#calebwidogest

thank you friend!! <3

most of the other wips on the list are pretty angst-heavy, plot-heavy, emotionally complex projects. this one is about the mighty nein arguing over what essek would call his dick.

i posted a tiny bit of the beginning for six sentence sunday last year, so here's a little bit of context for the same snip

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"You think Essek knows what a cock is?"

It’s going to be that sort of afternoon. Caleb peers up at Beau over the back of his book. She’s perched atop one of the chairs at the dining room table, fingers steepled in front of her mouth.

"I would assume that he has one of his own, ja."

"Assume, huh?"

Jester waggles her eyebrows. Caleb dutifully ignores her. Today is not the day he will be goaded into sharing his wealth of evidence.

"That's not what I meant, though." He’s seen this look on Beau before, though not usually outside of the library. "Like, this guy grew up with fifteen silver spoons shoved up his ass. Do you think he's ever heard the word 'cock' before?"

Caleb gives her a look, gesturing pointedly to Jester bouncing on the balls of her feet.

“She says ‘dick,’ though.” Beau purses her lips, balancing her pencil on top. “You think he says dick? I can’t picture him saying dick.”

“He probably has a word in his own language that he uses,” Veth points out.

“Right, obviously.” Beau removes the pencil, bracing both hands on the table. “But what does he call it in Common? Like—” and here she puts on a terrible imitation of Essek’s lilt— “Caleb, suck my… what? How does that finish?”

calebwidogest >>>>> mollymauktealeef

Well (oh well oh well oh…), it started out as me just spitballing about what why Leylas might have chosen Essek to be a Shadowhand, which turned into what their relationship might have been like as Essek grew up and then became her Shadowhand.

She might have seen how he was as a child, how he changed as he grew and how he began to shutter parts of himself away to better fit the expectations put upon him. When it became clear that he was a new soul, she might have caught on to the edge he developed. The need to prove himself.

Leylas Kryn, in her centuries of wisdom and her love for her people, would have known that Essek was unhappy. She also knew that he was ambitious and bright, that he liked to use his mind. He was observant and keen and quick to learn the ways of the court. He would do well as a shadowhand.

But above all of that, she liked him. She had known him for long enough that she was aware that he was more than the cold, aloof front he put on. She liked that he was fiercely independent and sure of himself. He was quick to notice errors and missteps, and, if he felt it would not harm him to do so, he would speak his mind on such matters.

Then of course I had to talk about how Leylas might react to finding out that Essek is the one who stole the beacons, which naturally required a discussion on her relationship with the Luxon. Here’s an excerpt from that:

The Luxon did not speak, but Leylas Kryn had passed through its Beacons enough times to know it. She felt its care as she was reminded of all the lives she had lived and as she learned and grew and perfected her soul. In time, she became its steward as much as it was hers.

The Luxon, for all the power and possibility it contained, was passive. Meek, even. She remembered that question it asked when it first revealed its light to her: What am I?

The Luxon was curiosity, a search for identity. It was deity, but it was also innocent and childlike. It did not seek to harm.

But a mortal’s soul, even through cycles of death and rebirth, is never truly perfected. Though the drow had long since rejected Lolth, they still bore fangs from their days in the darkness. The Luxon would not harm, but Leylas Kryn would, if it meant that the steward of her soul would not be violated.