mmkay. well. I can already tell this is gonna be my favorite new painting. :|

I... am excited. My brain has never been more satisfied than it was coloring in those tiny slices and I have SO MANY MORE TO GO. buzz buzz buzzzzzzzzzzzzz 🧠

OC in fifteen

Thank you @winterandwords for this glorious tag... I had a great time browsing for Callie dialogue!!!

Rules: Share 15 or fewer lines of dialogue from an OC, ideally lines that capture the character/personality/vibe of the OC. Bonus points for just using the dialogue without other details about the scene, but you're free to include those as well!

... and I mean, of course I chose Callie for this, but it was really interesting because out of my four POV characters, her dialogue is the farthest away from what's actually going through her head. So it's actually wild to strip away the internal monologue and pull her words alone.

Trigger warnings for swears, visceral vulgarity, blatant insensitivity, suicide mention, and, you know, murder.

1

“What? You don’t think I’m cool enough to have my own cult? They dyed their hair red and everything, swear to God.” 

2

“That’s the truth. The simple, obvious thing you’re just gagging to hear.”

3

“You have to forgive me, your honor, it’s been a tiring couple days. But I totally did it, hundred percent, guilty of murder in the first degree.”

4

“Well, obviously you’ve never fucked a telepath.” 

5

“It’s suicide-resistant - that means there’s nowhere to attach a rope to hang yourself. Though if you ask me, if you're creative enough to hang yourself on a toilet, hats off."

6

“Oh. Of course, I’ll hitch up my safari boots and get right on that. Shit, Anka, we’re in supermax, if you haven’t noticed."

7

“Eat a metric ton of shit, you fucking sex predator.” 

8

“At least I’m fun. And mysterious. And hot as hell.”

9

“Ahh, well, that changes everything, Bennett - she fuckin’ pinky swears.” 

10

"Sorry. For, for kissing you, and pushing you off the roof. I didn’t mean to- to-” 

11

“My problem? My problem is that you get off on helping, and fixing, and I don’t wanna be your fodder while you stroke your big, throbbing savior complex, that's my problem."

12

“You’re sweet. That woman is a snake in the grass, and God help anybody who steps too close.” 

13

“You don’t know. You can’t. You don’t know what it’s like to be this way.” 

14

“You know, I think I liked you better catatonic.” 

15

“I used to just wonder what was wrong with me. And I mean, there’s a lot. There really is. But now, I wonder what’s wrong with other people more.” 

--

That's my girl. 🍒

Tagging @ashen-crest, @sleepyowlwrites, @oh-no-another-idea and @magicmoon65 - plus, I mean, literally anyone else who wants to jump on. Hell, I might do this with my other OCs for funsies. I loved this.

Word find tag: high, low, tall, and short

Thanks to my brilliant friend @winterandwords for the tag 😍😍😍

high

Callie POV

An icy wind whipped at her hair, but she didn’t dare shift into her natural power to conjure warmth against it. Not when she looked down and saw nothing but a steep drop into a freezing, craggy valley.  She was fine. She needed matter near her for the Matter magic to push on but at worst, she’d fall very far to an inconvenient place with an embarrassing but soft landing.  Probably.  Well, she’d never really tested it fully - never fallen from quite so high, onto quite as treacherous terrain.  Couldn’t be much farther.

low

Simon POV

The toddler certainly had a set of lungs. She sat upright on a low bed, her face screwed up and beet red, screaming bloody murder.  “Hey,” he said softly, bending down and lifting her from under her arms. “Shh, shh. It’s okay.”  Except it wasn’t – not even close. The contact brought Miriam’s dismay into excruciatingly vivid color. The bed that used to be safe wasn’t safe anymore. She woke up and Bobo was gone. That never happened, it was wrong, he should be here and he was gone and she’d never see him again, her best friend.   At the far end of the bed, a stuffed pink rabbit with floppy ears was splayed on the floor, half covered by a displaced blanket. “Uh oh, who’s this?” he asked aloud even though he knew quite well, picking it up and holding it in front of Miriam.  Her mind instantly went still and her wet little eyes widened in relief. 

