One of the most common ways you preserve pork without refrigeration is keeping it in really salty water. This makes the pork borderline inedible because it’s so salty. What you don’t see in medieval fantasy is people soaking their meat in water for a bit before they cook it.
That’s also a reason to boil your meat though. Like yeah meat tastes better if you sear it first but sometimes you’ve gotta get that salt out.
Also medieval peasants had more meat than you’d think because of these preservation methods. You can feed a pig scraps for the whole year and then butcher it at the start of winter and preserve the meat. Because of this they also often had access to lard.
Medieval peasants also didn’t eat chicken very often. That’s a source of eggs. If you’re lucky enough to own a cow it’s also unlikely you’d eat it unless it’s on its way out anyways. That’s a good source of milk. It’s more advantageous to keep a cow or chicken alive than to eat them.
These days chicken is usually the cheapest form of meat available. If someone is eating a chicken in a medieval setting though it’s either because they didn’t need that chicken anymore or because they’re rich enough to have chickens for eating.
If we’re talking mutton, European sheep are more often kept for wool or milk while middle eastern or African sheep are more often kept for eating. Europeans would of course eat sheep sometimes but it’s another one of those cases where it makes more sense to keep the animal alive rather than eating it.
Fat from a fat tailed sheep makes for good cooking fat if your setting is more middle eastern or North African inspired. European settings would prefer butter, lard, or olive oil depending on where exactly they are.
Goats weren’t super popular in Europe during medieval and ancient times. Very common in the Middle East and North Africa though both for milk and for meat.
A cow or ewe must have a calf or lamb every year to produce milk. Half of those offspring will be male, and thus will not produce milk. Ergo they were eaten, because you only need one bull or ram for a much larger number of breeding females.
The limiting factor for livestock keeping in the medieval period was winter fodder--there was enough summer grazing for the spring births in fallow fields that they fertilized with their manure , but not enough hay and grazing to get them through the winter. So the lambs--all the males and some of the females--would be butchered in the fall. A bull calf might be butchered as veal (or "baby beef", depending on timing) its first fall or might be over-wintered and butchered as beef the following fall. A few of the older ewes would be butchered as mutton, replaced with female lambs from the spring births. A female calf would be traded, sold, or kept as a replacement.
Similarly, half of the chicks born would be male, destined for spring/early summer butchering. (Or caponed, castrated, though that's much more difficult with a bird.) Chicken is a lean meat, though, and rather tough in a free-range bird, so it was usually stewed rather than roasted. Capon was a bit of a luxury food due to the difficulty of castrating them. Geese were much more popular due to the fattier meat.
Pork was plentiful due in part to the large size of a sow's litter. Over-winter one sow, and you get eight piglets or so, much more than a cow's single calf or a ewe's one to four lambs. Even if you didn't keep your own sow, buying piglets to raise and fatten was common. Most medieval pigs would forage rather than being fed scraps--hence the ubiquity of swineherd as a humble occupation.
@creekfiend was very kind in sharing some writing resources with me, and I thought I'd pass along the kindness by listing them down below.
N.K. Jemisin's article 'Describing characters of color in writing'
Mary Anne Mohanraj's article on approaching characters of colour
Renee Harleston's article How to 'Write Characters of Color Without Using Stereotypes'
Working with Colour, a resource site for writers
the book Writing the Other by by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward, which had a description that cut deep, because I've definitely fallen into this trap out of fear:
and then a video recommended by @sheprd (thank you!) about pitfalls in descriptive language
if anyone else has more resources to add, feel free to reblog with them! this is something I want to learn more about.
I was talking yesterday about how I should probably change the skin colour of a character in a not-yet-written book, because that character is a large, aggressive dragon-shifter and I was worried about her being read with unintentional and offensive subtext.
