#it took hours of witchcraft and the learning of a couple new skills to get the box scene looking halfway decent

[klainegifs]

Klaine + the (sometimes strangely) significant role that arts and crafts play in their relationship

[quazartranslates]

Welcome to the Nightmare Game II - CH1

**This is an edited machine translation. For more information, please [click here]**

[Table of Contents | Next Chapter >>>]

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Chapter 1: Resurrection Overture (I)

{E/N: The first section is recap, the rest is new. If you wish to skip the recap, scroll down to the &&& scene break.}

{cw: mention of miscarriage, religious homophobia}

Welcome to Nightmare Game I. A review of the story:

1. [First People's Hospital of X City]: Qi Leren, the protagonist, downloaded a computer game called the Nightmare Game on the Internet. After the first BE ending, his computer broke down. He took his laptop to repair it, but the bus he was riding was involved in a traffic accident. He and the injured passengers were taken to the First People's Hospital of X City by ambulance and he met Dr. Lu in the ambulance.　　

After waking up again, Qi Leren found himself in the empty People's Hospital and he had received his own task system, which asked him to survive in this hospital until dawn, and got an S/L skill card: [S/L Data] (binding skill card): the holder can set a save point at the position where his body is located. If he dies or suffers fatal injury within 10 seconds after saving, his body will automatically return to the position and state where the save point was set and will immediately trigger the second use. One save point can be used three times continuously and the cooldown time is 1 hour. Anyway, if you want to use it, you will die.　　

In order to survive, Qi Leren had to commit suicide frequently in this haunted hospital to save his life. He met Dr. Lu and Xue Yingying, who were also involved in this game, and learned that there was a murderer in this hospital who was killing any survivors like them. With such an unexpected factor, the task of surviving until dawn became more difficult. The three people also met another mysterious player, Su He. With his help, the four people and the murderer fought bravely and killed him and cracked the secrets of the hospital from more than 20 years ago, successfully avoiding the earthquake before daybreak and surviving until dawn.

2. [First Arrival at the Village of Dusk]: After the mission, the four people came to the players’ homebase in the main world of the Nightmare Game - the Village of Dusk. There were many ordinary people here who had the same experiences as Qi Leren. They received "survival days" by constantly going to other worlds or performing tasks in the main world, and they would die once the survival days were exhausted. In the Nightmare World, apart from a few human settlements where the status quo of peace has been maintained, other places were ruled by demons. Qi Leren was very surprised, because he found that the Nightmare World had the same story background as the Nightmare Game he had played before entering here, but no one else had played this game, so he had to keep the secret and think about whether the tasks done in the Nightmare Game could be triggered in this world. Su He, who had been very mysterious in the first mission, also confessed his identity. It turned out that he was a Game Master from the Village of Dawn who went to investigate a bug in the Novice Village. Not long after settling in the Village of Dusk, Qi Leren triggered the compulsory task "Witchcraft Sacrifice" from the dead because of a murder case on the road.

3. [Witchcraft Sacrifice]: Qi Leren had to perform the "Witchcraft Sacrifice" task, but during the task, male players were given women's appearances, because the background of the task was that a small village that sacrificed thirteen girls to a demon every three years in order to seek refuge from the Devil. These girls killed each other in the forest, and finally a winner became a witch who served the Devil. Qi Leren, who had become a girl, met an iceberg, Ning Zhou, and fell in love with her at first sight. He pursued his beloved goddess while struggling to perform his task. The goddess seemed to have a good impression of him. After a series of adventures where they shared life and death, they finally defeated the powerful enemy and completed the task. The NPC Isabel finally became the witch who served the Devil. The two players met on the steel bridge in the Village of Dusk, but unfortunately he found that his goddess was also a man, and the undying love shared between the two people in the task quickly died.

4. [Seed of Slaughter]: After his failed first love, Qi Leren suffered a great blow and unfortunately met a player who had been parasitized by a seed of slaughter while flying in an airship. This player went mad because of the seed of slaughter’s outbreak, killing innocent people on the airship, but Qi Leren was parasitized by the seed of slaughter after killing him in defense, and then was taken away by the Village of Dusk’s judicial Trials Court. In order to remove the seed of slaughter, he made a deal with the Trials Office and became an undercover member of the crazy society that worshipped the Devil of Slaughter. Chen Baiqi, a businesswoman whom Qi Leren had met in the Village of Dusk, invited him to visit a common friend's grave on the Undead Island. After every player died in the Nightmare World, a tombstone was automatically generated on the island. As a result, Qi Leren found a large number of his own tombstones on the Undead Island. He had thought that his S/L skill was simply activated in the instant before he died. He felt very scared and questioned if he had already died, or if he was just a copy with his memories. On the Undead Island, his friend Chen Baiqi told him the story of Ning Zhou. Only then did Qi Leren know that Ning Zhou was an exorcist of the Nightmare World’s Holy See, and homosexuality was forbidden in the Holy See. Therefore, Ning Zhou was very pained after learning that he was a male, and Qi Leren felt very guilty.

5. [Castle Cry]: Qi Leren and his good friend Dr. Lu activated a copy task called "Castle Cry". The background of this copy was that three couples came to the mountains in the suburbs to watch the stars in the middle of the night for the once-a-century meteor shower. There was a European-style old castle built on the mountain during the Republic of China, which was said to have been built by a German couple who came to China to do business, and was later abandoned after a fire. The local government had repeatedly tried to repair the old castle, but accidents had occurred. No one had set foot on the old castle. At midnight that night, the clear night sky suddenly covered with dark clouds, raining heavily, and the six people were trapped on the top of the mountain. The rain was getting heavier and one of them proposed to take shelter from the rain under the eaves of the castle...

After entering the castle, Qi Leren and others dug up the old castle’s story. It turned out that a noble lady with a family history of hereditary mental illness had married her sweetheart, but her sweetheart loved her maid Adeline. The noble lady poisoned Adeline because of jealousy and married her sweetheart as she wished. After marriage, they came to China to do business and built the old castle. Her husband did not want her to give birth to children who might also suffer from the hereditary mental illness, so Nina, the housemaid, was instructed to add mercury powder to her diet as a contraception. After learning the side effects of the mercury powder, Nina secretly reduced the dose. Finally, the wife became pregnant. After Nina heard that the child would be deformed, she was very afraid, worried that the wife’s mental illness would be triggered if she gave birth to the deformed fetus, and she accidentally caused her to fall down the stairs and miscarry. After the miscarriage, the wife’s mental condition deteriorated sharply and she was often paranoid, suspecting that everything was caused by the ghost of Adeline, the maid she had poisoned, and the relationship between husband and wife almost broke down. In order to save her love, she began to sacrifice to the Devil, and finally became demonized herself, killing everyone in the castle and setting fire to it.

During the mission, Qi Leren found the laptop computer with the Nightmare Game, but the computer had run out of battery. He put away the computer and prepared to bring it back to the Village of Dusk to find someone to make a transformer so he could connect the power supply and try to play the ending. During the mission Su He reappeared, saying that there were some abnormal reactions in this mission, and it was suspected that demon energy had polluted the task’s world, which led to the plot confusion and difficulty increase. This mainly manifested in the fact that the crazy lady sacrificed to the Devil and gained demonic power after her mental illness worsened. This mission should not have had such a plot. With the help of Su He, Qi Leren and Dr. Lu successfully solved the problem of the crazy lady and finished the task, then returned to the Village of Dusk, but the laptop mysteriously disappeared from Qi Leren’s item storage.

6. [Slaughter Secret Society]: After returning to the Village of Dusk, Qi Leren received a notice from the Trials Court asking him to disguise himself as the secret lover the former head of the Slaughter Secret Society (deceased), and seize the Slaughter Secret Society’s memento ring to gain the command of the Slaughter Secret Society, so that the Trials Court could catch all those crazy believers. Qi Leren approached the members of the Slaughter Secret Society as the coquettish gay "Red". During the mission, he was unfortunately attacked by Ning Zhou and both of them were shocked. During the undercover mission, Ning Zhou helped him get out of trouble several times. Both of them vaguely felt that they still liked each other. Although they were not women, they were still attracted to each other. After successfully seizing the Slaughter Secret Society’s memento ring and handing it over to the Court, Qi Leren had the seed of slaughter removed and triggered the main task "The Dream of the Holy Nun".

7. [The Dream of the Holy Nun]: The Dream of the Holy Nun was carried out in the main world, involving the past where the old Devil led the demons to invade the human world more than 20 years ago. At that time, the Holy City where the Vatican was located was unsustainable, and the Holy See evacuated urgently to Neverland. The Holy Nun Maria couldn't bear to see the people of the Holy City slaughtered by the Devil and created a powerful field, sheltering the whole Holy City in her territory. After the war, the old Devil was killed and the Holy City was left with serious destruction. After more than 20 years, the Holy City was still protected by the remnants of the Holy Nun and was shrouded in fog and inaccessible. Qi Leren got the Holy Nun Maria’s memento in the Village of Dusk, and he could enter the Holy City with it. At the same time, he also learned that Ning Zhou was the son of Maria and a player. In order to fulfill Maria's last wish—to liberate the closed and dying Holy City—Qi Leren, Ning Zhou, Dr. Lu, and Su He went to the Holy City together.

At this time, the Holy City is still peaceful, unlike the nightmare of the outside world. However, Qi Leren and his party had found an abnormality. No newborn had been born in the Holy City for more than 20 years and, from a certain year, every night of the new moon the citizens had to fall asleep before midnight and sleep until dawn, otherwise they would disappear. In order to explore the truth and fulfill Maria's last wish, the group of people began to investigate the cause of the abnormality. Finally, it was found that a surviving witch who had followed the old Devil King was accumulating strength to unlock the Holy Nun’s seal, which caused the sleeping people to change from human beings to demons because of the influence of demon energy on every lunar night, while the humans who remained awake became the targets of the demons, who hunted, brutally killed, and ate them. Qi Leren and others opened the seal on the site of the Vatican and acted separately.

When Qi Leren came to the cathedral where Holy Nun and old Devil had fought in the war, he found that his good friend, Su He, who had always been mysterious, gentle, and powerful, turned out to be a Devil. After the death of the old Devil, he gained part of the Devil’s power and had been secretly planning something. When he was in the Novice Village he had discovered Qi Leren's uniqueness, so he had been deliberately approaching him and using him, successfully following him into the Holy City protected by the Holy Nun’s power, and reached the old Devil as he wished. Su He let Qi Leren choose whether to degenerate into a demon or die. Qi Leren pretended to obey and died with Su He after saving, but failed because of the great disparity in strength and was finally killed by Su He, who was summoned by a messenger of the Devil of Power to leave the Holy City.

Because he had an item that would resurrect him in seven days, Qi Leren wrote a 7 on the ground in blood before he died, trying to tell Ning Zhou that he would be resurrected in seven days, but suddenly remembered that 7 means I love you in the Nightmare World. After Ning Zhou arrived, Su He had already left, leaving only Qi Leren’s body and a misunderstood confession. Ning Zhou realized that he was deeply in love with Qi Leren, regardless of gender, and that he loved this person's soul. So Ning Zhou returned to the Vatican in Neverland after the funeral, confessed his sin of falling in love with the same sex to the Pope, and left the Holy See.

So ends the first chapter.

&&& The story continues &&&

As the sun rises and the moon sets, the days and nights change. Seven days are fleeting.

The Garden of the Holy Tomb was wrapped in a gentle barrier.

Here, the sun was blazing, and it was also hit by an afternoon rainstorm. Countless monsters lingered outside the enchantment, showing malicious curiosity about the scent of a human inside the enchantment. But because they can't destroy the enchantment, they left disgruntled.

The breeze blew, tossing up the blue and white petals on the branches and they fell in great numbers to the ground, as well as to the hollow tree that had become a tomb. In just seven days, layer upon layer of petals had covered the man sleeping in the tree tomb, letting him be buried in this annihilated city together with the fallen flowers.

[Countdown to resurrection: 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes, and 0 seconds.]

[Easter Egg has taken effect, all skills and items are returned.]

[Player Qi Leren has completed The Dream of the Holy Nun. The task completion rate was 117%. Obtain special task clues, and reach the Purgatory deep in the Underground Ant City within 23 days for the next task to auto-trigger. If it becomes overdue, it will be regarded as giving up the task.]

[The reward is 90 survival days, and the unexpected factors interfering with the task progress have given an additional reward of 10 survival days.]

[Player Qi Leren has completed the achievement of "Deceiving the Devil of Fraud". The reward is the skill card "Secretly Observing".]

Qi Leren opened his eyes.

Stiffness, soreness, heaviness... Countless negative states superimposed on him, making him almost think he was paralyzed. The world consisted of mottled floating light and shadow, but the fresh scent of flowers and plants entered his nose.

The heart was beating again, the blood was flowing again, the lungs were filling again, and the Qi Leren was gasping for breath. The body that had been suspended in death for seven days seemed to have just been lifted out of an ice coffin. All of the organs in his body had almost forgotten how to operate, so they could only restart with difficulty as they let him change back from a dead person to a living person.

It took him a long time to remember everything, including his own name, but the next thing went smoothly. Qi Leren quickly recalled where he was and what he’d experienced—he was killed by the Devil of Fraud and the murderer had gotten the demon crystal of the old Devil before he left, but he’d concealed the fact that he would be resurrected in seven days.

Ning Zhou!

Qi Leren suddenly sat up from the tree tomb. He was dizzy because of insufficient blood pressure, and his spine made a scary "click" sound which made him almost think it was going to break. Fortunately, it held up strongly. Because of lack of oxygen in the brain, Qi Leren lay back again, staring at the blue sky and white clouds overhead.

The Dream of the Holy Nun task had been completed, that was to say, Maria's field had been solved. There was no doubt that the person who completed it was Ning Zhou, not Qi Leren who had won by lying down. Now that the task had been completed Ning Zhou had left the Holy City, but he had stayed in the Garden of the Holy Tomb because Ning Zhou had left his "corpse" here.

Thankfully, Ning Zhou didn't cremate him. Thank you customs of the Holy See!

Orthodox Vatican people usually put corpses in open coffins, covered them with cloth or other materials, and then buried them in the coffins after they decayed into bones. Because if a corpse was buried directly in the ground, the power of faith couldn’t dissipate, and the corpse often couldn’t rot for several years, so it needed to be placed in the open air to wait for the power of faith to collapse naturally. This process was also considered as the process of the soul ascending to heaven.

Although Qi Leren was not a member of the Holy See, Ning Zhou followed this custom and left him a whole corpse.

His body recovered some strength, and Qi Leren's thinking recovered from the initial delay to his usual state. He sat up and drank some water, and recalled his "death".

Death was like sleeping to the extreme. He had no longer been able to feel anything externally, but he had started "dreaming".

A looming dream that made him feel lost.

He had dreamed of Ning Zhou's mother, Maria.

She sat on a swing in the Garden of the Holy Tomb, which was on the big tree that was later broken by lightning while it was still verdant. At that time, Maria was not the famous Holy Nun. She was just a young girl, swinging on a swing in the warm afternoon, enjoying the beautiful time of youth and leisure.

Qi Leren walked towards her. Maria saw him and nodded to him with a smile. Her blue eyes seemed like the blue sky.

