#Trifold Balance Universe

[syncopein3d]

Left Alone 2: Discovery

Part 1: Abandoned

Tropes/content warnings: vampire whumpee, male whumpee, non-binary caretaker, morbidity or thoughts of death. There will be a lot of play with, and discussion of, the concept of consent in this series, as it applies to many topics. Mostly we're talking about consent to be bitten, but being bitten in this universe varies from "mild discomfort" through "multiple climaxes" and I don't know where the story will end up yet, so I think it's important to be clear.

If you want to be put on or taken off my taglist for this series, feel free to tell me!

The stranger recoiled from the horror in front of them. For a moment the weak beam of light from upstairs transfixed them both, and Tolly jerked back, anticipating the pain. No pain came. It wasn’t sunlight. He cursed himself for a fool. He knew the basement door opened into a windowless hallway. And besides, he would have been brought low by exhaustion if it had been daylight up above.

He backed away until his back hit the far wall, arms reaching out to splay against the stones. Black talons gouged at the wall of his prison as he stared, milk-white eyes unblinking, teeth bared and showing the sharpness of his canines. He knew what he looked like. He could see the stranger breathing harder as they tried to make sense of a world in which this monster could exist.

He took in everything about them with the same fanatical, memorizing glance he had once turned on... who knew? A father, an uncle? Some relation, certainly. There were features in common: the big, dark eyes, the sharp little nose, the exquisite shape of the lips. His discoverer was wearing gray sweat pants and a baggy tee shirt that might have been black at one point. There was something under it that might be a brassiere or an undershirt or both. The checkered pattern on the slip-on shoes was so faded it was barely visible, another fashion rising again that had had time to get worn while Tolly was in this room. In ’04 the pants would have had open ankles. Now they were gathered to an elastic.

Blue flecks of paint dotted every garment and one cheek. The head of thin black hair was tied back in a sloppy tail from which about half had escaped. Sweat plastered their hair to their cheeks and forehead. Their face showed a faint shadow of beard where the makeup was running, and their eyeliner was running, too. Their deodorant was aggressively neutral, but it wasn’t strong enough to cover the smell of recent exertion in a male body even to Tolly’s currently weak nose. Or – at least they had probably been told it was a male body when they were born. That was a delicate matter, and it barely registered on him compared to the much more overt scent of life, life, life -

“You're not wearing the ring,” he rasped. It hurt to speak, dust scraping the inside of his throat and palate where the saliva had dried up long since.

The descendant of Nicholas turned and ran, stumbling back up the basement steps. The sound of the slamming door heralded the dying of the light. Tolly stood there without moving for a while, cursing himself again as he lurked in the dark.

They hadn’t closed the secret door panel. He could see out. He slid around the room, one hand on the wall, until he got back to the opening. He could see all of the basement now, he registered anew. He hadn’t seen anything outside the room for ten years. He knew it was mad to be excited about that, the more so with the acute torment that was the scent of living blood still stinging in his nostrils, but he was excited all the same. He pulled the chair over from the table and turned it around so he could straddle it, arms resting on the back and his withered chin resting on his arms. No need to hurry. The little mortal wouldn’t be back, sealing the upstairs door and forgetting the monster in the basement as quickly as possible, so he would have a lot of time to take in the view. He had never had hope, he told himself. He should not behave as though something had been taken away.

He started all the way to the right and began to look at all of it, bit by bit, taking in every new cobweb, every splinter on the steps. He argued with himself for a while about the definition of the word “splinter” as he looked at the steps, so that he would have it down in his mind before he started counting them. He finally settled on partially separated bits of wood longer than a sixteenth of an inch. In that case, there were three splinters within his view that had not been there the last time Nicholas opened the door to his cell. That made sense. No one had come into the basement during that time, so the stairs hadn’t had much wear. His eyes lingered over every scuffed footprint in the dust that the descendant had left. There were eight steps, and eight prints coming down, right-left, right-left, and they still partly showed where the scuffed scrambling of the return trip hadn’t wiped them out. A thumbprint in blue paint marked the wooden handrail near the top.

It wasn’t a large room, but it felt a little larger.

He spent the rest of that night in his quiet memorization of the basement. The tools on the heavy wood workbenches had not changed at all in position in ten years, but they were dustier now, and the rag pile between them showed signs of having been a mouse nest at some point. That was hopeful. It meant there might be mice again there at some point, who might eventually be lured into his cell. Tolly licked his dry lips with a tongue that felt like a strip of leather in his mouth. Animal blood would not restore his strength, his powers, but it would restore his body a little. That would be something.

If he was patient, and not greedy, he might be able to keep going a lot longer on the occasional mouse. Maybe it would be two hundred years before he fell into the long sleep. He wasn’t sure how long after that a vampire would turn into dust. Accounts varied. He was certain at least one had come back from a handful of burnt ashes, because he had seen it – five mortal lives had been sacrificed to accomplish it - but whether one could be reconstituted from ancient dust was unknown to him. No one would do that for him, of course. No one had come looking for him thus far. It wasn’t that he had a great many enemies. His circle of friendly acquaintances had been large. But the few close enough to wonder where he’d gone were also immortals, and therefore it would be a long time before it occurred to anyone to look for him. He had been alone with Nicholas for a decade before Nicholas went away, and no one had come, then or in the decade after.

His mind was wandering. He reproved himself sternly and returned to concentrating on the important matter at hand. The lighting fixture overhead was relatively recent, placed in the era after the wires had been brought in and the plaster laid down over them – no, more recent than that. Perhaps thirty years. He’d seen Nicholas replace the four bulbs and put back the half-sphere of frosted glass over them, opening the door to tease Tolly with his proximity as he worked. Now he imagined that, even if the bulbs had still worked, there was probably so much dust and so many dead insects inside that it might catch fire if it were turned on.

Chances were better with the flatscreen television mounted to the wall at right-angles to the workbenches, barely visible if he leaned as far forward as he physically could. The casing was sealed enough that it would be harder for creatures to get in. Nicholas had watched movies and television while he was doing projects, sometimes. Whatever the genre, he liked material whose attraction was subtle acting, and lots of attention to faces. He’d watched Nightcrawler a lot of times in the months before he went away. It had been a seeming end to his apparent obsession with Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Tolly had an interesting couple of hours perusing the ceiling to see if there was anything alive up there. A fast-moving wolf spider was so fascinating that he watched the cupboard it had vanished behind for another hour, just in case it came out.

The big oval-shaped industrial rug was gray with accumulated dinge. He had not been here when Nicholas laid down the shiny dark red finish over the concrete floor. It had been much glossier the last time he’d seen it. His patience was again rewarded, however. Just as he was beginning to feel the heaviness in his limbs that mean dawn was breaking, a house centipede crept furtively from under one edge of the rug and ran for the workbenches, its many legs rippling around it with the urgency of its errand. Tolly struggled to stay awake as he followed its progress instead of moving to his rug. His head drooped over his arms. At last, his eyes grew too heavy to resist the pall of sleep, but not before the little beast had found cover.

His dreams were full of blood. He had thought time had freed him of that torment, resigned him to his fate, but Nicholas and his descendant died in his arms a hundred times before night fell. It was not entirely a relief when the giddy intensity of dreaming abruptly gave way to consciousness. Waking was not like waking had been when he was mortal. There was almost no space in between, and there was no confusion at all.

Tolly opened his eyes, looking around quickly. The door was still open. He could still see into the basement. He rose from the chair to go and scratch his day into the stone wall with his right thumb talon. How long until his nails would weaken? That thought sent him back to watch the old mouse nest with narrow-eyed intentness, but there was nothing living there now.

It was not a large room. Still, that night and the next passed more congenially. It would be a long time before the view of the basement lost its charms by comparison to the sealed chamber. Tolly could even read the labels on many of the spray bottles and tools and compare their fonts. He planned to save that for the winter, however, when the creatures would be less active. There was no need to be greedy.

Part 3: Bereft

@fleur-a-whump

[syncopein3d]

A Necessary Intervention

Well this one went longer than planned. But hey, I got to play with one of my whumperless July characters! Say hi to Jack Ford, covert agent who is married to his job and has some trouble accepting help.

Content and warnings: hospital, hospitalization, involuntary sedation, involuntary drugging, loss of consciousness, small amount of blood, injection, angst, helplessness. Jack is trans, but this doesn't form a major story component, it's more mentioned in passing.

"All right, Mr. Ford, your ID checked out, but I'm afraid we have a problem."

He'd gotten THAT far. The Tacoma Balance Clinic was busy, but he was on a gurney in a hallway anyway, currently with his legs strapped down under the blanket to keep him from "falling off." He'd had enough contact with fully human medical personnel to understand this was code for "trying to get up and leave, because Hunters are idiots."

"What problem?" He knew her name was Edith because she'd said it earlier, but damned if he was going to be on a first name basis with a revenant.

"Your factor-qh level is very low," the nurse said. "Your regeneration is impaired. We know it's not a curse, our artificer Dr. Ramgoolam confirmed that, so right now we're thinking poison. Do you remember anything like that?" Tonight's nurse was undead. She was pretty convincing at looking alive, remembering to fake breathing and well-fed enough to have color, but you couldn't fool a Hunter's nose. A vampiric body wasn't composed quite the same as a living one. She smelled like resin and aloe as a peculiar undertone to the very lifelike scent of female flesh. There was also the matter that she was leaning against his gurney in order to be heard over the hallway traffic, but he couldn't hear a pulse.

Jack looked down at the stocky length of his body, currently leaking through his stupid tiny gown in several places. All of the punctures stung, and some seemed to radiate a deeper ache. His fingers and toes did feel slightly numb. Actually, his toes felt a lot numb. He couldn't feel much from slightly above his knees downwards. Weight dragged at his limbs, as if the blanket was leaded. It was almost distracting enough to keep him from feeling uneasy about them having taken his boxers and packer.

"I remember being peppered with titanium flechettes. Not really a way to tell what was on them. Blood's a loud smell," he said.

The nurse winced. "Right, you were at the incident with Elevated Painfather Struycken. He was an... Advanced telekinetic." That very much would NOT be on the news, but word got around on private social media platforms - Discord, weird corners of the Fediverse, ancient builds of AOL Instant Messenger that some of the vamps couldn't let go of.

"I noticed. So what happens now?"

"We'll put you on aldisine and try and help enhance your natural regen to metabolize the poison. If that doesn't work, we'll put one of our arcanists on it, but they're in short supply, and purgation is traumatic even for a demihuman."

"When do I leave?" Jack asked.

The vampire exhaled slowly, which Jack knew to be unnecessary and therefore deliberate.

"Not for a while. Most people can't do much on this medication. You might be able to get up to go to the bathroom, but even that will be hard."

Jack set his jaw. The vampire was eyeing him. She smelled newly dead enough - that is, fleshy, almost human enough - that he might be stronger and faster. If he made a real effort, he knew he could break the straps and sprint.

"Don't do it," she said. "You won't make it to the door in your condition. This is serious, Jack. You have low blood pressure and mild arrhythmia already -"

"Lady, every 24 hours I am off the street there's another casualty from supernatural assault. We exist for a reason." He tried not to look directly at her as he said it. He didn't like vampires. He knew that wasn't helpful when they were supposedly providing medical care. "I'll recover. I'm not afraid of pain."

"This isn't about pain," she said patiently. "It's about the very real risk of cardiac or respiratory failure. I mean it. Stay put. We'll run a line in." She pointed a talon at him as she walked backward a couple of steps before she turned to round a corner. She wasn't grinding them down to look like fingernails. Maybe glamour hid that from people who weren't demihuman. Jack had only actually seen what an undead under glamour looked like once that he knew of, and he hoped never to again, because in a subspecies of humanity engineered to resist both arcane and undead mind control a failure of those abilities meant you were looking at a very, very powerful elder.

Nobody was looking directly at him. Jack sat up and reached down to grab the leg straps with his numb fingers. The fasteners were underneath the gurney for this exact reason, but the straps were just regular medical gear. They weren't designed with demihumans in mind. Jack's fingers felt like clubs, but the straps came apart one by one.

...Loudly. Shit. People were looking. He slid off the gurney, managing not to stumble as his unfeeling feet found the floor. Then he started to run.

He got up a pretty good head of speed, ignoring the growing commotion behind him, until he skidded around the corner and every hair on his body stood up at once. He tried to back away from the black figure in front of him, a shadow that seemed to suck light into it, and then he was yanked vertically from the floor.

"Somne," said a voice. He could see the blue stars flying toward him, but he couldn't move, and then they hit and the world went slow. Every iota of genetics and training snapped back at the will trying to get hold of his, at the overpowering feeling of peace and relaxation, but he was weakened by the poison. He could feel his numb limbs growing even heavier as he fought to keep his eyes open, the fluorescent ceiling light blurring overhead.

Nurse Edith's head hovered into his view.

"Well, I guess this isn't a surprise," she said. "Thank you, Doctor Tsuchida."

"He's still awake," said a distant voice. "He is very strong, for a dying man. What do you need?"

"Lemme go," Jack mumbled. Edith must have gestured where she wanted the witch to put him, because he was suddenly moving, ceiling passing fast overhead. An invisible hand flattened him to something soft. He felt a cold hand thump at his elbow, then the sting of the needle as it went in. There was almost no wiggling around before the tape came down over it. First try, he thought distantly. They often had trouble with the heavier needles it took to pierce a Hunter's skin. He could hear Edith prepping a saline flush, and taste it not long after it went in.

"This is to help you relax, so we can stop taking up Doctor Tsuchida's time."

"It's not a problem," said the older female voice from further away behind Edith.

"I do not consent to medical care," Jack said, enunciating carefully.

"Well, fortunately for you, I don't need your consent when your life is at stake," Edith said. "Not even for a BPE agent."

He could feel the cold creeping up his arm. He tried to brace himself, but then suddenly the ceiling washed over pink, and a burst of warm euphoria rushed through him. Every little pain from his punctures vanished. He couldn't even try to fight it when it felt that good. The feeling of telekinetic pressure lifted away as his head lolled to the side, eyes fluttering. Edith was watching him.

"Take it easy, Jack. We're here to help." He felt a hand card through his hair, talons scratching his scalp very lightly. Later, he would feel ashamed of how incredible that felt, of how easily he gave in to that wonderful sensation. In the moment, he closed his eyes and sleep rolled him under like a big, slow wave.

The light was different when he knew anything else. Jack blinked and was looking at a different ceiling again. This one had a poster of tropical fish. He turned his head and was startled by how hard it was. He tried to move his arms, half-expecting to be buckled down, but there were no restraints now, only warm sheets. It was just that dragging his hand up to his stomach on top of the sheets felt like moving through syrup. He still felt somehow floaty at the same time, and nothing hurt, so whatever Edith had given him hadn't worn off yet. The room felt cold outside his layers of sheet and blanket, freezing on his face and neck.

Something nearby beeped. There were patches on his chest above the collar of his gown, leads trailing away. There was still a line in his elbow, the long plastic tube leading to what looked like hanging bags, but the print was too small and far away to read.

He looked around with an effort. The room had no window, but there was a big tv screen on the wall showing what was probably the Monterey Bay Aquarium's YouTube channel, jellyfish swimming in their slow, blind ballet. Jack was starting to drift again, looking at them, when he heard the door open.

Dragging his head around to look was like rolling a boulder uphill. A big man in teal scrubs was just closing the door behind him. Jack's nose felt numb, too. He couldn't smell much of anything, bizarrely. He couldn't remember the last time he'd met someone and not been able to say human, undead, arcane or demihuman.

"Hey, you're awake," he said. "Hi, Jack. I'm Dace. I'm your nurse tonight. How do you feel?" He had curly brown hair and freckles across his nose.

"Weak," Jack said.

"Yeah," Dace said sympathetically. "That's the aldisine. Most people run a fever and feel cold from the metabolic load. We're giving you IV nutrition and water to help. Do you want another blanket on your shoulders?"

"I have to go back to work," Jack said. He hated how weak his own voice sounded, barely a whisper.

"Man, you Hunters really are like that, huh? You can't go back to work yet. You're poisoned. If you were a regular human, you'd be dead. I'm sorry, but we'll have you back in shape soon." He went to the big plastic cupboard in the corner to get another blanket. A wave of heat hit Jack from that side, melting his intended protest on his tongue. He did want another blanket. He wanted it worse than anything he had ever wanted that he could remember. He hated that, but he was still unable to do anything but cooperate as Dace put the blanket around him. He had to help Jack sit up and lie down again, hand behind his shoulders.

"Thanks," Jack whispered. Wrapped in warmth, fingers surreptitiously burrowed into the shoulder blanket, the cold wasn't so bad. He was fading. Dace said something else, but Jack didn't hear it.

When he woke up again, he felt a little stronger. He could move his head and arms, and he could feel the pain of all his little punctures again. They hadn't healed away yet, so he still wasn't regenerating right, but at least he wasn't so fuzzy. He still felt cold. His lower legs were pins and needles.

Resting his weight on them was intense pain, but he made it to the bathroom. It was on the way back that he had to stop and lean on the sink counter halfway to the bed. The cardiac monitor ratted him out. Dace found him there.

"Can I help?" He asked.

"No," Jack said. "I should be able to do this." At least he recognized his own voice again.

"No, you shouldn't," Dace said. "You shouldn't be able to stand up, even. You should still be high off your ass from the sedatives, dude. Edith was sure you were gonna kill yourself trying to get out."

Jack groaned. "No more sedation."

"Only if you let me help you get back in bed."

"Deal," he muttered. He leaned on Dace's arm to hobble back to the bed. "How long have I been in here now? Can I have my phone?"

"About twenty hours, and yeah, of course." He helped lift Jack's legs back up into the bed, surprisingly gently, and helped reassemble the warm blanket pile around and over him. Jack hadn't realized how cold he had felt until he was warm again. Still, his hand closed around the phone tight enough to make the plastic creak before he made himself ease off. He curled onto his side so he could send an abbreviated report to this week's minder at the Bureau of Pact Enforcement.

He wouldn't be reprimanded. He was injured, but he had also stopped a potentially city-threatening and very public incident. That didn't change the need to get back to doing the important work right...

The phone slipped through his fingers to land in a swirl of sheets.

Right now...?

He fumbled around to hit ACCEPT on the form, hoping it wasn't just incoherent nonsense. That took the last of what he had. He just lay there for a couple of minutes, breathing. Eventually he slept again.

The next time he woke up, Dace was there before the monitor finished telling everyone Jack was out of bed. He stopped at the bathroom door when asked, but it was much easier to get to and from with help. Jack's feet and legs hurt less.

"I think it might be working," he said. He hated the feeling of prickles on his face and jaw. It was unprofessional. When he was younger he'd been very proud of his ability to grow a beard. Now it was a nuisance.

"Let's look at your dressings, then. I'm supposed to change them today."

The many little puncture wounds had not disappeared, but they were smaller. Dace covered them with gauze and tape again, one by one, uncovering only as much of Jack as he had to for each one. That was suspiciously sensitive of him - oh, but Jack's chart would have his medical history, of course. He was still passing. It wasn't a problem, he told himself. He was just glad he had the enchanted implant now and didn't have to keep injecting T.

"Not there yet, but closer," Dace said. "Are you ready to try eating or drinking? We have those horrible shake rations you guys use, if it helps."

"I could handle a horrible shake ration," Jack said. His mouth felt like a raccoon had died in it.

He managed to hold the foil box himself, in both hands, glaring at Dace when the nurse tried to reach for his wrist. It tasted familiarly like chemical banana barely masked by cocoa. That was a little reassuring. It made his mouth feel only slightly better, given the aftertaste.

"Can I shave?" he asked.

"I can bring you the kit to the bed here, yeah."

