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next year’s words

@wordsgood / wordsgood.tumblr.com

michael-anna, reading and writing things, mostly in the speculative zone. 📖: The Adventure Zone: The Eleventh Hour, You Could Make This Place Beautiful 🎧: All Of Us Villains
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current original fiction project summaries/tag lists

it occurs to me that it doesn't make much sense to have an original fiction-writing blog and then just chuck a bunch of contextless nonsense into the void, so maybe some summaries of my current stories are called for!

story: prophecy trilogy

story: we did not fulfill the prophecy (prophecy trilogy book #1)

summary:

After a century of civil war between the imperial Teyan army and murderous Birthfighter seditionists, Doli Lin — foundling turned exile, aide and adopted brother to the imperial princess, unwilling prophet — is ready for the fighting to end, and he has an idea on how to make that happen: a prophecy he gave on the day the war began, the day of his own greatest loss. After years of winning her Birthfighter masters’ battles for them, Jatatyla — magical prodigy, ruthless living weapon, killer of the Teyan emperor — is ready to free herself, from control on one side of the war and retaliation on the other. After a lifetime of alienation and abuse, Loreleaf — religious outcast, one-time child soldier, fire-cursed by his god — is ready for something, anything, to change. Reunited by chance, fate, or the benign meddling of a sympathetic young prince, Doli Lin, Jatatyla, and Loreleaf decide to stop waiting for the prophecy to fulfill itself and take the war’s end into their own hands. But the Resurrectionist Prophecy is far from clear, and the kind of control they’re chasing is elusive at best. They may change the course of the war — or they may find themselves powerless to change their place in its history, as they always have been.

book tags: story: prophecy trilogy, story: we did not fulfill the prophecy

character tags: char: doli lin, char: jatatyla, char: loreleaf, char: marou, char: tomi

relationship tags: dynamic: doli + tomi, dynamic: doli lin & jat, dynamic: jatatyla & loreleaf, dynamic: jatatyla & marou, pair: loremarou

[#2 and #3 coming soon/eventually]

story: satisfaction

summary:

Judah D'Arville has returned to Rieun, a port city of elves, humans, dwarves, dryads, and more. It's the city of her birth -- and death. Or, more accurately, her undeath. After more than a hundred years of exile from the noble family, society, and fiancé that rejected her after her turning, Judah wants revenge, so much that she'll risk disgrace, and worse, to get her hands on the vampire who turned her. Her plans for vengeance are cold-blooded, meticulous, and all-consuming.

Until she meets Dara.

Dara is a chimaera, a creature fabricated from bits and pieces of other living beings. Her very existence is a scandal and a mortal crime -- not unlike Judah's own. Despite her best efforts to focus on her revenge schemes, Judah can't leave another monster girl to her own devices, and decides to help Dara find her creator and solve the mystery of the bloody murder scene Dara was first discovered in.

But Rieun is a dangerous place for monsters, and while Judah tracks down her sire as well as Dara's creator, someone else is hunting her. No matter how smart Judah is -- no matter how carefully she plots her steps -- she can't plan for what horrors people will commit out of fear, fury, or love... or what lengths she herself will go to to ensure Dara's survival.

character tags: char: judah, char: dara

story: bitter magic

summary:

As far as Rae is concerned, she has always been a fairy changeling. All her memories of being human are gone; she doesn’t remember why she asked to be changed, and she intends to keep it that way, thank you very much. She’s perfectly happy to spend her days alone (except for her talking cat Satu, of course), granting the wishes of the few rural villagers who remember she exists, banishing the odd ghost for food and pocket change.

When the prince of a nearby taifa summons her to take care of a ghost in the castle, Rae assumes it’s a normal job, albeit with better compensation than usual. But the ghost refuses to be banished. It’s here for Rae, it tells her; it’s the spirit, not of a human, but of a fairy — one who knew Rae as she was, before her changing.

The ghost escapes, leaving poisoned wells in its wake, as well as an ultimatum: Rae can only banish it in the ruins of the City of Gold, where a long-ago great civilization was destroyed in a single night. If Rae doesn’t come to face the ghost, it will contaminate the waters of her village, her taifa, and more, until the whole land is poisoned and dead — just like the ghost, just like the City of Gold.