The sky... Qi Leren's consciousness was shocked by this deep blue. He suddenly flew, as if his soul had detached from his body, rising higher and higher, and the Garden of the Holy Tomb grew small beneath his feet. Together with the old site of the Holy See, it all became far away. The whole Holy City was brought before his eyes, and then the distant mountains and rivers... Countless demons were wandering, human beings were experiencing unprecedented suffering and struggling to survive, all of the cruelty of this world was shown to him.

He seemed to be a god overlooking the world, staring at the devastated land with compassionate eyes, but he could do nothing but grieve. This pain lashed his soul and great sadness tormented him. He desperately wanted to do something for the world, but found himself as weak as a worm.

"Look, when you stand at this height, you will find that you are even smaller and weaker than you think."

A gentle female voice came from behind, and Qi Leren "saw" Maria behind him. He understood why there was always a lingering pity and sadness in her eyes.

"But such fragile human beings have to fight against this world persistently, control their own destiny and the destiny of the world, and we never give up. Let the Devil go back to hell, let human beings dominate this human world, and let foreigners like you return to their own world—the martyrs who are gone worked hard for this, and one day, this dream will be realized."

"Ms. Maria, why did we come here from our own world?" Qi Leren asked.

Maria shook her head gently. "This is something that the will of the world decided. We suspect that it was only an accident at first. Later, it deliberately introduced more foreigners and wanted you to maintain this unbalanced world. Unfortunately, there are too many variables amongst you, and the fallen foreigners have aggravated this imbalance... It still has not given up... You have to be careful, you are already the object of observation."

The feeling of being secretly watched made him uneasy, and Qi Leren wanted to ask more questions, but he has already started to fall.

From the sky, dropping rapidly and falling to the earth!

This feeling of weightlessness was like being awakened every night by his nightmares, when he woke up in horror at the memories of his deaths, sweating profusely.

There was only Maria's gentle but regretful voice in his ear: "I can't tell you any more. Come to the church. I have something for you."

The dream of Maria had ended, and the Qi Leren who had come back from the dead recalled this strange dream. He understood that this was not an ordinary dream, but the residual power of Maria’s influence on him. It seemed that he must go to the church at the top of the former site of the Vatican again.

His body gradually recovered its strength and Qi Leren gawked at the Vatican uniform on himself, and the white roses that had already withered on him. Those thoughts about Ning Zhou that he didn’t dare to dwell on rushed back to his mind.

Love at first sight, feelings amidst danger, life and death before disaster... The beauty in these memories was deeply buried in shock when they had met again, but his death was the key to awaken everything, and the mistaken confession of that which should not be said was the straw that crushed everything.

He shouldn't have said anything, he should have died in silence.

If Qi Leren could go back in time and choose again, he would not write down the 7. He would rather swallow this overflowing love silently and would rather let Ning Zhou think he was really dead, so that he wouldn’t be forced to go down this blind alley that would only lead him to the fire-lake of hell.

He couldn't tell the person whom he loved, who maybe loved him, that he loved him.

Because this was an impermissible and sinful love.

He was not afraid to fall in love with Ning Zhou, but he was afraid that this love would bring pain to Ning Zhou. He was even afraid of himself, who was full of hope and longing in his heart—how could he expect a saint to admit his guilt over such a love?

This secret expectation was selfishness and even sin.

How was Ning Zhou now? And where was he? Would he return to the Holy See? Could he go back?

When love broke taboos, how could a devout believer face the reality that he had deviated from his faith? He was destined to give up one of them.

Qi Leren shook his hand and picked up the bunch of white roses on him.

The roses had already withered, and fragile yellow petals fell from the stems that had had their thorns shaved off, just seven.

That is Ning Zhou’s silent answer.

Qi Leren slowly showed a smile, but his eyes were wet-

On the ring finger of his left hand, there was a ring made up of grass stalks. It was so rough and humble, like a craft made by a child. If it fell to the ground, no one would look at it again.

It just so happened that it was placed on Qi Leren’s ring finger, a symbol of love, commitment, and eternity.

Therefore, its destiny was not to be a toy woven by a child, but to be the most faithful and brave answer given by a devout believer after he had tortured himself and subverted his faith.

A pair of lovers who shouldn't fall in love, at both ends of life and death, spoke their own words from the soul.

I love you.

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Editor’s Notes:

Welcome back! A little bit of housekeeping to begin:

[Here] is the NovelUpdates page for part 2.

I made up a little [list of significant characters] who appear in part 1, including which skill cards they have, for anyone who would like a refresher. This is also linked at the top of part 2′s TOC page.

As was the case for most of part 1, I intend for chapter updates to be every second day. I will mention if this is ever subject to change.

Lastly, while this chapter does not have an author’s note, I wanted to include a note from part 2′s summary section since it gives some fun hints of what’s to come:

“PPPS: Inspiration comes from horror movies and games such as the Alien series, the Silent Hill series, the Resident Evil series, Bloodborne, Dark Souls 3, etc. There are also a number of documentaries used, specifically when it comes to time periods.”

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[Table of Contents | Next Chapter >>>]

[emily-the-fae]

Sound of a Heartbeat

Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6

Here we go. This thing started out as a one-shot and grew into something bigger; here goes the one-shot/prologue that came to me a month or two ago.

Inspired by watching ONLY the first four episodes of Castlevania, when I had no idea about the whole vampire community and there were only Dracula and his hellish demons.

!!!I have no beta!!!

Pairing: Dracula x OC

Warnings: umm none? angst, suicidal mood, a bit of tuberculosis, blood

a lonely cold night, a campfire and a shivering human next to it, with a dark shadow watching from behind the trees

***

The night had already creeped over the woods, and the fire was now standing out against the dark tree trunks. Shari sat by the bonfire, a long stick in her hand, lazily picking at blackened logs that were soon to fall apart. She briefly wondered, how it was always her in the end, who was left alone, the odd one out of the four - Adrian, Sypha and Trevor seemed to be the main trio - with her following behind to support. Though in the end it was quite obvious this was the right way - the three started off together, she only joined them when Adrian called - wouldn't have done that probably, but with the demons nearing she could never be sure how safe it was to be alone and how far she could go before being devoured.

Not to say she was scared, though. Some months ago, when the plague only started, a wounded winged demon rushed at her temporary hiding spot. The beast roared in rage and threw itself at everything it saw, slowly weakening at then pain, apparently originating from the long gash across the creature's ribs. Shari, of course, being the healer she was, and already cursing her complete lack of self-preservation, tried to stop and calm it - which turned out easier than it seemed when the dusk neared. When she finally got to stop the creature from running around and get closer to the source of its torture, Shari suddenly found that the animalistic demon was much more animal and far less hellish beast than she initially thought.

The wound was long, but nothing too deep - nothing terminal if tended to with proper care. Surprisingly, lavander oils worked even on hell's children, the demon fell completely still and silent in a few minutes, after she tossed an oiled tissue under its muzzle. Shari then carefully cleaned the gash and wrapped it - as good as she could - the cloth would fall off in a couple of days, if all went well. The monster slept soundly as she worked, and she couldn't help but notice, that the creature was somewhat a mix between a bat and a wolf, which amused her greatly for some reason.

Before the night fell, Shari took off from the spot, hoping for the monster's sake, that her operation went well, and, for her sake, that she would never see it again. Unfortunately or not - she was wrong. At the next dusk the beast found her new hiding spot, landed itself on all fours and crawled closer - completely wolvish, like a wild dog interested in a humans life, it's ears standing sharply, signing interest and alert.

Ever since it followed her around - more of a domesticated wolf day by day, Shari almost got used to him. Through him she found out that the winged beasts were not to be feared - one flap of his wings and a loud screech told the other animals that she was a friend (she doubted that her normal spiritual connection to animals existed for those, but somehow it did work) - they would not have attacked her even if she walked among them. It was the wingless beasts that were to be kept away from - these were smarter, more demonic, less animal - Shari only twice saw these from distance and decided that she most definitely did not want to get to know them closer - they would devour her in one gulp, no mercy and no wolvish interest. Though, it was not like they would be the only things eating her alive.

Shari was well aware of what set the plague on the lands of Wallachia. The first time she met Adrian was a little more than a year and a half ago when he stumbled into her small house at the edge of a village. The man was bleeding and in need of help, so she did the best she could. It was only later that she found out he was no man and her help was appreciated rather than useful. And it was him who told her to run away from the lands or go in hiding, told her of the threat; that in a year Wallachia would be set on fire. She had already heard the rumours of the witch and Satan in Tragoviste - these worried her grately, for the fear of the so-called witch hunters made her change her living spots quite often - but after Adrian's story it all started to make sense: Dracula the great vampire and his lost love. Raging out on humankind. So much of the centuries-old wisdom and learning of self control. But she knew it already then that no witty remarks would help her escape.

Adrian found her in a little more than a year of their first meeting. She was running, never stoping in big towns, never staying for longer than two nights. Sometimes sleeping on treetops - she knew she was fleeing from the inescapable, but by then it was the only way of survival. Shari agreed when he asked her to join them - not that she had much choice - but it was nice to be appreciated. She was far more limited in her witchcraft skills than Sypha, but was a much better healer, plus her immunity to the winged beasts turned out to be a very nice perk. Trevor growled, but tolerated her and hellish pet unwillingly at first - but then the demon stood up for the hunter during a particularly unpleasant encounter and afterwards Shari had spent a considerable amount of time healing up and easening the pain from his wound - and as a result even the hunter eventually grew more kind to the healer and her furry partner, who by then acquired the name of Rodo and somehow learned to waggle it's tale - weakly, but still a move.

And that was how she got in her current position: alone in the middle of nowhere by a campfire, Rodo snoring next to her and not a soul around - Adrian, Sypha and Trevor disappeared about an hour ago now, leaving her to protect their camp, and Shari had no idea when they were intending to return. The night was cold, and she half-consciously moved closer to the source of light and warmth. The dark trees around her formed a dreadful wall, only the flapping of wings far above her head and the occasional howl of some nocturnal animal would announce that she was not completely lost in time.

It had already started to snow a few days ago and the ground around her was covered in a thin white blanket. The cold air bit at her throat and lungs, causing Shari to cough up small pools of blood now and then. The irony. Just like all her life. Her name - Shari - meant Princess - but her life of surviving and sneaking had proved to be the complete opposite of the word. No, never a princess, not even once.Born into witchcraft, but never getting to truly learn sorcery. Accused of witchcraft - but for the healing and not the real magic itself. A healer, but sick with a disease she knew she would not heal. The second monster that would devour her, the one she feared more than the blue-eyed hellish creature.

Only two years before did Shari first feel that she was sick. It didn't seem serious back then, more like a series of colds, not a real threat. Now she knew better, she recognized the symptoms from many people that she had seen before, dying, weakening people whom nobody could help. And she was well-aware she stood no chance against that one beast in her lungs that burned her from the inside. She did not know how it started, but she well knew how it would end, and - to be fair - it scared her. In fact Shari was terrified of the way she could go - she could never tell how much she really had left: sometimes it seemed like a decade before her, but nights like this one, she could believe it was only a few months. Shari rather feared the weakness than the death itself - afraid to wake up one morning and understand that she was finally growing weak, that the logical ending of this sickness was coming and then the impending darkness would be far closer than ever before.

She brought a cloth to her mouth, whiping the droplets of blood away and suddenly, following some vague feeling, Shari turned her head upwards, staring at the opening between the treetops: the sky was clear tonight, endless dark sky filled with thousands of stars. Dark, cold, peaceful and lonely. The woman felt liquid going down the back of her throat - familiar unpleasant shiver ran over her, and she turned back to the fire, moving closer to it once more.

She was already willing to rest her head for a while, when she became aware of the eerie silence settled around her: the sound of flapping and the noise of nocturnal fauna disappeared completely, leaving the cracking of the fire and Rodo's snores the only to break the complete stillness. Something was not right.

Shari stood up carefully, looking around for any intruder, seeing nothing but the dark tree trunks and the white untouched snow. Rodo grunted and woke up next to her, his ears up in the air, muzzle sniffing - she knew that expression all too well - her furry friend was just as concerned as she was. Suddenly he jumped up, spreading his wings, and looking up at something behind her back. Shari turned on the spot and froze in a mix of fear and surprise.

There was a man in front of her now. Tall, almost unnaturally so, dark and sharp, his long black hair laying on his shoulders, ears somewhat pointy and eyes - she felt her heart jump to her throat - the red eyes stared right into her soul and Shari knew right away who was her visitor.

- What is it that you want, Count Dracula? - she hoped the vampire would not hear the tremble in her voice, silently cursing Adrian for disappearing when he was so needed.

- A glimpse of who my son is dealing with, to begin with, - the voice was low, but somehow pleasant to the ear.

- And you had no better way than to watch from the shadows? How classy. What are your observations then, Count? - hand on her small blade, she knew it would do nothing against him, but she had to at least try to defend herself.

- You are a good healer, - she coughed at his remark, feeling the blood rise to her throat once again and laughed bitterly:

- Well, not as good as your late wife. My condolences, by the way, - she bowed slightly. At least here she could be sincere.

- Unfortunately for all of us, no words can change anything that was done, healer.

- Oh no, no, no, Dracula, - with the way she was behaving, Shari was surprised that he still hadn't ripped out her throat. - I'm not playing that game of being good remorseful human. I am sure Lisa Tepes was a saint in her way - or so Adrian says...

- Does he now? - she noticed he got closer to her and she had no idea when he managed to do that. - But you aren't one? Is that what you were going to say?

- At least I'm actually a witch - not a turned, but a born one of course - though I do know a demon or two. And to add to the picture, I am also a thief, so yes, Count, I am definitely nowhere near as good as your late wife. And I am just as sure going to poke a hole in your chest if you make one step closer.

Shari took out her silver knife, staring up at the vampire in front of her. Somehow she knew from the look in his eyes, that her false bravado had no effect whatsoever. Maybe it was the slight amusement, or maybe the pity in his eyes, but she knew that he saw right through her and took her for what she was - a scared girl burning up from inside. Shari sincerely hated the vampire at that moment, hated for witnessing her involuntary weakness. She straightened her back, staring up at him with unreserved anger.

- You are not welcome here, Dracula.

- I am aware of that, - she knew that one step closer and she would have to either make a blow at him or step back.

- Then walk away.

- I am afraid that does not correspond with the initial purpose of my visit, - his response was calm, but the glint in his eyes made her insides turn cold.

- The purpose of watching us? - this time the tremble in her voice was audible.

- Oh no, I wouldn't have revealed myself for that, - his fangs seemed suddenly longer than before.

Shari bolted at him right then, blade in her hand, knowing well she stood no chance. If he was going to kill her anyway she might as well die with some dignity. Dracula caught her swift movement all too quick, twisting her arm and ripping her only weapon away from her. Shari screamed in pain and Rodo howled in response, wishing to help, but too terrified of his master to step in, tail between his hind legs and ears pressed to his head, he walked around the two, never daring to come near.

She tore herself from the vampire in a vain attempt to claim back her knife, droplets of blood from her damaged wrist coloring the snow beneath her feet. Dracula caught her swiftly, and she thrusted against him, fighting back with all the might she had left, helpless against his stone hard grasp.

His hand wrapped around her back, pressing her closer to him, her hands beating against his broad chest. Shari growled in her struggle, but couldn't do much. His other hand moved behind her head, almost gently removing the hair from the left side of her neck. As Dracula leaned his head closer to her, Shari finally froze, engulfed by the feeling of pure terror and helplessness. She pressed her eyes shut, stiffening on the vampire's grasp and feeling her whole body tremble, as he sniffed her.

