#delphii writes

[ahnwriting]

Skin Job (Short Story)

"Skin Job" is a surreal-ish short story I wrote about emotional manipulation in relationships, vulnerability, and the start of recovery. It is... a bit bloody.

(Content warnings included in link, image by me)

Story link: https://stephanie-ahn-books.com/2019/05/25/skin-job-short-story/

[oracledelphii]

THE RULE: Post the last sentence you wrote (fanfic/original/anything!) and tag as many people as there are words in the sentence

tagged by @finnglas!

Silas is rooted in place like a child staring into a closed furnace, feeling the heat against his brow and realizing for the first time how lucky he is to be on this side of the steel walls.

I don’t even know if I’m going to keep this line in the chapter (mostly because I doooon’t actually know how furnaces work and I’m burnt out (burnt out hehehe) from spending the last half hour researching it), but hey, it’s the last thing I wrote! Also I don’t think I can even remember 38 ppl’s urls to tag, so I’m just gonna tag whoever I can think of right now, and if u wanna do this just make a post and say I tagged you lmao-- use my name in vain, I encourage it :))

@aliencadaver @music-in-the-bell-jar @blackthorn-and-iron @deathcarpets @trooper-penethalia  @periakman @scripturient-manipulator @brynwrites @chasingfictionx @kivalauthor 

[ahnwriting]

I never fucking understand books where the rebellious daughter is mad that the homicide detective dad has to leave in the middle of family bonding to go to work—SOMEONE IS DEAD, REBECCA!! Your parental issues don’t change or override that fact!!

[ahnwriting]

Finished chapter 18, getting into the emotional rollercoaster that is chapter 19......

[oracledelphii]

Is it implausible that in my fictional modern nation, gun control is organized enough to allow only select significant individuals (such as the queen or prime minister) to own guns? Yes, unfortunately. But is it cooler to imagine most of the fight scenes happening with swords and bows and arrows? Fuck YES

[oracledelphii]

today’s writing research topics: 

What color clashes with cream?

How long is the average human’s arm?

What color is whiskey?

Is there a form of melted sugar that’s not caramel?

How do you say “like a goat” in one word?

How tight are boxer briefs, anyway?

Is there a hyphen in the term “power walking?”

What do you call a fetish for clowns?

[oracledelphii]

OC ask meme # 20, 21, and 27 for Harry/Harriette (not sure if I'm close enough to call her by her nickname haha -- so I would also like to ask how she feels about her name in general, how comfortable she would be with strangers/acquaintances calling her Harry, and if she has a secret nickname only used by her nearest and dearest?)

!!!! 😀 😀 😀 yesssss I get to talk about my baby!! PREPARE FOR PARAGRAPHS

#20: Does your OC hurt others often unintentionally? If yes, how? 

Harry definitely hurts others unintentionally. It’s not that she doesn’t care—she really, really does—the problem is that she cares so much she easily drowns herself in her own emotions and becomes blind to other people’s problems and needs. She might get preoccupied with pleasing one person and ignore everyone else. Or she might get so wrapped up in saving innocent strangers to realize that the person closest to her is hurting, badly. Or she might be harshly reminded of her own issues and end up wallowing in self-loathing/self-pity for a while, blowing off promises she made to friends and family or lying to them outright so that they won’t come check up on her. Or she’ll go in the opposite direction and panic over the thought of people leaving her, and in trying to cling to them she’ll end up driving them even further away. She’s… kind of a mess. 

#21: Does your OC hurt others often intentionally? If yes, how? 

She definitely punches a lot of people—but usually those people tried to punch her first. Or stab her, or set her on fire, etc. But she’s not the kind who likes inflicting violence for the sake of violence, especially not on innocent people. If she hits you, it’s because she genuinely believes you deserve it (she wouldn’t be able to live with herself otherwise). 

But in an emotional sense—Harry hates hurting people emotionally, on purpose. Like, that’s one of the things she simply cannot do. Stuff like manipulation or bullying or backstabbing or mind games, she’s had that done to her way too many times not to feel sick to her stomach at the prospect of doing it to someone else—that’s why she gets so upset when it happens unintentionally, because she never ever wants to be that kind of person. 

#27: Does your OC practise any kind of escapism? If yes, what kind? 

Hooo boy. Escapism is Harry’s (figurative) middle name. Her best method of escape is through other people: getting into shitty toxic relationships, stupid one-night stands with characters of questionable moral standing, even just pouring all of her attention into an unrequited, unhealthy crush. If there’s no one available to throw herself at, she drinks. Really, the only thing she won’t try is drugs. 

On a lighter note, in terms of fun distraction/entertainment, she doesn’t have a TV but likes to read comic books. She reads the same issues over and over and over again, even though she’s memorized the stories from beginning to end since she was in middle school. They’re like her Bible (except not exactly her Bible, because she was raised Catholic and still has nightmares about being forced to memorize verses for school lol). 

Her name: 

She’s totally fine with being called Harry—in fact, she usually introduces herself that way because she’s aware of how much of a mouthful “Harrietta” can be. And actually she has no secret nickname, because Harry/Harrietta is her nickname. Her birth name is entirely different and she hasn’t totally abandoned it; there’s about 5 people in the whole wide world who know it, and only about 2 of those people ever use it (and I’m not going to type it out here, because I want it to be a surprise in a later book :3)

[oracledelphii]

Cool thing: having ur character have a unique physical trait, like a lopsided grin Cooler thing: having ur character have a symmetrical, conventionally even grin until one day half of her face burns in an accident of her own making and her lopsided grin from then on is a constant reminder of the decisions she refuses to take back even years later, because deep down she still knows she did the right thing