#I need to try others so that I can give a broader list

[kairologia]

How to start your day according to your rising sign.

Your ascendant/first house represents the sign that was rising above the eastern horizon on the moment of your birth. However, within a broader cosmological framework, where houses each represent a different time of the day according to where the sun is, the First House represents the time of the day where the sun had just risen above the horizon. After a bit of experimenting, I have come to the conclusion that the best way to start your day is to align your early morning activities with those associated with your rising sign’s ruling planet. Here I explain how.

· Aries rising: start your day with a stimulating activity, something that gets you fired up and ready to engage with the day ahead. A workout session, a morning run, some stretching, or something as simple as a walk under the sun. Either way, you’d better get moving as soon as you get out of bed. Avoid getting your most challenging tasks of the day done as early as you wake up — rather, start with the simplest tasks and work your way up as a form of motivation.

· Taurus rising: take as much time as you need to get up. You have your entire day ahead of you, so make sure your morning remains a leisurely time — though I advise you to write a list of tasks down to make sure you have a roadmap of your day planned ahead. No matter how busy things get, make sure you at least start your day with a generous breakfast while enjoying your surroundings by eating in a balcony or somewhere you feel cozied up and relaxed. Investing in a morning skin care routine that works for you can only prove to be beneficial.

· Gemini rising: immediately engage in some mental stimulation. read a few chapters of a book, listen to a podcast, read some news, watch a video. Hell, even scrolling through social media wouldn’t hurt. Give your brain some much needed dopamine shots to get it going. If you’re learning a new language, try to memorize a couple words every morning. If you’re a student, try to study a bit right after waking up. If you have some manual tasks planned, get them done first thing in the morning.

· Cancer rising: schedule your morning routine around moon phases & transits. There are certain lunar transits (cardinal signs) or phases (new moon) where I would recommend starting your day with a workout and energy demanding activities, whereas on other transits (fixed signs) or phases (full moon), I would recommend taking things one step at a time, waking up gently, having a warm cup of your favourite drink, taking a bath, cooking, doing some gardening, and enjoying a relaxing morning before starting your day.

· Leo rising: Make sure that each morning is «you» time and let nothing get in the way of that. Soak up some sun light, start your day with positive affirmations, do 10 minutes of dancing, listen to music, meditate, draw a bit. Get yourself in the mood where you feel most confident and yourself, as there’s one watching you — you’re performing for no one but yourself. Self-care can mean many things and you need to find the form that works best for you. If you enjoy doing make up, do a creative look. If you like reading, read. You can even adapt your morning routine according to the sun’s transits.

· Virgo rising: it goes without saying that starting off your day with some journaling, list making, intention setting, tidying your place up and task planning can prove to be globally beneficial for everyone, but even more so for Virgo risings. You need as much mental stimulation as Gemini risings, if only with some added structure to it. Put yourself in the right mood where you can be productive instantly, get your tasks done starting with the most difficult ones so you'll have the rest of entire day for yourself, and remember to take breaks. It’s still early in the morning, after all!

· Libra rising: your mornings set the tone for the rest of your day — so make sure your day starts off on a harmonious note. Create a classical music playlist & play it every morning, have a nice breakfast – a nice drink and your favourite treat, do some pilates, read a couple page of a book you love, set your intentions for the day, do some bird watching, take a walk in a nearby green space or riverside and enjoy the aesthetics of nature & the scenery, choose an elegant outfit and pair it up with some jewelry & a nice perfume. Harmony is a balanced act that can easily be disturbed so make sure you keep your mornings free of external disturbances.

· Scorpio rising: you will benefit from starting your day gradually, & at a very measured pace. Try to weed out the eventuality that unexpected disruptions may arise (as that might disturb your inner balance & emotional state) by establishing firm boundaries and prioritizing activities that bring you joy & contentment. Any activities that promote focus, introspection, and empowerment would be great — namely journaling, meditation, deep breathing exercises to center yourself, or a 30 minutes workout session. If you enjoy writing, write down your feelings in the form of prose or poetry. Lists will also help you stay structured throughout the day & ensure you won’t spend it entirely inside your head.

· Sagittarius rising: start your day by doing some manifestation. Pick a method you prefer, and make sure you spend at least 5 minutes manifesting and setting intentions for the day ahead, as well as some long-term goal you’re working on. If you’re into philosophy, read a few pages of a philosophical book of your choice first thing in the morning. If you enjoy language learning, spend ~30 minutes learning new notions teaching yourself a full lesson. Drawing or making a moodboard can also help you manifest for the day. A morning walk where you take in your surroundings will also help you get into the right mood.

· Capricorn rising: buy a planner, and start your mornings by writing down your to-do list. Make sure you also have a couple pages dedicated to short term projects, and long term projects — try and check out a case from either every so often, every morning. Doing so will fill your mornings with intention as you will feel like you did something great for yourself (and you did indeed). And as is the case with every other cardinal signs — include a physical activity into your mornings. A 15 minutes run, a 30 minutes walk — whatever you deem best.

· Aquarius rising: write down your dreams & ideas fresh out of bed. Your mind comes up with the best scenarios & concepts early in the morning, so write them down — you never know, maybe one day you’ll find the resources, energy or will to expand on one of them. I have noticed that Aquarius risings come in two fixed archetypes, the type that enjoys socializing fresh out of bed and the type that needs 3 business hours before being able to utter a single word to others – so my advice is simple: if you’re the former: start your day with some socialization, text your friends, post on social media, and if you’re the latter: put your headphones on, read something (anything) and block out any and all external noise.

· Pisces rising: the transition from the realm of dreams to the waking world is a tougher challenge to you than most, so try to start your day slowly and gently. No abrupt and aggressive tasks, no strong drinks, no heavy food. Pressure is of 0 benefit to you so do not put yourself in your “awake” mode until you’re about to go outside. If you’re working on an art piece, draw some of it right now. If you’re writing a book, write down a couple lines as soon as you leave bed as your dreams might provide some extra insights & creativity you wouldn't be able to conjure up while awake. If you have plants, water them. If you have a balcony or garden, spend some time there just sitting & doing absolutely nothing.

If you’d like a reading, more details can be found here!

Have a nice day!

[writingquestionsanswered]

I’ve been reading some craft books and online posts about the world building because my story is an urban fantasy set in present day US, in a fictional town, and theres not a secondary world where the fantasy happens, it’s all in the real world, except the magic is a secret that only certain people know about, but all of the resources I find about world building only talk about fantastical worlds that exist by themselves and not the kind of more subtle world building that I’d have to do. Do you have any tips?

Guide: Creating a Fictional Town in the Real World

Step 1 - Choose Your Location - There are two ways to go about choosing a location for your fictional town. One is to go the "Springfield U.S.A." route, ala The Simpsons, and be vague about the specific location (borough, parish, district, county, region, state, or province) and instead give a broader geographic region... "the East Coast," "the Pacific Northwest," "Central Canada," Northern Scotland," etc. The other option is to go ahead and put your fictional town in a specific location. Just figure out where (for example, somewhere outside of Des Moines, Iowa) and go to Google Maps, click on satellite view, then start zooming in on big empty areas. Choose a place big enough to fit a town. Yes, in reality it's probably farm fields, pasture, or someone's property, but that doesn't matter. You don't have to actually show it on a map. It's just a plausible spot to build your town. Now you can measure how far it is to other places, you know what highways to take to get to it. You can even do street view to get the lay of the land, see what the landscape looks like and try to envision the buildings there. You can also use what's there to create parks, popular recreational areas, and anything else your town needs.

Step 2 - Choose Your Inspiration - Even when you're creating a fictional town, it's still a good idea to use a real town (or two, or three) from that general area as inspiration for your town. For a fictional town in Des Moines, I would zoom in on the map to find a nearby town of similar size... like Elkhart, then I can take a look around to see what it's like. Just looking at the map, I can see they have a couple of churches, a couple baseball fields, a very small main street/downtown area with a couple shops and restaurants, a post office, a few different neighborhoods, and a cemetery. This would be a great model for a small fictional town outside of Des Moines. And, as I said, you could look at a couple other sand combine them. Once you have your inspiration town/s, you can walk around on Google Maps street view, go to the town's web site, watch a tour on YouTube (if one exists), or look up pictures in Google Image search.

Step 3 - Start Planning - This is the really fun part! First, you might want to draw a basic map of your fictional town using your inspiration town/s as a guide. This doesn't have to be a pretty map... just a basic line drawing to help you envision where everything is. Think about some of the basic things this town might have, like the ones I listed in step two, and any other things you might want your town to have, like maybe a library, a hospital, a city hall, school, and maybe a movie theater. It might even be helpful and fun to put together a collage of pictures to represent your town so you've got something in mind as you write about it. You can even choose representatives for specific locations in your story, like your MC's house, school, and their favorite hangout.

Step 4 - Naming Your Town - Start by looking at the kinds of town names that surround your town. Look for common naming conventions... suffixes like -ton, -ville, -dale, -burg, -wood, -field, etc. Words in a particular language, like a lot of French-inspired town names, or towns with geographical terms (lake, hill, valley, river, canyon, gap, etc.) My guide to Naming Locations has additional tips.

Step 5 - Populate Your Town and Give it a History - Last but not least, make up a little history for your town, again, using surrounding towns as inspiration. Who founded it? When was it founded? What's the town's main industry? What are the people like in this town? What jobs do they have? What do they do for fun?

Here are some other posts that might help:

Five Things to Help You Describe Fictional Locations Setting Your Story in an Unfamiliar Place WQA’s Guide to Internet Research Happy writing!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[teawitch]

Classical Correspondences

"Correspondences are just things people made up." various tumblr blogs

Working with a local witch community, one thing I've noticed is that a lot of witches coming from very (sometimes very very) Christian background haven't really been exposed to "Classical" education in the sense of Greek, Roman and Medieval history and thought, except for a sort of biblical overview.

