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teh tarik


teh tarik

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Hiya I'm teh. :)  You can call me Nicole, or even just teh. I've been writing in some form or other for most of my life - my house just flooded the other day and I had to move all my stuff, and among all my rubbish, I found bits and pieces of writing on yellowing paper which I'd done when I was nine or ten. That's a long time ago. :P

I usually go by teh tarik / tehtarik on fanfic archives, and I'm @anagrammaddict on twitter & tumblr. All my HP fic is posted on HPFF, which apparently is going to shut down soon, so I'm not going to link to that site. I'll try to move over all my works from there to my HPFT account, but it will be a long slow process. Currently most of my fic gets posted onto my AO3 (M) - please be aware that I do have a couple of explicit fics here and there.

I've pretty much left the HP fandom, though I do have some unfinished stories here and there (hopefully I'll be able to return to finish them up). My reason for leaving HP behind is because I want to write everything else. :P I like to write diversely; I like to dabble in different universes - I like to know that I can, and am able to do so, and not just be comfortable in one fandom for my writing. Flexibility is very important to me. I don't like to have a fixed style. So these days I'm mostly concentrating on other random fandoms + OF here and there.

Mostly I will use this journal as a space to collect all my drabbles and writing scraps, to post excerpts and such. Please do feel free to ask questions - I will do my best to reply as soon as possible.

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Guest Rumpelstiltskin

Hey, Nicole!:hug: I swear every time I see you it feels like it's been a year since the last!  I've come with questions!

 

  1. What fandom did you find most difficult in which to begin writing? What was the easiest?
  2. What is the longest you've ever spent writing one piece (including any gap of time in between writing it)? 
  3. What is your favorite piece that you've written so far? What makes it special to you?
  4. Who is your favorite character (in any fandom) and, of course, why?

^_^ I hope everything is well! I'm sorry to hear that your house was flooded! Hopefully, it wasn't overly damaging. 

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On 4/1/2018 at 11:10 AM, Rumpelstiltskin said:

Hey, Nicole!:hug: I swear every time I see you it feels like it's been a year since the last!  I've come with questions!

 

  1. What fandom did you find most difficult in which to begin writing? What was the easiest?
  2. What is the longest you've ever spent writing one piece (including any gap of time in between writing it)? 
  3. What is your favorite piece that you've written so far? What makes it special to you?
  4. Who is your favorite character (in any fandom) and, of course, why?

^_^ I hope everything is well! I'm sorry to hear that your house was flooded! Hopefully, it wasn't overly damaging. 

@Rumpelstiltskin Awww Rumpels! :hug::wub::hug: It has been waaay too long, and I do miss you (and being active on these forums!) Thank you so much for asking my questions - I'm not the quickest at responding, but here I am now.

 

1. Most difficult fandom to write in: Star Wars. :P Good God I hate writing in this fandom hahaha. I just find it so...daunting. I always like to have a good sense of setting in my fics, and it's kinda hard for me with Star Wars, because it has such a vast sprawling canon and lore already, and I had to do a fair bit of research for the most basic of things that probably all SW fic writers know at the top of their heads. I didn't know the places, the planets, the different species of peoples in the galaxy, what on earth do you call this thing which makes that thing do the thing...???? A lot of science-y science-fiction-y concepts which I had to learn / wrap my head around. Even now I'm not confident about writing SW fic lol.

Easiest fandom to write in - I haven't actually written in too many different fandoms apart from HP, but I guess writing within the Supernatural universe is pretty easy. It's set in the current world + supernatural creatures running around. It's not the most enjoyable fandom to write in, though (the fandom I enjoy writing in a lot is Pacific Rim haha).

 

2. Well, I've still got unfinished stories in my drafts folder, which have been sitting there for years and years!! But if you mean something that's already finished, that would be my only complete novel, Let Perpetual Light. It's a HP fic about young Ariana & Albus & Grindelwald. I started it as an AU project for NaNo 2013, then completely changed everything up and made it fit into canon (well, sort of), and by the time I'd edited the whole thing and posted the final version of the last chapter, it was mid-2016. So just over 2 and a half years, start to finish. :D

 

3. Favourite piece? Oh dear I don't know. When I write something I really like, I get hung up on it for a little while -- I go back re-reading it over and over again. Then all the novelty wears off and I forget about it as I find my next writing project. I'm quite happy with what I did with Let Perpetual Light -  on account of it being a multichaptered fic haha! But I also think that I managed to tie everything together...in the end..hopefully??? Another fic of mine which I think I should mention is gladly beyond, which is a Rose / Scorpius. I wrote it in 2013. Back then, when I wrote it, I thought it was just about 2 people struggling with their relationship. But when I re-read it these days, I think, well, what an absolutely miserable fic. These characters are wonderfully useless people. And that's such a downer of an ending. Well, it's open-ended, but it doesn't bode well for these characters. And despite all these thoughts, I'm actually happy I wrote it the way I did lol. (Does this make me an awful person...??) Because the last 10-15 fics or so that I've written have all had positive or definitely hopeful endings. Hope is a thing that recurs in my characters, in my fics. So that Rose/Scorpius fic stood out to me, because I realised I am also able to write something hopeless, something different. I don't believe in protecting my characters too much; while I love reading fix-its, I don't like writing them too much.

 

4. It changes with fandom! I don't really know. Right this moment, it's Mako Mori from Pacific Rim. However:

Spoiler

unfortunately they fridged Mako in the recent PR movie. As in, killed her in the most meaningless way possible. Which of course, is prompting me to write an angry fic lol

Other notable characters: T'Challa and Nakia from Black Panther, Chirrut Imwe from Star Wars Rogue One, Mazikeen and Ella Lopez from Lucifer, Bucky Barnes from Captain America, Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy, Sam Winchester from Supernatural is an old favourite haha.

 

Wow, I hope I made sense in all my rambling answers! Thanks so much again for your questions, Rumpels! :wub:

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Here's a drabble that I wrote back in 2013 or 2014. This was originally posted on the former MNFF forums / beta boards, which had drabble challenges every now and then.
This drabble was written for the 'It's Not You, It's Me' Break-Up Challenge, where I had to write a character breaking up with another character by letter. Lol if I remember correctly. Anyway, I'm pleased to say that this drabble won the challenge. Pairing (or former pairing) is Oliver Wood / Marietta Edgecombe.

