Find the Word Game

I was tagged by the amazing wordsmith, @kyofsonder!

Going to put things behind the cut because, again, spicy.

Reach (from Starcrossed, my current WIP)

The same soundless image plays again and again in a perfect loop. Delicate cloven hooves in a dancer’s rest pose, the camera panning up a fit, lithe body. Fine black curls give way to smooth red-brown skin, abruptly cut by a black strap that holds a flimsy split-skirt in place that glows like flames. A tufted tail whips across the image to reveal a succubus dancer, interlaced with close-ups of her hips, her large breasts barely covered by the same flickering material, strapped across with black leather that looks like cast iron bars. Although her face is in shadow, it too is masked, with glowing golden eyes and a wicked grin he’s certain he’s never seen on her before. She reaches toward the camera and grabs a leash, pulling the camera closer with a beckoning finger before baring stark white fangs and lashing out with something that tears the image in two, leaving only burning text in its place.

Lusti. Feed your wild side.

Patience (from The Delta, a sci-fi novella)

Fons everywhere start lighting up like fireflies against the plaza's dark grass. Baza stands a little further away and attaches his bud, the little temple attachment that makes all fon screens private by sending the visual signal directly to the retina. He checks the Wet feed, hoping for more news, but no one seems to be talking about anything of importance. The patient feed is far more interesting, anyway. A young woman, probably a new member of the Rocks, is sitting in a Mask bed. She is very pale and her brown hair is plastered to her forehead with sweat. Her blue eyes look slightly glazed and rove around the room without latching on to anything. Bruises lace around her throat and an IV is attached to her arm. "What did you see, Mica?" Asks an off-screen female voice, presumably a Key or a Mask. The young woman seems to flail for a moment, lolling her head back and forth. The voice tries again. "Mica, what did you see?" "Vines," she chokes out. "What's wrong with vines? We have vines in Ciencias, right?" "Not these vines." There is a long pause as Mica works to collect herself, gesturing loosely towards her throat. "They- They reached for me."

Shaky (from Far From Home, a sci-fi fantasy story)

Esme gasped for breath as the portal snapped shut behind her; Thomas' hand released her leg. He stood, his thin frame folded in blue robes, shading her from the skylight that spread colored light throughout the circular atrium. Warm, inviting sunlight beamed through the opposite archway, the afternoon's sun gilding the deep walls of the white marble room. She still shivered, the chill of the swamp would not leave her bones. "Esme, are you hurt?" Thomas asked hurriedly, eyes running over her thin frame and then darting back towards the sunlit arch. "No, I'm fine," she said, accepting his hand to balance her way back to her feet. Her voice was shaky, she knew. Her boundaries were battered, and she felt worn out. Then she heard the muted sounds from outside. She withdrew her hand from Thomas', clasping it close to her chest as she strode towards the sunlight. With every slow step, the sounds grew louder, pounding in her chest as she swallowed any tears.

Hollow (from the 1st draft of Starcrossed, might get used in the 2nd)

“I spent four years doing that, becoming more and more famous, and feeling more and more like a hollowed out person only made of muscle and bone. I trained every day for hours on end. I ate in weird cycles depending on who I was fighting next, gaining and then dropping weight over and over. When I was too tired to train, that was when I studied my next opponent’s moves, gleaning whatever I could from anecdotes and old broadcasts. I lived only to fight.” She can see him raise one hand in the air, turning and flexing his hand, silhouetted against the moonlight streaming in through the window. 

Ripple (also from Far From Home, directly after the previous passage)

Hands were at her shoulders, warm where she was cold. "Esme. Sage. They need you." He murmured in her ear. "We must go." His hands slid down her bare arms and then up again. "We must go." He said again after a moment. "I know," she said after another shiver. "But this is not what a mage should wear to war." Esme looked down at the tattered party dress from the citadel of the techs. Where it had once shone and shimmered with tiny lights and glowing lines, now dead from motion and abuse. It was fancy, not meant for battle. Her index fingers met at her throat and traced a line downward. As they slid along her chilled skin, red fabric seemed to ripple into place as though it had always been there. Threatening silver runes crackled forth, glowing for a moment and then falling back to stitching. The robe settled suddenly as she drew her fingers away, her hair fluttered slightly. Esme turned to Thomas, looking far more at home than when she arrived, and she no longer shivered. "Let's go, brother. Our war is calling."