tall

Riley POV

“You’re about to witness a miracle which hasn’t been performed since our leader walked among us,” Adrian announces grandly. There’s an air of anticipation; the loudest sound in the room is the soft crackling of the colorless flames. “Trudy, please come forward.”  There are tears in the pale woman’s eyes, but she holds herself straight-backed and tall. She’s offered herself up for this: a way to finally, finally, pull her family name up from the dirt.  Adrian takes her hands in his own and kisses her knuckles, a wordless but unmistakably fond goodbye. He nods at her and she returns the gesture, and then without preamble, the woman drops her cloak and kneels, naked, at Riley’s feet.  Riley knows what they’re expecting, so she gives them exactly that. 

short

Callie POV

Bennett turned to face her, just short of the archway to the entrance hall. He probably felt the tears building up behind her eyes, hot and prickly. They were too enmeshed now, two codependent assholes who barely had to use words anymore.  He did anyway. “Tell me what this is really about.” What was it really about?  It was probably about how Riley frightened her, and not even in the needle-stabby way, or the freakish-intellect way. Not in the way the woman could set her steely gaze on Callie and make her feel like her skin was pulled back and pinned to an autopsy slab. It was about how all that should be what frightened her but instead it just made her heart beat faster out of something distinctly not fear and what did that say about her, Callie? Probably nothing radiantly healthy.

Tagging @starlit-hopes-and-dreams, @i-can-even-burn-salad, @indecentpause, @avrablake and @pertinax--loculos with the new words might, light, sight and bright :)

Finished line edits for book 2!

Got my word count down from 129,539 to 107,141 - 22,398 words cut! Now I'll repeat the same process with what used to be book 3, will now just be the final 9 chapters of book 2. Starting word count there is ~33K, so I'll finish it in much quicker order than the last chunk for sure. And then...

And then... ?

Phew. I guess I'm going to try and read the whole thing again, aaaaaand, then if it's good, start putting together query letters???

Damn. :)

Here's a snippet from the final day of editing. I may have posted it or piece of it before. I don't remember anymore. :P

Simon POV

Riley didn’t move a muscle, only hugged her body, staring into the fireplace like a pale statue. Her hair hung in dripping strands. Her mind-  Her mind was shut in a way Riley should not be capable of. She was always more contained than most, a natural byproduct of a stoic personality, but this was different. What blanketed her thoughts had an unfathomable quality that raised the hairs on the back of his neck. It made him feel pointedly vulnerable, as if a new apex predator, the first of its kind, had just emerged from the tree line.  “I need help,” Riley croaked.  She wasn’t the only one. He clamped down on the urge to run screaming and approached her carefully, coming to kneel in front of her on the floor. 

Other WIP is still something I go running to my notes program about sometimes, scrawling things in all-caps and such, and I've written some small piece of a couple scenes and have loads more ideas, and I'm just incredibly at peace with that. It feels really good and really nice.

edited this morning

Still chopping away at the meatiest section of the story, down from 129K to 118K now, so making progress! Just finished up this section where we kinda drive Simon to his breaking point by hurting the kids he is responsible for. 😈

