Autumn and a boy, part III

Apr3

after Autumn and a Boy and part II

🍁

He was actually interested in her art, which she probably should have expected, and knew things to ask about technique and had interest in both her process and her decisions, which was a pleasant surprise.   It took her a while to pry them both away from talking about her art, and when she did, she found herself almost quoting that old saw “Well, enough about me, what do you think of me?”

“So, why do you like it?  My art?” she asked, feeling a little shy.  “I mean, I don’t think it was my pretty face that got you hiking till your feet bled, was it?” Continue reading →

The Hidden Mall 29: Say What?💬

Apr2

First: The Hidden Mall – a beginning of something
Previous: Clean

“Excuse me?”  Abby took a step backwards, reaching for her friends.  “Packaging? I don’t want to be wrapped up any further than I already am, thank you.”

“You will need face masks.  Packaging will now commence.”

A whirr and a soft creaking noise came from the bin where their bags had been.  A few more sounds commenced – ripping, some shaking, and something that sounded like sucking air through a straw.

Then three identical white bags popped out.  They looked clean, they looked like they had everything in them, and they looked more comfortable than the back packs they’d had.

Each of them took one.  The bot, now a sphere again, whirred at them one more time.  “Please take one face mask each and install on face.  Please take one face mask each…”

A tray popped out of the sphere’s side.  They took one face mask each and, after a moment, figured out how to put them on.  They were surprisingly comfortable, and now the three of them were nearly anonymous.

“This is weird.”  Liv-probably-1’s voice came out clearer than it ought to have, but also somehow anonymized.  “Like, we got all our individuality pulled away.”

“On the plus side,” the other Liv pointed out, “we’re clean.  Now if only we’d been fed.”

“The food depot is out this door and to the left.  Please follow the blue line.” The bot was far too helpful.  “You have been cleaned.  You may now pursue food.”

“Do we have to chase it?” Liv-probably-2 muttered.  “Because I’m not all that hungry, but I might still run something down.”

“Please follow the blue line towards food,” the bot repeated.  

“Following,” Abby agreed.  She took both Liv’s hands. If she lost them here, she was never going to be able to pick them out of a crowd.

One of the Lizs glanced sidelong at her. “This is getting to be a habit.” Continue reading →

Tootplanet: Another Viewpoint, planet 7.16.3

Apr2

7-16-3–another viewpoint,  continued.

The reply to their reply took many[brownish, with suggestions of green] days, so long that Lior (red-phasing-to-blue/greenish tips gone yellow) believed they would hear nothing.  Had their reply been too bland? Not bland enough? How were they to know, when the probe allowed for nothing like color in its sending?

When it returned, Lior was pleased(Green, so green) to find they had included video. But their faces… spoke only of tired/sorrow?

These were not people Lior wished to communicate with.

 

 

Beauty-Beast 32: Want and Need

Mar31

First – Previous – Landing Page – Next

🔒

He didn’t want me anymore.  The words still hurt.  Ctirad willed them not to, but his will and his pain were not listening to each other.

“Some day,” Timaios growled, and Ctirad’s misery only increased, “I am going to take that man and pin him to a wall until he has some idea what he put you through – no.  Until he is sorry what he put you through.  He bargained very dearly for you indeed, Ctirad, and cared a great deal to have you be taken from him, but such is the nature of a bastard like him that he would rather have you believe that you are un-valued, begging and pleading for every bit of attention and praise, than have you know that you are valuable to him.”  He cupped his hands around Ctirad’s chin and looked down into his eyes. “You are very valuable to me already, Ctirad, and were you to serve me as long as you served Ermenrich, I believe I would consider you a treasure beyond worth. And he certainly had some small idea of what you could be worth…. I’ll stop, I’ll stop.”  He released Ctirad’s chin and wrapped his arms, instead, around shoulders that seemed to be shaking. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. Could you tell me what it is that I said?” Continue reading →

Sneaking through the Bear Empire

Mar30

First: Running in the Bear Empire
Previous: Poaching in the Bear Empire

🐻

Deline woke to find herself pressed up against Carrone and his arm draped over her in turn.  She moved slowly, trying not to wake him. She needed to get her thoughts together and form a plan.  “Head off into nowhere” was more like a flight in terror than an actual battle plan, and it would take her longer and longer to get home.  

