#I’ve been wanting to draw them fora bit now

[yarboyandy]

Cordy, Willow, and Buffy in their Sophomore year looks

[jeaneybean]

The grand escape from Castle Werewolf

Honestly ends a lot better than expected.

So we start out fanangling the plan from three weeks ago: Vera and Magnolia pray for an hour to reset their spells, and then they head up to the castle (seperately). Nitahn and Vlad head up later and Nitahn accepts Juno’s dinner invitation. During dinner Juno seems to be targeting nitahn, and Vera and Nitahn both realize that she thinks that Nitahn is either seducing or fucking her son. Vera’s response to this is a lot more gleeful than Nitahn’s.

The group sneaks into Oz’s room, and from there they go into the catacombs under the castle. They prowl through until Nitahn smells something. Lamb, kind of smells like dinner. he mentions it to the party and Vera’s like ‘well maybe we’re near the kitchen’. Oz rules that out, and the party assures Nitahn that they can’t smell it. it turns out that now that Nithan has mastered his werewolf tranformation, he can scent things. 

What he’s smelling is the first patrol, which Jake freaks out by using ghost sounds to catcall behind them. The party rushes them, with Nitahn crabwalking and Vera charging, and Vera crits the first guard hard, and hits the second hard too. The second guard turns into a werewolf, but Vera finishes him off with a crit. Vera’s favored enemy is apparently werewolves.

Since the guards had said something about looking for the other guard group, we head out looking for them as well. Eventually we find them near the kitchens, and Jake manages to fool them into thinking he’s the other guard group (complete with faking a durmond accent.) Oz tells Vera he can get her behind the group and Vera agrees, and the second set of werewolves come up. Nitahn rushes them, and so does Jake because he wants to use the silver longsword he found. Oz has Veli fly behind the werewolves, and vera holds action until he can use benign transposition on the two of them. The party sees Vera shrink down into a puddle of blood, from which Veli crawls out of. Vera flanks the werewolf with Jake, and Jake repeatedly misses with his longsword. Eventually they kill the first werweolf, and Nithan manages to control shape when werewolf number 2 beats him up. The second werewolf starts to look like he’s going to howl, but Vera crits again before he can.

The group heads to the passage leading out of the castle and open the passage to find Vlad waiting as he said he would, with Jake’s scythe. Jake tearily takes his scythe back before they shoot off to the necklace because of course they do. (Katie and Cody got called out in an emergency)  Vlad’s like ‘well. Shit.’ but the party presses on and heads up the stairs to get the first of the hostages. Nitahn shoves Vera up front, and Vera manages to sweetly smile at the first woman, who sobs and hugs Vera and is very ready fora  rescue. The second dude tries to run at the door with a chair in front of him, because he’s the one that Anya opened the door on and shut it. So we grab him. 

The third person goes by the same, but hte fourth one doesn’t want to leave. She’s in love with Hans and she says she’s found her place. Vera tries to reason with her, tells her she’s most likely going to die when Juno tries to change her, and if she lives she’ll be raped and bred for stock. The woman doesn’t see that (And Vera doesn’t check for evil because she’s off her game) and Oz and Nitahn are like ‘Okay we have to trap her in the room’ and Oz casts Arcane Lock on the door (with the password of ‘I have made a mistake’) and they dip out to rescue the others.

Fyodora’s room is a bit away from everyoen else, and Vlad needs to head up to get something from his room. Nitahn has Vera escort the others down to the wagon (Because if any of them give him trouble, he’s planning to leave them in favor of Fyodora, also he thinks Vera wouldn’t.) Nitahn and Oz head to Fyodora’s room and it looks like she’s sleeping, so Nitahn creeps over. Juno pulls back the blankets and is like ‘Oh, my hero.’

Oz: I cast blindness on Juno.

Sam: okay, roll the saves... She failed. She’s blinded.

Oz: that’s permanant.

Sam: what.

Juno still gets a hand on nitahn and calls the guards in and is like “Wait. Where’s the Paladin.” and Oz is like ‘Well, I can show you where she is.”

Meanwhile, Veli starts freaking the fuck out, tugging on Vera’s hair, flapping down and doing the bat gesture she’d been doing to mean Juno, and flying towards the door. Vera’s like ‘Well, okay, we need to get out’ and starts heading out.

Juno: If you see that paladin without a guard, kill her.

