#excerpt: rules for living in winter

[wangxianficrecs]

💙 Preparing the Soil by Rynne

💙 Preparing the Soil

by Rynne (@rynne)

T, 26k, Wangxian

Part of the LWJ Birthday Serenade - Mini Bang

Summary: When Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian return to spend the first winter after their marriage in the Cloud Recesses, Wangji is forced to grapple with his uncle's resistance to accepting his new husband fully into the clan. At the heart of this conflict is Lan Qiren's rule forbidding talking to Wei Wuxian. How can Wangji make the Cloud Recesses a more welcoming place for his husband when what he fights now is his uncle's stubbornness? Kay's comments: As much as I love the ending of the novel with Wangxian having their happy ending, I always struggle a bit with picturing them living their best lives in Gusu, especially with Lan Qiren still around and Lan Xichen being in seclusion for some time. This story takes a good look at the "Talking to Wei Wuxian is Forbidden" rule of the Gusu Lan Sect and Lan Qiren's relationship with both Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian. He improving, but it's an uphill battle. Luckily, Lan Xichen is supportive. Really love this story, it feels true to the characters and optimistic in a realistic way. Excerpt: Stunned, Wangji could only stare at his uncle for a long moment. He had thought his uncle was resigned to Wei Ying's presence, especially after everything that was revealed during Jin Guangyao's downfall. He had not realized Lan Qiren was still angry at Wei Ying. A wave of reciprocal anger washed through Wangji, and he clenched his hands briefly on his thighs before he abruptly stood. "Then I will not trouble Shufu further," he said, hearing the tightness in his own voice. He bowed, as shortly as he could make himself, before he turned on his heel and left, feeling his uncle's stare against his back. He did not break the rule about running in the Cloud Recesses, but his stride was swift and his demeanor hard enough to cause more than one disciple to duck out of his way. His hands kept clenching until he forced his fingers loose and open. Out of habit, his feet turned towards the rabbit meadow. Before he took more than a few steps, though, he recalled that he had another option to help him let go of his anger. By the time he reached the Jingshi, his temper dissipated a little. He stopped in front of the door, taking several deep breaths to calm down further. He did not want to bring anger into the home he shared with Wei Ying.

pov lan wangji, post-canon, established relationship, family feels, lan family feels, gusu lan sect rules, uncle-nephew relationship, chinese holidays, birthdays, good kid lan sizhui, married lan wangji/wei wuxian, soft lan wangji/wei wuxian, good sibling lan xichen, lan qiren tries, not jiang cheng friendly, music

~*~

(Please REBLOG as a signal boost for this hard-working author if you like – or think others might like – this story.)

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🌈 Queer Books Coming Out in August 2024 🌈

🌈 Good afternoon, my bookish bats! Here are a FEW of the stunning, diverse queer books you can add to your TBR before the year is over. Happy reading!

[ Text list below ⤵ ]

❓What was the last queer book you read?

[ Release dates may have changed. ]

❤️ Failure to Comply - Sarah Cavar 🧡 I Spit On Your Celluloid - Heidi Honeycutt 💛 You're Embarrassing Yourself - Desiree Akhavan 💚 Death of the Hero - Briona Johnson 💙 Between Dragons and Their Wrath - Devin Madson 💜 The Crimson Crown - Heather Walter ❤️ Sacrificial Animals - Kailee Pedersen 🧡 Oath of Fire - K. Arsenault Rivera 💛 The Palace of Eros - Caro De Robertis 💙 This Ravenous Fate - Hayley Dennings 💜 Mistress of Lies - K.M. Enright 🌈 Wolf Bite - T.J. Nichols

❤️ In the Valley, A Shadow - Samantha Tano 🧡 Follow My Lead - Adrian J. Smith 💛 The Last Woman I Kissed - Venetia Di Pierro 💚 Full Shift - Jennifer Dugan & Kristen Seaton 💙 Hers for the Weekend - Helena Greer 💜 Come Out, Come Out - Natalie C. Parker ❤️ Rules for Ghosting - Shelly Jay Shore 🧡 How to Leave the House - Nathan Newman 💛 Plot Twist - Carmen Sereno 💙 On the Far Side of a Crescendo - Kalyn Hazel 💜 Tiny Oblivions and Mutual Self Destructions - Maxwell I. Gold 🌈 Daylan and the River of Secrets - Edd Tello

❤️ The Italy Letters - Vi Khi Nao 🧡 The Gender Binary Is a Big Lie - Lee Wind 💚 The House Where Death Lives - Alex Brown 💙 Ash's Cabin - Jen Wang 💜 The Avian Hourglass - Lindsey Drager ❤️ The Heart Wants - Krystina Rivers 🧡 A Grand Love - Janna Barkin 💛 You Can't Go Home Again - Jeanette Bears 💜 Libertad - Bessie Flores Zaldivar 🌈 Her Golden Coast - Anat Deracine

❤️ Mighty Millie Novak - Elizabeth Holden 💛 Rise and Divine - Lana Harper 💚 Dying for You - L Flowers 💙 I'll Have What He's Having - Adib Khorram 💜 Changing Her Tune - Amanda Kabak ❤️ Monogamy? In this Economy? - Laura Boyle 🧡 The Rainbow Age of Television - Sayna Maci Warner 💛 Medusa of the Roses - Navid Sinaki 💙 Confounding Oaths - Alexis Hall 💜 Idol Lives - K.T. Salvo 🌈 Brother's Keeper - Quinn Cameron

❤️ Key Lime Sky - Al Hess 🧡 Crushing It - Erin Becker 💛 The Husky and His White Cat Shizun - Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou 💚 Not for the Faint of Heart - Lex Croucher 💙 Tasting Temptation - JJ Arias 💜 Ami - S. Jae-Jones ❤️ You're the Problem, It's You - Emma R. Alban 🧡 Cubs & Campfires - Dylan Drakes 💛 The Dark We Know - Wen-yi Lee 💙 Practical Rules for Cursed Witches - Kayla Cottingham 💜 Riyati Rebirth - Kalani Shimizu 🌈 The Brujos of Borderland High - Gume Laurel III

