Writing - Blog Posts

Oo a tag

Uhm I don't have a lot of OC information out there so this would end up being the ultimate guessing game. So- Even I won't know the true answer or if the answer is canon to my own story.

Who is the most likely to be able to communicate with the Ancient God that they were named after?

Explanation: The Ancient Gods are not known to communicate with Named humans, as most Named do not do things that fall within the realm of the God's abilities that the Gods take as worshiping them. For example, if an Apollo became a doctor, he would be honoring Apollo (The God of Prophecy, Music, Healing, and Disease of the world of Stars of The Sky) because he would be healing, but an Apollo on a slaughter spree would not be. The things that fall within their realm of abilities are similar to what the Greek Gods' abilities control/lie in.

--God-named are not known to have the ability to commune with their Gods because the conditions are hard to meet--

God-named are those named after the Ancient Gods, and will be referred to as Named. Those who aren't named after the Ancient Gods are the Unnamed.

Hades - The protagonist with a strong opinion, raised to lead in her Clan. Her Personal God and the Ancient God (of her world, which I stole from the Greeks) is Hades, her Clan's believed-in God of Dead, Death, and the Underworld. She prays to her God daily, condemns those who wish to become immortal through rituals that would break the natural cycle of life and death, and she (for the sake of protecting others) puts people to death.

Ares - The main antagonist(Maybe) who believes in Named supremacy. Named after the Stars of the Sky God of War, Battlelust, Courage, and Civil order, Ares. He wants to incite a mass genocide of the Unnamed, unite all the Named, and get with Hades (That's his side quest).

Eros - A side character who has bedded more women and men than he has fingers and toes. He's named after the God of Lust, Attraction, and Sexual Desire. He's definitely slept with many people, he's gotten people together with other people, and he's a very natural flirt.

Tagging @aalinaaaaaa and @illarian-rambling

And anyone else who wishes to join.

Match the OC to their backstory!

This is an idea I had for a new tag game, and it's pretty self-explanatory. First, an event or backstory snippet is listed, then a list of characters and reasons why it could have happened to them, then you have to guess which oc it happened to. If you already know the correct answer, you may guess that, but you can't say anything like "oh, I know it's XYZ because of XYZ."

I'm starting off with characters from Sisters of Vipers with this one, but I would like to do another one with more of my other ocs!

Who was left orphaned after their wealthy parents died tragically when they were an infant?

Mola - a teenage girl who was adopted after being found, seemingly abandoned, on a beach when she was a baby. Everyone always talks about how she looks identical to a rich woman who died.

Serpent - The powerful leader of a mysterious secret trading ring. Negotiates with lords and ladies of the land and lives in a gigantic manor house.

Bahnkil- an anxiety prone man who had a strained relationship with his uncle. His uncle was very rich and influential.

Tagging @alinacapellabooks + @kiennwrites and anyone else who wants to do this!

The scene from that one poll

Remember the poll about the MHA fanfiction scene that I mentioned wanting to show off because I did something that I haven't tried? Well a majority voted yes (As in two out of three people) so here it is!

If I miss a warning, comment and I'll fix it. Trigger warning for under the break: Blood, injury, mutilation, losing limbs

Word count: 976

The hand villain laughs, as though this was an expected, accepted thing. He's going to have this Nomu rip his wings out, and Kaito can't do much about it beyond grit his teeth as the pulling on his wing starts hurting more and more. He can take it. His wings have been ripped out hundreds of times, but those were all after his wings were burnt to nearly nothing. Never with his nerves undamaged by fire. The pulling starts taking his wing from its socket, which feels as painful as getting his arm dislocated. Maybe worse.

"You were overconfident, Hero!" The hand villain laughs, even as the display starts drawing attention from the other villains, the mutant-quirked villains with extra limbs reacting especially harshly, recoiling at the sight, a few even getting pale with nausea. Kaito's wing is starting to bleed around the base, the pain making him dig his nails into the ground, seeing as the Nomu pushed him down at some point. "You thought we didn't prepare for the unexpected? We had another Nomu!"

