Somber

2025... oh dear.

So I finally finished peak at Amazon for 2024. It's six or so weeks of busy busy busy but tonight is the last night of it so things should be better. I have deep concerns for the upcoming year, but that's political and I try not to talk about that here. Suffice to say I hope everyone gets through it all in one piece. It's going to be a ride.

Mei's been keeping me writing more and more regularly with little writes here and there and they've culminated into this original story: 2025-01-01 17:45:57 +0000 UTC View Post

Where's Somber?

So long story short, 2024 has been a lot. I went to Everfree in July, and seemed to anger some primordial god for an unknown transgression. I've had covid, heart and blood pressure issues, and an e. coli infection. I also got a promotion which sounds good till it takes up an extra hour or two out of my day. I moved into a new apartment unit. Then there was the election.

Sigh...

I've felt really guilty about being quiet for so long, just because I don't want to whine so much as...

I live! Also, Moving, Everfree, and Homelands.

So June was okay. Got the new FF14 expansion. Highly recommend. They laid out a good starting path for the next arc of the game. Also finally finished the next chapter of Homelands. I'm going to be putting it up on Monday, but you all deserve a good first peek.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VukprsIh5GaifNLqZaHJB5YuyEFsMmij_JPl_DS-Lr4/edit?usp=s...

Arias Chapter 6 vote

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qVd5To38MTj94Emxn9Vd7YyuG3_coXkofVg5SZVDRko/edit?usp=sharing

What should Arias do with Lizel?

Arias Chapter 5

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bnxIRP8PhfMZs6qSFta2KJHyTTT9tV_wqgYbo1fQNOQ/edit?usp=sharing

May day.. may day...

Sorry things have been a quiet mess. April I was hoping to find a place and move. That melted down. Then the IRS came with a nastygram and wiped out 2000 dollars. Then I got sick and turned 45 and...

SIGH...

ANYWAY! May is over and done. And dead. And burned. And buried. At the bottom of the ocean. So now I'm focusing on June and pulling things back together again.

I have some Arias I worked on as well. My hope is to pull things back together again and engage more. If you...

Arias Story Chapter 4

So a little more progress on Arias, Chapter 4, and another choice for folks on how the Mire develops.

In other news, I'm in the process of moving and trying to land a promotion.  I have to interview for it, so hopefully I land it.  It'll be well needed money given what rents are doing in this area.

Thanks for sticking with me.  I hope to keep working on more story.  My friend Mei has been really good at poking me to keep reading, and a friend is going over Home...

Is Somber dead?

No, I'm not dead.  I got through peak with great difficulty due to work putting me in a rather onerous position.  Basically, I keep the robots at the warehouse running, so if something falls on the floor I have to go and get it.  Clean up spills.  Reset robots.  Some times it's busy as heck and other times it's boring as heck.  Normally it's not that bad... but since December I was one of two people able to do it.  Which meant I was doing it all the time. &n...

Just a heads up...

I'm alive, just getting hammered by work.

Ciderfest was amazing.  It was great to meet so many new people and got to do some great panels.  Sadly, they weren't recorded like I thought they were.  Ah well.

Making creeeping progress on Homelands when I have energy to spare.

Had sewer leak in my apartment.  Yay poo water...

Landlord wants to raise my rent 200 dollars for poo water...

Ugh...

But I'm alive!  Will say more when holidays a...

RIP Panda and Ciderfest

So Panda Bear died on the 30th.  It was pretty hard but when the vet told me she had kidney failure there wasn't much point in prolonging it.  She was my baby, and it's hard coming home and she's not here.  she provided so much structure and attention and interaction and love... but she's gone now and I'll have to deal.  My family's working to get me a replacement dog in a few months.  Shih Tzu's are an expensive breed but they're wonderfully sweet inside dogs.
2023-11-13 20:59:25 +0000 UTC View Post

Cause I want to start writing things again.

So August and September happened.  My car got hit.  I've been dealing with cluster headaches.  The medicine for the headaches is knocking me out way more than usual.  My depression's been spiking.  Panda's worrying me.  It's been a lot of things one after the other.  October's a bad month for me too.  Lot of bad happened in October.

