Ani Was Writing

WARNING! LONG POST! Before you start, some context. This is a character study from a long time ago. A pair of aspiring writers was streaming and I happened to be watching. After some conversation and a few more streams, they invited me to join them for a writing session. This is the result. Two authors that went back and forth in a Google Doc, playing with characters. Unfortunately, these individuals stopped streaming, and I haven't heard from them in quite some time. If you're still out their, friendos, I would love to chat with you again.  Please enjoy this little piece of chaos. ~  Setting: A crowded medieval-style market, filled with stalls of various wares. People are walking around, sampling foods, buying goods, the usual business of markets.  ~ A single woman stands in a pavilion area. Long, blood red hair with matching eyes; pale skin contrasting black business suit; bare feet. She keeps an eye out for someone, but it is not sure who. Amethyst: [muttering to herse...

  1 January 2018   I remember -initially- feeling a little overwhelmed by the prospect of 2018. Maybe it was the weariness 2017 left with me. Maybe it was what I did before my folks and I welcomed in the new year with noisemakers and peach champagne. All I remember is returning to my computer and feeling a sense that something was gone -or maybe coming- and I was not prepared for it.   This feeling mellows as I pull out all my crafting stuff for my new bullet journal: cardstock for decoration, enough washi tape to start off, some stickers with the first six months of the year in a mix of print and cursive writing, and a dotted journal with a few stickers lovingly stuck all over it. As I work and watch a gaming livestream, I feel better about this new year. Then I realize my usual work alarm is going off at 4:30 am. Then the one at 4:45 am. I turn them both off without thinking, then finally look up at the computer to see it was 5:00 am. A mistake to stay up until near daw...

 Hadley didn't even bother to look where he was shoveling, and we're glad he didn't. If it wasn't for his lazy thinking, we wouldn't be dreaming of vacation islands.   He just wanted to get the farm going. We traveled here far from home with our precious seeds shoved in our pockets. It is his job to get them going. He's been nurturing them since winter in that greenhouse. Now that the weather is just right, he went to go plant them and watch them grow into the beautiful harvest we had back at home. Instead, his shovel went through the ground and came up far wetter than anything we'd ever seen. So he ran into the house and started yelling for us, telling us that there was something in the ground and we needed to come see what was going on. Of course, I was in the house making dinner, so I didn't really understand what he was saying over the constant noise of the standing mixer. Instead, he ran up to find his father.    Zachary was sitting in his recliner ...

      So, this is my birthday month. And I am very tired. There is a lot going on right now, and I need my birthday month to be a little less stressful.      For this month, I am going to be bringing back some of the older blog posts that I did a long time ago. Almost a decade ago, from most of these pieces. Sort of a blast from the past for those who were curious about what I was writing about at the cusp of graduating college and beginning a new phase of my adult life. And some pieces may be even earlier than that, given how many times I restarted my blogging experience.      Welcome to the chaos this month. Enjoy the ride!  Peace and Strength,  Animus Custodius

  PR #082026 Reported on 29 August 2026 Project 1: Writing     Current Writing Project: Project Lilith          Current Status: Planning/Scattered Draft Phase     Current D&D Project: Custodius Continuum, Project Dungeons and Bitches           Current Status: 4 of 5 Preliminary Sessions Done, Preparing Session 5                    Secondary D&D Project: Custodius Continuum, Project Demons and Flames          Current Status: Preparing Session 1     Blog Posts Completed: 39 of 52 (Including Extra Blog Posts) Project 2: Weight Management     Current Weight: 237.4     Weight Loss/Gain: -0.5 in August (+4.8 in 2026)     Goal Weight: 180.0 Project 3: Crochet     Gifts/Commissions Completed: 5 of 5 Commissions, 0 of 5 Planned Gifts     Personal Projects Completed: 1

*knocking* "FBI, open up!" "Sir, this is the Void of Time and Mistakes. What are you doing here?" "I've come to sell hot dogs."

 The BreakBeat Poets Edited by Kevin Coval, Quraysh Ali Lansana, and Nate Marshall     Hubris is a guilty pleasure of mine.          I thought I could pick up this 350 page behemoth and read it in a month. I figured 70 pages at a time, easy pace, nothing crazy.     Then life said, "Hey, your job starts soon. Good luck."     And with that, I sit here before you with a confession: I didn't finish this book.     Thankfully, I read this book back in my college time, and I remember it well enough to tell you to get it. Seriously. If you are one of those cringe-inducing folk that keeps saying, "All of the great poets are dead." and you like hip-hop especially, then get this anthology. Seriously. I can't emphasize how much it will shift you into thinking that all the best poets are old white dudes that would be over 200 years old at the minimum if they were alive now.      Get this anthology.    ...

