DeadlyEssence01

joined 1 year ago
 

Yet another post for the Diary story I've done a couple times. I'm not 100% happy with this page yet, but I figured I'd post it anyway.

I'm still having issues loading most posts / comments here, so my apologies if I don't reply here, but I'll appreciate your comment anyway.

Page One

Page Two


(Day X-1 cont.)

After it looked at me funny it kind of... walked or sauntered or - well I am not really sure how it was moving. It wasn’t hopping like a regular frog. To be honest, ~~it hardly resembled a frog at all~~ but it did croak once.

But it almost seemed to beckon me, and at this point I’d say that it did. So, I followed. I’m not really sure how far I got, it must not have been far before I heard it. A low growl. After the typical shock though, I almost laughed. A growl. Here? I think at this point I’d have been relieved to see an Earth creature. Give me a wolf! A bear! Anything from Earth! But, I couldn’t find the source of the sound – not until it stepped out of the void. The steaming frog reacted at the same time – with an immediate hissing sound. Steam replaced the air, and it was hot. I scrambled backwards trying to get out of the scorching air.

~~I will admit to thinking that was the end for me.~~ I couldn’t breathe. I turned to run. Then I met her. - A woman of sorts stood there. I felt a gust of cool air from her, it was a relief from the scalding air. Before I could speak or even process what was going on, she grabbed me in her arms, and the same cool air brought us into the sky. I didn’t even think to fight her off, or to try to free myself. And now, I’m thinking maybe I should have had that instinct. Allowing yourself to just be taken by someone is not a great trait to have…

Now, I’ve never flown before. Not like that. Not like a bird, through the air all… free like. It’s not at all as amazing as it’s made out to be. The wind is so crisp and cold against your face that it stings, and it’s hard to see with all the wind in your eyes. It was kind of nauseating seeing the land go by so fast…

Thankfully it didn’t last long. But as we landed, a lump formed in my throat. I realized it’d be hard to run for my life if I needed to. We were standing on something suspended in the air and I was pretty sure the only way out would be a long fall.

[End of the page]

[–] DeadlyEssence01@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That was a very interesting read! Thank you for posting it here! I really enjoyed it.

[–] DeadlyEssence01@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 year ago

@ReMikeAble@beehaw.org Thanks for your encouraging comment! (I can't reply directly because it doesn't load on my instance for some reason), but I remembered I could just leave a general comment and a mention. I really appreciate the kind words~

[–] DeadlyEssence01@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 year ago

This post finally loaded for me! So its a little late but, I use Libre Office for writing (and VSCode if Interactive Fiction), Google Docs for notes, and sometimes for the writing itself if I need to edit on the go, and Notebook.ai for worldbuilding, and their timeline functionality.

[–] DeadlyEssence01@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 year ago

Hey, thanks for your comment! Since it's supposed to be a written out diary entry, (with lack of a typical eraser on a pencil) I wanted to try to show the writer's process for putting their thoughts on paper, so I tried to use formatting a bit more generously than if it were written formally. But I appreciate the thoughts anyways, and it's something I'll mull on as I develop the story!

5
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by DeadlyEssence01@lemmy.zip to c/writing
 

Story is below ~200-300 words!

If you haven't yet, I suggest reading Moon to start (~200 words)., it was a little story in the form of a diary entry (~200 words) written 'by' Asiné a character who found herself in a strange place.

Today's post is a continuation of it.

Note: I am having trouble loading the entirety of this community. If you comment I will ofc try to reply, if I cannot due to your comment not loading on my instance take this preemptive appreciation: Thank You! You're amazing~ Eventually when everything loads in for me I will try to go back and give you all the updoots you deserve, and reply properly. Until then, I only have access to sporadic posts / comments. (If this is also happening to you, you can still visit the website directly (not through your instance) to see everything properly).


Day X-1

There is no point in trying to figure out how long I’ve been here. It seems as though the time in this place is off. It doesn’t pass like it should, I think it passes too quickly. And not like in a ‘I’m not paying attention and the day escapes me’ kind of quickly either. I’ll be honest – everything about here confuses me. ~~It's kind of maddening.~~ - But never mind that.

Today, when the light finally filtered in to my little den, I went out. To explore, to find… something, anything of intelligence, and well – I don’t know what I expected. I ran into... a frog? of sorts. It was relaxing by the river I get water from. It looked almost like a regular frog, but there was just something about it that I couldn’t quite place. It was bulbous and wasn’t sitting like a frog. And there was the fact that it seemingly let off steam. At first I thought it was a trick of the light or the water - or something. But, the steam definitely moved with the frog… and came from the frog.

So, like a crazy person, I tried talking to said frog. I mean, it could have spoken English, right? Given everything about ...wherever I am, it surely seemed plausible... It did not speak English, but I swear it looked at me funny.

What do you do when you find a steaming frog after you’ve found yourself in some strange place? I guess you follow it. - That’s what I did.

[End of the page]

6
Moon (lemmy.zip)
 

For fun, I wanted to set a scene based entirely from a diary entry. I wrote this to the prompt of "Moon". Now I think it might be fun to tell a whole story this way, but I don't know that I'll do that.


