Hi everyone. I’m sure y’all are tired of updates that amount to “nothing’s been done” but I somehow keep managing to time updates with the rough parts of life.
I finished my finals alright and got through the end of the semester and had full plans to use the break in classes to be active in the IF community and work on PK. The next morning we got the phone call that my grandfather passed away suddenly in his sleep.
He was the only grandparent I had who has never disowned me and tried to ask me to be anyone but me - the only one I never felt judged or unsafe with. He’s also the one who got me into writing - the one who gave me most of my journals back when I was still writing about sentient unicorns and shapeshifting owl people. So. Losing him hurts. And writing hurts a little bit right now too, but in a good way? It’s just really hard right now.
There’s been more emotional strain and the sort of events that would have knocked me on my ass no matter what all in the period of time since you last heard from me too. I just don’t feel like getting into them here.
I’m tired but I’m trying. No work has been done on PK but I think I’m ready to get back on that particular pony. Maybe not tonight, but soon.
Just didn’t want to go too long in silence when I was supposed to drop by with a clean intro post and overhauled itch.io page over a month ago and then vanished into the ether instead. Again. Those things are still on the to-do list just...not expected to happen quickly.
Eydis has a new name: Astrid Emildottir. I may change the patronymic again too if I decide I want to rename her father again but her first name should stay now.
I’m supposed to be studying for my finals which means I’m absolutely making more progress on this story than I have in months and I refuse to feel guilty about it after school’s left me so dead I’ve barely been able to write.
Back to deciding if I let you guys have any control over the MC whilst they’re a scary shadow monster or not.
Plus side to my break though - there are now 3 more backgrounds to choose from for your character!
The original one has become the “military” background: you left Espee to join the militant arm of the Order of Flames to get training as a mage.
Additional backgrounds are: The Phoenix could have spent most their life on Siege Perilous, working as a mage protecting the interests of the Agricultural Guild.
We also see the return of the rogue origin. A series of bad luck and worse decisions led (or maybe you think they were good?) led you to joining the Thieves Guild of Camelot.
And then there’s the explorer background. You left Espee as an apprentice “Star Gazer”, or a space cartographer. Your career is mapping out the danger zones in the Dark and reporting back what the safest routes through it are.
Finally writing again. (It’s been another messy time and I’m tired.)
I’m not making it very far today since I’m having to reteach myself Twine (again) because I’ve completely forgotten how to write in it and my chair has reached the point it’s putting knives in my back so I’m done for now but my current goal is to try and get the prologue for Oracle out by the end of October. And then use Nanowrimo to kick PK into shape.
So. I’m gonna preference this by saying I’ve decided that my July self is forgiven. I had a LOT of crap happen in July. (Highlights include a emergency visit for myself and my dog having cancer, and that’s literally just the highlights.) There was no way to get any writing or anything done in July with as much as things were snowballing. And August has been 24 days of me yanking myself back into self-care routines and out of a very basic survival mode. SO. Yeah.
I am finally not but I am going on a two week road trip. I will have spotty internet and no computer for that time. I am taking my notebooks with me so I will be writing, probably.
Both projects are still alive, still being worked on. I’m still in love with both ideas. Might actually be more in love with them now than at the last “progress” update I dropped in to give.
Phoenix Knight is actually going to be revamped (again) when I get back. I was never in love with the flashback idea, but I thought that having you literally die in the prologue was too dark. I’ve changed my mind. I’m going to go back and write the first part the way I wanted to in the beginning (but talked myself out of). I feel like the story will flow better than way. I’m also going to change the way that you meet the Phoenix crew so it’s a little more structured but that gives you a better introduction to each cast member, I hope.
And I’m working on character development with the RO’s for the Detective Delphi project (which still needs a better final name) so I’ll probably have short scenes and snippets when I get back. (Trying to decide how I feel about accidentally making Warren into a Batman and Siren being as heavily influenced by Alec Hardison from Leverage as they are. Oops.)
