UAGH Octavia and Atlas... and like the polycule in its entirety has turned into a tragedy. They did so well at the start but then crumbled with miscommunication and power-hunger! And then Hurri's way out is so bittersweet, though I can't imagine Juan is going to be happy.
Speaking of, could I take in Hurri? My lair space may be small but the room in my heart is not ajkdgjkrthnkm.
UAGH Octavia and Atlas... and like the polycule in its entirety has turned into a tragedy. They did so well at the start but then crumbled with miscommunication and power-hunger! And then Hurri's way out is so bittersweet, though I can't imagine Juan is going to be happy.
Speaking of, could I take in Hurri? My lair space may be small but the room in my heart is not ajkdgjkrthnkm.
Oh dang. For some reason, I did NOT expect Atlas to go down. At least he was able to fight to be himself again until the end :(.
And poor Alexandrite... Poor boy couldn't escape after all.
Gosh, it'll be interesting to see how everything shakes out once NOTN ends.
Oh dang. For some reason, I did NOT expect Atlas to go down. At least he was able to fight to be himself again until the end :(.
And poor Alexandrite... Poor boy couldn't escape after all.
Gosh, it'll be interesting to see how everything shakes out once NOTN ends.
Oof, many deaths. I am glad Atlas got to be themself in the end… Hurri is out, but we get a farewell nest, neat. Drago is pretty oop, I’m not sure what I’d do with him in my lore or I’d ask for him. But he is nice and I don’t want to see him exalted… mmm.
Oof, many deaths. I am glad Atlas got to be themself in the end… Hurri is out, but we get a farewell nest, neat. Drago is pretty oop, I’m not sure what I’d do with him in my lore or I’d ask for him. But he is nice and I don’t want to see him exalted… mmm.
Yeah, Octavia has lost all of her partners now :( I'll have to find her some new ones soon!
Thank you! I hope I am doing all these deaths justice! I'll absolutely send Alexandrite over! And there's no extra secrets about Shui and the Oro family, but I will DM you about what it would have been like growing up there!
Yeah, oof, we've lost some big players this NOTN. It was not at all what I was expecting. Cosmos did join Shui's faction, but I have plans for Atlas' faction, things are not over yet!
They really are, I dread how many more I will lose in these last days.
The funny thing is, Atlas wasn't all that heavily dressed, just one piece of apparel and one skin! But the skin was really detailed, so it made it look like there was more, it surprised be when I removed their clothing!
Everyone is currently level 7-9, I'm levelling them all up at once so I can more easily replace party members when someone dies. probably won't get too much higher than that this year, the rest is going to have to wait for the final push (which I'll probably start April or May).
Octavia would rather die than let all her hard work go to waste!
It really has, I'm trying to see if I can find Octavia some new partners, but that won't stop her from feeling the loss. I'm glad Pearl is still alive and well, even if he and Octavia are no longer dating.
Absolutely! I'll send Hurri right over! I love how you phrased that, "My lair space may be small but my heart is not." Really sums up the Flight Rising mood!
Yeah, Octavia has lost all of her partners now :( I'll have to find her some new ones soon!
Thank you! I hope I am doing all these deaths justice! I'll absolutely send Alexandrite over! And there's no extra secrets about Shui and the Oro family, but I will DM you about what it would have been like growing up there!
Yeah, oof, we've lost some big players this NOTN. It was not at all what I was expecting. Cosmos did join Shui's faction, but I have plans for Atlas' faction, things are not over yet!
They really are, I dread how many more I will lose in these last days.
The funny thing is, Atlas wasn't all that heavily dressed, just one piece of apparel and one skin! But the skin was really detailed, so it made it look like there was more, it surprised be when I removed their clothing!
Everyone is currently level 7-9, I'm levelling them all up at once so I can more easily replace party members when someone dies. probably won't get too much higher than that this year, the rest is going to have to wait for the final push (which I'll probably start April or May).
Octavia would rather die than let all her hard work go to waste!
It really has, I'm trying to see if I can find Octavia some new partners, but that won't stop her from feeling the loss. I'm glad Pearl is still alive and well, even if he and Octavia are no longer dating.
Absolutely! I'll send Hurri right over! I love how you phrased that, "My lair space may be small but my heart is not." Really sums up the Flight Rising mood!
