#i saw the email and ran to tumblr so i could reblog it haha

[majorproblems77]

:D

Thou Shalt Not Fall: The Consequences of Hiding an Injury

Twilight forgets the most important rule to feeding your vampire friend: you need blood to spare. Based on a prompt about somebody fainting while Warriors is feeding.

In hindsight, the amount of blood he had to wash out his clothing maybe should have told him that he lost a little too much of it. Instead of focusing on how much blood there was, he focused on cleaning it and when he was done, he could barely see where it was. It was only really noticeable if somebody knew there was blood there in the first place and the only person who knew there was blood there was Twilight himself. Warriors didn't say anything, so hd figured that their resident vampire didn't catch the scent of smell.

The cut wasn't that big, in his personal opinion, and it was completely healed after drinking half a bottle of potion. After a couple days passed, he thought nothing of it. He wasn't in pain, he could stretch his muscles around the area and not feel anything.

As far as he was concerned, Twilight managed to get away with hiding an injury. Hiding an injury wasn't easy to do with a big group, especially when one of the members of that group was a vampire with a keen nose for blood. If Warriors noticed anything, he said nothing, which Twilight didn't really feel like was something that Warriors would do when he called out others for injuries Twilight couldn’t even see. Warriors didn't even hide his own injuries – mostly because he couldn't when they were so obvious, but that was beside the point.

The fact that he was injured just a couple of days ago before wasn't even on his mind when Warriors asked if he could drink some of his blood. Twilight agreed because he didn't ask then that often and if the captain felt like he had to, there was probably a good reason for it.

He felt Warriors’ fangs pierce his wrist.

And then he woke up to shouting.

“No, nothing about this is fine! I depend on you guys to tell me when something isn’t right! I can’t fucking tell how much blood you still have in your bodies! How am I suppose to avoid hurting you guys if you lie to me?”

“Warriors-”

“I need some air and something to eat.”

Even though he was kind of dizzy, he could put two and two together. He was must have fainted while Warriors was feeding... and he was short on blood because of the injury he hid. Twilight tried to sit up but Wild shoved him back to the ground.

“Just let him go. I doubt he’s in the mood to listen.”

Twilight simply nodded. He had to accept defeat for now. Warriors would come back eventually and then he would apologize for scaring him.

“Now, do you want to explain what all that was about?” Four asked, raising an eyebrow. “I thought you were supposed to one of the more responsible ones.”

“I... I can be!” he squeaked. He was usually pretty responsible. He was one of the older ones in the village, he kind of had to be responsible and be a good example for the younger villagers! “I got injured a few days ago but I drank a potion and washed up on my own and I was fine! It wasn’t worth anybody fussing over it. I was just not fine enough for him to drink my blood, apparently. I honestly felt fine though. I just forgot I had an injury not that long ago when he asked me.”

“Who would have guess that Twilight was one of the ones who hides an injury?” Wild asked with a giggle.

“Wild!”

Time shook his head. “Now, now, everybody. We’re all allowed to hide one injury. Twilight, this is your one injury. Don’t do it again.”

Twilight sighed. He was glad everybody was treating his predicament seriously.

-

They decided to stay close to where they were for the rest of the day. One of the reason he heard was something about making sure Twilight took it easy. Wild and Sky stuck to his side and he was pretty sure it was because they didn’t trust him to actually take it easy. Normally, he would be a little hurt but at the moment, he was mostly annoyed. The other reason was to make it easy for Warriors to find them again.

The second reason was probably a good call because it had been hours and Warriors was still gone. Either he was really angry and he didn’t feel like coming back to camp or he had a hard time finding something to eat, which made Twilight feel kind of shitty about the whole thing. If he remembered, Warriors probably would asked somebody else and they would all be here.

Twilight was thinking of how he could sneak away and shift to go sniff out their vampire when Warriors made his sudden reappearance, silently walking through the camp before jumping into a tree. He still wasn’t used to the fact that Warriors could just shoot himself into the air like that with just his legs. He stood up and started walking over to it, looking up once we reached the base.

Warriors was hanging upside down about halfway up the tree, his arms folded in front of his chest. He still had his fangs out too. Twilight usually wasn’t bothered by his eyes but when there wasn’t a lot of light, his eyes seemed to almost glow and with Warriors above him, they made him feel kind of small.

