Author: Mary

Things and such.

Sidequests Week 10

On By MaryIn SidequestsLeave a comment

The sidequests for this week were to listen to my 5 favorite songs, draw a fictional character, and to draw or write about a spacecraft and what it’s used for and what features it has.

The top 5 favorite songs is simultaneously easy and hard. First off, my favorites tend to have a revolving door, so sometimes something new comes along and completely occupies me before moving on to be replaced by the next new thing. There are some that have a pretty special place in my heart though, so I added several of them to a playlist and after some deliberation deleted and pruned until I had 5.

And even amongst those, the answer might be completely different if I had made the decision on a different day of the week. See! Hard!

And then I sat and listened to the choices. Anyhow, the choices were as follows:

  1. Aria di Mezzo Carattere – Nobuo Uematsu
  2. Bittersweet Symphony – The Verve
  3. Needing/Getting – OK Go
  4. Berzerk – Eminem
  5. Lose Control – Teddy Swims

Starting off is a song from one of my favorite childhood video games, Final Fantasy 6 (originally FF3 in its initial US release). Nobuo Uematsu is a Japanese composer that has provided the music for the Final Fantasy series, and there are a lot of songs from the series that I absolutely adore. The FF Victory theme lives in my head rent free, and I had a hard time choosing between this song and “A Place to Call Home” from FF9. This particular song is a little more than background music and actually has lyrics and a place in the plot.

The next song, Bittersweet Symphony, came out when I was in middle school. I think my childhood friend loved it first, and it always makes me think of her, but it’s also a great song. Also the lyrics stick with me a lot more as an adult than they did as a kid. As far as songs that make me think of her, this and Wonderwall were pretty much tied for contenders on the list. But Wonderwall has other and numerous associations.

The next is Needing/Getting by OK Go. I’ve always loved OK Go and most of the music they make, but the significance of this song for me is that I relate it back to someone I used to love. There were several songs that I relate to him that ended up on the list, including White Flag by Dido, Why Don’t You and I by Chad Kroeger and Santana, and Last Leaf by OK Go. This one really could have changed out any other day of the week. Fun thing about this song though: the car in the music video is the same one I currently drive. Which, speaking of, OK Go makes really fun music videos! Go watch them!

Berzerk by Eminem is probably my favorite Eminem song. It’s also great to add to any workout playlist, and can usually be found on mine whenever I make one.

The current revolving favorite is the last one – Lose Control by Teddy Swims. I’ve had this song on repeat a lot lately – so much so that it’s almost on its way out.

For the spacecraft, I will describe the alien ship in my story a little better, but probably briefly and it will likely change as I make things more concrete in rewrites. I still don’t really have a name for the tripod-bastards, unfortunately. Naming things is hard, guys.

The ship has about 4 levels. The bottom level is storage of supplies and has vast areas for training and staging for large scale invasions of planets. Since their entire “culture” revolves around seeking out alien worlds and destroying them for their resources, this area is large enough to accomodate everything they take. This is also where the smaller, faster ships for attacking are kept.

Every level has smaller vehicles lining the outside edge of the ship. These are for the convenience of the crew, and can also act as emergency vehicles to escape – but since their entire life is built around their ship, they don’t use basic escape pods. After all, their goal would be to protect it as their “home.”

The next level up is the prison section – there are two large cell blocks on each side of the ship, each containing multiple halls full of detention areas. Splitting the prison blocks is an engineering section.

Above that is the command center, and the areas of the ship where the actual “work” of maintaining, running, and operating the ship takes place. They have it spaced here to have better access to engineering and to keep an eye on the prison sections, and to provide a buffer between the prisons and the residential area.

The top level is the residential area, where they keep their families and live their normal off-duty lives out. There are likely conveniences here to make it more “homely” such as parks and entertainment and cafeterias.

It’s a pretty basic description, I guess, but it’ll do.

As for drawing a fictional character – I decided to draw Goku, from Dragonball.

