#ellatholmes

ELLA I'M SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG TO ANSWER AAAH

Thank you for the tag @ellatholmes!!

I have not actually written recently since I've been doing a lot of researching, world-building, etc. to prepare for Draft 3, so I have chosen a random part of my wip, Puppet Kingdom, for this instead. :)

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One more step. One more step.

No light. No nothing. Only endless walking. My heart and head pound in rabid tandem, and I pause momentarily to place a hand on both to calm them. Once the fog in my brain clears a little, I drag my hand along the wall and force myself to keep walking, even as perspiration builds on every part of me.

One more step. One more step.

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She tilted her head upwards against the tree, and a flicker of torchlight caught in her inhuman, golden eyes, her hair shimmering like dark honey. In this dimness, despite the shadows, she looked pensive, placid, beautiful even.

- Of Fury and Shadows

Hi Ella! Thanks so much for the ask! I don't usually write dark stuff outside of RSverse, and even in that case I don't know if it's that dark :Pthere’s a lot of angst and some tragedy yes, but nothing too gritty (wait that’s not entirely true... some of the smaller stories are darker yikes)

but I can talk about the mar! The "mar" is a hereditary sickness that affects members of the Covenant, led by King Castilaar (oh yeah the trenches and forest around his castle are decorated with human skulls oops). He's been searching for a cure for many years. The mar is the negative side effect of a blood ritual that their ancestors engaged in when they tried to gain immortality. Basically now all the descendants are "infected" which results in them dying early, being unable to have children, getting extremely sick... oh yeah and when they succumb to the mar their blood turns black :o there are exceptions like sometimes it’ll skip a generation or some family members but it’s anybody’s guess.

Another feature of RS are the Fade spectres. Nobody really knows much about them since ~afterlife stuff~ but it's generally believed that they are vengeful spirits, or otherwise spirits of people who died with unfinished business -- anything from a mother not being able to return home with medicine for her child, to someone who was wrongfully convicted of a crime and executed for it. Fade spectres sometimes appear to people infected with the mar and cause them to hallucinate before dying (often accidental suicide), but this isn't always the case; sometimes the spectres appear and cause their victim to fall into the Dread State (basically intense irrational fear and/or night terrors) anywhere from hours to days

1) I sang in three different sections in my high school choir (Freshman year we had three dudes so I joined the tenors because I can :P)

2) I’ve seen my name in a published book (credits for my beta reading work but still. BEST FEELING EVER)

Thank you Ella!

I love a good redemption arc. In fact, I’ve been obsessed with reading and writing them since I was about twelve years old!

Even when I went through my edgy teenager phase, I had the chronic problem of always redeeming my villains. No matter how hard I tried to create an evil tyrant or scary warlord, it always backfired on the page. I eventually stopped resisting and just let my characters become nice people.

[ID: three colors & their hex codes labeled: morning blue, charcoal, and queen pink]

You wake up to hair in your mouth. You grimace, and raise a hand from your girlfriend’s hip to carefully remove it from your mouth. You crack your eyes open—hesitantly at first, then  all the way as you realize the room is still dim. Morning light filters in through the cracks between your thick curtains; casting the room in shades of blue. 

You sit up, slowly, careful not to disturb or dislodge your girlfriend. Your mouth is dry, and you need to pee.

You reluctantly leave your dark blue comforter and pad towards the bathroom. One bathroom break and a paper cup of water later, you return to the room. Your girlfriend has moved in your absence, seeking your warmth. The furrow in her brows and the frown on her face says that the place you once laid is not a good enough substitute.

You smile.

The comforter has slid off of her; exposing that soft satin pink nightgown you love so much. You replace it, carefully, and kiss her cheek. She mumbles something, but doesn’t wake as you finish tucking her in.

Perhaps she’ll stay asleep long enough for you to surprise her with breakfast in bed…