Share Writing Prompts

NEW FAT ELF! REJOICE!

Jaina Raelynn (doc #409738) has been falsely accused of misconduct and forcibly removed from the other trans prisoners and allies who support her and keep her safe.

She is on hunger strike until she is returned to her unit where she is safe. The prison claims they moved her for her safety, but they are putting her at risk.  She is currently on day four of her hunger strike, and it as risk of severe medical complications.

Call Stafford Creek Correctional Facility on Wednesday 6/14 and ask them to move Jaina back to her original unit now.

Call (360) 537-1800

Superintendent Jason Bennett: dial option 3 then 6

Associate superintendent Karen Arnold dial option 3 then 5 then 1

The voicemail messages have the wrong name, but you are dialing the correct people.  

Use this script on your call:

"Hello, my name is [name] and I am a community member who is concerned for the health and safety of Jaina Raelynn, doc # 409738.  I am aware that she is on a hunger strike and won't eat again until she knows she is moved to where she feels safe.  She needs to be moved to the same pod, with access to the same dayroom, as Ashley Raelynn (896177) and Pharaoh Grayson (807868). I do not believe she will be safe anywhere else."

Please see the pinned post for more details.

Hi everybody!  I’ve started a new comic!

Hey all, my sister is still fundraising to pay for costs associated with her surgery.  She’s got $1000 out of the $3000 goal she set (though it turns out the costs will probably be higher than that).

If you can help out with a donation of at least $5, I’ll send you one of my custom stickers.  Just send me a DM to arrange it.

These are the sticker designs I currently have:

This is a meta for gifset trade with @purple-fury! Maybe you would like to trade something with me? You can PM me if so!

Choosing a Chinese name, if you don’t know a Chinese language, is difficult, but here’s a secret for you: choosing a Chinese name, when you do know a Chinese language, is also difficult. So, my tip #1 is: Relax. Did you know that Actual Chinese People choose shitty names all the dang time? It’s true!!! Just as you, doubtless, have come across people in your daily life in your native language that you think “God, your parents must have been on SOME SHIT when they named you”, the same is true about Chinese people, now and throughout history. If you choose a shitty name, it’s not the end of the world! Your character’s parents now canonically suck at choosing a name. There, we fixed it!

However. Just because you should not drive yourself to the brink of the grave fretting over choosing a Chinese name for a character, neither does that mean you shouldn’t care at all. Especially, tip #2, Never just pick some syllables that vaguely sound Chinese and call it a day. That shit is awful and tbh it’s as inaccurate and racist as saying “ching chong” to mimic the Chinese language. Examples: Cho Chang from Harry Potter, Tenten from Naruto, and most notorious of all, Fu Manchu and his daughter Fah lo Suee (how the F/UCK did he come up with that one).

So where do you begin then? Well, first you need to pick your character’s surname. This is actually not too difficult, because Chinese actually doesn’t have that many surnames in common use. One hundred surnames cover over eighty percent of China’s population, and in local areas especially, certain surnames within that one hundred are absurdly common, like one out of every ten people you meet is surnamed Wang, for example. Also, if you’re making an OC for an established media franchise, you may already have the surname based on who you want your character related to. Finally, if you’re writing an ethnically Chinese character who was born and raised outside of China, you might only want their surname to be Chinese, and give them a given name from the language/culture of their native country; that’s very very common.

If you don’t have a surname in mind, check out the Wikipedia page for the list of common Chinese surnames, roughly the top one hundred. If you’re not going to pick one of the top one hundred surnames, you should have a good reason why. Now you need to choose a romanization system. You’ll note that the Wikipedia list contains variant spellings. If your character is a Chinese-American (or other non-Chinese country) whose ancestors emigrated before the 1950s (or whose ancestors did not come from mainland China), their name will not be spelled according to pinyin. It might be spelled according to Wade-Giles romanization, or according to the name’s pronunciation in other Chinese languages, or according to what the name sounds like in the language of the country they immigrated to. (The latter is where you get spellings like Lee, Young, Woo, and Law.)  A huge proportion of emigration especially came from southern China, where people spoke Cantonese, Min, Hakka, and other non-Mandarin languages.