I haven't gotten my hands on Writing the Other yet (it's still in the mail!) but from reading my way through these articles and watching the Princess Weekes video, I now understand that 'white-ifying' a character you're worried about is a lazy and cowardly solution. so, if I do ever finish the book Eres loses Everything, I'll keep her as is, do my best to be thoughtful, and hire a sensitivity reader to pick out any blind spots.
thank you to everyone who passed on resources, I really appreciate it!
is there such a thing as a beta but instead of reading for line edits or plot notes, they just read my work and recommend what tags to put on ao3 outside of like. warnings.
Lulu's Totally Unofficial Guide to the Top 10 Freeform Tags to Add to Your Fanfic
Genre - Fluff, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Slice of Life, Case Fic, etc.
AU - If it's an AU, what kind? What role do each of the characters play? How is it different to their canon role?
Parts of canon - If it's not an AU, what part of canon is it about? Is it set before, during or after a particular episode?
Themes - Are there any topics or ideas which you are trying to explore, or which come up repeatedly?
Minor Warnings - Is there anything you think you should warn for that isn't included in the archive warnings?
Format & Length - Is your work art, video, podfic, etc? Does it use a particular format like a Drabble or 5+1?
Characters - What is going on with each of your major characters? If you had to describe them with one or two adjectives, what would you pick? (Format as [Adjective] [Character Name].)
Relationships - What is going on with each of your major relationships? Are there any relationship tropes like Slow Burn or Enemies to Lovers in your story?
Tropes - Are there any tropes or common story elements in your story that haven't been tagged yet? If your work was on TV tropes, what are the first things you would add?
Sex - If your work includes sex, what kink(s) and specific act(s) does it involve?
Remember: you can always look at the drop-down menu for suggestions. But! If you want to tag something that doesn't appear on the drop-down menu, you can & should write in a new tag!
I'm just saying, if you're going to worldbuild magic being a "raw, primal force, akin to and interweaving with nature itself" you gotta explain to me why animals don't use it
I know the normal answer is "they just aren't smart enough for it" but idk I've seen enough media where a character uses a spell in a moment of brain-off panic ilI feel like animals could probably stumble into a spell or two like, accidentally
the thing about d/s is that for virtually any ship i can be sold on either character in either role. arguments about whether a given character could or would dom are virtually always deeply silly and tend, when they lean into the idea that a given character could never dom because they're just too weak-willed, incompetent, naive, or helpless, to be the product of unexamined biases percolating up.
would this character dom (or sub) is almost never an interesting question. how would this character dom (or sub) is much more interesting. what do they get out of it? how do they feel about it? how experienced are they? are they confident or awkward? what kinks do they enjoy? what are their limits and how do they communicate them? what is the dynamic with their partner like? does it shift in the bedroom, or does it stay the same? et cetera. the same as any good erotica, it's got to be about these specific people, not faceless automatons filling the prescribed roles, or it's boring
hey why are the Van Helsings always the Vampire Hunting Family in modern Dracula stories. Abraham Van Helsing might be the guy who knows stuff but his family is off in the Netherlands and/or dead and totally uninvolved in the plot. Abraham's great-great grandson has no reason to be doing backflips and chopping off heads or whatever
You know who is a family who hates Dracula so so much and would totally teach their kids how to hunt vampires? The Harkers. Give me a modern vampire story where the protagonists are about to die when out pops Quincey Arthur John Lucy Abraham Murray Harker the Fifth, armed with a giant knife and an encyclopedic knowledge of train schedules
#dominant heritable traits: knife; train autism #doesn't abe rather explicitly have no living children AND a specific situation discouraging more ever happening. lmao. (via @brawltogethernow)
haha yeah, he's a catholic widower who holds that remarriage is a form of bigamy.
otoh he's willing to desecrate the host for vampire hunting reasons, not even to kill the vampire just to fuck with its migration patterns for a demo, as long as he can get a waiver from someone in the church hierarchy. so his piety is peculiarly flexible in certain circumstances.
so i propose if there is a van helsing vampire hunting family in your modern dracula story, you should put in a bit where you mention that the original abraham van helsing felt it was so important to establish an anti-vampire force that he got his bishop to write him a special marriage to remarry specifically for purposes of breeding a monster-hunting dynasty.