But I do have somethings for you.  I'm going to Ciderfest in Milwaukee in November.  Some folks donated to...

Well June (and July) happened... and it wasn't terrible?

So goodish news.  Nothing bad happened in June besides a root canal and nothing bad happened in July besides a strained leg.  I feel like 2023 is trying to lure me into a sense of complacency so it can finish me off in December...

BUT a good friend named Mei is getting me writing a lot more.  We started mid July.  She's not in the fandom so it's an original story and so far I've been really engaged.  So this is a shared story based on a long talk about aspects o...

May day... May day...

So a little good news and mostly meh news.  Good news is that I got trained to do the robots job.  It's actually not that hard.  When the robots mess up or something messes up the robots, I go out and fix the problem.  So sometimes I'm running my butt off and sometimes I do other work till something does go wrong.  Good news is that it's allow my hands to heal up a lot.  To the point where they're not painful anymore, allowing me to do things like type.

The...

My hand is broken.

Okay, not broken, but they're not working well at all.  Since working at Amazon I've been noticing an increasing stiffness in the fingers of the right hand.  It's gotten so bad that I've been waking up with several fingers virtually paralyzed until I take ibuprofen, soak them in hot water, and carefully stretch each finger.  And when I do move them they pop painfully.  This has made work, typing and gaming rather difficult as I do all three with my hands.  My doctor (...

Writing attempt 3.14.23 <arclight>

This is a story that's been in my head a little.  I'm trying to get back in the habit of writing at all, so this is just a snippit.  Hopefully it can get me back in the mode of writing daily.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NeYeveWsFd45I_zASDUBmLwr14qa8QNRvlVZma0msWs/edit?usp=sharing

Undefeated!

Okay.  So I finally have 2023... maybe not resolved but going in the direction I want...  so I can tell you what a nightmare February was.

So at the end of January, I was fired without explanation or warning.  One day I was told I was going to be made permanent, the next that 'seasonal' could go on all the way to JULY, up to 11 months, the next that I was doing a great job.  I was cross-training to hop into ANY opening that became available.  Amazon's a reliable...

2023 is off to a great start... /s

So January started off okay.  Peak ended.  I didn't get any notifications I was going to be fired.  I was working hard to demonstrate I'm a good Amazon employee and trying to get that blue badge.  Everything was going okay.  Was even doing a little more writing here and there.

Then I got a notice that I was fired.  No warning.  Just... fired.  And it has turned into an immense, tangled, mess.  I might one day tell the whole story, but until s...

Isekai Ch 3 vote 3

I took a deep breath, glancing at Yune and Taght.  I wanted to be an adventurer so I could be safe and maybe find some way back home.  At the very least, try to fix this body I’d been stuffed into.  I didn’t know their reasons beyond money; it was true, adventurers always seemed to have money, but Yune didn’t look like she needed it.  And Taght... well, I didn’t have any difficulty imagining him leaving Sonna behind to save his own neck.

“I’m in.  I ...

Chapter 3 choice #2

No.  If I was going to pull this off, I needed friends.  Sonna was the first person that was more or less my age who I might have something with.  At the very least, she didn’t call me ‘pelt’, ‘beast’ or ‘cat’.  Finding the Darkmarket wasn’t too difficult now.  It moved from place to place, but I could always find it by carefully watching the water.

The masked guardians intercepted me as usual before showing the way.  They didn’t talk. &nb...

Isekei chapter 3

Over the next three months, I learned.  That was something that you generally didn’t see.  Whatever world the hero went too, however odd it might be, the hero learned the important bits and everything else was familiar.  Me, I found myself barely able to follow along, and knew that all it would take was one overly inquisitive guard to give me a really bad day.

The charm Lurue had cast on me had worn off when I woke up, and so one of the first things I’d had to learn w...

I roll to dodge 2022... I rolled a 12.

