENT” Gent? Something about that word is scaringly familiar to her. Was it a union? A group? No it was a-

.

.

.

A cooperation

Gent cooperation

Shaking her head. Even just that word. Gent. Brings her chills. But it doesn’t go unnoticed. Though very tiny, Billy sees the fear form in Caz’s expression. But like clock work, almost instinctual. Billy scampers up Caz’s leg then arm up to her shoulder. Like a cat when its owner has a bag full of cat-nip. 

He kissed her cheek with a "Mwah" by pressing his tiny plush open mouth grin to her face. Similar to another person with yellow-ish felt. Despite the ink dripping from her eye and it getting onto Billy’s felt-like teeth, he doesn’t seem to mind. Only minding Caz’s state of mind. But not giving a word to the fact that her cheeks also darkened to a blush. Like a towel soaking up water. Getting darker.

“P-Please…don’t be afraid, my queen. I know it’s…it’s scary being h-here right now but, despite my new size I’ll try m-my best to protect you. I can…”

Billy then looks around, scanning the area to think of anything to cheer her up. Then he and his skinny tail spring up when he gets an idea. “I can be y-your second pair of eyes. I’ll stay r-right up here on your shoulder.”

His idea works out. Caz finally cracks out a smile because of him. She’s finally seen something, or someone, who’s willing to help her here. A feeling she’s been longing for all her life. 

“Th-Thanks, Billy. I haven't heard someone say that to me so genuinely in a long long time”

[tinytinybumblebee]

Talking act 3 sad regression?? How about at the start of the Cazador fight, considering Cazador keeps calling Astarion “boy”, talks about family all this time, even goes so far as to call Astarion a “little boy”, then he gets helplessly flung into the ritual—Astarion knows he has to be a big boy to face Cazador and finally get closure, but all of a sudden Cazador is using all of those belittling words that Astarion’s cg had been working so hard to reclaim and make positive again, and all that progress just comes crashing down. Cazador probably would lay into him for seeing him regress right before his eyes if he wasn’t so preoccupied with the ritual and the party now intruding. But eventually in all the terror and fear Astarion feels Tav at his side freeing him from the ritual bindings while the battle rages behind them… just holding him as he sobs and tries to apologize that he can’t be a big boy when it matters most ;~;

I wanna write some comfort for that now but I can’t reasonably post it anywhere lmao I keep my agere stuff pretty hidden since folks are nasty about it..

waaAAAAAAAAAAAA the poor BABY OH MY GOODNESS ;o;

Astarion feels SO bad that he couldn't be a big boy, that he let Caz scare him- but Tav gently shushes the baby bat, telling him that Astarion did nothing wrong, nothing at all! They all know the horrors he has had to face with Caz! They aren't mad at him, they just want their baby bat to be okay and they will do anything in their powers to help him feel safe and okay ;o; aaaa

And oh gosh, it can be scary to post fics but you can always make a sideblog that separates you other blogs ;w;

[e-b-reads]

Books of the Month: Sep 2024

Whoops, should probably do this before it gets any closer to Halloween. Interestingly, and unusually, my reading seems to have slowed down a little in terms of sheer number of books after the summer, but I think this is partly because 1) the fall has still been pretty busy (still plenty of work, though less than during summer camp season, with added school stuff) and 2) I've had the mental energy to read some different, longer books instead of lots of mindless, quick murder mysteries. (Still plenty of mysteries, though). Here's the books from September that I think are worth reading:

The Curse of Chalion (Lois McMaster Bujold): Had an odd experience reading this book: I didn't exactly know what was going to happen, but after I hit some fairly major plot points, I would think, "Oh yeah, that's right," as if I'd been expecting them. (There's some neat twists in this book! I was not expecting them all!) Anyway, I do read a lot and sometimes forget what I've read, so it's possible I read this a while in the past (sometime before I started tracking my reads, 3 years ago) and then forgot most of it. I don't plan to forget it this time, because I really enjoyed the experience! Good writing, and I do like a main character who's already seen a lot of shit and would ideally like to just live a quiet life (but also sighs and takes responsibility for things pretty regularly). Sad to see that the sequel is not also focused on Caz. (I'll read it someday anyway, because again, good writing!) (I'm not sure the etiquette on this, but to give credit where due: I had a few reasons to check this book out of the library, but one was that I've seen @wearethekat rec it convincingly multiple times!)

