#under my nom de plume

[lulu2992]

Hey dear Lulu! Hope you have a good day and congratulations on 100K❤️

I have reached a point in my fanfic where my OC is pregnant with John ( and yes, everything is in terms with Eden's Gate rules ) but I have no Idea how John would react/feel about OC begin pregnant- and how would he even be as a dad?

I am trying to stay true to his character as much as possible but it's hard when he hasn't interacted with other children in the game😭 I to think he will be a devoted, loving and protective over his child...but that's all I have...

How would you imagen he would be as a dad and how would he react to OC pregnancy?

Hey! Thank you, and I hope you had a good day as well!

I think it would first depend on whether the pregnancy is rule-breaking and accidental or if they are an official couple expecting it to happen at some point. In your story, I understand everything happened in accordance with Eden’s Gate’s moral principles, so that avoids a lot of angst and emotional turmoil… Unless John and your OC were trying not to make a baby, I suppose he wouldn’t react negatively.

His behavior would also be influenced by how emotionally mature and stable (as far as possible for him) he became in your story. In the game, John isn’t ready to have a child, I think, but that can change thanks to character growth and the magic of fanfiction! He does have the potential of being kind and loving because, as a young boy, according to Joseph, he was. A lot has happened since then, but these qualities must still be there, somewhere, under the pain and anger.

I agree that he would most likely be very devoted and protective because… well, he already is. The Seed family, despite being dysfunctional, is also tight-knit, and they would literally die for each other. John wouldn’t let anyone hurt his child, and neither would his siblings.

Now, of course, we must also consider the brothers had an awful dad and that none of them grew up in a stable and loving environment. Because of this, I can see them being scared of having children, partly in fear of becoming like their father or, in John’s case, like his adoptive parents. That said, he didn’t spend as much time with “Old Man Seed” as Jacob (who I imagine would be the most reticent to become a father for this reason, but that’s just a feeling I have) and I highly doubt he would raise his child the way the Duncans raised him. John undeniably has problems, but in my opinion, he would never want to put his child(ren) through the horrors he experienced.

We haven’t seen him interact with children in the game but I don’t know if that really matters since this baby would be his child, not just a random kid. A lot of real-life parents don’t particularly enjoy the company of other people’s children but want to spend as much time as they can with theirs. Even if John had canonically said kids were a nuisance, I think he could still love his to death.

So if the pregnancy were planned, I don’t think he’d be upset at all; on the contrary. If it were not but they were not trying to avoid it either, I imagine he’d be surprised and anxious at first, but would welcome the news eventually. And as a dad, since John apparently gives himself fully to everything he does, he could be very, very invested, and maybe overprotective. His enthusiasm would likely have to be curbed, as always, but I’d say how and if that happens would depend on your OC’s personality and relationship with him.

This is my opinion and interpretation, which may be incorrect, but I don’t think you can go wrong in fanfiction anyway because it’s inherently transformative and personal. If your idea feels right to you, then it is!

In any case, if you’re stuck or don’t know how to justify something in a Far Cry 5 fanfic, you can always do what they did in the game and either say “it’s the Bliss” or “it was God’s will” :’) For John to go from an emotionally unstable and violent Herald to a great and loving dad, the second explanation can help! Joseph did say he could free himself from his past and that love would be the key to his salvation, after all.

[siffrins-therapist]

hELP

[wheeloffortune-design]

Writing under a pen name? a pseudonym? a nom-de-plume?

and make the poor future students of litterature have to remember two names?? inconvenience them twice??

couldn't be me. nuh-huh. if i make it to future litterature classes i want the students to spend zero time on my life and my weird decisions.

[kai-rio]

Could you ramble about Ellis? I need to understand them

oh. oh boy you dont know what youve asked

okay so ellis is a side character in ggy, probably made to follow the format of protagonists in fnaf books having a kid they dont like

he's been tony's best friend since they were 4, and they were neighbours when tony's dad was around (headcanon interjection: i think tony's dad bought them a treehouse and they always played in it together and just chilled there)

tony says he wants to move away from ellis because he's deemed as 'childish', like for example, choosing his nom de plume as Boots because its a character he likes

this is probably because of meeting both greg and his father being arrested, making him feel like he needs to be more mature so he doesnt want to associate with ellis anymore

but despite all he says about him he still deems him his 'best friend' and i think that says a lot - afterall, they were best friends for 8 years, so they have to have something there - tony is reluctant to leave him even if he doesnt want to admit it because theyre so close

ellis himself, there isnt a lot about him unfortunately in the book, but what we do know is that he's impatient, 'childish', oblivious and prefers fiction (this is all from tony's pov and he's an unreliable narrator so keep in mind we dont have the full picture)

tony sees him as kinda social but i personally think he isn't, he struggles to make friends other than tony and that's why it's only been the two of them for ages

