Oh, from any number of things. Sometimes artwork, sometimes other people’s stories, sometimes prompts, sometimes travelling or a pretty picture or an ugly picture or an emotion. Nothing happens in a vacuum but I just really like telling stories. I feel right in my skin when I’m doing it.
💁♀️- reader insert or OC?
I don’t have any reader insert fics of my own, but I do have OCs! So I have to say OC by default. When it comes to reading, though, I don’t mind either as long as they are well done. @sabraeal has written a particularly fabulous reader insert that she complains endlessly about but we all know - WE ALL KNOW - she loves it. :3
☺️- a line that made you feel a fluffy happiness
Okay, so I moved this part to the end because this isn’t a line as much as it is a whole section, but I love this scene as a whole and I think it is one of the most enjoyable first kisses I’ve ever written (from Where Angels Fear to Tread, pt II):
He likes to think that he learned how to fight the day he learned how to walk. His life has been nothing but a battle, nothing but broken skin and bones and binds. And yet when she shifts, crawling up his body, she has him immobilized more completely than any opponent has ever accomplished and he- he can’t move. He doesn’t want to move. So he just watches as she leans forward again, this time for real. This time with purpose. Without his say-so, one of his hands spans the small of her back, the other cradling the nape of her neck and she closes the distance between them so easily.
And she’s- she’s always been here. She’s always been at his side. Always filled the space between them as easily as he’s made it. He always thought that if the world wasn’t filled with better men than he was or he was somehow good enough for someone like her, that kissing her would be… powerful. World-changing. Something that would break him and make him anew.
But-
But she already did that. Years ago.
So it’s nice. And soft. Less a storm and more the gentle sliding of pieces into place. Her lips press against his and he draws in a breath so filled with her that it touches every bit of him. It warms him where he feels cold; soothes the parts of him that has only known hurt.
And it’s- it’s them. Just them. Every click of skin meeting and parting, every soft sound she makes into his mouth is somehow like every day since she came into his life. Her kisses taste like her and their lives and all that they’ve built together in this place.
Due to Meridor’s dominion over the north, most of the countries that now exist worship some version of its pantheon, though the prevalence of the gods is different in each area. Kiva mainly worships the Horned Pater and Maaneh, and to a lesser extent the Pater’s consort Easha (known as Eanna in other parts of the continent with a much different focus). Though it has long since fallen out of fashion, there are still devotees of Sankta Kryzna in Kiva as well.
This one's gonna be long, don't hate me ;A; Love note and Zodiac, for everyone (if possible), Hobby and Wardrobe for Sen, and Psyche and Shooting Star for Mondo
Zodiac: As i said, I’m gonna eventually make up a new zodiac for this world, BUT I KNOW WHAT YOU WANT ANA, so i’ll give them their signs for our world, based on their approximate birth dates.
Caiyur: Virgo
Sen: Aries
Nox: Scorpio
Devrim: Aquarius
Mondo: Mondo doesn’t know his birthday, sorry guys
Konstantijn: Pisces
Juda: Cancer
Maksim: Libra
Galina: Virgo
Anastas: Gemini
Faina: Taurus
Imsantorel: Virgo
Mordren: Leo
Kseniya: Capricorn
Love Letter: There’s not much going on in the core group re: romance, but here’s what there is:
Caiyur has a massive infatuation with Galina, mainly because she is a woman of appropriate birth who is not dull or typical, and she yelled at him that once time and I guess that’s his kink now (though she can stop at any time...it was cute before...but it’s getting old now...)
Anastas also has an infatuation with Galina, but it’s rather more like a fixation -- he’s not so much wanting her for HER, but so that he can prove to her how superior he is by making her his wife. Since to him, that’s pretty much like falling in love.
Galina could not give a single flying fuck about either of these two idiots, but she’s determined to undo the tight laces on Nox. Who is equally determined not to let her, but also...a little curious. He is not used to the feelings he has when she is near him, and he’s not entirely sure he enjoys it (...or that he doesn’t)
(Caiyur also has an infatuation with Svetlana, while he labors under the false impression that she is her husband’s daughter not wife, which just...leads to some awkward situations, my friends)
Sen, for some time, believes himself to be in love with Faina, mainly because she’s a badass and also because she has...Elan’ti qualities to her personality, which make him feel understood. However, it doesn’t last much longer than the thaw.
