#scrublands silver

[a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives]

New instagram story from Luke Arnold on upcoming Scrublands second season!!

[etoilesombre]

Look at himmmmmmm (Luke Arnold in Scrublands)

[teratocrat]

When I first came to Ajax, when I stepped out of the red-and-yellow shuttle to plant my feet in the planet's sand, what I noticed before anything else was how pale the buildings are. On Mars, even in the warmest and most equatorial provinces, human habitation is universally black (or its best approximation), built from fulcrete and basalt and painted wood, to absorb the warmth of the sun against the bitter cold. On Ajax, far closer to its sun than Mars or even Earth, and with its 39-hour days, they must build for the opposite, towers of white or reflective silver with burrowed basements and sub-basements and sub-sub-basements underneath. The Ajactes live in cities the color of bone. The second thing I noticed, the thing that probably any other person would notice first, was the surfeit of salt in the air. I noticed this because it stung my eyes, like the threat of tears. As it happens, Ajax's oceans are significantly more saline than Earth's or Emieni's, and even its topsoil is a kind of hardpan composed of sand and dust cemented in a salt matrix. For the first several centuries of its habitiforming, it hosted an extremely carefully managed tight ecosystem of halophilic algae, bacteria and lichen painstakingly shipped from Earth and Mars, fed upon by a few species of brine shrimp. Gradually, the Hesperides introduced more species as the previous ones found their foothold: turtleweed and saltbush and cordgrasses, periwinkles and blue crabs and flamingos, suites of genetically-modified mangroves whose knees whistled in the morning and evening hours, bananas and maize and halotolerant rice. Most recently (within the last two hundred and fifty years) the Ajax Planetary Authority had grown increasingly bold and experimental: a breed of sheep brought out of cryogenic vaults on Old Earth to eat the masses of seaweed that washed ashore around the Southernmost Continent, whitetail deer both to manage the turtleweed scrubland that was covering the northern half of the Great Continent and to provide a stable meat source more robust than flamingos and periwinkles, a kind of gopher tortoise/diamondback terrapin hybrid that had proved encouragingly robust in the prairies of Mars, and even tigers to laze about in the shade of the forests that bordered saltmeadows full of bounding deer. All the Ajactes I spoke to seemed both personally invested in and extraordinarily proud of these tigers, showing me images and videos on their utility wedges, and several of the state television channels would cut away to live feeds of the animals sleeping or bathing their cubs or stalking prey.

[hadescavedish]

ok i just finished watching scrublands and (spoiler below)

that anti-hero fake priest drug lord guy was a war criminal called julian flynt. lolllllllllll the second season was even called silver. ok everyone is right about his BS brainrot. god.

[olympeline]

Still thinking about my National Animals AU:

Micronations would not have animal forms. It’s one of the things that marks them out as not being real nations. If a micronation ever achieved their dream of being recognised, they’d gain a beast form then. If you’re curious about Sealand in this scenario: Peter would want to be a lion like Arthur…but instead he’d end up as a seagull. D’oh! 😂

Overseas territories and small, separate parts of countries (the ones like Hong Kong and Macau that have their own nation-people) would have animal forms. Which beasts they have would depend on their circumstances, but a general rule of thumb would be they’d be the same as the nation in charge of them. Not always, but usually. If the ownership changed then their form might change with it. They have the least amount of control over what they’d become as something that’s not quite a colony but not quite part of the “main” nation either.

Now a few more beast form headcanons from around the world:

Australia: lion → red kangaroo

Pretty easy to come up with these. Just like his big bros over in NA, little Aussie was a lion cub in his early days as a British colony. The adult lion he grew into would resemble the kind in Africa that live in scrubland because I think that would be better for roaming around the outback. So he might not have had a mane? Anyway, unlike biggest bro Alfred, Australia’s break with Arthur wasn’t violent enough for a skin ripping. Australia went the Matthew route instead and changed gradually. Until one day he assumed his beast form and found himself standing on two legs as a big ol’ roo.

New Zealand: lion → ram

The lion route strikes again! Calm down Arthur, lol. Another colony cub who grew into an adult lion and then settled on a different form after gradual independence. That form has to be a sheep. I mean, just look at NZ’s canon design. Making him anything else would be weird.

