#mathani

[peterschlehmil]

animated From Here to Infinity digital artwork by Mathani

[bethabunnywrites]

A Mathani Short

Mathani is trying to work out this whole shadow priest thing.  Or maybe shadowmage.  Who knows.  Under the cut because long posts are gross.

Another dusting of flour to stop it sticking.

Another push and pull, to work the gluten.

Tuck it into a ball and drop it in the bowl.

Cover it with a cloth and let it take its place in the line of bowls similar, but no two quite the same.

It never worked right if the bowl wasn’t hand carved, you know.  The cloth hand woven.  The dough worked with bare hands.  It never came out quite right.

The flour worked its way up to her elbows through the day, adding an even lighter tone to her greying fur.  The braid that hung over her shoulder received the same treatment, and her apron was beyond a mess.

The same as every day.

She would change the menu occasionally, basing it on what ingredients seemed freshest at the other stands.  She would wander the Bluff in short moments of freedom as some rose and others baked, trading that which she had finished before for spices and eggs and whatever else she might need.

She hardly spoke to the other vendors, most of them used to her near-silent presence and simply gathering a basket for her when they saw her figure from the corner of their eyes.  She kept her head down, her chin nearly tucked into her chest, her dusty fingers twisting the tail of her braid whenever she did have to offer more than a word.

They appreciated the business, of course, but any of them would have traded her for any other baker in the world were they given the chance.  Well, that was how the whispers went, but none had ever had bread with such a crisp crust, so tender in the middle.  If they could keep the bread and lose the baker, they’d really be pleased.

But what was it about her?  What about a plain brown cow made their stomachs churn into knots and their hair stand on end?  It wasn’t as if she were a threat - rumor had it that she was widowed in the Cataclysm, but Mu’sha help us all, who wasn’t harmed in some way when the world split open?  No, there had to be something else.

Mathani could hear bits and pieces of this, of course.  Some snippets of conversation before they realized she was near, some said right in front of her because that one fruit vendor absolutely insisted that she must be deaf.  Some bits of information plucked directly from their minds, too busy with the hustle and bustle and gossip to notice the foreign presence in their thoughts.  It was too easy, really.

She craved a challenge.

This day was just as every other.  Just after dusk she pulled the heavy tarp over her little stand, twisting her hair in her fingers as she timidly walked to the elevators.  She watched her hooves as she walked, the little puffs of dust rising from the packed clay with each of her steps.  Her day skirts clung close to her legs in a way that could hardly be described as anything but matronly.  She’d be out soon enough.

She made her way into the hills, as always.

Beneath the cover of ancient pines, as always.

Into an exceptionally thick part of the woods, covered entirely in shadow as if the night had opened up into the void itself.

As always.

She carefully, methodically untied her apron.  Slid the fraying linen dress from her shoulders.  Shivered as she stood there a moment in her soft slip, brushing away a bit of residual flour.  Gently tugged a heavier set of robes from her satchel and wrapped the silken cloth around her slender form.  She took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she released it, slowly, tilting her head back as if to let the sun shine on her face, but in the very last place the sun would wish to be.

She gingerly lifted the hood sewn into her burgundy robes, letting it rest gently against the low curve of her modest horns.  The plain cow was far less plain, straightening her back and widening her stance.  

It was exhausting being a baker when all that truly felt right was this.

Reaching into the shadows.  Feeling them.  Taking control of them.  Shaping them to her will.  Her instructor should be more than pleased with her progress, whenever the hell he decided to show up again.

She could do so much more than make it into a damned orb, now.  Whatever his nonsense had been about a greater toll on her than physical exhaustion was clearly exactly that - nonsense.  She hadn’t felt this alive in years.  So powerful.  In control.  Having control over something in her life besides bread.  But never enough control to stop…

Wait.  She’d been having the dreams again.  Surely that wasn’t what he meant - was it?  Gods, she’d almost forgotten what they looked like and then suddenly they were there every time she closed her eyes again.  Her heart pounded in her chest, her breaths became ragged and shallow.

She really had nearly forgotten their faces.

How could she forget their faces?

What kind of monster was she?

No.  No!  This must have been his doing.  He was fucking with her head.  If she could plant a seed of fear in a stranger, the least he could do would be to make her remember…things.

That dirty, no-good, tacky son of a pig!  Surely it was him.  No one else would do this to her…no one else even knew that this was something that could be done.