a lot of people deem him the dumb one of the group and my take on that is that he leans into that role because a. its whats expected of him and b. that way its easier to observe people because they're less cautious of him, he probably notices a lot more than people think he does

he's quite kind but also has his flaws - he doesn't quite notice how hurt tony is about changing the story unfortunately and he teases quite a lot to the point it could be unintentionally hurtful

i think because of this, after tony goes missing he'd definitely blame himself and have survivors guilt, and also probably bad anxiety, maybe even agoraphobia

he probably would be lured into the pizzaplex under the guise that tony is there because he'd definitely go out to find him

i have a lot of headcanons but ill put those in the tags because those arent actually canon

if you want a list of all my headcanons you could do a separate ask about that but ill just put a couple in the tags

one thing that is canon though is that he likes physical affection!!! he wraps his arm around tony or greg several times if i remember correctly

i have 2 fics up on ao3 (my acc is under the same name) which are ellis-centric - i wouldnt recommend never needed a friend more though because i mischaracterised tony in that quite a lot so

[itsawritblr]

Don't share anyone's pseudonym.

I have to change one of my professional pen names because a friend I thought I could trust, one of only two people not in publishing who knows, blabbed to her writing group that the nom de plume is me.

This pseudonym is one I've only used for short stories. But I was going to use it for an new novel. But now I have to change it. Thank god we hadn't gotten any further in the process, because if it were already being printed I'd be stuck with the present pseud.

If someone entrusts you with their pen name it's because they trust you to keep it to yourself.

It doesn't matter if you think it's not a big deal to tell others. There are many reasons writers use a pseudonym. Some are commercial, some are very personal.

When a writer has published under a pseud, that name becomes their brand. They don't want to have to change it.

If someone asks you to not tell anyone else, do this:

If you're a writer who uses a pseudonym, the safest bet is to tell no one. I know it sucks to not be able to show someone a story/fic and say "I wrote this!" But if you felt you needed a pseud in the first place, the safest secret is one never told.

I have three other pen names, each for a different genre, one for fanfics. Only my dearest best friend of 22 years, who's my first editor, knows they're mine.

Now I have to come up with a new pseudonym. And that ain't easy! Especially when it will/might end up on the cover of my book.

BTW, if you're choosing a pseud, pick one whose surname begins with M. That'll give you a good spot on library and bookshelves.

[geminicollisionworks]

Hello Gemini Collissionworks! I re-listened to the season 1 EP recently and I was wondering: do you have sheet music available for the show’s original songs? I would love to learn to play them!

Oh, we actually DO have charts for most of the Life With Althaar songs!

That said, they are mostly fully arranged scores, and not set up for piano or other solo instrument, but they could certainly help one figure out an okay reduction.

Lemme check with Berit and try and figure out where and how to post the sheet music for our songs, if they're okay with that, and I'll post about it if and when we do.

(SIDE NOTE: The songs for Althaar have been both the hardest and most joyfully rewarding work for us on the show, and Berit just impresses me more and more with their skill in arrangement, completely learned for and on the job; their work on "The Better World Song" and "Freiheit Lied" especially stunned me)

My dream is to someday put out an indie album of original songs written and performed by B&I under our rock 'n' roll nom de plume, Three Door Mall.

And here's some images from Gemini CollisionWorks in songwriting mode (descriptions in ALT text):

[roalinda]

☆Feedback Fest 2024☆

In honour of International Fanworks day on 15 Febraury ( you can find more info about it HERE by @transformativeworks ) I have decided to make a rec list as well. We should all support our creators with feedback and sharing after all. 😊

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Since this is my Harry Potter side blog, all the fics in my rec list are from Harry Potter.

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On Fire, But We can't feel a thing by @benjamin-ovich

Pairing: Sirius Black/James Potter

Summary: Sirius feels oddly faint, feels like his whole body has turned into vapour and he could just be blown away into nothingness at any moment. Nothing about this has felt real, not when Remus’ head popped into his fireplace after a whole year and not now that he’s telling him that James, his James, won’t remember who he is.

Rating: E

Words: 100, 790 ( In-progress )

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Tell me you love me, come back and haunt me by @gracelesslady23

pairing: James Potter/Sirius Black

Summary: Recently exonerated and looking for a new start, Sirius buys a flat to live in with his godson. However, it soon becomes clear they are not alone in the flat when Sirius begins receiving love messages on the mirrors and walls.

Sirius knows who he hopes is behind the messages, but he couldn’t possibly be right… or could he?

Rating: M

Words: 23,113 ( complete )

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Nom De Plume by @annabtg

Pairing: James Potter/Lily Evans

Summary: James Potter, renowned potioneer, has a secret side career as an erotica writer under the pen name of Scarlett Goldwing. When his latest book starts to take off, and Scarlett is asked to promote it at a public event, he has no other option but to recruit his colleague Lily Evans to pretend to be Scarlett. The only problem is, Lily Evans hates his guts… or does she?

