ddwebb

H - 26: We Are Leaving

It was far from Kaln’s best performance.

He was still slightly rattled by Izayaroa’s casual revelation about Verdi culture and why they should absolutely not have been carrying on as they had been on this trip—and particularly about the fact that she hadn’t so much as mentioned any of this to him before they entered the city. That portended either a disregard on her part for his perspective and ability to contribute, or a large gap in her own competence. Kaln was n...

H - 25: It's Not Just Him

For once, the soft warmth of Izayaroa cuddling against his side added to Kaln’s discomfort…but also alleviated it, paradoxically. Even when her proximity was a reminder of how carried away they’d gotten, she was a comfort and a pleasure to drape his arm around, one he couldn’t resist even as he resolved to control himself better from here on.

At least until they were safely back at their isolated mountain lair.

He welcomed the distraction when their carriage crossed a wide...

OVDT - 4.48: In Which the Dark Lord is Struck Down

I hadn’t known this, but Biribo had informed me during one of our recent conversations that most of the time, a person will survive a single lightning strike. Given the very good reason that being struck by lightning is colloquial shorthand for “statistically almost impossible,” I think I can be forgiven for not having been aware of that. It made sense, though; despite the colossal heat and voltage, it only exists for the tiniest fraction of a second.

It was the thunderclap that c...

Hard reset

This just does not get any less frustrating no matter how many times it happens...

I'm sure everyone has noticed the lack of content for the last week...actually I believe it's been more than a week. Those who are on my discord server and reading my updates will already be aware of how things have been going for me. In short: not good, for brain reasons.

It's always brain reasons with me. Mine is just plain defective.

Since moving to my new "whenever, whatever" publicatio...

H - 24: We Have Been Inconsiderate

It took an ironic amount of effort to relax—or at least, to remember how. Kaln had spent a couple of days in wonder and discovery constantly tinged with the need to manage his bizarre new situation under pressures he didn’t fully understand; before that had been a year of toil and deprivation, eking out bare survival on a mission fueled by pure spite, goaded along by possibly the most manifestly suspicious being in the cosmos. And before that… Well, his last d...

H - 23: Command It To Be Done

Paradoxically, escaping from the staid avenue outside into the comparatively raucous entertainment district bought them some peace and quiet, just because nobody here was paying attention to the pair of them directly, yet.  With Kaln and Izayaroa on the hook and into their domain, the Nhiyah touts went back to catcalling other passersby.

Kaln was immediately fascinated by the contrast that was everywhere—the fundamental duality of this district.  Everything was built in the ...

H - 22: You Have Done Well By Us

“Understand that this is not a deflection—I simply feel it appropriate to clarify something first.  I am making it a point of practice…and, I suppose, principle…not to take this opportunity to undercut the others in their absence, which obligates me to give full credit where I deem it deserved.”

He nodded, keeping his posture still and his expression open, and she turned to face him directly.

“Tiavathyris does value mortal lives, and would take great offe...

H - 21: I Must Insist We Abstain From Any Disembowelment

Just beyond the market area was a semicircular plaza kept clear of stalls, though it was lined by storefronts; streets branched off it in three directions, and its purpose was made obvious by the presence of vehicles, many waiting patiently for use.  Several wagons were being unloaded or loaded by porters carrying goods into the market, but most seemed to be small, roofless carriages.

Horse-drawn carts—actually more like chariots, being on two wheels, with an elevated seat in the...

H - 20: You've Lost This One

Or so Kaln eventually understood; it took him a moment to parse.

He didspeak Filvallin, but only because it was necessary to read it—a scribe of the Royal Archives of Rhivkabat could not fail to be literate in at leastthe three most widely used languages of the continent.  But even aside from his relative unfamiliarity with the spoken sounds of the language, what Kaln had normally encountered was the formal Filvallin in which books, diplomatic correspondence, an...

H - 19: Everything is Soon to Change

The kingdoms of the Evervales were small, disorganized, and generally not well-respected.  They were mostly cut off from the other landlocked civilizations that neighbored them, having only maritime trade and travel as, for whatever reason, Atraximos the Dread had preferred to keep his depredations inland and very rarely bothered ships.  His shadow lay heavy over this whole region, however, this chain of fertile valleys separated by soaring peaks which covered the entire northern th...

H - 18: I Want This Place Cleaned Up

“This is the central area, as I described.  You see what I mean.”

