#just. i want less fantasy and more stuff that's grounded y'know

[justaboutsnapped]

does anyone have any recs similar to notes of a crocodile or violets I'm trying to come up with a reading list for the summer. fiction based on the reality of queer people in east asian countries & beyond

[hollowisthyname]

Viez grinned while walking, a bit of bounce in their step. “What are your OCs favorite flowers? Or perhaps trees?! Like sunflowers or tulips. Pine or palm trees.” They smiled warmly, like a blanket on a chilly night.

okay okay the first one I thought of for this was Marcel so that's who'll be getting some more character development today!! they have BackstoryTM in the woods this is gonna be FUN

[infodump below the cut]

I'm not sure if I already told you abt them so the basics of their backstory is this: they come from a like. really rich/powerful family of shapeshifters and everyone in their family is expected to be perfect. they pretty much can't shapeshift, so they were looked down on and mostly ignored and hidden, so they ended up sneaking out and spent a lot of time in the forest surrounding their house. that's also where they met and got to know their best friend Sorrel.

now that that's been explained- I've always had a pretty clear picture of the place they hung out at most often, but I don't really know what kind of plants I'm thinking of? I shall explain them and hope it makes sense lmao the forest around the house is OLD. really, really old. so naturally, the stuff in there would be old too. and for the trees, that means being really, really big. some bigger than others, of course, and a few that are just huge. think like redwood trees huge (most of them definitely aren't that big, but there are some). there's one like that, northwest of the house, and that's where Marcel spent a lot of their time. the tree may be the size of a redwood, but it doesn't look all that much like one. I've been imagining it more like an oak- thick trunk, lots of leaves, branches reaching really far, etc. but. y'know. bigger. it's also got a lot of holes in it from animals living there, and roots and stuff poking out of the ground. (Marcel stored "contraband" in one of these roots, actually. safer than keeping it in their room where their parents or anyone else in the house could find it any time)

not sure if "oak tree but bigger" is a kind of tree. but this is a fantasy world so I can make it one if I want to!! as for the flowers.... I have no idea. various wildflowers I guess, thinking purple and yellow for some reason? maybe lilac or lavender, who knows. there are a lot of them around the tree, though. it's a very pretty place, there's a little stream and stuff near there too. I should really draw it.

this is not a very cohesive answer. but basically, Marcel's favorite kind of flower or tree is whatever kind was around that place. it's one of the only places around their house that they have happy memories of, and to be less sad about it, the plants really were very nice. I don't know enough abt flowers and stuff to actually name whatever was there, but it's. pretty flowers I guess asdhgfd

[elite-guard-hardygal]

Dragon Treasure (Fantasy!Eijiro Kirishima/OC) - My Hero Academia gift fic

FINALLY! A super late Christmas present and birthday present for @the-lupine-sojourner! A Takara Yamada (OC)/Eijiro Kirishima fic! Yes, that’s right, I buckled down and actually wrote something at least somewhat romantic! And because I can more easily do anything I want in the Fantasy!AU, this is set in the Fantasy!AU.

A few heads up. Lupine, I know you have your own Fantasy!AU for KiriKara, buuuuuut, I set this fic in my own version of the Fantasy!AU… Hope you don’t mind >.<

Also, everyone is still fifteen/sixteen, because this is a fantasy world, and I imagine age-restriction on quests and other dangerous stuff isn’t exactly all that strict. By that age, you’re probably expected to start doing something with your life… It’s not that different from real life, really.

Double also, in terms of dialogue and speaking, I view the fantasy!MHA as being kinda like Avatar: The Last Airbender. Meaning the world has this old, traditional look with lots of fantasy elements, but people still talk like people do today, a’la “My first girlfriend turned into the moon.” / “That’s rough, buddy.”

Anyway, enough rambling, let’s get to it!

—

"Aww, that's really cool, Eijiro!"

"Really?" Eijiro looked down at the tiny collection of gems and coins inside his coin purse. "Bakugo thinks it's kind of a dumbass tradition."

Takara scoffed, pulling the drawstring on Eijiro's purse and hiding the little valuables from any potentially greedy villagers. "What does he know? He's not a dragon. And I think it's kinda cute, you having your own personal little treasure trove."

Eijiro laughed bashfully as he tied the coin purse to his belt. "I don't even know why I do it. I mean, yeah, I don't really plan on giving any of those shiny things up, but I don't think I'm gonna go full on beast mode if someone tried to take them either."

"Well, is it, like... a dragon rule to go beast mode when someone tries to take your treasure?"

"Not exactly…?" Eijiro said hesitantly. "I mean, we're pretty territorial, but I think it's all up to you what you're willing to call your 'treasure.' Like, the thing you've sworn, as a dragon, to protect."

He glanced at Takara. "Heh, sorry, still don't know nearly enough about dragon tradition as I should."

Eijiro was one of the very few dragon-people to pretty much reject dragon traditions and instead embark on a life of questing, which meant he was missing out on a lot of his people's coming-of-age teachings. He never seemed that upset about it, just a little embarrassed that his knowledge of his own people's traditions only went so far.

"Oh, it's fine…!" Takara said sympathetically. "I think it's sweet of you to keep that tradition going."

Eijiro grinned. "Well, if there's one thing I know makes a both a man and a dragon, it's protecting somethin', even if it's just a purse full'a shiny things."

Takara returned the grin. Heavens above, did she love this boy.

Takara and Eijiro's questing party had set up camp a few miles away from a rather large, well off village earlier that evening. A few people, like Ochako, had questioned why they didn't simply book a stay at the local inn, but that would have been problematic for a number of reasons.

For one, it was almost guaranteed some of them would have to share a room, and very few of them would have been happy with that. For another, a party of young quest-goers tended to attract unwanted attention - questing was a competitive line of work, and many older quest-goers did enjoy hazing younger ones, especially those coming of age. Finally, it would have just been expensive.

After their party had set up camp, Momo compiled a small group consisting of Takara, Eijiro, Izuku, and Tsuyu, and the five of them went off to the village to get some supplies. They had each split off in their own directions after they arrived, agreeing to rendezvous at the center of the village after nightfall. Takara and Eijiro, of course, remained together.

