Hello everyone!
I'm Ezra (he/him) and i do writing. I made this blog to share my writing stuff, and so i can talk into the void about the things ive written. I usually just post behind the scenes of stuff I'm working on or short stories.
I'm a uni student doing joint honours history and creative writing!
MY ASKS ARE OPEN FOR ASKING ABOUT ANY OF MY PROJECTS / WIP'S :)
Current projects:
Guardian Angel Program = Its about an angel called Mariel (She/Her) who's been sent to earth in order to redeem runaway demon, Eden (They/Them). Eden doesn't want anything to do with heaven or hell. It is rivals to lovers. Might not be continuing with writing a full story for this one, but ill still be talking and writing scenes from it.
Apocalypse Story = Its about two friends during the apocalypse, trying to travel from London back home to North Wales.
Space Story = Not actually working fully on this one yet, nor do i have a full plan for it. But it's what my January creative writing assignment will be on. It follows two characters, Orion (He/they) and Robin (She/Her). Fun fact, its the only 'straight' couple i have lol
Yeah, sure, seeing new things is helpful as a fantasy writer. But. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that exposure to new things is the same as traveling. You know what else exposes you to new things? The internet. Documentaries. Books. Freaking Youtube. So when you’re bored of cats and cooking tutorials, go on an adventure!
You wanna write create some fantasy creatures but don’t know where to start? Go check out some videos The Weird Creatures Earth has Had.
Want some inspiration for your Super Evil Villain’s Villanous Deeds?
Or maybe you want some weird locations to kick start your Fantasy World Terraforming?
Or maybe you need knowledge of bunches of historical places and cities and cultures?
But maybe you’re basing fantasy on the modern world?
Okay but lets say you want to start from the same inspiration as GRRM? (and part two!)
That’s just the stuff I could quickly grab. Things I’m subscribed to, that I know offhand. There is So. Much. Stuff. Online.
The best thing about the internet is that it means its not just the fortunate sons that get to learn, and explore and imagine and write. We get to see stories from all over the place, from all sorts of people, who bring All Kinds of New Ideas.
Narrative Botox: Filler Words and Phrases to Look Out For
(For People Looking to Cut Their Word Count!)
If you’re planning on publishing traditionally, chances are you keep a sharp eye on your word count. Literary agents and publishing houses are on the hunt for the best quality stories that they can print for the cheapest price (using the least paper and ink), so you have a higher chance of gaining representation if you can crank your novel out in the least words possible.
However, filler words and phrases aren’t only the enemies of aspiring traditional authors; every writer—fanfic, novelist, journalist, you name it!—can benefit from cutting back on filler from their stories to assure more concise and high-quality writing. Oftentimes, filler contributes to clutter, and without it, your narrative can flow smoother and in a more sophisticated manner. If your writing is dragging or feeling long-winded, filler may be to blame!
But how do you know what’s filler and what’s not? Writing is VERY nuanced, and sometimes filler words can be important for sentence structure and variation.
Therefore, here are some tips on how to Ctrl+F and kick this narrative botox to the curb! I compiled these lists with the help of Infusionmedia, BDR Publishing, and ResetEra !
NOTE: THIS IS MOSTLY AIMED FOR PEOPLE LOOKING TO CUT DOWN THEIR WORD COUNT. DON’T GO HACKING AWAY AT WORDS WILLY-NILLY AND USE YOUR OWN WRITER’S INTUITION! THERE ARE ALWAYS EXCEPTIONS, ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COMES TO DIALOGUE.
(I have to clarify this due to many people who misunderstood the purpose of this post and were less than kind about it)
Filler Words
1. Just
A writer’s worst enemy, and the bane of my manuscripts’ existences. Eliminating all the “just”s can cut down your word count by hundreds. I always struggle parting with “just,” especially in dialogue, so always use your own discretion.
2. “That” as a conjunction
It can be an unnecessary addition to a sentence. Some sentences are more streamlined without it, especially when it comes to dialogue.
Example: “He said that he wouldn’t do it again.”
Revised: “He said he wouldn’t do it again.”
