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Dichoro

@dichoro.bsky.social

130 followers 170 following 1.3K posts

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Dichoro @dichoro.bsky.social · 18m

Cue the heist music as Gretchen assembles an ace baked goods burglary team - THE BAKER'S DOZEN

Reposted by Dichoro

Caræsten 🇵🇸 @cara.city · 2h

a reminder that ModRetro is run by Palmer Luckey, a huge Trump backer, a self described "radical Zionist," and, quite literally, an arms dealer via his other company, Anduril

VGEsoterica @videogameesoterica.bsky.social · 23h

I sent my West Coast VGE correspondent (a subscriber🤣) to get some @modretro.bsky.social M64 footage and up close PCB shots! New #N64 in FPGA details to talk about youtu.be/2G6VSGqPzHA #gaming #gamingnews #gaming_news

Dichoro @dichoro.bsky.social · 1h

Fair enough! You want the thrill, the twist! Genre ties my hand, can't not set up the culprit with a whodunnit, so false leads and misdirects are vital. ^^

Dichoro @dichoro.bsky.social · 2h

Hehe. ^^ It is fun to do the villain hidden as a likable hero bit. I've got mine as the final boss fight. You planning to drop any hints, or are they too good a spy for that?

Dichoro @dichoro.bsky.social · 3h

Less pinch point, more constant poking "You know she's dangerous, right? Right? Has anyone told you..."

Dichoro @dichoro.bsky.social · 6h

Errr... Dang, I'm jumping at shadows. Ta for clarifying ☺️

Dichoro @dichoro.bsky.social · 6h

This... still isn't quite a plot but I think I'm at least moving towards one. Thank you anyone who has read this and kept reading these ramblings!

Dichoro @dichoro.bsky.social · 6h

All that stuff is too big for Scy and Maya, but they'll see the after effects. Magic Knights on patrol, towering over the residential spires. Protests suppressed when food shipments from homeworld stop. Wake's delagation arriving as ambassadors. The galaxy is big and moves without them.

Dichoro @dichoro.bsky.social · 6h

While doing their job, we're also going to see a bit of that Aetheri internal tension. The orders getting into fights. The League representative trying to knock them back into line. The planetary governor wishing they'd all just go away and leave the people in peace.

Dichoro @dichoro.bsky.social · 6h

And the scale is dazzling. They come in a ship. Their marines are in power armor. Scy and Maya both get encounters with their nightmares.

Where does this take the plot? I... still ain't sure. But I don't think it's just Wake they run into. They're going to see some friendlier Goros.

Dichoro @dichoro.bsky.social · 6h

Maya is useful against demons. Scythia's repairing tech the Goros left behind. The latter actually leads to her meeting Wake, who got sent to buy back old salvage for the Goroseians, and scout out the Aeth colony while she's there.

It's the first encounter in the book with the enemy civilization.

Dichoro @dichoro.bsky.social · 6h

Now, what does any of this worldbuilding mean for Scy, Maya, Act 2 and pinch points?

I think their 'new path' is an Order that's outside the League. Likely composed of criminals on their frontier world that need the mages they can get and ain't too picky about roping in dropouts.

Dichoro @dichoro.bsky.social · 6h

The result is these very polite and openly friendly master mages who will always claim they're acting for the practical or spiritual good of the League. Many believe it. But there's hundreds of individual orders, many of which have historical enmity. That didn't vanish with the League.

Dichoro @dichoro.bsky.social · 6h

Buuut it's disunified and the orders are often playing against each other for glory, recruits, success and prestige. Which is a massively hypocritical thing because the Pax Astra strongly stresses restraint and humility as essential to the Aetheri way of life and cultural identity.

Dichoro @dichoro.bsky.social · 6h

The League essentially functions as a planetary government by this point; national identity is more a curiosity point once you leave the homeworld, akin to home county. It's got the military might to rule and the need for control and resources that you expect from a nation.