Rae reluctantly sets out to meet the ghost on its own terms, accompanied by Satu, the prince, the prince’s valet, and a noble girl intent on becoming a ghostly scholar. What she plans to do is to banish the ghost and go home. What she fears is that the ghost will reveal her — the person Rae was before her changing, and the pain she sacrificed so much to forget.

character tags: coming soon

story: deep six

summary: coming soon

character tags: coming soon

story: hunter and poet

summary: coming soon

character tags: coming soon

story: the monster at the bottom of the universe

summary: coming soon

character tags: coming soon

#michael-anna's actual writing#whoof. summarizing wdnftp is. nearly impossible#i feel like that summary sucks A Lot but i was trying to keep it under like. a thousand words lmao#anyway everything else Will Be Coming i just wanted to be able to pin this finally
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sophie, tracy, and robyn, realizing that they're stuck in a strange new world: shrug emoji

sophie, tracy, and robyn, realizing that they're stuck in a strange new world with a portal fantasy nerd who is absolutely going to do the Genre Savvy thing for as long as she can milk it: 🔪🔪🔪

#ashleah is so important to me. and she is also so obnoxious. i adore her.#story: prophecy girls#yeah i started writing it halfway through nano month and i've already gotten like three times as much as i did on the first project
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thinking about posting my prophecy girls tma au fic. it’s too fun to languish in my google drive forever

#is it good? WHO KNOWS but i think it’s a solid romp#very ‘actually we all love each other so much that we can be both avatars and also loyal friends who save each other always. jot that down’#the only problem with it is the three characters with fantasy names djdjdkdk#i never know whether to give them human names or just rely on suspension of disbelief#I don’t read fic a lot so if anyone who does has an opinion: let me know!!#but anyway. I like it. might do it later. like a six hundred sentence sunday
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stories-dearheart
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bitchfitch

writing advice for characters with a missing eye: dear God does losing an eyes function fuck up your neck. Ever since mine crapped out I've been slowly and unconsciously shifting towards holding my head at an angle to put the good eye closer to the center. and human necks. are not meant to accommodate that sorta thing.

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bitchfitch

other things I'm bitching about but which could still be useful as writing advice for 1 eyed characters:

2. they're going to favor their sighted side, obviously, but it doesn't always manifest in the way you think. when I walk down a hall I walk much closer to the wall on my sighted side than on my blind side. which is the opposite of how it might seem logical to do that bc it means the world at large is on your bad side, but the reason is I can't fucking See the wall if it's right next to me in the blind side and I end up knocking into it.

3. door frames and poles are my enemy. If your character is smart this will not be a problem but for me it is. I am King of walking into shit I could absolutely see but couldn't tell how far away from me it was. on this note, their blind side hand is getting bashed into every jutting out thing in a 5 mile radius.

4. having 0 depth perception is less of a big deal than you'd think it is. Especially with driving. I've become a Much safer and more wary driver because I can't tell how far the other cars are from me. however I fucking suck at parking now. because I can't tell how far the lines are from me either.

5. you know how people who lose limbs get phantom pains? that happens with eyes too but like. phantom sights. for me it's like. a lot of bugs. like every so often my brain will just put something suddenly skittering beside me there. hate that.

6. it is completely possible to "get stuck" somewhere because your ability to tell how wide a space is is just Gone. shopping isles especially where bumping something or Someone is matter of embarrassment or potentially breaking something. it can be legitimately paralyzing and also irritate everyone around you because they can tell there is Plenty of space for you to get your cart through even if you can't.

7. if the eye is still in their skull it can still be the normal kind of painful. Glares off of shiny surfaces causing weird sharp pains you can't figure out the cause of are genuinely one of gods greatest tests of my patience.

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thehungwizard

I too am missing my eye and have advice. But first:

OP I've been missing my eye for 18 years and because of you I'm just now noticing that my neck does in fact list left. Now I will live with that knowledge forever.