So, for example, if you want to make a Chinese-Canadian character whose paternal source of their surname immigrated to Canada in the 20s, don’t give them the surname Xie, spelled that way, because #1 that spelling didn’t exist when their first generation ancestor left China and #2 their first generation ancestor was unlikely to have come from a part of China where Mandarin was spoken anyway (although still could have! that’s up to you). Instead, name them Tse, Tze, Sia, Chia, or Hsieh.

If you’re working with a character who lives in, or who left or is descended from people who left mainland China in the 1960s or later; or if you’re working with a historical or mythological setting, then you are going to want to use the pinyin romanization. The reason I say that you should use pinyin for historical or mythological settings is because pinyin is now the official or de facto romanization system for international standards in academia, the United Nations, etc. So if you’re writing a story with characters from ancient China, or medieval China, use pinyin, even though not only pinyin, but the Mandarin pronunciations themselves didn’t exist back then. Just… just accept this. This is one of those quirks of having a non-alphabetic language.

(Here’s an “exceptions” paragraph: there are various well known Chinese names that are typically, even now, transliterated in a non-standard way: Confucius, Mencius, the Yangtze River, Sun Yat-sen, etc. Go ahead and use these if you want. And if you really consciously want to make a Cantonese or Hakka or whatever setting, more power to you, but in that case you better be far beyond needing this tutorial and I don’t know why you’re here. Get. Scoot!)

One last point about names that use the ü with the umlaut over it. The umlaut ü is actually pretty critical for the meaning because wherever the ü appears, the consonant preceding it also can be used with u: lu/lü, nu/nü, etc. However, de facto, lots of individual people, media franchises, etc, simply drop the umlaut and write u instead when writing a name in English, such as “Lu Bu” in the Dynasty Warriors franchise in English (it should be written Lü Bu). And to be fair, since tones are also typically dropped in Latin script and are just as critical to the meaning and pronunciation of the original, dropping the umlaut probably doesn’t make much difference. This is kind of a choice you have to make for yourself. Maybe you even want to play with it! Maybe everybody thinks your character’s surname is pronounced “loo as in loo roll” but SURPRISE MOFO it’s actually lü! You could Do Something with that. Also, in contexts where people want to distinguish between u and ü when typing but don’t have easy access to a keyboard method of making the ü, the typical shorthand is the letter v. 

Alright! So you have your surname and you know how you want it spelled using the Latin alphabet. Great! What next?

Alright, so, now we get to the hard part: choosing the given name. No, don’t cry, I know baby I know. We can do this. I believe in you.

Here are some premises we’re going to be operating on, and I’m not entirely sure why I made this a numbered list:

Chinese people, generally, love their kids. (Obviously, like in every culture, there are some awful exceptions, and I’ll give one specific example of this later on.)

As part of loving their kids, they want to give them a Good name.

So what makes a name a Good name??? Well, in Chinese culture, the cultural values (which have changed over time) have tended to prioritize things like: education; clan and family; health and beauty; religious devotions of various religions (Buddhism, Taoism, folk religions, Christianity, other); philosophical beliefs (Buddhism, Confucianism, etc) (see also education); refinement and culture (see also education); moral rectitude; and of course many other things as the individual personally finds important. You’ll notice that education is a big one. If you can’t decide on where to start, something related to education, intelligence, wisdom, knowledge, etc, is a bet that can’t go wrong.

Unlike in English speaking cultures (and I’m going to limit myself to English because we’re writing English and good God look at how long this post is already), there is no canon of “names” in Chinese like there has traditionally been in English. No John, Mary, Susan, Jacob, Maxine, William, and other words that are names and only names and which, historically at least, almost everyone was named. Instead, in Chinese culture, you can basically choose any character you want. You can choose one character, or two characters. (More than two characters? No one can live at that speed. Seriously, do not give your character a given name with more than two characters. If you need this tutorial, you don’t know enough to try it.) Congratulations, it is now a name!!

But what this means is that Chinese names aggressively Mean Something in a way that most English names don’t. You know nature names like Rose and Pearl, and Puritan names like Wrestling, Makepeace, Prudence, Silence, Zeal, and Unity? I mean, yeah, you can technically look up that the name Mary comes from a etymological root meaning bitter, but Mary doesn’t mean bitter in the way that Silence means, well, silence. Chinese names are much much more like the latter, because even though there are some characters that are more common as names than as words, the meaning of the name is still far more upfront than English names.

