Rogue Sloth

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Cas didn’t get as much rest as he’d been hoping for when he’d laid his head down on the pillow. For about two hours, he tossed and turned in the king sized bed, dipping in and out of shallow sleep that left him feeling even more tired than he had been when he’d first started trying to relax. The mattress was too big. Like the bedroom he’d moved into, it just reminded him of how alone he was now that he’d been crowned the new ruler of Aspiria. His immediate family were all either dead or banished, and his friends, while supportive, couldn’t understand what he was going through. They lived the life he wished he could have: one in which their biggest responsibilities were deciding which parties they wanted to attend on the weekends.

Already, he missed the freedom he’d taken for granted when he’d only been a prince. Just a week ago, he’d felt constricted by his duty to his father, but compared to what was coming, the tasks that had daunted him before were like a teenager’s household chore list. He wasn’t ready to lead an entire country by himself, and he’d never felt more alone than he did buried under the covers in his parents’ old bed. Thoughts and worries about all the new ways he could fail swirled around inside his head, and sleep eluded him no matter how hard he tried to give in to his exhaustion.

Above all else, he found himself missing Iris like a limb. Even though he knew she wouldn’t be able to understand his struggle much more than Jay or Miles, she had a way of comforting him that he needed at that moment. He craved her warmth and her touch and her smile and her constant reassurances that he would be a good king. Pining for her presence, he rolled over and curled his fingers wistfully against the bedsheets, wishing she were there beside him. Even though they hadn’t been doing long distance for more than a couple days, he was already feeling the strain of it twisting his heart. It wasn’t easy to wait for a single, short phone call once a night after he’d gotten used to having her with him to hold in his arms.

The clock on the wall seemed to tick slower than ever as he continued to grapple with sleep and bide his time until the little hand struck ten. At long last though, his patience paid off when his phone vibrated on the nightstand in a siren song that he’d been looking forward to all day. He rolled back over on the bed and sat upright, the sheets sliding down into a heap at his hips as he reached for the device and smiled at the increasingly familiar number on the screen.

“Hey, Iris,” he said softly, bringing it to his ear in eager anticipation of hearing her voice again. Twenty-four hours felt like a small eternity to wait between conversations with her. However, when she called him ‘your majesty’ over the other end of the line, he wrinkled his nose in distaste. Out of everyone, he didn’t want her to call him by the stuffy title he’d inherited from his father. “Well, you’re not wrong,” he conceded. “But I always have and always will prefer ‘Cas.’”

Laying back down on the bed, he folded his free arm over his chest and fixed his brown eyes on the ceiling. “How have you been today? Did you watch the ceremony?” he asked, starting down the list of questions he’d been waiting for far too long to voice to her. Another one, even more important than the first two, popped into his head, so he tacked it on as an afterthought: “Have you eaten since yesterday?”

Cirque du Sombre [Siaya Dragalorn & Summer]

Insomnia is no fun. I hope you kick it! And no rush as always. I’m currently visiting my in-laws for the weekend, so I’m most likely not gonna be doing much writing, if any, until Monday.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

I ended up having more than enough to work with in my post, so feel free to start the conversation between Cas and Iris, assuming Cas answers the phone when she calls him ^^

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

The sovereign’s quarters felt cold. Caspian stood in the doorway, the Aspirian crown dangling carelessly between his fingers as his eyes roamed over the oversized bedroom that his parents had once occupied and that now belonged to him by rite. Somewhere in the back of his subconscious, he’d known that the day would come when he took over everything that had belonged to his father, but to actually take the first small steps toward that life was surreal. This room in particular held so many memories that his head felt like it was swimming as they flooded back to him at once. Distant childhood recollections of running to his mother when he’d had nightmares, days when he’d used the space to hide from the servants, early morning meetings with his father to study skills he would need to become king… and more recently, visits to Atlas when his father had been on his deathbed.

His throat tightened, and he took a shuddering breath to steady himself. He hadn’t expected this to be so difficult. It was just a room, but since all of his memories were either painful or nostalgic, it was hard for him to bring himself to step further inside. He glanced over his shoulder with a wince, wondering if it was too late to change his mind about going back to his old bedroom. He could just pick up a change of clothes and some toiletries and sleep in a place that was more comfortable, but deep down he knew that putting it off wouldn’t make it any easier for him to move into the new room later. Now that he was king, he needed to toughen up.

