Writing Prompt #11

Somehow, you, a perfectly ordinary human, has ended up the alpha of a pack of werewolves.

                              A Little Bit

The trick, she discovers, is kindness.

~

Werewolves are notoriously violent. They are said to “lose all autonomy” on night of the full moon, and transforming on other days still results in “heightened levels of testosterone and violence.”

If you tell someone that they are something their whole lives– if you tell a little girl that the color white is purple, that she is dumb because she writes backwards, or that she is bad because her hair or her financial situation, she will believe that. She will grow into that. If you tell a werewolf that they are evil and violent when wolves, that at their freest they are their meanest: they will believe that. They will become that. They will expect that of other werewolves and become defensive, will have bred hatred for their brethren before they ever transform.

An outsider’s perspective is sometimes needed.

And it starts, as most things do, with a child.

~

“Look,” her brown fingers forcefully unfolded from the fist it had been making. “I know what I want. I want the child you said you couldn’t even find fosters for. I already signed the paperwork!”

The social worker sighed, skin washing out under the light and wrinkles deepening. “I have to make sure. I’ve been trying to find little Zora parents for years now, but…”

“The only issue would be health issues. I can afford an unhealthy or disabled child, so that’s not an issue for me at all. I don’t get why you’re being so–”

“Zora is a werewolf.”

Silence.

Hailey took a breath. Let it out.

“So?”

The social worker smiled, “Then one more signature, and in a few weeks you will have your child, and Zora will have her home.”

Neither of them mentioned his tears. They both talked over what she would need to buy to handle a werewolf child– her werewolf child. They drank tea. She signed papers.

She would never regret that.

~

Zora had the yellow eyes of all lycans. She grinned shyly with too-sharp teeth, and fiddled with her too-long nails.

Hailey gave Zora the softest blanket she could buy, and settled her down for hot chocolate as they watched the sun set from the porch.

She had dimples and threw her hands around and enjoyed talking. And loved the color green. And brown. And blue. Maybe red was her favorite color, but pink was certainly a close second. No, wait, purple. She liked ice cream and steak and chicken and flowers that grew between the cracks of the sidewalk.

Zora was perfect.

The doctor said that Zora would transform the next full moon. To lock her in a cage. To muzzle her. To chain her up.

Hailey looked at Zora. At her large yellow eyes so filled with hope. At the way she used her too-long nails to open bags of chips or used her too-long teeth to open cans. At the sundresses she wore; pictured the paint-stained overalls. The room they had painted like a galaxy, the glow-in-the-dark stars they’d taped and hung on her ceiling.

She thought about the small, lycan-run website she made, and some controversial, revolutionary ideas it proposed.

She snorted. Yeah, right. Lock and chain her child up? No.

~

The first transformation was always painful. An online forum said nothing more than a Aspirin or two could be taken for this first Shift.

“Mom?” Zora’s lips wobbled. Her bushy hair tangled from the nervous pulling it had endured that day. “I– I don’t want to be bad, mom. Will the Shift make me bad?”

Hailey could have said anything to that, and no one would blame her. She could say it’s not you, it’s the wolf, like one website recommended. She could say yes, and every second you have to fight against the evil inside you, like one Christian-extremist group urged. She could have said anything. She said,

“No. You are good, and the wolf is a part of you, so it must be good, too.”

And it was that simple.

The moon rose. A daughter screamed, a mother cried. A mother prepared to have to wrestle her child, so much stronger than her, to have to assert an unwanted dominance.

A werewolf– too large to be a real wolf, spine to straight, claws too split, to be something so mundane. It yipped. Saw the hesitation in the mother’s eyes. Rolled onto its back, tongue lolling, and yipped again.

Hailey laughed. “Good girl! I love you so much! Want pets, or play?” A yip, the lycan bounded off. More laughter. “Play it is, then!”

~

There’d been complaints. A neighbor said they “feared for their life” and that “the lycan had attacked” her. Zora didn’t leave the backyard, despite how much she wanted to. So, once a month, they drove to a werewolf forest-reserve. They hadn’t encountered any other lycans.

Until then.

A grey wolf burst out from the bushes, snarling and snapping. Intent on Zora. Zora.

“Zora!” Hailey didn’t need to think, she was moving before words could form.

“Don’t you DARE touch my daughter!” She stood in front of Zora, arms spread wide.

That did not deter the lycan, who prowled closer. Yellow eyes. She could not hurt yellow eyes. But she must.

~

Werewolves have exceptionally large forms. A younger, adolescent lycanthrope in its Shifted form can easily tower over an adult man. These large forms are one of their greatest assets: they can overpower their prey though sheer size. It is, however, also a weakness. For, you see, their vulnerable points are that much more exposed. Which is why, if one becomes cornered by a Shifted lycanthrope, it is recommend that you strike at their diaphragm or throat, if help cannot be contacted, before absconding away as quickly as humanly (or superhumanly) possible.

