A Late (or Early) STS For You: I Spy A Mention Of Pirates In Your Intro Post. Would Any Of Them Care

A late (or early) STS for you: I spy a mention of pirates in your intro post. Would any of them care to introduce themselves, or would you mind talking about some of your favorite elements of their story?

oooh ok yes piracy I can do let's go

(STS is a state of mind and I am making a nest there) (this is getting long and rambly and maybe disjointed I am so sorry but not really? pirates be upon ye)

Short answer; the Nightgale clan and their meteoric rise to ruling the archipelago within two generations of being created, the uh. the destruction of the islands and their rebirth as dragon riders then slow slide into nature-reserve-for-the-weird-and-magical. (specific shout out to Jay, daughter of dragons and giver of no fucks, creator of the whole thing by accident because she only ever wanted a ship of her own not... This)

Long answer;

So! Pirates! They originate in Leritheyar which is like. the most fleshed out of the Mist Worlds because it was my only story world for the longest time and then I got too attached to some of the characters (like the pirates) and then everything exploded

but that's not what we're here for!

So the pirates as a whole are The dominant culture of the archipelago that may or may not make up. a large amount of landmass in Leritheyar. I can't do distances well but it's fine it works

this means that I have a wholeass timeline/history of their rise to power, various pirate kings, shifts in families etc etc but the important stuff here;

each family has An Island that they originate on. That's Theirs. and at least one ship, maybe more depending on how big they are! how much power they have! There are absolutely other people that live on these islands but if they are not Pirate Family they do not get on the ships (exceptions being for like. fishers ig. the K'sean are not an exception they are rogue from Anther and the pirates would like them out of their islands thank you but they are small and fast and hard to track)

there is a vague sort of truce that means mostly they don't go in for Big battles but also there are so many skirmishes etc

by far and away my favourite pirates are the Nightgales bc Jay was one of The OG OCs and I will always love her

Jay is not pirate family. She is an orphan on the ruling clan's island, friends with their heir, but she's nothing. Her friend says that once she is queen she will change things, she will take Jay with her

Jay's not about to wait for that, she's got plans. Plans that involve stealing a small skiff and sailing north into the night

Promptly washes up on Riyan, the forgotten continent, where the NightGale lives with her offspring of weird little fucked up creatures. The NightGale adopts Jay because this child Amuses her and everything is fine and dandy until the Sanders pirates come looking for her (possibly at behest of the pirate heir actually. She isn't queen yet but it's been a solid few years and she's worried)

Jay and her not-quite-sister Erris go with them, shenanigans ensue, Jay takes control of the clan. That's her ship now, her pirates. No one's really gonna argue with the teen who bested their captain in single combat and has a dragon on her shoulder and also whatever-the-fuck Erris is at her side.

Her friend (now queen) is delighted by this turn of events and together they are An Unholy Menace. jury's out on whether or not they were A Thing. the queen's son certainly thinks so and has an honest-to-god grudge against Jay, because he thinks she's gunning for rule of the islands

Jay does not give a fuck about ruling the islands. She has a ship, she has a pygmy dragon, she has Erris. All is good with the world. She adopts some of the Sanders kids to be her heirs and they take her name.

She gets herself a mage! She has a treaty with the mages(? I think?), actually, which more or less makes her ships untouchable in the shipping lanes. Her grandson marries the heir to the pirate throne (the king is not impressed with this actually. He's hating life. He tries to kill her and his own mother. He does not succeed (his own daughter may kill him? maybe it's his mother. who can say!))

People say she's still out there. people say they've seen her ship late at night, out in the mist where the eldrii and the akaha play, because for all that the NightGale is the dragon of forgotten things, there are some things that just can't stay unknown.

[her great-grandson is king when the islands are lost and so are the ships but they transition to riding dragons during the war and that's what punts them sideways into another world, where they have... some number of years to set themselves up before their dragons also disappear but by that time they have swathes of land on a sky island that they turn into a sort of reserve for Mythics and Magics to come and heal and rest, and they become another powerhouse to be feared]

no idea what yore talking about but you seem pretty tortured by it. smashin that like button ♥️

"someone already came up with this idea :( now i cant make it" dont care. i would like to see 2 of them. i would like to see multiple, perhaps even many of them. because its kind of swag to see how different people approach the same idea

Aggggh this is giving me flashbacks to my high school drama class a few years ago. Girl I feel you and it's a nightmare.

If you want to vent/chat about it feel free to dm me, I'm happy to commiserate and potentially offer tips if you wants some and I remember any?

Idk, good luck with that mess and congrats on writing the whole play you guys are doing! That's awesome!

