#Hob Tupper

[elkieselkiewrites]

Blorbo Blursday 23/01

I'm just gonna have a ramble about Tupper WIP's Hob today. I have a lot of feelings about them so I'm gonna go ahead and spill the beans!

If you have any questions about Hob (or any of the other characters here) please do ask them, I am more than happy to spraff.

~*~

Hob is the character I think is most a reflection of me as a person. That doesn't make them easy to write, or even the character I connect with the most, but they are the character that I put most of myself into.

Tupper WIP is a Bildungsroman of sorts, so Hob starts out as a tween, the 7th child out of 12 (all daughters), and they are not particularly happy with their station in life. Hob is smart but undereducated, curious and willing to learn, but stubborn. They are getting to the age where they have become a drain on their family's resources, so they choose to try and get a job while staying with their eldest sister, Judd. However, Judd married above her station, and her husband is resentful of the reminder that his beautiful wife was once a goat farmer's daughter, so Hob is forced to try and make their own way.

This goes about as well as you'd imagine, and Hob ends up homeless for a while, until they are happened upon by Brother Meregrund, a Navildran monk who mistakes them for a boy, and invites them to join him at the monastery in Ryneminster. There, Hob becomes his assistant in the scriptorium. They learn to read and write, as well as how to repair manuscripts, prepare the parchment, mix the inks, etc. quickly becoming an invaluable member of the monastery.

From there Hob meets their (soon to be) best friend Eadwig, Eddy's sister and Hob's (soon to be) first love Merewyn, the grumbling sacrist Brother Hawley, Hawley's ward Kentigern, and a whole host of other characters.

I use they/them pronouns for Hob when talking about them outwith the text, but in the story itself I use "she" to start with, and from then on use "he" because that is who Hob is at those times in their life. However, they have a more complex relationship with gender.

There is a scene in the latter part of the novel where Kentigern has just confessed his feelings for Hob, and Hob has, in return, confessed that "he" is not a man, but when Kent expresses his surprise that "she" is a woman, they have a wee rant about exactly how and why that isn't true, and it's one that I tore straight out of my own experiences of gender identity:

"I'm not! A woman, that is. Though, sometimes I am, I suppose. I am happy to be a man, I feel content to be treated as such, and often feel an ache to truly fit in, to be in body what I know to be in my heart. Then again, there are glimmers of time when I feel strongly that I am a woman. In these moments I want nothing more than to dress and act and feel as a woman is expected to. But then, what does it mean to be a woman, and what does it mean to be a man? I know many a woman who exists in the garb of a man but still feels like a woman, and many men who dress and act as women are expected, and yet still feel strongly that they are men. In the Eastern Provinces what is expected of men and women is vastly different to here, and different again from the expectations of Western Reaches. Who is right, in that instance? For a man to be perfumed is nigh on sinful here, but for a Provincial man not to be perfumed is a veritable offence. Women in the Western Reaches are expected to fight and farm and forge, to contribute to society in every way that a man does otherwise they are not seen as pulling their weight. Women here must seem like vapid trinkets to them." Hob sighed. "Most of the time, Kent, I just want to be seen as me. Just Hob, without the trappings that come with being either woman or man. I do not wish to play the part of either one, only be criticised for embodying the other, when sometimes I feel as though I am both at once, and other times that I am neither."

Hob is the only one of my character explicitly genderqueer in a way that is not simply because they are a fantasy or sci-fi race that expresses biological sex and societal gender entirely differently to humans. I starting writing Tupper WIP back in 2018 when I was first exploring my own gender identity, and Hob as a character still contains so much of that exploration in their story even 7 years on.

[elkieselkiewrites]

Intros and such

Hi! I'm Jasper, in the mire of my 30s, I use they/them, and this is my new writeblr!

I mainly write fantasy and gothic fiction but I also dip my toe into science-fantasy every now and again. Most of what I write is Teen appropriate, but all of my fiction is for Adults and I will ocassionally dip into 18+ territory, so this is a warning to Minors that this might not be the space for you.

My main WIPs are:

The Postmaster's Apprentice

A high fantasy tale of a postie trying desperately to deliver a letter, but forced to have adventures along the way. It has tree nymph elves, stone folk made of real stone, trolls with trade unions, mushroom forests, mountain vampires, giant ghosts, shipwrecks, and more!