~

She rushed forward, swinging her elbow and digging it into the small hollow near the creatures chest. It yowled, falling to the side. It growled and backed away.

Zora whimpered, tail between her legs and ears down. She nuzzled at her mother worriedly, terrified of the bigger werewolf and scared for her mother’s life.

“It’s okay, baby.” she hushed, holding out a spray-bottle (Zola loved to try to bite the sprays of water) like it was a gun, eyes never leaving the (violent, evil, human) attacking lycan. “See? Mommy knows what she’s doing.”

She stepped forward once. Twice. Four steps and then she hit a stride. She stood nose-to-nose with the lycan, all five-feet of her stretching tall, towering in presence if not height.

“Bad.” The lycan growled. She sprayed it twice in quick succession. “Bad.”

It blinked. Surprised.

“Now, if you wanted to play, you could have just waited!” She turned, walking purposefully in Zora’s direction. “Come along, now.”

They did come along, by lunging. Zora howled, bunching up her muscles and preparing to attack, but Hailey whirled around, spraying their face. “Don’t be mean! We don’t want to fight. I have steak, and am willing to share. But only to those who play. Nice.” They considered, head tilting, before thumping to the ground and rolling over, whining.

Hailey laughed, but wiped the anxious sweat from her forehead. “Okay, let’s go!”

~

The next full moon, the black-and-white wolf found her, a pack behind them, all barking and waiting for plays and pets and meat.

~

The full moon after that, everyone fell asleep just before the sun rose, and Hailey met them as people.

Hardin was the black-and-white, and she was alpha. Or rather, she had been.

“What.” Hailey couldn’t comprehend.

“My name used to be Phir’Hilaaya, but now it is Hardin. Normal pack members are given two-syllable names. The Alpha gets three-syllables. As previous Alpha, I name you Melora.” Hardin was gigantic in her human form, as well. Hulking muscles, and she stood at least at six-foot. Her yellow eyes had become softer than when Hailey– Melora?–

“Okay, yeah. I get that part. But how did I become Alpha?” She bit her lip, held Zora closer to her.

Hardin gave her a look like she was particular stupid, but humored her regardless. “That first night, I showed my belly to you. An Alpha can never submit to an opponent, else they lose their place. I submitted to you, so you are Alpha.”

Hailey hunched in on herself, and whispered, “I don’t know how to be Alpha.”

“That’s okay,” Hardin put an arm around her shoulders, giving her a kind smile, “I’ll help you get on your feet.”

Melora stood taller. Looked at her daughter. And knew.

~

Melora’s pack was not the first to fight for werewolf rights. No, they were simply the first to have a human leading the pack, and for that human-Alpha to be dating the previous Alpha.

As they strode towards a better world, a better life, Melora suggested, “Maybe we can help the vampire community, once we make more progress here.”

Hardin, bouncing Zora on her hip, barked a laugh, “You’re too good. But wherever you go, we’ll follow.” Howls broke out around the Alpha.

Hailey, now Melora, had known she wouldn’t regret this.

A little bit of kindness goes a long way.

~Fin~

Oh, geeze. This was supposed to be a little thing, but I wrote six pages on google docs for this and hrrrggghhh. I didn’t get to include everything I wanted, otherwise it would have taken hours longer! I hope this is something like you were imagining for your prompt idea. I wish I had more time to do things for this, but it wasn’t meant to be D: 

This isn’t written in my usual style, but it was fun. I hope anyone reading this enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

I quite enjoyed it, thank you dearie

Finally offering prints!! (I will add more in the future if I see growing interest)

BUY HERE

*reblogs are appreciated*

For Novice Writers: the quick test for Are You Being Scammed Or Not...

I read a sad case today of a young writer who had had her story rewritten into illiteracy by a so-called publisher, who then abused her in email when she wrote to complain. She wsn’t getting paid for her story – instead she was actually buying copies of the anthology to show people that she had sold a story. And I thought, it is time to remind the world, and to enlighten young writers, about…

Yog’s Law: 

Possibly time to reblog this.

— reassurance starters

Tips for Writing a Difficult Scene

Every writer inevitably gets to that scene that just doesn't want to work. It doesn't flow, no matter how hard you try. Well, here are some things to try to get out of that rut:

1. Change the weather

2. Change the POV

3. Start the scene earlier/later

4. Write only the dialogue

5. Fuck it and use a placeholder

So, those are some things to try when a scene is being difficult. I hope that these tips help :)

Reblog if you found this post useful. Comment with your own tips. Follow me for similar content.

