#i drafted the entire ending and i am STOKED

[legobiwan]

A little preview snippet of a different, different part of Solus:

~~~~~~~~~

“No, Mario. Daisy is amazing, but she’s not…" Luigi sighs. "I’ve spent so much of my life trying to be you. To follow in your footsteps, to make myself into you, to force myself into this…this Mario-shaped mould. Because, I thought, my brother’s amazing! He’s perfect! All I need to do is be like him and everything will fall into place. But I never could be. Never could be as brave as you. As strong as you. As well-liked as you. I…I was a failure at being Mario.”

[ixiot-ghostrebel]

Read that one with Creator!Reader, who favors Nahida. To be honest! I love her. She is the only one who has tried to help Aether find his sister. And I love Aether, and whoever is kind to him automatically gains my favor.

I haven't finished Fontaine story, so I'm not sure about them.

Nahida Lovers Are gonna be having the Party of a lifetime here 👍 I am going to shove a little bit of Aether into this, but it can also be read as Lumine if other ppl want to :)

Nahida's ALWAYS Off the Hook :D

(Warning: Might be OOC!)

You liked Nahida (platonically, don't get other ideas). She was the only archon that was able to find any information on Aether's sister, and was the only one who made many efforts to find any information regarding Lumine.

It was nice and refreshing for once, to see the Famed Traveler finally getting some help in return of their deeds for the nation. You were so stoked, you started cheering and screaming like this was the best victory you've ever witnessed (it might've actually been).

Nahida, after hearing this, felt even more happy than before. I mean, you were kinda just praising her on the spot for something she thought was just...right to do.

Yet you're making a huge deal out of it. Were the other nations...not that helpful? I mean, the way the Traveler just turned down help and all that was proof, but you praising her for something as simple as this for a "thank you"...Nahida is kinda glad she'll be the first to do it.

It also seems you're starting to favor Nahida alongside the Traveler, which she isn't sure how she feels entirely, but she is for sure happy!

The moment you leave, Nahida's smile is a whole lot bigger, and she's basically grinning from ear to ear. It feels like she truly has spread her wings once the cage was opened. She can only hope her flight can make the Almighty Creator continue to smile and cheer.

Ghost Rebel Side Notes: I really have no clue if this is meeting expectations or not, but I do hope y'all like it! Usually these one characters aren't really something I usually come around in my mailbox, so this was definitely practice for the future lol!

I might open up my mailbox again, but only for a day or two (maybe, no promises for the re-open). I still have a lot of other requests lying in my mailbox, but it's good to have experience out here :D

Anyways, I hope this helps with the Nahida Lovers :) Remember, Nahida is platonic when your reading my blog!

Also, if you're the people waiting for The Lost Divine God of Celestia, I might have to disappoint you in saying that I think I might discontinue the series all together. I have been trying to write the fourth part of the series, but I just come out with nothing in the end. It's kinda depressing seeing the draft in my draft box sobbing. I'm so sorry, but I'll see how I feel about it before I make an official announcement on the matter.

✦ Check out The Ghost Rebel’s Blog Description & Info Page to See if Their Mailbox is Open! ✦

[narwhalandchill]

Honestly. thinking back on it (am mega late yes) even though i like. ultimately enjoyed going thru fontaine AQ as an experience in terms of its emotional core and payoff with characters like navia neuvillette n furina having very strong writing and characterization i do think the overall AQ lore and worldbuilding is probably the messiest in the entire game and feels like all of its opportunities and potential was underutilized the most and thats just. Unfortunate

like yes its inazuma thats the most infamous for how shitty and rushed its execution was (and rightly so) and yes it Also had its share of issues with nothingburgers like the whole statue thing going nowhere or how shoddily constructed the entire it-was-all-the-fatui deal was

but i still think it has a stronger ground to stand on like. all aspects of the story if just slightly differently written and centered around better in-lore reasoning and logic. Are internally consistent with the world ya know. and would have produced a good story. like it could be fixed easily. no need for me to go Full Rewrite here but like just to make a point:

a shut-in deity paranoid and trauma-stricken is ignorant to her peoples wishes and enacts an eternal rule that stifles their hopes and dreams. discontentment in the nation (NOT just the vision holders it shouldve been ALL inazumans divided on this i s2g) has been on the rise but only outside forces stoking the flames push it into overdrive as they seek to exploit the unrest to get the gnosis. couldve brought the whole "peoples faith powers the archon" if they wanted to pop off bc then the fatui by sparking the civil war are Directly weakening eis power like Thats solid! less ei was innocent and only the fatui led to the bad stuff more. ei is flawed makes shit choices and leaves an opening for their operations etc etc etc.

foreshadow signoras past and distrust of the gods in like a tense encounter or two early on (ritou maybe?) where she hints at a deeper reason behind her actions. no need to trauma dump just have her like idk mock us for seeking the archons for "help" in finding our sibling slash truth of the world and coincidentally use wording that directly alludes to what we already heard from dainsleif earlier abt the cataclysm and archons sus so its like an Oh Shit. she can namedrop or allude to venti to imply its personal or sth to further recontextualize her actions in mondstadt as well.

and so on. like then fixing the rebellion (ppl join for other reasons than just the VHD so its a more common cause etc maybe some ppl dont care abt the decrees as much but the drafting of civilians into the ever expanding war effort goes too far) and stuff like that. inazuma had the ingredients for a consistent good story they just fumbled it completely

whereas fontaine tells like. a much stronger and more hype emotional core journey for its focal points as u go thru them but also it just. Genuinely falls apart if you poke at the setting and world for a bit too long its really just swiss cheese and that sucks

like as much as i Do love the narwhal in a very normal and sane way i still think story wise it absolutely goes into the signora tier of mishandled AQ boss fights except Even worse than hers bc. signora Fits inazuma even if she was handled poorly. but with the narwhal (and by extension childes entire presence as happy as i was to see him at all) its just... kinda random? and got pretty much brushed aside even during the AQ like we get the opera hall cutscene and then theres a THIRTY MINUTE cutscene with focalors before the actual fight happens like way to just. eliminate any urgency from the situation bruh. and then at the end both the narwhal and childe kinda just got plot deviced into hyping up skirk and surtalogis name drop. which rly fucking sucks. 99.7% of fandom never reads the AQ fight boss drop to consider the narwhals a sentient thinking feeling entity and not just a dumb big pet bc skirk called it that etc.

childe in general i dont think im necessarily like. as negative on the way he was handled as some ppl are (tho the general sentiments are 100% shared) but its still very much like. a disappointment w his lack of presence and voiced lines and in terms of how a lot of the intrigue set up in the AQ Especially the oratrice judgement just got shrugged off all "who knows 🤷‍♀️" like Are You Serious. and also p much using him as a neuvi hype device like . I saw it i knew ppl were going to be insufferable abt it & was right

i also saw a comment talking abt how childe Being the purple guy inside the narwhal just corrupted or sth wouldve given him a more heightened presence during the boss fight and while im a hater of that concept for other reasons (mostly the. narwhal must have malicious designs for ajax thing) i cant disagree with that take in terms of the story aspect. like if the narwhal ate him when he fell back in (which i kinda? assume mustve happened lmao like where did he Go 😭😭) it Wouldve been a much greater moment for sth like that to be there.

But bc i personally dont like the Brainwashed Puppet Angle i think how id have done it is just. sure make the purple guy more reminiscent of ajax n his fight style maybe even FL . But. feature an actual fucking cutscene in the stomach of us realizing its Not Him. but instead its the Narwhal Emulating Him as a spectral summon thingy. bc it ate his dumb unconscious ass for safekeeping or w/e and is now copying his homework of "use a manifestation of the other as a combat technique" (v romantic btw. soulmates real). like DUDE we had childes earlier AQ appearance Actively Bring Up this EXACT thing! he uses a hydro construct mimicking the narwhal as a combat technique bc of how their encounter rewired his brain chemistry. and now the narwhal needs to improv a more humanoid angle to combat in its stomach after it ate us. so like pov ur the narwhal whats the closest point of reference to draw from at that moment?

Oh Right. the guy ur been fighting for 40+ days . Your guy (derogatory) 💀 like they have a telepathic link who knows if it could just straight up cross reference Our combat moves from the flashes its getting from childes memories of seeing us in action and utilizing that.

like it wouldve been so sick and still left the nature of their connection relatively open ended. like it ate him skirk would be separating them at the end and maybe comment on it a bit and his whereabouts during the entire thing wouldve been Way Less confusing. The knight dude being a mimic of ajax' battle technique would thematically connect to the golden house fight and his hydro whale technique and its just. the current electro dude is just so Huh. like its a good jumpscare and i love the OST obviously but it getting No Lore NOR cutscene sucks so bad

(And like if they wanted the combat design to be so that theres no cutscene interrupting the transition between being swallowed and entering the stomach phase just make it an AQ exclusive one. and if we cant have traveler talk and logistics of bringing paimon/neuvi to make the shocked observation of "is that.... him? no... its just an imitation???" or w/e . Just have us FLASH BACK to childes own fucking dialogue as the phantom him is summoned to face us where he mentions 1) traces of the narwhal on him and 2) the basis behind his hydro summon technique. so traveler can have a silent !!!!!! Realization that he got ate or whatever and now his narwhal is stealing his ideas jsjskdksirigkf)

Anyway i swear this wasnt just abt those two im so sorry . but like yeah its just a fucking shame and also the narwhal being just like . Means to an End in the prophecy feels kinda meh but like i dont have a solid idea on how that would even rly be fixed but yeah. underutilized my both beloveds

Back to fontaine general stuff tho i kinda do think that . hoyo almost missed the trees for the forest w it all if u will excuse the mid metaphor . like they told a very strong emotional story w neuvi and furina and navia But it came at the cost of a highly illogical lore and worldbuilding and its just An Issue if u dwell on it even a little bit and its rly a shame

like they were going for this justice theme of maybe AI justicebot is not The Way (TM) and people viewing court as a spectacle rather than a show of justice but then went never fucking where with it in terms of Maybe This Needs Changing . they made that entire champion duelists a thing despite it being So fucking stupid fundamentally like it just relies on nobody with enough raw power to just solo any duelist ever getting into the ring

(no credit for this tho this was a comment thread i ran into on leaks sub. there was also a point made abt how childe dueling and winning against clorinde when hes accused wouldve been such a great moment of like both showcasing clorindes role and linking to their earlier sparring and holding back thing and also that maybe the system sucks when this is possible and while i get the story needed him in jail so he can reunite w his narwhal . im now mad this didnt happen. give him a W in combat hoyo.)

like theres this entire thing about flawed justice in fontaine that is present in the 4.0 story but then it just...... Disappears. Bc AI justicebot was anti celestia archon deleter all along and it finished its job so its no longer a fundamental ethical issue for the legal system and fontaines ppl to grapple with and confront shit like childes sentencing. And furina wanted dramatic trials bc of what she was told by focalors but since she retires its now just neuvillette whos super fair so everything is fixed .

im not as big of a hater of act III as some but like thinking abt these things further makes me like it less and less like Yes they wanted this meropide vs regular fontaine dichotomy explored and all but thinking of it is just. i wonder how worthwhile the opportunity cost was in there (i have no correct answer btw)

bc . if you keep the childe jailed bc justice AI bot. they shouldve shown the people responding to it . bc that entire highly controversial judgement is Literally accompanied by the solving of the serial disappearances case AFTER multiple ""culprits"" had already been imprisoned for it which i actually forgot (thanks same reddit comment for reminding me) like Whats with those people then????? and just. Everything to do with the entire case including childes deal shouldve been a much bigger social upheaval anyway like ik stuff like furinas SQ shows ppl personally affected in the aftermath but i mean in bigger scale.

And Then if we like run a bit with this alternate hypothetical idea of childe no diffing the court system (clorinde im sure youre powerful but like i put more faith in those ruin guards that lasted 4s against FL than u girl) so hes simultaneously kind of a criminal let off scot free but also its so stupid to think a guy thats like 25 at most is involved in a 20yr old solved case it couldve been actual source of political discord. and like if you need to get him to the narwhal for plot reasons its Rly Not That Hard theyre obsessed with each other bro gets pinged a whale call once and its like yes honey we jailbreak for reunion tonight (hes going to throw hands Immediately bc hes the toxic battle maniac one). also yes ik they wrote it weird so technically ajax cant duel after the oratrice decides hes involved which is major intrigue point (that canon wasted but oh well) but like. they couldve written differently idc. he couldve even gone off investigating why AI bot considers him guilty on his own and then jeepers!! speedrun glitchless any% spawned into the primordial sea!! hes missing! but like this isnt a well articulated idea whatsoever lmao im just winging some shit

meropides existence in general was also just weird. again i enjoyed the character writing it enabled for wrio and the HotH trio and despite disliking childe just being MIA i do like how the storytelling around his escape expands on his social intelligence and street smarts still. but as an entity the fortress is just sorta there as a system that Obviously shouldnt be Like this when its literally the other side of the coin to fontaines Already dubious legal system but then they went the whole. its a gathering place for exiles (still a prison)!! a home for those alienated by the surface world after so long (so why KEEP them in there that long)!!!! protectors of egerias secret (okay Sure. but whats the need post prophecy then)!!!! And its like. okay im not about to uhh. overstep my understanding of the risk a chinese company limited by often nebulous and inconsistent censorship would take if they went for a full on prison reform/abolishing angle w the writing like i dont think that was in the cards. But it still means meropide as a system just falls apart if u think abt its existence critically At All and its hard to say whether fontaines writing omitting sth like it entirely wouldve ultimately been better for the overall focus of the story anyway. but yeah

and its just. im sure theres even more that i havent even noted here (logistics of nobody drowning in the flood & rest of teyvat being unaffected etc etc) bc this is just a rant ramble not a coherent analysis but my point in all of this is that the abundance of issues like these just kinda add up so that by the end its kinda like fontaines simultaneously the AQ that id say has the highest highs in terms of its best moments and strongest emotional beats and how much heart it carries . Like im not taking that away from it.

but its also the AQ with like genuinely the messiest fucking groundwork in lore and larger worldbuilding implications whose aftermath leaves the most plot threads barely explored or just discarded altogether by the end and its just?? Such a weird mess like i very much enjoyed it despite the problems and for me it still overtakes sumeru in many aspects but i cant pretend those problems arent there . like consistency of writing and lore accounted for sumeru is still the best AQ

(oh also. the fact that to my knowledge no fucking fontaine NPC Ever reacts to the events throughout the AQ is fucking insane. like other nations could get away w sth like that better but. THE ENTIRE NATION FLOODED. How the fuck arent they talking. ppl in meropide post act IV abt the close call. ppl who saw the narwhal in the opera house in V. Like . HUH???)

but yeah its . A weird situation w fontaines writing as a whole . & yes im giga late to the discussion HSJSJSKSI but oh well thats my brain for ya

[gcantread]

October 2024 reads

[loved liked ok nope dnf bookclub*]

A Dark and Drowning Tide • The City in Glass • We'll Prescribe You a Cat • Five Broken Blades • The Professor • The Wood at Midwinter • Murder on the Orient Express*

October was a slooooooow reading month for me! I traveled, I hosted, I did irl stuff generally, but I didn't make much of a dent in my TBR. Oh well! One thing about living in this frozen mountain wasteland is that as soon as the weather turns, it's Reading Season. Fingers crossed I'll have more time to read in November.

A Dark and Drowning Tide ★★★☆☆ - Eh. It was fine. Nothing special, but fine. I can now definitively say that I've given Allison Saft's work a fair chance and it's not quiiiiiite my thing.

The City in Glass ★★★★1/2 - Nghi Vo never flops!! I was stoked about this new release and I was right to be. I didn't looooove the ending, but I loved the prose and really enjoyed the angel/demon "fucked up Good Omens" dynamic at the story's core.

