#nest: tuuli

[ncisfranchise-source]

Mavournee Hazel’s NCIS Sydney character Blue Bird (AKA Blue) may be a forensic pathologist like NCIS icon Abby Sciuto (Pauley Perrette); however, that’s where the similarities end.

Speaking to Mediaweek before the November 10 premiere of the Paramount+ series, Hazel admitted that she hoped “fans remove themselves from that comparison”.

“I think comparison is the thief of joy,” she said before adding that she was “aware” that this may happen.

“I never thought I’d be in a position where I would be playing a role like Blue that is compared to someone like Abby’s iconic cultural resetting character,” she said. “Obviously there are similarities in what we do, but straight from the get-go, our team behind the scenes were so considered and thoughtful in how they wanted Blue to be different, and that she wasn’t going to be Abby and that she is her own person.”

In the classic NCIS style that die-hard fans know and love, Blue’s character will evolve as we learn more about her and her backstory.

“Hopefully people love her as much as Abby,” she said.

(l-r) Mavournee Hazel and Pauley Perette. Paramount+

Who is Blue, Mavournee Hazel’s NCIS Sydney character

For the 27-year-old, Blue Bird, as a character, is a blessing.

“She was part of an upcoming forensic Outreach Programme with the AFP, the Australian Federal Police, and she’s brought into the team by chance because their usual go-to forensic scientist can’t quite make it. So, Blue gets the opportunity to show the team what she can do,” she said.

“She’s such a genuine, authentic character, and she’s so intelligent to a degree that I don’t think we fully even touched on in this season.” 

L-R: William McInnes, Sean Sagar, Tuuli Narkle, Todd Lasance, Olivia Swann and Mavournee Hazel, NCIS Sydney Cast. Paramount+

William McInnes and Mavournee Hazel visited the AFP

While Hazel is a key member of the core cast, the actor she spends the most time with is William McInnes who plays AFP Forensic Pathologist Dr. Roy Penrose. Given his tenure in the Australian TV and Film landscape, it was a joy to work with him and they even got to visit the working Australian Federal Police labs.

“That was amazing,” she exclaimed. “We got to go into the labs and see what they do there to protect the borders. It was fascinating seeing them analysing certain materials because Blue gets to do as well. I learned a lot from seeing them.

She added: “I was also so surprised by how many young women were actually in these labs and go into the forensic world that is a little bit more male-dominated.”

Mavournee Hazel and William McInnes, Paramount+

Blue’s dedicated set 

Mediaweek was fortunate to visit the set of NCIS Sydney during filming, with one warehouse that housed three different sets on a Sydney wharf.

Blue’s lab in particular was a stand-out, with some of the most intricate details with a nod to the character’s quirky personality and style.

For Hazel, it was just as thrilling.

“I think I cried when I saw it for the first time, because, it was also my first day on set and to have a whole set dedicated to my character. She’s such an apologetic person who doesn’t want to take up any space and to have permission to be like, this is your nest, it was amazing.”

[juliainfinland]

Ooh! This reminds me of Tuuli Hypén's book Veikan metsäretki (Veikka's forest trip), about a fox cub who gets lost in the forest and encounters a number of animals, each of whom has a problem Veikka helps solve and each of whom is able to guide him a little closer to home.

(There's also a sequel, Veikka ja talvi (Veikka and winter), where he encounters all the animals again in late autumn and learns about autumn and winter. And he really needs to, because he's so young that he's never seen autumn leaves before. Each of the animals tells him something that's important for their species (it's late, I need to fly south! my fur is getting white because there's going to be snow! (what's snow?) I'm gathering leaves for a nest to hibernate in! I'm going to burrow in the snow! (again with the snow?) etc.), and in the end, his mom fills in the blanks for him.)

from the book “The Many Adventures of Isabella” illustrated by David Joaquin ~ https://www.theartofdavidjoaquin.com/

[fang-fr]

6/13/19: Some bluuuuue babies from today’s nest! I’m not sure I ever bred the parents together until now, because one of them has glimmer so most of the babies would have thylacine. I like these deepsea guardians though, I may nest this pair again

Favorite: #2 Keeping: None Selling: All Parentage: Tuuli/Agni

[raevenlywrites]

The Ties That Bind 12 of ???

Rei and I held hands as we emerged from the dark into--more dark. Zane had promised the  rsh  wasn’t as dim inside as it seemed, but I missed the sun. And I was grateful for Rei’s hand in mind as we moved through the tight press of netting and vines.

There was an uncanny beauty to it, this joining of intention of happenstance, a closeness that I might have found comforting if I hadn’t felt so stifled already. Rei’s hand seemed too thick and hot in mine, but I stuck close to him anyways, unnerved by the walls of the  rsh . They seemed to slither and switch, and it wasn’t until we rounded a corner back into the main room that I realized their movement came from the shifting shadows cast by a dancing flame.

Once a fire was lit in the central room, the entire space transformed. Where net and leaf began became much clearer, because the nets, I could now see, had once been bright, vibrant colors. Time had dulled them, and I could only imagine the brilliant jewels they must have once been, however long ago.

They say our peoples have been at war for over two thousand years.

They also say the falcon empress Cjarsa is older still than that.

It seems petty to doubt such magic when I myself have knit closed minor wounds with only the power of my voice and prayer. But surely, surely, some myths need not to be true. I didn’t want to believe our war was that old. And I didn’t know what to make of an empress that was supposed to remember a time we knew peace, but did next to nothing to help us return to it.

 Zane startled me from my thoughts, even as my mind played back the last few seconds and realized I had noticed my guards shift around me and had simply dismissed it. It wasn’t  Zane  startling me, it was the interruption from my introspection in general.

 “It’s eerie, isn’t it?” he asked, gazing at the wall and not me. “There’s a  rsh  just like this on the edges of the marketplace, with a central room just like this one, but...”

 He trailed off, dropping the hand he’d been reaching out to a broken twist of net. It amazed me how it still stood at all, and I said as much.

 “This one is more vine than net, I think,” he said carefully. “It takes time and patience to grow up walls like this. And even more to bring them back down.”

 I humphed under my breath.

 “Everyone keeps talking around me lately, in pretty metaphors--or obvious ones.”

 He turned wide eyes to me and I gave him back what I hoped was a single arched brow. It was a difficult expression to master, without screwing up the rest of my face to be comical. Apparently it was effective though, or Zane was being polite at my failure when he smiled with a soft shake of his head.

 “That one was for me, actually. If you feel the tearing down walls metaphor is apt for yourself as well, then hopefully it means we’ll be able to find more common ground before the week is out.”

 My stomach dropped at the reminder that I was expected to stay here, with him--and Rei--for an entire week. It had seemed like such a good idea at the farmhouse, staring into the triumphant face of Alasdair.

 “You said your dancers dance around the sign of the Anhleh,” I said, not caring how obviously I was changing the subject. “Do you think there’s one intact here, or...” I gestured lamely at the walls. Zane gave me another humoring smile.

 “This nest is dead, a relic. I’m afraid if you want to see serpiente dance before the Anhleh you’ll have to come back with me to sha’Mehay.”

 It was only my blood running cold that kept my cheeks from flushing. The terror at the thought of willingly entering the heart of the serpiente palace cooled any embarrassment at the thought that I might have been asking him to dance, here and now.

 You want to do this here, now? Rei’s voice echoed in my head and the blush won out. Zane chuckled.

 “Is the thought of merely watching others dance too much for you, pretty Danica? I knew hawks were prudes but--”

 “I’m not a prude!” I snapped, and instantly regretted it. Softer voices could be politely ignored in this close space. Quiet shouting could not.

 I felt Rei crowd closer behind me and suddenly wanted out of this hole in the ground.

 “Rei,” I ground from between my teeth, “you  cannot  hover over me all week. I meant what I said to Erica, and I’ll say it again to you too. I don’t need a soldier, I need a guard. Go fly a scouting circuit, see how obvious the smoke from that fire is above the trees.”

 It was almost certainly the wrong thing to say. But he met my orders with a tight, “Yes, Shardae,” and gave me the space I so desperately needed. Now if only I could order myself up and into the sun.

