#also coriane very hard to write

[bforblitz]

Malborn nation rise up!! some of my headcanons for our boy!!

(most of these are just some shit I made up with zero canon backing tbh)

General Headcanons

I am pushing SO hard for the “Malborn and Ronthil are related” agenda. I imagine they’re siblings and don’t know the other survived the fire

Physically around 25-26, absolute short king at 5’2” (157.48 cm)

Real name is Corian (I really want to see what other people headcanon his name is)

Considered to be physically very “plain” amongst Bosmer (average height, most common eye and hair color, etc.), but is considered cute by non-Bosmer

On that note, hates being called cute or cutesy nicknames. In general doesn’t like people commenting on his appearance, but he finds “cute” to be especially demeaning

Strong supporter of “all bosmer get antlers” and he’s no exception. Keeps his on the shorter side

Also a strong supporter of “bosmer have white fawn spots when they’re children that fade a when they’re older”. His are still somewhat visible, but only on his shoulders

Was a middle child with an older and a younger sister. His parents were expecting another child when they died

Favorite food is mushrooms and pheasant

Decent with a bow because everyone in Valenwood learns archery, but his hands shake a lot whenever he uses one (partially due to nerves, partially due to a lack of muscle). His aim is impeccable in other areas, though

Needless to say, has pretty bad anxiety

Likes to draw in whatever free time he has. He’s actually a pretty good artist

Fluent in Altmeris to the point he doesn’t have much of a foreign accent when speaking (more on this later)

Sneaks out information to Delphine on a monthly basis. He has a deal with the Khajiit caravans where they’ll take his messages to her in exchange for whatever he can steal from the Embassy

Has very neat and practiced handwriting

Doesn’t actually really like alcohol, it’s just part of his job

I wanted to give him a friend in the Embassy so I just made him and Brelas close. She’s like his younger sister

Very good at cooking and cleaning (he had a job at a tavern beforehand + headcanoned Bosmer gender roles)

Can’t swim

Has a very dry sense of humor

His specific job at the Embassy is a mix of cupbearer and one of Elenwen’s many personal servants. He can get all the intel Delphine wants because Elenwen dictates her letters while he writes them

Secures Delphine the party invitation due to his proximity to Elenwen (who thinks he can’t really understand Altmeris when he very much does)

“Malborn” is an uncommon but not unusual Bosmeri name

Has issues with his physical presence and body because he’s treated very poorly at the end of the day; being forced to work a job you hate for people who don’t see you as worthy of common decency tends to do that to you. basically he’s like an extreme version of a retail worker

Personally made him sex negative asexual, he just has those vibes as someone who is also that (definitely not projecting onto him and societal attitudes toward Bosmer men as an ace fem east asian whaaat)

Have a plot point where he gets an antler injury during Diplomatic Immunity. it’s still in the velvet stage, so it grows back wonky

Backstory Headcanons

From a slightly more traditional family, followed some of the Green Pact tenets when growing up. Tries to start again after leaving the Embassy

Mother is from Falinesti and owned an inn, father is from rural Valenwood. Both were closely affiliated with the Blades

Their basement served as a base of operations for the Blades, particularly Esbern and a young Delphine

Was highkey being molded into a Blades asset from a young age; both his education and physical location were tailored to make him a good informant (so yeah they did kind of plan out a lot of what happens to him)

Family was killed after the Falinesti Incident (he’s about 15), escaped with Delphine and Esbern to Arenthia, where he gets a job at a tavern

Delphine was stationed in Valenwood when the Great War breaks out, narrowly avoided getting hunted by the Thalmor. Convinced Malborn to escape with her to Cyrodiil

Got caught crossing the border (Thalmor made it illegal to leave the Dominion during wartime), Delphine escaped but he was arrested

Instead of getting killed, Elenwen “hires” him due to his proficiency in Altmeri and his background as a tavern worker in Arenthia (I don’t think he’s the type of person to willingly work for the people who killed his family and would kill him if they ever found out who he was)

Bro does NOT get paid for his work and has zero employee benefits outside of “not dying”. labor laws in Tamriel suck ass apparently

[usmsgutterson]

M - Name a character that you’d like to have for a friend.

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending? 

M - either Nina from six of crows, Kenji from the shatter me series, or Coriane Jacos from the Red Queen books (she deserved so much better and I will love her for the rest of eternity)

T - I have a lot for six of crows, so I put them below lol

Jesper loves the smell of bonfires and smells like if cedarwood and gunsmoke could be combined and turned into a scent

Wylan likes cinnamon rolls but only if they have a very light drizzle of frosting or none at all because he finds the icing too sweet

Kaz and Inej write letters to each other while Inej is out at sea--Inej tends to write a LOT, mostly stuff about how much she loves the boat, and she talks a lot about the different places she visits. Kaz keeps it short and concise, tells her about Wylan and Jesper and Ketterdam as a whole, occasionally passing her updates whenever he hears something from/about Nina through the grapevine. Though he keeps it short and concise, he cherishes every five-page letter he gets in the mail and he eventually falls in love with her handwriting.

Nina is absolutely a lover of pumpkin season, but she's not REALLY a coffee person, so she gets the iced pumpkin cream chai with a shot of blonde espresso when she needs a pick me up (and without it when she doesn't need a pick me up to keep awake, just because she's like "I don't care if it costs me eight kruge. I deserve this")

Also--she would love the pumpkin cream cheese muffin from starbucks. So would Inej and Wylan, honestly!! (I can ramble on for hours about the crows during pumpkin season--it's not funny)

Speaking of Nina still--she and Matthias always go get sweet treats. She'll ask him if he wants coffee and a muffin and then they'll walk together and make a date out of it

[im-a-ramblr]

Fics I would like to see for Arcane Ascension, but don't want to have to write myself because I already feel overwhelmed with ideas or unqualified to write them [Edited/Updated as of 10/25/2023]

The Winter Ball Dance Scene from Jin's POV (maybe extended)

Corin actually taking the position as Professor Erzan's TA

Tristan is still a whisper and still part of the Ascension Faction, but he's also not tower-bound bound so he has to keep all his activities secret from his family. Corin and Sera are pretty sure Tristan is trying to run a cult out of the basement, but they hope if they don't say anything he won't get them involved.

A The Joy of Joe like fic where Jin runs an Art YouTube channel and his fans are super interested in the small bits of his personal life that he drops. In the end, it's revealed that he is Dalen Jin, who is a very big deal for several reasons

AA x Addams Family, where Morticia or Gomez are either Magnus or Laura's estranged sibling who, despite not being close with the parents, are very interested and invested in Corin and Sera

Corin gets his Arbiter Attument by helping a disguised visage do something super basic and has to deal with the consequences

That one CorJin idea I posted about here

Kelridge rebellion and liberation

Corin is immune to love and/or lust potions, and can fight off most love spells (they have to be citrine or stronger for him to give have to work to throw them off) He is completely immune to Lust spells (Ace King 👑) Corin learns this the hard way. So do each of his friends/companions.

