The Cost of Treatment
When Lori woke up, her initial confusion and almost panic at waking up in a strange place was detoured by the fact she no longer hurt.
Bewildered, she raised her right arm. The bandage was gone, and there was only unmarred skin on her forearm. How…?
That's when she realized she wasn't inside her demesne.
Lori jer...
2021-07-17 17:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostThough the woman deserved it, Lori had initially been glad when Shanalorre had finally healed whatever-her-name's leg, so she didn't have to listen to the piteous moaning, crying, sobbing, wincing, hissing and groaning anymore. After that, Shanalorre had stepped out with Lord Yllian, ostensibly to consider things, leaving Lori and the woman, her husband and a whole bunch of militia alone in her...
2021-07-15 17:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostRiver's Fork was different from how she'd left it last time. For one, there was a lot more traditional carpentry construction visible, rather than just buildings made from Deadspeaking. There were more people bustling about as well, carrying things. The dining hall that had just been completed when they'd last been there was full and had seemingly been expanded, with benched and some sort of co...
2021-07-13 17:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Lori woke up, her initial confusion and almost panic at waking up in a strange place was detoured by the fact she no longer hurt.
Bewildered, she raised her right arm. The bandage was gone, and there was only unmarred skin on her forearm. How…?
That's when she realized she wasn't inside her demesne.
Lori jerked up to a sitting position, looking around. She was ...
2021-07-11 17:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostThe shadows lengthen in Manila
The dream was always the same.
The dream was always different.
Sometimes he was running, two or four or six or eight or ten powerful legs beneath him pounding the ground in rhythm. Sometimes he ran through an empty plain, along an endless beach, up a rocky mountain path, down empty...
2021-07-11 00:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostLori Goes To The Hospital
It was, by Lori estimation, more than a taum and a half away from the center of the demesne in a straight line, through uneven terrain and thick foliage. It was a long walk, made longer by the fact her legs throbbed, her side hurt, and her arm was bleeding. That latter she was able to restrain by binding the wisps to stay in her veins, w...
2021-07-10 17:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Lori woke up, her initial confusion and almost panic at waking up in a strange place was detoured by the fact she hurt. Her right side throbbed and felt stiff, as if solidifying, and her right forearm… it didn't throb, it had been dipped in molten wax and someone had opened her veins to push that wax into her veins. It pulsed, keeping time like a painful heartbeat, and the banda...
2021-07-08 17:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostTrying to manipulate the wisps in one's body aftera painful surgical operation had begun was an agonizing experience Lori never wanted to repeat again. It also revealed how little she actually knew about the interactions of lightningwisps and her body. The first painful lesson was that the ones that let her move her arm were distinct from the ones that let her feel he...
2021-07-06 17:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostIt was, by Lori estimation, more than a taum and a half away from the center of the demesne in a straight line, through uneven terrain and thick foliage. It was a long walk, made longer by the fact her legs throbbed, her side hurt, and her arm was bleeding. That latter she was able to restrain by binding the wisps to stay in her veins, which was basic Whisperer medicinal magic, but it still hur...
2021-07-04 17:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe House With Pink In Its Walls, Part 10
In his hand, the pink stone, with its sharp geometries and strange glow, began to vibrate. "You can talk?" The voice was small and panicky.
"Obviously," he said. "Can you please stop trying to eat us now? That you're doing is cannibalism." A thought occurred to him. "Wait, is THAT what you did to m...
2021-07-04 00:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe Laundry Area, Revised
"This is a laundry area?" Mikon said, looking around and seeming nervous and a bit confused. Her pink hair whipped about in the wind, longer than Lolilyuri thought was sensible, but then not everyone was as reasonable and intelligent as she was. And as soon as she could borrow some scissors again, her hair will reflect her reason and int...
2021-07-03 17:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostLori walked into the unknown, armed with nothing but her map, her wits and her will, boldly going where no one had gone before, exploring the furthest reaches of the unknown!
"Put your clothes on properly and go do something productive," she said sternly to the two who been in the midst of… well. "And if I catch you two doing this again, I'm flogging you both. And take a bath!" At least...
2021-07-01 17:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostLori hummed to herself as she laid out the map on the table while waiting for Rian to come back with breakfast. She had to admit, whoever had made this map had done good work. She recognized the bends in the river from the times she'd and Rian had needed to go to River's Fork, and could even point to the spot where the children liked to go seeling. With the map in front of her, she was able to ...
2021-06-29 17:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post"This is a laundry area?" Mikon said, looking around and seeming nervous and a bit confused. Her pink hair whipped about in the wind, longer than Lolilyuri thought was sensible, but then not everyone was as reasonable and intelligent as she was. And as soon as she could borrow some scissors again, her hair will reflect her reason and intelligence.
"That is the intention," Lori said. "As a...
2021-06-27 17:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostShana left the comforting abyss of empty, thoughtless sleep, and everything hurt all over again. Tota was dead. Tyatya was dead. Dyadya resented her, and was angry all the time. Mushka had grown cold and distant, and wouldn't let Yoshka play with her anymore. She was alone…
She lay curled up in bed, fighting back tears and taking deep, deliberate breaths as her hands shook. With each br...