@Petall still don’t know exactly what I’ll do with Drago, but I’ll take him.
He/him | FRT+1x
NOO SILVER! Okay.. he was a *******, but it's still sad to see him go. I can't retake her, BUT ANYONE PLEASE TAKE THEM!! PLEASE! THEY NEED A GOOD HOME AND I'D LIKE AT LEAST ONE OF MY DRAGONS TO HAVE A NICE CLAN TO LIVE OUTSIDE OF MINE.
NOO SILVER! Okay.. he was a *******, but it's still sad to see him go. I can't retake her, BUT ANYONE PLEASE TAKE THEM!! PLEASE! THEY NEED A GOOD HOME AND I'D LIKE AT LEAST ONE OF MY DRAGONS TO HAVE A NICE CLAN TO LIVE OUTSIDE OF MINE.
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[center][b][u]Day 72: In The Bleak Midwinter[/u][/b]
[item=cucumber]
Sentence: 10-20 Coli Battles[/center]
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“Mizt has been distracted lately, hasn’t she?” Ichabod rumbled, coming up beside Demon. “Do you know anything about that?”
Demon was surprised to see Ichabod talking to her. Normally, he kept to himself. He was unsettling, even to Demon, who was on his side. Shui had often praised him as his favourite child, but Demon wasn’t sure Shui understood the extent of Ichabod’s brutality. Demon was sure that Ichabod would kill even Shui if he stood in the way of his plan. It was pure fortune that Ichabod’s goals aligned with Shui, whatever they were. Demon was always afraid of getting on the wrong side.
“Your silence tells me you know something,” Ichabod pressed, narrowing his eyes.
“Mizt is in love, with a dragon from another faction,” Demon admitted, closing her eyes. She hoped her sister would forgive her for betraying her secret.
“Do not worry, I will deal with this,” Ichabod nodded, and Demon suddenly feared this methods.
She may not agree with Mizt’s relationship, but she would never go as far as get Ichabod involved if she had any choice. This relationship was now doomed to end only in misery.
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“You’ve seriously never checked this place out?” Faraday asked Ostrich in astonishment. “It’s a [i]fantastic[/i] tavern! The drinks are great, the tavernkeeper is really nice…” The sandsurge looked away, feeling her face flush.
“You have a crush on the tavernkeep?” Ostrich grunted, raising an eyebrow.
“Maybe,” Faraday said, stopping to cover her hands with her face. “She’s just so nice! And I know you’re all weird about love right now because of your ex, but I can’t stop thinking about her-”
“Hey, why would I care who you date?” Ostrich shrugged. “It’s true I can’t get over my ex, but that’s a me problem. You can date and talk to me about it without it feeling weird, like it’s not like you are dating my ex.”
“I don’t even know if she likes me back,” Faraday sighed. “But come on! We’re here!” She pushed open the door and held it open for Ostrich to pass through.
Only Ostrich did not enter the door. She stood frozen in the doorway, eyes fixed on the tavernkeeper. Piano looked up from the counter, and had an equally horrified look on her face.
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“I can’t be here,” Ostrich said under her breath, and took off in the opposite direction, racing well away from the riverboat tavern.
Faraday followed, putting the pieces together. She should have known, Ostrich had mentioned a “Piano” in passing. She called out after the pearlcatcher, but the pearlcatcher did not stop.
That is, until Ostrich found herself in the jaws of a chest, clearly awaiting a tasty morsel like her to come around. There was nothing Faraday could do to stop it.
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“What are you doing?” Gole asked as Rockabillie was frantically searching under pillows and in corners of the tent.
“I lost Diggory,” Rockabillie explained, not turning aer attention away to look at Gole. “I promised mom and dad I’d look after him, and now he’s gone, and if something has happened to him and he is hurt, I will never forgive myself.”
“Gole will help,” Gole nodded affirmatively, and the tundra joined the search.
It quickly became clear that their baby brother had left the safe confines of the tent, after discovering a trail of cookie crumbs leading out through a tear in the fabric and out towards the wilderness. Rockabillie swore.
“Don’t worry, we will find him,” Gole reassured aer as the two ventured out into the wastes. It did little to calm the storm that was whipping up around them, despite Rockabillie’s efforts to quell it. The last thing ae wanted was Diggory to get hurt because of aer own abilities.