Dichoro @dichoro.bsky.social · 6h

However, the force leading the charge are the magical societies/guilds. They provide both interspace travel and mystical might/artifice. They're also a patchwork, but unify around the Pax Astra, a code of restraint, learning and compassion. "Everyone has a place beneath the stars"

Dichoro @dichoro.bsky.social · 6h

The reason they're a League is because the traditional princedoms didn't get the opportunity to unify into firm nation states. The League was formed to allow the many individual crowns to present a united front, and has started shifting their civilization past nationalism straight to one world rule.

Dichoro @dichoro.bsky.social · 6h

Okay, let's hammer out a few details I have not been defining just yet about the Aetheri, how aspects of their society work, and the setup Scythia and Maya find themselves in at the start of this book

The Aetheri rising to the stars via magic has pivoted their politics somewhat.

Dichoro @dichoro.bsky.social · 6h

#PlotTober Science Fantasy

Okay, pivoting this to five acts gives me a bit more time to think. I have the two starting their new career. I have Wake. Using pinch points with the secondary job actually helps give me a bit more of a throughline. Maybe.

1/13 🧵

Ange @gunsmile.bsky.social · 16h

#PlotTober Day 19: First Pinch Point

Answer the prompt on the card by quoting this post. Remember, answering a prompt is always optional. Even if you don't share it publicly, I hope the prompt encourages you to think about it privately.

#WritingCommunity #WritingPrompt #WriteSky

#PlotTober - a WIP plotting game by @gunsmile.bsky.social

19. Pinch Points are small ways to remind the MC and reader of the antagonistic forces during Act 2. What are some possible reminders that you can insert halfway between the start of the act and the story's midpoint?

Remember: Use the #PlotTober hashtag, engage with others, and have fun!

Dichoro @dichoro.bsky.social · 11h

Fran I'm least sure on, but it's probably some of the earlier clumsy Watch searches for her. They aren't going to get close, but it's a constant sign she's working on borrowed time

Dichoro @dichoro.bsky.social · 11h

Even Aster gets a fake pinch point for the romance because it's made clear to him other Inquisitors will be working against him hooking up with Morvin 'for his own good'. (Which helps disguise his apparent tendency towards covert action from the reader.)

Dichoro @dichoro.bsky.social · 11h

Dacy's pinch point is hostility outside the court. She's a minor noble whose superior hates her; all of her peer group shun her, and she's not in an environment where she can ignore that. There's also some forshadowing that a threat is coming from the sea before she heads out and finds Faravan.

Dichoro @dichoro.bsky.social · 11h

For Morvin's plot, tense atmosphere and suspicious looks are the main pinch points. Everyone's on edge once the deaths start. Even before the serial killer truth comes out, people liked Eva Mott. Some are sad, some are angry, some afraid. This death has given the whole community a different vibe

Dichoro @dichoro.bsky.social · 11h

#PlotTober Fantasy

Well... this sounds like I was supposed to be working with five act structure and I was going more for three, but what the hell, this is improv month for me! Let's switch things back up a bit to earlier in the story!

Ange @gunsmile.bsky.social · 16h

#PlotTober Day 19: First Pinch Point

Answer the prompt on the card by quoting this post. Remember, answering a prompt is always optional. Even if you don't share it publicly, I hope the prompt encourages you to think about it privately.

#WritingCommunity #WritingPrompt #WriteSky

#PlotTober - a WIP plotting game by @gunsmile.bsky.social

19. Pinch Points are small ways to remind the MC and reader of the antagonistic forces during Act 2. What are some possible reminders that you can insert halfway between the start of the act and the story's midpoint?

Remember: Use the #PlotTober hashtag, engage with others, and have fun!

Dichoro @dichoro.bsky.social · 20h

Worldbuilding and world incorporation. Not only how to create a setting, but how to work your story to take full advantage of the unique aspects afforded to you by that world.

Mx. D. D. Ward (they/them) @ddwardiswriting.bsky.social · 1d

Okay #WritingCommunity...

You've recruited as a teacher at a new writing school. You get to choose a custom class to teach.

What are you teaching?

Mine? How to develop interesting quirky characters that readers will love.