 5:Observation   The mechanical bell sounds and radiates from the depths. A single door swings aperture-like, its spiraled steel grinds against the concrete staircases below. An outpouring of works slumps out toward the rest of the city, hungry and tired and looking for some action. They stagger to their homes, clean their bodies of ash and dust, then cruise into the streets. Some head to bars, others to brothers, and even a few toward the theatres. Shouts and hollering erupt in the stale air as the insane outcasts of Canlanma comfort and numb themselves until the mechanical bell sounds again.    Hanging above the clusters of madness, Marsuvees looks through the shaded one-way mirrors he hands on. He knows these workers well, perhaps even better than the arrogant outsiders. He sneers to himself at the thought of the wealthy elitists in the Capital, or those pesky Ludumites who constantly send orders for more minerals, more materials, more liquids. More, more, more; t...

      So, just as a forewarning, things are shifting around for my online presence.      The full process will not be complete until 2027, but you may notice bits and pieces of it between now and then. I am trying my best to shift with as little chaos as possible, but some things will be obviously chaotic.      Just know I am finally doing this because of a calling I have felt for a while. A notion that has pulled me around long enough. Some of it will be easy, but a ton more will be difficult, especially toward December. So we'll see how it goes.     If you stick around, thank you. I could not appreciate it more. If you don't, please go with my fervent blessings. 

  PR #072026 Reported on 2 August 2026 Project 1: Writing     Current Writing Project: Project Lilith          Current Status: Planning/Scattered Draft Phase     Current D&D Project: Custodius Continuum, Project Dungeons and Bitches          Current Status: 3 of 5 Preliminary Sessions Done, Preparing Session 4     Secondary D&D Project: Custodius Continuum, Project Demons and Flames          Current Status: Preparing Sessions 0 and 1     Blog Posts Completed: 34 of 52 (Including Extra Blog Posts) Project 2: Weight Management     Current Weight: 237.9     Weight Loss/Gain: +1.5 in July (+5.3 in 2026)     Goal Weight: 180.0 Project 3: Crochet     Gifts/Commissions Completed: 4.5 of 5 Commissions, 0 of 5 Planned Gifts     Personal Projects Completed: 1

      As you see on the title of this post, it is the end of a personal era for me. As of today, I'm not working two jobs anymore. I'm only working one.     I won't get into too many personal details. There is a lot that could give me away. But those of you who know the situation and are reading this, you know.     With that said, I can still take some time to share some of the lessons I have learned from working this job for multiple years. Corporate doesn't care. I know, obvious is obvious on that one. But the place I worked for... they were given a reputation of somehow being better than the normal corporate competition. Did they prove themselves wrong on multiple occasions during the time I worked there. For a company that seemed to state this to their customers on a regular basis and making it a selling point on their recruitment advertisements, this is a lie. They don't care. Not by any measurement. Employees are not important. The place I worked...

 Discerning Christian Witchcraft By Emyle D. Prata and Sara Raztresen     This book thoughts/book review will be a little different. Partly becomes of time, partly the contents.      In the beginning of this book, it is made clear that this particular read will take a lot more work than their previous work ( Discovering Christian Witchcraft , which you can check out my review for by clicking on that title). It's been a while since I've told you that I read that work fully (which I realized I was only three chapters in when I wrote that review) and it's opened my eyes to the community and the label for the journey I've been on for the last six-ish years, give or take a year. That book gave me the starting point to dig into some of the practices that I would take to some extent and use them.      Lately, my practice has been sporadic, to put it nicely. I don't work with my stuff as much as I did. But a lot of that has to do with other things go...

 4:Discussion   Gen tosses the marble up into the air and watches it land in Karan’s hand. She gives him an annoyed glare and snatches the marble out of his hand. “You still have me curious about how this little world feels familiar to you.”   “And you have yet to tell me how you got that out of Ani’s possession.” Karan mutters as he fiddles with a strange piece of equipment with many mechanical legs and an oblong body. “I don’t even know where she went.”   “Today is the Day of Reconciliation. She is probably in Peponi.” Gen rolls her eyes at the thought of Animus as she would wander around one of her favorite cities.   “Oh, right. I should probably take care of that at some point myself.” Karan keeps his head toward his work. “You are still dodging my inquiry.”   Gen glances down at Karan’s mess of a creation. “What is that thing supposed to do?”   “Gen.”   “Fine. I got the marble when Ani finished her conversation with Hani. It fell out of her l...

PR #062026 Reported on 27 June 2026 Project 1: Writing     Current Writing Project: Operation Eventide          Current Status: Planning/Scattered Draft Phase     Current D&D Project: Custodius Continuum, Project Dungeons and Bitches          Current Status: 2 of 5 Preliminary Sessions Done, Preparing Session 3     Blog Posts Completed: 30 of 52 (Including Extra Blog Posts) Project 2: Weight Management     Current Weight: 236.4     Weight Loss/Gain: +4.6 in May (+3.8 in 2026)     Goal Weight: 180.0 Project 3: Crochet     Gifts/Commissions Completed: 3 of 5 Commissions, 0 of 5 Planned Gifts     Personal Projects Completed: 1

 Suicide Hotline Hold Music By Jessy Randall     This book is not what it says on the tin.      Sure, the first poem is. Kinda. But then it really falls into a nice rhythm of different topics made a little bit more nuanced by Randall's style of poetry. Her style is more free and relatable. On top of that, her visuals for this collection are absolutely wonderful.      It's definitely worth the buy if you really need a good collection to slip back into reading poetry or to start reading poetry. Don't let the title fool you.

