#charis asks

[jenni3penny]

Hey Fox! Give me 1 and/or 11 for the 2023 fic asks?

What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year? How did it turn out and would you do it again?

While not necessarily new, I did write that one piece (Until the Time Comes) that only had a couple words of dialogue in it, and that was a fun exercise. I rely so much on dialogue for characterization, so it took some doing. 

What fic was the most satisfying to finish writing?

I think you know the answer to this already. 😆

Finishing what I affectionately called ‘the tour fic’ felt really great. It had been a long time since I'd done anything multi-chapter and planned out. 

‘We Can Take the World’ took all the awards in the Personal Favs category. 

[pythosblathers]

Lark in a dress?

Had to take the time to actually draw this one properly, especially since I've been playing Rogue Trader

The left one is how Lark would dress if she were in a local noble or official's employ. Practical, warm, not super embellished, showing off the fire motif that represents her planet's promethium-drilling origins.

The right is on the less gaudy end, but would be appropriate formalwear if Lark accompanied a rogue trader to an event as their personal bodyguard and vibe checker. She wouldn't mind the dress, but the shoes, makeup, escaping hairdo, and hat would drive her crazy

[thecharashouse]

Chara House

Chara Coucil

Core!Chara and Rewritten

[myalchod]

Kiss prompt: Silrah + nr 36

Why hello there, neglected inbox! I'm so sorry I've been ignoring you. And I'm so sorry it took me freaking forever to write this one, Hillie -- hope you enjoy it! 💙

36. a kiss to give up control - [ also on AO3 ]

He watches as she paces the length of her office. The sound is so familiar he could play it from memory: heels a precise click against the wood, muffling slightly as she steps onto the carpet, then sharp once more before she reaches her desk, pivoting to start the process again. He knows exactly why she’s doing it — this only happens when she’s worked up about something — and he knows why just as well. How could he not, when he knows that today will deliver news that could change everything?

A year ago, this would have been alien to them both — but a year ago their world had not yet shattered. So much has changed; he need only look at her to see that made manifest, the elaborate twisted hairstyles and sleekly professional dresses she wears far more reminiscent of Solaria’s monarch than Alfea’s former headmistress. They suit her, but he wonders how much of her decision was born of distancing herself from Rosalind’s shadow. For such a small woman, their general still looms large over them all.

“What time is it?”

“Two minutes since you asked last.” He stretches out his legs, ignoring the glare she shoots him when he tucks one booted foot against the edge of the low coffee table. It’s good to know he can still get under her skin, but it’s better to find glimpses of his fairy underneath the put-together woman who has served out the year as Alfea’s interim headmistress. He knows she wants this; they’ve talked about it, after all, the two of them alone and also together with Ben, and Farah has made it clear this isn’t just about warding the place where they’d imprisoned Rosalind. Sometimes he thinks he knew how much Alfea called her before she did, when the Farah of before had been so intent on following in Rosalind’s footsteps and proving herself a hardened soldier. But even if she has not admitted it to herself, he can see how much she cares; why else would the decision they sit her awaiting leave her as twisted into knots as she is?

Click, click, and back to carpet-muffled thuds. She stops before him this time; he tips his head back, offers her reassurance along with a smile, watches the corners of her mouth twitch upward for a moment before she sighs once again, tucking an errant strand back behind her ear. “How can you be so calm?”

“Because we’ve done all we can. Either Luna holds up her side of this bargain and we have nothing to worry about, or she doesn’t and it becomes her headache.” The reality is not nearly as simple, when leaving runs the risk of Rosalind walking free after all of their efforts, but he doesn’t think the Solarian monarch is blind to the risks that would pose. She and Farah may have their own fraught history, but she’s not an idiot, and only an idiot could ignore the danger Rosalind Hale poses, knowing what they all now know.

She looks at him for a long moment, but says nothing before she resumes pacing. Saul sighs and leans his head against the back of the couch, closing his eyes and listening to the sound. There is still, by his calculations, the better part of a half-hour before the board will finish, and he’s pretty sure she’s going to wear a groove into the floor before then. And while, if he’s being honest, he’s not quite sanguine about the outcome of the meeting taking place right now, he’s better at hiding it — and better at admitting that they’ve done all they can at this point.