Mordren has been nursing a tendresse for Juda for nearly a year, but it’s fully unrequited, Juda likes her as a person...and is completely unaware that they are anything more than friends, no matter how much he may flirt. It’s all good fun, isn’t it?
Faina and Juda absolutely like each other from pretty much go, but it takes them something on the order of years to fucking realize it, so I’m sure you’ll all have fun being frustrated by that one.
hobby: what do they love? what captivates them? what are their passions?
Sen loves to make things with his hands. He’s not as good at the Elan’ti carvers, but he is consistently practicing so that one day he can remake his bow into a properly carved one, instead of the ham-fisted chicken scratch he currently has.
wardrobe: what's your OC(s) style like?
Something like so:
Maybe a little closer cut on the pants, but Sen dresses like most Kivan men, even though he hardly feels the cold. He does, however, favor a fur-lined hood, rather than the fur cap you see here.
psyche: what's their head space like? do they have any mental illnesses? how do they process difficult or emotional situations? what are their coping mechanisms?
Oh I am sure that Mondo has like...a turkducken of PTSD. Like you cut into that turkey layer of anxiety and it’s just an endless layer of meat underneath. He tends to just go hide and shut down during highly emotional situations, and if that’s not an option...just freezes in place, like he’s hoping the bad feelings can’t find him if he doesn’t move. His biggest coping mechanism is to people-please; he believes that as long as everyone is happy, no one has to be mad.
shooting star: if your OC(s) could have one wish what would it be?
Mondo would absolutely wish that everyone would be happy. Yes, everyone. No please don’t explain the paradox to him, you’ll only upset him
Hihi~ I'm not sure if it's still up, but 7 for Sen and 18 for Mondo, if you may :3
7. Around someone they’re attracted to [Sen]
Elena pounces on him the moment he slips through the casement, bobbing around underfoot. “Did you find something?”
“Of course I did.” He plucks the package out from under his arm to shove it into her grasping hands. “Dresses are sold here, just as anywhere.”
She frowns at that, giving it a dubious look. The brown paper crinkles under her palms, and, strangely, his back goes stiff, tense. He’s anxious.
“Just open it,” he snaps. It only makes her more wary, cautiously plucking at the string.
“You didn’t pick something terrible, did you?” she asks, eyeing him askance.
“I–?” He sniffs, swallowing down his annoyance. “There is no point wasting coin to humiliate you, when I may watch you do it yourself at no cost at all.”
Elena ignores him. It rankles. “Not even by accident?”
“No!” He scowls, folding his arms across his chest. “How could I answer if--” she is infuriating -- “if my taste was so poor, would I not think its purchase well done even still?”
Her mouth takes a thoughtful bent, and she nods. His frown deepens. It’s not as if she had to agree.
Her hands return to the paper, eagerly folding it back, and -- and he has to do something, to keep from thinking about it.
“I do not know why you want a new dress anyway,” he says, legs stiffening where he sits. “The Paterev are humble by nature. And in a few weeks you will hardly be able to wear it. It is said humans never get their shape back.”
Her hands still on the paper, and instead of raging, of shrieking, she merely looks up with a weary look and says, “Must you?”
He looks away. Clearly they have been traveling too long together.
She strips away the last of the papery husk, dress laid bare before her eyes and -- and she does not move, not a muscle. He doesn’t dare look at her face, but her hands blanch white at the knuckles, crumpling the wrapping beneath them.
He can take it no longer. “Well?”
“It’s...” The word is barely more than a breath. Her hands drop to the fabric, palm stroking the fine weave and lingering over the smooth fur. “it’s...”
Her body shakes, and Sen startles. The thing, can it--?
The salt hits his nose, sharp on the air. She is crying. “Do you hate it?”
“It’s the finest thing I’ve ever owned.” She lifts it with reverence, craddling it against her breast. “I’ve never -- I’ve never had anything...”
He stares, wide-eyed, and she shudders, trying to keep the tears at bay. For him, he knows.
Of all the stenches humankind can muster, tears are worst. Ah, how he wishes he had never said such a thing.
