Ainesseyspiegel - My Side Of Freedom

They Called It Puppy Love

Asher:

It was easy enough to notice. Everybody but him could tell there was something more going on with the two of them. To be fair, I don’t think many thought it was something beyond a strong friendship. They were, after all, just kids. They didn’t know about love or the many aspects of relationships. Not really anyway. How could they?

Ben, full name Benjamin Reynolds, was a ten year old soccer star in the making. He had these big green eyes, deep brown hair, and cocky little smile that was everything boyish charm was defined for. He was the kind of kid you knew would grow up to be someone you wanted in your life. The type of guy who was loyal, dependable, and just unpredictable enough to be the ace up your sleeve. A best friend for the ages.

He was also kind of adorable, I thought upon initially meeting him when his family moved in down the street. My little brother thought so too, and he didn’t appreciate the fact that I looked highly upon little Ben, if the initial stomping on my sandal clad foot with heavy steal toe boots was anything to go by.

Jeremy, my supposedly adorable eleven year old little brother, grew attached to Ben pretty quickly. I want to say that he was abnormally clingy, though he would argue with the use of the word, within the first few minutes. I had never seen love at first sight, but I knew it must have been something awfully similar to what I was seeing when Jay held onto Ben’s outstretched hand a little longer than he should have.

It surprised my parents just as much as it surprised me. Jay never took to anyone easily. Hell, he didn't even like me when we first met. He peed on me the first time I tried to hold him, and it had taken us the better part of four years to get along with each other. His friends went through a similar time grueling process, though without any bodily fluids being released onto them. To like someone so quickly was something new and almost extremely out of character for my baby brother. 

I could see why, especially when I laid eyes on Ben’s older brother. Shawn, he said his name was, was an eighteen year old god. At least, he was in my humble but ever important opinion. Good build, not overly muscular, brilliant brown hair, apparently strenuously kept, and the most gorgeous pair of blue eyes I had ever seen. He was smooth talker, a sincere conversationalist, and I could tell he was a good guy within the few minutes of meeting him.

It was a breath of fresh air. The guys around my small town had all lost their appeal rather quickly. They grew out of manners and class, and you really needed to work at any kind of decent relationship. To their credit, they did shape up when they fell hard enough, as I had seen over the past few years of casual dating, but it was still hard work pretending to like them. The girls were the same. They lost themselves long ago, and had no intention of trying to individualize themselves unless a man was involved. Who wanted that kind of pressure?

It didn’t look like any of those tiring difficulties applied to Shawn, my new real life version of Adonis.

They didn’t apply to Ben either, if I was completely honest with myself. He seemed to take after his brother’s example in just about everything that counted. The both played soccer, had a lot of friends back in their old town, good encouraging personalities, and never did anything halfway.

I was absolutely smitten that first night when my parents invited Shawn, Ben, and their single father Michael, over for dinner. In my defense, it was hard not to be. Shawn was something I had only ever heard about in hushed whispers across the hall. He was the complete package. The looks, the personality, the sense of responsibility, he had it all. And his family wasn't half bad either. 

They were a close knit group, and despite not having a mom, they seemed complete. Jay was amazed that Ben could get by without that female presence in his life. He had always been such a mama’s boy, and not having my mom around was nearly suffocating to him. The fact that Ben could even breathe without one seemed like a miracle to my blunt and seemingly tactless little brother.

Little Ben was strong throughout the rough questions Jay could not stop himself from asking. I was a bit surprised. Jay was a smart, but sometimes cruel little brat when he wanted to be. Even when he didn’t mean to be, the things he said could wound terribly. And the effects would last for months on end. I thought Ben would have broken down crying after the fourth overly intrusive question.

The kid was a tough one. He answered everything with a smile and a laugh. He then was able to ask Jay about the things he liked.

I winced, and mom and dad tried to hides their coughs behind their glasses. Jay did not talk about himself. Never. Ever. He never saw the point in it. For such a young kid, he was so picky about the things he did and did not do. If it was never going to do anything for him, he simply did not want to do it. Too much work for so little gain, I guess.

But that night at dinner, Jay suddenly wanted to talk about anything Ben wanted to talk about. His favorite food was hamburgers, his favorite color was red, and he was a member of the local baseball team. Anything Ben wanted to know, Jay was willing to speak about. Michael and Shawn couldn’t quite figure out why the rest of us were gawking so freely.

