Plural Writing and Art

PC Update

2021-03-18T20:07:57Z

Posted by: mint_phalanx

Turn on the PC to
Customize the website
On WordPress.

Restart for updates.
Wait ten years.
Restart already!
This is the
Second time!

Oh, NOW you're
Installing the gazillion
Updates needed.
We just finished
This poem!

Sincerely,
Mint Phalanx
In free verse.

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Self portrait Plus One:

2020-11-16T02:27:27Z

Posted by: dancesofthelight

A portrait of myself and Yenelnataru. I am in my more human face here, where she is in her Urhalzantrani-Muspellir face. Muspelheim, Home of the World-Destroyers, is a stark yet beautiful realm and the people it produces are no less beautiful. Of course, granted, I'm biased

( Cut for size )

-Tamar-

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An image of the Shadow-woman:

2013-02-25T05:09:03Z

Posted by: dancesofthelight

The Omniverse Yuuzhan Vong-style armored mercenary Antichrist substitute. Very loosely based on our system's Susan Roth/Dagger. As in Michael Bay movie accuracy:

For non-sighted: a black background with a woman in red armor. The woman is (at least intended to be) olive-skinned, with white hair, turning to face someone from behind, eyes glowing with blue energy that glows in a blurry fashion. Both hands are sparking with dark magical power. Bad things tend to follow when this happens in-universe.

-Tamar Stevens-

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A couple of system portraits:

2012-09-04T18:16:29Z

Posted by: dancesofthelight

The first is of Yrvin Heshatani. This particular member's no longer around, but it's one of the better portraits we've done with Muro and so I'm just posting it for that reason. For any non-sighted members of the community, it's a portrait of a broad-shouldered alien who's got dark grey skin, pupilless eyes (not a normal trait for his species, it's an inherited trait from his father), with a dark orange splotch on his head. That is not hair, Yrvin was bald. His beard, which is essentially a neckbeard in the Jefferson Davis style, is dark orange. His garments are a shirt, with a cape that has a high, upturned collar and two stones holding the cape on. On one of his hands, the splotch appears in a vaguely triangular fashion that then broadens to encompass his knuckles, on the other a longer blotch that looks like a jagged rorschach pattern extends to a little past his wrist but otherwise halts. This is the closest we've come to the genuine Roes'in coloration, other artwork is a bit too bright in terms of the orange and grey both:

( cut for size )

The second is of Suvacel, another person who's no longer with us, but it's again one of our better portraits so I'm posting it here. Again, for the non-sighted, the portrait is of an alien without hair, but with a skin-flap that has a vague appearance to a short haircut. This is actually how the Xhemhninir lose heat, the males have different variants of this. She, like Xeltrigan, has six eyes, in three rows of two. Like Xeltrigan, her teeth are all sharpened, while both Xeltrigan and Roes'in share the common trait of hexadactyly. Meaning six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. Her face, in contrast to Yrvin's impenetrable mask is in a slasher grin and our first attempt at a Kubrick stare:

( cut for size )

Both of these portraits are by Tamar^Superhuman Crew.

-Tamar Stevens-

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Ohai!

2012-03-23T15:28:20Z

Posted by: rayvenrosmary_95

WARNING THIS WILL GET A LITTLE LONG
Hi my name is Rayven :3 I found this community through more_then_one. And I think this would be a great place to get some feedback for some of the artsy things i like to dabble in, mianly music a little bit of drawing and a lot of writing. Last night I was messing around with some synth pads in Grage band and made this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg_-97xdaLo
this is the first time I've made a song using this program, please tell me what you think.

