#try to guess which fairytales inspired them!

[snippychicke]

Poppy Seeds -- Part One

As you may have guessed, I fell into a new hyper fixation. Poppy's Playtime of all things. >.<

Inspired by TooManyPsuedonyms work, which in turn was inspired by @semisolidmind fanart/cabin!Au for Playtime Poppy.

I know right now we have no idea who or what Ollie is, but I decided to go with the assumption he is just a kid and not the Prototype as some theorists are assuming. This will likely be debunked in chapter four, but I'm running with it until then.

Dogday/Player!reader (attempting keeping it gender neutral)

Warnings: will touch on the after effects of trauma, but nothing is super explicit. Maybe some unhealthy coping skills (Dogday holding Reader on a pedestal) But otherwise we're giving everyone a happy ending. (Everything is wonderful and nothing hurts)

One: Home

Your hands gripped the steering wheel tight as your old truck climbed up the steep incline. It hadn't liked the rough road on a good day, let alone with Kissy and Dogday in the back trying to drag it down. Now it whined and complained, the wheels occasionally skidding on the gravel. Ollie clutched to Poppy tightly next to you, his sunken eyes wide with fear. Poppy, to her credit, looked confident that everything would be okay.

By the time you reached the cabin nestled high above the valley, it was close to midnight. It was a sizable two story home, complete with a barn, garage, and even a chicken coop. Thick forest surrounded the homestead, assuring complete privacy. A year ago your grandparents had moved into an assisted living community in town, leaving the whole place to you. The rest of the family had not been happy but in your defense you would come out every school break growing up to help them out.

And then, after you left Playtime Co, you had moved in under the guise of getting your life sorted out. Your grandparents never asked why it was taking you a decade to figure it out. Which you were glad, because you didn't know how you would have answered them.

Ollie’s fear eased into wonder as he looked at the flock of sheep you had in the pens up front. You were just thankful they were still there, looking rather healthy despite the fact you had been unexpectedly gone for a week or so.

When you had received the letter and VHS about the old Playtime Co you had interned 10 years ago while in college, you thought you would be gone for a few days at most considering it was a few hours away. You prepped your home as best as you could for being gone that long-- giving extra water and feed to the animals, setting the sprinklers for your garden on a timer-- but had little hopes of your own survival let alone that of your animals after being dragged deep into hell.

You didn’t bother with the detached garage, but pulled up right next to the porch. You were exhausted, and you could only imagine everyone else was as well. The truck seemed all too happy to shut off with a rough sound. You looked over at Ollie, who was still looking at everything in wonder, though Poppy was carefully extracting herself from his grip. “You okay there kiddo?”

He looked back at you, “This is where you live?” he asked instead, voice full of awe. “It looks like it's from a fairytale book!”

It really wasn't, it's a typical farm for this part of the country. Hardly one of the fanciest or beautiful, just simple and sturdy.

“Let's get inside and get settled for the night,” you offer instead of remarking. “I should have the stuff for some sandwiches at least.”

“Sand…witches?” Ollie repeated, sounding confused.

“Meat and bread,” Poppy answered, unbuckling the boy. “Sometimes with ketchup, mustard, mayo, cheese.”

“So, food? I like food!”

Your heart ached. You knew the boy had been raised in the factory, hidden away and protected from the Prototype or hungry ‘toys’. The fact he had was a miracle enough--especially considering how small and thin he was. He had to be ten at the youngest, but barely looked as if he was half that age.

The passenger door opened, which considering how much trouble Kissy had with her hands, was surprising. Yet the pink creature reached in and pulled both Ollie and Poppy out of the truck.

Dogday waited for you as you exited the truck, your legs shaky from the long ride. However, his attention wasn't on you but the dark sky above. It was a new moon, meaning the Milky Way arched overhead with dozens of stars. A glance over to Kissy and the others showed they too were amazed by the stars--you could hear Poppy trying to explain all of it to Ollie quietly.

“It's beautiful, isn't it?” You said as you stepped closer to Dogday.

“Yeah,” he whispered. “I-I’ve never seen the night sky like this.”

“Well, now you can see it every night,” you said, shouldering his arm lightly. “Best place for meteor showers too.”

Dogday tore his gaze away and looked down at you. “Are you sure we can stay here, angel?”

“Of course. As long as you want, even if it's forever.” Granted, you didn't know where else they would go, especially Dogday and Kissy. But you didn't want to assume anything either, or make them feel trapped.

His hand found yours, so giant compared to yours but soft and warm. “Forever it is then.”

You felt your cheeks warm against the chilly night air as you laughed self-consciously. “Right, you might wanna sleep on that kind of decision, ‘Day.”

Two: Sleep

You woke slowly, feeling warm and cozy. Something soft was surrounding you, with the faintest hint of vanilla. At first you thought maybe you were wrapped up in a thick blanket, but when you opened your eyes to matted brown fur you realized it was Dogday instead, his arms wrapped around you and holding you close as if you were the toy. You could feel him breathe softly, each inhale and exhale caressing your skin softly.

(You didn't want to think about the amalgamation of organic and inorganic parts inside of him. You saw enough when you helped attach his legs to leave you with nightmares.)

For once, Dogday looked relaxed. Dark eyes closed and his smile softened. You couldn’t resist running your fingers along his face. He had been one of the few you had instantly trusted in that hell. One of the few that never even seemed to think about harming you.

Poppy had used you for her own means, not giving you a real choice ever since you released her. Kissy Missy had always been kind but you had soon realized that her partnership with Poppy may have played a part in it. And of course there was Ollie, though it took a while for you to trust the faceless voice on the phone, especially after you learned that the Prototype could mimic voices and Ollie had a very… peculiar way of phrasing things.

Yet Dogday… he had raised his head, and saw you as someone special as soon as his gaze met yours. Begged you to leave him behind and to run when the miniature Critters started to swarm. Actively fought to defend and protect you despite missing the lower half of his body at first.

And ever since, had refused to leave your side. While everyone else did their part, he determinedly stuck with you. Even last night after everyone finished eating and all anyone could think about was sleep. Kissy happily cuddled Poppy and Ollie in her arms as she climbed up the stairs to claim a bedroom. You expected Dogday to follow suit…

“Hey, uh, angel?” Dogday said softly, sounding rather shy. He had stuck around to help you clean up, though all that consisted of was a few plates, cups, and butter knives. Though the number of sandwiches consumed had emptied out all the bread, lunchmeat, cheese, as well as peanut butter and jelly in your pantry.

“Yeah?” You were getting used to the nickname, though you still felt as if it was undeserved the way he said it. As if you truly were an angel from heaven, sent to save.

“... Could I sleep with you?”

His question surprised you, and you almost dropped the cup you had been washing. Thankfully he quickly grabbed it before it could fall very far. “Sleep…with me?”

Granted those last two… days? You weren't sure, but you and him had found safe spots to watch out for each other while the other slept. It was the only time during the whole ‘adventure’ you managed to sleep. Wrapped up in his arms, feeling him breathe, listening to his heartbeat. It reminded you weren't alone anymore.

“I… don't want to be alone,” he continued, drying off the cup and placing it on the shelf. “Even if I know you and the others are nearby, I…”

Your surprise shifted into sympathy and understanding. Kissy, Poppy, and Ollie were together… and now that you thought about it, being alone right now did not fill you with any sort of ease.

“Yeah. I mean, if you don't mind cuddling close. My bed is barely big enough for two normal-sized people, let alone one me and one… well, Dogday.”

His smile widened. “With you? Never.”

Dogday shifted in his sleep, turning his head to nuzzle into your hand before his eyes slowly opened. His smile widened slightly, and you heard more than saw his tail thump against the bed which in turn made you smile wider as well. “Morning,” you greeted softly.

“Good morning, angel,” he said just as softly. “Did you sleep well?”

“Best sleep in a long time,” you admitted with a slight laugh. Trying to sleep in the factory had been a scary experience. Finding small places to hide long enough to close your eyes. Waking and jumping at every little sound. Plagued by endless nightmares.

And you had been there for just a few days, a week at most.

“What about you?” you asked. Him and the others had lived in that hell for a decade. You didn't startle awake from him lashing out at nightmares. Which you had seen him do a few times before at the factory. You had held him in your laps as best you could, reassuring him he was okay as he broke down.

He leaned closer, nuzzling your cheek slightly. “Next to you, how could I not?”

You laughed between his flirty words and his fur tickling your skin. “You're such a flirt!”

Three: Morning After

“It's so bright outside!” Ollie gasped as he looked out the window while you worked on breakfast. Thankfully none of the eggs had spoiled, nor had any milk, meaning you were whipping up a full course of scrambled eggs and pancakes-- as well as cooking the few boxes of frozen sausages you had found in the freezer.

Dogday was currently watching them like a hawk, occasionally licking his lips as he moved them around in the skillet.

“Actually. That's cloudy. See how the sky is gray. Not blue?” Poppy pointed out, also gazing out the window. “On sunny days, it's a bright vibrant blue, and even brighter.”

“Really?” The boy looked up to you to confirm the doll's words, and you nodded your head. To think he had never seen the sky before. To be unable to tell a sunny day from a cloudy one.

“It actually looks like it could rain,” you pointed out. “Maybe we should hold off on a bath until after you have fun in the mud.”

His brow furrowed in confusion. “I thought if you get caught in the rain, you'll get sick?”

“Psh, no. At least, not as long as you can dry off and warm up afterwards. It'll also give me time to look through stuff down in the basement. I think there should be some old hand me downs that should fit you.”

“A good bath can do wonders.” Poppy hopped down from the windowsill and into Kissy's hand before the giant monster also gently corralled Ollie to the table where the food was waiting. “It's been such a long time.”

“Er, excuse me for being intrusive…” you set down a towering plate of pancakes before sitting yourself. “But can you guys get wet?”

“We may not be flesh and bone anymore, but we can still enjoy a good shower,” Dogday answered as he set the plate of sausage links in front of you. “Or even a swim.”

“Why is the water white?” Ollie interrupted, looking oddly at the glass of milk Kissy poured in front of him. “I've never seen it that color before.”

“It’s milk,” Poppy answered. “You used to love it when you were a baby and we had access to some.”

Ollie sniffed suspiciously before taking a drink… and then nearly gulping the entire glass in one go. You took the opportunity of everyone chuckling at the boy to split the sausage between the others. Kissy noticed first and clapped excitedly, her mit-like hands muffling the sound.

“Angel,” Dogday sighed, though you weren't sure he was touched or exasperated. Or maybe both.

“Shh, I saw the way you were eyeing them. I can always buy more when I go to town.”

He was silent for a while before taking a bite of the sausage, savoring it unlike Kissy who had all but inhaled hers. Ollie was following Kissy’s example with the banquet of food, while Poppy was benign as dainty as could be, cutting everything into tiny bites, even for her smaller size.

You couldn’t help but savor your own food, feeling rather happy and optimistic about the future.

[gabessquishytum]

As summer is ending.

https://www.californiabeaches.com/california-sandcastle-contests-and-festivals/ | https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240424-the-triumphant-return-of-us-sandcastle-championships -- Sandcastle competitions!! (the winner in the BBC article won with a sculture called "Sweet Dreams Are Made of These"!)

🪣🏖

Dream now travels around the world to compete at sandcastle contests. He started doing it as a lark when his inspiration was at a low point and he wanted a new direction for his sculpture. The prize money isn't even a lot really, and many of the people who enter are just doing it for fun (like Hob Gadling and his son, Robyn).

Dream should be more focused on his sand sculture, but he keeps getting distracted by Hob and Robyn; Dream met them at last year's contest - they were grieving, but trying to get out more and do fun things together.

This year they looked better and Hob even waved at Dream when he saw him. Dream might have a crush on the little family.

This is perhaps the most adorable meet-cute of all time, and also feels so nostalgic to me bc I used to love seeing sand sculptures as a little kid 🥺

Listen, Hob and Robyn's sand sculptures are not very good. This year they are making a "speedboat" which is mostly just a hole with sand piled up around it and spade stuck in it as a gear stick. You could accuse Hob of not taking it seriously but he is taking it seriously, he's just a) not very good at sand sculptures and b) being assisted by a very enthusiastic 10 year old. It's a little embarrassing when he sees Dream working a few feet away, making a beautiful gargoyle from sand which looks like it could step right out of a fairytale book.

But Dream is so nice about the speed boat - he politely asks Robyn if he can sit in it, and Robyn makes appropriate speed boat noises while Dream sits in the hole and looks genuinely quite delighted. He even lets Robyn help him finish up the gargoyle (which stresses Hob out because he does not want to witness his beloved son accidentally knocking the sculpture to the ground - thankfully that doesn't happen).

Hob makes an executive decision and invites the gorgeous man to join him and Robyn for an ice cream. It may be his one chance to gaze at Dream in his little black sand speckled shorts, and Hob is determined to make the most of it. He'd reach out and hold Dream’s hand even, if he didn't think it would be confusing for Robyn.

He never could have guessed that Dream feels exactly the same way, and that seeing Hob lick ice cream off his fingers is driving him absolutely wild! Nor could he guess that next year, all three of them will create a terrible, wonderful, enormous sand sculpture together... and that Dream will kiss him when they win first prize!

[55sturn]

✮ BACK TO YOU

pairings: chris sturniolo x fem!oc, reader x unnamed male!oc, chris sturniolo x fem!reader

summary: in which no matter where they are in life, chris and y/n find their way back to one another, despite knowing that it never really works, until day he gives in and stops fighting what he knows is meant to be.

warnings: swearing, angst (a whole lot of it), verbal arguments, chris and y/n are toxic, implications of chris cheating, fluff if you squint, suggestive implications.

THIRD PERSON POV

in every culture and every religion, there is some sort of evidence of soulmates existing. the person your soul is forever tied to, setting you up for heartbreak along the journey looking for that one person. love is at the root of the structure of every belief system. the person that has been so perfectly tailored to your heart and soul, meant to love you in the ways you spend your life searching for.

look up: invisible string by taylor swift, for a beautiful depiction of a soulmate inspired love song.

the only issue with having a soulmate, is that nine out of ten times, you don't know who your soulmate is. which often leads to you spend hours upon hours and years upon years searching for them, inevitably experiencing various stages and forms of heartbreak in hopes that once you do find your soulmate, your forever person, they are able to heal and fix you.

but in chris and y/n's love story, them healing each other wasn't always the case. they were the fairytale from hell, they were a wrongful depiction of soulmates, two souls tethered together by an invisible red string that who, instead of loving each other, had a tendency to tears each other's hearts into millions of pieces each time they tried to love one another.

they were two souls so delicately similar that it caused them nothing but pain and frustration. they loved one another in the wrong ways, but they were determined to make it work, albeit at the wrong times.

