#Did I write a story about a building

[sweetestlittledarling]

The Magic Shop

Rating: PG

Warnings: Bad Grammar I suppose?

Pairing: None to speak of and maybe all?

Summary: An unusual narrator tells their story...

Note: For @vesuviaweekly's prompt of "I missed this". Also, this is my head cannon for the au I work in so some of the backstory to the magic shop maybe different from the actual cannon.

              The magic shop had a back story all its own as well as a life to go with it.

              It was built to contain only two people, the old woman and her young charge. They were the first to put magic into the place, which in a sense brought it to life. To the unobservant person it would be just another shop, a building made of wood and stone, but to those who knew the truth, it was a living creature all its own. For years the magic flowed from the shop as runes were carved and protections put in place. Alongside those things of course were songs, warm food, and conversation which kept the shop happy as it felt its power growing. Then one night, with only one last look back, the young lady left, and things changed.

              It was a bitter and cold time. The old woman was the only occupant now, her old hard hundred-year-old magic made the floorboards creak and sag. Customers who filled the shop were no longer as frequent as they were scared off by her anger at the world that had left her alone. The shop felt a similar pain as it felt its life draining away. Could a magical place die? Did it die or just return to being a normal place again?

              One day a man arrived and with him three young faces. The shop recognized them almost immediately as belonging to the young woman from so long ago. Their magic was new and warm, though they were a little hesitant at first. But happy for any change, the shop welcomed them. It wasn’t easy at first, especially given the fact that in a shop built for two there was now double that amount. The bigger room was forced to fit there, a curtain separating the older from the younger for a time. But it didn’t really matter in the early months as the two younger had trouble sleeping and slept with their brother almost every night. The shop did its best to keep the creaking to a minimum so as to not spook the poor dears.

              Over the years the shop would come to learn their names as well as their magic. It loved all three of them, though she had a soft spot for Robin who was constantly trying to make the shop their home. Even when the old lady left, he was willing to fight for the failing shop, not wanting to give up and lose yet again. His magic replaced the old woman’s, giving it strength. Of course, he was not alone as the twins brought their own sparks. Sparrow filled the shop with song and tea, while Lark was laughter and smiling.

              Then there was the wandering magician, Asra.

              When he arrived, something clicked. The circle felt complete. The family was whole. Curiously Asra’s magic echoed that of Robin’s so it all just worked so well. Asra was a wonder, almost like an enhancement to the magic around him. The shop adopted him as well and welcomed him as he moved into the small room that once held the craggy witch. The shop took care of its children, protecting them and giving them shelter as they grew and changed. Those were happy years.

              Then came the plague and one by one the children disappeared. No one could hear the cry of anguish from the floor boards. The shop watched as one by one they left and never returned. Well, all except one. The wandering magician returned but he had changed. He no longer smiled like he used to. He tried but the shop knew. It knew very well the pain underneath. Even when he brought the doctor in, they would never go upstairs. No one was allowed upstairs, and no one was allowed in the big bedroom. Asra would sometimes stop there, hand hovering over the handle as if wanting to go in. But he would instead collapse with his back against the door and cry. The shop wished it had arms to hold him in those moments. It wondered if the pain would ever ease.

              And surprisingly it did, or rather…One night, the children returned. They did not walk through the door, they just appeared. Robin, Sparrow, and Lark returned and the whole shop instantly brightened. There was noise, confusion and shock, but over all there was magic in the shop again. It was the same, but different in a way. Something had changed clearly but the shop didn’t care. Its children had returned and there was life.

              Many things happened after that. There were new faces and old, a bit of drama, and then the city fell into chaos which the shop thankfully was not a part of because of its protections (never had it been so thankful for the old woman and her wards). Over time the shop watched the city become new, same with the people in it. The twins grew even more and soon they found their own spaces, though they were never far. Robin and Asra remained, keeping the magic flowing, though they didn’t remain as they once did. It became quiet. Not as quiet as before, but still quiet….

              But not really quiet.

              The children were never really gone for long and soon others came, filling the shop again with all sorts of magic and the magic shop felt alive again. It had missed feeling full, full of its family that loved it as their home. Luckily it would never have to worry about being empty ever again.