3. “Now” as an adverb
“Now” is essential if you’re talking about the past and present, but is unecessary when you’re using it to draw attention to a particular statement or point. It can be good as a dialogue device, but if you’re counting your words carefully, it’s good to put it on the chopping block.
Example: “Now, I didn’t think it’d get so out of hand.”
Revised: “I didn’t think it’d get so out of hand.”
4. Redundant adverbs
These adverbs serve no purpose because the verbs they’re describing already imply the way the action is performed.
Whispering softly
Yelling loudly
Crying sadly
Laughing happily
5. “Telling” words
These words are redundant, especially when using first person, because in describing an event, we can already assume that the characters are experiencing it.
Seeing/saw
Feeling/felt
Hearing/heard
Smelling/smelled
6. “Clarifying” words used to portray definiteness or indefiniteness
Although these are meant to help out the readers get their bearings on a situation, they can make your writing drag. If you’re struggling with the pacing of your sentences, these verbs can be the hidden anchors dragging them down! Being concise can bring you a long way.
About
Absolutely
Accordingly
Actually
Almost
Basically
Certainly
Clearly
Completely
Entirely
Even
Exactly
Fairly
Highly
Hopefully
Literally
Maybe
Only
Often
Oftentimes
Perhaps
Possibly
Probably
Quite
Rather
Really
Reasonably
Relatively
Seem
Seriously
Simply
Slightly
Some
Somehow
Sometimes
Totally
Very
Filler Phrases
1.“Let out (vocal noise)”
Use the verb instead!
Example: “He let out a sigh.”
Revised: “He sighed.”
2. Using passive voice
Passive voice inflates your word count by including various “to be” verbs into the prose. Passive voice involves actions happening to a subject rather than the subject performing an action, and as a result can seem clunkier than a phrase in the active voice.
Still don’t know what I’m talking about? Check out this article from Grammarly.
Example: “The boy was bitten by the dog on his arm.”
Revised: “The dog bit the boy on his arm.”
3. Describing the wrong noun
Many writers will be as specific as possible about what “thing” is affected by the event they’re describing, when it’s much simpler to take a step back and write about something more general.
Example: “The level of water rose.”
Revised: “The water rose.”
4. Phrasal verbs
Phrasal verbs are the combination of two or three words from different grammatical categories—a verb and an adverb or a preposition—to form a single action. Usually, these phrasal verbs can be replaced by a single-word verb. This is a stylistic choice, though, so only cut according to your preferences.
“Ask for” can be replaced with “request”
“Bring down” can be replaced with “reduce”
“Come across” can be replaced with “find”
Etc.
5. Clarifying phrases
Same reason as clarifying words.
A bit
A little
A lot
In a sense
Kind of
Sort of
6. Remember your contractions!
Even if your story takes place in olden times, I can guarantee that if you never use any contractions ever, your story can get pretty clunky pretty quickly. But sometimes you’re in the moment, consumed by the poetic power of the muses, and forget that this isn’t a soap opera; so make sure you check that you’ve been using your contractions. This is very stylistic, so make your judgements on a case-by-case basis.
It is, it was, it would, she is, would not, should not, is not, does not etc.
7. Inflated phrases
These phrases can be replaced with more concise words. Again, this is a stylistic choice. Use your own discretion.
Along the lines of (shorten to: like)
As a matter of fact (in fact)
As to whether (whether)
At all times (always)
At the present (now or currently)
At this point in time (now or currently)
Be able to/would(n’t) be able to (could or couldn’t)
As a historian, I feel like a big piece of cultural context that Malevolent listeners forget when talking about Faroe's death is that parenting in the 1920s kind of sucked.
Obviously Arthur fucked up by letting her drown, but other than that his actions were not unusual for parents at the time. Children in that era were expected to be obedient and seen but not heard. Realistically, Faroe could have not asked Arthur for help with the bath because that's how most children were taught to behave and how Arthur was taught to raise a kid.
Children's psychology was a pretty new field at this time and most people had no idea how easy it was to fuck up a child. Smacking a kid was the most accepted form of punishment (not that I think Arthur did that). Faroe was probably a year away from working in a textile mill since that wasn't illegal yet. The idea that childhood experiences can permanently impact a person throughout their life wasn't even discussed until the 1950s.
