#discarded wip graveyard

[j0kers-light]

Hey hi loves would y’all be interested in seeing like discarded rough drafts of my wips? Raw no editing incomplete ideas? Kinda like a blooper of where I was taking the plot until my brain said NOPE and hit the delete button?

I ask this because I have like 4K words I’m about to delete that no one will ever see. And someone should!

[eastwindmlk]

Hi! Amnesia for the WIP game? 👀

Excellent choice! This also comes with a little background because technically I've had this laying around for give or take five years. And the plunny keeps hopping by every once in a while. But I'm never quite sure where I want this story to go and now it lives in limbo between my WIP folder and my graveyard.

Set in 7th year. James gets into a quidditch accident and loses part of his memory. Specifically people, only remembering bits and pieces but unable to connect them to the figures he finds at his bedside. Lily teams up with his friends and teammates to try and restore what was lost. But can they? Or is their friend forever changed.

There isn't much written but I wrote the opening paragraphs. So, there you go!

It wasn’t entirely out of the ordinary to find Lily Evans roaming around the hospital wing; she had taken an interest in the art of healing when her father had gotten ill. The matron had gladly taken her in and had the redhead help out. She had seen potential in the girl with her gentle disposition, deft hands and proclivity for potions. She could be a great healer, if she chose to pursue the path once she graduated. Though her visits in the past three days had not been to shadow the nurse and help out with the people that needed no immediate attention. No, she had a purpose this time.

Quidditch was always a tricky time and usually one or two students would end up needing some ointment for bruises or the setting of a bone. It rarely ever ended in blood. Though this game was bad. Lily had been there from the moment James wrapped his lucky scarf around her neck and said something silly to the moment that the teachers helped carry him in, bleeding from a bad blow to the head. The Gryffindor girl had busied herself with fetching towels and shooing away the people that had no use being there. Even if it broke her heart to see the pain in their eyes as they peered across the ward to the closed curtains and the stained uniform that lay discarded on the chair.

It had been three days since they had rushed in here and Lily had been by his side for most of it. The boys and her trading shifts to make sure that someone would be awake when he would finally open his eyes. So, there she sat on the uncomfortable chair that had become her home, flicking through some sappy romance novel Mary had brought her. She was deep into a chapter that was probably not meant for the eyes of a teen when it finally happened. In a whirl the raven haired boy sat up, looking nine shades of green and about to empty his already empty stomach.

The book fell on the ground with a dull thud as she guided him back into the pillows. If he only took a moment to breathe it should be fine. Taking a deep breath herself she found his glasses and put on a smile, despite the fact that her heart was hammering in her chest. “Very funny, Potter.” She replied as he asked who she was, taking the water from his bedside and setting the glass to his lips. “Drink this and slowly sit up. I’ll go get the nurse.” She mused, shaking her head a little as she slid off the bed convinced this was just him taking the opportunity to play a prank, as usual. She never could have guessed that there was nothing funny about what was about to be happening.

[littlerequiem]

For fanfic meme can I ask E P Q M

Hi anon, thanks so much for the ask, I hope you’re doing well :)

E: If you wrote a sequel to we all bleed red, what would it be about?

This would be an AU of my AU xD but probably Stray & Levi being in the roaring 20s in New York! I can imagine them investigating something and coming across vampire gangs…

M: Got any premises on the back burner that you’d care to share?

Yes!!! Here’s the summary of my upcoming Levi x Reader one-shot, midnight ventures:

You shouldn’t have looked and he shouldn’t have been there. But Fate can have a funny sense of humor. The punchline that night? Stumbling onto your naked Captain in a hot spring… and doing something about it.

(hehe 🤭)

P: Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an “architect” or a “gardener”?

A total gardener - which is not always ideal for long fics.

Q: Do you have any discarded scenes/storylines/projects?

Oh, um… *stares at graveyard of WIPs*, yeah you could say that.

Thanks again for stopping by!

[snickerdoodlles]

buckle up butter cup, i have QUESTIONS: 1, 2, 3 (👀), 11, 12, 15, 17 (👀), 22, 24, 32, 38, 40

I'll take your essay in MLA format plz <3

ah shit, i forgot my citations 😭

1. What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

my current default is Libre Franklin! i actually cycle through fonts a lot? i like the editing trick of changing your font to help catch errors and clunky writing, and sometimes i'll switch the font of my doc if i'm feeling particularly stuck while i'm writing. idk how many people know this, but you can change the default font/formatting/color of google docs, and i do it constantly 😂

2. If you had to give up your keyboard and write your stories exclusively by hand, could you do it? If you already write everything by hand, a) are you a wizard and b) pen or pencil?

I write by hand a lot actually! I went through 2.5 notebooks alone last year iirc. I always write in pen -- writing by hand helps me gets ideas out of my head faster, and part of that is that i can't undo/backspace what i write. i just gotta move on. and since i'll have to rewrite it anyways when i type it up, writing by hand really helps me get that first rough draft mess out. it also helps me discard the really crap ideas from that first draft -- sometimes the typed doc that it distills into is completely different than what's on paper, and we're all grateful for it.

3. What is your writing ritual and why is it cursed?

WRITING IN FRIENDS DMS!!!! nothing gets my ideas flowing better than a friend to bounce them around with, and nothing helps me solidify and distill ideas like needing to explain them to someone. i am so bad about sending friends multiple screens worth of written scenes in their DMs (i am very fortunate to have friends who let me do this). this ritual is cursed because my preferred DM platform is tumblr, and i actually rarely remember to save these writings to something more permanent like a doc (pour one out for the many, many, MANY writings lost in DMs <3)

11. Do you believe in the old advice to “kill your darlings?” Are you a ruthless darling assassin? What happens to the darlings you murder? Do you have a darling graveyard? Do you grieve?

*stares at writing notebook* *stares at lost DM fics* kill your darlings

real answer lol: if there's something i really like, i can usually find a way to bring it back into a WIP. i'm really good at that sort of adaptive thinking, but part of why i'm good at that is because i am a ruthless darling killer. all of my editing is very much focused on how all the pieces of a story work in harmony to each other and if something doesn't fit within that, that's not the story for it. but sometimes the reason why a thing doesn't work in the story is because its in the wrong place and since I have no issue removing things that don't work, it's a lot easier to find a better place for it if you're not fixated on keeping it in a specific spot. and for any darling that never makes its way back to its home story, it goes into my mental compost heap to possibly seed into something new for a future story.

12. If a genie offered you three writing wishes, what would they be? Btw if you wish for more wishes the genie turns all your current WIPs into Lorem Ipsum, I don’t make the rules

fool proof way to write in the shower, perfect recall when im trying to remember a story idea i laid out in DMs, the perfect cure to my adhd executive dysfunction.

15. Do you write in the margins of your books? Dog-ear your pages? Read in the bath? Why or why not? Do you judge people who do these things? Can we still be friends?

i'm an avid annotator but only for like...general knowledge? all of my textbooks, reference book, and journal articles/papers are littered with annotations and other marginalia (this is partially why i have so many colored ink ballpoint pens actually 😂). there was a hot minute where i tried to do this for general story/poetry books, but...ehh???? i never quite got into that because usually i just lose myself in the story and my external thoughts come out better in friend DMs or post tags ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

as for the others-- dog ear, no, i don't like the look of bent pages. plus i have a loooot of bookmarks i'm still not using because they're one of those Cheap Art Merch things lol. i absolutely read in the bath (if i take a bath, because ya girl gets BORED), but usually im grabbing one of my travel edition books jic something happens to it, anything electronic i hold over the edge so it won't fall in.

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

will respond in a separate post so i can be extra annoying!! lmk if there's a specific WIP you're hoping to hear about XD

22. How organized are you with your writing? Describe to me your organization method, if it exists. What tools do you use? Notebooks? Binders? Apps? The Cloud?

hrmmhmMm define organized?

zero organization to notebooks. those are for Throwing Up Ideas, organization would give me writer's block or anxiety. similar for anything that winds up in my phone notes -- even if i could organize them better, i probably wouldn't? they're kinda like a part 2 to the writing notebook for me jotting down ideas, esp stuff that i don't think will become proper stories. proper stories are on google drive because i don't have a better option. fics there are separated by fandom. series and multi-chapter fics get their own folders, individual stories stay out in the general folder. i also have a folder for posted/finished one-shots and a compost folder for discarded story ideas to help keep the clutter down

24. How much prep work do you put into your stories? What does that look like for you? Do you enjoy this part or do you just want to get on with it?

...how much does friend DM yelling count? i love plotting out stories in friend DMs, it's one of my favorite things to do, but i don't like. force myself to stick with anything either. i don't like rigorous story outlines, i prefer a more organic and flexible approach to writing stories. the best i can manage for a story outline is a general bullet list of story points i hope to hit. i like research a lot (wikipedia rabbit holes my beloved <3), but i don't usually worry about going too in-depth for it. it's really good fuel for story ideas and the brainstorming process, but like. i write fic. i care a lot about being sensitive and careful with other people's cultures and histories, but otherwise i don't fret the details and minute because my goal here is to share silly stories.

32. What is a line from a poem/novel/fanfic etc that you return to from time and time again? How did you find it? What does it mean to you?

uuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

this is really hard for me because i never read stories as individual lines. that said, i was thinking earlier of that poem (poem line?) "a hand has five fingers. five fingers and five thousand wants." because talk about kim-core, but i don't remember what its from and google isn't helping.

that said, hope y'all are ready for me to reblog this and this 583478 times when we finally hit proper hogswatch season <333

38. What is something about your writing process YOU think is Really Weird? If you are comfortable, please share. If you’re not comfortable, what do you think cats say about us?