 

 

Quote

 

'Lo there Ettie,

Figured I’d write you something while waiting for you to turn up here at the Leaky. I heard women dig this sort of thing, being written to. We agreed to meet here half-eight, remember? It’s past that now, and between me and this pint right here under my nose, I don’t think you’re going to show. Guess I can’t say I’m surprised. I’m OK, still got a bit of hope that things will change and anyway there’s a match blaring on the wireless. Quidditch World Cup semi-final, remember? Brazil versus Japan. I’ve got my bets on Brazil – they’re the hosts after all; the game’s good so far.

Cardoso just got booked; Tanaka took an elbow to the throat and now he’s sputtering like a candle.

Maybe it was a mistake asking you out tonight to listen to some stupid game with me.

You know, I sort of leave things up to the game. Like, if the Arrows score within the next ten minutes, I’ll go up to the girl sitting by her lonesome at the counter. She turned out to be you. And when the Arrows won the match in the end, I asked for your number. You said yes, but not before making me believe you were going to say no, first. The Arrows pointed me to you, I guess. Sorry, couldn’t resist!

The ref’s just tried to foul one of the spectators. Something about a bewitched vuvuzela spouting Doxys which are attacking the players; that’s got to be the newest foul in history, the seven hundred and twelfth. Maybe this match isn’t that exciting after all. Maybe you’re smart not to come – maybe you’ll still turn up?

Maybe – in the next ten points, you’ll turn up.

Pereira got that one. Sounds like Watanabe’s trying to convince the ref that Pereira was haversacking. Nope, it’s official. Ten points. And you’re still not here. Score’s 340-240 to Brazil. I’ll give you the next ten points. And Pereira got it. The next ten points, then. Ten points and you’ll turn up, and then we’ll sort out all the crap we’ve been through lately and things’ll be good again.

But no – Fujima just caught the Snitch. Beat Gonçalves to it by a millimetre, apparently. Japan are through to the finals. I’m through with this pint. Funny, but I don’t think I’ve ever cared less about someone bagging the Snitch. Now there’s nothing to distract me from your absence.

Guess I should peel my hopeful arse off this stool and call it a night. And this letter – bugger this letter. Maybe I’ll leave it with the barman in case you do drop by. Already old Tom’s looking at me strangely, what the hell, Oliver Wood sitting in a bar, writing.

It’ll feel strange walking out without you. But the game’s done and I’ve run out of ten points to give, I’m heading home. Think I’ll manage.

Sorry but I don’t think I’ll call.

 

All the best, Ettie.

Oliver

 

 

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I posted a new fic up onto the HPFT archives a few days ago -- it has been awhile since I've put anything up on these archives. I had to resubmit twice, I think, (sorry, validators...& thanks!) before the formatting looked alright to me. Guess it's been awhile since I had to put anything through a queue & I wasn't used to it.

It will definitely be tricky for me to upload all my older fics here, transfer them over from HPFF. Every time I open an old fic -- I can't just -- post. I get that terrible itch to edit it. That feeling, I can do it so much better now. I can rewrite it and make it good. (old me probably thought that was good enough to post...). But I really shouldn't edit my old works. It'll cost me time. A lot of time. And I have new ideas to write. I'm always working on something, on some new fic, or bits of OF. & I'm slow enough with writing.

One thing I will definitely miss from HPFF will be those site-wide collabs, posted on the HPFF United account. (Mentioning these site collabs just made me facepalm...I haven't backed up my stories / entries in those collabs). I don't think I did a lot, though, so shouldn't take me long. Such a shame all that is going to be deleted. But gah, I do miss those collabs - such great fun stress-writing as a crazy big group. Hopefully we can have site collabs here on HPFT as well??? ;) Unless there are already some and I'm just being useless...serves me right for being gone for so long. :P

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This here, another drabble, written a few years back for one of those gift exchange / secret santa things. This is a Sherlock drabble, because my then-giftee, Kiana / patronus_charm was a big fan of Benedict Cumberbatch IIRC. It probably doesn't make sense now, because this drabble has been taken out of the context of things  that took place at the time. But for the sake of putting all my writing scraps in one place, here we go.

 

Quote

Nobody comes out of 221B anymore, apart from the landlady, who sometimes stands on the doorstep during rush hour, craning her neck, looking for someone. Two minutes later, she goes back in and the door seals itself into a closed puzzle. The last time you saw Sherlock Holmes, he was in the tabloids, his name in bold, racketing above a grainy picture of a body tumbling from the roof of St. Bart’s. Except it was a photograph, so he wasn’t falling; really, he was airborne. You turned off the TV that day, deleted all the news apps from your phone. You refused to believe all the scandals.

You cross the street, plastic wrapper crackling against your arm, and lay the cone of flowers down on the doorstep. The lettering, 221B, catches the dull coin of streetlight and the glow distracts the curves and points of the numbers, rendering them illegible.  These flowers are a gesture of consolation for the landlady.

“Chrysanthemums,” someone says in a low scrape of a voice, nearly giving you a severe case of whiplash. You know this voice; you’ve listened to the downward swirl of his words every time he passes through the corridors of St Bart’s, always on his way to do postmortems. “Mrs. Hudson hates them.”

“You – you’re – ,” Your voice shakes, the syllables becoming gelatin.

“Dead? Haven’t crossed that threshold yet.”

He’s the same, somehow he’s the same, the Belstaff coat, the scarf, the hair that looks like it has tangled with sofa cushions all night long, the complete and utter lack of surprise or wonder on his face. All of that plus a thin streamer of blood running down his nose along with a split lip.

“How did –”

“Wrong question. Use your eyes. You’ve read the papers.” He steps right up to the door of 221B, but his gaze drops to the wilting flowers on the ground, and he pauses. “Tinley.”


You’re aghast. “You know who I am?”

He exhales extra loudly to make a point. He does have a reputation for being a bit of a tosser.