The captain didn’t say anything when their eyes met. It was already going better than he thought. He was sure that Warriors would ask for more time to himself and shoo him off.

“Hey, Wars...” He swallowed thickly. “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for scaring you. I was injured a few days ago, handled it all myself, and just kind of forgot about it. I felt pretty good until, you know. It wasn’t your fault at all and I’m sorry I hid that injury because none of this would have happened if anyone else knew I got hurt.”

Warriors raised an eyebrow and squinted. “How did I not know? I can usually smell it on you guys.”

Twilight shrugged. He remembered being surprised that he somehow got past Warriors’ nose. Warriors let out a deep sigh and rolled his eyes.

“I accept your apology. Just be more honest, okay? I know it’s hard for us hardheaded heroes to think about ourselves for a change, but if you guys want me to be open about needing help with my hunger, then you need to be honest about how much blood you guys actually have. Feel free to spread the message, I’m just going to stay up here for a while.”

It was a relief that he was forgiven, honestly. However, it was quickly forgotten when something else entered in his mind.

“Upside down?”

Warriors blinked at him, like it was weird for Twilight to ask about being upside down. “This is surprisingly comfortable. Sometimes I do my watches like this.”

Twilight rolled his eyes but Warriors simply shook his head.

“The wall crawl made me realize that vampires can’t get motion sick. What would be the point of walking on ceilings if we can’t handle being upside down?”

“I guess you got me there,” Twilight mumbled with a roll of his eyes. “I’ll got leave you alone now. I’m surprised that Wild and Sky haven’t tackled me yet.”

Warriors waved as Twilight walked back to where Sky and Wild were waiting for him. Sky had his bedroll set up in the time that he was gone, which was enough of a clue for him.

“Did he forgive you?” Sky asked as he tapped on Twilight’s bedroll just as he was getting into his own set up beside his.

“Yeah, he did,” he answered as he prepared to turn in early for the night.

I'm not exactly sure when I'll have another chapter ready as this is the last chapter I had that was mostly finished. I have some writing to do!

[ciestessde]

Crossroad of Infinity Sneak Peek: Illunira

A sneak peek at my upcoming novel – and a request of you, dear reader: If you’re willing, I’d like to tell you about my homeworld. Or, rather, my home dimension.

If you’re willing, I’d like to tell you about my homeworld. Or, rather, my home dimension.

Perhaps, by telling you all about it…? Well, the concept is far too complicated to fully explain right now, but suffice to say: although it still exists out there, somewhere… I can never return to it. But by telling you about it, there’s a chance you may be able to… “connect” with it, so-to-speak.

Now, I only have my memories to go by, and I wasn’t exactly expecting to… leave- as abruptly as I did. Also, it was ruled by vastly different laws of physics. So, while I’m going to do my best to explain and translate, keep those two things in mind, haha!

Hm… We didn’t have a name for our world, per-say – at least, not one I can translate beyond “our world,” so… … I’ll call it “Illunira.” After how it glowed.

It was cold. There was no sun to warm it – in fact, there was no outer space at all! Instead, the heat from the center of the planet spread to the surface through lava, and our sky looked out upon a different dimension. Plants grew in that lava, and our sky- that dimension? … It looked like a prism.

There were no seasons. No day or night. Instead, we told time by the changing of the crops: the Planting, Growing, Harvest, and Rest. We sowed our crops in spots where large amounts of life-sustaining lava came to the surface. I’m going to call these “volcanoes,” but they didn’t erupt like the ones here do. They only spilled out and bubbled with lava. Our cities and towns formed around these volcanoes. However, never too close. Too close and we burned.

Well… some of us.

There were three species of intelligent beings: the Anima, the Florus, and the Symbi, and the Florus were able to live closest to the volcanoes, as they were plant-like beings (though, of course, sentient and mobile).

I say they were “plant-like,” but… Illunira’s “plants” more resembled flexible crystals than any vegetation from this world. But, unlike crystals, they glowed with energy siphoned directly from the lava. They were what transformed that energy into something that could sustain life – much like how plants here do with sunlight. And this was how the Florus “ate” – directly from the lava. However, since they lost the energy they siphoned rather quickly, they could never stray far from a source of their “food.” (In this way, perhaps they were more like reptiles that couldn’t let themselves get too “cold”?)