Rating: E

Words: 46, 486 ( complete )

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Supernova by @siriuslyasorceress

pairing: James Potter/Sirius Black

Summary:

From the outside, it may look like James Potter has everything one needs to be happy. An abundance of talent, a prestigious job, a beautiful wife, an adorable child. So why can’t he let go of the past? Why does he still see silver eyes and a crooked smile when he dreams at night?

It's been six years. Six years since Sirius Black left England. He practically ran away from the country and hasn’t stopped running since. When he has to return to parts of his old life, he tries his best not to dwell on the past.

What luck then, that the past is one of the first people he runs into.

- “What, so the French sent a cursed Curse-breaker?”

There is humour in James’ voice, signalling that this isn’t meant to insult, merely falling into the way they always used to talk to each other. It’s almost too easy reciprocate, to answer with banter that still feels too familiar and pulls at Sirius to be released. He bites his tongue.

“I can assure you, cursed or not, I am still excellent at my job, Auror Potter,” he says pointedly.

Rating: M

Words: 73,120 ( in-progress )

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CRuSH by @heartofspells

Pairing: James Potter/Sirius Black

Summary: After travelling around the world as a Healer for four years, Sirius thinks it should be simple to return home to aid his best friend through his divorce. James needs him, and Sirius misses his family. With their history locked away inside dorm room beds and dark corners of a castle once called home, Sirius is determined to move forward, convinced James barely remembers it at all. Attempting to reestablish the friendship they'd always had, Sirius is set on pretending it never happened, at least until he realizes the years away haven't changed the weight of the powerful spell James holds over him.

rating: E

Words: 89, 578 ( in-progress )

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The exchange principle by @charmsandtealeaves

pairing: James Potter/Lily Evans

Summary: Partnering for Advanced Potions has some unexpected side effects when Lily and James wake up in the wrong body.

Rating: M

words: 8,788 ( complete )

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All monsters are human by ColorfulStabwound

Pairing: Teddy Lupin/James Sirius Potter

Summary: Teddy has always belonged to James, everyone knows that.

Rating: M

Words: 15, 274 ( complete)

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Out of my head ( when you are not around ) by quoichiant

Pairing: James Potter/Sirius Black

Summary:

Things are not particularly funny, but when he told Remus that he was going to get over James Potter -- for real this time -- Remus laughed. Because to everybody else, Sirius being in love with James is a fact of the universe.

The Earth turns, the sun rises, and James and Sirius come as a pair. Or Sirius is in love with his best friend, James is late to the party, and Peter is terrible at keeping secrets.

Rating: E

Words: 38, 038 ( In-progress )

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Line without a hook by @strugglequill

Pairing: James Potter/Sirius Black

Summary:

Four weeks, two days, and seven hours have passed since James hugged Sirius goodbye on the Hogwarts Express, a long summer of separation stretching ahead of them. With all of their other methods of contact blocked by Sirius's controlling parents, James shifts from disappointment to panic as a month passes with only silence in their two-way mirrors. Their separation just might kill James - or someone else.

After breaking into Number 12 Grimmauld Place with some hard-won cursebreaking and stolen Floo Powder, James wasn't expecting Sirius to ask him to fulfill a birth prophecy: rebirthing the House of stars with Black blood.

Song fic inspired by "Line Without a Hook" by Ricky Montgomery.

Rating: E

Words: 12, 189 ( complete)

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The host by Mothboss

Relationship: Spirit of Severus Snape and James Sirius Potter

Summary: James Sirius Potter was prepared right out of the gate to follow in the footsteps of his namesakes. The only thing that could likely have deterred him would have to have been one hell of a distraction.

Rating: G

Words: 9,528 ( complete)

[annabtg]

AnnaBtG - my Ao3

Select works:

@jilyawards favourites

Mistletoe Mishaps (1.3k). Jily, canon, fluff. Winner of Favourite Canon 2023. Completed, rated G.

Lily Evans doesn't know why James Potter keeps on pointing out the mistletoe above her every single time. Well, she does, but she likes to pretend she doesn't.

Nom De Plume (46.5k). Jily, no Voldemort AU. Finalist for Favourite Magic AU and Favourite Fluff 2023. Completed, rated E.

James Potter, renowned potioneer, has a secret side career as an erotica writer under the pen name of Scarlett Goldwing. When his latest book starts to take off, and Scarlett is asked to promote it at a public event, he has no other option but to recruit his colleague Lily Evans to pretend to be Scarlett. The only problem is, Lily Evans hates his guts… or does she?

