#savvygames

[savvyminnow]

Tag Game: Nine Lines.

Thank you for the tag, @tragicheirs! Here's a snippet from my first book of the soldier Zara missing her home.

Zara longed to see her cousins again, to hug Mosi, Tunu, and Pendo and sneak off to mischief with them. She wanted to celebrate the Feast of Breaking Clouds, to dance during the first rain of the season with whorls of sunthread trailing from her wrists and ankles. The men would play the drums while the women kicked up dust that quickly turned to splashing mud, until they were soaked and laughing. She missed the quiet days spent weaving and cooking with her mama, learning the secret techniques passed from mother to daughter since the mbenu tree had been a sapling: how to fold this bread, how to mix this spice, how to find and crush this root to dye cloth.

Zara wanted to go home – if not to Nganse, then to her family.

She knew she would not be accepted unless she killed Senmau, but perhaps, if this mission did end the war, it would be enough. The Noble Elder would recognize her effort and make an exception, though she hadn’t fulfilled her vow. Surely stopping the Nemesi forever, protecting her people and restoring their land, would be more worthy atonement than killing one commander? But a sacred oath before the Sun could not be undone.

Tagging @chauceryfairytales @your-reluctant-optimist @leahnardo-da-veggie and open tag (including those below)

Glass Lament writing taglist: @enchanted-lightning-aes @sodaliteskull @vyuntspakhkite-writes @thetruearchmagos @moonrabbitwriter @traderotales

[savvyminnow]

Out-Of-Context Line Tag

Thank you for the tag, @sodaliteskull! Here’s a line from my first book.

“Oi!” Zara shouted. “You with the, er, teeth! And the rock!” The fleeing figure put on a panicked burst of speed.

Tagging @tragicheirs @enchanted-lightning-aes @write-with-will @aalinaaaaaa @your-reluctant-optimist and open tag!

[savvyminnow]

Writing Share Tag!

Thank you for the tag, @sodaliteskull! (Link to their post here.)

Here's a prequel scene I'm working on in which Saméol meets his nemesis: the Golden Pheasant, armored leader of the Retjevu. While Saméol is half-human and half-Dracai'seng, the Pheasant is a full-blooded Dracai'seng – and Saméol, at 7'2" (218 cm) tall, is for once intimidated to see someone else his size. Because he is a newcomer the Pheasant has invited him to figure out if she should kill him or not.

The Pheasant’s mask tipped in appraisal. Saméol must have looked as lowly as an insect, underfed and plain before her radiance, but she spread an arm toward the table. “Join me.”

His eye darted to Lophorina, observing near the door. “I would be honored.”

The Pheasant took her seat, stiff-backed, in perfect symmetry, while Saméol sat opposite her, his legs stretching out to one side with ankles crossed. Her guard closed rank, a barricade of armored backs between them and the rest of the room. They let through one cringing servant in bright parrot-green who bowed until his hair nearly caught the candle flame. “My Sheltering Wings, what would please you today?”

The Pheasant clasped her gauntleted hands on the table and flicked a talon at Saméol. “It would please me if you attended to our new friend first.”

What was she scheming? “Thank you for your generosity," Saméol said with a regretful smile, "but I’m afraid I'm not hungry–”

“No.” How he wished he could read her body language, but the Pheasant remained sculpture-still, such that he couldn’t detect her breathing. “I insist you eat. I so rarely get to share a meal with a fellow Dracai’seng.”

Yes, and what happened to the others before me? Saméol met the hidden eyes coolly. If she meant to test him then he could push back and, if not gain her respect, at least learn how she reacted. What have I to lose? “As you will it.” He turned to the servant. “I will enjoy whatever The Highest Wind does. I'm still exploring the local cuisine and I’m sure her taste is unmatched.”

From her direction he caught the most minute shift. Surprise? Annoyance? But the rumbling voice betrayed neither. “Though I appreciate your certainty, my palate tends to be rather… inhuman. Perhaps you can relate. In fact, I find this is an excellent opportunity for us to celebrate our heritage together.” With a plunging stomach, Saméol realized his mistake a moment before she said, “We will each have a karkadann rib. Raw.”

Tagging @chauceryfairytales @crimsonfogg @enchanted-lightning-aes @leahnardo-da-veggie and open tag!

[savvyminnow]

Last Line Tag

Thank you for the tag, @starwright! Today I’ve been working on a myth recounted by my character Zara about her people’s gods. Here’s the last line I wrote:

The Red Moon answered, “I tend to my own flock.”

Then Taji turned his eye on his second daughter, the Green Moon, and to her he said, “Heed me, child. Your sister is reckless and arrogant; she means to destroy what we love.”

