I went a big adventure this last weekend and I’ve been spending the last couple days recovering. And we’re also moving out of the country next week, so I’m kinda working on getting everything sorted to get packed and so on. Not very hard, mind, because we still have to exist in this space until we move. So.

BUT. I wanted to respond to @enchanted-lightning-aes and @papercutsunset when they tagged me in Word Finds. Even though one of them was almost a month ago. (I actually just forgot that one because of all the things we’re doing to get ready for departure.)

Anyway, here you go!

act, stumble, warning, pay, rake,beef, proof, and rise

act

Tristan found himself between the much smaller girl and the dangerous Scorpio, arms outstretched. The man returned to his hissing and snarling. Tristan jerked back from a strike of the tail, the actunbalancing him and causing him to fall. Isolde yelped behind him. As the tail drew back for another strike, Tristan spun around on the stair and scooped up the girl, an easy task for his large, muscular form, and bolted up to the main floor of the house.

stumble

Hestumbledupon a page with a sketch of a girl, not much older than the young Taurus. Splotches covered the page, the charcoal smeared unintentionally, a name scribbled along the bottom. His nose stung, eyes wet, and he slammed the journal shut. He remembered her. He remembered her.

warning

Tristan had the morning lecture to agonize over what to tell Jorgus. He settled on warning him of the possible vast cost of horn powder, something that he did not expect the Jones family to have. The bull seemed to accept that and thanked him – thanked him! – for telling him. Isolde joined him for lunch to ask what the spell entailed and if he knew of a way to make some sort of item, a totem that might perform a similar function. In all the excitement of the last several weeks, he had all but forgotten about his father’s suggestion that they locate his mother’s spellbooks to find the spell that recharged the wards.

pay

A sharp inhalation brought him to consciousness, startled out of sleep by the bustle of activity around him. The Wives had just started to get up and pack away their bedrolls, Miss Sherla assigned the task of cooking breakfast. She made sure to cook an extra set for each of the boys. Tristan offered to open one of his jams. Orla advised against it, but Miss Sherla promised she’d payfor it if the others didn’t sell well. The jam made its way around the foggy morning campfire and even Mrs. McTiernan sputtered out an admittance of deliciousness.

rake
I feel like I could have this one in a scene, which makes me want to add it.

beef
There are a people in this setting with Cattle-like appearances, so we’ve removed cow from the setting. Which means beef wouldn’t be a meat, in-universe.

proof

“So, would you be willing to hunt down whatever is in the woods, Alden?” A smile found her features, a mask that Tristan understood.

The scorpion nodded absently.

“Excellent!” She looked to Tristan. “And when he comes back with proofof the beast’s existence, will you be nicer to him?”

rise

Impact again, this time from a fist, connected with his shoulder. He yowled and spun toward the source of the pain and threw out his own fist. He must’ve dropped his hammer in the initial fall. The moon might rise, give him some semblance of visibility. The heard the crunch of dirt underfoot and held up his arms to block an attack.

There ya go, folks! I’ll leave this as open tag to anyone that wants to participate, seeing as how I’m surprisingly busy. Your words, should you choose to accept the challenge, are: redeem, disappointment, thrust,andinject.

sleepyowlwrites:

find the word tag CCCX

I’m gonna hit my next follower milestone faster that I thought, aren’t I? and I’m gonna have to think of something to do to celebrate, aren’t I? or, and hear me out, I could just mention it briefly when it happens and keep doing my random stuff that I do: running ask games, doing edits, sending random poetry, sticking my friends into a badly drawn comic, etc. it’ll be like I’m celebrating all the time, like I’m always happy to have you around. I am, by the way. lovely to know you all. @talesofsorrowandofruin@diphthongsfordays

begin(to trade in stolen breath, to live after death, 2021)

darkness is a cage, a skin
shed two o'clock for afternoon and find a place to begin

cross(spirits and spectres - youth story/the stray spirit crossover)

“I can be other things too,” the corgi - Aspen - said, their voice still one of the most delightful sounds Daniel had ever heard.

“You don’t have to be if you don’t want to,” Nyks reassured them, sitting cross-legged on the grass, his gaze positively adoring. “You’re great just as a person-shaped spirit. You can do whatever you want.”

