alexanderwales posts
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This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 144, An Interlude on the Island at the Edge of the World
Normal LinkEdit/Comment Link~~~~Harmon had always liked the Barrier Storms. They weren’t visible from Dondrian, not even on a very clear day, but there were a set of islands an hour’s flight to the north, and those had a view of the endless roiling storms. He’d spent a week at a hostel there when he was young, and had marveled at them from afar, miles-tall black clouds that flashed with lightning at all hours of the day. The people of the islands got used to it, apparently, maybe because it was far enough away that the thunder was only fa...
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 143, Songs of the Past
Normal LinkEdit/Comment Link~~~~Verity had gotten used to the palace, and had to admit that she loved it. It was built into the mountain, but there was enough variation among the interiors and windows carved into the rock faces to allow light in. During her first days there, she had thought that it would look like a porous rock with room many holes, maybe even one of those that floated from all the bubbles, but standing from the village, the holes were disguised, the regularity of windows not at all obvious. It was a well-crafted place, an imme...
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 142, Spies
Normal LinkEdit/Comment Link~~~~When Mizuki stepped out into the demiplane, it wasn’t like she’d been hiding out in extradimensional space for the last week and a half. It was instead like practically no time at all had passed, only eight hours or so of fitful sleep followed by a quick breakfast supplied by entad, this one a pastry filled with egg, onion, and ham.She was nervous, naturally, all the more so because they were splitting up. She’d wanted to go with Hannah, but part of the idea had been that they would just slot right into thi...
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 141, Ecology
Normal LinkEdit/Comment LinkI'm back from South Korea! The entire schedule will be shifted by one day this week, because I missed my deadline yesterday. I didn't do much work on vacation, thinking that I had half the chapter written, all of the next chapter written, and would be totally fine to either finish it on the plane ride in the several days after I got home. Instead, I slept on the plane and ended up with a massive case of jet lag. (Which is weird, because I was recently in England and didn't have much jet lag either way, an...
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 140, Foundation
Normal LinkEdit/Comment LinkApologies for the lateness of this chapter (though I don't technically have a release window, I do try to put up chapters around 11AM my time). I'm still sick, and also made things hard on myself with a longer chapter, which is replacing a different chapter that was mostly written.As a reminder, I'm going to be on vacation for the next two weeks, though I do plan to have some bonus content written either during resting time, on the plane, or something. I don't know precisely what form this will take, ...
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 139, Wildlands
Normal LinkEdit/Comment LinkSorry for the relative lateness of this one. I came back from my trip in England to find my son had a cold, and to my dismay, I now also have a cold. For my money, getting sick a lot is one of the biggest downsides of having children.There will be no chapters from the 10th until the 24th: I'll be in South Korea for two weeks. There's a chance that I do post some chapters anyway, but prior experience has shown that trying to get sufficient writing done while on vacation doesn't really work out.~~~~Alfric s...
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 138, Overguard
Normal LinkEdit/Comment Link~~~~Being ‘jarred’ was risky, but Ria was no stranger to risk. She had gotten into sticky situations before, and it had always worked out, which she knew was a dangerous thing, because it built up confidence that nothing could go wrong, or that every situation was recoverable. Harmon hadn’t liked the plan, but he knew her well enough to know that argument would just make her dig her heels in unless he could come up with something she hadn’t already considered.When she came back to life, she was armed and read...
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 137, Demi
Normal LinkEdit/Comment LinkAnd we're back ... for a bit. My South Korea trip looms, which will unfortunately mean another schedule interruption next month. If these trips had been less serendipitous and more planned, I would have scheduled two very rare bouts of international travel much further apart, but sometimes vacations fall into your lap and it behooves you to take them. (The South Korea trip will be only my third time leaving North America, which yes, means that 66% of my overseas travel will have taken place within a single month....
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 136, The Last Days IV
Normal TextEdit/Comment TextA reminder that there will be no chapters until two weeks from now (or possibly there will be a chapter on the 21st, which would need to be posted almost immediately when I came home? I'm not sure, just giving myself leeway). I'll be in England, and historically haven't been great at writing while on vacation, though I'll be at a writing retreat, so we'll see.I think with better planning I would have left on a better chapter, but it's hard to plan, and hopefully this sets things up more than i...
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 135, The Last Days III
Normal TextEdit/Comment TextAlright, as far as my break goes, I think the 14th and 19th won't have chapters, and the 21st maybe won't, depending on whether I get much writing done on the plane and how much backlog there is before that. In theory, I'll be in the air for 20 hours with another 8 hours of layover, but I don't know how good of conditions that will be for writing. (Part of my problem is that the last seven chapters have averaged 7K words each, which is 2K more than they're supposed to be, creating problems with ba...