Earlier this month, Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragonball and Dr. Slump, died. Dragonball has had a major influence on my life. I initially started watching the very chopped up dubs of DBZ as a kid in the late 90s, when they would show the first few arcs of DBZ and had split a few of the movies into episode side chunks and aired those as well. After I moved to Oklahoma, they started the Toonami block on Cartoon Network and I was able to continue enjoying the show there. Most of my initial online life was spent in chats and forums and fansites for Dragonball. I don’t think it was my first foray into anime, as the SciFi channel used to air their Saturday morning anime movies. But it was one of the first longer series I became obsessed with.

Even to this day, Piccolo is my all time favorite character.

RIP Toriyama.

52. Lucas

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

We stood in front of the platform that would take us the final leg of our journey, down to the seal and to Shadawn. “Do we have a plan?” Peyton asked, running her hand along the edge of the panel. She turned to face us when she finished speaking.

“Free the asshole, hit him with everything we’ve got, and then when you give the signal, I’ll kill him,” I said. Asterollan and Lexie both nodded in agreement as I spoke, though I noticed that Lyre frowned.

Peyton sighed. “So that means you and I have to hold back enough to make sure we stay alive until the end of the battle. No running directly into the fray for me and you, and try to keep our attacks at a distance and reserve our energy as much as possible.” I frowned, thinking of every time she had run directly into the most dangerous situations, and she narrowed her eyes at me. “You’re right,” she said after a moment.

I started singing Baby Shark in my head. “So you and I focus on things we can do from a distance. And Lexie, Asterollan, Lyre, Raella, and Zolambi keep his attention off us by attacking – hard.” I glanced over at Peter thoughtfully. “Should I bring Peter?”

“No, you can’t bring Peter. What if he dies!?” Lexie said immediately.

“There was a little bag of gunpowder in Cassandra’s things. I was thinking maybe he could hang on to that and lob it at Shadawn if he gets a chance.” Lyre had offered up Cassandra’s bag of supplies for anything useful, and I had found the small bag of black powder while sifting through it.

Lexie turned to me, her eyes wide with alarm. “You are not going to kamikaze your spider!” she said, her voice shrill.

“That wasn’t what I meant. I was thinking he could just drop it on the guy and one of us could light it with fire…”

“Is… can Peter even understand a plan that complicated?” Peyton asked. We all turned to look at the giant jumping spider. It clicked its jaws, happily waving a leg into the air.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. Peter chirped happily. “Well, let’s see.” I scanned the ground and picked up a nearby rock. I held it out to Peter and leaned in close, watching the reflection of my face glitter in its eyes. It occurred to me that being this close to it was something I would never have been able to manage before. “Here, take this.” The spider obediently moved forward, taking the rock from my hand. I knelt closer to it, whispering, “Go to the ceiling and lob this at Lexie when I say ‘good boy.’” Peter obediently chirped and moved out of sight.

“Regardless, is a little black powder going to make a difference?” Peyton crossed her arms, tapping her fingers gently against her elbow as she watched Peter disappear out of view overhead.

“Maybe not a little, but if there was some way to make a lot…” Asterollan said. “I’ve seen a lot of it blow a ship to smithereens.” Lyre’s frown deepened into a scowl momentarily as Asterollan spoke, before he caught me watching and then his expression evened out.

Peyton turned to look at Raella thoughtfully. “We can summon water… and make plants grow from nothing. Could we create more black powder with magic?”

Raella looked surprised at the question. “I’m not really sure. I suppose… hand me the bag of powder.”

Lyre stepped forward to provide the bag to Raella. “Good boy,” I commented loudly. He tilted his head in confusion at my statement just as I heard a soft thump and watched Lexie’s hand fly up to rub at the back of her head. “Oh! He understands! Good boy!”

“What the…” Lexie grimaced, frowning at me.

Raella ignored us, opening the bag to sift her fingers through the course powder. She studied it for a time, the light of magic surrounding her as she focused on it, and then shook her head. “It’s not an impossible idea, but not something we’re going to accomplish in such a short time frame.” She handed the bag back to Lyre. “We can’t spend forever camped here, after all.”

