#in other words i need 6 times as many as i currently possess

[arenabreadandbiscuits]

Vox x Fem! Reader || Caught In Wires 🔪🫂

Word Count: 2,109

Warning: Possessive behavior, abuse of power, Stockholm syndrome signs(?)

Scenario: Stop running for it is foolish. An animal worth keeping alive knows what its purpose in the end is. Requested from my AO3.

(Note for Requests and Commissions. I'm open to taking requests now but only because I'm trying to grow my accounts. Commissions are still needed and preferred but gotta do what you gotta do I guess. If you want to request then you can buy commissions get done quicker and faster. I'll take six commissions and six requests at a time.

Commissions number currently - 1/6

Requests number currently - 0/6)

-

Vox is a powerful man, one of the most powerful and that meant that in most of not all cases he tended to get exactly what he wanted.

You had been working for him for a while now. Some silly girl who needed a job when you fell down here and if you weren't blessed with anything else you had managed to be blessed with your skills in combat.

You were a damn good fighter, one who seemed to hold so much potential. You could tear through flesh like a knife through butter, could bite through metal with how competent your teeth and fangs were, and you spilled blood like you had a knack for it.

To see the least, you managed to reel in attention, a lot of it but imaging your surprise when you found yourself face to face with the TV overlord himself, Vox.

He had stood before you, a charming smirk on his face as you kneeled in front of him and you had huffed.

At first, you had been pissed. The last thing you needed was for some overlord to come knocking around and claiming you and yet… that's exactly what had happened. You had been swarmed, collected and kidnapped, a bag being tossed over your head and your hands being tied behind your back. You had spent so much time ducking and dodging these sketchy people, these sketchy places… and yet he had still managed to track you, chase you, and find you.

Vox was a determined mother fucker.

You could give him that, the two of you had a bit of history. History that made sense as to why he's spent all this time looking for you and the reason simply had been that you knew him.

And he knew you.

There was a story there that only the two of you seemed to know about and basically it was that you had known each other for a while now.

It started with you working under Valentino, the bastard. You had refused to give your body over in the aspects that were expected of you and so you had been tossed out. Though, prior to said time Vox… had often come to you.

Speaking with you, touching you, caressing you and you'd be a liar to say that his touch hadn't been the only touch to actually make you feel something in this hellhole.

Honestly being tossed out had been both a blessing and a curse, the blessing being that you had finally escaped… even for just a little bit and the curse was that though you hated that place if there was one thing you missed it would have been him.

The TV overlord himself.

It was irritating, annoying how much time you spent thinking of him. His hands as they held you close or his voice that always seemed to make you shiver. When you ran away there had been many times where you yourself had contemplated if leaving… had actually been the right idea. The right thing to do. Outside of the ghostly touches that seemed to linger it always felt like you were being watched and even you knew that with the amount of surveillance he had, it was only a matter of time before he truly got back to you.

So as he stood before you after the guards were ordered to leave, you huffed, turning your gaze down for a moment to try and avoid that smug look that you knew was already on his face. As expected he doesn't quite allow that as he squats and gently or as gently as he could manage as excitement ran through him and he took hold of your chin. His nails just lightly sink into your skin as he tilts your head up and defiantly, you bare your teeth and fangs. It doesn't seem to do anything but make him chuckle as the two of your eyes connected. Yours narrowed while his… sparkled like a child after finding their favorite toy.

You had seen that look on his face many times now and still it raised the hairs on your neck and made you shiver.

You snap your snap aside, growling and the second time he reaches out to take hold of your face he's not so nice.

His hold is firmer this time, his thumb and pointer finger squished your cheeks and made you pucker and as annoying as it was you couldn't stop the way your face felt a bit warmer. When you had been working he had done this many times, holding you like this enough that it stuck in your head as something that only he was allowed to do to you.

As you look up again you can see that predatory look in his eyes and even with his hold you know he's being patient. His patience was definitely why you had ran to him when working with Valentino had finally drove you crazy. Valentino would have hit you by now, putting his hand on that pretty face of yours in a not so pretty way.

It truly was a blessing in a curse.

“Oh, look what the cat dragged in.” Vox chuckles as he gently pets you, your bound hands being tied behind your back as he of course feels no reason to rush what he's doing. With the two of you here alone now he could spend hours admiring this face of yours without getting tired.

“They do say that lost items do tend to find their way home after a while of being lost.” He says in that eerily calm voice of his, that tone that he didn't seem to use often except for in this situation. Not just that but his eyes are lidded and you can't help but want to keep your own eyes on them just to watch him because at times Vox had and could be unpredictable. Just because he was being nice didn't mean he had to be such and you had seen his interactions with others to know such. Even if he himself didn't lay his hands on you Vox always had the power to order it to be done even by someone else.

He tend not to treat you like that though. Yes, sure he had stalked you and kidnapped you but if anyone was to lay their hands on you then he would admit that he preferred that someone being him. If they were to kiss you, hold you, fuck you then yes… he'd prefer it to be him and as unclassy as it would be for him to harm you in such ways Vox was never against a good well earned punishment. He could put you in your place if he really wanted to, could make you beg for forgiveness with your eyes full of tears if that what he really craved and he did crave such but he did prefer it when your tears came from mind numbing ecstacy instead of earth shattering pain.

So no matter how many times you ran thinking you could actually get away and how angry you seemed whenever the two of you were together, Vox would be patient with you.

Well, sorta patient.

Even good dogs need correction from time to time.

He looks at you for a moment before moving that hand to slowly trail down your neck and you can't stop your own breath from hitching at the touch. You weren't sure if you were just crazy or maybe he had finally managed to get under your skin a little but the feeling of his grip reminds you of the many nights he's used it on you before. A surge of electricity runs through you when his hand wraps around your throat and it's not tight but definitely a good hold, firm and strong. The nights that you found yourself covered in his kisses, in his caresses and as much as you wanted to hate it you had come to really, really enjoy it.

He was crazy, fucking insane and you couldn't exactly tell if you were secretly lucky or very misfortuned.

You could make a guess.

“Fuck you Vox..” you snarled and you could have imagined it but you could have sworn the mother fucker bit his fucking lip just from hearing you say that and there's so much tension in the air that you felt like you could feel in on you skin, taste it on your tongue as you practically spat out his name and before you could even understand it he leans in and presses close.

Something wet and slurpy slides against your bottom lip and you gasp, shock and heat shooting up your spine, eyes widening and it's not until you feel a wet slide that you calculated it being his tongue.

You accidentally moan.

It's wet and warm and long and when you gasped he slid it inside, keeping his lidded eyes open just to watch your reaction. You remembered his taste after all this time and as his tongue slides against and over yours in the lewdest of ways you can't seem to fight off the many memories he left you with of that tongue and its taste and before you can bother to get your scattered brain together you seem to melt. Falling into his hold like a damsel in distress and he was your knight, the one who was here to save you from your own damnation.

It almost felt right, felt…normal. To be here with him, tied up as the two of your tongues tangle and as angry as you are made you really did miss him and so… you can't help but give in, kissing, smooching, sucking on each other's tongues.

You find that there's nothing more you want to do be to reach those bond hands up to touch him, to hold him, to cling to him because after all this time maybe Vox really was your salvation and really he was just trying to remind you of that.

Remind you of the sins that led you to hell to begin with, or the way Valentino had treated you when you were under his rule even and you were sure if he had a point or if you were actually losing your mind but maybe Vox had another point stacked against you.

Maybe you were nothing but a silly woman who need guidance and Vox was one thing but you had been in hell long enough to know that even with who he was… being with him and by his side was a lot better, safer, than bwjng around and with many others down here.

And maybe, just maybe you were tired of fight, of running from him because Vox had also stated many times that you would never get away from him and you were starting to see it over, and over, and over again now. And unholy hell were you exhausted.

You slowly but sure give into his kisses, returning them out of both anger and desperation and all you want to do is have your hands be free so you could jump on him, cling to him like he was the only thing there in this hell but to your dismay and his pleasure, your still bound, even when he pulled away and left you panting heavily for breath that you previously didn't know you'd been missing.

“It doesn't matter how many times you run, I will always come and find you.” He says with a hum, a low sing songy voice as he caresses your cheeks again, watching as your chest heavily rises and falls and how red your face has grown just from a kiss all on its own. After all, if a kiss could make you blush so easily, imagining your reactions to biting you until you were covered in his marks or to him pounding you pussy open with his cock while you squeeze him only seemed to drive him wild with mad passion and lust.

To put it lightly, you belonged to him and if you needed to be taught such a lesson then he would teach you, over and over again until it finally stuck forever in that precious little head of yours.

“I own you and I'll make sure you know that, my love.” He says with a low and deep chuckle and you feel weak in his hold, useless, discouraged as well as… loved, admired, and adored… interestingly enough.

How were you supposed to make it out of this one?

Even you don't know the right answer right now.

~ ✨

[thecoffeelovingfreak]

𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒂 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕

character: aventurine

genre: angst

word count: 1.4k

warnings: spoilers for aventurine's past and the penacony quest, released pre-2.1

notes: i was thinking about him over breakfast and spent the entire day writing this! I will say that my writing may be a little rusty since I've been on a 6-month hiatus. I wanted to create a character snapshot to speculate and give a look at what we know about him so far, so I hope you enjoy it!