[serpentface]

Hibrides and Brakul having the world’s saddest booze-fueled girl’s night, probably a few months before the start of the story.

Anyway here's an extensive rundown of their shared history.

Hibrides Uryashta was the eldest daughter of a chancellor of the imperial city-state of Erubinnos (his lordship Erub Uryashta). She was brought up with great privilege and security, but (like most daughters of noblemen) was destined to be used as a bargaining chip in a political marriage arrangement. She was taken from her friends and family and moved to the city of Wardin at the age of 16 to complete her pledged marriage with Janeys Haidamane, the failson of the trade magnate Haidamane family. Janeys spent about a week poorly attempting to behave like a husband, and then took the first excuse to flee and engage in a petty military campaign against raiders on the Yellowtail trade route. She found herself left alone in his villa for three years with only hired servants for company. She made a few attempts to break into the city's elite social scene, but was quite shy and failed to make any headway.

Brakul had just spent a year and a half in a bit of a whirlwind. He was brought into a skirmish at the behest of an allied clan, who had been raiding the Yellowtail route and now was under attack by combined forces of an enemy clan and Imperial Wardi mercenaries. He killed one of the mercenary commanders and was captured as a prisoner of war, but was spared at Janeys' behest (who fucking hated that guy thought it was awesome that he got killed with a rock) and was ultimately recruited into the group. He had a chance to go back home, but actively chose to deadbeat dad out on his wife and child to be with his newfound lovequest, Janeys. He spent a year and a half as a mercenary, bonded closely with Janeys and swore brotherhood with him, and was eventually brought home to the city of Wardin with him. He found himself in the odd position of being simultaneously scorned as a foreigner and 'heathen', and the legal kin of one of the richest families in the city (and effectively the secret male concubine of their only male heir).

It was in this context that the two of them met, with Hibrides now being 19 and Brakul turning 27.

The two were initially wary of each other (Hibrides was particularly put off by his 'heathen' status) but bonded very quickly, partly due to their mutual states of being unmoored from their old lives, but in large part being just a natural chemistry. They had a lot of common interests and enjoyed learning from each other. Hibrides introduced him to traditional verse poetry (of which she was very fond). Brakul taught her how to ride khait, and even gave her a gelding from his own collection as a gift. They became very close friends over the next couple of years and spent much of their free time together.

A big part of the dynamic was that both of them are gay in a cultural context where there is no concept of Being gay, marriages are usually arranged and always between a man and a woman, and having children is a societal expectation. Each of them began to see the other as an ideal husband/wife, ie "if I had to marry why couldn't it have been him/her?". For Hibrides' part, Brakul had all the traits she would want in a husband: he was a pretty good friend and easy to get along with, he seemed like he'd do an excellent job of fulfilling expected roles as a husband and father (she didn't know about the wife and kid for a while), he treated her as an equal, and, most of all, had no interest whatsoever in fucking her. They were both in a sort of platonic emotional affair, and grew to love each other deeply.

Hibrides was pretty quick to catch on that something was going on between Brakul and Janeys, and found it strange and offputting but ultimately none of her concern. Her husband only being interested in his sworn brother and leaving her to her own devices suited Hibrides just fine, and Brakul always just kinda being There meant she was living with what had become her closest friend.

The stable state of this Feelings Triangle began to change in the wake of the brilliant plan to get Janeys (gay) (probably infertile) children he could pass off as legitimate via a Brakul/Hibrides pregnancy. It was something all three agreed to as a necessity; it was already drawing scrutiny that Janeys and Hibrides had been married for several years without a pregnancy, and producing heirs is a societal expectation and a central point of an arranged marriage between wealthy elites.

It was especially critical in this case, given Janeys was his family's only male child and only hope of continuing the family line, given both his golden-child sister Faiza and black sheep half sister Couya were Odonii, and thus sworn virgins and would never marry. (There's also a level to this that Janeys was regarded as a complete disappointment by his parents, and his mother made damn sure he knew that his only value at this point was to produce a better male heir to inherit the business. So this was a big fucking deal to him, and to Brakul by extension).

This was also not a route any of them wanted to take on any personal level, least of all Hibrides. She consented to the pregnancy and everything it entailed, but it was inevitably a painful and distressing experience all around. She had never wanted to be a mother to begin with (though had long accepted it as an inevitability), and now found herself with an infant daughter, which only meant it would have to happen again (they needed a male heir after all). And it would be utter social suicide and a profound shame upon her if the child's illegitimacy was discovered, which only added to the stress.