Dace came back to check on him a couple of minutes later and found him still sitting on the edge of the bed, slumped over the tray table in exhausted defeat with half his face still unshaven. Dace had to finish it for him, trying to distract him from his utter humiliation by making him talk.

"It's been a rainy spring, huh? Do you hike? I can tell you lift."

"I don't hike," Jack growled, then swallowed and moderated his tone. "I uh. I mean sometimes I do for work. I cleaned out a coven on the Olympic Peninsula that were sacrificing each other to try and enchant a money machine. By Port Angeles. I guess the woods were nice."

"Shiiiit, that was you?" Dace didn't sound like he was faking being impressed. "Man, I think you saved my cousin. It was a while before she was okay, but she said her turn was next. They told her she would be someone important's familiar."

Jack snorted. "Maybe. They admitted to rigging their lottery so newer members got cut first."

"Figures," Dace said. "You can't get in trouble for telling me that, can you?"

"No. It was all over WitchBook the same day. If the machine had actually worked it'd probably be classified now, but it didn't even come close."

"Whoa."

"Do you hike?" Jack asked.

"Oh yeah, I love Rainier this time of year."

"Tell me about Rainier," he said, so he could stop talking. Apparently there were marmots. Jack tried to remember if he knew what a marmot was. He could look it up later, when he wasn't so tired. Dace left in a good mood. Most people liked you better if you made them talk about themselves. Jack had never known why.

He checked his phone when he was lying down again. His report was signed off. Good. He went back to sleep.

This went on for days, according to the phone. He slept for a lot of it, and he needed help doing simple things for most of when he was awake. He had two other rotating nurses, both big men, one a huge Filipino named Tony that he liked best of the three because Tony didn't make him say much and also didn't talk a lot. The third one, Arizona, was a Seahawks fan, so he only had to get him going about football and he could at least avoid talking about himself.

When his nose started to recover, it was a mixed blessing, because now he could tell all three of his nurses were witchbreeds who had not inherited powers, but he could also smell the ever-present hospital smell. The doctor who came to see him was a vampire, a sleek shiny-haired woman called Gupta who said he could leave the same day that his punctures went away. Jack peeked under the dressing of the one on his right arm every couple hours after that.

Gradually, he started to get stronger. Dace fussed at him in his laid-back way for overdoing it when he caught him on the floor trying to do pushups. Tony sneaked him a Snickers from the vending machine as a break from nutrition shakes. Jack wondered that night, as he watched a video of fish gliding around the big tv, what you sent nurses in 2024. These guys seemed like they wouldn't be that into flowers. Maybe he could send coffee cards. If there was anything he knew about nursing it was that the entire profession would collapse without caffeine.

The feeling in his fingertips and feet came back almost overnight. That day the bandages came off because the punctures were gone, and they took away his IVs one by one. That night Gupta came to look at him again, and then three hours later (or twelve years in Hospital Time) he was discharged. His clothes had been completely ruined, so he'd arranged for some sweats from the gift shop and an Uber all the way back to his apartment in Kirkland.

Dace wheeled him out to the Uber. Jack was stiff, hands clenched on the arms of the chair, barely able to contain his impatience. He was more abrupt saying goodbye than he intended. His phone said he had a new case - light work, one vestal vampire in Portland, Oregon who was suspected of multiple splashy murders.

He sent the coffee cards anyway, and a big bouquet for Edith in the Emergency department. Maybe it would make up for being such an asshole.

Please?

[diamondpiner]

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[marywoodartdept]

This time around for my Intro to Graphic Design class, we were given the task to make brochures for household how-to’s, financial how-to’s, and more. We had to keep in mind the typography and the design, and make sure that they worked well together. This project was building off of previous projects where we only designed text or imagery, while this one combined the two. We were also limited a monochrome color palette and black. To begin, our professor showed us example brochures from simple to complex to help us come up with our own ideas.

For my own project I created a list of many possible themes and ultimately went with “Tropical Flower Guide.” Next I picked out a color palette for the entire brochure set while trying to match the color of the flowers. Then I began making rough drafts of different tropical flowers while using the monochrome color scheme. After a few revisions I created my final piece. I tried to change the weight of the background and make the artwork be the main focus. I also tried to make the type more prominent because it was also part of the main focus. Both of these parts needed to be balanced with each other. Finally I changed the last pink flower and I tried to make it so that it could stand out if it were by itself, also changing the rest to make them all consistently designed. Overall this was a tough project but it taught a lot about balance, unity and harmony, and how to combine the use of type and imagery.

Krishna, illustration, combines typography, balance, unity, & harmony with flowers in a how to guide in "Brochures" This time around for my Intro to Graphic Design class, we were given the task to make brochures for household how-to's, financial how-to's, and more.

[syncopein3d]

Part 17: Painmother

Tropes/content warnings: M for mature themes overall. Tropes/content warnings: vampire whumpee/caretaker, male whumpee/caretaker, non-binary whumpee/caretaker, morbidity or thoughts of death. There will be a lot of play with, and discussion of, the concept of consent in this series, as it applies to many topics, but mostly biting.

In this episode: impalement, injuries, deaths (enemy), brief mind control, biting (noncon), dismemberment, blood, time dilation trauma.

If you would like to be added to, or removed from, the tag list of this series, please let me know!

Part 16: The First Lession

Masterpost

The day passed without incident, apparently, because Black Tolly knew nothing from crawling into his sleeping bag until sunset woke him. He found Arden asleep still. They were actually under the covers, head mostly under a pillow. He could just see the tip of their nose sticking out. They now exuded a faint hair-raising underscent of tin, a sign of growing arcana.

“Where is this place?”

“We are inside your mind, and mine. This was a coliseum where I fought once. Now, pay attention, young idiot. This is going to hurt.”

Rather than startle Arden, he went to rinse his mouth with water (awful), change his clothes, and pack. The bloodstains had mostly remained in both sets of clothes, but they were dry, and the next real retail center he knew of was Ellensburg over on the dry side, so until then, waste not, want not. He packed his bag and laid Arden’s at the end of their bed.

“Did… Did I die?”

“Of course. Nothing can survive disintegration. I want you to remember what that felt like, boy, because it’s important to remembering how to inflict it on another.”

“Stop calling me boy!”

“Ah. I see we’re a slow learner.”

There were packets of cookies by the lobby coffee machine, a more graceful offering than he would have expected. Tolly went to negotiate checkout with a different desk clerk than before. She was equally as dazzled, fortunately. He made sure there was no scent or sound of anyone else before he persuaded her to a little kiss and pet behind the desk.

It wasn’t so hard to spare someone who wasn’t Arden. He fought down the panicked urge to take it all, every drop, and was torn between shame and pride when he left her dozing with her head on her arms on the counter. She might be tired for a day or so, but she was alive, and he was at his full strength again.

“No. Not again. Let me go!”

“When you can stop me. No sooner.”

Tolly set the coffee and cookies on the night table. The sound wasn’t loud, but Arden jerked violently, clutching at the mattress. He stopped moving at once, hand resting on their shoulder. “Arden?”

”Tolly?” they said. “Is that you?” Their voice quavered in genuine distress, raw as if they had been screaming. They shoved the blankets away violently as they sat up, grabbing at his hand with both of theirs. The tinge of arcana was stronger now.

“Yes, I’m here,” Tolly said. Now was not, he sensed, the time to be arch. Arden practically climbed up his arm to get to him, so he sat down, submitting to a surprisingly violent embrace. He closed his arms around Arden very carefully. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“How long was I gone?” Arden asked, without raising their face from Tolly’s shirt. Their heart fluttered against his chest like the wings of a sparrow.

“You slept through the day while I was resting.”

“God. Not even twenty-four hours? For me it was three weeks. Maybe more. It got harder and harder to tell. Aeolus, he – I hate to call it training.” They shuddered in Tolly’s arms. “I did learn.”

“How is this possible?” Tolly asked.

“He said we don’t perceive time accurately when we sleep. He – he threatened to keep me for years if I didn’t get better,” Arden said.

“Did he hurt you?” Tolly asked.

“Yes. Over and over,” Arden said. Tolly stroked their back, careful of his talons.

“We have to find you another familiar,” Tolly said. He kept his tone quite calm. He didn’t want to upset Arden further. He just wanted Aeolus in another body. Within his reach, ideally.

“I don’t know how,” Arden whispered hoarsely. “I don’t know how to revoke the pact.”

“We’ll find a way. Eat, drink. You’ll feel better,” Tolly said. He squeezed Arden very carefully and then freed one arm to get the coffee. A whiff of it had Arden grabbing at the paper cup with both hands.

“Oh, fuck, yes, coffee. Thank you. Yes.” They took a hasty gulp, slightly sloppy, then tore into the cookie packet with one hand and their teeth as he handed that over, too. Tolly watched until he was sure they were busy. Then he went to cut his hair short again, leaving the bathroom door open. Arden staggered in past him as he went to load his own things into the car.

He lay on the bed reading as he waited after that. Arden eventually emerged from the bathroom with a clean shave and makeup and bustled around packing, a little shaky still, but on the move. Eventually, Tolly became aware of them standing at the end of the bed.

“Yes?” he said politely.

“That’s the Complete Sherlock Holmes,” Arden said.

“You did loan it to me,” Tolly said cautiously. He sat up as he closed the book.

“Did you pack the other books, too?” They sounded curious, not angry, though something in Tolly still cringed and snarled and feared they would make him give it up.

“They wouldn’t all fit,” Tolly said. “Do you want it back?”

“No,” Arden said. “I have it on Kindle.”

“What’s Kindle?”

“It’s an app. You can get it while we drive,” Arden said. “I’m glad to see you’re all better.”

Tolly took up the omnibus and went to open the back of the Kia Soul. As Arden followed him, dragging the spinner, they said cautiously,

“Did you kill someone?”

“No. She wasn’t you,” Tolly said. “The longer I know you, the easier it will become, because you are not Nicholas. In the meantime, the desk clerk will be tired for a couple of days. If we’re around people, I can stay at my peak quite easily.”

“You really wanted to kill him,” Arden said, as they climbed into the driver’s seat.

“Passionately,” Tolly said.

“But you still grieve that he’s gone?” Arden asked, reversing out of the parking space. Tolly turned to look back between the seats.

“Yes. I don’t claim that is sane, but both are true,” Tolly said. “He was the only living creature I saw from when he tricked me until you found me. I loved him. I hated him. I still can’t quite believe he’s gone.”

“Complicated,” Arden said. He watched a camper pull out going back toward Seattle, then turned out onto the highway going East.

“It always is. Did Aeolus teach you anything useful, or was that just for his entertainment?” Tolly asked.

“I think he did,” Arden said slowly. “When we’re stopped again I’ll try to –“

The car shook violently. Tolly grabbed at the dash to keep from having his face smashed into it – stupid, he’d forgotten the seatbelt. Arden swerved onto the shoulder, and then the view out the front window tilted as the Soul started to lift into the air. Tolly grabbed at the  door handle, but it snapped off in his hand without opening, and now they were fifteen feet up. He twisted to look back again. He could see a handful of dim shapes at the treeline, one with arms uplifted. The nearest Exalted is Painmother Nguyen, in Bremerton. How had they known where to set an ambush?

“Arden,” he said urgently. “She’ll drop us. A fall from this height won’t hurt me, but - ”

“Oh,” Arden said, eyes suddenly distant. Tolly could hear his pulse. It disquieted him that the sound of it wasn’t agitated. “I think I know what to do. When the door opens, jump.”

“I will not leave you.”

“I need you to stop the others,” Arden said. “You can buy me a chance. Go.”

The door snapped open. Tolly shot him one last agonized glance and jumped. It was a long fall, but no invisible hand snatched him from the air. Something tugged at his clothes, but then he hit the ground rolling and came up running at his fastest. He could hear them now. They had split, three moving toward three retreating cloud of leaves he had kicked up, two moving toward the car.

The car. Tolly scrambled up the trunk of a narrow fir with his talons until he could get to the lower branches, turning to hang by one arm with his feet braced against the bark. The Kia Soul was lowering slowly toward the ground, shaking and rattling as if in an earthquake. It dropped the last couple of feet as Arden dove from the driver’s side. A sudden cold wind whipped at Tolly’s hair. The three witches were spreading out, silent, no chatter. He shinned rapidly back down the tree to circle around the nearest. It was darker every second.

They must not have been sure of him, or they wouldn’t have attacked after dark. That was hopeful. This was confirmed as he whipped around another trunk and into view of a man in a dark coat. He jerked a hand up toward Tolly, hissing, “Seize.”

Tolly’s heart squeezed in his chest. It stopped him for a second, startled, looking down at himself. He looked up at the warlock. The man’s cold, tight expression said he believed he’d taken a life.

“Oops,” Tolly said softly, and moved. The man was probably still wondering why that hadn’t worked when cold hands snapped his neck. Tolly had chosen wisely not to drink; he barely darted away before white light almost blinded him. There was a stink of ozone as he sprinted around another tree. Lightning? The charge hadn’t traveled through the ground. Either magic could limit the reach of electricity, or the dead man had absorbed most of it.

The other two were back-to-back now, a man and a woman, both black-coated like the first. He glimpsed them through the trees as he kept running. Another bolt of lightning split a tree some feet behind him, not even close.

“Don’t start a fire,” he heard the woman say. “He can’t maintain that spell long. No one can.”

They thought he was using sorcery. That amused him. Neither would have time to realize their mistake. He dropped on them from another tree and flung the woman so hard that she smashed every bone in her body against a boulder. The man he seized by the throat to force eye contact.

“Sleep,” he said. The man put up more of a fight than Daniel had, but it wasn’t enough. Tolly watched as his eyes fluttered and shut.

The air tasted of metal. The wind still howled in Tolly’s ears as he hauled the unconscious man back toward the car. He saw Arden first. They stood leaning back with their arms up as if holding something heavy, and the air around them warped and rippled like water. Gravel struck trees and the grass behind them like a rain of bullets, embedding into trunks, striking sparks where stone hit stone. Where it hit the shield, it seemed to evaporate with little pings and hisses.

Exalted Painmother Nguyen stood yards away, facing them with one hand outflung. Through the distortion of her own powers, she looked to be an Asian lady of about the middle age, her hair in a neat roll and her coat black like the others. Her pulse sounded calmer than Arden’s now did. She knew she could outlast them, Tolly realized.

He did not at all expect her to perceive him as he charged. She didn’t question his speed or what he was. She didn’t even try to stop his heart. He was simply yanked into the air and hurled sideways. The world tumbled, and then pain ripped through his chest as his back slammed into something hard.

Tolly scrabbled for purchase with his boots and talons, unable to turn, expecting to fall. A tremendous pressure in his chest made him look down and see the blood-slicked length of rough fir bark emerging from just below his breastbone. He’d hit so hard in his impalement that smaller branches had snapped off all along its length. Some were still shaking down behind his back.

Blood oozed around the length of wood as he grabbed at it one-handed, sinking the talons of his other hand into the trunk by his hip to achieve a precarious balance with his braced boots. There was no numbness of shock, no disorientation of rushing endorphins as a failing body tried last-ditch efforts to save itself. He was keenly aware that his bottom four ribs were shattered and his heart and left lung were effectively obliterated. He could feel the branch grinding against his spine and his remaining ribs on that side with every slightest movement. Holding still didn’t ease the pain. Movement only made it worse.

Arden, where was Arden? Tolly looked around frantically as he realized he could only hear one pulse. The smell of blood was overwhelming, but it wasn’t blood that he knew, he realized with dawning relief.

Painmother Nguyen was in pieces. He could see one of her arms twitching in the grass nearby, and the back of her head not far off, yards from her torso in its black coat.

He couldn’t call out. Breathing was quite impossible –

“Oh, fuck, Tolly,” said a voice. Tolly rolled his head, but Arden must be somewhere below and to his right, where he couldn’t see. They sounded raspy and exhausted. “Hold still. I’ll get you down.”

It would have been easier if he could’ve blacked out as the invisible grip seized him and dragged him forward off the branch. He felt all of it, every tiniest roughness in the bark, every jagged edge of a broken twig stabbing into his wound on the way past. It seemed like it took forever. Then he was in air, and then, at last, his knees hit the ground. A shaking arm fumbled around his shoulder. Dark blood oozed slowly from the edges of the hole in his body as he looked down at it. It was trying to close, but slowly, burning through what he had saved.

“I don’t think we’re going to make it,” Arden said. “Not both of us. But if you drink, you’ll heal, right?”

Tolly pulled himself around, grabbing at Arden’s shoulders to look them over. They were pale, bleeding vividly red from nose and eyes and ears. This close, he could at last scent it. The familiar torment was almost a comfort.

He laid a finger sharply over Arden’s mouth before they could speak again to give an order. Then he staggered to his feet and ran, doubled over and weaving, to find the warlock he had left alive earlier. He still lay sleeping in the pine needles under a tree where he’d been dropped.

He didn’t get time to wake up. Tolly gathered him up as gently as a lover and then latched onto his artery like a leech. He could hear Arden’s uncertain footsteps behind him as pleasure erased the pain in a gentle wave. When the pressure in the man’s carotid gave out, and the pulse in his ears died down, Black Tolly at last looked up to find Arden leaning on the tree trunk.

“So it does take a life,” Arden said hoarsely. Tolly inhaled. The lung held. He looked down at the smooth and undamaged expanse of his own chest.

“When the wound is dire,” Tolly said.

“I killed them,” Arden said. Their voice was the nervous one that Tolly knew and recognized, their pulse an irregular flutter. He stood up in one swift movement to catch them as they slumped forward.

“I have you, Arden. You’re all right,” he whispered as he gathered them up. They were light and limp in his arms, silent except for their heart.

He saw the fifth body as he carried Arden back to the car. The woman’s body lay twisted almost in half backwards. Arden’s powers must have thrown her into the protruding rear bumper of the black Sprinter van. It was all the way off the road, parked back from the shoulder under the darkness of the trees.

Tolly buckled Arden into the passenger seat, smoothing sweat-soaked hair back from their face. Their eye makeup had run again, black mingling with the bloody tears. They blinked a couple of times as he wiped it with his sleeve, but they couldn’t seem to hold their eyes open.

“Where’s the rest of your shirt?” they mumbled, head lolling into the seatbelt.

“I’ll get another one,” Tolly said. “How do you feel?”

“Everything hurts.”

“Hurts how?” Tolly asked.

“Throbs. It pulses, like… Another heartbeat. But bad.”

Tolly checked in his pocket. His phone had survived with a crack across the plastic outer case on the back. Eleven thirteen.

“Is this fatal?” he asked.

“Aeolus says… Probably not...” Tolly exhaled through his nostrils. He didn’t need to breathe. There was no reason for him to have been holding his breath. Arden’s early quixotry had been the result of confusion and the familiar self-destructive urges, not actual fact.

“Do you know how they found us?” he asked. He shook Arden slightly when there was no response, very careful, but insistent. “I’m sorry, child, but I must know. Ask the old man.”

Arden groaned. “Augury from the. Bodies. You can find the killer if you can scry within a couple of hours, Aeolus says. He – it’s – it’s hard for him to reach me now.”

“I see.” Tolly set his phone timer with great care. Then he bent to gently kiss Arden’s forehead. “Leave it to me, Arden. I’ll take care of it.”

He went around to the back of the car, stripping his ruined clothes as he went.

He had no idea if cars had passed them, but nobody had stopped. The Painmother and her presumed coreligionists had staged the whole thing back from the road. Headlights might catch the Soul in passing, but probably not the bodies. He wadded up the clothes into a plastic grocery bag rather than risk leaving them to law enforcement or witchery, not knowing if they could aid in this supposed augery. He hurriedly wiped himself down as best he could, then came up front to wipe Arden’s face with a clean body wipe, ignoring his groan of protest. In under five minutes he had rendered them presentable enough to pass for tired travelers, maybe ill in Arden’s case, but clean of blood. He coaxed Arden into taking a couple of naproxen sodium from Arden’s own luggage, washed down with a drink of water.

