#writing

wistfulrat:

it’s jokes on here but rly truly genuinely the thing u like abt taika’s core affect has always been his māori-ness. what ur perceiving in his comedy and writing and emotional beats and exploration of masculinity and general clown shit is peak pasifika. not that islanders have the monopoly on his tone but. since 2 cars 1 night, eagle vs shark, flight of the conchords, boy, hunt for the wilderpeople, what we do in the shadows, our flag means death etc. he has never not been a māori eccentric making distinctly happy-sad dramedies born out of māori boyhood and the cadence of nz aoteoroa village kid humor like. that is an islander doing bits at ur aunty’s funeral if i ever saw one

Writing Mandalorian fic be like

Me: I’ll just check this detail from the episode real quick. Will just a take a second

Me forty minutes later: wow what a good episode

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20697278

a-sundeen:

@kaulayauwritessaid:

what is, in your opinion, the best way to world build? how can you avoid writing a bland, archetypal universe or copying an already existing one? sorry if I’m not being clear, haha, and thanks so much!

Hey there, thanks so much for your ask! I honestly love talking about the world-building process, so I’m really glad you sent this; let’s dive right in!

Best Way to World-Build?

In my opinion, there isn’t a best way to world-build. The “best” process depends on what is needed and what you’ll actually need to know for your writing. What follows isn’t necessarily what I would call the best way, but it’s a good way to cover your bases and opens up a lot of options for going in-depth with details. (It’ll be a bit of a long list, but definitely worth it in the long run.)

For each country you’re going to include or mention in your story, think about:

• Name
  
• Capital and major cities, and locations
• Border shape
• 3 most common landforms
• Historical sites or places that mean a great deal to the people living there
• General economic scheme (ex. capitalist, Communist, Socialist, etc)
• Most important laws
• Major differences from the character’s homeland
• Military setup (different branches, enlistment age, etc)
• Climate
• Relations with surrounding countries
• Societal norms (gender roles, public & professional behavior, etc)
• Stance on LGBT+ rights, and treatment of LGBT+ people
• Most and least respected professions
• Common religions
• Stereotypes about this country (any and all)
• Common pastimes and hobbies
• Popularity of sports, movies, and other forms of entertainment
• Genres of music (and possibly stereotypes of people who listen to them)
• Language(s) spoken
• Beauty standards and the commercialization of them
• Commercialization that feeds off of the peoples’ insecurities

For each city you’re going to include or mention in your story, think about:

• The “aesthetic” (think of it the way NYC’s aesthetic is taxis, skyscrapers, and nightlife)
  
• Public opinion of street performers
• Any recreational centers and common activities
• Popularity of a town counsel or the idea of opening to the public for improvement ideas
• How well-known the city is by everyone around it, or how much of a tourist attraction it might be
• State of educational buildings
• Percentage of unemployment versus those who are actively searching for jobs, and how this affects the city’s reputation
• 3+ popular businesses, maybe food or clothing stores
• The way business is generally conducted
• Opportunities for nightlife (etc. bars, night clubs, etc)
• Usual daytime attire, usual nighttime attire
• Any sort of tradition (ex. sharing dreams in the morning, praying before meals, etc)
• Stance on more advanced technology
• Treatment of different age groups
• Again, cliches and stereotypes that might exist of people who live there
• Most common architectural style (ex. modern, Victorian, etc)
• Commonly seen colors
• Any inflation that might exist, local economic troubles
• People’s opinion on the government as a whole (then in-depth, if you want)

As you can see, these two lists are very open-ended. I can’t go too far in-depth with world-building ideas and explaining, because it’s all up to you to create this world. Every single item on this list here can be expanded into tons of different things, but if your goal is just to cover your bases and explore needed details then I think this would be a good place to start.

