#avinlor

Series: Five Ways the Cardhouse Never Touched Avinlor - Masterpost Characters: Belaicy, Avinlor (as Fall); Oskyod (referenced) (a Cardhouse denizen - OC)

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Eighty-six years trapped within a worthless meadow and cut off from any rational communication was adamantly not enough to drive Belaicy mad. Take Sunlets, for example: they had been omnipresent for millennia, and Belaicy had survived with wits tolerably intact, and had outlasted all but the tattered remnants of their civilization.

One did not even have to count it as a full eighty-six years, either: just half a century ago, there had been a spider. Nothing had come of it though. Probably it had been eaten by a bird just as soon as it crept back to whence it had come. In any case, the meadow would defeat itself in the end. Already, the protections around it had prevented brush-clearing fires from roaring through, and the land was becoming forested. Belaicy, though no cultivator of plants by nature or desire, helped as much as possible. Eighty-six years in a worthless meadow was boring.

If Belaicy had been delighted at the approach of another unbounded sentience—the first since the spider—a further assessment rapidly requalified the newcomer as worse than useless. Of course the next being to enter Belaicy's prison would be some Transitional: the shape and pieces of a human, in thrall to some other power and probably possessed of all manner of irritating ideas about debts and obligations. The child came with her own rain.

'It said you were trapped,' she said. The girl plainly meant that the rain had informed her of Belaicy's . . . situation.

'I am confined.'

'You can't get yourself out.'

'Do you propose that a human girl could achieve what I cannot?'

'I am not a human! I am Fall.'

The child's claim was laughable. Belaicy had known, in person or by reputation, Fall, Autumn, Harvest, First Frost, Last Apple, and more Deaths than an army of revenants could shake their bones at. Even so, the child somehow had spoken at least a partial truth. 'I beg your pardon. It has been long since I have had ado with your phase of the year.' Stupid meadow.

The child frowned, perhaps attempting to decide if she were being patronized. 'You can tell,' she said at last.

'Indeed. Your rain and your rot are very distinctive.'

'Thank you. I did them myself. Oskyod thought I meant pretty leaves, but I showed him!'

Belaicy grinned inwardly: a grin full of sharp teeth and acidic hot springs. The child-Transitional might know all the latest fads in interpersonal bonds, but this hint of discord between Fall and her tutor—or sponsor, or patron, or whatever this Oskyod was to her—was all the advantage Belaicy needed. There was no need to fear any form of obligation when Belaicy could take a single frayed strand in another tie and set to unravelling that other binding altogether. It was time to leave this boring, wretched meadow.

'Well, Fall. What possibilities superior to "pretty leaves" do you propose?'

Rules: post the last sentence you wrote (fanfic/original/anything!) and tag as many people as there are words in the sentence. NEW, AND BETTER RULES BY ME, WESLEY: 1) Post your favorite short excerpt / paragraph / complete thought, 2) it can be any part you like, 3) it does not have to be fiction 4) it does not have to be in English.

From my totally upcoming crossover: Five Ways the Cardhouse Never Touched Avinlor (i.e. crossover of fid’s OCs and mine)

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'I am not a human! I am Fall.'

The girl's claim was laughable--Belaicy had known, in person or by reputation, Fall, Autumn, Harvest, First Frost, Last Apple, and more Deaths than an army of revenants could shake their bones at--but somehow it was at least partly true. 'I beg your pardon. It has been long since I have had ado with your phase of the year.’ Stupid meadow.

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Or, the great crossover of my OC (and a couple of her associates) with @cardhouseandthecage (by @fidelishaereticus).

The One that Got Away A denizen considers Avinlor for possible Star material.

No Good Deed Canonically, Avinlor somehow gets Belaicy - a very old and very powerful fairy - out of some kind of trap. Here, Avinlor is a young Star when the encounter takes place.

How Fall becomes Autumn Avinlor’s aesthetic as a Star begins to change under the tutelage of her denizen guide.

Concerning Mediators From the diaries of HQ: a new source in Cardhouse studies is discovered.

Series: Five Ways the Cardhouse Never Touched Avinlor - Masterpost Characters: Avinlor, Belaicy (referenced); Logus (a Cardhouse denizen - fid’s); Oskyod (a Cardhouse denizen - OC)

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The child—a youth, really—would be an ideal candidate. She had constructed elaborate ambitions for the greatness she wished to attain, all utterly unsupported by any foundation of a solid plan; yet despite laying out no path of her own, she was at least beginning to realize that her present course would not grant her those ambitions in the manner she desired. Oskyod laughed to himself: the child wanted to be a fairy, insofar as her imagination shaped such beings. Well, Oskyod would have no difficulty with implying how she could have that.

Strictly speaking, the girl was somewhat more mature than the children most denizens selected for their Stars—older, perhaps, though numerical age was not the only factor at work. A more delicate handling was required for individuals beyond the phase of outright childish acceptance, questioning or not,* and Oskyod had long since perfected this art. Once, he had tried to explain it to Logus:

'The best formula, I find, requires the potential Star to achieve something which they deem significant, but which passes unacknowledged by those around them. A victory followed by a failure, however, is also very promising.'

'How much time must pass between these two key events?' Logus had asked. 'Or, in the case of non-acknowledgement, how long must that state persist?'

'Oh, two to three days is typically ideal, though some require as little as a scant day, and others work best with up to two weeks,' Oskyod had answered.

'But how do you determine the time required for a particular individual?'

'A variety of factors, really: the present mood of the subject; their past experiences with reward and praise; the degree of support network they possess, and access thereto, -'

Logus had interrupted with, 'Your "formulae", colleague, are nothing more than a jumble of undefined variables.' Oskyod had shrugged and let him depart, thinking Logus' disinterest was for the better after all: at least this way neither was competing with the other for potential Stars. In truth, Oskyod's fine technique owed a great deal to the fact that (were he to acknowledge it) he recognized a great deal of himself in the candidates he selected. In this regard, his methods were identical to Logus' procedures and calculations.

This present specimen, for example, skewed toward the longer end of the scale: she had only one close confidante and a handful of acquaintance-friends. Moreover, she was already somewhat accustomed to her skills passing disregarded within her circle. For his part, Oskyod was not much impressed by the trick of talking to the rain, having picked up some facility in that realm himself, and seen others engage in it countless times. He would, however, be a fool to disregard it as those about the child did—some through ignorance, others through disinterest in obscure matters (the greater fools, they). Nigh on two weeks should be ideal to begin the process of courting this future Star.

Twelve days later, Oskyod reflected ruefully that he had never even considered the possibility of losing the girl to anything non-human and not of the Cardhouse. She did not have her dreams, but someone else had given her a sort of power: it was a little like confidence that she would attain her dreams, and a lot like some tangible thing that she had found, more real than wishes and good enough to supplant them. Oskyod no longer had anything of note to offer her, and he suspected he would quickly find himself in some sort of territory war if he tried.

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Series: Five Ways the Cardhouse Never Touched Avinlor - Masterpost Characters: Avinlor (as Fall); Oskyod (a Cardhouse denizen - OC)

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The Star had been very adamant at first that she was Fall, even with the inevitable clarification that she was the season, thank you, not someone tripping and landing on their face. She was, moreover, not the whole season. Fall was the rainy part, after the bright leaves and the harvest festivals, and before the frost stung in the air, clear and bright and cold. Fall was soggy.

Series: Five Ways the Cardhouse Never Touched Avinlor - Masterpost Characters: Avinlor; HQ (everyone’s favorite post-unreliable narrator - fid’s); Oskyod (referenced) (a Cardhouse denizen - OC)

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