Aspen not-poofed back into a human shape and sat right next to Nyks, their eyes alight with joy.

seek(seafarer, searcher, 2021)

I set off to seekmy fortune
To find legends in the stars
I sailed seas of molten silver
And crossed deserts in the dark
I passed by every shortcut
To take the long way ‘round
I left offerings at altars
And my footprints in the ground

proud(dirt in the doing)

“You know,” Jet says more normally, “There are plenty of things worth getting angry about.”

“Yes,” Copper says, firm again, “but not about whether or not you have feelings. Of course you do, you’re human. So just feel them and get on with your life.”

“Easier said than done.” Jet lets go of Copper’s hands and gathers up the mugs, standing. “That’s a lot of work.”

Copper pushes himself up and wraps his arms around Jet, who is slightly helpless since his hands are full. “Yes. It is. And it never stops. We’re always working on ourselves. And you’ve already started, I think. And I’m proudof you for that.”

harsh(blood curse, 2020)

Jin Feng clucked his tongue in disgust. “Your mother was not meant for this world, this harsh,harshworld. It’s better that she’s gone.”

Meili refused to cry. “It is. This way she doesn’t have to see what you’ve become.”

“No, you don’t understand.” And idea sprung into Meili’s head and she bit her tongue to stifle a gasp. “It’s better this way because now she doesn’t have to feel anything when she sees me as I’ve become.”

Meili felt her throat tighten. “No,” she whispered, begging her father to deny what he was implying. “Tell me you didn’t.”

dull(beating hearts, 2021)

Liu Sang stares so hard at the end of the tunnel ahead of him that it seems to shrink away from him. A low rush fills the outside of his ears. His heartbeat is pounding harder and its beat is making his muscles ache. When he blinks, the glow from their flashlights change from a greenish hue to a warning red. But then he blinks again and the light is still green, dulland ordinary.

His lip catches between his teeth as he sucks in a breath. The rush is louder now, and is much more of an actual sound. He focuses in on the pulse and scope of it. It’s a real sound, not just his anxiety roaring at him. And its directly beneath his feet. The uneasiness doesn’t go away but the relief he feels at having his senses attacked by an actual sound and not merely his natural pessimism is at least in equal measure to the fear crawling up his skin.

gaze(the sleepy stash)

Taehyun peers at him in the dim, dusty light, judging him, still holding him. And Beomgyu keeps his gazethis time, waiting. “If I stick around to hear your story, will to promise to do your best to keep telling it?”

Beomgyu has gotten used to hearing a lot in a silence, and then again in the silence between two people afraid of many things, most of which they couldn’t name. He hasn’t know Taehyun that long, but he thinks he can understand many of his silences now.

He thinks he hears Taehyun saying: stay alive for me,then.

“Yeah,” Beomgyu breathes out, something dislodging from his chest that he hadn’t known was stuck there. “Stick around. I want to hear your story, too.”

And there, unvoiced in the quiet, is: you stay alive,too.

take(if I wanted sterile affection I’d go to walmart, 2020)

Who washes apples right after they pick it? You can’t taste the tree if you do. And we are not deer or woodpeckers. We cannot takein bark on its own. We taste a little bit in the skin and sunshine in the juice and the seeds slide down our teeth to feed the birds below our feet. Don’t wash the earth away, give me your fingers to feel the tree on my cheeks.

push, pull, run, away. BONUS: rebel, outcast.@mecharose@woodhousejay@dustylovelyrun@kaiusvnoir@zonnemaagd@ink-fireplace-coffee@novanovelwriting@asomeoneperson OR ANYBODY

sleepyowlwrites:

find the word tag CCCIV

the events of last night: stacked stuff on carts, broke a candle, moved fixtures, stacked towels on carts and then back onto new shelves in a very aesthetically pleasing manner, ate yummy beef soup and a brownie, drank coffee which did nothing, moved more towels, moved more fixtures, swept up a lot of dust bunnies - A LOT - sneezed, yawned and had nonsensical conversations with the rest of the overnight crew until it was time to leave! I put my leggings right into the wash because they were so dusty. @zmwrites

wickedevil(the sleepy stash)

“I don’t wanna say that you’ve colossally misinterpreted things when you’re prepared to kill me but, uh, you really, really missed the point. Like, if the point was a bowl of soup on the table you’d have thought, ‘ah, true sustenance is not merely what we eat, but rather our passion for learning,’ and then spilled the soup on the ground as your stomach rumbled symbolically.”

