SCM2814

Demesne 54 - Work and Play

The game was childishly simple, once explained. The players picked up stones and dropped them one at a time into each bowl spinwise, with added rules about if they could keep doing so or had to stop, and whether they could claim stones on the paired bowl opposite. Each player owned one of the bowls on the ends of the board, and whoever had the most stones in their bowl when all the other bowls were empty won. A simple, childish game, which probably appealed to a certain kind of possessively a...

Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers! #09

The House With Pink In Its Walls, Part 6

Of the 'deaths' he'd experienced so far, getting his head stepped on while exsanguinated was definitely the most undignified to date.

Having the rest of his body squashed like a bug under one of those hydraulic compressors was definitely overkill. Reasonable overkill, since he was pretty sure the drone was still salvageable, but definitely overkill.

Tammy, you have incoming. Pink rock thing,...

Weekly Digest 17 - (#51 - #53)

We Need More Houses

"What do you mean, we need more houses?" Lori asked.

"We, pronoun, meaning the speaker and at least one other person," Rian said. "Need, verb, to require something as essential or important. More, determiner, meaning an additional amount of something. Houses, noun, plural form, a building for human habitation, typically with a roof and at least three walls."

Lori stared at him for a long moment. "Was that supposed to be a joke?"<...

Demesne 53 - Building On The Foundation

Depressingly, Lori realized she had to reduce the intensity of her nice, cooling breeze, because the wind was making the wall she was trying to raise buckle and bend. Wrapping herself in firewisps to draw off the heat just wasn't the same, somehow.

Still, it was predictable progress, once she'd measured out a pace on the handle of her stone-leveling tool and fixed the dimensions of her foundation. She'd dragged more stone up and raised what felt like the longest wall she'd ever made… ...

Demesne 52 - Foundations

Lori thought having to build more houses would be irritating. Thankfully, the heat wasn't that much of a problem. Her demesne wasn't large enough for her to manipulate clouds unless the clouds were really low, but she had more than enough to control the wind, and she'd been having a nice breeze blowing for her as soon as she'd had to step out of her dungeon.

Wearing her hat to prevent overheating, she started the building project. She'd managed to produce a surplus of stone fro...

Demesne 51 - We Need More Houses

"What do you mean, we need more houses?" Lori asked.

"We, pronoun, meaning the speaker and at least one other person," Rian said. "Need, verb, to require something as essential or important. More, determiner, meaning an additional amount of something. Houses, noun, plural form, a building for human habitation, typically with a roof and at least three walls."

Lori stared at him for a long moment. "Was that supposed to be a joke?"

"I was breaking down the sentence into individ...

Weekly Digest 16 - (#48 - #50)

The Next Level

Lori began constructing the next area of her Dungeon.

Technically, she'd already started by putting together a plan of what she intended to build rather than just digging out space and hoping for the best, so that there would be less risk of the ceiling collapsing, as well as refining her first floor so more of the actual structure bore the weight instead of relying on reinforcement by earthwisps, but now she was getting started on the actu...

Status 5/29/21

Due to IRL stuff, I'm afraid I will be unable to post a Nightmaerangers chapter tomorrow, as the chapter is yet incomplete. I'm very sorry about this. I'll try to definitely post next week. The current arc has gone on a little longer than I wanted, and we're technically still at the halfway point. 

Updates of Demesne will continue as usual. There might be typos. This is, sadly, also as per usual, but Karina will be sure to find them and hunt them down until there are none left but ...

Demesne 50 - Laundry Day

Lolilyuri had not been looking forward to this. Quite the opposite, in fact.

"I hate laundry day," she grumbled. She looked at Rian across the table blearily. "When are you doing your laundry? Maybe I can just mix my clothes in with yours and take care of it that way."

Rian, who was tugging on each of his fingers to make the knuckles pop and flexing them in satisfaction afterwards, twitched. "Don't even joke about that," he hissed, leaning forward even as he frantically l...

Demesne Patron EX SS 4 - The Mighty Hunter

Karina woke with a yawn, rubbing her eyes. Outside, the world was still dark, save for the light glowing from the old dining hall and Binder Lori's Dungeon, where it was bright as day all the time.

Growing up, she remembered waking to the Iridescence right outside their window, how it would cover a third of their little house, and they had to be careful to keep their heads out of it and to wash any parts that had colors grow on it as soon as they could. Mama was always careful about the...

