#usually when i do lore i make my posts shorter so it’s easier to look for information you want

[shenenenigans]

There’s no flower in this world more beautiful than an artificial one. That’s because everything is manufactured by lies.

@4listr @aakaneeee @bluemoonscape @rockwgooglyeyes @apriciticreveries @pwippy @nottoonedin @starry-skiez @paradisedisconcert

CW: sirius talks about the abuse they’ve suffered with guardian noct. this includes SA, and it’s a little bit graphic. but also be warned it’s very uncomfortable because it’s done by noct, who has tentacles for limbs. there is also the normal content warnings with sirius, like experimentation and murder.

NOTE: sirius might contradict himself. that’s on purpose. sirius might lie. that’s on purpose. also, this text won’t be entirely in pink. it’s a lot longer than my other like “character thoughts” posts to be fully pink, and i don’t want to hurt anyone’s eyes... and i barely edited this bare with me please

Getting branded was very painful. I believe this was done on purpose, though I’m not sure of the reason why. I hadn’t done anything wrong. Noct only makes me suffer as a punishment, so I don’t know why he had done this.

Sometimes, when I visit Noct, he’s not in a very good mood. I do try to make our flowers live for as long as possible, but sometimes a few have to die so our materials don’t get wasted. I don’t quite get why wilting flowers directly relates to Noct wanting to hurt me, but I’ve learned not to question him because it only leads to worse punishment.

I remember once, as a child, I accidentally broke one of our preservation tanks. I tripped over a pen Hanno had dropped on the ground, and I fell into the tank. Noct was so angry with me. I can clearly picture slimy tentacles lifting my body off the ground and the jarring electric shock that came shortly after. No matter how hard I tried to wriggle out of his grip, nothing worked. Noct was too strong for me to escape. It disgusted me to feel Noct touching me all over, the wet consistency of his limbs only reaching lower and lower. He even covered my mouth so I couldn’t scream.

That was the first time that Noct had been so infuriated at me that he assaulted me.

I read in a book that when humans ruled the Earth, such assaults were illegal and frowned upon in society. I don’t understand why Noct seems to think this is a normal, suitable punishment for a pet.

It was like I couldn’t wash the filth off my body no matter how hard I tried. I would shower multiple times a day, scrubbing so hard it felt like my skin was burning. And nothing would work. Nothing would ever work. I tried to like everything was normal so he wouldn’t do it again. I didn’t want him to do it again. But it happened, it always happened, and I wasn’t sure how to prevent it.

I’m sure that Noct enjoys seeing me in pain. Or rather, humans in pain. I suppose that’s why he chose to have my brand be on my spine. But he only puts me through pain to punish me, so why not put my brand on a spot that would give me less torment? I didn’t have any anesthetics either. I don’t get it. I really don’t. I didn’t need to be punished. I had been good, so why did he feel the need to torture me in such a way?

I think Noct was beginning to just have fun with me at that point. When he visited shortly after my branding procedure was done, he threw me against the wall and… Well, I’m sure that he had his reasons for it, but it felt so unnecessary. I didn’t attend my classes the next day.

Noct tells me he loves me. He tells me he loves me and he treats me like a doll meant to be cast away. He treats me like a toy. He says I’m his most prized possession, but if being prized means being abused, I don’t want it. I don’t want to be loved, I don’t want to be known, I don’t want to be seen. I wish I were invisible, I wish nobody would look at me ever again. I wish I could be clean, I wish I felt real, I wish to be hated so I never have to be loved again.

I don’t understand the concept of love. If love is sweet, why does it hurt me? Love is a selfish concept made for those in power to look down on the weak. Love is a game that damages the soul.

I despise love. I wish it despised me in return.

I tried to kill love. Multiple times, in fact. My brother Hanno showed me love, and I killed him for it. He used to yell at me through my door, telling me he was going to kill me. He told me that horrible things day after day, but he also used to tell me how my creations were beautiful. I don’t get it. I don’t understand him. One day, he told me I was like a sibling to him. He said he loved me.

He died not long afterward. It was his fault, truly.

Chiara showed me love, I killed her too. I knew I’d never be her first priority. She was only using me for pretty flowers and good food Guardian Kora would never give her. There’s no possible way she really enjoyed my company. I knew this, so I used her as an experiment and told her terrible things as she was dying.

Vera was the first to show me love. In my early years, she acted like a mother. She cared for me, even if I was just some forgettable piece of garbage. She would talk about her love, Ellie, that she killed in the Alien Stage competition. She talked about Ellie’s love for life and love for plants, and she only ever said positive things about Ellie. It never made sense to me why she simply went through with her guardian’s plans to kill her. If her love really was that strong, it would’ve been pure enough to disobey her guardian’s wishes. It would’ve been pure enough to allow Vera to run away with Ellie.

I killed her because she was a fucking liar. Vera loved Ellie, but she killed her. She told me she would never do that to me. She’d never hurt me or abandon me. Lies, all of them, lies. I had already been hurt, I had already been abandoned, so it would be remarkably easy to do it again. She lied to me. I could see it in her eyes, she lied to me. She was planning to hurt me, I just know it.

I am jealous of those with pure love in their hearts. I am jealous of those who share a love with no pain, no suffering, no power imbalance, and no heartache. So, when I see Numa and Xael together, of course I’m bitter.

I worked on Numa before. I remember getting him to trust me, and I eventually convinced him to let me operate on him so I could tamper with his tastebuds. I am the reason he can no longer taste anything but human meat. And yet, he’s still thriving. He’s still caring, and bright. He brought joy to Xael’s life that I have never had in mine. He’s not suffering, not in the slightest.

He treats Xael so kindly, so gently. Numa cradles Xael in his arms at night. He’s so soft and slow when they’re intimate. He cares so much, it’s not overpowering. He isn’t abusive. He doesn’t hold power over Xael.

I wish, just once, someone would direct their kindness to me. True, unconditional kindness. Giving me gifts isn’t true kindness. Telling me I’m smart isn’t true kindness. I need someone to read my soul, to see me for who I am, without wanting to change me or fix me. I don’t want roughness, I don’t want pain, I don’t want torment.

I just want to be perceived.

[arcadekitten]

hey again I just saw your recent twitter post about you saying that your games are small communities and when I saw that comment, I was worried if you are going to stop doing your work for visual novels and RPG games because you sounded sad about it and I did too. I hope your not sad about your games becoming small communities because I think your games look great and you should keep improving yourself and your games will soon become big communities in the future.

Haha awww no! ♡ That's not what I was trying to say at all!

Let me try to explain it better so it's easier to understand. (The tweet(s) in question below)

When I said this I was NOT implying that I was upset my game's communities were small as opposed to being big. What I was saying is that if people like one small game of mine, they'll have little luck in trying to "fandomize" it and that if they want to be part of a fandom then they'll have better luck playing my other games and exploring the universe I've been creating.

The thing about my small games is that people fixate on them (I'm very flattered) but if you want to engage with them through the lens of "fandom" there's not much you can do. My smaller games involve fewer characters, shorter storylines, more limited environments, often lesser hints of lore, etc.

Bigger games of mine (like Cemetery Mary and Blackout Hospital) are easier to "fandomize" because they have more characters, bigger environments, more lore exploration, longer storylines, etc.

But even if you're not someone who wants to play my bigger games even though i highly implore you to! You will have more fun in a "fandom" space one you play more of my smaller games because they are all woven together in little ways.

