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duskforged · 3 months

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Find Lines Tag Game

Tagged by the wonderful @mjjune.

rules: find a line in your wip (dialogue or not) that fits the parameters given by the person who tagged you. then change one of the parameters and tag people.

tagging: @mashuheartwrites @maple-writes @that-chibi-writer @somealienquill - plus anyone who sees this!

your lines: mentions weather; said as a joke; about prophecy; mentions friends/family; shows mood

All my excerpts are under the cut.

About Moonlight/Sunlight (Unto Summer Kings)

Moonlight panned over their skin, as a river stone, its color a pale teal, with dots freckled across the otherwise unbroken surface. Glowing honey eyes, like the many fireflies that surrounded them, watched them with an unabashed curiosity, and dark hair floated in the water behind them.

“Little ones,” they murmured. “How curious it is that you, of all, stumble across my pool.”

Their voice was jarring to her ears - many echoed over each other, both young and old, low and high, deep and soft. It made her want to grind her teeth, even as she avoided making eye contact, staring at one of their pointed ears. Arthur had no such compunctions, as it seemed, staring wide-eyed at the creature that had arose from the water.

2. Is Said In Anger (The Vespertine)

Heat stung at their eyes, at their heart. How could he have lied to them? He was- supposed… He was supposed to be their friend.

Aselhi looked up at Jos through their bleary vision, their heart pounding in their ears. Their tongue felt heavy as a rock in their mouth, their words leaden with poison as they spoke, “You lied.”

He flinched, coiling smaller into himself. A twinge of shame as he said, “I know- I’m sorry! I just-”

“Just what?” They asked, anger surging up over them in a tide. “Wanted to dance with some peasant just so you could go back home and laugh about it where I can’t see?” Heat transformed into a truly painful sting as burn manifested fully on their skin, wrapping over their flesh as lightning. They cursed and turned, slamming open the door to their little hut and stomping outside.

“Aselhi, wait!”

3. Mentions Texture (The Vespertine)

Cold stone sharpened their awareness as they knelt, clasping their hands and bowing their head. Their voice joined a dozen others’ as the congregation greeted the rising sun as a sister, and said farewell to the setting moon like a brother. A dozen voices raised in song, simultaneously praising the Oversoul’s wisdom, shed upon the dark chaos of the world through the sun’s light, and lamenting those lost to the darkness of night, guided only by the moon’s reflection.

They rose after the prayers, folding their hands under their arms as they prepared to head out into the bitter winter winds.

4. Shows Tension (Unto Summer Kings)

It was the smoke that awoke him, tainting his dreams of treesong with the acrid, choking scent. He shook Morgana awake beside him, and beside her, the twins. Lancelot jumped to his feet, kicking Percival, who jolted to sit up and brought Drystan with him. “Where is Guinevere?”

Owain asked, having smacked his head against the wall in his haste to stand. He helped Morvydd stand up, tucking her against his side.

“She’s still with her uncle,” Lancelot said, and then swore. “We need to get out of here. I’ll go find her. Arthur, with me. Drystan, take Morgana and find us weapons. Percival, go with the twins, go see if you can’t get us some horses.”

5. Mentions Hearts/Heartbeat (Lodestar)

There was a dainty little ping, startling them. As they calmed their racing heart, a glimmer appeared in the corner of their eye, their HUD making itself known. An icon unfurled itself from the taskbar, shimmering blue-teal, in the shape of a compass rose.

“Greetings, citizen Lieve Fuchs!” chimed a cheery, feminine voice. “I am LODESTAR AI unit 097. As of 1300 hours on solar day September 15, 2105 CE, your company, AsteroiDew Incorporated, has entered a contract-“

“I know.” Lieve said, with more bite in their tone than intended. The AI fell silent. “I’ve known for a solar month now that you’ve been coming.”

“My apologies,” said the AI, something like regret emerging in its voice. “I did not mean to offend. Shall I simply skip ahead to my functions, Citizen Fuchs?”

