#sorciere moderne

[frenchwitchdiary]

Je repartage ça ici car c’est fort important ! Je suis souvent assez fatigué/contrarié de voir autant de personnes commander (par ignorance la plupart du temps, je sais bien que c’est pas dans une volonté de nuire) des bâtons de sauge blanche à tout va pour purifier leur maison, alors que : 1) cette plante est menacée à cause du succès qu’elle a eu grâce à l’essor croissant du New Age. Tout comme le palo santo, très apprécié aussi en occident et qu’on consomme à outrance, au détriment des personnes dont c’est réellement leur culture sacrée d’origine de l’utiliser. ^^’ 2) les “smudge sticks” de sauge blanche sont une part de la culture native américaine qui est trop souvent appropriée et sortie de son contexte d’origine. La fumigation est toujours possible, elle est bien universelle à travers le monde, mais il existe plein d’autres techniques que juste celle-ci, et qui ne sont pas du vol si vous les pratiquez. 3) c’est possible de fumiger chez soi avec des plantes locales, (de la sauge pas blanche bien de chez nous si vraiment c’est votre drogue la sauge, ou alors les autres plantes listées dans ce post très bien fait), alors... pourquoi ne pas le faire ? La sorcellerie c’est souvent l’art du DIY par excellence. Et utiliser les ressources proches de chez soi, cultiver son lien à son terroir et son Genius Loci, c’est gagner en enrichissement et authenticité magiquement. Tout le monde est gagnant à la fin ! ^^

[schlock-luster-video]

On July 14, 2016, Belladonna of Sadness was screened at the Marfa Film Festival.

[nekolart]

Dur dur d'emménager. Mais avec de la bonne volonté (et un peu de magie) on peut tout accomplir !

To move inside a new place is nothing easy. But with somme goodwill (and a bit of magic) nothing is inachievable !

[arthistoryanimalia]

Paul Gauguin was born #OTD (7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903). The lower right corner of his 1902 painting Le Sorcier d'Hiva Oa depicts a dog seizing a bird which may be a Marquesan Swamphen (Porphyrio paepae), a now presumed extinct species with no other images or skins known to exist:

Le sorcier d’Hiva Oa, ou Le Marquisien à la cape rouge (The Wizard of Hiva Oa, or The Marquisian in the Red Cloak) 1902 oil on canvas Musee d'art moderne et d'art contemporai

[reno-matago]

Is there anything in French folk magic or French traditional magic about a new home/home protection?

I don't have a specific ritual but ingredients and methods yes!

RURAL FRENCH MAGIC ELEMENTS

You can make crosses to have at the doors! The plants vary according to the regions: houseleek, cross-benites with lavender, immortelles, according to the folk religious holidays however, traditionally it is on dates of specific religious holidays.

We do a fumigation in the home, certainly with prayers, with plants depending on the region: laurel, juniper... we can burn protective plants, make bouquets of them, especially elderberry. All pungent or strong-smelling plants will be protective (elderflower, garlic, hellebore, holly, hawthorn) For protective bouquets: artemisia, foxglove, meadow iris, mint, St. John's wort, walnut branches, fern, verbena, the Queen of french witchcraft.

We can do a ritual where we will pass the plant through the fire to strengthen its power. The cross is the ideal symbol. The perfect day will be Saint John's Day.

Be sure I'll return to you if I find anything else out! Finally if you need a spell to banish negativity from the house I can give you one by messenger too!

HORSHOE

I think a horseshoe would be ideal ( just like garlic). It is not ''french trad craft'', just a method I would use, but I would purify it, dedicate it to the 4 elements, fumigate it, then recite by hanging it or nailing it:

''Vigilavi, et factus sum sicut passer solitarius in tecto'' (Terese d'Avila, Psalm 102)

But it is my own creation! Otherwise there are these spells from The Witch's Almanac by Katherine Quenot, unfortunately her sources are rarely cited. Some are ancient, others modern...

Here is one of these spells that seems interesting to me because it contains verbena:

TO ATTRACT PROTECTION INTO YOUR HOME Make a purple sachet 18 centimeters on a side and put rosemary, verbena, and a lock of hair from each of the inhabitants, and a picture of the house. Close it with a purple cord, put everything in a secret place in the house and never open it.

TO KEEP YOUR HOME HEALTHY

Make a braid with two green laurel branches, then hang it on a red cord above the interior door of the house or gate.

This talisman will also preserve your family from jealousy, backbiting and the evil eye.

And this one which seems to be modern but inspired by traditional principles:

TO PRESERVE YOUR HOME FROM HARM

You will need coarse salt, cracked pepper, an egg and sticky paper.

Take the egg that you will pierce at both ends to empty it of its contents. Mix the coarse salt with the same quantity of crushed pepper.

Fill the egg with this composition after stopping one end with the paper.

Place everything in a closet or wardrobe in your main room. The egg should be changed every three months. When you get rid of it you have to throw it outside the house in a trash can saying:

''Hexes, evil spirits, in this egg I locked you, now you are thrown.

