#maka willards

[authoralexharvey]

Writing Maka and Katalin together in a scene is always such a challenge because one has awful eyesight and has to use magic to supplement and the other one can't talk so she uses sign language. I've gotten around this by having a translator present, but she isn't IN this scene yet so we just have:

She shut the door behind her. “You know, Maka,” she said as [COLOR] and [COLOR] runes formed a web across the door behind her, “If anyone cared enough to find you, they could. Your aura is blinding enough.”

“What do you want?”

No response. She peeked a little higher. There was no Sarai, so she wouldn't be able to respond. Her jaw set. Katalin knew how much she hated their communication issues.

“So you're really going to do it, then?”

Maka nodded, anger burning all the hotter when she remembered Katalin couldn't see her. 

Like. This is so difficult @_@

[authoralexharvey]

Still working on this scene, but it's still one of my favorites in this book tbh

At last, Scholar Selene closed her book and pushed it aside. "Thank you for coming to see me. We need to discuss your… gifts." Maka's signs came out stilted. Her pulse quickened. "What about them?" A soft, pitying smile tugged at the corner of Scholar Selene's mouth. "It appears our safeguards have been weakening is all. I would hate to have them break and for you to be consumed with too much too quickly." A sort of relief washed through her. Maka knew where this conversation led, and still she dreaded it, but it was an easier conversation to manage than the other possibilities she'd entertained in her panic. "I've trained for years," she signed. "It only gets stronger." Scholar Selene nodded. "Which is why I would like to revisit with Loreh and have your bonds–" "No." The refusal came out before she could stop it. She blanched, entire body chilling despite the heat in the room, and waited for the sharp sting of Scholar Selene's slap. It didn't come. "Apprentice Maka." Her tone was gentle, like she was talking to a petulant child and not a woman of twenty-four years. "You will become a Scholar soon enough, powers or no. Until then, however, I think it best to keep you contained. You could hurt someone without our safeguards." Maka's hands clenched, nails pressing crescents into her skin. Her gaze flicked to the letter opener. A dangerous idea bubbled in the back of her mind. 

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[xatskee]

#QuoteOfTheDay (20211030): “Saya akhirnya menyimpulkan bahwa semua kegagalan berasal dari kemauan yang bergoyang (goyah) daripada ban yang bergoyang.” (Frances E. Willard) Di antara kita mungkin pernah mengalami, malamnya berniat besok mau melakukan kegiatan positif, berolahraga misalnya. Namun ketika bangun tidur, keinginannya luntur. Rasa malas, nyamannya tempat tidur, atau ada dorongan hawa nafsu untuk melakukan kelalaian/ maksiat yang berujung dosa. Gagal semua rencana kebaikan untuk diri, karena lemahnya kemauan dan kuatnya hawa nafsu. Ibnu Taymiyyah dalam Tazkiyatun Nafs berkata, “Hawa nafsu tidak berdiri sendiri dalam melakukan keburukan kecuali disertai dengan kebodohan, sebab jika ia mengetahui bahwa sesuatu itu berbahaya dan berdosa untuk dilakukan, maka secara otomatis ia akan menolak untuk mengerjakan hal tersebut. Karena Allah Ta’ala telah menjadikan dalam jiwa kecintaan terhadap apa yang mendatangkan manfaat dan membenci sesuatu yang mendatangkan mudharat. Dan jika seseorang mengerjakan sesuatu yang berbahaya misalnya, maka hal itu disebabkan oleh kelemahan pikirannya.” #all #failure #from #wobbling #will #avoid #lust #sins #do #useful #positive #activity #bicycle Telegram Channel: https://t.me/xQoTD https://www.instagram.com/p/CVoF2LShhNH/?utm_medium=tumblr

[authoralexharvey]

Thinking again about Akemi Homura and how deeply she as a character took over my younger self's brain and how they were RIGHT to be obsessed with her

And also how she as a character influenced Maka's design and creation and how I wanted to take my own spin on that kind of character concept and how even though things are Different between the two I can draw parallels all the same andkkfkfkf

[authoralexharvey]

Happy Blorbo Blursday, Alex!

