Okay so I have a small sort of blurb/elevator pitch/summary for The Serpent of the Cirque which I figure I should post here
In a world where their kind are cursed, hunted and often killed on sight, the few serpents who manage to survive must do so through lies, tricks and carefully maintained disguises. Meanwhile, the land-dwellers live in fear of their powers and perpetuate their horror through gory tales and nurtured hate.
Far removed from all of that, Chief Ki Uyana has her work cut out for her managing the small, isolated community known as The Freezing Pit. Between negotiating a political breakdown with a neighbouring territory, training her unsuitably timid successor to fill her suitably intimidating shoes and just trying to get her people through the coldest part of the year, she hardly has time for any unprecedented mysteries.
Enter Maelin, a boy with nowhere to be and nothing to tell. Uyana is determined to find out where he came from and how she might get him back there, but the truth behind his strange circumstances is far beyond what she could ever theorise.
introducing you to my babies. you can find links to all of their fics here.
anything to anywhere
stella finley
stella is a ferry pilot for the air transport auxiliary. she's good at her job and knows it, and will stop at nothing until everyone else knows it too. she loves things that fly, especially birds, and hates her own prettiness, which has only ever slowed her down. if a man is going to force her into a conversation she is absolutely going to manipulate it so they’re talking about whatever she wants to talk about (most often whichever bird she’s interested in at the moment). she's fiery, passionate, and talkative.
why all this music?
wilfrieda ‘freddie’ leroy
freddie is a classical pianist at heart but a wireless operator by necessity. almost immediately after the outbreak of war she joined the WAAFs and she’s been there ever since. the greatest loves of her life belong to her past, but her closest friends like to think she’ll find some new ones soon - or maybe just one new one, a certain someone who won’t take her rejection at face value. freddie has a heart of gold but has a hard time letting people into it. she finds comfort in playing the music from her childhood, sleepovers with her friends, and benny demarco’s dog meatball.
millicent ‘millie’ harlow
millie has known half-hearted love a thousand times over but, a romantic at heart, she’s always dreamed of finding a man who will properly steal her heart and give her his in return. she would never have guessed that man would come in the form of a pilot she cannot stand when they first meet. she’s a wireless operator with a big heart and a sharp tongue, always a shoulder to cry on and a safe space for her nearest and dearest.
the spirit of the corps
charlotte ‘charlie’ lancaster
charlie is the main character of ‘the spirit of the corps’. the daughter of wealthy parents from lancaster, new hampshire, she graduates college early and heads overseas at 19. she’s shy and naïve, but brave and resolved to help. she loves books, pink roses, and chocolate chip cookies, and blushes an awful lot more than she’d like to.
mabel ‘mabs’ edison
mabel comes from a big family, filled to bursting with boys. when all of her brothers end up spread across the world to fight in the war, she leaves dallas, texas in an effort to save lives where so many are being taken. she loves boys, flirting, and is an excellent mathematician. she’s guilty of calling everyone ‘darlin’ in that thick accent of hers.
violet ‘boo’ hollister
violet, affectionately nicknamed boo, wants to put as much space between herself and her family as possible, though she’s tight-lipped as to why. she’s desperately shy but effervescent with those she trusts. she loves dancing, music, and the colour yellow.
autumn vogel
autumn is something of an enigma to those around her, though no less loved because of it. she has a mysterious past and a reckless fire in her eyes. the way she talks about life hints that she doesn’t plan on taking it for granted. she loves jigsaw puzzles, photography, and her friends above all else.
henriette ‘henry’ maddox
henry is the commanding officer of the 23rd field hospital nurses. initially, she’s cold, ruthless, and strict, but when she learns to trust them she opens herself up a little. something about her hints at loss and a reluctance to let anyone close. unfortunately for her, those around her will never cease trying.
all things nice
josephine ‘posey’ ‘duckie’ wells
posey leaves london for boston as an evacuee during the blitz, but with a brother in the raf and a mother at risk of being bombed she soon decides sitting idle across the pond won’t do. accompanied by her trusty childhood best friend, a teddy bear named teddy, she cuts off all of her hair and disguises herself as a man. she laughs loudly, swears a lot, and is terrible at holding her alcohol. those who love her would describe her as a whirlwind. those who don’t would describe her as fearless.
the shadows duology
juliette chevalier
juliette was born in bordeaux, france and moved to london, england when she was eleven. initially a code breaker, she was quickly recruited to work for the special operations executive as a spy. she’s as affectionate as a puppy and equally as enthusiastic with her hugs. she loves art, reading, and, eventually, life.
juliette’s boys
the boys in juliette’s team are tom, will, martin, and alexis. a patchwork of personalities, she loves them all dearly and would do anything for them. her best friend, however, is tom, a platonic soulmate in its truest form. no one understands her like tom and no one ever will. they’ll never be in love but will always be attached at the hip. the team has been through everything together and are more siblings than colleagues. they laugh at, sob for, scream at, and fight with each other, but they never doubt how much they’re all loved.