Then he started them to the East again, keeping politely within the speed limit. It was possible no one would find the bodies soon enough to perform divination, but he couldn’t depend on that. So in two hours, when their pursuers could no longer possibly tell from the bodies which way they were going, he would double back West. He was almost certain he could reach one of his surviving boltholes near Northgate before dawn.

Part 18: Weight of Dawn (Coming Soon!)

@fleur-a-whump, @bitchaknso, @valravnthefrenchie, @thewhumpcaretaker, @currentlyinthesprial

[hns216]

Remarkable Hiking Sticks

Here are some amazing webpages travel power converter, tabletop propane grill, small water bottles. Hiking Sticks

Hiking and backpacking are wonderful ways to get pleasure from the fantastic outdoors and get exceptional exercising at the same time. They enable you to get away from the rat race and cast off the pressure and pressures that come with it. The peace, solitude and fresh air are excellent for relaxing the entire body and the thoughts.

Regrettably, the peace and solitude hide the truth that the great outdoors could also be a cruel and unforgiving area for the unprepared. Every single year the news reports of hikers and backpackers who met with catastrophe because they either underestimated nature or overestimated their abilities. Whether or not it’s a brief day hike or an extended backpacking expedition there are variety of items you require to do to make certain your outing is risk-free and pleasant.

Pre-Trip Planning

Study and choose a route that matches your conditioning. If you can’t establish how difficult the trail is, ask! This is crucial if you are new to the outdoors or returning after a lengthy layoff. It is straightforward to underestimate the trouble of a trail especially if it is new to you. Alternately, we all have a tendency to overestimate our bodily skills. This is specifically true as we get older. Be totally truthful with yourself. A dark, cold mountainside is not the area to admit you are in over your head.

Be sure you have enough time to attain your destination while it is nonetheless light. Even an effortless trail can turn into treacherous once darkness falls. The issues of the trail, your bodily situation and the bodily condition of every person in your group is all part of the equation. If hiking in a group, remember to prepare for the lowest widespread denominator. The slowest person in the group will decide your pace.

Obtain a topographic map or a hiking guidebook that covers your route and know how to go through it. There are books, computer software and lessons that will educate you how to study and navigate employing them. Practice map navigating on brief hikes so you will know how to on longer journeys. Also, check out the climate forecast before you head out and be ready for any variety of climate.

Often allow someone know your trip strategies. This can’t be emphasized sufficient. How many occasions have you heard of the lost hiker who took off on their without letting anybody know where there were going or when they would be back. They were asking for difficulty.

Let an individual know in creating where you are going, when you will be gone and when you program to return. Be distinct. Give dates, the identify of the trailhead and trail, the specifics of the route and when you anticipate to return. The more detailed you can be the much better. Once you have your program stick to it. Various from your itinerary can be harmful should something go incorrect and you require to be rescued.

The first rule for hikers and backpackers should be “Never go out alone”. I know there are a large variety of solo hikers and backpackers out there and, I am sorry if this offends you, but solo hiking and backpacking is stupid. We’ve all heard the horror stories of solo hikers and packers suffering injury or dying in the wilds alone. The famous story of Aron Ralston alone should be sufficient to dissuade you from going it solo.

Line up a hiking partner, if attainable. While it is ideal to steer clear of hiking alone, if you must go it solo, be smart and choose well-travelled trails where you will likely encounter somebody should you run into difficulty.

On The Trail

First, make sure you are effectively dressed. Dress in layers and always be prepared for modifying climate specifically in mountains or canyons where poor weather can come upon you with small or no recognize. Be sure you have some type of rain gear and cold-weather gear, if proper. Steer clear of cotton clothing, which when wet insulates poorly and dries slowly. Wetness and hypothermia go hand in hand and can be a deadly combination.

Wear correct hiking footwear and that fit effectively. This is not an spot to scrimp on. Top quality, well-fitting boots could make the distinction between a great hike and a miserable one. Never wear a new pair of boots on a extended hike as sores and blisters are likely. Break them in slowly by testing boots on shorter hikes or strolling all around your community.

Constantly carry a compass and a topographic map of the area and know how to use both. Spend focus to landmarks on the trail, and examine your map often even on an evident trail. Mark landmarks on the map as you pass them. It is a excellent idea to turn close to periodically to see how the trail appears when you are heading in the other course. This can help make finding your way back easier.

Don’t get separated from your partner or group. Never ever drop sight of them and wait for stragglers at any trail junction. By no means alter directions without the whole group being together. Carry a whistle inside simple reach. 3 blasts of a whistle is the universal signal for aid. Don’t hold it in an out of the way spot in your backpack. Should you be injured you may possibly not be in a position to reach it.

Carry a lot of water and drink typically to stay away from dehydration. Dehydration is a prime enemy of hikers and backpackers. Don’t wait until you are thirsty to drink. If you do, you are presently turning into dehydrated. Also, don’t drink water from ponds or streams unless of course you have treated it 1st by boiling, filtering or using purification tablets.

Always have a fire starter and matches. If you get misplaced and need to invest the night outside a fire can assist prevent hypothermia and signal for help.

Be certain to carry a very first support kit and know how to use it. It is a very good notion to consider a initial support program. Read through up on frequent trail injuries specifically and how to deal with them. Be certain to carry moleskin or band-aids to assist with blisters.

Bring along a knife or other multi-purpose device. Make certain it is of excellent high quality and that the blades have sharp edges. Some thing along the line of a Swiss Army knife or a Leatherman device are great for emergency repairs of all kinds.

Be sure to pack a flashlight or other type of hiking torch. It will be invaluable to you don’t make it to your destination before it gets dark.

Use a hiking pole or strolling stick. Using hiking poles and walking sticks can help regular your balance on uneven terrain. In addition, they support ease the anxiety on your legs, feet, and, particularly, knees. They also can be utilised as emergency shelter supports, to carry things and as defensive weapons should it be necessary.

You can also check out some of my other websites at clear toiletry bag, hiking rucksacks, best trifold wallet.

[betseydecoteau7-blog]

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[matt41john]

50 Best Master’s in Educational Technology Degrees for 2017

50 Best Master’s in Educational Technology Degrees for 2017

Technology and education are being fused in new and exciting ways. Let us help you find the best Educational Technology degree.

It’s a truism to state that technology has infiltrated every area of our lives—until recently, though, education has been relatively immune to the siren call of the digital age. But those days are no more.

Technology and education are finally coming together. And for those with a passion for education, as well as a bent for technology, a Master’s in Educational Technology could prove to be a happy marriage of the two.

There has been a recent boom in educational technology that could potentially transform the classroom. Technology is helping teachers create engaging learning opportunities—from software that facilitates the task of curriculum design to media tools that help present new information.

But there are many brilliant educators that are not able to take full advantage of these innovations—either because of the notorious time constraints of the job  (teachers are busy!) or lack of technological training.

Enter the Master’s in Educational Technology.

Educational Technology (or Ed Tech) is an umbrella term for both the technological tools and the theoretical foundations that support learning and teaching. As such, it is a huge field encompassing everything from the development of educational software to supportive roles that help teachers integrate that software into their classroom.

And by classroom, we do not mean only K-12 classrooms. There are Educational Technology programs that are equally applicable to a number of professional training situations—from government to military, business, nonprofit, or higher education settings.

This means that programs vary widely in focus. And the language can be confusing.  In this ranking, you’ll see program titles like Educational Technology, Instructional Technology, Learning Design and Educational Technology, Instructional Design and Technology. . . you get the picture.

Read program websites closely to get a sense of emphasis. Some programs offer a lot of flexibility while others will have a more narrow focus. Some focus more on the technical aspects of educational technology development. Others emphasize pedagogy—or the human side of the fusion between technology and the learning process. Most programs blend the two.

There are many different facets of Educational Technology, but some courses you’ll frequently come across include:

Instructional Design of Educational Technology

Theories of Learning with Technology

Curriculum Integration of Learning Technology

Are you feeling under-equipped for a technology program? It may comfort you to know that most programs do not require an academic background in technology for admission (though it may give you a leg-up in the program). Most, if not all, programs will require a Bachelor’s degree, though, and some will want you to have an academic or professional background in Education.

Of course, any endeavor in higher education involves a hefty financial investment. So it should encourage you to know that Education is one of the fields in which a master’s degree really does pay off. The Bureau of Labor statistics lists Education among the professions in which having an advanced degree delivers a “relatively high” payoff.  

What are the Best Master’s in Education?

We believe a great program should combine an excellent learning experience with a good return on investment. So our ranking takes into account a number of factors—like reputation scores, peer assessments,  tuition costs, and early career earnings of graduates. We then calculate a composite score that balances academic excellence with the all-important return on investment.

So read on, Ed Tech leader of the future! We hope our ranking helps you find a program that is the right fit for you!

1.Harvard University

Overview

You probably don’t need much of an introduction to the first school on our ranking. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University is an iconic East Coast ivy league school whose history stretches back to 1636. Ranking at #2 among national universities (US News and World Report), Harvard is home to 13 prestigious schools and institutes, including the top ranked Graduate School of Education.

Program Features

Harvard’s Graduate School of Education offers a Master of Science in Technology, Innovation, and Education (TIE) that welcomes students from a diversity of educational and professional backgrounds. Grounded in teaching and learning, Harvard’s TIE program has a foundational commitment to using technology to enhance learning experiences for all students. Courses offered include:

Informal Learning for Children

Growing Up in a Media World

Field Experience in 21st Century Learning

Notables

You don’t need previous computer science or technology experience to join Harvard’s TIE program, though passion and creativity are a must. The program is highly customizable as there is no required core. Instead, students choose five courses out of a list of eighteen technology-related courses as well as three electives.  Students complete the program’s 32 credits in one year.

  2. Teachers College at Columbia University

Overview

One of the elite graduate schools at Columbia University, the Teachers College at Columbia University (colloquially referred to as TC) ranks among the best graduate education schools nationally. The first and largest graduate school in the country, TC has long been a leader in creating educational policies that aim to remove all barriers to students’ success in the classroom.

Program Features

The Teachers College at Columbia University offers a Master of Arts in Instructional Technology and Media which combines pedagogical strategies with emerging technologies. Students will be challenged to identify best practices for integrating information and communication technologies in classrooms, including principles of design. Courses include:

Object-Oriented Programming and Programming

Instructional Design of Educational Technology

Cognition and Computers

Notables

TC’s MA in Instructional Technology and Media is a 32-credit course comprised of 16 credits of core coursework, as well as 7-10 elective credits, and a required integrative project.  The program applies to all subject areas and serves students, staff, and faculty members who share a commitment as educators to use digital technologies to improve education at all levels.

  3. Ohio State University

Overview

Located in the state capital of Columbus, The Ohio State University is a nationally ranked, public research university and one of the largest in the country. The school is home to the highly ranked College of Education and Human Ecology which in turn houses the Department of Educational Studies. The DES offers many nationally ranked programs, making it one of the best places to get a degree in educational specialties.

  Program Features

The Department of Educational Studies at OSU’s College of Education and Human Ecology offers a Master of Learning Technologies degree that will provide you with the skills you need to excel in the field of learning technologies. With a broad focus on a variety of educational contexts (from K-12 education to professional and corporate environments), the program applies current research to the question of how to use technology to best support learning. Courses include:

  Issues and Practices in Educational Technology

Theories of Learning with Technology

Introduction to Instructional Design

Notables

Ohio State’s Master of Learning Technologies is a minimum 30-credit program, comprised of seven core courses, and nine credits for elective, research, and capstone courses. This is an online, streamlined curriculum and you can adjust the workload for a part-time or full-time schedule.

  4. Florida State University

Overview

Located in the college town of Auburn, Alabama, Auburn University is a public research university, and with a student population of 22,000, it is the second largest in the state. The school ranks among the top 100 national universities (US News and World Report) and among the top 50 public schools in the country. Auburn’s College of Education at Auburn also ranks in the top 100 nationally.

  Program Features

FSU’s College of Education offers an online or in-class Master of Science in Instructional Systems and Learning Technologies which will put you in demand in a variety of professional contexts. With a trifold focus on instructional design, emerging technologies and performance improvement, the program will teach you to create innovative approaches to help people improve their skills, knowledge, and job performance. Courses include:

Introduction to Instructional Systems and Learning Technologies

Trends and Issues in Instructional Design

Theories of Learning and Cognition in Instruction

Notables

FSU’s MS in Instructional Systems & Learning Technologies is comprised of 36 credit hours of coursework, an internship, and a portfolio. In all courses students will apply their knowledge to real world problems. By enrolling in a minimum of six credit hours in six consecutive semesters (fall, spring and summer), you can complete the degree in two years.

  5. Auburn University

Overview

Located in the college town of Auburn, Alabama, Auburn University is a public research university and with a student population of 22,000 it is the second largest  in the state. The school ranks among the top 100 national universities (US News and World Report) and among the top 50 public schools in the country. Auburn’s College of Education at Auburn also ranks in the top 100 nationally.

Program Features

For those with an interest in working in libraries, Auburn University’s College of Education offers a Master of Education in Library, Media and Technology. The program covers information science, instructional design, instructional technology, educational leadership, and learning theory. Graduates will have a library media certification. Courses include:

Instructional Design

Instructional & Informational Technologies

Selection & Use of Media for Youth

Notables

Auburn’s M.Ed. in Library, Media and Technology prepares students for careers as teachers, information specialists, instructional partners, and school library program administrators. The program is comprised of 30 credits of core courses, an internship, and other supporting courses. If you’re interested in an online program, this one is available in both on-campus and online formats.

  6. Arizona State University -West Campus

Overview

One of the four campuses that comprise Arizona State University, ASU’s West campus is located in Phoenix, Arizona. The school is one of the newer campuses, having been founded in 1984, and is home to the much lauded and highly ranked (#11 nationally according to US News and World Report) Mary Lou Fulton Teacher’s College.

Program Features

ASU’s Mary Lou Fulton Teacher’s College offers a Master of Education in Educational Technology that will empower you to harness knowledge, mobilize people and take action to improve education. Applicable to a variety of professional and educational contexts, the program emphasizes the design of learning technology for real-world settings. Courses include:

Introduction to Research and Evaluation in Education

Learning Theories and Instructional Strategies

Foundations of Learning Design and Technologies

Notables

ASU’s M.Ed. in Educational Technology is a 30-credit program comprised of 21 credits of core coursework, as well as an elective and a culminating experience (applied project). If you’re looking for a flexible online program, this one is offered in online format with multiple enrollment sessions throughout the year and accelerated 7.5 week classes.

  7. Ball State University

Overview

Situated in the city of Muncie, Indiana, Ball State University is a public research university with a total enrollment of around 22,000 students. The university, which ranks among the top 100 public schools nationally, is home to several nationally ranked and award-winning programs, including the Ball State Teachers College which ranks at #101 nationally.

Program Features

Ball State Teachers College offers a Master of Arts in Curriculum and Educational Technology designed for educators seeking to integrate technology into K 12 curriculum and other instructional contexts. While critically examining technology’s ever-changing presence within schools and society, students will learn to utilize technology to meet the learning needs of students. Courses include:

Curriculum Integration of Learning Technology

Technology Policy and Pedagogy

Principles and Procedures of Curriculum Development

Notables

Ball State’s M.A. in Curriculum and Educational Technology is a 30-credit program with a core courseload of 21 credit hours followed by nine additional credit hours in your area of concentration (Curriculum or Educational Technology).  If you need added flexibility, many courses are offered in both online and on-campus formats.

  8. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Overview

Generally referred to as Virginia Tech, Virginia Polytechnic and State University is a public research university located in the eclectic university town of Blacksburg, VA (named by Southern Living magazine as the “best college town in the south”). The school as a whole ranks among the top 100 national universities, with its School of Education coming in at #84 (US News and World Report).

Program Features

Virginia Tech’s Master of Arts in Instructional Design and Technology prepares students to practice their profession in a variety of settings including industry, preK-12 schools, higher education, and government. With a double focus on product and process, the curriculum applies current knowledge about the learning process to the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of learning experiences and products. Courses include:

Instructional Technology: Audio-Visual and Computer Uses

Design for Learning

Principles of Learning Message Design

Notables

Graduates of Virginia Tech’s 30-credit M.A. in Instructional Design and Technology program find themselves applying their expertise in a variety of professions. They are instructional designers, trainers, or performance consultants in industrial settings and as teachers or technology coordinators in preK-12. This is a good choice for those who need a flexible program - many courses can be completed on campus, online, or through a hybrid format.    

  9. Stanford University

Overview

Another school that hardly needs an introduction, it’s never surprising to see Stanford’s name on any “Best Of” list.  Located in the Bay Area of California, Stanford consistently ranks among the top 5 national universities, with its School of Education sitting at #2 nationally (US News and World Report). And graduate students are guaranteed housing on Stanford’s beautiful campus, as long as they apply on time!

Program Features

Stanford’s Graduate School of Education offers a Master’s in Learning, Design, and Technology for students from a broad range of professional backgrounds.  With a foundation of empirically grounded education design theory and principles, as a student you’ll learn to use emergent technologies to enhance learning environments and improve outcomes. Courses include:

Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods

Behavior Design

Consciousness Hacking: Designing Technology for Well-Being

Notables

Stanford’s Master’s in Learning, Design and Technology program is comprised of 45 units of coursework, which includes an internship and a Master’s project and Portfolio. Students join a select cohort of students from diverse backgrounds and, under the guidance of an Academic Advisor, align their program of study to their specific goals.

  10. Iowa State University

Overview

Located in the small town of Ames, Iowa, Iowa State University (or if you want to get technical: “Iowa State University of Science and Technology”) is the state’s flagship public research university. The largest school in the state, Iowa State is home to several highly regarded graduate programs, including a School of Education that ranks in the top 100 nationally (US News and World Report).

Program Features

Iowa State’s School of Education offers a Master of Education in Curriculum and Instructional Technology which gives classroom teachers and other educators the skills to integrate technology in teaching and learning. With authentic learning experiences and a collaborative learning environment, the curriculum focuses on Learning, Pedagogy, and Leading. Courses include:

Foundations of Digital Learning

Designing Effective Learning Environments

Using Technology in Learning and Teaching

Notables

Iowa State’s online Curriculum and Instructional Technology program is comprised of 32 credit hours, including credits in research, foundations, applications, and leadership in educational technology. Students typically complete the degree in three years. This is a good program if you’re thinking of working in a K-12 setting—classes are small and mostly formed by K-12 teachers, technology specialists and other educational practitioners.

  Minnesota State University - Mankato

Overview

Located along the Minnesota River in the college town of Mankato, Minnesota (and not too far from the Twin Cities), Minnesota State University is the second largest public university in the state. MSU Mankato is the flagship campus of the Minnesota State Universities and Colleges system and currently ranks at #103 among regional universities in the Midwest. MSU is also home to a nationally accredited College of Education.

Program Features

MSU - Mankato’s College of Education offers an online Master of Science in Educational Technology program that is designed to meet the increasing demands for educators, integrationists, designers, and leaders in educational technology.  The curriculum is both comprehensive and flexible to meet the diverse needs of individuals and organizations. Courses include:

Introduction to Technology

Differentiation through Technology

Using Technology in the Classroom

Notables

Minnesota State’s MS in Educational Technology is a fully online, 34-credit program that is technology-integrated and research-based. As part of the program, students complete core coursework and develop and complete a paper, project, thesis or manuscript as a capstone. You can complete this program in two years of full-time study or take up to 6 years part-time.

