Trope Talk

trope talk

Hello friends!

As I stated in last week’s post, I will not be posting anything too grandiose today, as I have been focusing on my original story for NaNoWriMo and do not want to get burnt out. So, I decided that, much like last week, I would put another in-class assignment to use and give you a short listicle about my favorite inter-character relationship tropes! I hope you enjoy! ᕱ__ᕱ 

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6 of the best fiction tropes for inter-character relationships

(in my opinion)

By Clem

Any writer worth their salt these days knows what a trope is. And no, I’m not talking about the traditional definition of a trope, i.e. synonymous with figurative language, though it is indeed important to know that meaning as well. I’m instead speaking of the more recent, broader definition of a trope. As writer Dave Chesson puts it in an article all about tropes on his website kindlepreneur.com, “a trope is a plot structure, theme, storyline, character trait, motif, or plot device that is commonly used in storytelling.” 

It’s these types of tropes that you can find on one of my favorite websites tvtropes.org. Tropes have become such a pop culture, as well as fan culture, phenomenon in the past few years that even those who have never heard the term “trope” before can recognize some of the common ones: the damsel in distress, the chosen one, a friends to lovers romance, a tragic backstory. In fact, some tropes have become so popular that they are deciding factors in whether or not people consume a piece of media. I know this is often the case for me, and in the following list I have provided 6 of my favorite tropes about inter-character relationships that I just can’t get enough of.

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Found Family

Not all tropes about relationships have to be romantic in nature! In fact, a good portion of the tropes on this list are more platonic or familial, and found family is one of them. One of my favorite tropes of all time, found family refers to when a group of individuals, usually a group of misfits or outcasts, come together and form a close platonic, near familial, bond with each other. As many characters in a found family situation don’t have good or close biological families (or any family at all), they become each other’s family.

The Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom duology by Leigh Bardugo includes an excellent example of the found family trope. The six main characters of the books, some of which are pictured above, are a ragtag group of criminals, each with tragic pasts. Eventually they come together and learn to love and care about one another as they pull off an impossible heist. The found family dynamic between them adds a softness to each character that helps smooth their rough edges. This makes them feel more human and their story all the more captivating.

Golden Retriever & Black Cat

A yes, the good old black cat/golden retriever relationship dynamic. Only given this name in recent years, this character dynamic is much older. Simply put, this trope refers to a relationship, whether romantic or platonic (or even familial), between one character who is very excitable, sweet, and happy (the golden retriever) and one character who is cool, often rude, and grumpy (the black cat). The conflicting personality types is what makes this relationship trope compelling. As they say, opposites attract!

The example I have chosen here is Enid Sinclair and Wednesday Addams from the new Netflix adaptation of The Addams Family, a show entitled Wednesday. Enid and Wednesday are roommates at a boarding school in the show and could not be more different: Enid a bubbly, optimistic werewolf (talk about a golden retriever!) obsessed with pastels and Wednesday a deadpan, pessimistic psychic allergic to color. However, throughout the show they eventually become close friends. It is intriguing to watch this golden retriever/black cat duo interact and try to solve the mysteries that crop up in the show, as their personalities and perspectives on the world couldn’t be more different.

Enemies to Lovers (or at least Rivals to Lovers)

The enemies to lovers trope is the first specifically romantic trope in this list (though there is a parallel trope used for platonic relationships called enemies to friends). This trope, as the name suggests, involves two characters whose relationship with each other develops from enemies to romantic partners. While some may call this trope toxic, and I admit, I can see how it could be written that way, it’s personally one of my favorite tropes when done correctly. This is especially so when between a male and female character. I typically read fantasy or action/adventure novels, genres in which female characters’ skills (particularly in combat) are often looked down upon or patronized by the male characters who are interested in them. However, if an action novel has a well written enemies to lovers side plot, I know I can be sure that at all points in their relationship, a female character’s love interest is taking her seriously.

One of my all time favorite examples of enemies to lovers, albeit in its lesser form rivals to lovers (which is saved for media that does not have characters trying to kill each other), is from the classic romance novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet start out loathing each other, but eventually, through various family dramas, learn to understand and respect each other, and in the process, fall in love.