So the meaning of the name is generally a much more direct expression of those Good Values mentioned before. But it gets more complicated!

Being too direct has, across many eras of Chinese history, been considered crude; the very opposite of the education you’re valuing in the first place. Therefore, rather than the Puritan slap you in the face approach where you just name your kid VIRTUE!, Chinese have typically favoured instead more indirect, related words about these virtues and values, or poetic allusions to same. What might seem like a very blunt, concrete name, such as Guan Yu’s “yu” (which means feather), is actually a poetic, referential name to all the things that feathers evoke: flight, freedom, intellectual broadmindness, protection…

So when you’re choosing a name, you start from the value you want to express, then see where looking up related words in a dictionary gets you until you find something that sounds “like a name”; you can also try researching Chinese art symbolism to get more concrete names. Then, here’s my favourite trick, try combining your fake name with several of the most common surnames: 王，李，陈. And Google that shit. If you find Actual Human Beings with that name: congratulations, at least if you did f/uck up, somebody else out there f/ucked up first and stuck a Human Being with it, so you’re still doing better than they are. High five!

You’re going to stick with the same romanization system (or lack thereof) as you’ve used for the surname. In the interests of time, I’m going to focus on pinyin only.

First let’s take a look at some real and actual Chinese names and talk about what they mean, why they might have been chosen, and also some fictional OC names that I’ve come up with that riff off of these actual Chinese names. And then we’ll go over some resources and also some pitfalls. Hopefully you can learn by example! Fun!!!

Let’s start with two great historical strategists: Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu, and the names I picked for some (fictional) sons of theirs. Then I will be talking about Sun Shangxiang and Guan Yinping, two historical-legendary women of the same era, and what I named their fictional daughters. And finally I’ll be talking about historical Chinese pirate Gan Ning and what I named his fictional wife and fictional daughter. Uh, this could be considered spoilers for my novel Clouds and Rain and associated one-shots in that universe, so you probably want to go and read that work… and its prequels… and leave lots of comments and kudos first and then come back. Don’t worry, I’ll wait.

(I’m just kidding you don’t need to know a thing about my work to find this useful.)

MDBG an open source dictionary - start here

Wiktionary don’t knock it til you try it

iCIBA (they recently changed their user interface and it’s much less English-speaker friendly now but it’s still a great dictionary)

Pleco (an iOS app, maybe also Android???) contains same open source dictionary as MDBG and also its own proprietary dictionary

I have made my stance on the Wendigo very clear: it is not your stock fantasy monsters to use. It can be used accurately if you ask the tribe in question how to use it, but if you’re looking for some “Native magic” to throw into the story, look elsewhere.

It is not a hybrid. Your character can’t be half-Wendigo or part-Wendigo or whatever. You are either possessed by the spirit, have become the whole spirit, or not involved with the Wendigo.

No, they can’t be “good” or anti-heros— they’re many cultures’ definition of evil. No, they can’t be outside of their original Algonquin/Great Lakes peoples contexts. 

This also means they don’t belong interacting with witches, especially Christian witches.

If you want to be respectful to Native cultures, put the Wendigo in its full context (including the fact it is evil in our societies) with multiple Native characters involved in the plot, or don’t use it at all.

The obsession with having Native characters be tied to the Wendigo is honestly disturbing. As mentioned, the Wendigo is often a definition of evil. It is an insatiable hunger; it is pure greed. It’s wild and untamed. It’s every negative stereotype of Native Americans— cannibals, demonic, rabid, indiscriminate hunters, a threat to civilized society— wrapped up into one.

Racism against Native Americans founded in these principles is still alive and well. Trace your logic for why you want a greedy cannibal hunter to be tied to your Native character. 

We are not your monsters.

Writing Powerful Women of All Races

It’s great that you recognize that women’s representation is not one size fits all. What makes for good representation for white women is not the same for Women of Color.

Let’s consider how society handles women across the board:

White Women: 

Traditionally, white women are treated as delicate beings, meant to be protected and romanced by men. White women are the standard of femininity and beauty. Women of Color can be attractive, too, but in a “different” way. Most positive roles for white women depict them breaking from these definitions, either embracing sexual labels or evading them by throwing out the need to be dolled-up, gentle, or in a relationship.