The Playwright King

A low fantasy story about a terrible playwright, but excellent actor, who finds himself playing the role of monarch to save the Queen Consort after the real king dies. There are plots and shenanigans, silly Shakespearean identity hijinks, and sentient talking swords.

Tupper's Tale

A low fantasy tale about Hob Tupper, a monk-in-training, scribe's apprentice, and (secretly) not really a boy. The story follows Hob as they learn their trade, uncover monastic secrets, solve murders and scandals, fall in love, and change the destiny of a kingdom or two.

Burning Branches, Golden Trees

A science-fantasy, espionage space opera loosely based on the fairy tale Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree, wherein our heroine Belin enters an arranged marriage, tasked by her boss to discover whether or not her new husband is a traitor, and if not, to uncover the truth of the strange happenings on Palatinate-709. It has far-off planets, space KGB, telepathic eugenicists, spycraft, giant snails, queer polyamory, and more!

You can also find my fantasy maps here

My askbox is always open for questions, and I'm happy to take part in tag games too!

[elkieselkiewrites]

OC Kiss Week 25

Day 3: Stolen

Ship: Hob/Merry

WIP: Tupper's Tale

Warnings: Infidelity, mentions of forced marriage

~*~

The orchard was, indeed, pleasant in the evenings, the cooling earth as fragrant as the ripening fruit. The two of them walked in silence for a while, side by side, before Hob could bear it no longer.

"You're married." He said plainly. "And expecting a child."

"Yes." Merry replied.

"You stopped writing."

"Yes."

Hob paused. "Why?"

"I had to."

"Because you got married?"

"Before then, you know that." She said, chastising.

It stung, to be spoken to like some petulant child. Hob turned to her, anger, hurt, and resentment all bubbling furiously beneath his skin. "Did you fall in love with someone else? Decide that you wanted more than I could give?"

"That's not fair."

"You didn't even have the decency to tell me you were getting married. You didn't even invite Eadwig."

"Do you think that was my choice?" Merry snapped. "Do you think so little of me that I would just leave without a word, get married without my brother and my best friend by my side?"

Hob was taken aback somewhat by the raw pain in her voice.

"My parents found your letters, Hob. They were furious, they thought I had given myself to some poor church boy, that my virtue was compromised and that I'd never find a husband. So, they took away my parchment and ink, locked me in my room until they had secured me an appropriate match that would hide any consequences of our indescretions. A week after that I was married to a man I hadn't meet until his hand was tied to mine." She paused to take a deep breath, bracing herself with a hand on her lower back.

"If I had the power to get you pregnant, that would be the kind of miracle that might even earn me a pardon from the High Priest himself." Hob said lightly. Merry glared at him for a moment before her anger fell away to a quiet bought of helpless laughter.

"How dare you make a joke of this!" She said, swatting Hob's arm.

Hob grinned at her, and when she smiled back it felt as though, just for a second, they were the same children stealing apples from trees in the monastery. Then her smile softened to something sad, and the cool night air caught up with them once again.

"Alaric is not a bad man." She continued. "He treats me well, and values my opinions, even in his war room."

"Sounds like a catch." Hob replied dryly.

"He's a damn sight better than I had expected, especially after everything that happened. I thought my parents would have married me off to some gouty, old Marcher Lord as his fifth wife. It was what they thought I deserved after all."

"This Alaric isn't old and gouty then?"

Merry laughed softly again. "Decidedly not. He's older than I am, yes, but not widowed. He's the younger brother of a Clan Chief, he was always there for his brother when he needed him, and didn't have time for a wife or children before now."

"Merewyn Reksana" Hob said softly, the Ostron title rolling off his tongue.

She nodded. "It sounds strange, doesn't it?"

"It sounds grand. It suits you."

"You don't mean that."

"I don't mean that."

She laughed and nudged Hob playfully. Hob nudged her back, and her smile was enough to banish the early evening chill.

"It was Ulfilas, the Chief, who agreed to the marriage, not Alaric. Neither of us had wanted to be married to the other, which was, surprisingly, what brought us together in the end."