Girl Boss x House Husband

Technically, this trope is actually titled “girl boss x male wife,” but I prefer the term “house husband” as I have seen the phrase “male wife” used with degrading connotations as well, and that is far from what I am trying to convey. This is another relationship trope most often used for romantic couples, however I believe it can be translated to platonic or familial relationships as well (with some finagling). Whatever the context, this trope contains a strong, independent female character and a male partner who cares for her and holds her stuff when she needs to go beat some sense into someone. As a reversal of the typical gender roles where the male is assertive and protective and the female is the caring and supportive, this trope provides a breath of fresh air and an interesting dynamic to explore.

A great example of the girl boss x house husband trope is Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase from Rick Riordan’s Greek mythology books. Percy is definitely a powerhouse character in his own right, but is 100% willing to step back and let Annabeth take the reins in their relationship while making sure she's taking care of herself in the process.

Naive Hero & Mentor Figure 

The mentor figure trope is basically what it says on the tin: a naive character, typically the main character, is taken under the wing of an older and wiser mentor. Oftentimes, the mentor figure fills a familial void in the naive hero’s life. If you’re lucky, the mentor figure survives. If you’re not, then, in the words of Golda Rosheuvel as Queen Charlotte, “sorrows, sorrows, prayers.” This trope is a great way of giving the character, and the audience, the background information they need to know while showcasing the main character’s development. 

Often, this trope appears in superhero fiction, such as one of my favorite examples for this trope, IronDad and SpiderSon Tony Stark aka Ironman, and Peter Parker aka Spiderman from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Tony recognizes the raw talent that Peter has, as both a superhero and a tech genius, and does his best to guide him, by protecting him and steering him away from the same mistakes Tony himself made in the past. It will forever be a crime that we didn’t get to see their relationship develop further before… you know… “Sorrows, sorrows, prayers.” 

Bros before Hoes

While it does have a bit of a vulgar name, this trope is actually one of the sweetest on this list. Usually, at least one of the characters in friend groups with this relationship dynamic is involved in a romantic relationship outside their group, and at some point will have to choose between their friends and their lover. When this relationship dynamic comes into play, characters will always choose their friends. 

Unless, of course, their friends are wrong. My favorite example of this dynamic comes from The School for Good and Evil series by Soman Chainani. The two main characters are the best of friends. While throughout the series they have their fair share of disagreements (if that's what you call it when your best friend keeps falling in love with men who try to kill you and your boyfriend), they ultimately pull through and choose each other over boys, proving that romantic love is not the only love that can vanquish evil. Though not every story with a Bros before Hoes dynamic is full of life-and-death decisions, this relationship trope provides a sweet nod to platonic love in any story.

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So, the next time you sit down to write media, or consume it, pay attention to the tropes you may include or notice. Do they make the media better? More compelling? Or do they take away from the main message or storyline? (For some reason writers love to include love triangles. I abhor love triangles thrown into media just for kicks). For all you writers out there, maybe consider including one of the tropes listed above. If you do, send me a link! Like I said, I just can’t get enough!

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So... do y’all like any of these tropes?? Do you hate them? Please do let me know, I’d love to hear it! And if this post was not your cup of tea, I apologize, but don’t worry, we should be back to our regularly scheduled programming in another 2 weeks! ᕱ__ᕱ Good luck to those of you also participating in NaNoWriMo!! 

And just remember, dot your j’s and cross your t’s! 

~Clementine J. Quincey 🪷

inspiration, privilege, and a new character ✨

Hello friends!

This is my first update on my writing progress - just about a week after my first post (give or take a few hours)! I’m still not entirely sure how to go about writing this even as I am in the process of doing it. So, first and foremost, apologies for any awkwardness or stiltedness. Please bear with me as I continue to figure this blog thing out! ᕱ__ᕱ

A quick overview for those of you who want to speed through my rambles and get to the good creative development bits: This week I wanted to gripe about the fickleness of inspiration, discuss unrealised privilege, and give some details about a character I am developing! 