Even these problems come with privilege as there is this need to “dirty” oneself up and prove physical and emotional strength. 

Anger in white women is seen as powerful. Anger in non-white women is either sexualized (see: the Spicy Latina) or seen as hostility and bitterness typical of their race (see: the Angry Black Woman). 

White women embracing sexuality and the “Slut” role is groundbreaking. That doesn’t always translate well for WoC who are inherently seen as overly sexual and impure, and have the highest rates of sexual assault to show for it.

Black Women: 

Black women are most often placed into the role of strong and independent, with an emotional and physical hardness that resists love and tenderness. They don’t need support, but they’ll be more than willing to use their backs to uplift others, no matter the gender, all and any races. Black women are rarely portrayed with classical softness or femininity. Note how Black women are so hard and impenetrable…except when it comes to helping everyone but themselves. Then they are your Mammy, warm and lovable and always there to support you, despite how much self-care they must neglect.

Asian Women: 

Comparably, Asian women, especially East Asian women but other Asian women are affected too, are placed in juxtaposition to Black women. Asian women are fragile and need shielding, but that comes with a sinister dose of fetishization. They are often viewed as submissive, and are given gross comparisons to dolls as if items to place on display and control. They’re desirable, but in an “exotifc” way, and of course are not seen to have the same worth as white women.

This is often depicted in works, both old and modern: The white man falls in love with the Asian woman. After he’s had his fun, he abandons her to settle down with a white woman. The Asian woman ends her life as it is worth nothing without him.

On the flip side: Asian women are fragile and worth protecting…except when they’re not. The Dragon Lady stereotype features Asian women (Mainly East Asian) who manipulate and dominate others. This stereotype is often depicted by them dominating white men for Yellow Peril ends. 

Native women: 

Native women are seen as simple and animalistic, their “simpler” culture relating to “primal” needs. The narrative starts with Pocahontas, a scantily clad Disney princess who shows a white settler the wonders of the “natural” world, and continues all throughout Halloween costumes, Noble Savage, and Animalistic Natives. This very exact fetishization makes them prime targets for toxic masculinity’s view that women actively desire the more “beastly”/forcible sex, basically assuming Native women will behave like animals in heat— because that’s what society believes Natives are: a type of animal. 

Women of Color: 

Although this is grouping a number of women into one, they share a common thread of being exotified and fetishized. From the Spicy Latina to the brown-skinned temptress. They’re fun and sexy, and on the same hand promiscuous and impure. WoC are often portrayed as mistresses and homewreckers.

Women of Color are treated as Other, and are rarely the default. Notice in media that there’s a reluctance to call Women of Color beautiful. Words like “Striking” “Stunning” and “Exotic” are often used in its place, with an overemphasis on certain features more common to the ethnicity. And when they are more certainly called attractive, you’ll often find qualifiers such as the Dark Beauty or “Pretty for a Black Girl.”

While there is a lot of desexualizing in association with Black women (e.g. mammy), there’s another side where a Black woman’s body (see: curves and full lips) are inherently sexual to the point where even teenagers are labeled as “ho’s” and “Thots” who seek to tempt men for simply wearing shorts.

It’s no wonder Women of Color are assaulted at the highest numbers. Native American women lead in those statistics, and are at risk for sexual assault at twice the rate of others. For more stats, follow the link: (X) 

A shared thread between all of these Women of Color is that, more often than not, people will not be content with these women being anything but their expected stereotypes. Also, there’s often a grumble by racist audiences when WoC are presented in relationships outside of their own race, particularly if they go anywhere near beloved white characters.

It’s time to break free of limited, dated molds and make society uncomfortable.

How do I respectfully represent these women?

I love your story concept, with all of these women having powers. Just keep in mind: what will work as positive representation for your white women may not work for Women of Color. We all have different histories that inform the struggles we have in society and what counts as proper representation.

Develop characters without applying what works for white women to all women. That is White Feminism. Intersectional feminism exists to consider Women of Color + other marginalizations and their needs as well. 

Create customized representation that uplifts each woman.