Hob was quiet for a moment, studying her face, a face he had so missed for so many years. "So, you're happy, then?" He said at last.

"It is not the life I would have chosen for myself," She replied. "But yes, I believe I am. I care for Alaric, he has become a dear friend, and understands, I think, that I would have preferred to have been sent to that convent all those years ago. I always envied Eddy for that."

Hob felt tears begin to prick the corners of his eyes. "There was never any chance for us really, was there?"

Merry's answering laugh was watery too. "No, I think not."

Her fingers reached out to tentatively entwine themselves through Hob's, and he felt his heart begin to beat frantically against his ribcage. Hob took her hand more firmly in his own and pulled her gently towards the dark shade of the nearest tree, releasing her only so that he could cup her face in both of his hands, before he kissed her. She sighed into it, pressing herself against him as much as her belly would allow, running a thumb along Hob's cheek as hot tears began to spill down them.

"I have missed you so much." Hob whispered.

She laughed softly and peppered his face with small, tear-damp kisses. "You have been with me every day since we parted, in my head and in my heart. I have never been lonely for memories of you, but I cannot say I haven't missed your kisses."

It occurred to Hob in that instance that Merry was taller than him now, not by much, but enough that looking up her unbound hair, painted black in the cool moonlight, was wreathed with pomegranate leaves and crowned with stars. It felt so much like a dream that Hob found himself furiously blinking the tears away in case the image of Merry's face were somehow to dissolve into them if he didn't.

The moment was shattered by the curfew bells as they began to call out into the darkness.

"We cannot stay here, someone will find us soon enough." Hob rested his forehead against Merry's and sighed regretfully.

Merry brushed a few errant tears from her face and forced a shaky smile. "This was a pleasant dream, but I suppose all dreamers must wake. I will return to my life, and you to yours. Promise me you will look after yourself, and my fool of a brother."

Hob could feel the tears threatening to spill down his cheeks again, so simply nodded, kissed her hands reverently, and stole one last kiss from her lips before pulling his hood up and disappearing back into the night.

[elkieselkiewrites]

heads up seven up / writing share tag 🎸

Thanks to @gullwrites for tagging me! Here is approximately 7 sentences from a Tupper WIP chapter I was reworking today:

“Are you from the Provinces?” Hob asked as he watched the monk's hands dive into the rich loam. Meregrund chuckled. “No, boy. I was born in Aventir, on the Northern coast between Witherfleet and Marskham, but my parents were Atlan merchants. I was taken under the Night Father’s wing after the flux took the rest of my family.” Hob was silent for a moment. The flux rarely touched small village communities, it was an illness of the waterways and the great coastal cities, but even Hob's pastoral home knew of the way it boiled and bubbled and melted your insides. It was not a death to wish on anyone.

I'll zero pressure tag @myhusbandsasemni, @pizzamanstan, @justthehopeleft and @zonnemaagd plus an open tag!

[elkieselkiewrites]

OC Kiss Week 25

Day 5: Worship

Ship: Hob/Kent

WIP: Tupper's Tale

Warnings: Semi-voyeuristic make-out sesh, blasphemy (of a fantasy religion), mild sexual content

~*~

It had been a week since Hob and Kent had first shared a bed, and in the flush of a new relationship, it had been all that Hob could think about for each of those seven days.

He didn't regret moving back into his rooms with Eddy, he had missed Eadwig and their close companionship more than Hob had been willing to admit. However, it did mean that there was little time that he and Kent could spend with one another in private, and only so many times Hob wanted to risk being caught scaling the trellis outside Kent's bedroom window.

It was torturous, spending prayers on his knees in the chapel, catching glimpses of Kent from across the room, looking up to find him already watching, pale cheeks flushed pink. So much so, that upon completing noonday prayers, Hob found himself hidden in the shadow of one of the pillars nearest the doorway, watching Kent bid farewell to the priests, waiting for him to come within arms reach.

Kent almost cried out when he felt a hand close around his wrist, tugging him from his path out of the chapel, but upon seeing Hob, his jaw snapped shut, eyes widening as he crowded him against the nearest wall.

"What in the Father's name do you think you're doing?" Kent hissed.