I'm also working on a fanfic of the Vampire Chronicles, I'm not quite sure where its going but anyways here's what I have so far.
Preface

I had stalked the man for awhile now, watching as he moved from house to house in the middle of the night like a wraith, or an angel of death. He delivered the first blow the father then he moved on to the children, sick I know, but these guys were the kind I loved, their blood tasted gritty and in that final moment, the one where they surrendered to the Death and went limp in my arms, in that moment where they gave their memories to me as that hot sweet fountain passed the threshold of my lips I saw at last they found peace in whatever place they chose and with ever God they believed in, in that final moment I became one with them. Human.
My name, by the way and if anyone cares is Adriana. What am I? You ask? Well its really simple and if you paid close enough attention to that short little description, you would see they have many, many names for us. The most common being Nosferatu, now you’re starting to catch on aren’t you? Yes say the words if you must, whisper the taboo word and let it fill the empty space around you just say it, I know you will and I know that you will scoff at it. Vampire.
I can hear you saying it now, whispering my name over and over again, wondering it’s a joke if I’m just some author with a hook, or if you’re listening to that little voice at the back of your head as you say my name and noticing the chills running up your spine and the goose bumps appearing on your arms.
I have often dreamed of becoming known the world but Lestat effectively put an end to that little fantasy with his brief stint as a rock star. Oh what a smash he had been! Mortals flocked around him after every show craving that mane of gorgeous blond hair and those perfect blue eyes that sparkled with every move of his head as the light caught them like the light of a candle might catch in the russet colored hair of a child thereby turning it to spun amber or, if the shade is light enough, gold.
I guess that with this book I shall become known, under a false name, though of my origins no one will believe. What do you expect to find in this book as you pick it up off the shelf in a book store or library, do you expect to find the secret to life? Or are you harboring some deep seated fantasy in yourself that as you read my story you will imagine yourself as a vampire? The vampire has been romanticized over and over again. When I tell you this, believe it: What you are about to read doesn’t involve an immortal falling in love with a frail, pitiful human. There maybe is no happy ending but I would like to think there is and as I pen my story out for you, you will see that my existence (up until I met Lestat) has been less then interesting. And to tell my story I shall switch to an omniscient point of view.

A little of chapter one :P

Chapter One: Enter the Brat Prince
As Lestat paced the thickly carpeted room of the small, dark, apartment building he sensed he was not alone. He couldn’t define what he sensed but he knew it wasn’t human, he knew that scent all to well he thought as he gazed at the mortal who lay before him. Dead she was, though he couldn’t remember her name, he never did anymore. All he remembered was seducing her as he did every night for the blood which pulsed beneath her skin flowing like liquid gold beneath an earth of easily breakable flesh. Just like her… Everything he saw reminded him of her, her pleated hair, her polished skin that was so soft despite all the preternatural hardness of it. Oh how his heart had ached when the Twin killed her… he stopped, he was doing just fine he told himself. But was he?
Now he could hear a noise soft a persisting, click, click, click. The sound of heels walking on the surface of the polished hallway outside he got a sudden flash of a woman- no a vampire but she had her scent, foolishly he dared to hope. Was it she? No it couldn’t be, but he had to see, Lestat had to see if was her. He had to see if he was just imaging things…
Click, click, click again came that sound the more he thought about it the more likely he was to go insane. Lestat took one last glance around the darkened room, turned on his heel and went to the front part of the room to see if the sound would come again or if he could see that woman- vampire he reminded himself, striding down the hallway. He waited, he listened, his ears perked and ready for that sound, that soft step of her foot. So attuned to it were his senses, that he picked up on it almost immediately click, click, click. This time it sounded closer, louder its tempo filling the small space within his ears and making him shake.
Why was he suddenly afraid, what did he have to fear from this strange being? Oh the curiosity was eating away at him! He must know, he must look through the peep hole, for surely she stopped right outside the door, as much in tune to his presence as he was to hers. But he couldn’t, he couldn’t find the strength to move that two inches, “Get a hold of yourself! What are you a vampire or a mortal who quakes at the mere mention of the boogie man?” He said; without another thought, he moved towards the door softly and peeked through the little glass opening, what he saw was a pixie of a vampire. Not her, but as he really looked at her, he could see that she was like him. The expression in her emerald eyes was confident but underneath he could see the torment that haunted her. Her skin was the same shade of brown as his, darkened by the sun, had she tried to destroy herself like he had in the middle of that great graveyard in the middle of the world. Her hair was a thick ebony that was made all the more darker by the mahogany color of her skin. She looked so small against the interior of the white washed hallway. Her eyes seemed to cut through the door and stare into his heart. She put her small hand against the door, “Lestat, I know you’re in there, come out. I need you…” she said. Her voice was like a thousand instruments all rolled into one. He could spend hours upon hours listening to that voice.
“I’m here chérie I’m here.” He thought but couldn’t bring himself to move he laid his forehead against the cool surface of the door as if he could phase himself through it without moving. Her energy reminded him of her so much it was like stepping into the sun again, her beauty was blinding and tore at his soul. ‘Lestat come to me’ her voice seemed to float into his very mind and filled him with warmth and safeness. He found he could move now, at least a little. Shakily he got up and watched in a trance as his too white hands grasped the golden knob and turned it.
There she stood a feeling of delightful dizziness came over him as he looked at her and sensed her power full on. Oh how he wanted her!

