Words

Accepting asks

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Temples and religion

There is a temple in each district of the city where people go to worship and the priest lives. The temples are two floors with the first floor being the area open to the public for worship and help. The second floor is the living area for the priest, aide, and any apprentices. The second floor also has a room for more delicate religious texts that can’t be handled on a regular basis by everyday people. 

How do people worship when the goddess is regularly seen? The same as they would if she wasn’t there often. The first floor usually has a long carpet leading to a statue of the goddess. People are able to place offerings and candles at the statue. There is no formal seating, instead there pillows people can sit on when they pray. The temple can also function as a way for the community to gather for holidays or celebrations. Religious texts detail the powers of the goddess that have been seen, how magic can be used for good, how the goddess helps them, the history of the people and goddess, and so on. There’s no mention as to how the people were created or how they came to live in the world. Hmmm… I wonder why? 

Temples are the largest buildings in the districts so it’s easy to figure out where you are in relation to where the temple is. How the inside looks varies from temple to temple. Some may have murals on the walls or tapestries or shelves of religious objects or nothing at all. It’s all up to how the priest decides to decorate.

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Priesthood

Since Leonore is utterly hopeless with helping with personal problems people may face, there is usually a designated “helper” in each district of the city. They can deal with a wide variety of problems dealing from “My kids won’t listen to me!“ and “Why is my friend mad at me?” to life-threatening injuries or two magic people fighting which can cause a large amount of damage. 

The original group of people refused to worship Leonore and the title used was Helper. There were no requirements and it was during a time when only a few people had medical or mental health training. However, early during the city’s formation there were several violent riots. Leonore took certain measures and changes were made. Helpers are now known as Priests/Priestesses, even if that doesn't accurately describe their job, and fulfill an additional religious role with worshipping Leonore.

A priest is required to have magic and has a different education. As children they receive the same education as most magic children but with more magical training and once they’re done with the equivalent of middle school they go into a different system. Their “high school years” do involve the same education, but there’s far more magical training and being an apprentice to the current priest. They have to learn the magic skills required along with how to deal with people and problem solving, history of the people and goddess, how to manage crises, how to heal since healing magic is possible for more serious injuries when traditional medical options aren’t working, religious ceremonies, and other things. It’s a life long career which is why the apprentice is usually chosen at birth or a young age. 

Apprentices are chosen once the current priest reaches retirement age. The retirement age is at 60 because it could take about 20 years to get all the training done and that means the priest will be 80 or older once the apprentice is ready. In case of someone dying there is always a “backup” apprentice who learns the exact same things but has different duties. They’re referred to as simply aides. They do more minor stuff and function purely as a support in case of emergencies. The aide is aware of this in the start. In recent years the aide has been given the responsibility to keep the religious texts and temples in good condition along with helping people when the current priest and apprentice are out of the temple. As such there are 4 people in each temple. The priest, the priest’s aide, the apprentice, and the apprentice’s aide. The aides don’t often come into play but the people feel it’s better to be safe than sorry.

The chosen apprentice is usually the third or later child of a magic family because priests usually don’t have children and if they do it’s later in life. They are allowed to marry and have children, it’s that they’re pretty busy and it does happen that the person may decide to put their career a higher priority than anything else. Either way it’s not unusual. The children of a priest receive the same benefits as any other magic child and the only difference is that they’re treated with more respect. After all would you want to be on the bad side of a person who is supposed to help you with your problems?

But how is an apprentice chosen? Is it random? Well magic families offer the children they’re willing to have become apprentices and out of those children the goddess chooses who will be the next apprentice. How does the goddess chose? She can’t see the future so she just picks the child she likes most. No one has realized this yet. The children may range from infants to ten years old. The chosen child lives with their family until they are finished with their regular education at thirteen and the high school years are spent living with the current priest at the temple. They are still allowed to visit family. The aide is chosen the same way.

Priests wear bright blue clothing as their sort of uniform. The apprentices wear dark blue. Aides wear a blue-green mix. Since the goddess has blue eyes and magic users have blue eyes, blue is a sacred color.

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All the sprites I made for my characters have been added to the Colors story page. 