 Zane was studying my face, and didn’t have the manners to try to disguise it when I turned back to him. Or maybe it was a cultural thing. Maybe serpiente just openly stared at everyone. Either way, my emotions were too wrung out for niceties anymore. I’d spent the better part of a week either traveling or trapped in fruitless arguments, and I just needed a  break .

 “This is the most emotion I’ve ever seen from you,” Zane commented before I could speak. “It’s a shame it’s all tense and jagged like this. I have a feeling you’d have a lovely aura in more pleasant times.”

 At that, I could only blink.

 “W-wha?”

 Zane did that sad smile, headshake thing that was definitely starting to seem like his go to cover up for laughing at me.

 “In our scaled form, serpents taste heat. Life. Alive-ness. Like this, I can still taste your heartbeat, smell the sticky sharp closeness of panic on the back of my tongue--“

 “That’s disgusting,” I said, nearly sick from the thought of it. How could serpiente stand to be so close to one another if they were so aware of each other’s bodies?

 “It’s a metaphor,” he said lightly, colder than he’d been a moment before. “We sense it with a sense that isn’t taste or smell or touch, but it's like trying to describe a song to the deaf. I can hold your hand, tap out the beats, but you still miss the soaring of the melody, the finer notes that make it music and not just sound.”

 I nodded, contrite at having offended him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend.”

 He sighed. “It’s quite alright. I can only imagine it will be the first of many.”

 Something about that made me unspeakably sad. So sad that it changed my “taste” apparently, because Zane reached out for me, to brush my arm I think. But of course Erica was there, and I finally lost my temper completely.

 “Enough!”

 I snatched Zane’s hand in mine, earning startled cries from everyone in the room, even Adelina. I raised our joined hands and shook them, like brandishing a weapon.

 “Zane and I are going to touch. Zane and I are going to be close, because Zane and I are  trying  to have private conversations. If one more person comes within a foot of me without my express invitation I am going to send them home. So help me I will sit in his lap if that’s what it takes to get you all to  stand down .”

 Abruptly, I became  aware  of the fact that I was holding Zane’s hand, that I had taken it without his permission, and that the whole room was staring at us. I squeezed his hand tighter, not knowing how to get off this metaphorical dias.

 Zane squeezed back.

 “It’d be almost worth it to call your bluff,” he muttered, but then said to the larger group, “Is there something we can do to help make you all more comfortable? Among my people, we have elaborate rules and traditions for guests, and I do consider you all my guests, even as I consider myself yours. In my house, I would offer you food and drink, and you would know that no harm would come to you unless violence was offered. What is the way of it in the Keep?”

 In the Keep, violence was absolutely unheard enough. We had enough of that on the fields, on the training grounds. There was no violence in the Keep because it was our refuge from such things.But that wouldn’t help us here.

 “We are held by our word,” Raymond said. I startled, almost having forgotten the quiet raven in the press of so many louder personalities. “Words spoken by or to the Tuuli Thea have power, real power, especially in the halls of our Keep. I do not know how such oaths would hold you, but it is what we would do, if we felt the need.”

 Zane nodded. “We have our own words, codes of conduct, contracts.” He turned to me, pulling our hands closer to our chests.

The Ties That Bind Tag list: @thehellinsideyourhead @therecouldbecolorsandlove @adventuresofacreesty @writing-with-melon @rainydaydarling

Raev’s Gen Tag List (should I tag you guys in this? It IS a thing I wrote. I’m gonna say yes unless you guys are like “no of course not we’re sick of hearing about your stupid fic for a twenty year old book XD)

No one has complained yet so yall gonna keep getting tagged :P

List is currently: @lordkingsmith @writinglyra @drbibliophile @mperialscribe @adie-dee @adie-dee @lexiklecksi @writinginslowmotion @raenawrites @apollon-arium @anika-writes

[simply-yelly2]

And the rest of it is so far just random junk, plus more headcanons. So here we go.

So I did not realize until a little while later that Hai would be the same age as Aleya and Zenle, Sive’s daughter and Salem’s son. And after some inner debate, I reluctantly decided that Prentice is the mate and father of Sive. I hate the guy, I think most people do since he is the jerk who tried to kill Salem just because of a few rumors (turns out it was not even him, talk about a guy who can’t get his snakes straight). But in this case, he has no reason to harm Salem. The big conflict is that both Aleya AND Zenle are poisoned. And while falcon poison does not effect Avians, there are plenty of poisons that could kill...and probably have been used in the back to kill Avian queens and their heirs. Warfare is a very dirty process and seldom do the two sides play fair. 

Once more, got off track. No idea who poisons them, or why...but Hai basically does what she did in the canon Wyvernhail. Only this time she splits both the hawk and cobra part and pushes them in. Full blown falcon, though she breeds weird? Like she will breed falcon, but can throw cobra features like black hair or Keyi’s red eyes. 

So there was that, but a little deal I had for that is...

“Sive does whatever she can to keep Prentice out of politics.” And that is probably a very good move on her part. I keep thinking of this one line from Captive Prince when I think of Prentice. He can start a war just by opening his mouth. And that is true, he got into a brawl in Wolfcry after all. 

Then I was thinking about Nicias who, unfortunately, I had slated to die because lets be real. Araceli would never have let Nicias have a mix blood mate, and even if she made an exception for Hai...if they had a child then it would be over. She disowned her own son for having crow features, on top of torturing him because he did not want to come home when she ordered. 

So...I was thinking that maybe there is a way to save Nicias in this and he is the one who brings his daughter back to reality. But I do not know to go about this, so I will instead focus on his relationship with Lily. 

One difference in my Falcondance is that Nicias’s magic doesn’t go off. So nobody on the island knows he exists until he appears...and they don’t know about Hai either. Lily is sent to be his guide and a potential love interest, but there is a problem...

Magic is clearly there in this world, though it is subtle to the Avians and Serpiente. On the falcon island, vows are a very serious thing that can’t be broken which is how they got Rei and Kel back. I would feel that a joining of Avians or Serpents would be just as powerful a magic, though it can be broken.

Basically, every time Lily tries to get close...she feels some kind of resistance. It’s not from Nicias, but well it is certainly strange until she realizes that he is a married man. And then a conversation, I did not record what Nic would say, but here’s Lily’s.

“To save...your child...?” And then she realizes what he actually is here for...oops. Grandma Araceli is not gonna like this. 

Lastly, I have some things for Oliza and the first is her and Nicias’s relationship. They are mates and the parents of Hai in my AU, but their relationship is pretty open prior to marriage. Around Avians, they are your typical promised pair. Around Serpiente, they are...a little more open. Nic not quite so much, but Oliza has a few girlfriends (one may be Rosalind...shush, Salem does not know about that!)

And finally...just a general idea of how Oliza would act in this AU verse. Unlike canon, this Oliza has bridged the gap between the two worlds (maybe with help from fostering with the wolves), and is the Queen of both the Avians and Serpiente. But there is more...the Rookery and Serpiente palace are obviously still in use, so I had an idea that these are kind of like...I dunno. Like a providence of sorts. Like Sive controls the Rookery, but she answers to Oliza who has final say. 

I feel like there should be a council too, so that everyone gets represented. 

But well, I was then thinking of the scenario from Wolfcry and how this Oliza would deal with that situation and the ones who caused it.

“I, Oliza, Tuuli Thea of the Avians and Diente of the Serpiente, do hereby sentence these three men to the dancer’s nest. They are to learn the ways of the serpent and will serve until the recovery of the python, Urban. Thus said the Wyvern of Wyvern’s Court.” 

I figure that they would do the small tasks, like how Warriors in the series are regulated to apprentice tasks until their punishment is over. 

Okay, I am officially drained. 

[trevardes]

Kaipuusta (Karppi)

Fandom: Karppi

Genre: fluff

Sanamäärä: noin 1000

Disclaimer: En omista hahmoja enkä saa tästä rahaa.

Paritus: Sofia Karppi/Sakari Nurmi

Summary:  Heissä on potentiaalia katastrofiin, todennäköisyyskin ehkä, ja se heitä on aiemmin pidätellyt. Nurmi on kuitenkin väsynyt pohtimaan ja arvailemaan ja jossittelemaan; hän haluaa yrittää, onnistuu se sitten tai ei.

Notes:  Rakastuin Karppiin ja Nurmeen ihan täysillä, ja jäin nyt aika tyhjän päälle kun katsoin sarjan loppuun. Pakkohan siitä oli sitten kirjoittaa tässä toista kautta odotellessa :') Spoilaa juttuja ekalta kaudelta!