We'll Prescribe You a Cat ★★★★☆ - This one is just fun. If you like cats even a little bit, it's a silly sweet time. I love reading works translated from Japanese/set in Japan in general for the way the cultural differences translate.

Five Broken Blades ★★★★☆ - Listen, I am Not Immune to books hyped by booktok/booktube. I 100% get the criticism of this one, but I still had a blast reading it. There are so many characters and they're all soooooo delightfully dumb in such fun ways. Also Aeri and Royo are like 80% jalice-coded and we all know I'm EXTRA not immune to that

The Professor ★★1/2☆☆ - Read this because I'm slowly making my way through the entire Brontë canon, and oof. Boy does this read like a shitty first draft of Villette (where's the beef??) I will not be inflicting this one on Bella's Book Club. That said, I had a great time laughing at the virulent Victorian xenophobia as usual (we get it, Charlotte, you hated your French boss.)

The Wood at Midwinter ★★★☆☆ - Susanna Clarke is another of those authors whose grocery lists I would treasure. This little snippet was fun in both a "picture book for adults" way and in a "Please elaborate on that" "No" way. ily Bear Jesus

Murder on the Orient Express ★★★☆☆ - A reread for Bella's Book Club's Detectober! It was fun to reread while already knowing the twist this time around.

DNFs: None, but I'm starting to stall out on The Wise Man's Fear because I suspect I'm gonna dislike the second half. Go back to the universityyyyyy I'm booooored 😞

October superlatives

Next up:

I'm currently reading my ARC of Sundown in San Ojuela, and so far it's truly the perfect "October into November" book. I'm also gonna keep on trucking through The Wise Man's Fear. In more exciting news, I get closer every SECOND to cracking open my beautiful shiny copy of Absolution—I can't wait!! I've been informed that November is The Scorpio Races month, and that one's been on my tbr since @catja recced it for BBC summer reading, so I'd love to pick that one up. Other than that, I'd just like to get to everything I didn't get to this month! (In addition to my reread of Wuthering Heights for @bellasbookclub Brontë November, of course. I'd never miss Wutherin' Time.)

previous months:

july august september

[aestheticaashes]

1. What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

2. If you had to give up your keyboard and write your stories exclusively by hand, could you do it? If you already write everything by hand, a) are you a wizard and b) pen or pencil?

3. What is your writing ritual and why is it cursed?

4. What’s a word that makes you go absolutely feral?

5. Do you have any writing superstitions? What are they and why are they 100% true?

8. If you had to write an entire story without either action or dialogue, which would you choose and how would it go?

10. Has a piece of writing ever “haunted” you? Has your own writing haunted you? What does that mean to you?

15. Do you write in the margins of your books? Dog-ear your pages? Read in the bath? Why or why not? Do you judge people who do these things? Can we still be friends?

16. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever used as a bookmark?

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

18. Choose a passage from your writing. Tell me about the backstory of this moment. How you came up with it, how it changed from start to end. Spicy addition: Questioner provides the passage.

19. Tell me a story about your writing journey. When did you start? Why did you start? Were there bumps along the way? Where are you now and where are you going?

23. Describe the physical environment in which you write. Be as detailed as possible. Tell me what’s around you as you work. Paint me a picture.

30. Talk to me about the role dreams play in your writing life. Have you ever used material from your dreams in your writing? Have you ever written in a dream? Did you remember it when you woke up?

31. Write a short love letter to your readers.

32. What is a line from a poem/novel/fanfic etc that you return to from time and time again? How did you find it? What does it mean to you?

33. Do you practice any other art besides writing? Does that art ever tie into your writing, or is it entirely separate?

34. Thoughts on the Oxford comma, Go:

36. They say to Write What You Know. Setting aside for a moment the fact that this is terrible advice...what do you Know?

40. Please share a poem with me, I need it.

(i'm so sorry i know this is like so many asks shjdfgs, you can ignore this entirely if you want haha) (this is mostlycyanide but thats an alt soo)

do not apologize to me dude i am so fucking stoked to have so many asks to answer

i did throw the answers under a readmore though because much like dave and dirk i am incapable of shutting the fuck up

1. What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

Generally I write in Bitter. I set it as my default years and years ago lol, but some things get written in different fonts if I'm feeling funky! Time and Healing in particular is written in Arial.

2. If you had to give up your keyboard and write your stories exclusively by hand, could you do it? If you already write everything by hand, a) are you a wizard and b) pen or pencil?

I absolutely could and often do if I need a break from the keyboard/monitor. A) No I am not a wizard (unfortunate) and B) it depends on what I have on hand! I like pens for first drafts because I'm not worried about editing.

3. What is your writing ritual and why is it cursed?

I don't really have a ritual, per se? And that in and of itself is probably cursed as hell by virtue of pure What The Fuck. I do like to have some ambient sounds playing and maybe music or a podcast, and I definitely write better when I do have those things, but I don't need them so it's not really a ritual.

4. What’s a word that makes you go absolutely feral?

Okay, so, see, thing is, I am a smut author at heart. I love writing character studies and heart-rendingly emotional shit and horrifyingly morally reprehensible shit, but mostly I like to write porn. I want you to know this before I say this:

I go feral over the word "easy". In ways I cannot explain but can sort of be understood based on the fact I write a fuckton of smut. Just. "Easy." God.

5. Do you have any writing superstitions? What are they and why are they 100% true?

If you don't share the WIP it will die a painful death. If you DO share the WIP it will die a painful death. You must find a balance. You gotta share it with the right audience and make sure not to over-share it. This is true because every time I have gotten overzealous and shared too much of a WIP, it never got finished. It's not a superstition if there's empirical evidence.

8. If you had to write an entire story without either action or dialogue, which would you choose and how would it go?

Dialogue. I've done it before and it usually works out okay - I have this awful habit of getting too far into the characters' head, anyway, so if I don't have to worry about actual dialogue while I write what they're thinking and feeling and what's happening around them, then everything works out swimmingly.

10. Has a piece of writing ever “haunted” you? Has your own writing haunted you? What does that mean to you?

Yes. God, yes. So many pieces of writing have haunted me. My own writing haunts me constantly.

If it lives in my head rent free for longer than 24 hours, and pieces of it crop back up in my head or permanently change how I think about something, that's a piece of writing that haunts me. I read a piece of writing when I was like 11 that contained a phrase that was something to the effect of, "Oh, how sweet. If I had a heart, I would cry." and I have never stopped thinking about it.

I read a fic series (twice) recently that has now permanently added the phrases 'shit-scared' and 'warm for his form' to my vocabulary.

15. Do you write in the margins of your books? Dog-ear your pages? Read in the bath? Why or why not? Do you judge people who do these things? Can we still be friends?

I honestly own so few physical copies of books that. Like. I'm so used to books belonging to someone else, a friend or the library, that I'm shit-scared to damage them at all. The books I own I try my hardest to keep in perfect condition. I can't bear to write in the margins, or dog-ear pages. I don't read in the bath solely because when I'm in the bath I am trying to become one with the water. I don't judge anyone who does these things, though, because it's just another way to show appreciation for the books :]

16. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever used as a bookmark?

Slice of cheese. (For like 30 seconds).

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

This could be a post all by itself, don't tempt me. God. Fuck. I am so painfully abnormal about Time and Healing. There is so much going on in this universe that I don't know if I'll get to explore. The tale of Mr. Snyder and his fuckwit self. Little details about how Bro raised Dave that line uncomfortably up with how his dad raised him, and little details Dave remembers that Bro can't that mean so much to him. Fuck. Goddamit. Don't do this to me man I could go on about this for weeks.

(I will make a post about this.)

18. Choose a passage from your writing. Tell me about the backstory of this moment. How you came up with it, how it changed from start to end. Spicy addition: Questioner provides the passage.

' You stare at the doorknob for so long that Bro actually knocks again. "Dave?" You hear him ask, and his voice doesn't sound any different than how you remember it. Toneless, deep, and even that single word has the twinge fo his accent. You pull in as silent a breath as you can. Hold it. Breathe it out slow. Lift your hand and unlock the door, then pull it open. You keep your face carefully blank, suppress the low blood sugar tremors, and lean casually against the door frame, like you didn't flee into here with your tail between your legs to hide three days ago. "Sup?" You ask, without lifting a brow or letting the emotionless mask break at all. '

So. This passage. There has been a form of it in existence since long before Time and Healing became a fuckin' thing. We're talking since like 2014. This passage's original form came from an unfinished fic I started in 2014 called Late Night Bro Time, which was like. A mess of a oneshot (that I never finished) that was supposed to deal with post-SBURB Dave trying to come to terms with Bro being alive again and all the trauma he has around Bro having died.

In the end, though Time and Healing as a whole is based on that oneshot, this is the only thing from the original that sort of made it properly in. In the original it was more Dave agonizing over the idea of talking to Bro and having a hard time convincing himself to let him in. And now, well...

19. Tell me a story about your writing journey. When did you start? Why did you start? Were there bumps along the way? Where are you now and where are you going?

I started writing when I was pretty young. I couldn't tell you when, exactly, although my first actual memories of writing stories are when I was 8 or 9. I think I mostly started because it was an easier way to get ideas out of my head than walking around telling myself stories and getting stared at like a freak for talking out loud to myself.

In terms of bumps along the way, dear fucking lord have there been bumps. There have been so many bumps. All of the bumps. Between getting a shitty comment here and there or going through a severely fucked-up situation (the pandemic or my first real psychotic episode, for example), there have been times in my life where I just don't write anything at all, or I feel like there's no point in me doing it.

Where am I now? Well, I'm in a place where I'm happy if I don't write, and I'm having fun when I do. I don't feel any pressure to finish shit, which makes it easier to make myself finish shit - but because I don't feel that pressure, I can follow my motivation wherever it wanders to. If I want to hyperfixate on a random idea for four days and bang out 40K on it, then never touch it again, that's fine. And as for where I'm going, I'm hoping that one day I'll reach a point where I literally only do this because it's fun, and not because I care if people give me feedback.

(I am not at that point yet. Please continue giving me feedback. I eat it. It sustains me.)

23. Describe the physical environment in which you write. Be as detailed as possible. Tell me what’s around you as you work. Paint me a picture.

Now, see, here's a difficult one. I don't write in one specific place, and since I just quit my job I'm now spending more of my time writing in random places at home.

Lately, though, I write laying in bed. The room is usually comfortably cool, although right now it's hot as balls while my ac works overtime trying to fight the 93 degree weather outside. I've got a body pillow I use as the base for other pillows, and I tend to use stuffies to prop myself up against the wall - right now, I've got a minecraft glowsquid plush doing the hard work of holding up my bigass head. My husband's sprawled out next to me playing games, taking up half the bed while I squeeze into a comfortable little spot on the other side. Next to me there's a 44oz fountain drink I didn't finish, which is about as normal an addition to the scene as the bed itself is. The whole room is messy as hell: clothes on the floor, about half a dozen half-empty water bottles I never threw away, notebooks scattered on every available surface. I'm sweating to death, but here I am answering asks and trying to bang out some words on a couple of wips anyway.

30. Talk to me about the role dreams play in your writing life. Have you ever used material from your dreams in your writing? Have you ever written in a dream? Did you remember it when you woke up?

My dreams don't play a massive role in my writing life. I have used dream material to write from, but I so rarely have dreams I remember in any detail that there's little point trying. The dreams I do remember are usually some manner of sleep paralysis induced night terror, which don't make for great writing. I don't think I've ever written in a dream, but chances are that I have and just have no memory of doing it!

31. Write a short love letter to your readers.

You Lovely Fucking People You,

You have no clue how much it means to me that you're reading my stories. I have poured my soul into these things just for the sake of making them but nothing makes me happier than to share them. To know other people enjoy them. Every comment and kudo I get fuels me for days on end, and I probably wouldn't be so obsessed with my own writing if y'all hadn't decided to let me know how much you liked it.

You keep me going and I appreciate you all so much

Love,

Rhys.

32. What is a line from a poem/novel/fanfic etc that you return to from time and time again? How did you find it? What does it mean to you?

I have. So many of these that they all fled my mind the moment I tried to answer. I'll get back to you on this one.

33. Do you practice any other art besides writing? Does that art ever tie into your writing, or is it entirely separate?

I do draw from time to time, and on occasion I've made music! Generally both of those artistic hobbies are entirely separate from my writing, but some of my best work in both has come from making things for my writing! I made an entire 10-song soundtrack for one of my fics once and it is, to date, the best music I have ever made.

34. Thoughts on the Oxford comma, Go:

If you have read my writing, then surely you must, at least a little bit, have an understanding of how much I love the Oxford comma, seeing as I am incapable of shutting the fuck up and letting a sentence stop, and the Oxford comma makes it so simple, so easy, to keep a sentence going long past where it needed to end.

This is both my answer and an example.

36. They say to Write What You Know. Setting aside for a moment the fact that this is terrible advice...what do you Know?

I Know a stupid amount of useless crime scene investigation techniques, a fuckton about drugs, a weird amount of things about kink, and what it's like to have a full-fledged mental breakdown complete with hysterical crying and laughter (often at the same time).

Convenient, given I write a lot of shit about crimes, drugs, kink, and mental breakdowns.

40. Please share a poem with me, I need it.

Ok so I don't read much poetry. But. I do have. An original poem. And it is sappy as hell ok don't look at me just take this except take it before i get the vapors

If love is meant to be forever, Then my forever is with you. And through any kind of weather, That much will still be true. There are no words to impart All of the reasons why You are precious to me. You have all of my heart.

-from "Home", by me.

[thek1ngtalks]

Prompt: Touching your soulmate leaves a temporary mark that fades after a few hours.

Dream, Tommy, Niki, Wilbur, Eret, Quackity, Ranboo, Fundy

Dream loves leaving thumb stokes, swirling over your cheekbones and brushing down your arms. His hand leaves neon green stains and sometimes he traces obscenes pictures onto your palms just to make you laugh when you notice a few minutes later.

Tommy leaves pastel red smears. Across your back and neck, where he had pulled you closer with his arm. Handprints against your palms, because he really likes holding your hand. He'll draw hearts on your arms and dicks on your face if you fall asleep near him.

Niki draws flowers on your crown. A gentle watercolor pink. Hand prints on your face from where she cupped it, just to admire at you. Your hands are entirely pink because she loves fiddling with them.

Wilbur's handprints are on your shoulders, because he sometimes just claspes them to lead you around in public. They are a soft and dewy blue, a little bit of sunshine. There are spots of blue peaking through your hair because he also likes setting his chin on your head, patting you, pressing his thumb to your crown in a mock simba moment.

Eret is a bright pink mixed with soft hues of purple. They swirl together around your waist. When his hands trail mindlessly over your arms, they're stained magenta for hours. He drops soft kisses on your nose and leaves a bright pink lip stain on your eyelids.

Quackity presses his arms against yours, leaving dewy yellows and deep blues marks that layers over themselves. There are soft brushes across your forehead and over your ears after he tries to push away every strand of baby hair's blocking your face. There are imprints of his head from when he slept across your lap.

Ranboo leaves red and green fingerprints on the back of your hands and arms. Brushes across your back, a few odd spots on your legs when he pokes you with his feet. He likes leaving two stains under your eyes, like eyebags but distinctly unnatural.

Fundy has handprints on your back and knees, because he likes slapping them just to mess with you. Soft rising sun orange lines tracing over your knuckles, wrapping around your palms. A blob with a tail rest on your collarbone, you think he mightve been trying to draw a fox.

{《☆》}

[I really quickly wrote this during passing periods and I will admit, I am starved for affection. This is definitely a cry for help. Please feed me internet likes to curb this horrible medical condition plaguing me.]