..........i had an answer in mind when i first saw this question, but i just forgot everything now that i'm here (am i even a writer?? surely not.)

maybe this will come back to me later.

40. Please share a poem with me, I need it.

you get "the more loving one" by wh auden because i am ALWAYS thinking of this poem. #predictable

[[ writer asks ]]

[amethyst-noir]

@aelaer tagged me! Thank you so much! 💖

Rules: Post the names of all the files in your wip folder regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it.

[ghost valley].docx (That's not a WIP but the graveyard doc where beginnings that went nowhere and discarded scenes and paragraphs find their last resting place. But, it's in my WIP folder so it gets a mention.)

braid.docx

bunny.docx

silver.docx

Tagging @babywarg, @lafourmii20 and @gravitywonagain if you want to do this.

[chitsangenthusiast]

kath bb i love hearing about other people's writing processes and i am always impressed by writers who have the confidence to let the first draft be shitty. that takes a certain amount of humility and confidence!

(also, same hat: i love a good word graveyard of discarded lines. one story's trash is another story's treasure)

but also 👀 will you say more about scrivener 👀 i've been meaning to look into it because i'm getting fed up bouncing between six different tabs of google docs and two word docs because i am a messy drafter with no organization skills and was wondering what your relationship with scrivener is like

SCRIVENER MY BELOVEDDDDDD 🧡🧡🧡

i got introduced to it one? two? years ago and literally it is The Reason why i picked writing back up. it's basically the electronic version of having a three-ring project binder lol

you can have folders to keep all your drafts for a wip in one place! you have a notes section, dedicated outlining space, and a corkboard! you can edit with comments like on gdoc, insert photos/citations/links/tables/etc! it's GREAT

(tbh i don't even use all the features bc i write like. shorter fanfics vs manuscripts or anything Big, but scrivener is adaptable for any kind of writing, fiction or non-fiction!)

it is definitely daunting/a lot to learn it at first tho. you're gonna start it up and be like 'holy shit' because of how much you can do with it, BUT imo once you get your bearings it's insanely easy to navigate. also you can customize basically everything lol this is what mine looks like:

left: binder part! menu that shows all of my fic wips/drafts. i love having this bc i can see everything at once, and makes it way easier to switch between wips if i suddenly decide to work on smth else

middle: writing space. everything re: font, spacing, background color, and border white space size can be customized!

right: notes section my love <33 there's other things that can be displayed here, but i rely on being able to write+reference parts of my outline/other thoughts/'words to check' here, so find this to be extremely useful. it's like my scrap paper lol

some potential cons/things to note:

their dictionary doesn't always recognize words that are definitely real, so you'll have to save them

imo their synonyms offerings are fairly lackluster, but i rely mostly on wordhippo anyway so that isn't an issue for me

reasons why i final review in word: scrivener can miss some grammar mistakes, and also the their formatting doesn't stick when copying content to ao3 lol

it does cost money ($50) but there is a free trial that gives you 30 days of use! as in, it will only count the days you use it and not 30 consecutive days which i thought was p cool!

but yes: i love scrivener so much lol literally the best thing i've ever used for writing <333333

[cwritesfiction]

3 and 11?

3. What is your writing ritual and why is it cursed?

My writing ritual is work all day oh god so much stuff so much life and then BAM it's 7:00pm, I have a few hours to write before I have to go to bed, but also I want to go to bed now, a little, and also if I want to do anything else it has to happen now. If I do write, I take forever to get started and then get annoyed that I don't have as much time as I'd like.

In other words, it's cursed because I'm an adult.

11. Do you believe in the old advice to “kill your darlings?” Are you a ruthless darling assassin? What happens to the darlings you murder? Do you have a darling graveyard? Do you grieve?

YEP.

If there's something in your story you really like but it's not working, cut it out. You can save it for later, use it elsewhere, whatever! THIS is what sunk me in the past, trying to stick to ideas or lines that I "liked" even though they didn't fit. It made those parts of my writing not fun to read, which is kind of the whole point of writing things you intend to share.

Some darlings get resurrected later in other sections of the WIP or in other projects.

I used to keep a discard document, but I never actually resurrected any of that writing. The new versions of things were always better. There are a few solid one-liners I grieve for, but alas -- they're not worth it.

Weird questions for writers

[the-writers-bookshelf]

HAPPY FAB FRIDAY!

For my current WIP, I’ll talk about why I add in my RP OCS in writings.

You're probably wondering WHY I'm putting most of my RP (RolePlay) OCS (Original Characters) into my writings. Well, the truth is that I'm VERY ATTACHED to many of my characters and to this day, I still don't remember my very first RP OC as I've made a lot of characters during my RP years. The only things I've kept for my characters are their names, which some of them had name changes later on, their appearances, and some of their personalities.

By Adding them into my writings, it makes the fictional fantasy world come alive, and even more fun.

You're also probably wondering WHAT I do with the characters I'm no longer attached to. Well, the truth is that if name changes don't work and I don't like them anymore, then I discard the names. If I like the names and I can't find any use for them, then I'll place them into the OC GRAVEYARD with my other deceased characters.

there are several traditionally published writers who started out writing fanfiction and moved to and/or altered their fanfiction into an original work so it TOTALLY makes senses to grab those OCs you worked so hard to create and keep them alive with their own stories!! and you get to expand on them EVEN MORE in your own fictional worlds!! :D

[leconcombrerit]

WIP ask meme

Rules: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

@miainaction94 tagged me, so it's time to bring some WIPs back ! I don't have a WIP folder, though ; everything is organized by fandoms instead. I do have a folder called "graveyard", full of stuff I will never finish, but it's massive, so... Let's see what I have in my fandoms folders instead !

Sanders Sides

Car rides team villains

Party

AU1

darksides no loitering

diva

dresed

fireworks

foreva wip

Janus raté

jhdfdsfghj

kiddies

kindergarten

threads

Virgil doodles I guess

Others

Interview POV (Welcome to Desert Bluffs)

Kitchen fork (Welcome to Desert Bluffs)

By night (Welcome to Desert Bluffs)

It's acid (Welcome to Desert Bluffs)

00021012021 (Welcome to Desert Bluffs)

Judgement (Tales of Symphonia)

Lolcmoch (Original)

WIP1a (Original)

Late to school redraw (Life is strange 2)

One day I'll do crowded places (Life is strange 2)

Feathered pirates (The Arcana)

Innie (The demon cycle)

Help Wai (Bad Buddy)

The Bet (Bad Buddy)

I'll stop there because there's already a fuckton quite a lot (I discarded the ones that barely had any construction lines cause there wouldn't be much to say about them anyway).

Aaaaaannnd I have no idea who to tag because I'm a shy potatoe but if you're an artist (digital cause wip folder names and all) and like this post I WILL edit it and tag you. Like a bull or something. I'll see the little red heart and go feral.

[she-who-the-river-could-not-hold]

#100daysofwriting | day 50 (+ a few others...)

a daily writing challenge created by @the-wip-project // tagging my fellow writers joining in: @thelittlefanpire, @hopskipaway, @kinetic-elaboration, @easilydistractedbyfanfic

Well that was a long and somewhat intentional and unintentional break from this! I first took a break because of just being busy, and then I thought I’d just try to focus on writing by itself. But in reality it’s not like this detracts from that time + exercises for any sort of endeavor is always a good idea! So I’ll just gather up a few of the past ones plus today’s just to get back into it. And what better day than the halfway mark!

How do you start a new story?

Usually a single image of a scene or vibe comes to mind. And then I have to build out from there. So I’ll have a general notes document where I just sort of dump the imagery that’s stuck in my head and then spiderweb my way out of it by figuring out the details.

What's an old idea that you’ve discarded?

My graveyard of ideas is pretty small in terms of actual ideas I’ve discarded. Most of them just hover on the outskirts as “hey one day, probably never, I’d like to write this.” Truly discarded ideas though are two from when I was writing Stranger Things fanfic. They’re my only two abandoned fics where I don’t have any intention of finding ways to make them work (either in the ST realm or any other fandom).

First one was a 1950s asylum inspired AU where El was in an asylum, Will gets kidnapped to be experimented on, and the others find ways to sneak in. Sort of a Sucker Punch inspired story and vibe for it.

Second one was a Lumax!X-Files AU. I wrote the first chapter, was halfway through the second, and then lost the files when my harddrive failed. I immediately lost all desire to rework it and dive back into the accidentally convoluted plot and ended up abandoning it.

How often do you switch WIPs and do you think that’s a good thing to do?

I’m personally always jumping from story to story. I have a really hard time focusing in general, especially for long periods of time, so the idea of singularly focusing on only one story feels overwhelming for me. Usually I’m only able to do that when I can feel the finish line coming up for it and then I can just go all in. But in general, when stories are in the beginning or middle stages, I just allow myself to flow with the inspiration. It often makes me feel like my writing is better (unconfirmed) than when I overly force something to happen.

I think this is something ultimately only people can decide for themselves. Sure, I don’t immediately just turn out a whole piece of work. But usually it all sort of comes cascading out at once since I write a bunch at the same time. And while I’m going to work on my writing ahead goal, that’s more about my patience with posting right away, not jumping from story to story so I probably won’t be changing anytime soon. It’s just not compatible with my brain and I always have to remind myself that this is a hobby for me, nothing more. If I overstress that I can only work on one at a time, it’s going to become too much for me and defeat the purpose.