Inspiration

Okay, let's get the complaining out of the way first. Inspiration is so annoying!  Ideally, I would have a steady, gentle flow of inspiration, so I’m able to take my time to pick out the good ideas and discard the rest. But, noooooooo. Instead, my brain decides that I get one of two extremes most often: either I’m overflowing with inspiration, stuck, unable to even process the sheer volume of ideas that are floating about my brain, or my idea stores are dryer than the Sahara desert. It’s so frustrating!!!!!! Is this just a me thing? Do other writers deal with this? Ugh! I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone.

I bring this up because this week has been really dry for me. It just figures that as soon as I buckle down and decide to commit to working my creative writing muscles once more, my brain decides that - nope! no ideas for JP this week!

I did eventually get hung up on one idea, during a conversation with my friend about how much we both love morally grey characters. They are just so fascinating to read/think about! When we were having this conversation though, my friend ended up doing a google search on moral alignment charts and this was the first image she clicked on:

Now, regardless of your opinions about the comic book characters on this chart, what caught my attention was the top left corner. Upon seeing everyone’s favorite boy scout in red and blue spandex, I remarked, “Clark Kent seems like a good guy and all, but lawful good characters are so boring.”

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(Thus, an idea was born.)

A lawful good character that I, at the very least, don’t find boring. What an inspired idea! I rolled the idea around in my head for the next two days as I made my way through classes and finally (while I was taking a shower of course because the best ideas are shower ideas), I decided that I would rework and expand upon a character I had already started creating. One of the characters from my failed creative writing attempt from over the summer. 

Privilege

Because I have to make things terribly difficult and overly complicated for myself, I decided that I wanted to stretch out my graphic design muscles as well and draw my character. But I had a very clear vision of her in my head and wanted to bring her to life for you all to see. It mostly went well, which is good, seeing as I am still quite the novice in most artistic endeavors, until I got to her hair. My character is some type of fae creature (perhaps an elf? I haven’t determined that part yet) and has dark skin. I was originally going to give her straight hair, but ultimately decided that there was no reason she couldn’t have more textured, coily hair, so I set out to try and see if someone had created an accessible brush, or at least a tutorial on how to make one, to help me with drawing out my character hair. 

I found zero. My style is generally on the simplistic, cartoon-like end of the realism spectrum and I was going to style my character’s hair into long bubble-puff twin tails, so the brush type I was searching for wasn’t terribly complicated. And what about braids? I wasn’t able to find a single brush or tutorial for making a textured hair brush that was easy to search or accessible to me. So, I said screw that and ended up figuring out how to make my own. 

It is insane to me how some forms of privilege are so invisible until they smack you right in the face. I am white. I was able to find several downloadable brush options and tutorials on how to make brushes for straight hair. But not a single one for coily, textured hair, or even hair put in protective styles. It’s truly baffling, and I recognize even that feeling as a little privilege on my part because I’ve never had to think about it until this past week.

I’m glad I made the decision to give my character textured hair.

Character

As I stated before, I like to make things difficult for myself and of course with the snags I had drawing my character, much of the time I could have spent writing her was eaten away. However, here are some key details I hope to develop further:

Her name thus far is Ailidh (eyy-lee)

She is some type of fae folk (perhaps an elf - that’s what she started as but I may create my own magic system/world lore so who knows)

She is a noble 

Not royalty I don’t think (I’m fairly certain I don’t want the fae folk to be a monarchy)

Her family is very high ranking though (enough so that they may be part of a ruling class - perhaps and oligarchy type situation - they care for the fae living in there neck of the woods at least)

She is engaged (ooo drama!)

She does not want to be engaged

Ooo plot!

She is skilled with herbs and healing (and also poison) but terrible with weapons of any kind

She is very indignant that her parents send her around with more bodyguards than both of them have combined

She loves her parents and her fellow fae and has a strong sense of loyalty and duty

That, unfortunately, is all I have for now. Hopefully it wasn’t too bland. ᕱ__ᕱ Some world-building crept out at me as I was coming up with her character and story which is very exciting and gives me all sorts of new inspiration! At the very least I have 2 new characters to come up with (her fiance and a surprise). ᕱ__< But, I feel this has been quite long enough (4 pages of the doc I used to draft this on) and so I shall leave you all here for now. Kudos to those who managed to make it here through all my rambles!