Broken Ice (Matt Goldman): OK, so this is actually book 2 in the Nils Shapiro mystery series (I read book 1 in August), so I recommend starting with book 1, but I'm more recommending the series than any individual book. Each mystery is interesting and original, but none of them stands out to me in particular; what I like is that the main character could very easily be a loner, sad, possibly alcoholic, slightly sexist private detective, but instead he builds up some healthy relationships over the series (romantic and other), and generally is someone I think I would get along with. There are 4 books so far, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a book 5 someday but I see nothing online promoting one.

Overture to Death (Ngaio Marsh): I don't think I've recommended this Inspector Alleyn mystery before, anyway? I think it's one of her better-crafted ones (they're all pretty good tho, imo), with some fascinating characters. (Though I feel I should mention, I reread it this time because of @oldshrewsburyian mentioning that 2 of the spinster-ish characters were at least somewhat - unflatteringly - based on Dorothy Sayers and wow, they're even worse than I remembered!)

[beatrice-otter]

Planning a Peaceful Campaign

And here is the other yuletide fic I wrote! This one was for Quasar, a pinch-hitter who was not signed up and so wouldn't receive anything without treats. They were the only one of the pinch hitters I could write for. This was my only treat this year; other writing projects got in the way. (Including my late pinch hit for sedoretuex which was fun but did take a lot of time). I knew I wasn't going to have much time for treating given how much stuff I signed up for this year.

This was quick to write but I enjoyed it; and it's always fun to use bits of history trivia I already know. In this case, "spending a lot of time at a particular noble's house to force them to entertain the entire Royal Court (and thus spend a shitton of money) so they won't have the funds to cause future trouble, but also can't complain about their impoverishment" was a common tactic of late medieval/early modern royalty in England. And also, in the medieval period, if someone is abruptly a major player in politics and neither they nor their parents had that kind of power/position/money before, and it's not a case of "the monarch just happened to love this person," and you wonder how come they're such an important/rich person all of a sudden? The answer is usually "tax fraud," which was a booming industry in late medieval England at all social levels.

Title: Planning a Peaceful Campaign Author: Beatrice_Otter Fandom: Curse of Chalion Length: 1424 words Rating: Gen Written for: quasar  in yuletide  2023

At AO3. On Squidgeworld. On dreamwidth. On Pillowfort.

It was a good thing, Iselle reflected as she watched her Chancellor and his wife lay out their luncheon, that all four of them were known as excellent riders with a love of speed and the skill to accomplish it safely. Days like this, when they'd managed to outride the rest of the court and find a place to picnic by themselves, were the only truly private speech they'd had for months.

"You know, this isn't going to work for too much longer," Bergon said. It was his turn to walk the horses to cool them down, and Iselle turned to watch him. The light sheen of sweat from exercise on a warm summer day gave him a very appealing glow, pleasantly reminding her of other things they might be doing to work up a sweat. "We're giving them too much practice, and I know for a fact that dy Garnez has sent for his younger brother, who I'm told is one of the best horsemen in Almesca, to attend us."

"There are other ways of slipping off alone," Iselle said.

"None as enjoyable as this one, though," Betriz said.

"Speak for yourself," Iselle said, ogling her husband. Betriz laughed.

"And eventually we'll be back in Cardegoss for the winter," Caz pointed out. "There, all the spyholes and things are under our control, and the servants loyal to us."

"And then next spring we get to start this whole circus all over again," Iselle said with a sigh. "You know, if you'd told me as a child that I would grow tired of travelling and wish to stay home, I would have declared you more mad than Mother." Who, of course, had not been mad at all, but only seemed that way.