Making Your World Distinct

This can be pretty tough, honestly. There’s (almost) always a world themed around something out there that’s probably more well-known, famous even. Let’s start with everyone’s favorite wizarding world, that of the Harry Potter books. Your world can be as interesting and different as it gets but because it includes wizards, someone out there is always going to relate it to Harry Potter. So how can we avoid this?

There’s one proven way to this this, especially if you don’t want to change your world. Accentuate any and all differences that would set your story apart from a more well-known world. Maybe our wizards’ spells depend on a material transaction, or they won’t work. Maybe there’s some sort of wizarding god who must be pleased to cast a successful spell. Not so much like HP anymore, huh?

Just remember, there’s a huge difference between world-building through details and world-building through exposition. Both are acceptable, but both have their own appropriate time to be utilized. Take a break from telling the reader flat-out how this thing works, and instead reveal it through the world’s details. Not only does this help treat your readers like the competent individuals they are, it also immerses them so much in the world that there isn’t much of a chance to compare your world to others.

Tl;dr—World-building isn’t really something that can be explained for you by someone else. There are certainly questions that exist to help you, but following a guide that works for someone else might not work for you. Explore the details! (And let the reader explore them, too!)

wordsnstuff:

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Describing The Setting Itself

1. Begin With The Basics

• Where did the story take place?
• When did the story happen?
• What’s the weather or climate like?
• What are the social or community conditions?
• What is the landscape like?
• What special details make it clear to understand?

2. Is It A Specific or Quick description?

• Try to describe the character in a wider setting and gradually narrow to a specific location. Go from a description of the country/state/region, then move to the town, then neighborhood of the town.
• You may also want to go from physical setting to the population by describing the type of people who live in the town. This is a common way to transition from inanimate objects to living beings that think, feel, and care. This starts to give the story meaning.

3. Keep The 5 senses Involved

• Think about what the room smells like. What does the sand feel like under the characters feet? Is the edge of mountain cutting into the character’s hands? Describe the way the character’s favorite meal tastes.
• For example: She entered the front parlor. Lady MacDougall sat enthroned like Queen Victoria on a blue chintz-covered settee and motioned Elizabeth to take the matching armchair opposite. The salmon-painted walls made the duchess’ white hair glow pink. Elizabeth flinched when a log shifted in the blazing fire in the enormous fireplace surrounded by the marble the previous Lord MacDougall had brought back from Egypt himself.

4. Don’t Let The Description Get In The Way Of The Story

• The setting should enhance the story, not block it. This can happen if you stop in the middle of the scene to provide a lengthy description of the world around the characters. Instead of providing separate setting description in the middle of a scene, describe the setting through the characters’ actions. The setting should be integrated along with what the characters are doing.
  
• For example, if the character is running from a vampire in the woods, don’t stop and describe how scary the woods are. Have the character notice how dark it is and the lack of sound. Have the character trip over an exposed root and get a cut on her cheek from a branch. Focus on how the character can’t see anything, but can hear the footsteps behind her. This incorporates the setting with the action so it doesn’t block the story.

5. Show, Don’t Tell

“Don’t say the old lady screamed, bring her on and let her scream.”

- Mark Twain

• To do this, use vivid language. Choose nouns and descriptive adjectives to describe the setting. Use concrete action verbs.
• Telling: The girls were excited.
• Showing: Giggles and screams filled the arena. The soft curls were now damp with perspiration and the anticipation of the event. They held tight to each other in a mock effort to contain themselves. Arms flailed upward, and voices echoed in varying tones. The moment was here.

6. Focus Only On The Important Details

Choosing The Setting

1. Begin With Location

Start by choosing a country, state, region, city, or town. You can be more specific, such as describing a neighborhood or a street. Decide if your location is an urban city, a farm, islands, or mountains.

2. Describe The Room

• When you do this, setting helps give meaning to your story.
• For example: The walls were made of dark stone, dimly lit by torches. Empty benches rose on either side of him, but ahead, in the highest benches of all, were many shadowy figures. They had been talking in low voices, but as the heavy door swung closed behind Harry an ominous silence fell.

