#theriderfromnowhere

omg oK I WILL

so this whole thing started in my freshman year of high school when i got a prompt that was basically ‘write a short story on this premise’ and i’ve been refining it ever since

bUt the thing is: you have this planet. it’s pretty much earth except: it has no ecology because magic. daisyworld can go fuck itself. therefore we can have no oceans, and instead we have these huge expansive blue forests where the fish swim. there are still rivers and rain and stuff because i said so. the people are pretty normal, but most don’t go into the forests for the same reasons we don’t go into the oceans without being prepared. 

but there are villages on the edges of the oceans, and it’s around them that the witch clans make their homes. salem’s family is one of many on the west coast of the US. they’re about three miles from the edge of the forest, and as such they get a pretty wide variety of fish, including sharks. the sharks don’t like people except the witches. salem especially. they’re Buds. 

salem is mainly a potions-witch. he can heal most anything people come to him with, but sometimes he gets help from the two aunts he lives with, fermald and aoife, because he is a teenager and loves them and is awful at most word-magic and intention-magic. he can sing to the trees, make runes, and do potions. yeah.

@theriderfrom-nowhere​ is AMAZING and sent in questions from here

4. Has your character ever witnessed something that fundamentally changed them? If so, does anyone else know? (TW: brief, nonspecific mention of assault and death) 

   I’m going to go with a firm YES on this one. She was stabbed just before she left Amyr, had been cheated on and assaulted multiple times, and – drum roll – later in her story, she witnesses something pretty awful as well. Actually, if I’m to spoil it ( because who knows when / if I’ll ever write it ), one Willow’s exes comes back, tries to threaten her into a relationship, and burns down an entire village that Willow had been close to as a show of force. Also kidnaps her and Tallow. Willow is a very happy child, as you can see. 

   As far as knowing – not really. Eyrk ( old best friend back on Amyr ) knows she was stabbed, but only suspected how poorly she’d been treated in relationships. She never told Tallow anything ( as of this point in their stories ) and doesn’t really plan on doing so, but he will be there for the ‘burning down of everything’ and ‘kidnapping’ stuff. 

   As for how all of that fundamentally changed her; her being stabbed and treated so poorly is what encouraged her to run away from Amyr. It sort of pushed her off the edge, to be frank. Tallow abandons her shortly after the whole ‘burned down village’ and ‘kidnapping’ stuff, and that’s when her ‘allein’ verse kicks in, which is widely regarded as her ‘dark’ or ‘evil’ universe, as she no longer cares about killing or hurt people. It’s great. All great.  

7. Does your character have recurring themes in their nightmares?

   I don’t actually think Willow dreams. If she were, she’d dream about her past relationships and her mother turning evil. ( THOUGH HER MOTHER NEVER DID, it would just be a nightmare-fueled fear fest. ) 

11. In what situation was your character the most afraid they’ve ever been?

   Willow is always more afraid when it involves other people. Though she seems self-involved and egotistical, she does sort of care about other people. Her mother’s disappearance, along with watching the village burn down, are mortifying for her. At least where she’s involved, she knows what she can and can’t do, and if she can work things out and be safe. When it’s out of her control, it messes her up. 

20. In what ways does your character compare themselves to others? Do they do this for the sake of self-validation, or self-criticism? 

Dat face tho XD

@theriderfrom-nowhere

Yeaaah, that face means I’m fixing to be cooked.

|| MEME. ||

@theriderfrom-nowhere

A most titillating sound filled the night air, screams and panic-laden shouts spiking from the village below. The Shade came to the edge of a cliff, peering down. People scattered and ran, but he saw only villagers. The King’s forces weren’t there. Eyes squinting as he searched from his perch, he tried to catch anything in his sight that might stir up such bustle. He needed a closer look. He leapt.

He landed some distance from the foot of the cliff in a crouch, and rose, walking as though he’d simply leapt from a few feet. The black hood about his shoulders was brought to shroud his face and he stalked forward, a tight smile curving his mouth as the sounds of chaos grew louder. 

He had only but to pass by a few cottages before the most marvelous sight met him. Great and horned and bathed in firelight was a dragon, and it was not the dragon whose Rider had bested him. The young Eragon was far too noble to tear a village apart, as was his dragon. No, this was one he’d never lain eyes upon before, he believed. It was glorious.

       Joey hadn’t expected any of this. For one thing, he hadn’t know he’d had a son up until a couple years ago. At the age of 15, his son showed up on his doorstep. And his world changed. Suddenly he became important to someone –– a figure that couldn’t be replaced. He’d met with his adoptive family a couple times. Though because the wife was related to Avery, it was incredibly hard for him. 

       Now here he stood, in the living room with their daughter who had decided that coming home at 3am without calling was a good idea. It shouldn’t have been like this. Her parents weren’t supposed to die and he wasn’t supposed to take over from where they left off. Now the 17 year old was his responsibility, and he was trying his hardest to be what she needed.