i'm not the praying sort, but i'll probably always have a soft spot for the astronaut's prayer
for those who aren't familiar with it, it's a possibly-spurious quote by alan shepard (and is thus sometimes referred to as the shepard's prayer) on the launchpad of Freedom 7, immediately before he became the first american in space. it goes like this:
y'know what? the stained glass window designers had the right idea, we need more angels with kaleidoscope wings.
Heads up, writerly friends!
Twitter user juliewagnerrr posted a very good thread on a bunch of the secret features of Scrivener. For instance, did you know that program has a built-in name generator?
You can read their thread over HERE. Fully recommend!
"hard" for the wip meme!
*snickers* ILU (but ISTG none of these are smutty! I’m not sure how that happened.)
AND WOW, I overuse that word, whoops.
so @elfyourmother has been talking about Astoria today
and I never really did my character/routes overview posts like I meant to
or even the MAY IS ME AND I AM MAY photoset because I love May Chan so much
and maybe I should work on that?
or maybe not?
but really I have realized that I’m still upset about Cerberus?
The appeal of S1 Cerberus is adoring & adorable puppy dog eyes + BICEPS AS BIG AS YOUR HEAD
and s4 has neither puppy eyes nor biceps
and the PRIMARY CONFLICT in almost every other s2/s3 arc is just handwaved away between season
just whatever
and it doesn’t even cause the primary conflict that matches any of the other s4 conflicts?
and like I know these sentences don’t make a lot of sense because I’m trying to avoid specific spoilers
BUT I AM APPARENTLY STILL UPSET
this is part of why I never read Gangsters: In Love. Because even in the very first chapter, when you’ve picked your route, the background from before the game is different for different characters
and apparently I cannot handle divergent world-building for the world-state BEFORE THE GAME STARTS
afterwards, yes, I can handle the necessary conceit of all your other characters lives not falling apart without the MC to save them, despite the requirement of the MC’s help in their particular route
but the world needs to start the same, ykwim?
In the early days of their adventures, the members of Vox Machina get to know their gunslinger.
Safety
Vex is flat on her back on the packed-dirt ground, the better to warm her feet by the campfire without overheating the rest of her, when the soft sound of rustling cloth alerts her to someone moving nearby. Squinting one eye open, she glances over to see that her fellow night-watcher, the human newcomer to their little team, has left his post at the edge of the campsite to sit down on a fallen log nearer to her. In the dim, flickering glow of firelight, she can just make out a furrowed brow behind the glint of his glasses.
“Don’t worry, darling,” she says softly. “Trinket will spot anything we miss, and Tiberius said something about setting an alarm spell before he dropped off.”
Percy rubs his arms and glances over his shoulder at the sleeping forms of the rest of the party, although he really can’t be seeing much with his human vision. “It was cold,” he says, so quietly she has to push herself up on her elbows to hear better. “Thought I’d warm up by the fire for a while. I can go back to patrolling in a moment.”
“You don’t need to justify yourself to me,” Vex says. “To any of us, really. Believe it or not, we’ve figured out that this isn’t really something you’ve done before. We’re not going to give you a hard time.”
Percy shoots her a look that makes her stifle a laugh.
“Okay,” she says, lowering herself back to rest her head on the ground, “we’ll totally give you a hard time. But we won’t mean it, not really. You wouldn’t be here, otherwise.”
“I don’t wish to sound ungrateful.” He pulls out his strange little weapon and adjusts bits and pieces of the machinery in a way that’s as mysterious to her as Tiberius’ spells. “But that was more luck than anything else. If you all hadn’t happened upon my cell…”
“All right,” Vex says, “then you’re lucky. The way things have been going, we could use a little luck around here.”
He makes a strangled sound that she eventually diagnoses as a particularly weak laugh. “I wouldn’t say I’m lucky.”
Vex shrugs, digging her shoulder blades into the dirt. “You’re alive. I don’t know about you, but for me, some days, that’s lucky enough.”
7KPP Character Challenge (5/6) Hanako of Jiyel (Minor Lady with a Scholarly Bent)
Appearance: A quiet wisp of a woman, Hanako is easy to overlook, willowy build, blue-grey hair and flowing clothes somehow helping her disappear into the background, like mist. Get close enough for her to focus golden eyes on you, however, and you will never forget the experience. (Heroine / Magical Elf / Dark Fairy)
If you like noir, and you like urban fantasy, you’re going to love this one. It’s a self-published cooperative effort between the five of us in the anthology … because we really wanted to get together and do it, and Mina Khan is a goddess, you have no idea.
GORGEOUS. And yeah, it’s a sexy, dark collection of sexy, dark stories that you’re going to just devour like dark, dark chocolate. Makes a great stocking stuffer!
And you can order it NOW from these fine vendors:
Want a teaser? WHY NOT. My story’s entitled “Marion, Missing,” and it’s set in the 1950s in Fort Worth, Texas … a story of racism, danger and flawed heroes.
EXCERPT:
When he looked back, Tilde was sitting in the chair on her side of the empty desk with her legs crossed. She'd pulled her hair back, and was winding it up into a bun on the back of her head. A thin yellow pencil secured it in place. He remembered when she’d used nothing but chopsticks, glossy lacquer ones with dangling beads or good luck symbols. These days, a pencil would do. They'd both come down in the world.
“Back again, Tilde?”