This was remarkably difficult! I haven’t even looked at Far From Home in ages, and I was surprised that Starcrossed didn’t have shaky (although it did have shaken, but I was feeling picky).

For reference, I wrote Far From Home back in 2009, The Delta in 2013ish(?), and Starcrossed is from this year.

Tagging: @promiseiwillwrite, @the-likeable-wizard-mack, @worldstogetlostin, @aalinaaaaaa, @winterandwords, and as usual, this is an open tag for whoever wants to play along!

Your words are (I used a random word generator for these): artist, neck, catch, upset, position.

Sherlolly Self-Interviews 2020

Well hi 👋

Ignoring the internal image of Gilderoy Lockheart smiling smugly while flashbulbs pop and saying ‘In my autobiography, Magical Me...’ 🙈😆 I shall take the opportunity of this lovely event to introduce myself as a writer of Sherlolly fanfiction on AO3...

I am English and somewhere over 30.  I watched the show as it aired, and lost my heart as quickly to Molly Hooper as to Sherlock Holmes.  The kiss is British television history.  Series 4 is my favourite.  Moriarty on the beach is life.  The Holmes brothers break my heart every time.

I am extremely lucky to have been provided some questions to answer here by @ohaine and @mybrainrots - huge, huge love and thanks to these two lovelies, and not just for this.  I admire you both so much as writers, and your support means the world to me ❤️ Thanks too, to @sherlollyappreciationweek!

Where did you begin to write, and have you written for other fandoms?  I wrote my first fanfic when I was eleven years old - a 100 page ramble about The Monkees.  Oh yes.  Then in 2018, I fell for the characters of the Disney Pixar film Cars and began writing and publishing.  So far so random!  Writing in this fandom sprang from binge-watching all four series of Sherlock during lockdown.  I remembered reading Louise Brealey talking about being disappointed Molly didn’t get chance to ‘roundly kick Sherlock’s arse’ and agreeing with her wholeheartedly.  That, over a few weeks, turned into my first fic - Who You Really Are.  

You’re a recent (and welcome!) arrival to the Sherlolly ship, and I was wondering if writing in an established, less active than it used to be fandom has been a challenge?   Thank you, firstly.  My experience of this fandom has been incredibly positive - the sense of welcome has been wonderful.  I will admit I was terrified posting the first fic - there are hundreds of times more stories posted daily in the Sherlock fandom as in the one I had some experience of.  But I needn’t have worried, it’s been a blast.  I will also admit, that it’s no small thing to be surrounded by such brilliant writing and the long-standing passion which goes with it.  But I find that inspiring in itself, and I’m very glad to be here - how supportive the fandom are makes me feel like I always have been!       

What’s your favourite place and way to write?  My aesthetic is Lin-Manuel Miranda in his in-law’s laundry room 🤣 I wrote my first ten-thousand words on the notes app on my phone before my other half told me to stop being ridiculous!  I switch between the laptop, my phone and longhand (I’m a sucker for a nice notepad and a Uni-Ball Eye) and, more often than not, not sat up properly at a table.   

Since you’ve (done something I’ve never managed successfully and) written a novella length fic... how did you organise/keep track of all the details and where you wanted the story to go?  Did you outline/plot in advance?  First of all - I would love to see a novella length fic from you @mybrainrots!  The final scene of Who You Really Are came to me very early on and I knew I wanted the fic to fit within TFP - a lot of it takes place in the timeframe of the final montage.  At first, it was going to be much more about Sherlock’s relationship with the ideas of sentiment and love (the phrase ‘I’m not sentimental about you, I love you,’ haunted me for a while) and I spent some time researching the psychology and playing with scenes from throughout the series - one of my favourites I didn’t go on to use was inspired by the final scene of THoB.  Using scenes from the canon gave an automatic structure, and I was always aiming for the final one I wrote early on - the two of them on the beach (everything is about the beach, with me!)  As I went along and started, inevitably, to slow down, I mapped out the chapters with a short note of what I wanted to be in each, then would add notes or phrases as they came to me - often emailed from my phone!  I had to force myself through a tricky section set in Baker Street at one point, but it came together in the end.  I did plot The Pathologist’s Skeletons on paper first, as I found with a casefic which remains a WIP, that I can get confused and lose focus when it comes to details and how to reveal them in a way which stays paced and interesting.  I’ll certainly do that from now on with longer stories and cases.  How did you keep up enthusiasm for the work?  I want to write an original novel, so I am forcing myself to work through the knotty bits and blocks as a learning experience.  Not everything is destined to be finished or finessed, of course, but I’m finding this process is building my confidence that I can overcome problems and slow periods.  I also find I know when I need some external inspiration - some of my favourite scenes have come to me while out walking the dog or sitting on the beach.  I’ve also been inspired by books or other series or things going on in the world, as we all are, and sometimes that’s pushed me on.  Plus, of course, I’m a newbie - I’m very much in the honeymoon period of my writing, even though I’ve loved Sherlock for ten years! (Ten years! Bonkers.) 