This is the Bible belt and often the question isn't - "Well, you've read Greek mythology, right?" but "were you permitted to read Greek mythology?" Which has left a big gap in the foundational understanding of where some of our witchcraft and broader magical work comes from, including those correspondence lists you see everywhere.

In broad terms, the Egyptians influenced the Greeks who influenced the Romans who influenced the early Christian church and most of medieval Europe. This gives a sort of historical and geographical foundation for our Classical Correspondences. And a lot of other things but right now, let's just look at correspondences.

The periods above give us a long history of men (and sometimes women, but honestly, this was mostly an old boys club) looking at the universe and saying "how does all this fit together?"

In an attempt to answer that question, they started looking at connections between things to try to understand them. Why does valerian smell that way? Why does camomile also make you feel relaxed? Are these two related somehow? Can we find a way to organize them?

Isn't that what botany does? At least for plants?

Yes. And we can see that because both these plants fall under the influence of Jupiter they are kingly, helpful, and aromatic, imparting a feeling of relaxation and expansion.

Umm, Tea, it doesn't say that in my botany textbook.

You have the wrong textbook. You need Culpepers Complete Herbal which is the culmination of all the plant knowledge you'll every need. Says so in the title - Complete. And it was published during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, so you know it's up to date. Queen Elizabeth the First. A time of great scientific progress. (its free on Project Gutenberg)  Though of course Culpeper worked from reliable sources like Aristotle. And  Pliny the Elder, who wanted to categorize everything. (Pliny is probably best known on Tumblr for that elephant religion post that makes it's way around now and then. Pliny is not a reliable source for elephant religion or, well, other topics. But I digress.)

Let's break things down a bit. By Jupiter we mean the planet Jupiter, not the god. (Though Jupiter does fall under Jupiter). The Romans categorized according to the seven ruling planets - Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn - with additional influence from the four Greek elements - earth, air , fire, water as well as the astrological signs. They assigned properties to each of these that fit with their view of that planet/element/sign. Jupiter is kingly, along with other properties.

You take everything - plants, metals, gem stones, colors, parts of the body, emotions - and you figure out which ruling planet they fall under and you have a system of correspondences based on the planetary properties. (Venus for love, Mars for courage and strength, Mercury for speed and communication, etc.)

Tea - you're missing a couple of planets and the sun and moon aren't planets.

These are the 7 classical planets or the 7 wandering stars. These were the seven things that could be seen with the naked eye and didn't follow the fixed pattern of the stars. From the Greek word meaning "to wander". We are standing on earth so obviously it's not wandering around the sky. (We have correspondences for Uranus, Neptune and Pluto that were added later)

Got it. So they developed a system of correspondences using the classical planets and used it for witchcraft?

Of course not. From the Romans onward, witchcraft was generally illegal. (Greece disapproved but the laws were a bit different.) So no one would have developed an expansive system of correspondences for witchcraft and made it public.

These were scientific. And for medicine. And, well, for occult practices that were definitely not witchcraft! (Look up high magic vs low magic but basically, it was an economic difference and being poor was bad.)

The important part was - this was science. It had rules. It had structure. They didn't just randomly assign meanings to plants. They developed an entire system of classification and examined each plant to decide where it fit under that system.  Sometimes plants could fall under multiple planets. Sometimes different parts of a plant fell under a different influence. And when used in medicine, what ruling influences the patient fell under could affect the treatment.

I don't want to use them.

It's hard to avoid them. They come into witchcraft through Western Ceremonial Magic but also through pure practicality. See, some of them work remarkably well, possibly because of the medical aspect of things. In medicine there had to a be a probability of success because if everyone died, no one would use them.

And from a witchcraft perspective - a lot of them make sense to the way we work. Plants with hallucinatory properties are often classified as Lunar and fall under the Moon. Spicy and hot plants fall under Mars. Pretty, sweet smelling flowers fall under Venus. These are already connections most of us have. It's also culturally an open system. Remember, it was considered science and medicine in its day. Anyone can reference and use planetary correspondences in their work.

I think personal correspondences would be stronger.

Possibly, over time and for the person involved. Personal and cultural correspondences  build up a resonance in the cultural or with the person, but that resonance  may not transfer well to others. Planetary correspondences have had a long time to develop that resonance and are broadly used, so that resonance is considered to transfer well to the working of others. They are simply a good base for publicly shared work.  

[nyoomfruits]

"Falling around you" for the wip title game pls!!

Ps: I love your writing style sm✨🩷

you have chosen ✨angst✨ basically au where lando and oscar dated and broke up, which would've been fine, if it wasn't for the fact that before they broke up they rsvp'd to alex and logan's destination wedding and now have to share a room for a whole weekend because everything is fully booked and they CANNOT miss this wedding because oscar is logan's best man and lando one of alex's groomsmen anyway here's all i have for that so far lmao

“Hi, welcome to Sunnyvale Inn, how can I help you?” The receptionist asks, cheery smile on her face.

Lando, feeling decidedly less cheery after a three hour car ride that he spend mostly overthinking every decision he’s ever made in his life, smiles back tiredly. “Hi, yes, reservation for Norris?”

“Of course mister Norris, give me a moment,” she opens something on the computer. “Are you here for the Sargeant-Albon wedding?” She’s tapping away as she speaks, barely glancing up.

“Yes, yeah I am,” he says, glancing around the lobby. He wonders if there’s anyone staying in the Inn right now that’s not here for the wedding. Alex and Logan had a seriously impressive guest list, last time he saw. He’s just glad actually being in the wedding party means he can stay in the Inn the wedding is held in rather than one of the surrounding hotels.

“Wonderful! I have your reservation right here, it’s room number 204, on the second floor. Will you be needing two keys or is one enough?” She asks, reaching over to the little hooks behind her.

“Uh,” Lando says, frowning. “One? Why would I need two?”

“Oh, in case you and your partner would like your separate keys,” she says, handing Lando a singular key.

“My,” Lando pauses, scrunches up his now. “Uh. Partner?”

“Yeah!” The receptionist says cheerily, completely undeterred, gesturing at the computer screen. “A, uh, Mr. Piastri? It says here you booked a room together.”

Fuck. He forgot. Among everything, he forgot about this.

“Fuck,” Lando says. “No, that’s. Shit. Can I- Is there any way I can change that? Is there another room? Another hotel?”

 “I’m sorry, Mr. Norris. Everything is fully booked. Mr. Sargeant and Mr. Albon did invite a rather large amount of people. The nearest hotel with an empty room has to be at least an hour away.” If the receptionist is surprised she does an incredible job at hiding it, though she does seem a little bit apologetic about the whole thing.

An hour away. Alex would kill him if one of his groomsmen was an hour away. Plus he’d have to drive, which means no booze at the party, which. There’s no way he’s going to get through this entire weekend without at least one shot of tequila. But that leaves-

Lando turns back to her, a little frantically. “I can’t. It’s not a possibility. I can’t room with Mr. PIastri, you don’t understand we-“

Someone next to him clears their throat, and Lando’s head shoots up only to reveal-

“Oscar,” he says.

“Hi,” Oscar says, and he looks. Lando wants to say good. Because objectively he does. His shoulders have gotten a little broader, like maybe he’s been going to the gym a little more consistently. His hair is longer, the little swoosh at the side almost turning into a curl. He’s wearing a nice shirt.

But there’s a tenseness to his shoulder, a twitch in the corner of his mouth, a distant look in his eyes. Lando hasn’t seen him look like that since, well.

Since they broke up.

“Uh,” Lando says, fiddling with one of his bracelets. “How are you?”

“Fine,” Oscar says, tone clipped. “What is this about a room?”

“Oh!” The receptionist says, tone cheery, clearly not reading the room at all, or reading the room perfectly and trying very hard to pretend everything is fine. “You must be Mr. Piastri.” Oscar nods, shoulders still stiff.

“We are uh. Sharing a room,” Lando says, biting at his lip. Oscar goes to open his mouth. “Hour away,” Lando says. “Logan would kill you. And Alex would kill me, so. There’s no other option.”

“Hm,” Oscar says.

“Would you like your own key, then?” The receptionist asks, holding one out to Oscar. “Room 204.”

“Thank you,” Oscar says, and then promptly turns around and heads to the stairs.

“Well, that went fucking great,” Lando says, crossing ‘avoiding Oscar at all cost’ off his mental list of ‘things to make this wedding at least semi bearable’, and then stalks off after him, with one last wave to the still broadly smiling receptionist.

--

There’s only one bed.

Of course there fucking is, because when they booked this room they were in love. Lando wants to fucking cry. When he steps into the room, Oscar is staring at it, like if he might stare hard enough he can split it into two somehow.

“I’ll take the floor,” Oscar eventually concludes, chucking his suitcase in the corner with a little more force than is probably necessary.

Lando frowns. “Don’t. That’s. Fuck, no you don’t have to do that. We’re adult fucking men, Oscar. We can share a bed for a weekend without it getting weird.” He hates this. He hates that they’ve come to this.

He’s got no one to blame but himself.

“Fine,” Oscar says. “Fine, sure, we’ll share.” And then he goes to walk out of the room again, pulling his phone out of his pocket as he goes, probably to text Logan about how he got stuck in a room with his ex boyfriend.

“Oscar, fuck, wait,” Lando says. “Are you going to be like this all weekend?” It sounds a bit desperate, pleading almost, and it’s so stupid that it’s come to this.

“Maybe,” Oscar says, without even turning around. “Maybe even forever,” he says bitingly, and the shoulders open the door.