The Great James Potter (8.7k). Jily, canon, pre-relationship. Finalist for Favourite Canon Oneshot 2022. Completed, rated G.

Lily Evans has never held any appreciation for James Potter, even though he has always been a favourite among girls at Hogwarts. That is, until she starts paying closer attention to him...

Readers' favourites (below the cut)

Priorities (1.1k). Sirius & Lily friendship, background Jily, canon. Completed, rated G. Rec'd by @casquecest and @furiousgardenhologram.

When Lily receives some life-altering news, she turns to Sirius for comfort.

Scandalous (4.9k). Sirius/Lily fake dating, Jily, prophecy AU. Completed, rated M. Rec'd by @casquecest and @furiousgardenhologram.

Sirius Black attends Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Black's wedding, with a controversial choice of a plus-one and the explicit intention of stirring up drama.

Are You Experienced? (12.7k). Jily, canon, fluff. Completed, rated T. Rec'd by @abihastastybeans.

James Potter decides to ask Lily Evans to a Muggle live music show. This noble mission, however, requires a series of steps he is entirely clueless about: from procuring the tickets to finding the correct outfit, and most importantly, to spending an evening with Lily Evans without making an absolute fool of himself.

My Best Friend's Girl (12.4k). Sirius/Lily to Jily, canon. Completed, rated M. Rec'd by @casquecest.

Sirius Black and Lily Evans start dating during their sixth year at Hogwarts and their relationship is nothing short of perfect, to James Potter's silent suffering. However, things begin going downhill when next year, she is appointed Head Girl...

The Chaperone (7.5k). Jily, Petunia Evans, Sirius Black, canon. Completed, rated T. Rec'd by @casquecest.

When Lily's father won't let her go out alone on a date with James, she has to resort to desperate measures: make it a double date with Petunia and Sirius.

Fixed Luck (1.3k). Established Jily, angst, no happy ending. Mind the tags! Completed, rated T. Rec'd by @kay-elle-cee.

The books warn: excessive intake can cause giddiness, recklessness, and dangerous overconfidence. But good luck is addictive.

Over Spilt Coffee (1k). Remadora, angst, canon. Completed, rated T. Rec'd by @nena-96.

Tonks's musings on the night she picked up smoking... the night Remus Lupin broke her heart.

Afterlife (microfic series, 1.1k total). Gen, James and Lily-centric. Rec'd by @nena-96.

James ships Harry/Ginny | Brother | Enemy | Unforgiven

AO3 Is Down (1.4k). Jily, Muggle AU, humour/fluff. Completed, rated T. Rec'd by @tinyluminaryzombie.

AO3 Status: Delayed emails have been sent out and the Archive is back! Thank you so much to our sysadmin james_ for interrupting his sleep to work on and monitor the situation. Inspired by this very real Tweet, an alternate universe where the sysadmin is James Potter, and Lily Evans is his supervisor who had to drag him out of bed so he could resolve the problem.

If you read my works, please feel free to send me asks or messages to add or update your recs!

[maaikeatthefullmoon]

Good Omens fanfic readers...I have finished it!

"What the hell are you on about?" I hear you cry (and also - who the fuck are you?) My highly emotional, angsty, mental-health-themed human AU. And, erm, I'm one of the eleventy billion authors on AO3 pouring our hearts and minds out - my nom de plume is imposterssyndrome.

The story is called Free. It is 57 chapters long. It has many (many) autobiographical elements. It started with four essential plot beats and my brain wove the entire story around them from there.

There are a lot of content warnings because I want to protect everyone's mental health, but essentially they centre around themes of: suicidal ideation, self-harm, symptoms of psychosis, auditory hallucination, and general mental illness. I add the warnings because I have 41 years of mental illness under my own belt and it wouldn't be responsible of me NOT to do so.

BUT it has a happy ending. It's a rollercoaster of a ride, but it does end happily, quietly, and romantically.

I'd love it if you gave my story a read, if it's your kind of thing. 🖤

Rated E - but the smut is marked and skippable Summary: Anthony J Crowley's been living rough since he was kicked out by his parents as a kid. Somehow he's made it to the age of 40 and he's still alive, but if you asked him, he's not really sure how the hell he's managed it. It's not been pretty.

Alistair Zachariah (Az) Fell runs a bookshop, but is still under the strict yoke of his parents: their eternal disappointment. 40 years old and he's desperately unhappy and hit crisis point.

They meet (again?) as inpatients in an acute mental health ward. They have nothing in common. Obviously. How could they? They're practically opposites.

So why are they so drawn to one another?

[cygninae]

I was just stalking through all of my old WIPs, and so here's a comprehensive list (that no one asked for) of all the ASOUE fanfictions I scrapped:

A character study on Quigley Quagmire, focusing on his upbringing, him being a 'problem child', him being diagnosed with ADHD and depression, etc.