“I know that you’re a pharmacist at St. Bart’s, and you work the late shift, which is when you usually see me heading to the morgue. Every Thursday night you stop at the Melliflora Bouquets flower store near the subway entrance and buy the last available flowers – chrysanthemums, of course – before the store closes and leave them here on the doorstep of 221B, which is always transferred to the skip in the alley by Mrs Hudson the next morning.”

Your shoes will look good bouncing off his forehead.

“You also used to read John’s blog religiously when he was still updating it; in fact, you’re the top commenter there. An examination of your Internet Provider address and a fairly basic online search yielded your name, location, occupation, toothpaste brand of choice, the fact that you’re a self-styled ‘crazy cat lady’ and your relationship status, which is stuck in transit somewhere between a government employee and a fairly famous football player. Of course I know who you are.”

He sticks the key into lock of 221B. “But I’ve forgot your first name. What was it – Alicia, Anthea, Audrey – ?”

“Anika,” you say, irritably, snatching up the flowers on the ground and stuffing them into your bag. No need for these now. “I suppose you’ll be frequenting the morgue again. What shall I tell everyone at St Bart’s?”

He steps inside the dark flat. Mrs. Hudson must be asleep. “Use a hashtag.”

You’re halfway across the street by the time the door closes, phone in hand, heading toward the tube station. You know exactly what you’re going to say.

#SherlockLives

 

I doubt I'll ever write anything again for Sherlock. :P

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I think I'm done planning this one-shot, which is great, because now I can start writing it. Which is also not great, because now I have to start writing it. I dread writing it, because it feels like it's going to be one of those difficult one-shots, structurally. Why do I go to such difficult lengths for fic lol. :P Plus, I think this is going to be one of those longer one-shots that I'm writing. For starters, I've split it into 10 or 11 sections. And each section is meant to be a mini-story in itself. Who wants to make predictions at how long this will get?

The longest one-shot I've written to date is about 14,000 words. Actually, if I'd been more focused and patient, I'd count my 25,000 word novella (written last year) as a one-shot. But I couldn't wait to post it, so I split it into 3 chapters instead.

If I don't have any story to work on, I get this terrible itch. This restlessness. I get dissatisfied with a lot of things in RL easily, and I get distracted. I guess writing fic has kept me sane - especially in the last couple of years.

I'm glad I'm still sane. I'm glad I'm writing fic.

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Just popping in to say that although our fic interests have somewhat diverged (I have literally no knowledge about Pacific Rim. it could be anything for all I know :P), everything you write is amazing. <3 <3 <3 

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Awwee Lauraa :wub::wub: Thank you for dropping by -- I have missed you heaps! Also, amazing writing?? LOOK WHO'S TALKING. :P

Pacific Rim has just some ridiculous and very cool concepts which I love...but it may not be to everyone's tastes.

And though our fic interests may have diverged, I still have a lot of unfinished drafts sitting around. For example, a complete (but very badly written) first draft of a 15K Gellert fic, which I should really edit and post!

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Turns out it's pretty fun to re-work fic into OF. :P An extract below.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

The visitors to the Circus Crystus arrive long before the show starts. Their ships rumble into the Circus’s vast docking port, attendants waving fluorescent batons at the guests and directing them along the prismatic passageways, coiling into the central auditorium at the heart of the massive starship.

 

Witness daredevil acts, death-defying stunts and stellar performances at the Greatest Show in Space! That's how they promote the Circus, anyway, broadcasting ads into every galactic outpost and station they can reach, casting wandering signals into the randomness of space, which, upon coming into contact with passing ships, erupt into huge holo displays featuring primped-up footage of selected Circus acts.

 

But to Blaze, High Voltage Acrobat and star of the show, the lights and the glam and the whole adrenaline-overloaded extravaganza have all but lost their novelty.

 

She’s been here fifteen years; she’s seen the lot; she knows the tricks even though the other circus folk guard their secrets jealously. But after awhile, one trick melts into the next, anyway. One act falls into step with the next act. It's a routine. She’s seen the supersonic chariots, the strong man(droid) performances, the laser pyrotechnics, the electrothaumaturges, the rocket booster trapeze, the trained troupes of giant sklatha salamanders, extinct in all the charted systems of the universe, except here in this galactic vaudeville.

 

God, if there’s such a being at all, knows why she even stays. Actually, God just might be the biggest, most grandiose circus act of all.

 

“And now!” a voice booms from the arena. It’s Ringmaster, in their usual brilliant scarlet overcoat with a trailing bridal train and an equally scarlet top hat. They crack their whip and sparks rise in a hissing arc to temporarily engulf them, and the audience cheers. “The star of our show, the one and only High Voltage Acrobat in the entirety of the universe, Blaze Glory!

 

The crowd howls and stamps.

 

The cube-shaped electrical grid that had been assembled quietly during intermission now lights up. Brilliant blinding blue. The spotlights, shaped like jagged florets of crystals, swerve around to direct the full intensity of their beams upon the vast and non-symmetrical lattice, which snaps and pops with electricity. A crackling synth melody judders from the speakers, bass rhythms amplified by the arena’s built-in subwoofer network, so it feels like the whole starship is pulsing, a gigantic metallic heart.

 

Blaze mounts the platform at the top. Notes the positions of the insulated handholds, the mid-air micro-coordinates where she’ll have to twist her body and avoid the wavy parallel rails. Sets a rhythm deep within herself.

 

Even this is dull. Fifteen years of this crap. She’s old. She ought to retire. Maybe go to this faraway idyll called Earth, the native world of coffee and adorable alien feline creatures known as cats.

 

She glances down, way down, past the lowest transmission bars to where Ringmaster is standing, fire-whip still cracking up a frenzy. If they're not careful, they're going to set themself on fire again. And then Blaze will have to stop her act and douse them with a canister of coolant. Not for the first time either.

 

As if sensing Blaze looking down at them, Ringmaster turns their face upwards. White-blue unseeing eyes, their colour and their blindness magnified by optic irradiator implants, catch her stare. Ringmaster casts a lazy smile up at her. Blaze can see the indents of their dimples from high up here.