[Anyways I have a whole hunking load of soulmate prompts that I apparently wrote down months ago for 500 followers special that I never ended up doing and is now dying in my main acc's drafts. I might go through a few more for fun like I did this one, with short answer prompts for a handful of cc's. Or maybe I'll write official ones longer than 1k, only God knows (and me ig).

[L0v3, k1ng]

Masterlist

Main Acc: @k1ng0fn0b0dy

[vinnieworld]

5 tips to boost 5 days of Productivity

We all love to procrastinate and most of us (including myself) have made sport out of this, but is this how we really should be approaching things?

The answer is NO.... apparently

So join me in my self evaluation of bringing you 5 tips how I avoided procrastination by being a bit lazy.

Being productive for a whole week when you have too much on your plate but you spend your entire weekend scrolling through social media... well me too :)

Though Mondays suck, its a brand NEW week so we can't let Mondays win and ruin out entire week right?

Tip 1 - Preparation before the week start

- Make a to do list - For the next day or the week

A short list of your most prioritised tasks e.g. starting that essay you been avoiding, even if it just picking the ttile

Make sure to not put too much pressure on these tasks

Keep it simple

DO NOT put too many things, be realistic only add things you know you can achieve

Little ramble on how this helped me :)

We all have those sleepless nights, especially when you have a 9am lecture/class the next day. Somehow you end up going to sleep at 4am still make it to your lecture on time, though the rush might be exciting this is not the way to start the week because your mind will get used to this so much and this becomes your normal routine.

Not going to lie, I am super guilty of this but I found out this not only drains my energy, it strips me away from my motivation and make me lazy all the time.

So one bazzare night I thought to myself what would I potentially want to do this coming week, so I got my phone started typing my "potential" to do list for the week, okay the list was quite long and seemed quite overwhelming, and I knew I wouldn't do all of this so though I made the list I didn't put too much pressure on this. When I checked back in the middle of the week I did most of the things on the do to list unconsiously. This was so surprising I never get things done.... what changed ?

Most of the time we put too much pressure ourself, that's why we procrastinate and they avoid the things we need to do. The minute the pressure is gone you get the urge to do your things even if you are unaware of it.

Tip 2 - Follow today's work TODAY

- Follow the lecture and make notes while you're attending the lecture

Take brief notes on what's on the slides

If the lecturer give extra info add those especially

DO NOT panic if you don't write everything on the slide, remember these are brief notes to for later revision

Speed is not important, what's important is that you have something written on the paper

when the lecture/class is finished fill in the gaps you left during it, do this right after while you still have the energy.

one page = one lecture (unless the lecture is 90 slides then its bit tricky)

Little ramble on how this helped me :)

I personally find it very hard to keep on top of things, especially with how different lecturers have different methods and speed with delivering their content. I tried many methods, recording the lectures, printing the slides, handwriting everything but it only made me bored of the things I was learning.

I can't stare at pages and pages of writing when I'm trying to revise, so best way for me to do this is if I have one page or two for the entire lecture. This helped me a lot of condense my notes, motivated me to keep writing and I felt accomplished by the end of every lecture.

Tip 3 - Keep one book for all your modules

- Invest in a chunky subject divider notebook

This is where you write the notes form the previous tip

One book to take to all your lectures, don't have to carry five or more

Write all the assignment and exams for that subject in the dividers (Kinda like a self-reminder)

Keep a general section where you write extra information that relates to the subjects (e.g. extra seminars, extra activity sessions, groups project notes, your own research for subjects, assignment preparation etc. )

Little ramble on how this helped me :)

Most of my detailed notes are digitalised, this is way easier then writing hours and hours of detailed notes by hand. But all the modules, lectures, practicals are separated so it's too much of hassle to find what I want when I want to have a quick glance at something.

Dividing the book by subject and seeing different content I am going to need regularly being on one place really is therapeutic for me, give me less stress so I don't have to spend time looking through pages of notes to find just one sentence.

Having one book for all my modules, helped me so much to keep on motivated to write notes and keep on top of it and when I revisit it, it's so pleasing to the eye.

Tip 4 - Write flashcards on the day

- Put little bit of extra into a flashcard

Once you finished a lecture, read back and pick the most key bits and write a maximum three sentences

Keep it very very brief

Think of pictograms for some words. e.g. little blog with stokes for a virus or a spark for electricity

Some info you can't fit on your page put it on the flashcard, like a diagram or a table

Little ramble on how this helped me :)

I am a sucker for flashcards, seeing them makes me so happy to revise. But making them when an exam is near is frustrating so if you make them before by the time you get your exam season you already have flashcards to revise from. How convenient!

Tip 5 - Write a sentence or research a bit everyday for your assignments

- Every time you feel like you done nothing today take a look assignment and write sentence - Take this step by step everyday and add information along the way

Pick a title first for whatever your assignment is

Do basic research on the title you chose

Do a basic plan

Improve on the basic research

Add information to the plan

and ect....

Little ramble on how this helped me :)

Doing assignments is tricky, very boring, they can be very long and stressful so we avoid even starting it until the day before it's due. Okay, we all work well under pressure but we don't really produce our best work under a day so investing little time everyday or every other helped me to produce more quality work than normal and it was less pressuring and stressful when I started the binge writing on two three days before the deadline, because all the research, preparation is done all I had to do was write and improve my work along the way.

I actually cannot recommend this enough because it saved me from a lot of breakdowns over my assignments. Just by adding something to it every now and then I basically finished my first draft by the time I actually want to start to write properly.

Bonus tip - Take the weekend off! - > If you're like me and get bored very easily with doing the work then follow these tips for the days you have school or uni, finish everything by Friday and take the whole weekend of .... TRUST ME you will be much more prepared for Monday.

Thank you so much ya'll for reading this, I do ramble a lot but it's a part of me that I embrace so I hope this was helpful for you and make sure to tell me your thoughts and feelings.

Till next time Lovelies x

[antipodeanpineapplelump]

Dear Starshot, I recently saw your latest artwork for #Shisui Uchiha and the Lost Treasure of Asura and I am DYING to learn more about this AU. If you're comfortable sharing, is there anything you can disclose about it?? Is this related to the ItaShi Indiana Jones AU you mentioned before?!!?!?!?!!

Hi Birk, thank you so much for dropping by with this ask! Are you really voluntarily asking me to talk about my current obsession and fanfic baby though? Because I warn you, you may live to regret that!!!

"Shisui Uchiha and the Lost Treasure of Asura" is now the official title of my ItaShi Indiana Jones AU. I realise it’s been over a year since I first mentioned it, and it’s still a WIP! Pretty sure that says absolutely nothing good about the speed of my writing, but a lot about how busy my life outside of fandom is. Anyhow, it’s definitely one of those AUs that’s got away on me. I was planning one story initially, but now it’s kind of turned into three (plus a cracky oneshot), and this is just the first.

I’ve planned nine chapters total so far, but the bane of my life is currently number four. It’s sitting at 16,000 words and counting. Succinct writing? I’ve certainly never heard of it… So anyway, I kind of hit a wall there and decided to take a little break to come back with fresh eyes. That’s how I ended up working on the art instead. But I’d say I’m probably about halfway through the first draft (47,000-ish words).

I recently shared the opening scene and my draft cover artwork here. Ummm… what else can I tell you? Madara is the main bad guy, and he’s definitely a few sandwiches short of a picnic. Shisui is an agent of disaster and chaos. Itachi is really��� not. So their initial interactions go about as well as you could expect.

All the main characters have extensive back stories. I’m pretty sure you’re already familiar with my Machiavellian worldbuilding tendencies from reading Red Dawn, so it goes without saying I have just as many notes and plans, and as much fleshed out worldbuilding for this story too. And it will take a long time for all of that to be revealed! But the overarching theme is probably found family, which is different to anything I’ve done before.

At this risk of revealing too much, or boring you to tears, I’ll finish with another sneak peek, this time from Itachi’s POV:

When Itachi wakes, there’s nothing to suggest his day is going to be anything but routine.

He gets up at dawn as per usual, eating breakfast at the dining table alone, legs tucked beneath him on a comfortable zabuton. The solitude at this hour of day is something he prefers. It’s the only time the family home is quiet anymore—lacking the cold disapproval of his father’s increasingly judgemental lectures, the anger of his younger brother’s rebellion, or the resigned acquiescence of his mother.

By now, Fugaku should have left for work, and it’s still too early for Sasuke to be awake, given how late he’s been staying out at night. Either to irritate their father, or just avoid him entirely, he’s taken to frequenting the clubs and bars in Osaka. Mostly, he comes home. Some nights, he doesn’t.

More often than not, even when he is home his door is closed, the thumping bass line of some song or another seeping out from beneath it. Likely because he knows this angers their father even more than the leather jackets and spiked punk-rock hair style he now sports.

Part of Itachi has been glad to discover his brother possesses more of a spine than he ever has. But at the same time, Sasuke’s rejection of every last one of their father’s rules has only brought more unwanted scrutiny to Itachi’s far more minor transgressions. It’s as though, having decided his younger child is a lost cause, Fugaku now wants to be absolutely certain his eldest son and heir to the Uchiha family fortune is beyond reproach. To smother him with expectations until he emerges, a diamond from beneath the pressure.

But unbeknownst to Fugaku, Itachi has one flaw he can’t change. And it means that, no matter what, he’ll always be a failure in his father’s eyes.

Sighing, he swallows a mouthful of rice and fish, washing it down with the sweetened barley tea he favours. Pulling this month’s edition of Modern Archaeology across the table, he inspects its glossy cover and promptly chokes on his drink.

The face that smiles up from the page stokes a knot of hot irritation in his gut. Furiously, he skips to the article, skim-reading the text, despite the fact he knows it will only annoy him further.

"An up-and-coming star in the field of archaeology, particularly specialising in South-American cultures, Shisui Uchiha is an increasingly well-known fixture of the San Diego research scene. Curiously for someone so entrenched in the study of history, he is famously reticent when it comes to his own. ‘I did spend my early years in Japan,’ he confirms when pressed. ‘But I haven’t been back in a long time. The United States is my home now.’ Asked about his connection to the famous Uchiha family, he merely winks enigmatically. ‘Never heard of them,’ he says, before asking if we’d like a one-on-one tour of the dig site.

Equally at home in dusty ruins as surfing the palm-lined SoCal beaches, or scaling the cliffs of his native Joshua Tree National Park, he nonetheless shines in group settings too. At the party we attend that evening, to celebrate the opening of a new Aztec exhibit at the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City, he easily charms the crowd, finishing the night with at least half a dozen new admirers. It’s not hard to see why they like him. A conversation with Shisui is exercise in passion and obscure historical knowledge. Even so, much like the dig sites he frequents, it’s hard to say just how much of what he presents to the world runs more than surface-deep.

His motto in life? ‘Fall seven times, stand up eight,’ Shisui says with a charismatic smile. Where did he learn it? Chuckling, he brushes us off. ‘The school of hard knocks.’

Love him or hate him, one thing is certain—we haven’t seen the last of Shisui Uchiha’s brand of archaeology.”

Hate him, Itachi thinks, sipping his tea viciously enough to scald his tongue and immediately regretting it. Definitely hate. Hate how he’s reckless, impulsive, irresponsible, and doesn’t seem to take a single thing seriously. Hate that it looks like he’s never had to work hard for anything a day in his life—people only too happy to hand him whatever he wants on a silver platter, charmed by a pretty smile. Hate the fact that, despite their shared family name, he’s free to do whatever he likes. Hate the way people flock to him, falling into his orbit—and by all accounts, bed—like it’s somehow inevitable. And hate, most of all, that there’s a small part of Itachi which understands why.

Because hate or love him—and it’s definitely hate—there’s no denying that Shisui Uchiha is, objectively, a very attractive man.

Coming back to his senses and realising he’s been leaning over the magazine, frowning so hard his forehead hurts, Itachi straightens, closing his eyes and massaging the knot of tension out from between his eyebrows.

“Itachi—”

The tension sinks in even deeper. He opens his eyes. “Father.”

Fugaku takes in magazine, then his son, and Itachi really hopes his cheeks aren’t as flushed as they feel. It’s stupid, but merely knowing he feels the way he does about the man on the page makes him fear being caught. As though his father might somehow divine his deepest darkest secret, just by looking. Truthfully, Itachi sometimes wonders if he might not already know, or at least suspect. But if he does, it’s clearly a truth he’s chosen not to acknowledge.

“I take it you’re prepared for our meeting this evening?” Fugaku asks, grim as ever.

Attempting a composed sip of his tea, Itachi nods. “Yes. Of course.”

Mouth a hard, unyielding line, Fugaku makes some indiscernible noise of disapproval, sweeping an appraising glance over Itachi. “Well, I suppose it’s too much to hope that anything can be done about your hair between then and now. But they’re a modern family. New money. Perhaps it won’t matter so much.”

Fingers tightening into the flesh of his thigh, Itachi has to remind himself to breathe. “I will do my best to make a good impression,” he says, inclining his head towards his father, penitence for his innumerable shortcomings—not least of all the choice to grow his hair out. It’s a small act of rebellion compared to Sasuke’s effort, but one his father seems determined to curtail as promptly as possible.

Poker face easing ever so slightly, Fugaku’s brows trend downwards, though their slant is still severe. “I know. You are my son, after all. And it is high time you were married with a family of your own. Perhaps then you will see the value in giving up these frivolous academic pursuits, and taking your rightful place at the head of the family business.”

He might as well build a box and stuff Itachi into it. Mold him to fit his own vision of the future. But Itachi has long since learnt that what he wishes he could have from life, and what he can have, are two very different things. So, just like his infrequent clandestine trips to the less desirable areas of Osaka’s nightlife, this too, he realises he will have to sacrifice. Duty before self.

“Yes Father, I’m certain you’re right,” he says, bowing once more as Fugaku leaves for work, closing the front door behind him with a click that reeks of finality.

As his footsteps crunch away on the gravel path outside, Itachi can’t help clenching his fists, until long after his knuckles turn white.

Theoretically, it’s a good match. From a family of good standing, his potential bride is quiet and well spoken—the perfect future housewife and mother. Their marriage would kill two birds with one stone, giving her father the son he never had, and Itachi—and therefore by extension Fugaku—control of their biggest competitor’s business.

All it requires is for Itachi spend the rest of his life pretending to be something he’s not.

The weight of it burns tight in his throat, threatening to break free on a rising tide of bile. He longs to cast off his gilded shackles, take a leaf from Sasuke’s book and do something completely crazy.

With a sigh, he rises from the table, collecting his dishes and depositing them circumspectly into the sink. Another day of work awaits.

[cyancherub]

first of all i just wanna say while you were sleeping part 2 was so fucking good bestie I AM NOW FERAL FOR YUUJI OMGGG AND THE ENDING?? AHHHH ii simply cannot wait for part 3!!!! also just wanted to check and see if it's cool if I post my one shot for the collab early?? I've been so inspired by this prompt i'm about to finish the rough draft then just need to edit and have my beta reader go over it in the next couple days. hope you're having a great day/night! <3

JDKDSFK THANK U SO MUCH IM SO HAPPY U LIKED IT !!!! WE ALL NEED TO BE FERAL FOR YUUJI HE IS SO... MMF UNGH *MOANS* i want him so BADDDD !! ! IM PUTTING MY ENTIRE PU$$Y INTO PART 3 I HOPE U ARE READY !!!!

ALSO YES YES of course u can post whenever you like !!! IM SO STOKED THAT YOU'VE BEEN INSPIRED I TRULY CANNOT WAIT TO READ !!!! WOOOOO!! TRANSPORTED INTO A HORROR GAME.... I AM SO READY

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

Please tell us more about Seventh Virtue–we need more? Also what was your general thought process for writing this right now?

