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Demesne 25 - Rian's List and Reasons

Even with the news that there was an unclaimed core lying around, Lolilyuri couldn't just run off and claim it, adding a second Demesne to her holdings (a second demesne!), no how much she really, really, really, really, really, really, REALLY, REALLYwanted to. After all, with it unclaimed, it would be surrounded by Iridescence, meaning she'd need a guide to even find the approximate center of the abandoned demesne, never mind the core itself, which would li...

Demesne Special - Ryan Is An Isekai! - April Fools 2021!

If there was one thing he found mildly aggravating about Demesne, it was that people kept mispronouncing his name. They kept going for the short vowel sounds instead of the long one. He'd given up correcting people and nowadays Ryan just rolled with it.

Still, it could have been worse. At least he was speaking the local language. He wasn't sure what dark and unknowable eldritch sorcery was involved– he'd done his research and Mentalism magic apparently couldn't be used to just shove i...

Demesne 24 - The Strangers

It was the most awkward lunch Lori had ever attended, and that included the time her mothers and she had attended a family reunion in another demesne and everyone kept asking who her father was.

Rian had had one of the stone cooking pots brought out. It was still a third full, reminding Lori she hadn't had any seconds yet, and a fire had been lit under it. Wooden bowls of stew were being passed around to the strangers, and many were eating like… well, like they'd had nothing to eat re...

First Poll!

So, as we near the end of this month, I'd like to ask you, my Patrons, what you like (or don't like) about this story. Is there something you want to see more of? While I have things written in advance, if there's something in particular you enjoy seeing more of, that can be worked in. I can't radically change character personalities, because their characters are the plot, but I'd certainly like to hear what you think. 

I'm setting up this poll with the assumption you like my work ...

Weekly Digest 7 (#21-#23)

Checking On Corpses

"I said 'after you'," Rian said.

"And I'm not falling for it, stay in front of me," Lori said flatly.

"The way you're gripping the back of my shirt so firmly is concerning, though," Rian said.

"Don't get distracted in front of the beast, that's how people die."

"That's what I'm worried about!"

It would have been trivial for Lori to kill the beast right then and there. She was very experienced at it after all, be...

Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers! #01 (Pilot)

Day Of The Plague Dog, Part 1

If the world had a sense of drama, they would be doing this in the dead of night, maybe in the rain, in the seedy underbelly of the city.

But no, it was the middle of the day, the skies were clear and they were in a heavily trafficked public area. The buildings of Eastwood City– not actually a city, but rather a combination shopping area, IT park and residential complex– towered above them, shielding them from the sun. 2021-03-27 15:57:47 +0000 UTC View Post

Demesne 23 - The Importance of Lunch

For several days, the entire settlement worked to rebuild. In a way, the fact that not many houses and buildings had been raised was lucky for them, as there wasn't much that had been damaged. There was still a lot, but not every family had lost their house. Most of what did need to structural repairs was left to Lori, which meant she was up and working all hours of the day, and had to go back to a Dungeon that was still being used as a dining hall and hospital. She also still hadn't gotten h...

Status Report 3/25/21

So, today I've just finished writing a short Rian-centric segment, similar to last month's Lori-centric one. You can expect it at the end of the month. 

I’ve also, against my better judgement, begun a polymer clay chibi Lori. I figure I’d use it on the book cover or something. Lots of ebooks have all sort of digital art covers, so I’ll stand out by having a crappy polymer clay diorama!

2021-03-25 16:00:44 +0000 UTC View Post

Demesne 22 - Rebuilding

The reservoir was, from what Lori could tell, still clear, and no one had used it as a lavatory. She was almost impressed.

She had everyone clear a path to the reservoir, with Rian in charge of keeping the way clear, as she sat on a convenient bench she'd formed from the stone bulwark in front of the original cliff face just outside the dungeon and drew water from the river. While the river had looked clear from what they had distantly seen, it was better not to take chances, and turnin...

Demesne 21 - Checking On Corpses

"I said 'after you'," Rian said.

"And I'm not falling for it, stay in front of me," Lori said flatly.

"The way you're gripping the back of my shirt so firmly is concerning, though," Rian said.

"Don't get distracted in front of the beast, that's how people die."

"That's what I'm worried about!"

It would have been trivial for Lori to kill the beast right then and there. She was very experienced at it after all, between the long overland journey, often through high ...