Which of your characters is your favorite, right now (we've all got one, the others don't have to know)? Have they always been your favorite, or is this a more recent development? Are there particular traits that make them your favorite, or is it the ✨ vibes ✨ ?

Happy blorbo day!! My answer oscillates a lot, especially on projects where I'm in multiple heads. Since I'm working on twefa this month, I'll stick to that.

Currently, Maka is my favorite because her storyline is so tragic. And also in general I just really like her character. I've worked hard to make her just as interesting and active as the other two and I think I'm doing a good job with that.

I think when I first was working on twefa, Katalin was my favorite, but that lasted a short while when Dakota stole the spotlight. This draft, Maka is the focus. I think she's so... neat.

[authoralexharvey]

I tell myself I don't have a favorite in this book but that's a lie. It's Maka 100000%

[authoralexharvey]

Which characters get along worst?

Hey there! Uhhh let's see.

Etienne and Simone are one step shy of mortal enemies, tbh. It's mostly one-sided. Etienne hates Simone with a fiery passion and would strangle them if he could. Simone's negative emotions are mostly related to being annoyed Etienne hates them so much.

Stepping away from ASMLP for a sec. Maka and Katalin aren't like. Enemies persay but they definitely don't like each other and each sees the other as a sort of means to an end.

By far, though, the people who get along with each other the worst, is absolutely Toshiko and Fel. Like. While the hatred is still somewhat lopsided (Fel finds Toshiko annoying. Almost like an errant bug but... somewhat cuter?), they actively try to kill each other. Numerous times.

The crux of their issue comes down to this: Toshiko is an intensely religious (paladin???) warrior who hunts monsters for a living. She's had to kill friends and family members who have succumbed to their monstrous forms, so she's... Got quite a viewpoint about them (monsters). Fel, meanwhile, is someone who existed, became a monster, and then clawed her way back into human form through sheer force of will. She's not the same person from before, of course, and now she possesses the ability to revert to her monstrous form at will. However, her very existence is the antithesis of everything Toshiko stands for. And thus she must die.

Or, at least, so Toshiko thinks she should. Their relationship arc is very twisted and very delicious and very slow to develop.

Thanks for the ask!

[authoralexharvey]

Happy STS! Which tarot card represents your OCs?

Happy STS Cammie! I love and hate this question because you would think, as a tarot reader and renowned witch, I would have an answer to this already. But I don't. I had to consult one of my decks for this lol

Sooooooo I'm doing this for TWEfA here's what we got and my explanation, as well as the corresponding phrase the deck I'm using has for each card in the guidebook:

Dakota

Ten of Wands. Oof. This actually really fits her. 10 of Wands is all about hardships and being burdened by shit and trying to tough through it, and that's been a lot of Dakota's character arc regardless of what draft of TWEfA I've ended up on.

Be present, at peace. Teach those still writhing.

Maka

Eight of Wands (funny how they're both Wands). This is... an interesting one to pull for her. Reversed, it can signify frustration and lack, whereas upright it can be about going with the flow and movement.. I think either way kind of makes sense. She's the goddess of time and her character arc involves... A LOT of frustration. The halfway point of TWEfA is her having a breakdown about everything going wrong again.

Yeah the more I think on it, the more this one tracks.

Insist upon your own metamorphosis

Katalin

The Star. I snorted when this flew out tbh. Reversed Star is absolutely Katalin. Lack of faith, despair, disconnection. That's 100% her. And even better, her character arc involves her going from this to finding her true purpose and having renewed faith in herself which is,,, basically The Star.

From pollen to stardust, from filament to feather / we are where we belong, to the universe tethered.

Luriel

Yaknow what, I didn't have to consult my deck for this one. He's the Hierophant. He couldn't be anything else. He's a literal Jesus figure.

The one who possesses the highest of wicks / will guide us through shadows that flicker and flick

Thanks again for the ask! This was fun!