#tag game #excerpt #dusk writes

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sweetcedar · 2 years

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29: Fuse

ch: elspeth fairburn || wc: 817

There are some conditions under which any rational human would snap. In Elspeth’s opinion, one such life was the very one she was leading. She had not chosen it, particularly. It was planned out neatly for her, from her life events to her career to her eventual home. Though there was not a trace of Greenwrath on her soul, her daily schedule was slowly strangling her.

At five bells in the morning, she would wake up. Wash. Get dressed. Pack a lunch— something filling. It would take the better part of a bell. Her walk into the city began near six bells, for she needed to arrive at the Fane in time for for sunrise. Dawn and dusk were the best times for some magical work, and she was well aware that she ought not to miss them.

The work itself varied. Occasionally she would have to relieve another Hearer, although she was barely a Hearer in truth. To have the ability was one thing, but to have it be one’s best skill was another. She had been able to Hear since long before she arrived in Eorzea, but it had never been so central to her worth. Nor had it been painful. But the elementals in the Twelveswood were thunderous, like a constant drone that drowned out all other noise. When their caravan first approached from the southern roads, she had begged her mother to turn around, not knowing that the transport was already paid in full. She had wailed and thrashed the whole trip, all the way into the city proper and into the arms of someone who knew exactly how she felt. They had promised.

These days, there was little left to cry about. Instead, she found herself stumbling through Gridania like a night-creature blinded by day, owl-eyed and overwhelmed. Running on some instinct to survive, she thrived in the chaos of it all. A love of utter chaos was the same reason she found herself learning to work with spoken, rather than trees and beasts. It was not what she would have chosen, but it was what worked. The woodsfolk rarely offered aid to refugees and wanderers, and even more rarely allowed any of them to stay within the city walls. If Elspeth were to fail— if she was not a wood-gift to the conjurers after all— then what would become of them both?

Her work-days went by slowly. Every bell was a crawl through mud unless she was in the infirmary. The worst was when she was asked to respond to the incessant crying of a willow or a broadleaf. (If the Elementals were so powerful, so all-knowing, why couldn’t they fucking handle it themselves?) One of those excursions brought her far into the northern Shroud, following the trail of treesong and growing greenwrath to a clearing that now stank of ceruleum and oil.

A little airship had crashed here. If she did not soothe the rage boiling in the land around them, it would kill the occupant. If the Wood Wailers had been the ones to stumble upon this, they would surely kill him, too, for Elspeth had never seen a more obvious pirate craft in all her days. In that moment, she identified a miniature rebellion, crafted to scale: she could simply watch and assist, rather than report back an issue. The captain was charming. Handsome. Weren’t they always?

Perched on the railing and looking down into the knotted tangle of pipe and wire, Elspeth watched the repairs complete. She warded the ground below them. She listened to the panicked voice of the broadleaf to their east. Most importantly, she spent a few ticks convincing it that there was no need to crush the iron beast as they slept. She would handle it, and she could handle it with utmost grace and professionalism. Death would not bloom in this clearing today.

Instead, there was a spark of life. “She’s all fixed. Thank you,” she remembers him drawling. Their voice was low and rough, accented with some put-upon cadence that sounded far too backwater for the ease with which they handled their craft. The first idea of escape came to her as violently as a blown fuse, even though it was prompted by a gift from someone who might be a newfound friend. The thought drove all else from her mind like she was another overloaded, burnt-out circuit ready to meld together. The captain grinned up at her, the cocky bastard, not knowing who she was or what she was capable of. “You want to go for a spin, Miss Fairburn?”

She remembered hopping down from the railing, and the sound of her boots hitting the metal. She remembered how hard she tried to look as though she was thinking it over when all she was doing was swallowing it all back. “Oh, why— yes,” she managed. “I think I do.”

#once again i bring you Healthcare Burnout Stories #FFXIVWrite2022 #ch: placeholder elspeth tag

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iviarellereads · 2 months

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The Eye of the World, Chapter 53 - The Wheel Turns

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one!)

(Wheel of Time icon) In which the story is only just begun.

PERSPECTIVE: Rand, as the GM's garden is brown and dying, nearly all the flowers gone, butterflies absent, birds silent. This is wrong, Rand thinks. They won, after all! Loial says it isn't right that Treebrother falls to the Blight. So he walks to the great oak, and sings. His treesong is amplified by what of the GM remains, and the Blight will not take it. They make a litter for Moiraine between Bela and Moiraine's horse, and leave.