3. Time Setting Is Key

• Time of day. Does your story happen in the morning, the middle of the day, or at night? Each time of day has a specific association with it. Also keep in mind the different ways that characters may act at various times in the day.
• Time of year. Is your story set in the summer, the winter, or the spring? Is it centered around a holiday, like Christmas or Halloween? Time of year can also include the anniversary of a significant historical or personal event.
• Elapsed time. Think about the transition of time in your story. This includes hours and even months. You have to describe the passing of time through the setting. This can be time progressing as the story unfolds, or situating the reader within a flashback.

4. Weather

• If your story is set in a harsh climate, you need to describe this for your reader. Describe the difficulties of living in the desert or arctic temperatures. Or explain the ease with which someone lives in their beach house.
• For example: And after all the weather was ideal. They could not have had a more perfect day for a garden-party if they had ordered it. Windless, warm, the sky without a cloud. Only the blue was veiled with a haze of light gold, as it is sometimes in early summer. The gardener had been up since dawn, mowing the lawns and sweeping them, until the grass and the dark flat rosettes where the daisy plants had been seemed to shine.

5. Geography

• Think about geographical formations, like mountains, rivers, lakes, or forests. The character should interact with these things and they should be important to the story. Otherwise, ask yourself why you are setting the story there in the first place.

6. Historical, Social, and Cultural Settings

• Think about social and political settings. This is important for a modern or historical story. These things influence the values and actions of the characters.
• Cultural settings can include religion, traditions, and community interaction. Population of your location can play into this. Is the place densely populated, or is it remote?

Use Character To Describe Setting

1. Action

• Have the character react to the setting. This can provide important character and plot development.

2. Experience

• A native New Yorker would describe the subway very differently than someone from a southern, rural farm. Decide whose point of view you want to describe the scene from and why it’s important to get that character’s perspective.
  

3. Mood

• Think about how a high school freshman and senior would view a school dance. The freshman might be excited because it’s her first dance, while a senior may groan and complain about being there. A kid who has been bullied may be afraid of going to the dance in case the people who bully him are there, while the popular president of the student council is excited to see all her friends at the dance.
• Plot events can also affect the mood of the character. A forest stroll in the afternoon may be a relaxing event for one character, while another character may be lost in the woods and be scared.

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 Overall Source x

artattemptswriting:

I’m currently writing several of my characters through their own grieving processes- some of whom, due to the nature of their community, have never experienced loss before. Despite having lost close people myself, it surprised me how hard it is to do. The mistake, I realized, was that I was following the five stages of grief for each of them, and what an easy mistake it is to make. Here is what I’ve learned from this:

Firstly, two important things to remember:

There is no such thing as grief being “done right”

Everyone is different: different psychological makeup, different nature, different nurture, different levels of emotional development, different states of mental health. Some know grief, some don’t; some, despite knowing grief well, are beaten down by it every time. Pain is relative, and this means that there is no way to write grief that is strictly correct. The point of this post is to show you how different people react in different ways, and give you pointers on how you might write that, depending on your character. At the end of the day, you know your characters- who they are and where they came from- and so you can take away the skills from this to apply to them.

Grief is not linear, compact, or constrained by time

Someone might not start the grieving processright away, or rocket through the “steps” that we consider today.  The five stages of grief we know and use as a model were intially constructed for application to patients who recieved news of terminal cancer; it was then applied to the relatives who recieved news of the death, and finally on to grief in the way we use it today. Although a good place to start, it’s too general and too structured; too focused on five ideals that actually change, depending on the person, or in this case, the character. Grief can lie dormant, for ages, and jump out five years later; your character could have lost their dad two years prior to the plot, and only start to experience the grieving process due to a move of house or some other life change.

Secondly, dismantle their characterization

This is mainly instinctive, especially when you go through revisions and redrafts, and by that point your character is like a close co-worker or business friend, just with a more intimate twist. Personality, however, is important- but not always the most accurate measure of reaction.

