u/TheThirteenShadows

Probably a cliched question , but I'm an Indian who just got accepted to the international mechanical engineering program and I'm stressing over it.

1. How's the social life for non-german speakers, assuming they're there at O-Week and participate in clubs (which I'm intending on doing)? I know I should've learned beforehand, but I never expected to actually be accepted into the university (I was learning Dutch for the Netherlands).
2. I intend on learning German if I go, and if I accept the offer will spend my time on it. But I doubt I'll be fluent or even conversational by the time the semester starts.
3. How's dating as a non-German speaker? I'm bi so I'm fine with both women and men. I'm...decently attractive, I guess? Certainly not hideous. I'd put myself above average and below model-level. Short as fuck though.
4. Frats. I looked online and there seem to be some in Karlsruhe that are open to internationals. Is not being conversational in German something that could be looked over (I'll still learn, as I said, and I know it'll be a hurdle. I'm just wondering if it's an insurmountable one).
5. Night life in general. Are there parties, social outings, et cetera or...?

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. WHY IS EVERYONE IN MY LIFE HOMOPHOBIC I NEED SOMEONE TO TALK TO ABOUT THIS!

I loved it. I loved it so much. I felt like some parts of the fight were sort of cringy (the slow-mo shots at some point), but then Not!Hikaru snapped back and I was on the edge of my seat. I knew it wouldn't end with him leaving (probably) but YOSHIKI FINALLY ADMITTED HE CARES ABOUT THE ENTITY!

I've seen some people say Yoshiki's lying to himself but I don't think so. Now, firstly, do I think Yoshiki would've given the entity a chance if it didn't look like Hikaru? Hell naw, he'd have run to a priest. But I think Yoshiki's started caring about the entity itself too. I NEED SEASON 2. I NEED IT, I WANNIT, I NEED IT.

Kurebayashi deciding against trying to get Not!Hikaru out of Hikaru's corpse was so sweet and unexpected (it really felt like that scene could've gone either way). Asako continues to have zero survival instinct but at least she's consistent! Still have no clue what Tanaka's planning.

Also love how he was basically watching the whole thing go down like a movie.

(I'm genuinely wondering)

So, Feyre wants to hunt down a dangerous Fae while flinching at the color red (which happens to be the color of blood), not hunting, not eating much, et cetera. Tamlin explains the danger to her. She says she still wants to go.

At this point, what do you do? These are the possible things that could happen if Feyre goes:

1. She's attacked and gets hurt (very likely).
2. She's attacked, and loses control of her new powers, and might not get hurt, but she might hurt someone else (also very likely).
3. She's attacked but manages to fight it off without hurting anyone (possible).

We know she's basically a lure for creatures (like the Attor) so she'd probably be the first to get attacked. And two out of three options, either she gets injured or someone else gets injured. Having a conversation hasn't worked; she literally yelled at Tamlin that she was going to go either way.

I've heard people say that it was bad, but then never say what Tamlin should've done instead. And I've also heard people say that he should've just let her come, and if she kills someone by accident or gets hurt, 'ah well'.

...

I don't...I don't know what to say to that.

Also, just to clarify: I do agree that Tamlin should've trained Feyre eventually. However, that's not the point of this post. What should he have done, in this moment?

(INSPIRED BY THIS)

(This is my reimagining of Spring, with far more horror and focus on the themes of the season)

Getting There: Through The Forest of Faces

The Wall is hours and days behind you, seemingly lost to you in an endless haze of half-forgotten memory. You hadn't even noticed when it happened, too preoccupied by the fear, the horror, of being past that singular barrier that barred you from the monsters it hindered.

It had been like diving into a pool of water. One second, the land, the sky, it surrounds you. Looms over you. And the next, you are submerged and drowning. But what differentiates a pool of water from the region Beyond The Wall is that you can always swim back to the surface.

Here, you do not even know which way would count as up.

You have been trudging on through the forest for days. Or it is weeks, or it is hours and seconds and minutes and years. It's rare that anyone truly knows.

But you have been trudging on. Even as your skin hardens and your blood turns sluggish and slow. Even as each of your fingers extend into leafy branches, your eyes implode before ballooning into ripe, pinkish fruit, and your toes lengthen, the nails drilling through the topsoil to become hardy roots. Soon you will be just be another face amidst the hundreds of nameless trees that lingered too long, too much, without someone to guide them through the Forest of Faces.

Sometimes, a few stronger souls are luckier. They are not rooted to the ground, but are instead taken by the air. Their skin grows soft, downy feathers, and strong, wide feathers. Their bones shrink, the marrow leaking from every orifice in their skin. Their faces explode and knit themselves back together in an agonizingly slow process. Their feet turn scabbed, then scaly with orange scales. Their toe nails elongate into talons.

They are lucky.

They can always fly back to the human realms. Most are recognizable by the brand of golden feathers that permeates their wings. The sentries know not to hunt those (though once upon a time they were a grand delicacy). And of course, the unluckiest ones are simply transformed into game. These have no branding, no mark to distinguish them from the ordinary beasts.

These are caught and killed as all animals are.

Such is the risk you take in the Forest of Faces, guideless and alone.

Once the fruits of your eyes would've been relished with gusto, turned into sauces or fermented to form a particularly sweet, euphoria-inducing wine. Children (Fae children) would skip merrily into the trees to pluck the fruit when they were hungry. The birds were a delicacy. The High Lord unfortunately banned all this, citing it as savagery, and orders his sentries to turn around any who find themselves lost in the Forest, even his enemies. Should they be unable to, they are to escort them to him. And if unable to do this, he considers a quick death a mercy compared to what would await them, twisted into unfamiliar shapes and bizarre, merciless senses.

Inhabitants Within The Forest

Not for nothing is the Court considered that of Spring. Spring is transformation. It is renewal and destruction. And as such, its inhabitants are as varied as its dual natures. The Forest itself hosts grand creatures.

The Suriel that, once bound, shall answer any question. But it is said that it never forgives a slight, and should you bear hubris enough to trap it, it shall hunt you down whenever you should enter the Forest again. To ward it off, one must carry a bag of rice or some other countable but large quantity at all times.