She dropped to her knees, falling forward and catching herself with her hands.  One, two, three droplets stained the ground, and it took her more than a moment to realize that tears were falling from her eyes.  She felt as if her heart were physically being wrenched from her chest, her lungs squeezed so tight that she couldn’t even attempt to breathe.

It was the one time she said no.

Oh, how they begged to come along.  They loved to see the trading camps, to visit the cities, to pick out little treats to take home, and always an extra for their father.  He had never even liked sweets, but gods, the way he smiled when they procured the little candies and pastries wrapped in bits of paper (and usually stuck to whatever else was in their pockets).  He ate each one like it was the finest dish in all the Earthmother’s creation…

He was the finest father in all the Earthmother’s creation.

If he had died any other way, she would’ve been sure that it was because she didn’t deserve him.  She hadn’t deserved him.  But deserving or not, he was stolen from her.  They were stolen from her.  Deathwing hadn’t even given them an easy end.  She would’ve made him pay for that, had she been given the option.

But she wasn’t.

He was long dead, as were her mate and children.  Her daughter’s screams echoed in her ears again, for the first time outside of a dream in years.  She’d packed all of these feelings away as little more than motivation, and what fucking good had that done?

She sat back on her haunches, the tears falling freely as she opened her eyes and found nothing before her but darkness.

Well, there was nothing behind her but darkness, either.  It ruled her life, at first against her will, and now she embraced it so freely.

But she hadn’t given her all.  She held their faces in her heart, taking up space that was meant to be devoted to the shadows.

She had to let them go.

She had let them go.

She let them go.

She let the rage, the pain, the bitterness go.

She was a vessel.

Mathani was simply the mask she wore to bide her time.

And that mask made some damn fine bread.

[bethabunnywrites]

Warcraft Zoology Prompts! Buckle up, theres a lot! I'm demanding af. For Hura: Wyvern. For Nak: Hecklefang Hyena. For Ji: Shoveltusk. For Mathani: Skytalon AND Mudjumper Toad for all four but you can limit to just one wish if you like!

OH BOY.Hura: Is there someone in your character’s life they feel indebted to? How does your character prefer to “return a favor”?~ Honestly, Hura has always been a very…grateful person, I guess.  She’s quick to thank the Earthmother or Rah or pretty much anyone else for anything that has gone well in her life, and she’s quick to offer help in return in any way she can.  More recently, however, she feels she owes Imry and Tosori, as well as Rah’s parents, for all of their help with the baby and her efforts to get back into a good place, and it bothers her immensely that there’s no real way for her to make it up to them or express those feelings.  And she owes her life to the rest of her unit in Azsuna, but there’s nothing that she *can* do to repay them.

Nak’tah: How is your character’s sense of humor? What are some things that your character finds funny? What makes them laugh?~Nak isn’t actually nearly as grumpy as I like to say he is.  He’s struggling through pretty severe depression, but he’ll guffaw with the rest of them at a raunchy joke or good prank.  His own sense of humor is very sarcastic and teasing, and he’ll grin like the big goofy kid he is and spoil any sort of joke that would require a straight face.Ji-hing: Is there a talent your character has that not many people know about?~ Ermm.  Ummm.  I’ve rped a lot of her talents, honestly.  Herbalism, linguistics, a love of literature and cooking.  I guess for one that no one really knows, she has a decent singing voice.  She doesn’t think so, of course, but her low velvety tones would lend well to a modern AU involving dark, smoky jazz bars or speakeasies and lots of straight liquor in dirty glasses.  What trope have I NOT used with her? Mathani: Does your character remember their dreams? What is a reoccurring dream your character has? Any nightmares?~ Mathani has one very particular recurring nightmare.  It’s one of the only dreams she still has, really, and occasionally it is bad enough to be considered more of a night terror despite being an actual memory.  She was on her way to the Crossroads to trade when she heard and felt the earth being ripped apart by the Cataclysm.  The Barrens were ripped into two and her home was located just along the line.  She was still close enough to home to turn back in hopes of helping in some way, but all that managed to get her was the memory of her children screaming as the hut fell into the crack.  She usually wakes up at that point. (sorry that got dark quick)And the last one: Your character gets to make three wishes. What would they be?Hura: 1. For her family to be together forever with no one running off and joining any more wars. 2. For all of the animal companions she’s ever had to be alive and healthy and happy and in one big cuddle pile with the rest of her family, and Rah to be okay with that.  3. For Ashkii to grow up to be anywhere near as amazing as Rah is in her eyes.Nak: 1. To feel like he’s capable of being anything other than a soldier. 2. Companionship.  Platonic or romantic, it doesn’t even matter anymore. 3. To get to a place where he doesn’t consider running into battle without a shield just to see if his fate is to stay on this world another day or not.Ji: 1. She will get Akota to talk about his feelings, one of these days. 2. A nice cold glass of a good brew, at any given moment. 3. A cup of tea and a good book back at her little apartment, with Akota’s arm around her and her favorite incense burning.Mathani: 1, 2, 3. Her mate, her daughter, and her son.  