Develop personalities that don’t play into stereotypes. Choose powers that reflect individuality for each woman, not what is assumed about Black women, Mexican women, etc. What we hear and see in media informs our creative thought process, so your first idea may not be the most fitting one. Brainstorm! As a starting point, do opposite of the stereotypes and go from there. At the same time, find a balance to avoid extremes. 

For example, the fragile Asian woman’s opposing extreme is Dragon Lady. The Strong Black Woman’s opposing extreme leads to infantilization aka making her utterly helpless.

And even then! Consider that sometimes people do have traits that may seem stereotypical. If that’s the case, it’s your job as the author to show that there’s more to them. They are human and not a label. 

You can be physically strong, and still bubble with kindness, emotional softness and femininity.

Pink nail polish does not weaken a punch, or define someone as too girly or weak. It means you like pink.

You can show emotional vulnerability, fall in love and be loved in return, and still remain powerful and whole without becoming the Strong Black Women.

You can be gentle and worthy of protection while having self-worth and confidence.

You can be sensual and desirable without becoming an exotic commodity, but instead someone who is more than sexual, is in control, and 100% deserving of respect.

You can also just not be sexual, but that shouldn’t mean void of love to give and receive in return.

More reading: Stereotyped vs Nuanced Characters and Audience Perception  

Research

There’s many places for you to start your research, and tons of it has been written right here on this page as well as all across the web in articles, blogs, vlogs, books etc. Seek topics on representation and intersectional feminism for the races you wish to portray. The best sources are written by the same people you’re reading about. Check out our Stereotypes & Tropes Navigation and the TVTropes List so you can recognize the displeasing ways WoC have been represented so you can avoid or amend it, and showcase people the way they want to be represented.

I also recommend you check out POC Profiles for the types of representation people who have submitted here are asking for. The WWC mods have also written on the topic in the Mod Wishlist post. 

“Mom.”

“Uhh…..right. Mom. Um, so I have to get back home. I’ve got three kids who need dinner and I really think I should..go….back………why are you crying?”

Grandmother

The Vermillion Life & Casualty building housed other businesses than the insurance company that built it, but they still held the majority of the floors. The economic divisions did not matter to the ancient one; she had adopted all in the building. A tense week of negotiations after her arrival meant everyone could go home after their shifts, but they still needed to check in with her on a regular basis. IT had set up a speakerphone in her aerie for emergencies, and it chirped for her attention in the early afternoon.

“Yes, dear?” she rumbled.

“I’m sorry Ma, I have to leave early,” Karen’s usually clear voice was thin with stress.

“What is it?” Opiess asked in alarm, “Are you sick?”

“No, ma’am. I just got a call from the school about Rachel getting into a fight.”

“Come up. I will take you there.”

“Maaaa… “

“No. If one of our clan is threatened, we will answer the threat. If one of our clan has become a threat, we will correct them.” The dragon’s firm tone brooked no argument. “Come up.”

Karen had to admit that arriving in the school parking lot on a dragon did give her a slight edge to her presence when she came into the office. “What is the problem?”

The vice principal in charge of discipline shook her head, “Rachel punched another student, and will have to be suspended for three days.”

“He wouldn’t leave me alone!” the girl said, glaring at the middle-aged administrator. “He keeps poking me and pulling my hair-ties out!”

Karen turned to the school official, barely containing her anger, “This other kid get suspended for bullying her?”

“That is none of your concern,” she started, and was interrupted by a deep growl outside the office window.

“Injury to my clan is my concern,” Opiess rumbled. “I am told I am not allowed to eat those who abuse my children and their children. I am told we can, however, sue for damages.”

“Damages? He was only flirting,” the vice principal sputtered.

“THAT IS NOT FLIRTING!” Karen’s temper broke. “That is ABUSE, and you are teaching that kid that tormenting someone is okay!” She held her hand out for Rachel, “You will be hearing from our lawyer.”

When she and the child were outside, Rachel ran to hug the dragon.

-Mum Knows Best-

Perhaps, in the aftermath of the loving takeover of Vermillion Life and Casualty by a centuries old dragoness, things could have been worse. As far as Luke was concerned, all his major limbs were still intact and the monsterous entity that was currently sunning itself-er, herself-on nearby sun racks hadn’t reportedly eaten anyone yet.

