Erik Amundsen's Blog, page 10

Celtic Nightmare

Somewhere back in the mists of time, I got exposed to kind of a lot of the Celtic/New Age music.  I don't think there was any lasting damage, but then I end up dreaming of composing a song in the genre complete with an elementary harp melody and understated synth.  It's like October Project threw up all over my brain.  I remember the first verse & chorus, and something about the third, so here goes:

The Huntslad

I have a bow and a brace of stings
I have a bow with a silver string
and out in the wildwood I'm wont to sing
but joy or game my song never brings

But I would not tell you why until the moment's past
I would not tell you why and you would never ask
and I would not tell you why ... (the chorus sort of craps out here)

I don't remember anything about the second verse, only that I cam up with it first and felt more confident in it, so I didn't rehearse it as much.  I don't remember how the third verse goes, but I remember that's where we learn that the protagonist is dragging a marble tomb lid with a young woman and young child carved in relief on it, and his time hunting for no game in the forest, pulling this thing like the ox pulls the plow (that's lyrics) is some sort of penance.

And that's actually kind of interesting.

Every now and then I try my hand at a one-sentence story. I suck at them. I mean, just look at thi

A week later, I found a load of his laundry, moldy in the wash.

Winter is Doing that Thing Winter Does, What was it?

One of my coworkers just told me about the heat wave in the upper Midwest, which is predicted to be followed, rather directly, by snow.  It occurs to me that Westeros could be a climatically destroyed North America, if you squint at it enough.

You know, I kind of like that idea.

[Dork] Monsterhearts Skin: The Cambion

And they say high school is hell :D

No, you’re not going to leave it like that. This place, oh this place; take passionate young people, just learning the powers and pleasures of adulthood and packing them in, side by side, weak with strong. It’s like the Garden, only awkward and painful. And here they are, just trying out their wings, the possibility that some might escape the cages that will dominate most of their peers’ lives. You can help them. They don’t realize that singed wings fly all the higher.

Introducing... The Cambion

Adam, Cameron, Chloe, Darryl, Eevie, Hattie, Luce, Pamela, Rayford.

A Winking Acknowledgment name, a Tyrant’s name, a Criminal’s name.

Smoldering, Slick, Rebel, Odd; Wearing a Signature Possession.

Smoky Eyes, Lustful Eyes, Lambent Eyes, Rage-Filled Eyes, Masochistic Eyes.

Bad Seed, Devil’s Reject, Trespasser, The Unclean Spirit Entered, The No-Shit Devil (maybe).

Your Backstory:

Tell anyone they can have as many Strings on you as they want. You get that many Strings on them.Take another Cambion move.
Take a move from another Skin.
Take a move from another Skin.
You have Imps.
Add 1 to Hot (max 3).
Add 1 to Cold (max 3).
Add 1 to Volatile (max 3).
Add 1 to Dark (max 3).

Playing the Cambion

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing himself that he loves those people around him. Once you have that down, the Cambion is easy. You’re not hurting them, you are freeing them, showing them what they can do, showing them that their fears of the consequences are worse than the consequences themselves.

The Cambion is all about letting other people do what they were already going to do, giving them permission (or a push, in the case of Devil’s Dare) . And Shame the Devil and Bad Things with You bring the truth out, make other people own their shit and act on it. Always ask if it’s not better without the weight of all those secrets piling on.

The Cambion is also all about consequences, though they have a few outs, Devil in a Blue Dress protecting them from harm, Fire is the Devil’s Only Friend helping them recover and Get Thee Behind Me making it worth the pain.

The Naughty List introduces the notion that hell has designs on the ongoing story, and works well in conjunction with infernally-linked Skins like the Infernal and the Succubus, but the presence of other hellbound Skins isn’t necessary.

A lot of this one comes from Horns by Joe Hill.

Inkscrawl!

It's really, really good.

It's Funny

I still want to prove to the people who knew me when I really sucked and didn't see me learn how to suck less that I have learned.
(At least, I *think* I've learned).

[Monsterhearts] The Dero

It hurts to be up here in the sun, but it hurt worse to be below.  You used to be a cog, a pawn, a piece of someone else’s grand design, so you left.  You went to a place full of young voices shouting what you told yourself: “I will choose my own path, I won’t be a servant for some system that claims me.” They don’t know from systems.  They don’t know from designs, and most of all, the misunderstand; there is no opting out.  You move or you are moved.

