#serialephemera

[kmlaney]

Spotify Wrapped, Prime sampler: 17, 41, 43!

17 is Hurry Up and Wait by the Ben Miller Band. This one has a strong beat, fun percussion, and generally interesting stuff in the rhythm section. Vibe fits for my Bad Luck Phil playlist.

41 is Bottom of the Lake by The Builders and The Butchers. This one I really like the vocalist and the lyrics. Also from Bad Luck Phil playlist, though more at a general Mistlands vibe.

43 is On the Road by Me And That Man. Ok so by not-really chance all of these are on Bad Luck Phil's playlist. This one got theses from lyrics, good beat, and distorted guitar.

[orime-stories]

Writing game: post the last line that you wrote and tag someone for every word in the line.

Tagged by @anneapocalypse and @starswornoaths, thank you! <3

Aurelle's lips pursed. "I want better for you than this." "I appreciate that someone does," Erichthonios answered with a wry smile and pained eyes.

Included the line before as well this time just for a more satisfying sense of context. But the last line itself being fourteen words I shall now attempt to tag fourteen people!

@adozentothedawn @adraveins @ampleappleamble @calico-heart @dragonologist-phd

@kootiepatra @mamesuke @risualto @sayonaramidnight @serenbach86

@serialephemera @starlightcleric @sunderedazem @yloiseconeillants

[knamil]

Shuffle your on-repeat playlist, post 10 songs, tag 10 people.

Tagged by @clevermird. Thank you!

I tag @kodrevas @serialephemera and anyone who wants to post their playlist because I hoard playlists like a goblin.

I won't make a poll because I'm lazy

White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane

Judith - A Perfect Circle

Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood - Nina Simone

Come Together - The Beatles

Bottom of the Deep Blue Sea - MISSIO

The Summoning - Sleep Token

Beast - Nico Vega

Haunted - Poe

Get Some - Lykke Li

The Wolf - SIAMES

Honorable mention to Streets of Detroit by SQÜRL which came up fourth or something but is only 35 seconds long so I went to the next one. I want to make a comic based on how that 35 seconds feels.

[brightephemera]

By the way, the archive of my fanfiction and original fiction work is over with @serialephemera.

[cobaltash]

Lynesse Deara ~ Half Elf ~ Bard

Lynesse belongs to @serialephemera ! Thank you for playing!

[author-a-holmes]

Find The Word Tag Game

Thank you @oh-no-another-idea for the Tag!

Tagging forward, with no pressure, to: @wordsacrossemptypages @amewinterswriting @talesofsorrowandofruin @talesfromaurea @blind-the-winds @faelanvance @ambiguouspuzuma @sleepyowlwrites @authoralexharvey @ashen-crest and @serialephemera -- Also OPEN TAG to anyone who wants to play.

Your Words Are: Wet, Cold, Grey/Gray, Broken, and Tired.

***

My words were Frost, Dust, Burst, and West. I only had 2 of these in Changeling, and only 1 in Darkling, so I've gone back in time a little and done a "Find The Word" tag game for Stolen.

Stella, my beloved, I have missed you...

Taglist for Stolen: @josephinegerardywrite @strangerays @minamoroz @sleepyowlwrites General Taglist: @noirepersonal @queen-kass-the-writer @athenswrites @bardic-tales @outpost51 @talesfromaurea @minamoroz @faelanvance

Frost Ice (No frost, only ice)

Stella watched a whirlwind of emotions swirl their way across Indre's features at Nilions words. A splash of confusion, a dash of anger, and a wisp of fear. Frustration, annoyance, nervousness, determination, all vying for a place within her eyes, before she tightened her shoulders and the emotions vanished behind the kind of mask that Stella had seen soldiers wear hundreds of times.

"Then if you're heading for the basement, you'd best be on your way, girl," Indre ordered, a bite of ice in her tone that had Stella backing up another step in spite of herself.

Dust

If she hadn’t already known that the building was a base for a guild, the moment that her booted feet sank into a thick plush carpet would have told Stella something wasn’t right.

No dust rose around her as she stepped across the room, and the bed in the corner had fresh sheets. She paused at the door, listening intently for any movement on the other side, and when all she could make out was silence, Stella slipped out of the room and into a wide hallway with various doors scattered along both sides and a flight of stairs at the far end.

