Finished the final touches on the dictionary I threw together for my #conlang. It's the Xaltean language in my #beloveduniverse.
So, yes. When you see them speak it in the short stories and comics, it actually means something. lol #writingcommunity #iamwriting
It was 1949, and Sam was again wandering the streets of a London rebuilding. This time Piccadilly Circus had huge neon advertising lights. There were also many more cars than she would have expected.
And there was a street sign. One that she could scarcely believe - "London Airport". It sounded like an aerodrome, but more. Sam resolved to see it before the night was out.
But for now, it was barely 5 o'clock, and she had already gathered her essential materials. One new item was a street map of London. With the reconstruction, much had changed, and her memories of how to get places were no longer enough.
As she worked out where to head to, someone bumped into her. "Sorry", she said automatically, not expecting an answer. As the woman who walked into her continued on her way, a little girl - maybe five years old, tugged on her mother's arm looking back at Sam. "Mummy! Why didn't you say sorry too?" the girl asked.
"Say sorry for what Edith?" was the distracted reply.
"For walking into that lady. I tried to tell you, but you didn't listen!"
"What lady?"
"That one!" Edith now pointed at Sam.
"Stop making things up Edith. Come along." The mother dragged Edith off. For her part, Edith looked back and called "Sorry!"
Sam stood stock still for several minutes. Someone had noticed her. This was not meant to happen. The enchantments that the Summer Queen had set about her were supposed to keep her anonymous and unnoticed by all. How had a little girl seen through them?
After a little while it became clear that everyone else was still affected, so Sam continued about her rounds - and then caught a bus to the new London Airport.
That had been an education. There were so many aircraft, and all of them civilian. Some were clearly converted bombers, but Sam could see some American planes that had clearly been designed to carry people.
She couldn't help herself. She snuck aboard one of them. Over eighty seats! And pressurised! The whole cabin! Such a huge leap from her beloved Mosquito. What would be next? But even as she marvelled, at the back of her mind was the little girl who saw her.
As the sun rose, Sam vanished from London, and reappeared in Fairyland. Summer was waiting. "Have fun?" she asked as they kissed.
"Yes, but there was one odd thing. A little girl noticed me. Really noticed."
"Let me have a look at you." Summer looked Sam up and down "Hmm... There is a hint of magic about your hip."
"The girl's mother walked into me."
"I might come with you next year. In case it happens again" Summer looked thoughtful, then cheered up "Now, stories!"
Sam was tugged onto their bed. "Well, they have something I've not seen before - an airport...."
As she walked the streets of a London attempting to rebuild, Sam considered her options. She had a single night here before she would be summoned back to fairyland.
Before she had been sent, her lover, the Summer Queen herself, had laid strict limits on her. She had from sunset to sunrise, she would not be remembered by anyone she met or spoke with, and she could only return with what she could carry.
Her first stop was a newsstand. Two newspapers went into her bag. Along with two magazines of fiction. A stationer was her second stop. There notebooks, inks, and several pens joined the papers. Next, she visited a haberdashery, and a fashion magazine joined the others.
The important matters dealt with, a cinema was next. She did not look at the film showing, but she did inspect the posters. Notes went into the first note book about what she was seeing.
A dance club was next. More notes - what the music was, what drinks were being ordered. What dances were popular.
All around her, people would occasionally bump into her, apologise, and then forget about her. If she asked someone something, there would be a moment of surprise that she was there at all. And she'd have to keep the conversation going, or they would just forget she was there again.
After a few hours, the city slept. The clubs closed, and everyone went home - whatever that looked like in the bomb-wrecked city.
Sam then broke into a bookshop, and hunted around for anything about how the war had ended. She found two - one a photojournal record of the war from America, and the other a memoir about Japan. With a few regrets, they went into the bag as well.
Last of all, she simply wandered. Blackout was a thing of the past now, and here and there there were lights in windows. The occasional car had headlights shining. So much was like things had been in 1938.
So she took in the London that survived. And thought about her future. She knew that eventually Summer, the Queen, would tire of her. She also knew that beyond that point she would have to earn her keep in the Court. And so she looked at everything she could, building memories that would be a year's worth of stories - the most valuable currency in fairyland.
After all, before she was a pilot, she had been a writer. Time to be one again.