 

 

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Cool cool cool!  I'ma be doing this over the summer with a fic of mine too.  Good luck with yours!

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9 hours ago, Pixileanin said:

Cool cool cool!  I'ma be doing this over the summer with a fic of mine too.  Good luck with yours!

Thank you, Pix! :D Good luck with yours too -- it's super fun. It was easy for me to rework the above fic, because it was a complete AU from original canon. :P

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That's awesome!  I'm not sure how easy mine will be, since I want to keep it in a fantasy/magic world.  Worldbuilding... (hides)  If you want to trade beta services in the fall, I'd be totally up for that!

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On 4/29/2018 at 12:42 AM, Pixileanin said:

That's awesome!  I'm not sure how easy mine will be, since I want to keep it in a fantasy/magic world.  Worldbuilding... (hides)  If you want to trade beta services in the fall, I'd be totally up for that!

Sure, Pix! I don't know how good I am as a beta, but if you need someone to go through something you've written, just let me know. :)

 

And here's another short fic / drabble, originally posted in 2016,  in the Sorting Ceremony thread here. Whenever I re-read old writing, I get this urge to tamper and change things up. So I've edited slightly, also to make the ending less contrived. This is Cursed Child fic, set in one of the alternate realities in the play.

 

Quote

 

In an alternate reality, that obnoxious Slytherin third year Panju Weasley does not exist. Or better still, he’s being chewed up by a ravenous Chimaera.

 

After all, he is the reason I ended up in the belly of an enlarged teapot, which then blasted its way out of the windows of carriage number eight on the Hogwarts Express, flying all the way to school, before shattering in through the Great Hall, in the middle of dinner.

 

As it turns out, it’s not a good time to be poured out of the spout of an Engorgio-ed teapot, smelling like mouldy pou lei tea leaves.

 

“Sorry!” Panju calls from across the Hall. Laughter pulses across the space. “I didn’t think the teapot would eat you and fly away. I must have confused the spells!”

 

“Quiet, Mr. Weasley.” Headmistress McGonagall glares at Panju, and he slouches down in his seat, sliding under the table. Then she turns her scary gaze to me. “Will the latecomer please come forward to be Sorted so the rest of us can get on with dinner?”

 

I edge toward the stool in front of the hall. McGonagall drops the hat onto my head.

 

For a long while, there’s only silence.

 

“Hello?” I venture.

 

“What the hell?” a voice bellows through my head.

 

I nearly jump up and scream, even though I should have remembered.

 

It’s a tale well-known even amongst those who don’t even go to Hogwarts: a couple of years ago, a certain Panju Weasley had managed to get hold of the Sorting Hat, and as revenge for putting him into Slytherin, emptied a bottle of Firewhiskey down the tear in the Hat’s brim.

 

Rumour has it that the Sorting Hat has been in a state of perpetual hangover ever since.

 

“You’re supposed to be telling me what House I’ll belong to,” I say.

 

“I thought this year’s Sorting was finally over,” the Sorting Hat groans. “I’m considering taking up a new hobby. Scalping.”

 

“Aren't you a little--out of character?”

 

“In an alternate reality,” the Hat sniffs, “Panju Weasley doesn’t exist. Or better still, he’s being eaten alive by a Chimaera.”

 

I’m starting to like the Hat a bit more.

 

“Let’s get this over with,” the Hat grumbles. “This whole evening has been nothing but cheap rhymes and head lice and every child insisting they’re a Gryffinpuff or Slytherclaw.”

 

I try to be helpful. “All my family before me were sorted into Hufflepuff. I expect that’s where you’ll put me.”

 

Expect?” sniffs the Hat with contempt. “Expectation is the murder of all imagination.”

 

“But--!”

 

The Hat cuts me off with a rather spiteful verse.

 

“You think you know where you belong

Here’s where I tell you that you’re wrong

So take me off and stop ditherin’

For your wretched arse belongs in Slytherin.”

 

“No, no, it can’t be this. You’ve got it wrong!” I say.

 

“I’ve got it Sorted, that’s what I’ve got,” snarls the Hat. “Now bugger off to your House.”

 

I go to my House table as quickly as I can and sit down, trying to ignore the stares. First, the whole fiasco with the teapot and my humiliating entrance. And now, here I am, sorted into Slytherin.
 

The day can’t get any worse.
 

Someone claps me on the shoulder and I nearly knock over a goblet of pumpkin juice.

 

“Well, hello there,” says Panju Weasley. “”Looks like you’re in my house.”

 

 

 

 

Edited by teh tarik
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  • 3 weeks later...

Sigh. It has been a while since I posted in here - I've been trying to post once a week? Anyway, with all the real life stuff, and with me always feeling so burnt out at the end of the day that I either fall asleep early or I end up watching episodes of various tv shows until I fall asleep on the couch, I haven't done much writing. Or posting here.

Anyway, another extract of a fic that's been sitting neglected in my drafts for years. Which sadly, I'm not posting any time soon, because I'm working on other stuff. But this extract is just to remind me what I've got sitting around, collecting dust.
 

Quote

 

I know a boy with books and dead parents. He has cavity-riddled teeth. Too many sherbet lemons, winegums, cubes of sugar in muddy tea. A quill in his mouth, where all his brilliant arguments come from. Maybe that's why he keeps chewing on that quill - all the better for him to argue with in his long ferocious letters that won't let me sleep at night.

“Not necessarily, Gellert,” he says, and nudges his spectacles back into place.

There is a boy and there is a girl and she has big watching eyes that make me uneasy. If I see her, then it’s fine. But if I don’t see her, I feel even more uneasy - where is she? From which corner does she watch me? Which aspect of me is visible to her?

Sometime later, she dies. Now I can't ever see her again. Now I don’t know which angle of me is being haunted.

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

I managed to post a new fic to the archives - hopefully I'm going to start building up my archives page. I can't move most of the fics on my AO3 to HPFT,  but I guess I can post new ones, and upload the older HP fics.