At least that’s what he assumed. Turn over rates aside, Carpal Tunnel could be just as dangerous as a giant mouth full of carnivorous teeth for a paperweight warrior like him. But it honestly seemed like the dragon meant no harm.

Maybe she had been a little…suffocating at first, her giant, leathery wings spread wide behind her as she stood on her hind legs, easily staring into the 3rd story windows. She had proclaimed to all that been present inside as her newly adopted offspring, her great, booming voice softened by the telepathy she used to contact them all at once. Yeah, telepathy. It sounds cool but it’s still scary as fuck when you’re trying to get business done on the porcelain throne and a mysterious voice abruptly enters your head.

A week of terse talks and compromises had ultimately allowed everyone to leave, with the promise that everyone would return to “Mum” to check in every so often. Maybe some more than others.

Like right then, for example. Lucy the intern did not need to go find Mum every morning to say hi, update her on the schedules for the company that day-because all had learned very early on Mum will make her opinions known about insurance rates and no, there’s no employee in the whole space-time continuem who wouldn’t use that excuse to derail an otherwise boring meeting. She did not need to offer Mum coffee (did dragons even drink it?) or throw a couple of muffins into her gullet when there was extra to go around. Goodness, she didn’t have to do anything!

Yet there she was, walking over to Mum with purpose, the ancient reptile cracking open an eyelid to watch the girl’s fast approach. Luke was only nearby because damn him for being a good citizen that actually respects the Do Not Smoke sign but needs his fix: smoking by Mum at the sun racks was the best option then, as she never complained. Maybe because she breathes fire, who knows. But Lucy strode over to them, only losing the rigidity in her stance when she was a foot away.

Mum was up in an instant.

“Lucy, what is wrong?” Asked the old dragoness. Lucy only shook her head, her soft brown curls sticking to her tear-streaked face.

“I need a hug,” she whispered, so quickly that Luke barely understood her. But Mum did, she always understood.

Without a word she lifted her scaly head, gently nosing her beak against her “daughter’s” torso, the air she exhaled from her nostrils loosening more stray curls from Lucy’s scrunchie. The intern wasted no time in wrapping her thin arms around the proffered snout, burying her face against Mum to muffled the broken hiccups and sobs.

It was all a rather strange display for Luke who had already dropped his burnt out cigarette on the asphalt when he had seen the tears rolling down Lucy’s face. But there was no time to wonder why as the old, authorative voice entered his mind.

“Luke, be a dear and run down to the markets, get something sweet like chocolates for your sister. She is sad and suffering and we must ease her pain.” Luke gawked.

“Wha- wait, what?” He shook his head. “That’s too much, Ma, can’t I get her a candy bar from the vending machine?”

The golden, serpentine eye that narrowed at him instantly caused rocks to form in his bowels. “Nothing is too much for my children!” She replied. “You deserve the best. Now don’t be cruel, son, do as I ask.”

He still had objections. “My shift is nearly over, Ma. I have to go back in soon.”

She only snorted back, “I will talk to Richard, he will understand.” That was true, if only because the assistant supervisor was too focused on getting work done that he’d rather not waste time arguing with a sentient old dragon.

But Luke still pushed back. “I don’t have much money though Ma, it’s still two days before payday-“ The loud thud of something heavy and big answered him. He looked down at his feet where the object had come to rest.

Opiess, Destroyer Of Kingdoms and Office Bordem, had given him a gold ingot.

“…Christ, Ma.”

“That ought to cover expenses,” she sniffed, focusing her attention back on Lucy. “Take that and go on, use the change to get whatever else you think is necessary. Come on Luke, don’t drag your feet.”

“What is it?” She inquired into Davis’ head as he approached her, shaking and shattered.

“Mama, could I… could I just hang out with you for a bit? Life is kind of sucking right now and I just need a friend.”

“Of course, my son.” She responded, knowing how happy it usually made him when she acknowledged his gender. Today though, his face seemed to crumble further and he brought his face against her foreleg, weeping.

“Thank you, Mama!” He mumbled, and she crooned the songs of the Ancients, of stars blazing in the night sky and the mysterious dwarves who mined for treasure in the most hidden depths of the earth. And she waited, knowing when he was ready that he would talk.