They spent a significant amount of time just enjoying the liveliness of the village before finally buying some bread. Having barely had enough between the two of them to purchase enough bread for the whole party, Takara had jokingly asked Eijiro if he had a dragon's treasure trove, like in the stories. As it turned out, he kind of did.

Some time had passed by now. The sky was dark, and the two of them were heading towards the village center, when bells started clanging in the distance. Takara and Eijiro both froze and exchanged a look. Even a child knew what those bells meant.

The village was being attacked.

The villagers were scattering about, frantic to reach the safety of their shops or homes. Eijiro and Takara stayed were they were. The former drew his knives, eyes piercing the edges of the crowd for anything that looked like an attacker, while the latter crouched down, eyes closed in concentration as her fingertips brushed the ground beneath her.

"Whadda we got?" Eijiro asked tensely.

Takara's eyes snapped open and she stood up straight. "Raiders, I think. A freakin' army, coming in from the east and fanning out."

Opponents located, the two young quest-goers sprinted against the flow of panicking villagers.

"Where're the others?" Eijiro asked, trying to be careful not to accidentally stab anyone rushing past him.

"I don't know," Takara replied as she rested one hand on her water pouch. "I didn't want to spend too much of my magic on that one earth spell."

"Guess we'll have to hope they'll find us. Or that we beat our guys fast enough to go find them."

Takara wasn't looking at Eijiro as he said that, mind much too focused on searching for the raiders, but she knew he was smiling, trying to set her at ease. It worked, of course. It always worked.

Someone screamed. A man dressed all in black had grabbed some fleeing villager, a girl not much older than Takara or Eijiro. She kicked and flailed, shrieking as the man dragged her backwards, his reflective eyes - indicating he was probably of the beast-people - alight with sick desire. Hot rage filled every muscle in Takara's body, and she yanked the stopper out of her water pouch.

Within seconds, the man was on the ground, those sick eyes rolling back dazedly as Takara called back the water whip to form a mace, which she then pointed at the man's bestial face. The girl, who Takara had pulled back the second she hit the man with that surprise attack, grasped Takara's hand.

"Thank you, thank you!" she cried, only now clearly on the verge of tears.

"It's okay, it's okay, you're welcome," Takara said calmingly, giving the poor girl a smile. "Now go, quickly! Get to safety! We'll handle this!"

The girl nodded and rushed off after her fellow villagers. Takara watched her go, just to be safe.

Suddenly, something yanked on her weapon. "You'll pay for that…"

In that one moment of absence, Takara failed to realize that the attacker had regained his senses.

Takara had not come this far as a quest-goer without having first developed some quick skills, though. She loosened her hold on the water spell, and the mace dissolved in the man's hands, Takara leapt back, calling the water back to her as a floating stream. The man snarled, but Takara gave him no time to even curse, for the second he jumped to his feet, she whipped the water around his body and swung him into a nearby house.

It looked like she and Eijiro had caught up with the raiders.

And it was chaos.

There were still plenty of hapless villagers who had not managed to hide themselves away before the raiders caught up to them. They ran around frantically, screaming, begging their neighbors to let them into whatever home or shop they happened to have barricaded themselves into. It wasn't like the homes or shops were safe either, because it was these places the raiders were mainly looking to break into, stealing supplies, valuables, or even people. Some villagers were brave enough to fight back, only to be struck down by one or two significantly more experienced raiders. Night torches were being toppled over, setting structures ablaze.

Through it all, Eijiro and Takara remained focused.

With her water magic, Takara chose to focus much of her energy on damage control, dousing out the fires that were at risk of becoming catastrophically destructive. If she didn't immediately see a fire that needed dousing, Takara turned her water spells on the raiders. Sometimes the raiders attacked her while she was focused on fighting a fire, but Takara was not so easily taken down.

And besides, Eijiro was always there to watch her back. Even as he focused mainly on fighting off the raiders or rescuing other captured, about-to-be-dead villagers, Eijiro would frequently call out to her with warnings or words of encouragement.

"Takara, watch your side!"

"Wow, nice move!"

"They're coming straight for you!"

"Still lookin' good, babe!"

It was less a way of protecting and more a way to let her know, "Hey! I'm still here!" Takara would be remiss if she didn't respond in kind, keeping one eye on her boyfriend and one eye on her surroundings, shouting words of warning or encouragement right back in between fighting fires or raiders. She did have to give herself some credit for having achieved this level of multitasking.

Soon enough, most to all of the fires were managed. Now all she had to do was fight the raiders. After using a focused stream to take out four raiders who had attempted to jump her all at once, Takara stepped back and bumped into something warm and solid.

"Hey, babe." Eijiro gave her a sideways grin. "Holding up?"

"I'm doing just fine," Takara reported, returning the grin. "Wishing more than ever that I was better at earth magic, but, y'know, whatever." She parried and countered another attack.

"I could go beast and maybe end this a little faster," Eijiro ground out, now struggling against a significantly taller raider. "But…"

Takara lashed a water whip around the ankles of Eijiro's opponent, turned, and pulled their feet out from under them. "Damage control and already frightened villagers would definitely become a problem."

"Right..."

"Hey, don't start angsting on me…!" Takara gave her boyfriend a quick peck on the cheek. "You're doing great!"

Eijiro shook himself, that optimistic demeanor returning. "Aw, you always know what t' say."

"I know." Takara smiled teasingly, and the two of them split to return to the fray.

All that said, Takara was beginning to feel the strain of the fight as it stretched on. Though she and Eijiro had been making quick work of the more cocky and less battle-smart raiders up to that point, that just left the cleverer and more experienced fighters for them to deal with. Not to mention, Takara's magic levels were steadily depleting.

As Takara just barely avoided a sword to the face after being blinded by the light magic of one of the raiders, it dawned on her that she and Eijiro were definitely outnumbered by the this point.

"I think we need back up!" Takara exclaimed.

"Sure, but where is everyone?!" Eijiro shouted, pushing back another raider.

"I don't know, but I can try looking for them…!" Takara called the water back into her pouch and retreated some feet away from the fight. "Cover me a moment!"

