#it’s pretty obvious that i started writing this and then left it in my drafts for a while and then came back to it later

[firestorm09890]

okay here's something that's been plaguing my thoughts since I made the "did Ienzo help with the gummiphone" poll

I'm sure Ienzo could have made some educated guesses about the involvement of the replicas in the Keyblade Graveyard but how the hell did he manage to guess one might be left empty there? Why wasn't it Vexen who tipped Demyx off about something like this? And the way Demyx says this makes it sound less like Ienzo just went "well I'm not really sure because I never saw the original replicas perish but maybe there could be one available on the battlefield" and more like Demyx is coyly referring to a credible source and was waiting for an event he knew would happen. which is. peculiar.

so peculiar, in fact, that I felt the need to go check the Japanese version (because you know how the localization gets sometimes) but uh. I don’t know colloquialisms in that language (and Demyx is very colloquial) so it wasn’t that helpful when it came to parsing the tone. The meaning is roughly the same- “they need another replica, Ienzo told me I might be able to find one here, so I’m waiting”- HOWEVER, there’s an indication that Ienzo is merely the named representative of a larger group, which I do know is a thing that happens that often gets translated into English oddly.

that actually solves a few things questioned above. how did they know something would happen to one of the organization members that would leave a replica available? well that one’s still a mystery. probably not a relevant one. the when and where’s of it? from Vexen. why didn’t Demyx mention Vexen then? because Riku knows Ienzo better and Demyx likes Ienzo better and the writers wanted to get in another “Zex- er, Ienzo” in. simple as that. though Ienzo being considered the “leader” of the RG crew even after Ansem TW came back is a great sign for Ienzo fans and Ansem haters alike

hope you enjoyed this net zero information post 👍

[celestoria]

Cupid’s Game

A/n: Ahhhh, my first request. Don’t worry anon I actually found this very fun to write about that i immediately made a rough draft for the moment i read the ask.

Tags: porn with plot, dirty thoughts, penetration, oral (f), fingering, penetration, implied voice fetish, against the wall, overstimulation, hickeys

Words: 1.4k

Do not interact if you are 16 or below (17+)

The little glances you give whenever Dan Heng would enter the room, the faint smile he has when you tell him good night, and the endless hours you two would spend together without a single regard for the outside world. March has witnessed it all.

It’s still a shame despite the blatantly obvious chemistry between you and Dan Heng, neither had enough courage to make a move. To March, she believes that there is no need for such complications. She had enough of this endless pining and decided to take matters into her own hands.

“Hey, why don’t we play a game of truth or dare,” she said, cutting the silence in her room as you helped her sort out her pictures.

Dan Heng hummed. “It would be a great way to entertain us since we’ve been here for a while,” he commented. You shared the same sentiments as him. There’s no harm in peaceful quality time, however, the air feels hushed and out of character considering you’re in March’s room.

You agreed. March let out a giddy squeal and started the game. After several rounds, she got a little bold as she dared you to sit on Dan Heng’s lap for the entire game.

Though you nonchalantly accepted her dare, deep down you felt like you wanted to burst. You’ve had your fair share of spending time with each other such as walking around in a city you’ve never been to before or quietly reading together in the archives. But this was a whole new level of “closeness” you’re not sure you're ready for.

You occasionally glanced back at Dan Heng to see how well he’s been holding since both of you got stuck in this situation. Oftentimes you found his cold, reserved demeanor quite impossible to read, but seeing him up close it’s pretty clear he’s feeling the same way as you.

Neither of you wanted to be caught up in such a scene but you can’t say you hate it too.

Time flew by in a flash, and eventually, the game had to come to an end with all the polaroids finally sorted out in March’s albums. That was a relief. One minute more and you were sure you could never face Dan Heng for at least a week.

For Dan Heng, you could say the same...but for other reasons.

It was so hard to get his mind out of the gutter with you sitting on his lap while you wore that little skirt of yours. Your ass was pressed on his dick for such a long time, he was sure his dick hardened under his pants. He just hoped you didn’t notice it.

Debauched thoughts filled his mind throughout the whole game. He knew it was wrong but how can he stop when he’s been wanting you for all this time?

You left March’s room and in a flurry, Dan Heng grabbed you by the wrist and led you to the archives.

“Dan Heng, what are you-“ He pinned you up against the wall and your lips crashed together. His fingers intertwined within your hair and pulled you closer for a kiss frenzied with lust and yearning.

He pulled away, trying to control himself from going any further. “Look, if you want me to stop, tell me and we’ll pretend this never happened,” he said, your mouth barely an inch away from each other. He waited for your answer yet not even a single word has been said. He smirked and picked up where you last left it off. “I knew you liked me too,” he added in between kisses while hurriedly taking off your clothes.

Your limbs snaked around his waist and his hand caressed the curvatures of your body. Rough hands brought your thigh to his hips and the space between you getting closer to the point your body pressed on each other.

He grinded himself against you, earning the moan he always wondered what it would sound like. It was addicting to hear you cry out his name; he thought he’d only hear in the figment of his imagination.

Dan Heng got on his knees and pulled down your skirt and panties. He placed your leg over his shoulder, giving him good access to your soaking cunt. Hickeys colorfully marked the inner parts of your thigh as he made his way to your wet folds. His tongue lapped on your swollen clit, so desperate for his touch, causing your pussy to clench on nothing until he inserted fingers deep inside of you. With your pussy so eager for him, it was barely a hassle for him to curl them as his fingers soaked in your wetness.

You tried to hold back your moans, knowing the thin walls behind you were the only thing separating you from potential passersby. Dan Heng looked like a man with many secrets, but you never expected him to be the type of man to take such a large risk like this.

You tugged on his hair and bucked your hips while your clit began to throb. The two of you were barely started and he already has you wrapped around his fingers after making your wet pussy cum hard with his fingers.

Dan Heng slowly rose back up, his knees sore from stooping down to eat you out. The taste of your slick lingered in his lips and his tongue swirled around your mouth while he dowdily undid his pants. The tip of his cock prodded the entrance of your hole, already enough to cause shivers to run down your spine.

Without a warning, he inserted every inch of his dick, making you feel overwhelmed with how far he’s gotten inside you with one single thrust. You were so full of him and you tried to gulp back a moan as you bit your lip.

“Don’t hold anything back,” he demanded. “I want to hear you,” his voice ridden with desire as much as every little action his body advances on you, like how one hand groped on your sore thigh and the other skillfully kneaded your perked-up breast. His lips groaned with the taste of your name, making it sound so honey-sweet than ever before.

He felt ecstatic every time you sinfully mewl his name. It’s as if you turned a word he’s so used to hearing into something so sacred, only to be heard within the four walls confining you. Only you could make him rutt so needily to the point it felt near possible to control himself.

Your legs trembled more as he pounded your insides. “Please, I can’t take it anymore,” you pleaded, tears pooling in the side of your eyes and droplets staining your cheeks.

“A little more,” he rasped. “A little more. It won’t be too hard.”

Your mind went blank with how he’s been overstimulating you and your pussy ached while it clenched around his thick girth. He was so close to breaking you by the time his dick thrust in you one last time, spasming as ecstasy coursed through his veins.

He pulled out his dick, causing you to whimper and your juices to trickle down.  Your legs shook, making it difficult to stand alone. Noticing your struggle, Dan Heng scooped you up bridal style and placed you on his futon to give you the proper rest you deserve.

Carefully, he wiped up the mess he turned you into before wrapping you in his blanket, making sure you won’t end up with a cold.

“Go take a nap,” he replied. “I’ll make sure no one comes in.”

Draped in the warmth of the sheets that smells like him, you were still dumbfounded that something you thought you’d only dream about late at night would turn into reality— how he would ruthlessly plow you down one second then act so considerate and caring the moment after.

All things in the archives are open for everyone, but this little escapade of yours, an aftermath of a not-so-innocent dare, will remain your dirty little secret only the two of you will ever know.

[writingquestionsanswered]

i'm writing a fantasy book and i have a lot of sort of nameless guards and soldiers in it. like i have these higher ranking soldiers who are named and relevant and they all have a team of nameless guards with them pretty much always. in my first draft i've often found that it gets kind of annoying when i constantly have to repeat "one of the guards" and "the other guard" and "the remaining guard" and phrases like that. at the same time i don't want to start giving them all names since they're not that relevant individually and it's a fantasy so there's already some words and names to remember so i don't want to bog it down with ones that aren't all that important. sorry this is so long but essentially do you have any advice or ideas on how to differentiate between nameless guards without being too repetitive and without introducing a bunch of new names?

Repetitive Reference of Background Character Group

"Background characters" (aka "tertiary characters") are a fundamental part of storytelling. They populate the worlds of our stories, giving them depth and authenticity, and often they perform necessary but minor functions like driving our character's bus, locking their cell door in a dungeon, or delivering drinks to their table with a timely joke during an awkward dinner date.

When we have recurring background characters, such as a nameless mob of guards or lackeys surrounding a more important character, it can feel like they're being overused... especially when you have to use a generalized term like "the guard" to refer to them all.

There are a few things you can do to dial it back, but first, here's an example paragraph we can play with:

"Bring us the prisoner," Sir Bellamy said, gesturing to one of the guards. A trio of guards left the room and returned a moment later with Lord Peckham in tow. He was forced to kneel, and Sir Bellamy responded with a sneering grin before waving the guards away. "Do you know why you're here?" he asked, delighted when he saw Lord Peckham shiver with fear. Several guards pointed and snickered. One of the guards nudged him with the toe of his boot. "Answer 'im already!" "I... I confess... I do not know." A few of the guards hissed in disbelief. "Truly?" Sir Bellamy asked, his voice dazzling with amusement as he traded looks with the head of his guard. "Could you really be so unaware of the goings on in your own household?" The guard to Lord Peckham's right slapped the back of his head to prompt him to answer. "I do not know of what you speak," he answered, voice shaking.

This example features seven references to the background guard group, which is a lot. Let's see what we can do with that...

1 - Try to Eliminate Some Uses - When we have a recurring group of background characters, it can be tempting to constantly refer to them when they're on the page. We want to remind the reader they are there, but this often translates in a lot of unnecessary references. So, the first thing you'll want to do is see if you can go through and eliminate some of the uses. For example:

"Bring us the prisoner," Sir Bellamy said, gesturing to one of the guards. A trio of guards left the room and returned a moment later with Lord Peckham in tow. He was forced to kneel, and Sir Bellamy responded with a sneering grin before waving the guards away.

We can easily eliminate two of the three references here. If a trio of guards leaves the room when Bellamy says, "Bring us the prisoner," it's not necessary to clarify that this question is directed to the guards. If he says, "Bring us the prisoner," and a trio of guards leaves the room and returns a moment later with said prisoner, it's obvious that's who the order was directed toward. Also, waving the guards away is a throw away action. It doesn't accomplish anything important because it doesn't really matter where the guards are in relation to Lord Bellamy in this scene. And, it's also mentioned later that there are guards on either side of him, so it's a confusing action anyway.

2 - Don't Be Afraid of Naming the Occasional Background Character - While we never want to go overboard with characters in a story, it's really more that we don't want to load up our story with unnecessary characters. But if you have a recurring background character, such as a teacher, a few people in a group of high school friends, or a few soldiers in a group of city guards, it actually works to your benefit to give two or three proper names. Not only does this cut down on the generalized references, but it also adds depth and authenticity to the group instead of letting them be a completely nameless, faceless mass of people. And when these characters are named because they occasionally say or do things that matter, they're not unnecessary. They serve a purpose. And this is fairly common in genre fiction, especially in fantasy. For example, there are over 400 named characters in George R.R. Martin's book A Game of Thrones. Many of these characters are just background folks who occasionally say or do things that matter in the story.

So, back to our example, we have the following two lines:

One of the guards nudged him with the toe of his boot. "Answer 'im already!"

And

Sir Bellamy asked, his voice dazzling with amusement as he traded looks with the head of his guard.

What if we gave the head of guard a name? Let's call him Sir Hugh.

So, now it is Sir Hugh who nudged the prisoner with his boot, and who Sir Bellamy trades a look with.

3 - Adopt a Few Sensory Nicknames - In addition to actually naming two or three people in the group, you can give one or two a "sensory name," or in other words a name that relates to a sensory feature about them (how they look, sound, smell, etc.) as a way of helping differentiate a character without actually naming them. So, let's say that among Sir Bellamy's guards there's strapping redhead, so let's refer to him as "Big Red." Since this nickname comes with mental imagery, it's easy to remember.

Now, let's re-write the excerpt using all of the above:

"Bring us the prisoner," Sir Bellamy boomed. A trio of guards left the room and returned a moment later with Lord Peckham in tow. He was forced to kneel, and Sir Bellamy responded with a sneering grin. "Do you know why you're here?" he asked, delighted when he saw Lord Peckham shiver with fear. Several guards pointed and snickered. Sir Hugh nudged him with the toe of his boot. "Answer 'im already!" "I... I confess... I do not know." A few of the guards hissed in disbelief. "Truly?" Sir Bellamy asked, his voice dazzling with amusement as he traded looks with Sir Hugh. "Could you really be so unaware of the goings on in your own household?" Big Red slapped the back of Lord Peckham's head to prompt him to answer. "I do not know of what you speak," he answered, voice shaking.

Five of seven instances of "the guard" have been eliminated.

I hope that helps!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

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

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[loveswrites]

Pumpkins Please Billy Loomis x Stu Marcher x reader

Pumpkins Please Billy x Reader x Stu

Word count: 1397

Time it Took me: 1 hours 30 mins

To my loves: It was so obvious that stu and billy would win for our celebration of 300 followers! I wrote it that same night so I've had it in my drafts for 6 days now. I was thinking if I should wait till the poll ended but we reached over 300 followers before it even did, So here you go loves! Enjoy! Thank you for the support. It makes me so happy you guys enjoy my writing as it is all I want to do in life.

Love <3

“I wanna carve a pumpkin.” You pouted.

“Why don’t we just crave someone up instead.” Billy smirked playing with the tip of his knife. 

“I already have the pumpkins at my house. You wanna carve em here or there?” Stu said dropping himself on the bed making you and Billy shake with the bed. 

“You didn’t tell me you bought pumpkins.” Billy said, narrowing his eyes at Stu.

“Do I have to tell you everything?” Stu laughed out.

“Yes.” You and Billy said in unison. 

Stu started to laugh but slowly stopped when he realized you and Billy were not joking. 

“I just thought I should have them at the house since you know it is halloween. You know our favorite holiday.” Stu said, looking in between you and Billy.

“It’s not my favorite holiday mine is-”

“Christmas.” The two boys groaned, making you smile.

“The moment September 1st came along you were running around here yelling out ‘It’s christmas!’” Billy mocked you but you could see the slight smile in his cheeks as he recalled the memory. 

“It’s a lovely holiday, what can I say?” You smiled rubbing your socks together. 

Billy stroked the sides of your waist with his knife sending a shiver down your spine. He did this often. To both you and Stu. Still would often get cut most of the time cause he'd always laugh or move too much. But you trusted Billy to never leave a mark on you and he never did. Never has. 

Billy had three favorite things. His knives. His girl. And his best friend.

“Do we have to go to school tomorrow?” You questioned as Stu rubbed your legs while he stared up at the ceiling.

