#zeta replies

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i read brant grey as grant brey.

OH NOOOO BAHAHAHAHAHJAHJAHHAH

Okay but for real—this is so funny to me and now I'm probably going to have someone in the story accidentally say this spoonerism.

I mean, I already have someone mispronounce "Galeknights" for the bit so I might as well just go the whole extra mile

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Happy WBW! What are the sacred professions in your world? I don't necessarily mean religious-- but of course they can be. Just what are the high ranking, prestigious, and/or powerful jobs?

Oh this is the perfect opportunity to ramble about The Astrals' Weapons in Stained Integrity! >:} (I'll also talk about Master Alchemists because those are pretty important too.) Thank you for the ask!

So, in the world of Stained Integrity, there is what is literally known as "the faith" because it's so widespread. The Astrals are the main 3 that are prayed to (and The Wyrds are the ones you plead to).

There is one specific being that is known as the Diviner, who delivers The Astrals' Will to the three beings that are known as The Astrals' Weapons. A lot of people refer to the Diviner's power as "seeing into the future," although it's a bit more complicated than that.

(CW below cut: mention of death, mention of poison)

The Astrals (Méni Lune, Heló Sol, and Aura Stell) each have one Weapon that they are the benefactor of. There's Lune's Blade, Sol's Bow, and Stell's Spear (AKA the Moonblade, the Sunbow, and the Starspear). The purpose of the Weapons is to carry out The Astrals' Will, which is usually just a specific task told to them by the Diviner.

For context, these are the only beings that are bowed to by kings, queens, sovereigns, and other leaders of the skylands. That's how important they are. They each have very specific cloaks that they wear at all times, which makes them easily recognizable.

The exciting part about all this is how the successors are chosen. The Diviner will receive a vision about the successor, and the Weapon is then sent to find this particular individual to train them as a successor until they die. (Yes, they basically get their impending death foretold, although they aren't told how or exactly when they will die, just that it's going to happen.)

Once the Weapon's thread is cut, their literal weapon (the sword, bow, or spear) basically dematerializes and reappears in the Diviner's shrine, which is where the new Weapon will travel to retrieve the weapon and be given their first task from the Diviner.

Each Weapon is also given a specific power by their benefactor that is tailored to their own personal abilities. In the current timeline, Malina (Stell's Spear) has the ability to sense magic and trace magical residue back to its caster, which is in tangent to her ability as a practitioner to sense the presence of souls. She also has heightened healing powers, since stellar magic is based around healing.

At the start of the story, the current Moonblade (Jeyen) has the power to polymorph natural materials into different natural materials (so he could literally turn lead into gold) for various periods of time. The current Solbow (Tache) has the power to augment their own strength to a certain degree, which means pretty much what it sounds like it means.

And I'm going to shamelessly self-promote because I've drawn Malina and posted it here, and I've also drawn the new Moonblade that is Jeyen's successor.

Okay, now about the Master Alchemists!

Basically, the Master Alchemists are those that have learned every single recipe that there is to learn. The reason this is such a feat is that, by law, an alchemy apprentice must ingest anything that they learn to make, before they learn to make it. This includes poisons, potions, and more. The only exception to this is tickerbane, since the poison is so powerful that there is no lower dose that someone can take to make it nonfatal. All other poisons are either diluted or given in a small enough dose that it's just really really painful instead of deadly.

In the current timeline of the story, there is only one Master Alchemist left, since no one has wanted to take on such a difficult apprenticeship.

That's all from me! Thank you again for the fun ask!

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I was thinking about my characters recently and I got worried for a bit that one of my stoic characters wouldn't get mad at anything! Then I realized, "Nah, there are SOME select situations.." It was really fun!

SO! Pick a character of your choice (probably a more put-together character but it doesn't have to be!) and think about their Anger TM.

What would make them mad but would also be really funny and amusing to them?

What would send them into a wild rage? A tirade? Violence, if they're so inclined?

What would make them the kind of cold anger that would lead to months of plotting revenge?

What would make them "not mad, just disappointed"?

No pressure but I thought it'd be cool to pass the prompt around!

OH I LOVE THIS Thank you!!!

Because I've been hyperfixating on my new WIP as of late, I'm gonna do this for the main/more important characters in Feather Candles, which I'm going to put most of under a cut because I already know this is going to get very long haha

(Also I apologize for my awful formatting but this was just how my brain wanted these listed out)

Mad, but it's also funny:

Lark - This is an emotion specifically for when his sisters complain about his "bad habits," if they can be called that. "Can you please stop rolling up your sleeves? It's so obvious you're showing off." "I was actually just making sure I don't drag them through the food on the table but whatever." - Also whenever people ask why he's not courting anyone yet, he's just kind of like, "Hey I'm grieving the death of the person that was basically married to me. Can you leave me alone????" ~

Milo - If she accidentally trips on something/runs into something and someone says, "By the way, there's a chair right there," (or whatever it is), she will get mad, but she also has to laugh because it is kind of funny, despite it being at her own expense. There's more anger than amusement, but she'll still laugh a bit. ~

