Ninth Suture

I thought it’d be funny to share this disaster with you all–partly to illustrate WHY I didn’t update on Friday, and partly to show you that I wasn’t fibbing about my numbers.  By the by, this is TERRIBLE.  But the ending is sorta funny-terrible.  Bad as in good.  (Also, bad as in what the FUCK was I thinking!?)

Also…got a second?  Take the Eikasia survey, so that I know who the heck I’m writing to and what you like!

THE FOLLOWING IS NOT CANON. (It’s not even edited!)  These are deleted scenes from the bonus update Tooth and Nail, available now!  Have fun reading…

NYX____________________________

By the second week, the girl felt her role in the house trampled upon.  She was used to being the one to help her mother with Atalo and matters of the kitchen.  She was used to her mother smiling at her in thanks, of her mother asking for her opinion for dinner, of her mother trusting her with important errands.
“I got it, Nyx,” Her older brother told her as he took the sack of vegetables from her and lugged it into the daikut one cool and windy afternoon.
The girl slouched in after him.  She’d carried the bag all by herself from the market–had even found the best ears of corn at a good price.  But even for all her efforts, who was her mother turning to with those grateful smiles?
“I can do it myself, y’know…” she mumbled. “I’ve been doing it all by myself since you were gone!”
But these words went unnoticed.  Nyx sat at the table as she glared at Thaddeus’ back.  The teenager was busy talking with her mother about esoteric adult things.  Her mother, meanwhile, was working on a cake for the evening.  She’d just gotten started.
Atalo looked up at Thaddeus from the kitchen table.  Gripped in his grubby hand was a pencil and a sheet of paper scrawled with messy sentences.  His Navi had assigned the five-year-old extra practice in penmanship as the boy was terrible at it.  “Koen, how do you spell ‘Tosmai’?” he asked.  Thaddeus didn’t seem to hear him–his conversation with his mother seemed to touch onto a sensitive note that had both frowning.
Nyx looked at Atalo.  He used to ask her for help.  The ire in her heart created a mischievous idea.  Before Atalo could press for Thad’s attention, the girl began to spell out a word.  “C-a-j-e-c-k.”
Atalo rushed to copy the letters down.  He finished writing the word before he stopped and rolled his eyes upward in thought.  The girl forgot her sullenness long enough to smirk at her brother as he sounded the word out in his head.  His face grew pink and he twisted around in his chair.  “A-maaa!”
The girl hopped off her chair and ran out the door.  “Atalo is a cajeck!  Atalo is a cajeck!” her amusement was lukewarm, and mingled with a desperation for release.  Teasing her little brother made her feel better, but not much.
The boy chased after her, brandishing the pencil lividly.  “No, you!”  He stopped in the doorway and threw his pencil at her, but it fell yards short.
Nyx stopped running and turned around to stick her tongue out at the boy.
Shouting came from within the daikut.  In the next instant, her mother appeared in the doorway, flour on her chin and her beautiful face drawn up in a hard frown.  She brandished a wooden spoon at Nyx.  “Get back in this house!”
Now the girl’s face went blank as her mind debated what to do.  Her ear started to hurt just at the thought of her mother’s punitive hands.  Then Thaddeus appeared behind Fotini.  He frowned at her.
“Nyx, listen to A-ma!” he snapped.
This settled it for her.
“No!” She screamed, tiny fists clenching at her sides.  “You’re not my father! A-pa is gone!”
Fotini came outside, her face red.  “Child, you are shaming us.  Stop making a scene in front of all these good people!”
Nyx looked around, suddenly conscious of the eyes that followed her.  Some of their neighbors were even poking their heads out of their homes to see what the commotion was.  The girl swallowed and stared down at the ground, her eyes tearing up.
Thaddeus had come out too, but whereas her mother seemed only angry–he looked livid.
“She won’t listen A-ma, she’s a stubborn brat,” he seethed as he stalked toward her.  “It’s all those stupid books you let her read!”
Nyx started to tremble and backpedaled away.  Thaddeus sprinted forward.  The girl squealed and turned into a sprint of her own.
“I may not be A-pa, but I can damn well beat you like he would!” he shouted, hands snatching.
…What the teenager didn’t know, however, was that Nyx had become the fastest runner in her age group while he was away–mostly because the local children had taken to beating her up whenever the desire struck them.  She’d learned all she needed from them on how to effectively slip away from an oncoming threat, and her mind immediately saw her chance in the form of an ox-pulled cabbage cart.  The driver had stopped on the side of the road to watch the exchange, and his eyes widened as he realized the girl’s intention.