Rand half expects to have to fight their way out of the Blight, but it's silent as they move. They make camp in the evening, but everything about the region feels less than it was. Perrin asks why, and Moiraine says they struck a great blow, the Shadow will be a long time recovering. Mat asks what exactly they did, and Moiraine tells him to sleep, they're still not out of danger.

As they ride south out of the Blight, the diseased foliage turns not to the bare trees that were there on the ride up, but to full, lush, green.(1) As they approach the border towers, men come to greet them, laughing joyfully. They think their army must have won a great victory at Tarwin's Gap. In late afternoon they reach Fal Dara, which rings with celebration. Literally, as not a bell in the city seems to sit silent.

They meet Ingtar, who arrived at the battle just one hour too late to see what happened for himself. Moiraine insists he bring them all to Agelmar at once. Agelmar berates him for not bringing Moiraine to a healer, she's still on a litter being carried around.

“We hear,” Moiraine said as soon as the door shut behind Ingtar, “that you won a great victory in Tarwin’s Gap.” “Yes,” Agelmar said slowly, his troubled frown returning. “Yes, Aes Sedai, and no. The Halfmen and their Trollocs were destroyed to the last, but we barely fought. A miracle, my men call it. The earth swallowed them; the mountains buried them. Only a few Draghkar were left, too frightened to do else but fly north as fast as they could.” “A miracle indeed,” Moiraine said. “And spring has come again.” “A miracle,” Agelmar said, shaking his head, “but. . . . Moiraine Sedai, men say many things about what happened in the Gap. That the Light took on flesh and fought for us. That the Creator walked in the Gap to strike at the Shadow. But I saw a man, Moiraine Sedai. I saw a man, and what he did, cannot be, must not be.” “The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills, Lord of Fal Dara.”(2)

She tells him the Green Man is dead, a casualty of their battle, and the Eye of the World gone. There should be no more quests to find it. The final battle has yet to be fought (Rand stirs at this, but she glares him into submission), and then she shows him the Horn. When he starts talking about riding into the Blight with it, she yells NO! then explains calmly that the Horn must be carried to Illian, its place isn't here, it's at the Final Battle proper. She shows it to him only to let him know that their might is as great as any, now.

Seven days later, all the people of Fal Dara have returned, and the bells still ring. Rand is training at swords with Lan, who says he's doing well but he can't become a blademaster in a few weeks. Rand says he doesn't care about that, and he doesn't have a few weeks.(3)

Lan takes his leave, and Egwene has snuck up and asks where Rand is going. He doesn't know. She says he could come with the rest of them, they all have reason to go to Tar Valon, for long or short stays. He says he can't just wait around for some Aes Sedai to realize what he is and gentle him. Egg suggests he might try never channeling again, and Rand says he’d sooner cut his hand off than touch the Source again,(4) but privately thinks he might not be able to stop, since he’s never been in control of it yet.

Egg asks if he’ll go home. Rand wants nothing more than that, but knows he can’t go home yet. He has to find somewhere he can be alone, so he won’t hurt anyone. He tells her he’s going away soon, but not home, and wishes privately that she weren’t going to become Aes Sedai.

PERSPECTIVE: Moiraine finishes eavesdropping on Rand and Egg with a trick of magic she learned as a girl in Cairhien’s Royal Palace.(5)

“The Prophecies will be fulfilled,” the Aes Sedai whispered. “The Dragon is Reborn.”

The End of the First Book of The Wheel of Time

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(1) A stark contrast with the dying Green Man's grove. War means losing even when you win, something Robert Jordan would have understood all too well. (2) Mo knows Rand is no false Dragon, and what Agelmar saw was what must be. (3) Aw, buddy, what's so important? Running away from the only people who know, understand, and want to support you? (4) That sounds rather impractical, not only because you haven't been in control of it yet, but also because you have no idea you're the first, perhaps main character of an 11 000 page epic. (5) Hmm, so I've given away part of the game already by telling you her last name because of my desire to keep things tagged consistently. But, if you have the print or ebook version of the book, you'll also have a glossary. We saw Galad named Damodred, and his father Taringail. If you look up Taringail in the glossary, the first line is "A Royal Prince of Cairhien". So, Moiraine is some kind of relation to the royal family of Cairhien, is she? Close, do you think, or a more distant cousin kept at the palace purely through her name?