❤️ A Bánh Mì for Two - Trinity Nguyen 🧡 Dance of the Starlit Sea - Kiana Krystle 💛 Scattered Snows, to the North - Carl Phillips 💚 Beyond a World Apart - Caitlin Myers 💙 Don't Let It Break Your Heart - Maggie Horne 💜 Nothing Heals Me Like You Do - Harper Bliss ❤️ How It All Ends - Emma Hunsinger 🧡 How Do I Sexy? - Mx. Nillin Lore 💛 The Palace of Eros - Caro De Robertis 💙 Prince of the Palisades - Julian Winters 💜 Better Left Buried - Mary E. Roach 🌈 Back to Back - Jo Fletcher

❤️ DITCHLAPSE / [REALLY AFRAID] - Tommy Wyatt 🧡 The Love Archives: Bonus Scenes & Excerpts for Palestine - Various 💛 Guardian: Zhen Hun - Ying Priest 💚 The Sunforge - Sascha Stronach 💙 Queering Reproductive Justice - Candace Bond-Theriault 💜 Gender Explained - Diane Ehrensaft & Michelle Jurkiewicz ❤️ The Unlikely Pair - Jax Calder 🧡 In Universes - Emet North 💛 We Love the Nightlife - Rachel Koller Croft 💙 Lessons from Cruising - Martin Goodman 💜 Wild Ginger in the Rhubarb - Eule Grey 🌈 Not My Circus - Delicia Niami

❤️ Asunder - Kerstin Hall 🧡 The Phoenix Keeper - S.A. MacLean 💛 Encounters with James Baldwin - Various 💚 Verity's Game - Jennifer Giacalone 💙 Hunt Me! I Crave the Chase - Fae Quin 💜 The Audacity Omnibus - Carmen Loup ❤️ Haunted to Death - Frank Anthony Polito 🧡 Blood Orange - Paige Grunewald 💛 The Bad Things We Did - Chris Archeske 💙 Dark Restraint - Katee Robert 💜 Worth the Wait - Kenna White 🌈 The Maid and the Crocodile - Jordan Ifueko

❤️ Loving Corrections - Adrienne Maree Brown 🧡 The Last Witch in Edinburgh - Marielle Thompson 💛 The Duchess of Kokora - Nikhil Prabala 💚 The Scales of Seduction - Rien Gray 💙 Survival Is a Promise - Alexis Pauline Gumbs 💜 Loka - S.B. Divya ❤️ The Every Body Book of Consent - Rachel E Simon 🧡 Southern Lights - Liz Arncliffe 💛 Then Things Went Dark - Bea Fitzgerald 💙 Death at Morning House - Maureen Johnson 💜 The Last Doorbell - William Parker 🌈 The Pairing - Casey McQuiston

[ririya-translates]

Jire

Ishida posted another Jack Jeanne winter play backstory to Twitter for Suzu's birthday, January 19th. It includes a new drawing and a music link. No play spoilers in this one as it's more a history of Havenna itself. Thanks to @himehikoshrine for working with me on this. Please read their summary of our translation notes as well since some nuances were impossible to fully capture in English.

Under the rule of the feudal lord, Mugwort Castle floated upon Lake Artemisia, Home to the Vena family.

Farms spread out across the lakeshore. There they grew the Vena specialty: exceptional quality mugwort.

The Vena family bought a large number of servants in the lands to the south and set them to work on the farms.

One day, a rebellion broke out among the servants. An army of about 180 gathered along the shore.

"Step ashore, and you will never be able to return to the other side. Our goal is neither money nor fame. We seek only freedom.

Oh Raham Vena (Pity the Vena). O Lord, strike down those corrupted by greed."

The rebel army besieged Mugwort Castle, setting the family and their fortress ablaze.

After winning their freedom through force, the rebel army made their base on the island in the lake. To sustain themselves, they repeatedly pillaged nearby farming villages.

When those villages ran out of things to steal, they set out further and further.

After rumours began to spread, criminals, deserters, and those with hidden wounds of guilt came to join their ranks.

They continued all along the shore, until there was soon nothing left in sight.

Those who had once freed their lives from oppression had turned to seeking pleasure. The island in the lake came to be known as the city of Havenna.

Of the former rulers, some of the Vena family fled as the servants set the castle ablaze. They continued to live in secret.

The Vena family line eventually ended with only a single father and son living as beggars.

The son, Jire, was captured by a human trafficker and sold into Havenna. His father was killed for resisting.

"Jire probably didn't know about the circumstances of his heritage. Aside from his connection to Chicchi, I don't think there's much to him." (Excerpt from Kokuto Neji's writing notebook "Gilley de Wena")

Ishida's note: This is fan fiction by one of the original creators. What is written in the game itself is canon.

[rjzimmerman]

I'm going to invite these scientists to our house and yard. We have dozens and dozens of grackles at our feeders, making their grackle noises and bullying away our other "resident" birds. But in case they're right, here's an excerpt from an Audubon story:

As people have remade the American landscape, they’ve also shaped the fortunes of Common Grackles. The iridescent blackbirds flourished in the grain fields and pastures that European settlers cultivated after cutting down forests in the 18th and 19th centuries. By the 1970s, an estimated 150 million grackles inhabited a vast stretch from the East Coast to the Rocky Mountains, and today they are regulars across much of the continent. But the birds are disappearing—and no one knows why. A new tracking project aims to reveal what’s driving the mysterious decline.

Birders were among the first to gather evidence of the species’ troubling trajectory. In winter, grackles join Red-winged Blackbirds, European Starlings, and other birds in giant swirling congregations. Audubon’s annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC) long tallied roosts of up to tens of millions of birds. But in the past couple of decades, participants have rarely found flocks of more than a few million, says former CBC director Geoff LeBaron. Other blackbirds are in decline, too, but grackles have become noticeably absent from winter roosts.

According to CBC data, Common Grackles have been dropping at a rate of 3 percent per year, which amounts to a roughly 78 percent decline since 1970, says Tim Meehan, a quantitative scientist at Audubon. Meanwhile, federal Breeding Bird Surveys, which take place each summer, have found at least a 50 percent decline over the past half century. These data clearly indicate that there are fewer grackles across the board, Meehan says: “It’s a slam dunk.”

Michael Ward, a University of Illinois biologist, is one of the lead scientists delving into the conundrum. In 2021 he and his colleagues ruled out a hunch that grackles were failing to produce young: 60 percent of chicks in nearly 200 nests that he monitored fledged successfully, a higher rate than most songbirds achieve. Whatever is harming grackles is likely affecting adults, Ward says.

