Writing Prompts

[novius]

If someone does go the sappy romance novel route, it absolutely must be the old-school type with the Fabio covers. Bonus points if it leads to her acting completely out of character for a while just because she believes what she reads is true and that's how humans act.

ROFL - too good to pass up! Definitely a keeper! Hmmm... given that cover you linked, perhaps Ellen was a bit of a kinkmistress.... I wonder what it would do to Beryl's sweet innocent mind...

[orion1836]

lol, fixed the link. Meant to link the whole article, not one particular cover. Given their situation, #25 might be more appropriate.

[Warringrose]

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Stillstorm: "I want you to trust me!"

Alex: "Well, that will take a while, considering your past actions. However with time and shared respect I'm sure we can form a relationship that will last the ages and bridge the gaps between our two peoples-"

Stillstorm: "PSYCH! I was only foolin! I only wanted to deceive you for my own ends!"

Alex: "..."

Nice chapter, keep up the good work.

[Werra]

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Stillstorm: I lied about having lied. Get naked!

[Siber]

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Stillstorm: "I want you to trust me!"

Alex: "Well, that will take a while, considering your past actions. However with time and shared respect I'm sure we can form a relationship that will last the ages and bridge the gaps between our two peoples-"

Stillstorm: "PSYCH! I was only foolin! I only wanted to deceive you for my own ends!"

Alex: "..."

I must admit having some misgivings about Stillstorm being so deceptive. I'm not sure she actually lied if you examine in detail, but I'm not sure that's a technicality she'd lean on.

Mild misgivings, mind you.

[dragoongfa]

@Siber

"Words are tools of deception", I don't put it beyond Stillstorm to lie using words because in her mind words are used for exactly that.

Also, my part is done. It's huge. Hope you guys enjoy it. I am off to sleep and I will try to clean it up tomorrow.

[novius]

@Siber

"Words are tools of deception", I don't put it beyond Stillstorm to lie using words because in her mind words are used for exactly that.

Also, my part is done. It's huge. Hope you guys enjoy it. I am off to sleep and I will try to clean it up tomorrow.

Beautiful piece. Dibs on the next part - and just to say it beforehand, they won't have a go at each other in the baths, they'd just relax. Perhaps even with Alex thinking over the combat training exercises, and the issues he faced.... and then he promised Tempo some clarification about Stillstorm's comment on the bridge.

[Werra]

Great job, dragoongfa. I did notice that you wrote Tempo where you should have written Talon once. And doesn't the Wave Loom not require switching off the engines?

In any case, I am looking forward to the further plot developments.

@Stillstorm
I write her pretty deceptive, I admit. But...she is the most succesful Raider and has been fighting a war for 25 years. Deception is such a big part of war, that she has to have a good grasp on it. She just identified Alex as a natural at it.

Let's see where this latest development leads to.

[dragoongfa]

I don't think I mistook Tempo with Talon, I mentioned Tempo because of their dinner date and Talon because of their time in their baths. From the insider the Wave Loom requires main power to be diverted over several minutes in the same way as charging the jump drive (using the same accumulators as well). The ship however must be able to maneuver and even accelerate during jump so this means that the engines must be operational while the Wave Loom is charging; so I took the liberty of assuming that no other weapons are allowed to fire while it charges and maybe the ship must be holding back on the acceleration while doing so.

The ship is already a glass cannon as it stands with its sub par screens and armor, if we also completely cut the ability to maneuver while the main gun is charging for several minutes then we have to ask WTF the designers were thinking when they came up with this death trap.

[Werra]

Well, Tempest is the last of its class and Stillstorm annoys both the enemy and her superiors with her ability to not die. These ships were built in a time of desperation and rushed out. Your reasoning about maneuvering while jumping is sound though. I hadn't considered that.

Plus the Legend of Tempest is about a Loroi warrior being betrayed and put to seemingly certain death only to return and slaughter her former nation after making a pact with spirits.

SpoilerShow

Might become an actual plot point in chapter 6 or so.

I also took the liberty of changing a bit of dialogue, to make it better fit with your part.

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After a few seconds of silence, a reliefed Alex spoke again. „I must say Commander, you really had me there. I thought Loroi to be always direct and truthful. Your trick caught me totally by surprise.“

Stillstorm barked out a sharp laugh as an answer. Then she fixed Alex up with a stare.

