#wip: hbabl

[sentfromwolves]

◈— ⌈ HIS BODY A BROKEN LAW ⌋ web weaving pt.1

[calamityeden]

discord voted for me to work on hbabl and I’m actually kind of excited to get back into it with these two bastards 👀 would y’all be interested in a wip intro?

[pinespittinink]

1, 6, 10, 20

Answered

6. Answered

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

HBABL in its first incarnation (unrelated to Eran's current wip by the same name, except for the fact that they wrote both). I say this with the utmost love as well. HBABL fucked me up something tremendously (a lot of rereading it while crying in the beanbag at 2 am) but I wouldn't have it any other way; it's some of the best writing they've ever done, and I feel the same way about some of the supplemental pieces I've done for it.

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

Okay, okay, but like, the question is: does it count if I can still do the second one on my own without the witch's help? Or is it a curse where I'll never have one if I choose to magically get the other?

🍓 writing asks! 🍓

[sentfromwolves]

◈—⌈ character voice tag game ⌋

Rules: Rewrite the line of dialogue from the person who tagged you into the voice of your OC’s! (You can include a short beat of action to help establish character if you want.) Pass on the tag with a new line of dialogue.

Thank you so much for the tag, @sunset-a-story!! I love this concept and this idea and I'm excited to try it out hehe. I'll be doing this for the hbabl cast! my prompt is "I need help."

◈—« NEMESIS »

Nemesis laughed, a jackal sound, bitter at the edges, sour with self-hate. "Listen," he spat, a dog backed into a corner, baring its teeth because it didn't know how to do anything else, "I'm not asking because I want to. I'm asking because I have no other choice. And I won't say it again—so just help me." His voice smoked at the edges, snuffing out to something rawer. Something far more vulnerable, something young beyond belief. "Please."

◈—« JUDGE »

Judge rolled his cheek into the palm of their hand, nuzzling animal and rough. Blood smeared across his cheek, his neck. "I'll follow you wherever you go," he said, the rich, dark umber of his voice ragged and raw, "but I need you to lead the way for me first."

◈—« HALLIDAY »

Halliday made a bruised sound in the back of his throat, one first curled at his nape, fingers massaging up into the tangled mess of his hair. "I would do it on my own," he admitted, "I would—I tried to, but I can't. I'm sorry." He smiled despite the shame in his eyes. "I'm sorry."

◈—« DESMOND »

Desmond laughed, the sound razored and baleful. It mutilated itself with contempt. In the half-light, he looked nearly animal. Some creature you ran from, for fear of what its teeth could do. "God does not want me," he spat, "God does not care. I bruised my knees for him for two hundred years—and he does not care!" Another peel of laughter, shattered at the edges by a deeper, anguished noise. "All I have is this," he said, "All I have is right here. All I have is you. And what will you do? Why would you care? Even if I—" he cut himself off, but the prayer in his eyes was plain to see. Not a prayer to god at all, but you.

OK THIS WAS ACTUALLY SO HARD LMAO for a moment I wanted to just write Desmond laughing maniacally and then leaping off a cliff because he's. something else. and I wrote this prompt for him with a specific post-HBABL mindset. but I actually love this challenge, and it 100% was challenging!

I'll tag: @tananaphone @juls-writes @awritingcaitlin @turnips-creates @maddstermind @k-v-briarwood @loopyhoopywrites @forthesanityofstorytellers @interroblog @lunafiorewrites @lorenfinch @littleladymab @akiwitch @picrosswrites @crwn-nrth and anyone else who wants to do this game!

Your prompt is: You betrayed me.

>:3333 LETS GOOOO

[sentfromwolves]

thank you @maddstermind for the reverse tag!! here is a short one from hbabl!! >:3

“Nemesis,” Judge said. His voice carried something inside of it—hesitance, vulnerability, the kind of plea bargain that precluded some damning reveal—maybe even the truth. Nemesis turned to him just as the GTO sped beneath the mouth of tunnel, into the yawning abyss beyond. For a moment, Judge’s cauldron gaze held his own—the only light in the dark. But then he closed his eyes and looked away. “No,” he said, “it’s nothing. Nevermind.” Nemesis wanted him to stop the car. Nemesis wanted him to say what was on his mind. Nemesis wanted—what?

tagging: @astorichan @fortunatetragedy @awritingcaitlin @ladywithalamp @surroundedbypearls @sodaliteskullwrites @trixies-show & open tag for anyone else!

