#minitwists

[willowmckinley]

From the body of the beast

Raylan sees them, blurry and gray. He realizes Harlan—Harlan who has been created from the blood of those living there—doesn’t have eyes, but sees them all the same. There are so many, and Raylan falls into only a few.

Harlan wakes up.

Two girls, late teens, huddle together in an abandoned shaft. They wrap their arms around each other, and they’re obviously scared, but Raylan can’t tell of what. They wear clothing that doesn’t make sense to Raylan, fashion that hasn’t been invented yet. Thick red travels down one’s leg into the dirt. The other sports a bloody nose. She wipes her lip with the back of her hand, and it comes away red. She lets her hand rest against the floor of the cave.

Harlan wakes up.

A man backs away, his arms are up, he keeps shaking his head in dissension. These flashbacks don’t have audio, but Raylan can read No and I’ll get you the money on his lips. Raylan can’t see what corners him, but the man’s back hits the mine wall. Red splatters up the rock where his head used to be, as the man crumples to the ground.

Harlan wakes up.

A Bennett—he has the look, the face, the same stupid grin— a bullet scratches through his shirt, spilling over the dust, and he smirks, smoking gun in hand, twirls and holsters it.

Harlan wakes up.

A woman in an old fifties house dress claws into a rubble pile. She wails, and full sobs shake her body. A cave in, Raylan suspects, and she breaks her nails in a futile attempt to dig out the rocks. She’s not like a widow in an old miner’s tale, Raylan thinks, she is the widow in an old miners’ tale. The wreckage cuts deep gashes across her palms, and Raylan sees bright red bleed out of the wound, the only color in this gray scale memory. Hazel.

Harlan wakes up.

An old memory. Raylan knows this one. Boyd pulls Raylan up the mine shaft, the two of them running from the rocks falling behind them. Blood snakes down each of their forearms, meeting at their hands, forming one drop before flying to the floor, left behind in their haste.

Harlan wakes up.

Loretta McCready stands too close to the edge of a mineshaft. A minor scrape Raylan hadn’t even guessed at now glowing red and dripping just into the black.

Harlan wakes up.

(I might also send you a bit from your omegaverse if I can fucking narrow down 500 words)

Raylan! Thank you for the ask about "The Body of the Beast"! I'd also love to answer about "The Soil in Your Belly" :D

Ohhhh, this scene. I'm glad you picked one from Harlan's point of view, because all of it was soooo fun to write. Harlan has her little blorbos (something I couldn't write in the fic, but you know know in your heart to be true).

To be honest, Harlan's scene is the second scene I wrote for this fic. I wrote the very beginning-- Harlan reaching up to grab them, pull them into the past, and them to wake up there-- and the very last. Writing all the sandwich in the middle was what took the longest. I think that's fitting, though, for Raylan's line to have been for this was always how it was going to end, and I, as author, knew it too.

This part had gone through some edits, of course, once I knew more about everyone, including Hazel-Virginia and how Raylan might feel upon seeing her. I'm happy to have included her, and I hadn't called her Virginia until her second appearance, because I thought it'd be fun for readers to have one chance to come up with the minitwist themselves, haha, just before the offical reveal.

The two girls and the man who died, they were to give more numbers to the different favorites Harlan has, while not making too many characters as we know them special. That said, I also used them to show that Harlan doesn't necessarily have a type, in that the man who borrowed money is a coward and unwise to be borrowing from those he shouldn't. The girls, from the future, show that Harlan doesn't pick from any time period either.

The blood that Raylan and Boyd spills is intended to keep them as a set, while also showing how united they were in that moment. They are but one blood, they are so close. I imagine it makes Harlan's blood magic easier to use than if they hadn't been, haha, though I also suppose she doesn't have concepts of "easy" for her to make decisions around.