Shawn started asking me questions, I guess feeling awkward about letting two preteens take hold of the dinner conversation. Michael started doing the same with my parents. All throughout the night we all traded information and laughed over new private jokes, all the while finding it completely normal to seem so at ease with basic strangers. We had so much fun that the time just flew by without us noticing. It was nearly ten when we finally had enough sense to look at a nearby clock.

By then, Jay had already looked so head over heels that I could have laughed. I would have too, if I wasn’t sure that I had the exact same look on my face at the moment.

When the Reynolds finally headed home, nearly an hour after we all agreed to part ways, Jay was smiling like a loon. He then proudly proclaimed, before he went to bed,

“He will be my new best friend.”

I didn't think to tell him that he already had a best friend. One that was always vying for the attention that Jay obliviously refused to give him. I also didn't think it was wise to tell him that what he wanted from Ben was something more than friendship. He still had those boots on after all, and I was too heavy a sleeper to feel comfortable enough to say what I wanted to. I have to watch the merchandise, you understand.

So I only smirked and told him,

“Go for it.”

I knew it to be fact. If I, after years of breaking hearts of all ages, was smitten this quickly, my brother was in for a long ride. He was only a kid, and he didn’t understand the emotional and possibly physical loop that emotions could take you through. A part of me thought that perhaps I should have done the big brother thing and tried to talk him out of it.

The more rational part of my mind told me it was pointless. Jay would be in denial. Even if he did admit to what he was feeling, again, he wouldn’t understand the big picture. He would never get what any of this meant. Not at 11. Puppy love was never something that permitted logic, and this was an extreme case if I ever saw one.

Lord knows if it’ll end well or not. But hey, it could be a good show. 

My Father Brought Me A Book

My father brought me a book today

A book that was made just for me

He showed me the way to a secret door

And then he handed me the key

~*~

My father brought me a book today

And inside that book was a world

And in that world was adventure

In every crease, every crevice, and fold

~*~

My father brought me a book today

And he told me to guard it very well

Because villains would try to take it

And place it under their evilest spell

~*~

My father brought me a book today

Then he smiled and went out the door

My father brought me a book today

And I couldn’t have loved him more

Worldbuilding Series: Religion

This is the first of many articles that are a part of a WriteWorld and LiveWriteDream co-op series on Worldbuilding. Stay tuned to WW and LWD for updates on this series, and go here to find an articles masterpost.

Now, let’s begin. Today, we’re talking about religion.

Religion (n): The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, esp. a personal God or gods.

Religion plays a major part in almost every culture and society of the world. Whether someones belief be Christianity, Hinduism, Atheism, Buddhism or Agnosticism, religion is important to the majority of people in some way.

The religions, or lack thereof, mentioned above are only some of the many world religions being practiced today. Here are the most popular:

Monotheistic-

Christianity. This is the most popular world religion. Christianity is a monotheistic belief that is widespread geographically and is a most common in Europe, the Americas, and Southern Africa.

Christianity as it is known today was started as a Jewish sect around the 1st century. Its leadership consisted of the 12 Apostles, most notably, Saint Peter and the Apostle Paul. According to Scriptures, Christians were being persecuted by Jewish officials who didn’t agree with the Apostles’ teachings. This was the split between Judaism and Christianity.

The basic Christian belief is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, born human but immortal. He died on the cross for the sins of the world, and after rising from the dead on the ‘third day’, he ascended into heaven, promising to return for those who worshiped God and kept His commands. (These commands are found in the New Testament law of the Bible)

Christians practice the belief of eternal life for those who live according to the Bible, and that those who fail to follow God will live for eternity in hell.

Christianity is split into three major groups: Protestantism, Eastern Orthodox, and Catholicism. Under these are many denominations of the Christian faith.

Islam. This is a monotheistic religion that originated in Arabia from the Prophet Mohammad, known as the Last Prophet of God.

Islamic belief is that the Qur’an is the verbatim word of God, or Allah, and that all other religious texts have been corrupted and defiled over time and that the Qur’an is the only infallible word of God, written by Mohammad.

They believe that He is one, incomparable being whom they must live to love and serve. They also believe that Jesus was a great prophet, but not the son of God, and that He lived a sinless life.

Salvation through Islamic belief is obtained by following the laws set by Allah, and doing good deeds on earth, which will guarantee Islams a spot in ‘paradise’. Contrarily, failing to observe Allah’s commands will guarantee a spot in hell.

Islamic belief is separated into many different denominations, the most common being the Sunni. Other include Shia and Sufism.

Judaism. This is a monotheistic religion that originated from the Hebrew Bible. Abraham, a Hebrew, is considered the father of the Jewish faith because he was the first prophet to promote the main idea of the Jewish faith (that there is only one God).