A character study on Quigley experimenting with gender roles: a sort of 5 + 1 thing of them coming to terms with gender non-conformity

A Quiglet oneshot of Violet doing Quigley's makeup.

A character study/Quigley-centric fic that focused on his insomnia and how he'd already discovered the tunnel system under their house from his late-nights wandering the mansion

A dunklaus fic where Duncan was covering a story about Klaus, a reclusive artist who gifted his art rather than selling it. Duncan gets a little too involved.

A dunklaus AU fic where Duncan took a job as the Baudelaire's gardener

A dunklaus + Quiglet + Beamony AU set in WW2

A Viodora fic that was just a collection of Isadora's poetry written across the time she got to know Violet

A dunklaus au where they were both university professors

Dunklaus fake-dating AU where they pretend to date to get Violet off Klaus' back about getting over Fiona and finding love again

A Quiglet one-shot character study from Quigley's POV, him moving on from Violet

A Dunklaus AU taking inspiration from Anne of Green Gables (1800s setting, academic rivals, accidentally starting VFD)

A dumb modern Quiglet AU where they meet at a concert, Violet realises Sunny has run off, and her and Quigley have to find her. They bicker a lot because they disagree on which album is their favourite artist's best one

A Dunklaus post-canon fic where Klaus becomes a famous author under a nom de plume and Duncan stumbles across one of his books that is about him

Quiglet post-canon fic where the Baudelaires find Quigley after he failed to save his siblings

(Actually finished, just never posted it because it's rubbish) Dunklaus sorta reincarnation oneshot where Duncan works in a museum and Klaus is an immortal being who consistently is his muse in every lifetime. One of Duncan's favourite marble statues in the gallery was actually created by him, for Klaus, hundreds of years before but he doesn't remember until he sees Klaus again

Dunklaus oneshot where the whole group attended an actual boarding school. No olaf or anything. Just a wintery plot-less thing

(Also finished, also too shit to post) Modern Dunklaus one shot where Duncan runs a record store with his siblings and Klaus comes in one day. Literally just everyone teasing the two for 6k words straight. (favourite excerpt: '“So, why didn’t you ask him out?” Isadora asked, probably aiming for casual, except the way she was leaning on the wall like she was posing for an 80s boy band poster, and the way her voice was just a bit too high pitched, meant she wasn’t being very convincing.

Duncan gave her a flat look. “I have had two conversations with him,” he said, turning back to the receipt he was marking and ignoring the look she was giving him, which solidly said stop being purposefully obtuse.'

Post-canon Violet-centric Quiglet one shot. Just Violet reminiscing and moving on

Dunklaus AU where the Baudelaires are exchange students from France to Prufrock Prep. Extremely angsty and absolutely nothing happy happens. Just wanted to exercise the French Baudelaires headcanon

(Alot of this one was already written) Dunklaus AU where they're partnered up for a VFD mission

Quiglet magical AU where Quigley is a magical creature that lives in the woodland behind Monty's house where Violet and Klaus move after they're orphaned

Dunklaus and Quiglet (but not the main focus) - AU where the Baudelaires leave with Lemony after the fire at Hotel Denouement and become increasingly morally grey. When they reunite with the Quagmires a year later, they're practically unrecognisable from what fighting both against and with VFD has done to them

Violet and Klaus character study on how they deal with their grief; there was a little bit of Viodora and Duncan and some funny antics. The only WIP on this list entirely in French. Never posted it because there would be no interest and it didn't have a plot particularly

I'm pretty sure there are more that I just can't find or deleted but yeah...God there's a lot. These span over several years of being obsessed with asoue and ships in the fandom that I fell in love with that had (and still have) a painful lack of attention online, so I made my own content

[fluffmugger]

Mfw i vanity google my nom de plume and find someone writing abo on wattpad under it

[drakewyne]

an old connection found tim unaccompanied in paris yet again. when nancy peered around the room he'd acquired under a nom de plume, she mentioned quite casually that the painter cézanne stayed here; though she wasn't sure he historically ever Enjoyed paris. especially compared to aix - en - provence. aix had neglected the painter, but, "he was like its native son regardless."

then: "i think that phrase works better in france. did you get what i meant by that?"

he did.

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nancy was not in france on any sort of business. it did not matter if she was doing multiple sorts of business while there. it wasn't her intention to move around. it just sort of happened.

she showed up twenty minutes past their arranged meeting time and chatted absently about what she had been up to in the french riviera — lazy, dreamlike, gooey, tomatoes and olive oil and saltwater.

he drove her back down in a rented car, through the countryside, and she leaned her temple to the open window the entire time.