Nyx dropped into a slide, zipping beneath the cart.  Thaddeus had expected the girl to slow down, and he shouted in surprise as he skidded to a halt before it.  His sister, meanwhile, resumed her sprint with little pause or stop in motion.
She ran until Tosmai was behind her.  She ran until all she saw was forest…
—————————-
Nyx wandered, her stomach grumbling beneath her shirt as the wind nipped at her.  The trees rustled.  She traveled to the west, and slowly she recognized the make of the forest.  The oaks and buckeyes shaded the suns from her, so she wasn’t sure of the time.  She knew there to be a lake nearby, however, and followed the unmarked path until the forest thinned.
The seven-year-old turned her eyes skyward.  It was late afternoon.  Evening would be upon her in an hour or two.  The girl kicked at a rock, squinting at the glittering lake.  She didn’t want to go home, for fear of what would happen.
“I must be a bad person,” the girl thought glumly.  “I’m always causing trouble for A-ma.  Why can’t I be good?”
The girl walked around the edge of the lake slowly.  She thought about going for a swim, but it was windy and chilly, and she hadn’t brought anything to dry herself with.  It wasn’t until she’d walked a fourth of the way around that she saw a figure on the other side.  The girl squinted trying to get a better look at them, but the suns made the lake bright and the person was drawn up in the shade of the trees.  Nyx continued walking, her eyes trained on the stranger until she could make them out.
Then her face brightened with a smile.
“Marq!  Marq!”
Emerging from the shade was a tall elven man with short lilac hair dressed in a worn out poncho, beige canvas pants, and leather shoes.  He had a cleft chin, slashes for eyebrows, and a pinched nose.  He grinned lopsidedly.
“Ah, the kitten finds me!” he exclaimed in Ailuran, extending both arms.
Nyx giggled and crashed into him, hugging around the waist.  He smelled like wine and dust.  “You’re back!” she cried, speaking in Common instead.
“Yes, yes, or we wouldn’t be able to achieve this incredible reunion!” he returned similarly.  “I suppose you won’t let me practice my Ailuran, eh?”
“Me first!” she said, pulling back.  Arranging the Common in her head, Nyx cleared her throat and folded her hands behind her back–a habit from her lessons.  “‘Hark, hark, the Stars that streak the dark!  The gods have cast them down in rage, these Stars have lived on past their age, the night turns grave and stark!’”
Marq smiled at her bemusedly.  “Very good, kitten, but isn’t that a bit…depressing?”
Nyx frowned at him. “What does it mean?  I found it in the last book you gave me.”
The elf tugged on his ear.  He looked embarrassed.  “Oh,” he waved it away.  “Never you mind.  It was just…that rhyme was of the fall of Legends…but you weren’t born yet.”  He smiled and rubbed her shoulder.  “That’s a good thing.  Those were sad times.”
The girl blinked, but nodded.  “Oh.  Okay.”
Marq pointed toward the trees, where his large back of merchandise sat waiting.  “Would you like to see what I’ve got today?”
Nyx looked down at the ground sadly.  “I have no money…”
“That’s alright.  This one time, I can let you have something for free.  You’re one of my best customers!”  The elf gently guided the girl to his bag as Nyx squealed happily.
“By the by, your accent is getting better.” Marq pulled his bag to him as they both knelt in the shade of the oak tree.
“I’ve been practicing!” Nyx said, preening.
Marq chuckled as he set out a number of books onto the grass.
Nyx frowned as she appraised the titles.
The Erminian Continent, The Life and Times of Edmund the Eerie, Alchemy in Daily Life, So You Want To Be A Demon Hunter, etc….
The girl picked up Alchemy in Daily Life.  It was a small book with barely over a hundred pages.  Each page seemed to consist of a short recipe for various potions.  It would be easy to hide, as she didn’t have a bag to put the book in–and she was certain her mother wouldn’t approve of her having it.  Thaddeus even less.
“Can I have this one?” Nyx asked, looking up.
Marq seemed to think about it.  “You won’t use it for anything bad will you?”
The girl glanced off to the side.  Then she looked back at the elf.  “Ah…No?”
The man seemed to think about it.  Then he shrugged.  “Alright!  So long as no one loses a limb, you can have it.”
Nyx beamed and hugged the man again.  “Thank you, Marq!”
Marq patted her head. “You’re welcome, little one.”
The girl stood.  Her smile faded as she glanced up at the sky again.  “I think I should get home now.”  She stuck the book down her shirt and hugged it to her chest.  She looked down at how she carried herself.  It looked like she was just covering from the wind.