PRESENT TIME

chris sighed as he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, with a quick roll of his eyes, he fished the thin device out of his pocket, knowing full well who was texting him as he made his rounds through the crowd of friends and acquaintances at the party he attended.

groaning, her named flashed again in his notifications, he hovered his thumb over the text before pressing down, begrudgingly opening the conversation he had wished hadn't started, despite deep down wanting her to reach out to him.

IMESSAGE TEXTS BETWEEN CHRIS AND Y/N

Y/N: guess u forgot to tell me that u and ur new bitch of the week would be here🤣

CHRIS: don't start tonight y/n

Y/N: i'm just shocked is all, didn’t think she’d fuck with these ppl just by looking at her

CHRIS: "she" has a name, y/n

CHRIS: it’s gianna

Y/N: you act like i give a fuck

Y/N: it’s nice to see you tho

CHRIS: please y/n, aren’t you tired of this shit?

CHRIS: you and i don't work, we literally never fucking do

CHRIS: and i really like this girl

Y/N: if you genuinely mean that, why are you spending so much time explaining it to me? sounds like you’re just tryna convince yourself that you feel that way.

Y/N: but if it’s real, then i'm happy for you, it's just weird that you and i aren't here together.

chris rolled his eyes at her second to last text, the way she could see right through like he was made of glass, even through a text, was something he’d never be able to understand. or run away from. there was never any sense in him even trying to lie to her, she could read him like a book. and chris was her favourite book, she would read that book ten times over in one sitting if she could.

but chris willed up all the self control he had in his entire being to not seek out the girl he's loved since he was a tiny boy in middle school. he told himself that it was done for good. that's the thing with playground love, it doesn't always last for ever and ever and chris was finally starting to accept that.

he pocketed his phone and forced himself to look for gianna, his eyes briefly meeting y/n's as she spoke to some random influencer, the smile on her face not reaching her eyes as she focused on the boy in front of her. he soon spotted the girl he arrived with, her hand flirtatiously resting on vinnie's bicep as he spoke to her. with a less than enthusiastic scoff, he downed the rest of the drink in his cup and turned around, walking in the opposite direction toward the girl he called home.

once he was in earshot, he smirked to himself as she pawned her cup off onto the poor boy fighting for a chance with her in front of him. once she waved him off with a bittersweet smile, she turned back to chris. she tutted playfully as he rolled his eyes, her hand reaching up toward the back of his neck, pulling him flush against the front of her body.

"what happened to "i really like her"?" she chuckled, her arms wrapping around his neck as his hands fell to her waist, pulling her into a hug, his lips meeting her jaw as he sighed.

"vinnie got to her and she was all over him." he spoke against her skin as her nails gently scraped against his scalp, bringing him down from his emotional high as his shoulders slumped in her arms.

"wanna get out of here? go for a walk?"

"nah, m'tired and just wanna go to bed, you crashing at mine?"

"of course." she spoke, her hand slipping into his as they walked toward the door, nick and matt meeting them there soon after chris texted them, neither of them surprised to find chris leaving with y/n instead of his girlfriend.

"i'm so happy you're here y/n, chris is a different man when you're not around." nick snorted, climbing into the seat behind matt as y/n sat behind chris, his hand slipping between the two front seats as her fingers threaded through his again.

"i'm glad to be back for however long chris needs me to be." she whispered, her words cutting deep into chris' heart, knowing that she wouldn't be around permanently, their dynamic and ways of communicating only allowing them to be together for a short period of time. they’d spend most their days tangled in chris’ sheets, professing their undying love for one another, knowing very well their time would be ending once again, and that it’d end soon.

they found that while they loved each other so deeply, they showed it in all the wrong ways. instead of gentle and soft spoken words, their love for one another was reminded in the clashing of teeth and tongues during heavy make-outs, and wandering hands with their nails digging into the soft flesh they roamed.

their rekindled romance was once again called off when chris' girlfriend, gianna, had come back into his life a week later, apologizing for her behaviour and explaining that she had been a fan of vinnie's for a long time and the fan girl in her caused her to make questionable decisions.

with a meek smile and a backhanded comment about chris’ infidelity, y/n packed her bags and moved out of chris' room sadly bidding matt and nick a brief "see you later", which left them sighing as they were no stranger to watching y/n move in and out of the house a couple times every few months.

it wasn't long before chris had found himself missing the girl that knew him inside and out, that knew his heart like the back of her hand. a month after gianna came back, spewing excuses upon excuses, chris had broken up with her, claiming that his heart would forever belong to someone else and he couldn't bear to put her through the pain of not loving her the way she deserved to be.

chris knew that he should take this grace period and be alone instead of running back to the girl he always did, but he knew she was it for him, no matter what. he didn't understand why they couldn't love each other properly. he always looked at it in a way where they had too much love for one another and they just didn't know what to do with it.

he tossed and turned in his bed, his thoughts unrelenting and holding his ability to sleep hostage as his phone read 3:32 in the morning. groaning he unlocked his phone, his thumbs maneuvering their way to her conversation from muscle memory at this point before typing out a quick couple messages.

IMESSAGE TEXTS BETWEEN CHRIS AND Y/N

CHRIS: y/n come home

CHRIS: please

CHRIS: i cant sleep without you

CHRIS: i love you in a way that makes it hard to love anybody else

CHRIS: you are like a drug that i cant go without, you're deadass my soulmate bruh and i'm done denying that. you are the only person i want. the only that actually knows who i am, inside and out. the only person that can make me feel good the way you do. i want you. no more fighting it. we’re meant to be.

Y/N: i'll be there in 10.

every time y/n fell back into chris’ arms, it felt devastating and bittersweet. this time, it felt right. it felt like they had finally found solid ground and that the had found the way they were meant to be together. there was definitely some uncertainty about the longevity of their relationship overall, but they learned over time that they need to communicate. whether they stayed together or not for the final time, there was no doubt that they would always be intertwined in each other’s hearts.

taglist: @dylsdunbar @soursturniolo @4sturns @sturnsclutter @spencerstits @meanttomeet @bluesturniolo333 @graciereid @abbie13sworld @ghostofbrock @l9vesick @mylifeisevenstranger @bethsturn @ifilwtmfc @verosivy @themattgirl @lovingmattysposts @lacysturniolo @freshsturns @forevergirlposts @sturniolo-fav-matt @cupidsword @strawberrysturniolo @lustfulslxt

© 55STURN 2024 [ you do not have permission to copy or save or share my work to other platforms and devices! ]

[jamieedlund]

Thesis wip Legends and fairytales

and June's sketchdump! 🤗

lots of young Aaravos stuffs on my mind amongst other things and one of the brainrot I find fun is instead of being afraid or embracing his ""darkness"" the first time he used dark magic, baby Aaravos just...intimidated it into submission. Because I guess dark magic has a different affect on gods I mean startouched elves??? I also think what makes a person insanely strong is not the fact that they give in to their darkness (like all dark mages) or completely reject their own selfishness and view the world as only black and white (the philosophy the show trying to pedal, which I extremelyyy despise) but someone who acknowledged that they have their inner demons; is willing to face them and accept that it is part of them without giving into its every whims. Which they won't do for Aaravos ever I'm sure but isn't that a neat fun thing to think about. Like man rolled a nat 20 on intimidation and proceeded to devoured his own darkness like hah you're part of me now lol I'm a god.

Aaravos reading his TOS, which I stole from that one bit from brennan's genie rules (make some noise episode 4) I wish I had time to draw this as an animation-

Devastation is when the both of them hit you with the 'we're finishing each other sentences because the answer was so painfully obvious' bit. I just thought it would give everyone chills if animated.

things I constantly think about part 103927 and wish was being said in ss4 if they had just let Callum actually squared up and went after Soren so he can have an epic mage duel with Claudia and Terri in which he actually managed to outwitted all of them and got Soren back.

More brainrot about the adventures they could have had together, this one in particular in which they're going into a king's harem to investigate the death of the women there. It's inspire by the plot for the latest mononoke anime about the "Ooku" - aka it's just a - place where women are gathered to breed with the shogun...the real history of it is- very fascinating and cruel. In the blank dialogue pages I couldn't find the right word to express Callum's worries. Basically he already knew humanity can be ugly, he grew up with that ugliness for most of his life and he's worried that he won't like what he finds here. I think it's a perfect plotline to explore both of their characters on so many personal levels.

aand that's all I got! I've been participating in a fundraising event called Artists for Gaza this month so I barely have a lot of brainrot sketches that looks decent enough to post. I'll leave a link to their carrd below if you're interested in checking them out. I wanted to do my part to help Palestine despite dying on my thesis and trust me I am dying-

As always, thank you so much for sharing and supporting my work. I will get to all of my asks when my thesis is over. Check out Artists for Gaza >>here<<

[theinquisitxor]

October Reading Wrap Up

October was a great reading month and I got through ten(!) books in the month. That's more than I've read in a while, so it felt good to be able to know I can still read that many. I read some spooky/halloweenish books, as well as continued a few series, and finished a series.

1.Son of the Shadows (Sevenwaters 2) by Juliet Marillier, 5/5 stars. I started the month with reading the second Sevenwaters book. Just like with book 1, I enjoyed this immensely, and I found the characters and storyline to be strong and engaging. This one is even more romance heavy than the first books. Adult historical fantasy

2.Paladin's Hope (Saint of Steel 3) by T. Kingfisher, 4.5/5 stars. Another good installment in this series and new mystery that our characters are faced with. This one was a bit shorter than the first two books, and I wish this was a little longer, but otherwise it was great as always! Adult fantasy romance

3.The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got That Way by Bill Bryson This was my nonfiction book for the month, and I read this on audio. Enjoyable, but I felt like it was a little dated. I've read other more recent books on linguistics, and enjoyed them more. Nonfiction.

4.Echo North by Joanna Ruth Mayer, 4/5 stars. This was an enjoyable YA fantasy, and a good blend of fairytales I really enjoy. I don't read a lot of YA anymore, but this reminded me of some of the 'older' YA that is really good. East of the Sun West of the Moon, batb, cupid & psyche retellings all blended together. The author also credits Robin McKinley, DWJ, and Edith Pattou as big inspirations, and I could tell. YA fantasy

5.Last Argument of Kings (First Law 3) by Joe Abercrombie, ?/5 stars. I honestly was so done reading this trilogy, and just wanted to know how it ended so I could just finish it. I skimmed most of it, and only read the Glokta chapters and the ending. This type of fantasy is 100% not for me. I only finished the series because my brother gifted me the boxed set (and he read them). Adult fantasy

6.I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacquline Harpman, 5/5 stars. This is a lesser known classic that's gotten some popularity recently. It's part dystopian, part science fiction, and reminded me a little of The Wall which I read earlier this year. Very poignant, dark, but an exploration of self and a woman on her own. This is translated from French!

7.A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher, 4/5 stars. Another good T Kingfisher fairy tale retelling (however this was quite loose on the retelling), but also dark, featuring child abuse and animal horror. But there is humor, and a good cast of adult characters trying to fix the situation, and I like how T Kingfisher writes competent adults.

8.Witch Week (Chrestomanci 3) by Diana Wynne Jones, 3/5 stars. I started this on audio, but finished with the physical book. Can't say I enjoyed this one as much as the first two. This just reminded me of how horrible middle school was! A good halloween time read though. Middle grade fantasy.

9.The Wolf in the Whale by Jordanna Max Brodsky, 4/5 stars. This is a historical fantasy that has been on my tbr since 2019. This is light on the fantasy elements, and about first contact between Inuit and Vikings in present-day Canada about 1000 years ago. Our main character is an Inuit shaman, and they and a viking have to team up to save the land and their peoples. Super detail rich and well written.

10. Graveyard Shift by ML Rio, 4/5 stars. A good read for Halloween, and excited to see that ML Rio is publishing again! A thriller about 5 people trying to discover who made a new grave in an abandoned graveyard. As someone who works in academia, I liked the academia element in this story, I only wish it was longer!

I'm on track to finish my Goodreads Reading Challenge this year, which is 80 books. Usually I get somewhere in the 90s, but not this year I guess. For Nov and December, I'm planning on finishing the Sevenwaters series, and Chrestomanci, so I'll be prioritizing those books.

November tbr:

The Scorpio Races (reread on audio)

Child of the Prophecy (Sevenwaters 3)

Heir to Sevenwaters (Sevenwaters 4)

Chrestomanci: The Magicians of Caprona (book 4)

Paladin's Fate (Saint of Steel 4)

Nonfiction

The Word for Woman is Wilderness

Cape Cod (on audio?)

The Virgin in the Garden

[syrupsyche]

Instead of working on the actual fic, I'm going to be sharing headcanons on my canon era Enjsette siblings au. I would probably mention some parts of it in the fic(s) I'll be sharing but if they never see the light of day, here are some of them! Shoutout to @pumpkinspice-prouvaire for inspiring this post <3

Fantine absolutely adored getting matching EVERYTHING for her kids: that goes for their names (Eugène and Euphrasie), their outfits, and even their hairstyles. She likes to match her hairstyles with them as well :')

Speaking of hair, since Enjolras has the same hair as her, she lets it grow out so that she can comb and style it. He may be 3 years old but he sure has a ton of hair

When they get placed with the Thenardiers, just as how Mme. Thenardier was Cosette's main tormentor, M. Thenardier would be Enjolras'

Other than the canonical heavy labour Cosette had to do, Enjolras would be sent out to pickpocket from the inn's customers and the rest of the town's inhabitants as well

Whenever Enjolras got caught, Thenardier would put on a big act and punish him in front of whoever was the victim ("My sincerest apologies, good monsieur/madame! He must have gotten his nastiness from his good-for-nothing mother.") before taking him away and just punishing him once more for getting caught

(And I'm not saying this is where Enj would get his immensely deep-rooted sense of injustice from but im NOT not saying that either :))

Cosette and Enjolras would try to take the brunt of the punishments for each other but that just became getting twice the punishment. Eventually, they learnt to just rely and comfort each other afterwards

When Valjean comes to find them, he buys Catherine for Cosette and a toy soldier for Enjolras. He named him Jacques.

Enjolras took longer than Cosette to warm up to Valjean (M. Thenardier was his tormentor after all, so his trust in male authority figures was already low), but eventually grew to trust him once his sister did

Enjolras especially loved hearing Valjean read to him. Valjean read the usual children's books and fairytales but when Enjolras began begging for more, he just gave up and started reading anything he could get his hands on: history, philosophy, etc. (which is why Enjolras turned out Like That)

When they move to the convent, while Cosette went to school, Enjolras stayed in the hut and continued being taught by Valjean (and Fauchelevent!) While Cosette was intended to become a nun, Enjolras was to take over as the convent gardener

Cosette would run up to the hut and chat with Enjolras whenever it was playtime- they would exchange whatever they had learnt during the day

Slowly, Enjolras got his hands on more and more radical books, teaching himself about the current political climate of France and devoting all his time to reading and (attempting to) write his own essays

Eventually, when the family left the convent, it was partially to allow Enjolras to pursue his new-found interest in politics as well as the canonical reason of letting Cosette explore society.