"It isn't the travel, though," Bergon said. "It's being constantly on show."

"Well, that and the fact that we can't stay anywhere we actually like for too long," Iselle pointed out. Hosting the entire court was an immense honor … and also a great expense that could not be refused. Feasts, revels, all the sorts of entertainments a royal court might expect, redecorating the Royina and Roya's bedchambers in the latest fashions, and other costs piled up into a tidy sum. It was a delicate balance: staying just long enough with their supporters that they received the honor but were not too badly impacted, and then overstaying their welcome with the less honorable and loyal nobles without making it obvious that they were simply there to drain their coffers to lessen the trouble they could make.

"When you get pregnant, that'll be an excellent excuse to stay in Cardegoss or Valenda," Betriz pointed out. She sat back and admired the spread that had come out of their saddle bags. "There! Isn't that nice."

"It is, thank you," Iselle said, taking a seat on the blanket next to her friend.

Bergon tied off the horses to a bush—the only tree in the meadow was the one they were sitting under—and joined them. Caz said a blessing over their meal; when he'd first become her tutor, back in Valenda, such things had often been omitted or done by rote. No longer.

For a few minutes things were quiet as they all worked their way through the excellent spread of cold meats, cheeses, and pasties.

"So," Iselle said as they sated the initial appetite the ride had given them, "we leave the castle of Gipendio in two days to head to Irebar, where dy Rubanco has his primary seat. Is there anything we need to wrap up here?"

"No, madam," Caz said.

"I'll be sorry to leave," Bergon said wistfully. "Dy Lopeira is such good company." The two of them were well on their way to becoming fast friends.

"Well, he's invited to Cardegoss for the winter, and he'll probably come," Betriz pointed out. An invitation from Bergon and Iselle was not quite a command, but few would refuse without an overwhelming reason.

"Best soak up the camaraderie with him now," Caz said. "There'll be little enough of it in dy Rubanco's household."

Bergon grimaced, and Iselle sighed. dy Rubanco had not been involved in dy Jironal's wild march across Cardegoss to capture her and Bergon, but he had been a friend and loyal follower of the previous Chancellor. He'd been as close as dy Jironal had allowed anyone who wasn't family. dy Rubanco had, of course, professed all proper allegiance and disavowed his former master, but there were rumblings and rumors that Caz didn't like. In particular, there was a great deal of hostility to Ibra circulating in Irebar, with just enough plausible deniability for dy Rubanco that they couldn't do anything about it.

"How long do you think we'll have to stay?" she asked Caz.

Caz shrugged. "He's got deep pockets. On the other hand, part of that may be because of favors dy Jironal did for him. In particular, my clerks have turned up some discrepancies in the tax records for the area. By quite a substantial margin. In particular, a number of grain mills and smaller manors seem to have quietly vanished from the Chancellery's records over the course of Orico's reign."

"Can we get him to repay some of what he should have been paying all along?" Betriz asked.

"Probably not," Bergon said. "With dy Jironal dead, all he has to do is say that he paid his taxes through in-kind gifts we now can't trace."

"Or that there were a series of bad harvests, and it was only supposed to be a temporary reprieve, and he had no idea the Chancellor altered the records," Iselle pointed out. 'I had no idea the Chancellor's actions weren't legal or legitimate' was, unfortunately, a very popular defense in Chalion these days.

Betriz opened her mouth, probably to outline how to get enough proof of collusion to be worth doing something about, and then slumped with a sigh. "And if we went after him for it all, that would spoil the new beginning we're trying to create. Too bad. We could use the money."

"We could indeed," Caz said, making a face.

Iselle hummed agreement through a mouthful of pastie. Between wars they'd lost, tax breaks for his relatives, and funds diverted to those relatives and allies in one way or another, the treasury was rather threadbare. And the fact that Orico never traveled, staying at Cardegoss where the Roya's purse funded all the feasting and entertainment, didn't help. The roads were in a terrible state, major aqueducts and bridges that should be maintained by the Roya were in a state of disrepair, and there were so many neglected areas of the country where a small amount of attention and money would bring things into greater prosperity and stability.