AO3 linkki: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17682878

*

Kaipuusta

“Miten sä voit?” Karppi kysyy ensitöikseen heti, kun Nurmi vastaa videopuheluun.

Nurmi asettuu mukavammin makuulle hotellin sängylle ja keskittyy hetkeksi vain katsomaan Karppia. Kuva on puhelimen näytöllä pieni ja hiukan rakeinen, mutta Karpin ilme erottuu selvästi. Hänen silmänsä ovat suuret ja kysyvät, ja suu puristuu tiukaksi viivaksi. Hiukset on sitaistu pään päälle valtavaksi, sotkuiseksi nutturaksi, ja siitä karanneen suortuvan Karppi pyyhkäisee korvan taakse nopealla liikkeellä. Hän on huolissaan.

Jos Nurmi olisi fyysisesti Karpin vieressä, hän erottaisi sellaisetkin merkit, joiden tietää olevan olemassa vaikkei niitä nyt näekään. Karpin silmien aavistuksenomaisen siristymisen, leukaperien jännittymisen tämän purressa hammasta. Sille ei kuitenkaan onneksi enää ole aihetta, ja Nurmi hymyilee.

“Paljon paremmin. Kävin viime viikolla lääkärissä, ja nyt sain tuloksia. Arvot on melkein kohdallaan.”

Karpin silmien ilme lämpenee ja suupielet kohoavat kevyesti tyytyväiseen hymyyn.

“Hyvä kuulla. Söit kai lääkkees.”

“Söin söin”, Nurmi pyöräyttää silmiään. Karppi saarnasi hänelle sen verran vakuuttavasti, että kyllä hän alun unohtelun jälkeen muisti ottaa antibioottinsa ihan säännöllisesti. Jotenkin se oli alkuun tuntunut niin typerältä, kun satunnaisen pahoinvoinnin lisäksi mitään muita oireita ei ollut, mutta ennaltaehkäisyähän ne pillerit olivat olleet. Ettei heikenneen vastustuskyvyn takia iskisi mitään vakavampaa mikrobitautia.

“Sä oot pitäny huolta päästäs?” Hän kysyy puolestaan, eikä voi olla tekemättä äänensävystään hiukan piruilevaa.

“Ei yhtään uutta iskua tähän mennessä”, Karppi virnistää. “Ja sun autostas myös. Korjautin vihdoin sen oven.”

“Oho! Kiitos”, Nurmi ilahtuu. Tuntuu jotenkin hyvältä ajatella Karppia hänen autossaan, ajamassa sillä ja huolehtimassa siitä. Tuntuu hyvältä luottaa häneen sillä tavalla.

He hiljenevät hetkeksi. Nurmi katselee Karppia; tämän kalpeita kasvoja ja tummaa villapaitaa, kauniita silmiä ja pientä vinoa hymyä. Äkkiä Italia tuntuu jo läpikotaisin nähdyltä ja koetulta. Nurmi haluaa kotiin.

“Henna jää nyt sitten Saksaan”, Karppi mainitsee kevyesti, kuin sillä ei olisi hänelle mitään väliä.

“Onko se sulle okei?”

“Pakkohan sen on olla. Se on täysikänen”, Karppi hymähtää. “Ja sen kaverit on siellä.”

“Mutta sä ja Emil ootte Suomessa.”

Karppi tuhahtaa, mutta surumielinen hymy palaa kasvoille.

“Niinhän me. Emil sai sen lupaamaan, että me Skypetetään kerran viikossa, koko perhe. Ja se lupasi tulla kesällä käymään jos mä maksan liput.”

Nurmi pudistaa päätään huvittuneena. Kuulostaa Hennalta. Karppi tuntee tyttärensä, mutta silti hänen hartiansa ovat vähän lysyssä, kuin niitä painaisi epäonnistumisen paino. Kyllähän he ovat kaikki tienneet, että lopulta Henna päätyy jäämään Saksaan, mutta kaipa päätöksen lopullisuuden alkaa tajuta vasta nyt. Hampuriin on matkaa, ja ihan niin paljon Karppikaan ei ansaitse, että hänellä olisi rahaa käydä usein Hennaa katsomassa. Varmaan hänestä tuntuu siltä, kuin olisi menettämässä Hennan.

Emilistä on tietenkin seuraa, ja työkavereista samoin, mutta Karpin täytyy olla yksinäinen. Hän näyttää vähän siltä.

“Mä olen lähdössä nyt pariksi päiväksi vaeltamaan”, Nurmi kertoo, “mut sitten tulen takaisin Suomeen. Kahden viikon päästä.” Sanat hyppäävät suusta ennen kuin Nurmi ehtii kunnolla ajatellakaan niitä. Hän on katsellut lippuja, muttei vielä ostanut, ei ole osannut päättää. Karpin kirkastuva katse kuitenkin vakuuttaa hänet siitä, että paluu on oikea päätös.

“Ootko varma? Nyt on vähän aikaista vielä.” Karppi näyttää sanoistaan huolimatta toiveikkaalta, vaikka yrittääkin peittää sen. Nurmea hymyilyttää.

“Oon mä. Käyn sitten testeissä Suomessakin niin arvon rouva näkee, ettei mitään hätää enää oo.”

Karppi tuhahtaa. “Parempi olis. Ja tuut sit pizzalle. Emilillä on Sakkea ikävä.”

“Okei.”

On helppoa myöntyä; Emil on hauska napero, lapsille tyypillisellä tavalla suorapuheinen. Se laukoo sellaisia totuuksia, että Nurmen on välistä vaikeaa pitää kasvonsa peruslukemilla. Etenkin silloin, kun rökittää hänet jossain pelissä ja kommentoi päälle että on kummaa, että aikuisetkin voi olla noin surkeita.

Nurmi on yrittänyt olla ajattelematta sitä, mutta väistämättä se pyörii ajoittain mielessä: Jos tuosta Karpin silmissä välkkyvästä pilkkeestä kehittyisi jotain, jos hän myöntäisi että muistaa sen yhden kohtalokkaan yön tapahtumat… Jos hän hyväksyisi Nurmen osaksi omaansa ja poikansa elämää… olisiko Nurmesta siihen? Hän on vielä vähän nuori, eikä hänestä aina tunnu, että hänestä olisi isähahmoksi. Ajatus sellaisesta vastuusta kammottaa, eikä hänestä varmasti olisi huolehtimaan ainakaan ihan pienestä lapsesta.

Emil on kuitenkin jo vanhempi, ja ihan hieno pikkumies. Sellainen lapsi, jota hän saattaisi ihan mielellään kuskata kouluun ja harrastuksiin. Sellainen, jonka elämässä Nurmi olisi ihan mielellään. Jos se tarkoittaisi, että hän olisi Karpinkin.

Hänen on useampaan otteeseen pitänyt kysyä, mutta aina jokin on saanut hänet pysähtymään. Karpin huono tuuli, Nurmen oma epävarmuus itsestään, heidän suhteestaan, siitä mitä haluaa.

Nyt hän alkaa kuitenkin olla varma. Sofia Karppi on vaikea ihminen, kantaa mukanaan isoa säkillistä ongelmia ja kummallisia persoonallisuuden piirteitä, joista Nurmi ei aiemmin ollut varma selviävänsä. Nyt hänellä on ollut aikaa ajatella sitä ja pohtia omia tunteitaan. Totuus on, että hänellä on itsellään ihan yhtä paljon ongelmia kuin Karpilla. Toinen fakta on se, että hän ei enää pelkää niitä. Ei omiaan eikä Karpin.

Kolmas totuus on, että hänellä on Karppia aivan helvetinmoinen ikävä.

Nurmi nousee istumaan ja nojaa kyynärpäät polviinsa.

“Mitäs sanoisit”, hän aloittaa, mutta sanat uhkaavat juuttua kurkkuun kun Karppi katsoo häntä kysyvästi.

“Sitten kun oon tullut takaisin. Lähtisitkö syömään jos veisin sut? Ei niin kuin me tavallisesti, vaan ihan. Syömään. Ulos.”

