Tag: Nice

Prince Nice

Hope ZaneWriting

After all this time and all the books I’ve written, Nice is in many ways still the character closest to my heart.

It’s a kind of strange alchemy, I think—what characters we connect with. The things we write, we can write at no other time. It’s something I think about that reminds me to finish my work lately.

The me of today probably couldn’t have written the books about Nice. But the me of back then couldn’t write the things I’m working on now. We can only do the work that’s in front of us.

I’ve heard so much about the writing software, Ellipsus, from a friend that I went out and tried it. I’ve used Scrivener for years, and I am a creature of habit. I want to like Ellipsus, but perhaps it’s just a bit too different for me. I might give it a couple more tries, though.

I’ll be honest, I mostly tried Ellipsus so I could make a really obnoxious writing area for myself.

I’d love to give you more substantial blog posts in the future. For now, I think this is what I’ve got. I’m trying to check in more and not be a stranger.

Glittering

Hope ZaneGeneral

Takes place circa Eiderdown era

“How does it feel being an empty nester?”

Rook sprawls out on their four-poster bed as indolent as a large cat.

“Don’t say that,” Nice chides. His fingers make quick work of his hair. He’d just recently returned from yet another trip. Although the winter had promised no more diplomatic trips, he was called to the city of Vada-el for something he had only told Rook about in vaguest terms.

“Hiding from me?” Rook had asked, half a tease.

“I would only bore you,” Nice had said, before deftly twisting the topic to other things.

Nice regards himself in the mirror, tilting his head to the side to take in the white fishtail braid that begins above his left ear and trails down to his throat. It’s strung through with beautiful baubles, glass beads the size of marbles that contain the vast blueness of the cerulean ocean, as well as crystals set to look like glorious four-pointed stars, bright against a backdrop of snow.

He unravels the braid with his smallest fingers, drawing the colorful pieces from the strands of his hair and setting them in a shallow dish where they plink together like water.

When he’s through, he scritches the tips of his fingers through his hair, waking up and soothing his sore scalp with a sigh. He’s been wearing the ornate Vada-elan hairstyles more and more lately, even getting proficient at doing the simplest of them himself, but he’s still not quite used to it.

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Fragile Tender Wedding Ring Thoughts

Hope ZaneExtras

Some self-indulgent thoughts about wedding rings in light of Love and Deepspace’s current wedding event:

Nice has a plain white gold band from Rook that he wears on a chain around his neck. It’s not a family heirloom. It’s a gift just from Rook to him, something new. This was important to the both of them.

Willow absolutely has some kind of extremely fucking extra ring from Lira. It’s probably made of enchanted ice that’s cool to the touch and never melts. It was hideously expensive and looks like a shining diamond on Willow’s finger.

Character Thoughts

Hope ZaneWriting

There’s a thought I can maybe half articulate, which is that if Nice’s story is about being nothing and becoming something, then maybe Willow’s story is about being something, and eventually the right person sees just what kind of something you are.

They’re foils in a way I find really interesting.