Never come back to my house,

To the world of junk return''

Sources: Christophe Auray - l'herbier des paysans, des guérisseurs et des sorciers • L'almanach de la sorcière de Katherine Quenot

[arsenicetvieillesenseignes]

Électricien ! Nom d'une ampoule grillée ! Quel métier déglingué ! Tout ce bazar d'électrons qui se bousculent dans les fils, des câbles, des circuits, comme des rats dans les caves d'une vieille baraque délabrée. L'électricien, il trimballe sa caisse à outils, la mine triste, la gueule dans les câbles, comme un curé dans son missel. Il tire des fils, il démonte des prises, il bidouille des interrupteurs. Ça crépite, ça claque, ça pète comme une artillerie en déroute. Un foutu court-circuit et ça explose en étincelles. L'électricien, c'est le sorcier des temps modernes, celui qui danse avec la foudre sans s'en rendre compte. Il vous dit que tout est OK, que votre petit nid douillet est à l’abri des emmerdes électriques, mais au fond de ses yeux fatigués, on devine le doute, la trouille de la panne qui pourrait tout foutre en l’air. Il vous facture une somme qui vous ferait sauter au plafond si vous aviez un fil électrique dans le dos. L'électricien, c'est un artiste de l'ombre, un voltigeur de l’électromagnétisme, un casse-cou du courant, un danseur sur le fil du rasoir. Et quand il s'en va, dans sa camionnette déglinguée, on se dit qu'on est tiré d’affaire, du moins jusqu'à la prochaine panne. Car l'électricité c'est comme la vie, on ne sait jamais quand ça va disjoncter.

[azure-wolf-227]

Hamefura Pokémon AU

This is an idea I have been working for a long while. It was inspired by @dulcito-on-ao3 ‘s fanfic Cute and Fluffy! and @logo-comics Fortune Lover Pokémon DLC prompt.

This crossover is an AU where Fortune Lover was an otome game/pókemon game fusion. Maybe something like Scarlet and Violet where the protagonist goes to the Academy and you can choose one of several storylines to follow. The events of FL 2 could be added to beef up the plot.

Here are some important notes:

Edit: @famousnintendopokemonlamp made a point that it’s odd for Eevee to only bond with mages. I changed that and made it so that they are just rare in the wild.

Edit 2: Switched Sandslash in Keith’s Team for Phanpy since I thought it fitted him better. Added Fidough to Maria’s Team.

Edit 3: Mary’s Tropius is a gift from Alan.

After discussing it with @dulcito-on-ao3 I decided that the setting will be modern but still retaining the noble society elements. Meaning that Sorcier is still a kingdom with nobility but they have access to modern technology like Pokédex’s, Rotom Phones, etc.

The Pokémon take the place of Magical Creatures. Normal animals still exist in this world because I don’t want the implication that humans eat Pokémon.

While Pokémon exist all over this world, they are most common in the Kingdom of Sorcier. Researchers think it’s because Sorcier has more magic than anywhere else so Pokémon are attracted to it - because they are Magical Creatures in this setting.

While magic is still mainly found on nobles, both nobles and commoners can become Pokémon Trainers. But, Pokémon Trained by mages are usually stronger than those Trained by non-mages, especially those Pokémon with typing that are compatible with their Trainer’s magic.

Mages whose Magic Element is compatible to a Pokémon typing can boost the power that Pokémon with their magic.

Eevee is a special Pokémon in Sorcier as they are very rare in the wild, so dedicated breeders exist. Even amongst nobles they are uncommon and are often a regarded as a symbol of great status, especially if they are evolved. The characters who have one are:

Katarina Claes - Shiny Eevee that later evolves into a Shiny Umbreon. Was a gift from her father.

Maria Campbell - regular Eevee that later evolves into an Espeon. By chance she found a wild Eevee and befriended it.

The Princes - Gerald (a small and fluffy Flareon); Alan (a Glaceon): Ian (an Espeon); Geoffrey (a large Vaporeon)

Selena Burke - shy Eevee wearing an Everstone but later gains confidence and evolves into a Sylveon.

Noelia Flores - a Flareon. One of her few evolved Pokémon.

Katarina’s Pokémon know about her past life and support her on her plans to avoid doom.

Katarina remembering her past life is part of a plan that the Legendary Pokémon Ho-oh and Celebi came up with.

Almost all of Katarina’s Pokémon are Shiny. The in-game explanation was to show how privileged and spoiled Villainess Katarina was by having a team consisting of rare Shiny Pokémon.

The Pokémon League equivalent is called The Pokémon Tourney. It was originally exclusive to nobles but for the last 100 years, commoners have been allowed to participate.

Trainers must be at least 15 years old to participate.

To qualify, they need to earn at least eight Honours (aka Badges) by battling against the Arena Champions, the ‘Gym Leaders’ of this setting (Arena Champion comes from Champion/Championne d'Arène, the French term used for Gym Leaders).