And remember, dot your j’s and cross your t’s!

~Clementine J Quincey🪷

a (not so) short interlude: fanfiction

Hello friends!

This week I have taken a break from working on my original story and instead wrote a piece of fanfiction. At first glance this may not seem like something unusual. In my bio I state I am a professional nerd afterall, and though I don’t believe I have ever discussed it on here, I do consume quite a bit of fanfiction along with original novels. However, the truth is that I had never actually written fanfiction. Well, before this week that is. 

In my one writing class (the same writing class I am doing this blog for in fact) we have been assigned to create a Remix, which is basically what it sounds like: taking other people’s content and cut/copy and pasting it to create something different/new. Remixes are the basis of fan-culture: fanfiction, fanart, video edits– all of these constitute as Remixes. And so, of course, my first, and strongest idea, for the assignment was to write a fanfiction. I wasn’t sure if that was allowed within the constraints of the assignment, so this week I basically asked my professor if I could write and submit a fanfiction for a class assignment. 

The things you do at university ladies and gentlefolk. 

I didn’t ask in so many words of course, and my professor was super chill about it and seems really excited for what I would come up with so that's cool. She’s going to be reading this post at some point actually so… 

Hello, Professor M! Thanks for being so awesome! ᕱ__ᕱ 

Anyway, all this to say, I was inspired to write my first fanfiction this week. It is not a part of the project I will be turning in for class, however it does introduce and develop some original characters, relationships, and conflicts that I may include in my class fanfic.

Oh! And before I let you get into it, I suppose I should let y’all know that it’s a Harry Potter fanfiction. That being said, I hope you enjoy!!

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“Muggle sports are so interesting,” Em said, swinging the pale pink baseball bat she carried up onto her shoulder with a flourish. “Don’t you think, Marcus?” She rolled her head back over her shoulder with a taunting smile to stare down Marcus Flint, who paused from where he was sauntering down the hallway with the Slytherin quidditch team, scoffing at Emma’s question.

“You think I know what the fuck your talking about, blondie? Muggle sports? As if lower myself to even touch anything associated with muggles.” His massive nose wrinkled as if he had taken a whiff of something particularly nasty, sneering down at the smaller girl. The whole hallway has frozen by this point.

“What even is that thing?” Adrian Pucey called out, “Looks like a fucked Beater’s batt,” he said, unintentionally echoing my question from earlier. “Are you sure they even use that for sport? Looks thin enough it could snap in half with one blow.” Laughter tittered through the gathered Slytherins and even some pure blood students from other houses.

“And would they even hit anything with it?” Malfoy cut in, snidely. “They’re not as developed as wizards, with their inferior reflexes. Clumsy oafs.” He sniffed with derision and the Slytherin’s laughter grew, through the rest of the students had piped down. Emma’s smile had dropped.

Flint’s sneer turned into a cruel grin “I’d think you would know that quite well, what with the spectacle your relatives made last year.” 

He was, of course, referring to when Emma had gotten caught up in the Chamber of secrets mess and had been petrified. Her muggle aunt had some to visit all the way from America and was in hysterics, though, rightfully so. Ems had to wait until near the end of the term for the mandrake draught to age to be cured as the Hogwarts Board had not seen it fit to allot a budget to import some from overseas. 

As Pucey, Malfoy and the rest of the Slytherin team snickered, Flint continued on, striking his final blow, “Poor little mudblood.” 

He leaned back, apparently satisfied with himself as Ems spun on her heel to face him fully, steel in her eyes and stone faced, the pink bat still on her shoulder. 

The thing about Emma that many people still don’t get, even though we are well into our Fourth Year at Hogwarts, is that though she may be a Hufflepuff, she is never one to back down from a challenge. Especially if she initiated it. Especially if it deals insults to her family and friends.

