#victoria dickinson

[kotori-mochi]

"Cayde holidays" by victoria Dickinson on INPRNT

Another reminder of a print I have up, perfect for the Holidays. Also right now Inprnt has a sale 15% off and patreons get 20% off with code provided on a post in patreon.

[perioddramapolls]

Period dramas dresses tournament: Blue dresses Round 1- Group C: Queen Victoria, The young Victoria (pics set) vs Emily Dickinson, Dickinson

[rosalie-starfall]

Cottagecore

I've randomly had a storm or inspiration and have been writing a series of original Sapphic Cottagecore short stories. It's been a really nice escape for my mind lately.

[flohouse46]

Here is a little drabble based on this song with Kate and Yelena.

Oh, Kate it's so cheesy.

It's a mirror ball and it's our wedding so who even cares. I love you Mrs. Yelena Belova-Bishop.

And, I love you, Mrs. Kate Bishop-Belova. Love of my life.

As they admired their matching rings, Yelena with a smile like the morning sun, you are forever mine Kate I am forever yours. She kisses her wife, (wife!), softly on the lips.

Now, time for our new life dance.

They extends their hands, bowing to each other, and rise and take the dance floor.

As the music begins, they hold each other close. They look stunning together. Kate in an amazing soft lavender gown and Yelena in a beautiful mint green dress.

As they drown in each others ocean blue eyes and beautiful emerald green eyes, Yelena whispers.

I knew thought then, on the rooftop, that I wanted to end up here. To have the most beautiful woman in the world at my side.

Kate: You did, you knew.

Yel: I allowed myself a sliver of hope, of possibility, of grace and then buried it deep in my heart, my soul. I believed I would never be worthy.

Yelena, you were never unworthy. You only needed to see in yourself what I saw from the moment we met. Beauty, grace, the possibility of love. I love you and will never let you go.

Yelena and Kate are together, now forever. To each other they vow,

You have brought me what I always wanted. Love, yes love. But also JOY! Oh my god, what JOY!

#another try at getting outside of myself #I thank everyone for the love on the first drabble. @yelenasdiary I know you're feeling lonely, hope this helps #the song is beautiful and should become a wedding standard

How Does It Make You Feel BY Victoria Monet

[myspacelolit4]

[on growing pains]

growing pains, me // Ribs, Lorde // Lady Bird (2019) dir. Greta Gerwig // Fleabag (2016-2019) S2E5, Phoebe Waller-Bridge // The Trees Witness Everything; “Garden”, Victoria Chang // Lindsey Wixon shot by Tim Walker for Vogue Italia January 2012 ‘Like A Doll’ // Childish Griefs, Emily Dickinson // sue zhao // Annie’s Room, by Rookie

[mollyolikeme]

Why is it giving…….

???????????

[programapilototv]

Dramas de época perfectos para olvidar los del día a día

En la vida real, muchas veces nos encontramos con situaciones difíciles y estresantes que nos hacen desear escapar a un mundo diferente. Los dramas de época, ambientados en tiempos pasados, nos ofrecen una forma de hacer precisamente eso. Desde dramas románticos ambientados en la Inglaterra del siglo XIX hasta historias de aventuras medievales, hay un drama de época para cada gusto. La Doctora…

[llovelymoonn]

would it be possible to do a web weaving about a relationship with a time limit? like where you know it can’t last for whatever reason but you decide to go for it anyway

jeanette winterson weight: the myth of atlas and heracles (via @flowerytale) \\ liana finck touching \\ ellen frischbutter be aware of life's moments \\ emily dickinson in a letter to mary bowles (via @flowerytale) \\ william chapman \\ franz kafka letters to milena \\ okechukwu nzelu here again now \\ victoria hannan kokomo \\ rex koolstra burnt out

kofi

[amymbona]

