Sorry folks, I won’t be making my usual early post today. I’m going to be in meetings with people for most of the day, and want to do some last minute orientation for the material we’ll be covering. I do want to weigh in on Agents of Shield, now that I’ve watched more episodes of it, but that will probably have to wait until tomorrow.
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Felix
Hey!
I’ve fallen crazily behind on this whole writing thing while working on funding a new project of mine, and my computer is filled with nothing but drafts. I figured I’d put one of these drafts out into the open:
Felix absent-mindedly fingered the coin that hung from around his neck. He could feel the touch on the coin just as clearly as if he were rubbing his own skin. He pressed the coin between his thumb and forefinger, and for just a moment, imagined he could feel the coin squishing, giving way as though it were his own flesh. He drew his fingernail back and forth along the coin. It tingled. Once, the tingling had felt distant, like an itch between his shoulder blades that he couldn’t quite find. That thought had bothered him once, but now it comforted him. The tension in his shoulders lessened. He was safe. Protected.
A warm tingling spread across his skin. A warning. He looked up at the sky, questioningly. Dark clouds stretched to the horizon, with not even a hint of the sun. Felix shrugged. He had gotten this far trusting his instincts. He looked around for a moment, scanning the horizon, then turned and trudged off.
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The bar wasn’t impressive. That would have been a nice way of putting it. The door looked like it was rotting off of its hinges, although the smell would have given that away, and there was more peel than paint. But the walls were sturdy, and the windows fully boarded on the inside. At least they were prepared. Felix rested his hand on the door and paused for a moment. He pushed against the door, and it groaned, dragging along the ground as it opened. He stepped slowly inside, and the door swung shut behind him.
At first, he couldn’t see anything in the dark of the room. Unfortunately, his other senses worked just fine. The musk in the air was so thick he could taste it, all the blood and alcohol and sweat from drunken bar fights and sex. He heard a few grunts and wet smacks from somewhere to his right, and then a heavy thud. He guessed that meant a fight, but his guess was as good as any. He took another step forward, and heard his boots squelch. He couldn’t yet see what he was standing in. Perhaps that was for the best. He swallowed the growing lump in his throat and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to adapt to the dim room. A few embers lit the room.
In front of him was a game of cards, and judging from the scraps of paper on the table, it had just started. Not nearly enough possessions were up for grabs yet. In the corner, a woman had pinned somebody else against the wall — man or woman, Felix couldn’t tell — and was thrusting rhythmically into them. Felix couldn’t help but think the rhythmic bouncing of her breasts funny, if hypnotic in a way he didn’t quite understand. Against the wall, a man was blowing into a thin reed and dancing, although Felix could hardly hear the music in the room. Maybe he wasn’t playing anything at all.
He turned away from the spectacle and walked over to the bar. A young man stood on the other side. Too young for a bartender. Hardly old enough to shave, he guessed.
“I’d like to set up with a room for the night. No questions asked.”
The boy looked around uncertainly for a moment. “Pa’ll be back in a moment, but I think we’re all full up for the night.”
Felix grimaced at the young boy, then looked around him at the bar. When he turned back, an older man was standing behind the bar. “My son says you’re looking for a room. I hate t’disappoint such a fine sir as yourself, but we’re all booked up for the night, and the usual fare is already covered for the night,” he winked and grinned widely at Felix.
Felix reached into his shirt, to his chest, and pulled the Coin out. In response, the embers in the room flared, the bright light casting shadows across the room. He rested the Coin on the bar, his finger pressed atop it. A thin layer of frost spread slowly out from the Coin. The bartender’s eyes widened, and a look of fear spread across his face. Beads of sweat broke out on his brow. “I’m s-sorry, sir. I didn’t recognize you. I’m sure I can make a room available. Give me a moment.” He backed slowly away, his eyes fixed on the Coin.
The young boy stared at the Coin, transfixed. Eventually, he tore his eyes away, up to Felix’s face. Timidly, he raised his hand.
“Yes, boy?” The gruffness in his voice would have bothered Felix once, but there was no room for that.
“C-can I…” The boy looked down at his feet for a moment, then looked back up at Felix. “Can I see your Tribute?”
Felix frowned, his brow furrowing into a mass of wrinkles. They hadn’t taken anything. They normally did. Being a Coinbearer came with a cost. A Tribute. But he was whole. Physically, at least. The Coins had driven him apart from the one thing he’d had in the world, his friends. They’d underestimated how dangerous a man with nothing to lose could be. And he was coming for them.
Game Analysis: Dragon Warrior Monsters
Pokemon X/Y comes out tomorrow. So today I am going to talk about my favorite monster collecting game. No, it’s not Pokemon. In fact, my favorite game in the “collect, raise, and battle” genre is a spinoff of the well-known series Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest. The game is Dragon Warrior Monsters (DWM), and while I have not played it through as many times as I have the original Pokemon, I have loved it a great deal more, and spent more energy on it. It is rare for me to actually write stuff down in a notebook for a game, but for DWM I found myself recording my findings in a notebook for future use. This is due to its unique take on how you collect and battle your little monster minions, even if you raise them just like most other RPGs (yay grinding!)