The knot of anxiety in his head pulls tighter with each step. The impact of her heels sets his nerves vibrating in response. If he doesn’t do something soon, one or the other of them may well burst, and so he pushes to his feet, glancing at his watch as he does.

Thirty-seven minutes.

She pulls to an abrupt stop when he plants himself in her path, eyes narrowing. When she shifts her weight to one side he reaches up, hands curling around her arms as he steps in close, closer, until her back fetches up against the bookcase and her chin tips back to look at him. “Saul, what —”

His lips against hers steal the rest of her words. For a moment she stiffens, surprise rather than protest, but when he pulls back just slightly her mouth chases his own until he tuts out a warning.

“Pretty sure in thirty-six minutes you’re gonna be the one in charge. Until they tell us, it’s my turn.”

Her eyes widen for a moment before she laughs, something soft and fond, and leans back against the shelf. “Go on, then, headmaster. Do your worst.”

The twist of nerves is still there in the bond, though, the tension still coiling tight inside her; if he released her, he is certain she would start pacing again. But just because he’s aware of how time is ticking down doesn’t mean he won’t take up the challenge of making her forget the meeting — and everything else he possibly can — in the time left them, and as he nips at her lower lip, the moan she breathes into his mouth only spurs him on.

[ ask me another ] [ all answers ]

[elsa-fogen]

...ROSIE AND TV BOX SPOTTED IN MASTERPOST COVER OF CTAU?

if vox is a toy does that make charlie an ipad kid.

OIILJRI[OGPIHJ[GUDP we'll see jfghfjfkdhgfd

AU Masterpost

[thetwilightroadtonightfall]

I honestly love Charis the fixation I have on them is strong…❤️💚❤️💚

Thank you!!!! I feel the same haha

[elmocult]

you thought Charis was canon omggg??? 😭😭 I’m. hollering in several octaves (/pos)

YEAAAHHG I HADN'T OPENED THE GAME ATP I JUST WAS SCROLLING THRU THE TAG ON TUMBLR 😭😭 was like omg he's so cool . nomura where is he nomura

[megacharicific]

asexuality is being unable to taste the sugar in ice cream, alright?

some people learn that ice cream is supposed to be sweet, so the first time they have it, they figure out what's up. other people aren't ever explicitly told, so they only know ice cream is supposed to taste good. maybe they will eat ice cream many times, and they'll say that yes it's good, although they don't get the big deal and aren't sure it's worth its cost.

some people like ice cream anyway because they like the unique creamy, cold texture, even though it tastes like water. some people will eat ice cream because they find the chocolate syrup and the sprinkles toppings sweet. some people will share an ice cream with their partner because it makes their partner happy and it's not like eating water-ice cream bothers them.

some people will share ice cream with their partner because they like it when they get to chomp on the ice cream cone, and while yes you can buy a box of ice cream cones, it's rare to find a partner willing to only eat ice cream cones with you.

some people have seen pictures of or heard the concept of ice cream and it doesn't appeal to them and they don't ever want to bother trying one, because they know it'll taste bland, and that's okay too. some people can sometimes taste the sweetness of ice cream, and sometimes can't, and that's okay too. some people only taste the sweetness of ice cream when they're having ice cream during a special occasion and that's okay too.

you can say it's a shame that some people can't taste the sugar in ice cream but there's a lot of foods in the world and a lot of them taste good, and a lot of them taste sweet, so personally i don't ever feel like i'm missing out.