Demesne 49 - Other Business

While Lori had to expand her Dungeon, there were still other things she had to do to keep her demesne functioning. Doing maintenance on the wisps she'd bound, making minor repairs to the stone walls of the houses she'd made because the stonemasons had needed to gouge out a divot or something to fit the roof more securely, double-checking on things like the water temperature in the baths or the amount of light her bound lightwisps were generating so they wouldn't be blinding… things of that ...

Status 5/24/21

Hey! So, I was writing Demesne, realized something, and made a character relevant edit of one word to a single chapter and the Weekly Digest its in. If any of you ever reread this, and find the change, that's why. 

This is technically a retcon, but since it's literally one word, I like to think of it as a typo. 

Next Patron-Exclusive short is coming this week, to be written Wednesday and posted as soon as it's done,  so people can enjoy it before the end of the mont...

Demesne 48 - The Next Level

Lori began constructing the next area of her Dungeon.

Technically, she'd already started by putting together a plan of what she intended to build rather than just digging out space and hoping for the best, so that there would be less risk of the ceiling collapsing, as well as refining her first floor so more of the actual structure bore the weight instead of relying on reinforcement by earthwisps, but now she was getting started on the actual digging.

The hallways she'd been expan...

Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers! #08

The House With Pink In Its Walls, Part 5

Sanny had once been surprised to learn that, despite the many multitude of different kinds of phobias, there wasn't actually a name for a fear of falling objects. There was term for a fear of falling (basiphobia), a fear of walking near tall buildings because you fear something will fall off and hit you (batophobia), but not an actual term for a fear of an object just falling out of the sky and hitting you. The closest h...

Weekly Digest 15 - (#45 - #47)

Grem's Sentence

Rian had had two of the jars of travel ration stew opened and heated, so when they got back, there was warm stew to dip the bread in, and along with more meat-and-vegetable filled pastries that had been sent to them courtesy of Binder Shanalorre – a different taste from what Binder Shanalorre's aunt had made– they had a small feast. The stew was actually delicious again when eaten with the bread, and Lori sat back and enjoyed the sounds for the three men and one idio...

Demesne 47 - Finally Back At The Dungeon

"I'm never, ever, ever, ever leaving my demesne again," Lori groaned as she laid her head down on the table, listening to the sounds of people settling for dinner. "For any reason!"

"That's what you say every time we go to River's Fork," Rian said with annoying cheer that made her want to tear his face off with her bare hands.

"I mean it this time!" Lori declared. "I don't care what Shanalorre offers me to make repairs, I'm not going back there!"...

Demesne 46 - Home Is Lori's Demesne

The trip back to Lori's Demesne, Lorian, was slowed by the fact they were traveling upriver, against the current. Lori had to carefully increase the output of the waterjet, and then imbue it since the greater speed and increased load on the boat was using up magic faster. Thankfully, with the early start compared to their previous journey, they were able to reach the borders of her demesne by late afternoon.

There was nothing dramatic when Lolilyuri crossed the border back into her deme...

Demesne 45 - Grem's Sentence

Rian had had two of the jars of travel ration stew opened and heated, so when they got back, there was warm stew to dip the bread in, and along with more meat-and-vegetable filled pastries that had been sent to them courtesy of Binder Shanalorre – a different taste from what Binder Shanalorre's aunt had made– they had a small feast. The stew was actually delicious again when eaten with the bread, and Lori sat back and enjoyed the sounds of the three men and one idiot eating. It reminded h...

Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers! #07

The House With Pink In Its Walls, Part 4

The army, despite what media would have one believe, had actually fared well against the Gagambuhala. While small arms fire and even machine gun fire hadn't seemed to affect it (which was all sort of added bullshit, in Sanny's opinion), rockets and mortars had. They had needed to be sparing, surgical even, as even a single miss would get them on the bad side of the Makati community, since most of the nearby condos hadn't...

Weekly Digest 14 - (#42 - #44)

The Binder of River's Fork

Lori had a wonderful breakfast, only occasionally marred by the doctor's impolitely unconcealed hostility and his insistence at arguing with his Binder and niece. The former was crass, the latter was suicidal, but this wasn't her demesne. The life expectancy of the people in it were not her problem.

It was clearly making his daughter uncomfortable, although his son endured with the complete and utter apathy of someone who wanted...