Sweden: ??? → lion → Eurasian elk

Sweden was once known as “the lion of the North” with a fearsome reputation to match. They still keep the lion on their coat of arms, but I think Berwald has moved on from that stage of his life. Sweden is pretty peaceful these days. Berwald would have spent his conqueror years as an Arctic lion with a pale mane. Then at some point he would have changed into an elk, which is Sweden’s national animal. Not a hunter any more but still not to be messed with either. You don’t want to be on the wrong end of those antlers. Yeah, an elk works. Not sure what he would have started as way back in his viking days.

Finland: reindeer

He’s lapland, bro! Father Christmas lives in his house. What else is he going to be? Berwald would be happy too after his final form change. Now his elk self matches his wife Tino’s deer. Nordic ungulate solidarity. 👍

Seychelles: dolphin

I think only small, isolated island nations would get forms that were completely sea based. Otherwise not being able to come up on land would be too much of a pain. Nation-people like Seychelles would have more space to roam in the ocean than her dry land. So her place to unwind would be beneath the waves. Also fits the big fishing culture there.

Argentina: black bull → silver bull

Antonio’s son: the little black calf who eventually grew up to lock horns with his dad over independence. If Arthur and Alfred had a badass lion duel in the North, then Argentina and Antonio would have had a sick bull fight that shook the plata in the South. Argentina didn’t tear off his skin like Alfred did after he won, but his beast form did change its appearance in a more subtle way. His black hide and horns turned silver because how could the Argent-ine be anything else? If Hima ever gives us a canon Argentina, I really hope he’s a guy to go with this headcanon. I just want this epic bull v. bull clash so badly. 😆

Brazil: ??? → jaguar

I haven’t decided what Portugal would be in this AU yet but, whatever it is, Brazil started as a baby form of that. Then changed into a jaguar after independence. I have no deeper reasoning other than jaguars are awesome.

[outofangband]

updated environment of Western Beleriand part one

Flora, fauna, geography and environment masterlist

Disclaimer: I used both what we can extrapolate is likely indigenous to the region based on descriptions of the landscape and climate as well as my own headcanons and inspirations and reference books on similar habitats as well as books like The Atlas of Middle Earth and The Flora of Middle Earth

Please feel free to ask about any of this, it’d very much a brief overview

Important note: this post is meant to be about the environment in canon with some of my own ideas! That being said Tolkien had obvious bias in his environmental imaginings and I love to explore Beleriand as inspired by other locations! Please feel free to send requests for that!

-Western Beleriand was divided from the East by the River Sirion. It faced the sea to the West.

-Western Beleriand encompasses the coastal regions of Nevrast, the Havens of the Falas and Arvernien. It also includes the landlocked region of Nargothrond, Brethil, parts of Doriath and the woods of Nuath. Some maps and accounts also include Hithlum though this is often considered a region north of Greater Beleriand.

-The River Sirion has two tributaries in western Beleriand, River Narog and River Teglin. Both of these have tributaries of their own.

-Narog was the Southernmost tributary and was one of the largest rivers in Western Beleriand and is the largest of the tributaries to the River Sirion

Ginglith was one tributary to Narog, sourced in wells in the small forest of Núath. It bordered Tumhalad on the West and met Narog some ways North of Nargothrond.

Ringwil, another tributary to Narog was sourced from hills around Nargothrond and ran through the forest Taur-en-Faroth. It was tiny.

-Teglin/Taeglin both met the River Sirion on the borders of Doriath, Teglin flowed from the West through Brethil. Teglin was one of the larger tributaries and had several of its own.

-Celebros meaning ‘silver foam’ was a tributary to Taeglin. It met Taeglin on the western border of Brethil and ran through the forest. At the gorge of Cabed-en-Aras (leap of the deer) near where Celebros met Teglin, Glaurung was slain by Túrin and Niënor took her own life afterwards. The ravine was renamed Cabed Naeramarth or the leap of dreadful doom. 

-Maudlin, meaning Golden River, was another tributary to Teglin and ran Northeast to Brethil. Glithui was the third tributary to Teglin and began in the Ered Wethrin from around Amon Darthir. On the other side of this mountain, the source of Nen Lalaith was located.

--One estimate from The Lost Road puts the region at 99 leagues across at its widest but this is not considered Canon and Tolkien often had difficulties in his numerical estimations

My own thoughts!