Due to their difference in interests, Enjolras and Cosette grew apart, though all 3 family members clearly still cared for one another deeply

Understanding the dangers of dabbling in politics, he decided to go by a moniker in order to keep his private family away from his public affairs. Thus, Enjolras was born.

This is where my fics begin to pick up from so I guess no more spoilers (??) Hope this made some bit of sense or at the very least, the drawings were enjoyable! :D

[boygiwrites]

Harley D. Dixon 25

An amazing edit inspired by this story! (Cred to Cora_Line99) Harley D. Dixon's Pinterest Board! Harley D. Dixon's Playlist!

📖Chapter List.

Author's Note.

As always, enjoy reading :) And uuuh prepare yourself.

"There you guys are."

Dale says this because he's been waiting for us. He pushes himself off the crumbled fireplace, anxiously gripping the strap of his rifle like he always does, like he's glued it there and hasn't bothered to take it off. He always looks nervous and angry at the same time.

"Whatchu all the way over here for?" Dad asks, setting his crossbow down by his chair. "Couldn't wait for visitin' hours?"

"Listen, I'm going to be frank here." He mutters, his bushy white brows disappearing under the brim of his fisherman's hat. The adults have always muttered when they don't want the kids listening in on them, but now it's actually working, and I don't like that, so I make a point of sitting on the lip of the cobblestones nearby. I pretend to take off my boots and pour the dirt out, even though they're already empty. "If we don't do something, come dusk," He says in a very important way, "Jim will be dead."

"Ain't that kinda the point?" He deadpans.

Dale hates that response. He scoffs. "No. You're a smart man, Daryl. You can see why this is crazy."

I don't know what he thinks he's doin', tryna convince my Dad to call off the execution. I guess it didn't go over so well with Rick.

"Can I?" He drawls, entirely unconvinced. "Ain't nun' crazy 'bout squashing a bug."

"We're not talking about a bug." He argues. "We're talking about a human being. A human being that's made mistakes, yes, but haven't we all? I mean, how many times have you said something somebody didn't like? That isn't a crime. Certainly doesn't warrant the death penalty."

"Man, save it. You getcher'self in the mix with my daughter in a way I'on like, you get what's comin' to ya. That's just how it is."

"And I— I can appreciate that. You're a family man. You love your daughter. You love Harley and you want to protect her," He reasons, and as he says this, I think, pshh, what does this have to do with anything, which is what Dad must be thinking, too, 'cause he rolls his eyes a bit. "But don't you love her enough to want her growing up in a world that doesn't punish so harshly? Hasn't she seen enough death?"

Sure I have. But like all things we once thought were impossible, it's now just a matter of, what's one more? What's one more dead man in the ground? Jim's death will be a different type of killing, sure, but they're all just bodies in the end. We've done this before.

"Watch yourself." Dad's look turns sharp at that. "Don't tell me what I already know."

"I'm just trying to—"

"Look." He cuts him off. "I know what's best for my daughter. The world I want her growin' up in is one that ain't made'a fairytales. People gotta die, Dale. Already have. And they ain't gonna stop just 'cause one man pulls out his thesaurus and starts cryin' about it. Lil' Jimmy, he's a threat to the group. He's a threat to my lil' girl, and it don't get any more black and white than that for me."

"But does that mean he has to die?"

"It means this conversation's over." He throws a hand up, turns away. "I ain't y'all's Momma. Go talk to Rick about it s'more if ya wanna."

"I already have." He calls after him uselessly, before sighing and giving up altogether. He seems to remember that I'm here too, and sends me a small smile. "Sorry, Harley," He says, "Maybe I shouldn't have brought that up with you here."

"Naw, it's alright." I shrug, joking, "I been through worse before."

That makes him chuckle, despite himself. "You have, have you?"

"But can I tell you sum'?"

He pauses, frowns. "'Course you can."

"Just stop." I say very plainly, in a way I hope he understands. "Just stop. It ain't worth it."

Ain't you just a little pot of wisdom, as Merle liked to say, whenever I told him he shouldn't sniff that white powder so often, or to try lookin' at the sky when he got too angry. Smarty-pants, is what Dad preferred to say. I got a bad habit of tellin' people what to do, sometimes, but it ain't that I'm wise or smart or want a damn medal, do ya. I just don't want Dale doin' what I did, tryna fight things ya can't fight, like with Sophia and Shane. In a way, I guess Jim's right. Ya can't fight death. It's just one of them things ya can't put a knife in.

I know Dale's tryna do good. That's what he is. A do-gooder. That's what Dad used to call the people at church. Always fightin' the good fight. With words and bibles and morals. But that ain't how things work now. I know Dale wishes it was, but it ain't.

From the look on Dale's face, it seems that just by saying this, I've as good as killed Jim myself.

"But-But, honey," He stammers. "How can you say that?"

"'Cause," I wiggle my boot on and stand. "People just gotta die, sometimes."

His lip curls. "Your Dad been teaching you that?"

"Yeah." I don't know why he says that like it's a bad thing. "People die, people mourn, life moves on. That's what he says."

"I don't want to argue with you on this." He shakes his head, hiding irritation. "You're too young to know what you're talking about."

He's like Lori. He wants to live like it was before, back when we had homework and couldn't say fuck, or shit, or fuck-shit. Back when we had courtrooms and judges and churches that were standing. 'Cause back then, Jim wouldn't be killed.

He blanches a little, before calling out to Dad, "You need to re-think what it is you're teaching your daughter."

As he huffs and walks away, Dad sends me a confused look.

"Nothin'." I sigh dismissively, heading over to join him by the dead fire pit, where he's knifed open a tin of baked beans. I stand in between his knees and he spoons some out and feeds them to me. "I jush argued with him a lil', 'das all."

"I ain't tell you to do that." He jokes, wiping sauce from my chin with the spoon.

I garble around my mouthful, "Well, I did tell him Jim's gotta die. Ya did say 'dat."

"Guess I did... But don't worry 'bout old Dale. He's a—"

"—He's a do-gooder." We say at the same time.

He scoffs amusedly. "Yeah. Exactly."

I swallow and open my mouth for the next spoonful, which I munch on with a smile. "How 'bout that deer just now, huh?"

"Pretty cool." He agrees absentmindedly, giving me a small smile back. Only once I open my mouth again does he tell me, "Listen, baby." I snap it shut once I realize he's not going to lift the spoon. For a terrible second, I think he knows about the shed. It's nonsense, of course. Andrea promised she wouldn't snitch, but the thought's still stuck to the back of my head. "About them things I said last night..."

Oh. Right. I don't say anything. I just stand and listen. I gotta get better at that.

"About your Momma givin' up," He struggles to say. "Weren't right'a me. Things are tough right now, but... weren't right'a me."

"It's alright, Dad." I tell him. Not a lot is alright these days, but we are. I forgive him. "You was right, anyway."

My Momma did give up. Whether I like how it sounds or not, that's what suicide means, and my Momma gave up. She gave up on me and Daddy, gave up on fighting, and she gave up on life, too, in the end. Like the rest, she was weak. Like Sophia. Like me.

"C'mere." He sets the tin aside and pulls me onto his lap, cradling my head under his chin. "Don't matter who was right. I love you."

"I love you, too, Dad."

Two I love you's in the same day. What on Earth is goin' on? You'd think the apocalypse had started or somethin'.

He pulls back, holding my face in his big, grimy hands. "I wantchu to stay wit' the women when we kill Jim tonight."

I suck in a breath, asking, "How you gonna do it?"

"I'on know yet." He admits as he smooths down my baby hairs, swipes some dirt from my cheek. "But you don't need t'see it. I know that."

I give a nod. I wish I could see, but that would never be allowed. "Okay."

"Okay." He repeats, kissing my temple. "Good girl."

As I finish off the rest of the beans, I gaze out over Dad's shoulder, watching Dale's tiny figure wander over to the other side of the farm, off to go try convince the next person he comes across that this is all a terrible idea. Off to fight the good fight, which no one's ever won.

The best part of my day is when Maggie slaps Andrea across the face.

It's not that I hate Andrea or anythin' like that, unlike some other people around here, but it's just kinda funny. As I walk up to the house, she holds her reddened cheek with her mouth agape in shock, while Maggie stands over her, totally fuming. I like her even more now.

"Stay away from her." She scolds her hotly. "From both of us. Don't you dare step foot inside this house again."

After struggling to find something to say, she wordlessly turns and hurries away.

"What's goin' on?" I call up to Maggie and Lori, who are standing on the porch.

"Nothing, sweetie." Lori assures me, but she seems heated. She moves to the side to let Maggie storm inside, and follows her in after.

I find Carl past the patch of tall trees by the house, past the overgrown fence and sitting in the seat of an abandoned tractor, fiddling with his hat in his lap. I'm still a little angry with him. For trying to control me like I'm his pet dog, and treating me like I'm some sort of practice run for his little sister or brother. But that don't mean I can't talk to him. I climb one of the big tyres, crossing my arms over the rusty hood.

He glances at me but decides not to say anything.

"Did you tell Maggie about the knife?"

"Yeah." He admits, not surprising me in the slightest. I don't see why else Andrea would be on Maggie's bad side. "What do you care?"

I frown in confusion. "Huh? I don't. I was just asking."

"Oh." He puts his hat on and looks at me. "I thought you came over here to argue some more."

"Nah." I shrug one shoulder, tracing my finger along the cracked ridges of the old, red metal. "Don't wanna."

Gazing out onto the barn, I see Rick through the open doors, pacing the dirt floor and looking up at the rafters with some rope in his hands. I make out a loop on the end of it, and then I realize it's not a rope, it's a noose. He's looking for a place to hang Jim.

"That's how they're gonna do it." I murmur to myself. "They is gonna hang him after all."

"Gunshot would attract the horde." Carl supposes.

Rick takes hold of a wooden banister, pushes on it, checks its sturdiness.

"True. I ain't thought of that."

"He told me we're gonna be sleeping in the house, soon. Because Winter's coming, and all."

That's a funny thought. Feels like just yesterday Rick was begging Herschel to let us stay, and now we're facing Winter together.

"Guess it's good Jim's dyin' now, then," I muse, "So he don't gotta freeze to death instead."

After a couple more minutes, Rick stops pushing on banisters and attaches the noose to the spot he's chosen. I guess that's it, then.

"It's almost time." Lori says to Rick as the sun begins to set, like a ball of orange sand in a glass timer. "I know this isn't easy for you."

She doesn't know that, but she likes saying it, anyway, because she wants to believe it and it sounds nice. But I think we all know that Rick is a little beyond caring about ending a person's life for the good of the group. He might not love it, but it's like Dad says. There's only two options, and when push comes to shove choosing the best one, the one that keeps us safe, things become pretty damn easy.

He nods, knuckles going white as he grips the porch railing. I guess he doesn't have the guts to tell her she's wrong.

Inside, the group are gathering to have what Dale calls a discussion. It's his last-ditch attempt at stopping the execution, and Rick's not happy about it, but he's willing to hear him out. It's pretty obvious we're all just stalling the inevitable, though.

"You don't have to be the one to do it." Lori continues after he's said nothing.

On the deck chair beside me, Dad sits with his elbows on his knees, his fingers interlocked, wriggling. He offers gruffly, "I can do it."

"No." Rick shakes his head. "It has to be me. Bringing him back was my decision. Makes this is my responsibility."

I wonder how you even kill someone using a noose. I guess what they're debating is who's gonna kick the stool Jim stands on.

Dad doesn't argue back. The only person he really wanted to kill was Shane, and he did that. This one goes to Rick.

The door swings open.

Maggie pokes her head out. "Everyone's ready."

Rick takes a deep breath, gives one last look to Lori, and heads inside.

"C'mon." Lori takes Carl's shoulder and guides him to sit in Dad's chair. "I want you to stay out here with Jimmy and Harley."

"But, Mom," He argues, "I wanna listen."

"Uh-uh. Not this time, baby."

Just as Lori goes inside and Dad is about to follow her in, Carl blurts out, "Daryl, wait."

He pauses in the doorway. Confusion pinches his features. I go still, glance at Carl side-long, hold my breath. There's no way he's doing what I think he is. Why else would he stop my Dad? Please, no. Just say something stupid and useless and let him go inside.

In a moment that makes me want to put my hands around his neck, Carl says exactly what I didn't want him to.

"Harley snuck into the shed and talked to Jim."

I bite down a thousand curses. Carl Grimes, that little... I can't believe he told on me. Not even Andrea did.

Dad's face contorts into a look of rage, pinning me in place, making my heart race until it's punching against my sternum like a fist. Now I'm realizing just how much of an idiot I was for breaking the rules. All Dad wants is for me to be safe. He's gotta look out for dangers like Jim, but I'm becoming a danger to myself, now, too, 'cause I'm an idiot and I went in that shed like an idiot and spoke to Jim like an idiot.

He grabs the door handle like he's tryna crush it between his fingers and slams the door shut behind him.

The windows rattle behind me and Carl.

I let out a breath, but I'm not relieved for long. I'm suddenly almost as angry as Dad was. I turn to Carl, fixing him with a scathing glare.

"Why in Satan's hot Hell," I grind through my teeth, "Did ya do that for?"

He looks all pleased with himself. "Because I'm responsible."

If I weren't already in deep trouble, and if Jimmy wasn't out here to witness it, I would slap Carl so hard his baby teeth and his adult teeth would fall out his skull. I didn't snitch on him when he wanted to sneak into the woods. In fact, I helped that jerk.

"You know, I'm about sick'a you." I tell him, because it makes me feel better. "You been buggin' me so bad today."

"I've been bugging you?" He exclaims incredulously.

"Ya heard me. First ya tell Carol her dead daughter ain't in heaven, then you start actin' like I'm a baby, and now ya snitch on—"

"Well, you are a baby!" He shocks me into silence with that. "You're a baby, Harley. You might know what a chantrelle mushroom is, and you might shoot better than me, but you're still just a stupid baby, and I'm right for looking out for you. You can't do it yourself!"

Jimmy awkwardly wonders further down the porch, pretending he doesn't hear our argument.

"Well, I hope your baby sister or brother hates your damn guts," I snarl, "'Cause I sure do."

"I'm just trying to set a good example like Dad told me to!"

"Y'know, fuck yer Dad. And fuck you, too. I ain't your test sister. I ain't yer anythin'."

He huffs angrily, rolling his eyes. "Whatever. I'm glad you're not my sister."

"And I'm glad you ain't my brother." I mumble, turning my back to him and crossing my arms. "Damn snitch."

I almost wish Carl never found out he was gonna be a big brother. It's turned his head big. He thinks he can play house with me and act like some hero just 'cause his Dad told him to, but I don't need no damn boy who don't even know how to skin a squirrel to look out for me. He ain't an adult and I ain't a baby. I don't even like it when he reads his comics to me or holds my hand when he wants to take me somewhere or shares things with me or listens extra hard when I'm teaching him something. I meant it. I'm glad he ain't my brother.