Share a cool phrase from a WIP.

She closed her eyes as her mind conjured up the smell of death around her, the sound of choking screams and the way the ground had shaken beneath her boots. The wide-eyed stare of a young woman in the clutches of death, her mouth gaping open and threatening to swallow Clarke whole–– ––her eyes snapped back open again.

What fic/story made you?

Probably my Lumax!zombies AU that I wrote. I was so struck by this one idea in my head that I cranked out this story really quickly and even wrote a spinoff of it told from Mileven’s POV. I was so stunned by the reaction I got from it, the way people were really into it and reacting to it, was a startling feeling. I’d always loved creating stories as a kid, both through toys or writing on my dad’s computer, but sharing it had never really been a thing until fanfiction. Even in my creative writing classes, I knew it wasn’t really entirely my thing in the way it was for others. But I saw people respond so positively to a story that was both fanfiction but also my own, and I was like well shit. Maybe I have some more cool ideas in me.

Fic(s) Worked On:

Bellarke, Tarzan AU: the deadline is coming up soon for this fic so I’ve made a lot of progress on that during my offtime from these updates! I’ve hit a slight wall inspirationally with it but I think I’ll be okay to get it done. Can’t let perfection get in the way of progress ya know?

Bellarke, Modern AU: I haven’t written about this one yet and then out of nowhere yesterday I was inspired to work some on it. I made a very rudimentary outline of the structure for it (it’s going to be styled in a series of vignettes) and then started free-writing it. Going back to present-tense writing for the first time in a while, something about that just feels right for it. It’s very Lana Del Rey vibes inspired mixed with two messy people living in a city like New York

Bellarke, Sci-fi/Hanahaki AU: very unintentionally made a lot of progress on this first chapter! Something about the intricacies of this story makes me want to try to make this one that I write all at once before posting. I think my others are fine just being extensively outlined, but this one I really want to push to see if I can write it all in one go. I also am really excited to get back into writing sci-fi again!

[writings-of-a-narwhal]

Tag Games!

thanks to @abalonetea for tagging me!!! :D

i’ll tag @dogwrites and @yetmorestories!! (no pressure!!)

this is going to be under a readmore because there’s 20 questions and i have  a lot of characters oops

1. Describe the plot in one sentence.

A former queen is out to take her kingdom, Issera, back from her son, but two groups are against her; her son, his retainers, and his allies, and then in the neighboring country, a group of young people, all working to stop her.

2. Pick one sight, smell, sound, feel, and taste to describe the aesthetic for your WIP.

sight - glitter in the air. it shines harshly. lights shining in a dim room, reflecting off the air. magic that hangs like a chandelier. it’s heavy, weighs you down, fills you lungs like water. 

smell - the coppery smell of blood. blood on your hands, on your sword. you try to scrape it off but it lingers. the vaguely metallic scent follows you wherever you go, telling of suffering and death

sound - metal on metal-- swords clashing on the battlefield, knights training, armor being put on and adjusted, 

feel - burning. the burning on your skin as sand scrapes it. the burning of the sun blazing down on you. the burning of fire as it scalds your hands. the burning of rage as it races through your veins. the freezing burn of fear as it paralyzes you. 

taste - once again, blood. a split lip, a bloody nose, biting your cheek so hard it bleeds. licking your wounds after a battle.

3.  Which 3+ songs would make a playlist for your novel?

This is War - 30 Seconds to Mars

Skyfall - Adele

Meet Me On The Battlefield - SVRCINA

4.  What’s the time period and location in which your novel takes place?

heck if i know dude. it’s a fantasy world and i have like, no idea what year it is. however, people have said it gives off a renaissance vibe? there’s no cars or anything like that, and there’s no computers or telephones at this pint in time. there’s little contraptions here and there, made of gears and the like.

the two countries are Feria and Issera. 

Feria is a country of shadowy forests and babbling brooks. don’t go wander into the forest, especially not at night. there are valleys of flowers and tall grasses. the buildings are made of cold gray stones and high walls border the castle. a few giant trees sit in the center of the forest, holding secrets that no one remembers.

Issera is a desert country. the sands are gold and shining and they make your eyes hurt if you stare out for too long. the air shimmers with magic, but not the good kind of magic. and somewhere out there, there are dragon graveyards. the buildings are made of mud and sand and sometimes stone and wood. the insides are as colorful as a rainbow.

5.  Are there any former titles you’ve considered but discarded?

before it was Broken Thrones it was just ‘untitled wip’

6.  What’s the first line of your novel?

Amary scowls, head throbbing with the rhythm of her heartbeat

7.  What’s a line of dialogue you’re particularly proud of?

“The battlefield is where I feel a thrill. That area between life and death, that is my seductress, nothing and no one else.”

8.  Which line from the novel most represents it as a whole?

“This war, it’s done nothing but take.”

“That’s what war does, ala, that’s why we fight. We fight to keep ourselves from losing even more.”

9.  Who are your character(s) face claims?

i don’t have many faceclaims. i think my main one is Culraes’?? and this is that\

10.  Sort your characters into Hogwarts houses

disclaimer: i have never read/watched Harry Potter and i’m doing my best. i’m not sure about any of this. 

Amary: Gryffindor and a little bit of Slytherin

Eira: Hufflepuff

Rosar: Hufflepuff/Gryffindor

Lumi: Ravenclaw

Finlos: Gryffindor/Slytherin

Barrow: Ravenclaw? maybe with a little Hufflepuff?

Marigold: Slytherin

Athum: Hufflepuff

Culraes: Gryffindor

Warin: Slytherin/Ravenclaw

Jeris: Slytherin/Hufflepuff

Erihhn: Slytherin

Jayah: Slytherin

Jayi: Griffindor

11.  Which character’s name do you like the most?

I really love Athum’s name. something about it is just so pleasing to me???

12. Describe each character’s daily outfit

Amary - form fitting clothing. originally in dark colors but she switches them out for the looser fitting, lighter colored clothing of Issera and makes adjustments to them until they fit to her liking. thick and soft bottomed boots that strap up and secure her pants in place. a sash that has dozens of gold lines sewed into it. daggers tucked everywhere.

Eira - dresses. she wears more formal style dresses with corsets most days and most of the time they have beads or sequins decorating them, especially on the area on her torso. ballet flat style shoes when possible. her dresses always have pockets and she keeps shiny rocks in them. 

Rosar - (in Feria) dresses like Eira’s but with less sequins and beads. (in Issera) loose fitting pants that billow almost like a skirt. loose fitting shirt that is tucked into the pants. a scarf wrapped around her head when travelling. soft-bottomed boots. 

Lumi - think Belle from Beauty and the Beast before she goes to the palace. that type of dress, boots that tie up, and a paint splattered apron. bows in her hair that keep her braids tied. a simple necklace with a golden locket. 

Leaf - nothing. she’s a cat.

Finlos - (in Feria) his knight uniform, golden bronze armor and green underclothes. all engraved with leaves or trees. (in Issera) he wears pants similar to dress pants and a loose-fitting shirt with suspenders over it. the shirt is Isseran, the other things are not.

Barrow - a three piece suit, usually in the gray family, or maybe brown. dress shoes. that what he wears when he’s attending to business as a Marquess, when it comes to his secondary job, his outfits can vary by day.

Marigold - pastel and frilly dresses!! usually in pink, as that’s one of her favorite colors. she also has some rings she wears, a promise ring and an engagment ring. necklaces and earrings are also involved.

Athum - the traditional Isseran clothing; loose fitting pants and shirt, tan colored. over the shirt is a bunch of ‘wrapped’ clothing that is usually brown, but sometimes with turqoise and gold. a scarf that wraps around his head when travelling. 

Jeris - something very similar to Athum, but his ‘wrapped’ shirt is usually made of faded greens and cream. he also carries a satchel that is filled with herbs and other first-aid supplies. green scarf that wraps around his head when travelling. a dagger strapped to his side. 

Erihhn - once again, very similar to Athum’s outfit. except he keeps his things very meticulously perfect and not one thread is out of place. his colors are blue and gray, balanced evenly. he carries a leather bag, but you’ll never know what’s in it. 

Culraes - similar base clothing to Athum. his ‘wrapped’ overshirt is brown and dark red. helps hide the blood, he says. his sword is always strapped around his waist, his prosthetic arm is exposed, his face scowling. the scarf that goes around his head is usually hanging aronud his neck loosely rather than around his head.  

Jayi - well, she’s usually in her armor, which is dark blue/gray with dark chainmail underneath. a black eyepatch with dark blue embelishments. when she’s at home, she wears a shirt that follows the style of a kimono, with a little of her midrift exposed, and pants that are a little loose, all in more pastel colors or gray.

Warin - he wears something similar to a yukata in different designs, sometimes floral, sometimes repeating shape patterns, sometimes something with dragons. he wears the traditional loose pants underneath. 

Jayah - she always wears the most fabulous looking clothing. all made of silk. it’s a bit like what Jayi wears, but it’s more like a tradional kimono. it allows for a lot of movement, with the fabric flaring out at the bottom. she also wears a crown, the crown she used to wear when she was queen. and she has many necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and other things. 

13.  Do any characters have any distinctive birthmarks/scars?

so many of them do!

Amary has scars all over her body, after all she’s been hunting people down since she was 16. 

Rosar has silvery irises from cataracts. she also has vitiligo, which is just beginning to present itself.

