#its a light hearted story though... slice of life two aliens try to learn how to blend into earth after crash landing

[nedsseveredhead]

Made a new oc for a new little personal project that I will never fully explain or touch but everyone meet the little alien bunny princess shes from the moon and is a little lost

[heartschoicegames]

Heart’s Choice Author Interview: RoAnna Sylver, “Dawnfall”

Find true love and family with a pirate crew at the ends of the universe, where aliens, ghosts, and portals open the space between worlds...and your heart. You are a Navigator, one who creates and guards portals from one dimension to another, wary of the liminal sea between them.

Your universe is made of two worlds: one contains the magic-infused world of Zephyria, and the other, the dystopian space station Eclipse. The worlds are balanced, until one day, an explosive disaster, a deadly energy storm, and an infamous pirate—the Ghost Queen—upend your life and plunge you into a race to save both worlds.

Dawnfall is a 232,000 word interactive romance novel by RoAnna Sylver,  one of the first set of games releasing with the launch of Heart’s Choice. I sat down with the author, RoAnna Sylver, to talk about writing interactive romance. Heart’s Choice games release December 2nd.

Dawnfall has frankly an insanely wonderful setting for a romance game. Tell me about the aliens, the pirates, the ghosts, and the alien-pirate-ghosts.

Hi there! I’m so glad you think this sounds fun! Yeah, Dawnfall is weird as heck, and that’s one of the things I love about this story. It’s weird in a way I don’t think we’ve seen much of before. I really just tried to put in everything I find fun or interesting, and that I’ve always wanted to write. Dawnfall started out as a total brain-candy project, and runs on pure Rule of Cool. Pirates? Yes. Magic? Yes. A slice of cyberpunk? Hell yes. Eerie ghosts and faerie-tale influences and memory-sharing potions? Giant bird people? The power of rock n’roll? Yes, yes, yes.

And also everybody’s dateable, and in a couple cases, dating each other. We weave a tangled web, but I think it’s a pretty badass and spectacular web.

You seem to really neatly straddle the genre fence here with a romance and sci-fi/fantasy. What was challenging about cramming all of that into one game?

Thank you so much for saying that. I’ve always adored SFF, and there’s so much in this genre-collection, so many extremes and concepts and contrasting colors, that I couldn’t limit myself to picking just one to play with. This weird game-book is kind of a love letter to fantasy and science fiction and haunted house stories and cyberpunk adventures—I thought a lot about the Disney movie Treasure Planet for its genre-blending beauty, and the Bioware game Mass Effect for its array of fascinating, multidimensional alien cuties to interact with and date… and then turned it up to eleven.

I guess you’d expect the challenge to be in making it all fit together/be “believable,” but I kind of threw that out the window. I don’t expect anyone to find it ‘realistic’ (setting-wise anyway; I tried to make every character ring true of course), and I don’t really care if someone thinks it’s silly, or doesn’t take it seriously. It is silly in a lot of ways. DAWNFALL is a giant ridiculous queer space magic pirate adventure, and the only goal is fun. If you have fun, I’ve done my job, and there should be something fun in here for everyone.

Did you have a favorite NPC you enjoyed writing most?

Honestly I love them all so much in different ways, and I know them so well by now it’s really second nature. Their voices come so easily and they’re all so much fun. The Queen’s swagger is awesome though, and her mental voice/mannerisms probably come through especially clearly. I love Zenith’s vulnerable moments when xie lets xir guard down and lets go of the need to entertain or please. I love Averis’s journey and growth from cute wibbly nerd to a confident swashbuckler (who is also still a cute wibbly nerd). I love how deeply Oz feels, how strongly he loves and remembers and honors memory, and how unafraid he is to show softness and warmth. And I love a certain spoilery ghost-babe and how they’re so full of joy at the beauty of life.

I do want to give special mention to Aeon, though. This is a story about connection, and I wanted to show that sibling bonds are every bit as important and strong as romantic or any other. I also wanted to show a complex, multidimensional antagonist figure who holds heartbreaking secrets along with authority, and is genuinely trying to do what she thinks is the best thing, and wants what’s best for you, the PC, even if you might not always agree. Her balance between being so emotionally guarded and determined and unyielding, while hopefully being extremely easy to read and tell what she wants and fears and loves—spoiler: you; she loves you!—was a challenge I hope I pull off.

…Also I enjoy any time Vyranix gets his pompous feathered ass handed to him. I think we all know a Vyranix, or at least of one, and it’s always fun to take them down, even in fantasy.

Who would you be romancing as a player?

I’m gonna say “everyone,” and here it won’t actually be cheating, because you can romance everyone! At once! In varying degrees/relationship dynamics and attractions. You don’t see a lot of polyamory-friendly games or books or anything really, and this is an incredibly important thing for me. The second I got the idea for Dawnfall I knew it had to let players romance anyone they wanted and show polyamory in a realistic, healthy light. I’m also a-spec (asexual and aromantic), and having not just good representation but being actively included and welcomed and celebrated in fiction is so huge too.

