#aight i finished chapter 3 and decided i was far enough in to post!!! so here we are!!!!

[coalitiongirl]

Season Two. Regina develops a magical disease of unrequited love. There's no cure, short of Emma loving her back. And there's no chance that Emma will ever love her back.

POSTSCRIPT if you enjoy my fic, I have a book coming out this month (June 25 tentatively)!! Markless is a fantasy YA in which each person is born with a soulmark that determines their magic and their true love. Ruti is a witch without a mark on her hand, and the heir to the throne, in a quest to remain husband-free, demands that Ruti help her. Please consider preordering!! You can find out more here.

[yukiwrites]

Fleeting Smile

Some time ago I asked you guys if you would read any original work I had, and since I got a very good response, I decided to type it! I don’t really know how to tag it, but feel free to ask away anything you wanna know about the plot, characters or sequels. This one will probably have only 3 chapters since it’s a short story, but depending on how you guys like it, I might post another originals later ;v;) I got inspired to write this after I watched the Shelter anime (it has absolutely nothing to do with it btw, only the song inspired me, so I highly reccomend listening to it as you read), so here you go! Please tell me what you think ;D

This is a land where magic is widely known, but hardly ever practiced. The reason for such is because the most powerful magical beings, the witches, were born without the ability to have feelings. Most of said witches do not concern themselves with human matters, though it is not uncommon for some of them to respond to human's strong feelings and make a contract with such human.

While the contract lasts, the witches are able to perceive emotions through their human host. As such, those magical beings curious enough to experience these sensations resonate easier with the human kind.

One of them, however, never once tried such fleeting and dangerous pass-time. Not because she never felt like it, no, but because the power contained inside her body was of a such great extent that not a single human's managed to demonstrate feelings strong enough to summon her throughout her ever-lasting life.

Witches are known not only by their deeds but by the contracts they have made -- and their aliases become their true names after they've forgotten their birth ones. This particular Witch, however, has had no name from the start of her life, and, because of that, she was known as The Void (or Devoid, depending of who was speaking of her).

Despite being some sort of legend around the magical world (dragons usually kept to themselves, but they loved to test their magical strength against witches from time to time, so their gossip was the one who flew faster), Devoid hasn't been heard of for over seven years.

Coincidentally, during that time, a single young man has been rumored to have incomparable power...

The wind had been strong at the wasteland, kicking up sand and making it difficult to travel as well as see the path ahead. From the distance, a single figure could be seen through the dust, its figure tall but hunched over, the steps strong and resolved.

Upon closer inspection, the figure was composed of not a single man -- he was carrying something, or rather, someone, on his back, hence the reason why he was hunched over.

Worried, he kept looking over his shoulder to the sleeping blonde little girl he carried. "Damn this place; there ain’t a single tall rock! How can I make camp, now? I don't want Suzu to be scratched all over by this fucking sandstorm." He grumbled.

The girl's white dress fluttered around the strong wind, her body as unresponsive as always. But he heard something inside his head and almost tripped due to the mental ear-pull.

"Aight, aight, sorry, Suzu." He laughed and groaned after rolling his eyes, "I ain't saying bad words anymore."

His black, tattered overcoat danced with the wind, though in a completely different direction, as though it had a life of its own. The long, eastern sword he carried on his hip did not move at all; like such measle wind was going to make it budge.

Once again, the man groaned. "Okay, fine, I give up." He crouched and placed Suzu on the ground right beside a wilted tree trunk. He let out a faint and tired smile as he put some strands of hair behind her ears before his eyes turned somber as he looked to the dark shadow far, far ahead into the wasteland. "If you're not letting me find a good place for her to rest, I gotta finish you off right away."

The air crackled around him and the figure, as though the sandstorm itself had breathed in and out, preparing itself for battle. Without taking his eyes off of the approaching darkness, the man took off his overcoat and placed it over the little girl. Her hair and clothes stopped fluttering; the coat served as a barrier against the climate, making Suzu look like she was simply sleeping peacefully covered with a tasteless black blanket.