To make things worse, her first pregnancy shifted the entire dynamic with her husband and brother-in-law/best friend. Janeys changed from completely indifferent to actively spiteful and hostile towards her, and things had become extremely uncomfortable between Hibrides and Brakul. It only got worse with Brakul (the only one of them who actually WANTS kids) (kind of haunted by skipping out on his first child) finding it unbearable to be so close to HIS daughter and having to keep up an act that she was not his own, having no direct role in the kids life. He desperately wanted to be a father.

Hibrides, who was going through a fucking lot, started to become vindictive towards him for his role in things. She resented him more than Janeys, because Brakul insisted he cared about her and would desperately try to pretend things were normal, while consistently siding with Janeys against her wishes, including in preventing her from getting a divorce. (His excuse is that the children's legitimacy would be interrogated in a legal setting, which Is likely and Would be absolute social suicide with very real consequences. But the real reason on his part is that if she got out of the marriage, he might never see her or the children again). Hibrides began to do everything in her power to prevent him from having any relationship with his bastard children, even in secret or under the guise of a relative. Sort of an “if I have to suffer to keep up this facade so should you” thing.

They had two children in a span of three years, two girls (ruh roh!) named Erubi and Livya. By this point, Hibrides and Brakul were both experiencing what we would now call Clinical Depression and Alcohol Use Disorder (especially in the latter's case). Hibrides started to have affairs with both men and women, which she was sure to be very obvious about to insult Janeys and Brakul, but was mostly out of loneliness. Brakul turned his complete focus to Janeys and started avoiding Hibrides entirely, in hopes that she would become desperate enough to be willing to make amends (shockingly, this did not happen, and the rift only deepened).

In the present, their relationship status is: fucked. Both of them do still love each other on some level, but this is probably beyond repair. What little time they've spent with each other in the past year is sitting around being miserable and getting plastered. And now Hibrides, Janeys, and Brakul are all forced into the public eye on the pilgrimage together, and with a third child on the way. So that's probably going to be everyone's problem.

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

a major reason that i have developed a moderate interest in finding sci fi i don't hate is that i've found myself locked by the muse into chipping away at what i guess is technically a sci fi story (i mean... it is... i keep phrasing it that way because it feels SO wildly out of character that i continue to disbelieve i am doing it more than four thousand words in...). i don't relate to the idea of characters making you do something because for me characters are just aspects of a text but i do find that i have extremely little control over what ideas come to me and especially over what ideas that come to me seem to sprout into concepts i might actually be able to execute... anyway i find it really annoying that this is one of them because i don't like worldbuilding and the main reason i don't usually seek out either sci fi or high fantasy is because i don't like texts with too much worldbuilding in them and yet here i find myself every paragraph having to think about how to "build" this "world" which is a thought process from which i derive little to no pleasure.

[langfield]

my hot take is that one of double exposure’s strengths was it’s characters, actually! i think people tend to forget how little the characters in lis:1 mattered tbh? they barely had relationships outside of max ( kate and warren are the biggest offenders of this, with kate’s other friends, stella and alyssa, being shown in one photo and warren’s only relationships being with brooke, a girl he never interacts with on screen, and stella, a girl he gets with at random in the vortex timeline ) and would cease to exist once they served their intended purpose to the plot, like nathan, who’s killed off screen after inherently giving max and chloe everything they needed to find the dark room. victoria, bless her heart, is so inconsistently written and suffers hard from the plot manipulating her character to fit whatever role the other characters aren’t filling … etc etc. don’t get me wrong! they’re still good characters! in fact, i love them thoroughly. but you can tell pretty quickly that lis:1 is a plot over characters sort of game -- and that people’s praise for the well written cast of lis:1 is mostly founded in nostalgia and hcs they’ve been personally making for the past nine years. a lot of the dynamics are shallow, nonexistent, or entirely made up from the first game … meanwhile double exposure, with it’s more condensed cast and social media element, was able to do a lot more despite the shakier plot writing.