Hän takeltelee hölmösti ja tuntee nolostuneen punan nousevan poskilleen. Puhelimen näytöllä Karppi naurahtaa ja hieraisee niskansa, katsoo alas mutta sitten heti takaisin Nurmeen.

“Voisin mä lähteä.”

Helpotus humahtaa Nurmen koko kehon lävitse, ja hän puristaa puhelinta niin tiukasti, että se nitisee liitoksissaan. Häneen melkein sattuu, niin kovaa sydän hakkaa rinnassa.

Karppi hymyilee hellästi, ehkä itseironisesti. “En lupaa, että siitä tulee mitään.”

“En mäkään”, Nurmi myöntää, “mutta koitetaan.”

“Okei.”

He hiljenevät hetkeksi vain katsomaan toisiaan. Karppi näyttää jännittyneeltä, huolestuneeltakin, mutta toisaalta onnelliselta. Juuri siltä, miltä Nurmestakin tuntuu. Siltä, että edessä odottaa jotakin aivan varmasti vaikeaa ja pelottavaa, mutta mahdollisesti todella hyvää. Heissä on potentiaalia katastrofiin, todennäköisyyskin ehkä, ja se heitä on aiemmin pidätellyt. Nurmi on kuitenkin väsynyt pohtimaan ja arvailemaan ja jossittelemaan; hän haluaa yrittää, onnistuu se sitten tai ei.

Ilmeestä päätellen Karppi tuntee samoin, ja Nurmi on siitä kiitollinen ja hämmentynyt. On vaikeaa käsittää, kuinka heidän työsuhteensa vaikeasta alusta on päädytty tähän.

Puhelu olisi varmaan hyvä jo lopettaa, ennen kuin tulee sanottua jotain hölmöä, mutta Nurmi ei vielä tahdo. Hän tyytyy hymyilemään hiljaa ja kuuntelemaan, kun Karppi selittää parhaillaan meneillään olevaa murhatapausta. Naisen puhetapa on tutun suora ja yksinkertainen, mutta äänensävy tavallista pehmeämpi. Karppi puhuu pitkään, ja silloin tällöin Nurmi pistää väliin ideoita ja ajatuksia, joista osa saa Karpin pyöräyttämään silmiään, mutta osalle hän nyökkää hyväksyvästi.

Nurmi laskeutuu takaisin makuulle ja sulkee hetkeksi silmänsä. Nyt on helppoa myöntää, että hänellä on ollut ikävä Karpin ääntä. Hän ei malta odottaa, että pääsee kuulemaan sitä kasvokkain. Jos hyvin käy, ehkä hän pääsee joskus hetkeksi hiljentämään sen suudelmalla, jos Karppi antaa hänen.

Nurmi avaa silmänsä ja kohtaa Karpin lämpimän katseen, vastaa tämän varovaiseen hymyyn.

[bromeliadgoingdragon]

Dragon with lore/bio and art for sale!

So, this freeloader wouldn’t sell so she’s been spruced up with a freshly coded bio and some tasty lore fresh from the insomnia-ridden ovens. Someone, please, buy her. She’s eating all my fish and teaching swears to hatchlings.

Coatl F - Pearl Skink / Robin Spinner / Maize Contour    SOLD!

Bio story reposted below the cut because I’m proud of it or something.

     .

     Wind Flight lairs are made of kites.

     They were the first thing Tuuli saw when she hatched. And all she ever wanted to do since, was fly them; to watch the colorful assortments of cloth spin and dance at her command in the ever winding vortex of The Twisting Crescendo. As a hatchling she would spend hours watching from her nest as relatives and neighbors cavorted in the air, racing their kites and playing snatch-flag. When she was a bit older, she’d waddle down as close to the cliffs as her parents would allow, and beg for a turn, but was always denied.

     "Maybe later!", they’d tell her, before gamboling off again.

     The first time her cousins had deigned to share their fun with her, to place in her claws the braided kite string, she’d fumbled it immediately. A too strong gust tugged the toy from her grasp and she’d stumbled after it, all but tumbling off the edge of a cliff in her haste to recover it. It happened again the second time; a sudden updraft, and the kite was gone, sailing up into the Crescendo before anyone could stop it. The third time, it all fell to pieces. It took five adults to rescue Tuuli and her cousins from falling into the rapids below the Reedcleft.

     No one ever offered her a chance to play again.

     "Jinx!”, they’d call out at the sight of her, "bad-luck flying in! Make way!"

     And perhaps it was true. She’d had no successes flying her own makeshift kites; most of them fell apart at the first touch of wind. It shouldn’t be this hard, she thought, it’s just cloth! Cloth and twigs! She couldn’t help but feel shame. What sort of Wind dragon couldn’t make a simple kite? Wind Flight lairs are made of kites! So, she kept trying, and they kept breaking. She tried right up until she’d grown old enough to begin learning her trade.

     “It’s all well and good to dream,” Mother had said, tugging apart a knot from the string of Tuuli's most recent failure,”but remember that we are a family of weavers. It is not truly our place to fly the colors, but to bring them to life and warm the hides of cold travelers. You needn’t worry about such play.”

     But every day, after loom practice, Tuuli would watch the colors dance in the sky and wish. With her wishing came resentment at those who mocked her. With her resentment, came anger. And, with her anger, came an energy she did not yet understand, but she let it fuel her. She poured her frustrations into her work, into her art, until her first blanket was a canvas of her emotions - violent zigzags of pale yellow across a complicated houndstooth of pinks and blues.

     “It’s beautiful,” Mother said, ”see what one can accomplish when you ignore childish distraction?” But all Tuuli felt was ill.

     “It’s cursed, ya mean,” muttered the Seer, the irritable old Water drake who was meant to be the recipient. “I’ll not have it my lair, and neither will you if’n ya know what’s good!” But Mother wouldn't hear it; the family chased him out before day’s end.

     That night, there was a fire.

     Cloth and twigs, Tuuli thought, singed and empty, gazing through the smoke behind her at the ruins of home.

     Wind Flight lairs are made of kites.

[graphicallyill]

Honey and Wine and Unspeakable Atrocities

Part 1: Black Tar and Burgundy Sheets

http://archiveofourown.org/works/11455362

This first one is set immediately after Nicias returns from Ahnmik the first time. It's kind of a fix-it, kind of just filling in the gaps. You can read here if you like, but my AO3 link is at the top

My breath caught in my throat as I pushed back the burgundy curtains to enter the dark, warm guest room. Brightly colored silks adorned the walls and chaise, soft woven rugs across the floor, and a plush bed, covered in luxurious pillows, decorated the inside. These rooms, found throughout the palace in Wyvern's Court, were often used for serpiente guests, usually of the Dancer's Guild. It was exactly the environment they would make for themselves in the Wyvern's Nest, and before at Sha'Mehay. However, the current resident was not a dancer, or a merchant, or even a friend.

Nearly the entire Cobriana line in one room, all for one visitor. Lying all but dead to the world on the burgundy bed was a young woman, maybe five or so years older than I. She had lighter skin than the avians I grew up around, but darker than the falcons who had delivered her. Her hair looked almost identical to my own taut black curls long and splayed out around her head like a halo. The only difference there was the shimmering red highlights dyed by magic. It looked like a fire scorching across smoke. She had been called Hai.

Every bit of her was Cobriana, except for a few things here and there, and one big thing. Her wings lay broken and battered behind her back, stained and dripping with an endless black tar that seemed to vanish a few moments after it dripped in huge clumps against the ground and bed. The tar kept bubbling to the surface of her angry, fiery wounds. I imagined she must be in incredible agony, awake or not.

Diente Zane and Tuuli Thea Danica, my parents and the only people whose advice I wanted most in the world, stood stoically in a far corner of the room. A united front, as always, perfect mixture of both worlds. Mother looked wonderingly at the form on the bed. Among the serpiente, she always made a conscious attempt to display her emotions freely. My Aunt Irene leaned lazily against Zane, anxiously running her fingers through her long, black hair. The melos tied around her waist, along with the revealing emerald green dress she wore, told me she'd run straight from Wyvern's Nest. I wondered idly if Salem was following close behind.

