What To Expect This Month:
1) An update to the MB demo with the rest of Chapter 7,
2) The release of Button and The Cupid Calamity,
3) Another interview with a MB cast member decided by poll (vote below!),
4) A new Mind Blind side story (featuring Glitch and K),
5) A new "Saucy Side" (featuring Rosy, who vehemently objected ...
2021-02-02 00:13:21 +0000 UTC View PostI found Lady Delphine in the gardens the next morning in accordance with her whispered invitation, though not before first unearthing every tidbit I could on the sorceress. Unfortunately, this amounted to a great deal of nothing.
Theo’s eyes had sparkled wickedly before he’d launched into a tall-tale about mages who bathed in the blood of girls recently turned fourteen. Father had har...
2021-02-01 18:55:14 +0000 UTC View PostDespite upping the demo length by 11k words to a total of 194,000 . . . it only adds around 1,000 words per playthrough.
Play here: https://dashingdon.com/play/wildelight/project-armadillo/mygame/
Like I said, it's a mini update. It's the part of Chapter 6 that g...
2021-01-31 20:52:51 +0000 UTC View PostThe mini-update will be in the cooker for another few hours, and released around 3pm PST. I added a bunch to Chapter 7 yesterday (the mini-update has an additional 2k words in variety), and am now combing over things to see that they all make sense.
Button's reaction to K can change based on how Button felt about (possibly) discovering that K was a Ment in Chapter 2. It's a lot of coding,...
2021-01-31 18:39:40 +0000 UTC View Post(Note: I was going to post this tomorrow, but I was too amused to wait. Thanks to everyone who asked questions! I tried to make sure at least one got brought up by everyone who asked.)
A spotlight shines on Nicholas Wiseman, wearing a sequined gold vest and a top hat cocked at a jaunty angle. He sits in one of two cushioned chairs on an otherwise empty stage. A microp...
2021-01-29 23:53:25 +0000 UTC View PostNext Patreon Mini-Update: January 31! In two days!
Mini-Update Length: 190k words, includes the first bit of Chapter 7.
New Playthrough Length: Around 50k
The next update is significantly smaller, but I wanted to make sure Patrons still have something new to enjoy when Chapter 6 goes live for everyone else (otherwise, I think ...
2021-01-29 23:11:39 +0000 UTC View PostOur world did not always have magic.
Magic was brought into existence by one Mr. Jasper Smocke on the night of October 18th, 1987, at approximately 7:02 pm, Greenwich Time, four miles outside the town of Palnackie in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland.
Mr. Smocke, you see, was indecisive.
Whilst standing at a crossroad that divided in not two but three directions, Mr....
2021-01-28 07:17:20 +0000 UTC View Post
I'm going through my old laptop and finding so much stuff that I'd almost forgotten writing!
This was written for a poetry assignment in college--I misunderstood the assignment and thought that our poem had to be the image of an hourglass, when in actuality it only needed to include imagery of an hourglass.
Whoops.
2021-01-28 07:12:41 +0000 UTC View PostBefore I became a teacher and realized that kids were way more fun to work with than adults because kids are still willing have pretend lightsaber battles, I spent a a year working HR (in Dublin, which was amazing, but still). A lot of my days were spent being bored out of my mind and chewing on pen tips, so I wrote short stories and poems that I would then save on the work computers under offi...
2021-01-27 22:59:59 +0000 UTC View PostFirst off, before reading this post, please make sure you've played Friday's demo update:
https://dashingdon.com/play/wildelight/project-armadillo/mygame/
No, seriously! You'll spoil a major twist for yourself if you read this post before playing Chapter 6. Don't worry. I'll wait...
2021-01-25 20:14:10 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 6 ended up being really long, so it's now Chapter 6 and 7! All of 6 is up today, and the first part of Chapter 7 will be available exclusively to Patrons on the 31st (when Chapter 6 is released publicly.)
Here's the link for those who really, really, REALLY can't wait (that is, people like me):
It's short and superficial, but you can now find out which Mind Blind character you're most similar to! (At least, according to a handful of random questions and my nonexistent psychology degree.)
Take the quiz here: https://uquiz.com/tPBDCI
2021-01-17 21:40:25 +0000 UTC View PostThanks to all your support on Patreon, I have time to write another IF Holiday ficlet! K and Grayson won the poll for the initial routes (I'll add other RO routes later, but they won't be done in time for Valentine's day). Now it's time to vote on which tropey goodness you want to see in the story.
Since it's a Valentine's Day fic, I plan on making it unabashedly cheesy and romantic...
2021-01-16 21:47:12 +0000 UTC View PostCurrent Word Count: 181k
Goal Word Count: 190k
Patreon Release Date: January 22nd (in a week!)
Writing has been going well! There's a lot of info that needs to be communicated in Chapter 6, and info dumps always make me a little nervous. But overall, I'm pretty pleased with what I have down. Of course, knowing me, I'll do a la...
2021-01-15 23:56:45 +0000 UTC View Post“I’m not the mind reader in my family. That would be Nick, and he’s tragically indisposed.” I overexaggerate my shrug. “What are you trying to hint at?”
“Brilliant deduction, Watson. All we need now is a clown and two emus, and we’ll have the entire circus.”
“Why emus?” Sally asks.
You gaze at her seriously. “Why not emus?”