Vanniv and Researcher are given Mana regenerative items that let them stay summoned for extended periods of time without draining Sera. Shinagines ensue

Corin is kidnapped by Dawn, Reika and Ishyeal, because of the Selys-Lyann having part of Flowbreaker in it. He makes it clear that he had no idea and convinces them to let him tag along on the quest for a little bit. He forgets that Keras, Derek and the others don't know that he is in danger, and it's quite surprised when they crash the party

Corin eventually realizes Tristan isn't all that great and moves on with his life. Tristan has a hard time accepting that, because Corin idolizing him was kind of an important factor of his plan. He's convinced Corin must have been spelled away, and tires multiple times to break it. Obviously it doesn't work because Corian isn't under a spell.

Hartigan Manor becomes infested with Mimics while Keras and the kids are staying there. Shenanigans ensure.

Time Loop. Ara_Mochi has started to do ones with this, and they're great but I kind of want to see one where Corin just keeps getting different attunements every time. Jin isn't affected because he just mesmers himself out of the effect. Slowly they get the rest of the team too.

Attunement swap

[mp721]

The New LGBTA Wiki Still Has Issues

(Alternate title: Two-Thousand Words of Writing On the Current State of the LGBTA Wiki That I Wrote At 2am and Edited the Next Day)

Intro:

As of a few months ago, the LGBTA Wiki is being hosted on a new platform (link). While the Miraheze site is still up and will be for the foreseeable future, users are being encouraged to use the new site. The reason for the change was the massive amount of resource-less pages, misinformation, incorrectly formatted pages, etc. on the old wiki.

Though this seems like a good thing, the new wiki still has some massive issues as of writing. Since the site has only been up for a few months, there is a chance that they will be fixed, but I sincerely doubt they will be.

My primary issues with the new wiki are as follows: Lack of resources, lack of credit, redefinitions of terms, renaming terms, excluding names for terms, lack of histories, conflation of terms, only acknowledging one version of terms that have been coined multiple times.

Since I’ll be expanding on all of these points (and with examples), this is going to be a very long post. So sit back, relax, and enjoy.

Before I can get into the details of many of these issues, I have to explain something about the formatting of the new wiki. The majority of pages on it are massive umbrella terms for a given term that then list every term that the moderator of the wiki has deemed to go under it listed in an information table under a subheading. While I personally do not like this choice, I have a hard time finding anything inherently wrong with it on it’s face, so it isn’t a part of my big complaints. It does, however, contribute to a number of the serious issues I do have with this wiki. 

As another quick addition, I will not be discussing every single instance where a certain issue shows up. It’s easier and quicker for everyone if I just use a few examples, often the most egregious, to illustrate a larger point. I’m sure if anyone were to go look, there are far more examples of what I’m talking about than I list here, and I encourage anyone interested for whatever reason to go check that our for themselves. With that out of the way, on to the issues.

Issue 1: Lack of resources

A number of the information tables listing subterms do not link to the post or any images showing where a term and flag were made. This can be seen on the Bigender page (link), the Xenogender page (link), and the prefixes and suffixes page (link). This is a problem for a few reasons. The primary one is that it makes it incredibly difficult to verify any information. While this should not be a problem, the majority of term archival wikis have had information in some form, so easy fact-checking is one hundred percent necessary. It, along with one of the other issues I’ll discuss in a minute, makes it hard to find where information comes from, meaning it’s harder to find whether it’s reliable in the first place, which source they’re drawing from for terms that have been coined multiple times, who is responsible for coinig what, and when and where terms originated.

Issue 2: Lack of credit.

In addition to not providing links for information, a concerningly large amount of terms also do not credit who coined them or where they were coined. This can be seen on the same pages linked in the last point. In fact, only three terms listed on any one of those pages provide links and, only by extension, credit. Those are the -corian, -comfic, and -coric boxes on the prefixes and suffixes page. While a number of terms listed in that page specifically were not explicitly coined and, arguably, don’t require credit, some do. As do all of the terms on the other linked pages:

-cenic is listed with no credit, link, or definition, despite very clearly having a coining, coining post, and definition. Several terms, including Abigender, Libragender, Xenosoft, and Xenogenderfluid are also completely creditless and sourceless.

This, alongside the lack of provided links, also makes it harder for individuals to find who coined a term in order to figure out whether or not they’re comfortable using a term or flag created vy any given coiner or flagmaker. Even putting aside the issue of whether or not pages should have banners discussing possible problematic views and actions by coiners, it should not be difficult for anyone to find that information for themselves. Especially not when it’s so easy to include information that makes that easy to find and research different individuals.

Issue 3: Redefinitions

This doesn’t require as much explanation. Though, I will give a few examples just to substantiate my point:

-corian(link) is listed as being related to core aesthetics. Not core suffixed aesthetics, as it’s defined, rather it seems to mean central, primary, embodying, etc.

The listed definition for Xenosoft(link) excludes the part of the definition that mentions soft xeninity, rather than just exclusively a soft Xenogender. While this seems minor, it is possible to identify as xenine but not Xenogender and vice versa, just as male with masculine and female with feminine, and excluding that part of the definition excludes a wide range of Xenosoft experiences.

Libragender(link) while also being conflated with Abigender and Bxgender, more on this later, is defined as identifying with two genders, as well as a connection to genderlessness. While some may experience being Libragender in this way, that is not the original definition. It is, instead, defined as being primarily Agender with a connection to something else.

The listed definition for Werewolfcorian(link) excludes the connection to escapism, the vibe and aesthetic of werewolves, the specific phases of the moon this gender is especially connected to, and attributes the connection to the sinister atmosphere of werewolves specifically to just a connection to general sinister atmospheres. There are also other changes to the definition.

Issue 4: Renaming Terms

I’ve only immediately recognized one instance of this in my limited searching through the wiki, but it’s still an issue and I genuinely doubt that it won’t happen in the future.

The first coining of the term Xenofluid was renamed to Xenogenderfluid in its information box(link), despite the fact that it was not coined as or ever referred to as that in its coining post. There isn’t a chance that it’s actually a different term being refered to here, unless it’s another conflation issue, since the Xenofluid flag is shown as the flag for this term.

Issue 5: Excluding Names For Terms

This is a fairly limited issue, as far as I’m aware, but it’s also completely avoidable and, in my opinion, inexcusable for a wiki. The first coining of the term Panxenic/Panxenogender(link) is listed exclusively as Panxenogender(link), despite that being the secondary name. While there could be the excuse made of the new formatting only using singular names for subterms, that falls apart for two reasons. 