Anyway, this new fic I wrote, The House and The Sea, was for the TV show, Siren on Freeform. I've never written in this fandom before. It's great to break into new fandoms and test the waters there, but I don't usually stay long. And the thing I've discovered about fandom hopping is: the fics I write often feel the same. I write (usually) post-ending moments, and they're always reflections of some sort, and almost always dealing with the events that have just happened in canon. It's waaay too hard for me to explain. When I write these kind of 'surface' fics, it's me trying to understand these characters which I'm not so familiar with. Contrast to, say, HP,  where most of my old fics had more tangible plots, storylines that went beyond canon, more development. I could 'write deeper'. And sometimes I miss this. So maybe I'm not completely giving up on HP, because I've still got unfinished work that I think about all the time. More detailed plots than anything I'm willing to write for fandoms I don't stay long in.

This post is just a whole lot of rambling - I'm never good or patient enough to talk about my thoughts, or my processes.

Anyway, here's an extract from The House and The Sea, and this features wlw relationship between a human woman and a mermaid.

 

 

Quote

 

Something emerged from the water, right in front of Maddie. First, rose the pale arc of a forehead, then a bony jut of a face, skin pulled gaunt over the cheeks. Skin that looked rough, but with a faint and grainy iridescence in the grey morning.

“Ryn?”

Ryn’s eyes seemed much larger in her natural form, bulging out of her face, the irises glacial and milky, the pupils sharpened to tiny black kernels. And her mouth. Maddie felt something recoil in her stomach, that gut-squeezing fear, which she fought hard to quash. Ryn’s lips peeled back to reveal two rows of long shark teeth. A mouthful of razors.

“Thought you weren’t coming,” Maddie whispered, treading water.

Ryn tried to say something, but could only manage a glottal hiss without her human voice box. She slipped below the surface and Maddie followed. Ryn spread her arms and hung suspended in the water, her hair fanning out around her.

The rest of her-- so that was how the rest of her looked like. Her torso and arms were covered with the same iridescent scratchy-looking skin. Translucent webbing spanned the gaps between her fingers and under her arms, connecting her elbows to waist. Perhaps these were the modified forms of her paired pectoral fins. Ryn’s fingers tapered into talons. All along the sides of her torso, angling off the lines of her ribs, were the slashes of her gills, the arches lacking an opercular plate and exposed like a shark’s. When Ryn turned around -- slowly, as though she were aware Maddie was studying her, the dorsal fin flared from her back, like the fin of a sailfish, ridged with spines, descending from the nape of her neck to the base of her vertebral column.

And of course, there was her tail. That famous mermaid tail. The caudal fin: seven feet long by itself, grey like a humpback whale’s skin, but completely covered with scales. A palisade of fine spines, a modified caudal keel, ran along its length. The tail narrowed and then splayed out into symmetrical lobes. In the split between the lobes, was a curious pointed structure, like the barb of a stingray.

Ryn came closer, until her face was inches away from Maddie. Perhaps she was trying to gauge fear. Maddie put her hand on Ryn’s cheek. The skin was sandpapery, like the dermal denticles of a shark. There was the odd scale here and there; this was what was causing the opalescence. She touched the tip of her thumb to the corner of Ryn’s mouth, very near to those teeth. She did not break her gaze.

Something closed around Maddie’s other wrist. It was Ryn’s webbed hand. Beckoning her. Ryn wiggled a shoulder at her, and Maddie understood.

She gripped Ryn’s shoulder with both hands, trying to avoid the thorny dorsal fin, and then Ryn took off. Her body and tail undulated powerfully, propelling them both forward at a tremendous speed, nearly throwing Maddie off.

It was a rather absurd and numbing realisation that Maddie had -- how strange it was to be carried away by a mermaid.

 

 

Yup, as you can see, I edited this while I was sleepy. I've likened Ryn the Mermaid's anatomical features to that of a shark, sailfish, humpback whale and stingray. In my defence lol, blame the show and Tumblr gifs.

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Sometimes I write when I'm exhausted and on the verge of falling asleep. It's tough, but the good thing about being half-asleep while writing is, the next day you wake up, and you go, whoa I got words!? How did I get words?!

But not so much a couple of nights ago. I was pretty much typing out stuff and barely knowing what I was saying and I kept nodding off. The next morning I woke up and read the last sentence I'd written:

Quote

I mean, we gotta be out of the water pretty quickly so we can go and neutralise it.

 

 

And I am honestly so confused lol. My characters were going to a New Year's Eve celebration. What the hell were they going to neutralise?! What did I even mean by 'neutralise it'??

 

And...why are they even in the water? How did they even get in the water?

 

Ah I have no idea. I wish I could have a conversation with my subconscious.

 

I'm so ready to be done with this fic, but instead of concentrating on it, I keep getting distracted with planning out an OF story.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I found an old fic in my folder, which I'd written 4 years ago for the House Cup (I think) writing challenge.

I think the 2014 football World Cup was also going on at that time, so I managed to include that in my fic lol. And the 2018 World Cup is currently going on, and the knockout stages are about to start, and so here's an extract of that old fic.

(A bit of context: this includes the England vs. Uruguay match in the group stages. England lost and were sent home from the WC early.)

 

Quote


“It’s twenty past eight,” Dennis pointed out.

So it was. Dean’s finger skidded and flicked across the screen. “Come on, come on.”

“He’s trying to stream the World Cup. It’s England versus Uruguay tonight,” Dennis explained to Hannah.

“The World Cup?” Hannah leaned over and peered at the iPad. “But England never qualified for the tournament; I tuned in the wireless to the last quarterfinal days ago. And it was Japan versus Nigeria.”

“What?” Dean looked distracted. He waved a dismissive hand. “Blimey, not Quidditch. I mean the other World Cup. The real one.” Hannah looked indignant, but he merely pumped his fist and shoved the tablet toward her and Dennis. “Here!”

The screen showed several stick-insect figures in white and blue shirts scuttling across a wide, green pitch.

"It's a death match," Dean said. "Whoever loses is out for good.”

"I’ve never really understood the rules of football," Hannah replied.

"Kick the ball into the net," Dennis answered.

Dean thumped his fist against the counter and bellowed at the screen as drink slopped out of Dennis's pint. "That was a bleeding foul. He should be red-carded!"