Read it on ao3!

~~~

A pensive sigh filled the hotel room, blending into the wistful and heavy melody streaming soft and delicate from the phonograph horn. Unrealistically chilled bottles of SoulGlad rest in the niche beside it, an orange that contrasted well with the deep blue traversing the walls. A deck of playing cards rests on the wooden table, a tool for the idle hands of a certain guest to use as he attempts to pass the time. His focused gaze was targeted on the array of triangles built in line before him.

A house of cards required many elements that Aventurine held dear – ones that rested on the back of his gloved hand.

Patience, time, attention to detail, and confidence. All of which reinforce the plans simmering in his mind, and in turn, contribute to the air of pure self-assurance he carried. Some may call it arrogance, but to him it is a manifestation of the simple fact that everything will work out in his favor. One way or another, for better or for worse.

Deft fingers grasped two more cards, setting them meticulously over the flat backs beginning his next level. His hands would never shake as they approached the slowly growing tower, even when he first learned how to construct a steadfast house many years ago. He never hesitated – at least not since he became an asset of the IPC. There was no room for any sort of weakness in their ranks, plain and simple. If you wanted the money and power to become impenetrable, you first needed to learn strategy.

Entertain me for a moment, will you?

What do you want, Diamond?

To give you a hypothetical, and see how you respond. Think of it as an impromptu assessment of your current skills.

Alright.

Walk with me first.

Another pair of cards joined the house, gradually building up a wall between the rest of the room and where he stood.

There is a planet on the outer recesses of our galaxy. It is in proximity of several meteors. Only three are on a path towards said planet. This has occurred many times over the last 350 Amber Eras. They are nearing the end of their resources, and have a chance to be erased completely without intervention. They have had no prior dealings with the IPC and are reluctant to seek aid as they are in development of a plan to exterminate all of the surrounding meteors. However, there is no set date for when their plan will be completed, much less enacted. The meteors will be hitting them in just one and a half months. Tell me, Aventurine, what would you do?

What we always do. Offer them our aid and see if they take it. Use force if necessary, and ensure that they end up in our hands.

Spoken like a true Stoneheart. Yet I still wonder if you truly believe your own words?

He held the king of spades in between his index and middle finger, gazing at it intently. His ego likened himself to that image, but there was always doubt lingering in the corners of his mind. Beneath all of the glamour, possessions, lies, and silver-tongue tactics there was a hurting man. A scared and tired boy. One with an array of scars, apparent yet hidden. A person that existed within him, yet was increasingly out of reach. A part of him wanted to forget that side of him, cast it away and never have to face his perceived weaknesses. But another part of him wanted to keep it – cherish it. To wait until his vulnerable moments and allow himself to feel. One half was Aventurine, and the other half was…

No. Now was not the time for remembrance.

He placed the king of spades with the jack of hearts next, smoothly placing them down and moving onto the next pair.

Excuse me?

You heard me, don’t attempt games. I was there for your recruitment, and I’ve witnessed your progress. I have to ask: do you want to help them for the IPC, or for your own conscience?

Come now, you know it would be my honor to provide them with our benefits.

Hmm. I have to disagree. It would serve you better to forsake those sentiments. Our conversation is over, I have reports to catch up on. You are dismissed.

“Recruitment”. He had no choice in that. But that was their ploy, right? Prey on the vulnerable and use them for their own gain. It was a trick used against him, and it was one he had used on others. Though he always made sure never to deal them as cruel a hand as he was given, somewhere in the murky depths of his heart, regret swam. It was heavy and engulfing, threatening to burst forth when he was alone in the middle of the night. The feeling of being nothing but a tool was sickening – he understood that well. It was one of the many things he would never want other people to experience. But he would make them anyway. That was survival. An unfortunate “game” of risk and reward, the ultimate gamble. What do you wager in order to be gifted with more time? How much are you willing to bet that your strategy will work?

Aventurine had many maneuvers. Methods that he had honed with time and experience.

An intricately crafted front can get you far. Wrap your walls in affability that can draw people closer or push them further away. Use it to catch them in your tricks. Assess what both parties are willing to stake for what they can possibly gain. Befriend them, although it's often superficial. Take what they give with a smile, and do small favors where you can. They'll owe you, after all. Just enjoy the game, you'll win at the end no matter the cost.

The view from the Strategic Investment Department’s building displayed a vibrant cityscape of Pier Point. A bustling environment that completely contrasted with what he was used to beforehand. He was the last Sigonian now, and he had no room for mourning in this place. Despite that, a festering wound sat in his chest, wanting to be acknowledged and no longer denied. It ached and burned, filling him with an overwhelming sadness and frustration at his circumstances, and himself. He was all that remained – all that he could rely on. His eyes began to glaze over. He swallowed thickly, willing it all back down. You can’t be weak here. There’s no one left to comfort you.

The cards were built to the third row now, and a sense of satisfaction and content fell upon him. It was a similar feeling to seeing a mission through successfully. With a small flourish, the jack of spades and ace of hearts arrived in his hands, ready to be crowned at the top of the house. As he placed them down, a light smile appeared on his face. Stepping back, he stretched his fingers and observed his work.

Grabbing a simply mixed white grape soda, took a sip, and reached for the token in his pocket. He turned it horizontally and prepared to balance it at the very top, a quick test – a gamble in its own way – to see if it could rest at the peak. Setting his drink down to the left, he leaned down and watched the chip with intent. He perched it carefully on top of the cards, leaving it perfectly centered. It rested well for a moment, before collapsing through the cards and sending each row into disarray.

His stare turned sour. What outcome did he expect? Naturally the chip would be far too heavy for the cards to support. That didn’t matter however. He would rebuild it again and ensure that the token could rest on top, disregarding the almost inherent impossibility. If he wanted a specific outcome, he would see it through to the end, taking the required measures to get there.

The consequences of a failed mission always linger, a potentially fatal result in repose on his shoulders, creating a pernicious sting. This was just an illustrative trial of his purpose here, and on every other planet he had visited.

When it was all said and done, the absolute truth of his work would remain the same: he had everything to gain and nothing to lose.

[lynxindisguise]

20 asks for fic writers

ty for the tag @plecotusauritus and @wanderingdonut <333

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

16

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

300,242 (damn)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

hp, have considered branching into black sails and good omens

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Hot Cocoa Incident of '77

shorn and scarred and yours

A Dog in Stag's Clothing

Sarcastic Truths and Lies By Omission

exes, horcruxes, and other reasons to panic

conclusion: bitches love hogwarts fluff, slytherin sirius, and divorce!!

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! I love comments!

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending

Uhhh I guess the corndog fic?? all my wolfstar fics currently end happily, though Of Monsters and Cowards has more of an open ending

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

They're all happy honestly, but The Hut of the Mistold is probably the most neatly wrapped up, all the warm and fuzzies, happily ever after ending.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Nothing directly mean, but I'll get comments that make me go, "why did you feel the need to say that?" Like ranting a little too enthusiastically about the main character's choices or commenting on how they wanted more of xyz in a chapter (especially when the fic isn't even finished!) Oh and I got one the other day from a guest on a reply I made to someone else that was clearly trying to start an argument about something that had nothing to do with the fic??? I don't respond to those comments.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Typically I write a little smooching that fades into a vague description, but I wrote six different versions of smut for don't cover our tracks

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I write a lot of AU's based in other worlds, but not crossovers. (Unless @impishtubist and I make the ineffable wolfstar crossover happen!)

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of. And hot take—I genuinely think a lot of cases of "fic stealing" are just coincidence. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but I do believe we're all collectively tossing around one brain cell, and we're bound to have similar ideas.

I once read a fic that shared a lot of themes/ideas/details with one of my fics, and upon discovering this, I plotted to trick the writer into becoming my deeply beloved mutual.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I've had people ask if they could translate my fics before a few times, but I don't think anything has come of it?

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not currently... (refer to 10)

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Wolfstar

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

... probably the ATLA AU :/

The idea possessed me back in January of last year, and I plotted out the entire thing, but I've had no motivation to actually write it. I think the problem is that it's too cinematic, and I can't translate it to prose.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Probably world-building, in the way that I can look at one world and say "how would this translate to another?" "what little details and references can I pull from and play with?" "how do I adjust my writing style to make this feel like the genre I'm replicating?"

Also unusual metaphors, zingy little commentary, and comedic timing in dialogue.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I really struggle with prose. Which sounds silly, but like, I'm not writing prose—I'm translating the screenplay in my brain to prose, which is weird. And I think it can make my writing really jarring because it's lacking that slow, immersive reflection that is just so delicious when done well.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Dude I put a few Welsh words in hotm and panicked that even those would be wrong. If it was ever important for the story, I'd find someone who spoke the language to help me.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

hp

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Please Don't See Me

tagging @kaaaaaaarf @spindrifters @impishtubist @soloorganaas @femme--de--lettres @fruityindividual @worldenough-and-time

[thedwarrowscholar]

Analysis of "Stone Tongue" in The Rings of Power

In Episode 7 of The Rings of Power we get our first real taste of the Neo-Khuzdul created for this series. Here Durin III calls it "Stone-tongue".

The two lines of Stone-tongue given by these two Dwarf Lords are:

Tildi dahâkh? [Five centuries?] Kama shêth, kumnya putha imâghum [Quite a promise, if they can keep it…]

I have no idea who wrote this Neo-Khuzdul, but it clearly does not use any of the currently established forms or words. Regardless of them opting for a new form (which is fine), sadly, the pronunciation of these words should have been somewhat different though. That is, if we are to follow the language specifics J.R.R. Tolkien detailed in the appendices (which this series prides itself on for respecting).

A detailed analysis of these two lines.

1) Leith McPherson and Jean Goodwin (the dialect coaches on this series) seem to have gone with the voiceless velar fricative [x] for the Khuzdul "kh" and the voiceless dental fricative [θ] for the Khuzdul "th". Though common in many other Semitic languages (which Khuzdul was designed to be) it should NOT be present in Tolkien's Khuzdul. Tolkien clearly states in the appendices that the Dwarvish "kh" and "th" are aspirates and that Dwarvish did not possess the fricative sounds of other Middle Earth languages. In fact he specifies that these should be pronounced "more or less as in backhand and outhouse" (so not like "loch" or "things", as they have done here). 2) Complete lack of the schwa or open-mid back unrounded vowel sound in these lines (vowels like those heard in the English "butter") "which were frequent in Dwarvish". 3) Use of the sound "p" - though not impossible, but slightly odd if this needs to represent actual Khuzdul, as it's not present in any canon Khuzdul word. 4) Word order. Without further details on these words it would appear that the order used here is a mirror of English. An example of this is "tildi dahâkh" - as "centuries" is a plural noun and dahâkh appears to copy the typical plural noun pattern seen in other Khuzdul words, it would appear the word "tildi" here is the number. While in common Neo-Khuzdul that would be noun followed by number, unlike English. 5) Some vowel sounds are wrong/mispronounced. For instance the "ê" in "shêth", should be pronounced as the [e:], not as the near open front vowel [æ]. This may have been a mispronunciation from the actor though. 6) Verbs and Pronouns are (apparently) not as synthetic as I would expect. The line "kumnya putha imâghum" likely means "if they can keep it", which would have been "nî katamrazînhu" in the previously established Neo-Khuzdul. Here we see "katamrazînhu", as a good example of the synthetic nature of this Semitic language, where several elements are combined into one word (Ka = can, tamrazîn = they keep, hu = it). Here it would appear, if we can conclude that "kumnya" means "if", that "putha" is the pronoun and "imâghum" the verb.

Overall, though the general flavor of the language sounds Semitic (which I'm thankful for), it's a shame the pronunciation makes some rather big mistakes. What the words themselves are concerned, here as well, at first glance, there is a clear Semitic feel to it, sadly word order and several other oddities make for a poor linguistic end result. As such, I'll not be updating my Neo-Khuzdul dictionaries any time soon to include some of these words or verb forms, as most of these would go against Tolkien's established lore for the language. With the exception perhaps of the word "dahâkh" (the only word that seems to be using the correct patterns and is correctly pronounced), which is (it must be said) a better word for "centuries" than the compound I was using (the rather cumbersome "mihokherasanrât" - lit. "hundred-year-cycle"), in addition to the fact that the radical combination [DHKh] was not in use anyway. Let's see if we get more "Stone Tongue" in future episodes. If so, expect an analysis like this one. Ever at your service, The Dwarrow Scholar

[sam-glade]

Author Ask Game

Tagged by the lovely @mariahwritesstuff here, @writernopal here, and @tisiphonewolfe here, @void-botanist here - thank you all💜

Gently passing the tag to: @starlit-hopes-and-dreams @vollzz @rbbess110 @flock-from-the-void @pheita @i-can-even-burn-salad (feel free to ignore if you've done it already)

1. What is the main lesson of your story (e.g. kindness, diversity, anti-war), and why did you choose it?

I don't write with the aim to teach a lesson. However, after figuring out the plot, I'll look back and see what message I can focus on. Usually, it's kindness, but I also hope to inspire people to find strength within themselves.

2. What did you use as inspiration for your worldbuilding (like real-life cultures, animals, famous media, websites, etc.)?

A lot of real world cultures and history. In the case of my main setting, the amount of research into the history and culture of Central and Eastern Europe in the 18th century (especially the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) would probably be enough to write straight up historical fiction, buuuut I like the fantasy elements, and I don't enjoy writing non-queernormative societies. So here we are.

The second instalment, The Truth Teller, is again in a fantasy version of the Eastern Bloc, and I get a lot of inspiration from talking to people who've lived there in the second half of the 20th century.

Finally, The Fulcrum is an exercise in worldbuilding. It started with a question, what would happen if evolution took a different path, and the dominant sentient species was most closely resembling birds. Other than that, I use it as an excuse to explore other periods in history - primarily late-Bronze and Iron Age.

3. What is your MC trying to achieve, and what are you, the writer, trying to achieve with them? Do you want to inspire others, teach forgiveness, help readers grow as a person?

The goal is different every time. E.g. for Days of Dusk:

In Gifts of Fate, Lissan is the MC, and he wants to survive without hurting anyone (the demon possessing him makes it difficult). What I want to achieve with him is to inspire people to persevere.

In The Prince's Shadow Erya is trying to kill Lissan, while dealing with complicated grief. My goal is to inspire people to move on, without preaching forgiveness (the two main characters still hate each other at the end).

In Prodigal Children, Lissan, Erya, and Gullin are the three MCs who are told with absolute certainty that something terrible will happen and it will result in war. They each try to deal with it in a different way. Erya aims to minimise the damage. Gullin thinks he can't do anything about it, so he focuses on protecting his loved ones. Lissan refuses to accept that it will happen at all. My goal as the writer is to showcase that each of these responses has its merits and can't be condemned from the get go.

4. How many chapters is your story going to have?

I'm a pantser, so I can answer it only for completed drafts. Gifts of Fate currently has 49 chapters, averaging just over 2k words each - with the total being 109k.

5. Is it fanfiction or original content? Where do you plan to post it?

Everything I post on this blog is original. I don't plan to post the novel-length project online - I'm hoping to publish them traditionally. Some side WIPs may end up being posted here or on AO3 (the unnamed parody thingy that still needs a title), and my Silmarillion fanfiction can be found here (more to come).

6. When and why did you start writing?

I vaguely recall writing my first fantasy heroine self-insert story at the age of 11 or so, then Tolkien fanfiction when I was 15-18, then original fiction onwards. It started as an outlet to my creativity, but now it's to get some peace and quiet in my mind. If I don't put the stories down on paper, they keep buzzing in my head, being distracting.

7. Do you have any words of engagement for fellow writers of Writeblr? What other writers of Tumblr do you follow?

Words of encouragement? Just do it. Imperfect doesn't mean bad. Don't let 'perfect' be the enemy of 'good'.

I follow a tonne of writeblrs, so here are a handful of shoutouts: @acertainmoshke @writernopal @tabswrites @toribookworm22 @winterandwords @aether-wasteland-s

Blank questions below:

What is the main lesson of your story (e.g. kindness, diversity, anti-war), and why did you choose it?

What did you use as inspiration for your worldbuilding (like real-life cultures, animals, famous media, websites, etc.)?

What is your MC trying to achieve, and what are you, the writer, trying to achieve with them? Do you want to inspire others, teach forgiveness, help readers grow as a person?

How many chapters is your story going to have?

Is it fanfiction or original content? Where do you plan to post it?

When and why did you start writing?

Do you have any words of engagement for fellow writers of Writeblr? What other writers of Tumblr do you follow?

[inklingofadream]

Ink's 2023 Fic

It’s the end of another year, and you know what that means! Or you joined me this year and don’t, one of the two. At the end of every year I post a list of everything I wrote to become my blog’s pinned post for the upcoming year. However, this year, it’s a bit different. We’ll get to that in a minute.

According to my AO3 stats, I posted 709,908 words of fic in 2023, across 8 fandoms and spread over 64 individual works. That’s a 765.784% increase in word count from last year! I’m unwell!

Normally, I post everything I wrote, split up by fandom and in chronological order, with basic stats and descriptions that vary between synopsis, liner notes, excerpts, or all of the above. However, 45 of those 64 works were written for Whumptober this year. Since they’re mostly for The Magnus Archives (dominating the list as usual) and many of them are very short, I’m not going to list all the TMA fics. I’ll list my favorites and ones I think got less attention than they deserved, as well as all fics for other fandoms, and since that’s my most popular stuff I’m listing it last/under the cut. Wordcount and relationships (romantic or platonic, healthy or not) are listed, but check the AO3 tags, warnings, and notes, as I won’t be including the content warnings here.

Batman

Mom’s Been On a Parenting Kick Lately- 9k, WIP, Talia/Bruce, Talia & Batkids;This is still getting off the ground (I need to get back to it), but I’m excited about the future of this fic! It’s my take on Jason’s post-resurrection time with the League of Assassins, but with timelines turned into spaghetti to facilitate bonding. Talia is currently in possession of 3 batkids, but she isn’t done stealing Bruce’s kids yet :)

i'd walk a wire, jump through a fire for you- 800, complete; literally just just shy of 1k about Dick have feelings about falling and parents

The Locked Tomb

lyin’ on our backs and countin’ the stars- 900, complete, John&Gideon; I’m actually shocked there aren’t way more John and Gideon “bonding” fics out there. This one also has a backstory for Gideon and Ianthe’s friendship bracelets!

The Adventure Zone- Balance

old worn out suit and shoes- 600, complete, Taako&Lup; Post-finale nightmares for Taako, now that he can remember he has a sister to lose

Malevolent

Please Come Back To Me- 2.9k, complete, Parker&Arthur; Parker lives and goes to hunt down and kill whatever used Arthur to try to kill him.

You’re here. That’s all I need to know.- 300 complete; Arthur finds Faroe in the bath.

Living, Dead, or Undecided?- 1.7k, complete; Arthur is sacrificed to the King in Yellow as punishment for what happened to Faroe.

His head and limbs were heavy with ornaments, much of his flesh left unprotected from the elements. It was far too mild a summer evening for that; he deserved to freeze or burn at the freedom of open air. His thoughts were fuzzy with the overpowering cacophony of scented oils and chanting. He was deposited at the top of the hill, too gentle in slope to burn at his atrophied muscles, on a stone slab. They chained him in place, the seeping stone finally sapping enough warmth from his bones to feel appropriate.

Dracula

i still see your ghost- 200, complete, Jonathan/Mina; Some fill-in angst about Jonathan seeing Dracula on September 22… which I did actually write on September 22.

Hannibal

I can’t remember if I cried- 1.7k, complete, Abigail/Marissa; This is actually a concept I came up with in high school lol. Hopefully, someday I’ll write a fic expanding on the shipping kernel of the concept.

Hench

The Kind of World Where We Belong- 1k, complete, Anna/Quantum; AU where Leviathan dies and femslash ensues.

The Magnus Archives

The Vampire Saga- 68k, 6 works, Jon/Martin; The first of several shared universes with @suttttton on this list. Vampire!Elias snacks on Jon until Vampire!Martin gets hold of him instead, fluff and romance ensue. The new works this year both feature Gerry!

The Vampire Saga Route 2- 38k, 7 works, Jon/Martin, Jon/Elias, Jon/suffering; Shares a few fics with its predecessor, up to Martin entering the picture, this is the darker version. Fic this year mostly focuses on Jon meeting Tim and Sasha, and the gang rescuing Danny from the Circus. And the aftermath thereof. I’m really proud of the Circus stuff I wrote!

Bird-Verse- 37k, 7 works, Jon/Beholding, Jon/Martin;Spin-off of cult au, also with Sutton, featuring a happier resolution to many of Jon’s problems, so he gets to live with all his friends and marry Martin. Except for how this year’s additions are about him dealing with the lingering cult intrusions and trauma :)

Indent AU- 50k, 2 works, Jon/everyone;My first foray into writing smut. I’m very proud of it, and I’d say it deserved more love than it got, but I’m realistic about the content being very much not for everyone.

Cult AU Bad Ending- 9k, 2 works, Jon/Beholding, Jon/Jonah; This is a good time to mention that, as I have 10,000 Cult AU derivatives, they have their own AO3 Collection now. This one is a far future fic where Jon is immortal with Jonah and sad about it. It’s a crier.

Interesting- 3.7k, complete, Jon/Elias, Jon/Martin; This is an old fic of Jon and Elias in the Panopticon that got a new chapter for Whumptober! It took about 2 years to get that draft to publication…

restless soul who always skips town- 900, complete, Jon/Peter; This is the one I most wish got more attention. Peter keeps Jon in the Lonely.

When Peter comes, it's wonderful. Peter is a person in a way the Archivist isn't and, he knows, Peter even sometimes leaves the fog. He knows it because Peter gives him journals that are red and gold and violet, so different from the limited palette of the fog and the Archivist and Peter that they make the Archivist's eyes hurt.

