#aethernovel

[dragonscanbeplantstoo]

AetherNovel is going through a Phase™️ with the Identity Crisis and the Finding Itself and it keeps arguing with me and DAMMIT I RAISED THIS NOVEL BETTER THAN THIS

[dragonscanbeplantstoo]

Fighting Words

Tagged by the loveliest @ally-thorne

Rules: I post fighting from my WIP and tag more people to post more fighting.

Emo teenage dragon warriors fight A LOT my guys, but you know who has the best fights? Sterling. So here ya go:

The crowd below is tense and ready for blood. Sterling and the ogre begin to circle. She moves in a fraction of a second before he does, and they tangle in the middle. The ogre is so huge that Greyson can really only see the ogre’s movements, they are so long and large that Sterling is buried in them. She bounces backwards, out of his arm’s reach, and lands a sharp kick in his stomach. It hits so hard her boot makes a cracking noise against his thick skin. The ogre groans and staggers backward.  

“Yes!” Ajay says, “that’s how you use legs for days!”

Ainsley bats at him to shut him up. Greyson glances at Levi, who has finally stopped fidgeting, and is studying the fight without blinking. Greyson squints at the cage, trying to see what he is seeing.

The ogre is up against the cage, blocking another kick. Her follow up slams into the side of his knee, buckling him. Sterling moves to kick at him again. Greyson frowns. It seems like she should be doing other things too.

“It’s all she can do,” Blaise mumbles beside him.

“What? Why?”

“Reach,” is Blaise’s only response.

Greyson watches, and thinks he gets it. Sterling’s legs are the only part of her longer than his arms. If she moves closer, he can grab her, and snap her in two by the looks of his fingers.  

Her next kick falls against his side, and he locks her leg there. He grins bright as he stands and throws her into the floor. The crowd surges into the cage and shakes it, hoping for blood. Greyson feels the music in his throat; or maybe it’s his heart.  

Sterling hits the ground and rolls easily to her feet. She tosses a red curl out of her face. There is something different about her expression.

“Is she nervous now?” Greyson asks, “she looks different.”

“Sterling doesn’t get nervous,” Levi murmurs, “she does get angry though.”

“Levi, am I wrong, or is she about to take him the fuck down?” Ajay asks as she and the ogre meet again.

“I hope not.”

Greyson watches the ogre grapple with Sterling against the cage. It is an awkward-looking exchange, with him trying to pick her up by the waist, and her fighting to stay on the ground. She must feel like a feather to him, but somehow, her heels are still dug into the mats.

“How much does she weigh?”  

Levi shrugs, “about sixty eight kilograms, give or take.”

Greyson’s eyes widen. He hadn’t really expected an answer. He gives Levi a low look. Levi rolls his eyes.

“Don’t make it weird,” he says, “I’m good at judging distance, so I can calculate the approximate volume of her body. It’s not—”

They both look back to the ring as an enormous thud cuts through the music. The ogre is on his back, Sterling’s limbs wrapped around his shoulders and head. Greyson cranes his neck to see what she is doing, but it is too tangled. The ogre begins to thrash his lower body, trying to flip her over. She releases him and bounces away before he can. Her collarbone is moving up and down fast with her breaths.

Eek what happens next is my favorite. She’s so evil.

Uh...gotta tag people who I know do fights...um...

@greenhousewriting, @cog-writes, and @sirilikestowrite Square up if it pleases you!

[dragonscanbeplantstoo]

Fortnight of Questions #1

Thank you @writeawayjake you are amazing this is the TAG I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR:

#1 What is/are the most defining parts of your main character(s) appearance(s)? (Bonus points if there’s a story behind them or they have direct connection to the character’s personality.)

Do you guys have...any idea how much time and blood magic goes into the appearance of my characters? I wish I was being melodramatic in saying that, but alas. My OCs’ looks are often metaphorical/allegorical, and I’m obsessed with faces and facial processing.

Greyson: The defining characteristic of Greyson’s body is how meek and sickly it is. You look at the boy and you want to feed him soup. He’s 5’6”, smallish for a human 16y/o boy and teeny for a dragon. Skinny enough that his joints look big and knobby. His coloring is bland, big brown eyes and dull, lank brown hair with skin that’s pale and translucent like chicken skin. Frequent nightmares make him look drawn and tired. He gets green easily. He walks with his shoulders hunched most of the time, trying to be invisible. This is made worse by the fact that his clothes don’t fit too well. His nails are ragged from chewing. Hyper vigilance makes him jumpy. He looks fragile, though he’s anything but.