Without losing a beat, Eijiro planted himself firmly between the raiders and his girlfriend. At this rate, though, Takara knew she would only have a few seconds. She closed her eyes and dropped to one knee, placing her palm against the ground. The chaos ensuing throughout the entire village rattled through the earth and into her palms, showing itself as only blurred images clashing against each other. She could barely tell one person from the other, but that wasn't acceptable.

Furrowing her brow, Takara clenched the earth beneath her fingertips and concentrated all her magical energy on finding even the slightest bit of meaning in the chaos.

There!

Three people, not retreating from the chaos but going against it! She couldn't afford to look deeper and identify who was who, but they were there, scattered throughout the village and likely about to be just as overwhelmed as Takara and Eijiro.

"I–!" Something slammed into Takara's waist, pulling her off the ground and away from three separate elemental attacks.

"We gotta retreat!" Eijiro shouted. He turned and barely managed to block a massive axe with one of his knives, arm still around Takara's waist.

"Right!" Takara quickly removed herself from her boyfriend's hold - she would have to thank him for the save later - and stepped back.

"I think I found everyone!" she said, called back her water into the form of a sword. "The closest one is only some hundred metres to the north-east!"

"Awesome, let's go!"

The two of them pushed back against their descending opponents, turned, and ran.

Takara lead the way, water sword gripped tightly in her hand in preparation for any unexpected attack. It was true, their closest party member was not all that far away, but that didn't mean she and Eijiro could make a straight beeline for them. The village was full of now more experienced raiders, and with the mental image of nearly everyone's position in the village still fresh in her mind, Takara did not want to waste any energy on literally bumping into another group of raiders.

They burst into the village center, and there Takara froze as she came face to face with a tall man bearing clawed hands and a mammalian bestial face.

"Oh?" The man focused his reflective eyes on Takara, spending chills down the girl's spine. "A village wench who's run the wrong way?" Too late, Takara thought to raise her sword, only for the man to grab it by the blade and raise his other hand in preparation to strike. "How unfortunate."

'Shit, shit, shit, what do I do?!'

Takara watched the hand coming down on her as though in slow motion. In a flash of panic and inspiration, she reeled back, about to slam her heel against the ground. Then, something red and roaring caught the corner of her eye. Eijiro had launched himself at the man, knives drawn and teeth bared in a snarl.

Takara had just enough time for two words to split across her mind - 'Oh, no…' - before her heel met the earth.

The earth swelled in response to the spell that had sent through it, throwing back anyone within Takara's immediate radius. It wasn't that powerful a spell, just a simple earth tremor, but Takara felt the consequences. She collapsed in tandem with the falling dust, magical energy very nearly spent.

"Interesting…"

Takara looked up, and her blood froze. The man was on top of Eijiro, knees pinning down the dragon boy's wrists, one hand embedding its claws in Eijiro's chest while the other released Takara's sword as it dissolved into water. He looked over at Takara.

"Not just a village wench then."

Swords, axes, maces, and spells all found their way aimed in Takara's direction as some of the raiders not currently attempting to break into the village houses sought to keep her down. The man looked down at Eijiro.

"And not just a foolish village hero."

Eijiro grit his teeth, arms tensing as he attempted to move. "Get off–!"

The claws shifted in his chest, and Eijiro cried out in pain. The man simply tilted his head curiously as he observed the patch of red scales his claws were currently gored into. It looked like Eijiro's defense mechanism hadn't been activated quick enough.

"Let him go!" Takara shouted, attempting to get up, only to be pushed back down by one of the surrounding raiders.

The man ignored her, instead speaking to Eijiro as both of them were also surrounded by a few cautious raiders. "You're a long way from home, dragon-child."

"Yeah," Eijiro ground out. "I left to find and take down assholes like you."

"And yet you haven't, despite your naturally immense bestial power. The ideals of a quest-goer are so constricting." The man began to search Eijiro's belt.

"Hey–!" Eijiro once again tried to fight back, only for the claws to be pushed a little deeper, prompting another shout of pain.

"Stop it!" Despite Takara's cry, she could do nothing to enforce it as the raiders surrounding her raised their weapons and/or prepared attacks in warning.

"I find all quest-goers, especially you young ones, to be an inconvenient irritation," the man continued. "But I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed I can't truly say I fought a dragon. Surely you're a disgrace to your people, being beaten like this."

"Shut up…!" Eijiro growled through grit teeth.

"Perhaps– Ah, here we are!" The man pulled Eijiro's coin purse - the coin purse - from his belt, the valuables contained within jingling distinctly. "No dragon would be without something of value!"

"Give it back!"

The man scoffed - "Oh, please." - and stood up. Eijiro immediately attempted to attack, only for several of the surrounding raiders to beat him down.

"Eijiro!" Takara screamed. She lurched forward, only for the flat of a sword blade to smack her in the face.

As she lay on the ground, clutching her face, Takara was vaguely aware of Eijiro shouting her name in between grunts of pain.

"You couldn't protect your lady friend, you couldn't defeat me or my raiding party, and you couldn't keep me from stealing your little valuables…" The man laughed mockingly. "You are a failure as a man, a quest-goer, and a dragon."

Something awakened in Takara, a rage similar to what she had felt when she had saved that village girl earlier.

"You…"

Digging deep into her nearly depleted reserves of magical energy, Takara stretched out her hand. The puddle of water that had been her sword rushed upwards, forming into a knife.

"...shut up!"

Takara pulled her hand back sharply. The water knife immediately obeyed her call, arcing downwards and neatly slicing open the back of the man's hand. The man dropped the coin purse with a shout of surprise and pain, and Takara caught her knife, only for it to instantly dissolve in her palm.

Slamming her now wet hand against the ground, Takara screamed, "He's more than you'll ever be! What the hell do you know?! You're just a thief who can't be bothered to take the hard road!"

"Takara…" Eijiro grunted, straining against the raiders and weapons now keeping him pinned down and appearing largely uninjured despite the beating he had just taken. Patches of red dragons scales covered his body, protecting him from any real damage, but doing little for him as he fought to escape.