"Just get the ball into that net? That's all?"

Dennis shrugged. "Yeah, I don’t quite see the appeal of the game, either."

Dean swung round to glare daggers at Dennis. "You call yourself a Muggle-born?"

On the screen, the ball trundled slowly from player to player.

"I prefer Quidditch," Hannah decided.

"I don't really see the appeal of Quidditch either. Or most sport," Dennis said.

"And Soirees scores! One-nil to Uruguay!" came the commentator’s shrill voice from the screen.

Dean swore and slammed his palm so hard on the counter that a group of wizards at a nearby table scowled.

"Relax," said Hannah, alarmed. "It's just one point."

"Just one--," Dean spluttered. "One point can change the entire atmosphere of the game. Football is all about atmosphere and subtlety. The smallest of fluctuations in play can affect the outcome of the entire match! A football match is a delicate balance between life and death."

Hannah looked nonplussed while Dennis snorted. "A football fan, a Quidditch fan, and a fan of neither walk into a bar. Sport really does bring people together, eh?"

“Brayne Cooney scores the equaliser! England 1, Uruguay 1!” hollered the commentator.

Dean let out a roar and whacked Dennis square in the middle of his shoulder blades, which resulted in the latter sloshing a good deal of ale down the front of his shirt. Hannah groaned as she drew her wand and siphoned off the liquid from him.

“Thanks,” Dennis muttered.

Dean ignored them completely. “Blimey, we’ve got a real chance at this!”

In the next ten minutes, however, Uruguay scored another goal.

“And Lugosi Soirees smashes another one into the back of the net, six minutes to stoppage time! Uruguay 2, England 1!”

Dean let out an anguished howl as the screen showed a close-up of a dark-haired man in a powder-blue shirt running around the pitch with his arms outspread.

“Bloke looks awfully familiar,” Dennis said. “Think I’ve seen him somewhere before.”

“He’s a famous footballer,” said Dean, sourly.

Dennis squinted at the screen, which began replaying Soiree’s latest goal. “I saw someone like him once at a vampire bar.”

“What on earth were you doing in a vampire bar?” Hannah’s eyebrows were incredulous arches high on her forehead.

Dennis looked awkward, his hand rubbing the back of his neck.

“Are you saying Uruguay have a vampire on the team?” Dean choked.

“Hardly extraordinary,” Hannah said. “There was a Quidditch match where one of the players tried to devour the rival team mid-air. Turned out he was a flesh-eating ghoul in disguise.”

“This is football.”

“And England are officially out of the World Cup!” sang the commentator.

Dean slammed his iPad cover shut with a thwack. “I need another drink.”

 

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Guest Tanda
On 5/21/2018 at 8:12 PM, teh tarik said:

 

Anyway, another extract of a fic that's been sitting neglected in my drafts for years. Which sadly, I'm not posting any time soon, because I'm working on other stuff. But this extract is just to remind me what I've got sitting around, collecting dust.
 

 

 Is it Ariana, Aberforth and Dumbledore

story? Are you posting your awesome fic at hpft archives as well?

 

Wow, new stories, both mermaid and Dean with the other WC sounds great!

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teh, it's so wonderful to see you around here again! Hi! I've missed you!! :bighug: And I'm glad you're writing fic again as well! I hadn't seen that HC entry from a few years ago about Dean and Hannah and (of course) Dennis, and I loved it. Also fairly sure I caught a reference in there to your story about Sanguini - haha.

I know you're doing more original fiction and other fandoms these days - and while the fandoms are ones I don't know at all, I still find myself wanting to read them :P And I've been so glad to find your original fiction drabbles here! I'm always so impressed by your amazing writing.

:hug: 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/7/2018 at 4:48 AM, StarFeather said:

Is it Ariana, Aberforth and Dumbledore

story? Are you posting your awesome fic at hpft archives as well?

 

Wow, new stories, both mermaid and Dean with the other WC sounds great!

Hi Kenny! :wub: That snippet is actually from a Gellert story. But it won't be posted for a long time, because there's just so much I have to do with it. It's a long way from complete. :P

And yeah, I have been writing all this while lol...just not HP fic, and I haven't been posting much here. The Dean and WC snippet is from an old fic that used to be on HPFF, and was originally written for the House Cup. I'm not sure if I'll ever post it here, though.

 

On 7/7/2018 at 5:47 AM, Stella Blue said:

teh, it's so wonderful to see you around here again! Hi! I've missed you!! :bighug: And I'm glad you're writing fic again as well! I hadn't seen that HC entry from a few years ago about Dean and Hannah and (of course) Dennis, and I loved it. Also fairly sure I caught a reference in there to your story about Sanguini - haha.

I know you're doing more original fiction and other fandoms these days - and while the fandoms are ones I don't know at all, I still find myself wanting to read them :P And I've been so glad to find your original fiction drabbles here! I'm always so impressed by your amazing writing.

:hug: 

Kristin! :wub: it has definitely been waaay too long. I've missed you and everybody else on the forums too. (and all of the Puffs, my old house - I always miss being a Puff!!)

Bahahaha I can't believe you remember Sanguini - and that you can actually catch the reference to that fic from the snippet above! Gah, you now my fics too well and I love you for that. <333

Yep I'm dabbling a bit in OF and other fandoms, and I will post them as I write.

STAHP WITH THE FLATTERY NOW...but srsly thank yooouuuu, you're the best :wub::wub::wub:

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Hi JulNo penpal! ? I have a few questions for you!

(Entirely unrelated, but I was just wondering yesterday what your username meant, and then by pure coincidence I happened to go to a Malaysian restaurant where one of the drink options was "teh tarik" so I literally had a brief fangirl moment there. Even though I didn't actually meet you. ?)

1. I noticed that you have a number of Other Fandom fics on the archives! Tell me about your favorite fandoms, and why you love them so much. ❤️

2. Which is your favorite: description or dialogue? Because you're so talented at both. ?

3. Of all your stories that you've written, which three are your favorites and why? (They don't have to be up at the archives yet! I'm just super curious to hear more about your stories.)