“You wanna skip again? Something on your mind, pretty girl?” Stu questioned. 

“Is someone bothering you? I can handle that, you know.” Billy said with stern eyes as he watched you respond.

“No no none of that I’m fine and no ones bothering me. I just don’t want to go and talk to people you know?” You said, stressed by the thought of even being in that building. 

“When do your parents get back in town?” Billy asked, putting his knife on your nightstand after taking one last long drag against your skin that sent tingles throughout your body.

Your parents had left for a business trip so you invited your two boyfriends to keep you company because why not? They weren’t doing anything before you called anyways.

“Sometime next week. It might get extended depending on some things. They told me I could go with them as always but I wanted to stay.” You said snuggling into Billy’s side.

“I would’ve left. No school and a free trip as a replacement sounds fun right about now.” Stu said, making you smile knowing that he wouldn’t just leave. He’d make sure that you and Billy were able to come as well. No matter if he wanted to admit it or not Stu couldn’t live without Billy nor you. 

Looking up at Billy who had his eyes closed you know he couldn’t live without you or Stu also. He wouldn’t admit it but he shows his love in crazy ways. Rather that’s spray painting the sides of buildings to pulling pranks on literally anybody to actual crimes. Billy has killed for you and Stu. If someone hurt one of you two you either never saw them again or saw them in the news the next day. Same if it was reversed with Stu but Stu doesn’t really clean his tracks very well so it’s mostly just Billy. 

You wondered if loving them made you a bad person. You wondered if keeping their victims a secret made you a murder. You wondered if not feeling a drop of remorse made it seem like you have the knife in your hand. 

But at the end of the day you didn’t really care because at the end of these dark sad thoughts all you saw was Billy and Stu. The two crazy boys who were in love with you. The two boys who showed you the world and would kill anyone who got in the way of your happy fairytale. You just prayed that they wouldn’t be the one to ruin your love story. 

You woke up the next morning feeling relaxed and refreshed. This made you just up and check the time. 1:24 pm. Shit you thought I missed damn near all of school. Rubbing your eyes you noticed that your bed was empty. Where did they go? Getting out of your bed you walked downstairs. Hearing voices, you followed them to the kitchen.

“Dumbass! the butter goes first, did you not read the box?” Billy snapped hitting Stu in the back of his head with said box. 

“You didn’t say that!” Stu said, trying to defend himself as he wiped his cheek leaving some flour in its place making you smile. 

“Maybe if you looked at the box I wouldn’t have to say it!” Billy fussed back. Stu opened his mouth to say something but that's when you decided to make yourself known.

“So are you two gonna bicker all day or tell me what you're doing?” You questioned walking fully into the kitchen.

“Baking you some cookies. Again..” Stu said, making you frown your eyebrows.

“Again?” You questioned.

“Stu burned the first batch.” Billy said, rolling his eyes.

“I did not! They just cooked a little bit longer than the rest.” Stu finished.

“Burnt.” You and Billy said in unison. That was happening a lot more often than usual. 

“We just wanted to do something nice for you before you woke up.” Stu said sneezing all over the batter when he rubbed flour on his face.

“What the fuck Stu!” Billy yelled while you just turned your nose up at the fact that he just sneezed on the batter.

“It’s fine. I’m not hungry. Like at all. I just wanna carve pumpkins okay? That’s it.” You said shifting your eyes between Billy and Stu.

“I’ll go get the pumpkins then.” Stu said starting to move, making you and Billy scream out ‘No!’.

“No! I’ll do it,  just stay here.” Billy said, shaking his head as he walked past you but not before giving you your ‘morning kiss’.

“You keep touching me I’m gonna throw pumpkin guts all over you.” You yelled out. Stu’s elbow kept touching yours as he attempted to show you how to carve your pumpkin.

“I’m trying to help you! You're doing it all wrong, trust me I do pumpkins.” Stu stated as if he was some kind of Pumpkin master.

“You do pumpkins?” You laughed out, tightening the grip on the knife in your hand.

“Shut up if I did you’d be jealous of the pumpkin.” Stu said, rolling his eyes. 

“As if, Who wants to sleep with you?” You questioned going back to cutting your pumpkin.

“You!” Stu said laughing as if that was the funniest thing in the world.

“Only on holidays.. Billy gets Monday through friday.” You said poking your tongue out at Stu to which he leaned in and bit your tongue making you jump back squealing in surprise. 

“Good thing Halloween is coming up.” Stu grinned. 

“Billy, he bit me!” You pointed at Stu with the knife in your hand. Billy pointed down to your pumpkin that was hanging on for dear life. 

“You need help, you keep cutting it like that there's not gonna be any pumpkin left.” Billy said, smirking, making Stu laugh.

“Shut up, it's perfectly fine.” You said going back to cutting pieces of the pumpkin.

“As if.” Stu snickered, earning a handful of pumpkin guts to the face.

“Hey!” Stu yelled out. 

“That’s what you get your lucky I didn’t throw the whole pumpkin!” You yelled.

“What pumpkin?!” Stu yelled back making you gasp.

“Billy!” You yelled.

“God.” Billy said, holding his head in his hands still with the knife in his hand. All he could hear was you two fighting with each other

He was in for a long bumpy ride if he wanted to be with you two forever. But watching the two of the most important people in his life bicker made him realize that he would kill any bump in that road to make them happy.  

[katherinecrighton]

Nuts and Bolts: Some Writing Advice

(Reposting a 2013 post from the Anna Katherine co-tumblr)

A friend of mine awhile back asked the aether for some practical, straightforward writing advice, which I assumed meant nuts and bolts stuff.

This is what I ended up writing to her.

(Caveat emptor: 1. The reason advice looks contradictory is because it literally is different for everyone — shit that works for one person won’t work for someone else. Just stick it in your toolbox and move along. 2. I will say obvious shit that you already know. Because it’s possible somebody else doesn’t. 3. You may totally disagree with anything/everything I say, oh my god, that’s fine.)

1. Use the word “said.” Throw in a “she declaimed” every once in a while if you like, but don’t do it all the time. Feel free to put in no dialogue tags at all, if it’s clear who’s speaking. But “said” is free and generally invisible to the reader (and the goal is to not remind the reader that they’re reading).

2. Writing advice for short fiction and writing advice for novels are and writing advice for one genre versus another are all going to tell you slightly (or wildly) different things. So, you know, watch out for that. I suggest switching mediums entirely, and try reading up on screenplays or three-panel comics.

3. Stick your finished draft into a Kindle or some other robot reader, and have a mechanical voice read the story to you. It’s a step removed, and you’ll hear where it clunks. Make notes as it goes.

4. If you don’t have a robot reader, read it out loud to yourself. Actually out loud. Put check marks wherever you cringe. It’s where the reader will likely cringe too.

5. Start your story at the point of change. It’s more interesting. Backfill with exposition a couple of paragraphs later.

6. Sometimes, if I’m writing a one-off, I pick a motif and stick with it as a lodestone for all my descriptions. It’s a way of creating a sort of subliminal mood and atmosphere for the reader, while at the same time maintaining a nice sense of continuity.

7. The English language likes to hear things in threes. Three bears, three nights, three wishes, and what with one thing and another, three years passed. English also likes iambic pentameter and any other rhyme or rhythm scheme it can get its hands on. Readers want language to both have a pretty meaning (three brothers seek their fortune) and a pretty sound (now is the winter of our discontent). The fastest way to do this, and not have it be totally obvious, is to combine the two. Have three lines of description, three examples of something, three jokes — and do it semi-regularly. It creates a rhythm in your work, like a heartbeat. Study other people’s stories and see if you can find where they’re doing the same or similar things. Count stuff.

8. Then, later, fuck with your readers by breaking the rhythm. Stop the heartbeat. Miss the step. The reader will get nervous and uncomfortable and have no idea why. Makes for good tension.

9. Other things that make readers uncomfortable: Set dressing. We’re used to visual mediums. If you want to set up a really uncomfortable scene, describe key things around it going in, and make it clear that it’s Not Okay. A pair of scissors that have been left half open. A door that is not entirely shut. A radio caught between two stations, the garden hose still left running. Nothing overt, nothing obvious – just stuff that feels uncomfortable to read. Do enough of those in a row, as you head toward a confrontation, and the reader will be a ball of avidly reading tension by the end of it. 

10. Graphic sex scenes are equal to action scenes. In both instances, know where everybody is, and what everybody’s doing. Describe with more physical action than you think is necessary. If the reader doesn’t know where everybody’s limbs are and what tools are being used, then they’ll get confused and bored. You can always edit later.

[verdemoun]

The non-warpers.

Mary-Beth Gaskill is regarded as one of the greatest female writers to exist, up there with Shelley and Austen. In the foreword of her best novel, she writes: “to Kieran.”

Orville Swanson’s annotations and teachings of the Bible are so influential; his attitudes towards different ways of life cause drastic positive change to how Christians act towards those of different cultures.

On what is now the main street of a large town Rhodes, a supermarket stands, modern as any other. Behind the till, Johnathan Pearson smiles at a now faded photo of eight people around a wagon, his grandfather Simon in the front seat.

Tilly Pierre dies of natural causes in her sleep, next to her snoring husband in the largest house in Saint Denis.

Mary-Beth absolutely is up there with Shelley and Austen, which means all the school aged babies come home complaining at least once about having to read her books. The whole gang scold them for whining only to pretty much do the homework for them because they all love her novels - many of which are basically her own take on fit-it aus.

The Lady of The Manor, for example, reads as a beautiful tale of love between Susan Grade and David Vincent fleeing police inspector Mellon to the islands with her niece and Mr Vincent's apprentice, only for Ms Grade to realize the curse David Vincent claimed to be under (that compelled him to commit increasingly heinous acts) was a complete fabrication. She banished him to isolation on his precious islands while raising her niece and the highwayman's apprentice as her own children in the new world.

Mary-Beth's dedications would never mention names for the sake of protecting her past as a VDL, but the gang suspected many were to them. One of the more obvious ones was a novel titled Strawberry Roan, which was dedicated 'to the one who helped me realise I could be happy without being in my head somewhere else'. Strawberry Roan reads much more like Mary-Beth writing a 'how to look after horses for dummies' as she learned to look after the horses the gang left behind, except for a slow burning love affair between protagonist Marie and a charming stable boy who is tragically forced to flee the estate to avoid being drafted and no doubt killed in a fictional war.

Orville Swanson was such a charitable and revered member of the community he not only accidentally founded a whole new branch of Catholicism based on his annotated bible, but remembered as a significant figure in recent American history. The gang still randomly find his likeness on commemorative coins in their loose change (and usually keep them).

While his church was accidentally destroyed in a fire several years after his death, a garden was planted on the site in his honor and memory. It's a major tourist attraction featuring Orville's Fountain, with wishing coins thrown in collected for donation to non-for-profits and community services that support at-risk teenagers.

His legacy shows everywhere in modern era America. Arthur one day got really lost in modern era Blackwater and needed to call the gang to come get him - only to find himself standing on the corner of Orville St and Swanson Boulevard.

Counter-claim Pearson lived long enough to see other grocery stores start to pop up in Rhodes as it became a bustling town and was afraid his little local store would be out-competed. Before he passed away he significantly expanded the local produce range of his store. By the time his grandson inherited it, it had become one of the best local delicatessen + sandwich shop in Rhodes and is often featured in top 50 places to eat at in America. Johnathan is also going to be featured later yoinking that character.

Not only is a photo of the gang, as passed down for generations, still proudly displayed (well, a slightly sharpened copy of the original photo, which is now kept in secure storage to protect it from UV), but his grandfather's treasured compass. It is a small shrine to his grandfather's legacy both before, during and after the VDLs: copies of his navy enlistment and honorable discharge forms, newspaper articles featuring photos of a post-canon older Pearson receiving awards for both his store, and having the best damn stew at the local fair.

Tilly Pierre lived a long and truly fulfilled life. She never knew discomfort. She found a man who loved her, and worshipped her for who she was and had always been. She saw her oldest daughter go off to marry a wonderful man who loved his mother-in-law as much as he feared her and would always treat her daughter right. She helped her youngest girl fight for the right for an education, and go on to a remarkable career. She raised sons that would never know the perils of turning to crime to survive, or fear where they would sleep that night. She died peacefully, in a bed more warm and comfortable than she could ever have dreamed of knowing in 1899, knowing every day of her life she was loved.

[more-cardigan-than-woman]

Jealous!!Jason Todd x fem!!reader

The reader is dancing with someone else at the gala and Jason gets jealous. The reader knows she is doing it on purpose to make him jealous until he breaks.

Took me 3 times to write this. My stupid app kept closing and losing my draft. So enjoy.

Possessive: Roomates!Au Drabble.

WARNINGS. SMUT 18+, possessive attitude, collaring, car sex, jealousy, Jason gets rough, deg, praise, some poor guy gets thrown around, spanking.

"Jay, please come dance with me," you beg, both your hands clutching his huge one as you try to drag him from his seat.

"I said no, Princess." He snatches his hand back, "I'm gunna go get us some drinks, I'll be right back."

"Why'd he come then?" You ask, turning to Dick who's being uncharacteristically quiet.

"Don't look at me. You'll get me in trouble, too."

"You guys are no fun. This is suppose to be an after party. Emphasis on the PARTY. Will you dance with me?"

"I'm staying outa this one," Dick raises his hands.

"Ugh, fine. I'll find someone else then."

"You know thats a bad idea."

"Your face is a bad idea." You huff, spinning towards the flashing lights of the club and away from the quiet VIP section you guys are hiding out in.

You scan the room and your eyes land on a tall blonde guy. He's almost as big as Jason, his blonde curls falling just below his ears, his dark green Henley clinging to his biceps. You slink towards him, fluffing out your hair, pulling down your tight red mini dress and puckering your lips.

When you reach his side, you slip your arm through his. His baritone voice echoing through you as he peers down at you and asks, "can I help you?"

"Dance with me?"

"Alright," he smiles down at you, "see ya's in a bit fellas" he says to his friends as he leads you onto the dimly lit dance floor, "Mitchell," his voice nearly inauible over the music as you reach the dance floor, "who are you, Pretty girl?"

"I'm nobody," you smile coyly, leaving some distance between you as you start to move to the music.

"Something with a J would be my guess," he says, eyeing the delicate letter handing from the chain around your throat.

"What the fuck," Jason mutters, turning from the bar and spotting you immediately. Your beautiful legs swaying not far enough from Gothams star quater back. The fuck are you doing?

Leaning back into the bar, he watches as you toy with the man, always stepping just beyond his reach. The poor guy can't stop staring at you, and Jason can't blame him. You’re the sexiest girl in any room, as far as he's concerned.

You're laughing, surely he's not that funny. Jason groans, sipping on his whiskey, the glass nearly shattering in his hand when you turn, and he sees the man eyeing your ass

He's almost enjoying watching you move to the music. Almost. But when he sees that fucker slide his hand around your waist and how close his mouth is to the pretty marks he left on your neck, he sees red.

Downing the rest of his drink, he stomps towards you. Your eyes meeting over Mitchell's shoulder and he can see how panicked you are.

"Come on, pretty girl. Tell me what the J stands for?" Jason hears him ask.

"Jason," he growls, grabbing the him by the shoulder and pressing his arm into his back, "she's my girl."

"Sorry man, I didn't know."