Simon POV

Camilla was waiting outside the infirmary, leaning against the wall, told you so rolling off her like the perfume he could taste under his tongue. It was dark now and the hallway sconces weren’t even lit. “Anything you’d like to say to me?” He frowned, his muscles aching from the strain of holding himself together. “Get out of my face.”  He didn’t slow his stride for her and she chuckled. “I’m not your enemy,” she called behind him, her sharp voice echoing in the quiet corridor. He stopped, took a deep breath, turned around.  “Yeah you are,” he spat, too tired to hold it back. “You made yourself my enemy by coming into the last safe space some of these kids have to show them the world’s a terrifying place that hates them for who they are.”  He felt feverish and fragile, too close to shaking apart to care about wherever his verbal filters had gone. “That girl in there, she needs support, education about her power,” he said, pointing back toward the infirmary, “not drugs that cut it away from her, turn her into, into a shell.” He shook his head, jamming his palms into his prickling eyes. “Fuck. I don’t know why I’m preaching to you. You don’t believe in any of this, do you? Just admit it. You want the power. That’s all.”  Camilla just blinked, calmly waiting out his tirade. “What I want,” she said sweetly, “is the list of acutely Focused students at this institution. And I’m giving you one more day.” 

Simon only curses when he's at the end of his rope, poor guy <3 Love him.

✨ taglist ✨

@avrablake​ @adie-dee​ @dontjudgemeimawriter​ @ryorine​ @thelaughingstag​ @winterandwords​ @afoolandathief​ @asomeoneperson​ @cedar-west​ @diphthongsfordays​ @lowslore​ @poetinprose​ @cilly-the-writer​​​​​​​​ @harps-for-days

snippet from editing today :)

Characters putting on a show of being at odds while secretly scheming together my beloved :D

Callie POV

“It was a stupid joke,” she choked. “He said he’d do anything I wanted and I, I thought it would be funny. So I picked something hard to get, just to see what would happen, I swear. It was really stupid and I’m sorry, I’m really sorry.”  “Then where are the goods?”  “What?” She looked to Bennett, who shifted his weight and looked everywhere but her direction.  “The corpseflower petals, dear," the warden said conversationally. "If you don’t intend to use them, surely you’ll give them up.”  Bennett skirted the edges of Prescott’s mind. He knows you have them, don’t tell him you don’t.  “I...” what do i say ?!  I don’t know, I don’t know, give me a second.  But every moment of hesitation was making her look more suspicious. She was on her fucking own. “I can’t,” she said helplessly. “I’m sorry. I can’t.” “Have you lost them?” He tsked at her, leaning back in his chair. “You must think I’m quite stupid, Callie Ray.”  “Let me,” Bennett said suddenly. “I’ll read her. I’ll find out where they are and get them for you, and then we can be done with this.” fuck are you doing ??  Play along. He thinks I’m soft but he’s interested in our connection.  Bennett was right; she caught a glimmer of intrigue in those creepy eyes. “Alright, Mister Bennett,” he agreed, gesturing at her like she was the fucking dessert table. “Be my guest.” 

I love this chapter because it has soooooo many delicious elements:

Callie realizing that just because she did something at Bennett's behest doesn't automatically stamp it with Good and Right Moral Approval

Callie facing the prospect of being sent back to prison and having to own up to herself that she genuinely loves being at Delaney and would miss the people here

The aforementioned trickery where Bennett pretends like he is forcibly reading her mind while he's actually not doing anything at all

And not referenced the snippet above, but Callie actually doubting whether Bennett wants/needs her around and thinking he really is betraying her, when all he's doing is some serious quick thinking and un-Simon-like sleight of hand to convince the warden to leave them alone ;D

I've been fighting off a virus for 5-ish days now, but have been managing to get editing done nonetheless, and I'm comforted by the modest snow cover outside and the promise of more flakes to come in the 10-day forecast. I haven't been on here much, but I hope everyone is doing well :) :) :) :) :)

taglist 😘

@avrablake​ @adie-dee​ @dontjudgemeimawriter​ @ryorine​ @thelaughingstag​ @winterandwords​ @afoolandathief​ @asomeoneperson​ @cedar-west​ @diphthongsfordays​ @lowslore​ @poetinprose​ @cilly-the-writer​​​​​​​​ @harps-for-days​

Comment to be added or removed :)

Heads Up Seven Up

Thank you for the tag dear friend @winterandwords!!!! 😘

Callie POV

"Pride is, and has always been the opposite of faith; pride brings pleasure, and we mustn’t seek pleasure.”  “Why not?” escaped her before she could stop it.  Her father lifted his wine. “Because very pleasure we experience is an undeserved mercy.”  Of course. She stared into her own glass, resisting the urge to not deserve all the mercy in it at once. “But Judith’s painting... that’s okay with you, because she’s not doing it for pleasure, or, or recognition.” 