I'm making a lil play thing at school and my group is driving me fucking insane

I wrote the entire script and storyline, as well as creating all the characters. I literally just want them to learn their lines and to get through one singular rehearsal without someone interrupting or joking or arguing

There is a scene in a preschool that lasts like a minute and everyone's like "WE SHOULD BRING IN PRESCHOOL TOYS AND KIDS ARTWORK"

There are 5 of us and 1 person hasn't even tried to learn her lines (+ she gets mad at us when we tell her to) despite us having to perform it in ab three weeks. This is for our gcse grades too and the idea of failing drama makes me feel nauseous

This girl literally ignores everything I say too, I got mad and said "do you just forget everything as soon as you leave the classroom" and she said she did. And she isn't even trying, she has a script (but she lost it so I have to go print another one) and she finds it really funny

And every single lesson one guy literally lies on the floor and refuses to do anything. We have to either drag him into place or just pretend he's there and talk at the ground. One lesson he said he felt sick and refused to do anything (more than normal) and then in that same lesson said we'd be doing better if I wasn't sick a few months ago (I had fucking surgery and couldn't walk). I don't even like this guy but he's friends with my friend so

And another girl can't get through 2 scenes without doing an entire (joking) speech and she jokes through every scene she's in (and some she isn't)

And lastly, my friend. They're generally okay but they get really pissy when I tell them to do something different. The difference was "I don't think your character would wear a suit". And I said their character isn't the main villain (we don't even have a villain it's a play about grief), it took like a month for them to stop arguing that he actually is.

And there's a clusterfuck of other stuff but yeahh fuck this. Btw I think I'm going to post the story at some point bc I'm really proud of it

STOP DOING THIS IN INJURY FICS!!

Bleeding:

Blood is warm. if blood is cold, you’re really fucking feverish or the person is dead. it’s only sticky after it coagulates.

It smells! like iron, obv, but very metallic. heavy blood loss has a really potent smell, someone will notice.

Unless in a state of shock or fight-flight mode, a character will know they’re bleeding. stop with the ‘i didn’t even feel it’ yeah you did. drowsiness, confusion, pale complexion, nausea, clumsiness, and memory loss are symptoms to include.

blood flow ebbs. sometimes it’s really gushin’, other times it’s a trickle. could be the same wound at different points.

it’s slow. use this to your advantage! more sad writer times hehehe.

Stab wounds:

I have been mildly impaled with rebar on an occasion, so let me explain from experience. being stabbed is bizarre af. your body is soft. you can squish it, feel it jiggle when you move. whatever just stabbed you? not jiggly. it feels stiff and numb after the pain fades. often, stab wounds lead to nerve damage. hands, arms, feet, neck, all have more motor nerve clusters than the torso. fingers may go numb or useless if a tendon is nicked.

also, bleeding takes FOREVER to stop, as mentioned above.

if the wound has an exit wound, like a bullet clean through or a spear through the whole limb, DONT REMOVE THE OBJECT. character will die. leave it, bandage around it. could be a good opportunity for some touchy touchy :)

whump writers - good opportunity for caretaker angst and fluff w/ trying to manhandle whumpee into a good position to access both sites

Concussion:

despite the amnesia and confusion, people ain’t that articulate. even if they’re mumbling about how much they love (person) - if that’s ur trope - or a secret, it’s gonna make no sense. garbled nonsense, no full sentences, just a coupla words here and there.

if the concussion is mild, they’re gonna feel fine. until….bam! out like a light. kinda funny to witness, but also a good time for some caretaking fluff.

Fever:

you die at 110F. no 'oh no his fever is 120F!! ahhh!“ no his fever is 0F because he’s fucking dead. you lose consciousness around 103, sometimes less if it’s a child. brain damage occurs at over 104.

ACTUAL SYMPTOMS:

sluggishness

seizures (severe)

inability to speak clearly

feeling chilly/shivering

nausea

pain

delirium

symptoms increase as fever rises. slow build that secret sickness! feverish people can be irritable, maybe a bit of sass followed by some hurt/comfort. never hurt anybody.

ALSO about fevers - they absolutely can cause hallucinations. Sometimes these alter memory and future memory processing. they're scary shit guys.

fevers are a big deal! bad shit can happen! milk that till its dry (chill out) and get some good hurt/comfort whumpee shit.

keep writing u sadistic nerds xox love you

ALSO I FORGOT LEMME ADD ON:

YOU DIE AT 85F

sorry I forgot. at that point for a sustained period of time you're too cold to survive.

pt 2

brb gonna go sit in a tree and look at the sky until the wind blows this sleepy fog from my mind.