“Would you like a little company?  I’m not going to Tosmai, but a girl could run into trouble in these woods.  Even a tough one like yourself.”  Marq winked.
Nyx shrugged.  “If you want to.”
The girl helped the elf gather his things, and together they walked along the lakeside.
“How’s your mother?” Marq asked.
Nyx glanced at him, still holding the book to her chest.  “Fine,” she mumbled.
The man quirked an eyebrow.  He adjusted the strap of his bag.  “And your brother Atalo?”
“Good.”
“That’s nice.”
“…Marq?”
“Yes, kitten?”
“Do you think I’m a bad person?”
Marq paused and frowned at her.  “Why do you ask that?”
Nyx shrugged and stared out toward the lake.
The man patted her shoulder.  “You’re a good girl.”
But the girl’s eyes darkened.  “Nobody else seems to think so…”
“Why do you think they feel this way?”  Nyx sighed and stared up at the sky.  Marq nudged her with his hand.  “Hmm?”
“Because,” the girl started haltingly.  “Because…I wanted things…to be the way I saw it…in my head.”
Here the man looked at her in confusion. “How do you mean?”
“I want things to be the right way,” Nyx said, scowling as she looked for the words in Common.  After a minute, she gave up and resumed her explanation in Ailuran.  “Did you know I have a mane when I Change?  Girls aren’t supposed to have manes.  Only boys do.  The other kids in the village pick on me because of it.”
Marq frowned at her.  “And this means that…things aren’t right?” he said this in Ailuran too.
Nyx sighed impatiently. “My brother Thad came home a week ago.  He’s been gone a whole year!  I wanted to look right.  I wanted to be good.  I’ve been helping A-ma as best I can, and even though the whole village thinks I’m trouble, I wanted to look right.”
Marq thought on this for a moment.  Then he nodded slowly.  “Ahh…you wanted your brother to believe in the good in you.  You thought he wouldn’t see this if you looked differently?”  The man smiled kindly.  “Didn’t you know that sometimes a therian’s animal form carries over traits?”
The girl looked at him funny.  “…Traits?”
Marq patiently explained.  “Traits are things that define how you look.  You have dark hair, I have light hair.  Like that.  Sometimes, there are therians who carry sapien traits over into their animal forms.  It doesn’t mean anything bad, kitten.  Just that you’re sapien side is very strong.”
Nyx had learned about the difference between her sapien self and her bestial self, but what Marq was trying to say just confused her further.  “That doesn’t sound normal!” she cried, face screwing up in anxiety.
The man held up his hands in alarm, as though that could stave off any sudden tears.  “Ah!  I’m sorry, little one!” He tugged at his ear.  “Um…perhaps this will change later?  I don’t think that sort of thing is permanent.”
But Nyx wasn’t put at ease.  She dropped into a fetal position.  “I really am a freak!” she wailed at the ground.
Marq gazed at her in discomfort.  He looked around as though hoping someone else would deal with the child, then he sighed heavily and sat down next to her.  A stream murmured as it filtered into the lake, and a bee buzzed somewhere close by.  The trees swayed as the wind came and whistled through the branches.
The elf put his arm around the girl’s shoulders.  Nyx meanwhile had ducked her face and was now crying silent tears, where they fell and dampened her knees and lap.
“Kitten…” Marq started.  “You seem to be quite torn up about this… I’m sorry to have upset you.  Would…would you like another book from my bag?  I’ll give it to you absolutely free!” He smiled weakly.
Nyx shook her head.  “No,” she mumbled.  “It’ll be…be harder to hide two books.”
“Hide?”
The girl’s face crumpled as she raised her head and looked at the man.  “I have to hide this book so that Thaddeus won’t destroy it.  He doesn’t like that I buy things from you.”  The girl wiped her nose on her sleeve, sniffling.  She scowled at the water.  “I wish I could hide too.  Forever.  I cause too much trouble.  I just make everybody angry, but I don’t know how not to…”
Marq’s brows pressed together.  He squeezed the girl’s shoulder, and neither said a word for a long time.
——————————–
Marq parted ways with her when they were almost to Tosmai.
“Chin up, kitten,” he said as he waved goodbye.  “No matter what, your family loves you.”
The girl watched him go before resuming the rest of the way herself.  She paused briefly on the outskirts of the village to tuck her book away beneath an old crate.  She meant to come back for it later.
Nyx cut through the village square, hurrying as the suns neared the tips of the northern mountains.  Shadows grew longer, swallowing her up to the waist.  The girl wondered how severe her punishment would be once she was home.  As the girl went, she saw Taila carrying a large bag in her arms.