For example, someone who came from INMIMB might have trouble trying to engage with it in a fandom-style way. The game only has 2 main characters and a vague storyline that ends left for interpretation. But if they play my other smaller games, they will be able to make connections and learn more about these characters.

If they play Crowscare or Tricks N Treats, they will learn that Embry has 2 main friends they're often featured together with and the relationships they share. And then once they play something like Crowscare, they'll be introduced to Rune. And they'll see more of Rune in his role in Blackout Hospital. Also in Crowscare they will hear of a character Ms. B, and then if they play Here For Sweethearts they will get to meet this character and get an idea of what she looks like, etc.

I don't have any plans to stop making short/small games! In fact I have a bunch of ideas lined up of ones I'd like to make and plan to work on (while also working on my bigger projects at the same time)!

All I was trying to say is that if someone likes one of my small games, they'd probably have more fun and feel more satisfied engaging in my work by playing more of my work. You would have hours of content and multiple characters and relationships to engage with--rather than struggling to create a fandom for one short game that takes only an hour to play and usually wraps itself up by the end of it.

[wrongcaitlyn]

Glad you’re taking a break considering All That, I hope you get the time you need!! For the ask game: 4, 7, 10 and 23??

4. Do you outline before you start writing? If so, how far do you stray from that outline?

almost always yes! for shorter fics, i either go in completely blind (like my renegades or streamer au) or type out little scene descriptions (like, for the nerds au: nico's sick; arrival to school; uno; etc.). but for longer fics/plot-heavy fics, i usually have two main outlines: one that covers the main plot points, the things that are definitely happening / when those will occur, and then one that i regularly update with the scene by scene ideas so that when i start a chapter i know what i have to get done.

for tyt, i have like... five different outlines. one for album releases, one for chapters + one-shots (like, when the one-shots fit into the main storyline), one for scene by scene outlines of chapters that are only going a few chapters ahead, one for pre-tyt lore, and one that outlines the main big events.

album releases change a *lot* because i'm constantly changing little parts of the plot, so usually i just stick to the year i say i'm gonna release it, and then the date gets moved around quite a bit! pretty much all of the other outlines are constantly changing as well, but the scene by scene outline is the one i struggle with the most... i only plan a few chapters ahead in scenes because i almost always end up going either over or under the planned word count with the scenes i planned (i'm HORRIBLE at estimating this) so then i either pull from the next chapter or move a scene (or 2 or 3) to the next chapter, or sometimes i'm even creating brand new scenes just cause i feel like it. so... i stray a lot

and just for reference, this is what my main outline doc looks like!

Chapter 20 (january) rachel one-shot Chapter 21 (february) telling drew about engagement + hiring katie first show madison square garden tweets about tour sadie and carter + the rest of the crew and will + leo + jason releasing single on first night of tour - the archer hazel pov dead ends and moving research to jake

clearly, some things changed. katie was not hired yet (will possibly be eventually, if i can find a way to include it, so not that much of a spoiler), i didn't really do tweets about the tour, and the crew stuff was all combined into just an instagram post. didn't end up releasing the archer, decided to move that to a later date. but the gist of it is there and this was one of the rare occasions where i actually managed to fit everything that i planned for in the final draft of the chapter!

7. Which part of writing do you struggle with most?

party scenes. god i HATE those if i can i'll always just turn it into a piece of social media or something, i remember being stuck for like a month on that stupid halloween scene back in the first tyt chapter. and then i nearly got stuck on that will party scene before i decided to just cut it out completely.

aside from that specific type of scene, probably dialogue or just finding the time/motivation to write. dialogue has gotten relatively easier over time, but i still think i'm much better at an internal dialogue rather than external. as for time, as we all know i've got a lot of work for school to get done, and usually by the end of the day when i've finished all my hw/studying i just don't have the energy to write something, which sucks because i've usually been thinking about it all day :/ so it ends up getting crammed into the weekend, which can be hard if it's just not a writing day for me! but i still try my best to make time for it because i really do enjoy it and am unhealthily attached to tyt lmao

10. Do you enjoy writing dialogue, exposition, or plot the most?

probably exposition! i love including little details into the internal dialogue, as i said earlier, it's my favorite part of writing. so i think that would count as exposition, even if a lot of times i worry about just infodumping... either way, writing that first hazel chapter? SO much fun. i just get to completely dump all of her lore. after you spend so long thinking of the context and background of characters/new settings, it gets really exciting to finally put that all in there!!

23. If you had to remix one of your own fics, which would it be and how would you remix it?

ooh i feel like i would love remixing tyt just because there are so many opportunities there and so many different ways their lives could go. that's probably the basic answer just because that's my main fic rn, but like??? i love it sm. i might change it so nico comes out earlier, or maybe hazel found nico earlier, or maybe nico's father doesn't die, or... god, so many options. it's either that or my hunger games au so that i could remix it to have a,,, non-MCD ending lmao, but i do love the actual ending. very angsty, very fun.

[lockedtowers]

me, realizing i was gon follow a few ppl but i dont have my verses or anything rly up yet: …. so anYWAYS

some fun things bc im not gonna be on a comp until tomorrow then ill only be here mon wednes and surprisingly fri/sat next week, maybe some lil funzies mostly abt cassie bc shes my baby

obvi (if u kno me if not welcome im brina my brain doesnt work) i have multiple verses im just dumb and havent posted them, i gotta rewrite a lot of them to be shorter too bc i give full character backstories for everything as it develops and ik most ppl dont wanna read that so it takes longer for me to do things bc im ‘tistic and short quick explanations is not my fortay. main doodads tho: 1, 3-7 are fantasy worlds specifically, 2 is overall in any world, 8 onwards is purely human verses

generally with other fantasy worlds, i’ll have it where cassie ended up in your universe. Whilst my Wonde/rland is largely built off my own thoughts and things now, and various points of lore, the 2009 S/yfy A/lice was a base for it. A/merican M/cgee’s Alice is the base inspo for Cassie’s cheshire cat, but she’s also her own thing. (fun fact: originally i was writing her as the d/ormouse from b/urtons wonderl/and, but as she grew further from that canon w my never writing in that universe, she became my own character ultimately and holds few similarities to her origin now, including species! but her twin brother is still ‘proper’ dormo/use, yes it makes sense, its more a title than a species in this world)

Cassie is… moldable, mentally, to say the least. When someone finds her in whatever world she ends up in, whether its a fantasy world or not (as she ofc just lives wherever in non fantasy aus) she.. tends to be easier to manipulate because she will get attached to people just for being nice to her. she isn’t used to it. it’s rare for there to be a universe where this isn’t an issue for her (also of note bc dual muse blog: willys the manipulator, and shes the manipulatee) honestly she’s morally grey anyways and doesn’t really understand morality as a whole, so if shes found by a villain and they just.. treat her like a person, she will get attached. and cassie being attached can be dangerous, not just for others, but for herself, because she’s loyal to a fault. if she makes friends w multiple ppl and they fight, she wont know what to do because she just can’t bring herself to believe either person is wrong. it’s also of note that in most fantasy verses, she’d been locked up, abandoned in a cell, for years. She doesnt tend to talk and, despite trying to push a tough and uncaring act, she’s still scared. she’s still traumatized. a lot of the time she wont even talk. this is the everything tab also so be aware she has a scar over her right eye, and her right eye is a silvery blue verses her normal blue eye. she’s also pretty much blind in her right eye, but the color is due to heterochromia. her twin brother has one blue and one green.

she is very noticeably neurodivergent when you talk to her, and as many fellow a/utistics point out, cats tend to have similar personalities to us anyways (ive seen a many point out that if you can handle a cats support needs you can handle ours lol). usually shes fixated on something, but she’ll also use trickery of the tongue to get out of things when need be. she’ll unintentionally speak in riddles that make perfect sense to her, but others feel a need to solve. however in most universes where she ends up there, i do it post her escaping after the prince of he/arts (who kept her captive for years) overthrows his mother. She ultimately traverses due to remaining look/ing glasses from before the land was taken by the Hearts. Meaning she cannot get back on her own. But, she also does not want to.