[bethabunnywrites]

"this is all a fucking disaster." and "just don’t fuck it up." One each for Ji and Mathani but you get to pick which for which.

“Just don’t fuck it up.”

Mathani snorts, shaking her head and pushing her sleeves up past her elbows. “It’s nice to know you have so much faith in my success, Master Runewood.” She spits the title with as much insolence as she dares use with Bodiway - which turns out to be quite a bit. She doesn’t want to risk him backing out on giving her lessons, but Earthmother, she really wanted to punch him in the face some days.

This is one of them. Still, she should probably behave. This is significantly more interesting than kneading bread.

~~~~~~~~~

“This is all a fucking disaster.”

Ji-hing hardly even recognizes her sister’s handwriting anymore, and she is beyond impressed that the letter managed to find her in Thunder Totem. She chews on the end of her quill nervously as she tries to think of some sort of explanation and comes up empty, leaning back in the chair with a groan.

She knew her mother had seen her with Akota, of course, and somewhere in the back of her mind she knew it would come back to bite her in the ass someday, but surely her sister was being overdramatic, right?

Right…?

[beesandbombs]

Inspired by mathani

[cupcakebrandsweetener-blog]

Case Study: Mahtani Consulting

Case Study Mahtani Consulting

Sept. 2013

We met with Vince Mahtani of Mahtani Consulting in early August.  Vince was in need of a business card refresh.

During this meeting we brought our sample book to spec the materials and inks we’d plan to use.  He…

View Post

[nldmut]

After almost 2.5 years of using tumblr, I am now officially following over 2,500 blogs under the username intothecontinuum! I don't do the whole "follow-for-follow" deal, but do consider myself to be pretty liberal in following blogs, and rarely ever unfollow anyone. Regardless, I do like to think I am following a large number of very unique quality blogs. I wonder about those who have managed to reach the follower limit--i think thats 5,000 blogs tumblr allows you to follow before you cant follow anymore--and wonder if I ever will.

I cant keep up with my dashboard feed, nor do I really attempt to anymore. Most of what I view on tumblr actually happens to be on the individual blogs and I have a feeling that this is contrary to the norm for most tumblr users who almost exclusively use the dashboard only.

It would be nice if there was an option on our follower lists to arrange the blogs in an order that corresponds to when the blogs were last updated. Currently, the only way they are arranged is in the reverse order of when you followed them. It does say when the blog last updated, but this isn't too practical when you are following a lot of blogs and don't want to sort through the whole list to see who has recently updated.

Also, i have apparently liked about 18,500 posts. So to commemorate I am going to share my tumblr crushes at the moment:

mathani.tumblr.com

iainiainiain.co.uk

ryansalge.tumblr.com

sid766.tumblr.com

hexagonalawarenessproject.tumblr.com

maxcapacity.tumblr.com

cornpony.tumblr.com

links.thisiscolossal.com

mironart.tumblr.com

[parsecs]

izaizabela replied to your post: I’m going to London in less than ten days and I’m...

not exactly what you’re asking for but you can maybe get £5 tickets to matilda the musical if you’re at the ticket office early enough in the morning uk.matildathemusical.co…

Oh I already looked at going to Matilda the Musical, but I had no idea the tickets can be that cheap. So I suppose that you can buy them for the same day in the morning? We could do that. Well, I'll probably try even if the other two won't be interested. Thanks! :)

crowleysplants replied to your post: I’m going to London in less than ten days and I’m...

You should go to a teashop!!!! I was in one called Smiths (I think) and would 100% recomend.

Yes, tea! D: This is how a part of my shopping list looks:

I totally forgot to ask for tea shop recs, so THANK YOU! I think I want to go to Whittard and Twinings too (I read too much ff set in the UK). 

mathani answered your question: I’m going to London in less than ten days and I’m...

London Eye?

I sort of counted London Eye as a major sight, so that's on our list already. Thanks for your input anyway. :)