safi and moses? best friends with actual lore and screentime. safi and vinh? were once in the same friend group, have slept together, he’s in love with her but she doesn’t care for him at all and, if forced to have an opinion, dislikes him greatly. safi and gwen? mentor and mentee, you see how much safi trusts gwen with how she comes out of her shell around her during her experimental writing years, and gwen takes safi hating her to heart because she cared for her too, and ( as heard in a voicemail from vinh ) likely blames herself for safi’s death in the dead world timeline. lucas and safi? former student and teacher, now coworkers, heavily implied safi used to admire lucas before he fucked maya over and now loathes him so fiercely she’s willing to hurt his kid to get back at him, and he’s legitimately scared of her. and that’s just safi’s relationships! a character who the game barely shows on screen in ep2 and ep3. vinh’s relationships are vast and complex, raging from his situationship with reggie ( a dynamic that has a long history that takes multiple playthroughs to understand ) to his intense and bitter rivalry with diamond to his silly, lowstakes attraction to moses to his ‘forged in secrecy and pain’ relationship with yasmin to … so on so forth. moses and diamond have an entire bittersweet dynamic where diamond has found herself loving someone for the first time but not only is moses taken, he also sisterzones her at the end of the game. diamond and reggie are close friends despite their different views and bond over their unrequited love and undergrad struggles. loretta has a crush on reggie! etc etc.

and that’s just the relationships between the characters. the characters themselves are rather distinct from each other -- but that’s a whole other post entirely. are there flaws with the character writing in double exposure? naturally! there are some that aren’t as fleshed out as they could be ( like the lis:1 crew ) and some relationships go nowhere or are inconsistent at best. i could harp on lis:de’s flaws all day, really, because the plot writing after ep3 was rather atrocious tbh!! though i still think people are rather unfair about the pros of the game itself, and the stuff that was genuinely improved upon to a degree such as having the supporting characters exist and interact without max’s input.

[puppyeared]

Atla live action 😐

[themiracleeye]

Castelia City Housing crisis: Man found Monopolizing 5 districts

Castelia Housing - Lampent

It’s no illusion that finding affordable housing in larger cities such as Castelia has been more difficult as of late. But recently, it’s been found that a man known as Rich Boy Harrison has been found buying up appartments across west castelia and displaying especially aggressive behaviour to kick tenants out; Imposing higher rent, neglecting the maintenance of the buildings, and on occasion cutting off water without explanation.

Usually, stories like these end on a sour note. But Jane Quartz, a former tenant, is hopeful about this case.

“ Sure, it’s scary. But when I looked into this and found out just how many people were hit by this, I just knew we can’t take this lying down. ” - Jane

Jane is currently working on gathering fellow tenants of Harrison’s many appartments to mount a class action lawsuit. She reached out to us to spread the word.

“ If the lawsuit is a success, it would set up a precedent against aggressive means landlords take to overprice and terrorize their tenants. ” - Jane

The Miracle Eye will be publishing updates periodically on the matter.

In the meantime, Jane also set up a group via Entralink to support people who are currently facing homelessness or living under precarious situations. To get access to it, you may send a message to her via Xtransceiver at [contact information here].

[moonshine-nightlight]

Hi, I'm always very impressed by your world building skills, even in shorter stories! Do you have any advice for aspiring writers on how to build their fantasy world?

So i drafted a response to this in between working just far too much and then my computer crashed and i lost it. Then i was even busier so i never got around to writing it again but i am making some time this weekend, so worldbuilding post - take 2

My main, high level worldbuilding tips are:

Rule of Cool: worldbuild things you think are fun and interesting. not only is that the best way to get ideas you like and are motivated to write about, but other people will also think they're interesting too. have fun with it.

Iceberg theory: know more about the world than ever makes it into the story. people can sense when worldbuilding is shallow, so even if they never see the true depths of the world they can often sense it's there. plus if u know the whole picture, everything the readers do see will seem more coherent

Integration: i heavily integrate the world i'm building into the story i'm telling--so dig into the plot and characters and make sure that the world and the story serve each other well. your world is there to contribute to the story so make sure its fulfilling that purpose

For more specifics about how i personally world build and for some examples from my stories of the above guidelines, see below.