Grief is a game-changer

A fierce, proud character could be brought low by the grieving process, or they could rely of bad coping methods. A little denial is healthy, but this character, who has always taken everything in their stride, might suddenly be unable to cope and so burrow inside themself entirely.

In the same way, a character with poor mental healthy might not necessarily break. That is an assumption I come across a lot, and as someone who has had shitty mental health for years, it’s so wrong. Yes, I have anxiety, depression, disorganized thoughts, intrusive thoughts, I dissociate- but did that mean I broke down over a family friend dying earlier this year? No. I coped with it becuase the grieving process is seperate from mental health, and mental health is seperate from personality.

Grief can strengthen the weak, or break the weak. Weaken the strong, and in weakening, teach valuable lessons. Proud characters may not ask for help and so struggle, but they might also realize they have to swallow their pride and get help to process their loss.

Look at the core, fundemetnal characteristics that define how your character acts and consider whether grief will exacerbate these fundementals, or alter them. However, remember that your character’s personality is only the surface consideration.

Finally, Consider the aspects around your character, not justof

This means more than looking at their personality. You also need to consider:

Culture and Religiosity

What are the cultural or religious views around death? Does your character believe them? Is death considered the end, or does reincarnation- or belief in something similar- help bring comfort? Is grief considered a weakness, or death a curse that sticks to everyone affected? Are there sacrificial rites? What rights are afforded to a dead person, if any at all? Life expectancy, mortality rates? Young or ageing population?

Community and attitudes

Is it supportive? Do they all band together around the grieving person? Is the loss shared? Or do they shun people who are struggling with grief? How experienced is this community with loss and greif? Is the community close-knit, or made up of insular families/people? How common is death? (old Cults, new cults, small islands, travelling communities, new communities- they will all have different experiences and attitudes, whether your story is set in a fantasy world, ours, or anything else).

Character roots

Early experience with grief? If yes, has this given them resilience, or was it too much? Supported childhood, or neglected? Good social upbringing? If not, this might make it harder for them to find help or understand that they need support. Stable childhood, or unstable? Accostomed to hardship, or not?

Who was the lost one to your character?

In the grand scheme of things, you’ll be surprised how little this impacts in some ways, and how massively it impacts in others. Your character might mourn a beloved teacher deeply and manage the death of an uncle.

Were they close? Distant family? How much regret is attatched to their death? How often did they see eachother? What part did the lost one take in the character’s formative years? How did they influence your character’s life choices? How long have they known one another? How close did they become in that time? How old was the person? How does your character feel about dying young- unfair, tragic but inevitable?

thewritershandbook:

1.QUEST - the plot involves the Protagonist’s search for a person, place or thing, tangible or intangible (but must be quantifiable, so think of this as a noun; i.e., immortality).

2.ADVENTURE - this plot involves the Protagonist going in search of their fortune, and since fortune is never found at home, the Protagonist goes to search for it somewhere over the rainbow.

3.PURSUIT - this plot literally involves hide-and-seek, one person chasing another.

4.RESCUE - this plot involves the Protagonist searching for someone or something, usually consisting of three main characters - the Protagonist, the Victim & the Antagonist.

5.ESCAPE - plot involves a Protagonist confined against their will who wants to escape (does not include some one trying to escape their personal demons).

6.REVENGE - retaliation by Protagonist or Antagonist against the other for real or imagined injury.

7.THE RIDDLE - plot involves the Protagonist’s search for clues to find the hidden meaning of something in question that is deliberately enigmatic or ambiguous.

8.RIVALRY - plot involves Protagonist competing for same object or goal as another person (their rival).

9.UNDERDOG - plot involves a Protagonist competing for an object or goal that is at a great disadvantage and is faced with overwhelming odds.