It’s very important for the author to be aware that she cannot tell a lie. Muses not understanding is fine, because how would they know when cassie doesn’t know her own heritage in most verses (o/uat is currently pmuch the only fantasy verse where she was raised by her parents, making her aware shes the princess of spades, and aware shes a witch, but still unaware that the reason she cant lie is because shes a fae halfling) Cassie is a Fae Halfling, and fae/witch hybrid. The Fae half itself is a hybrid of Seelie and Unseelie like her father. I use pieces of real lore and pieces of my own here, but it doesnt really come up in writing much anyways. but she cannot lie to anyone, it physically tears into her flesh the moment words leave her lips. the only thing she can do is use trickery words to mis-explain, and even then it can titter the line.

Her cheshire invisibility comes from shapeshifting to match her surroundings, but beyond that she mostly can just change her hair color, slightly change her face for short periods of time, or as most often used and the longest shes capable of holding, turning into a silver blue cat.

fae wise her powers are largely elemental, water focused, and she doesnt know how it works. the faerie power she has most control over involves her own blood, which she can turn into crystalized weapons when shes bleeding. most often she’ll be using her witch abilities. in some aus, your character may see she has strange looking bands on her wrists and locked into place, meant to look like bracelets but unable to be removed. They’re power blockers placed on her by the prince of h/earts to ensure she couldn’t break out again. they keep her from using her powers, from healing, and otherwise.

her makeup made her an omen to the remaining fae of wo/nderland, which there arent many left there. they wanted to slaughter her father as well, but never managed to make it as he was too brutally powerful for them, either. The Fae had believed a seelie/unseelie hybrid, let alone a fae/witch hybrid, would bring death upon the whole of their kind. Ironically… Cassie’s technically a necromancer, and can give part of herself to bring others back to life permanently, or use weaker magic to bring them back temporarily. As such, when she dies, she tends to always come back, and oft with more power than before, and even less self control. She’s also the only reason her twin brother is still alive, but he wont admit to that.

purely human verses, she still doesn’t lie, but it largely relates more to the a/utism than anything else. she doesn’t like to lie in the first place, but has little qualms about confusing others when they get confused by her speaking normally. she doesn’t see a point in fixing that, especially when she can simply say a confusing, convoluted version of the truth to get out of actually admitting anything.

usually, because when i first wrote her a few years ago i actually combined her and this canon iteration (as shes basically what cassie would become if pushed fully to the limit) whos name i took, i’ll have her be the adopted daughter (and bio relative) of A/lcina D/imitrescu, with her sharing that name. Meaning she’s in her family’s wine business. She’s much more distrusting of men, between nearly being killed by one after watching him kill most of her family, kidnapped by him for blackmail until she found a way out, and her mother (alcina’s) own severe hatred of them. but still, honestly, if you’re nice to her she���s probably gonna get confused and fall for it.

theres also verses w @mastermiinded where shes E/llington F/eints daughter, thats probably the most normal cassie you’ll ever get if you want those but also she has a mom who loves her and was raised in a universe heavily involving a cult. she’s kind of bitchier tbh LOL

funnily enough, she is still always ready to attack at any given moment.

she knows a lot of knife tricks, and many would argue she likely belongs in a circus of some sort. she doesn’t like that argument, but she does know how to do multiple knife tricks, swallow swords, and do various slight of hand tricks. all while being blind in her right eye.

put in a multitude of self defense training, and for a brief time was even made her mothers bodyguard, she knows how to fight and she knows how to kill. whether or not she wants to is its own debacle.

if someone is out to get her and sb else tries to help, shes not gonna be cool w it bc she doesnt want others risking themselves for her, and it makes her feel like shes been kidnapped and locked up all over again.

[noradarhkpalmer]

and i will hold onto you

Title: and i will hold onto you

Rating: PG

Pairing: Nora Darhk/Ray Palmer aka Darhkatom

Warnings: It sad

Summary/Notes: It's the anniversary of Anna Loring, Ray's late fiancee's, death and this year it's hitting Ray harder than it ever has. This time he has Nora there to comfort him.

I’m so sorry I fell behind on these! I had some personal health problems come up but I am going to try and catch up! This one is extra long! Enjoy!

Day thirteen of 25 days of Darhkatom! Feel free to click the through the tag to see the others! Basically, I will be posted all loosely related (unless stated otherwise) fics for 25 days straight!

Ray, eternal sunshine, always smiling, Palmer was quiet on what Nora thought was a beautiful day in May. Anachronism activity had been light and so the Legends decided on a little shore leave. Ray still had an apartment in Star City so they decided to go there. Nora was surprised to see Ray relieved to spend time away from the other Legends and yes they were insufferable at times but she also knew that Ray and the Legends were thicker than any blood ties that he formed with this family.

She followed him up to his apartment with their belongings and walked in behind him. When Nora got to the bedroom she placed her bag on one side of his bed and she sighed. Something was wrong with Ray. She walked back out to the living room and saw him staring out one of the floor to ceiling windows. She came up behind him and wrapped her arms around his middle and pressed her cheek to his back.

“Hey… what’s on your mind, babe?”

Ray turned so he could wrap and arm around Nora and she snuggled into his side. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and sighed. “It’s nothing, I’m sorry I’ve been quiet, just trying to adjust to being back here.”

“Yeah, I guess it has been a while for you, huh?” She closed her eyes as he absently stroked her hair. “Do you want to go out and get lunch or maybe or in or cook? I’m up for anything.”

Ray nodded. “Yeah, we can order in.” He broke away in search of takeout menus and left Nora at the window.

Nora wrapped her arms around herself and sighed. He was still hiding something from her.

It wasn’t like Ray to put up walls like this. Usually he was knocking hers down. She walked back into the bedroom and was putting books on the bedside table when she knocked a frame off the nightstand. She heard it thud gently onto the carpet and picked it up. It was a woman, about her height, with kind brown eyes, brown hair, smiling standing next to Ray. She had her arms around his middle and an engagement ring glittered in the photo. Nora sucked in a breath. It was Anna.

She combed back through memories and factoids about Ray until she settled on one. Deathstroke had killed his fiancee in May not even four years ago… no it was four years ago… to the day. It was the anniversary of Anna’s death.

That’s what was wrong.

Nora wasn’t sure how to act being on the other side of things. She wasn’t sure the best way to approach him or if she should approach him. Maybe she should just let him sulk and be sad Ray Palmer for the day. Nora sat the frame gently back in its original place and continued unpacking her things. She walked back out into the living room to find Ray on the couch with takeout menus in front of him. She sat on his lap, trying to see if the affection would distract him and he wrapped an arm around her, smiling sadly.