Hey! World Building Wed ask! In your Now and Then, what're the three types of vampires you got going on? How do they differ?
I MADE A MISTAKE omfg i was like “i’ll remember this on wednesday, i don’t need to answer it right away”
spoiler alert: i did NOT remember.
Anyway! Vampires! Here we go! A story for you! Keep in mind that I made this up when I was like twelve and haven’t had time to do an in-depth overhaul of it since, lol.
The three types of vampires all began in the same place, as a group of humans that migrated out of Africa back when the human race was still in its infancy. Like penguins and seals, they found their home way down in the eternal frost of Antarctica.
Out on the ice, firewood was a myth, and the animals that lived there had to be caught, torn open, and eaten, bloody and raw, before they froze to the ice. So the teeth of these humans grew incredibly sharp, and their stomachs strong and efficient. To protect against the bitter cold, layers and layers of fur had to be worn, blocking out the little sunlight they had. Their skin turned white and their hair went black. They lived like wild animals, eating entrails like it was nothing.
That was how the first type of Vampire became common. After enough evolution to render them a nearly different species from humans, they traveled north again. They encountered less-dressed peoples and saw no difference between them and the naked, uncivilized creatures that they ate out on the tundra. These vampires fed on humans as they would on any other animal. The further north they got, the more populated they found the human cities to be, and by the time they reached Celtic land they would only suck the nutritious blood out of a body before they left it for the birds and went looking for new prey. These are the vampires you undoubtedly know.
At the same time, humans started to invade the territory of the vampires still down at the bottom of the world. They brought their domesticated animals and their lumber to build houses, and during the night the vampires would creep out like specters and feed on anything left outside. The only things that could be made out in the darkness were their bloodless white faces, which is why some places still have legends of carnivorous monsters who prowl the night with the cold skin of death.
These ones are also fairly common, but there are less common vampires, ones that are so twisted that the natives dared not invoke their name.
Before the humans got smart and began protecting their settlements with rows of wooden stakes set into the ground, some of the vampires retreated even further south, to places that no human will ever go. The farther they went, the weirder things got. These guys got mean–they had so little to hunt that they quickly became the most exact killing machines on the face of the planet. But because they were once human, and humans epitomize vanity, they refused to let go of their beautiful human faces. So what were the lone vamps to do?
The answer: evolve into shape-shifting monstrosities. With the help of some Fae magic, they began to change. They walked and interacted like humans, but the instant they needed claws, they transformed into a beast with claws. When they needed wings? They got those, too. Horns sprouted on their heads, and talons on their feet; scales, fangs, and even gills sprang into existence. They were so deadly in their beastly form that a full-grown polar bear wouldn’t have time to bare its teeth at them before its heart stopped beating.
Ashieba vampires became the scourge of the earth. They were the worst monsters to ever walk the planet, because they pretended to be human when they weren’t. They wore beautiful faces… but they cared for nothing, not humans not other vampires not animals, absolutely nothing.
I'm trying to make canon outfits for TSOTC and I'm going for a specific theme and I had beautiful and smart ideas in mind literally yesterday and this morning they just evaporated. So,, I'm still going to try, I'm really eager to get the full story out there and see if anyone would like it
in honour of me (finally) posting the first of charlie’s bonus chapters, have a charlie and floyd moodboard i made many moons ago, because they are very beautiful to me and i love their aesthetic. sweeties only
i had a culture that was in constant combat for millennia, right, so they had these intricate ceremonies and rituals based around their armor, and one of them was this ceremonial painting thing?
like after each battle, they’d brew up this GIANT tub of paint/lacquer and throw in whatever pigment they could find, and then they’d all sit around together and fill in the scratches left on their armor/weapons from the enemy’s weaponry? and the more colors on your armor the more battles you survived until your armor was mostly made of crisscrossing layers of color. a soldier could retire when a certain percentage of their armor was covered in lacquer. sometimes people didn’t retire and some of them lived to be, like, thousands of years old so their armor was literally nothing but layers of colored lacquer :O
if a soldier fell in battle, they would write their name in the color of the battle in the memorial walls that served as graveyards (they didn’t bury anyone, they burned them all in these giant pyres) so that everyone would know when they were slain. all their great/important historical battles were named after colors, haha. like the battle of moss green, the battle of indigo, etc.
..............................i’m in love with myself these are such good ideas
