#strange fate

[darklinaforever]

L.J Smith, I'm still waiting for the final volume of Nightworld (which she's apparently still working on, so all hope is not lost) and her Evensong fanfiction from TVD books, because I need Bamon book endgame... (even if on the other hand I haven't found any news on this subject...)

#l.j. smith #night world #the vampires diaries books #strange fate #night world strange fate #night world volume 10 #night world book 10 #evensong series #evensong : paradise lost #evensong : the war of roses #evensong : into the wood #envensong trilogy #book bamon #bamon #stelena #night world series #bonnie mccullough #damon salvatore #damon x bonnie #bonnie x damon #damon and bonnie #bonnie and damon #the vampire diaries novels #tvd novels #tvd books

[ljsmiths-thenightworld]

Ash Redfern Chapter Preview - Strange Fate

*Listed as Poppy and Phil and James.

In case any Night World fan out there is unaware of the bonus short stories published in the verse, I decided I’d link it here for fans to possible discover and read. This one was not linked directly under short stories so it’s a bit more hidden on L.J. Smith’s website.

You can find the rest of the story HERE.

#ash redfern #night world #night world series #strange fate #lj smith #the night world #the night world series #vampire #short stories

[moonlightreal]

Another Strange Fate preview

Strange Fate sneak preview in the third omnibus edition, April 2009

The girl was Kierlan’s soulmate. There was no doubt of that now, just as there’d been no doubt since they were children.

Kierlan should have, by everything her knew of the Night World’s laws, been comforted by this. He should have felt unassailable.

Instead, he felt very assailable indeed.

But why? They’d woven the eternal, unbreakable thread between them. He’d kissed, her, and it was a kiss that he was still dizzy from. Sarah had melted in his arms. And he’s seen the silver cord.

They were soulmates. Even if they were parted, the cord would connect them. Nothing could sever that cord…

...except Sarah herself.

Kierlan had a chill of premonition. Maybe it was best to impress upon Sarah, and especially upon her subconscious, that once the cord was woven, she had sealed her fate. Sarah’s kiss and what it had called forth had determined her destiny.

But first he needed to get Mal, his soul’s brother, out of the way.

He glanced out Sarah’s window, the one that looked down on the front lawn. Mal was gazing down at Sarah, who lay on her still unmade bed, as if the sight of her had turned him to stone. Maybe it had. Who knew what Mal had done to keep himself from coveting Sarah?

Kierlan was probably the only person in the world who knew that Mal loved her. And Mal was no poacher. From the beginning Mal had acknowledged that Kierlan had a prior claim, and had given his solemn word not to infringe on that. He’d given his word that Sarah would be Kierlan’s and that he would never interfere.

Until recently only one person had known that Mal had broken his word. Had lied.

And that person wasn’t Mal. It was Kierlan.

Kierlan had used his powers, ruthlessly and without concern for Mal’s mental well-being, to cut through Mal’s elaborate defenses and show him the truth.

Not that Kierlan didn’t see the reasons for Mal’s treachery. After all, if there were no reasons to love Sarah, then Kierlan wouldn’t have loved her since he had met her; although, at six, he hadn’t really known it was love. He’d simply known that the fragile fairy-child with the windblown hair was his, sworn his and sealed with their kiss shared under the oleander bush. Kierlan hadn’t understood his powers then, but he had known that Sarah, with her heart-shaped face and aquamarine eyes, was part of him.

Bringing himself to the present with a jolt, Kierlan glanced out the window again. “You’d better get your car,” He said. “We’re going to have to get her and all her stuff out of here fast.”

“You mean kidnap her? Where?”

“Circle Daybreak, of course. Hurry up.”

But Mal, who usually too orders immediately, stared at him with those cloud-gray eyes. The chiseled features under his shock of dark hair expressed no emotion. “What about her stepfamily?”

Kierlan swore. “I’ll send them a freaking telegram!”

“No, I mean what if somebody sees us taking her and—”

“You worry too much. And that wasn’t a suggestion!” Kierlan didn’t like using the whiplash voice on Mal. But he had to get him away from Sarah before she woke.

Mal stood absolutely still for just a moment, then saluted Kierlan and departed silently.

Alone with Sarah at last, Kierlan sat by her on the bed and gently called her name. Her lashes were fluttering; she was deep in a nightmare-dream.