A sickeningly sweet smile rose to her face. “Oh, I’m so sorry, Marcus,” she simpered, false concern evident in her voice, “I forget sometimes that some people are so uneducated on this side of the pond.” Flint's face dropped and his relaxed pose faltered. “I’ll make sure to speak slowly for you, don’t worry.” That gained Ems a few snickers of her own from the other students in the crowded hall, but the Slytherins all tensed and a few people left to go grab a Professor.

Emma took a step forward as if nothing was wrong, smile still in place, but fire in her eyes. “This is called a baseball bat. It’s used in a sport called baseball. It’s very popular in America, even among the wizarding community. I unfortunately don’t think I have the skills to explain the whole game to you in a way that you would understand, but a baseball bat functions similarly to a beater bat. However, the ball that one must hit is much smaller than a bludger.” Emma paused here to take another step forward, her smile growing into something sharper. “What that means, Marcus, is that a baseball bat is much, much better for hitting,” she glanced down his body, making sure he saw the direction of her gaze when she looked back into his eyes a few seconds later, “smaller targets.”

Marcus inhaled sharply and the Slytherin team stood frozen as several students in the hall burst into laughter. Emma stepped back, her smile turning into a much more genuine smirk. “And for the record Marcus, I’m very grateful my aunt came all the way from America to visit me when I was attacked by the Heir of Slytherin. I’m very lucky to have such wonderful family. I’m sure your father would have done the same for you.” Flint flinched back slightly, hurt flashing across his face, though it was quickly covered by a scowl. Now that was a bit of a low blow, though arguably it was deserved. It was the worst kept secret in Slytherin that Marcus and his father did not get along, to put it lightly. 

Just then, a Ravenclaw prefect rounded the corner with Professors McGonagall and Snape in tow. Students very quickly began to disperse, including the rest of the Slytherin team, as Professor Snape raised an eyebrow at the scene. “Just what is going on here?” 

“Nothing, professors,” Emma bounced on her heels as she turned towards Snape and McGonagall, beaming at them. I could have sworn I heard Professor Snape mutter “too bright” under his breath, but I could be mistaken. “I was just telling Marcus about the American muggle sport called baseball,” she gestured to the bat on her shoulder.

Then, she turned to look at Flint again. “I’m so sorry to cut this riveting conversation short but I really do have to go and check on some of my plants. I’m sure Professor Burbage would be happy to continue to explain baseball to you if you ask politely. Though, that may be a challenge for you,” she nodded gravely to herself, “You should work on that. I hear that adequate etiquette skills are needed in pure blood circles, but I’m sure I wouldn’t know anything about that, being muggleborn myself.” 

She smirked at Flint, daring him to say anything and reveal the fact that he had called her a slur. Flint looked down and glared at the floor. Ems shifted her gaze back to the bewildered professors. “I was actually raised in the wizarding world, professors. It’s actually quite interesting! The American magical government is a little less strict about no-maj, sorry, muggle separation and my muggle aunt did marry a wizard.” 

“When my parents passed away and my aunt and uncle took me in, they revealed the world of magic to me. My aunt still works in the muggle world, but my uncle works for MACUSA.” Ems grinned. “That’s how it was so easy for me to get approval to study abroad here at Hogwarts. It’s where my uncle went. Anyway, I really do have to go. See you in transfiguration tomorrow Professor MacGonagal, bye!” With that Emma skipped away.

Snape shook his head slightly and turned back to Flint. “Do you have anything to add to Miss Williams’ account, Mr Flint.”

Flint’s mouth pinched and his shoulders hunched but he just shook his head and said, “No, Professor.”

MacGonagal huffed a short breath. “Right, then. Everything seems to be in order.” She  shooed Flint off. “Away with you Mr Flint, there’s no need to dawdle in the corridors. And thank you Mr Turner for grabbing us to deescalate the situation,” she said turning to the prefect, “2 points to Ravenclaw.”

Flint shuffled off, as MacGonagal left with the Ravenclaw prefect, Turner, who was asking her about something or other transfiguration related. Only Snape remained in the hall, and when both parties turned opposite corners, he spoke again. “Miss Woodward.”