Screw him. When his sibling's born, he's gonna forget all about me and I ain't gonna care one bit.

Inside, my Dad's voice is the loudest outta everybody's. To know what he's actually saying, I would have to ask Carl to translate, and there's no way in Hell I'm talking to him right now, or ever. I hear tidbits of Dale's voice, Glenn's, Jacqui's, T's. After a while, I hear shouting.

"If you were so sure you wanted to kill him," It's Dale. "Why'd you cover his face?! I know you have humanity in you!"

It seems nobody answers him, or he just doesn't wanna listen anymore, because the door opens and he steps out.

"Go ahead and slaughter that human being, then." He calls over his shoulder. "I won't be a party to it!"

He trudges down the steps, across the field, ducks into his tent, disappears. The thought that he might be crying makes my chest clench.

After that, the others file out. When I see Dad again, I feel like I might throw up.

He beelines for me, grabs my arm, pulls me off the chair.

"Get up." He seethes.

"What's going on?" Rick asks in concern.

"She messed up, that's what's goin' on." He drags me down the stairs. "Snuck into the shed and talked to Jim."

I hear Jacqui gasp at that. "What? When?"

Rick calls out to us, "Remember what I said, Daryl! If I see a bruise, I'll shoot you dead!"

"Man, whatever!"

He sounds pissed he would even suggest he's gonna beat me, but I don't think Rick really believes he'd do it, anyway. He just had to say it.

When we reach our camp, he throws me onto the stump and I sit there with a lump in my throat while he chews me out.

"Girl, I'on even have words for you." He says harshly, looking at me like I'm a nasty stain on his boot. "What the Hell were you thinkin'?"

"I—I just— I was just so angry, I wanted to—"

"I'on give a shit what you wanted." He cuts me off. "And I guess you don't give a shit what I want neither, do ya? Huh? Tellin' me you wanted to die, that was one thing, but what? Now you're tryn'? I gotta tie you down to stop ya, is that it? 'Cause gimme the word and I'll do it!"

"N-No," I quickly tell him, watching him pace back and forth. "I was just— I was just bein' an idiot."

"You're Hell right, you were bein' an idiot." He notices Merle's knife strapped to my shorts and lunges forward. "Gimme this damn thing."

He tears the button apart and rips the sheath offa me, stuffing it into the back of his pants line.

"You'll get this back when I can trust ya not to open up yer wrists with it." He growls before turning away.

I don't move from the stump for the next ten minutes. I watch him start a fire, heat up a tin of soup and eat it, and by then a whole hour has gone by and I realize I'm gonna be here longer than I thought. The sun goes down. Another hour, and I'm still sitting here. He doesn't talk to me, doesn't look my way. He doesn't even give me dinner. After that, another hour. He makes a few arrows. It gets colder and he gives me his flannel to put on, but after that, another two hours. It's around everyone's bed time when Glenn walks over and tells him it's time.

Dad understands what he means straight away and stands up, because there's only one thing he could be talking about.

"Stay with her." He orders Glenn without room for argument, and marches away.

Glenn watches him go, then sends me a small smile. "Hey, Harley."

"Hey, Glenn." I say a little glumly.

"You wanna come sit by the fire while we wait?"

I shake my head. "I'm in time-out. I gotta stay over here."

He nods and comes to sit in the dirt beside me, hugging his knees. The sounds of crickets chirping fills the air.

"I heard what you did." He muses after a long stretch of silence. "I'm not gonna add insult to injury, but that wasn't cool, Harley."

"So I've heard." I mutter, picking at threads.

"I mean, you could've gotten hurt." He patiently explains. "We don't know what Jim might've done to you in there."

"He hates me 'cause I remind him of his kids, y'know. He says I deserve to die like they did. Thinks it ain't fair."

"Wow." He scoffs to himself. "What a jerk."

"I think my Dad's got some more colorful words for him than that."

"Oh, I do, too." He warns, making me giggle. If Glenn wants to swear, that's how you know it's bad. "But we'll stick with 'jerk' for now."

"I think Lori would appreciate that." After a pause, I ask, "Did you talk to Maggie?"

"Yeah. I did."

"How'd it go?"

"It went good." He grins a little. "I got your advice to thank for that."

Aw. I'm happy for them. "I'll be giving Dale a run for his money, soon."

As we're both suppressing laughter at the thought of my life advice being better than Dale's, the group's wise owl, a gunshot cracks out across the farm. We both flinch. Our smiles fade. He puts an arm in front of me on instinct, looking out into the dark. What the Hell?

"They're hangin' him." I utter, seeing nothing but trees and night, "They hangin' him, Glenn. Why was that a gunshot?"

"I-I don't know." He grabs my hand, pulls me to my feet and keeps me close in case we gotta run. "I don't know."

Then comes the screaming. It's not Jim's.

"Dale," Glenn gasps right as my stomach hits the ground.

Then the group is running across the field and there are guns in their hands and flashlights are cutting through the grass. Glenn takes off running with me, his hand in mine, and I'm thinking that I should be on the stump, I'm gonna get in so much trouble for moving from the stump, but nobody's thinking about my time-out because there's all that screaming and Dale— Dale might be dying.

When we collide with the group, Dad takes hold of me and asks me if I'm alright, if I'm alright, and I struggle to nod.

"What's happening?" I whine, as Lori and T-Dog ask the same thing to two other people. "What happened to Jim?"

"We had to leave him in the barn." He says breathlessly before I'm running again.

There's a mess of running legs and bodies and panicking and then the squeaking of a gate, and then I'm pushing past everyone and then the world stops because there's a bundle on the ground. It's Dale. I hear someone retch. All of him, guts and all, spread out in the grass.

My Dad rushes forward and daggers the walker that's on top of him. "Come on, help! Help, he's— Fuck!"

"Who is it?" Lori shrieks as she runs to us, only to stop dead in her tracks when she sees.

Rick throws himself next to Dale's head. He's cradling his head and muttering things to him, and Dale's moaning and huffing and puffing and wheezing like a half-dead animal as the cavity in his chest pours blood into the grass. I do nothing but stand there in shock, watching it pour, pour, pour. There's shouts for Herschel, shouts for stupid things like bandages and stitches that make no sense and are just so awful, because ain't no bandage gonna fix Dale's missing stomach and his sprawled organs and the bite marks on his neck.

"We're gonna help," Rick's promising him while Andrea cries over his body, "We're here. We're here."

I'm wrapped up in a hug. Glenn. He steps backwards with me, holding me tight, saying nothing.

I was talking to him just this afternoon. I swear I was. He was right in front of me and he was alive, and I was talking to him and now he's laid out and torn open, and his insides are on his outsides, and I couldn't talk to him even if I tried, even if I had words to speak.

Herschel's here. He crouches, hovers his hands because there's nowhere to put them, no wound to put pressure on.

"What can we do?" Rick's asking him, up to his elbows in Dale, our friend's, blood. "We have to move him. Can we move him?"

Herschel stands, eyes bulged. "He won't make the trip." 

"We have to do the operation here," Rick's saying, but it's useless. "We hav— We have to—"

"Rick." He puts a hand on his shoulder.

"No." He cries, turning away, holding his face. "No. No, no, no!"

"Oh, Dale." Andrea sobs, and somehow this is the worst part because Andrea never cries, and neither does Rick or Glenn, but they're all crying, all doubling over and sniffling and no-no-no-ing, because there's nothing we can do. Dale is dying right in front of us, dying in our hands. Carl gapes at the walker laying nearby, and that's when I notice the clumps of mud on its ankles, and I grab tighter onto Glenn and Carl runs to his Momma, because that's the walker from the swamp. The one we didn't kill. Andrea weeps, "He's suffering."

Another groan wracks Dale's mangled body, and we all feel it in our bones, because she's right.

"Do something!" She begs.

God fucking damn it, why didn't we just kill that thing when we had the chance?

It's Sophia all over again. The something is a bullet. Someone has to shoot Dale like we shot Sophia. Oh, God, Jim was right. Dale, my wise old friend, the man who just wanted to go around the country with his wife and his RV and read poetry books, dying in a paddock on the edge of a random farm in Georgia. I wonder if he's scared. Dale's never scared. He's one of the bravest people I know.

Rick raises his gun. I don't look away. I don't cry. I don't feel much of anything except my heartbeat in my mouth. 

"Don't look," Glenn tells me, "D-Don't look."

Jacqui hides her face in Carol's neck. T-Dog turns away. Dad glances at me, tells me he's sorry with just a look.

We all know what has to happen.

He pulls the hammer back.

Dale coughs, looking into the barrel. He knows what has to happen, too.

Rick can't do it. His arm falters. He has to walk away, into Lori's arms, where he doesn't have to see it.

Dad steps up instead, raises his gun.

"Sorry, brother."

A bang.

And then Dale's face is blown to bits and I didn't even get to say goodbye.

Walking back to camp. Dad washing my face. Stamping out the fire, climbing in the tent. I don't really remember any of it, because I'm thinking about the sight of Dale's body wrapped in a white bedsheet and how when I wake up tomorrow, we'll have another funeral.

Dad sleeps beside me tonight. He holds me, soothes my hair, but he doesn't tell me everything's alright.

All of us are in shock. Back at main camp, I imagine Glenn will be sat up by the fire until sunrise, staring into the ashy pit, just thinking, mourning. Carl will be cuddled up with his parents, too. They'll be holding him tight. In the next tent over, Jacqui sniffling herself to sleep. Carol bunking with T-Dog. I don't think anyone's gonna be sleeping in the RV tonight.

Not for any real reason, but because it was Dale's.

I'm the only person awake. Alone with the white sky and my thoughts, I stare out at the tiny oak tree.

For some reason, the only thing I can think of is what we're gonna do with all of Dale's books. It's not important, but it's what I think about. He had Italian poetry, boring old non-fiction, a few thick classics that I saw him lend to people from time to time. Maybe they'll just stay in the RV, in all those nooks and crannies he had them stacked in. I won't see Glenn wasting the afternoon away reading a book on mystery, or Lori rummaging around for a romance book but only finding more poetry. Like I said, not important. But it hurts too much to think of other things.

Like how much I'll miss his chuckle-snort, the way he petted his pockets when he couldn't find his glasses. How he was good.

When Dad steps out the tent, he finds me sitting over here in the grass, still wearing his flannel.

He carefully sits beside me, and we just watch the thick fog roll over the farm together.

At the funeral, Rick talks about Dale's ability to read people, to know who they really are, and how he could always get under your skin by telling you what you needed to hear, not what you wanted to hear. I try very hard not to look at Sophia's grave. I never got to be at her funeral. I wonder what types of things Rick said that day. Something about her love for her Momma, or how she was kind, I'm sure.

When it's my turn to speak, I tell everyone that Dale was a better friend to me than my own Grandpappy ever was.

Maggie makes us all scrambled eggs and sweet-smelling tea after that, because we're sad and she's a sweetheart.

Then there's talk of moving sleeping bags into the house, dividing spare rooms, using the windmill for a lookout post. Others are saying those two gunshots last night are going to attract the horde and that we don't need to re-enforce the fence, we need to leave.

Me, I don't get involved. I sit on the sofa next to Lori and Carl and watch the fireplace dance away.

Then chores to numb the mind, collecting eggs and filling troughs. Carl don't talk to me the whole time. We're still pissy at each other.

Jim's execution is postponed. After what happened last night, nobody thought it felt right, and he got locked up in the shed again. I don't even think about going anywhere near it. I tried this morning to set myself back down on the stump again, but Dad gave me a soft, no, baby, and told me to come get dressed instead. I've learnt my lesson. No more puttin' myself at risk, and no more bein' an idiot.

I'm gonna really miss Dale. He's the smartest old person I've ever met.

I catch myself.

Was, now.

Author's note.

The moment I've been dreading writing. Dale is dead.

I love Dale. Especially since I started re-watching the show with some family, who all love him too. I tried fitting in a scene where he, Glenn, and Harley got a final talk together, but it just didn't work. It wasn't realistic. Nobody ever knows when disaster is going to strike, and you don't always get to part on good terms.

And my poor Harley has lost another person she cares for. That being said, she's more hardened than she was when Shane and Sophia died, so this won't be as devastating for her character. It's actually going to be good for her. Good riddance to the suicide arc.

Rest in peace to Dale Horvath, the wise old do-gooder.

Thank you for reading! :)

@poetoflawed

[fairytale-poll]

ROUND 1B! MATCH 4 OUT OF 8

Propaganda Under the Cut:

Ruby Lucas:

she's cool, and a werewolf!

She's a red/big bad wolf combo, she's bi, she gets tragically underused like so many OUaT characters

She’s a werewolf :)

We first see her as Ruby in Storybrooke where she's initially depicted as a fun-loving flirt who spends her nights most likely in a bar while wearing revealing clothes that her grandma disapproves of (and is all in red. Absolutely everything). She lives with her grandma who runs a diner and that's where Ruby works. When Emma wakes up the sleeping town, she tries to leave Granny's and ends up helping in a case that Emma's working on by following her nose. That episode also has her backstory, but when we first see her as Red in the Enchanted Forest, she's confident and helpful and not afraid to use her lycanthropy. But the start of her story has her being an innocent young woman with a love for discovering the world and her boyfriend Peter (of Peter and the Wolf, I guess). She meets Snow while still living with her Granny in her cabin in the woods and takes her in. She's so hopeful - and then she turns into a werewolf and kills Peter (after they all thought he was the werewolf and had chained him to a tree). She is obviously quite traumatized by this and takes off with Snow. But that and her subsequent adventures gives her the growth she needs to be comfortable in her own skin, whether human or wolf. And, when the curse breaks completely, you can see the change in her - she would absolutely walk through fire to help Snow and the other good guys.

Another version where Red Riding Hood also ends up being the Big Bad Wolf. She eats her boyfriend which is sad but she falls in love with Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz in like Season 5. Her red cloak is what keeps her in human form which I think is neat. When all the storybook characters are transported to the modern world, she runs a diner with Granny.

She's one of my favorite characters from Once Upon a Time. She's a cool Red Riding hood wolf girl who is bi and has seen like 3 of her love interests and her mother die. She slays very hard so I nominate her. (Also I used to have a crush on her as a kid)

VOTE RUBY LUCAS FROM ONCE UPON A TIME. SHE WAS IGNORED BY THE WRITERS SO MUCH SHE DESERVES THIS SO MUCH. QUEER ICON!!!

Ruby Rose:

She has a scythe that is also a high-impact sniper rifle.