“Hey, that’s not fair-“ Lando starts, but Oscar is already gone. Lando sighs, runs a hand through his hair, goes to put his own suitcase away. As he does so, he spots Oscar’s. There’s few stickers on it, and Lando’s eyes get drawn to one of the Eiffel tower, stuck in the top right corner. It’s from their first trip aboard together. Lando remembers buying the sticker, remembers Oscar rolling his eyes as Lando insisted it was all part of making memories, of remembering.

Ironic, how now all the wants to do is forget.

He dumps his suitcase in the opposite corner and goes in search of Alex. Or a bar. Whichever he encounters first.

[natlacentral]

As ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Debuts To Strong Audience On Netflix, Creative Team Looks Ahead To Expanding Live-Action Adaptation

The results are in, and Netflix‘s Avatar: The Last Airbender seems to be a hit. 

The live action adaptation topped the streamer’s weekly English-language TV list with 21.2M views in its opening weekend. According to Netflix, it reached the Top 10 in 92 countries. It was edged out as most-watched title of the week by the Swedish natural disaster film The Abyss.

That’s a strong showing for the eight-episode series, which was another big swing for Netflix as it continues to dip its toes into anime-inspired content. In fact, Avatar managed to surpass One Piece in its debut weekend.

As with One Piece, Netflix was firing on all cylinders to launch the series, partnering with Serena Williams and even taking over the Las Vegas Sphere. So far, the Avatar global social campaign has reached 1.53B impressions, which is on par with both One Piece as well as Netflix’s hit series Wednesday. The main trailer alone has amassed 85M views to-date, while the #AvatarTheLastAirbender hashtag has generated 1B global views on TikTok in the past week.

Avatar marks Netflix’s second successful live-action anime adaptation, after a rocky start in the genre with its adaptation Shinichirō Watanabe‘s anime classic Cowboy Bebop. While die-hard fans of any animated series are likely to have a few things to say about their live-action counterparts, the streamer appears to be finding a groove when it comes to how to bring these stories to life on the small screen. 

“We’re trying to make a show for the most viewers possible. That doesn’t mean that there’s anything we’re gonna leave behind from the animated series. There’s not more purposeful deviations in order to make it acceptable for a broader audience,” Avatar executive producer and director Jabbar Raisani told Deadline. “I think it’s really attempting to be as faithful as humanly possible to the animated series, but also knowing that we have to fit it into this eight-episode, driving narrative that keeps us streaming.”

Other than missing story elements, which are obviously necessary when adapting from a 20-episode animated season of TV, one of the larger changes audiences might notice is the tone. 

“There inherently has to be a tonal shift as you’re moving towards live action, because things that work in anime won’t necessarily work with real people,” Raisani explained.

While animation can often boast a more exaggerated tone, that isn’t as possible when it comes to live action. 

“One of the things I did, specifically thinking of directing, was just working with the actors on different versions of the take. So with Sokka, with his humor, for example, we would do a version that was the flattest read, and then we would get more and more big and campy and over the top,” Raisani said. “Ian was great at giving a range. That allowed us in post to say, ‘Okay, let’s go funny’ or ‘We can go bigger’ or ‘Oh, man is now starting to break the tone and it feels cartoony. It doesn’t feel like he’s in the same show as everybody else.'”

Something viewers may notice remains faithful to the animated series is the dynamic camera movements, many of which came directly from the source material. 

Raisani described an Episode 4 scene where Aang backflips over a boulder. Not only does the scene come from the animated series, so does the shot used to capture it. 

“I literally just looked at the animated frame [and said], ‘Okay, we want to make this literal frame but with real people,” he said. 

It’s a bit preemptive to say whether the series will end up among Netflix’s most popular, since the series will have a 91-day premiere window and would need more than 83M views to achieve the feat. However, it certainly bodes well for a renewal. The good news is that the creative team appears to be chomping at the bit to expand the story and address anything that might have been missing from Season 1. 

“There’s stuff that we filmed that I love that isn’t in the show. There’s stuff that I love the idea of that we filmed and it just didn’t fit,” Raisani said. As a fan of the original animated series himself, he knows that audiences might be yearning for more than what they were able to fit into the first season.

“If we get another season, then we will certainly have those things, because I know what we missed now and I know how to do better the second time around,” he said, adding: “The animated series is a really good guide…for where the show can go.”

More specifically, Raisani said he’s already exploring new ways to shoot scenes that involve bending that would give the actor more agency on set and, in turn, make the final product feel more organic. He pointed to fire bending as one of the trickier elements to master, explaining that each actor had a light on their hands to emulate the fire, but they weren’t able to manipulate it themselves, which presented some restrictions. 

“If they could trigger their own bending… I think we would have a more seamless product,” he mused. “So stuff like that you’ve just got to try it and then you learn and then you do it again, but better than last time.”

[omnomnomdomcaps]

What are your top 5 fetishes and associated kinks?

This is a great question, and I'm sorry it's taken me so long to answer. I had to really think about how I wanted to divvy things up, and decided to go with some broader fetish categories, including a #1 pick that you'll never guess! Let's dive in:

#5. Desperation / holding - I don't talk about it a ton here, but I do enjoy me a good old fashioned bit of desperation in my smut from time to time. It's a wonderful way to get the heart pounding, the blood flowing, and the intensity rising, all as our heroine (or hero) teeters on the edge of ego-crushing humiliation. And depending how the episode ends, it's also a lovely way to tie into a number of other kinks on this list! #4. Ageplay - There's a joy to playing pretend, and it never really goes away, does it? Scenarios involving ageplay give us an opportunity to explore fantasies by playing them out together, and the results can be wondrous.

Some people may actually be surprised to see this relatively low on the list, as it is quite closely tied to my #1 kink - which again, you will never guess. But the entries ahead (as well as the one below) occupy hold particular interest because they require no pretending and no voluntary regression to have our dom dominating and our sub reduced to whimpering mush. So let's get into those, shall we? #3. Language play - this one holds an obvious soft spot for me because I've been championing it for a long time in the community. Admittedly, it's not something every couple can try without a fair bit of prep work, but if you do get the opportunity it's a wonderful way to instill a feeling of littleness in your little and a unique sense of control for your big.

Like everything else on this list, it's also a lovely compliment to other fun things! The speaker / non-speaker dynamic could be because the latter is too little to talk, sure, but it could also be because they're a pet (who needs to learn commands in the target language, of course), or because they're a kidnappee in a strange land. The sky's the limit, and the uncharted territory of this kink makes it uniquely fun to explore.

#2. Hypnosis - The true hero of so much of my forced regression fiction and the stuff of many a fantasy, hypnosis wouldn't be this high on the list if it weren't at least a little real. And yes, while irl hypnosis doesn't quite instill the same magical transformations that its literary counterpart does, it can genuinely affect behaviors over time, and can do quite a number on an entranced individual in the short term.

Is it a little bit scary when it works? Oh, heck yeah, but that's what makes it just so much fun. Just don't go too deep alone - stay safe, kiddos.

#1. Asphyxiation - Ha! Bet you didn't see that one coming! Okay, okay, fine, it's not actually on my list (no disrespect to the choking aficionados out there - you do you)

My real top pick is...

#1. AB/DL - Ha! Bet you didn't see that one coming!

Okay, okay, fine, maybe you did. But AB/DL is the tapes that fasten this crinkly world of kinks here together. Diapers, incontinence, pacifiers, baby toys, or some sort of regressed state offer a symbol of submission that clicks hard with so many of us. It allows for the assertion of power without pain, for a total release of responsibility and worry and an incredible ego-boost of control for the respective players, and for the ultimate trust fall between two loving partners (or more - again, I don't judge).

Where you go with that, and what else we incorporate, is up to you. Just be sure to share all the juicy details after.

Keep it kinky, y'all

[horse-girl-anthy]

Stupidest Ikuhara Man Roundup

hello all: results are in for the most important poll of the year. in honor of our low intelligence men, I am going through each contestant and giving them the appreciation they deserve.

our first contestant is Reo. he received zero percent of the vote because I forgot to include him, which is a shame because he's a real contender. I define stupid in Ikuhara works as "out of touch with feelings, others, and the broader reality" and oh boy is that true of Reo. he comes to no realizations without being forced into them and is ultimately brought down by his own blindness. sad!

with 1.5% of the vote, Tooi is tied for last. I agree with this result; I think he's one of the smarter males included on the list. however, he is still pretty thick. there's the fact that he simps for his pretty boy friends, and he is another character who doesn't realize what would be good for him until it's too late.

it's impressive that Shoma is so low on this list, given that around half of Penguindrum's humor revolves around how dumb he is. truly a testament to the lack of intelligence found among Ikuhara men. on the one hand, Shoma does have a certain kind of emotional intelligence, but he's just as capable of harming others through his self-centered perspective. despite his lack of smarts, Shoma received only 1.5% of the vote.

after Shoma is Mikage, who in a way is Shoma's opposite: considered a genius but with no emotional intelligence. he's so delusional that he's rewritten the past and can't see the obvious, instead continuing to repeat the same cycle over and over. unwilling to grow up, he only leaves Ohtori when Akio no longer has need of him.

tied with Mikage at 3.5% of the vote is Chikai. his low score is a true miscarriage of justice. the man is very, very dense, helped along by the fact that he thinks he's really smart and realistic. he has catchphrases which he repeats on a loop, and they only seem to impress 14 year olds. like most Ikuhara characters, he's a tragic figure brought down by his own flaws and unwilling to face what he really feels. he's also significantly older than most other characters on this list which should give him some extra stupid points in my opinion.

next is Kazuki at 5%. he's emotionally closed off, disconnected, and unaware of how people around him feel, leading to plenty of interpersonal stupidity. he also is a silly teenage boy; when faced with an obstacle, he always seems to come up with the most convoluted solution possible. I don't know if "I have a hard time talking to my little brother, so I'll pretend to be his favorite idol" is stupid or brilliant, but it's sure something.

with 5.5% of the vote, Enta has been chosen as the dumbest Sarazanmai character. it's funny because most of his cunning is motivated by very stupid feelings. he has an emotional intelligence to him, he can be quick on the uptake, but all of those moments are weighed down by his ridiculous, out-of-control crush.

