ddwebb

slogging ever on

The following is cross-posted from the update I put on the newest public chapter on RR, because I don't even have the mental energy to write a second explanatory post today.

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Hey, everybody. I'm really sorry about the long silence there. Don't worry, I'm not dead and not abandoning any of my stories, I'm just crazy. Over the years I've been very open about the mental illness I li...

And a happy new year

Welcome to 2025, everyone!

No great urgency in this notification, I just wanted to stay in contact for transparency's sake. Last you heard from me I was taking the holiday off and planning to be back at the start of the year with new content. That is still the plan, I am simply struggling through one of my depressive episodes that's making it really hard to work. Not impossible, I am...

I wish everyone a safe, happy, and blessed holiday season

No matter what holidays you celebrate, or even if there are none, I earnestly hope it treats you well. I know things are rough for a lot of us; just remember that no matter what is going on in the world, the one thing you can always do is to show some kindness and caring, to yourself and especially to others. I say this as a generally grumpy, frustrated, borderline misanthropic person who str...

Status Report

Hey folks! I'm here to provide an update on what's going on, what's been going on and what's about to be.

You've probably noticed the slowdown in new chapters; those who are active on my discord server are also likely aware I have been struggling through a particularly bad depressive episode recently. I'm pleased to report that the latter has broken and I have my ability to think and ac...

Attack of the Return of the Revenge of the Brain-Eating Weevils

Hey folks.

I find myself once again at a place it seems like I've been too many times before. Specifically, the place where I recognize how many times I've been here before and what I have to do about it, that as usual I really don't want to even though long experience has taught me it's the only thing that works.

I still haven't managed to put out a new chapter because, at this po...

Progress update

Sorry for the long silence, everybody!

As I indicated previously, I took a break from new chapters to work on the TGAB manuscript, and that...did not go as I'd hoped. The project itself proved a lot more difficult and involved than I'd anticipated, and then just for flavor I had a flare-up of an old dental problem and a bad depressive episode right in the middle of it. The upshot of a...

H - 48: Tell Me

She should have gone to Dragonvale.

Cora’s week in Spiders Gorge had been productive; all her preparations there were laid, and should be undetectable to any passing adventurers. Nor had she taken so much as a scratch, being more than capable enough to handle colossus spiders. Even better, her shadowy ally had brought back some juicy intelligence from Dragonvale, surely en...

H - 47: Living Well is the Best Revenge

“I’m sorry I kept this from you, Izayaroa.”

Kaln had rarely put so much effort into his delivery, but the stakes here were far more than just maintaining his relationship with her. He made his voice a performance, but a subdued one: sincere, warm, and above all, calm. That was the crucial thing. The Entity wanted rage, pain, grief, and the dragons chomping at the bit t...

H - 46: The Truth Reflects Well on You

“You know Kaln as a smooth talker and a people-pleaser,” the shadow declaimed while they all pushed their will against the force of its words. “Now, I know we’re none of us on intimate terms, but I’m willing to bet that some of you can’t help reacting with contempt to that, even as others have quickly learned to appreciate it. But you know what I think? <...

H - 45: The Tale of Ar-Kaln Zelekhir

Kaln had lived through enough moments in his life in which everything fell apart that he was practically a connoisseur of them. To his surprise, now that this one had arrived, he found that it wasn’t all that bad, to the point he was almost unsure what he’d been so worried about.

In the worst case…he still had all the power here. Which was not to say he didn’t now have some explai...

H - 44: You Tell Her

Kaln was not a fighter. Even in the rougher taverns he and the other scribes had sometimes frequented, he’d always been proud of his ability to talk his way out of fights with even the most drunk and aggressive dockworkers. So he’d simply never realized how liberating it felt to just haul off and punch someone in the face.

Especially if that someone was a dragon. Vanimax was right—t...