[sentfromwolves]

✨—« OC IN FIFTEEN » tag game

thank you so much for the tag, @willtheweaver !! I've never done this one before and I'm actually really excited to hehe >:3 I'm going to be doing this for Nemesis from HBABL. NO CONTEXT, HERE WE GO! ( •̀ ω •́ )y

✨—«rules» Include 15 or less lines of dialogue from an OC that describes their essence—you may include context, but the less the better.

“Fuck you! You deserved it, you absolute bitch. I hope it hurt like hell!”

2. “First of all, I haven’t agreed to help you with anything. Second of all, are you stupid?”

3. “Don’t put that in your mouth actually, witch magic’ll make you sick as shit."

4. “Eating babies?”

5. “If it’s about the demon, he’s stuck with me and you can’t have him.”

6. “Yeah, well, I’m not like other girls.”

7. “Make me.”

8. “What? Like it’s hard?”

9. “Don’t change your opinion on me so fast. I’m still about to do something incredibly stupid.”

10. “My mother fed monsters my liver every day for a month once. You’ll have to do better than this to frighten me.”

11. “Full offense, but I don’t trust you not to double cross me because you got bored while I was away.”

12. “I can’t tell you it’s going to be alright. I can’t tell you this isn’t a bad place, or what we find here won’t fuck us all up for sure. I can’t—I can’t do any of that. But I know a little about what it’s like to be scared—of your past, your future. You.”

13. “But I know who I am, and if I die, I’ll die knowing I was me right up until the end. My mother’s curse might kill me, but it can’t take that from me. Nothing can.”

14. “Listen to me, I’m not leaving this place without you. I don’t care if you couldn’t save me—but I am saving you.”

15. “Don’t think I regret it, I’d do it all over again, just to save you, yeah? So don’t think I regret how I went out. Not once. Not ever.”

HEHEHEHE (I'm so emo about Nemesis right now)

Tagging: @awritingcaitlin @tananaphone @juls-writes @lorenfinch @maddstermind @k-v-briarwood @saintedseraph @asablehart @wintherlywords @ryns-ramblings @littleladymab @night9uake @ladywithalamp @trixies-show

[sentfromwolves]

thanks for the tag, caitlin!!! >:3 you know what I'm working on right now hahaha so here is the last line I've written from hbabl!

◈ ⌈ His Body a Broken Law ⌋ —Chapter Seven Excerpt

Chaos snuffed, licking at Nemesis’s palms. For a few minutes, he just sat with his dog, trying not to fall right back into the pit October had opened up inside of him. He felt shaken to his core. He felt sick to his stomach. Thirty days, and he’d be dead. Thirty days, and all Nemesis had left was this stupid plan, this demon and the exorcist he wanted to eat, and a whole lotta blind, dumb hope.

Tagging: @tananaphone @maddstermind @k-v-briarwood @juls-writes @forthesanityofstorytellers @lorenfinch @chiefwritesbook @wintherlywords @littleladymab (and anyone else who wants to do it!)

[sentfromwolves]

thank you for the tag @awritingcaitlin !!! I feel so far behind on my tag games but I am slowly 🐌🐌🐌 catching up sobs. here's a lil bit from hbabl: interlude youth. let's GOO

❖ 》　HIS BODY A BROKEN LAW ; interlude . youth

You look in the mirror, and a silver-haired phantom looks back at you from the other side. Not the first ghost you’ve ever found in this house, and surely not the last, but perhaps the strangest of them all, with their star-white hair and acid emerald eyes, and the outlandish metal stabbed through their ears, the serpent on their throat sneering at you with all its sharpened teeth. “Who are you?” you ask, and he scowls and says, who are YOU?

Tagging: @lorenfinch @maddstermind @tananaphone @awritingcaitlin (reverse uno hehe) @interroblog @willtheweaver @ladywithalamp & open tag to anyone else who wants to do a llt game!

[sentfromwolves]

🪶 heads up seven up: tag tame ✨

Thanks so much for the tag, @awritingcaitlin !!! >:33333 I'm so excited to be in this part of rewrites for hbabl. I'm thriving and Nemesis is suffering lmao

❖ 》　RULES: share the last seven lines you wrote and tag seven people.