With the winds whipping around them and picking up debris, it became difficult to see. The cookie crumbs were also being swept away, but not before the siblings could make note of the direction it was heading. Rockabillie heard thunder crack above their heads as the trail became increasingly more difficult to follow.
And then, ae saw him, following a mirror plushie. Rockabillie immediately recognized it as a mimic, and raced to stop him. While some mimics had been perfectly friendly throughout NOTN, most were troublesome at best and downright lethal at worse. Rockabillie did not want to find out the intentions of the mimic that had lured away aer brother.
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It happened too fast for Rockabillie to take action. Ae was suddenly aware of a needle flying out of the mirror plushie and aiming itself right at Diggory. Ae wanted to get in the way, to stop it, but ae was not fast enough.
But Gole was.
Rockabillie had scarcely seen Gole move, but the next thing ae knew, Gole had thrown Gole inbetween the mimic and Diggory. The needle, which had been aimed at the hatchling, found its place instead in Gole’s heart. Gole was dead before Gole hit the ground.
Rockabillie immediately scooped up Diggory before the child could realize what had happened to his sibling, the storm around aer reaching its full capacity. A hurricane whirled around them, leaving the siblings in the eye of the storm. But all the magic in the world would not be enough to bring Gole back.
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“What do you mean, you never wanted to do this?” Lavender shouted at Ulfer. They had followed their best friend and leader out into the wastes after the spiral had had a panic attack, loudly declaring he was giving up his position as head of The Disciples of Ulfer.
“I mean, it was never my dream!” Ulfer said, shaking. “I’m not cut out to be a leader, I just got carried away, I didn’t want to let you down!”
“Well, you sure are letting me down now,” Lavender spat. “You’re letting all of us down! The clan is growing! There are dragons that depend on you! You can’t just [i]leave[/i], we need you!”
“What you need is not me! And the more we grow, the more I realize it! Just let me go home. My mom is dead, I need to be with the rest of my family,”
“But you’re our leader! Without you, your followers will lose faith in our goal, the clan will fall apart, they’ll all join other factions!” Lavender insisted.
“That doesn’t help!” Ulfer shouted. “I’m leaving, and that’s final! You figure out how to carry on this glorious vision you have!”
The spiral turned his back to leave, and Lavender felt anger boiling up inside of them, stronger than anything they had ever felt before. Before they knew it, their claws and teeth were sinking themselves in Ulfer’s back. They saw red behind their eyes, and then it [i]wasn’t[/i] just behind their eyes. Before they knew it, their best friend lay dead on the ground, and Lavender’s fur was splattered with red.
“No,” They murmured, suddenly feeling faint. “No, I didn’t mean-”
But the damage was done.
Lavender’s brain was running a mile a minute, trying to figure out how they were going to deal with this. Ulfer was attacked by a wild animal, yes, that was it. And Lavender valiantly stepped in to save him, but it was too late. This blood was from that fight, and from carrying the body of their beloved leader back from the camp. Yes, that was a believable story. And then Lavender would take Ulfer’s place as leader. Leadership was never something they wanted, they were more of a follower, but it was a clear no one else could do this right. Anyone else would just let them down.
Yes, this would work. They had found a solution. And hopefully, with any luck, Lavender wouldn’t find themselves with anyone else’s blood on their paws. This was not something they ever wanted to do again, and they knew their actions would haunt them the rest of their life.
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“Is this everything you wanted, my love?” Shui asked, his soft words curdling in his mouth as he said them.
The mirror had been nothing but a thorn in his side since he met her. Sure, he loved to be adored, and devoted followers were something he desperately needed, but not like this. Tasman was obsessed with him, and he felt nothing for her. It wasn’t like Drew, or Hime, or Glacier, or Cosmos, with whom he had felt [i]some[/i] level of attraction.
But in the end, he had caved and given her a nest, just to get her to shut up. And now the four eggs lay nestled next to her as she curled around them.
Shui stared at the eggs, sizing them up. Even if not all of them survived, it was more than enough to make up in devoted followers if he were to lose Tasman. Children were the best bet, he could raise them however he wanted, and sure, some would turn away and leave his holy path - he had not forgotten Mato, Izzard, or Ouro - but he had a much higher success than failure rate.