Lumi has a giant scar on her back. it stretches from the top of her spine almost down to her tailbone. it’s like bear claw marks down it. she also has freckles on her face and shoulders

Finlos has a faint scar along his jaw. he also has a birthmark that’s on his right shoulder and it looks vaguely like a bird flying

Barrow has a birthmark that looks like a heart that’s placed over his actual heart. he has others that are like scattered islands across his shoulders. 

Athum has several scars, the most prominant is the one that goes across his chest.

Jeris has a scar over the left side of his face. it just barely missed his eye, and it stretches down to his lip. he also has numerous smaller scars from horse related accidents.

Erihhn has a few marks on his body from indicents related to his job. small burns here and there. nothing too serious. 

Culraes is missing his left arm from the elbow down, and there are a lot of scars on the end of what’s left. other than that, scars are scattered all over his body.

Jayi has scarring over her right eye, mostly covered by an eye patch when she’s out and about. next is the group of four scars on her left forearm that are dark and shiny. there are also some odd growths along her spine, though we don’t need to talk about those.

Warin has burn scars from dragonfire, but he uses his magic to hide them (think Thranduil). they mark his face, torso, and some of his left thigh.

14.  Which character most fits a character trope?

maybe uhhhhh 

15.  Which character is the best writer? Worst?

Barrow!! he writes poetry and writes the best stories!! i love him!!! Culraes is the worst. he has no idea how to tell a story. 

16.  Which character is the best liar? Worst?

Jayah is one of the best liars, though Barrow is right up there. Eira is the worst. 

17.  Which character swears the most? Least?

at this moment in time, Culraes is the only one that curses. Eira could never bring herself to curse ever.

18.  Which character has the best writing? Worst?

Warin has truly amazing handwriting. it’s so neat and fancy and pretty...

Eira’s handwriting is chicken scratch. it’s horrible

19.  Which character is the most like you? Least like you?

Lumi. I am so much like Lumi. her head is always in the clouds, she forgets things just as she goes to say them. she’s sweet but afraid. she loves cats. i am her. 

i like to think i’m nothing like Jayah. i don’t like hurting people irl and i don’t crave power the way she does. 

20.  Which character would you most like to be?

hmmm....Warin, maybe? he’s calm, collected, and thinks things through a lot. so maybe him??? idk. this is such a hard question to answer.

[coutelier]

Killer Aqua Bunnies

Another excerpt from the current draft of my WIP, featuring verbal utterances and Planet of the Tweens.

Killer Aqua Bunnies

Cash in hand, Kaya made her way to the green room, which somehow always disappointed her by not actually being green. It was predominantly beige with splashes of brown. At least the drinks were free and at least one of her band-mates was taking full advantage of that fact when she arrived. On most weeknights anyone could come in to play so long as they could strike at least three chords. There were seven people in the room, three women besides Kaya and another band made up of extremely pale boys dressed all in black.

Candace Mullin’s red face and flaming hair bounced up from the bar. “Hey Kay!” She beamed. “Why so blue?” It took Kaya a second to realize it wasn’t a genuine inquiry about her emotional state, but a reference to how she’d colored her hair. A girl with what looked like a badger on her head snorted - Kaya was sure she must have heard Ashley actually speak, once, but long ago she have just accepted Candace as her own mouthpiece. Candy certainly had a very forceful personality, only slightly amplified by drink.

“Why don’t you say hi to my new vampire friends?” Candace put her arm around and squeezed one of the boys lined up next to her, all eight sunken wide eyes staring straight ahead through the wall. The one in her clutches shivered at her touch, which only caused Candy to grin widely. “Hey, what’s wrong Nosferatu? You’re stiff as a corpse,” she chuckled, sliding a glass in front of him. “Maybe this’ll loosen you up. Or do you only drink blood? Not on the menu, I’m afraid. Unless,” shattered glass splintered their ears, all the goth boy’s hearts actually stopping for an instant. Candace brandished the remains of a bottle under the nose of her captive whose black mascara streamed down his face. “I could cut one of you open, if you like. Or do you all just like to dress up like these ancient bad asses, but really you’re just kids?”

They were all shaking, terrified, doing their best not to look as Candace toyed with them like a dog bothering sheep, like if they couldn’t see her she would disappear. Kaya needed to intervene before Candy went too far. “Hey!” she shot to the bar, pulling Candy away. “Come on, we’ve not even played yet, and you’re acting like this?!”

“Aw, come on! I wasn’t going to do nothing to him,” Candy promised, yanking herself back away from the furious Kaya. “You know what we should do, though? We should trash this place!”

“Great plan,” Kaya rolled her eyes, “you know, except for the part where Stan has us all murdered in our sleep. I don’t want trouble. I just want to play some music then get out of here.”

“Oh where’s your spirit of rock ’n’ roll?”

“This isn’t rock ‘n’ roll, you’re just being a b—” the word stuck in Kaya’s throat. She tried, but she couldn’t get it out. “You just need to cut it out, okay? Or we’ll all get chucked out.”

Candace raised her chin above Kaya’s, looking down her nose. “Why do you never swear?” She asked amusedly. “It’s only words you know.”

“I guess I just choose to use different words,” Kaya answered, not really sure where that came from.

“Huh,” Candace appeared to ponder. “Well whatever. It’s all cool. I was just messing around. Sorry. Hey Dracula,” she turned to the goths, “sorry I scared you. Now, Kay, why don’t you go and check on Sayuri? I can never tell if that girl’s asleep, or Asian,” she quipped, but only Ashley chuckled. Ordering Kaya to go check on the drummer was, Kaya knew, just a way of reestablishing that she was in charge. Kaya didn’t like how she’d said it, but she didn’t want any more trouble either. Candace turned to her phone, she and Ashley giggling probably over some troll posts they made. But there was no more immediate danger, so Kaya went to the corner of the room where Sayuri had her feet up and huge purple headphones over her ears, so she probably hadn’t heard Candy’s remark about her.

“Actually,” Sayuri yawned as Kaya approached, “I was asleep. I was having a lovely dream where Candy had a zipper over her mouth. She’s getting worse you know. Someone’s going to have to do something about her.”

Kaya dropped herself onto the bench next to her. “Not tonight,” she said, stretching her neck. “I’ve had a really bad day and all I want is to get through the evening with another tiff, catfight, or  any more mayhem. Think we can manage that?”

“Up to Candy right now, isn’t it?” Sayuri pulled her feet off the table then pulled her headphones down to hang about her neck.

“She’s not so bad,” Kaya said, not trying to lie but knew it wasn’t really true. “She’s just… energetic. You’ve just got to know how to talk to her.”

“You know,” Sayuri leaned forward, popping the cap from a bottle which she then handed to Kaya, “you sound like a mom making excuses for her rambunctious child.”

“Rambunctious?” Kaya accepted the drink, arching one of her blue brows.

“I read a thesaurus,” Sayuri shrugged. “So indict me. We got a crate of them back in the store, so if you want one I could knock maybe fifty per cent off the RRP. You know, because you’re a friend, and it’s never too late to aggrandize the lexicon of one’s verbal utterances.”

Sayuri’s family ran a store, Oshiro’s. They were general traders, buying and selling just about everything and picked up a lot of stock discarded by the much larger chains. On this occasion though the sales pitch was unsuccessful. “No thanks,” Kaya said, “I’ll stick to speaking like a human being. And I’m not making excuses, I just—”

“— want to play music, right?” Sayuri sighed.

“We’ve had this conversation before?”

“Three times. And each time you look more and more depressed by it.”

Kaya couldn’t deny that was how she felt. “It’s just, no matter what I try and do, I seem to always end up back here. I don’t know if it’s me or if I’m just cursed.”

Sayuri’s ears picked up at that, as anything vaguely spiritual or mystical always intrigued her. “Why would you think you’re cursed?”

“I’ve done some pretty mean things,” Kaya said, quaffing some of her drink. “Especially when I was a teenager.”

“Everyone does dumb stuff in their teens,” Sayuri assured her. “I once thought it would be a good idea to pay people to take bean tins from our store, then I’d make up the loss from all the other things they would buy. Madness.”

“I once pinned a girl to the bathroom wall so that Candace could write ‘Airhead’ on her forehead in lipstick,” Kaya frowned, her hand feeling the elf-arrow necklace she wore.

“Okay, well, that’s pretty bad,” Sayuri solemnly admitted. “I hope you got at least a detention for it.”

“Nope. That girl never told anyone what me and Candy did. I used to just do whatever she told me. Back then she seemed so strong and sure of herself all the time, and I… I wasn’t. Now—”

“— now you’re in your twenties, and she hasn’t matured at all, and you’re wondering where the hell your life is going? Am I right?”

“I guess,” Kaya sighed, knowing she was right.

“Well,” Sayuri gulped then put down her own bottle, “I’m not a psychiatrist, but sounds to me like you’re having a crisis of identity. An internal conflict between the person you’ve been and the person you want to be.”

“So what should I do?”

“Hell if I know. If I was a psychiatrist I’d probably prescribe some drug, marked up thousands of times from it cost to produce. How about some tea instead? Maybe if we got you relaxed for once you’d be able to think more clearly.”

Maybe, Kaya thought. It was nice to imagine tea having power to cause all the badness to leave her body in a thick, dark, cloud which was absorbed by crystals which could then be crushed and buried. Unfortunately she didn’t really believe in any of that. Another person entered the not-green green room, white blouse with black tights and skirt and puffy black hair. That was Amara. Stan Greif may have owned the place, but it was Amara who actually managed it and had to suffer Candace talking to her. Whatever was said, Amara wasn’t amused, and was less amused by the broken glass on the floor, but she grinned and bore it. After looking about the room to find everyone she announced, “Killer Aqua Bunnies, you’re on in ten.”

