Archive | April 2018

Beauty-Beast 34: Hope, Diamonds

Apr26

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Timaios smiled gently across the table at Ctirad.  He, in turn, shifted, shifted again, and finally settled in, uncomfortably but as set as he was going to get with his Owner – his Master – pinning him with that look. “Sir, I’m not…  you said…”

“I told her that you weren’t a bedroom slave.”  He looked amused.

“Is Sir unhappy with me?  Does Sir want me to be Danny’s pet?”

Oh, shit.  He lowered his head and wondered if he had just signed his own cage warrant.  He was going to be on the floor licking the cook’s boots within the next ten minutes, wasn’t he?

“Do you want to be my bedroom slave, Ctirad?” Continue reading →

Internet friends

Apr24
So this is something I sent my mom after we went walking/talking at Birdseye State Forest. She asked if I found that my internet friends were as they acted online when I met them in person, more or less. 
Then Dad sort of derailed the whole thing talking about being true to your genuine self or something and so… e-mail happened. 
We got a little derailed yesterday on one conversation, but I was thinking about internet friends.
I suppose, way back to the first one I met in person (Cap/Sarah), I wasn’t taken aback at all by the person I met, because by the time I met them in person, we’d already had hours and hours of conversation and interactions online.  So it’s… like if you went and encountered Beth on a chat board online for the first time after knowing her all this time; she’d still be the same person.
By contrast, many of the friends I had before my internet people, I first met roleplaying – so literally pretending to be someone else.  In that situation, it does take a little bit longer to figure out who someone actually is underneath all the roles.

Tootplanet: Explorer Log Planet 8-10-2

Apr23

“Stepping Stone”

The first thing we did on this planet was make a bridge.

Two bridges, actually.  

The first one connected two islands that were about 30 feet apart; the second was nearly a mile long.

Then we split our team into three parts: one on the central island, one on the closer one to the west, and one on the further one to the northeast.

Geologically, this planet is interesting.  Biologically, it’s wonderful.

Better yet, the central island has a saltwater lake.

Five years might not be long enough.

Tootplanet: Captain’s Log Sector 8, Subector 10

Apr23

Star Log Sec8 Sub10-1

We skipped through Sector 9 in a hurry.  I think we’re finally out of the woods, and the look of this planet confirms it.

It’s a tidy planet, with potentially sentient life in the stone-and-wood-tools stage of development.

They are corvid in appearance, with vestigial feathers and claw-like hands, and they are very group-oriented. They live in fascinating tree dwellings they create by weaving sticks around tree branches and then weaving vines and sticks around the sticks, and then decorated with chips of mica.

 I wish we could stay here and observe them forever, but we have a mission.  

Star Log Sec8 Sub10-2

We don’t generally name planets, but that didn’t stop Seb from naming this one “stepping stone.”

It’s covered in islands.  Some of them appear to be hardly bigger than a rock; some of them are miles wide on a side.  All of them are close to at least two other islands, although “close” in this case is sometimes “visible in clear weather.”

We see no signs of sentient life, no signs of any land animal larger than a big alligator.  The atmosphere is breathable.

We sent down a team to the largest island.  Let’s see what they can do.

 

Star Log Sec8 Sub10-3

This subsector has clearly not been touched by the Bears.

The life on this planet is gorgeous.  There are squalid parts – they are in the early parts of an industrial revolution – but the nice parts are gorgeous.  Steeples. Spires. Plant-boxes everywhere.

The people themselves are bipedal with long arms and a trunklike appendage as well as a prehensile tail.  Their clothing in the nicer areas consists of layers and layers of printed fabric in folded rectangles.

Their trains are a work of art.  I wish I could ride on one.

We sent down a greeting probe.  I want to visit so badly.

Star Log Sec8 Sub10-4

This sector is fascinating, and in 100 years, I would love to see what the populated planets here do.

This planet is vernal is a very trimmed-looking way, but we cannot find the gardeners.  That is: plants are arranged into rows and fields, circles & swirls, arches and labyrinths.  None of it appears natural. But there are no structures, no sentient-looking beings, and the animals there are wander – apparently freely, yet within their own designated zones.

It is slightly too unnatural for us to risk a team.  Instead, we sent down three sleeper probes that will awaken if handled in a manner usually indicative of sentient life.

They may greet this planet’s version of a chimp.  They may find the gardeners.

Reluctantly, we moved on.

Planet 8-10-2

Tootplanet: Explorers’ Logs Planet 7-19-2

Apr23

Planetary D193

I have found a flying animal.

I held it in my cupped hands for maybe an hour.

They have no fear of humans, although we have found a thing that predates on them.  They are about the length of my arm, and they look like a fiddlehead fern that unrolls and rerolls as it wishes.

They are nesting on our habitat roof now.

 

 

Purchased: Rocks and Bitches

Apr21

First: Purchased: Negotiation
Previous: Purchased: Learning the Way Around

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Nine

Leander stood still, his hands moving behind his back, his chin up.  He wasn’t meeting her eyes, but he could see Sylviane anyway.  And she did not look like he had just defied her.  

“I just mean…” She faltered and tilted her head.  “Here, come downstairs with me.” She reached for his hand, dropped her hand, and led the way.

Leander followed.  If he tried to gauge forty feet when he couldn’t see her, he was going to get a headache.

Even more of a headache.

She waited until they were downstairs, through what looked like a very well-appointed bar, and into a gym some colleges would kill for, before she said anything.  “Okay, look. It’s your body, and you can do what you want with it as far as I’m concerned. You’re a fae bodyguard. You could look like Poindexter and still kick ass, right?”

“…Right…”  He had no idea what she meant by, well, anything anymore. Continue reading →