“Hey… let’s order some Chinese and then we can watch a movie, okay? How about… Singin’ In the Rain?”

The prospect of watching his favorite movie with his favorite girl seemed to perk him up a bit. Ray nodded and called in their order.

Nora kissed the top of his head, sitting in his lap afforded her a height to do so, and carded a hand through his hair. Her boy needed a haircut. She liked that he was growing out to look less boyscout-ish but it was only getting unruly. The longer hair didn’t suit him as well as his shorter style. It was less Ray to her.

When they got their food, Nora queued up the TV to start their movie. Nora pulled out the thickest blanket she could find and draped it over both of them, something inside of her, knowing it was the anniversary of her boyfriend’s ex fiancee’s death, she wanted to protect Ray, his heart, and anything else to do with him and his feelings about today. She rested her head on his shoulder and started the movie.

They ate in silence as the movie played, Nora wanting so badly during the slower moments to broach the subject but she just couldn’t. They had shifted to sit only somewhat further apart and when Ray finished his food, twice her size as he may be, decided he wanted to lay his head in her lap. Nora had no problem with it. She carded her fingers through his hair absently and let him just lose himself in the movie, knowing that was probably more than she could do to help in that moment.

When the movie ended, Ray sat up and pulled Nora in for a hug. He squeezed her a lot tighter than she ever remembered him hugging her and she hugged him back. She couldn’t let him know she knew, she wanted him to tell her. He needed to be ready.

Nora watched him get up from the couch and throw their takeout boxes away. He muttered something about going for a run and that he would be back soon. Nora nodded and remained seated on the couch as she watched him disappear into their bedroom, come back out in sweats, and kiss her softly before heading out the door.

xxxx

She knew this went beyond any snooping she had ever done for a mission but she was just curious. It was four years ago but three of those years were taken up by being a Legend full time so who knows what she would find. She started with the chest of drawers, all his clothes, mostly workout and loungewear and undergarments. Next she moved onto the dresser and pulled open each drawer, trying to gauge if any of the belongings were Anna’s. She only got halfway through the dresser before she stopped. Something just felt wrong about this. She took in a deep breath, this would’ve been the place Anna and Ray would’ve started their lives, and probably had begun to before she died. Ray had probably attempted to change as much of he could without selling the place. There was no trace Anna, no ghost of her memory to find.

Ray had been gone for hours at this point and she was starting to get worried. The sun was starting to set and she hadn’t been in this city for over twenty years. Somewhere a very scared fourteen year old Nora Darhk had just been possessed by Mallus and even though she had met a very handsome knight and his team and tried to rescue her from her prison, she was still somewhere in this city, alone and afraid.

It was much like she felt now. She had never been the one to figure out how to break someone’s walls down and Ray was a seasoned pro at this point. She guessed that also meant he was an expert at putting them up. Nora looked out the window onto nightfall settling over Star City and sighed.

“Ray, where are you?”

She wasn’t sure how long she’d been standing there but she finally heard the door open and turned around. Ray. He didn’t look so good. Intoxicated? No. He’d be stumbling. High? No that wasn’t Ray at all. He just looked… broken.

Nora slowly approached him, not sure how much contact he wanted or needed.

“Ray?... Is everything alright?”

Ray simply shook his head. He sat down on the couch and Nora sat with him. She took one of his hands and stroked hair away from his face with the other.

“You said you were headed out for a jog, did something happen?”

“I shouldn’t have gone there.”

“What?”

“I shouldn’t have gone to the cemetery. It’s too soon.”

“Too soon for what? Talk to me.”

Ray shook his head. “It should’ve been me. I got away with just a couple of broken bones but she died. It should’ve been me, I was there protect her and I didn’t. I did the one thing I thought I was good at: protecting others.”

Nora stroked his hair. “You’re going to have to give me more context, sweetie, who is this about?”

“Her name… her name was Anna Loring… she was my fiancee. She died four years ago when Deathstroke attacked Star City. I got away with a broken leg but they… he just snapped her neck like she didn’t matter. But she did. She was the most important person in my life… I don’t… I don’t remember being this sad last year or even the year before… I don’t know why it’s hitting me so much this year…”

Nora shrugged. “I’m so sorry, Ray… I don’t know what to tell you. Before I could even really mourn my parents I was placed in protective services and told to forget about who I was before. I was Emily now and I was an orphan. It didn’t matter that my mom and dad had just died. So I had to lock it away. I didn’t deal with it for years. I think it’s okay to cry about this, she was important to you… you loved her and you were planning on spending the rest of your life with her. You don’t just get over that.”

Ray laid his head on Nora’s chest, the angle awkward because of his size, but Nora reclined into the couch to make it a bit easier. She continued to stroke his hair and took in deep breaths until his breathing was in sync with hers. She felt her shirt become wet and knew he was crying. She hummed quietly against the top of his head to let him know she was there.

“I know I’m probably bad at this since you’re the one with tons more experience at dealing with all of my junk but, I’m here for you, Ray… I’m sorry you lost her and know it’s okay to be sad about it. You can cry on me as much as you want, we can move to the bedroom if that’s more comfortable or we can stay right here. Whatever you want. I can make us tea or I can stay right here. You call the shots.”

Ray lifted his head up and reached to wipe away his tears but Nora caught his hands. She wiped the tears from his cheeks instead and reached for a tissue on the coffee table. She handed it to him and he smiled in thanks. He leaned in and kissed her softly and she smiled sadly as they pulled away.

“I think… I think that tea and staying here is what I want to do.”

Nora smiled. “I’ll get the kettle on.”

xxxx

They sat there in silence, both stirring their mugs to keep their mind focused on something. Ray hadn’t said much more but Nora knew to just let him be, give him the time he needed to reveal or not reveal whatever he felt comfortable with.

“Nora…?”

“Yeah, Ray?”

“Thank you… for… well… you were my rock tonight… this has been the hardest anniversary I’ve had. And I don’t think I would’ve gotten through it without you.” He took her hand. “Thank you, really, I mean it.”

“You have been there for so many things for me, Ray, I didn’t know exactly what you were struggling with but I could tell something was off. I just needed to make sure I made myself emotionally available. I can’t even begin to imagine how hard this is for you.”

“But your parents…”

“Died a long time ago and my dad died a hero the second time around. It’s… the same but different. I guess I know what you’re going through in the sense that I’ve lost people too, but I haven’t lost anyone that meant as much to me as Anna did to you.”

Ray squeezed her hand three times, “I don’t want you to think that because of what we have and what Anna and I had, they’re somehow in competition.”

Nora waved him off. “No, I could never think that. I know I can never replace Anna, I wouldn’t try to. She was probably very different from me and that helps me to know that I definitely could never replace her. I want whatever part in your life you’ll have me for.”

Ray pulled her closer and kissed her forehead. “Anna would want me to be happy… I think she would like you. You guys were very different yes, but I needed her for the part of my life between college and becoming the ATOM. But I need you for this part of my life. The part of my life that I hope is the rest of my life because I don’t want you to leave. You don’t just have a part in my life. You are my life.”

Nora leaned up and kissed him softly. “Let’s head to bed.”

