#anika-writes

[pens-swords-stuff]

Happy Birthday!!!

Thank you so much Anika!!

[icaruscreates]

Should I be writing?

Yes.

Am I?

*scoots ipad under couch* More or less.

I just wanted to share my recent ocs since I had finally finished their refs! A rare thing to say, I know lol Click the read more to hear a little about them and maybe the project they're in!

Oh hey you clicked the read more! >w<

This is Amaya and Nefits, two newer redesigns of very old fan ocs I made for a Yugioh AU that will not leave my brain even after all these years lol Neftis here is the younger sister of Yami while Amaya is Yugi's slightly older and slightly taller cousin. (A fact she quite literally likes to hold over him)

Random Notes -

Both girls are Mediums but Neftis once was an Oracle and see into the future, abilities that have been lost to her right now.

Amaya ace and is precious cinnamon roll that will kick your arse

Neftis is a hopeless romantic. Looks scary but gives best hugs

Neftis is banned from markers, pens, basically all inks, oil paint, mallows when she's alone, and pomegranates.

While Amaya is more Neutral Good Neftis is absolutely Chaotic Neutral. Do not leave Neftis alone to her own devices unless she has things to keep her occupied lol

Many harmless details have been left out from her Sight just to have a good laugh later. Mostly at her brother's expense xD

Does not have a Millenium Item anymore. Once was the keeper of the Necklace.

Their amulet is gold with lapis lazuli and an ankh.

Neftis' hair originally was similar to Yami's but after being deathly ill as a toddler, her hair turned the bluish-white it is now. Amaya was born with the bluish-white hair color.

Her green ribbon is a reference to rebirth, a new chance, etc as the color green will hold that meaning.

Amaya's birthday is the Tanabata!

The project their in is called Second Chance. An AU I've been sitting on for a looooong time but never fully worked on for reasons back then. Long story short the AU is an elaborate "what if" tale of what if the Pharaoh got a proper chance to live a life of his choosing? And the misadventures that would ensue with his sister and their friends.

Will I share it online? Maybe. We'll see. The AU is more of a means to keep my anxiety and stress down but as I work on it, I'll consider sharing more. Art will absolutely be shared so keep an eye out for more of these two and their friends!

[hannah-deactivated20220725]

Happy WBW! Are there any special traditions that are done during weddings/funerals/etc?

kasdjflkjas I love this question so much because my friend and I discussed this with our werewolf couple!! =D

Okay, so for werewolves, there are special, sacred forests that are like... super important to them. Anyway, werewolf tradition is that if you want to claim another wolf as your own, you marry them in one of those forests. There is one specific forest that’s the most sacred of all of them, and all wolves try to get married there. These forests are also where wolves go during their holidays in order to pray to their Moon Goddess and yeah. I love it.

Thank you for the question and happy belated WbW!

[daftydrafty]

For the character ask game >w> 1, 34 and 42 for Rheia? I couldn't narrow it down more than that xD

Thanks for the ask, @anika-writes! :D

01. What does your character’s name mean? Did you pick it for the symbolism, or did you just like the way it sounded?

I had actually forgotten what meaning Rheia's name started with. Thankfully, Husband has an amazing memory for this stuff. I had wanted her name to reflect the Greek Myth origin that was the basis of her entire lore. Being a Demi-Gorgon from the Gorgon Euryale.A slight alteration of the name "Rhea" the Greek Titan of the Earth and mother to all the Gods. Which is fitting, as Rheia was the start of all the Lore that eventually became this trilogy and the world it takes place in.

Her middle name, DeMaren, means literally "Of Maren" which is her Mother's name. All Tomarbin are named after their mothers.

Evryali is her clan name "Evrya" was the first daughter born of the Gorgon Euryale. "Li" was from Evrya's middle name "Lianne" that her father chose. Though Tomarbin are primarily matriarchal and place most of the remembrance on the Mother's line, they do not dismiss or ignore the father's influence.

Non-Lore reason for Evryali is for This Song, Xenakis - Evryali

Mostly because I found it compellingly insane. Hypnotic, frantic, and wandering all over the place in my head. Which, again. Fit the entire concept of a race of wanderers born equally of the Gods of Order and Chaos. Which I believe was only introduced to me by Husband, which he found in the first place because “Evryali” is a Romanized version of “Euryale”.

34. Does your character have favorite foods? (breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, snacks, etc)

Tea. Rheia is ALL about tea. It's her way to wake up, what keeps her calm throughout the day. In the evenings, she likes sweet wines and strong liquors. As for foods/snacks? Citrus and melon. Whether by themselves or baked into sweets, she loves them.

42. Is there anything in your character’s past that they regret, haunts them, or they wish they could change?

Boy, howdy! That's actually a main plot point for Book 1 (spoiler, kinda). A suppressed memory is revived, showing Rheia being more or less accidentally killing an entire mob of humans after the death of her cousin.She regrets the actions she took that lead to her cousin's death. Regrets that she took lives, even in self-defense. And regrets more that the shock had blocked those memories, including those of her fallen cousin, entirely away.

whew. That was a lot. But fun! XD Hope y’all enjoy the madness that is A) my world building and B) how much of the world-building came about because of this one character and my bone-deep fondness for Greek Mythology.

[raevenlywrites]

Happy Storyteller Saturday! What would your ocs favorite thing to get for hearts day?

Kisses :P

Seriously though, with how big the polycule has gotten, a little quality time with each of their loves is probably the nicest thing any of them could ask for.

[daftydrafty]

WIP World building: Races

I’m going to start on one of the lesser-known and my personal favorite babies of the entire world: THE ETES. (pronounced Eh-Tehs)

They are a race of GIANT SCORPIONS. And I mean Giant. Draft Horse sized. With human heads.