Burst

"Time to call the mother hen, then," he grumbled, "get Dara's fussing out of the way sooner rather than later."

"Honestly, you could do with some mother henning," Stella teased, "you look like shit."

He gaped at her for a moment in surprise, until she burst into delighted giggles, and he took a single self indulgent moment to just watch the blonde laugh before he forced a scowl on to his face, despite the ache it sent through his cuts and bruises.

"Thank you, Stella, you really know how to stroke a mans ego," he growled, sending her into fresh peals of laughter as he shook his head...

West

There was a flicker of recognition in his expression before his features settled back into stoic indifference, and Stella snatched her hands away and took a step back, stuttering an apology.

"Ah, you're Reilly's newest project," the elf said, leaning his shoulder against the doorframe, and crossing his arms as he studied her, "I thought he'd have you shut up inside a glass box, protected from even the mere mention of 'Vine'."

[pers-books]

[ID Tweet by serialephemera:

Thematically speaking, the most important thing Terry Pratchett taught me was the concept of militant decency. The idea that you can look at the world and its flaws and its injustices and its cruelties and get deeply, intensely angry, and that you can turn that into energy for doing the right thing and making the world a better place. He taught me that the anger itself is not the part I should be fighting. Nobody in my life ever said that before.]

Terry Pratchett was the fucking best!

[kmlaney]

@serialephemera

Here's THE masterpost of free and full adaptations, by which I mean that it's a post made by the master.

Anthony and Cleopatra: here's the BBC version

As you like it: you'll find here an outdoor stage adaptation and here the BBC version

Coriolanus: Here's a college play, here's the 1984 telefilm, here's the 2014 one with tom hiddleston

Hamlet: The Kenneth Branagh 1996 Hamlet is here, the 1964 russian version is here and the 1964 american version is here. THe 1964 Broadway production is here, the 1948 Laurence Olivier one is here. And the 1980 version is here. Here are part 1 and 2 of the 1990 BBC adaptation. Have the 2018 Almeida version here.

Henry IV: part 1 and part 2 of the BBC 1989 version. And here's part 1 of a corwall school version.

Henry V: Laurence Olivier (who would have guessed) 1944 version. The 1989 Branagh version here. The BBC version is here.

Julius Caesar: here's the 1979 BBC adaptation, here the 1970 John Gielgud one.

King Lear: Laurence Olivier once again plays in here. And Gregory Kozintsev, who was I think in charge of the russian hamlet, has a king lear here. The 1975 BBC version is here. The Royal Shakespeare Compagny's 2008 version is here. The 1974 version with James Earl Jones is here.

Macbeth: here's the 1961 one with Sean Connery. Here's the 1971 by Roman Polanski, with spanish subtitles. Here's the 1948 www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljZrf_0_CcQ">here. The 1988 BBC onee with portugese subtitles and here the 2001 one). The 1969 radio one with Ian McKellen and Judi Dench is here and the 1966 BBC version is here. The Royal Shakespeare Compagny's 2008 version is here.

Measure for Measure: BBC version here.

The Merchant of Venice: here's a stage version, here's the 1980 movie, here the 1973 Lawrence Olivier movie, here's the 2004 movie.

The Merry Wives of Windsor: the Royal Shakespeare Compagny gives you this movie.

A Midsummer Night's Dream: have this sponsored by the City of Columbia, and here the BBC version.

Much Ado About Nothing: Here is the kenneth branagh version and here the Tennant and Tate 2011 version. Here's the 1984 version.

Othello: A Massachussets Performance here, the 2001 movie her is the Orson Wells movie with portuguese subtitles theree, and a fifteen minutes long lego adaptation here. THen if you want more good ole reliable you've got the BBC version here and there.

Richard II: here is the BBC version

Richard III: here's the 1955 one with Laurence Olivier, and here's the 1995 one with Ian McKellen. (the 1995 one is in english subtitled in spanish. the 1955 one has no subtitles and might have ads since it's on youtube)

Romeo and Juliet: here's the 1988 BBC version.

The Taming of the Shrew: the 1988 BBC version here, the 1929 version here, some Ontario stuff here and here is the 1967 one with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.

The Tempest: the 1979 one is here, the 2010 is here. Here is the 1988 one.