How did Mal do it? Mal always said he just spoke to her softly. But Kierlan didn’t have either the dispassionate voice or the time; he’d used a lot of Power already , and he knew how he wasnted to use the rest of it.

There was no choice but to control her mind directly.

He slipped in unnoticed, leaving her the privacy of her dreams, and told her to wake up. Wake up, Sarah. Now.

Kierlan? Sarah blinked and opened her eyes.

“It’s all right,” he said immediately, “you’re safe.” but Sarah was looking around the room in bewilderment.

“I’ve never dreamed this before.” she said, “I mean, me being in my room again while I was still in the middle of the other dream.”

“You’re not dreaming.”

The problem was that she was. He could tell that Sarah’s mind was still in REM sleep, her breathing rapid and irregular, her eyelashes quivering every few moments as if she were trying to focus on something in the distance and couldn’t.

One of the secrets of Kierlan’s success was his ability to adapt. “All right, you are dreaming.” he said, cupping a hand around Sarah’s chin to turn her to face him. “You’re dreaming about me.”

Sarah’s blush, which came up from her collarbones and never failed to arouse Kierlan’s wonder, was just as adorable when she was asleep as awake.

“Again?” she faltered. “I used to dream about you all the time, until… until the new dreams came.”

Kierlan’s heart melted. He could feel, amazingly, his own cheeks heat with blood. He hadn’t thought there was anything that could make him blush, not anymore.

“You dreamed about me?”

“Oh, all the time.”

It occurred to Kierlan that what he was doing was probably not quite fair. In fact, it was completely and distinctly unfair. In this dreamlike state Sarah was at his mercy; she would tell him the absolute truth about anything.

It was something he definitely had to take advantage of.

“Who do you love?” he whispered, taking her chin in his fingers and using his most intense gaze to hold those aquamarine eyes with the trembling, starry black lashes.

Sarah’s face went even softer, as if she could see glorious things behind Kierlan’s tawny eyes, as if she could see inside him and everything she saw made her want to melt in his arms

“Who do you love, Mal or me?” he repeated.

And the answer came back instantly, infuriatingly, “Both.”

Kierlan’s breath came out in a little explosion. “Look at this. See this?” He had to tip her head down to look at the silver cord that was taut between them. “Do you know what that means? It means that we’re soulmates. It means I’m yours and you’re mine. Mal hasn’t got anything to do with it. I’m your other half. You’re sworn mine, sealed mine, bound mine.”

The effect was not what he’d anticipated. Sarah was looking helplessly down, then she seemed to forget the silver cord, and her gaze wandered out the window. Looking for what? Mal?

Frustrated, almost frantic, Kierlan took Sarah by the shoulders. “You have to love me. You have to.”

And then he did something he knew he should be ashamed of.

He kissed her.

Helpless as she was, dreaming as she was, he kissed her.

And it was warm and sweet and long, and Sarah didn’t wake. She wound her arms around his neck and cuddled to him, little shivers going through her. In Kierlan’s mind, in Kierlan’s heart, in Kierlan’s soul, there was total anarchy, but overall there was only the thought of Sarah. His Sarah, sealed and bound to him forever.

Whatever might happen, whatever he might have to do, Kierlan had to keep Sarah.

I have no conscience or morality about this, he thought, holding Sarah, cradling her so that her soft, fine, freshly washed hair was against his cheek. He was thinking terrible things. Sarah had changed in the last few years. Her face was still waifish, her body still fragile, but there were changes. New curves under her simple T-shirts. Now, with her quiescent and seemingly happy, he was tempted to go farther—just a little…

No! Sarah had given him a kiss from her heart, even if he’d had to exercise all his powers of seduction to get it. The waking Sarah would never allow… she would beat him away… she would never speak to him, if he tried something like that. And even if she never found out, Kierlan would always imagine the beating hands, the shrieking. Even though they were soulmates, Sarah wasn’t ready to give him more.

But I still have no conscience, he told himself defiantly. I’m restraining myself for Sarah’s sake, and that’s all.

The thought of beating, thrashing hands and shrieking brought another scene to his mind, however. It made him remember vividly the very first time Sarah had kissed him. And suddenly Kierlan knew how to make Sarah his forever, without the possibility of interference by Mal, however tall and handsome and perfect Mal might be.

“Sarah?”

“Yes?” She was still asleep, with her great jewel-like eyes wide open in that gamine face.