The man bared his sharp teeth as he examined the slice on the back of his hand, and he turned on Takara, reflective eyes glowing in the fires still smoldering throughout the village. All of a sudden, Takara was very aware of just how vulnerable she was.

"Little wench. Why the hell is she still here?" the man snapped at those who were surrounding Takara. "Kill her or take her, I don't care."

"No!" Eijiro yelled. "Takara!"

Several pairs of hands grabbed Takara by the arms, pulling her upright. Fear shot through Takara's very bones, and she frantically called on any spell she had at her disposal, only to find herself completely devoid of magical energy. Well, that said nothing of her physical energy.

As the raiders dragged her back, away from the village center and away from Eijiro, Takara kicked and thrashed and screamed. "Let go of me!!"

"Takara!" Eijiro's voice sounded strained and frantic, and Takara could see him struggling in earnest against those who were keeping him down. "You take your hands off her!"

"Ah, it looks like another pretty thing has been stolen from you." The bestial raider, having regained his composure, scooped Eijiro's coin purse off the ground with a snide chuckle.

"Let her go!"

"Eijiro!" Takara cried out, fear becoming overtaken by panic as the distance between her and her boyfriend grew.

"You couldn't even be bothered to defend your little trove with every power at your disposal," the man said mockingly, pressing the sole of his shoe against Eijiro's head. "We might as well help ourselves to everything."

The raiders weren't dragging her away to kill her, Takara knew this, so that only left the one other option, the option that came with all manner of horrifying scenarios. Her whole body felt repulsed just thinking about it, and a sob escaped Takara's throat.

"Eijiro!"

Eijiro snarled, eyes flashing yellow. "I said let! Her! GO!!"

The boy's cry of rage deepened and gutturalized, until it lengthened into a bestial roar. Takara gasped, and even the raiders dragging her away froze and looked back.

They were met with the roaring maw of a large, red scaled dragon.

The raiders instantly went on the offensive, releasing Takara in the process, but the dragon made quick work of them, batting them aside with a flick of its claws.

"Eijiro…!" Takara said breathlessly.

The dragon curled around her protectively, knocking the roofs off a few houses in the process, and roared at the remaining raiders.

"Shit!" The man who had proven himself to be the head of the raiding party scrambled to his feet. "Take him down, quickly!"

All manner of long range attacks were thrown at Eijiro, only for all of them to bounce off his leathery wings as he draped them over Takara. The instant the attacks faded, Eijiro quickly spread his wings, knocking most everyone back with a wind gust. A few raiders were stupid enough to attempt charging Eijiro next. Takara, standing at Eijiro's chest, felt the air around her grow hot.

"No, Eijiro, wait!" she cried, but it was too late.

The charging raiders were met with Eijiro's firey breath, forcing them to retreat frantically. The flames instead relit the already smoldering remains of the houses on the edge of the village square and scorched the fountain in the centre. Takara was about to sigh in relief, only for something to whizz past her ear, and Eijiro to suddenly pull back with a sharp bellow.

"I got him!" one of the raiders shouted triumphantly.

"Eijiro!" Takara shouted in alarm, seeing that an arrow had, by some miracle, found its way into Eijiro's chest.

But that didn't make sense! A dragon's scales were veritably unbreakable, even at a young age, so how…?

'Oh, no.'

The claws embedded in Eijiro's chest earlier. They had left five wounds bored through his scales, still present even in his dragon form.

Eijiro shook himself, growling as his scales flared in an effort to release the unwanted intrusion. An automatic response that only left him that much more vulnerable.

"Now!"

Takara didn't know who shouted that, but the next thing she knew, she was engulfed in darkness and heard Eijiro release a guttural roar as he was hit with every attack at their opponents' disposal. The light returned when Eijiro retreated a little, pulling Takara back with a claw that was much more gentle than one would have expected from a dragon.

"Eijiro, are– Oh my word!" Takara exclaimed as she looked up at her bestial boyfriend.

Several knives and arrows stuck out from beneath Eijiro's scales, which flared and tensed sporadically, scorched and smoking in some places or just straight bleeding in others. Eijiro huffed and shook his head, crouching down defensively, teeth bared and eyes narrowed. Takara turned back and saw an army of raiders approaching. It seemed like every raider still standing had come to this fight now.

"Stay back!" Takara screamed, voice cracking slightly, either due to exhaustion or emotional strain. "Leave him alone!"

Eijiro pulled her a little closer, jaws snapping at the approaching raiders, but neither Takara's words nor Eijiro's aggression dettered the raiders. The man at the head of the group, the leader, wiped a bit of blood from his face, eyes flashing with annoyance and hatred. He didn't even say anything before he launched himself at Eijiro, claws out and teeth gnashing.

Takara could barely process what was happening anymore. She was aware of the constant clang of metal on scales, the flashes and rumbles of many magical attacks, the various shouts of alarm, warning, and, most frighteningly, triumph. She was aware of Eijiro's every shift in movement as he hovered over her, never once exposing her to the ensuing attack even as he attempted to fight back their ruthless opponents. He was slowing down, she knew it, she could practically feel it, and she could definitely hear it as his roars lessened in power, becoming guttural with pain.

"Stop it!" Takara yelled. "Stop!"

Who she was asking to stop, Takara didn't know. But with Eijiro so focused on protecting her, she didn't know how long he would actually be able to hold up…!

Then, a wonderfully familiar voice broke through the chaos.

"Get away from them!"

Metal clashed against metal, sounding almost dissonant in Takara's ears after having heard Eijiro's scales take the brunt of every attack for the past… minute? Five minutes? How long had it been since Eijiro had gone beast-mode? Hell, how long had it been since the raid started?

"Takara…!"

The one spoken to jerked back in alarm, hands instinctively looking to cast a spell despite her depleted magical energy levels.

"Oh, Tsu…!" Relief flooded Takara's every nerve.

She had been hopeful when heard Izuku's voice, but actually seeing one of her friends standing in front of her... Takara pulled Tsuyu into a tight hug, drawing a 'ribbit' of surprise from the frog faced girl.