      Vacation Bible School always wrecks me. Or Day Camp, as my home church calls it.     Don't get me wrong! Being the Arts and Crafts Coordinator/Teacher is a joy. With all the fun we have and all the chaos we enjoy, it is a lot of work. And this year proved to be more difficult for me than I thought. A lot more days where I needed rest and an easier time moving around than normal.      In the end though, I'm glad I did it. It takes me out of my usual headspace and lets me float in a semi-vacuum for a while. But now that I'm out of it, I'm glad it's over and that I won't have to put any thought into it again if I don't want to.      On another note, I'm finally done updating the blog. Apologies again for the mega backlog. I know it's hard to get a bunch of blog posts at once. And for some people ( cough cough my friend Iggy cough cough), it's been a chance to catch up on the mega collection that is about ... eight years of blog p...

 3: Adventures Await  She reaches the gates with a sigh of weariness. It has been a long trek from the Capital to the Holy City, but it is worth it. She touches the archway of the entrance to Peponi and draws a shape on her chest before heading in.   76th Day of the 52nd Cycle of Night. The woman smirks to herself as she slinks through the crowds. A few faces barely regard her as they keep to their rituals. Different parades of people float by with incense burners and incantations. Different gods and goddesses drift with them as they shower blessings on their followers. One of the gods turns their face to see her. They stare at each other for a moment. It is not a surprise to see a god on this given day, but this god seems interested in her. It gives her a formal nod as it follows its disciples and continues to spread blessings on them. The woman winds her way around the packs of followers until she comes to a small temple with no door. With a glance to either side, she ...

  PR #052026 Reported on 13 June 2026 Project 1: Writing     Current Writing Project: Operation Eventide          Current Status: Planning/Scattered Draft Phase     Current D&D Project: Custodius Continuum, Project Dungeons and Bitches          Current Status: 1 of 5 Preliminary Sessions Done, Preparing Session 2     Blog Posts Completed: 26 of 52 (Including Extra Blog Posts) Project 2: Weight Management     Current Weight: 231.8     Weight Loss/Gain: +4 in April (-0.8 in 2026)     Goal Weight: 180.0 Project 3: Crochet     Gifts/Commissions Completed: 2.5 of 4 Commissions, 0 of 5 Planned Gifts     Personal Projects Completed: 0

 They did it. I can't believe they did it.     To be fair, I wasn't very sure they would. I knew the New Horizons crew could do it. But the Chaos Party? That was a trip. But they caught on quick.      I'm worried about that Goliath though. Sutr, I think his name is. He did not seem to really know what was going on. I mean, who could blame him? An amature writer and Otito got his hands off Buffmem and put them in a new path. I'll have to keep my eye on him.      I can help with that.      God blessed, Ani. What are you going to do?     You are now a birb again.      Are you shitting me?     Nope. Besides, my friend is also a birb in Chaos Party. You two will have fun.     You're assuming he'll keep his form.      And you're assuming he won't. But neither of us really knows until he tells us, right? Schrodinger's idea and all.     Don't you mean cat?   ...

      As I'm near the end of a school year as a substitute paraprofessional, I noticed a trend in certain grade levels and specifically with certain set of students. Usually, it's the early teens crowd (about 13 to 15 years old) alongside the teachers and paraprofessionals that work with them. Now that I've sectioned out that group, this little post is for them and others that work with them.      Do not give up on this group. This group is especially difficult, I get that. This is the age group most likely to shove against rules and boundaries that they were given when they first started understanding rules and their consequences. This is the age group that wants to gamble with their life in the most impulsive way possible. But this is also a time where we as the adults can do so much to set them up for the most realistic expectations for life. That life will not be easy, and it will not make us happy all the time, and it cannot give us what we want or nee...

 2: Fetching Hani looks down on Animus’ chocolate hair and sighs. He knows not to ask what he is about to ask, but he does anyway. “What did you need, Novel Writer?”  Animus smirks. “I need you to go find Amethyst for me. I don’t know where she went.”  “I thought you had a tracker on your Time Walker.”  “She’s blocking her energy signature from me. You’re the next best person to find her.”  “And you want me -of all people- to go find her.” Hani raises an eyebrow.  “Without question.” Animus grins. “Besides, she likes it when you go find her instead. It’s more fun, according to her.”  Hani rolls his eyes again and shifts his weight. He gets rather annoyed when he becomes Amethyst’s hunter. He recalls the many conversations before this. Too many to count. Too many times that Animus gave her cloy smile and tried to make her requests as cute-sounding as possible. He looks to her and wonders how many times Animus asked him to find her pet Time Walker when i...