When Dracula bit down, his nails scratching the back of her head, she shrieked, biting her lips, feeling him press her petite body closer to his, like a puppet, his fangs deep in her neck. She panted, clawing at his chest. An unwanted tear ran down the side of her face. Not like this.

- Shush, - her eyes were still shut, but his fangs removed for a moment and his grasp was no longer bruising, almost gentle. His voice seemed calming now, soothing. -Shush, my dear, no need to cry, - he whispered in her ear, his clawed hand slowly coming to caress the side of her face gently, almost lovingly, wiping away her tears. - My poor little girl. You don't have to fight. There is no one to pretend to here, - she felt a deep growl coming from his chest. - You know, you taste like sweetest wine, - she wailed quietly; his lips touched her earlobe and descended to caress the crook of her neck. - It will not hurt. I promise now. Just a kiss and a bright peaceful dream. Just like falling asleep, wouldn't that be nice, my sweet?

She felt a light touch to her neck, only a kiss, his lips touching her, hiding the fangs. The next moment the pain was gone; she opened her eyes and at once it was only her, Dracula and the endless starry sky above them. She held onto his shoulders, feeling his head pressed against her neck, her eyelids growing heavier with each moment as she surrendered to the long awaited sleep, now almost grateful to the vampire for the painless freedom he was giving. Maybe it was for the best after all.

- Let her go! - Trevor whipped at Dracula with no restraint. Him, Adrain and Sypha had been frozen in surprise at the scene they encountered, and the vampire-hunter was the first one of the three to return from the stupefied state.

Dracula hissed, but having to turn away from both the whip and Sypha's ice curses, knew he had better to disappear, leaving the small forest camp the same way he came. He intended no fighting with them that night.

Shari lay on the ground motionless and finally peaceful. Sypha was the first to rush to her, but unsuccessful in any attempts to awake her. Trevor and Adrian rushing about, trying to help move their defeated friend, and Rodo wailed quietly, crawling closer to the light of the fire and to the motionless body on the ground.

Dracula observed from behind the trees. He could barely see the motion of the three as his eyes were focused on one and only figure, still and peaceful, her face white and a small pool of blood on the snow next to her, the last lights of life were holding onto the weakened body.

- Sleep well, poor child.

***********

Here's what my mind came up with. There may be more chapters if I'm bold enough (they may or may not be written out and in the process of being edited in notes). But this one could also go as a separate piece.

Can't believe this is the first big piece I wrote in English AND actually posted.

[angellissy]

Chapter Two: Welcome Back

A/N: FINALLY, i am so sorry this took so long but I have been so busy with work but here is chapter two. Also do you guys want a taglist, i have gotten some questions about it? Thanks to my hype girl and bestie cortney for reading this and just being amazing  @pogue-writings​

The silver fork in her hand had become something more similar to a toy as she used it to poke around the remnants of food. In a matter of minutes after they arrived in the Great Hall, Ophelia had managed to fill her stomach with all different kinds of foods. Around her sat people in the same robes as her, tints of green all over the fabric, most of them were still devouring the pastries that floated above the wooden table. One of her cheeks rested in her hand as she watched headmistress Mcgonagall make her way onto the podium, she drew breath, and it was almost like she blew out a candle because suddenly the fiery conversations were silenced. 

“Welcome back to all of you who have previously wandered these corridors, and to those of you who are here for the first time, welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Here you will learn valuable skills, but most importantly, you will make great friends and these people might even become your family.” The headmistress did not pause, but these words, they brought Ophelia back to the time when she first set foot in the Great Hall. 

Her bottom lip was stuck between her teeth, and she tugged it whenever they announced another name to go up to the sorting hat. On her right side stood the Cameron siblings, Sarah and Rafe. Ophelia had known them since before she learned how to walk, but lately, things seemed to be changing. Sarah and Rafe were drifting apart, he was becoming angrier and she was becoming more rebellious. It seemed as though those feelings would match and build their bond, but they did not. So when it was Rafe’s turn to go up on the podium, he didn’t spare Sarah a second glance, but when he sat on the chair with the hat on his head, his eyes watched Ophelia. 

Later that evening she sat beside him, at the Slytherin table, and from afar she watched how Sarah made new friends, wizards, and witches who proudly wore the Hufflepuff badge. Rafe was indulged in a conversation with two other first-year Slytherins that had joined them, Topper and Kelce. And even if though they had just met, the two of them looked upon Rafe with a sort of admiration. Something that would turn dangerous in the long run, but for now they were just four kids sitting at a table, sharing nervous laughs and experiences from Ollivanders. 

Four had turned into three and now Rafe, Topper, and Kelce were a trio of teenagers that laughed too loudly and mocked the first years. While Ophelia sat on the other side of the table, desperate to avoid them even if it meant sitting beside exciting first-year students who bugged her with hundreds of questions about life at Hogwarts. She didn’t want to answer their curiosity because she doubted her experience would be something to look up to, did they not understand that her sitting with them showcased enough about her life here? 

She missed the ending of the headmistress speech, meaning she also missed the fact that they were supposed to make their way onto the dorms. 

“Lia, we have to go.” Standing in front of her was Topper, his prefect badge shone in the light from the candles hovering over them, just as hers did. A small sigh escaped her lips as she followed him to the front of the masses of Slytherin students, as prefects it was their duty to show them to the rooms. The responsibility of having to do this along with one of her former friends had been a weight on her shoulders since last year when she excitedly went to the prefect meeting expecting one of the preppy Slytherin boys but instead saw Topper leaning against the wall. 

“Listen up!” He yelled, gathering the attention of kids with clueless and curious eyes, he looked over at his companion, gesturing for her to continue. 

“Yeah, so we are your prefects, we are here to keep you in check and occasionally help you if you don’t get on our bad side. Follow along and we will take you to the common room, be aware of your surroundings, shit moves around here.” Heads bobbed up and down as the kids nodded in understanding of what she was saying, Topper just shook his head at her.

“You seem to have grown more hostile during the summer.” He said as they started walking, causing her to roll her eyes at him. She did not want to have a conversation with him, not now and not ever. Sometimes she wished people were like chalk if they were she would be able to just wipe them away. Perhaps there would still be small remnants of them left, but she could live with that. But people were not like chalk, so she had to walk beside them and force herself to make conversation. 

“Happens when you spend the year around snakes.” He stifled a laugh at her comment and shook his head once again. “So I assume you still don’t wanna start hanging out with us again?”

She said the password and let at all the first years inside the common room, urging them to remember the password if they did not want to sleep on the cold floor. Some of them ran inside, while some of them wore cautious expressions as they examined the room. It also seemed like a few of them had already made friends, which brought Ophelia back to the day she had lost hers. 

As always these last three years she was sitting on the damp grass alongside her small group of friends. Kelce and Topper were laughing at something Rafe had said, they always did. The admiration they held for the blonde boy with the sometimes vicious smile had not faltered even though it had been three years. She, however, had stopped being impressed a long time ago. Summer was near, and she almost wishes she could pull the break closer to her. Things were not the same anymore, the comfort she had found in intertwining her fingers with Rafe’s was long gone. Instead, she found herself flinching away whenever his hands brushed past hers. 

“Look at him, pathetic if you ask me.” She looked up from the torn pages of her book and watched as Rafe scrunched his face up in disgust. 

“Stop it.” She muttered, trying to avert his attention from the poor boy walking a couple of meters away from them. Rafe did look at her, he watched her for a long time, taking notice in how she bit her lower lip whenever something interesting occurred in her book. He noticed the contrast when her bright red nails brushed her dark hair from her face. 

Rafe Cameron was fully aware that Ophelia no longer watched him the same way, and maybe it was just that that urged him to hex that poor second-year, making him stumble and lose all his stuff. Rafe did not stop there, he could never just leave it, he continued and continued until there was almost no way back.  His black-haired friend tried to stop him as he whispered spells that sent the boy flying into the lake, but he continued.

“Stop, you are drowning him!” She screamed, kicking and scratching at the arms that held her back. They were Topper and Kelce’s of course, restraining her so that Rafe could have his fun. He let go of the boy who came out of the water gasping for breath, his eyes were red and tears were mixing with the water he had almost lost his life in.

“See he is fine, stop being so overdramatic Li.” The boys let go of her as he said this, seeing that her anger must have washed away, Rafe was done after all. But she was not, Ophelia grabbed her wand, marched over to the boy who used to make her heart skip an extra beat, and pointed the wand directly at his face. He was still smiling, he was yet to understand that he had just lost her. He had let her slip through his fingers, like sand she had escaped his vicious grip.

“You are foul and evil, and I will no longer tolerate it by being in your presence. I hate you, I hate you, I hate.-” She pushed at his chest with her palms, pushing him further away from her. But she paused to turn around to look at the two other. 

“I hate all of you.” She screamed, anger laced her voice as she whispered spells that made their textbooks burn into ashes. The only thing she felt comfortable doing before she gave them one last glance, and left her friends. 

As that memory resurfaced, she looked at Topper, she was still disgusted by him but she had learnt to tolerate him. He was easier than Rafe, but thankfully he had stopping pestering her last year. They were sixth years now, and she would not let herself dwell over them anymore. She had swore to herself that this year was gonna be different, and maybe it would, if she just let it be.

“No Topper, I will not start hanging out with you again.” She finally answered, and he nodded, clearly not surprised by her answer. “But I’ll still see you at the prefect meeting later I guess?” 

Ophelia sighed and rubbed her forehead, of course, the annual prefect meeting. “Yeah, see you there.” She mumbled before walking up to her dorm, Topper said something she did not hear nor did she care enough to go back and ask him. She disliked the prefect meetings, mostly because they always took place right after arrival and that was when she felt like being in bed for the rest of the week. At least she had about an hour to unwind before she had to be in a room filled with preppy and stuck up witches and wizards who took their responsibility way to serious. Oh well, she would just have to wait and see how it went this time. 

[myforeverforlife]

the sacrifice (part three).

Baekhyun sighed, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his robes as he stared up at the night sky. The moonlight seemed to be reflected in his one blue eye, the mark of his family's magic.  If he could prevent the loss of another innocent life, he would do everything in his power to help. 

He only hoped that what he had was enough. 

Series Masterlist: ( 1 )  ( 2 ) 

Pairing: Baekhyun and Fem reader

Word Count: 5,894

Masterlist

Your legs were falling asleep from staying in one position for too long, but you didn't mind. Not when Tanie was lying contentedly in your lap, her fluffy tail lazily sweeping the floor below her.

"You're such a pretty cat, aren't you," you cooed. Tanie meowed as you ran a hand through her fur, marveling at how soft she was. Clearly, Minseok took good care of her. 

"Don't go stealing my familiar from me," Minseok joked, looking up from where he sat reading through a thick book. His reading glasses threatened to slip down the bridge of his nose, and he quickly pushed them back up. 

"What is a familiar, anyways? A pet?"

"It's a lot more than a pet," Jongdae said, sitting up in his armchair. "A familiar has their own magic. They're meant to help a witch get in touch with the craft, to support their power. Once a familiar chooses their partner, the bond lasts for a lifetime." He grinned as Dotori's bushy tail tickled at the nape of his neck, the chipmunk sitting perched on his shoulder. "It's a deep friendship that lasts for centuries." 

"Centuries?" Your eyes widened in disbelief. "How old can witches be?" 

"Very old," Minseok said quickly.

Jongdae smirked, leaning forward in his seat. "Grandpa over there gets sensitive when it comes to age. I'm the youngest, and I barely had my 100th birthday a few years ago." 

"A hundred?" you exclaimed. Tanie flinched at the sound of your voice, pupils shrinking to tiny pinpoints before she lay back down again. 

"But you look so young! You hardly look any older than I do." A soft chuckle from behind you caught your attention, head whirling around to see Baekhyun amused by your reaction. 

"Something about practicing the craft prolongs our lifespans," he said. "It keeps ancient people like Minseok alive enough to be a hun — "

Minseok leaped at him, the heavy book falling out of his lap as he threw his hands over Baekhyun's mouth. "Say another word, I dare you," he grumbled. 

Baekhyun's body shook with laughter, eyes turning to crescent moons as he weakly pushed the other man off of him. His cheer was infectious, and gladly welcome after the stressful couple of days you all had. The four of you had been poring over books, starting with the revered family grimoires and moving on to the rest of the books in the library in search of a remedy. So far, you hadn't found anything that would rid Sehun of his illness. 

At least the witches were comfortable around you now.

The animals had been the first ones to completely warm up to you, Dotori taking a spot on your shoulder whenever she wasn't with Jongdae. Mongryong was always trying to drag you outside to play, while Tanie was content with sitting on you for hours as you pet her. 

Seeing how attached their familiars were with you already, it was only a matter of time before you got close to the witches as well. Minseok had been the first one you felt comfortable around, which didn't come as a surprise since he had been taking care of you since your arrival. You had befriended Jongdae over your mutual love of teasing Dotori, which annoyed the chipmunk to no end. 

Even Baekhyun, cold and closed-off, was beginning to warm up to you. He was still quiet and reserved around you more than the others, but he managed to start up small conversations here and there. No longer did you have sit in a room with him and feel stifled by the awkward silence. Plus, having Jongdae and Minseok around always helped to bring out his playful personality.

It came as a relief that the three witches were starting to trust you. It was strange to realize that if things had been different, if the king hadn't supported the persecution of thousands of witches, you might have befriended the coven years earlier. 

Minseok finally gave up on attacking Baekhyun, confident that the clairvoyant wouldn't be disclosing his age any time soon. "I hate to say it, but I haven't found anything yet that I think would cure the prince — not even the slightest bit. Illnesses of this degree usually require cures in the form of stronger, riskier magic." 

Jongdae hummed in agreement, full of regret as he eyed the stack of books lying at his feet. "Neither have I." Throughout your search, both men had taken the time to explain why certain spells or concoctions wouldn't work for Sehun, Minseok drawing from his knowledge of potion-making and Jongdae from his affinity for spell-casting.

"We have to keep looking," you replied, carefully reaching out for your family grimoire. Tanie climbed out of your lap as you replaced her empty spot with the thick tome, running a hand over the cover. You had pored over the pages day after day, unable to find anything that would serve as a remedy for Sehun's specific symptoms. 

"The answers may not be in these books," Minseok continued slowly, sensing how your anxiety was starting to bubble up. "But there is still something that we haven't tried."

"What is it?"

Minseok glanced over at Baekhyun, raising an eyebrow. "The full moon is in a few days. Perhaps the scrying stone will show you something that will help us."

A small frown settled on your lips. "But it hasn't shown us anything that we can use." 

Baekhyun had already tried, locked in his room with only Mongryong for company as the rest of you waited outside. The stone hadn't been very helpful, only predicting a few changes in weather patterns and pesky bugs and animals threatening to eat through Minseok's garden sometime soon. You weren't sure what Baekhyun did when he was scrying, but you were already able to tell how fickle the skill was. The scrying stone always varied in what it chose to show, a few seconds of the future at one time, a few minutes the next. The only thing Baekhyun could do was wait and watch. 

"A witch's power is at its highest during the full moon," Baekhyun explained. “It's become tradition for us to hold a ritual on the night of the full moon, to get in touch with the full extent of our magic."

