Thinking, Overthinking, And A Pile Of Letters By Bridgeboy

Thinking, Overthinking, and a Pile of Letters by bridgeboy

Rated General, 6000 words, Khriss/Design and Cord/Rysn A philosophical treatise on the nature of love, masquerading as a fanfiction about two dorky scholars meeting for the first time. Design has questions, Khriss has answers... maybe. Beware spoilers across the cosmere!

Despite having her own office, Khriss preferred doing her research in the university's enormous library. Proximity to massive amount of information played into it, of course, but the bigger reason was that it was easier to get away from people and actually focus on her research. Her office was known to everyone at the university—why, it was known to practically everyone in Silverlight itself—and as a result, she had frequent visitors. The library, meanwhile, may as well have been a maze. It was easy to find a quiet corner far from distractions, and Khriss made a point to never hole up in the same study nook twice in a row; that helped make it much harder for people to find her on purpose. Of course, she'd still see other people as they wandered by, but they were just other users of the library; they never actually disrupted her.

Usually, at least.

Khriss looked up in surprise when she heard the scrape of someone pulling out the chair across from her. She'd been poring over maps of Western Roshar, and she'd been so absorbed in her thoughts she hadn't heard the newcomer approach.

They appeared to be a human woman, although Khriss knew that didn't necessarily mean much. Her long white hair was piled on top of her head in a messy bun, and a tight, dark green dress showed off her frankly stunning curves. She seemed to be looking over the piles of assorted notes that were spread across the table.

"What are you working on?" the stranger asked.

Khriss ignored the question. "Who are you?" She was happy to talk about her work, but she wouldn't tell just anybody about it.

"My name is Design," the stranger said cheerily. She picked up one of the maps and started scanning it over.

Khriss wrinkled her brow, searching her memory for how she knew that name… Hoid's spren. Of course. She relaxed; Hoid was a pain in the ass, but he could be trusted—well, he could be trusted with knowledge of Khriss's current project, at least.

"I'm Khriss," she said. "I'm currently trying to get to the bottom of how a simple merchant on Roshar got a hold of one of the Dawnshards."

"Oh, Hoid told me about you. The famous scholar!" Design grinned. "Have you tried lifting up all your notes and checking underneath? Or… wait… that was a figure of speech, wasn't it?"

Khriss raised an eyebrow, then nodded slowly. She'd never actually met a Cryptic in person, but she'd read about their tendency to take things far too literally. "So Hoid is in town, then? What's he working on?"

"I'm honestly not sure!" Design let the map drop back to the table, eyeing a stack of letters. "Something about Aons, probably. Or Awakening. Something with an A. He said he didn't need my help but now I'm bored. Can I look through those?" She pointed at the letters.

"Uh, sure." With her concentration broken and distraction-free environment disrupted, there wasn't really any point in trying to get much work done at this point. Khriss decided she'd indulge a few questions from Design, then send the spren on her way.

Meanwhile, Design helped her self to the letters and began reading through them. Khriss couldn't help but notice how quickly she moved from one letter to the next—much faster than the average human could read. Fascinating. Would Design be interested in letting herself be timed?

Barely a moment passed before Design looked up. "The note on top is right, I don't see anything in here about Dawnshards." She wrinkled her nose and frowned. "Why are the letters written in two different languages? Also, does my facial expression look sufficiently confused? I still have a hard time getting confusion right. It doesn't come up much."

"You look kind of confused but mostly annoyed."

"Damnation, I'll have to practice that some more. Anyways, the languages? It would be more logical for them both to pick one to have their conversation in."

Khriss nodded. "It's because they were in love," she explained. "From what I can tell, they were practicing each other's native tongues."

Design quirked an eyebrow. "What does learning a new language have to do with love? They seem to like each other from all the 'I miss you' stuff but what does language factor in?"

Khriss sat back in her chair. How was she supposed to explain this? "Doing nice things for someone is a way to show you love them, through your actions instead of your words. Learning someone's native language so that they can understand you better is a really big action, and a really kind thing to do for another person."

Design hummed thoughtfully. "Would solving a complex math problem for someone show that you loved them?"

"Um. I guess so? If the person on the receiving end was really struggling and needed help."

"Does that mean all teachers are in love with their students?"

"No, definitely not."

"Why?"

"You don't have to be in love with someone to care about them."

"What's the difference between loving and caring?"