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Introduction

2012-01-14T14:59:35Z

Posted by: fayanora

Intro time!

System name, or name we'd like to be addressed by as a group: Fayanora. Though Fay works too. Though technically Fayanora is one member of our collective, we also use it as the collective name. Though if you really need to distinguish between Fayanora Ahnabahn and the Fayanora collective, you could also call us Courage Of Phoenixes.

Number: 9 if you count Shao'Kehn as an individual, 21 if you count Shao-Kehn's known Aspects (She's a multiple in a multiple), and Infinity if you consider Shao-Kehn's known AND unknown Aspects.

Origin: That is a very good question. I guess the best answer is "born this way." (Among other things, Shao'Kehn is an alien Goddess and we are Her physical avatar.)

A little about the system: One male human, two female humans, one male who may or may not be human, one carnivorous hermaphroditic alien from Traipah, two herbivorous hermaphroditic aliens from Traipah, one hermaphroditic alien Goddess from Traipah, and a carnivorous male shapeshifter whose people also eat life-force, who is from a world with magic. We seem to be able to co-front to a degree, and we have a collective memory. We have never, ever, ever had blackouts or any similar DID stereotype activity.

The body is white with freckles and brown hair that turns auburn in sunlight. It is male, but since all but one of the main frontrunners is either female or hermaphroditic with female leanings, we present as female.

The one male human is a male child whose age we've never been able to pin down. Don't expect to hear from him, he hides a lot. Even we barely see him. His name is Ian. This is essentially all we know about him.

( This gets a bit long. )

Types of art/creativity we do: Our drawings generally come in one of two styles, which we call Fayanora Style and Molly Style. Fayanora Style drawings are usually spiritual drawings, such as drawings of Shao'Kehn or other of our Deities. They're as lifelike as we can get them, but our Deities have Ah'Koi Bahnis eyes, which do not look much like human eyes.

Molly Style drawings are childlike, which would make sense as they're drawn by our resident inner child; they range in quality from rough sketches to more realistic (yet still childlike) quality. But even her rough sketches are damned good for a seven year old. You can, at least, usually tell what they are drawings of right away. Her work also tends to be intricate, with lots of animals and hidden surprises. She takes hours and hours drawing, when she draws, and usually colors with crayons. We used to do drawing on a Wacom tablet for computers, but the damn thing doesn't do the pen anymore, making it a glorified (and expensive) track pad, now.

Lolita Leigh Smith used to do photos and photo manipulations. Since we got GIMP, we've been trying to get her to go back into that art medium.

Then, too, we do writing of fiction.

We also do poetry, but most of our poetry lately has been done by Pi, our shape-shifter. He does some excellent poems.

Examples of our work: ( Also a bit long )

Other interests: Spirituality, paganism, news, socialism, liberal politics, puns, constructed languages.

Looking for new DW friends? Yes.

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testing.....testing..... is this thing still on?

2011-09-13T05:04:45Z

Posted by: singerofdark

So. This is us just shaking the tree a bit to see what falls out. Or something like. Because we would love to know, what are you all working on? Or what are you stuck on and wanting ideas on how to shake loose. Not becuase we are going to have all the answers for that one, because we won't. But because we heard there is a collection of creative people somewhere around here and some of them might have a thought, or a line, or a question even that moves things to a different line that could be useful.
Most of our creative energy is going into three very different sets of poems. One rifting off of short bios of female saints and blesseds. The other rifting off of the cards in our deck. Those are the easy ones. Read a bio or pull a card and then write a poem. Easy stuff that. Just takes a while as we can get sidetracked and all. The harder one is to complete a shorter arc of nine poems. we know where it starts. we know where it ends. We have a rough idea what will cover the arc from point A to point b. we just really need to sit down and map that arc as it cycles down.
And that is just the tip of all the projects we need to work on. Some of them aren't quite so creative sad to say. Some of them are nuts and bolts every day stuff that isn't very sexy.
The grind of job applications and brushing up on skills no longer used much. We still aren't very good at lists. But anyhow, we would love to hear who is still around, and what you are working on, or if life keeps stealing your time or spoons, what would you like to be working on.....