It was a silly name. “Why can’t we be babies?” Kaya moaned.

Sayuri looked very oddly at her. “You want to be a baby?”

“No! I just mean, why does everyone have to grow up? Things are great when you’re small. Nothing’s complicated. Every day is excitement and adventure and seems to go on forever. Why can’t we all just stay like that?”

“Well,” Sayuri considered, “if everyone just stayed a baby they would all die because they need adults to feed them. You’re basically fantasizing about the world being a huge baby graveyard. It’s kind of sick.”

Kaya hadn’t been, but now she was imagining an orange desert in which lay a giant baby skeleton. That wasn’t what she wanted at all. “Okay, but what if we stayed, like, ten or eleven years old? That’s good, right?”

“We’d still die out, eventually,” Sayuri pointed out, “and haven’t you read Lord of the Flies?”

“Why do want to crush my dreams? I was just trying to reminisce about being carefree and innocent.”

“I just think you’re romanticizing childhood too much. Kids act on how they feel, because they don’t understand consequences. So they can be sometimes very sweet, but sometimes brutal. Your little Planet of the Tweens would tear itself apart.”

“You never think the world’s tearing itself apart anyway? And that’s with adults in charge,” Kaya pointed out, and for a few seconds was unjustifiably pleased with herself for doing so.

“Ohh, such biting satire,” Sayuri remarked sarcastically. “Well maybe there’s your solution - you should go and write political cartoons.”

“You know I used to think you were nice,” Kaya grumbled. She peered sideways at Sayuri and after a moment each broke and shared a smile. “So if you dislike Candy so much, why do you hang out with us?” Although both Kaya and Sayuri had grown up in Irongate, they’d gone to different schools and only met a year ago when Sayuri responded to an ad for a drummer.

“I just want to play music,” Sayuri said, her eyes drifting across the floor to Candace who had gone back to tormenting the goths while Ashley silently approved everything she did. “There’s something very therapeutic about whacking stretched skin with a stick.”

Amara was wandering the room, too fed up and overworked to do anything about the bullying. “You guys hear?” She said as she came to Kaya and Sayuri’s table. “You’re on soon. And why are you looking so miserable?” Amara asked specifically of Kaya. “You don’t work here.”

“Kaya wants to regress everyone in the world to ten years old,” Sayuri explained, “and she thinks she’s cursed.”

“Right,” Amara nodded. She was probably used to hearing much stranger drunken or chemically influenced conversations. “Well, if it’s a curse bothering you, maybe you should go and see the witch.”

Kaya squinted. “What witch?”

“Madame Lumina?” Sayuri guessed.

“Nah,” Amara scoffed, “Lumina is a fake-ass hex. But my little brother, he says there’s a tower west of town. You take the main road over the bridge, then a dirt road heading north through the forest. Then there’s another trail that winds up a hill and up there is where the witch lives. No-one’s ever seen her though because if you get close you’ll hear howls and wails warning you to stay away, and if you keep going you’ll start to feel sick and lose your mind. No-one ever returns after that.”

“So,” Kaya thought, “if no-one’s seen her, how do they know she’s a witch? Or that anyone lives there at all?”

“You not hear me say howls and wails and shit?” Amara retorted. “Don’t make me repeat myself. Anyway, I’m just passing it along. Maybe it’ll help you, but it probably won’t. Now do me a favor - after you’ve been up there and played,” she glanced sideways toward Candace, now holding a goth by the neck and stuffing peanuts up his nose, “you take that trash the hell out of my club. And if she shows up like that again I’ll tear you all a new one.”

[actualbird]

For that fanfic ask: H, Q, V

H: How would you describe your style?

uhhh oh geez. long winded? i feel like a lot of my sentences dont have to go for as long as they actually do, but i like stretching things out. so it’s this weird long tunnel and strewn around the floor are anaphoras and metaphors galore. an em dash attacks you. commas are stalking your every step. in the distance, you see the light. you think it’s the end of the sentence/paragraph but no.

no it’s just a weird joke.

Q: Do you have any discarded scenes/storylines/projects? 

oh absolutely. scene wise, forest is a fic that had so much scrapped from it. for example, an entire scene in ch6 where christine tells michael about her experience with the squip. i scrapped this because it got very long and i honestly found it more riveting to explore on its own (I HAVE A CHRISTINE CENTRIC FIC IN MY LIST OF FICS TO WRITE DOC)

i have an ENTIRE GRAVEYARD of fics that have been scrapped, tho mostly from other fandoms (bc at least for bee em cee, i still have hope i can write them). to name a few: a l/es mis fic where enjolra/s is an alien that crashlanded in a dumpster and now lives in grantair/es flat. a y/oi sense/8 au fic where yuuri falls in love with victor from halfway across the globe. a spr/ing awakening fic where ha/nschen crochets e/rnst secret admirer gifts while he angsts off with his YARN. like 15 different teen w/olf fics. and then hhHAHHAHAHAHAH there are my abandoned wips on my ao3 for everybody to see. all these fics have at least thousands of words of them, yet i ABANDONED THEM. I SUFFER. ive got an awful track record.

V: A secondary (or underrated) character you want to see more of in fic? 

THIS MIGHT BE WEIRD BUT: MR. HEERE. or madeline. im a SUCKER for outsider!POV and ive kinda been itching to write something from that perspective concerning canon events :O

THANK U FOR ASKING

[ciebei]

I could write a Thousand Memoirs for us

Ichiruki. Drabbles upon drabbles. AUs, Canon, Angst, (vaguely) Not!Angst...

I’ve been going through old writing lately and staring at WIPS, and realising that a lot of my older stuff feels more vivid than my newer. I wanted to capture just a huge range of Ichiruki movements - a spectrum - in this collection for @blooming-stars, because that’s just... idk, how it goes? And I wanted to tie up loose ends from as far as November 2016 and as recently as a few months ago. I hope you enjoy the fallout, and happy happy birthday! x

Ranges from Most Recent - Oldest (with additions/edits to majority of pieces).

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Ephemeral, but in the wonderful, fantastical sense

AU where Rukia is captain and Ichigo is lieutenant/not-so-ryoka-ryoka. Kind of Not!Angst. 469 words.

“I’d like to end up where you do.”

      She whispers into the skin of his neck, arms burrowed tightly around the span of his shoulders.

He can place her voice by instinct, and finds himself swayed by it; his response sticky on his tongue.

Her words hold the kind of tone she uses to describe her childhood. Byakuya. Her gradual ascent through the ranks. It’s soft, and tender, and raw. That kind of rawness perfectly contrasting to her bird-bones, and her bravado. He doesn’t think much else about it, and drifts off again.

Awakening comes with a cold palm to his cheek; his neck, and then his side, like a long, cooling wave.

      Through his lashes, and the hazy array of colours, he can make out a form of what he thinks must be their bedside. The slow-diluting morning sky.

Rukia pats his hipbone with a straggling arm and grits out, “Look alive, sunshine. I’ve got duty in 10.”

Ichigo would rather she and him go back to sleep, quite honestly. He’s been pushed to the brink lately, expending obscene amounts of reiatsu for cadets, and their general lumbering stupidity when it comes to Giant Hollows. (Because of course, if they think their soul can handle a gigantic murderous phantom then by all means, their ego should drive them to their deaths). His ribs whine as he rights himself and stumbles across their room to find her lips. She complains, but only for the fact that her Shihakushō pools back down at her ankles. He doesn’t mind.

They have made it through another day.

“…I was worried Kidõ wouldn’t do much good after last time…” Rukia admits, as they draw back, and his heat flushes her. “I was worried that my chest would become a… a tomb.” She laughs, but it is sad.

      A bony graveyard, he muses, and huffs.

Ichigo feels her nails grate against him slightly as she draws him close, until he finally finds his voice, and the slight pinch is displaced with silky finger pads. It’s rough. It’s tired. But it’s honest,

                            “I’ll always be here.”

      He presses his palm against the small of her back, unravelling his other arm to twine around her shoulders. His head is fuzzy, and, yeah, twenty seconds later he’d still rather be in bed - with her - and still feels the kind of feeling where nothing is momentous, just a liquid stream of half-conscious dream remnants, and yet every breath he takes is a new one, however painful, so that really ought to count for something. An award. A plaque. He wonders how he could best say this to her, instead settling for a slow moving kiss (and as much skin-to-skin contact as internal bleeding allows for).

“You should be in bed.” She finally says, and he nearly (nearly) laughs.

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The Bonsai Wilt Without you

Post-686, Ichigo lives in SS; light exploration of Rukia dealing with Ukitake’s passing. Angst. 78 words.

She walks into her office and finds a beautiful bouquet of flowers on the anniversary. And first, she thinks oh — Ishida and Inoue must be doing so well - until she walks closer, and sees some are crumpled and some are wilting and it’s all in shambles, absolute shambles. And it’s lovely. The colours clash— it’s lovely.

The card reads ‘To 13th squad — Ichigo’ in chicken scrawl, and that’s the first time she cries about Ukitake’s death.

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(Ex)Hero, (Ex)Convict

Version of the dbprompt ‘cape’ that I discarded. Angst. 210 words.

He wore a cape, that day, looming over her in the storm of flames, the intensity of the sun in the eyes he had fixed on her, molten; unwavering; true.

