Love in Dark Settings

( Possible spoilers below the cut )

( Possible spoilers below the cut )

( Possible spoilers below the cut )

By popular request, I'm splitting up the comments posts for Transformation. (Well, okay, I received one query, from Optimistic fatalist.) If you'd like to, post your chit-chat in these four threads.

( Possible spoilers below the cut )

I should have known that my Muse would turn my little bit of prompt fiction into a full-blown novella. By the time I reached Chapter Two, he was demanding that I stop doing everything else in my life in order to spend a fortnight reading Muse-friendly fiction; only under those circumstances would he supply me with the rest of the story.

He's like that. This is why I usually only compose stories in the fall and winter, when I can give him my full service and devotion.

So I'm just going to post the first chapter now. It works well as prompt fiction on its own, and it satisfies half the prompt fic requests. The rest of the novella I'll work on in October and will post as my holiday gift fic for this year. Sorry that it can't be finished sooner than that, but I've got a heck of a lot of offline work to do before the end of summer.

(By the way, I forgot to mention that I've added a brief historical note to Rebirth.)

Parental supervision is strongly suggested. This story includes major spoilers for Rebirth.

He was weaponless. Or rather, not quite weaponless, for he knew what he was capable of doing with his body, but he bore no blade, nor any whip, nor any lead pipe with which to stun his victim, nor any rope with which to strangle the victim . . . The number of potential weapons he had deliberately laid aside was frighteningly high.

Post your questions and comments here.

( Spoilers may occur under the cut )

New online fiction.

The torturer was naive, inexperienced, and lacking in knowledge of the world. The prisoner was tough, worldly-wise, and had an infallible plan that would give him escape from this place. So why did the prisoner feel as though the torturer had the edge?

I could see before me a ceiling-high slate tablet covered with prisoners' names, and a goodly number of those names were crossed out. I knew what that meant.

Index to series links:

Darkling Plain at the Main Bookshelf.

The Eternal Dungeon at the High Bookshelf.

Comments, queries, discussions, and calls for lynching me are welcome. (Okay, not the last, but I'm expecting a few calls after the previous installment.) Main Bookshelf readers should be aware that High Bookshelf stories may be mentioned in the comments below.

This is (I'm sure you High Bookshelf readers have noticed) the final part of the first volume of The Eternal Dungeon. The second volume of the series is coming soon.

New online fiction. Parental supervision is strongly suggested for this story.

If the High Seeker wants something, no power in life or death will hold him from taking it. What he wants now has brought danger to the Eternal Dungeon.

One of the jokes of the Eternal Dungeon was that Layle Smith had designed the Seekers' hoods, and that he had done so for the sole purpose of forcing prisoners to focus their attention upon his cold eyes. It was a joke that inevitably brought nervous laughter.

Comments, queries, and oodles of vigorous discussions are welcome.

New online fiction. Parental supervision is strongly suggested for this story.

Unexpected danger reveals to a torturer the dark mystery of his mentor's past – as well as unpleasant revelations about himself.

"I believe that your suffering will make a difference to the prisoners. Otherwise, I would not send you there."


On another topic: I'm enjoying the Eternal Dungeon story discussions but am not feeling terribly comfortable about being the person to offer the opening question. Would somebody here like to post an opening question or comment to start off the conversation?

(Yes, of course you could have done this all along without my prompting. But maybe now that the discussions have gotten rolling, people will feel less inhibited about posting comments.)

At any rate, this is due warning that - as with all my story announcements - there may be major spoilers in the comments.

About these story discussions.
Rebirth 3: First Time.

Here's a question some beta readers asked me . . .

( The opening question, with major spoilers for First Time )

And, um, are you guys finding these discussions interesting? I don't want to be filling your Friends pages with unwanted posts.

I wouldn't ordinarily do this, but I think it makes sense to hold the discussions in a single location, so below is a link to the LiveJournal discussion post. If you're not a LiveJournal member, you can post anonymously or with OpenID.

About these story discussions.
Rebirth 2: Love and Betrayal.

This is a question that readers keep asking me, so I decided I'd throw it open to you guys . . .

The opening question, with major spoilers for "Love and Betrayal".

About these story discussions.
Rebirth 1: The Breaking.

( The opening question, with major spoilers for The Breaking )

When I was in college, the way we took classes is that we'd all read the same text. Then we'd go to class, and the instructor would ask an opening question about the text . . .

And then he'd shut up, as much as possible. He'd let the students hold the discussion. And sometimes our way of holding the discussion would be to decide he'd asked a stupid opening question, so we'd say, "What I'm really wondering is . . ." and put forward a better question. Or we'd say, "But if that's true, what about . . . ?" and ask an additional question. Or we'd get sidetracked into talking about something other than the text. Basically, there weren't any rules for the conversation other than that people should be polite and listen to each other and back their arguments and try to understand the text.

I thought it might be fun to hold discussions like that about stories I post. I'll throw forward the opening questions and help nudge the discussion forward when I'm online, but I'd rather that you folks did the bulk of the talking, because it's much more fun for me to learn things from you about my characters than to babble about them myself. (Though if you have any questions for me, you're welcome to take this opportunity to ask.) So talk amongst yourselves and feel free to bring up questions and topics other than the opening question I've started with.

Rules: If you've read later stories in this series, don't give away the plot, in case someone taking part in the discussion is reading the series for the first time. And if you give away the plot of any of my stories in other series, be sure to put a great big "SPOILER" notice at the top of your post so that people can skip your post if they haven't read that particular story.

Most important rule: If you don't want to take part in the discussions, that's perfectly fine.

Q: Is this just a sneaky way to get people to read the stories?

A: No, this is a sneaky way to get me to post stories. I'm much more likely to do the hard work of preparing stories to post if I have the incentive of knowing that someone will post something in response to the stories.