Hob placed a finger against his lips and gestured to the washroom before pulling him behind the curtain.

The washroom was empty, of course, for all supplicants washed before prayers, not after them. The midday sun was spilling through the windows like pale gold, reflecting off the small tiles in dancing fragments that flickered as Hob and Kent's shadows followed them to the far corner of the room.

Hob pulled Kent forward, and Kent fell helplessly against him, giving in to the desire thrumming beneath his skin, pressing their lips together in a wet, open-mouthed kiss.

"There are still priests in the chapel." Kent murmured, but his voice had all but dropped an octave, thick with want.

"Then we had best say our prayers." Hob replied between kisses.

Kent groaned, mouth falling to the crook of Hob's neck. "Oh my Mother of the Dawn, we have been purified-"

Hob gasped, part shock and part pleasure. "That's blasphemy!"

"In the name of the Life and of the Day," Kent continued, trailing kisses up Hob's neck, breath hot in his ear. "I worship the Life and the Day, of your making, oh Mother of the Dawn."

Hob canted his hips upwards, meeting Kent's own with a hiss of pleasure. As Kent rolled his hips in return, Hob heard himself join his prayers breathlessly. Fervent words of worship dripping from their lips, falling between them, molten and sweet as syrup on their tongues.

As the crest of their pleasure built, and built and finally broke over them, the room seemed to fill with light so bright and warm it left visions of stars behind their closed eyelids.

With their foreheads rested together, it seemed almost as though their skin was glowing, glistening with a sheen of sweat, but also somehow lit from within. Hob wondered in that moment whether their Mother Dawn had perhaps preferred their prayers in the washroom moreso than those in the chapel, but didn't dare speak it aloud lest it cause some offence to a higher being. Though he could see, in the light of Kent's strange blue eyes, that the thought had crossed his mind too.

[elkieselkiewrites]

OC Kiss Week 25

Day 2: First

(friend)Ship: Hob & Eddy

WIP: Tupper's Tale

Warnings: Mention of non-specific, off-screen domestic violence

~*~

The two of them stared at the illumination on the page in silent curiosity. It was a full half a folio in size, surrounded by an intricate frame of curling leaves and vines, adorned with delicately crafted moon flowers and gold leaf that still shone despite its age. It was not the richness of the decoration that had truly captivated them, though, rather, it was the image itself.

Painted in the varied shades of twilight were two figures; one a full-figured woman, large and soft, golden and rosy as the dawn; the other tall and slender, swathed in all the deep colours of dusk. It was the Dawn Mother and Night Father themselves, locked in a close embrace, lips touching, eyes closed in clear and vivid ecstasy.

"What do you suppose they're doing?" Eddy said into the quiet of the scriptorium.

Hob couldn't meet Eddy's eye, and felt his cheeks begin to warm. "They're kissing, Ed. Have you never seen a couple kissing before?"

"Of course!" Eddy spluttered. "But not like that."

"That's how a husband and wife are supposed to kiss." Hob said, slightly wistfully. His own parents had never kissed like that, not that he could ever remember. Whenever his father had touched his mother it was with force and intent, and he had never seen his mother smile as the Dawn Mother did, in blushed hues of halcyon joy.

Eddy broke Hob's reverie with a shaky question. "Have you ever…"

Hob shook his head. "Have you?"

Eddy confessed that he had not either, and both fell back into silence, just staring at the two figures on the parchment.

"What do you think it feels like?" Eddy's voice was hoarse.

"They look like they're enjoying it." Hob replied.

Eddy scoffed. "They're gods, though. I'm sure everything feels wonderful to them. I mean, do you think it feels good for ordinary people?"

Hob looked up at Eddy then, gratified to see that his face was as flushed as his own. "Did you want to try it?"

Eddy's nose wrinkled, but his gaze kept flitting back to the open page. He nodded once.

Hob nodded in return and turned to face his best friend. He had kissed his siblings on the cheek and on the head before, he had even been treated to a kiss on the lips from his smallest sisters on occasion. How different could this be?

They both angled themselves to match the illustration. Touching one another's faces was awkward, but if that was how it was done, then that was how they were going to do it. They both leaned forward, and Hob felt his eyes flutter shut as his lips met Eddy's.