We all stared at the platform hesitantly. Peter jumped down from wherever he had been hiding and crawled along the edge of the platform, tapping the sides as he went. “The Underlings will find a way here eventually,” Zolambi said finally. “We need to go.”

No one immediately moved, but then Peyton sighed and boosted herself up onto the platform. She turned around to look at us, and said, “If we sit and plan too long, we’ll lose our nerve. We’re running out of time and our chances won’t get any better. We go now. It’s now or never.” I nodded, and moved to join her on the platform – she reached down and offered her hand. I paused a moment and took it, allowing her to help me up.

“Now or never,” I agreed. Then I started wondering if that sounded stupid, and added, “Now. Definitely now,” guaranteeing that I sounded stupid. The others joined us on the platform.

Raella, who Jon Umberling had shown the controls to, moved towards them and began to work on using them.

The dwarven soldiers, Captain Kaphryn, Jon Umberling, and Chase all stared up at us from below. “I should be going,” Chase said, watching as the platform lit up along the bottom and edges. She looked like she was debating jumping on to join us, but Zolambi only smiled and shook his head at her wordlessly. She sighed, staring at each of us as though it might be the last time she saw us. I wondered for a moment if it was.

“Good luck,” Jon Umberling said, looking somber. “Our very world depends on you.”

Lexie was standing very near the edge of the platform. She placed her hands on her hips as she looked down at the small gathering before us. “It’s all good,” she said confidently. “We’ll have this world saved in no time!” Peter chittered like he agreed with her, his front legs waving in the air.

The platform started to inch forward. And I made a split-second decision. “I’m sorry,” I said.

Lexie was just turning her head to look at me with a slight frown on her face, wondering why I had apologized, when I shoved her off the platform. Twisting vines were already reaching up from the ground below to catch her, softening her fall and grasping her limbs, holding her in place. The platform gained speed, pulling away quickly, and I could just barely see the look of shock making the whites of her eyes stand out before we were away. “Lucas! What the fuuuuck!”

The platform swooped into the next tunnel and I stared back at the spot of light at the end of it as it grew small in the distance. Turning to face my remaining companions, I could see Peyton regarding me with a warm smile on her face. Asterollan frowned, his arms crossed. “You plan to die today, one way or the other, I see. You know she’s going to kill you for that, right?” Peyton said, though her tone lacked any venom.

I sighed. “But at least she’ll be alive to do it.”

“She would have been useful to have in the fight ahead of us,” Asterollan said, less pleased. “She’s stronger than you give her credit for.”

“And what will we do if we need to reform the seal?” Raella asked. Her face was carefully composed and emotionless, but her tone betrayed the seething anger underneath.

“We’ll deal with it when we deal with it,” I said. I didn’t look at either of them as I spoke though – I found myself staring directly at Peyton. My thoughts were only on one thing: winning this fight.

The trip was shorter than I had thought it would be.

The platform exited the tunnel from high up on the wall of a massive cavern. I gasped, ducking down to place my hands on the platform as it tilted, but despite the angle we weren’t sliding off. Far below and approaching fast was what I assumed was the seal.

My breath caught in my throat as I stared at it. I think I had expected something massive in scope, especially given that it supposedly contained all the gods and not just Shadawn. But it hovered very near the floor, a pulsing ball of light. The platform floated to a stop as it reached the ground, the ball still several yards away. We each dropped down and approached.

The surface of it was volatile, more like looking at something molten or made of plasma. It seemed to thrum and pulse with energy in front of us, and I could see tiny hairline fractures of darkness along its surface. I handed Peter the gunpowder and told him to hide in the ceiling and throw the bag at the bad guy when I called for him. He scurried away, disappearing into the dark, and I felt a little better that he would be out of sight for the battle.

I wasn’t sure how any of this was going to go. “How are we going to break the seal?” I asked.