Oz: -changes the order to Veli-

Veli freaks out again, flapping in front of Vera and shooing her backwards. Vera’s like ‘well, okay, apparently I need to stay’ and sends the people out with the bat. They’re like ‘weird, but okay, we’ve dealt with worse.’ and they follow the bat out. Vera stomps back into the castle, making as much noise as possible, and Oz leads the guards to Vera. When he sees her he casts message and is like ‘hey, juno was hiding in Fyodora’s room. Also she’s blind.’

Juno has them brought up to the great hall where she starts laying into Nitahn, being like ‘Oh, you might have fooled my son, but I know why you’re really here.’ and whatnot, and it turns out Juno thinks that we’re here to save Fyodora (true) but that Nitahn has seduced her son to get in good with the family. Nitahn is like ‘uhhhh’ while Vera in message to Oz is like ‘oh my god this is amazing’

Juno has two guards bring in Fyodora, then has two other ones try to find Jake. Vlad comes in hiding something behind his back but since Juno’s blind she doesn’t see that. She gives a bit of a speech, tl;dr is “This traveler has fooled you, he’s only here to steal the sister you nearly died protecting. I’ll show you why blood is the most important thing’ and changes into a werewolf, hauling Nitahn up with her. Then she leans down to bite his neck.

And that is the msot dramatic moment possible, so of course that’s when he picks to transform into a werewolf. Juno is like ‘wut’ and Vlad turns into a werewolf, barreling across the room pulling out what he’s been hiding behind his back: a silvered axe. He tells Vera and Oz to make way and goes after the werewolf behind them. Oz casts a buff spell on Vera, and she gets to yell at Juno “You’re still so beautiful, Juno. I’d hate to give you a set of scars to match the ones I gave your son.” and summons Bear beside Oz, giving him the order of ‘Protect Oz’.

Bear is a goddamn marvel and quicklly mulches through everything in his path, because damage reduction only matters when they don’t hit you too hard. He crits nearly every time. Nitahn tries to keep Juno busy and she throws him around a lot. It’s hard for her to tell what’s happening,s ince she can’t see. She yells at Vlad, asking him why he’ betraying his family, why he’s finally chosing to fight now. Vlad calls back that he’s finally fighting for the right side.

Bear finishes his target and heads towards the next nearest target: Juno. He runs over, lands a claw attack, and I got to do what I’ve been waiting to do. ‘I would like Juno to roll a grapple check :)’ and Juno is now grappling with a bear. Vera draws a line in the sand between the werewolf that is DTF Oz and Oz himself, and said Werewolf is like ‘Oh, no one keeps me from what I want’ before taking Vera up on her combat invitation.

Vlad calls to Vera: “Pin her.” And Vera agrees, and Bear attempts the pin. Juno’s almost as strong as he is, so bear isn’t having the best luck. He almost maintains the pin for a full round, but she slips out. Vera finshes up the last werewolf and Oz and Fyodora go to the kitchens to talk to the people there (Who, except the one boy, get the fuck out of dodge.) and start getting whatever supplies they can grab. They’ve got a lot of people to feed.

There’s the sound of people in the hallway, and the one guard that had ran out earlier alerted the other guards at the front gate. Verea locked the door, and behind her Juno escaped from the pin and went at Vlad, who’s trying to talk her down. Vera runs over to the grapple pile, earing Nitahn’s ire as he yells at her. She doesn’t join the grapple, instead smacking Bear with divine sacrifice and turning him loose on Juno.

Bear and Vlad take their swings, and Vlad rolls a 20 to hit. His axe, apparently, is vorporal. He cuts her head clean off and the group is like TIME TO GO and books it out of dodge after leaving Bear to guard teh door (Vera raised a bit of a question, making sure the others could hold so she could buy them time. Vlad was like ‘you specifically said I couldn’t do that’ and Vera’s like ‘the bear, not me.’)

They run to the wagon, scaring the shit out of the assembled rescued people, settle in, and get the fuck out of dodge.

