Archive | March 22, 2017

Beauty-Beast 4

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There was a moment where Ctirad thought that he’d given the wrong answer, that Sir was going to be irritated with him or, worse, dismissive. Then the arms around him shifted until a hand was patting his shoulder. ā€œYou know, Ermenrich sold you far too cheaply. You’re a treasure.ā€

The praise filled him with warmth, the way it always did. Ctirad let himself stay as he was, leaned against Sir’s chest. It was nice, while it lasted. And it was a drug, but it wasn’t a drug he had any control over, so there was no point in worrying about it. ā€œI’m glad you approve, sir.ā€

ā€œAll right. Keep your eyes closed, and I’m going to lead you out to my car. It’s not that far from here. Tell – no. Can you tell me something about yourself, while we walk?ā€

Sir moved until his arm was around Ctirad’s waist, and, feeling daring, Ctirad moved his own arm lightly around Sir’s waist. ā€œWell.ā€ He coughed, a little amused despite the situation. ā€œI’m not straight. And I knew that before I got collared. But there’s uh. Something different about it when you’re not pretending for anyone but your Owner, you know?ā€

ā€œI have some idea. All right, it’s level for a bit here, so we’re just walking forward. Easy, there you go.ā€

Ctirad’s legs had woken up, but he let himself lean on Sir anyway. It felt warm and easy, and he was going to take it while it lasted.

ā€œSo, pretending for your Owner?ā€ Sir’s voice was quiet, kinda thoughtful. ā€œYou do a lot of that?ā€

ā€œā€¦Fuck, don’t order me not to. Please. Sir.ā€ He knew he didn’t sound submissive. He couldn’t make himself sound submissive about that. He cleared his throat and tried for explanation instead. ā€œOrders like that, they fuck with your head.ā€

Sir’s chuckle was low and warm. ā€œI won’t. But I might ask you, a few times over the first months, if you’re pretending.ā€

ā€œā€¦In private? Sir.ā€ Ctirad swallowed. The public humiliations had been the worst. The part where he knew he couldn’t go back to being who he was, that was a ship long sailed. But the part where he had to work with those people and he was made to grovel…

ā€œIn private.ā€ Sir squeezed Ctirad’s hip lightly. ā€œIn public, I’m not going to give you orders. I’m going to treat you as something between a bodyguard, an assistant, and a boyfriend. We’ll worry about the orders for that later. In private – well, in private, you’re mine.ā€

His voice was warm and throaty. Ctirad thought that Sir was very pleased with the idea. ā€œI’m yours, sir.ā€ At the moment, he thought he was pretty pleased with the notion, too.

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Worldbuilding Month Day 9: Building Worlds

March is Worldbuilding Month! Leave me a question about any of my worlds, and I will do my best to answer it! (I need more questions, guys)
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This ninth one is from [twitter.com profile] medicmsh3141: What’s your favorite part of mapmaking?

Oh, no, favorites!

…All of it?

Okay, so when I was working on my first-ever Nanowrimo novel, The Deep Inks, one of the flaws in that book is that I spent like… 3 chapters describing an entirely-useless-to-plot town that the antagonists had built… I don’t even remember why.

But I LOVED that town.

Forget killing my darling lines, when I worldbuild–>write, I have to kill my darling TOWNS.

Okay so.

Map-making.

First, I’m rubbish at visualization, so when I make a map, I can start to actually SEE a place come together.

Second, it’s arts-and-crafts, and I really, REALLY like arts-and-crafts. I get to pull out the lentils/split peas/other pulses and play like I’m finger painting, I get to draw shapes that aren’t going to look ā€œwrongā€ because, let’s face it, it’s an imaginary world. I get to get out the watercolors and PAINT.

…there’s more than one reason I do all my mapmaking on actual paper with pencil. šŸ™‚

Okay, so there’s the haptic side of it, there’s the visualization side. There’s getting to play with logistics, too: where would they put cities? Roads? Fords/bridges?

I’m gonna put floor-plan making in here too, ā€˜cause it fills many of the same urges. ā€œHow would they cram as many people as possible into this space, to both fill basic needs for shelter AND to encourage them to spread out and build proper houses?ā€

(That one’s Colonize Earth, which I never did get too far with).

Maps and diagrams are all about questions. How would they do that that is different from how I would do it?

I’m still not one hundred percent sure why Cya built Cloverleaf in a series of circles – but I love it. Might’ve been for the tower in the middle, everything pointing like arrows at the giant thing that, after all, is not actually the school.

Anke prompted me with ā€œtreehouseā€ the other day and I’m still playing with all the details of a post-apocalyptic scrounger’s tree house…

…I considered going into architecture, you know. Sometimes I really regret that I didn’t.

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