Peyton approached the ball first. She turned to look at the rest of us. “He’s been asking me to free him since the beginning… he showed me how.” She took a deep breath, and I realized she was calming herself, steeling her nerves for what was going to happen. Her nervousness made me nervous, and I swallowed hard. “Remember, Lucas. We need to move away quick, let the other handle this.” I nodded and set my jaw.

Her eyes lingered on mine for a moment, and I nodded again for her. She reached out and placed her hands on the surface of the ball, and muttered, “All right, you bastard. Let’s start this.”

I wasn’t sure if anything was happening at first. The ball seemed to shrink for a moment, and grow dim. Then there was a loud noise – like a tear in fabric, or an explosion, or a scream, or all of it at once, and it seemed to come from everywhere without and within. I flinched, and I could hear some of the other shout out in shock at the sudden noise. The ball seemed to suddenly expand to encompass us all and then shattered with a noise like breaking glass.

Peyton, Asterollan, and I all immediately lit up. I wasn’t even aware I was reaching for magic – in retrospect, it would have been smart to have been ready, but I had made no conscious decision. It was simply like the wall between myself and magic vanished, and I wondered if that was what it meant to truly hold all the power of my god. I gasped as I felt the power surge through me. The sudden rush of it was euphoric, the auras around the three of us bright and instantly overwhelming the entire cavern. Asterollan shone so bright it was hard to look directly at him, so I focused on Peyton – her floating eye was focused off to the side.

Following its gaze, I could see darkness coalescing.

Shadawn was taking shape.

It was like the shadows creeped into each other, whispering as they gathered, and a humanoid shape took form within. When he appeared, he looked like any other elven man. In fact, it was almost disappointing how normal he appeared. Despite that appearance, there was a sense of apprehension in the air, something that made me internally shiver like I was hearing nails scratch across a chalkboard. I realized the revulsion was almost like concentrated fear, and remembered what domain he had chosen.

He was tall – about my height – and thin, with pale skin and long, angular features. His eyes glowed faintly. He smiled at Peyton, a smile that conveyed no actual warmth. “I see you’ve put the knowledge I gave you to use. Even if you intend to use it against me.” And then, without any visible sign of wielding magic, no gesture, no shout – a rush of tendriling darkness moved to grab Peyton.

She looked as surprised as I felt. The only thing I could think to do was to summon vines to grip her and pull her back – we needed to stay further from the fight, and she was too close. She gasped as my vines pulled her forcibly back, though it was hardly necessary – a barrier had erected in front of her, and the darkness crawled along the edges of it like it had its own living will.

As I ran over to where I had pulled Peyton, I could see that Raella was focused on maintaining the barrier. Shadawn narrowed his eyes at her, annoyed at her interference, his expression speaking of his absolute disdain for a mere mortal. And then everything exploded into chaos.

It was crazy to watch – Asterollan had moved forward, his blazing sword of light swinging with precision, but Shadawn moved unnaturally, almost like he didn’t exist as a physical object in space. He shifted easily out of the way of Asterollan’s magical weapon, and easily brushed off the spells that Zolambi was hurling at him. Raella seemed to focus on defense, quickly pushing Shadawn’s offensive spells away or creating barriers to deflect them.

As I reached Peyton, she shot me an annoyed look. “Really? Vines?”

“You’re welcome,” I said. I turned to watch the battle. “Are we even hurting him at all?”

She was watching as well, the floating third eye focused on the battle. She nodded after a moment. “They’re doing damage. He’s just… very strong. Final boss energy.”

I watched him continue to move quickly and easily away from Asterollan’s sword, and focused on summoning vines just beneath him, springing up to grip his legs and thighs. Despite the unnatural shifting, the vines held him tight – it surprised me, because I hadn’t expected them to, and I wondered if there was something about the divine nature in the vines that helped against him. Asterollan’s next strike cut him deep across the abdomen – it looked fatal, but the wound reformed quickly and he growled angrily, hitting Asterollan hard and sending him skidding back several feet.