Also, Loretta was fun for me as well, because Harlan has already changed the time line. Even if she does bleed into Harlan, it won't be in this way, as Raylan and Boyd have changed their futures. It's to show that Harlan has different responses to time lines than other characters, as she is a minor god, and they are not. I think it's also just to prove how lovable Loretta is. Even Harlan loved her so.

[inkofamethyst]

October 23, 2023

In terms of my cohort, I definitely do feel younger than them. Less experienced. That really manifested, for me, when the ones in my evodevo class were sharing their ideas for the final project. Their ideas just seemed so much more mature (robust, specific, identifying resources relevant to them and finding ways to relate this project pretty closely to their interests) compared to mine. And it's like, I don't know.. I mean I know I'm not supposed to be comparing myself to other people when I can help it. But I don't know how much of their.. intellectual/research maturity(?) comes from having years more than me to devote to research on a basically full-time basis before starting this program. And I don't know how to go about trying to catch up without burning out? I don't even know if that's the right way to think about this, I don't know if it's even a problem at all. I don't know what my advisor thinks and a large enough part of me is too afraid to ask.

I feel like I'm a ways out of my depth.

[a week later]

I don't feel too much different, but my advisor being the prof kind of helps. Like, he has some ideas for people/resources I can look into for data.

Finished my braids. They're a bit boneless ha. My parting technique needs work, the front and back are def unbalanced density-wise (I only used four bundles out of the eight I ordered). But that's okay just in case I'm not feeling the color and want to take them out quickly. I didn't really even try to "tuck" so my roots definitely show through, especially in the bigger sections at the back. I mean, no one would ever think I was a natural ginger anyway and that wasn't the goal. Ultimately, I think the color is cute, and having so much left means I should be able to do another set some day, or maybe I can use this color for accents around the bangs/temples with my typical black. I'll give it a week to decide how I really feel about it. Pretty sure I'm going for minitwists next, though. Maybe twice. Just to give my hair some time to breathe.

Read through my SOP to my current uni last night to prep for tomorrow's talk and boy I sure did sound confident. Like, the words are certainly mine, but the tone is so unlike me. I fear the woman who wrote that (...in an afternoon, no less).

Anyway I got some good feedback from my advisor on my talk today. Implementing it now. It's a lot of little stylistic notes. I'm worried that I'm going to go over time. We'll see. It's not for a grade in the typical sense, but I'd argue that this is just as if not more important than any "grade" I'm getting in my other classes. Coursework is a semester-long endeavor. Several intense weeks. I'm going to be in this department for years. Gotta make a good first impression.

[edit, a few hours later: spent wayyy too long trying to perfect this presentation when the best thing i can do for myself rn is go to bed]

Today I'm thankful that listening to vgm doesn't hurt as much anymore.

(vgm is entrenched into my personal brand at this point so I've got some catching up to do if I want to keep my steak of 6(?) years straight of having a vgm composer as my top artist, and Vincent Diamante deserves it by now tbh. unfortunately listening to the skyrim ambience while watching a 12-hour landscape walk on youtube isn't counting for anything)

[variations-on-a-tin-can]

At the very least, I actually sectioned my hair using a chart and everything so it won't be as bad as when I do minitwists and the whole thing is a mess. I definitely need to take a break from blow drying it though. If I get heat damage again after cutting it off back in junior year I'm gonna cry.

Maybe I needed the hard reset of washing and doing my hair every week or week and a half or two weeks. Yes, I know that washing your hair with braids in is possible but it was stupid to think that I'd actually fucking do it

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[mahoganydreamzz]

The longer I have these mini twists in, the more I want to loc them🌻

[naturalhairvideos]

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[luvanjel]

the 1 st official pictures I’ve taken all 2020 🌹 finally started my locs

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[thebrazengoddess]

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[naturaledgez]

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[theinkblogger-blog]

[lavishcurlsbeauty]

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[creationsbycarter]

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[royalcoilco-blog]

Another successful mini-twist! Can’t wait to explore more styles with my hair! Being new to the natural hair scene, does anyone have any looks that would work for my hair?

[strawberricurls]

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