I love women, oh how I adore women. All and every, I love them all. I love successful smart women who got fucked up by not only overachievers but mainly science assholes who couldn't handle a woman inventing anything. I love Ada Lovelace and Hedy Lamarr. I love feminists and all the women that fought for female right, that fought racists and patriarchs and homophobes and sexists, who made sure that we have the right to vote, to study and to marry whoever we want. I love the suffragettes, Mary Wollstonecraft, Františka Plamínková, Rosa Parks and Milada Horáková. I love female authors who pushed through the wave of misogyny and published their own books and became famous worldwide, influencing masses of people. I love Virginia Woolf, Jane Austen, Emily Dickinson, Mary Shelley, Sylvia Plath, Simone de Beauvoir and Margaret Atwood. I love female rulers who managed to reign over a whole country, conquer their enemies and successfully remain on the throne. I love Marie Therese, Elizabeth I, queen Victoria, Catherine the great, Elizabeth II. I love actresses and singers that popularized film and theatre and became role models to many many girls and women, who had to push through years of unfairness and constant sexualization. I love Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Whitney Houston, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Angelina Jolie. I love fictional women, from books and movies, who were either powerful or batshit insane or survived the unsurvivable or were the epitome of the devil. I love Medeia, Esther Greenwood, Hermione Granger, Katniss Everdeen and Tashi Duncan. Them and many much more, straight women, cis women, gay women, trans women, happy women, sad women, angry women, miserable women, emotional women, women who are a threat to men and patriarchy and are seen as crazy and insane. I love all women and everything they've accomplished, for how they inspired me.

[augustinajosefina]

A request

Please suggest books to me! Preferably in the glove kink/lesbian space atrocities, urban fantasy or dark academia genres but I'll happily try any SF/fantasy at least once.

So far I've read and loved:

Before 2023

The Imperial Radch (Ancillary Justice/Sword/Mercy) - Ann Leckie

Jean le Flambeur (The Quantum Thief/The Fractal Prince/The Causal Angel) - Hannu Rajaniemi

The Windup Girl/The Water Knife - Paolo Bagicalupi

Memory of Water/The City of Woven Streets - Emmi Itäranta

2023

The Locked Tomb (Gideon/Harrow/Nona the Ninth) - Tamsyn Muir

The Masquerade (Traitor/Monster/Tyrant Baru Cormorant) - Seth Dickinson

Teixcalaan series (A Memory Called Empire/A Desolation Called Peace) - Arkady Martine

Machineries of Empire (Ninefox Gambit/Raven Stratagem/Revenant Gun/Hexarchate Stories) - Yoon Ha Lee

The Murderbot Diaries (All Systems Red to System Collapse) - Martha Wells

The Broken Earth (The Fifth Season/The Obelisk Gate/The Stone Sky) - N. K. Jemisin

Klara And The Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro

Xuya universe (The Citadel of Weeping Pearls/The Tea Master and the Detective/Seven of Infinities plus short stories) - Aliette de Bodard

This is How You Lose the Time War - Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

The Goblin Emperor/The Witness for the Dead/Grief of Stones - Katherine Addison

Some Desperate Glory - Emily Tesh

2024

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - V. E. Schwab

The Craft Sequence (Three Parts Dead/Two Serpents Rise/Full Fathom Five/Last First Snow/Four Roads Cross/Ruin of Angels) - Max Gladstone

Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution - R. F. Kuang

Dead Country - Max Gladstone

Hands of the Emperor - Victoria Goddard

Read and liked:

The Moonday Letters - Emmi Itäranta

Piranesi - Susanna Clarke

Great Cities (The City We Became/The World We Make) - N. K. Jemisin

Autonomous - Annalee Newitz

Dead Djinn universe (A Master of Djinn/The Haunting of Tram Car 015/A Dead Djinn in Cairo/The Angel of Khan el-Khalili) - P. Djèlí Clark

Even Though I Knew the End - C. L. Polk

Station Eternity - Mur Lafferty

The Mythic Dream - Dominik Parisien & Navah Wolfe

Shades of Magic (A Darker Shade of Magic/A Gathering of Shadows/A Conjuring of Light/Fragile Threads of Power) - V. E. Schwab

The Luminous Dead - Caitlin Starling

Last Exit - Max Gladstone

The Stars Are Legion - Kameron Hurley

Ninth House/Hell Bent - Leigh Bardugo

Machine - Elizabeth Bear

Our Wives Under the Sea - Julia Armfield

She Is A Haunting - Trang Thanh Tran

Sisters of the Revolution - Jeff & Ann Vandermeer

Station Eleven - Emily St John Mandel

Nettle & Bone - T. Kingfisher

Monstrilio - Gerardo Samano Córdova

Was uncertain about:

Light From Uncommon Stars - Ryka Aoki

The Kaiju Preservation Society - John Scalzi

Paladin's Grace - T. Kingfisher

The House in the Cerulean Sea - TJ Klune

In the Vanishers Palace - Aliette de Bodard

Uprooted - Naomi Novik

What Moves The Dead - T. Kingfisher

All The Birds In The Sky - Charlie Jane Anders

And read and disliked:

To Be Taught, if Fortunate - Becky Chambers

A Psalm for the Wild-Built - Becky Chambers

The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon

The Calculating Stars - Mary Robinette Kowal

The Space Between Worlds - Micaiah Johnson

How High We Go in the Dark - Sequoia Nagamatsu

Shadow and Bone - Leigh Bardugo

The Passage - Justin Cronin

In Ascension - Martin MacInnes

(My pride insists I add that I have, in fact, read other books as well. Just to be clear.)

[wulfhalls]

can you make an ultimate period drama watchlist please?

WOLF HALL!!!!!!! the gilded age, the tudors, vikings, vikings valhalla, the borgias, the buccaneers, the english, war and peace, THE TERROR!!!!! victoria, poldark, THE GREAT!!!!, versailles, the white queen, the white princess, the spanish princess, the last kingdom, rome, deadwood, die kaiserin, THE KNICK!!!!, the crown, boardwalk empire, alias grace, mad men, barbaren, medici, BAND OF BROTHERS!!!!! penny dreadful, the americans, perry mason, the alienist, the year of the rabbit, downton abbey, miss scarlet and the duke, 1883, das boot, reign, interview with the vampire, kingdom, spartacus,

to be watched:

sanditon, harlots, frontier, gentlemen jack, black sails, peaky binders, bridgerton, dickinson, call the midwife, vanity fair, north and south, marco polo, all creatures great and small

[kotori-mochi]

To help you celebrate Mermay,

My "Mermaid Petra" print is still available and the NSFW (topless) version is available on my patreon. 

Also the site is having a sale and if your a patron on my patreon you get an extra 20% off with code.

[pensbridge]

a Compilation of Similar Show Recommendations & things I've wanted to watch from my drafts

Hulu

The Great a comedic period piece on the rise of Catherine the Great

Harlots-(that Nicola Coughlan is in)

The World to Come-a film about 2 women on the frontier in separate marriages, who fall for one another

Ammonite-film about a woman who takes a job to care for a man's wife while in need of money in 1800s England

Portrait of a Lady on Fire-a young woman is tasked to paint a lady without her knowing

The Artful Dodger-(streams Nov 29)

Netflix

The Empress-a love at first sight encounter which leads to marriage and a rebellious woman at the center of the Viennese Court

Victoria & Abdul-following an unlikely friendship between the queen and a clerk

The Last Czars-a revolution that leads to the fall of the Romanov dynasty

Anne With An E-a retelling of Anne of Green Gables about an imaginative girl, navigating life, love, and the world

The Law According to Lidia Poët

Young Royals-boarding school life in Sweden of the "spare" in the royal family dealing with love, sexuality, and scandal

Pride & Predjudice

Outlander

Lady Chatterley's Lover

The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society

Fair Play-(that Phoebe Dynevor stars)

Amazon Prime

The Paradise-(2 seasons)

Poldark-(5 seasons)

A Very English Scandal-(2 seasons)

Catherine Called Birdy

The Pursuit of Love-(3 seasons)

Reign-Prime (or CW app)

The Other Boleyn Girl-Prime (or free w/ads on Youtube) account of King Henry VIII's one time mistress and her sister as they are forced into plan to seduce the king for power and security

The Tudors-(4 seasons)

Vanity Fair-(1 season)

War & Peace-(Freevee on Prime)

Tulip Fever-(Freevee on Prime)

HBO Max

The Gilded Age

Gentleman Jack

A Royal Affair

Apple

Dickinson-(3 seasons)

YouTube (free w/ads)

Ophelia

Fellow Travelers-(Showtime; that Jonathan Bailey stars)

[l-just-want-to-see]

HOPE IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS.

dc comics’ Superman / Netflix’s Shadow and Bones (Six of Crows) / Canary in the Coal Mine, the Crane Wives / Star Wars: A New Hope (the Millenium Falcon) / Bird Song, Florence + The Machine / Marvel Comics’ Phoenix (Hope Summers) / dc comics’ Robins / The Hunger Games: Catching Fire / Blackbird, The Beatles + dc comics / Avatar: The Last Airbender / For Example, Mary Oliver / dc comics / Lord of the Rings: Return of the King / The Hunger Games / The Origin of Birds, Nicole Callihan / Man of Steel / THE TREES WITNESS EVERYTHING, Victoria Chang / Emily Dickinson