"Yeah, yeah…" Kaito groans, feeling the muscles that allow him to flap his wings starting to tear as the pulling persists. "Think you're all that because you could surprise me…" Kaito glares at the villain, even if the villain doesn't see it as scary given that Kaito is currently trapped by a Nomu. "Think you're the first to have my wings ripped out?"

Kaito can hear villains murmuring among themselves, debating trying to help him. Most were villains with quirks that gave them extra limbs, the ones who could imagine how they'd feel if their extra limbs were pulled from their bodies, even as slowly as what's happening to him. He can hear the moment his wing was pulled out far enough to reveal muscles that are supposed to remain inside him, not outside. His will to silently bear the pain is slipping with each moment, his eyes watering from the pain. If he wasn't used to terrible things happening to his wings, if his pain tolerance was any less, he'd be screaming by now. The arm on the side that is getting a wing ripped out has gone limp, not responding to his attempts to even curl his fingers. Guess muscles for his arm were damaged, too… or pulled out. He can still feel his wing, is still connected to it by a string of tendons, and that is the sight that had villains vomiting around the plaza.

"Fool," the Hand villain spits as the Nomu fully rips Kaito's wing out. The hero is panting against the pain, still glaring even as his wing is thrown somewhere behind him. "Does the other wing need to come out for you to realize how useless you are now? You don't have the ability to fly now." The hand villain is laughing as the Nomu moves to start ripping out Kaito's other wing. This isn't the first time someone has done it. Not even the first time a villain has done it. What part of that does this villain not get? Kaito will fly again.

This time, the pulling had him grunting, his teeth gritting together so tightly that he can feel a few cracking. The pain is much worse like this. At least the burning tended to kill nerves when he usually has to suffer through getting his wings ripped out. He can feel his fingers spasming, struggling to obey his desire to keep his fingers dug into the cement. A choked sound somewhere between a whine and a whimper escapes him, a surge of pain flooding him as something beyond his wing is pulled out of place, his tears dripping as his hand goes still, his entire arm limp as this wing takes more than the last with it.

He can hear a few villains passing out, and even the Hand villain looks unsettled from what Kaito can see through teary vision. It hurts, hurts, hurts… His back hurts where his wings are supposed to be, one ripped out and the other tearing a larger hole through him with every millimeter the wing is pulled out. He would be passed out from the pain if his tolerance was any less. He had skipped the screaming state and went right to sobbing and whimpering, his throat making soft coos in an attempt to soothe himself through the pain, a reaction none of his punishments ever had. He's sagging in the Nomu's grasp, aside from where his wing is still being pulled out of him. This isn't the first time this has happened, but… it hurts worse… than every time it happened before. His thoughts are lagging from the pain, even though he knows it is about to get much worse.

More thuds erupt as villains pass out, even the strongest stomached of them starting to empty their stomachs of their breakfasts, if they had any. The Hand villain isn't looking at him anymore, either too sickened by the display of his own creation or bored of watching a hero getting mutilated. Kaito can't tell. Kaito bites his tongue as the pain gets worse, much worse, as the Nomu starts finishing up with this wing. He can taste blood even as he feels blood running down his back, the trails of crimson feeling like a mockery of his wings. The Nomu finally pulls the wing out, and Kaito can hear the thud of bone on concrete as the wing is thrown carelessly. Based on the sound, Kaito assumes that the wing took his shoulder blade with it. It had… happened before. The Nomu shoves him forward, leaving him lying there, his back bleeding from the holes where his wings used to be. His vision starts going dark, one last whimper escaping him.

What am I going to forget when I rewind this?

Last Line/Paragraph Tag

Tagged By @illarian-rambling

Uhm I haven't written in this for a while, but I am not going to spoil some worldbuilding or character information. (I have like three thousand words I can shove at tag games so this is totally fine-)

Going with last line instead of last paragraph because either are equally out of context to what was happening.

Not with at least three out of the four named after the Ancient Gods and likely part of the same group of students.

Open tag because I don't tag people often.