I crossed the room to stand next to my parents, opposite Kel and the falcon who called herself Darien. As I got closer, I examined Hai's face. She had the features of the gods and goddesses, demi or otherwise, associated with stories I'd heard the serpiente tell. I'd come to associate those features with falcons, with Nicias and Kel. My own face was more angular, more avian. My cobra parentage rounded my face more than my mother's, but Hai's looked like it had come straight from paintings or mosaics depicting Kiesha's days. I watched, as if an optical illusion, as her face changed emotion with ever angle- from serene, to angry, sadness, frozen in fear, and, amusingly, a smirk. I shuddered.

Magic unnerved me.

“Anjay and I were lovers,” Darien began her explanation. Irene snorted loudly, interrupting. Darien turned her head crisply towards her.

“Yes, I gathered that much,” she retorted. I resisted a chuckle- despite the obvious falcon wings, folded behind her broken and burned, Hai was as Cobriana as I was. My uncle, Anjay, was the only cobra to ever be a guest on the White Island of Ahnmik. It wasn't hard to figure it out.

Darien continued. “I was going to send word to him, but he was killed before I was able.”

The atmosphere in the room shifted slightly. Anjay had been killed by my mother's brother, Xavier, afer he'd killed my mother's original alistair, for revenge after an avian killed my aunt, Sisal, and her unborn child, after someone killed someone on their side after some killed someone else after so much revenge and bloodshed stretching back a thousand years so that it was untraceable. My family had a rule about not blaming each other, or using strong words. There was too much at stake, and by now we loved each other too much to approach those topics like that. It always felt so odd when others did so callously.

I hardly noticed that Darien had continued talking the whole time. “Shortly after Hai's birth, the Empress branded me a traitor, and I was locked away until Nicias freed me. Quemak, mongrel children, are forbidden to be conceived.”

Mongrel children. I swallowed hard at the description of not just my cousin lying out on the bed, but myself. I wondered how much she and I felt in common, being of two different worlds, yet also of none. It was an ache that no one else could ever understand. At least, I had thought.

My mother stepped forward, extending a hand to the falcon. “Thank you for bringing us to her, of course she is welcome here,” she said warmly, and Darien gave her her hand, smiling wryly.

“Is she?”

It was no secret that falcons made everyone in Wyvern's Court nervous. They were of the same origins as the serpiente, but allied with the avians in the war for years. Since our peace, they had been nothing but nuisance and pain. And regarded us as little more than insects. Still, two members of our Wyvern's of Honor were born falcons, and their son was my best friend. None of us were a inherently mistrustful people.

“Of course,” my father answered, his face a stone mask. It was a trick he'd learned from years mingling among the avian court. They expected everyone to wear one, physically or emotionally. He was far from a master at concealing his feelings, but adept nonetheless. I, however, had twenty years of being his daughter to practice in reading him.

His eyes were trained on Hai's face, unmoving, unyielding. Studying him, I could guess everything he was feeling. He was looking back in time, the last imprint his older brother had left on this world. His last gift, in a way. He undoubtedly felt a strong desire to protect his brother's only daughter. At the same time, he was looking at the previous Arami's eldest child. The only possible threat to his daughter's rule. A potential pretender to the throne- Anjay was beloved by the people. But he was also beloved by my father, and his child would be too.

Salem burst into the room at that instant, pushing curtains aside and practically running over to his mother's side. I noted his long hair tied up in what must have been a time consuming process, his golden yellow melos around his waist, and side-slit pants, I wondered what possible dance he could have been practicing.

He took his mother's hands in his own, asking questions with his eyes only. Irene gestured to the bed, and Salem turned to look.

“Son, meet your eldest cousin, Hai.”

Salem, without missing a beat, took a large step over to the bed, staring quizzically at Hai's Cobriana hair and jaw, coupled with her falcon wings and nose. He glanced up at Darien, still wearing her demi-form wings, for a moment, before back down to our cousin. With his back turned towards me, I couldn't see his face. I wondered if he thought the same thoughts that plagued my father.

As if having read my mind, Darien repeated the same statement she and Nicias had made earlier. “Unfortunately, she's unlikely to ever awaken. Nicias and I have tried everything possible, and she refuses to be pried from her place.” She met eyes with my father, her silver eyes turning violet. “I only hope that here, in this land of freedom and peace and serpents and birds, she has sweeter dreams.”

I shuddered again.

Salem, ever the friendly dancer, smiled diplomatically at Darien. “Of course! She's family, and she belong with the Cobriana.” He stated it like undisputed fact, and I knew we all agreed with him. Salem moved closer to the bed, taking a downy blanket and spreading it across Hai's body. For a moment, she looked serene again.

Salem shouted in pain, jumping back and grasping his arm guardedly. He looked back at Hai, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. He let his arm go, and I watched as a slash formed across his bicep, blood beading and beginning to flow slowly down. Irene gasped in horror.

Darien crossed the distance to stand between Salem and Hai. She seemed almost more protective of Salem than her own daughter.

“I am so sorry, I had no clue she would lash out with her magic,” she explained. Before Salem had a moment to protest, Darien grabbed his arm and closed her eyes. When she opened them, they gleamed purple again. She removed her hands from his arm, and not only was the cut completely healed, but the blood seemingly evaporated. Salem rubbed absentmindedly at his arm and glanced back at Hai, whose face was now warped in anger.

“I think the surroundings here are still unfamiliar to her. She has never been around a cobra before, much less every last one left. I'm sorry,” she bowed her head in defeat. A moment later, she turned to Kel, smiling again. “I do have an idea, if you would help me?”

Kel tensed, but nodded. I wondered exactly how well they had known each other, if Darien was the only thing Kel remembered from her previous life.

Darien scooped up Hai effortlessly in her arms, wrapping her in the Cobriana black blanket.

“Royal blood calms her. Would it bother you if I let her stay near Nicias, at least for now?” she asked. I couldn't help but notice the way she bat her eyelashes at Kel.

Kel visibly hesitated around the phrase “royal blood” being used to refer to her son, but agreed nonetheless. She bowed to my parents, dismissing herself to follow Darien as she simply left. I could hear soft, but curt, conversation as they disappeared down the hall.

For a moment, we all stood in pained silence. There had been a lot in such a short amount of time, and we were unsure how to react. Within half an hour, we had found out that we had a missing family member, of parentage that was so foreign it felt like myth, and watched her be carried away. My head was still spinning, struggling to catch up. It felt unreal. Salem was the first to speak up, with a raised voice.

“What are we doing?” he asked incredulously, gesturing towards the empty doorway. “Oliza, that's our cousin. She's every bit Cobriana as you and me! We should be insisting she be at home here, in the palace!”

Me more than you, I resisted responding. It killed me that someone who might understand the feeling of not belonging I had was in the city, but that I might never get to speak with her. My small family somehow felt smaller the second she was taken away.

“Salem, I want her here too, but I don't know anything about what she needs, and her mother thinks it would be better for her elsewhere. I know next to nothing of falcon magic,” I admitted, my throat tight. Nicias was my only real experience with falcons, though my parents had told me of Kel and Andreios'

I think part of why Salem wanted her there so bad was a loneliness he didn't want to admit. Maybe not in the same way I felt, he still had cobra family like my father and his mother, but still lonely. Cobras were incredibly social people. And Salem could be such a hothead.

“Oliza's right. And there's nothing saying she won't be comfortable here, eventually. But for now, we know nothing about how to make her feel at home,” Irene added, reaching out to take her son into her arms. After a warm hug, I reached out to take his hand.

“Come. Let us see if we can't try to find her and Kel. Maybe we can visit her wherever she's staying for now,” I said, pulling him slightly in the direction of the curtains. He obliged, following me close behind. I heard my father and aunt begin talking in hushed whispers as the drapes fell behind us.

-

-

I know it kind of sucked but I decided it made the most sense, chronologically, to be from Oliza's POV and she had the least to feel about Anjay. I think Zane will narrate the next one. I have most of Zane and Irene's conversation after this, I just need to iron out some details. So stay tuned for that.

[hitodama89]

I once again found a bunch of nice FR lore guestions I’m going to answer under the cut.

Some basic lore questions by glassrising

Disclaimer: I made this for myself first, as a way of introducing my basic lore in a fun way. It’s easy to write about the exciting parts, but it can also make it hard to address all the tiny basic details that make up the background of your lore Feel free to use it, or even reblog and add more questions

1. Does your clan have a leader? Who is it? How does your clan feel about them? Were there any past leaders?

Carran is the one and only leader there has been in Seafoam Clan. She is mainly a trusted and well-liked leader, though a bit distant and even seems scary to some dragons.

