"The price we have paid for our freedom is dearer than most admit. The poorest Terran can feel the wind in their hair, the sun on their face. My children never will. Is it worth it? I don't know. I lay awake at night and listen to the purifier churn out tomorrow's water ration, and I hope so."

My dear frenemy Lorica Segmentata (@necroticspider.bsky.social 's true name) has her game for sale on Steam currently at $9.49. The inside of Lori's head is kind of a fever dream, and if you want to explore that this would be a great way to do it. store.steampowered.com/app/2488590/...

Funny realization on worldbuilding for an alien world tonight: it experiences "golden hour" style lighting throughout the bulk of the day. "Breaking news: Hruhlak homeworld experiences tourist boom as humans race to get good selfies"

No, YOU just made yourself tear up writing about life in the Solarian Communities of the Watch Your Six universe. I have a genuine, heartfelt love of aspirational futures in sci-fi. I don't think every future has to be grimdark to be interesting. Sometimes it's okay for things to be nice.

I'm not reposting to argue with this point, exactly. I do know a lot of veterans who feel regret. I'm one of them. But I do think it's dangerous to pretend there's not a hypermacho set in the military too, who would love to hear this kind of thing. I worked along side them. They're not shy about it.

Trope that I love: when a new, nastier villain is being introduced, and they punk last season's villain to show how nasty they are. Masterclass example: Scorpius humiliating Crais in Farscape "Why must you force me to display my physical superiority to your kind as well?"

Thanks very much to Tim for this lovely interview that really got me thinking pretty hard about my process, and why I do what I do. Check it out! :)

I am working *so hard* on the *silliest thing* for a project that will probably never see the light of day or be cared about by anyone but me, but. But. I yam what I yam.

Rough twelve hours. Patient that hit close to home. Realized I'd wasted hours on something for a project that just didn't work. Blundered into a spiderweb and killed the spider in a panic. And Kit woke me up 2 hours before my alarm. And then my breakfast was unpleasant. Deep breath. Zen thoughts.

I try to stick this pin through a butterfly cause I I like all the pretty colors It just fell apart, so I flung it in the fire To burn with all the others Cause I never get it right No, I never get it right

Replaying Pathfinder: Kingmaker (the crpg version). Enjoy it! Good game. But it has reminded me of the petty annoyance of characters doing things in the fiction they'd just be awful at. Tristian is not fighting anyone with his scimitar! I don't care if Sarenrae likes it or something!

you stand accused of heresy, divination, obfuscation, fairy provocation, infernal conjuration, and cattle rustling how do you plead

My energy for HA resurged faster than I thought it would, yay! And it's fast approaching playtestable, like legit might be there in a week or two. If you are interested in being a part of playtesting, drop me a note. Just let me know if you want to just test character creation, VTT play, or both.

Walking past the ER doc's desk and "I'm Shipping up to Boston" by the Dropkick Murphys plays, and I'm like "Planning your next trip to Boston, Doc?" "...what?" "The... The song? Dropkick Murphys?" "...I'm just watching The Departed." "Ah. Haaa." 😭 Why am I so awkward

So, just to make sure I'm keeping up, calling for the mass execution of mentally ill homeless people is: naughty, but smoothed over with a quick apology But saying Trump cares more about his ballroom than a murder: awful, requires FCC to step in to protect "family values"

Doing hard sci-fi is daunting. For obvious starters, I'm not a SME on *any topic ever conceived*. For another, I think I place it on a pedestal. Don't get me wrong, I love soft sci-fi and fantasy. Deeply. But the things that have really stayed with me, leave me with my mind racing? Hard sci-fi.

Taken a break from HA after that small heartbreak. A break, not quitting! The Demiurge shall fall, fear not. Anyway I refocused my energies on a novel concept I'm developing. I'm trying to do hard sci-fi, which means more research than I've ever done. But I think the research phase is almost over!

Tired. The artist I had hired to do the piece for HA chose to link themselves to Kirk's ethos of homophobia, transphobia, and racism. I will still pay them for their time because my morality demands it of me, but I have canceled the work. Tiredtiredtired.

this could be us, but you playin

Things that I call Kitiara uth Matar, who I treasure most in this world: old beast old monster devil fiend grumpus cantankerous old creature Tbc, she also has much sweeter nicknames, like dear old lady and sugarbean, but I do refer to her like medieval folks spoke of the Devil who is Satan.

Speaking as someone who is a) mentally ill and b) has been homeless, I would like it noted that I cannot support the proposition that we involuntarily execute mentally ill homeless people.

Oh my God I have such good stuff for this for a novel I'm working on, but it's all super spoilery

I've never seen someone having their first thought ever captured in text before. It's kind of beautiful. 🥲

listen I make no claim to be a good person so when I tell you I hit an absurdity limit when Kash Patel said he would see a fundamentalist evangelical Christian "in Valhalla" Like I just laughed until I cried about it It's all so fucking silly and stupid

This is the key to what I was trying to word a few days ago. This is what HA offers. It gives all the anxieties, fears, and burdens of the world a face, and lets you punch that face. That is the catharsis it can provide.