[thoroughfvre]

i'm finally free until january fourth which means i should be around to write more and get to overdue dms ! i'm gonna get to current drafts gradually but here's a wishlist in case anyone wants to indulge me and my brain babies . . . please like this if you're interested and i'll get to you by the end of the week !

wanted concepts :

anything winter / christmas / new years eve . . . i need to get in the holiday spirit asap

maybe a mumu where there are workers and tourists at a ski resort or tourist-y town ??

strangers who share a nye midnight kiss and can't leave each other alone after

gen v inspired things / a mumu . . . i would prefer to play ocs but canons are welcome !

supernatural vibes ( as in creatures — not the show suhjskdij ) . . . can be serious or a little silly and goofy

road trip - esque plots ( i.e. our muses were road - tripping solo , met each other at a rest stop / gas station and decided to finish the trip together or two young adults / lovers / friends / siblings who don't feel like they fit in anywhere and decide to find their place in the world )

always a sl*t for fake dating or enemies to lovers

a costar for my actor muse . . . can go a million different ways

muses for any of my artsy babies ( i have a bunch of them ! )

battle of the bands . . . rival bands . . . musician things . . .

really anything from this tag .

muses i want to use asap :

apollo ortiz : small town guy who was a superstar in his prime , star baseball player , nearly drafted to the mlb but got injured and had to return home . currently teaches local high school / kiddie leagues and has a lot of anger in his heart . fc: jan luis castellanos .

adonis ' doni ' laurent : rich kid who grew up with shady parents who sheltered him from anyone and anything they didn't approve of . currently an actor ( can be aspiring or a - list depending on plot ) and has a bad habit of being dishonest . fc : harris dickinson .

victoria ' tori ' cabrera : my angel baby . . . my number one . . . i can never have too many plots with her . fashion intern , fashion student or stylist intern ( depends on plot ) with major mommy issues . a little spitfire who craves affection but has no idea what to do with it when she gets it . fc : nailea devora .

devon rhodes : an eccentric part - time art teacher and part - time art shop owner with a heart of gold . has no filter , lets whatever pops in her head fly out of her mouth or puts it into her art . still a bit new to me but i'm dying to write her . fc : taylor russell .

margot dai : very new . still fleshing her out . but a major aesthete who works in a florist shop and may even dabble in wedding planning . loves pretty things and watching them grow . would love to flesh her out with someone ! fc : havana rose liu .

malachi barone : very new x2 . i know very little about this man except that he's essentially a hermit , tends to come off as a bit pretentious and has an extensive knowledge of art as a curator . dying to write him and sort him out . fc : jeremy allen white .

[thefandomwritersblog]

Ghost of the Ten

Horizon: Forbidden West

Hekarro x Fem!OldOne OC

Action/Adventure/Romance/Hurt/Comfort

Chapter 21

Part 3: Ghost of the Ten

~~

"Hope is this thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all." --Emily Dickinson

~~

Day Whatever The Fuck This Is,

I still think this whole diary thing is the stupidest thing on the planet, but….

Beta gets so proud every time she sees the charcoal stains on my hands. She says that she’s proud of me for trying, even if I do think this whole exercise is pointless. She’s a cute kid, her and her sister, though they couldn’t be anymore different than night and day. Beta’s a quiet kid, she likes to keep to herself, fiddle with little machines she tinkers with. She showed me a workshop that Petra set up for her in the Oseram Camp, she’s been helping them build the cranes the workers are gonna use to repair the crater walls.

Aloy’s the tough one, though. I can see it in her eyes; a hardness there that I know all too well. Like she had to build a wall between herself and the entire world. But when she’s with Beta I can see that wall soften, I can see the love and care they have for each other. It should make me angry; I don’t have that anymore. But all it does is just make me sad. Petra says that I’m incredible, but I just feel lost and lonely all the time despite how hard everyone is trying to keep me going. I wish they’d just stop.

It’d be so much easier to give up if they didn’t care.