You’ve got a knack for writing Sherlock’s thoughts and capturing his voice.  That said, which character do you find easiest to write?  Which is the hardest?  Thank you so much.  I absolutely love writing Sherlock and Mycroft, and I’m sure that’s because they suit my somewhat over-the-top writing style!  I find Molly and her POV really difficult.  I want the scenes I write from her perspective to sound completely different to Sherlock, but that means writing in a style which doesn’t come as naturally to me.  I’m a long way off happy with that at the moment, but I’m enjoying the challenge.

Is there a scene or character that specifically inspired you to start writing Sherlolly?  The whole of TFP, but especially from the moment Sherlock arrives at Musgrave onwards.  I am desperate to see what a Sherlock Holmes who has been reacquainted with his own heart would look like.  I find his emotionality in those final scenes hugely compelling (Mycroft’s office is one of my favourite moments from across all four series) and, as I have always believed in him and Molly, I practically jumped up back in May after watching it and said ‘right, where’s my notebook?!’.

There’s a lovely peaceful, quiet feeling to your fic ‘We’re All Right At The Moment’.  Can you tell us what inspired it and if you’ve thought of doing the backstory that goes with it?  Thank you!  Like everyone, I would go back to January of this year and start again in a heartbeat, but I am hugely fortunate to be able to say that I have a lot to be grateful to the UK lockdowns for.  I might never have begun writing in this fandom otherwise, for one, and I have had a brilliant time so far and met some lovely people. Honestly, I don’t feel able to do any sort of justice in my writing to what has happened in the world in any broader sense than drawing on my own experiences of staying at home and enjoying my family.  This particular super-short fic sees Molly cutting Sherlock’s hair at home in Baker Street.  I wrote it in the evening after I had cut my other half’s hair and had been reminding myself that despite how horribly worried I was - and still am - about everything, we were all right in that moment, and to focus on that as much as possible.  I wanted to try to capture that, if for no reason other than to look back on this entire experience and remember something lovely, so I am so pleased to hear you felt the fic did that.  It was only after I finished it and reread it, that I realised it is ambiguous as to whether Molly is worried about Sherlock contracting the virus, or whether she is remembering him being treated for it... As I say, I don’t think I could write more about these extraordinary circumstances - perhaps it’s just too close at the moment - so I don’t plan on extending it.  But you know how it is, the plot bunnies hop where they will... 

Do you have a Sherlolly music playlist?  What are your top five favs from the list? Here’s a run down of (6 🙊) songs I have been getting emotional over in the last little while, leading my brain to assign their significance to my favourite couple...

Kissing You - Des’Ree - It’s so 90′s, it’s a bit cheesy, it’s oddly disturbing.  It helped me write A Request, Made Properly, and that gave me an excuse to have Sherlock kiss Molly in the snow.

How Long Will I Love You? - Ellie Goulding - part of the playlist, but also in remembrance of a friend who passed away recently.  Life is very short, love is forever.

High and Dry - Jamie Cullum - It’s made me emotional for a very long time.  The original is my partner’s version of choice, this is mine.  

Think About You - Delta Goodrem - Okay, this one isn’t emotional, and it’s not my usual vibe!  Blame the zoom exercise class I do!  But oh my goodness, it’s Molly.  Bless her.