The Evil Team is called Team Dark. Members include Marchioness Dieke, Sora (later deserted), and Sarah. Team Dark seeks conquer Sorcier and use Pokémon to rule the world. Most members use Dark Type Pokémon.

This AU is GeoKata endgame, at least with how I’m writing it.

Here are the main Pokémon Teams of the main characters:

Katarina Claes

Shiny Eevee/Shiny Umbreon ♂ (Nickname: Biscuit) - starter/first Pokémon; he evolved into Umbreon after Katarina awakened from her Dark Magic coma.

Shiny Ekans/Shiny Arbok (Nickname: Noodle) - found it injured in her field and nursed to health; represents Katarina’s toy snakes.

Shiny Pumpkaboo/Shiny Gourgeist (Nickname: Pumpkin) - found in the woods near the Royal Villa; represents Katarina’s farming.

Shiny Pawniard/Shiny Bisharp (Nickname: Blue) - gifted by Gerald on her 16th birthday; represents Katarina’s sword fighting.

Poochyena (Nickname: Pochi) - found during the Keith’s Kidnapping equivalent event. This Poochyena has darker fur than a regular Poochyena, being almost black; it is the result of Team Dark’s experiments to empower Dark Type Pokémon; similar to a Shadow Pokémon but without “the door to it’s heart” closed. It represents Katarina’s Dark Magic and canon Pochi.

Absol (Nickname: Vanilla) - found during the equivalent of the mission where Sarah has a Dragon Dark Familiar; represents Katarina’s “knowledge of future events and desire to prevent her doom.

Other Pokémon Katarina has are: Shiny Galarian Yamask found in the ruins used for the practical exam; Shiny Flygon found as a Trapinch during a visit to the Adeth Duchy.

Gerald Stuart

Flareon ♀ (Nickname: Fluffy) - starterfirst Pokémon; smaller and fluffier than the average Flareon, making it extremely cute; knows Scary Face. Represent show Geordo looks like a handsome fairy tale prince but has a hidden, sadistic/scary side.

Bisharp - a knight Pokémon to protect royalty

Aegislash - in reference to Gerald using a sword

Charizard - I thought it would be cool if Gerald rode on this Pokémon.

Litleo - a birthday gift from Katarina; lions are a symbol of royalty

Tyrantrum - another royal Pokémon; red body with golden crest match Gerald's colors

Keith Claes

Tyranitar - starter; originally a Larvitar he befriended before being adopted by the Claes; small Pokémon that grows big and powerful, like how Keith was a timid kid that grew confident

Cottonee - Something small and cute because Keith is so precious

Golurk - a reference to Keith's Earth golems

Garchomp - caught as a Gible during a visit to the Adeth Duchy; a connection with Millidiana who has Dragon-Types

Bonsly/Sudowoodo  - another tiny cutie; it grows tall and lanky and looks like a Grass-Type, referencing how Keith helps Katarina with her farm

Phanpy/Donphan - yet another tiny cutie that grows into a powerful Pokémon

Mary Hunt

Lilligant - starter/first Pokémon; an elegant Pokémon and it even wears a flower on its head like Mary

Roserade - another elegant Pokémon

Vespiquen - because Mary is like a queen, plus it is good for her plants

Meganium - another good Pokémon to have in a garden since its breath can revive plants

Tropius - a gift from Alan. I just added this one because it grows fruit on its neck.

Serperior - another regal Pokémon; I think Mary would get a Snivy in response to Katarina getting her Ekans

Alan Stuart

Glaceon ♂ (Nickname: Gliss) - starter/first Pokémon; he chooses to evolve his Eevee into a Glaceon instead of a Vaporeon to stand out.

Gyarados - originally a Magikarp represents how Alan went from feeling inferior to Geordo to finding his strengths.

Lapras - it sings enchanting melodies.

Primarina - a birthday gift from Mary; another Pokémon that sings

Kricketune - another musical Pokémon

Shiny Tyrantrum - a royal Pokémon; the shiny is blue with a silver crest, so the colors match Alan.

Sophia Ascart

Gardevoir - starter/first Pokémon; it has red eyes like Sophia, and it's part Fairy-type representing Sophia’s dream of being a fairy.

Shiny Phantump - red-and-white colors

White Flower Flabebe - white color matches her hair

Togetic - white color; part Flying-type to match her Wind Magic

Clefairy - another fairy; people say this Pokemon came from the moon so it connects to Sophia being a reincarnation from “out of this [Sorcier] world”

Galarian Ponyta/Rapidash - it’s an unicorn! What kind of girl who loves stories wouldn’t want an Unicorn?

Nicol Ascart

Swanna - starter/first Pokémon - swans are beautiful but dangerous; Nicol is gorgeous, and I headcanon that you don't want to make him angry

Noctowl - represents how smart he is

Corviknight - dark plumage like how Nicol has dark hair

Chatot - ironic because Nicol is a quiet person

Liepard - in reference to the dream of being a cat

Shinx -  because Nicol dealing with an energetic kitty is funny

I also have this funny idea that Nicol has several other cat Pokémon

Maria Campbell

Sylveon ♀ (Nickname: Caramel) - starter/first Pokémon; wild Pokémon that bonded with her after she discovered her magic. Fairy-Type is the closest thing to Light. (It was originally an Espeon due to it being Umbreon’s counterpart).