Swiftly, the man took his overgrown sword out of its scabbard only to place the sheath beside the tree trunk. "Protect her, you hear?" He whispered and immediately a purple barrier enveloped the area around the sleeping girl.

The long sword he carried -- it had a deep, black blade.

No, it couldn't be called as such since it wasn't made of steel; it was made only of raw power. He had chosen his weapon to look like a sword because it was similar to what he was used to wielding in the past -- but it could shape itself in virtually anything he wanted it to.

Sensing his strong feelings and tight grip, the dark blade started to sway, ready to take the shape of anything its master ordered through their bond.

Free of his coat, the man could be seen on his entirety -- he had short, black hair and had countless scars around his body as well as a single cut in the middle of his face. Each step he took towards the darkness made his heart thump more.

"You knew I was coming, right? You guys always seem to." He yelled, his steps getting faster, his legs making him run.

Once he was close enough to the darkness, it towered over him by at least 30 meters, but he didn't cower.

He had but one fear, and that only surfaced after each fight he picked.

Without needing words to communicate, an Earth Dragon finally made itself seen through the sandstorm: It had a large turtle-like beak protecting its mouth, and, out of all of its species, it was the most physically strong dragon. Its scales were deep brown, contrasting with its hooves. It didn't have a tail and its wings couldn't take it out of the ground, but it had total control over each and every thing that belonged to the earth -- even the smallest shard of stone -- making it a terrible foe to winged enemies.

The Dragon let out a roar, accepting the challenge, already aware of the conditions.

"Ya'll are some gossipy grannies, ya know? Sheesh." The man complained, effortlessly jumping twice the Dragon's height so as to dodge a stalagmite it had created on the ground right in front of him moments before.

The sound leaving the Dragon's mouth could be heard as laugh, though its jaw wasn't made for speech. As soon as the man was vulnerable on the air, the Dragon made the hundreds of thousands of sand grains to condensate into earth needles before he shot them all at him.

"Oh!" The man let out an exclamation of false surprise as his sword moved too fast for the eye to see -- soon there were no shards around, though one or two made their way to scratch his face.

He never really researched about the foe he was going to battle, hence the amount of scars he carried throughout the years. He never really minded the physical pain, since any wounds on his body could be recovered.

As long as he held onto hope, nothing could faze him. Not pain, not giant dragons, not never-ending wastelands.

Not even death.

As long as he could avoid the fear he felt after each fight -- as long as he could hold onto the hope of being successful in his endeavors… He would defeat any foe in his way.

The Earth Dragon, despite having the best physical defense out of all, also had an incredible magical affinity, as every dragon in the world. The man's sword was made out of magic, though he himself used it as a melee weapon.

The battle was bound to last a while -- the man would try to cut his way through the physical and magical defenses by blindly hitting his overgrown enemy. If he had spared a thought and made an effort to look into the Earth Dragon's weaknesses, he would have found out about the five crystals engraved into the Dragon's scales: one inside each leg and another under its tongue.

But alas, the man was as brute as always, and his sword swayed impatiently. Having none of that, it abruptly raised itself over his head. He frowned and looked up to it. "Hey!"

A magical circle began to appear around the sword's hilt and the dark blade melted into a black smoke, bleeding into each and every symbol the circle created.

The Dragon felt a sudden chill over its spine -- if the next attack hit it, it would cease to be.

The magical circle grew and grew, until it covered almost the entire wasteland around them.

Then, time stopped.

Rather, it seemed to. It was the fickle time between breathing in and breathing out -- the calm before the storm.

The man held his breath, his hand still bound to the sword's hilt, now merged into the circle, before countless rays of darkness flew out of it at the speed of sound.

To protect itself, the Earth Dragon erected wall after wall around its weak points, but they were shattered to pieces under the immense dark power leaving the circle.