2. What was your clans beginning? Who were your progenitors, and are they important to the clans history?

The beginning was as boring as it can be: Carran and Marus, the progenitors, got together and needed a place to live. They found a plot of land no one was currently using and decided to stay there. Soon after other dragons looking for a place to live started to come in.

3. Where does your clan live?

In the coast of Sea of a Thousand Currents. There were some natural caves the dragons have dug deeper. Parts of the caves are underwater, too.

4. Have they always lived there? If no, where did they live before and what made them move.

Of course individual dragons might have lived someplace else before, but the clan has always stayed in one place.

5. Do they thrive in the area or is it a constant struggle to survive? Do they have readily have access to water, food, and shelter?

Something between the two. Water and shelter they have plenty, but food situation isn’t as stable. The clan’s territory is fairly small, so every once in a while they have to go to hunting trips further away.

6. Is your clan friendly or hostile to strangers

Friendly, more often than not.

7. Is your clan open to the public or closed off to strangers (is it easily traveled to or hidden somewhere)

It’s an insignificant, tiny clan that can easily go unnoticed, but not deliberately hidden. Travelers are welcome to visit, but dragons that are not willing to pay for their stay with something aren’t really liked.

8. Is it hard for an outsider to join? What would one must do to be a part of the clan

Nah, it’s very easy - if you have the right colors. Most of the clan doesn’t care about the color code, but sadly Tuuli does and she is pretty important part of the clan. She thinks only blue(ish) dragons should be allowed to join.

9. Does the clan work as one like a pack (I.e everyone taking care of each other) or is it more like a town with everyone doing their own things

Like a pack, or even a big family. Many of the dragons are related to each other.

10. How does your clan view/handle exalting?

It’s an honorable ritual that is perform to thank the gods for all the good things they have given (food, good weather and such). Most dragons are eager to be selected to exaltation, but there are also rare exceptions, like Jade.

11. What is your clans relationship with their deity? Are they very religious or indifferent?

It varies between each dragon a lot. On one end there is Davraseen, the clan’s priest, and on the other Rumble, who literally tried to fight against Tidelord.

12. How do they view members of their clan who may be of a different flight?

No big deal, there are members of many flights among the clan. As long as they agree to become loyal to Water flight from now on they are all good.

13. Is there any dragon species discrimination?

Not anything consistent, but for example the family of Imperials the clan has is pretty elitist and thinks they are better than anyone else.

14. How do they view magic? Do they see magic as something to be embraced or feared?

Once again it depends on everyone’s individual beliefs. Overall magic isn’t used very commonly outside battles, though.

15. How do you address gen 1 dragons in your lore, if at all? Do you have a gen 1? How were they born and/or found by the clan?

They are just dragons that were born from abandoned/lost eggs. Nothing magical about it in my lore - or at least my dragon’s don’t know about it. I don’t have any gen ones (if one doesn’t count the progens) though.

16. How are breed changes addressed in your lore?

If I buy a dragon and change its breed immediately I might just pretend it was always like that. Otherwise magic and alchemy are things that might rarely result into such changes.

17. Does your clan hoard anything? Are they items of importance or aesthetic? Explain the meaning behind why you collect what you do

This stuff is separated into two different categories: things the dragons themselves hoard and things I as a player hoard. My hoardings aren’t really part of the lore unlike the things dragons themselves hoard, and the latter can be anything the dragon wants it to be. For example Davraseen hoards runestones because he uses them in his job, Tuuli hoards Seeker Orbs because she liked their looks and Arrede hoards familiars because she is highly interested in them.

18. How does your lore address breeding? Is it an intimate act of love or just something done to help contribute to the clan

Something between the two. Usually dragons don’t breed with anyone other than their mate, but there are some exceptions. For example Theala lays eggs to give them to be raised by a gay couple.

19. What are the nesting grounds in your lore?

I don’t think they really have such thing. The dragons just... Keep the eggs inside the clan’s cave system. If the parent’s are Water dragons, likely underwater.

20. What is your clans relationship with the beastclans?

Well, this is sort of the darker side of Seafoam clan, as they treat beastclans mostly as prey. They don’t do it out of malice though, but my dragons are just quite feral and don’t really understand why they should see non-dragons as anything important to them.

21. Where does your clan store food, treasure, etc.

In their cave system. Innas keeps it safe.

[beyondtheveil]

Cleanliness habits (personal, work space, etc.)

Tuuli has excellent hygienic habits, makes a point to look her very best at all times. She always smells nice, cleans up well, and wears finely tailored clothing to enhance her natural beauty. Her hair always has a keen shine to it, but never has that greasy look.

Regarding other cleanliness– I think given her upbringing (she came from a wealthy family of draenic jewellers) she was kind of forced to live in such a way that she was expected to have everything immaculate, so now that she is ‘away from the nest,’ so to speak, she kinda.. lets things get really messy, lol. That’s not to say she lives in squalor or filth, just she isn’t really organized as she would have been at home. 

Thank you again for asking this question, @xiviadanes! I appreciate it very much, and apologize that it took me a bit to answer!

[maastojuoksu]

Kuusamo calling - I listen!

Tällaisissa turisteja houkuttelevan talvisissa tunnelmissa odotan kauhulla ja innolla ensimmäistä NUTS Karhunkierrostani (31 km). Ainakin täällä Kainuussa eli Rukaan nähden etelässä tuli uutta lunta vielä paikoin parikymmentä senttiä toissapäivänä, eli kaksi viikkoa ennen h-hetkeä. Hulluimmat ovat viime viikolla vielä hiihtäneet täällä.

Valmistautuminen Karhunkierrokselle on ollut rentoa. Tarkoitus oli kyllä kerätä nousu- ja laskumetrejä, mutta kevät on aina älyttömän kiireistä aikaa. [Kappale täynnä seli-seli-selityksiä...].

Huonoa tuuriakin on ollut. Venäytin jotain nilkan/kantapohjan sisässä käydessäni työmatkan varrella metsässä kokeilemassa  alamäkien laskeutumista nastareilla. Polkuja peitti jääkuori ja jäätä puunroska, joten nasta ei paikoitellen ottanut kiinni alustaan. (Tällä hetkellä lunta on enemmän kuin tässä kuvassa, mutta eiköhän loppuviikon lämpö sulata osan pois. Kuva on viikon takaa matalan vaaran päältä kuntorasteilta.)

Kipua tuntuu ainoastaan alamäessä ja nilkan kääntyessä ulospäin epätasaisella alustalla. Viime lauantain pikkulenkillä  kipu oli aikamoisen ärsyttävä jalan muljutessa lumisella polulla. Sunnuntain tunnin polkulenkille teippasin nilkan, mutta ei se kokonaan estänyt ikäviä tuntemuksia. Samaisen lenkin jäljeen rikoin jotain polvessa venytellessäni hosumistyyliin. Polvivaiva on tuttu aiemmilta vuosilta. Se on aina lopulta talttunut levolla, mutta on pahimmillaan estänyt juoksut kuukausiksi. Niinpä määräsin itselleni ehdottoman juoksutauon NUTSiin asti. En hiivatti vieköön ota nyt mitään riskejä! Kaistapää kun olen, löysin itseni kuitenkin tänään kuntosalin juoksumatolta. Kävelin reiluilla nousuprosenteilla, mutta lopussa en malttanut olla kääntämättä kallistusta laskun puolelle ja rullata oikein kunnolla. Täytyyhän lihakset virittää tuntureita varten! Onneksi kipuja ei tuntunut, mutta pohkeet sain kyllä mukavaan jumiin.