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 132, The Last Days II
Normal LinkEdit/Comment Link~~~~In the interests of trying to follow Kell through time, Alfric stayed at the house with Vertex. This was partly to watch, and partly to set himself up for the next day. There were a number of ways in which that wasn’t ideal, but he didn’t want to miss it if Kell had a midnight visitor. Obviously Alfric couldn’t stay awake through the entire night, but he would wake at the witching hour as was custom, and then follow Kell starting in the morning, mostly to make sure he knew where the wizard was going.With hi...
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 132, The Last Days I + Schedule update
Normal TextEdit/Comment TextNext month I'll be going on a trip overseas to England, my second time leaving the country unless you count Canada. I think I'll be missing two chapters, though I'm going to a writing retreat and it's possible that I won't have to. My apologies for the schedule disruption, but last time I went on a vacation (that time to Florida) I got very little work done and just ended up burning through backlog, and I don't want to either crush myself trying to get backlog going, or commit to writing a lot...
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 132, Lutes
Normal LinkEdit/Comment LinkNote: Read the chapter first, but once you do, there's a full list of lutes here, including ~60 not featured in this chapter.~~~~Hannah was obsessive by nature.That was common among clerics, for the obvious reason that when the obsession was focused on a god it was easier to be ‘with’ them all the time, spending hour upon hour in prayer and study, deepening the connection, exploring the borders, and talking with others. It was hard to become an established cleric if you didn’t have a desire to live, breath,...
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 131, A Herd of Children
Normal LinkEdit/Comment Link~~~~Verity had never really been around children, even when she was a child herself. She didn’t have any brothers or sisters, though she didn’t really know why that was the case, and neither of her parents had come from very large families, which meant that she hadn’t spent all that much time with cousins either. The closest she’d come to attending a proper school had been the conservatory, but she’d been old enough to feel like her own person by that point. Before that, she’d mostly just had private tuto...
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 130, Commiseration/Celebration Brunch
Normal LinkEdit/Comment Link~~~~Mizuki was feeling great. The curse, such as it was, had been lifted, they had more lutes than they would ever need, an awesome sword had bound itself to her, and Alfric was in such a good mood that it made her realize just how stressed and anxious and down he’d been. The morning after the Endless Dungeon they had all celebrated with a huge brunch spread, and Mizuki hadn’t even had to do any of the cooking, which was a bit of a relief. Instead, Alfric had arranged something special ahead of time, prepared by ...
Eager Readers in Your Area! (short fiction)
I wrote a short story, and as pointed out, yes, should also share it here. 3.5K words, pretty short, on writing, reading, and finding connection. Read on AO3, or below!~~~~The sites had gone empty almost overnight. It was the deep learning models that had done it, with such power and force that everyone was left feeling a bit rootless. The writing had been on the wall, if you knew where to look for it, but for most, it seemed like one day someone had said “we have AI-generated prompt-to-prose models trained on the whole text of the Internet, ...
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 129, Dungeon Dreams IV
Normal TextEdit/Comment TextIf you'd like to read a totally unrelated bit of non-fiction, I wrote a blog post on AI art and some thoughts about it, The AI Art Apocalypse.~~~~They ate in the garden stone, which had been placed in the big circular area with all the doors. It was a lunch that Mizuki had packed for them, a warm goulash in an earthenware crock, ladled out into little bowls with a wooden spoon. Alfric took his and tried not to eat too fast, though he was feeling nervous. In the back of his mind was the thrum, which was gone now. ...
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 128, Dungeon Dreams III
Normal LinkEdit/Comment Link~~~~They worked their way through the rooms, trying their best to go fast. The thrum that filled the area was a constant, and they grew good at anticipating it. Sometimes someone would call it out before it was going to happen, usually Isra but sometimes Alfric, and they would all just stop and cover their ears in near-unison.<We could take a break in the garden stone,> said Mizuki. <It would be really nice to have a rest from the drone. Extremely nice.><We’ve done ten rooms,> said Alfric. <That’s almost an entir...
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 127, Dungeon Dreams II
Normal LinkEdit/Comment Link~~~~Alfric moved slowly to the room’s brass door. They were well and truly lost in the dungeon, which wasn’t a good thing to be, especially not so quickly in. This was worse than the shifting of the earlier dungeon, where they’d been poisoned, and the periodic thrum took on an ominous quality now that they were trapped. Still, there were doors, ways out, paths that might lead them further away or closer to the exit. What would have been worse was nothing to try, if there had been no clear route by which an atte...
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 126, Dungeon Dreams
Normal TextEdit/Comment TextWe've officially passed the one year mark of Dungeons being posted. I'd like to say, first of all, thanks for all the support, and second, I'm overall pretty happy with this story, and consider it a worthy thing to have done with that year. Starting on a new story was a scary thing, especially one that was so different from my last one, but Dungeons seems to have found an audience, and for that I'm grateful. I've been reading back over early chapters lately, along with revisiting some of my notes,...