Hello!! Seventh Virtue is the fantastical version of the Fostered series (which I’ve been writing for many years as you probably already know)! I came up with the initial idea for this project back in the summer of 2019, but knew I’d probably never write it because at the time, I couldn’t see myself writing beyond literary fiction (and also: I know nothing about fantasy :)) in fact I think I’ve only ever read 3 fantasy books from the same series and that was years ago)!

This led to why I’m writing it right now, actually! Earlier this week, my sister and I binge watched Shadow and Bone and it reminded me of this project (which I’d called Fostered But It’s Magic haha). I couldn’t help but delve more and more into the project as the days progressed, and so I decided I’d try to draft it. I actually tried to draft this project once before as a screenplay because I thought it’d translate better to screen, but gave up FAST when I realized I am terrible at screenwriting! With this in mind, I knew I wanted to write this project, but I’m also impatient, and know I want to write more things this summer. TBH, I didn’t want to spend the rest of my vacation writing another Fostered book (I planned to write something outside of this universe but apparently it doesn’t want me to??) so yesterday at 1AM, I came up with a very... stupid idea to write 10k words in one day.

I made this decision strictly for anxiety exposure. I’m exporting the vlog where I chat about this experience so I won’t delve too much into it. TL;DR: I wrote 11k words yesterday, and finished the first chapter (almost done the second).

So what’s the book about?? Honestly, it’s pretty loose right now. This is the pitch I wrote way back in 2019, which is more or less accurate:

After being tormented by nightmares of his ex lover, which result in violent hot flashes and an inability to keep up a job, Harrison seeks a magical intervention. When the clairvoyant he hopes will cure his strange ailment turns out to be a con woman—and his old friend, Reeve—he is thrown back into the past and forced to rekindle relationships he thought he’d left behind.

The main thing that’s surprised me since drafting is how contemporary this world is?? Despite being literally fantasy, this setting is the most contemporary-aligned compared to the rest of the series. Fostered book 1-6 take place in a sort of dystopia (which gets softer and softer as the books continue), whereas Moth Work and Feeding Habits take place in older-contemporary times (2006)! This book on the other hand I could certainly see taking place in some sort of alternate 2019 (because we :) cannot include the pandemic years :)). It’s also magnificently funny?? I feel really blessed to have just decided to write this book. I know about 10% of what is going on at all times, but it’s so fun to draft!

Something I didn’t expect initially was how big a presence Foster would have in this book! I kind of :) forgot about Foster in Moth Work/Feeding Habits (so sorry he is still an icon), and while I knew he’d be Harrison’s roommate, I kind of assumed he’d be a side character?? But no, he said, I am reclaiming my “Main Cast” title and you can do nothing to stop me. For the majority of what I’ve written, Harrison and Foster are living in the past. This is because Foster can ~time travel, but is incredibly ethical and sustainable, so he refuses to actually change the past/do anything that would affect the present/future. After a hex goes wrong and results in Harrison’s mother getting into an accident and eventually disappearing, Harrison’s life is in literal shambles. Tormented by nightmares and hot flashes, he is NOT living his best life. To cope, Foster agrees to take them back to the past where he can relive the last 5 days before his mother’s accident, thinking they will only stay there for that one week. But when they’ve repeated the same week dozens of time, Foster ups the pressure on Harrison to give him the okay to head back to the present. And when these “hot flashes”/nightmares get even worse, Foster tells Harrison about a “healer” who cured his broken wrist (so he could plant his tomatoes lol), Harrison concedes and they finally head back to present day so he too can visit this woman, who is actually their old friend, Reeve.

This book is SO angsty and hilarious! I think my favourite thing about it is that I get to write Lonan and Harrison falling in love again lol, which I didn’t exactly get to experience in the conventional way (the first time around). By the time we meet Lonan (who is introduced in book 2), he and Harrison already have a pretty complex relationship. This relationship gets even more tangled in book 3, and book 5 is where we get to see the first glimpses of a romance. Somewhere in this timeline, between books 3-5, they ~fell in love, but I don’t know when! I think most of that occurred off the page, so even I don’t know. What’s so fun is now I get to glimpse into that a little bit more. Their relationship is my favourite thing and always has been, about this entire series, so I’m so stoked to finally get to dabble with it from the beginning. All I really know at the moment is that they meet because Lonan catches Harrison being a thief lol so, so much fun tension already to work with!

I’m not sure if I’ll finish this, mostly because the prospect of writing an 80k novel sort of terrifies me?? The project is almost 12k at the moment, and we really have only scratched the very surface, so we’ll see! I haven’t written genre fiction in so long and I’m adoring this! It’s also so much less strenuous than writing literary lols so perfect because I’m still a little wiped out after my semester ended!

Here’s an excerpt when Harrison meets up with Reeve for the first time:

The shop’s name is The Lark’s Lagoon. When he enters, a string of freshwater shells clatter, like bells would. She is not at the table like she was in the past, so he putters around the shop. Some of the things she sells are silly. Plastic mood rings that are clearly heat activated and more suited for a child but marketed to women in their thirties. Ping pong balls with the inscription enchanted aims. Snowglobes with a miniature witch figurine who says I’ll tell your fortune when you shake it.

“That’s a bestseller.” Her voice comes so suddenly that Harrison drops the globe. It shatters across the floor in a glittery bundle. “So you’re going to need to pay for that.”

Harrison describing Lonan lol:

Harrison hated him. He was cute, but Harrison hated him.

Harrison chilling in his timeloop where he can’t be seen:

It’s harder avoiding birds than he thinks. Every time one spots him, his body lurches, magnetized in the direction of the apartment. If it weren’t for the trees he latches onto along the way, he’d already be back at the brownstone listening to Foster lecture him on not being seen and not exploiting his magic. So he becomes more careful. Checks every direction—up down, left, right, diagonally, whatever—until he is certain no one can see him.

Some Stressed Foster dialogue lol I love him protect him at all costs:

“How many times have I told you that you cannot be seen in the timeloop? I woke up with a migraine five minutes ago and when I went to find you, realized you’d slipped out. Do you know how my brain feels when you stretch the timeloop like that? It feels like someone’s cracking it. My brain, a walnut. You, a nutcracker. Not to mention, you didn’t even leave a note. What if you were robbed? Or murdered? What if they dismembered you and I had no idea?

so that’s this project! don’t see any reason to stop writing it, so I’ll make an update on it soon! :) let me know if you have any more q’s!

[clevercatchphrase]

2020 Year Review~

2020. Pretty unique year, don’t you think? It’s the first year since 2002 to have only two different digits in it. After 2022, this won’t happen again until 2111. Yep. Absolutely nothing more interesting than that.

Anyway! It’s time I reflect on my 2020, look back on my yearly goals and rant about things that happened to me this year. I made a post like this last year, where I went over my 2019 goals and talked about what I accomplished and what I didn’t, and it’s only fitting I do the same again this year. Read more under the cut for a random stream of consciousness ramble!

So, first things first, let’s look at my 2019 goals;

Finish paying off that last student loan

Put more stuff on my redbubble

Illustrate my own fan fics

Sew at least one stuffed animal

Make an enamel pin

Read one new book a month

Write one page a day/Complete at least one new fan fic

Learn Python or C# for the game I want to make

Finish fully scripting Ghost Switch

Boost my patreon

 Paying Off My Last Student Loan: Going down the list, I am proud to say that I FINALLY paid off all my student loans! (and not a moment too soon. The last payment I made was literally days before the first quarantine rolled out). It took me roughly 4 years on my part-time paycheck to pay off all my loans, and once I finished, I had no money to my name (literally; I had less than 1k as emergency money in case of car troubles or health issues). Heck, I’m STILL living at home as a save up for a place of my own. Finally paying off all my student loans DID activate my secret 2020 new year’s resolution, which was to adopt a cat! I did this too, literally a week later! She is the best thing that’s happened to me this entire year and I love her so much and she is the snuggliest cuddle bug I’ve ever met. I’m so happy she’s in my life now~

Put More Stuff On My Redbubble: ah ha ha ha… I thought I did this, but then I went and checked, and it turns out-! I did not. I made art I intended to go on my redbubble, but haven’t put there yet. They are all drawings of some OCs from a game I want to make, but because I haven’t progressed on making the game this year, I never got around to putting more stuff related to it on my redbubble. At the time of writing, there are 7 days left in December, so I guess I could go and put it up on my redbubble right now, but without context on where the characters are from, there wouldn’t be much point, now would there?

 Illustrate My Own Fan Fics: Another goal that I was so stoked to actually do… and then just didn’t. Gee, I wonder why I couldn’t find the energy or motivation to do it this year? Truly a conundrum. (Hey, you know what? If Ghost Switch counts as a fan fiction in a visual form, then I am doing GREAT on this goal. 2.5 years in, 1 of ~4 arcs done, and still going steady~)

 Sew At Least One Stuffed Animal: Okay, I have a valid excuse for not doing this one. I even knew which stuffed animal I wanted to make, and had the pattern drawn out and everything, but I had no money for materials because I had just paid off my student loans. And then, by the time I did have enough money again, quarantine was in full effect and I couldn’t go out to the fabric store. I’m still trying my best to stay out of public places even if the rules are laxer now, because I don’t want to catch the plague even if everyone in my goddamn city thinks and acts like the problem is over already. Even if they’re all wearing masks, even if they’re staying 6 feet apart, I still don’t want to risk it. I will stay inside until health experts give the all clear, and when that day comes, then I will buy some fleece and make a plush.

 Make An Enamel Pin: I ACTUALLY DID THIS ONE. TWICE! Halfway through quarantine, I was feeling anxious and depressed about my job and how they were planning to have me work with the public despite climbing infection rates and positive covid cases. I didn’t quit then, but in a desperate move to try and become self-sufficient, I went to madebycooper and made two enamel pins based on some butterfly dragons I drew last year. They’re on my etsy store now! I even went out of my way to open a P.O. box just to start a small business! I haven’t sold a single pin yet, and I’m actually really nervous to sell my first because I don’t trust the efficiency of the postal system thanks to the actions of the GOP that really screwed them over this year! (If you would like to see my enamel pins, click here!)

 Read One Book A Month: I did this! With dragon books I bought a couple years back! In fact, I read FOURTEEN dragon books, and still have more books for next year to read! The 14 books I read this year were:

 The Hive Queen

The Poison Jungle

Wings Of Fire Legends: Dragonslayer

Dealing With Dragons

Searching For Dragons

Calling on Dragons

Talking to Dragons

The Bronze Dragon Codex

The Brass Dragon Codex

The Black Dragon Codex

The Red Dragon Codex

The Silver Dragon Codex

Dragon Strike, and

Hatching Magic

 To be honest, I had read The Red Dragon Codex years ago when it first came out, but completely forgotten what it was about. I remembered liking it, and I knew the reading level was on the lower side, but the whole dragon codex series was pretty good! So far, the Silver dragon codex was my favorite, and black dragon codex was probably the worst! Hatching Magic was also really slow and bad and had plot points that went nowhere, but the book was written in the 80s, so I don’t know what I expected. The Dealing with Dragons series was very charming and great for the most part, save for one line in the last book that really rubbed me the wrong way, and all the Wings of Fire Books go above and beyond in this third arc. The second legends book could be a little tighter, though (sky and wren are the best duo and I want a book solely about them, but I honest to god do not care about leaf and ivy’s stories.)

 Write one Page of any story every day/ complete at least one fic: I… did this? Okay, I kinda cheated near the end of the year. I was keeping up the one page a day thing for the first four months, but then the world went to shit and my schedule and habits got disrupted and I fell off my good track record. I completed 7 out of roughly 12 one-shots I had planned for this year (my goal WAS supposed to be one short a month, but… you know how it happens) I kept trying to catch up on this goal all year, but the days kept piling up…. Until November hit. I managed to write over 250 pages for Nanowrimo, and I consider this goal a win. 365 pages of fiction in total, which averages out to about one a day~. SHUT UP IT COUNTS.

 Learn Python or C# for the game I want to make: Another goal I didn’t have the mental energy to commit to this year. Truly a mystery to where all our willpower went in 2020.

 Fully Finish Scripting Ghost Switch: still haven’t done this one yet! The Snowdin arc is completely planned, but I just haven’t gotten around to getting the other areas. I’m not worried, though. I know all the major plot points I gotta hit, it’s just weaving them together in a way that flows nice is the final task. I’m not too worried though. I don’t expect to finish the Snowdin arc for another year and a half, at the bare minimum.

 And my last goal of 2020, Boost My Patreon. I did this at the beginning of the year, but then very intentionally stopped about a third of the way through. It didn’t sit right with me to tell you guys to donate to me when suddenly EVERYONE was financially strained from layoffs or being furloughed. I told my patrons the same, and if you ever need to stop donating to me to take care of yourself first, then by all means, please do. I would feel much better knowing you’re using your money to see yourself fed and housed instead of given to me (where it is pretty much only used to buy gas for my car, honestly)

 Welp! That was all my goals for 2020! I achieved 4 out of 10 goals plus 1 secret goal! Pretty much the same ratio as last year, but now this time I can blame all my failures on the pandemic! I don’t feel so bad about myself anymore~

 ON TO 2021!

 I have 11 goals for the new year, again some rolled over from this list, and some from even older years. They are, in no particular order;

 Read 12 new books (roughly 1 book a month)

Finish the first draft of 2019’s Nanowrimo project and rewrite it

Script TDV

Finish Scripting Ghost Switch

Build A Comic Buffer

Sew 1 Stuffed Animal

Finish 1 Song Comic

Make another Enamel Pin

Finish 2 short original comics (this one counts as 2 goals)

Finish the 5 remaining one-shot fics

 Now to go into depth on each one, more for my own sake, really. I want to know exactly what I have planned for each goal this year, and sometimes just looking at a short list doesn’t capture all the smaller details.

 1)Read 12 new books. Same as last year! I The only difference is I might not be able to make it all dragon-related books. (I try my hardest not to buy from amazon anymore, but half-price-books doesn’t always have the obscure stuff I’m looking for)

 2)Finish 2019’s nanowrimo project. If you read my 2019 year reflection, you’ll notice I said I wanted to do some original writing. And I did! The story I wrote for nanowrimo back then was a story I’ve been toying with since 2017, but it was only last year I finally got pen to paper. Now, you may find it odd that the keyword says “finish”. You may think, “but isn’t that what you’re supposed to do for nanowrimo?” and to that I say, WRONG! I wrote 50k words for nanowrimo, but the draft was only about halfway complete. I was kinda discouraged about what I had written last year, because I didn’t like how it was coming out, but I did manage to get it half done. Now it’s time for me to bite the bullet and just finish the thing so I can finally revise it and make it into something I DO like. (It’s still gonna be hella long, tho. That’s what I get for trying to write an epic fantasy, I guess.)

 3)Script TDV. TDV is the abbreviation of the game I want to make. I… still need to do so much for this project OTL… In addition to getting the story solidified, I still need to draw art and game assets, and learn how to code for it, both of which are no small task. I keep having some sort of new year’s goal related to this on my list, and every year I just don’t hit this one. Will 2021 be different?

 4)Finish Scripting Ghost Switch. (Or at the very least, get the waterfall arc completely written out). I have a plan to break this down into simpler steps, by focusing on just one arc for a month or two. Every major arc has 2 to 3 parts, broken up by flashbacks, and if I can just finish one section a month, then I should have the entire thing scripted by the end of the year. It’s not a difficult pace, but seeing if I stick with it will be the real challenge, as it is will all my goals it seems.