"Do you think it'll work? That the crystal will lead us to a cure?" you added, eyes widening hopefully.

Baekhyun paused, searching for the right words. "I don't know,” he replied truthfully. "But I have a good feeling about it."

"Don't worry, little witch," Jongdae piped up. "Baekhyun's too modest about his abilities. The full moon's never failed him before." 

You nodded, even as Baekhyun glared at his friend. "Okay. I trust you — all of you." 

Baekhyun's expression softened, the genuine honesty in your words stirring up an emotion he hadn't felt in a while. He hadn't felt hope like this in ages, a feeling so strong, it was all-consuming.

It was almost like magic.

With a determined glint to his eye, Baekhyun stood up to stare out the window at the darkening afternoon sky. It would only be a couple of days before the full moon was upon them, whether they were ready or not. 

"We'd better start preparing as soon as possible," Baekhyun murmured. "Gather all of the materials that we need." 

"Is there anything that I can do to help?" you offered. Magic wasn't your thing, but helping prepare for the full moon? Maybe something you would have better luck with.

Baekhyun met your gaze, a full moon of his own nestled in his left eye. It never failed to surprise you how strikingly beautiful both of his eyes were — the brown and blue complementing each other. 

"Are you sure?" he asked. "You don't need to force yourself to participate in the ritual, much less help prepare for it." 

You shook your head. "It's no bother to me," you admitted. "I want to learn about my family's craft. Plus, it'll help keep me from getting too tangled up in my worries."

Baekhyun quickly glanced over at the other two witches, all of them aware of the couple of times they had found you deep in thought, fighting internally with your own struggles and concerns. "Alright," he said.

"Let's get started." 

It was amazing how much time was spent preparing for the ritual in the following days. You hadn't realized how much of practicing witchcraft actually consisted of gathering necessary materials. Minseok had taught you how to gather specific herbs to be burned during the ritual, venturing into the forest with you and Tanie. Some items needs to be picked at certain times, like a handful of yellow dandelions plucked early in the morning right as the sun began to rise. Others were less difficult to find, like a couple of bay leaves from the witches' garden. 

Jongdae noticed how you took interest in the strange writing that you couldn't read, and offered to teach you how to read the language of the ancients. It was hard going at first, especially with getting used to a completely different set of written symbols in addition to an entirely new language. But soon enough, you were able to recognize certain letters of the alphabet here and there, much to Jongdae's delight.

While the other two witches taught you about specifics of the craft, Baekhyun took it upon himself to inform you about each step of the full moon's ritual. The four of you would set out late at night, setting everything up before starting the ritual at midnight. The full moon ritual was known for being extremely draining, but Baekhyun assured you that all of it was worth it for the results. 

"Using magic on the night of the full moon, it's like nothing else. But it'll be a long night," he warned as both of you sat at the kitchen table. "We might not be back until dawn."

"I'll be fine," you told him, crushing some dried herbs that Minseok had brought up from the cellar. "Nothing like sitting in the cold, dark forest all night." 

Baekhyun smiled to himself as you continued to crush the herbs with a mortar and pestle — a task that Minseok had assigned to you. "Make sure you don't fall asleep. It's important that all of us are awake and focused." 

"Even if I don't have any magic?"

"Even so. Any break in concentration could interrupt the ritual, cut off access to our power."

You gulped in worry, the importance of the ritual creating cracks in your confidence. Tonight was the night, and it was only a few hours away before the four of you would be heading outside. 

Baekhyun eyed you warily, noticing how quiet you had gotten. "It's not too late to back out, if you're afraid."

"I'm not afraid," you replied stiffly. "Just nervous."

"Isn't that the same thing?" The witch laughed when you glared at him, a sight that you still couldn't get used to. "I mean it, Princess. You don't have to participate if you don't feel like it."

You pouted at his choice in nickname for you. It had caught on with all three of the witches, even as you protested and explained that just because you were the crown prince’s cousin, you weren’t necessarily a princess. As much as you complained, you hated to admit that the nickname was already growing on you. 

"If I'm not ready now, I don't know if I'll ever be." You returned to crushing the herbs in your bowl with renewed vigor, much to Baekhyun's amusement. 

"What's bothering you?" he asked, watching lazily with his arms propped up against the wood of the table. 

You worked away in silence for a bit, as if you hadn't even heard his question. "It's just that I have so many ideas about what I'm hoping will happen, and what if none of that turns out to be true? What if this is just another dead end?"

Baekhyun twiddled his fingers as he thought, the mole on his thumb disappearing and reappearing in between the movements of his hands. "It might be," he replied honestly. "I've learned that even with all of its power and potential, sometimes magic doesn't come to us in the ways that we want." 

The sudden shift in the mood had you pause in the middle of your work, stopping the rhythmic beating of the pestle. "What do you mean?" you asked carefully. 

Baekhyun raised his left eyebrow, the one curved over his blue eye. "Do you know what it means for someone in the Byun clan to have blue eyes?"

You shook your head. His mismatched eyes had intrigued you from the start, wondering what could cause such a unique contrast in colors, and yet you were too shy to ask.

"It's a sign of clairvoyance. My great-great-great-grandmother was the most skilled of our clan. I've heard that she had eyes so light, they almost looked white. She was powerful, not only able to see the future, but to change it as well. You can imagine my disappointment when I didn't even get the standard blue eyes of the Byun clairvoyants — just one." Baekhyun laughed dryly, sarcastically. 

"But one is better than none," you argued weakly. "I mean, you have the ability."

"I do, but not as much as I wish I did. Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with this other eye." He pointed at the pool of warm brown in his right eye, thinking of another person dear to him who once had eyes in the same brown color. "The same as my mother's," he added softly. 

Baekhyun coughed suddenly, sitting up and running a hand through his hair. "It's just always lingering in the back of my mind, you know? The fact that no matter how hard I try, I don't have the same abilities that my grandmother had."  

"It might also be a good thing," you ventured. "It's not fair to have to live up to someone else's fame." With a shrug, you reached down to wipe your palms on your apron. "Sehun may be ill, but he's still a prince — and the only heir, to top it off. All his life, he's been groomed to be the perfect prince, the one to carry on the legacy of his family. But Sehun's not his father, or his grandfather, or anyone else. It's unfair to expect him, and you, to live up to meet standards that were set by someone else. The most that we can hope for is to be the best that we allow ourselves to be." 

Baekhyun sat stunned by your sage advice. He had decades of experience on you, and yet you seemed so much wiser. Perhaps you weren't as naive as he thought. "Thank you," he said softly. 

"You're welcome." And there it was again, another side to Baekhyun that you hadn't seen before. It made you wonder how much he and the others were learning about you as well, if they were just as surprised by what they discovered. 

You weren't the only one learning something new everyday. And yet, there was still so much to discover. 

The witching hour was almost upon you, much to your anticipation. Baekhyun was upstairs carefully wrapping up the scrying stone for the short journey the four of you would be taking, while the rest of you waited downstairs. Mongryong waited patiently at your feet, short stump of a tail wagging back and forth. 

Unluckily for poor Mongryong, your attention was on Jongdae. He stood beside you, black cape and pointed hat on as Dotori scurried up from his shoulder. She made her way onto his hat, perched on the edge even as it began to droop down. With a short squeak, she began running around over the fabric, much to Jongdae's dismay.

"Hey, quit it!" Jongdae exclaimed, his shouts turning to giggles as the chipmunk scrambled down from his head. In a flash, she disappeared down the back of Jongdae's robes, rendering him a mess or flailing limbs and laughter. 

You and Minseok watched on fondly, laughing at the sight of the chipmunk's tickle attack. Dotori reappeared at the collar of Jongdae's robes, tiny nose twitching in glee as she snuggled against him. 

"Yeah, yeah. You can try and be all cute with me, but it won't work." Despite his words, Jongdae scooped the tiny fluff of a chipmunk up and indulged her in a few berries. "What did I say about playing around on my hat? You could fall off and hurt yourself." 

Dotori only gave a small squeak before turning her attention back to her snacks. "Are all familiars as fond of their owners as she is?" you inquired, meeting the animal's eyes.

"Most are. I've heard of a few that are indifferent, but even those are fiercely loyal to their bonded." Jongdae shrugged. "No pairing is the same." 

"Which is a relief," Minseok added with a wide grin. "I don't think I'd be able to handle either Dotori or Mongryong's energy." He leaned down to kiss the top of Tanie's head, the feline resting easily in his arms. 

"I leave for two minutes, and you take this opportunity to insult my familiar?" Baekhyun's voice carried down the staircase as he descended. A bag was slung over his shoulder, presumably with the crystal inside. A midnight-blue robe was draped over his body, the fabric rippling smoothly with every step. 

Mongryong dashed over to Baekhyun with a cheerful bark, smothering the witch with love as he jumped up against Baekhyun's legs. It was endearing to see how close the witches were with their familiars — from Jongdae's playful relationship with Dotori, to Minseok's easy companionship with Tanie, and Baekhyun and Mongryong's intense loyalty to each other. Funnily enough, they reminded you of how close you and Sehun were. 

"Everyone's ready, then?" Jongdae asked, drawing you out of your thoughts. 

You nodded, even as you checked to make sure that all of the herbs and candles were tucked away neatly in your bag. The others would have things to carry as well, and you wouldn't hear of them shouldering heavy bags through the forest while you were left with nothing. 

The four of you left the warmth and comfort of the house and went out into the frigid night air, goosebumps immediately rising on your skin. You turned to see Minseok putting his own pointed hat on to match Jongdae, while Baekhyun pulled the hood of his robe over his head. 

"Why do you wear head coverings during the rituals?" you asked curiously, glancing from person to person. You had read about the tradition of wearing head coverings during the full moon rituals in one of the witches' books, but it had provided no explanation as to why. 

The brothers shared a look, but Baekhyun simply shrugged. "No real reason. It's just fun." 

Your brows jumped up in disbelief. "They're not important in affecting how the ritual goes? You don't wear them to help harness your magic?"

Baekhyun chuckled. "It's a hat, Princess. Or a cloak, in my case. It's not going to have any effect on our magic."

"Then why do you do it?" you spluttered out.

"Just for the fun of it." Noticing your flabbergasted expression, all three men burst into laughter. 

"I don't see what's so funny," you grumbled in your embarrassment. "According to your reasoning, I could be out tonight wearing a handkerchief on my head, and it wouldn't make any difference." "You could, but that would be ridiculous." Baekhyun's lip curled into a smirk. 

"No more than wearing a hat for no reason." 

Minseok interrupted, wanting to settle the squabble and actually get some work done. "The ancient witches wore headcoverings to protect their identities as they snuck away to meet up in the middle of the night. Now, they're more of a fashion statement." He chuckled, tugging on Baekhyun's blue hood. "Now come on, before we lose our chance. We don't have time to wait for the next full moon."

That sobered everyone up quickly, your small group of witches heading even further into the forest. There were no paths, and most of the journey was spent walking carefully around obstacles with only the light of a lantern for help. Mongryong took on the task of scouting ahead, toddling off into the brush ahead as the rest of you followed. Jongdae even began singing to himself softly to keep himself awake, Baekhyun's voice weaving and blending in to harmonize with the other's. The night chirpings of insects hidden away in the forest added to their music, creating an unexpected melody. 

You began to wonder if they were heading back to the stream where you first met Dotori. Mongryong let out a small yip of excitement as he wove back and forth between a cluster of bushes and trees. You followed after him, curious about what had gotten him so eager. 

You ducked around a few low-hanging branches, pushing past the last of the greenery only to be rendered speechless in awe by what lay on the other side.

Where you had been expecting a slow moving river was instead a large body of still water, the moonlight reflected perfectly on its smooth surface. The sound of the insects was even louder out here, although you couldn't spot another living creature apart from your small group. 

Mongryong walked to the water's edge, toeing the line but not going in. A sudden peal of laughter caught your attention, only to see Tanie mewling repeatedly as Minseok set her down on the pebbles that made up the lake's shore. The cat lifted up her paws gingerly, walking at an awkward angle as she scurried away back to the grass. 

"We've been doing this for years, and she still hates walking on the rocks every time," Minseok explained to you with a grin. "If she could have things her way, I'd be carrying her all night." 

Tanie finally relaxed as she reached the grass, settling down with her paws tucked underneath and her wise eyes watching over all of you. 

Time was of the essence, and the witches wasted no time in setting up. Baekhyun and Minseok got started on making a small fire while Jongdae went to gather water. You watched as he pulled out a bowl from his knapsack, dipping it into the pond. As he lifted it back up, the excess water spilled out from the edges, so luminous that you could have sworn he was collecting liquid moonlight. 

With steady, careful steps, Jongdae began to walk in large circles around the area where the rest of you were setting up, his pointed hat bobbing with each step. He was whispering to himself, casting a spell as he dipped his fingers into the bowl of water and letting the droplets fall to the ground every couple of steps. From what you had learned, the water was used to cleanse, to purify the area and to get it ready for the ritual. This was done to keep the magic contained, and to set up protection for the witches inside. 

"Y/N, the herbs," Minseok said. You pulled out the small pouch of herbs that you had collected and ground up, proud of your contribution to the ritual. He opened the pouch up just as Baekhyun managed to get a flame going over the tiny pile of dry brush and twigs, a proud smile lighting up the clairvoyant's face. 

"Perfect," Minseok breathed out, reaching inside the pouch and slowly letting the ground herbs fall into the fire, immediately producing a sharp fragrance that tickled your nose. 

Baekhyun sat down on the bumpy, rock-blanketed ground and rummaged through his bag for his scrying stone. He pulled it out delicately, handling the rounded crystal with extreme care. Mongryong, finally done with playing at the edge of the lake, faithfully came over to lay down beside his owner. The corgi's eyes were fixed on the small crystal, waiting patiently. 

You were just as entranced as Mongryong, not knowing what to expect. The crystal hadn't changed in appearance, even as Baekhyun ran his hands over it, eyes closed in concentration. 

Jongdae shook out the last drops of water in his bowl before sitting down on your other side, four witches and a couple of familiars forming a ring around the small fire. "We're ready," he stated, adjusting the brim of his hat. 

Minseok nodded, continuing to toss the ground-up herbs into the hot flame until none were left. Wordlessly, he reached out to Jongdae and Baekhyun, the other two immediately linking hands with him. You were startled to see them extend their hands towards you as well, waiting for you to complete the circle. 

The queasiness in your stomach wasn't because you were scared of the witches — nothing could be farther from the truth. Instead, you were scared of the unknown. This could be your last real chance to find a way to save Sehun, to revive the brightness and vitality to his face that had slowly waned over time. If this didn't work, you weren't sure how you'd be able to deal with it. 

But hope was all you had now. Hope, and magic.

You linked hands with the others, Jongdae's still slightly cold from the water while Baekhyun's was warm from sitting close to the fire. 

Minseok closed his eyes and began to speak in the old language — the language of the ancient witches. A sudden chill ran down your spine, an unfamiliar tingling sensation prickling over your skin. The feeling almost made you let go, but Jongdae and Baekhyun held on tightly to your hands.

Was this what sorcery felt like?

The cold prickling sensation faded, leaving behind an unusual feeling that seemed to spread throughout your body. It was warmth and comfort all wrapped up in one, and yet left the hairs on your skin standing straight up. 