Kaln came to a stop at the top of the stairs, gesturing across the huge expanse of the lair’s main chamber and looking aside at his companion.  The spectral soldier came to parade rest and nodded once.

They were unnerving to look at, all of them.  The ghosts were translucent and a sickly blue in color; it was odd to see those intangible skeletons through their equally intangible armor. ...

H - 17: Simple Problem, Simple Solution

“Well, that’s nothing,” Vadaralshi said minutes later.  “Simple problem, simple solution!”

Kaln had teleported over to join the group and explain his predicament, and also tucked away his meager lunch because no amount of hunger was going to get it down his throat at this point.  The dragons had opted to begin their own lunch while they listened, and for all their conversational sophistication, in their more bestial forms they ate about as gracefully as monitor lizar...

H - 16: Don't

“My wife,” Kaln corrected.  “Since you’re surprisingly up to speed for someone who claimed they were too scared to approach the dragons, I assume you know that much.  And I’m not just being pedantic.  She is mine, and also the ruler of my homeland.  I would rather you spoke of her with respect, if at all.”

“Why, of course, of course,and a thousand apologies.”  The faint translucence of the shadow executed one of those c...

H - 15: You Seem to Have Misunderstood

It seemed strange that Kaln’s first and strongest reaction was confusion.

Not that being towered over by an aggressive dragon was not viscerally alarming on a deep, animal level, but even that wasn’t the reaction that most preoccupied his mind.  Maybe it was because he was growing accustomed to dragons, maybe because he was just accustomed to suppressing those instinctive reactions…  In fact, it was probably both, plus the comparison between Vanimax and Atraximos didn’...

H - 14: It Requires a Dragon

Kaln stepped carefully onto the platform, testing the effect of its soft surface.  Actually, it wasn’t that bad: plenty firm enough to provide good footing, just yielding enough to mitigate injury if one were to fall on it, which was undoubtedly the point.  In Rhivkabat, the guard training areas he’d seen were covered in sand; this seemed better.

“I assume my shoes won’t be an issue on the padding,” he said aloud, “since apparently her claws aren’t.”

Vada...

H - 13: Nobody Gets to Pick Their Own Nickname

She was in her larger form, of course.  Kaln couldn’t yet be sure whether they defaulted to that out of personal preference or lingering habit from the years of Atraximos’s demands.  Regardless, it was the only way he could see her directly, now, as even with the cleared paths between the doorways, the main floor of the central chamber was still mired in a mix of priceless Timekeeper artifacts and gnawed bones which drifted higher than he was tall.

Wasting no time, Kaln fo...

H - 12: It's Hard to Argue With Math

She was so soft.

After the hours he’d spent in Izayaroa’s arms, the hardness of her wasn’t a surprise.  She had scales in all the same places, arms and legs and the spiky ridge of them running all the way up her spine.  Plus the claws, and those fangs that kept nicking his lower lip thanks to the endearing clumsiness of her efforts.  His fingers now and then grazed the base of her horns when he stroked them through her hair.

But oh, so soft.  Eve...

H - 11: Allow Me to Show You

He very nearly let her get away with it.

It was the posture and bearing; Kaln would have more instinctively controlled himself if confronted by a rampaging monster, but in that moment Emeralaphine was a stern, disappointed librarian—a kind of being with which he was well familiar, and to which he had a deeply-ingrained instinctive response.  All that on top of her natural charisma—for despite her awkward failure to control her own expression, her long years of social deprivatio...

H - 10: I'm a Celestial Maggot

He barely noticed the plaza onto which the door opened, a mirror of that which lay before the front entrance to the lair.  Kaln rushed across it, past the pristine Timekeeper architecture, and grabbed the waist-high Timestone balustrade, leaning out to gape at the vista which opened before him.

The valley was surrounded by an unbroken wall of craggy mountain peaks; though waterfalls spilled into it in two places, this appeared to be the only entrance.  This early in the mornin...

Still here, still working

I've posted a couple of updates on my discord server, but since the problem is ongoing and not everyone is on it, I wanted to add a quick explanation here.

It's brain problems, as usual.  Doesn't seem too intense, as depressive episodes go; at any rate, I'm not suffering terribly from the residual problems that always come with it.  My concentration and creative ability are absolutely fried, though.  I have been working on a chapter for the last week and a half, and have ...