*takes the hand of a period drama writer gently* A queen consort is not a queen regnant. A dowager queen is not a queen regnant either.
There is very little intrinsic institutional power in queenship. The power a consort, dowager, or queen mother has depends mostly on how much the reigning sovereign (usually a man) is willing to grant her. Needing a queen to serve as regent is exceptionally rare, and the regent is more often a male relative.
Queen regnant: woman who rules in her own right, not on behalf of someone else.
Regent: Someone who temporarily assumes the powers of the monarch on account of the monarch being too young or too incapacitated to govern.
Queen consort: Woman who is married to the monarch.
Dowager queen: Woman who was married to the monarch. The monarch is dead, and she is owed support as his widow.
Queen mother: Woman who is the mother of the monarch. Usually the dowager queen, though there are exceptions if there isn't a straight line of succession.
is there such a thing as a beta but instead of reading for line edits or plot notes, they just read my work and recommend what tags to put on ao3 outside of like. warnings.
Lulu's Totally Unofficial Guide to the Top 10 Freeform Tags to Add to Your Fanfic
Genre - Fluff, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Slice of Life, Case Fic, etc.
AU - If it's an AU, what kind? What role do each of the characters play? How is it different to their canon role?
Parts of canon - If it's not an AU, what part of canon is it about? Is it set before, during or after a particular episode?
Themes - Are there any topics or ideas which you are trying to explore, or which come up repeatedly?
Minor Warnings - Is there anything you think you should warn for that isn't included in the archive warnings?
Format & Length - Is your work art, video, podfic, etc? Does it use a particular format like a Drabble or 5+1?
Characters - What is going on with each of your major characters? If you had to describe them with one or two adjectives, what would you pick? (Format as [Adjective] [Character Name].)
Relationships - What is going on with each of your major relationships? Are there any relationship tropes like Slow Burn or Enemies to Lovers in your story?
Tropes - Are there any tropes or common story elements in your story that haven't been tagged yet? If your work was on TV tropes, what are the first things you would add?
Sex - If your work includes sex, what kink(s) and specific act(s) does it involve?
Remember: you can always look at the drop-down menu for suggestions. But! If you want to tag something that doesn't appear on the drop-down menu, you can & should write in a new tag!
Why You're Writing Medieval (and Medieval-Coded) Women Wrong: A RANT
(Or, For the Love of God, People, Stop Pretending Victorian Style Gender Roles Applied to All of History)
This is a problem I see alllll over the place - I'll be reading a medieval-coded book and the women will be told they aren't allowed to fight or learn or work, that they are only supposed to get married, keep house and have babies, &c &c.
If I point this out ppl will be like "yes but there was misogyny back then! women were treated terribly!" and OK. Stop right there.
By & large, what we as a culture think of as misogyny & patriarchy is the expression prevalent in Victorian times - not medieval. (And NO, this is not me blaming Victorians for their theme park version of "medieval history". This is me blaming 21st century people for being ignorant & refusing to do their homework).
Yes, there was misogyny in medieval times, but 1) in many ways it was actually markedly less severe than Victorian misogyny, tyvm - and 2) it was of a quite different type. (Disclaimer: I am speaking specifically of Frankish, Western European medieval women rather than those in other parts of the world. This applies to a lesser extent in Byzantium and I am still learning about women in the medieval Islamic world.)
So, here are the 2 vital things to remember about women when writing medieval or medieval-coded societies
FIRST. Where in Victorian times the primary axes of prejudice were gender and race - so that a male labourer had more rights than a female of the higher classes, and a middle class white man would be treated with more respect than an African or Indian dignitary - In medieval times, the primary axis of prejudice was, overwhelmingly, class. Thus, Frankish crusader knights arguably felt more solidarity with their Muslim opponents of knightly status, than they did their own peasants. Faith and age were also medieval axes of prejudice - children and young people were exploited ruthlessly, sent into war or marriage at 15 (boys) or 12 (girls). Gender was less important.