Timon of Athens: here is the 1981 movie with Jonathan Pryce,

Troilus and Cressida can be found here

Titus Andronicus: the 1999 movie with Anthony Hopkins here

Twelfth night: here for the BBC, herefor the 1970 version with Alec Guinness, Joan Plowright and Ralph Richardson.

The Winter's Tale: the BBC version is here

Please do contribute if you find more. This is far from exhaustive.

(also look up the original post from time to time for more plays)

[kmlaney]

Shuffle your on-repeat playlist, post 10 songs, tag 10 people.

hoo boy this is all over. I have themed playlists, but I don't stick to one, and I'm bouncing between playing in a D&D game and preparing to run Deadlands Night Train for Halloween.

tagging @serialephemera @transman-badass @depizan @waywardwizzard @knamil @kodrevas @figjelly

and anyone else who wants to!

no obligation of course

[orime-stories]

Writing game: post the last line that you wrote and tag someone for every word in the line

Presented without any context at all because it cracked me up so hard when I realised that my answer to this is;

"All tiny zombie ears."

And I guess with that I've to tag just four people then, lol. How about @anneapocalypse, @calico-heart, @sayonaramidnight and @serialephemera for if yous have anything you're comfy sharing!

Was tagged myself by @dragonologist-phd, thank you! <3

[springacres]

@stylishanachronism tagged me in the last line meme, so... here. This is also not the last line I wrote, but it is the most recent fiction piece I worked on, so it should count.

In every society, there are those who believe they're above the law.  They believe no one can touch them, that laws are for other people, and many of them seem to believe they are even above the gods.  When they pay attention to those like Moingril, it's - at best - to show contempt.  More often, it's in order to punish those who have crossed some line or other, or just to make others fear to cross any line.

Moingril doesn't remember exactly what provoked the attack that cost her her home and family, but she does recall that that night changed the course of her life.  There had been unrest in the streets, something to do with a food shortage, perhaps?  In any case, when the local lord came to investigate, her family had hoped things might settle down.  Instead.... the ruler's troops torched the entire town.

Moingril was furious.  She appealed to the lord, but was summarily kicked out of his estate.  The Duke was similarly dismissive.  The king refused even to admit her petition.  So Moingril began to exercise her own form of justice.

Soon, the old lord's soldiers began to disappear.  The first to turn up dead was a knight, one of the leaders of the assault on Moingril's town.  Next came a charioteer; someone remembered him cheating one of their neighbors.  Slowly but surely, Moingril has been working her way through the ranks, honing her craft while staying as hidden as possible.  The rich and powerful aren't the only ones with allies, and they can't hide forever.

(To my fellow Pillars of Eternity players, I swear I wasn't intentionally channeling the Devil of Caroc here. I didn't even realize the parallels until after I'd entered it for a contest!)

This has way more words than I have followers, but... @serialephemera @artemisagapetos @quenthel I’d love to see some of you guys’ writing!  And of course, if anyone else wants to share, feel free :)

[lesabear]

To say I haven't written much lately would be an understatement but here goes!

He heard a snort from behind him. "Might be that they called him that because he was a fucking black dragon. Gods save us, because you lot certainly won't."

No way I can tag that many people (and Clevermird stole some!) so let's go with @lavampira, @serialephemera, @depizan, @badsithnocookie

WIP Game

RULES: Post the last sentence you wrote (fanfic / original / anything) and tag as many people as there are words in the sentence.

I was tagged by @randomfoggytiger. Thanks!

My dreams are larger now.

Tagging @nobodysuspectsthebutterfly @storybycorey @weshallflyaway @baronessblixen @ladytp

[brightephemera]

tag test

[adozentothedawn]

This is actually serialephemera but I can't change my prime blog. Anyway! Top five RPGs, or ten if you want!

That's actually actually both hard and easy, because despite me acting like I know everything about everything, I haven't played all that many. By which I mean I only played pillars and Kingmaker.^^° Or at least these are the only isometric rpgs. I’m not entirely sure what counts as an rpg. But I know these technically do.

Ask is here if you’d like to join.^^

5. Pathfinder: Kingmaker (I did like playing it,  and there were some parts tha tI truly loved, but in comparison to all the other games on this list it also me the angriest. Might also have something to with the almost 500 hours I played it though. Gives a lot more time to be annoyed than with most other games.)