Excerpt from HBABL—Chapter Eleven

Halliday held his stare for a split second, cold and unknowable. And then he turned away. “I haven’t forgotten anything,” he replied, staring down at Morrigan as though he had never been the bastard in exile, only a prince returning home from a long journey to his throne. “I know where my loyalties are. I never forgot my vows. I was sent out from Rapture to find the Devourer, and I have. This witch can lead us to him. So before you get ahead of yourself, Morrigan, don’t forget that you are honor-bound too. And you can spend your blood hunger wherever you please. But this one is for Rapture.” He took another step forward. Nemesis’s mind spun with confusion, with horror, the growing revelation: this man was never what he seemed. “The Tower will decide his fate,” Halliday said, cold with finality, “do not be stupid enough to invite him to decide yours too.”

❖ 》　TAGGING: @maddstermind @fortunatetragedy @interroblog @littleladymab @saintedseraph @asablehart @ahungeringknife (+open tag for anyone else who wants to join in!)

[sentfromwolves]

hehe thank you again for the tag, @willtheweaver & @littleladymab!! I'm still working on hbabl revisions, but I wanted to do two, so here's one from my contemporary project as well! >:3

◆—⌈ His Body a Broken Law . Chapter Eight Excerpt ⌋

“We’re getting distracted.” Halliday grunted as Nemesis started stitching his wounds shut. “We can’t just drive in there with me shouting directions and pray that God will guide us safely to shore.” “God won’t guide us anywhere, seeing as I’m driving,” Judge shot back, and Halliday gargled an angry noise in his throat. “You’re repeating your point over and over, but you’re not exactly giving us much to work with to fix this little—” “Big.” “Big issue of ours,” Judge finished.

◆—⌈ So Let the Mountain Crumble . Chapter ??? Excerpt ⌋

“Forest,” you shout, poking your head up over the side of a sprinter van a few rows down, “hurry up! The boba place closes at ten!”  I stare at you, wild-eyed, but then just as suddenly, I’m laughing at the absurdity of it all, River. The absurdity of us. I remember, suddenly, a story you told me when we were younger, about a comet that will only be visible to the naked eye once every seventy-five years.  Which would you rather be? You’d asked me then, your finger tracing the silhouette of the celestial body, the paper creasing beneath your touch. The comet or the earth? 

I'm going to tag: @tananaphone @awritingcaitlin @willtheweaver (reverse tag!) @littleladymab (and you too!) @lorenfinch @maddstermind @k-v-briarwood @interroblog @ryns-ramblings @sodaliteskullwrites @surroundedbypearls and anyone else who wants to do one! >:3

[sentfromwolves]

◈—⌈FIND THE WORD⌋ tag game!

Thank you so much as ever @awritingcaitlin for tagging me in one of my all-time favorite games on here! >:3 they're so much fun to do hehe and you know me, while I'm neck deep in hbabl edits I can do this one for hbabl (also sorry for being so slow)

My words are: small, scissors, song, slip, and some

◈—« SMALL » chapter ten excerpt.

“A prophet whispered your name in my ear once,” the man said, slowing until only a scarce few feet separated them. A small enough gap that Nemesis could reach across it, touch this mirror image and make it real. “Years and years ago. I’ve carried your name with me ever since.”

◈—« SCISSORS » chapter eleven excerpt.

More—like the severed silver braids in the sink and the bloodied scissors scattered across the floor, the beating that lasted for days in the aftermath. The stainless steel he pushed through his own ears to pierce them, the bright glow of his mother’s eyes through the darkness, as if she were a beast moving through the shadows of her own house. The children she dragged in her wake while they screamed, the jars of baby teeth rattling on the shelves, demon eyes bloating through the wooden beams of the house like termites, millipede legs click-click-clicking all across the halls. How Nemesis always walked on the balls of his feet as if he could become invisible, as if his blood was not enough to make them bite until they broke his bones.  This was his boyhood—a constant fight just to make it from one day to the next. 

◈—« SONG » interlude: aleksander excerpt.

Your vision spins—you are the forest and the boy bodies within it, one of them buried under the tangled root of exposed trees—you are the endless canopy of eyes watching from above—you are the loon song in those creaking wooden halls, you are the fear that balloons and bursts as your father is taken apart from belly to lungs to throat, thorned branches erupting from his throat, pinning him to the ceiling, demon voice curled up deep within his barrel chest, laughing with delight— 

◈—« SLIP » chapter twelve excerpt.

Desmond’s expression twisted, anger and exasperation flashing across his thinned, torn lips. Nemesis prided himself on every slip and every noise of irritation that passed through his teeth. He wasn’t made of stone at all.  Here, right here, he was just a man. 

