Archive | March 2018

February Patreon in Review

Mar20

Okay, this is a little bit late.  But here we go: What happened in my Patreon in February.

Things marked with an * are free for everyone to read. 

The theme was Return of the Light.

The new stories in theme:

Bring Back the Sun
They had done all the rituals in the days leading up to the solstice and the long night vigil of remembrance on the night itself.  They had lit the candles and sung the songs, they way their people had been doing since that horrible night so many lifetimes ago.  Continue reading →

A New World: An Arrangement

Mar19

First: A New World
Previous: Experimenting with History

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Kael looked between Caron and Hallsey, wondering exactly what she’d said that was getting her such strange looks from both of them.

“Are you offering… to teach us?  On something like a regular basis?”

“But not potions,” Hallsey added to her friend’s question.  “But like… how to find out history?”

“That depends.”  Kael was feeling out her answer as she went,  but she was pretty sure she was on the right track.  “Do you want to learn potions, history, or both?”

“Are you for real?” Caron stared at her.  “Are you really – I mean, what would you charge?” Continue reading →

BeePocalypse 4: Kids

Mar19

First: The Testers

Previous:  The More Things Change…

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Mom Cara shed her white suit, revealing herself to be still rather like herself.  “Not everyone has extreme visible changes. I run a few degrees colder than I used to, and I tend to be a little quicker to fly off the handle if I don’t pay attention, but I still look much like myself.  And I’m still myself, Kelly-boop.  I promise.”

“I believe you.”  Nobody had called her Kelly-boop in years.  She found herself wrinkling her nose the same way she had back then, before she found out that it would end more quickly than she’d thought.   Continue reading →

Tootplanet: Explorers’ Logs Planet 7-23-3

Mar19

Explorer Log 7-23-3

The first thing we did on landing was set up a null-charge shield around our living pods.  The lightning storms – “dry lightning”, my granny would say – come down so frequently it was three days before we saw the sun.

Flora and fauna here seem adapted to the storms. Either they have channels for the electricity or they’ve learned to hide from it.

I tell you, a thing that looks like a giant moose with electricity arcing from its antlers is a terrifying sight.

But the mountain cat leaping into the storm was even worse.

We haven’t lost anyone yet, mostly due to an abundance of caution.  I’m not sure how long we’ll be able to say that.

Planetary Date 109

We have figured out the trick.

We nearly lost Ewro and Tagked, but we figured it out.

There’s a combination of trees and a certain element that completely repels the lightning.

And certain vines are lousy with that element.

We’re now living in a clearing in the forest under a very nice net-and-canopy that keeps us safe.

And we’re herding Giant Moose and Red Pigs, which are neither really red nor really pigs.

This might work out.

Tootplanet: Captain’s Log Sector 7, Subector 23

Mar19

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 23-1

The galaxy is full of surprises.

This planet is very nearly lifeless – scant vegetation, only a few lifeforms, most of the water heavily salinated, burning sun.  Humans COULD live there, but only as a last resort.

Yet our first probe found life and civilization.

Not a lot – and it turns out not CONSTANT civilization.  No, this place boasts an impressive natural cave system, and in there it turns out there’s a vast smugglers’ hideout.

We left a sneak-probe and took some notes.

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 23-2

I’m starting to think some other civilization is using Subsector 23 as a dump.

Ok, that’s not the weirdest part of 7-23-2.  The weirdest part is that the dump – decommissioned ships, from the looks of it, gunners and cargo ships – is set up like we’d set up something with no breathable atmosphere. Double airlock on a dome near the landing bay, a deep underground facility staffed by five life-signs.

Yet the air here is perfect for human life and on the other side of the plant, away from the desert and the dump, is lush, green terrain.

What DO these aliens breathe?

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 23-3

The lightning storms!  The wild lightning arcing across the northern hemisphere of this planet! It’s beautiful, albeit deadly.  

But the southern hemisphere is just as rich in metal as the northern, and there are wide grasslands and hilly regions between the mountains. The soil might be shallow; there’s metal close to the surface everywhere.  But very large herbivores and rather large carnivores roam the surface, even in the north. This planet can sustain life.

We sent a team to see just how MUCH life.

Star Log, Sec. 7, Sub 23

This last star system on the edge of the sector might explain much about the entire sector.