Callie's dad is a real treat. 😶

Tagging @talesfromaurea, @afoolandathief, @oh-no-another-idea, @diphthongsfordays, @sleepy-night-child, @starlit-hopes-and-dreams and @harps-for-days if they would like to share seven lines! <3

last lines

Tag courtesy of @sleepy-night-child, thank you, friend!

Simon POV

“You wanna hold the fucking dance?”  “Yes. It’s important,” he said, even though he’d never realized quite how much. “I don’t care what happens tomorrow, whether we liberate magician kind or end up on trial for seditious conspiracy. We’re gonna plan things like we’re, like we’re fucking living, like we’re…” “Unafraid,” Callie supplied, meeting him in the middle of the bridge. “Like nobody’s coming for us and everything’s alright.” “Yes. Yes! We’re gonna live,” he breathed, his gratitude for having somebody constantly up his mental ass never burning brighter. “We’re gonna keep living until they kill us.”

I feel like I am almost in a spiritual place with this draft at the moment, where I'm like, a vessel, just hands and dedicated time, and it is morphing into something polished and close to done. It's a good way to feel :)

Oh, gosh, I've not been on here much recently; I'll just tag some people I enjoy: @pertinax--loculos, @i-can-even-burn-salad, @avrablake, @winterandwords, @aziz-reads, @chauceryfairytales hi guys :D

Popping in to demand, gently and with enthusiasm, that you share some banter from a wip of your choosing, please and thank you

Banter? Oh I don't write banter. I'm not into it. How boring. JUST KIDDING BANTER IS LIFE YES I'LL POST SOME 😍😍😍😍😍

In fact I love it so much I'll post some from both my WIPs (although, holy shit, is it correct to call The Insuppressible Callie Ray a WIP when it's done? 😱).

The Insuppressible Callie Ray, Simon POV:

“Why don’t you just get back with her?” she demanded. “It turns my stomach, you know. You’re so broken-up over her, it’s literally sickening.”  “Can we not do this right now?”  “Whatever, listen, you don’t even see how good this is,” she pressed, drawing her feet underneath her and leaning toward him in her excitement. “This is what you do: you just start dating Ash. Like, super casual. That’ll make the other one jealous, and then she’ll want you back. See? You can have your cake and eat it too.”  She made jazz hands, and he stared at her. “Ta da!”  “Wow.”  “I know, right?”  “No, that wasn’t complimentary.”  Her expression deflated. “I’m just trying to help. You’re kinda clueless with women.”  “Yeah, and you’ve got them all figured out. Your last one-night stand worked out great.”  Her eyes went wide and she huffed and turned away from him, hugging her mug to her chest. “That was low, Bennett,” she complained. “Really low.”  He sniffed. “What in god’s name are you drinking?”  “Coffee,” she pouted. “Just like you.”  “It smells like a buttercream avalanche, how many flavor shots did you use?”  “Enough to make it taste good.” 

And here's a snippet of Octavius enjoying himself with reporters in what is currently the first scene of gay crime BDSM story:

:) :) :) Thanks for the ask @revenantlore!!!

--

✨ WIP intro

🔖 tag list: @winterandwords // @revenantlore // @space-writes // @indecentpause // @words-after-midnight // comment to be added or removed!

📝 all posts from WIP: gay crime bdsm story

Status update :)

Finished draft 2 of book 2/3!

Up next: draft 2, book 3.

Goals:

Now, because it's its own book, make it longer. Never been an issue for me, don't expect it to start now.