I still think it was a failure on Arthur's part if she was scared to ask for help or interrupt him, that doesn't change just because it was a different time. I'm not saying that Arthur did nothing wrong. He still forgot about his daughter and let her die. I also don't think that these methods were good for raising a kid either. But I think a lot of people hold Arthur to modern standards of parenting when he is from a time where people didn't know a lot about children.
i really don't like it and I'm looking for some advice on what i can do to improve it a bit.
Cut for long post btw.
TW: Blood, vivisection, general gore. (In the 2 last screenshots only)
I got pretty fed up with looking for words to replace said because they weren’t sorted in a way I could easily use/find them for the right time. So I did some myself.
I’M DRUNK OR JUST BEING WEIRDLY EXPRESSIVE FOR A POINT/SARCASM
Hooted
Howled
Yowled
I WONDER
Pondered
Voiced
Wondered
OH, YEAH, WHOOPS
Recalled
Recited
Remembered
SURPRISE BITCH
Revealed
IT SEEMS FAKE BUT OKAY/HA ACTUALLY FUNNY BUT I DON’T WANT TO LAUGH OUT LOUD
Scoffed
Snickered
Snorted
BITCHY
Tattled
Taunted
Teased
Edit: People, I’m an English and creative writing double major in college; I understand that there’s nothing wrong with simply using “said.” This was just for fun, and it comes in handy when I need to add pizzazz.
In addition to a little pizzazz in the dialogue tags, these are also super useful as part of the narration, or summing up/paraphrasing something that has been said, or even in a character’s dialogue as they describe how someone was talking!
For the prompt "Hero's child meets Villain's child"
from my discord server's monthly prompts
(story under cut bc its 2000 words lol)
The cell is cold and quiet, just like it has been for the last 68 hours, 23 minutes, and 42 seconds. Not that Orion had been counting. Because he hadn't, no, definitely not.
He hadn't counted the hours, seconds or minutes since his father's death (79 hours, 2 minutes and 21 seconds), nor had he counted the time since he had been taken into the custody of the heroes (70 hours, 18 minutes and 58 seconds) who had been responsible for his father's death, and he certainly hadn't been counting the seconds since he had been shoved into this stupidly cold cell.
Counting wouldn't help him now, no matter how much he wanted to keep track of the time since everything started going down. But it was the only thing he could do to pass the time in the cell. That, or go over the items in the small room, which he could now do with his eyes closed. The walls painted a bland grey colour, the bedsheets a shade of light pink he'd scoffed at when first seeing, the small blanket that one of the masked heroes had tossed in when he'd complained about the coldness of the cell a warm yellowy-orange, and the set of drawers that housed all of his belongings was a crisp white.
Orion now knew the cell like the back of his hand, not having left the room since being taken in. He knew why. Yet that fact offered him no comfort in the cold and silent cell.
His father was a villain; he was evil and despicable. And he was dead. He was dead and gone, no longer plaguing the world with his evil. But it left Orion alone, with no one who wanted him, and no friends or family he could turn to. So, the Heroes had had to step in. They had 'gracefully' taken him from the custody of the officers who had been watching over him and had shoved him into the cell with a warning not to cause any trouble. He hadn't, of course. Not like there was anything he could complain about, he was given food, he'd been given a book by one of the more sympathetic heroes, and he had a blanket which was meant to combat the icy cold temperature that the cell reached in the evening. It didn't do that, of course, but he still hadn't made a fuss.
He didn't like the heroes very much. Not because they had put him in a cell, just because he found the way they treated him strange. The looks he received from them, laced with worry and sympathy. The way they sometimes looked at him like he was his father.
He didn't like it. He didn't like them.
Once again, Orion was lost in thought. Curled under the thin blanket in an attempt to keep the cold out, he didn't hear the door to his cell swing open with a whimper. He didn't notice the figure peaking their head into the room, taking tentative steps towards him. And he didn't notice when they sat down on the end of the bed.
Not until they said his name at least, did it seem to snap him out of his thoughts about his father.