“Nyx!” the girl called, “Hey, Nyx!”
Nyx reluctantly slowed as Taila jogged to her.  She smiled at her, pushing her bag up with her knee. “Hey, y’know Thad was looking for you?”
“I bet,” Nyx said with a sigh.
Taila tilted her head to the side.  “Trouble, huh?”
Nyx didn’t answer, just gazed down at her shoes.
The other girl set her bag down onto the ground with a sigh.  “Here, take this home with you.”
Nyx frowned as Taila handed her a small drawstring bag from her larger bag.  “Do you have alot of these in there?” she asked.
“No, silly.  Those are expensive herbs.  I have another one for my A-ma.  It’s her birthday this week.”
“Are you sure?” Nyx said anxiously.  The bag smelled oddly, like smoke, but there was something seeping through the weave…
“Of course!”  Taila straightened, grunting as she lifted her bag again.  It clinked and jingled as it moved. “That is certain to take the edge off.  If not for your family, then for yourself!” The girl chuckled.
Nyx frowned.  “…What is this?”
“Like I said.  Herbs,” the girl’s look turned serious.  “But don’t go stuffing that up your nose willy-nilly.  It could make you sick!”
“Taila, I don’t know about this…”
“Gotta go, Nyx.  We should go swimming one of these days.  Sound good?”
“Uh, sure–I mean–wait!  This bag–”
“Great!”  Taila was off already, all smiles.  “Bye!”
Nyx stared after her, the bag of herbs gripped uncertainly in her hand.  “Um…okay, bye.”
————————
She stood outside her home, the bag of herbs gripped behind her back, and her shoulders hunched around her ears.  She felt like a criminal facing death.  Inside, she heard voices.  More arguing…Nyx looked at the ground sadly.  Just because things hadn’t gone her way, she’d made a fuss, and now there was fighting in her house.  The girl hated it when her family didn’t get along.
Trembling, she went to the door and opened it.
The voices stopped as she appeared in the doorway, eyes wide like saucers.  Thaddeus and Fotini appeared to have been in the middle of another one of their arguments.  Atalo sat watching, blank-faced from the hallway, his knees drawn up to his chest.
Nyx stepped into the house all the way and shut the door.  She held up the bag and swallowed loudly.
Thaddeus started after her, and chaos broke loose.  The daikut was small, but so was Nyx, and she dodged her brother’s first lunge with fast reflexes.  Fotini shouted for order, but Thaddeus seemed set on punishing Nyx just for his own satisfaction.  The girl dove first beneath the table, but her brother tossed aside the chairs to get at her.  Next, she tried to keep the table between them, but Thaddeus just vaulted over it.  They seemed to go around in circles, Fotini crying shrilly for them both to stop.  Nyx’s only solution seemed to be running to her room and locking herself in, but a spill on the floor–likely from her mother’s cooking–sent her crashing onto her back.  Thaddeus finally caught her, grabbing the front of her robes, his broad face crimson.
Nyx stared at him wildly when she remembered the bag of herbs in her hand.  Quickly, she pulled the bag open with her teeth and tossed the contents of the bag into the air.  Herbs and fine dust fell about them in a cloud.  One inhale of the stuff sent the seven-year-old into a coughing fit.  Her mind flickered briefly to a page she had scanned from her new alchemy book, back when she’d been looking at Marq’s books.
“Catnip – a plant that has a strong affect on cats–both domestic and wild.  Also said to affect Ailurans.”
Thaddeus dropped her.  Her entire family was sent into a coughing fit.  As the girl fell over onto the ground, her eyes rolling, she started to giggle.
Thaddeus growled and punched the floor.  “You…what did you…!?” he snorted, as though trying to contain a laugh.
“Catnip!” Nyx chirped.  “A girl gave me a bag, and—ha!  Ha, ha!  I didn’t know, I swear!”
Atalo also started to giggle, and soon Fotini joined in the laughter.  The night became a haze, but Nyx recalled her family playing catch with something they weren’t supposed to, then using the kitchen table to make a fort with their pillows and blankets.
————————–
Morning came.  Nyx groaned and sat up, holding her head.  “I don’t feel good!” she whined.
“None of us do!” Her mother’s voice.  The woman was hugging the girl from behind.  Nyx stared around in confusion.  Were they under the kitchen table?  And was that her blanket they had draped over it…?
“A-ma?”
“Mmm?”
“…Are you mad at me?”
The woman raised her head to glare at her daughter with bloodshot eyes.  Thaddeus appeared behind her, looking similarly disheveled and ill.  “In a word, yes,” her mother stated dryly.  “You covered the entire house in catnip.”
“And there’s cake on the ceiling,” Atalo announced happily outside of the makeshift fort.