It’s possible the resourceful foragers, which eat everything from grubs to grains to garbage, are exposed to something dangerous in their diet. The researchers suspect insects and corn could be hazardous meals: Both may contain high levels of neonicotinoids—insecticides commonly applied to grains that have been linked to a decline in avian biodiversity in North America and beyond. Ward’s group plans to study what grackles eat on their breeding grounds to help determine how great a risk their food poses.

Meanwhile, the scientists want to better understand the challenges grackles face after leaving their breeding grounds. In addition to stringing up mist nets to snag birds in residential neighborhoods and at roost sites, Ward and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Kelly VanBeek set live traps baited with seed and mealworms at Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance’s Goose Pond Sanctuary. They outfitted 14 Common Grackles with satellite tags throughout the summer and early fall of 2023 as the birds prepared to depart for their wintering grounds in the Southeast and southern Midwest.

On those journeys, VanBeek says, there are plenty of opportunities for the migrants to encounter other possible chemical culprits like fungicides, which may disrupt birds’ hormones and metabolism and are typically applied in the fall when grackles are on the move. Blackbirds’ penchant for foraging on farmland in large flocks makes them a target for culling as well. Between 1974 and 1992, the federal government killed up to 18 million Common Grackles in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama to reduce damage to agricultural crops. The pace has slowed, but the practice continues: Wildlife Services, a USDA division, killed more than 630,000 Common Grackles over the past decade. That’s on top of birds taken by farmers under FWS permits.

[qqueenofhades]

For a winter-themed prompt: our favorite time travelers and something involving piles of blankets?

"Lucy," Flynn says, with just enough bite in the growl of his voice to make it plain that this time, he really means it. "Come over here."

"Just a minute." Lucy doesn't look up from the stack of essays scattered across the kitchen table, which are making her lose the will to live the longer she beholds them, but if she doesn't finish them now, she'll have to worry about them and/or work on them over Christmas, and that sounds even worse. "I'll be right there."

"That's what you said ten minutes ago," Flynn points out, with his usual sardonic unconcern. "And twenty minutes before that. I'm sure the world won't end if Johnny Freshman doesn't officially earn his C- in the next three hours." He considers, then shrugs. "Though if we're going by the excerpts you were reading to me earlier, I think that might be generous."

"These grades were due to be submitted yesterday, and the department only gave us an extension because MyWeb crashed." Lucy's voice, by contrast, is increasingly brittle. "I don't have time to just throw that aside, even if I want to. I have to finish this first."

"Ah." Flynn regards her shrewdly. "It's your mother talking in your head again, isn't it?"

Lucy flinches. It is truly unsettling how well this man knows her -- and yes, the shrill taskmaster in her head does sound suspiciously like Professor Carol Preston, reading Lucy's own essays with red pen and making any number of helpful suggestions. But it's true that she has end-of-term responsibilities that cannot just be errantly flung aside, no matter how tempting it is to just snuggle with Flynn on the couch in front of the tree, and she looks back down at the essay. Which is a mistake, and she groans aloud. "Another AI-generated one, are you kidding me? Aren't these kids supposed to be smart?"

Flynn looks at her with a I-seriously-doubt-it expression.

"Right. Forgot who I was talking to." Lucy sighs, writes PLEASE EMAIL ME TO DISCUSS THIS on top of the page in large capital letters, and sets it aside. She's grimly reaching for the next one, hopefully not "written" by ChatGPT, when Flynn pulls out the chair next to her, sits down, and whisks the pen out of her hand. She goggles at him. "What are you -- "

"If these need to be finished," Flynn says, "I'll finish them. Go sit."

"What? You don't -- it would be against the rules for you to grade my papers, when this is my class and I'm the faculty of record -- "

At that, Lucy stops short, shakes her head, and sighs deeply. She and Flynn stare each other down, which as usual, he wins. She rubs her eyes, gets up, and leans to briefly kiss the top of his head. "Please don't fail everyone, all right?"

Flynn makes a sound as if to suggest he makes no promises, then gets to work, ripping through the papers with his usual terminator efficiency: whether altering history or grading history, there is nothing and no one that can stand before his stubbornness, and it is, if she's being honest, definitely one of the sexiest things a man has ever done for her. She pads to the couch, wraps up in the blankets, and lets her exhausted brain veg out, staring at the glowing tree, until Flynn signs off on the last one, gets to his feet, and crosses over to join her, settling on the couch with a creak. He puts his arms around her, and Lucy burrows into his chest, letting him hold her close. "Thanks," she murmurs, as he tucks the blanket around them both and pulls them into a more comfortable position. "I love you."

Flynn grins into her hair. His voice, this time, is very soft. "I know."

[moonbaby26]

Get To Know Me

Rules: Answer and tag 6 people

Favourite colour: To wear? Black. Because it matches everything. I live in black tees and dark wash jeans with black boots or black tennis shoes. In the winter, just add a black coat over the top. But to look at? Hues of light blue mixed with a little green. Think mermaid colors. I dress in dark colors and probably look as perpetually burntout as Trafalgar Law. But if nothing mattered, I’d have everything around me in bright mermaid aesthetic, blues/greens/purple/pink and sparkle. That’s my two sides. 🖤🌈🧜‍♀️

Last Song: I have one ear bud in at all times with my music library on shuffle or custom stations. And yes, I can relate every song I know to Doflamingo. As I type this it’s “Love Me Dead” by Ludo in my ear. An excerpt:

You suck so passionately

You're a parasitic, psycho, filthy creature

Finger-bangin' my heart

You call me up drunk

Does the fun ever start?

You're hideous…and sexy!

Currently reading: Nothing! *le gasp*. I was an avid reader when I was younger though. It might sound basic as he’s so mainstream, but my favorite author was Stephen King. Horror all day long. I liked his short story compilations the best. But I remember Salem’s Lot actually scaring me when I was a teen, reading it alone in the dark. And Rose Madder sticking with me as well for the dark themes.

The most I read now is short One Piece oneshots that you lovely folks post either here or on AO3.

I’m trying to hold off on reading anything multichapter currently. Because my brain is super weird and strongly internalizes the character voices of whatever I read. So when I read someone else’s stuff, I can lose my own style. The word “style” being used extremely loosely here of course. I just type whatever comes out of my squirrel cage of a brain, I know. But it’s still me. And it would change if I was regularly reading anything else, One Piece or otherwise.

Currently watching: I don’t watch TV (a time constraint thing 😩). I do have Crunchyroll to stay caught up on the One Piece anime though. I rewatch arcs too on there or with the “One Pace” website where it’s a little more condensed. I’m rewatching Punk Hazard now.

