Tag: ask

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(Sassy, when this one came in, nightmares saw it first and sent me a message telling me I’d like these questions. And I do. These are the best questions.)

The answer is YES. It’s one of the skills that is so fun to consider with my little babies.

They can feel changes in the air pressure, sometimes even to the point of knowing the weather is shifting. Bowman Leafwing happens to be one of the best wood sprites out there who can utilize that acute sense to the fullest. It happens once in his canon story, Bowman of Wellwood, though I haven’t found many opportunities to slip it into the AU stuff yet that I recall. Bowman, if he’s concentrating, can feel the shifts in the air around a hand grabbing at him, and he can use those shifts to duck around a grab and avoid getting caught; it’s a tough trick considering how fast humans are, but he’s done it before.

And yes, that skill is also used for dodging around things and avoiding crashes, especially for the daring ones that fly in the dark. Bowman’s uncle, Larxe Maelstrom, also taught him how to use that in heavy wind situations, so he can still fly steadily in really strong gusts where unpracticed sprites might not be able to.

Make no mistake, despite his willowy frame, Bowman can be considered a top-tier athlete among wood sprites for his aerial acrobatics.

The wings are mostly bat-like, yes, but there’s also the leafy aspect to them (not that the leafiness changes much as far as flight goes). They extend down to about their mid backs, and most of their clothing has slits up the back to accommodate them. This is the reason for the scarf around the waist that Bowman wears. Without it, that middle flap of his shirt could wave about in the wind and it would be distracting as well as a drag to his flight speed.

image

Art commissioned from QuackGhost on Deviantart.

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This is actually a pretty straightforward question. The sprites don’t follow any traditions/beliefs pertaining to a menstrual cycle, because they don’t have one. Despite appearances, they are not closely related to the Great Ape family, and that’s actually one of the only types of mammal that has a cycle.

Sprites, all of my sprites, are Spirit-made, so even though they look a lot like humans there are a handful of biological differences (in the case of the wood sprites, they’re actually part plant so that right there opens up a bunch of differences).

Jacob, explaining this to Dean in Brothers Asunder:

Jacob frowned, feeling a little like a bad guy for what he was suggesting. But, as the only one good to drive the car, he knew that he had some room to insist. Dean needed the rest. Another glance down at Bowman showed that he needed it, too.

It also gave Jacob an idea. He reached out and gently scooped his hand under Bowman. The sprite flopped over on his hand before sitting up sluggishly, blinking slowly. His wings hung slack.

“What?” Bowman groused, his voice heavy with exhaustion.

Jacob looked over Bowman’s slumped form at Dean. “Bowman’s basically a plant, Dean. He’s been up and flying around since well before the sun went down. He needs to recuperate a little, at least. And you probably should, too. You had an arm busted tonight, dude.”

“Plant?” Dean asked, eyebrows scrunched in confusion. “Like energy-from-the-sun kinda plant?” He gave Bowman a slightly accusing look. “And you didn’t want to tell me that? ” he shot at the sprite, sounding put out after being lectured about how Bowman was ‘fine’ not long ago. How in the world was he going to be able to watch out for the little sprite if he didn’t even know something as important as that? At least if he or Jacob needed energy they could grab some coffee or a soda, but a plant…

“We don’t have an extra sun on hand, so you’ll need to take it easy until the morning,” Dean said tartly. “Sam won’t be happy if we run his little brother into the ground when he’s not around.” He held out his hand, beckoning Jacob to hand the sprite over. “I’ll keep an eye on small fry over here and make sure he doesn’t get into any more trouble.”

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(Well, Sassy, at least it gives me excuses to infodump about my lore)

This is many questions, I’ll just answer ‘em right in order.

1. For really bad inclement weather, wood sprites wouldn’t go outside, no. They’d bunker down inside their homes and make the best of things … they could find a container around if that was needed.

To keep themselves warm, most of the time they will snuggle together in a group (in Brothers Asunder, young Sam most definitely did grow up knowing of these snuggle piles). Wood sprites also know a few Prayers to help them out in such weather. They can Pray for magic that brings heat through the living tree all around them, and prevent them from freezing in their li’l cuddle piles.

2. Newborns and young babies do use cloth diapers, yes.

Fun fact about baby wood spites (hey, I warned about the infodump): When they are born, their wings are not fully developed. Instead, they have little leaf buds on their backs (which I’m sure their mothers are thankful for, no one wants to birth a set of fully developed wings). These leaf buds stay curled for the first few years of the young sprite’s life, developing into full wings with the help of sunlight. When they are four or five, the buds have reached a thickness of around twice what they were born with, and they start to uncurl. At that point, all flutters break loose as the nestlings learn to deal with the very sensitive nerves that are now exposed to the air.

3.  They wash their clothes with water. No, really. Just water. Stones in the stream can be used for scrubbing if needed, but honestly they don’t often need it. Groundwater in Wellwood happens to be extra pure (for reasons), so the stream is extra A-OK to use for cleaning.

4.  Correct. Wood sprites are very lax and don’t tend to be super inventive on their own, and usually they don’t need to be. “Necessity is the mother of invention” and all that.

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Good question!