  12. Drexel University

Overview

Located in in Philadelphia, PA, Drexel University is a private university with a reputation for being a highly innovative technological university.  Drexel consistently ranks among the best-value schools in the nation, and among the top 100 national universities(US News and World Report). In 2017 Drexel’s College of Education ranked at #179.

  Program Features

Drexel University’s School of Education offers a Master of Science in Learning Technologies that prepares students to create learning solutions for an interconnected world. Fusing national education standards, digital literacy, design thinking, learning sciences, and field experiences, the curriculum ensures that students will be prepared for a broad range of careers in education and business settings. Concentrations include:

E-Learning Leadership

Instructional Design

Instructional Tech Specialist

Learning in Game-Based Environments

Notables

Drexel’s M.S. in Learning Technologies is a 45 credit program that is available both on campus and online. The curriculum is comprised of core coursework, concentration courses, electives, and an Action Research Capstone. This flexible, accredited online program is ideal for teachers, trainers, and other educational leaders.

  13. Concordia University—St. Paul

Overview

Located in the beautiful and pristine Minnesota state capital, Concordia University - St. Paul is a small, private, Lutheran-affiliated liberal arts university. Established in the late nineteenth century, the school is a member of the ten school Concordia University System. Their comprehensive academic offerings include high quality programs in Education with abundant internship opportunities.

Program Features

Concordia University—St. Paul offers a Master of Arts in Education with an emphasis in  Educational Technology to help educators utilize technology effectively in the classroom. Primarily aimed at experienced educators wishing to enhance student learning, Concordia’s EdTech curriculum familiarizes students with innovative approaches to technology. Courses include:

Technology Trends & Social Media

Exploring Classroom Tech Tools

Virtual Classroom

Notables

Concordia—St. Paul’s M.A. in Educational Technology program is comprised of 27 credits of coursework, including coursework, a field experience and a capstone project.  Courses in this EdTech program stress practical applications and will address the positive and negative implications and effects of technology in the teaching and learning process.

  14. University of Pennsylvania

Overview

With the rare distinction of having been founded (in 1740) by Benjamin Franklin, the University of Pennsylvania is a private Ivy League research university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The school is one of 14 founding members of the exclusive Association of American Universities and is home to a  School of Education that ranks third in the nation (US News and World Report).

Program Features

The Teaching, Learning, and Leadership Division of the University of Pennsylvania offers an online Master of Science in Education with an emphasis in Learning Sciences and Technologies. This is a customizable program, with opportunities for students to study and create real-world learning experiences to make education more effective, efficient, and engaging. Courses include:

Foundations of Teaching and Learning

Video Games and Virtual Worlds

Design of Learning Environments

Notables

The University of Pennsylvania’s M.S. in Education is comprised of ten courses (core, specialization, and electives) as well as a Master’s Paper. LST students at UPenn work closely with their academic advisor to tailor their program of study to their interests. And as a student in this program you will participate in a two-semester internship program in order to experience how learning occurs in out-of-school settings.

  15. Emporia State University

Overview

Located just East of the Flint Hills of Kansas, Emporia State University is a small public university which ranks at #108 among regional public universities in the Midwest (US News and World Report). The school has a mission to create a student-centered learning environment both on campus and through its online programs - this includes high-quality programming in Instructional Design and Technology.

Program Features

The Teachers College at Emporia State offers a Master of Science in Instructional Design and Technology that gives students skills in the design, development, and integration of technology and online learning in various educational environments. This program is not limited to K-12 teachers, and is applicable to anyone working as an instructional designer/trainer in business, industry, healthcare, military, and post-secondary institutions. Courses include:

Foundations of Instructional Technology

Web Design

Instructional Design

Notables

Emporia’s M.S. in IDT is available both online and on campus and is comprised of 36 credits of core coursework, electives, and a research component. Students can choose between a thesis option (if you want to focus on research and evaluation of instruction design topics) or a non-thesis option (intended for IDT practitioners). This is a great option if you’re looking for flexibility in your master’s program.

  16. Kansas State University

Overview

One of America’s first land-grant colleges, Kansas State University is a large public research university, located in the city of Manhattan, Kansas. The school is home to a College of Education that prepares educators to be knowledgeable, ethical, caring decision makers. It also ranks among the top 100 in the country (US News and World Report).

Program Features

Kansas State’s College of Education offers a Master of Science in Curriculum and Instruction with a specialization in Educational Technology. The program focuses on the study and ethical practice of learning technology in educational environments—both processes and resources. K-12 educators make up the largest contingent of students, but it is equally applicable to those in higher education or corporate/industry professions. Courses include:

Instructional Systems Design

Social/Cultural Issues in Educational Technology

Online Teaching and Learning

Notables

Kansas State’s M.S. in Curriculum and Instruction is comprised of between 31-36 credits (depending on whether you choose the Master’s Report or the Master’s Project). All students will cover the core areas of curriculum, teaching and learning, diversity, educational technology, and research and scholarship. The Educational Technology specialization consists of 15 credits of the total coursework.

  17. Indiana University—Bloomington

Overview

Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington) is a large public research university located in Bloomington, Indiana. The school, which aims to provide an “ideal college experience” for students, is the flagship campus of the IU system and ranks among the top 100 public schools in the country. Notably, in 2017 US News and World Report ranked the IU’s School of Education at #32 nationally.

Program Features

IU Bloomington’s School of Education offers a Master of Science in Education (M.S.Ed.) in Instructional Systems Technology in which you will learn to design effective instructional materials that can be delivered through various media. This is a hands-on degree in which students test processes, products, and services that have been created for educational or training settings. Courses include:

Instructional Performance and Technology

Instructional Development & Production

Evaluation & Change in the ID Process

Notables

IU Bloomington’s M.S.Ed. in Instructional Systems Technology is a 36-credit program consisting of 15 credits of core coursework and 21 IST and non- IST electives. Students in the program have the opportunity to participate in an internship as well as a year-long studio project (conducted under faculty supervision)—upon graduation you will be well prepared for a career as a practitioner of instructional technology.

  18. Boise State University

Overview

Located in Idaho’s state capitol, the eponymously named Boise State University is a public university that offers nationally ranked programs to its diverse population of over 22,000 students. Boise State’s College of Education ranks among the top 60 in the country and is supported by accomplished faculty and staff, research centers, and institutes.

Program Features

Boise State offers a Master of Educational Technology program which focuses on skills for improved classroom performance at all levels of education. The curriculum fuses theoretical foundations with hands-on technology skills for a diversity of learning environments. If you’re thinking of completing doctoral work, this program will provide you with a good foundation. Courses include:

Introduction to Educational Technology

The Internet for Educators

Instructional Design for Educators

Notables

Boise State’s M.E.T. program is a 30-credit program which consists of 15 credits of core coursework and 15 credits of electives. All M.E.T. students complete a portfolio as their culminating activity. As a student in this program you’ll also have the option of earning a graduate certificate in one of four specializations: Online Teaching, Technology Coordination, Technology Integration, or Games and Simulations.

  19. University of Georgia

Overview

Founded in 1785, the University of Georgia is a historic public research university (the first public, state-supported college in America) that ranks among the top 100 national universities in the country. Among its high-ranking schools and institutes, UGA’s College of Education sits at #35 nationally and is home to several highly ranked programs (US News and World Report).

Program Features

The University of Georgia’s College of Education offers a Master of Education in Learning, Design, and Technology. This program will first teach you to identify and analyze learning problems, and then create and implement more effective designs for learning to address these needs. Students at the Athens campus students participate in the research oriented M.Ed. which will prepare you for further doctoral studies. Coursework includes:

History, Trends, and Issues in the Field

Learning Theory and Instructional Models

Research Methods

Notables

UGA’s research-oriented M.Ed. is a 36-credit program. This will include both coursework and a major project or research paper that you will create (with advice from a faculty advisor) and present at the end of the program. For students with an interest in a professional or practitioner-based MEd, UGA offers two professional M.Ed. emphases online through the Gwinnett campus.

  20. SUNY at Albany

Overview

Founded in 1844,  the State University of New York’s University at Albany (UAlbany) is a public, comprehensive research university that boasts highly ranked programs and a diverse student body. US News and World Report currently ranks UAlbany’s School of Education as number one among SUNY institutions and 5th among all universities in New York State.  

Program Features

UAlbany’s School of Education offers a Master of Science in Curriculum Development and Instructional Technology which explores the intersection of curriculum and instructional design in 21st-century educational environments. This program is ideal for a variety of career goals, including  K-12 education— but equally applicable to those working in higher education, business, or training settings. Courses include:

Systematic Design of Instruction

Media in Teaching and Learning

Educational Computing

Notables

UAlbany’s M.S. in Curriculum Development and Instructional Technology is a customizable 30-credit program which includes coursework (in which students have a significant amount of choice) and a Master’s thesis. This program is available both on-campus and online —and UAlbany’s online graduate education programs recently ranked as #6 nationally by US News and World Report.

  21. Concordia University—Chicago

Overview

Located just ten miles west of Chicago in River Forest, Illinois, Concordia University-Chicago is a private, Lutheran-affiliated liberal arts college and a member of the ten school Concordia University System. The school offers high-quality graduate education programs both on campus and online and strives to equip students to lead with integrity, competence, and compassion.

Program Features

If you’re a licensed teacher who wants to become a technology specialist, technology director, or technology coach, then you should look closely at Concordia University-Chicago’s Master of Arts in Education Technology: Leadership program. The curriculum is aligned with national educational standards and performance indicators as set forth by International Society for Technology in Education. Courses include:

Integrating Technology Across the Curriculum

Educational Technology Hardware and Software

Visual Literacy in the Classroom

Notables

Concordia-Chicago’s M.A. in Education Technology is a 30 credit program that students complete in 24 months. The program is available on campus and online and is comprised of nine core courses and a capstone experience. Successful graduates will qualify for the Technology Specialist Endorsement for the state of Illinois.

  22. University of Virginia

Overview

Founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819, the University of Virginia is a public research university and the flagship of the Commonwealth of Virginia. With a campus that has been designated as a World Heritage Site, the school as a whole ranks among the top 30 national universities in the country and is a member of the elite Association of American Universities. The Curry School of Education ranks among the top 20 nationally.

Program Features

The University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education offers a Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on Instructional Technology. The program is designed for people working in education settings who want to gain skills in effective instructional practices and curriculum development. Courses in the Instructional Technology focus area include:

Instructional Design

Online Instruction for K-12

Computer Courseware Tools

Notables

The University of Virginia’s M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction is a 30-credit online program online program, half of which (15 credits) are devoted to your chosen focus area. Students studying full-time can complete the program in a year, but there are also part-time options. You can also transfer up to 6  credits into this program if they are approved by your advisor.

23. Appalachian State University

Overview

Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, Appalachian State University is a comprehensive public university that ranks among the top ten Regional universities in the South. The school was originally founded as a teacher’s college in 1899, and the Reich College of Education continues that tradition of excellence, maintaining a place on national rankings to the present.

Program Features

Appalachian State’s Reich College of Education offers a Master of Arts in Educational Media: Instructional Technology program in which students work in both traditional and emerging technologies. The curriculum blends design, production, application, and evaluation of a broad range of media and technology. Upon graduation, students will be prepared to assume leadership roles in various fields of media and technology. Four concentrations are offered:

K-12 Concentration

Online Learning and Professional Development

New Media Literacies and Global Perspectives

General Concentration

Notables

Appalachian State’s M.A. in Educational Media is a 36-credit program, comprised of 18 credits of core coursework and the remainder being devoted to your chosen concentration. The K-12 concentration leads to 077 ‘M’ level licensure for Instructional Technology Specialists, while the other three concentrations do not lead to licensure in North Carolina.

  24. University of Oklahoma

Overview

Situated just 20 miles south of Oklahoma City, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university that ranks at #111 nationally. The school was founded in 1890 and today has a student population of over 30,000 students—including those at the Rainbolt College of Education which ranks at #77 in the country.

Program Features

The Rainbolt College of Education at the University of Oklahoma offers a Master of Education in Instructional Psychology and Technology (delivered by the Department of the Educational Psychology). The curriculum blends research, theory and practice to examine problems of instruction and learning in a variety of educational and business settings. Students choose from four specializations:

21st Century Teaching and Learning (online program)

Educational Psychology

Integrating Technology in Teaching

Instructional Design and Technology

Notables

The University of Oklahoma’s M.Ed. in Instructional Psychology and Technology is a 36-credit program, with courses varying widely depending on the specialty chosen. All specialties have at least 18 credits of required courses, and all students must pass a comprehensive exam or thesis.

  25. The University of Texas at Austin

Overview

The University of Texas at Austin is a public research university and the flagship institution of the University of Texas system - it has one of the largest campus enrollments in the country, allowing for great educational diversity. Among the renowned colleges, the College of Education is one of the best in the country, ranking at #11 (US News and World Report).

Program Features

The College of Education at UT-Austin offers a Master of Arts or Master of Education degree in Learning Technologies. This flexible program prepares students to become practitioners in various educational settings, such as K-12, higher education, and training in business and industry. Required courses include:

Instructional Systems Design

Foundations of Learning Technology

Interactive Multimedia Design and Production

Notables

UT-Austin’s Learning Technologies master’s programs are between 36-39 credits. M.A. students can choose between completing a thesis (3 extra credits) or a report. The M.Ed. program (which is comprised of only coursework) is open to students who have at least one year of teaching, training, instructional development or project management experience. Some courses are offered in online or blended formats.

26. University of Southern California

Overview

Founded in 1880, the University of Southern California (USC) is an urban public research university located in Los Angeles. With a reputation for excellence in teaching and research, the school ranks among the top 25 national universities. The Rossier School of Education is no exception to the school’s tradition of high-quality programs, ranking at #15 nationally.

Program Features

USC’s Rossier’s School of Education offers a Master of Education in Learning Design and Technology for those who want to pursue careers in educational program design.  The curriculum is broadly based and covers a number of topics. You will become proficient in educational program design, online learning, corporate training, and instructional design and evaluation, among other topics. Courses include:

Learning and Motivation

Human Development

Instructional Design

Media Selection and Evaluation

Notables

USC’s M.Ed. in Learning Design and Technology is a 30-credit program that is designed to be manageable for working professionals to complete in 21 months.  This is a widely applicable program that was formed with advice from leaders from a variety of industries, from museums to higher education institutions and the military.

  27. St. Cloud State University

Overview

Situated along the Mississippi River in St. Cloud, Minnesota, St. Cloud State University is a public university and one of the largest in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system. The school ranks at #115 among Midwestern regional colleges and is home to a School of Education with a rich history of teacher preparation.

Program Features

St. Cloud State University’s School of Education offers a Master of Science in Information Media - Technology Integration program. The curriculum will give you skills to apply technology in your classroom, training environment or other workplaces. In this hands-on program you will work directly with a wide variety of technologies, developing projects that demonstrate your ability to fully integrate technology into your chosen field. Courses include:

Information Theory, Media, and research

Instructional Design

Technology Integration

Notables

SCSU’s M.S. in Information Media - Technology Integration program is a 39-42 credit program that is designed for the working professional. Students can choose between part-time and full-time options, and all courses are available online or during evening hours. And for eligible students, the school also offers six scholarships for information media.

  28. Pennsylvania State University

Overview

Located in University Park, PA, Pennsylvania State University is a public research university known colloquially as one of the “public ivies.” The school also has one of the largest campus enrollments in the country, allowing for an educational diversity not available at smaller schools. The College of Education at Penn State offers high-quality programs for educational professionals, and ranks in the top 50 nationally.

Program Features

Penn State’s College of Education has a Learning, Design, and Technology program that offers either a Master of Education or a Master of Science option. With exceptional faculty, Penn State is a leader in LDT programs globally.  The LDT program is highly flexible and applicable to a variety of research or  practitioner settings. Core courses include:

Systematic Instructional Development

Emerging Web Technologies and Learning

Design of Constructivist Learning Environments

Notables

Penn State’s LDT M.Ed. degree is a 30-credit practitioner’s program with nine credits of core LDT courses and 21 credits of professional application courses. The M.Ed. is also available online through Penn State’s World Campus. The LDT M.S. is a 36-credit research-oriented degree in which students complete a thesis in addition to other coursework.

  29. New York Institute of Technology

Overview

Located in the village of Old Westbury, NY, the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) is a private research university that ranks among the top regional schools in the North. The school is home to five schools and two colleges, including the School of Interdisciplinary Studies and Education which offers innovative and high-quality programs to graduate students.

Program Features

NYIT’s School of Interdisciplinary Studies and Education offers two Master of Science in Instructional Technology programs: one for educators and one for trainers. Both programs help individuals integrate and apply new technology to their teaching environments. The program for educators is primarily designed for P-12 educators. The program for trainers is directed at those in the corporate, nonprofit, government, or online arena. Courses include:

Educational Uses of Social Media

Assessment and Evaluation Methods

Curriculum Design and Development

Notables

NYIT’s innovative M.S. in Instructional Technology programs are both comprised of 33 credits of coursework. The program for Educators includes a Field Experience Practicum while the program for trainers includes an independent study component. Online and onsite courses are both available. This program promises the knowledge and experience to become a master teacher, instructional technology leader, coach, professional developer, or instructional designer.

  30. University of Florida

Overview

Located in Gainesville, Florida, the University of Florida is a major public research university which ranks among the best national universities in the country. It is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities (the only AAU member in Florida) and of the State University System of Florida. UF’s College of Education ranks in the top 30 nationally (US News and World Report).

Program Features

UF’s College of Education offers a Master of Arts in Education with an emphasis on Educational Technology for those who are interested in a career as an instructional designer or educational technologist. As a student, you will study how technologies and emerging physical, virtual and blended learning environments empower educators and learners and impact society. Courses include:

Foundations of Educational Technology

Distance Teaching and Learning

Instructional Design

Notables

UF’s M.A.E. in Educational Technology is a 36-credit program which is comprised of 30 credits of required coursework and 6 hours of thesis or project. Some courses are offered online as well as face-to-face, and you can complete the program in two years of full-time study.

  31. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Overview

One of the oldest universities in the country (it was founded in 1789), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) is public research university located in downtown Chapel Hill, NC. The school is home to many highly regarded colleges, three of which have collaborated on the Educational Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship program.

Program Features

UNC offers a Master of Arts in Educational Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship (MEITE) that was designed in collaboration with Kenan-Flagler Business School, the School of Information and Library Science and the Department of Computer Science. Students in the program learn to develop the leading edge of educational technologies and curriculum, and explore organizational models that support entrepreneurs to take their ideas to market. Courses include:

Design-Based Research

Technological Literacy

Emerging Technologies

Notables

UNC’s MEITE master’s program is a professional, cohort-based degree program. Students complete the 36-credits of coursework in 12 months—taking 12 credit hours of coursework and three credit hours of internship each semester. You can tailor the program to your own professional needs through the six electives from three course categories. All students conclude the program by completing a Master’s thesis.

  32. Virginia Commonwealth University

Overview

Located in Richmond, Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is an urban public research university that ranks among the top 100 public schools nationally.  With a commitment to excellence in research and teaching, the school is home to many nationally renowned centers and institutes, including a School of Education that ranks at #41 nationally.

Program Features

The Department of Teaching and Learning at VCU’s School of Education offers a Master of Education with a concentration in Instructional Technology. Designed for experienced educators, the program provides experiences to help students use technology in support of teaching and learning. The curriculum blends the theoretical with the practical, to help you critically examine current research and make use of the best educational technology. Courses include:

Research Methods in Education

Curriculum Development

Instructional Strategies Using the Internet

Notables

VCU’s M.Ed. in Instructional Technology is a 33-credit program comprised of nine required courses (foundational and core) and 6 credits of electives. This program is not limited to K-12 educators—the Department of Teaching and Learning is committed to the preparation of teachers for schools, government agencies, for-profit and nonprofit organizations as well.