The first is that wiki formatting should be designed around the best way to archive and display information. The information that is displayed should not be edited to fit wiki formatting.

Secondly, that isn’t even true. There are examples of multiple names being listed for terms, including Xenby/Xenbie, which is on the same page, and the Abigender/Libragender/Bxgender box on the Bigender page(link). I’ll be getting back to that whole thing in a minute.

Issue 6: Lack of Histories

In addition to the other issues that seem to be brought about by the new formatting, none of the terms listed in information tables that I have seen give coining dates or dates for the creation of flags. Not a single one. If nothing else, this is an issue because there is literally no reason not to list coining dates, or the closest that can be found for terms where the original sources are deleted. There is no excuse for it not to be there. It is impossible to find the information necessary to give the name, flag, and definition of a term and not have easy access to the date it was coined on. This is a massive, completely unnecessary oversight and I cannot conceive of why this information has been left out.

Issue 7: Conflation of Terms

For anyone not in the know, the conflation of terms is a term that seems to have been coined by the mods of Gender-Archival/Genderpedia that typically refers to taking one or more parts of a term including its name, part or all of its definition, and/or its flag, and attributing that to another term. This often also involves not giving any credit to the originator of said name, definition, etc. This, alongside many of my other issues, was all over older versions of the wiki and shows up in full force here, too. It also goes hand in hand with completely ignoring other versions of certain terms, something I’ll get to later.

A prime example of this also appears on the previously mentioned Bigender page. The page completely folds Libragender, Abigender, and Bxgender into the same term, with the same basic definition. While Bxgender is an alternate name for the specific version of Abigender(link) that is referenced there, based on the flag featured anyway, it is also its own term, coined separately from any version of Abigender(link).

For full transparency, this is the only example of this issue that I found in my limited search. However, it, on its own, is still a problem. If nothing else, because this exact same misinformation, in conflating Abigender and Bxgender, was on the old Wiki. So there is absolutely no reason to trust that a lot of the old misinformation will be fixed in the move. Which, given that fixing misinformation alongside other things was the primary reason for the move, is painfully disheartening.

Issue 8: Lack of Acknowledgement of Certain Terms

To establish how this can even be an issue in the first place, I do have to establish something else, first. While I’m sure the majority of those aware of this wiki are also aware of recoining, I’d like to give foundation, just in case. Recoining is the name for when multiple terms have been coined under the same name. The most prolific one I’m aware of is Zombiegender(link) though there are several other examples(link). I’ve seen a few different opinions on how archives should handle recoined terms, but I’ve always been of the opinion that they should all be listed in some form or another, for the sake of transparency and avoiding confusion, if nothing else. I’m a fan of the way Genderpedia does it, suffixing each page with the ‘place’ in which it was coined in which it was coined, for example, Zombiegender(1), Zombiegender(2), and so on and so on. But there are other ways that it could be done. Something I’d like to hope that most can agree on is that you can’t just not acknowledging recoins for a variety of reasons, including clarity, transparency, and having an accurate account of coining history.

The new LGBTA Wikis does not use any of the options for acknowledging multiple coinings of terms. It seems that the current strategy is to just choose one version of a term to list as the real one, I guess, and then never acknowledge that any others exist. Some examples of this are Seasonalgender, Summergender, Autumngender, Wintergender, and Springgender(link); Abigender; and Monstergender(link).

Outro: 

While I do have some other, more minor, issues with the wiki, I don’t feel the need to list or expand on them here. 

A number of members of this community have given this wiki chance after chance after chance to get their stuff together and actually be something resembling a good resource. But, as much as it really sucks to say this, I do not believe that it’s possible at this point. This wiki has changed hands and platform multiple times and it continues to have issues. While a number of these issues have gotten better, new ones have popped up and others have gotten worse. Callout posts, coiner boycotts, new leadership. None of it seems to be enough to fix this wiki.

I obviously can’t tell anyone who or what to support or what to think, but I would seriously caution everyone to at the very least check everything you see on any any version of this wiki, if not outright avoiding it. It has shown us time and time again that misinformation will be proudly, often sourcelessly, displayed with no disclaimers or corrections made by anyone.

I gave up on expecting anything better from this wiki back when I realized that edits and pages spreading misinformation were being aloud to go public by moderation despite lack of sources, incorrect definitions, and some other issues. But this completely destroyed any hope I had that maybe it could be good at any point in the future.

This new version might, so far, have less misinformation than any other version of the wiki, but that almost makes the existing misinformation even more insidious. Readers are less likely to register misinformation as such if its surrounded by correct information. This wiki is a goldmine for that kind of stuff. If I didn’t have the knowledge I did on a lot of these terms and my existing skepticism of the wiki, I would’ve been fooled by a lot of what I listed here. I can’t imagine how much worse it would be for someone who is new to the community. Who doesn’t just know all the names for Panxenic or what the actual, full definition of Werewolfcorian is.

I’m not sure how to end this post, because there isn’t much else to say that I haven’t already, here and all over my blog. This whole situation is just incredibly frustrating and disheartening and kind of bewildering to me. Chance after chance, platform after platform, it feels like none of it mattered. There’s still misinformation, there’s still term conflation, there’s still a complete lack of sourcing in some cases. The LGBTA Wiki still cannot be trusted. And I cannot conceive of that changing any time soon.

[wingedeclipsed]

I’ve started re-reading Skyhunter so here is some nice incoherent appreciation under the cut :)

The prologue is a bit cliche but I know for a fact that my younger self would have worshipped it as the pinnacle of Depth and Badassery

Marie Lu really just said “I’m gonna take my descriptions to a whole new level of gorgeousness with each book I write” and then DID THAT

Despite him dying so early in the book I think Corian is a really important character- if I didn’t know he existed I wouldn’t understand why Talin is so loyal to Mara. He’s something for her to hold onto, like Metias and John.

With that said, screw Corian’s family. Everyone in this series needs large amounts of therapy.

The scene with her kneeling on the floor went SO HARD like “Trash. I know, logically, that I am not” and logic isn’t enough- ngl I came close to crying

I remember missing the part where she said the “typical” Maran hairstyle is a bun and now I’m imagining Aramin in like. Yi Sun Shin style armor with the scales and the huge sword and everything

Aramin has grey streaks in his hair?? *flashbacks to Hideo*

ADENA’S INTRODUCTION WAS SO WELL DONE. Her kind behavior towards Talin and the others made me a little worried about the “undeveloped best friend” trope on my first read but now I’m just giggling at this small cinnamon roll who could actually kill you. I wish she were my friend. Or my girlfriend I wouldn’t mind either

Actually every Striker is pretty much a cinnamon roll and a stone cold killer at the same time and I am in awe at how she makes the contrasts work so perfectly

I still don’t like how she chose to include that Red is still muscular after spending weeks in prison. I know we all rightfully judge creators for unrealistic female characters in adult media but some YA with its “bad boys” and undeveloped Alpha Male Love Interests (TM) that no boy could relate to is almost as bad. 

