Damn I Am Pretty Art Laboratories

#Crux, City of Curses, is a dark fantasy setting of intrigues, early industry and more than a little horror.  Here's a piece from Maralda on her first meeting a Sphinx, and some material on what Sphinxes are like in the setting overall. Adopted By A Sphinx I never stopped fleeing my father's estates in the Blood Quarter as a teen.  Sometimes it ended in horrible fashion for me.  But other times, I learned things.  Things I think my father would've never approved of.  Sphinxes always teach some sort of insight. Embarrassing myself in front of three of them, though, I hadn't plan for. "Omph!"  I tripped as I continued my climb up Mount Eidda.  At its peak was Ith's statue.  Sixteen, I thought I could get up there on my own. Why?  Because I was a stupid kid who thought she could do whatever she wanted.  Even after a Feyborn Horse kidnapped me being, I'd never bothered to learn my lesson.  I still fled home looking for som...

A #Crux story/political background-y thing, from Maralda's POV.  This borrows heavily from Nat Turner, a critical slave rebellion in US history.  Crux, City of Curses, etc, are part of a fantasy setting I've been madness-ing with for about two years now... let me know if you enjoyed this.  Always glad for feedback!  :D Ithic History: The Blue Rebellion (1780 AO) "You continue to wear your hair up."  Father frowned.  "You still refuse to do your part in the City Watch?" I resisted the urge to grit my teeth at that.  Always back to what he wanted me to be. The mistreatment of the unsorcerous is more severe in Southern Ith.  I've visited those towns a few times.  Sorcerous neighborhoods glow.  The unsorcerous neighborhoods around them are these muck-filled places of gray and frowning faces. People there never got the same choices as me.  They never could join the City Watch or some knighthood.  They were stuck at the...

Both rings clinked in my palm.  We both had tried them a few times.  They were a precaution.  Singular. Well, plural. Jhanna held onto my arm as we walked through the Grand Bazaar.  An alchemist tried to hack his potions.  Technological wonders, like cameras and pocket watches sat in shop windows.  Fruits and meats from exotic places line the shelves of the store to that.  One could buy anything here.  Anything in the world. I could smell Jhanna's perfume.  Her cold skin.  Even in her dress, she still walked with the cool, trained steps of a proud Fighter. I never have been much for combat.  Magic has always been my second love.  The first held me close. Guns cocked from a nearby bar.  We both stopped.  A tall, drooling hyena-headed gnoll leveled a shotgun at us.  He spluttered something at us in his tongue.  I caught the drift. Gh'tyrax the Blood-Drinker.  Maliphi Gangster.  He'd fo...

A recent bit of Hollywood stupidity, casting a white woman in an Asian woman role.  I'm not going to touch on the systematic racism in Hollywood.   It's just the visible part of a larger corporate racism.  An aged old ideal in the American Corporate media that whites should be at the center of everything.  No, the thing I'm going to bitch about Ghost in the Shell is this. Why does it need a live action film? Oh.  Right.  "Cartoons" don't could as film.  Even the best anime gets drawn into this.  Rather than change the nature or scope of film, let's spurn traditional animation.  in favor of live action adaptation.  Again. Yuck. I'm not talking about computer, 3D animation.  Which is fine.  Digital animation has its perks, and feels like new kind of artform to be explored.  But it feels like something is lacking at a larger level. Let's Compare to Gaming. Video games, as seems apt, have a interesting aestheti...

The City of Curses and the roads that service it are old.  Older than me.  Older than even my aged, fire-vampyre father.   Even though he'd never admit it.  He always acts like he's less than a century old. One of my first acts of rebellion as a young dhampir involved one of the dubious carriage companies of Crux.  I thought some coin would get me travel to whereever I'd want in the city of curses without my father knowing about where I went.  It was a mistake.  A horrible mistake. A few of the companies are reputable.  But not most.  Most Cruxites will never share their horse, or will rather walk than use them.  Travelers and out-of-towners, they often are the target of the carriage companies.  When I say target, I do mean criminal activity. Most of the companies are run by feyborn horses, whose scruples are frighteningly less than legal.  Unless one intimidates the driverless carriage, the horses pulling it might d...