dead if they knew- 6k, complete, Elias/Jon/Tim; I had SO much fun fiddling to differentiate the four POVs from each other!

Familiar AU- 16k, 4 works, complete; Jon is kidnapped by Elias and turned into his familiar; for Sasha, Tim, and Martin, it’s a long, hard road to rescuing him.

no beat, no melody- 600, complete; Canon-compliant fic in between Jon getting the tape of the birthday party from MAG161 and the episode itself, hanging around the safehouse in the Depression Zone.

welcomed you with open doors- 1.6k, complete, Martin/Jon; Spiral!Martin in a role reversal au that swaps him and Michael. Martin is much more proactive as the Distortion (and more liable to fall in love with nearby Archivists)

save some face (you know you’ve only got one)- 1.4k, complete; Sasha is altered by the NotThem instead of killed. Half body horror, half giving her my fibromyalgia, all bad times!

somebody once broke me- 2.7k, complete, Jon&Gerry; Gerry lives! Visibly monstery Avatars! Jon gets kidnapped from a kidnapping! It’s all the hits for my body of work ;)

remember this moment- 3.8k, complete, Jon&Daisy; I initially planned this fic for, I think, Februwhump 2021. It’s been slated for every Februwhump and Whumptober since, and FINALLY finished!

Take Me Through the Darkness- 15k, complete; Superhero AU, ft. epistolary interludes! Several more of my greatest hits! (And also Jon getting kidnapped from another kidnapping.) My personal favorite is Jon thinking Tim is a hallucination and crying.

look upon your greatness (and she’ll send the call out)- 8k, complete; Cult AU AU where Georgie tracks Jon down a few months after his kidnapping.

The chances of Jon being abducted, held somewhere, and still alive are so narrow that they might as well not exist. Checking the resources the charity sent, Georgie realized it's even grimmer than that. She struggles to picture Jon doing anything to appease his captors. It's extremely easy, however, to picture him literally or figuratively daring them to kill him.

Something Wretched About This- 2.9k, complete, Jon&Tim; Jon returns from the Circus without vocal cords, and he and Tim have a moment of peace, if not reconciliation.

just like a real-life thelma and louise- 6.6k, complete, Sasha/Annabelle; Sasha and Annabelle have superpowers and escape from the lab experimenting on them.

Kinky Polychives AU- 70k, 2 works, WIP, Polychives; My second, much fluffier smut verse. I tagged Jon as “horny for predicaments instead of people” and I think it’s the thing that’s been commented on specifically by the most people lol

til the veins run red and blue- 200, complete, Jon/Martin; I really like the Lonely, and I don’t know why I don’t write it more. This one is a little Somewhere Else coda with Jmart

come home (to my heart)- 8.7k, complete, Jon&Gerry; a fusion of Little Archive and cult au where Jon is the specialest boy in the whole Cult of Beholding, and Gerry grew up with Mary. If anything I wrote this year gets a sequel, I think it’s this. The fic is all Gerry POV, but I had a chunk written in Jon POV I cut, ft. Jon convincing Beholding that he can definitely wander London solo and it’s FINE, he won’t disappear in the house of a murderer or anything… ;)

Extras- 18k, Jon/Martin; My fae au is complete, but this is a bunch of little bits that inspired me beyond the bounds of the main story, like meeting Melanie, Martin proposing, and so on.

sitting pretty on the throne, nothing more i want (except to be alone)- 217k, WIP, Jon/Beholding; Cult au wraps up another year! Hopefully, by this time next year, it’ll be complete at LAST!

Beneath the Stains of Time- 98k, WIP; Also a contender for longfic that I hope to finish in 2024! This year, we FINALLY got to the gang figuring out Jon’s identity and now it’s all unraveling…

Little Archive- 85k, WIP; Last but certainly not least! I’ve been so happy to see the warm reception for Cecile and Anika this year 💗

[bard-llama]

ATLA WiP List

Yeah, it's not Wednesday. Sue me - Wednesdays have actually become a really bad day for me to write/share works in progress. So idk I'm just gonna do it whenever, I guess?

Anyway, every once in a while, I like to make lists of all my too-many WiPs, so that's what this is. Under a cut, because the list is gonna be super long.

So for context, I have 3 categories my WiP docs (fic series, long fic, and fic collection) and within those, have a mix of shippy and gen fics. So I'll break this list out by type and then gen vs Zukaang vs other.

Also, apparently tumblr won't let you do nested bullets anymore??????? wtf tumblr. Everyday, you get less and less usable.

Fic Series

All have at least one story in the series published on AO3.

Gen (2)

Balance (current fic: Earth and Air)

Accidental Shaman Zuko (current fic(s): An Equal and Opposite Reaction, Two Avatars on a Road Trip)

Zukaang (4)

Two Lovers, Forbidden from One Another (current fic: As the Breeze Shapes the Dunes)

Seduction of the Innocent (current fic(s): Book 1: Seduction of the Innocent, Book 2: Fables and Reflections, Book 3: untitled fic where worlds collide)

Ba Sing Se Boyfriends (current fic(s): Facing the Dragon (of the West), Chillin' in Ba Sing Se, untitled fic where they investigate the Dai Li)

Justice, Served Cold with a Side of Vengenace (current fic: The Unlearning of Fear (And the Acceptance of Love))

Long Fics

These fics got long enough to graduate to their own document, but are (probably) not a series.

Gen (4)

Zuko's Odyssey (pre-canon, mostly planning, few words - intended to be a mishmash of atla with The Odyssey)

Helping Hands (chronic pain fic where Zuko gets his hands stomped on by Zhao at Pohuai and has to work with Aang to escape)

A Second Chance at Family (time travel fic where Azula's lightning 'kills' Zuko and sends him back to mid-s1)

Thrice Cursed, Once Broken (post-canon au sorta - Zuko becomes Fire Lord after being imprisoned on the Day of Black Sun)

Zukaang (6)

Once Upon a Dream (soulmate dreamsharing au where Zuko has always dreamed of the cold and dark of Aang's iceberg)

Damned by a Look (s1 soulmate au where the Fire Lord authorizes the arrest of the Avatar's soulmate. Zuko ends up in Zhao's brig during the Northern Invasion when the Ocean possesses Aang and forces him to kill the invading soldiers)

(Going) Down and Out in Ba Sing Se (s2 au where Zuko chooses Aang in the finale and then has to deal with the aftermath)

The Fire Lord and the Avatar (s2 au where Zuko joins Aang early, unpublished)

Dragon Mama Zuko (s3 au where Zuko gets pregnant via dragon, so much written but not fucking ch 2 ugh)

Action, Inaction, and Consequences (post-canon fic where war criminals are put on trial)

Other (4)

The First Reaction to Truth is Hated (pre-canon, Aang & Kuzon & Bumi, Aang & Gyatso left the Southern Air Temple the day before Sozin's Comet. They survived, but now have to deal with the aftermath)

Hope for the Future (late s3 au, Zutaraang, Aang dreams of a future with Zuko and Katara. When Zuko shows up the next day, he's inclined to trust)

A Seat at the Table (post-canon, Zutaraang eventually, fic about recognizing sovereign powers outside the 4 nations)

A Royal Heir (post-canon fic, Zutaraang, Zuko needs a legitimate heir)

Fic Collections

AKA I have waaaaaay too many WiPs for them all to get their own document.

Gen (55)

Agni's Little Flame (unpublished, spirits aren't supposed to play favorites, but they kinda do)

Unyielding (unpublished, never give up without a fight)

Zuko Collects Strays (unpublished, post-canon)

Zuko adapts other bending techniques (unpublished, Zuko accidentally uses an airbending move while firebending, then realizes there's potential in it)

Fire Control (unpublished, it takes a lot of control not to let fire burn wildly)

Those Who Tell Stories Rule the World (storyteller Zuko)

The Consequences of Breaking the Rules (late s3 au, Zuko is scared of messing up and getting punished by the Gaang)

Nightmares (unpublished, Katara is uncomfortable with Zuko's vocal nightmares. It's hard to hate someone when they're suffering.)

Being a Master Means Understanding That You Know Nothing (actually, this might be ready to publish????)

Healing Fire (unpublished, Zuko is in denial about his 'heat technique' actually healing people)

Sibling Rulers (unpublished, Azula and Zuko as Co-Rulers)

Azula and Her Brother (unpublished, Azula character study)

Breathing Fire (unpublished, tho ch 1 might be ready for publishing, Zuko's crew's reaction to this brat breathing fire all over the place)

Katara hating on Zuko (unpublished, set in the Western Air Temple, it's easy to hate Zuko until she learns more about him)

Zhao's Retribution (Zhao heavily injures Zuko, who is rescued by survivors of the 41st, who happen to follow Jeong Jeong. Aang, Katara, and Sokka still walk into Jeong Jeong's camp without noticing)

Viva la Resistance (unpublished, Zhao ends up regretting stealing Zuko's crew)

Aang in the Iceberg: Dreams (unpublished, while frozen, Aang exists in a dream world. Eventually, Zuko joins him)

Aang in the Iceberg: Angst Coma Time Travel (unpublished, when Zuko has his angst coma freakout in s2, he wakes up in the iceberg with Aang)

Punishment (unpublished, the Gaang is horrified when Zuko approaches them at the Western Air Temple, prepared for his punishment)

Muzzled (unpublished, Zhao welds a muzzle onto Zuko's face. The Gaang is horrified when they find him)

The Long Road to Recovery (unpublished, rejected by the Gaang in late s3, Zuko ends up imprisoned and tortured by the EK and the FN. After the war is over, he's found)

Trusted with a weapon (unpublished, Zuko realizes the Gaang trusts him when they aren't bothered at him sparring with Suki with his swords)

Gaang Established Routines (unpublished, the Gaang's domestic dynamic)

The Tournament of Kingship (post-canon, Bumi dies and Omashu's King has to be chosen thru a tournament. Naturally, Toph has to claim the title of Greatest Earthbender in the World)

Actions Speak Louder Than Words (unpublished, s3 Zuko apologizes to the Gaang thru acts of service/thoughtful gifts)

Spontaneous Combustion (unpublished, s2 au where Zuko stumbles upon a mystery in Ba Sing Se when people seemingly catch on fire out of nowhere)

Early s3 AU (unpublished, goes AU in the Sparky Sparky Boom Man episode and Zuko asks the Gaang to stop his Father, who just revealed his plans for the comet)

Choosing Nonviolence: Aang sees Zuko’s Scars (unpublished, Aang's vows of pacifism are challenged with every scar Zuko unveils. Zuko does not understand why he holds strong anyway.)

Choosing Nonviolence: What is Forgiveness? (unpublished, Zuko does not understand how Aang can refuse to kill Ozai)

Ozai is annoyed when his useless son befriends a blind EK noble (unpublished, pre-canon)

Truth Serum (unpublished, during The Chase, a pollen infects them and makes them tell the truth)

De-Aged Zuko (unpublished, s1 au where a spirit curses Zuko and the Gaang does not know what to think)

Flower language (unpublished, Zuko fucks up when he unknowingly burns Aang's friendship offering (a flower crown))

Working Together/Mission Fic (unpublished, s1 au where Zuko and Aang are captured by slavers and have to escape, along with the other kids who have been snatched)

Zuko becomes Fire Lord at 13 AU (unpublished, Zuko fights back in the Agni Kai. This changes everything.)

Toph joins S1 (unpublished, s1 au with bonus Toph, who utterly destroys the pirates Zuko is working with)

A Scarred Foundation (Zuko's badly scarred enough that he hides the worst of it with makeup)

Gifts (unpublished, late s3 fic, each culture views birthdays differently. Air Nomads don't track them, but they're very important on Kyoshi Island)

Katara POV Zuko tortured by Fire Lord (unpublished, in a world where everything went wrong, Katara is forced to admit that Zuko probably is, in fact, on their side - for all the good it does him now)

Ozai finds out Zuko joined the Avatar (unpublished, Ozai is so fucking annoyed with this damned brat getting in his way)

Kanna (unpublished, character study)

Gyatso runs away with Aang (unpublished, series au in which Gyatso gets frozen with Aang and wakes up 100 years later to Sokka and Katara)

Dad Convo (unpublished, Zuko has a few questions for Hakoda)

Shaking it up down south (unpublished, the South Pole has an issue with sexism. This turns out to be a problem in a post-war world where the women kept the tribe running while the men were away)

Something to Live For (unpublished, sometimes when you're in so much pain that it's hard to survive, you just need something to live for)

Earthbender Zuko (unpublished, don't have much, but wanna try to write the trope)

Avatar Zuko (unpublished, likewise, don't have much)

Getting Zuko to Sleep (unpublished, involves forced cuddles)

Keeping the Avatar Alive (unpublished, Zuko is maybe slightly obsessive about protecting Aang. He can't let his fuckup be the reason Aang dies. (Again.))

Self-Harming Zuko (unpublished, why does getting hurt as the Blue Spirit feel right?)

Haunted Toy (unpublished, after Lu Ten's death, Zuko discovers that a toy Lu Ten gave him appears to be haunted by Lu Ten)

Animal Transformation (unpublished, Zuko gets to be a finch hawk that the gaang takes care of in s1)

Time Travel Zuko 2: Electric Boogaloo (unpublished, future!Zuko comes back to s1 to tell Zuko all the shit no one ever said about how Ozai was fucking wrong)

Toph and Zuko’s Life-Changing Field Trip (unpublished, Toph is invited home by her parents and brings the Fire Lord. Turns out, her parents are trying to marry her off and now all the other suitors think they're competing with the Fire Lord. Zuko dgaf.)

Crossdressing Gaang (unpublished, post-canon, a convo about fancy clothes leads to the Gaang playing around with wearing the dresses Zuko's staff stock the wardrobes in their unused private rooms with. (They all pile onto Zuko's bed on the regular))

Oops, we've hit the character limit for this section oops.

Gen Part 2 (30)

Nerd Lords (unpublished, Zuko and Kuei meet when Zuko breaks into the royal library and accidentally end up becoming friends)

Fight Club (unpublished, Zuko has a talent for finding the underground fighting rings as they travel across the EK)

Instinctive Bending (unpublished, Zuko struggles to move the way his teachers tell him he should to bend. But when he doesn't think about it and just moves, his katas aren't right, but they work.)

Southern Water Tribe – why are there so many more men than women? (unpublished, AKA Llama messed up the math and decided to make plot out of it)

Drugged Zuko Rescue (unpublished, s2, Zuko gets caught by the Dai Li and drugged to high hell. He's pretty sure he's hallucinating the Avatar and the Water Tribe boy rescuing him)

Reputation (unpublished, pre-s1, Zuko's reputation is actually pretty positive amongst Earth Kingdomers. He pays a fair price for his supplies, he does odd jobs/investigates weird goings-on, he occasionally tracks down bounties, etc. Unless you happen to be impeding his search for the Avatar, the Prince is usually not bad to have come around town. Then the Avatar reappears.)

Silence (unpublished, Aang gets to enjoy my discomfort with silence)

Hidden Communities (unpublished, what if all the endangered peoples/creatures were hiding out together? AKA the Sun Warriors' Island has some surprises)

Jeong Jeong (unpublished, character study)

Gyatso adopting Aang (unpublished, Gyatso's POV of hearing baby!Aang laugh and immediately knowing this child is meant to be his.)

Crooked World (unpublished, Zuko has always known his world was different than the ones he read about)

Fire, Water, and Government (Know Nothing of Mercy) (Pirate Zuko AU)

Time Loop/Loop Zoop (unpublished, Zuko gets stuck in a time loop during s1 that always ends with his ship blowing up/him dying)

Southern Water Tribe Mixed Children (unpublished, Ten years after the end of the war, the Southern Water Tribe is rocked with controversy as tribesmen who left the fleet during the war petition to return with their mixed blood families.)

Brother (unpublished, Azula has a different understanding of what family means than the Gaang does)

The Truth About the Air Army (unpublished, Zuko reads through the libraries at the Air Temples and discovers the truth of who the Air Nomads were. After becoming Fire Lord, he decides that everyone needs to learn that truth)

Blue Spirit Reveal (unpublished, after the Ember Island Players, Sokka asks about the Blue Spirit that saved Aang in the play)

Post-canon Iroh and Zuko (unpublished, Zuko feels guilty for feeling abandoned when Iroh leaves for Ba Sing Se just after Zuko gets crowned)

Jet Redemption (unpublished, post-canon au where post-war negotiations end up taking place in Gaipan, which is about halfway between Ba Sing Se and Caldera City. Meanwhile, a certain someone has gone through a journey of his own. Earning trust back will take some serious work)

Aang being worthy of power (unpublished, Zuko's research taught him clearly how powerful the Avatar is. Like, frighteningly powerful. And yet, Aang uses that power with caution and delicacy. Zuko reflects on how much control it must take to actively avoid doing harm)

Ursa finds Zuko in his banishment (unpublished, okay this actually has nothing written, but I'm counting it bc it'll be fun)

The Power Behind the Throne (post-canon, Zuko has to deal with people thinking Iroh is controlling things behind the scenes)

Balance (unpublished, set during the Western Air Temple, when The Duke asks what balance actually means, they discover that Zuko's a giant nerd whose research has given him Opinions on this.)

“Come with me.” (unpublished, s1 au where Aang brings an injured Blue Spirit back to camp with him. Zuko is too concussed to protest overly much)

Attacking a surrendered opponent (unpublished, the Gaang discovers that Zuko believes that surrender just leaves one open for the next attack. Then they realize that for him, it always has. Not just with Ozai - but with Katara at the Western Air Temple, too)

Joo Dee (unpublished, Zuko attends Ba Sing Se University, which means he has a Joo Dee tail from the moment he enters the Middle Ring. People avoid him because of it, and Zuko just wants someone to talk over his lessons with. So one day, he decides to actually try chatting with her)

Mid-s3 Dreamsharing (unpublished, Zuko is plagued with nightmares while back at the palace. The spirits decide that he needs the help of those whose destiny is tied to his to figure out where he stands. Only the Gaang doesn't actually know that it's Zuko they're helping as they move through a dreamscape adventure)

Dark Water Spirit Curse (unpublished, AKA Llama nerded out over the deep sea interpretation of dark water and tried to do something with that. Therefore, Zuko is bioluminscent now lmao)

How Zuko Became a Radical Socialist (unpublished, AKA Llama vents about for-profit healthcare via Zuko in Ba Sing Se)

Blue Spirit puts out fires (unpublished, pre-canon au where Zuko tries not to use firebending when out as the Blue Spirit. When he is forced to, he never creates his own flames, he just extinguishes others. This leads to rumors about the Blue Spirit's ability to put out a bender's fire. The sensible firebenders are frightened by this prospect)

Zukaang (44)

Rope Burns (unpublished, Aang reflecting on rope burns and when they hurt and when they don't)

Blue Spirit Tagalong (Zuko ends up haunted by the Blue Spirit)

Relationship Reveal (unpublished, post-canon with Zukaang in a secret relationship - until they get careless and get caught by Zuko's advisors)

I'm Your Fire, Your Desire (s3 au where Zukaang get together at the Western Air Temple, now with a bonus PWP set in the future)

Shirtless Sparring (unpublished, wrestling pwp)

Return to Pohuai (unpublished, pwp Blue Spirit roleplay)

Our Love Become a Funeral Pyre (unpublished, Zuko is Kuzon reincarnated and dreams of Kuzon's life with Aang before the comet)

Gay Bar (unpublished, s2 au where they each unknowingly patronize the same gay bar in Ba Sing Se)

Airbender Blow Jobs (unpublished, pwp)

Fluffy Zukaang (unpublished, s3 fluff)

“My heart feels like it’s dancing when I look at you.” (unpublished, post-canon, Zuko is very dense about his emotions)

Aang Approaching Zuko Morning After (unpublished, s2 au where Aang stops by the teashop)

Rose Petals and Candlelight (unpublished, Aang spoils Zuko with t-rated intimacy)

Treasure (unpublished, on the 3rd anniversary of Zuko's crowning, Aang gifts him a black pearl that he found the first time Zuko took them diving)

"I'm in love with your voice" (unpublished, set during the s1 finale when they're snowed in in a cave and end up having to talk)

First Kiss/First Time (unpublished, when Zuko kisses him, Aang freaks out - and runs to the South Pole. Fire Lady Mai is the one to come beat some sense into him)

Pao’s Teashop Office Sex (unpublished, s2 pwp)

Body Swap (unpublished, s2 au in which Aang and Zuko switch bodies. Aang is not prepared for Zuko's pain - or his retail experience. Might be gen, might not)

Can't Take My Eyes Off of You (Aang likes the way Zuko watches him intently)

Sexytimes - Voyeurism (unpublished pwp, Aang ties Zuko up and makes him watch him touch himself)

Gossip (unpublished, Aang is excited about getting together with Zuko and has to tell someone. Toph is safest.)

Temporarily Genderbent Aang picks up Zuko (unpublished post-canon pwp)

Blue Spirit x Avatar Aang (unpublished, the Fire Nation is a little too invested in the potential relationship between the Blue Spirit and the Avatar, and where the Fire Lord fits in)

“We need to stop dancing around it. All it does is hurt us both!” (unpublished, Aang thinks he's dreaming and kisses Zuko at the North Pole - only it turns out to be real and neither know how to deal with that in the aftermath)

Identity Porn (unpublished, Aang does not know who the Blue Spirit is, but that doesn't stop him from flirting extensively)

“I can’t stop thinking about you. When I wake up, when I’m about to fall asleep…” (unpublished, Aang doesn't know what to think when Zuko confesses without even realizing what he's confessing)

Soulmate Potential (unpublished, people don't have a predestined soulmate. Some people click more easily than others, but the potential is there with anyone. Including one's enemy.)

Ba Sing Se AU (unpublished, this was SUPPOSED to be a setup to write Zuko's POV of Same Side Sex, because mostly it's been Aang's POV when I've done it so far, but uh... setup takes a lot of work and it grows a life of its own. So now we have Aang and Zuko dating pre-s2 finale and the ripple effects of that. Also, might end up Zutaraang)

Dream Sex (unpublished, pre-canon, aged up Zuko dreams about the Avatar having their way with him.)

Author Zuko: Blue Spirit/Avatar Aang (unpublished, Aang is not excited to hear that a new play is coming out about the Avatar and the Blue Spirit. He is unaware that Zuko secretly wrote the play)

Author Zuko: Zuko writes about the Fire Lord and Avatar’s Bond Thru Time (unpublished, Zuko's a fucking nerd who uses primary sources to back up his pet thesis that his destiny is tied to Aang's)

Cheering Up on a Bad Day (unpublished, Aang pines and tries to lighten Zuko's mood after a rough day as Fire Lord)

Masked Affection (s2 au where the Blue Spirit and Aang end up in a secret relationship. When Aang finds a badly injured Blue Spirit, the lines between Zuko and the mask begin to blur)

Post-Canon Hanahaki AU (unpublished, Zuko starts coughing up strange flowers and is in denial about what it could mean)

Gaang in Ba Sing Se with Aang trying to befriend Zuko without telling them who ‘Li’ is (unpublished, Aang explores the Lower Ring by taking Zuko on 'dates'. He tells the Gaang about it, but neglects to mention who 'Li' really is)

Freudian Nightmares (porn with plot, Aang dreams about Zuko, then gets the chance to experience him in reality)

Depression and Executive Dysfunction (unpublished, set in s3 but goes au in s2, Zuko and Aang had a secret relationship in Ba Sing Se - and Zuko chose Azula anyway. He regrets it, but even once he joins the Gaang, he knows he'll never be able to make up for that. The despair of knowing he can never recover what they once had makes it hard to try some days. Aang just wants to help)

Marking: Scandalized Sokka/Fuck “Aang must be protected” bullshit (unpublished, Aang enjoys getting marked up by his lover. The rest of the Gaang is a bit scandalized and it breaks their brains a little when Aang bluntly says he likes the marks)

Facefucking (unpublished, post-canon pwp, Zuko needs a break from being Fire Lord and wants to not think for a while. Surrendering to Aang's control is a good way to make that happen)

Dreamsharing, but it’s all sex (unpublished, au where Zuko has wet dreams about the Avatar even before he actually finds them. Somehow this is supposed to involve them sharing dreams. I don't really know how)

Destined to Love You/You’re the One I’ve Been Searching For (unpublished, Zuko has been overly obsessed with the Avatar for a long time. It's totally normal for him to care a little too much about Aang's opinion. It doesn't mean anything)

Sauna (unpublished, post-canon pwp where Aang convinces Zuko to take a break from ruling to soak in the sauna)

How tf is Li dating the Avatar? A teashop customer perspective (unpublished, an aspiring fangirl/writer in Ba Sing Se speculates on how exactly the surly teashop server managed to become the Avatar's boyfriend)

Artist!Zuko (unpublished, Zuko likes to doodle. His obsession with the Avatar means that they are often his muse - and once he finds Aang, he fixates hard)

Other (23)

What's Yours is Mine (unpublished, the Gaang cause waves when they wear pieces of Zuko's wardrobe. The gossip is hilarious.)

Come to the Good Side, We Have Cookies (sorta gen???? the Gaang kidnaps Zuko to try to befriend him. Zuko is not amused.)

Oviposition PWP (unpublished, Zuko gets railed by dragons)

Reading Lips (Gaang/Zuko, the Gaang all take an opportunity to kiss Zuko, but fail to ever actually talk to him about it)

To Weave a Tangled Web (Aang suggests that Zuko marry Kuei as a step towards their vision for the future. He forgets monogamy is a thing and fails to actually talk about what that means)

Zuko blows Aang while Katara watches (unpublished, Zutaraang(ish) pwp)

Commitment to Balance (Aang/Zuko/Katara/Toph, "Let's get married. For balance.")

Zuko navigating 10 (billion) relationships (unpublished, Zuko as the fandom bicycle lmao)

Zutaraang PWP (unpublished, sparring porn)

Zutaraang Lap Sex (unpublished pwp)