"Really? Because I made it pretty fuckin obvious," his chin darts towards the now visable bruises on your neck.

"It wasn't his fault," you add.

"Oh, I know exactly who's fault it is." Jason glares at you, before pushing Mitchell back into the crowd on the dance floor and taking you by the wrist, "you've been a bad girl, Princess," he snarls as he drags you behind him.

"Where we going?"

"Apparently, I need to teach you a lesson." He hauls you from the club. His eerie silence lingering in the air has your blood pumping and you can't keep the smile from your face.

You can feel the jealousy seething from his pores, his hand so tight on your wrist as he throws you into the car door. His lips connecting with yours and his fingers close over your cheeks, "don't fuckin smirk at me you little slut," he growls, yanking the car door open "you think this is funny?" He pushes you inside locking the doors behind you, "You wanted my attention Princess and now you've got it." He snarls, as he crowds behind you.

"Ass out, Princess." He commands, pushing your chest into the back seat, "lift this tiny skirt up for me."

"Jay, it was just a bit of fun." You try to reason with him as you lift your skirt and reveal the little lace thong underneath.

"You know it isnt," his hand palms your ass, "someone couldve gotten hurt" his nails dig into your skin, "Now Count." He says, "five times, Princess. Maybe that'll remind you who owns you and this pretty pussy." His hand connects with your ass and you count every single one. Your pussy growing wetter and wetter with each and you legs barely bale to keep you up.

"Why'd you do that?" He says as he unclips his belt, "You know, how I get." He grabs you by the hair, "do you enjoy working me up?" He tears your panties in half, "is this a game to you?"

"It's fucking hot."

"Hot?" He slaps at your pussy, "fucking bitch. Maybe this will teach you," he snarls grabbing the back of your neck, "that if you act like a bitch," pushing your face down into the seat, "I'm going to fuck you like one." He shoves his cock into you with full force.

You smile to yourself as his cock burns you, stretching you out and filling you full until he's fully inside before jerking himself back out. His fucking rough and hard as his nails dig into your soft skin. "This what you wanted slut? To get me to treat you like the whore you are?" He scrapes his hand up your thigh leaving red marks in their wake as he leans over you. "Want to be my little slut huh? These marks not enough to tell you that you're mine?"

"No."

"The necklace I bought you?" He pulls on the delicate metal chain, making it go taught around your neck, "do I need to spell my whole name around your pretty throat?"

"Yes, fuck".

"Need to leave more marks on you?" He leans over you, his chest pressing into your back as he whispers on your neck, "leave them all over you?" He releases your necklace only to dig his nails into your hips, holding you up so he can fuck down into you. "No. Princess, no cumming. You have to wait for me." He demands as he bites into your skin.

"Fuck, Jason." You pant, pressing your ass upto him. "It hurts." The ache in your stomach twisting in knots at you try to keep from finishing.

"Keep saying it. Tell me who owns you."

"Jason."

"Who makes you feel this good?"

"You."

"Am I the only person who gets to see you like this?"

"Yes, please. Please let me cum."

"Prove that you're mine then."

"Yes. I will, Jay. I will"

"Cum on me Princess," he growls into your ear as his cock thrusts deep within you. "Mine." He moans, his cum filling you up as he fucks it deep inside you so you'll never be able to get rid of him.

"I'm sorry, Jay." You apologise as Jason rolls from you and pulls you onto his lap.

"Not yet. You got all night to make it up to me." He kisses as your cheeks while his hands sooth at your sore ass. "Think you can?"

"I know I can."

"Good girl." He smiles, laying you down on the back seat before crawling into the front and starting the car.

"Can we get ice cream?" You ask, laying your head on your hand as you stare out the window.

"No. You've not behaved."

"Lame."

"Shit."

"What?" You stick your head between the divide of the front seats. "What's wrong?"

"We forgot Dick"

Taglist:

@letmebebatmanpls @zadri @lovelyrissa @hopeannalea

@tild3ath @biggetywitch @shinysam29 @ilikw @gone-batty-fics

@princessbl0ss0m @deadpoolgirl23 @bubbles-incorrect-yb

@fallinallinmendes @hungryhungariann @comic-cat83

@gratefulstranger @pariahsparadise @escapism-r-us

@1800-get-alife @raging-trash-of-mind

@mysticalcomputerdetective @katdog111 @zbeez-outlet

@ayocee @megumisbabymomma @piscesbluee

[luffysangtae]

If We Get Divorced | Lin Manuel Miranda

Summary: Inspired by that old tiktok trend ‘if we got a divorce, what 3 things would you take?’

Words: 749

A/N: Just a little something that I wrote a while ago and I had this in my drafts for sooooo long and now it is here. My writing is still pretty rusty so apologize if it’s bad heheh

Warning: none? 

The sun from our apartment window shines bright down towards Frankie and I on the couch. He had his face smushed down against my chest, asleep.  As I was scrolling through Instagram, swiping through questions that I posted early today.

I took a selfie of baby Frankie and I with a 'ask away!' prompt for any of my followers(mostly my husband's) to ask. I swiped and swiped till I came across one that peaked my interest.

'@mrs-miranda can you do a 3 things divorce with Lin?'

I chuckled at the thought of my husband answering this question - speaking of, he was just behind  my phone a few meters away in the kitchen approaching the fridge, carrying Sebastian on his hip.

I quickly clicked on the question and pressed record. I first waved at the camera and made a whisper motion before flipping the camera that then recorded the man wearing a loose navy shirt and green khaki shorts - his casual attire at home.

"Babe?" I asked, slowly lowering my phone so that it didn't look obvious I was recording him.

"Yah?" Lin responded, his front facing the open fridge door,  looking for a snack in this mundane day. Sebastian laid his head on his father's shoulder as he idly paid attention to our interaction. Lin was reaching for something in the fridge as I continued with the question.

"If we get divorced-"

"W-wait, what?!" Lin turned with his arm withdrawn from the fridge that held a couple pack of cheese strings at hand

"What would be 3 things that you would take with you?"

"Babe what kind of question is that?" he scoffed in disbelief.

"Lin answer my question~" I playfully whined.

"Daddy what is divorce?" Sebastian peaked into the conversation, pulling his head back to look straight into his father's eyes.

"Hold up," Lin exclaimed, setting firm stance for on the spot to process the two question he had to apprehend, "first of all," he pointed a finger up towards me with his cheese strings still at hand and faced his son in his arms, "Sebastian ignore your mommy that is not going to be in your vocabulary," and he turned back to me, "And you Carino what makes you think we would EVER get divorced!? babe you are not leaving me," he scoffed with his hand now placed on his hip, cheese strings still unopened.

"Don't leave Daddy Mommy!" Sebastian cried out, before wrapping his arms around his dad's neck.

"Sebby your mommy is just asking a very hypothetical question which is never gonna happen," Lin cooed.

"What's hypothetical?" the young boy pulled back his head again to look at the man in front of him.

I interjected, "It's just a 'what if' babe, I wanna know."

"Well do you?" Lin asked, as he placed Sebastian down on the kitchen island to open the dairy snacks for the two of them.

"No, but I asked you first"

Lin gave his son the string with its wrapping halfway open for his son to start munching, "Let me get this straight," grabbing his son back to his left hip and his other hand occupied with a now opened cheese string for himself, "you just wanna know what 3 things I would take with me just out of the blue?"

"Si"

"if we get divorced?"

"Si"

"First of all, you can't," he exaggeratedly shook his head, causing his son to giggle with his string clung in his mouth, "we," pointing with his string to him and I, "got kids," keeping eye contact to me (and the camera,) "and you signed up for all of this," he pointed down his whole body causing Sebastian and I to roar in laughter.

"I can't leave any of you, not in a million years I would Carino," Lin softened his face.

"But if you really want to know, I would take all of you three; Sebby right here, Frankie and you. You are not leaving my sight."

I pouted.

"Don't give me that face, you know that I'm not kidding," he pointed out again with his cheese string.

"Sebastian, do you think I'm kidding?" he asked turning his face to his son.

"What's kidding?"

"Joking, Sebastian."

"No Daddy"

"See," he turned back towards me.

"Alright, alright then Miranda," I chuckled, watching my two boys slowly disappear down the hallway.

"All of this Carino, all of this," he made a face as he pointed down his body again as I giggled in response.

[im-a-king-baby]

For the Director's commentary: I would love some more background thoughts around chapter 12 when Simon stays overnight with Wille and also cannot sleep and needs the drugs. I've thought about what went through his mind that night...

oh mannn, so I started writing this a while back after someone commented something similar (possibly also you?) and it just kept getting longer and more depressing 😬

Also then my commentary also got long (no surprised there) so it's under the cut, usual TW for talk of addiction.

This is an interesting moment to talk about the writing of because this concept of Simon getting up in the night and phoning Kevan actually came pretty late in editing. The biggest plothole in draft 1 was how everyone found out they were in Bjarstad (there was a fill-in but it didn't really make sense and it was just there to get to the Confrontations which are key to the plot) and I was doing the usual washing-dishes-musing-about-sad-popstars at work when I had the (in hindsight obvious) realisation that Simon does not carry unlimited drugs on his person and would, in fact, be sobering up. He doesn't have a source of drugs in Bjarstad and he's not (at this point) interested in getting sober.

The research I did about cocaine addiction talked about how long term use can affect your ability to feel good things without the drugs. When you've been binging and you stop there's a crash with associated depressive thoughts, anxiety, cravings. It's also a stimulant, so Simon finishes his supply off to try and act like a functional person while Wilhelm is awake, but then he's got nothing to go from the high to sleeping (typically he would also have a downer, eg a sleeping pill or xanax, to end the night on so he could sleep and start again in the morning.) So basically he's lying there, wide awake, he doesn't want to wake Wilhelm up but also his thoughts are spiralling downwards as the happy chemicals drain away.

And then the thoughts start up of 'if I just had a bit more, if I had the pills, I have to get through tonight but also I have to be able to act like a functional human tomorrow when wilhelm wakes up and I don't know where to get anything in Bjarstad and also Simme can't be seen buying drugs in Bjarstad because that would be Bad, but Wilhelm deserves better than me being shitty to him just because I'm sober.'

There is a thing with addiction and rehab about needing to hit rock bottom to make a change, which usually involves being hit by consequences. Simon's position and his team has left him pretty sheltered from the consequences of his addictions (he's always got access to drugs, he's not missing commitments because they're steering him between them, he doesn't have to worry about affording it) but he needed to hit that low moment.

The issue in draft 1 without the phone call was that Candace showed up but nothing had really changed for Simon. She said some crap because she was angry but there was nothing Simon didn't already know (fun fact: I was scrolling through cut sections the other day and some of Candace's lines in C13 are almost word-for-word matches to lines I took away from Simon in the hotel room (they worked as his thoughts but it didn't fit to have him saying them out loud).). So the existence of the phone call, and the way it roped Wilhelm in when part of wanting the drugs was to stop Wilhelm from seeing how Simon felt sober ('I just want you to be happy' - Wilhelm, chapter 16) was this consequence that Simon was suddenly faced with.

And in a way, it had already been solved. Candace had already bribed the hotel, she's very accustomed to covering up this kind of fuck-up, but for Simon the reality of how close he came to hurting Wilhelm was definitely part of the catalyst to 'this isn't working, something has to change here.' (Then add on all the shit Candace says when Simon is too tired/depressed/sober to fight back (which again Simon would not take anywhere near as hard if Wilhelm hadn't been there to see it because what Wilhelm thinks of Simon matters a lot more than what Simon thinks of Simon))

But now I am jumping ahead to C13, sorry! In the night, he's not thinking that far ahead. He's thinking there is a phone right there, he can figure out the hotel and remember Kevan's room number, drugs will arrive and he'll take them and in the morning he'll get to smile and kiss Wilhelm more and *handwave* things will work out. There is no long term plan beyond getting something to smooth off the edges of his brain, and there's not even a real plan for how to do that (do not ask your employees to uber you drugs, folks). He's desperate, he's depressed, and he's hoping someone else will fix it because someone else (cough Candace cough) has always fixed it.

And then he finds a bottle of wine at the back of the cupboard and drinks the whole thing so that he can at least finally fall asleep.

I have no idea what I'm going to do with the whole depressing sprawl of a scene, but here is a Simon POV extract for you:

Then Wilhelm yawns, nudging Simon back and rolling onto his side, the invitation to cuddle up clear, and this was why Simon finished the coke, wasn’t it? Just because his blood is racing and his heart is pumping doesn’t mean he can keep Wilhelm awake trying to explain why it wasn’t okay to go further before but it is now because Simon is okay now, and trying to explain why he’s okay without Wilhelm asking questions or turning on the light. So he rolls onto his side while Wilhelm wraps an arm around his shoulders and tries to still his racing thoughts, tries to focus on something that isn’t how much he wants to turn back, capture Wilhelm’s mouth with his. He runs through songs in his head. Not his own - not the ones he has etched into his bones - but the songs they used to sing as children. There’s nothing like a love song, his mama used to say, on the nights when Micke wasn’t home until late and they could turn the radio up and dance around the living room. There’s a song about staying awake, just to hear you breathing. There’s a song about finding love in a hopeless place. There’s a song that goes I’ve hungered for your touch, a long lonely time. “All the great love songs are sad,” Simon finds himself saying. Wilhelm’s forehead presses against the back of his neck, his breath is warm on Simon’s skin. “Write one for me,” he says. Simon thinks about standing in a recording booth singing Hold on to every moment ‘til I find you, or Que hermoso es ser amado, or I’d want to feel like that. Imagining Wilhelm’s arms around his waist, Wilhelm’s eyes watching him from across the room. ‘Who do you think about when you sing the love songs?’ Laura had asked, not even twenty four hours ago. Simon closes his eyes, counts Wilhelm’s breaths as they settle out waits until Wilhelm must be asleep before letting himself reply. “They’re all for you.”

[bismuthburnsblue]

pre project write up: the coat!

ill keep this short (for me) because i worked through most the details with the wearable mockup from last year, but i wanted to reintroduce this project & the fabrics ill be using :)

This is the final version of my winter coat project, which i am starting at a great time (ill probably finish this well after its gotten cold!) Ive started with a base of McCalls M6800, because im not super confident in my ability to draft a pattern with the correct ease for this type of garment. Ive made some minor fittings (far too much room in one of the front seams for me, and i took some volume out of the skirt area. the shoulders were. weird. i honestly wouldnt rate this pattern super highly it had some grading issues that should have been caught, but it serves my purposes) and now i should be ready to go! i wont be following the instructions very much but theyre pretty basic anyway, so ill just go my own way and see where i end up!

this is kind of the inspo if you want a visual!

the main body of the coat will be made out of this gorgeous, velvet like wool (i think its a blend?). In true Nyx fashion, its black and absolutely impossible to photograph. its probably one of the most expensive fabrics ive ever bought but i looked through dozens of options and this was by far the best one i found. im really particular about textures and this one is just, so nice, and its quite thin for a wool (not in a bad way, its just compact rather than fluffy) which is something im going to appreciate with the amount of fabric in this coat.