There was a harsh huff from above, and Takara pulled back from the hug to look up at Eijiro. He definitely looked worse, scales quivering and pupils dilating as he stumbled a litte, still hovering defensively over Takara. He began to shrink. Red scales faded into tan skin, bestial features favoring more human ones, until soon an injured boy stood in place of an injured dragon.

"Eijiro!" Takara darted forward, and she and Tsuyu caught him before he collapsed.

"H-Hey, Takara…" Eijiro lifted his head, a weak but genuine grin on his face. "I just realized…"

He winced as the two girls eased him onto the ground. Takara wrapped a gentle arm around Eijiro's shoulders, careful not to aggravate his wounds or let him fall back onto the knives and arrows still sticking out of him.

"What's wrong?" Takara asked timorously.

"I just realized…" Eijiro looked at her through the one eye that didn't currently have blood dripping over it. "You're literally a treasure."

"...What?"

Eijiro laughed a little, sounding inappropriately dopey for someone who was bleeding everywhere. "It's, like, in your name right? 'Takara.' 'Treasure.' So you're literally 'treasure.' It's crazy how much that fits, considering– Ow!"

"Ah! Eijiro, I'm sorry!" Having momentarily forgotten the situation, Takara had swatted Eijiro on the shoulder, right where a burn marked his flesh. "I'm so, so, so sorry! I–"

Takara waved her hands frantically, unsure of whether to risk touching him again even as he began to fall back due to lack of support. Fortunately, Tsu caught him with a 'ribbit', taking Takara's place in supporting Eijiro. Takara buried her face in her hands.

"You idiot…!" she groaned, voice cracking. "You nearly died! Are you seriously trying to flirt with me right now?!"

Eijiro chuckled, prompting Takara to lift her face even as she felt tears spill their way down her face.

"Sorry. But look, I'm all right…!" He gave a thumbs up, only to tense with a hiss of pain.

"I disagree," Tsu said concernedly, making him lower his arm. "You look way worse than you should for someone who's a dragon."

"Hey, I'm a dragon…!" Eijiro exclaimed in faux defensiveness. "I'm sworn to protect my treasure, right?"

He turned his good eye on Takara with a grin.

"You're flirting again, Kirishima," Tsuyu pointed out.

Takara let out some sound resembling both a laugh and a sob. She rubbed the back of her hand over her face and moved a little closer to her boyfriend.

"It's fine…" she murmured, taking his face gently in her hands a planting a soft kiss on his forehead.

"Oh, woah, Kirishima…!"

Takara looked up to see Izuku running up to them, with Momo not far behind. They both appeared a little worn and tired, but otherwise perfectly fine, especially compared to Eijiro.

"You look terrible!" Momo exclaimed, sheathing her sword as she dropped to her knees in front of them.

"That's a little harsh," Eijiro said with a tired chuckle.

Though wanting very much to continue holding her boyfriend, Takara forced herself to move aside a bit so Momo could get a good look at him.

"Did you two deal with the raiders?" Tsu directed her question at Momo and Izuku as she let Takara retake her place in supporting Eijiro.

"We managed to fight them all off," Momo confirmed as she spread Eijiro's vest a little to get a better look at the injuries to his chest.

(Takara felt an irrational spike of jealousy that she quickly stomped down).

"What, all of them?" Eijiro exclaimed in surprise.

"We probably wouldn't have been able to do it hadn't been for you, Kirishima," Izuku said, voice high with admiration and encouragement as he sheathed his own sword. "Your fight left them all too weak to really fight back against me and Yaoyorozu."

"Ah, I didn't do much, I was just tryin' to protect Takara and kinda gettin' my ass handed to me while I was at it…"

"Shut up, you were doing just fine," Takara muttered, resisting the urge to hug him and instead pressing her head against his.

"And it was worth it," Eijiro concluded, returning Takara's gesture.

"You're lucky to have those dragon powers of yours," Momo said with a bite of admonishment. "These injuries would have likely killed a normal person ten times over…!"

"I don't go down easily."

"You were just talking about how you were getting beaten by those raiders," Tsuyu said.

"Well…! Yeah, but still…!" Eijiro tried to laugh off his embarrassment, but the laugh quickly turned to coughs.

"Kirishima…!" Izuku exclaimed concernedly, stepping forward.

"He will be okay, right?" Takara asked Momo as she tried to keep Eijiro steady.

"We should get him back to camp," their party's second in command asserted with poorly hidden concern. "I just hope we have enough supplies to–"

"Is that the dragon-person?"

The question had everyone except Eijiro, who was trying to catch his breath, looking up. The villagers were emerging from their houses and shops. They approached the young quest-goers, many of their eyes on the injured boy on the ground.

"I didn't think I would ever see one all the way out here."

"He managed to fight all those raiders…!"

The murmurs of the villagers mostly seemed to revolve around Eijiro and their awe at his power as they essentially surrounded the small group.

"Um, hello," Izuku said nervously.

Eijiro finally looked up, eyes a bit cloudy. "Oh, hey, where'd all these people come from…?"

A village girl that Takara recognized as the one she had saved from that one raider at the start of the battle (wow, that seemed like forever ago), emerged from the crowd, eyes bright as she exclaimed, "Thank you so much for protecting our village, quest-goers!"

"Especially that dragon kid!" another villager shouted.

"Who, me?" Eijiro blinked.

"You did manage to fight almost the entire raiding party single-handedly, and if it hadn't been for your conspicuousness, I don't think the rest of us would have been able to regroup with you and Takara," Tsuyu said.

"How could we ever repay you?" one of the older villagers asked.

Everyone's first instinct was to say that it was no problem, that they had only been looking to help, that they didn't need a reward…

"But maybe some medical supplies…?" Takara said hesitantly.

"And some food and other supplies..." Tsuyu added.

"And something to help us carry our friend back to our camp would be nice," Momo finished, playing bashfully with the tips of her gauntlets.

Despite their embarrassment and hesitancy, they received just that and more. Takara soon found herself sitting in the back of a small horse-drawn wagon, surrounded by supplies of various sorts, watching over Eijiro as he slowly began to doze off on her shoulder

"C'mon, stay awake," Takara pleaded. "I don't want you falling asleep until we know you'll be all right."