That feeling when you have a fully hearing character, but she also knows a specific form of sign language because there are deaf/mute kids and people in her community and she learned it so she could communicate with them, but she'd also sign her words with her hands while being very passionate about how that group is treated and she taught herself to sign what she is saying when she's angry or passionate about anything in general. She learned a specific sign language that isn't used anywhere else in her world just so she could speak with people she thought were being left out, and then it just spread to when she's passionate about something because why would she regulate when she's signing her speech? Practice makes perfect and- Oh, yeah, she can very easily insult anyone in her general vicinity with a number of gestures that I am not going to think of right now and she could very easily claim it to be a compliment or something if questioned...

She isn't the type to insult without reason, so it isn't like this would happen often. The insult thing not the signing thing. She's more likely to be passionate about something.

I'm making a Pinterest board for Hades and am currently collecting some things that remind me of her, and I have this other board called "Casual outfits" (That I never really look at aside from maybe outfit inspiration for drawings)... Well, that board is being flooded with not so causal outfits in my quest to find outfits that fit her.

So I've written fanfiction in the past. MHA fanfiction, Jujutsu Kaisen, other anime that are currently slipping my brain. So I was thinking... there is one MHA fanfiction I've written (and abandoned) with an absolutely brutal scene. The MC, in the second chapter (Or maybe third? I frame it as second.) of his story, gets brutalized. A major part of his quirk gets ripped off/out. He has wings. you'd think I should put had, but he has a second quirk and it's all fine. But the point is, I was exploring what I am willing to do to my characters. I was exploring how far I would go in an attempt to ruin the life of my own characters. How much detail would I put in a scene that I don't usually write.

Just a forewarning, the scene is describing a major injury. Blood and limbs getting ripped off level violence. If people are interested in the scene, I will hide the scene, naturally, but this is for the possibility of people voting yes who don't like scenes like that.

My mood is balanced somewhere between "I should write until three am so I can sleep a good four hours" and "I should attempt to make a pinterest board for Hades"

Neither will go well.

Oo I was tagged! Thanks, @rumeysawrites.

Rules: Write the given line in the voice of my characters. Possibly make another line.

Fun, fun.

My line is: "I'm not feeling well".

Lets see what chaos I can do with this.

For Stars Of The Sky- The God-named's voices

Hades: "I am not fine, but I am alive, so I am fine."

Zeus: "My body is fighting me. THUNDER!"

Ares: "I am losing to my body. This will not do."

Eros: "*sighs* Okay, so which of the three lovely ladies I was with had a cold? Because it certainly wasn't ME who had this first!"

Aphrodite: "Awww, the bacteria like me!"

Apollo: "Being sick is for peasants, and I am no peasant. Begone, disease!"

Artemis: "I've faced worse on the hunt."

Athena: "I am feeling unwell, but you needn't concern yourself. I am still stronger than you."

Demeter: "The harvest is low and prosperity thin."

Dionysus: "I need more wine. Or alcohol in general."

Nyx: "The night yearns for me to remain, lest the sun claim me."

There are more God-named, but I think you can tell that the God-named might be influenced by the gods they are named after in some cases. Some are dramatic, I feel, and others are... Whatever Zeus is. He's supposedly calmer than that in the story. I dunno haven't written a ton of him.

For the Gods... Yeah, they don't feel unwell in canon so I am not going to think about it.

For Sightless

Astro's Twin: "... Solitude is better than my current health."

Astro: "My sis can heal me, it's fine."

Solar: "What Astro said."

Granda: "I can't work the forge for a bit, is all. I'll be back to it in a few days."

Dreakan: "I am... sick? No! I mustn't be! I cannot possibly be sick! I need her! (Referring to Astro's twin. Who has a name, btw. I just like hiding it-) She will nurse me back to health! And then we-" *continues to blabber on about evil plans and making babies-*

Val: "Alas, my health is in decline and my bed calls my name! I must heed its call!"

Anyway, I am not tagging anyone, but I will come up with a line if anyone wants to do it.

"My heart cries, yet I want more."

Character Voice Tag!

tagged by @theink-stainedfolk (tysm ^^ your lines were awesome)

Rules are to simply write the line you’re given in your character’s voice.

My line was “Here, take this.”

Kaiden

“You could use this.”

Felix

“Hey, I got you something you may enjoy!”

Aleksi

“Here.”

Li Hua

“Here you go! Make good use of it, yeah?”