--Given the descriptions of the region and the different habitats, it is likely a temperate region with temperate coastal parts. That being said, the descriptions are often vague enough that the environment of many different real life places can be explored through it. For example, a Mediterranean climate would fit many of the coastal regions, and Mediterranean forest and scrublands could fit the more inland regions. In real life examples of this can be found throughout coastal Europe, parts of Asia and north Africa, and parts of Australia and New Zealand

-Parts of the river Narog flow underground and have species not found elsewhere in Beleriand outside of the deeper realms of Angband rarely considered by its own inhabitants. On a similar note, Nargothrond is one of the main places outside these deeper parts of Angband (not including marine life) where bioluminescence is found. There are a few bioluminescent species in Menengroth, Nan Tathren, the caves of Nevrast and western Dor-lómin, and Nan Emloth as well. 

 -West Beleriand consisted of lowlands and bottomlands (the usually flatter floodlands along a watercourse), plains and hilly areas and moorlands. There were also more scattered forested areas and woodlands, as well as the denser Forest of Brethil. 

-Resources, imports and goods differ from region to region but overall some of the most prominent resources are timber, clay, wool, orchard fruits, flint, and salt.

-Due to the coastal areas some of the most prominent and advanced shipwrights, cartographers and navigators, and fishers are also found. Many of the coastal communities have studied and mapped the stars as well (I think I have something about this on my post and Barad Nimras)

-The climate was mild though humid without either harsh winters or hotter summers. Colder fronts did occasionally arise from the Encircling Mountains however. The coastal regions, especially around Nevrast, are somewhat warmer and gentler. 

-Biodiversity is highest in coastal regions and in the surrounding marshlands.

[archmotif]

it’s literally called scrublands: silver. you simply cannot make this up.

[gloriousgwendolinechristie]

AFM: Naomie Harris, Gwendoline Christie Team for Family Adventure ‘Robin and the Hood’

GFM Global Sales is shopping the film, produced by Silver Reel, that also stars Mark Williams and Darcey Ewart.

Naomie Harris, Gwendoline Christie and Harry Potter star Mark Williams (who played Arthur Weasley in the film franchise) have joined the ensemble cast of family adventure film Robin and the Hood alongside rising star Darcey Ewart (Prancer: A Christmas Tale, To Olivia).

The film, which completed principal photography over the summer, comes from director Phil Hawkins (Prancer: A Christmas Tale) and was written by Stuart Benson and Paul Davidson, with the script first optioned by Silver Reel in 2021. It’s set to debut as a Sky Original in the U.K. and Ireland on Sky Cinema, with GFM Global Sales handling the film at the AFM following a deal inked prior to the market.

Robin and the Hood follows the tenacious 11-year-old Robin (Ewart) and her loyal band of friends, called “The Hoods,” for whom the patch of overgrown scrubland at the end of their cul-de-sac is a magical kingdom. Sticks and bin lids have become swords and shields, drones have become majestic eagles, and the hippy lady in the forest (Christie) is a terrifying witch. The only thing limiting their colorful imagination is the prospect of losing their kingdom forever. When the slippery property developer Clipboard (Harris) turns up and dazzles the parents of the area with promises of health spas and day-care facilities, Robin and The Hoods’ world is faced with an existential threat. Despite the children’s best efforts, their protests fall on deaf ears. When their parents can’t see the wood for the trees, Robin and her friends take matters into their own hands to defend their kingdom. 

The film is produced by Silver Reel’s Claudia Bluemhuber and Future Artists Entertainment’s Matt Williams. Alexander Jooss, Florian Dargel and Karol Griffiths (from Silver Reel) and Julia Stuart and Andrew Orr (Sky) will executive produce. 

“We were excited about Stuart and Paul’s script from the moment we encountered it – Robin and the Hood is a story with a big heart and plenty of laughter, which reminds us of the power and importance of imagination in a world that is swiftly losing it,” said Bluemhuber. “Landing the fantastic (quartet) of Naomie, Mark, Gwendoline and Darcey to lead our cast is a brilliant coup, and we’re thrilled that Sky, Future Artists and GFM are joining us on this adventure!”