We found a dead planet covered in ruins first, and then a planet almost suitable for humanoid life – covered in far newer ruins.  Its satellites – three – were covered in the detritus of what looked liked several wars.

On the far side of the last satellite, we found a small grouping of aliens still alive.  We sent down a greeting probe and, with it, a query: Did they need aid or rescue?

They shot a rocket at our ship and nearly managed to hit us.

7.23.3

Beauty-Beast 31: Need and Desire

Mar18

First – Previous – Landing Page – Next

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He leaned against his Owner, his head on the taller man’s shoulder.  “Would you drop your Mask, sir?” He was feeling incredibly brave today.

“I suppose I could do that.”  Timaios shifted and, when Ctirad peeked, was stone and horns and still smiling.  “I would ask you to do the same, but I’m afraid you would take it as some sort of tit for tat situation.”

Ctirad swallowed.  “I like you – I like you liking me, sir,” he offered.  “I don’t want to ruin that yet.”

“Do you honestly think, with a Change like this, that anything behind your Mask would bother me, my sweet man?” Continue reading →

– Conlang for Patreon

Mar18

We’re still in the month of Names, which Edally is good for.  But I’m going to do something a little different.

A couple years back, I turned several of my friends’ and readers’ names into their Calenyen versions, but Eseme was offline during that era.

She chose a colorful bird, so here we go.

A noun isn’t going start with an E in Calenyen; not unless it’s one of those that are Beyond the definition of Use — the sky, the sea, the mountains, the moon, the sun.

Now, a word coined first in Calenyen wouldn’t start with the se- sound, either. Continue reading →

Edally Story 1 – Come Down Sometimes

Mar16

Chapter 1-5, Book One: Dairnikkindo and Biemnyon

“Biemon!  What are you-”  Dairnikkindo’s voice was a hiss against the night air.  “Did you do enough last year?  You’re going to get expelled!”

“You know I’m not going to, Dairdo-dairkin,” Biemnyon teased.  He was making no attempt to lower his voice.  “I have the best grades in the school right now.  And I won the Mechanics competition just a week ago.  I think I’m entitled to a little fun.”

“A little fun, sure.”  Tired of craning her neck, Dairnikkindo swung herself up to a second-story window frame to look up at Biemnyon.  Ever since he’d pulled his stunt last year, he’d been incorrigible, irrepressible, and absolutely without any concern in the world for his future.

Since he’d thrice asked Dairnikkindo to share that future with him, she thought perhaps he might have some thought for it, but no, he was climbing the Philosophy Tower.  Again.
And what was more, she realized, as she squinted into the moonlight at him, he was using one of her Devices to do it.

“You might have won the Mechanics competition,” she hissed, “but we both know why.”

“You know that they’d say you were a sore loser, too, if you said anything.”

“Biemnyon.”  Dairnikkindo stood up on the narrow ledge, her own Device gripping the stone carefully.  “I would think very carefully about what you just said.  If you truly think that that is why I said nothing, then you have no right to ever again ask me to add your name to mine.”

She was furious, and she knew that it showed in her voice.  She didn’t care.  The nerve of that man!

And just like that, he slid halfway down the building, so he could look down at her.  “You’ve turned me down three times, Dairdo.  Three times, that’s one for each god.  Common wisdom says that if you say no in the face of all the gods, that you’ll never say yes.”

“Well, considering you’ve never paid much attention to common wisdom in any other situation, I don’t know why you’re bothering now.  Biemnyon, I have said no because you have not yet shown me what you want a future to look like.”  She dropped down to the ground in two bumps, moving like a spider against the wall.  “When you figure it out, let me know – and then you can ask me in the face of all three gods, and you can see what I say then.”

She walked away before she could look at his face, before she could turn and take it all back or yell at him some more.  He was going to have to grow up eventually – or he was going to have to be a perpetual child, but without her.  She didn’t know, yet, which was more likely; she didn’t know yet what she’d do if he chose not to grow up.

Hanging him by his toes from the top of the Engineering Tower, though, definitely was starting to look appealing.

 

So Solace went and gave me two Books of all the characters, and thus is getting all the Edally ficlets ever. 

This one takes place when Taikie’s parents are still in school.