So firstly, i love worldbuilding. i just think its a ton of fun and could easily spend hours just thinking about worlds in my head. (i mean what else is there to do when ur commuting to work, amiright?) i think that does make it easier for me to take the time to do it right and makes the world come through more vividly in my writing. it can get annoying or tedious or be more challenging at times, but since i like it/find world building interesting, i'm more willing to put in the time and effort to whip it into shape and i get less frustrated with that part of the process in general.

i'm also always thinking about world building to some degree in the back of my mind. picking up interesting information, facts, snatches of cool ideas or images or whatever. then i throw all that in like a junk drawer in my brain so when i sit down to more officially write or flesh out a world, i already have spare parts at my finger tips to use or drawn on.

Reading and consuming other art and worlds also makes it easier to make your own, just lik reading is a key part of writing practice. i don't just mean fiction, but just anything about the actual world makes it much easier to make up your own--that can manifest as awe at the fireflies that actually exist or spite that dragons dont. Whether that's random youtube video essays about the history of musicals or drinks or fashion to books and articles and documentaries or just my friend's niche interests (or their regular jobs). i'm always taking worldbuilding notes in the back of my mind.

For a more writing specific example, i read this short guide '50 Ways to Kill a Mermaid' (its locked for AO3 so u hav to sign in to read it) and it was super fun and cool to read that info from a writer who had studied marine biology. then when i was fleshing out Don't Shoot the Messenger a year later, the problem of Satrasi being a sea demon in a fresh water pool and bloating came to my mind because i'd stored that tidbit from the article away for later use.

My personal method for worldbuilding and plot outlining is sort a brainstorming/Q&A i have with myself (i hope this makes sense when i'm done writing this all out lol).

I've mentioned this before but the prompt that inspired Dale was: "You’re pretty sure your boyfriend was replaced by an eldritch being that can barely emulate being human. Weirdly, you enjoy a better relationship with them than your actual boyfriend."

So when that idea grabbed me, i started brainstorming about the world and asking myself questions. Why is the reader with the boyfriend if they don't really like them? What would make someone stay in a relationship like that? Do i want to make this a dark story? And i did not, i wanted it to be fun, so the arranged marriage angle came to mind. And if that's the premise then when is the story? is this our 'past' or another world entirely? diff world means more freedom so i automatically leaned in that direction.

Can the reader tell the 'boyfriend' has been replaced? Are demons a thing people know about? does the reader know that's an option? which is more fun? if the reader is worried about Dale getting caught, that's more room for hijinks so then yes, demons are known, but not common otherwise too many people would notice.

So my plot and worldbuilding are evolving in tandem and informing each other, based on the type of story i want to tell and how the characters i have in mind will react etc.

i run through a lot of ideas and turn them over in my head--trying out diff pieces to see if they fit--and am always willing to drop an idea or save it for another story if i don't think its working for the current one

For iceberg theory, i mentioned above for Dale would be the religions in that world. When i decided to introduce a priest like character (for discovery danger) i knew i needed to focus more on the religions than i previously had noted. the majority of what i came up with isn't int he story, but i think the fact that i know it helps me write when did end up in there, helped make it consistent, and means i can more easily work in allusions to it without having to work so hard those singular times.

For example, i'd decided to call the demon realm "the Depths" early on, which to me already invokes deep water and darkness, so i followed that through to sort height and air and light as being perceived more positively. fire and light are important symbols in this world and they primarily burn their dead--to bury someone below ground would be seen as almost condemning them and someone drowning is also seen as like, not good for their soul because what if it is 'pulled down' rather than 'ascending'. some of this was alluded to in the chapter, but most of it is not. this also helped me come up with the various "by the light" "dawn's ire" and other similar little 'religious' phrases and exclamations different characters use at times.

Meanwhile, in Sacrifice, the people living their are relatively non-religious--thats why they both don't pray to any other deities and it takes 5 years of problems to even bother trying an old god. it's not sacrilege because they're desperate people trying a long shot, not violating or abandoning a different belief. because i wanted the reader's main problem with it all to just be that they didn't think it work.