He turned to glare at me, but as he did, a massive wall of flame rose up in front of Lyre, blocking him from view. “It’s working,” Peyton said. “We’re doing damage. But this is going to take awhile.”

“Oh, that’s nice and fucky,” I commented, trying to sound as cheerful as I could as the fire faded and Shadawn came back into view. If he had been hurt like Peyton claimed, there was no physical sign of it yet. Mostly he just looked annoyed, but thankfully that anger seemed to have shifted away from me and towards Lyre, who he regarded carefully after the fire spell.

He pointed at Lyre and a lance of shadow struck out, lightning fast and jagged. It seemed to hit something in the air and dissolved in sparks, though it didn’t look like Raella had managed to summon a barrier in time.  Lyre looked just as surprised as Shadawn did, who let loose a low hiss of anger as his attack dissolved, his eyes narrowing. He inhaled deeply, and focused, the air wavering around him, and then waves of dark energy exploded from around him, knocking all of us back and off our feet – but more than that, when the wave hit, there was a sudden explosion of pain from inside of my skull. It was like hearing a thousand voices screaming in terror at once – it hurt so bad it left my vision flashing and left me dazed. I hadn’t even realized I’d been knocked off my feet until that pain subsided.

As I lay on the ground for a moment, gasping, I realized this was just the beginning of the fight.

One Night

On By MaryIn Prompts, WritingLeave a comment

The prompt cards for this one were “recluse” and “blood.”

Typically my first thought with recluse is spider, and my first thought with blood is sacrifice. I had to sit and think through a few more associations trying to brainstorm a short tale, and I kind of like the result. The ending could be tied together a little better with a stronger line. Also I’m second guessing every comma this time.

Anyhow, the story.

Tara lived alone in the middle of nowhere.

It was hard sometimes. She had once been something of a social butterfly and loved to go to parties and special events hosted by her friends. And she was a wonderful hostess as well. There was nothing quite like the thrill of being the center of attention, being the one drawing all the admiring glances, the one to cause the raucous laughter. Tara had loved the dresses she had worn, the company that she kept.

And now she spent her time alone, far from anyone. She slept her days away and quietly whiled away the nights. She absently thought of happier times as she hunted for herself and attended to the chores and upkeep of her own little abode. The loneliness made time stretch eternal, and she found herself wishing for happier days. But she could never return to that. The world had moved on, turned without her, and it was for the better.

One night, as she sat by the fire, there was a knock at the door. She set her book down, a frown creasing her brow, as she stared apprehensively at the door. Was there really a person so far out here? In the middle of the night? Had she been hearing things?

Now whoever was there pounded on the door, the sound so loud it made her jump. “Please…!” a female voice called, high pitched with desperation and worry.

With a heavy sigh, knowing it was a bad idea, Tara stood and opened the door.

Standing outside was a young woman, her clothes disheveled and torn, her eyes wide with terror. She had leaves in her hair, and scratches on her skin, and she was shivering. Tears streamed down her face. “Please, help me…” she whimpered.

Tara hesitated before stepping back to let the younger woman in. “Is there someone after you?” she asked, as she closed the door.

The young woman looked dazed. She nodded briefly, but then paused and said, “I’m not sure. I got away, but I don’t know if he… he…” and then she burst into a fresh set of sobs.

Tara placed a hand on the girl’s shoulder, feeling desperately sorry for her, for so many reasons. Not just for what had likely happened, but for what was going to happen. Tara stared at a smear of blood along the woman’s jawline, and found her eyes drawn further down to her neck. Already the hunger was starting to take hold…

“I’m sorry,” Tara said simply.

And then she sank her fangs into the young woman’s neck. The woman screamed – not that it mattered out here, in the middle of nowhere, far from anyone that could hear. Likely whoever had brought the poor thing out this far had thought the same – so secluded, there was no help.