With that said it’s also great that Red’s appearance is kept kinda vague! There’s room for the reader to come up with their own picture of him. In general his descriptions tend to be more atmospheric 

At the end it’s really funny that Aramin goes from beating Red up to fighting by his side in like 2 weeks but in the present OW. OUCH. OW.

“Corian wouldn’t” 

“CORIAN WOULDN’T”

“You’re in charge of him now” <-- I know, logically, that this isn’t all that realistic, but I’m just cackling imagining Talin making the surprised Pikachu face at Aramin

That’s it for it now, pretty sure there’ll be a Part 2 because HOO BOY the next part with the dungeons DOTH GET CREEPY

There is also the mouse. The mouse is very, very important and must be protected and cherished at all costs. 

[anneedmonsonus]

Our Tiny Ensuite Bathroom Renovation – Seven Years Later

It’s been a while between posts, online friends. Time feels like it has flown past lately. When we all had to stay at home, the mornings and evenings felt a little slower, but the days still rushed past – and are still rushing past. I wonder if that’s normal for everyone who has kids? With two, it feels like the days go by at triple the speed.

I still can’t get over how fast the school days go by, either. Every day I drop Little Nerd at pre-primary (and Miss Nerd at day care, now that she is back to going two days a week) and I mentally plan out all the things I want to get done – I’ll answer emails, work, run, shower (goodness) do the grocery shop, tidy the house, maybe run a couple of errands – and am generally lucky to achieve three of those things. If anyone has any time-saving tips for maximising time with children, I’d be all ears! In a time when lots of people have lost income, I’ve also been grateful to be doing a little bit more work for the Sunday Times Magazine lately with a new column called Inside Story – a look at how Perth creatives and small business owners have been faring and adapting since COVID-19. I’ve been enjoying writing it but lately in general I’ve felt a bit more scattered, on some days downright foggy, that on some days no amount of exercise and coffee has been able to fix. Something that should only take me half an hour takes two. At first I thought, is this just me being weird? But I don’t think it is – I think it’s how a lot of people feel at the moment, a bit imbalanced and less focused than usual. Anyway, something has had to give lately, and unfortunately for me it has been blogging, and even posting on Instagram.

But, today I’m prioritising House Nerd (Full disclosure: I haven’t showered yet today. FERAL. Doing it for you guys cos I love you. Yes, I promise I’ll shower before I see the other parents at school pickup). And today, I want to share a post on our ensuite makeover – seven years after we renovated it. Because I know a lot of you wouldn’t have seen this when I shared it originally.

When we moved here, this was one of the first rooms we renovated properly – and by this I mean a full gut and retile. It was an old 70s bathroom with original brown tiles with pink roses on them. It was, well, not very nice – the kind of old bathroom where no matter how well you’ve tried to clean it, it just never FEELS clean. (This is my old post here, where you can see all of our ‘befores’). But in this post, I’ll share the photos I took today. And some gross befores, because everyone loves gross befores…… well I do.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE. I know. We didn’t even properly replace the toilet roll for your visit. That’s how much of an energy drain this crappy bathroom was back then.

AFTER

We completely gutted it and replaced everything and I shared it then here. Mr Nerd and I were total newbies to renovating, and we both agree that since then we have learned a LOT about renovating through our experiences and mistakes, and if we were to do another house now, we think we’d probably approach a lot of things differently.

My personal taste now is also pretty different to my taste seven years ago. But when we look back on how we did this bathroom, I still feel good about it.

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As you can see, it is a SMALL ensuite. It is 1.75 metres by 1.75 metres (about 3m square or 30 square feet). The shower space is about 85cm x 85cm. Our house is a three by two, but when we were house-hunting, I remember seeing marketing material for the house that had it as a three by one.

Maybe it was an error. Or maybe it was clever marketing. Because I remember being at the first home open for the House Formerly Known as the Crap Shack, poking around in the main bedroom and going, “Oh wow, there’s another bathroom!” Which maybe I guess is preferential to being told a house has two bathrooms but then you open the door of the second bathroom and you’re disappointed cos it’s the smallest bathroom you’ve ever seen? I don’t know. Isn’t it nicer to NOT be expecting a bathroom and then you open a door and ta-da! Bonus bathroom! Like I said, maybe it was a mistake, but despite its lack of floor space, that Bonus Bathroom still scored some points at my end. Take my money, real estate agency. Yes, all of my money.

One day I’ll stop doing an awkward peace sign in photos.

Speaking of money. I shared on the blog (this is back in 2013) how much this bathroom renovation cost.

After, I got a few emails from people who said it was impossible to renovate a bathroom for under $8,000. Reading a little between the lines of those disgruntled emails, I’m guessing they were people in the industry who didn’t want their work devalued, for want of a better word, or to have potential clients coming to them saying, “Well how come my quote for a bathroom renovation comes to $12,000 but House Nerd girl’s bathroom reno only cost $8,000?” Which is totally understandable. In their defence, if you go to a professional renovation company or an interior designer, you’re paying for their experience, their speed, their trusted trades, things like their discounts from tile companies, the ease, the lack of risk (like no design mistakes… well – hopefully!) When you project manage it on your own, you’re taking a risk. By no means was I out to upset anyone by sharing our bathroom renovation or by breaking down what we paid for it.

However, as I pointed out (and as I had stated in my posts, but I’m not sure if they actually read them) they would have seen that we saved money in more than a few ways – we did some work ourselves to save costs, like we gutted it ourselves, we had a tiler friend who slowly worked on it on his weekends (obviously with a second bathroom, there was no rush).

I remember this dark winter night way back when – I think this was when the grouting was being done. Odd how in restrospect all those days of renovating that dragged into the night seem like fun now!

We bought all our fixtures from the same plumbing store that we really like (some will give you a discount if you do this) and it’s also a VERY small room – even though we used nice finishes like the travertine, of course you’re going to save when you don’t need that much. So can you renovate a bathroom for under $8,000 these days? I don’t know. But there are always ways to save if you really want to. If you want to save money you have to prioritise what you really want, and put time in to hunt around for what you want.

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Anyway. Almost eight years later, we’re still happy with this tiny room, and (to me, anyway) it hasn’t dated – everything as looks as good as it did when it was first done. We love the travertine most of all – the occasional upkeep of natural stone is worth it to us. Although it’s a tiny room, the natural stone makes it a feel a tiny bit special. I like the hob in the shower – hubby built a brick wall and then it was rendered and tiled, and it gives us a space to put bottles in the shower.