10.TEMPTATION - plot involves a Protagonist that for one reason or another is induced or persuaded to do something that is unwise, wrong or immoral.

11.METAMORPHOSIS - this plot involves the physical characteristics of the Protagonist actually changing from one form to another (reflecting their inner psychological identity).

12.TRANSFORMATION - plot involves the process of change in the Protagonist as they journey through a stage of life that moves them from one significant character state to another.

13.MATURATION - plot involves the Protagonist facing a problem that is part of growing up, and from dealing with it, emerging into a state of adulthood (going from innocence to experience).

14.LOVE - plot involves the Protagonist overcoming the obstacles to love that keeps them from consummating (engaging in) true love.

15.FORBIDDEN LOVE - plot involves Protagonist(s) overcoming obstacles created by social mores and taboos to consummate their relationship (and sometimes finding it at too high a price to live with).

16.SACRIFICE - plot involves the Protagonist taking action(s) that is motivated by a higher purpose (concept) such as love, honor, charity or for the sake of humanity.

17.DISCOVERY - plot that is the most character-centered of all, involves the Protagonist having to overcome an upheavel(s) in their life, and thereby discovering something important (and buried) within them a better understanding of life (i.e., better appreciation of their life, a clearer purpose in their life, etc.)

18.WRETCHED EXCESS - plot involves a Protagonist who, either by choice or by accident, pushes the limits of acceptable behavior to the extreme and is forced to deal with the consequences (generally deals with the psychological decline of the character).

19.ASCENSION - rags-to-riches plot deals with the rise (success) of Protagonist due to a dominating character trait that helps them to succeed.

20.DECISION - riches-to-rags plot deals with the fall (destruction) of Protagonist due to dominating character trait that eventually destroys their success.

byPavel Simakov

I witnessed two things in close proximity to each other:

1) some unfortunate soul on Twitter declared that he had come up with the idea of Frankenstein, completely independent of Mary Shelley, a couple centuries after she wrote the genre-creating story.

2) I met someone who identified as a fellow writer who, upon asking if he’d read a particular book, informed me that he didn’t read. Or watch movies. Or consume anykind of media if he could help it, because it would “pollute his ideas”

I think both these people have the same misconception: that there is some kind of hard line between their internal life and the outside world, particularly in the kind of narratives they create and the tropes that they use. There’s that belief that their ideas spring fully-formed from their own id, and that they will only be sullied by contact with other narratives, taken from something novel and original and turned into a mere copycat of an existing work.

This, frankly, is bullshit.

Narratives come from places. From your own experiences, yes, but also from every single person you’ve ever interacted with.

I guarantee you that Writer 1, despite his insistence otherwise, did in fact hear about Frankenstein before writing his own genre-defining masterpiece. It was in conversations with his friends, it was in Halloween costumes on the store shelves, it was in allusions in the cartoons he watched as a kid. Even if it was never referenced directly, he knew that story inside and out.

Growing up, I was Forbidden from watching, like, half the things that were on TV. Anything rude, crude, or remotely sexual, anything above a very soft PG-13. And being a Good Kid, I very rarely tried to get around those rules. I still knew the plots of the R-rated movies that were coming out, though, because they just kind of bled into the collective consciousness of the mainstream. It’s the same way you can recite back major plot points and character dynamics of a show you’ve never watched because one of your tumblr mutuals is into it right now, or because Twitter won’t stop talking about it. It’s there, in your mind, whether you want it there or not.

Which brings me to Writer 2.

When an idea seeps into your head via osmosis, you often don’t know where it comes from or what context it carries. And when you don’t have that context, you can’t engage with it critically. In fact, you might wind up thinking you’d come up with that idea all by yourself.

And that’s a problem.

On a softer level, it leaves us with a hundred thousand uninspired Lord of the Rings clones written by a hundred thousand people who don’t realize they’ve plagiarized the same book– how could they, when they never actually read it?