Aang loves his friends (unpublished, idk might be gen, might be full Gaang. Aang just loves his family.)

Katara and Aang decide to pursue Zuko (unpublished, post-canon, Aang approaches Katara to talk about polyamory)

Everyone is in love with Zuko: He catches a clue (unpublished, full Gaang/Zuko as fandom bicycle, Zuko realizes he's in love with his friends and is worried about what his wife will think. His wife thinks "fucking finally!")

I Still Dream About You (Are You Lonely For Me Too?) (Gaang/Zuko, unpublished, the Gaang shared one drunken, half-remembered night ages ago. It still haunts them.)

Sparring for who gets to take Aang (unpublished, Zutaraang pwp)

An Arrangement for World Peace (unpublished, Toph/Zuko, Marriage alliances are as old as time. Why not take advantage of that?)

Fuck Buddies (unpublished, Toph/Zuko, s3 aged up au)

Mai/Zuko/Toph – Post-Canon Fire Nation Trio (unpublished pwp that might grow plot)

The Southern Waterbending Line (unpublished, Kataang/Zutaraang, Aang and Katara both want to revive their people's bending disciplines, but there's no guarantee their children will be benders. Questioning how bending is passed down leads to learning more about Gran Gran Kanna's past)

Zuko is not in touch with his emotions (unpublished, Gaang/Zuko, Mai sits Zuko down for a therapy session with Ty Lee to help him realize that his friends are in love with him)

Aang as a sexual being/Fuck “Aang is so innocent and pure” (unpublished, AKA Llama gets annoyed at fandom's infantilization of Aang. Aang may be young, but he still grew up in a culture that believed in open and unashamed access to information, including info about sexuality)

Masturbation is normal and healthy (unpublished, Gaang/Aang, au where Aang is the one who teaches the Gaang about masturbation)

Attempt at omegaverse (unpublished, Gaang/Zuko probably, hopefully a pwp but it might grow plot)

Total WiPs: 172 🤯🤯🤯

[puuvillaa]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thank you for tagging me @squintclover! This was fun

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

193

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

1,530,489

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently hp and occasionally haikyuu

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Neither Hide Nor Hair (wolfstar, 28.1k, E, unregistered werewolf Remus unwittingly sleeps with Auror Sirius)

Smells Like a Promise (iwaoi, 4.1k, E, omegaverse, secret omega Iwaizumi)

Possessive (iwaoi, 1.9k, E, omegaverse, o!iwa and a!oikawa, I don’t remember what happens in this one)

Facing the Truth (iwaoi, 1.7k, E, omegaverse, Oikawa didn’t know Iwaizumi is an omega for some reason)

On the Run/True Freedom (vikyuu, 84.8k, E, omegaverse, omega Viktor on the run is kidnapped by alpha Yuuri's staff)

I find it extremely funny that only one of these isn't omegaverse

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! I've always liked that little interaction that I can have with people. Sometimes I'm slow, though, because I only answer comments on the computer, and I need to have enough social energy to do it.

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending

I don’t properly remember my fics other than the hp ones, so out of all my hp fics, the one with the saddest ending is probably Missing

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Once again, I'm only looking at my hp fics, and discovering that I don’t always tag the happy endings because there's no way I've written so few happy endings. I think I'm going to say Finding Home

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Very rarely. Which is a bit surprising considering some of the stuff I've written

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes. All kinds. I used to exclusively write smut

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

No. I just never really understood the appeal

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yes, one of my kinktober fics. They just changed the characters

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Once. I've also translated a few of my fics myself

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No. I'm not sure if I could

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Well, I guess the pairing I've liked for the longest time is bokukuro. Or iwaoi. But they don’t really feel like all-time favourites because I'm currently not as into haikyuu as I used to be

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I haven’t really given up hope on any of the wips I want to finish. I give up hope when I stop wanting to finish them. But I have a few wips that are over 2 years old at this point, and the likelihood of me continuing them is a bit low. There's one in which Remus rescues Sirius from beyond the veil, one with Healer Sirius, a texting fic, and one that I call "werewolf Remus" which tells you absolutely nothing about the fic

16. What are your writing strengths?

Emotions. Dialogue

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Descriptions 100%

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I'm not a big fan

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Teenaged Emel was writing hp fics with het pairings 20 years ago. The first fandom I actually posted fics for was Death Note

20. Favorite fic you've written?

It's currently The Werewolf Hunt

Tagging @plecotusauritus @wildkitte @theresthesnitch @impishtubist

[limetameta]

I genuinely want you to answer all of the weirdly specific questions for writers 👀

I am waiting for eggs to boil so I went and answered them. :)

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

Times New Roman 12 babyy

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 would just never write anything ever again and would instead evaporate

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

I write crosslegged so I had to dismantle an expensive gaming chair that I bought to treat myself because I had never owned one and was so guilty about buying it only to find out that I cannot sit comfortably (ie neurodivergent like) so I just never sat in it and didnt write anything in ages and felt so bad abt it and tried sitting in so many weird (ie normal neurotypical) positions on that chair but nothing was working. Until one day bestie just asked me if I can take the arm rests off. I did so the same day and binge wrote 20k.

4. What’s a word that makes you go absolutely feral?

Rompar. It used to be roly poly but now its rompar.

5. Do you have any writing superstitions? What are they and why are they 100% true?

Never keep the story in one google doc, you will be overwhelmed. Have a doc for each chapter and then you will finish it lmao.

6. What is your darkest fear about writing?

That I suck ass and that the people who say I write well are lying to me.

7. What is your deepest joy about writing?

Seeing how other people build off of my writing and them trying to give me theories about what they think is coming next :D

8. If you had to write an entire story without either action or dialogue, which would you choose and how would it go?

Without action. I can write a whole fic just with dialogue no problem.

9. Do you believe in ghosts? This isn’t about writing I just wanna know

Grandma, if you see this I hope you smite my enemies

10. Has a piece of writing ever “haunted” you? Has your own writing haunted you? What does that mean to you?

Means that paragraph that haunts me either fucks or sucks so bad I need to change it. I am haunted by my first ever published fanfiction from 2012. It is gone for a reason.

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?

Kid me used to delete that shit mercilessly and now I rue not having access to some of those darlings. I have a doc that I keep with all the darlings for a specific fic.

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

Lorem Ipsum my beloved this takes me back.

Wish 1) I never have to use google translate again. The word I am looking for appears to me in the language I want it to appear in so I dont need to scour bosanski -> english google translate.

Wish 2) I look like an eldritch horror when you see me out of the corner of your eye but when you see me normally i look like me :)

Wish 3) I wish to free the genie

13. What is a subject matter that is incredibly difficult for you write about? What is easy?

What you see me write is easy. What you dont see is hard.

14. Do you lend your books to people? Are people scared to borrow books from you? Do you know exactly where all your “lost” books are and which specific friend from school you haven’t seen in twelve years still possesses them? Will you ever get them back?

I give people books that I am done with. Never lend. I feel like a beggar trying to get them back after and thats not smth i need.

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 am scared to write in books because growing up i never owned books i only had library books.

16. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever used as a bookmark?

Dead bug.

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.

Can somebody send me a message what they want here like narrow it down

18. Choose a passage from your writing. Tell me about the backstory of this moment. How you came up with it, how it changed from start to end. Spicy addition: Questioner provides the passage.

Send me passages

19. Tell me a story about your writing journey. When did you start? Why did you start? Were there bumps along the way? Where are you now and where are you going?

I started writing in English in 2009. Published my first fic online in 2012. I am on a proverbial horse right now, my writing is so rad when compared to even last year s writing. "Svakoga dana u svakom pogledu sve više napredujem ." XD

20. If a witch offered you the choice between eternal happiness with your one true love and the ability to finally finish, perfect, and publish your dearest, darlingest, most precious WIP in exactly the way you've always imagined it — which would you choose? You can’t have both sorry, life’s a bitch

I would chose love. I know I can do the writing thing lmao. My love life is unlucky insofar.

21. Could you ever quit writing? Do you ever wish you could? Why or why not?

I wish Id quit writing fanfic. But I keep getting sucked into fandoms. I most likely will try my hardest to stop writing fanfic once I fully complete the MCU.

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?

I am skipping this because dear god it is a mess.

23. Describe the physical environment in which you write. Be as detailed as possible. Tell me what’s around you as you work. Paint me a picture.

I think I did answer this one somewhere u can check it out if u go in the #ask tag and scroll

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?

I want to kill Maes Hughes but every single scene with him having fun with Kimblee and co is important because it is making you fall in love with him as a character and making him into a real and lived char in this au. His death has to hurt and not be abrupt like in FMAB. Fma03 did this better u had more Maes scenes.

25. What is a weird, hyper-specific detail you know about one of your characters that is completely irrelevant to the story?

Pinako and Van used to grow weed.

26. How do you get into your character’s head? How do you get out? Do you ever regret going in there in the first place?

I dont know man I just do my thing and ask myself what would Solf J Kimblee do and then I write

27. Who is the most stressful character you’ve ever written? Why?

Tom Riddle. I meann

28. Who is the most delightful character you’ve ever written? Why?

Dr Morsels is honestly turning into my favourite fandom oc lmao

29. Where do you draw your inspiration? What do you do when the inspiration well runs dry?

My muse is Slenderman. I write Slenderman and all the words come back.

30. Talk to me about the role dreams play in your writing life. Have you ever used material from your dreams in your writing? Have you ever written in a dream? Did you remember it when you woke up?

I remember my dreams in the first like hour after I wake up. But I did get some really good ideas in my dreams so I will implement them.

31. Write a short love letter to your readers.

I love you. :) If you dont tell me you love me back I will die like a plant. <3

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?

I dont return to anything lmao I am in academia and therefore disallowed from feeling art and reliving it.

33. Do you practice any other art besides writing? Does that art ever tie into your writing, or is it entirely separate?

Entirely seperate. I dance.

34. Thoughts on the Oxford comma, Go:

Good comma. 10/10.

35. What’s your favorite writing rule to smash into smithereens?

The way I just write sentences goes against all rules apparently. Bestie, native english writer, used to have an anyeurism until they found out that this is just how I write sentences and that I just will not change. They can explain better than I can.

36. They say to Write What You Know. Setting aside for a moment the fact that this is terrible advice...what do you Know?

:) I am a part of the leisure mafia so I know all about that field.

37. If you were to be remembered only by the words you’ve put on the page, what would future historians think of you?

This person was so poor that they never went to therapy, huh?

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?

Cats love us. :)

39. What keeps you writing when you feel like giving up?

Each day that I write I get better at it. Each day I get better at it I am leagues better than my sworn arch nemesis.

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

https://fleursdumal.org/poem/126

[victorianpining]

Rebs! writer ask game for you!! <3

1, 3, 6, 7, 10, 14, 25, 28, 32 (if you want), 34!

Thank you Emrys!

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

I go for something that looks "bookish," so my defaults are bookman old style, baskerville, or garamond. Vampire fic is currently being written in the Google font Spectral.

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

I have to be listening to music, either a playlist I am listening to to death so the words aren't distracting to me, or music without lyrics that matches the vibe. I always hope my session will start with me feeling really inspired but that almost never happens so I guess that's where the cursed part comes in. When I am having an absolutely awful time but know I need to get work done, I will break out my 20 sided die and roll it for how many minutes I have to focus before I get to take another break.

6. What is your darkest fear about writing?

My greatest fear is that my work will have some kind of fatal flaw in it that I am blind to while working on it but that I will feel like I should have been able to see in retrospect that will lead to people getting hurt. And yet I've decided to go on writing knowing that is a very real possibility (it's happened before).

7. What is your deepest joy about writing?

When I'm in a writing session and it's one of those times when it's all falling into place effortlessly and I feel like I'm not even really me anymore, just a conduit for the words, and at the same time more like me than I ever do the entire rest of my life, like that's what I'm always meant to be doing.

10. Has a piece of writing ever “haunted” you? Has your own writing haunted you? What does that mean to you?

For me, it's an idea that lingers in my head that I either can't quite make sense of, am not willing to come to terms with, or causes me some other kind of lasting sadness, something that feels unresolved to me, basically. I'm learning that the best way for me to become un-haunted is to reclaim those ideas and use them myself (though the story that comes out of that process can become a new ghost).

14. Do you lend your books to people? Are people scared to borrow books from you? Do you know exactly where all your “lost” books are and which specific friend from school you haven’t seen in twelve years still possesses them? Will you ever get them back?

This is an interesting question, and I think I have an easy out as a librarian, I'll be like "oh did you want to read that? Here I'll place it on ILL for you," but I hadn't realized until right now that no, I do not ever lend my books to people ghsahglhds. Listen they don't need to see all my unhinged notes.

25. What is a weird, hyper-specific detail you know about one of your characters that is completely irrelevant to the story?

My writing process works in a way that I don't usually *have* details that aren't relevant to the story, because it's so much work for me to come up with details I feel like they all have to have some additional utility. Even if I spend time on something that doesn't end up being mentioned, they still originally had a point I was trying to hint at with them. I really admire people who come up with all these backstory details just to flesh out the world!

28. Who is the most delightful character you’ve ever written? Why?

Ooh, I feel like I can't really go in detail on that one, so I'll just say a minor character in the original story I'm still in the planning stages for is an absolute treat.

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?

Oh, there are literally so many. I'm going to go with this part from the One Story interlude in How to Read Literature Like a Professor. I could quote the entire chapter, but the ending is my favorite:

Stories are like that, too. That one story that has been going on forever is all around us. We- as readers or writers, tellers or listeners- understand each other, we share knowledge of the structures of our myths, we comprehend the logic of symbols., largely because we have access to the same swirl of story. We have only to reach out into the air and pluck a piece of it.

34. Thoughts on the Oxford comma, Go:

It is small, elegant, and precise. But also, if someone doesn't write with them and it's still clear what they mean, who cares?

[roleplaycharacter1shots]

character profile - Flynn Ryder {invisible}

G E N E R A L   I N F O R M A T I O N Name: Flynn Octavian Ryder Nickname: N/A Gender: Male Birthplace: London, England Birthdate: August 29 Age: 38 Current Residence: London, England Employer: Ministry of Magic, Department of Magical Law Enforcement Occupation: Auror Blood: Pureblood

A P P E A R A N C E Height: 6’ 0 Hair: Dirty blonde Eyes: Sea green Dominant Hand: Right Other: Possesses a faint beard

Playby: William Moseley

B I O G R A P H I C A L I N F O R M A T I O N (At age 22)

Flynn Rider is your typical little geeky photographer; the slow kid on the school field trips who always lagged behind, ogling at the statues with his old fashioned Polaroid Muggle camera clasped tightly to his chest. He was the one who always got what everyone called "lost;" but to Flynn, he was only on an adventure.

Ever since he was little, Flynn was often told that he had a wild imagination. But even as he got older, Flynn never admitted that to himself; instead, he claimed that he just saw everything else differently. He saw stories emerging from even the smallest of things just by gazing at them, and he wanted to capture the emotion and feeling in everything that he saw so that others could see what he did. When he went to Hogwarts, he was in Hufflepuff House, and even there was sometimes picked on for his rather dreamy and creative nature.

Sort of clumsy since he takes so much time surveying his surroundings, Flynn is always paying attention to detail; that is, stuff that attracts his attention enough to photograph it. So he is also easily distracted; so much that he sometimes loses focus on what's more important. His hobby has taken over his life, so to speak; and now he is a wanderer, traveling the world ever since he had left Hogwarts. He takes up odd jobs here and there, and has never stayed in the same place twice, save his hometown in London.

Flynn needs to be grounded for sure. He is a lost soul, unknowingly trying to find himself and his purpose. He always subconsciously thought that finding beauty in other things would help him find his own.

(Sixteen years later…)

Just after he turned 22, Flynn Ryder's true tale was revealed. Instead of a halfblood as he always portrayed himself to be, Flynn is actually a pureblood. Truly from London, he did not grow up in a poorer household as many would imagine. In fact, it was quite the opposite: his family is rich and rather powerful, his father in charge of the Auror department of the Ministry. He runs the place, making sure that criminals are found and locked up where they belong. No one has ever been on the run and free for too long.

Except Flynn.

His father, John Ryder, is actually his step-father. His mother, Amelia, married him a few years after her husband was killed at the Battle of Hogwarts. Flynn was young, but he remembers how much his mother changed upon marrying him. She no longer is bubbly and happy; instead, she worried over him and everyone wanted him to become a great Auror like John. His biological father had been not quite as heroic as John, having loved the beauty of the forest and nature (a trait that Amelia clearly saw in Flynn). Amelia wanted him to be successful in life, and that stress was what changed her the most.

Flynn immersed himself in the Muggle writings, finding Shakespeare one of many who seemed to have beauty woven in his words. He tried to create poetry and the like, but found in the end that photography was where his strengths were, as well as the ability to discover more natural, almost rarer beauty. It had taken him several years to learn that; not until he was thirteen and his mother was "happily" married to John.

To make a long story short, Flynn and John never seem to meet eye-to-eye. John saw Flynn as "unruly" and "delicate," almost like the stereotypical rich, spoiled boy. And it was that notion that brought him down the most. Practically shoved into the Ministry to try and prove himself, Flynn took his job at the Daily Prophet where he struggled greatly with the time pressures and ridicule. The other reporters often mocked his pictures, making fun of the time he spent taking each one. He became nothing more than the spoiled rich kid who was only in it because his "father" had the power to make it so.

Flynn hated the prejudice he endured. He wanted independence, to find himself, and to show the world how much his photography meant to him and could mean to others. Most of all, he wanted to show that he could do anything on his own, without the help of money, status, or anyone else. At seventeen years old, fresh out of Hogwarts and only two months into his Prophet job, Flynn just… vanished.

No one could find him. Not even John's Aurors. Flynn knows all of the tricks that can help him get by without being caught, choosing more Muggle methods than wizardry ones: not filling everything out on applications, spending barely enough time in a place to really associate with anyone, only occasionally using magic, never using Floo Powder, he altered his last name slightly, and rarely Apparated. Walking was his main mode of transportation, and areas barren of people are his favorite locations.

Once did he return to the little country house that he had once grown up in before his mother's second marriage; and in the process, he was nearly caught. He knew that John and Amelia were still hunting for him. He knew what would happen when he will return: the Ryders would celebrate and then he would be married to the daughter of a friend. And that was exactly what happened when he was captured. Stuck back in the life he loathes, Flynn is married to Catherine and they have a sixteen year old son named Harmon.

His wealthy background has allowed him to pick up languages rather easily; but his poorer days still allow clumsiness, lack of arrogance, and absence of certain manners to pull through.

C O N N E C T I O N S Marriage: Catherine Ryder Children: Harmon Ryder, Louis Boutin Romance: Eva Boutin…? Tension: Eva Boutin, Louis Boutin, Catherine Ryder, John & Amelia Ryder

O T H E R T H I N G S Education: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Hufflepuff House Wand: Reed, ten inches, unicorn hair Sexuality: Straight Spoken Languages: English, tiny bit of French Likes: Taking pictures of beautiful things, spending time with Harmon Dislikes: Being an Auror Song: Invisible Man - Theory of a Deadman

[christian-perspectives]

The Lord Is My Strength And Shield

The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving. Psalm 28:7 In many Psalms, David aired complaints and frustrations about his enemies. Despite all the time he spent facing them, he never doubted God. I made an observation about today's Psalm. David wrote it in three sections. In the first two verses, he wanted to get God's attention. Have you ever prayed a prayer of desperation? The psalmist used that type of prayer to get the Lord's attention. His underlying current said without you, God, I have no hope. I pray to you, O Lord, my rock. Do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you are silent, I might as well give up and die. Psalm 28:1 When we depend on the Lord to give us strength, we must believe He can and will supply it. David had no problem relying on the Lord and His strength. Listen to my prayer for mercy as I cry out to you for help, as I lift my hands toward your holy sanctuary. Psalm 28:2 When we recognize the superiority of God, then we can easily expose our vulnerability to Him. David realized his strength wouldn't match up to his enemies without the Lord. After getting God's attention, he moved into the second section of this Psalm. The last thing he wanted was to fall into the hands of his oppressors. So he began with his request. Do not drag me away with the wicked— with those who do evil— those who speak friendly words to their neighbors while planning evil in their hearts. Psalm 28:3

God is in Control