Akio got 7% of the vote. I know he's an evil mastermind and all, but I think he's really quite stupid. he's so set in his ways, sure he knows everything, that anything outside of his field of vision may as well not exist to him. he chooses to live in an empty, meaningless way since it gives him power, yet he's miserable, but all he does with that misery is feel sorry for himself. a pretend prince indeed.

Kanba tied with Akio. he was my personal pick on this poll, although my vote may have been different on a different day. the boy has no sense; he spends the entire show trying to be the man, the protector and provider and savior, but if he'd read ahead a little he would have found out that he was the one who needed saving. the threads of denial and delusion on this character are impossible to unravel. to me, "thick" means "impossible to reach," and oh boy is that true of Kanba.

in second place, with 9% of the vote, is Touga! on the one hand, I don't know if I think he's dumb; like Anthy, his alienation means he's ahead of his peers in certain ways. but on the other, yeah he's dumb, he's REAL dumb. he's a living reminder that pride comes before a fall, and by the end, even the best friend he's looked down on for years is calling his dumbassery out.

and the winner of the dumbest Ikuhara male poll is Saionji, with 56.3% of the vote! let's all congratulate this absolute fucking moron on his accomplishment. he's the butt of every joke, constantly making a fool of himself; his own show implies that he's on the same level as a pet monkey. and that's why we love him.

thank you to all who voted! the poll received 199 votes, which was way more than I expected.

[hornsketch]

hey there! ive finally made an art blog! im going to try post more just… stuff, as usually i reserve my art posts for either special occaisions or specifically public-oriented works, and it kinda bums me out to not just have a place to dump my art anymore, so here you go!

(more details and helpful info below!)

who are you?

in hopes of providing some relevant lenses to view my work through, ill give some personal details here. if these lenses dont suit your interpretation of the work, thats alright! view as you please, though i do still think these will always be important context in said viewings.

my name is zelda (she/her) and im a queer jewish 20something who struggles quite a bit with illness both physical and mental.

ive always been kind of enthralled by impressionism and what it really means to use suggestion and spirit as a stronger tool than portrayal and form.

i have a particular draw to fantasy and magical aesthetics, especially the world-building within.

i am a serial overthinker, and tend to see alot of meaning and symbolism in things that plainly do not have them.

while yes i am jewish, my relation to faith is complicated. if you see me type “god” im using it in a turn of phrase with no meaning. if you see me type out “g-d” i am being religious. yes i know thats not how its supposed to work. its meaningful to me.

what will you post?

as previously mentioned, here im trying to make a concerted effort to post a broader variety of things with a wide selection in quality and topic, so unfortunately here the only real uniting theme is going to have to be that i made it. still! to help navigate the space, listed below will be a list of tags i will try to keep to, all of which this post will also be tagged as, since i know tumblr search can be finicky.

#the self and the other

these will be about me, my friends and loved ones, or possibly both

#differing mediums

these pertain to other works or universes, as well as fan content

#harsh tones

this is gonna be the rough stuff. topics will be tagged as needed.

#jaunty doodles

funny business. shenanigans, even.

#lesssfw

listen this blog is for a wide breadth of content, so please if you do not want to, or otherwise should not be seeing mild to moderate nsfw content (i dont rlly plan on posting straight up porn here) block this tag.

wait— is there anywhere you do post more direct nsfw?

maybe, yeah. but before any of that i would like to set some ground rules. these are my spaces for me to share my work for others to see. if you arent a fan of what i post, ill make no attempts to dissuade you from that. your discomfort is your right. I would however request that you dont make your discomfort an issue i am epxected to remedy. ill have no harsh feelings if you arent a fan of my less safe for work content, or even anything it may tangentially relate to, and need to take the necessary steps to curate your experience in those regards. i will be far less than happy if people cant behave because i post content that is not to their personal tastes, within reason.

all of that being said, yes, if you are an adult fan of my other work, feel free to check out @shinyspadetiptail

do you take commissions?

yeah, usually. im not really at the point where i have to close and open them for availability reasons, so shoot me a dm and ill usually be able to give you a response pretty quick on.

price tends to vary by project, and i always set $20 per hour of canvas time as my baseline, but generally simpler stuff like limited detail icons and emojis run in the $20-$30 range, while fully detailed halfbodies tend to run in the $40-$50 range, and fully done fullbodies range more $70-$80. aside from that, backgrounds are a little too context dependent to put a full price estimate on and extra characters can and will cost extra.

usually whatll happen is after laying out the basic price range we’ll talk, and ill thumbnail until we have smth we can agree on, and once weve got an idea of what were going for ill give an estimate that ill try to stick close to, barring any major changes or complications. from then on ill try to send updates whenever i work, and then when im relatively close to finished ill ask for the payment either through paypal or cashapp, after which ill send on the finished piece and any expected variations. in some cases, this may be changed, and payment may be done half at the start, and half when relatively close to completion.

[crazylittlejester]

Sorry this is so long, I need help with naming a Link. Yes I did send in a list of names before, no I can’t use any of them for this Links Meet AU I’m doing. To put things super short, each Link in this AU has a title relating to the powers they have. This is also the AU I’m using Apocalypse for HW Link, I’m so glad I was able to use it this soon. Think about what that means for his powers and how that would affect him emotionally and how it would make other feel and how the war was all his fault because war and death and famine and disease come to him like a moth to flame 👍

Anyways, the Link I need some help naming is AlttP Link. I’m including the OoX and LA games but not AlbW and TH. Probably, I haven’t really decided yet on whether or not they are separate Links for this.

I’m trying to figure out what kind of powers he should have based on his games, which leave me with a lot of options. I could make his power be Transformation, since he happens to do that a bunch in his games, and it comes with the bonus of giving him the nickname Trans. However, I could go with the broader title of Alteration, mainly because I’m really drawn to naming him Alt lol(like the first 3 letters of AlttP!). I could tie him being the only one to upgrade the Master Sword after SwSw Link into that(and then there’s AlbW Link but I plan on making him AlttP’s son if I don’t combine them, so them having the same powers make sense).

But then there’s so much stuff that this Link can do, I don’t feel like these titles really cut it. I can’t just give him the title of Fairy of Magic(most of the Links are fairies because this is based on Winx Club but I have no idea if you know what that is), because then that’s too broad so I just. Wanna combust. Why is this so hard.

Anyways, if you have ideas or just like one of these titles over the other, I’d love to hear it. I mainly need someone to choose for me ngl, I am very indecisive. Hope you have a good day.

ough i see ur problem and theres sooooo many things you could do. I really like Alt, both because of the longer ‘Alteration’ and as you said the fact that it’s the first 3 letters of ALTTP. Transformation is really a lot of what he can do, and while you’re so right, it isn’t everything, it is a LOT and it’d be cool to have a name based on that. You could also do something more magic related without being just straight up magic?

I am not the best at coming up with names for anything, i feel ur pain, but i wish you the best of luck and hopefully i could help a little 😭

[crazypossumman]

Tips for Pre-T or Early-T Transmascs That I Wish Someone Had Given Me

A list of tips that I, a transmasc dude, learned overtime that I wish someone had given me a lot earlier. Obviously, these aren't going to work for everyone, but I've found doing these things to be really helpful.

Shave your face every day you can/want to. Even if you "have no reason" to shave your face, do it anyway. Tell yourself that being cleanly shaven is a choice you make everyday. Also, most cis dudes with no facial hair are clean shaven, meaning none of that peach fuzz stuff, so this can actually help passing. As an added bonus, shaving can make the hair grow back faster, thicker, and fuller if you plan on wanting to grow a nice ass beard later in life.

Find a work out routine. Don't exercise thinking "I need to get thinner/broader/whatever else so that I can pass." Just don't. Exercise can only change your body type so much, and if you bank on it fixing all your dysphoria just to find out it doesn't, you'll get discouraged. Instead, use exercise to feel good about your body in other ways: feeling stronger, more energized, ready for a good nights sleep, etc. Feeling good about your body in this way can also help increase self esteem.

Write affirmations and nice letters to yourself. Whatever you need to hear, whatever you wish others were saying to you: write it down! Put sticky notes on your walls, fill a notebook with nice thoughts, etc. Need to hear that you're looking super masc today? Write it down. Say it aloud. Be your biggest supporter. Even if you don't believe it at first, you'll start to. This tip applies to literally everyone, by the way.

Packing is kind of over rated. Obviously, it can be gender affirming for some, and that's great! But most people probably aren't looking at your crotch, so if packing is uncomfortable for you, don't think it'll make or break your appearance. If you prefer not to, that's literally fine.

The same goes for binding! Binding is--unfortunately--just fucking uncomfortable. You don't have to do it all the time. A baggy hoodie and a decent sports bra can be lifesavers if you need a break from binding but are still feeling self conscious, too.

Do your best to stop giving a fuck. Don't let other people's opinions hurt you. Not everyone will support you. Not everyone will like you. That's fine. Again, be your own biggest supporter.

Find trans friends. Set up your HRT appointments together. Remind each other about your injections. Support each other. Again, not everyone will support you, so find people that will.