4. How long have you been writing? What was one of your first stories, if you can remember?

5. How are you so amazing? ?

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On 7/20/2018 at 2:39 AM, just.a.willow.tree said:

Hi JulNo penpal! ? I have a few questions for you!

(Entirely unrelated, but I was just wondering yesterday what your username meant, and then by pure coincidence I happened to go to a Malaysian restaurant where one of the drink options was "teh tarik" so I literally had a brief fangirl moment there. Even though I didn't actually meet you. ?)

1. I noticed that you have a number of Other Fandom fics on the archives! Tell me about your favorite fandoms, and why you love them so much. ❤️

2. Which is your favorite: description or dialogue? Because you're so talented at both. ?

3. Of all your stories that you've written, which three are your favorites and why? (They don't have to be up at the archives yet! I'm just super curious to hear more about your stories.)

4. How long have you been writing? What was one of your first stories, if you can remember?

5. How are you so amazing? ?

Hello Eva! :wub: Thank you for dropping by with your lovely questions! :hug:

 

Quote

(Entirely unrelated, but I was just wondering yesterday what your username meant, and then by pure coincidence I happened to go to a Malaysian restaurant where one of the drink options was "teh tarik" so I literally had a brief fangirl moment there. Even though I didn't actually meet you. ?)

Haha! Yep, that's exactly where you'd find me - or at least my username - in the menu of a Malaysian restaurant. :P teh tarik is a super sweet milky tea, and I used to love it when I was a teen. But these days not so much - it's too sweet for me. I'd rather have a pot of oolong tea anytime.

 

1. I have indeed been trying to write for more fandoms - I think on my archives page there are only 2 Other Fandom fics? Trying to write and post more though! TBH it's always tricky trying to write for new fandoms. Most of the fandoms I choose to write in are usually TV shows or movies, and I think it's harder because you gotta do more research, read Wikia pages, learn what's canon and what's not, remember how the characters speak onscreen and try to translate that into fic. I don't stay long in one fandom! I've been in the HP fandom longest. But other fandoms I like are: Pacific Rim (which has a very ridiculous premise - basically giant robots vs. monsters haha), and sometimes I enjoy dabbling a bit with the MCU. The only things about writing within these fandoms is I gotta wrap my head around science fiction-y concepts and tech and things like that.

 

2. No I'm not! :P  Hahaha but thank you - this means a lot to me. :wub: I love the satisfaction I get whenever I write a segment of what I think is good dialogue (I don't often feel this way, though!). I do like writing descriptive prose as well, but man that's hard work. :P Most of my fic these days are not as descriptive as they used to be.

 

3. Oh dear - such a difficult question. I'll have to peel through my old stories to think about this. I think Let Perpetual Light (M) (link leads to AO3). This hasn't been posted on HPFT yet, because no reason! LPL is a fic about young Dumbledores (Aberforth, ALbus and Ariana) and young Gellert Grindelwald, during that fateful summer of 1899, when Grindelwald came to stay in Godric's Hollow. This is also the only complete novel I've ever written and I'm still amazed that I managed to complete all 58K words of it haha. I've received some amazing feedback for this fic, and it's given me so much confidence in writing.

Another fic is Two Girls at an Oasis (M) which will never be posted on HPFT because it's a Star Wars Rogue One fic. I really should have written this as original fiction, though. :P I did a lot of worldbuilding for this one - mainly because writing Star Wars canon is soooo hard - the SW lore is vast and full of details I'll never remember. So I built my own world and nestled it within the SW universe.

Third fic will be The King and M'Baku (15+) and is a Black Panther (2018) fic. This will also never be posted on HPFT, because it's an MCU fic, and the MCU falls under Disney. I must say I got a weird burst of inspiration for this one, and I wrote it after watching the movie (the fic ships T'Challa / M'Baku). This fic kind of exploded on AO3 bahaha. I'm still in disbelief at this.

(this is a long answer to your question sorry!!)

 

4. I have no idea. SInce I was a kid. 10? or younger? Not sure. Mostly poetry and little stories that never got finished. One of the first stories that I completed and posted online is a Slam Dunk (anime) fanfic, written in 2002. It's still here on the internet. :P I would not recommend anyone reading it, because it's terrible! But I'm proud of it which is why it's going to stay on the internet. I've come a long way since.

 

5. No I'm not! You're the amazing one - and a super lovely super talented author. :hug:

 

Thank you so much Eva. :wub:

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  • 1 month later...

It has been awhile since I've posted in here, so...yes. Since I did a bit of fun writing for the HC finale event, I'll post them here.

Below was my Letter to the Editor. I did have a ton of fun writing this one.


Quote

CHAMBER OF SECRETS: Is Hogwarts safe for students?

 

In light of recent regrettable events relating to the discovery of the Chamber of Secrets, people have begun to ask: is Hogwarts actually safe for students?

 

The short answer: of course it is.

 

Are we really asking such an insufferably inane question? Has magical education declined to such a state that we have to mollycoddle these children -- supposedly the future of wizarding society?

 

Why, in my first year at school many years ago, I was flung into a swamp as part of my final exam to fight twenty Grindylows bare-handed! And in my final year, I was made to to deliver a speech before a senate of murderous trolls, persuading them to eat less flame-fart mushrooms, in order to reduce the occurrence of forest fires.

 

But back to the topic of Hogwarts and student safety. The truth is, there never really was any risk to the students.

 

First, we must deconstruct the insidious misconception that the Chamber, an engineering marvel and the apotheosis of wizarding architecture, is a threat. Those who have portrayed it as such are most likely liars, damned liars or Potter supporters.

 

The sacred design of the Chamber was conceived by the genius calculations of one Salazar Slytherin, and crafted into being more than a thousand years ago, when noble Slytherin built the school. The purpose of the Chamber was to function as a safe space and a clever hideout for students in case rabid mobs of Muggles came storming the castle doors with torches, pitchforks and other farming implements.

 

These days, there are those who decry the Chamber, declaring it a torture dungeon and death trap for students, the very students that it exists to protect. Those who are of this opinion are horribly deluded, and have blasphemed against the sacrosanct space of Slytherin, and shall undoubtedly meet a sticky end soon.