Pavl

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New community for creative goals

2010-01-17T20:52:51Z

Posted by: mythochromos

We have a new community at makesomethingalready.

It's open to anyone who wants a little push to accomplish zir creative goals. The exact goals are up to you; we just keep track of weekly updates and provide encouragement. Feel free to share the link with anyone you think might be interested, plural or single.

We're hoping this will help us to get back on track, so we have some finished objects to post. XD

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Icon creations

2010-01-16T18:18:51Z

Posted by: kalli

Samples of icons I've made. Join pretty_pixels to find them all - over 2,000 so far! :)

( More pretty samples )

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Week 2 check-in

2009-11-16T03:17:51Z

Posted by: mythochromos

The bad news from us: We only just passed 20k words.

The good news from us: For the second day in a row, we've gone over 3,000 new words per day - and we've got tomorrow off of work too.

Also, I just introduced total mayhem to the lives of our characters so we might get out of the stop-and-start frustration that the story has had so far. (Of course, we've said that to ourselves before...)

How's your November going?

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So, how's your November going?

2009-11-09T00:53:23Z

Posted by: mythochromos

We're chipping away at a 2-day deficit on NaNo. I've written over 2,200 words today and am hoping to do more. We get Veterans' Day off of work so we're hoping that will give us a good opportunity to grind, too.

Our story puts several subgenres of speculative fiction in the blender, though it's mostly a steampunk fantasy with some horror influences so far. You can find the first part here.

And it gets trippier soon, which means we should be able to churn out more words with less thought. Yay.

Art Every Day Month has been...interesting, for us. We're not producing much but the usual knitting, although we've been chewing on some of the blocks that keep us from doing other creative work as much as we'd like. Helpful, if not exactly what we wanted.

What have you been making? NaNo participants, what's your word count? (And your NaNo handle if you care to share - ours is househesson.) Show us your work!

-Corweyn^Nautilus

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red sky

2009-11-01T02:38:50Z

Posted by: singerofdark

and it's a red sky
kissing down on a red earth
and the trees and buildings
are all red too

and you remember
that once somewhere
there was another colour
or three along the way
something about a diamond gold

but that is a memory and dust
and all you have is a red world
the memory that once
there were stars
that have folded into
the red sky

the birds in the air
folded into the trees
folded into the animals
and the seven seas
all red
all gone

the city painted red
fades into the night you painted
til you are alone
in a sea of swirling red
no neighbours or traffic
or even red lights
just that endless void of red

your skin is red
flesh sliding into red
muscle and bone
nerves pulsing now the red
that your eyes now gone
no longer see

it is all now red
everything is gone
all you feel is that endless
swirling void of red
there is no self
just the endless sea of red
closing in and carrying you away
til there is nothing
not even red

and you awake
and it's a red sky
kissing down on a red earth
and the trees and buildings
are all red too

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My Halloween/Autumn submissions

2009-10-31T17:52:59Z

Posted by: sukey

Here are my submissions. =)

Anyone can use these, if they want. Credit sukey or pretty_pixels. I made more of the Halloween icons here.

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A story Tamar told me (X-posted from LJ):

2009-10-22T20:39:53Z

Posted by: halialkers

( cut for length )
________________

Ashari Chaliel

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Getting ready for November...

2009-10-21T19:24:11Z

Posted by: mythochromos

Only 10 more days to submit your fall-related pieces! (Although we'll still enjoy seeing anything fall themed you post after that, of course...)