4. Kingdom Hearts (Yes I do mean the whole series because I’ve played them all and I can’t choose. In all honesty 2.5 is probably objectively the best, but I do have some nostalgia for DDD and 358/2 as the first ones I played and saw. 3 is... a thing I’m arguing abozr with myself. On the one hand I’m super dissapointed. On the other hand there are really cool things, and it was always clear there would be a 3.5. Still, the pacing sucks ass, Kairi was done dirty again, as were most others, and that DLC was fucking joke. The game is very pretty though and gameplay is fun, I’ll give them that.)

3. Fire Emblem Awakening/Fire Emblem 3 Houses (I can’t choose. I like them both for very different reasons. 3 Houses is certainly more complex and more fleshed out, also Claude is baby and I love him, but I almost think Awakening is more charming in its simplicity. I also have stronger feelings for the pairings in Awakening. I like that romance with Chrom has actual influence on the game for example. That scene with baby Lucina is adorable and I melt every time. On the other hand I also like how little romances really matter in 3 Houses. It’s really just dependent on what I want in that moment.) (SPOILER: Also the only reason Dimitri dies in Verdant Wind is to avoid Claude becoming too amazing.)

2. Bravely Second (This is the only game I ever bought because of the demo and I have never regretted it. I love this game with all my heart. It was a fuck ton of fun and every plot twist had me screaming. Also that end... oh my Eothas that end battle. Let’s just say I really enjoyed the fourth wall breaking stuff, I thought it was really clever. Except for that one time when I accidentally deleted all my saves. That was rather annoying. I do have Bravely Default but I haven’t managed to really play it yet. Not because of a conscious decision but rather because I just haven’t. But I will.)

1. Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2 (Once again how can I choose. Deadfire has some truly amzing aspects and moments (and Obsidian you better hire Taliesin again for Avowed!) but overall it doesn’t quite hit the same level as the first one. Also the criticisms I have for the first one are more technical in nature than any deliberate choice they made. So I guess what I mean is that Deadfire both has higher ups and lower downs than one. Also I think absolutely no one is surprised by this choice. These games have influenced me and my life a whole lot more than anything else and are probably the reason you know me at all.)

[depizan]

Three Formative Writing Moments

I was tagged by @serialephemera, consider yourself tagged, people reading this, if you want to do it.

Whoops, apparently I am very wordy today. Let’s have a cut.

Now i just have to think of positive writing moments. There’s a reason I’m a painfully slow, frequently writer’s blocked fanfic writer instead of someone whose books are found at the local bookstore. And it wasn’t (directly) the trying to get published...

(I am the literary version of the Harry Chapin song “Mr. Tanner” - taking myself seriously was the worst decision I could’ve made. Partly because I like all the wrong things and partly because there’s a part of me that will always think other people are righter than I am.)

And now, after that cheery start!

1. When I was in jr. high, I was writing a fantasy story about jr. high - or maybe it was high school - kids who ended up in a fantasy world somehow and were destined to stop the evil whoever, but they didn’t really believe that and were trying to figure out how to get home.

I can’t remember whether it was going to be one of those stories where the chosen ones didn’t really become the chosen ones until they decided, yes, they wanted to do the thing, or whether it was going to be one of those stories where the chosen ones just kind of accidentally did the thing while trying to get home. You see, part way through writing it, I realized I was more invested in the miserable minion of the big bad who was spending the book trying to capture them for the big bad and failing.

Good bye teen portal fantasies; hello moral conflicts, rogues, and stories not tied to Earth, circa present day.

(Dear god, that story idea sounds so very anime. Even though this was a year or two before I discovered anime at my first convention.)

2. I was home sick in ninth grade and bored enough to try the TV (we didn’t have cable). It went *click* soap opera *click* soap opera *click* ...not a soap opera. One local channel filled their bored people at home daytime slots with reruns of ‘80s detective and adventure shows, and so I discovered Simon & Simon and other shows that a decided influence on the kinds of stories I write.