Products from Urban Skincare Co. We discovered this brand while staying in our Camperdown accommodation in Sydney  (the same accommodation with the REALLY BIG SHOWER, which I’ll tell you about in just a sec) and we both liked this stuff so much we ordered a box when we got home.

  I still like the white walls (it’s hard to see in the photos, but they are fully tiled in white rectified wall tiles, where the grout lines are so thin you can barely seen them) the custom-made vanity with Polytec doors, the Corian benchtop. Corian is an awesome material, and still feels kind of underrrated. It’s hardwearing and durable and has lots of nice colours. Once I left a can of hairspray on the benchtop, and the bottom of the can got wet and left a rust mark – you just buff it out and you can’t even tell.

Plant and planter from No Vo’s Home Nursery. You can buy Savon de Marseille olive oil soap from Hard to Find. Chloe from David Jones.

In hindsight, we might have done a few things differently, though. I would have insisted on paying more for the electrics so that when you turn the lights on, the exhaust fan doesn’t HAVE to go on.

I also might have put in a medicine cabinet above the toilet for a little bit more storage. If we were remodelling this same house now, we’d be more inclined to be a little bit more confident and think a little bit bigger.

This felt like enough at the time.

Sometimes we think it would have been better to forgo our walk-in robe (which sits alongside the ensuite) knock down the wall in-between the robe and ensuite, and instead create a bigger ensuite, then add a wall of robes into our bedroom instead. It’s such a simple luxury to have a spacious shower – we went on holidays last year and stayed in a self-contained apartment in Camperdown, and all four of us were basically awed by how big the shower was (yes, we are easily thrilled). But it was bigger than our entire ensuite! With double shower heads so we don’t have to fight over who gets to stand directly under the nozzle! Such decadence!

But, at the time, I wasn’t quite convinced it would be the best way to go, because our bedroom, too, is small, and adding a walk-in robe would have greatly eaten into the space (and doing the renovation this way would have cost more, in terms of additional labour, trades, materials and moving plumbing).

There you go! Have you ever renovated a room and thought to yourself down the track you might have done it very differently? Would love to know. Maya x

The post Our Tiny Ensuite Bathroom Renovation – Seven Years Later appeared first on House Nerd.

from Home Improvement https://house-nerd.com/2020/06/05/our-tiny-ensuite-reno/

[pavosystem]

its been a very long time since we did a system roll call. we’ve been kind of distanced from the whole concept of it lately, but even so, i think it’s undeniable that all of these aspects of our collective self hold significance, and are worth tending to. this is callon as guide today.

on a first impression, the grass is much yellower in headspace than usual. maybe because it’s fall in the meatspace, maybe because i’ve been neglecting my internal world.

in the main house, gabbi greets me tiredly. it feels like 2:30am. gabbi implies that ne has a duty to stay awake and take care of everyone, but i wonder if it wouldn’t be better for them to get some rest as well. floret and amelia are sleeping on the couch, curled up into each other. perien, also asleep, is in an armchair nearby, sleeptalking softly.

echo, in her usual chair, blinks at me and goes back to sleep. cilla, in their small form, curled up with echo, does not wake up.

nitexx, surprisingly, seems fairly animated and excited to see me. ze starts speaking quickly, but i can’t quite make out the words.

it’s difficult to know where rayn is, but i don’t think it’s missing. i get the impression that cyrren is tending to it from aer ship at sea. although i can’t quite get to the ship, i can vaguely project in that direction, and cyrren, like gabbi, is tiredly awake, tending to a duty that i don’t fully understand. ae assures me that all is well, that ae hasn’t let anything happen.

while i’m towards the sea, i pass by the vent that leads to ooze ocean’s domain, but it seems to be entirely dormant. i get the sense that vaccine has inherited much of void’s mission, and that gail’s continued worship of void is.. sufficient. void no longer needs to have presence here.

it troubles me to say that i have to check back with our directory to make sure i��m checking in on everyone, and not missing people.

ethan isn’t in the main house, but it’s possible that they’re sleeping, or that they’re visiting the tree house. haze is sitting up in er bed, clutching a fairly intimidating looking sword. e seems like e is preparing for something. staying awake through the long night so that daybreak doesn’t catch em by surprise.

the attic door in nessie’s room is open, and as i climb through it, i can see her, riley, and ceren sleeping on the floor, like high schoolers at a slumber party. they give off the impression that they don’t wish to be disturbed.

at the end of the hallway, remm’s door is glowing in its usual psychadelic ominous way. i’m acutely aware that ve is kin with lotus now. that lotus has always been a manifestation of vir and vir alone.

raliel seems to have gone to the mansion.

all the buildings’ basements seem to be connected now, like burrows of hibernating animals. where the main house used to have a rather unpleasant cellar below the kitchen, it now has a door through vex’s room, which leads to a long corridor, which eventually comes out to vaccine’s office. vaccine greets me with formal displeasure. i apologize for my absence.

vex is hunched over eir desk, and just when i start to think ey’s deeply sleeping, ey complains to me that i had better not write eir off. ey has been very busy, ey says.and i suppose that’s true. it’s unlikely that i could have drawn so much with just my own power.

jace and ginger seem to be one and the same, curled up catlike in their pile of pillows and electronics.

the room behind vex’s room, where venic often stays, is off-limits to me at the moment, but i trust that kye is still there.

back to azdien’s basement. (vector), who refuses to go by xyr previous name but has yet to decide on a new one, huffs at me indignantly, arms crossed. xe makes some rude gestures and flies just high enough to look down at me.

someone, and i’m not sure i can make out who it is, tells xyr it’s not worth the effort of taunting me. kazen, perhaps. yeah, kazen, in a shadowed back corner of the room, sitting down in such a position that i could easily imagine him with a gun, but he doesn’t have one at the moment. i get the vague impression that he doesn’t need one any more.

while i’m not in the treehouse, i can feel excitement emanating from it even here. grimnir has arrived some time ago, and is eager to make my acquaintance. giving in to their(?) excitement, tyto gives me a lift to the treehouse. nero immediately starts complaining that i’m late. the wolfdog on the worn-out couch seems to be more kitt than kaire today, but they’re different phases of the same creature, like phases of the moon. kayden, like grimnir, is excited to greet me. i’m a bit surprised to see kei again, in their usual corner, glaring at me but not seeming as angry as their face might make it seem.