What this meant was that a medieval woman could expect - indeed demand - to be treated more or less the same way the men of her class were. Where no ancient legal obstacle existed, such as Salic law, a king's daughter could and did expect to rule, even after marriage.
Women of the knightly class could & did arm & fight - something that required a MASSIVE outlay of money, which was obviously at their discretion & disposal. See: Sichelgaita, Isabel de Conches, the unnamed women fighting in armour as knights during the Third Crusade, as recorded by Muslim chroniclers.
Tolkien's Eowyn is a great example of this medieval attitude to class trumping race: complaining that she's being told not to fight, she stresses her class: "I am of the house of Eorl & not a serving woman". She claims her rights, not as a woman, but as a member of the warrior class and the ruling family. Similarly in Renaissance Venice a doge protested the practice which saw 80% of noble women locked into convents for life: if these had been men they would have been "born to command & govern the world". Their class ought to have exempted them from discrimination on the basis of sex.
So, tip #1 for writing medieval women: remember that their class always outweighed their gender. They might be subordinate to the men within their own class, but not to those below.
SECOND. Whereas Victorians saw women's highest calling as marriage & children - the "angel in the house" ennobling & improving their men on a spiritual but rarely practical level - Medievals by contrast prized virginity/celibacy above marriage, seeing it as a way for women to transcend their sex. Often as nuns, saints, mystics; sometimes as warriors, queens, & ladies; always as businesswomen & merchants, women could & did forge their own paths in life
When Elizabeth I claimed to have "the heart & stomach of a king" & adopted the persona of the virgin queen, this was the norm she appealed to. Women could do things; they just had to prove they were Not Like Other Girls. By Elizabeth's time things were already changing: it was the Reformation that switched the ideal to marriage, & the Enlightenment that divorced femininity from reason, aggression & public life.
For more on this topic, read Katherine Hager's article "Endowed With Manly Courage: Medieval Perceptions of Women in Combat" on women who transcended gender to occupy a liminal space as warrior/virgin/saint.
So, tip #2: remember that for medieval women, wife and mother wasn't the ideal, virgin saint was the ideal. By proving yourself "not like other girls" you could gain significant autonomy & freedom.
Finally a bonus tip: if writing about medieval women, be sure to read writing on women's issues from the time so as to understand the terms in which these women spoke about & defended their ambitions. Start with Christine de Pisan.
I learned all this doing the reading for WATCHERS OF OUTREMER, my series of historical fantasy novels set in the medieval crusader states, which were dominated by strong medieval women! Book 5, THE HOUSE OF MOURNING (forthcoming 2023) will focus, to a greater extent than any other novel I've ever yet read or written, on the experience of women during the crusades - as warriors, captives, and political leaders. I can't wait to share it with you all!
If you're writing about Byzantium/Byzantine inspired places, there's a few other things to keep in mind:
-Byzantium was a civilization that spanned a millenia and a huge geographical area. The treatment and experience of women was not constant at all times in all places.
-Women had different levels of autonomy at different periods of their lives. Many women gained great autonomy after their husband's death (and he usually died much before her), and could be registered as the head of household.
-There are basically two career options for Byzantine women: wife/mother or nun. Sometimes both, but never at the same time.
-Just as in the Latin West, class mattered a lot, and basically determined a person's entire life. Peasant women worked in agriculture and trades, while noble women had a much softer life.
-the idea that noble women were confined to the house is likely an exaggeration. (A byproduct of Byzantium's "distorting mirror") Furthermore, the women's quarters were nowhere near as closed off and restricted as the later Ottoman harems. In many places, women could move freely between their own quarters and the rest of the house. However, if a non-related male was visiting it was customary that the women would not be seen. This seems to be a mainly noble/middle class practice, and not an elite or peasant practice.