“Sarah, can you remember when we first met? Do you remember that first day?”

Sarah’s features changed. Her eyelids went heavy, half-closed in bliss. Her mouth went so soft with adoration that Kierlan had to clench his fists to keep from stealing another kiss. Her whole face—glowed.

“I want to take you back to that day.” Kierlan whispered. “I want you to dream about that.”

He knew he was being hideously cruel and unfair. Those kisses had been won at a heavy, heavy cost. But just now he needed Sarah to remember how she’d felt about him before Mal had come into the picture. Kierlan needed her to remember how they had already been sworn together, so young.

“Go back.” Kierlan was whispering now, hypnotically. “I’ll go back with you. We’ll share our thoughts, our feelings. Go back to that first day…”

Unconsciously, Kierlan was swaying, and Sarah was swaying with him. Grasped in his arms, her mind dissolving in with his mind, Sarah was going back, and he was following.

#lj smith #night world #strange fate

[paintingsandrecords]

a cedar waxwing; ink and watercolor

last eight day’s listening:

minutemen - double nickels on the dime

taylor swift - 1989 (taylor’s version)

street eaters - rusty eyes and hydrocarbons

void - sessions 1981-83

strange fate - stranger

etran de l'aïr - no. 1

they might be giants - long tall weekend

robbery - six song demo

bold - speak out

your mother - the “weird” al-bum

suicide machines - revolution spring

#drawing #painting #recordoftheday #records #watercolor #watercolorpainting #art #cedar waxwing #suicide machines #your mother #weird al #bold #robbery #they might be giants #etran de l’air #strange fate #void #street eaters #taylor swift #1989 taylor's version #minutemen #this is my painting

[bylightofdawn]

God damn, I got to thinking tonight about two books I've been legitimately waiting to get published since the late 90's.

First was Strange Fate which is the last book of LJ Smith's Nightworld series. She's known for her Vampire Diaries series which got made into a couple of shows which I never watched because i never really cared for the books. But fuck me I've been waiting since 1998 for this book to be published.

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS I HAVE BEEN WAITING

And the other one, (the one that really cuts more deeply) is the Captal's Tower by Melanie Rawn. That's been since 1999.

And I'm looking online, hoping to find updates and the amount of bitching, wailing and generally entitled attitude of fans everywhere on say goodreads and Amazon is kinda...gross. Yes, I'm frustrated, yes I get frustrated every time they put out a book for a different series but you know what is NOT going to make them write faster?

Grown-ass adults throwing tantrums and generally acting like children decrying the author for being 'cruel' and depriving them of THEIR conclusion of the series. Uhhhh ya'll do know it's their book right?

I mean I've been through the entire cycle when it comes to these books and I'm sure when I was younger I prolly had similar opinions but I didn't post them online and now I look at this behavior and I just shake my head.

NGL a salty part of me that knows LJ Smith has been employing ghostwriters for years just wishes she'd give it over to a ghostwriter so we could get some conclusion. But eh it is what it is.

As for Melanie Rawn? I've kinda accepted that this series will never be completed and it hurts because it had such a huge impact on me growing up. It's very much fantasy Star Wars inspired in a lot of ways. LOL Which is prolly why I liked them as much as I did.

But you're not gonna see me throwing a hissy fit online and generally being a self-entitled twat about it.

I also get a little ironic schadenfreude every time someone complains about how long it takes GRRM to write his GoT book.

#el wants to read #captal's tower #strange fate #alas book series that will never be finished #melanie rawn #lj smith

[erininsoup]

Reading My Old Fan Fic...

And not completely hating it?! This one is from a Strange Fate/Night World fanfic, and reminded me of how I still haven't given up hope for book #10.

....

"Uncle Bracken's been kidnapped?" The words felt strange on Jez's tongue, but Sarah's response was even stranger.

"Again, I can't say for certain...but, well, it didn't exactly seem like your uncle was being kept there involuntarily. Of course, that doesn't mean anything!" Sarah hastened to add at the blazing look in Jez's eyes. "All I know is what I saw."

"Right...thank you, Sarah." Jez was quite proud that her voice sounded perfectly agreeable, without the slightest tremble or shake. Although it was harder to train her body cooped up in Circle Daybreak's housing, it had given her plenty of time to train her emotions and her expressions. "I'll handle it from here."