Teddiursa (Nickname: Alexander) - meet during Keith’s Kidnapping equivalent event; represent canon Alexander

Audino - a Pokémon used by healers

Pikachu - Maria is the protagonist of FL, like how Ash is Pokémon's

Alcremie (Ruby Cream form) - represents Maria's baking skills; Ruby Cream form because pink is Maria’s color.

Fidough - another representation of Maria’s baking skills, this time bread instead of sweets.

Raphael Walt/Sirius Dieke

Shuppet (Nickname: Orion) - starter/first Pokémon; it was Sirius' Pokémon initially; it knows what happened and bonded with Raphael because it saw how sad and lonely he was. It absorbs negative emotions so it would try to help Raphael.

Phantump - may or may not be the original Sirius Dieke; has some unusual coloration: red leaves and gray eyes.

Sableye - A Dark/Ghost Type to match his Dark magic and how a vengeful spirit possesses him

Mismagius - the spirit of Raphael's mother; has unusual coloring: red accents and gray eyes

Polteageist (Antique Form) - represent his love of tea

Cofagrigus - Dark Mage that killed his mother reborn as this Pokémon

[barbe-noire-rpg]

Question d'insomniaque : Thème de fo fantastique

Il y a vraiment certains thèmes qui me manquent et qu'on ne retrouve pas ou peu... Avez-vous d'autres idées?

Avez-vous d'autres idées de fo fantastiques (pas fantasy mais bien fantastiques ) que vous aimeriez davantage voir autre que le trio vampire/sorciers/créatures et autre que sur la magie?

[xxthe-hidden-spyxx]

20 Writing Questions!

Tagged by @pencilofawesomeness!

1.How many works do you have on AO3? Including my discontinued stories, 15 as of right now. (11, not including.) Definitely hoping to make more, though!

2.What's your total AO3 word count? Including the discontinued stories: 151649 total. Not including: 111851. And that's if I mathed the math correctly LOL.

3.What fandoms do you write for? Fairy Tail and Wings of Fire primarily. I do have one crossover with Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go, but it's most likely the only fic I'll write for said fandom. I do want to try my hand at other fandoms in the future, though!

4.What are your top 5 fics by kudos? (Not including the discontinued stories.)

Sick As A Snake at 12.

Scale's Breadth From Death at 13.

Dead On Your Feet at 17.

The Sky Snake at 24.

Dragon Tail: Revamped at 148

5.Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? I definitely try to! I love interacting with fellow members of the fandoms!

6.What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Scale's Breadth From Death is my strongest contender. (Not much of a surprise given it was for Whumptober last year lol.)

7.What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Probably Sick As A Snake, since it's just a cute fluff fic all the way through. (And the only one I've actually finished lol.)

8.Do you get hate on fics? I'm sure it'll happen eventually, but so far, everything has been positive!

9.Do you write smut? If so, what kind? No. I tend to focus less on romance and more on friends and (found) family stories.

10.Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? Yes! Hyperforce Sorciere, while fairly short so far, is bound to become the craziest one, given SRMTHFG's tendency to delve into some of the craziest stuff.

11.Have you ever had a fic stolen? Nope.

12.Have you ever had a fic translated? Not yet, at least.

13.Have you ever co-written a fic before? I have tried to once with my friends, but it didn't really go anywhere, unfortunately.

14.What's your all-time favourite ship? I don't really have an all-time favorite, honestly. A lot of them are pretty good.

15.What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? None, I hope, but I do have a Modern!AU Dragon Slayer found family fic in the works that seems dead in the water for now, so we'll have to wait and see on that one.

16.What are your writing strengths? Fluff writing. Happy family/friend feels.

17.What are your writing weaknesses? Fight scenes and strong emotion. For fights, I have an image in my head that ends up sounding awkward when I try to articulate how it looks. Emotion, I'm not the best with powerful emotions, especially sadness and betrayal, as I don't really quite understand them fully just yet, and sometimes it feels poorly shoved in without much of a reason to be there.

18.Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I think it works well if done correctly!

19.First fandom you wrote for? How To Train Your Dragon. It was the fandom that first introduced me to fanfiction.

20.Favourite fic you've ever written? Wings of Fairies: Revamped and Illustrated. It's my experimentation of illustrating fics, which allows me to combine both of my favorite art mediums!

Unfortunately, like last time, I don't have many people I can tag, soooo... anybody who reads this is more than free to partake in it!

[maddiesbookshelves]

Spear by Nicola Griffith (September 2022)

The girl knows she has a destiny before she even knows her name. She grows up in the wild, in a cave with her mother, but visions of a faraway lake come to her on the spring breeze, and when she hears a traveler speak of Artos, king of Caer Leon, she knows that her future lies at his court. And so, brimming with magic and eager to test her strength, she breaks her covenant with her mother and, with a broken hunting spear and mended armour, rides on a bony gelding to Caer Leon. On her adventures she will meet great knights and steal the hearts of beautiful women. She will fight warriors and sorcerers. And she will find her love, and the lake, and her fate.