That said - anything you want to know based on the scant information you do have, or any prompts you’d like me to fill (I don’t have any lists on this blog yet but feel free to just send me stuff you find elsewhere or ideas you have), drop it in my ask box - I won’t answer until I get back, but I’ll be able to write the prompts and think about the asks while I’m away.
Sorry for the radio silence, and thank y’all for continuing to be interested despite the lack of progress!
I’ve had a bit of a rough month so the little time that I’ve had has gone to replaying Pokemon since the series has been one of my favorite go-to comfort games for years. Very little actual writing progress has been made though I’ve gotten a lot done in terms of figuring out how I want to approach things.
We were very dead today at work so I decided that the best use of my time was figuring out what the all of the partner pokemon for the Phoenix crew (and a few of the Delphi folks) would be.
The following snippet is a result of the pokemon AU, I thought I’d share it as a thank you for y’all’s support while I’m here doing my Magikarp impression.
You can’t quite help swinging your legs back and forth while you wait for Jem. He’d said he would be ‘just a minute’ – but since he stopped to lecture Felix on what the appropriate dosage for headache medicine was you’re not entirely sure it will really be just ‘a minute’.
A flash of yellow in the corner of your eye causes you to tense before you relax – the twitch of black tipped ears telling you who the culprit is.
You turn fully to face the…
That’s not a Pikachu. A chill runs up your spine as you stare at the dead button eyes over the crooked, lopsided grin sewn onto patchy yellow fabric. The head wobbles a little back and forth.
“They don’t have anything for you, Pika,” Jem scolds softly as he walks in, dropping a piece of candy to the floor in front of the not-pikachu.
The yellow rag lifts up – just enough for a dark void filled with glinting eyes to be obvious – before a hand of pitch blackness shoots out and snatches the candy before disappearing once again and the edge of the costume settled back on the floor.
Jem bends down to scoop the creature up and onto his shoulder where it sits, butting his head softly with the wobbly costume head.
At this point you manage to get your surprised mouth to close.
“Not quite what you expected?” Jem teases as he tweaks one of the ‘ears’ with his hand. Laughing a little as it earns him a slightly more aggressive head-butt from the mimikyu.
“They’re yours?” you can’t help your further surprise. You know Rowan has a phantump that they let wander around - and a gastly too if Felix’s threats about what he’ll do to the pokemon if he catches it in his workroom again are to be believed – so you’d have assumed the ghost type was theirs.
“My first pokemon,” Jem nods, feeding the pokemon another sweet. “I wasn’t acutally allowed to have a pokemon growing up – raising them was ‘too uncouth’. So, I came up with the most brilliant plan: I would find one all on my own and raise them in secret without my parents ever finding out. I was so excited to find a Pikachu in Camelot – even a weird looking one – that I immediately took Pika home to hide them under my bed.”
“Huh.”
“And since one of our evil crewmates here will tell you eventually anyways: yes, it did actually take me over a year to realize my new best friend was not, in fact, a Pikachu.” The mimikyu wobbles back and forth on his shoulder and he laughs again. “I wouldn’t have it any other way – who needs a boring old Pikachu when I have you, Pika?”
(This got a bit rambling so tucking most of it under the cut - but summary: I’m starting a new WIP in addition to this one (oops).)
I’ve been thinking (a dangerous pastime, I know) about my last blip of an update and I realized something: I’m writing Phoenix Knight for free and just for fun - and I don’t intend to even open the support function until the entire thing is finished and up, and maybe not even then.
But that means I’m not on anyone’s timeline but my own. And I don’t have to feel guilty if I want to work on anything else either. Because it’s free and for fun it means that working on another project is something I can choose to do. I don’t have to talk myself out of writing something else too because there isn’t a deadline.
The only pressure here is what I put on myself (which is, uh, probably still too much but we’re not going to undo years of damage caused by academic over-achievement followed by a brutal collegiate burnout anytime soon).