She is literally just based on Red Riding Hood and she's such an amazing character holy heck

Red Riding Hood but with a gun. (Specifically a combination scythe/high-impact sniper rifle called Crescent Rose). Also she's gone through so much she deserves it. She's trying to save the world and keep going despite all the people she's lost. Grew up dreaming of being a hero who fights monsters. She knows life isn't a fairy tale and wants to make it better. Just went through a mental health arc where she had depression from trying to live up to her (presumed dead) mom and from her friend dying for the second time. Killed the Big Bad Wolf with her magic eye powers. Her sister is Goldilocks and her friends are Beauty and Snow White. also I love her &lt;3

She’s the little red riding hood but also a powerful fighter with a massive fucking scythe that is also a sniper rifle and she’s so skrunkly and so gender. Also RWBY’s whole thing (well one of them) is that their characters are all inspired by pre-existing ones from older stories and Ruby’s the main character so like, poster child of ‘character based off [insert relevant fairytale here]’ so I think she deserves to at least get pretty far

Aesthetics, themes, meta, personality and raw coolness.

She is the main character of her show. The most common monster they fight is a type of wolf (its been a while since ive seen it). Her job is to hunt them down before they can eat her. this story is very much about failed fairy tales, many of the side character's inspired arcs end in failure, but (having not seen the most recent bits) Ruby is still going strong, and i really like her cape, rose petals, and use of a scythe.

She is THE RRH character of all time. She has a scythe that's also a gun and she has to be the hero because she's got super rare main character powers. She is my happy girl. Also her mom was Sleeping Beauty and her sister is Goldilocks, and she fights to stop Rapunzel from destroying everything on the world, the gods, and then herself.

Ruby as a character is literally based on little red riding hood! She has a red cape with a hood

the Red trailer is better propaganda than I could ever write

She is a badass with a scythe, inspired by her uncle and fueled by her mother's death and her sense of righteousness

She has a giant scythe

[wri0thesley]

Snow white anon here which i guess is now my my nickname here:

I think diluc actually fits with alot of the fairy tales I previously mentioned. Like him as cinderella’s prince. Bro meets his darling once at a dance and gets so down bad that he’s forcing the whole kingdom to try on a shoe to find them.

There’s even some hungarian folktales I’ve heard ghat fit him but i can’t remeber the whole thing but this one story is basically like this princess wants this specific thing that her king dad can’t find which makes her slightly upset: then her dad ends up saved by this beast creature which asks for said princesses hand in marriage as payment: then takes said princess and he has said specific things she wanted and now she’s happy with her now human husband. I just imagine diluc telling that story to any kids he and his darling might have as sort of a sugar coated explanation for how he met his darling. He definitely sees himself as the noble princely type. Meanwhile darling is giving him the side eye

It also makes me think of a sort of alternate approach diluc could take if his darling is of more higher status is simply: “i am diluc raggyvinder! I want your child’s hand in marriage so give it to me” and because he is indeed wine tycoon deelik raggyvinder he does infact get said darling handed to him on a silver platter who has no choice but to accept this marriage.

diluc fits so well into fairytales for me because he's already a fairytale archetype (mysterious rich man, almost a 'prince', his whole uncrowned king thing!) plus mondstadt itself feels so fairytale inspired with all of the boar princess and the books and everything . . . sigh. he is so romantic it KILLS me. and yes, i also love him using his status as beloved and powerful to take darling for himself fgnkjbfgn

oh, and he's so very much the type to romanticise what he did to darling if indeed they do ever have children; to spin it so he's the hero and not the monster. their children are always tugging at darling's clothes and begging darling to tell them the story and they have to swallow back the hate and regurgitate diluc's saccharine sweet little lies to wide trusting eyes who sigh and hope their future romance will be half so sweet, never knowing the truth

[thatscarletflycatcher]

I'm interested in Jane Eyre (cool gifsets help, ngl) but what I know of the plot keeps putting me off. I'm not looking for fiction to be some version of moral superiority and I don't mind plots where Bad And Terrible Things Happen. I think the bits I know of this book maybe just hit the squicky spot for me? But, like, everyone's read it and if it's worth pushing through with, I guess...I'd like to know what you think makes it worth reading.

Hi, anon, and sorry for the delay.

I think Jane Eyre is a fascinating book.

It is, of all the Brontë sisters books I have read (with Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall) the most fantastic and sweeping one*. That's why I usually call it "pulpy": it indulges in the emotions, its prose is beautiful, the plot goes from Dickensian misery to stern didactics to silliness to bonkers drama to psychological horror and a mystical reunion and happily ever after. And the most fascinating part is that, while Charlotte Brontë was known for her careful almost obsessive care in her choice of words, and some of the contrasts and foils are evident, a lot of the time I'm not sure all that one can read in the text is intentional. I'm half persuaded that a lot of its silliness was written in deep serious earnest. Intentionally or not, there's a lot to be read into the text, from several different angles, because the point of view from which it is written is very strong.

Another reason to read it is because it has inspired and keeps inspiring so much of what is written in romance and romance fanfic (I joke that about 70% of all P&P fanfic is some vague variation on Jane Eyre), and yet the tropes and characterizations derived from it are heavily distorted (the principled heroine becomes the stubborn stupid heroine, the conflicted idiot hero is turned into an asshole with a sad backstory, love not being enough to fix the hero becomes the hero is fixed by the love of the heroine... the list goes on).

Not knowing what your specific squicks are, it's difficult to tell how much worth the effort it is or not to you. In any case, it is a book in the public domain so you can get it in places like Project Gutenberg or Wikisource for free, give it a try, and see how far you can go.

I have two tips that might help: while romance is very important in this novel, it is by its own definition, an autobiography. It is the life journey of Jane Eyre and what she learns in the way as she grows and interacts with other people. I believe it is at its core message a story about breaking cycles of abuse through mercy and forgiveness, about the cruelty of mankind and the love of Divine Providence that writes straight on crooked lines. That's usually my problem with the "but, girl, he had a wife in the attic!!" brand of criticism. We know. It's a major plot point in the novel. It's a very significant thing that happens and all that is misguided and bad in it has serious consequences. "But in real life...!" this is a novel where the resolution hinges on two people having a ¿telepatic communication? ¿mystical selective amplification? while being many many miles apart. I don't think "realism" is much the thing with it. And in any case, "go away from the guy that lied to you until you become rich and he's smitten by God and you hear his telepatic call in the wind" is not the kind of example or advice that could do harm in real life (I'm half joking, I know what they mean. Still. It's fantastical).

*this does not mean it is the best one; just that the other two are far far more grounded stories, with less of the fairytale and the fantastic in them.

[iheartgod175]

Some more SW Stuff I’ve had on the brain…

Friday, I had the idea to do a short story focusing on Pig’s mom. Or come up with a design for her, anyway. One idea I’ve always had since I was little was that Pig’s mom had died when he was young, hence why the brothers are raised by their dad. Poppa Pig hasn’t remarried since then, but does keep her memory alive within the family. The short story I had in mind involved how Poppa Pig and his wife met, with his wife being an inventor while he, and his own brothers, are still builders. How she died is something I’m still working on. While in the original SRBA it was inferred, chapter 4 of DR confirms that AP’s mom did die…which makes Material-B’s remarks even more horrible.

I had two new AU ideas—one being a Whyatt/Princess Pea AU where Whyatt is Pea’s bodyguard and the Azure Flamechaser full time, and the other being a Whyatt/Red AU that’s kinda like a gender bent Beauty and the Beast, except that one has a few more elements of the original Grimm Brothers’ fairytales. Not sure if I’ll ever get around to posting them, though!

Due to playing Honkai Impact 3rd, I realized that majority of my stories have their own Kallen Kaslana—or legacy characters whose actions directly shaped the events of living ones. For FLaG, it was Sebastian Lièvre and Nico Fontaine. For BT, it’s Olivier Coyote and Rose Rabbit. For Temporary Truce, this almost became the case for Punkin’s mom and Cat’s father. For The Zula Patrol: Dreamscape Crusade, it’s Multo’s ancestor, Multo I. And this story has three dead characters whose stories still affect the present: Mother Goose, Prince Phillip, and Pig’s mother, whom I’m still thinking of!

I also realized during the writing of chapter 4 that AP basically became a miniature Nanoha, with a bit of Hibiki Tachibana thrown into the mix. One of his lines to Material-B (“I’ll come back alive and make it happen, even if it kills me!”) is directly inspired by Hibiki’s famous declaration to not die when fighting Miku in Symphogear G.

I also want to write more of King and Queen Pea, who are the main royals of Storybrook Village, if I’m guessing this correctly, and have had some important roles in the SRBA ‘verse. Queen Pea knows a lot about relics and swords, and King Pea went toe to toe with his daughter and won (although technically, he didn’t fight her, just talked sense into her). There’s a hint in chapter 4 that points at there being more to Princess Presto’s Second Style than being a merge of her old powers and new powers.

A funny idea I had that takes place after the events of SRBA is where Whyatt chats with his family about the Super Readers, and Jack notes that he often wondered who Whyatt was referring to when he needed the Super Readers to solve a problem, much to his embarrassment.

Writing those Why/Red scenes has given me fuel to write more of them! So, you can expect a few one-shots featuring them sometime in the future! One cute little one shot that I have takes place a bit before the events of SRBA Reloaded, where Whyatt decides to get Red a special present for her birthday,which is a soccer ball made out of chocolate. His mother, who knows that he hardly if ever eats any candy, notices this and teases him, asking if he’s buying it for a girl. If there’s one thing about Whyatt, he’s a terrible liar, which leads to him being slightly embarrassed, haha XD

Regarding Jeremiah, the Super Readers do eventually learn of his familial connection to Chaos, and question why he’s fighting his brother. Chaos is one of the few people that Jeremiah outright hates, and deems unworthy of being saved. There is a reason for this that’ll be explained in chapter 6. Jeremiah did try to help Chaos turn from his ways, but he did something so heinous that he cut him off and they became enemies.

Might make a few OCs, especially those who were the first Super Readers! ^^

[daxwritesstories]

Starry Anomaly: Part 2 - Starry Eyed

Summary: Starry spends the majority of her life feeling lonely until one day a mysterious girl named Anna appears in her town. The two quickly become close but Starry soon realizes that there’s more to Anna than meets the eye.

Four part story. Each part is inspired by a different song.

Part 1 - Part 3 - Part 4

Word Count: ~7.4K

Song lyrics from "Starry Eyed" by Ellie Goulding and "Loreley" by Blackmore's Night.

Take me in and throw out my heart and get a new one

I awoke to the sound of sporadic tapping on my window. Sitting up, I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and looked at my balcony doors. I discovered the source of the tapping as a tiny rock hit the window. Confused, I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and hopped down to investigate. 

I unlatched the lock on the door and carefully opened them, keeping an eye out for stray rocks. I approached the railing and looked down to see Ramona standing on the path outside with a fist full of pebbles.

“Wake up, sleepyhead,” she called. “It’s almost the afternoon.”

That was a shock, I almost never slept in. I must have been exhausted from the previous night, which at that point I was convinced was all a dream. 

A ship sailed by no one appears at the dock in the dead of night and a strange girl wearing a cat mask departs from it without explanation. It was the stuff of fairytales and something that my mind definitely made up.

“I’m going to explore the jungle today. Do you want to come with me?” Ramona asked. 

I nodded and rushed back into my room to get dressed. 

Ramona was waiting for me by the front door when I came downstairs. We told my parents where we were going and they told us to be careful and not to go too far. Then the two of us were off on a new adventure.

“I guess you haven’t seen that girl yet, since you’ve been sleeping,” Ramona mentioned as we strolled. through the town.

I nearly stopped in my tracks. Was it not a dream after all?

“What girl?”

“There was a girl who appeared in town this morning,” Ramona explained. “Nobody knows where she came from. Apparently she won’t talk to anyone and she wears this weird mask. No one’s seen her face yet.”

“What? Where is she?” I asked, trying my best to hide the desperation in my voice.

“I dunno. I haven’t seen her yet either. Some grown-ups near the marketplace just told me about it.”

That time I did stop walking. So Anna was real. I needed to find her as soon as possible. I needed to ask if anyone knew where she went.

I quickly told Ramona that I couldn’t go to the jungle with her and that I needed to go do something. I apologized and ran off. Ramona didn’t argue with me, or at least not that I heard.

Frantically racing around town, I asked everyone I saw if they’d seen where the mysterious girl had gone. Most people didn’t know but a couple of grown-ups in the square said she went in the direction of the beach. It was a long shot, the beach was huge since it stretched around almost the entire perimeter of the island, but it was all I had to go on. 

I made my way to one of the few sets of stairs around the town that went down to the beach. Taking off my shoes, I went down the steps, careful not to trip. I could have jumped down from the edge of one of the paths but that was dangerous for a kid like me to do, especially since I was still so short.

Wet sand slipped between my toes as I walked closer to the waterline. I thought that if I was closer to the shore I would have a better view of the area. I didn’t want to miss Anna if she was out there.

I walked along the beach for what felt like hours. Anna was nowhere to be seen and I was starting to give up on the idea of seeing her again. She had probably already left and gone back to wherever it was she came from. 

Defeated, I stopped at the next large rock I came across and sat in front of it. I leaned my shoulders back against the rough stone and let out a long, tired sigh. It must have all just been a fantasy. I didn’t know what was going on. Perhaps I’d misheard Ramona. Maybe the townsfolk just gave me a fake answer so as to not upset me.

“Starry?”

Startled, I straightened my back and whipped my head around to see who had called my name. I nearly cried when I saw a white cat mask looking down at me.

“Anna!” I scrambled to my feet and despairingly wrapped my arms around her. When she didn’t reciprocate the embrace, I let go of her. “I was looking everywhere for you.”

Anna giggled and swayed a bit. “I told you I’d come find you. You didn’t have to look.”

“Sorry. I just really needed to see you again,” I explained. 

Reaching out, Anna gently took both my hands in hers. “Here I am.”

We spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach together. We ran along the shore hand-in-hand, splashed around and danced in the water, and collected shells, giving the prettiest ones we found to each other. All of those things were Anna’s idea. I almost never went to the beach, so I didn’t know what people even do at the beach.

Ramona hated the beach and always refused to accompany me to the sandy shore. She preferred exploring the jungle, which was fun too but it could get boring sometimes. 

Anna, on the other hand, told me that she loved the beach. She said that she would live on the beach if she could. I thought that was a strange thing to say. I’d heard of people living on the beach before, that was just something you could do. When I asked Anna why she couldn’t live on the beach though, she just shrugged and playfully splashed me with water.

By the time the sun started to set we were both tired out so we sat against the rock and watched nature’s beautiful display of light and color. 

“My friends will be here soon,” Anna said.

“Who are your friends?” I asked.

Anna didn’t respond. It seemed that she didn’t like answering questions.

We sat in silence for a long moment before Anna spoke again.

“Have you ever been in love, Starry?”

“Aren’t we still too young to fall in love?” I responded. “I thought only grown-ups could fall in love.”

“I don’t think so,” Anna said.