Toss it at the ground. It shall have no choice but to cease its motion, crouching low against the ground to count each individual piece or grain or even speck of ink.

Under no circumstances must you attempt to trap or kill it again.

The types, categories, and species that reside in the Forest of Faces number too far for any sort of useful taxonomy. However, there are some that one must be especially wary of. Pixies (pinkish, furry things with too many teeth and eyes) will sprinkle a sort of dust on unseeing prey, that pacifies them and lulls them into a dreamlike fugue state. This dusting also serves to detach the skin from flesh and sinew. It is not an instantaneous process, but rather, the victim will walk for several days, while their skin sloughs off, inch by inch, the pixies gnawing on it like its a cape trailing on the floor, until the flesh is entirely exposed.

They will then leave the victim, sated. Typically after this, giant moths or butterflies will swarm the freshly-skinned victim, suckling on the blood before laying their eggs inside the victim's exposed flesh. After an incubation period of about nine months, during which time the victim's blood is completely sucked dry by the insects, fresh new butterflies will chew themselves through any possible orifice.

It is unknown why they choose to use skinned bodies rather than fresher ones, as logic would dictate that bodies with skin would be more durable.

Some have suggested that they simply like the blood. Occassionally, butterfly-humanoid hybrids have been formed from these parasitic relations. These humanoids are short-lived, and are protected by their impossibly colossal siblings till their deaths, upon which they themselves are melted down by a digestive liquid in their siblings' feeding tubes. They are then consumed entirely.

The spiders are more straightforward. They keep to themselves in giant, glimmering stalactite caves that look akin to the starry skies. Should anyone not under the High Lord's protection enter, they are quickly bound in endless silk webbing. In a few hours they are melted into shimmering liquid crystal that they utilize as a food source. The silk is then discarded outside their caves, and is a highly demanded quantity in Prythian for an export, rivalling the Night Court's own silk trade. Previous High Lords attempted to steal the crystals for use in gemstone trade, but were killed for their insolence and found with their eyes, ears, tongues (and in some particularly disconcerting cases, their cocks and inner anal walls) transformed into hard crystal from the inside.

No further attempts have been made to harvest the crystal substance, and any suggestion to try again is typically met with either horror or ridicule out of the sheer stupidity of the notion.

Other noteworthy creatures include: trees that wrap around prey till they are subsumed into the bark, honeybees whose venom causes their victims to undergo significant physical deterioration, turning into a puddle of golden resin that is sold all over Prythian for its healing properties and uses in construction, as well as a food item in its own right (one of Spring's most popular and highly demanded exports. The bees produce the resin even without prey), grasshoppers who rip their prey to thirty tiny pieces all over the Forest, and more.

The non-insectoid animals in Spring are numerous, but aside from being exceptionally large and more lustful beasts than their mortal counterparts, there is nothing particularly noteworthy about them. Rivers flow all throughout Spring, clean and cool, and act as the main suppliers of water. These rivers host far too many aquatic marvels to name. Octopi that produce different kinds of dye depending on what they are fed (used by tailors and painters often), sea snakes whose shed skins produce the highest quality leather, crocodiles that are a popular sort of pet for nobility (something they share with fifty-headed owls, Argosian Peacocks that have fifty eyes, firethrowing foxes, the parasitic butterflies, et cetera).

The flora in Spring is also of some note. Most flowers, fruit, and plants (even plain grass) in the forest will heal any minor ailment or injury, as well as provide a small boost of energy. This effect is not seen in the vegetation in the more civilized regions, though agricultural yields (Spring's main export) are almost ten times what one would find in the other Courts or in the human realms. Spring is the most important food source in Prythian, with the Autumn Court being its only rival due to its mix of low costs and high yield.

The Court That Twists

PEOPLE

There is very little of civility to be found amidst the Spring Court. Only a few towns abound, and the High Lord's manor. These towns are, like the Forest, filled with far too many different kinds of Fae to name. Though most can be broadly classified by habitant, appearance, et cetera. All are connected to the High Lord, and in times of crisis or jubilance, may change their shapes to match his moods.

The Elemental Fae, typically water, wood, or stone-based. Dryads, water wraiths and nymphs, known for their exceptional beauty when calm (save for the wraiths) and their inability to drift far from where their habitants lay (again, save for the wraiths, who are able to travel through the inner currents of the Earth to any waterbody in Prythian). When angered, they will grow teeth and claws and will lunge at the object of their ire (unless the target is under the High Lord's protection. Even then, it is unwise to provoke them, as some may throw caution to the wind or be unaware, and by the time they are calmed it may be far too late).

Then there are the sylphs. Mischievous winged-creatures known for driving unprotected guests insane. You will never see them, only hear their madness-inducing laughter in the wind, or catch specks of silver in the corners of your eyes. They are known for playing pranks.

There are also the Beast Fae; animal-headed creatures with the bodies of men and women. Where these came from, it is unknown, but they have formed a community of their own within Spring. When angered, they will shift fully into their beastly states and attack whoever has drawn their rage. A particular kind of insectoid Fae also exist, though they are largely recluses who keep to their own kind.

There are also Fae who bear certain features of other animals (feathers, fur, scales, et cetera) but retain a mostly human appearance. They will often have similar mannerisms to their animal forms, but are far more social and open-minded than their animal-headed counterpats.

The other sort of Fae are almost humanlike in appearance, though their skin may be barklike or of a different pigment. When angered (or when sharing in their High Lord's anger), they have no particular change save for a spectral glow emanating from underneath their skin, claws sharper than knives, and giant, sharklike teeth. When calm they are no different than the High Fae.

ECONOMY

As mentioned before, Spring trades mostly in agricultural goods and this forms the bulk of its revenue. Furthermore, it makes revenue off of the honeylike substance the wild honeybees within the forest produce, as well as the silken material the spiders provide them with. There is little to no cost in exporting either of these two, and as such, profits abound. There is an annual tithing done as well, for which the punishment upon failure of payment is death.

However, the High Lord has not followed such a tradition in a long while and will instead only double and triple the payments owed. A debt with no interest.