Would I recommend it to anyone? It's not for everyone I think, because the writing aspires to be "historical", like a period text but modernized. Other than that, I'd recommend it to people who like arthurian legends and who wished there were more queer themes in them.

Level of (dis)satisfaction based on the summary and my expectations? I feel like I always say the same thing everytime but I didn't expect to like it so much. I like arthurian legends so I wanted to like this book and I loved it.

My thoughts on it? Funfact, I didn't realize it was a rewriting of Percival's story because the names of the places and characters are different than the modern versions. I realized near the end, oops. But it didn't prevent me from liking the story and the characters. It made me want to read more queer rewriting of arthurian legends, and @cleopatras-library recommended the Camelot Rising series so I'll read that. Spear is taken from an anthology of queer rewriting of arthurian legends, so I'll try to read it too.

French version under the cut

La fille sait qu'elle a un destin avant même de connaître son nom. Elle grandit dans la nature, dans une grotte avec sa mère. Mais des vision d'un lac lointain lui parviennent dans les brises printanières, et lorsqu'elle entend un voyageur parler d'Artos, roi de Caer Leon, elle sait que son futur l'attend à sa cour. Débordante de magie et impatiente de tester sa force, elle quitte sa mère armée d'une lance de chasse cassée et d'une armure raccommodée, elle chevauche vers Caer Leon. Dans son périple, elle va rencontrer de preux chevaliers et voler le cœur de femmes magnifiques. Elle combattra des guerriers et des sorciers. Elle trouvera l'amour, le lac et son destin.

Est-ce que tu le conseillerais à quelqu’un ? C’est pas pour tout le monde je pense parce que c’est un style qui se veut un peu “historique”, comme si c’était un texte d’époque mais modernisé. Mais sinon je conseille à toutes les personnes qui aiment les légendes arthuriennes et qui aimeraient qu’y ait plus de thèmes LGBT+ dans ces légendes.

Niveau de déception/satisfaction par rapport au résumé et tes attentes ? J’ai l’impression de dire la même chose à chaque fois mais je m’attendais pas à autant apprécier. J’aime bien les légendes arthuriennes donc je voulais vraiment aimer ce livre et j’ai adoré.

Avis sans spoiler ? Alors, funfact, j’avais pas compris que c’était une réécriture de l’histoire de Perceval parce que les noms de tous les lieux et personnages sont différents des versions modernes. J’ai compris que vers la fin que c’était ça, oups. Mais ça m’a pas empêché d’apprécier l’histoire et les personnages. Ca m’a même donné envie de lire plus de réécritures queer des légendes arthuriennes et cleopatraslibrary m’a conseillé la série Camelot Rising du coup je les lirai. Spear est tiré d'un recueil de réécritures queer de légendes arthuriennes donc j'essaierai de le lire aussi.

[frenchwitchdiary]

J’ai eu plaisir à voir ces stories de Black_hound_witch, et surtout le résultat des sondages ! 

Récemment avec l’explosion de la popularité de la sorcellerie chez les plus jeunes générations (rien de mal à ça en soi), on a pu aussi assister à un autre phénomène : la “politiquementcorrectisation” de ces pratiques (lol), leur hybridation avec pas mal de bullshit new-age, la wiccanisation systématique, et leur “dilution” en quelque chose de très simplifié, hyper-accessible, glamourisé et aseptisé (oui la sorcellerie c’est parfois bien crade et bresom), avec une sorte d’injonction à l’ultra-positif (les “love and light” workers ça c’est pour vous), le tout bien récupéré par le capitalisme, qui essaie de nous vendre des witch kit (coucou sephora) ou witch box mensuelle à tout va, alors qu’à la base c’est une pratique bien campagnarde, bien do-it-yourself, ne nécessitant pas vraiment d’accumulation de *jolis* objets, et pas du tout pensée pour être estampillée “witchy aesthetic”... ^^’ 

Si on a tout à fait le droit d’apprécier l’esthétique “witchy” sur les réseaux (loin de moi l’idée de vous en priver hein haha, j’apprécie ça aussi en plus), il ne faut cependant pas perdre de vue que ce n’est 1) ni une obligation, 2) ni le reflet révélateur d’une pratique poussée et avérée - c’est souvent juste, comme le nom l’indique, une esthétique, une image jolie et travaillée, mais souvent creuse avec pas beaucoup de substance derrière.

Je constate peu à peu une sorte de fossé se creuser entre les pratiquants de sorcellerie traditionnelle, et la nouvelle génération qui en a fait quelque chose de totalement différent. (N’allez pas croire pour autant que si c’est différent, nouveau, moderne, ce soit forcément synonyme de mal, nul, ou pas efficace.) Certains essaieront peut-être de gatekeep la sorcellerie, et vous seriez en droit de sortir des “Ok Woomer” (witchy boomer t’as compris).  Je pense que cette résistance des “puristes” vient d’une certaine lassitude vis à vis de cette sur-représentation de la sorcellerie 2.0, qui souvent puise dans la sorcellerie traditionnelle mais la détourne pour en sortir parfois des aberrations ou de la désinformation sur des pratiques ancestrales. 