 5)Build a Comic Buffer: I’m actually working on this one right now! Since I paid off my last loan and got a new job this year, my current Patreon goals are kind of out of date. They had all been centered around me paying off that last loan, and working towards full-time employment, but those are both completed now! So instead, I would love to get to a place where my patrons could read pages at least a week ahead, and to do that, I need to build a buffer. And since I’m working 5 full days a week now, I can’t afford to fall behind. But you can’t fall behind if you constantly stay ahead! I would like to have… a 10 to 12 page buffer. That’s roughly 3 months’ worth of pages to always have on hand in case I get swamped with work, or something. Right now I currently have a buffer of 3, which will cover me for half a January, which is better than not having anything at all, but still not the best. (ultimately, I would love to have a buffer so big, I could queue them up for the whole year. Wouldn’t that be something?)

 6) Sew one stuffed animal: same as last year. ASSUMING the plague gets under control in 2021, I don’t expect to get to this goal until the summer at the earliest.

 7)Finish 1 song comic: I have 7 song comics planned. One is a gift, one possibly for wandersong, one is a collab that’s currently in the works, but I’m waiting on a friend to do their part before I can continue mine, 2 are UT related, and 2 (well, technically 3, but one is the collab) are KH related. It’s one of the UT ones that will probably get finished, if I’m being honest. It’s completely story boarded, and now I just need to ink and color it. I would like to get it done for UT’s 6th birthday, since I made a song comic on the fly for the anniversary this year, and it was fun, and I’d like to do it again! So, look forward to that next september~

 8) Make another enamel pin: I have a dolphin design I’d like to make because dolphins are cute, if not little murder machines. (need to save up some expendable income first, tho. THESE THINGS AIN’T CHEAP TO MAKE.)

 9 and 10) start and finish 2 original short comics: I’ve got some comic ideas I want to do, but I need to get them written out first. I don’t think either would be too long. Each maybe a couple “episode’s” length, if envisioned on a website like webtoons or tapas. They’d both be heavy in allegory, but not overly drawn out (hopefully)

 11)And lastly, Finish the 5 remaining one-shots I had planned for this year but never got around to. I’m going to try to write one every other month. Pure self-indulgent shipping fluff. If I finish these 5, then maybe I’ll ask other people for more prompts and ideas, which I’ve never done before. We’ll see how it goes~

 Also, Like last year, I’d like to look at everything that’s happened to me this year, though to be honest, I’m not sure how much I remember/how accurate it’ll be. God, I don’t even remember what January was like. Who was I back then? Who were we all back then? I guess I’ll start my yearly retrospective in march because, heh, god we ALL know what started happening in march.

 Firstly, I paid off my last student loan! Then a week later on March 18th, I drove half an hour out of my city to adopt a cat and I love her and it was the best day of this year for me. Spring break is just beginning this weekend, but the attendance at the zoo is shockingly low this year. Apparently, a lot of people watch the news, and they’re all taking precautions about social distancing. I wasn’t too disappointed. Fewer people at the zoo, the easier my job is for me. I was looking forward to getting some free overtime on spring break, since I’m broke after paying off that loan, and I’m a cat parent now and have a furry child to feed. Monday rolls around. My manager calls me and tells me that the zoo is going into lockdown until further notice. I worry for the birds I take care of, but understand it’s for everyone’s safety.

 For two months I sleep in and watch way too much YouTube. I join a couple writing discords. I have nightmares about my birds escaping their enclosure and I dreamed one of the security guards I really like at the zoo gets covid and has to go to the ER. I woke up really upset.

 I started and finished BBS for the first time. I also replayed and finished KH2 final mix for the first time. It had been about 5 years since I last played KH2 before my PS2 died, and it was like coming home~ I also finished tearaway, and played and beat Ryme for a second time (which I can’t remember if I did that last year, but it was a fun experience regardless)

 Mid-June, and I’m allowed to start going back to work, be it on reduced hours. The zoo is still closed to the public, but I’m loving it! I get to work with full-time keepers and do full-time keeper things. It’s so much fun not having to deal with the public. August starts to creep up and there’s a rumor that the zoo will be opening to the public again, which I’m not stoked about. I don’t want to go back to standing in one exhibit all day, talking to guests who don’t listen to the rules or to me. 2 of my younger coworkers (who had both only been there a couple of months) get chosen for full-time positions, while I get passed up which really pisses me off. My other 2 coworkers quit when they think we might be reopening because they cannot risk catching the virus due to at-risk family. I am now the last keeper in the interactive bird exhibit.

 I keep working, the zoo slowly opens, but with me as the only interpreter in our interactive bird exhibit, we can’t open because I can’t run the entire exhibit by myself. So my exhibit stays closed. September comes and goes, and then October starts. Now there is more serious talk of opening my exhibit before the end of the year because the zoo expects to bring in larger crowds for the Christmas lights event in November/December. I ask if I get hazard pay or health insurance since I’m doing full-time hours until they hire more staff. They say no.

 I immediately start searching for a new job feeling incredibly indignant/hurt/slighted/insulted/used/abused/ALL the negative feelings at my job. I had been there for 4 years, but never got a chance to work full time, while the two newest hires who had only been there 2 months both got moved up. I can’t help but feel they were holding one mistake I made two years ago against me and never wanted to give me a chance. (that, or they knew I was reliable when it came to showing up for work in such a volatile position that sees a lot of new faces, and they didn’t want to bother going through the process of hiring someone new) I don’t want to risk my life working around guests who don’t wash their hands and don’t properly distance. I don’t want to gamble with my health when they won’t offer me health insurance because I’m part time.

 Mid October, I get an interview for a full time job and get hired on the spot. I peace out at the zoo 2 weeks later, literally 3 days before they planned to open my exhibit to the public. It was a close call for me to escape before they opened to the public (and pettiness was only partially the reason I dipped out so close to opening). Sorry new hires who are now in charge of the bird feeding exhibit. I taught you the best I could in the short time I had. If the managers are struggling with what to do with one less person, I can’t say I feel bad. I can only hope they delayed opening/closed you down again for your own safety. You are not lightbulbs. I really hope the higher ups stop considering you as replaceable as one. Will I go back to the zoo to visit? Probably. But not for a year at least.

 I started my new job the very next day after I quit the zoo, and have been there ever since, (which isn’t that long yet, tbh. Christmas day was my 2 month anniversary). It’s full time, but it’s also a small business, and everyone’s hours this year have been on the short side due to the plague. I understand, though. They don’t want us to work if they can’t afford to pay us. Everyone is nice enough, though some people smoke and it’s hard to avoid them with how frequently we have to go in and out, and I really don’t want to get lung cancer, sorry not sorry, please and thank you. Also, with such a small team, gossip is certainly harder to go undetected, so it’s a relief knowing people don’t talk behind one another’s backs.

 I participated and beat my 4th nanowrimo in a row, I made TWO apple crisps on thanksgiving, and made baklava on Christmas and both of these recipes were my first time making them, and they both came out adequately! I voted the first day of early voting, and I did an art trade/collab with two of my friends for my birthday! (normally we would have done monthly “art days” where we get together and do art projects for fun because we’re adults and we can spend our time together however we want, but the plague said otherwise this year) We drew pokemon and it was fun! (hopefully I can show you all the results soon. At the time of writing, I’m still waiting for the last two colored parts to get back to me)

 I reached 100 pages on my undertale comic, and finish the first arc out of…! (im not sure. It’s either going to be 4 or 5, I haven’t decided yet)

 Over all, I managed to stay healthy as far as I know. I wasn’t as productive as I wanted to be this year, but then again, who was? (don’t answer that. I don’t need that kind of comparison in my life right now)

 Will 2021be any better? Honestly? I don’t think so. Not right away, at least. Just because a new year is about to start does not mean the slate is completely wiped clean. The change of the calendar year doesn’t magically make all our current problems disappear. Covid will still be here and cases will still climb when January starts. Small business will still be strained when the month rolls over, police will still go on murdering innocent civilians and getting away scot free, amazon and disney will still be monopolizing all consumer goods and media, and I can’t help but feel like there’s an impending shit show about to go down on inauguration day. I do hope things will get better, though. It’ll be arduous and unpleasant, but I do hope things will improve, because sometimes hoping is all you can do.

 Good night.

[darkblueboxs]

Behind the Scenes: Iron and Ember

These are scenes from earlier versions of Iron and Ember that ended up getting completely rewritten in later drafts. I felt bad about leaving them to rot in my files forever though, so consider this an insight into the writing process/ an au of an au/ bonus content/ whatever

(Link here if you haven’t read I&E!)

This one comes after Neil and Kevin are attacked by Riko in the forest. It was later replaced by the boat confrontation to fix issues with characterisation/plot holes, but I’m still a sucker for the angstier elements, so:

 They wait until the dawn of the following day to return to what remains of the Fox’s camp. The battlements lie in smoulders, their tents shredded and their shelters kicked to pieces. There is no sign of the other foxes. No blood, no bodies, nothing.

In the middle of the main pavilion they find the body of a fox-antelope, its orange fur matted with red. Neil levers the scroll out from beneath its head and scans it over before handing it to Kevin.

The Foxes have been captured. Riko will release them on one condition; Kevin hands himself over. If not, they will all be killed.

The sound Kevin makes is not recognisable as he falls to his knees. Neil stays standing, but barely. For as long as he can remember, being captured by the Fire Nation was Neil’s greatest fear. It’s only now, faced with the loss of his Foxes, that he realises there is something he fears more than his own death.

He hauls Kevin back to his feet despite the shaking of his own limbs. Kevin’s expression echoes the white-hot fear shaking through Neil’s body. For months, both of them have lived in the relative safety of the Foxes’ encampment, both leaning on the sturdy foundations of Andrew’s protection. The steady presence both of them have grown accustomed to has been ripped out from beneath them, and the ground no longer feels sturdy beneath Neil’s feet. It takes a few moments to remember how to breathe again; when Neil opens his eyes, Kevin is bolting towards the camp’s perimeter.

Thankfully, Neil has always been the quickest of all of them. He tackles Kevin to the ground. The following fight is quick, vicious, and without a clear winner, both of them too exhausted after a night of fight and flight to come out on top.

“You’re not going back to them,” Neil snarls, hands fisting in his collar. “One of us has to survive! Don’t you understand? One of has to make it.”

Kevin grips Neil’s wrist, trying to wrench it back. “And it’s going to be you.”

“No,” says Neil, and it’s as though all the fight leaves him in one syllable. “No, it isn’t.”

Kevin doesn’t understand; Kevin can never understand, because the day he discovers who Neil really is will be the day that Neil’s life with the Foxes is over. Neil can barely live with the danger he puts them in as a runaway of the Fire Nation. Now Kevin and Riko know he isn’t just any runaway, but the Butcher’s son, and the danger has doubled. If any of them discovered that he was an avatar, they wouldn’t stand a chance. Riko would tear the world apart to get his hands on Neil, and destroy anyone who tried to stand in his way.

And they would try to stand in his way. Neil’s Foxes, stubborn, obstinate, endlessly caring. They never know when to back down from a fight, and he loves them for it. They wouldn’t give Neil up without a fight.

This leaves him with only one option.

He has to let them go.

“I have a plan.” He lets go of Kevin’s collar, taking his shoulder instead and squeezing. “I need you to trust me.”

Kevin has no reason to trust Neil now; he understands better than anyone the past which Neil has kept hidden. He knows their opposition, and he knows the fate that will meet them should they fail. All the same, he places his hand over Neil’s and nods. His skin is hot against Neil’s; the blood of firebenders calling to each other in perfect understanding. “I trust you.”

Neil leads the way, and Kevin follows.

*

They find Riko’s camp a mile north. The distance is insultingly short, like Riko has left the welcome mat out in the surety that Kevin will soon be kneeling on it. The guards lower their weapons and step aside as they approach, granting them access without comment. A circle of red tents have been erected around a central firepit. Riko stands before it, cast in silhouette by the bonfire at his back. Their encampment has not been erected with even the pretence of military strategy; the thin canvas tents are unprotected, and were it not for the presence of armoured guards it would look like a leisurely camping trip.

As Neil’s eyes adjust, he can make out the figures on the far side of the campfire, and his heart falls through his stomach. He had wondered how the small group of Ravens had disabled and kidnapped eight foxes with so little fuss and bloodshed. The answer comes in the form of Jean Moreau, who stands at the end of the kneeling row of Foxes in a frozen ready-stance. Despite coming from the Southern Water Tribe, he wears the Fire Nation’s red garb, which drains the colour from his sea-grey eyes. Kevin has told Neil of the Fire Nation’s vicious attacks on the Northern and Southern tribes, and how the Fire Nation dealt with the prisoners it took. Some, like Jean’s family, took any deal they could to get into the Moriyama’s good graces, up to and including selling Water Tribe secrets to gain a position at the royal family’s side. Those that could not please or provide for the Fire Lord…

Kevin hadn’t needed to finish that sentence.

Jean was the only waterbender to be admitted to the Raven Academy, but despite a lack of instructors and guidance in his native element, he appears to have mastered waterbending as well as anyone.

It isn’t his waterbending, however, which holds the Foxes in place as though cuffed by invisible ties. Jean Moreau is bloodbending.

Kevin makes the realisation at the same time Neil does. The noise he makes is strangled as though an airbender has sucked all the air from his lungs. By the time they reach Riko, they are close enough to hear the sick gurgle of suspended blood, hanging thick and terrible in the air. One wrong move, and Jean could halt their blood flow entirely, starving their brains of oxygen and leading them to a slow, painful death. Sweat is beading on Jean’s brow, and when he sees Kevin his eyes slide closed, jaw clenching, somewhere between disappointment and relief.

“Kevin.” Riko opens his arms, as though expecting him to walk into them. “And you bought Wesninski too. A peace offering?”

At the sound of Kevin’s name, several of the Foxes’ eyes fly open, and heads jerk, fighting against their invisible constraints to look their way. He hears a slurred motherfucker from Matt, a low groan from Nicky, a stream of curses from Aaron and Dan. Their voices are horse, worn out from screaming or because of the pressure on their bodies, it is impossible to know. Neil looks to his family. He can’t help himself. He has never been on the receiving end of bloodbending, but he has heard second-hand experiences. The pain, the fear, the total loss of control. Matt is the closest; his expression is twisted as though possessed, and every vein stands out against his skin, swollen and blue. Dan is next, twitching constantly as though trying to beat back Jean’s bending with every movement. Nicky and Allison’s eyes are wet, but Allison glares with the fury of a saber-tooth lion, her arms straining against the lock holding them at her sides. A gag has been tied around her mouth, but Neil knows her muffled tones well enough to catch the gist of her intent. Aaron’s gaze is distant, and beside him, Renee’s eyes are closed, her body loose and relaxed, although Neil isn’t sure how she can expect to meditate her way free of this.

Andrew. Andrew’s gaze is the hardest to meet. There is no twitch or strain to his suspension, but unlike Renee, his body remains tense, as though caught mid-seizure and held there. His jaw is clenched tight as a trickle of blood paints his temple deep red. His eyes burn with questions, accusations, betrayal. Neil was supposed to keep Kevin firebending, keep him rebelling from the nation that was once his home. Instead, Neil has walked him back into the arms of the man Andrew swore to protect him from. Neil tries to put a thousand words into his answering gaze, but in the end settles only on one. Trust.

“Where’s Seth?” Kevin says lowly. Neil realises with another panicked twist of his gut that one of the Foxes was missing. Seth wasn’t a firebender, but he was from the southernmost Fire Islands, and officially a Fire Nation citizen. He was just as much a runaway as Neil.

“The non-bender? He should have known better than to put up a fight,” Riko says, eyes dancing with unrestrained delight. “We have to make an example of draft-dodgers, Kevin. I’m sure you remember.”

Neil’s eyes move against his will to the bonfire at Riko’s back. “No.”