Dawnfall is a romance of course, being part of Heart’s Choice, but one of the single most vital elements for me is making it inclusive for aromantic and asexual players and player-characters. Essentially, I wanted to write a romance that didn’t penalize players for not experiencing the attractions the way we’re otherwise expected or required—and I’m so grateful that my amazing editors and community not only accepted but supported everything I was trying to do here. (It’s so refreshing not to have to fight for inclusion and freedom. It shouldn’t be, but it is.)

And that’s where the concept of “Heart-Stars” and “Same-Feathers” came from. I’ve never seen anything honor queerplatonic relationships like I’m trying to do here, and I want everyone, of every sexuality and attraction, to feel like they have a place here and can experience this adventure without limits. And I wanted to show that it’s a very normal thing, hence this being the same for the human characters as well as alien. (One of the nonbinary characters being human is also no mistake. I love me some wild alien genders, but there are tons of awesome nonbinary humans too!)

…That being said, I think I gave Averis most of my anxiety-issues, and would really just like to curl up with Oz and watch The Great British Bake-Off. That sounds like a perfect night in my books.

What were some of the things you found surprising about the game-writing process?

Coding was definitely the biggest learning curve. I’d never coded anything before in my life, and it’s such a new skillset to learn, entirely different from any kind of writing I’ve ever done. Sometimes it felt rewriting my brain, which did not at all do this intuitively—and also sometimes like I bit off much more than I could chew (first game ever being not only a huge piece of interactive fiction, but a polyamorous romance with aro and ace possibilities, and so many more variables than expected!), but it’s been worth it. Entirely. If my writing makes anyone feel seen and accepted and invited to have fun as they are, it’s worth every bit of struggle.

Also, oddly, interactive fiction is in some ways easier for me than writing a plain old book! Probably because I love AUs so much, and every choice in a game is like writing a tiny AU of the story, so I get to do the same scenes several different ways. My ADHD-brain finds something about this extremely satisfying, most likely because it somehow feels more like multitasking! Several stories in one, and if I like two ideas, I don’t have to pick just one to write!

Honestly though, I think the most surprising part is just being done, and…that I could do this at all. It was so huge, and took so long, and I learned so much, and every day I’m just kind of going “who the hell am I?” about doing all of this. I’m proud of it. I did a cool thing. And trying to get better at saying that.

And, what are you working on now?

I always have about 8 active projects going at once (which shouldn’t come as a surprise after last question!), but my next interactive fiction game is with Tales/Fable Labs! It’s shaping up to be a Dawnfall-sized project, but a little faster-moving and action-y.

It’s called Every Beat Belongs To You, and it’s a romantic thriller that feels like Twin Peaks meets Mr. Robot, with a smattering of Repo: The Genetic Opera. A creepy Pacific Northwest town with a secret (and a rash of ritualized murders), a super-slick medical research company whose flagship product is a 100% perfect synthetic heart, a mysterious new-age group, and a sister who went missing just before discovering how it’s all connected. Also five simultaneously-dateable (including ace and aro ships!) cuties of varying genders! Who will you trust with your heart?

I’m very excited about Everybeat, which should be just as queer, polyam, exciting, and weird as all my stuff! Aside from that, I’m working on Stake Sauce Book 2, its companion f/f vampire series Death Masquerade, and Chameleon Moon Book 3. I’m not always working…sometimes there are videogames, and sleep. But I really hope to have a lot more fun things to share soon!

Oh, and depending on how this weird, fun thing goes, I do have some ideas for prequel Dawnfall stories; maybe games, maybe books, but the ideas are there. The world—worlds, really—is so huge, and I’m not done playing in it yet! I also have some character art drawn, and I want to do a lot more of them. It’s another way to show love.

So thank you so much! I really hope Dawnfall is as fun to everyone to read/play as it was for me to write. I can’t wait to share it with you!

[unholyhelbig]

Right, so we all need a part two...

[A/N: Part two, because a lot of people seem to like this one! You can read part one here, or on my AO3] 

The busted pipe dripped in a rhythmic motion. Itwas rusted around the edge, creating a small discolored puddle against thewood. Beca had tried fixing it more than once, and it always sprung through itsbinds. She had grown used to the sound and the scent of metal. It came with theterritory.

Shestretched along the back of the couch, the fire crackling almost drowned outthe water and the musty smell in the air, a book resting beneath herfingertips. She could taste the biting edge of the old pages, eyes scanningover ink that faded needlessly. She squinted at the words.

It was theCall of the Wild.

Beca hadwandered into the thrift store and the old woman behind the counter eitherdidn’t realize who she was or couldn’t tell through her thick bifocals. Sheprobably didn’t’ read the news, anyway, turning her awful hoarding habit into aprofitable business. Either way, Beca got a whole stack of books with darkenedspines for only twenty dollars, and she was slowly making her way through themwithout cause.