i ask after ethan, and someone tells me that they’re changing right now. coccoon-like, unavailable. there is some confusion regarding the matter, interference from raliel or trysten.. raliel. vite is very much engaged with a racing game, and doesn’t turn around to greet me, but doesn’t seem unhappy about my presence either. it seems like the house has been teaching casey to play a card game, but it’s hard to tell if they’re still on ygo or if they’ve moved on to frogjuice and other party games. casey is pretty miffed at me for missing the most recent con. i promise ill get photos for her soon.

i head back to the mansion, on foot, but the time lapses and i arrive within what feels like seconds. percy opens the door for me. him and jochen stand back to back, both telling me off for neglect and jumping to conclusions. it seems like they’ve become two people, properly, but twins. tobias, as well, is like a brother to them, but doesn’t bother to greet me. instead, he stays in the library, reading about strategy.

azdien gives me a grand welcome when i enter the dining room, the effect of which is somewhat undercut by raliel, now kinning lorenz, babbling at me before azdien can even finish vaer greeting. drohen watches on in a way that could almost read as fond, holding a rather elaborate teapot.

i can hear darion snoring from two rooms away.

trysten seems to be sulking, a bit put out that raliel got a new kintype and ailecent did too, but it doesn’t seem like there’s anything new for sier. i reassure sier, and sie quickly bounces back, saying that of course sie knows im right, sie is fantasic regardless.

vivianne is in another room.. or perhaps more like a. patio/sunroom, which has just recently been constructed off the kitchen. there are butterflies in it. vae is seated, wearing a sweeping ballgown, and greets me with serenity. i get the impression that vae was waiting for someone else, and i ask who. i can’t hear vaer response, but i wonder if it might be kestrel.

kestrel, i realize when i think about it, had been in the library with tobias, just out of my sight beyond the bookcases. ae expresses some reluctance to leave, saying that vivianne’s greenhouse is terribly humid, but ae does head in that direction.

kisoquine, very much the same as neist now, is in the kitchen, as seems to be xyr habit. there are copper pots and pans hanging from a ceiling rack, and xe is fascinated with them, and xyr reflections in them.

micah is in their room, dark except for the blue lights on many of their computers. they’re tinkering with something, and don’t seem to appreciate my presence. when i ask what it is, i get the impression that they’re collaborating with aren.

aren, upstairs in his room, is in some sort of technological tank or pod, unconscious, waiting.

when i query after reik, im told that he was in the treehouse. did i not see him in there? surely it was him giving vite such trouble in that racing game. i suppose i was distracted.

next is the cabin. corian is sitting in one of their elaborate chairs, holding a cup of tea on their lap but sound asleep. nine, lying on the back of their chair, wakes up when i walk into the room, and compliments tyto on bringing me here. i thank tyto as well, and ey transitions into a more human form before heading into the basement to pick up some research materials.

i ask after nika. there’s some confusion. was sie not in the greenhouse with vivianne? no, sie wasn’t. maybe sie’s upstairs. i head up, and i don’t see sier, at first, just a stack of magazines on sier table. after a couple minutes of further confusion, i realize that the pile of white fluff on the couch is not a blanket, but rather, nika in the form of a ninetails, sleeping quite soundly.

downstairs, nine laughs at me. im a bit miffed that they didn’t say anything until i realized.

when i ask about ailecent, i’m told that ae is in the main house, having found a bedroom there, or perhaps a section of the attic. ae is struggling to find a new outfit that ae likes, now that red is perhaps part of aer colour palette. ae has striking silver horns, now, which suit aer quite well.

i head back down to the main room of the cabin. while i had been aware of people other than corain in the room, it had taken me a few minutes to recognize them. now that i’m not distracted by other questions, i can see elster, also asleep, sitting upright on the couch.

aether is curled up in a corner, seeming somewhat distressed. i’m not entirely sure what’s bothering cir. somehow, ce seems more gemlike than i had expected.

tyto finishes collecting eir books and comes upstairs. we walk together up the mountain to skye’s cabin, since it’s difficult for eir to fly with too much cargo. ey makes idle chatter about what’s been happening in headspace while i’ve been away, but i can’t make out the words.

before we reach the cabin, gail crosses our path. it seems to have some sort of warning for us, but i can’t decipher this either.

skye greets us warmly at the door, but doesn’t allow us to enter the building. or doesn’t allow me at least. tyto slips past, apologetically saying goodbye before ey disappears into the building.

aloe is hissing at me from a table inside, and skye explains that aloe isn’t alright with outsiders at the moment, and that includes me. i apologize for intruding, and skye apologizes for not being able to invite me in.

i head back down the mountain. up here, there is thick, crunchy snow up to my ankles. it disperses by the time i get back to corian’s cabin, but i keep going past that as well. the tree on which the treehouse is built is just starting to turn yellow for the year.

it’s my intention to round up percy and grimnir and bother them about names.

[lilyharvord]

Song of the Phoenix Part 1/??

A new fic series I have come up with. It should be a similar length to Red as the Dawn and Silver as the Sword and Gold as the Crown combined, but in one whole fic. I’m super excited for this, and I have been working on it for months, fixing plot holes and working around new plot from the actually canon books. Anyway, this is the all hands on deck fic I was talking about. 

Enjoy children, it’s story time.... ((((((: 

After being with Mare Barrow for over five years, Tiberius Calore the Seventh, had decided that not only did she enjoy making love during lightning storms, she seemed to channel that energy into the whole act. It usually left him breathless, and half dead the next morning though. She had never seemed too bothered by any of it, in fact, she always seemed to get up happier than when she went to bed.

           Tonight had been no different from any of the previous nights, except for the fact that the storm had been loud and had lasted for over four hours, from the moment they had sat down to eat dinner until long after they had finished the act. Mare had slept through the worst of the storm it seemed, but Cal had tossed and turned through the whole thing, somehow not able to sleep. Eventually, he had gotten up, determined to simply sit in the small kitchen and watch the rain. Mare was still asleep when he left the bed, with her hair spilling across her pillow, and her arms tucked under it to support her head. His lips quirked up in the slightest of smiles at that, and he watched her to make sure she didn’t wake up as he dressed slowly and closed the door behind him.

           Their small house was worth it, the upstairs consisting of only their bedroom, and a guest room, while everything else was on the ground floor. But the cost was made up with the garage that he spent almost all of his free time in, doing exactly what he loved. He’d refurbished over six vehicles since the end of the war. The first one had been an excuse to avoid everyone, but eventually a few later, it had become something that helped both him and Mare. Now, she came down and learned from his steady hands, and her nimble ones made it easy to reach into the tight cracks between belts and valves. She hated getting her hands dirty with the grease and oil, but she still came down to help him when she wasn’t off doing her own job. She had been offered a position as a trainer for the New Bloods, but she had laughed in Davidsons’ face and had promised him that she would keep herself out of trouble. Now, she worked in a small power plant, keeping the machines running, and the electricity in the small town pumping through the wires. He visited her when he wasn’t working in the mechanic’s shop, and she’d spend hours telling him about each and every little gear that broke and she had to fix. Sometime, she called him to fix them.