We're really impatient for November to begin. Our own NaNo looks to be ready for a good start thanks to a member of Hesses' long-term visitors, Corweyn, and a shorter term visitor, Seleyn. We've also got plot doctors in another system lined up in case we need a last-minute kick in the brain.

And Art Every Day Month! Just the idea of making that commitment is both scary and exciting. It's only recently that we collectively gave ourselves permission to play and not worry about the outcome of any one particular piece. At least at this point. ^_^; I started on a graphical representation of everyone in the system, we have some group emblems in mind, and we get to play with gouache...squee.

Maybe we'll start arting it up early.

-Mireiyu of Clan Nautilus

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NaNoWriMo and Art Every Day Month (and Hesses' new subsystem)

2009-10-01T01:16:45Z

Posted by: mythochromos

Hi, member of a guest subsystem of House Hesson here...we'll likely be sharing the body for a long time, so if you see some names that aren't familiar or aren't ever on their official system roster, that's why. We're using this icon to show who the guests are. (If anyone's curious, I'm Shainin's mother.)

Anyway...after some prodding, Hesses and we decided to give NaNoWriMo another try. This will be our third year. They had an idea for a story about a gateway system, with the protagonist splitting his time between inner worlds and the outside world, and this is a prequel to it.

And today we found something in our RSS feed that's also really tempting: Art Every Day Month. Leah, the coordinator, also does a year-round activity called Creative Every Day, which you can find out about on the same site if you're interested. Neither one requires a finished piece of art every day, so we might take up the AEDM challenge too. If we feel especially masochistic. >.>

Anyone else thinking about NaNo or AEDM? We'll try to do update posts and would love to see what others are doing too.

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Contest #3: Fall/Autumn

2009-09-20T17:13:37Z

Posted by: mythochromos

Hopefully this will make it a bit easier to get involved...

It's fall, or close to it, so we want to see what you can make relating to the season. Not just layouts and icons, but whatever you want to make. (Unfortunately, food entries may be handicapped by the lack of smell and taste capability on the intertubes...but you're more than welcome to share them, and the recipe if you don't mind!)

If you make more than one thing, you can enter them separately or as a collection. For example, including your photographs or artwork along with a related story is just fine.

Entries are due by October 31 and you can post them, or a link, on this entry.

-Rider (a guest of House Hesson)

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Contest #2 (sorry!) and community direction

2009-09-14T22:22:35Z

Posted by: mythochromos

In the midst of the chirping crickets, we forgot to post a submissions entry for the August contest. I'm sorry! If you made icons or layouts, link them here.

I'm pretty sure we've asked for suggestions before but I'd like to do it again. We haven't been getting a lot of response from our attempts to start some interaction. Has it been falling flat for you? Just not interested in that kind of thing? Are there other interactive things that you'd like to see here?

I know posting original material can be a few-and-far-between thing - it often is for us. If we could get some regular features going to keep the community alive and people interested, though, I'd really like to do that.

-Shainin

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Contest #2 / Chatter Post

2009-08-01T19:14:15Z

Posted by: mythochromos

Entries for contest #1 are now closed - we only had one entrant, with several icons that are up for sharing!

For this month, we're going to make things a little more open-ended; you can submit layouts or icons with any theme appropriate for the community - the only restrictions are that it needs to be something that's usable on DreamWidth, it needs to be something that would look at home being displayed on the community, and let's keep it PG because there's no age restriction to join here. Entries will be due at the end of the month, as last time.

Continuing on with the senses, the last chatter also didn't get many responses so we've been trying to think of a way to approach the next one that would generate more discussion and possibly some inspiration. We deliberated over which sense to choose next...then, as happens so often with our searches for inspiration, something hit us over the head.

We read a sci-fi blog called io9 alllll the time and they had a post on the question of whether prog-rock is a natural fit with science fiction. I'm not sure about that but there are definitely matches between our favorite overarching themes for stories, and the music we listen to. I think it's natural for writers who are passionate about music, and maybe artists of some other types too.

We've got the Gothic/steampunk line of themes. We've got the generic techno and industrial line of themes...and then we've got the Nine Inch Nails, Zeromancer, and the like we bring out when we're writing something naughty. We write and roleplay largely as if we're method acting so setting the mood is important.