[cathalpaint]

MA day 1

This probably could have used a better title, but I wanted to get as much of an initial impression of my first day at Hallam for an MA with little or no time to think about it. I’ll come back later to insert stuff less impression but that I fond funny. I’ve been upbeat most of the day, with the promise of new things and beginnings and the unknown which will build. A constructive unknown. Knowing I can do this because I've done it before when i was less prepared. The day was really just a run down of the ins and out of the course structure the main aspects of it. The assessment stuff and how the modules will unfold. We got to get a more informal feel for each other on the course and sense of where we ( well I did at least) we fit in. The module stuff I’ll come back to. The day culminated in a really informal meeting with the rest of the MA cohort ( there may be other students yet to arrive due to visa and travel stuff.) I got chatting to a few of the other people on the course; 4 teachers by my count which is interesting, and 3 / 4 straight from the BA and one from a non teaching background. I knew we were going to meet the other MA students, but it took me by surprise all the same and I think my mind had had enough just whirring from initial thoughts and ideas from off the basic introduction to the various elements f the course. I get a kind of nervous energy that I expel through chat in some situations, this was definitely one of those. I had lots of odd humorous thoughts that wanted to shout out, but I knew they were just annoying and not funny to anyone but my stupid head. (oh in slips some self loathing) At the end of the thing I stood around, feeling I don't know what. A need to do, I guess. But it was a dead zone in my head and all that was required of me was to either mingle or just go. Most people had just went anyway. I hung around for a bit said some banal shit and left. Leaving the room is where my head/mind/brain whatever my anxiety began to kick in. I was in a whirl, a mad beast in a head, looking for something to panic about. I asked my self what was bothering me. (other than getting work which definitely was not the source of the chaos in my head.)It was just my head my brain looking for an element; a threat to jump upon and blow out of proportion. A reason to say well this wasn’t right or that will be a problem. I’m aware of all the known problems and although I’m not yet on top of them all I have plans. Not great plans, but ways to at least begin dealing with the issues. If only I found my mental health as easy to deal with.

So none of theses things were in a problem. You’d think that realising this would help dissipate the noise and churning of my mind. No. Instead I found my self trying to not just break down in to tears. Having to control my self rigidly. I want a space where these things the tears the panic can just come to the surface and be done with. I'm not even sure it is a panic, it's just an intensity of everything, formless but urgently demanding; all consuming in my mind if I let it be. I’ve just had to bury it for dealing with at another time.

How did I do that. well I made a list of 3 things I wanted to accomplish today. (This was number 4 i.e. not on my list but in doing it I realise how useful this could be for me over the course off the...um course of course. (It might even be a good decompression tool for me.) Then breaking those tasks into smaller elements, that I can work at immediately. I still want to crash and burn at time though. I need that space to be vulnerable, but I can’t do it one my own because I guess I'm worried about it spinning out of control and I want that comfort of an other human. I don’t need them to tell me it will be alright; just a presence that will allow me to know that I have someone there. Just being there would act as a safeguard to me spiralling out of control, to damage levels. I still hurt my self. Less visibly but left to my own self at the moment these overwhelming emotions emerge and a need for them to just stop, just stop, and then I get hurt. The modules are fairly straight forward. 60 credits on ART Practice- In my understanding making things ( mistakes successes and so on) some documentation our thoughts on how and why we are making and having an opinion about it all , Art Context is 4 strands all designed to try to push the way we practice / make produce and display and to think about how we do this. each strand is 30 credits. Basically choose one of 2 choices as they are delivered. First choice is : A) Drawing on/from the archive. or; B) Assemblage and collage. And then: A) Art Writing or; B) Curation - time and place. A very rich layered course. I’m taken by all the strands like everyone on the course was, but being aware of time constraints I’ll opt for assemblage and collage, then curation. That's me on this for now I’ll edit and move stuff around and be back for a bit Thursday. I have a lot of thoughts to think out and this will be where I air them either immediately or after I give them time to breathe. Right now its time for tea, rice and some mysterious veg concoction I made. Tomorrow I’ll try to start moving my stuff over. I also have therapy tomorrow and it will be the last session fora while because, I’m not finding time with everything to work on the therapy. I don’t want to be without that space as its the only one I have that is there for me at the moment. So I'm a bit terrified at the thought of being bereft of a space for a while. So until next time.

[losebetter]

upcoming things, in no particular order:

temperance: that kalden fic i’ve been hacking at for a few months now. i’m thinking (hoping) it’ll top out at about 30k, and i’m nearly there!

how to tell a true war story: a comic i’ve scripted and plan to draw out within the next few months - mostly autobio, kind of about fallout?

stop me if you’ve heard this one: i have written too goddamn much of this mchanzo fic to never finish and post the end of it, so i’m gonna do that one of these days.

phoenices: borderlands comic! probably about a four-page spread.

deep blues: the smutty sequel to temperance, which i’ve already started writing because i’m a calamity and my friends are enablers. 