There was a moment after initial contact, when the cold of spit-slicked lips warmed, and the feeling of flesh upon unfamiliar flesh became less odd. It was this moment that Hob let his lips part, when they both could feel the heat of the other's mouth, and the strange touch of a tongue.

The two sprang apart spluttering theatrically. Hob was pulling a face while Eddy hurriedly wiped his lips with the back of his sleeve.

"That was awful! Why would anyone want to do that?"

"You must be right about it being different for the gods." Hob said. "I'd never make the faces they were making while doing that."

Eddy hummed with agreement, a small, disgusted shudder running up his spine.

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Snippet Sunday 09/02

Okay folks, I'm going to do it. I'm going to post a snippet I wrote the other day that is a short, soft sex scene.

Not many of my stories have sex scenes, I don't usually find them integral to the story, so I often just imply, or fade to black, but this bit of Tupper WIP felt like it deserved some loving, gender-affirming sex, so that's what we've got!

The context is that Kent has confessed his feelings to Hob, and Hob has revealed that they have been living as a man all of their life, but that they are (ostensibly but not in so many words) trans.

I don't really write explicit anything, but this is still probably an 18+ snippet, so I hope you enjoy...

~*~

Hob whispered his name, voice wavering, but Kent shook his head with a small, fond smile. "I love you, Hob Tupper, scribe of our Father Night, whatever garb you wear."

With that, Hob kissed him. Not passionately, not really, but fervently and with as much love as he could pour into it. Hob could feel Kent's mouth open invitingly, the hot slick of his tongue glancing over Hob's lips as his hand moved to cup the back of his neck, pulling him closer.

"Kent," Hob gasped as they broke apart. "I want you to take me to bed, but if this isn't what you want, if you can't make peace with the body I have under my habit, we could do just this forever and I'd be content."

Kent smiled and kissed him again. "I admit that I have little experience in this area, but I hadn't intended to make peace with your body, Hob, I'd rather hoped I could make love to it instead."

Hob barked out a startled laugh and kissed and kissed and kissed him.

As the candle at the writing desk guttered out, Kent made good on his word, sometimes faltering in action but never in intent. Hob took him into his body with burning fervour, breath and sweat mingling as they revelled in one another. In the velvet dark Kent ran hands over Hob's soft thighs and stomach, sank teeth into his shoulder as their hips rolled together, and throughout it all whispered words of adoration and acceptance.

Kent didn't know Hob's body as Merry had done, he had yet to learn all of the places that would make Hob weep with pleasure, but in the cooling afterglow, as Kent nuzzled into the crook of Hob's neck, sleep finally taking him, Hob realised that he had never felt more at one with himself. He loved this man not with the burning passion of his youth, but with a slow, torturous ache that he suspected would stretch to the end of his days. It was in equal parts terrifying and wonderful.

~*~

[elkieselkiewrites]

Happy STS! What character dynamics do you most enjoy writing? Are there any fun scenes coming up because of them?

Oh great question! Happy STS!

I love a positive sibling dynamic. I love my RL siblings very much and we are a nightmare for other people to be around when we're together, so I like to give that to my characters too.

Eddy and Merry from Tupper WIP are really fun to write, they're more fondly antagonistic than anything, while Luus and Neer from Postmaster WIP are more "two siblings who share a single braincell that is usually kept for safekeeping by a 3rd party" the 3rd party in this case being Luus' wife Til.

I love Eddy and Merry in particular because you get to see their relationship develop as they go from bickering teens to adults who really feel the miles between them.

I think the scenes in isolation will be less effective than when taken in context, but there's a great scene where Eddy is furious at Merry for taking his best friend from him (because Hob and Merry fall in love) which is then paired with a few later scenes, one where Merry and Hob are forced apart and Eddy has to reckon with the fact that he prefers his two favourite people to be happy together than miserable apart, and a couple when Merry is sent to the Western Reaches, while he and Hob move to the capital, in the opposite direction, that really outline to Eddy and to us how important a person Merry is in his life. From that point onward his negative feelings towards anything Merry says or does is really tempered by how much he misses her. They both mature a lot, and their differences become less pronounced, and I get to write them really treasuring one another, which is nice.