<...
2021-01-15 18:15:25 +0000 UTC View Post“Consequence?” My voice emerged an embarrassingly high squeak. Did Lady Delphine know about my constant rebirths? Magic was certainly involved. If anyone could discover the secret behind my cycle of deaths, it would be the Court Sorceress. And if she knew why I kept repeating my life, perhaps she could help me prevent the current one from ending.
“A consequence of what, pre...
2021-01-14 23:52:41 +0000 UTC View PostIntroducing Reginald (Reggie) Beenhouwer
Shaggy brown hair, intimidating size, and copious amounts of facial hair (but only during the full moon).
Your landlord and natural predator, Reggie is a champion of the Supernatural Self-Acceptance Movement, a great cause which you usually support. Alas, the distinction between freedom fighter and indiscriminate can...
2021-01-12 05:01:20 +0000 UTC View PostThere aren't enough exclamation marks in the world to express my gratitude for hitting my second goal! Your support has really blown me away. I'm still in shock, but the good kind of shock that involves lots of blinking and happily repeating the phrase "I have the best readers" (so much so that my family has begun joking that I sound like a broken record--but it's true!).
I've officially ...
2021-01-11 20:35:13 +0000 UTC View Post"Of all the jerkface deceptions. Rosy Kim, I do believe I might be falling in love with you."
-Button (potentially)
I'm currently working on Rosy's route in Chapter 6 and may be enjoying it a bit too much. Curmudgeon teacher is a lot of fun to write, what can I say? In this upcoming chapter, people paying attention to affection meters may...
2021-01-08 22:53:26 +0000 UTC View PostRegency Period Romance
Featuring: Gray, Nick, and Female Button
Grayson Black was not a rake.
This was, many of the ton considered, a regretful flaw in the Earl of Wacker’s otherwise enticing personage. Reformed rakes were of course known to make the best ...
2021-01-05 22:24:30 +0000 UTC View PostSubtitle: Insults which Glitch has, on multiple occasions, hurled at K when both were drunk
You illogical corn cobbler
You illegitimate moldy shroom
You browbeaten weathervane
You mangled straw-dashed broom
You waterlogged, pockmarked crumpet
You g...
That's right, everyone's favorite(?) jerk teacher has dominated the poll, despite Nick-Nack's valiant effort and Glitch's sulky pouts.
Please address all questions to Ambrose/Ambrosia via the Sanctum of Spoilers Discord, on the mb-interview channel. (If you don't have discord, you can leave a comment on this post, but discord is better at notifying me so that I can write the questions do...
I can't believe I met my first goal! I feel honored by your support (which sounds super formal and stiff, but I am honored--there's no better way to describe the warm, awed, squishy-happy buzz that you all have given me).
Because I met the first goal, I'll use one of the extra days that I can take off to work on a holiday story (either Valentine's or St. Patrick's Day). This story w...
Regency Period Romance (oh my!)
Featuring: Kent and Button
Kent Zarneki was not a gentleman.
Polite Society determined a gentleman by two things: wealth and ancestry. And though Kent possessed the first in abundance, as the son of Polish immigrants, he was decidedly lacking in the latter. He was, thus, widely considered by the
Regency Period Romance (oh my!)
Featuring: Kenna and Button
Kenna Zarneki was not a lady.
Polite Society determined a lady by two things: her dowry and her ancestry. Kenna, as the daughter of Polish immigrants, lacked the latter and, as a “widow” whose husband no ...
2021-01-02 03:33:35 +0000 UTC View PostHere, you can vote on which character from Mind Blind gets to be interviewed in an end-of-the-month post. (Questions can be asked via the Sanctum of Spoilers discord!)
For this month, Gray and K are being left off the poll since they already have short stories written about them, and I want to make sure all the ROs and characters get some love <3
(Also, I guarantee that peo...
2021-01-01 21:24:30 +0000 UTC View Post
I jot down story ideas in the notepad app of my phone whenever inspiration strikes. I recently found my original notes for the story that became Mind Blind--where Sally was the main character and Nick her romantic hero. A lot of things have changed since that original idea, and the format becoming interactive fiction is just the tip of the iceberg!
2021-01-01 20:47:13 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Two:
It was my fourteenth birthday. Again.
I touched the nape of my neck, shuddering as I recalled the sharp kiss of metal and the hiss of its descent. My hair fell in loose waves past my shoulders. Another three years wasted, trying to survive past age seventeen. This last life, I’d truly believed that I would be able to marry Lore...
2021-01-01 20:42:19 +0000 UTC View PostChapter One:
The girl in the neighboring cell pressed her face against the bars, her nose intruding into my own cramped enclosure as to sniff out secrets.
The dungeon’s lone glowstone lantern was cheaply enchanted, its bluish light pale and flickering, but illuminated enough for me to make out her disheveled curls and stained apron. A servant in the castle a...
2021-01-01 20:40:03 +0000 UTC View PostSo many firsts today! It's exciting!
Here's the first Patreon peek at Delivery for the Damned, my next interactive fiction project after Mind Blind. I usually work on one major project at a time (right now: Mind Blind), while the seeds of my next project begin to coalesce.
In Delivery, you'll play as a delivery person to assorted villains in dange...
2021-01-01 20:33:06 +0000 UTC View Post