Kaikenlaisia kisavalmisteluja on jo aluillaan. Jalkojen ihoa olen hoitanut kuntoon viikkotolkulla. Samoin olen alkanut rasvaamaan atooppista ihoani sykevyön kohdalta, sillä olen yleensä saanut pitkistä kisoista pahoja hiertymiä. Olen testannut kahta juoksureppua. En ole vielä päättänyt, otanko tutun ja turvallisen Salomonin juomarakkorepun vai uuden Ultimate Directionin Mountain  Vest 3.0 -repun, johon saa rintataskuihin kaksi pehmopulloa (alla epäselvä kuva, jossa reput ovat tyhjinä). Kummatkin tuntuvat selässä hyviltä, mutta Salomonin repussa on edessä niukasti taskutilaa tulevammille eväille ja juomapullolle. Lisäksi Salomonin kiinnitys on todella hankala saada kiinni ja auki hikisillä sormilla. Ultimate Directionin repussa huonoja puolia ovat mm. naftimpi pakkaustila ja sivutaskujen heikompi käytettävyys: niiden vetoketjuja ei saa auki ilman, että repun ottaa selästä, joten esim. ylimääräistä tuubihuovia tai sormikkaita ei saa nopeasti reppuun ja sieltä takaisin. UD:n sivutaskut ovat selvästi pienemmät eivätkä jousta siten kuin Salomonilla, joten niihin ei saa mahtumaan samalla tavalla tavaraa, mutta eväät siinä pysyvät paremmassa tallessa. Salomonin sivutaskuissa kun ei ole vetoketjuja. Sääkin ratkaisee: Mikäli lämpötila on pakkasen puolella, Salomonin juomarakon letku jäätyy, vaikka nestesäiliön neste olisi lämmintä. S-labin repun juomapullot ovat käytännöllisempiä. Niihin voi laittaa kuumaa juomaa, joka jäähtyy kehoa vasten hitaasti. Otan varmaan molemmat reput mukaan ja teen päätöksen edellisenä iltana.

Luotan vanhoihin tuttuihin Powerbarin geeleihin. Aion ottaa mukaan myös taateleita, sillä niitä on tullut nyt testattua pitkillä lenkeillä ja todettua, että vatsa sietää niitä hyvin. Energiapatukoita olisi pitänyt testata enemmän. Suolatabletista meni viime vuoden Pallaksen turneella pakki sekaisin, mutta ei niitä ilmankaan uskalla lähteä. Nyt olen kyllä viisaampi, enkä ota suolaa paljaaltaan, vaan geelin tai taatelin kanssa. Juomaksi tulee lämmintä elektrolyyttijuomaa. Tilasin netistä loppuvuoden poistomyynnistä vihdoinkin juoksuun sopivan Goretex-takin. Se oli halpa ehkä sen vuoksi, että vetoketju on vasenkätisten puolella, mutta ei se haittaa. Olen juossut se päällä räntä- ja lumisateella ja ollut todella tyytyväinen. Tulkoon kuuma, mutta säärystimet ovat must-juttu Karhunkierroksella tänä vuonna! Vaikka lunta ei olisi hirveästi, säärystimet hidastavat jalkojen kastumista. Ongelmana on, miten paksut trikoot ja paidan laittaisin kisa-aamuna päälle. Irtohihat takin alla voisivat olla kova sana, jos sellaiset omistaisin. Vaihtosukkia reppuun kannattaa pakata kaksikin paria, sillä kuivin jaloin ei reissusta selviä. Lumen syvyys näyttäisi nyt olevan Kuusamossa reilu puoli metriä.

Aikaa tulee menemään PALJON, sillä kuntoni puolesta olen taatusti viimeisessä kolmanneksessa ja keli tekee kovimmillekin mänijöille matkanteosta raskasta rämpimistä. Lohduttaa vain se, etten ole menossa pidemmälle matkalle kuin tuolle “helpolle” alle maratonin mittaiselle... Eikä ole edes entistä omaa ennätystä parannettavana :D

Kisanaluspaniikkimasennuskatumus iski silti täysimääräisenä viime viikolla, kuten asiaan kuuluu. Psyykkausta on täytynyt harrastaa katsomalla Karhunkierroksen kisavideoita ja lukemalla ties monenteenko kertaan osallistumiskokemuksia juoksublogeista. Niiden takiahan koko hommaan alunperin ilmoittauduinkin :) Nyt on myöhäistä tehdä enää mitään muuta oikein kuin nukkua ja syödä järkevästi sekä välttää rasitusvammat ja pöpöt. Olen jollain sairaalla tavalla innoissani siitä, että luvassa on tulvavettä, lunta ja jäätä. Kyllä varmaan kiva vaakasuora räntäsadekin saadaan tai ainakin jäätävä tuuli. Viime vuoden NUTS Pallas meni ihan sadepilven sisässä hurjassa säässä, ja siitä jäi ikimuistoinen voittajafiilis, kun sellaisesta selvisin. Odotan ja toivon siis olevani tiukkaa kokemusta rikkaampi ja aivan hajalla vajaan parin viikon päästä.

[fang-fr]

4/26/19: I put Tuuli and Cloudsong on a nest because I thought they might give me some water-adjacent babies. They...sort of delivered...? I was very tempted to keep that F PC, and then I saw her ID ends in 420, and considering I just wrapped up my 420 Follower Gveaway, I think I HAVE to keep her. She looks like seaweed.

Click on the hatchling images to see their respective colors, genes, and eye types!

Favorite: #2 Keeping: One (probably) Selling: Two Parentage: Tuuli/Cloudsong

[fang-fr]

Daily Hatch: 7/26/19

Some spoooopy skeleton hatchlings! If I ever move back to Shadow, I’ll definitely breed this pair again.

Favorite: #2 Keeping: None Selling: All Parentage: Tuuli/Sgerbwd

[raevenlywrites]

@ayzrules tagged me to find the words river, dark, sun, and blue. I decided to go through my Hawksong fic, The Ties That Bind, to see if I can get myself hyped back up for it

river (doesn't quite appear, but I have some water talk)

“What are you looking for?”

“Forest fruits,” Raymond answered absently, elbow deep in a tangle of briars. “Just because a land can’t be farmed doesn’t mean it can’t provide.”

I watched with genuine interest, helping carry his harvest and trying to remember his points as he spoke. He pulled berries out of thickets, apples off of branches I’d have passed over, and marked the passage of game animals. Raymond made a good teacher; I remembered it was trait he shared with his cousin. It was bittersweet, working with him, but I did my best to focus on the sweet. It wasn’t too hard; the work was interesting and fulfilling. I’d only seen our farmland from above, never walked down among the rows, let alone helped in the harvesting. These weren’t the tidy rows of our grain fields, but it was still closer than I’d ever been to my own food.

“And the water?” I asked, as we returned to the central clearing and its ominous covered well.

“Unpredictable,” he said shortly. “I think something happens further upstream and contaminates it.”

I blinked. “So its not a proper well, then, dug straight down?”

He shook his head, gesturing back behind us towards the mountains and Hawk’s Keep.

“Everything runs down from the mountain. Sooner or later, what happens up there trickles down to everyone else.”

dark

“I think I could learn to love you, Danica, impossible as it seems.”

The dream’s voice sounded directly in my ear, the breath of my guilty apparition brushing across my cheek. I thought I felt the barest caress of lips on my temple, as if this facsimile of my enemy could somehow absolve me and release me from my nightmares. He leaned over me and pressed something into my hand, a talisman against further bloodshed.

“Come chase better dreams with me,” he whispered, closing my clutching fingers around something smooth and hard. I gripped it the way I wanted to grip him, to hold any hand in this unending morass of memory and horror. It was said the first hawks could sing beautiful visions into their dreams, the first songs of my people being more spell than sound. Apparently all that remained of those gifts was a penchant for lucid mocking nightmares.

“It was meant to be my eldest sister’s.” The dream of Zane was starting to fade, retreating into the dark as the next dream prepared to take his place. Would I dream now of brutalized infants, or crushed eggs in a nest of hawks and serpents alike?

“I hope you will consider wearing it.” He laughed, a dark sound. “Grim as it may be. I’m afraid everything I have to offer you will be somewhat bloodstained.”

sun

I sat on one of the benches around the farm table, shoulder to shoulder with Elanor and one of her aunts, also an Elanor. I assumed this was the aunt she was related to, though honestly both women looked similar enough that it was hard to be sure. Sun and work and time had weathered them down into hard brown nuts, smiles and frowns alike carved into their skins like grooves in a shell. I wrapped my hands gratefully around the cup of tea I’d been handed, and relaxed into the press of so many feathered bodies beside me.

“I’m so sorry to have woken you,” I whispered again, as Rei and Adelina continued to argue about who would be staying where. Rei wanted me in a box of steel and flesh. Adelina was fine with that box, so long as it was far, far away from her king. Her king, who was still lying in front of the fire, propped up one elbow and watching the scene with a sardonic ease, as false as his “illness”.