Currently craving: Nothing, I ate a hibachi shrimp bowl with rice and veggies for dinner earlier. It was yum!

Coffee or tea: Neither. Seriously, I love water. Ice cold water. It’s all I want when I’m thirsty. And if I need sugar or flavor, then I want food. I drink water if thirsty, eat food if hungry. But if someone handed me a fancy coffee or tea my brain would go, “This is not food…but is just dirty water? No thank you 😅.” *goes sit in timeout for these social transgressions*

I know the larger Doffy crew has already been sharing this back and forth, but linking you guys back to share mine to you. 🦩💗@physics-of-one-piece , @saracrossing02 , @ladycrocy , @tuquidflamingo , @ohnomyhooves + anyone else that wants to interact/share

[freetobeeyouandme]

Sunshine, Spun of Gold

Tags: Rated M, No Archive Warnings Apply; Jeremy Knox/Jean Moreau; Alternate Universe - Historical, First Kiss, references to past abuse, references to past sexual abuse, Internalized Homophobia, references to historically accurate homophobia

Length: 5.8k

Summary:

Go. Be safe: Three words Jean has been trying to live by as he tries to make a life for himself in a small town on the other side of the country, far away from the Nest and anyone who knows about it. Here he is just another stranger come to seek a future in the hills. Faceless, blameless. But even the golden California sun cannot cleanse him of the sins of the Nest and the needful thing coiled tightly inside of him. Not even as it continues to seek him out in the figure of a bright and beautiful boy, offering warm smiles and gentle touches. After all, those are the opposite of safety, and past the ocean there is nowhere left to run. - Or, Jeremy and Jean fall for each other in the midst of the California gold rush.

Read on Ao3, see whole collection

Excerpt:

California, 1849

Jean woke to grass tickling his nose and his heart in his throat, choking him in disoriented panic. The sun flickered behind his eyes in disjointed patches, filtered through the canopy of the maple tree, reminding him of where he was – but the recollection brought no relief. Nor did the fact that at least the sun was still up.

“Morning, sleepyhead,” a soft voice said to his side.

A hand, belonging to that voice, came up to run gentle fingers through his hair. It wasn’t enough to force the thing constricting his chest into releasing him, but it made space for another instinct: to stay where he was not out of fear but to bask in the warmth of that other sensation. It made nothing better, but at least it was easier to breathe around.

“Well, it’s more afternoon. Did you have a nice nap?”

Jean ran his hands over his eyes, trying to dispel the sleepiness and succeeding only partially. This wasbad. He was supposed to be working, was supposed to make himself useful.

“You shouldn’t have let me sleep.”

Jeremy sat beside him, hat pulled over his face and chewing on a blade of grass that Jean had no idea where he had gotten it from, and shrugged with the innocence of a man who did not have to care for such things. A respectable young man who had taken his grandfather’s money and done something with it, Jeremy ran the most well known drinking establishment in town with the help of his wife. Both were happily received guests everywhere they went, although more often than not it was the Knoxes who hosted, and any newcomer, of which the burgeoning town of Troy, California saw more and more every day, inevitably ended up at the Golden Court looking for work, a bed, or simply a drink. They knew everyone and everything, and in turn everyone knew them – mostly, though, in passing.

Jean had been no exception to the rule, finding his way there on the back of Cat’s cart, clutching a barrel of wine to keep himself steady. Except once Jeremy was done laughing about the story of how Cat had almost run Jean over and had finished reprimanding Jean for helping unload the cart when he had just arrived and was, by all definitions of the word, a guest, he had stuck by Jean’s side. Jean knew he did not deserve that friendship by any means: he was the silent stranger from France who had simply one day appeared, attached to a small train of wagons who had picked him up in Nebraska, where he’d been left behind by his previous travel companions who refused to winter there. He had no connections and no one to vouch for him, and so the rumors about his flight from the east coast abounded, each more colorful and far removed from the truth as the one before. It made him an unlikely candidate for the friendship of anyone, much less the town’s golden boy, and Jean patiently waited for the moment that Jeremy realized that Jean was not worth the tarnish on his reputation.

[taliatuck]

🌟 Cover reveal! 🌟 Booksmart meets Never Have I Ever in this debut YA rom-com from Talia Tucker about two Korean American teens forced into a shared college visit road trip where they discover that the reasons they’ve been rivals their entire lives might actually be signs they’re a perfect pair. Winter Park and Bobby Bae are Korean American high school juniors whose families have been friends since the kids were making crayon art. They, however, are repulsed by each other. Winter is MIT-bound, comfortable keeping people at arm’s length, and known by others as responsible, though she has a desire to let loose. This probably comes from her rebel grandmother, who is constantly pushing boundaries and encouraging Winter to do so as well. Winter’s best friend is moving abroad and won’t be attending college at all, and Winter’s wrestling with what it means to be left behind. Bobby is as Type-A, anxious, and risk-averse as you can get. He’s also been recently dumped, which has him feeling disoriented and untethered. That’s why, when Winter’s and Bobby’s parents insist that they go on a northeast college campus tour together, both teens find reasons to accept even though the thought of being stuck in a car together for 700 miles sounds unbearable. What awaits them is a journey of self-discovery where the only rule on their road trip is to break all the rules. At first, this happens in hilariously calculated ways (using lists and reason and logic!), but they soon abandon that, challenging each other to dares in Virginia, getting high and wandering Philly for food—and battling the subsequent digestive distress—and crashing a party in Cambridge. And, of course, realizing that they’re perfect together. PREORDER HERE: https://www.penguinteen.com/9780593624753/rules-for-rule-breaking/ Read an excerpt on Penguin Teen: https://www.penguinteen.com/cover-reveal-rules-for-rule-breaking/

[faeriexqueen]

Songbirds in Winter (Update: 9/2/2024)

Title: Songbirds in Winter. Fandom: D. Gray-Man. Pairings: Alma Karma/Tyki Mikk, Kanda Yuu & Alma Karma (One-Sided/Unrequited Yulma), Lavi Bookman/Allen Walker. Rated: Explicit. Words: 267.9K+. Tags: Romeo and Juliet AU, Omegaverse, Alpha/Omega, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Royalty/Nobility, Renaissance/Renaissance Era, Medieval, Slowburn, Romance, Drama, Angst, Forbidden Romance, Secret Relationship, Eventual Romance, Pregnancy, Hints of Incestuous Feelings/Incest, Family Drama, NSFW, Lemon/Eventual Lemons (Please see AO3 for full list of tags and warnings). Chapters: 34/43. Summary: They had always known that their lives would be planned out for them. For Tyki, it is to eventually become the head of his family as the next alpha in line, despite his wishes for otherwise. For Alma, it is to be married off for the benefit of his kin — to be bred for political gain, regardless of his own feelings on the matter. The stage is set, and they have their parts to play. But being in the crossfire of a dangerous rivalry among noble families is never easy — not when the person you love is the very one you’re forbidden from being with. Chapter 34 Excerpt — What Burns in the Night:

“You’re sure your family won’t listen?” Tyki asked. He looked down at Alma, expression serious. “If you tell them?” Alma laughed, the sound dry and mirthless. “No.” He finally pulled back, averting his gaze. He wiped his eyes. “Why would they? They didn’t want to listen before when I tried to tell them I wanted to be courted by someone else, and now that a public announcement was made, they won’t even think about refusing the king.” Tyki’s jaw tightened, frustration threatening to brim. Hearing Alma’s resignation, his heartache — his mate’s heartache — set something ablaze in him. Their families, the court, the rules and hierarchy. What was it even for, if it couldn’t do anything for them? What was the point of it all? To try so hard for something, only to be denied again and again. To be denied, refused… Why did they have to live this way?  Tyki exhaled. His attention shifted to the balcony window once more before he looked back at Alma. “We’ll leave.”

Read on AO3.

[bylerbigbang]

On the Same Frequency

Fic by @oldfashionedmorphine | Art by @kaiminluu

Mature | 57k words

Ever since his best friend Will Byers was murdered back in 1985, Mike Wheeler wanted nothing more than to leave his hometown of Hawkins, Indiana and never look back—only each and every year he’s forced to make an exception when it comes to the holidays. And when Mike visits for Christmas in 1995, his mom asks him to help clear out some junk in his room and down in the basement before he returns home to Indianapolis. But when he comes across an old trunk containing his Supercom walkie-talkie and ham radio, he discovers something strange that has the potential to change everything.

(or an AU inspired by the movie “Frequency” from 2000)

Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Major Character Death, Alternate Universe, Not Canon Compliant, Supernatural Elements, Time Shenanigans, Butterfly Effect, Serial Killers, Thriller, Blood and Injury, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Grief/Mourning, Substance Abuse, Emotional Manipulation, Grooming, Abuse, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Angst with a Happy Ending

Read on Ao3 | View Art | Playlist on Spotify

Read an excerpt below:

December 22, 1985

Will sets his backpack by his feet and starts layering on his winter garb—coat, scarf…

“So what’re you gonna do while I’m gone?—besides Christmas stuff, of course,” Mike asks, inching the slightest bit closer and making Will’s stomach flutter.

They’ve been doing this little dance of theirs a lot lately. It started back in the summer with their hands brushing against each other in dark movie theaters, and then there were all the times he would look up to find Mike staring (or vice versa), and of course all the times he’s caught Mike’s eyes darting down to his lips, because that’s happened so often he’s lost count. But they never say anything about it. It’s quite confusing really, like they were playing a strange game without a rule book. And sometimes Will isn’t entirely sure if it’s all just in his own head or if Mike was aware of it too. But one thing was certain, absolutely every time he’s alone like this with Mike, he wants to burst into a million pieces because he can’t get his heart to stop racing, or quell the butterflies living in his stomach, or simply ignore that crazy impulse he gets to lean in and kiss him.

Focus.

Will places his green beanie over his head. “Uh… remember I told you yesterday that I finally got the last piece I needed for my Cerebro?”

“Mhm…” Mike nods, eyes dropping down for only a second.

Will swallows hard—his face had gotten so hot from just standing in the doorway like this. “So, um… if the weather’s finally good tomorrow then Dustin’s gonna help me install the antenna tower… just uh… me and him since… y’know… you’re gonna be out of town and uh… Lucas—Lucas already has plans with his family and whatnot...” If he had more to say, it was completely lost on him on account of Mike and the intensity of his eyes.

“That’s awesome… ‘cause now I’ll finally be able to radio and talk to you whenever I want—no more fighting Nancy for the phone.”

“Yeah…” then Will slips a pair of brown gloves onto his hands, and as he stares down at them trying to think of what else to say, only one thing pops into his head—how he went along with Lucas’s lie about the roll and how much it was actually bothering him. It bothered him because Mike didn’t deserve that—he didn’t deserve to be lied to. And he’d probably be mad if he found out. He always works so hard on his campaigns and lying about the roll just made Will feel like he was a cheater and a bad friend—especially when Mike was standing right in front of him, all smiles and excited at the opportunity to talk to him endlessly on a ham radio—so of course the very next thing to come out of his mouth ends up being; “It was a seven, by the way…”

Read more on Ao3 >

[triptychgrip]

New chapter - Ch 12 - of my post-canon Yuri!!! on Ice Olympics fic uploaded

If you're a Yuri!!! on Ice fan wishing the fandom had more Olympics content, I hope you'll consider checking out my fic/series, which revolves around both the 2018 PyeongChang and 2022 Beijing Olympic Games. The fic itself takes place at the Beijing Winter Olympics, but switches back and forth between the two, in large part due to a sports politics scandal (not doping) that significantly affects Yuuri/Viktor/others in elite figure skating at the 2018 Games.

It's fluffy, rooted in lots of research, and is my attempt to delve into the world of post-canon, married Victuuri/Viktuuri, as well as Yuuri's impending retirement. The main fic "Gold's On The Inside, Elevated My Feet" will close out at 20 chapters, but I've got other side-stories in this fic universe that flesh out Yuuri/Viktor/Yurio's lives and friendships, as well as Yuuri and Viktor's decision to leave Russia and move to Fukuoka, Japan, about 2.5 years post-canon.

Below is an excerpt from the chapter I just uploaded, which covers the Beijing 2022 Team Skate

--------

When Kapanadze had chosen to make things personal, attacking Team France’s Alex Alouda – who he claimed was ‘stealing’ Russia’s spot – Viktor had released a very frank video via their SkateHusbands YouTube channel, utterly excoriating him. 

Yuuri still remembered the quiet, glacial fury in his husband’s azure eyes, and the trenchant, methodical manner in which he’d made the case for upholding (and even strengthening) the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) ruling. 

It had been undeniably hot.

Unfortunately, it had also made their group’s 6-minute warmup, which had finished just ten minutes ago, unbearably tense. 