It’s a memory that has rarely left her side, and one that still burns into the corners of her dreams sometimes - an endless afterthought.

She, he tells her, wears a cape everyday. She wears it on mornings where the world feels like a deep, dark, unfathomable ocean, and he like the seabed. She wears it while she laughs, and her smile crinkles the clear cut of her face, something small and easy, but tremendously revolutionary to him.

He, she tells him, is more deserving of the word hero.

    (She, more deserving of the word captain).

But heroes are something you leave buried in the bedrock. Heroes are something that - if ever they did exist - existed as a taste of something better. A taste of change. Extraordinary in their timeline but a vestige of the past to a better man turned a bitter man, a broken man.

That is why, he is now 23, wears no cape, no fire; no smile. He has just the afterthought of memories on his tongue, and the crushing grip of déjà vu in his bedroom.

______________________________________________________________________

(Calluses don’t suit Snow).

Ichiruki/Hichigo exploration, Post-686, Angst. 410 words.

He misses her each time the blade slung over his back holds more weight, and rougher covers, and the burden of a senseless evil. But he supposes her being unaffected, and away from harm, is the best case scenario for them both.

    A private monarchy isn’t so bad anyway. Maybe his essence is. The way it attempts to crawl forth and mingle with him: the way that is oil mixing with water - futile; messy; unwilling. One-sided, at best. 

But Shirayuki had always felt too clean in his hands, silken edges sliding against his rough skin.

Shirayuki enjoys deception perhaps even more than she enjoyed her company. Perhaps, even more than she enjoyed baring each inch of her soul to Rukia Kuchiki as the last jagged form of ice had been slipped onto the crown of hair beneath. (She had risen with lashes full of snow, eyes full of storm, and skin full of frost - a near-echo to the pit of her soul).

    Shirayuki enjoys the creeping turn of black-fringed-red to her vision - perhaps - even more than her companions’ coronation.

              Perhaps, even more than she should.

.

Rukia had seen it first. The peachy hues of sky dulling as each crest of cloud plunged to darkness; to a pit of grey. A wash of nighttime that had invoked such a visceral fear that for the first time - and not for ice - a shiver had run the length of her spine. She had lost sight of the summit; of the angry snap of ice at the rocky base, and the bright sickle-cut of that month’s new moon.

      Her senseless climb had begun with a jarring sense of urgency clawing at her throat, every thought was a trail of panic; every step a burning of limbs. All the warmth had fled her bones with each movement; each cry from Shirayuki to raise her hands, raise her hands, raise her hands. And what- meet the blackened orb that tainted her sky? The wind - a tricky force - blisters her skin with cold and sears her under a familiar weight, so, for that - if nothing else - she keeps her ground and growls: “No.”

All the breath she is able to spare is ripped away when the sole of her feet touch the peak. Amidst the arms of trees, and the falling of shadows, sits a throne of ice.

        The eyes that glint back to her are not a clear lilac, but the burning gold of something else.

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Summer Sundown 

Discarded prompt for dbprompts ‘Queen’, where I was gonna make it Fluff. (Clearly didn’t get very far). 29 words.

        “This is plenty.”

“Yeah?” He sighs, a twinkle in his eyes as he turns to let his hands drift in the water of their pond.

       “I think so, too.”

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Halcyon Days

Another discarded prompt for ‘Queen’, where Fluff and happier birthdays were also on the agenda. 45 words.

He says, “C’mere,” and doesn’t let her choose.

      He pulls her down with a gentle hand and a laugh, the soft murmur of her complaint lost to his lips in the winter. She tastes of the remnants of ice, and that lonely scent of night.

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Pious

Exploration of Hichiruki. 81 words.

His eyes are two full chaotic vortexes. And she knows the taste far too well to fall for them.

Each illusion; each shadow-pass of his face, she knows.

      (Knows down to her core.)

Enough to know that every lonely echo and scrape of laughter from his throat forms not the man she loves, but a different being all together.

If a God can be as cruel, and as merciless, and as malformed as he, then ichor must run through his veins.

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Death in all Three (Free) Forms

Originally titled ‘Just: to Be’, exploration of Post-686 and reflecting on Post-Farewell Swords, too. Was gonna make this a whole sha-bam. 35 words.

He thinks that, if he was only living when he was with her, he must be dead now.

      He must have been dead all of those years ago.

What does that make the other world?

______________________________________________________________________

We Would Wear this to A Funeral

Post TYBW and the dealings of the Gotei-13. 313 words.

“How are the 10th’s barracks?”

      Kyouraku seems to be in a daze, Ichigo decides, because that is the tenth time he has listed off a barrack that every single soul in this room knows to be massacred.

In fact, Seireitei has now morphed into a beast - more maw, and red insides than anything else. More bite. More of a rubble-creature.

                      More nothing.

      Really, he’s done a very good job of keeping his mouth shut so far.

“-Closed off. Destroyed— half-fucking- obliterated by the war that we all just—“

Byakuya gives him a look that makes him angrier, and he almost bites the bait, almost. But there is even the level of superiority that a Kurosaki won’t touch; it clouds Byakuya’s eyes like a thick fog.

    There’s a heavy pause.

“Ichigo.” Rukia says, after a tired sigh and a long, long moment, “If you could just be quiet while a captain is speaking, that would be appreciated.” Her tone is gentle and reprimanding, but it makes his gut wrench in a sickening fashion. He doesn’t realise he has just pressed a fragment of Zangetsu into his palm until blood drips hotly onto his waraji. That will stain. Though what won’t?

        The smell makes him feel violently ill.

    The 13 squad guardians are in disarray.

Usually, he’d excuse Rukia - she rarely seems to be out of place - but war does that funny thing where it almost rips apart every single person and every single feeling you love.

(Almost. You still have them.)

          Does he?

Her gaze is distant, even, and of course he knows that the death weighs heavily on them, but they are death gods, and he could be doing better than just sitting here and feeling each reiatsu layered with a storm as if he were the rain.

        Maybe that’s what he needs. For someone else to break before he allows himself to.

______________________________________________________________________

Forget-me-Not

Post-686. Rukia pov. Grieving for a not-so-dead dead man. 259 words.

If there was a method of extraction, quicker and less painless and less awful than this melancholy drag, then she would take it.

She would take it over vengeance. Over her blood boiling at the sight of orange; of stars; of light. She would take it over every single strand that has been weaved into her broken tapestry of bones. It is fragile and cruelly withstanding, and it thrives on vengeance. It is not malicious. It is wholly self-destructive, and perhaps, what she prides herself with the most.

         It is oil-sick; the heavy drag of hands on her skin.

              It is dark; the absence of the warmth.

She wonders if it will always be their fate to die by her hand.

            Somehow, they both grow.

She notices only because his growth is in the tiredness of his posture, in the gradual slope of his shoulders; the grit in his voice. It’s the kind of noticing she performs when each year Seireitei’s grand gardens harbour trees with just a little more height than the year before, or when she has too many late nights in her office boxed in by endless stacks of paperwork, and the next time she scouts the cobbled city streets is in Spring. When the air is lighter, pollen caught on the fringes of wind; flowers in full bloom and trees their great, lush green. A sudden noticing.

Maybe it’s the Universe’s version of remuneration, to this whole mess. At least he can live a normal life. At least she gets a slither of her wish.

______________________________________________________________________

[solsticesungod]

My first look at 6 packs of Amonkhet

Amonkhet WIP

Vizier of the Menagerie: Nagas on the plane. Doesn’t give away any new mechanics. Interesting that it is look at and not reveal.

Fan Bearer: No class on this Zombie, which art wise is a mummy. Your basic white tapper, nothing too special.

PACK 1

Tah-Crop Skirmisher: Seems like a regular 2 drop but introduces me to the Embalm mechanic. Which is interesting that it makes it white. I guess white is the reanimation zombie color because of this and Fan bearer. Embalm seems really strong in limited with like fliers or on anything with an ETB.

Minotaur Sureshot:  Goatlike minotaur, similar to Zedruu?? A red archer with firebreathing  seems pretty decent.

Blighted Bat:  Black tertiary haste. Decent limited flier. Amonkhet has 2 suns and doesn’t have nighttime?? Seems really cool.

Haze of Pollen:  Shows that Cycling makes a return and is variable costed like last time. Fog effect for 2 so its okay, cycling is an upside.

Cradle of the Accursed: DESERT LAND TYPE HYPE. Taps for C and makes a 2/2 if you need it, seems really good.

Floodwaters:  6 mana sorcery speed bounce spell, but it hits two things. Is just okay and could be good in limited, has cycling which vastly improves the card. Viziers are important.

Stinging Shot: Upgrade to leaf arrow. Cycling is really good. Also -1/-1 counters are a thing in this set. Second time initiates have been mentioned, what are they initiates for?

Wasteland Scorpion:  3 cmc 2/2 with deathtouch is good for limited, and it cycles. Gods are mentioned? Are important names like Kefnet gods?

Electrify:  Surprised this name hadn’t been used yet. Limited removal spell.

Zenith Seeker:  Bird wizards are fun. Cycling and discard matters so maybe that is a sub theme this set? Makes dudes fly so it seems pretty good.

Sixth Sense:  Green Curiosity, but grants it and fixes the text so no infinite with Niv-Mizzet.

Baleful Ammit: Crocodile Demon is a badass creature type. 3cmc 4/3 lifelink with downside, but could it be upside in some cases with other cards this set?  Mentions initiates again, gives this one a location they are from, and mentions another name, Samut.