Okay, I’ve been on a polling binge lately. I think I did…what, three or four this year alone? But this one takes care of alot of my questions in one big swipe. There’s still one more I wanna do after this one–to find out which is the most popular bonus story, but I’ll put that one out once I finish the last three bonus stories. (maybe even after the fourth one–yes! You guys earned ONE MORE because Eikasia reached 92 fans on Facebook!)

So here’s the survey. If you guys could take a minute to fill this out for me, it’d really help me get a sense of what you guys think about Eikasia, and it could even lead to some significant changes for the story and the website–so please be honest!

This is a sidebar of sorts that I’ve been meaning to do for a while now.  The bonus story “Short Term Solutions” is a good example, but so is “High Walls, Small Gates”.  What do I mean?  What is apparent in these stories that would require me to “explain myself”?  If you don’t know, then it probably isn’t that big a deal.  If you do know, then you’re the reason I’m writing this.

Racism, sexism, and homophobia.

Eikasia is, before anything else, a fantasy adventure (surprise!)  But close behind that, it is a romance story.  The primary couple, as you clever chickens know, are homosexual.  Interestingly enough, these characters are in the minority.  Nevertheless, this doesn’t change the fact that the majority of my readers are either gay, lesbian, bisexual, transexual, or LGBT supporters.

So what the hell am I thinking, saying such electric and razor-sharp words like “queer, homo, and dyke?”  The same reason I have characters that refer to dark-skinned races as “darkies and mud men.”  The same reason I have women who think men “have to be a certain way” and men who think “women should be a certain way.”  Just because I as a writer am very open-minded, that does not mean my characters will be.  For some, this could change, for others this may not.  But that’s just how it goes.  In fact, I can say flat out that the only two characters out of the entire Eikasia cast that is completely open minded (atleast with relation to what I’ve stated above) are Lethia and Nyx.  That’s it.  Every other character has some opinion, some prejudice, and some attitude that someone, somewhere, would surely find very insulting.

To address the matter more specifically, I’ll talk about the attitudes seen in “Short Term Solutions”:

Fanaea is a patriarchal society, so a lot of the power and respect goes to the head man of the family.  Hakeem, as you all have seen, isn’t like this–partly because he was torn out of traditional Fanaean life at a young age, and also because of his close relationship with Quincy.  When frustrated with his wife, however, he draws on the only examples of problem solving he has–which come from his father and uncle, who had complete control over their household.  As a patriarchal society, Fanaea looks down on gay men, seeing them as weak and a result of decaying morals.  Lesbians aren’t appreciated either, but homosexuality in men tends to produce a stronger reaction.  Thus, in “Short Term Solutions” we see the prejudices that both Quincy and Hakeem grew up with come forth.  Karolek comes from Gulley, and this Talmorian city-state is known for its fair share of misogyny as well.  Furthermore, as many of you may or may not be noticing–Fanaeans tend to see alot of racism.  Their dark skin and their traditions has them labeled by other societies as savage or brutish.  We know that isn’t true, but do the characters know this…?  That is one thing I have to ask myself when matters of race crop up.

The same goes for speciesism (in this case understood to be hatred and prejudice of other species, but we’re talking about things some readers may actually have to deal with in real life, and I doubt many of you get picked on for being a human… )

Elmiryn herself has been shown to have a less than PC way of talking about her own sexuality, and this is simply a by-product of her society.  Her attitude about being a lesbian can sometimes be seen as flippant, even if this isn’t really true.  This is partly because her society treated her homosexual behavior as something “not serious”.  That she was only doing it because, “She’s a descendant of Diokles.”  While the woman has no qualms in stating her preferences, she gets annoyed when faced with the question of whether or not she’s “serious” about it, or “actually in love”.  As is her usual tactic when faced with something she dislikes–either she makes fun of it, pretends its not there, or she kicks its ass.