It’s believed the Judaism is based upon the relationship between God and the Children of Israel and the promises He made to protect them as long as they obeyed His laws.

They believe that God is one supreme being, and that Jesus was a false prophet, though they do believe there is a messiah coming that will relieve the the Jews of heartache and pain. War and suffering will abound in the time leading up to the Messiah’s coming.

The Jewish belief focuses solely on life on earth and the way in which the Jewish life is lead, but they do believe in an afterlife. It’s believed that following God’s word and doing good deeds will lead them to heaven, while failing to do so will cause their souls to be destroyed. It is debated whether or not this means they will spend eternity in Hell, or if the soul is literally destroyed.

Judaism has three denominations: Orthodox, Reform, and Conservative.

Sikhism.This is a monotheistic religion founded in the Punjab Region in the fifteenth century. Founded by Guru Nanak Dev, it has since grown to be in the top five world religions.

Sikhs are commanded to follow the virtues of Sant-Sipāhī, a saint soldier. They must be able to control the internal voices (the desire to do wrong) and abide by the law of the Guru Granth Sahi, the Holy Scripture of the Sikhs.

Sikhs believe in spending time for others, giving to those who need it like the poor, homeless, and hungry. They believe that prayer to the One and Only God is of the utmost importance.

It’s believed that humans are reincarnated after death, going through countless life cycles (birth, death, rebirth) before reaching Enlightenment and separating from the earth and joining the Divine.

There are many unorthodox sects of Sikhism, including, but not limited to, Sahajdharis, Udasis, and Keshadharis. 

Other-

Hinduism. This is the predominate religion of the Indian subcontinent, and it is a controversial subject as to whether or not it is pantheistic or polytheistic. It was founded upon many different beliefs and traditions, and has no one single founder.

They follow many beliefs similar to Buddhism, such as Karma and Dharma (cause and effect, and righteous living, respectively) They believe that God is everywhere and in everything, and is the Supreme Being over all.

They believe that every person on earth experiences reincarnation, starting as a flower or an animal and becoming a better person each time, and the only thing that can stop the process of reincarnation is the resolution of all Karma and the perfection of Dharma. When this happens, they go and live with the gods of the universe. During this time, the reincarnation process continues until they reach ‘Enlightenment’, thus receiving ‘Moksha’, and living amongst the stars, which is more an eternal state of mind than a place.

Most practicing Hindus don’t identify as a specific denomination, however religious academia have separated the religion into four different groups. Vaishnavism, which worships Vishnu as God, Shaivism, which worships Shiva as God, Shaktism, which worships Shakti, a power personified as a female Goddess, and Smartism, which worships five or six separate entities as the Supreme God.

Buddhism. This is a nontheistic religion indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. It is a religion that is based around the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, or Buddha, meaning ‘awakened one’. His teachings are used to help people end suffering, ignorance, craving, and selfishness, eventually reaching the ultimate happiness, known as Nirvana.

They believe that all negative thoughts, known as ‘delusions’, can be resolved by meditating. They also believe in four cycles of living: Birth, life, death, and rebirth. This is known as reincarnation. It is believed that humans go through many lives, and only stop when Nirvana is reached; when the desires of earthly life are no longer a part of their soul and they are truly ‘happy’.

There are two distinct branches of Buddhism. ‘Theravada’ and ‘Mahayana’. A third, named ‘Vajrayana’, is often thought to be a third branch, but the general consensus is that it is merely a part Mahayana.

Wiccanism. This is a Pagan religion known for its use of witchcraft. It originated in England in the twentieth century and is a duotheistic religion.

Wiccans believe in gender polarity, worshiping a Moon Goddess and a Horned God. These are believed to be the Divine Feminine and Divine Masculine, however in some forms of Wicca, they are believed to be part of the same godhead.

It’s believed that all plants and animals are to be treated with respect, as the Divine are present in them.

Most Wiccans choose not to focus on an afterlife. Like Judaism, Wiccans focus solely on the life as it is being lived. When someone dies, they mourn not their death, but the fact that they are no longer a part of the living. They believe that the soul is reincarnated into another person.

There are 15+ denominations of Wicca.

Non-religion-

Atheism. This is a lack of religion, and those who choose to follow this way of life believe that there is no supreme ruler or deities in charge of the universe.

They generally do not believe in any sort of supernatural beings, such as ghosts or angels or demons, and most believe that there is no Heaven and no Hell.