Amp everything up. Higher stakes. More drama. Just like I've been doing throughout the entire draft 2 process - getting rid of that nasty restraint wherever I can find it.

It already fucks. Basically I need to just make it fuck harder and longer.

Personal fandom holiday time!!!

December 27 is the day Callie killed Peter, and the same day 12 years that shit goes down in a fashion that kicks off the final stretch of the whole story. :) :) :)

So in honor of that, here's a bit!

Callie POV

Callie was wearing impractical shoes because she was excited.  Sure, she might break an ankle trudging out into the pitch-black woods in three-inch heels, where roots the size of wolves lurked beneath the ice, but she might not. And she’d sure as hell look good either way.  And that wasn’t all. Just before she left her room she noticed Peter’s sweater in a ball on the floor near the closet, and she giggled. Never even gave it back. What an ingrate.  She slipped it on as an inside joke with herself, because Peter wouldn’t see it under her coat. Wielding Peter’s power wearing Peter’s sweater. Funny.  “When are you gonna tell me what we’re doing out here?”  She clung to his coat, allowing him to support her as the canopy of evergreens began blotting out the grey midnight sky. It began to snow in earnest now, like their globe got shaken.  “I have something I wanna show you, but it’s secret,” she said. “You know there’s layers and layers of detection wards all over the castle, totally invisible, right? What I have here, it might set ‘em off, that’s why we need to be way outside the castle walls.”  She could just imagine what she could barely see - him, shaking his head at her in the darkness. “You’re a lunatic.”  “Yeah, but do you like it?”  Crunch, crunch went his boots. “Jury’s still out,” he said, but she could hear the smile in it. The way he’d put up with anything if she was the one doing the asking.  Maybe he was even excited to break the rules for once: Sweet Peter.  They reached the tiny glade where she’d spent hours this winter practicing for this moment. She didn’t even dare hang lights this time. The moment was too fragile, too momentous for any unnecessary risks. She reached down into her shirt, facing him and his expectant eyes as his warm breath swirled in between them.  She unsheathed the blade.  “I see,” he said. “And I’m guessing this is more than just some knife?”  “It’s an orblex.”  His eyes widened. “Callie, these are illegal.”  “So’s drinking, you’re only twenty. Who cares. Sit down,” she said, making the motion herself without taking her eyes off him. “Gimme your hands.”  “What are you gonna do?”  They sat so close together they formed a little wall with their knees, and she wasn’t deliberately casting anything to see by but all the same, the build-up of her desire was coaxing the orblex open before she even meant to begin. It glowed already, its shifting hues casting Peter’s face in stained-glass light.  “I’m gonna show you what it’s like to fly.” 

✨ tag list ✨

@avrablake​ @adie-dee​ @dontjudgemeimawriter​ @ryorine​ @thelaughingstag​ @winterandwords​ @afoolandathief​ @asomeoneperson​ @cedar-west​ @diphthongsfordays​ @lowslore​ @poetinprose​ @cilly-the-writer​​​​​​​​ @harps-for-days

new art + snippet!

“You don’t scare me,” she shouted at the cyclone as it whipped with circular-saw ferocity, knowing the message would reach its maker, tucked safely in its epicenter. And sure enough:

You’re lying. I can feel your fear.

Calm. Collected. Utterly unmoved. Callie grit her teeth. 

CORRECTION, she spat back across the wretched thread that bound them together, pooling her power at her burning fingertips. YOU DON’T SCARE ME ENOUGH TO STOP ME.

Pfftt this came flying out of fucking nowhere but I’m not complaining. 😍 Or, the drawing did, I should say; the moment is from the *whispers* final fight of the books. All I know is I watched Carrie (2013) yesterday and there was a pose from the prom bloodbath that screamed Callie to me. And originally it was gonna be her releasing hell with her magic, and midstream it turned into... this!