So, taking one more steeling breath, he forced himself to close the door behind him and walked slowly up to the four-post bed. Even from a glance, he could see that the sheets had been recently changed, but his skin still crawled with the knowledge that this was where his father had breathed some of his final breaths before he’d been rushed to the hospital. Gingerly, he ran his fingers over the crisp duvet and set the crown down on the nightstand. When he was alone, it was easier to let the weight of his new role ease from his shoulders, but the stress of becoming a monarch was replaced with a messy tangle of emotions that were just as heavy in their own way.

He stood by the bed for a few minutes before he peeled himself away from it to take off the ceremonial garb he’d been wearing all day. The staff had moved all of his clothes into his father’s wardrobe while he’d been at the banquet, so he dug through the options until he found an old set of pajamas tucked away near the back. The top and bottom were soft cotton printed with the logo of his favorite football team, a gift from his mother that she’d given him about a year before she’d died. Leaning into his nostalgia, he untied the sash around his waist and slipped out of his tunic and trousers, replacing them with the old clothes and ambling back over to the bed.

His cell phone had been moved into the new room as well, left on a wireless charger on the nightstand. Leaning back against the edge of the mattress, Cas picked it up to find hundreds of missed notifications from every social media account he had. People he’d never met or even chatted with online were congratulating him on his new status as if they knew him personally, undoubtedly trying to bolster their own followings by pretending to buddy up with the new king. He rolled his eyes to himself and turned off his notifications altogether, uninterested in reading the comments at the moment. Instead, he turned to his texts, where he found a string from a group chat with Jay and Miles spread out over a few days’ time:

M: The soldiers stopped by but I told them I didn’t know where you were. Got your back, man.

M: So… are you ever gonna tell us where you and Iris went?

J: Hey, I think something’s up. The soldiers just came by my place and they were pretty serious. I heard about your fight with your dad, but maybe you should go back to the palace, Cas.

J: I just heard about your dad’s passing. I’m so sorry. If there’s anything you need, just let me know.

M: Yeah, same here. Also, I hope you’re OK. Haven’t heard from you in a couple days. Text us back when you see these.

J: Hey Cas, think you can get us invites to your coronation? We’d love to be there but we’re not on the approved list.

M: I know you’re king now and all, but it would be nice to get even a ‘K’ back from you, dude. Or are you too good for us now that you’re in charge of this place?

M: ……Actually, if you ARE too good for us, please don’t have me arrested for that last text. Thanks.

J: Miles, you’re an idiot.

He smiled to himself. In spite of everything that had happened, he was glad that his friends had continued to reach out to him. He wished he’d seen their messages earlier though, because he hadn’t even thought about making sure they would be able to attend his coronation. Having not seen them there at all, he guessed they hadn’t been able to secure invitations on their own. Too tired to call them, he tapped out a reply on his keypad:

Hey guys, sorry I went AWOL for a while. Things have been crazy, as I’m sure you noticed. Thanks for the well wishes. I’ll call you both when I can… I’m still processing all of this, so now’s just not the best time.

He paused, then added:

Also, Miles you are an idiot. Just because I’m king now doesn’t mean we aren’t still friends. You should know you guys are more important to me than that.

Setting his phone down on the nightstand again he let out a sigh and laid back on the bed, sinking heavily into the plush, memory foam mattress. Although the room didn’t feel like home to him yet, the bed was enticingly comfortable. With plenty of time left before he expected Iris to call him, he pulled the duvet out from below his body and crawled underneath it, hoping to get a little shut-eye first to decompress after yet another hectic day.