David understood that God, and only God, controlled his life and future. Therefore, his enemies couldn't overtake him unless the Lord allowed it. So, David offered God a couple of suggestions for how He could deal with these evil ones. - Give them the punishment they so richly deserve! Measure it out in proportion to their wickedness. - Pay them back for all their evil deeds! Give them a taste of what they have done to others. Psalm 28:4 He reminded the Lord that these people cared nothing about Him while ignoring the strength of His hands. Thus, David asked God to do away with them. They care nothing for what the Lord has done or for what his hands have made. So he will tear them down, and they will never be rebuilt! Psalm 28:5 After making his requests known to the Lord, David entered into the third section of this Psalm. He praised the Lord and recognized His mercy. Praise the Lord! For he has heard my cry for mercy. Psalm 28:6 He proclaimed the Lord as his strength and shield and said it was his source of joy. Then, he turned from a prayer for himself to one that included all of God's people. The Lord gives his people strength. He is a safe fortress for his anointed king. Psalm 28:8 He concluded his prayer by confessing how much his nation needed the Lord. David wanted Him to go beyond leading them to carrying them in His arms. Save your people! Bless Israel, your special possession. Lead them like a shepherd, and carry them in your arms forever. Psalm 28:9

Praise the Lord, God is our Strength

In the Psalms, we often read about David encountering his enemies. Yet, no matter who or what he faced, he still praised the Lord and trusted Him completely. How do we fare when confronted with the evil and hate surrounding us? It concerns me about today's Christians, who have very little spiritual backbone. Without living with the strength provided by the Lord, they can only be described as wishy-washy in their Christianity. This often occurs because they feel God owes them. Other factors also come into play with those types of Christians. Worrying, even about the littlest things, shows our lack of trust in God. When your trust in the Lord feels shaky, and you need His strength, do what David did. Get God's attention, and at the same time, you'll be focusing your attention on Him as well. He exhibited a wonderful example for us of praising God no matter our circumstances. His enemies often hunted him down, but he always trusted the Lord. What David displayed in today's Psalm paralleled the prayer Jesus taught His disciples. We call it the Lord's Prayer, and we pray it often. It begins by getting God's attention.

David's Prayer Paralleled Jesus' Prayer

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done. On earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:9-10 After getting God's attention, Jesus taught us to present our requests to the Lord. He included our daily needs, how we should act, and protection from Satan. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Matthew 6:11-13 Then Jesus finished this prayer by praising the Lord. He instructed us to declare His kingdom and the strength and power of the Lord along with His glory. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Matthew 6:13 We often pray this prayer word for word, publically. But we can also use it as a guide when we pray in our private prayer time. Lord, forgive us for the times we haven't trusted and depended on you. Lord, we want to plug into your every day. Check out these other related posts about the power of God - What is the Best Way To Experience God’s Power? - It’s Exciting To Believe God For The Unbelievable - Do You Want God's Unlimited Resources To Empower You? - He Gives Power To The Weak Read the full article

[theprayerfulword]

June 3

Psalm 150:6 Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.

Matthew 3:17 A voice came from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Matthew 2:1-2 Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”

John 18:36 Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm."

Deuteronomy 6:18 And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land of which the LORD swore to your fathers,

Micah 6:8 What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

May you have the wisdom to be willing to part with, and separate yourself from, the sin or disobedience that draws God's anger, for as you reject that rebellion against God's chosen King, you prove your loyalty and align yourself with His blessings. 2 Samuel 20

May you understand that times of leanness come, even after seasons of plenty, not because of current problems or present issues, but to bring balance to past unrighteousness, for though the sin is forgiven when it is repented of, yet justice will need to be walked out, for righteousness' sake. 2 Samuel 21

May you take refuge in the Lord, Who is your rock, your fortress, and your deliverer, and in God, Who is your shield, the strength and power of your salvation, saving you from violent men by being your shelter, defense, and rescuer. 2 Samuel 22

May you call to the Lord, Who is worthy of praise, for He will save you from your enemies. 2 Samuel 22

May you cry to the Lord when you are in distress from the waves of death which swirl around you and the torrents of destruction which overwhelm you, for when the cords of the grave coil around you and the snares of death confront you, He will hear your voice from His Temple and your cry will come to His ears. 2 Samuel 22

May the Lord be your support and bring you out to a spacious place, reaching down from on high and taking hold of you, drawing you out of deep waters and rescuing you from powerful enemies and foes who are too strong for you, for when you are confronted by them in the day of your disaster, God will rescue you because He delights in you. 2 Samuel 22

Always remember, My child, that I remain your Shepherd. I watch over you, I care for you, I tend your wounds, and I defend you, setting boundaries for you, and when needed, isolating you for times of protection and healing, learning and growing stronger. Though I may lead you through the woods and wilderness, I am vigilant and keep the bears and wolves, lions and thieves from you, for where I am, where I lead you, is safety and security that cannot be found anywhere else; you may see their shapes and hear their steps and their threatening sounds, but they will not come near you, for My rod and staff against them are well able to comfort you. To long for and return to the sheep-fold that I took you from is to place yourself outside of My presence and covering. Dwell, rather, with Me and hear My voice, receiving life and comfort from the words I speak to you. In the days soon to arrive, many things will come upon the world and all who dwell therein. But you have been given light so you can be alert and sober, and not be unprepared, weighted down with worries and anxieties of life, knowing My provision, and pointing others to Me in their need. The shepherd always knows where his sheep are; be aware, My protected one, and always know where your Shepherd may be found.

May you be willing to put questions on the shelf that distract from the work God has given, knowing that all answers will be given when it is time, but that all things needed for the work ahead of you are already available, ready for you to step forward and start working in the harvest. Acts 1

May you be as the disciples were in the upper room, united in love, exemplary in conduct, fervent in prayer, and wisely zealous for the cause of Christ, for then God will pour out His Spirit without measure. Acts 1

May you acknowledge God's hand in determining everything that befalls you, for He knows the hearts of men, and He chooses His servants, gifting each as He determines, training each as He knows best. Acts 1

May you lift your eyes up to the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth, from Whom your help comes, for He Who watches over you will neither slumber nor sleep; your Protector and Guardian will not allow your foot to slip or stumble. Psalm 121

May the Lord, Who is your protector and keeper, be a shelter right at your side, watching over your life and keeping you from all harm, both day and night, in your coming and going, both now and forevermore. Psalm 121

May you stand in humility before the Lord as He builds in you His nature, and may you lift Him up before others, which is His worthy and just due. Proverbs 16:18

[thecandywrites]

Anastaschia High Priestess of Luna- Chapter 6

So while it's been a hot minute since I've gotten a chance to circle back to this. I have not forgotten or abandoned this- not by a longshot. Thanks for reading.

Stasi Chapter 6

For the next three months, Broman did nothing but help you and your mother every single day and began courting your mother “properly”, well, according to him, his own traditions and customs. But it began to include so much more than what you or your mother could hope to comprehend. 

Because once you returned and ever since, your mother had no trouble taking his courting gifts and confirmed his courtship to any and all who asked, as did you making sure all knew that Broman had adopted you as your Papah, and was currently courting your mother. Something you were exceedingly happy about.

However, since you returned from that initial weekend of worship in the woods, Broman’s official courting- seemed to involve so much more than physical gifts, or even loving, kind words and assurances and reassurances, but so many acts of service in caring for you, your mother and her new home. He shored up the loft and the banister, to make sure that you could put anything you and your mother wanted up there and it would never fall, even chests of pure gold, and it wouldn’t budge and was quite safe. He even fixed every spot in the roof that dare show any sign of leaking- and changed it from a thatched roof, to a tiled one, something not easy to do or inexpensive but- would last for decades, if not, a lifetime or two, and the noise it made when the rain fell, was always extra soothing. He even paid for new windows of glass to be put in to let in light to the house too- while he adored the special screens Selene put in frames to have in the open windows to let light and air in but keep the bugs out, and now, together, they made the house much more comfortable. 

He also threw himself into his own training during his shifts guarding the castle and preparing himself not only for any invaders and war, but also for the tournament. Because he had heard too many of his fellow guards say that they had told your mother that if they won, they would give her the purse for courtship and 'wondered what glories her “exotic cunny” had in store'. Which only seemed to spark his own possessiveness, and his own protective instincts. And while he did not say anything to them, if anything, it drove him to find their weaknesses for when they would face off, he would no doubt be the victor so that there was no way for them to use the purse, whatever it would be, as an enticement. Which- Luna herself helped him to see and take note of, as well as assure and reassure him that their own arrogance and loud prideful mouths were making promises that they would never be able to keep. And that after the tournament, she would help him prove their words false, hollow and empty. And while he didn’t need to say anything, his actions spoke more than any number of words ever could. 

Because while he was older, he was still bigger, stronger, faster, more capable and the better fighter from all his decades of experience and had his own ability honed to perfection. 

Plus, it was clear to his entire family- that you and Selene were now practically part of Broman’s larger, extended family. And they had welcomed you and your mother into the family so readily, so happily and warmly. And soon, Broman’s nieces and nephews treated you like you were always his daughter, always their cousin, always their family.

Every day that you had school, he would wake up extra early to come to your house, have breakfast with you and your mother and then walk you to and from school. Which you thoroughly enjoyed, using the time to draw closer as father and daughter and tell him what else he could do to help you and your mother and the house. Because your mother didn't know the words to use yet. Or didn't know what or how to ask. As he could use his own observations to ask about other things. You were thrilled he was so observant and ready and willing and able to help. And happy to confirm his thoughts and intuition about what to do and how to do it. 

And on the weekends, he would spend working on your mother's house or courtyards, usually doing more in one day of work with your mom and you than what the two of you could do through half the week. You were just happy to see them work together so well and work side by side like true equals and partners. He led by example and was so patient and kind in explaining what he was doing and why he wanted to do it a certain way and your mother was happy to submit to such leadership. She had always felt humiliated to submit to the man who sired you before. Because he was so stupid, so short sighted, so self obsessed and shallow. 

But with Broman? He was so thoughtful, so selfless, so farsighted, wise, intelligent, kind, sympathetic, empathetic, and cared so deeply, cared about her, cared about you, cared about her reputation and cared about what she thought of him and cared about what she thought about anything and everything else under the sun and moon. She was so happy and proud that he was so intelligent, caring and nurturing. Happy and content to follow such- wise and loving direction. And he dignified her and actually listened to her ideas, and addressed any concerns she had and was happy to find equitable solutions they would both be happy with. It was clear and obvious he respected her and made sure she knew she was the head of her own house. And that she sat at the head of her own table. That he felt he ate better from, on the longer, wider side of, across from you, to make sure you ate your fill. But while this felt more like the family meals you always wanted there was always an invisible barrier. A line, Broman would not cross. No matter how many times you asked. Because the moment the sun would set, he would always excuse that he should get going. Never staying too late. Never staying for the night, to once again, protect your mother’s reputation as a good, honest, honorable woman. Which, was a protection- in it’s own way. And something that, while your mother respected and appreciated, she found, a sense of rejection in it as well. That perhaps, she wasn’t beautiful enough, wasn’t young enough, wasn’t attractive enough. Things she never said, but couldn’t help but feel, and were little seeds of doubt, that kept creeping into her during the day, during the week, when you were in school and when he was at the castle guard, while she worked and all these others would come to do business with her. She felt so foolish for thinking such things, especially when he was there. And he would tell her she was pretty and beautiful. But, she wondered if he was just saying that to be nice. Or just saying such things because he “should”, but otherwise, seeming unaffected by her beauty, and didn’t seem to fight his own attraction to her, as much as she was fighting hers to him, frustrated that she was more affected by him than the other way around. She found she could wear as much or as little as she cared and he would never seem tempted to do anything about it.  It was clear he worked hard, as did she. And all she wanted was to find rest with him, as much as she found work with him as well. 

Because on Temple Days he would take you and your mother with him to the service and would be content to sit towards the back since your mother felt a quiet unease inside the temple. And when Broman asked why, she claimed that she just "did" and couldn't explain it and wouldn't explain it either. And Broman did her the courtesy and respect and dignity of not pushing the issue and instead found a compromise of sitting towards the back as more of an observer than actually participating. Which, your mother was very grateful that he would even do that much and be willing to compromise so much. And she had expected him to "lay down the law" of- if they were going to be married, she would be expected to worship Dhanos beside him, the same way her first husband had demanded of her before, but to a different god.

But Broman assured and reassured her that that was not the case. She was free to do as she wished and pleased. And while she in theory- had an obligation because of the call to alms, that soon most would forget all about it. And that if she felt truly uncomfortable there, she and you didn't need to attend at all. 

But Luna actually advised you and your mother against such an action, because in order for you and your mother both to be accepted here, just you being seen there as observers, was enough to satisfy any and all who saw you and would ensure social stability and financial success in the long run. And thankfully, your mother listened to such advice. So the compromise to go and observe was accepted and left as it was. 

Although, it was, upon returning from your weekends in the woods- when the priests heard of your "talent" in singing from the teachers and others on the choir in school, and they approached you to join the choir, Broman surprised both you and your mother by saying that you still needed time to learn the language and become fluent before you ever attempted such a thing. And he added that you were still recovering from the abuse of your first father, and it was very hard for you to sing and not cry which would no doubt disrupt the service and would bring undue attention to you. Which got them to agree and back off. Which pleased your mother very well and was a great relief to you as well, because it was Luna that made music a joy again, and you did not want to lend your voice to anything that didn’t bring you joy, or to any other god or goddess than to Luna herself, which she was happy and content to accept. 

When Broman wasn’t working at the Castle, he was helping your mother with the house and its repairs, upkeep and improvements. He bought more vats for dyes and troughs and expanded her work courtyard and even put a whole field’s worth of lines up so she could hang either her own clothes or her own dying orders up. He helped put in a wash basin that could wash dozens of yards of fabric in at a time and a special hearth- with an extra large cauldron that would hold water- straight from the water pump- right into the cauldron, have it boil in the hearth under it, and then would be able to pour said hot water into any other from a special frame that would ease into the hearth and then roll on special wheels to any other vat in the courtyard and especially the wash basin. He dug wells and even got special stones from the stone cutters to dig into the yard to put them in the ground so that when you would dump the vats, they would drain out of the courtyard easily and into the street outside and into the drains under the roads but would not wash out into your garden and poison the ground or contaminate the food growing from the ground from the food garden, nor poison the flowers that were growing in the flower garden either, but would catch the waterways in the streets that would carry such dirty water out of the city. 

He also bought her a pair of cows, friends, Maybel and Jenny, so you and your mother could have a regular supply of milk, cream, yogurt and butter and cheese since the house already had a small barn with it which the old tenant kept the animals at before the slaughter. He bought her chickens too so she could have eggs as she would need them, and he got you a kitten that would grow to be a good mouser and a puppy to protect you both when he physically wasn’t there to do so himself. You could never afford a pet back home. But now, to have two house pets felt like a menagerie. 

Broman, thanks to other help from his family, also built up the barn, and the all of garden walls. And he even added onto the flower garden, making those walls even higher to keep a private, beautiful space, for just you and your mother and any who you would invite in- to enjoy, just for the flowers, that soon began to grow into very pretty vines and bushes, the gardenia’s especially, being extra fragrant, with jasmine, roses, honeysuckle, different kinds of lilac, and other super fragrant flowers, both for your enjoyment, as well as supply scents for perfume and soaps. For you, it was like a piece of Luna’s temple in Masar Alquimar. The most prized bloom- being moonflower blooms, that would bloom at night, their scent, being practically intoxicating, but also, healing any hurt you or your mother or Broman had. 

And slowly and surely over these three months, your mother got better at learning his Flannish, as he learned more and more Alqua, often using your trek to and from school to learn one on one from you, which made you so happy to have a father who wanted to learn your language and didn’t look down on it or hate it. But if anything he was eager to learn and eager to be proficient and thought it was very pretty and elegant and encouraged you to embrace it as your mother tongue. Even though, his Flannish, was your ‘father tongue’. 

Your mother used the time before bed, when Broman had left, to learn more Flannish from you- one on one, as you were working on a translation for them to use to communicate more without having you be their sole translator, which in turn, also helped your mother do business while you were in school. The other non-human families actually paid you to make similar translations for them and their native languages into Hestra’s Flannish, since you were clearly gifted for it. 

And in those three months, every full moon, Broman would take the three of you out to those grounds, and had learned he could actually sleep, knowing that the three of you would be safe and sound and content to simply have you burn a stick of incense for him to Luna while Selene got more comfortable with his presence was slowly learning to trust and count on him more and more, with more than just her house, or you, but, with her heart, and her feelings, and her mind. 

And when you would spiritually visit Luna’s temple, you got to see more and more of Drimus, and learned he had quite a few brothers and sisters, some of them older than you and younger than you too. But while he told you about them, you never did get to meet any of them. And you could only find him near the gardenia maze, which he seemed eager and ready to go through at least twice with you before going through the other mazes. He, surprisingly, was much better at all the others, only because they were square and not curved. You both seemed to like that you both could simply enjoy each other’s company and talk about everything under the moon as he was happy that your Papa was getting closer to your mom and that they would hopefully be getting into a full blown romantic relationship, like the kind his parents enjoyed, besides their “spiritual one”, which you thought his phrasing was peculiar, but he seemed hesitant and reluctant to talk about it, just like you didn’t want to talk about the man who sired you. As you were both content to simply leave those subjects alone. 

And then it came time for the tournament, and your mother was ready and eager to ingress the relationship with Broman because his kisses could be sweet and affectionate and instantly morph into more canal, needy and intimate in the next moment and she wanted to be intimate with him. But she had a hard time asking for it. 

And because of the rules of courtship, which Broman was wanting to stick to- to do so- as honorably as he could, in the eyes of everyone else, he wouldn't pursue more either, no matter how much his body begged and pleaded for it. Because before now, he would hug, hold, kiss and even caress her but nothing beyond that and she wanted so much more than that, she wanted all that he could and would give her physically. 

But it seemed he was waiting for something, and she was at a loss as to what that would be. She had told him that she didn’t need that fancy of a wedding ring or even a big wedding. She was happy and content with a simple ceremony with only his family and closest friends. 

But at the same time, her first order for Lord and Lady Bathes had just finished, the month before and she had presented it to them, in their court. And they had loved it, and been exceedingly pleased with it. And they gave her the seal of the best dyer in Hestra because she was able to give it a depth of color that never bled when it was washed because she had fixed the color so strongly and it did not matter what they used to wash it or tried to stain it, it would not stain and it would wash beautifully. They had even poured bleach and ammonia on it, and it would not budge at all, something that no other could even begin to brag or boast of. 

And in the last month alone, her business boomed. She had a waiting list of orders, and using every single vat, in every color there was and was, by the end of the month- booked out for the rest of the year. She made a year’s worth of wages in only a month, from getting a third of the payment just to get on the schedule and “reserve” her dying ingredients for that order. She would be getting a second third when she would get the fabric and start the dyeing and get the last third- when they would pick it up from her. And would be making at least- three times as much here in Hestra than she had ever done before. And when she had tried to pay back anyone’s kindness, they all refused, Broman- most of all. 

And with such funds, she could afford to have anything she wanted in any market and soon, for the first time in her life- she had decorated her house the way she always wanted to. Because Broman had already made it into a dream of a house. She was able to plaster and white wash the walls and then paint the walls in the most beautiful pictures and use a whole wall to teach you not just the language of Alqua, but the culture too, so that you read and wrote in Alqua better than you did Flannish. She used her walls to write down the Scrolls of Serenity, so that you could write it down yourself and then learn to translate it into Flannish so Broman could read it and understand it some day. Broman had already seen to it that her foodstuffs and food storehouses were always full, always practically bursting with food. And that she had not just ample supplies of ingredients but a vast variety of them too. Yet, with over a decade of always having poverty imposed onto her, she still watched her funds just as closely as ever and used little hiding places in the stones themselves to hide her extra riches into- ‘for a rainy day’ she would say. She could afford to buy what she needed and what she wanted. Which, she did indulge herself until she felt she lacked nothing physically. 