Throne of the God-Pharaoh:  WOW WHO IS IT? IS IT BOLAS? IDK I HAVENT SEEN ANY OF HIS HORNS THIS SET. Legendary artifact that seems like a really strong clock for agro decks. Gives a lot of lore in the flavor text.  

Tah-Crop Skirmisher TOKEN: It’s the embalm dude from earlier but it’s a token and has mummified art. NEAT.

 PACK 2

Naga Oracle:  Lore flavor text. Scry 3 but dump in your grave instead of bottom of library, seems good with stuff like embalm.

Tormenting Voice: Reprint, lets you dump to grave. More God-Pharaoh stuff.

Supply Caravan: Return of camels. Makes a token if you have a tapped creature, is that a theme? But the 1/1 it makes has vigilance so it can’t enable other stuff, but makes sense flavorfully. Oketra is one of the gods.

Illusory Wrappings: Really strong “removal” card. Kefnet is god of Knowledge, the gods have trials, so maybe that’s what the initiates are doing?

Wander in Death: Great name. Great Flavor Text. Raise Dead effect that hits two and can cycle, seems pretty good.

Greater Sandwurm: SANDWORM HYPE. Big dude that you can’t chump, and it cycles, amazing common.

Unburden:  Reprint but it seems strong. Bontu is another god.

Pouncing Cheetah: Ambush Kitty. Flavor text tells some lore.

Hooded Brawler:  This is the creatures tapped sub theme. Introduces Exert mechanic. It grows into a 5/4 but doesn’t untap. It seems like a very strong mechanic in some ways.

River Serpent:  Cheap cycler but is a creature with a downside that seems big but with stuff like cycling you should be able to have 5 in grave by turn 6.

Vizier of Remedies: Nerfs -1/-1 Counters and you could combine this with Baleful Ammit to just have a big dude with pure value and no downside. Seems really strong.

Watchful Naga: Exerter that draws a card, 2/2 body. Seems good in limited.

Seraph of the Suns: lel flavor text.  7 cmc flying indestructible 4/4. Doesn’t seem as good with stuff like Stinging Shot but still seems like a tough card to get through in limited.

Pyramid of the Pantheon:  Uses brick counters to build the pyramid and filter mana which then turns into a Gilded Lotus. Flavor Text is very ominous.

Punchout Token with mechanics and bricks:  One of the coolest tokens ever. Very very good idea to whoever thought of it.

PACK 3

Fan Bearer:  Tap Target creature could be a downside now that I see it again.

Tah-Crop Skirmisher

Scarab Feast:  Can eat cards before embalming or turn off other cards, and it cycles for the same cost as casting so you can exile 3 or draw a card.

Pouncing Cheetah

Blazing Volley:  hits all opponents’ dudes but doesn’t seem like much, could deal with Tah-Crop skirmisher and other stuff that seems annoying.

Painful Lesson:  Good Flavor text. Worse Sign in Blood/Night’s Whisper

Emberhorn Minotaur: Really strong exert card. Hits for 5 or probably takes 2 dudes with it.

Cradle of the Accursed

Floodwaters

Stinging Shot: Really strong.

Ruthless Sniper: Cycle or Discard seems to be a cycle? This has you pay 1 to drop a  -1/-1 counter on a creature. For 1 cmc this seems real good.

Bontu’s Monument: Wow. Gods get monuments, and this one makes you drop creatures earlier and drains when you cast them. Really cool.

Weaver of Currents: 3 cmc mana dork that taps for CC. Seems good. Cool art and flavor.

Glory-Bound Initiate:  Exert turns it into a 4/4 lifelink. Seems real good when that swings on turn 2. This is one of the previously mentioned initiates and I was right in that they go through the trials.

 PACK 4

Manticore of the Gauntlet: Manticore type return.  -1/-1 as an upside? Bolts if you make your dude weaker. Seems like a strong card.

Singed Shepherd: Weird looking angel, has Avacyn the Purifier’s wings. Flying Vigilance 3/3 seems good and it cycles if you can’t play it early. Good card. FT talks about Accounting of Hours more and some other lore.

Essence Scatter: Reprint. Talks about Kefnet

Desert Cerodon: Cerodons like from Alara? Big dude that Cycles for 1. Not much to say.

Miasmic Mummy:  Works with the Cycle/Discard guys. Jackal type comes back.  Bear with slight upside ?

Colossapede:  Badass name. Badass Flavor Text. 5 cmc 5/5 Dece.

Hooded Brawler

Luxa River Shrine: OH. You build things with bricks and when they have 3 bricks they get better. Seems pretty fun.

Compulsory Rest: Pacifism that taxes with an upside to opponent to remove it. Very interesting design.

River Serpent

Trial of Ambition:  One of those trials I’ve been hearing about. Good ETB effect and what the fuck is a Cartouche, but its repeatable with whatever that is.

Trial of Zeal:  “And another one”.  Bolts on ETB and Cartouche makes it repeatable. Really cool design, I guess you can undergo the trial repeatedly.

Decimator Beetle: Good body that turns -1/-1 counters into upside for you.  I would not want to run into this bug. Seems REALLY strong.

Harsh Mentor:  Damn this is a strong card. Really hurts all kind of decks. Legacy/Modern playable??

Full Art Land !

Hippo token: WHAT MAKES THESE

 Pack 5

Rhet-Crop Spearmaster: Swings as a 4/1 First Strike if you need. 3cmc for a 3/1 is weaker but seems strong.

Hieroglyphic Illumination: A draw spell that’s also a draw spell. Cool design and can be what you need at times. Really pretty art.

Fling:  Reprint. Seems really good with some of the big creatures rolling around this set. Standard will use it with RG energy. Cool flavor text.

Mighty Leap: Reprint. Evasion spell and pump. That second sun thing is ominous.

Dune Beetle:  2cmc 1/4  good blocker I guess. That’s a damn big bug though.

Ornery Kudu:  Hard to pronounce antelope. Good body for the cost and drops a -1/-1 counter on a dude to mess around with.

River Serpent

Unwavering Initiate:  Really strong embalm for limited. 3/2 vigilance is nothing to mess with especially when it comes back.

Sunscorched Desert: Desert that ETB pings your opponent and doesn’t enter tapped. Very playable.

Wayward Servant: Zombie tribal drain card. In WB which is zombie colors this set. Is a bear so that seems like a really strong card.

Consuming Fervor: Colorshifted Unstable Mutation. Seems really strong as it’s a semi-permanent but diminishing Giant Growth that eventually kills the creature; BUT you could stop it with stuff like that one beetle or the Vizier.

Galestrike: Conditional Unsummon that draws a card.  Cool name and flavor.

Champion of Rhonas: UHHHHHHH. This card is insanely good. Drops a free creature turn 4/5 at the cost of not untapping your 3/3. AND if it lives you get to do it again and again every other turn, if you don’t have untap shenanigans.

Glyph Keeper:  FOIL Kira ability and it comes back?! This card has insane value and will probably be a control finisher.

Wurm Token

 PACK 6

Brute Strength: Reprint.  Seems like a good combat trick. Fun flavor.

Sacred Cat:  1/1 lifelinkitty with flashback. Seems fun.

Cancel: Reprint. LOL flavor text.

Bloodlust Inciter: Haste on a stick. Seems like a good aggro card. Cool flavor.

Quarry Hauler:  Camel. Proliferate or De-Proliferate on one target card? Seems pretty good with that body.

Winds of Rebuke: Bounce a card and everyone mills 2 for 2cmc. That seems really good especially in a graveyard matters set.

Final Reward:  Black instant exile with no drawback! That’s sorta weird but I guess its in their color pie. Good limited card as it stops embalm. Just misses constructed playable IMO.

Dissenter’s Deliverance: Destroys buildings and such and cycles. Seems like a good shatter type card. More ominous hours in the flavor text.

Cartouche of Strength: Cartouche for the Trials has finally showed up and it comes with its own type. Its an aura that has an ETB and pumps your dude. Removal and can synergize with your trials. Seems like a really good deal especially at its cost.

Labyrinth Guardian: Illusion drawback on a good body and it comes back. Seems like a pretty sweet card in any deck.

Protection of the Hekma: Urzas armor makes a comeback in the form of this enchantment. I am not too sure what the Hekma is except it’s a barrier of some sort but this card seems pretty  cool and flavorful. I am a fan of urzas armor so I’ll try this out sometime.

Crocodile of the Crossing: Really efficient creature even if it has to hit itself with its -1/-1 counter. I’m always a fan of Crocodiles. I like the snarky flavor text from mr Rhonas.

Cruel Reality: Story Spotlight.  Really hard taxing on a player with the return of the Curse type. Strong but high cost. I assume from the Gideon and crop-mate part that the Gatewatch are running the trials on Amonkhet for whatever reason and this is a big moment where he realizes how screwed up everything is.

Grim Strider: FOIL Seems like a very interesting card. If you play on curve this should be a 4 cmc 3/3 but if you build around it it seems like it could get places, like a weaker death’s shadow. Cool flavor and lets you know more about the Hekma and how terrible things are on Amonkhet outside of the main city.

 Dusk//Dawn:  AFTERMATH. Modified flashback. This is very flavorful and seems really strong. I will be playing this in my Alesha EDH deck.

[beyondthebridge]

Fic - Strong for too long

A little one-shot Inspired by a conversation with @smittenwithsugden who is  both a bad influence because I should be writing my WIP and a good influence because she gives me all these amazing ideas. Hope you like it hun.