Fortunately the DC was 12.  So I made it by the skin of my teeth.  December and peak was rough.  The job itself is pretty simple.  Take things and put in box.  It's just a matter of rate and working so many days in a row.  Buuuuut... I made it.  I was lucky enough that they gave me a modified schedule so I could take care of my dog, Panda.  She took me going back to work really, really hard.

Still, I made it through, Panda's still around to be the...

Worst november ever.

Normally I look forward to November.  There's nanowrimo.  There's thanksgiving.  There's... well that's about it, but it's rarely a bad month for me.  This month though...

So I am working at an Amazon FC center.  The work is brain dead.  I take things and put them into boxes.  If I do that 160 times a minute, I am doing my job.  The job has improved a little.  I can listen to music with the right headphones, and they now do a thing where if I...

November is make or break...

I'm struggling severely, with mental health, dog, car, and money.  I'm sorry.  I wish I had my stuff together better.  I'm working nights at Amazon now.  I don't know how long.  I need things to turn around badly.

Thanks for sticking with me.  I would be homeless or dead without your help right now.  I hope that somehow I can make things work again.  I hope.

Edit: If you're not on it, I talk more on Discord now.  2022-11-03 23:12:33 +0000 UTC View Post

Isekai 2.1

You don’t know anything, Akira.  Nothing at all.  I hated to admit it, but this wasn’t some Isekai where I’d be marched up in front of the king and given the plot in the first manga.  This one was going to make me earn going home.  That meant I needed to learn a lot and quickly.  “The Whisperers,” I said.  “I need to know things.  They sound like my best chance to learn.”

“Good choice,” Axelenar said with a nod.  “Or a...

Isekei vote chapter 2

Chapter 2

The darkmarket stunk.  Isekais never stank.  Some how, if they mentioned smells at all, it was usually some sort of exotic cooking.  This place stank of too many people who washed way too infrequently in too small a space with too little air.  I wondered how everyone kept from suffocating.

Still, despite the confines, there was order to the place.  Every shop seemed focused on moving goods or delivering services.  There was a wooden barrel a...

Isekai 0.3

This was turning into the worst isekei ever.  I needed a breather.  A chance to process everything.  What, ultimately, was the point of my being here?  Who’s body did that voice stuff me into and what had happened to her.  There were already so many unknowns that I felt my stomach clench.  “This darkmarket.  What is it?”

They shared a look.  Xoxothiel answered, “It’s an illegal market in the aqueducts under the city.  The city has a...

Isekei Story idea 0.2

I’d been shot.  Killed.  Murdered.  Why?  Because I tried to help someone?  Did I have family?  Was I being mourned?  Forgotten?  Who was I?

I drew several breaths through my aching throat, coughing.  A name.  Name... from there I could build everything else...

Akira...

Was that my name?

Akira.  I’d been... nineteen?  Twenty?  Out of high school, but I hadn't started college.  Working at a conven...

Isekai Story Idea

Hey, what are you doing?

Get away from them!

Help!

BANG!  BANG BANG!

Fucking faggot...

BANG!!

...

Well!  That was certainly interesting!

He shot me!

Several times.  Though it was the last one that mattered most.

Am I...

As a doornail, I’m afraid.

Oh..

Yeah...

Anyone get the number of that month that ran me over?

So September was started with dreams and asperations and ended with me crushed under reality.  The good news is I got a job at the post office.  It's good pay for my area, has benefits, and I should be able to do it.  That's my hope.  Because almost everything else has been a wreck.  About midweek I started getting a nasty taste in my mouth, followed by a tooth ache and then headache. I got a line of credit and went to the dentist for a new crown.  They informed ...

Blargh! Also, RP system thing.

So some folks on discord know I'm trying to get on with Amazon.  My drug test was botched so I had to reapply.  In the meantime I'm trying to get my brain on daytime sleep cycles.  So I'm basically writing this in a desperate attempt to stay awake.

Lately, I've been running a game / RP for a friend.  The story's pretty simple: a bog standard resurrections Issekai where a guy dies and is reincarnated into a cat person.  A lot of the world is based off the deep de...