Words to describe facial expressions

IF YOU ARE UNMARRIED, DON’T HAVE KIDS, AND HATE YOUR PARENTS PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD HAVE A FUCKING WILL

this has been a public service announcement from your friendly neighborhood probate lawyer

Again:

1. The law doesn’t care how long your parents and family have been out of your life

2. The law doesn’t care about your long term friends or “found family”

If you don’t have legal documents that say otherwise, your biological family calls all the shots.

This goes especially for LGBTQ+. Please do not get deadnamed in your obituary.

How to make a will.

How to make a living will (Advance Healthcare Directive) so you don’t get fucked over by biological family if you end up in a situation where you cannot make your own healthcare choices.

If youre trans, this video is a good ref to start with and she provides links and organizations that can help

^I’ve been loving this channel lately, and this is a particularly good video about how to have your wishes respected after you die if you have family who may NOT respect you/your identity.

Such a good idea to make a plan. And also watch Caitlin’s channel (and read her books).

THIS IS NOT JUST WILLS

Also check up on your Power of Attorney. If you’re in a coma/unresponsive state they divert to legal next of kin. 

EVERYONE needs to have a plan. While it is especially important for people who are estranged from their legal next of kin please please please have these conversations with your loved ones. These are so important and the last thing your grieving family needs is to worry they aren’t respecting your wishes (burial or cremation? Do you want to donate your organs? Who do you want to give your belongings to? These are not intuitive concepts and your family will stress of getting it wrong) simply because they didn’t know them.

Also Caitlin Doughty is fucking boss. Just sayn.

The Advance Healthcare Directive is SUPER important. Please make one and keep it updated (they expire every few years). If you are old, are disabled, have any mental health issues, engage in any form of self-harm, or have any history of suicidal ideation or suicide attempts, lots of healthcare folks are all too happy to declare you unfit to make decisions for yourself.

Remember that even if you trust them, the people who love you can make really extreme and harmful decisions when they’re scared they could lose you.

It’s so rare seeing memes that praise men and boys so here are two nice ones.

Reblog if men are pretty and valid to you

btw… important PSA: cutting off the mold on the surface of food does nothing. you can only see the spores on the surface, but mold itself has spread and grown roots into the food. by the time you can actually *see* the spores, that piece of food is completely full of it. youre still eating mold. 

many of which are poisonous and have been shown to cause cancer. youre not even supposed to sniff it, because that can get spores into your lungs. like if you look up the health and safety guidelines for mold they barely stop short of telling you to put on a hazmat suit. 

like produce is okay as long as you cut around it at least an inch, but cooked foods? you gonna die. stop eating mold people 

does that include bread

yes

Here’s the USDA mold chart

VERY IMPORTANT INFO FRIENDOS!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is about Sci-Hub. yeah we get it.. gatekeep knowledge and protect the interests of capital…

Listen, this is serious.

Do not use the website called Sci-Hub!

It lets people access scientific articles for free. This is dangerous. It helps the free flow of knowledge and reduces the competitive edge of all the people who worked really hard to have been born into a wealth.

Like, it’s literally a website where you can type in the DOI of an article and read it, without ever having to pay the publisher who exploited the author.

So, again, do not, under any circumstance, use Sci-Hub. I mean, can you imagine a world where knowledge is free and easily accessible to everyone? Even, y'know, poor people?

Libgen also has many books online, including textbooks, searchable by name, author, and ISBN. Can you imagine textbook companies not getting their hard-earned income from poor college students? Here is the link just so you make sure that you never accidentally stumble across this horrible, unethical website.

Oh, and while we’re talking about books, if you’ve managed to stay clear from Libgen, definitely don’t go to zlibrary, where you can also find a lot of textbooks, but unfortunately they’re completely free.

*stifles a sob* oh my god. This spoke to me in a way nothing else has.

@appears I fucking love your writing. ♥️

Utterly accurate.

reblogging again because when the neilman says it too it feels extra supportive

If you are American, PLEASE SUPPORT THE SSI RESTORATION ACT OF 2021

This new bill has been introduced in both the house and the Senate.

Among other things, it will:

For those unaware current regulations do a lot to oppress disabled people. In fact marriage equality doesn’t even extend to disbled people who risk having their benefits reduced or outright taken away if they marry someone. This means that in common law states disabled people can’t even live with their significant other or they risk losing their financial independence.

Current regulations mean that if you’re disbled you can’t have so much as one penny over $2,000 to your name. So buying a car and gaining more independence or freedom is largely out of the question for disabled people.

Current regulations penalize social security recipients who receive income from outside sources, even if those sources are reimbursement. Did you get paid to babysit for a few hours? That’s income, and you get your benefits reduced. Did you loan a friend $10 and they pay you back? The government considers that $10 income, and you get your benefits reduced.

These aren’t mere anecdotes - these are all examples of actual things that have happened to disbled people I know, and if you have any disabled friends in your life I’m sure they can tell you the same stories.