In contrast, the Symbi, clusters of single-celled beings that worked together to form larger communities, stayed far away from the blustering warmth of the lava. It would easily kill some of their members. Far from being crystalline, the Symbi were more like living, coordinated plasma; they only had a solid form or shape when they wanted to. And, as I understood it, it took quite a bit of effort to do so. So they rarely did. The Symbi gained energy from…

… Huh. Y’know, I don’t think I ever saw them feed – but then, how could I? They were far too small. They almost seemed self-sustaining, in that way. Although I know they couldn’t have been.

The Anima were something between the two. We were beings that couldn’t feed from the lava, nor get too close to it, like the Symbi. We held a more solid, crystal-like structure like the Florus, yet we also flowed with formless plasma internally, allowing us greater freedom of movement and separation from our energy-sources than them. We seemed able to feed off of almost anything that wasn’t the lava itself: smaller creatures, the “plants,” and even some… I’m honestly not sure what they were, but there were these floating, excess energy… things that we could absorb.

… Perhaps that’s what the Symbi ate…?

Regardless – All of us glowed. All of us lived together, fed one another. Ruled over and under each other. All of us had souls. And, when our bodies inevitably died, all of us became the Dead Ones.

The Dead Ones… those whose physical bodies had died, lived on as beings of pure energy in the outer atmosphere – inside the divide between Illunira and the dimension surrounding it. Though, only for a limited time. Only until their energy ran out.

This dimension I call “Prizmal,” because it looked – and still looks – like a prism from a distance. … But that’s an explanation for a different time.

Some believed Prizmal to be the afterlife, while others insisted it was what fed the planet’s core with energy. Either way, only the Dead Ones were allowed to travel there. Anyone else would die so far from the planet’s heat.

I know because they tried, once. How could they do that, you may wonder?

Because we floated.

We weren’t tied down to the land. All of us: Anima, Symbi, Florus – anything that wasn’t a plant – floated and flew. Because everything that lived there was only ever half-made of matter.

And the other half was energy.

So we floated.

… 

… I miss how colorful it was there. Our Spirits, our auras, glowed so many different colors.

It wasn’t a bright place – on the contrary, it was quite dark. But that darkness just made every light seem to shine that much brighter!

Small animals would skitter across pools of lava, or sparkle against the surface of anything reflective. Sometimes you’d see a light come up from under the non-glowing ground to reveal a tiny nose. Or you’d see a mass of similar-shaped flames rushing in one direction and, on closer inspection, realize it was a herd or pack of some larger creatures traveling together. Sparks would flicker in the sky, alone or in droves, looking for smaller sparks to swallow.

All of it against the empty darkness of the ground below, or the shattered, diffused light of Prizmal and the Dead Ones above.

Darkness and light extending in every direction, like a sea of living and moving neon signs on a starless night. Everything glowed.

All so many different colors.

~~~~~

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(Also, if you’re interested in beta reading the first book of the series in a month or two, email me at CiestessDE@gmail.com)

~~~~~

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{This is part of my “OneShot Wednesday” project - I’m trying to write a one-shot every week that other people have requested! Original Requests one week, and Fanfic Requests the next.While I will try to keep track of all the requests I receive regardless of how they’re sent, the best ways to send them are:

A. Through the current poll. B. If it’s a Fanfic Request, through the pinned tweet on my Twitter C. If it’s an Original Request, through either my email (CiestessDE@gmail.com) or my Patreon (if you’re a patron).

Just about everything goes – I’ll tell you if there’s a problem. But if you want to know more about how they work, you can read about Original OSWs here, and Fanfic OSWs here.

So please send me ALL the ideas!!! I will make sure to recognize whoever’s idea/request it was in the work – just ask if you want to remain anonymous.}

[alextriestowritestuff]

(Almost) First Week of College!

Hey guys!

So I’ve been a little inactive but that’s because I’m a collegiate now! I sound excited but I can feel the stress coming on. I’m in a pre-health program that my school is well known for. The program is mad rigorous and I’m not smart...this entire year will be trainwreck haha. I won’t bore y’all with the “college life” so I’ll stick to writing.