Tobias

“Eh, I’m not really needin’ this anymore.”

Noha

*they toss The Thing to you without a word.*

teehee

Your line is “What are you doing?”

no pressure:

Tag Game List! Lemme know if you’d like on/off via dm:

@sableglass @viridis-icithus @allaboutmagic @paeliae-occasionally

@inky-anathemata @vsnotresponding @nightlylaments @ancientmyth

@thebookishkiwi @verdant-mainframe @threedaysgross @fifis-corner @bamber344

@seafloor509 @viwritesthings @rumeysawrites @pizzamanstan

@vesanal @an-indecisive-nerd @the-ellia-west @willtheweaver @write-with-will

@teratheo

and open tag!

⁉️"what do you do when stuck on a scene?"

❤️"what are your favorite scenes from your WIPs?"

Honestly? When I am stuck on a scene, there are two things that could immediately happen. I just decide to time skip to a different scene as a temporary fix, or (the reason I have so many WIPs) start a new story because my brain churns out new story ideas. Worst case scenario, the story gets abandoned for a few months only for me to decide to rewrite it entirely and, in such rewriting, circumvent the scene that had bothered me or write it in a way that I like. Rarely do I ever erase a scene to write a new one. Often, for me, it's the case of the story wanting the scene for reasons unexplained to my conscious mind, but rewriting the scene tends to help.

For my favorite scene, it has to be the opening scene for Stars Of The Sky. I am not going to write it out here, but I feel that it is a perfect blend between describing the scenery, the area around the main character and the main character herself while not throwing every detail out. It describes major things for the scenery, then describes Hades, the main character, and then a mix of the two without putting every little detail in one paragraph, but over many paragraphs, and it helps establish a bit about Hades' Clan while still giving her the primary spotlight. It was also done in a way that I haven't done before, which made it enjoyable to do because it was new to me while maintaining my style of not immediately using the mc's name.

I've posted seven sentences of this opening scene, but not the entire opening scene. Just a small chunk. In total, the scene is 765 words, which... It is only a coincidence that the number does that (counts down). I don't really plan scenes, especially at the start of my stories, but I like how this one turned out.

From the behind the scenes game:

❗"how many WIPs do you have?"

🖊️"how does your magic system work?"

Thanks for the ask!

Currently, I have one primary WIP (Temporarily titled Stars Of The Sky) and in the upper end of twenty that I sometimes return to and add on to, but those are primarily fanfiction, aside from one.

I do have a secondary WIP that I return to, which has more of a magic system than my current primary, which is the one that I will talk about for the magic system.

In the world of Sightless, the WIP that I have a planned magic system for, people are born with a set amount of magic power. Everyone has some amount of it, but not everyone is given the same amount, and no one can increase the amount. Most people barely have enough to enchant an item, which is the majority of the populace. The next level are those who can enchant items but can't cast a spell. Then are those who can cast spells.

One can increase how efficient they are with their magic power through repeated use, but for those who cannot use it at all, as in, those who can't even enchant items, this route is not possible. Of course, there are limits to the use.

The first stage of magic overuse is blindness. For those with higher healing factors, this goes away, but for most mages, this is the end of their vision. This doesn't mean the permanently blind cannot cast magic at all, but they would be relegated to being healers and farming spells. The stage beyond blindness, if a mage ignores the blindness, is heart attacks. For the more resilient mages, or those with healers nearby, they live. For most, they don't.

There are exceptions to the rules, but not for reasons most would expect.

The main character, for example, wasn't born in the world with this magic system, but she has quite the large magic power pool. She is also fairly resistant to the drawbacks of magic overuse due to having quite the fast healing rate without magic. She's also one of few whose occupation doesn't match her magic pool, as she's a guard/blacksmith, not a mage. Guards and blacksmiths tend to fall in the enchant but not cast spell range, and she can fairly easily cast spells without giving it much thought.

Her twin brother, Astro, works as a merchant, but he has a relatively good magic pool, falling in the enchant but no spells range, and he has less reason to use magic than his sister.

Their adoptive brother completely lacks magic power. Which is unheard of.

As for magic types, there are quite a few. Enchants and spells have the same types, but the range of effect is limited for enchants.