You weren't sure how long the four of you sat there, hands clasped tightly while Minseok chanted under his breath. Baekhyun's earlier warning about staying away kept poking at you in the back of your mind, and you made an effort to keep your eyes open. You didn't dare to look at the others, staring down at your legs crossed beneath you for fear of getting distracted and losing focus.

After what felt like centuries later, Minseok opened his eyes. The after-effects of the ritual still lingered,  the magical warmth keeping you cozy even as you sat outside in the cold.

The others finally let go, Baekhyun's hands immediately finding their way to the crystal resting in his lap. He cupped it with both hands, eyes fluttering closed as he inhaled deeply. 

You let out a soft gasp as the crystal began to glow, swirling clouds appearing inside the tiny sphere. Even Mongryong was staring at it, his rounded eyes staring solemnly as everyone waited. 

"It may take a while," Jongdae whispered to you. "Don't worry." 

"What do we do?" you asked. 

Jongdae stretched his arms up high above his head, letting out a long breath of air. "Now, we wait." 

Honestly speaking, you were getting fed up with waiting. But you had learned by now that there was no rushing when it came to witchcraft. However, it didn't mean that you weren't bored.

Minseok had pulled out his reading glasses and taken another look through your family grimoire, even as you worried about him reading next to the fire. "I'll be fine," he waved you off easily, all too immersed in the book. 

Jongdae had been content with giving Dotori small treats every so often, but eventually began to show signs of boredom as well. Both of you started up an impromptu game of seeing who could build the tallest pebble tower, stifling hushed giggles while Minseok rolled his eyes from across the fire. The game was quickly abandoned once a pebble fell over, clattering against the rocky floor as you and Jongdae both looked up to see Baekhyun's reaction.

The witch didn't move, although you could have sworn that there were wrinkles between his eyebrows that weren't there before. 

It was absolute agony to wait for news — good or bad, but you supposed it was even worse for Baekhyun. Every so often, he would mumble to himself, the rest of you leaning in to hear what he had to say. Most of it was indecipherable, and the few words that you did catch didn't seem to make any sense. 

All of a sudden, Baekhyun let out a loud gasp, eyes flying wide open. Mongryong immediately jumped up and began nosing at his hands. 

"What? What is it?" Minseok demanded.

Baekhyun's hands were trembling, fingers tapping against the surface of the glass ball in an irregular rhythm. "A mountain," he said, voice so quiet you had to scoot closer to hear. 

"A mountain, and an entrance. There's books lining the inside, covering all of the walls — almost like a library. The Cave of the Ancients." He stared at the crystal without blinking, hypnotized by what he saw inside.

Minseok's eyebrows jumped up in disbelief. "It's real?"

"What is the Cave of the Ancients?" you asked hesitantly, not wanting to distract Baekhyun.

"A children's tale," Minseok replied in a hushed whisper as Baekhyun continued to stare into the crystal. "They say that this is where the oldest, most powerful secrets are kept. But no one's ever been, and there's no proof that it exists."

"I see an open field," Baekhyun continued, "Beyond the kingdom's reaches, by the sea. It's covered in mist, and..." Baekhyun groaned, eyes closing shut. His breathing started to become irregular, chest heaving with each breath of air. Even Mongryong was starting to get agitated, whining loudly. 

"Baekhyun, drop it," Jongdae exclaimed as Minseok reached forward to pry the clairvoyant's hands off of the crystal. You jumped in to help, Minseok finally managing to wrench Baekhyun's hands off of the sphere as you pulled it away. 

The scrying stone lost its haziness, returning to its original glassy appearance in your palms. 

Baekhyun was still panting, sweat beading on his pallid face as he pressed a hand to his chest. "I heard my mother," he gasped out. "She was in the field."

Jongdae's face turned white, mouth falling open in realization. "The Valley of Lost Souls."

With a low moan, Baekhyun nodded, head in his hands as Minseok tried to get him to drink from a canteen of water. 

Your blood ran cold with fear. "What does that mean?" you asked Jongdae. For Baekhyun to react like this, it must have been something terrifying. 

"In the myth about the Cave of the Ancients, it's said that to reach it, one must first pass through the Valley of Lost Souls. It's not supposed to be real." Jongdae ran a hand over his face, fingers stopping at his chin as he watched Baekhyun worriedly. 

"Neither is the Cave of the Ancients," Minseok added. He used some of the drinking water to dampen a rag, pressing the cold cloth to Baekhyun's forehead. "You're sure of what you saw?"

"It's like I was right there. She was calling out to me." Baekhyun's voice broke at the end. 

"But it wasn't her," Minseok reasoned calmly. "In all of the stories, the people in the Valley are only illusions, remember? They'll take your soul if you wander too far." He shook his head. "I don't like this. There has to be another way to find a cure." 

"We have to go. It's what the stone showed me, and there's been no other answer." A healthy pink flush was slowly returning to Baekhyun's skin, chasing away the eerie, chalky pallor that had been there only minutes ago. "We made a pact to save not only the prince, but the rest of the witches that still remain. We're doing this so that we don't have to hide in fear anymore, Min. It's a risk that we have to take."

Minseok sighed. "I'm worried, especially after what happened now. And besides, it's not just the three of us anymore." He turned to you, Baekhyun following his gaze. 

"I'm prepared for anything," you stated firmly. "But is it actually possible for us to find this place? You said it yourselves — this is a thing of myths and rumors."

"It was by the sea," said Baekhyun. 

Mirumi was the only kingdom bordering the sea, but it would also mean at least a week's journey — and going outside of Elyxere. You hadn't been outside of the kingdom since you were a small child, and that had been with your parents.  But you would travel to the ends of the Earth for your cousin. This was the closest you had gotten to finding an answer, and you wouldn't lose this chance.

Chin set in determination, you nodded. "I agree with Baekhyun, I think we should go. We all knew that this could be dangerous, but that shouldn't stop us. This is our only strong lead right now." 

Baekhyun smiled in relief, satisfied with your decision. "Jongdae?" 

The youngest witch sighed, glancing between his brother's face and Baekhyun's before nodding. "Sorry, Min. They've got a point." 

Minseok's shoulders slumped in defeat. "Alright. But," his voice hardened. "Staying safe is the most important thing. I'm not losing the rest of my coven." 

"Hey." Jongdae moved closer to his brother, resting an arm over his shoulders. "It's all going to be okay. We've got each other." 

Tanie meowed in agreement from her patch of grass, far away from your circle around the fire. The rest of you had practically forgotten about her during the events of the ritual.

"Thanks, you silly cat," Minseok replied with a wry laugh. "You won't even come walk on the rocks to comfort me?"

The white cat laid her head back down, tail lazily swishing back and forth behind her, much to everyone's amusement.

"We're going to need a wagon," Baekhyun said aloud. "It'll be impossible to ride on horseback with all of these familiars." He reached up to pet Mongryong, visibly relaxing as the corgi snuggled closer to him. 

"Then that'll be the first thing we do in the morning. But for now," Jongdae snuck a peek at you. "I think the princess might need a nap." 

You blushed bright pink. Was it that obvious that you were barely awake right now? 

The witches laughed at your surprise. "Don't worry, little witch," Jongdae told you. "The first full moon ritual is always the hardest. I'm surprised you managed to stay awake this long."

"I feel like I'm drop off to sleep any second now," you whined. 

"Alright, let's head back. We'll set off around midday, once everyone's gotten some rest," Minseok announced. 

As the fire was put out and all traces of the ritual cleared away, you still felt the lingering sensation of sorcery begin to fade away. Weariness began to set in — both from the long hours spent awake, and the thought of what lay ahead.

It was going to be a long, long journey, but it was one that you had to take. 

Tag list: @shesdreaminginoverdose​ and @bbyunz​ A/N: it’s been a month since I updated, but i’m so relieved to finally finish this chapter. i’ve been spending time going over my fic outline trying to figure out if I still need certain parts that I originally planned, and adding in new things that I didn’t have before. i want to say that this is the halfway point in the entire fic? it might be about 6 chapters and an epilogue (but like most of my writing plans, all things are subject to change haha)

also, even though i’m not writing whole fics for jongdae anymore, i love getting to write for him as a side character in this fic 🤣 cbx as witches might be my favorite characters that i’ve written (aside from spiderman jongdae and 1920s detectives cbx)

[elle-stevens]

The Break Up Blog - Day One Hundred and Forty Nine

My VPN is acting up again, so I’m blogging using my laptop tonight instead. 

It’s been nice doing lots of typing on my laptop in recent days. My Cat and Robbie story is taking shape in a delightfully romantic way. 

Who knew that Ariana Grande could be such a useful muse? I feel like a large portion of the world population could’ve clued me in on this fact a long time ago, hee hee. 

Today was my last official day at my old job. 

I took some time to walk around the school running track track and roam the hallways first thing in the morning. It felt surreal poking my head in through the doors of the homerooms where I taught so many of my students English, or tried to teach them at least. 

I felt a bit like a ghost in a haunted house since most of the students are officially on holiday now and the classrooms were eerily empty. 

After that, the day whizzed by with me helping C prepare some materials for her Murder/Detective winter vacation class. Lol, she’s really stoked about getting ready for police training when she goes back to the States in a month, so she’s turning her old students into miniature police detectives investigating crime scenes. 

It’s an unusual concept for a children’s class, but I’m sure they’re having a blast learning new life skills from C. Plus, filling mini ziplock bags with powdered sugar and pretending it was cocaine was priceless! 

When it finally came down to leaving, I went around my whole office to greet my colleagues one last time. It felt good to do that, even with my colleagues I barely interacted with for two years. I wanted all of them to know in some way that any help or kindness they gave me has always been greatly appreciated. 

It felt nice showing a bit of my emotions at work and hugging my colleagues and exchanging Wechat contacts with a few of them. I hope they won’t forget me; I hope I won’t forget them either. 

CI walked me out of school too because he didn’t want me to walk outside alone after saying goodbye to everyone, which was very thoughtful of him. And then he even hugged me goodbye outside the bus station near our respective homes, which surprised me in a good way. CI’s even more reserved than me and not big on expressing affection through physical contact. So I wasn’t planning to hug him goodbye today because I wanted to respect his personal boundaries. So it was nice that he broke his usual rules with me. Even though we only worked together for a year, I’m glad I met him. He’s such a great guy and become a good friend over time. I hope that he’ll still reach out whenever he needs help with stuff or just wants to chat. I’ll do my best to look out for him this year, especially with C heading back to the States. I’ll do the same with AS too since PE and his wife will be moving to the States too at the end of his work contract in August. 

I went to the bank afterwards to withdraw some cash and just walked around near my neighbourhood for a bit. I felt pretty sad and lost after leaving my workplace. This is a new chapter in my life and I’m still not quite sure how to feel about it. 

I got home and opened a gift and read a letter that one of my colleagues gave me yesterday. I just broke down and cried a for a while after that. The letter itself was simple enough, but the sentiment just wrung my insides out like a wet sponge. I sent some voice messages to other colleagues I didn’t get a chance to see before I left. 

CH, G and D messaged me throughout the day, which was good too. I avoided messaging my loved ones all day because I was feeling emotional about my last day at work and wasn’t ready to delve into it just yet. But I’m glad they broke down my emotional barriers to check in on me. It’s nice to know that I have so many people in my life who are constantly looking out for me. 

I sent H a voice message too even though we saw each other before we both left the office today. She left earlier than me because she had to go home and pack, she’s going back permanently to Korea. She’ll come back to China briefly next month, so hopefully we can have a meal or coffee together before she departs for good. I finally told her that X and I broke up and she was very sweet and encouraging about it, telling me I deserved better and that I’ll be ok in the end. 

Even if I let H confirm her strange ‘Columbo-esque’ suspicions about my breakup bordering on practicing witchcraft (H legit guessed at all the right reasons why X and I broke up months when she gossipped about it with C without me telling her anything, it was freaky!), I feel ok about it now. I don’t want to hold onto any more bad feelings that happened at work, in either a professional or personal sense. I’m also glad I told H that she did a great job as our manager last year, even if it wasn’t always the case. I don’t want her to go away from our school feeling like she failed at managing all of us. She has a lot of good points and overall, she was still a great colleague to work with the past two years.  

I also told PE and AS more about what went down with X. We ended up at a bar after having a farewell dinner for all the teachers leaving my school last night. I was intoxicated at that point and the three of us were talking about sex and relationships. They were very sympathetic and it meant a lot to get some things off my chest. Maybe by telling more people about what happened with X, I’m slowly freeing myself from the burden of carrying her haunting memory with me everywhere I go. 

She’s invading less of my thoughts these days, especially when I’m feeling horny. That’s been very helpful not having X’s face pop into my head at awkward moments. I still think of her from time to time. It’s mostly negative thoughts about how much she sucks as a person. Other times, they’re sweet memories about little things she did that made me smile or made me happy in general. 

She was my first properly long-term relationship; of course I’m going to carry her with me for a little while longer. 

At least till I meet someone new that I love for a lot longer than X. 

A part of me thinks that I’m ready to fall in love again. 

But then I have moments like last night where I’m wandering around drunk in my city for the umpteenth time in 6 months and I feel like just another lost soul who doesn’t want to let love into my heart again. 

My birthday is coming up next week and I’ve decided to have a simple birthday dinner with my friends on Saturday instead of Wednesday, which is when my real birthday happens. I’m still not ready to acknowledge the day, as shitty as that sounds. 

It is pretty bad considering I’m lucky to be alive. Not in the sense that something bad happened to me and I almost died, but in the sense that it’s a blessing to live out a new day every single day. Instead I’m treating my birthday like it’s something horrible and disgusting, like it wasn’t one of the few things that my parents actually did right together as a couple. 

Ok, that sounded so much weirder out of my head and in written form, but you all know what I mean. 

My point is that I should be happier I get to celebrate another birthday. I’m being an idiot just because I’m turning 35, I’m single and living away from home while celebrating my birthday. 

Hence why I’ll still celebrate my birthday with my friends, but maybe just have a ‘me’ day on my real birthday. And I can still call my family on my birthday and celebrate with them. 

So yeah, I’m taking baby steps on the road to happiness and finding newer and healthier ways to deal with my issues. My therapist is out of commission these days because she has Stage 0 breast cancer and had surgery recently. So she’s recuperating at home and not seeing her patients till February so her medical insurance pays out as promised. That’s ok with me, I’m putting on my ‘big girl pants’ and trying not to need her for anything till I see her in person in February when I go home to see my family. 

So in the meantime, I’ll try not to indulge in self-destructive behaviour from now on. After my birthday, I’m going to stave off drinking for a while too. I need to take better care of my health in light of my gastritis. I just hope I can get better medication to help me with my acid reflux and dry mouth in the future. 

I made spaghetti bolognaise for dinner and slept for a few hours. Now I’m up blogging and chatting to different people through SNS. I have to get up early tomorrow to do a health check for my new Chinese work visa for this year.I hope everything goes well at the hospital since my Mandarin is still pretty shite. I hope I can get enough rest and hopefully take another nap tomorrow when I get back from the hospital. 

What? 

I have a month to myself before I visit my family in South Africa. I’m definitely going to celebrate that fact by catching up on sleep, my ever elusive friend. 

I’m a bit too tired to type up more of my new story now, but I broke my 7-year streak of not writing fanfics at work this week. So in-between cleaning out my work cupboard and cleaning my work desk, I typed up my Cat and Robbie romance, tee hee. 