[rabbithaver]

Silver will be sitting on my lap for the duration of our trip. unfortunately for him we will be taking the I-80 route, which passes through Wyoming. he is going to look out across that desolate scrubland and be like "Dad, can i go back to Crisis City? This sucks :/"

[spidermilkshake]

Ancardia's Unusual Animals--The Bonnacon

Classification: Beast (bovine)

Habitat: Grass and scrublands in the Western regions, especially the Ayn Coastlands, Silver Coastlands, and parts of the Fallar and Western Heartland.

            Bonnacon are perhaps among the most bizarre wild bovines to exist in Ancardia, and this is chiefly because of their main form of self-defense. While most hooved beasts have great speed and awareness, or great size and impressive horns, bonnacon have none of these but one very strange natural weapon. With the back, hips, shoulders and tail covered in squat, tough keratin scales, bonnacon average as slightly smaller than a domesticated auroch and slightly larger than a gnu, and lack horns altogether. Their only defense is their natural arcane abilities—which are limited to igniting gases from their rears into a sheet of flame that can reach pursuers as far away as 12 meters. This flame is unusually hot, and tends to not only ignite hair, clothes and wooden weapons, but is also hot enough to heat steel and other highly-conductive metals to a burning temperature within 15 seconds, as well as warp and distort glass. A wild creature, the bonnacon is also dangerously skittish, and will bolt and flame at the slightest provocation. The only known natural predators of the bonnacon are the Crocotta and the Antediluvian Dire-Drake, both of which use ambush tactics and superior jaw strength to quickly attack the beast from the front, before it can turn around and become a real danger.

            Bonnacon are unlike many wild ungulates in that they don’t live in large herds, most likely due to the issue of friendly-fire if a large group of bonnacon were spooked all at once in close proximity to each other. Bonnacon herds usually number only between 5 and 12 individuals, led by one breeding male along with a few adult females, sometimes also with their adolescent and juvenile young. Bonnacon browse a large variety of tougher vegetation, being very well adapted to semi-arid and dry montane climates, and are especially resilient in areas with a large density of toxic plant species, such as hogweed, daturas, prickly nightshades and euphorbias. It is believed that something to do with the toxicity of the plants it prefers gives it greater ability to shoot fire. Bonnacon are born able to stand and then run within about ten minutes, and area also born able to shoot flame as well, though not as strongly. It takes roughly 2 years for a young bonnacon to grow to close to adult size, though it is only in the third year that it is fully developed.

            In older Ages, the Old Kingdoms Empire’s nobility often considered hunting bonnacon to be a mark of high status—no doubt due to the sheer suicidal nature of any activity that involves approaching such a beast, especially of chasing one. Dogs and servants on horseback were usually sent ahead of their leigelords with the rationale being to bait the bonnacon into expending all of its ammunition before the lords on horseback themselves were meant to overtake the animal and attack it with spears or shortbows; several ancient nobles famously were torched to death as the creatures’ defended themselves anyways, and one notable taxidermized bonnacon specimen from the 4th Age is nowadays believed to be a hoaxed example made out of attaching pieces of tortoise shells to a dead calf. Among other cultures, bonnacon are sometimes considered pests. Sahel hurthling tribes who keep dairy auroch, zebu, and other bovines are often tasked with creating scarecrow-like puppets they can raise up and deploy from afar in order to scare off roaming wild bonnacon—as bonnacon can interbreed with some other bovines and result in a heifer calf that will grow to produce a foul, sulphureous milk. Others, like the Frost Giants and Sostunian tribes, are known to create spiked stone walls outside of their normal spiked wooden fencing separated by a few meters, strictly to keep bonnacon from getting too close to wooden structures and crop fields and ending up incinerating them and the fences if they are scared away by guard animals or farmers.

[a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives]

Stan’s Scrublands: Silver is currently filming in Western Australia

Scrublands: Silver is filming in Augusta, WA with Luke Arnold and Bella Heathcote.

Luke Arnold as Martin with Bella Heathcote as Mandy and director Ben Young. Photograph by David Dare Parker.

Stan and 9Network have revealed the first look images for Scrublands: Silver, the follow up to the 2023 series Scrublands.

Season two of the Australian drama series is currently shooting in Augusta, Western Australia, with actors Luke Arnold (Black Sails) and Bella Heathcote (Pieces of Her) returning to the principal roles.