More sand kicked up, making the man cough and look over his shoulder to the place he had left Suzu: the barrier had held everything out, even the tiniest spec of sand. As though his hand wasn’t shooting a dark ray of death, the man breathed out in relief and cracked a smile looking at the little girl.

After everything was done, the circle bled back into being a sword and the man slowly glided back to the ground. His ears rang with the sudden silence after such tremendous explosion and he glared at his hand before taking a step towards the Earth Dragon.

However, no matter how many steps he took, he couldn't find the gigantic body. "Great, did you pulverize him to death, Witch?" He spat on the ground.

A weak laugh was heard a few paces away from where he stood. "Ahaha, nay, she did not. It was a close call, however."

"Oh, yer older than I expected." The man said bluntly to the shadow that made itself seen through the dust in front of him.

Once again the Dragon laughed, but now on its humanoid form -- it was a tall, black and old man, his beard treading over the ground in front of him -- as he approached the winner. "I should say 'watch your tongue', but alas, I have lost a fight against you once; I cannot fight again that soon."

The man scratched his head, fear finally creeping into his heart. He stuck his sword on the ground and approached the Earth Dragon while checking his pockets. He was looking down, afraid to hear the same answer he had been getting for the past seven years.

Feeling the young man's anxiety, the Earth Dragon simply shook his head and looked towards the purple barrier, far behind the human.

"So, uh, since you already know what this is all about..." The man started, finally raising his gaze to meet the dragon's. "Please... please, save Suzu!"

Unlike witches, dragons were born with feelings -- and theirs actually resonated with human's more easily. The weight of that young man's feelings; the intensity with which he begged to save the little girl's life... it all struck the Earth Dragon deeply. He grimaced and spared a glance at the sword before opening his mouth.

"I'm afraid there is only one way--"

"NO!!" The man yelled, covering both ears with his hands, his body instinctively hunching over. "DON'T... Just... don't say it!"

The Earth Dragon's lips trembled as he looked at how the man pitifully kneeled on the ground, his entire body shaking. From the side of his eyes, he could see when the sword evaporated into a thick smoke and flew to the man's side, now showing itself on its true form.

"You have had the answer alongside you all this time, have you not, young man?" The Earth Dragon mourned, looking at the witch standing beside him.

She had deep purple skin, and her hair and clothes were of such a deep black they couldn't be discerned from each other. Her once expressionless face now only weeped.

"It has... it HAS to have another way! It can't be just this..." The man clenched his fists and hit the ground with all of his strength.

Without taking his eyes off the witch, the Earth Dragon pursed his lips, his heart aching. "For someone so powerful to be known as The Void to be seen like this..." He whispered, his eyes looking into the bright purple iris of Devoid's, the black sclera of her eyes of such a depth that could suck a lesser man inside. "You shall be known as The Weeping Witch from now on."

Tears fell down tirelessly from Weeping's eyes, as they have been for the past seven years. "A fitting name," she agreed, her voice sounding despite her mouth staying shut.

She cried the tears her human did not, for his feelings were now hers. She hadn't stopped crying from the moment they were united, all those nights seven years ago.

The tears his heart shed every single day for his slumbering little sister.

Controlling his sorrow, the young man finally stopped trembling and reached out once again for his pocket -- to a dismantled map he had been using since the beginning of his journey.

He got up and handed it to the Earth Dragon, his jaw hard and his eyes escaping reality. "Anyway, mark here. Ya should know what, right? Ya gossiping pussies and all."

Suzu was far away, but he could almost feel the mental ear-pull for the curse word, but he ignored it. The Earth Dragon looked down from his tall height to the small human.

"Young man, you already--"

"JUST-- MARK IT!" The man yelled, looking away. "I won't give up. There has to have another way."