Sarah's mouth popped open, as though she was thinking about asking Jez what 'handling it' entailed, but at Jez's fierce look, Sarah decided to retreat instead. Good girl. As soon as the door banged shut, Jez crossed over to her nightstand - fight with Morgead forgotten - and started rummaging for the necessities...like a silver knife, a wooden knife, and a bronze knife. Plus a regular old knife, just for funsies.

"What are you doing?" Morgead demanded.

"What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Okay fine, let's just ignore what Thierry said about not leaving the center…"

"Sounds good to me."

"That was sarcasm, you dolt."

Jez rolled her eyes, and stepped past him, searching her messy room for a suitable pair of combat boots.

"Jez - "

Morgead attempted to grab her wrist, and she scowled at him. Although she could easily break free from his hold, she didn't want to use brute force to get her way. She wanted Morgead - her soulmate - to want to be on her side.

"You don't understand," she told him. "Because you're not the one being forced to stay here."

"Well, and that's probably because I'm not the one with the fire and brimstone and all-consuming powers."

"No, you only act like you are."

Morgead wrinkled his nose, and Jez took advantage of his disgruntled state to reclaim her hand and finish packing. She headed toward her door before placing one hand on her hip and half turning back to Morgead.

"Now, are you in?" she demanded.

He sighed and muttered something under his breath that sounded strangely like an insult, but reluctantly nodded.

Jez clapped. "Good. Think of it like a fun, romantic little road trip."

"Romantic, right," Morgead snorted. It wasn't until he was bending down to put on his shoes that he noticed an obvious problem. "Speaking of road trips, Jez...how are we going to get from here all the way to San Franciso on foot?"

Jez didn't even pause. Instead, she shook out her long, fiery red hair and whipped out her cell phone.

"I don't know about you," she grinned. "But I think it's time for a little reunion."

#fanfic #creative writing #lj smith #night world #strange fate #Jez and Morgead

[knowledgevariabledarcy]

#strange empire #strange family #strange fate #strange fruit #strange feeling #Youtube

[freyadragonlord]

(Spoilers for the sctir novel)

I honestly don't know what is funnier:

The fact that when Yoohyun learns about the Regression, he pretty much immediately asks Yoojin what his relationship to Sung Hyunjae was before turning time back, and that when Yoojin tells him that he and Hyunjae didn't know each other at all before the Regression, Yoohyun thinks Yoojin is lying to him........

.........or the fact that Yoohyun is right.

#the way this cracks me up every time i think about it #yoohyun like: i know that man is attached to you like glue just tell me what he was to you >:( #yoojin: i swear i didnt know him back then!! he had no reasons to like me back then!!!! #pre-regression hyunjae: you refused to elope with me to switzerland so i am taking all your memories of me :((((((((((( #fated to be Something #something strange #sctir spoilers #sctir #tsctir #my s class hunters #the s classes that i raised #the s ranks that i raised #han yoojin #han yoohyun #sung hyunjae #jinjae

[kazemi-tan]

Has anyone done this meme yet?

Anyway, love you Gil <3

#fate gilgamesh #fate series #gilgamesh #fate #archer gilgamesh #fate stay night #fate strange fake #fate grand order #selfship meme #selfship #yumeship #yumejoshi

[salmonofarctic]

(Wolves lick the inside of other’s mouths)

(and Enkidu grew up among animals of course they picked it up)

(2024 useless information update: Ehhhhh in case nobody noticed, because I didn’t write anything on this picture? Gil actually got … deep-throated by Enkidu’s canine tongue)(🥴)

#fate fanart #fgo #enkidu #gilgamesh #enkidu x gilgamesh #beast Enkidu #fate strange fake

[kyuyua]

I still love the fact that the entire Ironstrange community decided that Stephen fell in love with Tony after viewing 14000605 possible timelines bc he watched him die for everyone on Titan, watched him sacrifice himself for people he just met and essentially for the entire universe, watched him fall over and over and over again just to stand up and keep fighting because he had to. He’s seen every decision Tony could ever make, has seen every sacrifice-play he’s made, every victory and defeat, and decided ‘this one.’

Like, Stephen’s seen this man at his worst and at his best, probably knows him better than anyone else ever could, and he fell so in love with him. I will go down with this ship.