There are

Cultivation spells, which increase yield in harvest and mining

Fire, which has everything to do with fire (including fireballs)

Water, which is everything to do with water, but not ice

Steam, which occurs when mages or enchanters use both fire and water spells/enchants at the same time

Ice, which is everything to do with ice, including different shapes and temperatures

Holy, which includes healing, undo curses, and light

Dark, which includes poison, curses, and darkness

Holy and dark also include incantations for either banishing the presence of dark gods or evoking a dark god

Earth, which works with rock and soil

Location, which involves teleportation, locating, and gravity related things.

And many others.

There can be blending, as noted with steam, but one has to be careful not to mix the wrong elements because things can go wrong. Extremely wrong.

Yeah, Sightless has a lot just in the magic. That is ignoring the possible classification of powers as magic, in which case... That would be too much to get into.

Hope that satisfies any curiosity. Might add a magic system to my current WIP, but I haven't yet.

I am in a weird state. I want to do three different things for my current story. Each requires different levels of thought and different processes in general.

Which sounds fine. Just do them one at a time, right?

Wrong.

I want to do these three things all at once. I lack the number of brains and arms for that. And lack the laptop amount for that. I can't write on two different tabs at once on the same laptop. I also can't write in a notebook and type on a computer at the same time.

And none of the three things involve writing the actual story. I have the better part of two chapters written. I'm just trying to get lore and settings written out so I can reference these things.

My brain is just absurdly all over the place.

To explain the different processes thing

-I write my lore related things in a notebook. A notebook that is strangely perfectly themed for the story I am writing. Some setting things get mentioned, but they aren't the focus of the notebook. Plot things also go here. Except I don't write outlines for plot things. I know what I want to happen and don't plan things. Yes, it becomes a discombobulated mess.

-I do character profiles on my laptop. It is very easy to reference while writing. Just flip between tabs. Obviously, I could also write my lore on my laptop, but I personally like having the lore in a notebook because I can make myself a table of contents and use plastic tabs to note the themes of certain parts for the story.

-I am thinking of having more general worldbuilding that is unrelated to lore be done on my laptop. Yes, this is my admission that I don't do worldbuilding often. I just have ideas and write them out with no planning. But I realize that that process won't work as easily for the type of story I am currently writing.

So for this poll, world building would be mostly settings, linguistic things, ecosystem things, and other things that would fall under this category aside from lore.

Lore would be the history of the world, mythological/religious things, and get into detail on the God-named and unnamed and their differences.

Character profiles would, as one could guess, would be character information compiled into a headache-inducing mess, especially since I don't actually have locations fully made (some exist but are unnamed, others are named and maybe exist as a concept without specifics, and others are vague ideas without names or specifics)

You'd think with that idea in mind, I would want to world build more, but I... I want to do all of these things at once

I wanted those to be alphabetical. I am a chaos gremlin.

I had a momentary idea for dialect in my story

I wonder if this would work in real life.

"Could I meet with you in one event?"

"What...? Don't you mean an hour?"

"Our? No, I mean an event. You know, when the sun has moved a bit, not... What do you mean our?"

"I mean... when the sun has moved an increment across the sky. There aren't any events planned today, if that is what you mean."

"No, no! I mean an event! When time has passed! Not... not when something major has happened!"

"Could I have a few moments of your time?"

"Sure! What do you need?"

"Could you tell me where... and the park is?"

"I need to go... I have something to do in a few minutes."

"M...min...minutes? What is a minute...?"

"*sighs in not having enough time to explain*"

"Could I meet with you at the second period?"

"What? Second period? That just happened. Are you okay? Do you need to go to the healer?"

"Gods, what was it you called it? When lunch happens."

"You want to go to lunch with me? Why didn't you say that?"

"No, I want to meet with you during that time, not eat with you! Gods, why are you so irritating?"

If you couldn't tell

Event = hour

Moment = minutes

Period = either sunrise, noon, sunset, or midnight (second period being noon)

One speaker is of the more cultured city folk, the other is from an isolated clan of people who are not as cultured. The second person vaguely knows that the other group has different words for time, hence why they understood that the other could have been talking about a major thing happening when they were talking about an event, but they obviously don't know specifics.

