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Demesne Special 2 - Can You Fly?

The question was asked innocently enough.

"Hey Lori, can you fly?" Rian asked over breakfast.

Lori sighed. "Why do people keep asking that? No, Whisperers can't fly. We leave flying to Mentalists, Horotracts, bugs, kites and hot air sacks." No matter how much she had tried when she'd first started…

"Yes, but that's regular, normal wizards," Rian pointed out. "You're a Binder now."

Lori blinked. Her eyes slowly widened.

––––––––––––––...

Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers - Interlude: Pink

The Little Pink Bottle

"So, while I have all of you here…" Kim began as the various sugary, carbonated drinks flowed and bags of chips were opened, "can I ask for your help? Willy and Tammy especially."

"What about, Kuya Kim?" Tammy asked.

"How do you keep your balance?" he asked, exasperated. "I mean, Sanny's no surprise—"

"I use ears," Sanny said, nodding.

"—but what about the rest of you? Because I keep cheatin...

Weekly Digest 32 - (#99 - #101)

Blood, Wire and Water

It was lunch and Rian still wasn't back.

Lori grimaced as she made her move on the sunk board impatiently, trying to ignore the smell of the stew her opponent was eating. Without Rian, the three weren't sitting so closely together anymore. In fact, Umu and Riz were literally sitting at opposite ends of the table.

Fortunately, no one thought this meant they could just sit next to them. The relative silence around Lori was kept.<...

Demesne Patron EX SS 8 - Mikon Wants…

A gentle wind blew from the river, making Mikon's skirt flap a little as she walked with Erzebed—she said call her Riz, but Mikon liked her full name—along the borders of the darkness, keeping company as she'd offered that first night. Try as he might, Lord Rian couldn't keep Erzebed company every night. Sometimes he was just too tired after working making her Bindership's new bed, weaving cords in a pattern he had obviously seen but never actually done himself. Sometimes it was because h...

Demesne 101 - Lori Builds The… Um…

When Lori came down for breakfast the next day, there was an undercurrent of eagerness in the air. Usually, most people focused on their food or conversations, but this morning, even without paying attention, she could tell that many people were glancing towards her.

"People are certainly… eager this morning," Lori commented to Rian as she reached her table. To her surprise, there was already food waiting for her, despite the kitchen seemingly still in the midst of preparations. One b...

Demesne 100 - Ice Boats and Housewarming

"It doesn't need to be completely ice! We make a wooden skeleton that the ice can wrap around for structural integrity!"

"What about impacts? Damage?"

"Wooden boards mounted on the outside! It doesn't matter if they crack as long as they protect the ide underneath!"

"People will slip."

"Rocks or boards for decking! The ice can be underneath, they never need to touch it."

"It will be cold."

"Then we insulate the insides and build fires! It doesn't matter how...

Status 9/20/21

So, Nightmaerangers will be taking a short break as I plot out the next two arcs. It MIGHT be replaced in the interim by The Apocalypse Survival Chronicle of a Magical Girl Mecha Pilot depending on what I manage to bang out. We'll see. 

Demesne will continue as normal starting on Oct 6th.

EDIT: Also, warning you all in advance, there will be no update on November 1st due to local customs in my area,...

Demesne 99 - Blood, Wire and Water

It was lunch and Rian still wasn't back.

Lori grimaced as she made her move on the sunk board impatiently, trying to ignore the smell of the stew her opponent was eating. Without Rian, the three weren't sitting so closely together anymore. In fact, Umu and Riz were literally sitting at opposite ends of the table.

Fortunately, no one thought this meant they could just sit next to them. The relative silence around Lori was kept.

…

Maybe she needed a smaller table? Come...

Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers! #23

On the Madness Of Mountains, Part 10

Jas—or rather, Jaselle Alhambra, as she introduced herself—didn't have any clothes. According to her, she'd flown from Manila as superheated plasma, leaving behind a trail that was probably literally cold now.

"So, you can control heat?" Tammy asked excitedly as they flew, carried by Sanny as… something with wings. Bird wings, this time, since she complained it was a little too hot for insect wi...

Weekly Digest 32 - (#96 - #98)

Emergency Order Bonus

The final test assembly came the next day. They were almost out of time, after all. While Lori hoped that they'd be able to bring the components to River's Fork and assemble it that day… she wasn't holding out much hope. In fact, she'd already resigned herself to having to go back to River's Fork to imbue the temporary measure she'd put there.