Alright, time for bed. Sleep and peaceful thoughts are coming to me more easily these days now that I’m moving on gradually from all the bad shit that happened in 2019. 

For now, things are good :-)

[katatty]

Recap: Veronaville Round 4 (Spring)

Just remembered I haven’t done an recap for the Veronaville round I recently completed yet, oops! Better late than never? For any new followers, this is a summary of everything important that went on during this spring rotation! I have a recap page HERE, if you want to read about what else has been going on in this neighbourhood. More general info here. Once I finish this round of my Hollyhead BACC I’ll be continuing with Pleasantview Plus - next up will be more college, followed by Downtown.

Yikes - this was an eventful round! Feels like it went on forever, haha! It’s actually only been 4 months though, which is a lot better than the 10 months Strangetown took... 

Started the rotation with Chloe and Nina’s house. It’s Spring and Chloe was taking full advantage of the romantic season to finally try and nail down that 20 Woohoos LTW. She went on a bit of a romance rampage including numerous townies, Ripp Grunt, and even her brother’s girlfriend. 

She and Nina also had some adventures as a couple, inviting the Summerdreams over for some redheaded bisexual action.

Unfortunately all this lovin’ distracted her from work a bit and she ended up getting fired - leading to some insecurity in her relationship with Nina, who was racking up promotions in her job at the Monty restaurant. 

They talked it out, though, and Nina was nothing but supportive. Communication wins! 

After that, Chloe decided the time had come to propose - and Nina said yes!!

There was some trouble brewing, however... 

Next up was Antonio’s branch of the Monty family! 

Beatrice kicked things off by asking Buck Grunt to go steady, which totally threw me for a loop.

Benedick was still going steady with Bo Summerdream.

All was going well between them, until his best friend Hal Capp revealed she’d been seeing him on the side. Ben was not happy!!!

Antonio was exploring his options and starting to date a little, too. Nina Caliente took him on a few dates. 

In the end, though, it was Florence Delarosa who captured his heart.

He took her on a date to a pottery class, and proposed at the end of it!!

Meanwhile her local business was booming, and she hired recent graduate Emily Lee to help out in the shop.

Small bit of relevant college stuff - at Mercutio’s graduation party, Juliette caught Romeo cheating on her with Roxie Sharpe.

However, after talking it through with her and Jonah he decided to put things with them to and end and try and patch things up with Juliette. 

He proposed to her at their dorm and she accepted, on the condition that he took her name when they married. Juliette is savvy! 

At the Monty Ranch, Mercutio returns home to help his grandmother with the llama rearing. He’s now the de-facto heir, as Isabella is NOT happy about the engagement. 

He quickly discovered his Nonna hasn’t been too lonely without him and has befriended some other elder ladies. She, Dora Ottomas and Jenny Smith meet regularly for mahjong. Jenny flirts and little here and there...

His fiancee, Goldie Hart, visits regularly. 

Meanwhile Isabella gets bitten by the local leader of the pack, becomes and werewolf and turns Mercutio for good measure. That’ll keep things even with the Capps...

Then it’s over to the other side of the river... The Capps have noticed the recent expansion of the Monty side and, not to be outdone, have invested in a new set of shops on their side! They hope to attract small business owners and will be approaching a few of their residents about going into business.

The first of these is the Tinkers! Melody is exasperated as always with her parents and can’t BELIEVE they think now is a good time to open a toy shop. It’s not just that Melody hates toys… her little brother Timmy was born recently and she’s worried the new business won’t leave her parents with a lot of time to take care of him. Her parents act like a pair of big kids most of the time, and she often feels like the only responsible person in the house. It’s tough, sometimes! 

Her fears aren’t entirely unfounded. She leaves her parents unsupervised for half an hour, and look what happens! This is the THIRD fire I’ve had with these guys. It’s worth mentioning I play them ISBI style when they’re not at work doing business stuff, haha. 

Melody’s girlfriend Miranda is at college, but Melody misses her like crazy and rolls wants to see her almost every day. They’re in an open relationship for now, at least until they can close the distance gap...

She hangs out with Bo Summerdream a little, who flirts with her a bit...

Wanda and Stephen prove to be fantastic parents as always, ignoring their screaming infant in favor of cuddling for hours on end.

They do an okay job running the shop, though. Mostly.

They don’t seem too worried about the Montys spying on the enemy turf...

At Capp manor, Contessa has a stern word with her daughter Cordelia, who just doesn’t seem interested in taking over the family business.

However, the family witchcraft certainly piques her interest and she decides to start studying it! Good magic, of course. 

Tybalt returns from college and moves home, immediately getting a job in the business. It’s not his passion, but he florishes nicely there, and gets along great with his aunt/boss Goneril.

He also proposes to his boyfriend, Tiave Tricou, and takes him home to meet the family. 

Juliette visits next for another word with dear old grandmother. They’re a little concerned about her engagement to Romeo, but agree to it as long as he takes on the Capp name and gives up his ties to his family.

Later that night, Caliban and Contessa get into a nasty fight. It’s the latest of many, and this time Contessa isn’t feeling forgiving! 

She casts a curse on him and has him killed by bees. 

Cordelia is heart-broken and immediately suspects her mother, not believing for a moment any of this was an accident. She shares these suspicions with Tybalt and he privately vows revenge, although she’s terrified for his safety and hopes he flees town.

In a complete change of tone, Denise decided to move to Veronaville with her son after their bakery in Bluewater Village went bust. They’re not sure why it flopped… maybe because Yves was the only one who could bake? Maybe because Gilbert was dating multiple employees at once, and they all quit when they found out? Veronaville was Denise’s pick for 3 reasons.

Nobody knows who they are, so they can pretend to be from Champ Les Sims! That way customers are bound to trust Denise’s croissants…

The Capp family are offering excellent business loans, hoping to improve tourism in the area. 

Since there are so many multi-generational families here, women might not be put off my Gilbert living with his mother! Denise is sick and tired of Gilbert playing the “I live with my mother” card whenever the threat of long term commitment looms. 

Their round is mostly all business, with Gilbert dating around a bit. 

He even asks out recently widowed Bella Goth a few times. She keeps saying no initially but when they have a chance meeting on a community lot she initiates things!

Denise, who I gave a romance secondary, also finds time for romance! She dates local criminal mastermind Rich Mann, partially in response to receiving threats from the Montys. 

Denise and Gilbert both keep rolling wants to learn hairdressing and Crystal Vu keeps wandering by, leading to endless makeover disasters...

Sorry, Crystal. They get it right eventually. 

Monica Bratford (Puck’s fiancee) starts renting a place, although she won’t be played until next round...  she’s looking forward to opening her own boutique in town and starting up her new range of cruelty free makeup products.

The house next to her is being rented by fellow graduates Brittany Upsnott & Ellen Frost! Britt wants to be a journalist and Ellen plans on going into law.

At Goneril’s branch of the Capp family, Desdemona and Hal bond on their terrible decisions in love. Des has a crush on her straight BFF Beatrice Monty and Hal has a thing for Benedick, who he worries he’s completely messed things up with forever. 

He needn’t worry, though. To my sheer amazement when Benedick came over they started joking and laughing like everything was totally fine and Hal never stole his girlfriend? I guess they just can’t stay mad at each other...

Des gets a bit of a makeover! To her surprise, Goneril approves. She’s been trying to go easy on her kids, lately.

Hal and Bo continue dating, but the differences between Capps and Summerdreams are starting to show. She’s not remotely impressed or interested in his new job...

Academie Le Tour like what they see, though. Between perfect A+ grades, topping his career in a single day, mastering dance (ballet) and maxing the creativity skill he is moneyed up ready for college!!!  He’s got the “Become the Law” LTW and I’ve no doubt he’s going to be a huge success as the corrupt Capp family lawyer.

So he was off to Académie Le Tour. Hal felt a little sad to be leaving town without fixing things with Ben properly, but maybe the distance would do them good. Bo was coming along to the same university as him, but we wasn’t sure what was going to happen with them. Things had been kind of rocky, understandably, the way they got together was all wrong and it just didn’t feel right without Ben in the picture… ugh.

Perhaps at college he could have a more sensible, drama-free love life? Or, better yet, he could stop worrying about relationships and focus on his studies! Yeah, that sounded great. He’d work hard, graduate with honors, start his own law firm, and worry about marriage and kids later, maybe when the family found a good match for him.

Des does a lot of good big-sister-ing, single handedly raising Lysander and talking Ariel through gender identity questions.

Goneril gets the promotion she’s been hoping for. It was her dream, she’d always thought. It was her dream.

And yet she wasn’t completely satisfied. When she’d imagined running the company, it wasn’t as a co-partner to a reanimated zombie of her mother. And she’d envisaged herself as the owner of the company, not simply doing all the hard work while her niece reaped in the rewards.

Albany, who aged up recently, talks Goneril through her insecurities, and assures her she’ll be on top (lol) some day. 

Ariel and Lysander grow up! Though their party is a total shitshow.

The Summerdreams are very same-old - Bo continues to slack off and the parents continue to make out all the time and neglect their kids.

She and Benedick Monty make the break-up official.

And so she spends a lot of time hanging out with BFF Lucy Burb instead. They dream of becoming criminal masterminds together someday... they do have pretty good chemistry and a slightly flirty dynamic, but neither of them has ever acted on it for fear of messing up the friendship. 

She dates Melody Tinker instead, which goes better than I expected! They fell in love and everything. 

Oberon and Titania got some “new” looks.  These two have centuries worth of clothing in their wardrobe…

Titania has a brief date with Chloe Curious, and asks her about her pregnancy. Chloe is cage-y initially, but is relived when Titania proposes she and Oberon adopt the baby. She and Nina don’t want kids, so it’s a perfect solution! 

Regan and Cornwall have a pretty decent marriage. It never used to be that passionate, sparks-flying-everywhere, can’t-get-enough-of-each-other love, but it’s grown a lot over the years. They’ve both supported each other through thick and thin, things in the bedroom have got gradually spicier, and become true partners in crime - at this point Regan doesn’t want to imagine life without him.

Their son Lear is a very dutiful, studious kid. He’s very moral and justice-oriented, for a Capp, and takes everything very seriously. He’s aware neither of his parents are law-abiding and isn’t too thrilled with it, but he’s sure he can talk them around someday…

It’s mostly quite an uneventful, homely round. 

She does go out for tea with her sisters, though, which leads to a few fireworks. Regan is horrified that her genie-wish has lead to so much suffering, and regrets brining back Contessa. 

Poor Goneril has a lot of pent up jealousy brewing, which she directs at Cordelia. 

They make up eventually, though :)

After a few more promotions and a particularly successful heist which lands Cornwall a hefty $20,000, the married couple decide to relocate Downtown. It’s a little closer to work, and a little further away from the family’s deadly drama...

At the end of the round, Romeo graduates and visits the family restaurant to invite everyone to the wedding. They’re not thrilled, and a shouting match ensues.

He’s very suborn and sticks up for Juliette, but the prospect of being disowned by his entire family rattles Romeo. Despite Mercutio and Bianca giving him their support, when the wedding day comes he’s hesitant.

He ends up running away from her at the altar,

Juliette chased after him, furious, and accidentally curses him. Romeo’s struck by lightning and dies. 

She’s momentarily horrified, but when confronted by Mercutio she quickly doubles-down, reigniting the Capp-Monty feud.

[xxbyimm]

Enya’s Unexpected Journey - Chapter 4

For all other chapters, click the number: 1, 2, 3,

Chapter 4

Summary:  Enya wants to join the company on their quest, but a certain stubborn dwarf leader gets in the way.

She told Bilbo she wanted to walk through Hobbiton and went out. The truth was she did not want to hear the discussion between Gandalf and Thorin. If the latter wouldn’t allow her on the trip… She sighted. Even she knew that dwarves could be very, very stubborn. If he did not want her, she wasn’t included. Simple as that. She hummed on of her favorite songs while she enjoyed strolling the lane Bilbo lived on. The crickets were chirping as loud as they could. The moon stood high in the sky. Enya wondered if Thorin liked her as much as she liked him. ‘God’ she muttered. ‘You don’t even know how dwarf relationships work!’ When she reached the end of the lane, she took a left turn and walked through the beautiful fields that surrounded the town. She decided to sit down on the soft grass. As she watched the stars in the dark sky, she thought about home. Would time work different in this world? Would they already miss her? For a moment, the thought of Jason, and him discovering that she was gone, made her homesick. Then she remembered his smug face when he told her he would be staying with Abbie for a couple of months. Again. To think about us, he had said. She growled. Think. Yeah, the last place where he would think about her would be in Abbie’s house. In her bed. She pitied poor Abbie, who took him back. Stupid girl. She angrily wiped away a tear that rolled down her cheek. She should not be thinking of this. She should not care one damn bit about what Thorin thought of her. Or any other man. Or dwarf, for that matter. Right now, she needed herself to be sane. She stood up. It seemed she was really stuck in this world. A tiny part of her hoped she would fall in a portal again and woke up in her own bed. But, because this wasn’t a dream or a fairytale, she supposed she should just go with it. She smiled. Perhaps a new beginning would turn out to be blessing.

When she got back, everyone was inside. She sighed and sat down on the bench before the window. She stared at her hand and reprocessed the information Gandalf had given her a few hours ago. Grandma Gigi a dwarf princess? She giggled. Maybe she was. And if that was true, she could even been a fire witch. Enya could not remember a situation where grandma Gigi ever used her supposed ‘skills’ to bend fire to her will. Not when she was around anyway. She shrugged when the palms of her hand suddenly started the burn. She stared at them and swallowed when the pain became more intense. ‘Am I getting ill?’ she muttered. It would not surprise her if she was infected with some mysterious disease. She moaned a little when one hand began to shake. What the hell?

Suddenly the door was opened and Thorin and Gandalf stepped through. Thorin shut the door with a hard smack and the wood protested when it was pushed back violently in its frame. ‘There is no point in discussing this.’ He said with a chillingly cold voice. ‘She cannot come. I don’t need a woman who cannot protect herself, let alone in a world unknown to her.’ ‘But I believe she can be helpful’ Gandalf tried. ‘ ‘Right!’ bellowed Thorin. ‘A burglar who isn’t a burglar. I trusted you on this one, but one supposed burglar is enough. I don’t need two.’ Enya stood up and folded her arms before she faced them. ‘Right.’ She said, in the most cutest and cringe worthy tone she could imagine. Thorin looked straight at her, but she saw no emotion in his eyes. She wanted to be polite, humble even, but when she felt the warm hot blood running up to her cheeks, she knew it was too late.

Her inner bitch was set loose. And her inner bitch knew no mercy.