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What Chris would look like as a Pokemon trainer. Edited from a Lady because Chris loves dresses and this outfit was just perfect. I love how it turned out.

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What Lito would look like as a Pokemon trainer. Edited from Blue because his outfit looked nice. I love how he looks with the purple jacket! Lito would definitely wear it.

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What Jen would look like as a Pokemon trainer. Edited from a Cyclist because Jen loves to exercise and do sports. I can easily imagine her riding a bike and getting into battles.

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What Ivan would look like as a Pokemon trainer. Edited from a Bird Keeper because Ivan’s last name is Orlov, it’s derived from a Russian nickname meaning Eagle. 

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What Gray would look like as a Pokemon trainer. Edited from an Ace Trainer because Gray is the sort to be top of the class but no one actually knows that. Super Ace.

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All my characters with their Pokemon teams. The Pokemon are not to scale because I’m tired... I’ve been editing sprites all day... 

In order: Gray, Ivan, Jen, Chris and Lito. I love them all my babies.

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Hi hi, here’s the rest of what I wrote today. Did you read the previous part first?

Ivan’s mind for the rest of class and before lunch was a panicked mess. He didn’t know why he said yes and he was entirely unprepared for eating lunch with new people. Ivan had been perfectly happy for the past three years to eat lunch in one of the hallways with the other higher level math students and only talk about homework. He knew people, others knew him, and he was fine with that. Even if his mother did tut at him and say “Ivan. Why don’t you try talking with more people? Have more friends?” The thought of his mother once again asking him to make more friends made Ivan slump down in his seat. Maybe, just maybe, he would make an effort. A small effort born out of a sense of guilt and the hope his mother would stop asking him, but an effort nonetheless.

He bought his lunch and was walking to Mr. Horn’s classroom when Jen suddenly appeared at his side with her own lunch, “Hey! Ready to watch The Wizard of Oz?” Ivan just nodded. He needed to save what social energy he had left for the new people he would meet. To hold off his anxiety longer he focused on what was his lunch. He had picked the spaghetti with meatballs as usual. He saw Jen had curly pasta with broccoli and spent extra on a cookie. Maybe he would try that next time. They had both gotten chocolate milk. Ivan stared at the milk carton’s label, not reading the words, until they arrived to the classroom.

Jen opened the door when they arrived. The lights were off and the movie was already playing. Ivan first noticed how there was one boy sitting as far away as he could from the two only people in the room, nearly in front of the door. His eyes were focused on the movie, not even sparing a glance to who entered the room. A fleeting thought passed through Ivan’s mind about how handsome he was, with messy dark blond hair and dull blue eyes. Ivan then noticed the two people who had their backs toward the door. One of them had long light blond hair and the other short dark hair. They were also focused on the movie, but talking quietly with each other with their desks pushed close together. Ivan felt as if he was intruding on a private moment just looking at them.

Ivan followed Jen to the two people and they sat in the desks behind the them. Jen tapped the blond’s shoulder, “Hey Chris. How’s it going?” Chris turned around and Ivan could see the desks were pushed together because the two were sharing a bowl of popcorn. Chris smiled, “Hey Jen. Just watching the movie.” Jen squinted at Chris’ clothes, “Weren’t you wearing a dress in the morning when I saw you?” Ivan could see clearly that Chris wasn’t wearing a dress, they were wearing a denim jacket over a light purple collared shirt and black jeans. The jacket seemed to fit well but the shirt and jeans looked slightly big on them. Chris sighed, “Yep.” The dark haired boy looked between Jen and Ivan with a look that said he would murder them if they asked any more questions about it. Jen nodded, understanding that the topic was at a close as she was not eager to be murdered. 

The dark haired boy spoke up, “So who’s this? A new friend?” Jen smiled, “Maybe. Maybe not. This is Ivan.” Ivan smiled weakly and gave a half-hearted wave. He started to overthink what Jen meant about maybe or maybe not. Did that mean she thought they could be friends or she thought he was kinda boring, he was boring, he could remember being told that by kids in middle school, what if Jen didn’t think it was worth it to be friend and–The blond smiled again, “You probably already figured out I’m Chris” they pointed to their friend, “This is Lito” then pointed to the boy on the other side of the room, “We have no idea who he is, he refuses to talk to us but he’s quiet so we’re leaving him alone.” Ivan held his thoughts back as he snuck a glance at the unknown boy. He was still focused on the movie as if no one else was in the room with him. Ivan thought he might be a statue since he had not moved an inch, Ivan couldn’t even see if he was breathing or not.

