Mastodawn

#PennedPossibilities 1037 — MC POV: Tell us about a time you didn’t feel “ready” for something.

… I mean, look at these wings. [She stretches them out. The checkered feather pattern opens up into feathers that lighten from evening blue at the base to cloud white at the tips.] They're beautiful. They're shaped like an owl's and I can fly swiftly, surely, silently, stealthfully. I'm a day angel, and some of us learn to fly before they can walk. Me? [Laughs, embarrassed.] I was already ten. All the girls in school made fun of me because I still couldn't fly. Our city is built into cliffs and in the branches of huge home trees, so I had to climb constantly to do anything, which made me strong of limb; the boys knew to stay away from me because I could fight back if they teased me.

It wasn't that I didn't want to fly, I did. The idea simply frightened me. I had this thought in my head that if I jumped off a cliff, I'd fall, I'd break—I'd die. I woke up screaming from night terrors, falling. I fancied I knew what breaking felt like.

That didn't mean I hated my wings.

No! I loved them! I'd often approach the cliffs, but not look over or down. I'd stretch them out. Same on the bare branches of home trees. Sometimes I'd smell the salt air blowing in from the coast. My heart would race and I'd unfurl them to their greatest span feeling my tendons and muscles tug and pull gloriously, feel the breeze surge through my feathers, listen to them hum as they buzzed. The music of life. Surely. It was—

Joy.

I could stand there like that and lose track of time. I was flying, but not really. I was never ready. I would never allow myself to lift my feet from solid ground, but otherwise I would stand there. Oblivious. Entranced.

One day my uncle shoved me off the cliff.

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RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist 2h ago

#PennedPossibilities 1028 — MC POV: Do you feel like you belong somewhere? What does belonging mean to you?

Looking back, I felt like I belonged when I was home. Despite how poorly Mom and I got along, she and Uncle only wanted the best for me. They made a home for me. I see that. Now that I've done things I regret and being blackmailed means I can never return home, realizing that I once belonged somewhere is a hole in my heart.

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RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist 2h ago

#PennedPossibilities 1029 — Name something your MC has always wanted to learn.

This could be in Bolt's words at the beginning of her story:

I've been forgetting big swaths of my life these days. Sometimes I'm surprised I've gotten this old. There's plenty I'm forced to do that I don't wanna. Plenty I should not remember, messages I've carried, people doing things I ought not witness, ugly faces that would be dangerous to know. Problem is, I can't seem to forget so that I don't realize parts of my life are missing. I'd like to learn that trick.

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RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist 4h ago

#PennedPossibilities 1046 — Tell us about a time when one of your characters put their foot in their mouth.

Bolt was raised in a backwater town and now lives in the big city. In the context of her times, which are veering progressive, she often comes off as sexist. In a female-centric society, this is interesting to depict, but her comments about men, how she directly and sometimes condescendingly deals with them, and her strong awareness of having been excluded from something important to her because of her gender makes her very aware that she comes off that way. Sadly, her M.O. is not thinking first before doing, which accounts for the mass of bad things that have happened to her. There are various examples scattered through her stories of her sticking her foot in her mouth, but she's often around men, by choice and desire, so… it happens, and she works to make it better after the fact.

Usually.

One time it happens at an afterparty following a theatre premiere on what would be their Broadway and she's inebriated. The story gets told to her by a male reporter friend because she blacked-out. She puts a male actor in his place apparently for presuming to understand how women feel about sex being depicted on the stage. He wrote the play. He was the male lead. Apparently she showed him how to do what he patently got wrong the right way. In front of everyone, including reporters and critics. Lots of photographs got taken—some which she took of him and herself. Selfies. She had her camera. She's an up and coming street photographer.

Now she's famous.

Forgiven since she's a woman. A man going agro? Doing that? Not so much, despite "progressivism." Bolt? She's embarrassed.

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Scéawere 7h ago

Version 1.1 - Shadow Rendering Fixes

https://sceawere.itch.io/cozy-trucking-co/devlog/1558507/version-11
https://www.patreon.com/Sceawere/posts/cozy-trucking-co-161536651

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didib_photo 📷21h ago

«Serenity grounds us» (2011)
Photo ©️ Dietmar Bachmann
📍Zofingen, Switzerland

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RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist 1d ago

#PennedPossibilities 1048

[I inserted modern euphemisms in [brackets] rather than use Bolt's. N.B., Bolt is a 30 yo woman. —R]

Does temporary count? The Boss. Boss Mead. I hate the guy, but the way he was handling the negotiation to hire a new enforcer it was about to turn into a [cluster-f$$k], so I seduced Mead, which defused the [ticking bomb], but I needed to follow through. Funny thing, he's pretty classy and actually caring, very skilled in the riding department if not athletic considering his age. Rather fun. Afterward, in the bed beside him as he slept, with the bodyguards discretely supervising from the shadows, I thought about what could come next. Between us. Not euphemistically either.

But.

No.

Not happening.

He's my boss. He's using blackmail to control me. A good reason to hate him. Not enough to wield a hatchet for real, however.

So, big-n Nope.

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RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist 1d ago

#WordWeavers 2026.06.19 — Have you ever been influenced by your book, like starting a new hobby because your MC has it?

If the spirit of the question allows being influenced by writing a book, then yes. The devil-girl becomes a championship prizefighter. (Key is the mob, which is recruiting her secretly, runs the book and sets up the venues. Not apropos here.) Though mixed magical martial arts isn't exactly boxing, I decided to learn about boxing. I'm too old to box myself, but I did buy personal boxing equipment and a speed ball to practice what I learned, and to do the workouts. I am considering purchasing a heavy bag. I'm thinking of joining a boxing gym, though I'm too old to do the footwork necessary. Knees. The spouse will object to me sparring, even wearing protective gear, but I haven't joined yet. I even found some series to watch to learn more about the experience of learning how to box and what it takes to train and work up to becoming a champion. Since I'm writing this answer on the treadmill, that counts as roadwork, right?

EDIT: I ought add that I don't like fighting and have never been in a fight in my life. I've been bullied and intimidated a few times, which ought have been reason enough, but no. I'm learning this now because I'm writing a story and do some weightlifting for health and structural reasons, but am finding it fun.

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