And Broman, bless his heart, never said anything about the scent, or smell, or in some cases, the stench of the work. Instead he only ever complimented the results of the work, or the complimented the scent of the soaps, and the scent of the flowers and the smell of her delicious food. He always claimed that the castle smelled ten times worse than even her stinkiest dyes and had no issues with getting on his hands and knees and scrubbing and cleaning things right beside her, always wanting to help, any way he could.  

She soon had quite the side business of selling soaps of all kinds once they had aged, nearly all of Hestra coming and ordering the scent of the soaps, before she could even make cakes or bars of it and also had orders for the future for soaps, taking the same method of payment. She even had one for acne, that the pubescents all came to buy, the young lord of the castle coming, all the way, to have her examine his face, to practically prescribe the soaps he should use to wash his own face so that it would clear up from the acne so he could compete in the tournament, and do so with his helmet off, without wanting to do so- with his helmet on- to hide his pimply face. She even made a special face cream for him and the other smooth skinned people as well, that he used religiously, because there was supposed to be several young, eligible ladies coming to the tournament, from other castles to see him as potential suitor that he wanted and needed to make a good impression with, even from the distance of the tournament grounds where they would be sitting in the stands with the other nobility as your mother was just relieved she did not need to fight off his advances as well and even offered that she would give him her white roses the morning of the tournament- for him to give out to any other young lady who he wanted to impress. And he nearly burst into tears in gratitude for the help. 

Selene even started a perfume business, that was even more lucrative than the dying business and the soap business combined. With everyone coming to smell the flowers in her garden, then to request what scents she wanted in her perfume from those while the men would come to ask for colognes to help them smell better too. 

She had more than enough to keep her busy, but not ever work to the point of exhaustion, but enough to keep her happy, productive and very prosperous. And to the point that she too could give alms to the poor at the temple. 

And in those three months, Broman had worked out a way to get his cart to that clearing so that she could take the huge, empty wine jars- just for various kinds of oils into Luna’s temple complex with her, pay for them to be refilled in Masar Alquimar and then he could load them back up into the cart- to cart them back to her house to make perfumes and soaps with the various oils and nut butters since she had plenty of lye water from the ashes from her own hearth and scents to flowers growing in her own garden when she wasn’t buying said fragrance, perfume, and essential oils in Masar Alquimar and soon her flower garden was just as big as her working courtyard. And could afford to keep actual flowers in her working courtyard to help with the smell and a big mechanical fan to keep the air fresh in there too. She had even bought a special table- just to be outside in the flower courtyard and a large canopy to go over it so that- when the weather was fair- you could have meals outside, now that the weather was turning from spring into summer. Especially dinner. And thanks to special plants and candles burning- mosquitoes never bothered anyone near the house either. 

And with the next full moon coming after the week of the tournament- your mother was eager to have Broman join her with Luna in her temple so that the three of you could worship together as a family, and hopefully start to induct Broman into the “finer” points of worshiping Luna. Specifically, where the female orgasms was considered sacred, and were a blessing, both for the woman, her life, her home, her family. And was the best way to get pregnant. Because now that she had Broman in her life, she was aching to have children again, have Broman’s children specifically, which Luna had already told and reassured her, she would grant, by opening up Selene’s womb, after she had closed it for that waste of flesh she had first married- that she would open it for Broman’s seed- when Broman would lie with her- when he was ready to that is. And your mother was getting anxious, wondering when and if that would ever happen with his courtship. 

In the meantime, she was also eager to try to woo him through food, each dinner he had at her house. He always claimed it was the best food he had ever had. And she was hoping that the food was helping to lay the path to his heart too as when he did stay for dinner, they learned more and more of the nuances of both Alqua and Flannish and were able to talk to each other more and more, offering gentle corrections to pronunciation as they began to almost blend the two languages. 

It was the day before the tournament and everyone was getting ready for it and your mother wanted to attend the tournament- already pregnant with Broman’s child. But he- so far, had gently refused it, since it would not be “honorable” for her to be pregnant before he married her “properly”. And your mother was anxious to do whatever it took to get that to happen as soon as possible. She would be asking him to marry her tonight, and if she had her way, he would, that very night and that starting this night and every night after, there would be no more of him leaving for the night, but him staying, the whole night, every night and every day from then on. 

Your mother went all out for this evening’s meal. She had found the best mushrooms while foraging. She bought the best meats in the market and other ingredients she could get her hands on. She spent more on this one meal than she usually spent in a week of food for her and you. She even bought new dishes! And wine! She bought an entire wine jar of the best wine- and had it delivered to her house that afternoon. She practically slaved over the food and cleaned the house top to bottom so that it practically gleamed and glowed. She had made sure all the lids to the vats of dyes were secured so the scents would not waft into the house and ran the fan until the only thing she could smell were the flowers and her cooking in and around the whole house. 

She picked the best of her flowers and put them into vases, including those white roses that she was planning on giving to the Young Lord. And she bought many more still- just to be bouquets in the house and on her tables to help it smell better and look better and prettier. She even bought vases! Just for the flowers! And special candles! And candle holders! She even made special table covers and tablecloths and napkins! And real silverware! That all matched! She felt like she was making her home practically into a palace with all of this luxury. Even though, her past experience, she knew what real luxury looked and felt like. But before, she felt it was due to where she was, and what she was. But now? It was her luxury she earned through her hard work. Which meant more to her than any of the wealth she was around as a priestess before. 

When she had finished with all of that, she bathed again, and she got dressed in one of her sexiest dresses she made for herself. And made plans for you to sleep over at a friend’s house for the night, who lived across the street, so that it would just be the three of you for dinner, but that Broman would stay over and spend the night so they could initiate the intimacy of their relationship, and they would be able to fill their mutual needs for intimacy from each other. 

She could only hope that he’d be able to fill that need in her life, now that he had filled every other need she had in all other areas of her life. Because even if he was just decent, she would be happy. He didn’t need to wow her, or knock the stars into her eyes, or make it so that she couldn’t walk straight, if he could just last long enough to give her- her due pleasure, she’d be content. Because the more she looked at him and came to admire him, the more handsome he grew in her eyes, to the point that no other man in all of Hestra or far beyond, practically the whole wide world- could compare in her mind and heart.  

And thanks to a conversation she had with Odette who had come that morning to buy perfume- she now knew the right words to use to ask Broman to have sex with her and that he would understand and hopefully do the one thing she would ask of him, since he volunteered to do all other things, without her asking for any of it. Because he saw needs and simply filled them, no asking needed, except for this. As she was hoping that this was what had kept him from having sex with her before, because she never asked to give consent. 

When Broman picked you up from school, he too was very excited. Because for the last year, he had been waiting on his commissioned new set of armor from his favorite blacksmith and armorer and the best chain mail- and for the last three and a half months, he had commissioned a jeweler for a set of jewelry and even picked up the ring he commissioned for Selene just that afternoon. Finally, after all this time, he finally got the perfect wedding ring for Selene. It was near torture to not immediately go to her and propose while you were in school, because he was sure, if he did, he would be too tempted not to fuck Selene on any and every surface in the house. And would probably break as much furniture as he had brought into the house himself, while also, driving away any business she might garner during the day. It practically glittered and gleamed just as much as his new armor did. It was beautiful and it was finally a ring- worthy of the wonder that Selene was. 

He paid extra for his set of armor to have a special symbol in silver, melted to the chest of steel. The same symbol that he had seen in his dreams from Luna. That of the full sun next to the crescent moon. Because he got the same things on a necklace for himself, as well as a set of necklaces for you and Selene. So that the three of you would match and it was clear you were a family. 

He carried the necklaces in his hand in a special velvet sack. With the same symbol of the full sun on one side, with the crescent moon beside it. But when you flipped the sun around, suddenly the crescent moon soon became a full moon because the rest of the moon was on the other side in silver from behind the full sun in gold. He had a braid of two silver strands and one of gold for the chains that matched the ring for Selene. Luna herself gave him a stone for such a ring that the jeweler offered the ring for free if Broman could get him another stone like it. And Luna had given Broman a second stone just for that purpose when she had given him the first. But with all the gold and silver for the necklaces, he still felt like he paid a fair price for all them. Many warriors were coming into the jeweler to get their various golden lucky charms. And while he too, had some, he felt he didn’t need any. He had all the luck he would ever want or need, from you, Selene and Luna. He had one for you and one for your mother. So that to all of Hestra, it would be a blend of both Dhanos and Luna, showing their duality. And Luna herself loved and appreciated the design of it. 

“You got new armor Papah!” You smiled when school was done and he wore it to pick you up. 

“I did. It is extra thick and has a new suit of padding to help me wear it too so I’ll be extra safe from now on.” He smiled, happy that you liked it.  

“It’s perfect.” You beamed happily. Happy that he was now perfectly safe. And when you saw the symbol you started crying happy tears because he had the moon, even it’s crescent on it. So it would show all of Hestra that he too would be worshiping both Dhanos and Luna with you and your mother as you traced it with your finger tip. 

Luna told you that because of this, she gave him her blessing and protection, because he had earned your trust and confidence, as well as your mother's and would keep it until he would naturally die. And that she would ensure he would never fail her in his many battles to protect you both. And while it wasn’t the most comfortable thing to hug him while he was wearing it, you knew such things were going to protect him for the rest of his life. And would keep him alive no matter what battle or war he fought in. 

And this was especially important because for the last 3 months solid, many knights and other contestants for the tournament had expressed an interest that if they won the championship, they would give your mother the purse as part of their courtship. And even though your mother tried to refuse their offers, many were adamant to not take a ‘no’ for an answer. But Luna gifted her with the foresight, that even if she had agreed, they would not be winning the tournament, and that the tournament would be won by someone else. But even Luna would not tell her who that man was, because she didn’t want or care to know as Selene had instead insisted that if they were not there to do business, then they had no reason to be at her house and needed to leave so that others who did have business with her- could come and do such business with her and sent them away before taking in the next person who came to do business with her as many of them- instead- had no choice but to leave something, usually their tunics they were already wearing- with her- to dye as they were then charged twice what Selene would usually charge, just for their attitude. 

Selene- actually put a ‘closed’ sign out- just to give her the day to prepare, for this evening. But still, she was still antsy and anxious about it though because all of these other knights and fighters and warriors, could do nothing but drag Broman and his ability down with their words. Saying he was too old, too slow, and that she was better off agreeing to court them sooner than the tournament, because if he fought in this one, he was not going to survive it. His prime had already passed and he was doomed to fail, doomed to get wounded, even fatally so. And while your mother did not like this. She instead insisted that ‘she didn’t want or need any champion of the tournament, because it was only once a year, whereas any man who would be the head of her house needed to be the champion of her heart and affections and that none of them had yet to even begin to do any of that’. But all that did was simply put her in a stalemate with them until the tournament. Which was why she wanted and needed Broman to finish the courtship before the tournament, so that before it would even start, she would already be taken by him and thus not available to any other and not in danger of losing him to overeager and overzealous competitors who were simply trying to woo- in their opinion, the fairest beauty in Hestra, or so they claimed. So she was really hoping Broman would say yes to initiating the sexual aspect of their relationship because every instinct in her told it was time. Tonight, it had to be tonight. 

She paced in the kitchen, checking and rechecking each dish, to make sure it was cooking just right. And she kept coiling her curls around her fingers, making sure each one was perfect. She was wearing her best jewelry and she even had gotten special cosmetics to make herself look as beautiful, sexy and desirable as possible. She had made and was wearing her most exotic and alluring and heady perfume too, hoping to court every sense that Broman had. And as eager as she was, she was fearful he was still going to turn her down. And refuse her or reject her, that maybe he wasn’t quite ready, but even she could see his desire in his eyes and she felt it in his touch and could taste it in her kisses. They just needed to be left alone and given the time and opportunity to do more than what they had been doing. 

“Mama! Mama! Look! Look what Papah got!” You told her as you bolted from Broman the moment he opened the door to show her the necklace he had gotten you and put around your neck. 

“That’s perfect.” Your mother smiled before she looked up to see Broman standing there in the door frame with a proud smile. And then she noticed that he was also standing there in a full set of new armor and her face fell as her stomach dropped.

“What’s wrong?” Broman asked as he watched her facial expression change as she took him in, not thinking that she would frown at the sight of him in new armor as he came inside and shut the door but didn’t take another step when she quickly moved you and her backwards, to keep the same amount of space between them as suddenly, his smile fell with hers. But he was at a loss as to why. 

“Why are you wearing armor? Is a war coming? Is there an army coming here?” Your mother asked before she closed her eyes and quickly asked Luna but Luna showed her that- that was not the case before she opened her eyes and just looked at his armor and instantly knew- he was going to be fighting in the tournament, he was going to be a contender, he was most likely going to get hurt and possibly lose his life. And all those threats of him becoming fatally wounded came rushing back and stabbing her heart all over from all those other bastards. 

“I thought we agreed that you wouldn’t be in the tournament?” Your mother asked him as she looked at the armor as if he was covered in poison ivy and already drenched in his own blood and practically bleeding all over the floor. She had your shoulders in her hands as she subconsciously pulled you to her and then moved you to stand behind her and took a few steps backward and when she looked up into his eyes, the look she gave him, was as if he had walked into the house, with another whore already in his arms and was already balls deep into her and was ready to fuck a whore right onto her own dining room table, like the man who sired you did in the past. 

“No, we agreed I wouldn’t take any unnecessary risks with my life. This is how I do that. I got new armor. It’s thicker than my old armor, much stronger and has new padding so it’s comfortable and it’s much easier to move in. Even if an army were to come tonight, I could defend you and Stasi with ease, this is how I can do that the best way I can, and do so as safely as can.” Broman calmly recalled and gently contested. 

But all your mother could do was to look at the armor and just shake her head as tears came to her eyes and ran like rivers down her cheeks as she just shook her head and damned herself, that she had yet again, fallen for a man who loved violence and the praise of the crowds and masses more than anything else, and so much more than her. Always, more than her. 

“Stasi! Anastaschia! Please! Please tell me what I did wrong!” Broman finally called out. 

“Thank you for escorting Stasi home. But from now on, you should no longer do so. She is my daughter, and I alone should be responsible for her. I reject you and your courtship. Please leave.” She insisted as she came forward and opened the door and began to push him out of the house.

“But…! Selene! Stop, no, let’s talk about this. Please!” Broman asked as he tried to stay, he tried to plant himself like a tree- but she surprised him with her strength as she wouldn’t even look at him, she had her hand on his chest and the other on the door and with one shove, she called on her inner spiritual strength and pushed him with such force, it was as if a draft horse had kicked him squarely into the chest and he landed on his ass and back into the street before she shut and locked the door and then quickly went around the house and shut and locked all the other doors and shut the windows up as she wracked sob after sob as she ignored Broman’s efforts to get up and start knocking and banging on the doors before she went to all the other doors of the gardens and barns and shut and locked all of those up too so that he could not get in from any side as you stood there in shock- frozen in place, not understanding at all what just happened or what was happening and just watched on helplessly as your mother locked up the house and kept crying as she did so and did not stop until the entire house was locked up and the only light was coming from the fire in the hearth. You just watched helplessly as she then went upstairs and took off her jewelry and her dress and washed all the perfume and makeup off and tied her hair up the same way she usually did. 

“Don’t you dare answer him Stasi! I already gave him an answer.” Your mother hollered in Alqua from the second floor. 

“But I don’t even know what’s wrong! How can I answer him?” You called back to her as you were torn about going up to where your mother was to where Broman was now back at the door. 

“That man loves violence and the praise and glory from the crowds and masses more than he ever has or ever could love us!” Your mother challenged. 

“No! Selene! That’s not it at all!” Broman called back in Alqua too as he moved to where he could be closer to where the loft was. 

“No he doesn’t! Didn’t you see it? Didn’t you see this?” You asked at the same time as you went upstairs to your mother and took off the necklace and found your mother sitting on the bed and sobbing into her hands with her shawl wrapped around her shoulders. 

“Look Mama! It’s only to show Hestra that he’s with us. That he is choosing us over them. He has already heard all the others try to court you with the purse of the tournament and he has never even hinted at such a thing. All he wants is to keep them from succeeding. He’s not out to win the tournament, only to ensure that they don’t win so that they can not come back and demand from you what is not rightfully theirs. This morning, you told me that what they want, is what you are ready and willing to give to Papah, because he’s already earned it right? He is not chasing glory. He is just trying to keep us safe. That’s why he got new armor and that’s why he got this on the armor. So that Luna can continue to use him to protect us. That’s all it is Mama. He is not like the man who sired me. Not at all or even a little.” You insisted as you pressed the pedant into her hands and had it flipped until it showed the entire moon as you knelt at her feet, hoping she would listen to you. 

“He got another one for you and one for himself too. And Luna has already told me that she approves.” You insisted. 

“Please, please don’t shut him out now Mama. Please, just let him explain it. Let him speak for himself and if I’m wrong, that’s fine. I’m ok with being wrong. But please do not send him away like this. Otherwise he will lose his own heart and lose his own confidence and then he really will get hurt because he won’t see the point in fighting at all. He is not hungry for violence, he is hungry for our care and safety. That is all Mama. He is already doing what he is meant to do- be a defender. Not an offender, but a defender. That’s all. And he needs to defend both himself and us from any challengers. He only needs his skills and his tools and his protection, in the form of his armor to do that. That’s all. You know he is not otherwise a violent person. You know that he would never harm us. But he will harm others to keep us safe from any harm they may either intentionally or unintentionally mean us. That’s all Mama. Please. Please, just, open a window, or just open the door to one of the courtyards. You don’t even need to let him into the house, but don’t have this in the street where all of Hestra could hear and use this against you and against him. Please. Please Mama! Please!” You begged and pleaded as your own tears ran like rivers down your cheeks as your mother didn’t have the heart to even look at you. 

“Luna has already heard the taunts and the hurtful words of the others, and what they taunt is what will befall them and it can either be Papah or any other who gives them such blows for their arrogance and greed. But Papah has neither. You said that that is what you love about Papah, is because he is not arrogant, or greedy. But is humble, and giving. That is all he is doing- he is giving us protection, he is giving us an answer to all who taunt us. Please- just listen to him explain things.” You pleaded to her as she looked up and could see Luna’s power coursing through you, through the glow of your eyes while also hearing Luna in her own head, in her own ears as Luna was trying to battle Selene’s own fears in her mind and heart, where the true battle was waging. 

“Fine, I’ll let him into the courtyard, but you must stay in the flower garden, I don’t want you part of this, it’s between him and me.” She finally caved. 

“Ok.” You nodded as you hugged her tightly and kissed all over her face. 

“Please, just listen, that’s all you have to do, is just listen.” You insisted before you got changed yourself and went to the door to tell Broman to meet at the door to the dying courtyard as your mother walked down and got into that courtyard and took all the lids to the dying vats off so that the whole courtyard filled with the stench as she turned off the fan too- because if he was going to talk, every breath was going to be as pained and hard for him as it currently was for her. 

“Selene? Seleneeschia?” Broman asked as he knocked on that door before she begrudgingly unlocked and unbolted it but then quickly walked back to the door that led to the house and stood with her arms folded tightly in front of her, over her bosom and glared at him as he came in with her bloodshot eyes, only to see, he had already began the process of taking the armor off and had already taken most of it off. And he didn’t even bring the pieces into the courtyard, he left them all leaning against the courtyard wall. 

“Please tell me what I did wrong, please, you can’t end things like this. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Please, tell me how to fix this.” He begged as his eyes were already crying rivers of tears down his own cheeks as his eyes were just as red as his hair. 

“I see your intent. You intend to fight. You intend to have everyone love you in the tournament. Thinking that Luna is just some lucky charm on you. You love the violence of the tournament, and you love everyone else’s love for you that is there for only a day and forgotten tomorrow. You love being the champion just like all the others. Stasi and I are never going to be enough. How can we measure up to all of Hestra?!” Selene tried to say in his Flannish as she angrily used the shall to wipe away her tears as each word was like a stab to the heart and gut as he damned himself for not telling her about the armor. Or telling her more about how and why he got it. For not having her come with him to approve of it at the armorer and kicked himself for not seeing how this could have gone bad. He had a vision and a fantasy for how this was going to go and he hadn’t listened to his own sense and his own fear that she would have this kind of reaction because of her own past, and not his- that she had no idea or understanding of. She was speaking his Flannish. He needed to speak in the language of her heart. He needed to talk to her in her Alqua. Sure he would butcher the words and language but surely, it would show his true intentions as he had spent this whole time, listening and praying for Luna to help him. Help his dumb, ineloquent mouth to say the right thing to communicate clearly and reveal his true thoughts and feelings to her.  