Let me preface this with I KNOW this is chauvinist and I'm sorry. But I really do get anxious for our nurses when we have a difficult patient. They're tiny! Like I'm not a big guy at all, I'm 5'7", but most of them are chest high to me. I just don't want to see them yeeted

Wargame design is the truly delightful kind of absurd where you ask questions like "what would happen if I doused a main battle tank in 23 tons of fluoroantimonic acid heated to 100°C" (the answer is: awful shit to both the tank and anyone nearby, almost inevitably a mission kill within seconds)

I have a deep respect for pacifism -- true pacifism -- the kind where you won't pick up a gun to save your own life. But this gross lukewarm shit, where people decry "political violence" and then clap about a bombing 3000 miles away? Nah. Fuck off with that nonsense.

That moment when you're doing weird research for a project, and you type "how many urticating hairs does a t" and Google suggests "rans woman have" as the completion. I mean, rock on for evolving defensive mechanisms, ladies

So let's chat a little about the morality of Gnosticism and the ways that does (and does not) inform our parable of giant robots and post apocalyptic cityscapes. First off, I want to note that I do not personally believe in Gnosticism's version of reality. I find it fascinating, but do not adhere.

Work on HA is coming along nicely, if I do say so myself. Spent the evening figuring out one layer of customization for your Feretory, namely the physical structure. You get to choose from seven options each on head, torso, right arm, left arm, and legs. This is separate from the ability trees.

"so you're enslaving them currently" i would ask her with a dead-eyed stare.

brain: hey you're doing real good on this writing me: thanks... HEY no don't do this brain: what? i'm not saying we should stop me: oh, good. thanks. brain: no, no, I want to help. me: ... brain: wouldn't it be better if it was structured like this? me: ...that would be starting over brain: yeah 😀

So I promised (threatened?) to discuss the Archons in HA today, and I strive to be a man of my word. First we have to have a Gnosticism chat, as they're inspired by Gnostic mythology as most of the game is. The Archons are the first creations of the Demiurge. They are not human and have no soul.

I did so much stupid math and research for HA tonight, but the fun thing is doing all that lets you derive verisimilitude. For instance, the following table showing what units throwing punches is like to a nearby ordinary person. (Not as the target of the punch, mind. Just existing within 50m of it)

I wrote a little song it's titled "I have made many stupid things in my life and this is probably the most absurd in lots of ways but I love it in spite of or maybe even because of that"

Worldbuilding is my real happy place. Well, worldbuilding with my cat with me. But yeah. I make settings and just set them aside constantly. Restlessly even. Dunno why. Maybe it's my hyperfixation or whatever they call it. Special interest.

Sometimes I'm reminded that other people's relationships with their own brains and bodies is not as unremittingly adversarial as mine, and I'm pleased for them. I don't understand exactly, but I'm pleased for them.

🎶 Like sugar and cyanide These worlds are gonna collide I want to yell it from the rooftops down Until it's over, and we're older 🎶

Are people largely unaware that Botox is the same neurotoxin produced by the bacteria that causes botulism? Like, don't get me wrong, with a qualified medical professional it can be administered with little risk. But, like, not no risk. Still a neurotoxin. Yeah?

I'm the only person at the Laundromat tonight and it's freaking me out, like was there an evacuation and I missed it. Did I slip into Silent Hill

What if I came out of this slump like a whole new level of writer? That's a solid story arc. The comeback story of the year. All THIS ISN'T EVEN MY FINAL FORM type shit. narcissistic swing detected, containment measures enacted

i purchased Universe Sandbox a month or two ago purely to do the devil's work with it by which i mean Nominal Writing Research things like "at what distance would a unicorn black hole have to pass through the solar system to fuck up Earth in the very specific way that I need it to be fucked"

Behold, the final boss of HA. Not the right picture, it's definitely the long Furby

Sparkling waters taste like someone was given the Ludovico Technique treatment towards a type of fruit, then asked to describe that fruit, and then someone flavored them off the description. But that makes them useful. I treat them like appetite suppressants that also hydrate me.

I fuck around with AI shit occasionally to have a feel for what it can do, and it really is improving fast. As I feared it would. It's what I've said from the start, if we hinge our opposition to the plagiarism machines on practical concerns, they WILL win because they will surpass those limits.

Okay, Tom, you say. I understand that in the weird vertex of hyperfixations you're calling a game that I'm a religious fanatic in an impossible biomechanical war machine crafted of transcendent knowledge. But who am I fighting? It's not walk right up to God and punch him, right? Thanks for asking!

The splash art for HA is coming along so well and I'm so excited to share it when it's doooone Also I am writing a vignette set in the world. And actually writing it! Like I have five hundred words down. Which isn't a lot, but I haven't written *anything* since Hunted.

The freakiest supernatural thing in Stranger Things is gonna end up being watching those kids age 10 years across "three" in universe.

Researching Gnostic shit is very funny to begin with, because a) Gnostic mythology is fuckin wild b) it involves genuinely consulting The Scrolls (tm) in a way few other topics do but it is even more funny when you're doing so to get the reasons why giant robots are punching God in the face right