~~

The room was quiet aside from Victoria’s soft humming, who sat at her desk with a piece of charcoal in hand. Her fingers glided effortlessly over the parchment, leaving behind a trail of dark dust that she skillfully shaped into precise and purposeful strokes. As she worked, her gaze would occasionally drift to the delicate orchid sitting on the edge of her desk, its dewy petals glistening in the morning sun. She took a moment to appreciate its beauty before returning to her sketch. With each movement of the charcoal, she captured the intricate details of the flower's petals, carefully blending and shading to create depth and texture. She lost herself in the calming focus of her task until she finally leaned back to admire her work, the orchid nearly mirrored on the parchment.

It felt good to have some time for this again. She struggled to recall the last time she had sat and drawn; definitely before the Swarm. Victoria furrowed her brow as her gaze drifted to the wall above her desk. She remembered arguing with Maria then, though she couldn't quite recall what started the fight. She was home for the first time in months, sitting with a canvas and some paint in her apartment while her mama fussed around in the kitchen. Maria wanted her to take a break from her humanitarian work overseas - there had been a health scare and she just wanted their family together. But Victoria was always away, hardly ever returning for holidays or even calling (a guilt that still gnawed at her).

She had been determined not to budge. She finally found a career that brought fulfillment and purpose; something that made her feel like she was really making a difference.

It wasn't until after the Faro Plague reached its peak that Victoria spoke to Maria again, but even then it didn't feel like they had reconciled.

She should have spent more time with them. She should have been there.

Why are you alive and they’re not.

Closing her eyes, Victoria tried to block out the voices in her head.

“Victoria?” Hekarro called out from the other side of the curtained door, “May I come in?”

She frowned; he sounded sterner than usual. “Yeah.” she replied, “Sure.”

He ducked through, all dressed for business today in his armor and crown. He greeted her with a polite smile, but she could tell he was here for a purpose. Victoria then noticed the extra shuffle of feet and murmurs of voices outside the door, and then was surprised to see Dekka enter soon after Hekarro.

"I apologize for interrupting your peace, Victoria," Hekarro said with a slight bow and hand over his heart, “But I fear I must ask you to leave your room for a time.”

Her brow furrowed in confusion. "Why?"

"There is a storm approaching from the west," Hekarro explained, "and we need to prepare the Grove before it arrives. Your room needs to be secured as soon as possible."

Dekka stepped forward and offered her a smile, “I can imagine you don't want to share your space while others are working, so I thought I'd ask if you'd like to join me for breakfast until they're done."

Victoria hesitated for a moment before muttering, "Sure, why not?" She moved the journal aside and got up from her spot. Hekarro gave her another smile as she walked past him and out the door, with Dekka close behind. The Tenakth guards quickly averted their gazes when they saw Victoria, their conversation falling into an uneasy silence. Dekka motioned towards the left down the hallway leading to the crater. She looked up at the bright blue sky as they stepped onto the crater's edge, following it towards the Maw.

"Didn't Hekarro say there would be a storm?" she asked. Dekka nodded and shooed away some of the guards away from the gates.

"Don't be deceived by the clear sky. Even on the outskirts of the Lowlands, a storm can appear before you know it. But for those who are aware, there are signs that give away its approach. The winds have been picking up from the west, and it carries the scent of thunder and rain. Our luck also held with a messenger from Thornmarsh arriving to warn us beforehand."

They entered the dimly lit mess hall, which was mostly empty except for a small group of exhausted Tenakth gathered around a table in one corner. In the center of the room stood a large, well-stocked kitchen with a blazing fire and a boar roasting on a spit. The delicious aroma filled her senses as they approached the counter, where a small Tenakth woman was bustling around cleaning.

"Chaplain," the woman greeted, "I was wondering if you would come by this morning."

Dekka chuckled, "It's been quite a busy start to the day."

"I heard. Poor thing ran all the way here from Thornmarsh. I made sure to give him some food; he's sleeping now."

"Good. Two bowls for us this morning." Dekka paused, thinking for a moment. "And also the Strike board, if you don't mind."

The cook grinned, "Right away, Chaplain."

The woman set to work in an instant, bringing over an intriguing-looking board and a heavy leather bag for Dekka to take. Both were handed to Victoria and she was directed towards a table against the far wall. "Could you bring these over there?"