THE REGION ITSELF

The weather is never constant in Spring, though always pleasant, be it cold, warm, wet, dry, whichever. Crops are protected from the unfortunate weather patterns.

ARCHITECTURE

Construction is deeply intwined with nature and the magic of the land. Vines are used alongside wood to hold up houses. A type of resin produced by a particular sort of tree (Earthbloods, with flowers made entirely of onyx and leaves of jade) is used in place of stone due to being much stronger. Fire is rarely used, with most preferring to use trapped fireflies or luminous flowers for lighting (these can be found all over Spring).

Buildings take on a variety of forms, but are made of Earthblood resin, wood, plants and vines. Most are small, though this is a matter of personal preference and need, as resources are not scarce. The High Lord's manor is likely one one of the most intricate buildings.

CULTURE AND LAWS

All animal and plant life is considered sacred in Spring. Even ants. That is not to say that killing is forbidden. However, anything that is killed must be made use of, as nature commands. A bug that is squashed must be taken outside to feed the soil, or it must be consumed.

Failure to do this, when discovered, will be met with hefty fines or even death depending on the sort of creature killed. Burning of the dead is forbidden and punishable by death. Bodies must be thrown into rivers, buried, utillized for ritual purposes, or consumed.

Sex is another thing that is considered sacred. Women and men alike enjoy it often, with little to no shame. However, prudishness is frowned on, as well as lack of desire and childlessness (this does not extend to same sex relations, as magical means exist for these couples to bear children). Childlessness, however, is frowned on (though not illegal by any means). Wine, sex, and other indulgences are accepted as a celebration of life and sensation. Abortions are a deeply contested topic, being illegal up until the latest High Lord stepped in and legalized them.

Even then, they are seen as shameful by most. A waste of a life.

Those who are unable to indulge themselves or survive on their own (the blind, the deaf, asexual, et cetera) are met with pity and condescension, with many families once having preferred to abandon such children to the wilderness. However, this was strictly forbidden, and the current High Lord has now made the punishment for it death by burning. Murder (outside of self-defense) is also treated the same way, as is rape. Death by fire is seen as shameful, a permanent withdrawal of the body from nature.

Any mutilation of the sensory organs or genitalia (barring ritual purposes) is also considered a crime, be it consensual or not. However, there is no punishment for it if it is consensual, as most who choose to go through with it (or with assisted suicide) are seen as pitiable rather than criminals.

Should it be unconsensual, the punishment is for the same organ to be taken from the culprit, and grafted onto the victim should they desire it.

CLOTHING

Clothing is largely open and revealing, as well as light both in color and weight. Jackets with no buttons, open vests and shirts, slit trousers, et cetera. Ornaments are usually made of silk, flowers and resin rather than gemstones. Pearls, however, are common amidst the aristocracy. The wearing of gemstones and metal is considered a sign of wealth, due to most of it needing to be imported from other courts. Metal is rare in Spring, and most of it is used for weapons-making (archers are rare due to this reason, and instead, warriors prefer swords, spears, et cetera, that can be reused multiple times. For ranged weapons, typically poisoned blowdarts fashioned from the spines of venomous animals suffice, as these are able to pierce most metals and the sylphs wil typically manipulate the winds to ensure the target is hit).

Thanks for reading! I decided the Spring Court should actually be scary and unnatural instead of a quiant little village with some supernatural elements. Explanation in the comments!

Explanation:

So! Why did I do this? Well, I've heard all about how Spring Court feels more Fae than Velaris ever did, and okay, yeah, I can see that. But it's still not Fae-enough, so I figured I'd fix that. This was inspired both by the Velaris-version of this post (Here) and a Lucien/Tamlin fanfic I found on Ao3 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/64665589/chapters/166120183).

Before beginning this, I thought: what does Spring represent to me? Immediately, the themes I thought of were change, transformation, as well as hedonism and the enjoyment of life, intertwined with the natural order. I wanted the Fae in Spring to seem more animalistic than human, and I hope that came off well. I also wanted the Court to seem like an actually dangerous place, rather than the equivalent of a national park with some mildly concerning attractions.

A lot of the creatures I created are in some way related to transformation, as is the Forest itself. Meanwhile the culture is very hedonistic, devoted to the enjoyment of life. I probably played hard, fast and loose with canon (but look, so does Sarah, okay?), but I personally think this is more interesting than what Sarah created. Just to clarify, Calanmai does still happen in my version of Spring, but I just couldn't be bothered to include it since it's still so long. It's pretty much the same as in canon, but with a caveat where anyone who does not wish to fuck the High Lord must be within their homes by the time the mating cry is heard (they can enjoy the festivities till then, but then must return to their homes)

Otherwise it is no fault of the High Lord if he chooses them to be his Maiden and they do not wish to mate (...yeah, it sucks, but the way Calanmai is written does come off that way. Tamlin himself doesn't seem capable of consenting or controlling himself when the magic takes hold, and while he'd likely be horrified once he woke up, there wouldn't really be anything he could do).

Most of the laws are based around enjoyment and indulgence, with the capital crimes (rape, murder, and maiming of one's sensory organs) being considered particularly horrible because they prohibit someone from enjoying the fruits of what nature gives them. Rape destroys a person's relationship with sex in an almost irreparable manner. Murder deprives them of the ability to reap life's gifts. I don't think 'maiming' needs an explanation here.

The thing about abortion is something I didn't want to add, but I thought was fitting for a court that I wanted to be rooted in animalistic behavior.

If you like my stuff, you can join my subreddit (link's here!). I'm contemplating writing up something like this for every court, ngl, so if you want to keep track of it, join the sub!

(INSPIRED BY THIS)

Getting There: Through The Forest of Faces

The Wall is hours and days behind you, seemingly lost to you in an endless haze of half-forgotten memory. You hadn't even noticed when it happened, too preoccupied by the fear, the horror, of being past that singular barrier that barred you from the monsters it hindered.

It had been like diving into a pool of water. One second, the land, the sky, it surrounds you. Looms over you. And the next, you are submerged and drowning. But what differentiates a pool of water from the region Beyond The Wall is that you can always swim back to the surface.

Here, you do not even know which way would count as up.