In the coming update, we’ll be given an intimate look of what Elmiryn’s childhood was like (I bet you guys are excited!)  You can expect to see more of the “touchy subjects” surfacing, but just keep in mind that while I’m doing a fantasy story, I’m choosing realistic societies over idealistic.

Till next time!

The bonus update is currently at some 5000 words for this week.  Sorry for the tardiness.  But I made some fun updates to the Eikasia website!  Here’s a list of what I’ve done:

+Replaced story titles with Eikasia cover images (these are larger versions of the thumbnails seen in the header).  Check out Part 1 and Part 2‘s covers!

+Updated the cast page:  new information for Nyx, Quincy, Hakeem, Graziano, Paulo, Arduino, and Lethia–also added Farrel, Karolek, Jetswick, and Syria.

+Added five new links to links page; fixed the tiny text next to banners. Added Eikasia banners for linkage!

+Updated the setting page:  only 3 locations left to fill in for the Sibesonan continent.  Added short description for Crysen under “Talmor.”  Added the words “animus, Lunenn, Thomin’s Calendar, The Sacred Five of the Lunar Hall” to general terms.  Added new category “Languages in Eikasia”: includes phrases from Ailuran, Fanaean, Elven, and Santian–will become more comprehensive as time goes on.  Decided to add my rough draft of a map, made back in…what, February of this year?

Goals:

Finish Sibesona locations on The Setting page.

Add character thumbnails to The Cast page.

Finish editing chapter 2 (yikes, I’m so behind!)

The update will be up this weekend!  Promise!  Till next time everyone.

EIKASIA PART 2: IN SIGHT, IN MIND IS NOW FINISHED!!

Read the finale here, now!

….And THEN come back and read this post, because I don’t want to ruin anything for you.  :P

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So I’m now assuming you’ve read the update.  I imagine you’ve dug up your pitchforks and torches.

Um, yeah sorry about that cliffhanger.

Will it help you to know that you’ll be getting the five bonus update topics you guys all asked for while you wait for me to finish my edits of Part 1 (and hopefully Part 2)?  I’ve been putting those off for far too long, and I have a backlog of notes a mountain high from kind folks that bothered to help my sorry behind.  I figure getting that done before I start Part 3: Blackwood, will be as good a time as any.  Otherwise, I’ll never get around to it, and that’ll suck.  So…!

I figure I’ll knock out those bonus topics as this process goes on.  I think it’ll take a little over a month.  If you’ll recall, minimum word count for bonus topics will be 2000, though that doesn’t mean I won’t go over this!  I considered doing a Tobias Intermission story as well, like the Wind and the Web, but it may seem messy and unnecessary next to the bonus stories.  We’ll see, though.  I might just do a one-shot post.

Now that I’ve prattled on about the future of the site, let me address the death of Graziano.

I didn’t want to do it.

And by that, I mean, I loved his character.  I wanted to find excuses to keep him in the story–possibly even add him as a main character.  But as I thought about the end of Part 2, and the way the events would unfold…I realized he would die.  Some writers may be familiar with this phenomenon, and I call it that because it brought tears to my eyes.  Maybe that wasn’t quite your reaction, but it sure as hell was mine.  Graziano is dead, and he isn’t coming back.  This is what happens when a characters story is revealed to a writer, versus being “created”.  It’s just a concept, and doesn’t need to be taken literally, but just understand that the most natural path for me was this, and that is what I chose.  It hadn’t been my original intention to have Elmiryn sit out of the final fight, or for Lethia to end up unconscious next to Paulo, but those things happened because I don’t try to wrestle the soul out of my own story.

While you wonder about the fate of Paulo, and hell, everyone else, just try and keep in mind that the story tends to evolve even as I try to keep it contained within a certain path.  Anything goes.  I’ve surprised even myself.  Never would I have guessed that Eikasia would have grown as much as it did, but here we are almost two years later and Part 2 is complete.  Things are only getting started folks, mark my words!

Until next time!

So the showdown is over!  You guys voted for over a month to choose the next five topics for bonus updates.  First place winner and second place winner were tied, so I played tie-breaker.  The way it goes is first place shall be the first side-story I write, then second place, then third, and so on.  Without further ado here’s the winners and the order in which they’ll be provided:

1. “Quincy and Hakeem’s first bounty–Kollin, the rogue alchemist–also an important lesson on the role of linguistic prescriptivism in magic, and the sudden danger of rabid gerbils.”
2. “Elmiryn’s childhood–Training, itchy dresses, and first love.”
3. “Nyx’s childhood–Elves, lakes, and eating cake off the ceiling.”
4. “How Nyx was chased out of the northwestern part of the Sibesona–also why she’s afraid of dogs.”
5. “Batrengs are bastards–How Lethia met Argos, and how the dog learned not to underestimate Albian wildlife.”

