Pages

Showing posts with label Radial: Unravel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Radial: Unravel. Show all posts

Wednesday, 9 September 2015

WiPpet Wednesday: pretty distractions

Despite not actually liking dolls because I find them disturbing, I've wanted an asian ball-jointed doll for a while.  And for a while, I mean "at least seven years".  I think I like them because the kind I'm interested in aren't intended to look cutesy.  They're intended to look like grown men and women, which somehow makes them significantly less disturbing.

So somehow, to commemorate me actually completing Ready, Set, WRITE without dropping out and with actually increasing bit-by-bit the amount I wrote, I finally ordered myself one.

It's a tiny bit terrifying.

But the funny thing is...  after over seven years of waiting and wishing, and then finally ordering myself one...

About ten days after that, I ordered another.  So after all this time, I'm now waiting for two!  And I have to admit, I'm particularly looking forward to the second...  He's a limited edition re-run of an old model, and the reason why I ordered him is because the moment I saw him, I realised he looks uncannily like one of my characters.  The character in question is Milos, and he's not a character I ever expected to be able to find, being as he is this guy to the right, a dokkalfa with a quite specific face shape (his nose and jaw in particular don't seem that common...).

So of course, I couldn't resist...

And now I have to wait at least three months for him to even be made!  *whimper*  Even when he gets here, there's so much work that'll need to be done: he'll need eyes (yep, scary...) and hair, and I'll have to paint his face so he's not just plain dark grey resin...

I'm actually really looking forward to it!  Enough that I've finally started working on 2012's NaNo again, which I always felt a little bad about never finishing, particularly since it left a gaping hole in the continuity of the shorter stories.  And best of all, I'll finally to write one scene that's been in my head all this time and throw Milos's partner Alex off a tower block.  *grins*

As to whether doll!Milos will get an Alex as well...  well, I'm categorically not looking for one...  *cough*

WiPpet Wednesday


It's WiPpet Wednesday, a weekly blog hop organised by the always-lovely K. L. Schwengel that shares snippets from participants' works in progress where every entry relates in some way to the date, either by simple means or complicated WiPpet Maths.  You find out more, can read other posts and join in yourself by signing up over here.

Today is the 9th September, 09/09, and the maths is simple: 9 + 9 for 18 sentences that follow not-quite-directly on from last week, but near enough.  Fayth considered shooting RQ in the legs and carrying him instead, but didn't feel too inclined towards being bled on...  (I'm sure RQ appreciated it too.)

Two corridors along he found what he was looking for.  RQ stopped struggling, standing sullenly as far from Fayth as his reach would allow, while Fayth pounded at the elevator call button and prayed it wasn’t occupied when it arrived.
“You don’t understand.”
Fayth thumped the button again, hoping it disguised the way he jumped at the words.  “I don’t understand what?”
RQ wouldn’t look at him.  “Anything.”
He opened his mouth to argue, but the ping of the opening door beat him to it.  There was no point reasoning with RQ now anyway, the determined set of his jaw screamed that he wouldn’t listen to a word Fayth said.  He dragged him inside the elevator instead. 
The problem was, even sulky and obstructive, RQ was still easily the most stunning man Fayth had ever seen.  His mood reflected in the lower lip pooched out without his even realising it.  His blue-green eyes were half-closed and determinedly distant.  He still wore the clothes Fayth had left for the expected woman in his room.  If Fayth shoved him against the wall and kissed him like his life depended on it, it’d only be his own fault, looking as incredible in cheap, flimsy clothes and dangerous surroundings as he did.
Only it’d be all Fayth’s fault, not RQ’s, and he couldn’t inflict that kind of pain on him again.  Not on anyone without their implicit permission, in fact—and hadn’t that fallen flat before, with the kind of situational misreading Fayth hadn’t made since he was a teenager.
Resting his free hand on the pistol in the back of his trousers, he glared daggers at the button panel instead and swore to God that if anyone called the lift on their way to the bay floor, he’d kneecap them.

Thursday, 23 April 2015

S is for... Simon



Blogging From A to Z is a blog challenge where participants post a new item every day (except Sundays), where every item relates to the appropriate letter of the alphabet.  You can find out more over at http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com



Story: Radial/Unravel
Rating: PG
Word Count: 911

It was only by chance I went past the coffee shop.  My boss insists we have this encyclopaedic knowledge of the city, better than any taxi driver’s—not least because we don’t take the scenic routes and, anyway, I can’t exactly get away with a sat-nav on my bike—but sometimes it fails even the best of us.