[authoralexharvey]

THOSE WHO EMERGE FROM ASHES, a Novel Intro by @authoralexharvey

GENRE — dark fantasy || adventure 

INSPIRATIONS — Dark Souls, Hollow Knight, Madoka Magica, Warbreaker (Brandon Sanderson) 

POV — third person limited, alternating between three characters

TAGS AND TROPES — adventure, fallen gods, friends to lovers, gods as humans, language barriers, lgbtq, magic, queer worldbuilding, rebellion, recovery, reincarnation, religion, slow-burn, time travel, travel

WARNINGS — abuse, animal attacks, cults, mentions of genocide, murder, ptsd, religion and religious abuse, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, trauma (and lots of it), violence

STATUS — draft 8, writing the bare-bones restructure of draft 7

GOAL — ~150k words

THE DETAILS

CHARACTERS

Dakota Locke, a twenty-four-year-old attempting to become a renowned historian. Winds up becoming the Scribe of High Priest Luriel the Seventh and following him around as He tries to bring the gods back.

Maka Willards, a twenty-four-year-old godling who is new to being such a thing. Wants to get away from the Scholars but doesn’t know how—and the curse on her certainly isn’t helping things. After a harrowing event shakes her cathedral, she has her chance.

Katalin Basurto, a twenty-five-year-old Scholar of the Lost. Sharp as a tack and conniving when she has to be. Though she is originally sent as the next Scribe of Luriel, her plans change when she finds someone else has taken her place.

High Priest Luriel the Seventh, an over eight-hundred-year-old Priest. Everyone thinks he killed the old gods, but he only defied them and has taken it upon himself to bring them back at the peril of his own health, which has been rapidly deteriorating.

SUMMARY

Three women find their lives deeply entangled at the hands of an eight hundred year old High Priest as He embarks on what may be an impossible task. Dakota Locke is an aspiring historian with little money and nothing to her name. When her guardian takes her abuse too far, Dakota flees, forsaking the scant chance she has at her dreams. Then she meets a strange woman in the woods who doesn't speak and her life changes forever. Maka Willards is a god. She knows this, no matter what the Scholars of the Lost say. Despite the curse binding her powers, she knows its hold is slipping. After a harrowing event shakes the cathedral she calls home, she abandons it all to find her High Priest herself and take her place among a new era of Gods. The Scholars of the Lost devoutly follow their High Priest as he resurrects the gods, no matter the cost. Unbeknownst to everyone else, they also aim to sway Him to their own shadowed goals. No one knows this truth better than Katalin Basurto. Having trained for years to be the next Scribe, she may finally have her chance when the last Scribe meets his untimely end. For years, she's suffered under the influence of the Scholars. She won't let anyone stand in her way now.

TAGLIST (Ask to be added!)

@linaket , @sarandipitywrites , @belovedviolence , @bardicbeetle

[authoralexharvey]

💬💬💬!!! - @magic-is-something-we-create

You sent three, so you're getting three! Hope that's okay @magic-is-something-we-create !! Thank you for the ask

This first one is a bit from the intro scene to A Sharper, More Lasting Pain, my Sapphic Fantasy Dark Academia (at least, that's what I keep calling it) novel. Ignore the placeholders for now lmao

He sets their proposal down with a slap, sending his small army of pens scattering. Their title stares back at them, Archaeogeology of Idune and Neighboring Holy Sites. True, they won't have to worry about their thesis--or the accompanying spell tome--for another year, but they like to be prepared.

Clearing their throat, Simone says, "I wanted to start early."

Professor (NAME) gives another soft laugh. He's a graying man, strong in the jaw and wearing his age the way one might a favored coat. Many of the students in his class swoon when they see him, their affection painfully obvious. Simone admires the swell of his chest and the brown patches on his elbows. However, it is his earthy lecturing voice and his perspective on glyph design they appreciate the most.

Second excerpt comes from Those Who Emerge from Ashes, my dark fantasy novel about sad lesbians and gods lmao. Content warning for (non mental illness) self-injury

Without thinking of the consequences, Maka dashed across the desk, grasped the athame, and sliced into her palm.

"Apprentice Maka, how dare--"

Blood rushed down her arm. She couldn't clench her fingers. The athame fell with a thud on the carpet, all but forgotten as pain lanced through her. Where she had expected garnet liquid to stain her coat and the carpet, it was instead a shimmering gold.