Plan your medical course of action carefully, especially if money is a concern. Decide your prioritize. If you think you would benefit best mentally and physically from starting HRT, do that first. If you think something else--therapy, anxiety meds, an operation--would be more helpful, then do that first. You always have more time. There will be more time, more money, more opportunities. Figure out what would be best for you to do first, and go with it. It'll help you in the long run.

Beware voice training tips. Trying to force a deep voice can hurt like a motherfucker. Also, when you're voice begins to drop, you may have to adjust the way you do certain things, like singing for example. Don't push yourself to make your voice uncomfortably high or low. If it hurts, just stop. Losing your voice or damaging your vocal cords is certainly not worth it.

HRT takes time, surgeries take time, life takes time. Take a deep breath. It's hard to feel like you're stuck in one place, but it will not last forever. Small steps forward are still steps forward. You've got this.

Bonus: Literally nothing is required of you. HRT, operations, and literally everything on this list is entirely optional, and it doesn't make you more or less valid than anyone else. (Just stab anyone who says otherwise /j)

(Obligatory self-promo: I'm an artist and writer! Check out my stuff! Pinned (Commissions) | Writing Masterlist | Kofi | Etsy)

[lavendermochagames]

Entering Inn Need Wrap-Up

Cross-posted from the Lavender Mocha Games site.

Studio Overdoing It (As Usual) is officially in the final stretch of Inn Need Build B development! I finished the most recent (and nearly final) list of Inn Need bug fixes and updates, and now all we've got left is for each dev to run through it one more time and find any final stragglers. All of our schedules are their own types of busy and not really lined up with each other, so I can't say what means for a Build B release date yet, but it's getting close. I'm so excited to be able to share the final version of this game! The original build was already really solid, and something we were all proud of, but I think we really rocked it with this final version.

Wrapping up Inn Need also officially means I can return to development on away in the woods. I really didn't mean to neglect its development for this long, but my schedule is about to slow down as I take two semesters off grad school, so I'm planning to settle into enough of a consistent rhythm to hopefully help make up for lost time. For starters, I'm re-writing all my to-do lists to help break it down. My current focus will be on writing. Here's an abbreviated version of that to-do list:

Break down ending statistics

Finalize quest flowchart

away in the woods has a far more branching (pun unintended) plot than I'm used to, so even though I have almost all the story beats laid out, I need to make sure they all fit together mechanically before I start trying to put them in the game. In seaglass, when I realized I needed another quest, it was really easy and straightforward to add it, since only a few of them were interconnected. In away in the woods, adding in another quest or event might have broader mechanical implications either for its position in the timeline or along an ending path, so I want to have everything planned as solidly as I can before diving in. This has the bonus benefit of giving me the chance to revisit and rewrite my initial plans from a couple years ago. I've learned a lot about writing since then and I'm hoping to make away in the woods a much stronger game for my time off from it!

[writingquestionsanswered]

Good day WQA!

So I have this problem where what I want doesn't seem to match what I imagine for my story.

The biggest one I have right now is the main love interest of my MC. I want her (the love interest) to have a healthy family dynamic (mom, dad, 3 older brothers) but everytime I imagine the family, I can't seem to "see" the mother in the dynamic no matter what I do!

Do you have any tips on how to fix that? Even though I tried to imagine that the mom is away traveling to try and find a middle ground between what I want and what I see, but even then I can't get it to work.

Do you have any idea why this is? Do you think it's because I haven't fleshed out the mother's character enough or because something deeper like the "dead parents" cliché sneaking into the story because healthy families seem to be so rare that it almost feels weird to not have one tragic death in the family?

Any and all thoughts or opinions are welcome!

Thanks!!

When Story Plans Don't Pan Out

First, I want to dispel your belief that a "healthy family dynamic" requires two parents, or that a family with an absent parent isn't "healthy." I'm not sure what led you to think that, but it isn't true at all. Healthy family dynamics aren't about how the unit is constructed (two parents, one parent, number of siblings, etc.) but about how the people within the unit behave and interact with each other. So, don't feel like your character can't have a healthy family dynamic with a single parent. They absolutely can. Having said that, the other concern you mentioned was the "dead parents" cliché, which is only an issue when the absence is there to: avoid having to figure out how parents fit into your character's life, explain why parents aren't interfering with a younger character's misadventures, give your character tragic circumstances and serves no other purpose. It doesn't sound like any of these reasons fit your situation, this is just how you're imagining the family, and that's fine.

Now, let's look at the broader question of what to do when your brain wants to go in a different direction from what you had planned. When this happens, the first thing to do is look at whether the element you planned is really that important. Using your situation as an example, the element you planned was a two-parent family, but your brain is seeing a single parent family instead. Is a two-parent family important to the story in any way? Is there a reason both parents need to exist, outside of your mistaken belief that it's required for a healthy dynamic or to avoid a cliché? If there's no story-related reason the parent has to be there, go ahead and change it. Let your brain take the lead on that one, because not only is it easier than fighting it, sometimes our gut instinct (aka our brain taking things in a different direction than planned) knows something we don't. Sometimes these kinds of changes actually work better for the overall story. On the flip side, when your brain is making a change that doesn't work for the story, you just have to fight it and do the thing that does work.

Happy writing!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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[amielbjacobs]

So I'm dying to ask. What's your research process? Mine is an absolute mess and I'm looking for ideas about how to fix that - @coffeewritesfiction (which is a sideblog)

Oooh, I love this question! I don't have a very organized process, but I have to say that the research was my favorite part of writing Spymasters. I started out with like, 0 knowledge of the KGB in particular - and not a whole lot of knowledge about the CIA either - so my first order of business in trying to imagine what Mirsky's life would have been like was reading a memoir by a former KGB officer.

I specifically wanted a memoir by a defector, not because I wanted insight into the specific experiences of defectors (although these are also fascinating) but because I suspected that any other KGB officer would be at best biased and at worst producing active propaganda. (For what it's worth, I am also suspicious of writing by CIA/FBI officers who aren't on bad terms with the agencies. Even outside of the world of espionage, a lot of people aren't eager to badmouth their former employers.) I'm not sure quite how I settled on Oleg Gordievsky's memoir Next Stop Execution, but it might have been that I landed on the Wikipedia page List of KGB Defectors, and picked Gordievsky off of there.

This was in line with my usual first line of approach to research: even when a memoir leaves you with a warped view of history, it usually leaves you with a believable and personal view of history, if that makes sense. There are details; if you're not sure what to invent, you can fall back on this specific person's experience. Secondary sources, especially ones which are more history than sociology, often don't include the kind of specific detail (what color were the carpets? what kind of pens did they us? what did the air smell like?) that's necessary as a writer. So I try to find a real person who matches my characters' life and read their memoir.

There were also broader social aspects of Mirsky's life that I wanted to know more about: his experiences as a queer man in Stalinist Russia, his identity as a brown-skinned man from a Muslim immigrant background within the USSR, and his interests as a Russian-speaking fan of spy fiction. I did a lot of googling "gay USSR" "gay USSR book" etc. The wikipedia page "Azerbaijanis in Russia" was a good starting point here. I wasn't able to find a direct memoir (in English) by an Azerbaijani person living in Soviet Russia, although I tried to track down the memoir of this guy. (Probably I missed something?) At the time, I also wasn't able to find a memoir by a queer man in the early USSR, though I've since found some stuff along those lines.

I read Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia as a text on queer experiences in the USSR, although it cuts off before the key point where my story is set. For the experiences of Azerbaijani people in Soviet Russia, I read Voices from the Soviet Edge: Southern Migrants in Leningrad and Moscow, which was pretty well exactly what I needed in terms of understanding how Mirsky would and wouldn't be racialized within the USSR. Ironically, given the lack of censorship, the topic of Soviet spy fiction was maybe the hardest to research.

I generally start out by googling things, then reading articles and academic papers available online (legally or illegally), and then if that doesn't give me what I want, I look up a book.

I only wound up buying two books (the aforementioned Next Stop Execution and The Soviet Spy Thriller by Duccio Columbo). For all of the others, I was either able to get them online for free or through my local public library.

For online resources, I want to shout out Archive.org as a resource which is free, expansive, and probably legal. There are two particular online resources which are similarly free and expansive, but cannot be called legal.

For the public library, a lot of the texts I wanted (obscure, out-of-print memoirs & expensive academic textbooks) weren't in their catalog. However, through the Inter-Library Loan system, I was able to get almost any book I wanted, albeit at a significant delay.

I think that's my process: google the topic, look for memoirists who mirror your character's life experiences, utilize your local library.

Oh yeah, also instead of taking notes like an adult, I take a photo with my phone or a screenshot on my computer, and then I cram them all into a private discord server.

Uhhhhh there's probably other nuances, but it's midnight thirty here and I can't think of them. I would love more asks on this topic if anyone has any other questions!

[palant1r]

Week 2: The Right is Right about "Brave New World"

Every so often, some right-wing talking head will state that our current world is just like 1984 or Fahrenheight 451 or Brave New World, the most recent example being Elon Musk. This inevitably results in rightful mockery from Tumblr and Twitter, pointing out that the figure in question likely has not read the books, or if they had, did not understand them. This is, in all cases, likely true. However, I feel like there's an implied corollary in this response: that the reason we can tell that Elon Musk or Ben Shapiro or whoever didn't understand these books is that these books do not actually align with their politics, and they're simply using the surface-level signifiers of dystopia without actually comprehending the actual societal issues the author was taking aim at.

In the case of Brave New World, this is false. Aldous Huxley would be horrified at today's world, and would likely see his dystopian creation mirrored in it. This is because Brave New World is incredibly reactionary.