Weekly Digest 6 (#18-#20)

After The Dragon

Lori didn't feel it when the dragon finally went away, since she had been distracted during the period it had likely happened to note its passing. She had been too full of sheer outrage at the complete and utter nonsensical ignorance of story Rian insisted on continuing to tell her.

"– so he couldn't just make trees spring from nowhere, especially outside his demesne!" Lori finished her latest diatribe of the story's utter stup...

Demesne 20 - Detritus To Clean

Throwing lightning is more complicated than simply imbuing lightningwisps, willing them to go in a direction and expecting results. Doing it like that is the common beginner mistake, since it just means a lot of lightning goes everywhere. Despite the popular image of lightning coming down from the sky, or the standard theater depiction of just gesturing at a foe and expecting lightning to leap from one's hands to strike them down, this is an incredibly inefficient and dangerous metho...

Demesne 19 - A Mess To Deal With

The overfull lavatory had been deal with. Pressure differential had been involved. It had taken a while since something had gotten into the stone pipes she'd made for the lavatory, but had died inside because… well, the situation was inimical to life. It took some concentrating since she had to try to place the positioning of everything blind with only her awareness of wisps to sense it. Fortunately, she'd recently gotten a lot of practice in doing just that, so she managed to unclog the pi...

Upcoming projects announcement

So, I'm currently working on another story, a superhero/horror/Lovecraftian story about teenagers (?) with attitude and the voices of eldritch beings in their heads fighting to protect a city against... other eldritch beings. A combing giant eldritch abomination will be involved at some point. I'm still working on it, but it will probably update a lot slower than Demesne, perhaps only once a week. I'll try to write ahead so that patrons will be one or two chapters ahead of free readers. ...

Demesne 18 - After The Dragon

Lori didn't feel it when the dragon finally went away, since she had been distracted during the period it had likely happened to note its passing. She had been too full of sheer outrage at the complete and utter nonsensical ignorance of story Rian insisted on continuing to tell her.

"– so he couldn't just make trees spring from nowhere, especially outside his demesne!" Lori finished her latest diatribe of the story's utter stupidity. "Even with the dungeon's core providing po...

Demesne Weekly Digest 5 (#15 -#17)

Yes, There Are Dragons

Lolilyuri felt terrible. Unfortunately, there was work to be done. It wasn't too bad. She could do the work sitting down for the most part, and it was a steady, repetitive work that she didn't have to think too much about. The situation was aggravating, but mostly she was angry at herself for losing track of the time. She'd been going to sleep early and not watching the positioning of the moons in the sky, which was why this had crept up ...

Demesne 17 - Stories In The Dark

Lolilyuri could hear another dragonborn abomination trying to crawl through the air hole again. There was too much chittering and the sound of multiple wings, and the void it left in her sense of the demesne's wisps was all wrong to be any ordinary sort of bug. She pushed magic into the darkness she was controlling directly over the Dungeon's entrance to reinforce it for a moment, then focused her attention in front of her and contracted the air hole from a wide opening into a slit a finger w...

Demesne 16 - The Dragon and the Dark

Lori felt like her Dungeon was about to cave in and collapse on her.

That was unlikely to happen, since every earthwisp that wasn't turning stone into the consistency of wet clay was currently reinforcing the entire hill to increase its structural integrity and not collapse because of little things like 'its own weight'. Still, it was actually becoming problematic for Lori. It wasn't that she was running out of magic to imbue into the wisps. The power from the core seemed as endlessly i...

Demesne 15 - Yes, There Are Dragons

Lolilyuri felt terrible. Unfortunately, there was work to be done. It wasn't too bad. She could do the work sitting down for the most part, and it was a steady, repetitive work that she didn't have to think too much about. The situation was aggravating, but mostly she was angry at herself for losing track of the time. She'd been going to sleep early and not watching the positioning of the moons in the sky, which was why this had crept up on her suddenly.

The sawpit had been busy, cuttin...

Demesne Weekly Digest 4 (#12-#14)

Working with Tools

Even though they had decided to send a group with Rian to Covehold Demesne to somehow acquire things the settlement needed and wanted– and to be honest, most people expected him to have to rob the bank– that didn't mean they would leave the very next day. Supplies needed to be gathered and preserved for the trip. Preparations would have to be made, since they wouldn't have Lori with them to provide water for cleaning, fire for cooking or ...