Annnnnnd lastly I think I'll return to ASMLP because I've been thinking about it lots. Content warning for talk of illness and drugs and also vomiting.

The week begins as many of them have recently: with violent vomiting. Pregnancy is out of the question--she hasn't touched a dick since the awkward handjobs in primary school, and she's not fond of them besides--and she's spent too many mornings hunched over porcelain to blame her problems on an ill-cooked meal. A lesser person may have attributed it to her frequent misuse of Serenity, but such opinions aren't worth listening to.

[authoralexharvey]

Hi!! Happy Blorbo Blursday!! I've never participated before so if the question feels off-theme, I apologize, but!!

What would your current blorbos from separate works think of each other if they ever met? If you have any blorbos from shows, would they get along with blorbos from your brain?? Would any of them hate each other?? Would any of them tempt a crossover of some kind??

I hope you have a lovely rest of your day!! - @magic-is-something-we-create

Thanks @magic-is-something-we-create !! If it makes you feel better I need constant reminders in what the fuck a blorbo is or means so.

I think Simone would get along with Caleb Widogast from Critical Role because they both have similar academic minds and love acquiring knowledge on things and also reading smut so. Lots to talk about all around. Simone would def want to pop into the CR universe if only for like. An hour to pick his brain.

I think Neku and Caleb COULD get along due to their similar enough backstories, but I think Neku is like. The worse road traveled and they would end up enemies I think.

Aleta and Simone would not get along. They're both academic and smart and love hoarding knowledge, but Aleta has an innate need to safeguard and gatekeep knowledge (to be fair she thinks it will keep her culture from being destroyed so) and Simone wants to spread it, so they're at ideological odds there tbh.

I don't think Taako Taaco would get along with most people tbh. MAYBE Jayashekar because they're both showy and flamboyant and gay but I think they would end up trying to one-up each other so. I think Nadia would want to party with Taako tho. I think Maka would try to commiserate with Taako (she's a god dating a Mortal, he's a Mortal dating a god) but... hmm.

[authoralexharvey]

💙: how has the idea changed between starting it and where it is now?

and

💜: where are you in the writing process?

Idk why I didn't get notice for this my bad anywho I answered these two for ASMLP and ABTB--see that here. But also this gives me a moment and chance to talk about TWEfA!! Answering from this list btw.

💙: how has the idea changed between starting it and where it is now?

This is the big one.

Those Who Emerge from Ashes first started as a VERY different book called Clinker Girl, a bad steampunk novel with elemental magic. Katalin didn't exist. Maka was a part of a race of... star people? Dakota was a master at wind magic but absolutely shit at fire magic (at least that part is still true). There was also a secondary plot with a girl named Vanille (yes, I took her name from Final Fantasy 13 leave me alone) who was the leader of Clink, a guild who did... something?? And it was Dakota's ultimate dream to join their guild, to the point she joins a tournament to get their attention. Yes, like the tournament arcs in animes. Leave me alone.

ANYWAY when this plot wasn't working I shelved the project for a while. I then wrote TOOD, a politio-comedic fantasy and the first novel in this new world I had made. I liked the world enough and wanted to expand on some concepts I had, so I gutted Clinker Girl and repurposed a lot of things from it, including Dakota and Maka. See, another fun thing about CG was that Maka was still intended to be a goddess, and hers and Dakota's romance would be tragic cause they can't be together and blah blah blah. Turns out her being a goddess still worked in this new project, so I kept it.

For the first iterations of TWEfA, the basic storyline is that Dakota is hired by the Scholars of the Lost to be the next Scribe as their last one has died. However, the circumstances of getting her there weren't quite working out. Especially when they had an even better contender already living at the Cathedral (Katalin)

I then had to look at the POVs. For all of this, Dakota was the main voice, which just wasn't fucking working. So then I ended up writing chapters from Maka's pov. By this point, Katalin was a darling character to me, so she got her own POV as well. Which worked... better, but there was still some issues. The circumstances of Dakota's plot still weren't working, so I changed it. She was no longer hired by the Scholars, she was a runaway seeking escape from her abusive handler. A lot of her base backstory still remained true, though.

