#salkfjdsa

[not-poignant]

Every time I see writing advice like 'remember to stretch your wrists!' I remember the horror my physiotherapist had when he learned I was stretching my wrists before writing but also had chronic nerve pain.

Now this is important. It's nerve pain. He stared at me and then said: Stop stretching.

I stared at him in shock and he said: Muscular pain is different from nerve pain. Stop stretching. Nerves don't respond to stretching like muscles do, it's two totally different treatments. Don't believe me? Stop stretching until our next session and tell me how you go.

And folks I've been free from nerve pain in my wrists ever since. After about a decade. And that's 2 straight years now. 2 years.

I still get muscular pain, which I stretch when that comes up and only when it comes up. But the specific pain I had from ulnar nerve impingement in both hands completely vanished. I was unknowingly making it worse because I thought stretching the nerves was the same as stretching the muscles, and thought the answer applied to everything.

(Tl;dr everyone is different. My physiotherapist is studying to become a medical doctor and will quit out of the field soon, but I always appreciated that everything he told me was solidly backed up with peer-reviewed studies and never came out of nowhere. Also his 'try it for a month and see' was so much better than 'I know I'm right' - because it left a door open for the people who realise what they thought was nerve pain was probably muscular in origin).

[not-poignant]

110/132 - Underline the Black (omegaverse)

Title: Underline the Black Rating: Explicit Pairing: Efnisien ap Wledig/Dr Gary Konowalous Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Darkfic, Disturbing themes, Age Gap, Omegaverse, Alpha/Alpha, no Mpreg, Medical experimentation, Medical trauma, Dominance/Submission, Dystopian universe, Forced bonding, Forced relationship, Imprisonment, Nonconsensual medical procedures, PTSD, Flashbacks, Nightmares, Chronic illness, Mating cycles/Heats, Knotting, Miscommunication, Trauma recovery, Mind control, Child Abuse, Hope, Hopeful ending.

Summary: Efnisien ap Wledig is an omega born into an all-alpha family. Abandoned by his birth mother and raised by his aunt, he is subjected to a lifetime of medical experimentation and brainwashing and believes himself to be an alpha. But the experiments begin to fail, and he is abandoned yet again to an Omega Rehabilitation Facility, where the family expects he will be retrained into the ‘perfect omega’ and placed in an arranged marriage, or be eliminated if this is no longer possible.

The Facility don’t know about the experiments, and Efnisien doesn’t even know why he’s in there in the first place, since he’s an alpha…isn’t he? One thing’s for certain, he definitely doesn’t need an alpha companion, no matter what the staff at the facility seem to think.

Underline the Black - Chapter 110 - Risk Assessment @ AO3

In which a team meeting about what to do regarding Crielle happens between Temsen, Faber, Gary and Efnisien, and Efnisien becomes overwhelmed when he realises just how much danger everyone is in.

�� Thanks to all the Patreon and Ream supporters for making this story possible!

Those who join the community get access to early chapters, polls, chapter commentaries, a special Discord channel where more excerpts are posted, even merch and personal thanks in novels depending on what tier you sign up to!

There are currently 9 early access chapters and they include -

3 chapters of Underline the Red 1 chapter of Underline the Gold 3 chapters of Constellations (Gary+Efnisien tier or higher) 2 chapters of Underline the Blue (as well as 3 edited chapters of Game Theory, one with significant new content!)

So, want another way to support my writing so I can keep doing it? // I have a Patreon account! // Come check out REAM! (Patreon mirror) // Buy a Ko-Fi!

[not-poignant]

14 and 24 for the OC asks, FFS Efnisien?

14. How does your OC want to be seen by other characters?

I think Falling Falling Stars Efnisien honestly didn't want to be perceived at all, by most other characters.

But in the case of those closest to him, he most wants to be seen as safe and trustworthy, even though he thinks no one should see him that way.

And in the case of Dr Gary, he wants Dr Gary to be proud of him.

Whenever someone trusts Efnisien, he views it as such a gift, and he's very much like 'are you sure? I don't know if you should.' But that's what he wants most, to be perceived as someone who is safe, and to be worthy of that. T.T

24. What is an alternative life path your OC might have gone down? How different would their life be if they'd made those decisions?

I 100% believe that Efnisien would have killed himself in many alternative scenarios re: not going to Hillview, or not sticking out therapy with Dr Gary.

He got so close anyway, and he always expected that to be the way he died.

I really think every single one of Efnisien's alternative life paths are tragic. Much like in Game Theory, he just...dies. Whether it's by his own hand, or someone else's, up until this story, Efnisien was killed off in just about every story he was in. Even in The Wildness Within, where it's more tragic, it still just...happens.

Falling Falling Stars was his chance to live. We can see and imagine alternative scenarios sadly because of all the other stories he's been in before that!

~

From the edgy OC meme!

[not-poignant]

Hi. Why is Efnicien worried that people might think his surgery scar looks like an omega scar? Omegas have a bite scar, not a surgery, and the bite scar is a different shape. And omega's scar is probably in a different place?