That would, of course, probably make Carrone happy.  Out here, he could still pretend everything was more or less the same – except the part where he was bound to her and they were being hunted by bounty hunters that had been his associates.  

Come to think of it, that wasn’t much the same at all, was it?  She glanced over at him. She knew nothing about him, except that he had tried to kill her – twice – and failed – twice and then saved her life from another bounty hunter.   Continue reading →

A brief blog post rambling on about audience and writing

Mar29

I’ve been thinking about audience lately.

(Hi, Audience!)

So some of what I’ve been thinking is how things like Rin & Girey started out as this entirely self-indulgent story, and how now it’s one of my most in-depth worlds (Addergoole/Fae Apoc is THE most in depth, but that’s because of the serials) (Then again, Reiassan has a conlang and Fae Apoc only has a few con letters).

And you know “I am not the audience for this” is totally fine, and I have to remember that.  (Like one time I left romance out of an entire storyline because one person had said they didn’t want romance, and then it turned out they didn’t even read that story…)

And that’s a weird balance.

Like, I am not sure I will ever be comfortable just writing things because I want to see them. A thing here and there, sure.  But not like, as a rule.

On the other hand, I have to remember that I can’t please all of the people all of the time, and that trying is likely to just give me a migraine and make me cry.

I don’t have any real conclusions here yet, just thinking about that balance.  It can’t always be bondage catgirls in space; it also can’t always be ace aro mysteries with pretty magic.  I’d get bored, and so would y’all.

…Speaking of bored, how do niche authors keep from getting bored?  Money?

A Conlang Word for the Day (written for Patreon)

Mar29

Today we’re boiling!

Likkooz is an old word for bubble, as to roil or froth.

Likkoz is to boil; Likozok is a boil. (“bring to a boil…”)

The word got is a pot, generally a kettle for cooking over open fire, more generically any pot.

But for a modern teakettle, using Libbaano, music as sung, you end up with a Libbaangot, a sing-kettle.

Tairiekie, Libbangot-noo in-likkooz-ak – Tairiekie, the kettle is boiling.

Want more?

Tootplanet: Explorers’ Logs Planet 7-14-2

Mar29

Supplementary Exploration Log – P.Date 198

On a planet this small, I thought we’d run out of things to explore.

Today, I found a canyon barely wider than my hips, and in that canyon, I found a thriving species of mice.

Planetary Date 252 

We’ve spent a week exploring a lake that is barely bigger than a swimming pool but deeper than anything short of an ocean trench has any right to be, especially on this tiny planet.

Its water is potable, its southern beach is beautiful, and its animals range from the adorable – tiny rainbow fish the size of a fingernail! – to the outright terrifying.

Falip nearly died when something grabbed her leg and dragged her under.  From her scrambled reports, it was a many-armed creature the size of a man.

We haven’t been able to find any other sign of its existence, but we intend to keep looking – and to be very careful in that water.

 

Tootplanet: Explorers’ Logs Planet 7-12-1

Mar29

Planetary Date 262

There are actually other things on this planet besides puffballs.

The thing is, that some of them find the puffballs to be terrifying – because of mutations like the one we got out of the Dawn line, it seems, and because their bright colors blend in so well that something that could be toxic or venomous just, poof, appears under your feet.

The poor… fluff.. thing – think the size of a large dog or small pony, mostly lime green, with blue and pink spots – walked like it was on show as it checked us out, lifting each foot up all the way and putting it down very carefully.

 

 

The Hidden Mall 28: Clean✨

Mar29

First: The Hidden Mall – a beginning of something
Previous: Reunion

It was too awkward, talking to all these people with the faces of people she knew.  Abby rushed through a meal of ridiculous fruit and meat she didn’t want to ask too much about, Chinese-restaurant sauces and a few spices that the person in batik swore up and down would do nothing more than make mystery meat taste more palatable.

It would feel nice to sleep here, but something about the way Vic looked at them, the way Kevin looked at her when he thought she wasn’t looking, the way Greg sometimes looked at Tommy, it made her feel like they shouldn’t be here.  Like it was like looking at ghosts for them. Continue reading →