Dystopia is a very powerful tool for social critique in literature, because it exaggerates the problems the author wishes to highlight to the degree that they cannot be ignored or excused, forcing the reader to confront the true implications of processes or norms they may have come to take for granted. However, this also makes it harder to immediately disagree with the politics compared with a dystopian work, and makes it important to isolate what issues a dystopia is actually taking aim at, and what anxieties such writing stems from.

Brave New World is a progressive dystopia — unlike, say, the Handmaid's Tale, the world Huxley depicts was ruined by progress and new ideas. It's a book that longs for the old world. Its thesis can be summed up by "Reject modernity, embrace tradition," which is an automatic red flag.

I won't go fully into detail as to how I've derived what Brave New World is taking aim at, given that this is just a blog post about my book of the week and not an essay. I shall instead give a numbered list of the things that Aldous Huxley is trying to say that I don't like.

The nuclear, heterosexual, monogamous family is an essential facet of a good and just civilization. Any deviation from that is a modern perversion.

New art is not valuable, and it is dangerous in its valuelessness. The old works of the broader Western canon must be the basis by which we judge the aesthetic and moral value of art.

Conflict and struggle is necessary to form the moral core and solidarity of a nation, and should be elevated to a place of glory. (Yes, this is fascist as hell)

A society cannot be moral and individuals cannot be grounded without God. Modernity leaves no room for God. (The Native Americans in this story worship Jesus, which helps John become Enlightened. It's fucking weird and racist.)

Contraception is a direct agent in the degradation of important sexual norms, and these strict sexual norms are essential for humanity to experience its fullest potential. It's also bad because it deprives women of their natural need for motherhood.

Globalism Bad because World Too Big

Eugenics is bad, not because of any of the actual reasons that eugenics is bad, but because it is New Science and results in the undermining of what is natural

What is natural is good.

The arrival of radio and other new forms of storytelling represents the dearth of societal intellectual development

When the masses are given control, they will clamor for happiness instead of fulfillment

There's absolutely more wild reactionary stuff in Brave New World, but I'm not in the mood to fully analyze it. My point is, I'm starting to realize how much I've internalized the idea that classic dystopias are taking aim at the modern realizations of the things they criticize, rather than contemporary anxieties about modernity. It's important to remember that just because an author wrote a popular social critique doesn't mean they have a monopoly on what is Bad in society.

And when conservatives cite Brave New World as proof of modern society's degeneracy, yeah sure, it's fun to dunk on them for not reading it. But I need to make sure I don't fall into the trap of arguing that they're wrong because they didn't read the book — even if they read and totally understand the book, I do not want the direction of society to be shaped by Aldous Huxley. Modern conservatives are not misinterpreting Huxley's work. They are the modern custodians of the worldview it represents.

[circa-specturgia]

hiiii :]

ice breaker ask game questions!

How many wips do you have? How many are you actively working on?

How would you explain your active wips to someone who knew nothing about it?

How do you want readers to feel while reading your story? and after they finish reading it?

@vsnotresponding

Hi!!! Thanks for this ask! ✨

For others reading, this is @incandescent-creativity’s Writeblr Icebreaker Asks List!

How many wips do you have? How many are you actively working on?

Currently, I’m working on four! I tend to bounce around them, with more or less of my ideas focused on one at any given time. I’ve gotten an idea for a new one, which I’ll list as well, though I haven’t talked about or posted anything connected to it on here yet.

Circa Specturgia

Prometheus

Lost & Found

Untitled

Vibration

I’ll put the rest of these under a cut since it’s turned into a bit of a long post!

How would you explain your active wips to someone who knew nothing about it?

I’ll try and give some small summary for each one! All the scenes and posts I’ve done for each of these are in my pinned post, though I’ll be making a new Masterpost soon!

Circa Specturgia -High fantasy with several original races, an intricate and complex magic system not too unlike Bending from A:TLA, and a mystery taking the characters across the planet in search of answers hidden across time. Lots of magic duels, forgotten history, a world with scars and bruises left behind by something ancient, and a cast which faces something much larger than any of them alone.

Prometheus - A crew of astronauts on a pioneering mission to Alpha Centauri get lost beyond the stars, with no hope of returning home, and must survive on the fringes of the universe, where space and time unravel, all while grappling with their humanity and the isolation of space. Exploring odd and abandoned worlds, encountering alien flora and fauna, and lots of character vulnerability as they break down and realize how much they need one another.

Lost & Found - A young woman find that her imaginary friend was never quite so imaginary, as she is thrust into the world behind the veil; the world within which the Lost & Found operates. A mysterious humanitarian foundation acting for the good of the people and the reality which they enjoy, and against those who would seek to watch it crumble and sway.

Untitled - A post-post-apocalyptic story, as I like to call it. Not right after the end of the world, but a good time after, once ever-resilient nature has had the time to heal and return to the world. A quartet of friends embark on a roadtrip across the world in some highly-modified cars, collecting books from the ruins of the old world and piecing together what it was that happened.

Vibration - This one, I only had the idea for a few days ago, but, so so far my ideas on it are scattered, though two things which will be central to it will be a magic based in vibrations; knocks, taps, rhythm and patterns, and a world with days and nights entirely unlike our own.

How do vou want readers to feel while reading your story? and after they finish reading it?

While reading is difficult to really answer. Obviously I’d like them to feel whatever the characters are feeling, though that’ll come down to how well I can write it! On a broader scale, however, I’d say perhaps; inspired, and hopeful? I’d like to write stories which communicate the visuals I see in my head, and I’d like to share those with others, to share the awe of a beautiful place for example. I’d like to write stories which, however bleak and dark and hopeless they may become, leaving the characters betrayed, on the edges of space, trapped in their own minds or reminiscing on all that was taken from them, in the end, allow them to get up, and to take the steps to control their own fate. To feel hope for a better tomorrow, to believe in themselves and in others. It’s not to say that tragedy won’t happen, but that it’s not the end of everything, that a little bit of solace may be found, and nurtured.

I hope this answered your questions! May I send you a few as well?✨

[dragonmuse]

I know it was explicitly part of the ask for the au but, you know we love an au of the au of if our girl was also there. So au of somewhere only we know if izzy met faith too (preferably she lives).

(this ask is in reference to Somewhere Only We Know, Izzy is a writer au. This divergence is called, ‘I know a place where no ones lost’. To the bulleted list!) 

-Faith and Israel are spending the summer after sophomore year breaking into the town pool, working, and kicking around the city. 

-Israel’s working overnight on inventory, so Faith is on her own. She decides to pretend she still has a date, so she can wiggle away from her parents and goes to the movies. It’s one she’s already seen and doesn’t really care about, but it’s cool in the theater and she can slowly eat an enormous tub of popcorn. It’s kind of nice to do that on her own. Israel usually eats more than half because he’s faster than her. 

-There’s another guy alone in the theater, sitting a few rows in front of her. She watches him more than the movie, the way he’s intent, but keeps making disbelieving noises at the dialogue. There’s not a lot of other people in there with them so when he finally goes ‘You’ve got to be fucking kidding me’  and she laughs, he turns and finds her.  Faith is bolder these days, so she gives him a little wave.  He stares at her, then gets up and walks to her aisle. Shit. 

-”This movie is dumb as hell,” he says. “You want to try something else?” 

“Oh,” she stares up at him. “What do you mean?” 

“There’s something else starting in the next theater over.” 

"Yeah okay.”  She's got a knife these days, slipped in her pocket by Israel without a word. She can move theaters with this fluffy haired dude.

-They sneak into the next theater. The guy has obviously done it before and Faith definitely has. Once she and Israel ran an experiment and spent a full sixteen hours in the theater, bouncing from screening to screening.  They sit in the back and he says, belatedly, 

“Uh, my name is Lucius and that was probably weird, sorry.” 

“Faith, and it’s cool,” she offers him the bucket. Her stomach is starting to hurt, actually. “Want some?” 

The movie is about lottery tickets and divorce and romance. Faith tunes it out almost immediately. 

“Do you go to Roosvelt?” She asks instead. 

“I do now,” he grimaces. “We just moved here. I’ll be a sophomore.” 

“Israel, that’s my boyfriend,”  laying down protective cover, she’s not an idiot, “and me will be juniors. It’s fine.” 

“Is it really?” 

She sighs, “No. It’s hell.” 

“Yay,” Lucius eats a piece of popcorn. “If you’ve got a boyfriend, what are you doing here on your own?” 

“He’s got to do inventory at the grocery store.” 

“Which one?” 

“Kline’s.” 

“...is your boyfriend a little angry dude with black hair by any chance?” 

She laughs, “Yeah, that’s my Israel.” 

“He helped me out the other day,” Lucius eyes her speculatively. 

“He did? How?” 

“His manager almost caught me shoplifting.” 

That made sense. Israel wasn’t exactly a good samaritan, but he supported five-finger discounts in a general sense.  

“What were you taking?” 

“Candy. Nothing interesting. I’m working my way up to bigger and better things.” 

“You need bigger pockets then and something tied around your waist.” 

“Huh, okay, you have my attention.” 

-The conversation does move away from theft eventually. They talk through the movie and Faith starts to relax. There’s nothing threatening about Lucius, for all he’s bigger and broader than Israel. He has an easy manner and looks like he knows more about taking a punch than giving one. 

She figures that’s that though, when they part ways outside the theater. 

-”There’s this kid,” Israel tells her a few days later. “He says he met you at the movies.” 

“Yeah, Lucius,” she supplies. “He said you helped him not get picked up by your boss.” 

“Guess I did,” he takes her hand, easy as breathing, laces their fingers together. “He came up to me when I was getting lunch at Gino’s yesterday. Asked about my face.” 

Faith had been trying hard not to look at his face, actually. The bruising was terrible and it made her stomach twist up. She’d held a cold can of beer to it for a full twenty minutes when he’d shown up for their date like that the night before. 