Next: the lining! given that i was going to all this effort to make my own coat, i wanted this to be a completely unique garment, in every aspect, including the lining. I knew i wanted something with a design on it, and something that was a dramatic contrast to the outside, so when i saw this gorgeous 'chinese brocade' fabric i knew it was the perfect thing. Its very much. not a lining fabric and was past the budget i had in mind for my lining but i didnt see anything that came even remotely close to this in my mind so i caved and bought it. Even a year on im still enamoured with it and hope i have some left over to use for other things! I did get extra of the slippery black satin i used to line the mock up coat and i plan to use that to line the sleeves just for the extra glide, but ill use this for the main body.

one last fabric! one of the changes i wanted to make from the red version was to add a fur collar so i tracked down the softest faux fur you have ever touched! again awful to photograph, but its perfect, and it was by weight, so now i have a huge piece of this :D

i do also want to make note of the buttons i picked! theyre absolutely gorgeous and i, once again, hunted for ages to find the perfect option and here they are! they photograph a lovely colour but irl the gold is a little pink toned so my extra ass has bought some rub n buff to tone them into a better shade. yes. the buttons. for my coat. listen.

im generally happy with my mock up, but there are a few changes i want to make. the obvious one was one that was in the plans from before i even started the red one, which was changing the collar. i wasnt super sold on it in the first place and the further in i got, the more i wanted a fur collar! since i have so much of my fur, im also planning on adding it around the cuffs and i do keep tossing up doing the whole hem but i think that might be a little much.

The other major change i want to make is to how i finished the coat. im actually pretty happy with the hemming method i chose for the reasons i chose it, but for this version i want to do something different. the plan this time is to do a facing in the outer fabric on the lining pieces and have that completely attached through the inside, removing any opportunities for the lining to show unintentionally.

Theres also a couple of minor fit things i want to change, i want to add more width to the back in case this fabric is tougher than my mockup, i want to rethink how i did my buttons because that made me miserable last time, and i want to add a little length to the hem. oh and better pockets! i need to give it my mega pockets. but overall im pretty much ready to go straight into it! im so nervous

[galactic-pirates]

For the Fanfiction Writing ask: 2, 18, 29, and 48, please! 😁

Yay thank you for the ask!

2) Where do you get your fic ideas? Ask me at the time and I'll know. Ask me now and I'm not sure. Some are obvious. Like if there's a specific prompt and then my brain chewed on it and lightning struck boom and it coalesced and came together into something.

As you are a Sanctuary friend let's take some of those fics:

Happy Ending = the song "this is the way that we love / like it's forever / and then live the rest of our lives / but not together" and I was like, make it fluffy. I don't know. I was just coming off writing Our Darkest Hour.

Choosing Fate / Time Will Tell = the tropes. I was like let's do an arranged marriage AU. Pretty sure I was watching Bridgerton at the time as well. And then I wanted to see if I could make Soulmates a trope I could like.

Life Without Purpose = for a Zombies in July event

Gentlemen of Blood = I was given the title, and had to think of a fic to go with it. That Bond quote by M came into my head of "when they say they have people everywhere, you don't expect one to be in the bloody room" plus the Sherlock Holmes movies.

I don't know, does that answer it a bit? My brain is a mess and it just needs prompting for it to spark basically.

18) Do you enjoy research? Which fic of yours required the most research? Nope I'm too lazy. I get easily frustrated. If I can't find the answer quickly I get annoyed. The internet is wonderful and I want to strangulate it sometimes. It's like I know the information must be there, but can I find it? It's no wonder I am drawn more and more to making my own worlds, because then I can just make everything up and don't have to worry about if I'm right or not. I just have to be consistent within my own story.

The aforementioned Happy Ending actually took a surprising amount of research, which to be honest probably ruined the fic because once I had all the stupid marriage details, I had to include them because I had bothered to look them up dammit. Haha, I know, why self? Also Odyssey: Future's Legacy had a lot of history in it and I had to make all the timelines line up. Let me tell you timezones + international travel = headache. I'm pretty sure Warehouse 13 never paid attention to travel times on the actual show but I made everything plausible.

29) What’s something about your writing that you’re proud of? Already answered here :)

48) Who is your favorite character to write for? Has this changed since you’ve started writing for that fandom? This is very close to question 41 (here).

Ok well let's go with Sanctuary fandom. I'm going to go left field and answer with Nigel. Which isn't exactly true but I will explain. Nigel is like the forgotten member of The Five a lot of the time. He's the one that didn't live until the 21st century and the one that isn't romantically linked with Helen. There's very little known about him and I was surprised and delighted as the more I referenced him, the more cohesive he felt in my mind. He got an actual personality, backstory, goals etc. So while Nigel isn't a favourite character, I do enjoy how I developed him.

Bonus question as you had a repeat!

11) Do you write scenes in order, or do you jump around? I'm a very linear writer. I literally can't write out of order. Sometimes this trips me up because I think if I sense that something I have written isn't right (aka the foundation is rocky) then I grind to a halt and stop making progress. Now with fanfic which I never tended to revise that heavily, that's fair enough - I'm not going to do a complete redraft but with original work? Ehhh.

It is generally speaking better to revise a complete draft, to see the entire picture. I can't recall where I first heard the expression but I have applied it to drafting ever since - "there's little point in polishing a turd" - aka, I don't know what I'm going to have to cut until I can look at the whole thing, so don't waste time polishing a scene that might not make it. But yeah getting frozen because I have to be linear, but something isn't right, but I shouldn't waste time fixing it - frustrated mental scream!

Oh another point! I have a friend that exclusively jumps around, I don't think they could write linearly if they tried. I have always wanted to ask them, but haven't dared in case they think I'm judging them (and I'm definitely not!), whether they find foreshadowing/thematic arcs/character emotional journey's etc. harder to write as it's out of order. For me, I can't imagine getting my head round it backwards but clearly people do it, so that's a me problem. But yeah no I have to be linear.

[thegirlwhowrites642]

Hi! My native language is Spanish, so I apologize for grammatical errors in this post. Well, today I read a post about Wyler (It's a ship from Wednesday Serie), where the person behind it wrote that in her opinion, put the names together to make the shipp name, wasn't a good idea because it left out the story and the characteristics of the characters or relation ship. Then, I thought of Hinny, and that they used to be called Orange Crush, but we don't have any idea or explanation for that name, and I was wondering what kind of name it could be for them. And also, if you had any opinion about it.

Hi!

First of all, please never apologise for your English on this blog. It's not my language either, I often make mistakes (mainly because I'm an idiot who doesn't re-read what she writes but that's beside the point). This is an absolutely safe space for non-native English speakers and if you guys ever want to discuss how it is to approach spaces where you need to talk in English or how it is to experience the Harry Potter books without being Anglo-Saxon or the cultural differences between these characters and your world, my asks are always open.

That said, back to what you asked me.

I despise the ship name hinny, it's so ugly. Orange Crush wasn't much better but at least it was kind of creative (?). Those were the early years of the books, therefore Ginny was mainly the girl with a crush on Harry so I guess "crush" came from that and "orange" for the hair, I suppose.

I think we deserve a new name. I think Harry and Ginny deserve a new name. We had the Orange Crush era, and we had the Hinny era, can't we have a third one? A third wave.

Fun fact, I actually have a list of possible names for them in my drafts.

My main inspiration was wolfstar which is objectively the king of ship names. It references the identities of the characters and their names and it sounds like an actual word. I so wanna meet the person who came up with it. They clearly have a superior brain.

My list of names was this (they are pretty much all terrible but I'll humiliate myself if we can start this conversation):

scarblush -> I know, terrible

butterbludger -> I know, it sucks, I'm basically just making fun of them, Ginny putting her elbow in the butter dish, Harry being killed by bludgers

homelight -> this is an actual reference to the meaning of their names, Harry means "home ruler" and Ginevra means "white light" or "bright spirit", I think we can work around this, but homelight makes too much sense already as a word, so it doesn't work

skeeingchase -> obvious reference to their Quidditch roles, definitely too long

Then I had a couple with their names:

Hinevra -> this one is actually beautiful but I think it's too long

Havra -> meh, it does kind of sound like the name of a Celtic female spirit though

Girry -> this one is sooo ugly

Hanny -> no comment

[hms-no-fun]

apologies if you’ve written this somewhere before, but in a couple of these #sarahposts you refer to a retcon you made in gf1, what was the change?

oh yeah! i don't think i've really extensively documented this anywhere, so i might as well do so here. let's start with the boring shit and cover the history, then i'll give you the full breakdown of what changed.

so when i wrote gf1, i had no sense that i would ever want to go beyond the realm of this one fic. but i DID have this idea of "the ultimate ultimate self," an entity that contains all selves which is never mentioned in homestuck. funny that THAT’S my first big canon divergence, rooted so deep in the philosophical. obviously the big existential kick of gf1 is this idea that retcon is somehow eroding john's connection to that ultimate ultimate self, or at least to his ultimate self generally. the extent to which this is TRUE remains to be seen, john/june is never an objective arbiter of their own subjective existence, but it is an important idea for the series nevertheless.

the other key ingredient is that for a long time i planned on doing my own audio drama adaptation of godfeels (as i mentioned at the end of this video). obviously i never got around to doing this myself and eventually abdicated responsibility to the far more capable hands of the podfeels team, but i did get as far as adapting godfeels 1 for a podfic (which is what they used for podfeels 1). so i took that opportunity to modify a few things to bring gf1 more in line with how the series’ cosmology had evolved.

RIGHT SO, what are the differences? well, they're almost if not entirely exclusive to the narration. and right from the start, we have a big addition:

[left is my original draft, right is the published version]

when i wrote gf1 i put ZERO thought into how long after homestuck proper it took place. remember that i wrote and released this before the epilogues came out, so it was only later that i adopted the timeline and framework of the epilogues. if anything i wrote gf1 thinking they were closer to *my* age at the time, meaning like 27-28, which might have caused me problems down the line. but this addition is also important because (as i rant about in this recent post) i think it's easier to swallow questionably in-character dialogue when you know that this is six years and change after homestuck. i still don't think the overall timeline gets emphasized enough throughout... honestly ALL of godfeels before chapter 8 lmao. looking back i was shockingly negligent in this respect.

what else?

lol ok sure

this was a pretty substantial addition owing to the fact that back then i really wasn't interested in writing anyone but the betas, and even then i mostly just wanted to write about june and jade. obviously that changed, so i wanted to do a better job of setting up dirk's murky relationship with june. ditto with june and terezi's murky romantic tensions.

this is The Big One. i’m not even sure i could tell you the precise significance of every change here, beyond the obvious one. would you believe that this was before i thought of X as a distinct character? but i still had the sense that the antagonism of the third person narration here was rooted perspectivally, and it’s my opinion that john at the pits of his worst depression is closest to X, the part of himself that judges his every action against the assumed perfection of all his friends. after june comes out and takes charge of her identity and Things Happen, i see X as reflexively turning their judgment outwards (though still with a core of self-resentment), which is how we eventually get the circus egotistica.

big changes here obv

some simplification of text here plus some additions. is the narration here describing jade’s voice breaking through john’s dissociation, or is it something more cosmic? either could be true...

minor alterations here, plus a probably too-cute stinger banging the drum that This Is An Ongoing Series Now Actually

and as far as i can tell, that’s it! very minor changes for the most part, but it’s the little details that get you every time :)

[wooahaes]

Hihi! For the ask game -

I was thinking a jun co-workers AU? I'm not sure what kind of workplace -

I'm a sucker for hospital aus and teachers being setup by students -

But I feel like an office AU or something along those lines would be cute too?

💕💕

ok i accidentally left this in my inbox for a few days, my bad!! sorry nonny!! :(

hmm... consider........ professor wen junhui... you and jun are both professors int he same english (lit) department (alongside like. wonwoo and probably hao). honestly a lot of ppl probably notice how ur offices are right next to one another, so whenever you both aren't giving lectures, one of u is sometimes chatting up the other in their office. ppl swear that ur only ever talking abt work, but like... it happens often enough tht ppl start to get suspicious, yknow? esp because both of you pretty much introduced yourselves as unmarried/single when someone asked (nosy freshmen, usually)...

plus if a student has to make up a test for any reason and one of you can't be there, the other is Always the person to go to. jun has straight up emailed his student that something came up but that you've graciously offered to let his student take their make-up test in your office, just please don't bother you too much because you're a busy person who he highly respects.

(jun isnt subtle.)

you're also in charge of like. the study abroad program that usually includes literature majors, history majors, mainly just ppl who are in the humanities, and ppl absolutely notice that (in early spring semester) jun has this fond smile on his face whenever you come around to give your spiel to his students about signing up and where to find your office. or ppl notice the fact that the two of you occasionally eat in the dining hall with other faculty, and that jun is Always listening to you with the exact same 'i am so in love with you rn' smile on his face?? or the way you bring jun coffee in the mornings.

like. its so obvious that the two of u are in love. ppl say theyve seen the way you've interacted w the theatre department!! and the jealous way jun looks at dr choi and dr lee!!!! bc seokmin is always so warm toward you!!! hes obviously jealous!!! why doesnt he just ask u out already!!! or u ask him out!!!!! this is the worst slow burn in the world--

meanwhile ur sitting with a student one day, giving them feedback on their rough draft when jun starts to kind of hover around outside ur office. u finish up w the student and tell them to email you if they need any further assistance (or to go to the writing center, tbh, you are a busy person but you can understand confused freshmen), and jun comes in as you pack your things away. it isnt until you get to the parking lot that he holds your hand, already talking about the new restaurant that seokmin was telling him about downtown. he's heard rly good things and figured maybe the two of you could check it out before maybe celebrating your three-year anniversary there next month...?

idk i just like the idea of 'omg theyre obviously into each other!!! but they deny it :(' while the couple has just been together for a while, they just like their privacy

[mikaharuka]

☀️ (a comment that made your day?)

Heyo Alhaira!

There are four comments I wanted to shout out! The final comment is under the cut because it's long... but it's definitely the winner. Whew.

(@magma-saarebas19, @alpaca-clouds, @danceswithdarkspawn, @mrsmungus - I think y'all might be interested. It's a wild ride O.O)

Two simple and sweet ones (from Obsidian 10 and Midnight 14):

Your story is so good!!! This is literally my favorite twilight fanfiction ever!

I really like this fanfiction! I never thought I would like Mike as a character but here we go. Tbh I was looking for a little bit Carlisle action... but what I got was a whole new Twilight universe :)

One that made me think - this was left on Viridian 2 in mid-August last year, only 2 weeks after I started. It's stupidly obvious now... but I didn't know about my sensory style and this comment made it click:

Wow. I’m really in awe of your skills with scene setting and describing characters. You do it in such a way that provides a lot of lovely details but isn’t at all like your describing them consciously. It just reads really naturally while still painting a detailed picture in the readers mind.

-

And this last one... whew.

It completely freaked me out in the most flattering way possible!

...and yes, this one is on Azure. It's also the most recent chapter they've read. They haven't read Sapphire, Sangria, or Midnight yet!

So. This reader. This terrifyingly brilliant reader.

I'd call them a seer, but this goes way beyond that. Let me explain:

One - They had Mike pinned in a way no one else had. It's no big deal now, since everyone knows his color deal now... but this was written when Azure was the most recent chapter - back in September.

Back when even I didn't have his power completely nailed down yet. Before I went back to edit minor clues earlier on, about this power.