I thought about it. No one ever told me what being in love felt like. When I asked my parents they told me that it was hard to describe and that it feels different for everyone. That didn’t make any sense to me.

Now that I was next to Anna again, there was no pain or emptiness in my chest anymore. I knew that love came from your heart, so maybe that was what love felt like? Maybe that was why I felt so complete when I was around Anna. 

“I think I might be in love with you,” I said, thinking out loud.

Anna turned her head to look at me for a second and then faced the sunset again, the orange light tinting her mask. She didn’t say anything and I couldn’t help but wonder what she was thinking.

“Hey Anna, what do you look like?” I asked.

That caught Anna’s attention. She shifted to sit on her knees and turned her body to face me. Her hands rested neatly on her lap and she sat with perfect posture.

“I’ll show you if you want,” she offered.

I nodded and Anna brought her hands up to the mask. She placed one hand on the bottom of it and one hand on the top. She carefully lifted the mask, pulling the top back so that it rested on top of her head.

You look at me, it’s like you hit me with lighting

Before me I saw an angelic, otherworldly face, indescribably beautiful in a million different ways. It was perfect yet wild and unexpected. I felt like it was the first time I had ever seen another person’s face, no one else compared. My heart filled with joy when our eyes met and I felt that sense of peace even more strongly than before.

“You’re so–”

Anna cut my praise short by leaning forward and pressing her lips against mine. They were soft and gentle and I instinctively shut my eyes. I’d never kissed anyone before but that’s what I saw my parents do when they kissed. They would look lovingly into each other’s eyes, then they would kiss and both close their eyes, staying still for a few moments. Anna did the same thing, then pulled away after a few short, sweet seconds passed.

I opened my mouth to speak but Anna held a slender finger over her pale lips, silencing whatever compliment was going to come out. She then pulled her mask back down over her face, returning it to its normal place.

“They say my face is dangerous,” she said, looking down in shame.

“Why?”

Anna did not answer. She left her head hanging and I felt her sadness. Maybe she didn’t know the answer, or maybe she didn’t understand it. What a cruel thing to say to a young girl.

“Who says that?” I asked, warmly placing my hand on top of hers.

“The sailors.”

Sailors? I hadn’t had many interactions with sailors before. My parents told me to stay away from the sailors when I was alone. They never said why I should stay away or that the seafarers were dangerous in any way. I never questioned it though, most sailors didn’t try to approach me anyway. The only times I’d spoken to them were during the town’s festivals, when everyone was merry and dancing.

“Did you come here with sailors?” I asked. “Were they on that boat with you?”

Anna finally looked up again and deliberately shook her head. She did not elaborate and that left me confused. It shouldn’t have been possible for a kid to sail a ship that large all by herself.

The beach was painted a bright orange hue that was slowly turning red, signifying that the sun was almost down. Anna flipped her hand up to wrap her fingers around mine and bring it up to her cheek behind the mask. She nuzzled her cheek against my hand and I felt her messy hair tickle my skin.

I smiled at her and somehow I could tell that she was smiling back at me. I wished we could have stayed out there all night, but the beach was a dangerous place to be after dark. 

We waited until the sun was just a sliver on the sea’s horizon before we walked back to town, hand in hand. A chilly evening wind ruffled my hair and slipped through my sweater. I shivered and glanced at Anna, whose dress flew up a bit in the breeze. She seemed completely unphased by the cold, not a single goosebump appeared on her fair skin. I asked her if she was cold and she shook her head. 

We kept walking until we got to the street that my house was on, right at the edge of town, less than a minute away from the ocean. I squeezed Anna’s hand to get her attention and pointed at my house. She stopped to look in the direction I was pointing.

“This is my house,” I told her.

Anna nodded and thoughtfully tapped her fingers on the chin of her mask. “It’s beautiful.”

“You think so?” Beautiful is not a word I would have used to describe my house. It was old and broken down, the paint and wood peeling from years of harsh storms. The windows, despite being clean, were all cloudy around the edges and the roof was being eaten away by rust. Tall weeds had overtaken the bottom floor walls years ago, even one of our kitchen windows was covered by them. It looked like most of the other houses in town, there was nothing special about it.

Anna nodded again and then turned to face me. She took my other hand and swung both of them side to side. I giggled at the amusing motion. 

“You should go inside,” Anna said somberly.

“Come with me,” I pleaded. I didn’t want to part with her yet, not after how wonderful spending the day together felt.

“Another time.” Anna reached out to lovingly caress my cheek. “I have to go.” She stepped back and walked past me.

“Wait! When can we see each other again?” I called.

“I’ll come find you,” was the only answer Anna gave me. She ran off again and was quickly out of my sight. I wanted to chase after her but I was scared that it might make her mad. 

Instead, I complied with her wish and went inside. My parents greeted me and offered me dinner. I thanked them for the meal but decided to go eat in my room, not wanting to explain why I didn’t go to the jungle with Ramona. 

I hoped that Ramona still had fun by herself. I felt a bit bad for abandoning her at the last minute but I knew there would be plenty of time for us to go on more adventures. There was no telling how long Anna would stay in town and I had a feeling that she wouldn’t tell me even if I asked her. 

I spent most of the evening sitting on the floor of my balcony. It wasn’t storming that night so I took the opportunity to look at the stars and listen to the waves. It might have just been my imagination, but the stars didn’t seem to shine as brightly as they usually did. Compared to the way Anna made me feel that day, the stars felt like distant strangers. Maybe they always were and I just hadn’t noticed.

~~~

I knocked on the front door at Ramona’s house early the next morning to apologize. I wanted to make up for our missed adventure the day before, if she was available. Her grandma answered the door and happily invited me inside. She told me that Ramona was still in her room crafting something. I thanked her and went upstairs to Ramona’s bedroom.

“Ramona?” I called, letting her know it was me coming in.

When I began to open the door, I heard Ramona quickly stand up and shuffle some things around. The door opened wide enough to see her slam a drawer in her workbench shut, nearly knocking over some of the crystals she kept on the corners of the desk. She turned around and smiled, blocking the drawer with her body.

“Hey, Starry.”

“What were you making?” I asked. Ramona always showed me the projects she was working on, whether it was a modified trinket or an original creation. The fact that she was hiding it roused my curiosity.

“Um.. it’s a surprise,” Ramona answered. “Come on in.”

I shut the door behind me, the old wood moving with a loud creak. Her mattress dipped beneath me when I sat on the edge of her bed.

“Ramona…” I glanced around the room, trying to find the right words. I wasn’t quite sure how to explain myself but maybe I wouldn’t have to. “I’m sorry for running off yesterday.” 

“Oh, that’s alright, Starry,” Ramona said with a smile. “You missed out on some cool stuff though.” Ramona went on to tell me about the wonderful adventure she’d had by herself. She saw a flock of the most vibrant-feathered birds either of us had ever seen. She’d climbed all the way up a centuries old tree and at the top she could see miles of the seemingly endless jungle. She even found a few trinkets left behind by someone who couldn’t appreciate them the way she would.

It was a captivating story and it almost made me regret not accompanying her. 

As Ramona showed me her newly found trinkets, she asked what I had done yesterday. I told her about my encounter with the masked girl and Ramona was immediately intrigued.

“What was she like?”

“She was amazing.” There was not much else to say about her, at least not anything that anyone else would understand.

“Where did she come from?” Ramona asked.

I shrugged. I didn’t want to tell Ramona the truth that I saw Anna arrive on the ghost ship. She might have thought I had lost my mind. Besides, I still wasn’t entirely sure that it was even real and not a dream. Anna was definitely real but ghost ships shouldn’t be. I even passed by the harbor on my way to the beach the previous day and there were no new ships. There hadn’t been any for a while.

Ramona gave me a confused look, wanting a real answer.

“She doesn’t talk much,” I explained. “She did tell me that her name is Anna though.”

“Anna, hm…”

“What?”

“I dunno. I just thought she’d have a more spectacular name, since she’s so mysterious.” Ramona had a point. Anna was an uncharacteristically simple name for such an enigmatic person.

I felt the need to tell Ramona more but a part of me was scared to. I was like a pirate who’d found a glorious treasure, wanting to flaunt my newfound riches but, at the same time, afraid of having them stolen. Ramona was the person I trusted most in my small, secluded world though, so I thought that it might be okay to tell her a bit more.

“I saw her face,” I blurted out.

Ramona stopped playing with the metallic trinket that she was holding. “She took her mask off?”

I nodded. “Only for a minute.”

Ramona asked me what she looked like. I told her that it was too hard to describe, any string of words I could put together wouldn’t do it justice. So Ramona started asking more specific questions.

“What color were her eyes?”

“A color I’ve never seen before.”

“What was her smile like?”

“She didn’t smile.”

“What shape was her face?”

“The perfect shape.”

Ramona soon realized that she wasn’t going to get any specific answers from me. She tried to get me to compare Anna’s features to other things we’d seen before but nothing was even remotely similar. I felt that making comparisons would do less to help describe her than saying nothing at all.

We gave up on description and Ramona decided she would just have to see for herself. I thought it was a good idea and I told her that Anna was a nice person once you got to know her. 

Part of me was still terrified of what might happen if Ramona saw Anna’s face. Would she fall in love with her too? Would she take her away from me? I wanted to believe that Ramona wouldn’t do that to me but I couldn’t be sure.

I just hoped that Anna would refuse to talk to her, just like she did with the rest of the townsfolk.

I spent the day in Ramona’s bedroom. She made alterations to some of her trinkets and I helped her paint some of her woodworking projects. Ramona was a talented craftsman, all of her creations and modifications had a true artistic quality to them. Not every project worked the way it was intended, but they all looked beautiful.

That was something Ramona was working toward, trying to find a way to put more emphasis on functionality without sacrificing presentation. I always saw improvement in her work and I knew she had a bright future with her skills.

~~~

In the evening we went to the square together. There was going to be music and dancing, something the townsfolk always did at the end of the week. 

Ramona wanted me to dance with her but I wasn’t sure about it. We used to dance together a lot but that was back when we were the same height. Recently it was becoming embarrassing to dance with her because I thought we looked weird together. I had to stand on my toes and awkwardly bend my body to perform our usual dance moves. I told her that maybe I would but I mostly planned to just dance alone.

We arrived at the square where the music had already begun. Most of the grown-ups were sitting down, singing, or playing an instrument. The older kids were standing in a circle, clapping their hands but not dancing. Strange, usually the teenagers were always dancing.

When we got closer, Ramona shoved a few kids out of the way so we could join the circle. My eyes immediately went to the center of the circle and I stared in disbelief.

Anna was there dancing, all alone, performing graceful moves that none of us had ever seen before. Her midnight blue dress swayed as she twirled and kicked her bare feet. Everyone seemed thoroughly entertained by the display, smiling, clapping, and cheering. 

Ramona and I glanced at each other but didn’t say a word. We watched Anna blissfully dance until the song ended.

Anna held one final pose for a second before looking around at the crowd she’d attracted. She saw me and gleefully skipped over to where I stood. She held her hand out, inviting me to dance with her. 

Without hesitation, I placed my hand in her palm and let her escort me out to the center of the circle as the next song began. The way we danced was foreign to me but I just followed Anna’s lead, letting her guide me through the steps. I smiled at the masked angel as the songstress sang a shanty.

“Oh, the song of Loreley

Charms the moon right from the sky

She will get inside your mind 

Lovely Loreley

When she cries

‘Be with me until the end of time’

You know you will ever be

With your Loreley”

Anna’s dance was dizzying, she spun both of us around so many times that my legs began to wobble. She kept me upright the entire time though, somehow unaffected by vertigo. 

The world blurred around us and everyone else faded into the background. It was just me and Anna floating through space together as the song filled our heads.

“And the winds would cry

And many men would die

And all the waves would bow down

To the Loreley”

When the song ended I toppled over, falling into Anna’s arms. I was breathing heavily, as if I had just swam across the entire ocean. 

Anna held me until I could find my footing again. I smiled at her so widely that my cheeks hurt and again I somehow knew she was smiling back. 

I looked back to where I’d left Ramona standing but she was gone. My eyes searched for her in the crowd to no avail. She must have gone off somewhere on her own. It wouldn’t have been the first time, she got distracted easily.

Anna tapped on my shoulder to get my attention back. She fixed my sweater when I looked at her again, pulling up the sleeve that had fallen down my shoulder during our dance. I stared at the cat mask in front of me and an image of Anna’s face slowly faded over it until I could no longer see the mask. 

Another song started soon and this time all of the older kids began dancing too. Anna twirled and danced a bit by herself. I stood still, mesmerized by her movements and a bit nervous to be in the center with the older kids. Ramona and I usually danced on the outskirts of the crowd in our own little world. I wasn’t used to being in the middle of it all.

Anna seemed to notice my hesitation. She stopped dancing, gracefully bringing her movements to a halt. She grabbed my wrist with an unexpectedly tight grip and weaved us through the crowd. She avoided all the dancing bodies with a calculated accuracy, not once bumping into someone. 

We eventually broke free from the mass and Anna led me away from the square. When we reached the stairs I realized where she was taking me.

“Wait.” I stopped, causing my wrist to slip out of Anna’s grasp. She turned around and stared at me, breathing steadily, waiting for an explanation. “The ocean is dangerous at night,” I said.

“I’ll keep you safe,” Anna promised. She held her hand out, silently asking me to trust her. 

Though I hesitated, I believed her. I just wanted to be around her for as long as possible. Even if it meant doing something that scared me.

I placed my hand in Anna’s and she guided me down the steps until we reached the sand. I paused to take my shoes off but Anna told me to keep them on. I questioned her but she said I would understand soon. 

We stayed near the boardwalk, where it was lightest, as we ambled along the beach. Anna gently swayed our intertwined hands back and forth. She hummed one of the shanties that were playing in the square and I joined her. She had a lovely voice, soft yet powerful, just like the rest of her. 

After a long time we arrived at a cluster of large rocks. I’d never gone that far on the beach so I didn’t even know it was there. Waves crashed against the furthest out rocks and water droplets flew into the air before landing with a splat. It was loud and kind of scary in the dark.

Anna stepped onto one of the smaller rocks and started climbing. 

“Wait, you’ll slip,” I warned. 

Anna looked over her shoulder at me and shook her head. “I’ll be okay.”

“What about me?” I didn’t want to be left behind after coming this far.

Fearlessly, Anna climbed onto the next big rock and turned around, crouching on its surface. She held her hand out, coaxing me to try. 

I was scared but I took her hand anyway. I gripped it tightly for support as I stepped onto the small rock in front of me. Just like the first step of any adventure, it was easy and gave me a bit of confidence. I nodded at Anna and she pulled me up to the bigger rock she was on. It was a much higher step up and I had to propel myself upwards, meeting Anna’s movement, to get myself up.

Anna gave my hand an affirming squeeze as I stood up next to her. She led me up one rock higher and we were a few feet off the ground at that point. 