Peregrine - "You're way too young for/to be doing [X]!" Oh boy. This man is about to burst out laughing at your ignorance. The "anger" burning under his amusement is at the fact that someone is saying that without knowing just what he's been through. Sure, he's young—but he's had way too much life experience already. - This is also the emotion for when people tell him he's gonna die young because his magician's mark appeared when he was only six years old. He laughs with some bitterness because "Do you even know anything about how magic works?" But he's also a little peeved because he hates being reminded that yeah, this might actually be true. ~

El - This is his reaction to people making jokes about his lost memories. He knows it's a joke and can't help but laugh. He also is really stressed out that he can't remember who he was in service to or why he wields a sword. - This is also his reaction for people that poke fun at his body shape/build. He's just a tiny bit mad that someone would make a comment about his height/weight, but he laughs because he's well-aware that he could snap them in half like a twig.

Wild rage (and maybe violence):

Lark: - If someone dares to insult Brant's memory, that person is about to regret opening their mouth. (The duke of Halisin is probably not coming back to the dining hall any time soon, that's for sure.) - Likewise, if someone even hints at insulting either of his sisters, you can bet this man is about to break some bones. ~

Milo - She almost never reaches this point because if she ever reaches this level of emotion, she's more likely to get upset and start crying (and this is still extremely unlikely) than to feel true rage, but if you do something that betrays her trust, she'll start heading in the direction of screaming, "How could you do something like that?!" at you. ~

Peregrine - If someone hurts a person he cares about, you better believe he's slamming his tome as hard as he can against that someone's face. This is basically the only thing that will get him to snap because "Violence begets violence" or whatever, but he's actually got pretty good restraint when it comes to violence. Like, this man could easily just magically explode someone with lightning, but he'll choose to hit you with his tome. - His anger for not realizing something "obvious" (hindsight is 20/20 vibes) also falls into this category. Even if he's the first to make the realization, he'll still fly off the handle at the fact that he didn't figure it out sooner. Not in a physically violent way, but this is basically the only other time you'll hear him yelling and see actual rage in his eyes. ~

El - Do not hurt this man's friends. He will challenge you to a fight that you will not emerge from unscathed. - Do not insult this man's values. He will challenge you to a duel that you will not win.

Cold anger (with potential revenge):

Lark - This is how he feels in regard to that assassin that killed Brant. Dark, cold anger that will not leave him until he's avenged his friend—at whatever cost. ~

Milo - Someone insulting her abilities on the basis of something completely unrelated (like her sight). She won't necessarily plot revenge, but she might not speak to you again until you thoroughly apologize. ~

Peregrine - Nothing you do to him personally will get this man to feel this way. But if you do something to someone he cares about, you can bet that he's got a list in his mind of your personal weakness that he can exploit when it will hurt most. (But whether or not he's actually able to carry out revenge is a different story. His heart is too gentle for that sort of thing.) ~

El - Cold/lingering anger just isn't really his style. He'd rather get things off his chest so it's not bothering him—and maybe just have a fight to settle whatever it is that he's mad about.

Not mad, just disappointed:

Lark - Oh my sweet summer child. This poor broken boy. (I mean he's like twenty-eight years old but REGARDLESS) This is the "anger" he carries for himself, and himself alone. Everything that happened is all his fault, and he should have prevented all the bad things. (He fully believes that he's the reason that Brant died and that he could have saved him somehow.) - Also (we're not gonna get deep into this but) he's got this mentality that he's a disappointment to the queendom for being born a son to a queen. He does all the boring/useless tasks that his sisters don't have time for, and he's basically given free rein at all times to just leave the castle and wander around. (Seriously, how else is he supposed to feel after realizing that there was an assassin after him but they didn't increase reinforcements??) Like, he's not mad he was born in his situation, and maybe not even quite disappointed, but it's basically that. ~

Milo - Really stupid mistakes (especially where people got hurt) that could have been easily avoided. She's a tactician. Most of this disappointment is directed at herself. ~

Peregrine - Kind of odd(?), but this is kind of his attitude about threats and/or violence. Like, if there's a situation where someone is engaging in unwarranted violence (towards himself or someone else), he'll just sadly shake his head at them. "Are you trying to provoke me into fighting back? I could kill you with a simple wave of my hand, but you know I won't, so you're taking advantage of that. It's a bit pathetic, don't you think?" (No, this isn't in the "I'm trying to get under your skin" voice, this is the "I truly believe you are a good person and are capable of being better" voice.) ~

El - This is how he feels about Peregrine's unwillingness to "stand up for himself" (because what else are you supposed to call it when a man barely reacts to slurs being yelled at him???), as well as verbal violence in general. He finds it disappointing when people talk big and only talk big. If they can't even fistfight for what they're getting so worked up about, then why are they getting worked up about it? (Don't worry about El, he's fine.)

OKAY YEAH THAT WAS A LOT But that was fun! Thank you for this prompt, I enjoyed it a lot!

Also I'mma tag @my-cursed-prince because hey friendo wanna see some goofy character stuff???

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Happy STS! What's the most nuanced relationship you've written so far?