"Who the hell are you?" His voice is raspy from lack of use, and his gray eyes focus on the figure at the end of his bed. A girl is sitting there. She wasn't anyone he'd seen before, and she certainly shouldn't be in his cell. Her hair is that same auburn colour as the moth-themed hero who'd brought him back; who had also killed his father. She looked a few years younger than himself.
"Do you want hot chocolate? I made it myself." The girl held out a mug of steaming drink, Orion hadn't realised she'd been holding, instead of answering his question.
His body shivers, and his mouth turns watery. He finds he doesn't care who she is that much and would rather take the drink. Hesitantly, and with slightly shaking hands (whether from the nipping cold or from fear, he doesn't quite know), he reaches out and takes the warm mug from her.
"Thank you." He rasps again, voice sounding worse than it did before. He takes a long swig from the mug.
"Is it good?" The young girl asks, a smile so bright on her face it seems to cause the room to glow.
"Yes." He lies. The hot chocolate is watery and grainy, the powder granules not having been mixed long enough. But he swallows it anyway, and takes another drink - because his throat is screaming for any kind of liquid. "Who are you then?" He asks again, voice much less raspy than before.
"I'm Elliana." The girl, Elliana, apparently, chirps with a grin. "My mum is Scarlet."
"Who?" He raises an eyebrow, waiting for her to elaborate.
"Fire Wings." She informs him chipperly. But he just stares at her dumbly, having no idea which one of the hero's she's talking about "… the moth lady." She finally adds, and he nods in understanding.
"Oh, right, right." He knows her well; she came to pick him up from custody. She gave him a book and then left him in the room. "What are you doing here then? With hot chocolate nonetheless." He can't help but be intrigued by her presence in the room; no one had been in the room for 62 hours and 12 minutes exactly. So what was Elliana doing here now? And why her? Out of all of the Heroes who could have come?
"I wanted to see you." Comes the reply he hadn't been expecting.
"See me?"
"Yeah." She nods enthusiastically, eyes fixed on him as if he is some interesting new animal she has spotted at the zoo and now needs to see right that second. "Everyone keeps going on about how spooky and dangerous you are, but I wanted to see for myself. Coz you don't look dangerous on the cameras, you just look sad."
The camera had been the first thing Orion had spotted after being put in the cell, the small red beeping light, which blinked every 4.8 seconds was situated in the upper right corner of the cell. Watching him ceaselessly.
He isn't sure what to say to her as a reply, because he isn't sad. Sure, he isn't exactly happy either. And sometimes, in the dead of night when his thoughts got the better of him, he would lie there awake, not understanding why he couldn't be happy about his father's death like everyone else had been. The man was horrible, and he was glad he was gone. But his chest always seemed to constrict, his eyes would burn with tears he refused to let fall, and his body would be wrecked with tremors every time he thought about his father. But he wasn't sad.
"Is that why you made me hot chocolate?" He finds himself asking.
"Yeah!" Elliana nods eagerly , that bright grin still on her face. "Mum always makes me hot chocolate when im sad, so I thought it would make you feel better too."
"Well thank you… its a very sweet gesture." A smile tugs at the corners of his lips, the first semblance of something other than that numbness which he couldn't be sure was caused by his own feelings, or the coldness which seemed to penetrate everything in the room.
"Why are you in here then?" The girl asks, her curiosity seeming as endless as the ocean.
"Oh, my father was evil. There isn't anywhere I can go because of complications from his actions, so the Heroes took me in and gave me this… room." He explains to her, carefully trying not to call the room what it was - a cell - and to not make it seem like he was ungrateful. He didn't know if the Heroes were looking for a reason to get rid of him as well, and his spitting on their generosity would certainly be enough to do so. Orion was sure of it.
"But you don't get to leave it? Why is that?"
"I'd just get in their way, you guys already have a structure and schedules and adding me to it would cause too much hassle." He lies again, not really sure how to answer the question. He truly doesn't know why he isn't allowed out, he has theories, but no one has ever outright told him why the door was locked.
"Hmm, maybe." She nods, seemingly accepting his explanation as fact. Before Orion can say more, his stomach rudely betrays him and growls as loudly as it physically and possibly can. His face turns a shade of bright red, like a tomato, and Elliana bursts out laughing. "Hungry?"