  33. University of Minnesota

Overview

Located on both sides of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, MN the University of Minnesota is a public research university and the oldest and largest campus in the U of M system. The school has a stellar reputation, ranking among the very best public schools in the nation, and has a College of Education that ranks in the top 25 nationally.

Program Features

The Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the U of M’s College of Education offers a Master of Arts and a Master of Education in Learning Technologies for a variety of educational settings. Core focus areas include online distance learning and multimedia design. The program also prepares students to conduct research and engage with educational technology for higher education, K-12, and business settings. Courses include:

Technology tools for educators

Teaching and learning with the internet

Special topics in learning technologies

Notables

The U of M’s Learning Technologies degree can be completed as either an M.Ed. or M.A.—both of which are 30-credit programs. The Master of Education is a practitioner-based program for those who want to use educational technologies order to advance their careers and leadership capacity. The M.A. program offers a stronger research orientation in which  students complete a thesis.

  34. University of South Carolina

Overview

Located in the state capital of Columbia, South Carolina, the University of South Carolina is a public research university and the flagship of the University of South Carolina’s eight-campus system. The nationally ranked school offers over 350 programs of study, and a College of Education that ranks in the top 100 nationally.

Program Features

USC’s College of Education offers a Master of Education in Educational Technology that will help educators integrate and understand technology into their classrooms. The program curriculum gives you the opportunity to study topics like instructional design, media management, and facilities planning, among others. Courses include:

Applications of Learning Principles

Instructional Design and Assessment

Management of Technology Resources

Notables

USC’s M.Ed. in Educational Technology is a 36-credit program delivered in an online format. As part of the program, students complete a web-based portfolio and an internship in Educational Technology. The program is designed to be equally applicable to people from a variety of professional backgrounds, including classroom teachers, corporate trainers, and educational software developers.

  University of Massachusetts Amherst

Overview

Located in the college town of Amherst, Massachusetts, The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass)  is a public research university and the flagship of the University of Massachusetts system. The largest public university in New England, UMass ranks among the top 100 national universities and is home to a top 50  College of Education (#41 in US News and World Report).

Program Features

The College of Education at UMass offers a Master’s in Learning, Media, and Technology in which media and technology are seen as both tools and objects of study in themselves. The program prepares students to understand, design, and improve technology and media-based learning and teaching for a variety of settings. Courses include:

Online Tools for Learning and Instruction

Teaching and Learning with Technology

Educational Web Design

Notables

UMass’s Master’s in Learning, Media, and Technology is a minimum 33-credit program. In addition to the required coursework, students must complete a culminating Master’s project. Recent graduates have accepted positions in a variety of settings, including K-12, community college, university, organization, and corporate settings as educational media and online learning developers.

  36. University of Dayton

Overview

Located on the shores of the Great Miami River in Dayton, Ohio, the University of Dayton is a private, Catholic research university. The nationally ranked school ranks among the best value schools in the nation (US News and World Report) and is home to a highly regarded School of Education. UD also boasts small classes and a close relationships between students and instructors.

Program Features

The School of Education and Health Sciences at UD offers a Master of Science in Education in Technology Enhanced Learning. Aimed specifically at P-12 educators, the program will prepare you to integrate technology into your own teaching and to assist other professionals in their schools. Courses include:

Cognition, Learning, and Technology

Multimedia Production

Planning & Assessing Technology

Notables

The concentration courses in UD’s M.S. in Education in Technology also meet the requirements for the computer technology endorsement from the state of Ohio and the graduate certificate in technology-enhanced learning. As part of the program, you will be eligible to participate in the Lalanne Program. The Lalanne Program offers graduate students the opportunity to live in a communal setting with fellow teachers while pursuing their studies (with a living stipend and loan deferment).

  37. SUNY Buffalo State

Overview

Located in Buffalo, New York, SUNY Buffalo State is a public research university in the State University of New York system. With its low tuition and academic excellence, the school ranks among the top 50 public schools in the Northern region. SUNY Buffalo State is home to a School of Education which has designed high-quality Educational Technology programing for educators.

Program Features

The Graduate School at Buffalo State offers a Master of Science in Education in Learning Design and Educational Technology. This program is designed primarily for P–12 educators, trainers from business and industry, and other professionals, who wish to expand their skills in the educational application of technology in a variety of teaching and learning environments. Courses include:

Integrating Digital Video Technology into the Classroom

Instructional Technologies

Authoring for Educators

Notables

Buffalo State’s M.S.Ed. in Learning Design and Educational Technology is a 33-credit program comprised of 18 credits of core courses and 15 credits of electives and a masters project. Applicants should have previous experience with the internet and common software tools (e.g., word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software). Elementary/Secondary teaching certification is recommended (but not required).

  38. University of Houston

Overview

Located in Houston, Texas, the University of Houston is a Carnegie Tier One public research university and the flagship campus of the University of Houston system. The school has earned a place on national rankings among top public schools and has a College of Education that ranks among the top 100 nationally (US News and World Report).

Program Features

The Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Houston’s College of Education offers a Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Learning, Design, and Technology. Not limited to K-12 teachers, the program provides education, healthcare, and business professionals opportunities to learn new skills to integrate the latest technologies in teaching and learning. Courses include:

Instructional Design

Digital Imaging

Educational Multimedia

Notables

The University of Houston’s M.Ed. in Instructional Technology is a 30-credit program consisting of 2 core Curriculum and Instruction courses and eight Learning, Design, and Technology courses. The program offers the flexibility of full-time or part-time formats. And students can choose between on-campus or online delivery (or a hybrid format).

39. University of Tennessee

Overview

Located in the city of Knoxville, Tennessee, the University of Tennessee is a historic public research university and the flagship campus of the University of Tennessee system. The school ranks at #103 among National Universities and its College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences ranks at #62 for their innovative programs (US News and World Report).

Program Features

The University of Tennessee’s College of Education offers a Master of Science with a concentration in Instructional Technology. The program prepares students to design, develop, implement, and evaluate online learning environments. The skills that students gain in the program will be widely applicable in contexts such as education, corporate, government, and nonprofit organizations. Courses include:

Online Learning Environments

Understanding Online Interaction

Instructional Systems Design

Notables

The University of Tennessee’s M.S. in Instructional Technology is an online program offered through Distance Education. Students complete a minimum of 33 credits of coursework with a professional portfolio requirement as the capstone experience for the program. It takes two years to complete the program part-time, with courses being delivered in a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous online formats

  University of Northern Iowa

Overview

Consistently sitting at the top of rankings for the Midwestern region, the University of Northern Iowa  has a reputation for blending a strong liberal arts curriculum with a culturally diverse community. The College of Education extends this commitment to preparing educational leaders and ranks at #77 nationally (US News and World Report).

Program Features

The Department of Curriculum and Instruction at UNI’s College of Education offers a Master of Arts in Instructional Technology that has a mission to prepare knowledgeable and visionary technology leaders. The program is primarily aimed at those wanting to work in K-16 settings. Students learn about a wide variety of current and emerging technologies and how to include them in classroom instruction. Courses include:

Understanding Visual Literacy

Digital Imaging

Using Social Media in Education

Notables

UNI’s M.A. in Instructional Technology is a 33-credit program offered completely online in two year cohorts. A background in education is not necessary for admission—a bachelor’s degree in any field is sufficient. Graduates of the program become successful teachers, technology coordinators, instructional designers, trainers, web designers, or community college instructors.

  41. Webster University

Overview

Situated in St. Louis, Missouri, Webster College is a private school with a global focus. The school ranks among the top universities in the region while maintaining multiple campuses around the world. The School of Education at Webster University is also a leader in developing and cultivating a world of learners—students gain knowledge, experiences and practical tools for life-long learning.

Program Features

Webster University’s School of Education offers a Master’s in Educational Technology (M.E.T.) program designed for corporate and military trainers (among other professional educators) who want to apply technology in learning environments. The program will give you the skills to develop learner and content-centered projects and assessments and foster creative thinking using technology. Courses include:

Curriculum Design Technology Apps

Instructional Design

Technology Ethics and Society

Notables

Webster’s M.E.T. program is a 33-credit program comprised of 19 credits of core courses, 12 credits of electives, and a capstone project.  The program is available both online and on campus in St. Louis. Courses are taught by experienced faculty who have aligned the curriculum to International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) NETS-T standards.

  42. University of North Carolina Wilmington

Overview

Part of the 17- campus University of North Carolina system, UNC Wilmington is an urban public university located on the coast of North Carolina. The school ranks as one of the top regional public schools in the South and is also home to the highly regarded Watson College of Education that offers quality programs, extensive field experiences, and a collaborative learning environment.

Program Features

UNC Wilmington’s Watson College of Education offers a Master of Science in Instructional Technology (M.I.T.) program which blends knowledge from educational and applied psychology, instructional systems design, computer science, systems theory, and communication theory. The innovative, cross-curricular program prepares students for work in a broad range of settings, including business, human services, government, and K-12 education. Topics covered include:

Instructional Design

Instructional Development

Utilization

Management

Notables

UNC Wilmington’s M.I.T. program aims to be uniquely flexible for a broad range of students. Courses are available both online and on-campus, and students are admitted to the program each semester.The MIT Program also offers an Instructional Technology Specialist (ITS) & 079 Endorsement in Educational Computing and Technology Facilitation (TF) online certificate. And if you’re keeping an eye on your return on investment, the program boasts a 99% job placement rate.

43. University of Oregon

Overview

Located in Eugene, Oregon, the University of Oregon is a public research university and a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities. With a commitment to broad-based liberal arts and sciences education, the school is also a research powerhouse and ranks among the top public universities in the country. U of O’s College of Education ranks at  #14 nationally (US News and World Report).

Program Features

U of O’s College of Education offers a Master of Science in Educational Leadership with an emphasis in Educational Technology and Virtual Schools designed to prepare individuals for careers in educational technology. With an emphasis on technology leadership in pre-K-12 settings, the ETVS emphasis gives theoretical knowledge and applied skills for leadership of technology-based programs and virtual schools. Courses include:

Leading Change

Technology Foundations

Online Programming for Virtual School

Notables

The University of Oregon’s EDLD M.S. in Educational Technology and Virtual Schools is comprised of 49 credits divided between core courses and an additional focus area. Students in the program can choose between a focus on  Educational Technology Within a Classroom or Virtual School Leadership with a school site-based focus. All students take a common core in educational studies and technology.

44. Waynesburg University

Overview

Located in the borough of Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, Waynesburg University is a private Christian university with a liberal arts foundation. The school ranks among the best value schools in the region (US News and World Report) and its Department of Education is committed to preparing educators who will dedicate themselves to service and leadership in the profession.

Program Features

Waynesburg University’s Graduate School offers a Master of Education in Instructional Technology that can be taken with or without a K-12 specialist certificate. Aimed at dedicated K-12 teachers and administrators, the program offers practical experience, small classes, and personalized instruction from professors. Courses include:

Introduction to Educational Technologies

Contemporary Issues in Technology

Online Course Design and Instructional Strategies

Notables

Waynesburg University’s M.Ed. in Instructional Technology is a 39-credit program comprised of ten core courses and three additional courses which vary depending on whether a student is completing the certificate or not. Students completing the Specialist Certificate also complete a practicum (and a current PA teaching certificate is required). All courses are available as evening classes.

45. University of Delaware

Overview

Originally founded in 1743  in Newark, DE, the University of Delaware is a now a large public research university that ranks among the top 100 national universities in the country.  The school is home to many acclaimed programs, and their College of Education and Human Development ranks among the top 50 Graduate Education programs in the country.

Program Features

The University of Delaware’s School of Education offers a Master of Education in Educational Technology which will provide theoretical and a practical grounding in educational technology methods and techniques. The curriculum assumes that new media and the internet can have a positive effect on the learning process and emphasizes theories of teaching and learning that support educational technology in the classroom. Courses include:

Learning Technologies Across the Curriculum

Technology and Cognition

Multimedia Literacy

Notables

The University of Delaware’s M.Ed. in Educational Technology is a 33-credit program divided between core, specialization and elective courses. In addition, all students must participate in a field-based practicum. Depending on a student’s career path (K-12 or other settings), assessments are evaluated according to the standards of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) or the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT).

  46. SUNY College at Potsdam

Overview

Situated in the village of Potsdam, New York, SUNY College at Potsdam is a public university and the oldest of the State University of New York campuses. The school ranks among the top Regional universities in the North and is home to a School of Education that has been preparing teachers for over 200 years.

Program Features

The School of Education at SUNY Potsdam offers a Master of Science in Education, Educational Technology Specialist program. As the name implies, the program prepares students for technology leadership and management positions in a range of industries. Electives, applied learning opportunities, and customized projects will give you a broadly valued skill-set. On graduation, you will be qualified for positions in organizations such as military, social service agencies, K-12 schools and higher education. Courses include:

Simulation Games for Teaching and Learning

Project Management

Technology in Education

Notables

SUNY Potsdam’s M.S.Ed. Educational Technology Specialist program offers two distinct tracks. The first is NCATE-accredited and for K-12 instructors. This track leads to a recommendation for an additional New York certification as an Educational Technology Specialist, and satisfies the academic requirements for Professional Certification. The second track is for those interested in applying Ed Tech principles to other non-classroom contexts.

  47. Kent State University

Overview

Located near the Cuyahoga River in the city of Kent, OH, Kent State University is a large, nationally ranked, public research university. The school has seven regional campuses across the state and is home to a College of Education that ranks among the top 100 nationally (US News and World Report).

Program Features

The College of Education, Health, and Human Services at Kent State offers an NCATE-accredited Master of Education in Instructional Technology. Not limited to K-12 education, the program will prepare you to use educational technologies in school classrooms, training facilities or other instructional settings. The program offers two concentrations, one of which leads to an endorsement in Computing/Technology. The concentrations are:

Instructional Technology / General (non-endorsement)

Computer/Technology (leads to K-12 endorsement)

Notables

Kent State’s M.Ed. in Instructional Technology requires a minimum of 34 credits, though the Computer/Technology concentration will actually require 36 credits. In addition to the choice of concentration, students also have the option to take on a thesis project in lieu of taking two courses (6 credits). And if you’re looking for a flexible, online program—this one is available both on campus at Kent State and online.

  48. East Tennessee State University

Overview

Originally founded in 1911 as a Teachers College, East Tennessee State University (ETSU) is now a public university that offers high-quality programs through nine colleges and schools. Continuing in the school’s long tradition of teacher training, the Clemmer College of Education ranks at #172 nationally (US News and World Report).

Program Features

The Department of Curriculum and Instruction at ETSU’s College of Education offers a CAEP-accredited Educational Media and Educational Technology, Master of Education with a concentration in Educational Communications and Technology. The program prepares leaders in the field of Educational Technology to serve in settings that include K-12 schools, business and industry, human services, higher education, government, and the military. Courses include:

Essentials of Multimedia

Research Methods in Computer Science

Organizing and Managing Content on the Internet

Notables

Eastern Tennessee’s EMET M.Ed. in Educational Media and Technology is a 36-credit program divided almost evenly between Core and Concentration course requirements. The program also includes a practicum. And if you’re interested in library media, the school offers a School Library Media Concentration (SLIB) which leads to certification as school library media specialists for K-12 schools.

  49. University of Cincinnati

Overview

Founded in 1819, the University of Cincinnati is a large, nationally ranked public research university and a part of the University System of Ohio. The school has an international reputation for high-quality education and innovative research and its College of Education is no exception. Currently, UC sits among the top 100 Graduate Education Schools in the nation.

Program Features

UC’s School of Education offers an Instructional Design and Technology Master of Education with a specialization in Design and Development. This program will provide you with the skills to design cutting edge media and technologies (like mobile apps, gaming and simulations, and interactive video) to optimize learning in a variety of contexts. In this program you will become a content creator, designing innovative learning solutions to help solve instructional problems in a range of professional settings. Courses include:

Mobile Learning

Educational Game Design

Notables

UC’s IDT M.Ed. in Design and Development is a 30-credit program that you can complete in one year of full-time study or longer if you need to study part-time. The program is offered in flexible formats—both on campus, online, or a blend of both.  A teaching background is not necessary for admission and the program does not lead to teaching licensure—however, UC does offer an IDT M.Ed. teaching specialization in online learning as well.

  50. University of Central Missouri

Overview

Located in the small city of Warrensburg, Missouri, the University of Central Missouri is a public state university that serves a diverse population of students. The school’s combination of hands-on learning and global focus have landed it on national rankings—currently, the school is listed among the top 25 public schools in the region.

Program Features

The Department of Educational Leadership and Human Development offers a Master of Science in Educational Technology that will help you integrate technology into your teaching. The program provides the knowledge and skills to engage and motivate students, to differentiate instruction, and reach a higher level learning. Courses include:

Foundations of Ed Tech

Communication in Online Learning

Ed Tech Leadership

Notables

UCM’s M.S. in Educational Technology is an online, 30 credit program, comprised of 8 required courses and two electives. The M.S. program also includes the completion of a summative portfolio which you build as you go throughout the program and then present as a part of your internship course. If you’re looking for the flexibility of a distance Ed Tech program, this one is available 100% online.

from Top Masters in Education http://ift.tt/2whPyca

[syncopein3d]

Left Alone 4: Smallest Consolation

Part 3: Bereft

Tropes/content warnings: vampire whumpee, male whumpee, non-binary caretaker, general morbidity. There will be a lot of play with, and discussion of, the concept of consent in this series, as it applies to many topics. Mostly we're talking about consent to be bitten, but being bitten in this universe varies from "mild discomfort" through "multiple climaxes" and I don't know where the story will end up yet, so I think it's important to be clear.

Specific to this episode: grief, discussion of death and loss.

If you would like to be added to or removed from the tag list for this story, please let me know!

“Are – are you crying?” He caught the movement from the corner of his eye as they started forward. Tolly jerked around, stunned. Even as what he was now? Even looking at this, this horrid crackling mummy that he had become? God, he couldn’t. Even if they hadn’t been his only chance at escape, he couldn’t.

“Stop,” he snapped. The next words were a furious hiss. “For your life, do not cross that threshold!”

They froze, jerking their hand back. For a second, he thought he’d really done it now, that they would leave him again, but they stayed there, still looking at him in the light of the dusty plastic lantern. The dark eyes were liquid and huge. For a moment he looked back, shuddering from head to toe. It had been close. God, it had been close.

At last, he turned and paced closer to the door again, treading lightly, wary of himself. He wasn’t afraid of revolting them with the stench of decay. He wasn’t an ordinary corpse, or there would have been nothing left of him after so long. His dry flesh breathed forth the odor of incense, like frankincense mixed with amber.

“I said I would answer,” he said. “What's wrong with me is that I need blood. I have not had a drink in ten years and I am," he held up his hands, every tiniest sinew visible in the backs of them.

"This monstrosity without it. I don't breathe, I don't need food or water, but I must have blood. I could go on turning madder for years before I turn to dust, but in the end, to dust I will return."

He looked them up and down more closely, tongue passing over his teeth again behind his lip. Their eyes were dark and puffy under the thinnest layer of concealer. Oh, but he wanted so very badly to hold them in his arms just one time. There could only be one time, but it would be glorious, it would be a memory to last a thousand years. He craved them as he had always craved Nicholas. And now Nicholas was dead, dead, dead, the taste of him lost forever. There was only…

"What's your name?" he asked, struggling to wring some gentleness out of his horrible voice. He managed to be quieter, not much more.

“Arden,” they managed after a second. They were shaking, too, although unquestionably from very different causes than Black Tolly.

