Open Sorcery

(she/her) I'm an adult and sometimes write mature things. I make stories and games. I anticipate being enmeshed in BG3 nonsense for the foreseeable future. Sometimes I post political things. I try to tag them #stressful so filter for that if you don't want to see them. Trans people deserve respect and safety. Website / Hearth & Holmes / AO3

[abigailmoment]

Hi! I'm Abigail. I write stories and games.

All of my work can be found on my website. Below there's a sampling of stories that are good places to begin.

I have a discord that's very friendly and I'm very responsive on it.

I have a mailing list that goes out when I make new things.

I have an Ao3 account of fan fiction that is, at the moment, almost entirely dedicated to vampires from Baldur's Gate 3 being bad at communication. My most active story on it is currently: The Last Will and Testament of Cazador Szarr.

(Note--Cazador is dead and does not appear in the story.)

*A visual novel game in development. *

You are John Watson. You're very worried about your best friend, Sherlock Holmes. You're right to be worried. Left to his own devices, he'll destroy himself with overwork and cocaine. Don't let him do that.

Wishlist here.

I have a Patreon that is a new experiment. It is very low pressure Patreon. I inevitably, create things. I will put many of them there. If you are interested in subscribing, please think of it as supporting my ability to create in general rather than purchasing monthly entertainment.

If you are in any way financially vulnerable, please don't give me money. I am stable and safe. If you want access to the stories here but can't afford a subscription please message me and I'll give you a free subscription.

That is a general rule. If you can't afford anything I've created, please ask me for it and I'll give it to you.

Read things here.

A text-based videogame. Cost: $3.99

Open Sorcery follows the development of an Elemental Firewall: a fire elemental bound with C++ code to protect a network of people and places.

You guide her as she makes decisions and grows. She can learn things, develop relationships, and even gain sapience. Or she can burn everything with fire.

Play on Steam.

Play on Android.

Play on iPhone.

A text-based fangame of BG3. Cost: Free.

Art by @cymk8

There's a monster made of dreams. It has its teeth in your companions. It builds nightmares out of their worst memories and drinks their pain. One of your companions has a very bad worst memory. A long, text-based video game.

Play online.

A text-based videogame. Cost: Free

You're a vampire hunter on your night off. You're getting a manicure, seeing a movie, and eating fast food.

But there's a vampire in this McDonalds. If you don't do something, then in one hour it will eat the cashier.

Play online.

[abigailmoment]

Hi :) I discovered your Hearth & Homes project recently and wished to ask how it's going, your expectations and maybe, an estimated release date?? I'm a fan of the original novels and found the game extremely intriguing. Thank you and have a splendid day!!

Hi and thanks for asking! It's trundling steadily forward. I post granular updates pretty regularly here and to my Discord, but a more general sense of where I'm at is *almost* done with writing content, I have one more case and one more month to finish, and beginning the agonizing process of playing through the entire game, making sure it's fun, and fixing all the bugs.

In terms of release date, I am eyeing 2027 hopefully, but being a solo developer with a bunch of other commitments means life events can disrupt things, which is why I haven't committed to a specific release date yet. Also a lot of when I release is going to depend on how I do at marketing, which I'm trying to do a proper job of this time. I'm aiming for 7000 wishlists on steam before release. I'm currently at around 3500, so I've got work to do. If you'd like a tangible way to speed it up wishlisting and telling other people who'd like it to wishlist will help me release earlier!

I'm also a huge fan of the original text/historical accuracy and I'm incorporating it at every opportunity. I actually am going to have a section detailing all the places that I intentionally deviate and why. I am, for example, rescheduling the Napoleonic War.

[overheardinfaerun]

You guys I am so deeply invested right now in the gorgeous first book of @abigailmoment’s Will & Testament series (mind the archive warnings) that I have made full pinterest boards for Gale and Astarion’s outfits.

I think technically all we know about Gale’s third act outfit is that it’s his amethyst robe, so I’m taking liberties here with the solar-themed detailing. Minor spoiler: Astarion picks the robe out, so I’m imagining him quietly choosing this one because it would look nice alongside his night sky. A matching set.

Anyway, someone save me from myself.

[calligraphy-creature]

"Though my soul may set in darkness

it will rise in perfect light;

I have loved the stars too truly to be fearful of the night."

From the poem "The Old Astronomer" (1868) by Sarah Williams.

[fethawit]

Most welcome, Mr Dekarios.

[jicklet]

every small child that gets within 5 feet of Murderbot:

[monstermonger]

Spring has begun; life is rekindled...

Itty Bitty Spring Dragon stickers ♡

🍂Autumn | ❄️Winter | 🌱Spring | 🌻 Summer

[abigailmoment]

An absolutely lovely piece of fan art by Zerodolphin8558 for the story Within Each Self a Monster.

The piece is called Dual Ended Candle. Gale and Lord Dekarios standing back to back, surrounded by symbols apt to each of them. I love how it looks like stained glass. I also love how much difference in feeling and attitude is conveyed by the slight difference in how their heads are tilted.

[vasira96]

thimble sized tea

[saxifraga-x-urbium]

Big Tech’s Anti-Labor Playbook Has Come for Wikipedia

Big Tech’s Anti-Labor Playbook Has Come for Wikipedia

TLDR: In ten days last month, the Wikimedia Foundation fired the longtime lead developer of MediaWiki and disbanded the team whose entire…

TLDR: In ten days last month, the Wikimedia Foundation fired the longtime lead developer of MediaWiki and disbanded the team whose entire job was to listen to volunteers. Most of the people they fired were union organizers. Wikipedia’s editors are now threatening to strike in solidarity. The Foundation is sitting on $296 million in reserves and a freshly profitable AI revenue stream. This is a confrontation with global implications.