-Women played important ceremonial functions at the royal court. The Augusta (one of three titles for an empress) received the wives of visiting nobles, and was so important that, even if the emperor was unmarried, he might crown his daughter for the role. (See Leo the Wise) Additionally, there was an office reserved just for a woman, she was called "the lady with the sash" and she was placed very close to the emperor, and thus highly influential.
-Imperial women were highly influential, and could be incredibly masterful politicians.
-Women weren't forced to have endless babies until they died in childbirth. Byzantine women had access to both contraception and abortion, and there was some amount of recognition of a woman's right to choose. Furthermore, if a woman already had kids, but decided she didn't want to be a mom anymore, joining a convent was always an option. (For wealthy women)
If you're interested in learning more, the volume "Byzantine Women: Varieties of Experience," edited by Lynda Garland is a good starting point. You can also read the hymns of Kassia the Nun, or the Alexiad of Anna Komnene to get an idea of how women wrote, and what concerned elite women.
i understand the appeal of vampires cradling you in a parody of a lover's embrace while they feed on you i absolutely get it. however ☝️ i will always insist that the person being fed on embracing, holding in place, or even pulling the vampire back in for more when they try to stop themselves is infinitely more erotic. especially if there's a hint of visible revulsion in it; an instinctual repulsion that nearly overrules any desire. even more so if either party is tormented by soul-crushing guilt and disgust with themselves in the aftermath.
yes i can appreciate the conceptual appeal of a beautiful humanoid apex predator literally pursuing you like water in the desert but i think that everyone should be more conflicted and not having a great time about it
Teen wolf | stiles as the nogitsune survivor | kidnapping, major injury that could be fatal, ambiguous ending
Note: this one kind of got away from me. I had an ending idea but this didn’t quite get there? It is extant though and what more can a monthlong challenge really ask for? Maybe I’ll revisit this one for another prompt day, maybe I won’t. Let me know your thoughts if you’d be interested in more!
<i>When is a door not a door? When it is <b>ajar</b>.</i>
<i>1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10.</i>
Stiles kept his hands in his hoodie pockets, carefully tapping each finger in sequence and counting. You don't have 10 fingers in a dream.
Other packs they encountered watched him with awestruck eyes. He heard them whispering sometimes about the nogitsune survivor. The host that walked away intact. Stiles didn't think he qualified but arguing did no good and, these days, arguing didn't feel worthwhile.
<i>1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10.</i>
Chris Argent had stayed in town long enough to bury his last family member and visit Stiles in the hospital to offer forgiveness. Stiles hadn't seen him in years.
Noshiko sought him out and informed him that she and hers were leaving this place and that this was farewell. Stiles watched her warily but mumbled a goodbye when she seemed to expect some kind of response. Scott turned up at his house later, devastated that Kira and her family seemed to have just finish without telling anyone and whined about how much he missed her. Stiles locked down on himself, staying still and focusing on breathing evenly and not reacting and Scott eventually left again without noticing Stiles hadn't said a word.
Then Isaac left not long after, then the Hales. Scott said good riddance and grew less and less open to criticism and Stiles... well, arguing didn't feel worthwhile either.
<i>1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10.</i>
He found himself counting his fingers constantly and probably too obsessively, but the nogitsune had taken a sharp blade to Stiles' concept of reality. It had taken a sharp blade to a lot of things it shouldn't have.
Stiles felt whittled down to a barely functional splinter.
He faked it well. He'd taken to wearing his hoodies or something with long sleeves or deep pockets to hide his counting. He learned not to ask anyone around if he thought it was a dream. He attacked learning meditation with the same ferocity he had fought the nogitsune to get some measure of control over his body's reactions. No one commented when he stopped flailing so much but he also talked a lot less and the remnants of the pack let him fade into the background without a fight.