"Still, getting the tax rolls properly updated will make a difference going forward," Caz said. "And mean that he has fewer funds to make trouble with."

Bergon sighed and took a swig of watered wine from his flask. "And we won't have a moment's peace or privacy while there for however long it takes to get everything straightened out and drain his current coffers."

"He's known for his elaborate spectacles," Betriz pointed out. "I've heard he has a court playwright who is rather good."

"And he'll be kind enough to loan us servants who will be happy to sleep at the foot of our beds so they can be attentive to our whims day or night," Iselle said. "And report everything to him, no doubt." Including not just her conversations and her visitors, but also the state of her menses, no doubt. She made a face.

"Well, we'll just have to deal with it," Bergon said pragmatically. "If nothing else, our enthusiastic marital intimacies will be better gossip than the things he's spreading around now."

Iselle made a face. Being known to be devoted to her husband and, er, enthusiastically trying for an heir was definitely better than the alternative; she still would rather not have people gossiping about her at all. But that was too much for a royina to ask for. "Months of no privacy, on display like an animal in a cage. Well, it's certainly a less expensive method of bringing him to heel than any other I can think of; it has that advantage."

"Less expensive for us, that is," Betriz said.

"No point letting tomorrow's problems spoil this lovely day, though," Bergon said.

"Hear, hear," Iselle said, saluting him with her flask. "And it is such a lovely day."

[cazthesunhine]

╭──────༺♛༻──────╮

ABOUT ME

╰──────༺♛༻──────╯

˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

~~ Loading..... ~~

🌸-Name: CAZ

🌸-Age: 19

🌸-Gender: Female

🌸-Pronouns: He/him

🌸-Sexuality: Bisexual and trans 🏳️‍⚧️

🌸-Birthday: 17/2

🌸- a person with pure heart

🌸-Country: 🇪🇸

"Angels dont cry, they should protect"

🌸 -Likes: Drawing,making new Friends, rp (sometimes), writing backstories or any type of adventures, listen to music, being funny and kind, Hangout with Friends and more people, my bf :3, Lore, watching movies normal and horror ones, drawing spooki and Kawaii stuff

🌸-Dislikes: Drama, Fake friends, ect

🌸-triggers: pr*shippers, ped*ph***, rule 34, metion someones name that i mostly hate, zeephobia or idk what is it

🌸Heaven is a place on earth with you, tell me all the things you want to do..☆

☆[What i suffer ]☆

🌸-autistic

🌸-anxiety

🌸-brain problems

🌸-ADHD

🌸-Stress

🌸-emotional

🌸-despression

☆[things im fear]☆

🌸-Spiders

🌸-terrible nightmares

🌸-people making fun of me

🌸-being abused

🌸-Scorpions

☆[Hobbies]☆

🌸-Artist

🌸-animator

🌸-writter

(Oh! and voice actor!!!)

☆[Apps what i use ]☆

🌸-Ibis paints

🌸-Ms paint classic (For pc)

🌸-Capcut

🌸-Flipaclip

☆[Art content i do]☆

🌸-Kawaii mixed with Creepy

🌸-Comics

🌸-Animations

🌸-Gore drawings

🌸-Chibis

🌸-Art request

🌸-Art trade

(i can have art block sometimes lol)

˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

extra!!

🌸- i love making drawings for people, paying attetion to them, comfront someone, being Creative, love to listen some rock music, drawing everyday, talking about how they truly feel, supporting LBGQT 🏳️‍🌈, being closets friends with old times of mine, i hate when people not respect me, being special person trying my best to do nice things.