I remained hidden. 

He sighed. “Miss Woodward I would like an account of these events from your own perspective this evening. Please arrive at my office after dinner, no later than 7.” With that he turned and stalked off.

I stepped out from the tapestry I was hiding behind and made a mental note to send Ems a note thanking her. I myself then turned and made my way to the courtyard despite the winter chill, resolved to avoid the dungeons and my head of house until after dinner.

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I’m quite proud of what I have written here and for my first fanfiction ever I don’t think I’ve done too shabby of a job. But, with that, since this post is a little longer than normal, I shall let you go.

Remember: dot your  your j’s and cross your t’s! ᕱ__ᕱ 

~Clementine J. Quincey 🪷

finals week + fandom stats

Hello friends!

Finals week is upon me and as such I have had to prioritize. This means that despite me chomping at the bit to get more done for my original story, I have unfortunately not done much. For one of my classes, however, I recently did a final analysis on my work. (In fact, it was the same class I started this blog for. ᕱ__< ) In this final analysis I came to some conclusions about one of my projects that made me quite sad. Despite all of the hardwork and effort I put into it, I failed to make an engaging piece of digital media. It was a good piece, but it missed the mark in several areas. BUT! I feel as though it may be of some interest to my fellow fandom nerds here on tumblr. So, since I don’t have much new work to share with y’all this week, I figured I’d release this project into the wild.

For some background information: the assignment was to create an infographic. I wanted to make it something relevant to my interests, so I was struggling a little to come up with something fun and interesting until I remembered a video I saw back when I used to have TikTok. (Yes, I had TikTok. It was cool and fun and all, but it took too much time from my day so I deleted it a little over a year ago. But I digress.) The person in this video was throwing out some fandom stats from Archive of Our Own (popular fanfiction website, though I’m sure most of y’all know that) and I wondered if I would be able to collect my own data from AO3 and make an infographic of that. And so I did.

Needless to say, the data collection took a lot of work. A LOT of work. And once I was finished with gathering, I sorted. And once I was finished sorting, I did some math (incorrectly) and then some more math (correctly) and created my infographic using Adobe Illustrator. And it was okay. If I had the technological skills and know-how to do so, I would have made it an interactive graph which would give you more data when you clicked on stuff. But I didn’t have the skills or know-how. The resulting infographic kinda hits you in the face with a bunch of info and it’s kind of overwhelming. 

So, like I said, it’s not my best work, but I definitely learned a lot from it. And mayhaps y’all might find the information fascinating so… behold, I suppose:

What do you make of it? Is the information surprising? Unsurprising? Completely and utterly uninteresting to you? Let me know! And for those of y’all in college/university with me: good luck on your finals if you have yet to take them and I'm sure you aced your finals if you have already taken them! And if I survive, I’ll see y’all next week! ᕱ__ᕱ

Just remember to dot your j’s and cross your t’s (especially on your final essays)!

~Clementine J. Quincey 🪷

P.S. Remember that I am posting a second extra content post this week as well!! Look out for that coming soon!

worldbuilding!!✨

Hello friends!

I’m back and better than ever!! ᕱ__ᕱ This past week I have felt much, much better and, while I don’t want to jinx it, I think I should be looking forward to sunshine and clear skies for the next few weeks in the mental health department so that's always good news. I don’t have very much commentary this week, and I don’t want to keep y’all for longer than I need to in light of last week's heavier post, so I figured I would keep this one short and sweet. The main thing I have made progress on in the last few days is world building. Now, keep in mind that all of this is still in it’s beginning stages so things may likely change in the future, but for now here is a basic outline of some of the fantasy races and magic system in my story:

Lore

Elven Kind - the Atharenel

Names come from celtic, russian/slavic, germanic, french

Ailidh’s people have celtic names

Ruslan’s people have russian/slavic names

Two other main groups of Atharenel

one has germanic names 

one has french names

The Atharenel are fully mortal and have normal lifespans much like humans

However they have a highly increased ability for magic

Along with a deeper connection to the natural world

And they have slightly enhanced abilities

Naturally mildly faster

Stronger

More flexible, etc.