Ray nodded and followed her wordlessly to the bedroom.

xxxx

Nora, now changed into a nightgown, was finishing up in the ensuite bathroom when she saw Ray come up behind her in the mirror. He was in pajamas too and wrapped his arm around her torso. Nora placed her hands on his forearm and rested her chin in the crook of his elbow.

“Hi.” She smiled, looking into his eyes through the mirror.

Ray buried his face into her neck and breathed her in. Trying to hold onto her impossibly tighter than before.

Nora let him hold her for a minute before turning in his arms and cupped his cheeks in her hands and kissed him softly. She broke away and tugged on his hand to follow her back into the bedroom. She noticed the picture of Anna had been moved to his nightstand and she got under the covers next to him. Nora picked up her book and began to read. She reached for Ray’s hand and squeezed his hands three time, glancing up at him. He leaned in to kiss her once more before laying down for the night, facing her, and keeping their hands clasped together.

[thefairefolk-rp]

Welcome, Mor! Your application for Alekto Bone has been accepted!

OOC INFORMATION:

Name/Nickname: Mor

Age: 22

Preferred Pronouns: She/Her

Timezone: Central Time Zone

Activity and Availability (Please answer in words as well as rating your availability from 1-10): For activity, 6 or 7 seems accurate. I will typically answer as soon as I can and write whenever possible, normally I can get replies out within 24 to 48 hours of whenever I see the post. Availability is at 8, I’m almost always on at some point during the day but my schedule is erratic and I am frequently occupied and so, while I may not be able to immediately reply or post, I am online and able to deal with messaging or lurking in the feed and able to read whatever comes by.

Have you read the rules and FAQ?: yes I have read both and the lore made available by your navigation pages.

IC INFORMATION: Desired Character: Alekto Bone Second Choice Character: Mordrid Fagan

What made you choose this character?: When I read through your character list, there were a handful that caught my eye immediately, this was one of them. I’ve played many characters in the past, on all parts of the moral scale, but Alekto, willing to give up everything for power and still seeking more after she got it, is something new exactly because she doesn’t care about right or wrong, all that matters is how a situation benefits her. “But, her own ambition for power overwhelmed her conscience.” This caught my attention because of what it suggests about the character. One, that she has something of a conscience even if it’s less to her than what she can gain from a situation, meaning that Alekto is more than just selfishness and greed driving her actions. Two, she’s private and cautious about others and clearly values her power, which means she wouldn’t have risked everything for a cause she wasn’t absolutely certain had a chance of winning or at the very least is so confident in her skills that she saw the reward outweighing the risk of treason.

It’s this mix of pride and ambition that contrasts against caution and what strikes me as fear of loosing what she has that drew me to Alekto as a character when I first read over the bio, along with the notion of playing a character who is so strongly driven by personal gain and gladly uses the power at her disposal, which is something I don’t get to do often. There’s a level of darkness in her that is very different from the “good” characters I usually play, and I would love to continue to explore the character as well as how she plays into the plot and interacts with others.

Are there any changes you would like to make?: No. Everything is wonderful.

Questions/Comments: This group is amazing, your plot and lore is so well developed and as an extensive para rper I love the fact that you guys rp in the same way. And you have hundreds of well developed characters that are open and available, which is incredible enough on its own. Thank you for all your help and please, if there are any problems now or in the future let me know. This has also become a thing out of the work of a few days: https://www.pinterest.com/bonesinthegrcund/alekto-bone/

Also the writing sample got long (not on purpose I swear) but I promise I can write shorter if needed and I tend to match length with whoever I rp with unless asked otherwise

Writing Sample (Must be 300 words or more, third person limited, in the character you’re auditioning for’s point of view): Fear was a powerful motivator. And yet, despite the knowledge of what happened to thieves in the Unseelie Court, and what happened to thieves who took from the royal family, the faerie captured by two of the Magi that morning for attempting to steal from the castle had still smiled and confessed with a nonchalance that made it difficult for Alekto to decide if he was brave or just a fool who still believed he could talk his way out of his situation. She settled on the latter, and had gleaned as much information as possible on the criminal. Hob, poor, a daughter and a wife. Desperate. The Archmage watched as the he was dragged forth in chains before the king in a public display to show off what happened to criminals, a warning to the people. She only half listened to the thief as he growled about the corruption of the Aven family and promised that there would be more like him, which was soon cut off by a blow to his back by one of the knights demanding silence.

While the poor shifted uneasily, the exception being the more malicious fae who looked as if invited to a banquet, the nobles previously leering around the room like vultures awaiting a fresh corpse had already quickly started to loose interest in the faerie that was already condemned even if he did not yet know it, as always only caring about such matters so long as they were an entertainment. There was little doubt that many watched the king and those leading his forces with the same attention, searching for weakness and leverage to use in the future. They were creatures of opportunity, just as Alekto was, and she gave them no such pleasure. Archmage; she had always believed the title suited her well, the black robes tailored to fit perfectly and glamoured to appear as if she was clothed in darkness itself, the position one she had carved and taken for herself by raw power and skill, not by the inheritance and bribery of the nobility. She made subtle changes to the magic around her appearance, a dangerous gleam in her eyes that extended beyond the natural, an increased sharpness to her features… and found satisfaction in the way some averted their gaze from hers the second they noticed that she was staring back.

For a second, the thief looked at her as he announced that he didn’t care what happened to him. It sparked something within Alekto that responded to the challenge, the corners of her lips twitching up momentarily in a way reminiscent of the smile of a predator. It had been the Magi that apprehended them, and it was the Magi that would be best suited to make him reveal his secrets when Oberon got tired of hearing him talk. It didn’t take long, his words changed from nonchalance to insult and the king’s expression darkened even more than the Archmage’s, cruelty and anger clearly showing with no need for a glamour of any kind to enhance it. Alekto stepped forward at his motion, the command simple and clear.

“Break him.”

Her robes swirled in the air as she moved, giving the appearance that she was gliding through the air rather than walking. Hob, poor… Alekto regarded his defiant expression and smile with contempt, tilting her head to the side and examining his shackled wrists and feet. A daughter and a wife… She stopped a few feet away from him, watched his face turn from stubborn hubris to horror as she brought forth the illusions of his child and spouse, realistic to a point that had it not been for the fact that they were not present moments ago, one could have easily believed they were physically there. Fear was a powerful motivator, but love was stronger. And when the glamour-created fae began to suffer and cry out in pain, when images rapidly flashed before the thief of his loved ones suffering his punishment and worse, he finally cracked, begging for it to stop and for his family‘s safety, all that bravado gone in an instant. Too real to be dismissed as an illusion, and the message was made very clear. The same could easily be done to the real versions of his family, the king already knew their faces.

The Archmage did not stop, listening intently to every word that came from the pitiful figure thrashing against his chains as he began to give out names and locations, attempting to bargain for the lives of his family. Desperate. Her attention only doubled when he mentioned knowing more, offering contacts and affiliations if his torment ended through violent sobs, though she showed no outward reaction. It was only when the thief had crumbled on the floor, reduced to nothing more than quiet begging and tears, that the king ordered it to finish. Alekto lingered for a heartbeat before complying, the illusions breaking and her magic withdrawing until once again the only glamours she held were the ones around herself. She cast a glance at the preening nobility, now silent and watching the tormented man before them. Oberon ordered that the hob be locked away, having gained yet another example to what happened to those who defied him. For Alekto, it was a display of her power and what she could easily do at a moment’s notice. And not a single faerie in the public could bring themselves to look her in the eyes after such a display.