It has been suggested elsewhere that if you are a Wiki Foundation donor, it would be a good idea to email and explain that this kind of behaviour will lead to you withholding future donations.

[abigailmoment]

April and May Progress

---- APRIL

Changed 'The Poisoned Parson' to 'The Longbourn Poisoning' and wrote/implemented a bunch more of it.

Finished 'The Longbourn Poisoning'. Goodness these cases are getting long. I'm glad there's only one left. Well. One and a half left.

Added Bennet case outro where you can conditionally help Mary Bennet and Mrs. Hudson live happily ever after.

Added Bennet case outro without Mrs. Hudson.

Tested all iterations of the Bennet case.

Implemented Holmes and Irene's friend breakup.

Implemented Holmes and Irene's second friend breakup, if you patch up the first one and he fucks it up again.

Added Deception and Forensics options to the Hound case.

Fixed error where magnifying glass wasn't appearing in case intro.

Added scene reward for publishing the Bennet case. Made it longer than it needed to be.

Added logging back into the game.

Figured out how to open web pages from inside a video game. Not as simple as I expected.

Collated all the attribution and credits I need to make and added a Credits page.

Adjusted the button font so that the letters DQYZ stopped being weird.

Created the EXTRAS portion of the title menu.

Wrote and implemented Hudson story scene--adopting a cat.

Made cat bounce when she meows.

Made Achievements screen and implemented unlocking achievements.

Filled out a few sample achievements and tested them.

---- MAY

Made cat socializing skeleton and default playing with the cat.

Wrote and implemented naming the cat.

Wrote and implemented introducing cat to Hudson.

Wrote and implemented introducing cat to Irene.

Wrote and implemented introducing cat to Moriarty.

Implemented Inaccuracy List.

Filling out Inaccuracy List.

Implemented 'Theoretical Murder.'

Adjusted book selection so that you can see what books you don't have, thus inspiring you to go get them.

Made it possible to visually distinguish between basic book and advanced book and fixed a handful of book issues.

Redid how shops work, added tailor and medical supplier, and tested them.

Made it so that topic categories tell you when they have new contents. I'm not totally sure this is a good idea.

Wrote and implemented Moriarty's winter departure.

Wrote and implemented December month event (it was short).

Picked out theme music for Irene and winter depression from Marc Corominas library. Thank you, Marc.

Implemented and install said theme music.

Wrote and implemented the first scene of 'The Cold'.

-

A sample of the cat dialog--

Narration: What should I say to the cat?

"Reassure her." >> I tell the little cat that thought he has had a harrowing experience, she is safe now.

"Admire her." >> I tell the little cat that she is still a very pretty lady, even though she is covered in soot. Her inner dignity shines through.

"Just make friendly, nonsense noises." >> I relate the many little absurdities that we humans inevitably feel compelled to communicate to cats. It tell her repeatedly how small she is.

(Holmes is 500% jealous of how much attention Watson is giving the cat, but he's being mature about it.)

[abigailmoment]

I am re-reading Last Will and Testament from the start again and as always I am incredibly delighted and impressed with the way you write. It is witty and full of emotion without being trite or mawkish and incredibly human in a way that is very hard to describe. All that to say, your writing is everything I love about storytelling and I admire you as an author greatly. It is often said that one of the best ways to learn to write is by reading, so in that vein, could you give any literature recommendations, such as your favorites or works that inspire you? Including poetry of course.

Thank you for sharing your stories with the world :)

Thank you! It took me a while to answer this because there are so many good answers to your question.

I really like prose by Naomi Novik, Martha Wells, and Tamsyn Muir. Agatha Christie is of course excellent for mysteries.

I really like poetry by Emily Dickinson. I have most of Edgar Allen Poe's The Bells and Tennyson's The Lady of Shallot memorized.

(That's a great use of the word mawkish. Haven't seen that word in a while.)

[abigailmoment]

Hi! I'm sure you get asks aplenty about this, but I just stumbled upon your interactive Astarion story "A Dream of Silence" and I was completely blown away!!

Your writing is so incredibly thoughtful, I was amazed with the level of detail and I was so touched by the whole thing. You write the main cast of companions SO well, and it felt so good to progress the story... The tie-in with how you can greet Astarion with "good morning" and having the last words as he wakes be the same thing was so profound!

Thank you so much for the time and care you put into it! I'm definitely going to keep reading it to explore all the outcomes! 💕

Thank you! I'm really glad you enjoyed it. I love hearing that people are exploring its secrets. I put a lot of details in and it's nice to know they're being uncovered.

(grins) I really liked the 'good morning' detail. I love lines that echo.

[kartuve]

he's literally nice

[twostepsfromtemerant]

For all the many flaws of the tagging system on this hellsite, it is so perfect for Sending Home. A man's not dead while his name is still spoken, and what are the tags but the Overhead of tumblr? They aren't the posts themselves, but they are metacommentary on posts, notes to friends, info to be passed on. The message has been logged and is continuing to be sent on. GNU

[garaks-gay-garderobe]

never have I ever thought "he would not fucking say that" about harry du bois. he just says whatever. in fact, he probably has said that!

[captainkirkk]

What they don't tell you about writing is that as you write, you discover scenes and entire plots that you hadn't accounted for that need to be written. So you can spend two hours writing and editing only to realise you're further away from the finish line than you thought you were when you started