“It’s no trouble, my lady,” the elder Elanor assured me. “Calla and I weren’t sleeping anyways.”

I grimaced. “Too nervous of the serpiente?”

The older hen beamed. “Oh no, too excited! It’s not every day we get to host two royals.”

blue

“Good evening, Danica. Our dear aunties have been excellent hosts--and I’ve admired their works on our dancers.”

I blinked at that, caught utterly off guard. I know Elanor had mentioned trading food for fine cloth, but still. It had startled me--and from the look in Zane’s eyes, I couldn’t help but feel it had been meant to.

Suddenly, I was much less nervous. I was tired of being discounted, ignored, placated, and now made fun of? I was Tuuli Thea, and marriage to him or not, I would be queen, and I would be treated as such.

“Ladies Lyssa, is there somewhere I might talk to Zane in private?”

The protests all rose at once, reminding me too much of Mistari hall. I drew on the power of my voice to raise it above all the rest.

“I am Danica Shadae, heir to the Tuuli Thea. The only person in the room who is even remotely qualified to argue with me is Zane Cobriana himself. And as I believe he intends to propose marriage to me, it is within my right to demand a little privacy for this intimate moment.”

I admit to enjoying the shocked silence that followed. The look on Adelina’s face, however, made my blood run as cold as the icy fury in her winter blue eyes.

Tagging: @mayday1284 @magicmoon65 @dontjudgemeimawriter and you! Your words are savor, sweet, indulge, and joy

[raevenlywrites]

Hiding among the avians had been the obvious choice, for Sebastian. He had been in love with their princess, and so naturally, that was where the falcon prince had chosen to remain for his exile. But many of his kind who left the Isle also chose to retain a winged form, unable to give up the skies even if these winds no longer sang with any kind of magic.

But others… others took a scaled form, “borrowed” from some serpent destined never to return. They gave up the skies for the freedom to dance, and for a culture not specifically designed to be antithesis of their own.

Of course, “Sebastian of Ahnmik” had left the White Isle before falcon culture could truly become his own.

Rei of Hawk’s Keep was more culturally avian that he was prepared to admit.

But Danica… The avian queen was taking to some serpiente traditions like she’d been born to them. Namely, the dancers’ habit of running around barely dressed.

The serpiente believed beauty to be a gift from their chaotic goddess, and that baring ones beautiful body and admiring the bodies of others was akin to an act of worship. Rei was certainly praying now, but it was to an icier god, one that might cool the flames that blazed un-avianlike on his cheeks.

“Captain? Are you in there?”

The knock startled him, the voice did not. Adelina, his oft-times co-guard and sometimes dungeon mentor, was probably wondering why the usually punctual leader of the Royal Flight was not already outside Danica’s door. Truth was, he had been, and it was her asking him about the choice of a certain glyph over another that had sent him fleeing down the hall to his own room.

He could not do this.

Rei was no prude. Avian upbringing or not, he understood that dancers’ costumes were just as much as about utility as beauty. The tight, sleeveless top allowed for freedom of movement. The diaphanous, more-scarves-than-skirt bottom would flow and twirl elegantly as she spun. But Rei was simply unprepared for the amount of skin that had hitherto been an undreamed about mystery to him. That much Danica on display was just too much.

It made him think distinctly unavian thoughts about his Tuuli Thea. And in a nest of literal vipers – and cobras and taipan and the like – he could not afford to be that transparent.

The whole of the guard knew, of course. Many of Danica’s favorite serpiente merchants suspected. But they were wise enough to keep their suspicions to themselves in order to keep their Naga’s patronage.

The bulk of the serpiente… Well, doubtless they gossiped. But there was a difference between gossip and watching their Naga’s head guard openly drooling all over her as she danced. Even if his physical tongue would remain squarely in his mouth – he had that much control left over himself, thank you – his aura would give him away.

And what he gave away would set a bad precedent.

So far, the two kingdoms had survived this peace in a sort of wary harmony. The average citizen had apparently already been trading with “the enemy” for much of the war anyways. But those who lived in the heart of the kingdoms, the dancers and the courtiers and the artisans, they were unlearning generations of habits very, very slowly.

And part of that slowness was that serpiente were convinced the avians were sexless.

Danica was considered an anomaly among their people, a queen so in love with their king that it overcame any avian deficit.

Andrieos of the Royal Flight was her complete opposite, the stoney stalwart that kept all other serpiente at arm’s reach.

Except for Adelina, who had let herself into his room.

“Rei,” she cooed, leaning against the door she closed behind herself, “your aura is on fire.”

Rei scowled, and Addie laughed, as she always laughed when he scowled.

“That face doesn’t go with that aura,” she teased, though mercifully did not take his arduer as invitation to come twine her body around his. Adelina kept strictly to the rules they’d negotiated before ever entering the dungeon: no familiarity at all while working, friendly familiarity while not working, no sexual contact not agreed on explicitly beforehand, and the ability to “cool” out of anything at any time as needed. The system of “hot, cool, cold” had actually been the viper’s suggestion, one the serpiente used often in their bedroom games. Rei had been beyond surprised by it, and Addie had rightly lectured him on the importance of informed consent. Just because “avians didn’t talk about these sorts of things” didn’t mean he was exempt.

He had learned.

But it still surprised him to find the serpiente had honor, let alone that they used it so liberally. He supposed it helped that they could literally read the room with such ease.

As Adelina was now.

“I’ll never understand why you insist on making such a natural thing so complicated. No, don’t tell me,” she held up a hand as he opened his mouth. “You’d explained it a dozen times. Doesn’t make it make any more sense.”

“There will be avian visitors in the synkal today,” he said, as if that ought to explain everything. To him, it did. To Adelina, it of course did not. So elaborated anyway even though she’d tried to spare them both the tedium and frustration of the cultural clash.

“The only thing keeping my people from flinching every time a serpiente so much as breathes at them is the fact that no one has tried anything yet. And I can only assume the only thing keeping your people from trying anything is your backward insistence that avians don’t know what sex is.”

“You’ve proven quite admirably that you at least do, dear captain.”Adelina put as much body english in her posture as she could without technically breaking their agreement, rolling her body against the door she leaned on in a way that made her softer bits wiggle invitingly and her harder bits ripple to their best effect. “But how your race continues as a whole eludes me. Perhaps your avian reserve is simply less common outside the keep.”

“Regardless,” he said, crossing his arms as if closing off his posture could somehow mitigate the openness of hers, “If it becomes general knowledge that I lust so’ and the tone he put on the word made both their faces twist in disgust, thought for vastly different reasons, “after the Tuuli Thea, it will make things…” He paused to consider the right word, finding them all inadequate. “difficult.”

Adelina made no attempt to keep the bitterness from her laugh.

“I don’t think you give your people enough credit. But,” Again she held up a hand to forestall him, a trick she deployed entirely too often and that Rei was rather annoyed worked so well, “I will defer to your judgment in avian matters, as always.”

Her lack of argument took a lot of the steam out of his. It had also taken a good deal of the fire out of his aura, as she had put it, and he tried to think about how easily both she and Zane handled his emotions. Not for the first time he doubted the wisdom of the avian policy of simply “not feeling.” He doubted if it worked for anyone at all. Certainly not for him. And not, he thought, for Danica.

“I… I should talk to Danica.”

Adelina smiled.

“You should.”

Rei frowned.

“I will.”

“Then go.”

She stepped from the doorway and held it open for him, smiling more like a cat than a snake. As he passed her, Rei thought he might have felt the edges of her unvoiced laughter on his formerly falcon skin.

Chapters: 19/? Fandom: Kiesha'ra Series - Amelia Atwater-Rhodes Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Zane Cobriana/Danica Shardae, Andreios (Hawksong)/Danica Shardae, Adelina (Hawksong)/Zane Cobriana, Zane Cobriana/Andreios (Hawksong) Characters: Kel, Erica Silvermead, Danica Shardae, Zane Cobriana, Andreios (Hawksong), Adelina (Hawksong) Summary:

All the disconnected bits and bobs from Ties That Bind that don’t have a home yet. Consider each chapter is own deal unless otherwise specified

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Behold! I randomly wrote some Rei and Adelina nonsense because of course I did