Some atheists believe in reincarnation, stating that as humans are made of energy, there has to be a place for the energy to go when we die. Atheism, though, varies from person to person as it is not a religion and has no core beliefs.

The only aspect of Atheism that stands true for each and every Atheist is that there is no god. Any other belief is subject to the individual.

Agnosticism. This is the belief that Gods, supreme rulers, or any other type of supernatural or metaphysical deities cannot possibly be proven true or untrue.

They believe that humans are not mentally or physically capable of proving or disproving the existence of such deities. Most Agnostics literally just do not know whether or not god, Heaven, Hell, or anything along those lines exist, and choose not to try to understand them.

Like Atheism, each individual is different, and various beliefs may be different from person to person.

When creating your world, you don’t have to use a religion that is already in existence. Use your imagination! Create your own.

Some basic steps to creating a religion:

Determine whether the religion has one god or many, and how many there are.

Determine from where the religion originated. (What country, state, nation, or the like.)

Set up a doctrine of beliefs. How practitioners of the religion feel about things such as social and mental states, the afterlife, basic steps to being a good person, etc.

Determine who created the religion. Was it one person? Was it a group of people? Was it no one? Did it originate from stories or folklore?

Determine whether it is only practiced by a certain type of people. (Such as people from a specific part of the world, a certain gender or race.)

When creating your world, there are many questions to ask yourself about religion. The most important being, does your world have it?

Here are some other questions to answer regarding religion and your story.

Does the god in your religion actually exist? i.e. does it actually have the power to affect the goings-on in your story? If not, it’s probably more of prop than a main plot point.

Is there more than one religion? Do they get along?

Is religion pertinent to the plot?

Does it further the story?

Does it affect your characters? If so, positively or negatively?

Does it cause strife or conflict between certain people?

So, in short, religion can either be very important, or not at all in your story. You don’t have to use a previously-established religion, but you can if you want. Answer the above questions, and then you should be set!

Thanks for reading, and if you have any further questions or comments, please leave a message in our askbox.

-Laikyn

More Information On:

Christianity: [x] [x]

Islam [x] [x]

Judaism [x] [x]

Sikhism [x] [x]

Hinduism [x] [x]

Buddhism [x] [x]

Wiccanism [x] [x]

Atheism [x] [x]

Agnosticism [x] [x]

Robert Frost

A Father’s Wisdom

ericandy's 30 Day OTP Challenge!

The rules are simple: draw or write one prompt of your OTP a day, with the theme listed here! You can use any fandom you like!! Be sure to tag each entry with 30 Day OTP Challenge to make it easier to keep track of them! Feel free to interpret the prompts any way you like! That’s what it’s about!

On the following days, draw/write your OTP:

Holding hands

Cuddling somewhere

Gaming/watching a movie

On a date

Kissing

Wearing eachothers’ clothes

Cosplaying

Shopping

Hanging out with friends

With animal ears

Wearing kigurumis

Making out

Eating icecream

Genderswapped

In a different clothing style (Visual Kei, gyaru, lolita, ect. )

During their morning ritual(s)

Spooning

Doing something together (this can be anything from watching tv to having sex. Just remember to tag appropriately.)

In formal wear

Dancing

Cooking/baking

In battle, side-by-side

Arguing

Making up afterwards

Gazing into eachothers’ eyes

Getting married

On one of their birthdays

Doing something ridiculous

Doing something sweet

Doing something hot (once again, be sure to tag if you make it extremely NSFW!)

And there you go! Have fun.

Writing Characters with Enhanced Senses

Characters with extraordinary senses come up a lot. Maybe your character is of supernatural or alien origin, or maybe they were just born with a genetic quirk. Maybe they have a sensory disorder that only makes their hearing seem extraordinary. There are lots of reasons why a character might have extraordinary senses and a lot of different ways those senses might be put to use, but here are some of the drawbacks you might consider when writing a character who has a super sniffer, excellent eyesight, or high-quality hearing!

Sight: If your character has super sight, chances are that they can see farther and more clearly than anybody else, which is pretty cool except that the human eye can still only really focus on one thing at a time…so your character might want to be careful not to get distracted when they’re, say, crossing the street. If they’re watching a burglary occur a thousand yards away, they might not notice the car that just whipped around the corner behind them. Other super-drawbacks might include heightened sensitivity to light, color, or movement - and you have to remember that nobody can see three-hundred-sixty degrees at all times, so your character is probably going to have a blind spot (unless they’re an owl). Also, they may frequently look like they’re staring off into space when they’re really just watching something very intently.