Day ~~3ish~~ X

Funnily enough, the only thing I remember from that fateful day - or night in this case, is the moon. It must have been full because despite being black, it acted as my guiding light. In fact, I don’t remember anything else. But that memory has been burned deep into my mind, it returns religiously – almost like those pesky debt collectors from back home - a continual reminder of my predicament.

You see, I am not home. I woke up in this cave. And I am not… even remotely home as far as I have been able to gather. And I’m not sure what that even means. The grass here is different. The sky. The moon. The trees. Nothing is at it should be. Well, the water is drinkable, and some of the plants have been edible.

Maybe I died. Maybe this is ~~heav~~. Maybe this is hell. Purgatory? It’s something. Or, maybe I’ve just gone mad, and this is all in my mind - but I refuse to believe that. This is real. My pain is real. All of my cuts, scrapes and bruises from that ~~day~~ night are real.

So, my conclusion is that I have somehow, gone somewhere other than Earth. Maybe aliens brought me here, or God. I don’t know. But I plan to find some other intelligent creature to interact with. Hopefully there are others like me – humans. Hopefully whatever they are, they speak my language…

I don’t know how long I slept last night, through the entire day it seems. In the morning I will set out to find out what I can about this place – I cannot stay here in this cave. I might go mad.

~ Asiné

[–] DeadlyEssence01@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 year ago

Aww! Thank you so much for your kind words! Consider me 100% melted. I'm definitely planning on flexing those writing muscles more, so I'll make an effort to post here too!

[–] DeadlyEssence01@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 year ago

I found your post on Beehaw originally, but for some strange reason couldn't get the post to load while logged in to comment, so here it goes!

I really liked the subtle world-building you included, it was perfect. I think the overall write up was really well done. Calling humans mayflies was muah! And the whole story gave me a nice little chuckle. Good job!

10
Rays (lemmy.zip)
 

I haven't written in years, so this is a little rusty, but I was going for cute and cozy. (And practicing 2nd person for some IF I'm working on...). Constructive criticism is welcome~

Prompt was "Rays"


You lay in bed, wrapped in silken blankets, barely awake. You shift and your foot liberates itself from the cocoon. Freedom feels like the icy snow banks of the Northern Isles but a quick yank brings you back to solace - like a crackling campfire in the night. Rays from sun greet you through the blinds and illuminate your face, but you’re not ready for the light. Not yet. - Wait. What time is it? Surely, I couldn’t have slept too long. It can’t be that late. Not yet.

You sit up, losing the comfort and warmth that enveloped you. It’s late, it’s definitely late. I didn’t mean to sleep so late! Then you hear it. The low hum of their breath beside you and you realize where you are, when you are, how you are – who you are. You can’t help the smile that paints itself across your face. You slip back under the covers and press your body against theirs. The Warmth. For now, nothing else matters.

[–] DeadlyEssence01@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 year ago

Well, Unity had a lot of unfinished packages that they suggest you use, and then depreciated the packages that they had already, and it seemed like a huge mess. Unity also took forever to load, - so I prefer the 'just works' of Godot features, and the fact that it's lightweight and quick to load.

[–] DeadlyEssence01@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 year ago

I always think it's really cool to create a game without an engine, and maybe one day, I'll do it too, but for now I stick with Godot. I started with GDevelop, moved onto unity and then once I realized there were fans of depreciating old packages without fully releasing new ones, and leaving a bunch of things in a limbo start I moved onto Godot, and it's been a real pleasure!

Though, there are a few other things that interest me, like Defold, LOVE2D and Twine.

[–] DeadlyEssence01@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 year ago

Since it hasn't been mentioned yet: since you're absolutely new to coding, if you choose Godot start with 3.5 version. 4 is new and shiny, but that means that there isn't as many guides and tutorials. There's also some changes from 3.5 that will make it hard to follow old tutorials. And some of the better changes are being backported to 3 anyway.
Once you've got a decent understanding of 3.5 you could upgrade to 4 for the quality of life features. And you will have to adjust to the changes, but there aren't as many resources for 4, especially for completely new coders as there are for 3. There are kidscancode and GDQuest - there are also plenty of YouTube tutorials for Godot 3.5.

[–] DeadlyEssence01@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 year ago

Well. This could be a lot of different things. What do you think is making you quit?
There is a dopamine hit for an unexplored idea. People essentially get very excited about an idea, like the dopamine, and then when it starts to fade as they have to actually implement things they quit. Sometimes. They manage to get some things down and those small successes of implementing mechanics gives them the dopamine to continue - until they hit a big enough road block. (Guilty!). Working on a game is more about discipline. Not feel good emotions. If you've never created a game before create a small project idea, and work on completing it. Even if you don't feel motivated.
Motivation doesn't usually last a whole project. But doing it for the sake of doing it will. After you have a small project break it down into bite sized pieces that you can check off from a to-do list (if that works for you). And Don't burn yourself out on it, but try to enjoy the journey, and keep that finished game goal in mind and look forward to it knowing it just takes overcoming small hurdles repeatedly.
This is harder than it sounds, and maybe it won't work for you, but it is one way to tackle the problem of completing a project.