FALLAWAY MOONSAULT SLAM: borderlands fic that i set myself up for with my last borderlands fic.

commissions!!!!! ????probably??? hopefully! i need to buy a mattress and those ain’t cheap unfortunately, rip

(i have 1k+ of mryder/liam fic and i’d like to do A Painting since i’ve had one in mind of them fora bit, but frankly i’m burnt out right now and idk if that will ever happen, or if it does if i’ll post it, i don’t know.)

i mean i’d like to finish riot rhythm someday lol, that whole thing is outlined and the illustrations are outlined and it’s all good to run, but. it is a Big Job so who knows. but i’d like to get it done.

the original ero i was gonna finish in february - i still wanna mess around with that! could be a fun little attempt at original fiction.

other Fun and Gay surprises?? IT’S A MYSTERY.

oh but for sure, more rook (and maccready, and family). y’all are stuck with him.

basically: i’m doin a bunch of stuff when i am awake and have the energy and strength to do it. i’m gonna shake off this andromeda stuff and keep making things i wanna make. (to those of you who followed me for bioware stuff... i’m sorry OTL this is honestly pretty raw right now and i kind of want to distance myself for a little while.) 

anyway. thanks for sticking around. ♥

[mysteryshelf]

BLOG TOUR - The Silent Games

The Silent Games

by Alex Gray

on Tour March 12 – April 14, 2018

Welcome to

THE PULP AND MYSTERY SHELF!

DISCLAIMER: This content has been provided to THE PULP AND MYSTERY SHELF by Partners in Crime Book Tours. No compensation was received. This information required by the Federal Trade Commission.

Synopsis:

Alex Gray’s stunning new Lorimer novel, set against the backdrop of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, brings the vibrant city to life in a race to stop the greatest threat the city has ever known.

2014: The Commonwealth Games are coming to Glasgow and security is extra tight, particularly after a mysterious bomb explodes in nearby rural Stirlingshire. As the opening ceremony for the Games draws ever closer, the police desperately seek the culprits. But Detective Superintendent Lorimer has other concerns on his mind. One is a beautiful red-haired woman from his past whose husband dies suddenly on his watch. Then there is the body of a young woman found dumped in countryside just south of the city who is proving impossible to identify.

Elsewhere in Glasgow people prepare for the events in their own way, whether for financial gain or to welcome home visitors from overseas. And, hiding behind false identities, are those who pose a terrible threat not just to the Games but to the very fabric of society.

Critical Praise:

“An excellent procedural in which Gray … does for Glasgow what Ian Rankin did for Edinburgh in the annals of crime fiction.” — Kirkus Reviews on The Silent Games

“Gray has no equal when it comes to unmasking killers and she has excelled herself here . . . Gray is the new master of Scottish crime writing.” — Scottish Daily Express

“Brings Glasgow to life in the same way Ian Rankin evokes Edinburgh.” — Daily Mail (UK)

Book Details:

Genre: Mystery Published by: Witness Impulse Publication Date: March 13th 2018 Number of Pages: 368 ISBN: 9780062659262 Series: A DCI Lorimer Novel, #11 (Stand Alone)

Get Your Copy of The Silent Games from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, & HarperCollins. Don’t forget to add it to your Goodreads!!

Read an excerpt:

From Chapter 2

It was worse than he could ever have imagined.

Even from the roadside, where a line of police cars was parked, Lorimer could see the devastation. Plumes of smoke and flames still rose from the heaps of broken trees, and as he emerged from the Lexus, his skin was immediately touched by flakes of ash drifting in the air. The smell of burning wood was overpowering, and he could hear the occasional crackle and hiss of fire beneath the whooshing sound from the firemen’s hoses as arcs of water were trained into the heart of the inferno. His eyes took in the gap in the hedge where the fire engines had broken through to reach the narrow walkers’ path, and the tyre marks on the verge. It would be replanted, no doubt, but the burning trees would leave a scar that would take far longer to heal.

‘Detective Superintendent Lorimer? Martin Pinder.’ The uniformed chief inspector was suddenly at his side, hand outstretched. Lorimer took it, feeling the firm once up and down as the officer motioned them to turn away from the direction of the cinders. ‘Sorry to call you out, but as I said, we needed someone to front this. And your name came up.’

‘But isn’t this a local matter?’ Lorimer asked. ‘We’re in the district of Stirling, surely?’