When itwas just her and her mother, they would go to the library, and she thinksthat’s where she learned how to appreciate print. She had registered for a cardand would sit in the back corner at one of the computers to fill out jobapplications. Beca would curl into a leather chair with cracked edges and thewarmest air and the brightest sun. Her mom would let her take home one book,and then it changed to two, sometimes even three.  

Right now,it was cold. Everything about where she lived was. She had gotten used to thefact that there weren’t any windows here- and the air always smelled thickly ofsalt and sea life. The way no one else would hire her and now she would liveout the rest of her days as a guard dog for a port with no ships in the night.She liked it this way- alone and desolate. The lull of crashing ocean wavespulled her into fitful sleep and seagulls would welcome her with a cup ofcoffee and a morning run on the black sand beaches before daybreak.

The wallsseeped when it rained like this.

Becareached over blindly and pulled a piece of cold pizza into her grasp. She hadbeen living off of it for a couple of days now, and no way in hell was sheheading back into town after the last reaction she got. It was easier to pop aslice in the microwave, even if the cheese had grown thick with sourness. Shechewed slowly and leaned into the book before pulling her blanket further overher knees.

She almostdidn’t’ hear the knock over the crash of the waves and the shattering of thethunder. Certainly, didn’t expect it, but her body stiffened, and she struggledto swallow the rest of the food that was against her lips. Was it a knock? There it is again, three more times yeah.Definitely a knock.  

The youngwoman peeled the blanket away from her suddenly sticky skin and walked acrossthe creaky floorboards that reminded her of a short story where an old man hadhis heart nailed underneath the parlor. It was a tale of guilt and deceit andshe remembered not being able to sleep for weeks afterward.

Beca couldalmost instantly taste the rain when she opened the door to the lighthouse. Itsoaked against her skin as the wind howled and the figure on her steps shifted,a raincoat around her bleedingly bright hair and contrasted eyes. Her lipswere blue too, from the cold. A thin line of blood moved against her cheek anddripped like diluted mud. She recognized her from the pizza shop. A pryingstranger.  

“Can Icome in?” She called over the howling rain.

“What?”

“I said,can I come in? It’s freezing out here. I’m going to catch my death!”

Becablinked wordlessly and stepped aside. The woman’s boots squished, and they wereleft in a muted silence when the door closed behind her. Chloe smelled likemuck and metal, and a lot like that pipe that was busted in the corner but inthe least offensive way possible. She hissed and shook out her cold hands.

“I’m sorryfor barging in. My car, it broke down and well… it’s like that outside.” Shegave a weak chuckle that was wracked in exhaustion. Beca just stared and Chloeforced an awkward smile. “You’re not very social, are you?”

“Forgiveme, but the last time anyone knocked on my door I was dragged away inhandcuffs.”

Chloenodded like she understood, but she probably didn’t’. Beca didn’t’ know if shewas trying to scare the woman away- but after the other night she was sureAubrey Posen had warned the new girl in town to stay away from her. The rumorshad bounced around, and the police reports were still easy enough to pull uponline- she figured maybe, just maybe, if she was brazened enough then Chloewould fall in line with the rest- alienating and gone to the world.

“I googledyou.”

“Whichbegs the question, why are you here?” Beca asked, scanning her up and down. Shewas doused in mud. “The police station is a block east. The storm shelter twoblocks west.”

“And thegrocery store North. I know, I know.” Chloe countered, sniffing back the cold.“You interest me. I’m intrigued.”

Becaleaned back on her heels and stared some more. She had done a bit of googlingherself, of course, it was harder. She logged into an old Facebook accountbefore clicking on Aubrey Posen’s smiling face, arm wrapped around her fatherthat she still called Daddy even though they weren’t in the South anymore. Fromthere- she found Chloe. Chloe Beale- reporter. It figures she couldn’t helpputting her nose where it didn’t belong.

“Youshould sit by the fire, warm up before you reallydo catch your death. I’ll find you some dry clothes.”

Chloedidn’t’ seem to hesitate before walking close to the mantle and stretching herfingers out. Beca moved towards the iron steps, the second floor not muchhigher than the first. When she returned with a pair of grey sweat pants and anoversized t-shirt with a design of a palm tree on it, she found Chloe squintingat the pages of the book that was left on the coffee table.

“He was akiller, a thing that preyed, living on the things that lived, unaided, alone,by virtue of his own strength and prowess, surviving triumphantly in a hostileenvironment where only the strong survive.” Chloe read aloud, hearing the creakof the floorboards as Beca stopped on the last step.

“Is thatsupposed to be ironic?” Beca asked a wolfish and amused grin. Chloe was toyingwith her, setting the book back down as she took the clothes that were offeredto her. She ran her fingers over the faded design on the t-shirt.

“No, notironic. Not to you, anyway.”