Though he’d tried to give Levan a wide berth, it had seemed like the Georgian skater had been going out of his way to openly glare at Viktor and Alex, and had even begun circling close to where he had been practicing his quad lutz entries. 

The few times Yuuri had gone over to the boards to consult with his coach around something, they could each feel eyeballs laser-focused on their backs, branding them with rancor. About half-way through the warm-up, he noticed that Mickey had literally put himself in between them both, a gesture he’d been incredibly thankful for. 

As he now met Viktor’s gaze, Yuuri nodded as he saw how he was holding his phone and earbuds out to him. 

Though the IOC didn’t appear to be done with their ice inspection, it was time to start getting into the right headspace, which meant doing visualization exercises and listening to his program music. 

As the synthy, electro-pop beat of the song that had been written just for this occasion blanketed Yuuri’s eardrums, he lost himself to the enthralling melody. 

The experience of getting one of his favorite singers to co-write a song with him dedicated to Viktor, and for his exclusive use this season had been nothing short of surreal. 

[clairelsonao3]

Happy Storyteller Saturday!

Are there any places, objects, or even people in your stories inspired by or directly borrowed from your real life?

Share a snippet if you like 💜

Thanks for the ask, Winter! Happy STS! So sorry it took me almost until the next STS to answer! I wanted to make sure I did it justice.

And your answer is:

Yes, many. I think virtually everything I write is to some extent seeded in reality, no matter how wildly the story diverges from there.

My YA romantic thriller The Adored (which I haven't shared much about here yet) was heavily inspired by having grown up in a musical family (with members who were much more successful at it than I was!), singing in school choirs and musicals, and then later being involved in the indie music scene during college and grad school. Some of the MCs, their friends and family share personality traits with friends and even family members of mine, although altered enough to be unrecognizable (I hope!)

Even Good Slaves Never Break the Rules, as out-there as the plot is, has some drawn-from-life elements sprinkled around.

I started writing it almost eight years ago to entertain myself on a transatlantic sea voyage (that's worth another whole post altogether), and some of the characters and early situations (I won't say specifically which ones!) were inspired by that. In general, the unusual dynamics that pop up when strangers from vastly different origins and roles onboard are pressed together in a small space with no choice but to work and spend time together (although needless to say, very soon, my imagination wildly diverged from what actually happened 😂). There were numerous other influences of course, including several plays and other works of literature, but those are best suited for yet another post, I think.

And yes, I did live in Arizona and even went to university there [although the one I attended has been ported over to the larger city to the north for plot purposes], though I didn't grow up there and have lived abroad for years now. (I do go back frequently, however). The excerpt I'm going to use -- after much thinking and probably some more interesting snippets I'm missing -- has to do with that. As it happens, the university (and its fictional, relocated counterpart) is actually world-famous for its research on both optics and astronomy, which explains why it's host to one of the world's largest liquid mirror telescope labs -- which of course found its way into GSNBTR, only appropriate given the characters' interests in science.

The direct route to the mirror telescope was in a red brick building not entirely on the other side of campus, but almost.

"Hey, it's — what are you doing?" she exclaimed, chasing after him. "You’re going in completely the wrong direction.” 

“Maybe it would help if you actually told me where we’re going.” 

“Maybe it would help if you’d listen to anything I said!"

He crossed his arms impatiently. "Well?"

"The mirror telescope building,” she said. “To meet someone named Milagros.”

To her shock, his whole expression transformed before her eyes. “Wait. Mirror telescope? The Zenith telescope?”

“Yeah, it’s made out of liquid — "

“Liquid mercury, I know," he continued eagerly. "In a paraboloid shape. It’s the biggest in the world outside of the Himalayas. They’re now testing the same technology in microgravity to see if they can build one like it in a crater on the moon.” 

If she weren’t still so angry, she might have actually smiled at how this sudden overload of sheer science-geekery had his eyes shining like she hadn’t seen them shine in days.

Lastly, anything concerning business, finance, and/or the world of startups and technology is drawn partially from my interest in those topics I developed writing about them as part of my IRL writing job.

Thanks for a great question!

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🌈 Queer Books Coming Out in August 2024 🌈

🌈 Good afternoon, my bookish bats! Here are a FEW of the stunning, diverse queer books you can add to your TBR before the year is over. Happy reading!

❓What was the last queer book you read?

[ Release dates may have changed. ]

❤️ Failure to Comply - Sarah Cavar 🧡 I Spit On Your Celluloid - Heidi Honeycutt 💛 You're Embarrassing Yourself - Desiree Akhavan 💚 Death of the Hero - Briona Johnson 💙 Between Dragons and Their Wrath - Devin Madson 💜 The Crimson Crown - Heather Walter ❤️ Sacrificial Animals - Kailee Pedersen 🧡 Oath of Fire - K. Arsenault Rivera 💛 The Palace of Eros - Caro De Robertis 💙 This Ravenous Fate - Hayley Dennings 💜 Mistress of Lies - K.M. Enright 🌈 Wolf Bite - T.J. Nichols

❤️ In the Valley, A Shadow - Samantha Tano 🧡 Follow My Lead - Adrian J. Smith 💛 The Last Woman I Kissed - Venetia Di Pierro 💚 Full Shift - Jennifer Dugan & Kristen Seaton 💙 Hers for the Weekend - Helena Greer 💜 Come Out, Come Out - Natalie C. Parker ❤️ Rules for Ghosting - Shelly Jay Shore 🧡 How to Leave the House - Nathan Newman 💛 Plot Twist - Carmen Sereno 💙 On the Far Side of a Crescendo - Kalyn Hazel 💜 Tiny Oblivions and Mutual Self Destructions - Maxwell I. Gold 🌈 Daylan and the River of Secrets - Edd Tello

❤️ The Italy Letters - Vi Khi Nao 🧡 The Gender Binary Is a Big Lie - Lee Wind 💚 The House Where Death Lives - Alex Brown 💙 Ash's Cabin - Jen Wang 💜 The Avian Hourglass - Lindsey Drager ❤️ The Heart Wants - Krystina Rivers 🧡 A Grand Love - Janna Barkin 💛 You Can't Go Home Again - Jeanette Bears 💜 Libertad - Bessie Flores Zaldivar 🌈 Her Golden Coast - Anat Deracine