On a harder level, it has people perpetuating hurtful stereotypes and caricatures, not realizing that that’s what they’re doing– and then when they’re called out on it, getting defensive about the things they created from whole cloth, and then doubling down on it. If they insist they didn’t get it from some outside source, then it can’t possibly be a pervasive idea that they need to work to unlearn– clearly it must be some kind of objective truth that they’ve unearthed through their art!

You get the idea.

These ideas– overdone tropes, harmful stereotypes, what have you– are going to be in the cultural consciousness regardless. They’ve already “polluted” your mind. It’s absolutely possible to filter them out of the things you create yourself, but that’s only possible if you’re aware of what exactly it is that needs to be sifted for.

If you’re going to produce some kind of media, I highly encourage you to consume the same. Read, or watch, or listen, or whatever– but do it widely, and when you can, do it with a critical eye to the context that surrounds what you consume.

Also in this series/written “universe”:
“That Thing” (Tumblr|AO3)
“Diversion” (Tumblr|AO3) [warning: nsfw]
“First Blush: Prologue” (Tumblr|AO3)

The so-called “Youth Seminar for the Prevention of Misuse of Creation Magic” was absolutely not where Hades wanted to be. The Bureau of the Architect had set it up in one of their lesser-used back rooms, where a few tables had been set up among a couple of elderly filing cabinets than nobody had bothered to remove. There was very little of interest in the room itself. And given that there were over a dozen fully masked, robed “youths” - some of them, like Hades himself, undoubtedly nearing adulthood - in the small space along with who Hades assumed was their lecturer, the fact that the room had no windows was quickly becoming apparent.

He had, of course, chosen the table furthest from the front. One of those filing cabinets was right near him, as if maybe in the middle of everything Hades could just disappear into its shadow and people might forget he was even there. It didn’t make sensefor him to even be there at all! Everyone he’d met said his prowess with creation magic was a marvel, that he was some sort of prodigy. Of course he knew how to controlit.

Unable to get out of spending his time stuck listening to some low-level bureaucrat drone on and on, the only thing left to Hades was to sulk. And Hades was exceptionally skilled at sulking.

Hades was so good at sulking that he was able to tune out the introduction of the lecturer and the entire beginning of the class. He leaned his chin heavily on his fist, feeling the edge of his mask dig into his cheek, and focused on that inconvenience and growing irritation instead.

At least until one of the other students, seated near the front, had a minor outburst. Their table was the most full, with other youths arrayed around the one that suddenly interrupted the otherwise snore-inducing session.

“Excuse me– I feel terriblefor interrupting you, of course, but might this be something we could be shown in a more practical setting, perhaps?” he asked, his voice earnest and sweet despite the fact that he was questioning their current authority figure. “Wouldn’t it be a more memorable lesson if we were to go to, say, Elpis? We could observe the creations currently under study and testing in an environment perfectly suited to what you’re trying to explain to us.”

“Ah…” the lecturer halted and stammered. “It is possible that we could ask permission for such an outing…”

“Would you, please?” the student asked, sounding genuinely excited and grateful. The chorus of polite requests that sprung up around him served to make the Undersecretary or whatever he was even more flustered.

“Please remain calm and in your seats, little ones,” the lecturer implored, before scurrying out of the room like an anxious woodland creature.

The student who had instigated everything reached up and pushed his hood back, shaking out shoulder-length lavender hair while breathing an exaggerated sigh. “That helps. It’s awfully stuffy in here, don’t you think?”

He looked around the room and smiled as he said it. From Hades’ point of view, it felt like that smile appeared when the other boy’s obscured gaze landed on him. There was something mischievous about that smile. It made Hades want to know everything behind it even as alarms went off in his head. He caught himself starting to lean forward and stopped, tearing his gaze away to study the mouldering old file cabinet instead.

Yet his traitorous ears kept listening, even straining to pick up that one particular voice amid the little conversations that had sprung up.