This was the third time he’d seen her in the two days since she’d been found; he’d seen her four times before that. She was still pretty, for the most part; her dark eyes still glimmered under long lashes, her high cheekbones gave her face a lush, heart-shaped look. Death hadn’t taken much; the only things that gave it away were the uneven spots on her fluffy white sweater. There hadn’t been as much blood as you’d think, for a woman stabbed twelve times with an ice pick. The first one had been to the heart, and after that, it was just liquid wicking out.
You had to be alive to pump blood out of open wounds.
“I can’t stay away,” Tilde told him. “Besides, the case is still open.”
“I’m not working the case.”
She said nothing. There was a maddening little smile on those carmine lips, and her sharp, narrow eyebrows canted up. Tilde didn’t smoke, but if she did, he thought she’d have been cradling one between her fingers, letting the smoke curl up like a question mark.
For a ghost, she was damn persistent, and the sight of her made him feel sick, weak, and useless.
“Just go,” he told her. “I can’t help you, doll, and you won’t help me. All you gotta do is tell me who did it. That’s all.”
The silence was as dark as her eyes. He’d asked her that first night, while she was still missing, while she’d sat on the edge of his bed and looked around his cramped little apartment with distaste.
He understood that, it was a pit, and he didn’t care. He'd thought then that she was really there, really alive, until he’d put his hand right through her. She’d already been dead, wearing that same fuzzy sweater with those uneven bloody polka dots, though her body was still drying out behind the trashcans on Lancaster Street, out back of the massive Deco block of the train station.
She’d been there for three long summer days before somebody found her. Well, the flies had found her. Ants. A stray dog or two. Summer was a hard time to die in Fort Worth, Texas.
Hell and Texas. Hard to tell the two apart, sometimes.
It’s a love story, a murder mystery and a story of vengeance all rolled up into one. So what are you waiting for? It’s perfect for that gift you’ve been looking for!
I love the way the music changes when you impress the Matchmaker
/have I mentioned this never stops being immensely satisfying? And with almost no manipulation. My little Princess. All grown up and ... idk, forged by fire or something. *snorts*
Another belated congratulations to Aly Thompson and her team at Azalyne Studios for their (crazy) successful funding of 7KPP.
This game was fully funded in like 10 minutes or something wild like that. And it’s not hard to see why.
I can’t sing enough praises about this game. It’s super clever, super hilarious, super challenging and super unique.
And holy sweet baby Jesus, the characters.
Just look at this beautiful bastard. But he’s not the only one. Never have I ever not been able to pick my favourite romance, but 7KPP is doing my head it. While I may be a Hamin girl deep down, I have played every characters path, and each one made me want to make them my canon. Each character, not just the romancable ones, are complex and interesting and four-dimensional. And that’s saying something, because there are like 20 of them. (Also, the characters ar designed and illustraded beautifully, as you can see, thanks to the amazing coma-babana.
Also, god bless Ana. And god bless Aly for creating her. She is an absolute gem of a character.
And did I mention this game is hilarious? Because it is. it really is. If I could say only one thing about this game, it would be about the writing. Subtle and clever and slightly sarcastic, just the way I like it.
Also, character creation and customization is crazy. But I’m going to shut up before this turns into a full-blown review.
Just know that this game is spectacular and I adore it.
You can follow Aly at azalynestudios, where she is going above and beyond in her fan service, answering every ask despite her ever increasing workload.
You can also still back 7KPP on Kickstarter. Which you should do. Like now. Because it’s amazing. You should also vote for it on Steam Greenlight. Again, because of the amazing.
Still unsure, despite my gushing? Go play the demo! (and then replay it like 15 times - yes. that’s my actual number. I’m not embarrassed). Seriously, the demo alone could surpass some full games.
Just whatever you do, don’t romance Lyon and then pick someone else.
Trust me.
on the total lack of writing lately front
I am sorry I have done nothing for either Blackwall or Dwarf Appreciation Weeks
in lieu of TMI Tuesday, if any of you have questions or prompt requests for Blackwall or Ingva or dwarva things in general, pretty please, ASK THEM NOW?
crisium replied to your post:ALSO many thanks to all of you who donated for my...
Fundraising for kids on post is so hard, man. If you’re doing it, every other kid on every other block is doing the same thing, and if you don’t have outside contacts, you’re pretty much out of luck.
ugh, exactly
military life gets weirdly insular, despite the moving all the time
exacerbated by the moving all the time, really
tiny little pockets of people all doing the same thing, killing time ‘til they go to the next place to ... do different all the same things? Or something?
*sighs*
I am terrible at the military thing sometimes.
SO. MANY. REPLIES. AND STUFF.
With a show that’s been around for as long as Doctor Who has, there have been a lot (A LOT) of episodes. And maybe at some point you’ve thought to yourself “Hey, I wonder what episode premiered on my birthday!” We think things like this all the time.
Up until now the question plagued our minds with no easy answer. We spent many sleepless nights pondering the thought, tossing and turning in our Adipose beds thinking “What episode premiered on our birthday? What episode premiered on our birthday‽ How can we possibly find out‽”
This was a clear moment of weakness, as we forgot that the internet existed and it was something we could just search. But why do that when you can just go to tardisday.com? Enter your birthday and bam! It’s as easy as
How cool is this?
in less adorable news
can someone finish one of these damn WIPs for me?
I have FOUR PROMPTS THAT WERE JUST SUPPOSED TO BE SHORT FILLS to get me moving again
plus the regular WIPS
and I can't seem to get any of them done
and they're getting all tangled up in my head
and almost repetitive
and certainly not interesting anymore
and I hate everything
and I am never writing smut again
ever