I somehow missed this in my inbox, which is a shame because I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY ABOUT THIS ONE--

Anyways, hi Tori! Thank you for the ask!

I have written so many extremely nuanced relationships, most of them non-romantic—although I usually don't have a plan whenever I write the dynamics between my characters. It just kind of... happens?

That being said, I'm pretty sure the most nuanced relationship (in a story that I can talk about without major spoilers) is in Minding Q's (of course): my lovely side characters, Nic and Chase.

And it turns out, this post I made forever ago is now coming in handy! (It's basically just me rambling about them and also the entire backstory of their relationship, which has pretty much stayed the same.) I think the only thing that's sort of changed is that Nic does not like labels, and he does not like being perceived incorrectly, which leads to a lot of tense situations when other people pry about the relationship. (Chase uses the labels panromantic-asexual, but just when people ask about it.)

The important thing is that they refer to each other as "companions," and they care for each other. The rest is honestly hard to describe outside of the story, but it's all there in their words and actions. (Also this post ended up a lot shorter than I thought it would be because I forgot I had that post I could link 😭)

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Happy New Year my friend, I hope you are well. Are there any stories or particular plot points in an ongoing story that you’re really looking forward to digging into this year? What about them excites you?

Hi there! Happy New Year for the Gregorian calendar users! :}

I've been doing well! I'm currently hyperfixating on my newest WIP (Torn of Seeds) and one of my oldest WIPs (Parallel Shadows), so I feel like I have a good mental balance going on right now haha.

But I'm also super excited for the arc I'm currently working on in Minding Q's—which is probably why it's taking me so long to write it 😭 It's a very important arc for Sterling, and I've been enjoying working on it, as difficult as it's been to finish the chapters with how busy I've been lately. But I guess that's part of why I love writing MQs; I feel like I can take my time with it and its slice-of-life pace.

I'm also really really excited for what I've been calling "the Christmas arc" in MQs, which is so far the most goofy part of the story that I've drafted up akshfjaafksjaf I can't really elaborate on it because of spoilers, but I will say that we get to meet Sterling's family during this part, and I absolutely love writing the banter that happens between them all.

Thank you for the ask!

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i unfortunately have zero updates on the whole fake cryptid that was actually just fairies the whole time story because just as i was gonna start fleshing out my brain decided to focus on my steampunk fantasy wip....hoorayyy......

I'M SORRY FOR NOT ANSWERING THIS SOONER AAAHH I was in finals hell 😔

BUT NO WORRIES I am also very interested in this steampunk fantasy WIP!! Please use this as an opportunity to info-dump about it to me!

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Happy STS! Sticking with my new beginnings theme this week, which of your characters is most likely to fake their own death and start a new life?

Happy STS!

Tori... I'm delighted to inform you that this happens not one, not two, but eleven times in my various WIPs and stories 😭😭😭 (One character in particular literally fakes his death five times over the course of one story akjshkjasjkafs)

Thank you for exposing me and my love for this trope BAHAHAHAHA

But because I want to answer this in a less-vague way, I'll also say that out of the characters that don't canonically do this, I think the one most likely to fake their death would probably be Luss from Pentad of Un. (He just seems like the type, honestly.)

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Trick or Treat? 🦇

I shall give you a treat!! 🍭

(For one of the many Trick or Treat events!)

Here's another random snippet from my "currently unintroduced, unedited, and unnamed WIP" (the one I currently have a poll going for to try and decide on the series title) because I already love these characters so much:

* * *

“Happy Anniversary!” I shouted, chucking Freddi’s present at them.

“Ow—hey!” Freddi swatted the package to the floor. “What the heck, Rudy?!”

“I got you a present, dummy!” I pointed at the package. “How dare you disrespect my gift!”

“How the frick did you even get in here?!”

“The door?”

“You did not come through the door.”

“...The window?”

“You freaking magicked yourself in here, didn’t you.”

“Awww, you know me so well!”

“I’m going to strangle you.”

“Oh, you never would.” I grinned. “Anyways—open your present!”

“Why did you get me a present?”

“For our anniversary, duh.” I picked up the package and plopped it on Freddi’s lap. “I met you on this day, ten years ago!”

“Seriously?” Freddi snorted. “So why did you only get me a present this year?”

“’Cuz it’s officially been ten years!” I threw out enthusiastic jazz hands. “And then I’ll get you a present when it’s been twenty years!”

“Was I supposed to get you a present?”

“You could take me to dinner instead,” I suggested.

“Cool, let’s go to Olive Garden.”

“Can you even eat anything at Olive Garden?”

“I like their breadsticks.”

“Okay, we’re not going to Olive Garden if all you’re gonna eat is breadsticks.”

“I mean, I’ll eat pasta, too,” Freddi said. “And I got a soup one time.”

“Let’s just go somewhere else.”

“Fine—Denny’s it is.”

“You can’t take me to Denny’s for dinner!”

“What?! Why not?!” Freddi looked so offended that it was almost funny.

Actually, it was really funny.

“You know what—fine. Denny’s it is.”

Happy Halloween! 🍭

Invoking the taglist in case you guys want to see some silly banter: @my-cursed-prince, @athenswrites