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onthevirgeofdestruction · 6 months

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The Weight of Being a "Good Friend"

@tss-anxceit-week Day 3: Trust & Betrayal Canonverse 2,535 Words

Logan appeared in Virgil’s room with his arms folded behind his back, looking at Virgil pointedly. Virgil tensed and paused chewing on his nails to look at him, jumping off the top of his couch to greet him. After a shared quizzical expression, Logan cleared his throat.

“Yeah? What is it?” Virgil demanded, not bothering with politeness or disguising the fatigue in his voice.

Logan nodded to the couch and Virgil stepped back to let Logan in, who went to go sit on the couch. Virgil shut the door quietly and went to go lean on the wall near him, swallowing heavily and looking down to the ground.

“Virgil, you know I do not handle emotional aspects, but I have been... concerned about your behaviour lately. You seem to always be tired, and you haven’t been talking to Thomas, either. It’s obvious that something is wrong, but I don’t know what it is.” Logan said quietly, rubbing his thumb over the back of his hand.

"I’m fine, Logan.” Virgil glanced up at Logan through his bangs, who’s face remained apprehensive. “Yeah, you don’t believe that. Well, whatever. I’m not talking about it. Everybody will think I’m blowing things out of proportion.” Virgil shook his head, stuffing his hands in his hoodie pockets.

“I promise I will not. Virgil, I need to know what’s going on. This does not seem sustainable,” Logan pleaded emphatically, gripping at his knees.

Virgil hesitated, examining Logan’s face for a moment. His brow was furrowed, and he worried his lip with his teeth for a second before noticing and stopping. “I’ll think about it,” Virgil offered instead. Logan watched Virgil a little longer before nodding in agreement. “Get back to your busy schedule. I’m going to bed.” He stood up straight from off the wall, and Logan looked at him in surprise for a second before getting off the couch. It wasn’t that late, but the expanded dark patches under his eyes and unusually pale color of his skin said that he needed the rest. Virgil watched him closely as he moved, his eyes tracking Logan with a weak wave as he lowered out of the room.

Logan hummed curiously and walked down the stairs and to the kitchen table, depositing himself on a chair. Roman and Patton were situated on the couch, watching TV along with Thomas quietly. It seemed like an average evening. Logan summoned his planner and reviewed the schedule, like he often did in the evenings, but he struggled with focusing. He glanced up at the stairs once more and sighed. Anxiety was still clearly very present in Thomas’s life, but Virgil not communicating about his issue was a problem.

The way Patton also worried his lip when he thought no one was looking made the inefficacy more apparent. Logan was frustrated by missing information and left feeling restless when there were unresolved problems. He took a deep breath and put his head down on the table, pushing the schedule aside.

“What’s got ya down, kiddo?” Patton asked, leaning in near Logan. Logan jumped slightly in surprise, not realizing Patton had gotten so close.

“I am simply tired, Patton. I think it would be wise to turn in early tonight,” Logan stated, sitting up at the table and adjusting his tie. “I’d like to set an alarm so that Thomas doesn’t stay up late on his phone again,” he added, projecting slightly louder for Roman to hear.

“What if the next post is the right inspiration he needs for something new?” Roman pipped up, looking more interested in the television than the conversation.

“He can find it tomorrow. He will not have the time or the energy to do anything with the inspiration tonight. He could perhaps even miss the post that might be inspiring in his exhaustion,” Logan pointed out the obvious flaw in his logic.

“Last time we tried that, Thomas just turned off the alarm and kept scrolling.” Patton pulled out a dining chair and joined Logan at the table.

“If we come to an accord and agree to not do that tonight, it should not be an issue again,” Logan asserted, pulling the schedule back up to him to return to examining.

“That sounds fair,” Patton said, nodding sagely and holding his chin. “Roman?” He called out to confirm.

“Fine. I guess.” Roman agreed as well, though clearly very reluctantly. Logan let out a small breath of relief and let Thomas know to set a ‘doom-scroll’ alarm for later. Logan glanced over to Virgil’s door again, wondering if Virgil was already asleep.

“Are you wondering if Virge is gonna join us tonight?” Patton asked, folding one arm on the table and propping up his head with the other.

“No, Virgil stated that he was going to bed earlier.” Logan shook his head and flipped the page on his planner, making sure the things that were missed today were recorded to do tomorrow.

“Oh! Now, that’s surprising from my spooky son. Last month, I caught him sitting under the kitchen table watching conspiracy theories on his phone at two in the morning while I was trying to figure out why Thomas couldn’t fall asleep,” Patton explained with a slight fond chuckle.

“Indeed,” Logan hummed. “I doubt that will be a problem tonight. He appeared to be incredibly exhausted when he told me he was going to bed.” He summoned a pencil to adjust the time on something scheduled for tomorrow that did not seem like it had enough of a time cushion.

“He really hasn’t been around much,” Patton mused, throwing a glance at the stairs and sounding melancholy.

“It has been quite quiet,” Roman stated, shifting on the living room floor as he kept watching television.

“Those are both accurate summations,” Logan validated both their points distractedly.

“Are you worried about Virgil?” Patton asked kindly, looking at Logan with a soft expression.

“I am always concerned with productivity. Thomas is very hard to work with when he keeps falling prey to distractions.” Logan rubbed his face, knocking at his glasses briefly before adjusting them back into position.

“I think he’s easier to work with,” Roman muttered under his breath.

“We have very different jobs, Roman, and I know you are also frustrated by the current state of Thomas’s hair,” Logan reminded him passively.

“Ugh, we better not get any visitors or video calls,” Roman groaned.

“We’re just home alone watching TV, you two, there’s no harm in messy hair,” Patton chided, tapping the table.

“I am aware, Patton, but it is better to be presentable as a form of preparedness rather than letting healthy self-care habits slide. Thomas’s appearance is important to him, and that changing suddenly is an indicator of an issue,” Logan reminded them, adjusting his glasses. Logan looked up from planner and over to Thomas, who wasn’t even watching TV and on his phone again, already doom-scrolling. Logan groaned, closing up the planner and sending it off, standing up from the couch.

“What’s up, teach?” Roman asked, distracted by looking over Thomas’ shoulder to see the phone.

“I don’t believe anything productive is happening tonight,” Logan replied shortly. “Thomas, set an alarm to get ready for bed on your phone,” he told Thomas loudly enough to not be ignored, and Thomas blinked a few times, looking at Logan before switching to the alarm app and setting one for nine PM. “You’ll ignore that one, it is too early. Set an alarm for 11:30 PM and take it seriously when it goes off,” Logan insisted firmly. Roman rolled his eyes, letting out a little huff and Thomas just looked at Logan oddly. “Thomas.”

“Fine, okay, got it,” Thomas replied, setting the alarm where requested. He didn’t seem concerned about not getting enough sleep in the slightest, despite even Virgil valuing that by going to bed early. If Virgil did go to bed, at all. Logan technically couldn’t confirm. The alarm was set, so other than checking in at 11:30, Logan wasn’t needed here for doom-scrolling, so he left to his room to review the memories for the day to make sure the important ones were stored correctly.