Humans

Names come from misc languages

latin, hebrew, spanish, japanese, chinese, arabic, african dialects etc.

Some have ability for magic but at a much lower rate than the atharenel

And naturally powerful magic users are rare

Often use objects of power to help channel and amplify magic

Staffs, wands, rings, etc

Often utilize spells to help direct and shape magic specifically

Magic system - STILL NEEDS QUITE A BIT OF WORK 

Magic is highly connected to nature

Magic enhances nature and follows an extension of most natural laws

There is always a reaction to an action

Something can’t be made of nothing

Stuff doesn’t just happen because

Light magic (or Life magic) refers to the magic of healing, growing, creating

Dark magic (or Death magic) refers to the magic of aggression, death, destruction

NONE OF THIS TYPE OF MAGIC IS “BAD MAGIC”

Life and death magic exist on a balance, they are yin and yang, there simply is not one without the other

However there is such a thing as “bad magic” and that is corrupted magic

This is the type of magic that creates things like the shadow army

It tilts the balance between light and dark out of balance

It twists nature itself into something unnatural and seems to come with no cost

Shadow Army do not have names

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That’s pretty much all I have for y’all today. As you can tell, this is a pretty basic outline and some of the details are still vague and wishy-washy, but as I devote more time to this project I hope my vision becomes more and more clear. Only time will tell I suppose. Next week I will hopefully have some more characters developed for you all as recently many have been fighting to be released from my brain. We shall see. Until next time!  ᕱ__ᕱ 

Always remember to dot your j’s and cross your t’s!

~Clementine J. Quincey 🪷

vanquishing finals week + writing prompt

Hello friends!

I hath survived the dreaded beast known as finals week!

I once again, I didn’t do a whole lot of writing this week (other than a 10 page final paper for my US in the 1960s history class), but I did end up asking my friend to give me a writing prompt to try and cleanse my palate with something creative after all that hard work. ᕱ__ᕱ So, that is what I will be sharing with you all today! 

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Write me a story about a journey - a journey that has no purpose but it comes to have a purpose you must determine. What starts the quest? Is it solo? Where are we at?

The light looks very pretty shining though the leaves and branches of the trees onto the forest floor. If I were more poetic I would compare the patterns to those of lace or something of the like. I’m not poetic, so very pretty will have to do.

It’s around 8 in the morning. I don’t care enough to cast a tempus charm but I left home around 7:30 and it’s been a bit, so 8-ish. 

I had the last of the rhubarb cake Colin made for me last week for breakfast. It was delicious. He made it in exchange for me fixing up the binding on his grimoire, which honestly wasn’t that hard. Making the cake was probably harder. I wasn’t going to say anything though. His cake is fit for the gods. 

I also had tea, which I brought with me, which has probably gone cold by now. No matter. A warming charm will fix it right up. Yes, that is quite nice. Hibiscus tea is one of my favorites. It’s tart and it doesn't taste like I’m inhaling a flower like lavender tea does. I hope it lasts me until I get to town though, because I hate the stale, sticky taste that tea leaves in my mouth when I’ve gone too long after drinking it without drinking anything else.

I suppose I could visit Rosalie when I’m in town, and thank her and Penelope for fixing up that hole in my roof. I’ve always been terrible at repairing charms. It’s why I live in the woods where there are no nosey neighbors gawking at my house or my mismatched furniture and kitchenware.

It’s settled then. I’ll visit Rosalie and Penny. Oof! If I can make it town without tripping over a root to my death.

~*~*~

I had a lot of fun with this writing prompt! I loved the idea of a character setting out to do… something? Not knowing where they are going to end up or what they will be doing, but just seeing where life will take them. Sometimes the best trips are those that we don’t plan! ᕱ__ᕱ And of course, I had to add a fantasy element to the story, otherwise it just wouldn’t be me!

Next week I hope to give you all something a little more substantial when it comes to the original story I am working on but for this week I hope this will suffice!

Always remember, dot your j’s and cross your t’s!

 ~Clementine J. Quincey 🪷