Expect the first update to come sometime after Eikasia Chapter 18 is finished! Till next time everyone.

Hello everyone.

So I thought I’d do a short post updating you all on where my life is at and where it’s currently heading.  Also some updates about my plans for Eikasia for the future.

Yesterday’s update marked the end of yet another hiatus.  What the heck was I doing that entire time?  Relaxing and spending time with the person I love, letting the summer bug take over me, and preparing for major events that were coming up.  Also brainstorming.  Lots of brainstorming.  But I’ll get to that in a sec.

I went on a bit of a trip where I got to visit Sea World, the San Diego Wild Animal Park, and see Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” at the Old Globe Theatre at Balboa Park.  I also had the great fortune of being able to go to LA’s 2010 Anime Expo, where I stocked up on Anime DVD’s and other such goodies.  There I managed to meet with Zelda Wang and commissioned her for some black and white artwork of Elmiryn, which you guys get to preview in the new Eikasia trailer I made.

After my trip, I had less than a week to rest up before I was off to Long Beach for an SGI youth festival being held at the Long Beach Arena.  The SGI (or Sokka Gakkai International) is a Nichiren Buddhist organization for lay believers.  There, I performed with thousands of youth to show the world the strength of my life condition as a bodhisattva.  I participated in the taiko performance, which had nearly 300 members.  Here’s the video of our performance–I’d point myself out, but I dunno where I am.  I CAN tell you that I played the second portion of the song, where you see the members switch:

But whilst I was doing all of these amazing things, I was thinking of Eikasia–thinking on how I could expand the setting, on how I could push the characters farther, about how I could work up premium content and provide it in a way that people would be willing to pay.  The poll regarding premium content is still open, so if you haven’t voted yet, please do so!  You can find the poll in Eikasia’s sidebar.  I’ve jumped the gun a bit and have begun the process of creating and commissioning bonus material that you’d all like to see.  This’ll bring about some changes in the dynamic of the site, but I want everyone to understand that Eikasia will, and shall always be, free and available to read!  One more thing:  Tomorrow the poll regarding the bonus updates (you can find it in my previous post on Ninth Suture) closes at midnight, so if you haven’t voted yet, it’s not too late!

In the future, I was hoping to hold an open contest for guest stories.  There’d be cash prizes, so it’ll be a fairly huge thing.  I haven’t yet worked up the rules for it, and here’s why:  I have still have yet to finish Eikasia’s setting page.  Why does that matter?  Because the writing contest will be to see who can write the best story WITHIN the Eikasia universe!  More details on that later once I have everything set.

Last note–if you haven’t already take a look at Eikasia’s new trailer.  Please be kind and send this to your friends, family, enemies, whatever!

Sorry for the choppy post.  I just wanted to touch base with everyone without the inane rambling.  I hope you all are doing very well, and if you haven’t already, go read Chapter 17.4–the next chapter shall be the last for In Sight, In Mind!  How exciting!

I’m more than halfway done with the Elmiryn bonus update, which means it’s time to start voting for the next side story. But seeing as how I have FIVE stories I owe you guys, I thought I’d try something fun. This…is a battle. The ultimate mega showdown of story topics my mind can cook up for you. Not only are there TWENTY TOPICS for you to choose from…you can vote MORE THAN ONCE. Yes! That’s right! This is a war to see the story of your choice make it to the top five topics for upcoming bonus updates.  Due to the magnitude of this poll, I’m opening it to everyone, not just Facebook fans.  The order in which these stories are made available will be determined by popular vote (meaning the first bonus update will be the one with the most votes, the second with the second-most votes, and so on).

YOU GET ONE VOTE EVERY 24 HOURS.

Choose your topics wisely. If you really want to see your favorite(s) chosen, focus on just one or two topics and dedicate all your votes to them.  Vote every single day.  Bug your friends to vote for you (and be kind enough to let them know about my story while you’re at it!) You have an entire month to fight for your topic(s) so give it your all!  Here’s the poll:

The poll ends on July 18th at Midnight (-8 GMT)

Okay ladies n’ germs, I wanted to let you guys know that this coming month of June and through the first half of July updates for Eikasia will be very irregular.  Lemme say that again:

THIS COMING MONTH OF JUNE AND THROUGH THE FIRST HALF OF JULY, UPDATES FOR EIKASIA WILL BE VERY IRREGULAR.