Kevin jerks forward with fire in his eyes and in his hands. Normally, Neil would be delighted to see that he had grown a spine at last, but now is not the time for heroics. Not for Kevin, anyway. He holds out an arm and pushes Kevin back, placing himself once again between Kevin and Riko.

“Don’t be a fool, Wesninski. I am willing to let your insubordination slide in exchange for my brother’s return, but you would do well not to press me. Many people back home would love to watch you die a slow and painful death, many of whom are good friends of mine. Don’t tempt me to bring another little present home for them.”

“Neil, Kevin, what are you doing?” Matt hollers. “Get the fuck out of here!”

A guard steps forward and strikes Matt with the butt of his spear, and Matt’s head lolls.  

Neil forces back the acidic taste of fear and bile at the back of his throat, throws water on the burning hatred stoked by Seth’s death. They were never friends, but they were a team. “I have a better deal for you.”

“Oh, do tell.”

“You let Kevin go. You let the foxes go. In return, I will give you something far more precious.”

Riko cackles. “Do you know how much time and effort we have exerted in bringing our lost Raven home? What could you possibly have to offer us?”

“I can give you the avatar.”

Riko goes very, very still. Neil swears he can hear a collective intake of breath from the surrounding soldiers.

“What?” Kevin’s voice comes out strained. “Neil, what the hell are you talking about?”

“Shut up,” Neil answers through gritted teeth. He turns back to Riko. “Do we have a deal?”

Kevin and Riko have been raised from birth to be the Fire Nation’s very best. The search for the Avatar has lasted years, crossed nations, caused countless bloodshed. Finding the Avatar is perhaps the only accomplishment that could render Riko worthy in the eyes of the Fire Lord, and this is what Neil is counting on. Everything depends on Riko’s need for his family’s acknowledgement outweighing his need for Kevin.

Riko’s eyes flick from Neil, to Kevin, to Neil. He steps forwards, close enough that Neil can smell the bonfire on his clothes. “We have a deal.” The hunger in Riko’s eyes is bottomless. “Where is the Avatar?”

“I will tell you when the Foxes are free and far from here,” Neil replies levelly despite the thudding in his chest. “Not a moment before.”

Riko flicks his fingers, and Jean drops his arms, falling into a heap as the Foxes are released.

“Don’t,” Neil says sharply before any of them can start a fight. “Go. Now.”

“Neil.” Dan fits a hundred questions into the single syllable, but it’s all Neil can do to shake his head.

“I said go.”

She nods. “We’ll meet you at the rendezvous point.” She casts Riko a look so venomous Neil is surprised it doesn’t kill him outright. “When he said the Foxes, he meant all of them.”

“All who remain,” Riko corrects her sweetly. Renee grabs Allison around the waist before she can react.

Neil can’t meet Dan’s eyes. He doesn’t know what will happen to him when Riko discovers the truth. He can only hope that a kinder version of his story makes it back to the Foxes, one that explains that he wanted to return to them. One that cuts around the pain, that of Neil’s past and that which surely awaits him.

The Foxes file out of the camp, passing between the silent sentries, quietly promising that if Riko didn’t hold up his end of the bargain there would be hell to pay. Andrew steps smartly over Jean’s form, which still shakes with exhaustion, and stops dead in front of Neil.

“Go on, mutt,” says Riko. “Take your master and go.”

Neil tries to force his features into some approximation of a smile. “Thank you.” He can’t bring himself to elaborate with Riko standing between them; for the bending, the kisses, the trust. “You remembered the firebending moves.”

Andrew’s gaze doesn’t move from Neil’s. Kevin glances at Riko’s expression and takes Andrew by the arm, pulling him away and after the others. If Kevin has any suspicions, Neil can’t read them in his expression, only panic, and an underlying vein of betrayal. Riko wasn’t the only one who spent a lifetime searching for the Avatar.

Neil counts to ten in his head in every language he can think of, counting the distance the Foxes will have placed between themselves and Riko. He’s startled from his thoughts by the press of a blade against his jugular.

“Tell me what you know.” Riko’s smile has tipped over the knife-edge from mirth to mania. “Where is the Avatar?” Neil looks at the mounting hysteria of the man before him and feels an ice-cold calm settle over him.

“Right in front of you.”

Riko’s expression freezes, as if unable to decide between laughter and fury. Before he can accuse Neil of lying and gut him like a fish, Neil pops open the waterskin at his hip and pulls a twisting trail of water from within.

His second-ever attempt at waterbending doesn’t last long; he holds the form long enough for comprehension to dawn before letting the shape collapse into the earth.

“Earth kingdom,” Riko says, barely audible. “You were supposed to be from the Earth Kingdom.”

“My mother was.” Neil flicks the lid of his skein closed. “Worked out pretty well for me, really. Just think, I was right under your nose for all that time. How many years have you wasted searching the earth kingdom? Fair warning, it doesn’t matter. You could find a thousand Avatars, it still won’t make Daddy love you.”

Neil feels the crackle of charge build in the air as Riko’s smile twists and falls in on itself.

“Jean,” Riko says without turning. “Hold him down.”

Jean drags himself to his feet, and suddenly Neil’s body seizes, his blood turning to thick slush in his veins. A scream catches in his throat and stays there and his lungs burn.

The last thing Neil remembers is Riko drawing back, lightning cracking and flashing around him, and then everything goes black.

  This one came after Neil’s reunion with the Foxes. It ended up being replaced with the scenes in the air temple (and a more peaceful fall of the Fire Nation) but I still like the andreil dialogue soooo:

  “Show me again.”

Andrew sighs. “Junkie.”

“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.” Neil smirks even as Andrew clamps a hand over his mouth.

“That mouth,” Andrew growls, infusing enough emotion into the two words that he doesn’t need to complete the sentence. They stay that way a moment, waiting each other out. Andrew’s palm is warm against Neil’s lips, and he can feel the pulse roaring beneath.

He’s better at this now, sensing out the shift and glide of the world around him, layers upon layers of intermingling elements pulsing with a nameless energy, calling to him. He can pick Andrew out anywhere in a crowd, in the pitch black space between asleep and awake, in hurricane or thunderstorm or earthquake. He knows the weight of Andrew’s body and the pace of his footsteps, he knows the way he holds himself like he can take any hit the world throws at him. He knows the way the air fits in his lungs and the way his blood pumps in his veins and the way fire burns in his heart the same way it does in Neil’s, no matter how well-hidden. He feels Andrew in constant orbit like they’re celestial bodies caught in each other’s pull.

He isn’t sure if this sense is a side effect of being the Avatar or a side effect of being with Andrew.

He feels the huff of Andrew’s breath ripple the air around him as he gives in to Neil’s request. He turns to the nearest statue – another horrendous effigy of the deceased Fire Lord, singed but not destroyed in their takeover of the capital – and plants his feet on the ground, pulling the metal figurine apart.

The metal tumbles to the ground in twisted pieces, lost instantly to the scattered debris that litters the Royal Plaza. Reconstruction is well underway already, invaders and invaded joining together to rebuild a better world.

“Your turn,” Andrew says.

Neil approaches the next statue – Ichirou, whose profile still sends a jolt of panic down Neil’s spine. The man himself is safely confined in Boiling Rock, where he will remain until negotiations concerning the Fire Nation’s future governance and territory are complete. Neil’s earthbending remains next to non-existent, but he squares his stance all the time, imitating Andrew’s movements. He seeks out the call of the earth within the metal and comes up blank.

“Shit,” Neil says. It was only in the aftermath of storming Capital City that Kevin grudgingly admitted that Neil had mastered firebending sufficiently to move onto other elements, but Neil already feels miles behind. Kevin was insistent that Neil begin airbending, as was the traditional order of the Avatar cycle; Neil was equally insistent that he avoid the element for as long as possible.

“You’re trying to run before you can walk.” Andrew flicks a pebble at him, which bounces off his forehead. “Learn to earthbend. Worry about metal later.”

“I’ve done it before,” Neil says snippily. Andrew’s eyebrows twitch upwards. Through the course of their travels, they have yet to encounter anyone else with Andrew’s metalbending abilities. Neil says Andrew is a pioneer; he has discovered an entirely new form of earthbending, one which no one else in the world is capable of. Andrew is highly doubtful. Neil calls him the greatest earthbender who ever lived; Andrew tells him to shut up. Andrew still remains strangely detached from the element he has mastered so thoroughly, but Neil can see the change in his eyes, feel it in his pulse. It comes in times like this, where Neil watches him with hungry eyes as Andrew leads him, step by step, into the rocky core of his abilities.

Andrew steps between Neil and the statue with sudden focus. “You metalbended.”

“So you care about metalbending now, do you?”

“No,” Andrew says. He takes Neil’s chin between his finger and thumb. “Tell me.”

“Just the once.” Then, because he can say things like this to Andrew, and Andrew will accept it without horror or disgust or fear, “On my father. It killed him.”

“Good.” Andrew steps out of Neil’s path, opening his view to the statue once more. “Do it again.”

 I hope you found these snippets from my recycle folder interesting - I have a lot of fragments like these but these were the ones I wanted to save most. Thanks for reading!

[hockeybabestars]

Birthday Dinner - Brock Boeser

requested: yes 

from anon : Could you do prompt one from that secretly in love list with someone?? Like maybe Brock If you write for him?

warnings: light cursing

word count: 1.9k

masterlist link in bio!

a/n: yall i loved writing this! it was from the secretly in love prompt list if anyone wants to send prompt 2 or 3 in! and obviously love writing for brock! thanks for requesting anon!! sorry it took a hot minute! (Y/I) means your initials.

Brock had decided to take me to my favorite restaurant for my birthday, which is how I ended up sitting across from him clad in a flirty little red dress and heels at the best Italian place in Vancouver.

 I had opposed, trying to get him to opt for something a little more lowkey, like wine night on my couch, but he said, “(Y/N),” his dimples poking out with laughter, “we do that every night. Don’t you wanna go out, do something other than staycation like a couch potato?” 

He had lifted my legs and plopped them back down on his lap as he sat down and I turned the volume up on the T.V to drown him out.

“Don’t be like that (Y/I)!” He yelled as I kept turning the volume up.

“This movies’ so good!”

He chuckled and leaned to grab the remote off my leg but I caught him creepin’ and yanked it to the other side of my body.

He went with the movement, the weight of his strong build crushing me as he reached for the remote I was holding over the top of my head.

Brock smirked, pinning me down on the couch as he easily reached for it. I dropped the remote on the floor and he laughed but made no move to get up off of me and get it.

“Bad move.” His eyes flicked down to mine, and with no way to hide the blush saturating my cheeks from his body pressed snugly against me, I feigned ignorance.

“I CAN’T HEAR YOU IT’S SO LOUD.” I smiled, having turned the volume all the way up before dropping it, but as his face leaned closer to mine it felt a little like I had lost this battle.

“Can you hear me now?” His lips were right up next to my ear and my body tensed up with nerves but I lightly shook my head no.

He grabbed the remote from the floor and turned it off as he sat up. “How bout now?” He grinned.

I pouted, “but Brockkkk.”

He took my hand in his, “(Y/N), let’s go to dinner, just you and me. Okay? We can go wherever you want, just let your best friend do something nice for you on your birthday. You never let me do anything for you.”

It was true, I never wanted him to feel like I was taking advantage of him or that I relied on him for things. I always did everything on my own terms, I could let him do this one thing. He looked so sincere, the only thing I could do was agree.

“Okay. Luigi’s it is then.”

So here I am, sitting across from a beaming Brock, who was only stoked that he dragged me out of the house for a change.

He looked handsome, in a white button down and slacks. The few buttons undone at the top along with his signature tousled blonde locks made him look rugged. I hate to admit that it turned me on.

“What are you looking at?” He mused.

“The piece of lettuce stuck in your teeth from lunch.” He immediately checks his teeth with his tongue and I laugh when he tries to get the nonexistent piece of lettuce out as the waiter approaches our table.

-

“I don’t feel like I’m a year older though.” I said finishing up my Marsala. “ I feel like the passing of time is so weird. Like I don't feel like I’m supposed to be this old, but in a few days my mom is gonna call back and tell me how I’m such an adult and how she remembers this time only a few years ago. I don’t know.”

“Time is weird.” He said, “Remember my birthday at the rink? I was probably what? 11?”

My cheeks flushed, “God how could I forget.”

I had a crush on him then and I wanted to impress him with my hockey skills.

Except I couldn’t skate. And I definitely didn’t know how to play hockey.

I was the only girl at his party and the rest of the guests happened to be his hockey and baseball teammates.

I landed face first and chipped a tooth on the ice after attempting Brock’s wicked slapshot by myself with no balance.

The only pro was that he carried me off the ice and stayed with me until my mom picked me up to get it fixed. I think I fell for him a little harder then.

“I thought it was cute.” He smiled. “You wanted to be like me.”

“Yeah, right.” I scoffed, “That was forever ago.”

“Felt like yesterday.” He said. “Member when you tripped down the stairs and busted your knee open?”

“That was last week.” I deadpanned.

He smirked, “felt like forever ago.”

“I hate you.” 

“No you don’t.” He laughed as I just grabbed the dessert menu with a playful scowl.

We looked over the menu for a minute, and I couldn’t decide if I wanted lemon gelato or stracciatella.

 “Hey, you should totally pretend to propose to me,” Brock said putting the menu down. “We can see if someone in the restaurant gives us free dessert. People love it when stuff like that happens.” 

My stomach flipped. I couldn’t even say I liked him, let alone propose - fake or not. “Why am I the one proposing? You do it. It was your idea.”

“Fine.” He grinned, and it was all too alarming, “take your ring off and hand it over.”

My heartbeat picked up as I slid the lone ring off my hand. It was the only one I wore. A plain silver band, one that I had gotten from being initiated into my sorority. It was the only piece of jewelry I never took off.

And as I placed it in Brock’s hand my heartbeat sped up immensely.

We were in the middle of the restaurant. It wasn’t like we were in some back corner booth where people might not notice. No, this was the real deal, and if Brock was gonna do this, he better sell it. And it better be some damn good dessert.

“(Y/F/N) (Y/M/N) (Y/L/N),” he started strong as he got down on one knee in front of me and grabbed my hand in his, “I knew from the first time I met you, that you were supposed to be apart of my life in some way, shape, or capacity. I didn’t know at 5 years old that it would be way more than I expected. I was just looking for a green crayon in class and instead I found my life partner.”

By this time people were starting to take notice but Brock seemed completely invested in his little ruse.

“At 11 I admired your bravery and confidence from afar, being the only girl at my birthday party had its falls,” he winked as I rolled my eyes, “but you had the best slapshot there. At 15 I realized that you were equally beautiful inside out and I was an absolute idiot not to notice before. The way you cared for me when I was going through one of the hardest times in my life, showed me that I would be miserable without you. At 18 we went to prom and the NHL draft. I don’t really remember which one was more daunting. Getting drafted or trying not to screw up dancing with the girl I loved.”

I didn’t realize my eyes were watering as much as they were, and as I blinked a few tears away I could see an equal amount of emotion shining in Brock’s eyes too. 

“And now sitting here I want to tell you that I love you, and that you’re my absolute best friend and favorite person in the entire world and I couldn’t imagine doing life without you by my side. Will you marry me?” I felt weak, as the tears slipped out of my eyes. He was my best friend, but I didn’t realize he looked at me that way. I had too many emotions coursing through me, that the only thing I could think of was “I love you too. Yes!” 

He shakily slid the ring on my finger as he took my face in his hands and kissed me fervently. I had imagined what it would be like before, kissing Brock, but I never knew it could be like this. I could feel the passion all of his words conveyed as his lips glazed over my own.