That being said. I’m going to start my new project. (Actually I already have. The file is open. I’m taking a break from setting up the StoryInit page and setting a basic color scheme that doesn’t burn the eyes completely from the sockets (we’re just gonna ignore that I still haven’t figured out PK’s scheme either cus I’m probably not gonna leave it salmon) and at least a general arc plotted and the prologue fully planned.)
SO - I had a really shitty week all in all. But the last time I actually got a lot of work done with Phoenix Knight I had the foster kitten my brother brought home to bottle feed with me. We lost Porkchop to fading kitten syndrome at the beginning of the week. And I know it isn’t uncommon to lose bottle-babies that are that young, which is why I don’t like fostering but it still hurt even if it was always a possibility I acknowledged, ya know? And then I got really sick - like woulda been in for major surgery or died if I’d kept being stubborn and refusing to go to the doc sick. I’m still kinda getting over that but feel like a human today (mostly).
Between those two things weighing on me I think having a focus on the new-shiny details of building everything for the new project rather than filling in the scaffolding and ironing out the kinks (like with PK) will help me more right now.
So progress on Chapter 2 might be a bit slower. (Though, since I’ve been glaring at it and making a few sentence’s worth of progress for over a week so stepping back and letting it percolate and breathe might actually help.) But I am also going to take the time to sit down and organize my plans for it on paper (or an electronic equivalent thereof) instead of just in my head.
(And wow am I loving the parentheses as asides today.)
Right now the new WIP is titled “Code Name: Oracle” in my files but I’m planning on changing that once I get a better idea. I haven’t decided if I’m just going to change the name on this blog and use it for both projects or create a new devlog side blog for it.
You’ll play a detective that ends up with powers after being kidnapped and experimented on by a villain. Upon the discovery of said powers they are ‘promoted’ to the local superhero team as an investigator and liaison - not a field operative.
I have at least three RO’s semi-fleshed out with a fourth being played with. One of those routes is enemies-to-lovers with a “villain” who is more anti-hero than evil (oh, and it’s very important - they are not the kidnapping mad scientist), and you can choose to befriend or not outside of the romance route too.
The other two I’m sure of are heroes on the team.
(Although, everyone is currently missing names. And faces. Though I know their powers and some of their personalities already. ^^’’)
I’ve already found I do not have the patience for building and balancing actual skill stat systems so instead there will be three ‘Detective styles’ to set for your pre-kidnapping career which my notes have labeled as “Talker”, “Chaser”, and “Sherlock” if that gives you an idea of how it’ll form out. But I plan on having it so you can potentially change your approach style after the kidnapping, etcetera, to create a mismatch in the detective’s reputation and current approach as a result of experiences. The style won’t force you to take any path that you don’t want - if my plan works out - but it’ll affect the flavor text some.
And I know - detective with superpowers that involve visions and seer-like abilities isn’t that inventive or new or whatnot but it’s a trope I enjoy. I’m not aiming to be inventive or even all that creative with the new baby. (And, yes, I already had to talk myself out of throwing the whole concept out a window due to the fact that I know it’ll end up with similarities to more popular works.)
So. That’s it! Thanks for listening to my thoughts!
Almost nothing’s been done since finished the codex update.
I’ve been sick and haven’t felt like working on PK as a result. I’m still ridiculously tired from the meds I’m on cus of it so I probably won’t make any headway at all this next week either.
Especially when I keep distracting myself with a shiny new idea for another IF concept. o.o’ Trying to talk myself out of developing it but its a super hero one and it seems like it’d be a lot of fun.
Quick Update since I noticed that I got a lot of new followers today. ;)
I’m still chugging along at getting things fixed and working on Ch2. Unfortunately work has been crushing my soul and exhausting so I simply don’t have the brain power or spoons to get a LOT done quickly.
There are fixes that need to be done to chapter 1 still that got missed. (Examples include at least one bug in the muffins, and at least one instance where Riley’s pronouns are still feminine in the flashback when they shouldn’t be.) Those will probably end up waiting until I finish getting the codex set up.
I’m actually going to crash right now. G’night, y’all!