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her mother's townhouse was italian deco, though nancy warned him against saying anything of that nature. italy was france's evil twin, and vice versa.

tim called it Very Catalan instead, and laura was smugly delighted and agreed.

oliver the tomcat was big and orange and silent. tim scratched between his ears and was regarded with less of an ambivalence. oliver yawned at him. even the cat was dreaming.

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nancy spoke gorgeous french that tim couldn't keep up with. it was smooth and deep and chocolatey, and he understood it to be changeless from how she spoke her native english. she trained her mouth to be the same because it was important to her that french was not her mother tongue, but was her mother's tongue.

her quasi - european sentimentality, if you considered it, was actually very american. she took the basis and expanded on it and called it all hers. she had recent history and wide open spaces. she was free as a bird and deluded herself into thinking she was light as a feather. she had an old eyebrow raising polaroid that someone scribbled on, not her handwriting — THERE R MANY WAYS 2 FOLD THE FLAG — of which she ripped out of his hand and demanded him never to say anything about.

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laura beckoned tim outside where she kept three red gold hens who ruffled indiscriminately at anything as small to the slightest breeze, as if it disrupted their constant sleep.

«regardez,» she commanded of him, fresh eggs in her hands still covered in feathers, "see? i was a girl farming. constance is frightened of the chickens. they squawk to her, she at they. all my birds, very égoïstes. ç'est là."

that's that. 

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on wednesday, children poured out of heavy doors at eleven in the morning in their uniforms in noisy rows before scattering amongst themselves down like ants. they dodged and weaved tim while he mindlessly walked down the rue droite. in his destroyed hand, a bitten pain aux raisins.

when he told nancy and her mother that he had, in lieu of not knowing much french at all, spoken in german to order, laura immediately approved of it as a smart decision. an american would have attracted too many questions and held up his time.

nancy's hand snapped out and took off an edge piece to pop in her mouth. "is that why you did it?"

no.

"yeah," he said anyway.

she watched his face.

he wasn't offended and didn't consider it a lack of skill in lying. it was as much in her nature to call it when she saw it as it was for him to play it as it lays.

｡･ﾟﾟ･｡･ﾟﾟ･｡･ﾟﾟ･｡･ﾟﾟ･｡･ﾟﾟ･｡･ﾟﾟ･｡･ﾟﾟ･｡･ﾟﾟ･

nancy cheek kisses her mother goodbye: Une Prochaine Fois, À L'Heure.

she says on the way to the airport that all french goodbyes revolve around time and hours. A Different Moment, To The Hour.

well, some things just work better in french.

floats her hand perpendicular to the asphalt out of the window.

A Land's Native Son, for one.

[mlleclaudine]

The Original Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland Manuscript, Handwritten & Illustrated By Lewis Carroll (1864)

by Ilia Blinderman - Open Culture, July 2, 2024

On a summer day in 1862, a tall, stammering Oxford University mathematician named Charles Lutwidge Dodgson took a boat trip up the River Thames, accompanied by a colleague and the three young daughters of university chancellor Henry Liddell. To stave off tedium during the five-mile journey, Dodgson regaled the group with a story of a bored girl named Alice who finds adventure in the most unexpected places. By the day’s end, Liddell’s middle daughter, also named Alice, was so enthralled by this account that she implored the mathematician to write the story down. Some three years later, Dodgson would publish Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland under the nom de plume of Lewis Carroll (the pen name is an Anglicized version of “Carolus Ludovicus,” the Latinized form of Charles Ludwidge). The perennial children’s read was immediately popular, counting Oscar Wilde and Queen Victoria among its ardent fans, and has never been out of print since its initial publication in 1865.

Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, the original version of the book that Carroll presented to Alice Liddell in 1864, is presently housed in the British Library, which has graciously made it freely available online. You can view it here. The handwritten volume includes 37 crisp ink illustrations, all personally drawn by Dodgson. Discerning Alice readers will notice that these illustrations differ from the iconic images (and, to my eyes, very much superior) created by famed Punch magazine political cartoonist John Tenniel.

Title and illustrations aside, the original manuscript is considerably slimmer than the final version, containing roughly 12,000 fewer words.

Those wishing to revisit Alice’s adventures can do so at the British Library’s site.

[king-sil44]

Jennifer Tug

A horror novel writer from somewhere in California working under a nom de plume to weave the fictional tales from her various murderer perspectives in her lonely small apartment while making money at a little hipster cafe on the corner.

God ew what a cliché right?

Fortunately for her, one of her friends comes to her in a panic. Leaving her a book before taking their own life. Leaving trauma and the advice to head the warning signs!

She read them. All of them. Of course.

A warning from the author, warnings from other people who once held the book, and later from the author's family. But Jenny is a curious woman who will let her hunger for discovery far out weigh most things. So she read the book. Offered it her blood when asked, signed it with her name, admired the demon depicted within, even appreciated the echoey voice that rang between her ears like the book's words were being read to her personally.