Once again the Earth Dragon looked at Weeping. Her tears streamed down in spite of her as she woefully looked at the human's back. "... Very well," the Dragon said, taking the map and using magic to mark a path on it to where they should go next.

For the past seven years, man, girl and witch had been challenging powerful magical beings -- to the point of such beings looking forward to the challenge and waiting in specific locations for them. The Earth Dragon was waiting for him after he had defeated the Water Siren. Now, the Dragon was marking one of his sibling's lair -- the Lightning Dragon's domain -- so the man could once again ask a single answerless question.

After the older man was finished, the young man snatched the paper away and turned his back to the Dragon, heading towards his sister.

"Young man," the Dragon called and the man stopped without turning away. "Might I ask what do you go by? Surely a human such as yourself was given a birth name."

He looked over his shoulder, his deep brown eyes without a single glint. "Hohoe. Though that's not my birth name." He said and went back on his way.

'Fleeting Smile', the Earth Dragon thought.

It was the name his little sister called him long ago -- the most precious person in her life, her beloved big brother, Hohoemaru.

[cyallowitz]

Think I’m going to have to do a day-by-day here.  A lot happened since this was the first week that my son and I didn’t have school.  In fact, Monday was the first day since late February that we had nothing more than having fun.  So, we tried to get a bunch of things in, which oddly enough didn’t include video games. I’ll just do a break down for the father/son time.

Sunday/Father’s Day

I picked my son up in time for lunch since he was at his mom’s.  Figured I would let him be there for the morning for a certain reason that I don’t think I can say here.  Pretty sure one can figure it out.  Once we got back and had lunch, it was into the inflatable pool for the little guy.  Grandpa had bought two pump water gun things that aren’t shaped like guns.  You put one end in, pull back the pump to suck in the water, and then push it back to fire it out.  Needless to say, we all got drenched because my son simply stayed in the pool and blasted away.  Of course, he hit grandpa who was resting, which meant the garden hose came into play.  After that, it was drawing using YouTube videos.  We did a few pictures every day he was with me and I plan on making a Sunday post to show them off in about 2-3 weeks.

Monday

A lot of places are either closed or I’m not comfortable taking my son there.  So, we decided that the afternoon would be cleaning all of the cars.  Then, back to do some drawing and reading.  What did we do in the morning?  It was nice out, so we went to a small park that is on the coast.  Keep in mind that I’m on Long Island, which means the coast isn’t too far away.  It was a nice 1.5 hours where we saw plenty of animals and I realized that I need a point-and-shoot camera.  Cellphone doesn’t cut it when I’m trying to take a picture of these green monk parakeets that live in the area.  They aren’t native, so it’s weird seeing them.  Story is that the original birds escaped from a crate at JFK airport in the 60’s or 70’s.  Anyway, we also saw a bunny, horseshoe crabs, green heron, large heron, and a bunch of other birds.  It was a lot of fun.

Tuesday

With the weather being iffy on Wednesday, we agreed that the afternoon would be time to enjoy the pool.  We were going to have to deflate and clean it soon too.  With no other ideas, we went to another part, which used to be a garbage dump.  It’s much bigger than the previous one and it’s a lot of uphill walking to reach the top.  There are pygmy goats that they walk up to the top to take care of the grass too.  Tried and failed to get pictures of those damn parakeets too.  Not as many animals on this trip as we would have liked and it was very hot.  So, the trudge back to the car was met with a lot of complaining.  Little guy finally cheered up when we were buying ice cream toppings afterwards and I suggested we buy ice cream for lunch.  Very good decision.

Wednesday

I was burnt out and family were swinging by to say hello.  This meant that my son and I weren’t going to go on another adventure.  Instead, we worked on this all day:

We finished it just in time for us to have dinner, make our super sundaes, and watch some cartoons before he went to his mom’s.  This beast is still waiting on the living room table for him to add more characters to the inside.