If you don’t know, I’m a freshman at a four year college. I plan to double major in Biochemistry (gotta have a day job :/ I’m kidding, my college requires us to have two majors or major-minor and it’s a pre requisite for dental school so ya) and English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. It seems like a lot but I have enough credits from APs so it’s possible to finish both degrees. Anyway, I’m taking Introduction to Creative Writing as an English credit for my Biochem degree and it doubles as an English elective for my English degree.

And BOIII let me tell ya...

I feel like it’s premature to say this because I’ve only been here for five days but I love all my classes, especially my Creative Writing class. It’s a small class-fifteen including the professor-and even the non-english majors seem excited for the assignments. According to the syllabus, we’re going to write 15 poems and two short stories by the end of the semester which is December 2017. The short stories will begin in November-ish and we will have a choice of either doing fiction for both or one fiction and one non fiction. 

The class meets twice a week for an hour and half. We talked about poetry, techniques, and read poems extensively for the first two days. The prof strongly recommended doing free verse (no rhyming basically) for beginners but if we feel we’re proficient enough, we can do rhymes. I am an unconfident rookie so I stuck to free verse. I started on my first poem today and I attacked it like a novel. I went scrounging the interwebs for a poem outline (I like outlines ok??) or how to do one and the general consensus is: most poets don’t outline. Which makes sense but I’m extra so I outlined it. A few weeks ago, I saw a prompt that sparked an idea so I wrote it in my ideas doc but I knew there wasn’t enough plot to make a novel so I thought it would be a short story. In the end, I decided to use the idea for the poem. It’s similar to a story plot so I figured I’d be in comfort zone while writing the poem.

Writing my first poem was...interesting. I enjoyed not having to think so hard about the characters and their personalities. It was more relaxed. I’ve written the poem and revised it but I’m worried about the stanzas, spacing-the actual appearance of the poem. I had center aligned the doc and it looked bomb af but I don’t if my prof will agree so I right aligned it. I’m not trying to get docked off points. I’m planning to ask him next class though. I ran into a slight wall because I wanted to put dialogue in there but after searching the internet, it’s not necessary. I think my poem will be longer than my classmates but it could just be the spacing. It’s 437 words-about a page and a half long. 

We are going to workshop all the poems and short stories in class. Workshop is writing a piece, making/emailing a copy for everyone in the class, and everyone sits around and discuss/critique your piece. I can take critique but I’ll be crushed if my prof hates it lol. He’s published and has won awards for his work so his opinion carries a lot of weight to me. At the end of the semester, we have to put all our work together and make a writing portfolio. I’m assuming we’ll get to keep it for personal use-i.e. if we wanted to publish a piece in a lit magazine or online. I’m not sure but I’m pretty sure I can publish some of my poems on here after workshop is done. If not, you guys will have to wait till December. 

I will, however, share an excerpt:

“She was so much more than just the red haired girl

She was warm and kind like a tame fire that couldn’t hurt you

The numerous splashes of freckles across her face equaled the amount of words she said in a minute“

Okay so I wrote everything above last week and saved this as a draft so I could update workshop results. So I’ve been in college for two weeks now (yay!) I still enjoy all my classes as well. 

To my surprise, the workshop went extremely well. My classmates and prof loved the imagery and the idea of the story. The consensus criticism was lineation. Every line in a poem should stand alone (not always though) and be structured in a way so it carries impact. Because I had such a long poem, I didn’t play around with the lines and some lines spilled over and some people didn’t know if some words were spillover or purposeful. Everyone also said that they weren’t sure if this was story turned poem because it read like story. Obviously, it was but my prof said it’s a form of poetry called narrative poem. He said we can definitely write narrative and turn it in. 

I’ve gotten confirmation and I can actually share my poems/short stories on here! My creative writing class doesn’t require us to edit our poem and turn it in again but everyone has to write comments and a short paragraph to the writer. Since I don’t want their suggestions to go to waste, I’ll edit my poem and work on its lineation then post it on my tumblr. I’ll create a page on my tumblr and have my poems there if you’d like to read them. I will have this particular poem up by the end of this weekend. I’ll try to remember to reblog this post with a link to page with the poem too but no promises :)

-Thanks for reading!