Becasnorted before lifting her chin towards the hallway with the bathroom. Shetrusted Chloe to find it on her own. If she opened the door to the coat closetinstead, she had a feeling the young journalist would snoop around- but somehowit didn’t’ bother her as much as it should. It would bother anyone, shereasoned with herself, but somehow this inept display of human interaction hadher mind swimming and clouded.

Becaglared at the pages of the book when she flopped back down on the leather sofaand listened to the howling wind outside. She remembered reading this for highschool- creating a diorama of the forest. It was mainly poorly sculpted clayand figurines that she found at a craft store. Minimal effort compared to thestudents that had their parents construct it for them.

Her motherand stepfather believed that if she really put her mind to it, she didn’t needtheir help. Of course, they taught her how to drive, how to file her taxes whenshe started her first job as a cashier at an ice cream shop. How to fix a flatand change a head gasket without going to a mechanic. Beca wondered if thoseparents who completed their kids’ projects did that, or if they would just payto have it done in an air of panic.

Chloelooked scruffy and less put together in her clothes. She was hugging herselfcloser as she stood in the light of the fire. She had wiped away most of themud and the gash at her hairline didn’t look so bad anymore, a simple blemishcompared to the among of blood that dripped from it. Beca would beg thequestion that she looked like a lost puppy. Chloe would frown at her and flopdown at the other end of the couch, shivering at the burst of heat.

“Does itget lonely? You know… up here all the time. No one to talk to.”

Becafrowned and glanced over at the woman. She wasn’t staring her way, instead, shewas sadly gazing at the flames eating away at the log. “You know, most peoplejust say thank you. Besides, I have a fish.”

Shedidn’t’ want to admit it, but she talked to the fish more than he listened. Hisblue fins would splay through the water and he would follow her finger if shedragged it against the glass. Going to the pet store was always a challenge,but she accepted it because it meant his well being was kept level. She let outa sigh and shifted against her edge of the couch, moving her arm against theback.

“Look,even if I wanted to leave this place for more than twenty minutes, you saw theway the town acted. I’m a pariah. It’s easier if I stay up here.”

“For who?”

“Foreveryone!” Beca huffed, deep blue orbs flashing towards her. “There is not oneperson in this town that believes that I’m innocent, alright? No one that I’mallowed to talk to anyway. To everyone here, I am a killer, and it’s better tolet them think that.”

Becaremembered the jury, and the feeling of instant relief she got when they saidshe wasn’t innocent on all accounts. The heat of the courtroom was stiflingbut an instant cool washed over her bones. A metal fan was whirring in thecorner and Aubrey Posen distinctly slammed her hand down on the table in frontof her- but that didn’t’ stop the feeling of joy that was with her. The way herown lawyer pulled her in for an undeniable and well-deserved embrace.

“Theyproved you innocent.”

“Yeah,they did.”

She staredevenly at the flames, the way they ate away at the logs and hollowed them out untilnothing, but undeniable heat remained. Beca had a panic attack the first timeshe had started it. But there was no heat up here and the winters were grueling.Snow would cap the rocks and shattered ice would collect at the base of the cliffs.Chloe very much could have caught her death.

“Peoplewant a villain.” Beca sounded out after a silence. “They want someone who isevil inside and out because that is way easier than believing in coincidence. Thinkingthat accidents do happen and there is no ulterior motive.”

“And you’reokay just… being that? Being the person that everyone hates?”

Becapursed her lips and curled her fingers into the couch. At first, no, she wasn’t.She would feel that cold pain that crept into her chest and made her sob into apillow in a nasty hotel room that smelled of urine and smoke. But now it wasnearly peaceful. That is until Chloe showed up looking like a drowned rat. An irresponsibledrowned rat.

“You can’tbe.”

Becaswallowed thickly. “And so, what if I’m not? That shouldn’t be any of your concern.You don’t even know me.”

“I don’tthink anyone does.” Chloe’s voice hadgotten a bit louder, and she sounded like she was struggling to talk. Maybe itwas her frozen vocal cords or the way she tucked her feet under herself as sheturned to face Beca. “I read all the headlines, and I heard everything thatAubrey had to say. But none of that makes sense to me.”

“What’snot to get, Chloe? I’m just someone who wants to be left alone.”

“That’snot true.” She sniffed, cold, maybe “No one wants to be alone. Not forever.”  

[aenariasbookshelf]

Darcy and Jane’s Post-Apocalyptic Road Trip, part six

The continuing road trip adventures of a Jane Foster attempting to avoid the US Government and a heavily pregnant Darcy Lewis just keep expanding.  

Technically this fic takes place in an alternate universe offshoot of The Incrediblesverse, but you don’t have to read those fics to understand this one.