Heads Up Seven Up

Thank you so much for the tag, @indecentpause! This tag game is always fun for me because it's such a challenge for me to find seven lines that I think stand well on their own. I have a really hard time plucking any kind of short snippet out of its context, actually, and I know I can interpret these games however I want but it's still fun to push myself. :D

Callie POV

From the moment she set foot in Lyonall School of the Arcane, she could tell it was weird.  It was just a vibe. Like when somebody who hates you is staring straight at your back, like when you know an invisible enemy is near only because other people are moving out of its way.  The archways above her head came to points, big ones in the middle and smaller ones in between, gaping mouths with uneven teeth. They had a faint glow that came, she saw up close, from flowing lines of the same symbols that seemed to snake all over this place, and she didn’t recognize a one. Moths fluttered overhead in streams of light that didn’t even reach the ground.  Weird, yes - and she was so into it she could kiss the whole freaky castle on its nasty carnivorous mouth. 

Tagging @chauceryfairytales, @oh-no-another-idea, @avrablake, @afoolandathief, @sleepyowlwrites, @winterandwords and @pertinax--loculos to share seven lines if they want 🥰

Word find tag (smile, cry, laugh)

Thanks for the tag, @winterandwords​; oof, these are doozies. 😅🤩

smile

Simon POV

“Keys, of course.” Grace held her own up from where it dangled around her neck; the blue stone flashed in the daylight. “What else?” 

Flora still looked unconvinced. “How many are you planning to make?” 

This was the best part. 

Arguably, also the worst part. 

“About five thousand?” he ventured, pressing on through the sound of Ken nearly choking. “Enough for everyone at all six schools to start using them all at once. Imagine: suppression, nationwide, simply stops working, with no explanation. If that doesn’t make a statement, I don’t know what does.” He allowed himself a smile. “No one gets hurt. There’s no war. All that happens is, the world sees we’re not going away. That magic’s insuppressible.” 

Behind him, Callie lashed her magic across the piano from left to right, sending an escalating cacophony of notes tearing through the room before jamming her pinkie finger into the thing’s rightmost key in joyous punctuation.

cry

Callie POV

The magic shifted almost imperceptibly, its taste changed; physical magic like hers, like Peter’s, but frightening in its precision, the way it clung to her muscles and left her brain free to cry in protest as Riley pulled her gently from the bed. 

No, she tried to say. No, no, no. She felt feverish; the robe clung to her clammy skin but whether it was from the bath or her fear, she couldn’t say. Riley took one of Callie’s hands in her own and held it out, away from their bodies; she took Callie’s other hand and placed it on her shoulder, smiling when it stuck there. 

“My mother made me take ballroom dancing lessons when I was a kid. Amazing,” she hummed thoughtfully, low in her throat, “how all that muscle memory sticks with you. Have you ever done it? Nod yes or no.” 

The bonds around her head and neck loosened a fraction but she didn’t use the temporary freedom, refused to give Riley the satisfaction until- 

“I asked you a question,” Riley said softly, her voice laced with a different kind of magic. “Answer me.” 

The answer was no and to her chagrin, her head moved side-to-side to indicate it. Riley smiled - just a hint, a subtle pleasure at a tiny victory. 

Acid rose in her throat and she closed her eyes. Even if she had to feel it, she didn’t have to look. Riley’s hand, soft on her waist; her own feet moving over the tile. Riley led, and she followed. 

laugh

Simon POV

“It isn’t like nothing happened,” he said calmly. “Everything that’s happened is always there, it colors every moment I spend with her, Rich. And so does everything that’s happened since then. I know this sounds trite, but it’s complicated.” 

“Are you fucking her?” 

“What?” 

“You heard me, are you fucking her?” 

“No, I’m not,” he said flatly, amazed at how quickly his brother’s tone changed back - mean and simple again. “And you know what? If I was it’d be none of your business.” 

“I’m just tryin’ to understand how you could be so stupid, bro.” 

“I don’t have to be fucking somebody to show compassion!” 