"I'll be fine, babe," Eijiro murmured, words slurring a little. "But if you really want me to…" He blinked hard and turned a little to look up at her, some concern in his eyes. "Are you all right…? Those raiders didn't…"

"I just have a few cuts and bruises, but it's nothing I can't walk off."

'Unlike you,' she thought, though she didn't say anything more on the subject.

Instead, she squeezed one of his hands and sighed, "I'm sorry about your little treasure trove. I know it meant a lot to you."

There was a small stretch of silence.

"I guess, but I'm honestly more disappointed that leader guy bolted with the rest of his goons. And after all that big talk he was throwin' around…" Eijiro scoffed, then smiled a little. "'Sides, you're worth way more than a purse full'a shiny things."

Takara returned the smile, then hugged him as close as she could without hurting him. "That's sweet. But please don't hurt yourself like that ever again, okay…?"

"Hey, you're my treasure," Eijiro said, still a little cheeky despite his slurring words. "And I'm a dragon."

"My dragon," Takara asserted, voice both lighthearted and genuine. "I'm swearing to protect you too, y'know?"

"That's fair. Okay. Let's protect each other."

He clumsily shifted his arms to bump his fists together, and Takara couldn't help but laugh. She turned to press a kiss against the side of his head.

"...Thank you," she murmured.

There was more in those two words than she could ever hope to express.

[niennavalier]

OC Ramble Pt 3!

Alright, this is gonna be my last OC post for now (unless I feel like unleashing the D&D character creation hell onto the internet) (which is a possibility but idk, cause I actually can't include all of them anyway). Just gonna do a little bit of a talk about my other ship, which I tend to call my City Boys, because a suggestion from a friend stuck. Also a few of the characters connected to their story. Which I will talk about... someday. Also the world for this. Which isn't fully fleshed out yet, aside from being sorta... medieval/renaissance vibes? (I clearly know history). But essentially kinda how fantasy vibes work, just minus magic. But the whole story has been centered around the one city that they're both from, which has really strict economical divides and such.

But okay, gonna start typing on the boys, here we go, hopefully won't be writing too much here (it's late and I'm sleepy).

Alaric Hastings: Mid-20s ish, born into a noble and really traditionally minded, old school type family (the really haughty, uptight sorts - basically just huge dicks, to be concise). But it's not the kind of life he likes - big social gatherings and keeping up appearances and having to present yourself in a certain way just to maintain your family's pride. He's very much an introvert, gets anxious and nervous really easily in these sorts of situations, and has never really had a way to deal with it? (He got basically thrown into the deep end with this sorta stuff at a young age and isn't naturally a people person. Which didn't really get him any friends that could make this all easier, and it's just amplified by his parents being super uptight, even compared to other nobles. It's all a big mess, really). When his parents find out he's gay, that goes as well as you'd expect and he ends up disowned.

(tbh if you check my other posts, he's the one that I posted the song for. The idea of male!Elsa lives in my head rent-free and made it into this character)

Then there's y'know, plot stuff that I'm too tired to get into. But in general, he's real warm-hearted and gentle - lots of very soft vibes here. (even if that's coupled with self-esteem issues and such). (Although he's also the type of person who will really latch onto something as a way to cope, whether healthy or not? AKA alcoholism is uh... a thing. But hey, this is what plot is for - to address things).

Random fun fact: he's actually one of few males characters I have who doesn't fit into that super pretty aesthetic? He's more conventionally handsome, although he himself doesn't really care much about his looks. Which is a nice lead in to...

Silas Reyes: The other half of this pairing! He comes from the poorer part of the city (but a much better family environment. He didn't know his dad but his mom is wonderful) (Actually, cause I did come up with some story stuff for his parents, his dad is also a noble, but from a much nicer family, and has some big idiot golden retriever energy). But he's the charismatic people-person of the two. Without getting too far into the worldbuilding, he basically worked his way up into this crime syndicate of sorts, and ended up becoming their negotiator and face, so to speak. He's just good at reading people and understanding what they want, and he knows how to sort of dance around those desires and play whatever part he needs to, so long as it gets whatever outcome he wants. Which is the more sinister side of what he's capable of, but he's just really adaptable when it comes to social stuff. Outside of that, though, when he's able to take off all those masks, he's genuine and... I guess blunt? He'll say what he thinks, albeit in a way that still comes off as friendly and ribbing and generally warm, not cold (though he does have a somewhat sharper way of speaking, especially compared to Alaric. It's sorta hard to just explain without examples though).

Him and Alaric meet under...not so great circumstances - lying is involved at the early stages - but, again, plot and development and etc etc.

And as for why there was that attempt at a transition up above: he cares a lot about how he looks. Presentation and stuff. It's important to him that he looks put together, especially in the presence of other people (ie. people he's not super close with). Especially his hair? He's particular about it and puts a lot of time into it (because it was actually an early part of his character design IRL. I had an idea, and said idea had me actually looking up stuff like medieval techniques to dye hair).

Emerson: Again, no last names, but she's one of Silas' friends. Two ish years younger that him, hardcore insists that everyone calls her Em. She's got this big and exuberant personality. Very talkative and just a bit dramatic (more than a bit). She loves being involved in all the goings-ons and has been known to basically be the local rumor mill. That whole nosy side is really on display when she's with Silas and Bennett (who I'll talk about a bit down below). She loves knowing what their plans are, especially when it comes to their love lives (she's very invested in all of that. When she first met Alaric, she shipped the two of them from the start and was more or less determined to make sure they worked out their issues). She's panromantic and ace, and so when the boys talk more on the sex side of all of this, her opinion is the "okay I'm glad you two enjoy this but also why? Aren't there better parts to talk about?"