[janesemel]

It’s because at first the version of Mary that exists in Chapuys’ head is little more than a sexist, paternalistic remix of her real identity, so thoroughly warped by the age & class difference that he sees her as barely more than a porcelain madonna, a moral/religious figurehead, so sexless she’s barely human. But as Mary ages and their relationship is maintained through less explicitly stressful circumstances then the ones it was conceived under amidst the Great Matter, she begins to grow outside of the parameters he established for her internally. She gets her life back, she’s not just pretty and in pain anymore, she’s energetic, provocative, romantically active, loud. And that scares him, the way it scared him with Cesare’s mother, but it also excites and intrigues him, not least of all because he can’t be physically intimate with Mary the way he was with the mistress who bore his illegitimate son. The illegitimate son he left so he could go perform diplomatic duties in the same country as Mary. Who wants to be a mother. Who loves children. Who is at once everything he’d ever want in a woman and young enough to be his biological child, facts which would be so blatantly immoral if he ever confronted their coexistence that he has to force himself to stay in denial about it. While Mary goes around planning for the future and playing footsie with Phillip of Bavaria, more or less unaware that her very existence is eating this poor bastard’s brain. Eustace is a 50 year old politician with TSwift’s “You Belong With Me” playing in his head every time he meets eyes with his dead friend’s 21 year old daughter. It’s pathetic. It’s disgusting. It’s narratively delicious.

[sarafangirlart]

Hi, not a question but just found you're blog and wanted to say you're absolutely based and all you're greek myth opinions are correct. I'm running a dnd game with the greek gods as major npcs and Hephestus is happily married to Aglaea. They have 2 robot kids.

Oh thanks that’s nice!

[regheart]

Do you have personal headcanons on Callidora, Cedrella, and Charis?

hello! thank you so much for the ask

i don't have many specific headcanons, just more general ideas

i think the black family has lived exclusively in the london area for centuries and the house they lived in is from the tudor era and survived the great fire of 1666 through magic, becoming unplottable and invisible to muggles since then

the three were very close while growing up and got along with dorea the most out of their cousins because of the age proximity

theirs was probably the poorest branch of the family

being so distant from the heir line, the only expectation they had was to marry pure-blood wizards (or not marry at all)

callidora married a longbottom (i personally don't think she's directly related to frank and neville because i headcanon frank to be older than sirius iii and i always thought of augusta as being very old so the two of them would be closer in age), moved to lancanshire and had her three kids in the 40s

she spends many of her days at blackpool pier chatting with enid and augusta

cedrella followed the memo and married pure-blood septimus weasley, but her family was not pleased because the weasleys have gotten a worse fame of blood traitors after objecting to the pure-blood directory

she had four kids, all boys, and the youngest, whom she favors, is named castor (a star in the gemini constellation, twin to pollux). both castor and arthur got her blue eyes

charis married a crouch and i can't decide if she's the mother of barty sr. or not because to me he looks like the type to only have kids in their mid 30s after his carrier is solid and that doesn't align with her age

callidora and charis never stopped talking to their sister, but they can't pretend to like her children. callidora tolerates castor, and that's it

lysandra moved out of the house after arcturus died and cygnus and druella moved in with their daughters (they used to live with pollux in hampstead, in a house that would have been alphard's inheritance the way grimmauld place was passed down to walburga)

bellatrix, andromeda and narcissa got compared to them all the time because of the way they were always together

callidora cut ties with her family after the first war. not in a dramatic way, most of them were either dead or imprisoned, but she never went after arcturus, or pollux, or cassiopeia, anyone, she only spoke to cedrella

[jenni3penny]

5, 13, and/or 18 for the fic writer asks, please! 💙

Ooooh!!! Good choices, Birb.

5. I'm a big fan of "Never Say 'Never'" (hums song from 'An American Tail') but… I do have this extensive mid-war Silrah lost/found/memory and magic slipping away thread in my head that will likely never get written. Mainly because I already have too many AU's hanging around unfinished.

13. Uhm. I don't usually plan too much for small bits. For larger pieces I try to at least have a mental framework for accomplishing everything. I think Tour is the only recent thing I've written that I really planned things out for, chapter by chapter. I do have a fae Summer Court/Winter Court Silrah AU that has a handful of planning notes at the bottom, just so I can keep track of all the players and where they fit. 