D - 0 - 10

“Without teachers, it turns out a school isn’t much of anything,” Tzi murmured, slowly leafing through the pages of her Grimoire to read about the new spells she’d just acquired.

“On the contrary, master!” the Grimoire replied.  “We have already gained new spells, which was the entire point of this endeavor.  With the addition of a designated casting space and freely supplied ritual components, plus whatever can be learned in the library, this excursion promises ...

D - 0 - 9

Tzi and Scio stood rigidly still under the collective stares as if paralyzed for several seconds before the shock wore off enough that they could move, at which point Scio pressed herself against Tzi's leg, flattening her ears back against her skull.  Tightening her grip on her wand, Tzi resisted the impulse to raise it, remembering how Kino had reacted to that sight at first.  Besides, what would she do with it, anyway?  Her only magical ability to address threats was to shoot...

D - 0 - 8

Tzi and Scio both screamed, stumbling backward, and once again she lost Sunbeam; the spell required constant focus to maintain, which was the reason she didn't prefer using it for light.

“Master?”  The Grimoire's voice was slightly muffled; Scio had seized and clung to Tzi from behind, pinning it in its pouch with her body.  “In case it wasn't apparent at a glance, that was a statue.”

“...oh.”  Tzi swallowed heavily.  “Right.  Of course.” 2023-12-27 01:51:52 +0000 UTC View Post

D - 0 - 7

Her pensive frame of mind continued all the way back up the trail out of the forest, though at least it didn't become a psy-draining dark mood.  The more times she walked up and down this particular stretch of path without encountering any danger, the more Tzi could appreciate it.  The forest truly was beautiful.  Forests were known to be good for a person's psy, which was one of the reasons wizards often set up shop deep within one.  As she grew used to this one ...

D - 0 - 6

“That was quite instructive,” Tzi's Grimoire commented as she headed up the path toward the inn, Kino and her family having gone back down the other branch in the direction from which they'd come.  Which, apparently, was south.

“I noticed you kept quiet in front of them,” Tzi replied.

“It seemed wisest; I would be very surprised if these Mirbals have encountered talking books before, and the situation was tense enough, at least at first.  I thought it best not ...

D - 0 - 5

One of the first things Tzi decided to do when she was able to have conversations with Mirbals was figure out what kind of diurnal rhythm they had.  It was disorienting, waking up and not knowing what time of day it was, or whether “day” was even a thing; the light shifted in color and intensity depending on the position of Dysland relative to Xyzz, but there were always other moons in the sky, and always some illumination.  She had no way of gauging even how long she'd slept. 2023-12-15 20:26:55 +0000 UTC View Post

D - 0 - 4

“Well, the fourth path has to be this,” Tzi said aloud, standing in the middle of the crossroads some minutes later.  While she'd been inside the inn, the sky had shifted, and the titanic blue planet now filled most of it, rings and all.  The overall level of light seemed brighter, and bluer—but not by much in either case.  Was that going to be how day and night worked here?  She couldn't wait to get home, murdering former master and all.

With a sigh, she stepp...

December status report

As laid out in my previous update post, I'm in the midst of a big experiment seeking to reconcile my need to put out content with my ongoing mental health struggles.  This post is to bring everybody up to speed on my discoveries halfway through, and to solicit some feedback.

The short version is my results have been very mixed.  The good news is that this has been fantastic for my mental health.  I'm under substantially less stress, my depressive episodes have mostly tape...

D - 0 - 3

The door opened onto a scene of such refreshing normality that for just a moment, Tzi wanted to cry.  She repressed that impulse, instead stepping inside and shutting the heavy door on the whole insane world outside.

A cozy fire blazed merrily away in a large stone hearth, casting warm light and a comforting crackle across the room; aside from that, the only illumination was from the windows and a few strategic oil lamps, leaving the common area dim in the far corners.  This <...

H - 9: I Thought You Might Appreciate This

Food was going to become an issue.

The dragons had drifted off to their own inscrutable business after a luxurious bath and two surprisingly affectionate farewells.  Well, not so surprising in Izayaroa’s case, not after last night, but Tiavathyris also kept making her interest clear, culminating in warm, lingering glances over her shoulder as she departed the bathing chamber.  Still nude and swaying her hips, her long tail tracing a serpentine pattern of water along the Time...