❤️ Mighty Millie Novak - Elizabeth Holden 💛 Rise and Divine - Lana Harper 💚 Dying for You - L Flowers 💙 I'll Have What He's Having - Adib Khorram 💜 Changing Her Tune - Amanda Kabak ❤️ Monogamy? In this Economy? - Laura Boyle 🧡 The Rainbow Age of Television - Sayna Maci Warner 💛 Medusa of the Roses - Navid Sinaki 💙 Confounding Oaths - Alexis Hall 💜 Idol Lives - K.T. Salvo 🌈 Brother's Keeper - Quinn Cameron

❤️ Key Lime Sky - Al Hess 🧡 Crushing It - Erin Becker 💛 The Husky and His White Cat Shizun - Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou 💚 Not for the Faint of Heart - Lex Croucher 💙 Tasting Temptation - JJ Arias 💜 Ami - S. Jae-Jones ❤️ You're the Problem, It's You - Emma R. Alban 🧡 Cubs & Campfires - Dylan Drakes 💛 The Dark We Know - Wen-yi Lee 💙 Practical Rules for Cursed Witches - Kayla Cottingham 💜 Riyati Rebirth - Kalani Shimizu 🌈 The Brujos of Borderland High - Gume Laurel III

❤️ A Bánh Mì for Two - Trinity Nguyen 🧡 Dance of the Starlit Sea - Kiana Krystle 💛 Scattered Snows, to the North - Carl Phillips 💚 Beyond a World Apart - Caitlin Myers 💙 Don't Let It Break Your Heart - Maggie Horne 💜 Nothing Heals Me Like You Do - Harper Bliss ❤️ How It All Ends - Emma Hunsinger 🧡 How Do I Sexy? - Mx. Nillin Lore 💛 The Palace of Eros - Caro De Robertis 💙 Prince of the Palisades - Julian Winters 💜 Better Left Buried - Mary E. Roach 🌈 Back to Back - Jo Fletcher

❤️ DITCHLAPSE / [REALLY AFRAID] - Tommy Wyatt 🧡 The Love Archives: Bonus Scenes & Excerpts for Palestine - Various 💛 Guardian: Zhen Hun - Ying Priest 💚 The Sunforge - Sascha Stronach 💙 Queering Reproductive Justice - Candace Bond-Theriault 💜 Gender Explained - Diane Ehrensaft & Michelle Jurkiewicz ❤️ The Unlikely Pair - Jax Calder 🧡 In Universes - Emet North 💛 We Love the Nightlife - Rachel Koller Croft 💙 Lessons from Cruising - Martin Goodman 💜 Wild Ginger in the Rhubarb - Eule Grey 🌈 Not My Circus - Delicia Niami

❤️ Asunder - Kerstin Hall 🧡 The Phoenix Keeper - S.A. MacLean 💛 Encounters with James Baldwin - Various 💚 Verity's Game - Jennifer Giacalone 💙 Hunt Me! I Crave the Chase - Fae Quin 💜 The Audacity Omnibus - Carmen Loup ❤️ Haunted to Death - Frank Anthony Polito 🧡 Blood Orange - Paige Grunewald 💛 The Bad Things We Did - Chris Archeske 💙 Dark Restraint - Katee Robert 💜 Worth the Wait - Kenna White 🌈 The Maid and the Crocodile - Jordan Ifueko

❤️ Loving Corrections - Adrienne Maree Brown 🧡 The Last Witch in Edinburgh - Marielle Thompson 💛 The Duchess of Kokora - Nikhil Prabala 💚 The Scales of Seduction - Rien Gray 💙 Survival Is a Promise - Alexis Pauline Gumbs 💜 Loka - S.B. Divya ❤️ The Every Body Book of Consent - Rachel E Simon 🧡 Southern Lights - Liz Arncliffe 💛 Then Things Went Dark - Bea Fitzgerald 💙 Death at Morning House - Maureen Johnson 💜 The Last Doorbell - William Parker 🌈 The Pairing - Casey McQuiston

[thatswhatyoucall--adream]

Despite me only getting this little idea around 10 hours ago, I’ve managed to write roughly 2k words of this thing. Here is a tiny little bit of it as this is now a WIP because my brain won’t leave it alone despite having 87362574 WIPs to get through. So here is Day 3 of posting an excerpt of a WIP.

“I’d rather spend one life time with you than face all of the ages of this world alone.”

The world was ending. That much was evident. Pierre let out a humorless chuckle as he surveyed the lands surrounding him. Winter had long laid claim to the North, the snow covered hills stood in stark contrast to the thick black smoke moving in from the west as the forests burn. There had been a 4 day battle there and while his men had managed to hold off the enemy soldiers and force them into a retreat, there had been a huge list of casualties. 

He sighed and dropped down onto the boulder near the edge of the cliff, scrubbing a hand down his face and holding his head in his hand and just taking time to breathe. Well, as best as he could, anyway. He hadn’t been able to take a full breath in months, not since that night in the castle, not since he...

Pierre sighed again and shook his head, the fierce grip of regret wrapping itself around his windpipe, forcing him to swallow to try to rid himself of the feeling. It was for the best, he knew it and when...Pierre snorted out a laugh, he couldn’t even bring himself to think of his name, the pain was too much and too vivid and too real. He’d give anything to see him one more time, anything to say something ridiculous and watch those dimples appear. It was better this way. He was here, leading the charge, defending the kingdom as he was charged to do and Charles, well, Charles was safe somewhere and when it was safe here he could come back and rule the kingdom that he was predestined to do. 

Pierre ignored the way his heart stuttered as he thought of those eyes, and slope of his nose in the early evening sun, the way golden hour really did feel golden in his presence. It was better this way, he reminded himself, Charles was safe and there was never any other choice in the matter. Charles’ safety would take precedence over any and all other decisions he would ever make. Even if that meant he had to live without him. 

[nothingunrealistic]

gotta love the rare occasion when a news article is shown on screen in billions and the text isn’t even an attempt at a fake article but is instead taken from some existing work of literature. see: this financial journal article and the word document behind it that are actually excerpts from two of h.p. lovecraft’s short stories, “pickman’s model” and “beyond the wall of sleep”.

Entertainment

RETROSPECTIVE SHOWS ARTIST’S VERY PERSONAL PROGRESSION

BY CHRIS MORRIS

You needn't think I'm crazy, Eliot- plenty of others have queerer prejudices than this. Why don't you laugh at Oliver's grandfather, who won't ride in a motor? If I don't like that damned subway, it's my own business; and we got here more quickly anyhow in the taxi. We'd have had to walk up the hill from Park Street if we'd taken the car.