“You just said that I colossally misinterpreted things.”

“Again, I am hyper aware of the situation I am in, but yeah. If the point was a diamond ring lying in a field you’d have said, ‘ah, creation can exist anywhere, anyone can create,’ instead of assuming someone just lost a ring.”

“You are repeating yourself. I am capable of understanding a point.”

“Not of a distraction, though. Or of the original point which was ‘don’t deal with people who only want to use you’ not ‘mankind is eviland nobody can be trusted,’ dumbass. Hands up.”

dream(waking dream, 2020)

Broken fences, gates unhinged
Smoke is drifting on the wind
Crows are calling, copper gleams
Close my eyes and I can still hear screams

Ember under younger days
Hope for better, bitter taste
Cracking windows, ashy streams
Hold my breath in this waking dream

All this time I was never sorry
Tried to climb but found that this is not my story

Bloody fingers on the wall
Told a tale too long, too tall
Bide my time, wait too long
Waking up to hear the song

Trails away like hanging flames
A pause, now I’m wide awake
How much truth can my dreams take
From me
Before I surrender my sanity

game(I have uses but not feeling them today)

flicker(but what of light, if I fade?, 2020)

the green lights of this town hurt my eyes. I don’t know why they shine so bright. when I look at the puddles they make on the ground beneath them, the effect is small and obscured easily by shadow. I place on shoe in the circle and I am showered in ambiguous glory.

the yellow lights on the train hurt my eyes. I don’t know why they pierce me so. round and round they flicker, one after the other, like they’re shaking hands and dying together. but they don’t go out, rather, they simply go on. I hold up a hand to block out the strain and I am left with a dismal reminder of rain.

the red lights on the water hurt my eyes. I don’t know why they glow so fiercely. even while the currents are so tumultuous and there is no business left for leftover lanterns, the lights bob atop the surface and radiate outward. I touch one of them and I am greeted with a chorus of flickersbefore they all disappear.

the silver lights of my palms hurt my eyes. I don’t know why I can’t shut them off. they don’t hurt me, they just slowly drain me dry and as I perch my tongue on my cracking lips I feel a sense of sorrow. I am only one source of light and after I am gone there will be no one left to think of stars as too bright for the night.

gone, guilt, gift, good. BONUS: greeting, gradual.@enchanted-lightning-aes@blind-the-winds@ink-fireplace-coffee@lend-your-lungs-to-me@writingonesdreams@andiwriteunderthemoon@caitwritesstuff@diphthongsfordays OR ANYBODY

sleepyowlwrites:

find the word tag CCCIII

a lot of the players are mic-ed in this football game we’re watching, and the players have codenames, apparently, so we’ve got Fritos, Organ, Texas, Blue. @diphthongsfordays

love(I wrote this for my friend who also named a song after me)

Finger plucking, chord strumming
I like the way you play
The beat of your thumbs
The tap of your feet
You’ve got a special way
Of getting me singing
Keeping me smiling
Every single day
And that’s why I loveyou
‘Cause of the way you play

fox(the sleepy stash)

there are echoes from the foxesthat wail along the stones. I turn and hide my secrets inside the hollows of bird bones.

weak(broken things, 2013)

I love to fix the broken things
To heal the hurt and mend their wings
I can’t help them if you are missing
I want to repair your heart

I need your help when I can’t speak
Your voice is strong when mine is weak
But with both our tongues set on repeat
We can’t repair our hearts

soft(not yours, never mine, 2021)

He was not enough but I made him desperate, I made him angry, I made him soft. He was aching for his own but I made him mine.

difficulthard(the bus stop, 2020)

my breath pauses in the air for a moment, my feet shift in boots and ache after loving the ground for too long. the bus stop is lonely at this hour. it sits so frozen in space and surrounds me completely. there might be time but without counting through songs in my hears it’s hardto tell. before my potential death arrives to ferry me home, the world just sort of stops.

true, fold, made, learn.BONUS: untrue, unfold, unmade, unlearn.@ettawritesnstudies@zoya-writes@writing-with-melon@vellichor-virgo@the-finch-address OR ANYBODY

sleepyowlwrites:

find the word tag CCCIX

can all of the liberty mutual ads go die in a hole. my grandma ran out of books to read while she’s at our house, so I found Marie, Dancing by Carolyn Meyer, Salvage the Bones by Jasmyn Ward and The Thorn Birds for her to read since our tastes are very different generally. She’s working through Marie, Dancing right now. I recommend it.