#and endgame kills me bc it implies that stephen decided the fate of the universe was more important than tony #and maybe #but also no fuck the universe #i like the fics where endgame doesn’t exist 💖💖 #which luckily is almost all of them #ironstrange #marvel cinematic universe #marvel #mcu #doctor strange #stephen strange #iron man #tony stark #also this is def where supreme fam was birthed and I love supreme fam #didn’t fit into my whipped-stephen ramble tho so

[ljsmiths-thenightworld]

The biggest update I’ve ever gotten regarding LJ just happened. @atlasfuller managed to find a contact via a friend and received a reply from Miss Lisa Jane in Jan 2022.

She’s still working on the book, but has (seemingly again?) re-written it. I wish her luck with this, but it does leave me wondering if she had/has a plan and just isn’t happy with how it’s turning out on paper or is completely working off a new idea. Also her health issues have continued sadly.

But it is an update actually written by Miss LJ Smith herself and that is a miracle!

Happy 2023 🎉

#lj smith #the night world #vampire diaries #the night world series #vampire #vampires #l.j. smith #strange fate #the vampire diaries #books #lj smith update #update

[moonlightreal]

"Why doesn't she self publish?"

Why haven’t we gotten Strange Fate? Why hasn’t Ms. Smith just self published it? A question posed by Jen on Goodreads and hey, it got me thinking!

Short answer: we don’t know.

But I can think of a few possibilities.

1) Simon & Schuster owns rights to the series and is blocking publication in some way. Maybe they’re saving it in hopes that paranormal romance becomes the big thing in YA again. YA has its fads, there was girl meets vampire, then dystopian, and right now on my library’s suggestion page it looks like a “loads of representation, possibly too much representation” fad is fading into a “books for girls who love true crime podcasts” fad. So Strange Fate really missed its popularity window so there’s no need to rush, maybe the publisher prefers to save it and see if it fits the next fad better.

The problem is that I don’t know enough about publishing contracts to know what rights a publisher has.. I have read that the publisher of a series gets “right of refusal” on any new books in it, but if S&S had a chance at Strange Fate and said no, would Ms. Smith be free to shop it around or self publish, or would S&S be able to just sit on it? I don’t know. Anybody know a successful published author they can ask?

2) Strange Fate isn’t finished. We’ve heard that it’s finished… a bunch of times… but it has also been rewritten a bunch of times. There was the 1999 Strange Fate with Blade the vampire, the Strange Fate with Brionwy’s story in Sarah’s dreams, the Strange Fate with the Night World characters in Sarah’s dreams, and the latest update we have is that Ms. Smith is “rewriting it completely” in 2022. With all of these rewrites Strange Fate may just be starting over and over and never quite getting to all the way done and publishable before it needs to start over again.

3) Strange Fate isn’t any good. LJ Smith is a good writer. But she went through family illness stuff that was bad enough that she wasn’t able to write for 10+ years and then had a major medical emergency that left her in a coma. Meaning her brain was not doing ok, and the brain is where the writing happens. Strange Fate has also been in development hell for 20 years, with multiple changes and rewrites. Oh, and during this time teen life and YA literature went through some really big changes. If this kind of thing happened to a hundred writers with a hundred books, most of them wouldn’t be able to overcome it! We want to see Ms. Smith overcome it because she seems cool and the universe has been unkind to her and we want to see her succeed, but if she doesn’t there’s no shame in being defeated by impossible circumstances!

4) Maybe Ms. Smith doesn’t know about the self publishing options available today. She was a writer in the nineties when stuff like ebooks, patreon, kickstarter and lulu.com were not a thing yet. Does she know she has all these options? Does she have an editor to explain them all? We don’t know.

5) And if she does know about them she may not want to take advantage of them. Ms. Smith was a full on very popular published author in the 90s, and self publishing would be a step down in pride. It would also be a step down in money; self-published books don’t usually make it onto the shelves at B&N or at libraries., and a self publisher won’t handle the marketing for you like the teen branch of Simon & Schuster will. I have no idea how well off Ms. Smith is, she must be making some kind of royalties from the TV series and reprints, but she had major medical issues that must have cost a lot.

So that’s my guesses. I don’t know the truth but I bet it’s one of these, maybe more than one together. What do you think?