Blinded By Your Grace (P.T.2. F.T. MNEK) - Stormzy - One of the best ever, I reckon.  Spent an awful lot of time thinking about angels and demons, grace and what it takes to save someone, while writing my latest - The Pathologist’s Skeletons.  This has been in my head most of the (blimmin’) time!

Love Me Like You Do - Ellie Goulding - I didn’t know I was a fan of Ellie until I wrote this list... I don’t subscribe to the theory that the love Molly wants or that which Sherlock has to offer is any lesser because it isn’t ‘normal’ or expected. I don’t think romantic entanglement would come easy to either of them. But it’s still love and it would be beautiful.

Thank you so much for reading.  Thanks and love to @ohaine and @mybrainrots. And thank you @sherlollyappreciationweek for the event and for everything you do ❤️

Feel like I should sign off with a quote from the show...

“You’re not a puzzle-solver, you never have been. You’re a drama queen!” Dr John Watson (Moffat & Gatiss) 2014 😜

X

A fav fic of mine by @mybrainrots

https://archiveofourown.org/works/7563193

A fav fic of mine by @ohaine

https://archiveofourown.org/works/10562904

My stuff:

https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnglandsGray/works

Alola, A-L-O-L-A Alola - Pokemon Sun & Moon

Well, it’s been long enough since SM came out that we should have all got our kneejerk reactions out of the way, and it’s been long enough that I’ve cleaned it out once and I’m starting it again (Shameimaru has too), so buckle up cause I’m gonna say some bad things about the sacred cow. Yep, that means spoilers too.

I don’t normally start with Narrative but good lord the pacing in this game is absolute garbage. It has probably the slowest start of any Pokemon game so far - the entire first island (of four) is just mind-numbingly slow and boring, with most of the game mechanics unavailable, and while being on rails early on isn’t unusual for a Pokemon game, it feels incredibly blatant in SM, to the point of being obnoxious due to the presentation. As the game continues, it looks like we’re going to reach a high point when a Nihilego busts into the Aether Facility, but then it just... continues being totally tepid. Then it looks like you’re going to reach another high point where Lusamine goes completely bonkers and fuses with the Mega Beast, except then you don’t actually fight her - you battle her exactly like you would a trainer, despite the fact that she’s just turned into pokemoncthulhu.

In general, SM’s plot feels pretty thin on the ground and schizophrenic. The world-building is really stellar, but there’s no sense of pressure, unlike the previous two games - there’s no big effects on the weather threatening to wipe everyone out, the villains haven’t managed to steal a march on you and build a doomsday laser or anything like that. In theory, you even go into fight Lusamine because you’re on a rescue mission.

On the positive side, the island challenge idea is a lot more interesting than gyms usually are (in part because the premise of a gym - that is, you’re dojo hunting, a practice that hearkens to Japanese jidaigeki and martial arts films, although it allegedly has its roots in real life - has become diluted over time), and they do a much better job than usual worldbuilding. Unlike previous regions, Alola really seems like a place where people live and have lives, rather than being a series of hubs to train your Pokemon in.

A spot I think might be an issue of real contention are Team Skull. On the one hand, they’re hilarious; on the other hand, while villain teams have always been pretty goofy (except arguably Team Rocket who are pretty worrying since they’re a legit mafia and sometimes undertake straight-up terrorist action), Team Skull are really hard to care about, which becomes a problem when the game sometimes expects you to drop what you’re doing and put them in their place, since the tone is pretty wobbly.

Overall, while SM deserves praise for actually mixing up the formula in a main-series game (which hasn’t been done before - all experimentations on the formula were relegated to side games), it’s obviously been a shaky process for them, and SM’s tone and pacing are wildly schizophrenic, which isn’t improved in the post-game (unlike ORAS’ amazing Delta Episode).

For Narrative, I give SM a 3 out of 5: it has a fantastic concept which is hampered by a schizophrenic execution, but the attention to detail elsewhere is spectacular.

I could talk about the Audio but being real here, I’d basically just be sharing my opinion of the soundtrack, without any real objective basis near or far. If you’re interested, that opinion is that it isn’t as good as XY or ORAS’ soundtracks, but it’s still a Pokemon soundtrack so it has great tunes and the audio quality is just fine.