Luke Arnold as Martin, Scrublands: Silver. Photograph by David Dare Parker

Plotwise, Scrublands: Silver is set one year after the dramatic events of Scrublands. Based on Chris Hammer’s best-selling novel Silver, investigative journalist Martin Scarsden (Arnold) will return to his coastal hometown of Port Silver, WA, with partner Mandy Bond (Heathcote) in tow. But Martin’s homecoming takes a dark turn when he discovers his childhood friend Jasper has been murdered, and Mandy is the prime suspect. As Martin races to clear Mandy’s name, he will unearth buried secrets about Port Silver and his own past.

The ensemble cast includes Luke Carroll (The Artful Dodger), Debra Lawrance (Please Like Me), and Tasma Walton (The Twelve), among others.

‘Following the immense success of Scrublands, we look forward to working with Easy Tiger and Third Act Stories, alongside lead cast Luke and Bella, as we bring audiences another thrilling season,’ said Stan Chief Content Officer, Cailah Scobie.

‘This is Stan’s fourth project in Western Australia in the last twelve months, and shows our commitment to collaborating with local cast and creatives so that we can deliver fresh and exceptional Originals for Australian and global audiences. We are excited to film in Augusta and thank our partners at Screenwest, the WA Regional Screen Fund and the 9Network.’

Produced by Martha Coleman, Ian Collie, Rob Gibson, and Felicity Packard, Scrublands: Silver is directed by Ben Young and written by Felicity Packard, Fiona Kelly, and Jock Serong. Executive producers include Michael Healy and Andy Ryan for the 9Network, and Cailah Scobie and Alicia Brown for Stan. The series benefits from major production investment by Screenwest, Lotterywest, and the WA Regional Screen Fund, with international sales handled by Abacus Media Rights.

Scrublands: Silver is an Easy Tiger and Third Act Stories production co-commissioned by Stan and the 9Network.

Scrublands: Silver is currently in production, with every episode of season one available for streaming on Stan.

Source: ScreenHub

[gertrudepetronella-blog]

Two Does

[A/N: My personal hc of how/why Lily and Severus had the same patronus. Taken from my fic Artemisia Absinthium (link below). Platonic Snily. SFW]

The only redeeming feature of Cokeworth was that it was not far from the southern edge of the Peak District National Park. Severus had never been an outdoorsy type – not in the way that the Evans were at least. They loved hiking and camping, as any good middle class family should, and Lily insisted that it would be great fun for the two of them to go off for a night into the wilderness. Severus complained that his home was barely habitable as it was, so why would he want to spend the night in an even smaller, colder, and damper abode? But of course he would go almost anywhere to get away from his dad for a night. He’d even slept under the canal bridge on one particularly desperate occasion. And he could never say no to Lily. So they packed up a tent and some very basic provisions and went off on their “adventure”.

They took a bus as far as Blackshaw, then hiked up into the hills. Lily reckoned the Ministry didn’t bother checking for underage magic way out in the middle of nowhere. Severus was dubious about that claim, but had been practising a ward that he thought would block their signatures, and they were both desperate to learn the patronus charm that was in next year’s DADA curriculum. Lily was unbearably cheerful about the whole thing, while Severus grumbled the entire way, but once they were out on the moors even he couldn’t complain too much. There was something about being away from everything and everyone. He could almost pretend that they were the only people left on the earth. No war, no sides, no good and bad, no Gryffindor or Slytherin, no Tobias, no Potter.

Despite it being the middle of summer, it got cold at night out on the moors, and they ended up both snuggled in the same sleeping bag, wearing every single item of clothing they had brought. Severus woke up shivering in the pale early light to find Lily gone, and poked his head out of the tent.

‘Shh!’ Lily whispered, then pointed across the long, dew covered scrubland. A herd of red deer were grazing in the dawn light, their graceful forms almost like ghosts in the early morning mist. They watched the animals for half an hour, wrapped in blankets and drinking black tea from tin mugs.

Lily was the first to cast. She took out her wand while still staring at the herd, and cast the spell with seemingly little thought. Severus had never felt more at peace, or at home out there away from the world, and he too took out his wand and spoke the words. ���Expecto Patronum.” A moment later the two silver does went skipping off across the moor as if to join their herd.