#lj smith #strange fate

[paintingsandrecords]

a pademelon joey; ink and watercolor

last seven day’s listening:

halo bite - apathy!

various - a mighty wind soundtrack

strike anywhere - change is a sound

k.o. queen - #1 k.o. queen

strange fate - strange

on being an angel - playin it cool

dys - brotherhood

coldplay - parachutes

juliana hatfield - anemia b/w mean + evil

suicide machines - a match and some gasoline

#drawing #painting #recordoftheday #records #watercolor #watercolorpainting #art #juliana hatfield #suicide machines #coldplay #dys #on being an angel #strange fate #k.o. queen #strike anywhere #a mighty wind #halo bite #pademelon #pademelons #australia

[erininsoup]

Strange Fate Fan Fic - Poppy's POV

I posted a snippet from a larger Night World/Strange Fate fan fiction I started many years ago, and it got me so nostalgic that I wanted to write and share more. This was the first chapter of the fic (each chapter is from a different character's point-of-view) and features Poppy (along with James, Quinn, Keller, and Morgead).

###

Poppy North grimaced in pain as the man in the black suit clocked her in the temple. She tried, once again, to wiggle out of the custom made, wooden handcuffs encircling her delicate wrists. They didn't budge.

"Where are you keeping them?" The man demanded. His voice was low and rumbly, like he'd been gargling gravel before the interrogation. "Where are they?"

Poppy pursed her lips, resisting the urge to snap a witty comeback at him—that certainly wouldn't get her anywhere.

"I'll ask you this once more - and then I'm going to get frustrated. Where are the wild powers?"

The man backhanded her, and Poppy swallowed blood. She frowned. Although she was now a vampire - a creature on the top of the food pyramid - this man was unnervingly strong. She hadn't felt pain like this since James - her best friend, and her soul mate - had transformed her.

James.

Poppy teared up - not at the pain, but at the thought of her soul mate; she knew he would be out of his mind by now, searching desperately for her. If only she could reach out through their soul bond and tell him where to find her...but not only was she in too much pain to concentrate, she didn't actually know where they were. Only that it was damp and smelled of mold.

"Still not ready to talk? Maybe this'll convince you."

The man unzipped the briefcase on the floor, and pulled out a sharpened, wooden stake. And although Poppy had taken a vow of silence at the beginning of the interrogation, she couldn't help the garbled whimper that wheezed out of her swollen, busted lips. She hadn't wanted to die when she was a human, and she certainly didn't want to die now.

"It's not that I don't want to tell you, it's that I can't!" Poppy lied desperately. "They don't tell me things like that!"

"Yeah?" The man stared into Poppy's wild eyes, searching...he shrugged. "Fair enough. Then I guess we don't need you."

He raised the stake high into the air, and Poppy squeezed her eyes shut...so that she could feel the hurt that never came. Because just as the man surely would have plunged the wooden stake into Poppy's heart, there was the sound of crackling wood as the door splintered, accompanied by James' enraged, desperate cry: "Poppy!"

The man turned his head - and Poppy seized her advantage to kick him where she knew it would hurt the most. Her tormenter let out a feral cry and transformed into a very alarming-sized werewolf. Or, at least, it would have been alarming. But now that James was here, Poppy couldn't force herself to care. Already, the pain was lessening. And if anyone had something to worry about now, it was the werewolf.

"You hurt Poppy?!" James growled. His eyes flashed a menacing, deadly silver as he looked from the werewolf to the bruises on Poppy's face.

In one fluid motion, her soulmate drew a silver dagger from his boot, and plunged it into the werewolves' neck. He was dead before he understood what was happening; he didn't even have time to howl.

James watched the blood drain out of the creature for a moment, and then, when he was satisfied that the werewolf was truly dead, he turned to Poppy, giving her a perfect view of his eyes. Eyes that weren't just furious - they were dead frightened.

"Poppy..."

"It's okay." She comforted him. "I'm okay."

"But you almost weren't."

James rushed to her side and enveloped her in a bear-hug —one she couldn't return because of her cuffs, but still…it was nice. Little sparks jumped in her heart, and the sense that she was absolutely safe washed over her. She could stay that way—with James holding her tight—forever.

"Come on lovebirds. Let's go. There's time for that later."

That was Keller, always the practical one. The shapeshifter frowned in distaste as she used her boot to roll the werewolf's carcass over; she rummaged through his front pocket and tossed James a pair of keys.

