she/her | adult (no minors please) call me crow (or any variant nickname from my username that strikes your fancy) this is the deathsquiggles writing blog zone. i love you
“You should host a ball for the equinox festival.”
“Oh?” Scott tosses the papers aside, letting them scatter across his desk. “Why’s that?”
“A few of your fledglings are attempting to consolidate power. If you invite some of the townsfolk, you can reward the faithful and execute the faithless at the same time.”
Scott is of course aware of the plotting happening in scant whispers, but he hasn’t seen enough evidence to justify the effort of removing the perpetrators just yet. Killing mortals is trivial. Slaying vampires… Less so. Still not difficult, but not effortless, either.
What Abolish proposes would offer Scott an excuse to gorge himself without rousing suspicion from his naughty fledglings and causing them to flee the manor grounds. The show of force will be more effective with all the set dressing of a formal occasion as well.
It’s brilliant.
“Start making arrangements tomorrow,” Scott says. “Halworth can help you with the details, but I want you leading this.”
Abolish dips his head in acknowledgement.
“Have you ever been to a ball, Veylocke?”
“Only as staff.”
“And how did you like it?”
There’s a long pause before Abolish replies, “It was annoying.”
An admission. A truth.
Interesting.
———
someone requested some abolish as scott’s butler au type beat, and i happened to already have a WIP that was perfect for that, so i’m cooking verily.
holy shit is this one ever gonna have a graphic depictions of violence warning. it gets nasty. but it also has abolish being a freaking weirdo and scott being obsessed with him (new toy style) so it all balances out in the end, probably
rubbing my gay little hands together and chuckling nefariously bc one of the prompts i received happens to perfectly line up with an existing WIP and i can absolutely use that
cool people are posting fic prompt fills and that makes me want to see if i like doing fic prompt fills. (cool people are audi and fae. hi 👋)
i can promise nothing but i want to try my hand at prompt fills and see if that’s something that i can engage with to produce shorter content, so if you have any v@mp1res smp prompts you wanna send my way…….. my ask box is open baybeeee
info on what i’m most familiar with/likely to accept below 👀
i’m so so sorry to anyone using screenreaders. tumblr is a hellsite and i can’t avoid popping up in the searches if i don’t use espionage.
obvi i’m a blood;;letting main. so that’s always a W. o₩en and legs are very much in my wheelehouse as characters, both softboi au versions and rudeboi canon versions.
i’m also p familiar w mart¥n, aboli$h, ₽yro, $helby, and sc0tt’s stories and characters, so i feel p confident writing them.
also familiar with av1d’s stuff, but tbqh i’m looking to cleanse my palate of that particular character in the hopes that it will unclog my brain and let me return to for the wood wakes in a month or two when the dust is really really settled.
everyone else i’m less familiar with but willing to give it a go— but i will warn that i have no fucking idea what sausage was doing for basically the entire smp. his perspective is a massive blindspot in my understanding of the lore and at this point it’s honestly funnier not to fix that
Decided to share the 500 words I wrote of Scott’s POV of the Bloodloathing coffin cuddles scene before I decided the scene would be way more impactful from Legs’ POV.
Feat. Me adding way too many world building thoughts to a one shot, as usual.
*****
By rights, it should have been Owen doing this. But when Scott had walked into the Castle and seen Owen stood in the middle of the room, drenched in blood, a limp body cradled in his arms and panic in his eyes, Scott had to admit he felt a twinge of sympathy. Owen was far too young to be taking fledglings of his own. Scott had already had to deal with Pyro's… over-eagerness, though, so he was not unfamiliar with having to support someone else's fledgling.
He had purred softly as he pulled the doctor's body from Owen's trembling arms. If he hadn't felt the hazy pull from the beacon network identifying the presence of a new vampire, he would have thought Legundo dead. The wounds from Owen's claws were impressively deep, spilling blood and ripping skin, staining his once pristine robes a pretty red.