◈—« SOME » i broke my fucking document for this caitlin

“You are an arrogant little bitch, aren’t you?” Clementine asked, and her voice twisted at the edge, abandoning that cherry-sweet mask for a glimpse of the vile creature she hid at her core. “You haven’t come close to breaking your curse once in twenty years.”  “And some part of you still believes that I might pull it off.” Nemesis pushed one of his palms backward into Clementine’s fox maws. “You might be the bitch queen in this city, but you’re not the only scary thing in this room anymore. So?” He smirked. “Are you willing to take a gamble with me or not?” 

>:333 OK!! I'll be tagging the usual crew for this round, and an open tag to anyone who wants to participate too! If you want me to tag you in the future, lemme know!

Tagging: @awritingcaitlin (I'm getting revenge for some breaking my doc) @tananaphone @juls-writes @maddstermind @k-v-briarwood @loopyhoopywrites @interroblog @forthesanityofstorytellers @saintedseraph @lorenfinch @ladywithalamp

Your words are: Crack, Creak, Crunch, Crave, and Click.

[sentfromwolves]

✦ his body a broken law . chapter fifteen excerpt

There was something frighteningly intimate about it all—the steam, the spray, Nemesis’s fingers in Halliday’s hair. How they said nothing, and spoke with only their hands, Halliday leaning heavily against the grungy old tile while Nemesis rinsed the gore from his skin, thumbing suds of shampoo from the corner of his closed eyes. He’d been fucked by plenty of faceless men in places just like this before. He’d never washed the blood from their hair. He’d never pressed his palm against their chest just to listen to the beat of their heart.

“I’m glad you’re alive,” Nemesis said, and meant it.

˚˙༓࿇༓˙˚˙༓࿇༓˙˚˙༓࿇༓˙˚ ˚˙༓࿇༓˙˚˙༓࿇༓˙˚˙༓࿇༓˙˚ ˚˙༓࿇༓˙˚˙༓࿇༓

HBABL taglist: @fearofahumanplanet @afoolandathief @andromedatalksaboutstuff @marrowwife @blind-the-winds @cream-and-tea @tananaphone @turnips-creates @runeseaks (please ask to be added or removed!)

[sentfromwolves]

Thanks so much for the tag, @maddstermind!! I love find the word tag games. >:3 I'm going to be doing this for HBABL!

The words I got were: greeting, scream, pendant, and junk!

◈—« greet/ing » HIS BODY A BROKEN LAW ; Chapter Four

A face emerged from the writhing mass of rat bodies in front of him, a pale white apparition with lidless crimson eyes that bled the sclera scarlet, pale pink lips pulling back to reveal rows and rows of jagged teeth.  “Now, now,” the demon infesting the rats purred, “is that any way to greet a friend?”  Pain exploded over Nemesis’s calf, a harder, fiercer force than all the rest, like enamel tearing straight through his skin to his muscle, and slicing that too. He disappeared beneath the surface of the tide, a million rodents writhing all around him, dragging Nemesis down into the dark. 

◈—« scream » HIS BODY A BROKEN LAW ; Chapter Sixteen

“Nemesis,” Judge snarled behind him, but beyond all his anger, Nemesis could sense the fear in him too. Horror and agony and confusion—the final destination of any beast backed into the corner of a cage. “Nemesis—wait—”  His voice cut off into a roar of anguish as the demon prowling around him lunged again, the air bloating with the scent of fresh spilled blood. Nemesis heard flesh tear, bones crack and shatter. Nemesis heard Judge scream, all that agony becoming unbearable. 

◈—« pendant » HIS BODY A BROKEN LAW ; Chapter Two

“I know.” The demon smirked. “I know you’re not. But how’s this instead? We make an old-fashioned kinda deal. Something simple, the kind we shake hands on, nothing more.” Nemesis paused halfway through wrangling off his other boot to hurl at the demon’s head. Suspicion snarled up his spine, but something stopped it stupidly in its tracks. Not hope. Nemesis wasn’t stupid enough anymore to cling onto something as reckless and deadly as that. But something. Intuition, maybe. Curiosity, fanged and sharp. He lifted his right hand, twitching his fingers. Excalibur soared free of the blazing inferno that had become the barn at his back.  By the time Nemesis caught it, the holy blade was a pendant again. He dragged the chain back around his neck, ruffled his sweaty, grimy hair, and said, “and what’s that? You know, most demons don’t exactly have hands to shake with.”