“No. Not at all. I promised- before you come- to fight in tournament. And then you come and..I.. too late for I to,..pull out…from… tournament. But I swear, this will be my last tournament. I do not love crowd more than you. I do not love violence or fighting in tournament more than you. I love you and I love Stasi more than anyone else and everything else and so much more than this city. If you want to go to Masar Alquimar- we will go- day after tomorrow. I made promise, I keep all promise.” He struggled to say in Alqua, but the more he tried and the harder he tried, the easier it was for him to do as Luna helped him say the right words in the right way as she used his own visual thoughts to help him find the right words to use that got much easier to do, the more he did it. 

“I only got this new armor to protect me from now on. That’s all. And I got Luna’s moon on it to show I worship her with you. That’s all. It’s not a lucky charm. It’s only to identify me with you. That’s all.” Broman tried to explain as the stench was burning his eyes as much as his tears were, as each breath was as painful as if he really had been kicked in the chest by both of his draft horses. But he had to fight through all of it. Because he knew, she was throwing everything she could at him- metaphorically speaking- and he had to wade through as much of it as he could. He could not show how much the smell was affecting him. He insisted to himself that he had fought through worse for less before, he would fight through this for her and for you. He could rise above this. He had to call on Luna to help him through this as he finished taking off the last of the chain mail and opened the door to put the last of it out of the courtyard before he took off all the padding too as a way of disarming himself. 

“I just got this to keep myself safe. Because if I’m safe, I can care for you- as close or as far away from you as you want me to be.” He repeated in Alqua. 

“You and Stasi are enough. You always were. I do not lust after any other- than you. I care for no other child more than I do Stasi. Your love, your faith, your trust, that’s all I need. I don’t need any other love from anyone else but you and her as her father as she is my daughter. Please, just let me show that.” He begged as he peeled it off and put it aside before he just knelt in front of the door on the other side, not wanting to get any closer to her, should she flee into the house and leave. 

“Please, Selene, please, I love you more than anyone, more than anything. All I want is for you and Stasi to be safe, and be cared for, whether I give that care or not.” Broman confessed in his best Alqua he could as you were trying to climb the wall from the garden to see them as his confession made your heart swell and practically burst in your chest with happiness. But you needed to stay out of this. But all you could do was plead with Luna to let your mother hear and listen and really take it as the gospel truth it was. 

“Please Luna, just let Mama listen. Please let her really listen to him and his truths and not her own deceiving thoughts.” You prayed. 

“Why did you take so long to court me?” Selene finally asked as she couldn’t help but start to put lids back on the vats to keep the smell down as Luna blew fresh breezes to blow out the scents from the courtyard and keep everyone outside at such a distance that none dared stay close to listen in. 

“Because my work wasn’t done. I wanted all of it done so you wouldn’t feel that I was only doing it because I wanted to court you. I wanted you to know that even if you rejected me, that it would still be done regardless and not leave you vulnerable or leave you without. That’s all. I’m sorry it took me as long as it did. I should have worked harder and faster.” He answered. 

“I know that the admiration of the masses only lasts a day and is forgotten the next. I do not want that. I only want to keep you safe. And I only want to keep others who only see you as a prize to be won- away from you. Because you are so much more than that. More than I have ever known or can comprehend. You are more special and more precious than any other thing I have ever known. And while that waste of flesh who abused you is dead. I never want you to be hurt by any other, especially myself and I’m so sorry I hurt you with this misunderstanding. I did not mean it, and this hurts worse than being stabbed or being…” He began to list off as more and more tears began to flood his cheeks before she surprised him by wrapping her arms around him only for him to bury his face into her belly and wrap his arms around her and hug her and hold her. 

“I’m so sorry.” He murmured into her belly in Alqua. 

“Me too. I’m sorry too. I…jumped to wrong…ending.” Selene offered in Flannish as she felt so stupid and foolish for jumping to the wrong conclusion and if anything could prove the genuine nature of his feelings, this was it. 

“I don’t intend to win favor with the masses. I only intend to win yours. Not for the tournament, but every single other day. Winning you over and over every day.” He offered, not wanting to speak in any other language than Alqua. He had gotten this far, he could go as far and as long as she needed him to. He would never speak Flannish again if it meant he could stay with her. 

“But you’ve had it for- a very long time. Why make me wait?” She asked in Flannish. 

“Because I wasn’t done trying to woo you?” He confessed as he couldn’t help but let a huff of a laugh leave him. 

“I was already wooed by you the first day we came here. Why make me wait for sex with you? To… husband you?” She asked, kicking herself and her barely understood to grasp of his language as he looked up and smiled through his own tears. 

“Because I’m an idiot. I’m sorry.” He apologized as she finally caved and spoke Alqua back to him.  

“You’re not an idiot. You’re a very good man. Better than…” Selene tried to explain. 

“Not better than you deserve. The gods themselves are not good enough for you.” He cut her off before she sank to her own knees to kneel with him. 

“I don’t want them. I only want you. You already won my heart, you already won my soul. Why wait to take what’s already- was always yours and no one else’s?” She asked before he closed the distance and kissed her for all he was worth. 

“I’m sorry to make you wait. No more waiting. You don’t have to wait on me for anything. I’m yours. I’m all yours, only yours.” Broman professed between heated and impassioned kisses as you finally found your purchase at the top of the wall and smiled and blew out a breath of relief that they finally were coming together, and kissing, kneeling together in the courtyard, since it was clear that he had done all he could to make himself as small as he could and humble himself in front of her. That only she could have had the power to humble anyone to such a low state. You hurriedly shimmied down the wall and went out and ran around the back and used your leather apron to put under the piles of chainmail and used your leather apron to pull it around to the other garden so that no one else would be tempted to take it. It took you several trips, but Luna seemed to help you get it all, and keep it safe for Broman, even seemingly abandoned in the street. You had to drag his armor into the house, using a drag cloth to get it all into the other courtyard so it wouldn’t get stolen out of the street. 

Then you went back inside to open up the windows and get more air in before you went upstairs and got the bed ready for them to both sleep in it- tonight. Because you didn’t want Broman to spend another night in that castle, only ever in the bed with your mother. 

You heard your mother and Broman both make pleasured noises and could only smile and giggle as you made sure dinner was kept warm in it’s various dishes before you moved to the flower garden and smiled happily to hear your parents make each other happy as a deep sense of relief washed over you. When the noises got louder, you slipped from the house, to the barn to give them more “privacy” with your kitten and your puppy as you checked up on “The Ladies” of the barn, the two cows and the smaller flock of chickens with their chicks, pecking through the small barnyard. 

Meanwhile, Broman was ever so happy to grab that blessed padding and use it as a makeshift bed roll to show his love by making love to Selene who was eager and relieved to finally feel it. To finally be touched with love and care and tenderness, yet desperation and hunger, want and desire all at once.  

Selene felt that that phallus did not do him justice. He had been blessed to be just as big and impressive in his manhood as he was in the rest of his body. She had sworn only minotaurs, goblins and orcs were blessed with such thick and girthy cocks. But here he was, filling her better than any ever had, but never so big that it was painful, far from. The only thing she was feeling- was pleasure and love. In every fiber of her being. He was pouring all of himself into her without causing her even the slightest discomfort. He was kissing her so deeply, yet so passionately that it was the single most beautiful expression of romantic love she had ever felt before and she was just trying to answer back in kind. 

She shouldn’t have stopped in her initial fleeing, she should have kept going and should have just kept going until she came here and came to him in the first place. And know that such a wonderful man would have been there and been eager and ready and willing to love her and never cause her harm. And really be a good husband to her, even if he wasn’t the most handsome of face, he was the most handsome of heart and soul. And with every kiss, every touch, he was healing all the hurt she had ever felt her whole life. 

He laid her out on the ground, with that blessed padding between her back and the ground and thankfully some clouds had come to bless them with shade, so that neither of them would get sunburned. 

Her legs had parted for him after she had hiked up her dress after untying his own drawstring holding up his pants as he even took off his tunic and bundled it up so that it could be a pillow beneath her head as he fucked her into the stone hard ground so good, she feared he might hurt himself. But her legs were also happy to hook at the ankles behind the small of his back so that he could still snap his hips into hers. 

She felt all too soon, her pleasure seemed to rise as she feared he would not be able to hold out long enough. But to her shock and surprise, he did not relent. If anything, he seemed to find a beautiful balance and a groove and before she knew it, she was jumping off the precipice of pleasure and pulling him with her as he came in a shuddering groan as he emptied into her before they paused and caught their breath and recover while basking in the afterglow. 

“I love you, I love you, I love you.” Broman cooed as he leaned up on his elbows that had planted on either side of her shoulders to dip his head to kiss her all over her face while saying the words in Alqua- over and over again as she giggled and let him before she placed her hands over his face and kissed him back soundly. 

“I love you too. I’m sorry I misunderstood and jumped to the wrong conclusion.” She offered in Alqua. 

“I’m sorry too. From now on, just talk to me to work out misunderstandings ok?” He pleaded. 

“Ok.” She nodded before she kissed him again. 

“Have sex with me. Make love to me, in bed this time.” Selene requested in Flannish which got Broman to smile brightly. 

“Yes My Love.” He readily agreed before he got off of her only to pick her up again and carry her inside as she giggled and opened the door for him so he could kick the door in gently before using his foot to kick it shut and carried her up the stairs to the bed and did as she asked- and made love to her in her bed, this time, it being a lot more comfortable for both of them as she even took the lead and had him lie down so she could climb on top of him to ride him the way she wanted as he happily laid back and let her do as she pleased, and learn her right, by holding her up, wherever she would move his hands to her. Especially her amazing, petal soft breasts that filled hands, and her pink nipples like little flowers in moonlight. Or her hips that had started to gain more softness and strength. 

“Grip a bit harder and help move me.” She coached before he let his fingertips dimple in her hips as he helped move her pelvis into his. 

“Yes, just like that.” She praised as she finally let herself fall into this- feeling like it was the first time in her life, that she was laying with someone who really and truly loved her and only her. 

Back in Masar Alquimar, every male only saw her as a priestess and potential high priestess. And she could see through them and their disingenuous attempts to court her, since they viewed her as a way to gain even more riches and power and influence. Which she despised. 

Her first husband had laid with her because- to him- she was the fairest beauty in the land. 

But Broman? Was laying with her because he didn’t care about any of that, hell he didn’t even know about her priestess days, he didn’t need to or want to either. He only saw her, as old, aged and scarred on the inside as she was- and loved her anyway. He was good to her anyway, he was gentler with her because of her past. He loved her wholly and completely, always giving, never taking, always accepting her as she was and not trying to change a single thing about her but was instead changing himself to suit her- to be- whatever she wanted or needed him to be. Not what she could be or what he thought she represented. That when he looked at her, all he saw was just her and was perfectly happy and content with that. Which is what she had wanted all along. 

Meanwhile, you were happy to hang out in the barn, caring for the cows and the chickens and even got to milk the cows again so that you would have fresh sweet milk for tonight as you were content to churn the butter in the little causeway between the barn and the house, to leave your parents all the privacy they wanted. Once you were done, you slipped into the flower garden to see that your mother had bought new plates and dishes and had set the table already as you slipped from the garden, into the house, trying to move as quietly as you could as you tried not to giggle when you heard their pleasured keens and moans from the upstairs loft as you moved dinner- to the table outside, using the best dishes in the house to do so that your mother had already set out on the table in the kitchen. Then you got the special candles- that were already in their special candle holders and set them up on the table outside and lit them. And when it was all done, they sounded like they had reached completion again as you got your book bag and simply finished your homework as you waited for them to hopefully be done for now- to come down to eat dinner with you in the garden. 

As it seemed, they too finally remembered you as Broman was happy to be given new clothes that Selene had made for him for the last three months, thinking that he wasn’t staying the night because he had no new clothes to wear when and if he did. 

“Do you like them?” She asked. 

“I love them. They fit…really well.” He noted as he moved his arms and shoulders around in awe. 

“Good. I tried to make sure you could wear them comfortably.” She grinned as she got redressed in another, comfortable dress and came down the stairs with him. . 

“Stasi?” Selene called out once she came down the bannister to see her kitchen- now bare of all the food she had spent all day cooking. 

“In the garden Mama.” You called back as you finished your homework and put the little chalkboard away to open the door to reveal you and the dinner already on the table. 

“Oh! You already set dinner out here. Thank you.” She thanked you as she hugged and kissed your cheeks. 

“Of course, I figured you and Papah would need time and room to be alone for a bit.” You giggled. 

“Were we too loud?” Selene asked. 

“Nope. Not at all. I was hoping all of Hestra would hear how there is no Papah for me but Papah.” You beamed knowingly. 

“Are you better now? Do you understand the misunderstanding? Did you make peace?” You asked hopefully. 

“Yes, thank you for encouraging me to listen.” She smiled.

“Thank you for listening Mama.” You thanked her as you hugged her.  

“And thank you for not giving up Papah. Thank you.” You thanked him as you launched yourself into Broman’s arms as he caught you and picked you up to hug you tight. 

“I’m never going to give up Stasi, not on you or your Mother, never ever.” He vowed as he kissed your cheek and you giggled to feel his beard tickle your cheek and your neck. 

“And neither will I.” You beamed. 

“Mama made the best food for dinner tonight!” You said before he let you down as Selene got to tell you and him about what she had made as the three of you sat down to eat the feast she had prepared before Broman- out of habit- said prayer to Luna first for the meal and then to Dhanos as he held your hand and Selene’s before she poured out a glass of wine, for once, not having to worry about “spicing” the wine or “medicating it” as you were happy to drink your fresh milk after you poured it into one of the cold glasses as you were relieved when Broman could drink wine with your mother, only drinking a single glass. Never more than one, just in case she could grow nervous.

There was an ease now, a peace and happiness now in all of you and the home in general. The garden was blooming and it smelled wonderful. The food was especially delicious. There was a discrete luxury that made things comfortable and enjoyable. Where all of you felt settled, felt at home. Both with the people and the place. 

Broman took the time to explain what his strategy for the tournament was, which was not to win, but to simply beat out all those who had tried to offer your mother the purse, but that he knew there was another few knights who were now in their prime, had wives and little ones themselves who had no interest in your mother, would most likely win. This explanation gave your mother a sense of relief and gratitude for his maturity and humility and honor. And could now, accept as she then noticed that his armor, had “magically” moved to the courtyard as she now, simply looked at it with a new set of eyes. Eyes of appreciation. 

But that meant that your mother could divulge that the dress she had been working on for the last 4 months, was almost done in the fixer tank and would be taken out the next morning, and would be washed and worn tomorrow. It was a dress that had a rainbow of colors dyed and would show off her skills as a dyer and would actually be able to serve as an example of her work. And hopefully drum up even more business. The perfect sampling. As well as the bits of soap that didn't fit into a bar. The odd bits, were cut into small cubes and could be given out as samples too to help drum up business. 

Broman could only praise such an excellent business tactic and could hope that it would be successful. 

After dinner, you got to watch the sunset color the sky, above the walls of the garden as you kissed your parents goodbye as they walked you across the street to your friend’s house to stay the night as they held hands and Selene got to wear her new engagement ring that Broman had gotten her that fit just right before he walked her home and helped close up the house and the barn and get ready for bed. 

“I need to tell you something.” Selene offered as they got back into bed and pulled the covers up as Broman’s body welcomed the very comfortable feel of the mattress. 

“What?” He asked as he gathered her into his arms, happy that she fit so nicely against him, marveling at her soft skin under his fingertips, kicking himself for not doing this so much sooner. 

“The war in Masar Alquimar, was not fought with soldiers, or troops. There was no bloodshed. But there was a war in the sense that every so many years, there is a new dynasty. Not in a royal palace, but in a temple one. The reason I feel uncomfortable in Dhanos’ temple, is because I have already pledged my worship as a priestess of Luna. It’s like a nun from Dhanos- trying to be a nun for another god.” She tried to explain. 

“Oh. That makes sense.” Broman blinked in surprise but gave a nod of understanding. 

“Luna wanted me to be her High Priestess. She was about to anoint me as such. But…but I didn’t feel worthy. I didn’t want to be her High Priestess. I was already content with just being a normal priestess. I didn’t want to be responsible for leading the spiritual lives of all those in Luna’s patron city of Masar Alquimar. I come from a very large family, larger than yours. My sisters were also priestesses, and they wanted to be bigger, better ones. They wanted to be Luna’s High Priestess, not because they were that devoted to her, but because they wanted the wealth and the prestige and the honor and praise of it more than anything else. Luna saw that and demoted them for that. But because I did not want such things, that’s why she tried to give me that in the first place. I was expected to be the first human high priestess in the new convergence of the spheres. I didn't want to be, nor had any desire or ambition- to be that though. But I was hunted by lots of people who were looking to benefit from my ascension to that lofty position. There was a war over it. A bitter rivalry. There were so many plots of intrigue. I felt trapped and ensnared and that everyone was out to get that crown, that might as well have been a shackle for all the rules and traditions that go with it. It was a war I did not want to fight in. Which meant that another took it once I fled and bowed out. But because of the nature of it, the current High Priestess’s daughters- whose own mother is now in that position, will most likely do anything and everything to keep myself and especially Stasi from ever posing a threat to them keeping that lofty position and keeping their dynasty going- since she- by me- has a natural birth right to it. But to protect her from that ugly side of Luna’s temple and her worship- I have not told her this and won’t tell her this for a long time, until she’s old enough to fully understand. I have told her there was a war in Masar Alquimar. And such a city is at least ten times the size of this one. She has asked me why I did not take her there instead of here. But, I do not have the heart or the strength or courage to tell her. And if Luna wants Stasi to be her High Priestess, she’s gonna have to come and take her from me herself. Going in spirit during the full moon is one thing. Going in person- is something altogether different, and possibly dangerous.” Selene whispered. 

“Dangerous how?” Broman asked. 

“Because, when and if we go in person. Luna can anoint her- even as a child. And- by tradition, even one as young as she is- must be taken in by the High Temple, and must begin their training right then and there. Stasi is still a child. She is still owed a childhood. Even as one as painful as hers has been so far. So, if we are to go back and visit in person. I only ask that we wait until Stasi is at least older, old enough to really make that kind of decision for herself. And not one made for her- when she is still too young to really know and understand all of it. Because with the High Priestess position, comes a marriage to Luna’s High Priest. One that she too elects and anoints. I had no love or affection for any of the priests. And I did not want to marry someone who would only marry me because of a tradition. Or would only grow to respect me because I was a High Priestess and not because I deserve respect as a person. That’s what I fled. And that’s why I still stay away. Because you are the only one- who has ever loved me. And just me. And loved Stasi and just Stasi. As we are, without any or all of that.” Selene admitted. 

“Ok. I understand. We can do that. I’ll find any other excuse to keep us here then until you’re ready and willing and able to go in person then. I agree, Stasi does need protection. And I also agree that if Luna wants Stasi as her High Priestess, she should come and get her- herself once Stasi is grown up and able to make such a decision on her own too. And if you need to keep this a secret from Stasi for a while, I’ll help you keep it, for as long as you need me to. Ok? I don’t think Luna would want to tear us apart, just as we come together.” Broman mused. 

“Ok.” Selene nodded. 

“Make love to me again.” She requested. 

“Yes My Love.” He smiled before he rolled over her to cover her with himself and make love to her as many times as she would want or need or ask. They had all night.

[wannaberp]

— WHO IS SEOL MINJU?

she’s a NINETEEN year old wannabe, born MARCH 6, 2004. she’s currently undecided regarding companies and lives by the words “you are made of planets and oceans and no one owns them. just like no one owns you.”

maybe you should learn more or ask her a question.

▶ PLAY THE CLIP [ harsh_critique.mp4 ]

while she’s been trying to get better about being punctual, many people who know seol minju would claim that she’s a lost cause. her family members and close friends already know to lie to her about what time an event is beginning, so the chances of her arriving on time are increased, however, for those who don’t coddle her, they’re often highly annoyed whenever she’s two hours late to everything, and there’s no excuse other than the fact that it took her awhile to do her hair, and to settle on an outfit. it paints a rather vain picture of her, and while there’s truth to that, she genuinely possesses no ill intentions. she just wants to look good, to feel good; to show up and stun. a captivating appearance makes for a strong first impression, she’s highly aware of that fact, and said fact has only been further proven at her place of employment.