(parts one and two) (part three) (part four) (part five)

At some point I’ll edit this thing up and post it properly to AO3 (and get a proper title...and chapter breaks...you know how it goes.  This story seems to have taken on a life of its own).  Until such time, however, this story will live here on Tumblr…

I’ve started posting the story on AO3 here.  I’ve only got the first part up there, but it’s been expanded greatly, so I do recommend checking it out.  Someday soon I’ll put the rest up there as well.

Infinity War spoilers ahead…

Part Six: in which the women spend some time on the road, ask a few questions, and maybe a little explosion or two.

I’ll admit, I’m not as thrilled with this chapter as I’ve been with others, but it’s at the point where it’s not worth holding back and fiddling with anymore.  And, if I post it now, then I can move on to the next chapter which is where things are going to get a bit more interesting...

This chapter does refer to something about Darcy that’s been brought up in the Incrediblesverse numerous times, though not in this spin off...until now.  Any questions, you should probably refer back to the original story line, or ask me - I’m more than happy to answer your questions. :)

**********

It's hard to talk with a stranger camped out in their backseat, even if that stranger has been vetted by Steve and was specifically sent there to keep them safe.  Still, she did get Darcy out of a sticky situation back at the store, and she trusts Steve's judgement.  "Soooo...why archery?" Darcy asks, twisting around in her seat to look at Kate.

Kate's busy sorting through her cache of new arrows, sorting them into stacked piles that mean something only to her.  "It's one of the few acceptable rich kid hobbies," she replies, not looking up from her handiwork.  "At least according to my dad.  Not like he paid much attention anyway.  He barely even blinked when I told him I was heading out to Iowa to train with the best archer around."  She looks up, rolling her eyes rapidly.  "Actually, no, what he asked was why the hell would I even want to head out to Iowa?  Said that there's nothing out there but corn."  She shakes her head.  "Yeah, he's one of those."  

"Is bodyguarding something you do often?  Or is this just a side job for you?" "How much of an answer do you really want to that question?" Darcy sighs, pressing her fingertips against her temples as her eyes fall closed.  "Oy vey." Kate leans in closer, poking her head between the two front seats with a smirk.  "All right, my turn to ask questions - how do you know Captain America?" "I bought him a slice of pie once." **********

Of course, of course one of the tires on the SUV has to blow, right after sunset, in what's probably the most middle of nowhere place Darcy's ever seen.  Even the tumbleweeds seem lonely, she thinks, exiting the car and stretching her legs a bit, staring off across the gloom, towards the rainbow of colors lining the far off horizon.  It's surprisingly warm out, even though there's still a chill in the air.  Desert nights are very strange, she's learned over the years.  "Please tell me we've got a spare," she asks, peering around the corner of the car where Jane and Kate are attempting to clear a space in the trunk compartment.   "Just one, but it should be enough."  Jane wipes some sweat off of her forehead, and readjusts the little headlamp perched there.  "We'll be fine as long as we don't lose any more tires." Kate hops onto the back bumper so she can get a better look at the roof rack.  "We can probably stash a few spare tires up here, if we can find a place tomorrow that still has any." "We can put the dead one up there first - I've got more than a few bungee cords back here."  Jane grunts, then there's a scratching noise and a solid thump, the sound of the spare tire hitting the ground with a cloud of dust puffing up after it.  "There we go.  Do you see a jack in there also?" "I think so?  I hope so." "Well, you two have fun sorting that out.  I'm going to go find a boulder to pee behind." Darcy knows not to wander too far into the desert, not at night and especially not after the apocalypse, but it's good to get out for a bit.  To shake the dust off of her feet and her skin and soak in the night air.  She turns her face up to the sky - out here all the stars are visible, twinkling down like everything on Earth is as usual and all they have to do is shine on.  But she knows that's not the case, from the tale that Steve had told her and the feeling inside of her bones that something is deeply, profoundly wrong in the entire universe right now.  A lazy elbow from her baby glides across the inside of her stomach, pulling her back inside her body, and she runs her fingertips over the little protrusion, feeling him push against the pressure.  "We're gonna get through this, baby," she murmurs. The baby kicks at her again, and Darcy shakes her head, smiling.  "All right, let's find a place to pee before you kick my bladder open." ********** "So, what makes you so special?" Jane doesn't startle or drop the wrench at Kate's blunt question, though it's a very near thing.  "Excuse me?" Kate taps her fingers on the tire that she's holding upright, and shrugs nonchalantly.  "It's not every day that Captain America reaches out to a retired fellow Avenger to get two people out of the country, especially when the world's gone to even more shit than we've ever seen before.  So...why you?" Jane continues loosening up the lug nuts of the tire, taking her time to think about the question.  She likes Kate well enough, but they've only known each other for a few hours, and Jane's not one to trust easily, not after everything she's been through.  And nobody but Darcy and Steve really needed to know just yet that she'd had one of those damn stones inside of her once upon a time and lived to tell the tale.  "I'm an astrophysicist," she settles on.  "I specialize in Einstein-Rosen bridges; wormholes that will let you travel between two otherwise unconnected places in space.  Given that this whole shitstorm was caused by crazy aliens from outer space, I guess the Captain thinks I can help them get out there to figure out more of what happened and get the Earth back to some semblance of normality."