#wheel of time #wot #the wheel of time #twot #the eye of the world #eye of the world #eotw #teotw #wot wheel icon #rand al'thor #loial #mat cauthon #perrin aybara #egwene al'vere #nynaeve al'meara #moiraine damodred #lan mandragoran

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smoresbythefyresyde · 3 months

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Lowstream (Whimsymoss's adoptive son) has raised Windleap, Treesong, Duskjay, and Cloudmark

idk why that's relevant but it is

Duskjay is a fucking amazing name

#youre the only prayer i need to make me feel blessed <3

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a-bamber · 3 years

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This tree-o rocks! 🌲🌲🌲 . . #Tree #singingtrees #guitartree #treesrock #musicians #abamberart #everydayisearthday #illustration #illustrator #digitalart #kidlitart #treesong #drummer #treehugger #keyboard #treeo #listentothetrees #instaart #instaartist #trio #playingintheband #bandoftrees https://www.instagram.com/p/COd51TiH_a4/?igshid=10syt0lxh61vr

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gabbywillmott · 7 years

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😲😲my 10 yr olds #drawing tonight whilst #reading #treesong by @nadineevansker! The edge of the #darkforest and grandmothers fence. #veryproudmom

#drawing #veryproudmom #darkforest #reading #treesong

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lionblazelover · 3 years

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Cat compilation bc I've been having a surprisingly fun time doing lineless art

#warrior cats #art by me #warrior cats original character #tales of wind and thunder #towat duststorm #towat treesong #towat hawktalon

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mytreetv · 7 years

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#Hug_MyTreeTV Thank you @jaelmusic for your #music and thank you for #hugging #trees Is your #guitare made out of #wood? So here is what you could and should Do: Make a #treeSong like each #singersongwriter should... 😉 Is this understood? I mean, you get oxygen and filtered air for free Don't make it for me... Make it for the tree... 😉 #anyonecanplayguitar #MoreTreesLessSelfies well, a #selfie in front of a tree is okay... As long as you hug it... #instanature #instagood #instamood #environment #enkeltauglichkeit #naturelover #switzerland #igswitzerland #ig_naturelovers #inlovewithanimals #inlovewithswitzerland #tree_brilliance #umweltschutz #umwelt #nachhaltigkeit #sustainability #wanderlust #instatrees #ic_trees #ic_nature #treelover #treetastic 🙏

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edgelarks · 2 years

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Listen to @bbcradiodevon and @tobybucklandgardens show this morning to hear the first of a new regular feature I'm doing for them on folk songs related to the great outdoors... 🎶 #thatsallfolk #thegreatoutdoors #songsandgardens #treesongs #devonisheaven #folksongs (at Exmouth, Devon) https://www.instagram.com/p/CZERbossL0D/?utm_medium=tumblr

#thatsallfolk #thegreatoutdoors #songsandgardens #treesongs #devonisheaven #folksongs

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genderhexed · 2 years

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Cabeswatersbf ➡️ genderhexed

If you're like who is this my previous urls have included

Treesong

Sefforrest

Genderhexe

And so many more I do not remember 😌

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lord-nichron · 3 years

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Demon Princes Portfolio Project: the most devious and insane of the Demon Princes: Howard Alan Treesong.⁠ ⁠ I saved this character design for last because it's my favourite.⁠

#demon princes #character design #visual development #drawing #jack vance

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fantasy-cartography · 7 years

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Oh look, it's Episode 5! In this one, I get a little bit more passionate than usual about my least favourite type of fantasy map, and then I get really distracted by supercontinents.