◈—« junk » HIS BODY A BROKEN LAW ; Chapter

“You say that, but you’re the demon who had us wait three hours while they made two hundred burgers to satisfy your appetite,” Nemesis growled as he crawled over the baking leather of the backseat and stuck his head through the middle console. “You sure you aren’t just gonna puke it up by the time we get to the Mirage?”  “I think I have a far better handle on my stomach than you, little witch,” Judge purred, catching Nemesis’s chin with his claws and leaning in close. “Appreciate your concern though. This diet of junk food and jackasses ain’t exactly my style.” 

I'm going to tag @tananaphone, @juls-writes, @saintedseraph @awritingcaitlin, @k-v-briarwood, @forthesanityofstorytellers, @crwn-nrth, and anyone else who wants to do this!

Your words are: rust, ember, damp, breath, teeth. ( •̀ ω •́ )y les GOOOOO

[sentfromwolves]

✨wip extract tag game✨

thanks for the tag @faithfire-writes!! I'm trying to get back to making this place active again and this is a great way to get started hehe I'm working on revisions for HBABL so here is the latest excerpt! (and stay tuned for exciting stuff for this wip - going to be looking for beta readers soon!)

✦ his body a broken law ; chapter two—

“Is that so?”  Nemesis laughed again. How had it come to this? A fucking conversation with the demon still digesting his mother? He should’ve been dead by now. This bastard should have killed him, or held him up to the flames, or worse. Instead, they were debating the possibilities of breaking into the most dangerous occult civilization on earth.  “You might be the one demon that finally got the jump on my mother,” Nemesis said, “but the Midnight City took its first breath two centuries ago, and the exorcists have been crawling all over its back and trying to kill it ever since. Call it duty or obsession, whichever you prefer, but beyond Tenspire, that’s the most densely populated city of demon-murdering fanatics on earth.” 

tagging: @tananaphone @awritingcaitlin @@chiefwritesbook @juls-writes @carrotblr @maddstermind @ladywithalamp @k-v-briarwood & anyone else who wants an excuse to share some writing!

[sentfromwolves]

✦ NANOWRIMO (x) 1LINEWED ; HIS BODY A BROKEN LAW—

“So it is true,” the demon murmured. “That mythical power of the True Witch. You can see all of it, can’t you? Everything.”  Everything. What a small word for what it was. The way Nemesis could touch a rock in Greece and witness the rise and fall of an empire. The way he could cup the blood of a sacrificial lamb in his palms and feel the knife cut its throat. Yes, when Nemesis whispered to the world, the world whispered back. But the world could demand things of him too.

HBABL taglist: @pinespittinink @fearofahumanplanet @afoolandathief @kaiusvnoir @andromedatalksaboutstuff @marrowwife @blind-the-winds @cream-and-tea @bebewrites @audrenyahh @tananaphone @turnips-creates @runeseaks (please ask to be added or removed!)

[sentfromwolves]

✦ A NANOWRIMO (RE) INTRO ; HIS BODY A BROKEN LAW—

"Listen," Nemesis said, gripping the steering wheel with a white-knuckled fist. "I have twenty-nine days left to live, and all I've got left is my dumb dog, the demon possessing my car, and an idea that's probably gonna get me killed long before this curse finally gets its chance. If I have to go out, I'm gonna go out doing something stupid, something desperate, something that might just save my life, right until the very end."

Iiiiiiit's almost time for NaNoWriMo!!!! 🎃🪄I'm 60k into the first draft of HBABL and I'm excited to finish it this month. I'm estimating I have around 50k left, so we're going to charge through to the end! I'm hoping to find some new friends to sprint and celebrate the season with, so if you're looking for a nano buddy, please feel free to hit me up. 💝

HBABL (affectionately and ridiculously called carfucker by the people who know me and this ridiculous wip best) is an unapologetically queer urban fantasy standalone. You can find the proper WIP Intro for it here! I'm looking forward to sharing more snippets and graphics throughout the month as I get closer and closer to the finish line. >:) If ya'll do any nanowrimo project posts, feel free to tag me in them! Let's cheer each other on!

HBABL taglist: @pinespittinink @fearofahumanplanet @afoolandathief @kaiusvnoir @andromedatalksaboutstuff @marrowwife @blind-the-winds @cream-and-tea @bebewrites @audrenyahh @tananaphone @turnips-creates @runeseaks (please ask to be added or removed!)