“If we can even get back to what we once had,” Kate says with a heavy sigh.  “This may be our new normal.”

“Not if I can help it,” Jane says, grunting as she removes the final lug nut.  “All right, I can do this,” she mutters under her breath.  “I can build high tech, sensitive equipment to monitor the outer reaches of space, I can change a damn tire.”

**********

Darcy doesn’t go back to the car, not just yet.  Out here, under the desert night sky, it almost feels like the world hasn’t changed from a few weeks before.  Like if she just turns around and goes home, her mother will be there waiting with Steve so they can go to her next ultrasound appointment.  But that’s not the world anymore.  Hell, given the state of the world she doesn’t even know if her baby will have the opportunity to grow to adulthood, which is the scariest thought of all.

A shiver goes over her skin, making her feel even more unsettled than usual.  The sky’s gone fully dark now, but the moon is there, a glowing partial circle that manages to illuminate things here in the middle of nowhere.  And it looks...so innocuous.  Happy little stars and wispy little clouds that flutter past the moon.  But the rest of the universe is dealing with the same shit that Earth is also, if she understood Steve correctly.  

Half of the entire universe was obliterated in the blink of an eye.

Maybe there’s a universe next door that they can escape to for a little while.

There’s a rustling off to the side of her somewhere, low and alarming.  Darcy stiffens up, head whipping around to try and pinpoint where the noise is coming from.  Dammit, shouldn’t have lingered, she thinks.  

The rustling happens again, and before Darcy can even think about running away she feels energy swell up under her skin, and a bright light flashes behind her eyes.

**********

“What the hell?” Kate says, spinning to try and see where the flash of light, followed quickly by a small cracking noise.  

“Darcy?” Jane calls out, dropping the wrench and straightening up.  The tire’s mostly done anyway, so she runs out into the desert, headlamp bobbing along, trying to follow where she’d last seen Darcy wander off.

“Dammit, Foster, wait up!”  But Jane’s got bigger things to worry about, namely making sure that Darcy hasn’t been injured by whatever they just saw out there.  If her suspicions are right, however, Jane’s fairly certain that light wasn’t something that was harming Darcy.  A minute later Kate catches up with her, arrows in one hand and bow in the other, ready to kick the ass of anything that gets in their path.  “I can’t,” she pants as they run, “protect you if you don’t wait for me!”

“Too bad!”

They run behind a boulder and then skid to a halt, because Darcy’s there, one hand on her belly and the other over her heart as she breathes heavily.  “Are you okay?  What the hell was that?” Kate asks.

“Yeah.”  Darcy waves her hand at the scrubby bushes, motion at the twisty little tracks in the dirt.  “I got spooked by a snake.  Sorry for freaking you out.”

Kate shakes her head, hefting her bow up high.  “That still doesn’t explain the flashy thing, or the noises.”

“Just drop it,” Jane sighs.

“But - “

“Let it be.”  Jane shakes her head.  “We don’t have time to linger.  Our goal is to get to Alice by dawn.”

The look Kate gives her is highly suspicious, but she doesn’t say anything because Darcy begins walking back to the car, leaving the other two to scramble after her.  Just before they reach the car, however, Jane pulls Darcy to the side, out of the earshot of Kate (she trusts her, she really does, but there are some things that Kate doesn’t need to know just yet.  “That was a flare up, wasn’t it?” she asks in a low voice.

Darcy nods, chewing at her lower lip.  Both women were all too aware of the sudden onset of Darcy’s explosive energy issues after their adventure with the Dark Elves, and while Jane hates to use the word magic because that implies there’s no cause or rationale behind what has happened, they haven’t found a satisfying scientific explanation yet.  Not even Thor knew what had really caused this in Darcy, though he was able to give Darcy some of his mother’s books on magic to at least help her channel the energy as needed.  

“There really was a snake,” Darcy says.  “I got spooked, and then bam.”  She flicks her eyes in the direction of the car, where Kate is settling down in the backseat.  “Once she’s asleep I’ll look at some of Frigga’s texts to see if I can find anything to help with this.”

“We can ask Thor once we see him also,” Jane points out.  “Maybe he’ll have some new ideas.”

“I hope so.”  Darcy runs a hand back through her hair, then over her stomach where even Jane can see a slight rippling where the baby’s moving inside.  “I feel better, but I can still feel the energy inside me wanting to come out.  It feels like...like it likes what’s happening in the universe about as much as the rest of us do right now.”

“So in other words, not much.”

“Yep.”  Darcy takes another deep breath, like she’s trying to center herself back on Earth and come down from the stars.  “Okay, you drive, and I’ll see if I can meditate so I don’t blow up another damn tumbleweed.”