“That was a good suggestion, mentioning how it’s specifically devoted to such testing,” one of the still-hooded and masked students next to the instigator was saying. “I’ve been wanting to see Elpis, too. I’ve heard it has the most beautiful flowers…”

“Is that so? Well, then. All the more reason to go.” The boy hummed and gently pushed back the hood from the other’s face, then tucked a wavy lock of pale blue hair back from the revealed, but masked face. “We’ll have to make sure to find you the most beautiful specimen we can, Asclepius.”

“Aw, Hyth,” the dark-haired boy on his other side chided. “You made him blush.”

Huffing, Hades once again hauled his attention away from where it didn’t belong. He didn’t need to be at this silly lecture from the start, nor did he need to tag along on a field trip. Unlike the lot of them, he had things to dowith his time. Granted, he hadn’t had the chance yet to get to properly explore Elpis, and at least deep down in his heart he had to admit a certain curiosity. But it still ruffled his feathers to be involved in something that felt so juvenile.

Despite his best efforts - or so he insisted to himself they were - by the time the harried instructor returned and started going over the rules for conduct and the parameters by which they’d be allowed the excursion, Hades knew considerably more about the student who had so deftly derailed the entire seminar. Hythlodaeus had a sweet smile that brimmed with mischief, could sweet talk even the shy Asclepius into excited conversation, and had a partner-in-crime in the dark-haired Helios. For some reason, the way Hythlodaeus and Helios could communicate with just a tilt of the head or other tiny gestures made Hades silently seethe for reasons he couldn’t identify. He had also somehow aligned himself firmly in the camp of putting up with the seminar if it resulted in the suggested field trip.

“If you would all please return to your seats and attire yourself properly, we can continue,” the lecturer instructed. His time away seemed to have helped a little. He even squared his shoulders and lifted his chin when he requested a dozen or so teenagers sit down.

“I’ve been advised that an outing may be scheduled for a later occurrence of this seminar,” he explained once the students had settled appropriately. At the collective groan that when up, he raised his voice to continue being heard. “This day would be too short-notice, as well as there being subjects best covered in the theoretical before introducing the practical applications.”

“Can we at least open a window or something, then?” Helios leaned back in his seat and theatrically fanned himself with one hand.

“There are no windows in this–” The lecturer halted abruptly and lifted his masked gaze to the wall over Hades’ head. Despite himself, Hades turned to look along with the rest of the class.

Taking up a large chunk of the previously bare wall was a bank of windows.

Even hooded and masked into blank anonymity, the instructor’s anger rolled off of him like a wave. Hades saw Asclepius flinch and duck slightly in response. “This is precisely the sort of behavior this seminar is designed to curb,” the lecturer explained tartly. “Creation requires deep attention and the necessary Concepts in order to be executed in a manner that does not endanger our people or our city.”

Helios shrugged. “Nothing bad happened, though. And it’s stuffy in here.”

While Hades couldn’t deny either of those points, he still wasn’t sure if he agreed with the sentiment. Clearly some of those in attendance neededsuch a seminar in order to try to reduce reckless behavior.

As enjoyable as it was to watch someone else get skewered for their wrongdoings, boredom quickly returned. But for better or for worse the class had changed. The new window was open, allowing a breeze, and several of the students had chosen to drop their hoods. Hades caught his attention unintentionally drifting to the lavender bob and the pale, nimble hands that kept absently playing with it. Sometimes Hythlodaeus would twist it around his fingers; other times he would section it out and start to braid until he caught himself.

Hades gave himself a mental shake. Best to leave someone like that well enough alone. He had his friends, which was something Hades hadn’t the slightest idea how to deal with. And Hades had no use for anyone at the seminar. He was more than capable on his own and preferred to not have other people sticking their opinions where they weren’t wanted.

No, Hades assured himself. He was really better off giving all of them a wide berth and seeing how quickly he could get himself excused.

After getting to visit Elpis, of course.