"Uhhhh, sure?" Victoria responded with a shrug, doing as she was told. Dekka followed closely behind, carrying two piping hot bowls of breakfast. Once they reached the table, Victoria settled into her seat while Dekka sat across from her, placing one of the bowls in front of her before turning her attention to the board. As she removed tile pieces from the bag and arranged them on the board, Victoria couldn't help but watch curiously as she ate her rice, meat, and eggs. “Am I allowed to ask what we’re doing?”

The older woman chuckled, "Of course, there are no secrets here." She pulled out what looked like game pieces from the bag. Victoria picked one up and immediately recognized it as a machine similar to the one Aloy had saved her from. "We're going to play Machine Strike, or Strike for short. It's a simple game played on this board with different landscape tiles that determine movement and defense. Since you're new to the game, we'll stick with grassland tiles which offer no penalties or advantages. Then we choose our pieces, each worth a certain number of setup points. If your opponent destroys your machine, they receive those points. Each set can only have pieces whose points add up to ten. The first player to reach seven points or eliminate all of their opponent's machines wins. Each piece also has its own attack and defense powers listed at the bottom. Any questions?"

Victoria shrugged, shifting in her seat for comfort and leaning forward. “No, but I learn better by doing anyway.”

Dekka smirked, “Then pick your pieces.”

They fell into a comfortable as Victoria carefully picked out her Strike pieces, eventually deciding on a few that caught her eye. Dekka instructed her on how to position the pieces on the board, humming softly as they set up the game. "Bristleback, Bellowback, and Scrapper. An interesting combination choice. Let's see how it plays out. You first.”

The game started slowly, with Victoria stumbling through her turns as Dekka patiently corrected and guided her. Predictably, Victoria lost the first game by a landslide. She was allowed to switch out some of her pieces for the second round, choosing a Leaplasher instead of the Bellowback and a Grazer instead of the burrower. This time, she put up more of a fight but still ended up losing. Dekka smiled at her as they both collected their pieces and returned them to their respective sides of the board, nearly forgetting about their bowls in the process.

"You catch on quickly," Dekka commented. "I'm impressed. But your tendency to rush blindly into battle won't do you any favors in a strategy game like this."

“Yeah, mi mama always used to tell me I was too hotheaded for my own good.” Victoria chuckled and began gathering up her pieces, adding the Burrower back on her side of the board.

“A trait that has its time and place,” Dekka replied, the game starting again. She hummed as Victoria moved across the board, hesitate, then looked up at her with a curious look in her eye, “How are you adjusting?”

“Fine,” Victoria shrugged, “I guess.”

“I'm glad to hear that. I'll admit I was worried about you for a while,” Dekka said, her focus back on the Strike board. “It's good to see that you've been going on more walks with Hekarro and Beta lately.”

“Well, it's not like they give me much of a choice,” Victoria grumped.

Dekka laughed heartily, “I suppose they don't. Beta can be quite stubborn in her own way. And I know the Chief well enough to know he wouldn't let you languish if he could help it.”

Victoria tried not to perk up at that and instead focused on her next move, frowning when Dekka's Plowhorn took out her Burrower. “You've known Hekarro for a long time then?”

"Since he was just a little boy. I still remember the day he was born, so small compared to his parents. Oh, how proud they would be of him now. He's become more of a legend than a mere man these days."

"Hekarro? Small?" Victoria couldn't help but smirk, and Dekka chuckled again.

"It's hard to believe, isn't it? There was a time when we were worried he wouldn't make it. Life was tough for the Clans back then. The Clan Wars claimed Hekarro's parents before he could even walk, so how could a young boy like that survive in our world? But even at such a young age, you could tell Hekarro was sharp. Much sharper than most people gave him credit for, much more adaptable. That served him well during those early years. And when he finally came into his own, after spending years at Fenrise, under the supervision of the Enduring, his cleverness only made him a force to be reckoned with.”

Victoria moved her Leaplasher closer to Dekka's Grazer, smirking as she destroyed Dekka's Scrounger. "So is that how Hekarro became chief?"

"In part," Dekka replied, retaliating by taking out the Leaplasher with her Plowhorn. "Hekarro was Commander of Thornmarsh before becoming chief. He led the Lowland Clan to numerous victories against the Desert and Sky Clans."

Victoria scowled at the game board. "You’d mentioned a Clan War."

"Exactly so," Dekka confirmed. "A war that lasted countless generations, since our tribe's founding. Differences in lifestyle and interpretations of the Visions found in the Grove led to conflicts, which only fueled more resentment and retaliation among the clans. It wasn't uncommon for Tenakth to die at a very young age back then."