she’s a hostess at a fine dining restaurant in the city, and when she interviewed for the position, management found her so charming, so presentable, and so likable that they decided to take a chance on her. she had no prior experience, but they still thought that she would be the perfect candidate to greet people at the door, especially if she showed up to each shift looking as immaculate as the first time they saw her.

however, tonight, her boss is in a particularly sour mood, and after being a record-breaking three hours late to her dinner shift, he didn’t hesitate from holding her back at the end of it. she’s intimidated as she sits in the chair parallel to him; she knows that she’s likely to be reprimanded, so she braces herself for whatever he has to say.

“you realize that many of the others think that i favor you, right?” his voice is low; stern. “if anyone else were to be as consistently late as you are to every shift, i would fire them. they know that, and i have a feeling you know that, too.” in truth, she’s a bit clueless to that fact. being as this is her first job, she’s not really sure what type of politics are involved at the restaurant. however, before she’s able to answer for herself, she’s interrupted. “we’ve only kept you for so long because our customers have nothing but positive things to say about you.”

that’s a relief, right? a faint smile tugs at one corner of her mouth. she’s glad to know that, despite her flaws, she’s still appreciated somehow. though, before she gets carried away with the compliment, he proceeds. “that being said, i can’t say the same about most of your coworkers. they’re accusing me of favoritism, and worse. they also find you incredibly inconsiderate for messing with their schedules. do you not realize that, when you’re as late as you are, you’re keeping the other host here way longer than necessary?”

at the revelation, she wilts like an unwatered flower; upset that she’s caused so much trouble for other people, especially those she works with on a regular basis. “i… guess i didn’t realize that, no…” minju croaks, crossing her arms over her chest out of insecurity. “i’m sorry.”

it’s apparent that her demeanor has changed, and it causes her boss to change his tone, too; softening. “you should apologize to your coworkers. we want you to continue working here, but we can only allow you to if you follow the rules of the job. can you do that?”

honestly speaking, she has no idea. minju hates to make promises that she can’t keep, however, she needs this job, so although she’s hesitant to respond, she nods her head. “yes, i can… and i promise to be better about showing up on time. it isn't—… i don’t want to cause anymore problems.” with that, he stands from his sit and gestures for her to do the same, and as he walks her out of his office, he wraps an arm around her shoulders. “so, what time will you be here tomorrow?”

at the question, she laughs nervously; feeling slightly uncomfortable at the physical contact. “4:30pm—promise.” her boss nods his head at her response, then sends her on her way; hoping she remains true to her word. minju can’t help but hope the same, too.

[tanzanite-zircon]

I posted 204 times in 2022

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#anyone else disappointed that he didn’t do a tmnt reference for the turtle segment

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

The Fractured but Whole: Freedom Pals Unite! Chapter 3: Pick a class, any class

I watch Doctor Timothy back up his wheelchair to the center of the room as my new teammates line up on both sides of him. Mysterion and Toolshed stand on his right side while Tupperware and Wonder Tweek stand on his left.

(Maybe my initiation isn’t over yet.)

[New kid, before you can go out into the field, we will need to brief you on our origins.]

(Oh right, Timmy told me he was going to tell me about their start.) I nod my head to let them know to start their story.

[Toolshed has probably mentioned this to you before, but we were all once members of another superhero franchise called Coon and Friends. Our leader was, of course, The Coon and there were ten members in total. I was in the process of developing movies, television shows, video games, and other programs for everyone to earn large sums of money for the team. However, my ideas were tossed aside by The Coon and replaced with his own. We split off to form Freedom Pals once we saw his biased franchise plan.]

“The Coon’s franchise plan screwed each of us over,” Toolshed exclaims, “While we had at most one program each, everyone who stayed with Coon and Friends had around five or even more programs for themselves!”

“We treat each other as equals here,” Mysterion softly growls, “but The Coon only looks out for himself. He built us into a pyramid and put himself on top!”

“Our franchise was doing great at first,” Tupperware adds, “We had one hundred followers on our Coonstagram page. By my calculations, we would have doubled in fans in a few hours, but The Coon started stealing credit for our heroic deeds and swindled us out of our past leads on the crime syndicate.”

“To make matters worse,” Wonder Tweek growls, “his teammates are starting to stoop to his level and stealing our missions. Kyle, Jimmy, Clyde, … even my ex-boyfriend.” I jump back at the last few words.

(Woah, Wait! You and Craig broke up?!)

[As you can see, the split resulted in bad feelings and nearly broken relationships, but we believe we made the right choice in splitting off. And with you now on our side my friend and the lead you provided us, the tide may finally change back to our favor.]

“What new lead Doc,” Tupperware questions.

[While looking through the New Kid’s memories, he informed me of a poster The Coon had in his possession. The poster detailed a $100 reward for the return of the cat Scrambles.]

“Wait, I’ve heard that name being passed around by the top six graders on my patrols,” Mysterion declares, “Doc, do you think…”

[Indeed, I do. I believe that this Scrambles is the epicenter of the current crime wave. The police have been bringing in many stray cats these past few weeks, and from Mysterion’s investigations on the current activities of the citizens, I believe we may be dealing with the drug craze of ‘cheesing’.] I notice Mysterion flinch when Doctor Timothy said the word ‘cheesing’. I remember Kenny telling me about that ‘boob-utopia’ when I found a cat sling in his closet when we were hanging out one time with Stan, Kyle, Butters, and, sadly, Cartman. He said he gave up ‘cheesing’ long before I moved here, so I guess the mention of it would remind him of his rehab.

“You mean the crime wave is all about getting cat cheese,” Tweek shrieks.

[I know it sounds farfetched, but it would explain why the adults in our town have gone from the usual crazy to near insanity. It would also explain why the police would collect all these stray cats. I believe that someone is trying to take over our town by drugging the adults with cat urine. And Scrambles must be the bottom bitch of the whole operation. If we can secure this cat, we may be able to track down the crime boss.]

“Coon and Friends will be looking for this cat to,” Toolshed replies, “but I’m willing to bet that The Coon is only interested in the cash reward.”

(Since Cartman stole your leads before, I think it’s only fair we steal this one right under his nose … or is it whiskers?)

[I will research more about Scrambles. In the meantime, you all try to find more missions or any more leads. Tupperware, please assist our rookie with choosing a superhero class and explain the basics of the powers and combat before you depart. New Kid, once you have selected a class, come and see me for your final debriefing. I will be waiting for you in my chamber.] Doctor Timothy guides his wheelchair back to the back chamber while Wonder Tweek and Mysterion pull the space curtains apart to let him in. I feel hand clasp my shoulder. I turn my head to see Toolshed grinning from ear to ear. I can’t help but grin back.

“Told you you’d get in,” Toolshed playfully jabs, “I’ll call you if I find a mission. I’ll see you later dude.” He gives me a quick thumbs-up before trudging up the stairs. Wonder Tweek waves at me before following Toolshed. I wave back before turning my head to Mysterion. He gives me a wink before trudging up the stairs.

(This is it Sally. You’re now a Freedom Pal.) I turn my attention to the base; I never got to really look at it when Toolshed first brought me. Everything is decorated with cardboard boxes, a city backdrop, LED lights, stars and planets, and what look like to be my teammates’ superhero gear.

(It must have taken the guys hours or even a whole day to decorate this place! Maybe they’ll let me add some of my superhero stuff… if I get any.)

“Hey dude, you coming or what,” Tupperware calls. I snap out of my thoughts and head towards him. He leads me into a makeshift room with walls made of cardboard boxes and yellow masking tape forming a grid on the floor and walls.

“This is our training room,” Tupperware says, “We use virtual reality to test our powers and prepare for any disasters, crimes, or anything that could go wrong in our quiet mountain town.” I raise an eyebrow and cock my head in confusion.

(What virtual reality? There’s nothing here but tape and boxes.) I hear Tupperware give a soft chuckle as he turns towards an I-pad. He types in a code and everything suddenly goes dark. The masking tape glows a cyan blue while the walls glow a navy blue. My eyes widen as I stare around the transformed room.

(I never knew boxes and tape could do this!) Tupperware removes the I-pad from its stand and turns to face me.

“Ok New Kid,” he declares, “I’ve selected three beginner classes for you to choose from. You can choose from Speedster, Brutalist, or Blaster. Each class has different levels of brawn, brains, spunk, health, and movement. Brawn increases the damage done by melee attacks, brains increase the damage done by ranged, mental, and magic attacks, spunk increases the effects of support abilities like healing and shielding, health, of course, affects how large your maximum health is, and movement increases how many spaces you can move on the battle grid. Our training program will create a set of powers for you based on which class you choose. Here, pick the one you like the best.” He hands me the tablet. I look at the pictures of the superheroes with their specific class. I tap each picture to see their affects. Speedster and Brutalist are nearly the same; they mostly have brawn affects with one spunk affect. I then look over at the third class, Blaster. I look over its four attacks in awe.

(Great range, burn affects, and a sweet costume to boot! I think I found my class.) I press the button for select class and return the I-pad to Tupperware.

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4 notes - Posted May 12, 2022

#4

The Fractured but Whole: Freedom Pals Unite! Chapter 1: I’ve got just the ‘Toolshed’ for this problem

(… Well shit.)

I stare at the line of lava covering Cartman’s door step in annoyance. All I wanted was to play with my friends and now I’m a prisoner in Cartman’s living room. I was playing Fighters of Zaron with Kyle, Butters, Craig, Clyde, and Jimmy when Cartman suddenly jumped into his backyard dressed up as some sort of mutant racoon claiming to be from the future. Seriously, what the fuck is going on! He called us over to his house, saying that he needed help from the Fighters of Zaron and their king.

… It should be ‘queen’ since I’m actually a girl, but they’re not ready to know that yet. I might lose them and the others as my friends if they find out I’m really a girl. Cartman wouldn’t be that big of a loss, but losing Kenny, Butters, Stan, Kyle, and the others would be a huge blow. I’ll never understand why my parents force me to pretend that I’m a boy.

… Anyway, back to the flashback. I hear Craig say that they’re not playing that anymore and then Clyde said that they were all split up. What were they talking about?

(Now that I think about it, I didn’t see Kenny, Stan, Token, Tweek, or Timmy anywhere. And what did Clyde mean by they were all split up? Are they fighting again?)

I then saw Cartman holding poster showing a missing cat named Scrambles and that it would offer an award of $100 to anyone who finds Scrambles. It wouldn’t surprise me that the fatass would seize the chance to earn $100. I then heard him say something about a massive crime wave threatening our town. Some sort of crime syndicate. I then hear Clyde say that this would be too big of a problem for Coon and Friends. Cartman then asks the guys if they would rather let the Freedom Pals find Scrambles first and get the reward for their franchise.

I am just completely lost at this point. Mrs. Cartman then alerts Cartman that some sort of noise is coming from his basement. Apparently, it’s something called the Coon alert. The next thing I know, Kyle, Craig, Jimmy, Clyde, Butters, and Cartman all run out on me, Kevin, and the other two members of the Moorish tribe. Cartman just basically calls us dorks and says that we can’t play with them anymore. I try to follow him to see what’s going on but he stops me.

“Sorry Douchebag,” He snarled, “but I’m not going to let you play this game with us. Nothing you say will convince me, not even the fact that your dad fucked your mom.” He closes the sliding door of his kitchen.

(What that actual fuck! Why would he bring something like that up?)

And that now leaves me stranded in Cartman’s living room. Kevin and the others did invite me to hang out with them, but that mostly involved sulking and doing nothing. I left them at the gates of Kupa Keep and entered Cartman’s house. I noticed that there was a password lock on the basement door, so I won’t be able to get in without the code. Cartman probably has it written somewhere, but do I really want to get involved with Cartman again after last time?

I decide to try and leave his house, but that’s where the lava comes in. I can feel heat from the Lego brick lava pile covering the steps. Curse my dedication to the game. Mrs. Cartman is apparently calling the police to remove the lava from the door step.

(… Ok, we can get away with calling this lava because we’re kids, but come on! How gullible is this woman? … Come on Sally, stay focused. Maybe I can climb the fence of Cartman’s backyard to get out.) I turn on my heels and slowly walk back towards the backyard.

I suddenly hear the sound of crunching snow. I turn back towards the open door and notice a kid decked out with power tools talking into his wrist.

“Yeah. I’ll be there in five minutes Mysterion. Toolshed out!”

(Toolshed? … Wait. I recognize that voice. Is that… Stan? It is!) As he ends his call with this ‘Mysterion,’ he turns towards Cartman’s house and notices me.

“Douchebag,” I hear him say, “What are you doing here?”

The only answer I can give him is a quick glance at the lava. I had become used to being silent, since my family tries to isolate me from other people most of the time. They have been able to determine what I want to say by looking at my eyes or body language.

“Oh, that’s why,” Stan replies, “Ok, hang on. I’ll take care of it.” He then jogs over to Cartman’s garage and opens the garage door. He comes back carrying a small portable generator. I watch as he plugs in a large jack-hammer shaped tool and points it at the lava.

“Stand back Douchebag,” Stan warns, “My sandblaster is pretty powerful. I don’t want you to get hit with any lava.” I quickly nod and take two steps to my right. I hear the sandblaster reave up and the next thing I see is red bricks flying into Cartman’s living room.

“Oh, never mind,” Mrs. Cartman sings into the phone, “One of my Poopsickins’ friends took care of it.”

(… Damn this woman.)

“You can come out now dude,” I hear Stan declare. I pull myself away from the wall and walk out of living room. I greet Stan with a grateful smile. He smirks at me while twirling an electric drill with his fingers as if to say ‘You’re welcome.’ I get a better look at his costume and I have to say, it’s awesome. He’s equipped with yellow eye glasses, a white t-shirt, blue jeans, black and red tennis shoes, red and black gloves, and a utility belt.

(Hey! He’s not wearing his hat! That’s a rare sight.) I notice him looking me over.

“Dude, why are you dressed like that,” Stan questions. I wasn’t wearing the costume given to me during our raid on the Fortress of Darkness. I basically looked like Jesus without the beard he is usually seen with. My costume now consisted of black tennis shoes, blue jeans, a light blue t-shirt, a red cape, and a crown. I point towards Cartman’s backyard, showing Stan the castle of Kupa Keep.

“I thought we stopped playing that when Cartman threw the Stick of Truth into Stark’s Pond,” Stan replies.

(I thought it had more to do with the fact that Kenny became a Nazi zombie and nearly killed us.)

We didn’t exactly stop playing the game. After saving Kenny by farting on his balls, we ended the war and united the kingdoms to form the Fighters of Zaron. I was crowned a king, but I was considered lower in rank to Cartman and Kyle.

I then see Kevin and the other two boys walk out of Cartman’s living room.

“Well, I’m gonna go play Star Trek VR,” Kevin says with excitement, “Bye Johnny. Bye Andre.” He waves goodbye before walking towards his house.

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5 notes - Posted May 12, 2022

#3

The Fractured but Whole: Freedom Pals Unite! Chapter 5: Mission 1: Dolly in Danger Part 1

Mysterion and I climb down from the window pane and into Karen’s bedroom. I feel a chill run down my spine, not only due to the temperature of the room, but also, it’s condition. The room is extremely dirty, with cracks all around the ceiling and walls. The carpet is stained with mystery stains and her furniture looks like it’s about to fall apart at the seams! Her bed is only an extremely filthy mattress! Even though she decorated the walls with multiple drawn pictures of pink butterflies and flowers, the horrible sting of the overall living conditions of the McCormick household overpowers it.

It was moments like this where I really felt pity for Kenny and his family. His dad is usually drunk, almost as bad as Randy; he can’t hold down a job because of it. His mom washes dishes at the local Olive Garden, but she only earns enough for electricity, pop tarts, and frozen waffles, if she is able to keep it away from her husband and her oldest son, Kevin. Kenny seems to be the only member of the family that is trying to better their lives. He’s been working for Mr. Kim at City Wok in order to earn extra money for the house, himself, and Karen. I know that Karen would want to help the family, but she’s too young to understand how hard that is to do.

(No wonder he uses Mysterion to try and change his family’s ways.) I look over to Karen and fell my heart sink even more. Her face shows signs of healing bruises and her green coat is wrinkled and stained. Her maroon gloves look ready to unravel. Her black pants and shoes look alright, and her hair is tied into two cute little pigtails. I watch as Karen runs into Mysterion’s arms, trying hard not to cry again. Mysterion looks at me with a worried look on his face. He smooths Karen’s hair in an attempt to calm her down.

“Shhh, Karen,” Mysterion soothes, “I’m here. Tell what’s wrong.” She lifts her head from Mysterion’s chest and looks up at him. She looks like she’s about to say something, but then she turns her head to me.

“Who is that,” Karen softly asks. Mysterion looks at me and back at his sister.

“Uhh … He’s a guardian angel in training. I brought him along to learn what it means to be a guardian angel.”

(Guardian angel? … Wait, Karen called Kenny that. … Oh my gosh! Kenny, you are a saint!) I can’t help but beam at the realization of what else Kenny’s been doing as Mysterion. I see Mysterion return a soft smile before returning his attention to Karen.

“Karen, please tell us what’s wrong.” She wipes away the emerging tears from her eyes before looking back up at Mysterion.

“I wanted to play with some of the girls from my class at the playground,” Karen whimpers, “so I brought my doll so I could play too. But then these big kids came and started kicking sand at us. I tried to get away, but they pushed me to the ground. They picked on the girls I was playing with and said that hanging out with a poor kid will make them poor to. They then took all of our dolls and ran away. The girls started calling me names and blaming me for what happened. I … I didn’t mean for any of this to happen!” Karen buries her face into Mysterion’s chest and bitterly cries. My heart stops sinking and starts shattering. Mysterion switches between faces of pity and anger.

“So, you’re upset that those girls blamed you for their dolls being taken away,” Mysterion questions.

“No,” Karen squeaks as she looks back up at Mysterion, “I’m more worried about my big brother Kenny! He bought me my doll, and now it’s gone! I lost a gift from him! How can I ever face him after this?!” Karen hugs Mysterion tighter as more crystal tears fall down her cheeks. My heart shatters into dust.

(She’s more worried about Kenny being mad at her for losing her doll.) Mysterion looks as if he’s about to start crying too. He gently kisses Karen’s forehead and holds her closer.

“Karen, your brother loves you. I know that he won’t stop loving you just because your doll was taken from you. Please, don’t think like that.” Karen only continues to cry into Mysterion’s chest. Mysterion’s entire being seems to dim. He falls silent and continues to hug Karen.

 I feel the dust of my heart flare up and freeze over. You’d think our modernization would make the citizens of our quiet mountain town more cautious of how they treat one another. … Then again, they did send Officer Barbrady to kill us when we scared many homeless people away from Kenny’s house, forcing them to make camp around Shi Tpa Town and the Whole Foods. Once they learned that we were just playing ninjas, they pushed the blame onto Barbrady when he accidentally shot David. I return my attention to Karen and feel a powerful tugging at my heart. I pull out my note pad and start writing.

(It’s my duty as a Freedom Pal to help the people of this town, and Karen McCormick is one of the few people that truly deserves our help.) I finish my message and clear my throat to get Karen’s attention. As she turns her head towards me, I show her the note.

{We’ll get your doll back for you.} Karen wipes her eyes and looks at me with hope twinkling in her eyes.

“You … you will,” Karen stammers. I give her a sweet smile and confidently nod my head. Karen’s frown transforms into a wide grin as she let’s go of Mysterion and wraps her arms around my waist.

“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you,” she squeals in delight. I fell the pieces of my heart begin to reassemble as I pat her head. Mysterion gives me a look of pride before returning to his poker face. As Karen let’s go of me, I pull out my note pad again.

{Now, what does your doll look like?}

“She looks like this,” Karen replies. She walks over to the dresser and pulls out one of the bottom drawers. She lifts out a long, medium-sized box and hands it to me. I look at the photo of the doll at the back of the box. It has a baby-like face with rosy cheeks, pink lips, blue eyes, and long eyelashes. Its blonde hair is tied into the same pigtails Karen has. It wears a hot pink dress with a blue flower sown into the side and dark pink flats. I quickly snap a photo of the doll before handing the box back to Karen.

“Please be careful Guardian Angels,” Karen pleads, “The big kids who took my doll were really big and mean.” I pat Karen’s head and give her a reassuring smile. Mysterion gives her a quick hug before leading me back to the window.

“Don’t worry Karen,” Mysterion consoles, “We can handle this.” We pull ourselves onto the window pane and jump down onto the ground. We jog over to the rain gutter and climb up it to reach the roof. Once my feet are on the roof’s surface, Mysterion gently grabs my shoulders and pulls me to the side.

“Thanks for stepping in back there,” Mysterion thanks, “You really gave Karen a hope boost.”

{How could I say no that face?}

“Heh, yeah. One look from Karen and I’m putty in her hands too. If my kryptonite wasn’t poverty, it would be her.” He leaps over to the roof of his garage and trudges up the curved roof of Bi the garage. As I catch up to him, we notice Mrs. Broflovski pulling Gerald away by his ear across the front yard.

“HOW COULD YOU DO THIS,” Shelia rants, “YOU’RE LUCKY THAT KENNY CALLED ME BEFORE YOU COULD DO ANYTHING STUPID!”

“UNHAND ME YOU VILE MAMMARY GOBLIN,” Gerald screeches. I stifle a snicker at the scene. Mysterion smirks in amusement before leading us over to the back of the roof and climbing down onto the glass railing. I follow right behind as we descend down the stairs and out of the abandoned shop.

“Alright Douchebag,” Mysterion instructs, “all investigations should start at the scene of the crime. We’d better head over to the playground. The kids there may have seen what happened to Karen’s doll.” I quickly nod my head and jog behind Mysterion across his yard. We pass over the train tracks and head over to where Kyle’s house is. We turn just a few meters from Kyle’s front lawn and approach the open gate of the playground. I am met the playful cheers of kindergarteners, 1st graders, and a few 2nd graders playing on the pirate themed fort, slide, and swings. I’d have to say that there are about 12 kids in total. I notice Mysterion’s overall demeanor begin to soften as he approaches the sand lot. A little boy with spiky black hair, black sneakers, blue jeans, and a red t-shirt with a monster truck on it notices us and jumps up in excitement.

“It’s Mysterion,” he chants. He rushes over to Mysterion and jumps into his arms just as the other kids begin to stop what they’re doing and rush over themselves. I watch as a wall of bubbly children circle around Mysterion, trying to get his attention by showing him toys or pictures on their phones, tugging on his cloak, or by hugging his legs. Mysterion chuckles in amusement and adoration as he places the black-haired kid down on the asphalt.

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7 notes - Posted May 12, 2022

#2

Bob Belcher is a badass!

Loud warning

19 notes - Posted June 24, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Some Randy Cunningham practice.

(I just drew a screenshot from the season 1 finale because I can’t draw this on my own yet 😅)

30 notes - Posted May 24, 2022

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