Demesne 12 - Working with Tools

Even though they had decided to send a group with Rian to Covehold Demesne to somehow acquire things the settlement needed and wanted– and to be honest, most people expected him to have to rob the bank– that didn't mean they would leave the very next day. Supplies needed to be gathered and preserved for the trip. Preparations would have to be made, since they wouldn't have Lori with them to provide water for cleaning, fire for cooking or stone for wheels. Attempts to dissuade the young wo...

Demesne 13 - Advancing Building Techniques

Days had passed, and Rian had yet to solve the 'what if there are rapids' problem. On the other hand, the hospital got a roof. Lori had to raise up stone pillars to support the ceiling beams, but that was simple to do.

She had to raise a bunch of support pillars in the middle of the houses she'd built, too. Apparently, while making them roomy and spacious was all well and good for the families that would be moving in– there was a priority list Rian had drawn up– it made it hard to p...

Demesne 14 - Lori Goes Seeling

It was not, in fact, that hard in theory. Or even in practice.

At least, that's what Lori told herself.

Finding where the children did their seeling was simple. She'd put a latrine near there, after all.

Figuring out seeling was done by using long, pointy branches to catch the seels was easy. All the children stood on rocks above the water near patches of swaying reeds, spears raised and ready above their heads and looking intently into the moving, rippling clarity of the fl...

Demesne Weekly Digest 3 (#9-#11)

Naming the Community With Malice Aforethought

Finally, the day of the community meeting was upon them. The sky was overcast, but not actually raining, though it threatened to, and the ground was muddy from the rain the day before. Only the paths Lori had made to allow her to get to places were hard-packed and dry.

The dining hall was packed that morning, with only the children on seeling duty and some older siblings tasked to make sure they didn't fall in...

Schedule Change Announcement

So, so far our schedule has been 3 chapters a week, plus the digest on Sundays for those who want to get caught up quick in a single entry. However, in a sudden burst of probably ill-advised overconfidence in my writing ability, I've decided to move the schedule up a week. So the chapters schedule to upload over next week will be uploading tomorrow (including the digest for that week), and the chapters that would have uploaded next week will take their place. This will give patrons a bigger l...

Demesne 11 - We Left Living in a Society To Live Here

The community meeting progressed. As the morning wore on, people began to relax a little more as there were no other explosions of violence.

Still, there was some subtle movement to try and push through the subject of getting land. Someone proposed that they should, in fact, map out the area. Purely so people wouldn't get lost, of course. By their current reckoning, the area of the demesne was four taums in diameter, which everyone found impressive and just made Lori smug. She knew it w...

Demesne 10 - Material Shortages of Lori's Demesne

Lolilyuri listened as Rian listed the things they were running low on, referring to the various random objects with writing on them piled on the table. His recitation was punctuated by people standing up and justifying why they needed them. Metal; copper, tin, iron, steel. People had brought the tools of their trades, but not all of them. Some had been too specialized and heavy, but now that they were planning to set up, they'd need them, and the smith needed metal to make those tools, as wel...

Demesne 9 - Naming the Community With Malice Aforethought

Finally, the day of the community meeting was upon them. The sky was overcast, but not actually raining, though it threatened to, and the ground was muddy from the rain the day before. Only the paths Lori had made to allow her to get to places were hard-packed and dry.

The dining hall was packed that morning, with only the children on seeling duty and some older siblings tasked to make sure they didn't fall into the water and drown not in attendance. Everyone seemed to be much cleaner. ...

Demesne Patron EX SS 1 - Little Lori Goes To The Library

Lolilyuri arrived home with a sigh, smelling like sawdust, sweat, and the weird incense the owner of the lumberyard she worked at liked to use in the curing shed. She'd never noticed it having any particular effect, except to make her smell funny after a shift of kiln duty, but the owner swore it was traditional. "Ina, Nanay, I'm home!" she said tiredly, putting her shoulder bag on one of the pegs next to the door, followed by her hat and leather rain mantle, and neatly putting her staff on t...

Demesne Weekly Digest 2 (#6-#8)

Food and Other Resources to Manage

The next day dawned and nobody had died.

Also, sleeping on a pile of sand is still sleeping on rock, only with an infinite amount of sharp points.

"I need a bed," Lori muttered as she washed herself off. A rock had been raised around the cave opening, with space for air to pass around its edges so she could have a quick bath. She'd briefly debated using the recess the Dungeon's core floated above as a tub, and the ...