“I hope you weren’t a dick about it,” she says lightly. 

“I was,” he shrugs. “Told him to fuck off. And he just hung around anyway. I went over to his place.” 

“Really?” she squeezes his hand. “What was that like?” 

“S’alright. Little two bedroom in that grayish building on the corner with the broken lamp post.” 

“Oh yeah, I know the spot.” 

“He’s an artist, I think. Or he draws a lot anyway.” 

“Huh.” 

-They have been a tribe of two for months now. A closed circuit. Israel still runs with Brandon’s crew, Faith still vaguely subscribes to Beth’s circle, but anything important is theirs. Just a microcosm. And they had both been content with that. 

But Lucius just turns up over and over.  He gets books in Israel’s hands, something Faith never thought to attempt. He shares his pencils and paper with Faith, who never thought much about art, but winds up liking sketching a little. She draws buildings mostly. Imaginary houses for an imaginary future. 

-When school restarts, Faith finds Lucius on the first day. 

“Give me your schedule,” she demands and he hands it over without question. She scans the list and then hands it back. “You should tell the counselor that you want to switch lunch and art. Then we can both be in both together. You can sit with me.” 

“Oh thank fuck,” he exhales and runs off to do just that. 

Beth and the other girls resist his presence for all of twenty minutes and then they cave as Lucius compliments their outfits, asks about their boyfriends and cracks a joke that makes them all giggle. Faith shouldn’t be proud of him, she didn’t do anything, but she is anyway. 

She doesn’t really like art class, but Lucius does, so she sits next to him and bounces along on his energy and lets him ‘fix’ her pieces as much as he likes. 

-She and Israel still have math together. He does his homework these days, either with Lucius or with her and his grades are...good. Sometimes better than hers. 

“We should do something after school,” she decides. 

“We do,” Israel reminds her, taking her backpack as she struggles with it and just adds its weight to his own without any sign of trouble. Lifting boxes all summer has added to his frame.  

“No like...an extracurricular,” she floats. 

“Why?” He stares at her like she’s grown an extra limb. 

“Because, Israel. We’re getting the fuck out of here and that means we gotta look like we give a shit.” 

“You’re going to college,” he reminds her. “Not me.” 

Lucius approaches them, glancing between them as if sensing the tension. 

“Luc, tell him he’s going to college,” she demands. 

“Uh, yeah, of course he is?” Lucius’ eyebrows go up. “Was not going an option?” 

“You’re both out of your minds,” Israel declares. 

But when Faith signs them up for the Math League, he shows up with a resigned expression and his usual shitty attitude. Doesn't matter, between the two of them they decimate the other practice team. Mr. Finkle is over the moon that they’ve both finally shown an interest. 

“We might actually win something for once,” he declares and all the preppy, successful kids with their ironed clothes and ironed hair turn as one to glare at them. Izzy grins, slow and wide. Malice drips off it and she tries to match it.

“Okay,” he decides, turning to her as if no one else was there, “let’s fucking do this.” 

-Lucius comes to their competitions, cheers like it’s a sport. It’s embarrassing and weird and neither of them try to stop him even once, even a little. No one’s ever showed for them before. 

Israel’s gang falls away and every day he doesn’t mention Brandon, Faith breathes a little easier. 

After school, they crowd into Lucius’ room now. His mom sometimes gives Faith speculative looks. Hopeful looks. But she’s always on the floor next to Israel, usually under the protective circle of one arm and Lucius is at his desk. 

“Is this what other people do?” Faith asks Israel when Lucius head to the kitchen one golden afternoon. “Just..hang out? Do homework?” 

“How the fuck would I know?” He kisses her temple, cutting the acid of his words with affection. “S’not bad though.” 

“It isn’t,” she agrees. 

-She watches, because she’s good at that. Watches Israel read a pile of books, listens when he shares pieces of them with her. When one sounds really good, sometimes she’ll even read it herself though she never has his passion for it. Watches how Lucius reaches for Israel and how Israel lets him in a way he only ever let her before. Lucius touches Israel for emphasis to a point, the quick birdlike landing of fingers on wrist, or to grab his attention, a grasp on his bicep,  or once, just once, he caught one of Israel’s epic cowlicks and smoothed it down with a soft smile. 

-Faith watches, but she’s not sure what it means. It doesn’t stir anger or jealousy in her. It makes her feel...warm. Correct. Israel doesn’t pull away from her to receive the attention. He doesn’t kiss her less. 

-Midway through their junior year, with money scrapped together from who knew where (Lucius learns from Faith not to ask, she has to take him aside and hiss it at him after one near awful conversation when he provides them dinner.  “But-” “If he wanted us to know, he’d say. So we don’t know. Got it?”  “Got it.” ), Israel buys a car. It’s a ridiculous thing to own, but there’s street parking on his block. It’s old, but a beautiful glossy black and it’s engine always runs smooth.  

-He’s changing the oil one afternoon or tinkering with the engine, Faith isn’t sure. But she and Lucius are sitting on the stoop of Israel’s building, watching. Israel sheds his shirt, just a white thin undershirt beneath.  Faith has seen it all a million times. He’s attractive, her man, muscle-bound and square-jawed. She loved all of that. But she hadn’t really thought about loving it beyond its utility, beyond how his warmth felt pressed against her. 

“Fuck me,” Lucius mutters under his breath, and casts his eyes down to his coffee. 

Faith realizes a few things in rapid succession. She clutches her soda and thinks about it all.  

“He’d freak out, if you said anything,” she whispered. 

“Said what?” Lucuis turns to her, bemused. 

“He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know, you know?” 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he says mildly. “You good?” 

“I’m good,” she decides. She’s not giving him up and she’s not going to make Lucius uncomfortable, so she’ll wait this out. See how it goes. 

-They spend the next summer in the car when they’re not working (Faith and Israel) or taking art classes (Lucius). The three of them are officially inseparable by then. Sometimes there are still quiet date nights, just the two of them, but they don’t fight for those. It’s nicer when Lucius is there. He leads them on strange adventures, to museums and plays. Faith likes the art more than the productions. When she gets tired of such things, Lucius seems challenged, finds her interesting old houses to poke through.

For her birthday, he and Israel somehow make Hole concert tickets appear and Faith practically sobs through it. She’s not one of the people that thinks Courtney had anything to do with Kurt’s death, she just feels her pain vividly and sobs for her even as she lets the music vibrate through her. 

-Israel doesn’t fight them about applying to college that fall. He only applies where Faith applies, so she makes sure to include places he might actually like. She and Lucius figure that out together one night, making a careful list as they paw through old guides. 

“You’ll have to like them too,” she instructs.  

“Who says I’m following you?” he says, but there’s a smile lurking on his lips and she knows that he will. 

“I say,” she tries.

When she exerts herself like that, Israel always falls in line, so she doesn’t do it too much. Lucius is more stubborn, but sometimes, she thinks, more susceptible actually. Because she’s older, maybe. Because sometimes, when Israel isn’t around, she lets him in close and he curls up into her like he can make himself small enough to fit beside her and she pets his hair and says sweet things to him. She does that for Israel too, but it's an equal exchange. Sometimes Lucius just needs her to carry his weight. Just for a minute. She's strong enough for that.

“Well if you say,” he laughs, but makes a copy of the list and keeps it for himself. 

-They fucking murder at Math League that year and it goes on their applications.  

-They save the fat envelopes (Israel’s go to Lucius’ place, Faith gets the family mail in the afternoon and steals her own away) to open with Lucius. It only feels right. 

There are matching scholarships only an hour away. Far enough to escape, close enough to come back sometimes. Israel keeps looking at them like they might disappear, but Faith believes in their escape so hard by now that it’s practically a personal religion. They’re going to get out of here. They’re going to succeed. 

-Lucius gets down on the floor and pulls Israel into a hard hug. Faith watches. She pays attention to the way Israel lets himself be small in Lucius arms. Protected instead of protecting. She takes her own hug happily, pressing a single kiss to Lucius' neck. When he pulls away surprised, she only shrugs. Another day. Another time.

-Summer is in the air when it happened, they are nearly free from high school forever. 

“I’ve got a headache,” she lets them know as she climbs into the passenger seat. Lucius is laying out in the back, a book over his face to block out the streetlight.  “Can we stop at the pharmacy?” 

She’s not sure of what happens over the next two hours. The memories never come back. Lucius tells her, voice shaking as he holds her hand tightly that he stayed with her while Israel went to go put the fear of God (if God was a furious eighteen year old) into her parents. He calls the hospital in frantic gasps and her diagnosis rattles through the line. 

She dies at least once, resuscitated while Lucius stands feet away, so quiet and still they don’t realize he’s there to shoo him away. She knows that for years after he has nightmares about that sterile corner.  

He held a silent vigil for them all and his reward is that she comes to,  clings to him and sobs in bewilderment. Israel arrives not long after and they both pile onto the bed, trying so hard not to hurt her even as they pet her hair and try to embrace her around wires and lines.  

-”Mom says you can stay at our place while you recover,” Lucius tells her. She barely believes that, but she desperately doesn’t want to go home.  

When they arrive, Faith leaning weakly against Israel, the couch is made up with blankets and a pillow. Mrs. Spriggs puts a hand to Faith’s forehead and it’s so unexpected and tender that she almost starts crying all over again. 

-She recovers on the couch, spends the last few weeks in the city there. Israel puts more hours into work, trusting Lucius to get her to appointments and take notes. There’s medication and check ups and she’s dizzy with it, but so profoundly grateful. There’s not much she can do in return, so she borrows Lucius' things and the day before they leave, she gifts Lucius with a portrait of Israel, in profile, not perfect or beautiful, but something he can keep. A promise maybe. She hope it says the things she doesn’t know how to say yet. 