2021-06-27 03:50:42 +0000 UTC View PostThe House With Pink In Its Walls, Part 9
It felt good to fuck the square-cube law.
His wings flapped at a rate too fast for him to put a number to, but it was probably in the neighborhood of 'too-bullshit-fast' per second as he flew at the Blood Bug, a knife-like serrated tooth rapidly growing behind his wrist to extend over his h...
2021-06-27 00:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostPriorities in Construction
The next day, Lori began excavating the mushroom farm.
She seemed to be doing a lot of excavating lately. Which, in hindsight, should have been obvious– most dungeon's, with rare exceptions like Treeshade Demesne and Skykeep Demesne, were underground– but she hadn't realized she'd be doing all the actual digging. Shou...
2021-06-26 17:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostLori had decided to take her lord's advice. Both pieces of it, really, but one after the other. First, she'd build a dedicated laundry area that would use the runoff water, since she could always build something for a water wheel later. Then, tomorrow, she'd go check the accuracy of the new map, which was now securely locked in her room.
So, after a good, hearty breakfast– actual amount...
2021-06-24 17:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThere might not be a Demesne side story short this month, as I'm blanking for a good worldbuilding idea that isn't too spoilery. Anything you guys want to read about that I can try?
2021-06-23 07:34:56 +0000 UTC View PostLori tried to make the best of things while she built the shoddy, stupid, inelegant, awkward aqueduct that future generations will probably hate or use for tourism purposes, and will be equally inconvenient in either case. It was simply enough, in regards to construction. The stone pillar in the river was anchored to the bedrock, and had a hollow tube where waterwisps drew water up to the aqued...
2021-06-22 17:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostThe next day, Lori began excavating the mushroom farm.
She seemed to be doing a lot of excavating lately. Which, in hindsight, should have been obvious—most Dungeons, with rare exceptions like Treeshade Demesne and Skykeep Demesne, were underground—but she hadn't realized she'd be doing all the actual digging. Shouldn't she have minions and underlings doing this for her, swor...
2021-06-20 17:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe House With Pink In Its Walls, Part 8
Sanny threw himself into the hole the two girls fell into.
The first sign this might not have been a good idea was the hole going from thirty feet wide when he was above it, and the size of a fieldwhen he was in it. That did not pair well with the fact that even when it had been thirty feet wide, he...
2021-06-20 00:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostMinions Need Maintenance
Lori didn't even have time to bask in her victory against Rian in their game (yes! She won! She won, she won, she won! Ha!). The sore loser (she won!) had immediately run off to hide his shame at her victory and had gotten everyone to settle down for the meeting. One of the tables had been moved to the far wall, which Lori supposed was wh...
2021-06-19 17:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post"Well, I think that went nicely," Rian said happily as he carried his various planks and rocks with notes on it down to one of the alcoves she'd made in the new level while people put the dining hall back to the way it usually was and people got started cooking lunch. So close to midday, with not enough time to get any substantive work done, people were taking a cue from the children and restin...
2021-06-17 17:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostThere was a restlessness in the air as Rian finally got people to pay attention to the next item in whatever unknown list he was working through. Lori ignored the looks people were giving her as she sat back town and went back to being disinterested, even as she enviously eyed the children who could at least play games during this boring, pointless meeting.
"All right," Rian said, soundin...
2021-06-15 17:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostLori didn't even have time to bask in her victory against Rian in their game (yes! She won! She won, she won, she won! Ha!). The sore loser (she won!) had immediately run off to hide his shame at her victory and had gotten everyone to settle down for the meeting. One of the tables had been moved to the far wall, which Lori supposed was where Rian would put his notes and sit.
The meeting s...
2021-06-13 17:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe House With Pink In Its Walls, Part 7
"This feels rushed. This feels very rushed. This is going to go badly," Tammy said to him through the little offshoot he'd left with her. it was nestled somewhere in her branches, a little ball of shell that was basically full of ear, lungs and vocal chords for him to talk back to her with. As the one who was most mobile b...
2021-06-13 00:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostWork and Play
The game was childishly simple, once explained. The players picked up stones and dropped them one at a time into each bowl spinwise, with added rules about if they could keep doing so or had to stop, and whether they could claims stones on the paired bowl opposite. Each player owned one of the bowls on the ends of the board, and whoever had the most stones in their bowl when...
2021-06-12 17:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostLolilyuri studiously ignored Rian as she considered her next move, the game before her taking up all her attention. This time she would be victorious!
"So, has she won against you yet?" Rian asked her opponent.
The brat shook her head, eating lunch from her bowl. She sat patiently as Lori studied the board, considering every possibility.
Finally, Rian sighed. "Lori, it's sunk,...
2021-06-10 17:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostIt wasn't long before more game boards started appearing on the other tables, cut from scraps of plank. With the building being done on the new houses, there were apparently a lot of scraps to work with. Some were copies of the sunk board, but most were the familiar grids of chatrang, lima, pincer, and even Iskadaliya's Conquest, or simply conquest. The pieces were simple, made of circular bits...
2021-06-08 17:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post