And that’s really it for the father/son stuff, which is where the fun is.  I mean, we are watching the following cartoons at various times:

Cardcaptor Sakura

Kip and the Age of Wonderbeasts

Yugioh

Naruto

Fairy Tail

My Hero Academia

One Piece

He’s loving all of it and I think he’s starting to get the idea of characters not being simply black/white mentalities.  Bakugo in ‘My Hero Academia’ really helps he see how characters, and people, can grow.  Yeah, it isn’t a traditional way to teach a kid about various morality and ethical questions, but it’s working a bit.  I think.  Mostly, my son likes spending time with me watching these.

The rest of the week wasn’t nearly as exciting.  Found out that I’m not going to be working over the summer, so I’ll be focusing more on writing and my son.  The overall schedule has been mucked up due to changes that we knew were coming.  So, my balancing act is going to be shakier than expected.  I’m already 4 chapters into War of Nytefall: Anarchy and am hoping to get through #6 by the time my son comes back.  Then, I’ll try to work a little on Do I Need to Use a Dragon? (Fantasy Writing Tips), which will be the topic of tomorrow.  I’m going to be testing out the chapter titles.  Summer typically doesn’t have a lot of blog traffic, so we’ll see what happens.  If I can’t balance the two projects then I’ll finish the first one and save the other for August.

Aside from hanging out with some friends last night in a safe and distant manner, I got nothing else to report.  I’m tired and still a little anxious about life.  There were some incidents this week that I can’t go into here.  So, the weekend is going to be all about writing and resting.  Started watching an anime called ‘Rising of the Shield Hero’, which is pretty good.  Only two episodes in and it reminds me of similar stories, but I like a few of the characters.  Not the villain though.  Really hate her and she was only in the first episode, but she made an impact.

What are the goals?

Write more War of Nytefall: Anarchy

Prepare the file for Do I Need to Use a Dragon? (Fantasy Writing Tips)

Possibly start writing the above.

Help my son with summer school when he comes back.

Buy a point-and-shoot camera.

Buy more ‘Captain Underpants’ books, but that might wait until next weekend.

July 4th fun with the son

Charge the dust bunnies rent since they aren’t going away

First Non-School Week of the Summer . . . It Was Aight Think I'm going to have to do a day-by-day here.  A lot happened since this was the first week that my son and I didn't have school. 

[yes-this-is-sam]

WIP MEME

List all the things you’re currently working on in as much or little detail as you’d like, then tag some friends to see what they’re working on. This can be writing, art, vids, gifsets - anything at all!

I was tagged by the extraordinary @sexy-salmon thank you hun!

Aight.... shoot, gotta collect all my notes.

1) Escaping Ostagar:

This one is my only current Dragon Age fic. It’s... been a labour of love. My baby Melisande is a bit of a self-insert, I was maybe trying to use her to get a hold on my own PTSD. Maybe I cared way too much about this damn story. I’ve been working on it since Dec 2016 and it was the very first of my own writing I ever tried to share with anyone. Twice now I’ve given up on it despite having the last 12 chapters planned out. I still want to finish it but... I gotta get to a point where it doesn’t hurt that it got little attention. Like I said, I invested way too much into it. 

2) I Have To Try:

WOOO Currently my most progressed new story-child. Probably going to start posting it soon. Set in Andromeda, it follows none other than a bedraggled Avitus Rix in his new and initially unwelcome role as Pathfinder and the creation of his Pathfinding team. I didn’t like that we didn’t even hear news or anything playing about the other Pathfinder’s efforts to make their own colonies and help in whatever ways they could. A couple cameos where they take back seat to Ryder, which is unfair to ALL of the Pathfinders. Why put the other races and the entire Initiative on Ryder’s shoulders when the others have more experience and just as many resources? Kaetus gets dragged along for the ride, as well as an APEX team led by the fierce ex-Cabal Vitetoria Digeris. 