“Arden,” Tolly said, as softly as he could, feeling the long arch of the first syllable and the sharp tap of the second on his palate. He could make no exercise of his will against theirs, not in this state. He could exert no basilisk stare out of these dead eyes. To even try would simply give away too soon that he could. He was trying hard to think clearly, now. He had been momentarily blinded to the fact that he was looking at the ruination of a great hope. They couldn’t sell a house with a corpse in the basement. Their clothes weren’t fine enough or obviously branded enough to be expensive. They probably weren’t well-off, and the funds from this sale would have kept them for a long time. They needed him out as badly as he needed to be out.

Maybe there was hope after all. It was best not to think about that for too long. He didn’t dare.

“You mean you need a transfusion?” Arden was saying. “Or - ?”

“Very much ‘or,’ I’m afraid,” he said.

“I don’t have that around the house,” Arden said. “Unless you’re asking for mine.”

Tolly had to make a real effort to control his tone. The eyes across from him were a little frightened, but they were much more tired. He wasn’t sure they would even refuse if he insisted.

“No. You have no idea what you’re – no. Do not come in here. Isn’t there still a butcher in Great Chinook? They were an established family, the Carringtons. Surely after only ten years they’re still here.”

“Oh, Carrington Meats, yeah,” Arden said. “I’ve never been in there. It’s, uh. It looked expensive.”

“It is. I’ll wire you the money – you’d have to lend me a phone, if you’ve got one,” Tolly said. He realized he had no idea how common smartphones were at this point. He’d watched Nicholas go through several generations of them, but Nicholas had been wealthy.

“What do you mean, wire?” Arden asked cautiously.

“Doesn’t Western Union still exist?”

“I think so,” Arden said. “I don’t really know how that works.”

“My friend, if you are willing to learn it is worth - ” Here Tolly had to pause, rapidly trying to calculate what inflation must have been since the last time he had actually handled money. “What do you say to a hundred thousand dollars?”

Arden swallowed. The apple of their throat bobbed visibly. Tolly tried not to watch it too closely.

“I say that sounds like an insane amount of money for a couple gallons of pig’s blood,” Arden said.

“I’ve been trapped in this room for twenty years and alone for ten of them. I’ve just heard that my worst tormentor, my best friend, is dead. Would you be sane?” Tolly said. “Bring me a phone, I tell you. What do you have to lose by this? The worst that can happen is that they say no. I don’t think Nicholas ever had me declared dead, and there was no one else who had a reason to do so.”

“I can’t really afford to replace my phone,” Arden said. “If it got broken or anything.”

“Then I’ll dictate to you, and you can do it. Please, Arden.” He tried to keep the saw-edged whine out of his voice as he turned to place his hands on the chair back, talons sinking into the wood. He spoke over one shoulder. “Do you want me to beg, is that it?”

“What, no. Don’t do that. Fuck.”

He watched Arden pull out a phone very different in shape and size from the one Nicholas had had in 2014, a huge glowing rectangle. It was a tedious and incredibly surreal few minutes as he coached Arden through making a wire transfer over the phone between their bank accounts via an automated system. The descendant of Nicholas ran back upstairs to say their bank account number where they thought he wouldn’t hear it and then shamefacedly slunk back. Tolly was patient. Financial transactions were something he was certain had not changed quickly. In the end, this proved correct.

Arden flopped down to sit cross-legged in front of the doorway with a huff of expelled breath. They leaned one elbow on their knee as they looked at their phone with the other, thumb jerking around with surprising rapidity.

“It went through,” they said. “Jesus Christ. I’ve never had a hundred thousand dollars.”

“Try not to sound so surprised, child.”

“I’m not a child. I’m twenty-eight.”

“I apologize,” Tolly said. “To an old man, everyone looks very young.”

“I’ve never met anyone with a name like Bartholomaeus Bardulf.” The thumb was still going, but they sneaked a look at him through their strands of loose hair. He had not introduced himself directly, but the financial transaction had required the use of his full name.

“I’ve gone by any number of names over the years. Most often people I knew called me Tolly, or Bard,” he said.

“Uh. Pleased to meet you, Tolly,” Arden mumbled, looking back at their phone again. “I can’t go get blood until they open tomorrow, though. It’s only ten p.m. right now. Maybe - ” They rubbed the spot between their eyes, blinking hard.

“You’re tired, my friend. Go and rest,” Tolly said. He gestured indifferently at the room. “I’ll still be here tomorrow night.”

“How do you know I won’t just wire the rest of your money to myself and leave?” Arden asked.

“I don’t. We’ll find out together,” Tolly said. Arden gave him a look of mingled exasperation, fear, and fatigue and climbed to their feet to go back upstairs. They accelerated with every step, until they practically slammed the upstairs door. They had left the hand-cranked lantern on the floor near the threshold. It had run down some time ago, both of them going by the light of a smartphone, or an LG, or ‘this fucking thing,’ a relatable phrasing that had come down through generations of mortal people working with various mechanisms.

Part 5: Bearing Gifts

@fleur-a-whump

[syncopein3d]

Part 16: The First Lesson

M for mature themes overall. Tropes/content warnings: vampire whumpee/caretaker, male whumpee/caretaker, non-binary whumpee/caretaker, morbidity or thoughts of death. There will be a lot of play with, and discussion of, the concept of consent in this series, as it applies to many topics. Mostly we're talking about consent to be bitten, but being bitten in this universe varies from "mild discomfort" through "multiple climaxes" and I don't know where the story will end up yet, so I think it's important to be clear.

In this episode: angst, unrequited thirst.

If you would like to be added to, or removed from, the tag list of this series, please let me know! I'm back after a long hiatus due to a death in the family, and I thank you all for your patience. I will link the last episode, but also the index post in case you are brand new and want to start from the first.

Part 15: Glass of Water

Masterpost

When Arden was out of the shower, Tolly wordlessly handed them a nutrition bar, white big hand sliding into view as they opened the bathroom door. Arden lay sitting against the headboard eating for a couple of minutes, silent. Tolly sat on the end of the other bed with a wool thread he had shamefacedly folded into the duffel bag, playing at cat’s cradle with it as he watched Arden sideways.

After a while, Arden said, “Aeolus says I don’t deserve my body.”

“Well, he deserves it far less,” Tolly said. “Can he hear me?”

“Yeah. I can see him sometimes, too.” Arden described the man in the black suit with his pointed beard. “To me it looks like he’s standing by the window, glaring at you. Now me.”

“Behave, spirit. Arden’s health is your own. No one else will have you, or you would not have come so quickly when called.”

“He doesn’t like that,” Arden reported, a little smugly.

“Good. If he wants to stay, he’d better earn his keep.”

“He says he can teach me something simple now, but it won’t be powerful because he used me up so easily. Should I, Tolly?”

“Yes,” Tolly said.

Arden was silent for a while, their eyes moving left and right as if reading. They held the wadded up foil wrapper on the flat of their hand, gradually refocusing on it. “Leyline, right,” they muttered.

Tollt sat up slightly straighter as he felt hairs stand up along his spine. The wrapper lifted gently from Arden’s hand into the air, hovered there for a few seconds, and then plonked back down. They exhaled as if they’d dropped something heavy.

“Great. If we get attacked by litter, we’ll be fine,” they said.

“Was that you, or him?” Tolly asked.

“Me. He says you’re doing the Soldier’s Bed wrong.”

“He would,” Tolly said, unperturbed. His fingers worked, hooking the string and shifting it to make the Candles.

After a long minute or so, Arden said, “Tolly, I’m going to die, aren’t I?”

“No,” Tolly said calmly, unwrapping the round of wool thread to coil it neatly. It smelled like his rug. That should not have been calming, but it was. “I will not allow it. This coven –“

“The Coven of the Black Rose, for all of Washington and part of Oregon within the intersection of the Rocky Mountain and the Columbia River lines,” they recited distantly.

“This Coven of the Black Rose tried to have you killed without knowing a thing about you except that you are related to Nicholas and might have his ring. That offends me. It’s crude, stupid behavior,” Tolly said. “They also had the effrontery to shoot me, which I also do not appreciate.”

Arden’s mouth twitched, not quite a smile. “And you like me, just a little,” they said.

“We hardly know each other, child. But I recognize a debt. No, I do, don’t laugh,” Tolly protested, leaning over to carefully stow the wool thread. “You have been remarkably kind to me. I expect that will change as you gain greater understanding, but you have a generous soul.”

“I’m not a child, Tolly.”

“I was born when your great-grandfather was not even an idea. You will never not be a child to me,” Tolly said. His tone was light, mildly amused. It wouldn’t help to say things like I have known lusts and corruptions that would whiten your hair and I think of you carnally even though I am immeasurably older.

Best to distract himself from that line of thought, too. The Arden whose ecstatic end he craved, teasing, insinuating creature, wasn’t real. It was the ghost of Nicholas. He had been thirstier than this voluntarily, and for longer, and he could hold his teeth in if he made an effort, Tolly told himself.

“I’m surprised you knew how to use the sink,” Arden said. “Do you need me to explain the lights, or did you just assume ghost magic?” Thank God for sarcasm, Tolly thought. It was a caustic blanket to wrap his sanity in, but it was better than nothing.

“Hilarious,” Tolly said. “I’ve been in a room for twenty years, not 600. Even Aeolus knows what electricity is.”

“He disappeared. I think he’s sulking.”

“Or he can only manifest for short periods,” Tolly said. “He wasn’t constantly distracting Nicholas.”

“That’s a relief, anyway.”

“Try to sleep,” Tolly said. “It’ll help you recover. We’ll keep on East tomorrow night.”

Part 17: Painmother

@fleur-a-whump, @bitchaknso, @valravnthefrenchie, @thewhumpcaretaker, @currentlyinthespiral

[syncopein3d]

Left Alone 14: His Eyes Have All The Seeming

Tropes/content warnings: M for mature themes overall. Tropes/content warnings: vampire whumpee/caretaker, male whumpee/caretaker, non-binary whumpee/caretaker, morbidity or thoughts of death. There will be a lot of play with, and discussion of, the concept of consent in this series, as it applies to many topics. Mostly we're talking about consent to be bitten, but being bitten in this universe varies from "mild discomfort" through "multiple climaxes" and I don't know where the story will end up yet, so I think it's important to be clear.

In this episode: possession by a spirit, bloody non-fatal injuries, vampire sun damage or sunburn, exhaustion, fainting/loss of consciousness from injuries, choking, threats of death, TW for Latin scholars who can tell how bad the translation is.

If you would like to be added to, or removed from, the tag list of this series, please let me know!

Part 13: Cabin

“Tolly. Tolly, hey.” Someone was shaking his shoulder, familiar heartbeat loud and excited in his ears. Tolly tried to ignore it for a while. His body felt made of lead, which meant it was still daylight. But the irritating voice did not stop, so at last he unzipped the sleeping bag and crept out from inside it and halfway out from under the covers.

“Arden, it is day. I trust this is important,” Tolly said. He leaned on his elbow as he regarded Arden, who now sat on the edge of his bed in the cabin instead of their own. Their hair was wildly disarranged, which he hoped meant they had at least gotten some sleep today. He couldn’t help noticing that even now they hadn’t said wake up, which would have compelled him to obey.

“It’s important. There’s letters carved around the ruby in Latin or something,” Arden said. “I can’t read them. Can you?”

They thrust their hand under his nose. Tolly caught at their wrist – warm, delectable, pulsing beneath his fingers – and looked at the ring, trying to focus on it. A faint burning on his face and shoulder drew his attention to the window. The room’s curtains were shut, but there was still a pale, painful glow around their edges. Even looking at it stung his eyes. He looked quickly back at the ring.

Around the edge of the ten-carat star ruby, words were incised, tiny and finely carved into the gold.

“Yes, it’s Latin,” Tolly said.

“What’s it say?” Arden said.

“Hold still. Hold still, Arden.” His entire upper body was starting to hurt. The sun could easily get through his cotton shirt. He could see the flesh of his own hand turning red as he read aloud. “Pactum faciam in nomine - ” He cut off abruptly, letting go of Arden as he jerked back under the covers and sheets into merciful darkness.

“Are you okay? I closed the curtains,” Arden said.

“It’s an instruction for forming a – hhh – a pact with a spirit,” Black Tolly said from the safety of shadow, trying to keep the pain out of his voice. Everything in contact with his upper body hurt. “But there’s no name to summon them by. Nicholas would have left a name.”

“Damn. Tolly? You looked - ”

“It doesn’t hurt. I’m already healing.” The pain in his skin was rapidly fading. He could feel his blood being spent on it, but he had fed well. It wasn’t a problem. It probably wouldn’t even grow his hair back out. But it still felt like trying to think through mud, like looking at the world through molasses. The blankets felt like iron weighing on his shoulders.

“We’ll talk of it tonight. The sun is too heavy, Arden.” He slumped, face in the crook of his arm, and not even Arden’s worried voice could keep him from black sleep now.

When he woke again, his mind was clear.  Night had fallen. Something warm lay across his right wrist – familiar pulse – Arden’s hand. He lifted the covers and found Arden asleep, their breathing shallow and regular and extremely close because they were lying across his bed. Tolly regarded them as he lay on his side.

This is good. If they care for me, they will treat me better than he did.

I don’t deserve that. Nicholas understood me better than they do.

What choice do I have?

As he moved, they stirred, blinking in the dark. “Tolly? Are you back?”

“I’m back,” he said.

Arden fumbled for the lamp, giving Tolly enough warning to shield his eyes until they adjusted. “Are you all right? You scared me a little.”

“If I’m not ashed and scattered, I am not truly dead.” He slid out, eellike, as Arden sat up. “Worry about your own health, not your monster’s. Did you eat today?”

“I finished the Soylent and had another bar,” Arden said. “And I went and got a burger at the Lodge restaurant.”

Black Tolly warred with himself about whether to scold Arden for leaving without him or be glad they were at least eating. Finally, he settled on, “Good. Drink another Soylent, please, and we will discuss the ring.” He ran his hands over his head as he straightened away from the bed, standing in front of the treacherous curtains. His hair was still too short to be easily disarranged.

“You said it had a summoning ritual on it, but no name,” Arden said. “You don’t know the name of the spirit that Nicholas got power from?”

“No. He never said. So, he can’t have expected you to learn it from me,” Tolly said. “It must be somewhere else on the ring.” He considered. “He wouldn’t imperil your life by forcing you to remove it.”

The two of them stared closely at the ring for a while. Arden tilted it slowly to and fro in the lamplight.

“There’s something inside,” he said. “Something’s carved on the back of the stone inside the setting. Can you see it? It’s only visible if you tilt the ring just right.”

“Give me your hand again.” Tolly tipped the hand and ring very slowly, eye almost touching it, until the light hit just right in the red depths and he saw…

“Letters,” he said, letting go. “There is more than one language, but one is in Carolingian Miniscule. As few people who now exist understand a script used to write the Vulgate in only the earlier part of the thirteenth century, I have to assume it is meant for me. Of the others, one is in runes I can’t read, one is in a later Latin script, and one is in English. These preceding three are each marked with a small cross.”

“So what’s the final name?” Arden asked.

“Aeolus. Perhaps it is intended to summon the spirit.” He couldn’t keep doubt from his tone. Tolly was well aware of his ignorance in these matters, an ignorance cultivated by long centuries of carefully avoiding people he knew could end him, and Nicholas had very deliberately done nothing to dispel that.

“And it’ll teach me to cast spells? To defend myself?” Arden said.

“I don’t know,” Tolly said. “He must have thought so. Perhaps it is a familiar he has used himself.”

“It can’t hurt to try, right?” Arden said. “Worst case is that nothing happens.”

“I think we have little choice,” Tolly said. “The Silencer team were not able to cast violent spells. I’ve never had to face someone who could.”

“All right.” Arden sat up straighter, wiping at their eyes to get the cobwebs out. “Read me the Latin.”

“Pactum faciam in nominee illius qui hunc anulum non praecipere potest,” Black Tolly said. He paused every few words to let Arden repeat after him. Then, when he had come to the end, he said, “Now the name.”

“Aeolus?” Arden said.

The two of them sat looking at each other for a moment, Arden with one foot off the bed braced on the floor, Tolly standing opposite them.

“So what’s supposed to happen?” Arden asked. Before Tolly could answer, he saw them twitch, grabbing at the cheap headboard behind them. “The – the fuck is happening - ? Who are you?” They were staring at something, as if someone stood to Tolly’s right. When he turned his head, he saw nothing. There was no sound or scent of another person in the room.

“There’s no one else here,” Tolly said.

“He’s gone,” Arden said. “I don’t - ” They jerked violently, as if yanked by invisible strings. Tolly would have sworn they lifted completely from the bed for a second. “No, wait. You can’t - ” Their eyes rolled up into their skull, only white showing. Tolly dove in and grabbed at their arms to stop their head bouncing back against the wall. For a moment he thought they might be seizing.

“Arden? Arden, can you hear me?”

The tremors stopped. After a moment the eyes rolled back down, and Arden blinked up at him slowly.

“I’m not Arden.”

Tolly was violently yanked backwards and slammed into the floor. He was stunned to realize he couldn’t move. All of his great strength couldn’t lift one finger from the carpet. It was like being crushed by a giant fist. If he had needed to breathe, it would have been very difficult to do so. His bones creaked and the floorboards creaked under him.

A face hovered into his view. Now it was smiling, and not in the shy small way he had seen Arden smile. The wide, slightly distorted grin didn’t look right. It didn’t move the eyes, and the eyes didn’t blink.

“Well, that was more effortful than it should’ve been,” said the possessing spirit. The voice was forced into a lower pitch, rougher than Arden’s normal tone. A thin trickle of blood ran from one nostril.

“Let them go. The body isn’t yours, Aeolus,” Tolly said.

“Obviously it is,” said Aeolus, through Arden’s mouth. “It’s still weak, but I’ll soon see to that. Thinking he could fight me for it. Ha. Yes, idiot, I can hear you in there screaming THEY. I don’t care. The body’s mine now, and so are you, until I see fit to throw you Outside.”

Tolly, listening to this monologue, had never ceased straining against his bonds. He knew immediately when they started to weaken.

“Stop struggling,” Aeolus said immediately, head snapping around to look down at him there on the cabin floor. Tolly froze out of pure reflex. “That’s better. You’re a prisoner of Nicholas’ little toy, aren’t you?” He held up the ring to look at it, sniffing back more blood from Arden’s nose. “I watched everything he did, you know. That’s part of the pact. But why be a passenger when you can drive?”

He walked Arden’s body over to stand straddling Tolly, looking down.

“His eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,” said Aeolus. “Nicholas quoted that a great many times, looking at you. I see why.”

It was at this point that Tolly came off the floor so fast that his movement could not be tracked with the naked eye. His hand closed around Arden’s throat as he spun, and then he slammed Aeolus back into the wall by the door. Their feet – his feet – their feet barely touched the ground, scrabbling to keep him from being choked to death as Arden’s hands clawed at Tolly’s wrist.

“Let me go,” hissed Aeolus.

Tolly slapped him.

He was careful. He could’ve taken Arden’s head off. But he had been out of his prison for long enough to have rebalanced himself to his own strength, to the habit of lifetimes. Arden’s head rocked to the side, a red mark rising on their cheekbone.

“I take it you don’t truly hear the words of the invocation. You certainly didn’t stop to read the inscription yourself,” Tolly said. “Pactum faciam in nominee illius qui hunc anulum non praecipere potest. And you, Aeolus, cannot command this ring.”

“Let me GO,” Aeolus demanded again. Black Tolly slapped him back the other way.

“Let me go, or I’ll tear you to pieces!”

“Why don’t you, then?” Tolly asked. Aeolus’ eyes rolled upward again, and Tolly felt a sensation like knives cutting at his flesh, but now when he braced himself the bruising force could not pry his fingers from Arden’s throat. It was an exquisite agony, wounds opened all over his body as if slit by many little knives, but he remained. And blood gushed from Arden’s nose. The eyes came back down, furious, old eyes in a young face.