Tara would never have chosen to live as a recluse, but when she had been turned, she had found her hunger insatiable. It hadn’t taken long for her vampiric nature to be outed, and for her to be ousted. She had left everything behind and come so far into the woods so she could not be tempted by the sweetness of human blood. She could feel the young woman grip her hair, desperately attempting to pull her head away, but her ordeal had left her weak and Tara enjoyed heightened strength since her turning.

The blood burst salty and then sweet into her mouth, invigorating her. Tara moaned in pleasure at the familiar flavor as she drank deeply. It was the first human she had glutted on in years. After a time, the unfortunate woman stilled in her grasp – her heartbeat slowed, slowed, and then stopped as she was drained of more blood than the body could bear to lose. Tara laid her down on the floor.

She tilted her head, staring down at the woman’s corpse, and then glanced at the time. She made her way to the door, ready to scour the woods in the hopes of finding the man that had been mentioned. She had a few hours to kill before dawn.

Sidequests Week 9

On By MaryIn SidequestsLeave a comment

My sidequests for this week involved trying a new food or drink, learning to make something with origami, and spending time out in nature.

So, Friday night I decided to doordash some food from a local Indian restaurant. The extent of my forray into Indian food has mostly just been curries, which I love, but there’s a lot that I’ve simply never tried. I ordered samosas, korma, and a few different desserts, gulab jamun, rasmalai, and kheer.

I’ve heard of samosas before but have never had them. The website describes them as lightly spiced turnovers stuffed with potatoes and green peas. They were bigger than I had expected, and came with two different dipping sauces – one kind of sweet, and the other a spicy green sauce. Whatever spices they used inside the samosas made everything look green, and was kind of similar to the green sauce. It was really good.

The korma was described as being cooked with exotic spices, herbs, cashew, almonds, and raisins in mild cream sauce. It came with rice, and I chose lamb for the meat (the option said lamb or goat, and I was thinking I might try goat as part of “something new” but then it didn’t present it as an option and the description says lamb. I have had lamb before, but only a few times – so new’ish?). It had a bit of a kick, but was still fairly mild – the first impression once it was inside my mouth was that it was very fragrant, so I’m a bit curious what the spice combination is. It was also really good, even though I’m not the biggest fan of lamb or the style of rice they use (being half-Korean, I definitely prefer my rice stickier).

And then there were the desserts. Rasmalai is made of cheese patties cooked in condensed milk with pistachios and rose water. It also had raisins and rice. My first impression of the texture of the cheese was kind of coconut’y because it was rough and crumbly. Kheer is a rice pudding flavored with cardamoms and garnished with pistachios. It was actually very similar to what the rasmalai was soaked in, and despite being described as a pudding it wasn’t very thick. Both were sweet without being too overwhelmingly sweet. The gulab jamun was described as condensed milk and homemade cheese balls deep fried in butter and dipped in sugar syrup. For something that was described as deep fried, it was very soft textured. I also would not have guessed it or the rasmalai were cheeses. They were all good, but I wouldn’t seek them out as my new favorite desserts.

This wasn’t a very hard task for me because I don’t mind trying the occasional new food.

The origami one was a little harder because I wanted to try to find something that could be made with lucky star paper strips. I bought a whole bunch years ago when I was really into folding the little bastards, but I never got around to using all of them. There was an intriguing rose design that someone had, but it was so intricate and tiny that in my ripe old age of almost 40, my hands are just arthritic enough to go, “Ha, fuck that.” So I decided to make lucky hearts – the only downside being that apparently you have to cut the round edges on them, so it was going to be very annoying to do.

Also wondered if I could cheat and just make more lucky stars because I forget how to make them easily and have to look up the instructions each time? It doesn’t say to learn to make something new with origami – just learn to make something with origami. If you know but forget, and re-learn… does it count?

So I did initially start with hearts, but the strips I have are too thin and long to make nice looking ones, so I opted to cheat and re-learn the stars. Once I followed the directions the first time it came back really easily. I decided to go ahead and make 100 and put them in a jar, for one small wish. But I didn’t really keep count and made 210.