"So, what? Hekarro was just a warlord then? How did he become chief if you all couldn't even get along? What changed?"

There was a long pause as Dekka strategized her next move with her Plowhorn, "Hekarro changed. Don't let his current demeanor fool you, Victoria. He is still a formidable warrior, and like all warriors, he had ambition. The Grove has always been sacred to us, even before the unification of the Tenakth. What better way for Hekarro to solidify his legacy and legend than by laying claim to something no one else ever could? And when he stood among the fallen in the aftermath of his victory, your Mother's Vision came to him alone. Anne Faraday's call for peace resonated with him, and it changed him. It changed all of us, and our lives have only been better because of it. Without her Vision, I doubt our tribe would still exist today."

Victoria moved her Grazer back and inched her Bellowback forward, “How so?”

“Not long after we united under Chief Hekarro, a tribe from the east began to lay waste to our Utaru allies across the mountains. This conflict became known as the Red Raids, and if we had been fighting amongst ourselves instead of joining the Utaru against a common enemy, it's likely we would have been wiped out. Then came the Derangement of the machines, the Blight, the Blood Choke… All of which we survived because we were stronger together as a Tribe, than apart as the Clans.”

Dekka emerged triumphant after the third round, taking the board and bowls to the counter while Victoria was lost in her own thoughts. The fact that she had slept for a thousand years hit her with full force once again. It was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the rich history of the tribe she coexisted with, and even harder to dismiss the impact her mother had on it all. She couldn't help but feel frustrated that even after a millennium and with Anne long gone, Victoria was still unable to escape her mother's shadow.

Movement caught her eye, and she looked over to see Hekarro entering the mess hall. The Tenakth in the corner immediately perked up, greeting their chief loudly as he walked past them. Hekarro stopped to chat with them, filling the room with laughter and his deep baritone voice. It was hard to reconcile this man with the image of a bloodthirsty warlord. While Hekarro could be stern when necessary, Victoria couldn't imagine him being terrifying or merciless when he had worried about her enough to force her to eat and accompany her on walks just so she wouldn't be alone. And hanging orchid vines above her bedroom tree because they made her happy? A warlord just… wouldn’t do something like that. Maybe, deep down, he had always had the capacity to care about others because people like what he was before hardly ever changed.

“Victoria?” Her heart skipped a beat as she looked up, surprised to see Hekarro's warm, honey-gold gaze. Lost in her thoughts, she hadn't even noticed him approaching her. He tilted his head and smiled softly, “Is everything alright?”

She shook her head, “Yeah, sorry. My mind was somewhere else.”

“It is of no consequence, Victoria. We’ve finished securing your room, and are free to return to it when you want. Did you enjoy your morning with Dekka?”

Victoria shrugged, “Yeah, I guess. She taught me how to play Strike? And she taught me a little of your tribe’s history.”

Hekarro chuckled, “I fear much of our history is quite tedious across the generations.” He watched her as she stood, a curious look in his eye as he fell into an easy stride next to her. Victoria nodded as they left the mess hall and veered right towards the gates to the main road.

“Yeah, Dekka said you tribe suffered from Clan Wars and… the Red Raids?”

“Yes, we did. I suppose it must be ironic for you, considering your own experiences with this place. A monument to death and loss, as you called it. Something that the Tenakth can't seem to escape.”

"You're working towards a new name for it though. A different history.” As they walked down the road, she furrowed her brow and looked out at the ruins. “Maybe… maybe losing your past isn't entirely a bad thing."

“Why do you say that?”

"Well, sometimes it's easier to let go of a curse if you don't know its origins." She hesitated before adding, "This place used to bring you comfort, but now it's tainted because I can't let go of everything it took from me. You have the opportunity to give it a new purpose."

They paused to look over the museum—The Grove— and Hekarro hummed softly at her side, offering another smile that sent her nerves fluttering in her stomach, “A purpose, I should think, that I hope you get to see, Victoria. A poetic justice to see this monument turned from death and loss to one of hope.”

“Yeah…maybe…”

~~

Day Whatever The Fuck This Is,

Note to self, learn how to play Strike better.

I challenged Petra to a match and got my ass kicked, and if I have to hear her gloat one more time over it, I’m gonna fucking lose it.