James gently freed Poppy from the cuffs - kissing the marks they had left on her wrists - and helped her to her feet as the rescue group headed back out the busted door. James, Keller, Morgead, and James's cousin Quinn were all there, and while Poppy thought the mood would be celebratory - a mission complete - they all seemed tense and guarded…almost...almost as if they were hiding something. Poppy blinked. She had a feeling that something—something bad—had happened while she had been captured.

"Guys?" She questioned slowly, not sure if she wanted to know the answer. "Guys! What happened? What's wrong?"

James glanced back at her guiltily. "Nothing."

She shook his arm. "What's nothing?"

She gave him time to answer as she scanned the house that they were in—it was just an abandoned little shack, not an enemy base, which meant that the wolf probably hadn't been planning on abducting her—he had simply saw her walking among the berry trees and pounced. As they emerged outside she realized that they were close to Circle Daybreak's secret base. Only a few miles away, actually. She also realized that James had still not answered.

"Fine! If you won't tell me…Keller? Quinn? Morgead? What's happened? Why won't you guys tell me anything? I'm a part of this group as much as any of you are—I deserve to know if something happened back at the base!"

They all looked awkward and out of place. Finally Morgead spoke up. "I don't think it's our place to tell you, Poppy. Ask James."

"James…?"

"Look—let's get back to base, Poppy, make sure you're all safe and then—"

She could see she was getting nowhere, so she did the only thing that she could. She leaned forward and kissed him.

Not to convince him to tell her - although that might have worked too - but so she could simply see for herself; it didn't take long for the whirl of colors and sensations to take her, and by the time James realized what she was trying to do he was in no position to fight. No position to actually try and stop it. It was times like this that she loved the soulmate principal…actually, she always loved the soulmate principal. But still. She flitted around his mind, peering underneath memories and thoughts, searching to find what he was hiding from her.

Poppy…James warned…and then she found it. She played the clip in his mind, watched the conversation with him and Lord Thierry. It was not a pleasant one. Not at all. The clip ended, and her sorrow alone was enough to send her spiraling out of the kiss. She and James were kneeling together on the floor, the other three watching sympathetically.

"I'm so sorry, Poppy." She heard someone say. She didn't know who. Didn't try to find out.

A moment passed.

"We'll find someway to get him back."

But would they?

"They won't have killed him."

How did they know that?

"I'm so, so sorry, Poppy."

Well, and so was she. Phil was gone. Kidnapped. By them. And it was all her fault.

#strange fate #lj smith #fanfic #fanfiction #night world #poppy and james #vampires #writing

[y-rhywbeth2]

EDIT: Post is slightly out of date, I have revised some opinions

Hmm...

"Magistrate" is going to refer to judge, as lawyers are not a thing. (Edit: Oh, apparently they've become an expensive thing in the Gate recently. That's new.) -

Astarion was definitely working in a judge capacity: "A gang of vagrants, a tribe of wandering 'Gur', took issue with a ruling I'd made." | "A Selûnite necklace, if I'm any judge. And I am. [laughs]" -

Apparently judges in Baldur's Gate are chosen from amongst the ranks of the Patriars (because of course they are) -

Human nobility is closed ranks, especially in the Gate. The only non-human Patriar family in existence is the dwarven Shattershield family. You might however, find an elf who married into one. That would be permitted, if looked down upon (you're either marrying below your station to a commoner, or your spouse's Evereskan noble house is liable to die of shame). -

In the Realms, a the offspring of an elf and a half-elf is classified as an elf mechanically. Half-elf + elf = elf | Half-elf + human = human. | Half-elf + half-elf = half-elf.

So for Astarion to be asked to preside over cases in the courts and be allowed to make rulings he has to have human ancestry tying him to a Patriar family - most likely a human grandparent. That would lead to the question of whether the elven relatives were from a noble house (awkward: the Evereskan nobility are traditionally classist as hell and do not like humans), or just random commoners (human nobles marrying random elven servants has been known to occur).

OR

That charlatan background predates his unlife and he somehow lied his way into making people think he was a member of a Patriar family. Although he originally had the noble background, so... who knows. (Although that could technically indicate new money, that would bar him from being a judge, as that's not a Patriar.)

#I have to admit the concept of Astarion just bluffing his way in and nobody calling on his shit is funny. Who helped him and why? #lore stuff #lore musings #headcanoning. #but in a strange twist of fate: headcanon to fit the canon #/astarion