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sixofravens-reads · 2 years

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The Books of Pellinor - Thoughts

Hesitant to call this a review because I didn’t pay the most attention to these books in terms of review-ish things. But now that I’ve FINALLY finished the series, like, a full decade after reading the first 2 books, I want to blather about them. So: spoiler warning, and sorry this got LONG

Please note:

I have noted where I skimmed these books, bc I know I probably didn’t pick up the finer details of those scenes

I didn’t read any of the appendices lol by the time i got through the main story i was DONE with these books. maybe someday I’ll go back and read them

Reread and a lot of this sounds negative, but i GENUINELY DO LIKE THIS SERIES! I JUST HAVE THOUGHTS!!

The Naming:

I like this book a lot, for the most part! The descriptions of food and various locations are fantastic, I like the journey, Maerad slowly uncovering her bard powers, etc.

However, I do find that it drags quite a bit. Depending on what mood I’m in when I read it, it’s either unbearably slow and boring or slow but in a Tolkien kind of way where there’s lots of nice details. Even then, like, this book could’ve easily been 100 pages shorter. I skimmed quite a bit between major events

I still struggle to remember the middle portions of this simply because not a lot happens, aside from Rachida, until they reach Norloch.

While I really like Maerad as a heroine, she is a bit immature at times, which I guess can be expected since she’s like, 16 or 17 when the series starts. However it does get annoying when she and Cadvan bicker for no reason.

I’m not super interested in Cadvan at all. He just seems like a cross between Numair from The Immortals quartet and your typical moody YA bad boy. Except a grown-ass man. He has so many emotional outbursts and such--especially at Maerad, bc somehow he keeps expecting this slave girl he found in the most back-woods settlement ever to behave like a fully educated bard--and I’m like...sorry Mr Extremely Powerful Fully Trained Bard, but how fucking old are you??

Important to note, while they meet Hem in this book he doesn’t get much character development at all. This will come into play later on...

ANYway, it’s a solid start to the series. I wish there was more meat and less long travel scenes, but overall not bad.

The Riddle:

My favourite book in the series!

So much character growth for Maerad, I love seeing her on her own instead of just hiding in Cadvan’s shadow.

Also love the setting, northern/cold settings are my favourite.

And the pacing! So good, I don’t think I skimmed anything and I still finished the book in only a few days.

We get a LOT of scenes of Maerad remembering stuff like, “Hem said this” or “Hem would like that”...it feels like the author came up with the idea for Hem having his own book after The Naming was published and then tried to retcon in a ton of character development about him into the couple of weeks (days?) he and Maerad spend together before being separated at Norloch

My only qualm is that i always forget Maerad and Hem’s reunion at the end of the book is just a dream. IMO it should’ve been real. I think it would be more impactful to have The Singing start with the siblings in their birthplace of Pellinor and then work their way south as they try to figure out the Treesong

The Crow:

TBH I skimmed the first 100 pages and then skipped this book...preteen boys are not my favourite demographic to read about (sorry), and having to suddenly switch from Maerad (who I love) to this somewhat bratty kid I don’t know anything about, but who the author acts like I should know and care about...didn’t work for me

Also like, I know child soldiers are a YA standard but for some reason (maybe bc Hem is so young and has already had such a hard life) I hated that (according to wikipedia) he got turned into a child spy, and then spent most of the book chasing Zelika only to find out she was dead...and then his bird drops the part of the Treesong right in his lap. Like what?? All this suffering why??

A better way to do this would’ve been to: a) introduce Hem better/earlier in The Naming so we care about him, and b) have Hem and Maerad’s stories combined in The Riddle so you read both at once, instead of reading all of The Riddle, forgetting Hem, and then having to read a whole book about him. Also...not much relevant to the overarching plot happens in The Crow so having it alongside the Riddle would prevent it from being so...fluffy.

The Singing:

MAERAD MY DEAREST!!!!!

This is probably my second-favourite book in the series, after The Riddle.

As stated above though, I wish Hem and Maerad were already reunited, IMO it would’ve saved a lot of fluffy travel scenes. Like, move the part where Hem and Saliman meet the Players to the end of The Crow, and have them all go north together...

...because let’s be honest here, nothing really HAPPENS for Hem until he and Maerad reunite. Like, they meet the players, they travel, they note the army’s direction, and...then Saliman gets deathly ill and Hem heals him, a scene which has NO BEARING ON THE REST OF THE PLOT that I’m pretty sure was thrown in so the author could justify keeping his perspective.

that said, I love Maerad discovering her elemental powers, and slowly being overcome by them. It was really, really interesting to see.