Scott was actually pleased when Stiles stopped demanding to be included in the fighting. The true alpha didn't ask questions. Stiles switched from a bat to a collapsible baton and souped up taser Chris Argent sent when Stiles reached out. Knives were less illegal and easier to get and Stiles had learned lifetimes of blade maintenance from the nogitsune. He stayed out of the direct battles but remained on high alert.
<i>1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10.</i>
When the oni's mark faded, Stiles quietly researched scarification and the best ways to form keloid scars and carefully put it back in a comfortingly tactile way. From there it was a short leap to learning Braille and he started sewing little strips of braille numbers into his pockets and sleeves. He didn't remember accessibility features in any of the nogitsune's creations and tapping each finger against the correct braille number became a part of his routine.
<i>1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10.</i>
"I have heard you are called the Nogitsune Survivor," a crisp voice said behind Stiles.
Stiles didn't hesitate. He whipped around, baton held in a reverse grip in his left hand as he brought his arm up in a defensive block, dropping into a crouch as he thumbed the safety off of the taser he kept hidden in his pocket. The fingers of his right hand slid to their familiar places, each fingertip finding its number.
A short and stout figure stood behind him, eyeing his baton with interest and showing not the slightest fear of him. "Ah, I see it left you with some muscle memory," the man said. He wore a dark suit, his hands relaxed at his sides. Stiles noted the many many places that knives could be concealed and stayed where he was.
"I had heard you were a talker," the man mused, taking a step forward.
Stiles leaned forward onto the balls of his feet, watching the man's torso for any shifts in weight to herald an attack.
"The yako does leave its marks," the man mused. "But let us take this conversation somewhere more... private." He reached forward.
Stiles kept his left arm between them. When a heavy hand wrapped around his wrist, he brought the taser out and forward, activating it as he slammed it into the man's side. He heard the clicking as it discharged but the hand on his wrist only tightened.
"Do you know what happens when lightning strikes the ground?"
Panic closed Stikes' throat, darkness swamping his vision at the question delivered with the nogitsune's cadences.
<i>No no no no no no no no no no</i>
Waking face down in the forest was, sadly, not a new experience. Stiles pushed himself up groggily, brushing leaves off of his face. The angles seemed wrong... his body standing straight already though he hadn't done more than sit up. Stiles looked down and the surge of adrenaline blew apart any residual weariness.
His legs were gone. If stiles hadn't spent the last several years since the nogitsune ruthlessly crushing his tendency towards a fight response into a freeze, he probably would have started shouting, but instead he went very very still, staring in disbelief at the ground. The leaves and moss and plants seemed undisturbed... but he could still feel his feet. Stiles took a deep breath, digging his fingers into the soil and trying to push himself up, but the dirt packed in around his legs refused to budge.
Stiles exhaled shakily. Not amputated, just... buried. Clearly some sort of magic since there was no sign of digging or of anything except that he had sunk to the hip into the ground.
He checked his pockets and found his phone still in place, still nearly fully charged. If his memories were correct (and he didn't dare trust them) he'd only been out a couple of hours. He didn't feel hungry or thirsty yet and no one had contacted him. Good. No panic. No one else in danger. Or no one in danger.
Stiles tucked his phone away and cautiously held his hands out in front of him. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Stiles clenched his teeth hard to keep in the sob of relief. He recounted his fingers several more times before digging them into the moss, panting as the fear faded.
"Interesting," that too-familiar voice mused behind him and Stiles tried to twist to see who was speaking. The man in the suit watched him like a scientist watching a rat in a maze. "Did the nogitsune interfere with your dreams, little survivor?"
"...Yes," Stiles admitted, watching warily as the man circled widely around him. "...are you a chikyu no kitsune?"
The man smiled and flicked his wrist, a sheathed katana materializing. "I admit sinking you was probably a giveaway, but still, very clever." The earth kitsune tipped his head to one side. "Odd for one so clever not to call for help," he said, nodding to where Stiles had put his phone away. "We are not so far from town that your pack could not reach you."
