Realm of the InterNutter

Thoughts, stories and ideas.

Challenge #04785-M036: The Price of Paradise

A village was once plagued by constant storms, swarms of locusts, and bandits harrying the fringes. Now an idol in the heart of town wards away the old travails, bringing good harvests and peace. All it asks for is the heart of a child once a year… -- Deathshead419

They had taken to sheltering in the caves when the worst of the weather hit. Huddled close to each other with any animals that had also done so. What crops had survived the locusts, the drought, and the fire would be torn from their fields, but they would be alive.

Every time they prepared to leave for better lands, the storms destroyed their boats as well as everything else they had made.

All they had for faith was the belief that the storm had to end, and even that grew weaker as hours grew into days. One day. Two. Half of three, and the howling weather finally waned enough for the adults to scurry forth and find any surviving sustenance. There was something off about killing creatures you shared shelter with in order to survive.

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Thursday, Gotta Keep Going

It's a trial to pitch a novel with an ensemble cast when the questions centre on a singular main character. I'll have to answer for the main characters each, and tie the main story together there.

That promises to be fun.

Once I figure out that finagling, I should be good for working on the others.

Should.

I'll have a go before creating today's story.

::attacking the Query Letter WIP with a mallet::

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Challenge #04784-M035: The Island of Crabs

Ereshkigal has called Wraithvine to an island deep in the sea where nothing is going on. Inhabited by normal crabs, far from trade winds, no merfolk or shipwrecks in the vicinity, no more than background levels of magic. What is here that the Goddess is so insistent? -- Deathshead419

There's something people do to busy people that starts with, "While you're up," or, "While you're there," that will inevitably irritate the busy people in question. Gods do it too, but only to

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Challenge #04783-M034: Unconsidered Wish

Another birthday, another visit from Wraithvine. Nimnae is sick and tired of the lessons, the trickery, of not getting anything out of the wishes. So Nimnae wishes that they would have the means of escaping this year no matter the cost.

[Sequel to https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04739-l355-birthday-wish -- Deathshead419

[AN: Wraithvine would have definitely hung around to make sure Nimnae learned ]

In the months between Lyala's birthday and Nimnae's, Wraithvine entered the local lord's household as a tutor. Promising to

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Tuesday, Patreon and Counting Down

I just finished chapter 580 of A Devil's Tale and...

[Shown here: A screencap of a GoogleDrive directory for chapters 581-600, containing the last two chapters of that range]

The final countdown commenceth. I start announcing on all my socials when I'm down to fifteen or ten. I haven't decided yet.

It's likely that I will forget one somewhere.

Just watch me fuck this up.

BUT on the bright side, I also have offerings for the Patrons, may there be many more

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Challenge #04782-M033: Extraordinary Evidence

After eighty years, humanity has returned to the Lunar surface again. At last we can begin digging under the regolith. Yet the first expedition runs into a little wrinkle when they excavate whale bones… -- Deathshead419

They thought they had thought of everything. Radiation shielding. Special equipment to snare that and the moon's static electricity and turn it into power. As well as the good, old-fashioned solar panels. Their habitat was proof against meteors big and small. Self-healing, or so the boffins

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Monday, Further Modding Nonse

I'm moderating the Promptcast Stream as I type. Keeping an eye on the chat as I work on this or that.

I finished the thing for the Promptcast and I don't need to fret about offerings to the Archive since they're on a little sabbatical this week.

So now all I need to worry about is the other four Madlib Query Letters, today's story, and maybe keeping the chat orderly.

My brain is fogging hard because stress. I had a fever in

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Challenge #04781-M032: Power of Belief

Mavis has made her escape with various Board Apes and gold jewelry pilfered from her cultists. A flawless escape, save for one hiccup: the Great Yogi Upadya Nirmanka is real and has no need for early wealth, only the mind, body, and soul of a disciple…

[Sequel to: https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04738-l354-the-vanishing-mystic -- Deathshead419

Belief is an incredibly weird thing. It's why placebos work on patients. It's all in the presentation. Their glorious leader Suma Loma had shown them the

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Sunday, Stream Stuff and Bread

I have the third loaf in the incubator. I have the Promptcast revealing everyone tomorrow. Or at least everyone who feels comfortable with being revealed. I know that one writer is calling themself HashtagNineteen.

We'll winkle them out of their shell in the fullness of time.

Confidence is an elusive beast when you're a writer. You spend a majority of time inside your own head and then start wondering if other heads will even appreciate it.

And when the feedback is minimal

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Challenge #04780-M031: Gifted a Curse

Whilst perusing a market, Waithvine’s companion hands hir a small statuette of an odd winged God. Nothing seemed to be odd about it, but, when ze handed it back, and statuette soon reappeared in hir pocket. Try as ze might, it always returns, while the merchant who sold it is long gone and the mysterious curse grows ever tighter… -- Deathshead419

Wraithvine had grown used to Girrautuvit sticking her hands in hir pockets. She had yet to learn that it was

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Saturday, Sideways and Bravery

...and bread. Everything is sideways today. I've been forgetting a few things because they are out of the normal order.

Today, after I do my story, I shall be working on the Madlibs query letters for the books I plan to pitch. If I do it well, I might launch a simul-pitch launch. I may need my friends in Discord to play the Pitch-a-Book Dating Game.

That's happening sometime very soon because launching has become more important recently. Shit or get off

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Challenge #04779-M030: Those Were the Days

King Nydon is gone, and the jubilation from his fall was real. Yet now years have come and gone, allowing memories of how bad things were to fade, had leaving King Reginald to deal with a burgeoning nostalgia for his father’s reign.

[Follow up to: https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04632-l248-better-than-perfection ] -- Deathshead419

King Reginald of Bevuran and his Prince-consort Connow ruled wisely and well for decades. Raising a junior niece as the intended heir to the crown. Bevuran was no

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Friday, Shopping and Smol Stress

We are still fine. We can manage. I want that out in the open. Nevertheless, a minor financial hiccough is making me anxious. I have faith. There will be a PLN. We have enough.

Today's Leyland's Tour includes Costco, Bunnings, and Aldi.

I also have bread happening today and tomorrow. Huzzah.

I've seen to a litterbox, I've measured out ingredients, I have an idea of how to sally forth and continue. Today. Tomorrow is a little bit more vague.

In contact with

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Challenge #04778-M029: And a Little Bit of Lavender

The human's friends fill an enormous, deep tub with hot water, saposin rich flowers, and several doses of lavender oil. The human DID say they loved lavender scented bubble baths. -- Anon Guest

Space does not encourage water immersion for reasons that quickly become obvious the more you know about freefall. So when spacers come to shore leave on a planet, the first thing they do is head for large and indulgent bodies of their chosen fluid. It's no surprise that port

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