Ivan turned back to the group as Lito spoke again, “You might already know we decided to this three times a week. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Chris had Mr. Horn for IB English and has him again this year since it’s two years with the same teacher. He likes her so we get to watch movies as long as we behave and don’t bring too many people in.” Chris nodded, “I like this number.” Ivan looked between them, “Just five people? That’s a tiny number for a club.” Ivan wasn’t sure that the minimum number of people was for an official club but it probably five. Jen knew it wasn’t five. Last year she had tried to start a fan club for the overdramatic daytime TV show Tragedy of the Heart. The minimum number allowed for a club was three people and the only other person Jen had met who watched Tragedy of the Heart was Chris. The fan club never became official. Chris smirked, “Mr. Horn didn’t really advertise this out to the whole school and even if he did I don’t think anyone would be that interested in watching movies at school when Netflix exists.” They propped their elbows on the back of their chair and held their head in their hands, “I like Jen and so far I like you. And that random guy I guess. This is enough for me.” Lito looked at Chris as he said, “It’s nice to take a break too. From everyone else outside.” Ivan felt there was a story hanging in the air between Lito and Chris. He was curious, but he had just met them today and he wasn’t even sure what questions to ask.

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Hi, here is the next part for my Colors story. I’m writing more right now. This was the previous part.

After the long-winded talk from the teacher, Ms. Morris, explaining who she was, what the class rules were, and the challenges of senior year, there was the dreaded icebreaker activity. They were given a bingo sheet with random facts and told to find people who could fill in the spots. There was a frenzy of activity and Ivan didn’t bother remembering which people he told “No, I don’t have a pet fish” or “No, I don’t know how to use chopsticks” or “I’m telling you I don’t fill in any of the spots. I swear. I don’t have a car and I don’t know how to swim. And why would anyone go to a toilet museum?” Ivan slowly made his way back to his desk and dropped into his seat. 

He had hoped he could have a moment of peace, but Jen sat down into her seat next to him. She glanced at his bingo sheet, “Just three people?” Ivan was tempted to just close his eyes and sleep through class, “Yep.” Jen leaned back into her seat, “Wasn’t the prize a homework pass? Sounds pretty good to me.” Ivan allowed himself to look at her sheet, “Why bother when you’re winning it?” She had somehow managed to fill in every spot. Jen smirked “True. You don’t have a chance.” Ivan huffed and said nothing in response. He decided not to sleep after all. There were only a few minutes left. She leaned forward and put her arms on the desk to look at him but said nothing. Ivan had the sense Jen was sizing him up, trying to decide if he would be competition. He stared back, suddenly struck by the color of her eyes. He didn’t notice before they were green. Jen’s expression softened and they were two people studying each other’s faces.

Ms. Morris clapped, causing both Ivan and Jen to jump in their seats, and called for people to turn in their sheets before they left. People clambered to the front of the classroom. Jen muttered, “Bye” as she left and Ivan sat still for a moment. He was wondering What the fuck just happened? He took a deep breath and was glad he only had one class with her. He gathered his things and walked out of the classroom as the bell sounded. Ivan just wanted a quiet year, like all the past years.

He stepped into the next class and picked the same seat, far away from the teacher’s desk in the right corner of the class. He took out his notebook and stared at the blank lined paper as he thought about Jen. Ivan hoped he wouldn’t see her again after this since he had a feeling it would be awkward. He barely knew her and yet they had spent who knows how long just looking at each other. He looked to his side as someone sat next to him. An “Oh” escaped him when he saw it was Jen. She quickly glanced at him and muttered “Hey.” Ivan became sure someone was plotting against him, but for Jen it was easier to remember where she sat if she was sitting next to the same person in most of her classes. Jen had already filed away the staring incident into a box labeled Do not open and stuffed it in a corner of her mind behind other boxes also labeled Do not open. Jen had a gift for avoiding everything. Ivan had a gift for overthinking everything.