The part where both Beau *and* Mike come to school with dark bags under their eyes is quite damning. I have a strong hunch that Mike is hiding some pretty big shit from Beau. They both have a charm from Edward after all. Maybe Mike is starting to get some visions of his own? Or maybe he's had a Mandala of his own for as long as Beau, or just got one recently.

Two - They didn't just pin the future. Oh no. They also nailed my abandoned Apricity 1.0 as well! Beyond that, they even got me to reconsider using more of the original scene/intentions (still not sure how much, though)... and they have no idea about any of that:

I don't think Beau will doubt that they're vampires anymore after this dream, lol. The amount of time that Carlisle spent caressing his neck, biting his lips to the point that it breaks the skin, and finally biting into his neck to drink from him really made it clear. Carlisle was definitely showing off his possessive side with his pet names, but that last sentence was particularly chilling. "You're mine now, sweet boy," sounds like both a threat and a promise all wrapped in one. I shudder to think of what might happen if he saw someone was flirting with Beau. The other boy would be dead so fast...

I was so shocked that they nailed my original Apricity 1.0, that I actually clued them into it, in a deeper reply. I wrote this back to them - back when I was certain I wouldn't use the majority of it:

Oh yeah! I forgot to mention something earlier - bizarrely applicable to the point you made about what Carlisle might do IRL if someone tried something with Beau. So funny story - last year, when I was first writing out Cerise (the hospital chapter), I'd actually written an off-screen scene to get a feel for the characters and the actual in-chapter scenes. Mind you, that outtake and the first draft of Cerise are so far outdated now, that a good chunk of it doesn't connect to Cerise or Apricity of today... but traces of that scene still exist in both Cerise and Azure today. . In any case... in that super old Cerise outtake, after Carlisle grabs Edward and drags him out, they end up in that isolated hallway/room and Carlisle pretty much confronts Edward about... something (pretty obvious that something happened, even from today's Cerise). But within this very outdated draft, at some point, Edward starts egging Carlisle on about liking Beau, that first day at school, and Beau being his singer - just to get his straight-laced brother to react and well... Carlisle reacts... uhh... badly, to say the least. He ends up at Edward's throat on an instinct, but at some point he comes to and feels really terrible about it. Strangely enough, I was channeling a few pieces of that old outtake when I wrote Azure (and rewrote the today's Cerise from scratch)... so I'm actually kind of impressed that you somehow saw a piece of this old outdated reference I used for the dream sequence! . That being said, I'll leave it to you to decide just how outdated that outtake is relative to Cerise today. There are definitely a *lot* of major changes... but the outtake isn't totally irrelevant XD

And their cute reply to that:

Well, what are the odds of me asking what Carlisle would do in a specific situation, and that scene actually happened in an unpublished draft? Lol, that's amazing.

Three - You thought it ended there? Nope. It goes even further.

This person somehow nailed at the core of the mystic bond that those two share, as well as the elements of the dreamscape.

To be fair, they openly admitted that they read the chapter twice and noticed a ton of shit they didn't notice the first time around.

Also don't worry about spoilers. This is high-level enough that it won't give away stuff on its own... though Alhaira, I rambled about all of this in the DMs, so you should be able to see how close this person got.

The scariest part?

I think this person figured out my subconscious mind before I did:

The dream/vision was very interesting to read. Beau was able to recognize his surroundings, smell petrichor, remember to find his friends, etc. even in such a state. That he had so much control over his senses was surprising but seeing as this was more of a magical vision rather than a normal dream, it makes perfect sense. [...] The part where he felt a rush of power from the forest was intriguing. I know that he has more of the Current surrounding him than usual, but this is making me believe that maybe Beau can become a shifter or learn magic himself. [...] That Beau is enamored with him to the point that he'd let Carlisle do anything he wanted to him sounds extreme- so much so that I'm beginning to think that vampires have a lure or a siren's call or something else in your story. It's making me wonder if the actual Carlisle was present in this specific vision, and that's how Beau is being so affected by a supposed dream. [...] And boy, I'm excited to get some answers myself. The way the Mandala works is eating at me. I don't know if Beau is being affected so strongly from the Mandala because he isn't familiar with the current, he needs protection from the current, or if it's just the pull/lure of the vampire that he's connected to.

Well, I'll leave it at that for now... on its own, this isn't enough to spoil or anything, since they don't know the details for sure and are just theorizing. But this comment put a stupid amount of stuff into perspective, dragging so much stuff from my subconscious mind.

This was also the comment that made me revisit the whole thing with the Mahabhuta interlude, exploring the dreamscape and mystic stuff even further... even though this comment happened a whole three months before the vampire bingo card happened!

(I'll explain that in a post about the interlude soon, for Miranda's ask)

To say that I would pay money for their take on Midnight... wouldn't be a lie. I want to see what else they can drag from the depths of my subconscious. Heck, I'm like... 80% sure that if they read Midnight and soon, Prithvi, they'd be in striking distance of my exact plans!

Long story short... to say that this comment "made my day"... that'd be the biggest understatement of the month of last September!

[thecandywrites]

The Switch Chapter 14

The Order of Radiance

Woo, it's been a hot minute since my last update, took me 6 months to do Monster March. But I got through it and now it's back to my regularly scheduled stuff. Enjoy.

The Switch 

Chapter 14

The next morning, you awoke with a start, right at dawn and immediately reached for your pen and latest journal to write as fast your hand could move across the page as your new pen barely kept the ink flowing freely enough to keep up with you. 

Because while you had tried to shrug off the “altercation” with your former King and Queen. It had still bugged you and you felt like you were missing an obvious solution to the problem and after sleeping on it and even dreaming about it, you awoke with a solution. 

You barely had it written down before you got out of bed to quickly relieve yourself and keep writing as you did so and barely had the lights dimly lit so you could go to your desk and keep expounding on the idea and before you knew it, you were using up all the ink in this pen. You tried to use your second and spare pen to trade out while the other hand refilled the ink reservoir as the other hand just kept writing- like a woman possessed, trying to get it all out and all down as it was like the most beautiful flower blooming in your mind as suddenly everything came together and with just a quick look at the bank note from Solowards- and the sale of the land that Saffiro had left behind, you beamed when you did some quick math and calculations right there in your notebook and then- like finally placing the last pieces of a puzzle together. Suddenly with only a new page, using your now- refilled pen, you drafted the first The Order of Radiance Lease Agreement and when you had finished the contract you took a few shaky breaths but stared at it and your face suddenly bloomed in a smile of relieved victory. 

This was it. 

This was how you were going to deal with them, this was the perfect solution. And how you were going to practically own them and every other unsavory royal you had ever encountered and ever would encounter. And this was how you were going to protect yourself, the Contessina Order, which from now on would be known as The Order of Radiance- using your official Dorierran given honorific title, so that future generations wouldn’t have to worry about distinguishing themselves from you on an individual level. And this would protect Salgria Shipping and every other person in the D.A. who would ever even think of landing on Solowardian Soil or even airspace for that matter. 

And then like magic, once the flower seemed to fully bloom in your mind, another seemed to come into view and suddenly you were reaching for a stack of papers and suddenly you were writing as fast as you could, trying to get it all down and write with one hand and draft with the other, without really looking at what the other hand was drawing as you kept closing your eyes and seeing it in your mind and trying to write it all down. You were going to make each skyport a flower. A perfect- daisy like flower. A single, beautiful divinely simple, stately stem, but with a disk like face with each petal making up the face when it would need to bloom and show off it’s pretty petals. 

And no sooner had you done that before suddenly you were using up every flower you knew of to create more versions of what you could clearly now see in your mind as your imagination created it as fast as you could write it down as you were creating stacks and stacks of papers from both hands as you were so infinitely grateful you were ambidextrous to allow this feat as you were putting each stack of notes with each drawing into one big, rather messy pile in front of you, trying to criss cross them so that you could keep them all separate. 

You had drained two whole bottles of ink and were on your third just as Kragan woke up a couple of hours later as you were so far down the rabbit hole, your eyes were traveling back and forth between the two stacks of paper to make sure that each thing you were working on with two separate hands doing two separate things were- somehow perfectly in sync.  You didn’t care if your fingers were going to permanently turn midnight blue from the ever precious indigo ink. This was pure genius. And it was like you were on some kind of super drug where time was no longer a concept your brain was accustomed to. You barely registered the sun rising, only that the room was getting lighter from the greater increase of light coming into the room through the windows helped you work. 

“Tess?” Kragan murmured once he woke up and reached for you, only to find the blankets pulled back and you were no longer beside him. And even the bed itself was now cold from your absence as his eyes soon snapped open to see you no longer in the bed and he felt panicked to no longer see or even hear you. 

“Tess?!” Kragan called out a little louder and it caused you to finally pull you out of your hyperfocus and jumped in your skin and caused both hands to jerk the ink on the pages. 

“I’m here. I’m here. I…I am having the best and most genius idea ever and I’m writing it down.” You answered as you finally seemed to come up for air for the first time you woke up before you seemed to take a nose dive right back into it. 

“Ok… wanna tell me or if you do, you’ll lose momentum?” Kragan asked as his body relaxed as he looked from the bed, to where you now resided in the middle of the room where your desk was- to feel like a fool for not realizing that if you were not in bed- of course you would be at your desk. 

“I’ll lose momentum. I can’t stop. I’m not done yet. I mean, I’m almost done but I can’t stop now. If I stop now, it’ll stop blooming and I can’t cut the flowers off before they bloom.” You cryptically answered him back. 

“Flowers?” He repeated in confusion. 

“Yeah, flowers. So many flowers, all blooming, all at the same time. Like late spring, when the whole garden starts to bud and then bloom all at the same time. But I have to get to all the blooms. I can’t miss any of them or else they’ll wilt before I get them all. I can’t miss them.” You implored desperately. 

“Did you get any sleep last night?” Kragan asked. 

“Yes! I got the best sleep of my life! It’s where the first buds of the first buds of blooms started to appear and when I woke up the buds bloomed.” You answered manically as you continued to go at a hectic pace. 

“Are you…are you on drugs? You’re…you’re manic. Why are you manic?” Kragan asked worriedly when he recognized your tone and got up and came over to the desk to see you working like some kind of supercharged machine. 

“No! I’m not on drugs. Well, not any of the ones that any mortal can make. My brain is giving me my own drugs. My own fireworks of flowers. It’s like divine inspiration, when the gods inspired the holy books to be written by the prophets. Same thing but just..less holy but if this is what divine inspiration feels like- I get it. I’m almost done, I’m almost done, I only have a few more flowers to get to.” You repeated as you wrote so fast, the writing was near illegible and you were writing in shorthand too! And your hand and wrist and forearm from the other hand were already stained and you didn’t care if you were smudging your own drawings, they were still there enough for Kragan to look at and redraft officially if he needed to. 

“If you must look, start with the bottom section of the stack in front of me, but, very, very carefully, don’t disturb the rest of the stack.” You urged him as you kept moving your head and your eyes back and forth as you drew and wrote as fast as your fingers would let you. 

“...okay…” Kragan frowned but did as you asked and oh so carefully pulled the section at the bottom of the stack out and left the rest as undisturbed as possible before he looked at the drawing and then to the pages as you had put the lease agreement first and then the first flower, the daisy plans with that. 

“Oh-ho-ho-ho! Yes! Oh Babe, this is genius!” Kragan cheered when he read it. 

“Thank you, Now look at the flower! Look at the flower!” You urged him as you continued at your near frantic pace. 

“What the…oh, wait, wait, what? What did you…Did you seriously design a ship with no sails but…but that could move in the twelve winds because you…you redesigned the propulsion engine motor?!” Kragan gasped when he saw the “flower” and all of it’s beautiful, glorious petals. 

“Oh, oh this is giving me an idea. Have you tackled the sunflower yet?” He asked. 

“That’s the third one.” You answered as he then took the next two out from under the stack, and got the “sunflower” one out and laughed in delight. 

“Oh! This changes everything! This changes everything! Oh my gods, this, this completely changes everything! This is perfect! I love you so much! You’re the smartest being in the universe! You’re divine!” He announced as he kissed your cheek emphatically before he took it and went to his desk that was on the other side of you and did a freehand drawing first, using your sketch and your writing as a guide and just as you were finished with the current flower and changing putting it all together and simply made a second stack, he was just diving into these first ones. 

Kragan practically giggled as he drew out the basic design and then gave it bones and flesh and then skin, like creating a new life from scratch. And because he knew the real world applications and know-how and even used your inspiration to spark his own imagination and his own spark of creativity as he then redesigned how it would all work and how it would all be built and what the dimensions needed to be. What everything needed to be- in order to work. And work like the dream came to life that it was. 

“So it’s possible?” You asked as you took a moment after finishing your last set to look over at him and watched fondly as he worked. 

“Yes. Very much so. I never would have thought to do anything like this without your divine inspiration.” He beamed happily back at you as he looked at you with absolute delight and giddy excitement.

“I don’t know if it’s divine…” You allowed. 

“Oh, it is, trust me. This is how you’re going to catapult us into the future. And if you’re doing these based on flowers, each country and each place has it’s favorite flowers, you could totally tailor these to more suit the aesthetics of each place. And they will be perfect works of art and wonders of the world and will be its own destination. Plus I love the change to the Order. It’ll make the privilege of knowing you personally that much more precious and intimate in a way.” He began. 

“That and it’ll be easier for the future generations to not constantly feel like they’re in my shadow and have to constantly differentiate them from me.” You explained. 

“Yes, I agree. It would be confusing in a lot of ways, like it has with the ships themselves.” He agreed with a nod. 

“I’m happy you agree, I have another idea but I wanted to run it by you.” You began. 

“I’m all ears Dearest.” He invited. 

“I want to give Millie a job.” You began and it caused him to frown slightly in confusion for a moment.  

“Doing what?” He asked, trying to keep his tone light and not betray how much he was against Millie ever tearing down anything you had built up. 

“My mother has always insisted that Millie was always a princess and future queen in the making. And with this wedding, she is loving all of the attention and the favors and the royal treatment and everyone kissing her ass so to speak. And she couldn’t be happier with that. And it’s a spectacle where she’s the star of the show.” You began as you saved your best “flower” for last as you slowed down and really took your time with it. 

“Ok…” Kragan slowly nodded in agreement as his frown deepened. 

“But Millie is dreading her life as Countess Lavine in Solowards. Because here I am, practically empress of my own empire and she’s being looked at and expected to repeat what I’ve done and she…she has no idea how to do that and wouldn’t even know where to start. Because all she knows is the performance. She doesn’t know anything else. And that’s only because she’s had it practically beat into her since she was a child to be nothing like me, to be the exact opposite of me, all flash but nothing of real substance. Because if anything of real weight is a burden and no one wants to be a burden. To not be too educated, to not be too intelligent, to not be anything other than a little doll to be dressed up. Or a jewel in a jewelry case, to be worn and to be an accessory to Ron but not be her own person. And now that others are expecting her to be her own person, she’s having a hard time figuring who and what that person is without being told by someone else. And even now, Gwendolyn is terrified to even leave the house. She hates all the pressure that I’ve unknowingly and unintentionally put on her and Millie. And she’s incredibly introverted and very shy and she hates the spotlight of any kind. And she is dreading the thought of even following in either my or Millie’s footsteps. But I have an idea for her, but I want to go over it with my parents. But before I do that, I want Millie to have a chance to stay in the spotlight so that Gwendolyn never has to even get on the stage, not until she really wants to.” You explained. 