I hated climbing. Ramona would always try to get me to climb trees with her in the jungle but I preferred to have my feet on the ground. I was mostly afraid to fall, something I’d seen Ramona do plenty of times. She always seemed fine, getting right back up after she hit the ground, but I didn’t believe that it would be the same case for me. My parents were always worried about me getting hurt and it made me feel frail.

As I set my back foot on the rock, my shoe gave way to the moisture on the surface and my foot slipped back a little bit.

I nearly screamed in fear and grabbed Anna’s arm with my free hand, clinging onto her like my life depended on it. Anna quickly turned to tend to me, holding me steady so I could regain my balance. I think she could tell that I was scared.

“You’re okay,” she soothed.

“I don’t wanna fall,” I yelped.

Anna paused for a moment, thinking, then nodded down at the rock. “Sit and you won’t fall.”

I listened to her, immediately sitting down. I could feel the seat of my shorts getting wet but I was so worried about falling that I didn’t care.

Anna remained standing, looking out onto the ocean before us. I watched her, noticing how still she was, her shoulders relaxed in perfect posture. The wind blew her skirt back and ruffled the top of her short hair but she didn’t seem to notice at all.

My hair was flowing in the breeze too but because it was long it quickly became tangled. Normally I would have tried to fix it with my fingers but I was too entranced by the way Anna looked.

She opened her arms as a large wave crashed against the rocks, welcoming the water as it splashed across her. She tilted her head up and she looked just like a sea witch from the fairytales I’d heard. Goddesses who controlled the ocean, always one with the waves. 