You have been trudging on through the forest for days. Or it is weeks, or it is hours and seconds and minutes and years. It's rare that anyone truly knows.

But you have been trudging on. Even as your skin hardens and your blood turns sluggish and slow. Even as each of your fingers extend into leafy branches, your eyes implode before ballooning into ripe, pinkish fruit, and your toes lengthen, the nails drilling through the topsoil to become hardy roots. Soon you will be just be another face amidst the hundreds of nameless trees that lingered too long, too much, without someone to guide them through the Forest of Faces.

Sometimes, a few stronger souls are luckier. They are not rooted to the ground, but are instead taken by the air. Their skin grows soft, downy feathers, and strong, wide feathers. Their bones shrink, the marrow leaking from every orifice in their skin. Their faces explode and knit themselves back together in an agonizingly slow process. Their feet turn scabbed, then scaly with orange scales. Their toe nails elongate into talons.

They are lucky.

They can always fly back to the human realms. Most are recognizable by the brand of golden feathers that permeates their wings. The sentries know not to hunt those (though once upon a time they were a grand delicacy). And of course, the unluckiest ones are simply transformed into game. These have no branding, no mark to distinguish them from the ordinary beasts.

These are caught and killed as all animals are.

Such is the risk you take in the Forest of Faces, guideless and alone.

Once the fruits of your eyes would've been relished with gusto, turned into sauces or fermented to form a particularly sweet, euphoria-inducing wine. Children (Fae children) would skip merrily into the trees to pluck the fruit when they were hungry. The birds were a delicacy. The High Lord unfortunately banned all this, citing it as savagery, and orders his sentries to turn around any who find themselves lost in the Forest, even his enemies. Should they be unable to, they are to escort them to him. And if unable to do this, he considers a quick death a mercy compared to what would await them, twisted into unfamiliar shapes and bizarre, merciless senses.

Inhabitants Within The Forest

Not for nothing is the Court considered that of Spring. Spring is transformation. It is renewal and destruction. And as such, its inhabitants are as varied as its dual natures. The Forest itself hosts grand creatures.

The Suriel that, once bound, shall answer any question. But it is said that it never forgives a slight, and should you bear hubris enough to trap it, it shall hunt you down whenever you should enter the Forest again. To ward it off, one must carry a bag of rice or some other countable but large quantity at all times.

Toss it at the ground. It shall have no choice but to cease its motion, crouching low against the ground to count each individual piece or grain or even speck of ink.

Under no circumstances must you attempt to trap or kill it again.

The types, categories, and species that reside in the Forest of Faces number too far for any sort of useful taxonomy. However, there are some that one must be especially wary of. Pixies (pinkish, furry things with too many teeth and eyes) will sprinkle a sort of dust on unseeing prey, that pacifies them and lulls them into a dreamlike fugue state. This dusting also serves to detach the skin from flesh and sinew. It is not an instantaneous process, but rather, the victim will walk for several days, while their skin sloughs off, inch by inch, the pixies gnawing on it like its a cape trailing on the floor, until the flesh is entirely exposed.

They will then leave the victim, sated. Typically after this, giant moths or butterflies will swarm the freshly-skinned victim, suckling on the blood before laying their eggs inside the victim's exposed flesh. After an incubation period of about nine months, during which time the victim's blood is completely sucked dry by the insects, fresh new butterflies will chew themselves through any possible orifice.

It is unknown why they choose to use skinned bodies rather than fresher ones, as logic would dictate that bodies with skin would be more durable.

Some have suggested that they simply like the blood. Occassionally, butterfly-humanoid hybrids have been formed from these parasitic relations. These humanoids are short-lived, and are protected by their impossibly colossal siblings till their deaths, upon which they themselves are melted down by a digestive liquid in their siblings' feeding tubes. They are then consumed entirely.

The spiders are more straightforward. They keep to themselves in giant, glimmering stalactite caves that look akin to the starry skies. Should anyone not under the High Lord's protection enter, they are quickly bound in endless silk webbing. In a few hours they are melted into shimmering liquid crystal that they utilize as a food source. The silk is then discarded outside their caves, and is a highly demanded quantity in Prythian for an export, rivalling the Night Court's own silk trade. Previous High Lords attempted to steal the crystals for use in gemstone trade, but were killed for their insolence and found with their eyes, ears, tongues (and in some particularly disconcerting cases, their cocks and inner anal walls) transformed into hard crystal from the inside.

No further attempts have been made to harvest the crystal substance, and any suggestion to try again is typically met with either horror or ridicule out of the sheer stupidity of the notion.

Other noteworthy creatures include: trees that wrap around prey till they are subsumed into the bark, honeybees whose venom causes their victims to undergo significant physical deterioration, turning into a puddle of golden resin that is sold all over Prythian for its healing properties and uses in construction, as well as a food item in its own right (one of Spring's most popular and highly demanded exports. The bees produce the resin even without prey), grasshoppers who rip their prey to thirty tiny pieces all over the Forest, and more.

The non-insectoid animals in Spring are numerous, but aside from being exceptionally large and more lustful beasts than their mortal counterparts, there is nothing particularly noteworthy about them. Rivers flow all throughout Spring, clean and cool, and act as the main suppliers of water. These rivers host far too many aquatic marvels to name. Octopi that produce different kinds of dye depending on what they are fed (used by tailors and painters often), sea snakes whose shed skins produce the highest quality leather, crocodiles that are a popular sort of pet for nobility (something they share with fifty-headed owls, Argosian Peacocks that have fifty eyes, firethrowing foxes, the parasitic butterflies, et cetera).

The flora in Spring is also of some note. Most flowers, fruit, and plants (even plain grass) in the forest will heal any minor ailment or injury, as well as provide a small boost of energy. This effect is not seen in the vegetation in the more civilized regions, though agricultural yields (Spring's main export) are almost ten times what one would find in the other Courts or in the human realms. Spring is the most important food source in Prythian, with the Autumn Court being its only rival due to its mix of low costs and high yield.

The Court That Twists

PEOPLE

There is very little of civility to be found amidst the Spring Court. Only a few towns abound, and the High Lord's manor. These towns are, like the Forest, filled with far too many different kinds of Fae to name. Though most can be broadly classified by habitant, appearance, et cetera. All are connected to the High Lord, and in times of crisis or jubilance, may change their shapes to match his moods.