I know it’s kind of strange to point to television in a writing meme, but, damn it, Simon & Simon (and to a lesser extent the other shows I discovered in those days) is one of the best examples of the kind of fiction I want to create that I can think of. Fun stories with people-level stakes, main characters who are not the best at anything, frequently lose fights, sometimes get bamboozled by their clients, but are not jokes and generally end up succeeding. Characters who are neither perfect nor giant piles of angst, who may not always agree and who sometimes squabble, but who care about one another, and about doing what’s right. But also sometimes do things because it would be fun, or out of curiosity, or other human reasons. Stories that are mostly upbeat and enjoyably tropey, but don’t always play all the tropes straight (particularly the ones I don’t like).

3. Not exactly a moment, but someday I’ve got to try to figure out why - and how - Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch works. It’s frickin’ Les Mis on Discworld, the villain is one of the more horrifying fictional villains, there’s really fucking dark shit here and there, the main character doesn’t know if he’ll ever see his family again, and yet, for all of that, it’s still Discworld, and over all the book is not depressing. It’s even one of my favorite - possibly my favorite - Discworld books. It is impossible. And yet it is.

I generally envy and am fascinated by writers managing to juggle dark and light and have it work and not be a tonal disaster or depressing, and not have the dark parts ruin the light, or vice versa. But Night Watch is definitely one of the more extreme examples. Like, how do you have a book in a comedy series where the main character has to mercy kill torture victims!? And yet...

I would love to know how authors who so successfully manage tone do so. I feel like in my own writing, it takes very little to permanently tip things in ways I don’t like, while other people can steer the tone of their stories all over the place and never lose control of it. It amazes me.

[kmlaney]

tag game whee!!!

I was tagged by @clevermird! Thank you! Haven’t done one of these in a while.

1) Are you named after anyone?

No. I recall my parents specifically chose my name so it had no obvious handy nicknames, but not that it was after anyone in particular.

2) When was the last time you cried?

Couple weeks ago over irl stuff that I’m not getting into.

3) Do you have kids?

I have one child. He’s 19.

4) What sports do you play/have you played?

I am terrible at most every sport. Certainly nearly everything offered at school. You know, all the standard sportsballs, tennis, track, you name it. I was on a swim team ages ago and I enjoyed that and was good at it. I’m good at archery and shooting; those are both fun. I have done equestrian stuff (trail riding, intro to show jumping and dressage) but I never had a horse so those were either rentals or classes.

5) Do you use sarcasm?

Constantly. I think it is my native language. Or dialect.

6. What's the first thing you notice about people?

Eyeglasses. I was an optician for a long time; it’s still the first thing I notice. Then earrings/piercings/tattoos. Or funky-colored hair.

7. What's your eye colour?

Dark brown.

8. Scary movies or happy endings?

Depends on what I’m in the mood for. They’re also not mutually exclusive. When I get attached to a character in a scary movie I want them to get their happy ending. Aka survival. They’ve earned it. Unless it’s Samuel L, Jackson’s character in Deep Blue Sea. Best moment in the movie from a meta standpoint imo. IYKYK.

9. Any talents?

In videogames I have the unique ability to find edges to fall of, things to get stuck on, and freak ways to glitch out of the terrain. Not the fun, youtubeable ways. The annoying, have to alt-F4 and start over kind. And hope I haven’t died in the interim. Seriously, I should test games for terrain flaws. It’s a gift.

10. Where were you born?

In a hospital. Lol yeah ok recall the sarcasm question earlier? USA.

11. What are your hobbies?

Reading, writing (not so much a hobby as an obsession), drawing, TTRPGs where I get way too attached to my characters and write elaborate backstories and playlists and fics for them. I want to get back into guitar; I haven’t played in a while and the bass is calling me. 

12. Do you have any pets?

I am down to one cat and three houseplants. The cat is smaller than two of the plants.

13. How tall are you?

5'4" (if you're American, Liberian, or Burmese) or 163cm (if you're anywhere else in the world.)

14. Favourite subject in school?

History, science, choir, and this one math class that was all word problems. That one was fun.

15. Dream job?

Writer? That’s the one constant career I’ve always wanted for as long as I can remember. If not that then a paleontologist specializing in dinosaurs, which is probably way less awesome than I think it is. Oceanographer and geologist were in the running too. 

Dream job would be one where I get to do the parts of that job that I really enjoy and none of the parts that I don’t.

tagging uhh... @depizan, @serialephemera, @kodrevas, @knamil (I think you got double-tagged, sorry!), and anyone else who wants to play! No obligation to participate whether I tagged you or not.