~….And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made…~

((Related to recent RP, logs can be found here (warning for some language, and some drugging and short torment). Mik comes from a writing prompt about “Rhiswyn’s greatest triumph.”))

She had been careless and stupid. Gone soft, they would say.

Only one set of wards had pinged, but she still should not have let her guard down when she finally returned home. She could have checked more thoroughly, should have noticed Terrence hiding in the shadows and torn his mind to shreds before he could pull the trigger.

Should have, could have, what if.

Vember unrolls a piece of hide, smoothed and supple, with pictographs painstakingly embroidered into the surface. She runs her calloused fingers over each one as she shares the story they represent; halting at first, but quickly gaining confidence as long-held memories tumble forth…

"Can I help?"

((Technically happened two months ago, but it's been a bear to write. I have plot ideas though that may use this as background, so up it goes regardless.))

Alynore made the climb from the bustle of Lower City to Kamron’s apartment. A group of skinny brown orc youths paused their guttural conversation to watch the human woman as she stopped at the old soldier’s door. She knocked, counting the seconds to an answer.

((What was their education like?))

"Oh gosh, um…well, G’ma taught me all -sorts- of things, like…cooking and cleaning and taking care of my clothing and…did you mean magic-wise? That’s a little different! She taught me how to do simple things, but mostly? She taught me control. G’ma wasn’t fond of using magic,even if we could."

((What did they want to be when they grew up?))

"I -always- wanted to be a mage, ever since I was little. G’ma was, but she very rarely used magic. ‘Hard work first, then magic second’, was what she told me. Although that -does- explain why we never had very many problems being so close to the wilds…."

((Soo! I have a bunch of little story things I was doing foranother one of those character development things..this is the first! The question was...

"...Today's the day, Hana. Everyone's getting all their things together to go see the rest of the world."

Jehenne spilled out of the prison box with a breathless slap like a fish out of a net. She lay twitching on the stone floor; eyes wide and wild. Everything was cold and violet.

“Are you certain you wish to do this, child?” Varduun asked as he drew his elekk to a halt, letting Alynore slide off first. Her boots landed in the omnipresent red dust of Hellfire Peninsula, kicking up a cloud that the constant wind dashed away.

((I blame everyone for doing all these family and relationship blogs recently!!!!! Also - Gilly backstory))

When Gilly was eleven, her only sister got married.

Gilly was the first to find out about it. She had been sitting in the little chapel room at Northshire Abbey, writing line after line into a leather-bound copybook as some form of penance. I will not daydream during lessons. I will not daydream during lessons. Brother Carlson had told her to write the line out two hundred times - or until she got the message. “You must mind your elders when they’re talking to you, Miss Lachlan,” he had said, “and not stare off into the distance with your mind in the clouds.”

She was to young too understand.

This was not love.