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Hap wbwb! I think you mentioned somewhere that the gods in Tupper's Tale have more presence/interfere in the world in ways, can we get more on that?

Yo thanks for the ask!

So, unlike in much of my work, Tupper WIP's world does have gods, the kind that interract with daily life the way that many mythologies suggest gods once did. However, they don't actually play that important a role in the story, except in that it takes place in a religious institution. But for worldbuilding purposes, I'll expound a little!

Essentially, the gods gain power via worship, so they want more people to worship them, but the kind of worship also has the ability to change them. So if enough people worship a god in a certain way, their belief has the ability to shape that god in the image of their faith.

For example, if a god prefers not to take a gendered form, but enough people worship them in a female form, the god becomes female. If a god of victory is worshipped enough during wartime, they become a god of war. If there is a schism in the worship of a god, it can sometimes create new gods.

Basically it's in the gods' best interests to not only get people to worship them, but also to get them to worship them in the way they want to be worshipped. This is best achieved through frequent interaction with the people.

An in-world example of this is the Ostron god Aratta. Aratta was originally just the lord of the seas and weather, but so often he was depicted in the shape of a sea eagle, in art and jewellry and heraldry, that he became an eagle. Also, because the Ostron people are seafaring people, he became their most important god, and as such, became more powerful, but also more paternal. He cares for the Ostron people fiercely, and has been known to fight other gods over their wellbeing.

Another example is Hob's monastic gods Ildra and Naviya, whose religion came from the north, where night and day are more stark, where day is blistering and night freezing, but in Aventir and further south, the days and nights vary in length throughout the year, and the worship of the gods of day and night had to change with that.

In Aventir, Naviya is a beautiful, bounteous goddess of goodness and light who tempers the dark of her husband Ildra whose night brings fear and uncertainty, but further north she is a harsher mistress, and it is she who needs to be tempered by her cool, calm husband who brings reprieve from her intensity. Navildran faith in the north favours blessings from Ildra and curses from Naviya, while Navildran faith in the south favours blessings from Naviya and curses from Ildra. Both instances are correct, as their own experiences of the world have shaped their worship, and their worship has in turn shaped their gods.

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happy STS!! what's your OCs preferred method for holidays? are they travelling far or hiding at home rotting or hanging out with friends?

Happy STS! I'll answer for Tupper WIP characters because that's where my brain is at right now.

Hob is a beach bum. Give them a good book, some sand, and a bit of water to splash about in and they are more than happy. Beach volleyball? Yes. Slightly sandy 99 with two flakes? Yes. Snorkelling? Yes. Accidentally geting stung by jellyfish? Unfortunately also yes.

Eddy is also a beach bum, but will not go near that water. He wants to be dry and out of the sun, drinking something alcoholic under a parasol. This is the only time Eddy and Kent would be voluntarily in the same place, because the parasol is king.

Merry is a horrible hiking person. She wants to spend her holidays half way up a mountain with a rucksack full of fruit leather and mixed nuts. She wants to start the hike at the latest at 8am, she will absolutely hog the map, she will also drop the compass in a stream but don't worry she can tell direction by the sun, and she totally knows a short cut, you've got to believe her. Hob is often a reluctant hiking partner, and is always red-faced and out of breath half a mile behind Merry, who then has to double back to collect them. Hiking with Merry sucks.

Kent would happily spend all of his holidays at home. What do you mean he has the opportunity to spend multiple days in a row not interacting with strangers in any way? Of course he's taking that option. Unfortunately, Hob will drag him to the beach and he will enjoy a 99 with crappy strawberry sauce and won't complain that his hands are now too sticky to read the book he brought with him.

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Happy STS, Jasper!

Have you ever brought a specific object or thing from your real life into your work? If so, which and why?

Thank you! Happy STS!

This is such an interesting question, and I've had to think about it for a while because I didn't think I had, but I thought of something that I reckon counts.

In Tupper WIP the monastery has a garden, and when I picture the plants that Hob is harvesting there, I imagine the ones from my own garden. I wish my garden was as nice as the monastic one, but the herbs and fruit bushes and trees are the same ones I have: crab apple, raspberry, blackberry, rhubarb, lilac, rosemary, lavender, betony, borage, clary sage, verbascum, lungwort, hyssop, bay, chamomile, comfrey, crocus, dog rose... if I'm ever struggling to describe something, I just go outside and all the sensations are there.