Finally, his tears expended, he released a shuddery breath and said, “My new boss told me that he would only let me keep my job if I agreed to meet him after work. That he… doesn’t accept me as a man and wants to teach me how to be a woman. If I lose this job, I lose my home. I can’t afford my apartment and there isn’t room for my dog and cat in the car…”

A hiss finally caught his attention, and Davis looked up to discover a fiery gaze focused on him.

“Bring me the newest member of the clutch. You boss, as you call him.”

“Mama, no. It’s bad to eat him- the police might have a problem with it. He might give you indigestion. Bad things could happen.” Davis pleaded, and Opiess listened intently.

“I will not eat him, if only because I can tell it would distress you.” He was reassured, before her voice rose. “Bring me Eric of the floor referred to as accounting.”

Soon, a very snide human stood before her, arms defiantly crossed as he scowled. “Had to tell the attack dragon did you, Miss Davis?” He sneered, barely offering any attention to the large angry face before him. “I swear, some monsters need to just disappear. I don’t know what /she/ told you—“

“/HE/ told me nothing that was not verified in that nasty little pea brain of yours, Eric, and if not for Davis’ consideration you would be well on your way to my second stomach right now. You are unwelcome in my nest.” She blew a carefully aimed stream of smoke to scorch the zipper of his pants, and he yelped in protest as the heated metal of the zipper burned him where he felt most sensitive.

“YOU CAN’T FIRE ME! YOU’LL HEAR FROM MY ATTORNEY! I’LL OWN THIS COMPANY AND EVERYONE IN IT! You- YOU MONSTER!”

A whisper soft hiss sounded in his brain. “You threaten to take my children away? I devour threats to my children!” Her mouth opened and swung towards him, and Davis jumped in the way.

“It’s just temper talking. He’s not a threat to be eaten,” Davis pleaded, and she paused.

“You defend him when he threatened you?” Opiess asked in bewilderment, and Davis nodded.

“He has a wife at home and a child on the way. He’s not a good man, but it would be hard for her if he didn’t come home,” Davis tried, and interest lit the angry face.

“You are out of the clutch, Eric. Davis is a better man than you, and that is why you shall live to see your hatchling. Your mate- wife, as Davis calls her, is welcome here. You may not approach my children again.”

With that, Eric turned and fled.

Davis wanted to point out that they didn’t know what qualifications Eric’s wife had, but Opiess murmured, “She shall keep me company. I can protect her from him, for I saw in his head that he hurts her. After the hatchling is born, I shall eat him so she is not stressed. Stress is hard for a brooding mother.”

“Mom.”

“Uhh…..right. Mom. Um, so I have to get back home. I’ve got three kids who need dinner and I really think I should..go….back………why are you crying?”

Grandmother

The Vermillion Life & Casualty building housed other businesses than the insurance company that built it, but they still held the majority of the floors. The economic divisions did not matter to the ancient one; she had adopted all in the building. A tense week of negotiations after her arrival meant everyone could go home after their shifts, but they still needed to check in with her on a regular basis. IT had set up a speakerphone in her aerie for emergencies, and it chirped for her attention in the early afternoon.

“Yes, dear?” she rumbled.

“I’m sorry Ma, I have to leave early,” Karen’s usually clear voice was thin with stress.

“What is it?” Opiess asked in alarm, “Are you sick?”

“No, ma’am. I just got a call from the school about Rachel getting into a fight.”

“Come up. I will take you there.”

“Maaaa… “

“No. If one of our clan is threatened, we will answer the threat. If one of our clan has become a threat, we will correct them.” The dragon’s firm tone brooked no argument. “Come up.”

Karen had to admit that arriving in the school parking lot on a dragon did give her a slight edge to her presence when she came into the office. “What is the problem?”

The vice principal in charge of discipline shook her head, “Rachel punched another student, and will have to be suspended for three days.”

“He wouldn’t leave me alone!” the girl said, glaring at the middle-aged administrator. “He keeps poking me and pulling my hair-ties out!”

Karen turned to the school official, barely containing her anger, “This other kid get suspended for bullying her?”

“That is none of your concern,” she started, and was interrupted by a deep growl outside the office window.

“Injury to my clan is my concern,” Opiess rumbled. “I am told I am not allowed to eat those who abuse my children and their children. I am told we can, however, sue for damages.”

“Damages? He was only flirting,” the vice principal sputtered.