Owen had mentioned that he slept for three days after his own turning. The Goldsmiths didn't carry such a weakness, thankfully, but obviously Owen's line had not developed in the depths of war time, like the Goldsmiths had. Scott wasn't looking forward to having to cradle the fledgling through days of unconsciousness, but he had a feeling leaving him to his own devices was going to be worse in the long run. And maybe he was looking forward to seeing the doctor's reaction upon waking, not only with his new gift, but in Scott's embrace. Given the doctor's very vocal displeasure towards both the concept of vampirism and towards him, he had a feeling the initial reaction was going to be quite spectacular.
Whether it was the effect of the beacons, or Legundo's determination to spite Owen, it only took a day for the new fledgling to begin to stir. At the first hint of movement, Scott had reached out and pulled the lid of the coffin over them. Ideally, he much preferred leaving the lid at least slightly ajar — he had already dealt with the enclosed space for six hundred years after all — but he had a feeling that he was going to need all the support he could get to keep Legundo secured.
He was glad he'd had that instinct, when the first thing Legundo did on waking was to scream and throw himself backwards.
Scott dug his claws into the fledglings back and pulled him in.
"No no no no—" Legundo howled blindly. Scott built a loud purr up in his chest, holding the doctor's thrashing form tightly, so he could at least feel the rumbling sensation of it, given he was screaming so loud he wouldn't be able to hearit.
The effect was not as instantaneous as it usually was with his own fledglings, but it still didn't take long before Legundo's thrashing shuddered to a halt.
"What?" Legundo gasped, and Scott could feel him trying to look around. "Where— you."
The way his voice shifted from panic to fury told Scott the exact moment Legundo finally realised where he was. And who he was with.
"There you are," he said softly. Legundo shuddered in his arms.
"Let me go," he hissed. Scott chuckled, and lifted one hand slowly, sliding his claws out of the wounds he had dug into Legundo's back, only to reach up and clasp at the back of his head instead.
#ohhhh I love tasty lore bits#so much#also while I do agree it was more impactful from legs' perspective#I'm having so much fun reading from Scott's perspective ahh thank you @uncannyfig
The lore stuff in this was me just playing in the sandbox that @audioeidolon created (with some further inspo from @deathsquiggles) when it comes to vampire hierarchy/coven dynamics stuff
But to sort of expand on what's being played with/hinted at here, for anyone interested and for me to clarify in my own mind:
-Scott had to effectively "adopt" Shelby as a fledgling even though Pyro did the actual turning, because Pyro is a fledgling himself. A lot of the sire/coven leader "instincts" develop with age, and under normal circumstances vampires aren't really capable of effectively raising a fledgling until they are at least a few centuries old.
-(Scott would have had to "adopt" Cleo too, but they basically did a speedrun of fledgling-hood due to trauma and the lingering effects of the thralling, so they are mostly self sufficient. I really liked the analogy audio used in their "duty to others" fic of a chicken taking on a rooster's traits in the absence of one. This is also a phenomenon observed in lions.)
-While Owen is over 200, he hibernated for most of that time so he still very much a fledgling "mentally" even if he has developed some of the physical traits of an older vampire (more effective control of his powers, longer claws and fangs). He's sort of a teenager in an adult's body. If it weren't for the whole Divorce(tm), he probably would be physically capable of supporting a fledgling, but he would have 100% either tried to kill Legs or provoked Legs into killing him the second Legs woke up, so Scott knew he had to immediately separate them.
-Different vampiric lines have different traits, that are both physical/visual and metaphysical, and certain lines/covens purposefully exploit/encourage that.
The Goldsmiths are basically highly specialized for espionage of both vampiric and human societies, and Scott's sire sought to cultivate that in his coven. This is why they don't have an immediate turning sleep (they have to rest a lot more as fledglings, but are not knocked out immediately for extended periods like Owen and Legs are), they have influence/charm powers like mild hypnotism, and they have very strong coven instincts (so they can be better controlled by their sire). I also headcanon that they actually get physically more visually attractive the older/more powerful they get (this didn't happen to Pyro and I have reasoning for why I can go into later).
Meanwhile Louis' line is much 'older' in its traits/development than the Goldsmiths, even though I headcanon Louis and Scott's sire being from a similar time period, because the line hasn't been influenced by bringing in new fledglings. Owen was the only fledgling Louis ever took in over a thousand years, therefore his traits draw on more of the ancient vampiric lines (a little more animalistic, with the wings and shadow powers). They also tend towards more solitary lifestyles and have weaker coven instincts (part of why Owen and Legs are able to fight back against Scott a lot easier than any of the Goldsmith fledglings would be able to - if they tried. which they don't.)