Our music doesn't tend to map to our knitting as neatly, but we've found techno with a driving beat helps if we want to step up the pace. This technique is best with a simple stitch and minimal if any shaping; getting too far into the music does not help with the accuracy.

How does music, or other sound, affect your creativity? Is there something that boosts your results if you just listen while you're working?

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The Battle of the Army Slain, or why Some Things are Best Left to Authors:

2009-07-30T01:31:34Z

Posted by: halialkers

Out of the nothingness of sleep, the slow dreams of eternity, there was a thunder on the deep, I came because you called to me.-Rupert Brooke, the Call.

The Day of the Millions Slain had started with terror. The Army of General Mazstakan was advancing on Analanin Island. The orbital ships had guns turned upon the capital. General Mazstakan had intended to draw the Restoration Army into battle, and the attack on Analanin was to be his vector of doing so. He was seated, his immense splotched Roes’in bulk shifting, occasionally drawing his fanged mouth into a taut line. The yellowish eyes blinked, and he drew breath.

“The fool-Emperor and his damned regime shall collapse. The Freedman-bitch and her army shall also fade into history, and we shall re-enslave her and kill the nobleman that influences her. It is madness, this Ever-Victorious Army. It’s the nobleman controlling it, Freedmen are too lazy and too soft to rule it on their own.”

He let a deep laugh sound, rumbling through his ship. His large, meaty hands turned to one of his fellow leaders in the Army of the True Shanaa. “Tell me, if we succeed in this, what will you do with ‘Freedman-Desz’?”

The alien, another Roes’in with a sly and shifty-eyed look said “Not sure. Females are always a blessing in that you can-”

“General Mazstakan-” sounded a lilting voice from a thinner Roes’in, his nearly-orange face contrasting with his mostly-grey neck.

“Yes, Lieutenant Statuvin?”

“We’ve a message, sir, it’s from the Emperor.”

“Send him on.”

The Sim-Screen began to wink on, as the tall and frightened, though cruel-looking form of the Regicide-Emperor appeared onscreen.

“Well, fool?”

“I regret to inform you, General Mazstakan, that due to the attack on the House of Chaliel in violation of your terms laid that I shall decline a peaceful surrender of Analanin Island. To Hell with you, you fucking ape.” And without rancor Syian III signed off.

“Attac-attack on-on House Chaliel? Inform me, was there such a thing? I expressedly forbade assaults on any Throneworld noble family! Inform me!”

Two drones, Drones M-13 and M-19 were dispatched to the surface of Shuhar IV, as their encasements appeared in the sky over Hataria. Minutes passed, and Mazstakan’s harsh breathing filled the ship, as his subordinates prayed to the Traditional Gods with a fervency many would call the first sincere prayers in their lives in their papers. The spell ended when Drone M-19 returned. It said in a flowingly luxurious Sharaman “Yes, General Mazstakan, there was an assault on the King and Queen of the Hatari by Vital-Syndicalist Terror Squads-Weapons Detachments.”

General Mazstakan rose to his feet, unhappy. He paced when suddenly another voice chimed out “General?”

“Yes, Lieutenant-General Shakani?”

“There is a surprise awaiting us. It is Lady Revcekar of House Chaliel. One half-breed. Against our entire army.”

Silence fell, and then Mazstakan began to laugh, a deep and uproarious belly-laugh that thundered against the walls of the ship. He said “Kill her. Her father shall grieve for her foolishness.”

_________________________________

Revcekar levitated calmly in the air, meditating as the ships of the alien army sailed towards Analanin and the enemy pointed guns at her and around her. Her hybrid form’s chest rose and fell with calm breaths. The soldiers, AI and organic, were curious. Hundreds of thousands of them against a single girl who deigned not to notice them?

Revcekar’s granite eyes flew open. With a smile she straightened out, her feet hovering in the air. Levitating higher so that she could see the full force, she smiled within. Now it would be clear that attacking a Hypernormal was a madman’s decision on a fool’s logic.

“Men of the Army of the True Shanaa,” she began in a thunderous crescendo as the voice of a goddess, the roar of the Ragashin Falls sounding to a tiny patter from the soldiers, “I give you what your blasphemy has sought to make. Behold the power of the living deity, the ones you call the Metanormals.”