Sterling: Sterling’s most important features are her hair, eyes, and bone structure. Her hair is the first thing anyone notices. It’s dark red, always pulled back into an elaborate braid or bun. Her eyes are a bit of a shock against the hair, dark with dark lashes, and she wears copious black eyeliner. People can feel her analyzing them like prey when she looks at them. Then, the rest of her face is all razor sharp edges and angles. She has high, slanted cheekbones, a long, straight nose (very Italian), and a pointed chin. Everything is smooth and cold like an ice sculpture, she’s staring without blinking, and when people go back to the hair, that’s when they realize that it’s the color of blood.

Levi: The core of Levi’s appearance is his intensity. That adjective is in every aspect of his personality, so it’s in every aspect of his body. Intense colors: yellow, deep blue, red. Intense features: Thick hair, full lips, large eyes, popping cheekbones. He’s tall, a touch lanky, and always moving or fidgeting. His motions are fast and compressed, like punches. He looks at everything like he is analyzing the living hell out of it. Even his expressions take up his whole face, and he talks with his hands. He’s not subtle. The only remotely delicate thing about him is his bone structure, which is quite fine, belying how breakable he really is.

Uh....tagging @alittle-writer @dabiyyahwrites and @miawritingbooks

[dragonscanbeplantstoo]

Get To Know Me--OC Edition

I was tagged for this by @sirilikestowrite! Thank you my friend, I love this one!

I’ll be doing this for Levi. Here we go!

Name: Leviathen de Chartres (yeah don’t ever call him Leviathen)

Nickname: Levi 

Gender: Cis male

Star Sign: Gemini

Height: Six-Two

Orientation: Uh...he identifies as heterosexual right now but that may change. He confuses me.

Hogwarts House: May seem a little bit Gryffindor-ish, but is Ravenclaw to the bone.

Nationality: French

Favourite Fruit: Oranges. Specifically, the oranges that grow at his family’s house.

Favourite Season: Probably fall.

Favourite Flower: Red roses as he is secretly a hopeless romantic, and loves red.

Favourite Scent: Saltwater/seaweed, citrus, punching bags, steel polish, the combined scent of the products Sterling uses in her hair.

Coffee, tea, or hot chocolate: Coffeeeeeeeeee, with twelve spoons of sugar 

Average hours of sleep: Aaand here’s that whole dichotomy thing...it’s either negative 48 or 48 straight.

Dog or cat person: Lets go with cats. Doggos are a little bit earnest for the dragons. 

Favourite fictional character: Edit: He’d like Queen Abrastal from the Malazan Book of the Fallen. She’s pretty badass and does some cool strategic stuff in the books.

Number of blankets they sleep with: Eh whatever is there. He’s not fussy about it.

Dream trip: Drive really fast back to his house and never. ever. come. back. Or, maybe come back after eating every single orange, and picking up every single beach rock.

Random fact: Levi does all sorts of weird crap...oh, a good one is contact juggling. He carries a ball made of aether around with him and just sits there contact juggling when he’s bored or agitated. Which is just about any time he has to stay still.

I tag @firewritten (I really want to know more about Seth if that’ s cool), @starlitesymphony, @ava-burton-writing, and re tag @sirilikestowrite (I’d love to know more about Aux). But only if they want to!

[dragonscanbeplantstoo]

Find The Word Tag

Hi all! I was tagged by @ava-burton-writing to find red and earth in my WIP. Thank you for thinking of me Ava! I’m sorry I’m so late responding.

So red shows up 29 times so far, and here’s my favorite excerpt (sorry it’s sort of long):

Levi makes an acknowledging noise and takes in the rest of the scene. Bloody claw marks on the pillows, a big pool of it on the floor under the woman’s head. Sterling must have had her more upside down at one point to create the artful red drips down her face.

And earth only shows up once:

Suki shrugs, “there’s also Levi.”

Greyson snorts, “there’s no way on earth I’m asking that...I don’t even know.”

“We usually say unpredictable.”

“Unpredictable is a very tame way to describe him.”

There we go! I’m going to tag @merigreenleaf (thanks for the follow), @polapipo (gotta know ‘bout that cult story) and @stirringink (excited you’re back) for the words black and building, if they want.

[dragonscanbeplantstoo]

Last Line Tag(ssss)

Tagged by @alittle-writer(x2), @firewritten, @authorisada and @bellepaige. Thank you lovelies very much.

Aether and Asphodel:

Greyson nods, and focuses in on his stance again. Levi sits on the barstool to watch him, licking the last of the cookie dough off a spatula.

CultStory:

The smoke tastes terrible, but it tastes like freedom.