———

Virgil paced the room helplessly, long since having given up on trying to sleep. He felt so damn exhausted all the time, but the sleep just wouldn’t come. He was completely on edge, racing thoughts of things that could happen and how terribly things were going plagued every corner of his mind. Checking in on Thomas revealed he was still doom-scrolling, with Patton making quiet awkward stammering noises and looking at the clock. Virgil Let out a heavy sigh and tugged at the zipper on his hoodie sleeve, pulling it up and down while he walked.

“Not that your little failure of a lie earlier wasn’t amusing, Virgil, but if you’re going to go out of your way to fib, shouldn’t you do something more fun than pacing about like a caged animal?” Janus asked in a silky smooth voice, and Virgil jumped, turning to see Janus sitting on the couch with his legs crossed and leaning his chin on an arm resting on his knee.

“Get out of here!” Virgil shot, motioning away.

“Really, you should work on your subterfuge. Dreadful stuff,” Janus teased, grinning at Virgil like a shark would at his dinner.

“I didn’t mean to lie about going to bed, I just couldn’t get to sleep!” Virgil protested, hunching over and glaring at Janus. “Seriously, what are you doing here?” Virgil demanded shortly.

“I was talking about that little squeaky ‘I’m fine’ you tried, but that one was also truly heinous,” Janus replied with the bite of snark.

“Hey, I didn’t squeak!” Virgil clenched his fists as he glowered at Janus.

“Po-tay-to, Po-tot-to,” Janus hummed, drumming his fingers on his chin. “Now, what are you doing trying to lie when it is my thing and clearly not your forté?” He asked with a smug purr in his voice.

Virgil stared at Janus incredulously for a moment, but the expression never faltered, keeping his cool confidence despite the confused stare. “It’s—It’s you, Janus!”

“Yes, lord of the lies, at your service,” Janus said.

“No, I mean, you’re causing this!” Virgil hissed, crossing his arms tightly over his chest and returning to pacing.

“If it was me, I would have lied impeccably, thank you very much,” Janus refuted, sitting up and folding his hands on his lap.

“I hate not bringing it up, and I hate trying to be a ‘good friend’,” Virgil muttered, kicking his sneaker as he turned around during his endless march.

“Of course you do. Terrible thing, really. Now, for the spider’s benefit, seeing as I fully understand, can you explain exactly about what?” Janus asked airily, twisting his gloved hand a little in the air.

Virgil rolled his eyes and huffed. “Elliot’s new boyfriend, Mitchell. He’s awful. And I know Elliot asked us to let them figure it out themselves. And I know we agreed. But it’s killing me to think about what’s going on behind closed doors if that’s how he acts in public,” he explained bitterly.

Janus froze and blinked, then facetiously coughed a few times to hide his surprise. “Virgil, you know that has nothing to do with us, along with the rest of these things you’re so positive about? He could be just the same, or better. Why are you assuming it’s terrible? And why are you acting like it’s our job to fix it when Elliot is their own person?”

“They’re our friend, and we don’t want them hurt, doy!” Virgil smacked himself in the temple with his fist and made a face.

“You can’t save people from being hurt. It’s just an unfortunate part of life,” Janus replied flatly, his face setting seriously.

“Well, maybe it freaking sucks! Maybe it’s normal to be worried about your friends. Why don’t you look past yourself for one freaking second and see how bad this situation is,” Virgil said angrily, his speed picking up as he walked back and forth.

“Not like this, you’re blowing things out of proportion,” Janus replied, his voice faltering.

“This is why I didn’t want to tell anyone! You’re always telling me I’m overreacting, but eventually I’m not going to be, and Elliot could be the one suffering for it!” Virgil threw his arms in the air and scuffed his shoe on the carpet.

“Virgil. Stop,” Janus said, and Virgil paused to look at him. Janus patted the spot on the couch next to him, and Virgil stomped over to drop onto the couch, just to make it clear he wasn’t fighting for the sake of fighting. “Sometimes, in life, we have to watch our friends and loved ones suffer. Even though we knew there was a better way. Or a compromise. Because they want to be the ones to make their own mistakes. Elliot asked us to drop it, so we did. We can bring it up again if—”

“When,” Virgil insisted.

“If we see it again. And suggest healthier boundaries, because we don’t want to see them hurt. But I’m afraid it’s Elliot’s life and ultimately Elliot’s choice. And no amount of panic or anger will change that. We simply can’t spend all of our time and energy on trying to change something we have no say in. Thomas is sitting out there doom-scrolling because he’s burnt out, even though he already knows that no amount of Twitter will quiet the duke’s suggestions. You know what to do in these situations already. Now look at me and tell me what we’re going to do,” Janus insisted firmly.

“It’s called ‘X’ now,” Virgil said in annoyance, but Janus only glared at him with thinly pressed lips. “Take a deep breath. Tell myself that this is something I can’t change. Try to adapt. Focus on moving forward,” Virgil recited in defeat.

“Right. And we don’t have to keep silent. Nor do we have to stay friends with Elliot, either, if this keeps hurting us. But we should still respect Elliot’s wishes and assume they can handle themselves. They have done so for all the years before we met them. But it’s still their job to speak up in their relationship if they’re unhappy. If we butt in and try to fix things for them, the odds are good it’ll do nothing but breed resentment. We have to live our life and Elliot has to live theirs,” Janus said reassuringly, melting the bitterness from Virgil’s face. Virgil took a deep breath and nodded, letting out the air as a tired sigh. “Is there anything else I need to intelligently and humbly point out before you kick me out of your room?” Janus teased.

Virgil looked up at him, reaching for the capelet with a small tug. “Stay?” Janus wrapped an arm around Virgil’s shoulder, and he leaned in, still holding on to the fabric. They sat there in comfortable silence as Virgil’s breathing evened out and the light in the living room went out when Thomas switched it off. “Tell anyone this happened, and I’ll kill you,” Virgil whispered silently.

“I’ll alert the presses,” Janus scoffed, rubbing Virgil’s shoulder.

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themswritinwords · 3 months

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Past/Current/Next WIP Game

This looked way too fun, so I'm hopping on an open tag from @blind-the-winds. Gonna no-pressure tag @northernrosewritings, @hayatheauthor, and, of course, passing on the open tag! (That means you!)

Rules: past is a WIP you stopped working on/finished; current is a WIP you're currently working on; next is a WIP you want to write

Past

I was gonna go for Ethan Ellis, since it's the only one that's officially done in the sense of "in a publishable shape and currently being queried." But then I thought about my first love, Shadows of Flame.

It's post(-near)-apocalyptic high fantasy, wherein the King's right hand man, Ayris, is living a lie. For his own safety, of course, but a lie nonetheless. See, Ayris can do magic. If he'd been around 20 years ago, this would have made him one of the Irriman. Only around 20 years ago, one of the Irriman went off the deep end and tried to take over the known world. She nearly succeeded, too. After having murdered, subsumed, mind controlled, or otherwise squashed all opposing Irriman voices, stealing all their magic for her own in the process, she marched her army of unfailingly loyal supernatural freaks across the continent, steamrolling everyone and everything that wouldn't submit to her rule. An alliance between the three largest and strongest nations managed to stop her. By stop her, I mean kill her. Which is great news, unless you're Ayris. Because not only has he lived his whole life having to hide his powers for fear of getting murdered as a potential threat, it turns out it didn't work. She's back, and she's got her sights set on revenge-- and Ayris.

