This one was a little difficult. Mostly because neither Contessa nor Taylor is a particularly verbose conversationalist. That's why it turned out a little short, too, because these two just don't talk unless they have to.
Anyway. Enjoy, everyone. Because now I get to go and figure out how I'm going to handle the Dragonslayers interlude.
Also, the Death Rune be hax. Primeval Runes in general are hax. That is all.
2020-08-11 02:18:50 +0000 UTC View PostKent Lens [Term]
An ordinary set of glasses, or so they would appear. A specialized thaumturgical device designed to be worn and wielded like common eyewear. When worn, the wearer appears "exactly as they are."
Designed to obscure details intended to remain secret, these glasses actualize a special kind of thaumaturgy similar in nature to a curse that prevents the attachment of certain abstractions to the one wearing them. In doing so, they prev...
2020-08-04 01:32:04 +0000 UTC View PostTook an extra day or so to get the editing team together to help finish this, but now it's done!
...Or we think. I'm fairly happy with it, but the editors felt, "Well, it's technically really good, but I can't help but feel like we're missing something," so if there's something you think is off, feel free to say so.
Keep an eye out for the timeskip! Last chapter skipped ahead about six months from the chapter before it, and that pattern continues here.
Enjoy, everyone.
2020-08-04 01:16:52 +0000 UTC View PostThe Dragonslayers interlude.
This will probably be the hardest chapter of this arc to write. I haven't even gotten it started, yet, just opened up a doc for it.
Link is here.
2020-07-30 02:11:53 +0000 UTC View PostFor the woman who never loses.
Link is here.
Lucky numbers! (75)
(I need to get better about tagging Lucky Numbers posts. I keep forgetting.)
2020-07-30 02:07:33 +0000 UTC View PostOne of the more subtle side effects of Taylor's actions: Mouse never got the Nine treatment. There was no doctor in the house.
Bit of humor and good fun to break up the doom and gloom of last chapter, while also having some serious moments.
Link is here.
2020-07-30 02:04:35 +0000 UTC View PostAnother long one. This one's been waiting almost a year to find its place in the story, and it finally did in Arc 10. I wanted to have it out earlier, but I got so caught up in a philosophical and political debate last night that my editors went to bed before I could get the editing pass done. (Turns out the only quibble they had was one line that just needed rephrasing. -insert awkward laughter here-)
I can't say much about it without spoiling it, so I'll keep quiet about what all happ...
2020-07-26 15:47:47 +0000 UTC View PostThis...is probably the weakest chapter of this arc. But only because it's surrounded by a bunch of big, important character moments and this...is more about tying up a few loose ends and filling in some of the space between last chapter and next. The first line of the chapter says it all - we skipped forward a month from the end of last chapter, and this is taking place in the middle of July.
I tried to make it work a little better, and that's part of why it's a couple da...
2020-07-21 04:29:17 +0000 UTC View PostThe timeskips start to grow in length and frequency, now. Things are only going to accelerate from here.
Link is here.
Lucky numbers! 72. This link is open for $3 & $7 tier patrons.
(If you're hearing the song from the Big O soundtrack in your heads, my mission is complete.)
2020-07-15 08:51:35 +0000 UTC View PostSo. Where to begin?
Right. Last month was a bit rough. I wanted to get three chapters ahead of the SV thread by the time arc 10 got released publicly, and maybe I would have, too. It was certainly looking that way.
And then...
I think I mentioned to you guys before about two months ago that two of my aunts and one of my uncles all got sick. Not with Covid, small mercy though that is, but one my aunts had her appendix burst, the other had brain cancer, and my uncle had throat...
2020-07-13 02:30:00 +0000 UTC View PostSo, more on why this is late in another post. For now, I'm just going to drop this here and let you guys enjoy it.
It's another big one, only a couple hundred words shy of 8K. Armsmaster and the PRT/Protectorate seems to enjoy stretching out their interludes a lot.
The rings are answered in this chapter. A few chapters later than I originally meant to, but Dennis had to have his interlude first, so.
2020-07-13 02:20:11 +0000 UTC View PostRemember what the original Fractured Paragon was about? Or rather, whose PoV it was from? Yeah. Here's the continuation of that character's arc.
Link is here.
2020-06-28 23:40:37 +0000 UTC View PostSo, it was, like, yesterday when I realized I hadn't posted a CiP for this, and I went, "Well, crap. And I'm finishing this tomorrow, too." At that point, it was too late.
I'm really sorry about that, guys.
In any case, here's the next chapter of arc 10. Hooky gave me a bit of trouble at first, but I eventually got him where he needed to go.
Have a virtual cookie if you catch what Taylor means about irony at the end of the chapter. If you have any hanging around, grab yourse...
2020-06-28 23:34:20 +0000 UTC View PostThe Dennis interlude.
Not too much to say about this one. We're setting up for some future things and getting a glimpse at how the masses are reacting to Taylor's "line in the sand."
Next up is Odinsbane Reckoning. Try and guess who features in that one.
2020-06-21 02:59:00 +0000 UTC View PostSo I put about 2K into the Clockblocker interlude and then someone got my attention onto Bleach again and I went, "You know what? Why not?" and finished this up real quick.
Like real quick. Less than an hour of work went into finishing this.
Yes. The answer is yes, this was finished on a whim.
So, for now, feel free to enjoy the first chapter of Bleach: Cast Down the Sun. Because I have no idea when the next one will be. Or even a solid idea of where the st...
2020-06-19 13:16:00 +0000 UTC View PostMeant to have this out for you guys as soon as it was finished, but got myself involved in something last week that utterly consumed my time in its entirety (and threw off my sleep schedule, too), so I kept putting it off for later, when I had more energy.