A beat passed. The soldiers raised their guns, when suddenly a blue fire appeared, like lightning. It burned with a heat that seared the air, warming it highly as it suddenly expanded, growing to the size of the city of Nazakan in northwest Algastron. “Ask of me and I shall give you the heathen for thine inheritance, and the utmost parts of the worlds for thine possession!” roared Revcekar as suddenly the fire began to scythe downwards and it seemed that fire had become a living bomb that swallowed soldiers, their howling echoing for miles as aquatic craft split and cracked, sinking under their own weight.

In a matter of seconds the ground, aquatic, and aerial forces of the Army of the True Shanaa had vanished as though they had never been. General Rashatin Mazstakan was awed. “O Gods of our fathers, heed my prayer,” he began to incant as the fire suddenly ascended through the atmosphere of Shuhar IV, “I have been servants of you, as has my father, my father’s father, my mother, and my mother’s mother. I honor as has always been, for thus is it ever, and so ever shall it be.”

And in a sudden cracking and disintegration the starcraft vanished, splintering under a vast force. Gone was the Army of the True Shanaa, and welcome it was to the therapists, for the sight of a single female single-handedly smiting an army, as though things that were once now were not had suddenly altered all in its path.

Revcekar landed, a smile on her face, her tunic billowing some. To the astonished Faceless behind her she said the immortal phrases “And what is the phrase you tell a conqueror? O Master, you too shall pass into nothing, for we are all as chaff? For chaff indeed is our foe. Good day, Masters of the Faceless.” And with a small chuckle the mild university student vanished into a crowd of gibbering frightened people, the Faceless falling on their knees and slapping themselves, wishing away the sight they had seen. For terrible indeed is it when what mortals know is itself proven wrong.

_______________

X-posted from LJ Plural_Writers Comm.

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Icon and Layout Contests #1 Submissions Post

2009-07-23T20:57:30Z

Posted by: mythochromos

It's later in the month than we realized! A quick recap on the requirements:

Theme: The Senses (interpret however you want)
Deadline: July 31st, midnight PST (GMT -8)
Requirements: Must be usable on DreamWidth - test it out beforehand if you're not sure
Submission Format: For icons, simply display them in a comment to this post. For layouts, link to a live example and/or screenshots in a comment to this post.
Number of Entries: Community members can submit as many creations as they want for both icons and layouts.
Sharing: If you want to make your submission available for community members to use too, please say so in your comment, along with whether you want them to show credit in any way.

There's still a little over a week to go - there's even enough time to start now if you haven't yet. :)

We mentioned screening comments before but I don't think I will. We'll see how it goes without.

We're thinking about how to do voting...we'd like to give everyone the opportunity to vote individually but not everyone has a DreamWidth account for each system member. >.> Suggestions are welcome.

On another note, there was supposed to be a chatter post on Sunday or Monday this week - we'll have it the same time next week instead.

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intro: jj

2009-07-14T22:05:29Z

Posted by: ex_ii350

System name: book of selves .... but this is MY (JJ's) journal!
Number: 4 known
Origin: trauma-based system. we're all splits.
A little about the system: acknowledged plural since 2003, diagnosed ddnos (+ other things), equal introverts & extroverts, mostly interested in writing, all creative in some way
Types of art/creativity we do: we've got 3~4 writers, 1 crayon artist, and 1 weaver
Examples of our work: nighttime (their poem) + rondeau (my poem)
Other interests: um.... i like sex, writing, chatting, computers, linux, video games, stepmania, journals, smut/pr0n/erotica, tv (wliia!) and stuff
Looking for new DW friends? yes! :D

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The Senses, Part 1: Sight

2009-07-06T17:45:16Z

Posted by: mythochromos

For nearly all of us, the visual is an important part of life. It's also a natural element of most arts and writers, though they don't have to, almost always include some description of the way things in their stories look.

Expressing something important through the medium of sight doesn't come automatically, though.

This post on Unclutterer looks at a visual detail - the cable clutter - in a movie scene that adds to the feeling of bleakness in the office where it's set, possibly without fully registering in the minds of the audience. It may also be a subtle endorsement of Mac products - seriously!

