Alistair Young @cerebrate@schelling.pt

Silence Your Trumpets -

https://open.substack.com/pub/noiseinmysignal/p/silence-your-trumpets?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

If you were wondering about the name of her ship --

"This is not war! This is pest control!"

#WritingWonders 7/8: What does your MC see when they look out their bedroom window/door?

Door: an oak desk that hides a terminal inside, a comfortable leather armchair, and the repeater display for Fleet Systems Monitor.

Window: well, it's not a window. She lives aboard _Pyrethrin Nebula_, and the flag quarters are nowhere near the surface of the dozens of meters of armor a BD has. Her holowindow can simulate almost anywhere, but usually simulates "space, ahead, false-color on".

#eldraeverse

I'm taking a day or two off to sit around and play video games while I regenerate my Will to Anything. My first conclusion for this is that while _Farworld Pioneers_ seems like an interesting game, good gods below, trying to play it with a controller is an exercise in frustration. That interface is way too finicky.

#xbox #gaming

So when the Feds raided us, they were notionally here to seize all our computers and storage devices.

We just found a 1 Tb hard drive in the bedroom. No idea how it got there, but it's definitely one of our old ones, and most likely one of the ones that used to be part of a RAID set in a server we decommissioned some years back. (So good luck reading the drives you remembered to take, guys.)

If my impression of the FBI's competence hadn't already sunk to the bottom, this would not enhance it.

#WritingWonders 8/6: MC POV: Have you ever kept a secret from your closest friend? If so, why?

"Seriously?

"I'm an admiral in the Imperial Navy. Most of my professional life has a classification attached, and unless you're one of the less-than-two-dozen people with GOLD STORMCROW HEXAGON clearance - which he isn't - I'm keeping secrets from you. Or killing you. You pick.

"Wait. Are you even cleared to know that there is such a thing as GOLD STORMCROW HEXAGON clearance...?"

#eldraeverse

#WritingWonders 8/5: Does your MC have any pictures of themselves with friends or family? Why / why not?

Oh, of course. Pictures, memory-mathoms, dossiers of their personal weaknesses...

...we're House Sargas, remember? If I didn't try to assassinate my sister every few months, she'd think I'd lost all respect for her, and I care about her far too much to let that happen.

But yes, as much as any other member of my sentimental race.

#eldraeverse

For reference this month, #WritingWonders folks, my MC of the month will be Caliéne Sargas. Yes, for those who've seen my work, that would be Admiral Caliéne "the Worldburner" Sargas-ith-Sargas, the small blonde lady who terrifies the Galaxy more than every superweapon in storage at Palaxias combined, and whose _Sera Esklav_ is far more intimidating than any hot-drink machine has the right to be.

This should be fun.

#eldraeverse

I think this article

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/police-are-not-primarily-crime-fighters-according-data-2022-11-02/

clearly demonstrates the necessity of abolishing the police, so that they can be replaced by police.

(Seriously. An existing institution this useless cannot be reformed. Burn it down and replace it with something designed to do its theoretical fucking job, belike.)

It may be, given time to learn the fine art of prompt engineering, that the advent of AI art generation will help me correct this deplorable deficiency in future.

But I wouldn't count on it.

#WritingWonders 8/4: Share art, pics (face claims), and/or mood boards of one (or more) of your side characters.

This one, I'm going to have to beg off, due to possessing the artistic talent of a cluster of color-blind hedgehogs in a bag.

(And a near-complete lack of funds to hire artists.)

Which prevents me, sadly, from being able to put anything on paper or screen which in any way comes close to approximating what I see in my head.

(Sorry.)

Having mentioned the Cilmínár ballad "Girl, Your Marginal Benefit Far Outweighs Your Marginal Cost", I should perhaps mention other entries in this genre, such as "Under the Balance Sheets", "No Asset I Value More", "Positive-Sum", and "Illiquid Love".

#eldraeverse

(3/3)

And Líse Varavelen has a deplorable liking for the 4300s ballad, "Girl, Your Marginal Benefit Far Outweighs Your Marginal Cost".

#eldraeverse

(2/3)

"Oh, infinite knowledge awaits us in space -
We'll seek out and contact with fervor and grace.
New worlds and new sophonts we simply adore -
Let's party where no-one has partied before."

(The tune, and the spirit of the thing, is that of _Space Shanty_, by The Senate:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDXfQTD_rgQ .)

#WritingWonders 8/3: If your favorite side character(s) had a theme song, what would it be?

(1/3)

A tricky one, seeing as I need to create the songs, first, being a different universe and all.

But Cordelia Vintar-ith-Vidutar, first-in scout, is well known for subconsciously humming a particular shanty sung wherever Exploratory Service personnel gather to consume heinous quantities of liquor:

#WritingWonders 8/2: How much do you know about your side characters prior to the first draft?

Usually quite a lot. Unless they're mere voices heard in passing, I have quite a lot of trouble conjuring up a character without getting to know them in my head first, and quite a few details come out in that process. Plus, I use a worldbuild-first process, and so many of my side characters were well-developed in the course of that.

#eldraeverse

#WritingWonders 8/1: If you could hang out with one of your side characters for a day, who would you choose? Why?

Elíne Septimiel. Because I'm practically guaranteed to have something to talk about with a fellow bibliophile, and since she's First Reader at what is almost certainly the galaxy's largest library, she definitely counts.

(As she's been known to point out, "It does not say Repository of _Some_ Knowledge above my door.")

#eldraeverse