Ah, Vakho and Ganhkran. Two nice entities trapped in a less than nice world. Nice to get a true glimpse of what's going on with the Ambassador. Powerful scene, man.
Fucking Nigel playing the fucking "we're full" card. Yeah. The thing which makes him dangerous is he's a smarter and much more subtle demagogue than most of those currently operating in our world - and people are dumb enough to fall for the blatant. Nigel is gearing up to do damage.
Mike Miller wonders if he accidentally inspired DCI Miller's toe tail. Though his was a calculated ploy ploy to "humanize" himself before setting some hooks.
Sigh. "Nightwatch" comes to the SDC, and, if we're lucky Holland with Zack Allen his way over to the hero team later. In the meantime, he's gonna direct his paranoid detective brain at his own partner and go down the wrong path for at least a while.
At least Holland isn't a content moderator for AI training... That's a so-far-beyond-crap job for any (mostly) reputable online platform. Unfortunately I've yet to hear of a platform truly providing proper counseling for people they're driving to PTSD. Then again, maybe there is no proper counseling for a job which is "Filter Out the Literal Worst of the Worst, Kthnx! Bye!"
No, we're not out of the "Trump Age" of the USA. I hope I'm wrong, but I think he's the catalyst for something new and ugly which is barely being held back right now... But don't look at polling on the political views of adolescent US boys. It's depressing. TL/DR they're moving right-wing. Yup, the USA has thousands of those kids from last chapter in the making... Next year may signal a quicker collapse beginning, or the next decade could swing back towards a more progressive/global community view.
I mean I grew up on Star Trek, Space: 1999, Doctor Who and a whole bunch of that 60's-70's Sci-Fi which was basically "Boy, if we all could get along reasonably well and have our cultures and countries co-operate, we can do great things."
But a few days ago I ran into a rare foolish Irisher espousing an insular philosophy about Ireland not exporting anything ("Irish salmon for Ireland") and trying to eliminate all imports. Didn't have time to fully attempt to educate him, but I think I made him think about the importance of global trade with pointing out neither tea or coffee can grow in the Irish climate. Or oranges, pineapples, or bananas.
I enjoyed writing a Vahko scene in which he wasn't having to be professional in front of humans. I ALSO enjoyed the two of them Batmanning up on the rooftops. Was going to include a bit with them discussing the oddness of gargoyles existing on Mid-Earth, as well as dragon myths, and whether that had significance, but cut it - felt too indulgent and distracting. Characters debating lore for no reason. I should do a bonus chapter with someone's academic paper examining it.
It's interesting that you refer to Maxwell as 'Nigel'. That's another quirk of the populist leader: having an overly friendly persona. Hence 'Boris', which makes him sound like a funny friend rather than a dangerous schemer. I'm fairly convinced that the TV show-cultivated 'Boris' brand reduced people's ability to see the dangers of a Johnson-led cabinet for a long time.
Next week I think we'll find out what Lola's been up to.
It's also that I think "Nigel" is just a douchey name. Sorry to most Nigels, who I'm certain are lovely people, but there it is.
It's not like there aren't any UK politicians within the last decade or so who were total douchebags, named Nigel, who espoused similar philosophies to the Nigel in this tale.
I knew I liked Vahko; that conversation really was a nice bit. Also I liked the way Nigel reacted to the revelation about the kid; I wonder who's leaking the information, and why Susan chose to spring it on him like that? I almost wonder, given that I'm not entirely sure Nigel's a reliable narrator here, whether Susan really got that announcement at that moment, or if she chose to spring it on him because she's more sympathetic to the good guys than he thinks. Hm. Fascinating stuff.
One thing you can say for certain is that there's a definite scarcity of trust in the triverse generally!
Playing with Nigel's self-assurance and having that momentary 'wtf?' moment was fun, and I think says a lot about him. Of course, he recovered very quickly and had a response. Regardless of whatever else you can say about him (which is a lot), he's highly media literate!
Did I miss something? I noticed today that you use the pronoun 'they' when referring to an individual koth. I don't recall reading earlier why you do this. Is that because the koth are genderless, or gender neutral? Just curious.
That's correct: gender has no real meaning for koth. Biologically they can take on either role required for reproduction. Culturally, they don't have the same notions of 'male' and 'female' for themselves.
I try to write LGBTQ characters, most of the main characters and some secondary.
I had trouble with this when I started writing novels, and so I sent my manuscripts to all the people I knew belonging to one of the above 'categories' to see how well my portrayals were and got positive feedback.
But have never thought to create characters that were hermaphroditic. I know they exist in other species but hadn't thought of a story to portray them.
Species from other planets are often portrayed as being very human in science fiction, so I wanted the koth to be purposefully quite different. That said, I've not had much of an opportunity to explore them in their homelands - hopefully that'll come up at some point.
I've tried with Triverse to create quite a diverse human cast. I've also been sure not to assume that I know how to write everyone - and have run some chapters past friends for feedback for that reason. As a straight white guy I'm not going to assume anything, but I think as long as you approach your characters with respect and remain open to constructive feedback it's worth the effort.
Ah, Vakho and Ganhkran. Two nice entities trapped in a less than nice world. Nice to get a true glimpse of what's going on with the Ambassador. Powerful scene, man.