[captainignatiuspigheart]

Gosh time really does fly, while simultaneously flexing with all the integrity of sun-warmed chewing gum… so, yeah, it’s Friday already and I haven’t completed my sole personal task of the week – recording what the I’ve watched and done. Obviously I’ve done relatively little, except drunk spectacular quantities of beer and gazed listlessly at our blossoming lilac tree. That’s right: I’ve been outside! In fact, I spent most of last week outside. Work very kindly ordered us some desks in an attempt to aid good workspace habits, since I’ve been sitting on the sofa with my laptop on my knees for six weeks or so… It’s a nice little desk, but it does rather fill our front room. The brightening weather gave me ideas! After a day sitting under said lilac tree I got quite enthusiastic, ordering a WIFI extender thing (with antennae! Must be good.) and unfurling the gazebo. I even went so far as to lay out four of the concrete slabs that have been stacked in our garden for more than a decade, pending the creation of a patio. It was quite lovely. I spent my days in sunshine, watching the cats race around the garden, the gentle scent of lilac and roses wafting into my hardworking face. Pretty nice week all round really.

Reading: The Human (Rise of the Jain #3) by Neal Asher

I don’t often pre-order books (I know, as a publishing person I should know better…) but that’s mostly because by to-be-read stack both physical and digital is absurd. The coronavirus means I want things to look forward to! I’ve been reading Asher’s Polity books for years – fast-paced military space opera with great intergalactic conflict, high tech, terrifying aliens and engaging heroes. The set up… it’s an advanced human civilisation slowly taken over by the AIs we built, so that now Earth Central is a massively powerful AI who runs the whole show, and much better than we ever managed. The AIs do have a ruthlessly utilitarian slant though, and while mostly that means they do make life better for the majority, sometimes it means they sacrifice whole worlds to save the rest of the Polity… This is so far into the story that it’s near impossible to summarise what’s going on! Ancient alien technology – the Jain – enables nano-(and even pico-)engineering on a thrilling scale, but is horribly prone to taking over its user and sequestering every resource in sight, utterly destroying the civilisation that tried to use it. A vast array of active Jain tech has been swirling around the heart of a galaxy for millions of years. For the last few hundred years, Orlandine, a vastly upgraded “haiman”, half AI, half human who has seemingly tamed Jain tech for her own purposes, as well as the gnomic moon-sized alien entity, Dragon, have been preventing it from escaping and wreaking havoc.

That all went spectacularly tits up in the last book, and this is the final struggle to contain the Jain before it wipes out everyone. This installment really builds on the transhuman character development of Orlandine, the Polity AIs, the horrifying crab-like human-munching aliens, the Prador, and a host of other characters, many of them infected with Jain ambition among other things. It’s impossibly epic, with vast stakes, finally revealing the true dangers of the alien tech and a lot more about where it truly comes from. As a huge fan of the universe, I was delighted by this, even if the ending comes about a little quickly. Fear not though, there are plenty of hints at what is still unknown, and critical figures are conspicuously absent. Bring on the next trilogy please!   

Building: LEGO Y-Wing Starfighter – LEGO 75181

Ermagherd, is I believe, how the young folk express their fondness for a thing. It is how I should like to express my fondness for this splendid build! This is the first UCS (ultimate collector series) I’ve had the chance to assemble, and I’m pretty impressed. In truth, I nicked it from work (sliced open the box and emptied it into a rucksack, walks away whistling etc), and probably would not have bought it for myself. It’s Star Wars, so it’s huge and mostly grey. The Y-Wings are rightly iconic for getting blown to pieces above various Death Stars, but they look so damned cool. I’ve already got a LEGO Y-Wing, now that I think about it – the 1999 edition that came with a tie-fighter. It was rad at the time, but this massive set comprehensively blows it out of the water and vaporises the lake it was skimming over. At a mere 1967 pieces, I was confident that I could build it in an evening, but naturally failed. Instead it dominated an entire Saturday afternoon while I watched more of season two of Agents of SHIELD (which I��ve had to pause to watch Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Age of Ultron because the latter takes place around episode 20!). Rarely have I spent a Saturday afternoon so productively!

New school

Old school

Beginnings…

Like a lot of the larger LEGO vehicles I’ve built, there are plenty of time when I have no idea what I’m assembling. This one went through a canal barge to crucifix stage pretty quickly, and as soon as the cockpit clips in it’s instantly recognisable. That cockpit itself is loaded with clever building tricks to give it a smooth and curved underside as neat as the top, sneaky stuff to invert the direction of the studs. It’s stuff I’m terrible at in my own building and I’m keen to learn from it. The nacelles have simpler tactics for allowing intense greebling all the way round the square pillars. The greeblage is mighty all over the back and underside of the Y-Wing. One of the things I often admire about official LEGO sets is the masterful balance of detailing, whether it’s in a scatter of cheese slopes, a light touch in patterning brick colours, or in this – while there’s a lot of detailing, it’s not so insanely overdone that it detracts from the model at a distance. The Y-Wing looks fantastically good, such a nice version of the film designs. There are though a bunch of stickers to apply on the cockpit which stressed me out to apply neatly. Not half as much as the massive sticker for the info plaque though. It really shouldn’t generate such anxiety! Nevertheless, I think I got it on perfectly. 