Khriss opened her mouth to reply, then stopped. There was a difference, of course, but Design's questions had her all turned around. "I… I need to think about that. It's hard to explain."

"Okay!" Design said, surprisingly chipper given that her question hadn't actually been answered. She put down the stack of letters and stood. "Thanks for the chat!"

And then she walked away, leaving Khriss sitting alone in stunned silence.

Keep reading

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Rated General, 700 words, Rlain & Renarin, post-OB, PTSD recovery

The Blue Envelope with the Bronze Seal by cosmere_play

Rated Teen, 6000 words, Sigzil & Hoid, mild Oathbringer spoilers

For @aro-soulmates-fest I wrote a fic about aroallo Sigzil rejecting his soulmate in favour of something he wants more out of life.

Chapter 1:

For being such an expansive auditorium crammed with so many people, it was unnerving to hear such a large silence. Sigzil was half-certain that everyone could hear the thumping of his heart. Certainly he could hear that one of the adjudicators standing against a far wall was chewing something.  Focus. He stared at the top sheet of the pages in front of him, hands in his lap, willing the test to start. Would he even be able to concentrate while he was this nervous? He could hear clothing rustling as his fellow applicants adjusted their robes and wraps; the nervous tapping of pens, quickly self-chastened back to stillness; then at last, one set of footsteps, ringing clearly through the hall like bells.  “You may begin.” Finally!   Sigzil flipped over the first page eagerly, then skimmed through the length of the test, evaluating the difficulty of the questions to ease his mind a little. This would be a good place to start: actuarial questions. Get through those, and then  he could start on the history of— The sound of whispering distracted him, and he glanced at the doorway to find a tall, large woman in high ranked scion’s robes in a huddle with two of the guards.  They looked up, directly at him. Oh, Yaezir guide me , he thought miserably, and snapped back to the pages in front of him. If I get kicked out just for looking up, my parents will kill me.  More footsteps, this time the heavy thud of boots. They sounded like they were getting closer, but Sigzil didn’t dare look up. He frowned, trying to concentrate. Calculate the merchant’s profit, and then subtract the taxes for the Prime, given Hazep’s Rule of Sixths. Consult the table of risks— The footsteps got louder, then louder.  He covered one ear as he scribbled. Average distance of goods, value of goods…hold on. Are they delivered by ship or over land? Oh Pali, of course it’s both— Two looming shadows darkened the desk. A gauntleted arm knocked the pen from Sigzil’s hand, and it landed with a crack against the bronze floor. Sigzil watched numbly as his lucky pen shattered into a thousand pieces under the rows of desks. “Oops, I do apologize,” a gruff voice said, but Sigzil felt like the words were travelling to him underwater. Then two large hands grabbed him under the armpits and yanked him to standing. He hardly heard what came next. “I’m afraid you’ll have to come with us, Citizen Cheater .”

Read Chapter 2

Happy Fanfic Friday, happy ace week, and happy my birthday months! This week I'm recommending my Gen and Teen-rated fics which are also mostly romance-free.

Romance-free stories:

Convergence - 5000 words (so far, will be around 40,000 when complete), rated Teen. Coauthored with BlindRadiant, this is edited and updated from an RP we did exploring the possibilities of Kaladin and Szeth travelling to Shinovar together. Set post-RoW.

Toy Soldiers - 10 minute podfic, rated General. Renarin recalls a childhood memory of playing with his cousin Elhokar. Fic written by FleetOfAdmiralLynx.

Lies Illuminating Truths - 4000 words, rated General. Shallan is challenged to reconsider some assumptions about darkeyes via ketek poetry. Set between OB and RoW.

A Strategic Retreat - 800 words, rated General. Jasnah struggles with intrusive memories, and tries to cope with her mental health.

I Am Vyre - 3000 words, rated Teen. CW knifeplay and suicidal thoughts. Moash is confronted and abused by Vyre. Set between OB and RoW.

Stories with romantic aspects:

Renarin's Special Interest - 2000 words, rated General. Jasnah discovers that Renarin has a crush. RoW spoilers.

The Call to Adventure - 40,000 words, Unrated. This is a Choose Your Own Adventure style fic for Kaladin that includes non-romantic and QPR options for Kaladin as he navigates what kind of relationship he wants with Shallan and Adolin.

You recently taught yourself morse code, but now you wish you hadn’t as the birds keep pecking at your window telling you that “it’s coming.”