An Invitation (a story of the Foedus Planetarum in Earth’s early days of knowing of it)

Oct25

The giraffe-people (“Cortcheczocko”) and the beetle-people (“Dezzirezz’hezz”) had not been the first of the Federated Planets to visit Earth, but their delegation had come with the formal ribbons and banners, the formal papers and, most importantly, the engraved invitation to visit the Federation (“Foedus Planetarum”) and see if they wished to engage in the paperwork to join.

“Send twenty delegates from each of your five largest countries,” the Cortcheczocko ambassador had said, its (his? Despite the giraffe-like horns and spotted skin, the Cortcheczocko looked decidedly human, and the ambassador both handsome and male.) – or his translator working madly to keep up. “Send your science-people and your entertainment-people, your mechanics-people and your representative-people. Send no more or no less than one hundred, and the shuttle will take them in forty-five days.”

The smirk on the ambassador’s face had suggested he knew that humans did nothing that important that quickly. Behind him, the Dezzirezz’hezz ambassador (female, probably, although hairless, with iridescent blue patterns over much of her skin) smirked as well.

It was thus that Etel found herself on a shuttle between a mechanic from Jersey and a famous rapper, bound for – well, bound for somewhere, at least, and somewhere that promised to be interesting.

The mechanic had introduced herself first. “Amy Colivanni. I fix imported cars. Think the Cortcheczians gonna need their oil changed?”

“Etelvina Escarrà. Friends call me Etel, and we might as well be friends. I’m a biologist from New York – upstate New York,” she added by reflex. “By the lake. I don’t know what they want.” Personally, she thought the translator had mangled “mechanical engineer”, but she wasn’t going to say that. “I think they want to make sure we understand them as best as possible, inside and out – and vice-versa.”

“Hunh. Well, they’re gonna get a fun picture, ain’t they? Hundred people picked in a rush.” She cracked her knuckles. “I already wanna see under the hood of this shuttle. I got a chance to look at Space Ship X once. That was a blast. This is absolutely nothing like this… and yet it’s a lot the same. You know?”

Etal nodded fervently. “Yeah.” She was having the same feeling about the Cortcheczocko and the Dezzirezz’hezz. They looked too human, too similar and too different. “Yeah, I know the feeling.” She wanted to get under their hoods, too.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/997864.html. You can comment here or there.

Brainstorming: Roddenberry Aliens / Variations on humanoid

Oct25

I’m playing with Foedus Planetarum to give myself something to, uh, play with.

Yira’s people, the Medusas, have tentacle braids and tend large in stature.

Jahnan’s people tend brown-and-green, very dexterous, with prehensile toes and prehensile, forked tongues.

I am looking for a couple more variations on the humanoid theme and have not yet found a generator for that /goes looking/

Ideas?

Edited to add: [personal profile] inventrix had provided these links:
http://www.scifiideas.com/alien-species-generator/
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=alienrace
and this one
http://www.springhole.net/writing_roleplaying_randomators/humanoid.htm
and
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=fantasyrace

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/997384.html. You can comment here or there.

Notes on Rin and her place in the royalty of Calenta

Oct24

Rin is the fourth? in line for her grandfather’s throne. Some of those before her in line have recused themselves – not interested in leadership, focused on a calling in the priesthood, interested in romance with someone who didn’t want to be in a leadership position, or not interested in creating heirs for one reason or another. Many have died. Her grandfather is quite old, and has outlived handfuls of his heirs.

More than half of the royal heirs went into the army. Calenta has a heavily meritocratic society – their rulers were originally war-chiefs of nomadic tribes – and earning a high position in the Army is one way to prove your merit. However, it’s also a good way to die, especially with an active war boiling on the front.

When Rin left to study healing, she was fourteenth in line. When she left for the army she was ninth in line. Her cousin Elen was three behind her and now is one behind her.

Her mother recused herself long ago. Her mother is a scholar and prefers her books to people.

Probably –> recusing yourself is acceptable (being removed from the inheritance is not, is considered very shameful, and it /does/ happen), but it is a one-way street. You can’t decide to un-recuse yourself.

While I decided to get rid of the immensely complicated inheritance system I’d originally thought of, it still flips genders. I.e., since the Emperor is male, his heir WILL be female, his daughter or a granddaughter THROUGH a daughter, or, if one suitable cannot be found, from his mother’s or grandmother’s line.

This has made Rin’s uncle, who needs a name (though he might have one in an earlier draft), exceedingly cranky.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/997133.html. You can comment here or there.

Journals of Loss, a story of the Aunt Family for Patreon

Oct23

Rosaria and Willard kept journals when he left the family. This story covers the beginnings of those journals: anger, fear, and loss.