“I love it,” he tells her and hugs her and she whispers, quiet, ever so quiet, 

“We love you,” to him and he hugs her tighter which hurts a little, but she doesn’t care just then. 

-The day comes when she gets into Israel’s car and he at long last, drives them away. It hurts a little to leave Lucius behind, but the freedom makes her almost too dizzy to care. 

-The dorms aren’t so bad. She likes her roommate enough, a quiet girl who goes by Sam and wants to be a kindergarten teacher. They eat dinner together sometimes. Mostly though, she’s in Israel’s room. His roommate pledges a frat and disappears, so they spend a lot of nights together, the two of them small enough to cram into the tiny beds without too much discomfort. 

-And on the weekends, they go into the city and steal Lucius away. It’s a lot of gas money they don’t have, but neither of them ever brings that up. They need him like they need each other and he doesn’t get left behind. 

-The day comes at last when he arrives on campus himself. He’s grown even taller and into himself more. People like Lucius in a way they don’t like Israel and are indifferent to Faith. He creates a life and draws them into it. Faith takes art classes with him again and draws her houses until a professor guides her into an architecture class where she falls in love. 

Israel goes along to English classes and comes back high on arguments, still bickering with Lucius, who gives him a fight with a gleam in his eyes. 

-Determination and grit gets Israel graduated first, the course load never seeming to make him buckle under. He gets a job at a bank, dull as dirt, but the money comes in and he rents an apartment with two bedrooms all on his own. It’s an awful crumbling place and Faith loves it immediately.  Lucius stands in the second bedroom, leaning heavily on the door. 

“You get lonely, you can always sleep with us,” Israel snorts. And Lucius turns on him, eyes like thunder and Israel actually takes a step back. 

“You don’t fucking get to joke about that,” he snaps and walks away. 

“What?” Israel frowns. 

“Wow. Spectacular fail there,” Faith tells him and kisses his cheek.  

“But-” Israel starts, stops. Stares into the empty bedroom as if the warped flooring might give him an answer. 

“Make me a nice enough nest in there and maybe we can figure something out,” she offers. Because Faith has been watching and she’s not a fool. But she’s also too hungry for what they feed her to give up. She could be the bigger person. Walk away and leave them to it. But Israel was hers first and Lucius sometimes needs her. She loves that need. 

“Faith,” he protests weakly. 

“It’s okay,” she smiles at him. “We can still get married.” 

-Israel goes after Lucius. They come back, both a little addled looking. They turn to her, waiting. 

-”Can I watch?” She settles on. 

-That’s a weird conversation, but it ends with her sitting cross-legged on the end of the mattress, watching as they learn how to make each other fall apart. When they’re done, she creeps back up and settles against Israel with a contented sigh. He looks down at her, blissed out and bemused. 

Lucius, clearly very pleased with himself, sits up, leaning against the cracked wall, hair impossibly mussed. 

“You’re okay with this?” Israel checked. 

“Yeah,” she grins. “I think it’s pretty great, actually. You can go on without me whenever.” 

“You still want to get married?” He asks roughly. 

“I told you I would,” she presses a kiss to his ribs. “That okay, Luc?” 

“Yeah, sure do whatever,” he says lazily. “As long as we all stick together.” 

-They get married on a Tuesday because Faith likes Tuesdays. There’s no rings, just Lucius and Sam as witnesses. They go to a nice lunch after, a little fancier than usual. Lucius gives them a drawing as a present, the two of them running through the rain weeks ago, soaking and laughing with it. 

They frame it, a cheap dollar store number and add Faith’s old portrait of Israel next to it. 

-As ever a man of his word, Israel makes both bedrooms pleasant places, decent beds, piled with blankets and pillows, a nest wherever she lands. The second bedroom sees a lot of business. It’s nominally Lucius’, full of his things, but Faith sleeps there just as often. Sometimes with Lucius even, when Israel is working late. He’s a pleasant sleeping companion, generous with his warmth and soft where Israel was hard. 

They kiss sometimes. Affectionate and understanding that it’s no more than that. When Israel catches it, he clearly melts into it though he’d deny it. 

Lucius has other men, but that’s fine. Those nights Faith gets her husband to herself and they start to figure out how to make each other feel good too. Israel has ideas from his nights with Lucius and they negotiate more things. Faith’s body isn’t strong, but her voice and will are and that seems to be enough.  

-In her senior year, Faith meets a woman, gorgeous and soft-spoken. She comes home to Lucius and confesses, achingly and he says, 

“Darling, what’s what one more? Izzy won’t mind.” 

“Do you think so?” 

“I know so.” 

He’s right as he usually is. Israel just kisses her on the forehead like a blessing and she goes back into the world, ready for new things. The woman cares, unfortunately, but Faith figures it’s a good enough litmus test for whoever comes next.

-She gets an internship upon graduation. It’s just down the street from the bank, so Israel drives her every morning. All day she runs errands for people that make actual money, but she also gets to watch buildings being born and it just redoubles her conviction. They hire her when the internship ends and they spend many mornings commuting together. 

-Lucius stumbles into a job at a gallery. He sits at the front desk, answers questions and is generally bored. He doesn’t complain much, but it’s unpleasant to see him washed out and aimless. 

And then one night, very oddly, Israel says, 

“I wrote something.” 

“Like a report?” Lucius picks over dinner. Faith made it, so it’s probably burnt. She hasn’t had the guts to try it yet. Israel, bless him, has already cleared his plate without comment. He’ll probably make it next week and better on his night.  

“Not a report.” 

He yields up the pages. It’s not long. A story about a girl with flyaway orange hair and a boy with a fist full of magic colored pencils. They draw a world to escape into and run away. 

“Oh, Israel,” Faith reaches for him, takes his hand. “It’s beautiful.” 

“It’s special, Iz,” Lucius decrees. “Hold on.” 

He gets out his sketchbook and he starts to draw. Not the hyper realistic sketches that he’s always aimed for, but not fully cartoon either. The kids look real, their scenery a colorful riot. They both bend their heads over the pages and they plan. 

Faith watches a world being born. 

- Escape to Glass City: The First Adventure of Pup and the Duchess  is aimed at middle readers. Faith has never met so many twelve year olds in her life, even when she was twelve. She goes with them to signings when she can, endlessly charmed by the way they learn to hold court to awkward adolescents. 

-They contract for six books. Pup and the Duchess adventure out into the world. By book six, at Lucius and Faith’s insistence, they pick up a companion. Night of the Goblin Prince sells better than the first five combined, thanks to getting prominently featured on banned book lists everywhere. The scene towards the end is chaste, just Pup and the Goblin Prince holding hands, but Lucius’ art leaves little to interpretation as the Duchess in the next panel puts her arms around both their waists and says, 

“Love shared is love multiplied. But we can’t linger here. Your father is coming...” 

-They get another four books after that. Israel leaves the bank at long last, so Faith commutes alone, but she comes home to such a happy home, she can’t resent it.  

-With the money, Lucius and Israel make a commission. At long last, Faith has the funds and the experience to make those first childhood dreams come true. She creates for them a house. It’s not over large, but they each have their own space. It’s Victorian-inspired, crenellations and little touches galore. For Lucius, she makes a bedroom in a tower, tall rounded windows, a perch for him to survey the back garden and the river beyond.  The main bedroom is at the back of the house, more tall windows, but carefully recessed into the wall, less exposed and en suite with no windows at all, not even a skylight, just a restive place to hide from the world.  For Israel, an office on the far right corner, bookshelves jammed back with all of their gathered materials, framed awards hung between. It’s where he and Lucius work the most often together, one long desk under the window. 

For herself, Faith makes a living room on the first floor, filled with comfortable furniture, fluffy rugs and lots of art on the walls to absorb sound. It’s her nest, her place and if her men pile onto the couch with her, so much the better.   

-She meets Lydia at a work mixer. It’s not love right aways, but it’s the first blooming idea that it could be. Their schedules are uneven, mismatched, but Faith prefers to be at home anyway. One or two nights a week at Lydia’s are more than enough. 

- Lucius finds the bar on a rambling weekend out. He brings home the card with a casual comment and a few weeks later, they all go together. It’s a fabulous place, the show makes Faith laugh uncontrollably and she makes sure to find the host and tell her. 

“Thank you,” Leda beams. “We work hard to put on a good show. Right darling?” 

“Mmhm,” the Kraken winds a limb around Leda’s shoulder, her eyes dragging over Faith in mild interest. 

“Saw a sign for a junior drag event. Do you ever do book signings?” She asks, ever an unofficial agent. 

-”What for?” Leda asks, half distracted by her partner already. 

“My husband and my partner write a series for middle readers. The Adventures of Pup and the Duchess.” 

Leda’s eyes go wide and the Kraken’s eyebrows fly upwards.  

“Those are Charlie’s favorites, aren’t they?” 

“Alma liked them too,” Leda agreed. “Are they here?” 

Lucius and Israel get quite the introduction which Lucius, as always, takes as his due and Israel, as always, shrinks away from a little. 

-They do the signing. It’s a little too far to travel very regularly, but they still find themselves there alone, in pairs or altogether once a month or so.  Faith helps them renovate the basement when it floods, the plans escaping the basement and into the backrooms. Lucius finds his way into bed with most of the standing cast and eventually settles on Pete, spending long weekends away. 

Israel...Israel lingers around Eddy, darting in and out like koi fish in a pond. Testing the water temperature. In the end, he stays away, circles back home, but a new character finds their way into the books, a mysterious sea creature, who helps and hinders them in turn. 

-Let’s leave them there, all in their forties, happy in their home and their home away from home. Faith in her castle, watching over her men and having her lover. A life built on stories and art. The Duchess in her palace.