The minifigs are great, as you’d expect, with a finely detailed Gold leader and a shiny silver R2-BHD astromech.  Yeah, I love this thing. It is way too big to put anywhere in our house, sadly, but it will come apart into three neat pieces for transporting back to work once all this is over. Lamentably, having assembled this one, I now find myself eyeing up the far smaller A-Wing that’s just been released. That’s definitely shelf-sized…

Sticker hell

This has displaced a cat

Too big

Watching: Star Trek: Picard

We’d been waiting for all the episodes to be released on Amazon Prime before we began this. Our preference is definitely bingeing hard, rather than the agonising wait till next week. I’ve not reflected much on the change in our viewing habits in the last decade, but I think I’m getting more enjoyment from being deeply embedded in a show for a couple of weeks than dipping in and out of several simultaneously. However, I fear I’m going to have to do a second watch of Picard, because unlike Discovery which I adored from beginning to end, I just don’t know what to think of this new spin-off. Perhaps we’ll find out while I ramble…

The character of Jean-Luc Picard is obviously great – Patrick Stewart made Star Trek: The Next Generation come alive, and even though a lot of it is barely watchable now, the interactions of Captain Picard and his close-knit crew are delightful. TNG set the ground for the vastly superior Deep Space Nine that followed, with its huge and rewarding story arcs advancing the previous episodic narrative. With the exception of the Borg episodes, TNG never got the opportunity to do that, and with the similar exception of First Contact, its follow up movies are dreadful, though none as bad at those of the original series. I’ve been without Picard since First Contact in 1996 (holy fuck, how long?!), though the aforementioned dodgy movies have continued. So, a twenty year or so wait to return, that’s pretty high stakes. 

Picard disabuses us pretty quickly of this being a high action show like Discovery. In a curiously similar vein to the new Star Wars movies’ Luke Skywalker story, Picard is long retired from Star Fleet, having been fired/quit when Star Fleet backed away from a commitment to help resettle the peoples of Romulus after their home planet got fried. He’s spent the rest of the time chilling in his vineyard home, tended by ex-secret service Romulans and generally doing fuck all but seethe that Star Fleet let him down. He’s run away from his responsibilities, having failed to be the man he thought he was. Enter a young (spoiler) human-passing android on the run from some dudes trying to kill her. She doesn’t know she’s an android but knows a lot of stuff, is super-fast and knows she needs to find Picard. It’s no shock to discover that she’s Data’s daughter, somehow. But she gets offed by some more Romulan spec ops bad guys, and Picard’s off on a mission to find her twin sister, save the galaxy, stop the Romulans etc. 

Since Picard’s no longer Star Fleet he has to assemble a rag tag crew (stop me if you’ve heard this one before) since Star Fleet really don’t like him any more. The pacing is glacial at times, and it’s hard to understand what they’re actually aiming for in this. It takes ages to get into space (which is all fabulously Star Warsy rather than the Trek we’ve seen before) where we finally catch up with a ruined Borg cube that’s being rehabilitated by Romulans (for reasons I honestly can’t recall), and on which the android twin is working, while dating an actual piece of shit Romulan secret secret secret service guy who’s part of an inner circle dedicated to wiping out all synthetic life. 

There is a lot of great stuff in here – Seven of Nine’s return is a delight, Riker!, learning that Romulan assassin folk are just feudal Japanese folk, complete with haircuts and robes is peculiar, but kinda fun, and eventually a lot of things happen, quite fast. Picard nearly dies, they find more androids, he saves the day. I don’t honestly consider that to be a spoiler! The whole show is soaked in nostalgia, which is only partly rubbing off on me. If there weren’t so many people involved, and such cool design work going on I’d write it off as a vanity project. It’s definitely more than that, but I don’t know what… Watch it, if you’re into Trek, otherwise I cannot imagine this having any appeal at all.  

Doing: Virtual Improv Drop-In with MissImp

Last week’s new improv workshop was with Stephen Davidson, who’s just the loveliest and most passionate guy. His workshop is a real delight! Enjoy.  

  Last Week: The Human, Star Trek Picard and LEGO UCS Y-Wing - fun times with new Trek, splendid Neal Asher space opera and another fun MissImp online workshop! @missimp_notts #nottgoingout @nealasher #picard #books #lego @lego Gosh time really does fly, while simultaneously flexing with all the integrity of sun-warmed chewing gum… so, yeah, it’s Friday already and I haven’t completed my sole personal task of the week – recording what the I’ve watched and done.