 

But wait, you say! What about the monster? The horror within? The serpentine behemoth that is the Basilisk?

 

The Basilisk was hatched in the Chamber by Slytherin himself, and raised to guard the student populace. Yes, that’s right: the Basilisk has been the true Sentinel of Hogwarts since its founding, though tragically, her guardianship was viciously ended by the sword stroke of one bloodthirsty twelve-year old lunatic.

 

Was the Eternal Serpent ever a threat to Hogwarts? Never! Has she ever snacked on one of your precious lambkin children in all her years? Never! Hogwarts thrived under her protection! Never did the Muggles come knocking on our doors! Even in times of peace, she still made herself useful by keeping the rodent population in check. In fact, now with her demise, there is a greater risk of staff and students contracting bubonic plague from the exponential increase in rat numbers.

 

And really, these are modern times. We shouldn’t be so judgemental. Monster is a term that reveals an ingrained prejudice against this poor, misunderstood creature and her spirited, vivacious nature.

 

Perhaps when we think about safety, we should look to ourselves to blame, instead of scapegoating a secret Chamber and a dead Guardian.

 

Let me also remind those parents still fretting over their little sugarplums that Professor Dumbledore has now been reinstated as Headmaster. Dumbledore, while being a lamentably eccentric public figure, is an adept defender of Hogwarts, and will no doubt continue to keep the students safe.

 

In fact, if you do want to go about looking for threats, how about exterminating that Acromantula infestation in the Forbidden Forest?

 

Or, even better, how about we raise the issue of Harry Potter and his continuous misbehaviour -  vandalism of school property, and near destruction of a site of utmost significance in magical history (the Chamber), and of course, murder of Hogwarts’ true Guardian? Why are we questioning Hogwarts’ safety over a secret Chamber, and not over a savage sword-wielding scallywag, who is also implicated in the murder of his own teacher, one Quirinius Quandarius Quiverius Quirrell?

 

Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions. Perhaps, the true wolf prowls among us, under the guise of an adored preadolescent hero. Perhaps what we really should be asking is this: is Harry Potter safe for Hogwarts?

 

Ursula Unsavoria Utterbarker
S.N.A.K.E.S

 

-------------------

 

Here at the Flibbertigibbet, we believe that controversy is the journalistic spice everyone needs. You are welcome to write to us. Please send all letters by early morning owl addressed to:

 

The Editor
The Daily Flibbertigibbet
2 Fibbings Terrace
Hogsmeade

 

 

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Staff profile for Beth from the recent HC finale.

 

 

Quote


Star Spotlight : VERITASERUM27

In today’s issue, our figure of focus is none other than the wonderful Beth, also known as Veritaserum27 on these forums!


 

WHO IS SHE?

An esteemed Professor of these boards, Beth spends her days patrolling the perimeter of all forum postings, making sure everyone plays nicely with each other, and with minimal blowing up of the Potions lab.

Besides being a Moderator of Your Every Move, Beth is also a gifted and prolific writer! Twenty-eight (28) stories out of the current (as of 1:27a.m., 14th August 2018, GMT +12) total of 2077 stories on the archives have been written by her! Out of those twenty-eight, two have been previously featured: her novel, Actions Speak Louder Than Words, as well as a fluffy one-shot on parenthood, Easter Lily.

But that’s not all: she is also a Dedicated Mom to three lovely children, a talented Quilter of Reversible Aprons and Market Bags, Runner of a ‘Sort-of’ Nature, Eater of Sushi, Avid Denier of being a Dunker of Frosted Wheat into Nutella, and Wearer of No Tattoos Whatsoever.


 

THE DARK(ER) SIDE?

Beth is skilled in the arcane and convoluted magic known as the Periodic Table of Elements. In the Muggle world, she is the holder of a degree in biochemistry. In the magical world, this most likely makes her a master of alchemy that could perhaps rival the late Nicolas Flamel himself.

What we do know is that Beth the BioAlchemist has a deep understanding and reverence for this cryptic tabular code, as well as for the molecular structure of Existence itself. She has a string of original characters, her secondary children, named after some of these elements, such as selenium, wolfram, and tin, to name a few.


 

WHAT CAN YOU DO FOR BETH?

Seeing that Beth has done so much for us, we recommend all our readers hasten to Beth’s author page and give her stories some well-deserved love in the form of reviews.

You can also visit her writer’s journal and say hello, and ask her everything you want to know about her.

For example, what is her favourite type of sushi? Is it teriyaki chicken? Salmon? Or does she favour tuna sashimi? When will she get her first tattoo and will it be the Periodic Table? Should there be a new element in said table, named Veritaserum?


 

A TENDER MORSEL OF GOSSIP

According to a very reliable source, Beth once met the critically-acclaimed Muggle author, Khaled Hosseini, who penned the bestselling novels The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and And the Mountains Echoed.

What could this mean!? Why did Beth meet Hosseini? Could they be working together on a top secret project? Just imagine: a novel co-written by both these acclaimed authors, a collaborative effort between the magical and Muggle world, could take us all by storm!


 

POPULARITY RATING (ACCORDING TO THE S.N.A.K.E.S.)

(As the Society of the Nefariously Avid Knights of the Eternal Serpent (S.N.A.K.E.S.) are now part of our news team, they have very insistently offered to rate each star profile featured in the Flibbertigibbet)

Veritaserum27 gets our full stamp of approval as an outstanding Professor of these Forums. We originally rated her 5 out of 5 stars, but unfortunately, we deducted 0.5 stars for the grievous misspelling of the noble house of Slytherin as her HPFT house. So, 4.5 out of 5 stars.

 

FROM OUR PHOTOGRAPHY TEAM

dkPc_9H9vTXtWz7CJkmNiVquGdLSclwSaprQw5qbJzQuJgP1gOXtkW1JUDhvgsMw5i90DlYNWk-SQPVwKdatn5tQG1pwOUCW25lhfpuJW__Biyk30CEYpu7BrEGdwUnej_X8Qh6M

We were lucky to catch a glimpse of Beth while she was doing her rounds! There she is, looking impressively elegant in her eye-catching cyan number!

 

 

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