"Do I need rescuing?" Stiles asked pointedly. "As of yet I don't seem to be harmed and..." he swallowed hard and forced himself to hold the man's gaze. "...and if you are here to insure that the nogitsune is no longer a threat, then you are no enemy of mine."
The man smiled faintly and slid into a crouch, putting their eyes on more of a level. "Even if I find you are no survivor but a disguise? Even if I choose to kill you?"
Stiles stared right back. "If I'm not me, then how would you kill me?"
"Ahh you even riddle like him," the kitsune said, amused, and sinking down to sit, setting his blade precisely down on the moss.
"Noshiko's oni tested me," Stiles said cautiously.
"How odd that I do not take the word of a faithless traitor who started all this with her treachery and shortsightedness," the kitsune replied.
Stiles felt the tension sliding off of his shoulders. "Yes," he agreed.
"You did not care for her behavior either?"
"She was in a terrible situation but she chose to make it worse. Repeatedly. And to sacrifice everyone but herself to stop the mess she had made," Stiles said quietly, digging his fingers into the ground. "I've done my research since. If she had bargained properly and not tried to renege, there would have been no need for prisons. Yako are kitsune just like the rest."
The kitsune inclined his head. "And then she ran, again, though she owed you much and more, little survivor."
"I wanted nothing from her," Stiles growled, then took a deep breath. "What do you want from me?"
"A few tests. Nogitsune do not leave hosts that survive."
Stiles shivered. "How long will this take?"
"Some hours, perhaps days."
"May I contact my father? So no one is worried?"
The kitsune tipped his head to one side. "You smell of lies, why?"
Stiles sighed and rubbed his throat. "....even if I vanished no one but my father would worry regardless. The pack would be happier if I never returned."
The kitsune frowned but rose to his feet. "Contact who you like. Tell them what you please."
Stiles pulled out his phone and sent a quick text to his dad. [ Busy. Will be away for a while. No fast food. Love you ]
He got back a thumbs up and tucked away his phone.
"That's all?" the kitsune asked, looking a little surprised.
"That's all," Stiles said. The dirt packed around his jeans was oddly comfortable though not being able to shift his weight felt weird. "Bring on your tests."
The kitsune considered him for a long moment before nodding and drawing his blade. "If you perish, would you like your body delivered to your father or to be taken care of?"
Stiles tapped his fingers one at a time against the dirt. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. "Which will be safer for him?"
"The latter."
"Then that, though I would appreciate if he could be informed that I am gone. I don't want him to wonder. He's a sheriff, he doesn't let mysteries lie."
"It will be done." The tip of the blade pressed against the hollow of Stiles' throat. "You are an odd one, I can see why a nogitsune would find you... compatible."
Stiles focused on breathing slow and steady, watching the kitsune grip the hilt. The blade was sharp enough that it barely hurt as it punched downward through his chest, the tip burying itself deeply into the dirt behind him. In the brief pause, Stiles wondered idly if the blade of an earth kitsune was immune to scratches from being stabbed into soil when the agony rose and washed away all else.
Stiles gurgled, body spasming as it registered the implement, fingers clawing at the ground and then trying to grip the blade, to pull it out. The blade seemed to throb as the earth around him shifted and Stiles sank, panting, beneath the ground.
Teen wolf | canonical major character death, blood, grief
"It'd be easier to mourn you if you'd actually go."
"It's a preventative haunting. If I move out of this niche you're just going to go back to haunting your own life."
"What."
"Wow! The Stilinski kid nailed it, you really don't use punctuation!"
"Laura..." Derek ground his palms into his eyes, stubbornly determined not to cry. "I miss you. I miss you so much but now you're here all the time and it's hard..."
He felt her fingers running through his hair and lost the fight. He buried his face in her shoulder as she crooned to him and held him close.
Killing Peter had been the best and worst decision of his life. His eyes had flared red for the first time and Laura had appeared, all smiles and teasing. For one bright moment he had thought that Peter's death had returned the world to its proper shape... but then Stiles had stumbled through her on his way to check on Scott and she'd smiled at Derek sadly and he'd known.