If we go back to the earliest iterations, I've been working on this one for 15 years. Of course, I don't want anyone going back to those earliest iterations, and I will start torching old notebooks to make sure that doesn't happen. But my point is that I have a special place in my heart for Ayris. I was working on this one in its current unfinished iteration when I had my child 4 years ago, but put it on hold just after covid lockdowns when I realized the pacing I'd had set out just wasn't working. There was more to it than that, but that was the biggest issue I couldn't seem to get past. So I shelved it. But you can't keep a good WIP down, so it'll soon be out of "past" and into "present," and I'm so excited! I've figured out what needs to change, I have a plan, and I even have most of an outline. (Amazing what 2 years on the shelf will do, eh?) But it's gonna have to wait, because....

Present

The Rockbridge Experiment. Urban fantasy meets Southern Gothic, with just enough "dude that's messed up" to toe the line of horror crossover.

Evan Grant is a detective. For now, anyway. She was pretty close to quitting altogether, especially when she got this assignment. Fae in the human district. What could possibly go wrong? A lot, as it turns out, and none of it in the way she expected. When she's paired up with a half-dwarf and a dying elf to solve a string of kidnappings and murders, Evan's whole belief system gets put to the test. The elf just so happens to be able to see the future, which might be handy if they weren't living in a world where magic was hunted to extinction several thousand years ago. Worse, those kidnappings and murders are starting to smell an awful lot like a drunken uncle's favorite dinner table conspiracy theory- that there's folk out there running horrible experiments to try and bring magic back. Evan and her new partners have to solve these cases quickly and quietly, or risk upsetting the delicate balance of human-Fae relations, quite possibly unpausing a particularly uneasy cold war. Add in an undead (maybe possessed) terrorist, the literal monsters in the shadows, and a millennia-old, quite-possibly-all-powerful baddie pulling strings they didn't even know existed, these kids are about to have one heck of a time.

"But wait!" I hear you cry. I thought that was one of the finished ones! And to that I say, "you're right! But I'm rewriting it!" Not editing, rewriting. Why? Because the first draft was, I kid you not, 365k words.

And yes, I may have had three separate alpha readers binge it in less than 3 days and come back asking where the sequel is, and yes, I spent a long time crying in the shower about how much I didn't want to change a dang thing because do you have any idea how long it takes to write 365000 words??? But as much as I love my slow-burn, takes-its-time, thoughtful-exploration-experience version, it's never getting published like this. Hard stop. It's just not. It took a lot of shower tears, but I've accepted that.

I've also learned a thing or two about the craft of storytelling since finishing it the first time, as well as over the course of finishing it the first time--- my writing style matured a lot from the front half to the back, and it unfortunately shows. So did my understanding of story structure, my characters, my own worldbuilding, etc. So I know now what's extraneous and where I want these characters to go, and I had just enough alpha reader feedback to know what landed the way I wanted it to and what didn't. I know what I need to do to make it as tight, coherent, and impactful as possible. So rewrites are underway, and we're not stopping til we've chopped this sucker at least in half! Which isn't to say it's gonna become a novella, not by any means. My best estimate right now is still sitting around 120k, but at least that's within the realm of "non-debut normal-ish" for the genre.

Future

I could cheat and say Shadows of Flame again, because I'm gonna start working on that one as soon as I get Rockbridge settled. But I like having two or three active non-editing WIPs at a time, so I'll also put in a plug for my next brainworm hyperfixation, which I'm currently calling "Fantasy Escort Mission, but with Babies, Goats, and Demons."

Okay, there's only one each of those, but our protagonist Ayla Severin, gets saddled with all three. She only knows about the baby and the goat, though, because the demon is bound to the baby's bodyguard. Why does the baby have a bodyguard, you ask? Because it's the infant prince of the neighboring kingdom. With whom Ayla's country is at war. Because a rebel faction framed Ayla's nation for the murders of the entire royal family. The baby, however, escaped (thanks, bodyguard!), and is living proof of the framing. If Ayla's team can get the prince back to the members of government who weren't part of the coup, they might be able to stop the war and bring the rebels to justice. Unfortunately, the only possible way they're getting across enemy lines without getting caught is through a wilderness so inhospitable that both countries gave it up as hopeless decades ago. That would be hard enough for an elite force of highly-skilled commando soldiers, but this is a baby we're talking about. An orphaned baby, and orphaned babies have to eat, so along comes the milking goat. And the demon? Well, it's certainly not going to be making things any easier, but just what it is up to is anyone's guess. Ayla gets to sort all of that out while also battling her own, less literal demons-- the grief of losing her little family, and the guilt that comes along with it.

So keep a look out in the next few months for early brainrot re: my many Plots, Schemes, and Homemade Blorbos, because I'm super excited about literally all of these!

#writing #wip games #writing games #ocs #wips #writeblr

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dak-legacy · 6 years

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He’d always been the one that needed protecting. Since they were babies Ayris was the twin who’d always stayed close to his mother, holding on tightly and needed sheltering from the outside. Even after the birth of their younger sister, Jewel and Keran had gone from strength to strength while he stayed behind. Ayris had always felt like a hindrance to his siblings, not as skilled with the saber and not as outgoing to make a difference in the war effort they were now a part of. That changed today.

With a renewed sense of vigor and purpose the young padawan picked himself up from the dirt, stepping forward alongside his brother and sister, finally standing in line with them. This time he would save them.

A mighty push of force energy erupted from his body as the very hairs on his head stood on end. He stared at his target, the bomb that had been set up in the hanger, now guarded by Sky Troopers and Justicars. By his side Keran and Jewel too rose to their feet, both battered but alive.

“Ayris, are you..alright?” Keran asked. He could barely believe the presence Ayris was making in the Force. Had he been hiding this power all along?

Ayris turned to his sibling and gave him a patient smile, it reminded him of their father. “Keran, Jewel. This time I want to help for real, I have a plan. If we can get close then I can get the bomb out of here, I can save this base.”

Jewel looked on her two brothers with concern, the strength of the Justicars was overwhelming, nothing like any of them had ever fought before. “Even if we could get close there’s no way we’d survive if they all attacked at once.”

“That’s where we have the advantage, they’re cybernetics slow them down. We’re faster than they are. All we need to do is engage them quick enough to keep them distracted for me to get to that bomb.” Ayris said confidently. This was the most strong willed either of them had seen him in a long time. The sheepish and quiet brother they knew was now standing tall, giving them orders. Keran couldn’t help but smile.

“Maybe mom’s attitude rubbed off on you a bit more than I first thought.” He commented, putting his hand on Ayris’ back and moving in front of him. “It’s the only plan we’ve got, and I’m not willing to die on my back.”

Jewel smirked and did the same, stepping in front of Ayris and drawing her saber. “We’ll make sure you get there, just don’t tell mom we let you do this.”

Ayris heart filled with joy at the sight of his siblings embracing his plan. His doubts vanished, his mind cleared and his soul was filled with determination. “Keran..Jewel..” he shook his head and set his sights on the explosive. “On my word we charge, right?”

“Right” they both responded in unison, readying their un-ignited sabers for the strike.

The teenagers had barely even caught the attention of the Eternal Empire’s troops who now occupied the hanger. They’d easily taken care of them once, they would do it again. At the base of the explosive a Sky Trooper punched in some numbers and the device began to power up. Whirring and buzzing echoed in the hanger as all the entire garrison turned to see the bomb arming.