So, decision made, he waited until Tasman was well and distracted from the eggs, and made her end swift and painless. It was the least he could do. After all, she had given him something very valuable indeed…
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Runik was glad Arkose was happy, he really was.
The auraboas had settled down well among the Disciples of Ishtar. Runik had reconnected with some old friends from the war - JupiterPhaseOne and Bluegrass. He was happy enough himself.
But Arkose seemed happy on a whole other level. That modern auraboa, Crocodile, had journeyed with them. And it genuinely brought him joy to see how the two interacted, how Crocodile’s life-of-the-party energy seemed to give Arkose a new energy he hadn’t seen in her for centuries. And now, they had a nest together, something he and Arkose had never had the time or security for, with his duties in the war.
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He was happy to see her happy, it wasn’t a lie. Runik just wished he could say it with his whole chest, and ignore the faint longing he felt in his chest, dreaming of the life he could have had, if things had been different.
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[center]@pinglist-3016[/center]
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Oh man, I'm sorry this chapter took so long. I wrote the first scene ages ago, but them suddenly hit a wall. I think work got really busy, and then I also really needed a break from Flight Rising after how much time I poured into Coli battling and levelling. So, I gave myself a break and played a lot of video games (when I had time with work), and now that I have more time and energy, I finished the chapter.
This is my last official NOTN chapter. I will do the NOTN mail day tomorrow. I only have a few letters, so I'm going to use it to introduce my new year's hatches, and after to write about the nests I put on today for my "breed three pairs" weekly pursuit.
Speaking of nests, I will hatch the two nests introduced today now, I've had them sitting fully incubated for at least a week because I didn't want to hatch them before I wrote about them coming into existence!
I have the next week off, so I plan to use it to catch up on Flight Rising stuff, doing bios for all my new dragons since the start of NOTN, and doing more prep to start my lore story of my very first clan on Flight Rising, it requires a lot of digging and trying to remember, so it's going to take a while until I am ready to write, but I am hoping that eventually I will get it to the point where I can just write.
[b]If anyone wants to claim Ostrich, Gole, Ulfer or Tasman, you have until 23:59 FR time on Monday January 15th to do so, first come, first serve![/b]
I also have Diggory's siblings, who I didn't share when they hatched, I'll keep them around for a couple of days more in case people are interested.
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The coolest plant on your plate. (Special thanks to HurricaneWinds!)
65
7
Sentence: 10-20 Coli Battles
“Mizt has been distracted lately, hasn’t she?” Ichabod rumbled, coming up beside Demon. “Do you know anything about that?”
Demon was surprised to see Ichabod talking to her. Normally, he kept to himself. He was unsettling, even to Demon, who was on his side. Shui had often praised him as his favourite child, but Demon wasn’t sure Shui understood the extent of Ichabod’s brutality. Demon was sure that Ichabod would kill even Shui if he stood in the way of his plan. It was pure fortune that Ichabod’s goals aligned with Shui, whatever they were. Demon was always afraid of getting on the wrong side.
“Your silence tells me you know something,” Ichabod pressed, narrowing his eyes.
“Mizt is in love, with a dragon from another faction,” Demon admitted, closing her eyes. She hoped her sister would forgive her for betraying her secret.
“Do not worry, I will deal with this,” Ichabod nodded, and Demon suddenly feared this methods.
She may not agree with Mizt’s relationship, but she would never go as far as get Ichabod involved if she had any choice. This relationship was now doomed to end only in misery.
“You’ve seriously never checked this place out?” Faraday asked Ostrich in astonishment. “It’s a fantastic tavern! The drinks are great, the tavernkeeper is really nice…” The sandsurge looked away, feeling her face flush.
“You have a crush on the tavernkeep?” Ostrich grunted, raising an eyebrow.
“Maybe,” Faraday said, stopping to cover her hands with her face. “She’s just so nice! And I know you’re all weird about love right now because of your ex, but I can’t stop thinking about her-”
“Hey, why would I care who you date?” Ostrich shrugged. “It’s true I can’t get over my ex, but that’s a me problem. You can date and talk to me about it without it feeling weird, like it’s not like you are dating my ex.”