Voilà, merci d’être venu.e.s à mon Ted Talk. xD

[schlock-luster-video]

On May 28, 1976, Belladonna of Sadness debuted in Portugal.

[whumping-in-the-wings]

A couple days ago I asked if the whump community was good with book-inspired whump, and the answer was a resounding yes, so I gave into the demands of my plot bunny and I’m proud to present the result! This story is very heavily inspired by Megan Shepherd’s novel Grim Lovelies, and I’ve borrowed a lot of the magical elements from the book, though you definitely don’t need to read it to understand the story; I’m just playing around with a similar concept. I’ve also kept the book’s Paris setting, though I’ve scooted it back a few centuries to Vaguely Victorian Paris, since I like writing that time period better than modern era. As a disclaimer, I know very little about France, so if you do and you notice I’ve screwed up somewhere, please let me know. (And for my Traces readers, fret not, I’ll have an update for you at some point this week!)

CW: emotional whump, physical abuse, manipulative whumper, magic-based slavery (not sure how else to tag that last one, since the situation is quite specific to this story; if there’s a better description for it, feel free to clue me in!) As usual, each installment will have its own warnings.

Taglist: None as of yet, but if this turns out to be your cup of tea, let me know if you’d like to be added!

Perfect Sorrows: Part One

Masterlist | Next

It was only an hour or two past noon, but already the gas-lamps at either end of Rue de Diamant had been lit, flickering feebly against the dreary, dismal day. A biting wind chased a few brittle brown leaves between the gaps in the iron stair-rails, and the clouds over the city, thick and sullen, had dyed the sky to match the cobblestones. No empty threat, those clouds; they’d been pouring down buckets of rain since early that morning, soaking the street and filling the gutters. On the marble facade of Monsieur Camille Serreau’s grand townhouse, the water ran over and through the intricate carvings until the three grotesques above the door were weeping cold little rivers onto the front steps.

Sacha didn’t bother trying to duck through them. He was already as wet as it was possible to be. He’d been sent out into the rain three times already, and his long gray coat, a shabby castoff of Monsieur Camille’s that hung far too loosely on his own spindly frame, had been soaked through in minutes. A peculiar autumn for Paris, he’d heard some of the old men in the cafés saying to each other, much wetter and colder and grayer than usual.

He’d taken their word for it. He could hardly do anything else. Though he looked somewhere around nineteen or twenty, the truth was that he had only been human for a little longer than a month. He had no idea what a usual autumn looked like, in Paris or anywhere else.

Of course, he had to have lived through several of them, before he’d been human. But Monsieur Camille and the magic hadn’t left him any memories of those days. Sacha didn’t even know exactly what he had been before, what animal Monsieur Camille had made him from, which of the three furs locked in the sorcier’s trunk had once belonged to him.

In the back of his mind, he had always wished he knew. But now was not the time to stand there and wonder. He was late enough, and wet enough, as it was.

The kitchen was a close, cramped room in the basement level of the house, tucked away behind a heavy door and a steep flight of stairs. Even before Sacha reached the bottom of them, he could hear the angry crash and clatter of pots and pans that meant Ondine was still hard at work preparing for tomorrow’s dinner party, and more than likely in a vicious mood because of it.

Sure enough, the cook was standing over the stove, attacking a pan full of roasting aubergines with much more force than strictly necessary. She glanced up as Sacha came in, her usually elegant features soured with a scowl. “Why didn’t you just stay out all night?” she snapped.

“I tried to be quick,” Sacha answered, though he’d learned by now that nothing he said made a difference when Ondine was in this kind of a mood. “You know I don’t know the city well yet.”

He turned away from her, busying himself with clearing a space for his heavy basket, but another voice interrupted him.

“Leave that.”

Hugo, the butler, had been sitting at the battered wooden table, going over the accounts with his usual lofty detachment from the other servants’ work. He spared Sacha only a brief glance. “Monsieur Camille has asked to see you in his study.”

“Me? But…what for? You’re the only one he’s ever asked up there!”

“I suggest you get upstairs and find that answer out for yourself. Take that wet coat off first, so you’re not dripping with rain all the way there. We have enough to do before tomorrow night without having to dry the carpets too.” And with that, Hugo turned his attention back to the long lists of numbers in front of him, leaving Sacha with little to do but obey.

More than once, he’d found himself wishing that Monsieur Camille could have chosen a sprawling country manor instead of a townhouse. There was no room in a house like this for a set of back stairs, and going up the front ones always felt like breaking some sort of unwritten law, setting foot in a world to which he didn’t belong.

Though at least the stairs were a familiar trek, one he made every morning with the coal scuttle to stir up the fires. He’d never been called to the sorcier’s study before, and he made his way down the long corridor hardly knowing where to put his feet, hardly daring to breathe.