Introducing... The Dero

Alicia, Anders, Cas, Daniel, Hester, Hillman, Jaden, Jules, Keene, Tamika, Thao.
An earthy name, a smarmy name, a secret name, an unusual name.
Furtive, Mousy, Tiny, Unkempt.
Staring Eyes, Glassy Eyes, Sharkish Eyes, Milky Eyes, Pale Eyes.
Escapee from the Underground, Coming into your Heritage, Experiment Victim, Detrimental Robot.


Your Backstory:
You keep tabs on people, get one String for each other player and then assign them as you like.
Someone went looking for you and stumbled on the Underground.  Give them two strings.


Hot -1, Cold 1, Volatile -1, Dark 1


Dero Moves
Get this one:

Mysteries – When people try to remember you or what you did, they tend to get the details wrong.  When they try to tell someone about you, they start embellishing, adding in weird and alien details and terrifying goings on.  Witnesses have to Hold Steady in order to give an accurate account of your appearance or actions, and if they miss, they gain the condition Hysterical.
And one of these:

Move Under Ground – As long as there is a way into the underground (basement, sewer, cave, etc.) present, you can enter a place.  You roll +Dark to Run Away from any location that has access to the underground.

Forever Watching, Prying Eyes – If you are watching someone, unobserved or ignored, you can roll to Shut Someone Down without revealing your presence or that you were the one who made the Move.

Walls Could Speak – When you are alone in a place where people live or work, you can roll + Dark to ask questions of the building.  On a 10+, ask 3 questions.  On a 9-12, ask 1.

Who was here last?
When is this place usually empty?
Who comes here most who does not live here?
What is the worst thing that happened here?
Who protects this place?
What is the most precious thing in this place?
Knives in the Dark – You can’t see, per se, but you can navigate and find things and people just fine in the dark.  When you are in the dark or attack from hiding, you roll + Cold to Lash Out Physically.

Come and See – When you show someone something terrible, alien or some part of the underground to them, mark experience.

Air Loom – You make things, amalgams of crystals, electronics and fungus, glowing, blinking things that make eerie lights and terrible noises.  These things require a witness (willing or no) to act as an antenna, but in the presence of a witness roll + Dark. On a hit, you can choose 1:
• Reach through the abyss to something or someone connected to it.
• Isolate and protect a person or thing from the abyss.
• Isolate and contain a fragment of the abyss itself.
• Insert information into the abyss.
• Open a window into the abyss.
By default, the effect will last only as long as you maintain it, will reach only shallowly into the abyss as it is local to you, and will bleed instability. On a 10+, choose 2; on a 7–9, choose 1:
• It’ll persist (for a while) without your actively maintaining it.
• It reaches deep into the abyss.
• It reaches broadly throughout the abyss.
• It’s stable and contained, no bleeding.
On a miss, whatever bad happens, your antenna takes the brunt of it.


Sex Move – When you have sex with someone they gain the condition Target-Locked, which lasts until the next time they are in an intimate or private moment.  When someone who is Target-Locked loses that condition, you can roll + Dark to observe them from hiding, either physically present or remotely.  Whichever you choose, on a Miss, they know you are watching.


Darkest Self – Everything is taking too long.  You’ve laid the groundwork, to hell with the details, you will improvise.  You need results now.  Make moves on any and all schemes you have going and damn the consequences.  You escape your Darkest Self when you complete one of your designs despite its lack of preparation or you ruin your plans with your impatience.
Advancement
Take another Dero move.
Take another Dero move.
Take a move from another Skin.
Take a move from another Skin.
You have Subterranean Helpers.
Add 1 to Hot (max 3).
Add 1 to Cold (max 3).
Add 1 to Volatile (max 3).
Add 1 to Dark (max 3).

Playing the Dero
Chilly, staring, weird, the Dero treats the world as their laboratory for experiments and indulgences of curiosity.  They are the alien and the made scientist rolled into one.  Everything, everyone is exploitable, their secrets, their homes.  You are not content to just watch, you need to manipulate.  You are not content to just manipulate, you need to watch how it all shakes out.
Mysteries buries the truth of the things you do in outrageous stories that no one rational should believe.  This protects you from most of the things people have seen you do, sort of; it doesn’t paint you in the nicest light for access to new subjects, and there are always the irrational folks who believe.  You can use Forever Watching, Prying Eyes (particularly on Target-Locked folks in their intimate moments or people you see through Air Loom ) to shut down those who manage to talk or believe, and Knives in the Dark if that fails.
Air Loom is all kinds of fun.  Go nuts describing the terrible creations to your witnesses (and antennae), and mark experience if you have Come and See.  The things Air Loom allow you to do are exactly like Augury from Apocalypse World and a potential source for all kinds of badness.

The Dero is based on the 1943 stories of Richard Sharpe Shaver.