“I don’t even know if she likes me back,” Faraday sighed. “But come on! We’re here!” She pushed open the door and held it open for Ostrich to pass through.
Only Ostrich did not enter the door. She stood frozen in the doorway, eyes fixed on the tavernkeeper. Piano looked up from the counter, and had an equally horrified look on her face.
“I can’t be here,” Ostrich said under her breath, and took off in the opposite direction, racing well away from the riverboat tavern.
Faraday followed, putting the pieces together. She should have known, Ostrich had mentioned a “Piano” in passing. She called out after the pearlcatcher, but the pearlcatcher did not stop.
That is, until Ostrich found herself in the jaws of a chest, clearly awaiting a tasty morsel like her to come around. There was nothing Faraday could do to stop it.
“What are you doing?” Gole asked as Rockabillie was frantically searching under pillows and in corners of the tent.
“I lost Diggory,” Rockabillie explained, not turning aer attention away to look at Gole. “I promised mom and dad I’d look after him, and now he’s gone, and if something has happened to him and he is hurt, I will never forgive myself.”
“Gole will help,” Gole nodded affirmatively, and the tundra joined the search.
It quickly became clear that their baby brother had left the safe confines of the tent, after discovering a trail of cookie crumbs leading out through a tear in the fabric and out towards the wilderness. Rockabillie swore.
“Don’t worry, we will find him,” Gole reassured aer as the two ventured out into the wastes. It did little to calm the storm that was whipping up around them, despite Rockabillie’s efforts to quell it. The last thing ae wanted was Diggory to get hurt because of aer own abilities.
With the winds whipping around them and picking up debris, it became difficult to see. The cookie crumbs were also being swept away, but not before the siblings could make note of the direction it was heading. Rockabillie heard thunder crack above their heads as the trail became increasingly more difficult to follow.
And then, ae saw him, following a mirror plushie. Rockabillie immediately recognized it as a mimic, and raced to stop him. While some mimics had been perfectly friendly throughout NOTN, most were troublesome at best and downright lethal at worse. Rockabillie did not want to find out the intentions of the mimic that had lured away aer brother.
It happened too fast for Rockabillie to take action. Ae was suddenly aware of a needle flying out of the mirror plushie and aiming itself right at Diggory. Ae wanted to get in the way, to stop it, but ae was not fast enough.
But Gole was.
Rockabillie had scarcely seen Gole move, but the next thing ae knew, Gole had thrown Gole inbetween the mimic and Diggory. The needle, which had been aimed at the hatchling, found its place instead in Gole’s heart. Gole was dead before Gole hit the ground.
Rockabillie immediately scooped up Diggory before the child could realize what had happened to his sibling, the storm around aer reaching its full capacity. A hurricane whirled around them, leaving the siblings in the eye of the storm. But all the magic in the world would not be enough to bring Gole back.
“What do you mean, you never wanted to do this?” Lavender shouted at Ulfer. They had followed their best friend and leader out into the wastes after the spiral had had a panic attack, loudly declaring he was giving up his position as head of The Disciples of Ulfer.
“I mean, it was never my dream!” Ulfer said, shaking. “I’m not cut out to be a leader, I just got carried away, I didn’t want to let you down!”
“Well, you sure are letting me down now,” Lavender spat. “You’re letting all of us down! The clan is growing! There are dragons that depend on you! You can’t just leave, we need you!”
“What you need is not me! And the more we grow, the more I realize it! Just let me go home. My mom is dead, I need to be with the rest of my family,”
“But you’re our leader! Without you, your followers will lose faith in our goal, the clan will fall apart, they’ll all join other factions!” Lavender insisted.
“That doesn’t help!” Ulfer shouted. “I’m leaving, and that’s final! You figure out how to carry on this glorious vision you have!”
The spiral turned his back to leave, and Lavender felt anger boiling up inside of them, stronger than anything they had ever felt before. Before they knew it, their claws and teeth were sinking themselves in Ulfer’s back. They saw red behind their eyes, and then it wasn’t just behind their eyes. Before they knew it, their best friend lay dead on the ground, and Lavender’s fur was splattered with red.
“No,” They murmured, suddenly feeling faint. “No, I didn’t mean-”
But the damage was done.