Hearing: Have you ever been standing in a crowd of people who are all talking at the same time? Now imagine if you had super hearing! It can be hard to pick out individual pieces of information or even follow a single conversation when you can hear everyone in a six-block radius…and it’s not just conversations. You can also hear every car, every pet moving around, every jingle of a key, the air moving through the vents, and so on and so forth. This is another one of those abilities that may make it look like your character is just really easily distracted - it’s not that they don’t want to pay attention to their friends, it’s just that they’re playing “name that tune” with a radio four blocks to the southeast!

Smell: Think about your shower routine, whatever it might be. How many scented products do you layer on your skin? Soap, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, deoderant, maybe perfume or cologne, shaving cream or aftershave - the list goes on and on. If you had a super nose, you might be able to smell every single layer a person was wearing, and that kind of assault on the nose could be eye-wateringly overwhelming. Consider your reaction to someone wearing strong perfume! There are a lot of other types of smells in the world too, from cut grass and shoe polish to rotting garbage…and a lot of bodily functions have smells too: passing gas, excrement, or urine, menstruation, or sweating, for example. Your character might even be able to smell disease. This type of character might have to wear a mask or a scarf over their face to dull their super-sense, which might give them an odd appearance, but just imagine how much weirder it would look to be standing on a street corner sniffing at the air when all anyone else can smell is car fumes.

Taste: What’s the strongest flavor you’ve ever tasted? Maybe it was something fishy, or spicy, or sour. Everyone’s answer is bound to be different, but imagine if every single thing you ever ate or drank tasted that strong. Eventually you might get kind of tired of it and start preparing food that is more bland, right? Alternately, imagine if nothing ever just tasted like itself to you: you’re eating a french fry, but instead of tasting “french fry” you’re tasting potato, salt, oil, the metal of the fryer, the latex in the gloves used to scoop them into the paper tray, the paper tray itself…that would be pretty overwhelming! The major drawback to super taste is that your character might have trouble eating out or eating in front of other people. When you taste a lemon, your face puckers up…just think of how much more sour it would taste with a super tongue!

Touch: Did you know that every day you suffer a million tiny hurts and your brain just ignores them so that you can keep on functioning normally? If you had an enhanced nervous system, that might not be the case. Think about the number of tiny things we ignore every day: actions like walking, scratching, accidentally biting your tongue, or blinking could hurt pretty bad if you were super sensitive to touch! People with super touch might have a hard time getting comfortable all the time, and they might have to deal with not liking the feeling of clothes, being annoyed with air moving over their skin, or being extra-sensitive to physical contact. If a hug felt to me like someone was trying to break my ribs, I’d avoid them too!

So what are some things to keep in mind when writing about characters with extraordinary senses, other than drawbacks? Here are some things to consider:

Set limits. Your character shouldn’t be able to see past the curve of the earth - that’s just silly! Likewise, if they can hear something happening through the entire planet, you may want to rethink. Consider things like range and clarity when you’re setting limits on super senses: how far away can they see things and how clearly can they see them, for example. When it comes to touch, this is a little more tricky, and you might want to think more about the direct effects of pressure on the character: how much pressure does it take before it hurts?

Enhanced senses require enhanced brainpower. I don’t mean that they raise your character’s IQ level, but consider how much effort it takes to sort through and process sensory information. If your character’s brain can’t handle it, they might be in a constant state of sensory overload.

Speaking of sensory overload, that might happen to your character sometimes anyway! Everyone faces extreme situations in their lives where their brains just can’t keep up with the workload, and the threshold for that point is probably lower for people with super senses. If you’ve got a character with super hearing and four people are trying to talk to them at once, they might experience sensory overload and have to go recover for a while, so do your research into sensory overload and what to do to help them.

Finally, their super sense is going to impact how they experience and relate to other people. Maybe your character doesn’t remember a person’s name or face but they’ll never forget her voice. Maybe they just can’t even be in the house with Great-Aunt Helen because she always wears the same musty old perfume and it gives your character a headache. Maybe your character appears to be constantly zoning out when really they’re just looking closely at peoples’ jewelry. How your character perceives others, and how others view your character, is going to be impacted by their ability - count on it.

If you’re writing about a character with super senses, I hope that this has been helpful and maybe even inspiring to you, and I’d love to hear your thoughts too! Thanks for reading, and good luck!

-Kyo

I’d rather read a polished, well loved piece at thirty pages, than read something exhausted and necessary and altogether pretentious at seven hundred pages.