*

This is an extract from part three of Artemisia Absinthium

[cipheramnesia]

So there's this cattle ranch right, Old West setting, out in the scrublands or something y'know? And it's real hot and it's real dry. And you got this cowboy who's just trying to make it work for a few years til he can turn a profit or three, but it's been brutal. He keeps losing cows, like they get out and wander off somehow and turn up dead and dried to a fine crisp. He's gonna do a cattle drive to try and salvage what he can but the money and resources are thin and he can't hire much for help.

He hires on this down and out Pearl Hart type character but it's not enough and he's pretty solidly at the financial limits. Luckily this well-appointed journalist, kind of a stranger in town but polite enough, has been poking around about doing a piece on a bona fide cattle drive for his readers back in Europe. He can ride alright, has got cash on hand, pay his own way, even kicks in a little extra to make up for if he slows them down and well, that's the best they can do. Maybe he's a little weird with an unplacable accent, but he's from Europe, they're all like that, figures the cowboy.

Everything is going okay at first, but it starts happening again. Cows start turning up dead, dried up, entirely overnight. They take shifts, it still happens, no one sees anything. They come across a body or two, people dead and dried up like the cows. Now things are real tense like. First of all, there's some unfair accusations about Pearl's various substance habits affecting her responsibilities on the cattle drive. Furthermore, the reporter isn't doing much reporting - he's not writing anything down or asking any questions, and seems all around pretty lacking in curiosity for someone whose job is reporting. Maybe everyone needs to calm down a little, even though the cowboy eventually admits he's been hearing weird noises and strange stories about people eaten alive by a starving and hungry dry earth.

No one's feeling great, and that's when they get hit by some cattle rustlers, four of em. Only the cattle rustlers seem really freaked out, terrified even. Maybe they're horse thieves because they all seem to want horses more than cows, and one of em looks pretty unhealthy. However, if you can say one thing about Pearl it's that she's got a fast hand and a steady trigger finger, and knocks two of em down before they can make up their minds about what to take. The real shocker is the journalist who throws a big fuckoff bowie knife into the third one, and the fourth takes off, our cowboy in pursuit. He catches the rustler, but the guy is more scared of not being allowed to run away than being shot for horse thieving.

Back at camp with one piss scared rustler, cowboy wants answers from the reporter, but before he can get em, one of the dead rustlers stands up, the one who looked sick, moving unnaturally, with two long fangs protruding over his lips, hissing and growling. That's when our journo makes his move, pushing out a cross into its face and throwing some holy water before staking it through the heart and cutting off its head. He introduces himself as Jebediah Van Helsing, vampire hunter, he's been tracking all the weird drained bodies and all that jazz and he's hear to put an end to it. He lays down the whole spiel - crosses, holy water, stakes, sunlight, silver, and most importantly of all hunting the head honcho down pronto before he turns more.

Now the cowboy is wondering what he's gonna do about his cattle meanwhile, but Jeb points out at this point it's either all of them and the cattle die, or they get the vamp king and his wealthy contacts in Europe drop a bounty to more than cover the losses. So, fine. Pearl doesn't really care as long as she gets paid and the poor rustler wants to bug out but he's lucky to be alive in the first place and has better chances with the group. Jeb takes point and they set to tracking down where the big bad evil vamp is holed up.

Things start getting real serious the next night when a group of the creatures attack their camp. The one from the night before was just a taste. These guys are a reflection of the harsh desert and tough brush, wiry and rope-like muscles, heads like snakes, bat ears, skin webbed between their arms and legs to glide, all hairless but scaled and plated like an armadillo. There's a dozen of them and worse still, the crosses and holy water don't do anything at all - they ignore both and tear through the rustler like wet cardboard. The stake and decapitation work but also, that works on pretty much everything. Fire works too, unfortunately stampeding the herd of cattle, but saving everyone else.

The next day's ride is horrific. The trail is easy to follow - dozens and dozens of dead and torn apart cows, some drained, others merely slaughtered out of spite, it seems, until they've gone very far from familiar and well traveled territory. At that point, the creatures reveal they have been hiding inside the carcasses, and begin a massive onslaught against the three. Pearl is taken by the creatures, while Jeb is badly injured. The cowboy and Jeb manage to make it to a narrow cave and hold off the horde for awhile, until it seems the creatures have given up.