"A bit." He admits through clenched teeth. He expects her to laugh again, to make fun of him for thinking he could get anything else to eat, and to tell him he's being pathetic for needing more food when he had a meal 5 hours and 32 minutes ago. But she doesn't. Her words are a surprise to him.
"There are some snacks in the kitchen if you want to come grab some with me?"
"Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"Yeah. You're hungry, right? So therefore you should get some food. Besides, everyone has gone to bed now so you wont be in the way." She doesn't give him much of an option as she grabs his arm and starts to drag him out of the cell. "C'mon then!"
Both hot chocolates are abandoned on the floor of the cell.
The kitchen is warmer and less silent than the cell, much to Orion's surprise. Elliana had instantly started pulling things down form the cupboards, offering them to him. But after the eighth different option she'd offered to Orion, only to be rejected yet again, she was starting to get a little frustrated.
"So what do you want then?" She huffs childishly, a frown on her face.
"I dunno, something sweet, I think," Orion tells her as he surveys the kitchen, eyes glossing over all the cupboards. "… y'know, I could make us some proper hot chocolate?"
And Elliana's eyes light up like Christmas lights.
"Proper hot chocolate?" She questions, already bouncing on the soles of her feet like an overexcited golden retriever.
"If you make it with real chocolate, then it's a lot smoother and creamier than the packet stuff." He explains to her, glancing around the cupboards to see if the Heroes had any chocolate. When he spots it, he grabs it from the cupboard. "Do you want some?"
"Yes!" The girl exclaims, now actually jumping up and down. Orion cant help but laugh softly.
"Alright then."
As the two gather the supplies to make the hot chocolate, chatting and laughing with one another, Orion feels a lot better than he has in a while. He's distracted from everything going on, only focusing on the present rather than the past.
Elliana is easy to talk to, and although younger than him, has many of the same interests. She doesn't treat him like a danger, she doesn't judge him, nor does she seem even slightly scared of him. She treats him as though he is just another person, like a normal person. And its nice. Orion finds himself smiling properly for the first time in ages, his whole body less tense than its ever been.
That is, until a voice pipes up from the doorway.
"What are you doing?" Comes the all too familiar tone of Scarlet, the moth-themed Hero. She's not dressed in her usual costume; instead, she has a white top and some loose pyjama bottoms on. Despite this, she doesn't look any less threatening than usual. Her eyes are fixed on Orion.
The smile drops from his face, and he goes as still as a statue.
"We're making hot chocolate, with real chocolate!" Elliana pipes up, still bouncing up and down.
Orion expects a lot of reactions from her. He expects her to get angry and drag him back to his cell, to scream and yell at him until she can't no more - about him being near her daughter, to call him a monster. But she doesn't. She just stands there silently observing him, eyes flicking up and down his wiry frame with hesitance and slight confusion.
She takes a breath and approaches them.
"Hot chocolate huh?" She asks, a hint of a smile flickering onto her lips. "You don't mind if i help then, do you kids?"
"Yesss! Come help!" Elliana grabs her mum's hand and pulls her towards the counter where the two of them had started preparing the ingredients. Scarlet looks at Orion expectantly, waiting for him to say something.
"… Sure, I don't mind." Orion replies with faint confusion. The hero nods, rolling up her sleeves.
"Right, let's get to it then." She grins. Orion isn't sure why she isn't yelling or screaming at him, why she isn't being hostile. But he won't complain. It's nice, for once, to not have someone look at him with anger or annoyance, to see him as his father.
The sound of chatter and laughter once again fills the kitchen as the three of them make hot chocolate. The kitchen is warm and loud, and it's been 25 minutes and 13 seconds since Orion felt like he could truly be happy.
For the prompt "Hero's child meets Villain's child"
from my discord server's monthly prompts
(story under cut bc its 2000 words lol)
The cell is cold and quiet, just like it has been for the last 68 hours, 23 minutes, and 42 seconds. Not that Orion had been counting. Because he hadn't, no, definitely not.