☆Thank you to know about me! Hope we can Talk more! Have a great time!! ☆

Thank u for reading!!!! <3

[sleephyuns]

hi caz, saw your post about the 3 year anniversary of this account and wanted to give me congratulations and thanks for still writing and giving us content after so long. its so nice getting fun and interesting new works from you and i appreciate that you still try to give us stuff when you take breaks. thank you for everything <3

Thank you for sticking around for so long! This is a very nice message, and it’s very encouraging to know you’re still enjoying my writing. I worry it gets stale, but thank you for still enjoying it!! Thank you for being so sweet ❤️

[d4ngerous-shadowbanned]

𝐆𝐄𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐔𝐍.

—BASICS

NAME : cazcaine, caz

PRONOUNS : he/him

ZODIAC SIGN : sagittarius 

TAKEN OR SINGLE : poly actually

— THREE FACTS

i love beagles.

i own a beagle, he's a rescue beagle, his name is tracker and he's my emotional support everything i love him sm i will send photos

i also love leon kennedy. with my whole heart.

— EXPERIENCE

PLATFORMS USED : tumblr and private discord servers. used to use forums when i started a waaaaays back.

PLOTTING / WINGING IT / MEMES : horrible at plotting, can't come up with ideas on the spot for the life of me so if you wanna plot you gotta have something in mind for me to bounce off of. i prefer to wing it but most thing i love is just goin off ask memes.

—MUSE PREFERENCE

GENDER : for personally writing; trans men. for interacting; any.

MULTI OR SINGLE : i prefer multi because brain go brr when it's me writing. i don't have any preference for writing with, everyone's valid for what they wanna do with they blog.

LEAST FAVOURITE FACECLAIM(S) : i'll be honest i can't stand ta/ylor sw/ift's face. idk what it is. i just dislike it. obvi not supporting anyone who did anything bigoted or stuff like that but idk this stuff of top of my head.

— FLUFF / ANGST / SMUT

FLUFF: certain muses at certain times i'll fluff with but usually oneshot asks for the most part if it makes sense. too much and i disconnect a bit.

ANGST: i've been told i make people cry when i write angst? idk. it's fun. i like it.

SMUT: admittedly? yes. love it. will write more vanilla/normal stuff on this blog and keep any k/ink for a n/sfw blog i have.

tagged; no one tags me i stole this tagging; idk who hasn't so... say i tagged you if you ain't done it?

[cazthewasp]

Caz here, I'll probably write the reason why I was inactive for a long time later, maybe. Here's some stuff I made over the past few days, I'll post some more at a later date.

[goblinselfshippr]

WAIT IVE NEVER TOLD YOU GUYS ABOUT MY S/I'S VENOM-

Mostly because my s/i is just me and my brain is like "yeah a fallen angel that got turned into a siren, thats p straightforward". Except more than half the population doesn't know sirens aren't mermaids, so NO caz, it is not. Anyway welcome to Caz tries to use their rudimentary biology knowledge to make it make sense (even though its CLEARLY only there to write two different scenes self indulgently)

Anyways. In the original mythology, sirens ate humans. I mean, fair, there isn't much else to eat on an island, but there does seem to be a never ending supply of human men deciding they are entitled to the bodies of these creatures just because they appear female.

I also have it written that sirens were hunted for their blood and their wings because their blood can heal wounds in minor doses, but too much is addictive (like certain pain medications). More on this later. Their wings were mostly trophies, but they also have defensive feathers here and there, which are very tough and sharp.

Okay, anyway, "Caz, how do they have venom?" So like. their saliva still contains trace amounts of the compound that causes the healing and stuff. It doesn't really heal because it's missing some of the proteins, but it does still give a lightheaded/tingly effect to someone unused to it. This means all f/os have to go through a slow acclimation process (luckily, most demons are immune and don't have to worry about that. Angels, demons in a human vessel, and obviously humans, on the other hand...). Otherwise, they risk it infecting them similarly to a siren song. Think devoted zombie kinda deal.

Yes I'm saying they kiss my s/i and are like, "oooo more" and then she has to have the self control to NOT let them poison themselves. Even if it would make them happy (people pleaser complex).