One of the Justicars pulled out a holocomm unit, a smug look of satisfaction on his face. “Emperor Arcann, we’ve successfully infiltrated the Resistance base. Soon the Sunrise Bomb will detonate and wipe the Resistance out like the bugs they are.”

A small figure of a scarred man stood in the device in the man’s hand. He seemed unmoved by this sentiment. “Good work commander.” He said with a vacant tone. “You have done well.”

“Might I ask sir, where is our evac, we were told it would arrive once the bomb was armed.” The Justicar looked around nervously at the eyes that now stared at him and the bomb, waiting for an answer.

“Simple, Commander. There isn’t one. Your sacrifice will be remembered as one which launched the Eternal Empire into a new age of peace and prosperity. Die with that in your heart.” With those cold words the transmission ended and all that filled the silence was the whirring of the bomb. The men all remained quiet, Sky Troopers and Justicars alike. None seemed to know what to do.

It was only the ignition of four lightsabers that snapped the men from their confused state. At the other end of the hanger Keran, Ayris and Jewel began their charge, screaming with determination in their hearts they rushed forward.

“What are you waiting for, defend this explosive!” Barked the commander, raising his hand at the oncoming forces.

Hurriedly the troops readied themselves behind what cover they could, taking aim as the Justicars ignited their saber staffs. None of them wanted to die here, but this was their duty for their leader and they would see it done.

A hail of blaster fire rained on the advancing Raet siblings. Skytroops with precise aim targeted Keran and Jewel who charged in front of Ayris. The siblings raised their sabers, swinging them with both furious strength and tranquil precision deflecting or avoiding as many of the blasts that they could. With his two sabers Keran covered the left side, while Jewel took the right with her single saber and blaster pistol. Ayris meanwhile conserved his strength, he’d need it.

As they advanced on the first line the three crashed through the troopers with all their might, blasting them aside with a flurry of saber strikes and force pushes. They had made it passed the first hurdle, another two to go.

With another scream they continued rushing forward, the hopes of everyone in that base rested on them and them alone. They would not fail. With the Sky Troopers gone it was time for the Justicars to step in. Holding fast and forming a defensive line they readied themselves for the attack.

As expected Keran and Jewel smashed into the line, forcing those they locked blades with to take a few steps back at the sheer force of their attack. With all the grace and speed they could muster they engaged with as many as they could, trying their best to wind them so they might not follow.

Ayris saw his opportunity. Leaping over the defence line while his siblings formed a distraction he rushed at the Commander. He was all that stood in his way. The soldier ignited his orange saber staff as Ayris readied his light blue blade to strike.

As the two engaged in a blade lock the Commander taunted Ayris, pushing back against the young padawan in an attempt to overpower him. “You’re not going to win, boy. This rebellion of yours is doomed to end in failure, give into your destiny.”

“Funny thing…” Ayris whipered, doing his best to push back against the brute force of this man.

“What’s that, boy?”

“About destiny. It’s a funny thing. Destiny means a lot to different people. Sometimes it means an inescapable fate that can either make or break you. But to others it’s just a name. I think I had a friend called Destiny once…” he rambled, looking the man in the eyes with another patient smile.

“What are you mumbling about?” the Commander asked furiously.

“Thing is…to me…destiny doesn’t mean anything!” Ayris shouted.

With a mighty force push the Commander found himself flung against a far wall, hitting it hard and falling to the floor. He could barely breathe with the force he’d just taken, he looked on as his vision began to fade in and out of consciousness.

Ayris attention turned to the bomb which now began to radiate with a beautiful light. Sparks and electricity began to shoot from the device as the beeping on the command console intensified. He was too late, this thing was going to blow. He was far from close to giving up though.

Summoning all his strength to his arms Ayris stretched them out and made an enclosing motion around the bomb with them, creating a force bubble to contain the explosion. Not a moment too soon the device became engulfed in flames as the bubble let out the muffled sound of an explosion. Inside the transparent bubble the orange and red colours undulated and washed over each other, this detonation wanted to find a way out. Ayris felt his arms pushed apart with the kinetic energy from this device. It felt like it was strong enough to rip both the bubble and him apart like a piece of paper.

He closed his eyes, doing his best to focus. This wasn’t easy, he could feel his power fading fast. His thoughts drifted to his mother and father, fighting somewhere on a distant planet. He thought how he would let them down by not trying his best, by not being the heroes they had been in their time of need. A small tear trickled down his face.

Suddenly the burden felt lighter.

“What? Crying already? I was starting to like the new you.” A familiar voice sounded from his right. Aryis opened them to see Keran, bruised and bloodied, but doing his best to hold the bubble together.

“Didn’t we say, we’ve got your back.” Another calming voice said from his left. Jewel too now assisted in holding the quaking bubble together.

Ayris was speechless. He couldn’t let it break him though. Nodding to his siblings he focused hard again, working with them to wrestle some control of his force field back from this volatile reaction.

“To space, it’s the only place.” Ayris forced the words out of his mouth. He was straining so hard to concentrate that his face was struggling to hold it together.

Those words were all the siblings needed. All of their power combined and with one final mighty push they screamed to the heavens themselves hurling the bubble into the sky and not stopping their pushes until they could hold it no longer. As the three let go of their concentration the sky lit up as if the sun itself had been summoned directly in front of them. The sound of the explosion came soon after, but no push back or rain of fire followed that.

A final pant of exhaustion left Ayris’ mouth. Tired and weary from the long battle he fell back, landing with a thud on the hanger floor. Keran and Jewel rushed over to him, standing over him they quickly did their best to tend to their brother.

Before they could though Ayris opened one eye and smiled, raising his fist and putting a single thumb up to them. They had done it.

#Ayris Raet #Keran Raet #Jewel Raet #Nathan writes #Nathans story #long post

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poisonedapples · 3 years

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What would you say to someone who wants to write a story, but is afraid they'll be accused of taking someone else's idea? I have a friend who wants to make a Foster AU themselves, but they're afraid that they'll be accused of taking the idea from you

Oh I had the exact same fear, because I was rereading “Dreaming While I Wake” by Ayri on Ao3 when I was writing PHTK. The thing that helps me is to take inspiration from various sources instead of just one. Like, I took a lot of inspo from Ayri’s story, but Roman’s backstory is also based on Kotoko from Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls, as well as some old ideas I’ve had in the past. Take ALL the tropes, all the ideas you’ve ever wanted to see or got inspired from in any fic ever, and mush as much as you can into one place. And it’s okay if the concept is similar! Just make sure it isn’t the EXACT same plot, with the same backstories for the characters and all that, you know?

And if they write it, tag me!!! I want more foster aus, especially if Roman’s the main guy!!!