“I thought the green would look nice,” he blurts out. “Most would look sallow, but your skin is not so yellow as other--”
“Thank you,” she says, so soft only he can hear. “I--how did you--?”
He cannot stop the smile that cants his mouth. “My mother.”
She nods, holding it closer. “Thank you. Thank you.”
Sen grimaces, twisting away. “Shame you’ll only get to wear it the once. I should have bought it with some extra, so that you could let it out once you’re--”
It was a mistake to look away. He doesn’t know how close she is until her hands wrap around his shoulders, her pulse beating brightly in his ears, his veins. She yanks him against her and --
Oh. Oh.
“Thank you,” Elena says again, letting out a weak laugh into his chest. “But be quiet. You’re ruining it.”
18. Just done something embarrassing [Mondo]
“Swimming?” Mondo’s whiskers quiver, more lively than a ballroom floor. Juda watches them, mesmerized. He’s known a lot of Olmu in his time, but this one -- well, he’s never seen one so animated. “What’s swimming?”
Devrim whirls, hands on his hips. “You don’t know?”
Mondo tips back his snout, thoughtful. “It has to do with the water. And floating.”
“You...” Deverim’s nose quivers. “Come with me. We’ll go now. You should--”
With no hesitation, Mondo throws off his robes, and though Olmu don’t blush, Devrim’s whiskers go all on end, and my Juda’s reckoning, that’s just about the same.
“Mondo--” he trills, choked. “You cannot--”
“Come, friend Devrim!” the Olmu calls out, waddling toward the pond. “You cannot teach me swimming from the shore!”
“Oh my,” Svetlana murmurs, words muffled by a hand. “Have you ever...?”
Juda watches the two little ones toddling off, Devrim stiffly picking up the clothes Mondo leaves littered behind him, and he shakes his head. “I think we all learned a little about the Olmu today.”
The miasma of the wastes! It covers the area between Meridor and Anterca, and only the Olumeyta has figured out how to keep it from settling thickly on their city. Which is not a secret they’re sharing! Fuck everyone else.
Nature 3:What are some of the most well-recognized geological formations in your world? What do they mean to your people? How did they form?
The Talons of Wigai are a mountain ranges to the north of Kiva, where the nation of witches dwell. It’s believed the first ved’ma raised them to create a veil between herself and the world of men, and that she would steal girl children to teach them the forbidden magicks she had wrought.
Religion 4: What is your protagonist’s favorite food? How easy is it to come by?
I’ll pick ONE protagonist: Juda, whose favorite snack is dried locusts, especially in a trail mix with dates and some nuts. In the Olumeyta, they are east to find, but out in Kiva....it’s not quite the childhood snack for everyone else
Culture 3: How important is music to the culture of your world? What does the music sound like?
Music is mainly for entertainment, which makes it important but not...direly so. The folk music of Kiva sounds pretty much like this:
I'm strangely attached to those two characters and I don't even know why, but here it goes: Z-4 for Sen, and P-5 for Mondo, if it's not too much trouble :3
Z4. what’s their dream pet?
Listen, LISTEN. As cool as Sen tries to be, he is like...that angsty 14 year old inside all of us. He would absolutely want a wolf, hands down.
P5. do they hate anything about their personality/about other’s personalities?
Mondo wishes he were more likeable. Whenever he first approaches anyone, they are wary of him, and he finds that to be a personal failing.
Do you have any rituals or requirements for getting in the mood for writing?
Nope! Depending on what draft I’m working on, sometimes i like my windows in a specific configuration, but....otherwise, nope. When I was much, much younger and still relied on “the muse” i did, but now? Definitely not. It is whenever I can spare some time.
Favourite ways to write fluff?
I think most of my fluff has actually been requested! Which is probably the way I prefer to write it, since I tend to like writing plot, and at least getting a prompt lets me have the challenge of working within a rubric.
Please pardon me for pulling this response out from the Bullshit Heteronormativity Hierarchy post (I feel like I need an acronym, lol), @hurricanesunset
Thank you so much for this reply! 💜 This is seriously such a sweet message about that post and about my Rogue One fics! Your reblog of the post was totally fine and definitely welcome! I appreciate the conversations and discussions that have come from this, especially because it's a thing we've had to deal with in fandom and in our personal lives! The more people talk about the bias, the better, imo.