Late Seven Sentence Sunday

Tagged by: @illarian-rambling

Rules: Post seven sentences from what you've been working on

Before I post the sentences, I am going to apologize for the late response (Seriously, two days? I must be lazy-). The real reason is that I never got the notification or accidentally cleared it before I could notice. I'll do better next time. Or turn it into fourteen sentence Sunday. Who knows.

Also these seven sentences are not the ones directly after the ones for my last post. Just from a random point. (Though I should have done seven sentences of lore because I was last working on lore for this story/book thing-)

"Father of the Underworld, I thank you. I will be traveling for a while and won't be able to pray during that time, but I ask that you protect me on my journey beyond my Clan just as you have during my life with my Clan," Hades lowers her head, feeling the usual chill of the Underworld that she gets when she prays to her personal god. "I need to take this shrine apart for now, but I will rebuild it in my new home. Thank you for your protection, Lord Hades."

She raises her head as the chill fades, her eyes settling on the amulet that hangs from her shrine. It symbolizes her connection to her personal god with a pendent of a bident with Cerberus' three heads resting between the prongs and a narcissus flower resting atop the center head, a blending of three symbols that represent Hades.

Just as I did last week, I am not tagging people because I am still new to this.

Seven Sentence Sunday

Thanks for tagging me, @illarian-rambling , even though I have barely anyone to tag. This is the first time I've been tagged on Tumblr. Hope I did this right.

Rules: Post seven sentences of what you've been working on (:

The forest is alight with life, the rustling of leaves, and chatter of animals. The trees sway in a soft breeze, creaking and groaning as some limbs are stressed by the weight of leaves and wavering in the wind. Within a small clearing, a young girl sits, her eyes closed as her silver hair sways in the breeze. Her head is tilted down, her lightly tanned skin glowing where beams of sunlight hit her skin. At her side is a sheathed sword, her left hand resting on the sheath. She takes a breath, raising her head.

"Elders of the Clan, I make a request!"

This is a new story. That is all the context I will give. Honestly, I have no idea how to do these things. So I'm not even going to tag anyone because I am an uncertain bean.

(Do not take this as a "I did not want to do this." I would love to do these things in my tiny little corner here. I just won't tag anyone.)

(This is potentially a serious story. Potentially.)

My main oc has me bsing my way through blacksmithing...

Anyway, she is a lovely, tall young woman who finds a passion in being aggressively protective of things, like her family or a village/community. Her narration reveals that she sees herself as disposable, which is also why I make a certain narration choice with her that becomes quite apparent initially. As her view of herself shifts from negative to positive, she starts seeing herself as a main character, which shows in the narration style.

She has a power she despises despite using it when she needs to--on animals, not people. She got traumatized the one time that happened. She covers her eyes due to her power, although she can still see. It's just that a thin cloth prevents her power from harming others. Anyway, her senses are extremely enhanced because of her power, leading to her narration mentioning her hearing sounds and such more often than not.

She got used by her birth world, which led to her fleeing and living in the woods for a year (which, in her world, is equivalent to two of our years). After which, she is brought to her chosen world. She's my little baby.

I love writing one story, going to another story--which is inevitably in the middle of a scene with an entirely different vibe--and bouncing between the two like a ping pong ball until my brain settles on a third, completely unrelated story.

Y'all, It's finally time! I'm on page 159, with 20+ chapters, and I'm here to tell you... The first chapter is edited and ready to be read! Please do bear with me, as this was written probably 2 or 3 years ago, but I hope you enjoy! Now, with no further ado, read on below!

@queen-of-hobgobblers @deadandgaysetanta @redkarmakai

Chapter 1

Florentine

"So, the wounded hero finally dares to stand, eh? I'm almost impressed" the sneer in his words is unmistakable, though my vision seems impaired. My muscles quiver as I rise to face him. Muddy droplets drip from some long-forgotten wound. A sharp, excruciating pain flashes through my leg, centering around my kneecap. I brush it off, because I have to. I have a duty, and what am I if not successful? Who am I if I can’t even protect these people who venerate me? I stand and turn to face my attacker, steel in my heart and fire in my eyes. Their smirk ignites a simmering mix of hatred and envy. Why should they be the one to walk away with their life intact? Why don’t they have to sit and suffer in silence as their other half climbs a ladder so tall that the gods in the sky must crane their heads merely to catch a passing glimpse? Rage pulses behind my eyes, begging for cruel release.