Wednesday, 15 April 2015

M is for... Milos



Blogging From A to Z is a blog challenge where participants post a new item every day (except Sundays), where every item relates to the appropriate letter of the alphabet.  You can find out more over at http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com



Story: Unravel
Rating: 18
Word Count: 1044

The Gillie Dhu turned out to be an administrative nightmare.  There had to be someone up in the Highlands who could take responsibility for the rabid little sod, but if there was Alex had yet to find them.

Saturday, 11 April 2015

J is for... Jonathan



Blogging From A to Z is a blog challenge where participants post a new item every day (except Sundays), where every item relates to the appropriate letter of the alphabet.  You can find out more over at http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com



Not finished yet, but I'm crying inability yet again—or at least, I would be if I didn't think I was just shedding infection into my eye.  I'm not actually joking.  I'm not sure it should burn.  (This aside is definitely going when I finish updating this story; no one beyond today needs to know the details of my gross eye infection.  I should really show a sample of my handwriting and why this is so difficult to update...)

It's only taken two months!

Story: Radial
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,230

The problem with lorries in the summer was the heat.  Jonathan could wind down both the windows and hammer the air conditioning in full and the sweat still poured down his forehead.

Wednesday, 1 April 2015

A is for... Alex


Blogging From A to Z is a blog challenge where participants post a new item every day (except Sundays), where every item relates to the appropriate letter of the alphabet.  You can find out more over at http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com



The twin evils of Life and Illness have conspired against me today.  You'd think having time to spare between work would help, but it really doesn't.

Don't ask about my left eye.  You'll get a far longer-winded answer than you'd ever want.


Story: Unravel
Rating: 15
Word Count: 1,476

Scottish highland evening lacked everything that gave Alex a headache: street lights, the hum of traffic and loud, drunken people that weren’t him to name but a few.

Sunday, 1 February 2015

Pinup Boy Sunday - Alex

Today's pin-up is Alex, former antagonist and now slightly unexpected main character from Radial and my occasionally-ongoing webseries Unravel.


The acerbic Alex started out life as a guinea pig in a semi-governmental facility, passed along—he supposes by his parents—due to his paranormal abilities and odd personality.  From there, he moved through the Academy to graduate at 18 and take his place working for the same shadowy organisation, cataloguing others like himself and 'claiming' those signed over to them for experimentation.  (And indulging in a lot of alcohol and casual sex along the way.)

One of those was Milos, and because the damn alfa survived his procedure, Alex is stuck with him.  But it did turn out that Milos had more uses beyond clawing his opponents and spectacularly failing to hit him during sparring lessons—though the same can't be said for the floor.

Not that he can work out how casual, grudging and somewhat blackmailed sex ended up in what seems to be an actual relationship, or why it seems so natural to share Milos's bed...  but it does make getting laid a lot easier.

Not that they really need a bed for that.  The car'll do just fine.  Or their office; the gym; behind the bar.  Or the kitchen, or alleyways, or...

Sunday, 25 January 2015

Pinup Boy Sunday - Milos

Finally found time for another picture that took wholly more time than it looks like it did!

Today's pin-up is Milos from my occasionally ongoing project Unravel.

A shirtless dark elf male with untidy blond shoulder-length hair and a cross-shaped scar over his heart, wearing black jeans, holding a red motorbike helmet under his right arm and holding the right handlebar of a shiny red motorbike with his left.

Milos has not had the best start in life, but through several incredible twists of fate he has ended up in a significantly better situation than he could have hoped: he's employed by the government, has been given an apartment of his own and best of all, a place to keep his beloved motorbike--the only thing of his own he was able to take from his old life.

The only downside is the colleague he's now forced to work with--the man who kidnapped him in the first place, with the paperwork to prove that it was all perfectly legal--who, despite Milos's best efforts, has become more like a partner to him, in every sense of the word.

Oh, and the genetic mutation he was forced to undergo that turns his fingers into polymetal claws.  That too.  Only that he can use as an advantage.  He's yet to find any advantage to Alex at all.

...Well, except that if Alex is in bed with him, it's another night he can put off buying a radiator for his apartment.