@diphthongsfordays

dust(dirt in the doing)

They’re outside the garage where Yarrow is sketching the two of them for some art project and Jet has chosen to be comfortable over being presentable while Run just sits cross-legged next to him with one hand continuously straying over and tracing lines down his arm. It’s distracting and soothing and Jet hasn’t worked up the brain energy to say anything about it yet.

“Your nose is bleeding again,” Yarrow remarks, holding out a rag. “Stop bothering it or it won’t dry up all the way.”

Rune takes it without comment, holding it under her nose to catch the blood.

“Don’t worry, Jet. It doesn’t mean she’s in love with you.”

Jet raises his head a fraction from where it had been buried in his arms and stares at Yarrow. “What?”

Yarrow gestures vaguely, chalk dustflying off his fingers. “Rune! Is not in love with you! Obviously.”

pile(dirt in the doing)

“I always think so deeply about things,” Rune says with a strained sort of chuckle. “I’m on my own, after all.”

Jet can tell Yarrow really wants to follow that new train of thought, so he starts sitting up, which derails the little nap pilethey have going on. “It’s almost dark. Are you going to finish the sketch or what?”

“No, I’m done. I was just embellishing, and you both looked really comfortable so I didn’t want to disturb you, but then Rune’s nose started bleeding which ruined that effect-”

“We were there for all of that,” Rune interrupts, thankfully. “In that case, I wanna head home.”

“Which? Yours or mine?”

Rune hesitates, which Jet doesn’t register as hesitation until after she answers. “Mine, I think.”

note(beating hearts, 2021)

Liu Sang moves his hand toward the direction he’d been about to turn. “There’s water down there.”

“Down?” Pangzi asks, coming up behind him to shine his flashlight at the tunnel. “Does this way go down?”

Liu Sang sighs, but pulls out his whistle to blow a short noteon it. He closes his eyes to concentrate, and also so he doesn’t have to see the others watching him. “Yes,” he says after a moment, after the echoes of the sound have bounced down, down, and then up, up back to him. “This way goes down.”

Reluctantly, he opens his eyes again. Wu Xie seems excited, but the man is easily excitable. Was an underground river all he’d hoped to find down here? He knows it’s not. He recalls sitting outside the planning tent while Wu Xie had discussed his hopes for what they’d find with Pangzi and Zhang Qiling, and while he’d been able to hear them perfectly, he’d plugged his ears and tuned them out.

He doesn’t really care. It’s not like he’s here to find treasures or archaeological mysteries. Liu Sang is here because he has good ears, and, apparently, because he’s wanted.

And that’s far too good of a prospect to pass up on.

sing(ellipses of thought no.03)

I sent you sunflowers, will you singme to sleep? there are raindrop worlds inside your sleeves. the moths in my brain are on strike. slowly, I knit my sweaters back together. I sent you sunflowers, will you open your window? the lawn is freshly trimmed. come down, Rapunzel. the candles are burning out but I can still smell the sea. I sent you sunflowers - you’re the only sun I need.

breath(dirt in the doing)

“I feel safe when you’re there,” Rune answers. And then, after a beat, Jet clearly hears the breathcatch in her throat when she realizes what she’s said.

He expects her to deny those words, take them back, rephrase them. She doesn’t. But she does roll over a little so she can look him in the eyes.

“I don’t really feel scared in the daytime, in- when I’m awake. I can’t control how I feel when I’m asleep.”

Jet nods once more, this time much closer to an understanding. “Nobody can.”

“When you sleep over, I wake up knowing that you’re in the other room.”

Rune is taking a while to explain a very simple fact. Jet lets her.

“I have unpleasant dreams.”

Again, Jet nods, but this time he brings up his left hand to trace barely there lines against her hair, brushing wayward strands away from her face.

“I like it when you sleep over.”

@gwens-fiction@iparisaltanwing@enchanted-lightning-aes@oh-no-another-idea@moonlitinks@quilloftheclouds OR ANYBODY for judge,hidden,forest,trend. BONUS: wake,play.