He hadn't counted the hours, seconds or minutes since his father's death (79 hours, 2 minutes and 21 seconds), nor had he counted the time since he had been taken into the custody of the heroes (70 hours, 18 minutes and 58 seconds) who had been responsible for his father's death, and he certainly hadn't been counting the seconds since he had been shoved into this stupidly cold cell.
Counting wouldn't help him now, no matter how much he wanted to keep track of the time since everything started going down. But it was the only thing he could do to pass the time in the cell. That, or go over the items in the small room, which he could now do with his eyes closed. The walls painted a bland grey colour, the bedsheets a shade of light pink he'd scoffed at when first seeing, the small blanket that one of the masked heroes had tossed in when he'd complained about the coldness of the cell a warm yellowy-orange, and the set of drawers that housed all of his belongings was a crisp white.
Orion now knew the cell like the back of his hand, not having left the room since being taken in. He knew why. Yet that fact offered him no comfort in the cold and silent cell.
His father was a villain; he was evil and despicable. And he was dead. He was dead and gone, no longer plaguing the world with his evil. But it left Orion alone, with no one who wanted him, and no friends or family he could turn to. So, the Heroes had had to step in. They had 'gracefully' taken him from the custody of the officers who had been watching over him and had shoved him into the cell with a warning not to cause any trouble. He hadn't, of course. Not like there was anything he could complain about, he was given food, he'd been given a book by one of the more sympathetic heroes, and he had a blanket which was meant to combat the icy cold temperature that the cell reached in the evening. It didn't do that, of course, but he still hadn't made a fuss.
He didn't like the heroes very much. Not because they had put him in a cell, just because he found the way they treated him strange. The looks he received from them, laced with worry and sympathy. The way they sometimes looked at him like he was his father.
He didn't like it. He didn't like them.
Once again, Orion was lost in thought. Curled under the thin blanket in an attempt to keep the cold out, he didn't hear the door to his cell swing open with a whimper. He didn't notice the figure peaking their head into the room, taking tentative steps towards him. And he didn't notice when they sat down on the end of the bed.
Not until they said his name at least, did it seem to snap him out of his thoughts about his father.
"Who the hell are you?" His voice is raspy from lack of use, and his gray eyes focus on the figure at the end of his bed. A girl is sitting there. She wasn't anyone he'd seen before, and she certainly shouldn't be in his cell. Her hair is that same auburn colour as the moth-themed hero who'd brought him back; who had also killed his father. She looked a few years younger than himself.
"Do you want hot chocolate? I made it myself." The girl held out a mug of steaming drink, Orion hadn't realised she'd been holding, instead of answering his question.
His body shivers, and his mouth turns watery. He finds he doesn't care who she is that much and would rather take the drink. Hesitantly, and with slightly shaking hands (whether from the nipping cold or from fear, he doesn't quite know), he reaches out and takes the warm mug from her.
"Thank you." He rasps again, voice sounding worse than it did before. He takes a long swig from the mug.
"Is it good?" The young girl asks, a smile so bright on her face it seems to cause the room to glow.
"Yes." He lies. The hot chocolate is watery and grainy, the powder granules not having been mixed long enough. But he swallows it anyway, and takes another drink - because his throat is screaming for any kind of liquid. "Who are you then?" He asks again, voice much less raspy than before.
"I'm Elliana." The girl, Elliana, apparently, chirps with a grin. "My mum is Scarlet."
"Who?" He raises an eyebrow, waiting for her to elaborate.
"Fire Wings." She informs him chipperly. But he just stares at her dumbly, having no idea which one of the hero's she's talking about "… the moth lady." She finally adds, and he nods in understanding.
"Oh, right, right." He knows her well; she came to pick him up from custody. She gave him a book and then left him in the room. "What are you doing here then? With hot chocolate nonetheless." He can't help but be intrigued by her presence in the room; no one had been in the room for 62 hours and 12 minutes exactly. So what was Elliana doing here now? And why her? Out of all of the Heroes who could have come?
"I wanted to see you." Comes the reply he hadn't been expecting.
"See me?"
"Yeah." She nods enthusiastically, eyes fixed on him as if he is some interesting new animal she has spotted at the zoo and now needs to see right that second. "Everyone keeps going on about how spooky and dangerous you are, but I wanted to see for myself. Coz you don't look dangerous on the cameras, you just look sad."