“Right that’s it. I’m fed up with seeing you moping around, staring at the bottom of a pint glass. I finish in half an hour and you’re coming home with me. We can have a proper chat.” Victoria stood behind the bar with her hands on her hips, giving Robert a look that said she would have no arguments on the matter.

“I’m not moping Vic, I’m just enjoying a quiet drink. Is that a crime now?” Robert slurred back without looking at his sister.

“No Robert, having a quiet drink is not a crime. But you haven’t just had one, you’ve been sat there all day. And don’t try to tell me you’re not moping, you might be able to get away with telling other people that but I know you.

Slamming his pint down onto the bar, pushing his chair back he stood unsteadily, bracing himself against the bar. “Fine whatever. You’re not going to let up, so let’s go and have a chat, because that’s going to make everything better.”

Victoria frowned, shaking her head. “I still have half an hour Rob. Just sit down and try not to hurt yourself yeah.” She turned to Charity who was stood reading a magazine at the end of the bar. “Make sure he doesn’t have any more yeah?” “Because I’m his keeper now. I’m not going to turn down money in the till.” With that she went back to flipping through her magazine, attempting to ignore the glare that Victoria was currently levelling at her.

Seeing that she was going to get nowhere with Charity she threw up her arms in a gesture of defeat before retreating to the kitchen and Marlon. If she ranted at him enough he might let her leave early just to get rid of her.

~~ “Right, start talking.” Vic handed him a cup of coffee, before sitting down in the chair opposite.

Robert scoffed at that, levelling his bloodshot eyes on his sister before replying. “We’ll you’re the one that said we needed to talk, so here I am. Waiting for you to talk. I’m fine.” He placed the steaming mug onto the table in front of him, before settling back into the sofa. “Could do with something a bit stronger though?” He indicated the discarded coffee.

She leant forward, “Right, firstly I think you’ve had more than enough. Getting drunk isn’t going to help anyone. Secondly, I said we needed to talk because I can see that this whole mess with Aaron is getting to you and I know that you won’t say anything to anyone, because that’s just what you do.”

Robert shrugged, before glancing down at his engagement ring, “I’m fine Vic. I’m not the one facing a prison sentence.”

Vic leant forward in her chair, before placing a comforting hand on his knee. “No Robert, you may not be the one facing a prison sentence, but you are the one facing losing his fiancé for however long. You are the one that will be left to look after Liv and the scrapyard and the haulage firm and the stuff with the Mill.

You’re also the one that will be there for Aaron when he needs you, so I’m going to be here for you.”

He sighed then, pulling his leg away from her before getting up from the sofa and walking towards the window. “I don’t care about me Vic, I just don’t know how Aaron’s going to cope. It nearly killed him last time he was banged up. I don’t think I can stand to see him go through that again.” He turned back towards her then, tears threatening to spill. “I just want to make it all go away and I can’t.”

She was on her feet in an instant, closing the gap between them, pulling her brother down towards her for a hug. “Hey, it’s going to be okay. You’ll get through this, you and Aaron and you’ll both come out stronger for it.”

Robert pulled away from her, furiously swiping at his face to push away the tears. “I’m fine Vic, honestly. I just need to be strong for Aaron. I can’t fall apart right now, he doesn’t need that on top of everything else.”

Vic took hold of his arms, stopping him from walking away from her again as he turned to move. “You’re right, Aaron doesn’t need you falling apart which is exactly why you need to talk to him. You can’t just ignore this Rob. You have to accept that, despite what everyone keeps telling you, you’re not made of stone. You can’t be strong all the time.”

Shaking himself free from her grasp Robert pushed past her, practically running for the front door. “But that’s the problem Vic, I have to be strong, I can’t do anything else. I’ve failed everyone I love, I’m not going to fail Aaron now. Before she could respond he was pulling the front door open, practically running down the path.

“Robert” She ran after him, shouting as he disappeared down the road, not caring that Pearl and Rhona were staring at her as they walked along the other side of the road. ~~ “Alright babe.” Adam called as he yanked the bumper from the car he’d been working on. “What you doing up here, thought you’d be at home putting your feet up.”

Victoria pulled her hands from her coat pockets where they had been hidden in an attempt to stave off the biting cold of the winter evening. She really didn’t want to get into why she was here with her husband, she just knew that she needed to see Aaron. “Is Aaron about?”

Adam tossed the bumper on top of the nearest pile of scrap, before nodding towards the porta cabin. “He’s in there. Everything okay?”

“It will be.” Vic gave his arm a squeeze as she walked past, making her way over to the cabin.

She opened the door to find Aaron inside, face wrinkled in concentration at the paperwork on his desk.

“Hey, Adam’s outside. Didn’t you see him on the way in?” Aaron glanced over to Victoria before going back to his paperwork.

Moving further into the cabin to close the door behind her, Vic replied “I’m actually here to see you, it’s about Robert.”

“Robert! Is he okay?” Aaron was on his feet in an instant, paperwork discarded on the desk, giving her a look of pure panic.

“He’s… Well he’s not fine, but it’s nothing serious. I just, have you talked to him recently?” Vic pushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear as she spoke.

Aaron frowned, shaking his head. “Why? What’s wrong?”

“I think you should really go and speak to Robert.”

Aaron didn’t wait for her to say anymore, he was already half way out the door before she’d finished. Yelling at Adam that he’d be back later to finish off the paperwork. ~~ “Robert?!” Aaron had been searching for him for the last hour, trying every place that he could think of before he finally decided to check the one place that he never went, unless it was a special date. The graveyard. As he rounded the tree his eyes fell on Robert sitting in the middle of the grave stones, head resting on drawn up knees.

The only acknowledgement that the older man had heard him at all was the slight raising of his head before he dropped it back down onto his knees. Seeing that he wasn’t going to get an answer Aaron walked over to him, before kneeling next to him.

It took him a moment to work out where exactly they were but he quickly realised that they were sat right in the middle of Robert’s mum, his dad and Katie. He wasn’t sure exactly what was going on, but if Robert was here, sitting alone in the dark and cold without a coat he knew it couldn’t be good.

“Rob.” He reached out a tentative hand to take hold of Robert’s which was dangling limp in front of him. “Jesus, you’re freezing. How long have you been out here?”

Again, there was no answer as he continued to ignore Aaron, this time not even moving his head.

“Robert? What’s going on? Victoria came to find me, said I needed to talk to you. Well I’m here, do you want to start talking.”

Robert let out a bitter laugh at those words, before lifting his head, eyes shining with unshed tears. “I don’t know what Vic told you Aaron but I’m fine. I don’t need – I don’t want to talk okay. Just go back to the pub and leave me alone. Please.” He couldn’t hide the hint of pleading in his voice on that last word, as he shifted his focus from Aaron to the gravestone in front of him.

Aaron shifted beside him, gently taking hold of his chin, and pulling his head around to face him. “You may not want to talk, but clearly we need to talk. You’re sitting in the middle of a graveyard, in the dark Robert. That is not okay, and I am not going anywhere.”

“I always let everyone down Aaron. I can’t do it anymore.” The tears were falling freely now and Robert was powerless to stop them. “I’m just so tired.” Pulling his sleeve down over his hand Aaron leant forward to wipe away Robert’s tears, before replying.

“What are you talking about? You’re amazing. You’ve never let anyone down.” Robert waved his hand across the graves in front of him then, “Really. Why don’t you tell that to them? My dad always said I was a disappointment, I could never be the person he wanted me to be. Mum, I couldn’t, I couldn’t save her Aaron. The one time she really needed me and I wasn’t enough. And let’s not forget Katie, if I hadn’t driven her to do what she did she’d still be alive right now. I thought I was getting better, becoming a better person. You made me a better person but here we are again, history repeating itself. Here I am falling apart when you need me to be strong. I’m letting you down right now.”

Aaron felt the anger rising in his chest as he pulled his hands away from Robert before jumping up and walking away from him. He needed just a few seconds to compose himself before he said something he knew he would regret. “You know what, right now you are letting me down because you’re sitting in the middle of a graveyard at night, beating yourself up about the past instead of talking to me. I’m not some fragile ornament that’s going to break any second you know. You have to talk to me Robert and not keep everything to yourself. Please, just let me in.”

Robert sniffed, wiping his tears on his sleeve. “I can’t. I can’t dump all of this on you. You’re the one that’s facing a prison sentence, what have I got to be moaning about. I’ll be fine, I’m just having a moment. Honestly.”

Aaron spun around before bending down and grabbing Robert’s arms. He didn’t give him a chance to react before he was pulling him up onto his feet. “Stop it. Right now, just stop it. I don’t care how insignificant your problems are, which these are not by the way. We’re going to be married Robert, and I can’t do that if you can’t rely on me. I love you, so much, but right now I really want to punch you because you’re an idiot.

Yes, I might be going to prison and it’s probably going to be hell but I will get through it because I know I have you and Liv waiting for me on the outside. Please Robert, I won’t be able to stand it if I’m worrying about you all the time. And the only way that is not going to happen is if you actually start talking to me.”

Aaron wrapped his arms around Robert’s waist and pulled him into his chest, Robert crying freely now, unable to offer any sort of coherent reply. He lost track of how long they stood there, it was probably only seconds but when Robert was in his arms it felt like an eternity, and it was everything he needed to know that it was going to be okay; for both of them.

He pulled back slightly, just enough to be able to look Robert in the eye without having to let go. “Come on, let’s get back to the pub and get you warmed up. You’re going to catch your death if you stay out here much longer.

“I like that idea” Robert quipped, with a glint of something in his eye. “The warming up part I mean”