But when the time came to make the deal and free the book's demon, Bill Cipher, their connection wavered. Things began to fall apart. Jenny tried to save it by offering more of her blood in the form of her cut off pinky finger but no luck. Bill stayed angrily stuck in the Theraprism and Jenny began loosing herself to her new obsession and loss of a once in a blue moon chance.

But that only lasted for a week before she decided to pop in for a little visit with the Pines. Jennifer headed for Gravity Falls.

[Repost cause the picture in the original post didn’t have my water mark on it! :D]

[thegodthief]

Let me think of a question yes it is the ask box....... Would you be okay sharing more about the spirits you work with? I don't need like a list of details but more like, how have they impacted your life, I guess? And what is your relationship to them

As is my habit, I'll begin at the end.

There is nothing new written under the jump. Rather, it is all observations and statements I have made over time about spirits that long-time readers will recognize immediately.

"Adiutor" is a familiar given to me by Malphas for reasons only known to him. I didn't ask for her, and when she first made her appearance, it took Malphas holding me still and formally introducing her for me to believe it. She had a different nom de plume in my public writings for a while, but wanted something formal after it became clear that Malphas may have given me a familiar, but what I received was a secretary.

She has helped me with the timing of some things, and the finding of some things, the working of some things, and the interaction of some things. To receive her meant creating a physical anchor for her, which I did in the form of a simple poppet. Something specific went into the body of that poppet such that when I'm calling upon her but I'm not in the immediate vicinity of the poppet, I feel that specific something inside the proper place within my body.

(So once upon a witching night, when something tried to lure me away claiming to be her, now you know why I knew at once that it wasn't her. You can't dupe the tell if you don't know what it is.)

She will assist with Cyprianic work, but anything "purely" angelic can fuck right on out. I've also noticed certain boundaries that she refuses to cross and boundaries that she will not cross, and I think it's best for all involved that I not try to force those issues.

~

"Hollow" is... a friend. He's not a familiar, not bound to direct service, not a servitor. What I know of his past is that he has been wandering for quite a while and found a nice cozy place to rest in the flame of an non-dedicated candle. When the candle extinguished I thought that would be the last of his presence, but all it took was another candle and here he is again.

I first thought he was a passing fire (aspected?) spirit that took opportunity of free room and board. But the other spirits in my krew kept telling me that he was one of the Wandering Dead and that I either needed to ground/house him, chase him off, or make him pass through, otherwise there would be trouble. What kind of trouble? The kind of trouble that come looking to make a lunch out of him and decide to make dinner out of me instead.

After some review of the matter, I offered Hollow a deal: Become part of my krew and be housed, but in return he has to work to my benefit, or move on because I found what would be coming for him shortly and I was not going to risk that hard a something for that much of a nothing. He chose to stay. A suitable ceramic device was obtained and he was installed in it via a ritual that went sideways at the worst possible time because of very terrifying reasons and confirmed that Hollow was once human and that it's always a good idea to research the peoples that were in the land that you are now because they may be gone but their ancestors and gods are still very much around.

He now keeps watch over my spaces and receives tea candles burned inside his container as payment and amusement. It's like watching an old man savoring a good cuppa tea.

~

"Patient Caller" is the reason I looked into St. Cyprian (of Antioch) and Cyprianic magic in the first place. During my time as a [Protestant] Christian, I had it firmly embedded in my head to avoid anything [Roman] Catholic, and of that anything regarding saints, and of them anything about Saint Cyprian in particular because he is an Evil Sorcerer™ in saintly robes. (Which was also justification for that church's literal demonization of anything Catholic because if the Catholics were too stupid to realize the demonic nature of St. Cyprian then nothing else about them could be trusted.)

I had always known he was "hanging around" me, but because reasons, he couldn't approach me unless I summoned him to me first. Which I did, over a literal life-changing series of thirty days.

Let's talk about learning the hard way that fire is hot, water is wet, and just because you can see spirits doesn't mean that you can do jacque shitte about it.

I had left Christianity for over a decade by the time I tried that series of summons. Oh, I was so sure of myself and my ability to magic. So sure that all I had to do was read these well-vetted words from the Book of Oberon, and use this half-fucked, school-glue stitched ritual to get exactly what I wanted from The Spirits™ without any repercussion whatsoever because I was a Magus™!

To the surprise of none of you readers, I got my ass kicked, coming and going. I became oath-bound to get a particular ring that would bind Patient Caller to me, bind me to the life of a magician, and bind me to a particular path of magic which in hindsight is hilarious as fuck, because it's the very path that the Christian churches I was in were willing to kill me to prevent. (That ring has been obtained.)

But, along the way, I took the steps necessary to get myself and my daughter out of a very dangerous situation and to start our lives over. I confronted several of my fears. I confronted portions of myself that I never wanted to consider, much less reconcile with.