#asks

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doing-an-okay-job-miranda · 4 years

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Do you have any fanfic recommendations?

i usually read on AO3 so I don’t know a lot of peeps tumblrs but I’ll try

First, anything from @delimeful Here’s his masterpost

my personal favorites of his are “Watch it burn and rust” an alien au where humans are death worlders and rip virgil

“To taste your beating heart” A vampire au where virgil is a vampire with no memory of his past life while the other sides are hunters who were his friends, also rip Virgil

Also his Minecraft au is super cute, I doodled a little comic thing for it

@stillebesat fics are amazing too

“In these tangled webs” “The Butterfly Effect” and “Contained” destroyed me but like so much of her work is just that good shit

@kaysigns “Hidden in Shadows” is something i immensely enjoy, Virgil is the teenage boogieman who decides that he doesn’t enjoy murdering kids

Ayri’s “Plea for my new self” is a vampire au that’s just all around fun with Virgil being this really old vampire who decides to go to collage again and this whole world is just super interesting with lore and i love the relationships and writing, i don’t have their tumblr unfortunately, also small warning since this one has some suggestive moments

@skeletonsloverockcandy “A hitchhiker’s guide for Androids” is about an Android Logan who rebels against his creators because they’re dumb and greedy and it’s such good shit

“De in the Sea” by Billcipher111 on AO3 is a pirate au and is super fun and I love and should really have more attention

AdrianaintheSnow is a person who’s tumblr I dont have but all their writing is amazing Edit: found 'em @snowdice

Is There Anything Left of Patton? is a zombie au with a nonviolent zombie Patton who’s kept by his husband Logan and its so good and hurts and I love it

Their Labeled series too, superpower au about hero Logan adopting the “villain” Virgil who’s really not a villain at all since he’s just like, a baby

There’s so many but this is getting long and it’s 7am so just take these and run

#asks #fic recs #sanders sides #I'll reblog more later #but i am tired rn

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deadmomjokes · 4 years

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ooh I'm so curious about your boon now. how myc of it are you willing to disclose? what's the setting? how does magic work?

I’m so flattered anybody’s interested in it at all! ^.^

I confess, I’m super, irrationally paranoid about idea theft, so I don’t share a ton of details outside of my writing group and alpha/beta readers, but I’m trying to get past that, so I’ll share a little bit and see if I can talk my anxiety down to sharing more later. Basically I say this to apologize for the fact that I’m being a bit vague here. It’s not because I’m offended you asked or anything, I’ve just got some issues of my own.

So the basic premise in a really shortened, simplified, and condensed version is as follows:

About 15 years before the story begins, there was a war with an evil sorceress. She basically converted all the other magicians to her side and they were just absolutely annihilating everyone. Three countries formed an alliance and ended up taking her out. Huzzah, day saved! The story picks up right before a big festival in honor of the 15th anniversary of the alliance’s formation. The alliance, while originally a military compact, has kind of spread into a trade compact as well.

The main character is the right hand to the King who initiated the alliance in the first place. His name is Ayris. He has no last name (other than his title, “Kingsman”) because he more or less washed up on shore and the King found him. He was kidnapped as a child from his home country by some of the sorceress’s goons and had his memory wiped and they intended to bring him to the Sorceress as a kind of sacrifice. Because he’s super magic. Only after they left is when the alliance was formed and so they had no idea that the war had ended and their boss was dead. They get home and go “oh crap,” and the King rescues this little boy and goes “oh crap” because this kid is magic, and people are kind of super duper against magic right now on account of the fact that magic folks just tried to wipe them all out. But he’s a big softie and doesn’t want anything to happen to this kid so he takes him in to keep him safe. Over the years, he realizes Ayris has a talent for fighting and is super smart and super observant, so he promotes him from ward to his bodyguard, and then to a kind of all-around advisor.

And that’s where Ayris starts his journey: Content with being his King/adoptive father’s right hand man, and hiding his magical abilities because if anyone knew he’d more or less get burned at the stake.

The complications?

First, one of the nations in the alliance is super xenophobic, and they don’t like that Ayris is a “foreigner.” Even though the poor kid has no memories other than the country in which he now lives. But he ~looks different~ too- he has dark skin, white hair, and blue eyes, in a country full of tan-ish average white folks- so there’s no hiding the fact that he’s not originally from here. So he’s got to deal with all that while still acting as the King’s right hand, which means he cannot avoid the xenophobes’ leader because he’s gonna be right there with the guy the whole time.

And, of course, we have the Big Problem: The Sorceress managed to survive, as most evil magicians will, of course, and she’s back because she has a score to settle. Specifically with Ayris’s King, who dealt the ‘killing’ blow. Which, another major subplot: Ayris does not know that. He has a Batman code about killing. He refuses to take a life, and as far as he knows, the King shares that determination, because he’s very vocal about talking things out instead of resorting to violence. All that is a very formative concept for Ayris. So when he finds out that his King saw no other way to deal with things and resorted to straight up killing, he has... a LOT to process. Because....

The issue is that the Sorceress needs batteries, essentially. She’s almost out of power just from sustaining her spirit for a decade and a half. So she subsumes all the kids who had been born magic and didn’t know it since her downfall, only surprise! When she reaches out to snatch them, she finds a grown man! Ayris is all like, “Excuse? Who are you and what do you want with all these small children?” and she’s like, “Excuse? I ate all the magicians last time.” and he’s like “I beg your pardon?” Because it turns out that after she turned the magicians to her side, she decided that was too much a liability and so she snatched all their powers, killing them. Why did she decide they were a liability? Another subplot! A few of them resisted her and tried to break free of her control, but it went horribly wrong and only one of them survived, but was totally severed from her magic powers. We actually meet that character- she’s a major foil (and hardcore frenemy) for Ayris.

BUT ANYWAY

The Sorceress and Ayris are now more or less linked because of the way magic works in this world, and she’s bent on turning him or controlling him because he’s pretty dang powerful. (Which is why her goon squad kidnapped him in the first place.) She has all kinds of tricks and is basically pushing buttons from the inside to break him down, so he’s dealing with an evil lady in his head who’s attached to his powers. So of course the easiest way to isolate and mess with him would be to mess with his magic and make it hard to control. So he’s trying to keep the King safe from her hit squad, make nice with the xenophobes, and hide his powers despite this chick messing with him and trying to out him. They also have to find a way to get rid of her before she builds her army up again and goes for Round 2, and find a way to get her out of his head before she manages to take him over like she did to all the other magic folks last time.

As for how magic works, it’s described in text as a second world laying over the top of this one. Most people exist in only one world, the one you where your body is, and that’s where their soul lives, too. But some people are born with part of their soul in the other world, called the Tapestry. These people have the ability to manipulate things in the physical world because of this connection to the Tapestry. They also have an inherent connection to everyone else who is a part of the Tapestry, hence how the Sorceress can consume peoples’ power and influence them so easily. Of course, doing anything to influence or harm others in the Tapestry was always taboo, she’s just the first that managed it on a large scale and escaped the punishment.

Powers could be more or less unlimited in type and scope, but because you still exist in the physical world as well, you’re bound by your body. What happens to you in the physical happens to you in the Tapestry, and vice versa. So if you kill someone’s Tapestry self, their body dies. If you hurt someone’s physical body, their Tapestry self is also hurt. (The sorceress managed to discover a way to separate her physical and Tapestry selves, and that’s how she escaped death.) But the point is, doing magic takes energy from your body, so the more and bigger you do, the harder it is, and you could, in theory, kill yourself if you tried something big enough.