“So..this is more, how to save your sister Gwendolyn from being a spectacle, while making it so that Millie stays the spectacle?” Kragan concluded. 

“Yes.” You confirmed. 

“Ok. What did you have in mind?” He asked curiously as his knitted brow relaxed.  

“When people will no doubt get their ships and are eager to set sail on the twelve winds and see the world, the rich and powerful and most likely royal ones- will need something of a guide. I want to promote Millie to be a Radiant Diamond. Which is really, only a fancy title that will make her feel important. But it’ll be so that she can go around to all of these capitals first, go to all the opulent opera houses and go to all the courts and palaces that- for those who want to pay the price of staying a night in a castle and live like a royal guest for a day, she could create a guide and her own diamond system. I’m thinking of giving her- her own rating system of diamonds. Specifically five. So if she will go to these eating establishments or will go to these other palaces to stay and live like the princess she’s always wanted to be and has been trained, since birth to have the super fine, opulent and super luxurious tastes. And she can rank and rate everything the world over, starting with Wakanear first since she will be there on her honeymoon. And after the honeymoon, simply either transition or keep it going and sail around and the moment a skyport is opened up, she will be there, trying out everything first to see which places are worth the time to get to. And the fuss that everyone will have when they see her ship, followed by it’s fleet of huge cargo ships behind her and surrounded by other guard ships, as if she is the most precious new bride in the world, more precious than even the Dorrierran ones. Not only would and could she do such a thing, gleefully and joyfully, it would be something she could and would take very seriously. Because it puts her as the seat of judging everyone else and everything else instead of herself being judged and she would have her chance to have her nearly impossibly high standards to be met. And she wouldn’t have to worry about the Solowardian court or really trimming down from Princess to Countess, if anything she can keep herself as she is if she wants to be. She would amass her own empire of all things luxurious and refined sophistication. Since, one, she has the training, two she has the desire and the patience and the skill for that arena that I simply don’t want to have. Hell I was going to go and ask High Councilor Langashi for that biggest and most grandiose crown and present it to her as a wedding present and “anoint” her as such after the wedding. Because then it would be seen as I would only ever trust her super refined luxurious tastes to suit The Order of Radiance Luxury Guide Book.” You relayed. 

“That..that would be perfect for her.” Kragan blinked in surprise as his eyebrows lifted for a moment but a smile soon bloomed on his features. 

“So what about Gwen?” He asked. 

“Well, she’s always been more intellectual like me. But because she is so private and likes the comfort of home but doesn’t want to be a home body all the time and is only currently that because she has a fear of being judged and picked apart if she were to leave the house. She even moved into my old suite of rooms at home, eager to have a private space of solitude, but at the same time, confinement is better than being thrust into the spectacle with Millie. But at the same time, I think she will do better at finding the super secret gems. Like the opposite of Millie, where Millie will be quick to be drawn like a magnet to the really popular and pave the way to the best time of your life at any point in your travels around the world. Gwendolyn will be anti-popular, but for those who want the real, authentic experience, she’ll be the super secret guide. The places where you can’t make reservations. The places that don’t cater to tourists but where you can find the real truth and real soul and real authentic experiences at various places instead of falling for the tourist traps. I want her to find the opposite of that and her guide will be for the precious few intellectuals, artists, those who are more genuinely interested in not going along with Millie’s extravagant luxury guide, but are happy and content to be much more discrete and where no one gives a shit about who you are and what you do and how much money you make or that you’re wearing the latest and greatest. If anything, it will be the opposite, where you can just be and be comfortable. Like when you were just a sailor on your ships before you met me. All of those places that you knew you could and would be accepted just the way you were. But places that might not break out in brawls because these will still need to be safe for others to travel to without getting into trouble or come to any kind of harm. But that you’re not just a tourist, that you’re taken as you are without any kind of pretense, you’re just passing through like any other person. I want her to find the kind of places that will be happy to welcome you in, you can clap along to the music, drink the beer and enjoy really good music and your evenings after doing art or music or reading or appreciating architecture or meet authors and artists and musicians and enjoy their company and either join in or appreciate them as they are. Places like Souja Tavern. The places that make you feel like you’re a local. That you’re no better or no worse than anyone else and where everyone is equal and as long as you have some coin, and good manners, you can still have a good time. The artist circles, cafes, the little eateries, places like that. For the people who march to the beat of their own drum, but can do so safely.” You expounded. 

“And then I want you and your brothers and even your dad- to make your own list of places that- if you want rowdy, if you want rough and tumble and dangerous and thrilling, these are the places for you. You either can or can not use your own name of course. But it would be a very much- travelers beware- danger can lurk here- kind of thing.” You carefully expounded.  

“Yes, I believe I can do that.” Kragan laughed with a nod. 

“Thank you.” You thanked him. 

“But otherwise? That five diamond thing? I think Millie would take to that job like a fish to water. And I think your parents would love that for Gwendolyn to feel involved and feel included but not have to be part of the production like Millie is. I think that’s brilliant. And it’s your empire, you do with it what you want and of course I would be happy to help you and support however I can. But yes, I think those are excellent ideas and I think Millie especially will be ecstatic.” 

“Also I want to give Millie- plaques that her super famous, super luxurious places she will undoubtedly find- can proudly display. But I want Gwendolyn to have her own marker. But I want it gold with black laquer. Like a super secret code. Or like a password to get into the secret but exclusive places that only those in the know and those in the intellectual, musical and theological, and artisanal spaces would be happy to have those like minded and be beacons where those of likemindedness can come and be themselves without judgment or without too much dangerous exposure, does that make sense?” You asked. 

“Yes, perfect sense.” Kragan nodded with a proud smile. 

“Thank you.” You smiled. 

“Also, I want to hire a police and security force and especially a lawyer team and an investigative branch as well. Like I want The Order of Radiance to be taken seriously and have it’s presence felt and understood with crystal clear clarity.” You added. 

“Oh yeah, of course.” Kragan nodded in agreement before Mildred knocked on the door. 

“Yes?” You and Kragan answered before Mildred came in with a small tray of tea. 

“Oh my goodness, up and doing business already and not even dressed?” She teased. 

“Tessa woke up quite inspired, it couldn’t wait.” Kragan readily excused with a proud smile. 

“Oh?” Mildred asked as she set the teapot down and poured a cup of tea for each of you before she got you a little plate and passed it to you. 

“Oh my goodness, Lady Tessa! Your hands! And your arms?! Are you tattooing yourself in your ink again? You and your ambidextrousness, both hands are like this.” Mildress teased before she tried to grab a rag to try to clean it up. 

“But look at what she was making.” Kragan said as he handed her the finished sketch he just then finished up. 

“It’s beautiful. I have no idea what it is. But whatever it is, looks beautiful.” Mildred praised. 

“Mildred, when you watch a daisy bloom and atop a stately stem, suddenly a table like bloom rests serenely atop it’s stem?” You asked. 

“Yes.” Mildred nodded. 

“Now you know how a leaved table, with a simple pull on the outer fram and a few adjustments, suddenly a table that once only could seat four, could now seat six or even eight, depending on how many leaves you put into it?’ You continued. 

“Yes…” Mildred slowly nodded as she still tried to see how the two things would be related. 

“Now, imagine, instead of pulling the frame apart with the table to set the leaves inside. Imagine adding the leaves to the table on the outside. And you can add as many leaves or in this case- petals, as you want. And you can interlock them to the center stem. And, if the petals are supported, not all the stress of bearing the weight is on the stem, suddenly, you can make that flower as large as you want.” You explained as you showed her your original sketch before Kragan showed her his and how it would work and how you could make a “flower” out of the skyport. And potentially make it to be as big as the city itself if you needed it to. 

“But what about those under it? Wouldn’t that block out the sun from them?” Mildred asked. 

“It would only be up for a few days for special occasions. Otherwise the petals can be like little additional meeting rooms on the skyport. But with each having it’s own engine, they can be flown and arranged anywhere on the skyport that they’re needed and with retractable walls. They can either make a larger enclosed space or even be open to allow a good breeze to come through.” You expounded. 

“Oh, well that would be lovely. Like little additions to any of the skyports or even the ships themselves.” Mildred noted before you and Kragan and yourself immediately seemed to light up excitedly. 

“Oh Dear. I’ve done it again. Ok, let me get you both your breakfast and most likely lunch and dinner delivered to your rooms. And I’ll send for more paper. Large drafting paper especially. And I’ll even get more inks if I have to.” Mildred sighed in defeat before she saw herself out and had another cart brought in, covered in various dishes from the kitchens before she went ahead and got at least a dressing robe on you both, should anyone actually call you on the messengerari and not still see Kragan shirtless and you in nothing more than a nightgown and opened the windows to let the fair breeze into the rooms. 

“Happy Anniversary by the way My Lord and Lady.” Mildred said as she brought in fresh floral arrangements into the room and set it by the window so that the breezes would waft the scents into the room. . 

“Anniversary?” You questioned as you looked up at her and looked at the date. 

“Yes, it’s been a whole six months already. And you’re still halfway through your pregnancy. But with your sister’s wedding still a good three months off. It will be a wonder what will happen first, your sister becoming Countess Lavine or you becoming a mother because they should be happening at about the same time. But my midwifing instincts say they won’t. Your sister should walk down that aisle before you walk into motherhood with his Lordship walking beside you in fatherhood.” Mildred cooed happily as she replaced the floral arrangement on the table you were eating from too, making sure the fragrance of the blooms would be appreciated as much as it’s beauty without getting in the line of sight between yourself and Kragan since the small table was really only big for two people and their dishes for breakfast. 

“Oh gods, please don’t come before the wedding or even the day of. The day after? Go for it my Darling.” You worriedly told your belly as you rubbed at the babe inside as they seemed to still be sleeping. 

“Oh don’t even speak such things My Lady. Don’t be tempting Fate like that, lest they make it somehow ten times worse.” Mildred urged you. 

“Seriously, don’t.” Kragan shook his head no. 

“But yes, happy 6 month anniversary My Love.” He added when he kissed you sweetly.

“Happy Anniversary Beloved.” You mirrored happily. 

“And if my midwifin instincts are still as sharp as they ever were, I would actually wager your sister being done with her honeymoon by the time the babe comes.” Mildred wagered. 

“Then I trust your word for it.” You offered before a thought came to your mind once you took a bite of breakfast and chewed it thoughtfully. 

“Mmm! We should call the notaries, the bankers and others to come to the house for the lease agreement as well as make the changes to The Order.” You reminded both Kragan and yourself. 

“Perhaps you should get dressed in something other than a nightgown and a robe if you are to entertain guests of any kind, My Lady.” Mildred urged. 

“Yes, after breakfast though.” You nodded before you quickly jotted down a list and handed it to Mildred. 

“While I finish up eating breakfast, could you please call those people and tell them that I will need to speak with them at their earliest convenience?” You asked Mildred sweetly. 

“Of course My Lady.” She smiled as she took the list before she put it into her portable “phonebook” she kept in a notebook of her own that had all the messenerari numbers on it of all the people you liked to keep in contact with. 

Once you had eaten your fill, then you let the other servants come in and help you dress in your new dresses that had been delivered the day before to suit your growing belly and bosom and support you while still keeping you in surprising stylish comfort. You chose something much more discreet and much more demure for today- than what you had gotten yesterday. 

And once you were dressed, then you called your parents, who thankfully informed you that the King and Queen both refused court today because they were still reeling from the call yesterday. As you told them about the plan you had hatched that morning and showed them the lease agreement and the countermeasures you had already drawn up. They were ecstatic for it and thought the plan was ingenious.

And when Langashi called you, at Mildred’s request, you showed it to her and even she thought it was ingenious and was quite impressed and agreed that this was the best honey trap imaginable and that if they did not go into the honey trap, she would the iron fist to back you and The Order up. Which you were eternally grateful for. 

Within the hour, you had teams of notaries, bankers, and even Langashi came with Dorierran Judiciaries to your palace, and in particular to your “official reception room” where you were content to put on a simple diadem instead of a full crown in your head as you sat at the head of the long business table with Langashi at your right as others took seats along the table as they drafted up official paperwork to do as you wanted and needed them to. 

You had the Masters use their special paper, their special inks, and their special magic tools to make the lease agreement or the purchase agreement, whichever their Majesties would prefer as you wrote out your official offer to them, making it the best sales pitch you could, full of ass kissing flattery and strokes to their egos and instead of giving them a choice where they felt they were within a rock and a hard place and instead of challenging the norm. Offer them the option to keep it a cost they would happily pay, while also releasing others from it if they wished to leave it. 

And it seemed it all came to be done all at the same time because the ink had no sooner dried on the official document and the seal already stamped in place before your messengerari had rung from your parents and the Lavines. 

“Well, it is all done. All that needs to happen is for the exchange of money and land holdings to go into your name.” Your father proudly informed you. 

“Perfect. Then let’s get our business done first, and then from there, we can negotiate with their Majesties.” You nodded before you took the special messengerari pen and signed the documents your father had prepared as well as Count Lavine before a Banker processed the large transfers of wealth to their D.A. accounts and made ready for the influx of wealth to the King and Queen of Solowards. 

“Pahpah, I now grant you the office of my Official Ambassador of the former Contessina Order, which has just been changed to The Order of Radiance- simply for my own simplicity sake- as well as the title of Supreme Chancellor of Commerce for The Order of Radiance as well. And as Ambassador, your estate, land holdings are now property of The Order and I am granting it to your ownership and stewardship. And those in your household and tenants are now all officially citizens of The Order of Radiance. Please note that The Order holds every man, woman and child as individual citizens. Every man, woman and child of the commonwealth will now receive a yearly stipend which is to be used as a base income in The Order of Radiance within the Dorierran Alliance of a thousand gold denari and 500 silver denari in addition to any good or service they may provide to supplement such an income in union with their support of The Order. They shall receive this as a living starting at the age of 1 and shall go into immediate effect. They are all protected under The Order of Radiance Charter. As well as enjoy the rights and freedoms as stated within The Order’s Bill of Rights. Do you, as landholder and renter to The Order of Radiance tenants- agree to these terms on their behalf and under penalty of The Order of Radiance Law- swear to uphold the Law of the Order as it coincides with the Dorierran Alliance Law and Order?” You offered. 

“It is my pleasure to uphold such an honor.” Your father agreed before he signed the papers of Nobility under the Order as well as relinquished his former title as Duke for the King and Queen of Solowards, with one stroke of the pen- freeing himself, his family and those he cared for as landowner- of Solowardian Law and fully into the D.A. and The Order of Radiance. 

“Excellent. Congratulations Ambassador.” You smiled. 

“Now, for the details. It is decreed under The Order of Radiance that, as Ambassador to The Order- you will only ever owe the nominal fee to the D.A. as a citizen of the D.A. As well as to The Order of a thousand gold Dorierran danari a year. Otherwise there will be no other taxes collected by The Order. Only those by the D.A. which we are all international citizens of. But otherwise, you will now have an income from The Order- and that salary is this amount. Is this agreeable?” You officially informed him once you wrote that number down for him to quickly see. 

“I do.” He smiled as you could tell he was already thinking of ways to turn that sum of a hundred thousand gold denari into millions. 