The camera had been the first thing Orion had spotted after being put in the cell, the small red beeping light, which blinked every 4.8 seconds was situated in the upper right corner of the cell. Watching him ceaselessly.
He isn't sure what to say to her as a reply, because he isn't sad. Sure, he isn't exactly happy either. And sometimes, in the dead of night when his thoughts got the better of him, he would lie there awake, not understanding why he couldn't be happy about his father's death like everyone else had been. The man was horrible, and he was glad he was gone. But his chest always seemed to constrict, his eyes would burn with tears he refused to let fall, and his body would be wrecked with tremors every time he thought about his father. But he wasn't sad.
"Is that why you made me hot chocolate?" He finds himself asking.
"Yeah!" Elliana nods eagerly , that bright grin still on her face. "Mum always makes me hot chocolate when im sad, so I thought it would make you feel better too."
"Well thank you… its a very sweet gesture." A smile tugs at the corners of his lips, the first semblance of something other than that numbness which he couldn't be sure was caused by his own feelings, or the coldness which seemed to penetrate everything in the room.
"Why are you in here then?" The girl asks, her curiosity seeming as endless as the ocean.
"Oh, my father was evil. There isn't anywhere I can go because of complications from his actions, so the Heroes took me in and gave me this… room." He explains to her, carefully trying not to call the room what it was - a cell - and to not make it seem like he was ungrateful. He didn't know if the Heroes were looking for a reason to get rid of him as well, and his spitting on their generosity would certainly be enough to do so. Orion was sure of it.
"But you don't get to leave it? Why is that?"
"I'd just get in their way, you guys already have a structure and schedules and adding me to it would cause too much hassle." He lies again, not really sure how to answer the question. He truly doesn't know why he isn't allowed out, he has theories, but no one has ever outright told him why the door was locked.
"Hmm, maybe." She nods, seemingly accepting his explanation as fact. Before Orion can say more, his stomach rudely betrays him and growls as loudly as it physically and possibly can. His face turns a shade of bright red, like a tomato, and Elliana bursts out laughing. "Hungry?"
"A bit." He admits through clenched teeth. He expects her to laugh again, to make fun of him for thinking he could get anything else to eat, and to tell him he's being pathetic for needing more food when he had a meal 5 hours and 32 minutes ago. But she doesn't. Her words are a surprise to him.
"There are some snacks in the kitchen if you want to come grab some with me?"
"Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"Yeah. You're hungry, right? So therefore you should get some food. Besides, everyone has gone to bed now so you wont be in the way." She doesn't give him much of an option as she grabs his arm and starts to drag him out of the cell. "C'mon then!"
Both hot chocolates are abandoned on the floor of the cell.
The kitchen is warmer and less silent than the cell, much to Orion's surprise. Elliana had instantly started pulling things down form the cupboards, offering them to him. But after the eighth different option she'd offered to Orion, only to be rejected yet again, she was starting to get a little frustrated.
"So what do you want then?" She huffs childishly, a frown on her face.
"I dunno, something sweet, I think," Orion tells her as he surveys the kitchen, eyes glossing over all the cupboards. "… y'know, I could make us some proper hot chocolate?"
And Elliana's eyes light up like Christmas lights.
"Proper hot chocolate?" She questions, already bouncing on the soles of her feet like an overexcited golden retriever.
"If you make it with real chocolate, then it's a lot smoother and creamier than the packet stuff." He explains to her, glancing around the cupboards to see if the Heroes had any chocolate. When he spots it, he grabs it from the cupboard. "Do you want some?"
"Yes!" The girl exclaims, now actually jumping up and down. Orion cant help but laugh softly.
"Alright then."
As the two gather the supplies to make the hot chocolate, chatting and laughing with one another, Orion feels a lot better than he has in a while. He's distracted from everything going on, only focusing on the present rather than the past.
Elliana is easy to talk to, and although younger than him, has many of the same interests. She doesn't treat him like a danger, she doesn't judge him, nor does she seem even slightly scared of him. She treats him as though he is just another person, like a normal person. And its nice. Orion finds himself smiling properly for the first time in ages, his whole body less tense than its ever been.