#InTransitMonsters  is a  #firstdraft   #novel  about Technology as Messiah.  Humanity is about to fall, and is forced to create monsters to save itself.  Can these giant monsters succeed, or will humanity's old ambitions damn the species to extinction?   Previous | Start | Index Foxtrot (H plus 26 Days) Tossed a few more trophies atop the pile.  Uniform sighed at my hard earned work.  I'd spent the better part of the last day collecting the Sewer Spawn. "It's been easier and easier."  I told her.  "Still, I imagine I've gotten the most so far." "Hotel's gotten ten more than you."  Uniform said, not looking up. "Well... mine are bigger." "The mass ratios for sewer spawn tend to be the same." I crossed my arms.  "Well, then I got mine in first today, didn't I?" Uniform looked up.  "Sure, you won that." I smiled.  "See?  We do make a great team." "Right.  ...

Shana Fivecurse hurried.  Each glide hurt.  Rooftops blurred below the flying grandmother and witch.  " Zoe. " She had to hurry.  She needed to catch them. "I'm coming." She scanned the street below.  The witch glided through the air.  Magic held her aloft.  But her worry kept her focused. "Zoe." Cobblestones.  Puddles from recent rain.  Dim light and dark shadows. Shana huffed.  Too old.  She couldn't do this anymore.  The violence of youth.  Memories of things she did decades ago.  She thought she'd put them behind her. "Zoe.  I see them."  Shana's eyes spotted the coach rushing through the night streets. Shana reached up one of her liver-spotted hands.  The old woman whispered a dark prayer.  The darkness responded.  Ancient pacts and promises vibrated.  Pleased to serve her once again. "Do it."  Shana commanded.  She didn't care about the cost anymore. ...

#InTransitMonsters  is a  #firstdraft   #novel  about Technology as Messiah.  Humanity is about to fall, and is forced to create monsters to save itself.  Can these giant monsters succeed, or will humanity's old ambitions damn the species to extinction?   Previous | Start | Index  | Next Charlie (H plus 26 days) It took us a few weeks, but we managed to liberate most of Fontana.  That wasn't the right word for it.  You don't liberate tombs.  Pacify. The sewer spawn and other agents of the Enemy flushed out easier after Trash Heap had been gone.  I tried to reach Earth about investigating the corpse of Trash heap.  Still nothing directed at us. If not worse, the traffic we did receive talked about riots.  Earth had fallen apart while we were gone.  Whatever we were fighting for might not be there when we were done. All that depressed me.  It sunk in my stomach.  But it wasn't the worst of ...

On Tengu Culture and Cuisine. Written Maralda Inculti Tyranus, Dated Newrose 1784 The Raven-headed Folk have strange ways.  Or at least different ones.  It's tempting to cast them as the " Other. "  But despite the Tengu's own xenophobia, their is a exotic mystique to them. Tengu seem to have no trouble blending into our culture.  Piercing theirs has been difficult for those of us curious about them.  Until recently.  Some recent event affected their Prophet.  She dispersed them throughout Crux .  There are clans of Tengu found throughout Crux.  Even though many of them still live in the Aerie-Towns over Havershill. My most recent exposure to Tengu culture wasn't what I expected, however.  A pastry shop.  Not run by Tengu.  As far as I know, Tengu don't understand how to bake.  No, I found a cluster of Tengu in a pastry shop in the Rose Quarter. It had to be one of those sights you can't quite imagine ...

I don't mind reading books recommended to me.  But I do try to have a list.  Sometimes things get on my list.  Other times I manage to skip along into reading something unexpected not on my list.  Mistborn: the Final Empire is one of those recommended addictive reads. A friend recommended it to me.  I didn't hesitate out of fear about the series.  But rather out of intimidation of its author, Brandon Sanderson.  Sanderson has a reputation for epic fantasy and complex magic systems.  I'd always heard people praise him. My hesitation came from intimidation on Sanderson's Rep.  Not negative.  I just worried about getting sucked into a new series, hook line and sinker.  I'm not sure about that.  But Mistborn: the Final Empire and the next books in its series, were excellent reads.  Rather than try to cover the entire series, I'm going to try to cover my opinions and thoughts on the first book. Mistborn itself is a ...