“And my beautiful Mamah. You are my Prime Radiance of The Order of Radiance Official Court. Where you can choose any court site of your liking to hold your court. You may hold your court in conjunction with The Order’s Court of Commerce. Or, if you wish to keep your court separate and have it be any other kind of court you see fit- you are empowered to make this court how you see fit and I now empower you to accept or decline anyone whom you deem worthy into your court, if I or any other Lady of the Order do not accept them into the court previously. And that, as also my Ambassador to any and all other courts within the Dorierran Alliance, that you will be the Order’s eyes, ears and mouthpiece should you see fit.” You informed your mother proudly. 

“It is my pleasure to hold this honor.” She gleefully agreed. 

“Excellent. Also your income for this office, both as Ambassador and as Prime Radiance- to be used how you see fit and engage in any business you so desire both in and out of The Order’s Court of Commerce.” You grinned before your mother gasped when she saw the same number for her. 

“Are…are you sure?” She couldn’t help but blurt out. 

“Yes. Both of you are heads of your courts. I couldn’t have one- make more than the other. I need to empower and fully realize both courts.” You nodded. 

“I’m…humbled by your generosity.” Your mother offered as her lips wavered while her eyes grew glassy with tears but she signed it before you pulled the papers back. 

“Excellent. Now I will need all of my siblings to please enter the room, if they are not already present.” You offered. 

“We’re here!” Your other sisters and brothers giddily announced as they came around to be with your parents on the Messengerari. 

“Now, Toulouse, I know you want to be a lawyer, I’m going to count on you to help me with The Order’s interests in navigating Solowardian Law, I’ll be sending you law books and a team from Dorierra to bring you up to speed on the D.A. side of things, and I’ll need your help drafting more than just the Bill of Rights ok?” You requested. 

“Yes, on it.” He readily reassured you. 

“Saffiro, you’re already my Chief Financial Officer for The Order. So that’s already taken care of. Bellamy, I know you’re really good at sneaking. I’m sending you a team of investigators. I’m gonna need you as my Chief Investigator for The Order, you think you might be up to learning to be that? I know you’re only 15 but you’re pretty good at it as it is.” You urged him. 

“Yes!” He beamed. 

“Gwendolyn, I need you to help me find the best musicians to provide music for various functions The Order will no doubt have. Because you’re a natural talent for it. I’m counting on you helping me find the best talent- even if it’s in unexpected places and I’ll send you the finer details later, but for now I need you to sign here.” You worded with a meaningful look as Gwen blinked in surprise to hear that but did as you asked and signed it before a packet came to her own private messengerari in her room. 

“So what do I get to do?” Millie asked expectantly. 

“I have saved the best for last, my Dear Millicent.” You grinned. 

“Yes!” She cheered. 

“Since you will be getting your ship first and you will be the first to use it to sail around the world with Ron and his family. I’m making you Premiere Diamond DeCuisine- which I want you to take the special plaques that- are still being finished as we speak, because this was going to be a wedding present, but there’s no time like the present- but I want you and Ron to go around the world and make a Premiere Diamond DeCuisine Guide Book for The Order of Radiance. Every royal and every noble with the pocketbooks of a royal will need to know where they can go in any given location at any given time of year and receive the best banquet their money can buy. You will give a rating system of five diamonds. If you find a place that has the food, service and atmosphere worthy of those five, perfect, flawless diamonds in the rating, then all those who have a Radiance Ship, will happily follow where you will lead them in the culinary arts and your word, your nod will be as good as gold and diamonds. But, you can’t let anyone try to beguile you or find a way to bribe you into giving them that five diamond rating if they are not worthy and are not capable of giving everyone who would follow you there- the same five diamond experience. Because others will trust your word in that guide as if it’s the gospel truth. Do you think you and Ron could do that?” You urged her. 

“Yes!” Ron immediately agreed. 

“Yes! Wait, won’t I get fat?” Millie asked as an afterthought. 

“Not if you judge them based on a single bite.” You answered. 

“Then yes! I would happily and proudly do such a thing. Do I get my own crown?” She asked. 

“Yes. You will get your own crown. I will crown you as your wedding present. How’s that?” You proposed. 

“As long as it’s that really big one you had the option of getting.” She answered. 

“You mean this one?” Langashi asked as she seemed to have brought that with her and practically pulled it out from a bag she had brought with her. 

“Yes! That one!” Millie squealed in delight. 

“I won’t have to wear a crown will I?” Gwen asked fearfully. 

“Nope, not at all. I know how much you don’t like them and how discrete you like to keep yourself, I’m hoping you will conduct yourself and your task with as much anonymity as you wish to keep.” You reassured her as she blew out a breath of relief. 

“So how much will the income be?” Millie asked you. 

“This much.” You offered as you wrote down 25,000 a year. Which you were sure her food as going to be comped anyway. 

“Yes! Can’t wait!” She beamed. 

“Awesome, now Count Lavine, I’m hereby anointing you as my Prime Vizier of Commerce to assist the Chancellor in the Court of Commerce for The Order of Radiance. And if you will sell The Order of Radiance- all the lands to which you own within the Kingdom of Solowards, so that The Order will pay the one time sales tax to the King of Solowards- so that such properties will be under the same embassy protections of The Order. And I will in turn- grant you said lands and estates as Prime Vizier of Commerce your estate, land holdings are now property of The Order. And those in your household and tenants are now all officially citizens of The Order of Radiance. Please note that The Order holds every man, woman and child as individual citizens. Every man, woman and child of the commonwealth will now receive a yearly stipend which is to be used as a base income in The Order of Radiance within the Dorierran Alliance of a thousand gold denari and 500 silver denari in addition to any good or service they may provide to supplement such an income in union with their support of The Order. They shall receive this as a living starting at the age of 1 and shall go into immediate effect. They are all protected under The Order of Radiance Charter. As well as enjoy the rights and freedoms as stated within The Order’s Bill of Rights. Do you, as landholder and renter to The Order of Radiance tenants- agree to these terms on their behalf and under penalty of The Order of Radiance Law- swear to uphold the Law of the Order as it coincides with the Dorierran Alliance Law and Order?” You questioned. 

“It is my pleasure to hold such an honor.” Count Lavine smiled happily. 

“And is this income sufficient for such an office?” You asked as you showed him an offer of 50,000 gold denari a year. 

“Yes, more than generous.” He smiled. 

“And Countess Lavine, I would like to anoint you as Premiere Vogue. You will assist Her Prime Radiance with The Order of Radiance Official Court.” 

“It would be my pleasure to accept such an honor.” Kathryn happily squealed in delight and readily signed as you had to quickly write down her income, also 50,000 denari a year to which she practically had diamonds floating in her eyes to see. 

“However, I urge you to help Her Prime Radiance to keep the styling and fashion of the court of The Order, comfortable for all and simple, timeless elegance so that none of us have to worry about investing in huge wardrobes that will be in fashion one year and out the next, or colors that will be in fashion one day and out the next. I wish for every woman to embrace the stylings she is most comfortable in. And simply have something simple- like a sash, to be worn over her desired clothes to signify that she too is a Lady of The Order of Radiance Court and is an a court of equals and I wish for the matters of the day to take precedence over what anyone else just happen to choose to wear that day to court. And gentlemen, I urge you to do the same. Find a style that is timelessly elegant, but perhaps a bit more discrete in it’s lavishness, because I wish for the Court of Commerce to care more about the business of the day rather than what everyone else is choosing to comfortably wear. Please take His Royal Radiance Supreme as a great example of what fashions should be. The Order has the whole of the Supersphere within it. And being a part of the Dorierran Alliance, we should be embracing other people from other countries and other locations. We should be welcoming towards all, not excluding anyone else- also welcomed into the Order. No matter their country of origin, race, ethnicity, creed, tribe, kind or tongue of language. We are a worldwide organization. We should embody that and keep that in mind always. For we are always stronger together than apart. Agreed?” You urged them all. 

“Agreed.” Everyone echoed. 

“Excellent, now Young Count Lavine, I would like to anoint you as Golden Radiance. Because as we are all aware, that no jewel is safe unless it is in a setting most befitting the jewel. So your job is to secure Her Diamond Radiance so that together, you may find the best places to see and be seen in. Opera houses, theaters, restaurants, casinos, and any other venue of entertainment. And that the masses that will soon follow and join you on your flights around the world may enjoy such diversions with you- in safety, style and comfort. Do you accept this anointing?” You asked him. 

“I do. I never thought in a million years I would ever say ‘I do’ to you for any reason, but I’m happy to be wrong and I wholeheartedly do pledge ‘I do’ to that anointing.” Ron couldn’t help but laugh at the irony of his choice of words. 

“Then please sign and agree to the income.” You urged him as you wrote down an income of 25,000 gold denari a year. Knowing he would most likely get everything he would ever want to spend on food and entertainment comped anyway. But it would protect them from Solowards, just in case the King decided to strip away anything else that wasn’t listed in these documents. 

“So that should be everything? If I missed anything, we can work it out later, because I feel it’s time we face the King and Queen of Solowards, don’t you think?” You asked. 

“Yes.” Everyone grinned before you punched in the code to call them. 

“Your Radiance. We were not expecting to hear from you so soon.” Queen Phelicity offered a bit nervously. 

“I came to offer an apology.” You offered as you kept your family and the Lavines on a separate screen so that it looked like it was a private call between just you and her.  

“Oh.” She blinked in surprise. 

“Please call for the King.” Queen Phelicity urged her attendants. 

“Thank you so much Your Radiance, really, we meant no disrespect yesterday.” She tried to soothe over as you simply gave her a polite but serene smile. 

“I know you didn’t. Which is why I’m calling.” You answered as she looked so incredibly relieved. 

“My King, Her Radiance has called to apologize.” She informed her husband when he came into the room. 

“Oh, good.” He seemed to breathe in relief as he came and looked at you expectantly and you could thankfully had Kragan just out of sight as you squeezed his hand when you heard him huff. But hopefully Kragan wouldn’t make any other noise or really be seen either. 

“King Grenevere and Queen Phelicity. I called to apologize for being rude to you yesterday. I have been incredibly busy with my business as of late and I fear that has not been good for me, it’s been exhausting in all honesty. And that exhaustion has made me incredibly irritable. And I unfortunately let that irritation to vent on you yesterday. And I called to offer my apologies for not receiving you with the respect and graciousness that your Majesties deserve.” You began as you could see them both relax and actually smile and even preen to hear the words. But for this to work, you needed to make a show of being humble to their faces and give them the lip service they felt they were entitled to, whether they deserved it or not. 

“I was appointed the owner of a business. And while that business has been promoted to the station of it’s own kingdom, I must keep in mind that you both were anointed and enthroned into your thrones by the priests from the very gods we both worship. And have been appointed by the gods we both believe in to rule over your kingdom. And I need to first- show respect and reverence for that. For- to do otherwise is to laugh in the god’s faces and court disaster, which I do not wish upon anyone, lest myself.” You continued. 

“Yes, thank you so much for recognizing that.” King Grenevere offered as you could see that such a thing had not even occurred to him. But the fact that you brought it up you could see that he was delighted to realize that he had that angle to work from.

“Our interaction yesterday did not sit well with me and I didn’t sleep as well as I wished I could have. But when I awoke early this morning. I think divine inspiration has moved me to try to make things right and amend this breach so that we may both come to an understanding and a solution that we both will be happy with. So, as it stands. I have bought some lands for future development in Solowards and I wish to send you the correct tax on those sales. This is the receipt of the sales so that you may see and make sure that the calculations were done correctly.” You began as the bankers sent the documents through, as a simple total was the title page. 

“Oh my goodness. Yes. That is more than acceptable. I do happily accept such a sum as sales tax from your Order for property bought.” King Grenevere smiled happily as he was happy and content with the total page and didn’t even bother looking at what you had actually bought. Which you were hoping for anyway. 

“Good. Because I do realize that taxes are how the Crown sustains itself and I must respect that first and foremost.” You placated. 

“Of course.” They both readily agreed. 

“Next, I would also like to offer your Majesties the dignity of a good choice. I do realize that it would be in bad taste to unveil the Radiance Ships at my sister’s wedding and it would be the right thing to it that a ship to your Majesties was also given. However, there was a promise made that the highest bid would win the ship. And I myself can not go back on my word, neither I, nor The Order as a whole. And unfortunately, the Radiant Contessina Magnifica- the bid is currently at 499.9 million gold denari, which- each gold bouillon is equal to the gold denari. And The Order must be an organization and business of it’s word. And there is nothing I can do to stop the bidding from continuing. However, all I can do is either accept new bids and then stop the bidding once it’s done. But I do not wish to bankrupt the Solowardian Crown either. So, if you want to enter into the bidding of The Magnifica, only a bid of 500 million gold denari or higher will be accepted. But the entire amount would not be demanded all up front and not all at once. If needed, I could break that down into much smaller and much easier to manage payments if you wanted to buy it outright. And as it stands, with taxes and fees demanded for such a purchase, if I spread out the sum over say a 20 year period and do monthly payments, is still a payment of 2.6 million gold denari a month. Is this what you want? Or I have other options if your Majesties would permit me to explain them.” You offered as they seemed to sharply inhale from “price shock” you were sure. 

“What are our other options?” King Grenevere. 

“What you could do- is simply lease the Radiance Contessina Magnifica while your own custom one is being built. You have to remember, that if you choose to do this, not only will you get sailing rights on the largest, grandest skyship to ever sail the twelve winds. You’d be the first royals to set sail on the skies. I’m commissioning a master cuisine magnifique to go to every single Radiance Skyport’s location and find the best restaurants and other amusements. And you’d be the first royal tourists. You’d have the first of the greatest experiences the supersphere can offer. You can even sail this ship past the outer layer to the middle world and get to see everything within that since the Order is building skyports even there. And even sail to the core if you so desired.” You tempted. 

“You’d be in the skies to see events, such as the great moura migrations that happen only twice a year. Where they fly through the entirety of the supersphere in one single flight. You could sail with them in the skies as they fly in the northern and southern lights in the winter, following the moon and lighting up like diamonds scattered across the velvety sky. Or follow the golden sun around the equator in the summer. You would be the first in the world to do so. And every single king and queen, czar and czarina, cesar and cesaress, emperor and empress and every other kind of ruler you can think of, will all be coming to you- to learn where to go when to get the best experience. You’d be the greatest royal travelers in the superspheres and you’d do so from the greatest ship in the fleet. Protected by the best Dorierran and The Order’s security detail. So that not a single thing goes missing and that not once, are either of you, nor any member of your family and household would ever be in any kind of danger. You would have the best staff if you didn’t want to bring the staff from your own castle. I would personally see to it that the best staff in Dorierra would be staffing your ship for the duration of the lease. And when your ship is done. You simply get to move from- what will by then- be a five year old ship- into a brand new one. And one that will have five years worth of enhancements, upgrades and the very best of the best materials and components will be there, waiting for you to continue the journey if you so desire.” You detailed, going down a quick list you had made up that morning to really “sell” them on such an idea. 

“How much would leasing the ship be?” King Grenevere asked. 