3) Though This Be Madness:

Hehehe this one certainly lives up to its name more than I expected. The story focuses around the blog’s namesake Samantha Curtis along with her wayward AI OPI, her adopted Batarian family Ragar and Ecetia, and the Krogan she knows way too much about Ganar Jirr. This one I'm taking a step back on to rethink how I'm gonna set it up. Originally it started right before the Initiative left for Andromeda and followed Sam taking on both an incurable illness and the Kett she needs to stay alive AND trying to outrun every faction now after them both.... BUT THEN SAM FELL IN LOVE. She met Rexis Sarex, an adorable troublemaker created by @masseffectoc and now I can’t write them apart. I got permission to include her characters in the story too and IT WILL BE GLORIOUS SHENANIGANS. If I start at the same place I was going to, it’ll still work but miss a lot of character and relationship building. SO I’ll either back up and start from farther back and end up with something as long as goddamn GRRM’s books, or I’ll split it into 2 and make a prequel where Sam and Rex meet and all the characters come together and decide to go with them to Andromeda or not. At least..... the ones who survive. Mwahahaha.

4) Chronicles of Jirr:

Ok, I’ll be the first to admit it. Ganar Jirr was originally just a nameless NPC I randomly created to give Sam a funny story to tell and amuse Rexis. Now he is one of my most dynamic characters I’ve ever made, I think. Affectionately nicknamed Krogan James Bond, by myself, this will be a series of stories told alternate BY him or about him. The ones told by him will probably be ridiculously exaggerated or entirely made up, fair warning. 

5) Blast Off:

This is gonna be a surprise for masseffectoc for her birthdaaaaaay so I'm not gonna say more than I told her. Which is that it’s an addition to Having A Blast, a silly fic pair I made for Sam and Rexis and his obsession with Blasto. 

6) Untitled (thus far):

I recently heard of a 10k word count challenge for the month of March, held by @mebigbang and I’m thinking of doing something for it. It sounds mildly terrifying but an excellent challenge and one I know I can hit the word count on (HA) if my other fics are of any indication. I tagged their blog here so if any artists or authors are interested (there’s an art part as well to Mass Effect Big Bang) you can check it out. I’ve got a couple ideas floating around but given that there’s a level of anonymity I won’t describe them just yet. I don’t wanna break the rules before I decide if I even can jump in. 

7) Post ME3 - currently untitled:

My take on the end of ME3 and how the people I care about make it through, a Garrus/Shep fic. It’s pretty amorphous atm since my OC fics have been taking up much more of my time. 

8) Halfsies:

Alright, this one is... urk. It’s the most conceptualized original idea I’ve had yet to date. It’s one I’ve put together enough to potentially go through on. I just don’t know if I’m good enough to get published and I’ve been so stressed with life stuff going on the last few years I’m still at concept stage. Anyway, premise... let me see if I can even describe this right.

Have you ever seen something out of the corner of your eye and for an instant you know it’s real and you HAVE to look at it but then as soon as you do you explain it away? Oh that was just the shadow off the vase. Damn, my cat scared the shit out of me. Those are Halfsies. Halfsies live halfway been this realm and another and have no form until they’re fully Recognised. They WANT to be Recognised. It is the only driving need they have and they fight viciously for it, to be made Real. Our main character makes a game out of trying to trick herself into believing what startles her is real instead of explaining it away automatically and one day she accidentally makes one Real. The form it takes is exactly what the MC imagined so it’s rather cartoonish and surreal looking, but it immediately grabs the MC and tells it to stop. That ALL of the Halfsies, literally there are no ways to count them because they don’t have form and always create more, now know the MC can make them Real, Recognise them. And they ALL are after the MC now and will do anything, drive them insane if they have to, in order to be made Real. And the MC has to rely on their befriended Halfsie and a few other friends to escape. 

Alright, I know I have more. I ALWAYS have more. But these are the only ones coming to mind right now. 

Tagging @shekissesturians @isharaytaoshay @daddyvictus and @ithewriter