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 125, Putting Up
Normal LinkEdit/Comment LinkI'm streaming on twitch all this week, usually an hour or two, usually not long after chapters get put up, working on the long-promised exclusions doc for WtC. If you have interest in seeing the writing process, come check it out!~~~~They had three undone dungeons in a row.Verity was feeling awful about it, and there was no other way to feel.“It seems you shouldn’t feel awful about it,” said Hannah. “Because that makes the next dungeon all the harder, doesn’t it, if they are affected by all the stress y...
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 124, Bulrushes
Normal LinkEdit/Comment Link~~~~Kell moved swiftly through the bulrushes, naked from the waist up. His clothes had been set in a neat pile, away from the murky water, all but his briefs, which he had decided he would allow to get wet. There was, after all, a risk that someone could come across him, and it was worth the cost of wet underthings to not be totally exposed. He thought he’d have a hard time explaining himself no matter what, but it would be made more difficult if he was nude. The only other thing on his person was his long staff, a...
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 123, The Sea and the Breeze
Normal LinkEdit/Comment Link~~~~Mi-zu-ki and Ver-ity!When they’re to-gether there’s lots of glee!Stick a-round and you will see!Today might be the day they climb a tree!“Wow,” said Verity. “That was something.”“I worked on it all last night,” said Mizuki. She beamed at Verity.“Can I — I mean, you’re joking, right?” asked Verity. “I’m going to feel bad if you’re not, but —”“Yes, yes, it’s a joke,” said Mizuki.Verity took a breath. “Because if you wanted help writing songs —”“It’s bad on purpose,...
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 122, Brief Bars
Normal LinkEdit/Comment LinkNo writing stream today, a tendon in my hand is giving me trouble and I'd like to rest it.Thanks, once again, for all the support.~~~~Isra woke up alone. The room had gone chilly in the night, which often happened in Pucklechurch, even in midsummer. Beneath her blanket, all was well, and there was a temptation to hide there until the sun had warmed the room, but she threw off her covers anyhow and went into the closet, looking for something to wear. She had not just her new wardrobe, but more than half of Verity...
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 121, The New Normal pt 2
Note: If you don't like the more intense dungeon chapters, this is probably one to skip, and I'll make sure that context for what happened in this chapter is in the next chapter.Content warning: suicide, violence, deathNormal LinkEdit/Comment Link~~~~“There will probably be lots of birds,” said Alfric. “A surprising number, really. Something like eighty percent of all recorded monsters had some kind of bird-like appearance, even if they weren’t strictly feathered or flying. Interior will be something like ninety percent natural,...
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 120, The New Normal pt 1
Normal LinkEdit/Comment Link~~~~It was more or less exactly what Alfric had feared. If Verity and Isra had not actually broken up, they were, at least, on the rocks. After their return from Dondrian, the feeling of it had infested the household, and the two of them weren’t talking to each other except in brief sentences. It wasn’t angry, or even really curt, just like they had mutually decided to only exchange a handful of words each day. There wasn’t an extra bedroom in the house, so by some kind of twisted agreement between the two of t...
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 119, The Brave Knight Gave
Normal LinkEdit/Comment LinkAuthor’s Note: This chapter comes with a song! I think the best way to listen to it is to get to the part of the chapter with the song, then play it rather than just reading the lyrics. Note that this is an interpretation of the song in the story, rather than canonical, for a few reasons. Link here: https://soundcloud.com/alexanderwales/the-brave-knight-gave/Big thanks to my friend David for producing this for me. If you want to hear more of his stuff, you're out of luck, since he mostly spends time working on ...
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 118, That Sort of Thing
Normal LinkEdit/Comment Link~~~~The return trip to Dondrian was done without the Overguards, and there was a part of Mizuki that felt a little hurt by that. She knew that self-sufficiency was something they prized, and that they didn’t want to be ferrying teenagers to and from the other side of the continent, but it seemed unfriendly in a way that she didn’t like. The Overguards had six children though, so maybe it was just that if they allowed trips to happen, the obligations would spiral out of control until they were spending most of the...
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 117, Wedding Bells pt. 2
Minor note: I will be making an attempt at streaming writing the exclusions doc for Worth the Candle, at https://www.twitch.tv/alexanderwales. Mostly just trying this out to see how it is, and if it doesn't work, no big deal. I'm hoping that this gives me some incentive to work on that thing for at least a little bit every day. I don't think it'll be hugely entertaining, and the audience is niche, but it's there if you want to check it out. (Also will make VODs.) My plan is to go live in about an hour or so, and try it for a...
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 116, Wedding Bells pt. 1
Normal LinkEdit/Comment Link~~~~Verity was skeptical about going to confront the Other Pedders. They had crashed a party, yes, and there had been some kind of large brawl with upwards of three dozen participants, but she didn’t quite understand how Alfric intended to resolve it peacefully by going with a gang of hog farmers to confront the wedding crashers. They weren’t bringing a cleric along either, and Alfric was the only uninterested third party aside from Verity herself. Conflict resolution was not, so far as she knew, his strong suit....