I decided to use the nature card as an excuse to visit the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge, which I don’t do very often despite living quite near it. Unforunately I did so on Saturday, which had some nice weather, so the result was that everyone else was out there too and every parking spot for every hiking trail and picnic space was packed. In fact, I’m pretty sure I drove in on someone’s family reunion. So I didn’t find a spot to actually get out of the vehicle and enjoy anything up close. Still, I did spend a good couple of hours simply driving around and enjoying the view, which was nice.

The Wichita Mountains in Oklahoma aren’t very impressive as far as mountains go – there are many ranges that have taller mountains, and you don’t have to travel far before they’re out of sight. But it is a very very old mountain range. So old that it is more accurately described as the skeletal granite remains of a mountain range. As such, they mostly look like clumps of crumbling rock formations dropped on top of each other. A lot of people like to visit the Wildlife Refuge to fish or hang out at some of the ponds or campsites, or to go hiking along some of the trails there. They’ve also got bison, longhorn cattle, deer and elk, and a prairie dog city.

51. Cassandra (WIP)

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

Okay, so instead of an actual full chapter I’m posting a kind of half assed chapter and some brief summations of things I intended with it, and I’m going to kind of skip this part to move on to the remainder of the story and finish it out. Part of the reason for this is that there are whole sections involving this part that are going to be completely rewritten. When I work on my rewrites, the Interludes are going to be more frequent and involve the tensions between Cassandra and Jennifer’s relationships as parent/child.

There were also a few things that were supposed to happen before this point that I simply forgot to add in. Most significant being that Jennifer was supposed to hear Asterollan reveal Cassandra’s diagnosis and then she was supposed to sit and decide whether to read or not read the letter (I have not decided yet whether she will at this point or not). Which of course informs a lot of her interactions with Cassandra in this chapter. And since I flubbed all that, I can’t expand on it here. So basically within this chapter, Cassandra and Jennifer are supposed to defeat the bad aliens, save the day, return to Earth.

Since I’m also already blabbing on about intentions for the story, I’ll go ahead and discuss something that I was saving for when I finished to give an idea of next steps. I’ve been taking notes on things I definitely plan to expand upon when I do my rewrites. The notes are as follows:

  • Lucas will start off awkwardly calling Peyton “Miss Hobbs” because calling her by her first name sounds too informal, and he will kick himself in the head for it immediately because he knows it sounds dumb, but stubbornly stick to it for more than half the book.
  • Add show instead of tell where possible.
  • No clear baddie at first beyond the “idea” of a bad guy, need to impress stakes upon the characters from an earlier point
  • Have Cassandra see her goddess out of the corner of her eye from earlier, and maybe even the bad guy?
  • Show more interlude bits of Jennifer reacting to the feeds. These are likely to be shorter insets anyways
  • Evil being = god ascendant?
  • Change Peter to Parker?
  • When Lexie has her god meeting, she should start to display fiery properties to her aura when she reaches for her magic. Her god grants her full power earlier after all.
  • Play up awkward for Lucas and anxious for Cassandra.
  • Expand upon the characters and world a bit and have them stay a bit longer in a few places. Greyjon should have celebrated and well known military accomplishments that people comment on when they meet him, etcetc.

So when I actually go through and do the edits, a lot of the minor characters are going to become more important, places are actually going to get named, history is going to be built in, and themes are going to be strengthened. My next rewrite will be shameless expansion and bloat and worldbuilding. And then my third rewrite will be trimming that back down and tightening everything into place.

So all that in mind, here is my sloppy writing to stand in place for Chapter 51, and then next week I will move on to Chapter 52, which switches back to Lucas.