We’ve been editing the stories one by one, and doing our best to keep them even. That way, we’re prepared whatever story gets chosen, we (hopefully!) have more ready for after.

That said, once the first story of each AU concludes, we’ll go back to another poll to pick the next. We won’t have the entire AU post all at once, and this will give us the time to write more of the AUs ahead of time. More stories get added to the poll each time a story ends, and we go on from there! So it’s up to you guys what goes up. We’re handing over the reigns, if not the AU names.

Hopefully, stories forever!

The actual length of the first story for each AU:

Brothers Lost: 27 chapters

Brothers Found: 16 chapters

Brothers Adopted: 27 chapters

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That’s good to hear! It can be hard when asking things over the internet, since facial expressions and tone of voice don’t come across at all. For BA, it’s definitely my first AU, but now BL is competing with it for story ideas and inspiration, and the others may catch up as well. Having someone to write with means the ideas will explode, and so far haven’t stopped coming. I think BL gives us the chance to try a few new ideas we’ve never played with, and you’ll all love them!

And of course, other AUs have very fun plans in store as well… horror story, anyone? 

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Hmm, this is a tricky question. I do have female OCs, but it’s not likely they’ll play a large part in this story at any time. Beth and Isabelle aren’t likely to be seen again in the story, and Evelina wouldn’t fit. Unless the story goes for a few more (Supernatural) years, we won’t be seeing Charlie much either. Of course, Mina and Celeste can appear back in the story at any time, so there’s a possibility for you!

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We’ve only ever planned to list the story names, since there’s the chance that one of the AUs gets ignored in favor of the others, but I can at least give you a hint.

Back when the story excerpts started, I put in a hint as to the name of the story that each excerpt is from, and Brothers Lost was the first AU that was featured. You can figure out what the story name is for that story, and any story written afterwards, by reading the tags. Check the link below to read them from the beginning:

Story excerpts

Sadly, I didn’t think of story excerpts until after we wrote Brothers Found and Brothers Adopted.

I’ve got my fingers crossed for Brothers Lost, personally, but even we have no idea which story is going to win!

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It’s great to hear that you’ve enjoying the unique monsters!

There has been a vengeful spirit in the First Interlude story, it was simply glossed over so the short story could focus on their bonding. Plus we’ve got the demon and Celeste the witch hanging around on the outskirts.

However, there are going to be more spirits coming up as well, along with plans for vampires and maybe a werewolf on the periphery. Remember, this includes the AUs as well, so there’s no way of knowing what will turn up when, or who will turn up. Other Supernatural characters may walk their way in at any point in time.

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Alright, I shoulda known it’s been too long since this question came up. Time to clear a few things in the air again.

First off, the other AUs are not to be confused with ‘side projects.’ I might consider a prompt a side project, or these asks. But the AUs are fully fledged stories that we put a lot of time and effort into and I will not accept them being sidelined.

For example, BA is at its tenth story.

We are currently writing the sixth part of BL with plans for plenty more.

These stories are actually going to be longer than the majority of stories in BA, since I have fantastic support and a great writing partner now. The ideas continue to flow and haven’t stopped.

On the subject of BA, since this one is a little more tender for myself.

During the fall, I had a falling out with my editor. I don’t like to spread anything, so the full story won’t be told. It boils down to the fact that they wanted to tell me what to write for stories I had already envisioned and they helped find a monster to fit the part. When they started to poke and prod for information on what I was writing constantly, not to mention wanting to tell me what to write, I had to tell them to stop, and later broke things off completely from what was becoming a toxic friendship.

Because of this, I hit the dreaded wall of writer’s block.

I’ve since recovered (mostly) from it, but BA is not being written as fast anymore. So though I do continue on with my planned storyline, I will not be able to support a chapter a week.

Also, I work a high-stress, full time job. Having more than one story posting at a time was a drain for me. Which is why after LoS is complete, we will not be switching back. The entire point of me switching to one story at a time was to reduce the amount of stress I have at home while I’m doing what I love. Don’t expect this to change.

The poll goes up tomorrow, so know that the story that is voted in will be what is posting next. Choose wisely, and know that many weeks of love and work went into them, just like for BA!

—Also, if anyone knocks @neonthewrite‘s efforts for these stories, please remember that she puts just as much work into them as I do, and her characters were invited in by yours truly.

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On By nightmares06In UncategorizedLeave a comment

Oh my God. This is excellent, throwing salt right back at me. I’m so pleased (not sarcasm)! Instead of Bathroom Anon I’m gonna dub you Sassy Anon and now you’re one of my fave Anons. Bless you.

As for the clarification/question, yeah. Accidents can happen. If they do, it’s just a cleanup deal. The young sprite in question hides in embarrassment for a day or two, before it’s right back to playing outside and hopefully paying more attention to when they need to make a trip.

Funerary rites aren’t generally a huge affair, though there is often a period of mourning for those close to the one who died. Wood sprites especially value life and all aspects of it, and that includes dying as a part of it. The family will lean on each other as they miss their loved one, but they will also find solace in knowing that their soul has returned to be with the Spirit.

The bodies are usually wrapped in leaves and buried someplace outside the village, usually opting for the ground outside the circle of oak trees at one end of their neck of the woods. Burial keeps scavengers away.