Demesne 44 - You're Wrong

Lolilyuri retired back to Lori's Boat, keeping it anchored but pushing it into the water so as not to damage it when she climbed on. She sat next to the water jet and began imbuing more magic into it for the trip back. Her raincoat's hood had been draped on the end of an oar and the oar in held front of her while she leaned back on the hem, using that as an improvised shade. Her staff lay across her knee, the ash catch of her coalcharm pointed down to keep the boat from accidentally ...

Demesne 43 - Shanalorre Rising

One of the waterskins in the hut still had a little water, and the two of them used it to wash their hands. Lori set down the bowl and, deciding they'd had enough sleep, began to clap her hands noisily. "All right, all of you, wake up," she said. "Get that dust off and wash out, or the colors will take root in your brains! It's the afternoon, and the food's cold!"

She was really sounding like one of her mothers at this point.

"I'm on vacation, leave me alone," Rian muttered.

Demesne 42 - The Binder of River's Fork

Lori had a wonderful breakfast, only occasionally marred by the doctor's impolitely unconcealed hostility and his insistence at arguing with his Binder and niece. The former was crass, the latter was suicidal, but this wasn't her demesne. The life expectancy of the people in it were not her problem.

It was clearly making his daughter uncomfortable, although his son endured with the complete and utter apathy of someone who wanted to go back to sleep. The Vyshke woman did not interfere be...

Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers! #06

The House With Pink In Its Walls, Part 3

"It's… pretty big," Tammy noted as they stood on the roof of a building, looking out over the modified Makati skyline.

From the TV footage and the phrase 'building webs', Sanny had gotten the image of a giant spider web draped over the buildings like some kind of giant circus tent, or strung between them like huge nets. Instead, he'd been reminded not all spiders built webs. Some built nests.

Sever...

Weekly Digest 13 - (#39 - #41)

Runaway

The day had been full and exciting, and by the end of it Lori felt gritty and unclean. Not the gritty and unclean feeling the Iridescence left, which felt like being covered in fine, needle-like sand that had managed to embed itself on your skin, slowly penetrating inside you into your brain and entrapping her body's wisps, but the other kind, made of sweat and dust and too much exertion and excitement. She had gone out to the river with one of their se...

Demesne 41 - The Promise of Breakfast

Rian and the others weren't awake yet by the time she got back, so she left the fruits on top of the pile of supplies next to them, resolving to eat the blueballs if she came back and they were still there.

Then, still with nothing better to do, she wandered out again.

She sighed regretfully as she walked about River's Fork. The remaining damage from the dragon– the large boulders still lying around, the destroyed houses, the holes in the dome, the precariously shattered trunk o...

Status Report 5/6/21

Hey everyone. So, just some advance warning. I might take a brief, burnout-prevention writing break sometime this month. Because of the release schedule, it won't really affect things until either the end of May or the beginning of June. 

It won't be very long, but it will occasionally happen, and will be signified by... there being only two Demesne chapters that week, and probably reduced chapters of everything else. I probably won't be doing this a lot, ...

Demesne 40 - Fruits of the Morning

Lolilyuri waited. And waited. And waited.

Eventually, as the sun continued to rise and everyone continued to sleep with no sign of anyone bringing them food, she had to face the terrible truth.

No one was bringing them bread for breakfast.

How ungrateful this demesne was! She'd allowed her citizens to stay up half the night helping them look for their Binder, she'd even contributed with light, and no one so much as showed up with breakfast? Truly ungrateful.

All the se...

Demesne 39 - Runaway

The day had been full and exciting, and by the end of it Lori felt gritty and unclean. Not the gritty and unclean feeling the Iridescence left, which felt like being covered in fine, needle-like sand that had managed to embed itself on your skin, slowly penetrating inside you into your brain and entrapping her body's wisps, but the other kind, made of sweat and dust and too much exertion and excitement. She had gone out to the river with one of their seel-skin buckets to get water and use tha...

Weekly Digest 12 - (#36 - #38)

The Aunt and the Niece

Lori had never seen Rian so nervous. It hasn't a state she associated with her lord. He was confident, charming, kind, oblivious to other's advances, could easily be mistaken for making advances, annoyingly insightful, straightforward, theatrical, helpful, determined, and had a strange fetish for voting, but never nervous.

He was nervous now as he explained the chain of events that had led to violence to her husband, being ...