Ivan suffered though the second class, Economics with Mr. Bryant, by remaining at still as possible. He thought maybe if he didn’t move, she wouldn’t see him. He was aware that Jen wasn’t a dinosaur, but he was willing to try anything once if it helped with avoiding talking. He was grateful there was no icebreaker activity as Mr. Bryant instead told the class to take it easy as they would get their textbooks tomorrow. Ivan had hoped Jen would move seats to talk with friends, but apparently she was uninterested in talking with anyone and was writing in her notebook. He wondered what she could be possibly writing. It was still the first day and no homework had been assigned. Ivan started thinking about all the possible reasons she could be writing and which led him to start thinking about how she must think he was extremely weird. Jen was not thinking that. Jen was also not writing reasons why she hated Ivan as he was thinking now. She was writing a grocery list since her was her turn to go to the grocery store this week. Lemons were not on the list.

When the class ended Ivan thanked the universe. When his third class started Ivan cursed the universe. He wondered what he had done recently to have Jen in the same class, three times in a row. Jen was already sitting down and looked up from her completed list as Ivan sat down. “Do you play any sports?” she asked. Ivan was thrown off by the random question, “Sorry?” She looked back down at the list, “I’m on the tennis team. Maybe we met during practice?” Ivan might burst into flames if he did more exercise than was required of him in PE, “No. I definitely don’t do sports.” She tapped her pencil on her cheek, “You should, it’d look good on your college application.” Ivan closed his eyes for a minute. He did not need to think about college applications today, but it was too late. He opened his eyes and hunched his shoulders, “I’m not really interested in sports.” Jen hummed in response. She didn’t notice Ivan radiating anxiety for the rest of the class and left quickly when the bell sounded.

Ivan was relieved when he didn’t see Jen in the rest of his classes. He felt he might just drop dead if she happened to mention anything else that stressed him out, like snakes or the fact that all everything is meaningless because all life will eventually cease to exist. Things like that.

He managed to not drop dead, or catch on fire, or encounter any wild bears for the rest of the week. He also managed to avoid small talk or other awkward moments with Jen. Jen managed to avoid another lemon incident. On the next Monday, Ivan finally felt calmed down. He was silly to overthink what happened with Jen. She probably wasn’t even thinking about it anymore.

It was in third period that Ivan’s calmness was ruined. “Hey” Jen said, “You’re into movies right?” Ivan felt the same panic as when he would forget there was one more step on the stairs and nearly fall down as a result, “Yes? Aren’t most people?” Jen rolled her eyes, “Well yeah, but I mean you’d join a film club wouldn’t you?” Ivan shuffled uncomfortably in his seat, “I guess. I didn’t know we had one.” Jen started tapping her pencil on the desk, still looking straight ahead, “One of my classmates told me about it. They just watch some old movies in Mr. Horn’s classroom while he’s in the teacher’s lounge grading.” Ivan frowned and asked, “He’s not even in the room? Isn’t it breaking some rule to leave students alone in a classroom?” Jen shrugged as she tapped her pencil faster, “Maybe. As long as we’re not going crazy in there I don’t see any problem.” Ivan thought for a moment and asked, “Is it… once a week?” She held the pencil still and said,“Oh no it’s three times a week. The first day is today.” Ivan forgot himself for a moment and quickly blurted,“Three times? Why?” Jen looked at him with a smile,“Why not? It’s just to watch movies with friends. If you have homework you can just do it during the movie.” In the seconds before Jen’s smile Ivan was steadfast in his decision to say no, but he now hesitated. He had wanted to say no yet couldn’t bring himself to do so. He felt bewildered by Jen, her smile, how she suddenly invited him to this club. He couldn’t remember seeing her smile before this. He was saying, “Okay. I’ll go,” before he regained any of his senses. Jen spun the pencil around in her hand and tapped it once on her desk, “Great! There’s only three other people that will be in there for today so it’ll just be us five!” She kept the smile on her face as she looked to the front of the room again. Ivan inhaled slowly as he realized he had done the opposite of what he intended. He exhaled with a quiet “Fuck” that no one heard.