The Elemental Fae, typically water, wood, or stone-based. Dryads, water wraiths and nymphs, known for their exceptional beauty when calm (save for the wraiths) and their inability to drift far from where their habitants lay (again, save for the wraiths, who are able to travel through the inner currents of the Earth to any waterbody in Prythian). When angered, they will grow teeth and claws and will lunge at the object of their ire (unless the target is under the High Lord's protection. Even then, it is unwise to provoke them, as some may throw caution to the wind or be unaware, and by the time they are calmed it may be far too late).

Then there are the sylphs. Mischievous winged-creatures known for driving unprotected guests insane. You will never see them, only hear their madness-inducing laughter in the wind, or catch specks of silver in the corners of your eyes. They are known for playing pranks.

There are also the Beast Fae; animal-headed creatures with the bodies of men and women. Where these came from, it is unknown, but they have formed a community of their own within Spring. When angered, they will shift fully into their beastly states and attack whoever has drawn their rage. A particular kind of insectoid Fae also exist, though they are largely recluses who keep to their own kind.

There are also Fae who bear certain features of other animals (feathers, fur, scales, et cetera) but retain a mostly human appearance. They will often have similar mannerisms to their animal forms, but are far more social and open-minded than their animal-headed counterpats.

The other sort of Fae are almost humanlike in appearance, though their skin may be barklike or of a different pigment. When angered (or when sharing in their High Lord's anger), they have no particular change save for a spectral glow emanating from underneath their skin, claws sharper than knives, and giant, sharklike teeth. When calm they are no different than the High Fae.

ECONOMY

As mentioned before, Spring trades mostly in agricultural goods and this forms the bulk of its revenue. Furthermore, it makes revenue off of the honeylike substance the wild honeybees within the forest produce, as well as the silken material the spiders provide them with. There is little to no cost in exporting either of these two, and as such, profits abound. There is an annual tithing done as well, for which the punishment upon failure of payment is death.

However, the High Lord has not followed such a tradition in a long while and will instead only double and triple the payments owed. A debt with no interest.

THE REGION ITSELF

The weather is never constant in Spring, though always pleasant, be it cold, warm, wet, dry, whichever. Crops are protected from the unfortunate weather patterns.

ARCHITECTURE

Construction is deeply intwined with nature and the magic of the land. Vines are used alongside wood to hold up houses. A type of resin produced by a particular sort of tree (Earthbloods, with flowers made entirely of onyx and leaves of jade) is used in place of stone due to being much stronger. Fire is rarely used, with most preferring to use trapped fireflies or luminous flowers for lighting (these can be found all over Spring).

Buildings take on a variety of forms, but are made of Earthblood resin, wood, plants and vines. Most are small, though this is a matter of personal preference and need, as resources are not scarce. The High Lord's manor is likely one one of the most intricate buildings.

CULTURE AND LAWS

All animal and plant life is considered sacred in Spring. Even ants. That is not to say that killing is forbidden. However, anything that is killed must be made use of, as nature commands. A bug that is squashed must be taken outside to feed the soil, or it must be consumed.

Failure to do this, when discovered, will be met with hefty fines or even death depending on the sort of creature killed. Burning of the dead is forbidden and punishable by death. Bodies must be thrown into rivers, buried, utillized for ritual purposes, or consumed.

Sex is another thing that is considered sacred. Women and men alike enjoy it often, with little to no shame. However, prudishness is frowned on, as well as lack of desire and childlessness (this does not extend to same sex relations, as magical means exist for these couples to bear children). Childlessness, however, is frowned on (though not illegal by any means). Wine, sex, and other indulgences are accepted as a celebration of life and sensation. Abortions are a deeply contested topic, being illegal up until the latest High Lord stepped in and legalized them.

Even then, they are seen as shameful by most. A waste of a life.

Those who are unable to indulge themselves or survive on their own (the blind, the deaf, asexual, et cetera) are met with pity and condescension, with many families once having preferred to abandon such children to the wilderness. However, this was strictly forbidden, and the current High Lord has now made the punishment for it death by burning. Murder (outside of self-defense) is also treated the same way, as is rape. Death by fire is seen as shameful, a permanent withdrawal of the body from nature.

Any mutilation of the sensory organs or genitalia (barring ritual purposes) is also considered a crime, be it consensual or not. However, there is no punishment for it if it is consensual, as most who choose to go through with it (or with assisted suicide) are seen as pitiable rather than criminals.

Should it be unconsensual, the punishment is for the same organ to be taken from the culprit, and grafted onto the victim should they desire it.

CLOTHING

Clothing is largely open and revealing, as well as light both in color and weight. Jackets with no buttons, open vests and shirts, slit trousers, et cetera. Ornaments are usually made of silk, flowers and resin rather than gemstones. Pearls, however, are common amidst the aristocracy. The wearing of gemstones and metal is considered a sign of wealth, due to most of it needing to be imported from other courts. Metal is rare in Spring, and most of it is used for weapons-making (archers are rare due to this reason, and instead, warriors prefer swords, spears, et cetera, that can be reused multiple times. For ranged weapons, typically poisoned blowdarts fashioned from the spines of venomous animals suffice, as these are able to pierce most metals and the sylphs wil typically manipulate the winds to ensure the target is hit).

Thanks for reading! I decided the Spring Court should actually be scary and unnatural instead of a quiant little village with some supernatural elements. Explanation in the comments!

(INSPIRED BY THIS)

Getting There: Through The Forest of Faces

The Wall is hours and days behind you, seemingly lost to you in an endless haze of half-forgotten memory. You hadn't even noticed when it happened, too preoccupied by the fear, the horror, of being past that singular barrier that barred you from the monsters it hindered.

It had been like diving into a pool of water. One second, the land, the sky, it surrounds you. Looms over you. And the next, you are submerged and drowning. But what differentiates a pool of water from the region Beyond The Wall is that you can always swim back to the surface.

Here, you do not even know which way would count as up.