Lavender’s brain was running a mile a minute, trying to figure out how they were going to deal with this. Ulfer was attacked by a wild animal, yes, that was it. And Lavender valiantly stepped in to save him, but it was too late. This blood was from that fight, and from carrying the body of their beloved leader back from the camp. Yes, that was a believable story. And then Lavender would take Ulfer’s place as leader. Leadership was never something they wanted, they were more of a follower, but it was a clear no one else could do this right. Anyone else would just let them down.
Yes, this would work. They had found a solution. And hopefully, with any luck, Lavender wouldn’t find themselves with anyone else’s blood on their paws. This was not something they ever wanted to do again, and they knew their actions would haunt them the rest of their life.
“Is this everything you wanted, my love?” Shui asked, his soft words curdling in his mouth as he said them.
The mirror had been nothing but a thorn in his side since he met her. Sure, he loved to be adored, and devoted followers were something he desperately needed, but not like this. Tasman was obsessed with him, and he felt nothing for her. It wasn’t like Drew, or Hime, or Glacier, or Cosmos, with whom he had felt some level of attraction.
But in the end, he had caved and given her a nest, just to get her to shut up. And now the four eggs lay nestled next to her as she curled around them.
Shui stared at the eggs, sizing them up. Even if not all of them survived, it was more than enough to make up in devoted followers if he were to lose Tasman. Children were the best bet, he could raise them however he wanted, and sure, some would turn away and leave his holy path - he had not forgotten Mato, Izzard, or Ouro - but he had a much higher success than failure rate.
So, decision made, he waited until Tasman was well and distracted from the eggs, and made her end swift and painless. It was the least he could do. After all, she had given him something very valuable indeed…
Runik was glad Arkose was happy, he really was.
The auraboas had settled down well among the Disciples of Ishtar. Runik had reconnected with some old friends from the war - JupiterPhaseOne and Bluegrass. He was happy enough himself.
But Arkose seemed happy on a whole other level. That modern auraboa, Crocodile, had journeyed with them. And it genuinely brought him joy to see how the two interacted, how Crocodile’s life-of-the-party energy seemed to give Arkose a new energy he hadn’t seen in her for centuries. And now, they had a nest together, something he and Arkose had never had the time or security for, with his duties in the war.
He was happy to see her happy, it wasn’t a lie. Runik just wished he could say it with his whole chest, and ignore the faint longing he felt in his chest, dreaming of the life he could have had, if things had been different.
Oh man, I'm sorry this chapter took so long. I wrote the first scene ages ago, but them suddenly hit a wall. I think work got really busy, and then I also really needed a break from Flight Rising after how much time I poured into Coli battling and levelling. So, I gave myself a break and played a lot of video games (when I had time with work), and now that I have more time and energy, I finished the chapter.
This is my last official NOTN chapter. I will do the NOTN mail day tomorrow. I only have a few letters, so I'm going to use it to introduce my new year's hatches, and after to write about the nests I put on today for my "breed three pairs" weekly pursuit.
Speaking of nests, I will hatch the two nests introduced today now, I've had them sitting fully incubated for at least a week because I didn't want to hatch them before I wrote about them coming into existence!
I have the next week off, so I plan to use it to catch up on Flight Rising stuff, doing bios for all my new dragons since the start of NOTN, and doing more prep to start my lore story of my very first clan on Flight Rising, it requires a lot of digging and trying to remember, so it's going to take a while until I am ready to write, but I am hoping that eventually I will get it to the point where I can just write.
If anyone wants to claim Ostrich, Gole, Ulfer or Tasman, you have until 23:59 FR time on Monday January 15th to do so, first come, first serve!
I also have Diggory's siblings, who I didn't share when they hatched, I'll keep them around for a couple of days more in case people are interested.
Oh man! I was so ready to giggle at Ostrich's awkward moment, only to wince when it ended in a death scene. That's going to come back to haunt Faraday. ;___;
And with the other deaths that followed, ngl, I scrolled up to check we weren't on a death streak roll. Ulfer's death was particularly shocking. [emoji=guardian sad]
Oh man! I was so ready to giggle at Ostrich's awkward moment, only to wince when it ended in a death scene. That's going to come back to haunt Faraday. ;___;
And with the other deaths that followed, ngl, I scrolled up to check we weren't on a death streak roll. Ulfer's death was particularly shocking.