Later that night, she glamoured her clothes and appearance to appear as a red-haired delicate wisp of a fae, far more the graceful Seelie than Unseelie and with no resemblance of her true self, and crept through the castle to the imprisoned thief with aid from her magic. The guards would later report that an unknown woman had snuck through their ranks unseen and released the prisoner, helping him escape and giving him more than enough time to leave with his family. The king’s fury ended with them being harshly punished for the failure, while Alekto had gained herself both respect and fear amongst the court as well as eyes and ears within the criminal affiliations plaguing it, something which would make her life far easier in the future. And she intended to take advantage of both to their fullest extent.

[cornerverse-mlp]

So I noticed that the rest of the season of MLP has leaked. I haven’t watched them but I’ve seen bits and pieces and I...... I just.......

I’m tired my dudes. I’m done. I have an entire world of headcanons set up in an ongoing continuity of stories and a lot of characters OCs and half OCs(my interpretation of a minor/background character) I’m attached to, but this just kind of tosses it all down the crapper. Like, the only thing I can say it helped was my conspiracy theory about Hearth’s Warming, since Starswirl was supposedly dead/out of this dimension by the time the Hearth’s Warming story happened yet we see him here with a group of friends that aren’t Unicorns. Side note: If they kept to Hearth’s Warming existing, Starswirl probably would’ve been very racist. Like, very very racist. Everything else just killed it. 

So, no, I’m not even going to try and merge my headcanons here. They literally cannot be merged. So, while I’ve always said that @cornerverse-mlp is ‘Canon Divergent’, this is the biggest split. It’s more than just adjusting small things like actually utilizing the Elements of Harmony, or adjusting half-given and subject to change lore to say that Flurry isn’t the first naturally born Alicorn because Cadence wasn’t Ascended, or even taking the emptiness of Sombra’s backstory and creating the tragedy of Obsidian, Emerald and Autumn. It’s ‘I have already established a lot of this stuff in stories and/or headcanon posts and it’s vastly different than what the show is now putting out’.

And I like my versions better, for many reasons including attachment to characters and stories. So I’m going to keep them and toss the rest. Because you know what? There’s multiple Universes where things are different, so this is just another one. Even the show has multiple universes. I mean, not only in the whole EQG thing and Starlight’s fuckery with the Timelines, but the fact that the Comics have different events. So I’m just going to make my own Universe officially its own Universe. And like, things that don’t conflict will be the same, but this is just...... ugh. I never thought I’d have to deal with anything solid on Starswirl the Bearded, so I was cool with making headcanons about him. 

Okay, to recap: I have my own continuity of stories and headcanons that now exist in their ownUniverse that is Canon Divergent from the show, but as it’s part of it’s own Continuity established before some episodes and not a complete AU that could be summed up in one sentence, it does not need the ‘AU Tag’. That said, I will try to enjoy the show on it’s own terms, but not in terms of trying to merge it with my headcanons, because that’s the only way to do this without feeling like I’ve wasted a fuckton of time and driving me insane trying to fit one of those jumbo kids’ toy puzzle pieces into my 1,000 piece jigsaw. 

So, on to the ‘me being salty af’ part of the post, have some ‘headcanons’ about how Starswirl appears/exists in the Cornerverse-MLP Universe. 

Starswirl is actually very short. Like, not ridiculously so, but typically Unicorns are shorter than Pegasai or Earth Ponies, so he’s shorter than most of the Mane 6, especially Twilight as she’s giant for a Unicorn

Twilight never actually thought about how tall Starswirl would be, so while she never meets him, the height difference would shock her if she did. 

Other than the height thing, his physical appearance is similar to his various looks in the show and comics. Unicorn, gray, curly mane with a fantastic beard. However, his mane had been brown when he was younger, it just turned white as he got old. Also, his eyes have Heterochromia, being two different colors. One is brown, and the other is blue. 

There actually exists paintings of him without the beard. He didn’t start growing it until he was in his 20s, so there were a hoofful of years where he either had no beard, or it wasn’t yet in the ‘magnificent’ stage. 

While several ponies tried to say he was a dignified Dumbledore-like pony, he wasn’t. He was an absolute dork, had several off-the-wall ideas, and honestly liked fucking with people. The dude’s signature outfit was a hat and cloak festooned with bells that would honestly have a cacophony of noise every time he shifted. You don’t wear an outfit like that without liking to fuck with people. 

Okay, I already made the Harry Potter reference, but tbh he’s not Dumbledore. He’s Fred and George. Brilliant as hell but loves fun and mischief. Still, he did some very brilliant things. 

Starswirl was part of the first Ponies. They literally popped into existence at the beginning of the world, 2000 some odd years ago. That’s one reason he was so influential. Not that he wasn’t brilliant and would have done amazing things had he been born a few centuries later, but it’s easy to create spells that are still used years later when you’re one of the first Unicorns and someone has to invent anything more complicated than levitation. 

He totally had friends. Plenty of them. In fact, he and his closest friends were the brilliant group to craft the Elements of Harmony. Well, the Elements are a naturally occurring thing, but the jewels were crafted to help ponies wield them easier as a conduit, and it was quite a task considering that the raw magic power of the Elements shattered most Gems. 

This team also created a Prototype Crystal Heart, but the full version wouldn’t be complete for a few more centuries. 

Okay, I have to address the ‘Starswirl is Discord’ theory(even though the show disproved it, but this is Canon Divergent so it could still happen). 

Starswirl and Discord have no relation. Well, at least as far as ‘being the same person’. They absolutely knew each other. Very well I might add. No, you know what? Fuck it, I’m not going to be subtle. They were together romantically for a time, a few hundred years before Discord going nuts and being a statue. I guess you could call them ‘exes’, but there wasn’t a concept of marriage or monogamy at the time so the only reason they stopped seeing each other is because Discord is Immortal while Starswirl isn’t. That said, Discord still has a thing for dorky Unicorns and mischievous, off-the-wall weirdos. 

As for other Romantic endeavors, again the concept of ‘marriage’ didn’t quite exist yet, but the closest thing to a wife he had was an Earth Pony mare named Frosted Cake that he had two daughters with. 

Said daughters are Clover and Smart Cookie, who would eventually be known in the Hearth’s Warming story, but they have pretty much no relation to the story because I have conspiracy theories that are explained elsewhere.

Clover and Smart Cookie were the first ponies to be born normally. Remember what I said about everyone else ‘popping into existence’? Yeah, no parents were involved there. Clover and Smart Cookie were the first to be made by two ponies doing the do. (Clover is technically first, but they were twins).

Starswirl’s encounter with Sirens is not with the same Sirens as the ones in RR. Both trios had similar stories though. 

I go into this more in a different headcanon post, but Sirens are usually normal and nice like anything else, but they have a Berserk Mode similar to Dragons. Except Berserk Sirens are 1. more coherent and 2. activated by Desire instead of Greed(Technicalities on what is what)

The Dazzlings had no connection to Starswirl, and all of them are still in their teens, having only been in the Human World for a few years. Celestia sent them there as a last desperate way to possibly break them out of Berserk Mode(since cutting off Magic can stop it), but.... okay this is getting long and is covered elsewhere so I’m stopping here. 