Most magicians have a specific kind of magic that comes most naturally for them, so they would often specialize. Anyone can do any kind of magic, but individuals would often train in what “called to them” most. So one guy might specialize in telekinesis, another might specialize in all things water, one might specialize in healing humans, etc. The only kind of magic that was forbidden was altering or influencing peoples’ minds or will, and that’s what made the sorceress evil- she felt drawn to/called by Feelings, other peoples’ emotions. She was a natural empath, and wanted to turn that into manipulating how people felt and thought in order to settle conflict, but that was forbidden. She didn’t want to be controlled, so she ran away from the others, started exploring and experimenting on her own, and started messing with things that she shouldn’t have and ended up kind of warping her own sense of justice and morality by toying with things she couldn’t control or understand. So now she’s bent on domination and subjugation of people who won’t willingly listen to her, all in the name of trying to bring peace and balance and justice (which was the code of the magical order she belonged to).

I know that’s long to be a summary, but this is a very, VERY long and complex story. To the point that this is going to be two books minimum. I’m about 15 chapters into the first one and working on the first round of structural edits so I can get on to writing the back half of it (more like the back 3/4, like I said, this is going to be a LONG story).

Oh, you also asked about setting! I confess to yet another late-Middle Ages European base, but culturally I tried to diversify more. The country of Xenophobes is a polytheistic theocracy with notions of manifest destiny that they’re just barely holding back on because they’re friends with the neighbors now. The country the story takes place in is culturally not super religious, and highly tolerant for the most part, which is why it’s so sad that everyone turned against the idea of magic. The third country straddles the line between the hyperconservative and frankly quite annoying theocracy and the (moderately agnostic) more liberal, understanding nation to their south. They also have a pantheon, but they allow religious freedom (also, fun tidbit, their King is gay and has a husband and an adopted son); however, they don’t allow women in combat (whereas the country Ayris is a part of does), and the people are generally more skeptical of foreigners than Ayris’s country is (except their king; he LOVES Ayris and is more or less the fun uncle).

So yeah! Book One is Ayris discovering a lot about himself, magic, and the past, and dealing with the fallout from that, and trying to find a way to protect himself and his King. And Book Two is the bigger, multinational conflict and inevitable war, and Ayris dealing with the sorceress attacking him personally and trying to find a way to stop her while the world starts falling apart around him. I don’t want to say too much more because some Stuff Goes Down in the first book that’s influential to the second one, but also kind of a surprise at this point.

Thanks for listening and letting me gush. I’ve been working on this story-- the concept, worldbuilding, and then the actual writing of it-- for a cumulative 8 years now. It’s my baby almost as much as my actual baby, and I’m very protective of it and also terrified of letting anyone see it. The mortifying ordeal of being known and all that. (Luckily my writing group is super helpful, patient, and kind!)

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convxction · 4 years

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/ / i had to go through the summer scramble dlc because i just wonder if the swimsuit for chrom was strange then . . . pardon my french but how does their underwear look like?? it bOTHERS ME LIKE AT LEAST WE KNOW HOW CHON’SIN DRESS BECAUSE OF S AYRI SUPPORT WITH ROBIN BUT ...YLISSE TELL ME ABOUT YOUR UNDERGARMENT !!!!!!!!!! I NEED. JUST. TO KNOW. FOR...BEACH EPISODES. I MAY WRITE. OR NOT.

another thing to research for when....there is brain cells. but now. stares into the void. i wish we can talk to game devs and ask about stuff but hohohohoh whats that, we dont know it.

#⚔ooc.⚔ (faty speaks)#//someday probably means tomorrow or tonight who knows.#//i tried to ask k ozaki san about krumbs pants #//but i realized i should have unlocked my account for him to see and i was ///////////neveragaiimstupidimsorryiexistwaaaa #//just...i need reason to smash watermelons lmao. beach episode without smashing watermelon SUCKS #//aka chrom walking to smash it goes to start hitting someone lmao #//i can only picture vaike..sorry man. love you bruh

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blue-hazewhite-light · 5 years

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LFC Balmung - Ayri Himaa

basics ––––

NAME: Khetayri (Ayri) Himaa

ALIAS: n/a

AGE: late 20s

RACE: Xaela Au Ra

GENDER: Female-presenting

SEXUALITY: Bisexual

MARITAL STATUS: Engaged - Open Relationship

ALIGNMENT: Neutral-evil

BRIEF HISTORY: Born a twin in typical fashion of the Himaa tribe, Ayri and her sister Kazili were raised and trained as a unit, learning a language of their own between one another, conditioned for perfect synchrony both on and off the battlefield. Their central strategy of feigning death to increase shock or ‘change places’ worked masterfully, mostly, until such a battle that Kazili Himaa did not walk away from the scene, did not get up after ‘falling’. Ayri, in a state of shock and unwilling to accept the truth, walked away. Walked away until she couldn’t continue to walk, and slipped into something of an emotional torpor.

The process of this destruction of the self as a pair, the deconstruction of Ayri from the fundamentals of her beliefs, was a silent agony which she now seems far from and well beyond. To date, save for a brief stint under Garlean incarceration, Ayri has established herself in the role of drug dealer, taking advantage of the more addictive curative methods - at a lower cost and easier accessibility than from a true medic, of course - and those who rely on them.

physical appearance ––––

HAIR: Tinted pastel pink with occasionally visible platinum roots, resting naturally curly and bound into elegant pigtails.

EYES: A cool blush tone. The pupil of the left is distorted from damage, resulting in a much darker iris and exaggerated appearance of its limbal ring.

HEIGHT: 4’8

BUILD: Mostly lean, hourglass silhouette

DISTINGUISHING MARKS: Slight ridgelike outgrowths of spines along her horns and wrists

COMMON ACCESSORIES: Bladed jewelry at the end of her tail, gold body chains, usually well kept and brightly painted nails.

personal –––-

PROFESSION: Alternative slum pharmacist, spearwoman

HOBBIES: Gambling, people-watching, adrenaline chasing, getting really and truly very high, tarot, crystal (inherently nonmagical) collecting

LANGUAGES: Au Ra old language, Doman, Common, Garlean

RESIDENCE: Semi-transient

BIRTHPLACE: The Azim Steppe

RELIGION: Mostly agnostic theist, not really of interest.

PATRON DEITY: None

FEARS: Being completely alone, being tied down, large and empty spaces, invasions of privacy

relationships –––-

SPOUSE: Engaged to Valerian (kir) Sanguinus (another OC of mine for writing and backstory fodder but I love him ): )

CHILDREN: N/A

PARENTS: Unnamed mother, Unnamed father who died before Ayri and Kazili were born.

SIBLINGS: Kazili Himaa (deceased)

OTHER RELATIVES: N/A

PETS: None

traits –––-

extroverted / introverted / in between

disorganized / organized / in between

close minded / open-minded / in between

calm / anxious / in between

disagreeable / agreeable / in between

cautious / reckless / in between

patient / impatient / in between

outspoken / reserved / in between

leader / follower / in between

empathetic / apathetic / in between

optimistic / pessimistic / in between

traditional / modern / in between

hard-working / lazy / in between

cultured / uncultured / in between

loyal / disloyal / in between

faithful / unfaithful / in between

additional information –––-

SMOKING HABIT: never / sometimes / frequently / to excess

DRUGS: never / sometimes / frequently / to excess

ALCOHOL: never / sometimes / frequently / to excess

rp hooks ––– –

Your Weed Man: Ayri seems to know a guy; she can get her hands on damn near anything you’d want for a good high, at an incredible quality and potency. For a price, of course.

Passive Observer: Wherever Ayri goes, she takes plenty of time to give her surroundings - and those within them - an intense ocular patdown. She isn’t particularly subtle about her staring, and frankly doesn’t seem to understand what the big issue might be for some.

