#much words

ahh okay so this is gonna be long pls bear with me. i was tagged by @ardawyn with the words guard, drops, dream, tall, by @writingamongthecoloredroses with the words game, loser, play, win, welcome, and by @indeliblewrites​ with the words hope, sunlight, fate, and harbor. thank you! 

guard

“I have a Constructor guarding my door at night.” Ren announced as she walked in, draping herself over the first solitary chair she laid her eyes on. 

Yael scoffed. “That kid you decapitated was so important that they think someone would sneak into Undine of all places for revenge?”

drops

A shadow dropped from behind her. Ren whirled around, readying herself to fight, only to be met with Kenji and his ridiculous grin. She scowled. “And where in the deathdamned hell have you been?” 

dream

“The younger Cordova,” said Horseman Kuang slowly, drawing out every syllable, “has already testified that you left dinner abruptly and stormed out of your ancestral home in a fit of anger.”

Fuck. It had been foolish to dream that Malakai would stand up for her, but she’d hoped he might have had enough love left in his cold mephistophelian heart to lie. “My brother did not bear witness to our conversation—”

tall

Fynn had been the tallest person she’d ever met, but underneath the veil his body looked small. So small.

loser

It was always traditions with her father. He lived in the past and refused to look toward the future. He would lose favor with the Emperor eventually. It was necessary for her to replace him.

game + play

It was inspiring, how her father could evoke so many negative emotions with such few words. She put the letter to the side and watched as it was engulfed in flames the moment her fingers left the paper, until the only evidence it had ever been there at all were the charred remains on her floor. Ren’s breath caught in her throat. He hadn’t wanted any eyes but hers to see the letter. 

Just what sort of game was he playing now?

win acquire

“That’s dramatic.”

“No, it’s true,” said the disciple to the left, not-so-discreetly wiping sweat off his brow. “Whispers say the Warlord Emperor is interested in acquiring everything beyond the North of the Outer Gates. That would include The Frozen Countries. Horsemen are being stationed front-line.”

welcome meet

You hold out your hand with a bashful grin.

She slaps it away and stands on her own, ignoring how her legs wobble. “The next time we meet, I’ll kill you.”

hope

An elbow jabbed into her side, followed by Kenji’s piercing shriek. “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here!”

“Don’t yell—”

sunlight

“I knew I’d find you here,” the figure whispers. Every word is slow and rough. “They tried to hide you, didn’t they?” The more sound that leaves its shapeless mouth, the more the air around you turns heavy, and the more sunlight is swallowed by shadows. “Not. Well. Enough.”

fate

She’d spent her entire life trying to avoid the Outer Gates, had come here to avoid dying as one soldier out of many. Now she would suffer the fate of cowards for a murder she hadn’t committed? 

harbor gate

“Family is not a meritocracy. If it were, Malakai, you would be a nameless orphan sent to die at the Outer Gates. And you would die, do you understand?"

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I love dungeons and dragons.

Running this club as a teacher in my 20s makes me wish I had DnD in high school, because guys — it’s amazing! I get to watch as these kids learn to love diversity, to communicate, to work as a team, to tell stories, to care for each other, to resolve conflicts, to love themselves, to have imaginitive and involved experiences without a screen, to fight the bad, and have meaningful triumphs over negative influences. I watch them weave their own sorrows into their characters, and experiment with how to overcome them. I get to watch them grab at the chance to be the exact opposite of what they are in real life, and love it. We laugh ourselves to death at the wonderful and awful outcomes of probability, and surprise ourselves with what we manage to accomplish.

Its healing.