Sunday, 24 August 2014

Pinup Boy Sunday - Milos (Sci-Fi)

These have been on hiatus somewhat since my original attempts, mostly due to the fact that Sixteen sometimes struggles with rendering images and it's nearly impossible to do absolutely anything else while it's going on.

However!  Now I have Echo, I can still use Sixteen for everyday things and renders that could have taken five or seven hours on Sixteen only take two or three at most.  Unless they're ridiculously enormous, of course, and then what might take seven or eight hours on Echo would have probably overheated Sixteen entirely...

As a result, this totally pointless weekly feature is now back!

Today's pin-up is Sci-Fi Milos.


I normally avoid the 'elves in space' trope, especially considering his canon is already pretty damn odd, but I had the unexpected urge to render this.  I think he came out nicely enough, so I'm not complaining...

Wednesday, 20 August 2014

Day 10 - Singultus

Rating: PG
Story: Radial: Unravel
Word Count: 100
Summary: Funny what turns out to be shocking enough to scare away a hiccup.

“For God’s sake, will you just shut up!”  Alex snarled over his mountain of paperwork.

Tuesday, 19 August 2014

Day 9 - Votive

Rating: 15
Story: Radial: Unravel
Word Count: 100
Summary: Betting against Alex is usually futile...

I won the bet.

Monday, 18 August 2014

Day 8 - Ameslan

Rating: PG
Story: Radial: Unravel
Word Count: 99
Summary: To his horror, Milos's new class list has come through—which gives Alex an even greater variety of ways to insult him.

Milos gaped down at the paper left casually on his desk.  “More classes?”


Day 7 - Cacography

Rating: 18
Story: Radial: Unravel
Word Count: 100
Summary: Alex is testing Milos's handwriting in the best way he knows how.  Whether Milos agrees it's the best is another matter entirely...

“This is—ah—impossible!”


Day 6 - Fink

Rating: PG
Story: Radial: Unravel
Word Count: 100
Summary: Sometimes life would be easier if civilian law enforcement and Alex didn't have such major personality clashes...

“What part of ‘I’m a government agent’ don’t you understand?  Do you need to see my card again, or are you just terminally stupid?”


Day 5 - Serein

Rating: PG
Story: Radial: Unravel
Word Count: 100
Summary: Light drizzle has a different effect on each man.
Notes: Due to various things, such as birthdays and two-day weekends, this starts the backlog of unposted flash fics.

Light drizzle pattered over Milos’s skin.  To his right, Alex grimaced.


Thursday, 14 August 2014

Day 4 - Philology

Rating: PG
Story: Radial: Unravel
Word Count: 100
Summary: It's an important day for Milos, but if he doesn't stop fidgeting Alex might just feed him that envelope.  But he can be supportive too... in his own way.

Milos fiddled with the envelope, folding its corners until Alex glowered at him.  “Either open it or put it away.”


Wednesday, 13 August 2014

Day 3 - Desiderium

Rating: PG
Story: Radial: Unravel
Word Count: 100
Summary: Alex is obsessive about keeping his files in order, but there's one he's willing to let slide.

Two office moves and the file was still in Milos’s drawer, not in the cabinet.


Tuesday, 12 August 2014

Day 2 - Brusque

Rating: 15
Story: Radial: Unravel
Word Count: 100
Summary: In most fighting partnerships, there's always one person who gets the crap kicked out of them on a regular basis.  Guess who it is in Milos and Alex's?  But Milos has his own ways of getting revenge, one way or the other...

The wall felt no better the third time Milos crashed into it than it had the first.  “Ah, f...”

Monday, 11 August 2014

A Challenge, And A Story - Cat's Paw

I've fallen out of the habit of writing recently, which means I've got a whole lot of no progress whatsoever going on.  So I've challenged myself to write a piece of flash fiction every day for a week, inspired by the Dictionary.com Word Of The Day.  This is basically the significantly less breakdown-inducing version of the original Pax's Ridiculous Writing Challenge.

Which should be interesting, if only for me.

Today it's from Unravel, a series of stories about Milos, a dokkalfa experimental bioweapon working for a shady semi-governmental body.  (You can find out more by visiting the "Unravel" tab up top there.)

Rating: G
Story: Radial: Unravel
Word Count: 100
Summary: A short exchange in the elevator does nothing for Milos and Marrok's relationship.

Lifts were awful enough, Milos decided, when they held just him. To be crammed into one with Marrok was plain torture, and his former boss clearly agreed.