“Arden’s body isn’t accustomed to your power yet, is it?” Black Tolly said. “You’ve already spent what they can channel. And now you can’t stop me from drinking you dry.”

“He – they say you’ve been ordered not to kill them!”

“And so I have. But, as you’ve pointed out, you’re not Arden,” Black Tolly said. He leaned closer, grinning brightly so that Aeolus could see his fangs slide out of their sheaths in his gums, growing to a length unnatural in a living human being. “And I can do whatever I like to YOU, Aeolus. So, mark me well. You can remain where you are, and I will consume you. I’ve been desperately craving this blood from the instant I first scented it. I can barely contain myself. And now you’ve made me bleed.

“Or you can fall back to where you belong, and teach them and give them power in trade for sharing their senses. That is the pact. As long as Arden is in control, I can do no harm to this body I hold. I suggest you make your mind up very quickly. My thirst grows every second.”

Black Tolly leaned in very deliberately, ignoring the weak attempts to pull his fingers away, and ran his rough tongue over the blood that covered Arden’s lips and chin. Aeolus could see his eyes glaze with the intense pleasure it gave him, his grip starting to tighten as the giddy frisson rolled through every one of his senses. For that instant, he didn’t feel the pain of his wounds at all. For that instant, every single thing he had suffered over the last few seconds had been more than worth it.

“All right, all right! Stop!” Tolly came back to himself to find Aeolus suddenly limp in his grip, features slack, eyes half-open. He let go at once, jerking back in terror. Had he killed Arden after all?

 But no, he could hear a pulse thundering in his ears when he had none. The body crumpled in a heap in front of him was alive.

Now he felt the pain.

Tolly swayed, looking down at himself. Blood soaked his clothes in oblong patches where his skin had been slit. He felt the sting where the open air touched the cuts in his face and hands. He bled slowly, and the narrow wounds were already trying to close, but he could feel the loss of strength where blood had been lost, where blood was being spent to heal. His mouth felt dry. He fought down panic at the memory of his shriveled flesh inside the secret room, at every swallow scraping his throat.

He bent to seize Arden and carry them to the bath, before he should bleed on the cabin’s carpet, and there he slumped into the tub with them lying against his chest. He could see blood running down the drain between his bare feet. Some of it soaked into one of Arden’s white socks with their worn-down heels.

The sensation of a living body draped over his dead one was intoxicating. He could feel every small pulse. And that pleasure would become more painful every instant that his thirst was not sated. His canines refused to draw back on their own.

“Wake up. Please, Arden,” he said, and now he could not keep the exhaustion from his voice. “I can’t – I can’t bear this. I need you here.”

Part 15: Glass of Water

@fleur-a-whump, @bitchaknso, @valravnthefrenchie, @thewhumpcaretaker

[syncopein3d]

Left Alone 1: Abandoned

Author's note: This originally came as a reply to this prompt, but I thought I'd give it its own beginning for easier linking on my masterpost page. I did a poll here to decide who finds Tolly, and it just wrapped up, so here we go!

Tropes/content warnings: vampire whumpee, male whumpee, non-binary caretaker, morbidity or thoughts of death. There will be a lot of play with, and discussion of, the concept of consent in this series, as it applies to many topics. Mostly we're talking about consent to be bitten, but being bitten in this universe varies from "mild discomfort" through "multiple climaxes" and I don't know where the story will end up yet, so I think it's important to be clear going in. If there's more specific gore etc., I'll try to also do content notes as it comes up. “Stay in this room.”

It wasn't a large room. It was the width of the basement, but shallower, so that he could lie full length on the floor in one direction but not the other. He was six feet and a handspan tall. Six feet and a handspan long, if he didn't lift his arms. He would have needed a special coffin, or he must needs lie curled up inside it, not stretched regally in state. He would never have a coffin at all. That would have meant an end.

It wasn't a large room. It wasn't particularly well decorated. There was no silk paper on the walls down here, just bare stone encrusted with mold and damp. There was a rug. It was old when he was shut up inside, the dark green and gray colors faded, pipe dottle burns scorching several spots. He knew each one by heart, and had often speculated as to their respective age and how far apart they had happened back when this rug stood in front of the fireplace in the upstairs study. He had counted every single thread and every single strand of every single dull golden tassel. It only took him a couple of minutes, so he did it often. He had never been thwarted by throwing down a handful of seeds, not Bartholomaeus Bardulf. The debate as to whether he should stop counting the thread he had pulled from one side to play cat's cradle with raged on for some time. Eventually he had painstakingly weaved it back in, a tiny bit at a time, with his long nails, just to end the torment of uncertainty.

It wasn't a large room. There was no window, because that might have ended his suffering. Black Tolly only knew day from night by the dragging of his limbs, the need to lie down and cease for a while. He never fought it. It was time away from this place. Sometimes while he lay dead, he dreamed, and sometimes in his dreams he was outside. Every time he arose from lying on his back on the rug, hands neatly folded across his once-white shirt, he scratched a marking into the wall.

It wasn't a large room. Besides the rug, there was only a table in the corner and a single chair. They were plain furnishings, the sort of straight peg-and-groove stick construction you would want for something that needed to last a long time but didn't need to impress anyone. The chair was not for him. It was for his old friend Nicholas, who had left him down here for the last time three thousand, six hundred and twenty days ago. It was where Nicholas would sit when it was time for the needle and the vials.

Bartholomaeus Bardulf missed the needle and the vials. They had been an interruption of the monotony of his days. Sometimes, with new blood fresh in his mortal veins, the years crawling backward across his face, Nicholas would stay and talk to him. Tolly was polite. He had no power to be otherwise while the charm of Nicholas' voice held him in thrall, while Nicholas wore the old gold ring with the glittering ruby stone. He did not even resent this after the first six hundred days or so.

“Stay in this room,” he always said, when it was time to go. He never said “goodbye, Tolly.” Because they both knew he would be back. At least, Black Tolly had been sure of that. And then, three thousand, six hundred and twenty days ago, Nicholas had departed and never come back. And then Tolly had nothing, no meals of barely warm, half-congealed animal blood brought him in the same glass bottle, no moral debates as he paced the far wall and watched Nicholas grow younger, no pleading for his long eternity to end. Blood of cow and pig was not enough, not what Nicholas had promised him, and he gradually weakened on it, but it was better than nothing. On nothing at all he grew thin and withered and gray, his hair a few white strands clinging to his yellowed scalp, his canines permanently large and prominent with his thirst.

It wasn't a large room. There was nothing to see, nothing to do. Even for a creature like Bartholomaeus Bardulf, Black Tolly, Bardulf the Bastard, an old monster with the patience of the long dead, to keep sane you needed something. You needed anything at all. He made his marks on the wall. He counted his threads. He carved in the opposite wall with his talons, because those did not weaken as he began to dry up. Now there was an elaborate mural of curlicues and arabesques there, leering grotesques peering from the stylized vines and bushes of the forest of his mind. More than one of them had the face of Nicholas, beautiful, beloved, despised, hateful Nicholas.

And then, on the three thousand, six hundred and twenty-first day of his captivity, he heard noises from upstairs. Tolly threw himself at the secret door, screaming, pleading hoarsely, but the stone walls were too thick, and no one heard him. No one heard him scraping at the clean wall, ruining the smooth expanse of the moldering stones where he might have begun another mural in time. No one heard him pounding. His strength had waned with time, but still he paced, intent on every smallest sound.

When he heard the faintest echo of footsteps, detectable only to a creature with such exquisitely tuned hearing as the old monster, he threw himself against the secret door, milk-white eyes unblinking and intent on the smallest crack. He didn't really expect it to open. He was hoping for some scrap of scent, some sound of breath, some tantalizing agony to at least give him something to think about for the next hundred days. It utterly shocked him when it began to open. He darted backward into the far corner beyond the rug, crouched at the foot of his mural, and watched the door swing open.

“Stay in this room,” Nicholas had said. And he could not cross the threshold, could not even reach across it with his long, bony arms. But then the scent of fresh, living blood smote his nostrils, and he hurtled across his cell in a frenzy, desperate for it. And came up short just before the door, hissing in agony as every muscle in his body contorted in absolute refusal to move further.

For a second the stranger – exquisite, delicious creature, like Nicholas, savoring of life and health – was confronted with a gangly cadaver in a dusty once-white shirt and the tattered remains of a gray suit that had once been an expensive bit of tailoring, the narrow lapels immaculate, the trousers to bag at the knee just ever so. He never took the jacket off. The thirstier he was, the more he felt the cold in his dead bones. Part 2: Discovery

[syncopein3d]

Left Alone 6: Regeneration

Tropes/content warnings: M for mature themes overall. vampire whumpee, male whumpee, non-binary caretaker, general morbidity. There will be a lot of play with, and discussion of, the concept of consent in this series, as it applies to many topics. There will be angst. Vampire biting can be painful, platonic, or NSFW and I'm not sure what direction that will take, but Tolly will definitely continue to fantasize about subtextually or literally sex-murdering Arden, as vampires often do.

If you would like to be added to, or removed from, the tag list of this series, please let me know!

Part 5: Bearing Gifts

Black Tolly stood and walked around the rug with gallon in one hand and glass in the other and resettled himself in front of the threshold of his cell, cross-legged across from Arden. For a moment they regarded one another. He watched the mortal once again go through a cycle of fast breathing, forced slow breathing, looking at him and then away as they worked at the idea that a dead man was talking to them. Then they turned to pull a plastic shopping bag out of the crate.

“I got some cleaning wipes and a trash bag you can tie shut,” Arden said. “There’s not a Big and Tall here in town, so I went to the thrift store and just tried to guess at sizes. I washed everything this morning. I hope it’s dry. I couldn’t find the iron. I know it’s not what you’re used to - ”

In spite of the condition of my clothing, young Arden has noticed that it was tailored. This is more observant than one might have credited.

“Arden,” Tolly interrupted, and now his voice at last rewarded his attempt at conveying gentleness of tone. The relief he felt was tremendous. Something of himself had come back. “I am used to the rags I have been wearing for ten years. You didn’t have to do anything at all. Whatever you have brought me, it will be welcome.”

Arden was red to the ears as they used the ruler to nudge the bag over the line. Tolly collected it carefully and looked inside, setting aside the wipes and the trash bag. His fingers touched a polycotton blend as he picked delicately with his talons. It was more or less dry, a little stiff from hanging: a white button-down shirt. There were black dress pants with a plastic belt. There were black socks and tangas, which were new with labels, so the town’s thrift store must be a Goodwill and not a Value Village now. There was a gray blazer that was almost new.

The socks were soft, the first pleasant thing he had felt in years. Before Nicholas had tricked him, he wouldn’t have used them to buff an automobile. Now he rubbed them between his fingers as if they had been the finest silk in the world. All of it had been made for someone wider than Tolly’s normal proportions even before he had shriveled up, but it would cover him, and it would feel wonderful compared to what he had now. “Thank you,” he whispered. In spite of himself, there was a lump in his throat. Get hold of yourself, idiot.

He drank his second glass of blood. It tasted no better than the first. A curious crawling movement on his scalp became hair growing on his head, slowly pushing its way from the follicles, so blond that it was almost white. His flesh began to fill out slowly, wrinkled, hideous in a way that could not be explained by aging, but approaching something human. For a moment he could smell himself again, the hint of old incense gradually becoming less bitter and more appealing.

“I’ll get some dry shampoo tomorrow,” Arden said. Now, as Black Tolly’s senses gradually expanded, their exhalation told him everything they had eaten that day. It wasn’t difficult to parse out, just the morning’s sweetened coffee and long-past sour hints of some kind of bottled protein drink. Their pores breathed out the faint scent of an unfamiliar medication – no, not unfamiliar. It was herbal. Cayenne, salt, St. John’s Wort. Witchbane.

Did Arden know it was witchbane? Tolly had been expecting some sort of antidepressant or anti-anxiety medication, or at least an unhealthy amount of caffeine. The descendant of Nicholas Telep does not know their family’s history, did not know I was here, yet still they suppress what they have inherited. I think perhaps someone has been trying to keep them from the truth.

They must not be entirely succeeding, or Arden was not remembering to take the medication. The scent of them hinted of adrenaline, unsurprising in the present moment, but also of stale fatigue, the sort of thing that could not entirely wash off. Trouble sleeping. The Outside calls to them, but they don’t know what it is.

They were looking away from him again. He hadn’t blinked in too long. He was out of practice.

“I got this. That rug can’t be comfortable.” Arden hauled a sleeping bag out of the box, a tight roll of flannel and plastic outer coating, and pushed it over to Tolly. As he reached for it his hand came within inches of theirs, and across the barrier he felt the warmth of their flesh. He would swear he could hear their heart beating now, faint and far away.

Tolly caught himself running his fingers over the flannel lining of the hood, mesmerized by the physical sensation of touching the soft fabric. He set it aside with the shopping bag.

“I’m sorry,” he said, managing to force a small, strange smile onto his withered lips. “It’s just – ”

“It’s been a long time,” Arden said. “I get it. I hate stiff fab – that’s not important. Look.” They turned quickly to reach into the bottom of the tub and pull out a stack of books. Tolly recognized them immediately as he reached out to carefully collect them. They were from the library upstairs: the collected Sherlock Holmes, a travel volume from the eighties about Germany, Marguerite de Valois, an occult studies book that Nicholas had once called quaint, and what looked very much like the collected Chanur saga by C.J. Cherryh. Arden must have grabbed things at random.

“I didn’t know what you would like. If there’s something specific, I can get it for you,” Arden said.

Tolly turned over a few pages of the travel guide with its color photographs, rapt. A single tear plashed onto the dust jacket. He wiped it away before it could leave a stain. He was water again now, wet eyes, wet throat. He must be careful of that.

“Thank you,” he said hoarsely. “Forgive me, I - ” he shook his head. How could he explain the constant battle of wills between them, how Nicholas had kept taking away his privileges and his things for trying to trick him, trying to find a way to have him, trying to escape? The threat he presented had been real - 

Just like the threat he presented to Arden.

"I will read all of them," he said. "I will treat them with care. This, this is." His hand caressed the flannel again, then the page, eyes looking down at it in something like awe. "Thank you. I cannot possibly express to you how precious this is to me."

“My uncle locked you in the basement and left you to die down here,” Arden said. “I think it’s probably the least I can do.”

Tolly looked at them from where he now sat, travel guide still clutched in his clawed hand like a lifeline. The hair that had come loose around Arden’s face was limned in dim gold light, almost silver, like the halo of a saint. How had he never seen it before?

He did not want them less. Oh no. Now he was more aware of every detail of them than before, and that made it worse. But now guilt wrung his heart along with the rest. How could he have even thought of surrendering them to his thirst when they were capable of this, unasked, unsought for? He rose to move the books and lantern and sack to the desk, away from the blood. Now he moved without pain, joints working properly for the first time in years and years, but he was more careful not to go too fast.

And more importantly, with his back to them they wouldn’t see him trying not to be unmanned again. There would be time for stupid sentimentality later. For now, he sat back down on the floor and took his third glass of blood. Maybe it would ease the pressure of Arden being so close. He didn’t want them to leave yet.

“I never knew he was like this,” Arden said. “He was nice to me. But this, this is unforgivable.”

“I wouldn’t go as far as that,” Tolly said. They looked at him directly now, obviously thinking he was insane. Or maybe they were staring because he was changing again. Years were gently rolling away from his face. The third glass had brought back enough flesh to make his features recognizably human, he could tell as he ran his hand along his own cheek. He still looked like a man who had died elderly of some wasting illness, but at least he looked like a man.

“There were reasons for what he did,” Tolly said.

“What reasons?”

“He knew I wanted him,” Tolly said. “He was irresistible to many, was your uncle. I was not immune.”

“I – oh.” Tolly watched them contemplate this subject and then firmly push it to one side. “My parents didn’t like me talking to him. I used to sneak out and come over here when I was in high school sometimes,” Arden said. “Sometimes we’d talk, or garden, or he’d play the piano.” Their face contorted for a second, eyes pressed tightly shut. “Oh, god. You were down here that whole time, weren’t you?”

“Since you were about eight years old, it would’ve been,” Black Tolly said. “He didn’t want me to know about you. When I asked who he was playing for, he said he was having men over.” He was genuinely amused by that, tilting the glass to and fro in his hand as he rested his wrist on his knee. “I believed him, too. A point to you, Nicholas.” He toasted Arden ironically with the fourth glass of blood before he downed it. That made a half-gallon.

Now his skin grew smooth, deceptively soft-looking. His white hair hung heavy and straight to his shoulders. He looked a younger corpse than before. Perhaps he might have been in his fifties, to look at him. He had a nose now, aquiline and slightly crooked. He had eyelashes. He had lips that covered his teeth and had a real shape. But he was white, white as snow, a color living flesh would never have without makeup, and he was still gaunt and hollow. Even an albino would be pink from the blood under the skin. Every drop Tolly had taken in had been spent like base coin, already burnt away by the process of healing. That was all right. He still had a half-gallon to go, he told himself, stifling the beginning of panic. And he could have Arden bring the rest tomorrow, if he needed it.

“I never even really knew him,” Arden said slowly.

“No more did I, it seems. He tricked me into his ritual very easily,” Tolly said. He shrugged one shoulder. “And he bound me here, so that he could bleed me at his leisure. An undead’s blood has certain properties. Did you never wonder why he always looked so young?”

“I thought it was plastic surgery! He always said it was!”

Tolly considered that for a moment. “Reasonable, I suppose. He was well-to-do. One doesn’t naturally assume there is a monster in the basement.”

“I don’t think you’re a monster,” Arden offered cautiously. “I’d feed you, too, if you want. It seems fair when he took so much from you.”

“Absolutely not,” Tolly said. He was more in control of his tone now, but the edge was there beneath the careful enunciation. “As I am now, I wouldn’t trust myself outside of this room, not for one second. You saw what happened the first time I saw you.”

“You’d kill me?” Arden said, startled.

“Immediately,” Tolly said. “And without hesitation. You wouldn’t suffer, of course.” His voice caressed the syllables. “I have ways of ensuring this. But I have not tasted human blood in twenty years, and in this moment, I am utterly without the ability to control myself. I am not human. I am not alive. I am not safe.” He leaned forward slightly, as close to the edge as he could physically get. Arden did not lean away, but he could see them breathing harder, nostrils dilated.

“What the Hell am I supposed to do?” Arden asked. “With all of that? What do you want?”

“It’s because I am grateful for all you’ve done for me that I tell you this, Arden. It is vitally important that you understand,” Black Tolly said. “I want you safe from me.” He didn’t want that at all. He wanted to drink every last drop of them, to see their last moments of ecstasy and know they were his, consumed by pleasure, never knowing they were dying. But giving in to that would mean being trapped in here forever, and he was more master of himself every minute.

Arden nodded slowly. One hand reached for the tub. They’re leaving. Make them stay, say something!

“You’re not like other people, you know,” Tolly said. “You’ve always known, haven’t you? Do you hear them outside of the world, the lost ones? Do they call you by strange names and beg you to let them in?”

“Stop,” Arden breathed. They scooted backward away from him, hurriedly grabbing at the plastic handles of the tub.

“It’s not a disease. It’s your birthright,” Tolly said. “Nicholas had a ring that could silence them, protect him from them. It would serve you better than the witchbane you’re taking.”

They didn’t answer, shaking their head, either in disagreement or in general negation of the entire subject. Arden climbed to their feet a little too fast and stood swaying for a second, shaking their head. Then they hurried away, hauling the empty tub and the other gallon of blood.

“Eat something,” Tolly called after them. The basement door slammed.