Hi anon,

TL;DR: The answers to all of these are in the story.

It sounds like in bringing your own assumptions into the story, you might have missed the repeated times Efnisien's surgical scar has been described as ugly, or described as being in the exact place omegas get bitten because it involved the removal of the Kaeper glands.

I've found five different places and quotes in the story that all talk about this but instead of listing them out one by one, I'm just going to say that it does literally say in the story that a very ugly scar with bumps, divots and textured patches, (so ugly that Temsen's new surgery looks like a neat little line over a much worse scar) is directly over the Kaeper glands. It is also described multiple times in the story that it is the Kaeper glands that need to be bitten to ensure a Claim, and for an omega to develop a proper omega scent. Crielle removing them means they're not there to bite, but also leaves a scar where an alpha would bite - so no, an omega's scar would never be in a different place, it literally has to be exactly where the surgical scar is, that was the whole point of the surgery.

This sounds circuitous because it is, and it feels like you may have skimmed a lot of sections of the story to miss this. That's fine! But it also means when you have questions, most of the time the answers will actually be in the story and you can just go check.

I don't know why you've assumed that all omega scars just look like a normal bite? They haven't been described this way in this series, but I don't know if you've read any of the other stories to know this. You can trust Efnisien when he says that it's bad enough that anyone who saw it would think he was a claimed omega. There's a reason no one says 'omg no they wouldn't! the scar wouldn't even be in that place! it doesn't even look like a bite!' - They agree with him. You can trust the story, anon.

Sometimes it can be best not to assume what's happening if it means you're missing parts of the story that would answer all of your questions. Esp if those details have been repeated across many chapters.

It's not unusual for omegaverse stories to show that abused omegas often have very ugly scars on the back of their neck due to being bitten multiple times, bitten violently, having the skin torn off the back of the neck, being mauled etc. That's not unique to the Underline universe. Efnisien's not wrong to be worried that the scarring could be mistaken - especially at a distance - as a bite scar. Even up close, it would look like a neat surgical scar potentially over a very messy bite scar.

I don't know or think you've read any of the other stories, but Underline the Gold also mentions an extremely ugly claiming/bite scar on the back of the neck for Flitmouse too.

No character in the Underline universe has ever been described as having a neat bite scar on the back of their neck when they've been Claimed!

[not-poignant]

I just finished the Ice Plague and I really loved Eran and Mosk! They did frustrate me sometimes, but I love how devoted they are together,,, thank you for writing them so beautifully <3

Eran and Mosk are mentally like 19-23 years old, it's definitely a frustrating age! No one's firing on every cylinder at that age after dealing with either massive amounts of historical or present trauma, there was no way that they wouldn't be frustrating for some folks :D

But I loved their maturity arc, in a way, their story was also just a coming of age story.

I'm glad you enjoyed it despite the frustration! (And I know Mosk would be eternally happy to frustrate anyone, honestly, because that's just how he rolls)

[not-poignant]

Hiya! for the fic meme thing, 21 as well for Palmarosa? I love all your work but this one has me hooked! 🩷

21. What is something you didn't expect people to notice or gravitate towards in this fic?

I didn't expect so many people to think that I was setting up a Gale + Astarion meet in Waterdeep (sorry to those folks, it was never on the cards.)

Sooooo far...I don't actually think there's been anything that people have noticed or gravitated towards that I actually didn't intend from the beginning. Everything people have noticed or put together, even things that they might think I 'suddenly added in', were all things so far that have been planned from the beginning and therefore expected (in fact in many cases I've been surprised that people haven't gravitated towards certain things).

Actually the one thing I didn't expect people to notice was like...the description/s re: Cania! It felt like a lot of research and thought to just be yet another background detail, and I kind of was like 'well I'm sort of happy with this but it's not as important as anything else happening' so having a few people say they really enjoyed the setting descriptions was like SO NICE dsfalkjfdsa like just so unexpectedly rewarding I love all those people so much salkfjdsa

~

From this meme!

[not-poignant]

Hi! Never knew you had an etsy. If you open it again would you be willing to post a link?

Ooo I can post a link now if you still want to see it! It's here at Ravensdreaming Unfortunately you can't see any of the art listed right now, but I've been running an art store for like 11+ years.

(I actually worked as a full-time artist before I worked as a writer, lol, and have illustrated over 600 pieces.)

If you want to see some of my other art I also have a DeviantArt. That way you can see all the stuff that has sold as well. I also have my @ravenarisart - where I'm only intermittently active, lol.

[not-poignant]

Daily excerpt from today’s writing:

‘You can afford them,’ Augus said, rolling over on the dark blue mattress and lying across Gwyn’s chest. ‘Have you thought any more about getting a puppy?’

‘I can’t look after a dog,’ Gwyn said. ‘I don’t know anything about them.’

‘But we looked up those breeders, remember? They’d help you. Come on, you know that Alder would sell his soul to help you. I can totally see you with a deerhound. It’ll need training, but that will get you out of the house more.’

Gwyn sighed, but his eyes were peaceful.