The Sirens Starswirl dealt with.... didn’t go to another Dimension. They were Berserk and Dangerous, but I’m debating over whether he managed to calm them back to normal, or if he ended up having to kill them to keep them from harming everyone else(which would absolutely fuck him up btw, but still). Either way, history adjusted the story to “oh, he, uh, ‘sent them away’! Yeah, that’s it! They’re in another dimension!”

Starswirl died about 1,900 years before the events of Season 1. It wasn’t some grand adventure or anything magical. He was just old and had to die eventually. He died happy, probably peacefully in his sleep or something. Idk, I’m not going further into it because if I do I’ll make myself cry. 

Editing to add some more: 

If diners and jukeboxes existed back in the day, Starswirl and Discord would absolutely have pulled the Salt and Pepper Diner thing. 

Starswirl is actually younger than both Celestia and Chrysalis, but older than Discord and Luna. 

Starswirl had nothing to do with building the Mirror Portal. It was actually a Time Traveling Flurry Heart creating a way to Anchor herself to her Home Dimension. 

Speaking of the mirror portal, squishing the timeline to happen in a Mortal lifespan is a pain in the ass. But Human!Starswirl is also dead, but he died much younger because, again, condensed timeline.He did go to CHS with Celestia, Luna, and Discord, but that was nearly a decade before. They all went to Prom together, where Starswirl wore the Human version of his signature claok and hat.

Human Starswirl and Discord 100% did the Salt and Pepper Diner bit. 

[zaritarazi]

okay so thank you to everyone who gave me ray + felicity’s canon ages so that i could look at them, go “oh this isn’t what i want” and just throw that out the window i’m god now i make the rules

here’s something you need to know about american jewish culture, and i never got to partake in this for a wide array of reasons, but we as a people are literally obsessed with sleepaway summer camp. like sleepaway summer camps that are specifically like, send your jewish children here! we teach them to be more jewish by surrounding them with other jews! and you know what if it works it works whatever

and this is one of those things where like, jewish kids look forward to being away from home, at summer camp, for eight literal weeks. most jewish children go through puberty exclusively at jewish summer camp, that’s just how it works honestly i have people that can confirm

and why i’m telling you this is because i need you all to imagine that ray and felicity are say like, a year apart, and are absolutely 13 + 14 at fucking b’nai shalom jcc in the mountains this is a name i just made up and i swear to you jewish people are gonna find it funny so sorry to the rest of you. this post got long as FUCK btw so under the cut. its more pro ray and felicity than like them exactly as a ship? but whatever

but anyway baby felicity is there with her light brown frizzy hair and her huge braces and her glasses and donna like, saved so much money so that felicity could go, because this is what she’s supposed to do and she just wants felicity to fit in and like, god does felicity not want to be here but like whatever. she’s pretty sure if she fakes a stomach flu she can spend her time in the nurse’s office and not have to be outside, or maybe she can fake an injury so her mom can get her money back, also you’re supposed to bring like tee shirts and fuck do y’all remember those fruit of the loom cloth shorts that you’re supposed to fold the waist over and the more you folded the waist to make them shorter the more confident with boys you were? felicity has like exclusively tee shirts from the limited too and does not fold her shorts 

and ray is like, usually he and sydney go and it’s great but they’re both 14 now and sydney has taken to making ray’s life actual hell! like you have the same braces i do sydney why are you making fun of me for something WE BOTH HAVE but so like, ray is as always very optimistic but is also so quietly relieved that he doesn’t have the same cabin as sydney does this year oh and did i mention ray had his growthspurt like, the DAY before he left for camp? so now he’s about 5′11″ and getting taller and he is ALL limbs

so like day 1 is just arriving and unpacking, felicity meets her cabinmates and her counselor who is like very nice but already felicity can FEEL everyone becoming friends and she’s like oh no i’m not going to be in on this am i- oh- let’s start planning that injury then 

also some of these camps are very much no tech and try to enforce it, they tried to take felicity’s stuff and she almost had a meltdown so they were like you know what? you’re good. you are- good

ray is having similar issues because like when you’re 14 and your brother won’t leave you the fuck alone it’s actually kind of hard to enjoy yourself??? weird

so please, if you will, basically picture that day 2 of camp felicity grabs her backpack of computer shit, goes “i have a stomach ache” and marches to the nurse and the nurse is just like. yeah sure whatever. and felicity is like actually a summer in this nice sterile air conditioned room with just me and my tech? i could like this

and then fucking ray palmer walks into the room bc he got hit in the face, day 2, during volleyball, and his nose isn’t broken but it is a little bloody, and felicity takes one look at him and then like all cynical thirteen year old jewish girls do makes a scoffing noise and is like, well that’s why /i/ don’t go outside and ray is like i didnt hear what you said, i just heard that you said it and hey how did you get a computer in here?

and she’s like oh i uh- i just did

and ray is like “wow that’s so cool!” and like ray does this as an adult so what makes you think all 14 years of him wouldn’t tumble into a pile of limbs near the counter where felicity is working and start asking her about specs

and felicity has NEVER had a boy in her life ever tell her she’s cool and she has even moreso never had anyone to talk to about computer stuff and you know when you look back on youre life and youre like shit why did 13 year old me have it so bad??? well she’s not older yet and this is the moment where shes like oh- oh no

ray is ray. felicity is his age and, in his eyes, very cute, and she’s nice to him, so like yeah he’s pretty much ready to propose

like the funny thing is they pretty much just clique up with each other and eat their meals together and go on hikes together and go so, so awkwardly swimming together and sit next to each other at the campfire and all the camp counselors are like gang- when they make beautiful jewish babies, let’s remember that we did this and we’re the heroes here

honestly one of their camp counselors is kate kane sitting in a hammock, looking over her issue of cosmo and going “ew” and returning to her magazine

but honestly, they probably are mostly just friends who have that real real tweenage love going on but like, kiss twice and yes. yes their braces did get locked but they were able to figure it out themselves. like mainly they’re just like, best friends and even though felicity doesn’t go to camp the next year bc $$$ she and ray try to keep in touch? but like it’s the 90s so it’s a little harder, it gets easier when facebook comes around but by then there is some distance just bc they’re both studying so much and so far apart that like, they cant stay in touch as frequently, she goes to MIT and he goes wherever Ray went to college, and she moves to Star City and he gets 4 PhDs in like what 2-3 years and also Jean Loring was the worst so there’s no Anna in this story that’s over now 

and here we are in Star and Felicity is... i dunno i never liked their intro so I could honestly see them just meeting at queen consolidated, ray comes in to buy the company and is like oh!!! felicity!!! hi!!! remember me!!!! it’s ray from camp!!!!! HI!!!!!

and felicity is just like  1. he got so hot 2. oh......... no

and ray’s thoughts are 1. wow she’s always been so pretty- did she do something with her hair? 2. .... did i leave the stove on????

anyway then they make an ot3 with laurel and alls well that ends well thanks for walking through jewish culture with me

[hermanwatts]

Sensor Sweep: Spears of Clontarf, Mech, Max Brand, Melee, Dresden Files

Robert E. Howard (Jeffro Johnson): This is a great story, a fascinating piece.

In the first place, it shows us up close the sort of peoples, Christian and pagan, that produced the bedrock of the myth and legends that would define our base concepts of fantasy and heroism. But it also presents the notion that we are descended from people that were every bit as heroic as Conan and Solomon Kane. And being written by Robert E. Howard, you can’t help but end up being persuaded!