They typically have silvery-blonde hair (though not always) and decidedly metallic-silvery eyes. Etes also have little clicky-clack mandibles framing their human-like mouths. Helps food to not fall out while they’re eating.

They are, understandably, the stuff of nightmares. Absolutely spoopy looking.

However, they are the sweetest race ever to grace this fictional world. 12/10 would protect from all the evils of the universe.

Because they don’t have hands, but big clunky claws or potentially harmful stingers to manipulate things with, this makes anything requiring manual dexterity a hecking chore.

So nearly everything is done in a communal/cooperative manor. Including personal decoration, eating, and grooming. This makes Etes extremely social. The most hyper social race there is.

Etes can’t speak at a ‘normal’ volume, barely at a whisper. If they need to communicate from any sort of distance, they click their claws in a version of morse-code. Except when they get really excited/agitated/happy. Then they just click their claws AS FAST AS POSSIBLE, like castanets. Which in their clickety-clack language is like going “ASJKFH:AJK:SLKHG:LKAJS:LDFAHGFL:KAJSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH”

They don’t come across members of the other races often, because they live in what is probably the most inhospitable area of the continent possible. Desert-like area that is infested with Death Worms (think “Tremors” but slightly smaller. And, if possible, more teeth).

Death Worms are the Etes’ main source of food, and thus the Etes are one of the ONLY reasons why Death Worms don’t expand outside the desert. Well, besides the ground conditions being sub-optimal for them. Etes are the only reason why there is not ONLY Death Worms in their particular habitat.

When Etes DO encounter a member of another race, they’re usually lost and alone. Etes think (and they’re not exactly wrong) that anything alone in the desert will die. So when they find a lost person (usually human), they’re like “Oh no. Can we help you? Cuz you’re going to die, otherwise.”

Those lost individuals usually run away screaming, to which the small group of Etes goes “wait-no” in their little whispery voices. Usually accompanied by the same sentiment in clickety-clacks, but no one would understand that but another Etes.

[daftydrafty]

Now I'm curious, what kinds of things are in the world building department? >w> because I am a helpless lover of all things world building lol

ohohohohoho, @anika-writes, come with me down the rabbit hole.In all seriousness, though, I blame about 80% of my worldbuilding on my husband. He’s the one who does this stuff for fun, I just have the drive/focus to actually write the stories the worlds are built for. XD I toss out inspiration/ideas and then he talks it out with me for several hours until we make it make sense.I’ve got 22 Gods, 6 Old Gods, 16 New Gods (this makes more sense with the way different races were created.

*does a quick count* Twelve sapient races... that are known of/exist on a single (albeit huge) continent. 1 language out of 5 built. (really lagging on the other 4, but they won’t become super relevant until later WIPS in this world’s series).

a SECOND series planned which will have at least 2 other sapient races that I have yet to fully flesh out. (they’re going to be fun, though. XD)

And a rough outline of about 500 years of history. At least, the human-centered history.

To give a quick run-down on the different races of the relevant continent, we got.

-Dragons (very smart and very arrogant. If you go in thinking they’re a mindless beast, you’re going to get roasted 3 different ways. Only 1 of which will be physical.)-Nagas-Tomarbins ( Demi-Gorgons. There were only the 3 full-blooded Gorgons originally, cuz I loves me some Greek Myths)-Basilisks-Elementals (called the Fae. We got Vol-Fae and Sea-Fae and Earth-Fae and Air-Fae. We got all kinds of fae.)-The Sea Folk (merpeople)-Djili (short, terribly inaccurate answer: Dwarves, but there’s a lot more to them than Snow White or Tolkien dwarves)-Fogborne (amphibious humanoids)-Fistas’Rawet (cat-people. Specifically Cheetah-people)-Blind Dwellers (they don’t pop up much, cuz they live in the deep DEEP caves. Usually underground lakes)-Dark Wings (think Gargoyles like the tv show, but they don’t turn to stone, and they’re like. The size of 12 year olds.)-Etes (giant scorpions w/ human heads. They’re my faves cuz reasons)-Spiderlings (spider-y lower halves and humanoid upper halves. Ver creepy, ver anti-social with other races. make bomb-ass fabrics, tho. They’re also smaller than you’d think.)And then we got humans. They basically took pieces of all the other languages (or the ones they heard most often) and butchered them together to make “Common”, which makes little to no sense, the pronunciation is whack, but all the other races have to learn it if they want to do business with them. Humans aren’t the “apex predator” of the world, but they DO have the advantage that they out-breed all the other “Apex predators”, so they took over much of the land-mass of the continent. Except the northern mountains, which  are super rich in gems and precious metals. Cuz the Dragons were like “Ha, NOPE!”, and by extension, the Djili and Spiderlings also didn’t get ousted.Got a rough mapping of the different Noble Houses, at least the ruling houses for the various cities throughout the country/continent.

My writing style is a little more YA-esque, but (because of husband) my worldbuilding style is approaching Tolkien-levels. >.> Why I do this to myself? I don’t know. But here we are.

[raevenlywrites]

Storyteller Saturday! What's one scene that you LOVED writing(or planning) and which one is your least favorite?

There really aren’t words for how much fun I had writing Lia and Tybee’s disaster date. It was really delightful to ruin all his plans, and to do it in such a way that actually made Lia see the real him underneath all the posturing.

Least favorite so far is one that should be equally delightful, but I’m just missing a piece somehow. Before the wager, Lia and Gil have a chance meeting in the park--and I just can’t make it go! It keeps grinding to a stilted and awkward halt and I just can’t seem to make it work :/