She narrowed her eyes. ‘I am not scared of you’ she said with clenched teeth. ‘Pull up that wall and pretend to be a scary unfriendly bastard, but I am not buying that. Neither am I scared of this world. I can fight.’ ‘With what?’ he asked sarcastically. ‘Anything I can find’ ‘You didn’t seem to be able to defend yourself when I found you.’ He shot back. ‘Yes!’ Enya laughed. ‘That is the perfect example! Here I am, confused, only five minutes in this fucking place, made a pretty bad fall and then I’m expected to fight of the first person who grabs me, out of the fucking blue?’ ‘That is the point of being able to defend yourself’ he mocked. Enya was so furious she had to do something to channel her anger. She could not grab Thorin and scream in his face, so she chose to pace back and forth and breathe heavily while trying not to lose her mind. ‘It is absolutely ridiculous you assume women can’t fight. I fought of my fair share of men in the streets of New York. The kind that thinks they can call you names or touch you just because you happen to be there. I did not have a sword back then.’ She took a deep sigh. ‘I even wore HEELS too, for god sake!’ Both men stared at her with a blank face that told her they had no idea what she was talking about. ‘Right’ she quickly said. ‘Heels are very uncomfortable high shoes. They don’t really enable you to run, so that leaves only one option open.’ Her anger was only fueled by the thought of those nights she was harassed. ‘I fucking fought them off.’ Her left hand began shaking again, but she was so caught up in the situation that it did go unnoticed. ‘So’ Thorin said. ‘You might me skilled in your world, but that doesn’t ensure me that you can be helpful to my company. I need proof.’ He folded his arms and seemed very determined. Well, then he had to learn she could be very determined too. She gave him the most chilling look she could conjure. ‘Fine. You should have left me in the mercy of those orcs then.’ ‘But I didn’t’ he admitted. ‘No.’ Enya forced her lips into a devious smile. ‘I wonder why.’ She quickly looked at her hand when the pain began to be unbearable again. It was red hot and felt like it was on fire. Gandalf grabbed her hand and the look on his face made her terrified. ‘Have you encountered this before?’ he asked her softly. Enya shook her head. ‘No’ Gandalf exchanged a glance with Thorin. ‘This is what I told you about.’ He muttered. Thorin nodded, but said nothing. ‘What?’ asked Enya.

Another glance. None of them spoke. Enya pulled her hand from Gandalfs grip. She stormed inside and grabbed her coat. She was fuming and the pain in her hand darkened her mood even more. ‘I’ve had it’ she muttered. When she entered the front yard again, Thorin looked curiously at her. Enya smiled. ‘You know what guys, I’ll make this very easy. I’ve had it. I spent half of my lifetime doing things because others told me so. I’ve been broken, being cheated on and brought down numerous times. I’m not a second option, something you should drag along to see if I come in handy. I’ll make my own luck. I won’t allow anyone near me unless I want to.’ She stormed out of the gate. ‘Gentlemen’ she saluted. ‘Have a good trip.’ When she wanted to bring her arm down again, she was brought to stop when an enormous flame shot out of the palm of her hand. ‘WHAT THE FUCK!’ she screamed. She stared at her hand, which was actually on fire. It didn’t hurt as much as she expected it would. Actually, she felt nothing. What was this kind of a weird disease? It made her furious and fascinated at the same time. Her hands were shaking uncontrollably and all of the sudden the flame was gone. ‘WITCHCRAFT!’ screamed Dori. Enya looked at him. She did not remember him being outside. He was quick to judge. She clenched her fists together and howled in horror when the ground around her started to freeze. She quickly opened her hands. ‘SHE IS A WITCH!’ Enya teared up and in a reflex she shot something at Dori’s head. A loud thumb vibrated through Hobbiton. Enya was horrified when she saw a thick icicle sticking in the post of the door above Dori. Did she just do that? Meanwhile, Dori was trembling and pointed at her. ‘WITCH!’ ‘I am truly sorry’ she whispered and for a moment she had no idea what she should do. She had nowhere to go, so she rapidly walked down the lane. When she was out of sight, she started to run. She fought the tears until she saw entered the forest at the border of the shire. She hid in a bush and let it go.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thorin had sent everyone inside and prepared to search miss Enya himself. Maybe he had been harsh on her, but she had to understand that he could not grow soft. Everyone in the company had a job, a purpose. He could not drag everyone along. The moment he had laid his eyes on her, he had known he was terribly lost. He could not let that happen. Any distraction could be devastating. He hoped she could not guess how much he wanted to make her his. According to the ancient dwarf laws… He smiled. ‘Thorin!’ Thorin jumped and shot a glance at Gandalf, who apparently was at his side again. ‘Let her go.’ Gandalf said. Thorin grunted. Gandalf shook his head. ‘She’ll be back. She is just confused. She found her homeland, her destiny. The magic in this land is unlocking her powers, but she is untrained.’ ‘Can we…’ Thorin began. ‘No. She’ll be back when she is ready.’ The wizard stared in the darkness. ‘We have to trust her on that.’ Thorin sighted and resisted the urge to ignore the wizard and search miss Enya anyway. He had duties. He hoped she would find her way back to him. He marched inside and searched for Balin. ‘Has the hobbit already signed yet?’ he grunted. Balin shook his head. ‘No, he did not. I fear we have lost our burglar.’ Thorin sighted. It appeared that none of Gandalf optional additions to the company were going to last. ‘Maybe it is for the best.’ Balin mused. ‘What are we, Thorin? We’re merchants, tin makers, toy makers.’ Thorin smiled. ‘There are a few warriors among us.’ ‘Very old warriors’ said Balin. ‘Make an extra contract.’ Thorin ordered. ‘Why?’ Balin was his friend long enough to ask him such a question. Thorin scoffed, but decided to answer the question anyway. ‘Because miss Enya might return.’ He turned around and did not see the curious glance that Balin shot at him. He went outside again. He should get some sleep before they left at dawn, but he wasn’t tired. He stared into the way miss Enya disappeared an hour ago. She would find her way back. She had to.

[houseofvans]

Art School | Jenna Blazevich (Chicago,IL)

Designer and founder of Vichcraft Design Studio, Jenna Blazevich took the road less travelled–by ditching an offer to work her dream job–to pursue her own passion and creative freedom. Jenna’s designs are bold, clean and smart as well as technically and aesthetically masterful. Vichcraft Design Studio has allowed her to bring feminist works to the forefront, creating a  platform for important issues and topics. We’re so excited to have her on board for another year of Babes Ride Out, where she has designed a custom skate deck to be raffled off at the Babes East Coast event. In our latest Q&A, Jenna talks about how Vichcraft came about, gives us insights into running a business, and shares with us what she’s most excited about for this year’s 2017 Babes Ride Out! 

Photographs courtesy of the artist.

Could you introduce yourself? I’m Jenna Blazevich, the founder and designer behind Vichcraft Design Studio in Chicago, Illinois. With Vichcraft, I specialize in branding design for small businesses and nonprofits, design and produce a line of intersectional feminist products, and teach oblique calligraphy.

How did you hear about Babes Ride Out? What was your first ride out like? My introduction to Babes Ride Out was actually through a Chicago illustrator friend of mine Jourdon Gullett, who made a tee design for (I believe) BRO 2014. At the time, I didn’t ride a motorcycle yet, but immediately took an interest in what Babes Ride Out is about. I’d long wanted to learn to ride and get my m-class, since I’d grown up around motorcycles and had been dating my boyfriend who restores vintage bikes. My first B.R.O. wasn’t until a couple years later in Joshua Tree, and it was full of such great energy and camaraderie.

What’s your favorite thing about Babes Ride Out? What are you most excited about this year’s event? Babes Ride Out is such a great event because it’s born out of a real (and frustrating) need for more celebration and inclusivity around female motorcycle ridership. Plus, it’s a genuinely beautiful event in the way that the branding and merch and on-site installations are all thoughtfully crafted by people in their community. I won’t be able to attend the East Coast ride, but I’ll be sponsoring and participating in a ladies-only ride and campout in Chicago called Babes in Motoland this fall.

Your top five things to bring to Babes Ride Out? Water bottle for water Aluminum water bottle for extra gas reserve Sunscreen Basic tools + zip ties + first aid Girls to the front pins for new friends!

Tells us a little about Vichcraft.  How did you come up with Vichcraft? What was the inspiration behind it? Vichcraft, as a concept, was born in late 2015 when I had just turned 25 and received an offer to work full-time at my dream job. At the time, I had built up five years of experience freelancing on the side of jobs and school, and instead of taking on the dream job, I made a major shift into full-time self-employment. It was important to me that I come up with an ownable and memorable name for my new curated portfolio (I had previously been working under my first and last name, and published so many different projects that I had no identifiable specialty). I came up with the name “Vichcraft” because it’s a play on my last name (Blazevich), my love of hand craft, and of witchcraft and feminism.  

What’s it like to run Vichcraft? What are some of the most rewarding things and what things do you think folks might not realize about running a business? Running Vichcraft is a never-ending test of how much I can multi-task, remember things, plan ahead, and do my best to still be present. Since most of what I share on my website and on my social media accounts are finished projects, I’m not sure very many people realize how much time I spend on unglamorous, super boring and frustrating administrative stuff per day. I think it’s a common thing to fantasize about the freedom self-employment, but it’s so stressful to be the one person that every issue falls on 24 hours a day. Since I have this quality of hating to feel pigeon-holed into a specific thing, I created my line of product as a consistent outlet for myself to act as my own creative director and make work that I love and that pushes me to try out lettering styles that my clients don’t ask for.  It’s been really rewarding to have such an outstanding amount of positive responses to my products, and all of that has directly affected how much I’ve been able to grow my shop in it’s first year.

What’s your creative process like? How long does it take for the idea to reach fruition? My process is sort of all over the place, but I generally work very fast. I generally say that I work half on paper and half in the computer, and I like it best that way. Whether I’m working on a logo for a client, or I’m sketching a mural for an installation or designing a new patch for my shop, I always start with a bunch of thumbnail sketches in pencil. If the client is in charge of deciding which to concept finalize, I move on to vectorizing their logo in Illustrator either with my iPad and Apple Pencil, or with the pen tool and a mouse. If the project is something for my shop and I’m acting as Creative Director to myself, I can start with sketches for an initial idea in the morning, and be at the screen printing co-op I belong to working on printing the final product that night.

What are some of the important issues you address in your art? When was the first time you decided to combine that with your brand? Vichcraft has (understandably) always been very tied to me personally, and the causes, social issues, pieces of writing, and aesthetic styles that interest me as a person. The election year of 2016 was my second year of running Vichcraft, and I was (and am) still developing the most effective ways to use my skills, voice and platform to speak on topics that I’m passionate about. Post-election, it is still one of my main goals with Vichcraft to do whatever I can to contribute to organizations and projects that are working to resist and counter the moves being made by the current administration. Furthermore, it is extremely important to me that I create feminist work that is as inclusive and intersectional as possible, because feminism is currently being diluted in meaning by companies monetizing the movement, and by self-proclaimed feminists focusing on issues that only relate to women who look and live like themselves. Failing to consider other classes, identities, races, bodies, and religions when doing feminist work results in an inability to progress and unite in a collective fight, and the opposition gains more leverage as a result.

If you had to choose one of your designs as your favorite, which would it be and why? “The City Beautiful” piece that I made for Typeforce in January of 2015 was the first piece that I made under the name “Vichcraft,” and it’s still what I’m most proud of. It marked a significant and intentional shift into creating lettering work that more closely relates to the issues and topics that I personally care about. It also really challenged my ability to create sculpture work within a very tight timeline, as well as my writing skills for the initial proposal. It’s still the project that I’ve worked on under the name “Vichcraft” that I’m probably the most proud of.

Who are some of your favorite past and contemporary artists? Some of the artists who inspire me most are: Alphonse Mucha, Teagan White, Kathleen Hanna, Marian Bantjes, Laura Jane Grace, Doyald Young, Cat Coven, Hellcats, Louise Fili, Hydro74, Jourdon Gullett, & so many more.

You run some really cool calligraphy workshops in Chicago!   How did you get interested in calligraphy and typography?   What are some of your favorite things about calligraphy? I taught my first public calligraphy workshops in the fall of 2014, just before launching Vichcraft, and I’ve taught at least one beginner workshop per month since then. The format of the class has generally remained the same: introduce the tools, talk about the craft, work through exercises, then graduate to lowercase letterforms. I do, however, think the workshop has evolved into something that people value attending because they gain the ability to utilize me as a resource both during and after the class. I get almost an equal amount of questions about how I started freelancing, what was required to start selling product, etc., as I do about the actual craft of calligraphy, and I enjoy offering myself as a real person who can help answer these questions (versus whatever answers would otherwise come up in a Google search). This is a big reason why I want to continue teaching calligraphy workshops, and possibly other types of workshops, in the future.

Is there a new medium you haven’t tried yet but want to start learning about? There are always so many! I had my first solo art show a few months ago, and I commissioned a custom neon sign from a Chicago artist. I’d love to learn to make my own neon one day, but I know it’s extremely tedious. For that same show, my boyfriend and I took apart, stripped, painted and restored a 1972 Honda CL350 to be a “Handmaid’s Tale” inspired piece in the show. We had to work very quickly on the project (we only had nine days to do all of the work), but I’d love to keep working on designing, customizing and restoring some project bikes.

Favorite Vans? and how would you describe your style? I wear black or grey low-tops everyday, and they’re my favorite shoes. My style is pretty androgynous, and my outfits almost always include an oversized black band tee, bike commuter pants, and my black trucker jacket with “Girls to the Front” screen printed on the back, and pockets full of stickers to give out to anyone who asks where I got my jacket! Also, my helmet and a bolo tie are go-to accessories.

What’s on the horizon after Babes Ride out and what exciting projects do you have coming up for 2017? Along with some of my best friends, I’m a partner on a game called TumbleSeed that is being released on May 2nd. It’s 2.5 years in the making, and I’m so thankful to have been involved. I’ll also be bringing Vichcraft on the road to a bunch of craft fairs and conferences around the country this summer, and I’ll be doing so with my very first employee! My friend Ellen will be joining my studio in the role of studio manager, and I’m extremely excited to see how much Vichcraft can grow with her on board, and freeing up a huge amount of my time to focus more on creative work.

What would you say to folks who wanted to follow in your footsteps and start their own business? Don’t. JK but I’d say to definitely be very critical of whether or not you possess the qualities that would make a great candidate for self-employment like extreme attention to detail, self-motivation, obsessiveness, time and money management skills, the ability to compartmentalize, etc. Also, I’d encourage you to seek advice from people who know both the work that you’re making, and also how you are as a person and to encourage those people to give you their honest opinion on whether you might be ready for self-employment. During my time in school, I freelanced and also worked at six internships, and stayed in touch with many past co-workers as I continued through school. Those people became my mentors, and I was able to learn things from them that I didn’t in school, and also develop relationships with them that encouraged honesty when it came time to decide if I was ready to launch a business. I’d also suggest starting out by freelancing on the side of a consistent job. When I launched Vichcraft, I already had five years of freelance experience under my belt, which meant that I had already given myself the chance to work out a lot of the kinks with handling client relationships, managing money and time, etc. Giving yourself the chance to figure a few of those things out while still having a consistent paycheck from a full-time job is much less scary then jumping in head first.

Follow Jenna Blazevich: Website: www.vichcraft.com Instagram: instagram.com/vichcraft Tumblr: vichcraft-design-studio.tumblr.com Twitter: twitter.com/Vichcraft

[ciathyzareposts]

Darklands: Von Eschenbachs Represent!

The dangers of low reputation.

            It’s becoming clear that a large part of Darklands is developing the party’s fame. Fame gives the party access to more political and economic leaders, and thus more quests, and thus more rewards, and thus more fame. This eventually leads to the main quest? I’m still not certain about that. But in a game where the ultimate goal is to retire with a high score, fame is a key metric. Since I began the game, my party has progressed from 0 to 168 (“modest reputation”). I started at 95 (“barely known”) for this session.         

The party’s status at the end of this session.