Everything's red. His hand. The ground. The blood red dagger, forsaken long before. The sky. I can't think, can’t hear, can’t see. All that runs in my head is what went wrong. It was fine, we were fine. Everything was good. We were peaceful. Until that day. That horrid day that ripped us apart and set us on our separate, yet morbidly entwined, paths. A voice drones in the background, that one that haunts my dreams and comforts my nightmares. The ground shakes, morphing the landscape. The sky turns black and the trees fluctuate with a wonderlandian determination. The ground twists and tumbles in my eyes, falling away as I attempt to push myself up. My hands scrabble against the softening dirt and I let a grunt escape my lips. His thunderous eyes pierce my heart when his head whips toward me. His mouth moves, but the words don’t register in my ringing ears at first.

I launch myself toward his misty figure. He's waiting, baiting me. I know this. But some things are more important than playing a game. My fist flies past its mark on my first try. A haunting chuckle infuriates me further. I press him, swinging my fists with less accuracy, but I fight harder and harder, I strike and coax more and more and more until he's backed against a wide-trunked oak, trapped between wood and flesh. Blood, beautiful, glorious, shimmering blood, floods down his face as I stand triumphant over theim. Their previous courage dissipates faster than the winds he tries to command. Finally, I hold all the cards. I can be the one to finish a fight, the one to leave them broken, cowering on the ground, weak and worthless in the eyes of the once adoring, now cautious public.

My eyes shut, as a way to preserve this perfect, wonderful scene in my memory. I open them, punching in front where he should be, but the scenery has changed. No longer am I in a mournful wood, surrounded by splintered trees and freshly slaughtered rodents, but rather a village. Run-down huts flood my peripheral, and a young boy looks up at me. He grins, and I stumble back at the mania in his eyes and the blood on his teeth. His golden hair is matted, but his shoes shine with care and polish and his hands have never known a day of work.

"Hey, mister! That was one nice punch you got there! Look, it even made me bleed!" The bloodlust in his eyes is unmistakable, and I collapse to my knees while my younger self drones on about my attack. It was all a dream. Just a dream. Always so close, and yet they’re always one step further. The town is still decrepit, the villain is still on the loose, and I'm still the one to blame for it all. The one who let him go, let him break me a thousandfold just for a sense of my past life. How?! How could I have been so blind?! So…

The sound of my voice breaks the trance of misery and I allow tears to flood my face, my all-too-real facial incisions burning. The sobs that wrench from my body surprise even myself with the desperate plea behind it. My screams are swirling and writhing with the pain that only a truly tortured soul can contain. Horrid, deep sobs wrack my body while thorny vines, red as blood, climb up my shuddering form. The pain cuts me to the bone, but I don’t care. It grounds me. No, what I beg for is a floundering force of strength who long since abandoned me. I scream, louder than I ever have, louder than I thought I could. Even when the tears stop flowing, dry, throaty sobs and screams rack my soul and the vines tighten, clasping at my throat. Air. I need air. There's no air. A name, unintelligible, shrieks out of my mouth. I cry for him, want him, need him. I need their kind eyes, the prim distaste they hold for everyone but me. I need his voice, his heart, his love and lust. My lone earring, a silver, triadic swirl, dangles. It shines as if a beacon might, glowing with false promises. The vines know what I want, what I need. They guide my hand, tearing the piece of jewelry down, flinging it, getting lost in the heartbreak of first love, first trust, and first pain. The screams have become comforting. I know them. I know pain, and I welcome it. Grey shadows creep into my sight, and I gladly welcome them, too. They encompass my vision, and I lean into the cold, slate shadows, reminiscent of stones chilled by a frosty winter air.

"USELESS!"

I've reached page 143, so the time to vote is nigh: once I reach 150, do you guys want

So, I officially reached 150 pages... I will post the first chapter, but should I post it completely as is, no beta read, no edits, or should i go in and refine it?