If you value marriage equality, if you value financial independence, if you value the rights of disbled people, please PLEASE support this bill! Contact your reps, vote, and make noise! This is a great thing!

UPDATE: Text SIGN PSLOAE to 50409

Resistbot is hosting a petition for this! They will automatically send letters to your representatives for you!

As requested by too many people: making the last post rebloggable

birdartpoetry asked: Mister Gaiman, you’re kickass. I was just wondering, what do you think is the best way to seduce a writer? I figured your answer would be pretty spectacular.

In my experience, writers tend to be really good at the inside of their own heads and imaginary people, and a lot less good at the stuff going on outside, which means that quite often if you flirt with us we will completely fail to notice, leaving everybody involved slightly uncomfortable and more than slightly unlaid.

So I would suggest that any attempted seduction of a writer would probably go a great deal easier for all parties if you sent them a cheerful note saying “YOU ARE INVITED TO A SEDUCTION: Please come to dinner on Friday Night. Wear the kind of clothes you would like to be seduced in.”

And alcohol may help, too. Or kissing. Many writers figure out that they’re being seduced or flirted with if someone is actually kissing them.

If you call pedophilia a kink please unfollow me and never talk to me again

Isn’t it disgusting that 23 people just unfollowed me

Unfollow me too

this goes double if you call paedophilia a disability. unfollow me twice

and if you call pedophilia an “orientation” or in any way compare it to being LGBP+ you can unfollow, delete your blog, and set yourself on fire. 

I just lost 50 followers.. bye

clearing out the trash

GO ON AND S M A S H THAT UNFOLLOW BUTTON

BUHBYE U McNASTIES

I’ve seen this circulating forever and genuinely thought “no way do I have any of them following me” until this week when it turned out I had all these fuckin “MAP” (pedophile) followers sad to find out I’m an “anti” (normal person) Please leave and also please get guinea worm.

I just lost three followers. Good riddance sickos!

If you unfollow me because of this I won’t miss you plan and simple.

I’m hoping I don’t have any but just in case unfollow me and drown

Unfollow me if you’re any of this, I better not fucking have any following me I swear to god

Fuck off my blog

Please fuck off if you believe it’s a kink or I’ll run you over 😈🧍‍♂️🚗💀🤫

there better not be any of y'all that think that p3d0philia is a sexual orentation😤

My collection of clothing references for writing. 

@samanthafrank

@slimetek

Honestly, I think the whole “don’t pay the writers” thing boils down to the notion that everybody thinks they can write. It’s the old saw about the novelist at a cocktail party having to hear someone say, for the millionth time, “I’d love to write a book someday.”

Someone–Stephen King? Pretty sure I saw this in a Stephen King foreword–once said they’d like to say to a brain surgeon, “Boy, I’d love to do brain surgery someday.”

We treat “the ability to put words into a sentence” like it’s just the same as “the ability to form a coherent narrative that engenders a variety of emotions within the reader and puts them in a scene and shows them what they didn’t see before”.

And that’s like me drawing a stick figure and saying I’m an artist.

Writers are constantly devalued because everyone thinks they have a book in them and don’t realize the level of skill and commitment it takes to finish even a short story, much less a whole book. 

This goes well beyond fandom, but man, I would’ve hoped fandom would know better.

***REBLOGS AGGRESSIVELY***

FUCKING THIS. 

THANK YOU. 

Thank you for writing this.

I feel like other creatives become collateral in this attitude too. I would have many dollars if I had a dollar for every time someone came up to me with a “great idea” they want me to illustrate for free. (I can assure you the kind of people who do that have really terrible ideas)

Everyone should know the international sign for Help Me. Let’s make this famous!!

Interesting; I didn't know this was a thing.

It’s apparently a thing, but it’s a very new thing, so it may need some help being known.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_for_Help

Notice how Shan Yu doesn’t even question it or make a comment about “BUT YOU’RE A GIRL” he just instantly goes into a “I’LL TEACH YOU TO KILL MY MEN AND STEAL MY VICTORY” rage and I think about this a lot sometimes

((Well that might have to do with the fact that he’s a Hun.  Women among the Huns had higher status than their Chinese counterparts and even some of their own men. Women were free to hunt and fight along side of the men, could choose their own husbands and divorce him if she choose to. There were even records of clans being led by women leaders. So for Shan Yu Mulan is just another soldier))

thank you, history side of tumblr.

He also might not have been able to see very well, due to whatever horrible disease has taken hold in his eyeballs.

Pretty serious Wilson’s Disease judging by the copper buildup in in irises, and apparent melanocytosis localized to his sclera.

Thank you medical side of tumblr

I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS FOREVER

It’s always mandatory to reblog this whenever it appears

it has resurfaced