I told Rosie I’d write down my experiences, but it’s been three days since I left the family formally, and this is the first time I’ve been able to stand putting pen to paper.

It is still unpleasant to think about, much less to analyze, but the knowledge is rare, even if the situation is unpleasant. When people leave the family – which happens so rarely Rosie and I could think of only two – they do not normally leave behind notes on their departure….

(read on…)

For just $1, you can read all the Patreon stories!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/996903.html. You can comment here or there.

So I’ve been playing with paper dolls (Reiassan fashion…)

Oct23

layering.png

And I made up a bunch of them to fit This paper doll to see if I could get the layering down.

…there really should be at least one more skirt layer…

This is Rin-Era, someone working in a middle-status job, like a city bureaucrat and –I just realized I didn’t check the buttoning side–

Oh, good. they all button to the right hip. Even if there’s a sort of excessive amount of decorative buttoning.

I tell you, button-maker has to be a high-status job in Reiassan.

Edited to add: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/photo/album/3134?page=1 the whole scrapbook!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/996608.html. You can comment here or there.

Note to self (re. planning wordcount)

Oct23

Having a 10,000-word project (novella), a 6,000-word project (Edally), and a 4,000-word project (Ghost) in a month and a 25K goal for the month only works if you have less than 5K additional work.

Patreon is approx. 2.5K now.

There’s that commission you just finished, that was ~3K this month.

Then there’s the 6K submission story…

Math is one’s friend.

(also, I need to leave at least 1.5K for fun projects, and since I really want my “fun” to run about 10-20% of my wordcount, I need to allow for that, too. That means for a 25000 work-wordcount goal, I need to write ~27,700-31,250 words).

Conclusion: I need to shrink my project goals per month. Or increase my wordcount by 10-25%.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/996274.html. You can comment here or there.

Chase the Fox Part IV, a continuation of Fox Hunt, completes, free on Patreon!

Oct22

The first part of the story: Fox Hunt
The second part: The Hunt Continues
The First Continuation, part of @dahob’s commission: Chase the Fox Part One
The Second and Third Continuations:
Chase the Fox Part II
Part III

And now, the Fourth and Final part of @Dahob’s continuation:
Part IV: That Fox Won’t Run

Challenge. She wanted challenge? George would give her a freaking challenge. He would disappear so well into the landscape that nobody could find him, change his appearance so much even his mother wouldn’t be able to tell it was him, and lay low until she’d gotten tired of looking, until she’d gotten bored with this little game of hers…

(read on!)

A Patronage of just $1/month will give you access to everything posted on Patreon.

Want input into the story prompts? A Patronage of $5/month lets you prompt in the monthly prompt calls. For $15/month you get your own personal story!

Check it out!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/995933.html. You can comment here or there.

Some notes on clothing in Calenta/Reiassan

Oct22

I’m working on a tiddlywiki/setting bible, which meant pulling out all my old notes on the setting here, on the old wiki, everywhere, and beginning to compile them.

And then I realized most of the clothing notes, esp. for Rin/Girey era, were in my head and had evolved mightily.

So:

The basic unit of Calenyen clothing is the kiparrie* (orig. Qitari before I realized I didn’t have a Q…). This garment has a high band collar, either split on one side or split in the middle with an asymmetrical cut going off to one armpit (Chef’s coat, cheongsam).

The side the shirts close on indicates skilled worker vs. unskilled labor.

The garment is fitted at neck, chest, and shoulders; sometimes it is fitted down as far as the hips and sometimes it is looser, even baggy. It is worn down to the knees over full pants (tozhyu) or a full skirt (kanzhyu) (except in very warm weather, when it is sometimes worn over very short pants), and it (and the pants or skirt) is almost always worn in layers.

The number of layers is dictated by weather (In summer, this can come down to an undershirt and undershorts and a vest-like over-kiparri with, probably, a light pair of overshorts) and by formality. Layers in deep winter or exceedingly formal situations can number from four to ten.

* This, like “kimono”, is a generic term, with any number of specific terms depending on shape, length of hem and sleeve, purpose, cut of collar, etc…

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/995815.html. You can comment here or there.

Chase the Fox Part IV

Oct22

Written to @DaHob‘s commissioned continuation; part IV of a longer story.  

This comes after Fox Hunt(Saturday) and The Hunt Continues (Wednesday), Chase the Fox Part I (Wednesday – the following Saturday), Part II (The next Wednesday and Thursday), and Part III (Friday and Monday morning)

Wednesday Morning

Challenge. She wanted challenge? George would give her a freaking challenge. He would disappear so well into the landscape that nobody could find him, change his appearance so much even his mother wouldn’t be able to tell it was him, and lay low until she’d gotten tired of looking, until she’d gotten bored with this little game of hers. Continue reading →