You have been trudging on through the forest for days. Or it is weeks, or it is hours and seconds and minutes and years. It's rare that anyone truly knows.

But you have been trudging on. Even as your skin hardens and your blood turns sluggish and slow. Even as each of your fingers extend into leafy branches, your eyes implode before ballooning into ripe, pinkish fruit, and your toes lengthen, the nails drilling through the topsoil to become hardy roots. Soon you will be just be another face amidst the hundreds of nameless trees that lingered too long, too much, without someone to guide them through the Forest of Faces.

Sometimes, a few stronger souls are luckier. They are not rooted to the ground, but are instead taken by the air. Their skin grows soft, downy feathers, and strong, wide feathers. Their bones shrink, the marrow leaking from every orifice in their skin. Their faces explode and knit themselves back together in an agonizingly slow process. Their feet turn scabbed, then scaly with orange scales. Their toe nails elongate into talons.

They are lucky.

They can always fly back to the human realms. Most are recognizable by the brand of golden feathers that permeates their wings. The sentries know not to hunt those (though once upon a time they were a grand delicacy). And of course, the unluckiest ones are simply transformed into game. These have no branding, no mark to distinguish them from the ordinary beasts.

These are caught and killed as all animals are.

Such is the risk you take in the Forest of Faces, guideless and alone.

Once the fruits of your eyes would've been relished with gusto, turned into sauces or fermented to form a particularly sweet, euphoria-inducing wine. Children (Fae children) would skip merrily into the trees to pluck the fruit when they were hungry. The birds were a delicacy. The High Lord unfortunately banned all this, citing it as savagery, and orders his sentries to turn around any who find themselves lost in the Forest, even his enemies. Should they be unable to, they are to escort them to him. And if unable to do this, he considers a quick death a mercy compared to what would await them, twisted into unfamiliar shapes and bizarre, merciless senses.

Inhabitants Within The Forest

Not for nothing is the Court considered that of Spring. Spring is transformation. It is renewal and destruction. And as such, its inhabitants are as varied as its dual natures. The Forest itself hosts grand creatures.

The Suriel that, once bound, shall answer any question. But it is said that it never forgives a slight, and should you bear hubris enough to trap it, it shall hunt you down whenever you should enter the Forest again. To ward it off, one must carry a bag of rice or some other countable but large quantity at all times.

Toss it at the ground. It shall have no choice but to cease its motion, crouching low against the ground to count each individual piece or grain or even speck of ink.

Under no circumstances must you attempt to trap or kill it again.

The types, categories, and species that reside in the Forest of Faces number too far for any sort of useful taxonomy. However, there are some that one must be especially wary of. Pixies (pinkish, furry things with too many teeth and eyes) will sprinkle a sort of dust on unseeing prey, that pacifies them and lulls them into a dreamlike fugue state. This dusting also serves to detach the skin from flesh and sinew. It is not an instantaneous process, but rather, the victim will walk for several days, while their skin sloughs off, inch by inch, the pixies gnawing on it like its a cape trailing on the floor, until the flesh is entirely exposed.

They will then leave the victim, sated. Typically after this, giant moths or butterflies will swarm the freshly-skinned victim, suckling on the blood before laying their eggs inside the victim's exposed flesh. After an incubation period of about nine months, during which time the victim's blood is completely sucked dry by the insects, fresh new butterflies will chew themselves through any possible orifice.

It is unknown why they choose to use skinned bodies rather than fresher ones, as logic would dictate that bodies with skin would be more durable.

Some have suggested that they simply like the blood. Occassionally, butterfly-humanoid hybrids have been formed from these parasitic relations. These humanoids are short-lived, and are protected by their impossibly colossal siblings till their deaths, upon which they themselves are melted down by a digestive liquid in their siblings' feeding tubes. They are then consumed entirely.

The spiders are more straightforward. They keep to themselves in giant, glimmering stalactite caves that look akin to the starry skies. Should anyone not under the High Lord's protection enter, they are quickly bound in endless silk webbing. In a few hours they are melted into shimmering liquid crystal that they utilize as a food source. The silk is then discarded outside their caves, and is a highly demanded quantity in Prythian for an export, rivalling the Night Court's own silk trade. Previous High Lords attempted to steal the crystals for use in gemstone trade, but were killed for their insolence and found with their eyes, ears, tongues (and in some particularly disconcerting cases, their cocks and inner anal walls) transformed into hard crystal from the inside.

No further attempts have been made to harvest the crystal substance, and any suggestion to try again is typically met with either horror or ridicule out of the sheer stupidity of the notion.

Other noteworthy creatures include: trees that wrap around prey till they are subsumed into the bark, honeybees whose venom causes their victims to undergo significant physical deterioration, turning into a puddle of golden resin that is sold all over Prythian for its healing properties and uses in construction, as well as a food item in its own right (one of Spring's most popular and highly demanded exports. The bees produce the resin even without prey), grasshoppers who rip their prey to thirty tiny pieces all over the Forest, and more.

The non-insectoid animals in Spring are numerous, but aside from being exceptionally large and more lustful beasts than their mortal counterparts, there is nothing particularly noteworthy about them. Rivers flow all throughout Spring, clean and cool, and act as the main suppliers of water. These rivers host far too many aquatic marvels to name. Octopi that produce different kinds of dye depending on what they are fed (used by tailors and painters often), sea snakes whose shed skins produce the highest quality leather, crocodiles that are a popular sort of pet for nobility (something they share with fifty-headed owls, Argosian Peacocks that have fifty eyes, firethrowing foxes, the parasitic butterflies, et cetera).

The flora in Spring is also of some note. Most flowers, fruit, and plants (even plain grass) in the forest will heal any minor ailment or injury, as well as provide a small boost of energy. This effect is not seen in the vegetation in the more civilized regions, though agricultural yields (Spring's main export) are almost ten times what one would find in the other Courts or in the human realms. Spring is the most important food source in Prythian, with the Autumn Court being its only rival due to its mix of low costs and high yield.

The Court That Twists

PEOPLE

There is very little of civility to be found amidst the Spring Court. Only a few towns abound, and the High Lord's manor. These towns are, like the Forest, filled with far too many different kinds of Fae to name. Though most can be broadly classified by habitant, appearance, et cetera. All are connected to the High Lord, and in times of crisis or jubilance, may change their shapes to match his moods.