@deadandgaysetanta @queen-of-hobgobblers @redkarmakai @sherikookami

I've reached page 143, so the time to vote is nigh: once I reach 150, do you guys want

I think I'll post, like, the first five or so chapters once I hit 150 pages. What do you all think? Currently on page 130.

@deadandgaysetanta @queen-of-hobgobblers @sherikookami

You all voted and the most popular was... By decision of a random name generator due to a three way tie... ADIRA AKELDAMA!

WARNING!!! LONG POST AHEAD!!! PROCEED WITH CAUTION AND TIME!!!

Adira is the queen of the Syren Born Fae. She grew up with her triplets Ethan and Seraphina in the woods near Amalraum. She is close friends with Kaimanas Aurelius, though she'd rather Florentine, Kaimana's brother, die in a rather gruesomely violent manner.

When she was 10, she left with Ethan, her brother, to go to royal training in their respective kingdoms. She became the military leader and Queen of the Syren Queendom, Azura. Her brother went on to become King of the Dustborn kingdom, the Laurel Valley.

She resents Florentine and Zephyre for killing her sister. In fact, about three years after Seraphina's passing, she declared war on Amalraum. The only reason this war didn't come into fruition was because Kaimana asked her oh so nicely.

She is currently single.

Her most precious item is a black opal seraphina found for her when they were kids. Ethan set it into her Signet ring.

She was born on May 16th.

She's always losing her trident, she's a vegetarian, and she loves listening to classical music, whale songs, opera, and some death metal(but only Scandinavian and Indian).

Her deepest fears are harpoons, drowning, and losing the people closest to her.

She is 27 years old.

Below is her profiles⬇️

@deadandgaysetanta @queen-of-hobgobblers @redkarmakai @sherikookami

Y'all, I actually wrote for a bit today?! Like, what? Not me actually being creative 😂🙌 anyway... I swear the character post is happening soon, thank you to everyone for your patience 💞

@deadandgaysetanta @queen-of-hobgobblers

Hey, I am so sorry that my post for The Ones Who Hurt is taking so long! I'm working on another project right now, and I'm really trying to balance the two, but idk how well of a job I'm doing 😂

I'll try to post who won in a week or two, thank you for the patience 🙏 in the meantime, I'll share a snippet of what I'm currently working on 🤫

Teehee

It was. A fucking. FOUR WAY TIE?! WHY DO YOU ALL HATE ME???? I'm just gonna put the four names in a random generator and get back to you with what y'all are getting

Alright, attempt #2:

We got a three-way tie last time, so I'm hoping this one is gonna gain a bit more traction! So, for the second time: who do you all want to see first?

@deadandgaysetanta @queen-of-hobgobblers @redkarmakai

kicking a hornets nest.

Alright, attempt #2:

We got a three-way tie last time, so I'm hoping this one is gonna gain a bit more traction! So, for the second time: who do you all want to see first?

@deadandgaysetanta @queen-of-hobgobblers @redkarmakai

Awesome, great to see this! Now that that's settled, who would you want to learn more about first?

@deadandgaysetanta @queen-of-hobgobblers @redkarmakai

@deadandgaysetanta @queen-of-hobgobblers

@deadandgaysetanta @queen-of-hobgobblers

So, over the course of four-ish hours, I just handwrote 38 pages of a short story... My hand is going to fall off 😭😭😭

But I'm going to type it up soon, and I might link it to my profile... I'm not sure though.

It's a prequel to my long-term novel I'm currently writing. The short story is nameless so far, but the novel is called The Ones who Hurt, and it just recently hit 100 pages! It's a high fantasy novel about a cowardly superhero, an empathetic ex-villain, a bisexual human, a very sapphic queen, three undead-ish assassins, Fae royalty, a historic mystery, a suspicious cult, and a whole lot of family drama.

If anyone would be interested in reading the short story and potentially excerpts from the novel as it gets written, please comment or DM me. Please reblog this and interact with it, I really would love more author and reading friends! :]

@unmellowyellowfellow @queen-of-hobgobblers @deadandgaysetanta