         Related to fame, but not the same thing, is local reputation. I gather that fame is a global measure while local reputation has more to do with how the immediate region sees you. You can be famous and still despised by a particular city. In general, cities seem to be warily neutral towards the party, no matter what fame they’ve achieved elsewhere, until they start doing things for that city. But it’s much easier to gain local reputation. One night of killing alley thieves is enough to get you to “respected” level, and a single robber knight quest makes you “a local hero.”            

Sneaking into a robber knight’s castle.

         I thought one approach might be to build local reputation over a certain value (say, 50) in a systematic order as I worked my way through the cities. As this session began, I had just sneaked my way into Schleswig, where my reputation was -20 and guards were actively looking to arrest me. I got it to the positives (albeit single digits) by spending several nights hunting thieves. It’s not a bad way to spend time. My armor is good enough that the thieves don’t even do any damage by now, and I still occasionally improve weapon skills by clonking them on their heads. 

While dealing with thieves helps with local reputation, it seems to do nothing for overall fame. For that, you need to accomplish things outdoors or to finish quests. Killing robber knights adds a reliable 10 points to fame and also significantly increases local reputations in the towns that gave you the robber knight quest. By the time I left Schleswig, I had 4 quests to kill the same robber knight, and I picked up another 2 in Hamburg. Unfortunately, that robber knight was again Anton Seibt. I guess the game just keeps re-using the same names for robber knights in the same region, no matter how many times you kill them. That breaks the immersion a bit.           

How many times do I have to kill you?!

        This session, I kept careful note of what actions led to what effects on reputation and fame. This is what I noted.

           Killing a robber knight: +10 to fame, +50-60 in local reputation at city where quest was given

Retrieving an artifact from a shrine: +10 to fame (even before turning it in to the quest-giver)

Donating money to a small village church: +3 to fame (may not be consistent)

Killing a pack of alley thieves: Between +1 and +3 to local reputation.

Getting rejected for an audience with the leader of a city: -1 to local reputation. 

Getting physically ejected from the city hall: -10 to local reputation.

Attacking city guards: -40 to local reputation

          Actions that didn’t have any effect, which surprised me: trying to sneak or coax my way into or out of cities; giving money or escorts to traveling pilgrims; bribing guards; donating large amounts to churches; rescuing merchants from bandits; destroying villages practicing witchcraft; or killing bands of roving marauders in between cities. I also didn’t find any actions that had a negative effect on fame.           

Getting a miscellaneous artifact quest.

            In this session, I spent over a year moving randomly around the landscape. I mean that literally. Every time I reached a crossroads, I used a random number generator to determine which path I took. Yes, sometimes this took me backwards, but I almost always had as many quests (or quest rewards) in my backpath as in any of the forward options.

Upon reaching a city, I settled in to a comfortable pattern, at least assuming it was a new city and my reputation was 0:         

Enter during the day

Immediately head for the Kloster or university and ask to study a saint. That process usually takes until nightfall. Donate money if I need the divine favor.

Spend the first night killing thieves, so as to boost my reputation to “respected.”

The next day, visit the political leader and the Fugger, Medici, and Hanseatic League representatives for quests.

Sell any excess equipment in the markets and look for potions and potion ingredients to buy.

Rest at the inn if I needed it; otherwise, continue on.

         Purchasing potions is a good way to get rid of excess money–fast.

            In between the cities, I’ve killed numerous robber knights. I purged at least three villages of Satanism. (Each one offered me a hint about where the Satanists would next meet to “get revenge,” but I’ve always been too far away to get there in time.) I killed a couple of lords who were oppressing their peasants. I’ve escorted and donated to countless packs of hapless pilgrims. I’ve killed so many bandits and highwaymen that I must be approaching a whole percentage of the population. I’ve recovered several artifacts from pagan altars. I’ve fought off wolves, boars, spiders, and schrats in the dozens.

I’ve come to not like the quests in which I’m asked to sneak into a Fugger, Medici, Hanseatic, or other office in the middle of the night and retrieve documents or something. Success in these missions involves a sequence of skill checks, starting with sneaking into the market in the first place, then actually opening the doors. Sometimes, the doors are trapped, and several times, they’ve refused to open even when I have an NPC with a high “Artifice” skill. They often give me the option to use “Eater-Water” potions (which never work) or “Thunderbolt” potions (which inevitably summon the guards). If I happen to be successful, the rewards are low, and I think it might lower my local reputation. I’m probably going to stop doing these missions.               

I’m not even sure he’s telling me the whole story.

         I had meant to return to Goslar eventually and finish that “knocker” quest. Now I’m hearing rumors that the mine at Freiburg is having the same problem. I’m not sure if this means there are two potential mine quests, or if I waited too long in finishing the first one. I guess the only way to tell is to return to Goslar and see if I can resume.

A couple of interesting things happened regarding the Wild Hunt. In a couple of cases in which I heard the Hunt approach, I perceived that it was after a helpless schrat–a hairy “wild man” of Germanic legend who I suppose is equivalent to Bigfoot or the yeti. Both times, I saved the schrat, who rewarded me with an increase in strength for one character. Later, a holzfrau–a female schrat–showed up a few times to warn me of an approaching Wild Hunt. She told me that I could protect myself from the Wild Hunt if I learned of St. Wenceslaus. As it happens, I know quite a good deal about Wenceslaus and flesh and wine and pine logs hither, but I suppose my characters don’t. I haven’t been able to find a Kloster that teaches of him. This would be more of a priority if my party got seriously beat up by the Wild Hunt, but it’s always just one hunter, and it’s not hard to kill him.              

A holzfrau helps protect me against the Wild Hunt.

          I had been so used to thinking of the schrats as friends that I was surprised when a group of them attacked me later in the game. There didn’t seem to be any “noble” way to avoid the combat, so I reluctantly killed them.         

Fighting schrats. I thought they were my friends!

         Miscellaneous notes:

             The mayor of Flensburg has given me the quest to kill Anton Seibt three times and has never rewarded me for it once. The quest utility says that all three are still active.

Nothing has ever happened to me at the clothmakers’ guild. I only ever get options to leave.

              I’m sure glad I visited!

         Similarly, reading notices, engaging in gossip, and listening for rumors only ever produces the same notice prohibiting people from being out at night. 

During this session, Lambert achieved a skill of 45 in “Healing,” and now my characters regenerate 3 points per rest session. That really makes a difference.

            Lambert studies while everyone else just relaxes.

          The save game system is a bit annoying. Every time you save, the game generates a new file. To whatever name you give the file, it prefixes your current location and date. It then precedes to sort these files in absolutely random order, so it’s a hunt to find your last save, and you have to constantly delete the excess.

           What is the logic of this order? It is neither by date, nor alphabetically by location, nor alphabetically by the name I gave the file.

       It took me this long in the game to realize that the “leader” is different than the person at the head of the “marching order.” This is why I got kicked out of every alchemist’s shop for the first 20 hours. Somehow, the leader had been set to Bianca, who has the worst charisma and speech skills, and for at least two game sessions, she’s been doing all my bargaining and coaxing. It’s a wonder I’ve been successful at anything.              

That Bianca passed this particular skill check–which resolved the situation at the top of this entry–is a miracle.

            Towards the end of the session, something happened that I think may be the first step–or an early step–on the main quest. While sheltering from a blizzard one night near Passau, everyone in the party had the same dream. It started with a terrible demon looming over a bloody altar stone while crazed Satanists danced nearby. In succession, we then saw an ancient monastery populated by monks wearing white robes with blood-red crosses, and two seals that broke apart to reveal seven paths on the other side, each path with its own terrors–famine, fire, storms, poison, etc.–that slowly grew to overcome the world.              

You all awaken from the dream in the early morning sunlight. There is no doubt that you have been called. The only question is, what should you do now? As in most dreams, there is no clear path of action only premonitions.

            True, but I have a couple of ideas. One involves returning to the northern part of the map and trying to find the seer that I encountered early in my career. The second is running around to the small villages until I find one where the residents are practicing satanism and swear revenge at a time and place I can actually reach. Whatever the case, this new mystery came along at just the right time. Things were starting to get repetitive.            

The party has a vision out of Revelations.

          I’ve compiled enough information now about combat and potions that I think I can finally focus on those things for my next entry.

             Time so far: 36 hours

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/darklands-von-eschenbachs-represent/

[ozsaill]

Colombia for cruisers: a different attraction

It wasn’t many years ago that Colombia was considered dangerous to visit: cruisers lured by pretty Venezuelan islands towards South America rarely made the hop next door. While care must be taken, the story has flipped: improved domestic stability makes Colombia a relatively secure destination and economic collapse had turned Venezuela into a no-go zone.

We arrived in Santa Marta, Colombia with plans to stay not much more than a week: just long enough for Jamie to fly up to Puerto Rico for rigging work on a friends’s boat, a quick overland trip to Cartagena, and then we’d be off. Delays getting watermaker parts threw a wrench in that (what started as an overnight delivery from St Thomas to Puerto Rico took nearly three weeks to reach us in Colombia). That’s just part of cruising, and it turns out it was a gift: there was more to enjoy every day we extended. Here’s what stands out: the landscape, people, food,  culture, and more that made Colombia a vibrant and memorable stop.

Sierras not seas

Cruising gives us many opportunities to experience warm, clear water and sunny clean beaches…neither of which are abundant in the Colombia we saw. Sewage from Santa Marta runs into the bay, and while the beaches were packed with domestic holiday goers in December and January—they didn’t look much more appealing than the water. On the other hand: as a visitor, Colombia’s inland scenery is stunning. Among the highest coastal mountain ranges in the world, the Sierra Nevada present a dramatic horizon upon arrival and beg exploring.

Weaving into the foothills on a two-lane road, bustle of Santa Marta faded with startling rapidity and the quiet rhythm of early morning in the countryside descended. Mairen, Siobhan and I traveled a couple of hours east to Buritaca for horseback riding, fulfilling a Christmas promise. Clearing the limits of town, gaining altitude, the jungle crept closer. Villages sprang up as clusters around the main road and enveloped our senses. Just steps from the narrow motorway were vendors cooking fragrant sausages over charcoal, flipping the ubiquitous arepa (a maize flour patty) on a griddle, and serving hot tinto (Colombian coffee) to wash them down. At one roadstead stop, a Kogi family—an indigenous people to the Sierra Nevada—got in, startlingly different in all-white homespun clothes, small stature and features. Mere days into our stay, it was startling to see indigenous people preserving what appeared to be a strictly traditional way of life despite close access to development.

Photo, Dwayne Reilander; licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

Rio Buritaca runs from the Sierra Nevadas to the ocean. Our ride was planned for time on the beach and time in the river, but king tides took most of the beach away (temporarily!) and heavy rains overnight made horses balk at the swollen rio. Jungle trail it is, then!

Mairen has always felt perfectly at home on the back of a horse

Siobhan’s horse refused to cross one edge of the river until led by the guide

Another morning we headed directly inland to Minca, a village almost directly inland at about 2,000’ elevation. Again, the city quickly fell away: hiking to visit an organic coffee plantation opened spectacular views.

On the trail with the Utopia II crew… and horses carrying firewood

Up into the clouds: at least the elevation kept the temperature down.

Coffee ripening at the organic ‘finca’ (farm) of La Candelaria

In each case, the buses were cheap- just a few dollars to be transported into a new and marvelous landscape. For cruisers with more time and bigger budgets, the Ciudad Perdida (Lost City) is a four to six-day trek into these mountains to an archaeological site that predates Machu Picchu, more than 20 miles through the mountains and Kogi villages. Probably abandoned during the Spanish conquest, it was once a city of thousands.

Historic and cultural interest

Indigenous tradition layered with Spanish influence create a richer, more nuanced, and vibrantly presented way of life than we’ve seen in a long time. For all their unique qualities, after a while I confess that many of the Caribbean islands blend together as variations on a theme: it seems our traveling spirits thrive on learning from the new. Colombia was a welcome whiplash of streaming language, arts, literature, history… all playing into the experiences awaiting. And then, the Old Town in Cartagena de Indias is simply spectacular. A couple of days there was only enough to tease.

Kids listen (mostly) to the Cartagena Free Tours guide in Old Town: more informative than the tour we paid for!

Cartagenas inquisition museum, the seat of a perfect record for executing 100% of those accused of witchcraft or heresy – 800 over about 250 years

Culinary imprint

Tastes enhance the memory of a place, and Colombia added a few in particular. You cannot go to Colombia without eating arepas (well, you could, but it would be very wrong!). My favorite was con huevo, a fried egg tucked within; con queso a close second. Paired with a sizzling chorizo from a streetside vendor, that’s better fast food than any chain!

Arepas vary regionally: these thicker cheese arepas were sold on the street in Cartagena.

Patacones (twice-fried green plantain slices) are standard accompaniments to a meal. Colombia produces more arabica beans than any country in the world, and coffee is woven into culinary culture: vendors push carts laden with thermoses down the street, paused by Colombianos to buy a caffeine jolt in small cups.

We fell into the habit the Almuerzo Ejecutivo, Executive Lunch. It includes a soup starter, a main course of rice, beans, patacones, and your choice from the chalkboard selection of the days stews and grilled meat, and served with a fresh juice. It costs less than a Starbucks coffee. Perhaps the bandeja paisa, farmer’s plate, a sampler with a range of dishes (below) is more; still less than a latte. Shoehorned in among lively tables in establishments set up in the street front room of a family home (restaurant sign optional), listening to street musicians play for small change while taste buds were treated to a sampler of Colombian cooking.

Colombian lunch of champions, the Bandeja Paisa: SO GOOD

Affordable

After so many months in more expensive Caribbean islands, it was good to be in back in low-cost-of-living territory. Groceries are a big chunk of our monthly budget, and Colombia helped bring the average down again. It also afforded little luxuries we’d forgo elsewhere. Multi-course lunch? Around $3-$4. Why not get a break from cutting my own hair when a fancy salon is just $11, including the coffee? Packed kebabs from a street vendor—marinated beef, chicken, and vegetables—only a dollar? One per person carried steaming back home to Totem made for an easy dinner.

On the other hand: staying in the marina, a security necessity, was not cheap…but could have been worse.

Warm people

At every turn Colombians were engaging and helpful. Our Spanish is basic at best, and in everyday life the Colombians we met rarely spoke English. It wasn’t an obstacle: friendliness and interest saw every interaction through, with a little help from Google translate and a pocket dictionary. When I had my hair cut in a salon, none of the staff spoke English but found another patron who could translate enough to ensure they understood my wishes. Our Spanish skills improved daily.

Arriving between Christmas and New Year’s opened a peek into a vital, family-centered domestic life. Santa Marta is a destination for Colombians on holiday, and they know how to take time out: the beach was packed with families. Vendors pitching tourists weren’t focused on hawking wares to us gringos as much as their fellow sudamericanos. It was hard to tell weekends from weekdays in the busy marina, where local powerboats daily transported multi-generational families with coolers and platters and nightly cranked up the tunes for dockside entertainment.

It’s always about the people, isn’t it?

More to follow on our experiences in Colombia…meanwhile a few more pictures.

Kids displaying classic ABM face – Another Bloody Museum

Third-generation coffee grower sharing his favorite method to prepare the beverage… what do you think?

Resident toucan at La Candelaria.

An education on politics, economics, agriculture learning about the farm.

  from Sailing Totem http://ift.tt/2nVuSVf via IFTTT