All of this is to say I am still on my bullshit of thinking extremely deeply about the world building of my fics, even if none of it is ever actually going to come up.
anyway. i'm still writing (but probably not gonna finish the chap today because holy shit i'm in the wrong headspace). these are characters, and we're all adults here.
that said, if it's too much for you, please feel free to dip out if you need. take care of yourselves everyone!! <3
so i was not able to do any writing because of irl stuff unfortunately out of my control, but i have the whole weekend free and i just took an adderall, so i’m about to jam. hoping to finish the chapter tonight. if not, will do tomorrow!
okay okay okay. i am very busy this week BUT!! i want so bad to get back to werewolf avid that i’m making it my personal mission to post next chapter on my birthday. which is friday! so fucking pray for me i need to get stronger
okay i am so sorry to do this but i found out that i have to do like HELLA overtime at work the rest of this week so i won’t have the chapter ready today ;-;
it’ll go up ASAP but i’m only able to work on it sporadically so it might be a few more days, sorry everyone :((
COOL NEWS i was gonna spend this weekend writing to get ahead a bit but then instead i spent it very very sick so i’m afraid the catastrophe of legend has indeed occurred. i gotta skip this week and give myself time to rebuild a buffer now that i’m finally able to look at a screen for longer than a few seconds without my brain trying to exit my skull.
very very sorry for the delay!! but also wow what a spot for it to go huh. the universe really said everyone is gonna sit on this cliffhanger and deal with it for an extra seven days
small spoiler for chapter 8 (already posted last week) of for the wood wakes below the cut because my beta reader lowkey read me to filth and it’s incredibly funny to me
mogey slam dunking me straight through the earth and out the other side (colorized)
listen. in my defense. baths are such fertile ground for richly symbolic and subtext-dense character interactions okay. the vulnerability. the rituals. the acts of service. the transformative return from sullied to clean.
what am i supposed to do, NOT take advantage of all that beautiful opportunity?????
plus it’s just funny to have characters with an amount of unresolved sexual tension working very hard to stay on task while the object of their desire is touching them no-clothes style
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 9/16 (ish)
Words: 60,072
Chapter Word Count: 10,821
Rating: Teen
Fandom: Vampires SMP
Relationships: Legundo/Owen, Legundo & The Goldsmith Coven, Avid & The Goldsmith Coven
Summary:
“Ah. Am I making a house call?”
Owen nods.
“Could you describe the patient’s condition? I need to know what to bring with me.”
“Our wolf has fallen ill.”
The doctor frowns. “I’m not a veterinarian."
“He isn’t always a wolf.”
-
A continuation of children of the night by @audioeidolon.
by popular demand, here is the full ruleset for the card game played in chapter six of my fic for the wood wakes.
disclaimers:
i have made no attempt to balance this game, nor to check if the rules make certain cards impossible to use. no one should ever play this. if you make the mistake of doing so, that was your decision, and i will not share in the burdens wrought by your futile toil.
requirements:
one (1) standard deck of 52 playing cards
starting a game:
assign each player a penalty card value. assignments may be arbitrary or richly symbolic, as the players wish. but each card may only be assigned to one player.
shuffle cards thoroughly.
deal five cards to each player. remaining cards form the draw pile in the center of play, as equidistant between players as reasonably achievable.
each player picks one card from their hand to sacrifice. the highest value sacrifice wins. J = 11, Q = 12, K = 13, A = 1
the sacrifice winner earns the right to play first. their sacrifice card goes to the burn pile of the player who offered the lowest sacrifice card. all other players add their sacrifice card to their own burn pile.
main gameplay loop:
each turn, a player must do one of four actions:
draw a card
play a penalty card
form valid couplings
divorce
after taking one of four actions, the player’s turn ends, and play moves clockwise.
let us examine each action in turn.
draw a card
add one card from the draw pile to your hand.