He had to pause a moment before he could bring himself to knock, just twice, and more timidly than he would like. Almost immediately, the calm, cultured voice of his master rang out from inside the room. “Entrez.”

Well, it would do no good to keep him waiting. Sacha set his shoulders and stepped into the room, letting the thick wooden door sigh shut as softly as possible behind him. His eyes went wide.

The room was big enough to hold the kitchen twice over, richly carpeted and paneled with dark, shining wood. The left wall was taken up entirely by a bookshelf, filled from top to bottom with fine leather-bound volumes, strange Latin titles etched in gold along their spines- spellbooks, Sacha realized, the ones from which the sorcier had learned his tricks. Another shelf held more tools of the magic trade, glistening bottles and vials and chests of who-knew-what. The back wall was occupied mostly by a large glazed window, looking out over the rooftops of Paris. Even the rain seemed to fall more gently up here, tracing delicate patterns over the glass instead of driving down like tiny nails the way it had in the streets.

Sacha realized, suddenly, that his mouth had fallen open, and he snapped it shut, focusing his gaze on his reason for being here. “You sent for me, Monsieur Camille?”

The sorcier, a pale, delicate-looking man with piercing blue eyes who sat behind his desk like a king on his throne, glanced up from the tiny glass vial he was rolling back and forth between his fingers. An equally tiny smile raised the corner of his mouth. “Sacha. Yes. Sit down.”

He gestured to the richly carved chair in front of the desk. It was one of the finest things Sacha had ever seen, much less sat in, and he eyed the chair as though it might realize how unworthy he was of it and shatter into splinters beneath him. But Monsieur Camille was waiting, one eyebrow rising slightly, and Sacha hurriedly did as he had been told.

The back of the sorcier’s hand caught him sharply across the cheek, snapping his head back against the chair’s carved back, knocking the breath out of him in a sharp, shocked little gasp. It was a moment before he even understood what had happened, and even then he couldn’t understand why.

But Monsieur Camille spoke as calmly and steadily as though nothing had happened at all. He held up the glass vial he’d been toying with, shaking it a little, swirling the translucent yellow dust inside. “I trust you know what this is?”

He knew, of course he knew, they all did. Camille’s lips had still been coated in it the night he’d made Sacha human. It was the powder that heightened the sorcier’s magic, made him capable of the incredible things that had turned him into one of the most powerful men in France. They all knew how to make it, took turns with the task; Sacha had done it for the first time only a day or two before…

Oh. Oh. Understanding dawned, matching the sting as the shock wore off and his cheek began to throb. He must have made a mistake. Done it wrong. Done something wrong, somehow…

Still with the same chilling calmness, Camille turned and hurled the vial into the roaring fireplace. The glass shattered; the flames leaped up and turned an eerie black for a split second before dying back down to normal. “Useless,” Camille pronounced. “Utterly useless. Unless it was intended to make me look like a fool in front of the Comtesse de Montmorency, in which case it served its purpose perfectly. And what that means, Sacha, is that you did not.”

“I…I’m trying!” Sacha winced at the desperate crack in his voice, but plunged on. “It’s only been a month. I…I’m doing my best.”

“Yet you already know that that’s not good enough. And why not?”

He knew this, too. They all did. It was the first thing Monsieur Camille taught to the creatures he changed. He could have said it in his sleep, but somehow his voice still broke over the words. “Because I…I was made for this work. And only for this work.”

“C’est vrai. And so you have no excuse to be anything less than perfect, and I will accept nothing else.” Camille stood gracefully from his chair and crossed to the window, lacing his long fingers together behind his back, staring out over the city in silence for a moment just as long. Sacha stared after him in breathless terror, his cheek throbbing in time to the panicked beat of his heart.

“There are thousands of creatures in this city,” Camille said finally. “Sparrows. Rabbits. Stray cats, even. I would be very curious to find out what kinds of servants they make. I hope, Sacha, that you never give me a reason to satisfy that curiosity. I made and disposed of more than a few before I chose Hugo and Ondine. I chose them because they proved I could trust them. They don’t make mistakes. If you cannot meet the same standard, I will unmake you as quickly as I made you human to begin with. Is that what you want?”

“Non, Monsieur Camille.” It came out in a whisper.

“Nor do I. I’m quite fond of all my creatures, even the ones I decide not to keep.” The sorcier resumed his seat, his face still impossibly calm, but those blue eyes impossibly cold. “And you don’t want to be an animal again, either. I promise you that. I took your memories of those days out of kindness.” He cast a meaningful glance toward the locked chest in the corner- the one that held their furs, their pasts, their last bits of whatever they had once been- and Sacha did his best not to follow his gaze.

“I know that,” he whispered.

“Good. Then I’ll choose to trust you won’t forget it again.” Without warning, Camille reached forward, seizing the boy’s jaw, tilting his face from one side to the other. It was all Sacha could do not to cower away from the touch.

“Good,” Camille said again. “I haven’t spoiled your looks. I think Laurent has done quite enough of that, hmm?”