Despite everything, Jeb is convinced they can end it all by finding the king vampire, and the cowboy hasn't got anywhere to go or any future if he can't get the promised funds from Jeb. They painstakingly continue following the trail, until it leads them both to an enormous and ancient cave. They enter as quietly as they can, prepared to find a slumbering vampire king, only to see hundreds, maybe thousands of eyes open in the dark, reflecting light. Jeb bravely demands their king face him in single combat, at which point multiple voices from around the cave sing song to them, "we have no masters." The creatures surge forward and the cowboy flees while Jeb is consumed in the cave.

As the cowboy staggers away from the sound of Jeb dying, outside the cave and under a full moon, Pearl, transformed, drops out of the sky to land beside him. "Poor misguided Van Helsing," she says. "So sure of himself, he never stopped to consider that we were here first. We were always here, and we have always been hungry." And this is the last thing the cowboy hears as Pearl transforms and consumes him.

[omanews]

Haffmans&Neumeister Shadow / Fawcett 001silver

今年の雪は2Dかな

ハフマンスの新作、柔らかツーブリッジも届いてます鼻幅狭いタイプ嬉しい ちょっとのアーチでかなりソフトな印象に 細身のシルバーはいつでも使える大人のアイテム、おひとつどうぞ 今週土曜日は夕方以降に空きあります 日月はまだ余裕あります ひとりで対応していますので 検眼、お見立てご相談、修理、受取はご予約頂けますと助かります 眼鏡のご用件でご予約の場合は一緒に喫茶もご予約可能です ご来店の人数をお知らせ下さい 1/14火　諸用により17時閉店です 本日1/10定休日 よろしくお願いします！

[crtalley]

SALT & SILVER – Re-Intro [ Camp NaNo Rewrite ]

genre → high fantasy market → adult pov → third / past / singular status → drafting (2nd draft) extra → the body as a vessel / devotion as love / obsession as love / the power in the naming of things / a fire underneath the skin where the heart should be / what does it mean to be alive? / are you alive if you cannot love? / can you love if you are dead? content warnings → death / blood & violence / intrusive thoughts / spirit possession / isolation / abandonment / body horror / to be updated

the story so far →

When the Alchemist is attacked by thieves in her own home, she’s more concerned with what they took: a map that leads to tombs in the arid scrubland, housing spirits that may be hundreds of years old. She enlists the witch’s son Emilián to help her hunt it down before any of the spirits can be found. They have slumbered long and deep beneath the earth, bound by alchemists of ages past to the stones built around petrified bodies. Who can say what they will desire once they wake?

the characters →

The Alchemist → a mystery of a woman who came to town a year and a half ago. Nameless, to save her from the spirits, she was raised by the Alchemists’ Colleges to serve the people around her in any way they need, whether she wants to or not. No one knows what she – or her College – is looking for in the scrub. That is, until her map is stolen.

Emilián Ámbaroz → born to the gentle craft, he was raised by his older brother and sisters in the absence of their witch mother. A town guard for near ten years now, he’s well-known and liked by his neighbors, and cannot bear the thought of harm coming to any whom he has sworn to protect.

Nácar Bahari → a stranger to any who know them, for they are ever-shifting and unknowable. They have handed out so many false names they forget the one they were given first. They wander from town to inn, inn to camp, camp to scrub with one goal in mind: godhood, or a facsimile of it.

The Rattlesnake → a spirit who is no longer a spirit. A god who is not yet a god. He is dead and alive, a seed woken by flame. Rain falling in search of the river. River flowing in search of the sea. Sea churning, crashing, tumbling to the shore and washing away the sand that has held him captive for so long. He has woken, and he will take his place in history.

taglist →

general → @metanoiamorii @glitterandstarshine @crookedwritings @seasteading @avi-why @hekat-ie @localdeadlylaser @jadeywrites @piyawrites @aubergineanathema @quadraphonictypewriter @kudzupocalypse @lasbrumas @cheshawrites @eloquenceandemphasis @goblingraveyard @asablehart @arctic-stars @worldbuildng

s&s → @legendarian @kitblogsthings @fictional-semantics @cespye @the-child-of-darkness @bluewanders @analogued

@ anyone who was alpha reading the first draft for me: life got a little wild this year, so I wasn’t really prepared to keep up with y’all, and now my little gremlin brain has latched onto this again and said “rewrite it” (and i am a fool who cannot help but obey); thank y’all so much for the chapters we did get through!