Sometimes, because trauma, it is difficult for me to interact with anything Christian or Christianity-adjacent. The fact that I have TWO bibles in my book stacks is a minor miracle in itself. Patient Caller is there to help me pull myself through those Christianity-adjacent rituals. For all my pain, it is clear that this is one of my pathways, and that it is one I am very effective in working.

Because reasons, I have a deep belief that Patient Caller is a human spirit in service to St. Cyprian, that also happens to be in my physical lineage as well as my magical.

He regards Adiutor with deep amusement and considers her presence to be a mark of achievement and progress on my part as a magician.

~

"Horatio" The first one. A gift I did not ask for. An entity that I have written as "Rummer John" from the start (and will never acknowledge the name the rest of y'all know him by because reasons) once plucked a skull from his table and handed it to me with no instruction other than to take it.

Bloody fucking hell, I was so god damn naïve. Grade-A Dumbass. No knowledge or understanding of what RJ had done. No consideration of the responsibility that had just been forced on me. Just glitter and butterflies and isn't it unethical for me, a descendant of slaves, to be the master of a spirit tee hee? This is a modern time and these are modern ways and aren't people like me supposed to be working for the enlightenment of humanity as a whole and the raising of the global consciousness? Shouldn't I be working to free the spirit trapped in the skull than to, I dunno, put the spirit to work?

The White Magic (pun very fucking much intended) that I had been taught by those few practitioners I had found around my town had taught me that I had a duty to only work good works and that the lesser, primitive magics that involved binding the spirits of the dead was unethical and the mark of a wounded soul. The few that I felt safe telling my story to impressed upon me a necessity to release Horatio "into the Light™" as soon as possible.

I found out the hard way that RJ had bound Horatio to me in such a way that the only way to release him from my service is for me to die first. Like. Literal death.

I didn't know what to do with him, so I let him do anything. A couple of years of bullshit later, he allowed me to get hurt by an avoidable harm that left physical marks. I finally realized I was way over my head and sought council of someone I trusted. That someone dragged me through the school of hard knocks while also teaching me how to be a spirit's master, and of that all I can say is that there is nothing in mainstream culture that will ever prepare you for the world of the spirits. The only way to cross that river is to get in, learn to swim, and hope you survive the effort.

Horatio earned that moniker when he found out that I had been writing publicly of him but using a name other than what he had given me. He demanded to be called "Yorick" after that one reference in that one play, but by that time I was starting to get tired of his shit and said no, that I would write "Horatio" instead because he didn't earn the right to be called out with respect. (It is a common error to say the name of the skull in that play is Horatio instead of Yorick. And the skull in that play is regarded reverently for reasons far beyond what I can get into here. But trust me, the 'misname' was a deliberate slight.)

In time I learned that Horatio could intervene for me regarding a certain class of spirits. A class that I was excluded from direct interaction with because of my (lack of) upbringing and cultural descent. In exploring that possibility, I learned more about myself, my heritage(s) that my family lineages did not want to acknowledge, and that some connections can and will jump barriers deliberate and ignorant.

He is currently keeping watch over my space with Hollow, with whom he superficially bickers with even as they watch each other's metaphorical backs. But as my studies into what I can and can't do keep turning in upon itself, I have a strong feeling that I am going to bring him back to the fore.

~

There are others. Ancestors. Gods. Powers. Forces of the land. Angels of divinity. Angels that have nothing to do with divinity. Things I see awake. Things I see in dreams. Things I see when 'hypnogogia' is too sterile a word for the state I am in. There is a dragon I pass to and from work but our worlds are not aligned well anymore so we just nod in mutual muted awareness as I go.

There are entities that I will no longer speak of because the world has changed and what was a trivial thing to muse upon before would be disrespectful to whisper in code now.

There are entities I encountered in oath-bound rituals that I can't speak of, and entities that I had encountered prior to those rituals, but because of their involvement, I will never speak publicly of them again.

I really thought my world had become small and that I had lost sight of so much. But in working out what to write here and what to write about, I realize that I haven't lost sight of anything. I just forgot to look up. I had... am... permitting the mundanity of taxes and reports and meetings to take over space that had been set aside for the world that encompasses such things.

I thought I had lost my touch.

I forgot what it is to feel.

Okay. Let's go.

[sneakingsuspicionbooks]

Work continues on my first bind, using my AOS Star Trek fic A Weary Traveler, and this is version 1 of the bare-bones front cover design. I plan to work the contasting paper airplanes into the typography, and maybe the dotted lines, too.

Some details:

Art made using icons from The Noun Project

Font is Bahnschrift Condensed

Author name is my chosen nom de plume (fic is posted on AO3 under username BAMFspock)

Also, I made a bookbinding instagram acct, you can check that out here.