Representing other senses or perceptions with visual elements can be as simple as a set of speed lines to indicate motion in an illustration, or as involved as converting a color pattern like argyle or tartan into a sculptural one by using different stitches and perhaps beads for a knitter; or by using different, monochromatic components in mosaic. Or, like the abstract artists, familiar images can be distorted to produce a new effect on the viewer.

In cooking, attention to presentation is generally considered the province of professionals. But what cooking parent hasn't made a smiley face in syrup on a child's pancakes, or hot dog octopi? Multi-colored pastas are just fun, and likewise we enjoy the sprinkling of color in a salad with many different colors of vegetable.

The old piece of writing advice, "Show, don't tell," can be used not just in writing, but also in illustration, painting, and the like to tell a tiny story: an expensive possession that's nevertheless very old or out of fashion, or a grubby old thing with next to no value that someone nevertheless cares for scrupulously.

In storytelling, whether written or visual, one can also play with the theme of seeing what others don't, or not seeing what others do.

Talk about the theme, or anything else you like, in the comments. There will be two weeks until the next theme post, but of course we're not going to tell you to stop then if you're still enjoying it!

We'd love to see what you come up with, too - please tag it with "theme 1: senses".

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Photography pics

2009-07-02T23:38:44Z

Posted by: kalli

Here's a collage I made from recent pictures I took. As you can tell I like to use the macro setting on the camera. :)

What do you think?

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First Layout/Icon Contest - Chatter Post - Etc.

2009-06-29T22:55:27Z

Posted by: mythochromos

Today was going to be the day for starting suggested creative themes; then my system got hit by a failstorm. However! I have things to share anyway.

Our first layout and icon contest theme is The Senses. You can interpret that any way you want. You can submit as many layouts and as many icons as you want but they need to be done by July 31st. When it gets closer to that deadline, we'll post an entry where you can submit them as screened comments and then the community will vote.

Icons should meet the requirements to be used as an icon on DreamWidth (100x100 pixels maximum, file size, etc.). Layouts should be usable with DreamWidth and can be submitted as a screencap, a live example, or both. Please let us know in your submission comment whether you want to give permissions for others to use them too. (If you do, the creators will be revealed after voting so people can credit you.)

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With that out of the way...it's time for a chatter post.

We actually wrote a post relating to Father's Day but never posted it. >.> After talking with worldofcharlie via e-mail I was going to resurrect it, cut out the holiday references, and run with the idea Shainin had in connection to our feelings about that holiday.

Except I couldn't find it. A copy of Val's chatter post that we did post over here, yes. No Shainin chatter post. Not in My Documents, especially not in the special "madebyus" folder with zeroes at the beginning of the name so it would always sort to the beginning of the folder list. No chatter post in our own journal, marked as private.

This kind of freaked me out because we don't delete things. Usually we have all kinds of random cruft in our folders that ends up being half deleted after a couple years, the other half sticking around just because we're no longer sure what it is and opening each file to see is a long and annoying job.

We've thrown out some writing on paper, most of it shredded in the process, because it embarrassed us. But other pieces that embarrassed us we kept, because we still wanted to work with the ideas and we're willing to drudge through it so we can take notes on what we did with those ideas before. We're probably more nervous about the idea of a loved one reading those than we are about a loved one reading our embarrassing old diaries but we'll live with that risk - which is a hojillion times bigger in our mind than in reality, I assure you - because we're still attached to those stories.

Graphics files, we'll sometimes delete when we're done, but only after we're really sure they're past their use and they won't serve as good examples for the future - we've deleted intermediate stages of some web design work, then pulled our hair out trying to reconstruct what we did, so we're more cautious now.

Physical artwork, we've thrown out if it was done for practice and didn't turn out well. Probably shouldn't do that, though, since it provides a reference for how our work's developed and what we've done so far is not storage intensive. And we've completely ripped back a piece of knitting to make something else, but I have to defend that by saying that it was always to make something better. Sometimes a yarn and a pattern just don't work as well together as that yarn and the other pattern.

Have you ever destroyed something that you made? Would you? Why or why not? If you did destroy something in the past, how did you feel about it later?

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