HOWVER, WHY MAKE SUCH A HUGE DEAL ABOUT MAERAD NOT BEING ABLE TO PLAY HER LYRE IF SHE CAN WITH HER MAGIC FINGERS???? WHY CAN SHE PLAY THE LYRE AND NOT HER PIPES WITH THEM ???? Like, if you’re gonna handicap a character like that, USE IT!!!! I originally thought Hem was going to have to learn to play the song on her lyre, while she sang, and that would’ve been cool and would’ve given Hem a real purpose but no...he just holds a tuning fork? What??

I hate the romance between Maerad and Cadvan bc a) seems very one-sided, b) Cadvan clearly just has a Powerful Woman kink since he only starts swooning over her when she goes Mad With Power, and c)...like, he’s her teacher, decades older than her...why not keep the teacher-student dynamic instead of adding a half-baked romance? This just furthers my thinking that this series was originally crossover fic about Daine and Numair in Middle Earth. Not that their relationship is great, but...it’s at least more believable.

I did skim most of Hem’s scenes and a lot of the travel/camp/’nothing happened here’s some description tho’ scenes cause I got bored.

The final battle did seem fairly anticlimactic, considering how quickly they find Afinil (I hope that name is right, I’m not going to check lol) and how easily Maerad and Hem defeat the Nameless One...plus they don’t even have any real encounters with the huge army apparently marching on Lirigon of all places...idk, it felt weirdly rushed. Like, why not have the Nameless One figure out the Treesong has to be played in Afinil and have a battle while they’re trying to do their thing? Or like...anything more than the minor mindspeech bullying we get. I think a lot of good stff got passed over in favour of the first 2/3rds of the book being dedicated to Maerad and Hem finding each other.

I also wish they had played up the similarities to Maerad and the Nameless One and how, in the latter third of the book, she’s basically turning into Nameless One 2: Electric Bugaloo. Like, we basically know nothing about the Nameless One except that he lost his name and became immortal (except everyone knows it). Was he part elemental like Maerad? Some ancient ancestor of the House of Karn? It’s implied, but I would’ve liked more detail.

Would’ve liked a longer epilogue, so we can see more about Hem and Maerad as they grow. Also like??? Was Maerad ever punished for murdering that bard? It’s implied she sees her in the procession of the dead and is forgiven, but does ghostly forgiveness stand in an Annaren court of law?? Maybe there’s more info on this in the appendices but I didn’t read those, so. Shrug.

The Series Overall

You really can see the author learning to write over these books, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but I think results in a lot of strange retcons and choices and some pacing issues, especially in the first and last books. I also feel like the author didn’t plan very far ahead, which led to some retcons and contradictions with earlier books (ie. Hem suddenly getting a personality in The Riddle). I also think she pads a lot with description to make up for a lack of plot, which works better in some cases than in others. IE. in the naming she doesn’t have a lot of plot and pads a lot, whereas in The Riddle there’s a fairly strong plot and very little padding.

I really cannot shake the thought that Hem is....completely useless in this series. Like, I get giving Maerad a brother bc it helps her on her quest to know she, personally, has family to save. But. What does he do that Maerad couldn’t? Hold a tuning fork. That’s it. She could’ve done his WHOLE quest in The Crow, got the fork herself, journeyed to Afinil, and just had Hem meet her there and hit the thing. Actually, I don’t even remember if he’s in the prophecy at all, meaning he has to be at Afinil, or if Maerad could’ve substituted Cadvan as Fork-Holder. He didn’t need to be here at all. Idk, I mean, having perspective characters that don’t end up contributing much to the plot is something I struggle with too, but...like, why not cut him if you can’t find anything for him to do? Or rework your plot so he does?

Anyway aside from my griping, overall it’s a great series, the worldbuilding is amazing, the food descriptions are *chef’s kiss*....honestly if you don’t mind some inconsistencies, an occasionally weak plot and some questionably written characters, it’s a solid read!

#i should be working whoops #pellinor spoilers #thinking about reading

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