And why is she a translator? because i wanted to use the idea from that one post that goes around about how ridiculous it is in movies when their translated prophecies rhyme in english. why are they arguing about the translation? because its a dead language so no one really speaks it, that means the people who came up with it were here a century ago or longer. why aren't they here anymore? nomadic so they left and ended up staying away because of a natural disaster elsewhere. why is this town here now? a particular export/resource in this area became valuable enough for people to try to live here. the fact that its a lumber town due to some rare wood native to the area doesn't come up in the story, but i know it and i think that i know that about the town helps it feel more real, makes it easier for me to reach for new details when i need them

and going back to anything can be inspiration, let's talk about the doorlock in the very beginning of Finally Woken. its literally just a magical keypad/number pad but with different colored tiles instead of numbers because i wanted the reader to be able to get in, but i felt it didnt make sense for them to hav a physical key. and i thought it would look cool in Heshi's door and it went well with the fact that he's a glassblower . also, why is Heshi a glassblower? because i frickin' lov blown glass - i just think its so cool and pretty. that helped lead into the sort of artisan economy feel that world has.

Each of these stories has an outline and notes doc at a minimum. the notes doc is where i throw lik pics, inspiration posts, random worldbuilding ideas etc. only much shorter stories or stories that are heavily based in 'modern' world don't hav extensive random notes.

my Dale folder has subfolders for characters and the setting, as well as random worldbuilding files such as "demon summoning/magic" "spiritual belief and org" "fashion - feminine" and so on. Even excluding the plot outline and chapter notes (and not counting pics) i've got like, over 4k of random notes saved. dale is the one i hav the most of that for, but all my fics have some little section with stuff like that jotted down

in the end, i think the best way to sum up all that is with my three original rules of: put stuff u think is cool in your world, known more than you tell to help everything fit together and seem deep, and build your world around your plot and characters because they should all be working together to tell the story you want to tell.

honestly, i could ramble about worldbuilding all day so if anyone has any questions or wants more examples, just let me know ^^

[unnamed-atlas]

Finally finished sweet tooth s3. Having incredibly mixed feelings

[sygneth]

Jean Vic, everybody.

Me on DeviantArt

[syncopatedid]

That feeling that you can't even write fan fiction for Link Click until the finale of the 10th season because canon will threaten to unravel every headcanon you wrote by the next episode.

[thewardenisonthecase]

the whole 'who should be first talon' thing is actually going to give me a headache the more i think about it

[emdotcom]

*remembers what they did to Vanny* 500 FUCKING PIPEBOMB ATTACK.

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads // twitter thread

The Sun and The Void

Venezuelan inspired high fantasy

follows a young outcast swordswoman taken in by her grandmother, the dark sorceress for a noble family, who relies on the magic to keep her alive after being attacked by monstrous creatures

and a young noblewoman who’s the shame of her family because of her mixed heritage and desire to use magic

both are manipulated by those with more power than them into a plot to free an ancient evil god

mineral based magic, politics, nonhuman MCs

[forcedhesitation]

oh? something mizora said actually being worth listening to??

this is an interesting bit of foreshadowing to ansur being dead/wyll being the true "heart of the gate!"

[solarpunkani]

How much am I allowed to post/ramble about the solarpunk zombie apocalypse story I'm working on before it gets annoying.

Bonus points: I haven't actually gotten to the solarpunk part of it.

[beastsovrevelation]

It's not funny. NOT funny.

Ever since I wrote this rant, I've been growing more and more obsessed with the Fem!Crowley x Michael pairing. It went from I like the concept to the ship has consumed my very being.

Hell, the ideas I burn with. The headcanons. The smut... Oh, the smut.

This is probably such a random pairing in the Good Omens universe. I don't care, I'm obsessed. But, I guess that's why I feel the need to actually portray their relationship developing in some way, before I do anything else (procastrinate by writing random oneshots).

The issue? I have one story, yes. But, instead of working on the plot leading to it, I crave the scenes of them already on fire for each other.

Especially the scene where Crowley's anxious she'll get killed, and Michael sternly (while lovingly clasping her hands) assures her no one's killing her.

Ladies...

What are you doing to me, huh?

(Don't mind me with the faceclaim from Constantine again, it's just the closest thing to my vision of fem!Crowley... What I'm doing with Michael first in my head is fixing the fashion. I'm putting her in a General-appropriate outfit, and hairstyle. Think Roman armour. Or, something white with golden epaulettes. Seriously, what have they done to you, o Most Glorious Prince.)