Next part

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How does Leonore capture her worshippers exactly? Does she pick and choose who she wants to hold in the pocket dimensions or is it more of a "lure whoever you can" type of thing?

If you ask Leonore she would say she just steps between dimensions, but if you ask anyone watching they’d say she teleports. She doesn’t care much exactly who she gets so she just gets random people. They don’t realize what’s happened until it’s too late.

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I haven’t actually tried writing down in words scenes for my Colors story. It was originally set up to be a webcomic or just in any sort of visual form I could manage but I’m still in college and college kills my soul (along with my time) so everyone gets to read descriptions of how the pages would’ve been set up.

Ivan stood at the threshold of the classroom while he tried to find the best seat with the least amount of suffering. It wasn’t that Ivan hated being in class, he considered himself a good student, but that English normally required participation and participation required talking. He needed a seat where he would remain unnoticed when the teacher decided to go on the hunt for a volunteer. He decided on a seat in the right back corner of the classroom that would be far away from the teacher’s desk. Sitting in the corner meant that only one person could sit next to Ivan meaning half the amount of small talk he would be normally exposed to. Ivan didn’t like small talk.

Ivan became preoccupied with hoping the person sitting next to him wouldn’t like small talk, but if they did he would have to prepare his answers ahead of time as he would have to pretend to care about the weather or whatever ridiculous topic would be brought up and he wouldn’t be able to come up with any answers on the spot and then he’ll end up with awkward answers that don’t make any sense and--Ivan didn’t notice the girl who had sat next him. Ivan continued with his long train of thought about the reasons why he hated small talk while she took out her school supplies and neatly arranged them on the desk. She was determined to have straight As this year. She almost achieved this goal last year but Ms. Glass gave her a B+ in Geometry. Normally she would sit in the front, but she arrived late due to an unfortunate incident with a lemon and all the front seats were taken. 

When the bell sounded Ivan’s extremely long train of thought about the reasons why he hated lemons and other citrus fruits, unknown to the girl who decided after the incident that she hated lemons, finally stopped and he noticed who was sitting next to him. At this moment she turned to Ivan and said “I’m Jen. I think we had chemistry together?” On Ivan’s train about small talk and lemons he didn’t think about the possibility the person sitting next to him would already know him and all he managed to get out was “S-Sure? I guess?” Ivan was again imagining having to endure more awkward moments and was considering screaming into his backpack. Jen didn’t notice anything and was thinking Maybe I saw him in my Geometry class? She opted for a nod and turned to the front in hopes of avoiding the Where did we meet? game. 

Ivan decided screaming into his backpack would be overdramatic and instead looked at the teacher who was now introducing themselves. He felt that it would be a very long year.

Next part

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Reminder that asks are open

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Magic

Magic can only be used by the descendants of the goddess Leonore. You can quickly tell who they are by their eye color, a bright blue. Magic is not always passed down to each person in the family line. If you have a brother and sister, it’s possible only one of them can use magic.

Since magic users are related to the goddess, however distant the relation is, they are given slightly better treatment in the society. Arranged marriages for magic users are common. Magic users are commonly married to non-magic users with high social standing. They also have slightly longer lifespans with most dying past 100 years of age while the average person dies around 85 years. The oldest person on record was a magic user at 125.

Due to only descendants of the goddess having magic, keeping track of family lines has become an important thing. Each family has a record of the previous generations including birth and death dates, marriages into other families, and whoever had magic. The families with the most influence are the ones known to have many magic users.

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Leonore

The minor goddess in Story 2 is named Leonore. It was picked randomly by a friend a few days ago so there’s no deeper meaning behind it.

Leonore seems like any other person you might pass on the street. She is not extraordinarily beautiful or ugly, but rather plain and easy to forget. The one constant of her appearance is her eyes, a shade of bright blue that leaves you feeling unsettled until you realize much later it’s because no one has eyes that color.

She always has an excuse ready for her impulsive behavior. She’s irresponsible and clueless about people’s problems. Despite this Leonore loves her people and frequently spends time in the city. Several of her descendants are easily identifiable as they have inherited her eye color.