Pack slung over his shoulder, a breathtaking young man with moon-white hair runs up the front steps of the mansion, like someone who’s excited to come home after a brief vacation. Halfway up, he stops, eyes widening and enthusiasm cooling as he realizes that this isn’t quite where he expected to be. Things are different ( Read more... )

On the last night of the old year, a change has come over the main rooms of the mansion. Decorations have been hung, bowls of confetti stand ready, noise makers and party hats are scattered throughout the rooms. There are tables laden with food, ranging from light snacks to rich desserts. Other tables hold drinks, from enough bottles to make any ( Read more... )

It's been a few days since everything broke loose. Mansion dwellers counted their dead and their disappeared, mourned as they could, healed who could be healed, and treasures of creativity were found to shield everyone from the cold northern winds that blew over the grounds ever since the earth shook ( Read more... )

Jack Frost was minding his own business, freezing a lake in northern Canada hard enough for skating, when the storm swept through. He tried to grab onto a tree, but the upper branches of the nearest pine tree were thin and bendy and the needles prickle as they slip through his fingers. Then he's caught in the whirlwind, helpless to escape or even ( Read more... )

It has taken time for this to happen, for the Dark Lord to gather it all, his influence of that which is not Arda but close enough to it, that which he hates about all else for the light of it remains a beacon ( Read more... )

[If anyone has been wondering where this craz craz has been, well he's suddenly and magically back in the main living room of the Mansion and quite frankly dressed a bit strangely....and screaming for some reason before he peeks his eyes open ( Read more... )

It's fairly late in the night, and the twins have been up, sleeping poorly, fretfully. Both had dreams of their grandmother - of Melian the Maiar, of their distant kin, too, of Elrond half-elven, of Arwen Undomiel, of those who are closer, too, Findarato Felagund and his sister ( Read more... )

It's late in the evening, and Muraki is on the porch, just outside a set of French windows which stand open, letting in the cold night air and the light snow that the night breeze has picked up from the lawn. His birthday tomorrow and he's turning forty-eight: his heart, now that it's his own and has been so for a year now, is ready to settle down ( Read more... )

Kyoto, 1336: The time of Ashikaga Pretenders of the Empire of the Rising Sun, also a good time for some autumn foliage-viewing. The three of them, he, Rose and Jack, could use a vacation, and despite the unsettled climate, the Emperor wasn't above throwing a party to mask the intrigues. He loved a good intrigue: all the better to find what the ( Read more... )

Twilight Sparkle's discussion of religion with Angelique has gotten her curious about religion: they don't really have religion in Equestria, and so she's been reading everything she can get her hooves on about God and religion. She's read about Christianity and Judaism and Islam. And some odd thing called Mormonism. She started reading some books ( Read more... )