Part 7: Riddles

@fleur-a-whump, @bitchaknso

[syncopein3d]

Left Alone 5: Bearing Gifts

Tropes/content warnings: M for mature themes overall. vampire whumpee, male whumpee, non-binary caretaker, general morbidity. There will be a lot of play with, and discussion of, the concept of consent in this series, as it applies to many topics. There's gonna be some angst, too. Vampire biting can be painful, platonic, or NSFW and I'm not sure what direction that will take, but Tolly will definitely continue to struggle with the urge to sex-murder Arden, as vampires often do, and Arden will probably continue being depressed enough to be unhelpful with that.

If you would like to be added to, or removed from, the tag list of this series, please let me know!

Part 4: Smallest Consolation

Tolly sat on the rug to look at the dark lantern for a while, chin on his hand. In his mind, he ran back over everything again and again, every tiniest thing he had seen of Arden, every smallest exchange. In spite of what he’d said, he was quite certain they would be back. Someone who would try to reach out to him in the state he was in, who could pity grief in the thing that he was, would not abandon him to waste away in this hole in the ground.

He hadn’t asked if they were alone here. The answer was obvious. There had been no footsteps overhead, no voice raised. There weren’t a lot of places in a town this size for Arden to find other people who would have any idea what they were about beyond “this is a man who looks wrong.”

Oh, he ached to taste them, he hurt in every dried shred of his body. They would perish so beautifully. But now he had to protect them from both his own appetite and their own folly, because if they died, they could never get the Eye of Rule and get him out of here. And then, and then… Well, he’d have to see what it took to persuade it off their finger.

What would Nicholas have done with the ring? He would have wanted his heir to have it, but if his death had been an accident, it could be anywhere. It could be in the hands of some morgue attendant somewhere, and Black Tolly would be stuck here forever in spite of any intention of Arden’s. He couldn’t consider that possibility, not at all. He had to hope. If Arden had already sold it, at least there was a chance they could buy it back.

He watched the basement around the lantern, trying to clear his mind by counting the scratches on the concrete again. Then he wept for a little while, his dry and unbreathing sobs just twitches of his chest and shoulders. He still was torn on whether he should grieve for Nicholas, but he grieved all the same. It wasn’t only that he hadn’t ever drunk from him. It was that he was the last person Tolly had known, and for a long time the only person he had seen. They had often talked. They had known as much of each other as some people would know of their spouses, shared confidences in the knowledge that they would never leave this room.

Tolly wasn’t sure how much of that had been true on Nicholas’s side, of course, if he’d really had that many lovers come and go. He’d never been stupid enough to bring one downstairs. But Tolly had told him things that were true even when he was not compelled, by the end. He would have told him anything he wanted, anything at all to keep him a little longer. It had been pathetic, but now he couldn’t say he regretted it. If he had not done all he could to stretch out those moments, he would have less of Nicholas with him forever, less of him imprinted in unfading memory.

I hate you. I love you. You left me.

He couldn’t let himself repeat that. He looked around for some distraction, and decided to commit the extravagance of reading all of the labels he could see.

There were a lot of labels, and some of them were harder to make out than others owing to dust and being partly turned away from him. He managed to stretch this exercise out until nearly dawn. It was a relief to creep back to his rug and compose himself to his rest in the orderly and ordinary way. He knew he would dream.

He dreamed of Nicholas. They were talking, Nicholas sitting in the chair at the table as his face slowly grew younger, Tolly standing against the wall in the corner with his hands in his pockets as if he didn’t care that he was a prisoner here.

“Where’s the ring?” he asked eventually. “You hid it, didn’t you?”

“Of course I did, Bard. Did I never tell you who hunts those who see the Outside? Surely you must, in all your travels, have met with them.”

“I’ve kept as clear of witchcraft as I could, Nicholas,” Black Tolly said. “For fear of exactly what has happened, or worse. Where is it?”

“That’s not for you to know, darling. Only for whoever comes after me. No one of sound mind would trust you with the Eye of Rule.”

“Well, I can’t say you’re wrong,” he said dryly. Nicholas’s answering laughter rang after him into wakefulness for just a moment. He lay on his back, silent, and for a few moments he wept again. But he could not indulge this for long. He stood up and paced back and forth for a moment on the stone outside of his rug, listening. Footsteps moved above him, faint and distant. He was grateful that his heart did not beat, or the noise in his ears would have drowned everything else.

He stiffened as he heard the door open. For a second, he simply couldn’t move, terrified that it would close again and Arden would not come down and he would be alone. Then, after an eternity of slices of a second, footsteps started to descend and the spell was broken. Tolly moved a polite distance back from the door, one heel touching his rug, forcing himself not to cling to the walls or the chair like some crawling animal.

Arden was carrying a plastic bin that looked almost as big as Arden to Tolly’s curious eye. Arden wasn’t tiny. He would guess they were five feet and eight or nine inches in actual height, if they ever stood up all the way straight (something he had not yet seen them do). But in a tee shirt their arms looked thinner than they should, veins standing out in their forearms without much muscle or fat under them. Tonight’s shirt was black with some kind of eye-searing white band logo on it that he didn’t recognize, a skull pierced by a pair of scissors.

They plonked the bin down in front of the cell, exhaling hard. A quick glance found Tolly and looked away again.

“Oh, good, you’re awake,” Arden said. “You look creepy when you sleep. That’s, I’m sorry, that’s rude.” They looked at him and away again, clearing their throat. “I brought your pig’s blood, and, uh.”

Tolly waited, every fiber of his being concentrated on the container beside them.

“Thank you,” Tolly said. Arden cleared their throat again at Tolly’s intent, unblinking stare. “Right. First things first.” Arden unloaded a plastic lantern that gave forth a bright, diffuse light at a touch, lighting up nearly the entire basement with a warm glow. They pulled an old ruler out of the bin and nudged the lantern across the threshold. “I need this to see, but you can also keep it for. I don’t know. If you get tired of it being dark.” They shot him an embarrassed look. Tully extended a talon and carefully hooked the lantern within reach, almost caressingly running his fingers over the shade. He tore his eyes from the container that held his salvation with some difficulty.

Make it worth their while. Not just the money. The money isn’t what brought them back.

“Thank you,” he said. The emotion in his creaking voice was not feigned, but under other circumstances he might have made more effort to hide it. “I’ve been in the dark a long time.”

“I don’t know what’s normal for you, so I just brought one of the glasses from upstairs.” Tolly looked up as they nudged over a water glass that he had seen many times before, an old Cristal D’Arques leaded crystal thing with long ridges in the sides. Then came the plastic gallon jug of pig’s blood. Tolly snatched at it as if it weighed nothing, dragging it and the glass back to the farthest corner. There was nowhere in the room that he was actually hidden, but he crouched with his back to the door as he poured the cup full with a shaking hand and drained it. The taste of it was awful. It was claggy and congealing on the palate. But he felt precious blood, precious life, flowing back into himself. He felt his tongue and mouth grow moist again, the surfaces of his eyes slicker, and now he could see more clearly than before.

His stomach hurt, twisting inside him as the liquid hit. As much as he wanted to bolt all of the blood, in his present state he could not. He turned back with much more caution, ashamed of his reaction, wary of the other’s, and sat down against the wall far opposite Arden with jug and glass. Not one drop of red remained in the cup. He didn’t remember cleaning it all with his tongue, but he must have. Arden was paler, but they had not run away.

“Thank you, Arden,” he said. “I’m sorry if I frightened you.” He must have moved unnaturally fast. He knew that he still looked like the same shriveled corpse apart from his eyes. But the voice that spoke to them was different now, a liquid, expert tenor, able to travel from baritone to falsetto and back in an easy glissade if he wished. Now Black Tolly had an angel's voice in a devil's face.

Arden blinked rapidly at him. He watched them swallow, searching for words.

“Don’t thank me,” they said. “You paid me a hundred thousand dollars for around thirty-five dollars’ worth of pig’s blood. Do you want me to put that in the fridge for you with this other one?”

“I will finish this one, but I must go slowly. It’s been a long time,” Tolly said. “If you could put the other one away for later, I would appreciate it very much. Every drop brings me nearer to life.”

“I will. I, I’ve brought some other things,” Arden said, color rising to their face.

Not used to direct compliments. Doesn’t know how to deal with direct thanks. Other people have been difficult for our Arden over these twenty-eight years, Tolly thought. He poured himself a second glass and set it carefully on the stone floor beside him, away from his rug.

“I could return there, but then you would have to look at me,” Tolly said gently.

“I don’t mind,” Arden said. They were still looking at the floor.

Part 6: Regeneration

@fleur-a-whump

[syncopein3d]

Left Alone 8: Faint

Tropes/content warnings: M for mature themes overall. Vampire whumpee/caretaker, male whumpee/caretaker, non-binary whumpee/caretaker, general morbidity. There will be a lot of play with, and discussion of, the concept of consent in this series, as it applies to many topics. There will be angst. Vampire biting can be painful, platonic, or NSFW and I'm not sure what direction that will take, but Tolly will definitely continue to fantasize about subtextually or literally sex-murdering Arden, as vampires often do.

If you would like to be added to, or removed from, the tag list of this series, please let me know!

Part 7: Riddles

The next night, Arden was back with an envelope, looking no more rested but at least breathing hints of chicken and rice along with coffee and Soylent. That night’s tee shirt was plain pale blue. Tolly idly watched a vein pulse in their temple as they spoke. This time he sat more normally in his chair, one ankle resting on the other knee.

“The coin went in a slot in the bed post and a door popped open under it and there was another riddle,” Arden said. “But I knew that one, so I went and looked in the garden inside the hollow tree and I found this letter.”

“What did he say?” Tolly asked. They edged forward and held out the envelope so that one corner crossed the invisible barrier. Tolly leaned forward to delicately accept it with two talons. He could feel the pulse in Arden’s hand and wrist from so close now, feel the warmth of their skin. That titillating awareness faded rapidly as he unfolded the letter on its heavy cream-colored paper. Something in his dead breast twisted at the familiar handwriting.

Arden,

Perhaps this situation will seem unfair to you. Perhaps you are wishing now that you had been born into a far different family. But I have no time left for fairness, I’m afraid. I have no time left for anything. They are coming for the ring, and I must lead them as far from it as I can.

I leave it in your care, and with it something equally precious. May they both serve you well. You will find one easily enough, I imagine. The other can be found within a favorite tale.

Stay safe, dear child, and never let them tell you who to be. I will not see you again.

With all my love,

Nicholas Piotr Telep

Black Tolly had to stand up and turn away, to hide his face.

“He always used my real name,” Arden whispered behind him. “Before I got to legally change it. He called me Arden when everybody else was still calling me Brayden.”

“So, he did love something,” Tolly said, his voice lower and rougher than he intended. “Oh, Nicholas. Well, at least I was as precious to him as the artifact he made.”

“I’m sorry,” Arden said.

“Don’t apologize.” Tolly discreetly wiped his eyes on his sleeve before he turned back. “It really isn’t fair that you were left with this. Did you find the book?”

“No,” Arden said. “We read a lot of books together. I never knew he had a favorite.”

"I don't even know the title," Tolly said. "He didn't tell me. He knew it so well that he recited it to me. So many times, he told that story. I know it by heart myself.” He couldn’t keep the small, sad smile from his lips as he quoted the words.

"True!—Nervous—Very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses—not destroyed—not dulled them." He had forgotten to sit down, he realized, standing with one hand on the back of the chair. He sat again, careful not to move too quickly. "It begins like that. Can you search for it on your phone?"

“I don’t have to,” Arden said. “It’s a Poe story!” They turned and bolted back up the basement steps, not even closing the door behind them. Tolly paced as he waited, moving the chair irritably back to the table and out of his way. If Arden fell down the stairs and broke their neck, it was all for naught. It was strange that Nicholas hadn’t brought Tolly along as a bullet sponge and attack dog, if he knew his hazard was so great. He had been away years before he died. The estate surely had not taken a decade to settle.

Or he still thought there was a chance he could defend himself, and he left me here for Arden, knowing they cannot.

Impossible man. Tolly turned back to the doorway as he heard Arden returning. They were moving more slowly this time, flushed, carrying a heavy book with a brass clasp. The binding, readable around their arm, said Selected Works of Edgar Allen Poe.

“It’s this one, but I can’t get it open,” Arden said. “It’s stuck.”

Tolly approached the threshold for a better look. The smell of musty paper and old leather smote his nostrils, but there was also a faint, infuriating hint of dried blood. He would never, never forget that scent. Nicholas.

“It’s a blood lock,” Tully said. “There should be an indentation on the binding that you can only find by pressing down. If anyone but the designees tries to open it, or tries to cut it open, it will set off a trap.”

“Blood lock,” Arden repeated. “All right.” They ran their thumb over the back of the book. There was a sharp click, and they jerked their hand away, swearing. The book rattled on the concrete floor as it popped open.

Tolly stood glassy-eyed, lips slightly parted around his canines, frozen by the intoxicating perfume of shed blood. Arden’s shed blood. Only the very distinctive sound of rolling metal distracted him enough to compose himself. A heavy gold ring had rolled out of a compartment cut into the pages. A red cabochon gleamed slickly in the dim light of the camp lantern, the white star winking in its depths as it rocked to and fro. Tiny diamonds formed the initial T on each side of the wide band. The gold was formed into baroque curlicues around the stone and the letters.

It had rolled well away from Tolly’s cell, sadly, but he barely registered that.

“You’ve found it,” he said. “Try it on. He meant it for you.”

“It’s huge. It’ll never fit,” Arden said, around the thumb they were licking blood from blood blood blood blood –

“It will,” Tolly said, trying not to force the words between gritted teeth. Arden shrugged and knelt to pick up the ring, sliding it onto their middle finger. The adjustment was invisible even to Tolly, but suddenly it fit perfectly.

Arden blinked, looking up and around as they knelt there.

“It’s quiet,” they said.

“It keeps those Outside from reaching you unless you choose,” Tolly said. “You are gifted, as he was, and you have matured to the point that the witchbane no longer holds sway. Do you believe me now?”

“Yes,” Arden said. “Is this what he meant?”

Tolly was silent for a moment.

“I haven’t been entirely forthcoming with you about that,” he said.

“How?” Arden asked. They were looking him in the eyes now, more curious and tired than wary. This was beginning to seem usual. It still twanged every predatory chord in the ugly symphony of what Black Tolly would, for lack of a more accurate term, have to call his soul.

“The Eye of Rule binds me to obey the wearer,” Tolly said. “That’s why I can’t leave this room. It was his last order.” He sank down to rest on his heels, facing Arden across the threshold.

“So you were being technically correct,” Arden said. The expressive lips flexed downward slightly. “He did curse you to never leave this room, but he did it with this ring. Why would you not tell me that sooner?”

“I didn’t think you would help me if you knew,” Tolly said. “Not with how I looked and how I behaved the first time you saw me.”

“That just proves you didn’t know me at all,” Arden said.

“I understand that now,” Tolly said.

“So I can let you out any time I want?” Arden asked.

“Please be very careful of your wording,” Tolly said. “I want you so badly that I will try to find a way to have you. I’ve said this before, but it is important that you understand.”

“And yet, you’re still warning me,” Arden said. “I don’t understand you.”

“It isn’t personal. It is Thirst. My control is growing, but it is not enough.” He made a frustrated gesture, even now carefully modulating his movements to avoid being too sudden. “Originally, I planned to try to trick you into letting me out, devour you, and take the ring for myself. You are not your uncle, but you truly are as exquisite as he was. But now I feel it is a fate you don’t deserve. You brought me books.”

“You think I’m ex - ”

“That isn’t the point!”

“This seems like an easy problem to solve,” Arden said. “I order you not to hurt or kill me.”

“Or to take actions that would lead to harm to you,” Tolly said impatiently. “This prevents me from trying to steal the ring.”

“Fine, don’t take actions that lead to harm to me, then,” Arden said. “And don’t take the ring from me. But you’re not my servant, Tolly. I don’t want that. You don’t have to stay in that room, or in this house, or anywhere.”

Tolly stared at them. Then he moved so very quickly that a human eye could not possibly have followed him as he ran past Arden. The barrier was gone. He ran through the house like a whirlwind, finding every familiar object, playing a couple of bars of Für Elise on the baby grand, thumbing through the old field guide to French birds. He looked into almost every room, giddy with delight. Professional cleaners were obviously responsible for some of the initial noise that had told him the house wasn’t empty. The dust of ten years was gone. Arden had painted two of the six bedrooms upstairs and was living in the red one, by the scent and the neatly placed furnishings – Tolly turned away discreetly from the doorway. The kitchen had new lighting fixtures, barer and more industrial. He could smell the night air coming in the open windows.

He was back downstairs before more than a few seconds had passed, grinning down at Arden with the full force of his joy.

“Arden, my darling, you may be a fool,” he said. “But I’m glad you found me.”

Arden actually smiled back, and Tolly felt something twist in his chest again, as if his dead heart were trying to beat.

“Thanks. Your flattery is as terrifying as everything else,” Arden said. They stood up quickly. Too quickly. Tolly caught at their upper arms as they wobbled. He shook them very lightly, looking down into their slackening face. This close, their eyes were level with his chin, lashes fluttering as they stared straight ahead.

“Arden. Arden!”

“It’s fine,” they said, the words slightly slurred. “It’s quiet now…” Their voice trailed away into a soft exhalation, eyes rolling upward as they sagged. Tolly felt the moment when every muscle relaxed. He caught them against his body, acutely aware of the concrete floor. He had demanded those orders none too soon. Now he could feel Arden’s thready pulse, the warmth of their flesh, but his own body simply would not move his mouth any nearer their throat as he thought about sinking his teeth in. It was torment, every instinct screamed at him that he was a fool, that he had ruined everything for himself, but Arden was safe.

He gathered them into his arms to carry them up the stairs. They felt light. He was not at his true strength, but he had no trouble carrying one human being. They stirred weakly, heart jumping up, as he was carrying them up one side of the big double stairway to the second floor.

“Cold,” they murmured into his shoulder.

“I’m afraid so. When did you last sleep the night through?”

“Dunno. Months?”

“Oh, my dear child.”

“Still twenty-eight, asshole,” they groaned as he ducked into the bedroom at the end of the upper hall.

“There’s no need to be rude,” Tolly said. He set Arden on the edge of the bed. They immediately flopped over. He crouched down to slide off their worn checkered shoes. The heels of their white polyester socks were worn almost through. He thought of his own brand-new socks and the fact that Arden could, in this moment, definitely afford new socks, but that they had not bought themselves any.

“Pants stay on,” Arden said, without opening their eyes, as he picked up their legs to swing them onto the bed.

“Shh, now.” Tolly leaned over to take hold of the sheet and blanket on the other side of Arden and pull, so that he folded them backwards over the mortal’s body. The slight rocking motion this imparted dislodged the phone from Arden’s pocket. He caught it deftly before it hit the carpet. Arden had not told him not to borrow it, and Arden was now, judging by their slowing heart, rapidly sinking into a very deep sleep. He leaned over to run his talons ever so gently through their hair.

“I need you to tell me your phone passcode, dear,” he whispered sweetly.

“5454,” Arden mumbled. They sighed under his fingers, a long and heavy breath that ended with a little stretch, so long that their toes poked out from under the blanket for a second. He felt the little shiver. After that they were gone, so far down that his whispered “Sweet dreams” provoked no response whatsoever.

It has been a long time since anyone has touched our Arden. Poor thing. The thought was not without genuine pity, but it was also a tone in which he had addressed people he was about to usher gently but firmly into the next world. Tolly unlocked the phone as he padded out into the hallway, shutting the door behind him. His new phone would arrive tomorrow, but that was no reason not to familiarize himself with how things had changed tonight.

@fleur-a-whump, @bitchaknso

Part 9: Silencers 1