As it stands, Dakota is a runaway who finds herself in Geis as Maka is making her own escape from the Scholars of the Lost. They meet up, seek out Luriel, etc. And Katalin is sent after them etc.

I like the way the plot is looking for now, I just haven't been writing it lmao

💜: where are you in the writing process?

I am forever drafting this one and ngl may end up shelving it at some point. I think I'm content to accept this is a book that lives in my skull and nowhere else... but not quite yet. I'm still trying to draft this one lol so maybe it'll become a finished novel some day. I really have no way of knowing.

Thanks for the ask and sorry I answered so late!

[authoralexharvey]

Camp NaNoWriMo Excerpts - Day 6

Day One || Day Two || Day Three || Day Four || Day Five

We know the drill by now. I’m Alex, it’s Camp NaNoWriMo, I’m busting my own balls trying to get stuff wrote every day for my novel, Those Who Emerge from Ashes. (AKA, dead gods and sad lesbians). Current goal is 10k, but I might be pressed to bump it up depending on if my current trajectory keeps going. 

Day Six - 1,051 words (5,841 words total)

There was a scar on the inside of her arm. As a younger acolyte, she had once gone foraging in the woods under strict supervision. Monsters had come from the shadows and overwhelmed her small group. Maka was the only acolyte left standing from it. Everyone else had died in bloody heaps. Maka had bled, too.

Scholar Selene had tried everything to scrub the memory from Maka’s brain, and for the longest time, Maka thought she had succeeded. Now, there was no denying what she was.

Without thinking of the consequences, Maka dashed across the desk, grasped the athame, and sliced into her palm.

“Apprentice Maka, how dare—“

Blood rushed down her arm. She couldn’t clench her fingers. The athame fell with a thud on the carpet, all but forgotten as pain lanced through her. Where she had expected garnet liquid to stain her coat and the carpet, it was instead a shimmering gold.

[authoralexharvey]

💔 hurt my feelings today pal

Ah jeez dude here we goooo (and thank you)... Also I’m cheating and posting more than one line because uhh high key? Planning this fuckin broke me a bit but I’m also very excited to get to it more.

———

I was so close. The frustration boiled over. She kicked a stray stone and watched it skip down the road. What am I missing?

She’d lost count how many tries she’d had, how many details she’d changed. It all amounted to so little, in the grand scheme of things. She always ended up back where she’d started. 

Someone dies every time.

Before she realized it, she was crying. Flashes of timelines collided in her mind. Dakota, lifeless and bleeding. Luriel, eviscerated. Dakota again, shrieking with madness, monstrous pitch consuming her. All of this was true, and yet none of it was.

Maka hadn’t planned for it to be this way.

[authoralexharvey]

Camp NaNoWriMo Excerpts - Day 7

One || Two || Three || Four || Five || Six 

I’ll tell you what, today was kind of a challenge. I stared at the doc for a good half hour, wrote like... three words, stared some more... had a couple of false starts, but I think I have something now.

Also, I’m realizing that I accidentally made really clever parallels between Katalin’s first chapter and Maka’s so...

Day Seven - 771 words (6,612 words total)

“I need help,” Maka signed, woozy on her feet.

“No shit. What happened?”

“Not important.” Her good hand felt tight. She undid the crude knot she’d made and, holding her breath, held her palm out for Sarai to examine. 

“Maka, I...” Sarai’s dark hair fell in a curtain around her face. Maka tasted the astonishment in her words. “This doesn’t look good.”

“Stitches?”

“Something.” She pushed Maka into a chair and dug around in her bedside table. For what felt like too long, Maka found herself acquaintances with the back of Sarai’s thighs.

“Did Scholar Selene—“ Sarai began as she turned back around. Maka cut her off in a hurry.

“I did this. Me.”

Sarai’s eyes grew wide. “Why?” 

“She needed to believe me.”

“She already—never mind. Sit still and hold out your hand.”

Maka did. Her head lolled and, now aware how heavy her limbs felt, she settled her head on the back of the chair and stared at the ceiling. She didn’t know how long it was before ice-cold, sudden pain snatched her back from whatever unreality she’d gone to. She jerked in the chair, wheezing as Sarai pinned her to the spot.