Tagging @thetruearchmagos @tragicheirs @crimsonfogg @enchanted-lightning-aes @sodaliteskull @vyuntspakhkite-writes and open tag! (Sorry if you’ve already been tagged lol)

[savvyminnow]

Out of Context Tag

Thanks for the tag, @thegoddesswater! The context for this snippet is an enormous spoiler from late in The Glass Lament story, so I’ll have to leave readers wondering about it for a while.

This is not me, Liriloc cried at the luminous silence. These are not my limbs, my eyes, my lungs. Give back my body, in all its stumbling frailty, for this one cannot walk as I did. It cannot love as I did.

Tagging @leahnardo-da-veggie @kaatiba @your-reluctant-optimist @starwright @memento-morri-writes @starwright @vyuntspakhkite-writes and open tag! (I feel like everyone I’ve seen has done this game multiple times recently, so no pressure if you did already 😅)

[savvyminnow]

Nine Lines Tag

Thank you for the tags, @traderotales and @leahnardo-da-veggie! At least I think you both tagged me – it's been a while 😅

Here are nine lines describing the Magpie in the sequel to The Glass Lament.

Cinders rolled over the courtyard, and from this cloud emerged a face white as a barn owl's – a long taper at once lovely and harsh, male and female and neither. It seemed to float, portrait-still, above the billowing of a cloak. As the face glided near Nyela saw that its right half had been scored by deep claw marks. One eye sagged, lifeless, and the thin lips twisted into a furrow at their corner. The Magpie stopped before her. He leaned down, gaze unreadable. With defiant wonder Nyela met his eye, blue as ever between an elegantly arching brow and a hollow scarp of cheekbone. Silver hair swept to his nape in waves. He looked to her like the cold, regal reflection of someone else: a winter Liriloc.

(The comparison to the usually warm character Liriloc, aka Jakobi, is quite significant here. A couple of you might know why...)

Tagging @aalinaaaaaa @your-reluctant-optimist @did-i-do-this-write @forthesanityofstorytellers @space-writes and of course open tag!

The Glass Lament Taglist: @enchanted-lightning-aes @sodaliteskull @vyuntspakhkite-writes @thetruearchmagos @moonrabbitwriter @traderotales

[savvyminnow]

Five Things tag

Thanks for the tags, @winterandwords and @willtheweaver!

I've done this one for both the current WIPs in my series, but here's five different things you can expect to see in The Glass Lament:

finding one's home and what that means

a revenge plot gone wrong... or maybe right?

weird creative swearing

moon's haunted haunting someone

a secret mission that may or may not be doomed from the start

Tagging @chauceryfairytales @sodaliteskull @toribookworm22 @nightwriter-flights-of-fancy @leahnardo-da-veggie and open tag!

[savvyminnow]

Situation Alert!

Waterpark AU! Thank you for this fun tag @starwright! One must imagine Sisyphus The Glass Lament ocs happy. I'm gonna go through a lot bc everyone is there! (Except Kovamyr, for a few reasons, but the other villains are welcome.)

At the park Jakobi spends all his time on the lazy river. He's still got plant magic so he uses vines to attach himself to the inner tube and floats peacefully for hours, away from everyone else's noise. Plus he's a Dracai'seng so he can't get sunburned.

Zara can't swim well but she likes the area with sprinklers because it reminds her of being in the rain. She also hangs out at the concessions, which is run by Thadmoore, where she tells stories to anyone who's interested while they eat. She keeps pestering Thadmoore about why the food is so crappy.

In my actual series Taesh grew up among icy hills and sometimes dreamed of sliding down them but wasn't allowed to. So in the waterpark he's going down the slides over, and over, and over, and–

In the AU Saméol and Rusef and some of their friends have children. There's a pack of kids wreaking havoc in the main pool and Saméol is terrorizing them, playing sharks and minnows or spraying them with water guns.

Rusef and the Golden Pheasant are both tanning, but they're still professional haters and so are on opposite sides of the main pool. Sometimes Saméol will stagger out and curl up against Rusef, soaking wet, until Aesaloru grabs him by the ankle and drags him back in as a sacrifice to the children.

The Pheasant is not armored here but she's still fully clothed while tanning. Why? Beats me. But at least she can’t get heatstroke.

Finally Nyela, Senmau, and others are playing water volleyball or something like it. The usually quiet Nyela is getting rowdy and competitive. At one point Weaver has an odd request: could they, uh, try throwing her like a ball? She's a small bekk, and while she hates to be patronized or treated like basically a cute stuffed animal by humans... well, it does look fun.

So they do. And she's embarrassed to admit that she enjoys Being a Ball.

Oh, and Garceta is yelling at everyone to wear sunscreen and passing it out to fellow humans who need it.

Tagging @vyuntspakhkite-writes @leahnardo-da-veggie @did-i-do-this-write @enchanted-lightning-aes and open tag!