1) depth perception issues are more severe if you lose the eye on the same side as your dominant hand. I lost my left eye and am right handed, and only have problems with close-up things. Like pouring water or threading a needle. Sometimes putting the pump in for gas. Walking down stairs is a huge problem I have (walking up is fine), but unlike OP I don't have issues with doorways. Depth perception is different for everyone

2) I've completely lost my eye and need to wear eye patches, no fake eye here. People like me do still rub their "eyes." We also usually say "eyes" and "contacts." Except for comedic effect

3) the people that are in your life with regularity just... forget you have only one eye. Even if, like me, you wear obvious eye patches. This means they get confused when people asked what happened. They'll walk on your blind side and get snippy when you run into them. When my sister learned how to cross her eyes she ask me if I could do it, and it took so much coaching for her understand why my answer was no, and that I would not be "just trying." So don't write everyone around them constantly noticing. Most people don't

#char: jademoon#story: prophecy trilogy#good to know!!!
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having a hurae kinda night……. that post about fictional women never pursuing a male love interest with the same kind of fervor and worshipful adoration that a fictional man can for a female love interest. because that’s what rae does. she fights it but she sees hugo, really sees him, and even though she hasn’t been a knight in decades and those memories are lost to her anyway, the way hugo is - his gentleness, his intuitive kindness towards her, the way he fights with his own fear and often loses because his life has been hard and he’s worn down but still fights anyway - it kicks her old instincts into gear. she has to protect him, she has to prove herself to him, she has to pursue him! and it’s not a pure courtly love, she wants to rip him apart with her teeth and devour him whole, but where her need for control and jealous possessiveness is how she ruined everything in her first life, now he helps her be gentler. less possessive, more willing to love with an open hand.

but also hugo needs some of that protectiveness, that contained desire. he needs to be swept off his feet. he needs someone who wants him so badly that will wait forever for him. he’s never been wooed in his life. but by god is rae going to change that.

#pair: hurae#char: rae#char: hugo#story: bitter magic#rae hates this the entire time. she doesn’t WANT to be so lost in the sauce for him or anyone#hugo on the other hand sees her banish his worst nightmare and is like. Well. This Is My Life Now.#is there anything better than morally ambiguous knight + meek lady’s maid. yes when the knight’s a woman and the maid is a man
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having a category 5 ashleaf moment. the way they need each other. the way ashleah is loreleaf’s first friend who is only interested in him for his own sake, who has no preconceived notions about who he is. the way loreleaf is practically ashleah’s first friend period. the way ashleah is blunt and seems rude and seems so comfortable in being no one’s favorite person but has a hunger for love in her she can’t even name. the way loreleaf is so desperate to be approved of, to be needed, to be of use, but he can’t impress ashleah with anything he does, so in a weird way he can be more honest and real with her than with anyone he’s ever known. the way they slot into the empty places of each other like keys opening doors that have never been opened before. the way they can be completely honest and ugly and true in ways they never imagined before. and still be loved, maybe loved even more than before, because of it

#the girls know ashleah for a month or so before she meets loreleaf#but they’re just as surprised at the way she seems to just. bloom. once she meets him#as doli lin and jat are when they see how he has come into some new confidence once he meets her#they didn’t know they could be loved like that!#they always assumed they would have to settle for pale conditional love. maybe even just like. part of them always hidden or unacceptable#and then it’s like. nope! newsflash asshole! you were lovable and worthy of it the whole time!#char: ashleah#char: loreleaf#dynamic: ashleaf#story: prophecy trilogy
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biromantic-nerd
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teleportzz

hey guys do the allos know that they can have qprs too? like do they know that being alloromantic doesn't mean they can't choose to be in a qpr anyway? because qprs aren't "romance-lite" for aros, they're an entirely separate kind of relationship that anyone can have. you can do this with fictional characters too. you can put characters that aren't aroace or are even canonically dating in qprs with each other just because you think that would be a cool way to play with their dynamic. it's actually very cool and you totally should.