Fucking Nigel playing the fucking "we're full" card. Yeah. The thing which makes him dangerous is he's a smarter and much more subtle demagogue than most of those currently operating in our world - and people are dumb enough to fall for the blatant. Nigel is gearing up to do damage.
Mike Miller wonders if he accidentally inspired DCI Miller's toe tail. Though his was a calculated ploy ploy to "humanize" himself before setting some hooks.
Sigh. "Nightwatch" comes to the SDC, and, if we're lucky Holland with Zack Allen his way over to the hero team later. In the meantime, he's gonna direct his paranoid detective brain at his own partner and go down the wrong path for at least a while.
At least Holland isn't a content moderator for AI training... That's a so-far-beyond-crap job for any (mostly) reputable online platform. Unfortunately I've yet to hear of a platform truly providing proper counseling for people they're driving to PTSD. Then again, maybe there is no proper counseling for a job which is "Filter Out the Literal Worst of the Worst, Kthnx! Bye!"
No, we're not out of the "Trump Age" of the USA. I hope I'm wrong, but I think he's the catalyst for something new and ugly which is barely being held back right now... But don't look at polling on the political views of adolescent US boys. It's depressing. TL/DR they're moving right-wing. Yup, the USA has thousands of those kids from last chapter in the making... Next year may signal a quicker collapse beginning, or the next decade could swing back towards a more progressive/global community view.
I mean I grew up on Star Trek, Space: 1999, Doctor Who and a whole bunch of that 60's-70's Sci-Fi which was basically "Boy, if we all could get along reasonably well and have our cultures and countries co-operate, we can do great things."
But a few days ago I ran into a rare foolish Irisher espousing an insular philosophy about Ireland not exporting anything ("Irish salmon for Ireland") and trying to eliminate all imports. Didn't have time to fully attempt to educate him, but I think I made him think about the importance of global trade with pointing out neither tea or coffee can grow in the Irish climate. Or oranges, pineapples, or bananas.
I enjoyed writing a Vahko scene in which he wasn't having to be professional in front of humans. I ALSO enjoyed the two of them Batmanning up on the rooftops. Was going to include a bit with them discussing the oddness of gargoyles existing on Mid-Earth, as well as dragon myths, and whether that had significance, but cut it - felt too indulgent and distracting. Characters debating lore for no reason. I should do a bonus chapter with someone's academic paper examining it.
It's interesting that you refer to Maxwell as 'Nigel'. That's another quirk of the populist leader: having an overly friendly persona. Hence 'Boris', which makes him sound like a funny friend rather than a dangerous schemer. I'm fairly convinced that the TV show-cultivated 'Boris' brand reduced people's ability to see the dangers of a Johnson-led cabinet for a long time.
Next week I think we'll find out what Lola's been up to.
Well...
It's also that I think "Nigel" is just a douchey name. Sorry to most Nigels, who I'm certain are lovely people, but there it is.
It's not like there aren't any UK politicians within the last decade or so who were total douchebags, named Nigel, who espoused similar philosophies to the Nigel in this tale.
Boris Johnson is still "Spitting Image Trump."
And Trump is in the body of a dead cat.
(explanatory article: https://alexsager.com/2016/08/27/gary-trudeau-and-berekley-breathed-on-donald-trumps-comedy-of-the-grotesque/ )
Thank you for the shoutout! Really appreciate it 🙌🏻
My pleasure! Thanks for pointing me at the story.
I knew I liked Vahko; that conversation really was a nice bit. Also I liked the way Nigel reacted to the revelation about the kid; I wonder who's leaking the information, and why Susan chose to spring it on him like that? I almost wonder, given that I'm not entirely sure Nigel's a reliable narrator here, whether Susan really got that announcement at that moment, or if she chose to spring it on him because she's more sympathetic to the good guys than he thinks. Hm. Fascinating stuff.
One thing you can say for certain is that there's a definite scarcity of trust in the triverse generally!
Playing with Nigel's self-assurance and having that momentary 'wtf?' moment was fun, and I think says a lot about him. Of course, he recovered very quickly and had a response. Regardless of whatever else you can say about him (which is a lot), he's highly media literate!
Did I miss something? I noticed today that you use the pronoun 'they' when referring to an individual koth. I don't recall reading earlier why you do this. Is that because the koth are genderless, or gender neutral? Just curious.
That's correct: gender has no real meaning for koth. Biologically they can take on either role required for reproduction. Culturally, they don't have the same notions of 'male' and 'female' for themselves.
I try to write LGBTQ characters, most of the main characters and some secondary.
I had trouble with this when I started writing novels, and so I sent my manuscripts to all the people I knew belonging to one of the above 'categories' to see how well my portrayals were and got positive feedback.
But have never thought to create characters that were hermaphroditic. I know they exist in other species but hadn't thought of a story to portray them.
Thanks for the clarification.
Species from other planets are often portrayed as being very human in science fiction, so I wanted the koth to be purposefully quite different. That said, I've not had much of an opportunity to explore them in their homelands - hopefully that'll come up at some point.
I've tried with Triverse to create quite a diverse human cast. I've also been sure not to assume that I know how to write everyone - and have run some chapters past friends for feedback for that reason. As a straight white guy I'm not going to assume anything, but I think as long as you approach your characters with respect and remain open to constructive feedback it's worth the effort.