7 of Spades Male x {2 - K} Hearts|Diamonds|Clubs|Spades Female

This thread kind of reminds me of this FRIENDS episode

Cirque du Sombre [Siaya Dragalorn & Summer]

“If that’s the case, they won’t stand a chance,” Rayth joked, enjoying the mental image of his roommates getting swindled by a human. The brownies weren’t as openly hostile toward Lune’s kind as the other creatures in the circus were, but it would definitely be humiliating for them to lose money to one over a game of cards.
“Maybe you could teach me sometime. I know the basics, but I’m not much better at gambling than my roommates are,” he added as an afterthought.
Lune’s reaction to his offhanded comment about his cousin drew another grin out of the half-vampire. Her enthusiasm was infectious, and he liked the idea of teaching someone else how to exercise their five senses. It had been decades since the last time he’d had a ‘student.’ Even though humans couldn’t even dream to reach the same level of sensitivity that he had when he was out of practice, he knew they could get better if they worked at it. They were surprisingly adaptable beings.
Judging by the way she seemed to shy away from him, he had a feeling it would be a little while before he could get started with her though. The way he’d taught his cousin had involved the use of a lot of blindfolding, which would only work if she trusted that he wouldn’t bite her the instant she covered her eyes.
“I’ll add your name to the roster,” he remarked, only to fall quiet briefly when she asked him if he had control over his nose.
It didn’t sound like it was meant to be a probing question, but he’d had bad experiences with other people taking advantage of the fact that he couldn’t just turn off his sense of smell when something was overwhelming. Because of that, he was careful not to make a fuss about the downside of his heightened senses if the other people around him didn’t already know about it.
“I can focus on one smell over another if that’s what you mean,” he replied. “It’s kind of like how you can focus on one object at a time when you’re looking around. The scents are always there, and I’m aware of them, but unless I’m actively thinking about them, I can usually ignore the ones I’m not interested in paying attention to.” With the exception of human blood, of course. If he smelled that, all bets were off.
Reaching for the door that would take them into the shower car, he let Lune pass through first and then followed her into a room that was just as dark as each of the sleeper cars they’d walked through to get there. Stall doors lined the narrow corridor, about eight in all. Behind each one was a small, long space with a tiled floor and a curtain in the middle to separate a changing area with a shelf from the shower itself, so the user’s spare clothes wouldn’t get soaked while it was in use.
“Towels are in the bin to your right,” Rayth said, gesturing to the receptacle in case Lune’s vision had adjusted enough for her to see it by now. “When you’re done with it, just throw it in the ‘used’ bin on the left. It’ll get taken care of later.” More specifically, Frieda’s faeries would deal with the laundry while they were making the jump to the next city. They acted as a maintenance workers for the troupe in between shows.

Tips for writing POC, LGBT+, and other minority characters in RP

@Fiscbryne

Ironically, I was just talking with someone about AAVE earlier today. I’d never heard of code-switching before, since it’s not really part of my life experience. Thanks for the explanation and link! Super helpful stuff.

Tips for writing POC, LGBT+, and other minority characters in RP

<Snipped quote by Dagger>

Take it from someone who learned English very late in life, people do not randomly inject words from their home language into English. Hollywood often does this with say a French guy saying "bonjour" to great or a Spaniard exclaiming with "puta" but this really doesn't happen that much, its a cheap way for movie makers to emphasize the foreignness of a character without doing something meaningful with them. There are exceptions, i.e. hotel staff because its expected of them to endear them to clients, but its something to keep in mind during judgement.

@Andreyich

That’s an interesting point, and I definitely don’t doubt it. However I also have a couple Latinx friends who do use “Spanglish” in their daily life, so I wonder if there’s some variation across people from different cultures? Living in the southwestern region of America, we have a lot of people from Mexico in my county, and it seems to vary even person to person whether they weave Spanish into their speech or not.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Can't wait to read it! I'm also wondering if it would be a good idea to skip forward like a few days or a week after the upcoming scene, since Cas will be busy with his new responsibilities, and Iris will be stuck at the resort.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

When the coronation had ended, the crowd of high borns in the throne room slowly tricked out to the hallway, making their way to the ballroom, where the remainder of the celebrations would take place. Caspian was led through a door in the back by his team of guards, all of whom congratulated him on his title in hushed tones as they escorted him down a separate corridor to the same room. The former prince’s head was still swimming with the knowledge that he was now the sole ruler of Aspiria, but most of his nervousness had eased when the cameras and eyes were no longer fixated on him.