So many good lines here:

My lords, it may be God’s will I fall in the first onset– but the scars of slavery burn deep in my back this night, and may the dogs eat my bones if I am backward when the spears are splintering.

  Fiction (Rawle Nyanzi): It’s finally here. The project that myself, Brian Niemeier, and Bradford C. Walker set out to complete is under way. Three mech books — two currently released, one in pre-orders — can finally be purchased on Amazon. One even has a sequel out. These stories are very different from one another. Xseed is military sci-fi in the Gundam mold, very grounded in realism; Reavers is “Christian knights in space,” strongly modeled off of both chivalric romances and classic Star Wars. My own book is based strongly on Japanese-style superhero shows, specifically Power Rangers, while also taking place in an alternate history.

      Authors (DMR Books): Frederick Faust, better known to millions of fans over the last hundred years as “Max Brand,” was born on this date in 1892. Awhile back, I wrote a post on H. Bedford-Jones where I called him “King of the Pulps.” I may need to change my mind on that one. I was following the opinion of Darrell C. Richardson–whose opinions and erudition I esteem greatly–in that instance. I think I’ll have to belatedly disagree with Darrell this time.

While Bedford-Jones is calculated to have written about twenty-five million words for the pulps in his career, Faust wrote at least that many in a shorter career–Faust died five years before Bedford-Jones, almost to the day. Both men wrote in various genres, but Faust appears to have made better money doing so.

  Fiction (HiLo Brow): Ernest Hemingway‘s WWI adventure A Farewell to Arms. A hardboiled account — by a disillusioned American, Frederic Henry, serving as a paramedic in the ambulance corps of the Italian Army — of the horrors of WWI. “I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice and the expression in vain,” Henry recounts. “I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it…” Our narrator is introduced to Catherine Barkley, an English nurse, whom he indifferently attempts to seduce; he gets to know Catherine better as he recuperates under her care, after being wounded on the Italian front; he is sent back to the front — leaving a pregnant Catherine behind in Milan.

      Fiction (Eldtrich Paths): Grave Peril is the third book of the Dresden Files. I had no major problems with the first two books in the series, but I can see why many readers say the series picks up with this book. A lot happens. Harry Dresden has to deal with more characters, more problems, and more enemies are. The author really puts Harry through the grinder with this one, making it a great chapter in the series.

  Fiction (DMR Books): The second installment in the serialized version of Tros of Samothrace is titled “The Enemy of Rome” and consists of what would become chapters 15 – 26 of the novel published in 1934. Set in the late summer/early fall of the year 55 B.C., this story tells of the aftermath of Julius Caesar’s first invasion of Britain and was first published in the April 10, 1925 issue of Adventure magazine.

Tros has won his first skirmish with Caesar and Rome: he has Caesar’s ship, his pay chests, his seal of office and all of his correspondence (not just military intelligence but much of his foe’s schemes and ongoing plans).

    History (Don Herron): Recently I read A Splendid Savage: The Restless Life of Frederick Russell

Burnham by Steve Kemper. Here’s a paragraph from the book:

Apaches inspired terror for good reason. They were as harsh and pitiless as the landscape they roamed. For non-Apaches, the worst imaginable fate was to be taken alive by them. Captured children and young women were occasionally integrated into the tribe, but men were doomed to torments. Captives were often turned over to Apache women whose male relatives had recently been killed. 

      Fiction (Black Gate): The Wrath of Fantomas is a book I approached with extreme prejudice. It’s a graphic novel that seeks to present a new version of Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain’s Fantomas series, which proved so successful when it was introduced a scant 108 years ago. As a rule, I dislike the concept of rebooting a series.

When first discovering a book series as a kid, continuity was key. It made a property more meaningful if there were numerous volumes to find and devour. Scouring used bookstores for dogeared copies of the missing pieces in the narrative puzzle made such books far more valuable to me.

  Fiction (Hillbilly Highway): You can imagine my interest then, when I discovered that an Appendix N and Weird Tales stalwart, Manly Wade Wellman, wrote an entire series of short stories very much rooted in the lore of my people.  About John.  At least that’s the only way his name is given in the stories.  He is more usually known as John the Balladeer or Silver John.  He may also be a parallel universe Johnny Cash.  Or maybe John the Baptist.  Or maybe both.

  Games (Jeffro Johnson): This game is so rad.

I get it out to show it to people, as if to just explain what it is and show off the components…. But then, if you have time to explain it, you pretty much have time to play it. And once you play it, you gotta play it again!

The sample character cards from the recent Fantasy Trip “Monster” Set make this even easier. Just pick a card. Pick one at random, even. Man, it’s just so easy.

  Games and Popular Culture (Wasteland and Sky): I’m unconvinced there is a Millennial who knows what an actual homage is. They should, but for some reason have discarded this definition from their minds. A “homage” is clearly not swiping passages of another writer’s work and not transforming it to a new form, such as comedy or parody, or attributing the original when doing so. But that aside there is a another quote that gives the game away.

  Cinema (Sacnoth’s Scriptorium): So, the organizers of Tolkien Day in Kalamazoo arranged for a special showing of the new TOLKIEN biopic to a room full of Tolkien scholars. We were on the whole a skeptical bunch as to whether the filmmakers cd pull it off, but willing to see how it had come out.

The first thing that struck me was the trees. Tolkien famously said you can’t get much about trees into a play, one reason he considered drama inferior to fiction, but the filmmakers showed this is not necessarily the case for film.

  Fiction (Classic Mysteries): I’m pretty sure that readers who enjoy some of the great classics of science fiction are already familiar with the name of Fredric Brown. I have particularly fond memories of several of his SF classics, such as Martians, Go Home. But I’m also fond of Brown as a mystery author. And, as a fan of Lewis Carroll, and the Alice in Wonderland books in general, I generally try to re-read one of my favorite Fredric Brown mysteries, Night of the Jabberwock, every few years. It’s funny, medium-to-hard-boiled, and I think its plot is both unique and brilliant. It’s not always available in the marketplace, but – as of May, 2019 – it looks like it’s out there at least as an e-book. So here’s what I had to say about Night of the Jabberwock when I reviewed it on the Classic Mysteries podcast several years ago. I’ve updated the information about the book’s availability, but otherwise it’s pretty much as I first wrote and recorded it.

Pulp Science Fiction (SF Magazine): The Debt by E. Mayne Hull is the third of her ‘Artur Blord’ series, and sees the return of the alien Skal from the previous story. This one starts with Blord coming upon a ravaged spaceship, where all the men are dead and there is only one hidden survivor, Ellen Reith. All the other women have been taken by the Skal’s henchmen to the Castle of Pleasure. Blord realises that they will soon deduce from the manifest that Reith is missing, and that they will return for her. He calls his office to organise a cover up.

  Fiction(Paperback Warrior): Author Paul Bishop is a 35-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department. Receiving “Detective of the Year” accolades twice, Bishop starred as the lead interrogator on the ABC reality show “Take the Money and Run” developed by marquee name producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Along with his 15 published works, Bishop also is the writer and editor of the essential reference work “52 Weeks 52 Western Novels – A Guide to Six-Gun Favorites and New Discoveries”.

Sensor Sweep: Spears of Clontarf, Mech, Max Brand, Melee, Dresden Files published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/