Rich made a noise on the other end of the line – somewhere between a cough and a laugh, a hard sound that signaled the impending shutdown of the whole conversation.

They weren’t going to fix anything this round. Maybe next time. Maybe not. 

Tagging @harps-for-days, @starlit-hopes-and-dreams, @diphthongsfordays and @cilly-the-writer with the new words fire, water, air, and user’s choice of any word that’s got to do with nature, earth, trees, dirt, or whatever’s in your WIP for the last element :D

Callie/Riley snippet I recently did a pass on.

I know I haven't posted anything for awhile; I'm fighting really, really hard against the what-does-it-even-matter of depression, but I have still been banging away at my draft and I would like to remind everybody that I do still exist.

Hi, friends. :) Open invitation to tag me on something you've posted lately that I have absolutely, totally missed. I would love to see what you've been up to and I don't even know where to start to catch up.

Callie POV

It was a sight too strange to believe: Riley panting against the wall, wiping her jawline with the palm of her hand, blood mingling with tears. Whatever she’d stumbled in on at first was a normal expression of Riley’s power, but the rest? The fact that charred bits of books were still settling around her, falling like autumn leaves?  “Talk,” she growled into the silence. “You’re supposed to be a medium.”  Riley laid her head back against the wall.  Resignation. Exhaustion. Anyone else might fake such a display to elicit sympathy. Not her, though.  Callie, you called for help, Bennett interrupted. What’s going on? 

She scowled, packaging the whole scene up into a neat little mental telegram and shot it off. “I’m talking to you,” she spat, pulling her shields back up. Riley was weak at the moment - whatever she’d done to the room hurt her too - but she’d recharge. Magic always did, unless you died first. “What did you do?”  “I didn’t mean to,” Riley muttered, sounding impossibly tired. “I cause... disturbances.”  “I’m not talking about the damn room.”  She opened her eyes a fraction; released a brittle sigh. “I have more powers than just my own.”  “No shit, how many?”  She looked down her nose at Callie. “Many.”  “How?”  She waited for an answer, but Riley just sat stock-still like the marble fucking statue she was. Cold, hard stone. It set Callie’s blood on fire.  “You kill someone?” she pressed. “Multiple someones? Or you found a way to inject yourself with powers, huh? Did some freaky Frankenstein lab shit you’d get thrown behind bars for, what?”  “If you want to know that badly, you’ll have to get Simon to pry it out of me.” She set her jaw, already recovering herself, to Callie’s chagrin. “I’m not telling you anything.”  Callie was going to kill her. Pin her down and pummel her within an inch of her life. Pull the truth out of her treacherous mouth with a pair of rusty pliers. Riley knitted her brow like she felt a migraine coming and looked around the room, seeming to notice that state of it for first time. “How did you even get in here?” she asked. “This place is supposed to be secure.”  Ha. She didn’t remember. “The doors are,” Callie confirmed. “The windows, not so much.”  Riley swallowed thickly, and Callie caught a familiar glint of irritation. Familiar, in fact, like someone she spent her whole life in the shadow of, not like someone she teamed up with for a week, years ago. Familiar because it had burnt itself into the back of her eyes: Riley’s face when Callie needled her, poked playfully at the most sensitive bits she could find. The way she arched one immaculate, precise eyebrow to say, get on with it, then.

tag list @avrablake​ @adie-dee​ @dontjudgemeimawriter​ @ryorine​ @thelaughingstag​ @winterandwords​ @afoolandathief​ @asomeoneperson​ @cedar-west​ @diphthongsfordays​ @lowslore​ @poetinprose​ @cilly-the-writer​​​​​​​​ @harps-for-days

Yeah yeah baby girl you are absolutely the Big Bad! Of the whole piece, that's right. Such a big scary sorcerer man, yes you are. 🥰

It's been awhile since I've done a Nauxial, so here is a Nauxial. He literally wants to be the main character so bad. Nobody tell him what happens.