With a moment to catch his breath, his mind wandered to Iris for the first time in a while, and he wondered how she was doing all alone in their hotel room at the Sunset Veil. He still felt guilty for practically abandoning her there, but at least she was safe. As long as the resort was under strict instructions to keep their suite private, the capital’s security wouldn’t be able to find her. He just hoped she wouldn’t get too impatient or upset with him about the fact that it had been two days now, and he hadn’t been by to visit her. If he could have ditched the banquet, he would have done it in a heartbeat, but since it was a party in his honor, he knew he would never get away without someone noticing within five seconds of his absence.

So, he walked with Jacob and the rest of his guards to the ballroom, where he waited behind a set of double doors for a few minutes until the security team on the inside announced that they were ready for his second grand entrance of the day. The guards arranged themselves in an array behind him while the doors were opened from the inside, and the new king was greeted with the sound of applause once more. This time, it was easier to relax in the presence of all the other high borns in the room. He’d been to balls and gallas before, and some had even been held in his honor on past birthdays, so it wasn’t a new experience. This event was much more relaxed than the coronation.

Still donning the Aspirian crown on his head, Cas strode into the room and made his way to the back, where a long table had been arranged with a decorative golden cloth and a place for one individual had been set up behind the tallest chair in the center. It was almost comical how such a wide space had been reserved for just him, but it had been that way since the rest of the royal family had been banned from the palace. Before his father had passed, they had shared the entire thing between just the two of them, with Atlas in the center and his son seated at his right.

The memory dug unexpectedly at his heart, and he swallowed, forcing the emotions down as he took the place that was designated for the king.

Over the next few hours, he ate a meal alone and then left the table to mingle with the other high borns. Live cameras tracked his every move for the rest of the kingdom to watch, just as they had when he’d received his crown, and he stopped to talk with men and women whom he recognized as members of his father’s council—now his council, he supposed—high ranking families with influence in the capital, foreign dignitaries and generally wealthy people who had been invited to the event. Every once in a while, a news reporter would approach him in an attempt to get answers to questions that the public wanted to know, but he dodged them more often than he indulged them.

Everyone in the room had questions that they wanted him to answer, but he didn’t have replies ready on the tip of his tongue when he’d only found out the day before that he would be taking over as the new monarch. They asked him about the state of the kingdom, plans he had for new legislature, whether or not he intended to pardon any of his father’s criminals, and, most often, interrogated him to find out if he had any prospective partners on the horizon. He was introduced to the daughters of influential families throughout the entire afternoon, the parents of whom tried to stoke his interest by telling him about their talents or experience with delegation.

Each time, he managed to excuse himself by latching onto another conversation partner, but the repeated questioning about his bachelor status made him realize that the Aspirian people expected him to choose someone to be his queen, and they expected him to do it quickly. He had to wonder what they would do when he finally revealed that he was with the girl who had been made out to be a terrorist by his father’s administration.

By the time the festivities rolled to a steady close, Caspian was thoroughly exhausted from all the running around he had done to speak with as many people as he could before they all left. The high born guests filtered out of the ballroom until the only ones left were the king and the palace staff, who either stood guard around the perimeter or cleaned the aftermath of the banquet. It was about eight o’ clock, so he still had a couple hours left before he expected Iris to call. Taking a nap to recover from the long day sounded like a great idea, so he started to make his way back to his bedroom. However, before he got very far, Jacob stopped him.

“Your Majesty, the servants have taken the liberty of moving your things into your new room while you were here,” he announced, standing at the ballroom door to intercept the fledgling monarch.

Cas faltered. “New room?” he asked, though inside, he already knew which one the security guard was referring to. Now that he was king, it was expected that he would move into the room his parents had previous occupied. Deciding against making Jacob explain it to him, he went on before the other man could reply, “I didn’t realize that would happen so fast.”

“You don’t have to sleep there if it’s too soon,” Jacob pointed out, but the former prince shook his head.

“No, it’s fine. I’ll go up to start settling in,” he said with an exhale. It was too late and he was too weary to put up a fight. Even though it felt strange to take over a space that was so thickly layered with memories of his father, it was going to happen sooner or later. With a couple hours to kill and no clear picture of what his free time was going to look like going forward, he figured he might as well take advantage of the time he did have that evening.

He uttered a curt goodnight to the guard and headed to the stairs, taking off his crown as he walked and quietly studying the intricate details as he held it distantly in his hands.