I know I'm more nervous than I was when you saw me last year, but you don't need to hold a clinic over it. There's plenty of reason, God knows, and I fancy I'm lucky to be sane at all. Why the third degree? You didn't use to be so inquisitive.

Well, if you must hear it, I don't know why you shouldn't. Maybe you ought to, anyhow, for you kept writing me like a grieved parent when you heard I'd begun to cut the Art Club and keep away from Pickman. Now that he's disappeared I go round to the club once in a while, but my nerves aren't what they were.

Don't ask me what it is they see. You know, in ordinary art, there's all the difference in the world between the vital, breathing things drawn from Nature or models and the artificial truck that commercial small fry reel off in a bare studio by rule. Well, I should say that the really weird artist has a kind of vision which makes models, or summons up what amounts to actual scenes from the spectral world he lives in. Anyhow, he manages to turn out results that differ from the pretender's mince-pie dreams in just about the same way that the life painter's results differ from the concoctions of a correspondence-school cartoonist. If I had ever seen what Pickman saw- but no!

(this omits several paragraphs from the original short story, between the third and fourth paragraphs here.)

——————————

I have often wondered if the majority of mankind ever pause to reflect upon the occasionally titanic significance of dreams, and of the obscure world to which they belong. Whilst the greater number of our nocturnal visions are perhaps no more than faint and fantastic reflections of our waking experiences - Freud to the contrary with his puerile symbolism - there are still a certain remainder whose immundane and ethereal character permit of no ordinary interpretation, and whose vaguely exciting and disquieting effect suggests possible minute glimpses into a sphere of mental existence no less important than physical life, yet separated from that life by an all but impassable barrier. From my experience I cannot doubt but that man, when lost to terrestrial consciousness, is indeed sojourning in another and uncorporeal life of far different nature from the life we know, and of which only the slightest and most indistinct memories linger after waking. From those blurred and fragmentary memories we may infer much, yet prove little. We may guess that in dreams life, matter, and vitality, as the earth knows such things, are not necessarily constant; and that time and space do not exist as our waking selves comprehend them. Sometimes I believe that this less material life is our truer life, and that our vain presence on the terraqueous globe is itself the secondary or merely virtual phenomenon.

It was from a youthful revery filled with speculations of this sort that I arose one afternoon in the winter of 1900-01, when to the state psychopathic institution in which I served as an intern was brought the man whose case has ever since haunted me so unceasingly. His name, as given on the records, was Joe Slater, or Slaader, and his appearance was that of the typical denizen of the Catskill Mountain region; one of those strange, repellent scions of a primitive Colonial peasant stock whose isolation for nearly three centuries in the hilly fastnesses of a little-traveled countryside has caused them to sink to a kind of barbaric degeneracy, rather than advance with their more fortunately placed brethren of the thickly settled districts. Among these odd folk, who correspond exactly to the decadent element of "white trash" in the South, law and morals are non-existent; and their general mental status is probably below that of any other section of native American people.

Joe Slater, who came to the institution in the vigilant custody of four state policemen, and who was described as a highly dangerous character, certainly presented no evidence of his perilous disposition when I first beheld him. Though well above the middle stature, and of somewhat brawny frame, he was given an absurd appearance of harmless stupidity by the pale, sleepy blueness of his small watery eyes, the scantiness of his neglected and never-shaven growth of yellow beard, and the listless drooping of his heavy nether lip. His age was unknown, since among his kind neither family records nor permanent family ties exist; but from the baldness of his head in front, and from the decayed condition of his teeth, the head surgeon wrote him down as a man of about forty.

From the medical and court documents we learned all that could be gathered of his case: this man, a vagabond, hunter and trapper, had always been strange in the eyes of his primitive associates. He had habitually slept at night beyond the ordinary time, and upon waking would often talk of unknown things in a manner so bizarre as to inspire fear even in the hearts of an unimaginative populace. Not that his form of language was at all unusual, for he never spoke save in the debased patois of his environment; but the tone and tenor of his utterances were of such mysterious wildness, that none might listen without apprehension. He himself was generally as terrified and baffled as his auditors, and within an hour after awakening would forget all that he had said, or at least all that had caused him to say what he did; relapsing into a bovine, hall-amiable normality like that of the other hilldwellers.

(struck-through portions are obscured in the screenshot.)

[alpaca-clouds]

Find da Word

I was tagged by @udaberriwrites for this game. The rules are simple - find the word (or something close enough) in a fic (WIP, published, whatever works) and share the excerpt it is in! (I'm going with published works this time :D)

My words to find were: drink, black, sun, laugh, silence

Tagging... well Mika already tagged a bunch of people! But I'll tag @charley-quinn @mikaharuka @tsunderewatermelon and @mikaharuka and anyone who wants to try this game of course!

The next round of words are: fall, sword, road, wind, castle

From the current round I will try and take stuff out of The lesser Evil:

SKY

The sun was setting, turning the last light of day orange. Sypha sat beneath the tree, looking up at the colorful sky, and sighed.

They were almost at Baia Mare. The city was not more than a mile or two away. They had stopped in this forest at noon, as it gave them protection against spying eyes. After being attacked two nights in a row it was clear that whoever did those experiments knew they were coming.

LOVE

Already she wanted to shift to another position, trying to get to the general's tent and listen in on them, as she heard a whisper: "My love."

Morana. She knew what this had to mean. Moving with the speed only allowed to creatures of the night, she made her way back to the quarters they were hiding it. The air here was thick with the smell of sewage while pigs were simply roaming the streets. It was not the best place to live, but a great place to hide. For vampires, especially, as those people here were rarely missed.

RISING

The sun had not yet risen above the horizon, as the soldiers were gathering in front of the house. There were 200 of them, barely enough to fill out the forces at Orlean. But they would make due. They would bring supplies, too. Bread and vegetables. Ale, too. Enough to bring the people through one more months of occupation. Nobody had managed to take Orleans back in the entire winter. But that had been the winter, Gilles told himself. The winter had brought icy rains with it, drowning so many of their forces. No, this was a new spring, a new year. They could turn this around.

SONG

[Nobody is Singing in that Story, I am afraid]

WARMTH

He groaned, as he could feel the stuff work. It gave something he had not expected. A strange warmth in his chest, as the pain was slowly dimming. It did not went away entirely, but he was able to think clearly at least. Not a moment too soon, as the roof underneath them was shaking, crumbling.