That is, until a voice pipes up from the doorway.
"What are you doing?" Comes the all too familiar tone of Scarlet, the moth-themed Hero. She's not dressed in her usual costume; instead, she has a white top and some loose pyjama bottoms on. Despite this, she doesn't look any less threatening than usual. Her eyes are fixed on Orion.
The smile drops from his face, and he goes as still as a statue.
"We're making hot chocolate, with real chocolate!" Elliana pipes up, still bouncing up and down.
Orion expects a lot of reactions from her. He expects her to get angry and drag him back to his cell, to scream and yell at him until she can't no more - about him being near her daughter, to call him a monster. But she doesn't. She just stands there silently observing him, eyes flicking up and down his wiry frame with hesitance and slight confusion.
She takes a breath and approaches them.
"Hot chocolate huh?" She asks, a hint of a smile flickering onto her lips. "You don't mind if i help then, do you kids?"
"Yesss! Come help!" Elliana grabs her mum's hand and pulls her towards the counter where the two of them had started preparing the ingredients. Scarlet looks at Orion expectantly, waiting for him to say something.
"… Sure, I don't mind." Orion replies with faint confusion. The hero nods, rolling up her sleeves.
"Right, let's get to it then." She grins. Orion isn't sure why she isn't yelling or screaming at him, why she isn't being hostile. But he won't complain. It's nice, for once, to not have someone look at him with anger or annoyance, to see him as his father.
The sound of chatter and laughter once again fills the kitchen as the three of them make hot chocolate. The kitchen is warm and loud, and it's been 25 minutes and 13 seconds since Orion felt like he could truly be happy.
Folks, friends, y’all…. esk*mo is a slur. I understand a lot of people don’t know that, I don’t want to be a dick about it, but I’ve been seeing it in fics. Wanna write “esk*mo kisses”? Just say “nuzzled noses” or something.
I’m not here to call anybody out, it’s been in multiple fics, I’m not vague posting. This is just a psa. 👍🏻
[Text Description: “Hey! Reminder: Eskimo is a slur. It means ‘snow eaters’ in Cree and is a slur against Inuit . Also don’t use ‘Eskimo kisses’. It’s called Kunik. It is a greeting mostly used for family… Kunik was how I’d greet my mom and grandmother as a small child.” /TD]
A witch puts a spell on a girl, a sleeping spell that promises the girl shall wake through true love’s kiss. Men come and kiss her. She slumbers. Women come and press their lips to hers, but still she sleeps. Many years past, and the girl remains still. One bright morning, a lost little boy finds her resting spot and clears the dust and grime from her face. He offers her a kiss on her forehead, and her eyes flutter open. She never feels romantic love for a man nor a woman, and she cares for the boy until the day she dies.
A young woman is imprisoned in a castle by a monstrously formed prince. The servants of the castle hope for them to fall in love, and when the spell is broken they assume their prayers have been answered. They are all surprised, but nonetheless pleased, when it is revealed to them that the young woman and prince are the truest of friends, and nothing more.
They say the kingdom is ruled by an evil queen, a woman who is incapable of loving. She is unmarried, she has no consorts, and she wishes for no partner. She is the wretched queen, the heartless queen. She must hate her daughter, for her daughter is beautiful, and women are incapable of liking another woman who’s prettier than themselves. It must be for this reason that the princess was sent away, not for how she was attacked by a man in the woods. They say the kingdom is ruled by an evil queen because she cannot love. The queen loves her daughter, and that is enough for them both.
There lives a prince who is forced to choose a bride at the ball. He meets many beautiful women, but find none which he loves. He spies one in a gorgeous gown and wonder in her eyes, and he dances with her all night long. The kingdom is sure he has found his bride. When the clock strikes midnight he tells her how he will never love a woman, or a man, in the way he is expected to. The beautiful woman smiles and tells him she expects nothing from him. The next morning the prince and the beautiful woman are missing, having run off together to see the world. They leave their shoes behind in their haste.
Many kinds of love exist. It doesn’t all have to be romantic.
Ezra.Does.Writing @ezradoeswriting - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