Flying Higher: An Anthology of Superhero poetry!

Originally posted by shadesong at Flying Higher: An Anthology of Superhero poetry!

It is HERE! The ridiculous superhero poetry anthology that started with me making people scribble poems on their placemats at dinner at Wiscon HAS ARRIVED.

Behold the wonder and the glory of Flying Higher: An Anthology of Superhero Poetry! Congrats to all the poets, and thank you again for playing with us. <3

Edited by Michael Damian Thomas and Shira Lipkin!

Cover by Rin Venieris.

Table of Contents:

Introduction ~ Shira Lipkin & Michael Damian Thomas
Becoming Wonder Woman ~ Julia Rios
AND THE BRONZE MEDAL GOES TO... ~ M. David Blake
Robin’s Legs ~ Mary Robinette Kowal
If ~ Kip Manley
O CAPTAIN! AMERICA'S CAPTAIN! ~ Alex Bledsoe
Mrs. Freeze ~ Anita Allen
Riveted ~ Lisa Bradley
Untitled Haiku ~ Amy McNally
Untitled ~ A.C. Wise
Supervillanelle ~ Lisa Nohealani Morton
The Tiger is Herself ~ Gillian Daniels
Untitled ~ Eric Burns-White
swimming lesson ~ S. Brackett Robertson
Pantone 032 ~ Torrey Stenmark
Untitled ~ Lynne M. Thomas
Said Gorilla Grodd, to God... ~ Erik Amundsen
Unofficial Love ~ Shawna Jaquez
Riddler’s Clues, a Villanelle ~ John O'Connor
Invisible ~ Emily Wagner
Hawkguy ~ Michael Damian Thomas
Darksein the Diabolic Plots His Comeback from Beyond the Grave ~ Mike Allen
Alias ~ Erika Ensign
Judah Maccabee ~ Benjamin Rosenbaum
The Scarlet Witch at Rest ~ Laura McCullough
APACHE CHIEF ~ Sofia Samatar
Wonder Woman Lassos the C.E.O. ~ Wendy Babiak
Inhumanly King. (a poem by Black Bolt) ~ Adam P. Knave
Poison Ivy ~ Emily Nordling
An Elegy for Evelyn Cream ~ Amal El-Mohtar
The Wolverine ~ Matthew Kuchta
Bat-Mite's Refrain ~ R.B. Wood
Untitled ~ Adam Lipkin
take off your horn-rims and fly ~ Gwynne Garfinkle
Untitled ~ Stefan Krzywicki
Guarded ~ Stephanie M. Clarkson
J'onesing for J'onn J'onnz—A Fanboi's Paen to the Martian Manhunter ~ Kelly McCullough
Rocket’s Red Glare ~ John O’Connor
The Bone Woman ~ Alex Dally MacFarlane
Unmasked ~ Claire A. Miller
knitwear is both harder and softer than suits ~ Wednesday Burns-White
The Fish Aquatic ~ John Klima
You! I Thought You Were Dead!* ~ Steven Marsh
Untitled ~ Fritz Bogott
Untitled ~ Mari Ness
Bless Us, Nellie Bly, Saint of the Secular Upstarts ~ C.S.E. Cooney
The Ballad of Captain America's Disapproving Face ~ Catt Kingsgrave
Untitled ~ Michael McAfee
The Tick ~ Liz Argall
Superheroes ~ Meredith Schwartz
Friendship and Butts ~ Shawna Jaquez
Green in Gold and Silver ~ David D. Levine
Super Sense ~ Talib Hussain
Superhero Haiku Triptych ~ Paul Weimer
Princess of Gemworld ~ Mary Anne Mohanraj
Limbo ~ Shira Lipkin

Tuesday Morning with the Piglies

"Sass, did you just steal your mother's lettuce?  That's like an Angela Carter story level offense." 

Strange Horizons

http://www.strangehorizons.com/blog/2013/07/confidentiality_statement_adde.shtml

Confidentiality statement added to guidelinesPosted by Niall Harrison

24 July 2013

A quick note to say that we've added an explicit confidentiality statement to our submission guidelines index page.

We've added this because we've received a couple of queries about the confidentiality of our submissions process, prompted by an ongoing investigation of harassment at Wiscon. The Wiscon safety committee is investigating allegations that a convention member used racist and anti-immigrant language to harass another attendee. The alleged harassment occurred at a poetry reading and included the recital of an unpublished poem containing harassing language. One of our poetry editors offered to provide a copy of the recited text to the safety committee to aid their analysis of the incident. In the end it has not proved necessary to actually share the text.