#dynamic: ashleaf#dynamic: doli + tomi#alloromantic loreleaf and tomi being like 'romance is brilliant. but i LIKE this [points at their aro life partner/qpr]'#story: prophecy trilogy#but anyway yes this. all of this. more fictional qprs. more of them everywhere
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my ocs + their halloween costumes

self explanatory, not an exhaustive list, hypothetical au where all the secondary world characters live where halloween costumes are typical

  • loreleaf: does not like dressing up (too many layers, too many weird heavy bits, too many accessories, generally Too Much in a sensory way), but more than willing to sew everyone else's costumes.
  • ashleah: is VERY into halloween and costumes. she goes all out on multiple zelda costumes several years in a row and coaxes loreleaf into wearing very comfortable, casual link costumes to match. zelink shippers do not interact.
  • lev: she also helps make everyone's costumes (she's more into the hardcore armor/accessories side of it; while she does sew, she goes crazy for some worbla and heat guns) but she LOVES dressing up. she has a great storm costume but her favorites are her series of niche or one-off star trek characters (t'pring is her best). she makes her own phasers and tricorders with light and sound and everything.
  • chance: was known for his slutty costumes until he had his mental breakdown and realized he hated putting himself on display. after the Lestat Costume Incident of '23 he has sworn off costumes for good and spends halloweens watching early-season supernatural and drinking spiked hot chocolate.
  • sixes & sevens: have never done a twin costume in their lives. they occasionally do generic costumes (alien, vampire, astronaut, etc) but they are never coordinating. sixes often begs off halloween anyway and is usually the one spiking chance's hot chocolate. sevens is more into halloween parties that aren't about costumes.
  • adder: they've been legolas for ten years running and are not planning on changing that anytime soon. if the costume fits, the costume fits.
  • sepheri: always dresses up as his latest video game fixation. a couple years ago it was patroclus from hades, this year it's astarion from baldur's gate 3, a while back it was elliott from stardew valley. he wants to ask adder if they would be cool with him going as aragorn one year, to match their legolas, and it makes him so nervous that most people assume he's stressing about a marriage proposal.
  • (little does he know that adder would foam at the mouth if they saw him dressed specifically like filthy exhausted door-opening aragorn. they would foam at the mouth and then die of Horny just at the sight of him.)
  • doli lin: has been "too old" for halloween costumes since he was nine. then he watches hadestown at loreleaf's insistence and decides an orpheus costume wouldn't be too embarrassing. turns out he looks Really Hot in that costume and he gets more attention than he was expecting. it's weird but also incredibly satisfying. maybe he's the slutty costume guy now. who can say.
  • jatatyla: always dresses as someone with wings. she gets lev to help her build the kind of wings that can move so they look really realistic. one year she's castiel, one she's angel, one she's maleficent, one year she's maximum ride (no one gets it), one year she's Sexy Mothman (everyone gets it and wishes they didn't).
  • judah: she just puts together some of her old 1700/1800s clothes and goes as a generic gothic heroine, sometimes with a candelabra prop. she's pretty and thin and blond so everyone goes wild even though she puts no effort into it, which kind of pisses her off, so she stops after a few years.
  • dara: you better BELIEVE she milks the hell out of being a frankenstein girl. she's already got the patchwork body parts and everything! she commits halloween costume contest crimes by entering as literally just herself in a slightly different fashion style ("hipster frankenstein" is her favorite so far) and draws sharpie stitch lines over her actual stitch scars to make them pop. she wins 4 times out of 5.
  • one year, just for variety's sake, she goes as sally from the nightmare before christmas instead, and convinces judah to get a jack skellington suit. they don't win any awards but it's judah's "oh my god, i like wearing pants" awakening. dara takes it as a win anyway.
#char: multiple#i love halloween costumes and what they say about characters!!#i used to do this on my original blog i think.......so much fun#imagining all my ocs in a little odyssey-esque town where they hang out together :3 it's so good. healing
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one thing about loreleaf!tav. he will not be indulging in tadpoles. because 1) isn’t there enough wrong with him? why should he add weird powers that everyone will hate him for having to the mix? 2) he thought about how it would feel to actually eat one once and nearly threw up his whole lunch. it’s a texture thing.

#char: loreleaf
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