"I'm going to have some people cut some fresh ropeweed," Rian said as they ate b...

Demesne 98 - Miners Home Again

It was with a happy heart that Lori watched Lori's Boat, full of… well, full of part of the next batch over miners who'd be mining in River's Fork for the week moving downriver. The rest were still packing, doing last-minute laundry, or were making themselves useful by watching the children and making sure they didn't get hurt or anything. They'd be ready to go once Rian came back.

The new mounting for the water jet had been finished yesterday, and had undergone testing in th...

Demesne 97 - Fulfilled Obligations and Bedroom Hygiene

"And done!" Rian declared, giving the waterwheel an experimental turn. It moved MUCH more smoothly than it had before in her demesne when they'd been testing it, thanks to the rendered seel fat they'd added to the bearings as lubrication. "It's all yours now, your Bindership."

Lori nodded as she finished filling the water trough under the wheel. Rather than just an open trough, it has a small partition in the middle, dividing the water into two areas. When filled, the water was essentia...

Demesne 96 - Emergency Order Bonus

The final test assembly came the next day. They were almost out of time, after all. While Lori hoped that they'd be able to bring the components to River's Fork and assemble it that day… she wasn't holding out much hope. In fact, she'd already resigned herself to having to go back to River's Fork to imbue the temporary measure she'd put there.

"I'm going to have some people cut some fresh ropeweed," Rian said as they ate breakfast. "When we put the part on the boat, we'll nee...

Weekly Digest 31 - (#93 - #95)

Subcontracting To Experts

At about mid-morning at a demesne some call Lorian, the day after its numbers had been temporarily reduced, a scream of frustration rose over the land. It was a scream of anger and rage, of a desire to impart endless suffering, of someone badly in need of new socks. Truthfully, it wasn't that loud, and barely registered with most people close enough to hear it.

Lori might have felt like punctuating that scream with some ...

Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers! #22

On the Madness Of Mountains, Part 9

No matter how intense the light, Kim wasn't blinded. Neither were the Lava Horses. Or rather, the Lava Horse and what were likely drones. Being blinded need eyeballs, needed cells that reacted to light chemically, and thus could become overexposed. Kim didn't have those. Neither did they.

Thus, he didn't need to avert his eyes to keep from going blind as the bright, glowing person shot burning light at...

Demesne 95 - Craftsmanship and Cleanliness

The parts came together over the course of the next two days, and no one lost any fingers or larger extremities.

Once all the pieces had been cut, Lori had switched from operating the water cutter to helping the blacksmiths set up an impromptu forge for making nails once it became clear joinery would be insufficient to the task of affixing all the pieces together. They could have used the nails that… someone… had brought with them, but… well, those seemed too good for this project...

Demesne 94 - Lori Does Carpentry

The planning meeting didn't finish until mid-afternoon. The smiths had bowed out of any actual building, as everyone silently agreed this wasn't important enough to use their precious metal on, but had remained in an advisory capacity, being familiar with mechanical systems and their construction. It was only when they finally had a plan for something that the woodworkers felt they could build did they adjourn to begin building.

In general, the carpenters didn't have their own specific ...

Demesne 93 - Subcontracting To Experts

At about mid-morning at a demesne some call Lorian, the day after its numbers had been temporarily reduced, a scream of frustration rose over the land. It was a scream of anger and rage, of a desire to impart endless suffering, of someone badly in need of new socks. Truthfully, it wasn't that loud, and barely registered with most people close enough to hear it.

Lori might have felt like punctuating that scream with some sort of explosion, but between several emphatic lessons ab...

Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers! #21

On the Madness Of Mountains, Part 8

Kim was not a violent man, but he knew how to throw a punch. His dad had made sure he knew that much. Make a fist, tuck your thumb on the side, not inside, and aim to punch somewhere a little behind where you would hit. That said, he'd never actually ever thrown a punch intending to hurt someone. Even when he'd been learning arnis, it had all been in a controlled environment, a matter of mo...

Weekly Digest 30 - (#90 - #92)

Privacy, Privies, and Winter Worries

"So, good news, we have volunteers," Rian said as he sat down opposite her for dinner. "They'll be ready to go with us tomorrow. Though it took some negotiating, since they don't want to be away from their families until winter. How do you feel about different batches of volunteers, each batch doing week-long shifts? We only have ten people in the first batch, but since it looks like the houses will be done soon, we can expe...