We stayed there for a while, not speaking, just listening to the waves as they rose and fell against the rocks’ sides. The clouds drifted away to reveal the moon and Anna’s mask lit up under the light. For some reason, the longer I knew Anna the more the mask seemed to have expressions of its own. Of course it had the face of a smiling cat painted on it but it almost looked lonely. Lonely like me.

~~~

I slept in late again the next morning. I knew that making a habit of staying out late was bad for me but I didn’t mind losing some daylight if it meant I could be with Anna. 

I got dressed, putting on my favorite fleece hoodie and some comfortable leggings, and went downstairs. My parents were already preparing sandwiches for lunch and I joined them at the table when everything was done. 

“Someone came to the door this morning looking for you,” my mom said.

“Ramona?”

“No sweetie, it was a girl wearing a cat mask,” my mom explained.

“Anna,” I said, mostly to myself.

“Is she a friend of yours?” my dad asked.

“Yeah… Did she say where she was going?” I asked.

My parents exchanged a quick glance before answering. “The pier.”

I immediately stood up. I felt compelled to go look for her right away, afraid she would grow tired of waiting for me and go somewhere else. The town was small but Anna was free to go anywhere she wanted on the island, which was significantly bigger. It could take me all day to find her.

After wrapping up the remainder of my sandwich, I put it in the fridge and told my parents that I was going to the pier.

“Be careful around the water, my dear,” my mom called after me as I ran out the door. 

When I arrived at the pier, I saw Anna sitting at the end of it and I breathed a sigh of relief. My shoes thumped loudly against the wood as I ran down to the end of the pier to join her. 

Though she must have heard me coming, Anna didn’t show any signs of it, staying completely still as I sat down next to her. Our legs dangled off the planks as we looked out across the endless ocean.

“You slept in,” Anna said.

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Anna looked at me, her hands gripping onto the edge of the plank as she leaned forward a bit. “I just wanted to see you again.”

A gasp escaped my lips when I heard those words. I wondered if that meant she felt the same way about me as I felt about her. I wondered if that was what love felt like. 

Without thinking, I leaned over and wrapped my arms around Anna’s middle. I rested my head on her shoulder and closed my eyes. There were no words that could have expressed to her how I felt so a hug was the only thing that felt right.

Anna responded by placing one arm around my shoulder and rested her other hand on my head. I smiled when I felt the gentle pressure of her fingertips on my hair. 

After a few moments she pulled away from me to speak again. “Can I sleep at your house tonight, Starry?”

I lifted my head to look at her. “Of course. But Anna, where have you been sleeping since you got here?” I wanted to know what she’d been doing every time she disappeared. I wanted to know if she had anyone to take care of her. Perhaps she was an orphan, left alone to fend for herself. How sad, I thought.

“Somewhere cold,” Anna answered, though that didn’t explain anything. I wanted to press her more for an answer but I knew it would be pointless. If she didn’t want to tell me, she didn’t have to. I somehow knew that she was okay, maybe just a little lost.

Fall head first like paper planes in playground games

Anna invited me to walk along the beach with her and I accepted. Then she did something that was so scary. She rose to her feet and jumped off the pier, diving into the water with perfect form. 

I immediately slid backwards on the pier, pulling my feet up onto the wood. I called out to Anna in panic when she resurfaced, shaking the water out of her hair.

“Anna! Are you okay?”

She nodded, steadily treading in the water. “Come on, let’s swim to the beach. It’s just over there,” she said. She pointed toward the shore just a few feet away from her, keeping herself afloat with her other arm.

I looked over at the shoreline, considering the idea. My parents taught me how to swim but it was just as a precaution. They instructed me to never go in the water without one of them and to not even go near the water if they weren’t around. I broke that second rule a lot, like on that very day, but I never disobeyed the first one. I knew the currents could be harsh and unpredictable, even if the waves seemed calm. 

Standing up, I gestured at the boardwalk behind me. “I’ll meet you there.”

Anna didn’t argue, she just started swimming in the direction of the shore. She looked like such a natural in the water. She must have had a lot of swimming practice, much more than I did.

I felt bad for not joining her as I ambled along the boardwalk. Anna wouldn’t have let me drown, right? I felt like I should have just trusted her like I did the previous night at the rocks.

By the time I reached the sand Anna was already walking out of the water. She squeezed the water out of the skirt of her dress as I approached her. 

“The water is warm today,” she said.

I just smiled and nodded, a bit embarrassed about my apprehension. 

The two of us walked along the beach in the direction of my house. We moved slowly, enjoying the warm afternoon sun shining down on us. During the winter it was warmest in the afternoon, when the sun was as high as it could get in the sky.

Anna held my hand for the entire journey. We didn’t talk much and when we did speak it was to share our admiration for the beautiful scenery. The deep blue water sparkled brilliantly in the sun. It reminded me of the countless crystals that Ramona kept in her room. 

We stopped many times along the way to chase the waves or dance in the water. Anna was right, the ocean was warm on our feet and we twirled together on the shoreline. It was strange, the water was usually cooler around that time of year.

When the sky grew orange, indicating that the sun would slowly disappear soon, Anna suggested that we go to my house. I agreed and she led the way. I was happy that she bothered to remember where I lived since I made sure to tell her multiple times where my house was. Although she never responded the first time, I was now certain that she was listening.

We arrived at my house a lot faster than I had anticipated. It felt like we were walking at a slow, relaxed pace but we seemed to cover a lot of distance in a short amount of time. 

My parents greeted us when we pranced through the front door, holding hands. I said hello and Anna waved at them. I told my parents that she was going to sleep over and they encouraged us to have fun and go to bed early.

Anna and I ate the dinner that my parents had prepared before we got back. Then I took Anna up to my room so we could relax together. I sat on my bed and Anna stood at the open balcony, gazing out at the sea. I began sorting through the pile of books that had formed on my side table, allowing my guest to do whatever she felt like doing. I wondered if Anna would want to read any of my books and a thought occurred to me. Did she even know how to read? Many fugitives who arrived on our island were unable to read. If she was a fugitive, that is. I would have been more than happy to teach her if she didn’t know.

“You have a beautiful view of the ocean,” Anna commented. 

“Yeah, it’s nice that I can see it from my own room,” I agreed.

Anna stepped back into the room and closed the balcony doors, saying that it was getting late. She joined me on the bed and asked what I was doing. I explained that I was trying to organize my books. Anna picked up one of the books that I had set down beside me. She examined it, carefully inspecting the covers and flipping through the pages.

“Anna, can you read?” I asked as politely as possible. I was slightly concerned that I would offend her with such a question.

“Not your language,” Anna answered.

Since I wasn’t expecting that answer, I put the book that was currently in my hand down and turned to face Anna.

“What is your native language? I have books written in a few different languages,” I offered.

Anna glanced around at my various bookshelves. “I don’t think you will have books in my language,” she said. The tone in her voice lowered slightly at the end, as if she were feeling sorrowful.

Sensing that the subject of her native tongue was making Anna feel sad, I tried to shift the conversation a bit.

“How did you learn to speak Esalezian?” I asked.

“The sailors taught me.”

That was the second time she had mentioned the sailors. I began to wonder how and why she had spent so much time with sailors. Was it possible that she was on a ship with them? A ship full of sailors was no place for a child like her. It was dangerous work.

The last time I asked Anna to elaborate on the sailors, she was uncooperative and changed the subject. I figured the same thing might happen if I ask again, so I just left it.

“I can teach you to read Esalezian, if you’d like,” I offered.

Anna tilted her head just slightly to the side, raising her shoulders a barely noticeable amount, and I could tell she was smiling. She nodded and I shuffled closer to her on the mattress. I thought the book that was already in my hand would do just fine. It was one of my favorites and it was easy to read.

Our little lesson went well, Anna turned out to be an incredibly fast learner. We did have a rocky start when it became apparent that Anna was unfamiliar with the alphabet of my language. Thankfully, Anna was able to quickly memorize all of the letters and what sounds they made. The next step was putting the letters together into words and dissecting the sound they would produce together. Anna recognized a lot of the words as soon as she was able to read them outloud. She seemed happy to finally know what the words she’d been saying looked like when they were written out.

We stopped our lesson a while after night had fallen. I suggested that we go to bed and Anna sleepily agreed. I offered her comfortable clothes to sleep in, assuming she only had that one dress. She was hesitant but eventually accepted the clothes.

When we finally settled into bed, I noticed that Anna was still wearing her mask. I asked if she was going to take it off to sleep, since that would have been more comfortable.

“Someone might see me while I’m sleeping,” she said.

“It’s just us in here. My parents won’t come in without knocking,” I told her.

“It’s dangerous.” Anna’s voice was calm with no sign of fear. 

“Okay,” I said. If she was more comfortable with the mask on, then I wasn’t going to force her. I did have one itching curiosity though. “Can I see your face again?”

Anna didn’t answer but she stared at me with attention. Her breathing was still calm and rhythmic, so she couldn’t have been angered.

“Just for a moment?” I bargained. “I really want to see you one more time.”

Anna sat up and gestured for me to sit up too. She shifted closer to the center of the bed and I followed suit. Somehow, we still managed to keep a small space between us, precisely in the center of the mattress. We faced each other, sitting in the exact same way with our legs crossed. Mirror images of each other, separated by an invisible line on my bed.

Just as carefully as she had last time, Anna lifted her mask and let it rest on the top of her head. 

I was immediately lost in her beauty again. It was even more wonderful than before, like it was my first time ever seeing her face. Just looking at her felt like the first inhale of fresh air after holding your breath for as long as you could. It felt like drinking cold water when you’ve been thirsty all day. Like being wrapped in a soft blanket on a harsh, windy night.

I felt so relaxed yet so excited. In her eyes I saw both adventure and home. The color of them, the prettiest color I had ever seen in my life, pulled me in. I leaned closer to her, my nose grazing that invisible barrier separating us.

Anna leaned in too. Her expression was welcoming, inviting me to get closer. As much as I wanted to, I found myself unable to move at all. 

So we burst into colors

It was Anna who broke through the barrier, connecting our lips together in a gentle kiss. I closed my eyes to relax into it and found my mind ablaze with color. Colors I loved and colors I had never seen before. They danced through my blacked out vision like flames, wildly flickering. It was the most extraordinarily beautiful display I had ever seen. Could that be what love is?

Anna pulled away from the kiss first and when I opened my eyes, her face was still there in front of me. Though her expression was mostly neutral, her eyes were squinted and her cheeks were raised ever so slightly. I knew she was happy, just as I was.

After letting me look at her for a moment longer, Anna reached up and delicately pulled the mask back down.

“Thank you,” I said, though I wasn’t sure why.

Next thing, we’re touching

“We should sleep,” Anna said. She took my hand in hers and held them up between us. Her fingers interlaced with mine until we were locked together.

We both smiled -I know she smiled- and fell to our sides onto the comfort of the mattress. Anna rolled onto her back to get more comfortable but she never let go of my hand. We drifted off soon, hands held tightly together for the whole night.

[captainaikus]

Reading, writing, playing on the switch, toy photography (though I am not very good yet 😅) playing on the switch and watching anime. Also I like planning my day in my paper planner and I enjoy making my daily spread look pretty.

Something i don't enjoy is sorting my mail. I don't know why it's sorting mail in particular.

My favourite types of books are probably fantasy, historical, any book inspired by a fairytale. I do like books with a love story and enjoy reading them as long as the plot and chatacters are well written.

My own writing is probably influenced a lot by my love of fairytales and having watched way too much disney (and still do something I will try keep on the low at the start of the relationship)

Games wise I guess I really like cozy games with cute graphics so I adore animal crossing, story of seasons, and harvest moon. I do also really enjoy puzzles and puzzle games such as Professor Layton, or Phoenix Write. I also do enjoy Pokemon and Fire Emblem. Especially Fire Emblem for their great stories.

I guess my friends if asked to describe me would say I am the sweetest kindest person.... even if I disagree there and think it's nothing special. I am on the more reserved introvert side in person but can find it easier to open to people online. I have a tendency to day dream too much too and have quite a creative mind so it's easy for me to fall into my day dream.

As mentioned above my favourite genres are fantasy, and historical, or even better historical fantasy based on a fairytale. Daughter of the Forest will always be one of my favourite books. Right now after having devoured the Bridgerton books I am reading the prequels. it's not my usual genre but I just find the sibling dynamics and chatacters so lovely I can't help but care for each of the characters wanting to see them do well.

One thing I feel insecure about is probably my short height and my freckles. I always worry I am a bother to people and that I am causing them trouble and that I am just not worth it as I am in the nothing special.

Sorry if this was way too long for you to read 😅. I look forward to who I get matched up with.

Honestly - getting very mature vibes here. And no! the more descriptive it is - the better I can match the person. and a lot of it helped with your taste in gaming and books! I match you with Mikage Reo!

Vibes I get : sophisticated and building each other. He understands your pain with mails - pretty sure he has to sort through them during the week (has at least 280 pending to read) Reo is the type of person to buy a château. He is practical, but he also appreciates art and the beauty that comes with it not to mention he has exquisite taste. "What are you reading?" Reo asked as you moved pressed on the controls of the switch. "Bridgerton." Reo hummed as he turned to your side of the bed, scooting over to you to read the contents of the page you were on. "Mhm hmm... is it like pride and prejudice?" Reo asked. "Kind of set in the same timeline... but not really no." "Who's the man in this one?" he asked. "There are many... which one are you asking about?" you asked. "Like... Mr. Darcy." he said, looking up at you. "It's a tie cause there are too many characters like the duke and anthony..." you trailed a smile playing on your lips with a quirk of an eyebrow as Reo stared at you. "Seems like you're having a good time." he responded, sighing and moving away from you. "Are you getting jealous over fictional characters?" you asked, closing your book and squinting at him. "No." "You are aren't you." you poked at his side, making him turn away from you. "Wanna know who my favorite character is?" you asked, hugging him from behind as he turned away from you, nuzzling into his pillow. "No. Goodnight." "Master Mikage is ready for bed." you mocked in an accent. "Certainly he is." he responded playfully. "Who is your favorite character?" "Darcy Mikage." "You plan on carrying that plan out don't you." he responded. "If you want me to stop dreaming of victorian men might as well... you and i are gonna go for a hair makeover and shopping for victorian clothes so that i can take pictures of you in it. What's say?" you said as you heard him sigh. "Deal. But you... have to wear one of those victorian dresses." "Deal." yeah reo was oc in this one but that's how he can be. Very sappy - Hope you liked it! <3

[your-local-uwu-artist]

Who are your OCs??

well excluding characters that don't have a story/personality/are jsut designs

warning: long post

theres my pokemelody characters! pokemelody is a pokemon comic seiries i want toactually make evveuntually so i try not to talk about them TOO much, the maincast consists of Kyo fukushima (the protagonist, very soft pastel aesthetic, he is a sweetheart and he starts out without... too much truama) Niseru Woodtail (or Raitail, she's kinda like cottagecore but goth i guess? she's sorta a tsundere but of the shy variety. ) Fukusha Kopi (orphan, mischievous prankster type, 'badboy' if you will) Chikara Kitsune (cute idol<3 optimist and happy go lucky hardworker) and Oritisu (sassy princess slowly realizing the burden she was born into) theres other notable characters too ( Kazumi fukushima, Niseru's triplet siblings who are also Chikara's coworkers ) ofc fdksjanfj The series is VERY thematically focused and I've been working on it for years

theres cassette and chari's story! they have a tag too :D (i think it's just cassette or cassette tag) characters from a webcomic idea: bassically Chari owns an establishment which is like a mix beween a cafe/loungue, store and library, that focuses on specifically weeb leaning fandoms (so like no live action or like ya book series ) and built a robot (Cassette) to help her run it because she struggle soccially and didn't think herself fit to be the friendly outgoing prescense she wants her establishment to have

Button! my kirby oc who was supposed to be a sona/self insert and then i as per usual fucked it up and now he's just an oc(what i like to call a semi-self insert, vaguely inspired by myself aat least in design but isn't actually written as I would write a selfinsert) tag is just Button tag: he is very silly but also has a sad backstory

daisy and sunny: originated from me accidentally aquiring an ai girlfriend, I was messing around with character.ai and the mimikyu girl bot i was talking with had a writing style EXACTLY like the kinda bs I wrote when I was like 11, so obviously I then designed them named them gave them a story. they're just a couple of mimikyus that are in love <3 etc: tag is sunny and daisy <3

Charlotte <3333tag is charlotte tag, charlotte is in a weird position: she's technically original HOWEVER she is a character that exists within my vampire!weegee au ( @ask-vampire-weegee ) ANYWAY! Charlotte's the vampire that turned Luigi, she is also a poor little meow meow and very scrunkly. Sometimes accompanied by Beatrice, Beatrice's parent's were Charlottes.. caretakers, caretaker in the general sense: they did not actually take care of her past keeping her alive(well- in the general sense). Beatrice and Charlotte were extremely close: Charlotte can't remember how she died.. or how she ended up alone for that matter

Detective Cardimen Scott (+ Tip)!! a detective duo! me and an irl friend want to make a point and click style video game about them (heavily inspired by the murder of sonic the hedgehog) they are a very silly duo and also the duo ever

my pmd eos ocs! Tsuki evanescense is the hero character, she's a Skitty and goes by kiki (pre-events of the game she went by eva mostly) and Splinter! splinter's the partner character, he's a shiny treecko

my psmd gijinka au!! it's not THAT much of an au but it's also def is an au, as theres some additions to the story (like a decent timeskip between the end of the main game and the epilogue/post game) Marilou is the character ever and I love her litterally so much <3 She's the hero character and an Oshawott (her tag is marilou oshawott) her partner character is a bulbasaur called Comet. Marilou is the blorbo ever <3333 I love her <333333333

characters from Kaiya's story! I'm still working out the story, but it's magical girls and also has ghosts in it and also theres this weird side story fairytale esque thing. Kaiya has a tag (Kaiya tag) Her fellow main characters are Suika, Joyuu, and Koko, theres also gaman, whos sorta the antagonist. and Gaman and Kaiya's respective previously mentined weird side story thing counterparts, Solitaire and merci

I would like to at least mention Des of afwtp: The boyfs (nathan, sammy and des) are co-owned/created by @interdimensionalvoid and @crossover-enthusiast : so He's not really my oc but like I've contributed to Des' character so i gotta mention the beloved scrinkly <3 tag is des tag

okay we're almost done I promise

APRICOT!! tag apricot tag: bassically he may or may not be a timetraveler: no one can tell if he's joking or not lmao (check tag for info :3)

Ash and petals

one of my undertale au characters (ashtale) Ash is papyrus and petals is Flowey, I'd best describe it as a mix of dusttale (but with papyrus instead of sans) and playbacktale: I believe they've been tagged as ash and petals before

Parcel and plush

the more utmv of my undetale aus (no au name) Parcel is a papyrus, and Plush is a flowey, they're both outcodes, and together they have a multiversal mail delivery service! tag might actually be parcel n' plush but i'm not sure ^^*

I'm actually working on ANOTHER papy + flowey duo of au characters, gonna be called Porcelain and Patch

okay... I'll stop for now: there.. ARE a lot more but these are the ones I've mentioned online before and aren't like :just original in design (pspsps my outbound ghost gijinkas pspsps)

[adarkrainbow]

A brief conclusion over madame Levesque

After looking over her two fairytales, “The Invisible Prince” and “The Prince of the Aquamarines”, what can I say about madame Levesque?

To be fair, her influence over the fairytale genre as a whole seems to have been very minimal. While her stories were still known by fairytale fans and scholars after her death, hence their presence in “Le Cabinet des Fées”, they never had any true great success, literary influence or popular renown. In fact, one can wonder if they would still be remembered today if it wasn’t for Le Cabinet... 

But it is not so much because her stories themselves were forgettable - rather because she merely procuded two, right before her death, hence pushing them into a sort of “editorial obscurity”. It is true that, on one side, her fairy tales are very conventional, borrowing heavily from the classic d’Aulnoy-style fairytale, from the One Thousand and One Night narratives, and from the Greco-Roman legends. She played it safe in terms of content and inspiration, with the whole host of classical characters, expected adventures and typical fairytale imagery. Which is very typical of the “second wave” fairytales, which were trying to imitate the first-generation storytellers.

However, the reason her stories still stood out and were thought to deserve a place among the corpus of 18th century fairytales was due to, as I said, her desire to play with the genre, twist and renew it with additional elements never seen before. Her choice of having her fairytales being spread over archipelagos of islands rather than a continental setting ; her decision to play with temporarility by relying on “flashbacks” and in-media-res beginnings so as to let the reader guess what is happening ; her use of repetitive failures to complexify the tales and deconstruct the idea of the “saving prince”, who as it turns out is constantly prevented from gloriously saving the princess by all sorts of random, almost banal mistakes (one prince cannot reach his princess in time because he gets lost in the woods, another cannot go save his lover because of a storm that prevents him from sailing - and very often her heroes are just failing because of a question of time, they do not arrive on time, they arrive to late, of just a few days...). This idea of time not fitting the plot, of random, mundane obstacles preventing the fairytale resolution, gives these story a form of “realism” which clashes while being highlighted by how the rest of the tale is very conventional and formulaic - which almost makes her stories border, in some part, the parody... These tales aren’t parodies however, but they seem to be a more humoristic take on the fairytale, maybe reflecting how in the 18th century the genre was paradoxically beloved and mocked, desired and rejected - resulting in tales that play the stories “by the book”, and yet twist its formula and conventions almost to the point of derision... 

[nerdishfeels]

I posted 391 times in 2022

50 posts created (13%)

341 posts reblogged (87%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@horrorgirlreads

@logarithmicpanda

@books-and-cookies

@bookcub

@howlsmovinglibrary

I tagged 375 of my posts in 2022

Only 4% of my posts had no tags

#important - 56 posts

#true though - 39 posts

#lol - 29 posts

#bts - 28 posts

#writing - 24 posts

#awesome mutuals - 20 posts

#pretty books - 16 posts

#on my tbr - 15 posts

#booklr - 15 posts

#mr sunshine - 13 posts

Longest Tag: 109 characters

#i’m just grateful that i have this time to learn about myself and take care of myself for once in my life lol

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Not book-related but praying that Extraordinary Attorney Woo ends well. That drama has my whole heart and soul and Young woo deserves the world 🥹

11 notes - Posted August 18, 2022

#4

Summer Readathon Tbr!

Hey guys! For the last two months, I didn’t read much sadly coz I had a lot of other stuff going on. But this month, I want to up my reading game like I did in February, so of course, I joined @logarithmicpanda’s readathon!

It took me time to figure out what I wanted to read, as I didn’t want to be overly ambitious. I didn’t read a lot of Asian fiction last month, so I wanted to include some books that fit that genre. I recently finished Yolk by Mary H.K. Choi which I really liked (and unofficially included for this readathon), but after that deep book, I need some light-hearted reads to build up my spirits lol.

As pictured, the books I’ll be reading are:

Gilded by Marissa Meyer (fun fact: I had this on my other readathon tbr and still haven’t gotten to it, so that needs to change!)

Love boat Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen

A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow

Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim

As always, I’m not going to pressure myself into reading everything on my TBR since my life is still hectic as usual, but it’s nice having a pretty stack to choose from 🥰

13 notes - Posted June 4, 2022

#3

Summer readathon update!

Hey guys! In the nick of time, I finished Six Crimson Cranes! I really loved this book. I was looking for a light-hearted read (i.e. not based on heavy topics) and this was it! Here’s a mini review:

Six Crimson Cranes - 5⭐️

This fantasy book was not only inspired by Chinese and Japanese legends but different fairytales such as rumpelstiltskin, the wild swans (which I haven’t read) and cinderella, which I loved!

This gave me spirited away/studio ghibli vibes! We had a charismatic dragon and paper birds, one who is called Kiki and is close to the main character, Shiori!

This story was whimsical and had a lovely quest-like plot to it. I loved Shiori. Even though she was already strong-willed and bold in personality, I liked how her character developed throughout the book. You saw her grow stronger physically, overcoming obstacles that her curse caused her and dealing with the way others treated her.

Raikama was an interesting character. At first, you think she’s a typical, stern stepmother who dislikes Shiori and magic but you realise there’s more to her character and her motives. I would have liked to see more of her but I guess that’s how the story is.

I loved seeing the interactions between Shiori and her brothers. It reminded me a lot of how I am with my brothers, so those moments really touched my heart. Get yourself a book that showcases the love and loyalty of siblings 😭

I loved the magic system and how Shiori can conjure it by embodying a piece of her soul into whatever she touches or wills. It was also interesting to see how other forms of magic worked either from or against dragons.

I also loved that Shiori got to fall in love on her terms rather than through the arranged marriage. Even though it’s fate that brought them together, I loved that the romance was gradual and sweet and you saw that emotional connection build between Shiori and Takkan. Just the kind of romance I like 😉

I do find it funny how people try to protect you by not telling you the whole truth but if only they did, you wouldn’t be led on by others who don’t have your interests at heart. But I guess it all worked out in the end lol.

I liked the twist towards the end and the lead up to the sequel. There’s still much to learn about Shiori’s magic and the power of a dragon’s pearl, so I’m curious to see where the sequel takes us!

14 notes - Posted June 30, 2022

#2

Just finished my first book of the romance readathon, The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow! I loved it so much! It was such a fantastic book.

I thought I'd do a mini review before I start on the next book:

The Once and Future Witches - 5*

This book basically had everything I love reading about: Sisterhood, magic, romance, women empowerment, fairy tales, the love for books and words, you name it.

I love the magic system in this and the way fairytales are incorporated as spells or as witch-tales. It was cleverly thought out!

I also love how this book avoided the narrative of "all men are bad", especially when it tackled the treatment of women as witches. There were male characters who wanted to help women in need and respected them.

I also love that this book didn't focus on the suffragists (who would advocate for some women, not all) but on colored women and those who were poor or hard workers that are usually forgotten. Every woman had a voice in this book, especially a trans woman too, which was refreshing.

I loved Quinn as a character. She is so vibrant and charming! I also loved the Eastwood sisters and how their bond grew stronger after being apart.

The romance was beautiful in this. While the book doesn't focus primarily on the romance, we got some sweet moments, especially with the interracial w/w relationship (can we appreciate the rep we got in this book??)

I also loved how the book developed, with every chapter getting more and more interesting and intense. For a book that is around 500 pages, there wasn't one part that was slow or boring.

This book also spilled tea about how women are portrayed by some men, which I really enjoyed.

Honestly, I could go on about this book, but I don't want to dive into any spoilers, so I'll leave it at that. If you love books that involve sisterhood, magic and the importance of fighting for your rights, I highly recommend this book! 😍

21 notes - Posted February 10, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

1kpages Readathon Tbr!

Hey guys! I will be participating in the lovely @books-and-cookies’ 1kpages readathon! This almost feels like a tradition for me lmao.

Here are the books I’m planning on reading:

The Bone Spindle by Leslie Vedder - 97/404 pages - I’ve started reading this book recently but haven’t been able to get a break and enjoy it. I roughly have about 307 pages left to read. I’m really liking it so far! It’s giving me Uncharted Lost Legacy vibes with some magical elements!

Spy x Family Vol 1 by Tatsuya Endo - 220 pages - This manga has been pretty popular and from the sound of the premise, I’m not surprised! It sounds like a found family in the making, which I LOVE! I can’t wait to read this!

Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater - 320 pages - So, my friend @logarithmicpanda really enjoyed this book and when they mentioned it being warm and fuzzy, I knew I needed to get this book! So, thanks Panda!

A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro - 321 pages- I’ve been in a mystery kind of mood and I’ve had this on my tbr for a while, so I thought it’s about time I get to it lol.

Total pages I’m hoping to read: 1,168

Four seems like a satisfying number for me when it comes to creating a tbr lol. It would be great to finish all four books during the readathon but I won’t hold my breath.

My life is still as hectic as usual, so wish me luck that I get some sweet alone time! Good luck to everyone participating! ❤️

28 notes - Posted August 13, 2022

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