Model Prisoner: A deal on the inside and a stint in the prison’s medical facilities seemed to take this once-captive Au Ra from ambivalent thug to star citizen. Though some might have known both sides of her on the inside, this inexplicable change of heart saw her released under oddly unrestrictive probationary conditions.

Big Stick Is Back In Town: On top of being kind of a frigid bitch with a moral compass stored in a magnetic case, Ayri occasionally takes side gigs for clientele of status who might have need of a tiny, dead-eyed lizard with a particularly sizable spear and the seemingly instinctual capacity to wield it with deadly efficacy. Ayri maintains a position of being more to the effect of a personal guard and escort, however, than a mercenary or assassin.

the ooc stuff ––– –

Twenty-something nonbinary edgelord. Roleplay makes me extremely anxious, and I apologize constantly for everything even when it’s best I don’t. I love, love, love, love dark themes and don’t shy away from much so long as the players involved seem to be on the right side of things out of character.

#balmung #ffxiv rp #xaela #benzo lizard

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onthevirgeofdestruction · 10 days

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Slopes: Chapter 13

Virgil returns to the corridor and stalls at the door.

#ayri writes #voids write #tsss #tsss fanfic #tss #tss fanfic #sasi #sasi fanfic #sanders sides #sanders sides fanfic #slopes #ts virgil #ts remus

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ma1eficar · 6 years

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i’m gonna write a little bit about my da characters since they’ll pop up from time to time on this blog

Nihil Lavellan | Age 27 at the start of Inquisition | bisexual | Dalish | Dual-wield Assassin

Nihil is my “canon” inquisitor. He has an air of confidence about him and seems laid-back. He’s quite a flirt, though he’s much less experienced in relationships than he likes to let on. He has a taste for mischief and a rather inappropriate sense of humor.

He is charming and charismatic when he wants to be, but has no taste for the game or diplomacy and is a bit of a hot head. He tends to speak his mind despite the consequences.

He is proud of being elven and Dalish, and has no tolerance for those who mistreat elves (be they Dalish or City elves.) He also aims to be an ally to mages. He does not shy away from employing more violent means to accomplish his goals.

LI: Dorian or Iron Bull (can’t decide)

Best friend in the Inquistion: Sera

Does not get along well with: Cassandra or Cullen

Ayris Lavellan | Age 24 at the start of Inquisition | pansexual | Dalish | Rift Mage

Ayris and Nihil are actually siblings. In the timeline where Nihil is inquisitor, Ayris stays with Clan Lavellan (and vice-versa.) Though she does try her best to be friendly, she can’t quite shake her shyness at first. She often feels overwhelmed by the different culture she’s found herself in, but she also has a deep sense of curiosity and is enjoying learning new things.

She is deeply compassionate, even idealistic, and prefers to avoid violence when possible, though as Inquisition progresses she comes to accept that diplomacy isn’t always possible. She becomes a bit more cynical as time goes on, and learns to stand up for herself more.

Like her brother, she is deeply critical of the Chantry, the Templars, and nobility, but she is more willing to try and find diplomatic solutions. But when those fail, she learns to do what needs to be done.

LI: Solas

Best friend(s) in the Inquisition: Cole and Sera

Does not get along with: She gets along okay with all of them, but never warms up to Cullen

Kata Adaar | Age 28 at the start of Inquisition | pansexual | Tal-Vashoth | Knight-Enchanter

Kata is a former Saarebas who left the Qun after being sent to Seheron to fight. he met another former Saarebas who took her on as a sort of apprentice and helped her adjust to her new life. Her mentor was part of a mercenary band, who also adopted Kata as their own.

Kata is proud and confident, and prefers to hide any insecurities even when it’s to the detriment of her mental health. She has a warm, but confident, demeanor, and a laid-back sense of humor. She knows how to inspire confidence and has proven herself a natural leader. Privately, she still deals with trauma and often questions her role as inquisitor. She is self-conscious about the scars around her mouth.

She gets along with most people easily as long as there’s mutual respect and prefers diplomatic solutions, which is good, because she’s not the kind of enemy anyone wants. When she does have to resort to violence, she is swift, efficient, and fierce.

She is pro-mage, and while she doesn’t support abolishing Circles entirely, she favors the idea of mages being in charge of Circles and providing options to mages who don’t want to be part of the circle.

LI: Sera

Best friend in the Inquisition: Vivienne

Doesn’t get along with: Iron Bull at first, but they become friends after Demands of the Qun

Asher Hawke | Age 28 at the start of DA2 | Gay | Force/elemental mage

Asher Hawke is just tired and gay. He is a true purple Hawke, using humor as a coping mechanism even when it’s not entirely appropriate. He is more introverted than people expect him to be, preferring to keep to himself and his close friends.

He actually hates being made a noble and taking the title of Champion, but accepts it because he hopes he can use the power and wealth to help Fereldan refugees in Kirkwall. He doesn’t shy away from criminal activities, especially if it’s to undermine the templars and nobles.

He whole-heartedly supports the rebel mages, and though he wishes Anders had done things differently, Asher still defends and considers him a friend. Hawke’s support of the rebel mages did cause somewhat of a rift between him and his husband Fenris, but after the events of Here Lies the Abyss, they reunite and are working things out.

LI: Fenris

Closest friends: Fairly close to most of his companions, but especially Varric, Isabella, and Anders

Doesn't get along with: Aveline

Lyssa Cousland | Age 24 at the start of Origins | Bisexual | Reaver/beserker

Lyssa was a bit of a wild child growing up, and her parents allowed her to train as a warrior to give her an outlet for her seemingly endless energy. She’s boisterous and upbeat, and though losing her family and going through the Blight sobers her considerably, she maintains a more positive outlook.

She’s very much the epitome of “chaotic good” and likes to help people, but completely disregards laws and social norms while she does it. Her methods can be harsh.

After the Blight, she chooses to rule Fereldan along with Alistair.

LI: Alistair

Closest friends: Morrigan and Zevran

Doesn’t get along with: Sten or Wynne

Lexien Maeris | Age 24 at the time of Inquisition | Gay | Circle Elf | Blood Mage

Lexien is a Dragon Age roleplay character. If I had to pick my “main” Dragon Age character, it would be him or Nihil. I played him as a Warden once, but it wasn’t “cannon” because he would have been 14 and living in Kirkwall during the Blight.

Lexien was raised from a young age in the Kirkwall Circle. At first he was a shy but gentle child, but as he grew up, he experienced abuses in the Circle that hardened him. He developed serious anxiety and anger issues. Every year he was there, his hatred of the Templars and the Chantry grew.

He learned blood magic from a spirit he met during his Harrowing, one that continued to visit in his dreams. He was already a talented mage thanks to his love of reading and studying, but blood magic awakened even more potential in him. He was planning to use blood magic to escape or die trying, but before he could, the Chantry explosion sparked the rebellion.

He immediately joined the mages fighting templars in Kirkwall, and left a trail of blood and ashes behind him. He fought with the rebels for a long time, but he split off from them when the Tevinter Magister entered the picture, saying he hadn’t escaped from imprisonment just to submit to slavery.