“Well, unfortunately, this too has been up for bidding. Currently, a bid of 50 million denari a year is the lowest bid I can take to close out the bid. But again, this would only be for a few years. At the very longest- five years. And in that five years, again you’d only be paying a fraction of what you would be- should you buy it outright. And what you’re getting is the experience of getting the best- first. And have bragging rights for life for having the opportunity to do what no one else in the world can and could do. And while I can only pay purchase taxes from my business, because I never was a full Solowardian citizen. Because if women were given full citizenship rights, then they could be taxed as such as well. But Solowards and it’s laws and societies have been its way for generations and for such a strong tradition to change only for you to collect more taxes, I do not know or think would honor the Solowardian Tradition- do you?” You offered. 

“Well, that is a good point.” King Grenevere had to nod in agreement. 

“And Solowards wouldn't be Solowards if you changed too much too quickly. All I wish to do is to bring Solowards into the Dorierran Alliance and bring it into the world stage- in style.” You professed with a nod as you noticed, they were nodding with you, which was exactly what you wanted. 

“Now, if you choose to lease the Magnifica for that 50 million denari a year, for anywhere from one to five years, depending on how long it would take to build your Royal Solowardian Magnifica Radiance Ship, which you can name any name you wish. You can have it simply be the Royal Radiant Magnifica if you wanted, and keep my name off of it completely if you so desired. Because your custom ship, which I will see to it’s building personally to make sure it is the best of the best for you- and that while we will do our best to keep the wait as short as possible, we would not do so at the cost of the quality of the workmanship being anything less than perfect. And we would never cut corners or take cheap shortcuts, which so far- only seems to make ten more new problems when you try to take them, but that has only led to ingenious solutions to such problems being discovered that don’t create any additional problems whatsoever. So if it only ends up taking two years to build your perfect ship. Then that means, you will have gotten an 80% discount on the best ship of the supersphere and at end of that time, get the best ship in the world- yet again!” You implored. 

“And by then, the first Magnifica will still be the first Magnifica but by then, that’s when the new ships will take to the skies and by then there would be so many more royals to sail with from all over the world and in the D.A. And that’s where you can boast that I, the namesake of The Contessina Magnifica was born on Solowardian soil. That my ancestors lived and served yours for the last fifteen generations and that I was the highest station outside of royalty when I was there. That once upon, not such a long time ago- I was your Duchess Contessina DeBaringer before I ever became Her Radiance, Contessina Salgria. We could even commission paintings of when I was presented to Your Majesties in your court at the height of fashion. And your ship will always be the gold standard, to which all others are measured, right from the start.” You flourished, appealing to their vanity and ego and you could see it was working perfectly. 

“The only thing is, is that with such a sum, on a yearly basis, means that your monthly payment will be a bit higher than if you paid for ten times the price but over twenty times the length. A monthly payment of 5.2 million denari a month would need to be paid for all taxes and fees from the Dorierran Alliance. But there is no additional tax from The Order of Radiance. For you are King and Queen of my homeland, I would never dream of charging you of all people a tax. But there is, unfortunately, nothing I can do to negate the Dorrierran tax, which we all must partake in. I myself the most of all, because they charge a flat rate. So it doesn’t matter what I buy or spend, they get theirs one way or another, I assure you. But that also helps the realm, which, Solowards is also a part of. And it would trickle down to you one way or another.” You reassured them. 

“And, because you would be getting your own custom ship in the end, its price tag would still never be as high as the first Magnifica ship would be. And instead of paying 50 million denari for a ship a year, your ship could end up only costing you 50 million total. And that broken down into monthly payments for a twenty year loan would only end up being- a measly 434,000 deneri a month. And with all the income Solowards would receive from other royal tourists, such a sum would be a piece of cake to make and be one that you would never have to raise taxes on the people to make. That you would make it off of the other tourists instead. But keep your true Solowardian Soul and Spirit unchanged and keep it as grand in it’s traditions as it is.” You added. 

“Surely our treasury could afford such a thing. The pride of Solowards is resting on this.” Queen Phelicity urged her husband. 

“Yes, absolutely.” He agreed as you smiled happily while Kragan couldn’t help but grin victoriously and give your hand a reassuring squeeze. 

“I’m so happy we could come to such a beautiful and mutually beneficial understanding and arrangement. Now, I have three contracts for you to sign. The first- is that all those who come to tour Solowards can expect to pay fair market value on resupplying supplies, such as food and water, the necessities of life. However, on more luxury goods, that are not necessities. Like high Solowardian Society garments. Or jewelry, or wine or other spirits. You can always charge a luxury tax on such goods when being sold to other royalty and nobility who would come to tour Solowards. All of whom would be coming with their heavy pocketbooks-, eager to fill any other pocket for any memento of their wonderful travels to our magnificent homeland. You could even commission special gift shops making things in Solowards with even the Solowardian royal seal and coat of arms on them to sell as souvenirs. And you would not have to charge such a tax on your own native Solowardian citizens either.” You began as you put that one down first before you got their signatures on that first. And in the fine print of course, was the rights and freedoms of The Order’s citizens too. 

“Next is the lease agreement for the very first Radiant Contessina Magnifica and that you will have that model of ship exclusively for the first year. So that whenever anyone will see it, they will know that it has to be no other than the Magnificent King Grenevere and his beautiful Queen Phelicity and any and all other members of your royal family- there sailing in their skies and gracing them with your magnificent presence.” You flattered as you put the lease agreement down and they both eagerly signed it and were more than happy to put their royal seals into it and have that notarized as well. 

“And the moment the ship is unveiled at my sister Millicent’s wedding, you and any other you wish to invite on board are more than welcome to tour the greatest ship in the supersphere. You could even charge a small fee to offer personal tours so that all those in attendants will practically turn green with envy if they are not already naturally green.” You giggled with a wave of your hand which got them to chuckle laughter with you. 

“And lastly, is the building agreement for your own future Magnifica Ship. And here are the plans I’ve drawn up and we can always make changes to the little details as the building progresses and as new improvements come to light over the next two to five years. And should there be a difference in price between now and then, we can always work that out at another suitable time.” You offered as they were practically drooling to sign that as well. 

“And these plans are yours to keep and pour over- for as long as you want to and physical copies will also be presented at my sister’s Wedding in just a few short months. And that way you can compare your plans to the first Magnifica and if you find anything about the first Magnifica that you wish was different or that you wish you could change for your own future ship, by all means, do so in the plans- so that when you do get your dream ship in a few years time- it will be perfect for you and only you.” You encouraged them. 

“Oh, such a thing sounds absolutely divine.” Phelicity sighed dreamily.

“Well, like I said, I woke up early because this is what struck me. And if you feel it is divine, then I can not help but to agree. And this way, no other damage was done than a simple misunderstanding. But if anything, our bond and relationship can only improve and grow even more fruitful than it already has been.” You flattered. 

“Yes of course, it is as it always should be.” King Grenevere happily praised. 

“Well then, thank you so much for your time and should you have any other lands or properties for sale to The Order become available- so that more amusements and attractions might be built and made so that for years and decades and even generations to come, Solowards will be the first port of call on anyone’s itinerary, you have my number. And even if I should pay the luxury tax on such things, I will be happy to. For even the Solowardian Crown was put into place by the gods.” You reminded them. 

“Oh no, you are a daughter of Solowards. And I hereby decree that you always were a full citizen under the Solowardian Crown. You have every right that any other citizen under the crown has. And I shall put such things into writing today, both you and the family you were born from and the one you married into. I shall promote you all to the nobility of Grand Dukes and Duchesses in our court. And the native nobility will always be saved from paying the luxury tax, because we need to keep the nobility class noble don’t we?” King Grenevere offered. 

“Many countless thanks King Grenevere, you are ever wise and gracious.” You offered sweetly. 

“Now if Your Majesties will please excuse me, I have much work to get started on.” You offered sweetly. 

“Yes, until we meet again Your Radiance.” They offered. 

“Your Majesties.” You smiled sweetly and shut off the call to their Majesties as everyone else in your family and the Lavines and even those in the room with you all began to cheer and applaud you before Kragan leaned over and wrapped his arms around you to hug you from the large double seat the two of you liked to sit in and kissed your cheek sweetly before you kissed him back happily. 

“You played them like fiddle.” He praised. 

“Did I come off as too sweet that it could be seen as insincere?” You asked him.

“Nope, from where I sat, you made it sound like the gospel truth. Hell you had me going for a second.” Kragan teased as he kept his arm wrapped around your shoulders and nuzzled his face with yours before he used his other hand to pick up a pen and make notes to start looking and training guards for The Order’s guardian ships. Which would honestly just be Salgria Shipping ships armored and armed to the teeth with an even darker shade of gray in the uniforms. 

“I tried.” You offered as you relaxed into his side while making more notes with your hand as well. 

“You succeeded.” He cooed. 

“Very well done Dearest. You should win an award for that. Now Ladies? That’s how it’s done. That’s how you kiss someone’s ass without getting your nose brown.” Your mother gestured to you with each of your sister’s under her arms and squeezing them both as they both couldn’t help but roll their eyes slightly. 

“Seriously, I am over here taking notes!” Samantha even chimed in proudly as she literally was taking notes about this interaction. 

“If I had a hundred more of you in the bride system, ugh, there would never be another war, ever.” Langashi appraised. 

“Please have this crown, with it’s suite of jewels prepared as gifts for her Diamond Radiance and a masculine set to suit his Golden Radiance.” She offered to one of her servants who came and took the crown, it’s case from her and left to do just that. 

“And you did it so beautifully, and while you had to put on a little show of humility, the line of reasoning you used was flawless. And perfectly executed. You really are a wonder. Kragan, do well to cherish such a treasure. For there will be nothing that the two of you together can not do.” Langashi praised you and him. 

“Also, I hope you will forgive me, but I did have some laws drawn up for your approval for The Order of Radiance.” She offered before she made a gesture and showed you a set of manuscripts as you sat there and felt like you grinned like an idiot for every page you turned over and read as your eyes got almost impossibly wide but your smile got to be so bright and in awed wonder while your eyes glazed with tears as Kragan wasn’t able to keep up with you and simply rubbed circles into your back and let you speed read your way through them as you also took your pen and were marking which laws you didn’t care for as you went. 

“It’s like she’s a machine.” Langashi murmured in a gentle teasing tone. 

“She’s brilliant.” Kragan praised. 

“She’s a wonder.” Langashi praised. 

“Well this should do it for now. Should you ever need an iron fist wielding an iron hammer, you know where and how to reach me.” Langashi offered. 

“Thank you, for everything.” You paused and looked up at her as she began to stand up as you stood up with her to offer a more intimate goodbye with your newest best mother figure. 

“You’re welcome. It’s young ladies like yourself that are the reason I have become what I am today. And if by smashing the patriarchy, one kingdom and crown at a time is what I have to do it- to give young ladies like yourself every opportunity to make the world a better place, then so be it.” She smiled as she came over and kissed the crown of your head and hugged you as you got up to hug her back, like she was another mother or perhaps even a young grandmother to you.  

“Oh, this little one, she’s going to be trailblazer, just like her mother.” She said as she palmed your belly as she withdrew from the hug. 

“She?!” You and Kragan both excitedly gasped, as did everyone else present.  

“Yes. She. Mouras, can tell with their lira light touch- at conception, what their little ones will be. Other kinds, we have to wait until midpoint in the pregnancy to be able to tell if the little one will be a girl or a boy when the sex develops in the developing fetus. And in feeling her now, she is a girl. A lovely, strong and very intelligent girl, just like her mother. Although, she does turn slightly whenever her father talks.” She noted. 

“We’re having a girl! Oh my goodness it’s a girl! I get to have an Empress and a Princess!” Kragan cheered happily and practically bounced out of the chair to pull you into another tight hug. 

“Now that reaction right there, what I would give for every father to have that reaction when they are finding that their wives are pregnant with daughters, oh the world would be such a better place.” Langashi laughed as you immediately flung yourself into Kragan’s arms before your parents and the lavines all cheered their congratulations and immediately of course, started to throw out baby names. 

“Enough, enough, Kragan and I will decide for ourselves what to name our daughter, we will let you know when we have a name picked out. I’ll see you all again soon.” You urged before you said your goodbyes and asked for copies of baby name books be brought your personal, private quarters along with these volumes of manuscripts. 

“Of course.” Langashi readily agreed. 

“It’s a girl! It’s a girl! It’s a girl! Yes! That’s what I’ve been hoping for!” Kragan cheered as he literally jumped up and down in the room once you retreated back to your own private rooms as you laughed and hugged your belly happily as you laughed at his antics. 

“What are we going to name her? Victoria? Like Victory? Or Celestra? Because she’s the star of our life. Ooh! Or Lunesta? Or Lunabella? Because she’ll be the beautiful moon and stars in our lives?” Kragan asked. 

“Those…those are very Solowardian names Kragan. Are you sure you want to name her a Solowardian name? I thought you’d want to name her something from your culture because she’s just as much from you and yours as she is from me and mine, she’s ours. We can name her whatever we want or we can wait until she’s born to see what she will be when we see her?” You offered. 

“Yeah but, as much as Solowards is stupid, it kind of went off with the names. Solowards does have some really pretty names.” He excused.

“Doesn’t mean that Forestrong names are any less beautiful.” You tried to gently argue. 

“Darling, I love you, you’re brilliant and beautiful, but come on, she should have an amazing name that means something amazing.” He urged you. 

“But what if she’s like Gwen and hates having super auspicious name and that pressure for her to be equally impressive and remarkable has her running for the hills?” You tried to reason. 

“I mean my name means royalty. Because before Ron was born, my dad was trying to marry me off into the royal family. And that would have been as equally devastating as marrying Ron would have been. Do I want her to have a pretty name? Yes. But I also don’t want her to have such as extravagant name that she feels like she has to use two pages of paper to write it all out. I want to give her the choice and the chance to either taken the stage or shy away from it if she so desires. I mean, I’m happy to work at my desk, sitting in that double chair with you all the days of my life. She may want something similar or she may hate paperwork all together and never be stuck behind the back of a desk and sail the twelve winds just like you- with the sun and wind in her face and hair and a belt on her trousers and a ropes in her hands instead of a pen or gold for that matter. She may be our little adventurer where the only paper she wants to touch is the parchment of maps.” You tried to contend. 

“...true.” He had to admit. 

“...but that being said, I do like the name Glorianna and or Victoria or even Fortunata- for a middle name perhaps. Or even Adorabella, or Serephena or even simplified into Serena, or even Madelluna, or Magdellaina or whatever.” You clarified. 

“Adorabella Seraphina Magdelainluna. We can call her Adora or Bella or Serena or Maggie or Maddie or Del, or Luna for short.” Kragan offered as he listed off the several nicknames to be had from just those names.

“OK, that does sound quite beautiful and with enough variability she could do any number of things with her own name. That’s perfectly beautiful Kragan- Adorabella Seraphina Magdelainluna Salgria, there, a proper - but probably over complicated name for her Little Radiance.” You offered just as the baby name books got delivered which got you both to chuckle. 

“Do you want to see if we can find a prettier name or find other names for future children?” You suggested.  

“Ooh, the latter. I think we have Little Serena’s name pretty well settled.” He offered as he giddily palmed your belly. 

“Yes, Serena, I like it. Simple and if anything, she has filled me with a sense of serenity.” You offered. 

“Me too.” Kragan smiled before he kissed you and thankfully, lunch was delivered before you could eat again before you filled your hunger from each other again before you sat down to a wonderful lunch and baby name books.