As for the fic itself, not sure what else to say about it without giving it away, so... Yeah. I'll let you guys explore it for yourself. The commissioner has expressed interest in continuing it, so you might be seeing more of it in be...
2020-06-18 07:51:50 +0000 UTC View PostWhat if Harry asked Daphne to the Yule Ball - part one.
Like I said I would, I got through it fairly quickly.
Of course, I realized about three sentences in the second scene that if I tried to cover everything up through the Yule Ball, this thing would wind up a monster somewhere in the vicinity of twice as big as the largest Essence chapters, so I decided to chop it up into three shorts and come back to do the other two later. Part 2, when it happens, will be Daphne and ...
2020-06-03 05:57:57 +0000 UTC View PostSo, I think the Tantalos commission sent me on a Harry Potter kick, because I need to get this one out of my head before it takes over. It's just going to remain a oneshot, for now, although who knows if I might pick it up on the side after Essence is finished? Or maybe someone will like the idea enough to commission more chapters for it or something.
Elevator pitch: Harry Potter winds up asking Daphne Greengrass to the Yule Ball instead of Parvati.
So while I was finishing arc 9, I got a commission from one of you for a Harry Potter x Worm crossover. The particulars are something I'll leave for another time, but this isn't canon Deathly Hallows Harry, it's more EWE and a bit more AU than that. If you couldn't already tell based upon the mentions in-story of past relationships with Luna Lovegood and Daphne Greengrass, that is.
The commissioner was originally talking about a much longer project, but after some discussion about the l...
2020-05-30 02:51:25 +0000 UTC View PostSo there's something new going on fairly soon about sales tax. I admit, some of it went over my head, so I'm afraid I can't really explain all of it to you.
The gist of it is this: patron tiers will now be charged sales tax during every payout, effective...July 1st, to my understanding. So there's still about a month before this really goes into effect. The amount of sales tax will depend on each patron's location and tier. Generally, it won't be much different than paying a sales tax w...
2020-05-29 01:31:50 +0000 UTC View PostIf you get the joke, good on you.
There's nothing in this doc, yet, but when I start on arc 10 properly, this will be the first chapter. Dennis gets to be the star - and I'm surprised to realize he never got an interlude in this story before.
Link is here.
2020-05-24 20:12:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe promised Bonesaw interlude. It's very rough, very much unfinished, and it's likely to remain that way until the time comes to slot into place in the rest of arc 10's narrative.
Not sure it deserves Lucky Numbers or not, yet, so I'm going to leave it in the $13+ tier for now, and if the time comes, open it up later.
Link is here.
EDIT (7...
2020-05-24 20:02:12 +0000 UTC View PostTook a little longer to finish than I wanted, but it's also much longer than... Well, it's about the same size as the last couple of chapters, but they're all at least half again the usual size of chapters for this story, so...
Anyway. The immediate aftermath of what happened last chapter, plus the Mama Mathers situation. Next arc will be showing much more of the consequences of the end of this arc, although it's going to be more... Hands off.
For now, enjoy the final chapter of a...
2020-05-20 02:26:22 +0000 UTC View Post
Exactly what it says on the tin.
Been meaning to get these out for a few days, now, but I kept putting it off for one reason or another (like convincing myself I was actually going to add more to her profile pic). Here they are.
Since they'll be going out to the public with the release of 9.7, I'm not going to bother making them Patron exclusive.
I really should have had these out last weekend. I'm sorry about that, guys.
2020-05-16 12:01:47 +0000 UTC View PostWith a new, fresh piece of... Anyway. I had yet another minor emergency to handle over the past few days, so this is getting started a little later than I'd planned on it. When you combine that with not knowing quite where to start it...
But start it I did, and put 1300 words in right away.
Link is here.
2020-05-14 12:41:24 +0000 UTC View PostJust shy of 7K. Wow. And I wrote 5K of it in one sitting. Not quite a new record, but the most I've done in a single day, let alone a single sitting, for quite a while.
Anyway! This arc isn't totally done, yet; there's still one more chapter for the aftermath. Like I said on the Sufficient Velocity thread, we're getting pretty close to the end of the story. Next chapter, then two more arcs - one the timeskip arc, the other the final battle.
For now, here's Taylor off her chain, fi...
2020-05-10 21:44:41 +0000 UTC View PostSo considering what this chapter is and what needs to happen in it, or rather what probably will happen in it, I'm thinking very carefully about how it's going to all go down.
Right now, this is planned to be the climax of arc 9. It might wind up not being the climax, but the plan is for the major conflict of this arc to end here.
So last week was... Yeah. A thing. A frustrating, stressful thing, filled with all sorts of complete nonsense and just... Stuff. Too much stuff. I'm not going to get into it, here.
Anyway! This interlude has been moved around quite a bit since it was first imagined. Originally, I thought it would fit into arc 8. Then, arc 8 expanded, and then arc 9 expanded, and we finally get it now.
What is this interlude, you ask? Isn't it obvious? It's the Cauldron interlude.
Might...
2020-05-04 11:36:11 +0000 UTC View PostTagg gave me some trouble in this chapter, hence why it's so LATE, but have an extra long chapter to compensate. Not quite as long as last chapter, but hey, 6.2k is still plenty long for Essence, isn't it?
I won't pretend that a lot of people didn't see this coming, and Tagg's reasoning might not make total sense to everyone - don't worry, that's what the next chapter is for. It'll show some of where that rampant paranoia came from.
Up next, interlude 9.c. Considering those fatefu...
2020-04-23 07:01:04 +0000 UTC View PostAnd to make up for its lateness, here, have an extra long chapter!
Oooh, but this chapter felt really heavy in places, especially at the end. I really felt the weight as I was writing that. Guys, here we go, back into the main plot, but before we get there, have some Dallon-Pelham family goodness.
2020-04-15 03:57:22 +0000 UTC View Post