Demesne 92 - The Mine

They arrived back in River's Fork a little after noon. From the looks of it, lunch was over. Fortunately, Rian had prepared for this and had had some of breakfast saved for the second batch to eat, in case they missed lunch at either demesne.

Someone in River's Fork appeared at to be as forward-thinking, for they were greeted with warm bread and other foods as well. Lori noted, however, that the number of foods was equal in number only to the second batch of miners, and did not include ...

Status 9/2/21 - Happily, Today's Nose Poke Test Was Negative

A brief reminder: there will be no updates on the last week of the month of September and half the next week of October. Updates will resume on the 6th of October, Wednesday. This is for anti-burnout measures, and to run some errands.  Because I don't know how the rest of the world looks, but things are still covid crazy around here. We're locking down like it's 2020, vaccines are as rare as good isekai anime with short titles, and I keep worrying about my grandmother. 

I'll s...

Demesne 91 - The First Miners

The next day, Lori woke up and resigned herself to needing to leave her demesne. Again.

She promised herself this would the la—second to last time she'd ever need to leave her demesne ever again, ever, for any reason! And this time she'd keep that promise!

But for now, she had commitments to fulfill, things to do, people to meet, things to build…

Sighing, she pushed herself out of bed.

Her boots were still holding out. The sole was getting more worn, but a...

Demesne 90 - Privacy, Privies, and Winter Worries

"So, good news, we have volunteers," Rian said as he sat down opposite her for dinner. "They'll be ready to go with us tomorrow. Though it took some negotiating, since they don't want to be away from their families until winter. How do you feel about different batches of volunteers, each batch doing week-long shifts? We only have ten people in the first batch, but since it looks like the houses will be done soon, we can expect more people in subsequent batches."

Lori considered that tho...

Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers! #20

On the Madness Of Mountains, Part 7

The ground was being very uncooperative as Kim tried to take control of it though the particles of sand he had touching the ground. When he'd done this back in UP, and in other times before, it had been like plunging into water that he started spreading out in all directions and yeah that was a horrible comparison. Sticking with the comparison though, instead of water, the ground felt like a rocky beach, den...

Weekly Digest 29 - (#87 - #89)

Rian and Lori Experiment With Each Other

She'd just pulled the partially-filled syringe—it contained only a small amount of blood, only a cubedrop—from her arm when she heard Rian let out a high-pitched scream of alarm.

Startled, Lori whirled, only to find her lord staring at her in horror, a finger pointing at her. No not, at her. At the syringe in her hands.

"Did you just inject yourself?-!" he cried shrilly.

Lori would have described Ri...

Demesne 89 - Successful Test

Lori actually spent some time at her table, working on making bearings of an even size. She'd long since made a bearing mold using her beads as a template, carefully filling in and smoothing out the denomination markings until she had smooth spheres. A pity she hadn't unlocked the abilities of a Horotract yet. Having an exact sense of physical dimensions would have been so useful…

Also the ability to alter the flow of time, the expansion of space, and the direction of down, but really...

Demesne Patron EX SS 7 - To Hunt Beasts

It was Ralii's turn to hunt this time, while the others stayed back and took care of the fiddly, disgusting work that needed to be done to turn beast hides into proper leather, and seel skins into proper furs for when the winter came. They'd also have to help the little ones properly butcher the food for eating and storage. Most could already be trusted to do the necessary cutting to drain them of blood, and a few could even gut and clean, but most still weren't able to do that without gaggin...

Demesne 88 - Tests, Tanks and… Taxes?

Active binding test: successful.

Change of active binding test: successful.

They had time for one last test before they had to go back for dinner: the longevity test.

Lori was unsure how long she could maintain a connection to the waterwisps from her blood. While it was certainly useful to imbue at a distance outside her demesne, there would be far less practical use—which was not no practical use—if the affinity and connection faded away too quickly. So the fin...

Status 8/23/21

As we come to the end of the month, a few announcements. First, please be informed that there will be no posts on the last week of September up to the 6th of October for anti-burnout reasons.  I'd rather not work much on my birthday. And no, I didn't take a week to get born. Regularly scheduled updates will continue after that time. 

Also, working on developing a new series, tentatively to be called 'The Apocalypse Survival Chronicle of a Magical Girl Mecha Pilot 2021-08-23 03:44:52 +0000 UTC View Post