           There was nothing miraculous about them anymore, and he and Mare had found that they liked it like that. There always were the odds and ends people who arrived in the little town with a broken down transporter, who gapped and stammered when the saw him covered in grease fixing their engine. And there was always the group who passed through the town and stared when he and Mare went to the little café in the center of town to have dinner together. He supposed that was earned though. It was strange to see legends sitting at the table across from you bickering about who’s turn it was to the laundry, and over which dessert would be better to have.

           Sinking into one of the rickety kitchen chairs, Cal looked out at the dark landscape. A flash of lightning illuminated the acers of land that were behind their property. Once, he had imagined small children running around that space, all of them screaming and laughing. Mare had never mentioned that she wanted children though. He wasn’t about to push it on her, he knew how she felt. He knew about the nightmares that she sometimes had. About waking up screaming for her brother, or for people who were long gone. Those nights were always the hardest. She normally sat in the bay window of their bedroom and stared out at the horizon until the sun rose on those nights. He couldn’t imagine asking her to try and bring something so small and defenseless into their lives. Something that could so easily be killed or hurt. 

           Maybe he should ask her about it though, it certainly wouldn’t hurt. He sighed as he set his head in his hand then. On second thought, maybe it was a better idea to eat. At least then, he could think about the whole idea of even bringing it up to her.

Could they even afford kids? He thought bitterly as he rose from the chair and made his way to the counter. After all, being an electrical technician or mechanic didn’t exactly leave them in a surplus of wealth. They made ends meet though, they had food in the cupboards, and were never hungry, something Mare was always trying to avoid. They had heat during the winter, and during the summer, they could fling all the windows of their home open to catch the breeze without worrying about thieves. They had what they needed, but if something, or rather, someone, got added into the mix, would that still work out the way it did?

Sighing, he reached for the light switch next to the doorway and flicked it up. The bulb overhead flickered for a moment, and then went out. Frowning at that, Cal squinted up in the dark at it, and saw that there was still a tiny pulse of light, but it was as if the bulb itself had been dimmed, like some of the energy was being sent elsewhere. He sighed again. Mare had probably been fooling around with the thing earlier, and had done something and not told him, typical.

He shuffled through the semidarkness then, which was broken only by the repeated flashes of lighting. The storm must have been directly overhead by this point, he thought as he opened the cupboard and pulled out a mug. He filled it with water, and then turned to open another cupboard to get some of the tea out. As he did though, his eye caught movement out the window. Squinting through the dark and the sheets of rain, he could just barely make out what looked like a stumbling figure, wrapped in a blanket.

“What…” he began to ask himself as the figure slowly came closer, stumbling through the edge of the trees and into the open view of their backyard. The wind and rain threw them back and forth and he watched hesitantly for a few seconds wondering if his tired mind was playing tricks on him. A few seconds later though, they tripped in the open space and collapsed into the mud. 

Cursing softly, Cal dropped the mug without thinking and sprinted for the door that attached the kitchen to the back porch. The mug shattered on the ground as he sprinted out into the rain.

He was soaked in seconds, and his bare feet were freezing by the time he got to the huddled figure on the ground. He crouched down over them and then shouted over the crack of thunder, “What the hell do you think you’re doing out in the middle of a storm like this?”

Whoever it was, was a young woman, who couldn’t have been any older than him. She mumbled something to her pale hands which were squished into the mud. He pulled her to her feet, the coarse fabric of the cloak she was wearing rubbing against his hands. She shivered, and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders before bringing her toward the house. When he glanced up, he saw Mare standing on the porch with his jacket on while she shielded her eyes from the rain. Seeing that he was half carrying someone toward the house, she opened the porch door and hurried inside. The light in the kitchen didn’t come on though.

As he reached the top of the porch steps with the young woman, he paused outside and demanded again, “What are you doing out in the middle of the storm like this?”

She shivered and mumbled something incoherent. Shaking his head at that, Cal turned her to face him and asked, “Who are you? How did you find your way out here?”

Slowly, as if in a daze, the woman lifted her head. She brought delicate fingers up and pushed her wet hair out of her eyes. Her irises were pale brown, like dirt that was on its way to drying after the rain. She opened her mouth to speak, but froze as she took him in. Her eyes widened and her jaw slowly went slack, just barely though, enough to make her thin lips open in a startled expression. Those eyes widened and she closed and opened her mouth in surprise before whispering, “Tibe?”

Shaking his head in surprise, Cal scrunched up his brows and replied, “That’s not… how did you… how did my father tell you… my father’s dead.”

The woman’s eyes widened even further and she blinked for a heartbeat before replying softly, “Father,” her voice broke, and he saw her eyes water as she choked, “Cal?”

Frowning, he pulled away a little more, shocked that she knew who he was. Maybe she was one of the people who lived in town and she had seen him around. He doubted it though, this town was tiny, and everyone who lived here knew everyone. He would have seen her before.

“What the hell are you doing?” Mare’s voice rose above the pounding of the rain on the roof. She stood in the doorway, holding almost all of the towels they owned in her arms. “Bring her inside!” Mare shouted as she held the door open. 

Shaking himself out, Cal grabbed the woman’s arm and brought her inside. She wouldn’t stop looking at him with that look though, like she was looking at him in an entirely different light. He guided her into the small living room they had, and slowly helped her to sit on the couch. She gripped the edges of her soaking wet blanket tightly in her hands and watched him as he backed away and grabbed from the pile of towels Mare had thrown on the ground. Upstairs, he could hear the water running. Mare must have drawn a bath.

He dared a quick glance at the woman on the couch, and caught her staring at him again. She was looking him up and down, a curious sort of look on her face. He looked away quickly again, unsure what to think of feel, he knew deep down, knew what this was, knew who she was, and yet, he couldn’t bring himself to really acknowledge it. It just wasn’t physically possible. Yet, here she was.

She looked up at him, and then whispered, “Cal…”

He pulled away again though, and shaking his head he said, “You can dry off, I’ll… go get you some tea.”

He hurried away, his heart in his throat. He kept shaking his head, thinking that he was just seeing things. But there was no mistaking it, the shape of her eyes, he had seen that same eye shape every morning when he looked up in the mirror. Had seen it in countless portraits too. 

As he passed into the kitchen, he shivered, and had to lean against the counter to think. His head was spinning, and he wondered if it was because his heart was racing so fast that he couldn’t breathe. This whole thing was impossible, it was a trick of the light. He was tired, it was completely logical that he was just… dreaming. Maybe he had fallen asleep, and he was going to wake up any second.