Lexien is prickly, antisocial, and deeply mistrustful of strangers. On the other hand, he is deeply lonely, still grieves the friends he lost to the war and the rite of Tranquility, and deep down just wants a place to belong. He violently opposes any attempts to re-establish Circles, and remains wary of any sort of authority figures. He has a slight phobia of being touched, and would only enjoy physical contact with a deeply trusted friend.

#my cast

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pauldbrazill · 5 years

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Abide With Me and April Skies by Ian Ayris.

In American fiction, the lines of genre are regularly blurred so that characters in the writings of ‘dirty realists’ like Nelson Algren, Harry Crews, John Fante and Charles Bukowski can comfortably inhabit the same world as those of crime fiction writers such as James M Cain, Jim Thompson and Charles Wilford. This, of course, is a very good thing.

With British fiction, perhaps because of the…

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ayrismag · 5 years

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Interview with Maureen Mills

By Victoria Bukofske

Ayris: In the past, your work has played with text. What inspired the use of text in your work, and what are some of the challenges you come across when incorporating text into your pieces?

Maureen Mills: I continue to use text in my work as graphic element. I thought long and hard about whether the text should be readable or if it should say something or copy some other text. But in the end it’s not about what it says but that the viewer recognizes it as writing, and then they approach the work differently, looking for a story or bringing their story to the piece.

MM: Recent work has been exploring the moon jar form- orb like forms that are stretched from the inside only after the surfaces have been textured.

A: Is there a certain rhythm to how you work? What does a typical day of work look like for you?

MM: When I have time in the studio, I typically make work for a few days, incorporating a couple different forms or sizes of work. And as work begins to dry I start to lay out patterns and designs. Because the techniques I use require different drynesses of the pieces, I work on multiples of any given form so that the layers can be built up as needed.

A: What are some current projects that you are working on?

MM: I am participating in an international symposium with the International Society of Ceramic Art Education and Exchange (ISCAEE) this summer on a trip to South Korea. I’ll be doing a workshop and presenting a lecture. I’m doing the lecture with Jennifer Markmanrud, a recent graduate from our program. We wrote an article last summer for Studio Potter Journal titled Mentor/ Mentee Experience about a workshop we took together at North Country Studio Workshops

A: What are some new challenges and formal constraints that you are setting for your work?

MM: I’m not sure there is any great evolution. Ancient forms and techniques were just as complex and innovative as they are today and frankly much is still the same.

A: In other words, how do you keep finding new and inventive ways to keep challenging yourself as an artist?

MM: By making work! One thing leads to another. In fact, a couple years ago I wasn’t interested in working on the potter’s wheel so I spent the better part of two years doing handbuilding. Because approaching the surface work on those pieces was so different than on the wheel (I decorated surfaces before building with slabs as opposed to throwing forms and then decorating) it changed my work when I returned to the wheel.

A: What are the different challenges you come across in creating a functional piece vs a decorative piece?

MM: Functional work takes additional attention to form in that a rim on a cup has to beg for lips to drink from it and a teapot spout has to pour smoothly and be balanced properly. But regardless of purpose, each form must be considered fully, addressing how a bottom is finished to the edge of the rim.

A: As someone who also has a degree in Chemistry, do you think there are separations and overlaps between science and art? In other words, do you find that there is a line where art and science blur? Is art ever dependent upon science?

MM: Sure they blur. We use the scientific inquiry process all the time- we ask questions, we pose solutions, we try them out, we evaluate the results and apply that to the next thing! Both science and art are about developing a process of inquiry that feeds our need to create, whether that is more scientific experimentation or designing a new teapot form. There is plenty of science in the studio including math, physics, chemistry and geology. You have to be a little interested in all of those things when you work with clay!

A: In creative work, do you believe there really is such thing as mastery, or does each individual project demand a new understanding and development of skills? Why or why not?

MM: I think there is mastery, but there continues to be learning. Just today I did something in a way I never have before. Not earth shattering, but a new form demanded a different process and I had enough mastery of my material and process to trust that a new approach would work.

A: How would you define quality? In your opinion, what elements separate an amateur piece from a masterpiece?

MM: Deliberate action in every aspect. Addressing finishing from bottom to rim, including how a piece is signed. Not just settling for an outcome but deliberately approaching that result. You can tell the difference.

A: You have been working in the field of ceramics for quite some time now. For you, what would you say has been the greatest evolution of form in ceramics?

#nhia #Ayris #interview #Maureenmills

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thescorpioracer · 3 years

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Blog Tag

Fiiiiiine, I'll do this one...

Tagged by @teamnick

1. Why did you choose your url?

The Scorpio Races was a very important book to me, especially as a teen and this is the only "fandom" username idea I had when I was making my blog. It remains in my top 2 favorite books, and I don't think I'll ever change my url here.

2. Any side blogs?

I have more saved urls than I'd care to mention, but I only use a couple. I don't really use my Skam blog anymore aside from using it to host my Norwegian subbed shows. I also have a langblr to reblog language learning resources and another for saving writing resources/prompts.

3. How long have you been on tumblr?

I remember creating it right after the school year ended, in June of 2013. 8 years feels like WAYYY to long for me to have been on here :/

4. Do you have a queue tag?

Just "queue," and I only started using it recently when I finally got xkit and ran a queue for a bit

5. Why did you start your blog in the first place?

I was late to spending time on the internet and was really opposed to fandom for a long time (I liked keeping my stories for me and didn't want to "share" them lol), but lots of book fans seemed to be on Tumblr and I wanted to check it out.

6. Why did you choose your icon/pfp?

I really loved Sibel while watching season 1 of Ramo. She just clicked for me in a way fictional characters haven't in a long time, and my old icon needed a change, so she got the spot.

7. Why did you choose your header?

I just felt like my profile needed a nod to the fact that I've been very into dizis lately, so it's a screenshot of my discord DMs to a friend.

8. What’s your post with the most notes?

I'm 99.9% sure it's this one lol

9. How many mutuals do you have?

Is there even a way to check? No idea

10. How many followers do you have?

1392

11. How many people do you follow?

4323 lol (and yet I'm always running out of posts to look at)

12. Have you ever made a shitpost?

Probably

13. How often do you use Tumblr each day?

A lot less lately. Maybe 1 check in most days? I deleted the app off my phone almost a month ago and am now in a competition with myself to see how long I can keep from downloading it again. Instagram is probably next... (so if you want to chat with me regularly, friend me on discord. That's where I've moved multiple all my peeps to.)

14. Did you have a fight/argument with another blog once?

Kinda. I had one person (that I don't know) post pretty passive aggressively about me not realizing that I followed her and I would see it (???). Skam fans can be fun :/ And then someone was angry that I was being nice about an irl couple when I had an actor ship blog (yikes) back in high school.

15. How do you feel about “you need to reblog this” posts?

It immediately lessens the integrity of the post and I don't want to reblog it anymore. Best case scenario I go and reblog it from the person before who ever added the addendum.

16. Do you like tag games?

Depends on what they're for (and how much I want to share that day)

17. Do you like ask games?

Sometimes

18. Which of your mutuals do you think is Tumblr famous?

Probably not many lol but kudos to you if you are

19. Do you have a crush on a mutual?

I mean I'm friends with a few of them? Tagging: @kachoobu @tidemakar@inmyarmswrappedin @astormyteacup @ayries-cydney and anyone else who wants to do it

#tagged #tag game #thescorpioracer

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