The Elemental Fae, typically water, wood, or stone-based. Dryads, water wraiths and nymphs, known for their exceptional beauty when calm (save for the wraiths) and their inability to drift far from where their habitants lay (again, save for the wraiths, who are able to travel through the inner currents of the Earth to any waterbody in Prythian). When angered, they will grow teeth and claws and will lunge at the object of their ire (unless the target is under the High Lord's protection. Even then, it is unwise to provoke them, as some may throw caution to the wind or be unaware, and by the time they are calmed it may be far too late).

Then there are the sylphs. Mischievous winged-creatures known for driving unprotected guests insane. You will never see them, only hear their madness-inducing laughter in the wind, or catch specks of silver in the corners of your eyes. They are known for playing pranks.

There are also the Beast Fae; animal-headed creatures with the bodies of men and women. Where these came from, it is unknown, but they have formed a community of their own within Spring. When angered, they will shift fully into their beastly states and attack whoever has drawn their rage. A particular kind of insectoid Fae also exist, though they are largely recluses who keep to their own kind.

There are also Fae who bear certain features of other animals (feathers, fur, scales, et cetera) but retain a mostly human appearance. They will often have similar mannerisms to their animal forms, but are far more social and open-minded than their animal-headed counterpats.

The other sort of Fae are almost humanlike in appearance, though their skin may be barklike or of a different pigment. When angered (or when sharing in their High Lord's anger), they have no particular change save for a spectral glow emanating from underneath their skin, claws sharper than knives, and giant, sharklike teeth. When calm they are no different than the High Fae.

ECONOMY

As mentioned before, Spring trades mostly in agricultural goods and this forms the bulk of its revenue. Furthermore, it makes revenue off of the honeylike substance the wild honeybees within the forest produce, as well as the silken material the spiders provide them with. There is little to no cost in exporting either of these two, and as such, profits abound. There is an annual tithing done as well, for which the punishment upon failure of payment is death.

However, the High Lord has not followed such a tradition in a long while and will instead only double and triple the payments owed. A debt with no interest.

THE REGION ITSELF

The weather is never constant in Spring, though always pleasant, be it cold, warm, wet, dry, whichever. Crops are protected from the unfortunate weather patterns.

ARCHITECTURE

Construction is deeply intwined with nature and the magic of the land. Vines are used alongside wood to hold up houses. A type of resin produced by a particular sort of tree (Earthbloods, with flowers made entirely of onyx and leaves of jade) is used in place of stone due to being much stronger. Fire is rarely used, with most preferring to use trapped fireflies or luminous flowers for lighting (these can be found all over Spring).

Buildings take on a variety of forms, but are made of Earthblood resin, wood, plants and vines. Most are small, though this is a matter of personal preference and need, as resources are not scarce. The High Lord's manor is likely one one of the most intricate buildings.

CULTURE AND LAWS

All animal and plant life is considered sacred in Spring. Even ants. That is not to say that killing is forbidden. However, anything that is killed must be made use of, as nature commands. A bug that is squashed must be taken outside to feed the soil, or it must be consumed.

Failure to do this, when discovered, will be met with hefty fines or even death depending on the sort of creature killed. Burning of the dead is forbidden and punishable by death. Bodies must be thrown into rivers, buried, utillized for ritual purposes, or consumed.

Sex is another thing that is considered sacred. Women and men alike enjoy it often, with little to no shame. However, prudishness is frowned on, as well as lack of desire and childlessness (this does not extend to same sex relations, as magical means exist for these couples to bear children). Childlessness, however, is frowned on (though not illegal by any means). Wine, sex, and other indulgences are accepted as a celebration of life and sensation. Abortions are a deeply contested topic, being illegal up until the latest High Lord stepped in and legalized them.

Even then, they are seen as shameful by most. A waste of a life.

Those who are unable to indulge themselves or survive on their own (the blind, the deaf, asexual, et cetera) are met with pity and condescension, with many families once having preferred to abandon such children to the wilderness. However, this was strictly forbidden, and the current High Lord has now made the punishment for it death by burning. Murder (outside of self-defense) is also treated the same way, as is rape. Death by fire is seen as shameful, a permanent withdrawal of the body from nature.

Any mutilation of the sensory organs or genitalia (barring ritual purposes) is also considered a crime, be it consensual or not. However, there is no punishment for it if it is consensual, as most who choose to go through with it (or with assisted suicide) are seen as pitiable rather than criminals.

Should it be unconsensual, the punishment is for the same organ to be taken from the culprit, and grafted onto the victim should they desire it.

CLOTHING

Clothing is largely open and revealing, as well as light both in color and weight. Jackets with no buttons, open vests and shirts, slit trousers, et cetera. Ornaments are usually made of silk, flowers and resin rather than gemstones. Pearls, however, are common amidst the aristocracy. The wearing of gemstones and metal is considered a sign of wealth, due to most of it needing to be imported from other courts. Metal is rare in Spring, and most of it is used for weapons-making (archers are rare due to this reason, and instead, warriors prefer swords, spears, et cetera, that can be reused multiple times. For ranged weapons, typically poisoned blowdarts fashioned from the spines of venomous animals suffice, as these are able to pierce most metals and the sylphs wil typically manipulate the winds to ensure the target is hit).

Thanks for reading! I decided the Spring Court should actually be scary and unnatural instead of a quiant little village with some supernatural elements. Explanation in the comments!

It's 17 days till R-day and I'm scared.

So, I think the thresholds for an A will be 35. I'm basing this off O/N 2025 where the threshold was 45, and since F/M was exponentially harder. I want a C so for me, I think the thresholds for a C will be 23 in 32 (and 35 in 42).

Saying this since thresholds usually (from what I can tell for Paper 32) differ by grades by at least 6 marks (for 32). So if the threshold for an A is 35 a C will be 23. And then if thresholds for an A in mech (which was easy) is 45, it'll be about 35 for a C (usual thresholds are around 30-32).