play a penalty card
if one of the cards in your hand is the designated penalty card of another player, you may play the penalty card. the penalized player takes the card and adds it to their burn pile.
form valid couplings
if two cards in your hand constitute a valid coupling, they may be formed. place both cards in front of yourself vertically, stacked atop one another in a manner which ensures both values and suits are visible. multiple valid couplings may be played each turn, but valid couplings are not required to be played.
if the formed coupling is a SOULMATE pair, place the coupling horizontally instead of vertically.
divorce
separate one of your existing couplings. place the divorced cards on opposite sides of your other couplings, oriented horizontally to indicate their marital status change.
divorced cards remain horizontal on the play area but are considered part of your hand until they form a new coupling by playing another valid card onto them. this valid card is also played horizontally.
divorced cards may be played with other divorced cards, but only pn the same side of the play area. right-hand side divorced cards may not form couplings with left-hand side divorced cards (this is akin to dating your good friend’s ex-husband after a messy breakup).
divorcing horizontal cards or soulmate couplings results in those cards instantly going to the burn pile. they are horizontal in the burn pile and cannot be counted toward negating burn points.
special conditions:
certain circumstances allow a player to take multiple actions in one turn or to act outside of their own turn. these include:
you play two or more valid couplings, leaving you with only one remaining card in your hand, which is the penalty card of another player. you may play this penalty card immediately and end the game.
anyone able to see or otherwise perceive the cards earnestly asks why the game is called vampire. all players may reach for the draw pile. the first player to touch the draw pile may draw a card for free outside of any turn actions.
ending a game:
the game ends when one of three conditions is met:
the last card is drawn from the draw pile
a player assembles the queen’s court
a player has no cards remaining in their hand
after the condition is met, each player takes one final turn, ending with the turn of the person who triggered the endgame condition.
tallying the points:
each coupling is worth one point. each card remaining in your hand is added to your burn pile. divorced cards on your play field are also added to your burn pile.
if you have all four suits of a card in your burn pile, they cancel out to zero.
the face values of each card in the burn pile are added together, square rooted, rounded up to the nearest whole number, and subtracted from your coupling total.
any toxic couplings remaining on your play area have their face values added together, doubled, square rooted, and subtracted from your remaining coupling total.
the player with the most points after this process is the winner.
if the game ended by assembling the queen’s court, then the player responsible for assembling the queen’s court wins.
valid coupling rules:
spade and club which add up to a number divisible by three
two spades or two clubs which add up to a number NOT divisible by four
two hearts cards which have been divorced
two diamonds cards which have no valid couplings available within your hand and field of play
heart and a diamond which add up to less than five
divorced heart and a diamond which add up to greater than ten
heart and a spade face card (J, Q, K, A) [SOULMATES]
heart and a club face card (J, Q, K, A) [SOULMATES]
heart and a heart face card (J, Q, K, A) [TOXIC]
heart and a diamond face card (J, Q, K, A) [TOXIC]
diamond and spade which add up to less than nine
diamond and club which add up to a number divisible by two OR greater than eight [NOT BOTH!]
the queen’s court
if all four queens are coupled together into two pairs after divorcing, you have assembled the queen’s court (as in, they are now coupled with each other. yuri wins)
oh damn i forgot to mention also!!! because i posted 12k in the last week i’m gonna push my updates out a little?? stagger style, because i want to get back to late monday/early tuesday eventually, but gradually so i’m not stuck trying to speedrun lmao i don’t like the effect that has on my prose
so IDEALLY barring catastrophe it should roughly be:
ch9 on 5/7
ch10 on 5/13
ch11 on 5/19
then ch12 on 5/25, and back to the usual weekly schedule from there.
that’s my cool plan
goldsmiths be like
🧛🏻👩🏽🚒
👨🏻🎓🧝🏻♀️
🐺👨🏻⚕️
and i love having fun so here’s some spoilers in hieroglyphic* form
🧎🏻♂️➡️🫱🏻🫲🏽🧎🏽♀️
🪡🪢❤️🩹
🙎🏻♂️💆🏻♂️🙍🏻♂️
🕴🏻👁️🫵
*i know emojis are not actually hieroglyphs please do not come for me linguists i’m just being silly