Meaning–they will still happen!  But I won’t be able to hit my usual Friday update, and I may not even manage an update every week.  However, there WILL be updates!  During that time, my focus will shift to getting a bonus update or two done.  Why the sudden pseudo-hiatus?  Because–it’s SUMMER!  And I actually have a lot of plans and hopes and determinations to meet in my personal life that will take me away from the steady stream of writing I’ve been doing.  Consider it preemptive burnout recovery…or something. Ha ha!  The timing of this is a bit funny because we’re so soon to finishing In Sight, In Mind–but if you’ll recall, I mentioned I had a bit of a plot error souring things up.  Along with focusing on bonus updates, I’ll be trying to edit and tighten up the story a bit.  I’ve been doing that a lot recently, here and there, changing sentences and fixing old typos and rewriting certain portions (a major one was for Chapter 1.1 this week, where I chopped up the first sentence and added a new paragraph. For a story, this is like plastic surgery on a person’s face)

Basically, we’ve been chugging along at anything between 40-60 mph story-wise.  Now we’re going to grind down to 5-10 mph so that I can fix up the site and handle the backlog of stories I owe you wonderful bastards.  Once I begin Part 3 I’m going to be making a major ad push to encourage new readers to join in.  I’ll likely do something to try and enlist everyone’s help.  I’ve already chosen a name for Part 3, but I won’t tell you all yet.  It’s going to be a short one.  If I don’t let things run away from me, than it’ll be no longer than 6-7 chapters.

So there’s my announcement/FYI/please-don’t-stone-me-I-swear-I’m-still-going-to-be-writing message.

Take care everyone!  Chapter 17.3 shall be up soon.

So I was working on the website, adding some cool little things here and there.  Basically, I finally gave titles to Part 1 and Part 2 (meaning that new readers or those re-reading Eikasia now know when a story arc begins and ends.)  I also added some stuff to the main page or the “new readers” page, to help people navigate the site easier.  First, I added a list of direct links to where both Part 1: Tributaries and Part 2: In Sight, In Mind start.  Second, I added some navigational tips regarding the links at the bottom of each post and the drop down menus to be found in the sidebar.  Even if you’ve been reading since the beginning, the tips I put up might help you out, so give ‘em a looksee.  Another change I did to the website was in the categories.  I shifted Tobias Stories under Intermission as those are the only places we ever get to see them, and gave “The Wind and the Web” its own spot in the tree so that readers can find it easily.  I gave it a title just like I did the story arcs.

Why this sudden interest in adding these little fancy touches?  Why the change to organization, the concern for navigational ease?  Because Part 2 is nearing its end!  That’s right.  Which means a new story arc will soon begin, as well as yet another intermission, so I’m getting the website ready for it.  I’ve been at this for over a year now, and in four months I’ll have officially reached the two year mark.  I’ve been gradually figuring out the ins and outs of maintaining a website, and while I’m still working things out, I think Eikasia has come a LONG way from how it originally began!  (Imagine this:  no “new reader” page, no FAQs, no contact info, no post-to-post navigation links, no drop down menu, not even an RSS feed!  AHH!!  It was like the dark ages in 2008!)

And here’s the question that I’ve been wondering for ages–AGES I tell you.  Would you guys consider paying to see extra content for Eikasia?  And I’m not talking about something I scribbled during a coffee break at work.  I mean high quality stuff–stuff I have to PAY to get done, but would delight me eternally to do if I just knew it wouldn’t hurt my bank account so.  You see, I won’t make much money out of this at all, so while I have no idea for prices to set up, know that they wouldn’t be very high at all.

See, I’m talking about having 10-30 page comics done by some of the best artists on the web, I’m talking about sexy pin-ups that you can ogle at, and detailed maps to make the story that much more alive.  I’m talking about awesome animated shorts, beautiful wallpapers, and exclusive stories of 9000+ words…stories likely containing all the things I’d be afraid to post willy nilly in case my 13-year-old nephew reads it one day!  I’m talking about stuff you might actually want to pay for, be that one-time, or in a subscription so that you can have access to anything new I put out when it comes out.  The poll is available in Eikasia’s side bar.  Please let me know what you think!