“THAT IS NOT FLIRTING!” Karen’s temper broke. “That is ABUSE, and you are teaching that kid that tormenting someone is okay!” She held her hand out for Rachel, “You will be hearing from our lawyer.”

When she and the child were outside, Rachel ran to hug the dragon.

-Mum Knows Best-

Perhaps, in the aftermath of the loving takeover of Vermillion Life and Casualty by a centuries old dragoness, things could have been worse. As far as Luke was concerned, all his major limbs were still intact and the monsterous entity that was currently sunning itself-er, herself-on nearby sun racks hadn’t reportedly eaten anyone yet.

At least that’s what he assumed. Turn over rates aside, Carpal Tunnel could be just as dangerous as a giant mouth full of carnivorous teeth for a paperweight warrior like him. But it honestly seemed like the dragon meant no harm.

Maybe she had been a little…suffocating at first, her giant, leathery wings spread wide behind her as she stood on her hind legs, easily staring into the 3rd story windows. She had proclaimed to all that been present inside as her newly adopted offspring, her great, booming voice softened by the telepathy she used to contact them all at once. Yeah, telepathy. It sounds cool but it’s still scary as fuck when you’re trying to get business done on the porcelain throne and a mysterious voice abruptly enters your head.

A week of terse talks and compromises had ultimately allowed everyone to leave, with the promise that everyone would return to “Mum” to check in every so often. Maybe some more than others.

Like right then, for example. Lucy the intern did not need to go find Mum every morning to say hi, update her on the schedules for the company that day-because all had learned very early on Mum will make her opinions known about insurance rates and no, there’s no employee in the whole space-time continuem who wouldn’t use that excuse to derail an otherwise boring meeting. She did not need to offer Mum coffee (did dragons even drink it?) or throw a couple of muffins into her gullet when there was extra to go around. Goodness, she didn’t have to do anything!

Yet there she was, walking over to Mum with purpose, the ancient reptile cracking open an eyelid to watch the girl’s fast approach. Luke was only nearby because damn him for being a good citizen that actually respects the Do Not Smoke sign but needs his fix: smoking by Mum at the sun racks was the best option then, as she never complained. Maybe because she breathes fire, who knows. But Lucy strode over to them, only losing the rigidity in her stance when she was a foot away.

Mum was up in an instant.

“Lucy, what is wrong?” Asked the old dragoness. Lucy only shook her head, her soft brown curls sticking to her tear-streaked face.

“I need a hug,” she whispered, so quickly that Luke barely understood her. But Mum did, she always understood.

Without a word she lifted her scaly head, gently nosing her beak against her “daughter’s” torso, the air she exhaled from her nostrils loosening more stray curls from Lucy’s scrunchie. The intern wasted no time in wrapping her thin arms around the proffered snout, burying her face against Mum to muffled the broken hiccups and sobs.

It was all a rather strange display for Luke who had already dropped his burnt out cigarette on the asphalt when he had seen the tears rolling down Lucy’s face. But there was no time to wonder why as the old, authorative voice entered his mind.

“Luke, be a dear and run down to the markets, get something sweet like chocolates for your sister. She is sad and suffering and we must ease her pain.” Luke gawked.

“Wha- wait, what?” He shook his head. “That’s too much, Ma, can’t I get her a candy bar from the vending machine?”

The golden, serpentine eye that narrowed at him instantly caused rocks to form in his bowels. “Nothing is too much for my children!” She replied. “You deserve the best. Now don’t be cruel, son, do as I ask.”

He still had objections. “My shift is nearly over, Ma. I have to go back in soon.”

She only snorted back, “I will talk to Richard, he will understand.” That was true, if only because the assistant supervisor was too focused on getting work done that he’d rather not waste time arguing with a sentient old dragon.

But Luke still pushed back. “I don’t have much money though Ma, it’s still two days before payday-“ The loud thud of something heavy and big answered him. He looked down at his feet where the object had come to rest.

Opiess, Destroyer Of Kingdoms and Office Bordem, had given him a gold ingot.

“…Christ, Ma.”

“That ought to cover expenses,” she sniffed, focusing her attention back on Lucy. “Take that and go on, use the change to get whatever else you think is necessary. Come on Luke, don’t drag your feet.”