As we freed the prisoners, I worked on ripping out the dampeners and healing the small remaining wounds one at a time. Despite the tedious and tiring nature of the work, the blaring alarm kept me on high alert, my system coursing with adrenaline. As the crowd of freed prisoners grew, I felt my indignation grow as well. There were so many people here – some were of the same race, prisoners from the same world, but still the variety accounted for well over a dozen worlds. And all these worlds had been destroyed? Just like these aliens planned to do to Earth…

Even as worn out as I felt, I was swept up with the group as someone led us toward the main deck of the ship. I’m not sure if anyone had an actual plan or if they were just spurred by anger and revenge. The alarms grew louder as we moved through the halls, and soon the sound of fighting reached my ears. Those at the front of the group sped into a jog, and soon all of us were sprinting towards whatever lay ahead, toward the cacophony.

It was as chaotic as it sounded. An entirely separate group of freed prisoners were in the middle of fighting across the control deck. They had somehow managed to gather weapons, but despite that advantage they still faced one major disadvantage – they lacked their magical abilities. I gaped as I watched the strange abilities of the tripod-things as they cast their spells – they shifted through space, turned invisible, and easily deflected projectiles by redirecting them through small holes in space. As a result, the entire room was a chaos of unpredictable weapons fire and screaming.

I paused outside the doorway as everyone else charged into the fray, watching as the new group of prisoners that could use magic began to channel their own strange abilities. It was obvious that magic was going to be a deciding factor in this fight. I leaned against the wall outside the door, my brow furrowing as I considered what I could do. I needed to remove all the magic dampeners in the other prisoners… after having removed so many individually, could I sense them without placing hands on each individual?

I squeezed my eyes shut, focusing hard, pushing out with my magic searchingly. I focused first on finding the small pieces of metal but couldn’t seem to focus on something so small across so many different bodies.

I took three deep breaths and reoriented myself. I focused on the room, on all the life forms in the room. I could sense them. I instantly got a sense for how many people were in the room fighting. I could feel their injuries, their illnesses, the strains on their bodies. I frowned hard, realizing some of them were human even, but then forced myself to focus past that…

I couldn’t focus on finding the little pieces of metal that I had hoped to find. But I realized that so many people on our side were injured… perhaps I could at least get them back in the fight.

I cast a healing spell across the entire room.

For a brief moment, everything got louder as those that were on the brink of death launched themselves back into the fight. But casting so much and so continuously since I had arrived finally wore me out. I slumped against the wall, my head pounding and the world spinning as I got alarmingly close to passing out.

A blurry figure knelt in front of me. I blinked to clear my vision, and remembered that without glasses, it would never be fully clear. I squinted. “Cassandra,” a familiar voice said, the tone a cross between gently maternal and sternly cross.

“Mom?” I said, feeling so confused I was certain that maybe I had passed out and started dreaming. She repeated my name again, telling me to get up. “What are you doing here?” I mumbled. She stared at me for a long moment and then hugged me. I hugged her back, still confused. “What’s going on?” I wondered out loud, not really sure what to think anymore.

“We’re going to blow up the ship,” she announced.

I stared at her in confusion. “What?!”

She pulled me along behind her, gripping my arm tight. I was still dizzy from expending so much power. “The aliens you freed were the last of the prisoners from the other prison wing. The ones I was working with know what the plan is – they’ll get them out,” she reassured me as we walked. “On our way up to the deck, we found the fuel system for the ship, and the energy source and be overloaded.”

“Mom, wait. I don’t even know why you’re here.”

She flashed me a mildly annoyed look. “I came out of retirement after you disappeared and the Stream started?”

“Stream?” I mumbled.

Ignoring my question, she said, “Once we overload the system, we’re going to have to make a quick escape. So stay close to me.”

“Why are we doing this exactly?” I asked as I finally pulled my arm out of her grip. I kept pace with her as she continued to half-jog down the hall.

“The aliens that run this ship are starting their invasion of Earth. From the various aliens I’ve talked to, they apparently stage everything from this ship. Even if the invasion is already underway, if we destroy their base, they won’t have anywhere to return and regroup.” I nodded like I understood, but I was tired. I was homesick for Earth, but also homesick for Lyre, and a part of me wanted to find a dark and quiet room to curl up and cry in undisturbed until the cancer killed me.