18. While not necessarily a favorite (because I don't think I can choose), I reread this the other day and felt quite proud:

 "He destroys her with that dark estimation of their relationship, that accusation made up of alcohol and hurt and love that's been twisting tighter toward strangling lately. It's a blitzkrieg of sorts, and he knew it even as the words formed from his lips. It levels her own love for him to something dusty and gritty and it feels as though he's standing somewhere in the middle of what's left of her, of them, in the middle of their long leftover war zone."

Thank you, lovey!!! That was excellent fun. Now off to return the favor. 🥰

[pythosblathers]

Lark, you are very protective of your friends but you don't value yourself the same way :(

Psychic shield deployed

[goldensunset]

trick or treat! 🎃👻🧛‍♀️🧟🧌🧙‍♀️🧚‍♂️💀

you get…

oh you know

[myalchod]

For the three sentence fic... Silrah + fake dating/marriage pretty please 💜

Well ... I was going to write just the one, but I can't pick between them, so have a stab at each? 💙 It was so tempting to write one of these as a canon AU but I felt like that would have been cheating. 😂

Fake Dating:

She knows she gives herself away as soon as the familiar manse looms into view, though she’s pretty sure Saul would have known even absent the reflexive tightening of her fingers on his arm with how long they’ve been friends, even if he gives no sign of the pain he must feel at her death-grip, just shifting so his shoulder knocks companionably against hers in silent acknowledgement and sympathy; when she loosens her hand once more he slips his arm free, and she thinks he’ll move away but he only slides it around her waist instead, palm curving warm and solid and reassuring over her hip, and her startle this time has nothing to do with memories of a life she’d gladly walked away from suddenly slamming into her with the weight of all of her years away.

“Alright?” he murmurs, voice near as warm as his touch, and some of the tension ratcheting through her eases as she is reminded of why she’d asked him to come with her, the easy comfort of his presence steadying her in a way no one else can — why, in a moment she does and does not regret already, she’d added and could you pretend to be my boyfriend?, when it meant he could not only accompany her for what promises to be an excruciating family reunion but stay close, just like this, through all that she knows awaits her.

There’s a world she’s not ready to face again behind that imposing front door, but she’s got him at her side, and they’re armed with a pretence she hopes will prevent at least some of the questions she wants to avoid, and so the smile she offers him is less forced than fond; with that, surely she can weather anything the day throws at her, and so she just threads her fingers into his belt loop and leans closer still to murmur an affirmative as they start up the stairs.

Fake Marriage:

“I don’t believe you,” he persists, and Farah rolls her eyes, surreptitiously searching for an exit as she does so; inconsiderately, none appears, and she damns again the distraction that left her backed into a literal corner by a man just drunk enough to belligerently call out the ring she wears to fend off most would-be partners when she just wants a relatively quiet night of drinking — a ring that has done her more harm than good this evening, when it’s been the cause of what is shaping up to be an ugly altercation.

A hand settles on his shoulder; a face dimly familiar looms in shadow behind him, and her frown clearly telegraphs enough because he turns, ready to protest further, only to be pushed out of the way. “Farah, love,” her unexpected saviour says as he extends his other hand her way, and she’s suddenly more grateful for the support of the wall at her back than his intervention as she recognises dark hair and pale eyes and that self-deprecating smile, properly registers the even more familiar voice, and a past long dead floods back, “I wondered where you’d gotten to.”

[ send me another ] [ all fills ]

[elsa-fogen]

We know the famous Lilith rizz doesn't work on Alastor for obvious reasons but would it work on Vox or Rosie I wonder 🤔

Ohhh 😳😳

Didn't think about it, but

Rosie probably. As for Vox idk, Lilith doesn't seem to be his type... But maybe? Also Maybe Lilith doesn't see him as a man?? DFHDGS THAT WOULD BE FUNNY LIKE, IMAGINE (totally won't happen) ALASTOR COMPLAINING TO VOX HOW LILITH IS TRYING TO SEDUCE HIM AND VOX IS LIKE "i wish your problems were mine" And Rosie probably isn't Lilith's type also... But she likes to tease her JIFGDOUIDOIUO

AU Masterpost