---
Derek knew she wasn't real. Even as a werewolf...
maybe especially as a werewolf, he knew ghosts weren't real. If becoming an alpha came along with a ghost of.... a past alpha or that spark? An echo of someone you miss? Wouldn't someone have said? Then again no one had ever expected Derek to become an alpha.
Derek was flying blind and Laura, in her Laura way, refused to answer any of his questions. He had no one to talk to about her.
---
"You really shouldn't bite him," Laura said right beside him and Derek startled, sinking his fangs deeply into Jackson. Derek opened his mouth wide, trying not to do more damage and staring at the gushing blood with growing alarm.
Jackson looked surprised for a moment before he paled and passed out on the grass.
"Laura what the FUCK," Derek snarled, ripping off his shirt and pressing it hard against the bite mark. "Did you just make me kill my first beta?"
"Well if he doesn't turn you've only killed a random blackmailing teenager which might be preferable," Laura said, sitting on his back where he leaned over the unconscious Jackson.
Derek tried to shake her off but she refused to budge and he wouldn't take his hands away from Jackson. The lacrosse captains heart continued to beat at least, still steady, and Derek tried to remember how to keep up pressure on a human without hurting them worse. "I don't want to kill ever again!" Derek snarled, furious and desperate.
"Derek you can't just bite any teen who figures you out," Laura insisted, poking the back of his neck. "Down this road lies biting Lydia and Danny and Allison Argent and Stiles."
Derek jolted at the mention of Stiles and growled at her.
"Derek," Laura said, her tone going more serious as she leaned down over him. "Please spend a little more time thinking before you bite your next beta, ok? Informed consent, not spiteful punishment. Don't make more Scotts."
Derek flinched but carefully eased the shirt away as Jackson began to smell more like a wolf. The jagged bite had scabbed over at least, though Jackson was still unconscious. Derek sighed and wiped the blood away, hefting up the new wolf and hauling him over to his Porsche, loading him into the driver's seat and closing the door before fleeing into the woods, trying to outrun his actions and the blood on his hands.
---
It was harder to remember not to talk to her when she wandered in to disapprove of his teaching methods. Afterwards he often yelled, asking her for advice or help if she was so knowledgeable.
"This doesn't work like that little bro."
"Then tell me how it works, Laura, please!! Did you have mom with you this whole time? And if I took the spark from Peter why is it you here and not him! I don't understand!"
Laura sighed and hugged him, her lack of complaining or flinching away from his sweatiness a painful reminder that she wasn't really present. "...this doesn't work like that little bro."
---
Laura shifted uneasily from foot to foot, glancing around.
"What," Derek asked, not really expecting an answer. Laura's ghost was as irritating as his sister had been in that respect.
"It's almost time," she said, meeting his eyes.
She had him in her arms in the next moment, doing one of those unnatural ghost movements that seemed to treat distance as a suggestion rather than a rule. "I miss you too," she whispered in his ear.
"Laura?" he asked, hearing the way his voice wobbled as he tried to hug her back. Her touch grew more insubstantial and panic surged in him. Even supremely unhelpful invisible to everyone else ghost Laura was far better than no Laura at all. "Please..."
Laura kissed his forehead and he could barely feel it. "This doesn't work like that little bro... but I love you so much."
Derek tried to clutch at her, his chest aching as she faded. "No... no no no come back... Laura!!"
"...there is another Skywalker..." she whispered just beside his ear and he cursed, laughing though the tears.
"You're such a bitch..."
---
Derek caught a glimpse of dark hair whipping around the corner of the burnt house and was running before he'd decided to, his wolf so certain they could catch up to Laura. That that must be Laura.
He skidded to a halt as he came around the corner to find Lydia... and then she blew powder into his face and a dark shape solidified behind her.
"Hello nephew," Peter gloated. "We'll be seeing a lot more of each other."