Bennett: Alright, I mentioned him above and frankly, I don't have him fully figured out - just some bits and pieces I wrote to get an idea of his voice. But he's the other one of Silas' friends, and of the trio, the sorta more serious one. He's much more grounded (no-nonsense seems a little too harsh, so I'll go with grounded) and gives off this air of just knowing how to deal with situations. He's much more of a listener than his two friends, but also naturally intuitive (especially when it comes to reading Silas. The two of them met as teenagers, so there's a lot of unspoken stuff that he can read. They didn't meet Emerson for another handful of years, at which point she just sidled up to them and became part of the group). But also, all of that can go out the window when he's with the two of them - especially Emerson. They'll just bicker and banter with each other constantly over whatever weird topic of conversation someone brought up.

Side Notes: Yes, most of these characters are attached to Silas, but to be fair, Alaric's parents are huge assholes and I've just not cared enough to flesh them out. They suck and that's all that matters for now - whatever excuse they think they have for not accepting their kid is dickish and dumb (to be fair, I do have their reasons in mind, and yeah, bad parenting). Also, I do have another character in the works who's connected to Alaric's backstory - a brief, past love interest that he meets again later. But I don't have a lot of ideas for how that all goes, so I haven't experimented hugely with his character (although I do have a name I like!) And other last thing: I do have Silas' parents worked out a bit - Delia Reyes and Alonso Oriol - and have actually written down how they meet (it's incredibly stupid and fitting). I just didn't feel like going into them too much here? Maybe I will later idk; his dad is a riot (big dumb idiot who just adopts people).

[diabolickonpressofficial]

How does a book get written?

So, if anyone cares: my first novel, Jackie and Craig, was released on October 30th, 2017. I ordered a pizza and drank, because why the hell not, right?

Truth be told, finally getting this book off the ground was less a Dionysiac riot of depravity and shameless debauchery (as most of my celebrations are) and more a long, guttural sigh of relief that lasted until.....well, until Yule rolled around and I just sorta forgot about it. I started illustrating my next book, a picture book that'll be released on January 20th, and I just sort of.....well, moved on.

I didn't know what else to do, really. I mean, somebody was kind enough to put up a TV Tropes page and I heard from around seven or eight people about it, but so far it's just been one more thing to do. Of course, that doesn't mean I'll stop - anyone who can be dissuaded from writing should be, in the words of one of my idols, Harlan Ellison - but in a lot of ways, I'm not sure where to go from here. I hear that this is a symptomatic of the early 20's, so at least I know I'm not alone in that (I hope), but for now all I can think to do regarding this particular book is talk about.....well, how this book came to be.

It started when I was sixteen. See, I had a feeling back then that this whole dark, gritty YA thing was about to become real big (oh, how I wish CreateSpace was around back then - or maybe not) so, to experiment, I wrote a short story that was to be the first chapter of an incredibly vicious, mean-spirited, Roald Dahl/Gremlins-type book about kids and monsters. It was called Diggin' Graves, and you might be able to read it at some point. I could've sworn I published it on this blog, but either I'm mistaken or blogger is a filthy goddamn liar.

I finished that story in spring and decided to sit on it, because I thought it was actually too dark to really be accessible to the preteens I was writing for and also because I loved the way it ended, and decided it should really come to a halt there. So I forgot about it, and then in my senior year of High School (easily one of the absolute worst years of my life, and I can't really say I've had a particularly good one for the past twenty-two) I decided to try again after a failed attempt at two different adult novels - both Clive Barkerish horror/fantasies, one of which is being reworked into a book I'll have out this Summer.

I've always loved the Conan stories, and it's no secret that I always imagined what would eventually become Jackie and Craig as a sort of YA Conan The Barbarian to Harry Potter's Lord of the Rings. (That wasn't originally my phrasing, but a friend who read the first novel-length version of JAC described it this way and it's just stuck since then). So when I sat down to try and create a compilation of stories for preteens, it was in that mold - two characters named Juniper and Gary (he changed names constantly, but this was his name at that point) adventured through the 'Suburban Wasteland' as homeless runaways, fighting chupacabras, lake monsters, sasquatch, feral tribes of other homeless kids, teenaged Lovecraftian Cultists (including a tribe of Girl Scouts who worshiped Bloody Mary as a deity) and othersuch fearsome critters and urban legends, all under the noses of oblivious, incompetent adults who usually got themselves slaughtered. A more Southern version of Will Watson (Big Willy, because dick jokes are always appropriate) told the tale, and it was all very weird, gory and over-the-top; very much in the vein of the Evil Dead movies. Hey - that's what I wanted to read in Middle School!

Though the stories were popular with some kids I knew and got me sent to the office a few times (and even suspended once!), there really wasn't much going for them outside time-killing fun. They were just sort of weird, random vignettes in a world where feral children and extra-dimensional monsters were the norm. One story involved that old Edgar Rice Burroughs standby, the arena battle (God, I'm a sucker for these - I even kick off my annual Star Wars Marathon with Attack of the Clones for that reason). Gary and Juniper slaughter a bunch of 'fearsome critters' (popular staples of lumberjack folklore, which you may or may not have known was a thing) over the course of a few days in a mud-pit in Florida, where of course a group of redneck teenagers have trapped them (and a Hodag, and a Tupilaq, etc.) before rising to the top of that tribe's heirarchy and setting the other children free. Crazy stuff, fun stuff......but not really fulfilling stuff, if you get what I mean. I took a shot at illustrating these stories, but the energy needed to pull this off combined with the stresses and depression I was going through kept me from ever making it beyond just a few conceptual creature drawings. I began work on an Hyborian Age-type essay about the world of Gary and Juniper, but not much ever came of it if I remember correctly. Can't see if I remember correctly, either; as the computer I had then is as dead as I will someday be. I still have a two or three printed or handwritten Gary and Juniper stories, but I'd have to go searching for them and retype them for this blog, something I won't have time for until, maybe, my next book is already done.

After I failed out of high school, I wound up moving to a new town in a fit of really severe stress and anxiety. Terrified of literally everything, I began having frantic, hellish panic attacks just before and after falling asleep for a few hours, as my insomnia tends to do to me. For about a week I had waves of really intensive nostalgia, during which I was overcome by such deep emotions I really didn't know what to do. So of course, I wrote about it.