Squeezing his eyes shut, he tried to make himself wake up, tried to make himself snap out of this. Shaking his head rapidly, he murmured, “Just wake up, just wake up.”

He felt a soft hand on his lower back and jumped, his head snapping around as his hand came up to grab the hand that had touched him. Mare watched him in surprise and then whispered, “Cal… what’s wrong?”

Dropping her hand quickly, he grabbed the tea kettle, and hurried to the sink to fill it with water. He could still feel Mare’s eyes on his back though, and he looked out the window at the backyard, and the pounding rain. At least the lightning had stopped though.

“Cal,” Mare choked as she quickly turned the faucet off, and pulled the overflowing kettle out of his hands before setting it in the sink. Taking his hands in her own, she asked, “What is wrong? What is going on? Why are you acting like this?”

He glanced beyond her at the doorway and then said, “I need to wake up.”

Rolling her eyes at his comment, Mare reached up and slapped his cheek a few times, not enough to hurt, but enough to jar him. Stepping back, she quirked her brow and said, “Are you awake now? Because guess what, we have a random woman sitting in our living room, alone, because you left her there.”

“She’s,” he paused and then looked back at the doorway for a moment before shaking his head quickly, unable to continue. Mare reached up and cupping his cheek gently she asked, “She’s what? Do you know her?”

��I, I think so, I’m not sure though.” Cal murmured as he broke free from Mare’s grip. Glancing at the kettle he whispered softly, “Can you make some tea, I’m going to… go talk to her. Ask her where she’s from and how she got here.”

Nodding in understanding, Mare turned to the stove and began setting up to make tea. Cal watched her for another heartbeat for heading out into the living room again. The woman was slowly toweling off on the couch. Her hair hung in limp brown strings around her head. She still had the blanket wrapped around her body though. He approached her slowly and then said, “Mare’s making some tea right now, and I think she drew you a bath upstairs. If you want I can take you up there and get you some dry clothes to wear.”

The woman looked up at him, her eyes soft as she tilted her head to the side slightly. Suddenly her expression was pained and she whispered, “you look just like him,” rising from the couch, she pulled the blanket tightly around her and then reached out to him, “but you are taller, Sara promised you would be.”

Cal pulled back quickly from her hand and watched her in terror. She knew Sara, the evidence was mounting against reality and for a moment, he really did think he was dreaming. Shaking his head at her words, he said, “Sara, you know Sara Skonos?”

The woman looked physically wounded by his words, and her lips drew into a tight line as she said, “Of course I knew Sara, she is…was my best friend.” The correction took her a little bit to figure out, but it had been made all the same. Swallowing past the knife in his throat, Cal glanced away and then whispered to himself, “I need to wake up.”

“Then I do as well,” The woman whispered, her eyes watering as he pulled further away from her. Shaking her head softly she sank down onto the couch again and whispered, “I never, I never thought that Tibe would, that he would keep me from you, keep who I am-“

“I know who you are,” Cal wheezed, because at this point his throat was filled with lumps the size of his fist. He could barely breathe around them and the fist that was gripping his chest in a vice. She watched him for another second, before whispering, “why are you so afraid of me?”

“I’m not afraid, I’ve seen plenty of messed up shit in my life to not be afraid of you, but you’re… you’re dead, you died almost twenty-four years ago.”

Her eyes widened, and she glanced out the window at the storm, her eyes watering as she whispered, “I don’t remember that day, I don’t remember any of it.”

Breathing heavily around the band that was wrapping tighter and tighter around his chest, Cal choked, “You, you…” He couldn’t even bring himself to say it, couldn’t bear to tell her the truth of that day. All he could muster was, “You died, you died and left us.”

Behind him, he heard something shatter on tile. Flipping around he saw Mare standing in the doorway to the kitchen, the mug of tea she had made was shattered on the floor and the liquid had exploded everywhere as she took both of them in.

“Forgotten gods,” Mare croaked as she walked to Cal, stepping over the tea stain. She grabbed his arm and then whispered, “I know who you are… I’ve seen your picture.”

The woman looked at the two of them and then whispered, “Where is your father?”

“Dead,” Cal replied as he turned his head away. How was this possible, how was any of this possible? She was dead, and had been dead for his entire life, how could she possibly be back now?

“Coriane,” Mare whispered the name like it had a power stronger than what pulsed through her veins, and in the moment it did, “Coriane Jacos, the Singer Queen.”

She flinched at the title and then looked away at the fabric of the couch as she whispered, “That is what they called me, yes.”

Mare’s grip increased on Cal’s arm as her eyes widened and she gasped, “But you’re dead, you’ve been dead-“

“I’m well aware of what I have been for the past twenty-four years.” Coriane whispered, but that whisper carried the power of a queen behind it. Mare flinched at the biting tone, it had been so long since she had heard something like it. Looking them both over again, Coriane whispered, “And who are you exactly.”

“Mare Barrow,” Mare’s voice was soft, but panicked as she tugged Cal toward the kitchen and whispered, “we need to talk, we need to talk right now.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” Cal replied as he turned and pushed Mare into the kitchen and closed the door behind them. Mare paced at the counter and then flipping around on Cal, the lightbulb overhead flickered and buzzed as Mare’s worry manifested as power, as she hissed, “Your dead mother is sitting in our living room looking very much alive!”

“I am well aware!” Cal reply was in the same tone but both of their voices rose in magnitude as their panic fed each other’s. Gesturing behind himself in surprise Cal said, “I didn’t exactly realize that until I looked dead at her though! Now you know why I was having an anxiety attack in here before you came in.”

Shaking her head Mare replied, “It’s not possible, she should be almost…fifty years old! She looks like she’s the same age as Gisa!”

“I mean that is how old she was when she-“ Cal couldn’t get the words out again, and shaking his head he said, “This could be a scam, she could be playing a part and is leading someone to us right now.”

“That seems a little extreme, even for this entire… situation.” Mare replied, her panic subsiding as she sat down at the kitchen table. She watched Cal for a heartbeat before looking at the door out of the kitchen. “We should… let her take a bath, and settle. I’ll get her set up while you… call Davidson, or Farley… or whoever the hell is going to pick up at this time in the morning.”

Cal nodded, and Mare swallowed before she stood up. She glanced at the puddle of tea on the floor by the door and then said, “We also might need to buy more mugs…we broke two of them this morning.”

@mareshmallow, @amessofposts, @marecalrandomstuff, @inopinion, @chaoslaborantin, @redqueenfandom, @anyone-anything-canbetrayanyone, @scarletguardsource, @war-storm, @selenbean-beany, @clarafarleybarrow, @caloresblood, @marecalonly, @naercxy