Instinctively I moved closer to him as one hand rested on my hips keeping me secure against him. Our mouths slowly burned as our tongues met, and one of my hands wrapped around his neck, playing with the curls there. 

And then I heard clapping. And I realized we were in the middle of the restaurant. And I was utterly embarrassed.

I looked to Brock to see a gleam in his blue eyes, cheeks blazing pink, and arms still strapped securely around my waist.

He smirked at me “I knew you felt the same, glad we finally got everything out in the open.”

“Oh shut it.” I pawed at his chest, slowly admiring the way that I fit against him like a puzzle piece, and I wanted to believe for a minute that we actually were getting married. 

He dragged his chair to sit next to me as I came out of the daze we were just in. The people in the restaurant were congratulating us, as the waitstaff brought out some flamboyant dessert with congratulations written in chocolate on the plate. His hand never leaving mine.

“It’s on the house, congratulations, you two are so in love, we’re so happy for you both.” 

I looked to Brock but he was already looking at me. “Thank you so much.”

“No problem. Have a great rest of your evening.” Neither of us made a move. 

“All that for a damn dessert?” I asked turning to him.

“All of that for you. Happy birthday (Y/N).” He said softly, leaning his forehead on mine.

I took a breath, closing my eyes as my fingers found the material of his shirt. “You meant what you said, when ya, you know, fake proposed to me?”

“Of course I meant it. I’ve loved you since we were 15 and you came to visit me as soon as I got back from Europe. When you stayed with me until I felt better, even if that meant sitting doing nothing in my room, or going to practices with me, or the funeral. I always had you, that’s when I fell for you. I just didn’t want to ruin anything. But you had to, you had to know how I felt-I”

I kissed him again, a light peck, but it tingled all the same.

“I feel the same way, always have.”

He smiled but then I frowned, “wait did you plan to tell me your feelings that way or was that some spur of the moment thing?”

He chuckled, “spur of the moment. I’m glad I did it, but that was poor foresight on my part, now we can’t come here when I actually propose to you.” 

“Brockkkk. Oh my gosh.” I hid my face in my hands.

But he pulled them away as he laughed and dug into the dessert. “You know I really love you right.”

“Now I do.” I smiled but then I realized something. “Ya know, we could’ve just told them it was my birthday if all you wanted was a free dessert.” 

“Where’s the fun in that?” He grinned goofily and I nudged his hand as he took a bite, smearing the chocolate sauce across his lips and nose.

I laughed, as he licked it off with his tongue. “You’re so dramatic.”

“But you love me.” He said as he moved to kiss me. I fell for it easily and ended up with chocolate sauce all over my mouth. I think I could get used to it though.

 Best birthday ever.

[beblebumm]

lesbian mom

My sister told me I dress like a lesbian mom. With no offense meant towards lesbian mothers because as Chloe put it- if I was a lesbian mom, my style would be closer to cool. But because up to this point in life I have been straight and childless, I’m just an appropriator. Which I definitely don’t want to be by the way, but I'm an American and blind appropriation is the American way. Working on it. I’m in the kitchen in Cedar Falls finding all my last sporadic, traveled with items to shove in my XL backpack* by the time Chloe brings her new opinion up to her roommates, my family. “Cathy, don’t you think Maddie looks like a lesbian mom?” “a what? A lesbian? I didn’t hear you” ...and dad’s reaction: “oh.. did you get a surrogate then?” * (United and Frontier front like they will be strict about charging you based on the sizes of your luggage, but they won't be. Apparently my size of backpack does not count as a personal item (free) but instead a carry-on (not free). It's a glutinous excuse for a backpack. However, they don’t say shit to you when you show up on the day of your flight. In the words of my friend Grace: If it's on your back and not on wheels, you're fine. I have had to repack a backpack once, throwing on a sweatshirt and carrying socks in my hand to make it through. But you know what that was? Free.And Fyi- U.S. airlines alone made 5.1 billion bucks in extra baggage fees in 2018. Don't contribute to that mess.) * But anyways, to come to the defense of lesbian moms, I think I dress with the best intention. I don’t think I have bad taste, but I can have bad execution. It's not entirely my fault though, as I feel bigger boobs make a lot of outfits merge towards mother. Tops are always an issue because you have the possibility of looking tenty, and opposite that- the issue of looking too tucked in. It can make the attempted effortlessness come off as starchy. I also straddle this line of wannabe skater and NOT wannabe school teacher, meaning I would love to come across as someone who deserves to wear Vans and less like someone who is reading to your child over snack time. That one is harder to explain, but has a lot to do with stripes. I don't bother running all of this past her, but I told Chloe that if I was flat-chested she wouldn’t be saying this. She didn’t argue but offered to help pay for my reduction. My dad and I get in the car after I make an everything bagel with some onion flavored cream cheese. A Thomas brand bagel, of course. Because it’s the cushiest and you can find them everywhere. We love a processed carb. He drives me to the airport in his new-but-used Toyota Highlander, which doesn’t reek of cigs like his previous whip. He only likes this new car because it has a cassette player, but the low mileage is a plus. I just want to say that the Cedar Rapids airport is low entertainment. It’s a trade-off because you are through security in seconds, but you have to do things like chase after people to hand them their ID’s they left on the counter to help the employees out because we’re Iowa nice and when in the homeland you have to act right. And people wear really ugly printed leggings and foul footwear. Lots of camo and lots of Hawkeye logos, which I do not identify with despite it being my alma mater. I was caught in a very vulnerable spot with my thick and tall Doc Marten's, (not a good airport shoe but a good everyday shoe so what can you do) hunched over the ‘Get Your Shit Back Together Very Quickly Bench’ that comes after security, when I see this rushed looking, young nerd man in a long black trench coat. He LOUDLY and SO abruptly asks this similarly aged gal he was coming up behind whether her hair was red or blonde. She had long red hair with dyed blonde ends. She said “red?” and he says nothing but “HUMPH” without breaking speed at all. Why did he need to know that and also why could he not see that her hair was both colors? And if he cared so much to know, then why did he not respond? Did he think this was considered to be hitting on her?? Because practically yelling at her to inquire about her appearance is not cutting it. I wish for his sake I could at least call him a boomer but he didn't meet the age requirement. Whatever. She looked around for confirmation that what had just happened to her was so weird, which of course I gave to her by saying: “That was so weird.” The sole restaurant by the gates has Blue Moon so that’s redeeming. But it’s in a tin can which is not so good. I used to prefer a draft pour with an orange slice but I am partial to a cold bottle now, plain- no orange. It’s more consistent this way, as some places don’t clean their draft lines regularly and it shows. I met an icon on my flight today. I, of course, was assigned my usual middle seat as I am certain I paid the littlest amount of airfare out of everyone on the plane. Deals only. But as I step up to my row and make that apologetic eye contact with the dude who is about to have to move and let me assume my usual middle spot, the guy asks me if I want to switch spots with his son- WHO HAS AN AISLE SEAT. YEAH SIR, I DO. And this is how I was seated next to the only stranger I’ve had an extended conversation with on an airplane, ever. At least to the point where I was sure I wanted to be buddies with her. She was not stoked on the middle seat, but it’s the one she had in our row. The icon is named Erin and she said: “I’ve been ignoring people on planes for 20 years but you seem like an absolute riot.” I realized I also tend to spend a lot of time ignoring people on airplanes. I actually spend more time trying not to bother the people around me, aka holding urine in until I am nearly bursting because the awkward fumbling out of my usual middle seat is too much. I did, however, have slight banter with a guy sitting next to me on the way into Iowa from Denver on this same trip. All he wanted to say to me was that he had just been skiing in Vail or something. People love being able to say sentences like this, by the way. "Skiing in Vail". It's supposed to impress whoever they tell. Ok. But later on, he and I would exchange terrified eyes as we watched this awful moment unfold after an older fellow in the row across from us ignored all social rules and played his voicemails on full blast, speaker volume, for about 10 minutes. A young gentleman near us let him know that “We can all hear that!” which I would have never said but was also thinking. Obviously. The Voicemail Blarer says “Oh sorry” calmly but is very caught off guard. I thought- wow. That went well. But the Voicemail Blarer takes all of 30 seconds to stew before erupting. He belly yells that he is a “WAR VETERAN AND THAT IS WHY I CANNOT HEAR OUT OF THIS EAR WHICH IS WHY MY PHONE IS ON SPEAKER AND BY THE WAY IM ON THIS FLIGHT BECAUSE MY MOM JUST DIED AND I AM FLYING BACK TO IOWA FOR THE FUNERAL. PEOPLE LIKE YOU ARE AHHHHHHHHH KDFKSJDFLKJDFLJSDF”... I feel like the percentage of people flying to Iowa for funerals is probably a decent chunk. Either you're visiting your family or someone died. Just speculating. ANyways. The Mourning Vet Voicemail Blarer said some pretty harsh remarks towards the Complainer that I can’t remember because I was so nervous as a witness to this that my adrenaline was working overtime to suppress. I remember being proud of The Complainer as he kept very level and only said a couple words to defend himself followed by: “I’m sorry you’re going through that man but we don’t all need to hear your voicemails.” I see both sides of this interaction. On the younger Complainer dude’s side, it’s not socially courteous for the vet to be playing his voicemails out loud. Especially for ten minutes. I mean Larry David would have lost it. On the other hand, no one was insulting his status as a vet or poking fun at his late mother, but he has obviously been through more life and more challenges than I and plus he’s grieving. I don’t know. I didn’t mind the voicemails THAT much. Back to today- Erin is the second stranger I’ve met who inspired me this month. Technically this year, and technically this decade, too. Happy 2020. From what I saw, she’s a kick-ass, take no shit, lay it all on the table kind of individual. She had a natural openness about her and radiated warmness but is the type to probably gaurd herself just enough. The kind of person who you would hate to see sad. Born in cedar rapids, went to Iowa for Journalism, got her masters at Syracuse. Has lived all over- New York, London, LA (I think she said). Will not donate to her old sorority, Chi O, because she can’t affiliate with that anymore because it’s lame. But she’s loyal enough to one of her sorority besties to fly to Denver and sit with her while she undergoes a chemo treatment. She asks me about work and I say I have enough side hustles to equate to having a real job. She tells me I need a podcast and says I must have been told this before. I haven’t. But If I had one, I would have her guest star immedieately. She oozes content. Apparently, there’s such a thing as coaching people on how to talk on camera because this is her job. It can be split up into different categories based on the size of the screen. Phone, computer, TV, etc. She kept saying things about “inches”. I thought this was wildly specific, exactly the sort of job you wouldn’t think about until you thought about it. Niche. Hopefully future me is doing something niche right now. But only if I'm enjoying it. She also mentioned some clients she has that I should speak to so I can learn how to travel the world for free. I could have clung to her and never let go after she said this, as that would make my life and her encouragement inspired me. Before this though, we agree I need a credit card that rewards with airline miles instead of cashback. It’s third up on my “to-do now” list- which is different than my “to-do” list becasue that one is for things like making dentist appointments. For the things that should not be put off but can and will be. Until they can't. She asks what my sign is, which is Sagittarius. She said of course. She’s a Virgo. I have no clue what this means. People ask me this sort of thing a lot now though so I need to read up. This guy I met recently who works at Wax Trax Records told me not only extensively about my sign but about my rising moon and one other part of it that I can’t remember. Or is it your rising sign and moon sign as separates? Idk. He told me that every girl he knows has an ex-boyfriend who is a Pisces. True. Erin also told me she’s on some board in Iowa City that is currently discussing the ped mall. I had a lot to say about THAT, as I feel the ped mall has turned into wasted space other than maybe one and a half shops. She agrees. It’s not being utilized like it should be, we think. Too many frat bars. Apparently, her family owns the Bluebird cafes or used to, and I said "ooooooooh!" but that I could never get a seat in the Iowa City location because every hungover kid within a ten mile radius is trying to eat there every Saturday and Sunday morning. I also thought of the time they burned my friend Madison Wood’s toast and she sent it back. I didn’t tell her this though. I like Bluebird. And I hate when people at my table complain about the food. She tells me I'm too good to write for random freelances, which I have dipped my toes into doing. Pays like shit. I agree and listen to her tell me about someone she met when she was just one year sober (she is now ten years along) who pushed her to take charge of her own point of view. It sounded to me like she was inspired to trust and invest in herself. I liked that. As if I needed another excuse to stay out of corporate America. Right before she fell into meditation and soon to be sleep, Erin comments on my middle part and my “nice natural eyebrows” which is funny because I helped the brows out right before going through security. (By helped out, I mean makeup-ed. In the airport bathroom, too far away from the mirror, two different pencils- one chubby for careless shading and one skinnier to help the endpoints of my brow that is otherwise dead.) On the topic of my appearance, I tell her that my sister had just told me that I dress like a lesbian mother. She said she loves my sister.

[smilingformoney]

America’s Most Eligible 3 Diamond Scene: Create Your Signature Cocktail

You turn to the rest of your wedding party. You: Hey, everyone. Who says the night has to end now? Bianca: I’m listening. You: What say we head into the kitchen, mix up a bath of cocktails that actually work, and have ourselves a private party? Slater: Sounds like a blast. Let’s party, people! You: Come on, then! I’ll lead the way…

You and your wedding party flood into the kitchen, laughing and smiling. Your fiancée greets you at the counter. You: Okay, Wedding Party. As my first decree as your fearless leader, I say… let’s get this party started! Fiancée: You heard them! Bianca: Hell yeah! I’ll get the music going. You: And while we’re at it, we could use your help with something. My fiancée and I need a signature cocktail for our wedding. Kiana: Ohmygod, yes! Let’s make something super fruity! Slater: Or something with hot sauce in it! Eden: Slow your roll, everyone. This is Stacey and their fiancée’s wedding, remember? You: Our signature cocktail should represent us as a couple… and I know exactly what that means.

You: Our cocktail should be… -Strong and bold!

You: No matter how tough things get, my fiancée and I are always there for each other. Fiancée: We’re an unshakable pair. Our signature cocktail should represent that. Han: Yeah, baby! I’m thinking a double shot of whiskey… Eden: With some tangy fruit juice as a mixer! The sweetness of the juice can offset the kick of the whiskey. Han: Now we’re talking!

-Sweet and bubbly!

You: AME has a way of bringing out the worst in people, but my fiancée and I are always kind and decent to each other. Fiancée: Our signature cocktail should show the world we’re not afraid to be sweet… even when everyone else is sour. Kiana: I totally love that! We could start with some juice, or maybe even sweet tea. Bianca: And of course we have to add champagne. Kiana: I think we might be onto something here!

-Spicy and brazen!

You: Say what you want about me and my fiancée, but we always know how to bring the heat. Fiancée: We knew it was a risk to get together, but we couldn’t resist each other. Bianca: So you want a cocktail that’s passionate and daring? This calls for some poblano peppers! Slater: And tequila, of course. Bianca: Obviously. Is it even a real party if there’s no tequila?

Maid of Honour: I never thought about how important a wedding cocktail can be. It’s a great way to make a statement to your guests! Officiant: Plus a great way to get everyone out on the dance floor. Best Man: A little liquid courage can definitely get the party started, that’s for sure. Eden: That’s why I prefer weddings with an open bar. You never know what’s bound to happen! Kiana: Personally, I never have a problem shaking my booty on the dance floor, with or without alcohol. You: Good. When the dance floor opens at my wedding, I’ll need you guys at my side!

You: Because… -We’re totally having a dance-off!

Officiant: Are you sure you wanna challenge this group, Jamie? You’d be up against a few contenders. You: Bring ‘em on! My dance skills are unbeatable. Slater: Oh yeah? We’ll see about that. Kiana: You’re confident now, but just wait until Slater and I unleash our triple hurricane combo on you! Slater: Is that a dance? I’ve never heard of it. Kiana: Don’t worry. You’ve got all season to learn the steps!

-I hate being the centre of attention!