Pinder shook his head. ‘It’s bigger than you might imagine,’ he began. Walking Lorimer a few paces away from the line of cars, he dropped his voice. ‘And there is intelligence to suggest that it may have a much wider remit.’

‘Oh?’ Lorimer was suddenly curious. The telephone call had mentioned an explosion, the immediate need for a senior officer from Police Scotland and a request to keep the lid on things, but nothing more.

‘You said intelligence.’ He frowned. ‘You mean Special Branch?’

Pinder nodded. ‘I’ve been charged with giving you this information, sir. And doubtless your counter terrorism unit will already be involved.’ He licked his lips, hesitating, and Lorimer could see the anxiety in the man’s grey eyes.

‘We are given to believe that this is just a trial run.’ Pinder motioned to the fire behind them.

‘A trial run,’ Lorimer said slowly. ‘A trial run for what?’

Pinder gave a sigh and raised his eyebrows.

‘The Glasgow Commonwealth Games.’

Lorimer looked at the man in disbelief, but Pinder’s face was all seriousness.

‘That’s almost a year away. Why do they think. . .?’

‘Haven’t been told that. Someone further up the chain of command will know.’ Pinder shrugged. Perhaps you’ll be told once you liaise with Counter Terrorism.’

Lorimer turned to take in the scene of the explosion once more, seeing for the first time the enormous area of burning countryside and trying to transfer it in his mind’s eye to the newly built village and arenas in Glasgow’s East End. He blinked suddenly at the very notion of carnage on such a vast scale.

‘We can’t let it happen,’ Pinder said quietly, watching the tall man’s face.

Lorimer gazed across the fields to the line of rounded hills that were the Campsies. Glasgow lay beyond, snug in the Clyde valley; on this Sunday morning its citizens remained oblivious to the danger posed by whatever fanatic had ruined this bit of tranquil landscape. He had asked why the local cops hadn’t taken this one on, and now he understood: the threat to next year’s Commonwealth Games was something too big for that. And since the various police forces in Scotland had merged into one national force, Detective Superintendent William Lorimer might be called to any part of the country.

‘The press will want statements,’ Pinder said, breaking into Lorimer’s thoughts. ‘It’s still an ongoing investigation. Don’t we just love that phrase!’ He gave a short, hard laugh. ‘And there is no loss of life, so we can try for a positive slant on that, at least.’

‘They’ll speculate,’ Lorimer told him. ‘You know that’s what they do.’

Pinder touched the detective superintendent’s arm, nodding towards the figures milling around on the fringes of the fire. ‘Apart from you and me, there is not a single person here who has been told about the background to this event. So unless the press leap to that conclusion by dint of their own imagination, any leak can only come from us.’

When Lorimer turned to face him, the uniformed officer was struck by the taller man’s penetrating blue gaze. Fora long moment they stared at one another, until Pinder looked away, feeling a sense of discomfort mixed with the certainty that he would follow this man wherever he might lead.

Wouldn’t like to be across the table from him in an interview room, he was to tell his wife later that day. But there on that lonely stretch of country road, Martin Pinder had an inkling why it was that the powers on high had called on Detective Superintendent William Lorimer to oversee this particular incident.

***

Excerpt from The Silent Games by Alex Gray. Copyright © 2018 by Alex Gray. Reprinted by permission of Witness Impulse, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.

Author Bio:

Alex Gray was born and educated in Glasgow. After studying English and Philosophy at the University of Strathclyde, she worked as a visiting officer for the Department of Health, a time she looks upon as postgraduate education since it proved a rich source of character studies. She then trained as a secondary school teacher of English. Alex began writing professionally in 1993 and had immediate success with short stories, articles, and commissions for BBC radio programs. She has been awarded the Scottish Association of Writers’ Constable and Pitlochry trophies for her crime writing. A regular on the Scottish bestseller lists, she is the author of thirteen DCI Lorimer novels. She is the co-founder of the international Scottish crime writing festival, Bloody Scotland, which had its inaugural year in 2012.

Catch Up With Alex Gray On alex-gray.com, Goodreads, & Twitter!

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This is a rafflecopter giveaway hosted by Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours for Alex Gray and Witness Impulse. There will be 3 winners of one (1) print copy of Alex Gray’s THE SWEDISH GIRL. The giveaway begins on March 12, 2018 and runs through April 15, 2018. Open to U.S. addresses only. Void where prohibited.

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BLOG TOUR – The Silent Games was originally published on the Wordpress version of The Pulp and Mystery Shelf with Shannon Muir