[dragonscanbeplantstoo]

Excerpt Time

I feel like I do nothing but tags around here and pretend that’s real content so here, have an excerpt of Aether and Asphodel:

Levi is standing in the middle of the room, headphones clamped over his ears, toe tapping a mile a minute. He isn’t wearing a shirt, so Greyson can see exactly how tense he is. The lightweight muscles in his back and shoulders are coiled so tight they shake. Veins are pushing through the tattoos on his forearms.

“Hey, Levi…” Greyson says it slowly.

Levi turns his head, but his wild glare is searing into another map. He darts over to it, and starts scribbling something. Then, he growls like an animal, and rips it down. Beneath, the red wall is accented with a thick stripe of gray chalkboard paint. It is completely covered with white chalk notes.  

Levi moves again, ripping, writing, ducking under one page to make a note on one beneath it. He pauses to scribble a note on his palm. Then he whips around to the piano bench and starts scrabbling through what he has there.

“Levi! Levi!” Greyson calls. He pauses to suck in all the air he can, “Leviathen!”

It might be the shout or the use of his full name, but Levi’s head jerks up. His eyes burn into Greyson’s. Greyson swallows, but glares back. Levi glares harder. His teeth show.

When he comes at Greyson, it is fast, but his steps are dead silent. Greyson braces himself. Levi screeches to a stop nearly on top of him and jerks his headphones down. He is so much taller. Their noses are only an inch apart. Greyson can feel the intense heat coming off the other boy’s tanned skin. It smells like citrus and smoke and sea salt. All he can see is blue, blue, blue, whipping like a wildfire and crackling with gold.  

Levi snarls, “What. Do. You. Want?”

Greyson’s breath catches. It sticks in his chest, zinging. He grabs it and fuels his returning glare with it.

“I want to learn how to fight,” he snaps back, “teach me.”

Levi’s nose wrinkles, “fuck off, I’m busy.”

He whirls away and returns to the papers on his piano bench. He is tearing the pieces he doesn’t need, chucking them aside. Greyson advances toward him. He thinks about grabbing Levi’s arm, but the tension in his biceps looks too dangerous.

“You can’t just dismiss me like that.”  

“I can do whatever I want!”  

Tears prick Greyson’s eyes. He shakes them away and pushes Levi’s shoulder, breaking him from his task.

“What the fuck? Get out of my room!”

“Not until you say you’ll teach me!”

Levi whirls on him, “and why would I do that?”

“I want to be a squire! I left my parents to come here and be a squire.” Greyson  Maybe I’m too old to go through whatever crazy training you did, but that doesn’t mean I can’t still be one of you.”

“That’s exactly what it means,” Levi talks so fast his words are barely legible, “you can learn to knock heads but you will never learn the way we think or coordinate or operate because youhaventbeenheresinceyouwereeleven!”

“Knocking heads is enough,” Greyson says. That’s all he needs for his sister.

Levi comes nose to nose with him again. Greyson can hear the music coming through the headphones. It is an oddly calm piano tune. A low growl rumbles in Levi’s throat.

“Then find someone who cares to teach you.”

Their gazes are locked for several moments. Greyson doesn’t want to look away first, to surrender. Levi seems to be hyper focused, his irises making tiny shifts all over Greyson’s face.

“Well this is cute,” Sterling’s soft voice barely carries to them.

Greyson skitters to the side, pressing his back to the piano. She is leaning in the doorway. The ominous black case is gone, but she is wearing a sports bra under her leather jacket, and her dainty silver hands are swathed in black boxing wraps. Greyson imagines her moving fast and snapping his neck with those linen-covered fingers. The idea is powerful enough to twist his stomach. She tilts her head at Levi.

“Do you still want to go?”

“Duh, I need to hit something twice as much now,” Levi looks at Greyson again. “You want to know what it means to be ‘one of us’, right?”

Greyson glances at Sterling. There is a dimple in one of her cheeks, but it isn’t a nice dimple.  

Levi snaps, “right?”

Greyson nods.

“I don’t think so. I don’t think you have the nerve to come with us.”

Sterling is grinning now. Levi is smiling a little bit too. Shivers move down Greyson’s back. But he has to prove he can handle it. Prove he can handle Levi’s teaching, be a somewhat passable squire. Greyson grits his teeth and squares his shoulders.

“Watch me.”

[dragonscanbeplantstoo]

Oooo yay I got a tag! Thanks @toboldlywrite!

RULES: post the last sentence you wrote and tag as many people as there are words.

More like mint, and more of what Greyson needs to be. 

(uh oh do I have 11 people??)  @firewritten @ivettaviolet @necwrites @bellepaige @thewarbledragon @ava-burton-writing @boothewriter @cog-writes @morganyorkwrites @burningemberjade​ @jennlynn-magpie if they’re feeling it, and anyone else who wants to.