So for a C, knowing the thresholds for AS last year was 78, I'll need about 136 marks. Round it up to 140.

'I...am free.'

'I...am mobile.'

'I am...I am...I am...'

Dr. Madorna says 'I am...' statements are wonderful. They are strong and not weak, unyielding and not bendy, an immovable wall against which a tide of madness and distorted memory may crash and crash, shattering against its unshakeable certainty to become a placid sea of clear, untortured thought.

Dr. Madorna says many things. Raven tries to pay attention. He really does; he swears, he does!

And he remembers a few things too! He remembers his name is Raven Calore, he reembers his favorite shade of his favorite color: pearlescent white, not to be confused with harsh, retina-searing marble white, or the boring, too-dull moon-white. Not bone-white either, though he considers that a rather yellowish sort of gray instead.

Pearlescent white. Like glittering, sparkly pearls; the same shade as his mother's necklace, bedecked as she always is in those marine gemstones. He smiles at the memory.

Dr. Madorna is saying something. He can catch sight of pale, thin lips moving and even thinner hands gesticulating at him. Those hands are on a chery oak desk, and have fingers with nails whose paints are slowly chipping away from a hot pink to something that vaguely resembles the insides of a human skull.

That reminds him...

His favorite things to eat are breath mints!

Yes! Fresh, lime-green mints! They make kisses sweet! He recalls having heard that somewhere, but he isn't sure.

He furrows his brows, his teeth biting the inside of his cheek as he attempts to work it out. Who taught him about mints? He scrunches up his face in quiet exertion, his mind straining to move, to stir itself, to crawl painstakingly through whatever mist of immobility and lethargy the drugs constantly inflict upon him.

To send that faint, flickering pulse of electrical activity to whichever writing mass of maggots (no, not maggots! He chides himself. Neurons!) holds the memory captive. Imprisons it, bars it from the scorching scrutiny of truth and light.

Light.
He remembers light.

Not the pale, buzzing carcass of it that radiates from above to cast both himself and Dr. Mandorna in a sickly, radioactive glow. But real light. Not corpse-light. Sunlight. Living-light. He remembers it. And the warmth of it.

Dr. Madorna is furious when she realizes he has not been paying attention. Her pale, bony hands lift up needle-like fingers that slam hard into his cheek. The foggy realm around him finds an abrupt clarity as he tumbles to the hardwood floor, a sudden cry of pain cut short by her screeching.

Pain.

He remembers that too.

But from where?

She screams and snarls and shrieks, a thousand and one insults spewing from her mouth like a torrent of shrapnel, broken glass, and acid; each word is a razor-blade, meant to cut, mmeant to scar. He is sixteen, he should know better, his father is paying a ludicrous sum to see his beloved son cured. This...this abominable, unnatural curse.

"The boy is dead!" she yells, "And the world of God is all the better for it!"

And then she spits. Something yellow and vile shoots from her mouth onto the blood-red carpet. The large, oakwood doors swing open to reveal two burlesque, uniformed men who grab him by the elbows none-too-gently.

She points at him, revulsion dripping from her tongue. Her long, curved nails now have a fresh splash of red to them. "Get that thing out of my sight!"

Something cold is trickling down his cheek.

"Get it out!"

The boy is take to his room. It's at the very end of a long hallway, with multitudes of doors on either side of it and an equally very long carpet. Each door has a golden cross on it, to which a figure of a bleeding, half-clothed man is affixed.

Sometimes, when he's being taken for cousneling, he hears screaming from inside. Other times, it's crying.

He's dragged to his room again. As always, his feet loll uselessly behind him. He isn't sure when that became habitual, but some still-aware piece of him finds an almost euphoric joy in resistance. His eyes catch on the unclothed (mostly) figure on his door, and he laughs.

He finds joy in that too.

Not all of him; there are parts of him that were taught to fear it, and they do. But mostly, he just laughs. Wildly. Maniacally. Loudly. Until the escorts toss him inside and wipe off their hands as if they've touched something rotten. They sneer.

He laughs even more (it is so funny, their ignorance), and the door locks with a loud slam

He is alone.

"Not alone."

What was that?
He whirls around, surprised. The room is austere as always. The bedframe is neatly made; the bedsheets are flat, no humps for an intruder to hide under. The bars on the window are secure as ever, only allowing the warm, weak living-light to enter in alternating rows of brightness and the pitch-black.

"You're never alone, as long as you remember."

What?

He wants to scream, strangely lucid in this bizarre moment. It is foreign, this lucidity. This awareness. He does not like it, does not like the sensation creeping over him, scuttling like roaches up his spine. He is hurting. His chest is heavy, and cold, but somehow empty.

What do I need to-

"Me," the voice responds, relaxed yet so sorrowful.

"Me, who you forgot. Me, who you killed. Me, whose skull he bashed open with that hammer-"

"Stop!" Raven shouts, voice frayed like an aging rope. He does not want to remember. He does not want to go back, he wants the drugs, he wants so much, he is greedy and lustful and ravenous and selfish-

"Come back to me," the voice croons. "And all this pain shall fade. You will be free of it."

"How?" Raven sniffles (when had he begun crying?) "Tell me how..."

"Take off the bedsheets from the frame's cover," it instructs, and his fingers comply thogh he does not demand them to. Are they his fingers at all now? He wonders.

What determines the ownership of a limb, of a hand, of a heart, of a life? Whoever it is attached to, or whoever it obeys?

The sheets fall away.

The frame is wooden, and there is a single rusty nail sticking out of it.

The voice is quiet.

Raven remembers.

So he crouches. He twists and turns and bends. And he slams his head into the nail. Once, then twice, then thrice (how many times had Father done it? Twenty? Thirty? Till the insides spilled outside and Raven wept and hurled). Until he reaches forty and it all comes to an abrupt stop.

And he is free.

(Thoughts? For background and some inspiration info, you can check it out here in this comment. https://www.reddit.com/r/RavenKellisWrites/comments/1svjw80/comment/oi8vjd9/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

You can join my subreddit if you like my writing! Swear I'm not trying to advertise, lmao. Okay, I am, but I'm also curious as to what people think of this since I wrote it in such a rush. I had about one hour and 900 words max).