Instead, let’s talk about the Technical side of things. Although the game essentially runs on the same engine as XY and ORAS, they’ve changed up the UI a bit, putting moves on the right and letting you see known type effectiveness against the target at a glance. You can also now check your move details straight from the combat menu, and tapping Y twice auto-applies your last-used item, which is great when you’re on a catching spree.

On the other hand, let’s not even freaking talk about the PSS replacement. Well, we will talk about it because otherwise there’s no point in having this site but jeez. You’re now only online when engaged in Festival Plaza (and then you have to go through a double-prompt to actually get online). Want to interact with a friend? You need them to also be on Festival Plaza, and online, at the same time as you, then refresh your guestlist until they turn up, then make them a VIP to guarantee you’ll be able to interact with them at all. Yes, you can make this easier by disabling other aspects of the system, but then you’re disabling other aspects of the system to get it to do something that should be simple, and overall it’s a huge step back from the XY/ORAS PSS system. Forget about pickup trading/battles - they’re gone.

I’m also going to have to dock the game for being really laggy when it wants to be. Apparently this isn’t a problem on the New 3DS but it was a big one whenever the effects got a bit interesting; my 2DS chugged like an autistic fratboy.

All things being equal, I’ll give SM a 3 for the Technical: it took some steps forward, and some steps back, and came out about average.

Let’s talk about the elephant in the Gameplay room first: I like Z-Moves. They’re a lot of fun, they add some surprise swing/comeback potential, and they generally don’t feel as incredibly powerful as Mega Evolutions in the previous two games have been. The little dances are also great, particularly since several of them incorporate actual hula choreography.

In terms of challenge, this game manages to be more challenging than ORAS or XY, largely because of Totem Pokemon: when they come in, their own take on Z-Power activates, giving them stat buffs, which helps to avoid the traditional problem with creating a challenge in a a boss fight in Pokemon; setting up has a big opportunity cost, in which time (because the AI doesn’t normally switch) the player can just swap to something more useful for hosing whatever the boss is trying to do. On top of that, several of the Totem bosses are dangerous picks to begin with: Totem Wishiwashi’s Schooling gives it incredible stats even before its Z-Power kicks in, Totem Mimikyu gets a free turn to do whatever it wants thanks to its unique ability... and then there’s Lusamine’s Clefable in her Cthulhu-Lusamine form, who is probably the hardest Pokemon in the game to get past. It’s not very threatening - it’s limited to Metronome (Shameimaru assures me it has Cosmic Power and STAB Moonblast but it used neither against me) - but even with a big level advantage and possibly a type advantage, it’s an incredible wall.

There’s also a sort-of-new gimmick regarding how most Ace Trainers now work: they won’t even look at you if you haven’t beaten everyone else on their route, but their fights all involve a clever tactic or a showcase of a game mechanic that wouldn’t be out of place in the competitive scene. The very first Ace Trainer, for example, runs a suicide lead with Stealth Rock and a Red Card to force you to start switching and taking entry damage, and it gets more interesting from there.

Unfortunately, the game does tend to fall into the same rut most Pokemon games do, but let’s be honest: if you’re old enough to be reading this site of your own volition you probably knew what you were getting into when you bought the game. It also revamps some older concepts, such as replacing the widely-disliked HM system with Ride Pokemon, which isn’t perfect, but it’s definitely a big step in the right direction. It’s a shame the Ride outfit looks so dorky though.

Oh, and I had a weird glitch when I fought Kukui: he broke all the rules and used two Z-Moves in succession, but that might be because my ailing 2DS was in sleep mode for like 18 hours between rounds, so I’m not weighting it as a Big Huge Bug.

For Gameplay, I’d rate it a 4: it’s definitely moving in the right direction and is a step up from previous Pokemon main-series games, but it’s still weighted down by a few flaws here and there.

Overall, SM represents a pretty bold new step for Pokemon, with an attempt for a main-series game to put its narrative front and center. That said, it’s clear that there’s a long way to go in terms of presentation and execution if they want to continue the trend in a fashion that will satisfy both brand-new players and franchise veterans.

And the awesome JoJoMon pictures is from this guy’s tumblr..