The story for the first game (yes! There are more than one!) begins with your sister getting kidnapped by a strange monster. Immediately after another monster shows up and offers to help you get your sister back. He takes you to another world and introduces you to a king. Apparently there is a tournament soon, and the prize for winning is a wish. Before you can participate you must train up and qualify, and so begins your journey (which includes other stories as well). I am honestly terrible at plot-synopses because I don’t like to give anything at all away (I believe part of the joy of a story is going into it completely blind). So as per usual I am going to focus my reviews on mechanics.
Choose Your Own Adventure! Part 3 (or 2b?)
Quick news note: the flash fic that I wrote one week ago was chosen as the winning piece in the contest!
This is the third installation of my Choose Your Own Adventure series. The previous two pieces can be found here: Part 1, Part 2. You’ll benefit from having played them and being moderately familiar with their details, especially Part 2. Note that this piece is divergent from Part 2, and actually follows on the events of Part 1. You’ll see what I mean when you read the first briefing just below.
For the best experience, keep your eyes on the text nearest the top of the screen and be careful not to read ahead.
Choose Your Own Adventure! Part 2
Edit: Part 2b has been posted and can be found here.
This particular story follows in the footsteps of the previous CYOA which I published on this blog. It should be perfectly legible and entertaining without having read / played through the first one, but those of you that like knowing a little bit more about what’s going on should try the other one first. As with the previous one, you’ll have to make a little effort not to read ahead. But if you keep your eyes on the topmost section of text and click the links as you see fit, you’ll do fine!
Another important note: this was originally going to continue both sides of the the previous story. I’ve pared it down to just one of them to give myself more time with the other half, but even so this may be longer than the first installment.
Last you knew, a knight had ordered that wretched man named Hurly to pick you up and carry you off…
Experiment
When it comes to my writing, I’m not so good at putting things out there. Why? Because I want it to be perfect. I’ll edit things forever and still not be satisfied, so when I do release something, it’s still in ‘rough draft’ phase because everything I’ve changed now needs editing. So I thought I’d try an experiment, and start releasing scenes without editing. This is the start of a short story series I’m writing in a steampunk/noir setting. It got written in about an hour, and basically wasn’t edited, so it’s rough around the edges, but I like the tone of it, I think. I hope you enjoy it! Also, enjoy a cameo character!
Creative Content Schedule Update
A second chapter will be going up this Sunday; I need a little bit more time for edits. If the chapter is not done to a degree I consider satisfactory, I will just post those scenes ready for public consumption. In the future, my schedule will be as follows: an analytic/theoretical post on Tuesdays and a creative content post between Thursday and Sunday. This will either be a short story or as much of a chapter as I can muster. Given that I write 6+ articles for varying websites every week, I don’t know how long I can churn out creative content, so wish me luck!
In the meantime, here is the first scene from Chapter 2 of book 1 of The Steam Wars; view the updated Prologue and Chapter 1 on The Steam Wars page.
Publishing Schedule
Consistent readers may notice that I’ve gone completely off of my usual Tuesday/Thursday schedule, so here’s an update as to what’s up:
- It’s my birthday! Or…it was. There was cake and stuff.
- I’m moving. Moving is stressful! Gotta find a new house, and apply, and pay lots of money and stuff.
- I’m starting a new blog. It’s mostly unrelated, but I feel bad for not having new stuff to post, so if you liked this post or this post or this post, you may like my new blog, Black by Popular Demand. But it’s not about games or science fiction, and it’s generally heavier.
- I’m moving more towards creative content (short stories or chapters) here. That takes a little longer, but I’d like to think it has more payoff! The first one should be around next week!
What is Steampunk?
Those who know me will know of my love for steampunk. So are many others; steampunk has been a bit of a buzzword in recent years. But what exactly IS steampunk?
Science Fiction vs Fantasy
These two genres are considered largely similarly, despite vast differences between them. They’re both kept in the same section of book stores, they’re both definitely ‘nerd’ books, and they’ve both been a part of the explosion of recent sci-fi/fantasy movies, between LotR/Harry Potter, superhero movies, or Star Trek.
They have one thing in common, that distinguishes them from typical literature; whereas fiction describes events that occur in a world that is largely our own, these genres tend to describe events in a world that is significantly different from our own. That is, science-fiction and fantasy are both speculative fiction: they answer questions of the form “what if…?” This is why we consider novels like Brave New World, 1984, and Harrison Bergeron to be science-fiction of a sort (they are typically referred to as ‘speculative fiction’). But from there, they diverge wildly. To sum it up, with a quote from Miriam Allen de Ford: Science fiction deals with improbable possibilities, fantasy with plausible impossibilities.