„That was payback for making me belief it really wanted an ecnounter with me after Gora Relay. So I gave it some ideas of my own to consider, too. A simple matter since the advantages of Sanzai with perfect Lotai are apparent.“

Stillstorm had just admitted to having such thoughts about him, realised Alex. Thoughts, she knew, he'd also now have and couldn't act upon without looking like an ass. Strange how this Loroi time and again managed to make him feel played.

[dragoongfa]

And yes, I had mistyped Tempo instead of Talon at a part, I corrected it now.

[Werra]

You almost gaslighted me.

[entity2636]

Now that the Shells have lost their admiral, probably all hell's going to break loose. Chaos is to be expected at first, while they figure out their chain of command, but after that we can be sure they will throw everything and the kitchen sink at the 51st that now is alone. Good stuff, guys!

[Werra]

Oh, the shells will surely strike back. Their leadership problems will dissolve once the commander from the battle at Sala-128 reestablishes contact.

Speaking of which, what Torrai is leading the fleet in Sala - 128? It should be Stillstorms direct superiour. That might be interesting.

[dragoongfa]

That will be Torrai Tazites Duskcrown (picked the name from the insider, hopefully Duskcrown is the canonical commander of Tinza sector). The way I picture it the command issues will be resolved when the Umiak commander in general command of the operation (the Stray) gets in contact with the forces in Enedd but they probably won't do that before the remnants of the sector fleet make a breakthrough for Enedd and Nezel.

[Werra]

I think Duskcrown will turn out to be commander of Tinza sector. Why else would she be the example in the Insider?

Not so sure about the Stray being the Umiak in overall command. While we can definitely consider him to be for our purposes, he seems to be more Stillstorms opponent than member of high command in the comic.

I am looking forward to Stillstorm getting in trouble for keeping an alien around and privy to military secrets. (that thing about manipulating direct orders may come up again)

[entity2636]

I second the opinion that Klicky is likely not the overall Shell commander, rather someone on Stillstorm's level (her personal nemesis, so to speak), but he certainly is important to the story and should thus be important for this expanded universe story too.

As for the Tinza sector fleet

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whichever direction you guys have planned to take it, is perfectly fine by me as a reader and fan, however, I could see the Tinza fleet and the reserve fleet having been surrounded and almost destroyed in the battle for Sala-128 and admiral Duskcrown dead. Seeing how hopelessly outgunned they are she would have gone out in one final blaze of glory in typical loroi fashion. If the two strike groups manage to get the Tinza fleet remains back to Enedd, Stillstorm might find herself in overall command and having all the sector defense now dumped onto her. That would be a good internal conflict for her in a "I never asked for this" kind of manner. After all, while not having an acute death wish, she is jaded as can be and has pretty much written herself off as it is - she has made enemies in the government and High Command that want her dead and her military career is effectively at an end. Now, I don't remember where exactly, but I remember reading that Stillstorm lost both (?) of her daughters, with whom she was apparently very close, in the war and revenging them is the sole thing that keeps her going (and Tempo, assigned to watch over her to keep her from doing something stupid).

[dragoongfa]

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I am leaning onto about 50% to 60% loses with the numbers taken from this post here: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/vie ... 035#p31035

So at best 3 to 4 divisions still left after disengaging from Sala-128 with 1 more division left at Nezel as a reserve. In my head I planned to have Duskcrown still alive but both Soshrets that went to Sala-128 to have died, for some political drama and to have her promote Stillstorm to Soshret after some much needed explaining.

This is because the seven divisions that jumped to Sala-128 didn't immediately go there because of a dire need of replenishment and ship reshuffling due to casualties sustained, so they lost some extra time doing that, I would say about a day, day and a half. Until the arrival of these seven divisions the fighting at Sala-128 should have been somewhat balanced with about 7 to 8 Loroi divisions against 9 divisions which are led by the Stray. After the arrival of the reinforcement things would go to hell really fast but in my estimates the numbers should align. I planned to put Umiak loses in Sala-128 to 4 or 5 divisions.

P.S. I plan to have this offensive be the tip of the spear that wasn't detectable via farsense, the shaft that is detectable is on the way. And there have to be probing attacks underway throughout the Seren front, not the numbers arrayed against Tinza but enough to keep the main fleets busy.

[Zarya]

Callipygian, to describe Fireblade’s rear end, a word to remember

[dragoongfa]

I wondered when someone would pick that up

Seriously I at first thought of just writing statuesque but it was too formal for a situation that asked for just a little more awkwardness