From this experience came No Sleep 'Till Nu-Urth, as MCA had just died; still a sore spot for me, y'know. No Sleep 'Till Nu-Urth was posted to this blog as it was written, influenced by the books I enjoyed as a kid in school (Harry Potter, Bridge to Terabithia and The Outsiders amongst them) and the books I read outside of school (Barry Lyga, The Chronicles of Prydain, Conan, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and of course H.P. Lovecraft & pals, as should be self-evident from how tonally bizarre my work so often is). It featured Jackie-Lynn, a southern rebel, and Gary Steiger, a neurotic New Yorker, as they discovered a parallel universe where cryptids came from and made it their secret hangout. Their friends, two of whom made it to the final cut of Jackie and Craig, came with them on their adventures until the world was sabotaged by a bully named Timmy Bach; Gary died there trying to escape, and Jackie-Lynn was left to mourn him. A Spider-Goddess named Jykunne showed up, but she wasn't particularly prominent save for three key points in the story.

Besides being crushingly depressing, there wasn't much of a plot to it (I was nineteen and it was my first novel, cut me a break, alright?) and it lacked a great deal of the emotion I was seeking to encapsulate. About 25 percent of what was in No Sleep 'Till Nu-Urth survived to Jackie and Craig - mostly the early chapters, which I still feel capture my own childhood perfectly. Chupacabras, a staple since the Gary and Juniper stories, and the Maraw Sorceresses Talon, Screech and Fang show up, being holdovers from a Gary and Juniper story set in Nashville.....they were promising enough that after my next two books crashed and burned, I decided to return to it. From this we got a book twice as long as the finished version...Greg: Nightmare Hunter. Or G:NH for short.

If I were Stephen King, this would've been the published version you'd read today. Hell, I finally understand why the unstoppable titan George Lucas made all his best movies in the 70's - back then, producers and actors could rein him in when his storylines, exposition or dialogue got too out-of-hand. Nowadays, people like him can do literally anything they want to, and look what we got out of it - The Phantom Menace.

G:NH was all over the place, in every way. Anything I could come up with, I threw in. Talon, Screech and Fang had a major part in Greg and Jackie's crossing between this world and the other (still called Nu-Urth, after Jackie's affinity for misspelled Nu-Metal acts like KoRn and Staind). Any creature I wanted there, from ghosts tied to runestones that the Maraw set up like landmines to goddamn behemoths that slaughtered entire herds of deer. There was a subplot involving Timmy Bach (the world's few dozen Jackie and Craig fans now know him as Travis) starting a Jykunne Cult in exchange for advanced, interdimensional weaponry. He died a gruesome death in G:NH, slain by a domesticated chupacabra (not sure what I was thinking with that). It later turned out that Jykunne, in this book, was a sentient virus that inhabited and co-opted human and animal bodies into a hive mind. This was how it controlled its hordes, including Timmy and his cultists. So, kind of influenced by IT. There was actually a reference to IT in this draft, in that the kids called the junkyard the Barrens. About three or four fights took place here, if I remember correctly. As the junkyard appears only once in the final version, this reference was reduced to one line.

With G:NH, I knew there had to be a series - why? Because that's how all YA novels are nowadays, goddamnit, and that's the way it has to be. So I figured, after Greg died, we could just follow each character through a different part of Greg's (former) world. The spin-off would've followed Jackie, and included scenes I excised from G:NH. After I was done with G:NH, however, I was so sick to death of monsters and the occult that I wrote a screenplay to just get away from creature features for a little while - The Saga of Tabitha Irons. As scripts are so hard to sell, I wound up just using this to cool off before I finally put together Jackie and Craig, two years later. If a sequel to Jackie and Craig ever materializes, it's gonna be a repurposed version of that script; since I don't wanna be stuck in Jikungah writing about monsters for the next three years of my goddamn life, especially with other books I wanna write in the interim.

Which brings us to the final draft: Jackie and Craig. I had begun putting together a short story anthology in early 2017, which was to come out on Halloween to begin my career as an author. Not happy I'm consigned to self-publishing, but I've been exiled to society's gutters and wastelands enough in my short, ugly twenty-two years of life that I've gotten used to it by now. Eventually, though, I decided I wanted my first foray into the world of publishing to be a novel. And as I only had one even close to readable, this became......Jackie and Craig.

Jackie and Craig was the streamlined version of G:NH. I removed any creatures that slowed the book down, or that were just there to be creatively crazy, and put together a version of the story that progressed more smoothly. Craig, who was once Greg, Gary, and a few other names I considered, does not die at the end.......even though this is the logical conclusion of the story as far as I'm concerned and one hinted at all throughout every preceding novel-length version, in some way or another. Still edgy, but not so bad that I couldn't have handled it at thirteen or so. Hopefully, you or your kids can, too.

I cut it down to about half its length (the final version is about 90,000 words, I believe), and the journey to the other world was saved until the book's third act, where it had been a constant back-and-forth before. About twenty-five percent of JAC is preserved from Nu-Urth, while about forty to sixty percent is preserved from G:NH. The surviving elements of the Gary and Juniper stories - The Maraw Sorceresses, the Chupacabras, Portals to other worlds and the existence of Will and Amy - are, to me, deeply nostalgic and nice in-jokes, that show how far the series - and in a way, my writing and my life - has come the past six years, since I first wrote Diggin' Graves in the hope that it'd become a book I could sell and touch people's lives with.

At the time of this writing, a few dozen people have read Jackie and Craig. I am eternally grateful. This is, of course, only the beginning. My first picture book will be out on January 20th, and my aforementioned anthology will be released shortly after that - maybe March or April. If self-publishing is the route I have to take, then that's that. Robert E. Howard wouldn't be Robert E. Howard if he stopped at the first Conan story, and Lovecraft was nobody until near the end of his life. John Dies at the End was a print-on-demand title for the first ten years of its existence, and a public internet story for years before that. I should be grateful that my first novel was released at the tender young age of twenty-two, even if I feel as ancient as Time Itself on bad days. I've made a commitment to a more constant web presence this year, so you'll be seeing a lot more of me, my few dozen constant readers. I can only hope, now, that it was worth it for you.

I know it was sure as hell worth it for me.