#WW2 #tootfic #SF #SFF #Fantasy #IAmWriting #FlyingIntoFaery
Spent most of today preparing the first omnibus manga book for #beloveduniverse . It's gonna contain Beloved Chains 1-4, Beloved Maid 1-6 plus many special art and one shot comics.
Then I gotta finish the anthology. Lol #writingcommunity #iamwriting
Air to Ground Intercepts - VH-WZJA/PER 20xx/11/21
08:11 DEP KTA 115PAX ETA 10:05
09:10 ATC REPORTS NO OTHER TRAFFIC THIS FL/HEAD. CAN SEE OT. PER CONFIRM.
09:30 PER PLS CONFIRM NO OTHER TRAFFIC
09:45 PER ON APPROACH RNWY 06 ETA 10:00 REQ TUG/AUX PWR
09:55 ATC REQ GO AROUND AND HOLD
10:00 PER CONFIRM CAUSE
10:02 PER RECONFIRM CAUSE
10:15 REQ REDIRECT
10:20 REQ REDIRECT
10:30 PER ATC NO CONTACT NO BECON
10:32 PER PLS RESP
10:45 DCLR FUEL EMERGENCY NO ATC RESP.
10:47: PER PLS RESP
10:50: ON APPROACH RNWY 06
10:51: PER ON GROUND NO DAMAGE NO CASUALTIES
10:52 CAN ANYONE PLS RESPOND?
10:53 IS THAT A FLYING SAUCER?
No further messages.
#IAmWriting #tootfic #acars #microfic #microfiction #SF #SFF
Inspired by the good folks @acarsdrama .
#CerianAndVaranWar fragment. See https://rdmasters.lympago.com/p/cerian-and-varan-war-story-in.html for the full WIP..
While everyone in the Gould house slept, Estelle was in the room she shared with Hitomi at the base on Ceria. She was also looking through old records.The oldest she could find.
There was information about the plagues that struck just after the crash landing. Notes about the frantic genetic engineering to allow the colony to process the local proteins.
But nothing about the co-ordinates of their failed colony. Or of Old Earth. Even more strange was that there was nothing about why they had left Earth in the first place. Earth was mentioned as their homeworld. And that there were many cultures there. But nothing about where it was.
"This is useless."
Half asleep, and covered in strapping tape to stabilise muscles torn by the forces of ejecting, Hitomi went "Hmm?"
"These records. They are useless. There is nothing about where it is!"
Hitomi sat up, and rubbed her eyes, complaining "Estelle, it is two in the morning! What are you doing?"
"Going through the old records."
"What are you looking for?"
"Where we came from."
"Have you looked for star catalogues?"
"What?"
"Star catalogues. If you can identify a bunch of stars that they could see that we can also see, you should be able to calculate where they are."
Hitomi sat at her own terminal, and started searching. And then frowned. "I can't find any. Hang on." She resumed typing.
After a few minutes there was a cry of triumph, "Got you! I did a search for nebulae, and got some hits for ones we can't see - or have different names for. I backtracked from that and found some star names and coordinates."
"Enough?"
"I think so - there are spectral characteristics and distances. That should be enough."
Hitomi searched for matches for the spectra. Of the twenty stars she found in the records, there were matches for six. The overlapping range circles gave one point.
"That'd odd," her voice was puzzled, "one of the stars we should see does not match. It isn't even in our sky."
"Is there anything there?"
"A small supernova remnant."
"Maybe it blew up after those records? Anyway, where is Earth?"
"It is about 800 light-years away."
"In theory we can stretch the jump effect to just under a quarter of a lightyear," Estelle mused going over the maths, "So 3200 jumps. Or about a year."
"Except for one thing," Hitomi frowned.
"What?"
"There is no star there. At least none we can see. It is behind a dust cloud."
"So we'd have to go around."
"Which means many years."
"We're not doing that alone, are we?"
"Nope," and Estelle looked up. Towards Vara.
When the tower crumbles,
some will laugh some will cry,
some will fall from the top,
some will be buried below.
When the tower crumbles,
better be far away,
better go all the way down,
so you can run away.
Rick Bauer
Jonathan Snyder
rdm
Nicolas Chinardet
Jencel Panic