H - 43: Family Are the People You Find Yourself Stuck With

The toast was actually pretty good when separated from the charcoal; Kaln found the crispy texture of twice-cooked fluffy northern bread delightful, particularly when it was used in its intended purpose as a vector for butter and jam. The bacon was edible, once he showed Pheneraxa how to drain it. Percy didn’t have more than a nibble, but Pheneraxa was a carnivore and Kaln liked his food a li...

Having a rough time

Hey all, just checking in because it's been a while since I posted anything and I don't want y'all to think I disappeared or anything.

I'm having a flare-up of a long-standing dental problem that would cost way more than I can afford to have permanently fixed. So, once or twice a year, I get to spend two to six days or so in excruciating pain for no good reason. That itself is pretty di...

H - 42: Do You Not Have Toast

“Good morning!”

“Hello,” Percy answered with less enthusiasm, emerging carefully into the kitchen where Kaln was making breakfast.

“Help yourself, I’m just finishing up here,” he said, scraping eggs around the pan with a wooden spoon—the pan handle glittering with jewels, the spoon made from an extinct tree and inlaid with silver. “I have pears sliced up over there...

H - 41: So She Would Be Safe

It did not matter how somber the mood in the palace or the city of Boisverd was—it mattered even less how the Queen suffered. There was work to be done, there was a nation dependent upon her. To be royal was to be responsible.

This view was not universally held among the household, but that was fine. What mattered was that she held it, that she would not forsake her duty t...

H - 40: Why Would You Even Have Something Like That

“I didn’t say it was a long story,” she said defensively.

“No, but you said it was funny,” Kaln snapped. “Do I look amused?”

Vadaralshi twisted her head to an angle, studying him. “Little bit? But I figured your face was just shaped that way. You’re a smiley kind of guy.”

He turned a cold shoulder to her, staring out across the formerly green ...

H - 39: Go Easy on Him

“Yes, that sounds fine,” Emeralaphine said vaguely, waving a claw at him without looking up from her books. Kaln had never seen enchanting being done before, and the spectacle was fascinating: she had one volume centered on a table, with the others waiting off to one side, and surrounding it was a veritable constellation of afterimages, glowing and translucent versions of different facets a...

H - 38: Suck it Up

“I’m glad you’re gratified,” Kaln snapped. “And yes, I am being glib, but also genuinely. However, I asked you a question to which I need an answer!”

Tiavathyris’s smile faded. He could feel the shifting torrent of emotion in her… And after a moment’s consideration, deliberately backed away from that perception. Kaln was willing to leverage hi...

H - 37: Feel Better?

He stormed out through the front corridor, gratuitously scraping his claws against the Timestone. It was so much nicer now that it was clean. In that moment, he hated it.

Vanimax burst out onto the landing and paused, flaring his wings and swiveling his neck about in momentary uncertainty. Not that there was anything out here to confuse him, but… He just had no idea what t...

H - 36: The Simplest Thing Then Would Be to Just Kill You

“I don’t…think my life is in danger,” Perseverance said slowly, frowning, then suddenly glanced around the room and grimaced. “I mean, um, at home, not…you know. I mean… I do not believe my family would have me killed. But, um… There are other ways to get rid of an inconvenient princess. And…I don’t know how it is in Rhivaak, but in Boisverd even the r...

H - 35: This is Absolutely Hideous

It was really consistent with how this day was going that he didn’t get two steps before the next interruption.

“I hope you are not considering acceding to that…insane request, husband.”

Tiavathyris’s tone was notably flatter than usual. Kaln stopped in his tracks and turned to find her staring directly at him, the tip of her tail lashing in restrained agitat...

H - 34: The Balls on This Girl

This was a disaster in so many obvious ways that for a second Kaln was frozen, his mind locked up as he tried to simultaneously parse everything that was definitely going to go wrong as a result of this. What jarred him out of it was Izayaroa, who began stalking forward toward her son with a snarl of animal fury unlike anything Kaln had yet seen her display.

And Vanimax somehow chose ...