He ran his thumb over the thin white scar that slashed beneath Sacha’s right eye. Then he repeated the motion, bearing down harder, hard enough to hurt, almost hard enough to bruise, staring into Sacha’s terrified gaze as though daring him to pull away…

And then, satisfied, he relaxed his grip. “That will be all,” he said. “Go back downstairs and make yourself useful. I expect there’s still much to be done before tomorrow night. It’s the last social event of the season, and I will expect it to be perfect.” He picked up a stack of papers on the desk and started thumbing through it, a clear and cold dismissal.

Sacha didn’t wait to be told twice. He bolted from the room, back through the corridor, back down the stairs. “Perfect,” he repeated softly, breathlessly, trying to convince himself that the cold, the rainwater still on his skin, was the only reason why he was shaking.

[toshiro-taichou]

The blue haired look-a-like family headcanon AU I have in my head.

Ever since seeing this, and learning about Sieghart and Justice, I have been getting this AU in my head.

Picture this.

Sieghart is the father

Mystogan, Jellal and Siegrain are triplets

Justice is the younger brother

Wendy is the baby sister we all need in our lives.

One blue family. But set it in a modern era.

The guilds are houses in Fiore School which serves as a Junior High School and a High School.

-Mystogan and Wendy belongs to Fairy Tail house.

-Jellal and Justice belongs to Crime Sorciere house.

-Siegrain is a part of the student council.

All uniforms are different. Fairy Tail is purple. Crime Sorciere is dark blue. Lamia Scales is green. Blue Peagus is light blue. Student council is white.

2/3 triplets aka Jellal and Siegrain are mischievous and they tend to swap uniforms. No one can tell who is who between the triplets. However, Wendy and Justice are always able to tell the triplets apart by their eye colour.

-Jellal has blue eyes

-Mystogan has green eyes

-Siegrain, Wendy and Justice has brown eyes.

The teachers have never noticed the eye colour difference so they usually pray that the boys are in their assigned classes and not mixed their classes by attending to the other's class. Jellal and Siegrain does that a lot. They tried getting Mystogan to join but he flatted out refused. It's mainly Jellal and Siegrain that the teachers get mixed up. Mystogan usually wears a face mask so it's easier for the teachers to know that it's him and not Siegrain or Jellal.

The siblings all have different hobbies and likes:

-Mystogan: Going out on walks, biking, reading in quiet places.

-Jellal: Hanging out with his friens, spending time with Erza and playing the father role to Meredy.

-Siegrain: Reading, pulling pranks and annoying the fuck out of Mystogan.

-Justice: Reading about space, making random DIY stuff and arguing with Elsie.

-Wendy: Gardening, looking after her kitten (Carla) and patching her brothers up after they get into fights.

They also hang out in their own groups

Mystogan: Edolas (Ezra, Coco, Sugar Boy and Hughes)

Jellal and Siegrain: Troublemakers (Ultear, Meredy, Cobra, Midnight, Angel, Racer and Richard)

Wendy: Natsu group (Natsu, Lucy, Erza, Gray, Juvia, Gajeel and Levy).

Ships

Sieghart is a single dad. Can't picture him being with anyone.

Mystogan with Ezra Knightwalker. Ezra is just Erza Knightwalker just spelt differently. Erza and Ezra are cousins and it was after the offical documents were placed that the two cousins share the same name

Jellal with Erza Scarlet. I swear if I could punch this man, I would. Jerza for life.

Siegrain with Ultear. I think they'll be quite cute together.

Justice with Elsie Crimson. It's canon, they deserve a happy ending (even if they fight all the time).

Wendy with Romeo. They're cute together.

I really want to find some bases and draw them as a father now. I'm doing it.

[logo-comics]

Dumb question, but do you have a "modern Japan" Fortune Lover DLC?

I technically have, with the Modern Times DLC, though they're essentially supposed to be Japan with Sorcier's name slapped onto it, or Sorcier as a city in Japan, depending on the scope of the setting.

I also have two Superhero DLC and one Magical Girl DLC, which are technically set in the modern era, the Super Romance DLC and Academy of Heroes DLC, as well as the Defenders of Love and Justice DLC.

[ashley-slashley]

tagged by @la-sorciere-fleur thank you!

slow burn or love at first sight // fake dating or secret dating // enemies to lovers or best friends to lovers // oh no there’s only one bed or long-distance correspondence // hurt-comfort or amnesia // fantasy au or modern au // mutual pining or domestic bliss // smut or fluff // canon-compliant or fix-it // reincarnation or character death // one-shot or multi-chapter // kid fic or road trip fic // arranged marriage or accidental marriage // high school romance or middle aged romance // time travel or isolated together // neighbours or roommates // sci-fi au or magic au // body swap or gender bend // angst or crack // apocalyptic or mundane

tag (optional): @theoriginalpurpledogpalace @david-watts @laing-caster @harbinger-of-chaos-and-nebulae @abagoforeos @glennsdick @rogersgarden @obsessive-dork