Best Man: But it’s your wedding. Being the centre of attention is kind of the whole point! You: Maybe at the altar, but I do not ned all eyes on me when I’m doing the chicken dance. Eden: Don’t worry, darling. Bianca and I will take the heat for you! Bianca: Totally. From the Paris runway to the Miami coast, I know everything there is to know about turning heads. Eden: And I was the captain of my cheerleading team for three years in high school. We can distract a crowd, no sweat!

As you settle down at the table with your wedding party. Han pumps his fist excitedly. Han: Even talking about this has got me stoked. Dancing is like, the main reasons I love weddings! Eden: Is that so? I personally enjoy the vows. It’s so sweet hearing two people say what they love most about each other. Kiana: Aw, babe! You’re such a romantic. Eden: What can I say? Weddings bring out the romance in everyone. Bianca: Or the drama. I once went to a wedding where the bride left her fiancée at the altar… for his sister. Slater: At the last wedding I went to, one of the groomsmen punched the cake because he ‘thought it was a ghost’. Slater: He may or may not have been extremely drunk. Han: Wait, can I change my answer? My favourite part about weddings is meeting all the babes in the bride and bride’s party! Maid of Honour: Han, you already know all of us. Han: Oh. Right. Bummer. You: Sorry we can’t provide you with fresh faces, Han… but I can promise you one thing.

You: Our wedding will be… -Full of drama!

Eden: You’re saying you want drama at your wedding? You: Of course I do! If we’re married on TV, we might as well cause a scene for the viewers to remember. You: If someone doesn’t stand up in the middle of the wedding and object to our marriage, I want a do-over. Slater: I’d be happy to volunteer my services if no one else does. Bianca: Me too! Fiancée: Careful, you two, or I’ll think you’re serious.

-A total tear-jerker!

You: I want our wedding to be moving. Emotional. Impactful. I don’t wanna see a single dry eye in the house. You: Between the vows, the speeches, and the sight of us walking down the aisle, you won’t stand a chance. Han: Wait, seriously? But my face gets all puffy when I cry! Han: Once I invited a date home to watch Field of Dreams with me. Big mistake. I looked like a tomato by the end. Kiana: Don’t worry, Han! I’ll supply you with all the tissues you need. Fiancée: Besides, you have to cry a little at every wedding. It’s an unspoken rule.

-An all-night rager!

You: Some weddings are a mellow, tasteful affair, but not ours. I want people dancing on tables by the end of the night! Kiana: I can so get behind this. Can I make a playlist to get everyone on their feet? You: Absolutely. Bianca, I’ll leave it to you to pass out the shots. Bianca: Extremely down! My jello shots are legendary. Eden: As much as I love a party, I do hope there will be some refinement at the wedding. Fiancée: Don’t worry. Jamie always manages to be classy.

Your fiancée plants a kiss to your cheek, then holds a glass to your lips. Fiancée: I hope you don’t mind, but I started a first draft of our cocktail…

-Signature cocktail

-If you chose the strong and bold cocktail

You take a sip and feel warmed from the inside out by the bold flavours of whiskey and fruit!

-If you chose the sweet and bubbly cocktail

You take a sip, savouring the smooth, sweet flavours!

-If you chose the spicy and brazen cocktail

You take a sip, and a symphony of sweet, smoky, and spicy flavours ignites on your tongue!

You: Fiancée, this is amazing! It’s exactly how I imagined it. Han: I wanna try some! Best Man: Me too! Fiancée: I was really hoping you’d say that, because I made a whole pitcher. Enjoy! The rest of your wedding party clambers to get their own glass of your cocktail. You watch their faces light up as they take sips. Maid of Honour: Okay, I could drink a hundred of these. Slater: Now that I’d like to see. Eden: These flavours are so bright and unexpected! Kiana: Just like the happy couple! Bianca: You really nailed this one, Fiancée. Officiant: That’s because they really know Jamie. Right, Fiancée? Your fiancée gives you a warm smile. Fiancée: I’d like to think so. You: It’s perfect, Fiancée… but it’s missing one little thing. We can’t have a cocktail without a name!

Name your cocktail!

Fiancée: Forever Yours… I like it! Bianca: I might like Forever Yours a little too much. My glass is already empty! You: Well, you’d better pour yourself another one, because it’s time for a toast! You: I wanna thank you from the bottom of my heart for joining us. It means the world that you believe in my fiancée and me. Maid of Honour: Please. We’ve been believing in both of you for a long time now! Officiant: What you and your fiancée have is so real… and it’s an honour to be even a small part of that. Best Man: Ditto. Being in your wedding party is our honour! You: Thank you, Best Man, but the honour is ours too. You’re going to be a huge part of our big day, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Fiancée: Well said. You raise your glass of Forever Yours in a toast!

You: To… -Me and my fiancée! +50

You: May our love be everlasting! Fiancée: And may it stay as beautiful as it is now. Best Man: To the happy couple! Maid of Honour: To our favourite couple! Officiant: And to the many years ahead!

-Our amazing wedding party! +50

You: With friends like you, I know we can accomplish anything! You: Between our tenacity… Jen: And your boundless energy… Officiant: I just know we’ll be the team to beat. Fiancée: Thank you for going on this journey with us!

-An incredible season of AME! +50

You: This show is what brought my fiancée and me together, and we’re going to see it through. Fiancée: I can’t think of anything better than marrying the love of my life in front of the entire nation! Maid of Honour: To the greatest season yet! Officiant: We’ll make this the television event of the year! Best Man: Game of Love won’t know what hit ‘em!

Everyone lifts their glasses to the ceiling with a cheer! You party through the night, excited for what the rest of the competition brings…

[shardclan]

A draft stirred the Imperator from sleep, and he sat up immediately when he realized he was alone in his bed. Ashlesha was content to nap on his perch, but had a cat-like habit of curling up atop Lavi’s covers in the gray hours before dawn. This morning he stood outside the thrown-open doors, surrounded by the falling snow.

With twitching frills, Lavi swung himself out of bed and cautiously tip-toed toward the threshold. The snow was falling more thickly than he thought, in heavy, obscuring puffs that piled up like feathers on the pink-hued mountainside. It seemed the closer he got to the door, the brighter it was. He had been certain it was dawn from the bed, but at the threshold it looked like it was midday light diffusing through the white clouds.

He hesitated. His tailed swayed and jerked with nerves too freshly awakened to be tempered by what little sense his mind was trying to enforce on the situation. So light was the snow that even his heavy step caused barely a whisper, more like the shuffling of fine sand than the crunch of ice.

Ashlesha threw his hand out, signalling Lavi to come no closer, and Lavi quickly drew back inside the door. “What’s going on?” he whispered.

Ashlesha held his palms, letting snow pile into them even as it stubbornly refused to land in his hair or on his robes. “Temporal storm. The whole mountain is…” He tilted his head, as if to listen to the sky. “I think in the future right now.”

Lavi sighed, and his whole body sagged as he finally relaxed. “Is that all. The way you were acting I thought there was something really wrong.”

“Oh, there is. Or there will be, I guess.”  He gestured down the mountain, and held out his free hand to Lavi. In a storm like this, it was not a matter of flirtation. Ashlesha seemed perfectly grounded, but Lavi could be blown out of sync by a strong gust. “Down there.”

With Lavi unable to fly, his personal lair was on one of the lower cliffs. Short enough for him to survive if he had to make a leap, high enough that no one could just barge in on a whim. It wasn’t hard to make out the strange bodies littered around at the southern shoal, staining the pink sands dark red.

“They’re all dead,” Ashlesha explained. “Wind dragons I think. Them and dozens of longnecks.”

“But who are they?” Lavi’s fist tightened around Ashlesha’s hand. “ Why would they have come here? Why would…”

Lavi squinted and swallowed before he dared to assume, but he recognized the arrows sticking out of the back of a longneck. Their heads and fletchings were smooth and menacing as the fin of an orca rising from the ocean. It was a distinct design hand-made by one of the mercenaries. One who called herself ‘the Sharkmaiden’. Given how many of the bodies had clearly been shot in the back and fallen forward toward the mountain, her claim that they were made to be fired from under shoreline waves was deadly serious.

“Why did we kill them?” he finally rasped.

“Why 'will’ we kill them,” Ashlesha corrected impassively. “It hasn’t happened yet. It’s just the storm.”

Lavi tugged at his beard. There were records of a previous ruler who used temporal storms as a sort of future sight to be ahead of trends in the local economy. It didn’t always work, these futures weren’t set in stone, but sometimes if she got a hold of just the right triggering event she could ride atop the waves of causality.

“You said you can find any magic you’ve encountered. If you gather up some samples from down there, will you be able to find them?”

Ashlesha rolled his jaw thoughtfully side to side, and answered slowly. “Yes… But it might have to wait until the storm passes for me to find the uh…living sources.”

“That’s fine. Go, before it lets up.”

No sooner had Ashlesha dropped down into the snow than he had already turned back. His expression was dour, and he folded his arms tightly into his robes. He took one look at Lavi’s confused expression, and sighed irritably. “No need for a sample. I can feel an astral’s energy all over them. I don’t know what made them come here, but whoever they are, they’ve been exposed to Katasomata’s influence.”

Lavi’s jaw clenched. “Give me your hand. We need to speak with Khatan and get word out to the Smoke Gyre.”

The blind tundra and his mate were not happy to see the imperator. In a storm like this, it was best to sleep and pray that you would return to the time you came from when it was over.

Khatan’s nose wrinkled as he listened to Invigilavi’s telling. His eyes had been destroyed by some accident in his youth, but in exchange he saw the courses of time as they came and went with the storms. “A wrong decision brought that event to pass.”

“One that I made,” Lavi guessed tightly.

“Indeed. I take it you wish to avert their deaths, or you would not have barged in so urgently in this weather.” He lazed back among the pelts and deep furs that lined the den, and stroked thoughtfully at his mane. His eyes rolled rapidly behind his blindfold. “You are well suited to preventing this future. All you need to do is choose the right company.”

Lavi waited, but Khatan said no more. He looked seekingly to the other tundra, Aishling, but he shook his head and busily stoked a small flame under a pot full of dark and aromatic brew.

“Do not ask for more,” he said distractedly. “Khatan is not a seer, and it costs him to look into the storms and see the great web of things that might be. Be on your way, please.”

Outside, Ashlesha took Lavi’s hand even as the guardian stood in a trance of thought. “You’re not thinking of going to see those loonies are you?”

“I am.” The look he gave Ashlesha could have sent an entire nursery of mirror pups scurrying to bed. “And you are not coming.”

“Lavi–!”

“Not up for discussion. The goal is to get the astrals back to the right plane, not to go to war.”

“Please,” Ashlesha scoffed, the stars inside his robe flaring with dangerous light. “There wouldn’t be a war if you called on me.”

“And that’s why you will stay here. We will get this sorted using reason, not murder.”

Hours later, under a clear sky, Invigilavi paced in front of the Starwood Portal while a ridgeback lounged on the shore, well away from the high concentration of Arcane magic. He was eager for help to come, but his mind was preoccupied with what needed to happen after it did.

With whether or not the right decision was being made.  

Ashlesha more or less knew where the astral was, and the Smoke Gyre knew the area well enough to know where to begin an information gathering run for a large group of longnecks living peacefully with dragons. Finding them wasn’t the problem. It was how to approach them.

They were clearly hostile, or would become hostile if Lavi wasn’t careful. He had already talked himself out of involving any of the Focal Point longnecks. They had been among the clan’s first beastclan allies and had stayed so since the days of Clan Shard. They might very well have been valuable allies on this mission, but the last thing he wanted was to bring them into conflict and potentially get one of them killed.

The goal was to get the astrals back to their rightful plane. Not to kill others, or even be at odds with them. He was willing to go see this clan personally if it would solve things peacefully(as much as Ashlesha didn’t approve and outright hated that he had been forced to stay behind even if it was precisely because of the combination of his excessive protectiveness of Lavi and his nonchalance about the lives of other people, which could not have been a worse choice given the circumstances).

Of course, Lavi had not spent all of his youth paranoid just to grow up into the kind of drake that took stupid risks. Someone had to come with him. But knowing that and knowing who should be at his side were two entirely different matters. So he had sent word to the one person he trusted to know.

The portal hummed, and the end of a long, sturdy cane poked through. Lavi was quick to offer his arm to the slender yet imposing figured that followed.

“I didn’t think you’d come personally,” he remarked with amazement.

Azricai breathed deep of the Arcane air. The last time she had been in the Isles, it was to watch two of the most important people in her life pass beyond the Obervatory gates into exaltation. But the Isles were still where she grew up, and the old, nostalgic scent of magic and sea salt left her eyes and heart clear.

“I became the Lady Judge after many eons as Head Mediator,” she reminded, allowing herself to lean on Lavi’s outstretched hand. “And this situation sounds like it requires very attentive mediation.”

Lavi crouched subconsciously; though he wasn’t a child anymore it disturbed him to look down at her. “I appreciate having a skydancer, especially you, come with me, but are you sure? I’m not much of a fighter and your leg…”

“Are you worried for me because of this old wound or because I raised you?” Her antenna lifted and filled with his warmth and genuine concern even as his fins twisted in embarrassment. But as much as she wanted to, she couldn’t soften to him. “You are my heart’s blood, Invigilavi. But we are servants right now, of our queen and clan, and of the single purpose of restoring the Circle.”

It would have been a lie to say her words didn’t hurt. But that focus on giving all that she was to her clan was very much how he remembered her. He easily lifted her onto his shoulder to make for the ridgeback. “Maleficent will fly us to the trading post close to our destination, since I can’t. We’ll meet the Gyre there and hear his report. Based on what he says…we can decide the best approach.”

Azircai’s antennae swayed. She looked down at Lavi with gentle, apologetic eyes, but she bit her tongue against any indiscretion. There would be time later for him to be her son.

The wind off the Windchime Flats was bitter. The change in the vortex had brought ash from the fire territories into the usually crisp and clean air. In true wind dragon fashion, the merchants didn’t look much bothered by it. If anything, they seemed quite merry under their umbrellas.

“Don’t interact with the merchants too much,” Lavi warned Maleficent in hushed tones. “One of the wind astrals is also supposed to be in this area and they like to mimic the local culture.”

The shadowborn ridgeback squinted her sole eye suspiciously over the bazaar and nodded. “I think I’ll make my way a bit further east into Ashfall proper if you don’t mind.”

“Please,” said Azricai. “The Gyre will find you when and if we need you.”

They made their way to the local crossroads, where the Gyre awaited them. In the open and curious lands of the Windsinger, the wildclaw had abandoned all pretense of invisibility or camoglage and gone for blending in with the crowd. He could have been anyone at all as he chewed on a skewer of some local cuisine and lounged with his nose in a book.

“Longneck Reach,” he said over a mouthful, as if he was reading aloud. “Up on the Zephyr Steppes. Stunning view, peaceful beastclans, fascinating cave system. Ragtag bunch of everybodies all thrown together into one very protective lair living side by side with the local Longnecks.” He smiled up at Azricai. “Not unlike a certain clan of Arcanites back in the day.”

“Common experience makes good mediation,” Azricai mused hopefully. “Were you able to make contact?”

“More or less. I put up some new posters about the astrals. There was a mirror. Female. Face like I’d taken a crap on her favorite bamboo stalk.”  He took another bite from his skewer and lazily flipped a page. “When I remarked on the wind astral in the area, it got quite a rise out of her hackles, yet she muttered something quite dismissive. Disproportionately dismissive, you might say. I thought it better to not push the subject.”

Azricai and Lavi shared a look.

“We’re going to meet with them. Peacefully.”

The Smoke Gyre looked up at them both, and with a shake of his head went back to his book. “As you ask. For the clan’s sake, come back safe.”