Ahh, Aloise. What M:EM protagonist wouldn't be better off, at least for a while, meeting her? It would, of course, also be fascinating to see Beryl's canon interaction with Sharaka, as they certainly have some things in common. Thanks for sharing, Huey, and I hope you have a nice, pleasant sunshiny day.

I can think of a few that probably wouldn't benefit from exposure to Aloise. Alessa chief among those numbers.

Fair enough. Their world views are pretty far apart, I suppose.

It would make for tense dinners with Beryl, I would think.

Because of Alessa's past advances, or because "you ditched me for Rainbow McBubblypants?"

PS: Sharaka herself would be pretty irked at first by Aloise's Bubbly Mode. It may be a volatile couple of days before they find the right way to communicate that doesn't make Sharaka feel like she's being bullcrapped. In turn, Sharaka may be in an advantageous position to connect with Alessa.

Jack would be another character that wouldn't take Alessa's approach well. He's extremely private and full of angst, and would have every reason to ditch the girl after a few seconds of conversation. Kalit, instable as he is, may be a coin toss between redemption arc and attempted murder.

Because Alessa basically eats and breathes cynicism and Aloise cropdusts positivity. She would get on her nerves initially. Followed shortly by someone having to physically restrain her from introducing Aloise to Mrs. Knife.

It vaguely makes me recall the Animaniacs skit with the Goodfeathers.

I know, I just imagined there was a more Beryl-specific reason given the specific turn of phrase

On the one hand, the specific experience is likely not one we can say we've experienced, but the feeling it evokes? That's another story altogether.

Thanks for sharing Raven

Aww... also, is that fear of commitment?

Could be. It is definitely a major life event, proposing to the dragon woman you love. Also, it might be a fear of rejection. After all, I know I wouldn't want an ancient, powerful, gladiator dragon-woman with a temper to laugh in my face...or worse...

Holy **** hell. That **** hurt. ****.

About the title: I can't help but think that Orida herself, in the future, may wish to have had some more time with a living mother. A meal, a stroll, a hug. Things that you weren't able to enjoy when you could because of many reasons. But that's the tricky part, isn't it? Even if you had had more time, you wouldn't have been able to enjoy it as you could have.

...I'll just leave it at that. Thank you for sharing, Raven.

Yeah.




Today was the first day in a long time when I didn't have any grading to do or anything that needed to happen, so I figured I would write a quick story. Oddly, this was not at all the story I set out to write. When I decided to do something with Orida, my first thought was that she had somehow managed to pull the spirit of Royce Ingot out of Cartrevard without realizing it. It was originally Royce's voice that is calling to her at the beginning. But when I got to the third repetition of Orida's name, the thought occurred to me that it was her mother's voice. That made me think about who her mother was and all of the implications, knowing that Orida's mother is absent from her debut story "Whisperweft." And that's of course when this story started to form.

I somewhat regret doing this as a 50 word story, because I think this could be expanded into something more developed. Like you mention her, that "Five More Minutes" theme I feel could be expanded in a very affecting way. On some level, the brevity helps the impact/gut punch, but I really think this could be developed further. I probably won't, but I might do that at some point.


Thanks for reading. Sorry this one kind of comes out of nowhere.

"I'm... not in a good place," Sharaka admitted.

"Yet," Aloise replied warmly. "But I can see you're better. You are moving."

Sharaka hesitated, but eventually nodded. "Ever sunward, as my mother used to say."

Aloise's eyes went wide at her parent's mention. "Ever sunward," she repeated with a bright smile.

Sharaka stared at the tiny flame. The wait had been exciting at first, but now? It was kinda depressing.

She eventually sighed, snuffed the fire and picked up the holed coin. It was probably time to pawn it off, but...

She frowned, shrugged and pocketed the coin.

Maybe next time.

These are both very interesting alternate realities for Sharaka and interesting thought exercises about how it would be if she met a few of our oldest characters. We've seen a hint at how Sharaka and Aloise would be together before. But it would be very fascinating to see how canon Sharaka and canon Fisco would interact, as well as what would lead Sharaka to light that coin in the first place. I can think of one or two things that she would want from the Shark, and some of them get pretty dark, depending on what sort of headspace she's in at the time.

Thanks for sharing, Huey!

YYup, I wondered if I could work it in some hints as to why she'd wan to meet him, and wildly different possibilities presented themselves. I imagine this taking place in present M:EM canon, where Fisco might not be that eager (or even able, depending on the state of his coin network magic and... his waning health) to answer her call.

...it was also a mild mirror to your snippet about Daneera waiting for a certain angler. Ruwin was a big part of why I stuck around here in the very beginning.