Of course Aventir, the country that Tupper WIP is based in, is more southerly than where I live by a long way (think north Spain or the Balkans) so there are plants and trees there that wouldn't thrive in Scotland at all, but I still think of my garden whenever it comes up.

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Happy Storyteller Saturday! In Tupper's Tale Hob joins a monastery - what religion? what is monastary life like? And, given Hob's gender situation, what is that religion's view on gender?

Happy STS! Thank you for the question, and sorry for the ramble...

So, Hob's monastery belongs to the Navildran faith, a bitheistic religion that worships Ildra and Naviya (whose names are only mentioned out loud by priests at High Holidays) and are otherwise referred to as Night Father and Dawn Mother respectively. Every dawn Naviya births the day and at dusk Ildra takes the day into his embrace as it dies and he carries it off to join the stars (there is more to it, but that's the broad strokes).

Monastic life is rhythmic, each monk has their own specific task, one that they were assigned as boys and will do for the rest of their lives. However there are also day-to-day tasks that need doing, which all the monks take turns to deal with. Hob was assigned to Brother Meregrund in the Scriptorium, so is charged with copying religious texts or illuminating texts already completed, but most of the time they are doing the grunt work for the monks who are already trained to do those things better than Hob. So, Hob spends a lot of their time preparing the animal skin for parchment, cutting it into sheets, arranging the quires, ruling drypoint, etc. but also spends a lot of time in the garden collecting ingredients for inks and the like.

There are, of course, daily prayers and regular holy festivals to observe, but Hob is surprisingly agnostic given the fact that they're a monk, and there are times in the story when Hob both gains and loses their faith. In the world of Tupper WIP the gods of the different religions are more active in their participation with the world, but that doesn't make everything their religions claim or dictate correct. Sometimes devout faith does bring with it boons, sometimes boons are bestowed upon people who have never prayed in their lives. Sometimes a person may belong to one religion and be blessed by the god of a different one, so Hob's attitude towards religion is less about disbelief in the gods, but rather a disbelief in the extent of their power or care.

With regards to Hob's gender, the story very much starts out as Hob, as a girl, pretending to be a boy in order to get a better life and education than they otherwise would have done. However, over time, we as the audience begin to follow Hob's journey to self-discovery with love and gender and faith all wrapped up in one.

Navildran religion has relatively strict binaries on the face of things: night and day, father and mother, life and death, but then the dawn and dusk, the birth and dying, the growing and ageing aspects of existence necessitated more nuanced intepretations throughout history. There were schisms in the Navildran church, some of which spawned entire new religions, with orthodoxy preaching dichotomy but the vast majority allowing debate and interpretation.

Hob's monastery is not an Orthodox Navildran one, but there are those in the monastery who still abide by more orthodox teachings, and they keep the monastery and convent, who pray in majority to Ildra and Naviya respectively, separate.

So if Hob were to be discovered as a "woman" they would likely be sent across to the convent to worship Naviya rather than being kicked out entirely, depending on the manner of their "outing", but as genderqueer they would not fit into the doctrine of this particular branch of Navildran religion.

[elkieselkiewrites]

Happy Storyteller Saturday! How would your OCs do in a paired competition, like a three legged race?

Thank you! Happy STS!

I'll pair up my MCs from my different WIPs for a more interesting answer (I think)

Pair: Ida (Postmaster WIP) and Belin (Burning WIP) This is the most determined pair. They will win. What they lack in height and leg-length they more than make up for in sheer power of will.

Pair: Wynwallow (Playwright WIP) and Hob (Tupper WIP) Terrible pair, no chance whatsoever. Neither one is athletic in any way, both would be cracking jokes and would get stitches from both the running and the laughing. They'd have a great time and never finish the race.

Pair: Nightjar (Breeze WIP) and Alpin (Siblings WIP) Officially the worst pair. They'd argue immediately about how best to tie their legs together, then which foot they're going with first, and how fast to go. They're all out of sync, on the floor in a heap, biting each other's heads off, starting a fist fight. The. Worst.